The extremely rare Irish Troubles Dublin Sinn Fein Easter Rising 1916 Life Saving Medal of the Order of Saint John in Bronze awarded to Miss Mabel Macartney, the Quartermaster and Acting Commandant of No.18 V.A.D. Detachment, working alongside the British Red Cross Society when assisting the City of Dublin Red Cross. At the time of the Irish Easter Rising, she was in her post at Mrs Heppell Marr’s Auxiliary Hospital at 29 Lower Fitwilliam Street in Dublin, and she is recorded as having reported for duty on Tuesday, 25 April 1916, the second day of the Easter Rising. Originally from Irishtown, Dublin, she was a National School Teacher by training, but joined the V.A.D. owing to the onset of the Great War. Her lifesaving medal is one of 10 such awards to women for services during the Sinn Fein Easter Rising. She formed one of the stretcher bearers, who were all women, ‘and from time to time made a tour of the city to find out if their services were required, and on several occasions were able to render assistance to wounded people.’ She is confirmed in the list of ‘ladies who participated in carrying the wounded under fire’, thirteen women in all being listed. She was sanctioned to receive the rare Life Saving Medal of the Order of Saint John in Bronze on 30 June 1916, with the award being presented to her by Sir Henry A. Blake, G.C.M.G. in January 1917.
Life Saving Medal of the Order of Saint John in Bronze, 2nd type, correct engraved naming; (PRESENTED TO MABEL MC. CARTNEY. 1916.), this complete with the original ribbon, together with its now detached original wearing pin brooch, and housed in the exceptionally rare original fitted presentation case.
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine.
Mabel Macartney, surname also recorded as MacCartney and M’Carthy, was born on 18 August 1881 in the family home at 1 Church Avenue, Irishtown, an inner suburb of Dublin, Ireland, she being the daughter of a clerk, Richard Henry Macartney, and his wife Dora, nee Dunne. Baptised in the Royal Chapel of St Mathew, Ringsend, the family had moved to 9 Newgrove Avenue, Sandymount by 1884, by which time her father was working as a commercial traveller. However he died after a short illness on 14 March 1884, and she subsequently moved with her mother to Tritonville Road, Donnybrook. As of 1901 she had trained as a National School Teacher, and by 1911 she and her mother were living with her elder brother, Charles, a timekeeper, at 19 Armagh Road.
Owing to the Great War, she joined her local Volunteer Aid Detachment, and was appointed the Quartermaster and Acting Commandant of No.18 V.A.D. Detachment, working alongside the British Red Cross Society when assisting the City of Dublin Red Cross. At the time of the Irish Easter Rising, she was in her post at Mrs Heppell Marr’s Auxiliary Hospital at 29 Lower Fitwilliam Street in Dublin, and she is recorded as having reported for duty on Tuesday, 25 April 1916, the second day of the Easter Rising.
Organised by a seven-man Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Rising began on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916 and lasted for six days. Members of the Irish Volunteers, led by schoolmaster and Irish language activist Patrick Pearse, joined by the smaller Irish Citizen Army of James Connolly and 200 women of Cumann na mBan seized strategically important buildings in Dublin and proclaimed the Irish Republic. The British Army brought in thousands of reinforcements as well as artillery and a gunboat. There was street fighting on the routes into the city centre, where the rebels slowed the British advance and inflicted many casualties. Elsewhere in Dublin, the fighting mainly consisted of sniping and long-range gun battles. The main rebel positions were gradually surrounded and bombarded with artillery. There were isolated actions in other parts of Ireland; Volunteer leader Eoin MacNeill had issued a countermand in a bid to halt the Rising, which greatly reduced the extent of the rebel actions.
With much greater numbers and heavier weapons, the British Army suppressed the Rising. Pearse agreed to an unconditional surrender on Saturday 29 April, although sporadic fighting continued briefly. After the surrender, the country remained under martial law. About 3,500 people were taken prisoner by the British and 1,800 of them were sent to internment camps or prisons in Britain. Most of the leaders of the Rising were executed following courts martial. The Rising brought physical force republicanism back to the forefront of Irish politics, which for nearly fifty years had been dominated by constitutional nationalism. Opposition to the British reaction to the Rising contributed to changes in public opinion and the move toward independence.
With her surname spelt at MacCartney on the records of the Order of Saint John, she is confirmed as having been having been sanctioned to receive the rare Life Saving Medal of the Order of Saint John in Bronze on 30 June 1916, with the award being presented to her by Sir Henry A. Blake, G.C.M.G., at a meeting at the Lecture Theatre of the Royal Dublin Society on Tuesday, 16th January 1917, this being awarded to her, one of 10 such awards to women for services during the Sinn Fein Easter Rising. She formed one of the stretcher bearers, who were all women, ‘and from time to time made a tour of the city to find out if their services were required, and on several occasions were able to render assistance to wounded people.’ She is confirmed in the list of ‘ladies who participated in carrying the wounded under fire’, thirteen women in all being listed. Macartney’s actions were recorded in the Weekly Irish Times in 1917, and also in the Irish Times back on 5 May 1916.
As of 1922 she was living with her mother at 5 Seapoint Terrace in Irishtown.
