Looting during the Rising

Lower Abbey Street

In the "Rebels: The Irish Rising of 1916" by Peter De Rosa on page 282, Peter tells the story of the looting that took place. Women were putting on undergarments on over their outergarments.

Peter writes: "One, less puritanical, climbed into a tram near the Pillar that advertised "Brooks Sanitary Appliances" and "Emu Laundry" on its sides. She stripped to the skin so as to provideherself with an entirely new outfit.

"Jasus" one woman croaked, laden down with stolen goods, "look at that whoor, naked as a broomstick, nothin' on her but her mortal sins." Murder was bad enough but nudity was the sin against the Holy Ghost. She shook a balled fist. "Isn't she a panic? God strike the hussy dead this instant. I'd call the fecking polis after her if they was about, so I would."

The irony of it. Only the Irish could call a thief a theif while they were stealing from somone else. The book is strewn with tidbits of humor amongst the seriousness of the Rising.