Matthias
Derham was born in 1883 to Matthias Derham Snr., a sea captain, and Catherine
Morgan. His parents had lived both lived in Skerries, north county Dublin, and
were married in 1869. Matt had several siblings—Peter (b. 1870); John (b.
1872); Jane aka Jenny (b. 1874); Thomas (b. 1876), Catherine aka Totty (b.
1881); Joseph (b. 1886). By 1901, the family were living at 7 Hoar Rock,
Skerries. Thomas attended Belvedere College for at least the years of
1887-1890. Frank Whearity’s research has found that Matt was enrolled at the
Skerries boys’ national school for most of the period 1890-1899. Matt spent
some time at Belvedere, being recorded as arriving at the school in 1893.
During
the years of 1901-1906 Matt served an indentured apprenticeship with William
Flanagan of New Street, Skerries and it is likely that he was living with his
master for its duration. The extant indenture document details the
responsibilities of both parties, fees and remunerations, and what Matt was
expected to do and not to do:
…the
said Apprentice his Master faithfully shall serve, his Secrets keep, his lawful
Commands everywhere gladly [carry out] … He shall not waste the good of his
said Master … He shall not commit Fornication or contract Matrimony within the
said Term [of the contract] … He shall not play at Card, Dice Tables … He shall
not haunt or use Taverns, Ale houses … And the said master his said apprentice
in the same art which he seth, by the best ways and means that he can, shall
teach and instruct, or cause to be taught and instructed, with due Correction.
Following
the conclusion of the apprenticeship in 1906, Matt became a journeyman
carpenter and joiner. When not working, Matt was an able hurler. A photograph
of the Skerries Hurling Club team, of about 1909, shows Matt and his brothers,
Peter and Joe, amongst a group of twenty-three young men clad in shirts, ties,
shorts and caps, hurls in hands.
Matt
was a member of C Company 5th Battalion, the Skerries Irish
Volunteers. On Sunday, 26 July, 1914, approximately seventy Skerries Irish
Volunteers amassed with others from Lusk, Swords, St. Margaret’s and Donabate
at Raheny and marched to Howth for the landing of German arms. Bernard McAllister
saw Matt in Howth that day and witnessed him getting a rifle on the pier.
In
1915, the 5th Battalion usually comprised about eighty members. They
received rifle practice and lectures from Eimar O’Duffy (an Old Belvederian
also profiled below), and also engaged in small-scale manoeuvres.
Matt wrote a short note, a valuable source, on
his activities of the Easter period of 1916. On Easter Sunday the 5th
Battalion was mobilised ‘at crossroads, Rathbeal, Saucerstown, Swords’ at
half-four in the afternoon. Matt was on outpost duty until half-ten that
evening, when he withdrew to the yard of the 5th Battalion
Quartermaster, Frank Lawless, in Saucerstown, just north-west of Swords. As
Christopher Moran recalled in his witness statement to the BMH:
On
Easter Sunday, the battalion was ordered to mobilise at Saucerstown, the
residence of Frank Lawless. About two hundred men mobilised, all armed with
rifles or shotguns, and carrying rations for two days. The quartermaster, Frank
Lawless, distributed a lot of brand new shotguns to Volunteers there.
The
Volunteers were dismissed after midnight, but not before having food at
Saucerstown and, as Charles Weston recalled, a dance in the barn. Throughout
the day, the men had all read the Sunday papers that carried Eoin MacNeill’s
countermanding order and it aroused much discussion and confusion. However, as
Charles Weston recorded, this was nothing new for the Irish Volunteers:
There
was great disappointment amongst the men but they took it quietly as just
another of the many disappointments they had become used to.
When
they were dismissed, the men were told to hold themselves ready to mobilise
again at a moment’s notice.
Despite
James Lawless, Adjutant of the 5th Battalion, receiving the order ‘Strike
at one o'clock today’ from Commandant-General Pearse on Easter Monday morning, Matthias
Derham recorded that there was still much confusion about what was happening in
the city and what was intended for north Dublin.
Monday,
got garbled accounts of the happenings in the city, but nothing definite until
some residents of there [Dublin city], returning by the last train, told me
about the post office [GPO] being occupied…
The
railway bridge at Skerries ‘the only direct exit from the town’ was guarded by
Irish Volunteers from Monday night.
Matt
took further action:
However,
I got the boys who had rifles and we succeeded in running the guards for the
rifles and ammunition on the country side of the railway, stored in an old
farmhouse.
The
Skerries company sent out unarmed scouts to make contact with the rest of the
Fingal Brigade to no avail. Matt, however, received a message to remain in
Skerries until the following day as the 5th Battalion were to attack
the military wireless station in the town. On Wednesday, Matt received word
that the planned attack was cancelled and that the rest of the battalion had
moved west to Garristown. ‘Under cover of evening’ Matt left Skerries and
arranged, with a small group of other Irish Volunteers, to go to Kileek in
search of the main body of the 5th Battalion. The next morning, four
of them cycled to Kileek, Oldtown, Ballboughal and Garristown searching for the
men under Thomas Ashe. The four Skerries men had been unable to get into the
city either, being blocked by British Army soldiers at both Drumcondra and the
North Strand.
On
Wednesday evening, as Matt wrote,
…towards
evening we met a man, an overseer on the roads who told us that there was
fighting going on in the direction of Ashbourne, we proceeded hence, only to
get in touch with the Volunteers, after the fight [the battle of Ashbourne],
was over.
Matt
and the other Skerries Irish Volunteers camped at Borranstown, near Garristown,
with the rest of the 5th Battalion under Thomas Ashe and moved to
the new base camp at Kilsallaghan, south-west of Rolestown, the next morning.
On the Saturday morning, 29 April, fearing an attack on their position, Matt
and others ‘took up duty on the outskirts of the farmyard until recalled at
dawn.’ Such an attack did not come.
On
Sunday, 30 April, the Irish Volunteers of the 5th Battalion received
the order to surrender from Pearse. Initially the men did not believe the
order, so Thomas Ashe sent Richard Mulcahy to Dublin to have it verified. When
Mulcahy returned with the news of the surrender many of the 5th
Battalion men objected. Mulcahy, however, ordered them to act as soldiers. As
Matt’s written account says, they were rounded up on the Monday evening and
taken to Richmond Barracks, via Swords. His account ends on the following line:
With
many others I was deported on 2 May, to Knutsford prison, hence to Frongoch,
released at the end of July.
While
in Frongoch Matt wrote a letter to a Mrs. Monks on 26 June, 1916. He wrote to
apologise for leaving work unfinished at Mrs. Monk’s house. He regretting
leaving the job undone following his ‘hasty departure’.
Following
his release from prison, Matt returned to his carpentry business in Skerries.
In 1919 he married Elizabeth Kelly. During the War of Independence, Matt had
what was described as ‘a miraculous escape’. The Volunteers were frequently on
the run during the tense days in late-1920. He was at home, however, during the
night of Wednesday, 27 October, 1920, when ‘a party of men in semi-uniform
[Black and Tan forces] invaded the town of Skerries and searched a number of houses’
(Drogheda Independent, 30 October,
1920). The men of the Crown forces called to Matt’s house and searched the
premises with an ‘exhaustive scrutiny’. Matt managed to avoid capture and this
led to an unsuccessful Skerries-wide search for him.
Whether
he went as a direct result of fear of the Black and Tans, Matt spent a year or
more in New York. When he returned to Ireland he resumed work as a carpenter
and also worked as an under-taker and coffin-maker. Matt and Eilis had eight
children. Matt died on 30 April, 1959, aged eight-six.
Matt’s
brother Joe also saw action during Easter week, 1916. Born in 1886, Joe had by
1911 secured a job as an assistant clerk (abstractor class) in the Irish Land
Commission’s Dublin office. For this, he moved to the city to live. Joe was
member of F Company, 1st Battalion Irish Volunteers. Joe was active
in the organisation of the 5th Battalion in north county Dublin and
was a member of the battalion’s governing committee. The Dublin Metropolitan
Police had Joe under surveillance before the rebellion and their records tell
of Joe leaving his lodgings at 26 North Frederick Street on Easter Monday
evening.
He
presented himself at the GPO and was there for the duration of the rising. He
was given the responsibility of time-keeping by Thomas Clarke. A timepiece was
acquisitioned from the postal service and was entrusted to Joe on the basis
that it would be later returned. Following the rising, the owner could not be
found so Joe kept it. He later had an engraving inscription put on the inside
cover of the watch, which read:
GIVEN
BY ORDER OF TOM CLARKE TO JOSEPH DERHAM DURING THE OCCUPATION OF G.P.O. 1916
After
the surrender, Joe was also taken to Richmond Barracks, Inchicore, before he
was sent to prison. While Matt was sent to Knutsford prison and Frongoch, Joe
was sent to Wandsworth prison in London and from there he was to join Matt in
Frongoch. Joe and others received an offer of early release if they signed a
bond of peace. Joe was, in the meantime granted temporary release on 6
November, 1916, to visit a brother—probably John—who was reportedly very ill.
Joe refused to sign any bond and he was dismissed from his position in the Land
Commission.
Joe
got work as a commercial traveller and married Annie Fitzmaurice in 1918. In
1921, Joe, Annie and their two children were living in Drumcondra and Joe was
working as an independent sales agent. Joe took little, if any, part in the War
of Independence, and was fond of telling people that it was ‘all madness’. In
1923 Joe served on a committee to investigate how best to utilise the Irish
Free State’s resources for benefit of the population.
In
1932, Joe returned to the civil service, in a position within the Office of
Public Works, and was marshal at open air Masses in the Phoenix Park during the
Eucharistic Congress of 1932. He retired in 1958. Joe and Annie had eleven
children, living in Glasnevin from 1927. Joseph Derham died on 12 August, 1966,
aged eighty.
When
the Derham home at Hoar Rock in Skerries was demolished c. 1970, two so-called
Howth Mauser rifles were found in the thatch. One of these rifles was deposited
at The Cork Public Museum
in 1971.
