A fascinating photograph featuring many of the great Irish revolutionary leaders has gone on display in Galway, a century after it was taken.
A "who’s who" of Irish revolutionaries is captured in the photograph, which was taken in Galway in 1913 and recently discovered in the attic of a family home.
The Irish Times reports that half of the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation and three future presidents of the future state are in the photograph.
The paper says that Pádraig Pearse, Seán Mac Diarmada, Éamonn Ceannt, Douglas Hyde, Seán T O’Kelly, Éamon de Valera, Pádraic Ó Conaire and Constance Markievicz are among the group.
The photo was found in a box in the attic of the Curran family in Dublin and a print has been presented to the Galway's Town Hall Theatre.
Members of the Curran family are among the 164 people photographed attending a Gaelic League national convention.
The photo was taken outside Galway’s town hall, which is now a theater.
The Irish Times report says that the family first thought it was taken at the Gaelic League Oireachtas in 1914 and they searched for a match for the building in Kerry.
When research confirmed that it was taken in Galway in 1913, they decided to mark the centenary by presenting a print to the theater.
A statement from the family said, “We think it is only right that it should return to the place where it was taken, to be enjoyed by the people of Galway and the public at large.
“We now look forward to perhaps the public assisting us identify the few remaining names.”
The report adds that the 1913 Gaelic League national convention was held as part of the week-long Oireachtas or national cultural festival that summer.
The Galway event was the first time the ‘parliament of the Gaels’ was held outside Dublin.
Galway was home to some 50 percent of the island’s native Irish speakers at that point.
A local team including Tom Kenny, Dara Folan, Jackie Ní Chionna and Deirdre Ní Chonghaíle of NUI Galway helped the Currans to identify the line-up, which also includes George Russell (AE), Bulmer Hobson, Kathleen Clarke, the O’Rahilly, and Eoin McNeill.
Connemara man Colm Ó Gaora, author of "Mise," told the Irish Times, “That Oireachtas was a rallying point for many of the nationalists who later led the rebellion of Easter Week.”
The photo is now on display in the Town Hall Theatre foyer in Galway.
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