There is much about Christmas 1915 that is familiar to the modern reader. Shops were still keen to push their wares. The Henry Street Warehouse Company promulgated “Xmas Presents at Small Prices” in the Irish Independent while J.J. Kelly’s jewellers on Crampton Quay advertised “Christmas Gifts” of diamond rings and jewellery of every kind. There has been little variation, too, in the foods consumed, as illustrated by an appeal made by the Dublin Castle Red Cross Hospital in the Freeman’s Journal.
Over the Christmas period, 222 non-commissioned officers and men were stationed there and a request was made for turkeys, geese, game, jam, cakes, biscuits and plum puddings. The Panto too, was a Christmas staple 100 years ago, and Dublin’s “Christmas Pantomime Season” kicked off on December 27th. Likewise, crowds poured into the Gaiety Theatre to see “Dick Whittington and his Cat”, “Cinderella” in the Empire Theatre and “Forty thieves” at the Queen’s. The Irish Independent singled “Dick Whittington” out for particular praise, and while “laughter and applause rang through the building”, spare a thought for those who were turned away because the theatre was full.
Christmas cards could be purchased from either W.V. Coleman’s on Henry Street or Thomas J. Coleman’s on Westmoreland Street, the latter specialising in “novel and artistic… Gaelic and Shamrock cards”. Certainly the demand was high and the “volume of mails dealt with at the GPO this Christmas [was] well up on the average of previous years” which was somewhat surprising given “the abnormal times in which we live” noted the Freeman’s Journal. This problem was compounded by the “number [of postal workers] who volunteered for active service”. However, these “abnormal times” may well have accounted for the equally abnormal postal flow.
The Irish Independent noted that the large numbers of Irishmen employed in the Expeditionary forces meant there was “an unusually heavy parcel traffic” – though there was also a surge in the number of parcels coming into Ireland from the United States. Indeed, the demand all of this placed on Dublin’s postal services was almost certainly the cause of what the Independent termed “GPO Innovation”. This “innovation” involved six young women moving from the telegraph department to take “up duty for the first time at the public counter”.
Dubliners were exhorted to give “generous support” over the festive season to institutions that help the city’s poorer residents. The Mendicity Institute at Usher’s Island sought to provide a “substantial dinner” on Christmas Day and the Sisters of Charity at the St. Laurence O’Toole Convent sought even “the smallest donation” to help them provide a breakfast and dinner for the poor. No doubt many gave generously, yet the Christmas spirit was notably lacking from two misers – Christopher Collins and Andrew McHugh – who were remanded in the Northern Police Court for stealing two shillings and sixpence from a cripple on Christmas Eve.
