It was Wednesday of Easter Week and the Rising in Dublin was in full progress.
I walked down Innisfallen Parade to Dorset Street and on to Gardiner Row. I had to detour as Royal Irish Rifles soldiers were clearing the people from Dorset Street from north to south.
I asked some men for help to get me through to Parnell Street. We went through Gardiner’s Row and came out at Kennedy’s baker’s shop at the junction of Parnell Street. There were no enemy soldiers in sight so I went into the shop to buy bread, for fear of a shortage in future in the GPO where I was headed.
While I was waiting a young woman of about 25 years of age asked for six loaves of bread. They were papered for her. She lifted them and said:
‘You are paid.’
Then she walked out. I asked the assistant if she had more good customers like that earlier in the morning. She said no.
I went to the Parnell Monument. Large crowds were gathered looking down O’Connell Street and talking about the Rising. I wanted information before going into the GPO myself.
I proceeded past the Rotunda Hospital and into Moore Street to the entrance to the Coliseum Theatre. There were people in the top-storey windows of Moore Street who warned me about a man who was carrying a large sword, who was giving some trouble, preventing us getting into the Coliseum. The sword, I learned, had been taken from the old Waxworks.
For some time I kept my distance from the point of his sword, passing backwards and forwards along Moore Street. Then a young dispatch rider came out of the Coliseum so I got my bearings and entered.
… more later …