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p. H. PEARSE 
 
 First President of the Irish Republic 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 SINN FEIN MOVEMENT AND 
 THE IRISH RERELLION OF 1916 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANCIS P. JONES 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 HON. JOHN W. GOFF 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 P. J. KENEDY & SONS 
 
 1917 
 

 COPYRIGHT, I917 
 BY P. J. KENEDY & SONS 
 
 m 17/917 
 
 ©C!.A4f30905 
 
CD 
 
 TO MY WIFE 
 
 MAIRE HASTINGS 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 NOT within the confines of human knowledge has 
 it been known that any one nation has wielded 
 such power or exercised such arbitrary control 
 over international communications as England does 
 to-day. The ships on the water that carry the mails, 
 the ocean cables beneath the water, and the wireless 
 telegraphy above the water are each and all completely 
 in her hands. Every avenue of intelligence is guarded 
 by her police and picketed by her agents. Service to 
 her interests is the rule applied to the suppression or the 
 dissemination of news. 
 
 In the titanic struggle for existence in which she is 
 engaged, this, from her point of view, may be justifi- 
 able; but from the point of view of history, founded 
 upon truth, it is a malforming of facts and a poisoning 
 of the wells of knowledge. In none of the fields of her 
 worldwide activities is her censorship so complete or 
 so drastic as it is in matters relating to Ireland or Ire- 
 land's interests at home or abroad. Not that there is 
 anything new in her misrepresentation of Ireland and 
 the Irish. That she has done for centuries in the forum, 
 on the stage, and through the influences of her literature 
 and drama. But never has there been such wholesale 
 suppression of realities and falsification of truth as since 
 the great war. Commencement was made by the false 
 acclaim of Ireland's loyalty, and the climax was reached 
 by the perversion of the rebellion of Easter week into 
 an inconsequential street riot. As time recedes from 
 that tragic event, the larger will it loom in the memory 
 
 vii 
 
viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 of the Irish race; and whatever tends to penetrate 
 and clarify the fog in which Enghsh misrepresentation 
 has sought to enshroud it, is a distinctive and lasting 
 service to historical truth. To everyone whose mental 
 vision is not distorted by prejudice, the opportunity 
 of learning the truth and of forming impartial judgment 
 of the actions and motives of the men who have been 
 maligned, or at most misunderstood, must be welcomed. 
 
 Fortunately for the cause of truth, this opportunity 
 is now presented by the timely publication of "History 
 of the Sinn Fein Movement and the Irish Rebellion of 
 1916," written by an author whose facilities for ac- 
 quiring first-hand knowledge were unsurpassed, and whose 
 capacity for imparting it will be appreciated by those 
 who read the book. 
 
 To write intelligently and convincingly of Irish affairs 
 requires familiarity with a tangled subject and a keen- 
 ness of vision that will perceive the genuine from the 
 counterfeit. These qualifications spring from sym- 
 pathy for and with the people, without which the writer 
 (as in many cases exemplified) plunges into a morass of 
 generalization, and becomes as detached from his sub- 
 ject as Ireland is in spirit from England. That the 
 author of this book is thoroughly imbued with that 
 sympathy is manifest on every page; yet, withal, his 
 sympathy does not cloud his perception or warp his 
 judgment. He maintains throughout a fine sense of 
 proportion, and his shadings but make more emphatic 
 his work in relief. What is called the impartial pinnacle 
 is in Ireland almost impossible of attainment. The 
 rancor of party politics reaches an intensity unknown in 
 America. Here political disputations generally center 
 on domestic material questions - and very rarely affect 
 the personal relations of the citizens. There, there 
 
INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 are involved social distinctions and ambitions, tradi- 
 tional prejudices, racial and not infrequently religious 
 antipathies, and above all the ever present, though slum- 
 bering, hostility to English rule. Through this maze 
 the author guides a well-tempered steady pen that at 
 no time is dipped in gall, though the opportunities for 
 invective are not few. Conspicuous in this regard is his 
 treatment of the Parliamentarians, the Home Rule Bill, 
 and the recruiting propaganda, subjects to which strong 
 and vivid expressions might well be applied. Yet, 
 notwithstanding the provoking inducements to "let 
 the gall'd jade wince," he pursues a course of modera- 
 tion that enhances the value of the clear and simple, 
 but dignified, narrative. 
 
 A most valued part of the book is that which deals 
 with the Sinn Fein movement. Fostered by misrepre- 
 sentation, and aided by lack of correct information, 
 ignorance regarding it has assumed amazing sway. 
 Even men of a high order of intelligence have been mis- 
 led by rumor and "cable hearsay" to form the most 
 grotesque opinions concerning its nature and purpose. 
 The prevailing view is that it was a secret oathbound 
 society with revolution as its object and dark deeds its 
 means. No doubt it will surprise many to learn from 
 the clear definitions given in this book that it was not a 
 secret oathbound society, and had no relation to plans 
 or schemes for revolution. No doubt but that many 
 Sinn Feiners were revolutionists in spirit and act, and 
 equally so there were many Sinn Feiners opposed to 
 revolution by force. Of itself, the movement might be 
 termed patriotic political economy, and for unselfish 
 aims coupled with patriotic purpose has not had its 
 equal in modern times. Indeed, it was more. It was 
 altruistic in its projected service ro country and human- 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 ity, and its spirit is expressed in a free translation of its 
 title: For Ourselves. It was born of the terrible con- 
 dition of Ireland: a fertile country, always on the verge 
 of famine; an island favorably situated on the world's 
 great water lanes, its coast line indented with capacious 
 harbors, without shipping or commerce; a land with 
 fine water facilities and rich mineral deposits, without 
 trade or industry; and a vigorous, fecund population, 
 decaying so rapidly as to bring into view the vanishing 
 point of the race. Said the Sinn Feiners: Nature has 
 blessed our country; it has been cursed by man. We 
 eat English bread, we wear English clothes. Industrial 
 enterprise depends on English capital, and the best 
 products of our land are taken to English markets. 
 We are taught to think and speak in English and fashion 
 our morals on English lines. Let us encourage, as far 
 as we can, home industry, by refusing to buy or consume 
 articles of foreign manufacture or product; let us stimu- 
 late Irish trade by the aid of Irish capital being applied 
 to Irish enterprise; let us retain and employ our men 
 by cultivating the soil, reaping the harvest, and feed- 
 ing our people, instead of raising sheep and cattle for 
 the Englishman's table; let us have a system of national 
 education that will instill into the heart of youth love 
 of country, reverence for its historic past, and hope 
 for its future welfare, instead of the present system that 
 denationalizes and degrades and fosters contempt 
 for everything Irish. These and kindred objects con- 
 stituted its program, and they were capable of attain- 
 ment by means of association only. Surely fault should 
 not be found with a people who by peaceable means 
 endeavor by cooperation to elevate themselves to a 
 plane of dignified national existence and intellectual 
 progress. This is the Infinite design, and for a time 
 
INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 at least it has been frustrated by man. It is noticeable 
 that even under the extraordinary powers conferred by 
 the Defense of the Realm Act Sinn Fein has not been 
 proclaimed, nor has there been one public trial or 
 prosecution for espousal of its principles. The reason is 
 plain: its principles do not violate even a clause of 
 English law, and while the society has not been placed 
 under legal ban, its members have been persecuted 
 upon the vicious, but oft-applied, principle that he who 
 seeks to benefit Ireland thereby becomes the enemy of 
 England. If the author did no more than give the 
 instructive outline of this most interesting chapter of 
 Irish History, and rescue it from possible oblivion or 
 certain derision, he has made a valuable contribution 
 to what has been termed the dismal science, and furnished 
 a text for elaboration as to how an impoverished, dis- 
 armed, and powerless people, acting in unison, may 
 thwart the schemes of the powerful. 
 
 But it is in his treatment of the rebellion of Easter 
 week that he reaches the climax of interest. Naturally 
 is this so, for it contains all the dramatic elements which 
 stir the imagination and is saddened by the somber 
 fringe of tragedy. His narrative is an etching. Its 
 clear cut lines are unembellished by flower or figure, 
 and in their strength and simplicity lie their historical 
 value. Philosophic reflections and deductions are left 
 to other minds and times, but the living facts are pre- 
 sented so vividly that they cannot be minimized or dis- 
 torted. Some features are so prominent that they are 
 calculated to engross the attention to the exclusion of 
 others equally important. First among these is the 
 established determination of the ** Castle" to disarm 
 the volunteers and arrest the leaders. By this act of 
 aggression it was intended to accomplish three things: 
 
xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 first, to strike terror into the people by the moral advan- 
 tage of dealing the first blow; secondly, to coerce the men 
 arrested into enlistment in the army; and thirdly, to still 
 in the silence of the prison cell the voices of the men who 
 had agitated against and made recruiting a failure. 
 
 A sinister sidelight is thrown upon the "Castle" 
 council when it was urged that the contemplated assault 
 upon the people would produce a bad effect in America. 
 General Friend, the commander of the forces, declared 
 that he did not care about America, and that at all events, 
 if the Irish there became troublesome, the American 
 government would deport them. The second feature 
 is the unfortunate countermand of Eoin MacNeill to 
 the volunteers. Had this not been issued — well, it 
 is idle to speculate on "what might have been." One 
 thing may be reasonably assumed, that even though 
 the end were not different, the cost of reaching it would 
 have been. Many of the circumstances surrounding 
 that fatal order may never be known. Casement, the 
 pure and chivalrous, is dead, and MacNeill, the scholar 
 and kindly gentleman, is immured for life. Notwith- 
 standing that in the bitterness of defeat men may rashly 
 express themselves as to causes, it is creditable to the 
 Irish race that not one word had been uttered impugning 
 the honor or the motives of either of those splendid 
 patriots. And in harmony with that tribute, it may 
 here be mentioned that, so far as is known, there has 
 not figured in this rebellion that tool of England and 
 shame of Ireland, — the informer. 
 
 Worthy of the classic lines which have immortalized 
 the Greek heroes are those men, who, with knowledge 
 of their plans having been disordered and of the over- 
 whelming power of the enemy they challenged, went 
 intrepidly to sacrifice for their principles. The timid 
 
INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 and prudent calculator may say that they were rash 
 and wildly impractical and wholly devoid of comfort- 
 able worldly sense. While from a selfish and super- 
 ficial point of view this may be partially true, yet the 
 fact should not be overlooked that but for such men in 
 all ages humanity could not have broken the shackles 
 with which tyranny and power had frequently bound it. 
 But these men were not blind fatalists. They were 
 Christian men, of blameless lives, with tender ties of 
 blood and affection, endowed with intellectual gifts 
 of a high order, and a fine moral fiber that gives grace 
 and beauty to human existence, and that vibrates in 
 sympathy with every aspiration for truth and justice. 
 All that makes life's journey pleasant and attractive 
 was held in promise for them, had they but pursued the 
 smooth and beaten path of self-interest and sterile ego- 
 ism. For their bravery and courtly conduct generous 
 words of praise have been extended even by their Eng- 
 lish enemies. It is only from the servile Irish "Hero- 
 dians" that bitter words have come. What must be 
 the remorse of Mr. Redmond, their chief, when he re- 
 flects on the language he used in a cablegram to New 
 York a short time after the outbreak and before the 
 truth escaped the censor. He said: "The whole dis- 
 graceful plot is viewed with execration by the Irish 
 people. It was almost entirely a Dublin movement; 
 partly the creation of the Sinn Fein cranks and German 
 agents there, partly of the remnants of that mass of 
 discontent and anarchy which was left by the disastrous 
 Larkinite strike. ... I have received communication 
 from all parts of the world declaring vehement con- 
 demnation by Irishmen of this insane and wicked at- 
 tempt to destroy all Ireland's hopes, just at the moment 
 when, after centuries of vain struggle, they were about 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 to be fully realized." For his sin "Vathek" was con- 
 demned to eternal exposure of his scorched heart in a 
 transparent body. 
 
 So numerous were acts of heroism and devotion to 
 duty that to single any one of them would appear in- 
 vidious. One, however, may be mentioned as presenting 
 incidents of romantic adventure worthy of being en- 
 shrined in poetry. Longfellow enshrined "Paul Revere's 
 Ride" from Charlestown to Lexington in graceful verse, 
 and Buchanan Reed sculptured "Sheridan's Ride" to 
 Winchester on Homeric lines. In "The O'Rahilly's" 
 ride to Limerick, vividly described by the author, there 
 is rich material and inspiration for the poet's genius. 
 
 A true perspective of the acts and motives of the men 
 who organized and led the rebellion of Easter week can 
 only be had through sympathy with heroic endeavor. 
 It would be as unjust to their memory as it would be 
 misleading to the student of history to measure them 
 by the gross materialism of the day. Granted that they 
 were idealists, but they were idealists with a very prac- 
 tical turn of mind, that had a clear conception of their 
 rights as well as their duties. They knew that God 
 alone fixed Ireland's place on this planet, that He gave 
 its people a language and implanted in them an instinct 
 for racial and national existence, that He conferred upon 
 them the right to make their own laws for Ireland and 
 in Ireland, and that He had never abrogated that right 
 by transferring it to England. They knew they had 
 been deprived of that right by force, and that it could 
 never be regained except by a duty fulfilled, and the ful- 
 fillment of that duty was life's highest law. They were 
 convinced that a nation that has lost its freedom does 
 not deserve it, unless to regain it it is ready to march 
 to victory through constancy in sacrifice. 
 
INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 In sadness the written and spoken history of their 
 country told them that the path of the patriot led to 
 poverty, exile, imprisonment, or death, and that his 
 only ladder to fame were the steps leading to the scaffold. 
 With that grim record before them, every man of them 
 staked his life against desperate odds. They knew 
 that the chances of victory were remote, but they de- 
 termined to leave an enduring example. Why this 
 sublime courage and splendid fortitude.^ Because they 
 had absorbed the spiritual meaning of Kathleen ni 
 Houlihan, so that it had permeated their soul. To 
 them patriotism meant more than calculating for op- 
 portunity and balancing for expediency. It was to 
 them a religion that, when needs be, required sacrifice — • 
 and sacrifice of life and liberty they made for conscience 
 and for Ireland, that her much troubled and tried but 
 immutable spirit may live. 
 
 John W. Goff 
 
 New York, 
 March 4, 1917. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 DURING the last week of May, 1916, I received a letter 
 from Dublin stating that my friend, Arthur Griffith, 
 the founder of the Sinn Fein movement, had been 
 arrested and his house ransacked by the British miUtary 
 authorities. 
 
 As it happened, I had in my possession, and still have, a 
 copy of The Sinn Fein Policy, as written by Griffith. I 
 was aware, before I left DubUn, that very few copies of the 
 pamphlet were in existence. On realizing that Griffith was 
 silenced in an English prison, and out of a feeling of comrade- 
 ship to him and a desire to preserve his work, I decided to set 
 down the truth regarding that policy and movement of which 
 the world then was, and still is, thinking. 
 
 The men whose names have since been immortalized in the 
 hearts of men and women of the Irish race the world over were 
 my personal friends. For years it had been my privilege to 
 work with them, to know them intimately, and to share a little 
 in that work of preparation which later led to the reawaken- 
 ing of the soul of Ireland. Many of them were intimate 
 and particular friends and comrades of mine — for example, 
 Michael O'Hanrahan and The O'Rahilly — and I felt also 
 that the time had come to set upon record the truth regarding 
 them and the ideals for which they worked and died. Since 
 April, 1916, many articles about these men have appeared in 
 American periodicals, often by writers whose knowledge could 
 not be other than second-hand. Even when written with the 
 best intentions, these articles gave rise to false impressions. 
 In order, therefore, to portray these men as I knew them, to 
 set down some of the facts of the case for Ireland, to show the 
 manner in which this nation, one of the small nations of which 
 we hear so much in these days of war, has been plundered and 
 
xviii PREFACE 
 
 robbed of her industries, her rights and liberties — of all, in 
 short, save her honor — I set about the compilation of this 
 work, if for no other purpose than that my own two little sons 
 might know the truth. 
 
 It has been said, and truly, that England has erected paper 
 walls around Ireland. On the inside of these walls she writes 
 that which she wants the Irish people to believe about the 
 rest of the world, and on the outside that which she hopes the 
 world will believe about Ireland. For months before the re- 
 bellion the Irish people were told that the men of Ireland 
 were joining the British army by so many thousands per 
 week, the truth being, as was later demonstrated, that the 
 men of Ireland, and the women, too, were preparing to strike 
 for their freedom. In spite of political intrigues, base bar- 
 gains made by traitors, and appalhng economic conditions, 
 there were many in Ireland with red blood in their veins and 
 the old dream in their hearts, who worked and prayed that 
 their dream might come true and who called deep in their 
 hearts to the Ireland of their love: 
 
 0! Dear Dark Head, though but the curlew* s screaming^, 
 
 Wakens the echoes of the hill and glen; 
 Yet shall thou see once more the bright steel gleaming. 
 
 Yet shall thou hear again the tramp of men; 
 And though their fathers' fate be theirs, shall others 
 
 With hearts as faithful still that pathway tread. 
 Till we have set, oh! mother dear of mothers, 
 
 A nation's crown upon thy Dear Dark Head. 
 
 The bright steel gleaming was their hope, as it has ever been 
 of an unconquerable and martial people, for who can conquer 
 a race that breeds men who went smilingly to death for free- 
 dom, and men who, with the guns of the usurpers around them 
 and their city in ashes behind them, went singing into exile, 
 young men whose unconquerable spirit was so evident in their 
 erect bearing as they marched on their way to English prisons 
 that tears streamed down the cheeks of women and old men 
 took off their hats as they passed? 
 
PREFACE 
 
 xix 
 
 While it will thus be seen that the subject has been ap- 
 proached frankly from an Irish point of view, at the same 
 time no effort has been spared to keep the record in strict ac- 
 cordance with the facts available, even when these facts are 
 such as I would willingly see erased from the record of Irish 
 history. At the same time the mass of material has been so 
 great that the chief difficulty has been to compress it within 
 the compass of a single volume. 
 
 Regarding these omissions, it may be well to mention that 
 I had originally intended to devote one chapter to the record 
 of English atrocities committed both during and after the 
 actual fighting, of which ample proof is available. This rec- 
 ord, however, has grown to such an extent that even the bar- 
 est enumeration would fill many pages, and I had, therefore, 
 to leave its publication for another occasion. The manner 
 in which the English acted in the execution of their prisoners 
 of war and their treatment of the three thousand men and 
 women who were deported to England, Wales and Scotland, 
 is in itself sufficient indication of what took place after the sur- 
 render of the Republican leaders. It requires no stretch 
 of the imagination to conjure up the picture of what the English 
 soldiery would do in a helpless city when we see the official heads 
 of the British Government acting in a manner that is now a 
 matter of authentic history. 
 
 In this connection nothing could better illustrate the feeling 
 throughout Ireland following the executions and deportations 
 than the letter addressed by the Bishop of Limerick to General 
 Maxwell. This letter was written in reply to one from General 
 Maxwell demanding that the Bishop take action against two 
 of his priests alleged by the British Government to have acted 
 in sympathy with the Republicans. The letter follows: 
 
 ASHFORD, ChARLEVILLE, 
 
 May 17, 1916. 
 Sir: — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 12th inst., 
 which has been forwarded to me here. I have read carefully your 
 
 allegations against Rev. and Rev. , but do not see in them 
 
 any justification for discipHnary action on my part. They are both 
 
XX PREFACE 
 
 excellent priests who hold strong national views, but I do not know 
 that they have violated any law, civil or ecclesiastical. In your 
 letter of 6th inst. you appeal to me to help you in the furtherance of 
 your work as military dictator of Ireland. Even if action of that 
 kind was not outside my province, the events of the past few weeks 
 would make it impossible for me to have any part in proceedings which 
 I regard as wantonly cruel and oppressive. You remember the Janje- 
 son Raid, when a number of buccaneers invaded a friendly State 
 and fought the forces of the lawful government. If ever men de- 
 served the supreme punishment, it was they. But officially and un- 
 officially the influence of the British Government was used to save 
 them, and it succeeded. You took care that no plea for mercy should 
 interpose on behalf of the poor young fellows who surrendered to you 
 in Dubhn. The first information which we got of their fate was the 
 announcement that they had been shot in cold blood. Personally, 
 I regard your action with horror, and I believe that it has outraged 
 the conscience of the country. Then the deporting by hundreds, 
 and even thousands, of poor fellows without a trial of any kind seems 
 to me an abuse of power as fatuous as it is arbitrary, and altogether 
 your regime has been one of the worst and blackest chapters in the 
 history of the misgovernment of this country. I have the honor 
 to be, sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 ►I^ Edward Thomas O'Dwyer, 
 
 rt. ^ If. T /-. Ti/r Bishop of Limerick, 
 
 To General Sm J. G. Maxwell, ^ •' 
 
 Commander-in- Chief, 
 
 The Forces in Ireland. 
 
 It was also my intention to devote some little space to the 
 consideration of the means taken by Mr. John E, Redmond 
 and the Parliamentary Party, in conjunction with Mr. Lloyd 
 George, the present British Prime Minister, to force through 
 a scheme of sham Home Rule that would have left Ireland 
 in worse plight than ever. The time may come when this 
 matter will, with its later developments, aflFord subject matter 
 for another chapter of Irish history. In this place I merely 
 propose to show what two of the most serious-minded Irish- 
 men of their day. Archbishop Walsh of Dublin and the Bishop 
 of Limerick, to whom reference has already been made, wrote 
 and said of the actions of Mr. Redmond and his colleagues. 
 
PREFACE xxi 
 
 Writing in a Dublin newspaper under date of July 25, 1916, 
 Archbishop Walsh made the following statement: 
 
 Dear Sir: — For years past I have never had a moment's doubt 
 that the Irish Home Rule cause in Parliament was being led along 
 a line that could only bring it to disaster. But it was impossible to 
 shut one's eyes to the lamentable fact that Nationahst Ireland, or, 
 to speak with accuracy, the preponderating majority of those of our 
 people who still retained faith in the efficacy of Constitutional agita- 
 tion, had become hopelessly possessed of the disastrous idea that "the 
 Party" — or to use the new-fangled term, its "leaders" — could do 
 no wrong. Fair criticism was at an end, and any one, thorough- 
 going Nationalist though he might be, who ventured to express an 
 opinion at variance with theirs became at once a fair mark for every 
 political adventurer in the country to assail with the easily handled 
 epithets of "factionist," "wrecker" or "traitor." 
 
 Having then a duty to discharge to the ecclesiastical position that 
 I have the honor to hold, I felt that I could most fittingly indicate 
 my strong view of the lamentable position of the Home Rule cause 
 by what seemed to me a sufficiently striking indication of it — ab- 
 solute abstention from everything that could be regarded as express- 
 ing concurrence in the courses that was being pursued. 
 
 The country seemed to be satisfied with that course. The Home 
 Rule Act was on the statute book; it could not be displaced or modi- 
 fied without "our" consent; the end of the war would automatically 
 bring with it the reopening of our old Irish Parhament in College 
 Green; and so on. 
 
 As the necessary result of the abandonment of the policy of Inde- 
 pendent Opposition — the only policy that can be followed with safety 
 by Irish representatives in the British House of Commons — our 
 country is now face to face with a truly awful prospect. 
 
 The Home Rule Act is still on the statute book. Will Irish National- 
 ists be any longer befooled by a repetition of the party cries, that this 
 fact makes them masters of the situation; that the act cannot be 
 modified without Nationalist consent; and that Ireland awaits only 
 the end of the war to find the portals of the Old House in College 
 Green automatically opened for the entry of the members of a Parlia- 
 ment greater than Grattan's.'^ I remain, dear sir, faithfully yours, 
 
 ►J^ William J. Walsh, 
 
 Archbishop's House, Dublin, Archbishop of Dublin. 
 
 July 25, 1916. 
 
xxii PREFACE 
 
 P.S. — I cannot close this letter without expressing my amaze- 
 ment that the country has so long allowed its attention to be distracted 
 with all sorts of side issues regarding the Irish Parliament that is to 
 be, whilst an effective bar is kept up — for this is what it comes to 
 — against all real consideration of the question whether the Par- 
 liament that is to come to us is to be a Parhament in any sense worthy 
 of the name. ►I^W. J. W. 
 
 On September 14, 1916, for reasons which will be sufficiently 
 obvious to those who have read the letter addressed to General 
 Maxwell, Bishop O'Dwyer was presented with the freedom of 
 the City of Limerick. In the course of his address on that 
 occasion, he dealt at some length with the facts of the situation 
 as he saw it. I quote the following report of his speech from 
 one of the Irish papers : 
 
 Since the war began they had heard a good deal about the Empire 
 and their place in its greatness and their duties towards it. That 
 argument did not appeal to him (Dr. O'Dwyer). An empire in any 
 true sense consisted of a number of kingdoms, each of which was a 
 unit, self-contained and self-governed, but all of which came together 
 for their mutual support and benefit. But that was not the case as 
 between England and Ireland. They had been deprived of all the 
 attributes of a kingdom. They were a subject province. They 
 were like Egypt, governed by English Satraps of an inferior kind, but 
 in no sense were they constituents of the British Empire, as Canada 
 and Australia were. Ireland was a nation, and never would be at 
 rest until the center of gravity was within herself. 
 
 They might think that prosperity would wean their people from 
 the old cause; that education would turn thoughts into other channels. 
 It was the flattering unction which tyrants were always laying to their 
 souls; but the history of the world was against them. Ireland would 
 never be content as a province. It was that national spirit that 
 would yet vindicate their country, and not the petty intrigues of 
 Parhamentary chicane. And if their representatives in Parliament 
 had relied on it, instead of putting their faith in Asquith and Lloyd 
 George and the Liberals, they would not be where they are to-day. 
 
 By way of defense, some of them had been asking recently for an 
 alternative poHcy. It was a rather cool demand. It was as if the 
 captain of a ship, after running her on the rocks, invited the passengers 
 to give their views of how the vessel should have been navigated. It 
 
PREFACE xxiii 
 
 would be much more to the purpose for him to tell them how he pro- 
 posed to get her off the rocks. Although like the mass of the people 
 of this country, on whom the confidence trick had been played so 
 disastrously, he (Dr. O'Dwyer) had no responsibihty for the present 
 deplorable condition of things, he would state liis alternative to trust- 
 ing the Party, who trusted the Liberals, and were now reduced to the 
 statesmanship of Micawber — waiting for something to turn up. 
 
 When war was being declared he would have said to the English 
 Government: "Give us our National rights; set up a genuine Parlia- 
 ment in Dublin, and we are with you; but, if you will not, then fight 
 your own battles.'* 
 
 Again, that very year, when the English Government played false, 
 he would have said to the Irish members of Parliament: "Come 
 home, shake the dust of the English House of Commons off your feet, 
 and throw yourselves on the Irish Nation." 
 
 "These are my alternatives," said his Lordship. "I think they 
 would have been effective; but I fear that they would not be in favor 
 with our present Parliamentarians. O'Connell used to say that Eng- 
 land's difficulty was Ireland's opportunity. Alliance with English 
 politicians is the alliance of the lamb with the wolf; and it is at this 
 point precisely that I differ from the present political leaders, and 
 believe that they have led, and are leading, the national cause to 
 disaster. Some people imagine that, because I condemn the policy 
 of certain politicians, I am their enemy, and even a bitter enemy. 
 In this they are wrong. I entertain no enmity to any living person; 
 but, if I am to speak at all on public questions, I must say the truth, 
 and, if I put my views strongly, it is not for the purpose of offense, 
 but because the matters at issue are of vital importance and touch 
 my deepest feelings." 
 
 These are statements which speak for themselves, and it 
 has been my endeavor, wherever possible, to allow the various 
 sides of the case to be stated by those who were themselves 
 taking a leading part in the shaping of events. 
 
 I would also like to have dealt more fully with the mag- 
 nificent work done by the women of Dublin during the rising. 
 Their deeds, however, speak louder and more eloquently than 
 any words of mine. The chapter entitled the women of the 
 NATION was written by my wife, Maire Hastings, who was 
 more intimately acquainted with those of whom she writes 
 
xxiv PREFACE 
 
 than I was. With this exception the responsibiUty for every 
 statement rests upon myself. 
 
 The chapters deahng with the actual fighting during the 
 rebellion are compiled from the statements of many of the 
 men who took an active part in the rising and who have since 
 escaped to this country. It is not at this time considered wise 
 to give their names to the public, but I wish in this place to 
 express to them my gratitude for their invaluable assistance 
 in making this portion of the work as complete as I trust the 
 reader will find it. 
 
 There is just one more point. There have been many state- 
 ments made to the effect that the rising was engineered by the 
 German Government or by German officials. The reader 
 will find this aspect of the matter fully dealt with in the chap- 
 ters that follow. I want to emphasize here that, whatever 
 may be the individual opinion of the wisdom of the Republi- 
 cans in declaring war on the British Empire, the fact must be 
 admitted that they had no option but to do so or submit to 
 disarmament, defeat, and disgrace and the surrender of all those 
 things they held in sacred trust from their fathers before them. 
 
 They took the boldest course because it was the only one 
 possible for them; they had either to fight on their own soil 
 or admit that all the hopes that Ireland held were held in vain. 
 They rose, "the young, the gifted, the gallant and the daring," 
 with pure hearts and clean hands, to kindle anew the sacred 
 fire that shall flare high in Irish hearts until the end of time. 
 With faith and joy unspeakable they went to the sacrifice, 
 for they were girded around with the magic of a great love. 
 They had *'bent low and low, and kissed the quiet feet of. 
 Kathleen, the Daughter of Houlihan;" and, when they kissed 
 them last, the feet of their love were red, for she was treading 
 the only path that leads to freedom. 
 
 But in her glory which is to come she will remember for ever 
 and ever the noble ones who rose at Resurrection time, and 
 fought to save her honor and died to save her soul. 
 
 „ XT T Francis P. Jones 
 
 HOBOKEN, N. J., 
 
 March, 1917. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Sinn Fein and Education 1 
 
 II. Sinn Fein and the Industrial Problem ... 8 
 
 m. Sinn Fein and Protection 15 
 
 IV. Sinn Fein and Commerce 21 
 
 V. The Poor Law System 27 
 
 VI. Sinn Fein and the Law Courts and Army . 34 
 
 VII. Sinn Fein and Irish Finance 40 
 
 VIII. The Council of Three Hundred 46 
 
 IX. The Home Rule Bill 52 
 
 X. Ireland at Westminster 59 
 
 XI. The Parliament Act 66 
 
 XII. Carson and his Volunteers 74 
 
 XIII. The Irish Volunteers 81 
 
 XIV. The Massacre of Bachelor's Walk 88 
 
 XV. The King's Veto 96 
 
 XVI. Under Which Flag? 104 
 
 XVII. The Recruiting Serge.int 112 
 
 XVIII. Fuel to the Flames 119 
 
 XIX. The Coalition Cabinet 126 
 
 XX. The Shadow of Conscription 133 
 
 XXI. The Gathering of the Cl.\ns 138 
 
 XXII. Righteous Men 143 
 
 XXIII. The Spirit of the Gael 150 
 
 XXIV. The Men of the People 157 
 
 XXV. The Pen and the Sword 163 
 
 XXVI. Fighting Men and Heroes 166 
 
 XXVII. The Women of the Nation 171 
 
 XXVIII. Thinkers and Men 178 
 
 XXIX. The Irish in America 184 
 
 XXX. Sir Roger Casement 19Q 
 
 XXXI. Casement in America 196 
 
 XXXII. The Plot to Kill Casement 202 
 
 XXXIII. Straws on the Stream 210 
 
 XXXIV. Planning the Rising 216 
 
 XXXV. An Irish Republic 223 
 
 XXXVI. Green, White, and Or.ajntge 226 
 
 XXXVn. What Did Redmond Mean? 232 
 
 XXV 
 
XXVI 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XXXVin. Casement and the Irish Leadebs 239 
 
 XXXIX. A Romance of the Sea 246 
 
 XL. Planning a Pogrom 253 
 
 XLI. The Fatal Order 262 
 
 XLII. The O'Rahilly's Ride 270 
 
 XLIII. The Nine Hours' Conference 278 
 
 XLIV. The Twenty-fourth of April 285 
 
 XLV. The First Blow 292 
 
 XL VI. In Stephen's Green 299 
 
 XLVn. The Attack on the Castle 306 
 
 XLVm. At Roland's Mills 312 
 
 XLIX. The Post Office Area 320 
 
 L. The Four Courts 326 
 
 LI. The British Scared 333 
 
 LII. Getting to Grips 340 
 
 LIII. The Fighting on Tuesday 348 
 
 LIV. The Battle of Mount Street Bridge .... 355 
 
 LV. The High Flame of Courage 361 
 
 LVI. The Murder of Sheehy-Skeffington .... 369 
 
 LVII. Hoping Against Hope 379 
 
 LVIII. A Grim Night Scene 388 
 
 LIX. The Triumph of Defeat 393 
 
 LX. A Dublin Rebel's Story 400 
 
 LXI. Other Provincial Centers 406 
 
 LXII. The Blood-lust of the English 412 
 
 LXni. How Casement Died 426 
 
 Appendix 435 
 
 Index 441 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 SINN FEIN MOVEMENT AND 
 THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 
 
HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN 
 
 MOVEMENT AND THE IRISH 
 
 RERELLION OF I9I6 
 
 T 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Sinn Fein and Education 
 
 HE bedrock of the Sinn Fein policy, which embraces 
 every phase of Irish national life and activity, may 
 fittingly be summed up in the following words : 
 
 National self-development secured through the recognition of the 
 duties and rights of citizenship on the part of the individual, and 
 with the aid and support of all movements originating from within 
 Ireland, which, instinct with national tradition, do not look outside 
 Ireland for the accomplishment of their aims. 
 
 This was the policy outlined at the First National Council 
 Convention, held at the Rotunda, in Dublin, on Tuesday, 
 November 28, 1905, under the presidency of Edward Marty n, 
 at which the programme of the men who later became known 
 as the Sinn Feiners was promulgated by Arthur Griffith. 
 
 Many volumes might be written if a full and complete 
 exposition of this policy were attempted, and considerable 
 space must be devoted to it in order that its significance may 
 be properly apprehended. It was, and is, a policy unique 
 in its comprehensiveness, and it is also the best possible 
 statement of the case for Ireland, since it embodies the facts 
 of and reasons for Ireland's aspirations for freedom, and at 
 the same time combines the best thought of many ages 
 with the advances made by modern political and national 
 economy. 
 
 The first basic principle of the Sinn Fein policy is that the 
 Irish are a free people, and must possess the rights of a free 
 
2 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 people until, of their own free will, they renounce them. 
 A glance at the history of Ireland shows conclusively that 
 this renunciation has never yet been made. 
 
 If we accept this principle of government only with popu- 
 lar consent, we are forced also to accept its necessary corol- 
 lary, namely, that any external power that attempts to 
 control, or does actually and by force control, the free actions 
 of a people, is a tyranny. We are also forced to accept the 
 further principle that it is the first duty of the citizen to 
 oppose and seek to end that tyranny. Such may well be 
 ^termed the Sinn Fein philosophy. 
 
 Coming now to the application of this policy to the case 
 of Ireland, the Sinn Feiners pointed out that the tyranny 
 (according to the foregoing definition) that oppressed Ireland 
 was the English Government; and it was their contention 
 that this government, to prevent its real character from being 
 apprehended by the people, forced an educational system 
 upon the people designed to make them oblivious of their 
 rights as men and their duties as citizens. 
 
 All departments of education in Ireland — primary, second- 
 ary and university, — were directly controlled by the British 
 Government through Boards consisting exclusively of its own 
 nominees. These Boards fixed the courses and text-books, 
 and clung to an educational policy adverse to the best inter- 
 ests of the Irish people in the teeth of the universal criticism 
 and opposition of Irish educationists. The language of Ire- 
 land, the history of Ireland, the economics of Ireland, the 
 industrial possibilities of Ireland, the rights of Ireland, found 
 no place in their curricula. The only primary school system in 
 Ireland that recognized Ireland was that of the Irish Christian 
 Brothers, which affected, however, but a comparatively small 
 portion of the people and received no public grant. 
 
 The primary school system controlled by Government 
 nominees was, as a system, intended to perpetuate that 
 ignorance of Ireland which the British Penal Laws had once 
 made legally compulsory. The pupil was not taught, as he is 
 in every country elsewhere, to look out upon the world from 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 3 
 
 his own country, and that his first duty is to his native land. 
 The system in force taught him that he had no country, and 
 therefore no national duty and no national standard of com- 
 parison and value. He was forced to accept instead the 
 standard of England. 
 
 The secondary system of education, controlled also by a 
 Board of British nominees, was likewise designed to prevent 
 the higher intelligence of Ireland from performing its duty 
 to the Irish race and state. In other countries secondary 
 education supplies the leaders in industry and commerce. 
 Its real object is to fit persons of average ability to play that 
 part in the national economy of their own country for which 
 they have special aptitude. From the national standpoint, 
 education is an investment on which the pupil is later to 
 pay interest by contributing his efforts towards the economic 
 development of his country. But vocational training to fit 
 young Irishmen to play their part in the development of their 
 own country was unknown. Everything that might awaken 
 their interest in Ireland was rigidly barred. British policy 
 demanded that their thoughts be turned towards England, 
 and that their horizon be an English one. In Ireland second- 
 ary education was so framed as to cause an aversion from 
 and a contempt for "trade" in the heads of young Irishmen, 
 and to fix their eyes, like the fool's, on the ends of the earth. 
 The system in vogue drew away from industrial pursuits 
 those who were best fitted for them, and sent them to be 
 Civil Servants in England, or to swell the ranks of struggling 
 clerkdom in Ireland. An industrial Ireland might prove a 
 rival of England. Although Ireland was scandalously over- 
 taxed, as was attested by successive English Commissions; 
 although the "equivalent grant" (which entitled Ireland to 
 an increased educational appropriation in the same ratio as 
 English and Scottish appropriations for education were in- 
 creased) was consistently withheld, England strained every 
 effort to cultivate the fiction that the Irish owed their educa- 
 tion to a great act of grace on the part of the English people. 
 The fact was that Ireland was paying an exorbitant price for 
 
4 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 an education that rendered her sons useless at home. And, 
 instead of inculcating a sense of loyalty towards her and an 
 appreciation of her sacrifices, this education was deliberately 
 planned to unfit young Irishmen to repay their debt to their 
 own country, which was, however, forced to pay dearly for 
 her own degradation. 
 
 When England appointed foreigners (as she invariably did) 
 to important posts in Ireland, her excuse w^as that no Irish- 
 man knew enough of that particular department of the 
 business of his own country to qualify him for the post. 
 Thus, the Department of Agriculture constantly justified its 
 wholesale importations of foreigners on the ground that 
 secondary education in Ireland produced no men qualified 
 for the post. One British Government Department excused 
 itself by casting the blame on another. 
 
 It is, therefore, not surprising that university education in 
 Ireland was regarded by the "classes" as a means of washing 
 away the original sin of Irish birth. It was based on the 
 inversion of Aristotle's dictum, as indeed the three systems of 
 education in Ireland were. The young men who went to 
 Trinity College were told by Aristotle that the end of educa- 
 tion is to make men patriots, and by the professors of Trinity 
 that Aristotle was not to be taken literally in Ireland. Uni- 
 versity education in Ireland encumbered the intellect by 
 imparting knowledge which led and pointed nowhere; it 
 chilled the imagination and enthusiasm by cutting the young 
 Irishman away from his traditions; by denying him a country, 
 it debased his soul, while it enervated his body by denying 
 him physical culture. If a comparison be required, imagine 
 what would happen if everything that breathed of American 
 history, of the men and the women who made America the 
 great nation she is to-day, of America's fight for freedom, and 
 of America's men of literature, science, and art, were taken 
 away from the schoolbooks of the American nation, and the 
 heroic tales and deeds of some other nation substituted in its 
 place! If this were done, how many generations would elapse 
 before the extinction of that spirit of patriotism and devotion. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 5 
 
 of America first and last and all the time, in short, of Sinn 
 Fein, which is to-day so distinguishing a feature of the people 
 of this country? 
 
 Yet the system outlined above is the one on which the 
 education of the children of Ireland has proceeded during the 
 three-quarters of a century that has elapsed since education 
 was a felony. The fact that even this eviscerated system was 
 won only as the result of prolonged and bitter agitation is a 
 sufficient commentary on English rule. This is a system 
 which, as Aristotle says, ruins the individual and eventually 
 the nation. If he had lived in Ireland, Aristotle would have 
 been a seditious person in the eyes of the British Govern- 
 ment, which now makes him subserve its aims by standing 
 him on his head. Just as we learn our duty to society around 
 us through the medium of the family, our obligations as 
 citizens teach us our duties as men. Yet the English believe 
 that, by teaching disloyalty and treachery to motherland, 
 they can exact from Ireland a loyalty for an Empire which, 
 in so far as it is not merely mythical for Irishmen, stands in 
 their eyes as the agent of monstrous oppression, unparalleled 
 cruelty, and savage injustice and as the mouthpiece of im- 
 placable hatred for everything pertaining to the Gael. Peace 
 between the islands through such a policy can be won only 
 at the price of the entire destruction of Gaelic civilization 
 and all who uphold it. If empires are entitled to wreak such 
 vengeance on opponents of their policy, let it at least be so 
 stated frankly, and let us at least be rid of the hypocrisy with 
 w^hich the policy is now disguised. 
 
 The problem before the Sinn Feiners was how to remedy 
 this state of affairs in education. They took the stand that, 
 if the control of primary education was not voluntarily trans- 
 ferred from the British Government to the Irish people, it 
 was the duty of the Irish people to take over the primary 
 education system themselves. It was pointed out that they 
 could do this in the first place by transferring, where possible, 
 the pupils of the misnamed "National" Schools to the 
 schools of the Irish Christian Brothers, and, where this was 
 
6 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 not practicable, by founding voluntary schools, sustained in 
 part by the contributions of the parents and in part from 
 a National Education Fund subscribed to annually by the 
 Irish people throughout the world. That this was not im- 
 possible, was shown by the fact that Hungary had done it 
 forty years before, and that Poland had followed suit. The 
 result was shown in the manner in which Hungary threw off 
 the Austrian chain, and the manner in which Poland, prior 
 to the outbreak of the war, was fast loosening the hold of the 
 Russian autocracy on its national life. 
 
 At the same time it was not forgotten that the Irish people 
 could not afford to withdraw in a body their school children 
 from the "National" Schools, for they would not have had 
 sufficient funds in hand to cope with the educational crisis 
 thus created. The plan that was formulated, and that was 
 carried out in part and would have been carried to a finish 
 had not the war intervened, was more practicable. This plan 
 provided for a period of educating public opinion on the vital 
 importance of the matter, of preparation for coping with the 
 demand for a really national system of education. At the 
 end of this period, should control of the primary system still 
 be withheld, then the Sinn Feiners would order a school 
 strike, as the Nationalists of Poland had done, and replace 
 the old system by one that would teach the Irish child to 
 glory in his country and desire to serve her. 
 
 As to the Irishing of the secondary system, the Sinn Feiners 
 depended with confidence on the sympathy and support of 
 the clergy and especially on the Irish Christian Brothers, who 
 were expected to ignore the Intermediate Board and substitute 
 a system devised by themselves in conjunction with the 
 Gaelic League and Irish educationists. The Irish Christian 
 Brothers had been the pioneers in primary education from 
 the moment when teaching in Ireland ceased to be illegal. 
 There was no doubt, therefore, that they would be ready to 
 gain an additional distinction by pioneering a secondary sys- 
 tem of education such as Ireland needed. It was equally 
 certain that the Irish nation, coming into the dawn of a new 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 7 
 
 life, would see to it that they did not suffer as a consequence 
 of their patriotism. 
 
 As to the university system two solutions were offered. 
 One was the nationalizing of Trinity College, the other the 
 establishment of a national university by the Irish people. 
 By a national university was meant a democratic university, 
 to whose halls wealth would not be the only passport. The 
 Sinn Feiners recognized the fact that, if they decided on the 
 foundation of an Irish university (as they eventually did 
 decide) on the same lines as that founded by the patriots of 
 Hungary, they would have to do as the Hungarians did, and 
 largely support it out of endowments made by their sym- 
 pathizers. They believed sufficiently in the patriotism of 
 Irishmen abroad to know that they would help to endow such 
 a university. They knew that within Ireland they would 
 secure endowments from Irishmen and groups of Irishmen. 
 The fact that the Irish National University on the lines 
 suggested was soon after endowed and established, and that 
 it has begun to compete successfully with the best seats of 
 learning in Europe, is the best possible proof of the soundness 
 of this portion of the Sinn Fein policy. It is not perhaps 
 without significance that Professor Eoin MacNeill was a 
 member of the university, and that among his colleagues 
 was Thomas MacDonagh, one of the seven martyred signers 
 of the Irish Declaration of Independence. 
 
 The Sinn Fein leaders recognized that the only way of 
 dealing with this problem was through the Irish people them- 
 selves, and that the replacing of the denationalizing system 
 of education in Ireland by a nationalizing system rested with 
 the men and women of Ireland, and not with the British 
 Government. If it was worth having, it was worth making 
 sacrifices to obtain, and they were confident that, if the same 
 spirit which prevailed in Hungary, Finland, and Poland — the 
 spirit of self-reliance — were evoked in Ireland, they could 
 not fail. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Sinn Fein and the Industrial Problem 
 
 NEXT in order to the education question in Ireland 
 came the problem of the industries, and the greatest 
 of these was, and still should be, farming. A glance 
 at the economic history of Ireland, however, revealed the 
 fact that farming in Ireland was rapidly resolving itself into 
 the cattle trade — a condition in which most people acquiesced 
 unthinkingly, not apparently being aware that around the 
 industrial situation centers fifty per cent of the Irish "ques- 
 tion." While volumes might be written on this phase of the 
 subject alone, it is not the intention here to do more than to 
 enter into a brief exposition of the matter and the manner in 
 which the Sinn Feiners handled it. 
 
 The tilled land in Ireland had decreased by one-fourth 
 during the previous generation. This simple statement has a 
 terrible bearing on recent history. Over a million acres that 
 were crop-bearing in 1871 had been converted into grazing 
 ground before 1905, and the cattle trade that had absorbed 
 this was threatened with destruction by the competition of 
 the Argentine and Canada. In this extremity we find, in 
 the period just before the outbreak of the war. County 
 Councils in Ireland devoting some of their funds to the 
 encouragement of cattle raising, and the Royal Dublin Society 
 allocating funds for the same purpose. It was not difficult 
 to understand the actions of the Royal Dublin Society — an 
 institution which, since the extinction of the Irish Parliament, 
 has been one of the agencies through which the British Gov- 
 ernment works out its will in Ireland. Since the time when 
 Lord Carlisle, on behalf of the British Government, issued an 
 order to discourage tillage in Ireland, the Royal Dublin 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 9 
 
 Society had done yeoman service in helping to sweep the 
 people from the soil. 
 
 The perverted educational system may account for the 
 action of the County Councils. The fact which apparently 
 had been forgotten, but which the Sinn Feiners again forced 
 into the domain of practical politics, was that, if the soil of 
 Ireland was again to be brought under cultivation — and it 
 was vital that this should be done — it was necessary that 
 the County Councils, which were then by premiums encourag- 
 ing grazing, should withdraw these premiums and devote 
 them to tillage-farming. The Sinn Feiners held that an 
 agricultural and manufacturing union was necessary in the 
 country's interest — a union of manufacturers and farmers, 
 classes which, for some mysterious reason, persisted in being 
 unfriendly to each other and failed to reahze their inter- 
 dependence. 
 
 The farmer was indifferent towards the industrial revival, 
 failing to realize the increased market an Ireland with a 
 manufacturing arm meant to the agriculturist; and the 
 manufacturer was indifferent to the agricultural question, 
 failing to see that an extension of agriculture — the extension 
 of tillage — meant the extension of the market for his produce. 
 Their failure to grasp this rudimentary principle of political 
 economy is in itself a sufficiently damning indictment of the 
 Irish educational system. It was and continued to be one 
 of the worst anomalies in Ireland that the manufacturing 
 population should be largely subsisting on foreign food. 
 There is no genuine reason for this state of affairs in a country 
 capable of feeding at least fifteen times its present population. 
 It is due to the ignorance of elementary economics and to the 
 lack of a truly Irish Board of Agriculture to give the necessary 
 guidance and lead. It came as a happy omen at the opening 
 of the Sinn Fein campaign that the industrial conference in 
 Cork had just declared with practical unanimity against the 
 British-made economic policy which had been thrust upon 
 the country to its commercial injury. Lest there be those 
 who are under the impression that this condition of economic 
 
10 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 affairs and the evils that arose out of them be laid unjustly 
 at the door of the British Government, it is only necessary to 
 refer them to any history of Ireland, where they will read the 
 many British statutes that were made for the express and 
 declared purpose of crippling and putting out of existence 
 every vestige of industry in Ireland, and turning the entire 
 country into one huge cattle ranch. England's gain from this 
 policy is very evident, since, as a manufacturing country, her 
 chief desire is to crush industrial rivals and to obtain an 
 abundance of cheap food. 
 
 The anglicization of the Irish mind is best exhibited in its 
 attitude towards economics. The system of economics which 
 Adam Smith and his successors had invented for the purpose 
 of obtaining control of the world's markets for England was 
 accepted by the Irish people, prior to the advent of Sinn 
 Fein, as the quintessence of wisdom. It mattered not that 
 all Europe had rejected it — that the United States of 
 America, the most progressive country in the world, had 
 also definitely rejected it. England still held on, and does 
 so to the present day, and its application is responsible for 
 much of the current social misery and unrest. iVnd because 
 England held on, Ireland, under the British system of educa- 
 tion, perforce accepted the " as-good-and-as-cheap " shibboleth 
 as a gospel. That, said the Sinn Feiners, with the rest of the 
 similar impositions and humbug of the system, would have 
 to be bundled out of the country. 
 
 Arthur Griflfith, the founder and expounder of the Sinn Fein 
 policy, was, in economics, largely the follower of the man 
 who was responsible for the formation of the mighty con- 
 federation which was fast becoming England's serious rival 
 for the trade supremacy of the world — Germany. The 
 name of Frederick List is a famous one throughout the 
 civilized world, and his works are text-books of economic 
 science outside Ireland. In Ireland, before the rise of the 
 Sinn Fein movement, his works were unheard of and his name 
 unknown. Germany had hailed List as the Preserver of the 
 Fatherland, and Louis Kossuth bestowed on him the title of 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 11 
 
 the Economic Father of the Nations. The Sinn Feiners 
 believed there was room for him also in Ireland and in her 
 educational system. 
 
 Following List, the Sinn Feiners held that the Irish people 
 should reject that so-called political economy which neither 
 recognized the principle of nationality nor took into con- 
 sideration the satisfaction of its interests; which regarded 
 chiefly the mere exchangeable value of things without taking 
 into consideration the mental and political, the present and 
 the future interests and the productive powers of the nation; 
 which ignored the nature and character of social labor and 
 the operation of the union of powers in their higher conse- 
 quences, and considered private industry only as it would 
 develop itself under a free interchange with the whole human 
 race were it not divided into separate nations. They accepted, 
 with List, the theory that between the individual and hu- 
 manity stands, and must continue to stand, one great fact. 
 This fact is the Nation, with its special language and litera- 
 ture, with its peculiar origin and history, with its special 
 manners and customs, laws and institutions, with the claims 
 of all these for existence, independence, perfection, and con- 
 tinuance for the future, and with its separate territory; a 
 society which, united by a thousand ties of mind and interests, 
 forms one independent whole, which recognizes the law of 
 right for and within itself, which in its united character is 
 distinct from other societies of a similar kind, and conse- 
 quently can only, under the existing conditions of the world, 
 maintain self-existence and independence by its own power 
 and resources. As the individual obtains mental culture, 
 power of production, security and prosperity, chiefly by means 
 of the nation and in the nation, so is the civilization of the 
 human race only conceivable and possible by means of the 
 civilization and development of individual nations. But, as 
 there are among men infinite differences in condition and 
 circumstance, so there are in nations. Some are strong, some 
 are weak, some are highly civilized, some are half civilized; 
 but in all states, as in the unit, the impulse of self-preservation 
 
12 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 and the desire for improvement exist in a greater or smaller 
 degree. 
 
 The Sinn Feiners held it the task of national politics to 
 insure existence and continuance to the nation, to make the 
 weak strong and the civiUzed more civilized. They held it 
 the task of national economics to accomplish the economic 
 development of the nation, and fit it for admission into the 
 one universal society of the future. They took as their 
 definition of the normal nation, such as they desired to make 
 Ireland, a nation possessing a common language and hterature, 
 a territory endowed with manifold natural resources, with 
 convenient frontiers and a numerous population; a nation 
 where agriculture, manufactures, commerce and navigation 
 would all be developed proportionately, and where arts and 
 sciences, educational establishments, and universal culture 
 would have an equal footing with material production. Its 
 constitution, laws, and institutions would afford to its citizens 
 a high degree of security and liberty, and would promote 
 religion, morality, and prosperity. It must possess sufficient 
 power to defend its independence and to promote its foreign 
 commerce. They held that in the economy of Adam Smith, 
 and particularly as it was applied to Ireland, there was no 
 place for the soul of a nation; to him the associations of the 
 past possessed no value. In the economy of List the nation 
 not only possessed a place, but the highest place, and that 
 is why it appealed so powerfully to the leaders of the Sinn 
 Fein movement. 
 
 In Ireland, on the other hand, the people had been taught 
 by British Education Boards and British officials that the 
 destiny of Ireland was to be the fruitful mother of flocks and 
 herds, and act as a handmaid of England; that it was not 
 necessary for the Irish people to pay attention to their 
 manufacturing arm, since their agricultural arm was all- 
 sufficient. This, said the Sinn Feiners, was a fallacy that 
 dissolved before reflection; but it was a fallacy that had 
 passed for truth in Ireland. They replied that a nation 
 could not promote and further its civiHzation, its prosperity. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 13 
 
 and its social progress by exchanging agricultural products for 
 manufactured goods as efficiently as by establishing a manu- 
 facturing power of its own. A merely agricultural nation 
 could never develop to any extent a home or a foreign com- 
 merce, with inland means of transport and foreign navigation, 
 increase its population in due proportion to their well-being, 
 or make notable progress in its moral, intellectual, social, and 
 political development: it would never acquire important 
 political power, or be placed in a position to influence the 
 civilization and progress of less advanced nations. A mere 
 agricultural state was infinitely less powerful than an agricul- 
 tural manufacturing state. The former was always economi- 
 cally and politically dependent on those foreign nations which 
 took from it agricultural products in exchange for manu- 
 factured articles. It could not determine how much it should 
 produce, but would have to wait and see how much others 
 would buy from it. The agricultural manufacturing states, 
 on the contrary, could produce for themselves large quantities 
 of raw materials and provisions, and supply merely the 
 deficiency from importation. The purely agricultural nations 
 were thus dependent for the power of effecting sales on the 
 chances of a more or less bountiful harvest in the agricultural 
 manufacturing nations. They had, moreover, to compete in 
 their sales with other purely agricultural nations, whereby 
 the power of sale in itself was rendered uncertain. An 
 agricultural nation was as a man with one arm who made use 
 of an arm belonging to another person, but could not, of 
 course, be sure of having it always available. An agricul- 
 tural manufacturing nation was a man who had two arms of 
 his own always at his own disposal. 
 
 The Sinn Feiners appealed to the Irish people to get rid of 
 the fallacious idea that the agricultural and manufacturing 
 interests were opposed. They declared they were necessary 
 one to the other, and that one could not be injured without 
 the other suffering hurt. They asked the Irish people to 
 clear their minds of the pernicious idea that they were not 
 entitled or called upon to give preferential aid to the manu- 
 
14 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 facturing industries of their own country. They declared 
 that, if that idea were not met and combated, there would 
 be an end to all hope of the development of an Irish manu- 
 facturing arm, and of the hope of Ireland coming into the 
 birthright of her nationality. They told the people that only 
 in the soil of general prosperity does the national spirit strike 
 its root, produce fine blossoms and rich fruit; that only from 
 the unity of material interests does mental power arise, and 
 again from both of them national power. 
 
 Therefore, they made it their declaration that it was the 
 policy of the Sinn Fein National Council to bring about that 
 unity of material interests which produces national strength, 
 to convince the manufacturer that every improvement in 
 agriculture would increase his home market, and the agricul- 
 turist that every extension of the manufacturing industry 
 would promote his welfare. In short, to convince both that 
 there could be no permanent prosperity for either unless the 
 nation as a whole was prosperous. The logical outcome of 
 this teaching was that the Irish people must offer their 
 producers protection where protection was necessary. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Sinn Fein and Protection 
 
 PROTECTION, as defined by the Sinn Feiners, did 
 not mean the exclusion of foreign competition; it 
 meant rendering the native manufacturer equal to 
 meeting foreign competition. They did not advise that the 
 Irish people should pay a higher profit to any Irish manu- 
 facturer, but that they should not stand by and see him 
 crushed by mere weight of foreign capital. They took the 
 stand that, if an Irish manufacturer could not produce an 
 article as cheaply as an English or other foreign manufacturer 
 only because his foreign competitor had at present larger 
 resources at his disposal, it was the first duty of the Irish 
 nation to accord protection to that Irish manufacturer. If, 
 on the other hand, an Irish manufacturer could produce as 
 cheaply, but charged an enhanced price, that man deserved 
 no support; he was, on the contrary, to be branded as a 
 swindler. 
 
 It was held to be the duty of the Irish public bodies, in 
 whose hands the expenditure of $20,000,000 annually was 
 placed, to pay an enhanced price for Irish-manufactured 
 articles, when the manufacturers were able to show that they 
 could not produce them at the lesser price; that was Protec- 
 tion. This was also the duty of the individual. But it was 
 contrary to the principle of Protection, and to the interests 
 of the country, that a manufacturer in Ireland who could 
 produce as cheaply as his foreign competitor should receive 
 an enhanced price. The movement was one designed pri- 
 marily to give back to Ireland her manufacturing arm, not 
 to make fortunes for dishonest manufacturers. The ques- 
 tion as to the manner in which this was to be accom- 
 plished was considered very carefully and thoroughly by the 
 
16 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Sinn Fein leaders, and the plan eventually decided on was 
 one that proved to be remarkably fruitful of results, and 
 would, in the fullness of time, have achieved complete success 
 had the war not intervened. 
 
 It was decided that the solution of the problem lay primarily 
 with the individual, since the Irish people were powerless to 
 influence the general administration of their country; secondly, 
 through the County, Urban, and District Councils and Poor 
 Law Guardians; thirdly, by endeavoring to secure control 
 of the inefficient bodies known as Harbor Commissioners; 
 fourthly, by stimulating the Irish manufacturers and the 
 Irish people to industrial enterprise; and, fifthly, by inviting 
 Irish-American capital to aid in Irish development, on a 
 purely commercial basis. 
 
 In the first place it was pointed out to every individual 
 that, except where fraud was attempted, it was his or her 
 duty to pay, if necessary, an enhanced price for Irish goods, 
 and to use, wherever possible, none but Irish goods. As to 
 the Irish elective bodies, which controlled the expenditure of 
 Irish local taxation, their duty lay along the same lines as 
 that of the individual. The duty of the Irish harbor bodies 
 was to arrange the incidence of port dues so that they should 
 fall most heavily on manufactured goods entering the country, 
 and to keep and publish a table of all goods imported and 
 to whom consigned. In all these respects the Irish Harbor 
 Boards had hitherto failed. These boards were in most 
 cases composed of English shipping representatives and Irish 
 importers of foreign goods, whose interests were diametrically 
 opposed to the general interests of the Irish nation. A short 
 time before the promulgation of the Sinn Fein policy, and 
 only after considerable agitation, the Dublin Port and Docks 
 Board had been driven to publish an annual return of the 
 foreign goods imported into the capital of Ireland by sea, 
 and the return had appalled all who read it. The Cork and 
 other Harbor Boards refused to follow the example of Dublin, 
 thus publicly proclaiming themselves tools of England in her 
 frantic efforts to conceal the true economic condition of 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 17 
 
 Ireland from the Irish people. The Sinn Feiners submitted 
 the question to the people, and asked them if they were 
 going to tolerate this anti-Irish action of supposedly Irish 
 Boards. They said that the Irish people had a right to know 
 what foreign goods were being imported into every part of 
 Ireland, and who it was that received them. In other words, 
 they wanted to know what it was open to every citizen of a 
 free country to know, but the information was insolently 
 refused them by Boards of English nominees. The Sinn 
 Feiners demanded that the port taxation be removed from 
 raw materials and placed on manufactured goods. They 
 were told that this taxation was so small as to be inappre- 
 ciable. Small it certainly was, but not inappreciable. This 
 was well demonstrated when it was sought to have the 
 incidence of port taxation altered in Dublin, and the Port 
 and Docks Board, so far from considering the matter inap- 
 preciable or insignificant, fought as fiercely as ever it fought 
 to prevent increased dues being placed upon manufactured 
 goods brought into the port of Dublin. This increase would 
 have been small indeed, but it would have given to Ireland 
 the principle of protection, and that was the end sought. 
 
 Further, the Sinn Feiners held that the Irish Harbor Boards 
 must be manned for Ireland by men who desired to benefit 
 Ireland, not by shipping agents of English firms and im- 
 porters; that a general scheme of port taxation would have 
 to be adopted throwing the bulk of the port dues on manu- 
 factured goods, and a perfect tally kept at all Irish ports 
 of such goods, whence they came and to whom they were 
 consigned, and that this tally should be published each 
 month. They declared that, once this was done, the least 
 imaginative of the people would be forced to realize what 
 was taking place in the country industrially. This realization 
 would doubtless spur them to support their own industries, 
 and would possibly induce them to invest their earnings in 
 the industrial enterprises of their own country. 
 
 Regarding the introduction of foreign capital, it is scarcely 
 necessary to state that the Sinn Feiners did not want British 
 
18 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 capital, which would forge a new link in the chain binding 
 them to England. What they did ask for was American and 
 Irish-American capital. They were careful to point out that 
 they did not ask, nor would they accept, charity. They 
 declared that they could show the investor that Ireland was 
 a good field for his money, and that Ireland was something 
 more than a rich and unexploited field. As briefly as possible, 
 the proposal was as follows: That the General Council of the 
 Councils should have the country surveyed with a view to 
 the profitable development of its natural resources, and, 
 having had the cost and return estimated as accurately as 
 possible, should then invite the foreign investor to look into 
 the matter. It was known that Ireland could offer 174,000,- 
 000 tons of coal, the finest fuel in Europe and practically 
 untouched, and an inexhaustible supply of peat to operate 
 the factories, and that the investors would have at their 
 disposal all the facilities possessed by the County Councils 
 and Rural Councils of Ireland, and the assistance and good- 
 will of the Irish people in turning Irish coal and peat into 
 gold. The investors would offer in return profitable employ- 
 ment to a large number of the Irish people, and an enormous 
 increase of strength socially, industrially, and politically. 
 
 The Protection plank in the Sinn Fein platform was, need- 
 less to say, one that would require many years to work out. 
 It was manifest, on the face of it, that the entire programme 
 was the work for a generation. Yet the manner in which 
 the industrial policy gained root and spread throughout the 
 country soon made it the object of the attention of the 
 powers that were opposed to the manufacturing interests of 
 Ireland. Needless to say, the opposition that developed was 
 not altogether on the surface, but it was not long, neverthe- 
 less, in making itself felt. 
 
 The duty of the individual, placed first by the Sinn Feiners, 
 was the first that brought results. Throughout the country 
 the policy of asking for and getting goods of Irish manu- 
 facture was acted upon by the people. It was suddenly 
 discovered that quite a number of articles manufactured at 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 19 
 
 home were as good and even better than the foreign-made 
 article. The main difference was that the foreign-made arti- 
 cle was as a rule widely advertised, while the Irish product 
 was not, the reason being not far to seek. The Sinn Fein 
 policy had the effect of supplying the advertisement for the 
 Irish product, with the result that there was an immediate 
 increase in the sales of Irish-manufactured goods. This, as a 
 natural consequence, resulted in a decrease in the sale of the 
 foreign article, which, in its turn, had the effect of arousing 
 the opposition of English manufacturers. 
 
 As a concrete instance, mention may be made of the Irish 
 tobacco industry. The statement made by the Sinn Feiners 
 that there was room for the establishment of an Irish tobacco 
 industry in Ireland was made the object of a great deal of 
 cheap wit in the British press. Yet, under the inspiration of 
 the Sinn Fein policy, the tobacco industry not only became 
 an established fact, but, in the course of a few years, became 
 a serious rival to the tobacco trust in England — so far, that 
 is, as the sale of cigarettes, pipe tobacco, and cigars in Ireland 
 was concerned. It must be admitted that the smoking of 
 the Irish tobacco at the outset was no slight test of patriotism, 
 but, with increased experience in the preparation and curing 
 of the dried leaf, it was not long before the Irish article be- 
 came a genuine pleasure. In addition to this, Irish tobacco 
 possesses a flavor that is peculiar to itself, and which soon 
 became a habit with smokers. 
 
 Foreign opposition was not slow in developing, with the 
 result that efforts were made to delude the Irish public into 
 purchasing foreign goods as Irish. Irish names were attached 
 to goods that never saw Ireland until they were brought into 
 the country ready for sale. The Sinn Feiners discovered the 
 fraud, and countered by the establishment of the Irish trade- 
 mark. A sign peculiar to Ireland was agreed upon, namely 
 a scroll device representing the legendary Collar of Malachi, 
 surrounded by the words, Deantha i nEirinn (Made in Ire- 
 land). The use of this sign was permitted to manufacturers 
 who could show that their goods were made in the country, 
 
20 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 and every infringement was prosecuted under the British 
 Trades Mark Law, the Irish people being for once able to 
 use British law to their own advantage. The Irish trademark 
 became the standard of value in Ireland, and the policy of 
 the Sinn Feiners was soon on the way to restore to Ireland 
 her lost manufacturing arm. 
 
 There was one other thing that this phase of the movement 
 accomplished. It brought home to many young Irish men 
 and women the lesson of practical patriotism and paved the 
 way for a further advance. It taught them to look into the 
 possibilities of Ireland from more than one point of view; it 
 demonstrated the fact that they had a country to call their 
 own, a country that could and should become something 
 more than a cattle ranch or an interesting stopping-off place 
 for the tourist. Little by little it turned their minds to the 
 fact that Ireland possessed vast resources of mineral wealth 
 under the earth and unique facilities for the development of 
 industries over it. It imbued them with the pride that comes 
 from the knowledge that the country of one's nativity is one 
 that has by right a place in the world, and it fired their 
 patriotic imagination in a manner that rendered the soil 
 fertile for the events that were to leave a lasting mark on 
 the history of the days already casting their lengthening 
 shadows over the land. 
 
 The lesson that was borne in upon the people of Ireland at 
 this time may well be summed up in the words of List. 
 "Let us only have courage," he wrote, **to believe in a great 
 national future, and, in that belief, march onward. x\bove 
 all, let us have national spirit enough at once to plant and 
 protect that tree which will yield its richest fruits in the 
 future generation. First, let us gain possession of the home 
 market, so far at least as respects articles of general necessity, 
 and, secondly, let us try to procure the goods of other coun- 
 tries and pay for them with our own manufactured goods." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Sinn Fein and Commerce 
 
 PRACTICALLY speaking, Ireland had no mercantile ma- 
 rine. A few coasting steamers and cross-channel vessels 
 and three small lines of steamers running to Conti- 
 nental ports were all that was left of the commercial fleet 
 of Ireland, which was at one time among the greatest in 
 the world. Between the end of the sixteenth century and 
 1777 it dwindled as the consequence of the laws directed 
 against it by England, until at the latter date it was of no 
 importance. The Volunteer movement of 1780, by compelling 
 England to cancel all her restrictive laws on Irish commerce 
 and shipping, brought again into existence a powerful Irish 
 mercantile marine, and its growth was so rapid that within 
 five years (in 1785) Tucker, the well-known Dean of Glouces- 
 ter, counseled English shipowners to fit out their vessels under 
 the Irish national flag, since the Irish marine was ousting the 
 English from the ports of Europe. 
 
 Sixty years prior to 1905 Germany had little or no mer- 
 cantile marine, and shipped its goods in foreign bottoms. 
 Frederick List urged upon his countrymen that it was vital 
 they should possess a marine of their own, and laid the 
 foundation of the magnificent marine which Germany has 
 to-day. The importance of a mercantile marine cannot be 
 minimized. Without the carrying trade England would 
 not possess a tithe of her present commercial importance, and 
 Norway would be a negligible factor in the economic life of 
 the world. Norway, with a population of less than half of 
 Ireland's, had in 1905 a mercantile marine of 1,500,000 tons. 
 Belgium, with a coast line scarcely as long as that of Dublin, 
 was, prior to the war, building up a great merchant navy. 
 At the present time (1917) the want of a mercantile navy in 
 
22 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 the United States is being keenly felt. Through the lack of 
 a mercantile marine, Ireland was debarred from its best 
 markets, deprived of its share in the miiversal carrying trade, 
 and was out of touch with the commercial centers of the 
 world. 
 
 What was Ireland's share .f^ Let us say one per cent, which 
 is very low considering the ideal situation enjoyed by Ireland 
 for foreign trade. The countries from which Ireland im- 
 ported, outside of England, comprised the Republics of the 
 United States, Argentina, and Chili, and the Dominion of 
 Canada, in America; in the east, India, Australia, and Japan; 
 and within Europe, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, 
 Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Italy, Austro-Hungary, and 
 Russia. The total annual imports of these countries repre- 
 sented $10,000,000,000. One per cent of that trade would 
 mean an increased revenue for Ireland of $100,000,000 
 annually. 
 
 Was it not then, asked the Sinn Feiners, worth while to 
 start in to build an Irish mercantile marine? Ireland had 
 one of the greatest ship-building plants in the world. She 
 had the best and safest harbors, and enjoyed an ideal situation 
 at the very gate leading to the most progressive countries in 
 Europe. Ireland had an abundance of the material out of 
 which sailors are made, and was the natural terminal of a 
 trans-Atlantic service. Ireland had also $250,000,000 lying 
 idle in its banks. Let Ireland cultivate the spirit and initia- 
 tive of a free people; she had been content long enough to 
 depend on and look to a foreign Parliament, whereas other 
 nations looked to and trusted in themselves. The great 
 marine of Norway had been built up by its own people. 
 There was scarcely a man in the towns and cities of Norway 
 who was not a part owner of a ship. Through the patriotism 
 of her people, Norway had built up a great commercial navy, 
 whose flag was familiar in every port of the world. Nearer 
 home to Ireland was Scotland, and Scotland also possessed a 
 very fine marine. There were Scottish "tramp" steamers to 
 be met with in all parts of the world, but no one ever saw an 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 23 
 
 Irish "tramp" steamer. The Sinn Feiners asked if there 
 were any Irish shipowners with enough enterprise to fit out 
 "tramp" steamers, and said that, if there were, they would 
 not benefit themselves alone, but their country also. They 
 pointed out that a "tramp" line between Ireland and South 
 America, for instance, and calling at French, Spanish, and 
 other ports en route, could not fail to pay its owners, whilst 
 it would open up for Ireland a lucrative trade and lower in 
 Ireland itself the prices of goods, non-competing with Irish 
 manufacture, which were being imported through England. 
 "At the present time," said the Sinn Fein leaders, "Ireland 
 has little trade with any outside country, not because she 
 does not produce many things which the other countries 
 want and buy, but because England blocks the way with her 
 middleman's profit." They declared that, so long as Ireland 
 had no mercantile marine of her own and no consular repre- 
 sentation abroad, this must of necessity continue to remain 
 the case. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to point out that the British Con- 
 sular Service has always been, and still is, run solely and 
 absolutely in the interests of Britain. Ireland, however, is 
 taxed to pay for its upkeep. The British Consul announces 
 on his brass doorplate that he represents the United Kingdom 
 of Great Britain and Ireland. The proportion in which he 
 represents Great Britain and Ireland is shown in the export 
 figures for the year 1904, the year previous to the proclamation 
 of the Sinn Fein policy in Dublin. In that year the "United 
 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" exported over 
 $15,300,000,000 worth of goods; of that total Great Britain 
 exported $15,295,000,000 and Ireland the remaining $5,000,000 
 worth. In other words, of the exports of the "United King- 
 dom of Great Britain and Ireland" Britain claimed 99fJ per 
 cent, and Ireland the remaining -jV of one per cent. This 
 result, said the Sinn Feiners, exhibited equally the benefit 
 which Ireland derived from her connection with Great Britain 
 and the efficacy of the consular service — for Great Britain. 
 They stated that the remedy for this state of affairs was for 
 
24 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Ireland to appoint her own consuls, to send Irishmen to act 
 as consuls in foreign countries, instead of sending them to 
 "orate" in the British Parliament. A portion of the $125,000, 
 that Ireland then subscribed annually to keep eighty Irishmen 
 in London, would be better employed in keeping about half 
 that number of Irishmen stationed in the capitals and com- 
 mercial centers of foreign countries, where a market might 
 be found for Irish products. 
 
 It was pointed out that Argentina procured one-third of her 
 total imports from Great Britain; North America one-fifth; 
 Spain, Russia, and Japan one-fifth each; Scandinavia one- 
 fourth; Holland one-fourth; Hungary one-tweKth; Belgium 
 one-twelfth; Australia one-third; and South Africa and India 
 two-thirds. To assist Great Britain in securing so much 
 trade, the Irish people imported from these countries and 
 consumed millions of dollars' worth of their goods; and, as 
 all these goods were procured through the medium of England, 
 Ireland had in every case to pay a middleman's profit. The 
 Sinn Feiners proposed that, in return for Irish consumption 
 of the goods of the countries named, Ireland should have its 
 share in exporting goods to them. For this purpose the Irish 
 people should choose and appoint, from year to year, com- 
 petent men of business training, character, and linguistic 
 knowledge, to form an Irish Consular Service, and to act in 
 all respects as the consuls of other countries do. The coun- 
 tries in which profitable markets might be expected from the 
 appointment of Irish consular representatives were the United 
 States, Argentina and Chili, Canada, Australia, South Africa, 
 France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Russia, Japan, 
 Denmark, Italy, and Austro-Hungary. There were, it was 
 pointed out, possible fields for the Irish producer in every one 
 of the countries named. In addition to the increase of 
 revenue, the increase of trade and commerce would also have 
 the effect of bringing back the population of Ireland to the 
 figure it stood at in 1845. It was stated that the maintenance 
 of a Consular Service of thirty or forty men would cost the 
 country annually about one-half the sum the maintenance of 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 ^5 
 
 an Irish Parliamentary party in London at that time cost, 
 and imder no circumstances could this service fail to repay 
 the outlay. 
 
 Having thus dealt with oversea transit, the Sinn Feiners 
 turned to the problems of their internal system, and declared 
 in the first place that it was about as bad as maladministra- 
 tion could make it. Owing to the attitude of the railroad 
 owners, the development of the country was materially 
 hampered. Controlled by British capital, the Irish railroads 
 had two schedules of freight charges: one extremely high, 
 which regulated the rates between different localities in Ire- 
 land; the other excessively low, which regulated the rates 
 between England and Ireland. As a consequence of this 
 topsy-turvy situation, a parallel to which could be found only 
 in musical comedy, it is cheaper to export goods to England 
 and to have them reshipped to their destination in Ireland 
 than to send them direct. The effect of this strangling 
 condition is easy to imagine. The Arigna coal mines, for 
 instance, produced as good a coal as the best that Great 
 Britain could produce, but owing to the railroad rates it was 
 impossible to get it generally on the Irish market. The Sinn 
 Feiners declared that they could not make up for the defi- 
 ciency of the railroads, but that they might certainly do much 
 to relieve the situation by the proper utilization of the semi- 
 derelict canal system. A well-devised scheme of canal and 
 river service under the control of the Irish County Councils 
 would go a considerable distance in the direction of properly 
 distributing the products of the country, and at the time a 
 scheme was being drafted for the purpose, although some of 
 these canals were controlled, and deliberately left unutilized, 
 by the railroad magnates. 
 
 Following the discussion of these problems the Sinn Fein 
 policy took up a number of other equally important matters, 
 not the least among these being the poor law system, afforesta- 
 tion, national civil service, national courts of law, national 
 stock exchange and banking systems, and a number of others 
 that will briefly be touched upon in the following chapters. 
 
26 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 It may be well, however, to indicate here one of the reasons 
 why the policies advocated by the Sinn Feiners were not 
 carried out in their entirety from the first. That their argu- 
 ments were, in the vast majority of instances, sound and 
 logical, was admitted even by those who had personal reasons 
 to be opposed to them. Why then did the Irish people not 
 take them up immediately, and put them into operation? 
 The main reason for postponing the application of the Sinn 
 Fein policy was the fear of hampering the Parliamentary 
 Party, who were sent to Westminster for the purpose of 
 securing the legislative repeal of the Union, or, as it was 
 generally called, Home Rule for Ireland. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 The Poor Law System 
 
 THE poverty of Ireland has become almost a byword 
 among the nations. People have become accustomed 
 to thinking of Ireland as a land of hovels, where 
 half-civilized men, women, and children roam barefooted 
 through a wilderness of bog and mire. This ridiculous picture 
 has again and again been painted for the benefit of the unso- 
 phisticated foreigner by English writers, whose actual igno- 
 rance of Ireland is equaled only by their wealth of imagination. 
 While Ireland is neither a land of hovels, nor of bogs and mire, 
 that poverty exists is nevertheless a fact. That poverty seems 
 more helpless in Ireland than elsewhere, is likewise true, since 
 England is determined that a prosperous Ireland shall not 
 compete with her in the commercial markets of the world. 
 It is also an incontrovertible fact that Ireland was one of the 
 richest countries in the world prior to her complete subjuga- 
 tion by the English in the sixteenth century, and that the 
 introduction of the poorhouse system coincided with the 
 introduction of British law. 
 
 The poor law system has been a potent instrument for 
 demoralizing and pauperizing the people. From 1846 to 
 1849 it was used as a machine for forcing the small farmers 
 of Ireland into the poorhouse or into the emigrant ship by 
 the imposition of a crushing poor rate. Since that period it 
 has served to impoverish the country by spending public 
 money on foreign goods and by subsidizing emigration. It 
 has also served to debase the spirit of the people by stamping 
 pauper on the brow of honest men and women whom circum- 
 stances rendered temporarily dependent on the assistance of 
 their fellow-citizens. 
 
 In no other country in Europe, except Great Britain itself, 
 
28 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 does such a degrading system exist. In France, Germany, 
 Italy, and elsewhere, the State recognizes the fact that periods 
 occur when industrious members of the community become 
 impoverished through circumstances for which they are not 
 responsible, and it administers the necessary remedies without 
 undermining the self-respect of the recipients. It does not 
 strike them from the lists of citizens, or imprison them in a 
 poorhouse, as England does, but fits them again to take a 
 place in the industrial ranks. Nor do the poor law systems 
 of the enlightened nations of Europe offer the poorhouse to 
 and place a stigma on those who, after a life of honorable 
 labor, are stricken by sickness or enfeebled by old age. They 
 afford them, not as a charity but as a right, support in liberty. 
 Under the British system alone, the poor are placed in the 
 same class as criminals. 
 
 According to the usual system prevailing in other countries 
 of Europe, the poor are divided into three classes: those who 
 can and will work, those who are willing to work but who are 
 unable to do so, and those who can work and will not work. 
 For the first class it finds work; for the second it provides 
 sustenance, not as a charity but as a right; for the third class 
 it provides the proper place, the prison. In Ireland the 
 British poor law system provides the same remedy for all 
 three classes. The position in Ireland is this: There are 159 
 Unions and 8000 Poor Law Guardians, elected by the people. 
 It is not the fault of these Guardians that the system is what 
 it is, but they are at least at fault in so far as they do not 
 seek to neutralize its intention. The Sinn Feiners told them 
 that, when they voted the money of the Irish people to help 
 on emigration and to purchase foreign goods, they voted to 
 pauperize further their own country. "Is there any land save 
 Ireland," asked the Sinn Feiners, "in which the Poor Law 
 Guardians would dream of expending the poor rate on pur- 
 chasing foreign cloth to attire those who have been im- 
 poverished by lack of employment, and hire foreign tailors in 
 foreign countries to make it up; or who would import from 
 abroad the food on which to feed these people, when their 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 29 
 
 own country produced abundance of cloth and food?" Never- 
 theless, that which would be inconceivable in any other 
 country was the fact in Ireland. Above all taxes, the poor 
 tax in other coiuitries is directed to be expended within that 
 country. In Ireland the Guardians in the majority of 
 instances expended it abroad, and thus kept continually 
 adding to the total of pauperism with which they had to 
 contend. 
 
 As one of the means of extracting good for Ireland from the 
 poor law system, the Sinn Feiners suggested that the 159 
 unions in Ireland, controlling the annual expenditure of 
 $7,500,000, should in council draw up an official scale of union 
 requirements, use uniform advertisements for goods of solely 
 Irish material and manufacture, and print a scale of the 
 various quantities necessary yearly for the collective unions. 
 The action of the North Dublin Union in 1881 was pointed 
 to as an illustration of what could be done. In that year 
 the Board decided to reverse the English "as-good-and-as- 
 cheap" policy, and to purchase only goods of Irish manu- 
 facture, even though it had to pay an enhanced price. When 
 it could not procure exactly what it required of Irish manu- 
 facture, it procured Irish goods that served as a substitute. 
 The result was, of course, that increased employment was 
 provided in Dublin, and in the end the ratepayers gained to 
 the extent of $4000 a year. 
 
 The following illustration will afford an insight into the 
 actual condition of affairs that existed at this time in regard 
 to the operation of the poor law. Although nominally created 
 in Ireland's interest, the Local Government Board has always 
 regarded it as its primary duty to push the interests of the 
 British manufacturers in Ireland. In 1905 it attempted to 
 induce the Irish Boards of Guardians to accept tenders for 
 the supply of drugs from an English ring of manufacturers, 
 which was trying to smash the competition of the Irish 
 druggists. In a letter addressed to the Boards of Guardians, 
 the Cork Chemical and Drug Company put the issue clearly. 
 It wrote: "It is a comparatively simple matter for English 
 
30 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 capitalists to crush out their Irish competitors, and we know 
 that this has been too often the fate of Irishmen striving to 
 promote the manufactures of the country; for, once the 
 obstacles of competition are removed, it is easy enough for 
 the foreigner to again advance prices, and thus obtain com- 
 pensation for his preliminary losses. It is to this system we, 
 as Irish manufacturers and large employers of labor, object, 
 but we are always ready to meet the ordinary competition of 
 business, so long as this is conducted on fair lines." Many of 
 the Irish Boards of Guardians responded to this letter, but, 
 unfortunately, the bulk of the unions fell into the net spread 
 by the English ring, and in consequence a very large sum of 
 Irish money made its way that year across the channel. 
 Under the Sinn Fein pohcy a thing of this kind would be 
 impossible. The action of the PubUc Boards would be 
 a united one, and no possibility would be left, so far as they 
 were concerned, for a syndicate of foreign capitaHsts to crush 
 out the home manufacturer and the home trader. 
 
 It was also pointed out by the Sinn Fein leaders that if 
 the 159 Unions of Ireland should at any time decide to use no 
 flour but Irish flour, twelve months from that time many of 
 the idle mills of the country would be again in full work, and 
 thousands of Irish people would be provided with employ- 
 ment. Under a national government, said the Sinn Feiners, 
 there would be no room for pauperism in Ireland, because 
 under such a government those unable to work, through no 
 fault of their own, would not be treated as paupers, and those 
 able to work would be provided with plenty in reclaiming 
 the four million acres lying waste throughout the country. 
 It was emphasized that one-half the victims of the Irish poor 
 law system were able-bodied men and women, and the ques- 
 tion was asked if any foreign nation had ever been known to 
 pay out millions of dollars to keep in soul-destroying idleness 
 tens of thousands of its able-bodied citizens while one-fourth 
 of its soil awaited reclamation. Yet that is exactly what was 
 being done in Ireland, where twenty-four per cent of the soil 
 awaited the plow or the tree. The central plain of Ireland 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 3i 
 
 awaited only afforestation to raise the mean temperature of 
 the island four degrees, and thus render the soil doubly 
 fruitful; but the Irish people were taxed, not to carry out so 
 noble a work, but to perpetuate pauperism. The Sinn Feiners 
 pointed out that it lay within the powers of the County 
 Councils to devote at least a portion of the local taxation of 
 the country to the purposes of this reclamation, and united 
 action on the part of the Irish County Councils and Poor Law 
 Unions could divert a portion of the poor law taxation to 
 reproductive labor. 
 
 In this same connection another question arose, which was 
 also taken very fully into consideration by the framers of the 
 Sinn Fein policy. The Poor Law Boards of Ireland employed 
 about 4000 officials, while the Urban Councils and County 
 Councils employed at least 2000 more. Here, said the Sinn 
 Feiners, we have the foundation for a National Civil Service. 
 Of this army of officials, paid by the ratepayers, the appoint- 
 ment of seventy-five per cent was in the hands of men elected 
 as Nationalists. As is the case in other countries, their 
 appointment was determined more by the amount of personal 
 influence they were able to wield with the members of the 
 Board, under which they sought appointment, than by any 
 other consideration. The question of efficiency was often a 
 secondary matter. Such a state of affairs evidently tended 
 both to the impairment of efficient local administration and to 
 a lowering of the moral standard in the conduct of public 
 bodies. Aware that the public bodies would scarcely tolerate 
 the loss of their "patronage," the Sinn Feiners did not seek 
 to deprive them of it. What they proposed was, that the 
 patronage should be exercised thenceforth, not in the interest 
 of the individual, but in the interest of the nation. They 
 said that thousands of young men in Ireland had joined the 
 British Civil Service, and thus assisted in the running of 
 the British Empire. In principle this was wrong, but, under 
 the then circumstances of the country, it was not expedient to 
 place the same ban on the British Civil Service as on the 
 British armed forces. The Irishman who joined the British 
 
32 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 army, the British navy, the "Royal Irish" Constabulary, 
 necessarily became from that moment the enemy of his 
 country, for he had taken up arms against Ireland. The 
 position of the Irishman who had joined the British Civil 
 Service was a passive and not an active one. He was not 
 employed in keeping his own country down, but he was 
 employed to an extent in keeping a hostile country up. It 
 was objectionable and regrettable; but, while the Sinn 
 Feiners would continue to deprecate Irishmen entering the 
 British Civil Service, they would distinguish between the 
 armed oppressor and the passive instrument of an alien 
 administration. 
 
 Some of the cleverest and ablest men in the British Civil 
 Service were Irishmen, and the Sinn Feiners argued that, if 
 they deprived England of their services and secured them for 
 Ireland, they would be dealing a double blow against the 
 foreign rule of their country. In the suggested consular serv- 
 ice, for instance, the abilities of many Irishmen then in the 
 higher grades of the British Civil Service would find adequate 
 and congenial employment, while for the hosts of young 
 Irishmen who filled the secondary posts in the Civil Service 
 a National Civil Service under the local governing bodies of 
 Ireland would provide scope. For the haphazard method 
 of selecting the local oflScials in Ireland, the Sinn Feiners sug- 
 gested the substitution of an ordered one. They proposed 
 that a National Assembly should arrange and classify the 
 positions of officials employed by all the public bodies in 
 Ireland in three grades, and applications for a position would 
 be entertained only from those who had successfully passed 
 a qualifying examination. In the lowest grade candidates 
 would be required to pass an examination showing an ele- 
 mentary acquaintance with the Irish language, a knowledge 
 q of Irish history, and an acqaintance with Ireland's resources. 
 s| In the second grade, the candidate would be required to show 
 j himself proficient in Irish history, in the Irish language as a 
 j written tongue, and in the knowledge of Ireland's resources 
 and possibihties, political and commercial. For the highest 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 33 
 
 grade the candidate should not only possess a full knowledge 
 of Irish history, but full acquaintance with her early laws and 
 institutions; he should be proficient in Irish both as a written 
 and a spoken language; he should know Irish literature and 
 understand Irish art; he should be thoroughly acquainted 
 with Ireland, agriculturally, industrially, commercially, and 
 topographically; he should know what Ireland had achieved, 
 and be able to show what she could achieve. In a word, he 
 should be what an educated American, an educated French- 
 man, an educated German is — a man who thoroughly knows 
 his own country. 
 
 Such a National Civil Service of Ireland would demand no 
 more than the National Civil Service of any country on the 
 continent of Europe — that its members must know their 
 own country. Institute a National Civil Service in Ireland, 
 they said, and the English education system of the country, 
 designed to suppress in the breasts of its people the impulse 
 of patriotism, would be revolutionized. If it was impossible 
 for those ignorant of Ireland to gain a position in an ofl&cial 
 capacity in Ireland, the schools would have to teach their 
 pupils Irish history, the Irish language, and Irish possibilities. 
 A National Civil Service in Ireland would prove a bulwark 
 to the nation, would save for Ireland thousands of men who 
 had unwillingly left it, and would necessarily give rise to the 
 most Irish-educated generation Ireland had known for cen- 
 turies. It would mean a truly educated Ireland, and an 
 educated Ireland would be the harbinger of a free Ireland. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 Sestn Fein and the Law Courts and Army 
 
 NOT less important to the nation, in the estimation 
 of the Sinn Fein leaders, than those matters which 
 have already been discussed, were national courts of 
 law. Hungary understood this, and established arbitration 
 courts which superseded the courts which Austria sought to 
 impose on her. Before O'Connell balked at the proposal to 
 erect a de facto Irish Parliament in Dublin, Ireland had estab- 
 lished such courts. The prestige, the dignity, and the strength 
 such a national legal system would confer upon a movement 
 for national independence is obvious; but the Sinn Feiners 
 argued that, in addition, it would deprive the corrupt bar in 
 Ireland of much of its incentive to corruption, save the 
 pockets of the Irish people, and materially help in bringing 
 about that spirit of brotherhood, of national oneness in Ire- 
 land, which all who loved their country desired to see. 
 
 The decision of an arbitration court is binding, not only in 
 morals but in law, on those who appeal to it. The Sinn 
 Feiners said to the people what The Nation had said to 
 them in 1843: "You have it in your power to resume popular 
 courts and fix laws, and it is your duty to do so. It is the 
 duty of every Irishman to himself, to his family, to his neigh- 
 bors, and his bounden duty to his country to carry every 
 legal dispute to the arbitrators, and to obey their decision. 
 If you resort in any of your own disputes to any but your 
 own judges, you injure yourself and commit treason to your 
 country." Eighty per cent of the cases heard in the civil 
 courts of Ireland, involving the expenditure of an enormous 
 sum of money which served to keep up a corrupt judicial sys- 
 tem, could be equally as legally decided in voluntary arbi- 
 tration courts at practically no expense at all. 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 85 
 
 The proposal made by the Sinn Feiners was in the following 
 terms: That the Irish National Assembly should appoint 
 those of its members who by virtue of their position were 
 eligible to act as Justices of the Peace, but who declined to 
 act as such under British law, to act as judges in the National 
 Arbitration Courts, together with such men of character 
 throughout the country, and such Irish barristers who had 
 not "devoted their time to hawking their souls for sale in the 
 Four Courts," as it might be necessary to add as assessors or 
 judges. No barristers or lawyers should be permitted to 
 practice in the National Arbitration Courts without the sanc- 
 tion of the Assembly, and without renouncing their practice in 
 foreign ones; and the Assembly should retain the same power 
 over the iVrbitration Judges that the British Parliament 
 retained over the British Judiciary. 
 
 In this way, said the Sinn Feiners, Ireland would be able 
 to wrest the judicial system, then used to her detriment, from 
 the hands of the foreigner and use it to her own advancement. 
 The course was legal and feasible; its advantages were great 
 and obvious. Papineau took it to Canada, and Deak fol- 
 lowed it in Hungary in the nineteenth century. Ireland 
 could as easily follow it in the twentieth. Its advocates 
 pointed to the fact that, a short while before, Russia was an 
 autocracy that seemed as fixed and immovable as the north 
 star, but was reduced to impotency by a strike. It was not 
 a part of the Sinn Fein policy to reduce England to impotence 
 by a cessation of labor, but it was a serious part of that policy 
 to reduce her strength by strikes of another kind — strikes 
 against using her goods, for instance, and against filling the 
 ranks of her armed forces. 
 
 In this latter direction the anti-enlisting movement was 
 undoubtedly one of the strong features of the Sinn Fein policy. 
 It struck home at a vital point of Imperialism; it presented 
 to the British Government something that was real and tan- 
 gible opposition, and yet was difficult to prevent. It was 
 always a part of the policy of the English Government to use 
 every possible means to induce Irishmen to join its army and 
 
36 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 navy. Irish marching airs were favorite ones in the British 
 army, and English writers never tired of telHng the Irish 
 people what fine fighters they were, while in the same breath 
 reflecting satirically on the idea of such a quarrelsome people 
 conducting their domestic affairs for themselves. They told 
 the Irishmen — but, of course, not in so many words — that 
 they were fine examples of healthy animals, with abundance 
 of muscle and a minimum of brains — savage fighters with 
 just the requisite amount of intelligence to direct a bayonet 
 thrust or to aim a gun. 
 
 At the time when the industries of Ireland were declining 
 under unjust laws that were penalizing them out of existence, 
 many young men took "the king's shilling" and became 
 humble servants of Her or His Britannic Majesty. That 
 industrial conditions were almost entirely responsible for their 
 enlisting is known to everyone acquainted with Irish life. 
 On account of the lack of employment, they had to go to the 
 poorhouse, emigrate to America, or join the army. Many 
 were unable to pay for the passage to America, and for them 
 the choice was still more limited. It is, therefore, not sur- 
 prising that many an Irishman succumbed to the blandish- 
 ments of the gaily attired recruiting sergeant, put on the 
 red uniform, and was taught to forget that he had ever had 
 a country. 
 
 The reader who knows the part the redcoat has played in 
 the history of Ireland will have no difficulty in understanding 
 why the Irish people hate the British uniform. From the 
 raids of Strongbow and the massacres of Cromwell to the 
 military executions of 1916, the uniform of England has ever 
 spelled bloodshed and sorrow in Ireland — not to mention 
 worse and sometimes more serious things. It is not a state- 
 ment actuated by malice or ill-feeling, but a plain historical 
 fact, that the conduct of British soldiers in Ireland has 
 scarcely been equaled, and certainly not surpassed, by the 
 atrocities committed upon the Armenians by the Turks or 
 upon the Jews by the Russians. Ireland has had its own 
 Black Hole of Calcutta; has seen years upon years of wanton 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 37 
 
 bloodshed and nameless outrage. Were it necessary to pro- 
 duce proof, a chapter of horrors could be written that would 
 surpass anything of a similar kind the world has ever read. 
 England's own historians cannot quite conceal this fact, and 
 those who wish to prove the matter have ample opportunity 
 to do so elsewhere. 
 
 There were, therefore, abundant reasons why the Sinn 
 Feiners stood firm against the enlistment of Irishmen in the 
 British army. They said that, sentiment apart, it was not 
 a national policy for Irishmen to join the armed forces of a 
 country that was oppressing their own land. At the time of 
 the formulation of the Sinn Fein policy in 1905, the anti- 
 enlisting movement had already accomplished a great deal, 
 but there was a great deal still to be done. There were then 
 fewer Irishmen in the British army than at any other period 
 during the previous hundred years, but there were still pro- 
 portionately far more Irishmen than there were Englishmen 
 or Scotsmen. Thirty years previously, out of every 1000 
 men in the British army, 248 (or just one-fourth) were Irish. 
 In 1905, out of every 1000 men in that army, 115 were Irish; 
 but in proportion to its population Ireland supplied many 
 more fighting men to England than England supplied to her- 
 self. Out of every 10,000 men between 15 and 40 years of 
 age in England, 276 were soldiers (a large number being of 
 Irish or Scottish parentage or descent); out of every 10,000 
 men between 15 and 40 years of age in Scotland 248 were 
 soldiers; and out of every 10,000 men between 15 and 40 
 in Ireland 354 were soldiers. 
 
 This striking difference bears a significance peculiarly its own 
 when the figures are examined. Yet it is a fact that the Eng- 
 lish took particular pride in their army; pointed to the 
 deeds that the "English" army had accomplished, while the 
 actual truth then, as to-day, was that among all the peoples 
 on the face of the globe who least relish fighting the English 
 indubitably hold the first place. In the British Parliament, 
 from the very outbreak of the war, the difficulty in inducing 
 the English people to take up arms in defense of their own 
 
38 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 country was one of the greatest assets of the Teutonic allies. 
 When it comes to war, the average Englishman would much 
 rather play the part of spectator and critic. If then the 
 Englishman was so reluctant to fight for his country and 
 Empire, the attempt to force Irishmen into the war was 
 nothing less than an impertinence. 
 
 The Sinn Feiners failed to see why the Irish people should 
 be fighting for England, and the English people getting the 
 credit and the profit in any case. This phase of the matter 
 caused so much discussion that during the Boer war, when 
 the Irish and Scottish regiments were being slaughtered 
 along the Modder River and in front of Kimberley, the 
 outcry in Ireland and the questions as to what the English 
 were doing caused the Government to change its tactics 
 somewhat. As a special concession, Queen Victoria then 
 graciously gave permission to the Irish soldiers to wear a 
 sprig of their own national emblem on St. Patrick's Day, in 
 recognition of the blood they had shed for the salvation of 
 the Empire and to bring two independent Republics under 
 the English rule, whose benevolence towards small nationali- 
 ties they of all men had best reason to know. Up to that 
 time the wearing of shamrock on March 17th was a crime for 
 which an Irishman in the service of the Empire could be 
 flogged. In spite of the gracious act of Queen Victoria, the 
 anti-enlisting campaign gathered strength after the Boer war 
 and right up to the time of the rebellion. 
 
 There was one other kind of strike that the Sinn Feiners 
 advocated, and that a very effective one — a strike against 
 taxes. The people of Hungary struck against taxes, and 
 compelled Austria to collect them at the point of the bayonet. 
 They suffered, but they remained true to their principles, 
 and in the end they won. The Sinn Feiners pointed out 
 that Ireland had a means of striking against British taxes 
 which would not call for the exercise of a hundredth part 
 of the spirit of self-sacrifice displayed by Hungary. The gross 
 taxation of Ireland for British purposes represented over 
 $55,000,000 per annum. Of this the only considerable direct 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 39 
 
 tax was the income tax, which represented about $5,000,000, 
 or one-eleventh of the whole. For obvious reasons, said the 
 Sinn Feiners, a strike against the income tax could not be 
 made general, and, even if it were, could not materially affect 
 England, since, after she had paid all the charges for the 
 maintenance of her government in Ireland, she still had 
 $15,000,000 profit. It was evident that, if the Sinn Feiners 
 were to hit England effectively by a strike against taxation, 
 they must reduce England's revenue from Ireland to a point 
 below her expenditure on it. 
 
 Out of the $55,000,000 which England annually took from 
 Ireland, more than one-half was derived from the sale of 
 alcoholic drinks, and especially whisky. However, out of 
 every seven cents paid in Ireland for a glass of whisky, the 
 British Government received three cents. Here, then, said the 
 Sinn Feiners, without anything approaching the sacrifices 
 that other countries had made, Ireland had a means ready at 
 hand for an effective strike against taxes. The same means 
 had been used by the United Irishmen a hundred years before, 
 and it was the duty of the people to use them again. By the 
 simple process of reducing by one-half their expenditure on 
 drink — if the man who drank two glasses of whisky each 
 day would drink only one, and the man who drank two 
 bottles of beer a day would content himself with one — Ire- 
 land would be able to decrease the British revenue from 
 Ireland by so many millions per annum that practically the 
 whole of the annual profit that England was making out of 
 the government of Ireland would disappear. 
 
 "If there be any man calling himself an Irish Nationalist," 
 said the Sinn Feiners, "who is not prepared to sacrifice a 
 glass of whisky or a bottle of beer for Ireland, then he calls 
 himself by a name to which he is not entitled." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Sinn Fein and Irish Finance 
 
 THE fiscal system of Ireland is the complement of the 
 land system, and was designed and conducted solely 
 in the interests of England. In England the Stock 
 Exchange, although the most powerful of its buttresses, is 
 uncontrolled by the British Government. In Ireland the 
 position of affairs is different. English statesmen understood 
 that an independent National Stock Exchange in Ireland was 
 incompatible with English financial, if not with English politi- 
 cal, interests. They therefore placed the Irish Stock Ex- 
 change directly under Government control. Does the reader 
 know just what this means? 
 
 A walk along Dame Street (the Wall Street of Dublin) 
 reveals the legend, "Government Stockbroker," written on a 
 dozen windows. There were ninety-three members of the 
 Dublin Stock Exchange in 1905, and these ninety -three had 
 to satisfy the British Lord Lieutenant as to their loyalty to 
 that Government and their devotion to British interests, 
 before they were admitted to the Exchange. The Sinn 
 Feiners contended that the Stock Exchange in Ireland had 
 had no near rival, save the banks, in ruining Irish industries in 
 the interests of British ones, and in transferring to British 
 pockets millions of Irish money. In every country, with the 
 exception of Ireland, the primary function of the Stock 
 Exchange is to create a market for local stocks, particularly 
 the shares in manufacturing industries. In Ireland the 
 primary function of the Stock Exchange was the reverse. 
 Any limited liability company started in Ireland to create 
 and develop industries or develop natural resources was 
 unable to secure a quotation on the Stock Exchange, unless 
 backed by unusual and powerful influences. 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 41 
 
 One of the results of this condition was to render the small 
 investor unwilling to invest his money in Irish industrial 
 enterprises. To illustrate the reason, let us assume that the 
 townspeople of Trim, anxious to promote the prosperity of 
 their town, anxious to benefit themselves, and anxious to 
 advance the general prosperity of the country, have decided 
 to start a woolen factory in their midst. A company is 
 formed with a capital of $25,000 or $50,000. The working- 
 man subscribes for one $5 share, and the well-to-do store- 
 keeper for one hundred shares. The company may go on 
 prosperously, but a few months hence the workingman may be 
 in need of money and be anxious to dispose of his share, or 
 the storekeeper may find it imperative to turn his $500 stock 
 into cash. If the company possessed a Stock Exchange quo- 
 tation, the storekeeper would have merely to telegraph to a 
 stockbroker in Dublin to sell, and receive in a few hours his 
 cash for the shares at the price current. But, if the com- 
 pany happened to be a small Irish industrial company, its 
 stock would not be listed on the Stock Exchange, and the 
 storekeeper could not turn his stock into cash unless by 
 private treaty. His need for the money might be urgent; 
 his $500 stock might be worth $750; but the market was 
 closed against him by the Government stockbroker, and his 
 only resource was to sell by private negotiation, involving 
 delay and almost invariably loss. The small Irish capitalist, 
 therefore, refused to invest in companies for the development 
 of Irish industries, but invested in the shares of gold mines 
 eight thousand miles away, which he never saw and never 
 would see. He might know, and generally did know, that 
 the local industry was a sound one; he might suspect that 
 the Calmazu gold mine was anything but sound; but he 
 knew that, if he bought Trim Woolens and needed the money 
 in six months' time, he could not sell his stock in the open 
 market, whereas, if he bought Calmazus, the Government 
 stockbroker would turn them into cash for him at any 
 moment. 
 
 Shut out from the natural investment of his money, the 
 
42 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 small Irish capitalist had been transformed by the Govern- 
 ment stockbrokers into a pm-e speculator, or in other words 
 a gambler in shares; and, as such, he had been fleeced in 
 turn by every species of financial rascal that the other side 
 of the Channel had been able to produce. "Chartereds," 
 "Tyres," "Volemites," *'Fish Oil," and their kindred, had, 
 within a period of twenty years transferred as many millions 
 from the pockets of the small Irish capitalist to the pockets 
 of John Bull as would have suflSced to set the idle mills of 
 Ireland working and to provide a livelihood in their own coun- 
 try for the tens of thousands who during that period streamed 
 out of the Cove of Cork. But, as the Stock Exchange in 
 Ireland would not, as the Stock Exchange in every other 
 country did, make a market for local stocks, the small capital- 
 ist was compelled to invest his capital outside Ireland — in 
 ninety-nine per cent of cases in British undertakings, to the 
 immense financial advantage of England and to the financial 
 loss of Ireland. 
 
 The Sinn Feiners held that, under the policy they advo- 
 cated, the abolition of this system was a matter of compara- 
 tive ease. If the Irish National Assembly, representing the 
 public bodies of Ireland, demanded the creation of a National 
 Stock Exchange, that exchange would immediately come 
 into existence. The National Assembly had but to order 
 the public bodies it represented to transact all their business 
 in the buying and selling of stock through brokers who were 
 prepared to constitute themselves into a National Exchange, 
 and the desired result would necessarily follow. As the 
 National Assembly would control the banking of some mil- 
 lions per annum in Ireland, the banks would not dare to 
 disobey its mandates, and would therefore be forced also to 
 support the National Exchange. 
 
 The existence of a National Stock Exchange would entirely 
 alter the financial position of the country, and place the 
 industrial revival on a basis too firm to be overturned. 
 Ninety or nine hundred British Government stockbrokers 
 could not withstand for a year a National Exchange backed 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 43 
 
 by the public bodies of Ireland and performing the primary 
 function of a Stock Exchange — the commercial development 
 of the country for the benefit of its inhabitants and their 
 children. 
 
 Turning to the other side of the financial system, the pro- 
 pounders of the Sinn Fein policy proceeded to show how the 
 banking methods in Ireland also hindered the development of 
 Irish resources and the Irish industrial revival. They pro- 
 duced figures showing that the Irish people had $250,000,000 
 in the Irish banks; that, having invested the bulk of this 
 big sum in British stocks at 2| per cent or less, the Irish 
 banks had no money to put into Irish industrial enterprises, 
 but had millions to put into a war against the Boers. During 
 the Boer war the Bank of Ireland lent, free of interest, to 
 the British Government the money of its Irish depositors to 
 assist in the extirpation of the Boer Republics, against which 
 the people of Ireland had no grudge and with whose fight for 
 freedom against a foreign and stronger power the Irish people 
 were in entire sympathy. 
 
 At the outbreak of the same war the banks in Ireland 
 bought British Consols at 95, and for every $100 stock so 
 purchased the Irish banks had lost $7 in 1905, British Con- 
 sols having during the interval fallen to 88. While that loss 
 had to be borne by their stockholders nominally, the ultimate 
 loss fell on the country in general, which could not but be 
 affected adversely in various ways by the impairment of 
 national credit. To the banks in Ireland national credit 
 connotes of course, not Irish credit, but English. Thus, said 
 the Sinn Feiners, the banks of Ireland were willing to lend 
 the money of the Irish people for British purposes, but not 
 for the development of Ireland. The Sinn Feiners pointed 
 to the example of Louis Kossuth, who, seventy-four years 
 previously, when he had successfully inaugurated the National 
 industrial movement in Hungary, found himself face to face 
 with a similar state of affairs. The banks of Hungary were 
 under the thumb of the government in Vienna, and the gold 
 of Hungary was drawn thither to increase the gold reserve 
 
44 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 of the Austrian treasury. The banks in Hungary were then 
 acting in precisely the same manner as those in Ireland still 
 did. They lent the money of the Hungarian people to the 
 Austrian Government at a low rate of interest, but they 
 refused to lend money for the internal development of Hun- 
 gary. Kossuth did not argue with the banks. He secured 
 the support of the local councils and the aid also of patriotic 
 men of wealth, and founded the National Bank of Hungary. 
 This bank lent its funds, not to the Austrian Government, but 
 to the Hungarian nation. With it Kossuth burst up the fiscal 
 conspiracy which oppressed his people, and doubled the wealth 
 of Hungary in five years. 
 
 What was possible to Louis Kossuth in Hungary in 1842, 
 said the Sinn Feiners, was possible in Ireland in 1905. If the 
 public bodies in Ireland unitedly demanded that the existing 
 banks should play the part of National banks, should cease 
 to lend money for the benefit of England, and should begin 
 to lend it for the benefit of Ireland, there was little doubt 
 indeed but that they would refuse. But, when they refused, 
 all the Irish public bodies would have to do would be to 
 withdraw their accounts, and a National Bank would come 
 into being. This National Bank, with the united support of 
 the Irish public bodies, would be the premier bank in wealth 
 and influence. With the establishment of a National Stock 
 Exchange and a National Bank, the financial system that 
 had withdrawn from the service of the Irish nation $250,- 
 000,000 and turned it over to the British Treasury, would 
 come to an end, and the shriveled veins of Irish commerce 
 would be refilled with the blood of life. 
 
 That the scheme was undoubtedly practicable was shown 
 by the widespread attention that it attracted, especially 
 among the politicians in England. Numerous articles were 
 printed in the English magazines and newspapers relative 
 to the scheme, and not one of them could see anything com- 
 mendable in it. This unanimity of opinion among those who 
 had most reason to fear it deeply impressed the Irish people 
 and encouraged the Sinn Feiners. That the latter made no 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 45 
 
 mistake when they declared that the Irish banks would 
 refuse to take part in the plan, was soon amply demonstrated. 
 On the other hand, many men of position, wealth, and influ- 
 ence had suflScient patriotic spirit to pledge themselves to 
 the support of the plan, and among these there was none 
 more enthusiastic than The O'Rahilly, whose name was later 
 destined to become historic in an enterprise more thrilling 
 and appealing to the imagination than the establishment of 
 an Irish National Bank. Why the plan was not carried out 
 has already been explained in part in a previous chapter, 
 and will be touched on more fully later. It is sufficient to 
 state here that there was every reason to believe that it could 
 have been carried out, and that it would have justified every 
 claim that was made for it. 
 
 Reference has been made to the withdrawal of gold from 
 Ireland. It is not without interest to know that, at the time 
 when there was nominally $250,000,000 in the banks of Ire- 
 land, there was not $20,000,000 in gold in the whole of 
 Ireland. The Irish gold deposited in the Irish banks was 
 sent to London, and there exchanged for paper. Nor is this 
 the most significant fact of the situation. When the Irish- 
 man presented a Bank of Ireland or any other Irish note as 
 payment in a British Government office in London, he was 
 promptly informed that Irish paper money could not be 
 accepted. The late Edmund Dwyer Gray very sensibly, 
 therefore, refused to accept payment in paper money from 
 the banks in Ireland; and, said the Sinn Feiners, when the 
 people individually and the public bodies in Ireland acted 
 with equal common sense, Ireland would retain her gold 
 within her own shores and permit England to sell paper for 
 gold to some other country. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The Council of Three Hundred 
 
 IN the preceding chapters mention has frequently been 
 made of the Irish National Assembly, and it is now time 
 to consider what this meant in the policy of the Sinn 
 Feiners. 
 
 The General Council of the County Councils of Ireland 
 afforded the nucleus of the national authority under the 
 leadership of which the Sinn Feiners hoped to achieve the 
 results outlined in their policy. They proposed the formation 
 of a Council of Three Hundred, composed of the members of 
 the General Council of the County Councils, and representa- 
 tives of the Urban Councils, Rural Councils, Poor Law 
 Boards, and Harbor Boards of the country. This Council was 
 to sit in Dublin and form a de facto Irish Parliament. Sitting 
 and voting with this body, which was to assemble in Dublin 
 in the spring and autumn, would be the persons elected for 
 Irish constituencies who declined to confer on purely Irish 
 affairs with foreigners in a foreign city. This latter reference 
 was, of course, to the Irish members of the British Parliament, 
 who discussed Irish interests in the British House of Com- 
 mons with a overwhelming majority of Englishmen, Scotsmen, 
 and Welshmen. 
 
 On its gathering in Dublin this National Assembly was to 
 appoint special committees to consider and report to the 
 general body on all subjects pertaining to the country. The 
 Council would then deliberate on the reports of these com- 
 mittees, and formulate workable schemes, to which, when 
 formulated, it would be the duty of all local Councils and 
 other bodies to give legal effect as far as their powers per- 
 mitted, and, where these legal powers fell short, to give it the 
 moral force of law by instructing and inducing those whom 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 47 
 
 they represented to honor and obey the recommendations of 
 the Council of Three Hundred individually and collectively. 
 Over all the departments of Irish national life to which 
 reference has been made, this Council of Three Hundred was 
 to be the directing authority. The Irish local councils were 
 in a position to levy two cents in the five dollars for technical 
 instruction, and then demand and receive half as much again 
 from the Department of Agriculture. The valuation of Ire- 
 land, that is, the rateable valuation, was roughly $60,000,000, 
 which would yield an annual grant for technical instruc- 
 tion of $240,000, plus $120,000 from the Department. The 
 Councils also had the power to raise another two cents in 
 the five dollars for libraries, thus yielding another $240,000. 
 Here, then, was a total annual revenue of $600,000, which 
 could be allocated, inside the limits prescribed by the Act, 
 by direction of the Council of Three Hundred, to objects 
 intended to serve and strengthen the country, and aid in 
 bringing about the triumph of its policy. Under the heading 
 of technical instruction, it would be possible to allocate 
 money to train the people in crafts useful to the country, and 
 to subsidize and offer bounties to new or struggling industries, 
 this latter purpose being of the utmost importance in the 
 view of the Sinn Feiners. Under the heading of libraries, it was 
 possible to allocate money to the formation and foundation 
 of National Libraries throughout the country, to the instruc- 
 tion of adults in national history and national subjects, to 
 the establishment of local museums and gymnasiums, in 
 which they could be trained physically and taught discipline. 
 For example, when the Council of Three Hundred met in 
 Dublin, it might be proposed that a certain fixed sum be 
 devoted in that year in every part of Ireland to the physical 
 training of the people and their instruction in Irish history; 
 whereupon every County Council in Ireland would levy the 
 rate and allocate the portion as directed. Thus, uniformity 
 of action and work would be attained, and, without in one 
 iota infringing the British law, the recommendation — for 
 these resolutions or acts of the Council would go forth as 
 
48 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 recommendations — would be given the force and status of 
 law. 
 
 At the time that these proposals were placed before the 
 people in 1905, the Irish people were threatened with the 
 withdrawal of the grant for technical instruction, which was 
 paid through the Department of Agriculture. The British 
 Treasury wanted more money for English purposes. One 
 *' Irish" Board of British nominees, the "National" Board of 
 Education, had surrendered without protest to the British 
 Treasury a portion of the monies which the Irish people were 
 compelled to pay for their de-Irishing education. Another 
 Castle Board was then contemplating the surrender of the 
 money that had been taken from Irish taxation for technical 
 instruction. The Sinn Feiners brought to light the fact that 
 it was within the power of the County Councils to control the 
 Department of Agriculture, whose jobbery and incompetence 
 were fast becoming a public scandal, and which was at that 
 time attempting to plunder the country for the benefit of 
 the British Exchequer. 
 
 The Agricultural Board, which controlled the expenditure 
 of the funds intended for promoting agriculture, fishery, and 
 kindred industries, was composed of twelve persons, the elec- 
 tion of two-thirds of whom was in the hands of the County 
 Councils. The Board of Technical Instruction, which con- 
 trolled the expenditure of the money applied under the 
 heading of technical instruction, was composed of twenty-one 
 persons, the election of fifteen of whom was in the hands of 
 the County and Borough Councils. Owing to the supineness 
 of the County Councils, which had not yet learned their 
 newly given power, the Department of Agriculture had been 
 permitted for years to neglect carrying out its duties. The 
 time had come, said the Sinn Feiners, to use it with all the 
 vigor at their command. The proposal was, therefore, put 
 forward to extend the control of the Council of Three Hun- 
 dred over the Department of Agriculture. It was proposed to 
 use the $32,500,000, which was annually dealt with by the 
 Irish elective bodies, solely with a view to Ireland's interests. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 49 
 
 The Sinn Fein policy was thus to establish in Ireland's 
 capital a National Assembly, endowed with the moral author- 
 ity of the Irish people. It was essential to the successful 
 working out of this policy that its supporters in Ireland should 
 secure their votes and cast them for men in Rural, Urban, 
 and County Councils, who would apply that policy to their 
 local affairs as well as in the national field. In Dublin and 
 other cities the British Local Government Board, for instance, 
 prevented the Dublin Corporation from providing those facil- 
 ities for education and recreation which the municipalities in 
 other countries were free to provide, by declining to sanction 
 a rate, if struck for such purposes; but in many of the other 
 cities of Ireland there was a borough fund which, after a pay- 
 ment of certain fixed charges, was freely at the disposal of the 
 people. On investigation, what did the Sinn Feiners find the 
 state of these funds to be? The Dublin Borough Fund, which 
 annually amounted to about $115,000, was found to be over- 
 drawn, because, while the people of Dublin were keeping their 
 eyes fixed steadily on London, burdens were thrown on the 
 fund which it should never have borne. Properly handled, 
 this fund would have prevented much of the distress that 
 prevailed in the poorer parts of the city each recurring winter, 
 would have provided for the people means of rational enjoy- 
 ment, and would in many other ways have improved living 
 conditions in the capital. The Irish people, said the Sinn 
 Feiners, should bring the policy of Sinn Fein into every depart- 
 ment of their social lives, and the citizens of Dublin should 
 make a start by seeing to it that the Borough Fund was 
 again made available for the purposes for which it was 
 intended. 
 
 As a statement of the Sinn Fein policy in a nutshell, the 
 following quotation from the speech delivered by Mr. Arthur 
 GriflBth at the Rotunda in 1905 will not be inappropriate: 
 
 I shall not dwell on local policy, which must largely be determined 
 by local circumstances, further than to say that I have seen the war 
 vessels of Ireland's enemy welcomed to Dublin and entertained by 
 the head of the municipality, whilst I have seen the war vessels of 
 
50 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 friendly nations, Argentina and Holland, enter our harbors unwel- 
 comed and unnoticed by the municipality of Dublin. I pass from the 
 stain upon our soul and the slur upon our character, and ask whether 
 such a proceeding is calculated to advance the commercial interests 
 of Ireland in Argentina and Holland. Whilst I behold British 
 municipahties, in order to further the commercial interests of Great 
 Britain, inviting the German and French municipalities to visit their 
 cities, I can find no instance of an Irish municipal body exhibiting 
 similar business instinct. The policy of Sinn Fein proposes to change 
 all this, to bring Ireland out of the corner and make her assert her 
 existence in the world. The whole basis of this policy is national 
 self-reliance. No law and no series of laws can make a nation 
 out of a people who distrust themselves. If we believe in ourselves, 
 if each individual believes in himself, we shall carry this policy to 
 victory against all the forces that may be arrayed against it. If 
 we realize the duties and responsibilities of the citizen and dis- 
 charge them, we shall win. It is the duty of a free citizen to live 
 so that his country may be the better for his existence. Let each 
 Irishman do so much, and I have no fear for the ultimate triumph 
 of our policy. I say ultimate, because no man can offer Ireland a 
 speedy and comfortable road to freedom, and, before the goal is 
 attained, many may have fallen and all will have suffered. Hun- 
 gary, Finland, and Poland, all have trodden or tread the road we 
 seek to bring Ireland along, but none repine for the travail they have 
 undergone. We go to build up the nation from within, and we deny 
 the right of any but our own countrymen to shape its course. This 
 course is not England's, and we shall not justify our course to Eng- 
 land. The craven policy that has rotted our nation has been the 
 policy of justifying our existence in our enemy's eyes. Our mis- 
 fortunes are manifold, but we are still men and women of a common 
 family, and we owe no nation an apology for living in accordance 
 with the laws of our being. In the British Liberal, as in the British 
 Tory, we see our enemy, and in those who talk of ending British 
 misgovernment we see the helots. It is not British misgovernment, 
 but British government in Ireland, good or bad, we stand opposed 
 to, and in that holy opposition we seek to band all our fellow- 
 countrymen. For the Orangeman of the North, ceasing to be the 
 blind instrument of his own as well as his fellow-countrymen's 
 destruction, we have the greeting of brotherhood as for the National- 
 ist of the South, long taught to measure himself by English standards 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 51 
 
 and save the face of tyranny by sending Irishmen to sit impotently 
 in a foreign legislature whilst it forges the instruments of its oppres- 
 sion. Following the illustrious thinker of antiquity, I liken a nation 
 to a ship's company, to whom different tasks are allotted, but all 
 of whom are equally concerned in the safety of the vessel. And in a 
 saying of this great predecessor, I find summed up the spirit of Sinn 
 Fein: "It is the part of the citizen not to be anxious about living, 
 but about living well." If we realize this conception of citizenship 
 in Ireland, if we place our duty to our country before our personal 
 interests, and live not each for himself but each for all, the might 
 of England cannot prevent our ultimate victory. 
 
 This, then, was the policy advocated by the Sinn Feiners. 
 While it has been dealt with at some length in the preceeding 
 pages, there is not a chapter that might not be expanded 
 indefinitely. It was a policy that appealed strongly to the 
 yomiger men and women of the country. It had in it the 
 promise of success, and that it would have succeeded — in 
 fact, that it did succeed in so far as it was applied — is 
 certain. In the years between its promulgation and the re- 
 bellion of 1916, the work done was widespread and important 
 in its effect. At the same time it was done in a manner that 
 did not attract a great deal of outside attention. But the fact 
 that it was done, and that it bore the fruit it was expected 
 to bear, has since amply been demonstrated. The spirit of 
 the country was educated, and in later days, when one crisis 
 after another came upon the country, the work of the Sinn 
 Feiners was seen in the manner in which the people arose and 
 demanded the rights that were theirs. 
 
 Having thus shown exactly what the Sinn Fein policy was 
 and still is (for the Sinn Fein movement is neither dead nor 
 dying), it will not be without interest to examine what the 
 Parliamentarians were disposed to accept as a "final settle- 
 ment of the Irish demands." This will be much briefer, as 
 its scope was much less comprehensive than the Sinn Fein 
 Policy. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 The Home Rule Bill 
 
 THE Third Home Rule Bill, regarding which much has 
 been said in America and but little understood, was 
 never accepted by the Irish people as a final settle- 
 ment, but was looked on simply as the basis for that larger 
 measure of freedom that they desired. In the opinion of the 
 Sinn Feiners, it meant nothing more than a bare beginning, 
 and was accepted merely as the foundation stone on which 
 might once again be built that Irish nation which they 
 desired to see. Some people are under the impression that 
 the Third Home Rule Bill gave to Ireland practically complete 
 power to govern herself. How far this was from being true, 
 it is now our purpose to briefly indicate. 
 
 In the first place, the power and authority of the British 
 Parliament to legislate for Ireland remains unaffected and 
 undiminished after the establishment of the Irish Parliament. 
 At any time it would remain within the power of the British 
 Parliament to impose a tax on Ireland without reference to 
 the Irish Parliament. No Act of the British Parliament 
 extending to Ireland, passed after the establishment of the 
 Irish Parliament, could be altered or repealed by the Irish 
 Parliament, even though the new Act should infringe on the 
 powers delegated to the Irish Parliament. Furthermore, any 
 Act passed by the Irish Parliament, in pursuance of the powers 
 conferred upon it under Home Rule, could be declared void 
 by the British Parliament, or altered by the British Parlia- 
 ment in any manner that the latter saw fit. It would thus 
 seem that the amount of power that Ireland would have 
 under this Act has been reduced almost to a minimum. 
 
 In addition to these provisions, it was provided that any 
 law made by the Irish Parliament at any time, in pursuance 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 53 
 
 of the powers delegated to it, could become automatically 
 void when the British Parliament passed a general Act in 
 which a different law was made. The only exception to this 
 rule was in the case of Customs and Excise duties, which the 
 Irish Parliament was given power to vary within very narrow 
 and strictly defined limits. Apart from these powers of the 
 British Government to annul or reverse the legislation of the 
 Irish Parliament, the British Lord Lieutenant could be 
 directed by the British Cabinet to postpone for an indefinite 
 period giving assent to any Act passed in Dublin. Even 
 though an Irish Act passed and received the Royal Assent, 
 it could at any time be impugned by any person or corporation 
 as invalid. The question whether an Act of the Irish Parlia- 
 ment, signed in the name of the monarch, which had been for 
 any term of years regarded as settled law, was not and never 
 had been law, was then to be decided by the Judicial Com- 
 mittee of the British Privy Council, sitting in London. This 
 tribunal was to consist of not fewer than four British lawyers 
 and only one Irish lawyer. 
 
 The power of veto and interference thus retained by Eng- 
 land bore no analogy to that nominally retained over the 
 British Colonies. These Colonies control their own Customs. 
 If England attempted to exercise a veto on their Acts, they 
 would retort by increasing the Customs duties on British 
 goods. Under the Home Rule Act, Ireland could impose no 
 tariffs. In the event of the British Parliament exercising its 
 powders to annul, alter, amend, suspend, or override Irish 
 legislation, enacted in pursuance of the powers assigned under 
 the Home Rule Act, Ireland was bereft of the powers of 
 resistance possessed by Canada, Australia, and South Africa. 
 She could do nothing but pass a resolution of protest. To 
 say that, because England did not interfere with her Colonial 
 Parliaments, she would not, therefore, interfere with that set 
 up in Ireland, is to assume more than the facts seem to 
 warrant. Her Colonies were thousands of miles away from 
 her center of Government, and had the fiscal strength to 
 oppose a veto. Ireland is but two hours' sea journey from 
 
54 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 her shores, and was physically and fiscally naked. It is also 
 folly to think that, even though friendly relations came to 
 exist between the two countries, the legislation of each would 
 not at times conflict, since under the most amicable relations 
 the interests of no two countries can always be identically 
 the same. 
 
 At the same time, even the Sinn Feiners admitted that, 
 under Home Rule, some veto power held by England over 
 Ireland (for example, on the question of raising armed forces) 
 was inevitable. The extent and the nature of the veto was 
 the matter for consideration. In his speech on the Home 
 Rule Bill in 1893, John Redmond dwelt on the veto power as 
 the most vital question in connection with Home Rule. It 
 was obvious that, no matter how extensive the powers which 
 a Home Rule measure purported to confer on Ireland, these 
 powers would remain illusory so long as the British held an 
 unrestricted veto. On the occasion mentioned, John Red- 
 mond demanded that a guarantee be inserted in the Home 
 Rule Bill that the British Parliament would not exercise its 
 power of legislation for Ireland over the head of the Irish 
 legislature in respect to the questions committed to its charge 
 by the Home Rule Bill. Mr. Redmond pointed out that, so 
 far from the presence of Irish members at Westminster 
 affording protection against unfair use of the veto powers, 
 their presence there would be an invitation to have it regarded 
 as a Court of Appeal from the Irish legislature. "Men would 
 go there for the purpose of wrecking the Irish constitution by 
 initiating debates on every Irish question." Under such a 
 veto power, he said, Ireland's position after Home Rule could 
 be rendered worse than her position without Home Rule. 
 He stated that Ireland could not tolerate the setting-up of 
 the British Parliament as the Court of Appeal over the pro- 
 ceedings of the Irish legislature, and he claimed that no veto 
 should exist over the Irish Parliament within the limits of its 
 charter save the constitutional veto of the Lord Lieutenant 
 exercised on the advice of a responsible Irish Ministry. In 
 this stand Mr. Redmond was supported by the whole of 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 55 
 
 Ireland, the people recognizing that the position he had 
 taken up was the only correct one. 
 
 Nineteen years later the people were amazed when this 
 obnoxious power was inserted in the Third Home Rule Bill, 
 under which every person in Ireland might, within the law, 
 dispute the legality of any Act of the Irish legislature. The 
 Irish people admitted that everyone was entitled to dispute 
 any Bill that was under consideration, but they held that, 
 once it became the law of the land, such a power would lead 
 to nothing but confusion and trouble. They took the same 
 stand as Mr. Redmond had taken in 1893, but Mr. Redmond 
 and his Party retreated from their position and agreed to the 
 veto power as stated in the Act. On this matter he was 
 opposed by the Sinn Feiners, who held that, so long as the 
 Irish Parliament did not exceed the powers conferred on it, 
 its legislation should not be subject to veto, suspense, altera- 
 tion, or amendment by the British Parliament, save on the 
 advice of the Irish Ministry; that the British Parliament 
 should not at any time legislate for Ireland on any of the 
 matters that had been specifically handed over to the Irish 
 Parliament, and that no Bill of the Irish Parliament, which 
 became an Act by Royal Assent, should have its validity 
 questioned. 
 
 Amongst the powers reserved from the Irish Parliament 
 was the collection of taxes, and under no conditions was this 
 to be placed in the hands of the Irish people. The Irish 
 taxes would be collected by officials of the British Govern- 
 ment, and the cash paid by them into the British Exchequer. 
 This was also a reversal of the proposal of 1893. The revenue 
 collected in Ireland having been paid into the British Ex- 
 chequer, a Board of five persons would then decide how much 
 should be paid out of the British Exchequer into the Irish 
 Treasury. With the sum thus paid, the Irish Government 
 would have to defray the expenses of all the departments and 
 services under its control. It was the opinion of the Sinn 
 Feiners that a government that was not able to collect its 
 own taxes was a jest, and a very sorry one for the Irish 
 
56 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 people. The final part of the joke was that, should it ever 
 be shown that the Irish Government had, for three successive 
 years, a surplus income over expenditure, it would then be 
 arranged that Ireland would pay a contribution to the British 
 Exchequer. 
 
 In addition to this, Ireland, under the Act, would be 
 restricted from making laws respecting the Crown, peace and 
 war, the army and navy, treason, alienage, naturalization; 
 it was expressly forbidden to raise a territorial force, or, 
 should any such force be raised, to exercise any control over 
 it, and also forbidden to make treaties for the purposes of 
 trade with any other countries, including the British Colonies, 
 or to maintain a consular service. She was forbidden to 
 make any legislation with respect to her trade outside her 
 own shores. She was forbidden to make quarantine laws or 
 navigation laws. She was forbidden to exercise any national 
 control over her tidal waters and over her lighthouses, buoys, 
 and beacons. She was forbidden to interfere with the Mer- 
 chandise Marks and similar Acts, to mint her own money, 
 or to change the standard of weights and measures. It was 
 also provided that the Irish Parliament should not make its 
 own qualifications or disqualifications for membership to its 
 own body, whatever qualified a person to be a member of 
 the British Parliament constituting the rule with regard to the 
 Irish Parliament. Furthermore, whatever form of oath the 
 British Parliament administered at any time to its members, 
 would have also to be the form of oath administered to the 
 members of the Irish legislative body. 
 
 In addition to the foregoing, power was also reserved from 
 the Irish Parliament over old-age pensions, national insurance, 
 labor exchanges, post oflSce savings bank, trustee savings 
 banks, friendly societies, public loans made in Ireland before 
 the passing of the Act, and the Royal Irish Constabulary. 
 Provision was made for the ultimate transfer of all of these, 
 with the exception of public loans, at different periods after 
 the establishment of the Irish Parliament. 
 
 The Irish Parliament was to consist of a House of Commons 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 57 
 
 and a Senate, with a total membership of 204. The Senators 
 were to be Government nominees, and the Commoners to be 
 elected on the existing Parliamentary franchise. An Irish 
 Minister might be a member of either House, but could vote 
 only in the House of which he was a member. 
 
 The members of the House of Commons were to be elected 
 for a term of not more than five years. The members of the 
 Senate were to hold office for eight years from the time of 
 their appointment, irrespective of changes of government or 
 of general elections. One-fourth of the Senators would retire 
 every second year, and be eligible for reappointment by the 
 Government of the day. Peers were to be eligible for election 
 to the Commons and for nomination to the Senate, but no 
 dual membership was possible. In addition forty-two Irish 
 members were to be elected to the British Parliament in 
 Westminster, and in this case dual membership was possible, 
 for they were to be eligible to sit in the Irish Parliament, 
 either as elected members of the House of Commons or as 
 nominated members of the Senate, while being at the same 
 time members of the British House of Commons. It was 
 permitted the Irish Parliament to admit women to vote for 
 the election of members to the Irish House of Commons, but it 
 had no power to admit women to vote for the election of 
 Irish members to the British House of Commons. Only the 
 British Parliament itself had the right to confer that power 
 on the women of Ireland. 
 
 These, in brief, are the proposals that were embodied in 
 the Third Home Rule Bill, which later became known as the 
 Home Rule Act. In addition to the restrictions that were 
 made in the Act itself, other and still more obnoxious pro- 
 visions were made in order to limit the power of the Irish 
 Parliament. It does not require a very careful examination 
 to discover the wide difference that exists between the Sinn 
 Fein policy and the Home Rule Act. The one aimed at 
 making Ireland a nation of self-reliant people, with their own 
 trade laws and their own representation; the other merely 
 meant that, within certain narrow limits, Ireland was to be 
 
58 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 permitted to manage one or two of the minor details of her 
 national life, under the strict supervision of England. Both 
 the Sinn Fein policy and the Home Rule Act, however, 
 played their part in leading up to the events that culminated 
 in the Rebellion of 1916, and they cannot, therefore, be 
 ignored as unimportant factors in the situation. Without a 
 knowledge of both, it would be impossible to comprehend at 
 their true value the events which followed. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Ireland at Westminster 
 
 THE events leading up to the introduction and passage 
 of the Third Irish Home Rule Bill — or, as it was 
 officially called, The Government of Ireland Bill — 
 were full of significance for the Irish people, and were in no 
 small measure responsible for the events that startled the 
 world in 1916. Rebellions are not manufactured in a day or 
 a year, and it is necessary to look back a little in order 
 properly to comprehend the causes that give them birth. 
 That in Ireland in 1916 is no exception to this rule. 
 
 For forty-five years Ireland had pursued a policy that was 
 the very negation of the Sinn Fein proposals, a policy of 
 recognition of the right of a foreign assembly to make laws 
 to bind the people of Ireland. This contrary policy consisted 
 in sending 103 men from Ireland to make laws for Ireland in 
 conjunction with 567 Englishmen and Scotsmen — a propor- 
 tion of one Irishman to five-and-a-haK foreigners. It involved 
 the abrogation of the Treaty of 1783, the admission of the 
 validity of the Act of Union, and it extended the color of 
 constitutionalism to every act of the British Government in 
 Ireland, whether that act was in the interests of Ireland or 
 not, and whether or not the Irish members voted for that act. 
 It is a political truism that no country can be governed 
 constitutionally against its will, and, while the people of 
 Ireland, with the exception of a small portion of the Province 
 of Ulster, were practically unanimously opposed to English 
 Government in Ireland, they nevertheless admitted, by send- 
 ing members to the British Parliament, that Ireland was a 
 constitutionally governed country, and that the laws made in 
 England for her — tax laws or coercion laws — were made by 
 and with the authority of Ireland and with her consent. 
 
60 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 The association of the poUcy of Parliamentarianism with 
 the Home Rule movement in Ireland was the result of acci- 
 dent. The Home Rule movement was inspired by the success 
 of Francis Deak in Hungary; and the decision of John Martin, 
 after his election for Meath in 1870, to take his seat in the 
 British House of Commons (instead of, as he originally 
 intended, remaining at home in Ireland), was the chance which 
 converted the Home Rule movement into one relying on 
 action in the British Parliament for its success. Parliamenta- 
 rianism, however, could not have continued to secure sup- 
 port, had not the brilliantly obstructive tactics of Charles 
 Stewart Parnell paralyzed the working of the British legislative 
 machine. 
 
 When the machine was rendered proof against obstruction, 
 Parnell recognized that the sole remaining hope of achieving 
 anything through Parliamentarianism consisted in securing 
 the balance of power between the two British parties. He 
 secured the balance of power, used it, and lost it again. The 
 General Election of 1892 restored the balance of power to the 
 Irish Parliamentary Party, but the party, divided within 
 itseK, owing to the "Parnell Split," did not attempt to make 
 any use of it. In 1906, one year after the introduction of the 
 Sinn Fein policy and after the expiration of eleven years of 
 British Tory Government, the British Liberal Party, whose 
 return to power seemed certain, owing to the nonconformist 
 opposition to the existing school system, was permitted 
 formally to erase Home Rule from its programme, where it 
 had been subscribed since 1886. Nevertheless, the Irish vote 
 in Great Britain, which the leader of the Irish Parliamentary 
 Party claimed controlled 140 seats, was directed to be cast 
 for the Liberal candidates. The Liberals were returned with 
 an overwhelming majority over all parties, and the Irish 
 Parliamentary Party, by relinquishing all effort to secure the 
 balance of power, voluntarily accepted a position incomparably 
 weaker than that which it occupied after the General Elections 
 of 1886, 1895, and 1900. As already said, the policy of 
 obstruction had ceased to be effective, and had been definitely 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 61 
 
 abandoned by Parnell. John Redmond formally inaugurated 
 the policy of wheedling from the strong measures which 
 Parnell would have wrung from the weak. 
 
 Following this came revelations in Ireland that caused no 
 little perturbation among the people, revealing, as they did, 
 something in the nature of an intrigue to rob them of what 
 they hoped would be the fruits of their long fight for legisla- 
 tive independence. The details of these revelations were very 
 carefully suppressed at the time, but the facts are now beyond 
 dispute. That the British Liberal Party very deliberately 
 made a deal to relieve themselves of their promises to the 
 Irish people is certain; and that the Irish Parliamentary 
 Party fell into the trap laid for it, if, in fact, it did not 
 acquiesce in the arrangement, is also demonstrated. It is 
 quite certain that the leaders of the Party were aware of 
 what was going on, and that their oflBcial newspaper organ 
 in Dublin had in its possession facts which it did not use, but 
 instead presented to the Irish people a version of the situation 
 which was diametrically opposed to the actual facts. 
 
 The secret history of the intrigue begins in November, 
 1905, almost to the day when the Sinn Fein policy was first 
 announced to the Irish people. At that time Sir Henry 
 Campbell-Bannerman was called on to form an administration 
 composed of British Liberals. In that administration Sir 
 Edward Grey refused to accept a place, unless the Prime 
 Minister gave him assurance and guarantee that Home Rule 
 would be erased from the Liberal programme. The Duke of 
 Devonshire, the leader of the Liberal Unionist Free Traders, 
 proffered his section of the Liberal Unionist vote on condition 
 that Sir Edward Grey's terms were accepted. During the 
 progress of the negotiations between the Duke of Devonshire 
 and the Prime Minister, Mr. Arthur Griffith, who had come 
 into possession of the facts, called the attention of the leaders 
 of the Parliamentary Party to what was being done, but 
 both these leaders and their press maintained a rigid silence. 
 In December, 1905, the agreement was concluded, and Mr. 
 John Morley, who had previously been named as Chancellor 
 
62 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 of the Exchequer, was compelled to stand down and permit 
 Mr. Asquith, Sir Edward Grey*s colleague and nominee, to be 
 appointed in his stead. On December 28, on the eve of the 
 General Election, Arthur Griffith made a final appeal to the 
 Party leaders, but was again ignored. 
 
 A few days later the British Premier's private secretary 
 announced at a public meeting of the Liberals, amid cheers: 
 "Home Rule is dead!" And the British Prime Minister, 
 addressing his constituents in Scotland, declared he would 
 never vote for a separate or an independent Parliament for 
 Ireland. On the day following this decision, the Irish Par- 
 liamentary leaders issued a statement calling on the Irish 
 voters in Great Britain to support the British Liberal candi- 
 dates. In Ireland, the people generally, owing to the manipu- 
 lation of the daily press, remained for a while ignorant of 
 what had taken place. Within forty-eight hours after the 
 public declaration of the Liberal leaders that Home Rule was 
 dead, the chief organ of the Irish Parliamentary Party wrote: 
 "The two great questions raised for decision at the General 
 Election are Home Rule and Free Trade. Every member of 
 the Liberal Government is in favor of Free Trade for England 
 and Home Rule for Ireland.'* ^ In view of the public declara- 
 tions of some of the Liberal leaders, this statement can 
 scarcely be interpreted otherwise than as a deliberate attempt 
 of the Irish Parliamentary Party to mislead the people. 
 
 Another stage in the intrigue, and one in which the Irish 
 Party was mainly concerned, was reached at the meeting of 
 the Directory of the United Irish League in September, 1906. 
 The United Irish League by this time had become one of the 
 most efficient electoral machines ever seen in Europe, and one 
 that was absolutely at the command of the Irish Party 
 Leaders. Mr. John E. Redmond, who acted as Chairman, 
 moved a resolution empowering the party to accept, on 
 behalf of the Irish people, a lesser measure than Home Rule 
 from the British Liberal Government. The proposal was 
 strongly opposed by the bulk of those members present who 
 
 ^ Freeman's Journal, editorial article, January 2nd, 1906. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 63 
 
 were not members of the British Parliament, but this oppo- 
 sition was almost wholly withdrawn when the Chairman 
 threatened to resign if his resolution were not carried. The 
 resolution undoing the work of Parnell was passed, and the 
 way cleared for the Irish Councils Bill. This Bill, having 
 been drafted, was submitted by the Government to the 
 leaders of the Irish Parliamentary Party and accepted by 
 them. On its being submitted to the Irish people, even the 
 well-oiled machine was unable to conceal the indignation that 
 greeted it. From every corner of the land it was rejected 
 with indignation, and the storm of protest was such that the 
 Liberal Government withdrew the Bill, and, for the time 
 being, the matter was dropped. Mr. Redmond, seeing that 
 the people were not to be fooled altogether, promised that 
 another and a better Bill would soon be forthcoming. There- 
 upon, the people prepared to possess their souls in patience 
 for a while longer, and sat down for another period of 
 waiting. 
 
 During this time the leaders of the Sinn Fein movement 
 were not idle. They not only spread broadcast the truth 
 about the negotiations that had taken place, and which, they 
 declared, had been carried through for the purpose of betray- 
 ing the people, but they increased and strengthened their 
 hold on the people with their own policy. The leaders of the 
 Parliamentary Party became alarmed at the progress that 
 the Sinn Feiners were making, and did all in their power to 
 strangle the movement. Thus, there again occurred in Ireland 
 one of those internal feuds that have been repeatedly the 
 cause of the disruption of the country. In spite of every- 
 thing, however, the Sinn Feiners continued to gather strength, 
 and Sir Thomas Esmond and Mr. Charles Dolan, both 
 members of the Irish Party in the British House of Commons, 
 refused to join in the policy of making Ireland subserve the 
 interests of the Liberal Party managers. While this was 
 going on, the taxation of Ireland was further increased, and 
 every month saw a greater number of young men and women 
 leaving the shores of Ireland to settle in foreign countries. 
 
64 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 where they would have more opportunity of utilizing their 
 natural talents. 
 
 These three years, 1905, 1906, and 1907, may well be 
 regarded as the beginning of the chapter that culminated in 
 the execution of the leaders of the rebellion. The manner 
 in which the Irish Parliamentary Party had been acting 
 in concert with the Liberal Government, had engendered a 
 distrust that became greater and greater as the days passed. 
 Discontent became more and more pronounced, and the 
 manner in which the taxation was going up, and the number 
 of emigrants increasing, made the opposition to the Party 
 the more bitter. It was openly stated that Mr. Redmond 
 and his Party were merely a section of the British Liberal 
 Party, and one event after another seemed to bear out this 
 allegation. There were not w^anting many who stated in the 
 public press that the Party had betrayed the country, and 
 this naturally increased the ranks of those who, believing that 
 there was no hope from the actions of the British Parliament, 
 found themselves thrown back on methods less "constitu- 
 tional" than those advocated by the Parliamentarians. 
 
 The Irish Parliamentary Party supported the Liberal Gov- 
 ernment in voting the increase of taxation. As the best 
 possible explanation of what this meant to the country, 
 already overburdened by British taxes, the following report 
 from the Financial Relations Commission, signed by four 
 Unionists and one Home Ruler, may be quoted. The Com- 
 mission was appointed by the British Government to make 
 inquiry into the alleged discrepancies that existed between 
 taxation in Ireland and the cost of the government of that 
 country. The report states: 
 
 We believe that a large proportion of the so-called local expendi- 
 ture is due to her [Ireland's] connection with Great Britain, and, if 
 the latter country ceased to exist, we see no reason for supposing 
 that the revenue for carrying on the government of Ireland need 
 exceed that, for instance, required in Sweden, where the population 
 is about the same, and where the annual expenditure for all purposes 
 is less than the local expenditure in Ireland. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 65 
 
 The following table has been constructed from oflicial 
 returns to show the free and better known smaller nations in 
 Europe that were able to maintain themselves in prosperity 
 with a lesser annual revenue each year than Ireland was 
 forced to contribute annually to England for the privilege of 
 being misgoverned: 
 
 Country Population Taxation Per Head 
 
 Greece 2,433,806 $5.64 
 
 Roumania 5,936,690 5.76 
 
 Switzerland 3,315,443 6.60 
 
 Wurtemberg 2,169,486 6.84 
 
 Norway 2,240,032 7.80 
 
 Denmark 2,464,770 7.92 
 
 Sweden 5,513,644 8.04 
 
 Ireland 4,376,600 10.38 
 
 And, while this scandalous overtaxing proceeded, the 
 country was bleeding to death. Emigration, in the first 
 eleven months of the same year (1907), reached the total of 
 38,417 persons, as against 35,344 for the preceding twelve 
 months. In the twenty- three months from the time that the 
 British Liberal Party returned to power, nearly 75,000 per- 
 sons, the great majority of them between 17 and 35 years of 
 age, emigrated from Ireland. 
 
 These are facts that cannot be ignored. That they were 
 not ignored, and that the Parliamentary Party and the Liberal 
 Party, whose support they were, were forced to take notice of 
 them, was proven when, in 1911, the Third Home Rule Bill 
 was introduced under circumstances unique in English history 
 and with results that will forever remain engraven in the 
 story of Ireland. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 The Parliament Act 
 
 FROM the time when Gladstone took up the Irish 
 question until the passage of the Parliament Act, 
 the British House of Peers had been the one insur- 
 mountable obstacle to the enactment of a measure of Irish 
 legislative independence. It required no study of the situa- 
 tion to know that at no time would the Upper House of the 
 British Parliament willingly agree to the passage of a Home 
 Rule Bill. There were three reasons for this attitude. In the 
 first place, there was existent among the aristocracy in Britain 
 a hatred for everything that was Irish, since Ireland was 
 always challenging them to appear before the bar of human- 
 ity and answer for their misdeeds; in the second place, Home 
 Rule threatened their pocket-books, for it would mean a final 
 and equitable settlement of the land question; in the third 
 place, it was the policy of the Gilded Chamber to veto, as a 
 matter of course, every piece of legislation that came from a 
 Liberal Government, which, in English politics, espoused the 
 cause of the masses against the classes. It may be well to 
 deal with these matters a little more fully. 
 
 The dislike of the British aristocracy for the people of Ire- 
 land is easily understood. A large percentage of the members 
 of the English nobility were landlords over Irish property. 
 They had, therefore, as already said, every reason to believe 
 that a measure of Irish freedom might very seriously inter- 
 fere with their annual incomes. As it was, all they had to do 
 was to remain at home in London or abroad on the Continent, 
 while their agents in Ireland collected for them the rents from 
 their Irish tenants. The Irish land ownership agitation, 
 which aimed at returning the land to the people, was one 
 that these absentee landlords viewed with a distaste amount- 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 67 
 
 ing to horror. An Irish land reform would inevitably stir 
 up discontent among the English tenants, who, always treated 
 with a certain amount of humanity by their landlords, had 
 not yet felt the real pinch of dual ownership as the Irish had. 
 The nobility, therefore, had a vision of being forced eventu- 
 ually to do something for their living if anything should hap- 
 pen to reduce their rent-rolls, and they were besides firm 
 believers in the inalienable rights of owners that had inherited 
 landed property from marauding ancestors who had been 
 given miles upon miles of fertile Irish land as a reward for 
 their services in extirpating the Gael. Again, they had inher- 
 ited, along with their Irish property, a natural abhorrence of 
 all that savored of Ireland. Ireland was a thorn in their 
 flesh, for it was very difficult to find a pretext for English 
 barbarity there. The tradition that the Irish were a semi- 
 civilized, wholly uneducated race of near-barbarians, who were 
 permitted to exist merely as an act of grace on the part of 
 their English conquerors, brought consolation to their souls. 
 That these same Irish were the heirs of a civilization far older 
 and far more advanced than their own; that Ireland was, as 
 their own Dr. Johnson wrote, "the quiet habitation of sanc- 
 tity and literature," while all the rest of Europe was being 
 overrun by hordes of barbarians, were facts that never pre- 
 sented themselves to their minds. They merely scoffed at 
 all such ideas in that highly superior manner that is peculiarly 
 — and happily — their own. They are, in fact, the same 
 people who consider the citizens of the United States as 
 ''those awful Yankee bounders." And yet many Americans, 
 descendants of men who wrung their liberty from the ances- 
 tors of these same bigots, accept as true and well founded the 
 statements and sneers of these bigots, whose true worth and 
 credibility are shown incontestably by American, no less than 
 Irish history. 
 
 On the other hand, the English nobles were also bitterly 
 opposed to the Liberal Party, owing to the latter's advocacy of 
 measures of reform that, to them, savored of the rankest 
 kind of socialism. That the people of their own country, the 
 
68 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 "lower orders," should aspire to something higher than their 
 daily toil, was something that the Tories were unable to under- 
 stand. When the Liberals were returned to power and pro- 
 ceeded to propose all kinds of novel legislation, such as an 
 Old Age Pension Bill, Workmen's Insurance Bill, and other 
 bills calculated to improve the condition of the "lower orders," 
 the Tories laughed in their sleeves, and howled in their press. 
 They had plentiful reason for their laughter, owing to the 
 fact that the House of Lords was overwhelmingly Tory, and 
 every bill proposed in the Lower Chamber had to be sub- 
 mitted to the Lords for their approval before it could pass 
 into law. The Upper Chamber, being hereditary and not 
 elective, remained always a Tory bulwark of protection against 
 the legislation of the Liberals. When the Tories were returned 
 to power by the country, the House of Lords lapsed ever in 
 a condition of slumber; but, when the Liberals were per- 
 mitted a brief period of activity, the Lords discovered that 
 they had a function under the Constitution, and amended or 
 vetoed everything the elected house chose to do. 
 
 The fact that the Liberal Government which succeeded the 
 Tory Boer War Government was suspected of alliance with 
 the Irish Party, caused so much resentment among the Tories, 
 and the Tories raised so much trouble among the electors, 
 that, as has already been recorded, the Liberals were scared 
 of the Home Rule issue and publicly eliminated it from their 
 platform. For the average Englishman draws the line at 
 extending to Ireland the sympathy he feels for oppressed 
 classes at home. The manner in which the Irish people 
 scorned the Councils Bill and every suggestion to accept a 
 lesser measure than Home Rule warned, however, the Irish 
 Party at Westminster and their Liberal colleagues that some- 
 thing would have to be done, as the Irish voters in England 
 had secured the election of a large number of Liberal members. 
 It was planned to introduce a Home Rule Bill to satisfy the 
 Irish people, in the certain belief that it would receive its 
 quietus in the House of Lords. This plan, however, did not 
 appeal to David Lloyd George, who was anxious for other 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 69 
 
 reasons to clip the wings of the Upper Chamber, instead of 
 giving them the poHtical prestige of another victory. At the 
 same time the Sinn Fein movement was gaining ground with 
 so much rapidity that Mr. Redmond warned the Govern- 
 ment that the situation was serious, and that the only thing 
 left for them to do was to introduce a Home Rule Bill 
 that would have some chance of acceptance by the Irish 
 people. 
 
 In the meantime. Chancellor Lloyd George and Premier 
 Asquith had decided on a definite plan of campaign. As it 
 seemed impossible to pass any remedial legislation for England 
 and carry out their election promises to the country, the 
 Liberals decided that the only thing to do was to put it out 
 of the power of the House of Lords to mutilate and destroy 
 Liberal bills. It was thus decided to send as many Bills as 
 possible up to the Lords. Should the Lords reject them, 
 the widespread indignation among the various sections of the 
 electorate interested in the various Bills could be utilized to 
 end once and for all the veto which the Lords placed on ail 
 Liberal legislation. As, owing to the vast influence exercised 
 by the Lords through their social and financial standing, a 
 close and bitter election might be expected, the support of the 
 Irish throughout the United Kingdom was necessary for the 
 success of their plans. Hence, it was decided that a new 
 Home Rule Bill should be drafted and included in the scope 
 of the Parliament Bill, which was to deprive the Lords of 
 their veto. 
 
 Briefly, the Parliament Act provided that any bill passed 
 in three successive annual sessions by the Lower House in 
 the same form should become the law of the land whether 
 the Upper House approved of it or not. In order that this 
 should be possible, it was, of course, necessary that this 
 amendment to the British Constitution should be passed 
 under the old system, and the Tories were at first jubilant, 
 owing to their belief that such an outrageous piece of legis- 
 lation would be thrown out of the House of Lords the moment 
 it made its appearance. But David Lloyd George had not 
 
70 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 forgotten that contingency, and, with the introduction of the 
 ParHament Bill, it was also made known that its rejection 
 by the House of Lords would be the signal for the creation of 
 a sufficient number of Liberal Peers to override the Tory major- 
 ity in the Upper Chamber and pass the Bill. Then it was 
 that the Tories began to get really worried. That it was 
 within the power of the Liberal Premier to demand from the 
 Sovereign the creation of the required number of Peers, there 
 was no doubt; and the Tories were faced with the prospect 
 of having their blue blood thinned out by the introduction of 
 a horde of tradesmen peers, and the Bill passed in spite of 
 themselves, or of cheerfully agreeing to pass the measure that 
 meant their own political effacement. After a heart-rending 
 struggle, and a general election in which the people returned 
 the Liberals to power, they chose the latter course. 
 
 The passage into law of the measure that made the will of 
 the elected representatives of the country supreme over the 
 hereditary House of Lords was hailed with considerable 
 enthusiasm in Ireland. Under the old regime the question 
 always asked concerning the fate of a measure of relief for 
 Ireland, was: '*How will it get past the Lords.?" To this 
 question there was never a satisfactory answer. Now, how- 
 ever, the way was clear, and there could be no longer any 
 excuse for a failure to pass a Home Rule Bill. The Liberals 
 had a substantial majority in the House of Commons, with, 
 of course, the Irish vote. Without the support of the Irish 
 vote, they would have been in a very precarious position, and 
 would certainly have been driven from office long before the 
 outbreak of the war. The people in Ireland were well aware 
 of this, and were all the more confident that the Home Rule 
 Bill would be something worth w^hile. The Liberals, they 
 argued, would not fail to deal well with those who had kept 
 them in office, and had made possible the passage of much 
 remedial legislation for the English people. 
 
 The defeat of the Unionists threw the latter into consterna- 
 tion for the time being. The Parliament Bill became law on 
 August 18, 1911, in spite of the assertions of the Tories that 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 71 
 
 the King would not sign it. This, however, George V did, 
 it being one of the first oflBcial acts of his reign. On Novem- 
 ber 8, following a prolonged crisis in the ranks of the Tories, 
 the leader of the opposition, Arthur James Balfour, was 
 forced to resign. The announcement that his leadership had 
 come to an end, even for the time being, was another occasion 
 for rejoicing in Ireland, where the name of Balfour was hated, 
 and not without good reason. 
 
 Speculation as to the provisions of the long-expected Home 
 Rule Bill then became the leading topic of the hour. There 
 were rumors that the Tories were planning to defeat the 
 Government, and thus make it impossible for the Liberals 
 to bring in the bill at all. As a matter of fact, they actually- 
 succeeded in outvoting the Government by means of a 
 cleverly engineered "snap" division, but the Liberals, having 
 still their Irish majority back of them, refused to resign on 
 account of what was, after all, merely a trick, and went ahead 
 with their proposals. 
 
 Every hint as to the scope of the Irish measure was eagerly 
 taken up by the people and discussed again and again. 
 When, in October of 1911, Chief Secretary Birrell stated that 
 the Home Rule Bill would bring into existence in Ireland an 
 Irish Parliament consisting of two chambers, and having full 
 power and control over all purely Irish concerns, the highest 
 hopes were raised in Ireland, and never before had the out- 
 look appeared to be so promising. Even those who were 
 most opposed to the methods of the Parliamentary Party, 
 owing to their conviction that the English would never give 
 Ireland her legislative independence, were forced to remain 
 silent and await the outcome. Many of them even expressed 
 the opinion that it was possible that the English at last meant 
 to do the right thing, and that the Bill would at least be of 
 value as a stepping stone to something better in the future. 
 These hopes were brought to the highest pitch of anticipation 
 when Premier Asquith announced that the Bill would be 
 introduced in the February or March of 1913, and Mr. Red- 
 mond, in the course of a public speech, assured the Irish 
 
72 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 people that the Bill would be one that would in every way be 
 satisfactory to the Irish Nationalists. 
 
 The Bill was introduced in the House of Commons on 
 April 11, 1912, Premier Asquith being its sponsor. Up to 
 the afternoon of its introduction practically nothing of impor- 
 tance regarding its provisions had been permitted to leak 
 out. When its scope became fully known, there was intense 
 disappointment among all classes in Ireland. The pledge 
 given by Mr. Birrell and the assurance of Mr. Redmond, 
 already referred to, were recalled with not a httle bitterness, 
 when it was found that neither had been fulfilled. The chief 
 defects of the measure have already been pointed out, and 
 the people, who had had time to imbibe much of the teach- 
 ings of the Sinn Feiners, were disappointed at the very limited 
 amount of power that the Bill granted to Ireland. The 
 clauses providing that the British Government should hold 
 an absolute veto over every act of the Irish Parliament, 
 whether pertaining to purely Irish affairs or not, and that 
 all the taxes were to be gathered by English officials and 
 turned over to the British treasury, were keenly resented. 
 
 At the same time it was agreed that the Bill was better 
 than nothing at all, and that it would mean the insertion of 
 the thin edge of the wedge. Even if, as one Irishman re- 
 marked, compared with something it was nothing, compared 
 with nothing it was something. It was realized that there 
 was room in the measure for building up, and that the mere 
 presence of an Irish Parliament in Dublin would put new life 
 and spirit into the people and strengthen them for the secur- 
 ing of the complete independence of the country. While the 
 Sinn Feiners and other kindred organizations held this view, 
 there were others who believed that, with a few improvements 
 that could be secured later, the Bill would confer sufficient 
 power on Ireland to enable her to regain something of her 
 old place in the world, even though remaining an integral 
 portion of the British Empire. It is quite possible that those 
 who were of this opinion were in the majority in the country. 
 What is certain is, that no one believed in the assertion of 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 73 
 
 Mr. Redmond that the Bill offered a jfinal settlement of Irish 
 claims, and that it was practically the unanimous opinion of 
 Nationalists of every shade of opinion that the Bill should be 
 accepted in spite of its very obvious defects. 
 
 There was, however, one section of the British electorate 
 of the contrary opinion, who refused to accept the Bill under 
 any consideration, who declared that, if the Government 
 persisted in passing it, they would declare war on the Empire, 
 would ask the assistance of the German Emperor, and would 
 plunge the entire country into civil war. Needless to add, 
 these were the English Tories and the Irish Protestant Orange- 
 men, both parties under the leadership of Sir Edward Carson. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 Carson and his Volunteers 
 
 IT has been stated that one of the main contributory 
 causes of the RebelHon of 1916 was the action taken by 
 Sir E. Carson when he and his Tory colleagues came to 
 the conclusion that they could no longer repose their con- 
 fidence in "constitutional" methods to defeat remedial legis- 
 lation for Ireland. The defeat of the Lords and the apparent 
 determination of the Liberals to proceed with the legislation 
 they had announced, had forced upon the Unionists the con- 
 viction that they had been beaten in the Houses of Parlia- 
 ment. Thereupon they determined that they would try other 
 methods. 
 
 Some of the reasons why the Tories and their supporters 
 objected to the granting of a measure of freedom to Ireland, 
 however mean and halting it might be, have already been 
 indicated. It is scarcely necessary to add that these were 
 not the reasons which the supporters of the Union advanced 
 in public. They alleged that the Bill would place the Protes- 
 tant minority in the north of Ulster under the domination 
 of the Catholic majority, and that, as a result of this, all the 
 Protestants would immediately be foully murdered in their 
 beds on some dark night when the police were not looking. 
 While this seems grotesque, it was, nevertheless, the actual 
 main argument that the Unionists had to advance against 
 the Bill, the real truth being, of course, that they feared the 
 passage of Home Rule would mean the end of the reign of 
 privilege in Ireland and the granting of equal rights to both 
 Protestant and Catholic. As a matter of fact, the Bill con- 
 tained clauses specifically drafted for the purpose of meeting 
 this form of argument and for the absolute safeguarding of 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 75 
 
 the lives and the property of the Protestants in Ireland — 
 clauses which, in the meanness of their insinuations, were an 
 insult to the fair and generous nature of the Irish people. 
 
 In spite of this, and the fact that the Liberals permitted the 
 Bill to be amended in various ways so as to remove further 
 the alleged fears of the Tories, Mr. Bonar Law, who had 
 taken the place of Balfour as Tory leader, announced in the 
 House of Commons that Ulster would prefer civil war to any 
 form of Home Rule, and added the significant statement that, 
 if the bill was persisted in, it would mean the transfer of the 
 Tories' allegiance to "a foreign power." In view of the other 
 statements of Carson, the actual leader of his party, to the 
 effect that they would prefer the government of the Kaiser to 
 that of George V, if Home Rule were enacted, there was little 
 doubt left as to what "foreign power" was meant. 
 
 Then, as a last resort and a sop to the Tories, the Govern- 
 ment made the indefensible suggestion that Ireland be par- 
 titioned, and that those counties of Ulster opposed to the 
 Bill be cut out from its scope. It was only to be expected 
 that this proposal should arouse a storm of protest in Ireland. 
 The people of Ireland very rightly held that every part of 
 the four Provinces was part of Ireland; that there could be no 
 division of Ireland, and that to set up two separate and dis- 
 tinct methods of government in one country was but to make 
 the situation in Ireland more complicated and more dangerous 
 and still further from a settlement. Besides, to call upon the 
 most highly taxed country in Europe to support two distinct 
 governments simultaneously, while contributing also to the 
 Imperial Exchequer, was little less than insanity. Yet Mr. 
 Redmond and his party accepted the proposal, and agreed 
 to the partition of the country. The offer was promptly and 
 scornfully rejected by the Unionists, who again expressed 
 their determination not to permit any part of Ireland to have 
 a Government of its own, whether that part should or should 
 not include those counties of Ulster where the Tories had a 
 majority of the vote. Thus matters were once more at a 
 deadlock. 
 
76 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 In the meantime Carson had been busy in another direc- 
 tion. He had made a spectacular descent upon Belfast, the 
 capital of the North, and had there formed his League of 
 Covenanters, fashioned after those who had once figured in 
 the history of Scotland. He immediately began the gathering 
 together of an army to resist by force the designs of the Gov- 
 ernment. This was the birth of the new Volunteer movement. 
 By an efficient publicity campaign, carried on with enthusiasm 
 by the Northcliffe papers, the movement was bolstered up 
 and subsidized, until it assumed proportions that were actu- 
 ally menacing. A fund of $5,000,000 was subscribed, and 
 Sir E. Carson declared in the Commons, and not without 
 the best of reason, that the entire Unionist party in England 
 and Ireland was at the back of his Volunteers and would 
 support them in armed rebellion in Ulster. This blatant and 
 rampant declaration of treason on the part of Carson and 
 those who followed his flag, was laughed at by the Govern- 
 ment and by the Liberal Press. 
 
 Yet there was no possible doubt that the situation in Ulster 
 had become serious. While it is very probable that the 
 leaders of the "civil war" movement were merely playing a 
 game of bluff in order to scare the Government and turn the 
 tide of popular opinion in their favor at the next election, 
 their inflammatory speeches and the manner in which they 
 were left unmolested by the Government had a serious effect 
 on those of their followers in Ulster who accepted at its face 
 value all that had been told to them. Over and over again 
 the Tories demanded that the Government appeal to the 
 people, being under the belief that their warHke preparations 
 would lead the people to believe in their threats and vote 
 against the Home Rule Bill. When it was announced by 
 Bonar Law, however, that the Tories would refuse to accept 
 the Bill even in the event of the country deciding in favor of 
 it, the Government decided they would not make an appeal 
 to the country, that they had their duly elected majority, and 
 that they would go ahead with the work. Bonar Law's 
 declaration merits special attention in view of subsequent 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 77 
 
 events. As leader of the Tory Party, he declared that con- 
 stitutional government, or government by the majority of the 
 people, was dead in England, in so far as he and his party 
 were concerned. Force, and force alone, was to decide the 
 settlement of the Irish question. 
 
 In October, 1913, Bonar Law solemnly declared that the 
 passage of the Home Rule Bill would mean the shedding of 
 blood. He said that they had an army in Ulster that would 
 accept no compromise, that they had all the guns they needed, 
 and that they would be able to secure the services of some of 
 the leading generals in the British army. He also boasted 
 that there was not a regiment in the army that would fire a 
 shot against the rebels of Ulster; that there was not a vessel 
 in the navy that would bombard them, no matter what the 
 orders were that the Government might issue. He also 
 hinted that, if the worst came to the worst with the rebels, 
 they would be able to secure the services of Germany, that 
 the Kaiser would assist them, and that the persecution of the 
 Ulster rebels would be the signal for the downfall of the 
 British Empire. These statements, that would have caused 
 so much sensation and indignation had they been uttered by 
 an Irishman, were laughed at by the Government, and the 
 Liberal newspapers waxed witty at the expense of the 
 Carsonites. 
 
 While this was being done, the people of Ireland outside of 
 Ulster were remarkably calm. While there were few who 
 failed to see the danger of the situation, all felt that they 
 were perfectly competent to handle whatever situation might 
 arise after the passage of Home Rule. It is certain that they 
 were not in the least disturbed at the prospect of the British 
 Empire being overthrown by the men of Ulster. The Irish 
 who were able to think outside of the limits prescribed by the 
 United Irish League, the electoral machine of the Parlia- 
 mentary Party, were of the opinion that, as soon as the 
 Ulster Protestants got rid of the delusions into which their 
 English leaders had beguiled them, they would be on the 
 side of Ireland, and fighting for Ireland as determinedly as 
 
78 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 the Nationalists themselves. At the same time they did not 
 ignore the danger of the situation, and it soon became obvious 
 that a crisis was at hand. 
 
 The boast of the Tories that they had the army at their 
 back was soon verified in a manner as startling as it was 
 dramatic. The Tory members of Parliament began to absent 
 themselves from the sittings in Westminster, evidently realiz- 
 ing that they had nothing to gain there, and went over to 
 Ulster, where they joined the Volunteers and posed before 
 the moving picture cameras for the benefit of the Northcliffe 
 papers. The fact that the Ulster Volunteers had been drilling 
 for months with broom handles had made them the subject 
 of ridicule in the British Liberal press, but this humor became 
 rather worn when the broom handles were exchanged for 
 actual rifles. These rifles were imported from America and 
 from Germany, while the Birmingham Small Arms Company 
 also supplied the would-be insurgents with arms and ammuni- 
 tion. Gun-running along the Ulster coast became a popuW 
 sport, and the newspapers were repeatedly filled with the 
 exploits of the Ulstermen. Rifles were imported by the thou- 
 sands, machine guns followed, and a most elaborate and highly 
 organized military machine was gradually being perfected 
 under the eyes of the British Government, with its knowledge 
 and tacit consent, and without any interference. There is 
 little room for wonder that the Carsonites were jubilant, and 
 that they became more and more arrogant as the days went 
 by. The Government continued to giggle in its sleeve, and 
 the arms continued to pour in. 
 
 Before the end of 1913 there had arisen in Ireland a situa- 
 tion that was fraught with considerable danger. On the one 
 hand was the Parliamentary Party, allied heart and soul with 
 the British Liberals and, like them, affecting to scorn the 
 preparations made by the men who were led by Carson. 
 They had all their faith pinned on the passage of the Home 
 Rule Bill, and affected to believe that all the guns and 
 ammunition imported into Ulster were all for the sole purpose 
 of impressing the British voter. On the other side were the 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 79 
 
 Unionists, English and Irish, who stated that they had no 
 longer any use for the British Parliament, that they would 
 pin their faith on the doctrine of physical force, and would 
 rise in armed rebellion if the Home Rule Bill was signed by 
 the British monarch. Between the two were the people of 
 Ireland, strangely divided as to what to do, yet trusting that 
 the Ulster Volunteers would come to their senses and join 
 with them in the common task of rebuilding the nation, 
 instead of selling themselves for the sorry purpose of plucking 
 out of the fire the chestnuts of the English nobles and Com- 
 moners who had property in Ireland and were afraid that 
 their rent-rolls might be curtailed under a native legislature. 
 Up to the end of 1913 the work of organizing the Ulster 
 Volunteers continued. Nothing that could be done to inflame 
 the passions of the Orangemen against their fellow-Irishmen 
 was left undone. The threat of Germany was repeated again 
 and again, and there were well-defined and uncontradicted 
 reports to the effect that Carson had his ambassador in 
 Berlin, making the necessary negotiations for assistance from 
 the Germans when the time should come, and had even 
 himself visited the Kaiser. Still the Government remained 
 inactive. Cannons, large and small, were imported; armored 
 automobiles were brought into Ulster; 50,000 men, it was 
 said, were well armed and equipped; all the machinery of a 
 Provisional Government was prepared; tents, baggage, ambu- 
 lance wagons, regiments of cavalry, corps of motor cycle 
 scouts and dispatch riders — everything, in fact, that could 
 add to the efficiency of the "rebel" forces, was brought into 
 being. Disloyalty was sown broadcast in the British army. 
 The English Tory aristocracy entered with enthusiasm into 
 the treason. Lord Northcliffe, Lord Londonderry, Lord 
 Abercorn, Lord Willoughby de Broke, Lord Roberts, and a 
 score more of the representatives of the titled and privileged 
 class entered with Sir Edward Carson into the plot. At last 
 the situation became such that the Liberals decided it was 
 time to take some action, and they ordered certain of the 
 regiments quartered at the Curragh, in County Kildare, to 
 
80 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 proceed to Ulster to uphold the dignity of His Majesty's 
 Government. The officers of the regiments in question 
 promptly mutinied. 
 
 The mutiny at the Curragh had a profound effect through- 
 out both Ireland and England. The Liberals were thunder- 
 struck. The Tories were jubilant. They had made good 
 their threats that the army would refuse to take action against 
 them, and that, as soon as they declared their Provisional 
 Government, they would have the support of all the British 
 troops quartered in Ireland. The resignation of General 
 French (who later was eager for Irish soldiers to assist him in 
 Flanders), followed by that of General Ewart, and the threat 
 that many more would follow if the Ulster rebels were mo- 
 lested, caused another sensation. The Government decided 
 that it was not the time to take action, allowed the mutineers 
 and the traitors to have their own way, and settled down once 
 more to their task o^ trying to kill the Carson Army by quips 
 in their daily and weekly papers. 
 
 But, while this was being done and the general muddle was 
 becoming more and more involved, there were some men who 
 were not idle. The men who had never trusted in England's 
 promise of justice to Ireland had been watching the course 
 of events with a keener interest than anyone else. These 
 men had never lost their conviction that well-phrased pleas 
 for justice would never influence Enghsh minds. England 
 would grant Ireland only what she feared to refuse. To 
 expect altruism from a foreign government was foolish. In 
 the manner in which the Ulster Volunteers organized, and the 
 manner in which the Government dealt with the situation, 
 they saw the way to the accomplishment of their own plans. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 The Irish Volunteers 
 
 NOVEMBER, 1913, will mark the beginning of a new 
 epoch in the history of Ireland. Towards the end 
 of that month the Irish Volunteers sprang into being, 
 spread throughout the land with a rapidity that amazed even 
 the most ardent and enthusiastic, and presented the British 
 Government with a new angle to a situation that was fast 
 slipping from its control — if, in fact, it had ever at any time 
 had actual control of the position of affairs in Ireland. 
 
 On Wednesday evening, November 26, 1913, the Irish 
 National Volunteers were organized. The inaugural meeting 
 was held in the historic Rotunda, at the corner of Parnell and 
 O'Connell Streets, not in the actual building itself but in 
 the large skating rink just north of it and in the Rotunda 
 Gardens. There had been but little publicity given to the 
 meeting. The Irish Independent and the Freeman's Journal 
 practically ignored the requests that were made to them to 
 publish notice of the coming meeting in their news columns. 
 The meeting was scheduled to begin at eight o'clock, and at 
 half -past seven a. heavy drizzle of rain settled down over the 
 city, accompanied by a thick, chilling fog that hung like a 
 blanket over everything. Yet at half-past six the approach 
 to the Rotunda Rink was packed with a vast crowd of men, 
 waiting in quiet and orderly manner for the doors to be 
 opened. There were a few women there also, but they were 
 there in the role of sightseers, and took no active part in the 
 meeting. 
 
 Inside the great rink all was bustle and animation for two 
 or more hours before the opening of the doors. The men 
 who had charge of the arrangements, practically every one 
 of whom was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, 
 
82 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 had brought to the meeting 5000 enlistment blanks for dis- 
 tribution among the men in the audience. These were handed 
 out in books of one hundred each to the stewards, who were 
 directed to return the fiUed-in blanks to the secretaries after 
 the meeting. The entire hall was brilliantly lighted, and a 
 large platform had been erected on the north side with seats 
 for five thousand people facing it on three sides. 
 
 That meeting was one of the most wonderful ever held in 
 the City of Hurdles. From Glasnevin and Drumcondra on 
 the north, from Phibsboro on the west, from Howth and Clon- 
 tarf and Dollymount on the east, and from Terenure, Rath- 
 mines, and Inchicore on the south, thousands of men and lads 
 traveled through the city to the Rotunda. From Finglas and 
 Dalkey and Kingstown and Bray they came, and from every 
 side and corner of the ancient city itself. Young men and 
 boys, old men, men married and single, marched through the 
 fog and the drizzle, singing and laughing, happy as only a 
 Dublin crowd can be happy when it chooses, and one and all 
 animated with the same thought — that after months and 
 years of inaction there was at last going to be something 
 practical done, that the call to arms had been sounded, and 
 that they were there to answer the call. 
 
 At seven-thirty the doors were thrown open and the im- 
 mense crowd surged in, filled with enthusiasm but yet without 
 disorder. As if by magic, the five thousand empty seats were 
 filled, and still the men marched through the doors, not in 
 twos or threes but in a steady and seemingly never-ending 
 stream. When the order to close the doors was carried out, 
 the immense throng that gathered outside in the gardens 
 bore down the doors by sheer weight, the woodwork on both 
 sides being also torn from its place. Despite the inclement 
 weather conditions prevailing outside, those who were unable 
 to gain access to the rink remained in the gardens, striving 
 to gain some indication of what was being done inside and 
 cheering when those inside cheered. 
 
 A rather illuminating incident took place some little time 
 before the meeting started. The police authorities, not think- 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 83 
 
 ing that the matter was one of any importance, detailed two 
 officers to guard the gates. When the proportion of the 
 gathering was borne slowly in on these representatives of an 
 alien law, they telephoned for assistance, with the result 
 that reinforcements were hurried to the scene. One of the 
 new arrivals, who had apparently become possessed of the 
 idea that the meeting was an illegal one and that they had 
 been sent to suppress it, lost no time in asserting himself. He 
 alighted from a trolley car at the moment that a number of 
 men marched up to the gates from O'Connell street. The 
 officer placed his burly form square in the entrance and per- 
 emptorily ordered the men to go back. One young lad, who 
 had a hurley^ on his shoulder, waved the w^eapon in the air 
 and commanded the policeman to get out of the way. In a 
 second the officer was surrounded by angry men, and it was 
 only the prompt intervention of his comrades on his behalf 
 that saved him the necessity of taking a trip to the nearest 
 hospital. The word was hurriedly whispered to him that 
 there were ''thousands more of 'em inside," and he took his 
 place in the gutter with his wiser comrades. 
 
 It is unnecessary to state that the utmost enthusiasm pre- 
 vailed throughout the meeting. Eoin MacNeill, Professor of 
 the National University and Vice-President of the Gaelic 
 League, presided over the meeting, and made a stirring 
 appeal. A number of other speeches added to the interest, 
 but the real work was done by the stewards who distributed 
 the recruiting blanks among the men in the rink. As has 
 been mentioned, there were 5000 of these on hand, and it was 
 expected that this number would be sufficient for some con- 
 siderable time to come. The men who planned the meeting 
 would have been well satisfied if they had been able to 
 secure 5000 Volunteers in three months. The actual fact was 
 that within two hours there was not a single unsigned blank 
 to be had in the rink. In that period of time the stewards 
 had disposed of every blank that had been received from the 
 printers, and the men who had not been able to secure blanks 
 ^ A stick used in hurling. 
 
84 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 wrote out their pledges on the backs of envelopes, the margins 
 of newspapers, and anything else on which the words could 
 be inscribed. 
 
 The only pledge that was asked of the Volunteers was that 
 they would do everything to secure and establish the peace 
 and prosperity of Ireland. They were not asked to aflSliate 
 themselves with any other organization, or in any way to take 
 sides with others than their fellow- Volunteers. The keynote 
 of all the speeches that were made was, that it was not the 
 intention of the Volunteers to band themselves together in 
 opposition to the men of Ulster, or to oppose any party, any 
 section, or any nationality. There was nothing said against 
 Mr. Redmond or the Parhamentary Party. There was no 
 attack on England, either the people of that country or their 
 government. All that they were there to take care of was 
 Ireland — to unite together in arms for the purpose of doing 
 all that lay in their power to further the interests of Ireland, 
 to protect Ireland against any aggressor, and to assist the 
 promised Irish Parliament in the carrying out of its legal 
 acts. 
 
 There was, however, one little feature of the meeting that 
 did not escape notice, and which had a significance all its 
 own. Every one of the stewards and officials at the meeting 
 wore on the lapel of his coat a small silken bow, the center 
 of which was white, while on one side was green and on the 
 other side orange. The green, white, and orange had long 
 been recognized as the colors which the Irish Republican 
 Brotherhood had adopted as the Irish national banner, of 
 which more will be said later on. The green, white, and orange 
 prevailed at the Volunteer meeting, and there were few if 
 any present to whom it did not recall the old Fenian motto: 
 "Only the Gael can make laws for the Gael." 
 
 A scene remarkable in its intense and unbounded enthusi- 
 asm marked the close of the meeting. When it was announced 
 that over 5000 men had that night joined hands once more to 
 take up arms for the defense of Ireland, the cheer that rang 
 out from the seven thousand persons present might almost 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 85 
 
 literally have rent the roof. It was a cheer that was echoed 
 later throughout the land, that increased in volume with the 
 passing of the days, that burst forth in renewed vigor on that 
 morning of April 24, 1916, when the tricolors of the Irish 
 Republic flew from the flagstaff of the Dublin Post Office. 
 
 Two days later, on Friday, November 28, an Arms Act, 
 prohibiting the importation into Ireland of arms and ammuni- 
 tion of all descriptions, was proclaimed throughout the length 
 and breadth of the land, promulgated by the British Liberal 
 Cabinet and signed with the seal of King George V. 
 
 At the risk of recapitulating, we must again state that these 
 facts must be borne carefully in mind by those who wish to 
 gain a clear and unbiased view of the Irish Revolution. For 
 two years the Orangemen, led and financed by English 
 Members of the Imperial Parliament, had been drilling, 
 importing arms, cannon, machine guns, ammunition, and every 
 other engine of war; had openly preached armed defiance of 
 the decrees of the Government; had stated that they would 
 call the German Emperor to their aid; had, in a word, com- 
 mitted the most flagrant treason in every sense of the term, 
 and had been allowed to do so undisturbed. The British 
 Army generals and officers, who were directly and indirectly 
 responsible for the mutiny at the Curragh, had been allowed 
 to go unpunished; one concession after another had been 
 granted by the Liberals to the Carsonites, until the Home 
 Rule Bill had been whittled down to a shadow, and the Irish 
 people had sat idly by, law-abiding and peaceful, waiting for 
 the fulfillment of the many long-deferred promises that had 
 been made to them. All of this time Mr. Redmond and his 
 colleagues had voted with and thereby sustained in power 
 the Liberal Government, until it had become a common taunt 
 in the mouths of the Tories that the Government had been 
 "saved by the Irish." 
 
 Yet, within forty-eight hours after the formation of the 
 Irish Volunteers, who expressed no menace to anyone and no 
 word of treason, and who desired only to secure the protec- 
 tion of their own people, that same Liberal Government, still 
 
86 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 aided by the Irish ParHamentarians, proclaimed an Arms 
 Act throughout the land, making it legally impossible to 
 obtain arms for these Volunteers. The Carsonites, the avowed 
 and bitter enemies of the Government and of the Irish Party, 
 had been allowed two full years in which to prepare, two years 
 during which there had been no such thing as an Irish Volun- 
 teer in the land; but immediately the Nationalists sought to 
 exercise the same right to bear arms, a "friendly'* govern- 
 ment — which, one might have imagined, would have looked 
 to them for assistance — and the men who claimed to repre- 
 sent them in the British Parliament, combined to take from 
 them those rights which they had tacitly granted to the 
 Volunteers of Ulster. It is scarcely a subject for wonder that 
 the people of Ireland began to ask themselves a few pertinent 
 questions, and to wonder who were their foes and who were 
 their friends. 
 
 The immediate effect of the action of the Government was 
 to stimulate recruiting in the Irish Volunteers to such an 
 extent that the movement spread throughout the country 
 like wildfire. North, west and south of Dublin the move- 
 ment spread until the campaign became nation-wide. With 
 an ardor that few had believed possible, the men of the nation 
 flocked to the banner of the Volunteers, and night after night 
 was spent in drilling and marching and in the teaching of the 
 art of the soldier to the boys and men of the Fighting Race, 
 who had for so many years been forced into acquiescence with 
 a merely political propaganda — a propaganda which had, in 
 its last stage, degenerated into a mild milk-and-water effort 
 to gain for Ireland "freedom" in the shape of a third-rate 
 debating society masquerading as a National Parliament. 
 
 Just what were the objects the British Government sought to 
 gain by its actions in regard to the Volunteers, and in which 
 it was supported by the votes of the Irish Party in West- 
 minster, is likely to remain one of the inscrutable mysteries 
 of history. With a total disregard of public opinion, they 
 did not vouchsafe to take the people into their confidence. 
 Even while the Arms Act was in force, the Ulster Volunteers 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 87 
 
 carried out a number of sensational gun-running exploits 
 under the very eyes of the authorities. The Nationalists were 
 forced to ask themselves why it was that there should be one 
 law for the men of Ulster and another for the rest of Ireland. 
 They wondered if the British Government was sincere about 
 Home Rule, or if it was allowing the Tories to go ahead so 
 as to have an excuse of letting the Bill drop. This, it was 
 argued by some, would explain why they were so anxious to 
 prevent the National Volunteers from securing arms. If the 
 Government were playing a fair game with the Irish people, 
 why, it was asked, did they proclaim the Arms Act only after 
 the Irish Volunteers were organized? Were Mr. Redmond 
 and his followers in the House of Commons working merely 
 in the interests of the British Empire, or were they working 
 to secure legislative freedom for Ireland? If the latter, why 
 was he against the Irish Volunteers? Why had he allowed 
 the Government, which he controlled, to permit the Carson- 
 ites to arm, and then allowed that same Government to pre- 
 vent the rest of the country from doing the same thing? It 
 was well realized that the Government had to depend on him 
 for its existence. Firm action on his part would either throw 
 the Government out of office, wreck all its plans, and consign it 
 to political oblivion for another generation, or would compel 
 that Government to apply the law equally throughout the 
 whole of Ireland. Answers to these questions were not forth- 
 coming, but the Volunteers continued to gain strength, and 
 the unrest and dissatisfaction throughout the country con- 
 tinued to grow until, at the end of 1913, the situation had 
 come to assume all the proportions of a crisis pregnant with 
 disaster for one side or the other. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 The Massacre of Bachelor's Walk 
 
 EVENTS followed one another with startling rapidity 
 after the formation of the Irish National Volunteers. 
 Both in Ireland and England it was felt that the 
 advent of the year 1914 meant the dawn of vital things for 
 Ireland. The political atmosphere was charged with all the 
 elements of storm, and it was felt that the crisis that had 
 been so long deferred could not be held back for another 
 twelve months. In the first place, the Home Rule Bill was 
 scheduled to pass into law in the fall of the year. That, 
 in itself, was sufficient to render inevitable action of some 
 sort by one of the opposing sides. Then, again, the fact that 
 there were two sets of Volunteers in Ireland, one with a 
 declared purpose of civil war and the other with a temper 
 rapidly rising, did not render the situation any less threaten- 
 ing or complicated. 
 
 The year had not far advanced before it became obvious 
 that the dominating factor in the situation promised to be 
 the Irish Volunteers. In spite of the fact that the official 
 Parliamentary Party, which claimed to control ninety per 
 cent of the Nationalists, had first of all frowned upon the 
 Volunteers, had acquiesced in the effort to prevent their 
 securing arms, and had then done everything in its power to 
 suppress the movement without making its hostility too patent 
 to the people, the Volunteers continued to add to their num- 
 bers and influence in every part of the country, until it 
 became obvious that they were a force which must be reck- 
 oned with and could no longer be ignored. It was thereupon 
 decided to try other tactics. 
 
 The actions of the British Government had already clearly 
 shown that the Liberals did not look with favor upon the 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 89 
 
 Irish Volunteers, however tolerantly they may have been 
 inclined to regard the Volunteers of Sir Edward Carson. In 
 fact, the manner in which the Government had acted lent 
 color to the rumors that were in circulation to the effect that 
 the Government intended at the last moment to destroy the 
 Home Rule Bill, to cite the existence of the Ulster Volunteers 
 as an excuse for their action, and to trust to the fact that 
 these Volunteers were sufficiently well trained and well armed 
 to cow the rest of the Irish people into an acceptance of their 
 fate. That this feeling became stronger with the passing of 
 the days has since been demonstrated in an unmistakable 
 manner, and at the same time there became noticeable a 
 growing feeling of discontent with the Parliamentary Party 
 and with the mean and halting Provisions of the Home Rule 
 Bill. 
 
 Mr. Redmond, always an astute politician, was not slow 
 to notice that the situation had changed and that his power 
 had weakened. His official newspapers had poured ridicule 
 upon the Volunteers, stating that they were controlled by a 
 party of men who had long been discredited in the eyes of 
 the world and doing everything in their power to prevent 
 the young men of the country from joining them. They 
 seemed to forget that the Irish are naturally a martial people, 
 more prone to action than to secret diplomacy; that the Vol- 
 unteers' appeal to the oldest traditions of the race was one 
 almost impossible to resist; that the precedent of Grattan's 
 Volunteers was a most powerful argument, and that the pos- 
 sibility of a betrayal at the hands of the Liberals was gradu- 
 ally becoming a matter of serious moment in the eyes of the 
 rank and file of the Irish people. 
 
 The newspaper campaign against the Volunteers having 
 failed, still another change of tactics was decided on. When 
 the National Volunteers were organized the previous year, it 
 was publicly stated that the Provisional Committee and the 
 officers of the central organization in Dublin would hold 
 office only until such time as the various branches of the 
 Volunteers could send delegates to a National Convention, 
 
90 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 when the delegates would elect their own Committee and their 
 own officers. At the time when the arrangements for the 
 holding of this convention in the Rotunda in DubUn were 
 almost completed, the entire country was thrown into a state 
 of agitation by the sudden demand, made by Mr. Redmond 
 upon the Provisional Committee, that he be permitted to 
 co-opt to that Committee a number of members equal to 
 nearly twice the number of those who at that time composed 
 the committee. In his letter of demand Mr. Redmond stated 
 that the then governing body was unrepresentative of the 
 people, and that, as the leader of the Irish Party, he had the 
 right to the control of the organization. 
 
 It is possible that, if Mr. Redmond had confined his demand 
 to an equal representation on the committee, a great deal of 
 unpleasantness might have been avoided. As it was, the 
 fact that nothing less than a clear and overriding majority 
 would satisfy the Parliamentary leader was so very obvious 
 that the men whose efforts had brought the Volunteers into 
 being entered a strong protest against so unreasonable a 
 demand. It must also be said that these men were sus- 
 picious of the motives that actuated Mr. Redmond*s action. 
 It seemed palpable to them that he was acting in concert with 
 the British Government, and that it was the hope of the 
 British Government to disrupt the National Volunteers. 
 They, therefore, refused the demand, and said that the matter 
 would be best decided at the Convention. 
 
 In reply to this Mr. Redmond made a still more insistent 
 demand upon the Committee, and received a reply that it 
 was the intention of the Provisional Committee to resign 
 office immediately the Convention met. They appealed to 
 Mr. Redmond, for the sake of national unity, to withdraw 
 his demands and to leave the election of the Governing 
 Committee and the officers to the election of the delegates 
 at the Convention, assuring him at the same time that he 
 and his party would have an absolutely free hand at that 
 time to do everything they wished to secure the election of 
 men who were supporters of the Parliamentary Party. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 91 
 
 Mr. Redmond's reply to this was an ultimatum. Ignoring 
 the appeal, he served notice on the Provisional Committee 
 that they would have at once to agree to his appointing a 
 majority on their committtee, or — and he made the threat 
 positively and in so many words — he would "smash the 
 entire organization." As it was known that he had the ready 
 and willing assistance of the British Government at his com- 
 mand for so patriotic a work as the smashing of the Volun- 
 teers, the Provisional Committee considered that there was 
 nothing left for them to do but to permit Mr. Redmond to 
 assume at one and the same time both the command of and 
 the responsibility for the Volunteers. This was done, and 
 was followed by an immediate splitting of the organization 
 into two opposing factions — one consisting of the followers 
 of the men who had formed the Volunteers in the first place, 
 and the other of those who accepted the leadership of Mr. 
 Redmond's nominees on the committee. At the command 
 of Mr. Redmond the proposed Convention was abandoned. 
 It seemed almost as though the official Irish leader was afraid 
 of allowing the rank and file of the Volunteers the exercise 
 of a vote in the selection of their officers. 
 
 This split, however, did not manifest itself at the time, the 
 members of the enlarged committee working together in appar- 
 ent harmony with one another. The actual division of opinion 
 came about owing to a different conception of the scope of 
 the Volunteers. It was apparently the desire of Mr. Red- 
 mond, as expressed by his nominees on the committee, that 
 the Volunteers should not arm to any extent, a fact which 
 gave further impetus to the rumors that a betrayal was 
 planned, with the sinister feature added that the Parlia- 
 mentary Party was aiding and abetting that betrayal. On 
 the other hand, the section of the Volunteers that held to the 
 ideals that gave birth to the movement were determined that 
 the men should be armed, and they set about carrying that 
 determination into effect. This was to be shown in a tragic 
 manner in the middle of the year. 
 
 On a cloudless morning in late July some watchers high up 
 
92 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 on the Hill of Howth saw a white-winged yacht bending its 
 way to the harbor beside the village. One of them had a 
 telescope to his eye, and, even as he watched, he noticed a 
 small flag waving from the landward side of the vessel. 
 Although the flag was small, the man on the hill saw through 
 his glass the bright colors of the orange, white, and green 
 standing out in bold relief. He said a word to his compan- 
 ions, and together they ran along the steep and stony path 
 that winds down to the village. Within the next few minutes 
 words of vital import were being whispered over the electric 
 wires to Dublin. This was on Sunday morning, July 26th, 
 1916. 
 
 Other early risers remarked that morning that the Volun- 
 teers were out for an early march. They passed along the 
 broad road that winds beside the sea all the way from Amiens 
 Street Station in Dublin to the foot of Howth Head. There 
 were not a great many of them, and they carried no weapons, 
 but they marched along singing and whistling and obviously 
 in the best of good humor. The morning was one of those 
 warm, soft Irish mornings that are peculiar to the country, 
 when the sea and the sky seem to blend together in a tender 
 union, and the air is laden with the many perfumes of the 
 gardens and the fields. It was the kind of morning that 
 might appropriately be given up to dreams and the writing 
 of poetry. Yet it was on such a day that stern deeds had 
 been again and again enacted on Irish soil. 
 
 As the yacht drew up alongside of the little pier, the con- 
 tingent of Volunteers swung around the bend, and a rousing 
 cheer broke simultaneously from the marchers and those on 
 the vessel. Without a moment's loss of time, hundreds of 
 rifles and rounds of ammunition were unloaded from the 
 yacht and piled up on the quay. Here willing hands took 
 charge of the rifles, handing them over to waiting lines of 
 men, each of whom slung three or four over his shoulder. 
 The ammunition was also taken care of, and, when the 
 yacht had been relieved of its cargo, the men began their 
 march back to Dublin. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 93 
 
 So far the gun-running exploit of the Volunteers had been 
 carried through with brilliant success. The arms had been 
 brought in, and had been placed in the hands of those who 
 most needed them. It is true that one lone policeman at the 
 village had attempted to stop the landing, but his effort had 
 merely added the requisite touch of humor to the proceedings. 
 But the oflBcer of the law, who probably felt that his dignity 
 had been outraged, while powerless to prevent the "lawless- 
 ness" of the Volunteers, was not slow to think of a means of 
 preventing the arms being placed in safekeeping. Thus it 
 happened that the same telephone wire that only an hour or 
 two previously had carried one message to Dublin, now car- 
 ried an urgent message of a very different character. 
 
 The return march of the Volunteers was a parade of triumph. 
 They carried their empty guns on their shoulders with all the 
 pride of the tried veteran returning from the field of victory. 
 As they passed the people on the roadside, they were greeted 
 with the cheers of hundreds who realized what had been done. 
 Hundreds turned back from their contemplated trip to Howth, 
 and thus it happened that a numerous and enthusiastic com- 
 pany of men were soon marching towards Dublin with visions 
 of the freedom of Ireland dancing before their eyes. 
 
 At the outskirts of the city, within the borough of Fairview, 
 it was seen that there were other marchers out that morning. 
 The telephone message of the lone policeman had done its 
 work, and a company of the King's Own Scottish Borderers, 
 a British regiment which had recently been drafted from 
 England into the capital, had been dispatched to intercept 
 the Volunteers and take the arms from them. When the two 
 bodies of men were close together, the Scottish soldiers came 
 to a halt and spread across the road, holding their loaded 
 rifles at the ready. The Volunteers halted also. The British 
 officer thereupon ordered that the arms be turned over to his 
 men, promising that, if this were done, the Volunteers would 
 be allowed to return to their homes unmolested. 
 
 It happened, however, that the Volunteers preferred to take 
 the chance of not returning to their homes at all rather than 
 
94 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 surrender the guns. They intimated as much to the captain, 
 who then told his men to take the guns from the Irishmen. 
 In the melee that followed the Volunteers defended them- 
 selves with the butt-ends of their rifles, and were successful 
 in holding their ground. A number of them held the soldiers 
 at bay until their comrades had got a good start along the 
 road leading to Drumcondra, in the northern section of Dublin 
 City. The defenders of the pass then beat a strategic retreat 
 themselves, leaving the baffled soldiery angry and discom- 
 fited. Every rifle that had been landed was taken safely 
 into the city by the Volunteers. 
 
 There was great rejoicing in Dublin during the day. The 
 news of the exploit spread like wildfire through .every quarter 
 of the city, and the greatest jubilation prevailed. The little 
 scrimmage was looked on as an initial victory over the foreign 
 garrison, which, for reasons that are abundantly clear, was 
 always cordially hated by the Irish people. It was obvious, 
 also, that the King's Own Scottish Borderers were smarting 
 under a feeling that they had been defeated, and the fact 
 that the men who had beaten them carried only empty guns 
 did not add to their good humor. Instead of returning to the 
 city after the incident, they decided to remain on the Howth 
 Road for a time and enjoy the sea air. The fact that they 
 seemed afraid to return through the city soon became known 
 in Dublin and but added to the gaiety of the situation. 
 
 In the cool of the evening the British warriors came march- 
 ing back once more. The city was there to meet them. All 
 along their line of march they were watched by the people, 
 and smiles were not infrequent. Knowing the delicate sensi- 
 bilities of the British redcoat, however, no words were ad- 
 dressed to them, the people being quite content to watch 
 them marching past, minus the guns they had gone out to 
 obtain but failed to bring back. At the corner of Bachelor's 
 Walk and O'Connell Bridge, however, a small boy made a 
 remark that reached the ears of the British officer. That 
 remark was not complimentary, and was also heard by the 
 scores of people close at hand. Within less than thirty 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 95 
 
 seconds the oflScer had halted his detachment, faced the men 
 about, and at the word of command a volley of rifle bullets 
 crashed into the crowd. This was twice repeated, while the 
 dazed and defenseless men, women, and children ran wildly 
 for shelter. Then the King's Own Scottish Borderers faced 
 around again and resumed their march to barracks, leaving 
 the street littered with the bleeding bodies of the dead and 
 the dying. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 The King's Veto 
 
 THE killing of four persons and the wounding of sixty 
 others by the British troops at Bachelor's Walk sent 
 a thrill of horror through the four provinces of Ireland. 
 The wantonness of the attack, the ruthless firing of the military 
 upon an unarmed crowd of men, women, and children, did 
 more to stimulate the Volunteer movement than anything 
 else that had happened since its inauguration. It was felt 
 by the men of the nation that the crisis had arrived, that 
 they would have to face the loaded rifles of the British again, 
 and they naturally decided that it would be better for them 
 to have the means of defending themselves. 
 
 However inconceivable it may seem, the British Govern- 
 ment took no effective steps to punish the officer responsible 
 for the murders. An inquiry was, of course, ordered, but 
 it came to nothing. Neither did Mr. Redmond and his 
 colleagues take any steps to bring the Government to a proper 
 realization of the crime that had been committed, in spite of 
 the fact that it was by virtue of their votes that the Liberals 
 held office. It became more and more obvious that the views 
 of the Sinn Feiners, who held that the British Liberals and 
 the British Tories were alike enemies of the Irish people, 
 were further confirmed by the events of each succeeding day. 
 First, the Home Rule Bill, on its introduction, was a very- 
 much weaker measure than had been expected; then it had 
 weakened little by little by concessions to Sir Edward Carson 
 and his Volunteers, and the partition of the country had 
 been virtually agreed on. Then the Ulster Volunteers had 
 been allowed to arm and become an efficient fighting force, 
 while the Irish Volunteers had been prevented from securing 
 arms, and every effort had been made by the Government, 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 97 
 
 assisted by Mr. Redmond, to disband the organization. 
 Lastly, the Ulster Volunteers had been allowed to land arms 
 since the proclamation of the Arms Act, while the Irish 
 Volunteers had been intercepted by the military, who, in 
 revenge for their disappointment, had massacred and wounded 
 Irish men and women and children in the very center of 
 Dublin. 
 
 In conjunction with all of this, the appeal was being con- 
 stantly made by Mr. Redmond and the British Government 
 to forget old sores, to let the history of the past be buried for 
 all time, to permit the centuries of murder, pillage, and out- 
 rage committed by the British on the Irish to be consigned to 
 the limbo of forgotten miseries, to renounce every ideal of 
 National liberty, and to accept instead a pitiable sop of paro- 
 chial legislation, which even many of its supporters declared 
 would prove unworkable in practice and to which, such as 
 it was, a string was attached. Even while the declarations 
 of eternal friendship and lasting brotherhood were being ex- 
 changed between the Irish Parliamentary Party and the 
 leaders of the British Government, the officials of that gov- 
 ernment were doing everything that lay in their power to 
 promote new hatreds and revive the old. 
 
 Yet, while apparent harmony reigned in Westminster, and 
 the Irish members and their British brethren fraternized on 
 the Terrace of the Parliament House over their strawberries 
 and cream, the Irish people, the Irish Volunteers and the 
 relatives of those who had been killed and wounded in the 
 massacre were looking at matters from a very different angle. 
 Even those who had previously scouted the idea that a 
 betrayal was contemplated now began to wonder what could 
 be at the back of all these ominous incidents, and what events 
 in the future they might portend. Men went around with 
 anger in their hearts and grim resolve in their minds. Vol- 
 unteers who had hitherto clung to the Parliamentary Party 
 went over to those whose doctrines had been best expressed 
 in the landing of the rifles at Howth. The split between the 
 two sections became wider and more pronounced, and it was 
 
98 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 not long before there were two distinct organizations, — one 
 under the control of Mr. Redmond, known as the National 
 Volunteers, and the other led by men of various organizations, 
 who believed that a final resort to physical force was inevi- 
 table, known as the Irish Volunteers. From the time of the 
 outrage on Bachelor's Walk, defections from the ranks of the 
 National Volunteers to the Irish Volunteers continued in an 
 ever-increasing stream. At the time when Mr. Redmond had 
 forced his nominees on the Provisional Committee, there were 
 over 166,000 men in the Irish National Volunteers. Within a 
 few weeks of that action more than 3000 of these had broken 
 away from the Parliamentarians to form the Irish Volunteers, 
 and their strength continued to grow week by week, while 
 that of the National Volunteers decreased correspondingly. 
 Professor Eoin MacNeill, who had presided at the inaugural 
 meeting in November, 1913, was the recognized leader of the 
 Irish Volunteers, while Mr. Redmond was supposed to be the 
 leader of the others. 
 
 Meanwhile the wordy warfare continued across the channel, 
 the people in Ireland turning more and more to their own 
 country for a settlement of the question and leaving the 
 politicians to make the best they could out of the muddle. 
 When the British Parliament opened on February 10, 1913, 
 the Irish question was the leading topic of the day. The 
 Home Rule Bill came up for its first reading on its third and 
 supposedly final trip through Parliament, and was passed by 
 a substantial majority. On the occasion of the Second Read- 
 ing, on March 9, Premier Asquith made his suggestion that 
 various sections of the Province of Ulster be excluded from 
 the scope of the Bill. His proposals raised a storm of protest 
 throughout Ireland, the reasons advanced against this latest 
 concession to the Carsonites being threefold: first, the senti- 
 mental objection that Ireland was Irish from the center to the 
 four seas, and that any partition was a violation of the natural 
 rights of the people; second, the grave injustice of expecting 
 Ireland to support two governments; third, to cut off a por- 
 tion of the northern province would be but to accentuate and 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 99 
 
 make permanent the artificial division that had been created 
 by the Tory Party and fostered by England for centuries pre- 
 viously with the object of driving a wedge between the North 
 and the South. Mr. Redmond accepted the proposals; Sir 
 Edward Carson refused to accept the Bill, even thus amended. 
 
 Briefly, the proposals were that a poll of the Parliamentary 
 electors should be taken in the counties of Ulster, and that 
 any county in which a majority of the voters so desired might 
 be excluded from the operation of the Home Rule Act for a 
 period of six years from the date of the first sitting of the 
 Irish Parliament. Each county so excluded would retain its 
 representation in the United Kingdom House of Commons. 
 This would allow time for at least two general elections in the 
 United Kingdom, and five or six years' experience of the 
 Dublin Parliament, before Ulster could be asked to submit to 
 Irish Home Rule; and then its inclusion would take place 
 only with the full and mature consent of the British electorate. 
 As the Nationalists had a majority in six of the eleven coun- 
 ties (the cities of Belfast and Derry being counted as counties 
 for the purposes of the vote), the Unionists could count only 
 on securing the exclusion of five counties in all. The per- 
 centage of Nationalists in Tyrone was 55, in Cavan 81^, in 
 Monaghan 74f , in Donegal 78y^^, in Fermanagh 56, and in 
 Derry 56. The Unionists, therefore, could at the most count 
 only on gaining the exclusion of the counties of Antrim, Down, 
 and Armagh and in the cities of Londonderry and Belfast. 
 As Belfast is situated in County Antrim, and the Tory major- 
 ity in the City of Londonderry would probably be more 
 than neutralized by the Nationalist plurality in the country 
 districts, an attempt was evidently made to slur over the 
 fact that six of the nine counties in Ulster were Nationalist. 
 There was even some doubt as to the ability of the Tories to 
 gain a clear majority in all of these districts, as many of the 
 Presbyterians would certainly vote for Home Rule. 
 
 It is very probable that one of the chief objections to the 
 scheme entertained by the Unionists was that it would very 
 probably show to the world that they were supported only 
 
100 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 by a very small section of the country, whereas it was always 
 their contention that they represented the entire province of 
 Ulster. Outside possibly one-sixth of the territory of that 
 Province, Ulster was Nationalist, and the Tories were too well 
 aware of the fact to evince any enthusiasm for the proposed 
 vote. What they asked for was the permanent exclusion from 
 the scope of the Home Rule Act of the entire Province, and 
 that was more than Premier Asquith was willing to concede 
 at that time. Asquith promised that he would embody his 
 proposals in an Amending Bill, to be introduced as soon as the 
 opportunity arose. 
 
 Following this attempt at a patchwork compromise, the 
 Curragh "mutiny" threw the Tories into an ecstasy of delight, 
 their leading newspapers openly espousing the cause of the 
 officers who had refused to entrain for the north of Ireland 
 when ordered to do so by the Government. The Liberals 
 went ahead as though nothing had happened, the Home Rule 
 Bill passing its second reading by a vote of 356 to 276 on 
 April 6. The third and final reading was then passed on May 
 25, the vote being 351 to 274, a majority for the bill of 77, 
 and nothing remained but the Royal Assent to place the 
 measure on the Statute Book. 
 
 On June 23 Lord Crewe, on behalf of the Premier, intro- 
 duced in the House of Lords the Amending Bill. This pro- 
 vided that if, within three months after the passing of the 
 Amending Bill, not less than one-tenth of the Parliamentary 
 electors in any county in Ulster should so petition, a poll 
 would be taken on the question of temporary exclusion. If a 
 majority of the votes cast favored exclusion, the Home Rule 
 Act would not apply to that county until the expiration of 
 six years, beginning on the day of the first meeting of the 
 Irish Parliament, and then only when this extended applica- 
 tion of the Act was ratified by the British Parliament. The 
 House of Lords, however, so radically amended the Amending 
 Bill before according it a third reading on July 14, that no 
 expectation could be entertained of its acceptance by the 
 Commons. Then, for four days, July 21-24, the leaders 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 101 
 
 met together in secret conference in Buckingham Palace in a 
 final endeavor to settle the vexed question. The conference 
 proved a failure, and on July £6 the military murders on 
 Bachelor's Walk blasted the last hopes of peace. To render 
 the situation even more critical, the fact leaked out that two 
 days previously, on July 24, the Ulster Volunteers, in defiance 
 of the Arms Act and under the very eyes of the police and 
 the military, had successfully landed a consignment of 25,000 
 Mauser rifles and a million rounds of ammunition at Larne 
 in County Antrim. 
 
 Thus it was that every attempt made by the politicians to 
 settle the Irish question ended in failure. One concession after 
 another in connection with a bill that even in its original 
 form was studiously weak and mean, had not placated the 
 British Tories or the Ulstermen who allowed themselves to be 
 led by them. Conference had also failed. It appeared that 
 nothing could avert trouble, and, in the midst of it all, the 
 British soldiers had committed a dastardly, brutal, and cow- 
 ardly crime upon unoffending civilians. It seemed that the 
 shadow of Home Rule, won by the Irish Parliamentary 
 Party after so many years of effort and after so many millions 
 of dollars had been voluntarily contributed by the Irish 
 people throughout the world, was certain to go into effect 
 and that with it the country was to be torn by fratricidal 
 strife to serve the interests and the bigotry of a few British 
 landlords. It was at this period that the Tories chose to play 
 the last card they possessed. 
 
 From about the time of Queen Anne the King's Veto had 
 been one of the least interesting curios of the Constitutional 
 Museum in Britain. There was a time when the British 
 monarch had the power to veto, of his own will, any Act of 
 Parliament that did not exactly meet with his approval. For 
 centuries that power had been a dead letter, and the position 
 of the monarch had been reduced to that of a laced and uni- 
 formed figure-head, ornamental perhaps but useless. The 
 British monarch was not allowed to make a speech which was 
 not written for him by his Prime Minister, and, in the case 
 
102 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 of King George V, the Royal Person was especially well taken 
 care of by his Cabinet. According to the established rule 
 of British political procedure, even the name of the King could 
 not be mentioned in the same breath as a party issue, it 
 being the tradition that the King owed allegiance to no party, 
 but did as he was told and collected his salary. As to George 
 V attempting to exercise a Royal Veto over an Act which 
 had been passed three times by the elected House of Commons, 
 such a suggestion would have been considered insane. 
 
 The Unionist leaders, however, very seriously proposed 
 that, as they had been beaten by the Government and the 
 electorate in every effort to secure the defeat of the Home 
 Rule Bill, King George should refuse to sign it. That the 
 greatest pressure was brought to bear on the unfortunate 
 figure-head is certain. It has already been pointed out that 
 the power behind the opposition to the Home Rule Bill was 
 mainly the aristocracy, who drew a handsome sum in rentals 
 annually from Ireland, and who feared that some of this 
 might be cut off if the Irish people had anything to say in 
 the control of their own affairs. In addition to being the 
 crowned head of the British Empire, King George was also a 
 human being, with frailties somewhat above the average. 
 He moved in aristocratic circles, and, when the aristocrats 
 began to point out to him the awful prospect they fancied 
 confronted them, and mentioned that he had the power to 
 prevent the calamity, the King was naturally moved. That 
 this emotion was accentuated, rather than relieved, when 
 mention was actually made of the possibilitj^ of a boycott of 
 his Court by the Lords and Ladies of the land, is also a reason- 
 able supposition. In any case, the fact remains that the King 
 postponed signing the Act on the day appointed, thereby con- 
 firming the last lingering doubts of the Irish people that 
 trouble of the worst kind was at hand. 
 
 Throughout the country the bitterest resentment was 
 expressed; the men flocked to the banner of the Irish Volun- 
 teers, the leaders of whom seemed to be the only ones who 
 had the real national interests of the nation at heart. Red- 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 103 
 
 mond had agreed to the partition of the country; Carson 
 was breathing fire and brimstone, and his men were well 
 drilled and well armed; the policy of *'No Rifles" had been 
 carried to the fullest extreme by the Parliamentarian leaders 
 of the rapidly dwindling National Volunteers; the Liberals 
 had gone to the limit of concessions with Carson, and had 
 allowed the Curragh mutineers and the murderers of the 
 King's Own Scottish Borderers to go unpunished; and finally 
 King George had decided that he could not at the time place 
 his royal signature at the foot of the poor measure of self- 
 government that had escaped the muddle and mismanage- 
 ment of two years of talk. There seemed nothing left that 
 offered hope but the policy of the men who had never com- 
 promised; who had always been on the side of Ireland a 
 Nation, One and Indivisible; who had never acknowledged 
 the right of an alien people to make laws for the Irish, and 
 who were now prepared to oppose force with force. 
 
 And then, like a bolt out of a clear sky. Great Britain 
 became involved in war with Germany. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Under which Flag? 
 
 FOR a decade and a half there had been talk of war 
 between Great Britain and Germany. During the 
 second Boer war the question of possible German 
 intervention on behalf of the two South African Republics 
 had been persistent, and the grimmest threats were circulated 
 in England as to the fate that awaited Germany if anything 
 of the kind was attempted. During the Liberal administra- 
 tion which followed, and which was still in office when war 
 was declared, the Unionist newspapers were never weary of 
 attacking the Government on the ground that they were 
 cutting down the naval and military estimates at a time when 
 every day brought nearer the outbreak of war with the Ger- 
 man Empire. During the "silly season," when the papers 
 were short of '*copy," scare stories became a popular pastime, 
 retailing the most startling stories of midnight visits of Ger- 
 man Zeppelins over the coastal towns of England; and 
 German plots and German plans for the sudden descent on 
 the ** tight little island'* were being discovered at the rate 
 of at least one per week. In spite of all this, the Liberal 
 Government professed the most absolute contempt for the 
 machinations of the Kaiser, declaring that, whenever Germany 
 wanted war, the British Empire was ready to accept the 
 challenge. Meanwhile, the policy initiated under Edward VII 
 was continued by Sir Edward Grey, and Germany was en- 
 circled by a ring of enemies united in defensive and offen- 
 sive alliances so that the German Government could watch 
 the steady progress of a plot for the eventual destruction of 
 their country and its interests. 
 
 It is not within the province of this history to apportion 
 the blame for, or to trace the causes of, the world-wide 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 105 
 
 conflict which burst into flame towards the end of July and 
 in the opening days of August, 1914. The question of impor- 
 tance here is the part that Ireland played in that conflict. 
 Immediately on the outbreak of the war, the claim was made 
 on Ireland that she should bear her share in the war, that she 
 should send her sons to the army, and should do her utmost 
 in crushing the enemies of the British Empire. That she 
 did not respond to this call, there is not the slightest doubt, 
 and it is but fitting that the pros and cons of the case be now 
 taken into consideration. 
 
 In the first place, what were the arguments advanced by 
 the British to induce the Irish to take up arms against 
 Germany? It was stated that the Irish should spring to 
 arms in defense of the Empire, because Ireland was an integral 
 part of that Empire; that the fortunes of Ireland were inti- 
 mately bound up with those of the British Empire, and that, 
 with the downfall of that Empire, Ireland also would be 
 trampled into the dust. "Defend the Mother Country," 
 was the appeal; "the Germans are your enemies as much as 
 they are our enemies; the Irish are the finest fighters in the 
 world, and now is the time to show your valor." A common 
 race, a common cause, a common community of interests — 
 all of these were urged as reasons why Ireland should forget 
 her age-long grievances and throw herself heart and soul into 
 the conflict. 
 
 There were other arguments advanced. It was stated that 
 Ireland, as a matter of gratitude for the passing of the Home 
 Rule Bill, owed to England every man that could shoulder a 
 musket. The superhuman efforts made by the Liberals to 
 redress the grievances of Ireland, which have been detailed 
 in previous chapters, the steadfast manner in which they had 
 fought the battle for the Irish against the forces of the 
 Unionists — these and a thousand other matters were brought 
 into the limelight, and added to the appeal made by the 
 Empire to the little impoverished nation of four and a half 
 million souls, that lay across the Irish Channel. 
 
 And then there were other reasons. It was stated that 
 
106 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 the Germans, if they should conquer England, would make 
 slaves of the Irish, would make them speak German, and 
 would absorb them into her terrible military machine, which 
 would crush out all the fine spirit of nationality that had 
 been so distinguishing a feature of the Irish character for 
 centuries past. Unmentionable atrocities of the Germans in 
 their advance through Belgium were pointed to also — the 
 outrages committed upon harmless priests and nuns, the 
 shelling of Catholic churches, and much more to the same 
 effect. There were so many sound and wholesome argu- 
 ments, said the British apologists, why Ireland should kill all 
 the Germans in sight, that no reasonable Irishman had any 
 alternative but to don the British khaki and place himself at 
 the disposal of His Majesty the King. In view of all this, 
 it might seem surprising that the Irish failed to respond. 
 What were their reasons .^^ 
 
 That Ireland was an integral portion of the British Empire, 
 that there was a common bond of sympathy and nationhood 
 between Ireland and England, was denied, and denied in a 
 manner that left no room for doubt. The appeal in- this 
 regard fell on deaf ears. The Milesian Gael had nothing in 
 common with the Anglo-Saxon-Danish-Norman-Dutch Eng- 
 lishman. In culture, civilization, religion, language, moral 
 and ethical codes, there were no ties between Irish and 
 English. The only ethnological relationship betw^een the two 
 peoples was the fact that both were members of the genus 
 homo, and the actions of the British in Ireland had at times 
 made it appear as if the British held even this relationship 
 in some considerable doubt. The keenly imaginative, poeti- 
 cal, vivacious Irishman had nothing in common with the 
 phlegmatic, commercialized, and dull-witted Englishman. The 
 appeal to racial relationship, therefore, was in vain. 
 
 That the Germans were common enemies of Ireland as well 
 as of the British Empire, was another argument that needed 
 little to explode it. Of all the peoples of the earth, the 
 English were the only nation with whom the Irish had been 
 at war. The French had always been friendly to Ireland; 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 107 
 
 of the Russians the Irish knew only that they had bitterly 
 and brutally oppressed the Poles and the Jews; of the Ger- 
 mans they knew that they were pioneers in literature, science, 
 art, and the study of social welfare; of the British they knew 
 that they had oppressed the Irish for seven hundred years. 
 There were more bonds of sympathy between the Irish and 
 the Germans than between the Irish and the British. The 
 Germans had done much to encourage the revival of the 
 Irish language; Professor Kuno Meyer, a German, was one 
 of the most learned Gaelic scholars in the world. Many 
 Irish parents sent their children to German educational 
 establishments; few of them were sent to the colleges and 
 universities of England. The British had been the hereditary 
 enemies of the Irish race, while the Germans had always been 
 sympathetic, at least on the surface, to the cause of Irish 
 freedom. 
 
 As to the forgetting of Irish grievances, this was an appeal 
 that was becoming tiresome in its monotony. Before Ireland 
 could be asked to forgive and forget, some evidence of Eng- 
 land's regret for the outrages committed and of her desire 
 to make restitution should certainly be forthcoming. The 
 fact that the officers responsible for the Massacre of Bachelor's 
 Walk had gone unpunished proved that England refused to 
 acknowledge herself at fault. *'The leopard cannot change 
 its spots," said the Irish people, "and England is still the 
 mother of murders and outrages to-day, as she was in the 
 days that have passed." It was one thing to forgive the in- 
 juries of the past; it was another to forgive unrepented 
 murders which still reddened the stones of the streets of 
 Dublin. The Irish might be generous almost to a fault, and 
 unmindful of their own interests, but their passions were warm 
 and not to be subdued by the weak excuses of a bully in 
 distress, and it was in this light that the Irish looked upon 
 Great Britain. 
 
 That the Liberals had stood steadfast to their determination 
 to pass the so-called Home Rule Bill might be admitted with 
 some qualifications; that the Empire had thereby earned the 
 
108 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 gratitude of the Irish people was a typical specimen of the 
 Englishman's lack of humor. Ireland asked for justice, not 
 for favors. The Home Rule Bill, as has been amply demon- 
 strated, was a half-hearted measure at the best, designed 
 mainly as a payment for the support Mr. Redmond and 
 his colleagues had given the Liberals in the House of Com- 
 mons. By no stretch of the imagination could it be termed 
 a just or final settlement of Ireland's demands to manage her 
 own affairs. That Ireland owed a debt of gratitude to 
 England for this measure was never even seriously con- 
 sidered in Ireland. What had Britain done to repay the 
 Irish for the years of misery that had followed the British 
 occupation centuries before .f* What had the Empire done to 
 repay Ireland for thousands of murdered sons and daughters, 
 for fertile fields devastated and homesteads rendered desolate? 
 What had the Empire done to repay Ireland for her wrecked 
 industries, for her martyred patriots, for her population cut 
 in half in fifty years? Surely Ireland owed no debt of grati- 
 tude to Britain for the Home Rule Bill that had been reduced 
 to the irreducible minimum, which had brought the country 
 to the verge of civil war, and had been bitterly assailed by 
 one-half of the British people. 
 
 The English said that Ireland would have to stand or fall 
 with the British Empire. Irish history did not bear out this 
 interested contention on the part of the British. Ireland had 
 been able before to hold her own against the world, and there 
 was no logical reason why she should not do the same again. 
 There were many other small nationalities in Europe that 
 held their independence; why not Ireland? With a crushed 
 and fallen foe on her eastern frontier and the entire stretch of 
 the vast Atlantic washing her western shores, there was more 
 reason for Ireland being independent than Holland, Sweden, 
 Denmark, Switzerland, and others of the small nations of 
 Europe, who were more closely surrounded by giant powers 
 and mighty armies that had only to walk over the frontier 
 to the attack. With the gaining of independence, it was also 
 pointed out, the population of the country would naturally 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 109 
 
 increase with the return of many of the exiles. And the 
 revival of industries and national institutions would bring 
 with it a growing sense of power, and lay the foundation for 
 the establishment of national forces for the defense of the 
 country. All these things had been pointed out to the Irish 
 people by the Sinn Feiners, and there was no dread, but only 
 a pious hope, that England might be placed in a position to 
 prove the fallacy of her own arguments when she said that 
 her downfall would mean the end of Ireland's hope of becom- 
 ing a self-governing nation. Her hopes of becoming so under 
 England had just been blasted. 
 
 Even should the worst come to the worst, it was felt, and 
 not without reason, that the Germans could scarcely do more 
 to crush out the spirit of Irish nationality than had already 
 been tried by the English. The Germans, even were they 
 the devils incarnate the English pictured them to be, could 
 hardly do more than Cromwell had done, could devastate the 
 country in no more thorough and painstaking a way than 
 the British had done in their philanthropic and civilizing 
 administration of the country. It was felt that the practical 
 Germans would at least develop the industries of the country, 
 would put into operation again the idle mills and mines, and 
 restore at least some prosperity to the land. It was also felt 
 that the Germans and the Irish could work hand and hand 
 together for the development of Ireland, and that both would 
 be the gainers thereby. In addition, and most important of 
 all, it was believed that the Germans were as friendly disposed 
 towards the Irish as the Irish were towards them, and that 
 the arrival of the Germans would mean the dawn of inde- 
 pendence for the nation. 
 
 The stories of German atrocities and outrages on priests 
 and nuns were accepted in Ireland with frank distrust. The 
 sudden regard of the English for priests and nuns was a 
 novelty to the Irish people, who knew how lovingly the land 
 of Elizabeth and Cromwell regarded the officials of the Cath- 
 olic Church. The pages of Irish history were reddened with 
 the blood of hosts of Irish priests and nuns, slain and outraged 
 
110 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 by English soldiers. England's habit of accusing her enemies 
 of every vile and filthy crime was also but too well known 
 and understood in Ireland to have much effect, for had it not 
 been an immemorial practice of England to defame Ireland 
 before the world? In fact, it is possible that these allegations 
 did as much as anything else to induce the Irish to sym- 
 pathize with Germany, which would, they knew, be now 
 subjected to a malicious slander, tempered by no sense of 
 justice or shame. As the English were using the self -same 
 methods against the Germans that they had used on previous 
 occasions to besmirch the character of the Irish nation in the 
 eyes of the world, tales of alleged atrocities thus left Ireland 
 unmoved. 
 
 Finally, the British plea that England was going to war in 
 defense of the integrity of small nations was so fraught with 
 hypocrisy that it served as a final and convincing proof that 
 British insincerity had not outlived its best traditions. In- 
 stead of spending so much time and energy in attempting to 
 argue the Irish people into taking sides with the Empire, the 
 English would possibly have achieved better results had they 
 proved their sincerity by granting a moiety of justice to the 
 small nation beside them. Had they been sincere, they 
 would have put the Home Rule Act into operation immedi- 
 ately, and have cut out all talk of the partition of the country. 
 They would have done everything that lay in their power to 
 show to the Irish people that they were anxious and willing 
 to make amends for the past; that they were willing, as well 
 as able, to put the Irishman on an equality with the English- 
 man, the Scotsman, and the Welshman, and to trust to the 
 generosity of the people to assist them. Instead of doing 
 these things, they held up the Home Rule Act; allowed (as 
 will be shown) Englishmen to stay at home, while they sent 
 the Irish regiments to the front and appealed for recruits; 
 asked the Irish to pay in advance for something they might 
 or might not get when the war was over and after the man- 
 hood of Ireland had been sacrificed in a quarrel in which the 
 Irish had no part. In short, England acted in a manner that 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 111 
 
 served but to create mistrust, suspicion, and even hatred in 
 the breasts of the Irish people. 
 
 For these and many other reasons the men of Ireland did 
 not espouse England's cause, and did not feel any inclination 
 to join hands with the King's Own Scottish Murderers (as 
 they were called in Dublin) and their comrades-in-arms. In 
 the early part of the war persistent attempts were made to 
 represent the Irish people as practically unanimous in its 
 sympathy with England's cause. Ridiculous statements were 
 made even by Irish Parliamentary leaders as to the hundreds 
 of thousands of Irishmen who flocked to the assistance of the 
 Empire. These statements have been since proved to be 
 absolutely untrue by the publication of the official figures for 
 recruiting in Ireland. Irishmen refused to flock to England's 
 banner, notwithstanding the blandishments of John Redmond 
 and his colleagues, who urged them to make good "the 
 wastage in Flanders!" 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 The Recruiting Sergeant 
 
 IT is not uncharitable to suppose that the outbreak of 
 the European War was looked on by at least some of 
 the politicians in Great Britain as a God-sent deliverance 
 from their troubles. So far as the protagonists in the Irish 
 situation were concerned, it could scarcely have happened at 
 a more opportune moment. As a matter of fact, there were 
 not a few who insisted that one of the reasons that prompted 
 Germany to her declaration of war on Russia was the tangled 
 political situation in England and the near prospect of civil 
 war in Ireland. While there may, on the surface, be a great 
 deal to support this view, it seems rather remarkable that the 
 German diplomatists — if, indeed, they wanted war at all — 
 did not stave off the conflict until the opening of hostilities in 
 Ireland. If the supposition be correct, it shows a remarkable 
 shortsightedness on the part of men who have since been 
 lauded — and condemned — for the manner in which they 
 read the secrets of the future and made their preparations 
 accordingly. 
 
 That Ireland was on the verge of one of the vital crises in 
 her history seems fairly certain. That the war brought an 
 apparent truce in that crisis is also to be admitted. As the 
 following chapters will show, however, the truce was more 
 on the surface than actual, and was entered into rather by 
 the professional poUtician than by the people of Ireland. 
 
 The situation created in Ireland owing to the landing of 
 the arms for the Volunteers and the shootings at Bachelor's 
 Walk impressed these same politicians, however, with a 
 feeling that something must be done to secure for the British 
 Empire the "loyalty" of the Irish people. The question of 
 the Royal Assent to the Government of Ireland Bill, therefore. 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 113 
 
 became a matter of even more than usual importance. Mr. 
 Redmond assured the Cabinet leaders that, if the Bill were 
 once signed by King George, all would be well, and the men 
 of Ireland would enthusiastically rush to the colors from 
 every province. Even at this crisis in the affairs of the 
 Empire, the Tories continued to state that they had no 
 compromise to make, that they would never submit to the 
 dictation of a Parliament in Dublin, and that they would 
 prefer to join hands with the Kaiser — at that time the open 
 and avowed enemy of Britain — rather than agree to the 
 enactment of the Home Rule Bill. 
 
 What was to be done.? To those who know the character 
 of the British, as revealed in their own record, the answer is 
 obvious. When in a difficulty, the one alternative that 
 presents itself to the British mind is "coerce or compromise." 
 That the British should seek to coerce the Orangemen would 
 be unthinkable. The Orangemen had defied the British, they 
 had arms in their hands, and besides they had behind them 
 the most powerful moneyed interests in Britain, without which 
 the war could not be financed, and without which even King 
 George might find it difficult to secure his monthly pay 
 envelope. As coercion was impossible, therefore, the only 
 thing to do was to compromise, or, in other words, to delude 
 the Irish people by another set of empty promises, and trust 
 to luck for the reckoning when the time for fulfillment came. 
 
 Meanwhile John Redmond and Sir Edward Carson, the 
 supposed deadly enemies, met on the Terrace at Westminster 
 and decided that for the time the enactment of the Home 
 Rule Bill was out of the question. That this was a disap- 
 pointment to Mr. Redmond is quite possible, owing to the 
 ambition he was said to entertain of seeing himself installed 
 as the Premier of Ireland. A touching scene was staged in 
 the House of Commons at Westminster a few days after the 
 outbreak of the war, when both Sir Edward Carson and Mr. 
 Redmond informed the assembly and the world that Ireland 
 was not going to desert the Empire in its hour of need. 
 Each gentleman felicitated the other upon his patriotism, and 
 
114 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 each assured the other and the world that Ireland, north and 
 south, was united against "the Huns.'* There were cheers 
 from all sides of the house, and the Mother of Parliaments 
 allowed herself to relax into a genteel smile. In the case of 
 the majority of the members, this smile must have been at 
 the supposed simplicity of the poor Irish. 
 
 To appreciate the irony of the situation from the stand- 
 point of thinking Irishmen, it must be remembered the Irish 
 people had voluntarily taxed themselves for over thirty years 
 to keep the Irish Party in London to promote the interests of 
 Ireland, not those of the Empire. To defeat Irish interests, 
 Carson had just raised an army, and by threatening rebellion 
 had dashed to the ground the hopes of a generation. Carson 
 represented the disturbing element — the element which 
 professed love for the Empire; Redmond represented the 
 injured party, which had never had the remotest reason for 
 being concerned as to the Empire's fate. The crudest com- 
 mon sense dictated that Redmond should let Carson and the 
 British Government find a solution for the quandary in which 
 the violence of the one and the weakness of the other had 
 placed them. Had Redmond even chosen to remain inactive, 
 he might have been forgiven. But, claiming still to represent 
 the Irish nation — a nation which, with many faults, scarcely 
 deserved to be represented by a simpering sentimentalist at a 
 most critical moment of its history — he rushes into the 
 arms of those who have openly insulted and rebuffed him, 
 makes peace when only he had anything to pardon, and 
 declared by his action that to the Irish people their century- 
 long oppression and even the life-blood of their kindred still 
 dyeing the streets of Dublin was nothing compared with the 
 Empire. 
 
 Then Mr. Redmond made a noteworthy statement. He 
 said: "The coast of Ireland will be defended from foreign 
 invasion by her armed sons, and for this purpose armed 
 Nationalist Catholics in the South will be only too glad to 
 join arms with the armed Protestant Ulstermen of the 
 North." Mr. Redmond added a suggestion that every British 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 115 
 
 soldier in Ireland might safely be sent to the front in Bel- 
 gium or elsewhere, as Ireland would hold its boundaries against 
 the Germans. Then the polite Parliament smiled again, and 
 decided not to do anything of the kind. The British had a 
 much better occupation in mind for the Irish soldiers than 
 guarding their own frontiers. 
 
 Premier Asquith and Mr. Redmond held a number of 
 informal talks over the matter. One thing Redmond insisted 
 on, as being necessary to save his own face — the signing of 
 his Home Rule Bill. He said that the Irish people could not 
 be trifled with any longer; at least, something new must be 
 devised, if trouble were to be averted. On the other hand, 
 the Premier declared that the one thing essential was, that 
 the men of Ireland should add their strength to the British 
 army. A compromise on these two points was arrived at, 
 and the worst betrayal in Irish history consummated. 
 
 In accordance with this arrangement Mr. Asquith, on Sep- 
 tember 15, introduced into the House of Commons a Suspen- 
 sory Bill whereby the Home Rule Bill was suspended from 
 operation until one year from the passing of the Act, or 
 "until such later date (not being later than the end of the 
 present war) as may be fixed by His Majesty by Order in 
 Council." In connection with these proposals, Mr. Asquith 
 gave two "solemn pledges": first, that "the Home Rule Bill 
 will not and cannot come into operation until Parliament has 
 had the fullest opportunity by means of an Amending Bill of 
 altering, modifying, or qualifying its provisions in such a way 
 as to secure at any rate the general consent both of Ireland 
 and the United Kingdom"; and secondly, that "the employ- 
 ment of force of any kind for what you call the coercion of 
 Ulster is an absolutely unthinkable thing." The Suspensory 
 Bill and the Home Rule Bill received the signature of George V, 
 and another stage in the farce was completed. 
 
 The effect of the first proviso was easy to understand, and 
 all the eloquence of the Irish Party was unavailing to hide 
 its true nature. It meant that, while the Home Rule Act 
 was now on the statute book, no Irish Parliament was to be 
 
116 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 established, and the Irish people were to remain under exactly 
 the same conditions as before, until such time as the war was 
 over; then the Act would be once more placed at the mercy 
 of whatever majority ruled in the British House of Commons, 
 and it was extremely problematical whether the Liberals 
 would have a majority or not. In the very probable event of 
 the Unionists being returned to power, there was no possible 
 doubt but that the Tories would so "amend" the Act as to 
 make it worse than useless. It must not be forgotten that 
 the Irish people were intensely dissatisfied with the Home 
 Rule Bill even as it stood, and the prospect of a further 
 series of mutilations destroyed all interest whatever in the 
 measure. 
 
 Nor did the Unionists make any secret of their intentions 
 with regard to the Act. Sir Edward Carson denounced the 
 action of Premier Asquith as *' unparalleled treachery," while 
 other Tory leaders took open comfort in the reflection that, 
 when the time came for the Amending Bill, they would be in 
 power and would see that the Home Rule Act was amended 
 out of existence. Nevertheless, the order went forth from 
 the Irish Party for demonstrations of joy in Ireland at the 
 "victory." The Irish people had some good sense left, and 
 reserved their energy for a more practical declaration of their 
 sentiments. 
 
 With the royal signature, however, the time had come for 
 Mr. Redmond to pay the price of "victory." He had made 
 a definite contract with the British Government, and he now 
 hastened to fulfill it. The ink was scarcely dry on the royal 
 signature when Mr. Redmond, supported by his party, 
 assumed the duties of a recruiting sergeant, and announced 
 that England expected every Irishman to do his duty. A 
 meeting was held by the members of the Party and Premier 
 Asquith in the Mansion House, Dublin, behind closed doors 
 and guarded by the police and the military. At this meeting 
 Mr. Redmond called on the men of Ireland to join the army 
 and blaze a trail to victory for the British Empire. This was 
 within a month of the day when the King's Own Scottish 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 117 
 
 Borderers had sent their leaden messengers of death into the 
 bodies of Irish men, women, and children on Bachelor's 
 Walk. 
 
 Is there any room for wonder that the men of Ireland did 
 not respond to the call to arms? They were told by Mr. 
 Redmond that the Home Rule Act was now an accomplished 
 fact; that they had won all for which they had hoped and 
 striven for centuries. It was now their duty to go into the 
 trenches and offer themselves as food for German guns. 
 They owed this to the benevolent Empire that had at last 
 restored their freedom. They were not told that this price 
 was demanded in advance; that the freedom of Ireland was 
 far from guaranteed under the Home Rule Act. The im- 
 partial historian of the future will undoubtedly classify as 
 unrivaled effrontery the assumption of the British ministers 
 and a venal Irish Party that the Irish people could not 
 distinguish between fact and fallacy. It came as a shock to 
 both ministers and Party to discover that there were Irishmen 
 who demanded why the Home Rule Act had not been put 
 into immediate operation, and declared it was time enough to 
 talk of blood-toll when England had given practical evidence 
 of her sincerity in dealing with Ireland. Mr. Redmond 
 characterized such talk as the "basest ingratitude," and, when 
 a reference was made to the Massacre of Bachelor's Walk, 
 retorted that "this was not the time for the discussion of 
 academic questions." 
 
 Mr. Redmond went ahead with his programme with a 
 pertinacity and resourcefulness that would have won him 
 distinction in a nobler cause. By means of speeches made in 
 the House of Commons and throughout England, of "state- 
 ments" issued to the press, and of a widespread campaign in 
 the newspapers of Ireland, England, and the United States, he 
 made it appear that the men of Ireland were filled with 
 eagerness to fight for the Empire. In the Commons the 
 Tories laughed at the figures he produced, and demanded 
 that he prove his assertions. Again and again he stated that 
 from 200,000 to 250,000 Irishmen had joined the British army 
 
118 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 since the outbreak of the war, but never produced any 
 reliable proof of his statement. 
 
 The fact remained, however, that the one big object of the 
 recruiting campaign failed. Had Redmond succeeded in 
 inducing the Irish Volunteers to join the army, the British 
 would have killed two birds with the one stone. They would 
 have added some excellent fighting material to their army, 
 and they would have removed from Ireland the one menace 
 that confronted them there — the armed and drilled Volun- 
 teers, who were never under the domination of Mr. Redmond 
 and his Party. Ireland was well aware of the trick con- 
 templated. It was quite obvious that, as soon as the Volun- 
 teers were safely out of the way, the British could do whatever 
 they pleased with impunity. The plan was too obvious to 
 succeed. The men of Ireland refused to enlist, and, out of 
 440,000 men of military age in the country, less than 20,000 
 answered the call of "King and Empire," eloquently pleaded 
 by Mr. Redmond. 
 
 The British Government was not satisfied with Mr. Red- 
 mond's success. To lead the people of America into thinking 
 that Ireland was "loyal" was not enough; it was essential 
 that the men of Ireland should be induced to don the British 
 uniform. There was opposition of the strongest possible 
 character to this course from a hundred centers in Ireland, 
 and this had to be overcome. The British Government 
 thereupon decided that it was time to initiate another of 
 those periodic reigns of terror that had come to be looked 
 upon as an essential part of the English government of the 
 Irish people. Coercion was to be used in Ireland, as it was 
 later used in Greece — in both cases in absolute defiance of 
 the first rights of every nation to put self-preservation above 
 the interests or even the rights of a foreign power. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Fuel to the Flames 
 
 ONE of the first acts of the British Government follow- 
 ing the declaration of war on Germany was the 
 suppression of two of the papers published in Dublin 
 that had always openly voiced their opinions regarding the 
 English policy in Ireland. The first to come under the ban 
 was Sinn Fein, edited by Arthur Griffith, and this was 
 followed immediately by the suppression of Irish Freedom, 
 edited by Thomas Clarke and Sean MacDermott. These 
 papers had attacked the lies that were being circulated by 
 the Recruiters in Ireland, and had been outspoken in their 
 statements regarding the position that Ireland occupied in 
 regard to the war. 
 
 It may be said that the suppression of these papers was 
 most natural; that the same would have been done in Ger- 
 many or in France under identical circumstances. This is 
 no justification for depriving a nation of the advice and guid- 
 ance of her most gifted and sincerest sons at a moment when 
 her life and her whole future depended on her decision. 
 When Nietzsche openly defends the right of the strong to 
 trample on the weak we may respect his honesty, if not his 
 judgment. But when professed champions of liberty in Eng- 
 land or elsewhere deny to any nation or people the right to 
 put self-preservation first, their honesty (rather than their 
 judgment) falls under suspicion. If England really fought the 
 battle of civilization, neutrals who had profited most by this 
 "civilization" should have taken their place in the battle 
 van, before venturing to criticise Ireland for "disloyalty" to a 
 system which has been her curse. 
 
 The last copy of Sinn Fein was published on November 14, 
 1914. Hints had already been given the editor that the end 
 
no HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 of his paper was in sight, and an editorial article contained in 
 the last issue puts the matter in a nutshell. It was then 
 believed that the editor was to be prosecuted, and he defied 
 the Government to do this. They retorted by suppressing 
 the paper, seizing and smashing the plant, and destroying the 
 offices. As an indication of the situation in Ireland at this 
 time (a few weeks after the outbreak of the war), and on 
 account of its historic value, I quote the editorial from this 
 last issue: 
 
 The London "Times'* announces that the British Government 
 inclines to prosecute the national press. So be it. If it prosecutes 
 us without packing the jury, we win; if it prosecutes us and packs 
 the jury, we win. No unpacked Irish jury will brand felon on the 
 brow of those who have stood between the youth of Ireland and the 
 plot to immolate them in England's interest, and as to the verdict 
 of a packed jury, all Ireland — Unionist Ireland and Nationalist 
 Ireland alike — will know in the day of trial that the criminals are 
 not in the dock, but in the jury box. The verdict they render will 
 be a verdict in every honest man's mind against British government 
 in Ireland. For weeks past this government has surreptitiously 
 sought to prevent the circulation of "Sinn Fein," and it has failed. 
 In England its police has seized this journal and intimidated the news- 
 agents. In Wexford it has imprisoned a man for circulating a reprint 
 of an article that appeared in our columns. Through the heads of 
 the Ancient Order of Hibernians (Board of Erin), whom it bribes 
 with patronage — even the patronage of promotion in the R. I. C, 
 and the Dublin Metropolitan Police and Detective Departments — 
 it has essayed to obstruct the circulation of "Sinn Fein" in the 
 provinces, and in its Post OflBce it has destroyed, delayed and with- 
 held copies of "Sinn Fein" by the hundred. This is the Govern- 
 ment — this is the organized hypocrisy that declaims to the world 
 on the Freedom of the Press and Fair Dealing. 
 
 Be it known that the crime of the national Press against England 
 is its exhortation to the manhood of this country — of which England 
 has in half a century extirpated one moiety — not to permit itself, 
 through ignorance, through deceit, or through intimidation to be 
 emigrated to preserve the extirpators. That crime we have com- 
 mitted, and that crime we shall continue to commit so long as 
 England asserts her usurped right to govern this country. And 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 121 
 
 whatever may happen to the Press England fears in this country 
 and to its conductors, this we know — that the body and soul of 
 Ireland has been saved. . . . 
 
 We have a postscript. Last week a man, after a public trial by 
 court martial in London, was, without public sentence, secretly 
 executed, and the newspapers forbidden by the Press Bureau to 
 refer to the fact. On Wednesday they were permitted to mention it, 
 because the British Parliament was opening, and it was feared certain 
 members would arraign the policy of secret execution. The man 
 was convicted as a spy, and his execution under the law was justi- 
 fied. It is not the execution, but the manner of the execution that 
 forms a menace to every man. In a country where a man can be 
 secretly sentenced to death, secretly shot, and the Press muzzled, 
 there is no longer security for the innocent. Let it be known, there- 
 fore, that if any Nationalist journalist in the hands of England 
 happens to disappear, he will not have disappeared either through 
 heart trouble or any disease whatsoever except the disease that has 
 afflicted Ireland since 1801. 
 
 Eighteen months later the cold-blooded murder of Francis 
 Sheehy-Skeffington in Dublin was a sinister confirmation of 
 this warning, and Skeffington was not the only one. 
 
 With the disappearance of Irish Freedom, the organ of the 
 Clann-na-Gael, Sinn Fein, The Cork Celt, and others that 
 were opposed to the recruiting policy, the British Government 
 believed it had solved at least one aspect of the problem. 
 But they found they had later to suppress the Irish Worker 
 (edited by James Connolly), the organ of the workingmen of 
 Ireland, which also came out against the campaign to send 
 the men of Ireland to fight in France. 
 
 The work of the censor, however, had but begun. Arthur 
 Griffith immediately brought out another paper, this time on 
 a rather ingenious plan. There was no editorial comment 
 in the new publication, Scissors and Paste, which consisted 
 entirely of extracts reprinted from English newspapers. 
 These extracts were chosen with great care, and were reprinted 
 just as they stood, the readers of the paper being left to draw 
 their own conclusions. Even this repetition of what their 
 own papers had printed angered the English, and after a 
 
122 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 short rim, in which it gained daily in popularity, Scissors 
 and Paste was also confiscated. 
 
 But one paper followed another. The Irish Worker was 
 followed by the Workers' RepubliCy Freedom by Ireland, 
 and these again by The Sparky Honesty, The Gael, and a 
 score of others, all bearing the same message and all sup- 
 pressed after the first few issues. The Gaelic AthletCy a 
 paper devoted to Irish sports, was also suppressed for advising 
 young Irishmen not to join the British army. Ireland's 
 tongue was to be torn out before she was dragged into the 
 arena to fight, — not indeed for the amusement, but for 
 the selfish interests of a tyrant. 
 
 The suppression of the Irish papers, however, was not the 
 only method employed by the British Government to silence 
 the Irish people. To give the authorities greater freedom to 
 deal with the situation, a special "Defense of the Realm Act" 
 was passed, under which the Government possessed practically 
 unlimited authority over the Irish people. With the passage 
 of this Act another reign of persecution and coercion set in. 
 An epidemic of arrests broke out all over the country. Men 
 and boys were arrested on the most trivial of charges, and 
 allowed to remain days and weeks in jail without knowing 
 with what they were charged. Men who were known not to 
 sympathize with the Government were batoned by the police 
 in broad daylight, insulted by the military, and often found 
 unconscious and bleeding in a dark alley or lane in the early 
 hours of the morning. 
 
 Worse than this, the military, never a respecter of either 
 age or sex in Ireland, adopted an attitude towards Irish girls 
 and women that added possibly more than anything else to 
 the rising tide of revolt. While the recruiting sergeants of 
 the Irish Parliamentary Party were filling the pages of the 
 newspapers they controlled with the most blood-curdling 
 stories of German atrocities on nuns and priests, the English 
 soldiers in Ireland were providing instances in plenty of the 
 peculiar refinement of English culture as contrasted with that 
 of the "Huns'* of Central Europe. Women were found 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 123 
 
 "drowned" in the Liffey, and there was neither publicity 
 given to the fact nor inquiry following it. Women were 
 grossly insulted on the streets of the cities by the armed 
 garrison of England. Girls were found dead and mutilated at 
 the very gates of Portobello Barracks, but there was no 
 inquiry. Girls were found dead within a stone's throw of the 
 constabulary barracks in the Phoenix Park, but the matter 
 was hushed up. In one instance, a dead girl, found along 
 the bank of the Royal Canal at Phibsboro, was clutching a 
 khaki belt in her dead hand, but Mr. Redmond demanded no 
 inquiry into the circumstances of her death. The Redmondite 
 Press were silent as to these facts, because they feared that 
 it might stop recruiting! In the last week of August, 1915, 
 two little nursemaids, aged 15 and 16 years respectively, in 
 charge of soldiers' families in Dublin, brought charges against 
 their masters of indecent assault and rape. There was medical 
 evidence in support of the girls' stories, but the charges were 
 dismissed. The testimony of the soldier in each case out- 
 weighed that of the girl. The girls were not Belgians, but 
 mere Irish, and therefore fit victims for the apostles of British 
 civilization. In spite of every effort on the part of the 
 Government these cases, and hundreds of a similar character, 
 came to the knowledge of the people, with a result that can be 
 imagined. 
 
 Many volumes would be required to enumerate all the 
 instances of savage persecution under the Defense of the 
 Realm Act. Men were thrown into jail for speaking in 
 Irish, it being the contention of the authorities that they 
 might be saying seditious things in a language not understood 
 by the police; men were sentenced to terms of imprisonment 
 for conversations overheard in the street, in which remarks 
 were passed that seemed to be out of sympathy with the 
 recruiting campaign. The common charge throughout the 
 country was that of "using words likely to prejudice recruit- 
 ing," and it was only necessary to bring a charge to secure a 
 conviction. Naturally, this method led to an aggravation of 
 the trouble. Recruiting posters were torn down in every 
 
124 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 village and town in Ireland; the soldiers were hissed in the 
 streets; men got up at the street corners and made speeches 
 denouncing the Government and the Defense of the Realm 
 Act in scathing language. The prosecutions became more 
 vigorous; one speaker after another was arrested and thrown 
 into jail; but, where one was taken away, twenty more 
 appeared, until the Government found itself brought to a 
 halt and uncertain what to do. The one thing certain was, 
 that the actions of the military and their treatment of the 
 civilian population, especially of the women, and the opera- 
 tions of the Defense of the Realm Act had brought recruiting 
 to an absolute standstill, and had roused the temper of the 
 people to a dangerous pitch. 
 
 That this policy of the Government did more to assist than 
 to hamper the propaganda of those who were already em- 
 bittered against England is incontrovertible. It is also 
 certain that the Government became alarmed at the situation 
 it had itself created. After the lessons of centuries it seems 
 unbelievable that the representatives of the British had not 
 learned that coercion was the worst possible policy to intro- 
 duce in Ireland. Past history had shown that coercion only 
 stiffened the backs of the Irish people, and made them more 
 bitter against England and more determined to overthrow her 
 tyrannical government. Day by day the strength of the 
 Irish Volunteers increased, and that of the small fraction which 
 still followed the leadership of John Redmond decreased. 
 Recruiting in Ireland for the British forces, never successful, 
 now entirely ceased. The anti-recruiting movement had 
 become nation wide. The arrests of the men who were leading 
 it spurred others to take up the work. The suppressed 
 papers reappeared again, changed only in name. The 
 women joined hands with the men in their fight against the 
 Empire, and the drilling and arming of the Volunteers went on 
 apace. To the eyes of all who wished to see, the situation 
 was charged with the electricity that forboded a storm, but 
 there were those who would not see. The evidence given at 
 the inquiry held after the Rebellion to inquire into its causes 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 125 
 
 revealed the fact that the authorities learned too late of the 
 results of the actions of the Government. When they tried 
 to grapple with the position, they found it had already gone 
 beyond their reach. 
 
 Meanwhile John Redmond, T. P. O'Connor, John Dillon, 
 and Joseph Devlin, the leaders of the "Irish" Party in 
 Parliament, continued to tell the American people through 
 the American newspapers of the quiet, '* loyal," and contented 
 condition of the people of Ireland, and of the thousands of 
 Irish recruits who were daily pouring out of the country to 
 fill the gaps made in the ranks of Irish regiments in conse- 
 quence of the ghastly blunder at the Dardanelles. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 The Coalition Cabinet 
 
 WHILE matters were thus assuming a sinister phase 
 in Ireland, the British Government had many- 
 things to disturb its peace of mind at home. In 
 the first place, the war had not gone very favorably. The 
 Teutons had proven to be much more difficult to dispose of 
 than had been expected. Englishmen who had hoped that 
 the enemy would be crushed within a year woke up to a pain- 
 ful realization of the unwillingness of the Central Powers to 
 be wiped out. Zeppelin raids and naval disasters, with the 
 defeats of the Allied armies on every front, had put a painful 
 complexion on the whole situation. Things became so bad 
 that even English football matches were interfered with, and 
 there were ugly rumors of conscription and prohibition of 
 the sale of alcoholic beverages. This last-mentioned threat, 
 possibly more than any other factor, brought home to the 
 English man-in-the-street the fact that the nation was really 
 at war, and that the outlook was serious. 
 
 Another disturbing element was the protest in the French 
 newspapers that Englishmen were shirking their duty. In 
 spite of his proverbial politeness, the Frenchman is nothing 
 if not candid. Usually he will express a home truth in 
 language that makes even an insult seem complimentary, but 
 there are times when he can be outspoken to a degree that 
 borders on brutality. Thus, French newspapers printed 
 caustic comment on the size of the British army in Belgium 
 and France and of the sector which that army defended, 
 while one class after another of French conscripts were being 
 called to the colors. The French did not hesitate to say 
 that this was sound policy (on the surface) for England, as, 
 with her men at home, she would be in a better position to 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 127 
 
 capture German trade; but neither did they fail to hint, in 
 an unmistakable manner, that these facts would not be 
 forgotten when the day of settlement dawned. 
 
 These, and many other matters, made it clear that the 
 British Government was not in too pleasant a position. The 
 newspapers led and controlled by Lord Northcliffe, the Tory 
 Peer who had been the strongest supporter of Sir Edward 
 Carson and his treasonable practices, accused the Liberal 
 Government of being unpractical and inefficient, of playing a 
 losing game, and of disgracing the country in the eyes of the 
 world. The Government made a few feeble efforts to sup- 
 press this criticism, but it could not deal so summarily with 
 The Times, The Daily Mail, The Standard, and The Morning 
 Post as it had done with Sinn Fein and Irish Freedom. In 
 England the liberty of the Press was respected, when the 
 proprietors had money and votes in Parliament at their backs. 
 Early in 1915 it became apparent that matters were assuming 
 a critical aspect. Premier Asquith was openly attacked, and 
 Lord Kitchener was accused of gross negligence in the conduct 
 of the war. There was nothing to do but compromise. 
 Thus, in the early part of May, the Prime Minister announced 
 that the Government had decided, in view of the condition 
 of affairs, to form a Coalition Cabinet, and to add to the 
 Government a number of the leaders of the Tory party. 
 . This declaration came as another shock to the Irish people. 
 This move on the part of the Liberals seemed not only to be 
 a confession of failure on the part of the Liberal administra- 
 tion, but also to seal the fate of the Home Rule Act. It 
 must not be forgotten that the fate of this Act rested on what 
 would be done in the Amending Bill. If, however, the 
 Liberals were not in power at the time of the introduction 
 of this Bill, there was no possible doubt that the Home Rule 
 Act would be amended out of existence. Consequently, the 
 significance of Premier Asquith's declaration that he intended 
 to form a Cabinet of Liberals and Unionists combined may 
 be well appreciated. The Irish people asked themselves, in 
 so far as they troubled any longer with the hypocrisies of 
 
128 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 English politics, what was going to happen at the end of the 
 war, and if the formation of a Coalition Cabinet was not but 
 paving the way for the return to power of the Unionists. 
 
 Another surprise was, however, forthcoming, when, on May 
 25, 1915, the Prime Minister announced the composition of 
 his new Cabinet. A number of Liberal Ministers were re- 
 moved from the Government, and their places filled by eight 
 Unionists. So many of the new members were bigoted 
 enemies of all things Irish that it almost seemed as if opposi- 
 tion to Ireland was the chief qualification for a place in the 
 new Cabinet. There were other capable Tory leaders who 
 had not been so strongly identified with the anti-Irish propa- 
 ganda, but these were passed over. The men most bitterly 
 opposed to Home Rule were selected, and the fact was not 
 unnoticed in Ireland. 
 
 There was, however, one selection that made the deepest 
 impression on the Irish people. The oflSce of the Attorney- 
 General, the highest law office in the gift of the Crown, was 
 bestowed on Sir Edward Carson. Carson had formed the 
 Ulster Volunteers, had defied the Liberal Government to 
 touch him, had transgressed every section of the law of 
 treason, had done his utmost to plunge the country into civil 
 war, had engineered the gun-running, — in short, had consti- 
 tuted himself a monarch in Ulster, and had told the world 
 that he would kick the King's Crown into the Boyne if the 
 Home Rule Act was put into operation by the legally elected 
 representatives of the English people. It was the example 
 of Carson that had led the Irish to run the guns into Howth, 
 and that incident had resulted, in turn, in the massacre of 
 inoffensive Irish civilians. Yet, while the Irish people were 
 butchered in the streets of their own capital, Carson, the man 
 who was responsible morally for all that had happened, was 
 elevated to the Cabinet which he had lately defied. 
 
 Although, in consequence of the actions of the Govern- 
 ment, Ireland had long since given up any but the faintest 
 hope that the English Government had any sincere intentions 
 towards Home Rule, the appointment of Sir Edward Carson 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 129 
 
 still came as a shock. To those men who had never believed 
 that the English intended to restore to Ireland any of her 
 usurped liberties, the selection of Carson was not unwelcome. 
 It gave an added impetus to their campaign, and, as will 
 shortly be demonstrated, this campaign had by this time 
 reached a stage where it needed little outside assistance. 
 Nevertheless, the action of the Government was an added 
 proof of the double dealing of the Liberal Government. It 
 was a further proof of the game of bluff that was being 
 played at the expense of the Irish people. 
 
 Rumors were purposely circulated to the effect that Mr. 
 Redmond had been invited to take a portfolio in the Coalition 
 Cabinet, but had refused. It is very probable that these 
 rumors were circulated to suggest that Redmond had a secret 
 understanding with Premier Asquith, according to which the 
 Home Rule Act would be put into operation as soon as the 
 war was over. Although he lent his name to this attempted 
 deception of the Irish people, Mr. Redmond was forced to 
 admit at a later date that the Liberal Ministry had neither 
 then nor at any other time shown any consideration for his 
 wishes. 
 
 There was also another significant feature of the new 
 situation. Up to that time Redmond had held the balance 
 of power between the two English parties. Had he at any 
 time wished to force the hand of the Government and secure 
 justice for Ireland, even to the extent of securing the estab- 
 lishment of a Home Rule Parliament under the provisions of 
 the Home Rule Act, it was within his power to do it by the 
 simple expedient of serving an ultimatum upon the Liberals 
 to the effect that he would vote against the Government on 
 the next party issue and so drive them from office. The fact 
 that he did not do this is sufficient evidence that he sanc- 
 tioned or condoned all the actions of the British Government 
 in Ireland. With the formation of the Coalition Government, 
 however, Mr. Redmond lost the balance of power. It was 
 obvious that both the Liberal and Tory Parties would vote 
 to uphold the decrees of a Cabinet composed of represen- 
 
130 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 tatives of both sections, and that, therefore, whatever Mr. 
 Redmond and his men might decide to do would not be of 
 the sUghtest interest to the Government as a whole. Mr. 
 Redmond, however, was not dismayed at this turn of events, 
 for it meant little to him. For some years he and his party 
 had merely been adjuncts of the Liberal Party, and it did 
 not matter a great deal for him now to work hand in hand 
 with the Tories also. During the years he had held the 
 balance of power, he had never made use of it, and it is 
 possible that he was happy to be relieved of the responsi- 
 bility with which this same power invested him. That he 
 was not, however, to be entirely rid of this responsibility, 
 was to be demonstrated before many months passed. 
 
 Another significant incident took place shortly after the 
 formation of the Coalition Government. The Home Rule 
 Act had received the Royal Signature in the preceding 
 September, when it had been arranged that the Act was to 
 be suspended for twelve months, or until such time as an 
 Order in Council might decide. These twelve months had 
 now expired, and on September 14, 1915, a special Order in 
 Council, reading: 
 
 No steps shall be taken to put the Government of Ireland Act, 
 1914, into operation until the expiration of eighteen months from 
 the date of the passing of that Act unless the present war has pre- 
 viously ended, nor, if at the expiration of these eighteen months 
 the present war is not ended, until such later date not being later 
 than the end of the present war, as may hereafter be fixed by Order 
 in Council. 
 
 The obvious effect of this Order was to make it clear even 
 to those who were still doubtful as to English sincerity that 
 there was little, if any, intention on the part of the Govern- 
 ment of putting the Act into operation without radical altera- 
 tion. It mattered little that the Government was merely 
 following out the course it had prescribed for itself. If not 
 even the appreciation of the vital crisis through which Eng- 
 land herself was passing could induce her politicians to adopt 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 131 
 
 a more liberal policy towards Ireland, was there the slightest 
 justification for hoping for juster treatment after the war? 
 Statesmanship demanded concessions which would have won 
 the good-will of the majority of Irishmen, and to some extent 
 justified England's claim that she championed small nations. 
 If she now voluntarily subjected herself to universal derision 
 for her hypocrisy, rather than make these concessions, the 
 conclusion was obvious. Ten months later these suspicions 
 were verified in a manner that rendered it impossible to doubt 
 that the actions of the Government at this time were delib- 
 erately intended to deceive the Irish people. 
 
 These two actions on the part of the British Government 
 had much to do with the events that followed. To make 
 it appear that the Rebellion would never have taken place 
 but for the formation of the Coalition Cabinet or for the 
 further postponement of the Home Rule Act would be to 
 create a false impression, for the attempt to dragoon Irish 
 manhood into England's army and other tyrannical measures 
 were also contributing factors. But these two events were 
 largely responsible for opening the eyes of the Irish people to 
 the actual facts of the case. Many in Ireland had previously 
 thought that Mr. Redmond was doing everything in his 
 power to secure justice for Ireland. Those who still thought 
 so after the end of 1915 were in so small a minority as to be 
 negligible, for they consisted almost exclusively of those who 
 were attached to the Irish Parliamentary Party for motives 
 of personal gain. That there could be many who honestly 
 believed that the British Government and their Irish allies 
 were actuated by any genuine feelings for Ireland and the 
 Irish people is impossible. Every act of the Government 
 and of the Irish Party was against the sincerest convictions of 
 the Irish people, as publicly voiced in resolutions from practi- 
 cally every elective body in Ireland. 
 
 Little by little every one of the dearest hopes of Ireland 
 had been bartered away. It should not be forgotten that 
 the big aspiration of the Irish people was one for freedom — 
 freedom in its biggest sense. In the minds of the men who 
 
132 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 were now taking up the leadership of Ireland, the vision of 
 Ireland a Nation had never been lost. They had the true 
 ideals of the patriots, and it was but natural that the weak 
 and vacillating policy of Redmond and his party should 
 crumble to pieces before the onslaught of the men who wished 
 to see Ireland take her place amongst the nations. These 
 men, while most of them were not actually allied with the 
 oflScial Sinn Fein party, had the Sinn Fein view of things, 
 and many had also the belief that the only way in which they 
 would ever be able to gain anything from England was by 
 force of arms. The manner in which Redmond and Asquith 
 had acted merely served to convince the waverers among them 
 that there was no other hope left for the Irish but an appeal 
 to force. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 The Shadow of Conscription 
 
 IF a proof be required that Englishmen are very loath to 
 fight their own battles, this proof was furnished during 
 the progress of the European War. France, Russia, Bel- 
 gium, Italy, and other nations were quickly in arms; the 
 English meanwhile brought to the field of battle Canadians, 
 Hindoos, Welsh and Scottish, and members of a score of other 
 nationahties; thus, they believed, they would fulfill their obli- 
 gations to their allies, without interfering too much with the 
 English people at home. They had also relied on an army of 
 some half a million men from Ireland, believing that Irish 
 brawn and muscle would be an asset of the greatest value to 
 them. The manner in which they made their bid for Irish 
 assistance has been dealt with at length. That they failed 
 was a necessary consequence of their own actions. Even had 
 the Irish been friendly to England, they would not have an- 
 swered the call under such conditions. No nation in the world 
 would submit to such tyrannical coercion — much less lick the 
 hand that held the whip and march out to die that its op- 
 pressor might live. 
 
 The loss of the Irish support and the taunts of the European 
 Allies made the British Government realize that something 
 must be done to secure a larger army. It was brought face 
 to face with the unpleasant alternative of either creating an 
 army among the English to defend their own interests and 
 their own property or of being left to their fate by their 
 Allies and possibly invaded by the Germans. It was at this 
 stage that the talk of conscription became prominent in the 
 British Press. The very evil which they had denounced as 
 one of the causes of their quarrel with Germany was the 
 thing they were themselves forced to turn to in order to save 
 
134 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 themselves. Britain found that her Navalism and her foreign 
 credit were not enough. She must also have militarism. So 
 the British Cabinet took up, with reluctance, it is true, the 
 question of conscription. 
 
 As has already been pointed out, the failure of the recruiting 
 campaign in Ireland was the thing that led, more than any- 
 thing else, to this decision. It had been the fond hope of the 
 Government that Mr. Redmond would be able to draft the 
 Volunteers en bloc into the British Army. This scheme had 
 not failed through lack of effort on the part of Mr. Redmond. 
 It is more than probable that he would have been as glad as 
 the Government to have been rid of men who were in a 
 critical mood and inclined to show temper. It happened, 
 however, that the Volunteers, as well as numbers not then 
 affiliated with that organization, had decided to remain at 
 home and let the British fight for the rights in which they 
 were interested. 
 
 Every effort was exhausted to solve the problem without 
 adopting conscription. This was not owing to the distaste of 
 the English for conscription, for this had already been faced, 
 and the fact recognized that some form of compulsion had to 
 come. The trouble again lay with Ireland. If the Govern- 
 ment were to pass a Conscription Act and leave Ireland 
 outside its scope, there would be a howl of protest from the 
 British masses. On the other hand, the enforcement of con- 
 scription in Ireland might precipitate a crisis which, with 
 the Volunteers still in the country, might be hard to settle. 
 The Irish, as even Mr. Redmond was forced to tell the 
 British, would not have conscription. 
 
 While the negotiations were at this stage. The Manchester 
 Guardian, one of the most prominent and influential of the 
 Government organs in the provinces, came out with the 
 announcement that it was the duty of the Irish to fight for 
 the Empire and let the British stay at home for the purpose 
 of making the required preparations to capture the trade of 
 the Germans when the war would be over. This was a new 
 instance of British insolence. That the British would go to 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 135 
 
 any lengths rather than do their fighting for themselves was 
 now a recognized fact; but that they should have the effron- 
 tery to state as much in cold print was somewhat startling. 
 This announcement, which was given wide publicity in Ire- 
 land, helped the Irish people to realize the truth of the 
 matter. It was an open confession that the average English- 
 man was a coward, in spite of the wonderful victories that 
 the "British" army has been credited with in the past, and 
 that his aim was to make the Irish fight his battle with the 
 Germans, just as he had armed the Indians against the 
 Americans, in the War of Independence. 
 
 The Volunteer Scheme, inaugurated by Lord Derby as a 
 last resort to avoid conscription, was a rank failure, and was 
 admitted as such by the Government. After the scheme had 
 been in operation for several months, it was found that there 
 were still almost one million bachelors of military age who 
 had not responded in spite of the fact that every effort was 
 made to shame the men into joining the army. Eventually, 
 therefore, the Government was forced to face the fact that 
 the only way to get the Britisher into a military uniform was 
 by force. A draft was thus decided on, and little by little 
 put into operation. 
 
 The presence of the Irish Volunteers, and the fact that they 
 were armed and drilled, still presented a thorny problem, but 
 one that the British were determined to overcome. Prepara- 
 tions were made whereby the Volunteer trouble might be 
 eliminated. There was only one way — apart from concession 
 of Home Rule — in which this could be done now, since the 
 Volunteers had made it obvious that they had not the slightest 
 intention of leaving Ireland to fight the Germans. This one 
 way was by taking the arms from the Volunteers. Once 
 disarmed, the matter would be comparatively simple. Not 
 only the Volunteers but the other men of the country would 
 then be helpless and at the mercy of the British Government. 
 In addition, it would also release a large portion of the 
 British army that were being kept in Ireland as a precau- 
 tionary measure. 
 
136 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 The people of Ireland were not long in hearing rumors of 
 what was proposed. Mr. Redmond was also well aware of 
 the plan to disarm the Volunteers as the first step towards 
 bringing the country within the scope of the Conscription 
 Act, but he kept silent in spite of the fact that he had strenu- 
 ously denounced every suggestion that that Act should be 
 applied to Ireland. These denunciations were made at a 
 time when the Volunteers were in full possession of their 
 strength, and he was suflSciently aware of the facts of the 
 situation to know that the application of conscription to 
 Ireland would immediately precipitate an outbreak, in which 
 his fortunes as well as those of the Government with which 
 he was so affectionately affiliated would hang precariously in 
 the balance. 
 
 It became increasingly evident that the conscription issue 
 was to be the test of the whole situation in Ireland. The 
 leaders who had sprung up there and were more in touch with 
 the people than were Mr. Redmond and his friends in the 
 Government were also aware of the peril that confronted 
 them. The conscription issue caused them to work with more 
 vigor than before, to do everything possible to have their 
 preparations perfected when the time came for action. They 
 had definitely decided that, if they were to do any fighting, 
 they would do it on their own soil; that, if they were going 
 to fight for the freedom of any country, it would be for the 
 freedom of the land they loved. They had made up their 
 minds also that the time had come to show the world where 
 Ireland stood, and to expose the lies and misrepresentations 
 that had been scattered broadcast by men who were posing 
 as Irish leaders, while ignoring the opinions of the Irish 
 people. They knew that the time was at hand when they 
 would have to give stern and practical proof of the faith that 
 was in them, but they were determined that they would not 
 be found wanting. 
 
 In the preceding pages, owing to the circumstances of the 
 case, the attention of the reader has been necessarily directed 
 to the English side of the Irish Sea. We may now turn again 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 137 
 
 to the Irish side of the picture to consider the significance of 
 the events that were shaping themselves there. 
 
 It will now be our duty to consider the men and the 
 organizations that were soon to strike another blow for Irish 
 Freedom. Much has been written about these men and 
 these organizations by writers without direct or immediate 
 knowledge of either. The following chapters, whatever their 
 other shortcomings, will be free at least from this cardinal 
 defect, for they are based on a personal and intimate knowl- 
 edge of both. In view of the fact that this portion of the 
 work especially is based on the personal experiences of the 
 author, the reader who desires primarily the authentic facts 
 will overlook what might otherwise be deemed the unneces- 
 sary obtrusion of the author's personality into an historical 
 narrative. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 The Gathering of the Clans 
 
 ONE of the commonest errors made by writers with- 
 out any personal knowledge of the situation in Ire- 
 land was the placing of the label of "Sinn Fein" 
 upon the Irish Rebellion of 1916. It was not a Sinn Fein 
 Rebellion; it was an Irish Rebellion. The Sinn Fein organiza- 
 tion, as represented by its members, had indeed much to do 
 with the Rebellion, but so had at least six other organizations. 
 Furthermore, the majority of the men who figured most 
 prominently in the Rebellion belonged to the Irish Republican 
 Brotherhood. A short description of the six organizations is 
 the purpose of the present chapter. 
 
 The Irish Republican Brotherhood was formally organized 
 on St. Patrick's Day, 1858, on the arrival of James Stephens 
 in America from Ireland. The I. R. B., as it was generally 
 known, was the direct successor to the Emmet Monument 
 Association, which had been organized in 1855, and had for 
 its object the freedom of Ireland — the only fitting monu- 
 ment to Robert Emmet's memory. The organization spread 
 rapidly throughout the United States and Ireland. It was 
 the I. R. B. that organized the rebellion that started on 
 March 4, 1867, and it was the I. R. B. that had subsequently 
 maintained the agitation for complete independence. Even 
 when the possibility of freeing Ireland seemed most remote, 
 the leaders of this organization did not despair. They held 
 always to the belief that Ireland must be free, and that bullet 
 and steel were the only means by which her liberation could 
 be wrung from England. 
 
 Among the men who had been, as it were, born in this 
 movement was John Devoy, and to him the credit must be 
 largely given for keeping the movement alive in the face of 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 139 
 
 great opposition. A man of the widest experience of the 
 world, his knowledge of Ireland was unique. After a period 
 of service in the French Foreign Legion in Algeria, where 
 he received his military training, Devoy returned to Ireland 
 in 1862, settled at Athy, in County Kildare, and joined the 
 local circle of the I. R. B. His record from that time was one 
 of continuous service to the cause of Ireland, both at home 
 and in America. In America he later became the editor of 
 The Gaelic American, the official organ of the Brotherhood, 
 and was one of the most active promoters of every genuine 
 movement tending towards the freedom of Ireland. 
 
 In spite of advancing years, Devoy never lost that vigor of 
 mind which distinguished his younger days. He was a clear 
 and cool thinker, a man capable of analyzing every situation as 
 it arose, applying to it, as the supreme test, its bearing on 
 Irish national independence. Nothing less would satisfy his 
 conception of justice for his native land, and his strenuous 
 opposition to John Redmond dated from the moment when 
 he discovered that the latter was willing to whittle away the 
 claims of Ireland. 
 
 Under Devoy*s leadership the I. R. B. became strong in 
 America and was soon able to be of practical aid and assist- 
 ance to the organization in Ireland. The two countries were 
 in close and constant touch, and The Gaelic American in New 
 York City, and Irish Freedom in Dublin, did yeoman work 
 in rousing the people from their lethargy. 
 
 The manner in which the Irish Volunteers came into being 
 has already been mentioned. It is only necessary to recall 
 here that, while Redmond still held control of a small remnant 
 of the original body (the Irish National Volunteers), the vast 
 majority had forsaken the so-called Irish Leader and joined 
 the Irish Volunteers, led by Eoin MacNeill, who had opposed 
 Redmond's efforts to hand the organization over to the 
 British Government. By the time of the rebellion, the Irish 
 Volunteers were all in active agreement with the leaders of 
 the I. R. B., to which organization many of them belonged. 
 
 Considerable mention has also been made of the Sinn 
 
140 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Feiners, and their policy has been explained in full. That 
 policy, however, was not a physical force policy, and for some 
 years there existed active disagreement between the I. R. B. 
 and the Sinn Fein Party. In effect their aims were identical. 
 The difference was that the I. R. B. believed that physical 
 force was the only possible remedy for the ills of Ireland, 
 while the Sinn Feiners inclined rather to a policy of passive 
 resistance, coupled with an energetic awakening of the spirit 
 of the people and the encouragement of the cult of self- 
 reliance. As a matter of fact, however, Arthur Griffith 
 always believed that the final test would be the appeal to 
 arms, and that nothing else would win the final fight for the 
 freedom of the country. 
 
 The Citizen Army was composed of the men of the Irish 
 Transport and General Workers' Union, with headquarters 
 at Liberty Hall on the corner of Beresford Place and Eden 
 Quay. This organization sprang into being about the same 
 time as the National Volunteers, when Dublin was in the 
 throes of the struggle between the Irish workers and the 
 banded employers of the city. Curiously enough, the Citizen 
 Army was at first in active opposition both to the Volun- 
 teers and the Sinn Fein Party. Their official organ. The Irish 
 Worker, attacked both Eoin MacNeill and Arthur Griffith 
 with refreshing impartiality, but this condition of affairs 
 came to an end with the transfer of the leadership from James 
 Larkin to James Connolly in 1914. 
 
 Of the other organizations particular mention must be made 
 of the Gaelic League, which was founded in 1893, and for some 
 years inhabited unpretentious back rooms in Dublin. When 
 Father Eugene O'Growney, in a moment of inspiration, pro- 
 duced his "Simple Lessons in Irish," its real progress began. 
 At first, the Gaelic League was the target for superficial 
 scoffers, but, founded on the living rock of national conscious- 
 ness, its influence grew very rapidly. The addition of local 
 branches, the holding of the annual Oireachtas (National 
 Festival) in Dublin and of Feiseanna (little festivals) through- 
 out the country, the revival of Irish dancing and music, and 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 141 
 
 the fostering of Irish industries, won an ever-widening circle 
 of supporters for the movement. The founding of the Indus- 
 trial Development Association was another most important 
 result of the activities of the League. The Gaelic League 
 thus strove, by every means in its power, to promote every- 
 thing that was Irish, always according the Gaelic language 
 the first place among the factors making for a truly Irish 
 Ireland. 
 
 With a view to reviving the fine democracy of the Ireland 
 of old, the Gaelic League strove strenuously and successfully 
 to break down the ridiculous social barriers introduced into 
 Ireland with English feudalism. Aerdheachtanna, Cuir- 
 meachta, Ceoil, Seilgeanna, Feiseanna, Dancing Classes, and 
 other methods were established with this end in view. The 
 complete Irishing of the mental outlook of the people was 
 aimed at. Teachers and organizers were sent out all over 
 the country, and their work was of the utmost importance 
 in counteracting the Anglicizing influences that had been 
 brought to bear on the people for centuries previously. 
 
 On the other hand, the Gaelic League kept strictly aloof 
 from local or national politics. Its work terminated where 
 politics began. But the effect of the teachings and the propa- 
 ganda of the Gaelic League was seen in the manner of men it 
 produced. The boys and youths who attended the classes of 
 the Gaelic League were all convinced "Irish-Irelanders." 
 Most, if not all, of the organizers were the same. It was, 
 therefore, only to be expected that these men would take an 
 active part in the revolutionary movement. 
 
 That all the work was not to be left to the men became 
 evident soon after the outbreak of the war, when the Cumann 
 na mBan (or Irish Women's Council) was organized. Mrs. 
 Thomas Clarke and many other prominent women were the 
 active organizers of this society, which had for its object the 
 assisting of the men in every possible way. That this assist- 
 ance was meant to be very practical is shown by the fact 
 that all the women of the Cumann na mBan learned to handle 
 rifle and revolver. The movement spread quickly through 
 
142 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Ireland, and, when the time for action came, the women 
 of Dublin played an heroic and conspicuous role in the 
 Revolution. 
 
 Particular mention has also to be made of the Fianna na 
 hEirinn (or the Irish Boy Scouts). Organized in 1912 by 
 the Countess Markievicz, this organization brought into the 
 national movement the boys and youths of Ireland, and made 
 of them Gaels of the Gael. Inspired by stories of the Fianna 
 of old — that hero army of Ireland that flourished in the 
 Golden Age under the leadership of Fionn MacCumhal — the 
 boys of Ireland joined the movement with all the wonder and 
 enthusiasm inherent in the Irish boy unspoiled by English 
 contagion. By yeoman work in this field. Countess Markie- 
 vicz made the organization the best in the country. 
 
 It will be seen from the foregoing that the Revolution was 
 aided by the men, women, and even the children of Dublin. 
 As has been said there were dividing lines between these 
 organizations, but these lines disappeared before the attacks 
 of the common enemy. All these organizations were at work 
 long before the Revolution, and the majority long before the 
 outbreak of the war. The inspiring motive of them all was 
 the same, for each was but a different expression of the funda- 
 mental need for liberty of action which is the breath of every 
 nation. Liberty or extinction, — no other choice is possible 
 for a nation. Where class oppression exists, there can be no 
 social peace. While nations are oppressed, dreams of world 
 peace are futile. England's assertion that the Irish Revolu- 
 tion was due to some strange spell cast by Germany over the 
 Irish people can deceive no thinking man. For, even sup- 
 posing that the first incitement to rebellion had been given by 
 Germany and not by murderous attacks on innocent people 
 on Bachelor's Walk and in O'Connell Street, the fact remains 
 that after centuries of experience of English rule the Irish 
 people eagerly embraced the opportunity to get rid of it. 
 
T 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 Righteous Men 
 
 HOMAS DAVIS saw clearly into the future when he 
 wrote in the poem which serves at present as Ireland's 
 National Anthem : — 
 
 "For freedom comes from God's right hand 
 And needs a godly train; 
 And righteous men must make our land 
 A nation once again." 
 
 Of all the men who took part in the battle for the free- 
 dom of Ireland in 1916, it may be said that they corresponded 
 fully with Davis's dream and hope. They had lived well that 
 they might die well, and their deaths were but the fitting 
 conclusion to lives spent in unselfish and sincere devotion and 
 loyalty to the land they loved so well. 
 
 On a bitterly cold evening in January, 1910, the writer 
 went with a friend to a small store at the corner of O'Connell 
 and Parnell Street (or Great Britain Street, as the latter was 
 then known). The store was of a size that did not permit 
 more than half a dozen men to stand in front of the counter 
 at a time. There was just about enough space between the 
 counter and the wall for two men to walk in together. Along 
 the wall were arranged all of the important Dublin and Irish 
 newspapers, weekly and monthly periodicals, and so forth. 
 Behind the short and narrow counter was a large assortment 
 of brands of tobacco, cigars, pipes, and cigarettes, with a side 
 line of stationery. The window was occupied mainly by a 
 cardboard representation of an Irish Round Tower, adver- 
 tising the Banba brand of Irish tobacco. Both the window 
 and the store itself were brilliantly lighted, and the whole 
 place suggested care and attention and spotless cleanliness. 
 
144 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 But the store and its attractiveness were forgotten after 
 the first glance at the man who stood behind the counter. 
 Of medium height, with gray hair thinning away from the 
 temples, with dark-blue eyes deeply sunken under shaggy 
 brows and high cheek-bones standing up in startling promi- 
 nence from thin, sunken, and emaciated cheeks, the general 
 appearance of the man was such as to bring to the mind 
 pictures of a watchful eagle perched high upon a rocky crag. 
 The whole aspect of the man was keenness personified. Seem- 
 ingly nearing the seventies, he was, nevertheless, possessed of 
 a force and vigor that might well have been envied by men 
 in their early thirties. The truth was that the man was in 
 the prime of life. Brutality and confinement, however, had 
 left on his features a mark that death alone could remove, but 
 had been powerless to subdue the fire that glowed within and 
 animated every thought and action of his life. 
 
 "Tom," said my companion to him, "this is our friend 
 whom you have been expecting.'* Then, turning to me, he 
 uttered the simple words: "Tom Clarke.'* 
 
 Thomas J. Clarke was a man whom to know was to respect. 
 As a business man, he had made a success of his life under 
 circumstances that would have sent others to an early grave. 
 He was a native of Dungannon, and in 1879 emigrated to the 
 United States, where he became adjutant of the Irish Volun- 
 teers of New York City. In 1881 he was sentenced to penal 
 servitude for life in England for his nationalist activities. In 
 1898 he was released on ticket-of -leave, and the following year 
 he returned to America, where he married a niece of his fel- 
 low-worker, John Daly of Limerick. He returned to Dublin 
 in 1907, where he started once more in business in Pamell 
 Street, and rapidly built up a comfortable little fortune. He 
 also improved in his health, but his treatment in English 
 jails, and the long term that he served there before gaining 
 his release, had withered the flesh on his bones and dug the 
 hollows in his cheeks. 
 
 His zeal and his unquestioned integrity soon brought him 
 to the forefront of the national movement. Many of the 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 145 
 
 visitors who drifted casually into his store and gazed, per- 
 haps with pity, at the seemingly haggard old man, would 
 have been amazed had they known of the power and influence 
 he wielded. They would have marveled less had they seen 
 him, when the occasion was opportune, discussing the political 
 situation aud the plans for the recovery of Irish freedom. 
 Long before the outbreak of the war in Europe he and the 
 men with whom he was so closely associated had planned 
 with care and thoroughness events that were later to arouse 
 the world. In 1910 these plans were well advanced, and the 
 arrangements for the opening of the campaign to awaken 
 the people were nearing completion. So far as Ireland, and 
 particularly Dublin, was concerned, Thomas J. Clarke was the 
 center and the soul of the movement for Irish independence. 
 
 Closely associated with Clarke was Sean MacDermott, a 
 native of County Leitrim and one of the finest types of young 
 men that Ireland produces. An athlete from his head to his 
 toes, Sean appealed irresistibly to all who knew him. He was 
 a young man in his early twenties when I first met him, and 
 at our very first meeting I was impressed by the idea that he 
 represented my ideal of an Irish youth. He was of medium 
 height, with dark hair and blue eyes, with a frank and fear- 
 less gaze that made it impossible to doubt of his sincerity. 
 Sean MacDermott was a man of sterling qualities — a man 
 who loved Ireland's every rock and stone, whose delight it 
 was to travel throughout the country, meeting the people and 
 conversing with them, singing the old songs and writing new 
 ones, dancing in the barns and at the cross-roads, and entering 
 with enthusiasm into every phase of national life and action. 
 He was keenly interested in Gaelic sports, and took part in 
 the hurling and football matches, until his work for the cause, 
 and later his illness, rendered it impossible. It was one of 
 the most tragic features of this illness that it should have 
 attacked a man who was so passionately fond of all forms of 
 outdoor exercise. 
 
 Shortly after the promulgation of the Sinn Fein policy in 
 1905, Sean MacDermott became associated with the move- 
 
146 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 ment, although he was then but a mere boy. His enthusiasm, 
 however, and the earnestness with which he worked, resulted 
 in his being engaged as an organizer, and in this capacity he 
 traveled around the country addressing meetings and forming 
 branches. His thorough knowledge of the feelings of the Irish 
 people as a whole, and his geniality towards all with whom he 
 came in contact, contributed in no small measure to his suc- 
 cess. On the other hand, this very success earned for him 
 enemies among those who had the best of reasons to fear the 
 new movement, and on two occasions Sean was shot at and 
 had narrow escapes from assassination. 
 
 When the Sinn Fein National Council decided that they 
 would accede to Mr. Redmond's plea for a truce and refrain 
 from putting into operation any part of the Sinn Fein policy 
 that might embarrass the actions of the Parliamentary Party 
 in their fight for Home Rule, Sean decided that the time had 
 come for him to affiliate himself with a more vigorous organi- 
 zation. He was one of the many who did not agree with 
 the decision of the National Council, believing that it would 
 have been far better to have prosecuted the Sinn Fein policy 
 vigorously, since the country was ripe for it, and it would give 
 far better results than the Parliamentary Party would ever 
 be able to obtain even under the most favorable circumstances. 
 When he became a member of the I. R. B., Sean threw him- 
 self into the work with his characteristic energy, and soon 
 became one of Thomas Clarke's lieutenants. He also became 
 an organizer for the Wolf Tone Clubs, a movement that aimed 
 at securing the right recruits for the actual Brotherhood. 
 With Dr. Patrick MacCartan, Thomas J. Clarke, and others, 
 he was instrumental in the establishment of Irish Freedorriy a 
 weekly newspaper that had for its objects the arousing of the 
 men of Ireland to action. Under the editorship of Mac- 
 Cartan, the paper made a gallant struggle for recognition. 
 It brought into Ireland something of the old spirit that so 
 many believed to be dead, and little by little it gained the 
 confidence and the affection of the people. 
 
 Shortly after his accession to the throne, King George V 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 147 
 
 decided to pay a visit to his subjects in Ireland. Immediately 
 on the announcement of this decision on the part of His 
 Majesty preparations to give him a public welcome were 
 inaugurated in some quarters, although Nationalist Ireland 
 had always stood aloof on the occasion of royal visits. Those 
 who desired to see Ireland remain under the heel of England 
 prepared, however, to engineer a *' loyal'* reception; those 
 who had other ideals for Ireland also made preparations, 
 and one of the hardest workers among the latter was Sean 
 MacDermott. 
 
 As illustrative of the temper of the city and of the country 
 about this time, the editorial which appeared in Irish Freedom 
 on June 7, 1911, may be reprinted here. This editorial will 
 also serve as an interesting example of the revolutionary 
 literature of the time. Thousands of copies of the paper were 
 sold, while the posters advertising it and bearing the legend 
 in bold type, "concessions be damned!" were displayed 
 from one end of the city to the other. The article follows: 
 
 By the time these lines meet the eyes of our readers. King George 
 of England will be well on his way to this island, to be received with 
 slavish worship by the jelly-fish and snakes that infest the country. 
 There will be presentation of addresses from certain Corporations 
 and Councils, much adoration, and a certain amount of title-bestow- 
 ing on jelly-fish. In the midst of all this we have a word to say to 
 our visitor and to all whom it may concern. 
 
 This visit has been termed a visit of conciliation and peace. It 
 is nothing of the kind; it is a visit to corrupt the political conscience 
 of the nation, an arrogant insult to our intelligence, an assumption 
 that we are all jelly-fish. At no time more than at the present time 
 was there need for plain and honest speaking on this question. 
 The collection of jelly-fish, which calls itself an Irish National 
 Party, has intimated that it only awaits Home Rule to become 
 fervid upholders of the Empire, that the Irish people are in reality 
 yearning to be in a position to participate in the "imiversal rejoic- 
 ings throughout the Empire" at the present time. Irish National- 
 ists throughout the country — with the degrading exception of 
 that portion of Cork which William O'Brien has made mad — have 
 generally refused to acknowledge this visit, or to bow the knee, but 
 
148 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 such is the confusion that they have all shrunk from an open and 
 unmitigated refusal, and have thought it necessary to intimate or 
 to hint that "the time is not yet ripe." 
 
 Now, therefore, this is to declare to all whom it may concern, that 
 the time will never be ripe, that neither the statesmanship of John 
 Redmond nor the economics of Tom Kettle represent the Irish 
 nation; that George is usurper of Ireland, not King of it. King only 
 of so much of it as he can overawe by his bayonets or bribe with 
 his gold and his titles; and that Ireland wants no concession from 
 England. We want what is ours, that is our country, and by the 
 Lord we mean to have it, come what may. 
 
 On occasions like this it is suddenly discovered that King George 
 is a man, and that the native courtesy of the Irish people demands 
 that they should not insult him, but should allow the snakes and 
 jelly-fish to speak in the name of the nation. To which we have 
 to say that he is not a man, but an instrument, moved upon the 
 board by the same political machine that guides the microbe-hunting 
 of Ishbel Aberdeen, who is not a woman but an instrument likewise. 
 We mean no disrespect to the man, because we see none; we only 
 see the representative of the faithless nation which cannot be an 
 honest tyrant, but must always be a hypocritical one, doing the 
 devil's work on Bible texts. 
 
 The only thing which we want of England is to be let alone, 
 to be free from her grip at our throat and her hand in our pocket. 
 We want her to draw off her soldiers and her statesmen and her 
 Bureaucracy, and the whole hideous devil's device which passes as 
 a Government in Ireland. We want this done, but we do not ask 
 England to do it; we do not beg or pray; we make no bargain, and 
 we call no truce; this is a fight, not an amusement or a game. We, 
 representing that portion of the nation which is in the National 
 tradition, the backbone of the nation, we call upon our fellow-coun- 
 trymen everywhere to free their country, and we tell them that 
 they can do it, and that no other power can or will. We scorn and 
 spit upon the Empire, an Empire built upon blood and desolation; 
 we shall never remain in it willingly; we want none of its spoils 
 and we repudiate its atrocities; we will not sell our birthright for 
 a mess of pottage or for a King's feast. 
 
 We stand for Ireland; in the fact of hog, dog or devil we stand 
 for Ireland, not for an Ireland a portion of any Empire, not for an 
 Ireland in swaddling clothes and leading strings, but for a self-reliant. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 149 
 
 free Ireland, with no sins upon its soul, and no stains upon its ban- 
 ner. We stand for that Ireland which produced Brian, whose 
 chosen place was the battlefield while foreigners held sway in his 
 country; and Hugh, Shane and Owen O'Neill, and O'Donnell the 
 Red and Roger O'More, and Tone and Emmet and Fitzgerald, and 
 Mitchel and Davis and Stevens and Rooney. Dead names crowd 
 upon our memory, dead men crowd before our eyes, the gallant dead 
 whose names we know, and the equally gallant dead whose names 
 we do not know. Out of the four-fifths of Ireland and out of Ulster 
 they come, a silent company, bearing witness to the nation, bearing 
 witness by their wounds, marks of the hangman, marks of the heads- 
 man, marks of the prison and assassin, marks of the torturer, marks 
 of the slave-overseer, marks of starvation, bearing witness by their 
 deeds and their courage, bearing witness by their deaths. We take 
 our stand with them. On their behalf, on our own behalf, on the 
 behalf of the inhabitants of this country, we repudiate all bargains 
 or treaties concerning the rights of this nation. 
 
 CONCESSIONS BE DAMNED, WE WANT OUR COUNTRY! 
 
 As will be shown later, there is a striking resemblance 
 between parts of this editorial and the Proclamation of the 
 Irish Republic. It will be of interest also to note that these 
 were no empty vaporings, as some may have thought at the 
 time. Tom Clarke and Sean MacDermott, the two men who, 
 in collaboration, produced the editorial, were destined, before 
 the passage of many years, to take their stand in death beside 
 those Irish heroes whose examples they had so nobly followed 
 in life. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 The Spirit of the Gael 
 
 UNDER the combined protection of a large portion 
 of his army, a considerable number of battleships, 
 the Dublin Metropolitan Police, the Royal Irish Con- 
 stabulary, and an army of spies and detectives. King George 
 of England returned to his home across the Irish Sea in 
 safety. The Irish people had ignored him; had looked upon 
 his visit with distaste, and were well pleased when the ordeal 
 was over, and he and his army and navy and retinue of 
 cheap- jacks had relieved Dublin of their presence. The tem- 
 porary transfer of Windsor Castle and Leicester Square to 
 Dublin had turned the Irish metropolis by day into a deserted 
 city and by night into a den of infamy. 
 
 The work and the worry of that period, however, left a 
 lasting mark upon Sean MacDermott. A few weeks later 
 he was stricken with that mysterious plague, infantile paraly- 
 sis, and for months he lingered in the Mater Hospital between 
 life and death. When at length he fought his way back to 
 life, he was merely a shadow of his former self. He came 
 from the hospital crippled and bent. He walked slowly and 
 with diflficulty — first with a crutch, and later with the aid of 
 a walking stick. But the spirit that had animated the Sean 
 MacDermott of the playing fields and the street meetings was 
 as vigorous as ever. He plunged once more into the work of 
 editing his paper, and, assisted by Bulmer Hobson, did noble 
 service in carrying on the movement. 
 
 Another of the men who worked day and night for the 
 Irish cause was The O'Rahilly, head of the Kerry clan of 
 that name. In spite of his distinguished title, he was one of 
 the most democratic of men, a man who had learned to love 
 his fellow-men of whatever station, who had a wide outlook 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 151 
 
 upon the world, and who had imbibed to its fullest extent the 
 military spirit of the people of Ireland. From the time when 
 he returned to Ireland after a lengthy sojourn on the Con- 
 tinent and in the United States, he threw himself heart and 
 soul into the national movement. From the first, he was 
 intensely interested in the Sinn Fein movement, and, even 
 when that movement ceased for a while to urge a vigorous 
 campaign, he still believed it an admirable method of freeing 
 Ireland, and remained one of the closest personal friends of 
 Arthur Griffith. In one respect, however, The O'Rahilly was 
 more than a Sinn Feiner, as the Sinn Feiners were known in 
 the days before the war. The O'Rahilly never wavered in 
 his belief that the only way in which Ireland could win her 
 freedom was with the sword. While the Sinn Fein movement 
 was largely pacific, most of the men allied with it shared The 
 O'Rahilly's opinion, although they did not all take an active 
 part from the beginning in preparing for a military uprising. 
 That Arthur Griffith believed physical force to be the only 
 means whereby the ultimate salvation of Ireland could be 
 won will be shown later. 
 
 The O'Rahilly, however, was not only a believer in physical 
 force; he was an advanced thinker along these lines, and was 
 at all times ready to consider any proposal that seemed to 
 possess any value as an adjunct to the arming of the nation. 
 In 1912 and in 1913 he and the writer spent many hours in 
 discussing the possibility of establishing an aeroplane corps 
 in Ireland, the intention being to have a number of aero- 
 planes, owned by individual members of the organization, 
 and to train men in their use so that they would be ready 
 when needed. We discussed the matter with Tom Clarke, 
 Sean MacDermott, Bulmer Hobson, Piaras Beasley, and a 
 number of others, and an organization, known as An Cumann 
 Eitel (The Irish Flying Club) was actually started in the fall 
 of 1912, but had unfortunately to be dropped, owing to the 
 difficulty of securing the machines. Later events tended to 
 demonstrate that a corps such as that planned would have 
 been invaluable during the rising. 
 
152 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 The O'Rahilly was present at the meeting in Wynn's 
 Hotel, Dubhn, when the Volunteer movement was planned, 
 and was one of the most active in the organization from the 
 very start. He was of medium height, clean cut, and with a 
 military bearing. He was indefatigable in training the men, 
 and was beloved by all who knew him, for he never wavered 
 or hesitated. He resisted to the last John Redmond's attempt 
 to capture and disband the Volunteers, and his death in his 
 Volunteer uniform of green, with sword and revolver in hand, 
 was typical of the man and was the only death he would have 
 desired. 
 
 Regarding Padraic Pearse, the first President of the Irish 
 Republic, many pages might be written. He was a man who 
 personified in himself the noblest traditions of the country he 
 loved and for which he sacrificed his life. Born in 1880, 
 Padraic was educated at the Christian Brothers' School, West- 
 land Row, Dublin, and at the Royal University. At the age 
 of seventeen he founded and became first President of the 
 New Ireland Literary Society. From their earliest days both 
 he and his brother, William James Pearse, were ardent stu- 
 dents of Irish history and Irish language, and, when they were 
 both mere boys, took a vow that they would work and, if 
 need be, die for Ireland. Shy, earnest, rather pale but strik- 
 ingly handsome, Pearse had the appearance of the student 
 and the scholar. He impressed all who came into touch with 
 him as being at once an enthusiast and a practical man of 
 affairs. As a teacher of a language class under the Gaelic 
 League in 1899, he already showed that he had imbibed the 
 very soul of the Gael. He was full of enthusiasm for Irish 
 linguistic studies, and delved deeply into Irish folk-lore and 
 early Irish music and poetry. 
 
 In 1901 Pearse was called to the Irish bar, and was the 
 recipient of many congratulations. He then set to work to 
 found St. Enda's School at Rathfarnam, County Dublin. St. 
 Enda's was the only Irish college that was founded on a con- 
 ception of all that was best in Irish life and tradition. There 
 were other Irish colleges, such as that at Ballingeary, where 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 153 
 
 the Irish language was taught; but St. Enda's was a college 
 where a thorough modern education was provided in all its 
 branches, and where the spirit of the Gael was predominant 
 in everything. Had Pearse done nothing else than found 
 St. Enda's and thus demonstrate how a modern system of 
 education need not exclude the true spirit of the Gael, he 
 would have accomplished a work deserving of the gratitude 
 of every man, woman, and child of the Irish race. Apart 
 entirely from its national signij&cance, St. Enda's was a most 
 important contribution to the science of pedagogy, and its 
 importance will be realized and conceded later when men turn 
 away from destruction to peaceful pursuits. 
 
 Not alone was Pearse a poet with the truest conception of 
 the Gaelic ideal; he also wrote a number of remarkable 
 miracle or morality plays. An able orator, he represented the 
 Gaelic League at many Welsh and Scottish national gather- 
 ings. In August, 1915, on the occasion of the funeral of 
 O 'Donovan Rossa, he delivered the oration at the grave in 
 Glasnevin, where his impassioned address was the outstanding 
 feature of the ceremonies. 
 
 No better illustration of the man himself and his ideals 
 could be found than in the article which he wrote and pub- 
 lished in four Irish papers — The Spark, Honesty, The Gael, 
 and The Gaelic Athlete — three weeks before the Rebellion. 
 For printing this article these papers were promptly sup- 
 pressed by the Government. The article is a valuable con- 
 tribution to the history of the Irish Rebellion, since it gives a true 
 picture of the motives of its leaders. The article is as follows: 
 
 Since the outbreak of the European war, I have often asked myself, 
 **Are we at war with England?" and have satisfied myself by reply- 
 ing in the affirmative. On deeper reflection I must say, our war 
 with that country is only a war of words, one of lip and feeling. 
 
 What are the signs of war, in the purely military sense? There 
 are none, but is it so with the enemy? Oh, no; with her it is war, 
 and real war towards us. Our casualty list is large between cap- 
 tured, imprisoned, and deported. By captured I mean those whom 
 she has deluded and seduced into her ranks. 
 
154 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Where are the successes on our side to offset such losses? Paltry, 
 withal the enemy in our midst has not lost a single man. 
 
 We all declare, and justly so, that until Ireland is restored to her 
 place amongst the nations of the earth, come what may, we are at 
 war with England. It is very patriotic, no doubt, and truly national, 
 but what is the value of such declarations if they be not supported 
 by deeds? 
 
 I believe that the time has come for a strong and determined 
 offensive against all the entrenchments of the enemy in this country. 
 The effect of such an offensive will be far-reaching. It will show 
 our enemies that we are not conquered; that we are still out for the 
 liberty of one small nationality, Ireland. It will cause an upheaval 
 at home, the news of which will quickly reach our captured brethren 
 abroad. If they have a trace of patriotism in their veins, and many 
 of them have, they will not help the enemy that is shooting down 
 their kith and kin at home. 
 
 In short, an offensive at this moment may be the deciding factor 
 in this war. The longer we delay, the better it will be for our 
 enemies. They want no disturbance in Ireland, and will we help in 
 their desire? 
 
 Defeat in Ireland means more for the enemy than any defeat she 
 may sustain in Flanders or elsewhere. The only consequence to 
 us is that some of us may be launched into eternity quicker and 
 sooner than we would like. But who are we, that we should hesitate 
 to die for Ireland? 
 
 Are not the claims of Ireland greater on us than any personal 
 ones? Do we not boast of our loyalty and love for the Dear Dark 
 Head? Is it fear that deters us from such an enterprise? Away 
 with such fears! Cowards die many times; the brave die only once. 
 
 It is admitted that nothing but a revolution can now save the 
 historic Irish nation from becoming a mere appanage, a Crown 
 Colony, of the British Empire. We do not desire such a consum- 
 mation of the Island of Saints and Scholars, the land of the O'Neills 
 and the O'Donnells, the land for which the coimtless have suffered 
 and died. 
 
 We call ourselves revolutionists; we glory in the name; we speak 
 with pride of the Dawn of the Day. Were there ever such revolu- 
 tionists? We want the revolution to start us, and not us to start it. 
 If we really want to free Ireland, now is the time for action. Are 
 we afraid to start up like men and bear the consequences, or is all 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 155 
 
 our talk mere frothing only to delude our enemies as well as our 
 followers? 
 
 If we want the revolution, we must make it, and we must realize 
 that such cannot be accomplished without bloodshed. We want war, 
 for war justifies the removal of our enemies in the most expeditious 
 manner. For that purpose we must know who our enemies are, 
 and under no consideration must we allow them to interfere with the 
 onward march of the Irish nation. Either we or they must fall in 
 the fight. 
 
 Some will cry out in horror at such a proposal. On what do they 
 base their horror? Is it blood-spilling? Look at the war in Flanders. 
 What blood is being spilled there daily! Do these deaths awake in 
 such people a shudder of horror? No: war to them is justifiable in 
 all countries except in Ireland. We are at war with England, and 
 it is necessary that we should fight it to the bitter end. 
 
 Look at the war in Flanders again. What are the motives under- 
 lying this struggle? Are these motives just and noble? Is Ireland's 
 struggle with England more legitimate and more sacred? Yes, it is. 
 
 Our sufferings extend over centuries; no form of torture and perse- 
 cution but England has tried on us. She is out for our conquest, 
 and will stop at nothing to effect it. There is no hope for the future 
 welfare of an independent Irish nation but in separation. 
 
 God, in His wise providence, has separated us by the seas, but 
 crafty, unscrupulous enemies bind us to that execrable government. 
 
 If we remove these enemies, will separation follow? I say and 
 believe "yes." These enemies are the connecting links with Dublin 
 Castle. They are the links that bind, and they shall remain while 
 England holds this country. If we want to break the connection 
 with England, we must remoye these links, and we must render 
 government by England impossible in this country. 
 
 Is it an impossible task? Decidedly not. At the moment the 
 minions of the government in Ireland stand trembling, afraid to 
 disturb the people. They know their power is weak, and they are 
 fearful lest any action of theirs may lose them their government, or 
 at least may have an untoward effect on the Irish troops fighting for 
 them in Flanders and elsewhere. 
 
 I fear we do not realize our present strength and our enemies* 
 weakness. Where is the British navy that we were told ruled the 
 waves? Recent events show that her ruling is now past. As for 
 land forces, what has England to put against us? She needs every 
 
156 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 available man to meet the German offensive. Even her conscript 
 army will be needed. She may send some of them to Ireland, but 
 are they such to make us fear? 
 
 We are fighting for freedom; freedom for everyone: they are 
 only conscripts fighting against their will. We are superior to them 
 in every respect. We know our country, and by a simultaneous 
 and systematic action we should shock, demoralize, and rout them. 
 
 Comrades, everthing favors us. Now or never for the final 
 onslaught. The shades of our immortal dead, the graves of the 
 unavenged, the harrowing cries of our murdered priests, of our 
 violated women, of the coffinless dead who are whitening the Atlantic's 
 broad floor — all rise up and command us to do the noble deed, and 
 fight the last fight for freedom. 
 
 We must not wait till the war is over. England will then be at 
 peace, and will be free to send her reserves against us. Will we 
 wait to fail, or will we fight now to win? Yours is the choice. 
 
 I am ready. For years I have waited and prayed for this day. 
 We have the most glorious opportunity that has ever presented itself 
 of really asserting ourselves. Such an opportunity may never come 
 again. We have Ireland's liberty in our hands. Will we be free- 
 men, or are we content to remain as slaves and idly watch the final 
 extermination of the Gael? 
 
 GOMERAGH. 
 
 At another time he wrote, — and the words bear a pro- 
 phetic air to-day, — referring to the same aspect of the case : 
 
 We are older than England and we are stronger than England. 
 In every generation we have renewed the struggle, and so it shall 
 be unto the end. When England thinks she has trampled out 
 our battle in blood, some brave man rises and rallies us again; 
 when England thinks she has purchased us with a bribe, some good 
 man redeems us by a sacrifice. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 The Men of the People 
 
 NO two men could have presented a stranger contrast 
 than did Thomas MacDonagh and James Connolly. 
 Both were representative of a distinct class in the 
 nation, and yet both representative of the people. Both were 
 democrats of the purest type, yet seeking the emancipation 
 of their fellow-men in different ways. Both were educators; 
 both were men of literary gifts, as indeed were all the leaders 
 of the rebellion; both were firm believers in the claims of the 
 "bottom dog," and yet each trod a separate path, which, in 
 the end, brought them to a common understanding, and to the 
 consummation of their hopes and ideals in a common sacrifice. 
 
 Thomas MacDonagh, a native of Clough Jordan in Tippe- 
 rary, was in appearance a typical Irishman — tall and straight, 
 clean-cut and good-looking, with short curly hair, a fine head, 
 and a clear bright eye that looked as straight into the eye of 
 his friends as later into the rifles of the shooting squad. He 
 had an air of culture, and that fresh complexion that comes 
 from a life spent in the open air amidst the fields and moun- 
 tains of Ireland. Though he had a tendency to shyness, his 
 whole bearing was one of good nature and friendliness. No 
 one who met him could ever doubt his sincerity, even though 
 they did not agree with his views. 
 
 He was one of those bright spirits whose imagination loved 
 to wander in the far-off Gaelic past — the Gaelic twilight, as 
 some called it. But, while he wandered in fancy along the 
 lanes and among the hills of Ireland in the Golden Age, 
 drinking in the wonder and delight of the magic stories of 
 long ago, he was ever looking into the future to that day when 
 Ireland would be again the free and happy land he saw in 
 his dreams. His studies in Gaelic literature and music were 
 
158 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 to him full of practical purpose, for they furthered the one 
 grand object of his life — the making of Ireland a Nation. 
 
 As Padraic Pearse's lieutenant at St. Enda's School, he 
 assisted in the work of teaching the boys of Ireland the true 
 meaning of Irish nationality. A fluent Gaelic speaker and a 
 deep student of the language, he did wonderful work at the 
 college, and deserves no inconsiderable share of the credit for 
 the success with which the college accomplished the task 
 set it by its founder. He was heart and soul in his work, 
 and there developed between himself and his pupils a friend- 
 ship that far exceeded the respect usually inspired by the 
 teacher. He entered into the daily lives of the boys; he was 
 their comrade and friend; his philosophy was their philosophy, 
 and his ambitions were theirs. 
 
 There was a great deal of the boy in Thomas, even after 
 he had shouldered the responsibilities of parenthood. His 
 affection was lavished upon his wife and family. With his 
 wife, his little son and daughter, his class and his literary 
 work, all of which engaged his enthusiasm and his affections, 
 one would have imagined that he had little time for anything 
 else. Yet, so big was the heart of the man, he was still able 
 to love something greater and bigger than all these, something 
 for the love of which he eventually gave up his class, his 
 work, his wife and daughter, and his little boy Don — a 
 beautiful, sweet-faced child who had twined himself around 
 the innermost chords of his father's heart. MacDonagh left 
 all these cheerfully and smilingly and went out to fight and 
 die for Ireland. 
 
 When MacDonagh joined the Irish Volunteers, he threw 
 into the work that same wonderful enthusiasm that dis- 
 tinguished everything he did. About this time he surren- 
 dered the editorship of The Irish Review, a monthly magazine 
 that expressed the thoughts of the leading poets, writers, and 
 thinkers in the Irish-Ireland movement. He was thus enabled 
 to devote a little more time to the Volunteers, and there 
 were few more regular at the drills than he. He saw far 
 ahead to the ultimate goal of the movement, but did not 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 159 
 
 indulge in any false hopes or blind himself as to the desperate 
 nature of the adventure. From the moment that he donned 
 the uniform of the Irish Volunteers, he knew he had started on 
 a line of action that would certainly imperil his life. He 
 knew, also, when he signed the Proclamation of the Irish 
 Republic, that his life was likely to pay the forfeit, yet he 
 never wavered. 
 
 Wih regard to his literary work, only a passing reference 
 to it is necessary here. Books will be published later that 
 will estimate his poems and his prose works at their true 
 value. In all, he wrote and published five little books of 
 poems, the most noteworthy being '* Through the Ivory 
 Gate," "April and May," "The Golden Joy" and "Lyrical 
 Poems." A posthumous work on Irish literature has recently 
 appeared. In addition, many poems, scattered though Irish 
 publications, have yet to be collected. One fact deserves 
 mention regarding his inscriptions of the volumes which he 
 issued. His earlier books were inscribed with his name 
 spelled "M'Donagh," while in the last two he spelled his 
 name " MacDonagh " — this fact, in itself, showing a devel- 
 opment in his study of the Irish language and Irish customs. 
 
 While in nobility of ideals and self-sacrificing patriotism, 
 no one of the revolutionary leaders yields place to another, it 
 is most interesting to notice how clearly the individuality of 
 each is revealed in the manner in which he gives expression to 
 the sentiments held in common by all. Pearse's passionate 
 devotion finds vent in an outburst of fiery eloquence, as he 
 calls for the overthrow of the oppressor of his country. 
 MacDonagh immolates himseK on the altar of patriotism in a 
 poem, the first two verses of which reveal the gentleness and 
 diflSdence characteristic of the man, while the third pro- 
 claims his conviction of the high justice and eventual success 
 of a cause which ennobles all who espouse it. The poem is 
 entitled; 
 
160 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 TO A POET CAPTAIN 
 
 His songs were a little phrase 
 
 Of eternal' song, 
 Drowned in the harping of lays 
 
 More loud and long. 
 
 His deeds were a single word. 
 
 Called out alone 
 In a night when no echo stirred to laughter. 
 
 To laughter or moan. 
 
 But his songs new souls shall thrill. 
 
 The loud harps dumb. 
 And his deeds the echoes fill 
 
 When the dawn is come. 
 
 In almost direct contrast to MacDonagh was James Thomas 
 Connolly, a native of Cork, the man who was chosen to com- 
 mand the Dublin army of the Republicans. He was of heavy 
 build, rather thick-set, with none of the refined appearance 
 of MacDonagh and little, if any, of his poetic temperament, 
 although he also indulged at times in versification. Rather 
 full in the face, with a complexion that spoke of years passed 
 in the open air, Connolly was easily identifiable as a leader of 
 men who earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. While 
 affable to all for whom he had a liking, he was a man of 
 much reserve, slow to make friends and slower still to part 
 with them. 
 
 The writer came into intimate touch with Connolly during 
 the general strike in Dublin during the latter half of 1913. 
 This was a period of strife and stress in the city, when civil 
 war was in the air and deadly riots were matters of weekly 
 occurrence. When Jim Larkin, the strike organizer, was sent 
 to jail for a speech he had delivered, Connolly took command 
 at Liberty Hall, the headquarters of the Irish Transport 
 Workers' Union, whose members were on strike. Wliile lack- 
 ing the captivating and compelling personality of Larkin, 
 Connolly possessed a diplomacy and an intellect that placed 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 161 
 
 him far above Larkin. After Connolly assumed the direction 
 of affairs, it soon became evident that the capitalists had to 
 deal with a man whom they could not intimidate or cajole. 
 We do not mean that these methods succeeded with Larkin, 
 but that Connolly was able to meet the employers and beat 
 them at their own game, whereas Larkin combatted them 
 with a brutal directness. It was very freely alleged that 
 Larkin had been hired by English capitalists for the purpose 
 of crippling Irish industry, and his manner of action and of 
 speech sometimes lent a semblance of color to the slander. 
 No such statements were ever circulated regarding Connolly, 
 whose record as an Irishman placed him above suspicion. 
 
 For some time following the formation of the Irish Volun- 
 teers, Connolly and the entire labor organization kept care- 
 fully aloof. In the columns of The Irish Worker, edited by 
 Connolly, there were frequent attacks on the Irish Volunteers, 
 and none more bitter and scathing than those which appeared 
 after the demands of John Redmond were acceded to. Con- 
 nolly was doubtful as to whether the Volunteer movement 
 held a promise of good for the working class or whether its 
 policy was to be pursued along the usual lines of British 
 political movements, which ignored the claims of the laboring 
 classes. For a long period, therefore, Connolly was very cau- 
 tious and noncommittal, contenting himself with the assertion 
 that the emancipation of Ireland would never be accomplished 
 without the aid of the working men and women, and that, 
 until that fact was officially recognized, he himself and his 
 Citizen Army would keep aloof from the Volunteers. That 
 the proper assurances were forthcoming before the Revolution, 
 was shown by the fact that he was appointed to the chief 
 military command in Dublin. 
 
 Connolly, like the other leaders of the Volunteers, did more 
 than play at being a soldier. He spent much of his time 
 studying military science, and his appointment to the Dublin 
 Command was not based on sentiment, but on the knowledge 
 he possessed. In his travels in the United States and Europe 
 he had paid close attention to the military systems in opera- 
 
162 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 tion, and he possessed a mind admirably qualified to apply the 
 knowledge he had thus acquired. He was nothing if not 
 thorough, and he never wasted time in the study of anything 
 that he did not intend to apply to a practical purpose. His 
 military studies had been made primarily for the purpose of 
 applying them, at some time in the future, to a renewal of 
 the struggle for Irish Independence. This was the beginning 
 of the Citizen Army, which, he hoped, would be the nucleus 
 of an armed and drilled army of the entire working class. 
 
 Connolly wrote many articles and a number of books. 
 His earliest articles, on Socialism and Nationality, appeared 
 in the Shan Van Vocht (The Shan, as it was affectionately 
 called) in 1895, 1897, and 1898. This paper was edited by 
 Alice Milligan and Anna Johnson (better known by her pen- 
 name of Ethna Carbery). Connolly's articles in The Shan 
 created wide discussion, owing, probably, to the fact that it 
 was the first time an Irish Socialist had openly maintained 
 that Socialism was not only not repugnant to the spirit of 
 nationality, but was an integral part of it. 
 
 Connolly's ablest work was published in 1910. It was 
 entitled "Labor in Irish History," and is recognized as a 
 standard work on the subject. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 ^ The Pen and the Sword 
 
 OF the signers of the Proclamation there were two 
 others also differing in many ways, who yet had the 
 same vision. Eamonn Ceannt was born in Gal way 
 in 1882. Tall and dark, slimly built but muscular, he was a 
 young and vigorous Gael at the time when he affixed his 
 signature to the Irish Declaration of Independence. Quiet 
 in his manner and unassuming, his modesty of speech and 
 manner made him slow in winning friends, but those whom 
 he did number among his friends found him not only a 
 delightful companion, but one who inspired unbounded 
 confidence. He was of a philosophical turn of mind, and his 
 vast reading in Irish, French, and English literature enabled 
 him to speak with authority on a variety of subjects in a 
 manner at once instructive and entertaining. He was a 
 lover of poetry, a speaker of Gaelic, and thoroughly conver- 
 sant with the history, literature, and traditions of his native 
 land. 
 
 His hobby was gardening. He was a lover of flowers and 
 plants and all things green and young, and contributed 
 numerous articles on gardening to Irish newspapers. He 
 wrote on the subject in a most interesting manner, and no 
 article of his failed in one or more points of special interest 
 to the people of Ireland. He wrote much also on the political 
 situation of the day, and not a little concerning the past 
 history of Ireland. He also contributed a few poems to vari- 
 ous publications, but these did not possess any outstanding 
 merit. 
 
 Ceannt was one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the 
 Sinn Fein policy when it was first promulgated, and his 
 enthusiasm and learning were valuable adjuncts to the cause. 
 
164 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 He assisted in the administrative end of the campaign, and 
 contributed in no small degree to the success which marked 
 the early days of the new movement. With the starting of 
 the daily Sinn Fein newspaper, Ceannt threw himseK into the 
 work with greater energy than before. When, during the 
 period of quiescence, the new headquarters were opened in 
 Harcourt Street, he spent much of his time there, assisting 
 in the work of keeping the organization alive. He arranged 
 courses of lectures and delivered lectures himself, never losing 
 his enthusiasm or his belief in the eventual success of the 
 policy, which, he declared, was based on the dearest hopes and 
 aspirations of the race. 
 
 After the formation of the Irish Volunteers, he was one of 
 the first to take up the work of drilling a company, and, 
 during the period between the outbreak of the European War 
 and the Rebellion, he worked indefatigably as an officer and 
 organizer. His work earned for him the place of honor he 
 occupied on the Proclamation and later in front of the firing 
 squad. 
 
 Of similar type in many respects was Joseph Mary Plunkett, 
 born in 1892. He was a man who made no false display 
 either of his opinions or his genius, preferring to leave his 
 deeds and his work to speak for him. He has left behind at 
 least one volume of imperishable verse, and, while it is some- 
 times dangerous to consider the work of a poet as the expres- 
 sion of his personal views, there can be no doubt that the 
 poems in this volume are the utterance of Plunkett*s inmost 
 thoughts and the frank outpouring of his soul. He wrote 
 indeed, not for the sake of writing, but to express the hopes 
 and the ambitions that possessed him. Plunkett was also 
 one of the most earnest workers for the Volunteers. A firm 
 believer in the doctrine of physical force, he instinctively 
 distrusted those who spoke of compromise or who were 
 content with less than the absolute freeing of Ireland from all 
 foreign interference. He was also thoroughly conversant with 
 all things Irish and a keen student of military science. 
 
 His volume of poems, "The Circle and the Sword,'* pub- 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 165 
 
 lished in 1911 and dedicated to Thomas MacDonagh, contains 
 much of the mysticism pecuHar to old GaeHc poetry. Al- 
 though his style was merely in the formative stage, it can 
 scarcely be doubted that, had he lived, his work would have 
 belonged to the truly distinctive utterances of our generation. 
 It has been already noticed how these young poets, who gave 
 up their all that Ireland might resume her place among the 
 other nations of the earth, reveal in their writings a premo- 
 nition of their eventual fate. So it was with Plunkett. The 
 thoughts, which he puts into words in "1867," are unmis- 
 takable in their significance: 
 
 All our best ye have branded. 
 
 When the people were choosing them; 
 
 When 'twas Death they demanded. 
 
 Ye laughed. Ye were losing them. 
 
 But the blood that ye spilt in the night 
 
 Crieth loudly to God, 
 
 And their name hath the strength and the might 
 
 Of a sword for the sod. 
 
 In the days of oiu* doom and our dread 
 
 Ye were cruel and callous. 
 
 Grim Death with our fighters ye fed 
 
 Through the jaws of the gallows; 
 
 But a blasting and blight was the fee 
 
 For which ye had bartered them. 
 
 And we smite with the sword that from ye 
 
 We had gained when ye martyred them. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 Fighting Men and Heroes 
 
 POSSIBLY the most picturesque of the other prominent 
 figures of the Revolution was Major McBride, a man 
 who had already shown his devotion to the cause of 
 freedom. During the Boer war he led an Irish Brigade on 
 the side of the Boer farmers, who were fighting the fight that 
 the Irish had waged for centuries and against the same tyrant 
 that was ever ready to plant her iron heel upon the aspirations 
 of both for freedom. Even prior to this he had worked in 
 Ireland and in the United States for the freedom of Ireland, 
 and was able by his wide knowledge of military science to 
 render valuable assistance to the men in the movement when 
 the time came for the drilling and the arming of the Volun- 
 teers. 
 
 A strenuous advocate of armed rebellion, McBride would 
 listen with amused indifference to any suggestion that the 
 freedom of the country, even in a legislative sense, could be 
 won by agitation in the British House of Commons. He 
 threw over the Irish Parliamentary Party in 1895, believing 
 that it was even then corrupted by British influence and 
 British gold, and never entertained the slightest hope that 
 even the emaciated Home Rule Bill would be put into opera- 
 tion. All his thoughts were centered on the raising of an 
 army that would drive the British out of the country, and 
 he never wavered in his steadfast belief that this would 
 eventually be accomplished — if not in this century, in the 
 next. Of middle age, a little over medium height, and rather 
 stoutly built, McBride presented an entire contrast to all the 
 other leaders, except perhaps Connolly. He did not possess 
 quite the same keen intellectual perception of the Gaelic ideal 
 as did the others, but there was no question as to his knowl- 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 167 
 
 edge of Irish history and his thorough insight into every 
 angle of the poUtical situation. He loved his country, and 
 his one desire was to be present at the striking of the final 
 blow for her freedom. 
 
 Of a very different type was Michael O'Hanrahan, a native 
 of New Ross in Wexford. In losing O'Hanrahan, Ireland lost 
 an author who would have given her youth many volumes of 
 inspired romance if he had lived. He was of a retiring 
 disposition, and spent a great deal of his time at home, 
 reading far into the night books of Irish verse and Irish his- 
 tory, romances of the Golden Age, and tales of the myths 
 and legends of Eirinn. While copy reader in the office of a 
 Dublin newspaper, O'Hanrahan became possessed of an 
 ambition to write. He plunged into a course of study that 
 developed his faculties and rapidly advanced him to the rank 
 of a man of letters. From Arthur Griffith, the Editor of 
 Sinn Fein, he received valuable assistance. For a time he 
 contributed an article each week to Sinn Fein (under the 
 pen-name of *' Martin"), in which he related the political 
 gossip of the week in a humorous, conversational style. 
 These articles showed a steady improvement in style and 
 construction, and it was soon seen that the young writer had 
 a bright future before him. 
 
 It was O'Hanrahan's dearest ambition at this time to write 
 a book, and he pondered seriously as to the subject he should 
 select. Eventually, in 1914, he published an Irish historical 
 romance entitled "A Swordsman of the Brigade," which met 
 with a most flattering reception. As its name implies, it is a 
 tale of the Wild Geese, and is a brilliant contribution to 
 modern Irish fiction. 
 
 O'Hanrahan was one of the first to join the Irish Volun- 
 teers. At the inaugural meeting in the Rotunda in 1913 he 
 was one of the stewards appointed to sign up recruits. He 
 gave up a great deal of his literary work to drill and learn the 
 art of soldiering. With the passing of time his enthusiasm 
 became greater, and, as his proficiency increased, he was 
 promoted from one rank to another, until he had gained a 
 
168 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 prominence that made him a marked man. At the time of 
 the rising he was treasurer of the Arms' Fund and the most 
 trusted man in the organization. 
 
 Still another who rendered valuable assistance in the prepa- 
 rations for the rebellion was William Pearse. Like his 
 brother, he was born in Dublin of an English father and an 
 Irish mother, and it is to their mother that the boys owed 
 that devotion for Ireland which characterized their lives. 
 William Pearse was the Art Master at St. Enda's School. 
 He had inherited the genius of his father, who was a well- 
 known sculptor, but his art differed from his father's in the 
 new inspiration which he brought to it and which rendered 
 it distinctive. There was a strong suggestion of the Gaelic 
 in all his sculpture, even in those subjects which were not 
 themselves Irish. His work soon began to attract attention 
 at the various exhibitions where it was placed on view, and 
 particularly at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin. 
 One of his finest works was his "Mater Dolorosa," which 
 was given the place of honor in the Mortuary Chapel in St. 
 Andrew's Church, Westland Row, Dublin. He was already 
 winning recognition in the critical art circles of Europe, when 
 he sacrificed his art to serve his country. 
 
 Like his brother, William was Irish of the Irish. He joined 
 the Volunteers at the same time as his brother, and was even 
 more enthusiastic in his attendance at drills and his study of 
 military science. He spent hours in the drill halls, teaching 
 and inspiring the men, and he was loved by all with whom he 
 came into contact. His youthful energy was tremendous, and 
 he seemed able to accomplish as much work as any other two 
 men. A quiet and unassuming youth, he had all the reserve 
 and all the genial qualities that made his brother loved and 
 trusted and respected by his comrades. 
 
 Of the others, Daly and Colbert and Heuston and Mallon, 
 much the same is to be said. They were young men who 
 had, by their devotion to their work, risen to posts of responsi- 
 bility in the Volunteers. They were all men of sincerity and 
 purity of motive — men whom any nation might be proud to 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 169 
 
 call her sons. In almost every instance they had just 
 attained the full bloom of manhood, and were men who would 
 certainly have won eminence in their various callings, had 
 they not been singled out for a nobler fate. It is extremely 
 difficult to speak of these men in a calmly critical manner, 
 such as is expected of a writer who endeavors to depict the 
 history of any set period. It is difficult to speak of friends 
 and companions as so many pawns on a chessboard, when one's 
 knowledge of the motives that moved them to action is 
 personal and direct. Of the stuff that heroes are made of, 
 with souls set above the earth and the things of the earth, 
 they followed the path of duty to its last demand, intent only 
 on relighting the torch of liberty which England had ex- 
 tinguished in their land. 
 
 In their everyday actions they gave little evidence of 
 possessing the germs of heroism. They were all quiet men, 
 little given to talk or display. They knew there were thou- 
 sands who were as ready as they to make the supreme sacrifice 
 when it was demanded. But to them fell the lot of leading 
 the van, of showing the way to their followers, and of paying 
 the extreme penalty always exacted from patriots in the 
 event of defeat. They knew, as did every man in the Volun- 
 teers, that they were running the risk of imprisonment or 
 death at the hands of the defender of the liberties of small 
 nations, even if they survived the fight. 
 
 All of them were workers — whether in the college, the 
 office, or the store. When their day's work was done, they 
 would repair to the drill hall or to the place of meeting, and 
 would there take their places as drill masters, officers, or 
 wherever their duty called them. They were not men who 
 had been selected to lead a nation, but men who stepped into 
 the line when the call came for action. Some of them were 
 scarcely known outside their immediate circle of acquaintance, 
 yet they were marked men, owing to the fact that the;^ had 
 always taken their stand on the one and only platform 
 possible for an Irish Nationalist — absolute and complete 
 independence for Ireland. The mere fact that they had not 
 
170 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 been prominent in the political arena is significant. They 
 were men of the people in every sense of the word. Plain, 
 straightforward, and serious, they were not swayed either by 
 the fanaticism of the moment nor by the pressure of precedent. 
 They took their stand where they did because they believed 
 it was the only honorable thing that an Irishman could do 
 under the circumstances. They had joined the Volunteers 
 owing to the conviction that in a national military organiza- 
 tion lay Ireland's only chance to escape betrayal at the hands 
 of her perjured representatives and later the danger of being 
 engulfed in a war in which she had no interest. These men 
 were not to be led astray by the sleek promises of a Govern- 
 ment that had ever mocked at the dearest hopes of the Irish 
 people. They were ready to accept any genuine measure of 
 Home Rule as a foundation for the regaining of Ireland's 
 freedom, but they refused to barter their nationality for the 
 promise of a mess of pottage. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 The Women of the Nation 
 
 IN dealing with the work of the women of the Revolution, 
 pride of place must necessarily be given to the Countess 
 Markievicz. A daughter of Lady Gore-Booth of Lisa- 
 dell, County Sligo, Constance Gore-Booth was reared in an 
 atmosphere peculiarly hostile to Irish nationality. The story 
 is told that her mother, with a strange hatred of all things 
 Irish, had all the clocks in the Manor House set to English 
 time. Constance later escaped from this stultifying atmos- 
 phere, when, developing a talent for painting, she went to 
 Paris to study art. Here she met and married, in 1900, 
 Count Casimir Markievicz. After her marriage she returned 
 to Ireland, and finally settled down with her husband in 
 Dublin. Despite all the attractions of Castle society, she 
 felt herself irresistibly drawn into another group, whose hall- 
 mark was intellect, whose blue blood was that of the Gael, 
 and whose magic circle was bound around with youth and 
 talent and love and hope for Ireland a Nation. 
 
 For some years she was one of the most picturesque figures 
 in the national life of Dublin, and gave unstintingly of her 
 time, her sympathies, and her means to the cause. With 
 Bulmer Hobson she founded, in 1909, the Irish Boy Scouts 
 (Fianna na hEirinn), for she believed that, the younger a 
 boy was when he dedicated his life to Ireland, the more he 
 would have to give her, and that in the hearts and hands of 
 her youth lay the destinies of Eirinn. 
 
 The boys worshiped her, and she spent night after night in 
 the hall in Camden steet, helping to drill them, holding up 
 to them as patterns the mighty Fianna of old with their boy 
 hero, Fionn MacCumhal — Fionn of the perfect soul and the 
 consummate wisdom, of whose glowing beauty Oisin sang. 
 
172 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Their boyish hearts stirred by the hero tales, they responded 
 gladly to the teaching and the training of the enthusiastic 
 and dashing woman, who taught them that they must be 
 like the Fianna, strong of limb and fleet of foot, cultured and 
 chivalrous, keenly intellectual and ever noble in principle. 
 She declared to them on one occasion, "Remember, boys, 
 no Fian ever turned his back on his foes, no Fian ever told 
 a lie." 
 
 When they camped out in the misty Dublin mountains 
 above the "blue of Dublin Bay," she too was there. She 
 accompanied them on their marches; and many a Sunday 
 morning, when the crowds were on their homeward way from 
 the last Mass along the Phibsboro Road and streams of 
 visitors flowed towards Glasnevin, the wild music of Irish 
 war pipes would suddenly fill the air, and around Doyle's 
 Corner, with green, white, and orange banners flying, would 
 sweep the Fianna na hEirinn, clad in saffron kilts. A tall, 
 straight, slender woman, with a soft felt hat strapped firmly 
 under her chin and bright green 'kerchief knotted around her 
 neck, might be seen marching proudly at their head. A 
 momentary pause, a flash of something white, and on the 
 first lamp-post would appear an anti-recruiting bill, placed 
 there by a practiced hand — the hand of Countess Markievicz. 
 Then off they would go again, the pipes shrieking "The 
 Dawning of the Day." 
 
 In 1913, during the months of the Dublin strikes, she 
 played an important part in alleviating distress in the city. 
 She attended personally to the cooking and the preparation 
 of the meals given out at Liberty Hall to the strikers and 
 their families. Many a morning, long before eight o'clock, a 
 figure on a bicycle would sweep swiftly around the old Houses 
 of Parliament, down over O'Connell Bridge, and along Eden 
 Quay to Liberty Hall. It was the Countess hurrying to get 
 breakfast for her comrades, the working men of Dublin. 
 
 One Friday afternoon in August, when the excitement was 
 at its height, Jim Larkin announced that on the following 
 Sunday, at one o'clock in the afternoon, he would address a 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 173 
 
 public meeting in O'Connell Street. On Saturday morning 
 the meeting was proclaimed, and a warrant issued for the 
 arrest of Larkin. But Jim Larkin was nowhere to be found; 
 he had disappeared. A strange undercurrent of expectancy 
 thrilled Dublin that evening; an indescribable feeling that 
 something was going to happen. Rumors of all kinds were 
 circulated, but one persisted, namely that, in spite of the 
 proclamation and the warrant for his arrest, Jim Larkin would 
 address the meeting. 
 
 Sunday morning came, gracious and soft as a typical Irish 
 morning. Between nine and ten o'clock a body of men 
 marched out of the city to Fairview. They were the members 
 of the Citizen Army, and the attention of the police was 
 focused on them immediately. As the morning wore on, the 
 churches emptied themselves of their large congregations, and 
 between twelve and one o'clock O'Connell Street was thronged 
 with laughing, good-natured people. Most of them were 
 making their way home from Mass, but some of them lingered, 
 wondering if Larkin would keep his word. 
 
 In company with some friends, the writer was turning from 
 Middle Abbey Street into O'Connell Street when a jaunting 
 car dashed by. Sitting on it were the Countess Markievicz 
 and Francis Sheehy-Skeffington. They stopped at the door 
 of the Imperial Hotel, and the attention of the passing crowds 
 seemed suddenly to center around them, when out upon a 
 balcony of the hotel stepped a tall, grave, and bearded gentle- 
 man in morning attire beyond reproach. Bowing graciously 
 to the assembled people, he removed his shining silk hat and 
 impressive beard. And then a cheer went up — a cheer that 
 might have been heard for miles. Jim Larkin had kept his word. 
 
 In a second, O'Connell Street became the scene of the 
 wildest confusion. Out of Prince's Street, where they had 
 been lined up in waiting, dashed the police with their batons. 
 Right and left they charged, caring not whom they struck. 
 Men, women, and children were knocked down and beaten. 
 Men were clubbed to death, and O'Connell Street was red 
 with the blood of defenseless people. 
 
174 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 That was another Bloody Sunday to be stored in Ireland's 
 memory. 
 
 On the following Wednesday the men murdered by the 
 poHce were buried in Glasnevin. The funeral was an impres- 
 sive demonstration of public feeling. The bodies were taken 
 to the Pro-Cathedral, where special services were held, the 
 streets being lined with indignant people. The most striking 
 feature of the funeral was the army of working men and 
 women who attended. Many processions have been held in 
 Dublin, — language parades and pageants that, voicing the 
 warmth and color of Irish-Ireland, set one's heart to beat 
 at a quickened pace, — but Dublin never before witnessed 
 anything so impressive as these hosts of working men and 
 women that went marching, marching, interminably marching 
 past in silent tribute to their dead. Alongside of them a car 
 moved slowly. On it were the Count and Countess Markie- 
 vicz. The Countess was in white, but against her white 
 dress lay a large wreath, scarlet like blood. 
 
 In the Rotunda, at the Aonach and during the week of the 
 Oireachtas, the Countess was a prominent figure, particularly 
 in the Art Section, where her training and artistic talent made 
 her assistance invaluable. Sometimes she would sell Sinn 
 Fein pamphlets, or pictures of Tone and Emmet at the Sinn 
 Fein stall; and again she would be found with her beloved 
 boys of the Fianna. In her own home she was a charming 
 hostess. She loved to gather around her the young and 
 gifted who were helping to make Ireland a Nation, and to 
 those who were privileged to be present at these gatherings 
 they will remain forever a fragrant and inspiring memory. 
 
 Closely associated with the Countess in all her work for 
 Ireland was her intimate friend, Helena Moloney. She was 
 a retiring and quiet girl who could, when the occasion de- 
 manded it, become as aggressive and as determined as she 
 was ordinarily shy and modest. Helena served many jail 
 sentences in Dublin, prior to and after the outbreak of the 
 war, for speeches made in the public streets against recruiting. 
 Helena and the Countess were two of the hardest workers 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 175 
 
 during the visit of King George of England to Dublin in 1911. 
 Both of them made the round of the city night after night, 
 speaking on street corners and appealing to the people to 
 show to the English monarch the true spirit of the people of 
 Ireland. On all these occasions the Union Jack was burned 
 amid the cheers of the people, and the police were powerless 
 to interfere. Although the treatment given her in jail broke 
 down her health little by little, she persevered with her task, 
 each sentence serving but to strengthen her determination to 
 carry on the work to the end. 
 
 There were scores of other women who did splendid work 
 before the Rebellion, and took their stand with the men when 
 the Flag of Irish Freedom was hoisted over the Irish Capital. 
 From women and girls of trained intellect to the daughters 
 of the very poorest, the women of Dublin answered nobly to 
 the call of freedom. That the conduct of the British soldiers 
 in the city during the years preceding the Rebellion fanned 
 the indignation of Irish women against England goes without 
 saying; and it is a notable fact that for the first time in the 
 history of Ireland, since the siege of Limerick, the Irish women 
 rose in a body to combat the power of England and take part 
 in the battle for liberty. 
 
 None of the women are more deserving of praise than the 
 working girls and women of the city. Girls employed at 
 Jacob's Biscuit Works and at other places in the city rallied 
 to the call and did magnificent work. They had been well 
 trained and well organized long before the rising. They 
 showed a wonderful aptitude for the tasks assigned to them, 
 and spent many hours every evening learning their parts — 
 to act as Red Cross nurses, as special messengers, and in a 
 score of other capacities that enabled them to be of supreme 
 service in the hour when they were needed. 
 
 These girls had the best of reasons for taking part in the 
 rebellion. At the time of the strikes in Dublin during 1913 
 they had been subjected to every indignity that could be 
 heaped on them. Working long hours for a mere pittance, 
 they proved that their spirit had survived, that in spite of 
 
176 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 the drudgery to which they were subjected they were still 
 capable of asserting the rights that were theirs. 
 
 Another section that did fine work was the organization 
 known as the Cumann na mBan, or Irish Women's Council. 
 Mrs. Thomas Clarke, wife of the leader of the Irish Revolu- 
 tionary Brotherhood, was one of the most active workers in 
 this body, and she was ably assisted by many other well- 
 known women of Dublin, including Mrs. Eoin MacNeill, 
 Helena Moloney, and the Countess Markievicz. Mrs. Clarke, 
 Mrs. MacNeill, and Mrs. Gill were women of social standing 
 who were the mothers of families, and who had every reason 
 to be satisfied with the positions they held, but they were 
 unable to resist the call of the country. 
 
 These women not only took up the study of Red Cross 
 work, but also learned much of the art of the soldier. They 
 belonged to a militant organization, and were not content 
 to take a passive part in the work. They met every evening 
 at their headquarters, where they learned to shoot and march, 
 and many of them became crack shots with the revolver and 
 the rifle. In addition, every member learned the mechanism 
 of the weapons, with the result that they were able to be of 
 valuable assistance to the men. The part that they played 
 in the actual fighting showed the thoroughness of the drilling 
 they went through for many months before the rising. 
 
 In one other way, also, these women were of the greatest 
 assistance to the men. At the inaugural meeting of the 
 Volunteers in 1913 a special appeal was made to the women 
 for cooperation. There were many women at that meeting, 
 and, when the meeting was over, these women made arrange- 
 ments to form an organization to supplement the work of the 
 men. This was the beginning of the Cumann na mBan. It 
 was first intended that the members should take up the work 
 of collecting funds for the purchase of rifles and ammunition for 
 the Volunteers. They carried on this work for many months, 
 but gradually developed into a militant organization of their 
 own. These women were instrumental in collecting a large 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 177 
 
 sum of money for the arming of the men, and they also 
 armed themselves. In view of the manner in which the 
 British soldiers in Dublin had acted towards the women of 
 the city, it was recognized that, rebellion apart, every girl 
 and woman of Dublin should possess a gun and the ability 
 to use it in an emergency. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 Thinkers and Men 
 
 ONE of the most interesting personalities in public life 
 in Ireland for many years was Arthur Griffith. 
 While he took no active part in the rising, his work 
 during the years which preceded it was such that it is almost 
 impossible to overestimate his influence on the Irish people. 
 The manner in which he was treated by the British Govern- 
 ment immediately after the surrender shows that the English 
 officials were well aware of the part he had played. Of 
 medium height, square build, and great muscular development, 
 and with a finely developed head, Griffith was a man of 
 commanding appearance, who impressed one immediately as 
 a man of keen intellect. Quiet and very reserved in the 
 presence of strangers, he was kindly Irish of the Irish in his 
 home. One had indeed to know him intimately to appreciate 
 the true worth of the man. Few men in Dublin had so great 
 a knowledge of Irish history and literature as Griffith, and he 
 was, in addition, an able politician, if we use the term in its 
 true sense, and not in the sinister meaning which it has 
 acquired in Ireland during the past decade. 
 
 Griffith spent many years in South Africa, working in the 
 Transvaal diamond mines, but, even during this period, he 
 kept in close touch with Irish affairs, and was a contributor 
 to the Shan Van Vocht. He possessed a natural talent for 
 writing, and had a terse and vigorous style that made a 
 direct appeal to his readers. He was thus able to make good 
 use of his knowledge of history, and of his genius for statistics 
 and analysis which lent such power to his writings. 
 
 On his return to Ireland he took up the editorship of The 
 United Irishman, and made it one of the most widely read 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 179 
 
 papers in the country. His editorial articles attracted almost 
 universal attention, while his criticisms of the Irish Parlia- 
 mentary Party caused no little uneasiness to its leaders. 
 A libel action, however, put an end to the paper, but, as has 
 frequently happened in the annals of Irish journalism, the 
 paper was discontinued for a very short period, only to reap- 
 pear as Sinn Fein. 
 
 GriflBth now propounded his Sinn Fein policy. After a 
 close study of general history, he finally became particularly 
 interested in the histories of Poland, Finland, and Hungary. 
 So keen did his interest in Hungary become that he issued a 
 lengthy pamphlet entitled "The Resurrection of Hungary," 
 which enjoyed a tremendous popularity and which contained 
 a telling object-lesson for the people of Ireland. This paved 
 the way for the Sinn Fein policy, and, when Griffith made 
 his famous speech detailing the various points of that policy, 
 the result was electrical. Praise and ridicule were heaped 
 upon the policy and its author, but the practicability of the 
 plan was seen by a large number of men who immediately 
 identified themselves with the new movement. "Sinn Fein" 
 became a battle-cry throughout the country, and, as has 
 already been shown, many of the brightest spirits of the 
 younger generation of Irishmen flocked to the new standard. 
 
 It had always been one of Griffith's ideals to establish a 
 daily paper in Ireland along national lines. Up to 1909 the 
 only papers that could be called truly national were weekly, 
 the others being merely professional political organs. In 
 1909 Griffith established Sinn Fein, bringing out the paper 
 every afternoon with all the news of the country and cable 
 news from abroad. The first issue was dated Tuesday, 
 August 24, and its appearance was heralded by throngs in 
 the streets in the vicinity of Middle Abbey Street, where the 
 paper was published. The paper was eagerly bought up by 
 the people, and the first issue was sold almost as soon as it 
 had been run off the press. The paper was printed on Irish 
 paper with Irish ink, and was Irish in every line of its make- 
 up. The Editorial, entitled "Ourselves," was as follows: 
 
180 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 We give the Nation to-day a daily journal. The parties in Ire- 
 land have their organs — the Nation hitherto has had none. We 
 support the policy of Sinn Fein, because we are convinced that of 
 the policies before this country it is the most effective. But we 
 do not confound the policy with the Nation. Sinn Fein is not the 
 Nation. Parliamentarianism is not the Nation, Unionism is not the 
 Nation — all are but weapons offered to the Nation; and, by their 
 effectiveness in the Nation's service, they must be judged and re- 
 tained or discarded. The Nation belongs exclusively to none of us. 
 Nationalists or Unionists, Catholics or Protestants, rich or poor — 
 it belongs to us all, and it is greater than us all. The party comes 
 and goes — the Nation remains for ever. The quarrels of the par- 
 ties of the past in Ireland are of no living account to us to-day. 
 What we now ask about past movements is what they achieved for 
 the Nation. What our children will ask about the movements of 
 to-day will be the same question. It will be of no more interest to 
 them than the passing breeze whether Sinn Fein scored a point over 
 Parliamentarianism, or whether Parliamentarianism scored a point 
 over Unionism. What victories did they win for the Nation? That 
 is the question they will ask, and by the reply we shall be judged. 
 How did the parties in Ireland in 1909 make Ireland — the Ireland 
 of us all — happier, freer, stronger, more prosperous and more re- 
 spected.'' In 1929 that is all the people of Ireland will be interested 
 in knowing about our parties of to-day. In your hearts, fellow- 
 countrymen, you know this to be true. 
 
 Parnell never said a wiser thing than that Ireland could not spare 
 the services of a single one of her sons and daughters. Ireland is 
 poor and weak; her enemies are strong and powerful. Any policy 
 that would prevent an Irishman or an Irishwoman working for his 
 or her country's good, is a policy that must tend to keep Ireland 
 poor and weak. That intolerance has been the sin of nearly all 
 parties in Ireland, is a fact none of us can deny. That this intoler- 
 ance has cost Ireland the services of thousands of her best men, is 
 a fact we aflfirm. So fatuous a policy will never be ours. We recog- 
 nize that the people of Ireland as a whole, whatever their party, 
 whatever their creed, whatever their class may be, are at least as 
 patriotic as the people of the thriving nations. We recognize that 
 the great mass of those who support Parliamentarianism or Union- 
 ism are as honest in their belief and as sincere in their desire to 
 serve Ireland as their brethren who support the Sinn Fein policy. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 181 
 
 Were we to believe otherwise we would believe that the bulk of the 
 Irish people cared nothing for their country — and no one who knows 
 Ireland could believe so base a thing. Behind all the fierceness, 
 bitterness, and intolerance of party lies a deep and passionate pa- 
 triotism, and it is that patriotism to which we appeal — to which 
 we shall give an articulate organ — on which we shall rebuild, in the 
 manly love of comrades, the Nation. 
 
 In a sentence, reversing the custom that has long prevailed in our 
 public affairs, we shall seek to find points of agreement and not 
 points of difference, and we shall support every honest effort and 
 give full credit to our countrymen of other political parties for all 
 the work they perform for the common good. We shall refuse to 
 regard any Irish party as our enemies. They may be our opponents 
 
 — they shall not be our enemies. Our enemies are those who govern, 
 and misgovern, this country against the will of its people — not any 
 section of our own countrymen. 
 
 We pledge ourselves to-day to support every man and every party 
 
 — however divergent their opinions may be from ours on other 
 points — in any work to the credit and honor of oiu- common Na- 
 tion, and to defend the right of the man who disagrees with us on 
 one point to be heard on the other nine. Ireland again a Nation has 
 been the dream of generations; it will never be a fact until we all 
 
 — whether our party color be orange, green, or blue — realize that 
 we are Irishmen before we are party men. We believe that sincere 
 men of all parties — and the sincere men are a great majority in every 
 Irish party — are realizing this to-day; that the old evil and absurd 
 policy of driving men out of public life because they cannot sub- 
 scribe to all the tenets of the predominant party is dying, and that 
 the ideal of Thomas Davis — an Ireland in which its people, differ- 
 ing widely in policy and methods, are united in the love and service 
 of their country — is growing in the minds of men on both sides of 
 the Boyne. We are here to realize that ideal, and we claim the sup- 
 port of all our countrymen in the work we have undertaken. 
 
 This declaration of policy shows GriflSth as he really was 
 better than many pages of appreciation might do. We have 
 already shown how his paper was suppressed during the war, 
 and how he kept up the fight by publishing one periodical after 
 another to tell the men and the women of Ireland the true 
 facts of the situation. That he played a large and an im- 
 
182 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 portant part in the subsequent events cannot be denied. He 
 educated the people of Ireland, and brought about a revival 
 of the old spirit of self-reliance and patriotism. He believed 
 firmly that the final appeal would have to be to force of 
 arms, but he also believed that this, in order to be successful, 
 must be founded on a firm educational basis, and it was to 
 this foundation that he directed all his efforts. 
 
 There is one other man whom we should consider in this 
 chapter, as being somewhat akin to Griffith. This is Eoin 
 MacNeill, the leader of the Irish Volunteers up to the time of 
 the Rebellion, and a man who was more or less directly 
 responsible for their formation. A man of striking appearance 
 and brilliant intellect, he devoted all his energies to Ireland 
 and her freedom, and, whatever may be the explanation of 
 the tragic error that will forever be associated with his name, 
 the fact remains that his actions were sincere and his motives 
 were of the highest. 
 
 He also was deeply versed in the history and the traditions 
 of his country, and thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the 
 Gael. He first entered public life as Vice-President of the 
 Gaelic League, of which he was the real founder, and later 
 became associated with the official organ of the League, An 
 Cleadheamh Soluis. In this paper, during the year 1913, 
 MacNeill wrote a number of articles drawing attention to the 
 manner in which Carson's Volunteers were spreading, and 
 suggesting that a meeting be called for the purpose of forming 
 the Irish Volunteers. He presided at the meeting in the 
 Rotunda Rink, and became the first President of the Volun- 
 teers. He was indefatigable in his work for the Volunteers, 
 and edited their official organ, The Volunteer, in the pages of 
 which, from the beginning of the war until the suppression of 
 the paper, he advocated a policy of staying at home and 
 vigorously denounced the attempts made to force Irishmen 
 into the British army. While the Government was doing 
 everything in its power to inflame the Irish people, MacNeill 
 was one of its most caustic critics. Especially caustic was his 
 criticism of the manner in which the Defense of the Re9,lm 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 183 
 
 Act was carried out by the British authorities. As affording 
 an insight into MacNeiU's views and into the anomalous 
 condition of Ireland, the following article written by MacNeill 
 in The Volunteer of September, 1915, is interesting. 
 
 General Friend, the responsible military authority in Ireland, had 
 only a limited knowledge of civil and political affairs in Ireland. To 
 supply the defect, Mr. Birrell placed one of his subordinates, Mr. 
 Price, a county inspector of police, at the General's disposal. In 
 this way Mr. Birrell ceased to be responsible, and to care two straws 
 for anything that Mr. Price, now Major Price, may advise to be 
 done. General Friend cannot well go behind the advice of Major 
 Price, his Intelligence Officer, since without the Major the General 
 would be without intelligence. The Major, for his part, refuses in 
 court to go behind what the General does on the Major's advice. 
 The Crown explains in court that "there was the parallel of the 
 Dictator in ancient Roman history." It is not a bad parallel for 
 the champions of liberty and nationality in the twentieth century. 
 The Dictator of Ireland is evidently the gallant Major, who has 
 reached his military honors by a short way from Tipperary, where 
 he completed his qualifications in "intelligence" as a pohce inspector 
 under Mr. Birrell. The General is naturally dependent on whatever 
 advice the Major wishes to dictate. The Major is Dictator, with 
 full power over the liberty of the subject. 
 
 The Major, having advised the General, who would be acting in 
 the dark without the Major's intelligence, admits in court that "the 
 miUtary authorities," the Dictator and the General, "are responsible 
 to the Nation." The Nation Once Again — the Irish-Scottish- Welsh- 
 Enghsh nation. "There never was a Defense of the Realm Act 
 passed before," says Major Price to the court. That is true. Never 
 until we got Home Rule on the Statute Book, was it in the power, 
 of one policeman to consign Irishmen to banishment without even 
 stating the evidence in court. "What that evidence was I am not 
 going to tell you," is the Dictator's own statement. Formerly, 
 when there was no evidence, it required at least the hard swearing 
 of two police witnesses to destroy an Irishman's liberty. Now that 
 we have Home Rule on the Statute Book we have changed all that, 
 and it is a change for the better. It obviates hard swearing, which, 
 however necessary, is never pleasant. The Defense of the Realm 
 Act makes for veracity. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 The Irish in America 
 
 ONE of the essential components of the American people, 
 using the term in its modern sense, is the Gael. The 
 Irish have made their mark on the history of the 
 United States, have secured positions of power and influence, 
 and have thrown their racial characteristics into the melt- 
 ing pot, out of which has been produced the American 
 mind and the new American nation. Driven from their 
 homeland by a system of Government that made personal 
 freedom impossible, the Irish emigrated to America in mil- 
 lions. At first, like other immigrants, most of them had to 
 content themselves with the more laborious tasks, while the 
 police and fire departments of the great and small cities 
 absorbed thousands of them. But with the dead weight of 
 foreign oppression removed from their shoulders and the 
 opportunity of education and advancement presenting itself, 
 the Gael rapidly rose to positions of affluence and influence. 
 From the days when the young nation had tested its 
 strength with the oppressor of Ireland and America alike, the 
 Irish in America had proven their loyalty to the land of their 
 adoption. When the time came for action, they were ready 
 to shed their blood for America. Their American patriotism 
 was pure and unselfish, just as their devotion was true and 
 unselfish to the land of their birth. It was this loyalty to an 
 ideal, to a national ideal and to a patriotic instinct, that 
 made the Irish in America often more American than the 
 Americans themselves. The Irish had learned great lessons, 
 and had profited by them. They loved America because 
 America granted to them that liberty which a foreign power 
 denied them in their own land. 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 185 
 
 Yet back of it all and deep down in his soul the Gael 
 remained true to Ireland. That little island three thousand 
 miles away exercised a fascination that no Irishman was able 
 to resist. True, he might at times forget. There were times 
 when events were pressing in the new country, when the 
 stress of living or the excitement of adventure led his thoughts 
 away from his native land. But they never failed to return. 
 A chance meeting with a friend, a line in a newspaper, and 
 there would again flash across his mental vision that old 
 dream of Ireland a Nation. It was owing to this that he was 
 so proudly jealous of the liberties and the rights of the 
 American nation, in the building of whose fortunes he had 
 played no insignificant part. His love and enthusiasm were 
 not divided. He stood for liberty, whether in America or in 
 Ireland, in Poland or Hungary. Those who had sought to 
 deprive him of what he believed the birthright of every man 
 and woman and child, had made of him a disciple to carry 
 the doctrine of human liberty into every corner of the earth. 
 
 The story of the formation of the Fenian Brotherhood in 
 America has already been briefly told in these pages. That 
 organization was the banding together of Irishmen of all 
 creeds and all parties for the purpose of freeing Ireland. 
 Through varying degrees of fortune that organization retained 
 its ideals, which were never anything less than the complete 
 emancipation of Ireland from the rule of the foreigner. To-day 
 the I. R. B. is what it was on the first day of the formation 
 of the Emmet Memorial Committee. It grew rapidly in the 
 years preceding the Rebellion, and was the leading Irish 
 republican organization in America. The men in Dublin 
 and the men of the I. R. B. in America were one in their 
 ideals; they were men of a common organization, and were 
 actuated by the same desire. Had it been possible for the 
 men of the I. R. B. in America to have traveled to Dublin 
 before the rising, they would have been found shoulder to 
 shoulder with Clarke, Pearse, The O'Rahilly, and their col- 
 leagues. Ireland could have enrolled a far greater "foreign 
 legion*' than fought for the Allies in France. 
 
186 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 At the same time the I. R. B. did not represent a majority 
 of the Irish in America at the time of the outbreak of the war 
 in Europe. Knowing how fruitful a field America has always 
 been for the collection of money, Redmond and his colleagues 
 made the most strenuous efforts to hold the attention of the 
 people on this side of the Atlantic concentrated on his Home 
 Rule campaign, and he was able to do this with so much 
 success that many billions of dollars were subscribed by the 
 Irish people here in order to enable him to keep up the fight. 
 In the later stages of his campaign this money was used for 
 the purpose of buying public opinion on both sides of the 
 Atlantic, in subsidizing newspapers, particularly the degenerate 
 Freeman's Journal of Dublin, the official organ of the party, 
 and The Irish News of Belfast, which existed for the purpose 
 of keeping Joseph Devlin prominent in the eye of the public. 
 
 Among the staunchest of Redmond's supporters on this 
 side of the Atlantic were the members of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians. One of the largest Irish organizations in the 
 United States, it was able to mold public opinion in this 
 country any way that Mr. Redmond wanted it. The A. O. H. 
 was consistently in favor of the Parliamentary Party right up 
 to the outbreak of the war. It was instrumental in collecting 
 a great deal of the money that was sent to Mr. Redmond 
 from America, for it always believed that the Home Rule 
 cause would win out, and that by it Ireland would gain her 
 freedom. 
 
 Another influence that Redmond was able to wield in 
 America was The Irish World newspaper, perhaps the most 
 powerful force in Irish- American circles. Under the leadership 
 of Patrick Ford, one of the most sincere Irishmen in America, 
 The Irish World was able to supply more money to the 
 Parliamentary Party than any other single agency. Its 
 columns were open year after year to the constantly recurring 
 appeals made by Redmond for money. In the sincere belief 
 that he was acting for the best, Patrick Ford appealed to the 
 thousands of readers of his paper to support the Party, and 
 these appeals never fell on deaf ears. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 187 
 
 Mention should also be made of the San Francisco Leadety 
 edited by Father Yorke, which had always been an advocate 
 of the physical force and Sinn Fein movements. The Leader 
 was one of the few newspapers that did not believe in Red- 
 mond, but which was still anxious to give him every oppor- 
 tunity of carrying out his promises. The Leader and a 
 number of other weekly papers wielded an influence in the 
 country that was by no means negligible. These papers had 
 a large following of readers, who were either suspicious of the 
 good faith of Redmond or were giving him the benefit of the 
 doubt for the time being. 
 
 With the outbreak of the war Redmond became a recruiting 
 sergeant for the Empire. The effect in America was striking 
 and instantaneous. Led by The Irish World, the vast major- 
 ity of Redmond's followers deserted him. Knowing the record 
 of the British Army in Ireland, they were unable to under- 
 stand how any Irish leader could appeal to the young men of 
 Ireland to don the uniform of the men who had, only a few 
 days previously, murdered Irish men and women in the streets 
 of Dublin, even had there not been a long list of crimes of 
 the most brutal nature to be charged up against EngHsh 
 soldiers in earlier years. Redmond overestimated his in- 
 fluence when he thought he could sway the Irish of America 
 to a concurrence with his plans. He found that they were 
 still Irish, and still remained true to the traditions of their 
 country. 
 
 The defection of The Irish World was the first blow that 
 the "recruiting sergeant" received. He retaliated by getting 
 the British Government to have the paper proclaimed through- 
 out Ireland and an order issued prohibiting it being imported 
 into Ireland. By these means Redmond probably hoped he 
 would be able to keep the people from knowing the true 
 sentiment of the Irish in America. In this he was disap- 
 pointed, owing to the fact that the new editor of the paper, 
 Robert E. Ford, son of Patrick Ford, who had succeeded his 
 father in the management of the paper on the death of the 
 former, found ways and means of getting the paper to the 
 
188 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Irish people. Needless to say, Redmond was also unable to 
 prevent the paper being sold to the Irish people in America, 
 and The Irish World was able to do yeoman service in expos- 
 ing the facts of the situation to the people of this country. 
 The paper conducted a vigorous campaign against the recruit- 
 ing policy, and later, when the proposals were made and 
 accepted by Redmond for the partition of Ireland as a further 
 sop to the English Tories, The Irish World was one of the 
 most bitter opponents of the scheme. 
 
 Following immediately after the change made by The Irish 
 World, the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America transferred 
 its allegiance. National President Joseph McLaughlin came 
 out in an uncompromising manner against Redmond. In the 
 course of a letter to The Irish World on March 27, 1915, he 
 stated his views, saying that ninety per cent of the Hibernians 
 were against recruiting. He added that he was expressing 
 the practically unanimous opinion of the Order of which he 
 was the President. His letter ran in part; 
 
 The work of Ireland cannot be done by shedding Irish blood under 
 the British flag, in a cause which does not concern either the honor 
 or the safety of Ireland or her people either at home or abroad. 
 . . . The recruiting policy is treason. It cannot deceive, however 
 cunningly masked, the thinking majority of the race who remember 
 that the nation which enforced the Penal Laws against Catholics, 
 which forced the Ancient Order of Hibernians out into the moun- 
 tains to defend the priest and the schoolmaster, which kept the 
 masses in poverty and ignorance, which "rooted out" millions in a 
 single century, is the same nation which now seeks to whistle them 
 back with vague promises and asks them to "save the Empire"! 
 It is not a part of the duty of the Ancient Order of Hibernians to 
 "save the Empire." But it is its duty to save the young men of 
 Ireland for the mothers and wives at home. The only words that real 
 Hibernians can fervently utter at this time are the words that were 
 first defiantly spoken on an English scaffold — "God Save Ireland." 
 
 The defection of the Hibernians was followed by similar 
 action on the part of many other organizations, with the 
 result that before the end of the first year of the war ninety- 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 189 
 
 five per cent of the Irish in America were united in a common 
 bond against the betrayal of Ireland. There were a few who 
 remained with Redmond, but they dwindled day by day, as 
 the news came of one betrayal of principle after another. 
 
 This union of the various sections of Irish opinion in 
 America, at the time when the same thing was taking place in 
 Ireland, is one of the most significant features of the situation. 
 It demonstrated, better than anything else could do, the fact 
 that the vast majority of the Irish people at home and abroad 
 were not in favor of Great Britain or her recruiting sergeant. 
 One of the finest results of the union of parties in America 
 was the holding of the First Annual Convention of the Irish 
 Race in America at the Hotel Astor, New York City, in 
 March, 1916. This convention was attended by over 2000 
 delegates from all parts of the country, and resolutions were 
 unanimously adopted, declaring for the freedom of Ireland, 
 denouncing the Parliamentary Party for its betrayal, and 
 asking the assistance of neutral nations in securing for Ireland 
 a place at the Peace Conference when it met to end the war. 
 Following this Convention a new organization was formed, 
 known as the Friends of Irish Freedom, which spread with 
 lightning-like rapidity throughout America. A few weeks 
 later the men had risen in Dublin in another effort to win 
 the liberty of Ireland. 
 
 This brief and necessarily incomplete sketch of the activities 
 of the Irish in America is suflScient to show that the Irish 
 here were not in sympathy with Redmond, who, from the 
 time he became a recruiting sergeant for the British Empire, 
 was denounced from one end of the country to the other. 
 Redmond was dead so far as America was concerned, without 
 the faintest hope of being ever again able to win back even 
 a shadow of his former power. The Irish in America were 
 interested in the liberty of Ireland, and not in the salvation 
 of the British Empire. 
 
CHAPTER XXX 
 
 Sir Roger Casement 
 
 AS each phase of the history of the Irish Rebellion of 
 1916 is considered, it becomes increasingly difficult 
 to treat of the subject within any set limits. The 
 case of Sir Roger Casement might well be a stot-y to itself. 
 The part which he played in the Rebellion and the manner 
 of his trial and final martyrdom render him of particular 
 interest to the student of Irish history. His striking person- 
 ality, his pure and noble patriotism, his simple love for his 
 country, and his devotion to the cause of humanity will rank 
 him among the most striking figures in the history of his 
 century. 
 
 From his first appearance in public life his career was a 
 notable one. Born in County Antrim of English Protestant 
 parents on September 1, 1864, he received a full course of 
 university education, and began his diplomatic career with 
 his appointment to the Niger Coast Oil Rivers Protectorate 
 on July 31, 1892. On June 27, 1893, he was appointed Consul 
 in the Portuguese Province of Lorenzo Marquez, and on 
 July 29, 1898, Consul for the Portuguese Possessions of West 
 Africa, south of the GuK of Guinea. 
 
 His services in these capacities were such that during the 
 war in South Africa he was engaged on special service in 
 Cape Town in 1899 and again in 1900, and was rewarded, on 
 the conclusion of the war, by the decoration of the Queen s 
 Medal. On August 20, 1900, he was transferred to the 
 Congo State, and was appointed, in addition, on August 6, 
 1901, Consul for part of the French Congo Colony. His work 
 in the Congo was instrumental in revealing the atrocities that 
 the Belgian Government was committing in its anxiety to 
 collect the rubber with which that region abounded. His 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 191 
 
 knowledge of the facts that shocked the civilized world had 
 a great deal to do with the attitude he took when the cry 
 of "violated Belgium" was made the excuse for England's 
 declaration of war on Germany, for he felt that any punish- 
 ment meted out to Belgium would be mild chastisement for 
 a nation that had been responsible for the mutilation and 
 murder of countless men, women, and children in its mad 
 anxiety for money. At the time of the disclosures England 
 had denounced these atrocities, as the volume entitled "Red 
 Rubber," published by Morel, attests; but later events demon- 
 strated that the main purpose of England's denunciation was 
 her anxiety to control the rubber industry for her own profit. 
 
 On Jime 30, 1905, Casement was rewarded for his services 
 by being made a Commander of the Order of St. Michael and 
 St. George, and on August 13, 1906, he was appointed Consul 
 for the State of San Paolo, with a residence at Santos. On 
 December 1, 1908, he was promoted to Consul General at 
 Rio de Janeiro, and on June 20, 1911, he received the order of 
 Knighthood, receiving the Coronation Medal in the same 
 year. From 1900 to 1912, while titular Consul General at 
 Rio de Janeiro, he was employed in making his inquiries 
 relative to the rubber industry in Putumayo, and headed two 
 Commissions of Inquiry, which resulted in some astounding 
 revelations. On August 1, 1913, he retired from public 
 service on a pension. Prior to these events, in 1887, Sir 
 Roger had taken part in the expedition led by Sir Henry M. 
 Stanley to rescue Emir Pasha. He was at all times interested 
 keenly and personally in everything that tended to the 
 elimination of human suffering. Of a mild and gentle disposi- 
 tion, he was yet fearless and brave to an amazing degree. 
 He seemed to have no sense of personal danger, and numerous 
 incidents are on record of gallant acts performed in the course 
 of his duty and in private life. 
 
 Following his retirement, he returned to his native country 
 after an absence of many years, just at the time when the 
 Home Rule agitation was at its height. He was in Belfast 
 at the time of the organization of the Carson Volunteers, and 
 
192 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 seemed to be greatly impressed by the progress that organiza- 
 tion was making with the assistance of the Liberal Govern- 
 ment. In one of his letters he makes special mention of the 
 devices he saw spread across the streets of Belfast on the 
 occasion of a visit paid to the city by Sir Edward Carson, 
 who was at that time being hailed as the uncrowned King of 
 Ulster. Among these devices he mentions two. One of these 
 read: ''Welcome to the Kaiser"; and the other: "We prefer 
 German Rule to a Home Rule Government." These signifi- 
 cant declarations were not without effect on the Irishman 
 returning to his native land, and, when the Irish Volunteers 
 were organized in Dublin and began to spread throughout the 
 country, Casement took an active part in the movement, and 
 assisted in the training and drilling of the men. 
 
 Early in June, 1914, Casement visited the United States 
 to raise money for the arming of the Irish Volunteers. He 
 was soon able to show that his professions of sympathy with 
 the Irish cause were sincere, and his tall, thin, yet wiry figure 
 was seen in several of the leading cities of America. He met 
 the leading Irishmen of New York City, Philadelphia, and 
 other places, and was of the greatest assistance to the move- 
 ment for the arming of the Volunteers. He had been only a 
 little while in America, when the news arrived of the Massacre 
 of Bachelor's Walk. This aroused Casement to a bitter 
 attack on the manner in which the British Government per- 
 mitted the landing of the arms for the Ulster Volunteers, and 
 at the same time murdered men and women in Dublin for 
 sympathizing with the Irish Volunteers when they followed 
 the Orangemen's example. 
 
 This, however, was not the first occasion on which Case- 
 ment had criticised the actions of the Government. While 
 an honest and efficient servant, he was never servile. His 
 writings from August, 1911, showed that he saw where Eng- 
 land's policy was leading the Empire, and he repeatedly 
 warned his Government of the dangers ahead. He recognized 
 that the foreign policy of Britain was directly aimed at 
 driving Germany, her only serious trade rival in Europe, to 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 193 
 
 armed protest. His warnings, however, fell only on deaf ears. 
 The British Government had its mind made up, and it went 
 ahead with its policy with a dogged determination that allowed 
 nothing to stand in the way of attaining its purpose. 
 
 In August, 1911, referring to a statement written by the 
 Irish novelist, Charles Lever, Casement wrote: 
 
 As long ago as 1870 an Irishman pointed out that, if the English 
 Press did not abandon the campaign of prejudiced suspicion it was 
 even then conducting against Germany, the time for an understand- 
 ing between Great Britain and the German people would be gone 
 forever. 
 
 What Lever pointed out during the early stages of the Franco- 
 German war has come to pass. Germany has, indeed, become 
 thoroughly disgusted, and the hour of reconciliation has long since 
 gone by. In Lever's time it was now or never; the chance not 
 taken then would be lost forever, and the English publicist of to-day 
 is not in doubt that it is now too late. His heart-searchings need 
 another formula of expression — no longer a conditional assertion of 
 doubt, but a positive questioning of impending fact: "Is it too 
 soon.?" That the growing German navy must be smashed he is con- 
 vinced, but how and when to do it are not clear. 
 
 In the course of the same article he speaks of British policy 
 in Ireland in terms that prove his love for his native land and 
 the correctness of his vision of the future. He warns England 
 of the danger of her policy in Ireland in terms that admit of 
 no misunderstanding. The following extract illustrates his 
 thorough knowledge of the situation: 
 
 To represent the island as a poverty-stricken land inhabited by a 
 turbulent and ignorant race, whom she has with unrewarded solicitude 
 sought to civilize, uplift, and educate, has been a staple of England's 
 diplomatic trade since modern diplomacy began. To compel the 
 trade of Ireland to be with herself alone; to cut off all direct com- 
 munication between Europe and this second of European islands, 
 until no channel remained save only through Britain; to enforce the 
 most abject political and economic servitude one people ever imposed 
 upon another; to exploit all Irish resources, lands, ports, people, 
 wealth, even her religion, everything in fine that Ireland held, to 
 the sole profit and advancement of England, and to keep all the 
 
194 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 books and rigorously refuse an audit of the transaction, has been 
 the secret but determined policy of England. 
 
 Writing again in September, 1912, Casement, discussing 
 the certainty of war between England and Germany and the 
 probable outcome of the struggle, says: 
 
 But if the miHtary triumph of Germany seems thus likely, the 
 ultimate assurance, nay, even the ultimate safety of German civiliza- 
 tion, can only be secured by a statesmanship which shall not repeat 
 the mistake of Louis XIV and Napoleon. The mihtary defeat of 
 England by Germany is a wholly possible feat of arms, if the con- 
 flict he between the two alone, but, to realize the economic and politi- 
 cal fruits of that victory, Ireland must be detached from the British 
 Empire. To leave defeated England still in the full possession of 
 Ireland would be, not to settle the question of equal German rights 
 at sea or in world affairs, but merely to postpone the settlement to 
 a second and possibly far greater encounter. It would be somewhat 
 as if Rome, after the First Punic War, had left Sicily still to Car- 
 thage. But Ireland is far more vital to England than Sicily was to 
 Carthage, and is of far more account to the future of Europe on the 
 ocean than the possession of Sicily was to the future of the Mediter- 
 ranean. 
 
 Dealing with the policy of alliances and isolation that 
 Britain was then pursuing against Germany, Casement wrote 
 in March, 1913: 
 
 Were it not for British policy, and the unhealthy hope it proffers, 
 France would ere this have resigned herself, as the two provinces 
 have done, to the solution offered by the War of 1870. It is Eng- 
 land and English ambition that begets the state of mind responsible 
 for the growth of armaments that now overshadows Continental 
 civilization. Humanity hemmed in in Central Europe by a forest 
 of bayonets and debarred all egress to the light of a larger world by 
 a forbidding circle of dreadnoughts is called to Peace Conferences 
 and arbitration Treaties by the very Power whose fundamental 
 maxim of rule insures war as the normal outlook for every growing 
 nation of the Old World. 
 
 Writing again in December, 1913, Casement sums up the 
 situation in these remarkable words: 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 195 
 
 The Irishman, who, in the belief that Home Rule has come or 
 that any measure of Home Rule the London Parliament will offer 
 can be a substitute for his country's freedom, joins the British army 
 or navy, is a voluntary traitor to his country. His place is to prepare 
 for the coming of the German. His place is to see that, when a vic- 
 torious Germany severs Ireland from her hereditary exploiter, the 
 difficulties of settlement shall be resolutely faced by a people deter- 
 mined to justify the freedom conferred upon them. Even were Ger- 
 many all that Englishmen paint her and Irishmen only to change 
 "owners," the change could not but be beneficial to Ireland. Ger- 
 many took Alsace-Lorraine by force from France in 1870, and has 
 governed those provinces for forty years by what is termed "brute 
 force," and against the will of the majority. Yet forty years of 
 German "tyranny" have brought extraordinary prosperity. Strass- 
 burg, a mean, pent-in garrison town under the French, has become 
 a great and beautiful city under the Germans, and the population 
 of the whole annexed territory has greatly increased in the period. 
 Ireland, in the same forty years of English civilization, has lost 
 nearly one-fifth of her population. Her pauper rate, her lunacy rate, 
 her sick rate — consumption particularly — have all gone up; her 
 vitality has gone down. Her ports, save one, lie idle; her rivers 
 empty. Every way out lies only through and across Britain. 
 
 ' Enough has been quoted to show that Casement, long 
 before the outbreak of the war, had seen its shadow on the 
 horizon, and recognized the part that Ireland would or should 
 play in the coming conflict. It is thus a curious coincidence 
 that both Casement and Carson, two men of the most widely 
 different type, had seen the same vision from different angles, 
 the one appealing to Germany to assist in the preservation 
 of the Irish nation, the other making wild appeals from the 
 roof-tops to the Kaiser to go over to Belfast and place himself 
 at the head of the Carson Volunteers to annihilate the British 
 Empire and Redmond. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 Casement in America 
 
 AS already said, Casement's arrival in the United 
 States as an envoy of the Irish Volunteers preceded 
 by only a few days the Massacre of Bachelor's Walk 
 in Dublin. Scarcely had this atrocity disappeared from the 
 front pages of the daily papers than the world rang with 
 the clash of arms. While Casement knew that the war was 
 inevitable, the declarations that plunged Europe into a 
 carnival of slaughter at this moment came as a sad blow to 
 him, for it upset his plans for the arming of the Volunteers. 
 He rapidly recovered, however, and came to the conclusion 
 that no time was to be lost if Ireland were to be saved. He 
 wrote a manifesto, calling on the Irish people to refuse to 
 fight for England, and denouncing the policy of plunder and 
 treachery by which England had forced the war. He reiter- 
 ated his previously expressed arguments, showing that Eng- 
 lish policy had been planning the war for years past, and 
 stating that his personal knowledge of the workings of the 
 Foreign OflSce made his assurance doubly sure. He made 
 no secret of the fact that he was against England in the 
 war. He told his friends that he had time and again warned 
 the English whither their anti-German policy was leading 
 them, and that they had merely laughed. 
 
 Casement lost no time in getting into touch with the lead- 
 ers of the Irish movement in America, and with them dis- 
 cussed the various phases of the new situation. It was agreed 
 practically unanimously that the time had come when Ire- 
 land had either to make another fight for her freedom or be 
 swallowed up by the maelstrom of the European war. He 
 held long conferences with many of those who had been in 
 the Irish movement a generation before, and he did not fail 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 197 
 
 to take note of the advice which they tendered to him. He 
 paid a number of visits to Philadelphia at this time, and was 
 also in Boston. At both of these places he addressed large 
 meetings, and was everywhere received with enthusiasm by 
 the Irish people. He was a good and a very convincing 
 speaker, and his thorough grip of the facts of the situation 
 lent weight to his words and enabled him to press home his 
 points. 
 
 All this time he was working on the one idea of getting 
 together funds for the arming and general equipment of the 
 Irish Volunteers. He looked on the Volunteers as so many 
 of his children — noble youths who had banded together, in 
 response to the age-long call of the Gael, to fight once more 
 for Ireland's freedom. He referred to the Volunteers always 
 in an affectionate manner, and his whole-hearted ambition 
 was to see the Volunteers, well trained and fully armed, 
 marching to regain the independence of their native land. 
 
 Appeal after appeal to the men of Ireland not to join the 
 English army followed. He denounced Redmond as a traitor 
 to his country, and declared that, even if Germany were to 
 lose the war, she would again spring up and would be finally 
 victorious. His greatest anxiety at this time, so far as events 
 in America were concerned, was lest the United States might 
 be drawn into the struggle on the side of the British Empire. 
 He was well aware that the most powerful pleas were being 
 made by the English, who had, only a few years previously, 
 failed in their efforts to make an alliance with America — an 
 alliance which, had it been consummated, would have pre- 
 cipitated the United States into the world war before the 
 end of 1914 had been reached. Casement did everything 
 that lay in his power to prevent the English plans from suc- 
 ceeding, and the vigorous campaign which he waged had un- 
 doubtedly some influence on the situation. 
 
 His work was also instrumental in gaining large sums of 
 money for the arming of the Volunteers. This money was 
 forwarded to Ireland, and was there used for the purpose of 
 purchasing arms and equipment for the men, organizing the 
 
198 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Volunteer forces, and carrying on the campaign against the 
 recruiting sergeant. It was at this time that he began to 
 make his plans for his return to Ireland. 
 
 He hoped to get back to Ireland by the Derry route. 
 Once in his own country again, it was his plan to place him- 
 seK at the head of the Volunteers and to do everything in 
 his power to train them into efficient soldiers. He knew well 
 that to return to Ireland after the campaign he had waged 
 in America would be dangerous. Casement, however, was not 
 the man to shun peril, and he was prepared to run the gaunt- 
 let in order to be back with his Volunteers in the land he loved 
 when the time came to strike another blow for freedom. 
 
 The extracts from Casement's own writings quoted in the 
 preceding chapter amply demonstrate that he had not only 
 foreseen the war in Europe, but had also come to the con- 
 clusion that Ireland would have to take sides with Germany 
 in that struggle. In this he did not mean that Irishmen 
 should go over to Germany to fight for that country. He 
 opposed such an idea as strenuously as he opposed the re- 
 cruiting of Irishmen for the English forces. He believed 
 that, if the men of Ireland had to do any fighting, the proper 
 place for them to fight was on their own soil. But he also 
 believed that Germany would be able to assist Ireland, and 
 that Ireland's opposition to England would be of the greatest 
 value to Germany. He had expressed these ideas in his 
 articles written some months before the war, and he held 
 to them just as strenuously after hostilities had begun. 
 
 But, if Ireland were to enlist the sympathy and assistance 
 of Germany, it was obvious that someone would have to go 
 to Germany to urge the claims of Ireland upon the Imperial 
 Government at Berlin. There were precedents for this 
 course, both in the history of Ireland and in the history of 
 the United States. Wolf Tone and Nathan Hale had both 
 acted in similar capacities at the Court of France. The 
 desirability of the Irish having an accredited representative 
 in Germany was so obvious that, once it was mentioned, it 
 only remained to find the man best fitted for the position. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 199 
 
 With his long diplomatic career, Roger Casement was 
 certainly ideally fitted to represent Ireland at Berlin. An 
 experienced courtier, he was thoroughly conversant, not only 
 with the causes of the war, but with the claims that Ireland 
 had on Germany and the actual position of affairs both in 
 Ireland and among the Irish in America. He was thus 
 thoroughly competent to undertake the mission, and it was 
 believed that he would be able to do far more good to Ire- 
 land as her ambassador in Berlin than he would be able to 
 do in Ireland, where he would be in constant fear of arrest 
 and imprisonment. 
 
 It was not Casement who made the first suggestion that 
 he should go to Berlin. When the idea was mooted, how- 
 ever, he fell in with it in an enthusiastic manner. His only 
 regret was that he would not be able to be with his Volun- 
 teers, but he was consoled by the reflection that he would 
 not only be able to enlist aid for them in Germany, but that 
 he would also have every chance of being with them when 
 the critical time came. 
 
 There were many reasons why Casement should go to 
 Germany. It was, for one thing, necessary that the Ger- 
 man Government should know the truth regarding the situa- 
 tion in Ireland. At that time Mr. Redmond was telling the 
 world that Ireland was contented, that the men of Ireland 
 were rushing to enlist under the Union Jack, and that the 
 people of Ireland — men, women, and children — were as bit- 
 ter against the "Huns" as the English themselves. The Irish 
 in America knew that these statements were false. They 
 also knew that the English Government had no intention of 
 carrying out their promises of Home Rule; that the talk 
 regarding Home Rule was merely a bluff to deceive the peo- 
 ple, and that Redmond was probably a willing party to the 
 deception. What they did not know, however, was whether 
 the people of Germany knew these things, and knew also 
 that the sympathy of the Irish people was not on the side 
 of their traditional enemy. 
 
 Another possible outcome of Casement's mission to Ger- 
 
200 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 many must be mentioned. At the outbreak of the war there 
 were a large number of Irishmen in the service of England, 
 for reasons which have been made clear in another chapter. 
 Whatever their views, these men would have no other op- 
 tion but to carry out their contracts and fight against the 
 Germans or face a firing squad for mutiny. While admitting 
 that, after they had spent a few years in the English army, 
 the majority of these men would have lost all sense of their 
 duty to their own country, there was also a possibility that 
 there would be many of them who would, if they had the 
 chance, prefer to fight the battles of Ireland than those of 
 the Empire. It was inevitable that a number of the Irish 
 soldiers would fall into the hands of the Germans, and it 
 was part of Roger Casement's plan to preach the gospel of 
 true nationality to these men and form an Irish Brigade. It 
 was not intended that these men should fight for Germany. 
 The idea was to get them discharged from the prison camps, 
 have them dressed in an Irish uniform, armed and equipped 
 by the German General Staff, and transported to Ireland, 
 where they would be able to join hands with the Irish Volun- 
 teers when the time came for action. It was hoped by these 
 means to add to the strength of the forces in Ireland, and at 
 the same time to rescue a number of Irishmen who had been 
 misled by circumstances over which they had had little or 
 no control. 
 
 While the Germans were to be asked to assist Casement in 
 the carrying out of these parts of the plan, there was one 
 thing that they were not asked to do, and which it is well 
 to mention in view of the lying statements that were circu- 
 lated immediately after the Rebellion, particularly by Mr. 
 Redmond and the members of his party. The Germans were 
 not asked to assist the Volunteers with money. Nor did 
 the Germans plan the Rebellion. The Rebellion was both 
 planned and financed in Ireland. The plans were laid in 
 Ireland, and most of the money was collected in Ireland. 
 Neither Casement nor any other Irishmen ever had any 
 intention of asking the Germans to make plans for the Re- 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 201 
 
 bellion. The Germans had quite enough planning to do 
 without undertaking to devise ways and means for Ireland, 
 more especially as they were well aware that the Irish had 
 been planning a rising for years before the war broke out, 
 and that they had a far better understanding of the needs 
 of the situation than the best-informed of the Germans. It 
 can, therefore, be stated emphatically that the statements 
 that the rising in Dublin was a German "plot," planned 
 and financed in Germany, were nothing more than lies in- 
 spired by those who had a reason for wishing to make it 
 appear that the Rebellion did not represent the wishes of 
 the Irish people, but was engineered by a small group of 
 fanatics under the influence of the Germans. 
 
 These were the main lines of the mission that took Roger 
 Casement to Berlin. That he was going to Germany, and 
 the reasons of his going, were known to only a very few 
 until he had actually arrived in that country. The British 
 spy system in America was so active that it was only by 
 exercising the greatest secrecy that there was any chance 
 of the Irish ambassador getting to his destination. The de- 
 cision for his departure was reached early in October, 1914, 
 and announcement was made that he intended to make a 
 lengthy tour in the Western States. This information was 
 allowed to leak out in a manner that made it appear authen- 
 tic, and had the effect of throwing the British sleuths off 
 the scent. While the spies were making their plans to watch 
 Casement in the west, he quietly went over to Hoboken and 
 boarded a steamer bound for Norway. Casement landed at 
 Christiania on October 29, and lost no time in proceeding to 
 Berlin. There he was received by the German Government, 
 to whom he explained his mission, and by whom he was 
 accorded full authority to carry out his plans. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 The Plot to Kill Casement 
 
 THE secret of Casement's departure leaked out, and 
 was quickly revealed to the English authorities. With 
 an alacrity that does them credit, these authorities 
 made arrangements for the spoiling of the plans of Case- 
 ment in Germany. While many versions of the actual plot 
 have been published from time to time, the full facts of the 
 matter are contained only in Roger Casement's personal let- 
 ter addressed to Sir Edward Grey, the English Minister 
 of Foreign Affairs, whose policy it was that directly pro- 
 voked the war. Garbled portions of this letter appeared in 
 many of the newspapers printed in New York City, but 
 the only complete version was that which appeared in The 
 Gaelic American of July 10, 1915. As this communication is 
 of special historical value, and as it also gives in ample de- 
 tail the facts of the matter as stated by Casement himself, 
 it is here presented in full. It was mailed from The Hague, 
 in a registered envelope, on February 1, 1915, and reads as 
 follows : 
 
 Sir — I observe that some discussion has taken place in the House 
 of Lords on the subject of the pension I voluntarily ceased to draw 
 when I set out to learn what might be the intentions of the German 
 Government in regard to Ireland. 
 
 In the course of that discussion I understand that Lord Crewe 
 observed that "Sir Roger Casement's action merited a sensible pun- 
 ishment.'* 
 
 The question raised thus as to my action and your publicly sug- 
 gested punishment of it I propose discussing here and now, since 
 the final proof of the actual punishment you sought in secret to in- 
 flict upon me is, at length, in my possession. 
 
 It is true I was aware of your intentions from the first day I set 
 foot in Norway three months ago; but it has taken time to compel 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 203 
 
 your agent there to furnish the written proof of the conspiracy then 
 set on foot against me by His Majesty's Government. 
 
 Let me first briefly define my action before proceeding to contrast 
 it with your own. 
 
 The question between the British Government and myself has 
 never been, as you are fully aware, a matter of a pension, of a 
 reward, a decoration. 
 
 I served the British Government faithfully and loyally as long as 
 it was possible for me to do so, and, when it became impossible, I 
 resigned. When later it became impossible for me to use the pen- 
 sion assigned me by law I voluntarily abandoned that income as I 
 had previously resigned the post from which it was derived, and as I 
 now proceed to divest myself of the honors and distinctions that at va- 
 rious times have been conferred upon me by His Majesty's Government. 
 
 I came to Europe from the United States last October in order to 
 make sure that, whatever might be the course of this war, my own 
 country, Ireland, should suffer from it the minimum of harm. 
 
 The view I held was made sufficiently clear in an open letter I 
 wrote on the 17th of September last in New York, and sent to 
 Ireland for public distribution among my countrymen. I append a 
 printed copy of that letter. It defines my personal standpoint 
 clearly enough and expresses the views I held, and hold, on an Irish- 
 man's duty to his country in this crisis of world affairs. Soon after 
 writing that letter I set out for Europe. 
 
 To save Ireland from some of the calamities of war was worth 
 the loss to myself of pension and honors, and was even worth the 
 commission of an act of technical "treason." 
 
 I decided to take all the risks and to accept all the penalties 
 the law might attach to my action. I did not, however, bargain for 
 risks and penalties that lay outside the law as far as my own action 
 lay outside the field of moral turpitude. 
 
 In other words, while I reckoned with British law and legal penal- 
 ties and accepted the sacrifice of income, position, and reputation as 
 prices I must pay, I did not reckon with the British Government. 
 
 I was prepared to face charges in a Court of Law; I was not pre- 
 pared to meet waylaying, kidnapping, suborning of dependents or 
 "knocking on the head"; in fine, all the expedients your representa- 
 tive in a neutral country invoked when he became aware of my 
 presence there. 
 
 For the criminal conspiracy that Mr. M. de C. Findlay, H. B. M. 
 
204 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Minister to the Court of Norway, entered into on the SOth of Octo- 
 ber last, in the British Legation at Christiania, with the Norwegian 
 subject, my dependent, Eivind Adler Christensen, involved all 
 these things and more. It involved not a mere lawless attack upon 
 myself, for which the British Minister promised my follower the sum 
 of £5000 [$25,000], but it involved a breach of international law, 
 for which the British Minister in Norway promised this Norwegian 
 subject full immunity. 
 
 On the 29th of October, last year, I landed at Christiania, com- 
 ing from America. 
 
 Within a few hours of my landing the man I had engaged, and in 
 whom I reposed trust, was accosted by one of the secret service 
 agents of the British Minister and carried off, in a private motor 
 car, to the British Legation, where the first attempt was made on 
 his honor to induce him to be false to me. 
 
 Your agent in the Legation that afternoon professed ignorance of 
 who I was and sought, as he put it, merely to find out my identity 
 and movements. 
 
 Failing in this, the first attempt to obtain satisfaction, Adler 
 Christensen was assailed the next day, the SOth of October, by a 
 fresh agent and received an invitation again to visit the British Lega- 
 tion, "where he would hear something good." 
 
 This, the second interview, held in the early forenoon, was with 
 the Minister himself. 
 
 Mr. Findlay came quickly to the point. The ignorance, assumed 
 or actual, of the previous day, as to my identity, was now discarded. 
 He confessed that he knew me, but that he did not know where I 
 was going to, what I intended doing, or what might be the specific 
 end I had in view. 
 
 It was enough for him that I was an Irish Nationalist. 
 
 He admitted that the British Government had no evidence of any- 
 thing wrong done or contemplated by me that empowered them 
 either morally or lawfully to interfere with my movements. But he 
 was bent on doing so. Therefore, he baldly invoked lawless methods, 
 and suggested to my dependent that were I to "disappear," it would 
 be "a very good thing for whoever brought it about." 
 
 He was careful to point out that nothing could happen to the 
 perpetrator of the crime, since my presence in Christiania was known 
 only to the British Government, and that Government would screen 
 and provide for those responsible for my disappearance. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 W5 
 
 He indicated, quite plainly, the method to be employed, by assur- 
 ing Adler Christensen that whoever "knocked him on the head need 
 not do any work for the rest of his life," and proceeded to apply the 
 moral by asking Christensen, "I suppose you would not mind hav- 
 ing an easy time of it for the rest of your days?" 
 
 My faithful follower concealed the anger he felt at this sugges- 
 tion, and continued the conversation in order to become more fully 
 aware of the plot that might be devised against my safety. He 
 pointed out that I had not only been, very kind to him but that I 
 ** trusted him implicitly." 
 
 It was on this "implicit trust" Mr. Findlay then proceeded to 
 build the whole framework of his conspiracy against my life, my 
 liberty, the public law of Norway, and the happiness of the young 
 man he sought to tempt by monstrous bribes to the commission of a 
 dastardly crime against his admitted benefactor. 
 
 If I could be intercepted, cut off, "disappear," no one would 
 know and no questions could be asked, as there was no Government 
 save the British Government knew of my presence in Norway, and 
 there was no authority I could appeal to for help, while that Govern- 
 ment would shield the individual implicated and provide handsomely 
 for his future. Such, in Mr. Findlay 's words (recorded by me), was 
 the proposition put by His Majesty's Minister before the young man 
 who had been enticed for this purpose into the British Legation. 
 
 That this man was faithful to me and to the law of his country 
 was a triumph of Norwegian integrity over the ignoble inducement 
 proferred to him by the richest and most powerful Government in 
 the world to be false to both. 
 
 Having thus outlined his project, Mr. Findlay invited Christensen 
 to "think the matter over and return at 3 o'clock if you are disposed 
 to go on with it." 
 
 He handed him in Norwegian paper money twenty-five kroner 
 "just to pay your taxicab fares," and dismissed him. 
 
 Feeling a not unnatural interest in these proposals as to how I 
 should be disposed of, I instructed the man it was thus sought to 
 bribe to return to the British Legation at 3 o'clock and seemingly 
 to fall in with the wishes of your Envoy Entraordinary. 
 
 I advised him, however, for the sake of appearance to "sell me 
 dear" and to secure the promise of a very respectable sum for so 
 very disreputable an act. 
 
 Christensen, who has been a sailor and naturally has seen some 
 
206 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 strange company, assured me he was perfectly at home with His 
 Majesty's representative. 
 
 He returned to the Legation at 3 o'clock, and remained closeted 
 with Mr. Findlay until nearly 5 p.m. The full record of their con- 
 versation will be laid before you, and others, in due course. 
 
 My follower pretended to fall in with the British Minister's proj- 
 ects, only stipulating for a good sum to be paid in return for his 
 treachery. Mr. Findlay promised, on his "word of honor" (such was 
 the quaint phraseology employed to guarantee this transaction) 
 that Christensen should receive £5000 sterling whenever he should 
 deliver me into the hands of the British authorities. 
 
 If, in the course of this kidnapping process, I should come to harm 
 or personal injury be done me, then no question would be asked 
 and full immunity guaranteed the kidnapper. 
 
 My follower pointed out that, as I was leaving that evening for 
 Copenhagen, having already booked my compartment in the mail 
 train, he would not have any immediate chance of executing the 
 commission. 
 
 Mr. Findlay agreed that it would be necessary to defer the at- 
 tempt until some favorable opportunity offered of decoying me down 
 to the coast "anywhere on the Skaggerrack or North Sea," where 
 British warships might be in waiting to seize me. 
 
 He intrusted my dependent with the further commission of pur- 
 loining my correspondence with my supposed associates in America 
 and Ireland, particularly in Ireland, so that they too might par- 
 ticipate in the "sensible pimishment" being devised for me. 
 
 He ordained a system of secret correspondence with himself Chris- 
 tensen should employ, and wrote out the confidential address in 
 Christiania to which he was to communicate the results of his efforts 
 to purloin my papers and to report on my plans. 
 
 This address in Christiania was written down by Mr. Findlay on 
 a half sheet of Legation note paper in printed characters. This 
 precaution was adopted, he said, "so as to prevent the handwriting 
 being traced." 
 
 This document, along with one hundred crowns in Norwegian 
 paper money given by Mr. Findlay as an earnest of more to follow, 
 was at once brought to me with an account of the proceedings. 
 
 As I was clearly in a position of some danger, I changed my plans 
 and, instead of proceeding to Copenhagen as I had intended doing, 
 I decided to alter my procedure and route. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 207 
 
 It was, then, with this secret knowledge of the full extent of the 
 crime plotted by your Representative in Norway against me that I 
 left Christiania on the 30th of October. 
 
 The rest of the story need not take so long in the telling. 
 
 You are fully aware of most of the details, as you were in con- 
 stant touch with your agent both by cable and dispatch. 
 
 You are also aware of the declaration of the Imperial German 
 Government, issued on November 20th last, in reply to the inquiry 
 I addressed to them. 
 
 The British Government, both by press reports and by direct 
 agents, had charged Germany throughout the length and breadth of 
 Ireland, with the commission of atrocious crimes in Belgium and 
 had warned the Irish people that their fate would be the same, did 
 Germany win this war. 
 
 Yoiu: Government sought to frighten Irishmen into a predatory 
 raid upon a people who had never injured them and to persuade 
 them by false charges that this was their duty. 
 
 I sought not only a guarantee of German goodwill to Ireland, but 
 to relieve my countrymen from the apprehensions this campaign of 
 calumny was designed to provoke and as far as possible to dissuade 
 them from embarking in an immoral conflict against a people who 
 had never wronged Ireland. That Declaration of the German Gov- 
 ernment, issued as I know in all sincerity, is the justification for my 
 "treason." The justification of the conspiracy of the British Gov- 
 ernment and its Minister at Christiania, begun before I had set foot 
 on German soil in a country where I had a perfect right to be and 
 conducted by means of the lowest forms of attempted bribery and 
 corruption, I leave you, sir, to discover. 
 
 You will not discover it in the many interviews Mr. Findlay had, 
 during the months of November and December last, at his own seek- 
 ing, with my faithful follower. The correspondence between them 
 in the cipher the Minister had arranged tells its own story. 
 
 These interviews furnished matter that in due course I shall make 
 public. What passed between your agent and mine on these occa- 
 sions you are fully aware of, and you were the directing power 
 throughout the whole proceeding. 
 
 Your object, as Mr. Findlay frankly avowed to the man he thought 
 he had bought, was to take my life with public infamy — mine was 
 to expose your design and to do so through the very agent you had 
 yourself singled out for the purpose and had sought to corrupt to an 
 act of singular infamy. 
 
208 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 On one occasion, in response to my follower's pretended dissatis- 
 faction with the amount offered for betraying me, you authorized 
 your agent to increase the sum to £10,000. I have a full record of 
 the conversations held and of the pledges proffered in your name. 
 
 On two occasions, during these prolonged bargainings, your Min- 
 ister gave Adler Christensen gifts of "earnest money." Once it was 
 five hundred crowns in Norwegian currency; the next time a similar 
 sum, partly in Norwegian money and partly in English gold. On 
 one of these occasions, to be precise, on the 7th of December last, 
 Mr. Findlay handed Adler Christensen the key of the back entrance 
 of the British Legation, so that he might go and come unobserved 
 and at all hours. 
 
 I propose returning this key in person to the donor and along with 
 it the various sums so anxiously bestowed upon my follower. 
 
 The stories told to Mr. Findlay at these interviews should not 
 have deceived a schoolboy. All the pretended evidence of my plans 
 and intentions Adler Christensen produced, — the bogus letters, ficti- 
 tious maps and charts and other incitements to Mr. Findlay's appe- 
 tite for the incredible, — were part of my necessary plan of self-defense 
 to lay bare the conspiracy you were engaged in and to secure that 
 convincing proof of it I now hold. 
 
 It was not until the 3rd ultimo that Mr. Findlay committed him- 
 self to give my protector the duly signed and formal pledge of reward 
 and immunity, in the name of the British Government, for the 
 crime he was being instigated to commit, that is now in my possession. 
 
 I transmit you herewith a photograph of this document. 
 
 At a date compatible with my own security against the clandes- 
 tine guarantees and immunities of the British Minister in Norway I 
 shall proceed to lay before the legitimate authorities in that country 
 the original document and the evidence in my possession that throws 
 light on the proceedings of His Majesty's Government. 
 
 To that Government, through you, sir, I now beg to return the 
 insignia of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. 
 George, the Coronation Medal of his Majesty King George V, and any 
 other medal, honor, or distinction conferred upon me by His Majesty's 
 Government, of which it is possible for me to divest myself. 
 
 I am, sir, your most obedient, humble servant. 
 
 The Right Honorable. ^^^^^^^ ^^^^ Casement 
 
 Sir E. Grey, Bart., K. G., M. P. 
 London. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 209 
 
 The document referred to, a photographic facsimile of which 
 was inclosed with the letter, follows: 
 
 BRITISH LEGATION 
 
 Christiana, Norway 
 
 On behalf of the British Government I promise that if through 
 information given by Adler Christensen, Sir Roger Casement be 
 captured either with or without his companions, the said Adler 
 Christensen is to receive from the British Government the sum of 
 £5000 to be paid as he may desire. 
 
 Adler Christensen is also to enjoy personal immunity and to be 
 given a passage to the United States should he desire it. 
 
 M. DE C. FiNDLAY, 
 
 H, B. M. Minister. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 Straws on the Stream 
 
 THE events which followed the declaration of war 
 came with startling rapidity. From the day when 
 Redmond showed himself in the guise of an English 
 Imperialist, rather than that of an Irish Nationalist, prepara- 
 tions became active for the armed protest of the nation. It 
 had been the belief in Ireland, since shown well founded, that 
 it was never the intention of the British Government to keep 
 to its promises. Therefore, the Volunteers had been called 
 into being. Redmond made tremendous efforts for some 
 months to ignore their existence, but it was increasingly 
 evident that the British Government was now worried about 
 the Volunteers, and Redmond received orders to put an end 
 to them. 
 
 Redmond's attempt to capture and disarm the Volunteers 
 and its failure has been already described. The crisis was 
 precipitated when Redmond made a public appeal to the 
 Volunteers in which he told them that they were cowards if 
 they did not join the British army, either individually or in a 
 body, and fight for the Empire against the Teutons. By 
 getting the Volunteers into the firing lines the British Govern- 
 ment would have some excellent fighting material, and at the 
 same time would have cleared a dangerous force out of Ire- 
 land, leaving the country destitute of men able to make a 
 fight for freedom. Redmond would also have been rid of a 
 number of critics who had assumed to themselves the task of 
 telling the people facts that were not to the liking of the 
 leader of the Parliamentarians. It would have been an 
 excellent coup had it succeeded, but it was too transparent to 
 deceive the Irish people. 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 211 
 
 The Provisional Committee of the Volunteers — the original 
 governing body — issued the following proclamation to the 
 Volunteers on September 25, 1914: 
 
 TO THE IRISH VOLUNTEERS 
 
 Ten months ago a Provisional Committee commenced the Irish 
 Volunteer movement with the sole purpose of securing and defend- 
 ing the rights and liberties of the Irish people. The movement on 
 these lines, though thwarted and opposed for a time, obtained the 
 support of the Irish nation. When the Volunteer movement had 
 become the main factor in the national question, Mr. Redmond 
 decided to acknowledge it and to endeavor to bring it under his 
 control. 
 
 Three months ago he put forward the claim to send twenty -five 
 nominees to the Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers. He 
 threatened, if the claim was not conceded, to proceed to the dis- 
 memberment of the Irish Volunteer organization. 
 
 It is clear that the proposal to throw the country into turmoil, 
 and to destroy the chances of a Home Rule measure in the near 
 future, must have been forced upon Mr. Redmond. Already ignor- 
 ing the Irish Volunteers as a factor in the national position, Mr. 
 Redmond had consented to a dismemberment of Ireland, which 
 could be made permanent by the same agencies that forced him to 
 accept it as temporary. He was now prepared to risk another dis- 
 ruption and the wreck of the cause intrusted to him. 
 
 The Provisional Committee, while recognizing that the responsi- 
 bility in that case would be altogether Mr. Redmond's, decided to 
 risk the lesser evil and to admit his nominees to sit and act on the 
 committee. The committee made no representations as to the per- 
 sons to be nominated, and, when the nominations were received, no 
 question was asked as to how far Mr. Redmond had fulfilled his 
 public undertaking to nominate "representative men from different 
 parts of the country." Mr. Redmond's nominees were admitted 
 purely and simply as his nominees and without cooption. 
 
 Mr. Redmond, addressing a body of Irish Volunteers last Sunday, 
 has now announced for the Irish Volunteers a policy and programme 
 fundamentally at variance with their own published and accepted 
 aims and pledges, but with which his nominees are, of course, identi- 
 fied. He has declared it to be the duty of the Irish Volunteers to 
 
212 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 take foreign service under a government which is not Irish. He 
 has made this announcement without consulting the Provisional 
 Committee, the Volunteers themselves, or the people of Ireland, to 
 whose service alone they are devoted. 
 
 Having thus disregarded the Irish Volunteers and their solemn 
 engagements, Mr. Redmond is no longer entitled, through his nomi- 
 nees, to any place in the administration and guidance of the Irish 
 Volunteer organization. Those who, by virtue of Mr. Redmond's 
 nomination, have, therefore, been admitted to act on the Provisional 
 Committee, accordingly cease henceforth to belong to that body, 
 and from this date xmtil the holding of an Irish Volunteer Conven- 
 tion the Provisional Committee consists of only those whom it 
 comprised before the admission of Mr. Redmond's nominees. 
 
 At the next meeting of the Provisional Committee we shall 
 propose: 
 
 1. — To call a Convention of the Irish Volunteers for Wednesday, 
 
 November 25, 1914, the anniversary of the inaugural meeting 
 of the Irish Volunteers in DubHn. 
 
 2. — To reaflfirm, without quaHfication, the manifesto proposed and 
 
 adopted at the inaugural meeting. 
 
 3. — To oppose any diminution of the measure of Irish self-govern- 
 
 ment which now exists as a statute on paper, and which 
 would not have reached that stage but for the Irish Volunteers. 
 
 4. — To repudiate any undertaking, by whomsoever given, to con- 
 
 sent to the legislative dismemberment of Ireland, and to pro- 
 test against the attitude of the present government, which, 
 under the pretense that "Ulster cannot be coerced," avow 
 themselves prepared to coerce the Nationalists of Ulster. 
 
 5. — To declare that Ireland cannot, with honor and safety, take part 
 
 in foreign quarrels otherwise than through the free action 
 of a National Government of her own; and to repudiate the 
 claim of any man to ofiFer up the blood and lives of the sons 
 of Irish men and women to the services of the British Em- 
 pire while no National Government which could speak and 
 act for the people of Ireland is allowed to exist. 
 
 6. — To demand that the present system of governing Ireland 
 
 through Dublin Castle and the British mihtary power, a 
 system responsible for the recent outrages in Dublin, be 
 abolished without delay, and a National Government forth- 
 with established in its place. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 213 
 
 The signatories to this statement are the great majority of the 
 members of the Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers, apart 
 from the nominees of Mr. Redmond, who are no longer members of 
 the Committee. We regret that the absence of Sir Roger Casement 
 in America prevents him from being a signatory with us. 
 
 (Signed) Eoin MacNeill, Chairman, Provisional Committee 
 
 Ua Rathghaille, Treasurer Eamonn Martin 
 
 Thomas MacDonagh Conchubhair O'Colbaird 
 
 J. Plunkett Eamonn Ceannt 
 
 PiARAS Beaslai Sean MacDiarmada 
 
 Michael J. Judge Seamus 0' Conchubhair 
 
 Peter Paul Macken, Ex-Alderman 'Liam Mellows 
 
 Sean MacGiobium L. Colm O'Lochlainn 
 
 P. H. Pearse 'Liam Ua Gogan 
 
 Padraic O'Riain Peter White 
 
 BULMER HoBSON 
 
 41 Kildare Street, DubHn. 
 
 September 25, 19U. 
 
 Following this declaration the Convention of the Irish 
 Volunteers was held in the Abbey Theatre, Abbey Street, 
 Dublin, on November 14, 1914. The Convention was attended 
 by representatives of the Volunteers from all parts of the 
 country, and the proposals detailed in the above statement 
 were unanimously endorsed. From that moment Redmond's 
 control of the Volunteers ceased. The entire Provisional 
 Committee was elected as a Permanent Committee by the 
 delegates to the Convention, and Redmond was left with a 
 small and rapidly dwindling section of men, who professed 
 to owe allegiance to him and his Party. These who preferred 
 to remain with Redmond, chose to be known as the National 
 Volunteers, while the Volunteers led by Eoin MacNeill and 
 the Committee were known as the Irish Volunteers. 
 
 That Redmond did not approve of this action on the part 
 of the Volunteer Committee scarcely needs to be mentioned. 
 He and his party immediately denounced the Irish Volunteers 
 as traitors, factionists, and Sinn Feiners. The use of the last- 
 mentioned supposedly opprobrious term was very subtle. It 
 
214 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 was intended to make the English people beUeve that those 
 who disagreed with Redmond were either Fenians or cranks, 
 or both. This action had, however, one rather curious result. 
 From that time on the Irish Volunteers were known in 
 England as the Sinn Feiners, and, when the rebellion broke 
 out, the British press promptly tacked on to it the name 
 "Sinn Fein." Thus it was that the rebellion came to be 
 known as the "Sinn Fein Rebellion.'* 
 
 With a view to winning the support of the Volunteers for 
 the British army in the fighting line, Redmond had taken 
 particular pains to tell the Irish people what an awful fate 
 would be theirs if the Germans should ever set foot in Ireland; 
 that the Gaelic language, about which he had previously 
 shown himseK singularly unconcerned, would be prohibited; 
 that the churches would be razed to the ground, and all 
 priests and nuns would be slaughtered and outraged by the 
 savages from Teutonland. 
 
 On November 29, however, the German Government issued 
 the following statement, which was published all over Ireland 
 in spite of the frantic efforts of the British to suppress it: 
 
 Sir Roger Casement was received at the Foreign OflSce and pointed 
 out statements which had been published in Ireland, apparently with 
 the authority of the British Government behind them, that German 
 victory would inflict great loss upon the Irish people, whose homes, 
 churches, priests, and lands would be at the mercy of an invad- 
 ing army actuated only by motives of pillage and conquest. Re- 
 cent utterances of Redmond and announcements of the English 
 press in Ireland to this effect, widely circulated, have caused a nat- 
 ural apprehension among Irishmen concerning the German attitude 
 towards Ireland. 
 
 In reply the Acting Secretary of the Foreign Office, by Order of 
 the Imperial Chancellor, officially declared that the German Govern- 
 ment repudiates the evil intentions attributed to it, and only desires 
 the welfare of the Irish people and country. 
 
 Germany would never invade Ireland with a view to its conquest, 
 or the overthrow of any native institutions of that country. Should 
 fortune ever bring German troops to Ireland's shores they would 
 land there, not as an army of invaders to pillage and destroy, but 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 215 
 
 as forces of a nation inspired by goodwill towards the country and 
 people for whom Germany desires only national prosperity and 
 freedom. 
 
 Almost coincident with this official statement from the 
 German Government, there appeared throughout Ireland the 
 letter sent to the Irish people by Sir Roger Casement before 
 he left the United States. The difficulty of getting this 
 letter to the people was considerable, but it eventually reached 
 them. The following is the text of the communication: 
 
 Let Irish men and boys stay in Ireland. Their duty is clear be- 
 fore God and before man. We, as a people, have no quarrel with the 
 German people. Germany has never wronged Ireland, and we owe 
 her more than one debt of gratitude. 
 
 It was not a German steamship company that, last summer, 
 with the assent of the government making the contract, broke pub- 
 lic faith with the Irish people and abandoned its pledged service 
 with the port of Cork. But it was a German steamship company 
 that tried to make good the breach of public trust and the injury 
 to Irish trade that the Cunard Company had committed, and the 
 British Postmaster-General, Admiralty and Board of Trade had con- 
 nived at. And it was another British department that made repre- 
 sentation at Berlin in behalf of English trade jealousy and caused 
 the German Emperor to intervene to induce the Hamburg-American 
 line to substitute Southampton for Queenstown — a British for an 
 Irish port. The hated German was welcome when he came to an 
 English port — his help and enterprise was out of place when directed 
 to assisting Irishmen to better means of intercourse with the outside 
 world. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV 
 Planning the Rising 
 
 AT a secret session of the Committee of the Irish 
 Volunteers, held in Dublin on May 29, 1915, with 
 Professor Eoin MacNeill presiding, a resolution was 
 proposed by Bulmer Hobson to the effect that the Irish 
 Volunteers declare themselves in favor of immediate insurrec- 
 tion. There was a full meeting of the committee, as elected 
 by the Volunteers at the annual Convention, and the question 
 was debated at very considerable length, opinion being about 
 equally divided. The motion was decided in the negative 
 only by the casting vote of the chairman. 
 
 Long before this time it had become an acknowledged fact 
 that the Irish Volunteers had only three possible courses 
 which they could pursue. They had, first, the option of 
 disbanding voluntarily and giving up their arms and, by so 
 doing, of facing the certainty of being conscripted into the 
 British army; secondly, they could submit to being disarmed 
 by order of the British Government with a like result, or, 
 finally, they could fight for Irish freedom on their own soil. 
 They had long before decided that they would not disband 
 voluntarily. To do so would be an abject surrender of all 
 the objects for which they were organized. To submit to 
 being disarmed would be only a shade worse, and would 
 have branded them cowards for all future time. It may be 
 said that they had the option of joining the British army and 
 covering themselves with glory and death in the trenches of 
 Flanders or the Gallipoli Peninsula. But this alternative 
 was naturally not even considered. The only course left, 
 therefore, was to make a fight in their own country. 
 
 The Volunteer Committee was exceptionally well informed 
 of the efforts made by the British Government to suppress 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 217 
 
 their organization. That this information was correct was 
 shown conclusively by the later admissions of the British 
 Government itself. This will be dealt with in another place. 
 Here it is but necessary to state that the Committee was in 
 possession of absolutely reliable information of everything 
 that the British Government was doing and contemplating, 
 and they molded their actions accordingly. They knew that 
 the Government was anxious to suppress the Volunteers, and 
 that, immediately after this was accomplished, the Conscrip- 
 tion Act would be extended to Ireland. They knew also that 
 the Government was prevented from applying the Conscrip- 
 tion Act to Ireland only by the strength of the Volunteers, 
 and that the time was certainly coming when the Govern- 
 ment would make the attempt to disarm them so that the 
 Conscription Act might be made applicable to Ireland. The 
 only question that remained, therefore, was when and how 
 and where to strike the blow. 
 
 In May, 1915, the situation in Ireland reached a crisis. 
 The people were being driven to desperation by the acts of 
 the Government under the so-called Defense of the Realm 
 Act. Under this Act men were being deported wholesale 
 without being allowed to put in a defense, the only evidence 
 required being a sworn statement of a constable, which state- 
 ment was usually not submitted to the accused person. Men 
 were being thrown into jail and kept there without trial. 
 Women were being treated in a similar manner. In number- 
 less instances men were arrested, fined, and imprisoned on the 
 most trivial charges, and often without charges at all. 
 
 Practically from the beginning of the war, many men had 
 been preparing for the rising. It was obvious that the rising 
 must have its initiative in the capital. The headquarters of 
 the Volunteers and the leaders of the movement were alike 
 located in Dublin, which was also the center of British Gov- 
 ernment. After a great deal of discussion it was decided that 
 the best place for the initial attack would be the General 
 Post Office in O'Connell Street, which was not only situated 
 in the heart of the city but would also give the rebels, for a 
 
218 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 time at all events, complete control over the telegraph and 
 telephone systems. It was of primary importance that the 
 rebels should have the use of these means of communication 
 at the outset, and the fact that the English would not be 
 able to use them would in itself be a factor of the utmost 
 value to the Irish. The Post Office building was of modern 
 construction, of granite stone, and able to withstand an 
 attack. It was also of such a height as to command a view 
 of the other portions of the city. 
 
 Another question that was discussed at length was the 
 advisability of an attack on Dublin Castle, the seat of the 
 British Government in Ireland. Always of the most sinister 
 and bloody significance in Irish history, the Castle had come 
 to be synonymous in Irish minds with the worst evils of 
 foreign government. In previous rebellions attacks had been 
 made on it, but, because of its wonderful strength of con- 
 struction and its large garrison of military, these attempts had 
 never succeeded. Apart from its value as a point of vantage 
 for the Volunteers, the conquest of Dublin Castle would have 
 had the same effect as the fall of the Bastile. However, it 
 was decided not to make a serious attack on it at the outset 
 of the Rebellion, owing to the fact that the attackers would be 
 open to counter attack on several sides. It was believed 
 better to make merely a sufficient attack to keep those 
 within it busy for the time being, and to defer the actual 
 siege until a later stage of the revolt. 
 
 *' Liberty Hall," the headquarters of the Citizen Army, was 
 another strategic center. It was opposite the Custom House, 
 a palatial white stone building facing the Liffey, and com- 
 manded the loop line of railroad leading to Amiens Street 
 Station. It was also within a short distance of the General 
 Post Office, and its defenders, if forced to do so, could retreat 
 in that direction. But most important of all, it commanded 
 a clear view of the river, and could hamper the movement of 
 troops along or across the Liffey. 
 
 Another position that the Irish determined to seize at the 
 beginning of the Rebellion was "Kelly's Fort," at the corner 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 219 
 
 of Bachelor's Walk and O'Connell Street, facing directly on 
 O'Connell Bridge. It was necessary to hold this position in 
 order to enable the Irish to defend the bridge against attacks 
 from the south side of the city. The Iron Bridge, Butt 
 Bridge, and the bridge leading to the Four Courts were also 
 of strategic importance. The Four Courts was also a position 
 of great strength, which could not only be held for a con- 
 siderable time against all attacks, but which also commanded 
 several vital points in the immediate vicinity. 
 
 The railroad stations — Kingsbridge, facing the Phoenix 
 Park, and Broadstone, near Phibsboro — were positions that, 
 once captured, could be held without much trouble. Amiens 
 Street Station, at the foot of Talbot Street, was in a very 
 crowded location that would not allow very great freedom of 
 action on the part either of the defenders or the attackers, 
 but it commanded the important elevated stretch of line 
 leading out towards the Bull Wall at Clontarf. Westland 
 Row Station was of modern construction and offered excellent 
 positions for defense. 
 
 All of these points of the situation had been thoroughly 
 considered long before the outbreak of the war, but with the 
 declaration of the war another and a vitally important factor 
 had been added. The perfection to which German ingenuity 
 and science had brought the submarine seemed to solve one 
 of the greatest difficulties that the Irish had to face. An 
 Irish-Germanic alliance would be of assistance to the Irish, 
 inasmuch as the German submarines could prevent the land- 
 ing of troops by sea, and at the same time could prevent the 
 bombardment of the coast by British warships. It was thus 
 believed that, with a sufficient force of men in Dublin to 
 occupy all the more important points of vantage, the Irish 
 would be able to take care of the British army in Dublin and 
 its neighborhood, in spite of all that that army could do. 
 
 On the other hand, however, it was obvious that the men 
 in Dublin would, if surrounded by a hostile force, be com- 
 pelled to surrender eventually if left to their fate. The plan 
 of the Irish, therefore, was that the men in Dublin should 
 
220 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 hold out until such time as the men in the rest of the country- 
 would be able to march to their relief. It was not con- 
 templated that the Rebellion should have its origin and end 
 in Dublin, while the rest of the country was content to take 
 care of itself. It was the aim of the organizers from the 
 beginning to raise large forces in the country districts and 
 all the large towns. These forces were so distributed that 
 they could not only take care of all the British in their own 
 vicinity, but could also release large numbers to form a relief 
 force to march to Dublin. 
 
 When a simultaneous rising took place throughout the 
 country, the British forces would be scattered. There were 
 but small bands of soldiers and constabulary in most of the 
 country districts, and it would be easy to capture and im- 
 prison these. In some of the larger towns and cities where 
 the enemy forces were stronger, it would be necessary, per- 
 haps, to adopt tactics similar to those in Dublin. But the 
 onward march of the Irish would automatically relieve these 
 positions by mere weight of numbers, and end in the concen- 
 tration of the entire Irish force on Dublin. The plan, in brief, 
 was for the men in Dublin to proclaim the independence of the 
 country, and then to hold their own while the men in every 
 other section gathered together and swept down on the capi- 
 tal. That the plan was practicable admits of no doubt. 
 
 It was, of course, essential that few British reinforcements 
 should be allowed to reach Ireland. To accomplish this, chief 
 reliance was placed on the cooperation of German sub- 
 marines. With a patrol of these around the coast, it would 
 be difficult, if not impossible, for the British in England to 
 send relief to their army in Ireland. The latter would, if 
 the fortune of war favored the Irish in the final struggle for 
 the mastery of Dublin, be forced to capitulate, and this 
 would leave the Irish in unchallenged command of the coun- 
 try. In addition to the capture of the forces of the enemy, 
 the rifles, machine guns, ammunition, and other war stocks 
 that would thus fall into the hands of the Irish would add 
 tremendously to the strength of their position. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 mi 
 
 But the cooperation of the Germans was not absolutely- 
 essential. The plan provided for the formation of a cordon 
 of Volunteers around Dublin. The Republicans in the 
 center would hold the points of vantage; encircling these 
 would be the cordon of the British, who in turn would be 
 encircled by the men of County Dublin and the adjoining 
 counties. The latter were to march on Dublin immediately 
 they received news of the rising, and encircle the outskirts 
 of the city. Caught thus between two fires, the British would 
 have been forced to capitulate before the arrival of reinforce- 
 ments. Meanwhile the rest of the country would be in arms, 
 and thousands would march towards the capital to join their 
 comrades. If reinforcements should be landed before the 
 British in Dublin were forced to capitulate, they would be 
 destroyed before getting far on their way. The manner in 
 which De Valera and his men held the British at Mount 
 Street Bridge is suflScient proof of the difficulties British troops 
 would have to contend with. That these plans were not car- 
 ried out was due entirely to the fatal countermanding order. 
 
 It may well be asked what the Irish would do once they 
 had gained the upper hand in the country. It may be said 
 that they would still be cut off from the rest of the world and 
 surrounded by hostile forces. This would not altogether be 
 the case. With the Irish in command throughout their own 
 country, the Germans could land both men and arms by 
 means of submarines. Ireland would thus become a vitally 
 important base for the operations of the Germans; the greater 
 portion of the sea approaches to England would be in the 
 hands of enemy forces, and her western boundary would be 
 seriously menaced. She would no longer have the command 
 of the Atlantic or of the Irish Sea, and an entirely new field 
 of operations, bristling with perils and difficulties, would 
 have opened for her. In addition, the moral effect both on 
 the outside world and on England and her Allies would have 
 been tremendous. It is, therefore, obvious that the plan of 
 the Irish not only had in it a large possibility of success, but, 
 if carried out, would almost certainly have proved a crowning 
 
222 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 disaster for England in the war. Ireland would have been 
 able to hold out till the conclusion of peace, and would have 
 no occasion to petition a Peace Conference for an independ- 
 ence which her arms had already won. 
 
 Even thus briefly summarized, it will be seen that the plan 
 of the Irish leaders was no wild scheme. So perfectly were 
 these plans laid that the leaders did not even believe defeat 
 possible, provided their arrangements could be perfected. 
 But they were not blind to the fact that it was better for 
 them to make the attempt and fail than not to try at all. 
 It was essential that Ireland should become a belligerent in 
 the world war. Both the English and the so-called Irish 
 leaders had told the world that Ireland was in sympathy 
 with the part that the British were playing, that Ireland was 
 ready and willing to kiss the hands that had scourged her 
 and to fight on the side of the power that had oppressed her 
 for centuries. The facts were just the direct opposite. The 
 Irish people were bitterly incensed against the British Empire, 
 not alone on account of what that Empire had done in the 
 past, but owing still more to the manner in which the Irish 
 people were being treated during the course of the war and 
 right up to the time of the Rising, England was posing 
 before the world as the defender of the small nations, when 
 she had consistently been the oppressor of every small nation 
 that had come within her power. She said she was waging 
 the war to save Belgium from being exterminated, when, in 
 reality, she was fighting a trade war against her most serious 
 rival. Ireland believed it necessary to show to the world 
 that she had no share in England's war, that her soul was not 
 dead, that she was still fighting for her freedom, and that her 
 men and women were ready and willing to die for her sake. 
 
 But it was essential that Ireland should be prepared, and 
 when the proposal was put before the Volunteer Committee 
 in May, 1915, it was the opinion of the leader of that body 
 that Ireland was not yet fully equipped for the great adven- 
 ture. Therefore the proposal was defeated, and the work of 
 making ready continued. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 An Irish Republic 
 
 TO those whose knowledge of Irish affairs is limited to 
 what they read in the daily press, the theory of an 
 Irish RepubUc may sound rather strange, but the 
 ideal has exercised a great influence on Irish history during 
 modern times. Even prior to 1776 there were men in Ireland 
 who avowed themselves believers in the doctrine of republi- 
 canism. As a matter of fact, the feudal system that prevailed 
 in the other countries of Europe was never part of the Irish 
 social scheme. Up to 1649 the Irish chiefs held their position 
 at the will of their people; their system was much the same 
 as that which is now called republicanism. The Irish were 
 by nature democratic, and recognized no distinction save that 
 of intellect or military prowess. Their ancient civilization 
 was founded on these lines, and did not grow into a feudal 
 system, as happened on the Continent of Europe. It is, 
 therefore, not surprising that the doctrine of government for 
 the people by the people should take quick root in Irish soil 
 when it became popular in the western world towards the 
 latter half of the eighteenth century. 
 
 The constitutional plans of the 1916 leaders were simple, 
 and had already undergone a trial in the case of the Volun- 
 teers. Broadly speaking, they were founded on the American 
 system of government. It was arranged that, immediately 
 before the outbreak of the Rebellion, the leaders should meet 
 together. It must be remembered, in this connection, that 
 the vast majority of these leaders had been elected by the 
 men in the Volunteer Corps throughout the country, and 
 were, to this extent at least, representative. At this meeting 
 of the leaders, votes were to be cast as to who should con- 
 stitute the First Provisional Government of the Irish Republic. 
 
224 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 A Provisional President was to be elected, and a number of 
 men to assist him in the carrying out of the orders of this 
 Provisional Government. The President was to be in sole 
 command of the armed forces of the country in the same 
 manner as the President of the United States is head of the 
 American army and navy. • 
 
 This Provisional Government was to continue the govern- 
 ment of the country during the Rising and imtil the national 
 issue had been settled. When the country had attained her 
 independence and peace was restored, the Provisional Govern- 
 ment would immediately take steps to hold an election 
 throughout the country, using the existing electoral districts 
 and system, with the exception that every man and woman 
 of legal age would be entitled to cast a vote. There was to 
 be manhood and womanhood suffrage. It was to be an 
 election by the people of Ireland, and any Irish man or 
 woman who had a sufficient number of names on his or her 
 nomination papers would be eligible for election as President 
 of the Republic. In this election there was to be no distinc- 
 tion of class or creed. So long as a man or a woman was 
 Irish, of legal age, and possessed the residential qualification, 
 he or she had a right to participate in the election of the 
 Government of the country. The men and the women of 
 Ulster would be on the same level as the men and the women 
 of Munster, Leinster, and Connacht. There would thus be 
 no possible means of creating dissension or of any one party 
 claiming that they were being treated unfairly. 
 
 Coincident with the election of the President, there was to 
 be held the election of the governing body. At first there 
 was to be but one legislative chamber. This body, in con- 
 ference with the President, was then to elect the cabinet. 
 They would then take up the question of a dual or a single 
 system of government, and other questions relative to the 
 composition and the manner of the government for the 
 future. When these questions had been debated, recom- 
 mendations would be presented to the people, who would then 
 decide these questions for themselves. Thus the will of the 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 225 
 
 whole people was to be made all-powerful in the land, and 
 what would probably have been the most thoroughly demo- 
 cratic system of government the world has yet seen would 
 have been established. 
 
 That the Irish people would have responded to such a 
 system is scarcely open to doubt. It is positive that under 
 such a system of government Ireland would have entered 
 upon a period of development of industries and manufactures, 
 a revival of literature, science, and art, such as she had not 
 witnessed since the opening years of the eleventh century. 
 In countries other than their own, the Irish have given in- 
 dubitable proof of their capacity for government and industrial 
 development, and there is no reason whatever why they 
 should not be able to do in their own country what they have 
 already done in other climes where they enjoyed that personal 
 freedom of action denied to them by England. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 Green, White, and Orange 
 
 FOR generations it had been the dehberate and calcu- 
 lated policy of the English Government to keep 
 separate the north and the south of Ireland, to 
 draw a dividing line between the two sections of the country, 
 and to accentuate religious differences. The reason for this 
 policy is self-evident: a nation divided against itself must of 
 necessity remain in the power of a strong invader. By 
 making the Protestant of the north beUeve that his life and 
 liberty were constantly menaced by the CathoUc of the south, 
 east, and west, the Enghsh were able to keep in the country 
 a perpetual garrison to guard their own interests — a garrison 
 that would lose no opportunity of attacking the motives 
 of the other inhabitants of the country, thus breeding sus- 
 picion and distrust. On the other hand, the foreign Gov- 
 ernment did not neglect to sow the insinuation that the 
 Catholics of the rest of the country might also be in danger 
 from the Protestant of the north. By these simple means 
 the invader succeeded in keeping the country divided into 
 two portions, each apparently with different interests and 
 opposing aims. 
 
 While the majority of the Irish people were Catholics, it 
 must be admitted that these were not alone in their pro- 
 fessions of patriotism and devotion to the national cause. 
 Some of the bravest and most devoted leaders in the country 
 were Protestants from the North, who preached the doctrine 
 of love of country to both Catholic and Protestant. These 
 men were under no delusions regarding their fellow-country- 
 men who differed from them in religious faith. They held 
 that nationality was not a matter of reUgion, and that a 
 Protestant and a Catholic should meet on the same ground 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 227 
 
 as Irishmen. They resented the imputation that a Protestant 
 could not be an Irishman, and proved by their actions that 
 the Irish Protestant was just as keenly interested in the wel- 
 fare of Ireland, and just as bitterly opposed to the foreigner, 
 as the Irish Catholic. 
 
 For some years prior to the rebellion of 1798 there had 
 been growing up in the country a number of secret organi- 
 zations, most of which had for their purpose the terrorizing 
 either of the Catholic or the Protestant inhabitants. This 
 condition of affairs suited the English Government, and few 
 if any efforts were made to suppress these societies. When 
 repression was made, it was the Catholic Society that came 
 under the ban of the law. Thus it happened that two power- 
 ful organizations came into existence — the "Peep-of-Day 
 Boys," who favored the Protestant side, and the "Defenders," 
 who took the part of the Catholics. The membership of 
 these two societies increased rapidly, and the rivalry between 
 them grew to such a pitch that it eventually resulted in a 
 pitched and bloody battle being fought between them in 
 Armagh, at a place called The Diamond, and which resulted 
 in the "Defenders," or Catholic faction, being defeated with 
 serious loss. This victory for the "Peep-of-Day Boys" had 
 the effect of creating a reign of terror in the north, in which 
 the Catholics suffered loss of life and property. Outrages 
 became frequent, and the division between the north and 
 the south was more keenly accentuated than ever. 
 
 In order to understand these peculiar conditions in the 
 land, it must be remembered that the Protestants of the 
 north were the descendants of English and Scottish planters, 
 who had been placed in possession of the land by the English 
 Government for the purpose of ousting the natives from the 
 country. When it was realized by the English that the Irish 
 did not take kindly to conquest and were inclined to create 
 a great deal of trouble, the English decided that the best 
 thing to do was to induce a number of their own kind to 
 settle on the land, and to so use the Irish that the latter 
 would be forced to get out. Various settlements of the 
 
228 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 English were made, but in each case the majority of the 
 newcomers were absorbed by the more virile race, and 
 frequently became the strongest advocates of the claims of 
 the Irish people to national liberty. 
 
 An English plantation of Ulster was attempted in 1573, 
 but this was a failure, and Thomas Smith, the leader of the 
 English, was slain. A similar attempt, made under the Earl 
 of Essex in the same year, was also a failure. Other efforts 
 met with no better success, and it was not until 1608 that a 
 Royal Commission took the matter thoroughly into considera- 
 tion, with the result that the entire northern province was 
 confiscated and divided in a systematic manner into lots of 
 from 1000 to 2000 acres each. These lots were then parceled 
 out to a new set of planters, composed of a number of English 
 colonists with a majority of Scottish farmers and merchants. 
 In addition, large sections of the province were allotted to 
 various London Corporations and to private individuals. 
 It was stipulated that all of these planters should belong to 
 the Protestant faith, that they should follow English or 
 Scottish customs, and were to employ no Irish in any capacity. 
 Thus Ulster was at last planted, and what seemed to be the 
 chief obstacle to the conquest of the country was removed. 
 
 The Scottish planters took care to hand down to their sons 
 and daughters the trust they had received, to keep the Irish 
 in subjection, and to do everything for the honor and glory 
 of the Protestant religion. The "Peep-of-Day Boys" were 
 their natural successors, and, after the victory of The Dia- 
 mond, they decided they would form a new and more powerful 
 organization. This was done, and the Orange Society came 
 into being. William III, Prince of Orange, was chosen as 
 the patron saint of the new society, and the Battle of the 
 Boyne, which was fought in 1690, became the annual festival 
 of the society, being celebrated on every twelfth of July. The 
 orange lily was chosen as the emblem of the brotherhood, and 
 orange as its distinctive color. 
 
 Almost coincident with the formation of the Orange Society, 
 which received the warm encouragement of the English 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 229 
 
 Government, efforts were made to neutralize its effects. 
 There were many Irish Protestants even in those days who 
 were not in sympathy with the war of rehgious fanaticism 
 and oppression conducted by the Orangemen. At the same 
 time the outrages of the Orangemen upon their Cathohc 
 neighbors were so continuous that reprisals were but natural, 
 and the effect was as the English had hoped — the country 
 was split into two warring factions, with an increasing bitter- 
 ness of feeling that seemed destined to last for all time. 
 
 Coming to later times the United Irishmen, formed in 
 Belfast in October, 1791, by Theobald Wolfe Tone, aimed at 
 a reunion of all parties for the securing of the common rights 
 of all Irishmen. Tone, himself a Protestant, saw that the 
 religious strife was promoted by the English only for the 
 purpose of keeping the country in subjection, and he openly 
 espoused the rights of his Catholic fellow-countrymen and 
 urged on his Protestant friends and neighbors to do the same. 
 This organization attained considerable strength and, through 
 various phases of fortune, maintained itself until the Rebellion 
 of 1848, when the new national color was adopted of green, 
 white, and orange, the green being the color chosen by the 
 other three provinces, the orange being the emblem of the 
 North, and the white, the connecting link, signifying peace, 
 unity, and brotherhood. This soon came to be recognized 
 as the banner of those who had pledged themselves to win 
 by force of arms the freedom of Ireland. 
 
 John Mitchel, another Protestant northerner, was perhaps 
 the most ardent advocate of national unity who ever led the 
 men of Ireland in their struggle for Freedom. The pages of 
 his paper. The United Irishman, which he edited during 1848, 
 contain scores of appeals to the people to forget their alleged 
 differences and unite against the common enemy. He wrote 
 editorial after editorial, addressed to the Protestant farmers, 
 laborers, and artisans of the north of Ireland, and he was 
 always able to point out that their interests lay in joining 
 hands with their fellow-countrymen and opposing the efforts 
 of the foreigner to rule and ruin both. The Irish Felon y 
 
230 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 which succeeded The United Irishman after the trial and 
 sentence of Mitchel, continued the same work, which was 
 also carried on by The Irish Tribune^ published about the 
 same time. In The Irish Felon^ James Fintan Labor, one of 
 the brightest spirits among Irish patriots, wrote on the 
 subject in language that remains to-day as vivid an inspiration 
 as when it was first penned. The spirit that animated the 
 men of these days and of the days that followed cannot be 
 better illustrated than in the words of the poem by "Maire,'* 
 published in The Felon of July 22, 1848. It is entitled "A 
 Harvest Song" and is as follows: 
 
 Gaily our banner is over us streaming — 
 
 Green as our hills is its emerald light; 
 White, snowy, pure as our noble cause gleaming; 
 
 Orange, that waves as a harvest-field, bright; — 
 Calling to mind by its tri-color blending — 
 
 On as we dash with defiant hurrah — 
 Never forget it, our war-cry unbending — 
 
 "Freedom," the Felons, and Eire-go-Bragh. 
 
 Come — you from iron cliffs hanging o'er ocean; 
 
 Come — you from valleys that sleep in their green; 
 Come, like your own rushing torrents in motion; 
 
 Come as the lightning-flash, felt when 'tis seen. 
 Marching like brothers still, hand in hand grasping. 
 
 Discord fling down and with gallant hurrah. 
 Back let the echoes ring, till we're laid gasping in: 
 
 Freedom, the Felons, and Eire-go-Bragh. 
 
 The Fenian organization, or Irish Republican Brotherhood, 
 was the natural successor to the movements led by Tone and 
 Mitchel. William Smith O'Brien, who may almost be said 
 to have founded the I. R. B. by his own efforts, was con- 
 temporary with Mitchel and had imbibed all the teachings of 
 that splendid patriot. From the beginning it was a cardinal 
 point of faith with the Fenians that there should be no 
 dividing line of religion, that it mattered not what a man's 
 faith might be so long as he was true to Ireland. The 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 231 
 
 Fenians also adopted the tricolor of green, white and 
 orange, and they, in their turn, passed it down to the men 
 who flung it to the breeze in April, 1916. While many of 
 these men were not actual members of the I. R. B., they 
 recognized that this was the flag of Ireland, the flag of the 
 Irish Republic, and from that day it became the national 
 emblem. 
 
 It was, therefore, rather disconcerting to find, within the 
 first few weeks after the Rebellion, many enthusiastic and 
 poetically inclined individuals inscribing ecstatic stanzas in 
 eulogy of the "green and gold." While, in ancient days, 
 there was no such thing as a national color in Ireland, yellow 
 was recognized from an early date as peculiar to the leading 
 Ulster clans. Blue was also a favorite color emblem with the 
 ancient Irish and at one time assumed a vogue that may be 
 said to have given it a national significance. One of the 
 most prominent emblems was the Sunburst, showing a 
 yellow sun on a blue field. The amalgamation of these two 
 colors, the yellow and the blue, produced the green, which, 
 although it became known the world over as the Irish national 
 color, was nevertheless a comparatively modern innovation. 
 The history of the orange has already been traced, and it 
 will thus be seen that gold never entered into the national 
 color scheme of Ireland. On the other hand, the green, white, 
 and orange possesses a genuine historical significance, and 
 was most appropriately made symbolical of a free and a 
 united nation. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 What Did Redmond Mean? 
 
 FROM May, 1915, when the proposal that the Volun- 
 teers should at once declare for an armed insurrection 
 was defeated or deferred by Eoin MacNeill's casting 
 vote, the work of preparing for the rising went steadily on. 
 It was even then recognized that the time could not be much 
 longer postponed, and that there was no time to be lost if 
 matters were to be in readiness when the proper moment 
 came. In America it was well known that the decision had 
 been reached for a rising, and efforts were made to insure 
 that the men at home should have sufficient arms and war 
 supplies to enable them to make that struggle a success. It 
 was found almost impossible to send arms and ammunition 
 from America to Ireland, in spite of the fact that millions of 
 dollars* worth of war material were being shipped from 
 American ports to the Allies every week. With a patrol of 
 British war vessels lying outside New York and elsewhere off 
 the coast, there was small chance of a cargo of arms being 
 safely transferred from this country to Ireland. It was, 
 therefore, determined that the best, and in fact the only 
 way to get the arms into the country was from Germany. 
 
 Sir Roger Casement had been sent to Germany for the 
 purpose of representing Irish interests there. It was not a 
 part of the work that had been assigned him to make any 
 negotiations for the sending of arms from Germany to Ireland. 
 Casement was thought to be of too pacific a nature to be 
 fitted for the task, and it was far better that other men 
 should do this work while he remained in touch with the Im- 
 perial Court and with the leaders in Ireland so that the men 
 in Ireland would be the better able to judge of the time 
 when the blow could be struck with the greatest effect. 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 233 
 
 Throughout 1915 and the early part of 1916 the work of 
 preparing the men of Ireland for the rising and of organizing 
 the country districts progressed very smoothly. The main 
 difficulty with which the leaders had to contend was that the 
 men under them were too eager for action. While the 
 British Government was doing everything in its power to 
 provoke the men to a premature outbreak, it was difficult 
 for the Volunteers to restrain themselves. Many incidents 
 showed how the temper of the people was rising, and those 
 who were directly responsible for the government of the coun- 
 try began to feel some alarm, more particularly as the efforts 
 of the military did not produce any actual clash, and it was 
 more and more obvious that each succeeding day saw the 
 Volunteers better prepared for the task before them. 
 
 An interesting indication of the manner in which the 
 discontent of the people had resulted from the outrageous 
 treatment to which they were being subjected is shown by 
 the fact that some of the hardest workers in the preparations 
 for the rising were found among the priests and the school 
 teachers. Seeing where English policy and Redmondism 
 were leading, many of the priests, particularly those of the 
 younger generation, came out openly and advised the people 
 to do all in their power to resist the English law. This had 
 special application to the commandeering of the crops for 
 the feeding of the British and Allied forces at the front, and 
 the Irish priests told their people that, if they allowed their 
 crops to be taken, the country would again be plunged into 
 the miseries of famine and starvation similar to the black and 
 dreadful days of 1846, 1847, and 1848. At the same time the 
 cost of foodstuffs was rising in spite of the fact that the 
 season was one of the best in many years. These were signs 
 which the Irish people were not slow to appraise. 
 
 In September, 1915, the English Government made the 
 sudden discovery that communications were passing between 
 the Volunteer leaders in Ireland and the heads of the Clan-na- 
 Gael in the United States. This seems to have been some- 
 what of a shock to them, although they must have known 
 
234 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 that these negotiations were going on from the first day the 
 Volunteers were founded in November, 1913. The EngHsh 
 officials also discovered that money was being sent to Ireland 
 — a fact that was openly published in the Irish papers in 
 New York and elsewhere throughout the United States 
 eighteen months previously. Some of the discoveries made 
 by the British Government during this period of Irish history 
 would provide excellent material for a farce. The rising was 
 being planned out in the open, was being openly advocated, 
 and everyone knew it was coming, and yet the "private and 
 confidential'* reports of the paid agents of the Castle were 
 apparently able to discover only what was public information 
 months previously. 
 
 That the Government was then becoming seriously worried 
 over the situation is certain. On December 18, 1915, a 
 lengthy letter was sent from the Undersecretary to Chief 
 Secretary Augustine Birrell, from which the following is an 
 extract: 
 
 What is Redmond up to with his comparisons between Ireland 
 and Great Britain in the matters of police and crime .^^ He knows, 
 or should know, after what Dillon wrote to him over a month ago 
 in the inclosed "confidential" letter, and repeated verbally on the 
 3d inst., that the present situation in Ireland is most serious and 
 menacing. Redmond himself sent me the other "private" inclosure 
 on the 9th. He knows, or should know, that the enrolled strength 
 of the Sinn Fein Volunteers has increased by a couple of thousand 
 active members in the last two months to a total of some 13,500, 
 and each group of these is a center of revolutionary propaganda. He 
 knows, or should know, that efforts are being made to get arms for 
 the support of this propaganda — that the Irish Volunteers have 
 already some 2500 rifles, that they have their eyes on the 10,000 
 in the hands of the supine National Volunteers, and that they are 
 endeavoring to supplement their rifles with shot guns, revolvers, and 
 pistols. New measures, possibly requiring additional police at the 
 ports, will be required to counter these attempts, and unless in 
 other matters we keep these revolutionaries under observation we 
 shall not be in a position to deal with the outbreak, which we hope 
 will not occur, but which undoubtedly will follow any attempt to 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 235 
 
 enforce conscription, or, even if there is no such attempt, might take 
 place as result of continued unsuccess of British arms. 
 
 This communication is illuminating in more respects than 
 one. In the first place it offers proof positive that Redmond 
 and Dillon were completely aware of the position of affairs in 
 Ireland at a time when they were telling the people of 
 America, through the inspired cables of Mr. T. P. O'Connor, 
 that the Irish were enthusiastic in their support of the British. 
 At the time when Redmond was telling his American dupes 
 that the men of Ireland were joining the British army at the 
 rate of so many thousands per week, the actual fact, known 
 to him and to his colleagues, was that the men of Ireland were 
 joining the Volunteers led by Eoin MacNeill and were prepar- 
 ing for rebellion. This oflficial communication also proves 
 that the British Government did not dare to put conscription 
 into force in Ireland, not because Mr. Redmond asked them 
 not to do so, but because both Redmond and his British 
 paymasters were afraid of the rifles in the hands of the Irish 
 Volunteers. The official reference to the so-called "National" 
 Volunteers, led by Mr. Redmond, as "supine," is also en- 
 lightening. It is worthy of note that they are not referred 
 to as the "loyal Volunteers" by the British officials. Mr. 
 Redmond's friends chose, whether by accident or design, a 
 far more expressive epithet. 
 
 But — and this is far more important — the communication 
 also shows that the British Government in Ireland had at last 
 come to the conclusion that the Irish were not to be fooled 
 and misled any longer, and that it was time to take action. 
 It would appear that Undersecretary Sir Matthew Nathan 
 had a far surer grip of the actual position of affairs than 
 those who held more responsible positions. He had already 
 warned his superiors that the condition of affairs in Ireland 
 was not what it was being officially represented to be, and 
 many of his communications are reposing in Downing Street, 
 London, where they have been hidden from the light of day 
 and will possibly make interesting reading for the archseolo- 
 
236 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 gists of the future. It is quite certain that these letters, as 
 well as many other documents dealing with the Rebellion, 
 are not destined to be disclosed to the pubHc during the 
 twentieth century, if the British Government is able to prevent 
 it. 
 
 St. Patrick's Day, 1916, was observed in such a manner 
 in Ireland that from that day Secretary Birrell decided to 
 receive daily reports on the condition of affairs from his 
 spies and the police. He later admitted as much in his 
 evidence before the Commission appointed to inquire into the 
 causes of the Revolution. The Irish National Festival was 
 observed by parades of the Volunteers throughout the country, 
 under orders from their headquarters. From every part of 
 the country specially appointed officers of the Royal Irish 
 Constabulary turned in reports to their Inspector General 
 dealing with these parades. In the report that this Inspector 
 General forwarded to the officials of the Government as a 
 summary of the proceedings, the following passage is interest- 
 ing: 
 
 There can be no doubt that the Irish Volunteer leaders are a pack 
 of rebels who would proclaim their independence in the event of 
 any favorable opportunity but with their present resources and 
 without substantial reinforcements it is difficult to imagine that they 
 will make even a brief stand against a small body of troops. These 
 observations, however, are made with reference to the provinces and 
 not to the Dublin Metropolitan Area, which is the center of the 
 movement. 
 
 From this time on, the recruiting question being very acute 
 across the Channel owing to the protests that France and 
 Russia were making, the question of disarming the Volunteers 
 was most acutely exercising the minds of the Government. 
 The Government now found itself faced by the results of its 
 own weakness and double-dealing of two years before. They 
 found that, if they were to disarm the Irish Volunteers, they 
 would also have to disarm the "National" Volunteers, "led" 
 by Redmond. To do otherwise would be to increase still 
 further the anti-English feeling throughout the country. If 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 237 
 
 they disarmed the "National" Volunteers, they would also 
 have to disarm the Ulster Volunteers, or otherwise the cry of 
 unfair discrimination would be raised. That the Ulster 
 Volunteers would not submit to being disarmed was a fore- 
 gone conclusion. Furthermore, the Cabinet was a coalition 
 cabinet, and contained a number of the men who had been 
 foremost in the formation of the Ulster Volunteers, and who 
 would see the Government disrupted rather than consent to 
 the disarming of their followers. Thus the Government was 
 placed between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, and had 
 only itself to thank for its predicament. Had the Liberals 
 been genuine in their professions to the Irish when the Home 
 Rule Bill was first introduced, and had they then prevented 
 the formation of the Ulster Volunteers, they would have had 
 no Irish Volunteers and no disarmament problem to trouble 
 them. 
 
 The leaders of the Volunteers were well aware of the inten- 
 tions of the Government, and, during the last week in March, 
 the Council of the Volunteers held a meeting in Dublin. 
 The session lasted a considerable time. The advisability of 
 striking a blow then was under discussion, and it was the 
 opinion of many that the time had come. Others, however, 
 including Eoin MacNeill, feared that they were not suflS- 
 ciently prepared, and that they had not suflScient arms for 
 their purpose. It was realized that the situation was serious 
 in the extreme, and a proclamation was issued to the public — 
 but really to the Government — warning the Government 
 that the Volunteers "cannot submit to be disarmed, and that 
 the raiding for arms and the attempted disarming of men, 
 therefore, in the natural course of things, can only be met 
 by resistance and bloodshed.'* 
 
 The Government met this ultimatum by ordering the exile 
 of a number of the Volunteer organizers. On March 28, 
 expulsion orders were served on A. Monaghan, Volunteer 
 organizer of Galway, and E. Blythe and William Mellows, of 
 Dublin. They were arrested and told they would be kept 
 in jail until they had made arrangement to get out of the 
 
238 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 country. Simultaneously a number of newspapers were 
 suppressed — every paper that still possessed a spark of 
 national sentiment being silenced. It was evident that, being 
 afraid of taking a definite step to put an end to the Volun- 
 teers, the Government had embarked on a policy of deliberate 
 provocation in the hope that they would either scare the 
 Volunteers into submission, or else cause a premature outbreak 
 that could easily be suppressed. 
 
 Coincidently, Redmond made a speech in Galway in which 
 he stated that, unless Ireland offered up at least 1000 of her 
 men weekly to the British as cannon fodder in France, Eng- 
 land would refuse, and rightly, to stand by her Home Rule 
 agreement. Redmond did not say whether or not he had 
 been ordered by the British Government to make this state- 
 ment, but it is known that, had it not been for the strong 
 cordon of police and military that attended Redmond on that 
 occasion, he would not have escaped with his life. It was 
 well known to the Dublin Castle authorities that arrange- 
 ments had been made to deal with the man by whom the 
 Irish believed they had been deliberately tricked and betrayed. 
 
 At the same time the proposal was put forward that 
 Ireland should be taxed to pay one-sixth of the expenses of 
 the war. This proposal was met by a storm of protests from 
 all parts of the country. Even the Anglicized Dublin Cor- 
 poration passed a motion stating that the Council *' viewed 
 with alarm the proposed enormous increase in taxation,** and 
 requesting the Irish representatives in Parliament to resist 
 any such increase "as contrary to both the Act of Union and 
 the Home Rule Act,'* at the same time pointing out that 
 "Ireland's building and other chief industries are practically 
 at an end owing to the war. This being so, the incidence of 
 taxation is different from that obtaining in Great Britain, 
 and so should be taxed, especially as a Royal Commission has 
 already so recommended.'* 
 
CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 
 Casement and the Irish Leaders 
 
 SUFFICIENT mention has already been made of the 
 reasons why Roger Casement went to Berlin as 
 Ireland's Ambassador. That he had nothing to do 
 with the actual plans of the Rebellion, and that in fact he 
 did everything in his power to prevent it, is established fact. 
 One of the most pressing needs of the men in Ireland was the 
 need of arms and ammunition. Some months before the 
 rising a message was dispatched to Berlin asking for arms, 
 and the German Government thereupon made the necessary 
 arrangements to comply with the Irish request. 
 
 At the same time a message was sent to Berlin asking that 
 the consignment of the arms be kept secret from Sir Roger 
 Casement. This was owing to the fact that the letters 
 which Casement was sending to New York were of a nature 
 that made it certain that he would not be in sympathy with 
 a revolutionary movement at that time. Before going to 
 Germany, Casement was under the belief that the Teutons 
 were certain of victory and that Ireland was in danger of 
 being involved in the downfall of the British Empire. On 
 this account he made representations to the German Govern- 
 ment with the result that the proclamation already mentioned 
 was issued by that Government. 
 
 Later on, however, Casement, for reasons that will probably 
 never be known, became less certain as to the outcome of 
 the war. He began to feel that the struggle could end in no 
 decisive manner, and that a compromise peace would be the 
 result. He thought that, if this were the case, any attempt 
 at rebellion in Ireland was foredoomed to failure. Being 
 practically exiled in Germany, he had little or no means of 
 
240 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 knowing the extent of the preparations that had been made, 
 and also knew nothing of the manner in which the British 
 Government was treating Ireland at the time. He was, in 
 fact, quite out of touch with the actual facts of the situation. 
 
 When, therefore, he learned that a rising was possible in 
 Ireland, he lost no time in seeking to prevent it. In the 
 course of letters which he managed to get through to New 
 York, he made this attitude very clear. He declared it would 
 be folly for Ireland to make any attempt at rebellion. "There 
 is no chance for the poor old woman," wrote Casement on one 
 occasion — the reference being to Ireland under one of her 
 Gaelic titles. 
 
 At the same time he was also able to get similar communi- 
 cations into Ireland, addressed to Eoin MacNeill. For these 
 reasons it was not considered advisable by a majority of those 
 who were organizing the Revolution that Casement should be 
 made acquainted with their plans. It was not that they 
 thought Casement other than sincere; he would never have 
 been allowed to represent Ireland in Germany had there been 
 any idea that he was not a genuine Nationalist. Casement 
 was trusted implicitly and given plenipotentiary powers in 
 Germany in so far as diplomatic relations were concerned. 
 Casement had always been known both to his friends and his 
 foes as a staunch Irish Nationalist, and the fact that he was 
 one of those who had assisted in the purchase of the consign- 
 ment of arms that was landed at Howth was also not for- 
 gotten. Casement's sincerity was above question, yet there 
 was no doubt that it was better that he should know nothing 
 regarding the request to the German Government for the 
 consignment of arms. 
 
 Neither was it the intention of the Irish leaders to supersede 
 Casement in Germany. As Ireland's Ambassador, he was 
 carrying out most capably the work to which he had been 
 assigned, and which he had chosen for his own. That work 
 did not include the making of plans for a rebellion in Dublin. 
 It was not the part of an ambassador to carry out negotiations 
 of this kind. He was there for the purpose of keeping in 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 241 
 
 touch with the actual trend of events in Germany in so far 
 as they concerned Ireland. It was also a fact that Casement 
 was not of the stuff that conspirators — if the word may be 
 used in this connection — are made. He had amply demon- 
 strated that he had nothing to conceal; he had several times 
 spoken freely to newspaper correspondents, and seemed to 
 delight in making the fullest possible statements regarding 
 his own affairs. This does not necessarily mean that he was 
 not a diplomat, either; but that he was just a little too 
 trusting in the sincerity of the motives of everyone with whom 
 he came into contact. 
 
 Not knowing the true state of affairs in Ireland, but hearing 
 that a rebellion was being planned. Casement at once came 
 to the conclusion that this rebellion could not possibly succeed, 
 owing to the fact that the Germans, however willing they 
 might be, were not then in a position to undertake any 
 operations that would assist Ireland. Casement was appar- 
 ently of the opinion that it would be impossible for the 
 rebellion to succeed unless a German army was landed 
 immediately in Ireland. This was not the case. It was 
 perfectly true that the landing of a German army in Ireland 
 would have been of the greatest help to the Irish Republicans. 
 But the plans were so made that it was possible for the 
 rebellion to succeed even if Germany did nothing at all. 
 All that Germany was asked to do, as a matter of fact, was 
 to send a consignment of arms, ammunition, and machine 
 guns. The German submarines might also be of use, as has 
 been mentioned, in preventing the arrival of reinforcements 
 for the British. 
 
 It is very probable that the German Government had a 
 shrewd suspicion as to the reasons why they were asked not 
 to make Casement acquainted with the request for munitions. 
 It was certainly not owing to any leakage on the part of 
 German Government oflScials that the secret became known 
 in two widely different quarters. In a manner that still 
 remains somewhat of a mystery the fact was communicated 
 to the British Government. While the whole matter still 
 
242 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 remains to be cleared up, there are one or two outstanding 
 facts that may be used as the basis of deductions. 
 
 The request for the arms from Germany was, in the first 
 place, brought to New York by messenger, since direct com- 
 munication between Ireland and Berlin was impossible. The 
 fact that this messenger was one of the signers of the Proc- 
 lamation of the Irish Republic is sufficient proof of his trust- 
 worthiness. This man brought the message to New York, 
 and it was then referred to the officials of the German Govern- 
 ment here. By them it was forwarded, as a matter of course, 
 to Berlin. Some weeks later the officials in New York 
 received a message from the Imperial Government to the 
 effect that the arms were being sent from Germany on April 
 12, and would be due in Ireland about Easter Sunday. This 
 was the date which had then been arranged for the rising. 
 A few days later Secret Service men made a raid on the 
 offices of a German Government official in New York City, 
 removed certain papers, and within forty-eight hours the 
 British Government in London knew of the impending 
 arrival of the arms-laden vessel from Germany. When the 
 facts became known, the accusation was made that this 
 information had been conveyed to London from the United 
 States. This was admitted at the subsequent inquiry held by 
 the British Government into the causes of the Rebellion. 
 
 The fact of the arms being sent also reached the ears of 
 Roger Casement. In some respects this was even more 
 disastrous than the fact that the British came to know of 
 the plans. Casement seems to have become obsessed by the 
 idea that Ireland was about to be drenched with blood without 
 a chance of success in her adventure. At that time he appears 
 to have been suffering from melancholia, and to have had 
 the most pessimistic notions regarding the entire situation, 
 both in Germany and Ireland. He would also seem to have 
 been disappointed because he had not been taken into the 
 confidence of the leaders, for he contributed a lengthy article, 
 early in April, to the Munchener Zeitung regarding his services 
 to Ireland — services which no one knowing him ever ques- 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 ^4S 
 
 tioned. He also reviewed the reasons for his going to Ger- 
 many, saying that his main motive in going to BerUn was to 
 obtain from the German Government assurances of the good- 
 will of the German nation towards Ireland in order that he 
 might "preserve his fellow-countrymen from participation in 
 a great crime.'* He must also have considered it necessary 
 to show that his work had not been without results, as he 
 added: "The fact that England has not succeeded in ex- 
 tending compulsory recruiting to Ireland, and the admission 
 that Ireland is exempt from doing military service for Great 
 Britain or the British Empire, are the best justification of 
 my visit to Germany." 
 
 Following this declaration, he got into touch with the 
 German authorities, and asked that he be allowed to return 
 to Ireland. This request was, in the first instance, refused 
 on the grounds that the enterprise was one of exceeding 
 danger, and that it would have no useful results. Casement, 
 however, persevered in his demands, and even went so far as 
 to state that he wanted to get back to Ireland for the purpose 
 of assisting the rebels. That this was not the case, is known 
 to be a fact, but that a man of Sir Roger's caliber should go 
 to the length of deliberately misrepresenting his motives is 
 sufficient to show his state of mind and his determination to 
 stop, at all costs, what he believed was a fruitless adventure. 
 
 Meantime, the German Government was busy preparing 
 the consignment of arms for Ireland. The vessel Aud was 
 chartered for the purpose, and was loaded with 20,000 rifles, 
 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition, and 15 machine guns. The 
 rifles were part of those which had been captured from the 
 Russians during the retreat of the armies of the Czar during 
 the previous summer, and were all in first class condition. 
 The vessel was placed in charge of a special crew, and left 
 Germany on April 12, bound for Ireland. 
 
 While this was being done. Casement was still making 
 application to the German Government for transportation to 
 Ireland. Owing to the manner in which he represented his 
 reasons for wishing to make the journey, the German officials 
 
244 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 eventually gave him the facilities he sought, and informed 
 him that a submarine would be placed at his disposal in 
 which he would be taken to Ireland. Upon receipt of this 
 information Casement made preparations for the journey, 
 and decided to take with him two of his companions in 
 Germany, Captain Robert Monteith and Private Daniel 
 Bailey — the latter a British soldier of Irish birth who had 
 been captured by the Germans and became a member of the 
 Irish Brigade recruited by Casement in Germany. The party 
 left Germany in the submarine at the same time as the Audy 
 on April 12. 
 
 Perhaps nothing better illustrates Casement's state of 
 mind at this time than the letter which he wrote on April 11, 
 the day before he left Germany, and forwarded to his sister, 
 Mrs. Agnes Newman, who was in New York City at the time. 
 This document speaks for itself: 
 
 My Dear Old Girl: I am going away on a long journey and may 
 not be able to write you again for a long time — perhaps a very 
 long time. I have often thought of you of late and longed to see 
 you again, but it has not been possible. You did quite right to go 
 to America, and I was all wrong. A friend here will see you from 
 me later and give you some things. 
 
 I do hope I may see you safe and well when the war is over, but 
 no one can say what will happen these dreadful days. It is all 
 dark and black. 
 
 All my thoughts have been for Ireland, but I fear I have done 
 very Uttle, certainly not what I tried. When we meet, it will be a 
 happy day for me. I feel so deeply for you, cut off and alone, but 
 God grant you have kind friends around you. They told me you 
 were about to become a Catholic. I hope so. 
 
 Countess Blucher — you remember her — is near me. I saw her 
 lately, and Count Blucher, and they can tell you something of me, 
 and also another friend here. — is my staunch friend over on your 
 side. I often think of you, my dearest old girl, and I pray that all 
 may go well with you and that you may be a CathoHc and find 
 peace and happiness there. 
 
 Give the dear wee Gee my love and kisses and Elsie, too, both of 
 them. I may not be able to write for a very long time as all the 
 ways are closed, and it is so hard to get letters across. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 245 
 
 I trust if this letter is intercepted some kind heart will send it 
 on to you in the end, that you may know how much I thought of 
 you and felt for you in these dark, awful days. I only hope now 
 for peace and goodwill and all this dreadful nightmare of horror 
 gone away. 
 
 Some day you will know all about it. Good-bye, my dearest and 
 truest companion of so many years, and keep me always in your 
 heart. 
 
 This, obviously, is not the letter of an Irish rebel leader 
 going to the firing of the first shot of his rebellion. Rather 
 is it the last word of one who knows that he is going to his 
 death, who feels that his fate is sealed, but who is resolved 
 to sacrifice his life in what he considers a noble and righteous 
 cause. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 A Romance of the Sea 
 
 THE whole course of the Irish Rebellion of 1916 is set 
 with one romance after another. This is due to 
 the extraordinary circumstances that surround almost 
 every phase of what is one of the most impressive chapters 
 in the history of Ireland. 
 
 Not the least remarkable episode of the Rebellion was that 
 concerned with the two expeditions which left Germany for 
 Ireland on April 12. It is not certain whether those on 
 board the Aud were aware of the fact that a submarine with 
 Sir Roger Casement on board left the same day; the pre- 
 sumption is that they were not. It is certain, however, that 
 Sir Roger Casement did not know that the Aud had left 
 port. He did know that a consignment of arms had been 
 asked for by the Irish leaders, and that the German Govern- 
 ment had promised to grant that request. He may also 
 have known some details concerning the consignment of arms 
 that the Aud was carrying, but it will shortly appear that 
 his information was not altogether accurate. If it was, he 
 made representations later that certainly were not correct. 
 
 On the other hand, the commander of the German sub- 
 marine was certainly aware of the suspicions which the Irish 
 leaders entertained regarding Casement — suspicions, as has 
 already been pointed out, that in no way reflected on his 
 personal honor or sincerity. These suspicions had been 
 communicated to the German commander by his Government 
 and he was ordered to proceed slowly to Ireland, so that the 
 Aud would have ample time to land her cargo before Case- 
 ment could interfere with it or with the plans of the Irish 
 leaders. The Aud was not a slow vessel; yet, owing to the 
 conditions at sea which she had to contend with, it was 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 247 
 
 probable that the submarine would otherwise make Ireland in 
 better time. For the U-boat could travel in comparative 
 security all the way, and would not be obliged to go out of 
 her course to avoid giving rise to suspicion. These were facts 
 that were taken fully into consideration by the commander 
 of the submarine, and he therefore determined on a course of 
 action that would, in his estimation, make certain the arrival 
 of the Aud before Casement. 
 
 With this object in view, the submarine commander put 
 in at Heligoland, stating that his vessel needed repairs. 
 Whether this was so or not, is uncertain, but it is a fact that 
 for two weeks Casement was forced to remain in idleness on 
 the shores of the island under circumstances which must have 
 been maddening to a man in his position. He had no possible 
 chance of getting into communication with the men in Ireland; 
 he was absolutely cut off from the rest of the world, and was 
 uncertain, up to the last minute, as to when he would be 
 able to resume his journey. As the days passed by, he did 
 not know but that the rebellion he was risking his life to 
 avert had already broken out. The delay was continued 
 from one day to another till it must have seemed as if he was 
 doomed to perpetual exile on that lonely coast. At last, 
 after two weeks of this mental agony, the submarine com- 
 mander announced that the repairs to his vessel had been 
 completed, and Casement, looking almost a shadow of the 
 man he had been, resumed his interrupted journey. 
 
 In the meantime the Aud had been slowly threading her 
 perilous path through enemy waters towards the coast of 
 Ireland. Although she flew at times a neutral flag, she was 
 well aware that this was no protection against inspection by 
 the British, who were holding up all neutral trade and making 
 seizures of mail and whatever else attracted their suspicions 
 or their fancy. Going far out of her course, she traveled by 
 unfrequented paths, if such could be said of any part of her 
 route. Her pace was slow in the daytime, but at night she 
 crowded on all possible speed, dashing through the dark with 
 all lights out and three lookout men posted, taking her 
 
248 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 chances of mines or collisions as necessary parts of her mission 
 to the assistance of the men of Ireland. 
 
 The naval exploits of the Germans during the great war 
 furnish several of the most thrilling chapters of adventure and 
 disregard of peril that have ever been written in the age-long 
 annals of the sea, but none of them deserve a higher place 
 than the voyage of the Aud, From her commander to the 
 last man in her crew there was not a man who did not know 
 that he was facing almost certain death, if they failed in 
 their hazardous enterprise. These men were taking the risks, 
 not on behalf of their own Fatherland, but for a country 
 which it is. very possible none of them had even seen. While 
 it is true that they were acting under the orders of the German 
 Government, the crew was made up entirely of volunteers. 
 Nor must it be forgotten that Germany had made no demands 
 upon Ireland, or upon the leaders of the Irish Republicans. 
 Germany asked nothing of Ireland. It is true that a success- 
 ful rebellion in Ireland would have been welcome for merely 
 selfish reasons to the German Government, but, at the same 
 time, it is but fair to state that that Government asked no 
 guarantees of Ireland, and that the men of the Aud volun- 
 tarily took their hves in their hands from purely noble and 
 unselfish motives. 
 
 During the first couple of days at sea the Aud managed to 
 evade notice. The patrols of the British fleet must have been 
 lacking in vigilance, for not even the smoke of a warship was 
 sighted. Towards the close of the third day, however, a little 
 excitement was forthcoming to break the monotony. The 
 sun had just dipped below the edge of the horizon when a 
 heavy streak of black smoke, blowing westward across the 
 prow of the Aud, rose to disclose the dark and ugly hull of a 
 destroyer. The Aud began, little by little, to deflect her 
 course some points to the south, so as to veer away from the 
 rapidly approaching craft. 
 
 It seemed, however, that the destroyer was not to be misled 
 by tactics such as these. Coming on with a big burst of 
 speed, the warship raced to cross the path of the German 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 249 
 
 vessel. The men on the Aud now recognized that the stranger 
 was a Britisher, and preparations were at once made to sink 
 the Aud rather than allow its cargo to fall into the hands of 
 the enemy. At the same time the German captain kept 
 changing his course to the south in order to defer the fatal 
 encounter as long as might be. 
 
 Fortune favored the merchantman on this occasion. The 
 April twilight was fast fading when the destroyer, now 
 apparently convinced that there was something worthy of 
 investigation about the seemingly inoffensive merchantman, 
 ran up a signal to halt. Trusting to the fact that the in- 
 creasing darkness might be accepted as an excuse for not 
 seeing the signal, the German captain ignored it altogether 
 and veered his course still further to the south. Then a 
 tongue of flame was seen to flash from the warship, and a 
 shot splashed ahead of the Aud as a last warning to heave to. 
 The reply of the Aud was to crowd on all steam, and dash 
 into the darkness that had now descended like a pall over the 
 sea. Another shot followed the first, and came dangerously 
 close to the fugitive. But pitch-like darkness had now en- 
 veloped the scene, and, with every light doused, the Aud 
 turned suddenly on her course, striking sharp towards the 
 north. Every second her crew expected to see the searchlight 
 from the destroyer sweep over the waves, which were rising 
 rapidly under a stiff northwesterly wind. But, for some 
 reason, their expectations were not realized. There were a 
 couple more spurts of flame as the warship sent random shots 
 shrieking into the darkness. The second of these was away 
 to the south, so that it was apparent the maneuver of the 
 Aud had been successful, and that the destroyer had not 
 discovered the German ruse. The wind was then blowing a 
 gale, and the Aud pressed on steam and followed on her 
 course. 
 
 A few days later the vessel ran within sight of a British 
 submarine which was traveling on the surface. The enemy 
 submersible, however, passed within half a mile of the German 
 ship without taking the slightest notice of her. The crew of 
 
250 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 the Aud gathered at the rail to look at the British vessel going 
 past, and went so far as to wave their caps in salutation. 
 But the enemy passed without acknowledgment, and this 
 danger was also safely surmounted. A little later the same 
 day an incoming Scandinavian-American liner, Oscar II, Mr. 
 Ford's famous Peace Ship, was sighted and greetings ex- 
 changed. The rest of the voyage, with the exception of its 
 termination, passed without incident. 
 
 It is not uninteresting to note that the much-vaunted 
 blockade which the British Order in Council established to 
 prevent food getting to Germany, did not seem to be very 
 much in evidence. With the single exception of the de- 
 stroyer, the Aud saw nothing that challenged its right of way. 
 The mighty British fleet seemed to have vanished off the 
 face of the waters. 
 
 On the evening of Wednesday, April 19, the lookout on the 
 Aud reported land ahead. This was the Kerry Coast, and 
 the Captain, his destination in sight, decided to lay off for 
 the night. He had made the voyage in shorter time than he 
 had expected, and it was probable that those to whom the 
 arms were being consigned would not be on hand to meet 
 him if he made a landing. The coast is well indented, and 
 he decided that he would have plenty of shelter for a week ii 
 need be. Not being acquainted with the coast, he also decided 
 to defer going in further till the next morning, when he would 
 be better able to pick his way. Therefore, the Aud lay off 
 the Irish coast for the night, with all lights out and under 
 easy steam, and awaited the coming of the dawn. 
 
 Early the following morning, Thursday, April 20, the Aud 
 began to move in towards the coast. An hour later smoke 
 was sighted trailing away on the horizon towards Queens town. 
 It was thought at first that this might be some passing liner, 
 but it soon became evident that it was another British 
 man-of-war, this time an armored cruiser. On sighting the 
 Aud, this vessel turned directly towards the German vessel, 
 and increased its speed at the same time. 
 
 Consternation reigned aboard the Aud, for on this occasion 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 251 
 
 there was no favoring darkness or high sea to facilitate escape. 
 Furthermore, it was immediately obvious that the new arrival 
 was determined to come to close quarters with the Aud and, 
 under the circumstances, investigation meant certain capture. 
 The Aud still pressed on towards the Irish coast, in the forlorn 
 hope that aid might be forthcoming from that quarter, but 
 the glasses revealed that the coast was desolate and deserted, 
 and the conviction grew on the captain and the crew that 
 they had arrived too soon, and would be left to their fate. 
 
 The Aud was still well out from the coast when a shot 
 from the British cruiser carried the first peremptory command 
 to halt. The Captain and his officers were on the bridge, 
 and watched the spray spring up where the shell struck the 
 water only a few feet ahead of them. It was bitter that they 
 should fail when thus in sight of their goal, but their minds 
 were made up now, as they had been before they had started 
 on their journey. They might not be able to deliver their 
 cargo into the hands of the men who had asked them for it, 
 but they would certainly never allow it to fall into the hands 
 of the enemy. 
 
 A contemptuous disregard was the only notice taken of the 
 warning shot, but now the Captain of the Aud gave two curt 
 orders, and his junior officer ran down from the bridge to 
 have them carried out. The enemy cruiser was now within 
 close range, and the Aud was still going full speed ahead. A 
 hoarse command was roared through a trumpet from the 
 cruiser. At the same moment, as though in reply, the German 
 flag broke from the masthead of the Aud, to be greeted with 
 a ringing cheer from the crew. The cruiser swerved a point 
 or two in her oncoming course as though in amazement at 
 the audacity of her diminutive foe, and then a second shot 
 from the warship whistled overhead. While the gunners were 
 lowering their pieces to get the range for a more effective 
 blow, the deck of the Aud flew into the air. There was a 
 thundering rumble, a burst of smoke and a sheet of flame, 
 and, before the British were able to realize what was happen- 
 ing, the Aud, with her colors flying at her solitary mast, her 
 
252 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 sides gaping wide to the waves, filled and sank. Her crew 
 had blown her up rather than surrender. The British had 
 been robbed of their prey. 
 
 Had it not been for the warning conveyed to the British 
 Government, which immediately established a cruiser patrol, 
 the Aud would have delivered her cargo in Ireland into the 
 hands of the Irish Republicans, waiting under arms to receive 
 them. That warning, besides its other effects, was responsible 
 for the death of the men on the Aud — as gallant a skipper 
 and as gallant a crew as ever set sail on the high seas. But 
 for that warning one of the most daring expeditions in naval 
 history would certainly have been crowned with success. 
 
 Late that night, while the wreck of what had been the Aud 
 was lying a mile or more out at sea, the submarine carrying 
 Roger Casement and his two companions was lying submerged 
 almost on the same spot. When the first thin streak of light 
 heralded the coming of another day, she rose to the surface 
 and picked her way towards the coast. This was Friday, 
 April 21. Having approached as close as she could, the 
 submarine let down a collapsible boat over the side, and three 
 men rowed ashore. They pulled the boat a little way up on 
 the sand and turned to wave a farewell to the submarine. 
 But that vessel had vanished. Casement and his two friends 
 walked inland and were also soon out of sight. 
 
 They had barely disappeared when another figure was seen 
 coming along the strand. This was a fisherman. He paused 
 when he saw the stranded boat that had been left behind. 
 He then stooped and began curiously to examine the foot- 
 prints that remained in the soft sand left by the ebbing tide. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 Planning a Pogrom 
 
 DURING the period which elapsed between the end of 
 March and the arrival of Roger Casement in Ireland, 
 the British military and Government oflScials were 
 prosecuting, with greater severity than ever, that policy which 
 had, in the first instance, been the cause of the beginnings 
 of the trouble, and the continuance of which had forced the 
 Irish leaders to the conclusion that they had either to strike 
 a blow for their own liberties or fight for England against a 
 friendly power. 
 
 Early in the month of April it became known that the 
 Government had under very serious consideration the seizure 
 of all arms found in the possession of Irish Volunteers, and 
 the deportation to England and Scotland of all the leaders 
 of that organization. The feeling against the acts that had 
 already been committed in the name of the law by the mili- 
 tary and the open insult and provocation to which the Vol- 
 unteers and their leaders were subjected daily in the streets 
 of Dublin by British officers, brought about a series of 
 public meetings which were held on April 7, 1916. These 
 meetings were held to protest against the deportation orders 
 and to enlist recruits for the Irish Volunteers. The speeches 
 delivered at these meetings were in the plainest of plain 
 language, and told the Government that the actions of its 
 officials, if persisted in, would inevitably lead to an open 
 breach, and that any attempt to disarm the Volunteers would 
 result in some persons being shot. 
 
 On the same day, April 7, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, a 
 man of brilliant attainments who was not connected with the 
 Volunteers or any of the various organizations affiliated with 
 them, wrote the following letter to Sidney Webb, the editor of 
 
254 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 a London magazine, The New Statesman, in which he pointed 
 out, with almost prophetic vision, the result of the course on 
 which the Government in Ireland had embarked. The editor 
 printed the letter weeks after the Rebellion was at an end, 
 saying that he had laid it aside in a pigeon-hole when he 
 received it, and had not published it because he "did not 
 think that to do so would serve any useful purpose.*' The 
 reader can best judge of the useful purpose its publication 
 might have served, when he views the events that followed 
 within two weeks of the writing of the letter. The letter 
 read as follows: 
 
 To the Editor of The New Statesman: 
 
 Sir, — The situation in Ireland is extremely grave. Thanks to 
 the silence of the daily press, the military authorities are pursuing 
 their Prussian plans in Ireland unobserved by the British public; 
 and, when the explosion which they have provoked occurs, they 
 will endeavor to delude the British public as to where the responsi- 
 bility lies. I write in the hope that, despite war-fever, there may be 
 enough sanity and common sense left to restrain the militarists 
 while there is yet time. 
 
 I will not take up your space by recounting the events that have 
 led up to the present situation — the two years' immunity accorded 
 Sir Edward Carson's Volunteers in their defiant illegalities, the sys- 
 tematic persecution of the Irish Volunteers from the moment of their 
 formation {nine months before the war), the militarist provocations, 
 raids on printing oflBces, arbitrary deportations and savage sentences 
 which have punctuated Mr. Redmond's recruiting appeals for the 
 past eighteen months. As a result of this recent series of events, 
 Irish Nationalist and labor opinion is now in a state of extreme ex- 
 asperation. Recruiting for the British army is dead; recruiting for 
 the Irish Volunteers has, at the moment, almost reached the mark 
 of 1000 per week — which is Lord Wimborne's demand for the 
 British army. A special stimulus has been given to the Irish Volun- 
 teer movement by the arrest and threatened forcible deportation — 
 at the moment of writing it is still uncertain whether the threat will 
 be carried out — of two of its most active organizers. 
 
 There are two distinct danger-points in the position. In the first 
 place, the Irish Volunteers are prepared, if any attempt is made 
 forcibly to disarm them, to resist, and to defend their rifles with 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 ^55 
 
 their lives. In the second place, the Irish Citizen Army (The Labor 
 Volunteers) are prepared to oflFer similar resistance, not only to dis- 
 armament, but to any attack upon the Press which turns out The 
 Workers' Republic — successor to the suppressed Irish Worker — 
 which is printed in Liberty Hall. 
 
 There is no bluff in either case. That was shown (1) in TuUa- 
 more on March 20th, when an attempt at disarming the small local 
 corps of Irish Volunteers was met with revolver shots and a police- 
 man was wounded — fortunately not seriously; (2) in Dublin, on 
 March 24th, and following days, when, at the rumor of an intended 
 raid on The Worker's Republic, the Irish Citizen Army stood guard 
 day and night in Liberty Hall — many of them having thrown up 
 their jobs to answer promptly the mobilization order — armed and 
 prepared to sell their lives dearly. The British military authorities 
 in Ireland know perfectly well that the members of both these or- 
 ganizations are earnest, determined men. If, knowing this. General 
 Friend and his subordinate militarists proceed either to disarm the 
 Volunteers or to raid the Labor Press, it can only be because they 
 want bloodshed — because they want to provoke another '98, and 
 to get an excuse for a machine-gun massacre. 
 
 Irish pacifists who have watched the situation closely are con- 
 vinced that this is precisely what the militarists do want. The 
 younger English oflScers in Dublin make no secret of their eagerness 
 '*to have a whack at the Sinn Feiners"; they would much rather 
 fight them than the Germans. They are spmred on by the Carson- 
 Northcliffe conscriptionist gang in London; on April 5th The Morn- 
 ing Post vehemently demanded the suppression of The Worker's 
 Republic; on April 6th a question was put down in the House of 
 Commons urging Mr. Birrell to disarm the Irish Volunteers. These 
 gentry know well the precise points where a pogrom can most easily 
 be started. 
 
 Twice already General Friend has been on the point of setting 
 Ireland in a blaze — once last November, when he had a warrant 
 made out for the arrest of Bishop O'Dwyer, of Limerick; once on 
 March 25th, when he had a detachment of soldiers with machine 
 guns in readiness to raid Liberty Hall. In both cases Mr. Birrell 
 intervened in the nick of time and decisively vetoed the militarist 
 plans. But some day Mr. Birrell may be overborne or may inter- 
 vene too late. Then, once bloodshed is started in Ireland, who can 
 say where or how it will end.? 
 
 In the midst of the worldwide carnage, bloodshed in our little 
 
Q5Q HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 island may seem a trivial thing. The wiping out of all the Irish 
 Volunteers and Labor Volunteers would hardly involve as much 
 slaughter as the single battle of Loos. Doubtless that is the mili- 
 tarist calculation — that their crime may be overlooked in a world 
 of criminals. Accordingly, the nearer peace com,es, the more eager 
 will they be to force a conflict before their chance vanishes. Is there 
 in Great Britain enough real sympathy with Small Nationalities, 
 enough real hatred of militarism, to frustrate this Pogrom Plot of 
 British Militarist Junkerdom.? 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 F. Sheehy-SkeflSngton. 
 Ajrril, 7tK 1916. 
 
 The day after this was written the Chief Commissioner of 
 the Royal Irish Constabulary made a report to the Under- 
 secretary, and that document shows clearly the view that 
 Colonel Edgeworth-Johnson took of the situation, especially 
 in regard to the recruiting meetings of the Irish Volunteers, 
 for he says, in part: 
 
 These recruiting meetings are a very undesirable development, 
 and are, I think, causing both annoyance and uneasiness amongst 
 loyal citizens. . . . The Sinn Fein Party are gaining in numbers, in 
 equipment, in discipline, and in confidence, and I think drastic 
 action should be taken to limit their activities. The longer it is 
 postponed, the more diflficult it will be to carry out. 
 
 On April 10 this report reached the Undersecretary, who 
 wrote on it: "Chief Secretary and Lord Lieutenant to see 
 the Chief Commissioner's minute." On April 12 the Chief 
 Secretary wrote upon it: "Requires careful consideration. 
 Is it thought practicable to undertake a policy of disarma- 
 ment, and, if so, within what limits, if any, can it be circum- 
 scribed?'* Upon the same day the Lord Lieutenant wrote 
 upon it: "This is a difficult point. Could the disarming be 
 satisfactorily effected?" 
 
 It will thus be observed that little by little the efforts of 
 those who were desirous of causing bloodshed were forcing 
 the hand of the Chief Secretary, who had certainly, up to this 
 time, done all in his power to keep the peace, and had reso- 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 257 
 
 lutely refused to allow himself to be made the catspaw of 
 those who were anxious for a massacre. It is probably owing 
 to this that he was forced to shoulder the responsibility at a 
 later period. 
 
 The arrest of the two Volunteer organizers, Ernest Blythe 
 and William Mellows, which has already been recorded, 
 aroused a storm of protest throughout the country. It was 
 judged, and rightly, that this was but the prelude to further 
 arrests, and that a policy of disarming the Irish Volunteers, of 
 interning their leaders in England and of then enforcing 
 conscription in Ireland, was being inaugurated by the Govern- 
 ment. On April 9, Blythe and Mellows were removed from 
 Dublin to Kingstown under military escort en route for 
 England, and close on two thousand of the Dublin Volunteers 
 paraded through the streets of the city that same day as a 
 protest. This was an entirely peaceful protest without any 
 attempt at violence, the only object of the demonstrators 
 being to show the authorities that the policy they were pur- 
 suing was one that might have disastrous results if carried any 
 further. 
 
 On the following day, April 10, another significant incident 
 took place. Shortly before one o'clock in the afternoon 
 another parade of two companies of the Volunteers was being 
 held, and the men were marching from Grafton Street to 
 Stephen's Green West. A trolley car, bound from Nelson's 
 Pillar to Terenure, was coming along and the driver shouted 
 to the Volunteers to get out of his way, at the same time 
 announcing in very vile language that, if they did not, he 
 would run the car over them. At this an Irish Volunteer 
 cyclist jumped off his machine, placed the bicycle in front of 
 the trolley car, opened his revolver pouch, put his hand on 
 the stock of the weapon, and told the motorman to carry 
 out his threat. The latter lapsed into silence, and held his 
 car where it was until the Volunteers had passed. The 
 cyclist then mounted his machine and rejoined his comrades. 
 The motorman lost no time in reporting the incident to the 
 police, who, in turn, reported the insolence of the mere Irish 
 
258 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 to the Chief Secretary with another request that he take 
 action. 
 
 Mr. Redmond and his friends were not inclined to take much 
 notice of this incident. They did not hke to think that an 
 Irishman would dare to tell a trolley-car driver to halt, while 
 the Irish Volunteers passed in front of it. Redmond's official 
 organ, The Freeman s Journal, however, begged that the 
 Castle authorities might not be too harsh on the men. Refer- 
 ring editorially to the incident. The Freeman said: 
 
 This was a very reprehensible proceeding. But it is the sort of 
 behavior which it is easy for the authorities to take too seriously. 
 There are hotheads in the Sinn Fein movement who would be de- 
 lighted if they could induce, not merely tram conductors, but the 
 highest military authorities, to "come along." But it seems evident 
 to the ordinary man of common sense that, the hotter the heads of 
 the Sinn Feiners, the cooler should be the heads of those responsible 
 for public order. . . . They are urged constantly in the English 
 Press to "make examples" of the Sinn Feiners, and "stamp out" 
 their movement. We do not believe that the result is worth the 
 trouble. We do not believe that the advice is honestly motived. 
 It comes from people who think they see political profit from scenes 
 of violence in Ireland. If it is a good rule to do nothing during the 
 war to gratify the Germans, there can be no doubt as to the wisest 
 course for the authorities. The German papers and the German- 
 subsidized journals in the United States would welcome any such 
 excuse for representing Ireland as hostile to the war as would be 
 afforded by some of the methods so often urged on those civilians 
 and soldiers responsible for the peace of Ireland. . . . There is cer- 
 tainly no disaffection in Ireland that would make "stamping it out" 
 a necessary or a useful process. 
 
 This in spite of the facts that were in Redmond's possession 
 at the time, as has been shown by the official letter of the 
 previous December. It will be interesting to note that the 
 main reason why The Freeman did not want the stamping 
 out process was because it might be a satisfaction to the 
 Germans during the war. After the war, forsooth, things 
 might be dealt with differently. It is curious to find a seK- 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 259 
 
 styled Irish newspaper thus discussing a stand which any 
 spirited man would have taken in answer to a vulgar insult, 
 whether from a trolley driver or anyone else. It is evident 
 that The Freeman and those for whom it spoke had little 
 manhood and much less nationality left. 
 
 On the same day that this nonsense was printed, news 
 leaked out showing that the military hotheads were at work. 
 It had apparently become known to the police authorities, in 
 spite of the fact that no secret was made about it, that a 
 consignment of small arms was being conveyed from Wexford 
 to either the Irish Volunteers or the Citizen Army in Dublin 
 on the afternoon of April 9. Both the Volunteers and the 
 Citizen Army were engaged in drill and other exercises that 
 afternoon, following a parade held earlier in the day. 
 
 All the police at the command of the Castle were on watch 
 for developments. There was a thrill among the men in blue 
 when an automobile, bearing the communicated number, 
 entered the city from a southerly direction shortly after 
 half -past four in the afternoon. At the corner of Grafton 
 Street and College Green the car was halted by the police, 
 and it and those in it were taken to the Great Brunswick 
 Street police station. No resistance was offered by the driver, 
 who was accompanied by another young man. The two men 
 gave their names as Joseph Coyle and Patrick Kenny, and 
 said that they had come from Ferns, County Wexford. On the 
 car being searched, it was found to contain fourteen rifles 
 and three revolvers. These were confiscated and so was the 
 car. The two men were held pending an investigation by the 
 military authorities. 
 
 With this incident the efforts of the military to force the 
 hand of the Volunteers were redoubled. Possibly they felt 
 that the time to make any conciliatory overtures had passed, 
 and that the only thing left to them to do was to force a 
 premature rising and to have their men and machine guns 
 posted ready to mow down the Volunteers should they make 
 any attempt to resist the order for disarmament. 
 
 Then, on Wednesday, April 19, came the dramatic dis- 
 
260 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 closure of the actual orders which the planners of the pogrom 
 had secretly issued to the military. This was read in open 
 session at the meeting of the Dublin Corporation by Alderman 
 Thomas Kelly, who said that it had been furnished to him 
 by Mr. Little, the editor of New Ireland, The document 
 reads, in part, as follows: 
 
 The following precautionary measures have been sanctioned by 
 the Irish Office on the recommendation of the General Officer Com- 
 manding the Forces in Ireland. All preparations will be made to put 
 these measures in force immediately on receipt of an order issued 
 from the Chief Secretary's Office, Dublin Castle, and signed by the 
 Undersecretary and the General Officer Commanding the Forces 
 in Ireland. First, the following persons are to be placed under 
 arrest: — All members of the Sinn Fein National Council, the Cen- 
 tral Executive Irish Sinn Fein Volunteers, General Council Irish 
 Sinn Fein Volunteers, County Board Irish Sinn Fein Volunteers, 
 Executive Committee National Volimteers, Coisde Gonta Commit- 
 tee Gaelic League. See list A3 and 4 and supplementary list A 2. 
 . . . Metropolitan Police and Royal Irish Constabulary forces in 
 Dublin City will be confined to barracks under the direction of 
 the Competent Military Authority. An order will be issued to in- 
 habitants of city to remain in their houses until such time as the 
 Competent Military Authority may otherwise direct or permit. 
 Pickets chosen from units of Territorial forces will be placed at 
 all points marked on Maps 3 and 4. Accompanying mounted 
 patrols will continuously visit all points and report every hour. 
 The following premises will be occupied by adequate forces, and 
 all necessary measures used without need of reference to Head- 
 quarters. First, premises known as Liberty Hall, Beresford Place; 
 No. 6 Harcourt street, Sinn Fein Building; No. 2 Dawson street. 
 Headquarters Volunteers; No. 12 D'Olier street, "Nationality" 
 Office; No. 25 Rutland Square, Gaelic League Office; No. 41 Rut- 
 land Square, Forester's Hall; Sinn Feia Volunteer premises in City; 
 all National Volunteer premises in city; Trades Council premises, 
 Capel street; Surrey House, Leinster Road, Rathmines. The fol- 
 lowing 'premises will he isolated, and all communication to or from 
 prevented: — premises known as Archbishop's House, Drumcondra; 
 Mansion House, Dawson street; No. 40 Herbert Park; Larkfield, 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 261 
 
 Kimmage Road; Woodtown Park, Ballyboden; Saint Enda's Col- 
 lege, Hermitage, Rathfarnham; and in addition premises in list 5 D, 
 see Maps 3 and 4. 
 
 This was the tense and critical situation that prevailed in 
 Ireland when Sir Roger Casement arrived. 
 
CHAPTER XLI 
 
 The Fatal Order 
 
 THE exasperating discovery that rifles and ammunition 
 were in the hands of the Irish Volunteers, and that 
 these were men who would not brook insult even 
 from a trolley-car driver, roused the Tory papers both in 
 England and in the north of Ireland to a fury of indignation. 
 These were things which must not be tolerated by the Govern- 
 ment, said those papers, which, a few short months before, 
 had been telling the same Government that they would 
 transfer their loyalty to the German Kaiser if the Government 
 dared to put into operation the Home Rule Bill. 
 
 Ireland's supposed leaders in the Parliamentary Party had 
 joined hands with the British, and had quietly acquiesced in 
 every insult that had been heaped on Irish men and Irish 
 women by the British Government and British soldiers in 
 Dublin. It mattered not to them that Irish men should be 
 imprisoned and deported, and that Irish girls should be 
 violated in the streets of their own cities. But it did matter 
 to them that Irishmen should dare to take arms into their 
 hands for the purpose of defending the honor of their women 
 and themselves. Such were the conditions in Ireland at 
 the end of the second week of April, 1916, that only a nation 
 of spiritless slaves would have remained silent and inactive. 
 When, in addition to these things, it was known to the leaders 
 of the Volunteers that the Government was planning, with 
 the concurrence of the Parliamentary Party, to disarm them 
 and then to conscript them, the wonder is not that they 
 resolved to sell their lives in one desperate protest, but that 
 they were able to contain themselves and their followers so long. 
 Certain men had been dispatched by the Volunteer leaders 
 to meet the cargo of German arms that had been sent on the 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 263 
 
 Aud. This cargo was not, however, expected before Easter 
 Sunday, and this is the reason why they were not present 
 when that vessel arrived off the coast. The news that she 
 had been discovered by the British cruiser did not reach 
 them for some time later. Instead they met Roger Casement, 
 who had succeeded in landing and making his way inland. 
 
 Their meeting with Casement was one of those chances of 
 fortune that influence the destinies of nations. The meeting 
 took place in a small cottage not three miles from the place 
 of landing. Casement knew the men, for he had come into 
 contact with them when he was working with the Volunteers 
 prior to his visit to the United States. His first request, 
 and in fact his only one, was that they would take a message 
 for him to Eoin MacNeill in Dublin. It would appear that 
 he did not trust to the chance that he himself would be able 
 to get that far without arrest. He did not say to these men 
 what the exact terms of his message was, but wrote it down 
 and sealed it, after addressing it to the Volunteer leader. 
 Owing to the representations that Casement made regarding 
 the urgency of the communication, no time was lost in con- 
 veying it to Dublin and by Friday afternoon, April 21, 
 Casement's message was placed in the hands of MacNeill. 
 It had been carried at express speed by automobile from 
 Kerry to the Irish capital. 
 
 It is probable that the exact wording of this historic docu- 
 ment will never be known, but the tenor of the message that 
 caused disaster to Ireland is known beyond doubt. Acting in 
 all sincerity. Casement told Eoin MacNeill that there was no 
 hope of any help from the Germans, that the latter had all 
 the work on hand they could ever hope to accomplish, and 
 that it was useless to expect they would be able to assist 
 Ireland. He told MacNeill that he had traveled from Ger- 
 many, and had risked his life to prevent useless bloodshed in 
 Ireland, and begged of him, for the sake of Ireland and for 
 the sake of the Volunteers, to prevent any attempt at a 
 rising. 
 
 In making these statements Casement was acting only on 
 
^64 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 the information which he had at that time, for he was not 
 famihar with the actual condition of affairs in Ireland. Case- 
 ment knew nothing at all of the plot that had been hatched 
 to disarm the Volunteers — and to wipe them out if they re- 
 sisted — and then to enforce conscription. His absence from 
 Ireland since the outbreak of the war accounted for his 
 ignorance of these facts. In acting as he did, he was cer- 
 tainly doing what he believed to be the best for Ireland. 
 
 This communication came like a bombshell into the camp 
 of the Irish Volunteers. Were it not that the man who had 
 brought it was completely in the trust of the Volunteers and 
 was able to vouch for the fact that Casement had himseK 
 written the message, it is probable that it would have been 
 rejected as a ruse on the part of the enemy. The fact that 
 Casement was not expected in Ireland made the matter all 
 the more mysterious. It was not unreasonable to argue that 
 a man would not have taken such risks with his life, unless 
 he knew what he was doing and that his statements were 
 founded on absolute facts. 
 
 It was not the statement that the Germans could not for 
 the present lend much active assistance to the Volimteers 
 that caused the most consternation to the leaders. They had 
 laid their plans in a manner that rendered them more or less 
 independent of outside help for some time after they had 
 declared the Republic. During this time they counted on 
 being able to create a diversion that would have a big effect 
 in the world war, and, once in possession of the Irish posts, 
 they could offer a safe haven to German submarines. What 
 did matter, however, was the statement that the Germans 
 were sending only 2000 old rifles. This must have been 
 considered by MacNeill a breach of trust, and one that would 
 seriously interfere with the rising in the southern part of the 
 country. The German arms were counted on to arm the 
 men of the south, and their loss would be a serious matter. 
 
 By this time the arrangements of the Volunteers was 
 complete. In their oflBcial organ, The Irish Volunteer^ of that 
 week, the following notice was published: 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 265 
 
 HEADQUARTERS BULLETIN 
 
 Arrangements are now nearing completion in all the more impor- 
 tant brigade areas for the holding of a very interesting series of 
 manoeuvres at Easter. In some instances the arrangements contem- 
 plate a one or two days' bivouac. As for Easter, the Dublin pro- 
 gramme may well stand as a model for other areas. 
 
 Readers of the foregoing chapters will not require to be 
 told the meaning of this order. It meant that the time had 
 come when Ireland was again to try conclusions with her old 
 enemy; that the time had passed for negotiations and com- 
 promise, and that the Irish people had been driven to the 
 last resort by the continued treachery of their own leaders and 
 the determined efforts of the military plotters to force the 
 hands of the leaders. In addition to all this, the Volunteers 
 had learned that these same plotters had at last succeeded in 
 their efforts, and that arrangements had already been made 
 to disarm the Volunteers and place Ireland under the ban of 
 conscription. 
 
 The position in which Eoin MacNeill found himself when 
 he had placed in his hands the disconcerting message from 
 Roger Casement may, therefore, well be realized. He was 
 the man who had, at other times, curbed the seemingly 
 impetuous spirits among the leaders, who were anxious to 
 declare a rising months before. He was the man who had 
 been the leader of the Volunteers from the beginning, and 
 who had steered the organization through very stormy seas 
 until it had come to be the one factor that still held out in 
 Ireland for the rights of Ireland a Nation. No one could 
 realize better than he the vast responsibility that rested on 
 him at that moment. He knew that the plans had been 
 made for the rising on Easter Sunday; he knew also that 
 everything was ready, that the preliminaries had been ar- 
 ranged, and that the Volunteers were to declare an Irish 
 Republic within forty-eight hours. Yet the caution that 
 characterized the man, and the faith that he placed in the 
 reliability of Casement, whom he had known for many years 
 
^66 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 and whom he had learned to love and to trust, could not be 
 set aside in a moment. After all, it appeared to him that it 
 would be better to act in accordance with the message and 
 to defer action for at least another week, until they had had 
 time thoroughly to discuss the situation. 
 
 There was no time for mature consideration and reflection. 
 If he were to act, he must act at once. In order to be 
 effective, an order calling off the Easter "maneuvres" would 
 have to be inserted in the newspapers of the following day. 
 It would not be possible to get into touch with all of the 
 branches in any other manner. The Dublin evening papers 
 usually go to press earlier with their last editions on Saturdays 
 than on other week-days, and there was little time to lose if 
 he was to get his notice into the papers in time for their 
 final editions. 
 
 While he was thus torn between these points of the problem, 
 he received a private message in code informing him that the 
 German vessel had been sunk and that Casement was a 
 prisoner. This decided him. There was, he reasoned, nothing 
 else to do but to call off the manoeuvres for Easter Sunday, 
 get the committee together in special session, and talk over 
 the matter. It is the one unfortunate fact that Professor 
 MacNeill did not realize that the time had passed for discus- 
 sion, that the Government had its mind made up, and that 
 there was nothing left for the Volunteers to do but to fight 
 or submit to being disarmed. 
 
 A hurried call was sent out to the various members of the 
 Volunteer Committee, and, late that evening, a conference 
 was held in the house of Eoin MacNeill. MacNeill put the 
 matter before them, and urged that the orders be counter- 
 manded. To this there were many who did not agree, who 
 pointed out that the matter had gone too far, that the 
 Volunteers had either to fight or be disarmed, and that a 
 day's delay might be fatal. At the same time a conference 
 was proceeding in Liberty Hall, where those who had drawn 
 up the Proclamation of the Republic and had determined that 
 they would fight even with their bare hands, were in session. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 267 
 
 Thomas MacDonagh made several trips between the two 
 conferences, and, on the occasion of his last visit to the home 
 of Eoin MacNeill, he stated that the other men were de- 
 termined to go ahead with the plans already made and that 
 no orders to the contrary were to be issued. Nevertheless 
 the conference at MacNeill's home continued until the small 
 hours of Saturday morning, when it broke up without any 
 definite plan being decided on. 
 
 The last edition of the Dublin Evening Herald of that 
 Saturday contained a notice, signed "MacNeill, Chief of 
 Staff," countermanding the orders for the maneuvers. At 
 the same time, in order to make assurance doubly sure, 
 telegraphic messages were sent broadcast to every parish 
 priest in the country, asking him to make a similar announce- 
 ment from the pulpit at the services the following day. This 
 was the fatal act that broke the back of the Rebellion. 
 
 Let us now, for a moment, turn back to the time when 
 Casement landed on the coast of Kerry. The man who had 
 noticed the overturned boat in which Casement had landed, 
 and whose name was John McCarthy, lost no time in com- 
 municating the fact of his discovery to the police. The 
 authorities had received a warning to keep a vigilant watch 
 along the coast following the information they had received 
 from America regarding the German steamer. The police, 
 therefore, lost no time in tracing Casement, and, a short 
 while after he had managed to dispatch his message to 
 MacNeill, Casement was found and promptly placed under 
 arrest. He made no resistance, and the moment that he 
 found himself a prisoner in the hands of the English he knew 
 that his life would pay the forfeit. 
 
 On the evening of April 22 it was known to the authorities 
 that the man who had been arrested was none other than Sir 
 Roger Casement, the man whom the English had been striving 
 to apprehend and for whose murder they had been ready to 
 sacrifice the honor of the British Empire. While this caused 
 no little satisfaction to the Dublin Castle authorities, it 
 nevertheless gave them reason to believe that matters of 
 
268 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 serious moment were afoot. The Castle became panic- 
 stricken. Various military officers of the highest standing 
 demanded that there was only one thing to be done, and that 
 was to secure the immediate arrest of all the Sinn Fein leaders 
 throughout the country without further loss of time. They 
 urged that the landing of Roger Casement and consignment 
 of the cargo of arms from Germany were proof positive that 
 rebellion was being planned, and they pointed out that there 
 was not a moment to lose. They then attached the greatest 
 and most sinister significance to the order for the "Easter 
 maneuvers" of the Volunteers, and sagaciously observed, one 
 to another, that this could mean nothing more than a signal 
 for a rising. 
 
 That evening a conference was called in Dublin Castle at 
 which all the members of the British Government in Ireland, 
 with the exception of Chief Secretary Birrell, were present. 
 While the conference was sitting, information was received to 
 the effect that MacNeill had ordered off the maneuvers for 
 Sunday, and thus some of the more dangerous symptoms of 
 the situation seemed to have been relieved. There can be 
 little doubt that this information was greeted with a sigh of 
 thankfulness by Ireland's masters, as they sat in their room 
 between the towers of the Castle that Saturday evening. 
 
 Meanwhile the police all over the country, acting on rush 
 orders from the Government, were keeping the Irish Volun- 
 teers under strict surveillance. There was not a section or a 
 battalion of that organization that was not rigidly scrutinized. 
 The King's ministers sat up till midnight receiving reports 
 from the police throughout the land, and they did not dare to 
 retire to their troubled slumbers until they had assured 
 themselves that there had been no movement of the "rebel 
 troops," by which name the Irish Volunteers were by this 
 time designated. 
 
 Thus passed that historic Saturday, April 22, 1916. The 
 German arms were at the bottom of the sea; Casement was a 
 prisoner; the rising had been declared off; and the emissaries 
 of the British Government were sitting up in their Castle of 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 269 
 
 Dublin, trembling at the shadows on the wall cast by the 
 flickering lights from Cork Hill, and dreading every moment 
 to hear the first crash of the storm which they had themselves 
 aroused, and which they now feared was beyond their strength 
 to control. 
 
CHAPTER XLII 
 
 The O'Rahilly's Ride 
 
 IT soon became obvious that Eoin MacNeill was de- 
 termined that there should be no rebellion in Ireland at 
 Easter. In addition to the notice which appeared in 
 the Dublin Evening Herald on Saturday evening, and the 
 messages to the priests throughout the country, he decided 
 on other measures. He called The O'Rahilly to his house 
 and, having explained the situation, asked him to assist and 
 find means to make sure of notifying the south that the 
 rising had been postponed. 
 
 The O'Rahilly was evidently impressed by the reasons 
 which MacNeill offered why the rising should not take place 
 as scheduled. He was essentially a man of energy and 
 action, and yet he was suflBciently a man of military instincts 
 to accept without question the orders of his chief. MacNeill, 
 it would appear, did not call him to consult as to the ad- 
 visability of postponing the Rebellion; that had alreadj^ 
 been decided on, in MacNeilFs opinion, and action had been 
 taken. What The O'Rahilly was asked to do was to assist 
 in the carrying out of the orders of his chief, and he was 
 ready to do whatever lay in his power. 
 
 MacNeill explained, as The O'Rahilly well knew, that the 
 south was one of the chief centers on which they had relied. 
 The cargo of arms on the Aud was intended for the arming 
 of the men of Cork, Limerick, and all along the coast line of 
 Wexford and Wicklow to the Dublin Mountains. With this 
 cargo at the bottom of the sea there remained less chance of 
 the men of this section of the country being able to put up 
 an effective fight, yet MacNeill also must have known that 
 these men, even with the arms at their disposal, would not 
 hesitate to obey the orders they had received and would 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 ^71 
 
 have declared the Rebellion at the time stated if nothing was 
 done to prevent them. MacNeill was also not certain that 
 they would get the messages in time, and that they might 
 not doubt their authenticity even if they did receive them. 
 
 It was, therefore, as he explained to The O'Rahilly, his 
 desire that a personal message should be sent to the com- 
 manders in these districts, explaining why the rising had 
 been postponed. As soon as he heard this, The O'Rahilly, 
 with a vision of unarmed men being slaughtered by the 
 machine guns of the English, volunteered to take the message 
 personally in his automobile, and, MacNeill agreeing. The 
 O'Rahilly immediately left the house, proceeded home, 
 explained to his wife where he was going and why, and a 
 little while later was on his way. 
 
 There is something peculiarly appealing in this ride of The 
 O'Rahilly. In other countries there have been rides that 
 have become matters of history, and have retained their 
 place in the records of the people in popular song and story. 
 Paul Revere 's Ride will for all time be remembered in the his- 
 tory of the United States, and, in like manner, future genera- 
 tions may remember The O'Rahilly 's Ride, undertaken at the 
 command of his chief for the purpose, as he believed, of 
 preventing the wholesale killing of his brave and gallant 
 countrymen of the south. 
 
 Starting late on Saturday night. The O'Rahilly drove his 
 car south from Dublin. Taking the road through Bray, he 
 was soon flying at top speed through the hills and glens of 
 Wicklow, the Garden County of Ireland, and the scene of 
 some of the most famous incidents in the history of the land. 
 He drove ea-st to the coast, passed the word at Wicklow, and 
 then turned southeast to Rathdrum. From here it was a 
 short run to Arklow. Then on he sped again to Gorey and 
 Enniscorthy, where his news was received with incredulous 
 amazement. Later events showed how the men of that fine 
 old town responded to the call a few hours later. 
 
 Towards midnight The O'Rahilly was rushing towards 
 Wexford, along roads and past villages where, a century 
 
272 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 before, the British had been forced to flee in wild disorder 
 from Irish pikes. It was far later still when he brought the 
 word to Waterford. Turning then inland, he sped through 
 the land of the Decies and the Ormonds. Past many a famed 
 battlefield the word was carried that there was to be no 
 Rebellion, that the plans had failed tor the time being, and 
 that the arms they had hoped for could no longer be secured. 
 We can imagine with what mingled feelings The O'Rahilly 
 was received. In one place after another the men were up, 
 and the arrival of the messenger filled them with hope that 
 he had come with the final instructions for the fighting. 
 The men of the south had borne the insult and the contu- 
 mely of the foreigner for many months — not to mention past 
 years — in comparative silence, because they had been told 
 that the time was coming, that the day would soon dawn, 
 when they would be able to strike a blow for freedom and 
 to avenge their wrongs. And now it was all over, at least 
 for the present; the arms they wanted had not arrived and 
 would not arrive, and they were still to go on in the same old 
 way. 
 
 At Limerick The O'Rahilly heard that the men of Cork 
 had already received the tidings. In this section of the 
 country the news of the sinking of the Aud had been spread 
 broadcast, and consternation was in the heart of every man 
 who had hoped on the morrow to be able to take his place in 
 the Irish ranks. The sun was high in the heavens when The 
 O'Rahilly came to the end of his journey and rested at 
 Limerick. He had performed his work well; and the south 
 knew that there were to be no "maneuvres." After a 
 conference with the men of Limerick, he decided to remain 
 with them for a short while and then return to Dublin. 
 
 Meanwhile, throughout the rest of the country the word 
 had been received that the Rebellion had been postponed. 
 In the far north, away in the west, and throughout the 
 midlands the priests had read to their congregations the mes- 
 sage signed "MacNeill, Chief of Staff.'* All of the churches 
 were crowded. Not alone was it Easter Sunday, a festi- 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 273 
 
 val when there is always a big attendance at the early- 
 Masses, but the events that had been expected had also 
 contributed in no small degree to the filling of the churches. 
 During the previous Friday and Saturday there had been, 
 throughout the country, an unusually large number of men 
 at confession. In Dublin the young men had walked along 
 the streets of the city by the side of the priests, apparently 
 merely engaged in conversation but in reality making their 
 confessions. On Easter Sunday the same crowds had thronged 
 the churches for the reception of Holy Commimion. 
 
 The demobilizing order — for that is what it amounted to 
 — came as a shock to every man in the ranks of the Volun- 
 teers. They were at a loss to know what had happened to 
 cause so sudden a change in the plans. Yet the order was 
 imperative: there was nothing left to do but obey it, go home 
 and await further developments. As a result, thousands of 
 men who had assembled at the various points for the *'ma- 
 neuvres" disbanded and returned to their homes in scattered 
 bands of four or five. By Sunday evening it would have 
 been impossible, without two or three days' work, to have 
 collected the men together again as they had been on that 
 Easter Sunday morning, April 23, 1916. 
 
 It is a fact not generally known that there were two of 
 these coimtermanding orders. In the first instance, Eoin 
 MacNeill, as has been shown, spared no effort to spread the 
 message over the country. At this time conferences were 
 being held in Liberty Hall by the men who were in favor of a 
 rebellion, and when the word was brought to them that 
 MacNeill had called off the Rebellion, it was feared that there 
 would be some who would not obey the command. In order 
 that there should be no fiasco, with one or two wildly sepa- 
 rated sections striking alone, Pearse decided that the best 
 thing to do was to send out a confirming order, with the 
 proviso that the maneuvres were called off only temporarily. 
 This was done, and thus the demobilizing of the men of the 
 country districts was rendered complete. 
 
 As a result of these events the police and paid agents of the 
 
^274 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Government sent word to Dublin Castle that there had been 
 no movements of the Volunteers that day, and that the 
 mtended ** maneuvers" had been abandoned. It requires no 
 stretch of the imagination to realize the effect the receipt of 
 these reports had on the authorities. For hours they had 
 been seated on a volcano, with the interesting expectation 
 that it was going to erupt at any moment. After a night of 
 fitful slumber, with armed guards at every entrance into the 
 Castle, they arose on that Sunday morning with the intention 
 of taking immediate steps to make a recurrence of the recent 
 crisis impossible for all future time. The first conference 
 was held shortly after nine o'clock. At that time a report 
 had been received to the effect that a consignment of melinite 
 had been taken into Liberty Hall, the headquarters of the 
 Citizen Army. This was not calculated to relieve materially 
 the situation, but at the same time, as the telegraphic mes- 
 sages began to arrive from the country to the effect that the 
 mobilization had been postponed, the officials began to 
 breathe a little easier and to comfort themselves with the 
 thought that they had passed the worst. They thereupon 
 set to work to plan the best way of suppressing the Volunteers 
 and arresting the leaders. 
 
 Among those who took part in these conferences were Sir 
 Matthew Nathan, the energetic Undersecretary, Lord Wim- 
 borne, the Lord Lieutenant of polo fame. General Friend, 
 and several of the military officers. These latter, who were 
 supported by General Friend and the Undersecretary, 
 repeated what they had been saying for weeks before, that the 
 only way out of the situation was by ordering the arrests of 
 all the Volunteer leaders and all the men connected with the 
 organization, seizing the arms, and breaking up the entire 
 body. 
 
 Lord Wimborne pointed out that this would certainly mean 
 trouble of the worst kind; that, if this were done, there would 
 be bloodshed, and the whole world would hear about it. He 
 had been in America and knew something of the sentiment 
 here, and he did not fail to point out that feeling across the 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 275 
 
 Atlantic would be greatly wrought up by such measures. 
 He wanted to know if there was no means of dealing with the 
 situation that would prevent bloodshed. 
 
 But these arguments were only half-hearted at the best. 
 The military oflScers were soon in complete command of the 
 situation. On a number of other occasions they had been 
 balked in their plans, and they were evidently determined 
 that they were not going to be put off any longer. They 
 pointed out that the clearest possible proof of the "hostile 
 association" of the Volunteers had been afforded by the 
 attempt to land arms from Germany. They said that it 
 had been proved that these men had deliberately conspired 
 with the enemy to assist in the overthrow of the Empire. 
 What they did not say, however, was that it was owing to 
 their own actions and to the actions of the Empire they 
 represented that the men of Ireland had been driven to 
 desperation. This was a point that no one in Dublin Castle 
 cared to consider. 
 
 With regard to the shedding of blood, that did not matter 
 to the military, so long as they could shed the blood of the 
 Irish in a manner that would involve the minimum of risk to 
 themselves. The question of American opinion was dismissed 
 lightly. General Friend stating that he did not care a fig for 
 America and that, if the Irish over there tried to make any 
 trouble, they would very soon be settled. He even went so 
 far as to state that the American Government would, if 
 necessary, cause the arrest and deportation of all the Irish 
 sympathizers in the United States. 
 
 There was, then, only one question that remained to be 
 decided, and that was the best means of making the arrests 
 and seizing the arms. It was agreed that Liberty Hall pre- 
 sented the most formidable obstacle to the carrying out of 
 these plans, as, since the previous attempted raid on that 
 place, armed men had been on duty day and night. It was 
 known that these men would sell their lives dearly. The 
 military did not relish making an attack on any armed men, 
 at least not in a manner that would involve too much risk to 
 
276 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 themselves. There were also a number of other places through- 
 out the city where resistance might be expected. 
 
 In view of these facts it was, therefore, arranged that a 
 large number of soldiers should be drafted into the city the 
 following morning, and that the arrests should be carried out 
 the first moment sufficient men had been secured. In order 
 that there should be no mistake, it was decided that a large 
 number of machine guns should be taken as quietly as possible 
 to the Custom House and there trained on Liberty Hall. 
 At the first sign of resistance from that quarter these guns 
 would be turned on the building, and it would not take long, 
 so argued these military experts, to reduce the place to an 
 untenable wreck. The same tactics would be followed with 
 regard to all the other places where an attempt at resistance 
 was expected. It was thus believed that the Volunteers 
 would either be compelled to give up their arms or else would 
 be shot where they stood, and in either case the problem 
 would be solved with little or no risk to the soldiery. 
 
 It was also considered that there was a possibility of some 
 of the Volunteers making a show of resistance in the streets. 
 In order to avoid this, it was decided that the soldiers at the 
 Curragh should be drafted into Dublin and crowd the streets, 
 fully armed, so as to overawe any Volunteers who might feel 
 in a belligerent mood. In fact, during the conferences at 
 Dublin Castle, the military made excellent plans for the 
 pogrom they had been promising themselv ^s for months past; 
 and, when these plans had been completed, they prided 
 themselves that the only Volunteers who would be left in the 
 city after they had carried them out would be either dead or 
 in jail. 
 
 There was but one other matter necessary to complete their 
 arrangements, and this was to secure the consent of Chief 
 Secretary Birrell to their plans. Up to that time Birrell, 
 having some sense of justice, had refused to take action against 
 the Irish Volunteers and leave the "National'* and the Ulster 
 Volunteers untouched and with arms in their hands. On 
 this occasion, however, the military were of the opinion that 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 277 
 
 they would be able to bring Mr. Birrell to his senses and 
 force his hand. So a very urgent message was sent to London 
 telling Mr. Birrell what had been proposed, and on the 
 following morning, Monday, April 24, a reply was received 
 from the Chief Secretary giving his consent to the arrests and 
 disarmament. It happened, however, that while the British 
 had been making their plans in the Castle, another conference 
 was also being held, and with this we shall now proceed to 
 deal. 
 
CHAPTER XLIII 
 
 The Nine Hours' Conference 
 
 IT was three o'clock on Easter Sunday morning, and 
 Dublin lay in that unquiet slumber peculiar to great 
 cities. The flickering lights cast strange and fantastic 
 shadows that danced on the pavements as one or two belated 
 pedestrians passed on their way north or south in the city. 
 In the street near Amiens Street Station four or five outside 
 cars awaited the possibility of a fare, the jarveys standing 
 around talking in conversational tones that could be distin- 
 guished half a block away. On the opposite side stood three 
 policemen, close together and exchanging confidences in 
 whispers. Away in the distance a clock tolled the hour. 
 Far to the east, towards Fairview, there came the answering 
 shriek of an engine's steam whistle. 
 
 "The train's late to-night," remarked one of the jarveys to 
 a comrade. 
 
 "It's an early excursion," was the reply of the other. 
 "The Mail got in fifteen minutes ago." 
 
 In this, however, he was mistaken. It happened that the 
 mail train from the north was a few minutes late that 
 morning. There were quite a number of passengers on board, 
 too, although it had been reported that many who had booked 
 tickets by the Mail had failed to arrive in time. On this 
 account the train had delayed a little, and, in addition, there 
 had been fog here and there along the line, and this had 
 interfered somewhat with the schedule. 
 
 Among those who alighted from the train were a number 
 of young girls, whose graceful and erect carriage and easy, 
 almost martial swinging step denoted something out of the 
 ordinary. On leaving the station they took a sharp turn to 
 the left and marched, by the nearest route, direct to Beresford 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 279 
 
 Place. At the door of Liberty Hall the leader of the party, a 
 slim young girl, was halted by one of the two armed sentries 
 who stood there on guard. 
 
 "I am Nora Connolly, daughter of Jim Connolly," the girl 
 explained, and the sentry brought his rifle back to the "pre- 
 sent arms," and allowed the girls to pass into the hall. 
 
 These were the girls of the Cumann na mBan, attached to 
 the Northern Command of the Irish Volunteers and the 
 Citizen Army. They had received their orders to have their 
 bandages and field equipment ready for use on Easter Sunday. 
 The demobilizing order had been received in the north late 
 on Saturday evening, and had thrown all their arrangements 
 out of gear. They had, therefore, gone to Liberty Hall for 
 the purpose of finding out what had gone wrong with the 
 plans for the rising. 
 
 James Connolly was not asleep when the girls arrived. 
 He was lying down for a short rest. Nora asked him what 
 was the meaning of the order that had been received, and 
 demanded to know if there was to be no rising after all. 
 
 Looking very serious, James Connolly sat up in his bed, 
 and was silent for a moment while he scanned the face of his 
 daughter. Then he said, speaking slowly and deliberately, 
 as was his wont: 
 
 "If there is no rising, Nora, pray that an earthquake will 
 come and swallow up Ireland." 
 
 James Connolly was in close touch with everything that 
 was being done by the authorities in Dublin Castle. He knew 
 in advance that they were determined to strike now that they 
 thought the Rebellion was indefinitely postponed. He knew 
 that, if they did so, it would be the end of all the hopes and 
 aspirations of a generation, for the people of Ireland would 
 be left without leaders at the mercy of a British military 
 tribunal, and conscription into the British army would be the 
 next step. Further than this he also knew that the Volun- 
 teers and the Citizen Army would be branded as cowards by 
 their enemies on both sides of the channel, and that it would 
 be said of them that they were afraid to fight with the British 
 
280 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 and afraid to fight against them; that they had been given to 
 speaking big words which they did not dare to translate into 
 deeds. Connolly had also heard of the sinking of the Aud and 
 the capture of Roger Casement, and he rightly judged that 
 the Government would lose no time in getting the machinery 
 of coercion into motion. It was on account of these things 
 that he judged the time had come when Ireland must either 
 fight or acknowledge herself forever the thrall of England. 
 
 The arrival of the girls of the Cumdnn na mBan roused 
 Connolly to action. He realized that there was no time to 
 be lost; that they would have to act quickly, if they were not 
 to be caught in a trap. He therefore dispatched the girls 
 to the homes of the other leaders of the movement with a 
 message calling for an immediate conference at Liberty Hall. 
 Those who were summoned to this council of war were Tom 
 Clarke, P. H. Pearse, Joseph Plunkett, Sean MacDermott, 
 Thomas MacDonagh, and Eamonn Ceannt. Some were in 
 bed when the message came, others were about to lie down 
 after coming home from a meeting of their companies. All 
 started out without hesitation on receiving the message 
 through the girls, and, without waiting to eat breakfast or do 
 more than don their clothes, they started for Liberty Hall. 
 
 Each of these men knew what that call meant. They 
 were well aware, when they left their homes in the cool still- 
 ness and dark of that Easter Sunday morning, that there was 
 a likelihood they would never return. Yet when they arrived 
 at Liberty Hall and greeted Comrade Connolly, they were all 
 as gay and as lighthearted as though they had been asked to 
 a banquet. This was particularly noticeable in the case of 
 Tom Clarke, the veteran of them all, who seemed to be 
 bubbling over with good humor. As the business in hand 
 was calculated to take up some considerable time, it was 
 decided that breakfast should be taken before anything else 
 was done. The girls of the Cumann na mBan went to work 
 in the little kitchen of the Hall, and soon provided a sub- 
 stantial meal for all. While this was being done, Connolly 
 gave orders for extra precautions to be taken. The two 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 281 
 
 armed sentries at the door were strengthened by two more in 
 the outer corridor, two in the staircase, two on the corridor 
 upstairs, and two more outside the door of the room where 
 the conference was to be held. While these warlike prepara- 
 tions were being made, the men who had come together to 
 talk over the situation were chatting and joking with one an- 
 other, and saying but little regarding the business they had on 
 hand. They partook of a hearty breakfast and talked for a 
 few minutes afterwards before they rose to begin the conference. 
 
 The clocks of the city were booming the hour of five, and 
 the first faint streaks of Easter Sunday morning were filtering 
 through the clouds that overcast the sky, when the seven 
 men seated themselves at the table in the conference room 
 to begin a discussion that will figure prominently in the 
 annals of Ireland. Gathered together in that small room 
 were seven of the bravest men in the country, men who were 
 not afraid to lay down their lives for a principle. They 
 were men of power and intelligence, who could be trusted to 
 arrive at no erratic or rash conclusion. 
 
 When the conference first assembled, it was presided over 
 by Jim Connolly. He went into some little detail regarding 
 the reasons which had prompted him to send for his comrades 
 at so unusual an hour. He told them that Dublin Castle was 
 even at that moment preparing to strike, and that all they 
 had to decide at that time was whether they were going to 
 hand in their arms and surrender all their hopes and go to 
 fight for England, or whether they were going to make a 
 fight for it themselves, on their own soil, against their own 
 enemy, with a chance, perhaps a small one, of winning out 
 in the finish. When he had thus stated the subject of their 
 discussion, he moved a resolution that Tom Clarke take the 
 chair. This was adopted and the veteran Nationalist, the 
 coolest headed man in the city of Dublin, took over the chair- 
 manship of the conference. 
 
 The men had not been in conference for an hour before 
 they had arrived at a decision on the main question. The 
 whole situation was well known to all of them; it was not 
 
282 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 necessary to go deeply into the facts. After a brief discussion 
 they decided that they had only one course open to them, 
 and that was to fight. As a matter of fact, it would not 
 have been possible for them to have retained their own self- 
 respect had they come to any other settlement of the ques- 
 tion. There remained, however, a great deal of other work 
 before the conference in order that the decision to which 
 they had come might be carried out. 
 
 The question of the issuance of a Proclamation, the ap- 
 pointing of a Provisional Government, and a score and one 
 other things had to be decided on before any action could be 
 taken. It was also necessary to do everything possible to 
 try to combat the evil effects of the demobilizing order, and 
 to try to get the men together again. One hour went into 
 another, the city outside became alive with the thousands of 
 people thronging to the churches, the long shadows of the 
 morning shortened towards noon, and still the seven men 
 sat behind closed doors in Liberty Hall planning an event 
 that was to startle the world and contribute a glorious page 
 to humanity's fight for freedom. At the same time the 
 officials of the British Empire were making their arrangements 
 to take the guns from the Volunteers and the Citizen Army 
 and to arrest or kill their leaders. 
 
 At noon the conference had been in session for seven hours, 
 and most of the details had been settled. It had then been 
 decided to take every possible step to get the men together 
 again, and for this purpose messages were to be sent through- 
 out the country to the various centers. The various points 
 to be taken in the first rush were quickly decided on, having 
 been planned months ahead. It was also decided that 
 Connolly should be placed in command of the Dublin forces, 
 and that the seven men at the conference should resolve them- 
 selves into a Provisional Government to conduct the affairs of 
 the Irish Republic until such time as an election could be held 
 by the people. These points also had been settled weeks before. 
 
 When it came to a question as to who should be appointed 
 the Provisional President of the new Republic, it was at first 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 283 
 
 the unanimous opinion that Clarke should take the position. 
 Tom Clarke himself, however, declined the honor, and suc- 
 ceeded in convincing his colleagues that such a selection would 
 be unwise. He said that he had been too prominently 
 identified with the so-called "extreme" agitation, and that 
 he did not wish to be thrust forward, but merely to do his 
 own work when the time came. It was he who suggested 
 that Pearse, the scholar and the soldier, was the man to name, 
 and who said that, if they won out, there was no one better 
 fitted in his judgment than Padraic H. Pearse to lead the 
 Irish Nation in the first glow of newly- won freedom. He, 
 therefore, proposed that Pearse should be thus honored, and 
 his colleagues bowed to his judgment. 
 
 The Proclamation had been printed some days previously 
 and all of the seven men may be said to have had an equal 
 share in its composition. But Tom Clarke insisted that his 
 should be the first name appended to the document, and 
 he had placed his signature on a line by itself with the 
 other six ranged in pairs below. The following is an exact 
 copy of the wording of the document, taken from the original : 
 
 ^ohlatit na 5 (Etteann 
 
 THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 IRISH REPUBLIC 
 TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND 
 
 Irishmen and Irishwomen: In the name of God and of the dead 
 generations from whom she receives her old traditions of nationhood, 
 Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes 
 for her freedom. 
 
 Having organized and trained her manhood through her secret 
 revolutionary organization, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and 
 through her open military organizations, the Irish Volunteers and 
 the Irish Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, 
 having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she 
 now seizes that moment, and, supported by her exiled children in 
 America and her gallant allies in Europe, but relying in the first 
 on her own strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory. 
 
284 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of 
 Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sover- 
 eign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign 
 people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it 
 ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. 
 In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to 
 national freedom and sovereignty: six times during the past three 
 hundred years they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fun- 
 damental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the 
 world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Inde- 
 pendent State, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our com- 
 rades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its 
 exaltation among the nations. 
 
 The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance 
 of every Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic guarantees re- 
 ligious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all 
 its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and pros- 
 perity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the 
 children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences care- 
 fully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minor- 
 ity from the majority in the past. 
 
 Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the estab- 
 lishment of a permanent National Government, representative of 
 the whole people of Ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her 
 men and women, the Provisional Government, hereby constituted, 
 will administer the civil and military affairs of the Republic in trust 
 for the people. 
 
 We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of 
 the Most High God, Whose blessing we invoke upon om- arms, and 
 we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonor it by cow- 
 ardice, inhumanity or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation 
 must, by its valor and discipline and by the readiness of its chil- 
 dren to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy 
 of the august destiny to which it is called. 
 
 Signed on Behalf of the Provisional Government. 
 
 Thomas J. Clarke 
 Sean MacDiarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, 
 
 P. H. Pearse, Eamonn Ceannt, 
 
 James Connolly, Joseph Plunkett. 
 
POBLAC HT NA H E IREANN. 
 
 THE PROVISIONAL GOVSRNMDNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 IRISH REPUBLIC 
 
 TO m mxii OF mium. 
 
 IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN : In the name of God and of the dead generations 
 from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons 
 her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom. 
 
 Having organised and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary 
 organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and through her open^ military 
 organisations, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, having patiently 
 perfected her discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal 
 itself, she now seizes that moment, and. supported by her exiled children io America 
 and by gallant allies in Europe, but relying in the first on her own strength, she 
 strikes in full confidence of victory. 
 
 We declare the right oi the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to 
 the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long 
 usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the 
 right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In 
 every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and 
 sovereignty : six times during the past three hundred years they have asserted it io 
 arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face 
 of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish, Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, 
 and wc pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, 
 of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations. 
 
 The Irish Republic is entitled to. and hereby claims, the allegiance of every 
 Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal 
 rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, ahd declares its resolve to pursue 
 the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all 
 the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered 
 by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past. 
 Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment of & 
 permanent National Government, representative of the whole people of Ireland and 
 elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, the Provisional Government, hereby 
 constituted, will administer the civil and military affairs of the Republic in trust foi* 
 the people. 
 
 We place the cause of the Irish Republic under tha protection of the Most High God. 
 Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that 
 cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour 
 the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline and by the readiness of its children 
 to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthyof the august destiny 
 to which it is called. 
 
 signed on Behalf of the Provltlonal Government. 
 
 THOMAS J. CLARKE. 
 
 SEAN Mac DIARMADA, THOMAS. MacDONAGH. 
 P. H. PEARSE, EAMONN CEANNT. 
 
 JAMES CONNOLLY. JOSEPH PLUNKETT: 
 
 Reduced Facsimile of the Proclamation of the "Irish Republic 
 
 Promulgrated on Easter Sunday. 23rd April. 1916. at Liberty Hall. Dublin. 
 The ievea ii^natoriea to thia document were all executed. 
 
CHAPTER XLIV 
 
 The Twenty-fourth of April 
 
 A FEW minutes after two o'clock on Sunday afternoon, 
 after a session lasting nine hours, the conference in 
 Liberty Hall came to an end. The rising was then 
 a matter of a few hours more of preparation. The Proclama- 
 tion was ready to be issued to the people. Future generations 
 of Irishmen and Irishwomen will pass on that document, will 
 see in it the one and only charter of Irish liberty that will 
 satisfy the aspirations of the Irish people and the Irish nation. 
 Brief and to the point, it omits nothing; it states in the 
 plainest terms the type of national existence to which Ireland 
 aspired, and to which she must aspire until those aspirations 
 are realized in their fullest fruition. It set forth that there 
 could be no compromise, no bartering of any iota of that 
 freedom which is the birthright of universal man. It took 
 its stand on a free and a united nation, a nation of free men 
 and women, with equal civil and religious rights, under a 
 government elected and maintained by themselves and 
 established for the betterment, happiness, and prosperity of 
 all the people of every part of Ireland. No stranger or more 
 striking contrast can be imagined than exists between this 
 declaration and the watered-down measure of "Home Rule" 
 that the Parliamentary Party was willing to accept as a full 
 and final settlement of the claims of the Irish people. 
 
 When the conference came to an end, the girls of the 
 Cumann na mBan were still waiting in the corridor, wondering 
 what was going to be the result of it all. Jim Connolly called 
 to them when he opened the door, and told them that they 
 would be required to act as special messengers. It was these 
 girls who had been selected to carry the call for a remobili- 
 zation to the various centers throughout the country. When 
 
286 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 he had handed them their orders, he produced the Procla- 
 mation and, while they stood by in silence, read it to them. 
 They were thus the first, outside of the seven who had signed 
 it and the printers, to learn the terms of the historic document. 
 
 It was noticeable that the men, evidently relieved after the 
 long and trying strain of the protracted conference, were in 
 very good humor. Although they were well aware that they 
 had embarked on an enterprise which almost certainly meant 
 death to most or all of them, they were happy in the con- 
 sciousness that they had at last come to close quarters with 
 the ancient enemy, that there was at last going to be a 
 chance to avenge some of the insults that had been offered 
 to their country, to their women, and to themselves. This was 
 the day for which they had been hoping and longing, for 
 which they had been working for years, and the realization 
 that it was about to dawn brought to them a happiness that 
 can be fully understood only by those who have held and 
 still hold the hopes and ideals that actuated the Republican 
 leaders of Dublin. 
 
 The fact that they were about to try their strength against 
 the might and fury of the greatest Empire that has ever 
 tyrannized over the fortimes of mankind daunted these men 
 not at all. They knew that they were going to make a 
 forlorn stand against overwhelming odds, and that the lover 
 and protector of the small nationalities would spare no effort 
 to smash their newly-born Republic in the first hour of its 
 existence. But they also knew that they and their country 
 had been betrayed by Mr. Redmond and his Party, that 
 conscription was about to be enforced in Ireland, and that 
 an armed protest was the only thing to save the soul of the 
 nation and prevent the British riding roughshod over every- 
 thing they held most sacred. 
 
 With the departure of the members of the Cumann na 
 mBan on their mission to the different parts of the country 
 to which they had been assigned, the Signers of the Proclama- 
 tion set about making their final arrangements for the events 
 of the coming day. As has already been pointed out, it had 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 287 
 
 been the original intention to declare the Republic on Easter 
 Sunday, when the arms from Germany were also to have 
 been landed on the Kerry coast under the guard of the 
 Republicans. All those plans had been spoiled, and it was 
 now necessary to make other arrangements for the morrow. 
 It was realized that there was no time to be lost, and it was 
 fortunate that the plans had been laid well in advance so 
 that a great deal of the work had already been accomplished. 
 
 It was decided that the original plans should be adhered 
 to, and that the first attack should be made on the General 
 Post Office in O'Connell Street. Simultaneously different 
 bodies of Volunteers were to make an attack on the Castle, 
 the Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park, Boland's Mills, the 
 Four Courts, the railroad stations, and other points where 
 the Republicans would be able to defend themselves for a 
 lengthy period. It was also decided that a section of the 
 Citizen Army should entrench itself in Stephen's Green. In 
 fact the original plans were to be carried out with little if 
 any alteration, the only difference being that the men in 
 Dublin, if they were to be successful, would have to await for 
 a longer period relief from the other sections of the country, 
 owing to the fact that these sections would have to reassemble 
 — a process which would necessarily take some time. During 
 Sunday there were several other conferences held in Liberty 
 Hall. The Countess Markievicz was sent for, as were others 
 of the leaders, and the work of assigning these to their 
 respective spheres of action occupied several hours. 
 
 While these councils were being held, The O'Rahilly arrived 
 back from Limerick. He was proceeding to his home when 
 he happened to meet one of the Volunteer captains, and 
 learned from him that important meetings were being held in 
 Liberty Hall. Without further delay he headed his car for 
 Beresford Place and reported to the leaders there. He told 
 them of the mission he had undertaken to the south and of 
 its result. He was amazed to learn that the men of Dublin 
 had decided to declare the Republic notwithstanding the 
 orders of Eoin MacNeill. 
 
288 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 But The O'Rahilly had never a second's hesitation when he 
 learned that there was to be a rising on the morrow. He 
 was never the man to shirk, and he had no sooner learned 
 that the arrangements had been made and that the Republic 
 was to be declared the following day at noon than he an- 
 nounced his intention of being there to play his part. He 
 resented at once the suggestion of the others that he need 
 not stay if he believed that the time was not ripe, and 
 declared that his place was with his men wherever they were 
 to be assigned, and that he would fight and fall with his 
 comrades. 
 
 There was no sleep in Liberty Hall until long after midnight 
 when the leaders and some of their men forced themselves to 
 rest, knowing that it might be long before they would dare 
 sleep again. With the exception of the armed guards outside 
 and inside the Hall, there was nothing to indicate the mo- 
 mentous events that were about to take place. In the other 
 centers the activity was so well ordered that the spies of the 
 Castle were unable to discover anything, and in the Castle, 
 where conferences had also been the order of the day, security 
 was felt owing to the fact that there had been no movements 
 of the Volunteers reported. But it was the calm before the 
 storm. 
 
 There were two other men who must have anxiously 
 awaited the coming of the morning. One of these was Eoin 
 MacNeill. Where he was, was unknown to the majority of 
 his followers. Whether he had realized that he had made a 
 fatal error of judgment and that the Castle would certainly 
 take action within the week to disarm the Volunteers, is a 
 secret that he alone possessed. But certain it is that he 
 disappeared out of Dublin. If he remained in the city, his 
 whereabouts were unknown to his followers. Somewhere out 
 there in the silence and the darkness that surrounded the city, 
 Eoin MacNeill, a lonely and a broken man, was awaiting the 
 coming of that dawn that would, he knew, be fraught with so 
 much peril and danger to the country he loved so well. 
 
 In the city itself waited another man with deep bitterness 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 289 
 
 in his heart. This was Bulmer Hobson, held, since the pre- 
 vious Friday, a prisoner in his own house by his own friends, 
 who made no secret of the fact that they doubted his loyalty. 
 Bulmer Hobson had been the secretary to the Volunteers, had 
 been one of the organizers of the first meeting held in the 
 Rotunda Rink, had worked day and night on Freedom and in 
 other ways for the success of the movement. But there were 
 times when he seemed too anxious for the Rebellion, as his 
 resolution in May, 1915, calling for an immediate declaration 
 of war showed, while at other times he was urging caution. 
 There had been more occasions than one when he had been 
 under suspicion, notably when he voted for the surrender of 
 the Volunteers to Mr. Redmond. Since that time he had 
 never been trusted, and had not been on the inside of the 
 movement in the same manner as he had been previously. 
 To prevent all possibility of mistake he was quietly placed 
 under arrest in his own home on Good Friday, and was 
 advised to remain there. 
 
 Easter Monday, the twenty-fourth of April, dawned cool 
 and misty with white clouds encircling the Golden Spears 
 that rose to the south over the City of the Hurdles. With 
 the awakening of the city crowds rapidly began to fill the 
 streets. The seven o'clock Mass at the Catholic churches 
 was attended by vast throngs, and the holiday crowds 
 were soon very much in evidence in all parts of the capital. 
 While it was common knowledge that the political condition 
 of affairs was critical, there were few who had any inkling 
 of what was about to transpire. 
 
 Early that morning a message was received at Dublin 
 Castle that brought joy to the hearts of the military. It 
 came from Augustine Birrell, the Chief Secretary, who had 
 at last been forced to give way and to agree to the proposals 
 for the holding of a pogrom, in which the Volunteers and 
 the Citizen Army were to be the chief victims. The message 
 gave the desired permission for the disarming of the Volun- 
 teers and the men of the Citizen Army in spite of the fact 
 that Birrell knew, as the military authorities in Ireland knew. 
 
290 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 that this would certainly result in the shooting down of hun- 
 dreds of men. 
 
 It happened, however, that another order was issued in 
 Dublin that morning, an order of somewhat different character. 
 It read as follows: 
 
 DUBLIN BRIGADE ORDER, 
 
 H. Q. 
 
 24th April, 1916. 
 
 1. The four city battalions will parade for inspection 
 and route march at 10 a.m. to-day. Commandants will ar- 
 range centers. 
 
 2. Full arms and equipment and one day's rations. 
 
 Thomas MacDonagh, 
 
 Commandant 
 
 Coy. E. 3. will parade at Beresford Place at 10 a.m. 
 
 P. H. Peabse, 
 Commandant 
 
 At the same time that this order was issued a message was 
 forwarded to all of the country districts as follows: 
 
 Dublin has acted. 
 
 P. H. Pearse 
 
 It was five o'clock in the morning when the Citizen Army 
 paraded outside Liberty Hall. After they had formed up, 
 James Connolly, the Commandant of the Dublin forces, 
 made an inspection of the men. While this inspection was in 
 progress, a messenger arrived on a motor cycle and handed a 
 paper to the officer in charge of the battalion of police who 
 were on duty in Beresford Place. This officer gave an order, 
 the police were paraded and marched away. It was the first 
 sign of the coming storm. The Castle authorities had decided 
 to remove the police from the streets so that the ground 
 would be clear for the operations of the military. After the 
 parade the men of the Citizen Army also disbanded for the 
 time being. 
 
 Thereafter there was nothing in the city beyond the usual 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 291 
 
 bustle and noise of Bank Holiday. The crowds marched up 
 and down O'Connell Street, wending their way to the Park 
 or to Glasnevin or other of the historic places around the city. 
 The tram cars were crowded inside and out, the jarveys were 
 doing a brisk business, and everything was full of animation 
 and joy. 
 
 Shortly before noon there was heard the ordered tramp of 
 marching men, and a body of Volunteers swung along O'Con- 
 nell Street. They advanced at a steady pace, and those who 
 turned to watch them could not but notice the fine carriage 
 of the men and the neatness of their equipment. The men 
 comprised a company of Irish Volunteers from Kimmage, 
 and they had marched into the city under secret orders. 
 The crowds in the street saw no significance in their appear- 
 ance, thinking that they were out on a route march, an event 
 that had become commonplace in the country for months 
 past. With an easy martial swing the men marched up the 
 street towards the Post Office. The head of the column 
 swung into Prince's Street. With dramatic suddenness a 
 shot cracked out, sounding through the air from one end of 
 the street to the other. 
 
 It was the opening shot of the Rebellion. 
 
CHAPTER XLV 
 
 The First Blow 
 
 WIEN that first shot rang out from the General 
 Post OflSce, someone shouted that the Irish Volun- 
 teers had been fired on by the military, and in- 
 dignation blazed out in a moment. But those who were 
 closer to the scene knew that it was something else that had 
 happened. 
 
 When the men from Kimmage arrived at the Post Office, 
 they saw standing at the corner of Prince's Street, Clarke, 
 Pearse, The O'Rahilly, and Connolly. At a signal from 
 Pearse, the leader gave the command for his men to turn 
 alongside the Post Office. There was a halt for a few seconds, 
 and then the men were led into the building by the two 
 entrances leading to the counters and by the large entrance 
 further down the street that led towards the stables and the 
 back of the building. It was this detachment that entered 
 the interior of the Post Office first. Those who entered by 
 the counters requested the people there on business to get 
 out. After the first gasp of surprise they lost no time in 
 doing so. 
 
 Those who entered by the rear encountered a shadow of 
 opposition from two or three of the van drivers who were 
 getting ready to take the one o'clock mail to the railroad 
 stations. A shot fired into the air, which echoed all over 
 O'Connell Street, induced them to stop their arguments. 
 They stood aside while the Volunteers marched into the 
 building, headed by Connolly and Pearse, with The O'Rahilly 
 and Tom Clarke in close attendance. 
 
 The officials inside the Post Office were speechless at the 
 invasion, and seemed unable to comprehend what was taking 
 place. But the rapidity and the precision with which the 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 293 
 
 Republicans worked soon made them realize that something 
 more than a holiday joke was intended. A number of the 
 Volunteers were told off to smash the large windows facing 
 on O'Connell Street, this being a necessary precaution owing 
 to the possible later danger from flying glass should the 
 windows be smashed from the outside by an attacking force. 
 The postal officials meanwhile quickly obeyed the order to quit. 
 
 The excited crowd of onlookers in O'Connell Street, still 
 wondering what was happening, saw with astonishment the 
 officials of the Post Office running from the building. At the 
 same time several voices from within the windows warned 
 the people to move away, and a second or so later the glass 
 was sent crashing into the streets, propelled by the rifle butts 
 of the Republicans. The Post Office had fallen to the first 
 attack, and the Irish had scored the first victory. 
 
 A number of the Republicans now appeared coming out of 
 the building. They proceeded to post on the big pillars 
 outside the Post Office, and in other conspicuous positions, 
 the Proclamation of the Republic. It was then, and then 
 only, that the people realized just what had taken place. 
 As they were reading the Proclamation and passing the word 
 around, another company of men, this time members of the 
 Citizen Army, swung into O'Connell Street from Abbey 
 Street, and marched into the Post Office. By this time the 
 people knew the meaning of their action, and a great and 
 rousing cheer rose from the dense crowds that thronged the 
 street. Hats and caps were thrown into the air. One old 
 woman knelt down in the roadway and, raising her hands to 
 heaven, prayed for the success of the Rebellion, and gave 
 thanks to God that she had lived to see it. Men shouted 
 and cheered, and the women vied with them in their en- 
 thusiasm. It seemed as though everyone had suddenly 
 realized that the Rebellion was the most natural thing in the 
 world, that the time had come when there would be an end 
 of the political trickery that had been practiced on the people 
 for years past, and that the actions of the Government had led 
 inevitably to the scenes they were then witnessing. 
 
294 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Before the cheering had ceased, there appeared a number of 
 the Republicans on the roof of the Post Office, moving hither 
 and thither in smart, orderly fashion. Then one man walked 
 over to the corner, facing on Prince's and O'Connell Streets, 
 where from the top of a flagpole flew the banner of England. 
 In breathless silence the crowd watched this man untie the 
 halyards and haul down the flag, which he let fall into the 
 street below. There was another cheer at this, then silence 
 again. With the greatest imperturbability the man on the 
 roof attached another flag to the ropes, and for a brief second 
 was seen to press its folds to his lips. He then drew it up. 
 At that moment the sun broke through the clouds and flashed 
 on the tricolor of Ireland, the green, white, and orange. 
 
 The crowd below seemed awed for a moment. The solem- 
 nity, the greatness of the occasion, was not lost on them. 
 But then there arose another cheer, the bold, defiant shout 
 of men made free. And with that cheer came the awakening 
 of the land, the rousing from its long and fitful slumber of 
 nigh half a century. That cheer was the cry of freedom, of 
 hope and gladness, of faith and thanksgiving. The day had 
 at last dawned, and Ireland was once more to make a fight 
 for freedom. 
 
 Almost at the same time there arose another cry, this time 
 a shout of warning. It came from far up the street in the 
 direction of the Rotunda. "The soldiers are coming," cried 
 a hundred voices, and the men who were not armed and the 
 women who were among the onlookers began to scatter in 
 all directions. As they did so there came a swift clatter of 
 horses' hoofs, and down the street appeared a column of 
 Lancers, their horses at full gallop and their rifles ready for 
 immediate use. A command was shouted in the Post Office, 
 another outside, and immediately a line of the Republicans 
 was thrown across the street to the Imperial Hotel as a first 
 line of defense. A score of rifle barrels made their appearance 
 at the same time over the parapet of the roof of the Post 
 Office. 
 
 When still some distance away the Lancers fired a volley, 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 295 
 
 and then put spurs to their horses. The reply from the Irish 
 came almost the same instant, and so well directed was the 
 fire that five or six of the riders were seen to waver in their 
 saddles and then fall headlong to the ground. Without 
 waiting for the command, the Lancers turned and fled, sped 
 on their way by the derisive cheers of the Irish. At full speed 
 the British galloped back up O'Connell Street, leaving their 
 dead and wounded behind them, and disappeared west along 
 Parnell Street. They kept up their speed along Capel Street, 
 and on over Grattan Bridge into the Castle. Before the day 
 was over, their ride had become famous throughout the city 
 as the "Leopardstown Races." 
 
 But, while six of the Lancers lay in the street dead as a 
 result of the first volley fired by the Irish, their volley also 
 had not been entirely without effect. When the shots rang 
 out, a man at the end of the line across the street by the 
 Imperial Hotel gave a groan and rolled over on his side. 
 As soon as the Lancers had ridden away in confusion, his 
 comrades carried him into the Post OflSce. He was John 
 Keely, a member of E Company, Fourth Battalion, Irish 
 Volunteers. He was the first to fall in the Rebellion. Edu- 
 cated at the Christian Brothers' Schools at Kingstown, he had 
 been an enthusiastic Irish-Irelander all his life. When a 
 mere schoolboy, he had assisted in the teaching of Gaelic in 
 the Glasthule Branch of the Gaelic League, and later in 
 Rathfarnham. He was an ardent Volunteer from the first 
 inception of the movement, and took a deep interest in the 
 work of the battalion to which he belonged. On the morning 
 of Easter Monday he said good-bye to his wife and joined 
 his company, which arrived at the Post Office along with the 
 members of the Citizen Army. When he was carried to the 
 Post Office, his comrades saw that he was seriously wounded. 
 They decided that it would be better to have him taken to 
 the hospital while there was still time, and he was promptly 
 conveyed to Jervis Street Hospital. He lingered there for 
 some hours, his one regret being that he had fallen so early 
 in the fray, and that he had not been able to do more for his 
 
296 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 country. He died in the early hours of Tuesday morning, 
 and was later buried in Deansgrange. 
 
 Meantime everything was proceeding with ordered rapidity 
 inside the Post Office. Every article of furniture that was 
 not required for the use of the men inside was piled up against 
 the windows. The long slits over the letter chutes were 
 admirably adapted for rifle fire, giving the men inside a 
 complete command of the street, and making a frontal at- 
 tack almost impossible of success. Barricades were thrown 
 up behind these to make them still more secure, and men as- 
 signed to remain on guard. 
 
 Up on the roof there were more men perfecting the defenses 
 of the building. One by one they were assigned to places of 
 importance, where they were able to keep watch over the 
 full length of O'Connell Street and all along Henry Street 
 and Mary Street. Pearse was indefatigable throughout the 
 whole building. He and his colleagues went about their work 
 with a smile and a hearty word for all with whom they came 
 into contact, and the men themselves were laughing and jok- 
 ing, and now and then whistling a tune as they obeyed their 
 orders with military precision. While there could be not the 
 slightest doubt as to the grim determination that animated 
 each and every one of them, they were lighthearted and gay 
 in the realization that they were at last to grapple with their 
 hereditary foe. 
 
 Within an hour after the defeat of the Lancers, President 
 Pearse, accompanied by a number of his officers, went outside 
 to the front of the Post Office, and, holding up his hand for 
 silence, addressed the throngs that surged around the building. 
 The crowd pressed up a little closer and quietly waited for 
 him to speak. 
 
 Then, in a few simple words, he told his hearers why they 
 had decided to proclaim the Republic, the many incidents 
 that had led up to that decision, and the arrangements that 
 had been made by the Government that day to take the 
 arms from the Volunteers and the Citizen Army and to hold 
 a general pogrom in the streets of the city. He told them 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 297 
 
 that they had been betrayed by those who had been the 
 depositories of the trust of the Irish people for a generation, 
 and that their only hope lay in armed resistance. When his 
 speech was concluded, he made a call for volunteers to join 
 the forces in the Post Office and at other points which had 
 also been attacked and were in the hands of the Irish. 
 
 His appeal was listened to with eager attention, and there 
 was an immediate response to the call for volunteers. Men 
 stepped from the crowd from all directions, and mustered in 
 on the sidewalk on a space kept clear by the Republican 
 soldiers. They then faced around to the right, and followed 
 Pearse into the Post Office. Just about this time consign- 
 ments of provisions were taken into the building and promptly 
 stored away in the cellars. 
 
 A little while later the rougher element that existed in the 
 city began to seize what appeared to them an excellent chance 
 for looting. A number of stores were smashed in, and it is 
 not unworthy of record that even the crowd that took part 
 in this, the one unhappy feature of the occasion, made choice 
 of stores that bore English names or were known to be 
 owned by the foreigners. In this they followed the example 
 set by the mobs in London who raided and looted German 
 stores in that city as an act of retaliation for the Zeppelin 
 raids made during the war. 
 
 Just as the looting began, a small man, dressed in an Irish 
 tweed knickerbocker suit, jumped up on the step of an outside 
 car at the Pillar, and began to appeal to the crowd to refrain 
 from looting the stores. Up to that time he had been an in- 
 terested but a passive onlooker of the taking of the Post Office, 
 the encounter with the Lancers, and the other incidents which 
 have been mentioned. Now he sprang into activity, and 
 begged the people to behave themselves, but the rabble merely 
 laughed at him and continued its work of destruction. 
 
 The man who made the appeal was Sheehy-Skeffington, 
 one of the best-known figures in Dublin — a man who was 
 not in any way identified with the Rebellion or the men who 
 led it. He was, in the first place, just as much opposed to 
 
298 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 the Germans as to the English in the world war, and was 
 certainly opposed to any revolutionary movement. But, 
 although a man of peace, he was also a man of remarkable 
 courage, and he never hesitated for a second in doing the 
 right thing as he saw it. When he perceived that he had no 
 influence over the looters, he at once proceeded to the Post 
 Office to acquaint President Pearse with the facts of the situ- 
 ation. As a result, Pearse sent soldiers to stop the looting 
 and at the same time issued a call for Volunteer Police. 
 
 At the moment of the Proclamation of the Republic one 
 of the big trolley cars that run to Howth was turning the 
 comer on its outward journey and had stopped at the entrance 
 to North Earl Street. Connolly had taken note of this, and 
 sent a company of men, armed with bombs, to the car. The 
 bombs were placed under the car and exploded, with the 
 result that it was thrown off the rails and across the street, 
 forming a framework for an admirable barricade in North 
 Earl Street. The work of completing this barricade was 
 then taken in hand, and in a remarkably short space of time 
 a substantial barrier had been erected blocking this approach 
 to the Post Office. 
 
 All this time people were walking up and down O'Connell 
 Street in the usual manner, but taking the keenest interest in 
 the work that was being done by the Republicans. Messengers 
 were now constantly arriving at the Post Office, and reports 
 were being received and sent to the various other centers held 
 by the Irish. Since the attack by the Lancers there had been 
 no further appearance of the military in O'Connell Street, and 
 the police were nowhere to be seen, having been taken off the 
 city earlier in the day by the Castle authorities. 
 
 The evening was beginning to close in on the youthful 
 Republic, and there were still no signs of the enemy. All 
 traffic through the street had long since been at a standstill, 
 excepting for the crowds that paraded up and down. And, 
 as the lengthening shadows crept across the street, a cornet 
 player on the roof of the Post Office began the playing of 
 "Who Fears to Speak of '98?" 
 
CHAPTER XLVI 
 In Stephen's Green 
 
 PRACTICALLY at the same moment that the attack 
 was made on the General Post Office, similar attacks 
 were delivered at other points in accordance with the 
 plan of campaign. Among these was Stephen's Green, on 
 the South Side, one of the most important points that the 
 Irish could take, since they were thereby enabled to com- 
 mand two of the most important of the southern approaches 
 to the center of the city. 
 
 The Green is a large and very beautiful park, very different 
 now from what it was in the days when Thackeray referred 
 to it as "a square with no more than two nursery maids to 
 keep company with the statue of George II." From a scenic 
 point of view, it is the finest of the smaller parks in the city. 
 With many shady walks, and a large pool, it contains a sur- 
 prising number of cool and picturesque retreats. There is 
 also a very fine lawn, and in the southwest corner, near the 
 Harcourt Street entrance, is a very fine bronze statuette of 
 Mangan, one of the sweetest of the inspired singers of the 
 nation. 
 
 Facing the northwest corner, near Grafton Street and 
 South King Street, is a large stone arch, modeled on the 
 Arc de Triomphe in Paris, but on a much smaller scale. To 
 the people of Dublin this is known as the Traitors' Gate, 
 owing to the fact that it had been erected to the memory of 
 the Irish soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the ranks of 
 the Empire to crush the nationality out of the two South 
 African Boer Republics. Along the northern side, further 
 east, is the top of Dawson Street; a little further on the same 
 side the top of Kildare Street; and on the corner of this street 
 
300 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 and facing the Green the Shelborne Hotel, the j&nest of its 
 kind in the city. 
 
 At the northeast corner is Merrion Row, and then a short 
 distance down on the east side is Hume Street. Three- 
 quarters way down on this side is the Royal College of Science 
 and near it St. Vincent's Hospital. At the southeast corner 
 are Earlsfort Terrace and Leeson Street. There is no break 
 in the south side, with the exception of the entrance leading 
 into the grounds of the University College. Harcourt Street 
 and Cuffe Street begin near the southwest comer of the 
 Green. In the center of the west side is the entrance to 
 York Street, and on this corner, and facing the Green, stands 
 the Royal College of Surgeons. 
 
 It will thus be seen that there are ten streets leading 
 directly to the Green, and that it was an important position 
 to hold. Moreover, on the west, north, and east side of the 
 Green are trolley lines leading to every section of the city. 
 In addition, only a little way to the south along Harcourt 
 Street, is Harcourt Street Station, which connects with the 
 railroads running through Wicklow and thence throughout 
 the south. On the other hand, however, it was a position 
 not easy to defend against massed infantry attacks after a 
 few hours of machine-gun fire. The Green was surrounded 
 on all sides by a stout iron railing that rose more than six 
 feet from the ground, and was now to prove a valuable ad- 
 junct to the defenses of the Republicans. 
 
 A few minutes before noon on Easter Monday morning, 
 a large number of the men of the Citizen Army and the Irish 
 Volunteers wended their way to the Green. Many of them 
 walked along the sidewalks in twos and threes, while a com- 
 pany, under the command of Michael Mallin, of the Citizen 
 Army, marched from Liberty Hall, along Grafton Street. 
 All the entrances to the Green were soon closed, with the 
 exception of that leading to Harcourt Street. There were 
 crowds of people in the Green at the time, and the Republican 
 soldiers walked around and asked them to leave, saying that 
 some important maneuvers were about to take place, and that 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 301 
 
 they would be better outside for the time being. At the stroke 
 of noon the Green had been cleared and the last gate closed. 
 
 Commandant Mallin, who was in charge of the operations 
 in the Green, was a man who had studied military science 
 while a member of the Citizen Army, and had, owing to his 
 keen insight and hard work, risen to the position of staff 
 officer under Connolly. He was a silk weaver by trade, one 
 of the foremost tradesmen of Dublin, a clever musician, and a 
 total abstainer. He was trusted implicitly by the men under 
 him, who knew him to be a capable and energetic leader and 
 a thorough patriot. 
 
 By the time that the gates were closed the attack was in 
 progress on the Post Office in O'Connell Street, but the news 
 of what was taking place there had not reached to the south 
 side. Therefore, the people outside of the Green, who had 
 at first believed that the Volunteers were engaged in some of 
 their regular maneuvers, were rather surprised to see them 
 produce spades and picks and begin to dig a double line of 
 trenches around the Green a few feet mside the railings. 
 They were probably under the impression that this was 
 carrying maneuvring rather too far along the road to realism, 
 and they were destined to be still more amazed before many 
 minutes had passed. 
 
 The gates at the Merrion Road entrance were thrown open 
 and a number of the Volunteers marched out, deploying 
 across the road towards the Shelborne Hotel. At that 
 moment a large automobile, carrying a British officer from 
 Kingstown, came along at a fast pace, but the chauffeur 
 halted his car when confronted by two of the Citizen Army 
 with leveled rifles. The Irishmen advanced, and ordered the 
 British officer to get out of the machine, which he did with a 
 great many threats and curses. He was led a prisoner into 
 the Green, his revolver taken from him, and he was allowed 
 to take a seat under the shadow of the statue of King 
 George II in the center of the park. Two of the men 
 who had halted the car jumped into it, and drove down 
 Kildare Street to Liberty Hall for further supplies. 
 
302 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 The capture of the British oflBcer was the signal for the 
 opening of operations on all sides of the Green. While some 
 of the men were perfecting their defenses within, many more 
 were at work on the three sides of the Green outside. Every 
 automobile that came along was halted, the occupants told 
 to return to their homes as best they might, and the car over- 
 turned to form a section of the barricades that were being 
 thrown up at every street entrance to the square. By this 
 time the people in the streets were reading the Proclamations 
 that had been posted up, and were aware of what was being 
 done. While many of the men went over and joined with 
 the Republicans, the majority of the pedestrians lost no time 
 in getting outside the danger zone, evidently knowing that 
 the work on hand was serious. 
 
 Incoming and outgoing trolley cars along the west, north, 
 and east sides of the Green were halted at the corners, their 
 passengers made to get out, the motormen and conductors dis- 
 missed from the cars, and the cars turned over on their sides 
 by means of bombs to form barricades. Here, as in other 
 portions of the city, the manner in which these barricades 
 were constructed offered an insight into the thoroughness 
 with which the men had been drilled and the study which 
 their officers had given to this important subject. In every 
 case the barricades were so formed as to give the riflemen 
 behind them plenty of room to take a clear aim, and at the 
 same time to protect them from the attackers. They were 
 also sufficiently strong to withstand machine-gun bombard- 
 ment and even the attacks of the one and two pounders. Car 
 was packed into car in a most scientific manner, and the 
 barricades were built up with every available article, not 
 the least part of the construction being the sacks filled with 
 the soil taken from the trenches, which proved to be practi- 
 cally impervious to rifle fire at any range. 
 
 Owing to the fact that the defenders of the Green were 
 assured of having to withstand a siege, supplies of all kinds 
 were taken into the park. It was while an automobile filled 
 with provisions was on its way through Grafton Street to the 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 303 
 
 Green that the first clash in this district took place. This was 
 shortly before one o'clock. The automobile was piled high 
 with boxes that had been loaded at Liberty Hall, and was 
 traveling none too fast in consequence. Four English soldiers 
 were running out of Nassau Street just as the car passed, and, 
 acting on the impulse of the moment, all of them stopped, 
 leveled their rifles, and sent a volley of shots after the ma- 
 chine. The car was then only a few yards away, at the cor^ 
 ner of Wicklow Street, and the two men who were guarding 
 the car immediately let fly with their rifles in return. The 
 British, who had emptied their magazines, were making a 
 bolt to get into the shelter afforded by Suffolk Street, but they 
 were not quick enough. The marksmen on the car dropped 
 the leader and severely wounded another, who also fell in his 
 tracks. The other two succeeded in making their escape, and 
 did not wait to rescue their wounded comrade or to take 
 away the body of the dead man. This incident occurred 
 while the street was still crowded with people, all of whom 
 ran, terrified, to the nearest shelter. 
 
 Some little time later another small affray took place at 
 the corner of York Street and Aungier Street. Preparations 
 were being made to defend the Royal College of Surgeons, 
 of which more will be said later, and a company of the Volun- 
 teers were erecting a barricade at this point. While the Vol- 
 unteers were at work, a Rathfarnham trolley car came along 
 at a speed considerably greater than was usual. The speed 
 of the car, which caused it to sway perilously as it sped 
 along the tracks, attracted the attention of the Volunteers, 
 and one, more keen-eyed than the rest, noticed khaki imi- 
 forms through the windows. He shouted to his comrades 
 that the car was filled with English soldiers, which soon 
 proved to be the fact, and as it passed the corner it was 
 greeted with a salute of rifle bullets which crashed through 
 the windows. Before the shots were fired, however, the 
 motorman, who had seen the Volunteers taking aim, 
 shouted a warning, and the Enghsh soldiers dropped on the 
 floor of the car. Whether the volley had any effect, be- 
 
304 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 yond the shattering of the glass, was not known to the 
 RepubHcans. 
 
 It was just after this incident that the Countess Markie- 
 vicz, with her boys of the Fianna na EireanUy arrived, com- 
 ing to the Green through WiUiam Street and South King 
 Street. The Countess had already been the heroine of a 
 daring exploit earlier in the day, which will be dealt with in 
 another chapter, and she had now come to take up her quar- 
 ters in the Royal College of Surgeons, to which she and the 
 Fianna had been assigned. The fame of her exploit at the 
 Castle had already reached the ears of the Volunteers, and 
 she and her company were greeted with cheers as they 
 marched along the west side of the Green, their green, white, 
 and orange banner flying above them. 
 
 The defense of York Street was now intrusted to the Coun- 
 tess, and she and her Fianna lost no time in putting the 
 College in fit state to withstand a siege. The houses on 
 either side of Mercer Street and York Street were also occu- 
 pied by this time, and this entrance to the Green was thus 
 well protected, more particularly owing to the barricade which 
 had been erected at the end of York Street and Aungier Street, 
 and formed the first line of defense in this area. 
 
 Similar precautions were being taken at the other points 
 around the Green. A barricade was thrown up in Dawson 
 Street close to the Mansion House, but that building, owing 
 to the fact that it stood too far back to be of advantage, was 
 occupied. The barricade was placed just above it, and was 
 also a first line defense. A similar defense was erected in 
 Kildare Street, a little below the line of the Shelborne Hotel. 
 
 Another very important position that may be included in 
 this area of operations was Jacob's Biscuit Factory, situated 
 at the corner of Bishop's Street and Whitefriars Street. This 
 corner faced directly on Aungier Street, where the latter ran 
 between York Street and Cuffe Street. The position was not 
 an easy one to hold, owing to the fact that it was open to 
 attack on three sides. On the other hand the nature of the 
 goods in the factory rendered it practically self-supporting 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 305 
 
 so far as food was concerned, and the hundreds of bags of 
 flour made magnificent barricades for all of the windows. 
 Major John McBride was in command in the factory, which 
 was included in the area under the command of Command- 
 ant MacDonagh. The factory was the furthest western point 
 held on the south side of the city, with the exception of the 
 South Dublin Union, which was situated beyond the City 
 Basin Dock. 
 
 Only a short distance south along Harcourt Street is Har- 
 court Street Station, and this was also seized by the Repub- 
 licans early on Monday, as part of the Stephen's Green area. 
 The importance of this position can scarcely be over-esti- 
 mated. The station itself was a position of considerable 
 strength, but weakened owing to the command which artil- 
 lery had over it on two sides. Owing to the other positions 
 held to the north of the station, there was a clear line of re- 
 treat should this become necessary. 
 
 Further to the south, and a little to the west, was the Por- 
 tobello Bridge over the Grand Canal. Lying a little distance 
 from the bridge and in a southwesterly direction were the 
 Portobello Barracks, occupied by several companies of the 
 military. The holding of the canal bridge at this point pre- 
 vented the enemy crossing the canal. A little further west 
 was the Clanbrassil Street Bridge. Here another section of 
 the Volunteers was on guard, thus pinning the military to 
 the south side of the canal and cutting them off from the rest 
 of Dublin, unless at the cost of capturing positions that were 
 well held even by a mere handful of men. These two posi- 
 tions completed the southern ring of defenses in this area, 
 and both were under the command of Commandant Mallin. 
 
 By three o'clock in the afternoon all of the positions men- 
 tioned were held by the Republicans, whose plans had, up to 
 this point, worked with perfect smoothness. 
 
CHAPTER XLVII 
 
 The Attack on the Castle 
 
 ONE of the most prominent buildings on the south 
 side of Dublin was Dublin Castle, situated at the 
 western end of Dame Street on the eminence known 
 as Cork Hill. At one time a little stream, known as the 
 River Poddle, flowed down the hill at this point, and it was 
 across this that King John of England had erected a four- 
 towered castle as a protection for the people of the Pale, 
 and as a stronghold for his Government in Ireland. While 
 but one of these towers remained and a number of more 
 modern buildings had been added, the system that had op- 
 pressed Ireland in the days of King John had altered little 
 in duplicity and tyranny with the passing of the centuries. 
 
 The Castle was always well garrisoned. In the lower quad- 
 rangle were situated the barracks of the Dublin Metropolitan 
 Police, and there were, in addition, several companies of 
 British soldiers quartered in the various buildings. On the 
 morning of Easter Monday a large force was on duty, wait- 
 ing for the arrival of other soldiers from the Curragh to begin 
 the programme planned by representatives of the Government. 
 
 Alongside the Castle, but standing out from it and facing 
 on Parliament Street, was the City Hall, erected originally as 
 the Royal Exchange in 1769, but adapted to municipal pur- 
 poses in 1862. Across the street, on the corner of Parliament 
 Street and Dame Street were the offices of The Daily Express 
 and The Evening Mail, two English Tory newspapers owned 
 and controlled by Lord Iveagh. It is not without interest to 
 recall that, on the Friday before the Rising, The Daily Ex- 
 press, in the course of a bitter editorial article, called on the 
 Government to accomplish the "speedy and happy dispatch 
 of the National leaders.'* 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 307 
 
 A little before noon on Easter Monday morning the Coun- 
 tess Markievicz marched with her boys of the Fianna na 
 Eireann up to the outer gate of the Castle, facing Parliament 
 Street. The sentry on duty, a man named Brien, noticed the 
 parade and seemed interested. 
 
 When the Countess, leading the Fianna, led the way di- 
 rectly to the gateway of the Castle, the sentry, suddenly 
 assuming a militant attitude, brought his rifle across his hip 
 and faced the invaders. The Countess told him to get on one 
 side, that war had been declared, and that he would be shot 
 if he resisted. At this he began to use foul language, and put 
 his weapon to the breast of the Countess. Without a second's 
 hesitation, or moving an inch from her perilous position, the 
 Countess fired her revolver point blank into the body of the 
 sentry. He fell where he stood, killed instantly. 
 
 With a cheer, the others followed their intrepid leader into 
 the quadrangle. The sound of the shot brought out a score 
 or so of the military, who, seeing that an attack was in prog- 
 ress, retreated into the barracks * of the police and to the 
 armory. The barracks was carried on the run by the Fianna, 
 before those inside had time to close the doors, and a number 
 of prisoners made, those inside preferring to surrender rather 
 than fight. Immediately after a fusillade of shots burst from 
 the armory, and several of the Fianna, who were still in the 
 open, dropped to the ground. A rapid exchange of shots then 
 took place between the Fianna in the barracks and the military 
 in the armory. This lasted for some minutes, when it was de- 
 cided to storm the armory and gain possession of it, thus making 
 the capture of the entire Castle a comparatively easy matter. 
 
 A slight lull in the firing from the armory gave the desired 
 chance. One of the Fianna made a dash across the yard and, 
 putting his revolver against the lock of the armory door, 
 blew it to pieces. This was the signal for a general attack, 
 and, with a cheer, the boys, led by the Countess in person, 
 charged for the broken door. A scattering volley met the 
 charge, but the shooting was bad, and resulted only in two 
 of the attackers sustaining slight wounds. 
 
308 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 But, at the moment that the charge was made, there was 
 a clatter of horses' hoofs in the quadrangle, and the Lancers 
 who had run away from O'Connell Street appeared, covered 
 with foam, dashing through the gate of the Castle. This 
 sudden attack in the rear discomfited the rebels, and the ap- 
 pearance of the rebels came as a shock to the Lancers. That 
 they would again have turned tail and fled is very possible, 
 but their speed carried them on and, as they dashed towards 
 the Fianna, the latter fell to either side and allowed the 
 horsemen to go past. The Countess realized that her little 
 force was not able to cope with the situation, and, not know- 
 ing that other reinforcements might also be coming up behind, 
 she ordered the Fianna to fall back towards the gateway. 
 Keeping up a running fire, they made their retreat towards 
 the entrance. 
 
 While the editor of The Mail, standing near his window, 
 was working himself into a perspiration over these events, 
 most of which he could only guess at, he was further amazed 
 to see another force of Irishmen advancing in the direction of 
 the Castle. Hearing the firing, they came along at a run, and 
 arrived on the scene just as the Countess succeeded in making 
 her retreat. Seeing what was happening, Sean Connolly, who 
 led the newcomers, commanded his men to charge into the 
 Castle. This again turned the tide of war, and the Lancers 
 turned at the arrival of the rebel reinforcements and dashed 
 out of the Castle through the Ship Street entrance. There 
 they vanish from the history of the Rebellion. 
 
 The quadrangle was strewn with the bodies of the dead 
 and the wounded, most of these being Britishers, including 
 some of the Lancers. The barracks was again occupied, and 
 a fire kept up on the armory that made the appearance at the 
 windows of any of the British dangerous. At the same time 
 a number of the Irish had established themselves in the upper 
 quadrangle, so that, with the exception of the armory, the 
 Castle was virtually in the possession of the rebels. 
 
 Seeing that this was the case, Sean Connolly returned to 
 the Parliament Street entrance of the castle and led his men 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 309 
 
 into the City Hall. As this building was vacant at the time, 
 the occupation of it was merely a matter of walking in and 
 taking possession. While this was in progress, a number of 
 the Republicans began the occupation of the other buildings 
 which were to constitute this line of the defenses. The Coun- 
 tess meanwhile marched with her Fianna in the direction of 
 Stephen's Green, and took up her quarters at the Royal 
 College of Surgeons. 
 
 The Republicans took over and occupied the offices of The 
 Evening Mail, and the Empire Theater, situated at the corner 
 of Dame Street and Theater Street. They took up positions 
 on the balcony of the Theater, facing Dame Street, and also 
 in the rear, where they were able to guard against a surprise 
 from Essex Street. It was while they were making these 
 arrangements that a disaster took place at the City Hall. 
 
 After entering the City Hall the Volunteers proceeded to 
 the roof, from which point they could bring a further line 
 of fire on the remaining defenders of the Castle, and com- 
 mand Dame Street and Lord Edward Street. One of the first 
 to appear on the roof was the leader, Sean Connolly. He 
 carried in his arms the green, white, and orange tricolor of 
 the Republic, and went directly to the flagstaff, where the 
 municipal flag was flying. This he pulled down and ran up 
 the Republican flag in its stead. As he was tying the last 
 knot, a sudden volley rang out from the upper quadrangle 
 of the Castle, where some of the defenders were still holding 
 their own, and Sean was seen to fall flat on his face where he 
 had been standing. He had been killed almost instantly. 
 
 Sean Connolly was a Captain in the Citizen Army, a close 
 friend of the Countess Markievicz, a splendid elocutionist, and 
 closely connected with the Abbey Theater Company and the 
 National Players. He met the death that he himself would 
 have chosen, falling under the flag of his united Ireland, 
 attired in the uniform of one of her national soldiers. 
 
 His place was immediately taken by John O'Reilly, who 
 was second in command under Connolly, Standing six feet 
 and six inches in his socks, O'Reilly was a man of command- 
 
310 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 ing presence and a clever leader. He had the body of his 
 captain taken down into the Council Chamber of the City- 
 Hall, and then set to work to carry out the plans that had 
 been made for the defense of the building. The fall of the 
 leader in no way interfered with the execution of the work 
 that was to be done. It merely made his men the more de- 
 termined that he would not die unavenged. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Republicans had been busy erecting other 
 barricades along the tops of the various small streets that led 
 from the direction of the river into Dame Street. Essex 
 Quay and Wellington Quay were occupied, and a barricade 
 thrown across the foot of Parliament Street so as to command 
 Grattan Bridge. A number of buildings in Fleet Street were 
 also occupied, but these were held only temporarily, owing to 
 the fact that the defenses in the near-by sections were so 
 perfect, and men were wanted elsewhere. 
 
 The attack made on the old Houses of Parliament was not 
 vigorously pressed, probably because the Republicans did not 
 want to expose that historic edifice to the risk of a bombard- 
 ment. The Republicans did, however, drive the EngHsh sen- 
 tries on duty there into the building, and, as they did so, 
 they were greeted by a volley of shots from the gateway of 
 Trinity College, which faces directly up Dame Street and 
 commands the entrances to the Bank (as the Parliament 
 Houses had become). 
 
 Early in the course of the war. Trinity College, a bulwark 
 of the English in Ireland, had established an OflBcers' Training 
 Corps, and it was this force that had fired on the rebels. They 
 had discovered what was being done in the other parts of the 
 city, and had opened their gates to a number of scared British 
 soldiers who were afraid to venture to return to their respec- 
 tive barracks or proceed to the Castle. These men assisted 
 the Training Corps in the defense of the Bank and of the 
 College. Their volley had the effect of driving the rebels up 
 Dame Street, it being realized that any attempt to carry the 
 College by a frontal attack of infantry on the huge iron gates 
 would be little short of suicide. Furthermore, they were ac- 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 311 
 
 complishing all that they desired by keeping the Officers* 
 Training Corps confined to the College along with the British 
 soldiers who had taken refuge there. 
 
 This was the situation of affairs on the south side of the 
 city, so far as the City Hall area was concerned, at four 
 o'clock on Monday afternoon. The Castle was practically in 
 the hands of the Irish, who also held a large area adjoining 
 it and running down to the quays. 
 
CHAPTER XLVIII 
 
 At Boland's Mills 
 
 THE chain of defenses in Ringsend, or the southeastern 
 district of the city, consisted of six main points, under 
 the command of Commandant Edward de Valera, a 
 man whose courage and determination earned for him one of 
 the highest places in the ranks of the men who led the Repub- 
 lican Army during Easter Week. De Valera was born in 
 New York City, his mother being Irish and his father a 
 Spaniard. He went to Ireland to complete his education, and 
 had a brilliant career, graduating from Blackrock College in 
 1904. He later became Professor of Science at Maynooth and 
 of Higher Mathematics at Carysgort Normal College in 
 Dublin. 
 
 Taking a keen interest in literature and art, he soon be- 
 came friendly with Thomas MacDonagh and Padraic Pearse. 
 A fluent speaker of Gaelic, he was a thorough patriot, and his 
 ardent love for Ireland was manifested on more than one 
 occasion in the perilous and dangerous period prior to the 
 insurrection. Although an American citizen, he was trans- 
 parently sincere and disinterested in his love for his mother's 
 native land, and, when he joined the Volunteers, he threw 
 himself into the work with so much fervor that he soon rose 
 to a position of responsibility. A tall, dark man, with many 
 traits of his father in his appearance and character, he was 
 very muscular and seemingly did not know the meaning of 
 fear. 
 
 The district to which De Valera had been assigned by Presi- 
 dent Pearse was one of the most important in the area of 
 operations. His main duty was to keep the soldiers in the 
 Beggarsbush Barracks so well occupied that they would be 
 unable to do more than defend themselves. The position 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 313 
 
 approached that of the Castle area at Westland Row Station, 
 which is situated only a block away from the far end of the 
 grounds of Trinity College. This station was the terminal 
 of the Dublin, Wicklow, and Wexford Railway. The entire 
 line of the railroad from the station south to the point where 
 it crossed Lansdowne Road was also in De Valera's hands, 
 and was patrolled constantly by his men during the week of 
 the Rebellion. To appreciate the importance of this fact, 
 it must be mentioned that from the corner of South Lots 
 Road the railroad ran almost alongside and within a stone's 
 throw of the Beggarsbush Barracks, Lansdowne Road being 
 some distance in the rear of the buildings. The possessions 
 of the railroad, therefore, besides commanding that district 
 between Great Brunswick Street and Merrion Square, allowed 
 the Volunteers to dominate one side and the rear of the bar- 
 racks. It likewise rendered the Grand Canal Docks at this 
 point, the Ringsend Gasworks, and the power house prac- 
 tically untenable for the enemy, thus depriving them of three 
 important positions. 
 
 Great Brunswick Street crosses the Grand Canal Basin over 
 a bridge. South of Great Brunswick street is Grand Canal 
 Street. To the west is Clarence Street and on the east is the 
 Grand Canal Quay, facing on the water. Diagonally through 
 this block runs the railroad line, and in the portion between 
 the line and Great Brunswick Street, facing on the canal 
 basin, were situated Boland's Mills. Built of stone and sur- 
 rounded by high walls, and containing a plentiful supply of 
 flour, useful both for barricades and for food, a better im-' 
 pro vised fort would have been very difficult to find. Touch- 
 ing, as it did, on the railroad, and with one side also protected 
 by the canal basin, it was splendidly situated. It was here 
 that De Valera established his headquarters and personally 
 directed the operations. The railroad line, with its stone wall 
 protection, practically formed one long line of trenches, pro- 
 tecting his northern flank from the Mills to Westland Row 
 Station. 
 
 The next point of his defenses approached Stephen's Green 
 
314 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 on the west. This was at the corner of Lower Mount Street 
 and Warrington Place, where a detachment of his men occu- 
 pied Clanwilliam House, a strong building that had been 
 erected when houses were made only of stone. From here 
 the rebels dominated Percy Place and Herbert Place. A 
 block further down and almost alongside the barracks the 
 rebels held the corner of Northumberland Road and Hadding- 
 ton Road, and, still another block further down and in the 
 rear of the Barracks, they held the junction of Northumber- 
 land Road, Pembroke Road, and Lansdowne Road. They 
 were thus able to command every approach to the Barracks. 
 Still further to the south they also held the corner of Pem- 
 broke Road and Shelborne Road alongside the River Dodder. 
 
 It will thus be seen that the entire area was well defended, 
 and it is a matter for surprise when it is known that De Valera 
 had but little more than one hundred men for the entire dis- 
 trict. The manner in which he placed them, and the advan- 
 tage they took of every opportunity afforded for protecting 
 themselves, were the secret of his success. De Valera proved 
 himseK to be a commander of whom any army and any coun- 
 try might be proud. 
 
 Leaving his quarters shortly before noon on Easter Mon- 
 day, De Valera and his men marched direct to Westland Row 
 Station. Here all was bustle and confusion, owing to the 
 influx of the holiday crowds. A train load of visitors from 
 England had just arrived on the boat train, and were being 
 driven away in outside cars and taxis to various parts of the 
 city. Some little interest was manifested when the Volun- 
 teers marched up the carriage way to the upper level of the 
 station, the English visitors being quite interested at seeing 
 the much-discussed Irish Volunteers. When these same Vol- 
 unteers, however, proceeded to clear the station of not only 
 the officials but the remaining visitors also, their interest be- 
 came much keener and far less impersonal. To all protests 
 and inquiries the Volunteers replied that a Republic had been 
 proclaimed, and that the station was being held, and would 
 probably be attacked by the British. The obvious determina- 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 315 
 
 tion of the Volunteers impressed itself on the oflficials and 
 visitors alike, and they lost little time in getting away from 
 the station. 
 
 With the station in his possession, De Valera sent forward 
 a detachment of men along the railroad line, with directions 
 to await him at Boland's Mills. He then proceeded to the 
 Mills with the rest of his men by road. As soon as they had 
 begun the work of establishing themselves there, where they 
 met with no opposition, owing to the fact that the mills were 
 closed on the holiday, he personally took another detachment 
 to the house at the corner of Lower Mount Street, which was 
 also placed in a state of defense. One by one the other points 
 were similarly occupied by the Republicans. 
 
 x\t this time there were a number of English soldiers on the 
 streets, and, while these were watching with amazement the 
 occupation of Clanwilliam House, De Valera personally told 
 one of his men to warn them that a state of war existed and 
 that actual hostilities would be begun within the hour. He 
 took this action owing to his not wishing to take these men 
 prisoners, and also because he had no intention of opening 
 fire until he knew that the enemy were aware of his intentions. 
 
 Shortly before one o'clock the Republican flag was hoisted 
 over Boland's Mills. It had been flying but a few seconds 
 when a solitary shot rang out from the barracks, quickly 
 followed by a number of others. Regarding this as an act of 
 war, the patrols on the railroad replied, and some of the 
 fiercest fighting of the Rebellion began. 
 
 This exchange of courtesies lasted only a little while. The 
 military did not seem to be in any hurry to rout the rebels 
 out of their strongholds, and it was not until late in the even- 
 ing that the first sortie from the beleaguered barracks was 
 made. The sentries on the railroad flashed a signal to Bo- 
 land's Mills that the enemy was preparing to issue in strength 
 from the entrance leading into Northumberland Road, be- 
 tween Haddington Road and Pembroke Road. This warning 
 was, in turn, flashed to the men in the threatened districts, 
 with the result that when the military appeared on the run 
 
316 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 they were met by a terrible cross fire from both comers, shots 
 also being fired from the railroad. A dozen or more of the 
 soliders dropped, and the rest, evidently unaware till then 
 that the rebels were so well posted, withdrew for the time 
 being. 
 
 A few minutes later a second volley from the railroad 
 warned the Irish that another attack was in progress. The 
 military this time had come out into Shelborne Road and, in 
 spite of the fire which greeted them from the railroad, suc- 
 ceeded in getting into Lansdowne Road. From here they 
 charged on the position at Pembroke Road and Northumber- 
 land Road, but the volleys that met them again drove them 
 back. Determined, however, to gain a position outside of the 
 barracks, they again attacked, this time making their way 
 along the Shelborne Road to the Dodder, where they attacked 
 the section at that point, while their comrades also kept up 
 a fire on the position at the Pembroke Road. 
 
 Throwing themselves flat on the streets, the military began 
 a general engagement against these two points. Little by 
 little they were able to creep closer to the Clyde Road posi- 
 tion, and after the engagement had been in progress for over 
 half an hour, the rebels at this point were forced to retire, 
 owing to the difficulty of obtaining supplies of ammunition 
 from the men at the other corner, who were also engaged with 
 the military. As the Clyde Road position was merely an 
 advanced line, its loss was not of importance, and the men 
 retired up Elgin Road and then through Raglan Road into 
 Pembroke Road, where they were able to join hands with 
 their comrades. 
 
 The British, however, were apparently of the opinion that 
 they had gained an important victory, and they thereupon 
 dashed forward to continue their success. But they were 
 met with so withering a fire from the men in the reinforced 
 position at Pembroke and Northumberland Roads that they 
 fled back after suffering heavy losses. So severe was the 
 rebuff that the Irish might possibly have been able to retake 
 their advanced position, but they were content to hold the 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 317 
 
 enemy in check from their stronger position. A half-hearted 
 attack was made by the British a little later, but this was 
 also met with determined opposition, and the engagement 
 became a contest between snipers. Thus the night passed in 
 this sector of the operations. 
 
 Away up beyond the Castle and the Liberties and close to 
 Kilmainham, was situated the South Dublin Union — an ex- 
 tensive group of buildings, bounded on the south by the 
 Grand Canal, on the west by Row Road, on the north by 
 James Street, and on the east by the City Basin connecting 
 with the canal. On the northeast, touching that side of the 
 City Basin, were some of the buildings of Guinness 's Brewery. 
 It was this position that the Volunteers, under the command 
 of Eamonn Ceannt, occupied shortly after noon on Monday. 
 It was the most westerly position occupied by the RepubUcan 
 Army in Dublin, and, unlike the other positions that have 
 been described, was practically isolated, not being supported 
 by a chain of other positions in the vicinity. On this account 
 the position was decidedly weaker than any of the others, and 
 was also rendered less easy to hold owing to the fact that 
 there were a large number of aged and more or less infirm 
 inmates in the buildings, which prevented the rebels taking 
 possession of the latter, as they had no desire to render them 
 liable to the fire of the enemy. As will later be seen, that 
 enemy was actuated by no such scruples. 
 
 It was at this point that one of the earliest engagements 
 took place between the British and the Irish. According to 
 instructions received the previous day, the third Royal Irish 
 Regiment was on its way east to report for duty at the Castle, 
 when information was received by a motorcyclist messenger 
 that the city was in the hands of the Irish, and that they 
 were wanted immediately. At that time they were going into 
 the city along Kilmainham Road into James Street, and the 
 officers in charge immediately ordered the men to increase their 
 pf-;e. It may be well to mention, in passing, that this regi- 
 ment, like many others with similar titles, was composed mainly 
 of Britishers, the only thing Irish about it being the name. 
 
318 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Eamonn Ceannt, in anticipation of the arrival of troops 
 from Kilmainham, had thrown a patrol across Row Road, 
 and it was not long before his scouts reported that a very 
 large body of the British was advancing at a rapid pace. 
 The rebels deployed on each side of the road and awaited 
 the arrival of the enemy. But the enemy, in this case, was 
 a trifle more cautious than the soldiers in Beggarsbush Bar- 
 racks, and soon an advance guard engagement was being 
 fought between the opposing forces. 
 
 An entire regiment of the enemy being engaged, it was 
 easily possible for the British to hold the road and at the 
 same time to send forces into Row Lane, a little to the north 
 of that point and with an exit below the point defended by 
 the Irish. This attempt to take them in the flank was vigor- 
 ously resisted by the rebels, who held their positions for over 
 an hou^ before being driven to fall back by sheer weight of 
 numbers. They then retreated in good order on their base, 
 the Union buildings, and were followed step by step by the 
 British. Once close to their base, however, they were able 
 to offer a more stubborn resistance and eventually halted the 
 advance. In the fighting there had been severe losses on the 
 side of the British, which was but to be expected owing to 
 the fact that the Volunteers were constantly on the defensive 
 and better able to take advantage of all the cover that of- 
 fered. They were able also to hold their own during the rest 
 of the day, and, owing to the gravity of the situation, the 
 officer commanding the regiment decided that he would not 
 be able to advance until he had subdued the rebels in this 
 quarter. So that Commandant Ceannt succeeded in at least 
 holding for the time being one regiment from the attack on 
 the central positions held by the other leaders. 
 
 The foregoing chapters will give the reader some idea of 
 the manner in which the Volunteers established themselves 
 in the southern part of the city. Even the brief details given 
 will have convinced the reader that the plans were remarkably 
 thorough. By Easter Monday evening they had taken pos- 
 session of a line of defenses which stretched from the canal 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 319 
 
 to the Castle, and from the Castle to Ringsend. In addition 
 they held many other important positions, practically all of 
 which have been mentioned. 
 
 It is now time to turn to the northern side and see what 
 was taking place there. 
 
CHAPTER XLIX 
 
 The Post Office Area 
 
 SOME details have been already given regarding the posi- 
 tion occupied by the Republicans in the General Post 
 Office in O'Connell Street. The Post Office was made 
 the headquarters of the Irish. Here the President and the 
 Commandant of the Dublin troops were quartered along with 
 a number of their staff officers. Here they received their re- 
 ports from all the other sections of the city that were in the 
 hands of the insurgents, and it was but natural that this 
 point should be the center of a chain of other positions so 
 that it might be the more efficiently guarded. 
 
 O'Connell Street, called by the English Sackville Street, 
 has long been reputed one of the finest streets in Europe. 
 It is remarkable for its breadth, being more than twice as 
 broad as Fifth Avenue, New York City. It is, however, 
 only about twenty city blocks in length, running from the 
 River Liffey to the Rotunda, which stands at the corner of 
 Parnell Street (formerly Great Britain Street) and Cavendish 
 Row. Parnell Street runs across the top of O'Connell Street 
 east and west, forming the boundary between O'Connell 
 Street and Cavendish Row. 
 
 On the south side of the Post Office is Prince's Street, a 
 small narrow thoroughfare that extends only a few yards 
 before degenerating into a mere alley. The Metropole Hotel 
 stood at the corner facing O'Connell Street, and just below 
 it was the office of The Freeman's Journal, Redmond's official 
 newspaper. At the next corner, a little further up, is Middle 
 Abbey Street, the journalistic Mecca of the city. Abbey 
 Street extends west from O'Connell Street, and on the other 
 side, extending east, is Lower Abbey Street. A block further 
 south the street comes to an end at O'Connell Bridge, formerly 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 321 
 
 called Carlisle Bridge. The statue of O'Connell, at the end 
 of the street and facing south over the bridge, is one of the 
 finest pieces of sculpture in the city. Extending west from 
 the bridge is Bachelor's Walk, with which the reader is 
 already acquainted. Above Bachelor's Walk, running along- 
 side the river, is Ormond Quay, and then King's Inn Quay, 
 on which face the Four Courts. East from the Bridge is 
 Eden Quay, running to Beresford Place; then Custom House 
 Quay, on which faces the Custom House, and below this the 
 North Wall, running the rest of the way to the sea. Below 
 O'Connell Bridge, the river is spanned by the Butt Bridge, 
 running into Beresford Place, and the huge and unsightly 
 railroad loop bridge carrying the line from Tara Street Station, 
 which is just below Westland Row, north over the river to 
 Amiens Street Station, where connection is made with the 
 Great Northern Railway, for the north of Ireland. Above 
 O'Connell Bridge may be seen the Metal Bridge, connecting 
 with Liffey Street, which runs into Middle Abbey Street; 
 Grattan Bridge, connecting Capel Street and Parliament 
 Street; Richmond Bridge, just east of the Four Courts; 
 Whitworth Bridge, just west of the Four Courts; Queen's 
 Bridge, Barrack Bridge, and King's Bridge, which is close to 
 the Phoenix Park and just below the Kingsbridge Railway 
 Station. 
 
 The Post Office Area extended from the river to Parnell 
 Street in the north, to Beresford Place in the east, and to 
 Capel Street in the west, where it adjoined the Four Courts 
 area. Liberty Hall, being in Beresford Place, opposite the 
 Custom House, was in this area, and Amiens Street Station 
 was also included. This sector comprised the very heart of 
 the city. Beresford Place was one of the largest open spaces, 
 not a park, to be found in the city. Liberty Hall, the head- 
 quarters of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, 
 was situated in an old building just around the corner from 
 Eden Quay. Several other buildings intervened between 
 Liberty Hall and Lower Abbey Street. 
 
 The Volunteers took possession, on Monday morning, of 
 
322 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 the building over Hopkins' jewelry store at the corner of 
 O'Connell Street and Eden Quay. At the same time they 
 occupied Kelly's Fort, on the opposite corner of O'Connell 
 Street and Bachelor's Walk. This latter place was a three- 
 storied building given over to an extensive trade in rifles, 
 ammunition, pistols, and similar goods, for sporting and 
 military use. The two positions enabled the Republicans to 
 command the approaches to O'Connell Bridge from the 
 south. 
 
 Some sixty yards below the corner of O'Connell Street in 
 Middle Abbey Street were the offices of The Evening Tele- 
 graph, the afternoon edition of The Freeman s Journal. These 
 offices extended right back to Prince's Street, where the front 
 door was labeled with the name of The Freeman^s Journal, 
 At almost the same time when the Republicans took posses- 
 sion of the Post Office, another section of Volunteers marched 
 into the office of The Freeman^s Journal. As they entered 
 the dingy archway, and passed on into the dark and dirty 
 interior, the occupants ran out of the Telegraph offices in 
 Middle Abbey Street. 
 
 The retreat of the occupants of the Freeman office w^as 
 quickly followed by the Volunteers taking complete possession 
 of the building right through to Middle Abbey Street. While 
 that portion of the building was of little use excepting to 
 prevent a possible charge on the entrances to the Post Office, 
 the Telegraph office in Middle Abbey Street was certainly 
 valuable, and the long narrow building presented an excellent 
 line of retreat should such be required. It also made it 
 possible for messengers to take dispatches into the Post 
 Office from Middle Abbey Street. 
 
 The building at the corner of Middle Abbey Street and 
 O'Connell Street, together with Eason's Library, was also 
 occupied for the purpose of defense against an attack from 
 the bridge. These points, together with the points occupied 
 on the opposite corner, where Lower Abbey Street ran into 
 O'Connell Street, were the second line of defense to the Post 
 Office. Chief among the points occupied at this corner was 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 323 
 
 the Hibernian Bank, a strong stone building that offered 
 excellent facilities for defense. 
 
 We have already mentioned the erection of the barricade 
 at the corner of North Earl Street, just north of the Post 
 Office. Another of these obstacles was built in Talbot 
 Street, the continuation of North Earl Street, halfway down 
 to Amiens Street Station. A barricade was also erected at 
 the junction of Henry Street and Denmark Street. In line 
 with this was another barricade at the corner of Middle 
 Abbey Street and Liffey Street. Another first line defense 
 was set up at the corner of Mary Street and Jervis Street. 
 A guard was also placed on the Metal Bridge to prevent an 
 attack from the south side. Communication was thus made 
 with the rebels in the Four Courts area. 
 
 The entire length of O'Connell Street was patroled by the 
 Irish, from O'Connell Bridge to the Parnell Monument, but, 
 owing to the small number of men available, it was not 
 considered practicable to hold Parnell Street, as had been 
 the original intention. There was an excellent reason why 
 the Irish did not take possession of the Rotunda. Next to 
 the building was the Rotunda Hospital, and the Irish, with 
 ready sympathy, did not wish to endanger the lives of the 
 patients. 
 
 Amiens Street Station, situated at the far end of Talbot 
 Street, was the terminal of the Great Northern Railroad. 
 This point was taken by the insurgents at an early hour on 
 Monday. The station is built on an eminence, and is ap- 
 proached by an inclined carriage way on the south, and by 
 steep stone stairways on the west facing Talbot Street. The 
 station is large and well built and is protected by a stone wall 
 on the east. Its possession placed in the hands of the Irish 
 the terminal for all of the trains from Belfast and the north. 
 
 On taking possession of the station and ejecting the officials, 
 the Republicans sent out patrols along the railroad line, 
 which for some distance is built on a viaduct. The loop line 
 from Tara Street Station connects with the main line just 
 below Seville Place, and the connecting line of the Midland 
 
3£4 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 and Great Western Railway cuts a short distance higher up. 
 Had there been sufficient men to hold these positions and at 
 the same time allow the moving of men from one point to 
 another, the loop line from Amiens Street to Tara Street 
 would have formed an excellent means of communication 
 with the Boland's Mills area. Owing, however, to the fact 
 that Tara Street Station could not be properly occupied, this 
 means of communication was rendered precarious. In this 
 instance, as in a thousand others, the fatal countermanding 
 order of Eoin MacNeill crippled the plan of campaign. 
 
 Towards evening, owing to the vigilance of the sentries on 
 duty, it was observed that a detachment of cavalry was 
 attempting to make its way from the North Wall towards 
 the northern end of the city. It was noticed that they were 
 conveying ammunition, and a message was immediately sent 
 to the Post Office to this effect. Connolly dispatched a 
 company of men to intercept the British, and they succeeded 
 in locating them and holding them up in Charles Street, near 
 the Four Courts. In spite of the fact that the British were 
 superior in numbers, they preferred to park their ammunition 
 and allow themselves to be surrounded. A battle ensued, 
 without either side making a charge. It was discovered that 
 the British consisted of 150 men of the Sixth Reserve Cavalry 
 Regiment, in charge of four officers. The Republicans con- 
 sisted of fewer then fifty men, but they occupied every possible 
 point about the British, and their shooting was so excellent 
 that the enemy did not dare to try conclusions, but retreated, 
 leaving their dead and ammunition behind them. The 
 shooting of the Irish continued deadly, and the ranks of the 
 British were considerably thinned as the retreat progressed. 
 Owing to their great numerical inferiority, the Irish were 
 unable to follow up their advantage fully. They had the 
 satisfaction of knowing, however, that, early in the engage- 
 ment, the officer commanding the convoy was shot dead. 
 Owing to the better cover they had selected, the Irish loss 
 was out of all proportion to that of the enemy. One of the 
 first to fall in the ranks of the Irish was Patrick Kavanagh, 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 325 
 
 a Dublin man and a crack shot. He was sighting his rifle 
 when a bullet struck him right between the eyes, killing him 
 instantly. Others who fell during the opening of this engage- 
 ment were James McGuire, of Terenure, William MacDonald, 
 of Clontarf , and William MacGuinness, of Cork, who had been 
 for some years in Dublin and was one of the most ardent 
 members of the Volunteers. 
 
 During Monday night some shots were exchanged between 
 the men on guard at O'Connell Bridge and some of the 
 British from Trinity College. These were merely sniping 
 encounters, however, and the night in this section passed in 
 comparative quiet. Shortly after midnight word was received 
 at Liberty Hall that a large number of the British were 
 advancing along the North Wall towards the Custom House. 
 Preparations were immediately made to receive them, and a 
 patrol sent out to hold them in check. 
 
CHAPTER L 
 
 The Four Courts 
 
 THERE is just one more area of the defenses of 
 Dublin that remains to be considered. This is the 
 line that stretched from the Four Courts along Con- 
 stitution Hill to the Broadstone Railway Station, and thence 
 along Broadstone Road and the bank of the Royal Canal to 
 the North Circular Road. This line may be taken to repre- 
 sent fairly accurately the northwestern line of trenches set 
 up by the Republicans. 
 
 The Four Courts — comprising the four courts of Exchequer, 
 Common Pleas, Chancery, and King's Bench — are a square 
 block of buildings, in classic style, lying half a mile up the 
 line of quays along the Liffey from Bachelor's Walk. The 
 building dates from 1796, the site being that on which a 
 thirteenth-century convent had once stood. The building is 
 of hard stone, and presented an admirable position both for 
 defense and offense. 
 
 On each side of the Four Courts the river is spanned by a 
 bridge — Richmond Bridge on the east and Whitworth 
 Bridge on the west. Whitworth Bridge leads directly to 
 Merchants' Quay on the south side, and thence, by Wine- 
 tavern Street and Lord Edward Street, to the Castle. Just 
 east of the Four Courts is Charles Street, where the convoy 
 from the North Wall was held up and captured, as already 
 mentioned. On the other side was Church Street, while to 
 the rear of the building extend a number of small streets 
 running north. 
 
 The area in the rear of the Four Courts is one of the most 
 closely populated in the city. Its inhabitants comprise those 
 who had the most reasons to be in favor of the Republicans. 
 They were Irish men and women compelled to live in poverty. 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 327 
 
 and oftentimes in squalor, that a benevolent Government 
 might be the better able to show a profit on its business with 
 Ireland during each fiscal year. Thanks to the noble work 
 of the Franciscan friars, who labor in this district, great 
 improvements have been brought about among the poor of 
 this locality, but with improvement and enlightenment had 
 also come a realization of the truth, and the seeds of nation- 
 alism had taken deep root there and flourished. 
 
 Running almost directly north from the back of the Four 
 Courts were Church Street and Beresford Street, and a little 
 to the east of these were Anne Street, Halston Street, and 
 Green Street. All of these five streets ran into King Street. 
 From King Street, almost in a line with the Four Courts, 
 was Coleraine Street. This latter formed the western bound- 
 ary of the Linen Hall Barracks. Back of the barracks were 
 the gardens of Queen's Inns, to the west of which, as a 
 continuation of Coleraine Street, was Constitution Hill. A 
 little further north Constitution Hill branches in two, one 
 end running northeast up to Dominick Street and the 
 Viaduct, direct to the Broadstone Station; the other, branch- 
 ing northwest, runs under the Viaduct to Phibsboro Road, 
 which leads to Glasnevin. A flight of steps enables pedes- 
 trians to get from this section of the street up to the Station. 
 
 It is of importance to note that the Viaduct over the road 
 at this point gave any soldiers who occupied it a complete 
 command of Constitution Hill as far as its junction with 
 Coleraine Street. The Viaduct was constructed of white 
 hard stone, and a parapet, which runs the entire lengt,h of 
 the side facing Constitution Hill, makes it possible for a line 
 of riflemen to hold the position against almost any odds. 
 A similar force posted at the top of Dominick Street also 
 made it possible to hold this approach to the Station, as well 
 as the carriage way from Mountjoy Street. At the western 
 end of the Viaduct, which was only the length of a city 
 block, was the Station, also made of stone and capable of 
 being defended with sufficient men for any length of time. 
 
 Close to the Dominick Street entrance to the Viaduct, and 
 
328 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 on the northern side, is a low wall, and at the western end of 
 this a narrow entrance. This leads to the bank of the Royal 
 Canal. At this end of the canal is the City Basin, one of 
 the terminals of the canal. From this the canal runs in a 
 direct line for a distance of about half a mile to Blaquir 
 Bridge, where the canal is spanned by the North Circular 
 Road. Blaquir Bridge is the boundary line between Phibs- 
 boro and the city proper. Halfway down the canal a small 
 span bridge crosses from Geraldine Street, but, with this 
 exception, there is no approach to the western side of the 
 canal between Broadstone Station and Blaquir Bridge. 
 
 From the Four Courts to Blaquir Bridge, if we take into 
 account the windings of the streets, is nearly two miles. It 
 was this line that the Republicans set out to defend. As 
 has been shown, this area included the Linen Hall Barracks, 
 which the rebels surrounded, and the line acted as a barrier 
 between the center of the city and the Royal Barracks, the 
 Constabulary Barracks, and the Marlborough Barracks. It 
 prevented the British from these three centers concentrating 
 on the Post Office and O'Connell Street. The holding of 
 the Broadstone Station also prevented the enemy moving 
 troops into the city from the Galway route. The line of 
 defense was crossed by innumerable small and narrow streets, 
 which made the movement of cavalry, artillery, or large bodies 
 of troops practically impossible. The only routes by which 
 these could be transferred from one side of the line to the 
 other were along the North Circular Road from the Phoenix 
 Park, along the line of quays, and possibly along North King 
 Street and King Street into Bolton and Capel Streets. In 
 order to guard against these routes being used by the enemy, 
 barricades were erected at important points, the chief of 
 these being at Blaquir Bridge, across the North Circular 
 Road, just above Dunphy's (or Doyle's) Corner. 
 
 This, then, constituted the western line of the defenses, which 
 was under the command of Edward Daly. At the time that 
 these positions were being occupied, a company of the Republi- 
 cans was marching along the northern line of quays in the di- 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 
 
 rection of Phoenix Park. Their intention was to deliver an at- 
 tack on the Magazine Fort, situated in the Park on a small hill 
 overlooking the Liffey on the south and the city on the east. 
 
 The fort was a comparatively modern structure, built of 
 stone and in such a position that it menaced every side of the 
 city. For many years prior to the rising the men of the 
 I. R. B. had made various plans for the leveling of this 
 monument of British authority in the land. In addition to 
 the fact that it was so placed as to command every building 
 in the city, it was also the resort of a number of undesirable 
 individuals, and constituted a moral plague spot during the 
 summer months. It was conceded that the only way in 
 which the fort could be captured was by a surprise while the 
 gates were open or by a prolonged siege, and it was scarcely 
 possible for the Irish at that time to secure sufficient heavy 
 artillery to batter its walls to pieces. 
 
 At the time that the Volunteers, accompanied by some 
 members of the Citizen Army, marched against the fort, few 
 of those who saw them passing up the quays realized their 
 errand. At this time the attack was proceeding on the Post 
 Office, but the news had not yet traveled as far as the Park. 
 The people who saw the Volunteers swinging into the park, 
 therefore, took little or no notice of them. 
 
 The men advanced into the broad carriage way, leaving 
 the People's Gardens on their right. After a few more 
 minutes' march, a detachment of the men branched off near 
 the Gough Monument, one of the ugliest in the city, while 
 the other continued along the carriage way. The smaller 
 detachment continued to bear to the left until it came to the 
 narrow path that led to the south side of the fort. The other 
 branched off to the left also and approached the fort across 
 the fields. The foot of the hill on the top of which rested 
 the fort was masked in low foliage which rose on either side 
 of the path. Here the men waited until they were certain 
 that their comrades who had taken the other route had had 
 time to get into position on the other side. Then occurred 
 one of the most daring episodes of the Rebellion. 
 
330 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Three of the Volunteers marched up the hill towards the 
 door of the fort, in as unconcerned a manner as visitors fresh 
 from the country. Their comrades remained under cover, 
 watching every movement in the vicinity of the fort. The 
 three arrived at the gateway and, finding it open, marched 
 through. The sentry inside eyed them with more or less 
 indifference. The "visitors" asked if the commanding officer 
 was inside, and, receiving the reply that he was not, was 
 asked who was taking his place. The name of an officer was 
 mentioned. On being asked where this officer could be found, 
 the sentry inquired their business, and was too surprised for a 
 moment to frame a reply when he was told by the three men 
 that they had come to demand the surrender of the fort in 
 the name of the Irish Republic. When at last he grasped 
 the meaning of the words, he laughed and asked what the 
 joke was. 
 
 "It is not a joke," was the serious reply. "The Volunteers 
 have established a Republic in the city; every point of 
 importance, including the Castle, is in our hands, and we 
 want the surrender of this fort in order to avoid a great deal 
 of unnecessary bloodshed." 
 
 Probably thinking that he was dealing with three harmless 
 lunatics or practical jokers, the sentry told them that they 
 were not doing any surrendering that day, as it was a holiday. 
 But when a revolver was brought into unpleasant proximity 
 with his breast, he decided that the joke was a serious one. 
 He was told that his life would be quite safe provided that 
 he made no attempt to resist, and his rifle was taken from 
 him while he was still undecided whether to submit or to 
 die the death of a hero. Meanwhile one of the three waved 
 a handkerchief as a signal to his comrades outside. The 
 entire attacking force advanced up the slopes to the fort at a 
 run. 
 
 It was at this time that someone inside the fort noticed 
 that something peculiar was taking place at the outer gate. 
 He sauntered over, and was immediately covered with half 
 a dozen rifles. Placing guards over the two prisoners, the 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 331 
 
 Volunteers rushed into the fort, and within a couple of 
 minutes it was in their hands. The attack was a complete 
 surprise, and the soldiers in the fort were disarmed and 
 imprisoned in one of their own dormitories before they had 
 had time to assimilate the idea that there was really a revolu- 
 tion in being. 
 
 It had been the intention of the Volunteers to blow up the 
 fort, but the dynamite was not available, so they allowed the 
 soldiers to remain in their dormitory while they destroyed 
 the locks of every piece of artillery in the place. They then 
 collected all the small arms and ammunition they were able 
 to find, and, having parceled this among their number, 
 prepared to leave the fort. It was of no importance now 
 that the artillery it contained had been rendered useless, 
 and they had secured their end also in capturing the stores 
 with which the fort was stocked. 
 
 So quietly had the whole incident been carried out that 
 scores of people in the immediate vicinity at the time knew 
 nothing of what had taken place, until they saw the Volun- 
 teers marching out of the fort, laden with the spoils of victory. 
 Every man was carrying at least a couple of rifles, and 
 several bandoliers of cartridges, and, as they swung out 
 through the gateway and down the slopes to the paths, 
 the significance of what was taking place began to dawn on 
 the observers. It was only then that someone noticed that the 
 Union Jack was no longer flying from the flagpole. The 
 marching Volunteers were crowded on all sides as they 
 marched back to the carriage way, and to all who questioned 
 them they replied that Ireland was in rebellion and that they 
 had captured the Magazine Fort and taken away all the 
 rifles and ammunition it contained. 
 
 The victorious little company was unmolested in its march 
 down the quays. Here the Four Courts were being occupied, 
 and people were standing in dense crowds outside on the 
 quay, watching the men inside putting the place into condi- 
 tion to withstand attack. All the windows were smashed, 
 and thousands of bulky volumes of the law were placed 
 
332 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 behind the windows to form barricades. Sentries had already 
 been posted on the roof, and the occupation of the entire line 
 all the way to Balquir Bridge was in active progress. 
 
 It was at this moment that the men who had taken the 
 Magazine Fort arrived. The crowd immediately made a 
 path for them, and they marched through the main entrance 
 into the building to the accompaniment of rousing cheers 
 from their comrades. The rifles and ammunition they had 
 captured were sorely needed, and arrangements were at once 
 made for the transfer of some of it to the men who were 
 forming the line to Phibsboro. At this time the sound of 
 shooting across the river told the watchers that the Rebellion 
 had broken out there also, and that the attack on the Castle 
 was in progress. 
 
 The foregoing chapters will give the reader some idea of 
 the manner in which the Irish took possession of the points 
 of vantage throughout the city on the first day of the rising. 
 The two outstanding facts of the events of the first day are 
 that the Irish had laid their plans with superb skill, and that 
 the British, who had other plans made, were so confused at 
 the manner in which they had been forestalled that they 
 were unable to prevent the plans of the rebels being carried 
 out practically in their entirety. In a line stretching from 
 Ringsend to Portobello Bridge and thence to the South 
 Dublin Union, from Liberty Hall and Amiens Street to 
 Fairview, from the Post Office to the Four Courts, and from 
 the Four Courts up to Phibsboro, the Republicans held a 
 ring around the city. 
 
 Above all else the Irish had demonstrated that the British 
 positions were not impregnable; that the English soldiery 
 were not so terrible as they had tried to make the people 
 believe, and that, given approximately equal numbers and a 
 fair field, their term of oppression in Ireland would come to 
 an end. 
 
CHAPTER LI 
 
 The British Scared 
 
 IT has already been pointed out that the British Govern- 
 ment had, through its representatives in Ireland, ar- 
 ranged to hold a pogrom on Easter Monday in Dublin. 
 At the same time, it was not inclined to take any chances. 
 Its idea was to flood the city with armed soldiers, and, know- 
 ing that the Irish were certain to resist, to shoot them down 
 in cold blood and thus put an end at once to the Volunteers 
 and the Citizen Army. 
 
 Should there be anyone who doubts that the above state- 
 ments are correct, the following extract from the report of 
 the Hardinge Commission will convince him. After referring 
 to the conferences which were held at Dublin Castle on Easter 
 Saturday and Easter Sunday, and which have already been 
 detailed, the report continues: 
 
 It was eventually decided that the proper course was to arrest all 
 the leaders of the movement, there being by this time clear evidence 
 of their *' hostile association," but it was agreed that, before this 
 could be safely done, military preparations sufficient to overawe 
 armed opposition should be secured. 
 
 Early in the morning of the 24th April the Chief Secretary's con- 
 currence with the proposed arrest and internment in England of 
 the hostile leaders was asked for and obtained, but before any fur- 
 ther effective steps could be taken the insurrection had broken out, 
 and by noon many portions of the City of Dublin had been simul- 
 taneously occupied by rebellious armed forces. 
 
 There have been found many people, including some 
 patriotic Irishmen, who have in all sincerity expressed the 
 opinion that the Rebellion was rashly planned and ill-timed. 
 They hold that it would have been better to have waited for 
 a more opportune time, when the men could have been again 
 
334 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 mobilized and would have been better armed. They pointed 
 out that the total number of men fighting under the Repub- 
 lican colors did not far exceed 1200, and that they had no 
 chance against the superior and better armed forces of the 
 British. Of these 1200 not more than one-half were effec- 
 tively armed, and a certain proportion carried practically no 
 weapons that were effective against modern rifles. These 
 things are undoubtedly true, but these well-meaning critics 
 apparently do not give proper consideration to the circum- 
 stances which compelled the men to fight. Had they made 
 any attempt to postpone the rising, they would have been 
 shot down in the streets or in their own houses, whereas, by 
 rising when they did, they were at least able to put up some 
 resistance and to demonstrate that the soul of Ireland still 
 lived and throbbed as it did in every previous generation. 
 Only the fact that they had positive information of the plot 
 that the military had hatched forced them to strike when 
 they did. That this information was absolutely correct, is 
 shown beyond a doubt by the extract from the finding of 
 the British Commission just quoted. 
 
 As a simple matter of fact, the rebels rose not a moment 
 too soon. The police had already been taken from the 
 streets in order that they would not interfere with the opera- 
 tions of the military. Close on 2500 British troops were at 
 that time quartered in the city, and the military authorities 
 were but awaiting the arrival of other troops from the Curragh, 
 which had already been sent for, to put their plans into actual 
 operation. They had planned to strike late in the evening, 
 when they could take at least some of the men in their beds, 
 and, having planted the troops in every quarter of the city, 
 to inaugurate a reign of terror by shooting every man who 
 refused to go along quietly and submit to arrest and dis- 
 armament. 
 
 As showing that these preparations had been made and 
 that troops had been ordered from the Curragh — a fact which 
 the British apologists are most anxious to deny — there are 
 also two little admissions, simple in themselves but signifi- 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 335 
 
 cant in conjunction with the other facts which have been 
 mentioned. These facts show, in very clear fashion, that the 
 British were in the act of making their final preparations 
 when the Rebellion broke out and forestalled them in the 
 nick of time. The first of these admissions is contained in 
 the official report forwarded to Lord Kitchener by Field- 
 Marshall Sir John French, the Commander in Chief of the 
 Home Forces, to which position he had been assigned after his 
 removal from his post in France. French wrote as follows: 
 
 It wiU be observed that the Rebellion broke out in Dublin at 
 12:15 P.M. on April 24th, and that by 5:20 p.m. on the same after- 
 noon a considerable force from the Curragh had arrived in Dublin 
 to reinforce the garrison, and other troops were on their way from 
 Athlone, Belfast, and Templemore. The celerity with which these 
 reinforcements became available says much for the arrangements which 
 had been made to meet such a contingency. 
 
 The other admission is that made by Sir John Maxwell, 
 the man who took charge of the operations for the British 
 on April 28th, in the course of a report in which he says that 
 an inlying picket of 400 was being held in readiness at the 
 very moment that the Rebellion broke out. This is con- 
 tained in his report on the operations made to Sir John 
 French. 
 
 At the time of the Rebellion the headquarters of the mili- 
 tary were located in the Royal Hospital, which is situated at 
 Kilmainham on the south side of the river, some little dis- 
 tance north and west of the South Dublin Union. General 
 Field, who was in command of the British troops in Ireland, 
 was on short leave in England at the time, it being considered 
 better that an inferior officer should have control of the po- 
 grom operations in view of a possible later "inquiry.'* In 
 addition. Colonel Kennard, the Dublin Garrison commander, 
 was for the same reason also out of the city. A number of 
 other officers had gone for an hour or two to the races at 
 Leopardstown in order to prepare themselves for the work 
 of the night. 
 
336 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 At fifteen minutes after noon on Easter Monday morning 
 a telephone message was received at the Royal Hospital from 
 the Dublin Metropolitan Police stating that Dublin Castle 
 had been attacked by "armed Sinn Feiners." The news was 
 received with incredulity, but it was immediately confirmed 
 by another telephone message, this time from the Dublin 
 Garrison Adjutant. This officer reported that the attack on 
 the Castle was in full swing, and that he had received in- 
 formation to the effect that the rebels had also attacked 
 the Post Office in "Sackville" Street. He said that, in the 
 absence of his chief, he had taken upon himself the respon- 
 sibility of ordering all the available troops at Portobello, 
 Richmond, and the Royal Barracks to proceed to the relief 
 of the Castle, and had also ordered the Sixth Reserve Cavalry 
 Regiment to proceed to the Post Office. 
 
 It has already been stated that the number of Republicans 
 probably did not exceed 1200. At the moment that the 
 Rebellion broke out, there were more than double that num- 
 ber of British soldiers in the city itself, every one of whom 
 was efficiently armed and was a trained soldier. It was 
 stated by men who were in a good position to judge that 
 there were close on 4000 British troops in the city at the 
 time. Whether this was the case or not, is not of material 
 importance. The British official reports admit to over 2400, 
 or in the ratio of two to one against the Irish. These troops 
 were, according to these official reports, the Sixth Reserve 
 Cavalry Regiment (35 officers and 851 other ranks); the 
 Third Royal Irish Regiment (18 officers and 385 other ranks); 
 the Tenth Royal Dublin Fusiliers (37 officers and 430 other 
 ranks), and the Third Royal Irish Rifles (21 officers and 
 650 other ranks). There were thus in Dublin 111 officers 
 and 2316 other ranks, or a grand total of 2427. Against 
 these were pitted 1200 Irish Volunteers, not eighty per cent 
 of whom were armed. 
 
 Fifteen minutes after the receipt of the first notification of 
 the Rebellion, a telephone message was dispatched to the 
 General Officer Commanding at the Curragh ordering him 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 337 
 
 to mobilize the mobile column, which consisted of 1600 
 oflScers and men, mider the command of Colonel Portal. The 
 official dispatches, which have already been mentioned, add 
 the significant statement that these troops had already been 
 "arranged for to meet any emergency." As a matter of 
 fact, this column had been ordered mobilized the previous 
 day in order to take part in the pogrom, and was to have 
 arrived in Dublin on the evening train at Kingsbridge. 
 
 Following the sending of this message, the telephone serv- 
 ice became practically useless, owing to the fact that the 
 rebels had cut the wires at various points, as well as taking 
 over the control of the switchboards at the General Post 
 Office. This rather disarranged the plans of the British, and 
 a condition approaching panic became noticeable. They had 
 no exact knowledge of the force arrayed against them, be- 
 yond the fact that it was greatly inferior to their own. 
 Through indirect sources they learned that the Republicans 
 had seized the Four Courts and Jacob's Biscuit Factory. 
 Close on the heels of this information came the report that 
 the cavalry had suffered a severe repulse in O'Connell Street 
 and that the Castle had been taken. While they were still 
 trying to grasp the meaning of these ominous tidings, a 
 breathless messsenger arrived with the added news that the 
 Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park had been captured, and 
 that Stephen's Green was said to have been occupied by the 
 Volunteers. 
 
 For over half an hour the military were in hopeless con- 
 fusion. Each new report added a still more sinister aspect 
 to the situation, and fears were expressed that the Republi- 
 cans meant to carry out the very programme that had been 
 arranged by the British — in other words that it was the in- 
 tention of the Sinn Feiners to massacre all the British soldiers, 
 with the single difference that the massacre was to be con- 
 ducted in broad daylight instead of in the hours of the night. 
 
 One of the younger officers offered a possible solution of the 
 problem. It was, he pointed out, essential that they should 
 be able to get a message to London without a minute's un- 
 
338 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 necessary loss of time, telling Kitchener of their peril. The 
 best manner, he said, in which this could be done was to 
 send a message to the Naval Station at Kingstown, where 
 it could be relayed by wireless to London. He offered to 
 take this message himself, and his offer was immediately ac- 
 cepted. It is worthy of note that his action was so far 
 ignored later that his name was not even mentioned in dis- 
 patches. 
 
 Doffing his military uniform and attired in his civilian 
 clothes, the young officer secured a bicycle and, with the 
 written message in his hat, started on his lengthy journey. 
 He rode past the South Dublin Union, where he saw the 
 Volunteers under Eamonn Ceannt making preparations for 
 defense, but they, thinking he was a civilian, allowed him 
 to pass unchallenged. He crossed the canal at Harcourt 
 Bridge, and then, making a detour, passed the Crumlin 
 quarry and thence out to Rathmines, from which place he 
 proceeded to Kingstown. Here he delivered his message at 
 the Naval Station, whence it was transmitted to the War 
 Office at London. The news that a Republic had been pro- 
 claimed in Dublin thus reached the ears of Lord Kitchener, 
 who lost no time in making preparations to meet the situa- 
 tion. 
 
 It is a coincidence worthy of note that General Friend was 
 in London at the time that the news arrived, and that he 
 was actually on his way to the War Office at the time when 
 the message was being received from Kingstown. It does 
 not require any effort of the imagination to picture the 
 dismay in London at the receipt of the news. While the 
 members of the Government had long since known that every- 
 thing in Ireland was not just as they represented it to be to 
 the rest of the world, it is very probable that they believed 
 they were perfectly safe, and that the Irish people would 
 never attempt to strike a blow against the sacred Empire. 
 So when the aerial waves flashed the intelligence that the 
 old fight was on again, the British, not knowing with what 
 they had to contend, and feeling that the very foundations 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 
 
 of the British Empire were tottering, decided to take no 
 chances, and, having some little idea of the fighting quali- 
 ties of the Irish, made arrangements for the sending of an 
 army to Ireland. 
 
 The Fifty-ninth Division was at that time encamped at 
 St. Albans, and orders were issued by General French for its 
 immediate transfer to Ireland. French took this action on 
 his own responsibility. "I am aware," he says in an official 
 report, *'that in doing this I was acting beyond the power 
 delegated to me, but I considered the situation to be so criti- 
 cal that it was necessary to act at once without reference to 
 the Army Council." Orders were at the same time issued 
 to the Admiralty, calling for warships and transports, and 
 these were promptly forthcoming. Judging by the feverish 
 haste with which the various departments of the Government 
 acted, it is probable that the officials received a greater shock 
 than at any time since the Spanish Armada. 
 
 As has been stated, the first news of the Rebellion was re- 
 ceived by the British in Dublin at fifteen minutes after noon. 
 At 4.45 the same afternoon, the first troop train from the 
 Curragh arrived at Kingsbridge Station, and at 5.20 p.m. 
 the whole cavalry column, 1600 strong, had arrived, under 
 the command of Colonel Portal. At the same time orders 
 were issued for the following troops to proceed to Dublin: 
 
 A battery of four eighteen-pounders R. F. A., from the 
 Reserve Artillery Brigade at Athlone; 
 
 The Fourth Dublin Fusiliers from Templemore; 
 
 A composite battalion from Belfast; 
 
 An additional 1000 men from the Curragh. 
 
 Meantime Colonel Kennard was placed in command of the 
 Dublin troops, and the defense of the docks at the North 
 Wall was undertaken by Mayor H. F. Somerville, command- 
 ing a detachment from the School of Musketry, Dollymount, 
 reinforced by 660 officers and men of the Ninth Reserve 
 Cavalry Regiment. 
 
CHAPTER LII 
 
 Getting to Grips 
 
 THE story of the First Irish RepubHc may be divided 
 into three parts for the purpose of easier comprehen- 
 sion. In the first, the particulars of which have already 
 been detailed, fall the initial operations of the Republicans 
 in seizing the City of Dublin and the first steps taken by 
 the British to counteract these operations. In the second 
 will be considered the actual fighting that took place in 
 the city up to that time when it became obvious to the 
 leaders of the Insurrection that they had failed so far as 
 a military victory over the enemy was concerned. The 
 final phase will deal with the last scenes of the Rebellion 
 and the incidents following the surrender of the insurgents. 
 It will be necessary now to consider the second phase of 
 the story. 
 
 The reader has already been given a fair idea of the extent 
 to which the rebels had entrenched themselves in the city by 
 midnight on April 24. At that time the Republic had been 
 in existence for a period of twelve hours, and, with the ex- 
 ception of some sharp fighting at the Castle and one or two 
 other points, there had been nothing important to note, with 
 the exception of the excellent manner in which the rebels 
 had carried out their plans. 
 
 It was a curious situation that existed in O'Connell Street. 
 At Nelson's Pillar a strong barricade was thrown up, and 
 the rebels were in possession of many of the houses and build- 
 ings at each end of the street. An occasional shot was fired, 
 as a sniper caught sight of a British uniform, or a British 
 soldier discovered the whereabouts of an Irish marksman. 
 Incidentally, it may be mentioned that one of the most strik- 
 ing features of the whole rising was the superior shooting of 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 341 
 
 the Irish. There were innumerable incidents where a lone 
 Irish sniper was able to hold at bay several enemy soldiers, 
 simply on account of the superior use which the Irishman 
 made of his ammunition. Ammunition was scarce in the 
 ranks of the Republicans; every shot was of value, and but 
 few of them were wasted. 
 
 Up to midnight crowds paraded up and down O'Connell 
 Street, taking the keenest interest in what was being done 
 by the Republicans. Now and then a shot whistled along 
 the street, but this did not deter the people. At the same 
 time Republican sentries paraded up and down the street, 
 advising the people to go home so as to be out of danger. In 
 addition to the sentries, there were a number of Republican 
 police, who had been appointed by President Pearse at the 
 request of Sheehy-Skeffington, and who were instrumental 
 in preventing a renewal of the looting that had broken out 
 earlier in the day. 
 
 There was some excitement when it became known that 
 an attack was in progress at the Custom House, where the 
 men of the Citizen Army were engaged with the Ninth Re- 
 serve Cavalry Regiment. Here the fight was of short dura- 
 tion. It was not the intention of Commander Connolly to 
 try to continue to hold the Custom House in view of the 
 fact that his men were already dangerously attenuated by 
 being distributed over so large a territory. At the same time, 
 he ordered that the British should not be allowed to get into 
 the building without j5^ying a price for it. 
 
 It therefore happened that Beresford Square once more be- 
 came the scene of a battle between the representatives of an 
 alien government and the people of the country. The British 
 advanced at a run along the quays, taking the fullest ad- 
 vantage of every point that afforded cover and protected by 
 the uprights on the canal bridge in front of the Custom 
 House itself. A sharp volley greeted the appearance of the 
 British, who immediately halted at the bridge head and 
 threw themselves flat on the ground. A lively engagement 
 ensued, but this action was merely a mask for the operations 
 
342 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 of another section of the EngUsh force which gained an en- 
 trance to the Custom House on the eastern side. These 
 soon made their presence felt by directing a withering fire 
 on the Irish, and the latter withdrew into Liberty Hall, 
 turning Beresford Place into a No Man's Land, which it was 
 death to enter. 
 
 By their success in this action, the British gained an im- 
 portant position. Built of solid stone, the Custom House 
 formed an invaluable position to the attackers, facing, as it 
 did, directly on Liberty Hall. It is improbable that it was 
 at any time the intention of the rebels to attempt to hold 
 Liberty Hall strongly, owing to the fact that it was not a 
 place easy to defend, both on account of its exposed posi- 
 tion and its weak condition. Nevertheless, the capture of 
 the Custom House was the first act in the operations against 
 the Post Office in O'Connell Street, and its importance is not 
 to be minimized. In his official report, already referred 
 to, General Maxwell says: 
 
 The occupation of the Customs House, which dominated Liberty 
 Hall, was carried out at midnight, and was of great assistance in 
 later operations against Liberty Hall. 
 
 Continuing his report. General Maxwell wrote: 
 
 The situation at midnight was that we held the Magazine, Phoenix 
 Park, the Castle and the Ship Street entrance to the Castle, the 
 Royal Hospital, all barracks, the Kingsbridge, Amiens Street and 
 North Wall railway stations, the Dublin Telephone exchange in 
 Crown Alley, the Electric Power Station at Pigeon House Fort, 
 Trinity College, Mountjoy Prison and Kingstown Harbor. The 
 Sinn Feiners held Sackville (O'Connell) Street, and blocks of build- 
 ings on each side of this, including Liberty Hall, with their head- 
 quarters at the General Post Office, the Four Courts, Jacob's 
 Biscuit Factory, the South Dublin Union, St. Stephen's Green, all 
 the approaches to the Castle except the Ship Street entrance, and 
 many houses all over the city, especially about Ballsbridge and 
 Beggar's Bush. 
 
 It may not be unimportant to point out that the General 
 made a mistake in saying that the British held Dublin Castle. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 343 
 
 It is true that a number of the British were holding out in 
 the upper courtyard, but the Irish held the rest of the place, 
 including, as he says, all the approaches to it, with the ex- 
 ception of Ship Street. It is also worthy of mention that no 
 attempt was made by the rebels to take possession of Mount- 
 joy Prison, Kingstown Harbor, the Power House or the tele- 
 phone exchange. The names of these places, particularly 
 Kingstown Harbor, which lay several miles outside the city 
 and would have required an army and a fleet to hold, were 
 evidently thrown into the report to balance the number of 
 places held by the Irish. While mentioning three of the 
 railroad stations held by the British, he forgets to mention 
 one of the most important, the Broadstone, which was still 
 in possession of the Irish. Regarding the Castle, the vera- 
 cious British commander evidently forgot that he was lying, 
 for he admitted, a few paragraphs later, that they were plan- 
 ning to relieve the position which he said he held. 
 Continuing, he says: 
 
 On April 25th Brigadier-General W. H. M. Lowe, commanding 
 the Reserve Cavalry Brigade at the Curragh, arrived at Kingsbridge 
 Station at 3.45 a.m. with the leading troops from the twenty-fifth 
 (Irish) Reserve Infantry Brigade, and assumed command of the 
 forces in the Dublin area, which were roughly 2300 men of the 
 Dublin garrison, the Curragh Mobile Column of 1500 dismounted 
 cavalrymen, and 840 men of the twenty-fifth Irish Reserve Infantry 
 Brigade. 
 
 In order to relieve and get communication with the Castle, Colonel 
 Portal, commanding the Curragh Mobile Column, was ordered to 
 establish a line of posts from Kingsbridge Station to Trinity College 
 via the Castle. This was completed by 12 noon, 25th April, with 
 very little loss. It divided the rebel forces into two, gave a safe 
 Une of advance for troops extending operations to the north and 
 south, and permitted communication by dispatch rider with some 
 of the commands. The only means of communication previous to 
 this had been by telephone, which was unquestionably being tapped. 
 
 The Dublin University O. T. C. (Officers' Training Corps), under 
 Captain E. H. Alton, and subsequently Major G. A. Harris, held the 
 College buildings until the troops arrived. The holding of these 
 
344 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 buildings separated the rebel center round the General Post Office 
 from that round St. Stephen's Green; it established a valuable base 
 for the collection of reinforcements as they arrived, and prevented 
 the rebels from entering the Bank of Ireland, which is directly oppo- 
 site to and commanded by the college buildings. 
 
 During the day the twenty-fourth Royal Dublin Fusiliers from 
 Templemore, a composite Ulster battahon from Belfast, and a bat- 
 tery of four 18-pounder guns from the Reserve Artillery Brigade at 
 Athlone arrived, and this allowed a cordon to be established round 
 the northern part of the city from Parkgate along the North Cir- 
 cular Road to North Wall. Broadstone Railway Station was cleared of 
 rebels, and a barricade near Phibsboro was destroyed by artillery fire. 
 
 As a heavy fire was being kept up on the Castle from the rebels 
 located in the Corporation Buildings, The Daily Express officers, and 
 several houses opposite the City Hall, it was decided to attack these 
 buildings. 
 
 The assault on The Daily Express offices was successfully carried 
 out under very heavy fire by a detachment of the fifth Royal Dublin 
 Fusiliers under Second Lieutenant F. O'Neill. 
 
 The main forces of the rebels now having been located in and 
 around Sackville Street, the Four Courts and adjoining buildings, it 
 was decided to try to enclose that area north of the Liffey by a 
 cordon of troops so as to locahze, as far as possible, the efforts of 
 the rebels. 
 
 The thoughtful reader will not fail to note one Important 
 fact in connection with this portion of the report made by 
 the British commander. Unlike many others, he, at least, 
 was not inclined to minimize the seriousness of the task 
 which confronted the British troops. In spite of the fact 
 that he was faced by a force of men inadequately armed, 
 without machine guns or artillery, and outnumbered two or 
 three to one by the professional soldiers of England, he de- 
 cided it was essential that more and still more troops should 
 be brought into the city, until the Irish Republicans were 
 overwhelmed by a force of over fifty to one, backed by ma- 
 chine and artillery guns and a naval gunboat. 
 
 Before dealing with the actual operations of Tuesday, let 
 us turn for a moment to another document of historical 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 345 
 
 value. This was the statement issued by the Provisional 
 Government in the first and only issue of Irish War News, 
 the newspaper published by the rebels, and dated Dublin, 
 Tuesday, April 25, 1916. On the fourth and last page of 
 this little paper is the following: 
 
 STOP PRESS! 
 
 THE IRISH REPUBLIC 
 
 Irish War News is published to-day because a momentous 
 thing has happened. The Irish Republic has been proclaimed in 
 Dublin, and a Provisional Government has been appointed to admin- 
 ister its affairs. The following have been named as the Provisional 
 Government : — 
 
 Thomas J. Clarke, Thomas MacDonagh, 
 
 Sean MacDiarmada, Eamonn Ceannt, 
 
 P. H. Pearse, Joseph Plunkett, 
 
 James Connolly. 
 
 The Irish Republic was proclaimed by a poster, which was promi- 
 nently displayed in Dublin. 
 
 At 9.30 A.M. this morning the following statement was made by 
 Commandant-General P. H. Pearse: 
 
 The Irish Republic was proclaimed in Dublin on Easter Monday, 
 24th April, at 12 noon. Simultaneously with the issue of the proc- 
 lamation of the Provisional Government the Dublin Division of the 
 Army of the RepubHc, including the Irish Volunteers, Citizen Army, 
 Hibernian Rifles, and other bodies, occupied dominating points in 
 the city. The G. P. O. was seized at 12 noon, the Castle was at- 
 tacked at the same moment, and shortly afterwards the Four Courts 
 were occupied. The Irish troops hold the City Hall and dominate 
 the Castle. Attacks were immediately commenced by the British 
 forces and were everywhere repulsed. At the moment of writing this 
 report (9:30 a.m. Tuesday) the Republican forces hold all their posi- 
 tions and the British forces have nowhere broken through. There 
 has been heavy and continuous fighting for nearly twenty-four hours, 
 the casualties of the enemy being much more numerous than those 
 on the Republican side. The Republican forces everywhere are 
 
346 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 fighting with splendid gallantry. The populace of Dublin are plainly 
 with the Republic, and the officers and men are everywhere cheered 
 as they march through the streets. The whole center of the city is 
 in the hands of the Republic, whose flag flies from the G. P. O. 
 
 Commandant-General P. H. Pearse is commander in chief of the 
 Army of the Republic and is President of the Provisional Govern- 
 ment. Commandant-General James Connolly is commanding the 
 Dubhn districts. Communication with the country is largely cut, 
 but reports to hand show that the country is rising, and bodies of 
 men from Kildare and Fingall have already reported in Dublin. 
 
 Later the same day the following manifesto was issued to 
 the people of the city by President Pearse: 
 
 THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 TO THE 
 
 CITIZENS OF DUBLIN 
 
 The Provisional Government of the Irish Republic salutes the 
 Citizens of Dublin on the momentous occasion of the proclamation 
 of a 
 
 SOVEREIGN INDEPENDENT IRISH STATE 
 
 now in course of being established by Irishmen in arms. 
 
 The Republican forces hold the lines taken at 12 noon on Easter 
 Monday, and nowhere, despite fierce and almost continuous attacks 
 of the British troops, have the lines been broken through. The coun- 
 try is rising in answer to Dublin's call, and the final achievement of 
 Ireland's freedom is now, with God's help, only a matter of days. 
 The valor, self-sacrifice, and discipline of Irish men and women are 
 about to win for our country a glorious place among the nations. 
 
 Ireland's honor has already been redeemed; it remains to vindi- 
 cate her wisdom and her self-control. 
 
 All citizens of Dublin who believe in the rights of their country 
 to be free will give their allegiance and their loyal help to the Irish 
 Republic. There is work for everyone — for the men in the fighting 
 line, and for the women in the provision of food and first aid. Every 
 Irishman and Irishwoman worthy of the name will come forward to 
 help their common country in this her supreme hour. 
 
 Able-bodied citizens can help by building barricades in the streets 
 to oppose the advance of the British troops. The British troops 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 347 
 
 have been firing on our women and on our Red Cross. On the 
 other hand, Irish regiments in the British army have refused to act 
 against their fellow-countrymen. 
 
 The Provisional Government hopes that its supporters — which 
 means the vast bulk of the people of Dublin — will preserve order 
 and self-restraint. Such looting as has already occurred has been 
 done by hangers-on of the British Army. Ireland must keep her 
 new honor unsmirched. 
 
 We have lived to see an Irish Republic proclaimed. May we live 
 to establish it firmly, and may our children and our children's chil- 
 dren enjoy the happiness and prosperity which freedom will bring. 
 
 Signed on behalf of the Provisional Government, 
 
 P. H. Pearse, 
 Commander in chief of the Forces of the Irish Republic 
 and President of the Provisional Government. 
 
 The reader is thus enabled to compare the statements is- 
 sued by the opposing forces. On the one hand we have the 
 preparations which were being made by the British to in- 
 close the Republicans in a cordon of fire and steel, and, on 
 the other, the high hopes which animated the men who had 
 risked all for the purpose of saving the soul of their country. 
 
CHAPTER LIII 
 
 The Fighting on Tuesday 
 
 THE one outstanding fact that was obvious during the 
 period ending at midnight on Tuesday was that the 
 RepubUcans held practically every point they had 
 seized on the Monday. That the British had been surprised 
 at the sudden turn of affairs may account for this, at least in 
 some measure. But the actual reason was that the British, 
 in spite of their vastly superior numbers, had no intention 
 of taking any chances. They went to work in a methodical 
 and systematic manner. Their plan of campaign was a sim- 
 ple one; they meant to inclose the rebels and burn them 
 out. They meant to do so with the least possible loss to 
 themselves and with as much loss to the enemy as possible. 
 All this is strategy approved by military experts. 
 
 The fighting on Tuesday morning was more or less spas- 
 modic. There is nothing to show that there was anything 
 in the nature of a general engagement during the day, al- 
 though sniping took place in the vicinity of all the points 
 occupied by the Republicans. The only actual engagement 
 on record is that which took place at the City Hall and the 
 offices of The Daily Express on Cork Hill, almost directly 
 opposite the City Hall and the entrance to Dublin Castle. 
 
 In a previous chapter mention has been made of the fact 
 that John O'Reilly had succeeded to the command of the 
 forces at the City Hall. He was the first to fall in the new 
 assault, but, although his death deprived his men of fine 
 leadership, they continued to make a gallant stand against 
 tremendous odds. 
 
 The first force of the attack fell on the City Hall, and 
 came from the upper end of Cork Hill. Here a number of 
 the military established themselves on each side of the streets 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 349 
 
 and on the roofs of the houses and began a cross fire on both 
 the City Hall and The Daily Express offices. So severe was 
 the volleying that it became impossible for any of the de- 
 fenders to go near to a window in either building without 
 risking instant death. In spite of this, however, a vigorous 
 defense was maintained, and, when the military came from 
 their shelters and made the first charge on these two posi- 
 tions, they were met with so severe a fire that they were 
 forced to retire. 
 
 There was another period of volleying and then another 
 charge. This was also repulsed. Again and still again the 
 same tactics were tried, and charges were made under cover 
 of fierce volleying, but in every case the defenders were able 
 to hold their own and force the attackers to retire. Dur- 
 ing this fighting the British lost far more heavily than the 
 Republicans, who had the advantage of their protected posi- 
 tions. Eventually the British decided that they would "con- 
 solidate" the positions they then held, and wait for a more 
 favorable time to force the rebels out of the City Hall and 
 the newspaper offices. Instead of wasting their energies on 
 these two points they extended their line along Dame Street 
 towards Trinity College, and thus, as stated in the British 
 report, drew a line between the two main bodies of the 
 Republican Army. 
 
 Meanwhile spasmodic fighting was going on at Boland's 
 Mill in Ringsend, where Commandant De Valera was mak- 
 ing his position doubly strong, and at Stephen's Green, where 
 the Republicans had been driven back from Portobello Bridge 
 and forced to retire along Harcourt Street. At the South 
 Dublin Union Commandant Ceannt was still holding his 
 position, although faced by a greatly superior force of the 
 enemy. Across on the other side of the Liffey Commandant 
 Daly was in complete possession of the Four Courts area 
 extending as far as Phibsboro until late in the evening, 
 when a heavy attack was made on the barricade erected 
 across the Cabra Road at Doyle's Corner. 
 
 This barricade may be said to have constituted the north- 
 
350 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 erly outpost of the defenses of the city. It commanded the 
 North Circular Road, Phibsboro Road, and the canal lead- 
 ing to the Broadstone Station. It occupied a position giv- 
 ing to the Republicans command also of Berkeley Street, 
 which led down to O'Connell Street, and the lower end of the 
 North Circular Road leading down to the North Wall. It 
 made these roads impassable for the military coming from 
 the Phoenix Park and from Cabra. It was, therefore, es- 
 sential to the British that this obstacle should be removed. 
 
 Towards evening on Tuesday rain began to fall in a heavy 
 shower, and the men back of the barricade were drenched. 
 Worse than this, however, much of their ammunition was 
 also affected by the rain, and was later found to be useless. 
 While this fact did not in any material degree effect the fate 
 of the barricade, it hastened it. 
 
 Scouts sent out along the Cabra Road as far as the rail- 
 road bridge reported, just as dusk was falling, that a large 
 body of the military was approaching from the direction of 
 the Park. Sharp-shooters were sent out for the purpose of 
 holding these off as long as possible, and another volleying 
 engagement took place. This, however, was of short dura- 
 tion, as the British advanced at the run, and forced the little 
 band of half a dozen men to retire, but not until they had 
 inflicted some losses on the enemy. 
 
 With the first approach to the barricade captured, there 
 was a momentary pause. The men behind the barricades 
 waited. Somewhere out there in the drenching downpour 
 and the darkness the enemy faced them. A rifleman sent 
 a random shot whistling into the void. Immediately the 
 blackness was lighted by a score of red flaming points of 
 light and a rain of bullets rattled around the barricade. One 
 man inside toppled over, shot in the head. Then there was 
 more darkness. 
 
 One can well imagine the tense feeling of fhe men inside 
 the barricade. They knew that the enemy was in force and 
 that the position they defended was of vital importance, even 
 as an outpost. They felt that the military were creeping up 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 351 
 
 closer and closer to them, and that they would have soon to 
 withstand the. shock of a bayonet charge. Yet, these young 
 and untrained soldiers stood to their posts with all the 
 steadiness of veterans. 
 
 Less than thirty minutes after the first engagement, and 
 when the Republicans were beginning to wonder if the 
 British were afraid to face a fight, something happened. 
 There was a sudden *'boom" away up the Cabra road, a 
 flame of fire, and then the shriek of a shell. A moment later 
 the defenders of the barricade heard the explosion of shrap- 
 nel over their heads and the rattle of the flying fragments 
 all around them. 
 
 This was something more than they had been expecting. 
 They knew, of course, that artillery might be used against 
 them, but they had not anticipated it at that moment. They 
 had expected a charge from the enemy and instead they were 
 confronted by something more deadly, something they could 
 not fight with rifles. They could but cower behind their 
 slender defenses to avoid the flying bullets from the bursting 
 shells as best they might. It was obvious that the British 
 meant to take no chances, and that they were determined 
 to destroy the barricade as completely as possible. 
 
 One shell followed another with almost monotonous regu- 
 larity. Man after man fell behind the barricade. Then 
 one of the shells struck the barricade square in the center, 
 blowing a great hole in it, and rendering it both useless and 
 untenable. In addition to the wreck made of the barricade, 
 the shrapnel burst high in the air and killed and wounded a 
 number of people in houses near the scene of the fight. 
 
 With the blowing out of the barricade the men who were 
 trying to defend it had to retreat. They fell back towards 
 Blacquir Bridge and established positions on both sides of 
 the roadway, covered by the arches of the bridge. Soon 
 afterwards the military advanced at a run under cover of 
 their artillery. Finding the barricade unoccupied, they 
 halted and a messenger was dispatched to the rear. This 
 resulted in a change in the aim of the artillery gunners, and 
 
352 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 the shrapnel was soon bursting over the head of the bridge. 
 Under cover of this shower of bullets the military made an- 
 other rush down the North Circular Road. 
 
 With several of their men killed, it was found impossible 
 for the defenders to hold the bridge against the swarms of 
 military that charged down upon them. It was a case of 
 half a score against three or four hundred. They fell back 
 along the canal bank in the direction of the Broadstone. The 
 clay path along the canal bank was slippery with the rain, 
 and the lack of light combined with this to make the ad- 
 vance of the military all the more difficult to observe. That 
 the Republicans were not subdued was made evident by 
 the continued firing which marked their retreat. 
 
 Those who know the canal at this point will have no trouble 
 in picturing to themselves the fight that took place that dismal 
 Tuesday night. For half a mile or more the canal runs 
 in a straight line almost due south from the Blacquir Bridge 
 to the City Basin at the Broadstone. The only path is 
 along the western side. Old houses look down on the slug- 
 gish water from a respectable distance from the path itself. 
 A few straggling gardens add to the desolateness of the 
 scene. Lamps there are none, from one end of the line to 
 the other, for the canal at this point had long fallen into dis- 
 use, owing to the competition of the railroad. The path was 
 unpaved, with the exception of a narrow ledge running close 
 to and almost flush with the water. 
 
 It was along this path that the fight was in progress be- 
 tween the Irish Republicans and the English soldiers. Half- 
 way along the bank fewer than a dozen men lay on the 
 wet earth sending shot after shot into the darkness in the 
 direction of the bridge. In reply came volley after volley 
 and a straggling succession of single shots that every now 
 and then would increase in intensity until the clay and the 
 water were splashed into the air as though by a hailstorm. 
 And all the while the rain streamed from the lowering skies 
 in torrents. 
 
 Then, once again, came that "boom" and shriek that had 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 353 
 
 heralded the downfall of the barricade. The military had 
 brought the guns to the bridge and the rain of shrapnel 
 again rattled over the Republicans. Heavy artillery and 
 a regiment of soldiers for the purpose of subduing ten men! 
 
 But there was nothing left for the Republicans to do but 
 to retire. The shrapnel was sure to find them sooner or 
 later, and all of them might be wiped out by one straight 
 shot. One by one they crept over the little bridge that led 
 into Berkeley Street and had been erected for the convenience 
 of the parishioners of the Berkeley Street Catholic Church. 
 As they made their escape, the white circular clouds of the 
 bursting shrapnel shells were forming in the air over them, 
 and bullets were cutting into the water on either side. The 
 wind was rising, and the rain pelted down harder than ever. 
 With half of their men lost in the fighting, the ten survivors 
 made their way to safety. Thus ended the battle of Cabra, 
 in which a regiment of men and a section of artillery was 
 used to drive out twenty Republicans. 
 
 The same British force, finding the enemy routed, even- 
 tually dared an advance along the now deserted canal bank. 
 Simultaneously another force attacked along the railroad 
 line towards the Broadstone. So overwhelming was this 
 force that the rebels were forced to evacuate the station, 
 and formed their lines anew on the road below the viaduct. 
 Here they withstood one attack after another, the power of 
 the artillery being insufficient to drive them back. 
 
 While these events were in progress, quietness reigned in 
 the vicinity of the General Post Office and at the other 
 centers. There was, of course, some sniping, but the British 
 were busily driving in their cordon and were not as yet in- 
 clined to risk a general encounter. Troops were being poured 
 into the city on all sides and more were on the way. The 
 British could afford to wait and take their time. 
 
 Thus Tuesday passed, and the Irish Republic was two days 
 old. It is a strange fact that there were many in the city 
 who seemed to know little or nothing of what was going on. 
 One would be inclined to think that Dublin would have been 
 
354 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 in a turmoil during those two days. Yet such was not the 
 case. There were those who were apathetic, as there were 
 also those who were tense with the excitement and the wonder 
 of it all. An inkling of the other attitude may be gleaned 
 from the words of a writer who says that he was a witness 
 of the incidents he describes. While some of his statements 
 must be discounted in view of the medium through which 
 he expressed his views, they are not uninteresting, and ad- 
 vantage will be taken later to refer to his articles. Writ- 
 ing on the incidents of the rising, "M. M. O'H" remarks, 
 in The Freeman's Journal: 
 
 Women sat in the doorways, men lounged at the street corners, the 
 children cut all sorts of capers up the side streets. Here indeed was 
 holiday, a few hundred yards off was national tragedy, and the most 
 sensational episode in Irish history for a century. What a queer 
 thing a city is to be sure! . . . Dorset Street was Gardiner's Street, 
 only more respectable and animated, but apparently as unmoved by 
 what was going on down town. Could it be that the news had not 
 yet reached the people .^^ Impossible, it seemed a long long time since 
 I had heard the glass crashing in Abbey street. That was the aspect 
 of the city long after the rising had begun. Why should one be sur- 
 prised? In Leighton's book about the Paris Commune you will find 
 the very selfsame phenomenon noted. Utter unconcern in one street, 
 fierce and bloody tragedy in a street close by. 
 
 But this was an aspect that was soon to be changed. With 
 the dawn of Wednesday came events fraught with terror to 
 Dublin, events the like of which had never before occurred 
 in her long and tragic history; events that threw a spell of 
 terror over the people, and aroused a tense and burning 
 hatred that will be carried on in Ireland as long as there are 
 Irish fathers and mothers to teach and train their children. 
 
CHAPTER LIV 
 
 The Battle of Mount Street Bridge 
 
 THE Battle of Dublin may be said to have begun at 
 seven o'clock on Wednesday morning, April 26, 
 1916. What had transpired during the previous 
 period from the declaration of the Irish Republic at noon 
 on Monday morning were merely preliminary skirmishes. The 
 actual engagement began on Wednesday morning. 
 
 The morning was gloriously fine, in striking contrast to the 
 wild rainstorm of the night before. The sun shone brightly 
 from a clear sky, and it was obvious that the day was going 
 to be unusually warm for the time of the year in Ireland. 
 By this time the vast majority of the inhabitants of the 
 city were aware of what was happening, and many people 
 were around the streets at an early hour. For hours troops 
 had been arriving in the city, and were taking up their 
 places in the cordon that was being woven around the rebels. 
 In addition to the men and the artillery that were summoned 
 to the assistance of the Empire, there also arrived the Helga, 
 a naval gunboat, which pushed up the Liffey opposite the 
 Custom House. 
 
 At seven o'clock comparative silence reigned in the city, 
 and, therefore, it came as rather a shock when the air shook 
 with the sudden reverberations of heavy artillery. People 
 up on the heights around Glasnevin saw by the rings of 
 smoke that rose into the quiet air that the firing was some- 
 where on the river. Soon the word was passed around that a 
 British warship was shelling the rebels and that the city was 
 in flames! 
 
 The Helga trained its guns first of all on Liberty Hall, 
 and for over an hour the shells shrieked across Beresford 
 Place from the center of the river. The aim of the men on 
 
356 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 the gunboat was bad. Of all the shots fired only a very 
 small percentage struck Liberty Hall itself; the rest either 
 spent their fury on the street or struck the property adjoin- 
 ing the Headquarters of the Citizen Army. This fact is 
 borne out not alone by the statements of actual eyewitnesses, 
 but by photographs of the scene of the bombardment taken 
 after the rising. 
 
 After between fifty and one hundred shells had thus been 
 fired at Liberty Hall, the British redcoats decided to push 
 their infantry forward. As the signal was given for the fir- 
 ing to cease from the Helga, a volley of rifle bullets hurtled 
 across from the Custom House, and, with a ringing cheer, 
 the British dashed forward to the assault. Across Beresford 
 Place they swept, their bayonets flashing in the morning sun- 
 light. Up to the old door they dashed and then to the in- 
 terior of the building, which had been the bane of the police 
 and Secret Service men of Dublin for five years. The British 
 had at last captured the hated stronghold, and no mercy was 
 to be shown to those inside. But there was a strange and 
 uncanny silence within. There were no cries for mercy from 
 captured rebels. There were no rebels to capture. Liberty 
 Hall was empty, even to the last cartridge, and had been so 
 all the time that the furious bombardment was in progress. 
 Nothing remained for the victors but a ruin. Long before 
 the rising a passage had been dug underground that enabled 
 those inside the building to make their escape at any time 
 that suited them without the knowledge of the enemy. While 
 the Helga was wasting shells that might have been used on 
 the Germans, the men of the Citizen Army who had remained 
 in Liberty Hall during the night were over in the General 
 Post Office partaking of a hearty breakfast. 
 
 A few minutes after the evacuation of Liberty Hall be- 
 came known, the booming of the guns on board the Helga 
 began once more. This time, however, the shells were 
 directed against O'Connell Street. With their guns elevated, 
 the British gunners sent shell after shell into the heart of 
 the city, destroying houses and stores. The sound of the 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 357 
 
 firing was heard all over the city, and the people of Dublin 
 knew that it was now a fight to a finish, and that red ruin 
 and destruction stared the city in the face. 
 
 Apparently the fruitlessness of this kind of attack impressed 
 itself on the minds of the military authorities, for, after a 
 while, it ceased, but not before several buildings had been 
 set on fire. The actual damage done in this bombardment 
 to the positions occupied by the Republicans was of no con- 
 sequence, and the firing resulted merely in wanton damage 
 to property. 
 
 But other matters were going on at the same time. The 
 cordon was being drawn in tighter and tighter. On the south 
 side the British had succeeded in cutting off all communica- 
 tions between the General Post OflSce and Stephen's Green. 
 On the north, the cordon, owing to the defeat of the rebels 
 at Cabra, was being drawn down through Dorset Street and 
 Gardiner Street to Parnell Street. It was obvious that this 
 prevented any relief for the Volunteers from the north, un- 
 less reinforcements were sent in in large numbers. Without 
 these reinforcements the Republican headquarters were faced 
 by a wall of steel on their northern flank. 
 
 There was another episode of this day that remains to be 
 chronicled. This is the engagement that will go down in 
 history as the Battle of Mount Street, at once the most 
 bloody and the most effective of all the engagements during 
 the Revolution. More than anything else, it had the effect 
 of impressing on the minds of the British the caliber of the 
 men with whom they had to deal. 
 
 As has already been stated, the British military authori- 
 ties were taking no risks and were pouring troops into the 
 city as fast as they could arrive by train and transport. On 
 Tuesday evening the 178th Infantry Brigade began to ar- 
 rive at Kingstown, and, in accordance with their orders, 
 left the port by road in two columns. This was owing to 
 the fact that the railroad tracks had been removed by the 
 rebels on Monday. The left column, consisting of the Fifth 
 and Sixth battalions of the Sherwood Foresters, made their 
 
358 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 way by the Stillorgan-Donnybrook road and the South 
 Circular Road to the miUtary headquarters at the Royal 
 Hospital, where it arrived without opposition, having avoided 
 the rebels at the South Dublin Union. The right column, 
 consisting of the Seventh and Eighth battalions of the 
 Sherwood Foresters, made their way by the main route 
 through Ballsbridge, intending to pass through Merrion 
 Square and thence to the Trinity College area. 
 
 Shortly after three o'clock, when the head of the Seventh 
 Battalion was observed coming towards Ringsend, De Valera 
 passed the word to his men to prepare for the assault. The 
 rebel flag was run up over the school buildings where the 
 rebels had entrenched themselves, and a warning shot was 
 sent over the heads of the approaching soldiers. 
 
 The Sherwoods, however, with a firm belief in their strength, 
 dashed forward, after sending a volley to clear the way. As 
 they neared the junction of Haddington Road and North- 
 umberland Avenue, they were met by a storm of hot lead. 
 The bullets came from each side of the street,* and were aimed 
 with deadly effect. Line after line of the British was mowed 
 down, and the entire battalion thrown into hopeless confu- 
 sion. The British halted in front of the piled-up bodies of 
 their comrades, and then they broke and fled, in spite of the 
 curses and exhortations of their officers. In this engage- 
 ment the British lost over one hundred dead and wounded, 
 including two officers, one of whom was Adjutant-Captain 
 Dietrichsen. Among the wounded was Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Fane, and a large number of other officers were put out of 
 action. It was the first smashing defeat of the British. A 
 percentage of an entire battalion had been wiped out, and 
 the advance on Trinity College stayed. 
 
 It was two hours before the British decided to make an- 
 other advance. This time they had the assistance of bomb- 
 ing parties, led by Captain Jeffares, of the Bombing School 
 at Elm Park, an officer who was ranked as one of the fore- 
 most experts in the world in this line. With considerably 
 more caution the British now made their advance. As they 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 359 
 
 were starting on their mission, orders were received from the 
 Royal Hospital that they were to win their way through at 
 any cost. Thus spurred on, and after a deadly volleying 
 and under cover of the bombs and rifle fire, the Foresters 
 made their charge. It was evident that they were smarting 
 from the defeat and the disgrace of the engagement two 
 hours before, and were determined to wipe out both. They 
 came on at the double, cheering as they charged, and made 
 their way right up to the end of the bridge head. But a 
 hail of bullets again met them. From every side, in spite of 
 the bombs and counter-volleying, the Republicans poured 
 lead into the ranks of the advancing English. It was hot 
 and bloody work; it was war in real and actual earnest. 
 Wave after wave of men dashed at the bridge head, and 
 wave after wave of men was swept out of existence. A wall 
 of dead and dying was piled up and formed an additional 
 barricade, and it became the horrid work of the bombing 
 parties to blast their way through this wall of mangled flesh 
 and bone to get to the Republicans. Before this was ac- 
 complished, many hundreds of the British had perished, 
 and the Seventh Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters was 
 practically exterminated. 
 
 It was only after six hours of the bloodiest and most 
 desperate fighting that the British, who had suffered enor- 
 mous losses in killed and wounded, were able to drive the 
 Irish from their positions. This they did with the aid of 
 bombs and machine guns, but here again they found that a 
 passage had been constructed underground, and that the 
 rebels had escaped. All they found, when they at length 
 broke through and into the positions held by the Republi- 
 cans, were half a dozen wounded men. The actual losses to 
 the Irish were insignificant, and were scarcely in the propor- 
 tion of one to a hundred of the enemy, of whom it was 
 calculated that well over fifty per cent fell during the several 
 hours of the repeated assaults. So severe were the losses 
 that, in spite of the fact that the rebel positions had been 
 evacuated, the remnant of the Seventh and Eighth bat- 
 
360 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 talions of the Foresters did not dare to push on to Trinity 
 that night, notwithstanding the positive orders they had re- 
 ceived. They waited till close on midnight when they were 
 reinforced by the arrival of the South Staffordshire Regiment. 
 The new arrivals occupied the positions that the Foresters 
 had won, and thus allowed the weary remnant of the Seventh 
 and Eighth battalions to retire. 
 
 The following is the official British account of the battle, 
 written by General Maxwell. In his report he has made 
 more than one misstatement, and has also ridiculously imder- 
 estimated the number of the British casualties: 
 
 At about 5 : 30 p.m. orders were received (by the officers at Mount 
 Street) that the advance to Trinity College was to he pushed forward at 
 all costs, and therefore at about eight p.m., after careful arrangements, 
 the whole column, accompanied by bombing parties, attacked the 
 schools and houses where the chief opposition lay, the battalions 
 charging in successive waves, carrying all before them, but, I regret 
 to say, suffered severe casualties in doing so. 
 
 Four officers were killed, 14 were wounded, and of other ranks 
 216 were killed and wounded. 
 
 In views of the opposition met with, it was not deemed advisable to 
 push on to Trinity College that night, so, at 11 p.m. the 5th South 
 Staffordshire Regiment, from the 176th Infantry Brigade, reinforced 
 this column, and by occupying the positions gained allowed the two 
 battalions Sherwood Foresters to be concentrated at Ballsbridge. 
 
 Before midnight the entire city was ringing with the ex- 
 ploit of the Republican forces. This victory instilled new 
 confidence in the people, and at the same time had the effect 
 of bringing to the British a realization of the task to which 
 they had set themselves. 
 
 That night, as the immense crowds gathered far outside 
 the military cordon that surrounded O'Connell Street, they 
 saw an angry red glare in the sky over the city. It was the 
 reflection of the fires that were eating into the very vitals 
 of the city. 
 
CHAPTER LV 
 
 The High Flame of Courage 
 
 THAT night Dublin burned. Dense clouds of thick 
 smoke, vivid sheets of red and scarlet flame, showed 
 where the Irish Republic was being born in fire and 
 blood. And through the smoke and flame was heard the 
 dull boom of the artillery, the rattle of the machine guns, and 
 the spitting of the rifles. Guns were booming from the 
 south side of the Liffey, from the gunboat Helga, and from 
 Trinity College. The battle of Dublin was in full swing. 
 O'Connell Street was an inferno. With buildings blazing 
 on each side of the street and heavy smoke rolling above, 
 with bullets zipping from the pavement like hail, death 
 stalked abroad and commanded every inch of this section. 
 It is difficult to depict the actual conditions that prevailed 
 in Dublin that Wednesday night and the two nights that 
 followed. Those who have witnessed big conflagrations can 
 gain some impression of the picture by imagining what a fire 
 taking in whole blocks must have looked like. "M. M. O'H," 
 the writer in The Freeman^s Journal, who witnessed the fires 
 from a respectful distance, describes them as follows: 
 
 The memory of the great fires will probably be as long as any of 
 the memories of the week. Night after night we stood out in the 
 suburbs looking towards the city — the doomed city, as we all 
 thought. The awful red glare fixed and held one's eyes. It was 
 impossible to look away. Vast surly masses of smoke went up and 
 after them sprang the flames, and then the whole sky got bloody and 
 the red spread in circles until another gust of smoke belched up, to 
 be followed by another sickening glare of fire. Then a huge red 
 blotch settled over some post, and we speculated whether it was this 
 street or that, this place or another. First the seething was on the 
 east, then to the west, now distant, then near, until finally all specu- 
 
362 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 lation ceased, for the whole city was Hke a horrid cauldron, glowing 
 with a deep deep red. Will it never stop? The whole town will be 
 burned up. How it spreads! That's O'Connell Street, and that's 
 King's Inns for certain. The whole heart of Dublin is afire. Noth- 
 ing can stop it. The slums will go like matchwood. Thousands will 
 be burned to death. Awful hours these were, and ever and always 
 the crack of the rifle as some sniper kept at his deadly task, heed- 
 less of the havoc that enveloped the poor helpless city. 
 
 Through the long hours of the night the gallant men and 
 women of the Republic fought against enormous odds, and 
 held their own. Through the fire and the shot and shell, 
 through the blazing streets and the air that burned with the 
 flying bullets, they never wavered. As the hours wore on 
 toilfully and dreadfully towards the dawn of the fourth day 
 of the Republic, the intensity of the battle increased. All 
 over the city it was the same. At the South Dublin Union, 
 at Roland's Mills, at the Four Courts, at a hundred and one 
 minor points that the Republicans had captured, the shot 
 and shell was poured in from thousands of weapons. But 
 it was in the O'Connell Street area that the fighting was 
 fiercest, the firing heaviest, and the fires the most appalling. 
 The British had drawn their cordon to cover both ends of 
 the street, with the result that a cross fire of bullets from 
 rifles and machine guns whistled incessantly through the 
 broad expanse of that thoroughfare. It was during this 
 period and from this time to the end of the fighting that 
 some of the most remarkable feats of courage of the Revolu- 
 tion took place. 
 
 The women, and especially those of the Cumann na mBan 
 were on active service with the men. They acted as nurses, 
 and in this capacity went fearlessly into the firing line in the 
 discharge of their duty. They acted as messengers, and 
 showed an entire disregard of danger. They acted as as- 
 sistants to the men on the firing line, filling their rifles for 
 them and carrying ammunition from one point to another. 
 They acted as soldiers, taking their places in the firing line 
 by the side of the men, firing with wonderfully good aim, 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 363 
 
 and acting with the same cool courage that characterized 
 their every action. 
 
 Men who were in the actual fighting, who took part in the 
 defense of the Post Office, and who afterwards escaped to 
 the United States, bear eloquent testimony of the part played 
 by the women. They were young women and old women, 
 mere sUps of girls and mothers with sons and daughters, but 
 all played the same noble part. Few of their names are yet 
 known, but it may safely be assumed that every one of the 
 women prisoners who later were sent into exile were among 
 the number of those who fought for Ireland. There were 
 women, too, who died for Ireland during Easter week, women 
 who were shot on the firing line, girls who were killed while 
 taking messages from one point to another, and in more in- 
 stances than one, as will later be shown, Irish women who 
 were shot dead by the gallant British under circumstances 
 that would have brought the blush of shame to the cheek of a 
 savage. 
 
 There is on record, and it is mentioned as merely one in- 
 stance out of many, the feat accomplished by a girl on this 
 fateful Thursday. One of the Cumann na mBan messengers, 
 a young girl, was detailed to take a message from Boland's 
 Mills to the Post Office. She managed to get over the Butt 
 Bridge in safety and then made her way into Abbey Street 
 past Liberty Hall. At this point she was halted by a British 
 officer, but broke away from him and ran towards O'Connell 
 Street. Immediately the officer ordered his men to fire a 
 volley after her, but she escaped. In O'Connell Street the 
 bullets swept the roadway and the sidewalks, and it seemed 
 impossible for even a cat to cross the street alive. But this 
 dauntless girl crossed in safety and delivered her message. 
 
 In this connection it will not be out of place to quote a 
 statement sent to the American Newspapers by the London 
 Central News Association, more particularly as it gives 
 honor to the priests of Dublin who were in the city during 
 the rising. On their mission of mercy, they faced every 
 danger and went into the thick of the fighting. The story 
 
364 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 is that of a Red Cross nurse who was an eyewitness of the 
 events she describes and was passed by the British censor: 
 
 The Irish Rebellion is remarkable for one fact not, so far, recog- 
 nized in England — namely, the very prominent part taken in it 
 by Irish women and girls. 
 
 On Easter Sunday, which was the day first appointed for the Irish 
 Volmiteer maneuvers, and for which all the men were mobilized, the 
 women in the movement were also mobilized and ordered to bring 
 rations for a certain period. It was only at the last moment, and 
 for sufficiently dramatic reasons, that the mobilization of both men 
 and women was canceled. These Irishwomen, who did their work 
 with a cool and reckless courage, unsurpassed by any man, were in 
 the firing line from the first to the last day of the Rebellion. They 
 were women of all ranks, from titled ladies to shop assistants, and 
 they worked on terms of easy equality, caring nothing apparently 
 but for the success of the movement. 
 
 Many of the women were snipers, and both in the Post Office 
 and in the Imperial Hotel the present writer, who was a Red Cross 
 nurse, saw women on guard with rifles, relieving worn out Vol- 
 unteers. 
 
 Cumann na mBan girls did practically all the dispatch carrying; 
 some of them were killed, but none of them returned unsuccessful. 
 That was a point of honor with them — to succeed or be killed. On 
 one occasion in O'Connell Street I heard a Volunteer captain call for 
 volunteers to take a dispatch to Commandant James Connolly, under 
 heavy machine-gun fire. Every man and woman present sprang 
 forward, and he chose a young Dublin woman, a well-known writer, 
 whose relations hold big Crown appointments, and whom I had last 
 seen dancing with an aide-de-camp at a famous Dublin ball. This 
 girl had taken an extraordinarily daring part in the insurrection. 
 She shook hands now with her commander and stepped coolly out 
 amid a perfect cross-rain of bullets from Trinity College and from 
 the Rotunda side of O'Connell Street. She reached the Post Office 
 in safety, and I saw Count Plimkett's son, who was the officer on 
 guard, and who has since been shot, come to the front door of the 
 Post Office and wish her good luck as he shook hands with her before 
 she made her reckless dash to take Connolly's dispatch back to their 
 own headquarters. 
 
 This was only one instance, but typical of a hundred that I saw 
 of the part played by women during the fighting week. They did 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 365 
 
 Red Cross work — I saw them going out under the deadliest fire to 
 bring in wounded Volunteers — they cooked, catered, and brought in 
 supplies; they took food to men under fire at barricades; they 
 visited every Volunteer's home to tell his people of his progress. I 
 never imagined that such an organization of determined fighting 
 women could exist in the British Isles. These women could throw 
 hand grenades, they understood tne use of bombs — in fact they 
 seemed to understand as much of the business of warfare as their 
 men. . . . 
 
 Another feature of the fighting little commented on was the ex- 
 traordinary impression made on the Volunteers by the presence of their 
 priests, who rushed to the buildings held by the Volunteers under 
 the heaviest fire. It was no unusual sight to see a body of bareheaded 
 Volunteers, with the Cumann na mBan girls by their sides, their 
 rifles in their hands, kneeling in the firing line while their priest 
 gave them the last battle-freed absolution of the Roman Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 Ambulance and first-aid work was carried out under extraordinary 
 difficulties during the rising. During the worst fighting days the 
 rescue of the wounded could only be eflFected at the risk of the res- 
 cuers' fives. On Easter Wednesday the hospitals refused to send 
 out more ambulances, and many wounded and dead lay in the streets 
 for days unattended. On Saturday the body of a man killed on 
 Tuesday still lay in Marlborough Street. 
 
 The writer in the Freeman's Journal thus gives some 
 first-hand impressions of the events of Thursday: 
 
 By Thursday the military cordon was complete and the fighting 
 within it was practically at close quarters, for rival snipers were 
 potting at one another from all over the city, apart from the attack 
 and defense of the strongholds held by the main bodies of the in- 
 surgents, whose original muster of eight hundred had considerably 
 increased. The air was alive with vicious sounds. One could distin- 
 guish the service ammunition from the ammunition used by the 
 insurgents, and people got so used to the difference that it was no 
 unusual thing to hear it said "That's the rebels," "That's the 
 military" as volley answered volley. But no one could now go next 
 or near the struggle except at imminent danger to his life. So 
 viciously did the fighting sound that no one without the cordon dis- 
 played the slightest desire to get inside. But once again, like the 
 
366 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 moth to the candle, I wanted to get closer to the trouble. So mak- 
 ing a detour with a friend, this time towards Kingsbridge, I found 
 that it was possible about three o'clock in the day to get down to- 
 wards Prussia Street and Stoneybatter. The same again! Just as 
 we were getting into town, a sudden boom brought us to a stand- 
 still. And then such rifle firing as had not yet been heard. I have 
 never heard such a fearful racket. Boom again. Again fierce rifle 
 firing, with what seemed to me to be sheer desperation in it. Boom 
 again. Again a frightening fusillade. Boom again. Again volley 
 upon volley. Pandemonium was loose in Stoneybatter and along 
 the quays. My friend and myself were pinned to the ground. 
 Another few minutes and, unless something or someone had stopped 
 us, we would have been in the center of it. It must have been a 
 bitter battle, but we were content to stand and listen until, as sud- 
 denly as it began, silence absolute and complete brought us to our 
 senses. I don't know which was the more startling — the sudden 
 boom or the sudden silence. By this time the mihtary had got down 
 to Frederick Street and Rutland Square and were raking O'Connell 
 Street from the north, while their comrades at the other end of the 
 Liffey were raking it from the south. . . . Needless to say the great 
 thoroughfare, raked up and down and commanded by troops in 
 Amiens Street as well, was a place where it might well be imagined 
 no human being could live. A dead horse lay near Nelson's Pillar 
 since Monday. The block of buildings at the north corner of Earl 
 Street was on fire since Tuesday. Now a hurricane of lead swept 
 the street from end to end. Mihtary snipers, too, were on vantage 
 points around. I had spoken to a man who went through the street 
 lying on the floor of an ambulance, while the relentless rain of bul- 
 lets was pouring in. He could only give to it the old weather- 
 beaten description of "Hell." "It was hell," he said; "the bullets 
 were hopping everywhere. It was one continuous whizz." A poor 
 fellow, who must have crept out of some cellar and who was evi- 
 dently under the influence of drink, came into this inferno waving 
 his hat, and proclaiming that he was a Dublin Fusilier. He was 
 riddled. The Imperial Hotel as well as the General Post Office was 
 defended by the Insurgents. It became necessary to send food 
 across to the hotel. A volunteer was forthcoming. He slung the 
 bag of food across his shoulder and started across the street. Through 
 air alive with hot lead, over pavements from which the bullets 
 hopped like hailstones, he shot over the broad street. Not a hair 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 367 
 
 of his head was injured. The story should erase the word "despair" 
 from the dictionary. 
 
 The intensity of the firing at Stoneybatter referred to in 
 the above quotation was part of one of the most brilliant 
 features of the rebellion. It was in this district and almost 
 in a direct line with the Four Courts that the Linen Hall 
 Barracks was situated. Shortly after two o'clock on Thurs- 
 day the rebels decided to make an attack on this fortress, 
 from which a deadly sniping was being kept up. A body of 
 Republicans was made up, led by Edward Daly himself, 
 and, comprising less than one hundred men, started out at 
 three o'clock. On their march they met a detachment of the 
 British on their way to the barracks. The enemy had two 
 machine guns with them, and at once opened fire on the 
 Republicans. This was not returned to any extent, as Daly 
 led his men to the charge without a second's hesitation and 
 rushed the British, capturing the guns and a quantity of 
 ammunition. 
 
 The attack on the barracks was then commenced. The 
 defenders of the barracks were well supplied with rifles and 
 ammunition, and had also two pieces of artillery, of which 
 they made the utmost use. They had one machine gun and 
 the battle lasted for close on an hour, at the end of which 
 time the lower portion of the building caught fire. This was 
 extinguished by the defenders, but the Irish charged at the 
 same moment and scaled the walls. During a fierce hand to 
 hand fight the fire broke out anew. The rebels captured im- 
 portant stores after they had subdued the defenders, but they 
 were unable to cope with the fire. The barracks were burned 
 to the ground, leaving only the bare walls standing. Thus 
 at least one of these strongholds of the aliens was destroyed 
 during Easter Week. 
 
 Thursday came to a close with the fires still burning and 
 the bullets flying thicker than ever. During the day further 
 British troops arrived on the scene to reinforce the enemy. 
 The panic of the British was increasing rather than decreas- 
 
368 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 ing. The most alarming rumors were in circulation through- 
 out the city of disasters to British troops in other parts of 
 the country, of German landings and of landings of Irish 
 from America. And it was while these stories were being 
 passed from one soldier to another that the news began to 
 leak out of one of the most dastardly murders that have ever 
 stamed the long and bloody record of the British in Ireland. 
 
CHAPTER LVI 
 
 The Murder of Sheehy-Skeffington 
 
 IT was the writer's privilege to know Francis Sheehy- 
 Skeffington as an intimate friend, to obtain a close 
 knowledge both of his views and his ideals during a 
 lengthy residence in Dublin, and to learn from him a great 
 deal concerning actual conditions in Ireland, during the visit 
 he paid to America after he had been imprisoned by the 
 EngHsh for his pacifist views. 
 
 He was a man of simple tastes, with sincere motives and 
 divine courage. He feared neither the scorn of his enemies 
 nor the criticism of his friends. When he had made up his 
 mind, after due consideration, that any particular course of 
 action was the right one, he would follow out that line of 
 action to the end. He was of abundant energy and the keen- 
 est intellect. He held an enduring place in the hearts of 
 those who knew him. His quick and ready sympathy were 
 ever on the side of the weaker or the oppressed, and he 
 spared no effort to assist them to the best of his power. 
 
 He was not a Sinn Feiner, nor was he associated in any 
 way with the physical force movement. He did not believe 
 in physical force even as a means of gaining the independence 
 of Ireland. He was a believer in peaceful propaganda, car- 
 ried on by constitutional means. At the outbreak of the 
 Rebellion he started to organize a volunteer police force to 
 protect the citizens of Dublin. It was while he was carry- 
 ing on this work that he met his tragic fate. 
 
 On the second day of the Rebellion, he had already made 
 some progress with his work. During that day he was ar- 
 rested by the military authorities and the following day, 
 together with two other men, he was taken out in Porto- 
 bello Barracks yard and shot. His death was not instan- 
 
370 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 taneous. He crawled around the yard in a dying condition 
 for thirty minutes after the volley had been fired, a fact 
 that the British have tried to suppress. A second and then 
 a third volley was fired into his body, thus ending his life. 
 
 His murderer. Captain Bowen-Colthurst, tried to forge 
 documents to show that Skeffington was implicated in the 
 rising and was one of the ringleaders. He grossly insulted 
 and lied to Mrs. Sheehy -Skeffington, when the widow, who 
 did not then know of the death of her husband, made in- 
 quiries as to his whereabouts. After a farcical court-martial, 
 this man was adjudged guilty but insane, and sentenced to 
 be confined in a criminal lunatic asylum "during His Maj- 
 esty's pleasure." He was subsequently released. The out- 
 cry made by Mrs. Skeffington and by the Irish in America 
 forced the British to appoint, several months after the 
 murder, a commission of inquiry. 
 
 Lest anyone doubt the authenticity of the facts set forth, 
 the members of the Commission, appointed by the English 
 Government, will be allowed to tell the whole gruesome tale 
 in their own official report. This document, one of the most 
 amazing in the history of any country, follows: 
 
 It was conceded on all hands before us that Mr. Sheehy-Skefl^g- 
 ton had no connection with the Rebellion; his views were opposed 
 to the use of physical force; and it appears that he had been engaged 
 that afternoon in making some public appeal to prevent looting and 
 the like. Mrs. Sheehy-Skeffington gave evidence of this fact, and 
 her evidence is confirmed by a document which was found on him 
 when he was searched and which contained a form of membership 
 of a proposed civic organization to check looting. As he approached 
 Portobello Bridge he was followed by a crowd, some of the members 
 of which were shouting out his name. 
 
 It was about dusk, and the disturbance had now continued for 
 some thirty hours. A young oflScer named Lieutenant M. C. Morris, 
 who was attached to the 3d Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles at 
 Portobello Barracks, had taken up duty an hour before in command 
 of a picket at Portobello Bridge, occupying premises at the corner 
 known as Davy's public house. His orders were to do his utmost to 
 avoid conflict but to keep the roadway clear as far as possible. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 371 
 
 Lieutenant Morris heard people in the street shouting out Mr. 
 Sheehy-Skeflfington's name, and he determined to detain him and 
 send him to the barracks. Lieutenant Morris did not himself leave 
 his post for many hours afterwards. He sent Mr. Sheehy-Skeffing- 
 ton under an escort of two men to the barracks. 
 
 Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington was searched by Captain Bowen-Col- 
 thurst. This gentleman was an officer of sixteen years' service. He 
 belonged to the Royal Irish Rifles, and had considerable experience 
 of warfare. He had been with his battalion of the regiment at the 
 front when he was seriously wounded and invalided home. At the 
 time of the Dublin disturbances he was attached to the 3d Bat- 
 talion at Portobello Barracks. Having searched Mr. Sheehy-Skeffing- 
 ton, Captain Bowen-Colthurst about 9 o'clock handed over to the 
 Adjutant what he had found upon him. The Adjutant made copies 
 of these documents and produced them before us; they were few 
 in number, and none of them had anything to do with the disturb- 
 ances save the document already referred to, which was a draft 
 form of membership for a civic guard. There was nothing of an 
 incriminatory nature found on Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington. When we 
 come to deal with the cases of Mr. Dickson and Mr. Mclntyre it 
 will again be seen that nothing of consequence was found upon 
 them, and the absence of compromising documents in all three cases 
 is, in the light of a report subsequently made by Captain Bowen-Col- 
 thurst, a fact of considerable importance. 
 
 Later, on the same evening. Captain Bowen-Colthurst went out 
 of the barracks in command of a party under orders to enter and 
 occupy premises at the corner of Camden Street and Harrington 
 Street, occupied by Mr. James Kelly for the purposes of his tobacco 
 business. Mr. Kelly is an Alderman of the City and a Justice of 
 the Peace, and had recently held the office of High Sheriff of the 
 City. There is no question that the suspicion entertained against 
 Mr. Kelly's loyalty was due to a misunderstanding, and that Mr. 
 Kelly was, in fact, quite innocent of any connection with the out- 
 break. Mr. Kelly's premises are some 300 yards on the city side of 
 Portobello Bridge, and the route for Captain Bowen-Colthurst's 
 party therefore lay from the main gate of the barracks along the 
 lane leading into the Rathmines Road, and then along the Rath- 
 mines Road over Portobello Bridge past Davy's public house. 
 
 Captain Bowen-Colthurst adopted the extraordinary, and indeed 
 almost meaningless, course of taking Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington with 
 
372 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 him as a "hostage." He had no right to take Mr. Sheehy-Skefl^g- 
 ton out of the custody of the guard for this or any other purpose, and 
 he asked no one's leave to do so. Captain Bowen-Colthurst's party 
 consisted of a junior officer (Second Lieutenant Leslie Wilson) and 
 about forty men. Before they left the barracks Mr. Sheehy- 
 Skeffington's hands were tied behind his back, and Captain 
 Bowen-Colthurst called upon him to say his prayers. Upon Mr. 
 Sheehy-Skeffington refusing to do so, Captain Bowen-Colthurst or- 
 dered the men of his party to take their hats off and himself uttered 
 a prayer, the words of it, according to Lieutenant Wilson's evidence 
 being: "0 Lord God, if it shall please Thee to take away the life 
 of this man, forgive him for Christ's sake." 
 
 The party proceeded from the main gate of the barracks to the 
 turning into the Rathmines Road, where a shooting incident oc- 
 curred which we thought it right to investigate, since Mr. Sheehy- 
 Skeffington was present and since it was suggested (though not 
 proved) that it might have led to some protest on his part, or might 
 have had some bearing upon his subsequent treatment. We find 
 it impossible to reconcile all the testimony given on this matter, but 
 it w^as established that a youth named Coade with a friend named 
 Laurence Byrne w^ere in the Rathmines Road when Captain Bowen- 
 Colthurst's party came by. Captain Bowen-Colthurst asked what 
 business they had to be in the road at that hour, and warned them 
 that martial law had been proclaimed. The evidence as to what next 
 happened is not consistent, but there is no suggestion that either of 
 the yovng men showed any violence, and it was clearly established 
 before us that Captain Bowen-Colthurst shot young Coade, who fell 
 mortally wounded and was subsequently taken by an ambulance to 
 the hospital in the barracks. Lieutenant Leslie Wilson testified that 
 Captain Bowen-Colthurst fired with a rifle, but two civilian wit- 
 nesses — whose good faith there is no reason to doubt — asserted 
 positively that they saw Captain Bowen-Colthurst (whose identity 
 was unmistakable, since he was a man of exceptional stature) brandish 
 and fire a revolver. There was admittedly other firing as Captain 
 Bowen-Colthurst's party marched down the road, which Lieutenant 
 LesHe Wilson told us was for the purpose of securing that people 
 at the windows should keep indoors. The evidence of the different 
 witnesses can only he reconciled by inferring that more than one case of 
 shooting occurred during the progress of Captain Bowen-Colthurst's party. 
 
 On reaching Portobello Bridge Captain Bowen-Colthurst divided 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 373 
 
 his party into two, and left half of it in the charge of Lieutenant 
 Leslie Wilson, while going forward with the rest to attack Alderman 
 Kelley's shop; he also left Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington at the bridge, 
 giving Lieutenant Leslie Wilson orders that, if he (Captain Bowen- 
 Colthurst) and his men were "knocked out," Lieutenant Leslie Wilson 
 was to take command, and if they were fired upon, Lieutenant Wilson 
 was to shoot Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington. 
 
 The advance party then went on its way and was absent about 
 twenty minutes; they threw a bomb into Alderman Kelly's shop 
 and met with no resistance there. Alderman Kelly was absent; 
 Mr. Mclntyre, who was a friend of Alderman Kelly, had been on 
 the premises some time, and Mr. Dickson, who lived close by, took 
 refuge there when he heard the soldiers firing as they approached. 
 Miss Kelly, who is a sister of Alderman Kelly, gave us a detailed 
 account of the raid on her brother's premises; it is evident from her 
 account that Captain Bowen-Colthurst was in a state of great ex- 
 citement. Dickson and Mclntyre, together with two other men who 
 were shortly afterwards released, were taken into custody, and Cap- 
 tain Bowen-Colthurst returned to barracks with them, picking up 
 Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington and the other section of his party on the way. 
 
 ]VIr. Dickson and Mr. Mclntyre were searched, but nothing ma- 
 terial was found on them. They spent the night in the detention 
 room along with some other civihans. Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington, as 
 being of a superior social position, was put into a separate cell, and 
 was made as comfortable as possible. 
 
 Mr. Dickson was the editor of a paper called The Eye-opener, and 
 Mr. Mclntyre was the editor of another paper known as The Search- 
 light. So far as there was any evidence on the point before us, it 
 appears that the only reason for arresting either of these men was 
 the circumstance that they were found on Alderman Kelly's premises 
 and, as we have already stated, the suspicion entertained against 
 this gentleman was without foundation. Mr. Dickson was a Scotch- 
 man, and deformed. Neither he nor Mr. Mclntyre had any connec- 
 tion with the Sinn Fein movement. 
 
 Shortly after 10 a.m. the following morning Captain Bowen-Col- 
 thurst came to the guard room. He appears on his first arrival to 
 have entirely ignored Lieutenant Dobbin, who was standing in the bar- 
 rack square near to the guard room entrance, and having passed into 
 the guard room itself to have given his orders direct to the sergeant. 
 These orders were to the effect that he required the three prisoners, 
 
374 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Skeffington, Dickson, and Mclntyre, in the yard for the purpose of 
 speaking to them. The yard in question is within the guard room 
 block of buildings, being reached by a short passage from the guard 
 room. It comprises a space less than 40 feet in length and some 
 15 feet in width, and is surrounded by a high brick wall. 
 
 During the few moments that were occupied by the calling out 
 of the three prisoners. Captain Bowen-Colthurst stepped out of the 
 guard room to the spot where Lieutenant Dobbin was still standing, 
 and informed that officer that he was taking the three prisoners out 
 for the purpose of shooting them, as he thought "it was the best 
 thing to do." 
 
 When Captain Bowen-Colthurst returned into the guard room after 
 his brief statement to Lieutenant Dobbin, he ordered some of the 
 guards, with their rifles, out into the yard, where the three prisoners 
 had preceded them. All the men on duty had their magazines already 
 filled, and seven of the guard, who appear to have been merely those 
 that happened at the moment to be nearest the yard passage, ac- 
 companied by Sergeant Aldridge, followed Captain Bowen-Colthurst 
 out into the yard. What then occurred took place so rapidly that 
 we have little doubt that none of the three victims realized that they 
 were about to meet their death. We are confirmed in this view by 
 the fact that all the witnesses, including civilian prisoners in the 
 detention room, to whom everything that took place in the yard 
 was audible, agree in stating that no sound was uttered by any of the 
 three. 
 
 While the soldiers were entering the yard Captain Bowen-Col- 
 thurst ordered the three prisoners to walk to the wall at the other 
 end, a distance, as we have stated, of only a few yards. As they 
 were doing this the seven soldiers, entering the yard, fell into line 
 along the wall adjoining the entrance, and immediately received from 
 Captain Colthurst the order to fire upon the three prisoners who had 
 then just turned to face them. All three fell as a result of the volley. 
 Captain Bowen-Colthurst left the yard, and the firing party began 
 to file out. 
 
 Immediately upon hearing the volley. Lieutenant Dobbin (who 
 was engaged in receiving the Adjutant's message outside) hastened 
 through the guard room and entered the yard. On looking at the 
 bodies he saw a movement in one of Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington's legs 
 which gave him the impression that life was not yet extinct, and he 
 exclaimed to Sergeant Aldridge, who was still in the yard, "Sergeant, 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 375 
 
 that man is not dead." It is Sergeant Aldridge's impression (and we 
 are inclined to accept the evidence of this witness, who was both ex- 
 perienced and candid) that death had, nevertheless, been instantane- 
 ous in all three cases, and that what Lieutenant Dobbin saw was a 
 muscular contraction of the unfortunate gentleman's limb. As a re- 
 sult, however, of what he saw, Lieutenant Dobbin dispatched one of 
 the other officers of the guard. Lieutenant Tooley, in the orderly 
 room to report and obtain instructions. At, or in the neighborhood 
 of, the orderly room. Lieutenant Tooley met Captain Bowen-Col- 
 thurst, and received from him the order to "fire again." Lieutenant 
 Tooley returned with this message, and thereupon four soldiers (not 
 all members of the first firing party) were ordered into the yard by 
 Lieutenant Dobbin, and upon his directions fired a second volley into 
 the body of Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington. 
 
 Not long after the shooting had taken place, and before 10.30 
 A.M., Captain Bowen-Colthurst reported verbally to the Adjutant 
 at the orderly room that he had shot Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington and 
 the editors of the Eye-opener and the Searchlight. Either then or 
 later he gave as his reason for so doing the fear that they would 
 escape or might be rescued by armed force. There was no foundation 
 whatever for any apprehension as to the escape of these prisoners, and 
 no sane person who honestly entertained such a possibility as a rescue 
 would have seen in it any ground for distinction between these three 
 prisoners and the other detained persons. At or about the same time, 
 Captain Bowen-Colthurst verbally reported his action to Major 
 Rosborough, adding that he had shot the three prisoners on his own 
 responsibihty and that he possibly might be hanged for it. Major 
 Rosborough told him to make his report in writing, and instructed 
 the Adjutant to report the matter to the Garrison Adjutant at 
 Dublin Castle. 
 
 The disturbances continued throughout the week, and on Friday 
 (April 28th) Mrs. Sheehy-Skeffington, who had last seen her husband 
 in Westmoreland Street on the previous Tuesday afternoon, was still 
 without definite information as to what had happened to him. As a 
 result of alarming rumors about him which reached her from various 
 sources, her two sisters, Mrs. Culhane, and Mrs. Kettle, on the 
 morning of Friday went to the police station at Rathmines to make 
 inquiries. The police had no information to give, but suggested that 
 the two ladies might inquire at Portobello Barracks, where they 
 accordingly went. 
 
376 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Mrs. Kettle and her sister arrived at the barracks at about 1 p.m., 
 and after some shght delay were admitted past the first and second 
 gates. A jmiior officer, Lieutenant Beattie, came up to inquire as to 
 their business. Mrs. Kettle and her sister thought it well to com- 
 mence their inquiries by asking in the first place as to their brother. 
 Lieutenant Sheehy. To this they received a courteous reply. They 
 then asked as to their brother-in-law, Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington, 
 whereupon the young officer with whom they were conversing be- 
 trayed some confusion, asked them to excuse him, and went away 
 to consult with some other officer. On returning, he informed the 
 two ladies that he regretted that he would have to place them under 
 arrest, giving as his reason that they were Sinn Feiners and had 
 been seen speaking to Sinn Feiners. Mrs. Kettle and her sister 
 pointed out the absurdity of the allegation and referred to the posi- 
 tion of Lieutenant Kettle and of the late Mr. Culhane; they were, 
 however, placed in charge of some soldiers and marched across the 
 barrack square to the orderly room, outside which they remained 
 standing, surrounded by soldiers, while a consultation of officers ap- 
 pears to have taken place within. After some minutes Captain 
 Bowen-Colthurst emerged from the guard room and questioned them. 
 They repeated their inquiries as to Lieutenant Sheehy and as to 
 Mr. Sheehy-Skeffiington. Captain Colthurst, in reply to the latter 
 inquiry, said: *'I know nothing whatever about Mr. Sheehy- 
 Skeffington." Mrs. Culhane referred to some of the rumors which 
 had reached them, and Lieutenant Beattie, who was the only other 
 officer actually present at tliis interview, made some remark to 
 Captain Bowen-Colthurst in an undertone. Captain Bowen-Col- 
 thurst then said: 'T have no information concerning Mr. Skeffing- 
 ton that is available, and the sooner you leave the barracks the 
 better." There was then an order given to have the ladies conducted 
 back, and, by Captain Bowen-Colthurst's direction, they were for- 
 bidden to speak to one another. The guard was dismissed at the 
 gate, and the two ladies were conducted to the tramway line by 
 Lieutenant Beattie. 
 
 About four o'clock on the afternoon of Friday, after receiving her 
 sister's report of what had just taken place in the barracks, Mrs. 
 Sheehy-Skeffington got into touch with the father of the young man 
 Coade, to whose death we have referred. Father O'Loughlin, the 
 chaplain of the barracks, whom we have already mentioned, knew 
 young Coade as a member of the religious sodality of which he 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 377 
 
 (Father O'Loughlin) was spiritual director, and at a meeting of which 
 Coade had been present on the night he met his death. The father 
 of Coade was informed of his son's fate by Father O'Loughlin, and 
 was permitted to visit the dead body in the mortuary at the barracks. 
 Here the unfortunate man saw the body of Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington 
 laid out beside that of his son, a fact which on Friday afternoon he 
 communicated to Mrs. Sheehy-Skeffington. Mrs. Sheehy-Skeffington, 
 on Mr. Coade's suggestion, at once sought out Father O'Loughlin 
 and besought him for particulars as to her husband. She was told 
 that he was dead and already buried. 
 
 At 7 P.M. on this same Friday evening Mrs. Sheehy-Skeffington 
 was putting her little son, aged seven, to bed, when a body of sol- 
 diers from Portobello barracks headed by Captain Bowen-Colthurst 
 and Colonel Allen (an officer of advanced years who had returned to 
 service after the outbreak of the war and who was killed during the 
 later stages of the Rebellion) arrived at the house. Mrs. Sheehy- 
 Skeffington was alone in the house save for her boy and a young 
 maid-servant. Before any attempt was made to obtain an entrance 
 into the house, a volley was fired through the windows. A body of 
 soldiers with fixed bayonets under Captain Bowen-Colthurst then 
 burst in through the front door. No request for the door to be 
 opened was made, nor was any time given to those in the house to 
 open it. Mrs. Sheehy-Skeffington and her boy had bayonets pointed 
 at them and were ordered to hold their hands above their heads. 
 They were then, by orders of Captain Bowen-Colthurst, placed in the 
 front room together with the maid-servant, and kept guarded while 
 the house was searched. All the rooms in the house were thoroughly 
 ransacked, and a considerable quantity of books and papers were 
 wrapped up in the household linen, placed in a passing motor car, 
 and taken away, Mrs. Sheehy-Skeffington has been herself a teacher 
 of foreign languages, while Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington was at the time 
 the editor of a paper known as The Irish Citizen, and a large part of 
 the material removed seems to have consisted of text-books both in 
 German and other languages as well as political papers and pam- 
 phlets belonging to Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington. The search lasted until 
 a quarter-past ten, when the soldiers departed; Mrs. Sheehy-Skeffing- 
 ton, together with her boy and maid-servant, remained under arrest 
 up to that hour. 
 
 As a result of a communication to the military authorities in 
 London, made by Major Sir Francis Vane (one of many officers who 
 
378 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 had reported at Portobello Barracks at the commencement of the 
 outbreak), Captain Bowen-Colthurst was placed under "open" arrest 
 upon May 6th, and subsequently on May 11th under "close" arrest. 
 Major Sir Francis Vane was not an officer of the regiment stationed 
 at the barracks, and had no responsibility for any of the events we 
 have described. On the 6th and 7th of June, Captain Bowen-Col- 
 thurst was tried by court-martial in Dublin for the murder of the 
 three men and was found guilty but insane. 
 
CHAPTER LVII 
 
 Hoping Against Hope 
 
 ON Friday close on 60,000 British soldiers were fight- 
 ing in Dublin against 1100 Irish. The cordon had 
 coiled itseK in ever narrower folds around the men 
 of the Republic, whose flag, however, was still flying defi- 
 antly over the General Post Office, Boland's Mills, the 
 South Dublin Union, the Four Courts, and elsewhere. The 
 main strength of the British was concentrated on O'Connell 
 Street, which was by this time a raging inferno of fire and 
 shot. Scores of blocks of the buildings in the neighbor- 
 hood of the Post Office were blazing, and shells were con- 
 tinuously dropping on the Post Office itself. 
 
 It was by this time evident that only one thing could save 
 the Republic. Even at this late hour, after the men of Dublin 
 had held out against enormous odds for five days, if the men 
 of the country had risen there would have been still a big 
 chance of victory. This was the one hope that animated 
 the leaders. Early that morning Commandant Connolly 
 prepared and issued a statement, which, owing to the fact 
 that Connolly was seriously wounded in the thigh, was read 
 to the men in the Post Office by The O'Rahilly. This is 
 the document: 
 
 "Army of the Irish Republic 
 (Dublin Command) 
 Headquarters, April 28, 1916. 
 To Soldiers: 
 
 This is the fifth day of the establishment of the Irish Republic, 
 and the flag of our country still floats from the most important build- 
 ings in Dublin, and is gallantly protected by the Irish officers and 
 soldiers in arms throughout the country. Not a day passes without 
 seeing fresh postings of Irish soldiers eager to do battle for the old 
 cause. Despite the utmost vigilance of the enemy, we have been 
 
380 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 able to get information, telling us how the manhood of Ireland, in- 
 spired by our splendid action, are gathering to offer up their lives if 
 necessary in the same holy cause. We are here hemmed in, because 
 the enemy feels that in this building is to be found the heart and 
 inspiration of our great movement. 
 
 Let us remind you what you have done. For the first time in 
 700 years the flag of a free Ireland floats triumphantly in Dublin 
 City. 
 
 The British Army, whose exploits we are forever having dinned 
 into our ears, which boasts of having stormed the Dardanelles and 
 the German lines on the Marne, behind their artillery and machine 
 guns are afraid to advance to the attack or storm any positions held 
 by our forces. The slaughter they suffered in the first few days has 
 totally unnerved them, and they dare not attempt again an infantry 
 attack on our positions. 
 
 Our Commandants around us are holding their own. 
 
 Commandant Daly's splendid exploit in capturing Linen Hall 
 Barracks we all know. You must know also that the whole popula- 
 tion, both clergy and laity, of this district are united in his praises. 
 Commandant MacDonagh is estabhshed in an impregnable position 
 reaching from the walls of DubHn Castle to Redmond's Hill, and 
 from Bishop Street to Stephen's Green. 
 
 In Stephen's Green, Commandant holds the College of Sur- 
 geons, one side of the square, a portion of the other side, and domi- 
 nates the whole Green and all its entrances and exits. 
 
 Commandant De Valera stretches in a position from the Gas 
 Works to Westland Row, holding Boland's Bakery, Boland's Mills, 
 Dublin Southeastern Railway Works, and dominating Merrion 
 Square. 
 
 Commandant Kent holds the South Dublin Union and Guinness's 
 Buildings to Marrowbone Lane, and controls James's Street and 
 district. 
 
 On two occasions the enemy effected a lodgment and were driven 
 out with great loss. 
 
 The men of North County Dublin are in the field, have occupied 
 all the Police Barracks in the district, destroyed all the telegraph 
 system on the Great Northern Railway up to Dundalk, and are 
 operating against the trains of the Midland Great Western. 
 
 Dundalk has sent 200 men to march upon Dublin, and in the 
 other parts of the North our forces are active and growing. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 381 
 
 In Galway Captain , fresh after his escape from an Irish 
 
 prison, is in the field with his men. Wexford and Wicklow are strong, 
 and Cork and Kerry are equally acquitting themselves creditably. 
 We have every confidence that our Allies in Germany and kinsmen 
 in America are straining every nerve to hasten matters on our behalf. 
 
 As you know, I was wounded twice yesterday and am unable to 
 move about, but have got my bed moved into the firing line, and, 
 with the assistance of your officers, will be just as useful to you as 
 ever. 
 
 Courage, boys, we are winning, and in the hour of our victory let 
 us not forget the splendid women who have everywhere stood by us 
 and cheered us on. Never had man or woman a grander cause, 
 never was a cause more grandly served. 
 
 (Signed) James Connolly, 
 Commandant-Generaly 
 Dublin Division. 
 
 Yet, in spite of these brave words, the leaders recognized 
 they had accomplished all that could be hoped for at that 
 time, and that they themselves were doomed to pay the 
 penalty for the love of their country. The British had suc- 
 ceeded in cutting the communications, and had thus ren- 
 dered it impossible for one section to know what the other 
 was doing. Furthermore, ammunition was running short, 
 and they were surrounded by an enemy equipped with every 
 engine of destruction that modern military science had been 
 able to construct: an enemy that outnumbered them fifty 
 or sixty to one. Even the most optimistic could not but 
 know that the end was at hand. 
 
 At the same time, they knew that they had effected the 
 one great object which they had set out to attain. They 
 had saved the soul of Ireland from the pollution of inaction, 
 from the shame and degradation of sitting with hands folded 
 while weapons were being taken and a country and people 
 left defenseless. This was the spirit and the knowledge that 
 buoyed them up during these last hours while they still 
 fought on, hoping against hope that the rest of the country 
 would come to their relief at the last minute, hoping and 
 
382 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 fighting when there was no hope and when the means of 
 fighting were dwindhng with every shot that was fired. 
 
 At 9.30 of Friday morning President Pearse signed the 
 last proclamation previous to the document of surrender. 
 It is a document that will be treasured as long as there is an 
 Irish man or woman who loves his native land. It reads as 
 follows : 
 
 Headquarters, Army of the Irish Republic, General 
 Post Office, Dublin 
 
 28th April, 1916, 9: 30 a.m. 
 
 The Forces of the Irish Republic, which was proclaimed in Dublin 
 on Easter Monday, 24th April, have been in possession of the cen- 
 tral part of the capital since 12 noon on that day. Up to yesterday 
 afternoon Headquarters was in touch with all the main outlying 
 positions, and, despite furious and almost continuous assaults by the 
 British Forces, all those positions were then still being held, and the 
 commandants in charge were confident of their ability to hold them 
 for a long time. 
 
 During the course of yesterday afternoon and evening the enemy 
 succeeded in cutting our communications with our other positions 
 in the city, and Headquarters is to-day isolated. 
 
 The enemy has burnt down whole blocks of houses, apparently 
 with the object of giving themselves a clear field for the play of 
 artillery and field guns against us. We have been bombarded during 
 the evening and night by shrapnel and machine-gun fire, but with- 
 out material damage to our position, which is of great strength. 
 
 We are busy completing arrangements for the final defense of 
 Headquarters, and are determined to hold it while the buildings last. 
 
 I desire now, lest I may not have an opportunity later, to pay 
 homage to the gallantry of the soldiers of Irish Freedom, who have, 
 during the past four days, been writing with fire and steel the most 
 glorious chapter in the later history of Ireland. Justice can never 
 be done to their heroism, to their discipline, to their gay and uncom- 
 querable spirit, in the midst of peril and death. 
 
 Let me, who have led them into this, speak, in my own and my 
 fellow-commanders' names, and in the name of Ireland present and 
 to come, their praise and ask those who come after them to remem- 
 ber them. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 383 
 
 For four days they have fought and toiled, almost without cessa- 
 tion, almost without sleep, and in the intervals of fighting they 
 have sung songs of the freedom of Ireland. No man has complained; 
 no man has asked "Why?" Each individual has spent himself, 
 happy to pour out his strength for Ireland and for freedom. If they 
 do not win the fight, they will at least have deserved to win it. But 
 win it they will, although they may win it in death. Already they 
 have won a great thing. They have redeemed Dublin from many 
 shames, and made her name splendid among the names of cities. 
 
 If I were to mention names of individuals, my list would be a 
 long one. 
 
 I will name only that of Commandant General James Connolly, 
 commanding the Dublin division. He lies wounded, but is still the 
 guiding brain of our resistance. 
 
 If we accomplish no more than we have accomplished, I am satis- 
 fied. I am satisfied that we have saved Ireland's honor. I am satis- 
 fied that we should have accomplished more, that we should have 
 accomplished the task of enthroning, as well as proclaiming the Irish 
 Republic as a Sovereign State, had our arrangements for a simul- 
 taneous rising of the whole country, with a combined plan as sound 
 as the Dublin plan has been proved to be, been allowed to go through 
 on Easter Sunday. Of the fatal countermanding order which pre- 
 vented those plans from being carried out, I shall not speak further. 
 Both Eoin MacNeill and we have acted in the best interests of 
 Ireland. 
 
 For my part, as to anything I have done in this, I am not afraid 
 to face either the judgment of God, or the judgment of posterity. 
 
 (Signed) P. H. Pearse, 
 Commandant-General, Commander in Chief of the Army 
 of the Irish Republic, and President of the 
 Provisional Government. 
 
 At the Post OflSce there were three lines of barricades, 
 and every effort had been made to make the place impossi- 
 ble of assault. For some hours on Thursday night the build- 
 ing had been under artillery jSre, and this bombardment 
 was kept up on Friday morning. Sean MacDermott was 
 in charge of lines of hose, with which one fire after another 
 that was started by the incendiary shells was extinguished, 
 before it was able to secure a hold. One part of the build- 
 
384 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 ing after another was flooded with water, but the shells 
 fell so fast and so thick that even these efforts were vain 
 to prevent a conflagration. 
 
 It was shortly after noon that the fire got beyond con- 
 trol. Men were called from the firing lines to extinguish 
 the blaze, but it foiled all their efforts. Shell after shell 
 fell in the same place, the gunners evidently having dis- 
 covered that their efforts were meeting with success. Guns 
 were firing from the other side of the Liffey, from the gun- 
 boat on the Liffey, from Talbot Street, and from Parnell 
 Street. With the heavy artillery were combined machine 
 guns, that kept up a continuous rain of bullets on the build- 
 ing and on every inch of O'Connell and Henry Streets. It 
 seemed to be the object of the British to set fire to the 
 Post Office, and at the same time make it impossible for the 
 Republicans to attempt to escape, even under a flag of truce, 
 so that they would be burned alive. 
 
 When it was seen that it was impossible to remain in the 
 Post Office, the men were lined up in the yard at the back, 
 and told that an attempt would be made to break through. 
 Even at this time the spirits and the enthusiasm of the men 
 and of their leaders were undiminished. The men cheered 
 when told that they were going to have a hand-to-hand 
 engagement. They did not seem to fear the hurricane of 
 bullets that they knew was waiting for them outside the 
 burning building. Someone started to sing, and the Irish 
 National Anthem rose above the shriek and roar of the 
 British shells: 
 
 When boyhood's fire was in my blood, 
 
 I read of ancient freemen, 
 Of Greece and Rome who bravely stood. 
 
 Three hundred men and three men. 
 
 The men then began to collect all the foodstuffs that could 
 be obtained. The building was thoroughly searched, in 
 spite of the flames that were now raging and the shells that 
 were dropping into the ruins every minute. The hand 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 385 
 
 grenades had been brought down to the cellar as soon as 
 the bombardment had started, and these were now por- 
 tioned among the men. When all the preparations had been 
 completed, the little band left the building by the side door 
 in Henry Street. 
 
 A dash was made across this bullet-swept thoroughfare 
 into Moore Street on the other side. In that dash more 
 than one of these brave men died, riddled with bullets. 
 But his comrades pressed on, led by the intrepid O'Rahilly 
 and safely gained Moore Street, where a barricade had been 
 erected. Here, however, they were exposed to the fire of 
 the military from Parnell Street. The Republicans en- 
 trenched themselves in the best manner possible, and began 
 to return the fire of the military. 
 
 The deaths in the dash across Henry Street were the first 
 that had taken place among the actual garrison in the Post 
 Office, although men in the Post Office area had been wounded 
 or killed. In spite of all the expenditure of ammunition on 
 the part of the British for days past none of the men in the 
 Post Office with the exception of Connolly had even been 
 scratched. 
 
 With the men who made the sortie were President Pearse, 
 Sean MacDermott, James Connolly, who had to be carried, 
 Tom Clarke, and Joseph Plunkett. 
 
 The British were not slow to take advantage of the fact 
 that the Irish had evacuated the Post Office. A machine- 
 gun squad that had been operating in Talbot Street moved 
 up to the corner of North Earl Street, so as to be in a posi- 
 tion to fire across the side of Moore Street. As this meant 
 that the Republicans would be hemmed in in this narrow 
 street with a cross fire at both sides, it was determined to 
 make an effort to force the retreat of the British in North 
 Earl Street. The O'Rahilly undertook the leadership of 
 the charge, and himself led his men into Henry Street. A 
 heavy volley was directed against the British at the same 
 time, and the rebels charged into O'Connell Street over a 
 ground swept by a deadly cross fire, and forced the British 
 
386 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 to retire. Having accomplished all they could hope to do 
 at this point, the Republicans also fell back. 
 
 A murderous interchange of bullets was now taking place. 
 The British had recovered from their set-back, and, smart- 
 ing under a sense of defeat, they sent a hurricane of bullets 
 into Henry Street. To this the Republicans replied in kind, 
 and, although they lacked machine guns, their aim was so cool 
 and so deadly that the British in Talbot Street were falling 
 in scores. The first gun crew had been almost wiped out, 
 the oflficer in charge was a corpse, and the other detachments 
 that were running to the relief were also suffering heavily. 
 One shell and then another burst over Henry Street, and 
 showers of shrapnel followed. It was in the midst of this, 
 one of the bloodiest fights that took place during the Rebel- 
 lion, that The O'Rahilly fell, mortally shot, and died prac- 
 tically instantaneously. 
 
 While the loss of their leader was a sore blow to his men, 
 they continued to fight on and were able to hold the end of 
 Moore Street leading into Henry Street. This was really 
 the rear of the position occupied by this force of the Repub- 
 licans, as they held the end facing Parnell Street as their 
 main line. But it was obvious that they would be able to 
 hold out here only for a few hours at the most, as the shrap- 
 nel was beginning to burst over them, and one after another 
 of the houses and stores along the street blazed up as a re- 
 sult of the bombardment. 
 
 It was during the Friday that the British were at last able 
 to complete their cordon around the Fourt Courts, and this 
 was a serious blow to the men in Moore Street, as it cut 
 off their last line of retreat. At the same time the men under 
 Commandant Daly were making a magnificent resistance, 
 and were in a position to hold out for several days. The 
 men in Stephen's Green, at Boland*s Mills, where De Valera 
 was giving the British more fight than they wanted, and at 
 the South Dublin Union, were also keeping the flag flying. 
 In spite of all the efforts of the enemy, the College of Sur- 
 geons was still in the hands of the Countess Markievicz and 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 387 
 
 the Fianna. Only in the Post Office area, where most of 
 the strength of the British was concentrated, had the enemy 
 made any real progress. But, when Friday night closed 
 down, it was evident that there was no hope from the coun- 
 try, that the fatal order of Eoin MacNeill had had its effect, 
 and that the men of Dublin were doomed. 
 
CHAPTER LVIII 
 
 A Grim Night Scene 
 
 WIILE a multitude of facts regarding the Rebellion 
 were suppressed by the British Government, there 
 were some that were forced to the surface, and give 
 an indication of the true state of affairs in Dublin during 
 the rising. In this category is an incident which took place 
 in Guinness's Brewery on Saturday night, April 29, and 
 which, while of comparatively small importance in itself, 
 is of value as an index of the condition of mind that pre- 
 vailed among the British in Dublin even on that night 
 when the Rebellion was virtually at an end. 
 
 The following is a portion of the official account of the trial 
 of a British officer for murdering his superior during the rising. 
 
 Major General Lord Cheylesmore, K.C.V.O., presided over the 
 Court, and Mr. Kenneth Marshall was Judge Advocate. 
 
 The accused pleaded not guilty, and was defended by Mr. Henry 
 Hanna, K.C. (instructed by Mr. Joseph Gleeson). 
 
 The prosecution was conducted by Major E. G. Kimber, D.S.O. 
 (instructed by Mr. Robertson, Chief Crown Solicitor's Office). 
 
 Major Kimber, in opening the case, said the occurrences arose out 
 of the late rebellion in Dublin. It appeared that at Guinness's Brew- 
 ery the rebels had established themselves, south of the western corner 
 of the brewery. It became a pitch dark night, and that was a matter 
 which should be recollected. On the evening of April 28th about 7 
 o'clock. Colonel Williams, who was in charge of the area, ordered 
 Captain M'Namara to put a guard in the malthouse. Accordingly 
 Captain M'Namara went there with Company, Quartermaster-Ser- 
 geant Flood and nine men, and occupied the malthouse. The orders 
 which Colonel Williams gave to Captain M'Namara were that he was 
 not to return the snipers' shots and not to fire at all unless there 
 were attempts to enter the brewery. At 11 o'clock that night Cap- 
 tain Rotheram was ordered by Colonel Williams to take down Sec- 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 389 
 
 ond Lieutenant Lucas (who was subsequently killed) to the brewery 
 in order to relieve Captain M'Namara. Mr. Lucas belonged to King 
 Edward's Horse, and at that time officers had been sent to different 
 jobs. The guard in the malthouse belonged to the Royal Dublin 
 Fusiliers. Of course Mr. Lucas was unknown to the Company, 
 Quartermaster-Sergeant or any of the guard. Captain Rotheram took 
 with him extra men, and when he left Mr. Lucas the guard numbered 
 fifteen men. They were put out at different center posts in the build- 
 ing, and the orders which Colonel Williams had given Captain 
 M'Namara were repeated to Mr. Lucas in the presence of the ac- 
 ctised, and in addition to that Captain M'Namara said: "It is inad- 
 visable to open any of the windows, but if it is necessary to fire, it 
 would be better to fire through the windows rather than open them 
 and attract the attention of the rebels." He also told the accused 
 that Mr. Lucas was relieving him. The official who acted as guide 
 told the guard that there was no one in the building except three 
 watchmen who, when they went their rounds, carried lights. It 
 seemed that lights were seen by several of the guard during the 
 evening from the houses round and from the direction of the dis- 
 tillery. It was feared that the rebels might make an attack on the 
 military from two directions, so that lights would cause consider- 
 able suspicion, as they might be regarded as signals. 
 
 At any rate, whatever it was, the guard got into a state of jumpi- 
 ness, and the consequence was that when Lieutenant Lucas went 
 round with Mr. Rice, one of the brewery officials, the sentries on 
 several occasions got the idea that he was a stranger who had no 
 business there. The conversations he had with them were misinter- 
 preted, and they came to a conclusion which was utterly false, and 
 unfortunately it was shared by the accused. Lieutenant Lucas 
 opened a window. The men knew that orders had been given that 
 the windows were not to be opened. It looked very suspicious. The 
 state of mind into which accused had got at that time led him to 
 arrest Lieutenant Lucas and Mr. Rice, who were subsequently shot. 
 The officer, before being shot, was asked to "say his prayers," and 
 having done so he said he was sorry, but "the boys led him into it." 
 Soon afterwards another officer was coming down a staircase. He 
 was challenged and searched, and rushed at the sergeant, knocking 
 him down. The men of the guard fired and the second officer. 
 Lieutenant Worswick, was killed, and also a civilian, who was with 
 him, named Dockery. 
 
390 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Captain Rotheram, of the 10th Reserve Calvary Regiment, de- 
 posed to being on duty on the date in question with Colonel WilHams 
 and Second Lieutenant Lucas. About 11 p.m. he received orders to 
 take an oflScer to Guinness's Brewery to relieve Captain M'Namara. 
 He took Lieutenant Lucas, and saw Captain M'Namara, who ex- 
 plained the situation. He did not see the accused at the time, as it 
 was quite dark. About 2 o'clock in the morning, he was in Watling 
 Street and received a certain communication, and certain orders 
 were given. Later a telephone message reached him to the effect 
 that Mr. Rice was a prisoner. Witness gave orders to do nothing 
 until daylight. About 3.30 a.m. he was told that there was a ser- 
 geant outside who wanted to see him. He went out and saw the 
 accused, who had with him about fourteen men. They all seemed 
 very excited. The accused reported that he had shot two men, and 
 he thought the malthouse was full of rebels. Witness asked him 
 where Lucas was, and he said he thought he had shot him. He then 
 went to the malthouse and searched it. He found on the first floor 
 the bodies of Lieutenant Worswick and Mr. Dockery and on the next 
 floor the bodies of Lieutenant Lucas and IVIr. Rice. 
 
 Private Maurice McCarthy, R.D.F., examined by Major Kimber, 
 stated that he was one of a picket under Quartermaster Flood in the 
 malthouse of Guinness's Brewery on April 28. He was told an attack 
 was expected from Robert Street. Witness was called by Quarter- 
 master Flood and went up on the stairs. There was an officer there 
 and a civilian. 
 
 What took place .5^ I was ordered to search the officer. The 
 Quartermaster said to the officer: "I know you." 
 
 Had the Quartermaster a torch .'^ Yes, he held the torch so that 
 the light fell on the faces of the officer and the civiHan. The officer 
 and the civihan seemed to know each other, from a look that passed 
 between them. 
 
 What else took place.'* The Quartermaster gave the order to search 
 them. 
 
 What further.'' He told me to stand them up against a window 
 and cover them with my rifle. How long were they kept there? 
 For nearly an hour. 
 
 After that did he say anything about Gring? He said he would 
 have to fire. 
 
 Did the officer say anything.'* He said he was a poor farmer's 
 son, that he was sorry he was led into it. He asked to be allowed 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 391 
 
 to say his prayers. The Quartermaster gave him permission to say 
 his prayers, and he knelt down. 
 
 While the officer was doing this, what was Quartermaster Flood 
 doing; had he the torch in his hand.? Yes, all the time. 
 
 Shining on them? Yes. 
 
 When the officer got up.^^ He was crying when he got up. 
 
 Did Quartermaster Flood give any orders? He gave orders to 
 present and fire, and we obeyed the order. 
 
 How many of you? About five it was. Witness further said that 
 the officer fell down, but the civihan did not. The Quartermaster 
 gave a second order to fire, and the civilian fell, but did not appear 
 to be quite dead. The Quartermaster gave the order to shoot at 
 him again, which I did. 
 
 Witness then gave evidence relating to the shooting of Lieutenant 
 Worswick and the man Dockery. 
 
 Private Joseph Murphy, of the 5th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 
 said he was in the party, and went down to the malthouse at 12 
 o'clock on the night of April 28. Witness was on duty at a window, 
 and a strange officer came to him and opened the window. He 
 leaned out, and then drew in his head again and said to the men on 
 duty: "Are you Irishmen?" They said they were, and he asked 
 them were they not ashamed of themselves to fire on Irishmen. 
 They said they were not. 
 
 Witness then described how Lieutenant Lucas and Rice were 
 placed against the window before being shot. Lucas was asked for 
 his name and said he was Lieutenant Lucas, of King Edward's 
 Horse, and that he came from America. Witness noticed that when 
 he took oflf his coat the inside clothing was very "raggy." After 
 praying, he asked the Quartermaster-Sergeant for a chance, saying 
 he was led into it. Later they met an officer and a civilian. They 
 were both challenged twice, but did not reply, and the guard was 
 ordered to cover them. The Quartermaster-Sergeant then asked 
 them what was their business. Then they both looked at one 
 another and made no reply. 
 
 The officer clapped his hands and said, ** You are Sinn Feiners? " The 
 Quartermaster-Sergeant "ground his teeth and said *No; we are not.'" 
 The officer rushed at the Quartermaster-Sergeant and upset him. The 
 guard then fired of their own accord, and the two men fell dead. 
 
 The President said it was only fair to the deceased officers to read 
 a statement which Captain Campbell had signed. 
 
392 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 This statement was to the eflfect that Second Lieutenant Lucas 
 joined the Reserve Squadron after being in an Officers' Training 
 Corps in April, 1915, and was attached to the British Expeditionary 
 Force. He was signaling officer to the regiment, and was wounded 
 in France and invahded home, joining the Reserve in December, 
 1915, or January, 1916. Since that time he (Captain Campbell) 
 had known both Lieutenant Lucas and his wife well. He was edu- 
 cated in a public school and went to a University; he then went 
 out to Canada as schoolmaster. He left that and went on to the 
 Montreal Stock Exchange, and made a lot of money there. He mar- 
 ried a Canadian lady, and their present address was 23 McGregor 
 Street, Montreal, Canada. Mrs. Lucas showed him (Captain Camp- 
 bell) a letter from Captain Lucas's commanding officer offering 
 Lieutenant Lucas (who was promoted a few days before) the Adju- 
 tancy of the regiment. Regarding Lieutenant Worswick, he joined 
 at the Curragh on October 4, 1915. From that day he had known 
 him well, and he was a steady, hard-working man. He had traveled 
 a good deal, and had some property in Canada. Both officers bore 
 an exemplary character. 
 
 This concluded the case for the prosecution and 
 
 After hearing evidence for the defense. 
 
 The Court considered the case and 
 
 The President announced that they found the prisoner not guilty. 
 
CHAPTER LIX 
 
 The Triumph of Defeat 
 
 IT is not necessary to linger over the last scenes of the 
 Rebellion. One would fain draw a veil over this phase 
 of the rising, were it not for the inspiring examples of 
 heroic self-sacrifice, as the Republicans offered their lives 
 before liberty's fane. For, while the Republic of Ireland 
 sank temporarily into the bloody cauldron of defeat, the flam- 
 ing torch of liberty, lighted at the burning pyre of Ireland's 
 capital, shone forth once more over the land, shedding hope 
 and grim determination and awakening the sons of the nation 
 from the long slumber that for years had settled on the 
 land. 
 
 That the fight had ended in temporary defeat was obvious 
 to the leaders on Friday, but they fought through the night 
 and not until Saturday, April 29, did President Pearse de- 
 cide to surrender in order to prevent the further sacrifice of 
 non-belligerents, men, women and children, and of the lives of 
 the men who were acting under his orders. 
 
 The cordon of the British was now drawn tight around 
 the center of the city and those other places where the 
 Republicans were entrenched. The artillery had been rein- 
 forced, and from 50,000 to 60,000 English troops were in the 
 city. At every possible point of vantage, on roof-tops, on 
 walls, and at street corners, lines of British soldiers were 
 firing volley after volley, not so much at the rebels as in 
 their direction, so as to make even an attempt at a sortie 
 impossible. Parks of artillery were sending showers of shells, 
 incendiary and shrapnel, bursting over the Irish positions, 
 and thick heavy black clouds of smoke were pouring slowly 
 skyward in all directions from the hundreds of buildings that 
 were being destroyed by the flames. 
 
394 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Shortly after noon on Saturday a Red Cross nurse brought 
 to General Maxwell a message from President Pearse, asking 
 what terms would be considered for a surrender. To this 
 the British commandant replied that only unconditional 
 surrender would be considered. An appointment was there- 
 upon made, and, at a quarter to four that afternoon. Presi- 
 dent Pearse formally surrendered to the British in Tom 
 Clarke's tobacco store in Parnell Street. He wrote and 
 signed the document of the surrender, which was also signed 
 by Connolly and MacDonagh. The document follows: 
 
 In order to prevent the further slaughter of unarmed people, and 
 in the hope of saving the lives of our followers, now surrounded and 
 hopelessly outnumbered. Members of the Provisional Committee 
 present at Headquarters have agreed to an unconditional surrender, 
 and the Commanders of all units of the Republicans Forces will 
 order their followers to lay down their arms. 
 
 (Signed) P. H. Pearse 
 29th April, 1916, 3.45 p.m. 
 
 I agree to these conditions for the men only under my own com- 
 mand in the Moore Street District and for the men in the St. 
 Stephen's Green Command. 
 
 James Connolly, 
 
 April 29/16. 
 
 There are one or two points in the statement signed by 
 President Pearse that should not be overlooked. He gives 
 as one of his reasons for his surrender the desire to prevent 
 the further slaughter of unarmed people. It has been as- 
 sumed in some quarters that this referred to the fact that 
 many of the men who were fighting with him were inade- 
 quately armed. While it was true that arms were not 
 plentiful, this assumption is incorrect. What President 
 Pearse referred to were the atrocities that were taking place 
 all over the city, men and women, boys and girls, being 
 shot by the military without any provocation. It is not in 
 the least likely that President Pearse would refer to the 
 Volunteers as "unarmed people." If further proof is needed, 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 395 
 
 it is furnished by the fact that he proceeds to mention his 
 own followers, "now surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered." 
 
 There was one last scene at this point that will long be 
 remembered. Just before the surrender, Tom Clarke made 
 a last stand in the Rotunda Gardens at the head of O'Con- 
 nell Street, with a number of his men. He knew that the 
 surrender was a matter of minutes, and yet, having fought 
 his way through the cordon to this point, refused to throw 
 down his arms while the fight was still on. The English 
 seemed to fear the grand old veteran, and, while he and his 
 men were fired on from scores of points, they seemed to 
 bear charmed lives. Then came the surrender, and Tom 
 and his men, game to the last, laid down their arms. 
 
 Immediately they were surrounded by the victorious 
 English troops, who spared no taunt and no insult to their 
 defeated enemy. When Clarke was disarmed and helpless 
 in their power, they vented in full their spite on him, and 
 manhandled him in so outrageous a manner that their own 
 officers were forced to interfere. Thus was the gallantry 
 of Tommy Atkins once more illustrated. During all that 
 afternoon and through the long hours of the night the Irish 
 prisoners were held in the Rotunda Gardens, soaked by the 
 heavy dew, weary, sleepless, and hungry, and even a drink of 
 water was refused them. 
 
 The surrender of President Pearse and his command vir- 
 tually brought the Rebellion to an end, but there were several 
 other sections that did not accept, or did not hear the news 
 of, the surrender on Saturday. Some little time after the 
 first surrender, Thomas MacDonagh added his name to the 
 document in the following manner: 
 
 April 29th, 1916. 
 On consultation with Commandant Ceannt and other oflScers, I 
 have decided to agree to unconditional surrender also. 
 
 Thomas MacDonagh. 
 
 The Republicans in the Stephen's Green section surrendered 
 also on Saturday, but the Countess Markievicz, who was 
 
396 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 in command of the Royal College of Surgeons, continued 
 the fight until Simday. On that day, at two o'clock in 
 the afternoon, Major Wheeler, accompanied by a force of 
 military, went to the College by appointment and was re- 
 ceived by the Countess. She was, it is reported, still wear- 
 ing top boots, breeches, service tunic, and a Fianna hat. In 
 the presence of the military she first shook hands with her 
 own officers, and then produced her revolver, which was 
 inclosed in a case. After affectionately kissing the weapon, 
 she handed it to Major Wheeler, together with a quantity 
 of ammunition. The prisoners taken at this place num- 
 bered less than one hundred, and included a number of girls. 
 Practically all of the others were members of the Fianna. 
 
 The men at Jacob's Factory also surrendered on Sunday. 
 It was a member of the Carmelite Order from Whitefriar 
 Street church who induced the men here to yield. He was 
 hoisted into the building by means of a rope let down from 
 one of the lower windows, and on Sunday night the garri- 
 son, leaving their flag flying, marched out in military forma- 
 tion and surrendered. The surrender in the South Dublin 
 Union was also made on Sunday, after Commandant Ceannt 
 had held a conference with his men, as related later. The 
 Republicans at the Four Courts surrendered on Saturday. 
 
 There was, however, fight still left in the rebels, even after 
 the surrender of the leaders. There were many who stated 
 that they would never surrender, and these kept the battle 
 going in many districts until the middle of the following 
 week. This was particularly the case in the Ringsend dis- 
 trict. De Valera, who was in command at Roland's Mills, 
 surrendered on Sunday, but many of his men refused to do 
 so, and kept up the fight along the railroad line until they 
 were either killed or were able to make their escape. De 
 Valera surrendered against the wishes of his own men, and 
 did so only because he thought that there was a chance of 
 saving their fives. That De Valera did not think there was 
 any hope for his own life is shown by the statement he made 
 after his surrender. According to the account printed in the 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 397 
 
 Tory Irish Times, De Valera, after he had surrendered, 
 turned to the British officers and said: "Shoot me if you 
 will, but arrange for my men." The account continues: 
 "Then he added, walking up and down: 'If only the people 
 had come out with knives and forks!'" 
 
 In the same paper are given some particulars relating to 
 the conditions during the week in the suburban districts 
 of the city. The people in Phibsboro were kept within 
 the cordon, while the people in Glasnevin were rigidly ex- 
 cluded, and only on the most urgent business could per- 
 mission be obtained to pass. Nevertheless, many of the 
 rebel scouts from the northern part of the county, and par- 
 ticularly girl scouts, managed to get through the cordon 
 and even into the Post Office itself. On Thursday it became 
 apparent that something approaching a food famine was 
 imminent. The alarm, we read, was instantaneous. Im- 
 mediately the provision shops in the district were besieged, 
 and the flour mills at the Cross Guns Bridge were crowded 
 by people anxious to secure a supply for their families. The 
 report in The Irish Times says: 
 
 The butcher shops were soon cleared, and the provision stores 
 were sold out by Saturday. Many people went out to the Finglass 
 Village, where the local butchers did a tremendous trade. While 
 the food crisis was in progress, the anxiety of the residents of this 
 district was increased by the alarming rumors which were in con- 
 stant circulation as to alleged happenings in the city. The rumors, 
 needless to say, became more alarming as they were passed from one 
 group to another, and all of the time there was nothing official, 
 nothing definite. As night fell the anxiety was not eased. The 
 constant sniping, the occasional big-gun firing, and the sky lit up 
 by the reflection from some big building, all combined to make the 
 night more terrible even than the day. Many pathetic sights were 
 witnessed in connection with funerals going to Glasnevin Cemetery. 
 Owing to the rigid regulations in force, only the driver of the hearse 
 and at most one mourner was allowed to accompany the remains. 
 But many were driven through the military cordon accompanied 
 only by the driver of the hearse. These regulations were relaxed 
 with the utmost speed by the miUtary. Up to Wednesday, May 
 
398 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 3d, the residents found it a matter of difficulty to obtain permits 
 from the mihtary station at Cross Guns Bridge, and business people 
 were subjected to long delays before they could resume duty in the 
 city. 
 
 The district from the Cross Guns Bridge was not taken 
 possession of by the Republicans, but the district leading 
 east towards Drumcondra along the Whitworth Road and to 
 Mount] oy Square was occupied at several points. Long 
 after the general surrender on Saturday the sniping in this 
 district kept the military restless. Dorset Street and neigh- 
 boring streets were in a very disturbed state, and the snip- 
 ing continued in spite of the fact that the military carried 
 out a most painstaking search in every house in the 
 district. 
 
 There were also lively engagements in Fairview. On 
 Easter Monday evening the Republicans took possession of 
 Bally bough Bridge and the houses around. A large num- 
 ber of automobiles were also seized. The same tactics were 
 carried out at Annesley Bridge. On Wharf Road, the Re- 
 publicans took possession of houses at Fairview Corner at 
 Phibsboro Avenue. The whole of the Fairview district 
 was in the possession of the Republicans until Wednesday 
 or Thursday, when, after a stubborn battle with the mili- 
 tary, they were driven by machine-gun fire from some of 
 the positions they held. They still held on, however, to a 
 great many points of vantage, and the battle was still rag- 
 ing on Saturday, when the general surrender was made. In 
 spite of the active part they had taken in the fighting, 
 many of the Republicans managed to escape on Saturday 
 evening, and successfully eluded the search parties of the 
 military. 
 
 By the end of the following week the Rebellion of 1916 
 was at an end. Dublin was in ruins, so far as the center of 
 the city was concerned, and an orgy of bloodthirsty revenge 
 had already commenced. Search parties were dispatched 
 all over the city, arrests were being made by the thousands, 
 men and women were being deported to prisons in England 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 399 
 
 and Scotland, and the full rigors of martial law were being 
 enforced. Of those who took an actual part in the fighting, 
 there were many who made their escape to America, and 
 it is from the stories told by these men that the major por- 
 tion of the details of the actual fighting have been secured. 
 
CHAPTER LX 
 
 A Dublin Rebel's Story 
 
 THE man who told the following story used simple 
 and direct language, devoid of all embellishments. 
 He fought throughout the week in the South Dublin 
 Union under the command of Eamonn Ceannt. He told of 
 the weeks of waiting and anxiety that the Dublin Volun- 
 teers endured, and the disappointment that was everywhere 
 expressed when the countermanding order was issued, calling 
 off the "maneuvers" on Easter Sunday. He told also 
 of the conferences at Liberty Hall, and the rumors that 
 were being circulated regarding their outcome. At nine 
 o'clock on Easter Monday morning he received the call to 
 report to his command, and, knowing well what that call 
 meant, he immediately canceled all other appointments 
 that he had for the day and repaired to the place of meeting. 
 This is his story as told to the writer: 
 
 We occupied the South Dublin Union at 11: 45 on Easter Monday 
 morning. Within an hour of the time that we took possession of 
 the buildings, we were attacked by the military, some of whom came 
 from Richmond Barracks and others from the Royal Hospital. The 
 fighting with these took place in the rear of the premises. During 
 the rest of the week there were a number of bloody engagements, 
 but, in spite of all that the military were able to do, we held all of 
 our positions up to the time of the surrender. 
 
 The fighting was very stiff during the Monday. There was a 
 general engagement proceeding throughout the entire day and well 
 into the evening. When night fell, however, we were forced to draw 
 in our lines owing to the vastly greater number of the enemy and 
 the fact that the darkness made it the more difficult to defend an 
 extended line. Our only casualty during the day's fighting was 
 the death of Jack Owens. There were, however, a large number of the 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 401 
 
 British killed, and Commandant Ceannt sent a messenger to the 
 enemy asking that a truce be declared in order that the military 
 might take away their dead. To this the reply came back that 
 there would be no truce, owing to the fact that we had killed their 
 major. We had about fifty men in the Union, and the attacking 
 force usually ranged from 500 to 800. We were never quite certain 
 as to their numbers, owing to the fact that the companies attacking 
 us were changed frequently during the week. 
 
 After we had beaten the military off on the Monday night, there 
 was a cessation of the harder part of the fighting. On Tuesday 
 there w^as little more than sniping engagements, in which it seemed 
 as though our men had the advantage. We lost no men on that 
 day, while we were confident that several of the military were either 
 killed or wounded. The same thing happened on the Wednesday, 
 only on this occasion we lost poor Frank Burke, who was killed by 
 a sniper, while standing near a window. 
 
 The biggest fight of the whole week took place on the Thursday. 
 It was evident that the military were determined to capture the 
 position, and they prepared for the attack by a perfect fusillade of 
 rifle shots poured against every window by the military at Richmond 
 Barracks. The British attacked in a line from the canal basin, the 
 first rush taking place shortly after three o'clock in the afternoon. 
 In spite of the fact that a storm of lead was being directed against 
 the windows, many of our men worked at these points, throwing 
 hand grenades at the approaching enemy. It is a positive fact that 
 not one of these men were injured, while they were able to work 
 havoc in the ranks of the enemy. This disposed of the first attack. 
 
 The English, however, were not to be beaten off at the first re- 
 pulse. In spite of the fact that they had suffered severely, they 
 returned to the attack, and this time they were able to penetrate 
 into the building. They did this in a manner that is worthy of 
 being mentioned in detail. 
 
 Evidently thinking it impossible to get into the building in the 
 ordinary manner, owing to the way in which every door and window 
 was guarded, they resolved to secure entrance in another way. 
 After some fierce fighting they succeeded in getting ensconced under 
 a wall of one of the outer buildings, and here, working under a 
 covering shower of lead from their comrades, they managed to bore 
 a hole through the wall. When the breach was big enough the men 
 who had made it stood to one side while the others behind them 
 
402 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 sent one volley of bullets after another into the breach. The mili- 
 tary then charged. 
 
 They might have succeeded in this maneuver had it not been for 
 the fact that the men had been boring at a wrong part of the wall, 
 with the result that when they did get through the breach they 
 found themselves in an outer corridor instead of in the building 
 proper. We held the upper part of the corridor while the British 
 held the lower part, and it was at this point that some of the hot- 
 test of the fighting was done. So hot was the fire that was poured 
 down the corridor by the military that we had to retreat. During 
 this retreat, in which we backed into another building connected by 
 the corridor, one of our men, Cathal Bruga, a very fine fellow and a 
 well-known Gaelic Leaguer, was badly wounded and fell to the 
 ground. 
 
 It must have been that the military were really scared of the 
 rebels, for they called on us to surrender, but Cathal, in spite of 
 the fact that he was badly wounded, called back "Never, never!" 
 and then while he was lying in a pool of his own blood, we heard 
 him singing "God Save Ireland." 
 
 We were retreating into the other building at this time, and the 
 bravery of the man so impressed us that, without waiting for any 
 orders, we all dashed forward to where Cathal was lying. The 
 sudden rush took the mihtary by complete surprise, and we forced 
 them back in a hand-to-hand engagement in which fists were used 
 as freely as rifles. But we were seeing red and they were not able 
 to stand up to us, and we forced them so far back that we were 
 able to take Cathal up on our shoulders and carry him into the 
 kitchen. I may say here that he recovered from his wounds after- 
 wards. 
 
 The sudden attack and the manner in which they had crumpled 
 up under it were such that the mihtary were wild with the shame of 
 it. We could hear their officers cursing and swearing at them and 
 forcing them to renew the attack. When they saw that we were 
 caring more about Cathal, they took advantage of the opportunity 
 and made another dash at us. By this time we had gained the 
 shelter of the connecting building and we just poured lead into them 
 for all we were worth. They were forced to halt in their charge, 
 and the battle settled down to a rifle engagement. 
 
 The fighting went on in this fashion until ten o'clock that night, 
 when the military withdrew from the building. I believe that they 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 403 
 
 were afraid to remain in it during the night, as they made certain 
 that we would have attacked them, which is exactly what we were 
 going to do. As things were, it was impossible for them to rush our 
 position from where they were unless they were prepared to lose 
 scores, if not hundreds, of men. During the day's fighting we had 
 five men wounded. Not one of the rebels was killed. I do not 
 know how the British suffered, but, at the lowest estimate, they 
 must have lost at least one hundred men. They were the attackers, 
 and had to come out into the open against good marksmen who were 
 fighting from behind stone walls practically all of the time. 
 
 There were two British soldiers who fell inside the building so 
 badly wounded that their comrades were unable to take them away. 
 They left, instead, one sohtary soldier to guard them, a man we 
 could have captured without the slightest difficulty. However, we 
 made no attempt to do this, and the fact evidently got on his nerves, 
 for, after he had been holding his post for some time after his com- 
 rades had withdrawn, he voluntarily offered to surrender. We told 
 him that if we wanted to take him we could do so, but that he could 
 rest assured that he would not be harmed, as we did not want either 
 him or his company. 
 
 All day on Friday there was continuous sniping on both sides. 
 We were well content with the position in which we were. We had 
 been able to beat off the stiff est of the British attacks, and we felt 
 that we were reasonably secure. Throughout the entire day the 
 military made no attempt to rush us out of the buildings. We had 
 plenty of ammunition and plenty of good food, and there was noth- 
 ing to worry us in the least. The military were wasting a great deal 
 of good ammunition on the walls and windows. We had every en- 
 trance to the place under strong guard, and there was httle or no 
 chance of the enemy getting upon us without our knowledge. 
 
 On Friday night we had a man guarding the breach that had been 
 made in the wall. While he was on duty there, he heard movements 
 that indicated the approach of the enemy. He did not have time 
 to get back to the rest of our men, and he was afraid that if he 
 sounded an alarm he would scare the British away, and, after being 
 more or less inactive all day, this was the last thing that any of us 
 desired. 
 
 So he waited until the enemy came up to the breach. He heard 
 the officer whispering to his men to get through the hole. Our man 
 held his rifle over his head and waited. As the first man got through 
 
404 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 the rifle swung down on his head. The second man must have 
 thought that his comrade had stumbled and fallen, for he came right 
 on after him. By this time our man had had time to level his rifle, 
 and the second man dropped with a bullet through his body. At 
 that the rest drew back, for the officer in charge was heard swearing 
 at them, urging them to go on into the building and then cursing 
 them for cowards. The sound of the shot had aroused the rest of 
 us, and we lost no time in getting to the scene of action. But when 
 we arrived, the military were nowhere to be seen. Thus another 
 attack had failed. 
 
 There was nothing but sniping on the Saturday, it being evident 
 that the British, in spite of the fact that they were greatly superior 
 to us in numbers, had no relish to repeat the experiences of Thurs- 
 day, A vigilant watch was kept all day and all night, but there was 
 no attempt made to rush our positions. All of us were in the best 
 of spirits, and were rapidly settling down to the situation like 
 veterans. 
 
 At noon on Sunday we heard of the surrender of the leaders. All 
 of us were bitterly disappointed when we heard that they had sur- 
 rendered, as there w^as not a man among us who would not have 
 preferred to have fought it out to a finish. It was our belief that 
 the best thing to do under the circumstances was to fight it out 
 anyway, regardless of what had happened to the leaders of the Rebel- 
 lion. We could have lasted for a month at the least. We were well 
 supplied, and were in an excellent position, and I believe we would 
 have made a long stand even if the military had brought artillery 
 to their aid. The British who had attacked us during the week 
 had a number of machine guns with them, and we were getting ac- 
 customed to the conditions, and would have lasted for weeks, in 
 spite of the fact that we did not have bayonets or machine guns. 
 It was stated in some of the papers that we had a machine gun. 
 This is not true. Eamonn Ceannt rigged up a dummy that looked 
 so much like the real thing that the English did not dare to attempt 
 an attack on the side of the buildings where it was placed. 
 
 At three o'clock on the Sunday afternoon Commandant Ceannt 
 ordered the men lined up. He then told us that Commandant Mac- 
 Donagh had ordered surrender. He said that he would leave the 
 decision to us, and that all he would do would be to ask that we 
 acted as one in the matter. He said that, if we were to surrender 
 as an army, we would stand a chance. This decided the majority 
 
 I 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 405 
 
 of the men. The leaders had surrendered and it was obviously im- 
 possible for us to maintain a fight with any chance of success against 
 the entire British garrison. It was, therefore, decided that we would 
 surrender. 
 
 Ceannt took off his hat. 
 
 'T have no doubt as to what will happen to me," he said. "It 
 was the will of Providence. If we did not succeed, there are better 
 men who will." 
 
CHAPTER LXI 
 
 Other Provincial Centers 
 
 NOTHING could better illustrate the disastrous effect 
 of Eoin MacNeill's countermanding order than the 
 success which attended the various uprisings through- 
 out the country, when the news was eventually received 
 that Dublin was in rebellion. The few companies of Volun- 
 teers to which the news did penetrate soon held complete 
 control of the situation. What the result would have been 
 had the original orders not been countermanded and the 
 entire country had risen, is easy to imagine. 
 
 A special messenger brought the word from Dublin to 
 Gal way that the Republic had been declared. The Volun- 
 teers immediately mobilized under Captain Mellows, a 
 magnificent type of young Irishman. The mobilization 
 took place at the Town Hall of Galway publicly, and in 
 spite of the local police, who, terrified, remained hidden in 
 their barracks. After the mobilization, the Volunteers, 
 to the number of close on 1000, marched to the Model Farm, 
 run by the miscalled Irish Board of Agriculture, where they 
 halted, after taking possession of the farm. Here they re- 
 mained for the night. 
 
 On Wednesday morning they resumed their march to 
 Loughrey, it being their intention, of course, to march to 
 Dublin. They had a brief encounter with the police, the 
 result being that some of the latter were wounded. On the 
 afternoon of that day the Volunteers encamped at Moyode 
 Castle, owned by the absentee Lady Ardilaun, a bitter 
 opponent of Irish nationality. While they were there, a 
 number of policemen were captured, and kept in confine- 
 ment in the castle. The Volunteers remained in this place 
 for the night. 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 407 
 
 On Thursday morning a number of police from Athenry 
 made an attempt to storm the castle, with the result that 
 they were not only severely repulsed, but the entire force 
 was chased by the Republicans all the way back to Athenry, 
 a distance of four miles. The police were mounted on cycles, 
 and rode for their lives. The rebels who took up the chase 
 also had cycles, and were gaining on the police at every few 
 yards. As it was, the police managed to fling themselves 
 into their barracks only in the nick of time. 
 
 In the meantime a British cruiser in Galway Bay was 
 blazing away in the direction of the Republicans, but none 
 of the shells came anywhere near them. On Friday morn- 
 ing, just as the march was about to be resumed, word was 
 received that Dublin was doomed, that the rest of the coun- 
 try had not risen, and that a force of 2000 British soldiers, 
 with machine guns and artillery, was only six miles away. 
 The Republicans then marched to Lime Park, but on the 
 way there another message was received to the effect that 
 Dublin was in flames and that the rising was at an end. 
 The Republicans thereupon agreed to disband. 
 
 Let us now turn to what took place at Enniscorthy. The 
 news that the Republic had been proclaimed in Dublin did 
 not reach the County Wexford until the Thursday of Easter 
 Week. Immediately on receipt of the message, the Volun- 
 teers mobilized in the Athenseum, one of the principal build- 
 ings of the town. The building was seized and utilized as 
 Republican headquarters. All of the principal thorough- 
 fares were guarded and patrolled, while forces were dispatched 
 to guard the approaches to the town. About twenty auto- 
 mobiles were commandeered, together with a supply of 
 petrol. 
 
 At a quarter-past six that evening arms and ammunition 
 were served out to recruits for the rebel forces, and the 
 Republican flag of green, white, and orange was hoisted 
 at headquarters. A strong force of the Republicans pro- 
 ceeded to the railroad station, and a train from Wexford to 
 Arklow was held up and seized. The telegraph and tele- 
 
408 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 phone wires were then cut, and the railroad Unes at each 
 end of the town were torn up, thus effectively cutting off 
 all chance of a suprise attack on the part of the British. A 
 proclamation was issued, stating that the Republic had 
 been proclaimed in Dublin and calling for recruits. All 
 the saloons were closed, and a volunteer force of police kept 
 perfect control of the streets and the city generally. 
 
 Shortly after seven o'clock an encounter took place be- 
 tween the Republicans and the police, with the result that 
 the latter suffered a complete defeat. The R. I. C. bar- 
 racks, which had been barricaded by the police, was stormed 
 and taken, the police being made prisoners. The police made 
 a very poor defense, and were evidently suffering badly from 
 nerves. During the attack a little girl of eight years, named 
 Foley, was shot in the back by one of the policemen. With 
 the capture of the barracks, Enniscorthy was completely 
 in the possession of the Republicans. 
 
 It having been decided that a number of the Republican 
 soldiers should march on Dublin, while a small party re- 
 mained to hold the town, supplies of all kinds were gathered 
 in. A proclamation calling for the surrender of all arms 
 was published, and in this way the supply of munitions at 
 the disposal of the Volunteers was considerably augmented. 
 In addition a house to house search was made, which pro- 
 vided more rifles and revolvers. The local cycle stores 
 were also visited, and cycles, tires, and automobile acces- 
 sories were commandeered. 
 
 Previous to these operations, and on the afternoon of 
 Thursday, Enniscorthy Castle, which stands on an eminence 
 commanding the town, was captured by the Republicans. 
 The town was now in a thorough state of defense, and a 
 large number of recruits were sworn in by the Republicans. 
 Scouting parties of the Republicans were scouring the coun- 
 try for miles around, and scores of young men returned with 
 them to take up arms for their country. The streets were 
 policed by the Republican forces, and perfect order pre- 
 vailed. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 409 
 
 On Friday the preparations for the march to DubUn were 
 nearly completed, twenty-four hours after the word had been 
 given. The men remained in the city the following day, 
 the orders being to start the march on Sunday morning. 
 On Saturday a Volunteer force from Enniscorthy proceeded 
 to Ferns by automobile and took possession of the police 
 barracks there. Throughout the day there was great en- 
 thusiasm, and by Sunday morning a large force, well equipped, 
 was ready to proceed to the relief of Dublin. The men 
 attended Mass in a body, and, shortly afterwards, as they 
 were lining up for the march, news was brought into the 
 town that Dublin had surrendered. A deputation, con- 
 sisting of Father FitzHenry, Catholic Administrator, Canon 
 Lyster, Protestant rector, and Chairman of the Urban Coun- 
 cil, Patrick O'Neill, went to Wexford to interview the mili- 
 tary. There the news of the surrender was confirmed, but 
 the leaders in Enniscorthy still refused to believe it, and 
 declined to give up possession of the town. Instead two of 
 them went by automobile to Dublin, where they were taken 
 to President Pearse. On their return to Enniscorthy, they 
 yielded to the entreaties of the clergy to lay down their 
 arms. 
 
 It is thus evident that, had the countermanding order 
 not been given, all the south of Leinster would have been 
 in Irish hands. Joined by the men from Wexford and all 
 the surrounding towns and villages, the Enniscorthy Volun- 
 teers would have been knocking at the gates of Dublin by 
 Wednesday evening. At the same time the men of the rest 
 of the districts around the capital would also have been 
 there, with the result that the British would have been placed 
 in a hopeless position. Dublin would have been saved, and 
 the rising would have been crowned with victory. 
 
 The men in County Louth were also thrown into con- 
 fusion by Eoin MacNeill's order. In County Dublin Thomas 
 Ashe covered himself and his command with glory by defeat- 
 ing, on Friday, April 28, 165 policemen at Ashborne, the 
 Republican force amounting to only 43. Commandant 
 
410 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Donal O'Hannigan, in command of the Louth Volunteers, 
 was another whose plans were entirely disorganized by the 
 countermanding order. As it was, he and his men remained 
 in the field for over a week before disbanding. But the 
 same story is to be told regarding these operations also — the 
 Irish had complete command of the situation where they 
 received President Pearse's second orders, but these were 
 only in a few widely scattered districts and after the first 
 golden opportunity had been lost. 
 
 The same countermanding order created endless confusion 
 in the City and County of Cork. Here the men were sick 
 with suspense for several days, unable to get news from 
 Dublin. When they did get the news it was too late, as 
 they had, on the request of their clergy, given up their 
 arms. Had they not done so, the same succession of events 
 as took place in Enniscorthy might have been chronicled. 
 There is still a great deal to be explained before the truth 
 is known as to what actually did happen in Cork City. A 
 number of statements have been issued, particularly by the 
 clergy, but none of them make the matter absolutely clear. 
 
 There was one incident of the Rebellion that took place 
 in this district that will never be forgotten. The story is 
 best told by a writer in The Catholic Bulletin of Dublin, 
 in the issue dated August, 1916. It deals with Thomas 
 Kent, who, as recorded later, was executed by the British 
 for high treason in Cork on Tuesday morning. May 9. The 
 article runs: 
 
 Thomas Kent was born about fortj^-five years ago at Bawnard, 
 Castlelyons, where his father, David Kent, held a large farm. His 
 mother, Mary Rice, is sister of Very Rev. Canon Rice of Mitchels- 
 town, and of Mr. Richard Rice, coroner, Fermoy. 
 
 In the early morning of Tuesday (May 2), the house was sur- 
 rounded by a force of constabulary, and a fierce conflict ensued, dur- 
 ing which the police fired over a hundred shots, seriously wounding 
 one of the brothers, David Kent. A head constable having been 
 killed in the struggle, military assistance was sent for to Fermoy and 
 on the arrival of a body of soldiers with a machine gun, about 7 p.m.. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 411 
 
 the whole family including the mother, aged over eighty, were 
 ordered out of the besieged house, with their hands above their 
 heads, and placed under arrest and an armed guard. Mother and 
 sons were removed to Fermoy — David and Richard, badly wounded 
 — to the military hospital, Tom, William and the mother to the 
 barracks. 
 
 Mrs. Kent, having been released about noon, Tom and William 
 were next morning removed under strong military escort to Cork 
 military prison, the former bootless and hatless. Tried by court- 
 martial Tom was sentenced to death, and William acquitted, and the 
 devoted brothers, who years before had dreamed dreams of Irish 
 liberty under African skies, gazed on each other for the last time in 
 the dark corridor of a Cork court. 
 
 A few months later, in January, 1917, Mrs. Kent, the 
 mother of these brave boys, died of the shock of these ter- 
 rible events. 
 
CHAPTER LXII 
 
 The Blood-lust of the English 
 
 FROM the moment that they embarked on the Rebel- 
 Uon, there was not one of the leaders who was not 
 aware that failure would mean death at the hands of 
 the English. The history of England has made it known 
 to the world that such qualities as clemency and justice 
 hold no place in its theory of Empire. It has ever been the 
 principle of the rulers of England to mete out to the con- 
 quered the severest punishment it is in their power to inflict; 
 their gospel is the gospel of f rightfulness. Nevertheless, 
 the acts of ruthless savagery that added one more bloody 
 chapter to the story of English rule in Ireland were such 
 that a wave of horror and indignation went around the 
 world, and for all time blasted the hallow pretense that 
 England was the lover of the liberties and the upholder of 
 the rights of the small nations. 
 
 The leaders of the Rebellion laid down their arms, and 
 made an unconditional surrender when they were hopelessly 
 outnumbered and surrounded. They had declared war in 
 an open and legal manner; they had been at war with Great 
 Britain for seven days, during which that war had been car- 
 ried on between the two combatants in a manner in no way 
 different from the conditions which prevailed in France and 
 Flanders and along other lines in the war in Europe. There- 
 fore, there can be no sincere reason for denying that these 
 men who surrendered and placed themselves in the hands 
 of the British were prisoners of war. 
 
 The nation that had cried out in pious horror at the exe- 
 cution of Edith Cavell, a proven spy, by the Germans, did 
 not for a second hesitate to line up their prisoners of war 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 413 
 
 behind barrack walls and shoot them down. The following 
 order, issued by General Maxwell on May 11, is a sufficient 
 condemnation of the acts of the English Government and 
 an eloquent illustration of the kindly and humanitarian 
 nature of the English system: 
 
 In view of the gravity of the Rebellion and its connection with 
 German intrigue and propaganda, and in view of the great loss of 
 life and destruction of property resulting therefrom, the General 
 Officer Commanding-in-Chief has found it imperative to inflict the 
 most severe sentences on the known organizers of this detestable 
 rising and on those commandants who took an active part in the 
 actual fighting that occurred. It is hoped that these examples will 
 be sufficient to act as a deterrent to intriguers, and to bring home 
 to them that the murder of His Majesty's liege subjects, or other 
 acts calculated to imperil the safety of the Realm, will not be 
 tolerated. 
 
 It has been stated that General Maxwell, when he received 
 his orders from Lord Kitchener, was told to show no mercy 
 to the Irish when he got them into his power. Whether 
 this was the case or not, it is certain that Maxwell and the 
 English Government did not fail to exact the fullest ven- 
 geance on the Irishmen who fell into their hands after the 
 surrender. It may also be stated, and on the best of 
 authority, that most of the men executed were in a half- 
 starved condition when lined up before the firing squad, and 
 more than one was suffering the agonies of thirst. 
 
 The following notice was officially communicated from the 
 Command Headquarters, Parkgate, Dublin, on Wednesday, 
 May 3: 
 
 Three signatories of the notice proclaiming the Irish Republic, 
 P. H. Pearse, 
 T. MacDonagh, and 
 T. J. Clarke, 
 
 have been tried by Field General Courts-martial and sentenced to 
 death. The sentence having been duly confirmed, the three above- 
 mentioned men were shot this morning. 
 
414 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Nothing could be more appealingly eloquent than the 
 letter which President Pearse, a few hours before his exe- 
 cution, penned to his mother. It is as follows: 
 
 KiLMAINHAM PrISON, 
 
 Dublin, May 3, 1916. 
 My dearest Mother: 
 
 I have been hoping up to now it would be possible to see you 
 again, but it does not seem possible. Good-bye, dear, dear mother. 
 Through you I say good-bye to "Wow Wow" [a sister], Mary, Brigid, 
 Willie, Miss B., Miceal, cousin Maggine and everyone at St. Enda's. 
 I hope and beheve Willie and the St. Enda boys will be all safe. 
 
 I have written two papers about financial affairs and one about 
 my books which I want you to get. With them are a few poems 
 which I want added to the poems in MS. in my bookcase. You 
 asked me to write a little poem which would seem to be said by 
 you about me. I have written it, and a copy is in Arbor Hill Bar- 
 rack with other papers. 
 
 I just received Holy Communion. I am happy, except for the 
 great grief of parting from you. This is the death I should have 
 asked for if God had given me the choice of all deaths — to die a 
 soldier's death for Ireland and for freedom. We have done right. 
 People will say hard things of us now, but later on will praise us. 
 Do not grieve for all this, but think of it as a sacrifice which God 
 asked of me and of you. 
 
 Good-bye again, dear mother. May God bless you for your great 
 
 love for me and for your great faith, and may He remember all you 
 
 have so bravely suffered. I hope soon to see papa, and in a little 
 
 while we shall be all together again. I have not words to tell you of 
 
 my love for you and how my heart yearns to you all. I will call to 
 
 you in my heart at the last moment. ,^ t. 
 
 •^ *^ Your son Pat. 
 
 In reply to the request from his mother that he would 
 write a poem for her, President Pearse sent to her the fol- 
 lowing verses : 
 
 Dear Mary, thou who saw thy first-born Son 
 Go forth to die amidst the scorn of men, 
 Receive my first-born son into thy arms 
 Who also goeth forth to die for men; 
 And keep him by thee till I come to him. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 415 
 
 Dear Mary, I have shared thy sorrows. 
 And soon shall share thy joys. 
 
 (Signed) P. H. P. 
 
 The last letter of Thomas MacDonagh to his wife, written 
 at midnight after hearing the sentence of death passed upon 
 him, is also a document of unusual interest. It is as follows: 
 
 KiLMAINHAM JaIL, 
 
 Midnight, Tuesday. 
 
 I, Thomas MacDonagh, having heard the sentence of court-martial 
 held on me to-day, declare that in all my acts for which I have been 
 arraigned I have been actuated by only one motive, the love of my 
 country — the desire to make her a sovereign State. I still hope and 
 trust that my acts may have for her some lasting freedom and happi- 
 ness. I am to die at dawn (3: 30 a.m.), May 3. I am ready to die, 
 and thank God that I died in so holy a cause. My country will 
 reward my deed richly. 
 
 On April 30 I was astonished to receive a message from P. H. 
 Pearse, Commandant General of the Army of the Irish Republic, an 
 order to surrender to the British General. I did not obey that 
 order, as it came from a prisoner. I, as then in supreme command of 
 the Irish army, consulted with my second in command, and decided 
 to confirm this order. I knew that it would involve my death and 
 the death of the other leaders. I hoped that it would save many 
 true men among our followers — good lives for Ireland. God grant 
 that it has done so, and God approve our deed. For myself I have 
 no regret. The one bitterness this death has for me is the separa- 
 tion it brings from you, my dear Muriel, and our beloved children, 
 Donagh and Barbara. It breaks my heart to think that I shall 
 never see my children again; but I have not wept or murmured. I 
 counted the cost of this, and I am ready to pay it. Muriel has been 
 sent for here. I do not know if she can come. She may have no 
 one to take the children while she is coming — if she can come. 
 
 I have insured my children for £100 each in the United Company; 
 payment of the premiums to end at my death; the money to be 
 paid to the children at twenty-one. I ask my brother, Joseph Mac- 
 Donagh, and my good and constant friend, David Houston, to help 
 my poor wife in those matters. 
 
 My brother, John, who came with me and stood with me all last 
 week, has been sent away from here. I do not know where to. God 
 
416 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 bless him and my other brothers and sisters. Assistance has been 
 guaranteeti from tlie funds of the Cumami na mBari, and otlier 
 funds to be cxilleottxl in America by our fellow-countrymen there, for 
 the dependents of those who fall in the fight. My wife and I have 
 given all for Ireland. I ask my friend, D. Houston, to see Mr. W. 
 J. Lyons, the publisher of my latest book, "Literature in Ireland,'* 
 and to see that its publication may be completeii for my wife and 
 family. If Joseph Plunkett survives me, and is a free man, I make 
 liim with my wife my hterary executor. Otherwise my wife and 
 David Houston will take charge of my writings. 
 
 Yesterday at my court-martial, in rebutting some trifling evidence, 
 I made a statement as to my negotiations for surrender with General 
 Lowe. In hearing it read, it struck me afterwards that it might 
 sound like an appeal. I made no appeal, no recantation, no apology 
 for my acts. In what I said I hereby claim to have acted honorably 
 and thoroughly in all that I set myself to do. My enemies have 
 treated me in an unworthy manner; but let it pass. It is a great 
 and glorious thing to die for Ireland, and I will forget all petty an- 
 noyances in the splendor of this. "When my son, Donagh, was born, 
 I thought that to him, and not to me, would this be given. Grod has 
 been kinder to me than I hoped. My son will have a great name, 
 and you, my darhng httle boy, remember me. Kindly take my hope 
 and pm-pose for my deed. For your sister and your beloved mother 
 I could hope to live longer; but you will recognize this thing that 
 I have done, and with tliis as a consequence will have done a great 
 thing for Ireland, even with this defeat, and have won the first 
 steps of her freedom. God bless you, my son, and my darling daugh- 
 ter, Barbara. I loved j'ou more than ever child has been loved. 
 
 My dearest Muriel, I thank you a thousand times for all you have 
 been to me. I have only one trouble in leaving life — leaving you. 
 Be sure, darling, God will assist you and bless you. I send you 
 these few things I have saved out of this war for. you. My love — 
 till we meet in Heaven. I have a sure faith in our union there. I 
 kiss this paper as it goes to you. I have just heard that "they" 
 have not been able to reach me. Perhaps it is better so — yet 
 Father Aloysius is going to make another effort to reach you. 
 
 God bless and sustain you, my love; but for your suffering t hi s 
 
 would be our glorv and jov. , . i , i 
 
 lour lo\'mg husband, 
 
 Thoxl^s M^cDonagh 
 
 P. S. — I return the darlings' photographs. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 417 
 
 The court-martial of MacDonagh lasted only fifteen min- 
 utes. No message was sent to his wife, and he was not 
 allowed to communicate either with her or his children. 
 His sister, who was a nun in a convent close to the prison, 
 was the only relative or friend allowed by the military to 
 visit the condemned man. She was brought by the mili- 
 tary to his little narrow cell, lighted only by a candle, and 
 during the time that she was with him a sentry with loaded 
 rifle was standing beside them. It was she who took his 
 letter to his wife. 
 
 His sister gave to Tom his mother's rosary beads, and he 
 placed them around his neck. She then asked the sentry 
 if her brother might have some water with which to wash 
 himself, but this was refused. He went to his death as 
 bravely as all who loved him knew he would go, whistling 
 a few bars of a hymn as he went. Just as his sister re- 
 turned to the convent, .she heard the volley of rifle shots 
 that ended her brother's life. Between the time that she 
 had left him a few short hours before, and the moment when 
 he was led out to his death, Tom spent kneeling before his 
 crucifix. 
 
 The first intimation his widow had of his fate was the glaring 
 announcemejits in the Dublin evening newspapers that day. 
 She later received an order from General Maxwell, forbidding 
 her to appear in public, owing to the sympathy of the people 
 for her and her two little fatherless children. 
 
 Tom Clarke, so far as is at present known, did not leave 
 any letter behind him. There were many ugly rumors 
 current for days after the surrender to the effect that he had 
 been beaten to death by the military after they had him 
 in their power in the barracks. The only document that 
 survives him is the entry at the head of the list which he 
 opened before the Rebellion, and which he called the "Irish 
 Volunteers' Dependents' Fund." This entry, at the head of 
 the sheet, reads: 
 
 Thomas J. Clarke, for the reUef of distress: £3,100. 
 
418 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 This is, in itself, an enduring monument to the foresight and 
 thoroughness which characterized every action of the man. 
 
 The pubUc horror created by these executions was still 
 at high tide, when, the following day, May 4, the announce- 
 ment was made that Joseph Plunkett, Edward Daly, Michael 
 O'Hanrahan, and William Pearse had been found guilty, 
 sentenced to death, and shot that morning. 
 
 Just before his death Michael O'Hanrahan, who was the 
 Treasurer of the Volunteer Arms Fund, speaking to his sister, 
 said: "I am ready to give my life for God and my country. 
 In a few hours I shall be with my God, where I will plead the 
 cause of my beloved Ireland and will ask God to bless mother 
 and you." The last words he spoke to his sisters were: ''Re- 
 member, girls, this is God's will, and it is for Ireland." 
 
 When his mother went to see William Pearse shortly be- 
 fore he w^as executed, hoping to hear that he had been re- 
 prieved, she asked him: "Well, Willie, what did they say 
 to you.''" He replied: "They asked me if I was guilty, 
 and I said *y^s,* and that was all." 
 
 The following day, Friday, May 5, Major McBride was 
 shot. Before he died, he went to Confession and Holy Com- 
 munion. He asked his jailers not to blindfold him when in 
 front of the firing squad. This request was refused. Then 
 Major McBride turned to Father Augustine, who was with 
 him, and said: "Many's the time I have looked down their 
 rifles." His last request was that his rosary beads should 
 be given to a friend. 
 
 It was thought that the orgy of murder had now ceased, but 
 the horror which the executions had aroused throughout the 
 world was intensified when it became known, on Monday, May 8, 
 that four more of the Republican leaders had been done to death 
 by the military. The following is the official communication: 
 
 The following are further results of trials by Field Courts-martjal; 
 Sentenced to death, and sentence carried out this morning: 
 
 Cornelius Colbert, Edmund Kent, 
 
 Michael Mallen, J. J. Heuston. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 419 
 
 In every record of the future which deals with the deeds 
 of brave and gallant men the name of Michael Mallen will 
 stand high amongst the highest. "The story of his death," 
 writes the editor of The Catholic Bulletin, is as fascinating 
 as a romance and as grand as an epic. He is said to have 
 prayed into the very rifles of the men who shot him, and 
 his last words were: 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."* Shortly 
 before his execution, the patriot wrote to his wife as follows: 
 
 But, oh, if only you and the httle ones were coming too, we could 
 all reach Heaven together. ... If you can, I would like you to 
 dedicate Una to the service of God, and also Joseph. . . . Do this 
 if you can, and pray to Our Divine Lord that it may be so. 
 
 See Alderman Tom Kelly. He is a good. God-fearing man, and 
 will be able to help you, for my sake as well as for yours. . . . Mr. 
 Partridge, too, was more than a brother to me. He held me close 
 in his arms, so that I might have comfort and warmth. 
 
 God and His Blessed Mother again and again bless and protect 
 you. O Saviour of men, if my dear ones could enter Heaven with 
 me, how blessed and happy I would be; they would be away from 
 the cares and trials of the world. 
 
 Una, my Httle one, be a nun. Joseph, my little man, be a priest 
 if you can. James and John, to you the care of your mother. Make 
 yourselves good, strong men for her sake, and remember Ireland. 
 
 Good-bye, my wife, my darling. Remember me. God again bless 
 and protect you and our children. I must now prepare. These last 
 few hours must be spent with God alone. 
 
 Thus another of God's good men was butchered to satisfy 
 the thirst of the British for the blood of the men who had 
 dared to stand up for the rights of a small nation. 
 
 In his last message, written shortly before his death, J. J. 
 Heuston wrote: "Whatever I have done, I have done as a 
 soldier of Ireland in what I believe to be my country's best 
 interests, and I have, thank God, no vain regrets. After all, 
 it is better to be a corpse than a coward." 
 
 Cornelius Colbert, also, shortly before he died, wrote his 
 last message on a scrap of paper, as follows: "An la fuaricas 
 bas ar son Eireann agus ar son De bhiomar bailigthe." 
 ("When I died for Ireland and for God, we had mobilized.") 
 
420 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 In connection with the death of Colbert, the British spread 
 abroad a story to the effect that he had gone to his death 
 joking with one of the soldiers who had to prepare him for 
 execution. The priest who attended him up to the last 
 moment wrote the following letter to The Evening Herald 
 of Dublin, on June 1, in which he tells how Colbert died: 
 
 Dear Sir — In last evening's issue of your paper, towards the end 
 of the second news column of the front page, under the heading 
 *'Last Moments of Volunteer Leader," it is stated that Mr. Cornelius 
 Colbert "died joking the men who were preparing him for death." 
 It is also asserted that, when one of the soldiers was fixing the white 
 cloth on his breast, to indicate his heart, he told them "his heart 
 was far away at the moment." 
 
 This version is quite inaccurate and fanciful, and I owe it to his 
 memory to give the true one. 
 
 There was no joking, not even the semblance of it. Poor Colbert 
 was far too beautiful and too reverent a character to joke with any- 
 one in such a solemn hour. I know very well where his heart was 
 then. It was very near to God and to the friends he loved. What 
 really happened was this. While my left arm linked the prisoner's 
 right, and while I was whispering sometliing in his ear, a soldier ap- 
 proached to fit a bit of paper on his breast. While this was being 
 done he looked down, and addressing the soldier in a perfectly cool 
 and natural way said: "Wouldn't it be better to pin it up higher 
 — nearer the heart.?" The soldier said something in reply, and then 
 added: "Give me your hand now." The prisoner seemed confused 
 and extended his left hand. "Not that," said the soldier, "but the 
 right." The right was accordingly extended, and, having shaken it 
 warmly, the kindly human-hearted soldier proceeded to gently bind 
 the prisoner's hands behind his back, and afterwards blindfolded him. 
 
 Some minutes later, my arm still linked in his, and accompanied 
 by another priest, we entered the dark corridor leading to the yard 
 and, his lips moving in prayer, the brave lad went forth to die. 
 
 F. A. 
 
 On Tuesday, May 9, it was announced that Thomas Kent, 
 of Coole, near Fermoy, had been sentenced to death and that 
 the sentence had been carried out that morning. This boy 
 was thus done to death for the shooting of a policeman who 
 had attacked him and whose death was due to an accident. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 421 
 
 The end of the ghastly Hst came to pubHc notice on May 
 12, when the following communique was issued: 
 
 The trial of two prominent leaders in the rebellion, whose names 
 appeared in the proclamation issued by the so-called "Provisional 
 Government," namely: 
 
 James Connolly, and 
 John MacDermott, 
 
 took place on the 9th of May. 
 
 Sentence of death was awarded in each case. These sentences 
 were confirmed by the General Officer Commander-in-Chief on the 
 9th May, and they were carried out this morning (May 12th). 
 
 Of all the men who led in the Rebellion it is probable that 
 Sean MacDermott was the most beloved. He loved Ireland, 
 and he brought others to love her in like manner. A gentle, 
 pure-souled patriot, his brutal murder was alike a loss to 
 his country and to humanity. So ill that he had to be 
 placed in a chair before being shot, he went to death with 
 peace and happiness in his heart. The following are two 
 letters he wrote just before his execution. The first is to his 
 brothers and sisters: 
 
 KiLMAINHAM PrISON, DuBLIN, 
 
 May 11, 1916. 
 My Dear Brothers and Sisters, 
 
 I sincerely hope that this letter will not come as a surprise to any 
 of you, and, above all, that none of you will worry over what I have 
 to say. 
 
 It is just a wee note to say that I have been tried by court-martial 
 and sentenced to be shot — to die the death of a soldier. By the 
 time this reaches you I will, with God's mercy, have joined in Heaven 
 my poor father and mother, as well as my dear friends who have 
 been shot during the week. They died like heroes, and with God's 
 help I will act throughout as heroic as they did. I only wish you 
 could see me now. 
 
 I am just as calm and collected as if I were talking to you all or 
 taking a walk to see Mick Wynne or some of the old friends and 
 neighbors around home. I have priests with me almost constantly 
 for the past twenty-four hours. One dear old friend of mine, Rev. 
 
422 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Dr. Brown, Maynooth, stayed with me up to a very late hour last 
 night. I feel a happiness the like of which I never experienced in 
 my Hfe before, and a feehng that I could not describe. Surely, when 
 you know my state of mind, none of you will worry or lament my 
 fate. No, you ought to envy me. 
 
 The cause for which I die has been rebaptized during the past 
 week by the blood of as good men as ever trod God's earth, and 
 should I not feel justly proud to be numbered amongst them? Be- 
 fore God let me again assure you of how proud and happy I feel. 
 It is not alone for myself so much I feel happy, but for the fact that 
 Ireland has produced such men. 
 
 Enough of the personal note. I had hoped, Pat, to be able to 
 help you in placing the children in positions to earn their livelihood, 
 but God will help you to provide for them. Tell them how I struck 
 out for myself and counsel them to always practice truth, honesty, 
 and straightforwardness in all things and sobriety. If they do this 
 and remember their country, they will be all right. Insist on their 
 learning the language and history. 
 
 I have a lot of books and I am making arrangements with one of 
 the priests to have them turned in to a library, but I can arrange 
 that you get some of them for the children. You might like to get 
 these clothes that I am wearing to have them in memory of me, so 
 I will arrange, if possible, to have them sent to my old lodgings, 
 and you ought to come there and take them and any other little 
 things belonging to me that you'd like to have — of course for Dan 
 and Maggie also. There are a few copies of a recent photo which 
 you can take, and you might order more copies for friends, who may 
 like to have one. 
 
 Of course you got the letter I sent you a few days before Easter. 
 By the way, when you are in Dublin find if I owe any money to my 
 landlady, and if so pay her. I don't think I do, but at the moment 
 I'm not certain. 
 
 One word more about the children. Put some of them to learn 
 trades if they can at all. You will see if they show any promise of 
 mechanical or technical skill. They were too small when I saw them 
 to advise. Tell Maggie she ought to try to get Mary Ann to go for 
 teaching. I don't know what CatyBee ought to do. As for Dan, I 
 suppose he will decide for himself, God direct him. He need not 
 regret having stayed at home so long. 
 
 Make a copy of this and send it to the others as soon as you can. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 423 
 
 A lot of my friends will want to hear about me from James, Rose 
 and Kate. They can tell them all that in my last hours I am the 
 same Sean they always knew, and that even now I can enjoy a 
 laugh and a joke as good as ever. 
 
 I don't know if you will require a pass to get to Dublin, but you'd 
 better find out before you start. Perhaps martial law will have been 
 withdrawn before you can come. It was passed for one month only, 
 and I don't think it will be renewed. If I think of any other things 
 to say I will tell them to Miss Ryan, she who in all probability, had 
 I lived, would have been my wife. 
 
 I will send instructions to my landlady, but she knows you, all right. 
 
 Good-bye, dear brothers and sisters. Make no lament for me. 
 
 Pray for my soul and feel a lasting pride at my death. I die that 
 
 the Irish Nation may live. God bless and guard you all and may 
 
 He have mercy on my soul. ,^ 
 
 Yours as ever, 
 
 Sean. 
 
 P. S. — I find I have not mentioned Patrick or his mother, but 
 they know they are included for old, very old, times' sake. Yes, 
 long before there was a thought of Maggie marrying Patrick; also 
 Bessie, Mary, and Will. I'd love to clasp the hand of each of you 
 and many other dear friends, but I will meet you all soon in a better 
 place. Remember me to all friends and give some money to Fathers 
 Foy and McLaughlin for Mass for me. p, i i . 
 
 Sean. 
 
 Following this is the letter he wrote to a friend: 
 
 KiLMAINHAM PrISON, 
 
 Dublin, 11th May, 1916. 
 My Dear John : 
 
 Just a wee note to bid you good-bye. I expect in a few hours to 
 join Tom, in a better world. I have been sentenced to a soldier s 
 death, to be shot to-morrow morning. I have nothing to say about 
 this, only that I look on it as a part of the day's work — to die that 
 the Irish Nation may live. Our blood will rebaptize and reinvigo- 
 rate the "Old Land." Knowing this, it is superfluous to say how 
 happy I feel. I know now what I always felt, that the Irish Nation 
 can never die. Let present-day place-hunters condemn our action as 
 they will, posterity will judge us all right from the effects of our action. 
 
424 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 I know I will meet you soon. Until then good-bye. God guard 
 and protect you all in No. 15. You have had a sore trial, but I 
 know that you and Mrs. Daly and all the girls feel proud in spite of 
 a little temporary and natural grief that her son, and the girls, their 
 brother, as well as Tom, are included in the list of honors. 
 
 Kindly remember me especially to Mrs. Clarke, and tell her I am 
 the same Sean she always knew. God bless you all. 
 As ever, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Sean MacDiarmada. 
 
 To Mr. John Daly, 15 Barrington Street, Limerick. 
 
 No words can better depict the manner of the death of 
 James Connolly than those of his brave and devoted daughter, 
 Nora, who herself, as a member of the Cumann na mBan 
 played an heroic part in the Rebellion. After encounter- 
 ing innumerable difficulties, she succeeded in escaping from 
 Ireland and reaching New York. She describes her father's 
 last hours as follows: 
 
 They took him on a stretcher from Dubhn Castle early Friday 
 morning. May 12, because he couldn't walk on account of his wounds, 
 and carried him to Kilmainham Jail, four miles away. 
 
 They propped him in a chair because he couldn't stand, and then 
 shot him dead. Then they took his body to the Arbor Hill Barracks, 
 tlirew it into a common trench with the other dead patriots, and 
 covered his body with quicklime. 
 
 They refused to give up the body. They would not even permit 
 us to provide a coffin. 
 
 That was my father's end. 
 
 The following is the statement made by Connolly at the 
 court-martial : 
 
 I do not wish to make any defense except against charges of 
 wanton cruelty to prisoners. These triffing allegations that have 
 been made, if they record facts that really happened, deal only with 
 the almost unavoidable incidents of a hurried uprising against long- 
 established authority, and nowhere show evidence of set purpose 
 wantonly to injure unarmed persons. 
 
 We went out to break the connection between this country and 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 425 
 
 the British Empire and to estabhsh an Irish Repubhc. We beHeve 
 that the call we then issued to the people of Ireland was a nobler 
 call in a holier cause than any call issued to them during this war 
 having any connection with the war. 
 
 We succeeded in proving that Irishmen are ready to die endeavor- 
 ing to win for Ireland those national rights which the British Govern- 
 ment has been asking them to die to win for Belgium. As long as 
 that remains the case the cause of Irish freedom is safe. 
 
 Believing that the British Government has no right in Ireland, 
 never had any right in Ireland, and never can have any right in 
 Ireland, the presence in any one generation of Irishmen of even a 
 respectable minority, ready to die to affirm that truth, makes that 
 Government forever an usurpation and a crime against human 
 progress. 
 
 I personally thank God that I have lived to see the day when 
 thousands of Irish men and boys, and hundreds of Irish women and 
 girls, were ready to affirm that truth and to attest it with their lives 
 if need be. 
 
 (Signed) James Connolly. 
 Commandant General Dublin Division^ Army of 
 the Irish Republic. 
 
 Shortly after the news was received of the shooting of 
 President Pearse, MacDonagh, and Clarke, a statement, made 
 on first-hand authority, appeared in the Irish press of Amer- 
 ica to the effect that the Redmondites, in the British House 
 of Commons, cheered the announcement of the execution of 
 these men. At the present time it is impossible to obtain 
 absolute verification of this statement. Therefore it is given 
 here just as it appeared originally in The Gcelic American: 
 
 We have been informed by a most reliable authority that, when 
 Asquith announced the murder by court-martial, of Padraic H. Pearse, 
 Thomas J. Clarke, and Thomas MacDonagh, the first three rebel 
 leaders to be shot, all the members of the Irish Parliamentary Party 
 who were present in the House of Commons stood up and cheered. 
 Our informant was told this by a Member of Parliament who was 
 present at the time and who is a truthful man. All the Irish 
 papers, "Nationalist" and Tory alike, suppressed the news, but all 
 Ireland knows it just the same. 
 
CHAPTER LXIII 
 
 How Casement Died 
 
 THE thirst for blood of the British was not appeased 
 by the lives that had already been taken. In the 
 face of the opinion of the world, they had determined 
 to take vengeance on Roger Casement, even though they 
 knew that he had striven to prevent the Rebellion and had, 
 in fact, been the immediate cause of MacNeill's counter- 
 manding order to the Volunteers. 
 
 After lying for weeks in a London jail, Casement was 
 brought to trial at the Royal Courts of Justice, London, on 
 June 26. His prosecutor was the Attorney-General, Sir F. E. 
 Smith, one of the men who had been most prominently iden- 
 tified with the organization of the Carson Volunteers. Evi- 
 dence was given of Casement's arrest in Ireland after his 
 landing from the German submarine, and of the propaganda 
 he had carried on amongst the Irish prisoners of war in 
 Germany with the intention of forming them into an Irish 
 brigade to join the Irish Volunteers. Most of this evidence 
 was given by a man named Daniel Julian Bailey, formerly a 
 soldier in the English army, who had joined Casement's 
 Irish Brigade. This man went to Ireland with Casement in 
 the submarine, and, on his arrest, turned King's evidence 
 against Casement. 
 
 Casement was tried under a statute of Edward III. It 
 was obvious from the first that the result of the trial was a 
 foregone conclusion, but his counsel, including Mr. Francis 
 Doyle of America, made a determined fight for the prisoner. 
 The main plea in favor of the prisoner was that he was being 
 illegally tried under the statute, as his offense, if any, was 
 not committed within the realm of England, as charged in 
 the bill of accusation. 
 
THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 427 
 
 When the jury had returned a verdict of guilty, Casement 
 was asked if he had anything to say as to why sentence of 
 death should not be passed upon him. His speech from the 
 dock will forever rank with Emmet's as a most eloquent 
 statement of Ireland's case as against England. Various in- 
 complete and inaccurate versions have been published. The 
 following is the full speech, as it was delivered by Roger 
 Casement, at the conclusion of the trial, on Thursday, 
 June 29: 
 
 My Lord Chief Justice, as I wish my words to reach a much wider 
 audience than I see before me here, I intend to read all that I pro- 
 pose to say. What I shall read now, is something I wrote more than 
 twenty days ago. 
 
 There is an objection, possibly not good in law, but surely good 
 on moral grounds, against the application to me here of this old 
 English statute, 505 years old, that seeks to deprive an Irishman 
 to-day of Hfe and honor, not for "adhering to the King's enemies," 
 but for adhering to his own people. 
 
 When this statute was passed in 1351, what was the state of men's 
 minds on the question of a far higher allegiance — that of man to 
 God and His Kingdom.? The law of that day did not permit a 
 man to forsake his Church or deny his God save with his life. The 
 ** heretic" then had the same doom as the "traitor." To-day a 
 man may forswear God and His heavenly realm without fear or 
 penalty, all earlier statutes having gone the way of Nero's edicts 
 against the Christians; but that Constitutional phantom, "The 
 King," can still dig up from the dungeons and torture chambers of 
 the Dark Ages a law that takes a man's hfe and hmb for an exercise 
 of conscience. 
 
 If true religion rests on love, it is equally true that loyalty rests 
 on love. The law I am charged under has no parentage in love, and 
 claims the allegiance of to-day on the ignorance and blindness of 
 the past. I am being tried in truth not by my peers of the live 
 present, but by the fears of the dead past; not by the civilization 
 of the twentieth century, but by the brutahty of the fourteenth; 
 not even by a statute framed in the language of the land that 
 tries me, but emitted in the language of an enemy land — so anti- 
 quated is the law that must be sought to-day to slay an Irishman 
 whose offense is that he puts Ireland first! 
 
428 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Loyalty is a sentiment, not a law. It rests on love, not on re- 
 straint. The government of Ireland by England rests on restraint 
 and not on law; and since it demands no love, it can evoke no 
 loyalty. 
 
 But this statute is more absurd than it is antiquated; and if 
 it be potent to hang one Irishman, it is still more potent to gibbet 
 all Englishmen. Edward III was king not only of the Realm of 
 England, but also of the Realm of France, and he was not king 
 of Ireland. Yet his dead hand to-day may pull the noose around 
 the Irishman's neck, whose Sovereign he was not, but it can strain 
 no strand around the Frenchman's throat, whose sovereign he was. 
 For centuries the successors of Edward III claimed to be kings of 
 France, and quartered the arms of France upon their royal shield 
 down to the Union with Ireland on January 1, 1801. Throughout 
 these hundreds of years these "Kings of France" were constantly 
 at war with their realm of France and their French subjects, who 
 should have gone from birth to death with an obvious fear of trea- 
 son before their eyes. But did they.^ Did the "Kings of France," 
 resident here at Windsor, or in the Tower of London, hang, draw, and 
 quarter as a traitor every Frenchman for 400 years who fell into 
 their power with arms in their hands? On the contrary, they re- 
 ceived Embassies of these traitors, presents from these traitors, even 
 knighthood itself at the hands of these traitors, feasted with them, 
 tilted with them, fought with them — but did not assassinate them 
 by law. 
 
 Judicial assassination to-day is reserved only for one race of the 
 King's subjects — for Irishmen, for those who cannot forget their 
 allegiance to the Realm of Ireland. The IGngs of England, as such, 
 had no rights in Ireland up to the time of Henry VIII, save such 
 as rested on compact and mutual obligation entered into between 
 them and certain princes, chiefs, and lords of Ireland. This form of 
 legal right, such as it was, gave no King of England lawful power 
 to impeach an Irishman for high treason under this statute of King 
 Edward HI of England until an Irish Act, known as Poyning's Law, 
 the tenth of Henry VII, was passed in 1494, at Drogheda, by the 
 Parhament of the Pale in Ireland and enacted as law in that part 
 of Ireland. But, if by Poyning's Law an Irishman of the Pale could 
 be indicted for high treason under this Act, he could be indicted 
 only in one way and before one tribunal — by the laws of the Realm 
 of Ireland and in Ireland. The very law of PojTiing, which, I be- 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 429 
 
 lieve, applies this statute of Edward III to Ireland, enacted also for 
 the Irishman's defense "all those laws by which England claims her 
 liberty." 
 
 And what is the fundamental charter of an Englishman's liberty? 
 That he shall be tried by his peers. With all respect, I assert this 
 Court is to me, an Irishman, charged with this offense, a foreign 
 Court — this jury is for me, an Irishman, not a jury of my peers to 
 try me in this vital issue, for it is patent to every man of conscience 
 that I have a right, an indefeasible right, if tried at all under this 
 statute of high treason, to be tried in Ireland, before an Irish Court 
 and by an Irish jury. This Court, this jury, the public opinion of 
 this country, England, cannot but be prejudiced in varying degrees 
 against me, most of all in time of war. I did not land in England. 
 I landed in Ireland. It was to Ireland I came; to Ireland I wanted 
 to come, and the last place I desired to land was in England. 
 
 But for the Attorney-General of England there is only "England" 
 — there is no Ireland, there is only the law of England — no right 
 of Ireland; the liberty of Ireland and of Irishmen is to be judged by 
 the power of England. Yet for me, the Irish outlaw, there is a land 
 of Ireland, a right of Ireland, and a charter for all Irishmen to appeal 
 to, in the last resort, a charter that even the very statutes of Eng- 
 land itself cannot deprive us of, nay more, a charter that English- 
 men themselves assert as the fundamental bond of law that connects 
 the two kingdoms. This charge of high treason involves a moral 
 responsibility, as the very terms of the indictment against myself 
 recite, inasmuch as I committed the acts I am charged with to the 
 "evil example of others in the like case." What was the evil ex- 
 ample I set to others in the like, case, and who were these others .^^ 
 The evil example charge is that I asserted the rights of my own 
 country, and the "others" I appealed to, to aid my endeavor, were 
 my own countrymen. The example was given not to Englishmen, 
 but to Irishmen, and the "like case" can never arise in England, but 
 only in Ireland. To Englishmen I set no evil example, for I made 
 no appeal to them. I asked no Englishmen to help me. I asked 
 Irishmen to fight for their rights. The "evil example" was only to 
 other Irishmen who might come after me and in "like case" seek 
 to do as I did. How, then, since neither my example nor my appeal 
 was addressed to Englishmen, can I be rightfully tried by them.f^ 
 
 If I did wrong in making that appeal to Irishmen to join with me 
 in an effort to fight for Ireland, it is by Irishmen and by them alone 
 
430 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 I can be rightfully judged. From this Court and its jurisdiction I 
 appeal to those I am alleged to have wronged, and to those I am 
 alleged to have injured by my "evil example," and claim that they 
 alone are competent to decide my guilt or my innocence. If they 
 find me guilty, the statute may aflax the penalty, but the statute 
 does not override or annul my right to seek judgment at their hands. 
 This is so fundamental a right, so natural a right, so obvious a right, 
 that it is clear the Crown were aware of it when they brought me 
 by force and by stealth from Ireland to this country. It was not 
 I who landed in England, but the Crown who dragged me here, 
 away from my own country to which I had returned with a price 
 upon my head, away from my own countrymen whose loyalty is not 
 in doubt, and safe from the judgment of my peers whose judgment 
 I do not shrink from. I admit no other judgment but theirs. I 
 accept no verdict save at their hands. 
 
 I assert from this dock that I am being tried here not because it 
 is just, but because it is unjust. Place me before a jury of my 
 own countrymen, be it Protestant or Catholic, Unionist or National- 
 ist, Sinn Feineach or Orangeman, and I shall accept the verdict and 
 bow to the statute and all its penalties. But I shall accept no 
 meaner finding against me than that of those whose loyalty I en- 
 dangered by my example and to whom alone I appeal. If they ad- 
 judge me guilty, then guilty I am. It is not I who am afraid of 
 their verdict — it is the Crown. If this is not so, why fear the test.^^ 
 I fear it not. I demand it as my right. 
 
 That is the condemnation of English rule, of English-made law, 
 of English Government in Ireland, that it dare not rest on the will 
 of the Irish people, but exists in defiance of their will — that it is a 
 rule derived not from right, but from conquest. 
 
 Conquest, my lord, gives no title; and, if it exists over the body, 
 it fails over the mind. It can exert no empire over men's reason and 
 judgment and affections; and it is from this law of conquest with- 
 out title, to the reason, judgment, and affection of my own country- 
 men that I appeal. 
 
 I would add, the generous expressions of sympathy extended to 
 me from so many quarters, particularly from America, have touched 
 me very much. In that country, as in my own, I am sure my 
 motives are understood, for the achievement of their liberties has 
 been an abiding inspiration to Irishmen and to all elsewhere rightly 
 struggling to be free. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 431 
 
 My Lord Chief Justice, I am not called upon, I conceive, to say 
 anything in answer to the inquiry your lordship has addressed to 
 me why sentence should not be passed upon me. Since I do not 
 admit any verdict in this Court, I cannot, my Lord, admit the fit- 
 ness of the sentence that of necessity must follow it from this Court. 
 I hope I shall be acquitted of presumption if I say that the Court 
 I see before me now is not this High Court of Justice of England 
 but a far greater, a far older assembly of justices — that of the 
 people of Ireland. Since in the acts which have led to this trial it 
 was the people of Ireland I sought to serve and them alone — I 
 leave my judgment and my sentence in their hands. 
 
 Let me pass from myself and my own fate to a far more pressing 
 as it is far more urgent theme — not the fate of the individual Irish- 
 man who may have tried and failed, but the claims and the fate of 
 the country that has not failed. Ireland has seen her sons — aye, 
 and her daughters, too — suffer from generation to generation always 
 for the same cause, meeting always the same fate, and always at 
 the hands of the same power; and always a fresh generation has 
 passed on to withstand the same oppression. For if English au- 
 thority be omnipotent — a power, as Mr. Gladstone phrased it, 
 that reaches to the very ends of the earth — Irish hope exceeds the 
 dimensions of that power, excels its authority, and renews with each 
 generation the claims of the last. The cause that begets this in- 
 domitable persistency, the faculty of preserving through generations 
 of misery the remembrance of lost liberty, this, surely, is the noblest 
 cause ever strove for, ever lived for, ever died for. If this be the 
 case I stand here to-day indicted for and convicted of sustaining, 
 then I stand in a goodly company and a right noble succession. 
 
 My counsel has referred to the Ulster Volunteer movement, and 
 I will not touch at length upon that ground, save only to say this, 
 that neither I nor any of the leaders of the Irish Volunteers, who 
 were formed in Dublin in November, 1913, had any quarrel with 
 the Ulster Volunteers as such, who were born a year earlier. Our 
 movement was not directed against them, but against the men who 
 misused and misdirected the courage, the sincerity, and the local 
 patriotism of the men of the north of Ireland. The manifesto of the 
 Irish Volunteers, promulgated at a public meeting in Dublin on 
 November 25, 1913, stated with sincerity the aims of the organiza- 
 tion as I have outlined them. 
 
 Since arms were so necessary to make our organization a reality 
 
432 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 and to give to the minds of Irishmen menaced with the most out- 
 rageous threats a sense of security, it was our bounden duty to 
 get arms before all else. I decided, with this end in view, to go to 
 America, with surely a better right to appeal to Irishmen there for 
 help in an hour of great national trial than those envoys of "Em- 
 pire" could assert for their week-end descents upon Ireland, or 
 their appeals to Germany. 
 
 If, as the right honorable gentleman, the present Attorney-General, 
 asserted in a speech at Manchester, Nationalists would neither fight 
 for Home Rule nor pay for it, it was our duty to show him that we 
 knew how to do both. Within a few weeks of my arrival in the 
 States the fund that had been opened to secure arms for the Volun- 
 teers of Ireland amounted to many thousands of pounds. In every 
 case the money subscribed, whether it came from the purse of the 
 wealthy man or the still readier pocket of the poor man, was Irish 
 gold. 
 
 Then came the war. As Mr. Birrell said in his evidence laid be- 
 fore the Commission of Inquiry into the causes of the late rebellion 
 in Ireland, "the war upset all our calculations." It upset mine no 
 less than Mr. Birrell's, and put an end to my mission of peaceful 
 effort in America. War between Great Britain and Germany meant, 
 as I believed, ruin for all the hopes we had founded on the enrol- 
 ment of the Irish Volunteers. A constitutional movement in Ire- 
 land is never very far from a breach of the Constitution, as the 
 loj^alists of Ulster had been so eager to show us. 
 
 The difference between us was that the Ulster champions chose a 
 path they felt would lead to the Woolsack, while I went a road I 
 knew must lead to the dock. And the event proves we were both 
 right. The difference between us was that my "treason" was based 
 on a ruthless sincerity that forced me to attempt in time and season 
 to carry out in action what I said in words — whereas their treason 
 lay in verbal incitements that they knew need never be made good 
 in their bodies. And so, I am prouder to stand here to-day in the 
 traitor's dock to answer this impeachment than to fill the place of 
 my right honorable accusers. 
 
 We have been told, we have been asked to hope, that after this 
 war Ireland will get Home Rule as a reward for the life-blood shed 
 in a cause which, whoever else its success may benefit, can surely not 
 benefit Ireland. And what will Home Rale be in return for what its 
 vague promise has taken, and still hopes to take, away from Ireland? 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 433 
 
 Home Rule, when it comes, if come it does, will find an Ireland 
 drained of all that is vital to its very existence, unless it be that un- 
 quenchable hope we build on the graves of the dead. We are told 
 that if Irishmen go by the thousand to die not for Ireland, but for 
 Flanders, for Belgium, for a patch of sand on the deserts of Meso- 
 potamia, or a rocky trench on the heights of Gallipoh, they are 
 winning self-government for Ireland. But if they dare to lay down 
 their lives on their native soil, if they dare to dream even that 
 freedom can be won at home by men resolved to fight for it there, 
 then they are traitors to their country, and their dream and their 
 deaths alike are phases of a dishonorable fantasy. 
 
 But history is not so recorded in other lands. In Ireland alone 
 in the twentieth century is loyalty held to be a crime. If loyalty 
 be something less than love and more than law, then we have had 
 enough of such loyalty for Ireland or Irishmen. Where all your 
 rights become only an accumulated wrong; where men must beg 
 with bated breath for leave to subsist in their own land, to think 
 their own thoughts, to sing their own songs, to garner the fruit of 
 their own labors — and even while they beg, to see these things 
 inexorably withdrawn from them — then surely it is a braver, a 
 saner, and a truer thing to be a rebel in act and deed against such 
 circumstances as this than tamely to accept it as the natural lot of 
 man. 
 
 Sentence of death by hanging was thereupon passed on 
 the prisoner and this was duly carried out on August 3, 
 1916, at Pentonville Prison. At the moment of the death 
 of the patriot the crowd of Britishers who had assembled 
 outside the jail gave vent to their feelings by booing and 
 jeering. The following is the cabled account of the execu- 
 tion, passed by the British censor, and dated London, August 
 3: 
 
 Roger Casement, Irish rebel, died a traitor's death on an English 
 scaffold this morning in Pentonville Prison at 9 o'clock, and his 
 body was buried in quicklime beneath the stones of the prison yard. 
 
 **I die for my country," were Casement's last words; "into Thy 
 hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. Jesus, receive my soul." The 
 next moment the trap was sprung. 
 
 A great crowd began to collect outside the prison this morning as 
 
434 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 the hour for the execution drew near, and as the prison bell began 
 to toll, at 20 minutes to 9, the streets for two blocks in front of the 
 gates were black with people, who alternately cheered and groaned 
 at the heavy, measured strokes of the bell. 
 
 In the rear of the prison, as close as possible to the point where 
 the scaffold stands, and huddled away from the rest of the crowd, 
 was a little knot of Irishmen and Irishwomen who had gathered 
 there, apparently with the hope that their fellow-countryman might 
 feel that in his last moments a few friends were still near. 
 
 Just before 9 o'clock the bell ceased tolling, and a great silence 
 fell upon the people. All knew what it meant — the doomed man 
 was ascending the scaffold. Then, at 1 minute past 9, came a single, 
 heavy, reverberating peal of the bell, and simultaneously the crowd 
 burst, as though from an uncontrollable impulse, into an outcry 
 which sounded as though compounded of a mocking, jeering yell 
 and a half hysterical wail. 
 
 That was a sound which echoed over the stormy waves of 
 the Irish Sea to rouse to a still grimmer pitch of determina- 
 tion a nation which, having tasted once more of the power 
 of freedom, if for only the brief spell of one week, will carry 
 on the fight till the Green, White and Orange flies in triumph 
 over a free and independent Irish Republic. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 IRELAND'S ROLL OF HONOR 
 
 The following are the names of the men who were killed 
 during the fighting: 
 
 The O'Rahilly 
 Sean Connolly 
 John O'Reilly 
 Gerald Keogh 
 Richard Murphy 
 Peter Mac^en 
 William Maguire 
 John O'Grady 
 Richard O'Carroll 
 FR.4.NCIS Burke 
 Edward WAlsh 
 Sean Howard 
 John Dromean 
 Andrew B-ftiNE 
 Michael Malone 
 James Corqoran 
 il^rry coyle 
 Patrick Whelan 
 
 George Reynolds 
 Joseph Kelly 
 Con Keating 
 Edward O'Reilly 
 Patrick Shortis 
 John Hurley 
 Edward Ennis 
 
 DOMHNALL ShEEHAN 
 
 Francis Macken 
 John Costello 
 Charles Darcy 
 John Crinegan 
 Richard Kent 
 Peter Manning 
 D. Murphy 
 William McDowell 
 J. Owens 
 
 Patrick O' Flanagan 
 John Traynor 
 Thomas Weafer 
 Philip Walsh 
 Thomas Allen 
 J. Geoghegan 
 Philip Clark 
 Thomas O'Reilly 
 James Byrne 
 Peter Wilson 
 Patrick Doyle 
 Charles Corrigan 
 James Quinn 
 John Healy 
 Joseph Byrne 
 John Adams 
 D. Murray 
 John Devane 
 
 The following are those who were sentenced by the Courts- 
 martial, in addition to those executed: 
 
 Thomas Beva'n, ten years' penal servitude. 
 Thomas Walch, ten years' penal servitude. 
 FiNiAN LyNCH, ten years' penal servitude. 
 Diarmuid C. Lynch, ten years' penal servitude. 
 Thomas Ashe, penal servitude for life. 
 Michael Mervyn, ten years' penal servitude. 
 Den-nis O'Callaghan, ten years' penal servitude. 
 P. E. Sweeney, ten years' penal servitude. 
 Patrick M'Nestry, ten years' penal servitude. 
 Peter Clancy, ten years' penal servitude. 
 William Tobin, ten years' penal servitude. 
 George Irvine, ten years' penal servitude. 
 John Doherty, ten years' penal servitude. 
 J. J. Walsh, ten years' penal servitude. 
 James Melinn, ten years' penal servitude. 
 J. J. Reid, ten years' penal servitude. 
 John Williams, ten years' penal servitude. 
 
436 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Francis Fahy, ten years* penal servitude. 
 
 Richard Davys, ten years' penal servitude. 
 
 John M 'Garry, eight years' penal servitude. 
 
 Thomas Hunter, penal servitude for life. 
 
 William Cosgrove, penal servitude for life. 
 
 Edward Duggan, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 Pierce Beasley, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 Joseph Maguinness, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 Constance Georgina Markievicz, penal servitude for life. 
 
 Henry O'Hanrahan, penal servitude for life. 
 
 George Plunkett, penal servitude for ten years. 
 
 John Plunkett, penal servitude for ten years. 
 
 Philip B. Cosgrave, penal servitude for five years. 
 
 W. Meehan, penal servitude for five years. 
 
 R. Kelly, penal servitude for five years. 
 
 W. Wilson, penal servitude for five years. 
 
 J. Clarke, penal servitude for five years. 
 
 J. Brennan, penal servitude for five years. 
 
 P. Wilson, penal servitude for five years. 
 
 F. Brooks, penal servitude for five years. 
 
 R. Coleman, penal servitude for five years. 
 
 T. Peppard, penal servitude for five years. 
 
 J. Norton, penal servitude for five years. 
 
 J. Byrne, penal servitude for five years. 
 
 T. O'Kelly, penal servitude for five years. 
 
 James T. Hughes, penal scrintude for ten years. 
 
 Peter Doyle, penal servitude for ten years. 
 
 J. Wilson, two years' imprisonment with hard labor. 
 
 E. Roach, one years imprisonment with hard labor. 
 
 James O'Sullivan, eight years' penal servitude. 
 
 Vincent Vooi^e, five years' penal servitude. 
 
 William P. Corrigan, ^?'e years' penal servitude. 
 
 John Downey, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 James Burke, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 James Morrissy, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 Maurice Brennan, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 Gerald Doyle, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 Charles Bevan, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 Patrick Fogarty, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 John Faulkner, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 Michael Brady, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 George Levins, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 John F. Cullen, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 J. Dorrington, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 W. O'Dea, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 P. Kelly, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 James Dempsey, three years' penal s'ervitude. 
 
 Michael Scully, three years' penal servitude. 
 
 J. Crenigan, one year with hard labor. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 437 
 
 "William Derrington, one year mth hard labor. 
 Edward de Valera, penal servitude for life. 
 John McArdle, three years' penal servitude. 
 C. O'DoNOVAN, five years' penal servitude. 
 John Shouldice, five years' penal servitude. 
 Thomas Ashe, penal servitude for life. 
 Frank Lawless, ten years' penal servitude. 
 James Lawless, ten years' penal servitude. 
 Richard Hayes, twenty years' penal servitude. 
 Henry James Boland, five years' penal servitude. 
 Gerald Crofts, five years' penal servitude. 
 Frank Drennan, ten years' penal servitude. 
 Charles O'Neill, one year with hard labor. 
 Bryan Molloy, Galway, ten years. 
 Michael de Lucy, Enniscorthy, five years. 
 John R. Etchingham, Enniscorthy, five years. 
 Robert Brennan, Enniscorthy, five years. 
 James Rafter, Enniscorthy, five years. 
 Richard F. King, Enniscorthy, five years. 
 James Doyle, Enniscorthy, five years. 
 James Joyce, Dublin, five years. 
 Fergus O'Connor, Dublin, three years. 
 Philip Joseph MacMahon, Dundalk, three years. 
 Michael Reynolds, Dundalk, three years. 
 John Quinn, Dundalk, three years. 
 Michael Grady, Athenry, one year. 
 Charles White, Athenry, one year. 
 John Haniffy, Athenry, one year. 
 Martin Hansberry, Athenry, one year. 
 Michael Higgins, Athenry, one year. 
 John Grady, Athenry, one year. 
 James Murray, Athenry, one year. 
 Thomas Barrett, Athenry, one year. 
 Patrick Kennedy, Athenry, one year. 
 Thomas Kennedy, Athenry, one year. 
 Murtagh Fahy, Athenry, one year. 
 Michael Donohue, Athenry, one year. 
 Patrick Weafer, Maynooth, six months. 
 John Greaves, Maynooth, six months. 
 Joseph Ledwick, Maynooth, six months. 
 Conor McGinley, Dublin, three years. 
 John Carrick, Oranmore, three years. 
 Michael Hehir, Oranmore, three years. 
 Christopher Carrick, Oranmore, three years. 
 William Corcoran, Oranmore, three years. 
 Patrick Fury, Oranmore, three years. 
 Eddy Corcoran, Oranmore, three years. 
 Thomas Fury, Oranmore, three years. 
 Michael Higgins, Oranmore, three years. 
 
438 HISTORY OF THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT 
 
 Patrick Flanagan, Oranmore, three years. 
 
 James Loughlin, Oranmore, three years. 
 
 Michael Toole, Oranmore, three years. 
 
 Joseph Burke, Oranmore, three years. 
 
 Joseph Howley, Oranmore, three years. 
 
 T. F. Fury, Oranmore, three years. 
 
 Timothy Brosnan, Kerry, five years. 
 
 Colan O'Geary, Mayo, ten years. 
 
 John Tomkins, Wexford, ten years. 
 
 Jeremiah C. Lynch, New York, ten years* 
 
 Peter Gallian, Wexford, five years. 
 
 Patrick Fahy, Galway, ten years. 
 
 Thomas Desmond Fitzgerald, Dublin, ten years. 
 
 William Partridge, Dublin, ten years. 
 
 Michael Fleming, Sr., Galway, three years. 
 
 John Corcoran, Galway, three years. 
 
 William Hussey, Galway, three years. 
 
 Michael Fleming, Jr., Galway, one year. \^for life. 
 
 John (Eoin) MacNeill, convicted and sentenced to penal servitude 
 
 A large number of men were arrested, deported, and con- 
 fined in jail as criminals without any charges being preferred 
 against them and without a trial. The following are the batches 
 of prisoners and the dates on which they were deported: 
 
 Two hundred prisoners were removed from Richmond 
 Barracks, Dublin, on April 30th, and lodged in Knutsford 
 Detention Barracks, England, on May 1st. 
 
 Two hundred and eighty-nine prisoners were removed from 
 Richmond Barracks, Dublin, on April 30th, and lodged in 
 Stafford Detention Barracks on May 1st. 
 
 Three hundred and eight prisoners were removed from 
 Richmond Barracks, Dublin, on May 2d, and lodged in Knuts- 
 ford Detention Barracks on May 3d. 
 
 Three hundred and seventy-six prisoners arrested by the 
 military authorities were received at Wakefield Detention 
 Barracks on May 6th. 
 
 Two hundred and three prisoners were removed from 
 Richmond Barracks, Dublin, on May 8th, and lodged in 
 Stafford Detention Barracks on May 9th. 
 
 One hundred and ninety-seven prisoners were removed 
 from Richmond Barracks, Dublin, on May 8th, and lodged 
 in Wandsworth Detention Barracks, London, on May 9th. 
 
AND THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 439 
 
 Fifty-four prisoners were removed from Richmond Barracks, 
 Dublin, on May 12th, and lodged in Wandsworth Detention 
 Barracks, London, on May 13th. Among those deported at 
 this time was Arthur Griffith, the father of the Sinn Fein Policy. 
 
 Fifty-eight prisoners were removed from Richmond Bar- 
 racks, Dublin, on May 12th, and lodged in Stafford Detention 
 Barracks on May 13th. 
 
 Two hundred and seventy-three prisoners were removed 
 from Richmond Barracks on May 12th, and lodged in Wake- 
 field Detention Barracks on May 13th. 
 
 One hundred and ninety-seven prisoners were removed 
 from Dublin on May 19th to Barlinnie Detention Barracks, 
 Glasgow, and to Perth Detention Barracks. 
 
 Forty prisoners were removed from Richmond Barracks, 
 Dublin, on May 19th, and lodged in Woking Detention Bar- 
 racks the following day. 
 
 Fifty-nine prisoners were removed from Richmond Bar- 
 racks on May 19th and lodged in Lewes Detention Barracks 
 on the following day. 
 
 One hundred prisoners were removed from Richmond Bar- 
 racks, Dublin, on June 1st, and lodged in Wakefield Deten- 
 tion Barracks on the following day. 
 
 Forty-nine prisoners were removed from Richmond Barracks, 
 Dublin, on June 1st, and lodged in W^ands worth Detention 
 Barracks on the following day. 
 
 Fifty prisoners were removed from Richmond Barracks, 
 Dublin, on June 1st, and lodged in Knutsford Detention 
 Barracks on the following day. 
 
 Forty-one prisoners were removed from Richmond Barracks, 
 Dublin, on June 6th, and lodged in Knutsford Detention 
 Barracks on the following day. 
 
 Twenty-five prisoners were removed from Richmond Bar- 
 racks, Dublin, on June 15th, and lodged in Knutsford De- 
 tention Barracks on the following day. 
 
 An official list of two hundred and twelve prisoners con- 
 fined at Richmond Barracks, Dublin, was issued on Saturday, 
 May 20th. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Act, Home Rule {see Home Rule 
 Bill, Third) 
 
 Aeroplane corps, Irish, 151 
 
 Africa, South, 53 
 
 Agriculture, department of {see De- 
 partment of Agriculture) 
 
 Amending Bill, Home Rule, 100 
 
 America, United States of, 22, 24, 36; 
 news of rebellion plans leaks from, 
 241, 242; and Sinn Fein, 4 
 
 America, South, 23 
 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, 136 
 
 An Cumann Eitel, 151 
 
 Anti-recruiting campaign, 35 
 
 Argentina, 8, 22, 24, 50 
 
 Arigna coal mines, 25 
 
 Aristotle and Irish education, 4, 5 
 
 Armenians, 36 
 
 Arms Act proclaimed in Ireland, 85 
 
 Arms brought to Dubhn Volunteers, 
 259 
 
 Army, British {see British Army; 
 Anti-recruiting, etc.) 
 
 Ashbourne, battle of, 409 
 
 Ashe, Thomas, 409 
 
 Asquith, Herbert Henry, 62, 69, 71, 
 72, 98, 115, 116 
 
 Assembly, Irish National, 42, 46 
 
 Atrocities in Ireland, British, 123 
 
 Aud, the, fitted with arms cargo for 
 Ireland, 243; leaves Germany for 
 Ireland, 244; voyage of, 246; 
 blown up by her crew, 251 
 
 Australia, 22, 53 
 
 Austria, 34, 38, 44 
 
 Austro-Hungary, 22, 24 
 
 Bachelor's Walk, Massacre of, 
 95,96 
 
 Bailey, Private Daniel, 244 
 
 Balance of Power, 60 
 
 Balfour, Arthur James, 71 
 
 Banks in Ireland, 43 
 
 Barricade in North Earl Street, 298; 
 in Stephen's Green, 302, 304; at 
 Jacob's Factory, 305; in Post 
 Office Area, 323, 383; at Phibs- 
 boro, 349, 350 
 
 Battle of Ashbourne, 409; Mount 
 Street Bridge, 357, 358, 359, 360; 
 Phibsboro, 350 
 
 Beasley, Piaras, 151 
 
 Beer, British revenue from sale of, 39 
 
 Belgium, 21, 22, 24 
 
 Betrayal, Home Rule, 62, 63 
 
 Birrell, Chief Secretary, 71; alarmed 
 about Volunteers, 236; receives 
 R. I. C. Report, 256; consents to 
 military plot, 277 
 
 "Black Hole of Calcutta," Ireland's, 
 36 
 
 Blythe, E,, Volunteer organizer, 
 arrested, 237, 257 
 
 Boer War, 38, 43 
 
 Boland's Mills occupied, 312; sur- 
 render of, 396, 397 
 
 Bombardment of Dubhn, 356, 357, 
 361; of Liberty Hall, 355, 356 
 
 Bowen-Colthurst, Captain {see Mur- 
 der of Sheehy-Skeffington) 
 
 British Army, disloyalty in, 79, 80; 
 Englishmen in, 37; Scotsmen in, 37; 
 Irishmen in, 36 
 
 British officer executed by his own 
 men, 387 
 
 British soldiers in Ireland, conduct of, 
 36,37 
 
 Bruga, Cathal, courage of, 402 
 
442 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Buckingham Palace Conference, 101 
 Burning of Dublin, 361 
 
 Campbell-Bannerman, Sir Henry, 
 61 
 
 Canada, 8, 22, 24, 35, 53 
 
 Carlisle, Lord, 8 
 
 Carson, Sir Edward, 73, 99, 113, 128, 
 129; and his Volunteers, 74 
 
 Casement, Sir Roger, 290; in America, 
 196, 197, 198, 199, 200; leaves for 
 Germany, 201; plot to kill, 202; 
 receives statement from German 
 Government, 214; appeals to Irish- 
 men, 215; and the German Arms 
 for Ireland, 239; and the Rebellion, 
 240; leaves Germany in submarine, 
 244; letter to his sister, 244, 245; 
 held up in Heligoland, 247; arrives 
 in Ireland, 252; sends message to 
 Eoin MacNeill, 263, 264; arrested 
 by British, 267; placed on trial, 
 426; speech from the dock, 427; 
 execution of, 433, 434 
 
 Castle, Dubhn {see Dublin Castle) 
 
 Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, 
 226 
 
 Ceannt, Eamonn, 163, 164, 280, 284; 
 in South Dubhn Union, 317, 318; 
 surrender of, 396, 405; execution of, 
 418 
 
 Charles Street, fighting in, 324 
 
 Charter of Irish Liberty, 285 
 
 ChiU, 22, 24 
 
 Christian Brothers, Irish, 2, 5, 6 
 
 Citizen Army, the, 140 
 
 City Hall, Dublin, occupied, 309, 310; 
 attack on, 348, 349 
 
 Civil Service, Irish, 31, 32, 33 
 
 Clarke, Mrs. T., 141 
 
 Clarke, Thomas J., 119, 144, 145, 149, 
 151, 280, 281, 283, 284; last stand 
 by, 395; execution of, 417, 421, 
 244, 425 
 
 Coal in Ireland, 18, 25 
 Coalition Cabinet, the, 127 
 Colbert, Cornehus, execution of, 418, 
 
 419, 420 
 Collection of taxes reserved from 
 
 Ireland, 55, 56 
 Colonies, British, 53 
 Commandant of Dublin Forces {see 
 
 Connolly, James) 
 Commerce, Irish, and Sinn Fein, 21 
 *' Concessions Be Damned! " 147, 148, 
 
 149 
 Conference, the nine hours', 279 
 Confusion in Cork, 410 
 Connolly, James, 121, 140, 157, 160, 
 
 161, 162, 279; receives wound, 379; 
 
 proclamation issued by, 379, 380, 
 
 381; agrees to surrender, 394; 
 
 execution of, 424; statement at 
 
 court-martial, 424, 425 
 Connolly, Nora, 279, 424 
 Connolly, Sean, 308, 309 
 Conscription, 133, 217 
 Consular service, Irish, 23, 24 
 Cork, and Sinn Fein, 9; confusion in, 
 
 410 
 Cork Celt suppressed, 121 
 Cork Harbor Board, 17 
 Council of Three Hundred, 46 
 Councils Bill, Irish, 63 
 County Councils, Irish, 8, 9, 16, 18, 
 
 25, 31, 46 
 Courage of women rebels, 362 
 Covenanters of Lister, 76 
 Cromwell, 36 
 Cumann na mBan, 141, 142, 176; girls 
 
 of at Liberty Hall, 279, 285, 286; 
 
 girls as messengers, 286; courage 
 
 of girls of, 362, 363, 364, 365 
 Curragh mutiny, 79, 80 
 Custom House captured by British, 
 
 341, 342 
 Customs and excise under Home 
 
 Rule, 53 
 
INDEX 
 
 443 
 
 Daly, Edward, occupies Four 
 Courts, 328; execution of, 418 
 
 Deak, Francis, 35, 60 
 
 Deantha i nEirinn, 19 
 
 Defense of the Realm Act, 122, 217 
 
 Demobilizing orders, 267, 273 
 
 Denmark, 22, 24, 65 
 
 Department of Agriculture, 47, 48 
 
 De Valera, Edward, 221, 311; at 
 Boland's Mills, 313, 314, 315; 
 repulses British, 316, 317; surren- 
 der of, 397 
 
 Devonshire, Duke of, 61 
 
 Devoy, John, 138, 139 
 
 Disarming of Irish Volunteers, plots 
 for the, 135, 254, 257, 276, 277 
 
 Disloyalty in British Army, 79, 80 
 
 District Councils, Irish, 16 
 
 Dolan, Charles, 63 
 
 Dublin, Borough Fund, 49; Corpora- 
 tion, 49; Castle, 218; capture of, 
 306; Port and Docks Board, 16, 
 17; Stock Exchange, 40 
 
 Editorial from Sinn Fein, 120, 121, 
 180, 181; from Irish Freedom, 147, 
 148, 149; from The Volunteer, 183 
 
 Education and Sinn Fein, 1 
 
 Education Fund, National, 6 
 
 Emigration, Irish, 65 
 
 England and the small nations, 222 
 
 Englishmen as fighters, 37; in British 
 army, 37 
 
 English nobles and Irish Freedom, 66, 
 67 
 
 Enniscorthy, rising in, 407, 408, 409 
 
 Esmond, Sir Thomas, 63 
 
 Executions, the, 412 
 
 Fairview fighting at, 398 
 
 Famine, peril of, 233 
 
 Fenian motto, 84 
 
 Fianna na hEirinn, 142, 172; Royal 
 College of Surgeons, 304 ; attack on 
 the castle by, 307; surrender of, 396 
 
 Finance, Irish, 40 
 
 Financial Relations Comraission, re- 
 port of, 64, 65 
 
 Finland, 1, 50 
 
 Fires, the Dublin (see Burning of 
 Dublin) 
 
 Force to settle Irish Question, 77 
 
 Ford, Patrick, 186, 187 
 
 Ford, Robert E., 187 
 
 Four Courts, the, 219; area, 326; 
 surrender of, 396 
 
 France, 22, 24, 28 
 
 Freeman's Journal, 62, 81; and Vol- 
 unteer incident, 258 
 
 Friends of Irish Freedom, 189 
 
 Gaelic American, The, 139 
 
 Gaelic Athlete, The, 122 
 
 Gaelic League, the, 6, 140, 141 
 
 Galway, rising in, 406, 407 
 
 General Council of the Councils, 18, 
 
 46 
 George, Lloyd, 68, 69 
 Germany, 10, 21, 22, 24, 28, 78, 79, 
 
 104; statement to the Irish people, 
 
 214, 215; and the rebels, 219, 220; 
 
 cooperation of, not essential, 221 
 Gold in Ireland, 45 
 Gold not an Irish color, 231 
 Government of Ireland Bill (see 
 
 Home Rule Bill, Thu-d) 
 Government stockbrokers, 40 
 Gray, Edmund Dwyer, 45 
 Grazing lands, Irish, 8 
 Greece, 65 
 Green, white, and orange tricolor, 84, 
 
 92, 226, 294 
 Grey, Sir Edward, 61, 62 
 Griffith, Arthur, 1, 10, 49, 61, 62, 119, 
 
 140, 151, 178, 179, 181, 182 
 Gun-running in Ulster, 78, 101 
 
 Harbor Commissioners, Irish, 16, 
 17,46 
 
444 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Helga, English gunboat, 355, 356 
 Heuston, J. J., execution of, 418, 419 
 Hibernians, Ancient Order of, 186 
 Hobson, Butler, 151, 216; arrested 
 
 by Volunteers, 289 
 Holland, 22, 24, 50 
 Home Rule, 26, 52, 59, 68, 69 
 Home Rule Bill, Third, 52, 59, 65, 98, 
 
 99, 100, 116, 130 
 "Home Rule is Dead," 62 
 Honesty, 122 
 Hungary, 6, 7, 34, 35. 38, 43, 44, 50, 
 
 60 
 
 India, 22 
 
 Industries, Irish, 8 
 
 Intrigue, Home Rule, 61 
 
 Ireland, 122 
 
 Ireland, and the war, 104; British 
 redcoat in, 36, 37; partition of, 
 suggested, 75; technical instruction 
 in, 47, 48; valuation of, 47 
 
 Irish banking, 43; coal, 18, 25; canals, 
 25; Christian Brothers, 2, 5, 6, 
 Civil Service, 31 ,32, 33; commerce, 
 21; consular service, 23, 24; Coun- 
 cils Bill, 63; County Councils, 8, 
 9, 16, 18, 25, 31; courts of law, 34, 
 Finance, 40; Harbor Boards, 17, 
 46; in America, 148; liberty, char- 
 ter of, 285; Local Government 
 Board, 29; Irishmen in British 
 Army, 36; Mercantile Marine, 
 21, 22, 23; National Assembly, 
 42, 46; newspapers suppressed, 
 121, 122; Parliament and Third 
 Home Rule Bill, 52; Parliamen- 
 tary Party {see ParUamentary 
 Party); poor law system, 27; race 
 convention, 189; railroads, 25; Re- 
 publican Brotherhood, 81, 84, 138, 
 139, 185, 186; Republic, reasons 
 for a, 223; Stock Exchange, 40; 
 Taxation, 38, 39; Tobacco, 19; 
 
 Trademark, 19, 20; Transport 
 Workers' Union, 140; Tricolor {see 
 Green, white, and orange); Urban 
 Councils, 16, 31, 46; Volunteers of 
 1780, 21; vote in Great Britain, 
 60, 62 
 
 Irish Freedom, 119, 139, 146; editorial 
 from, 146, 148, 149 
 
 Irish-Germanic Alliance, 219 
 
 Irish Independent ignores Volunteers, 
 81 
 
 Irish Volunteers of 1916, formation of, 
 81; plot to disarm the, 135, 245, 
 275, 276, 277; proclamation issued 
 by, 211, 212, 213; convention of, 
 213; break with Redmond, 213; 
 why called Sinn Fein, 213; secret 
 session of, 216; Council meetings 
 of the, 237; organizers of, arrested, 
 237; hold up trolley car, 258 
 
 Irish War News, 345, 346, 347 
 
 Irish Worker, 121 
 
 Irish World, 186, 187, 188 
 
 Italy, 22, 24, 28 
 
 Jacobs' Biscuit Factory occupied, 
 
 304, 305; surrendered, 396 
 Japan, 22, 24 
 Jews, 36 
 
 Kaiser Wilhelm II, 73, 75, 77, 79 
 Keely, John, death of, 295 
 "Kelly's Fort," 218, 219, 322 
 Kent, murder of Thomas, 410, 411, 
 
 420 
 King's own Scottish Borderers, 93, 
 
 94,95 
 King's Veto, 101, 102 
 Kossuth, Louis, 10, 43, 44 
 
 Lancers, British, routed, 295 
 Law, Bonar, 75, 76, 77 
 Law courts, national, 34 
 "Leopardstown Races," 295 
 
INDEX 
 
 445 
 
 Liberty, Charter of Irish, 285 
 Liberty Hall, 218, 275, 276; nine 
 hours' conference at, 278; bombard- 
 ment by British, 355, 356; cap- 
 tured by British, 356 
 Liberty of the Press, 121, 122, 127 
 Libraries, Irish National, 47 
 Linen Hall Barracks, capture of, 367 
 List, Frederick, 10, 11, 12, 20, 21 
 Local Government Board, Irish, 29, 49 
 Lords, House of, and Home Rule, 66 
 Louth, rising in, 409 
 
 MacDermott, Sean, 119, 145, 146, 
 147, 149, 150, 151, 280, 284; in the 
 Post Office, 383; execution of, 421, 
 422, 423, 424 
 
 MacDonagh, Thomas, 7, 157, 158, 
 159, 160, 267, 284; surrender of, 
 395; execution of, 415, 416, 417 
 
 MacNeill, Professor Eoin, 7, 83, 98, 
 140, 182, 183; article by, 183; 
 presides at secret sessic«i, 216; 
 receives message from Casement, 
 266; issues demobilizing order, 
 267; disappears, 288 
 
 Magazine Fort captured, 329, 330, 
 331 
 
 Mallin, Michael, 301; execution of, 
 418, 419 
 
 Maloney, Helena, 174, 175, 176 
 
 Manifesto issued by Provisional Gov- 
 ernment, 346, 347 
 
 Markievicz, Countess Constance, 142, 
 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176; in 
 Royal College of Surgeons, 304; 
 attack on the Castle by, 307; 
 surrender of, 396 
 
 Martin, John, 60 
 
 Martyn, Edward, 1 
 
 Massacre of Bachelor's Walk, 95, 96 
 
 McBride, Major John, 166, 167; in 
 Jacob's factory, 305; execution of, 
 418 
 
 McLoughlin, Joseph, 188 
 
 Meath, County, 60 
 
 Mellows, William, Volunteer organ- 
 izer, arrested, 237, 257, 406 
 
 Mercantile Marine, Irish, 21, 22, 23 
 
 Monaghan, A., Volunteer organizer, 
 arrested, 237 
 
 Monteith, Captain Robert, 244 
 
 Morley, John, 61 
 
 Mount Street Bridge, Battle of, 357, 
 358, 359, 360 
 
 Murder of Sheehy-Skeffington, 369; 
 of Thomas Kent, 410, 411 
 
 National Assembly, 42, 46 
 National, Banks, 44, 45; Council, 
 
 1, 14; Education Fund, 6; Law 
 
 Courts, 34; Libraries, 47 
 "National" Schools in Ireland, 5, 6 
 National Stock Exchange, 42 
 "National" Volunteers, 98; classed 
 
 as "Supine" by British, 235 
 Nation, The, 34 
 Newman, Mrs. Agnes, 244 
 Newspapers suppressed, 121, 122, 238 
 New Statesman, letter to, 253 
 Nine hours' conference, 279 
 Northcliffe papers support Carson, 76 
 North Dublin Union, 29 
 Norway, 21, 22, 65 
 
 Obstruction, Parnell's Policy of, 
 60 
 
 O'Connell, Daniel, 34 
 
 O'Connell Street patrolled, 323 
 
 O'Connor, T. P., misstatements by, 
 235 
 
 O'Hannigan, Donal, 410 
 
 O'Hanrahan, Michael, 167, 168; exe- 
 cution of, 418 
 
 O'Rahilly, The, 45, 150, 51, 152; 
 ride to Limerick, 270; returns to 
 Dublin, 287; joins the rebels, 288; 
 leads dash from Post Office, 385; 
 killed in action, 386 
 
446 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Orangemen, 50, 226 
 Order for the Rebellion, first, 265 
 Order for the Rebellion, second, 290 
 O'Reilly, John, 309. 310 
 
 Paper Money, 45 
 
 Papineau, 35 
 
 Parliament Act, the, 65 
 
 Parliamentary Party, Irish, 26, 59, 
 97, 189, 262 
 
 Parnell, Charles Stewart, 60, 61 
 
 Partition of Ireland suggested, 75, 98, 
 99, 100 
 
 Pearse, President Padraic, 152, 153; 
 editorial by, 153; at nine hom*s, 
 conference, 280; selected as presi- 
 dent, 283; signs proclamation, 284; 
 speech outside the Post Office, 296, 
 297; police appointed by, 341; 
 statement made by, 345, 346; 
 manifesto issued by, 346, 347; 
 signs order for surrender, 394; 
 execution of, 413, 414, 415; last 
 proclamation by, 382, 383 
 
 Pearse, WiUiam, 168; execution of, 418 
 
 Penal Laws, British, 2 
 
 Phibsboro, barricade at, 349, 350; 
 Battle of, 350 
 
 Pledge of the Irish Volunteers, 84 
 
 Plot, disarmament {see Irish Volun- 
 teers) 
 
 Plunkett, Joseph Mary, 164, 165, 280, 
 284; execution of, 418 
 
 Pogrom planned by British, 253, 260, 
 261, 275, 276, 277, 333, 334, 335 
 
 Poland, 6, 7, 50 
 
 Police, Irish, appointed, 341 
 
 Poor Law Guardians, 16, 46 
 
 Poor law system in Ireland, 27 
 
 Portugal, 22 
 
 Post Office, DubUn General, 217, 218; 
 capture of, 291, 292; area of, 320; 
 bombardment of, 383; set on fire, 
 384; retreat from, 385 
 
 President of Irish Republic {see 
 
 Pearse, Padraic) 
 Priests and people, 233 
 Privy Council, British, 53 
 Proclamation of the Irish RepubUc, 7, 
 
 283, 284 
 Protection in Ireland, 15 
 Protestants and Catholics in Ireland, 
 
 226 
 Provisional Government manifesto, 
 
 346, 347 
 
 Railroad Stations in Dublin, 219 
 Rebellion of 1916, 58, 59; not a Sinn 
 Fein Rebellion, 138; how it was 
 planned, 217; order for the, 265 
 Redcoat in Ireland, 36, 37, 123 
 Redmond, John E., 54, 55, 62, 63, 64, 
 71, 72, 75, 96, 97, 98, 99, 113, 129, 
 130, 134, 135, 139, 186, 187, 188, 
 189, 210; as recruiting sergeant, 
 116, 117; knowledge of, of con- 
 ditions in Ireland, 234; speech in 
 Galway, 233; and Volunteer inci- 
 dent, 258 
 Religion, Wars of, in Ireland, 226 
 Republic, reasons for an Irish, 223; 
 proclamation of the Irish, 283, 284, 
 293 
 Restrictions under Home Rule, 56 
 Ringsend {see Roland's Mills) 
 Rotunda, Dublin, 1, 49, 81, 82 
 Royal assent, 53, 55 
 Royal College of Surgeons occupied, 
 
 304 
 Royal Dublin Society, 8 
 Royal Irish Constabulary, 32, 56; 
 
 report on Volunteers, 256 
 Russia, 22, 24, 35 
 
 Scissors and Paste, 121, 122 
 Scotland, 22, 62 
 Scotsmen in British army, 37 
 Secret orders to military, 260, 261 . 
 
INDEX 
 
 447 
 
 Shamrock for Irish soldiers of Eng- 
 land, 38 
 
 Signers of Irish Proclamation, 284 
 
 Sinn Fein Policy, 1 ; and education, 1 ; 
 and industries, 8; and protection, 
 15; and commerce, 21; and poor 
 law system, 27; and consular serv- 
 ice, 23, 24; and Civil Service, 31, 32, 
 33; and National Law Courts, 34; 
 and anti-recruiting, 35; and Taxa- 
 tion, 38, 39; and Irish finance, 40; 
 and banking, 43; and Council of 
 Three Hundred, 46; and Third 
 Home Rule Bill, 51, 54; and Home 
 Rule betrayal, 63 
 
 Sinn Fein, suppressed, 119; editorial 
 from, 120, 121, 180, 181 
 
 Skeffington, Francis Sheehy-, 253; 
 appeals to looters, 297, 298; murder 
 of, 369 
 
 Small nations, England and, 222 
 
 Smith, Adam, 10, 12 
 
 South Dublin Union occupied, 317; 
 attack on, repulsed, 318; surrender 
 of, 396, 405; fighting at, 400 
 
 Spain, 22, 24 
 
 Split between Volunteers, 97, 98 
 
 Stephen's Green position, 299, 300; 
 capture of, 301; fortification of, 302 
 
 Stock Exchange in Ireland, 40 
 
 Strike against taxes, 38 
 
 Strongbow, 36 
 
 Suppression of Irish newspapers, 121, 
 122 
 
 Surrender of Republicans, 393 
 
 Sweden, 64, 65 
 
 Switzerland, 65 
 
 Taxation, Irish, 38, 39, 63, 64, 65; 
 
 under Home Rule, 55, 56; increase 
 
 of, m Ireland, 238 
 Technical instruction in Ireland, 47, 48 
 The Gael, 122 
 The O'Rahilly (see O'Rahilly) 
 
 The Spark, 122 
 
 Three Hundred, Council of, 46 
 
 Tilled land in Ireland, 8 
 
 Tobacco, Irish, 19 
 
 Trade mark, Irish, 19, 20 
 
 Transit in Ireland, 25 
 
 Treachery of Liberal Government, 61 
 
 Treason of Sir Edward Carson, 76 
 
 Treaty of 1783, 59 
 
 Tri-color, Irish {See Green, white, 
 
 and orange) 
 Trim woolens, 41 
 Trinity College, Dublin, 4, 7; attack 
 
 on, 310, 311 
 Turks, 36 
 
 Ulster, 59; Volunteers, 74; percent- 
 age of Nationalists in, 99, 100 
 Union, Act of, 59 
 United Irish League, 62 
 United Irishmen, 39 
 United States of America (^ee America) 
 University, Irish National, 7 
 Urban Councils, Irish, 16, 31, 46 
 
 Valuation of Ireland, 47 
 
 Veto, British, on Irish Parliament, 52; 
 
 Lords' (see Parliament Act) 
 Victoria, Queen, 38 
 Volunteers, Irish, of 1780, 21; Irish 
 
 (^ee Irish Volunteers); "National" 
 
 {see National Volunteers); Ulster 
 
 {see Ulster Volunteers) 
 Volunteer, The, editorial from, 183 
 
 War Taxes in Ireland, 238 
 
 Whisky, British revenue from sale of, 
 39 
 
 Wimborne, Lord, 274, 275 
 
 Women, atrocities committed upon 
 Irish, 123; courage of, in the Re- 
 bellion, 362; under Home Rule, 57 
 
 Women's place in an Irish republic, 
 224 
 
 Workers' Republic, 122 
 
 Wurtemburg, 65 
 
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