Mother’s Great War diary digitised

The year was 1916.

The place, Dublin. But all Mary Martin had in mind was the safety of her 20-year-old son who had donned a British army uniform and gone to fight the Germans in the Great War.

Mary, a widow and mother of 12 living in affluent Monkstown, south Dublin, started writing on New Year’s Day 1916 after receiving word that her son Charlie was missing in action on the Salonika front in the Balkans.

Mary wrote the diary in the form of a letter to Charlie, a soldier with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, in the hope that he would one day return and read it.

It reads like a mother chatting to her son, telling him all the local news and gossip and is a chronicle of the daily life of her family, friends, relatives, and the wider community. It deals with the mundane and the monumental — everything from the rained-off tennis party to the Easter Rising.

Lasting a mere five months, the daily diary details her growing despair, punctuated by attempts to get word of Charlie and her growing concern for his wellbeing.

Digital arts students from Trinity College Dublin and University College Cork have transcribed and digitised 132 entries from the diary.

Arts Minister Jimmy Deenihan unveiled the database yesterday.

“This online edition is a rich source for anyone interested in Irish history, military history, women’s history, and genealogy,” said Mr Deenihan at the launch in the Trinity Long Room Hub.

“It takes its place within a collection of other publicly available online resources that shed light on Ireland’s complicated past and the development of the State.”

Students used an original manuscript from the National Library of Ireland, which they transcribed and digitised.

Susan Schreibman, director of the MPhil digital humanities course at Trinity, said the project was a model for making historical treasures available to the public.

“It is the kind of history we don’t normally get. We usually get the battles but not the ordinary lives of people who live in extraordinary times.”

Mary got regular reports from Charlie’s sister, Marie, who would later found the Medical Missionaries of Mary. She was stationed as a nurse in Malta and France and encountered many of his comrades.

She wrote 40 letters to her mother in Monkstown telling her of the desperate efforts she was making in Malta to find out what had happened to Charlie.

Tragically, Charlie would never read the diary that was dedicated to him as he died of his wounds a day or two after his capture by Bulgarian forces.

Voice from the past

Jan 1, 1916

“Dear Charlie, Today I went to Mass on Charlemont Street and met Uncle Charlie and Aunty. It was a horrible wet and windy day.”

Apr 24, 1916

“Dear Charlie, Ethel and Violet start off with Aunt Rita to go to Fairyhouse and have a very pleasant day until they get back to town. Here they discover to their cost there was a Sinn Féin rising. No trams or trains running, the streets and bridges barricaded, the GPO, Westland Row station, Four Courts etc in occupation of the rebels.”