Analysis: Matthew Francis Chambers, born 5 May 1911, died 13 April 1912. How the Dublin of the early 1900’s shaped the lives and deaths of Matthew and his family.
‘In the Police Courts on the 15th instant {15 February 1901} the following were summoned for allowing their premises to remain under insanitary conditions. Magistrates orders, with costs, were obtained in each of the cases: – James Kent, 15 Henrietta Street..’[1]
Source – Irish Times
James Kent, House Agent, was a retired RIC Officer. His son, Eamonn, discovered to his surprise that his father could speak Irish.[3] He himself was becoming increasingly involved in nationalist movements, having been greatly influenced by the 1798 commemorations. In 1899 he joined the central branch of the Gaelic League.
The month following James Kent’s summons to the Magistrates Court, the 1901 census recorded nine families living in number 15 Henrietta Street. Among those were Francis Fitzpatrick and his wife Anne Fox. Francis was an illiterate labourer aged 42 years. He signed the census form with his mark.
Source: National Archives 1901 Census
Anne was also 42 years old. She and Francis had been just 18 years of age when they married. In contrast to the Kents, no-one in the family spoke Irish. Their daughter Margaret is aged 17. There are seven other children and the family all live in one room. The door to number 15 was always open and people wandered in and out; friends, neighbours, strangers.
When the weather allowed, the streets were full of children playing games such as ‘tip cat’[4]. The young Fitzpatrick children most likely among them.
Source: Extract: Life and death in a Dublin tenement – ‘finding rent was a struggle’ (thejournal.ie)
By 1904 Margaret Fitzpatrick is living at 55 Strandville Avenue. Christopher Chambers, a porter, is living nearby. He was born in 1877 to Matthew Chambers and Mary O’Connell. On 4 June 1894 he joined the Royal Artillery.[5] His age on enlistment is given as 19, however he is only 17 years of age. Christopher was described as having a fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. He was 5ft 7 ¾ inches tall and weighed 137lbs. Christopher went first to Malta and then to South Africa in 1899 to fight in The Boer War. He returned to Ireland in 1902 where he met Margaret Fitzpatrick.
On a cold winter’s day, Christopher Chambers and Margaret Fitzpatrick were married. The wedding took place in St Laurence O’Toole RC church in North Dublin on 10 February 1904.
On that same day a newspaper ran a story about the poor health of the lower classes in Dublin. ‘PREVALENCE OF DISEASE’ it said, ‘INCREASE IN MORTALITY.’ ‘The people of Dublin don’t seem to realise the gravity of the situation… the public health in Dublin has rarely been worse than it is at present’.[6]
Christopher was working as a labourer. The men could be laid off at the will of their employers and wages were low. On the day of Leopold Bloom’s iconic tour of Dublin on June 16 1904,[7] Margaret was 8 months pregnant and preparing for the birth of her first child. Mary Bonaventure was born, 5 months into marriage, on 14 July. The choice of middle name, a wish of ‘good fortune’ for the first-born child of Mr and Mrs Chambers.
A second daughter, Catherine, was born on 12 January 1906 at 12 Bonham Street. The family were to remain at this address for the next few years, which must have given the young married couple some sense of stability. Catherine lived only 7 days and died from a lumbar abscess. Another daughter Annie soon followed in 1907. Two years on Margaret Mary was born on 8 November 1909. She lived only 10 months and died from the effects of choleric diarrhea and exhaustion. The children were buried at Glasnevin Cemetery, along with the many babies and infants who fell victim to the infectious diseases rife in the slums of Dublin at this time. The poor of the Tenements would often be seen carrying the bodies of their dead children in their arms to be buried in the ‘Angel’s Plot’.[8]
By the time of the 1911 census Christopher and Margaret are living at 7.5 Usher’s Island. They have had four children in seven years, only two of which are living. Margaret was pregnant at the time of the census and the following month she gave birth to Matthew Francis on 5 May; their first boy. Likely named after his two grandfathers he must have been a welcome joy to the family after the heartbreak of losing two children. Matthew was destined to fall to ill health also, however, when he contracted tubercular meningitis. He died on 13 April 1912 with his father by his side. Matthew was buried in Glasnevin with his sisters Margaret and Catherine.
That same year, House Agent, James Kent, died. The Irish Independent recorded that in consequence of his father’s death, Eamonn Ceannt would postpone a lecture he was due to make at the Ard-Chraobh.[9]
As the bells rang out to welcome in the New Year of 1913, Christopher Chambers was admitted to the Workhouse suffering from TB. With Christopher unable to work, life must have been very hard for Margaret. Heavily pregnant when Christopher was admitted to the Workhouse, their daughter, Eileen Elizabeth, was born on 17 January 1913. Christopher was discharged on 21 March 1913 in the midst of the strikes and chaos sweeping the city.
Eamonn Ceannt, now a prominent member of Sinn Fein, aligned himself sympathetically with the labourers’ cause. He declared ‘it is the business of Sinn Fein to use the grievances of the various classes in this country as a whip to lash the English tyrant out of Ireland!’[10]
More heartbreak was to follow for the Chambers family. Eileen died aged 13 months on 7 February 1914 of convulsions. Her father Christopher’s health continued to worsen and he died later that month in the hospice on 26 February 1914. He was buried with his children in Glasnevin.
Margaret’s life was one of great change. From the poverty of 15 Henrietta Street, where she lived with her parents, through the heartbreak of losing four of her children and her husband. Just thirty years old she was left to bring up her two surviving children, Mary and Annie. The future must have seemed bleak.
The Lockout of 1913 was followed in1914 by the outbreak of World War One. While many men signed up to fight for the British Army, back in Ireland rebellion was in the air.
At the heart of this was Eamonn Ceannt. On Easter Sunday 23 April 1916, Eamonn, along with the other six members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood’s military council, met to proclaim an Irish Republic with themselves as the provisional government. The Proclamation of Independence bears his signature.
Source: Shutterstock
Margaret Chambers and her children would live through the repercussions of the Rising and the ensuing Civil War. Mary would go on to marry Laurence Wogan in 1929. Her sister Annie lived to be 90 years old. They are buried in the family burial plot in Glasnevin Cemetery. Reunited.
Bibliography
Dudley Edwards, Ruth ‘The Seven The Lives and Legacies of the Founding Fathers of the Irish Republic’, (North America, 2017).
Fallon, D ’14 Henrietta Street: from Tenement to Suburbia, 1922 – 1979’ (Dublin, 2021).
Kearns, K.C. ‘Working Class Heroines The Extraordinary Women of Dublin’s Tenements’, (Dublin, 2018).
Kearns, K.C. ‘Dublin Tenement Life: an oral history’ (Dublin, 2006).
Breathnach, C ‘Ordinary Lives, Death and Social Class: Dubin City Coroner’s Court, 1876-1902’ (Oxford, 2022).
Devine, F (Ed) ‘A Capital in Conflict: Dublin City and the 1913 Lockout’ (Dublin, 2013).
Murtagh, T ‘Spectral Mansions The Making of a Dublin Tenement, 1800-1914’ (Dublin, 2023).
[1] Evening Herald 1891-current, 16.02.1901, page 4
[2] https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/brothers-in-arms-an-irishman-s-diary-on-william-kent-and-eamonn-ceannt-1.3056979
[3] Ruth Dudley Edwards ‘The Seven The Lives and Legacies of the Founding Fathers of the Irish Republic’ (North America, 2017) p. 98
[4] Extract: Life and death in a Dublin tenement – ‘finding rent was a struggle’ (thejournal.ie)
[5] Page 1 – UK, Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Service Records, 1760-1925 – Fold3
[6] Irish Daily Independent and Nation, Wednesday February 10, 1904.
[7] James Joyce ‘Ulysses’ (Paris, 1922).
[8] The Dublin Tenements Episode 2 – YouTube
[9] Irish Independent Thursday, March 21, 1912.
[10] Dundalk Democrat, Saturday, June 13, 1914.