Exhibition provides a postal history view of 1916 Easter Rising

POSTAL historian John ‘Jackie’ Mullen launched his latest exhibition to a packed audience in Castletymon Library this week.

Titled ‘The John Mullen Collection: Easter Exhibition’, the exhibition provides a postal history view of the 1916 Easter Rising showing the destruction and damage endured by Dublin city.

Over 30 people gathered for the well-attended launch this week, and Springfield man Jackie told The Echo about some of the variety of items that will be on display until the exhibition closes on April 25.

“There are photographic postcards of the leaders of the Rising, and photographic postcards of the destruction of Dublin,” he explained.

“There are a couple of postcards of the collateral damage of 1916, like the number of children that were killed.

“Originally there were 38, and then another two were found so there was a total of 40. Joe Duffy from RTÉ unearthed that.

Fr Pat Lucy, John Mullen and Cllr Ronan McMahon at the launch

“He produced a postcard about the 38 children that died, then during the 1916 Centenary he found out there were two more so made a new postcard about the 40 children.”

The postcards are all on display in the enlightening and engaging exhibition, and there was a strong turn-out at the launch.

“It was fantastic,” said Jackie.

“In actual fact, the assistant in the library, a chap named John O’Neill, said he was very surprised because he had to keep getting extra seats.

“The turn-out was just fantastic. It went extremely well.”

Jackie also has a separate exhibition on display in the County Library in Tallaght, featuring a collection of old letters from Tallaght, which will be in place until April 12.

These are just two of the many exhibitions he’s held over the years, where he has shown his collection of materials centred on postal history and the history of the Air Corps and air travel.

When asked what motivates him to share the items he has collected, Jackie said: “I believe that our history, regardless of if it’s the history of Tallaght or the country, should be seen by people.”