The Donegal Awakening E-Book

Liam Ó Duibhir

• Herausgeber: Mercier Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 521

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

In this new book, Liam Ó Duibhir charts the struggle for independence, both militarily and politically, in Donegal from before the events of Easter 1916 until the truce in 1921.Donegal has long been seen as one of the quietest counties during the War of Independence but this reputation belies an intriguing story of how republican sentiment grew in the county. From the first mention of Sinn Féin, through the conscription crisis and the success of the 1918 elections, Ó Duibhir charts the rise of the new political leadership in Donegal and how they built their own system of justice and local government.Alongside the practical politics, he also highlights the role of the IRB and the activities of the volunteers in resisting and thwarting the British efforts to retain control and impose order. Featuring new information and a fresh look at events of the period, The Donegal Awakening offers an updated account of this crucial period.

Leseprobe

County Donegal

(1st Northern Division)

THE

DONEGAL

AWAKENING

Donegal & The War of Independence

Liam Ó Duibhir

MERCIER PRESS

3B Oak House, Bessboro Rd

Blackrock, Cork, Ireland.

www.mercierpress.ie

http://twitter.com/IrishPublisher

http://www.facebook.com/mercier.press

© Liam Ó Duibhir, 2009

ISBN: 978 1 85635 6329

Epub ISBN: 978 1 78117 0014

Mobi ISBN: 978 1 78117 0007

This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

‘What did you think of Dungloe, Donegal is awake in earnest now …’

Quote from letter written by Dr J. P. McGinley in Derry jail, Friday 19 December 1919, to Seán MacLoingsigh, Convoy, referring to first IRA attack on the RIC at Dungloe, 12 December 1919.

This book is dedicated to my mother Mary and to my late father Liam.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

THE PUBLICATION OF this book was made possible by the personal accounts of the men and women who played their part in the years following the inception of Sinn Féin policy through to the end of the War of Independence in July 1921. These statements were made available by the Bureau of Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks in Dublin. I would like to thank the staff at the Bureau of Military Archives and in particular Victor Laing and Lisa for assistance when researching and for the interesting conversations on the history of this period. I initially accessed the statements at the Donegal County Library in Letterkenny and have to thank Bernie Campbell and the staff there for all their help. The witness statements from the Bureau of Military History are also available at the Central Library, Letterkenny.

The staff of the Archives Department at UCD, Belfield, Dublin were also very helpful during my research for this book and I would like to thank Seamus Helferty and the staff there for their assistance and generosity. The Archives Department was a source of so many reports and correspondence between the Donegal area and General Headquarters in Dublin and gave a great insight into the incidents and problems experienced by the Donegal brigades during that period.

I am indebted and owe a special thanks to Liam McElhinney, Lifford, County Donegal for all the invaluable assistance, direction and information relating to this period. Liam gave me many original resources on this period and he himself is a great authority on the history of this period generally and more importantly at a local level. Liam was also one of the many people who read drafts of this book and highlighted historical errors and made useful suggestions.

A big thank you to Seamus McCann, College Farm Road, Letterkenny and his son Rory McCann, for the use of his father’s diary (Seamus McCann senior), which was a very useful source in drafting this publication and a wonderful insight into the life of a Volunteer in the Flying Column based in Donegal. This diary gave detailed accounts of the many ambushes and activities of the flying column and the general situation during the war days.

I am also indebted to Pat and Mary Dawson, Letterkenny for giving me documentation relating to this period, and for the use of a space to compile and write this publication, which made this process so much easier. Thanks to you both for all your help and for your friendship over the years.

I am very grateful and owe a special word of thanks to Niall McGinley for being so generous with his time, and reading a draft highlighting the many grammatical errors and for the points on local history. I would also like to thank Niall for permission to use certain information from his bookDr McGinley and his Timesand for the use of images from that book.

I would also like to thank Conal Cunningham, Spiddal, County Galway for permission to use an account published in his book on Glencolmcille and the use of a photograph of the burned out RIC barracks at Carrick.

Thanks to Declan O’Carroll for the use of photographs and for pieces of information that were of great significance. Declan was also very helpful when he read an early draft and gave me practical feedback.

I would like to thank theDerry Journaland Editorial Director Graig Harkin for permission to use information from theDerry Journalarchives, which proved a very useful source when writing this book.

TheDerry PeopleandTirconaill Newsarchives were also a useful resource and I would like to thank the staff at theDonegal Newsfor bringing the archives from Omagh to Letterkenny for my research. Thanks to the editor Columba Gill and to Harry Walsh for all your help during this time. Thanks to Fr Pádraig, Capuchin Friary, Church Street, Dublin for permission to use information from the Capuchin Archives and images from same.

The following people were also very helpful in many ways and provided me with information photographs, advice and read drafts; Aiden Doherty (Ballybofey) and Paddy Doherty (Carndonagh), in particular for a photograph of their father. John McAteer for reading a very early draft and for the positive feedback in the early stages. Seán Beatty (Culdaff) for reading and permission to use information and images from theDonegal Annual1966. Seán was also very helpful with advice on various aspects of the book. Jonnie Patton, who was another reader of the early drafts, for his feedback. Thanks to May McClintock for a detailed list of town lands in north-west Donegal, which was of great assistance. Paddy McIntyre, Declan Birney, Connie Duffy, Odhran Grimes, Ciaran N. Kelly, Aughlihard and Dublin. Thanks to Rosaleen and Joseph Black for the space to relax and recharge in Rathmullan.

To all my family for their encouragement and support during the writing of this book – thank you.

INTRODUCTION

THE POLITICAL AWAKENING in Ireland in the early part of the twentieth century and the subsequent War of Independence produced many interesting stories of political prowess and heroism. It was a period during which many ordinary young Irish people found themselves propelled into an extraordinary state of affairs. The period in question was, arguably, among the most interesting in Irish history and perhaps the first instance of a mass Irish resistance movement against the British along both political and military lines. From the birth of new republican ideology, the 1916 Rising and subsequent War of Independence to the Truce of July 1921, Ireland was thrust into a vicious war against the might of the British Empire. This book provides a snapshot of the events of this period in County Donegal, from the inception of the Sinn Féin idea in the later years of the nineteenth century through political growth and electoral success to physical resistance.

The national spirit was effectively dead following the Great Hunger of the mid-1800s, though the Home Rule movement had given a brief glimmer of hope that at least a degree of independence from British Rule was possible. However, in 1899 theUnited Irishmannewspaper was founded and became the springboard for the new vision of Ireland’s future, put forward by ArthurGriffith. In that yearGriffith penned the first of a series of articles setting out his vision of Irish autonomy from the English parliament at Westminster. The articles were published as a single booklet in 1904 by theUnited Irishman, calledThe Resurrection of Hungary–a Parallel for Ireland. It was this new political philosophy, which would evolve into the Sinn Féin movement, that became the driving force behind the new political thinking and direction in Ireland. Sinn Féin developed into a mass movement giving a demoralised people the confidence to aspire to an Ireland free and independent from Britain. Like the rest of the country, County Donegal experienced a political awakening through this new movement’s separatist and independence ideology.

The growing threat to Home Rule, following the establishment of theUlster Volunteer Force (UVF) in 1913, firmly introduced the gun into Irish politics and prompted the founding of the Irish Volunteers as a defensive movement in November 1914. TheUVF had landed weapons at three locations, includingLarne, County Antrim, in 1914 and declared that it would resist the introduction of Home Rule by force of arms. This action gave rise to a reaction from the Irish Volunteers, and weapons were subsequently landed at Howth in County Dublin and Kilcoole in County Wicklow later that year.

The Irish Volunteers subsequently split following the outbreak of war in Europe with theIrish Parliamentary Party (IPP) calling on members to join the British army to fight ‘for the freedom of small nations’. The split created two armies – the Irish National Volunteers who followed theIrish Parliamentary Party and the Irish Volunteers who followed the Sinn Féin organisation.

The revolutionaries of theEasterRising of 1916 were almost defeated before the battle began, with disunity among the leaders, countermanded orders and poor communication resulting in the engagement of only a small number of areas, with Dublin being the main theatre for the insurrection. Although there had been little initial support for the rebels, what happened after theRising shocked the Irish people and led to mass support for the principles of republicanism, beginning a new era in Irish history. The majority of the men and women who participated inEasterRising had been arrested in the days and weeks following the insurrection, and were subsequently transported to jails in England and afterwards to theFrongoch internment camp in North Wales. However, by December 1916 the British began releasing the internees and the Irish Volunteers immediately set about regrouping and reorganising throughout 1917, establishing Volunteer companies and Sinn Féin cumainn in many towns, villages and parishes.

The new movement, which garnered huge support from the local population, was now intent on nothing short of total separation and independence. The political and military organisations, although having similar aspirations, were to operate independently of each other; Sinn Féin focused on the political arena while the Volunteers or – as they were later to become known – the Irish Republican Army styled themselves as a physical force organisation. The two were interlinked, however, with many Volunteers being elected to local councils and Dáil Éireann.

The result was political success for Sinn Féin in the general election of 1918. In the months before the election the threat from the new movement prompted the British to concoct the ‘German Plot’ as a means of arresting prominent members in an effort to suppress its development. Similar to other British miscalculations, however, this manoeuvre only aided Sinn Féin in winning 73 out of 110 seats and signalled the end ofIPP and unionist dominance of Irish politics. The principles of separatism were adopted and the first Irish parliament, Dáil Éireann, was inaugurated on 21 January 1919, the day the first official action of the War of Independence took place. What followed was an intense and vicious war against all organs of the British establishment with Ireland effectively operating as an independent ‘state within a state’.

This was achieved through the operation of national and local government and the establishment of an independent legal system resurrecting the oldBrehon Law.

As a method of further undermining British influence a boycott of British and unionist merchandise was organised, resulting in the seizure and destruction of various goods. Guerrilla warfare was a new experience for the young men and women who joined the ranks of the Irish Volunteers andCumann na mBan. They were facing a much more superior force both in numbers and experience, meaning that the slightest mistake or negligence could prove disastrous.

County Donegal, like many others throughout the country, experienced the brutality of the British military,Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) andBlack andTans, with many arrests, murders and killings occurring throughout the war years. The Volunteers of the Donegal brigades had to contend with superior British forces and theRIC, a situation made even more difficult by the large unionist population in many parts of the county. Furthermore, the Donegal brigades were relatively isolated from the main body of the movement, and there were also a number of internal disputes, which only added to the problems experienced by the IRA in this area and distracted it from its primary objective. The Donegal flying columns were introduced to bolster the war effort and certainly served their purpose, but also brought intense British reprisals which put great pressure on the general public, the preferred target of the military and police. The War of Independence ended following secret negotiations between members of Dáil Éireann and the British government, concluding with the Truce in July 1921.

1

The New Political Aspiration Versus the Old

THE IRISH PARLIAMENTARYParty was the major political force in Ireland in the late nineteenth century and the party was the driving force behind the Home Rule movement. The party was later augmented by the reorganisedAncient Order of Hibernians (AOH) which operated as quasi militant support for the Irish MPs. TheAOH was formed in America in response to an increase in violence against Irish emigrants who were, for the most part, Catholic. It was resurrected in the late nineteenth century byIPP MP JoeDevlin and the two organisations worked together until the election successes of Sinn Féin in 1918 led to the demise of theIPP.

The first reference to Sinn Féin in a political speech was made in June 1892 atLetterkenny, County Donegal. The speech was made by Irish MP TimHealy during an election campaign that year. He said:

Now they [Parnellites] say against us that we put our hopes in the Liberal Party and that we are bound hand and foot to the Liberal Party. Now, I give you the good old watchword of old Ireland – Sinn Fain [sic] – Ourselves alone.1

However, inThe Resurrection of Hungary,Griffith promoted the establishment of relations with Britain along the lines of the 1867 Austro-Hungarian model of dual monarchy, with a recommendation that theIrish Parliamentary Party MPs abstain from Westminster and sit in an Irish parliament. Not surprisingly, this policy met with fierce opposition from theIPP and theAncient Order of Hibernians.Griffith proposed the policy at a convention in the Rotunda, Dublin, on 28 November 1905 and the meeting endorsed the Sinn Féin policy of dual monarchy as the policy of the National Council. The National Council was established by Arthur Griffith in 1903 and was composed of separatists opposed to the visit of the British monarch The Council’s objective was to promote the merits of separation from British rule and in 1903 forced the Dublin Corporation into a climb down from their proposal to present a loyal address to the visiting king. The proposal was put to a public meeting and was narrowly defeated signalling a minor victory for National Council. However despite this Edward VII received a regal welcome in Dublin.

At the meeting of November 1905, it was emphasised that there was a need to establish Sinn Féin branches throughout the country to challenge theIrish Parliamentary Party and these branches would become the political arm of the Sinn Féin movement. A number of Donegal men were at the centre of the founding of Sinn Féin, including SeamusMacManus fromMountcharles.MacManus was actively involved in theGaelic League and theGAA in his locality, as well as being instrumental in helping establish Sinn Féin in 1905.MacManus was the descendant of one of the leaders of the 1798 rebellion; his grandfather and great-uncle were involved in the rebellion in Armagh, with both fleeing to Donegal following the rebellion’s collapse.2He was also a member of the National Council and was later expelled from Ireland in 1915 under the provisions of theDefence of the Realm Act, not returning to the country until May 1922.

The attraction of the Sinn Féin policy, as it came to be known, was the sheer simplicity of its logic, withGriffith viewing the 1800 Act of Union as an illegal instrument. He believed that MPs who sat in the Westminster parliament since 1800 were participating in a misdeed and were actively assisting in perpetuating a crime.3Griffith declared that they should withdraw from the imperial parliament and together with the elected representatives of the county councils and local authorities establish a council of 300 to take over the governance of the country and pursue a policy of political and economic self-sufficiency. This same policy had won the Hungarians their independence from Austria.4

The only organised group in Donegal at the time was theAncient Order of Hibernians. However, theAOH, nationally, was showing no desire to acknowledge the rationale of the proposals from the new wave of thinking and saw the Sinn Féin policy as a threat to its very existence. ArthurGriffith, addressing a meeting in 1907, said:

Our demand is for national independence. If England wants peace with Ireland, she can have it when she takes her left hand from Ireland’s throat and her right hand out of Ireland’s pocket …

The policy possessed a certain appeal for the members of other societies with separatist aspirations, including Cumann na nGael, the National Council,Maud Gonne’sInghinidhe na hÉireann and the Belfast republicans who had founded theDungannon Clubs in 1905. These organisations later merged to become Sinn Féin.5A Sinn Féin cumann was started inMountcharles at the beginning of January 1908, as was a Sinn Féin band around the same time. The cumann lapsed shortly afterwards and there is no further evidence of Sinn Féin activities until 1917. Other Sinn Féin branches were set up in the county at that time includingLetterkenny, which was established by MichaelDawson, who would later act as a republican justice of the Sinn Féin court.

The British government’s promise of Home Rule for Ireland began to filter down to the people, and this became evident with the influx of young Catholic men into the ranks of theRoyal Irish Constabulary. However, many of the new recruits would later resign in the 1920s or remain to serve as intelligence agents for the IRA.6Moreover, the confidence that theIrish Parliamentary Party and theAOH had in the Home Rule Bill being passed and their willingness to settle for whatever Westminster would offer, had suffered a series of blows by 1914.

The first was the threat from LordBirkenhead that there would be civil war should Ulster be removed from the United Kingdom.Birkenhead was later involved in the prosecution of RogerCasement in 1916 in his role as attorney general. Then there was the establishment of a unionist resistance movement called theUlster Volunteer Force (UVF) in January 1913. By April 1914 theUVF had landed arms atLarne,Bangor andDonaghadee. TheRIC ignored the landing and some even assisted the gunrunners.

TheUVF declared that it was prepared to oppose Home Rule by whatever means. All of this effectively meant that any Home Rule act would certainly have a partition element to it.This action was the catalyst for returning the gun to Irish politics, something that remained as a dominant feature for over ninety years.

2

THE OBSTACLES TO REVOLUTION

ESTABLISHING AND DEVELOPINGa fighting force in Donegal was going to prove difficult for a number of reasons, namely the geography of the county, theRoyal Irish Constabulary and the large unionist population.

The first problem was the geography; the most northerly county in Ireland, Donegal is surrounded by the sea to the north, west and south-west and the remainder borders counties Derry, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Leitrim and Sligo. The terrain is rugged and mountainous. To the north isSlieve Snaght, the dominant mountain inInishowen, while the west features the Derryveagh mountains,Errigal,Muckish andBloody Foreland on the coast. In south Donegal can be found Barnes Mór Gap, the Cliffs ofGlencolmcille, the Blue Stacks andSlieve League. TheInishowen andFanad peninsulas are separated by the Atlantic ocean, which entersLough Swilly at this point at a stretch of river known as the Lake of Shadows. Although picturesque and captivating, this terrain proved difficult for communications and travel, thus adding to the difficulties of proper organisation.

The second problem was theRoyal Irish Constabulary, established in 1836 and made up of recruits from the cadet system, which initially attracted recruits from wealthy Tory backgrounds in England and anti-nationalists in Ireland. From the outset the organisation was a military force, with each member equipped with rifle, bayonet and revolver and trained to act as part of a quasi-army force. This extract from theRIC drill book shows that the force was really just an offshoot of the British army:

The object of the recruit’s course of training at the ‘Depot’ is to fit men for their general duties in the Force. For this purpose the recruits must be developed by physical exercises, and be trained in squad drill and firing exercises, in the estimation of ranges and in skirmishing. Squad drill should be intermixed with instruction in the handling of the carbine, and with physical training and close order drill with skirmishing … It will be explained to the recruits that:

(i) Fire is only effective when the mark can be seen, and when it is steadily delivered.

(ii) It is useless to fire merely for the sake of firing, when no opponents are visible and their position is unknown.

(iii) Engagements are won mainly by the accurate fire of individuals at decisive range. Long range fire should rarely be opened without special directions from a superior; in the absence of orders, however, it may be directed against large bodies, such as half a battalion in close order …

The drill book also gave suggestions for gathering intelligence in the local areas:

(1) When it was thought that members of a family had information which theRIC needed, a constable would be sent on a bicycle to their house. When nearing the house he would deliberately puncture one of his tyres with a pin. Then he would call at the house for a basin of water to locate the puncture and whilst carrying out the repairs, would enter into conversation with members of the family and gradually lead up to the subject in which he was interested …

(7) Talking to children, who innocently supplied minute particulars which came to their keen perception of all local happenings.

(8) Children of members of the RIC attending the local schools could not fail to collect all the extremely valuable information that was available in abundance amongst other school children.

Later named theRoyal Irish Constabulary (RIC) many members never served in uniform and spent their period of service travelling the country working as blacksmiths, carpenters, etc. This was useful in terms of gathering information, which they then passed to their superiors or directly to headquarters atDublin Castle.TheRIC acquired the title ‘Royal’ for its successful efforts in dealing with the Fenian movement in 1867. Since its inception it had been used as the defender of evictors, oppressors and coercionists of all kinds. During evictions its members protected the operators of the battering ram and in some cases were operators themselves. Large numbers were drafted in to carry out evictions, and to add insult to injury the bill for the reinforcements fell on the rate payers of the county.1

The third problem was a legacy of the Ulster plantations with the eastern side of the Donegal having a strong unionist population, notably theLagan valley and the south-east, where the nucleus of the DonegalUVF originated. That organisation was established in the county in early 1913 with members actively drilling and preparing to resist Home Rule. In its infancy the militant unionist strength in Donegal was four clubs, with a membership of 365. This increased in May 1913 to six clubs and 483 members and by September 1913 theUVF strength was 890 inRaphoe, 206 inRamelton and 82 inLetterkenny, a total of 1,178. This increased to 2,746 by November 1913 and 3,099 by the following March, organised in three battalions and armed with 1,299 weapons of various types. By February 1915 the figure decreased, with four battalions and 2,580 men.2In response to the unionist threat the National Volunteers was established and was to be put to use only if an effort was made to prevent the introduction of Home Rule by force. The IRB infiltrated the Volunteers by taking up key positions in the organisation and the scene was set for an uprising. Planning for this rising began in late 1913 and over the next eighteen months men travelled the country, visiting towns, villages and parishes in preparation for a rebellion against the British presence in Ireland. However, to counter the unionist threat the next objective for the Volunteers was to procure sufficient numbers of weapons and ammunition.

HOWTH GUN-RUNNING AND THE DONEGAL CONNECTION

IN THE SUMMER of 1914 while salmon fishing off Downings in north-west Donegal, Patrick McGinley from Gola Island received a telegram from Francis Joseph Bigger, a Belfast solicitor who he had met the previous year while fishing at Ardglass, County Down. The telegram summoned McGinley to Belfast immediately; on arrival he was given a letter and directed to Bangor in Wales, where he would make contact with Erskine Childers. On his arrival in Wales Childers took McGinley to the docks and showed him a large sailing boat moored there, the Asgard. The two began loading provisions onto the boat and after a week moved out, anchoring in the bay. Childers then requested that McGinley find another good seafaring man and he sent a wire to another Gola Island fisherman, Charlie Duggan, to come and join the crew, which included Mrs Childers, Mary Montague, daughter of Lord Montague.

CharlieDuggan arrived a week later, just in time to join the others, and it was at this point thatMcGinley andDuggan were informed that they would be involved in gun-running to Ireland whenChilders told them of the plan to transport a cargo of German rifles to aid the Irish cause.At the beginning of July the crew of theAsgardset off for the Belgian coast, closely followed by another yacht, theKelpie, owned by ConorO’Brien. The weather was fair, the sea smooth and as they worked their way up the English coast, skirting the rocks of Cornwall and the cliffs of Hampshire, Sussex and Kent, they seemed to onlookers to be part of the fleet of pleasure boats. But on passing the straits of Dover they began to dismantle the cabins and the decks were cleared.3This was on Sunday, 12 July 1914; while the Orange drums were beating in Ulster and the toast of the ‘glorious, pious and immortal memory’ was being honoured and acclaimed and theUlster Volunteer Force parading, these two yachts were approaching the Belgian coast. They soon met with a tug and it was not long before weapons wrapped in long canvas bales were being passed over to theAsgard. As she moved away the second yacht, theKelpie, came into sight and joined the tug.4The Kelpie was met later by another yacht, theChotah, off the Welsh coast and weapons were transferred to that boat. On 26 July 1914 over 800 Volunteers marched and cycled to Howth from Dublin and the surrounding areas to meet the gun-runners and help transport the 900 German rifles and 29,000 rounds of ammunition. Six days later theChotahlanded at Kilcoole on the Wicklow coast with another 600 rifles.5

3

HOME RULE SUSPENSION AND THE BIRTH OF THE IRISH VOLUNTEERS

THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT was formed at a meeting in Dublin on 25 November 1913 and subsequently companies were formed in nationalist areas of County Donegal. The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) was heavily involved in the Volunteers from its inception.

The outbreak of the War in Europe 1914 meant the suspension of the Home Rule Bill. On 18 September 1914 the bill received the royal assent but was suspended for the duration of the war. The draft bill contained many restrictions – Ireland would have no control over fiscal matters, policing or the army. The bill was considered a ‘whitewash’ and was unacceptable to the growing numbers who were aligning themselves to Sinn Féin. About September 1914 a split took place in the National Volunteers over the question of Ireland’s attitude towards England’s war aims and the policy outlined by theIrish Parliamentary Party’s leader,JohnRedmond. The group under the leadership of EoinMacNeill became known as the Irish Volunteers and those underRedmond as the National Volunteers. The split in the National Volunteers also affected many parts of County Donegal and in October DanielKelly discovered that most of theCloghaneely Company had signed up with JohnRedmond’s group when he mistakenly received their registration.

An Irish Volunteer company was formed inDungloe in late 1913 and held regular drill sessions, but as arms were not forthcoming, interest began to wane. Another Volunteer company was organised atCloghaneely college in 1914 by DanielKelly. He made contact with a superintendent on the railway who lived inLetterkenny, JamesKearns, who had previously obtained 600 rifles for the National Volunteers and these had been left in his care. DanielKelly purchased the weapons, at £3 each, for a number of companies established in the county. Later two prominent Irish Volunteer leaders, DrMacCartan and DinnyMcCullough, arrived inLetterkenny to visit JamesKearns and all the rifles were later removed to Tyrone and Belfast. JamesKearns was a violinist in a Freemason band and was able to buy revolvers, rifles and ammunition in Derry, Belfast and Britain. The Freemason band was employed for unionist functions, Orange lodge dances, etc. andKearns availed of the opportunity to purchase weapons in different areas.1

A number of Volunteer reviews were held in 1914 and in April that year 400 Volunteers paraded inLetterkenny and 2,000 inConvoy. It was estimated that in June 1914, the Volunteer strength in the county was approximately 5,500 and the British estimated in September that there were 74 units consisting of 10,661 members. Over the next two months Volunteer companies were formed in various parts of the county, including;Ballintra,Donegal town,Killaghtee,Inishowen,Kilmacrenan,Drumbologue,Drumoghill,Moville,Newtowncunningham,Castlehill,Mountcharles,Stran-orlar,Creeslough,Raphoe,Fahan,Manorcunningham,Milford,Glenswilly,Foxhall,Breenagh,Carndonagh,Moville,Burt,Castlefinn andDrumkeen. Officers of the Donegal County Board of the Irish Volunteers were appointed on 15 August 1914.2By January the following year the numbers had dropped dramatically to under 300 with many answering the call of JohnRedmond to join the British army.3The British recruiting officers preyed on young men at the local hiring fairs and filled their heads with stories of adventure and the lure of financial security.They did this when the young men had a number of drinks taken and offered them money which many accepted. The reality of the situation would only come to light the following day when theRIC would turn up and order the young men to honour the commitment made the previous day.

The war in Europe was to impinge on Donegal in another way with the arrival of ten Belgian families toLetterkenny. On Tuesday 12 January 1915, the evening train arrived fromStrabane with forty-eight Belgian refugees who were fleeing German occupation of their country. Deeply gratified at the warmth of their reception from the people ofLetterkenny, they were taken to the technical school at Lower Main Street for a dinner and a welcoming reception. Following this they were conveyed to a number of houses that were made available to them for the duration of their stay.4

About this time republicans were engaging in anti-recruitment campaigns throughout the county and very often Volunteers were called out to intercept and break up British army recruiting meetings. Republicans took part in this campaign in the legitimate view that the Irish people had a right to resist conscription by every means obtainable. The British army published recruitment advertisements in the local and national press and they employed the services of theIPP to assist with recruitment rallies in many small towns and villages. Those arrested for opposing recruitment were charged under theDefence of the Realm Act (DORA) and on conviction were fined, imprisoned or deported.

In early 1915 HerbertPim visited the county to address the Volunteers atCloghaneely, but was prevented from doing so by the local priestFrBoyle. He refusedPim and DanielKelly permission to use the local college and told them that he was ‘heart and soul with the Allies’.Pim then addressed the local congregation as they left mass and called on anyone wishing to join the Irish Volunteers to give their names, but due to the presence ofRIC men, who were taking notes, no one came forward.5HerbertPim, DenisMcCullough and ErnestBlythe were later arrested and charged under theDefence of the Realm Act for failing to comply with an order to leave the country. They were sentenced to three, four and three months respectively, on 24 July, for failing to comply with the order. The three had been initially served notice to leave the country, but defied the order and evaded the police for over six months before being captured. The court described them as leaders of the Irish Volunteer movement.

Later in the year PatrickO’Connor was charged under theDefence of the Realm Act and brought before a magistrate inRathmullan, but was discharged following protests by a local priest. He was arrested again later in the month inPortadown and was conveyed to Armagh jail. MichaelCarberry was charged for making statements liable to prejudice the recruiting of crown forces at a recruiting meeting inKilmacrenan on 24 July.6These meetings were used to bolster the Irish regiments in the British army and the recruits would normally be deployed to the front lines after a short period of training where many would meet their deaths in the trenches of Europe. Meanwhile the Ulster Volunteer division, an exclusively Protestant division of the British army and numbering over 20,000, was still based at home after ten months’ training at public expense.

The war had an effect on other aspects of life in the county also with the decline in the number of farm labourers. There was over a million acres of land in Donegal, mostly tillage and pasture, but at the hiring fairs farmers were unable to procure the number of labourers they required, a clear indication of the shortage of young men in the county.

On 1 August 1915 PádraigPearse delivered the now famous graveside oration at the funeral of the Fenian Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa at Glasnevin cemetery.O’Donovan Rossa had died in exile in America in early July. Part ofPearse’s oration read:

Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations. The defenders of this realm have worked well in secret and in the open. They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have foreseen everything, think they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.7

The obvious interpretation of this oration was that the time had come to end British rule through physical force resistance.

4

1916 - LEADERS IN COUNTY DONEGAL

DONEGAL PLAYED HOST to several leading figures of the 1916 Rising. Pádraig Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, Joseph Mary Plunkett, Roger Casement and Willie Pearse all visited the county in the years preceding the Rising.

RogerCasement, who was captured following the failed attempt to smuggle weapons intoTralee Bay on 21 April 1916, was a visitor to the county in 1912. His visit was not for political purposes, but for his love of the Irish language and his desire to learn it. He walked fromBallymoney in County Antrim toLishally, crossed on the ferry toCulmore, proceeded over theScalp mountain in Inishowen, along the old road toBuncrana and then through the Gap ofMamore to Uris. He spent six months living among the people of Donegal and visited many areas of the county, includingFanad,Portsalon,Tory Island,Cloghaneely andGlenties. The following is an extract from a letter from RogerCasement to his niece Blanche Constance, sent fromTory Island on 16 October 1912: ‘This is a photo of me too – taken onTory Island away off the far N. West Coast of Ireland – right out in the Atlantic. All the people in it speak Irish! – Not English – except me. They can speak English too – but prefer Irish their own tongue. Lots of the islands speak no English at all. I haste now – as I’ve things to do. Always your affectionate but lazy uncle. Roger.’1

After he left the countyCasement maintained friendships he had established. He wrote to his friends regularly and was even writing to them while being held in the Tower of London awaiting his execution in August 1916.2RogerCasement was arrested at Banna strand in Kerry after landing from the German submarine theAud.TheRIC in Tralee sent a wire through toDublin Castle that a stranger had been arrested at Banna strand and was being transferred toKingsbridge station Dublin under escort. The train was met at the station by a detective inspector and a party of detectives andCasement was taken directly to London. The DI was the only one who knew it was RogerCasement, but told the escort at the station that it was someone else. The identity ofCasement was not revealed until he was safely secured in a cell in London.3

Joseph MaryPlunkett also spent time in west Donegal before the1916Rising, for much the same reason as RogerCasement. He spent some time in theCloghaneely area and onTory Island learning the Irish language.

PádraigPearse, one of the main organisers of theRising, had an association with Donegal, from 1905 when he represented Niall Mac Giolla Bhríde,Creeslough, on appeal to the Court of King’s Bench in Dublin, one of the senior courts.Mhic Giolla Bhríde had been summoned in early 1905 for using a cart which did not bear his name and address in legible characters on the public highway. The cart bore his name and address in the Irish language. He represented himself, lost and was fined, but ignored the fine and carried on with his work before being summoned for a second time. He was found guilty and once again fined. The case was then appealed to the Court of King’s Bench where he was defended byPearse. The decision went against him and this was the last casePearse ever defended as a barrister.Pearse visited Donegal on several occasions, the first time in 1906 when he visited the Irish college inCloghaneely to deliver classes on the preservation and promotion of the Irish language.

Pearse wrote a series of articles inAn Claidheamh Soluisentitled ‘Belgium and its Schools’. In these he outlined the success of bilingual education in Belgium and recommended a similar policy for Gaeltacht districts in Ireland.Pearse recognised that few teachers in the Gaeltacht areas had a literary knowledge of the language. While proficient in speaking the language, most did not have a great knowledge of written Irish. To convince teachers of the advantages of bilingualismPearse visited a number of schools, explaining the new policy and giving demonstrations. On 2 July 1906 he returned toCloghaneely for the reopening of the Irish college and toured the Gaeltacht areas in the county. In July 1907 he returned once again and visited a number of places, includingGweedore and theRosses,Dungloe,Glenties,Ardara,Carrick,Kilcar,Killybegs,Croagh,Inver andDonegal town.4

Pearse’s third visit was part of the campaign to organise the Irish Volunteers. He was invited to the county byJohn E.Boyle and JohnSweeney to address a meeting atDungloe on 1 February 1914, wherePearse spoke of the British declaration issued against the importation of arms:

As far as I am concerned this was only waste paper. It was illegal, but whether legal or not it could not prevent the Volunteers getting arms when Volunteers were sufficiently drilled and ready to use them. The British government dare not stop them and if the Tories who had been backing upCarson were in power, did anyone mean to say that in face of Unionist actions now they would dare to prevent Irishmen securing arms? If they did, what would the answer be? It would be such an answer as would become Irishmen’s to give. A splendid opportunity was given to Irishmen now to realise themselves as men, and they could not call themselves men if they were not able, if need be, to fight in defence of their manhood, in defence of their homes, their women and children, in defence of their rights … it was their right as it was their duty, to arms in defence of their country.

True, there was only four million of a population, but no power on earth could prevent them arming … It would be for them to see that no section of Irishmen was oppressed in North East Ulster. They did not want to proscribe Protestants or Unionists in Ireland. We claim freedom and we will accord it to everyone. If the freedom of any one section was threatened by whomever, it would be for the rest of Ireland to rise in the defence of that section.5

ThomasMacDonagh, another of the Irish Volunteer leaders, visited Donegal in April 1914 and addressed a meeting onCruckaughrim Hill,Ballyliffin, inInishowen. A large crowd travelled from Derry for the meeting and the people ofInishowen were there in their thousands. Speaking about the Volunteer movement, he said:

… they could no longer go untrained in the use of arms and unable to defend their own territories in the case of necessity… they must have in Ireland a party trained, disciplined and efficient, necessary to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to all the people of Ireland … For the past hundred years the Irish people had not been trained to the use of arms.

For a long time they had been submitting their case to the Imperial Parliament, but they felt that for certain very grave reasons it was time that the Irish people should now be able to enforce their claims if necessary by the use of arms … when certain things had passed – as they would – they would have a strong citizen army, which would be able to fight on all occasions, not for one party or another, not for one country or another but always for Ireland. It was likely that conscription might become necessary for the British Empire in a very short time. Thousands left Austria every year to avoid conscription. How many young men would leave Ireland? If any did it would be the worst sort of emigration, but this organisation would prevent both these things happening. The Irish people would be able henceforth to hold their country for Irishmen. By be-coming Volunteers they would not be joining the British army in any shape. The Irish Volunteers would be the army of Ireland and would receive commands only from Irishmen.

He was not talking politics, he was not saying what their ultimate national destiny would be – that would be for the people of Ireland to choose. He called on them to insist henceforth on the Irish question being:

… what is best for Ireland and what amount of interference we shall allow in our affairs … the Volunteers believed that with this weapon in their hands they would be able to do their duty to their country in the best way.6

He concluded by giving details of the formation of companies, drill practice, etc. After ThomasMacDonagh and PádraigPearse’s visit to the county the Volunteer organisation proceeded with more enthusiasm.

WilliePearse was also associated with the county through his trade as a sculptor and, with his father, was involved in the construction ofSt Eunan’s cathedral inLetterkenny. The two men carved the marble railing, which extends the whole width of the cathedral, the caps, annulets, bases and capitals.They were also responsible for carving the pulpit of the Donegal Masters out of Sicilian marble, which is situated on the right at the front of the main altar. As a child Willie also spent some time in Donegal; when he was eight years old he attended theBallydesken national school inFanad for a year.7

5

ORGANISING THE IRB IN DONEGAL

IN LATE SEPTEMBER 1914 Ernest Blythe was summoned by Seán McDermott and Denis McCullough to organise on behalf of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in north Ulster. The following letter was received by Blythe confirming his appointment:

The Irish Volunteers

Headquarters: 41 Kildare Street

Dublin

Mr Ernest Blythe

Magheragall

Lisburn

County Antrim

Dear Sir

I beg to notify you of your appointment as Organiser on behalf of the Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers. I trust that you will lose no time in getting as many Companies as possible in Ulster affiliated with this Committee.

With best wishes

Yours faithfully

Bulmer Hobson – Hon. Sec.1

ErnestBlythe arrived in Donegal at the beginning of November that year and first paid a visit to DanKelly atCashelnagore in west Donegal andAodh Ó Dubhthaigh who lived betweenCashelnagore andGortahork. He was introduced to a number of young men and authorised DanKelly to induct them into the IRB, if he considered them appropriate candidates.Blythe’s next stop wasDungloe, but he failed to recruit anyone there. He next addressed a meeting at NiallMac Giolla Bhríde’s house inCreeslough, but was informed by those present that it would be impossible to establish a Volunteer unit in the area. He leftCreeslough and walked toGlen and called on PatrickMcFadden, who toldBlythe that he could not think of anyone in the area who would be interested in joining the IRB, but that he would continue to source recruits quietly.Blythe had more success inRaphoe; there he made contact with JohnnyMcShane, who organised a number of young men willing to take the IRB oath.

InLetterkenny he met ConalCarberry and considered him to be the most influential man he had met in the north who presented a number of young men to take the oath. AtDonegal town a few more recruits were identified. The next stop wasStranorlar andBallybofey, where he met JohnCassidy; there a number of men were sworn into the IRB. ErnestBlythe worked extensively in Donegal and made contact with every Sinn Féin sympathiser on his list of contacts. However, in the course of four to five weeks he only managed to swear in about twenty men.2

In 1915, as the IRB continued to organise in the county, a number of organisers paid a visit. These included BulmerHobson, DenisMcCullough, Herbert NewmanPim, SeamusDobbyn and LiamGaynor. It was difficult for any one person to estimate the local strength of the IRB – the organisation was secret in nature and an ordinary member would only know the small number of members in his circle. In the early years the principal aim of local IRB policy was the disruption and disorganisation of the Hibernian organisation. TheAOH did likewise and made every effort to disrupt the IRB, the Volunteers and Sinn Féin.3

6

DONEGAL AND 1916

IN FEBRUARY 1916 Daniel Kelly invited Pádraig Pearse to Donegal to address a meeting at Doe Castle, Creeslough. The purpose of the meeting was to improve the morale of Volunteers in the county and encourage new recruits. Pearse replied that he would be happy to renew his acquaintance with the people of the county. The plans for the meeting were well advanced when the Rising took place in Dublin.

Some time before theRising, JamesKearns fromLetterkenny was busy setting up arms’ deals and had arranged for the purchase of three.75calibre French machine guns from munitions agents in London. In preparation for their importation to Ireland,Kearns had three life-size statues specially made, inside which the guns would be transported, but when he returned to London the agents informed him that the arms had been handed over to the French government. Some three weeks before theRising,Kearns had a large consignment of weapons prepared in Belfast, Derry andStrabane. The Derry battalion of the Irish Volunteers received instructions to transport the consignment toLetterkenny.1

TheEasterRising began at noon on Monday 24 April when PádraigPearse read the proclamation in front of the GPO in Dublin. Approximately 1,600 Volunteers, led byPearse, and 200 members of theCitizen Army, led by James Connolly, took over a number of strategic sites in Dublin and the battle began soon after.2In Donegal on Easter Sunday seven Volunteers mobilised atCashelnagore and cycled toCreeslough where they met another twenty-six men; all were armed with an assortment of rifles and revolvers. TheRIC came out of their barracks but were quickly ordered to go back inside. The men had no direct orders to do anything, and as a result of the countermands were unsure of what to do; by Easter Monday there were still no orders forthcoming.On hearing of the action in Dublin, DanielKelly and his brother decided to go there, but were told that there were no trains going beyond Dundalk.3

Meanwhile in Dublin, a bloody battle ensued and lasted until the afternoon of Saturday 29 April whenPearse, shocked at the number of civilian casualties, surrendered to the British commander, GeneralMaxwell. The British had been responsible for the majority of the civilian casualties.Pearse had personally witnessed the deaths of civilians including a young family killed by British soldiers as they fled their burning building under a white flag. Some sixty-four Volunteers were killed in the fighting and 120 wounded and as a result of intensive shelling from the gunshipHelga, over 300 civilians were killed and more than 1,000 wounded.4

There were said to be a number of Donegal men who fought in Dublin during theRising including EunanMcGinley, ConorMcGinley and JosephSweeney who were all students at UCD at the time. JosephSweeney was a former student atPearse’s school, St Enda’s, fought in Dublin during Easter Week and later spent several months as an internee atStafford jail and later atFrongoch prison camp in north Wales. The fact there was no uprising in Donegal was partly due to the confusion sparked by Eoin McNeill’s attempt to call off theRising. He issued a letter to theSunday Independentcountermanding the manoeuvres, and in responsePearse sent out messages with orders cancelling the countermand. Not surprisingly, this led to confusion throughout the country, with the result that only a small number of areas outside Dublin rose.5A number of Donegal men serving in the British forces were also involved in the fighting in Dublin. A policeman killed outsideDublin Castle on Easter Monday was a native ofInishboffin Island, off the Donegal coast.6

Another Donegal man who played a part in theRising was DonnchaMcNelis fromMalinbeg inGlencolmcille parish.McNelis left Donegal as a young man to take up employment in Cork and joined the Volunteers there in 1913. The Cork companies of the Volunteers mobilised at Macroom on Easter Sunday morning on the assumption that they were to receive a consignment of weapons, due to be landed at Banna strand on the Kerry coast. However, with the failure of that plan the Volunteers were instructed to return home.7

Over 2,000 men and women were imprisoned and some ninety death sentences passed by a secret military tribunal, of which seventy-five were commuted. In the following weeks theRIC and military were very active in raiding and arresting people who, it was reported, were associated with Sinn Féin. Over 3,500 people were arrested throughout the country, resulting in the internment of more than 1,800 men.

The British military and police had begun raiding for Republican suspects by the end of Easter week. Raids had been carried out in Donegal, Tyrone and Derry, with fourteen men arrested. They were initially taken to Derry jail before being transferred to Dublin by train. Among them were JohnCassidy fromBallybofey and DanielKelly fromCashelnagore.Kelly was arrested at his home inCashelnagore on the Saturday 30 April. He had received a tip-off from the guards on the railway that there had been arrests in Derry the previous day, but as the RIC had not interfered with their activities at the beginning of the week, Kelly did not think his liberty was under threat. He decided to remain at home instead of going into hiding. A police party of seventeen RIC men called to his house. WhenKelly opened the door, the district inspector said: ‘I arrest you in connection with this Volunteer movement.’

DanielKelly was taken to Derry by train in the company of two sergeants and four policemen. On arrival in Derry they made their way to the car rank. They called over a jarvey, but the driver, a man called English, refused to transport the prisoner saying: ‘No, I’ll never drive that man with you as an escort.’They secured the service of another and went to Victoria police barracks, and later the prisoner was lodged in Derry jail. There were nine other prisoners there – LouisSmith, who was seventy-five, JoeO’Doherty, VincentO’Doherty, PaddyHegarty, PaddyShiels and CharlieBreslin all from Derry city, HughGribben from Castledawson, JimmyMcGurk from Gullaghduff and JimmieGrieves from Glenmornan. The men were taken out of the jail at 6.30 a.m. and marched to the Great Northern Railway station. Before the train left the station an officer told the soldiers that if there were any attempt to escape or attempted rescue, the orders were to shoot to kill. They eventually arrived at Amiens Street station in Dublin and were marched to Trinity College. Buildings were smouldering following the week’s conflict. From Trinity the prisoners were taken to Richmond barracks. While there a British soldier approached one of the soldiers escorting the men and said: ‘All these characters should be shot!’The escorting soldier, named Doherty, replied: ‘If you touch a hair on one of their heads, you will be sorry for it. These men have a country to fight for. You men have never been to war. Our battalion (Enniskillen Fusiliers) is only after coming from France and now we are stuck on this dirty job.’ From the Saturday to the following Friday, in poor conditions, the prisoners were held in Richmond barracks, from where they could hear the shooting of theRising leaders atKilmainham jail. On the Friday morning they were marched to Dun Laoghaire where they boarded a ferry for Holyhead in Wales. On arrival at Holyhead in the early hours of the morning; the soldiers enjoyed refreshments, but there were none for the prisoners.

On arrival in England the prisoners were first taken toWakefield prison where they were held for over three weeks, before being transferred toFrongoch in Wales. Each prisoner was issued with a typed form which said he was ‘detained at His Majesty’s pleasure’. Four companies of theScottish Highlanders escorted them and while waiting on the platform for the train the prisoners sang the ‘Soldier’s Song’, to the delight of the Scottish soldiers. One remarked that it was the best marching air he had ever heard. The prisoners eventually arrived atFrongoch camp – ‘The University of Revolution’ – in north Wales; they were the first of the prisoners to arrive there. One of theScottish Highlanders said if there had been a Sinn Féin in Scotland he would not have been in the British army. Shortly after their arrival DinnyMcCullough approached DanielKelly and said: ‘We are reorganising the IRB and you will be representing Donegal. Could you nominate a man to represent Derry?’ PaddyHegarty was selected and a meeting of the IRB was held in the YMCA hall in the camp. The meeting proved to be very productive with men being appointed for reorganising the Volunteers in every county from Donegal to Cork.

At the same time MichaelCollins began developing his intelligence network within the camp, grilling every man about various aspects of the British administration and loyalists in their areas. The established network was to prove very useful in the war campaign. The internees made good use of their captivity by organising themselves into military units, drilling, parading and preparing themselves for a new and better-organised offensive.8

The Irish people were not overly convinced by the actions ofEaster Week and even denounced the leaders and Volunteers, blaming them for the civilian dead and general destruction. However, the actions of the British in the following weeks would soon bring about a change in attitude towards the British. The executions of fifteen leaders of theRising in Dublin between 5 and 12 May, and the execution of RogerCasement in London on 3 August acted as the catalyst for this change.

In the aftermath of theRising condemnations of the Volunteers’ actions were heard in many parts of County Donegal. At a meeting of theLetterkenny Guardians on Friday 28 April the chairman, P.Carroll, JP, said: ‘I think it would be a proper thing to condemn the action of these soreheads.’

The clerk interjected: ‘You had better keep your names out of the press.’

‘Why should we?’ asked the chairman. ‘If a man hasn’t the courage of his convictions he may keep himself under the table.’9

At a meeting of theDonegal Board of Guardians on Saturday 5 May, EdwardMelly, vice-chairman, protested in forceful terms against the action of the board at the previous meeting in passing a resolution condemning the Dublin rebellion. It was rare, he said, to find a body of men, who ought to have known better, condemning people and encouraging the British government to shoot Irishmen. JohnMcGlinchey, addressing the meeting, said: ‘The resolution does not read that way.’ The chairman said the resolution read no other way, adding that the British government was always very good at shooting Irishmen. JohnMcGlinchey replied: ‘There is nothing objectionable in the resolution.’ The chairman said it should have been left to the absentee chief secretary and there should have been no resolution passed until they ascertained who was to blame.He was not taking the side of the insurrectionists, but the resolution should not have been passed. They should have done what every other board had done – remained silent. When