PROFILE BULMER HOBSON Hobson’s choice Kidnapped on the eve of the Rising to prevent him interfering with it, he has been written out of its history, writes Shane Browne

HE kidnapping of Bulmer history”. Desmond Fitzgerald remembered Hobson is a remarkable but how “one could feel he was treading on largely forgotten tale of the dangerous ground”. Easter Rising. The ambitious Hobson’s influence over Eoin MacNeill, Hobson, born in Belfast in Chief of Staff of the Irish Volunteers, was T 1883, had been a rising star in also a major factor in his kidnapping. the Irish Republican Brotherhood but with By the evening of Holy Thursday, with the establishment of the Irish Volunteers “definite information that an insurrection Bulmer Hobson (seated) in 1913, his estrangement from the was to occur in the immediate future”, with Padraig Ó Riain. radical and separatist element within the Hobson rushed to MacNeill’s home to COURTESY OF NATIONAL movement had widened, in particular his ensure that measures were put in place to LIBRARY OF IRELAND relationship with Thomas Clarke and Seán prevent this. Éamonn Ceannt remembered Mac Diarmada. talking with Thomas MacDonagh, who Hobson saw the Irish Volunteers as remarked: “Bulmer Hobson is the evil was a ruse”. Thus, he was unsurprised and when he walked from Cabra Park that purely a defensive force, but the radical genius of the Volunteers and if we could when he was greeted with guns upon his night, he walked from the pages of history. separatists were of a different ilk, separate MacNeill from his influence, all arrival at Conlon’s home in Phibsborough. Hobson’s crucial mistake was not believing it should become “an instrument would be well”. Hobson was “inclined to be obstreperous, that he did not take part in the Rising for insurrection”. Hence, on Good Friday 1916, with the protesting against his arrest”, but would after his release — for he would not be Historian Charles Townshend has Rising days away, Seán Tobin — who later claim that his captors were very driven against his “judgement by being described Hobson as an “unusual kind had succeeded Hobson as chair of the nice to him. Con O’Donovan, who was faced with a fait accompli”— but that he of ‘physical-force man’, but a dedicated Leinster Executive of the IRB— arrived at surprised to be guarding Hobson, assumed failed to court arrest once the Rising was revolutionary for all that”. His 1909 Volunteer headquarters to persuade him the reason for his detention was because quashed. MacNeill expressed a keen sense pamphlet, Defensive Warfare: A Handbook to attend a meeting at the home of fellow he was not trusted, but “possibly there for why such an act would be beneficial, for Irish Nationalists is significant, IRB man, Martin Conlon. was some mistake… which would soon be warning Hobson that they would have no because it was here he firmly asserted, While Hobson was immediately rectified”. Nevertheless, the situation may political future if they were not arrested. “We must not fight to make a display of suspicious, he relented, recalling how he not have been as sanguine as Hobson has Instead Hobson opted to go on the run. heroism, but fight to win.” was curious “as to whether… the meeting made out. Upon his re-emergence, he now found His disillusionment with the 1916 Conlon would later recall that shooting that he was ostracised from his former insurrection was not the repudiation of SNAPSHOT Hobson was an option. Once the Rising colleagues and soon withdrew from public force, but “the futile use of arms”. As a JOHN BULMER HOBSON had commenced, the job of guarding life. Hobson’s biographer Marnie Hay has result, Hobson was not privy to the final him was of little interest to IRB men who surmised: “He disappeared from public arrangements for the Rising. Born: 14 August 1883, Belfast, wanted to join the fighting. If we are to view as if he had been executed along with However, it seems that a speech at a Co Down take Conlon at his word, he countenanced the insurrectionists of 1916, but without Cumann na mBan concert on 16 April was Educated: Friends’ School, “any unauthorised action”. the benefit of their subsequent spin the catalyst that marked him down for Lisburn Subsequently, on the evening of Easter doctors”. arrest by his IRB colleagues. Here Hobson Monday 1916, under the orders of Mac Bulmer Hobson’s name was ultimately unabashedly warned “of the extreme Affiliation: IRB/Irish Volunteers Diarmada, Hobson was eventually excluded from the revolutionary narrative. danger of being drawn in to precipitate Career: Revenue commissioner released. He was no longer considered action”, proclaiming that “no man had a threat, as the Rising was under way. Shane Browne is an MA graduate of a right to risk the fortunes of a country Died: 8 August 1969, Damning accusations of treachery over his the UCD School of History specialising in order to create for himself a niche in Castleconnell, Co Limerick arrest would taint his standing, however, in Modern Irish History

LEARN MORE Gaeilge 1893-1993 by Ireland, 2007 TG4 documentary. READ... Proinsias Mac Aonghusa, www.youtube.com/ Q Seán Mac Diarmada by (Conradh na Gaeilge, 1993) watch?v=xxJNCe2s378 Brian Feeney (O’Brien Press Q A Short History of the ‘DOUGLAS HYDE, 16 Lives series, 2014) Irish Volunteers by PRESIDENT OF IRELAND’ LISTEN... ON YOUTUBE Q Seán Mac Diarmada: Bulmer Hobson (1918) Q Tomorrow We’ll Gather The Mind of the Revolution Q Bulmer Hobson and the the Rushes, 1971 RTÉ radio by Gerard MacAtasney Nationalist Movement in documentary on Padraic Colum (Drumlin Publications, 2006) Twentieth-Century Ireland tinyurl.com/qxml5a5 Q Erins’s Tragic Easter: the Irish by Marnie Hay (2009) Rebellion of 1916 and its Martyrs, VISIT... edited by Maurice Joy WATCH... Q The GAA museum at Croke (New York, 1916) Q Óglaigh na hÉireann — Bulmer Park has several displays Q Sport and Ireland: A Hobson Interview, RTÉ, 1963, dealing with the fight for History by Paul Rouse (RTÉ Archives) www.youtube. independence. Opening times (Oxford, 2015) com/watch?v=d9nnU6VrSjA vary but can be checked at Q Ar son na Gaeilge: Conradh na Q Douglas Hyde, President of www.gaa.ie

14 | Irish Independent 1916 Collection Irish Independent I 26 November 2015