To be fair to our national broadcaster, the coverage of the commemorations has been very good.
But perhaps the most interesting side story of the coverage was Joe Duffy’s documentary last night about the 40 children of the Rising.
Joe documented all the kids who died during the Rising, and put a massive amount of research into the documentary. He investigated the circumstances of the children who died and the happenings of the 1916 events for some three years, and it showed too.
Two of the children he told the stories of were Margaret Mary and Eleanor Warbrook.
13-yr-old Margaret Mary tragically died when she unfortunately shot when soldiers saw her wearing green through the window of her house on Haddington Road near Baggot St in Dublin. The child died 4 days later from her injuries.
15-yr-old Eleanor got tragically shot in the face during the uprising in Fumbly Rd.
James Fox died when he got caught in crossfire when he was in St. Stephen’s Green when the rebels dug trenches in the park and ended up in a shootout when soldiers started shooting from their vantage point in the Shelbourne hotel.
An emotional Joe told how little 12-yr-old Paddy Fetherston raced down in his box car to see what was going on at the GPO and ended up being shot in the crossfire. His box car was used as a makeshift stretcher.
A special mass was held for the descendants of the the children’s families with all 40 kids, including two unidentified children, read out at the mass.
Duffy concluded that we still don’t know the exact number of civilians killed in the 1916 Rising, let alone their names.