In June 1897, as security precautions in Dublin escalated in anticipation of Queen Victoria’s jubilee, a caretaker of St Michan’s Church, beside the Four Courts, rudely refused entry to a tall, handsome woman carrying a bundle of wreaths.
The woman was Maud Gonne, the wreaths were to commemorate the deaths of leaders of the 1798 and 1803 Rebellions buried in St Michan’s Churchyard and Vaults, and it did not end well.
The following day, 21 June 1897, the below appeared in the Freeman’s Journal:
“NO DECORATIONS ALLOWED THIS YEAR
Letter from Miss Maud Gonne
TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL
JUNE 20TH, ‘97
DEAR SIR – I went to-day, as I always do when I am in Dublin on Decoration Sunday, to St Michan’s Church, to place wreaths in honour of the noble martyrs of the cause of Irish liberty on the unmarked grave of Robert Emmet, and on the tomb of the Brothers Sheares.
To my surprise I found the gate barred and secured with a huge iron chain, and a policeman standing in front. I called to the caretaker, who came to the door of his house, and in a most rude and aggressive manner told me I would not be permitted to place the wreaths this year, or even to enter the churchyard. I inquired why, and was answered, ‘It’s no good you asking questions, you’ll not be allowed; that’s all the answer you’ll get.’
I then drove to St Werburgh’s. On entering Werburgh street I saw groups of people talking indignantly. On seeing the wreaths, some of them called out to me, ‘You won’t be allowed to put them on; it’s a shame; numbers have been turned away to-day. ‘ At the churchyard gate stood a policeman, who asked me whose tomb I wished to visit. I said Lord Edward Fitzgerald’s. He answered, ‘You can’t, it’s forbidden.’ Here at least the caretaker was civil; he came up and regretted he could not comply with my wishes but said they had taken the keys of the vault from him; he offered to take the wreath and place it for me on the following day, but the white blossoms would have been faded, so I refused.
Are we no longer to be allowed to decorate with flowers the tombs of our dead because Victoria celebrates her Jubilee?
Every other year crowds of respectful Dublin citizens have been permitted to honour the graves of our national heroes. Why is this new insult offered to the Irish people?
Is it not enough that they degrade with their hideous, vulgar Jubilee decorations our old Parliament House in College green? Must they also interfere with what is one of the most sacred sentiments of our nation, the love and respect for our heroic dead? If they think by such means they will force the Irish people to join in the mockery of their rejoicings, they only show how little they know us. As I turned away from the barred gate of St Michan’s Church I heard a man standing near mutter under his breath ‘Please God we will drive the tyrants from our land, that will be the way to honour the memory of Robert Emmet,’ and I knew he echoed the Jubilee thoughts of the people of Ireland. – I remain, dear sir, yours truly,
MAUD GONNE”
To add insult to injury, the Dublin Evening Mail of that same afternoon, by way of reply to Miss Gonne’s letter, noted that a deputation of Dublin Nationalists, representing the 98 Centenary Committee, had on the same day as Miss Gonne’s visit been admitted to St Michan’s, and also been kindly shown through the vault of Lord Edward Fitzgerald in Werburgh St by Mr Kelly, the caretaker.
Presumably, wrote the Mail, tongue firmly in cheek, these gentlemen, in contrast to Miss Gonne, were ‘not great enough to make England tremble or frighten the Rectors of St Michan’s and St Werburgh’s out of their seven senses.’
The Mail article concluded by remarking that
“In times more martial than the present Miss Maud Gonne would be a very good replica of Joan of Arc, and if the times were superstitious as well as martial, her splendid exploits would give her enemies an excuse for burning her as a witch… we dare say that surly janitor at St Michan’s felt himself a desperate curmudgeon in refusing admission to so bright a visitant of his gloomy region, and cursed in his heart the orders of the panic stricken whom he was obliged to obey.”
Maud had her victory the following year, 1898, when, as a newly admitted member of the ’98 Centenary Committee, she attended at St Michan’s once again for a special ceremony of wreath-laying, attended by many of her Parisian friends. This time, there was no order to be gone – the ceremony was, after all, funded by the princely sum of £233 earned by her orations on an American lecture tour.
It may be significant that when Maud later took instruction in the Catholic faith, she elected to do so at the Capuchin Friary in Church Street – the nearest Catholic church to the Protestant one which had so rudely refused to admit her in 1897.
She might, however, be disappointed to find out that she had been laying poor Robert Emmet’s wreath on the wrong tomb the whole time!
Image Credits: HipPostcard and Media Storehouse.
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