Plaque unveiled at Sandymount home of Patrick Pearse’s family

One of 1916 Rising’s key leaders, Pearse lived in house during ‘formative’ years after 1900

Property Owners Bernard Rogan and Kathleen O’Callaghan with Dublin’s Lord Mayor, Alison Gilliland after the formal unveiling of a commemorative plaque at the site of Patrick Pearse’s boyhood home on Sandymount Avenue. Photograph Nick Bradshaw for The Irish Times
Property Owners Bernard Rogan and Kathleen O’Callaghan with Dublin’s Lord Mayor, Alison Gilliland after the formal unveiling of a commemorative plaque at the site of Patrick Pearse’s boyhood home on Sandymount Avenue. Photograph Nick Bradshaw for The Irish Times

The family home of Patrick Pearse - the Irish revolutionary and executed leader of the Easter Rising - has been adorned with an official commemorative plaque.

The Pearses moved to 13 Sandymount Avenue, Dublin 4 from the nearby Newbridge Avenue in 1900.

Before that, they had lived above a shop in Great Brunswick Street, later renamed Pearse Street, according to Dublin City Council which erected the plaque as part of a wider scheme commemorating people, organisations, and events that have made a "unique and significant contribution" to the history of the city.

"We have many, many memorials around Dublin," said Dublin's Lord Mayor Alison Gilliland who unveiled the plaque on Friday. "Great lives are lived in all parts of the city and it is important that these places be commemorated, as well as those whose memories are marked in the streets of the city centre."

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The terrace, built in 1864, played host to a list of prominent names from the capital’s past - the poet WB Yeats and playwright TC Murray also resided there, and both are commemorated with similar plaques.

According to the council, Pearse lived in Sandymount during a formative period in his life when he was training to be a barrister. He also became one of the key figures in the Gaelic League and took on responsibility for the family following the death of his father James.

Mark Hilliard

Mark Hilliard

Mark Hilliard is a reporter with The Irish Times