9,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: The O'Brien Press
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
A handbook to the events and locations of the Easter 1916 Rising. There are so many different versions of the story of Easter Week 1916. Lorcan Collins, an acknowledged expert on the subject and founder of the 1916 Rebellion Walking Tour, decided that it was time to put together a truthful and factually correct reference book in one handy volume. This '1916 bible' will be invaluable to anyone with an interest in recent Irish history who wants to separate the facts from the fiction. 1916: The Rising Handbook offers bite-sized details about the organisations involved in the Rising, the positions occupied during Easter week, the weapons the rebels and army used, the documents that were passed around, and the speeches that were given. It details the women who came out to fight and profiles the sixteen executed leaders, as well as looking at the rebellion outside of Dublin. It also utilises three different resources to give the most comprehensive list yet of all of those involved in the Rising. If a relative of yours fought during Easter 1916, you'll find their name in here.
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016
Ähnliche
DEDICATION
For my Mam and Dad, Treasa and Dermot.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to the love of my life, Trish Darcy, for carrying everything on her shoulders, including taking care of our loving children, Fionn and Lily May, who I thank for being very patient and understanding while I wrote and researched this book.
The following people are deserved of special gratitude: Nicola Reddy for her eagle-eyed editorial skills and constructive suggestions, which really shaped the book. Emma Byrne for her brilliant design work. Michael O’Brien, Ivan O’Brien, Ide Ní Laoghaire, the late Mary Webb and all at The O’Brien Press including Claire, Kunak, Helen, Susan, Erika, Bex, Jamie, Brenda, Sarah, Ruth, Fionnuala and Carol.
Joe Connell was particularly helpful and kind. Ray Bateson was always happy to share his knowledge. Dr Conor McNamara, whose kindness shall not be forgotten. Lar Joye in Collins Barracks, many thanks. Fr Joe Mallin in Hong Kong. Aidan Murphy from Met Éireann. Special thanks to Jonathan Rossney. Gerry Kavanagh, Colette O’Flaherty, Glenn Dunne, Berni Metcalfe and Keith Murphy at the National Library of Ireland. Jordan Goffin, Special Collections Librarian, Providence, Rhode Island. Hugh Beckett, Lisa Dolan, Commandant Victor Laing, Noelle Grothier, Captain Stephen MacEoin, Adrian Short and all at the Bureau of Military Archives. Dr John Gibney, Dr Shane Kenna, Joe Duffy, Rory O’Donnell, Dr Conor Kostick, Dr Brian Hughes, Dr Angus Mitchell, Derek Molyneux and Darren Kelly. Patrick Collins from the National Motor Museum Trust in England. Dr Ann Mathews, Liz Gillis, Dr Mary McAuliffe and Micheál Ó Doibhilín. Maeve O’Leary. The 16 Lives authors including Helen Litton, Brian Feeney, Mary Gallagher, Roisín Ní Ghairbhí, Meda Ryan, John O’Callaghan and my comrade and co-editor Dr Ruan O’Donnell. Donal Collins. Rachel Breen. Prof. Mary McCay, Prof. Andrew Hazucha, Prof. Shawn O’Hare, Prof. John Wells, Prof. Scott Hendrix. Enda Grennan at the Asgard. Stew Bradfield. For German translations Larissa Thome, Susanne Morgan and Elisabeth Thom. All at Kilmainham Gaol especially Aoife Torpey and Conor Masterson.
Malachaí Duddy. George McCullough and Mervyn Colville and all at Glasnevin Trust. Francis McGuigan. Ronnie Daly, Paul Callery, Rod Dennison, Jim Langton and all the Volunteers. Rita O’Hare. Gordon Kennedy. Patrick Finlay. Liam Cowley. Cecelia Hartsell. Honor O’Brolchain, Barry Lyons, Jim Connolly Heron, Matt Doyle, Terry Fagan, Padraig Yeates, Aengus Ó Snodaigh, Muriel McAuley, Kieran McMullen, Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc, Dave Kilmartin, Seán O’Mahony, Nora Comiskey, Padraig Beirne, Colette Palsgraaf and Henry Fairbrother. Richard Boyd Barrett. Malvina Walsh and the Laois 1916 Commemoration Committee. Cara and Con O’Neill. John Murphy. Brian Crowley at the Pearse Museum. Seán Quinlan of North Kerry Museum.
For all their constant encouragement, thanks to Mam, Dad, Orla Collins, Diarmuid Collins, Mark Childerson, Eibhlis Connaughton, Gerry Walsh, Rory Dunne, Colin Duffy, the Collins Clan. Carmel Darcy, Pat, Eoin, Barry and all the Darcy Clan. All the Farrell Clan. Aoife, Oisín, Ferdia, Roisín and Nora. Paul Quinlan, Fiona Fairbrother, Denise Keoghan, Liam Wynne, Ciara & Hank Gallagher, Gary Quinn, Davorka Naletilic, Frank Allen, Tom Stokes, Carol Murphy, Peter Reid. John Donoghue, James Donoghue, Alan Martin, Kenny Whelan, John Francis, Rock-on Tommy, Joey, Eugene, Shane, Matt and all the great people at the International Bar. Mannix Flynn. Pat Ingoldsby. The Kennedy sisters and all the Moore Street Traders. Dec Mills. Lar & Elaine. Anna McHugh and all the lads in the GPO including Alan Murphy, George Ellis, Anthony Snedker, Paul Lynch, Phil Freer, John Holland, Richie Hyland, Frank Robinson, Dave Holland, Dave M’Cormack, Michael Sheehan, Dave O’Rourke, Helen Flaherty, Michael Tracey, Joe Cogan, John Power, Jim Spillane and B. O’Connell. All at Fáilte Ireland on Suffolk Street, thanks for the constant support. Ciarán Murray, Sam McGrath, Donal Fallon and the Fallon Clan. Tony Nicoletti, Stew Reddin, Bas Ó Curraoin, Jack Gleeson and Conor Ó Mearáin.
Finally my aul’ pal Shane MacThomáis, who’d have loved going through this book looking for errors; gone but not forgotten.
CONTENTS
Section One: Timeline
1798, May to September Rebellion of United Irishmen against British rule in Ireland
1801, 1 January Two Acts of Union come into force. The Parliament is removed from Dublin and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland comes into existence
1803, 23 July Robert Emmet’s uprising in Dublin
1803, 20 September Emmet is hanged and then beheaded on Thomas Street
1823 Daniel O’Connell establishes the Catholic Association to campaign for Catholic emancipation
1829 Catholic emancipation is delivered with the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Act
1840 Repeal Association founded by O’Connell to repeal the Acts of Union
1843 O’Connell’s ‘Monster Meetings’ attended by hundreds of thousands
1845–52 The Great Hunger in Ireland. At least one million people die and an estimated one million emigrate
1848 Young Ireland uprising inspired by the Year of Revolutions. Leaders banished to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania)
1858, 17 March The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), also known as the Fenians, is formed with the express intention of overthrowing British rule in Ireland by whatever means necessary
1867, February & March Fenian uprising
1870, May Home Rule movement founded by Isaac Butt, who previously campaigned for amnesty for Fenian prisoners
1879–82 The Land War: agrarian agitation against English landlords
1884, 1 November The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) is founded. Immediately infiltrated by the IRB
1886, 8 April First Home Rule Bill for Ireland introduced in the House of Commons but fails to gain a majority
1893, 13 February Second Home Rule Bill introduced. House of Lords vetoes Bill later that year
1893, 31 July Conradh na Gaeilge (the Gaelic League) founded by Douglas Hyde and Eoin MacNeill
1900, September Cumann na nGaedheal (Irish Council) founded by Arthur Griffith
1905 Cumann na nGaedheal, the Dungannon Clubs and the National Council are amalgamated to form Sinn Féin (‘We Ourselves’)
1909, August Countess Markievicz and Bulmer Hobson organise nationalist youths into Na Fianna Éireann (‘Warriors of Ireland’), a kind of boy-scout brigade
1912, 11 April Prime Minister H. H. Asquith introduces the Third Home Rule Bill to the British Parliament. It is later rejected by the House of Lords, but the Parliament Act of 1911 had removed their right of veto. Home Rule expected to be introduced for Ireland by autumn 1914
1913, January Edward Carson and James Craig set up Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) with the intention of defending Ulster against Home Rule
1913, August Jim Larkin, founder of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (ITGWU), calls for a strike for better pay and conditions
Police attacking strikers during the 1913 Dublin Lockout.
1913, 26 August The Dublin Lockout begins
1913, 30 August James Nolan and James Byrne are beaten by police. Both die of their injuries within a few days. Widespread rioting in Dublin city
1913, 31 August Jim Larkin is arrested at a banned rally on Sackville Street. In the ensuing police attacks, hundreds are injured and John McDonagh, beaten in his home, dies a few days later. This day becomes known as Labour’s ‘Bloody Sunday’
1913, 23 November James Connolly, Jack White and Jim Larkin establish the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) in order to protect strikers
1913, 25 November The Irish Volunteers founded in Dublin to ‘secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to all the people of Ireland’
1914, 20 March British Army officers threaten to resign if ordered to act against the UVF and enforce Home Rule, an event known as the ‘Curragh Mutiny’
1914, April Cumann na mBan founded as a Volunteer army for women
1914, 24 April A shipment of 25,000 rifles and three million rounds of ammunition is landed at Larne for the UVF
1914, 26 July Irish Volunteers unload a shipment of 900 rifles and 29,000 rounds of ammunition in Howth, freshly arrived from Germany aboard Erskine Childers’s yacht, the Asgard. British troops fire on a crowd on Bachelors Walk, Dublin, and three citizens are killed. A few days later, a further shipment of 600 rifles and 20,000 rounds of ammunition is landed in Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow
1914, 4 August Britain declares war on Germany
1914, 9 September Meeting held at Gaelic League headquarters between IRB and other republicans and socialists. Initial decision made to stage an uprising while Britain is at war
1914, 18 September Home Rule for Ireland shelved for the duration of the First World War
1914, September 170,000 leave the Volunteers and form the National Volunteers or Redmondites. Only 11,000 remain as the Irish Volunteers under Eoin MacNeill
1915, May to September Military Council of the IRB is formed
1915, 1 August Pearse gives a fiery oration at the funeral of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, an old Fenian who died in the US and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery
1916, 19–22 January James Connolly meets the IRB Military Council and is informed of the plans for an uprising at Easter. He is also sworn into the IRB, thus ensuring that the ICA shall be involved in the Rising
1916, 20 April (Thursday)
4.15pm The Aud arrives at Tralee Bay laden with 20,000 German rifles for the Rising. Captain Karl Spindler waits in vain for a signal from shore
1916, 21 April (Friday)
2.15am Roger Casement and his two companions go ashore from U-19 and land on Banna Strand in Kerry. Casement is arrested at McKenna’s Fort at Carrahane Strand
6.30pm The Aud is captured by the British Navy and forced to sail towards Cork Harbour
1916, 22 April (Saturday)
9.30am The Aud is scuttled by her captain off Daunt’s Rock
10pm Chief of Staff of the Irish Volunteers Eoin MacNeill issues a countermanding order in Dublin to try to stop the Rising
1916, 23 April (Easter Sunday) MacNeill places an advertisement in the Sunday Independent halting all Volunteer operations. The Military Council meets to discuss the situation. The Rising is put on hold for twenty-four hours. Hundreds of copies of the Proclamation of the Republic are printed in Liberty Hall
1916, 24 April (Easter Monday)
12 noon The Rising begins in Dublin. Volunteers, Irish Citizen Army, Fianna Éireann and Cumann na mBan occupy key buildings in the city: • The Mendicity Institution occupied by Seán Heuston • Commandant Edward Daly of the Irish Volunteers’ First Battalion occupies the Church Street area around the Four Courts • The Second Battalion under Commandant Thomas MacDonagh occupies Jacob’s Biscuit Factory • Constable James O’Brien is killed at Dublin Castle. A detachment of the ICA under Seán Connolly occupies City Hall • Éamon de Valera, commanding the Third Battalion, takes over Boland’s Mills. A section occupies 25 Northumberland Road and Clanwilliam House at Mount Street Bridge • Commandant Michael Mallin of the ICA occupies St. Stephen’s Green • Commandant Éamonn Ceannt of the Fourth Battalion occupies the South Dublin Union (SDU). A large contingent of Volunteers under Captain Seamus Murphy occupy Jameson’s on Marrowbone Lane
12.17pm Attack carried out on the Magazine Fort in Phoenix Park
12.45pm Patrick Pearse reads the Proclamation outside the GPO, Headquarters of the Army of the Irish Republic
1.15pm Lancers fired upon from the GPO and repelled
4.15pm British troops arrive from the Curragh. Looting around Sackville Street
7.30pm British attack City Hall
1916, 25 April (Tuesday)
3.45am British reinforcements arrive from the Curragh. General William Lowe assumes command of British forces in the city
4am British occupy the Shelbourne. Using a machine gun, they rake the lower ground in Stephen’s Green. Most ICA escape to College of Surgeons
8am Ceannt and his men barricade the Nurses’ Home of South Dublin Union. Volunteers in Marrowbone Lane continue sniping at the British
2pm ICA at City Hall and Mail & Express Office surrender
2.15pm HMS Helga fires two shots into Boland’s Mills
3.15pm British attack Irish positions near Phibsborough. Barricades at North Circular Road and Cabra Road destroyed
5pm Pearse reads a manifesto from the Provisional Government to the citizens of Dublin. Martial law proclaimed by Viceroy Wimborne
1916, 26 April (Wednesday)
8am HMS Helga shells Liberty Hall, backed up by British 18-pounders and machine guns
9am Con Colbert and his section, having abandoned Watkins’ Brewery for Roe’s Distillery, join forces with those in Marrowbone Lane
10.05am Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, Patrick McIntyre and Thomas Dickson executed in Portobello Barracks
12.15pm HMS Helga shells a distillery building beside Boland’s Mills. Surrender of the Mendicity Institution under Seán Heuston
12.25pm Reinforcements from England, Sherwood Foresters, suffer huge casualties as they advance up Northumberland Road towards Mount Street Bridge
Afternoon Starry Plough hoisted above the Imperial Hotel. Section 1 of the Defence of the Realm Act – which gives the right of a British subject charged with an offence to be tried by civil court – is suspended
Evening Fires on Sackville Street spread
9pm Gen. Sir John Grenfell Maxwell ordered to Dublin to suppress Rising
1916, 27 April (Thursday)
10am British 18-pounder field guns shell Sackville Street
1pm James Connolly wounded in shoulder and later in foot
3–9pm Close combat fighting in Nurses’ Home. Cathal Brugha severely wounded. The British abandon the SDU to Volunteers
5pm British troops leave Dublin Castle and engage the Four Courts. Using improvised armoured cars, they make incursions into Church Street area
1916, 28 April (Friday)
1am British troops shoot civilians in their homes in North King Street
2am General Maxwell arrives and assumes command of British Army in Ireland
3am Clerys and the Imperial Hotel are burned to the ground
5am Constant artillery fire directed at the Metropole and the GPO
9.30am Pearse issues another manifesto from GPO explaining that the HQ is isolated
10.30am Thomas Ashe and Fifth Battalion go into action in Ashbourne
7pm GPO roof in flames
8.10pm The O’Rahilly charges down Moore Street with a company of men and is killed in action
8.40pm Evacuation of the GPO. Garrison spend the night in Moore Street and surrounding laneways
1916, 29 April (Saturday)
12.45pm Provisional Government holds meeting in HQ at 16 Moore Street. Elizabeth O’Farrell approaches British under a white flag
3.45pm Patrick Pearse surrenders to General Lowe and signs surrender order
6pm Edward Daly surrenders Four Courts
1916, 30 April (Sunday)
Thomas MacDonagh surrenders Jacob’s and Second Battalion. Éamonn Ceannt surrenders South Dublin Union and Fourth Battalion. Michael Mallin surrenders Stephen’s Green. Éamon de Valera surrenders Third Battalion. Thomas Ashe surrenders Fifth Battalion
1916, 1 May (Monday) Prisoners in Richmond Barracks are sorted into categories by G Division of Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP)
1916, 2 May (Tuesday)
Morning Shootout in Bawnard House, Castlelyons, Co. Cork. Head Constable W.C. Rowe shot dead. Thomas and William Kent arrested
Afternoon Courts-martial of Patrick Pearse, Thomas Clarke and Thomas MacDonagh
1916, 3 May (Wednesday)
3.25am Pearse, Clarke and MacDonagh executed
Afternoon Courts-martial of Edward Daly, Michael O’Hanrahan, Joseph Plunkett and Willie Pearse. Dublin streets returning to normality: shops open, trams begin to run and the DMP resumes control of policing
1916, 4 May (Thursday)
4–4.30am Daly, O’Hanrahan, Plunkett and Willie Pearse executed
Afternoon Courts-martial of John MacBride, Con Colbert, Seán Heuston and Éamonn Ceannt in Dublin, and of Thomas Kent in Cork
1916, 5 May (Friday)
4.30am MacBride executed
Afternoon Court-martial of Michael Mallin
1916, 8 May (Monday)
4–4.30am Colbert, Heuston, Ceannt and Mallin executed
1916, 9 May (Tuesday)
4.30am Thomas Kent executed in Cork Detention Barracks
Afternoon Courts-martial of Seán MacDiarmada and James Connolly
1916, 12 May (Friday)
4–4.30am MacDiarmada and Connolly executed
Section Two: Documents & Newspapers
EASTER MANOEUVRES: GENERAL ORDERS
Orders for Irish Volunteers, which were published in The Irish Volunteer, 8 April 1916.
1. Following the lines of last year, every unit of the Irish Volunteers will hold manoeuvres during the Easter Holidays. The object of the manoeuvres is to test mobilisation with equipment.
2. In Brigade Districts the manoeuvres will be carried out under the orders of the Brigade Commandants; … in the case of the Dublin Brigade, the manoeuvres will, as last year, be carried out under the direction of the Headquarters General Staff.
3. Each Brigade, Battalion or Company commander, as the case may be, will, on or before 1st May next, send to the Director of Organisation a detailed report of the manoeuvres carried out by his unit.
P. H. Pearse, Commandant,
Director of Organisation.
Headquarters, 2 Dawson Street,
Dublin, 3rd April, 1916
THE CASTLE ORDER
Eugene Smith, a Dublin Castle official, passed a document to Seán MacDiarmada’s IRB intelligence group, and they transcribed it into an agreed code. MacDiarmada then passed it to Joseph Plunkett. The document was most likely written by General L.B. Friend to the Chief Secretary, Augustine Birrell; it discusses how any trouble over the introduction of conscription in Ireland would be dealt with. Plunkett translated the code – perhaps adding a few lines of his own – then asked his brother George, Rory O’Connor and Colm O’Lochlainn to print the document on a small hand press in Larkfield, Kimmage.
Dublin Castle were quick to label the document as ‘bogus’, but it was certainly based on something authentic. They pointed out that it was amateurish as it lacked punctuation (there was a shortage of capital letters for the small hand press); however it did cause anger at the proposed treatment of some prominent citizens. Francis Sheehy-Skeffington passed a copy to Alderman Tom Kelly, who read it into the minutes of a Dublin Corporation meeting on Wednesday, 19 April 1916.1
Secret Orders issued to Military Officers.
The cipher from which this document is copied does not indicate punctuation or capitals.
‘The following precautionary measures have been sanctioned by the Irish Office on the recommendation of the General Officer Commanding 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 Under Secretary and the General Officer Commanding the Forces in Ireland. First, the following persons to be placed under arrest: – All members of the Sinn Fein National Council, the Central Executive Irish Sinn Fein Volunteers, General Council Irish Sinn Fein Volunteers, County Board Irish Sinn Fein Volunteers, Executive Committee National Volunteers, Coisde Gnotha Committee Gaelic League. See list A3 and 4 and supplementary list A2.
‘Dublin 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 inhabitants 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 Force 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 Headquarters. 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. 4 Rutland Square, Foresters’ Hall; Sinn Fein Volunteers premises in city; Trades Council premises, Capel Street; Surrey House, Leinster Road, Rathmines.2 THE FOLLOWING PREMISES WILL BE ISOLATED AND ALL COMMUNICATION TO OR FROM PREVENTED: –– PREMISES KNOWN AS ARCHBISHOP’S HOUSE, DRUMCONDRA; MANSION HOUSE, DAWSON STREET; No. 40 Herbert Park; Larkfield, Kimmage Road; Woodtown Park, Ballyboden; Saint Enda’s College, Hermitage, Rathfarnham; and in addition premises in list 5D, see Maps 3 and 4.’
EOIN MACNEILL’S REACTION TO THE ‘CASTLE ORDER’
On 19 April, MacNeill issued this order to Irish Volunteer Commanders:
Your object will be to preserve the arms and the organisation of the Irish Volunteers … In general you will arrange that your men defend themselves and each other in small groups so placed that they may best be able to hold out.
Upon learning of the plans on Good Friday, MacNeill initially agreed with the inevitability of the Rising. However, he changed his mind on Holy Saturday when he heard about the loss of the arms shipment from Germany. He therefore issued this command:
Volunteers completely deceived. All orders for special action are hereby cancelled and on no account will action be taken.
Jim Ryan went to Cork city with this message. The O’Rahilly went to Limerick by taxi. He also went to Kerry, West Cork and Tipperary. MacNeill’s countermanding order was printed in a Sunday newspaper:
Sunday Independent, 23 April, 1916
Owing to the very critical position, all orders given to Irish Volunteers for tomorrow, Easter Sunday, are hereby rescinded, and no parades, marches, or other movements of Irish Volunteers will take place. Each individual Volunteer will obey this order strictly in every particular.
MacNeill
This mobilisation order gives the start time of the Rising as Sunday at 4pm.
MEETING IN LIBERTY HALL, EASTER SUNDAY
The Military Council of the IRB met in Liberty Hall at 9am on Easter Sunday to discuss the situation. The meeting lasted for four hours.3 A decision was made to send out dispatches confirming MacNeill’s countermanding order, to avoid confusion and to stop the rest of the country rising up before Dublin. They also decided to postpone the Rising to the following day, Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, at 12 noon.
PATRICK PEARSE’S LETTER TO MACNEILL ON THE AFTERNOON OF EASTER SUNDAY
To Eoin MacNeill, Woodtown Park.
Commandant MacDonagh is to call on you this afternoon. He countermanded the Dublin parades today with my authority. I confirmed your countermand as the leading men would not have obeyed it without my confirmation.
PEARSE’S DISPATCH TO VOLUNTEER COMMANDERS
A number of couriers were present in the Keating Branch of the Gaelic League on North Frederick Street at 8pm on Easter Sunday. Patrick Pearse issued them with small slips of paper that read:
We start operations at noon today. Monday. Carry out your instructions.
P H Pearse
THE FENIAN PROCLAMATION OF 1867
On 10 February 1867, the Fenians issued a Proclamation. It is included here to help the reader compare and contrast it with the 1916 Proclamation.
The Irish People of the World
We have suffered centuries of outrage, enforced poverty, and bitter misery. Our rights and liberties have been trampled on by an alien aristocracy, who treating us as foes, usurped our lands, and drew away from our unfortunate country all material riches. The real owners of the soil were removed to make room for cattle, and driven across the ocean to seek the means of living, and the political rights denied to them at home, while our men of thought and action were condemned to loss of life and liberty. But we never lost the memory and hope of a national existence. We appealed in vain to the reason and sense of justice of the dominant powers.
Our mildest remonstrances were met with sneers and contempt. Our appeals to arms were always unsuccessful.
Today, having no honourable alternative left, we again appeal to force as our last resource. We accept the conditions of appeal, manfully deeming it better to die in the struggle for freedom than to continue an existence of utter serfdom.
All men are born with equal rights, and in associating to protect one another and share public burdens, justice demands that such associations should rest upon a basis which maintains equality instead of destroying it.
We therefore declare that, unable longer to endure the curse of Monarchical Government, we aim at founding a Republic based on universal suffrage, which shall secure to all the intrinsic value of their labour.
The soil of Ireland, at present in the possession of an oligarchy, belongs to us, the Irish people, and to us it must be restored.
We declare, also, in favour of absolute liberty of conscience, and complete separation of Church and State.
We appeal to the Highest Tribunal for evidence of the justness of our cause. History bears testimony to the integrity of our sufferings, and we declare, in the face of our brethren, that we intend no war against the people of England – our war is against the aristocratic locusts, whether English or Irish, who have eaten the verdure of our fields – against the aristocratic leeches who drain alike our fields and theirs.
Republicans of the entire world, our cause is your cause. Our enemy is your enemy. Let your hearts be with us. As for you, workmen of England, it is not only your hearts we wish, but your arms. Remember the starvation and degradation brought to your firesides by the oppression of labour. Remember the past, look well to the future, and avenge yourselves by giving liberty to your children in the coming struggle for human liberty.
Herewith we proclaim the Irish Republic.
The Provisional Government
THE 1916 PROCLAMATION
The Proclamation of Irish Independence was printed on Easter Sunday in Liberty Hall. It is the document that was used by the Military Council of the IRB to declare or proclaim an Irish Republic.
POBLACHT NA HÉIREANN
‘Poblacht na hÉireann’ means ‘Republic of Ireland’. It does not mean ‘Proclamation of Independence’ – that would be ‘Forógra na Saoirse’. ‘Ríocht’ means ‘kingdom’; ‘pobal’ means ‘people’. By extracting the word for ‘king’ (‘rí’) from ‘ríocht’ and replacing it with ‘pobal’, an invented word for ‘republic’ was devised: ‘poblacht’.
AUTHOR OF THE PROCLAMATION
The Proclamation was composed on behalf of the seven members of the Military Council of the IRB – Thomas J. Clarke, Seán Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, P. H. Pearse, Éamonn Ceannt, James Connolly and Joseph Plunkett – and, having consented to the insertion of their names at the end of the document, they are known as the ‘Signatories of the Proclamation’. They also became the Provisional Government of the new Irish Republic.
As regards an author, no one knows for sure, but Patrick Pearse is the most obvious candidate. Doubtless there was some input from the other Military Council members – especially James Connolly – and it’s hard to imagine that poets Thomas MacDonagh and Joseph Plunkett did not add to the content. Christopher Brady, who printed the Proclamation, mused over this in his witness statement: ‘Although I read the manuscript I could not say in whose hand-writing it was. It certainly was not Connolly’s as I was familiar with his scrawl.’4
APPROVAL OF PROCLAMATION
Kathleen Clarke, wife of Thomas, recalled how on ‘Tuesday of Holy Week’ (18 April), he had told her ‘that a Proclamation had been drawn up to which he was first signatory … Some time before, Pearse had been asked to draft it on lines intimated to him and submit it to the Military Council. He did, and some changes were made … The meeting had been held in Mrs. Wyse Power’s house in Henry Street.’5
Jenny and John Wyse Power had a restaurant at 21 Henry Street, just around the corner from the GPO. Their daughter recalled a different date for the meeting: ‘On Wednesday [19 April] I was asked by Bulmer Hobson to take a message to Terence MacSwiney in Cork … Before I left home for the afternoon train Sean MacDermott came in to ask for the use of a room for a meeting that evening … I was gone before the meeting but my mother told me that six or seven people attended, including Pearse and Tom Clarke. The presence of the latter, who was not on the Volunteer Executive, and the small number present suggests that the meeting consisted of the signatories of the Republican Proclamation.’6
THE FATE OF THE HANDWRITTEN PROCLAMATION
The original handwritten manuscript of the Proclamation has never been found. Printer Christopher Brady said he gave it to James Connolly along with the first copy of the Proclamation: ‘I gave the first proof to James Connolly at 9pm and he checked it with the manuscript and I never saw the manuscript after that.’7
PROCLAMATION WITH SIGNATURES OF THE MILITARY COUNCIL
Éamonn Ceannt told one of his men that he did not sign. William T. Cosgrave, future President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State, wrote in his witness statement: ‘Prior to Ceannt’s trial, certainly before its conclusion, he told me he had not signed the Proclamation. He had been unable to attend at the time the signatures were being put to the Proclamation; but the naked fact is that he did not write his name to the Proclamation.’8
There is no copy of the Proclamation with the actual signatures of the Signatories.
THE PIECE OF PAPER WITH THE NAMES OF THE SIGNATORIES
Michael Molloy maintained that there was a piece of paper with the signatures of the Military Council attached to the handwritten manuscript of the Proclamation: ‘I do not know what became of the manuscript of the Proclamation but the signatures of the Proclamation were appended on a separate piece of paper in the order in which they were required. I took this with me and put it in my pocket and had it on my person when I was later a prisoner in Richmond barracks. Realising how dangerous it would be if the document containing actual signatures of the Proclamation was found, I destroyed it by chewing it up into small pieces and spitting it out on the floor.’9
PRINTERS OF THE PROCLAMATION
Christopher Brady was the printer of the Proclamation. The compositors were Michael Molloy and Liam O’Brien. These men were the printers of James Connolly’s newspaper the Workers’ Republic, and they also printed various ITGWU-related items.
SIZE OF THE PROCLAMATION
20" x 30" (508mm x 762mm) normally, but it can vary.10
PRINTING MACHINE FOR THE PROCLAMATION
Double Crown Wharfedale, manufactured in Otley in the Yorkshire Dales, England. This was the machine that was usually used to print James Connolly’s newspaper the Workers’ Republic.
PAPER USED FOR THE PROCLAMATION
Double Crown, poster size, 20" x 30". It was purchased specifically for the job from Saggart Paper Mill.
FONTS
The larger type is made of wood. On original copies of the Proclamation, the first ‘R’ in IRISH REPUBLIC is broken at the tail. This was ‘fixed’ in facsimile editions of the document. The font used is mostly Antique No. 8, made by Miller & Richard of Edinburgh, and the most common size is Two-line Great Primer.
HORIZONTAL INK LINES
Lead strips, four points in size, were used to separate each line of type. These are sometimes visible as horizontal lines of ink on Proclamations and can be quite random.
TURNING AN F INTO AN E
In the line ‘TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND’, the ‘E’ in ‘THE’ was an ‘F’ that was fashioned into an ‘E’ by Christopher Brady.’11
WRONG TYPE FONTS
The compositors ran out of the letter ‘e’ and used a different type, which has been identified variously as Abbey Text or Tudor Black. In the last sentence of the third paragraph, a number of these incorrect ‘e’s appear.
MISTAKE IN THE PROCLAMATION
In the first line of the last paragraph, there is an upside down ‘e’. It would appear that the word ‘protection’ is misspelled with a double ‘e’ – as ‘proteetion’.
NUMBER OF COPIES PRINTED
Printer Christopher Brady recalled putting together two bundles of 1,250 each: ‘The machine was ready for first printing at about 8.30pm on Easter Sunday night and the job was finished between 12 and 1 on Easter Monday morning. We had then run off 2,500 copies.’12 Michael Molloy, the compositor, thought the number was around 1,000.
PRINTED IN TWO HALVES
Compositor Michael Molloy recalled: ‘At about 11am we set about work on setting the type and when we had the top portion of it set half way down, even to complete that half we had to treat letters with sealing wax. We could not go any further for the moment. So we sent up a message to Connolly that we would have to print the Proclamation in two halves. And the answer was, “Go ahead.”’13
The first half consisted of the first three paragraphs and ended with the line, ‘… of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations’.
BOTTOM-HALF PROCLAMATIONS
The bottom half was still in the printing machine as the British soldiers broke into Liberty Hall – they printed some off as souvenirs. There is a ‘half-Proclamation’ in Kilmainham Gaol, and every now and then they come up for auction. Generally they are poorly printed, as it required great skill to use the Wharfedale.
‘SIX TIMES DURING THE PAST THREE HUNDRED YEARS’
The question is often asked as to what specific ‘uprisings’ this line refers: ‘six times during the past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms’. Three hundred years before the Rising would have been 1616, so the first event we come to after that is the rebellion of 1641. The next logical candidate might be the Williamite Wars of 1689–91; although they may be seen as a conflict between kings, Patrick Sarsfield ranks as an iconic nationalist leader. The 1798 United Irishmen rebellion is a must, as is the 1803 uprising of Robert Emmet. The 1848 Young Ireland uprising was short-lived but a clear attempt to assert national freedom. The Fenian uprising of 1867 surely deserves inclusion too. A compelling argument can be made to include the Irish National Invincibles of 1882, who carried out the Phoenix Park assassinations, but the Williamite Wars had a greater impact.
NUMBER OF PROCLAMATIONS IN EXISTENCE TODAY
There may be as few as thirty Proclamations left, but no count is available for those in private hands. A number are with institutions including the GPO, Collins Barracks,14 Kilmainham Gaol,15 the Jackie Clarke Collection, Liberty Hall, Trinity College and Leinster House. There is one in the American Irish Historical Society, New York, and one in Providence Public Library in Rhode Island.
PEARSE’S MANIFESTO
Patrick Pearse read out the following manifesto to a large crowd at Nelson’s Pillar on Tuesday evening, 25 April 1916.
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 up at Twelve noon on Easter Monday, and nowhere, despite fierce and almost continuous attack of the British troops, have the lines been broken through. The country 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 valour, self-sacrifice, and discipline of Irish men and women are about to win for our country a glorious place among the nations.
Ireland’s honour has already been redeemed: it remains to vindicate her wisdom and her self-control.
All citizens of Dublin who believe in the right 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 Irish-woman 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 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 honour 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 children enjoy the happiness and prosperity which freedom will bring.
Signed on behalf of the Provisional Government,
P. H. PEARSE
Commanding in Chief the Forces of the Irish Republic, and President of the Provisional Government.
MARTIAL LAW DECLARATION ON WEDNESDAY, 26 APRIL 1916
A PROCLAMATION
Regulations to be observed under MARTIAL LAW
I, Major-General, the Right Hon. L. B. Friend, C.B., Commanding the Troops in Ireland hereby Command that
1. All persons in Dublin City and County shall keep within their houses between the hours of 7.30 p.m. in the evening and 5:30 a.m. on the next morning, on all days until further notice: unless provided with the written permission of the Military Authorities: or, unless in the case of fully qualifies medical practitioners or medical nurses in uniform in the discharge of urgent duties.
2. All persons other than members of His Majesty’s Forces or Police, or acting in aid of said forces, who are seen carrying arms, are liable to be fired upon by the military without warning.
3. All persons shall give all information in their possession as to stores of arms, ammunition or explosives, or of the movement of hostile bodies to the nearest military authority, or to the nearest police barracks.
4. All well disposed persons are hereby warned and advised to keep away from the vicinity of all places where military operations are in progress or where hostile bodies are moving, and persons that enter such areas do so at their own risk.
Dated at Headquarters, Irish Command, Park Gate, Dublin.
26th April, 1916.
L. B. Friend, Major General, Commanding Troops, Ireland.
PATRICK PEARSE’S ADDRESS TO THE ARMY OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC
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 central 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 these 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 today isolated.
The enemy has burned 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 without material damage to our position, which is of great strength.
We are busy completing arrangements for the final defence of Headquarters, and are determined to hold it while the building lasts.
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 unconquerable spirit in the midst of peril and death.
A page from Irish War News, the newspaper issued by Republican forces on Tuesday, 25 April, 1916.
Let me, who has led them into this, speak in my own, and in my fellow commanders’ names, and in the name of Ireland present and to come, their praise, and ask those who come after them to remember them.
For four days they have fought and toiled, almost without cessation, 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 this 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 the names of individuals, my list would be a long one. I will mention 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 satisfied. I am satisfied that we have saved Ireland’s honour. I am satisfied 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 simultaneous 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 prevented those plans from being carried out, I will 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 judgement of God, or the judgement of posterity.
