Bloody Sunday Tea Set

Part of a breakfast set from the Smith household, 117 Morehampton Road, Dublin

A partial set of Breakfast China, circa 1894-1910. Four teacups, seven saucers, four side plates and one serving platter. The fine China set has 'The Foley China, England' stamped on the back. Made by Wileman.

On the 21st of November 1920, the Squad, special IRA operatives, assassinated British Intelligence Officers across Dublin. In retaliation, British forces opened fire on spectators at a football match in Croke Park. Known as Bloody Sunday, more than 30 people were killed.

This set belonged to the Smith Family of 117 Morehampton Road, Dublin. The tea set was a wedding present to Thomas Herbert Smith and Anna Smith. They had three children. It was the breakfast service for the family and the lodgers residing in the house.

In November 1920, the family let the rooms to Lieutenant Donald Lewis MacLean, his wife Kate and her brother John Caldow. Maclean was a British Army Intelligence Officer. On the morning of Bloody Sunday, IRA gunmen stormed into the house and murdered MacLean and Thomas Smith in the spare room of their home. Smith's daughter Cecile witnessed the assassinations from the stairs. They were murdered because of their association with the British Army.

After this violent incident the Smith family left their home. Anna Smith remarried. Two of the Smith's sons - Percival and Cecil - left Ireland and refused to return.

Cecile Smith stayed in Ireland and kept this tea set. The tea set was the only surviving object from the family's time at 117 Morehampton Road. She recounted that this tea set was laid for breakfast the morning of Bloody Sunday. She believed it was damaged during the assassinations. The service is incomplete, and the serving platter is broken (with repairs). Smith also remembered new wallpaper – red rose flock – in the rooms (her mother's family owned a decorating business in Donnybrook) and recalled blood soaking into the wallpaper.

Object Number: HA:2020.5