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"It Would Have Blown My Head Off"

"When My Ammunition Was All Gone I Went Home For My Breakfast"

“Fantastic Rumours Were Mixed With The Facts”

Relevant Places

Tadhg Gahan was a member of the garrison who occupied Jacob’s Biscuit Factory under the command of Thomas MacDonagh.

The factory was a large complex and Gahan describes how they set about fortifying the building, boring through walls and blocking the windows.

One ailment the garrison in Jacob’s did not suffer from was hunger. They had plentiful supplies of biscuits and cake. After a few days the novelty wore off and as Gahan states

Members of Cumann na mBan faithfully cooked our meals. Meals that were doubly welcome in the atmosphere of cake.

While waiting for the expected assault by the military Gahan was one of a number of men sent to retrieve grenades from a house in nearby York Street.

Jacob’s was a veritable fortress. The British army knew this and so bypassed the complex completely. The expected assault never came.

Tadhg Gahan was a member of ‘C’ Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, Irish Volunteers.

Tadhg Gahan was interviewed for 'They Remember 1916' broadcast on Radio Éireann, 3 April 1956. Photograph of York Street, Johnson Collection, courtesy of RTÉ Archives.

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