Dublin General Post Office

The General Post Office in Dublin on O’Connell street is the headquarters of the Irish Postal Service and a bustling hub of activity, but every Easter it becomes a symbol of Irish revolution and a somber place of remembrance. The general post office was the headquarters of the revolution. Here the Irish flag was raised and the Proclamation was recited loudly, to the jeers and complaints of the citizenry who just wanted to post their mail. When the British began to shell the area with heavy artillery, the complaints grew louder. The post office was eventually set on fire and mostly destroyed, along with many of the buildings around it. In the end, the British army had no qualms about destroying most of downtown Dublin to defeat the upstarts in the general post office. All that remains of the original building is the beautiful Georgian facade. The facade has its own visible scars of bullet holes, cracks and mortar damage. It is still one of the busiest post offices in all of Ireland and it houses a permanent exhibition of its role in the Rising called Letters, Lives and Liberty. Every year on Easter, a wreath is laid outside the General Post Office, the Proclamation is read and other ceremonies commence to commemorate the men and women who fought in 1916.