Revenue Museum exhibition for Centenary celebrations

Niall Cody, Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, today (22/04/2016) opened an exhibition in the Revenue Museum in Dublin Castle as part of the 1916 Centenary Celebrations.

The exhibition features the extraordinary life of Bulmer Hobson, one of the most influential and least remembered Nationalist leaders in the country between 1900 and 1916.

As founder of Na Fianna and the Irish Volunteers, and a senior member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, Hobson had as much sway among Nationalists as Clarke, Pearse, MacDermot, and the other well-known leaders. However, on Good Friday, 22 April 1916, Bulmer Hobson was “kidnapped” on the orders of the IRB and, unlike those other leaders whose names remain indelibly associated with the fight for Irish Independence, Hobson’s name did not stay the course.

In later years, from 1924 to 1948, Bulmer Hobson went on to work as the Deputy Director of stamping in Revenue, where he oversaw the printing of stamps, passports, tax discs, pension books and other ‘secure’ documents. His highly influential role in the Nationalist movement before the Rising and his subsequent emergence as a Revenue official is one of the least-known and most fascinating stories associated with the events of 1916.

The exhibition comprises storyboards and photographs, together with a booklet on Hobson’s life as a Nationalist and as a Revenue official. It also recalls  Mortimer O’ Connell, one of the Irish Volunteers who guarded Bulmer Hobson during his kidnapping in 1916 and who, at that time, worked for the Commissioners of Customs and Excise. O’Connell later joined the staff of Dáil Éireann and rose to become Clerk of the Dáil in 1948.

The Revenue Museum is located in the crypt of the Chapel Royal in the Lower Yard in Dublin Castle, and is open from 10am to 4pm Monday to Friday. Admission is free.

[Ends: 22/04/16]