#eamon devalera

Daniel O’Connell and the Young Irelanders

To understand why the Rising occurred, one most first familiarize themselves with Ireland’s long struggle against British colonialism.

In 1798, the United Irishmen coordinated a massive rebellion in Ireland that would clear the path for a Napoleonic French invasion. They would help the French overthrow the British Empire and earn their freedom. The rebellion was brutally suppressed by the British forces and served, in the British and Protestant Irish minds as a nightmarish example of what the Catholic Irish were “capable” of.

This rebellion was followed by another rebellion in 1803, led by Robert Emmet. He also coordinated with the French, but was forced to move the date of his rebellion up, jeopardizing any support he has previously organized. He issued a proclamation of the Provisional Government and expected the people to rise. It only lasted for a day before it was defeated by the British. Emmet was executed by the British.

After the failed rebellions, a modicum of progress was achieved in the 1820s/1830s when one of Ireland’s greatest statesmen, Daniel O’Connell campaigned for Catholic Emancipation i.e. the right for Catholics to sit in Parliament. This was granted in 1829.

Daniel O'Connell

O’Connell tried to repeal the Act of Union and asked that Ireland be allowed to govern itself independently while acknowledging the Queen as the Queen of Ireland as well as of England. However, O’Connell’s failing health and his refusal to do anything that would lead to bloodshed weakened his support and the repeal fell apart after he died.

Out of the ashes of O’Connell’s attempt to repeal the Union, rose the Young Ireland Movement. This group led the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848, which was defeated by the British. Many of the organizers were shipped off to prisons all over the British Empire, including Australia. One Young Irelander, Thomas Meagher migrated to America in time to volunteer for the Union Army’s Irish Brigade when the American Civil War broke out,

Another Young Irelander, James Stephens created the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), a secret organization that would be responsible for Easter Rising and fill the ranks of the IRA.

Charles Parnell and Home Rule

Although O’Connell failed to repeal the Union, he paved the way for greater independence in Ireland. He proved that the British could be engaged through their own parliamentary government and that more could be achieved through negotiations than through violence. Charles Parnell took these lessons to heart and used his own position within England’s parliament to push for Home Rule.

Parnell was a politically astute Irishmen, associating with well-known nationalist organizations such as the IRB, while also using parliamentary procedures such as obstructionism to drew England’s attention to Irish issues. Parnell was able to capitalize on Irish resentment over land ownership and landlords to increase his party’s power within parliament, leading to his arrest.

While in prison he made a deal with Gladstone’s government, promising to quell violent agitation if Gladstone allowed renters to appeal for fair rent before a court. This, combined with the backlash following the Phoenix Park killings, broke the IRB’s power until the early 1900s. Parnell used his power to reintroduce Home Rule which combined a request for independent rule with agrarian reform. He also won the support of the Catholic Church. He reshaped his party, renamed it the Irish Parliamentary Party, and introduced a new sense of professionalism into its members. Other British parties would base their organization on Parnell’s tightly run party. He also helped passed several Land Acts that abolished the large Anglo-Irish tenant owned estates.

Just when Parnell was at his highest point of power and Home Rule seemed destined to become reality, a personal scandal ruined his political career. It turns out that Parnell was involved in an affair with a currently married woman. The Catholic Church, who had grown to distrust Parnell, used this to break his political power and even Gladstone turned his back on him. Parnell was defiant, splitting his party into the Parnellites and anti-Parnellites. John Redmond, another important Irish statesman, was a Parnellite. Parnell died shortly after, taking Home Rule with him.

John Redmond

After adjusting to the social change demanded by Daniel O’Connell in the 1820s/1830s and the trauma of Parnell’s scandalous fall from grace, Ireland’s future seemed bright. The mystical and ever elusive Home Rule seemed to be within the grasp of John Redmond, Parnell’s political and spiritual successor.

John Redmond

This bill promised a bicameral Irish Parliament to be set up in Dublin, the abolition of Dublin Castle (the center and reviled symbol of hated British colonialism and authority within Ireland), and a distinctive Irish representation in the Parliament of the U.K. This bill passed the House of Commons three times and was defeated in the House of Lords three times and was postponed indefinitely when WWI broke out.

While Home Rule’s fate was up in the air, Ireland itself was undergoing a social transformation. R. F. Foster’s book Vivid Faces does a fantastic job capturing the social experiences of the members of Irish Volunteers and IRA that I cannot recapture in this short post. However, it is sufficient to say that the members that crowded the language revival leagues and sports leagues wanted more than Home Rule. They wanted a revitalized and progressive Gaelic culture and identity.

The Irish, mostly Protestant, in, what is now, Northern Ireland were alarmed by the very idea of Home Rule and this renewed interest in Gaelic culture. They responded by creating the militaristic organization called the Ulster Volunteers in 1912. Their goal was to pressure the British government to nix Home Rule and to defend themselves from the Catholic “onslaught” should Home Rule pass into law.

The Irish nationalists in the rest of the Ireland responded by creating their own military organization: the Irish Volunteers in 1913. It was created by Eoin MacNeill and included members from the Gaelic League, Sinn Fein, and the Irish Republic Brotherhood.

Eoin MacNeill

The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) was a secret organization dedicated to Irish independence. Bulmer Hobson (who co-founded the Fianna Eireann with Constance Markievicz) combined the two organizations into the Irish Volunteers.

Redmond knew about the Irish people’s frustration. He promised the English that he would rally the Irish about the British cause and enlist in its armies if England promised to pass Home Rule. During a speech, Redmond-eager to prove that he was a man of his word-passionately encouraged Irish to enlist in the army and fight in France. This was the final straw for many nationalists and Redmond lost what little power he had over events. Redmond would try to regain control by co-opting the Irish Volunteers with assistance from Bulmer Hobson, but this only angered the nationalists. Tom Clarke, who was great friends with Hobson, considered it an act of treason and never spoke to his friend again.

Irish Volunteers and the IRB

The Irish Volunteers were never completely united and the battle for Home Rule drove a split within the organization between those who trusted Redmond and those who decided that Home Rule wasn’t enough anymore and that a bloody uprising was needed. Of the men who wanted to wait, Eoin MacNeill and Bulmer Hobson are the most famous. They believed that it was better to wait for British provocation before leading the people to the slaughter. They were also doubtful of their chances of success and did not believe in the glorious sacrifices that Patrick Pearse exalted in his speeches and writing.

The more militant group kept the name Irish Volunteers, even though many of them were also IRB members, and consisted of men such as Patrick Pearse, Tom Clarke, Seán Mac Diarmada, Joseph Plunkett, and Eamonn Ceannt. They believed that England’s difficulties meant Irish opportunity and they wanted to enlist German help in pulling off an uprising. These men were idealistic and, perhaps a bit naïve, but they were dedicated to their cause and to their country.

This committee knew they would not be able to win without arms and support, so, keeping their plans to themselves, they sent Roger Casement and Plunkett to Germany to present their plans for a German invasion that would coincide with an Irish rising. The Germans rejected this plan (maybe remembering what happened in 1798, when the French made a similar landing, weeks after a massive Irish uprising), but promised to send arms. Plunkett returned to Ireland while Casement remained in Germany to recruit Irish prisoners of war to the Volunteer’s cause.

The situation in Ireland, specifically Dublin, became even more complicated when James Connelly, head of the Irish Citizen Army-a group of socialist trade unionists-threatened to start his own uprising.

Bulmer Hobson

A meeting between Connelly and Pearse occurred and Connelly joined the military committee. Thomas MacDonagh joined shortly after, becoming the seventh and last member of the committee.

The Irish Volunteers were often seen drilling and practicing for some vague rebellion, so it wasn’t suspicious to the authorities or to MacNeil and Hobson to see units marching around. When Pearse issued orders for parade practice on Easter Sunday, MacNeil and Hobson took it at face value while those in the know, knew what it really meant. This surreal arrangement would not last for long and the committee’s secrecy nearly destroyed the very rising it was trying to inspire.

Seven Members of the Military Committee

Not only were the members of the committee the men most responsible for the rising, they were also the signatories to the Irish Republic Proclamation. This important document was the foundation for the IRA’s fight for freedom and was the death warrant for all who signed it. Below are short biographies on the seven members.

Patrick Pearse

Patrick Pearse was a school teacher and poet. He was a firm believer in reviving the Gaelic language and founded St. Enda’s College as a bilingual institution, focusing on Irish tradition and culture. Pearse is the man who represents the Rising best as he truly believed that the blood of martyrs would liberate Ireland. He was the spiritual leader of the rising and one of its most powerful martyrs.

Tom Clarke

Tom Clarke was an old hat at rebellions. He was a firm believer in violent uprisings and spent fifteen years in an English prison before joining the committee. He had joined the IRB in 1878 and was arrested for attempting to blow up London Bridge as part of the Fenian dynamite campaign in 1883. He was only released because of public pressure in Ireland and an endorsement from John Redmond, himself. Following his feud with Hobson over Redmond’s acceptance into the Irish Volunteers, Clarke became firm friends with Seán Mac Diarmada. Together they ran the IRB and helped plan Easter Rising.

Seán Mac Diarmada

Seán Mac Diarmada (also known as Sean MacDermott) was born in Corranmore, where he was surrounded by Irish history and reminders of British oppression. By the time he moved to Dublin in 1908, he was already a member of the IRB, Sinn Fein, the Gaelic League, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. He was also manager of the newspaper Irish Freedom which he founded with Hobson and Denis McCullough. He became close to Clarke and helped run the IRB. He was arrested briefly in 1914 for a speech against joining the British army but was released in 1915. Like Pearse, Mac Diarmada believed in the power of a bloody sacrifice and, besides Clarke, was the man most responsible for planning the rising.

Thomas MacDonagh

Thomas MacDonagh was assistant headmaster at St. Enda’s School and lecturer at University College Dublin. He was also a playwright and poet. He met Pearse and MacNeill through the Gaelic League and joined the IRB in 1915. He married Muriel Gifford whose sister, Grace, would marry Joseph Plunkett. He was also responsible in planning the funeral of Irish Fenian leader Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa where Pearse would give one of his greatest speeches.

Joseph Plunkett

Joseph Plunkett came from a wealthy Dublin family. He contracted tuberculosis when he was young and spent considerable time in the Mediterranean and North Africa. When he returned, he joined the Gaelic League where he befriended MacDonagh. He joined the IRB in 1915 and was sent to German with Casement to negotiate for arms and military support.

Eamonn Ceannt

Eamonn Ceannt was a very religious and committed member of the Irish Volunteers. Like most Volunteers, he joined the Gaelic League when he moved to Dublin and became involved in nationalistic affairs after meeting Pearse and MacNeill. In 1907 he joined Sinn Fein and in 1915 he became a member of the IRB.

James Connolly

James Connolly was born in the Irish slums of Edinburgh and joined the British Army when he was fourteen. While serving in the army, he was involved in the Land Wars, sparking an interest in land issues and a deep hatred of the British. He deserted and became involved in the socialist movement in Scotland. He moved to Dublin when he heard that the Dublin Socialist Club was looking for a secretary and quickly transformed it into the Irish Socialist Republican Party. He, along with Arthur Griffith, protested the Boer War and he wrote a book about labor in Irish history that was very critical of Daniel O’Connell. In 1913, he co-founded the Irish Citizen Army with Jim Larkin, whose aim was to defend workers and strikers from the police. Connolly was initially disgusted with the Irish Volunteers, believing that they were too bourgeoise and didn’t have the guts to rebel against the British. It was only after meeting with Pearse and Clarke did he change his mind and support the Volunteers and the Rising.

Easter Rising Sunday

Easter Rising was a surprise for the British and for the leaders of the Irish Volunteers-Eoin MacNeill and Bulmer Hobson. Historian, Charles Townshend argues that Hobson and MacNeil were subsequently written out of Irish history because of their resistance to any violent rebellion in 1916 and it is only recently that they’ve returned to their proper place in history. While it is true that they were hesitant to lead a general uprising, it was for good reasons. The Irish Volunteers weren’t soldiers, despite all their training, and they didn’t have the weapons needed to fight a protracted rebellion. Additionally, it was doubtful that the general population would support their efforts. These concerns combined, made the Rising’s chances for success minimal.

This didn’t dissuade men like Pearse and Clarke, who planned the Rising right under MacNeill’s noses. To ensure full support of their efforts, the seven leaders of the Rising had the ‘Castle Document’ read during a meeting. This document was a plan to arrest the leaders of the Irish Volunteers should the English implement conscription. While it was a real document, it seems that the leaders may have played fast and loose with when it was going to be implemented. Either way, this was the type of repressive efforts that MacNeil believed were needed to ensure the people would support a rising of any kind. MacNeil gave orders to the men to resist and the seven leaders decided amongst themselves that the Rising would take place on 23rd April 1916. They didn’t tell anyone else though and wouldn’t until the last minute.

Then things began to unravel.

First, Roger Casement was arrested. Roger Casement had gone to Germany to recruit arms and assistance from the German government and to recruit Irishmen from the captured British soldiers. The Germans were less than supportive, and it seems Casement boarded the ship Aud to return to Ireland to either stop or postpone the rising. However, when he arrived in Ireland on either April 21st or 22nd, he was pick up by British police and placed in jail.

Then MacNeil and Hobson had their worst suspicions confirmed-Pearse and his comrades were secretly planning a rebellion without their support. There was a confrontation between MacNeil and Pearse on the 21st and MacNeil vowed to do everything possible-save warning the authorities-to stop the rebellion. However, the next day MacNeil was informed that the Germans had sent a boat full of supplies to Ireland. This seemed to convince him that things were firmly out of his control and he remained mostly mute about his feelings regarding the Rising. His opinions changed again when found out that Casement had been arrested and the arms had been picked up by the British. Feeling that this ruined what little chance the rebellion had to succeed, he spoke to Pearse once more. One can only imagine his disorientation when he found out that Hobson had been arrested by the IRB Leinster Executive out of fear that he would try to stop the rebellion. Why Pearse and his comrades never arrested MacNeil is unknown, but it speaks volumes about which man they were more threatened by.

Failing to convince Pearse that it was necessary to cancel the rebellion to avoid disaster, MacNeil wrote a counter-order, canceling the drills scheduled for Sunday. This counter-order took an already confused situation and turned it into a bewildering disaster. Units formed as ordered by Pearse and dispersed with great puzzlement and some anger and frustration. Pearse and his comrades met to discuss their next steps and decided the die had been cast. There was no other choice except to try again tomorrow, Monday, 24th, April 1916.

As can be imagined, the counter-orders have been a source of much anguish and gnashing of teeth. From the rebellion’s perceptive, it did more to ruin the Rising then the British. There is some belief that if the rebellion had occurred on Sunday as planned, with all the Irish Volunteers mobilizing, then it may have been successful. Some of this is definitely wishful thinking, as the plan for the rebellion was far from perfect to begin with. Have a larger showing of Irish Volunteers may have only meant more Irish dead at the end of the five days.

The more important question how did the decision by Pearse and his comrades to form a shadow chain of command within the Irish Volunteers affect operations? MacNeil would not have needed to issue the counter-orders if he had been in on the planning to begin with and there would have been no confusion on part of the Volunteers if commands were issued as they should have been. While it is true that Hobson and MacNeil did not want to rebel until conditions were more favorable for the Volunteers, the Rising leader’s decision to split their command in half was far more detrimental to their rebellion than anything else.

Easter Rising Monday

When the Rising began that Monday, only about half of the Irish Volunteers showed up in several key locations in Dublin and even fewer gathered in the countryside. Pearse and the others lead about 150 men down Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street) where they picked up stranglers and marched on the General Post Office (GPO). It was here they would establish their headquarters.

The General Post Office

The GPO was a formidable building and important location in Dublin, but there is some question as to whether it offered Pearse and Connolly the ability to effectively communicate with the other garrisons, especially when it was cut off from the southern half by the Castle and Trinity College.

Whatever its military significance, it became a politically powerful building. After they took the GPO, two Irish flags were hung-one was yellow, green, and orange/yellow and the other was green with a golden harp. Then Pearse read outloud the Irish Proclamation of the Republic to the newly ‘liberated’ people. This proclamation was signed by all seven leaders of the Rising-Pearse, Clarke, Ceannt, Mac Diarmada, MacDonagh, Connolly, and Plunkett-and it would later serve as their death warrant.

Whether because he read the proclamation or simply during the stress of the times, Pearse became the unofficial president and general of the Volunteers-although there were claims following the Rising that Clarke was the actual president. Additionally, the name Irish Republican Army (IRA) came out of this makeshift government. They wanted an official name for their army. It originally started as the Army of the Republic, which was changed to the IRA and became official and everlasting in the 1920s.

There was a sense of futility combined with military spirit in the GPO. While men like Pearse had always spoke of the need to wash Ireland in martyr’s blood, even practical men like Connolly seemed to believe that they were going to be slaughter. Yet, Pearse and the other leaders still struggled to develop a military command structure and government while also taking the city. As Pearse became the center of the Rising, Connolly took command of the military forces, sending out orders that his secretary, Winifred Carney, wrote on her typewriter.

While this was happening, the battalions that showed up, quickly dispersed to vital positions throughout the city.

To the east of the GPO, was the Four Courts-the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Court, and the Dublin District Court. This was taken by the 1st battalion commanded by Edward Daly.

Edward Daly

Daly was the youngest man to serve as commandant and was Tom Clarke’s brother-in-law. Daly sent a small company under the command of Sean Heuston to take the Mendicity Institution (one of Ireland’s oldest charities). Heuston’s original orders (when GPO expected an immediate response from the British Army) were to hold the position for a few hours to give GPO time to get organized. Heuston would hold on for three days.

Southeast of the Four Courts was the South Dublin Union. This was taken by the Fourth battalion led by Eamon Ceannt, one of the seven signers of the proclamation and planners of the rising.

West of the South Dublin Union was Jacob’s biscuit factory. This was taken by the second battalion commanded by Thomas MacDonaugh, another signer of the proclamation.

West of the biscuit factory was St. Stephen’s Green, a large park. This was taken by Connolly’s Citizen Army commanded by Michael Mallin.

Michael Mallin

Mallin was Connolly’s second in command co-founder of the Socialist Party of Ireland. Constance Markievicz, a fascinating and colorful member of the Volunteers, Citizen Army, and, later, IRA, was his third in command. They tried to take Shelbourne Hotel on the north-east side of the park, but didn’t have the sufficient manpower. The British would position troops in the hotel by Monday night.

Northeast of St. Stephen’s Green was Boland’s Mill. This was taken by the Third battalion, commanded by Eamon de Valera. De Valera was a mathematics professor and had joined the Irish Volunteers out of a sense of nationalism, but only reluctantly became an IRB member. He would later distance himself from the IRB, professing a disdain for secret societies.

While the rebels certainly took a large part of the city, Dublin was surrounded by five police barracks. To the northeast there were the Royal and Marlborough barracks, to the southwest there was the Richard Barracks, to the very south was the Portobello barracks, and to the southeast was the Beggars Bush Barracks.

Additionally, the Castle, the center of British colonialism in Ireland was in the very center of Dublin, and the Volunteers didn’t take it. There was a futile attempt early Monday afternoon, but for reasons that are still unclear, it wasn’t successfully. The Volunteers also failed to take Trinity College and the telephone exchange in Crown alley, allowing the government to control communication and repair the lines that had been cut. Additionally, they failed to take Dublin’s two railways or Dublin Port and Kingstown. This would, later, enable the British to bring in army reinforcements.

There has been a lot of puzzlement over these failures, but it may have simply between due to the lack of manpower and the confusion caused by the counter-orders. There were mild gunfights throughout the day and the Volunteers waited nervously for Britain’s response. They expected it to be hard and fast, but this was furthest from the truth.

That Monday morning there were a total of 400 British soldiers on hand to respond to the rebellion. Historian Charles Townshend claims that there were 100 for each of the four barracks (Richmond, Marlborough, Royal, and Portobello). Despite knowing about the preparation for the Rising and the arms the Germans had sent, the British officials didn’t expect anything to happen that day.

The small force that engaged the rebels during Monday afternoon, were unable to displace the Volunteers. This was a short-lived victory for the rebels however, as by Monday night General Lowe had taken command along with an additional 150 troops from Belfast, and a colonel brought up the artillery from Athlone. He could expect more reinforcements from England the next day. Lowe’s plan was to establish communication along the Kingsbridge-North Wall-Trinity College line, cutting the city in half, and isolating the rebel forces from each other.

Martial law was declared, leaving Dublin’s fate in the military’s hands.

Tuesday, 25 April

By Tuesday morning, historian Charles Townshend estimates that the British military strength was up to 3000 men and Lowe estimated the rebels to be about 2000 strong, but he knew little else. He feared that the rebellion could spread to the countryside and so he requested additional reinforcements.

Despite not knowing the exact situation, Lowe’s men were able to achieve a few victories. By the end of Tuesday, they had dislodged Mallin’s men from St. Stephen’s Green and into the Royal College of Surgeons. A unit attempted to repair a section of the damaged railroad at Amiens Street but were attacked by the rebels positioned along Annesley Bridge. They fought for two hours before the British were forced to retreat.

That night, the British were able to position the four 18 pounder field guns and the guns on the HMS Helga. The British would use the artillery to great effect on Wednesday, focusing their fire on Liberty Hall, O’Connell Street, and Boland’s Mill. Connolly had once said that Britain would never fire artillery at Dublin because it was a modernized capitalistic city. One wonders what Connolly’s thoughts were during the intense bombardment.

Francis Sheehy-Skeffington

Tuesday was a day of small engagements while General Lowe assessed the situation, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a day of tragedy. The shock of the rebellion shattered the complacency that had taken over the Irish government. With a crisis on their hands, the military responded swiftly and harshly. An example of the kind of repression the military would use during the rest of was week was the arrest of a pacifist, feminist (he had adopted his wife’s name) and prominent Irish social figure-Francis Sheehy-Skeffington.

Francis Sheehy-Skeffington

Sheehy-Skeffington was vehemently against the militarism that had taken over the Irish Volunteers and was out Tuesday trying to discourage looters. He was arrested by British Lieutenant Morris and taken to Portobello Barracks. Later that night Captain J.C. Bowen Colthurst wanted to go lead a raiding party up to Harcourt Rd. (south of St. Stephen’s Green) and he took Sheehy-Skeffington as a ‘hostage’. On the way there, he killed a young man named Coade before ransacking a house owned by the alderman Tom Kelly. He arrested two men, Thomas Dickson and Patrick McIntyre, and took them back to the barracks. He reviewed the papers he found at the alderman’s house and the papers on Sheehy-Skeffington. Wednesday morning, he took the three men out to the yard and shot them, claiming they were dangerous men and he shot them to prevent the men from escaping.

The commander of Portobello Barracks, Francis Vane, was not there during the shooting. When he found out, he demanded Colthurst’s arrest. Instead, the bodies were buried in the yard, Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington was not told about her husband’s death, and Colthurst broke into her house to find evidence that Francis Sheehy-Skeffington had helped planned the revolution. Hanna eventually found out what happened to her husband. Vane pressed to prosecute Colthurst and Vane lost his command while Colthurst kept his rank.

Colthurst was finally arrested May 9th and would later be court-martialed and convicted of insanity. He was sentenced to Broadmoor Hospital, but was released in 1918 and resettled in Canada. Vane was dishonorably discharged from the army and went on to become involved with the Boy Scouts.

Wednesday, 26 April

During Wednesday, the British tightened their grip on the city. Using their artillery to bombard positions such as O’Connell Street and Boland’s Mill, Lowe sent his new reinforcements from England into the city to further cut the rebels off from each other.

One unit was sent to attack Heuston’s position at Mendicity Institute. With only 26 Volunteers against hundreds of British soldiers, Heuston held until the British were so close, they could throw grenades into the building. His troops were the first rebels to surrender.

The Sherwood Foresters, a unit that had arrived from Britain, were sent down Grand Canal Street, near Beggar’s Bush Barracks. They were held up where Grand Canal meets Mount Street by heavy rebel fire. The Volunteers had fortified various positions along the street, meaning that the Foresters were caught in their cross-fire as they repeatedly tried to take this position. After five hours of fighting and losing 240 men wounded and killed, they defeated the rebels and took the position, but many historians have wondered why they didn’t try another path into Dublin.

Thursday 27th, and Friday 28th April

Thursday and Friday were some of the bloodiest days during the Rising. One of the greatest battles in the countryside, the Battle of Ashbourne, in which the Fingal Battalion defeated a RIC detachment took place on Friday. Within Dublin, the famous battle for the South Dublin Union occurred on Thursday and the battle for the Four Courts waged during Thursday and Friday. Friday also saw the arrival of Commander-in-chief General Sir John Maxwell, who, perhaps, did more to ensure the spiritual and political success of the Rising than anyone else.

South Dublin Union

Cathal Brugha

Eamon Ceannt and his Vice-Commandant Cathal Brugha led the men at South Dublin Union. After a furious fight on Monday, their front had been mysteriously silent. On Thursday morning, reinforcements from Kingstown port arrived and attacked. The fighting here was vicious and Brugha, who insisted on fighting in the front line, was wounded twenty-five times and had to be sent to the medical staff on Friday. Still, they held throughout the week and even thought they had destroyed the entire British force that had attacked them.

Four Courts

The most famous fight of the Rising occurred in the Four Courts. This position was vital for the rebels as it protected headquarters and was near the center of town. The Volunteers were commanded by Edward Daly. On Wednesday, he sent troops out to take Linenhall Barracks, but didn’t have the men, so they set it on fire. The fire raged for most of the night. Meanwhile the British had taken Capel street, which meant Daly was now cut off from the GPO.

The British attacked Thursday morning. Men in armed trucks rolled down Bolton street and attempted to throw a cordon on King Street. However, the rebels had heavily fortified King street, and every inch was fiercely fought over. Eventually, the British had to drill through the inside walls and travel from house to house, wounding and killing many civilians. Daly had to pull his men back to the Four Court proper on Friday night. They were exhausted, but had fought long and hard.

General John Maxwell

General John Maxwell arrive in Ireland from London on Friday. His arrival signaled that London was no longer going to be nice and understanding with their “difficult Irish citizens”. He was a traditional army man, had served in Sudan, the Boer War, and the First World War. He was to be the formal commander-in-chief for Ireland, eclipsing the civil government that had been put in place, and he, more than anyway, helped create the rebel’s legacies. His first major contribution was to refuse any negotiations short of unconditional surrender. This was to have an important effect on the now tired, starving, and rattled rebels.

The artillery barrage had kept up since Wednesday and, despite their leader’s optimism, many commanders were beginning to doubt if they could last much longer. Then the fires started. It seemed that a shell had started a fire on Sackville Street, setting it ablaze. It spread around the GPO until the men inside could feel the heat through the walls. Then an oil works on Abbey Street caught fire. Friday morning, the women were sent out of the GPO. The building was hit by shells and it caught fire around 3 pm. Things were growing desperate. Connolly, who had spent all week checking posts and men, had been wounded in his left arm and leg on Thursday and had to be carried out on a stretcher. Fire had reached the GPO roof and many of the Volunteers had been cut off from HQ, left to defend themselves in their ever-shrinking fortified positions. An Irish Volunteer, O’Rahilly, who had passed out MacNeill’s counter-order, led a bayonet charge against the British troops and was mortally wounded.

Pearse decided to surrender.

Easter Rising Executions

The order was sent to all the units in Dublin and the few who had risen in the countryside, like the Fingal, Wexford, and Galway Battalions. Most of the troops did as they were told, and they were put in temporary holding cells until the British government could figure out what to do with them.

The British government’s goal was to squash all rebellion within Ireland, thus Maxwell ordered that all Sinn Feiners be arrested. Given the number of people arrested and the severity of the crisis, it was decided that the rebels would be tried by military court. It was decided that the men would be executed, but they could not handle the disgrace of executing the women.

The first three leaders to be executed were Patrick Pearse, Tom Clarke, and Thomas MacDonaugh. They were taken out of Richmond Barracks to Kilmainham gaol and shot on May 3rd.

Edward Daly, Willie Pearse (Patricks’ younger brother), Joseph Plunkett (who was allowed to marry his fiancée the night before), and Michael O’Hanrahan were executed on the 4th.

John MacBride was executed on the 5th.

Eamon Ceannt, Sean Heuston, Con Colbert, and Michael Mallin were executed on the 8th and Thomas Kent on the 9th.

Sean MacDermott and James Connolly were executed on the 13th. Connolly, still recovering from his wounds, was tied to a chair so the soldiers could shoot him.

The government in London had become alarmed with the executions by the 4th, but allowed them to carry on until it became clear that public opinion was decidedly against them. John Redmond pleaded for clemency and the Irish public, who had been detached from the rebels at best, were beginning to praise them. It seems that the fact the Rising lasted for so long combined with the civilians who had been murdered (like Sheehy-Skeffington) and swiftness of the executions turned the public against the British forces and towards the rebels.

Given this startling development, the British government decided to intern the remaining rebbels at various prisons and internment camps in England and Wales such as Frongoch, the “University of Revolution’.

The last Irish Volunteer to be executed was Roger Casement. He was tried for treason and was hanged on August 3rd.

Legacy

“That the authorities allowed a body of lawless and riotous men to be drilled and armed and to provide themselves with an arsenal of weapons and explosives was one of the most amazing things that could happen in any civilized country outside of Mexico.”-William Martin Murphy, statement to Royal Commission 1916

It is true that the Irish Volunteers lasted longer than anyone expected (maybe even longer then their own leaders expected), yet that alone cannot count as a victory. Despite their best efforts, the plans for the Rising were muddled and the secret nature of their work only hurt their cause. It tore their movement in two, creating a political vacuum that allowed the IRB to take control, but also created a legacy of distrust. There would always be those members who suspected the IRB and this suspicion that would continue into the Irish War of Independence and contribute to the Irish Civil War and the aftermath of the 1924 Army Mutiny.

Once the Rising started, the battalions quickly became isolated commands of their own, their connection to the GPO and the leadership fragile. There were several brave stands during the Rising, such as Heuston’s stand at the Medicity Institute, Ceannt’s stand at the Four Courts, and the Battle of Ashbourne in the countryside and no one can deny the courage or dedication of the men who rebelled.

However, it is also hard to deny the tragedy of the entire affair. It has been estimated that a total of 485 people had been killed and 2,600 had been wounded during the rebellion. Ireland lost many important men and women such as Francis Sheehy-keffington, Michael Joseph O’Rahilly (the O’Rahilly) and promising leaders such as Sean Heuston and Edward Daly. Dublin city had been bombarded, burnt, and filled with lead and the Rising pushed the English to establish a military governor, John Maxwell.

So, it was a disaster?

It may have been nothing more than another failed uprising had it not been for the brutal murder of men like Sheehy-Skeffington and the executions. One cannot completely fault John Maxwell. Governments and military men often fall into the trap of believing that a rebellion cannot survive without its leadership. The British never expected the survivors to pick up the torch light by the signers of the Irish Proclamation.

De Valera was scheduled to be executed, but was spared because of the change in public opinion. Michael Collins had originally been marked for harsher punishment (such as execution) but was saved because he thought he heard someone call his name and moved to the group marked for lighter punishment in an attempt to identify the voice. Once he joined that group, he just stayed there. These two men would be instrumental in shaping the Irish War of Independence and modern Ireland.

Additionally, men and women like Cathal Brugha, Richard Mulcahy, W. T. Cosgrave, Arthur Griffith, Constance Markievicz, Harry Boland, and many more all participated in Easter Rising, many were interned in prisons like Frongloch internment camp, and would later become vital to the IRA in one capacity or another.

Easter Rising provided these future leaders of Ireland a glimpse into what worked and what didn’t. Michael Collins, himself, was disgusted with the loss of life and Richard Mulcahy, the IRA’s future chief of staff, experienced guerrilla warfare for the first time during the Battle of Ashbourne. De Valera’s experience in Dartmoor prison gave him the reputation and confidence he needed to become President of the Dail. It also created a moment of everlasting brotherhood that created the esprit de corps needed to survive the Irish War of Independence War and the very same brotherhood that would tear Ireland apart during the civil war.

The legacy of Easter Rising will always be tangled with the legacy of the Irish War of Independence and the Civil War. Was it any different from other Irish rebellions? In some ways, yes, in some ways, no. Was Pearse right? Did Ireland need a bloody sacrifice to be free? It is hard to agree with Pearse when Ireland had made many such bloody sacrifices during its long history and would make many more from 1919 up to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. Can the full impact of Easter Rising be understood outside the context of the First World War and the technological advance that had been made in everyday life and in military affairs? Probably not.

The hardest part about assessing the Rising’s legacy is because of its larger than life narrative. The Rising was immortalized shortly after it was over by poets such as Yeats and, since many members of the IRA fought in the Rising, they added to this immortalization as they won independence and struggled to create a state. There was some reassessment in the 60s and 70s, but, as the 100 year anniversary revealed, Ireland still struggles to properly categorize and understand the Rising.

Despite the changing narrative surrounding the Rising, there is one thing that cannot be denied. The sacrifice of the men and women who fought will continue to challenge and inspire us as we worked to undo the damage caused by colonialism and small nations continue to fight to be free.

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References:

Foster, R. F. Modern Ireland 1600–1972

Townshend, Charles. Easter Rising: the Irish Rebellion

Townshend, Charles. the Republic

Foster R.F. Vivid Faces

Coogan, Tim Pat. Michael Collins: the Man Who Made Ireland

Coogan, Tim Pat. Eamon de Valera: the Man Who was Ireland

Fanning, Ronan. Eamon de Valera: a Will to Power

Valiulis, Maryann Gialanella. Portrait of a Revolutionary: General Richard Mulcahy and the Irish Free State

Images-Wikicommons

Bulmer Hobson-https:// commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bulmer_Hobson.jpg

Eoin MacNeill: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eoin_MacNeill.jpg

GPO Easter Rising 1916-By RossGannon1995 [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D, from Wikimedia Commons

Edward Daly-Public Domain

Michael Mallin-By National Library of Ireland on The Commons [No restrictions, Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Francis Shehy Skeffington: By photographer not identified [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Cathal Brugha: See page for author [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Leading Up to the Irish War of Independence

Ireland has always been a place of debate, uprisings, and desire for change, but in the early 1900s there were three movements that paved the way for the Irish War of Independence: the Suffragette Movement of 1912, the Gaelic Revival, the 1913 Lockout, the Home Rule Campaign and Easter Rising. I’ve discussed all four movements in great detail in the first season, but in summary, the Suffragette Movement, the Gaelic Revival, and the 1913 Lockout created an environment of mass organizing and brought together many activists and future revolutionaries. The Home Rule Campaign, combined with WWI, created the conditions for a violent uprising.

Charles Parnell

[Image description: A black and white photo of a white man with a high forehead and a thick, round beard. He is wearing a white button down and black tie and a grey double breast jacket.]

British Prime Minister Gladstone introduced the concept of Home Rule in 1880, with support from one of Ireland’s most famous statesmen: Charles Parnell. The entire purpose of Home Rule was to grant Ireland its own Parliament with seats available to both the Catholic majority and the Protestant minority and current power brokers). However, Parnell destroyed support for Home Rule by being involved in a messy and scandalous divorce and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), the precursor to the Irish Republican Army (IRA), scared the British government with their terrorist attacks. Home Role went through another failed iteration, but John Redmond was confident he would get the third iteration passed. This newest iteration was introduced to Parliament in 1914 and have created a bicameral Irish Parliament in Dublin, abolished Dublin Castle (the center of British power in Ireland), and continued to allow a portion of Irish MPs to sit in Parliament. It was supported by many nationalists in Ireland, barely tolerated by the Asquith Administration, and despised by the Unionists.

The Unionists believed they had a reason to worry. They had not forgotten the Protestants slaughtered during the 1798 Uprising nor the power they lost through the machinations of O’Connell and Parnell. Facing a massive change in their lives should Home Rule pass, the Unionists took a page out of the physical force book and created their own paramilitary organization: the Ulster Volunteers. The Asquith government knew of the Ulster Volunteers, their gun smuggling, and their drilling, but did nothing except delay Home Rule as long as possible.

Asquith’s delaying tactics and the creation of the Ulster Volunteers made Irish Nationalists nervous and they took matters into their own hand. Arthur Griffith, an Irish writer, politician, and the source of inspiration for many young rebels created the political party, Sinn Fein. Griffith argued for a dual monarchy approach, similar to the Austrian-Hungary model. He believed Ireland and England should be separate nations, united under a single monarchy. He also introduced the concept of parliamentary absenteeism i.e., Sinn Fein was a political party that would never sit in British Parliament, because the parliament was illegitimate.

Eoin MacNeill

[Image description: A black and white picture of a tall man in a courtyard. He has a high forehead, wire frame glasses, and a shortly trimmed beard. He is standing with his hands behind his back holding a hat. He is wearing a white button down, a tie, a vest, and a suit jacket and grey pants.]

In response to the Ulster Volunteers, Eoin McNeill and Bulmer Hobson created the Irish Volunteers. Both men believed that the Irish wouldn’t stand a chance in an uprising against the British government and their best bet was to trust Redmond to pass Home Rule. The Irish Volunteers were created in order to defend their community from Unionist attacks. Things were tense in Ireland, but it seemed that parliamentary politics could save the day and the extremists would be pushed to the sidelines.

Then World War I began.

The British used the war to pass Home Rule but delay it taking affect for another three years. To add insult to injury, John Redmond encouraged young Irishmen to enlist in the British Army and fight for the Empire. McNeill and Hobson tried to convince its members to continue to trust Redmond, although they were angry that he was recruiting for the war. Yet, there was a handful of Irish Volunteers, who were also members of the resurrected IRB believed England’s difficulty, Irish opportunity.

They were Tom Clarke, Sean MacDiarmada, Padraig Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, Eamonn Ceannt, and Joseph Plunkett. These men, plus James Connolly of the Irish Citizen Army, would sign the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and it would serve as their death warrant.

They knew they would not be able to win without arms and support, so, keeping their plans to themselves, they sent Roger Casement to Germany to present their plans for a German invasion that would coincide with an Irish rising. The Germans rejected this plan (maybe remembering what happened in 1798, when the French made a similar landing, weeks after a massive Irish uprising), but promised to send arms.

The Irish Volunteers were often seen drilling and practicing for some vague rebellion, so it wasn’t suspicious to the authorities or to MacNeil and Hobson to see units marching around. When Pearse issued orders for parade practice on April 23rd, Easter Sunday, MacNeil and Hobson took it at face value while those in the know, knew what it really meant. This surreal arrangement would not last for long and the committee’s secrecy nearly destroyed the very rising it was trying to inspire.

The first bit of trouble was Roger Casement’s arrest. The Germans were less than supportive of the uprising, and Casement boarded the ship Aud to return to Ireland to either stop or postpone the rising. However, when he arrived in Ireland on either April 21st or 22nd, he was pick up by British police and placed in jail.

Pearse Surrenders

[Image description: A faded black and white photo of three men standing on a street in Dublin. There are two man on the left and they are wearing the khaki cap and uniform of the British army. On the right is a man wearing a wide brim hat and a long black jacket]

Then MacNeil and Hobson had their worst suspicions confirmed-Pearse and his comrades were secretly planning a rebellion without their support. MacNeill vowed to do everything (except going to the authorities) to prevent the Rising and sent out a counter-order, canceling the drills scheduled for Sunday. This counter-order took an already confused situation and turned it into a bewildering disaster. Units formed as ordered by Pearse and dispersed with great puzzlement and some anger and frustration. Pearse and his comrades met to discuss their next steps and decided the die had been cast. There was no other choice except to try again tomorrow, Monday, 24th, April 1916.

Easter Rising was concentrated in Dublin with a few units causing trouble on the city’s outskirts. The Irish rebels fought from Monday to Friday, surrendering Friday morning. The leaders of the rising were murdered, but many future IRA leaders such as Eamon DeValera, Michael Collins, Richard Mulcahy, Constance Markievicz, Liam Lynch, and others survived. They were sent to several different prisons, the most famous being Frongoch where Collins was held. The IRB turned it into a revolutionary academy and practiced their organizing and resistance skills while formalizing connections and relationships. When they were released starting in December 1916, they were ready to take those skills back to Ireland.

Creation of the IRA and the Dail

Their approach was two pronged: winning elections and rebuilding the Irish Volunteers/ Irish Republican Brotherhood.

When the prisoners were released, the Irish population went from hating them for launching a useless rebellion to cheering their return. The English helped flame the revolutionary spirit in Ireland by proclaiming Easter Rising a “Sinn Fein” rebellion and arresting many Sinn Fein members who had nothing to do with the Rising. This made it clear Sinn Fein was the revolutionary party while John Redmond’s party was out of touch.

Eamon de Valera

[Image description: A black and white photo of a white man with a sharp nose and large, circular glasses. He has black hair and is wearing a white button down shirt, a polka dotted tie, and a grey suit.]

Sinn Fein ran several candidates such as Eamon DeValera, Michael Collins, and Thomas Ashe. Ashe would be arrested while campaigning and charged with sedition. While in jail, he went on hunger strike and was killed during a force feeding. Following an Irish tradition, Sinn Fein and the IRB turned Ashe’s funeral into a political lightning rod. They organized the funeral procession, the three-volley salute, and Collins spoke over Ashe’s grave: “There will be no oration. Nothing remains to be said, for the volley which has been fired is the only speech it is proper to make above the grave of a dead Fenian.”

On October 26th, 1917, Sinn Fein would hold their first national convention. During the convention, Eamon DeValera replaced Arthur Griffith as president and Sinn Fein dedicated itself to Irish independence with the promise that after independence was achieved the Irish people could elect its own form of government. However, there was still tension between those who believed in passive non-violence and the militant Sixteeners. 1917-1918 was spent building a bridge between parliamentary politics and militant politics of the 1920s, with Sinn Fein’s large young membership pushing it in a more militant direction.

Constance Markievicz

[Image description: A sepia tone photo of a white woman looking to her right. She is leaning against a stool and holds a revolver. She wears a wide brim hat with black feathers and flowers. She has short hair. She is wear a military button down short and suspenders.]

Sinn Fein was also breaking social conventions, even though Cumann na mBan was still an auxiliary unit, Sinn Fein would allow four ladies on the Sinn Fein Executive and would run two women in the 1918 election-Constance Markievicz and Winifred Carney, with Markievicz becoming the first women to win a seat in parliament. Many of its supporters and campaigners were also women. In fact, many men would complain in 1917 and later that the women were more radical than the men. Cumann na mBan fully embraced the 1916 Proclamation and even had Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington deliver a message to President Wilson in 1918, asking him to recognize the Irish Republic. Cumann na mBan took the front line in the anti-recruitment campaign and the police boycott and the anti-conscription movement. Like the Volunteers, Cumann na mBan believed they were a military unit, although they never got arms for themselves and worked closely with Volunteer units and Sinn Fein clubs.

Irish Volunteers and IRB

While Sinn Fein was slowly rebuilding itself, the Irish Volunteers were also being resurrected from the ashes. It started with local initiatives led by men like Ernest Blythe, Eoin O’Duffy, and Sean Treacy. Units popped up in local communities, organized and armed by their local leaders and eventually contacting GHQ which consisted of men like Collins, Mulcahy, and Brugha. While local units were rebuilding themselves, Collins was using the IRB to form a strict corps of officers, a growing source of personal power as well as military power that men like Brugha and De Valera (who were IRB during Easter Rising, but renounced their membership after the rising failed) distrusted.

GHQ issued an order saying that units should only listen to orders coming from their own executive (in order to prevent the order-counter-order disaster that doomed Easter Rising) and swore the Volunteers would only be ordered into the field if commanders were confident of victory. No forlorn battles. Mulcahy, as Chief of Staff, worked hard to instill a military spirit and discipline into the Volunteers while understanding that their most effective unit at the moment was the company and local initiative. (The companies would expand into battalions and brigades as the war progressed, but the fighting and tactics would remain local and territorial) So, while trying to act like a regular army and expecting the Volunteers to respect their officers and GHQ, he also had to allow for local improvisation as well as trust the local executives to have control over their soldiers. It was a difficult balancing act he would struggle to maintain during the entire Anglo-Irish War and into the Irish Civil War and the formation of the Free Irish State.

The Irish Volunteers convention on October 26th, 1917, elected DeValera as president, Brugha as the chairman of the executive with Collins as director of organization and Mulcahy as director of training, Liam Lynch as Director of Communications, Staines, Director of Supply and Treasurer, O’Connor director of engineering.

All of this work could have been for nothing if the British hadn’t handed the IRA the greatest gift in the world: the 1918 conscription crisis.

Lightning Rod Issues

Food Shortage 1917-1918

Before conscription was the food shortages in the winter of 1917-1918. The shortage was created because of food being exported to Britain, invoking memories of the terrible famine. Sinn Fein could not stop all of the food being exported, but they did what they could to protest this newest version of starvation. For example, a member of Sinn Fein, Diarmund Lynch took thirty pigs meant to for exportation, killed them, and shared the food with hard hit families, earning him deportation to America, but becoming a local folk hero and increasing Sinn Fein’s prestige.

There were also agrarian tensions because grazers (those who used farmland for their cows to graze instead of growing crops) were given preference to available land so the Congested Districts Board could maximize profits. While this makes sense, it added to the great unease in the land, especially as the food shortage grew more acute.

The IPP grew out of the Land Wars of 1880s and Sinn Fein, ever aware of Irish history, decided it would be no different. It joined in the fight for land, arguing that all the ranch land should be broken up evenly. All over the country, Sinn Fein created commission to break up the land and figure out the pricing as well as organizing mass occupation of available land, but ranchers refused to acknowledge the prices Sinn Fein proposed.

1917 Electoral Victory March

[Image description: A black and white photo of several men and women marching together through a park with several tall green trees and a cobblestone wall. Leading the crowd are three men in long coats and wide brim hats playing bagpipes. Everyone else is wearing long coats, suit coats, or dresses and hats.]

The Irish Volunteers officially stayed out of the new land war, claiming it wasn’t military or political in nature, but local groups sometimes participated. This combined with Sinn Fein’s own land seizures could lead to painful confrontations with police and other anger Irish men, so it was a difficult job balancing non-violent and not starting a mass uprising.

Another tool Sinn Fein used was boycotting. Said to original in Ireland during the Land Wars and used to great affect by Charles Parnell, Sinn Fein boycotted the RIC. This was a serious threat to the British system, decreasing the pool of candidates it could recruit from for the RIC and training the people to view the RIC as “others,” the first step to making a population comfort with violent action.

Boycotting the RIC was an old idea, something Sinn Fein and the Irish Volunteers wanted to implement it as soon as they were released from prison. This became a strong tool of the Volunteers to ostracize those who were betraying the rebel cause by working for the British as well as prepare the citizens for a war mentality.

Conscription crisis

No one yet knew that World War I would be over by November 11th, 1918. British thought she was facing long years of further bitter sacrifices and they needed new blood. They looked at Ireland and its large set of unruly young men itching for a fight and introduced the Military Service bill, extending forced conscription to Ireland-giving the Volunteers a shot in the arm while also uniting the Irish political parties, for the first time ever.

The Sinn Fein, IPP, and the Catholic Church pledged to resist Britain’s efforts to conscript Irishmen. DeValera prepared a statement, meant for Woodrow Wilson, insisting that their resistance was a battle for self-determination and principles of civil liberty, similar to the American’s cause during America’s revolution. The Volunteers planned local actions as well, using the conscription crisis as a springboard for intensive recruiting and introducing the idea of militant resistance into the greater Irish consciousness. The boycott of the RIC increased tenfold during the anti-conscription movement, shocking the police and trapping them in their barracks in locations such as North Tipperary. Women were particularly effective implementers of the boycott. Eventually the boycott was expanded to include those who helped or associated with the police. The boycott didn’t force many police to resign, but it built a belligerent and hateful mindset against the police-allowing for later violence.

Anti-conscription Rally in Ballaghaderreen County

[Image description: A blur black and white photo of a large gathering of people. They are surrounding a wooden platform where as group of men stand. Above the platform there is a white banner that says: No conscription Stand United]

The Irish Volunteers were not as engaged with the conscription crisis as Sinn Fein, because they still didn’t have a doctrinal strategy in place. Instead, volunteers were told to avoid getting arrested and if the RIC tried to arrest them, to resist. The Volunteers held daily drills and parades and prepared for battle, should the order ever arrive. However, GHQ seemed more concerned with getting rifles and ammunition than ordering a massive uprising. Conscription allowed them to demand that the local area their units controlled give up their guns to the Irish Volunteers. Some Volunteers even bought rifles off RIC or local British soldiers. Lack of guns would be a problem that plagued the IRA through their war with the British. Conscription also saw a spike in people joining the Irish Volunteers. GHQ tried to manage this wave of volunteers by issuing orders regarding how men should be recruits and how they should be vouched for and accepted.

The Irish Volunteers allowed their own soldiers to elect their officers (how could this go wrong?) GHQ seemed to try and curb who could be elected like requiring that they be member of the IRB, but given the haphazard nature these units were created, but it was only somewhat successful, some units merging the Volunteers and IRB men seamlessly, while other companies were dominated by non-IRB men or vice versa.

They threatened mass slaughter should Britain try to enforce conscription and, apparently, there was a plan for Cathal Brugha to lead a group of men to assassin the British cabinet (relying on Collins and Mulcahy-who was now chief of staff-to recruit for this venture).

German Plot

The British back down on conscription in mid-May while also arresting 73 nationalist leaders from May 17-18 under the Defense of the Realm Act, including Eamon DeValera, Constance Markievicz, Arthur Griffith, and William Cosgrave. They claimed there was a German plot i.e., Sinn Fein was working with Germany-like the 1916 rebels did and the 1798 rebels with the French.

It quickly became clear how flimsy the excuse was, that there was scant information, and undermined the government’s credibility in Ireland. It successfully knocked Sinn Fein off its feet for a moment, especially since all nine of the twenty-one members of Sinn Fein’s Standing Committee were arrested, but the British failed to arrest some of the most dangerous rebels such as Collins, Brugha, Mulcahy, and Harry Boland. But in the long run, it boosted Sinn Fein’s cause and destroyed any chance IPP had of reclaiming the national narrative. As Constance Markievicz claimed, "sending you to jail is like pulling out all the loud stops on all the speeches you ever made…our arrests carry so much further than speeches.”

1918 Election

Sinn Fein had won a total of five elections between 1917 and 1918 (De Valera, Count Plunkett, Cosgrave, Patrick MacCartan, and Griffith) and lost two elections. 1918 was their first general election. The election was held on December 14th, 1918, and is considered one of the most important moments in modern Ireland’s history. It was the first election after the end of the First World War and, because of the Representation of the People Act, women over the age of 30 and working-class men over the age of 21 could vote, tripling the Irish electorate from 700,000 in 1910 to 1.93 million in 1918.

The IPP won only 6 seats, the Unionists took 26 seats, and Sinn Fein won 73 seats.

The Sinn Fein victory can be explained in three different ways:

The new electoral: women and working-class men: people who had been hardest hit by the war and the rising and the conscription crisis, as well as the good shortage in 1917.Not only was Sinn Fein and Irish Volunteers campaigning, but Cumann na mBan campaigned hard as well, possible driving people into the arms of Sinn Fein since Sinn Fein stood for a republic which was against everything as it currently was. iSinn Fein’s rivals: the IPP and Labour had been broken by WWI and needed to rebuild themselves and their reputations if they wanted to compete.

The clergy was on Sinn Fein’s side because of conscription. DeValera also went a long way to argue that anti-conscription was not anti-soldiers nor were they ignoring the sacrifice of the Irishmen who had fought in the war so far. But the crime was that Britain sacrificed the best Ireland had for a colonial war.

Curated candidates. Sinn Fein ran those it was confident would win and in seats that would not weaken its own position or risk schism with the Labor movement. Also, there was some election rigging and voter intimidation.

Instead of sitting in parliament, the Sinn Fein candidates would sit in a new parliament: the first Dail of Eireann.

The Dail

The First Dail was formed on January 21st, 1919. It held its first meeting in the Round Room of the Mansion house of Dublin and created a Declaration of Independence and the Dail Constitution. Only 27 minsters appeared because 34 were in jail or on secret missions. Sinn Fein invited the IPP and Unionists to participate but they refused. The declaration of independence ratified the Proclamation of the Republic of Easter Rising and outlined a socialist platform, but it was more of a propaganda message because there was only so much the Dail could realistically achieve while battling England.

Members of the First Dail

[Image description: A black and white photo of three rows of men. The first row of men are sitting down on chairs, the second and third rows of men are standing. Most men are wearing black suits with white button down shirts and ties. Others are wearing tan or grey jackets. Some men had beards and mustaches, but most are clean shaven. Behind the men is a metal staircase and a white building.]

The constitution was a provisional document and created a ministry of the Dail Eireann. The ministry consisted of a President and five secretaries. First ministers of the Dail were:

Chairperson of the Dail: Cathal Brugha (because DeValera was in jail and Collins and Harry Boland were planning how to break him out)

Minister for Finance: Eoin MacNeill

Minister for Home Affairs: Michael Collins

Minister for Foreign Affairs: Count Plunkett

Minister for National Defense: Richard Mulcahy

The Dail expanded the number of ministers in April. It now included nine ministers within the cabinet and four outside the cabinet as well as a mechanism to create substitute presidents and ministers in the realistic event someone was arrested or killed.

This second ministry members were:

President: DeValera

Secretary for Home Affairs: Arthur Griffith

Secretary for Defense: Cathal Brugha

Secretary for Foreign Affairs: Count Plunkett

Secretary for Labour: Constance Markievicz

Secretary for Industries: Eoin MacNeill

Secretary for Finance: Michael Collins

Secretary for Local Government: W. T. CosgraveAustin Stacks would become minster after his release from jail and then took over as secretary for home affairs after Griffith became deputy president.

Once the Dail was convened, the Irish Volunteers saw themselves as an army of an Irish Republic hence why they named themselves the Irish Republican Army. They were formally renamed the IRA on August 20th, 1919, and took an oath of allegiance to the republic and to serve as a standing army.

On June 18th, 1919, the Dail officially established the Dail courts which were meant to replace the British judiciary. They eventually created several series of courts including a parish-based arbitration courts, district courts, and a supreme court which the people trusted more than the British courts. On June 19th, the Dail approved the First Dail Loan to raise funds they couldn’t raise via taxes. Collins would also create a bond scheme which helped keep the Dail and the IRA financially afloat.

England declared the Dail illegal in September 1919, but it was too little too late to undermine Ireland’s shadow government. DeValera left Ireland to fundraise in the United States, leaving Griffith as his Deputy President. The conduct of the Dail fell to its ministers while the conduct of the war fell to Collins, Mulcahy, Brugha, and the field commanders.

BRIEF Summary of Guerrilla Warfare in Ireland

The IRA would be broken into General Headquarters (GHQ) and local commanders. GHQ was run by Chief of Staff Richard Mulcahy who answered to Cathal Brugha, the Minister of Defense. Mulcahy also worked closely with Michael Collins, Minister of Finance and Intelligence and this amorphous command structure created a lot of tension amongst the three men. While Mulcahy tried to install discipline and standardization from GHQ, he was only partially successful as conditions on the ground often trumped whatever master plan GHQ had cooked up.

Richard Mulcahy

[Image description: A sepia toned photo of a thin white man with a prominent nose. He is wearing the military cap and uniform of the Irish National Army.]

It's estimated that the IRA had 15,000 members but only 3,000 were active at one time. The members were broken into three groups: unreliable, reliable, and active. Unreliable meant they were members in name only, reliable meant they played a supporting role, and active meant they were full-time fighters. It’s believed at least 1/5 of the active members were assistants and clerks. Skilled workers dominated the recruitment while farmers and agricultural workers were a minority. About 88% percent of the IRA members were under thirty and a majority of them were Catholics. The most active units were in Dublin County and Munster County which includes the cities of Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford.

The local units were supposed to be organized along the lines of a battalion but it was up to the local commanders, who were originally elected by their men. Initially, GHQ tried to assign two to three brigades to a county, but it would take a while before those brigades solidified. For the first year, the IRA could only muster small units, which actually worked in their favor.

Local commanders adopted the “flying columns” method of attack and GHQ eventually gave it their blessing. Flying columns consisted of a permanent roster of soldiers who worked together in small groups in coordinated attacks. The flying columns performed two kinds of attacks: auxiliary and independent

In an auxiliary attack, the flying column was assigned to a battalion as extra support for a large local operation already taking place. In an independent attack, the flying column itself would strike the enemy and retreat. This type of attack included harassing small military camps and police stations, pillaging enemy stories, interrupting communications, and eventually ambushes. The flying columns would become an elite and coveted unit but its soldiers were always on the run and relied on local support to survive.

Michael Collins

[Image description: A black and white photo of a white man shouting to a large crowd. He is standing outside on a platform, in the middle of a city street. He has short hair and is clean shaven. He is wearing a white shirt and a black suit.]

The IRA would go through two different reorganizations. The first occurred in March 1921. It broke up the brigade structure into small columns, built from experienced men. The brigade staff existed to provide supplier of arms, ammunition, and equipment while battalions provided the men for the columns. During the same reorganization, GHQ broke Ireland up into four different war zones to encourage activity in quieter areas.

In late 1921, the IRA was organized a second time. This time, GHQ created divisions. Division commanders were responsible for large swaths of territory, similar to the war zones created earlier that year. The purpose of the divisional commanders was to increase the likelihood of brigade and battalion coordination, make the IRA feel like it was growing into a real army, but still allowed (and encouraged) independent command, and transplant some of the administrative burden from GHQ to the divisional commanders. This was especially important if something were to happen to GHQ.

You can listen to season 1 to learn about specific battles. For the purpose of this recap, all you really need to know is that the IRA went from singular ambushes lead by ambitious local commanders to coordinated ambushes, assassinations (the most famous being Bloody Sunday carried out by Collins’ personal assassins), prison riots, hunger strikes, and outright assaults on barracks in the rural areas of Ireland. In addition to these military developments, the Dail supported the war effort by retaining the people’s support and maintaining the functionality of the Dail Courts and the Dail Loans.

The British responded by implementing martial law, launching large scale searches and arrests, curfews, roadblocks, and interment on suspicion and by creating the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries. The Black and Tans arrived in Ireland on March 25th, 1920. They were meant to reinforce the RIC and recruited mostly British veterans. They were called black and tans because of their uniform (dark green which appeared black and khaki. They weren’t special forces, just normal reinforcements which may explain why they were known for their brutality and violence. The auxiliaries were founded in July 1920s as a paramilitary unit of the RICs. It consisted of British officers and were meant to serve as a mobile strike and raiding force. 2,300 men served during the war and they were deployed in the southern and western regions of Ireland – where fighting was the heaviest. They were absolute brutes, known for arson and cruelty.

The British wanted to subdue Ireland by the May 1921 election, so they sent over fifty-one battalions of infantry, however, confusion over the military’s role, the RIC’s role, an inability to coordinate amongst the army, RIC, Black and Tans, and Auxiliaries, and the implementation of martial law hurt British efforts.

The IRA were feeling the pressure. In early 1921, they suffered some of their most drastic defeats contributing to poor morale and disgruntlement with the Dail and GHQ. GHQ was losing control over local forces while also trying to maintain a guerrilla war on a shoestring budget. To make matters worse, DeValera returned from America in December 1920 and spent most of 1921 trying to reorganize the IRA and Dail according to his vision. His arrival exasperated already existing tensions amongst several ministers, including Collins, Mulcahy, and Brugha, and threatened to tear the IRA apart from the inside.

Cathal Brugha

[Image description: A sepia toned photo of a small and thin man in a military uniform and a white button down and stripped tie. He has short hair and is clean shaven. Behind him is a blank white wall.]

Despite all of this, by May 1921, the IRA had reached its peak and the crown forces suffered record losses. From the beginning of 1921 to July, the IRA killed 94 British soldiers and 223 police officers. This was nearly double the totals from the last six months of 1920. This was also when the IRA launched their most ambitious attacks such as their attack on the Shell factory which amounted to 88,000 pounds in damage and their assault on the Dublin Custom House destroying the inland revenue, stamp office, and stationery office records. In addition to these attacks, the IRA increased the number and sophistication of their attacks in what is now Northern Ireland. However, these attacks could be self-defeating as they only enraged the Ulster Volunteers and left the Catholic population at the mercy of angry Unionists. These attacks would convince the British that Ireland was already partitioned (even if Sinn Fein and the IRA refused to acknowledge the fact) and it was in their interest to protect Northern Ireland from IRA incursions. This meant another army and more money that could have been spent elsewhere.

It was clear that neither side could win this conflict through military efforts alone.

References:

The Republic: The Fight for Irish Independence by Charles Townshend, 2014, Penguin Group

Fatal Path: British Government and Irish Revolution 1910-1922by Ronan Fanning, 2013, Faber & Faber

Richard Mulcahy: From the Politics of War to the Politics of Peace, 1913-1924 by Padraig O Caoimh, 2018, Irish Academic Press

A Nation and Not a Rabble: the Irish Revolution 1913-1923by Diarmaid Ferriter, 2015, Profile Books