PROFILE

PATRICK PEARSE The many faces of an unlikely revolutionary Regina Uí Chollatáin profiles Patrick Pearse — the son, the poet, the teacher, the barrister, the political activist...

12 | Irish Independent 1916 Collection Irish Independent I 16 October 2015 PROFILE

SNAPSHOT PATRICK HENRY PEARSE Born: Dublin, 10 Nov 1879 Educated: Westland Row CBS, UCD, King’s Inns Career: lawyer (from 1901), headmaster, St Enda’s (from 1908) Affiliation: Irish Volunteers, IRB Died: Kilmainham, 3 May 1916

HAVE just done one of the hardest tasks I have ever had to do. I have had to condemn to death one of the finest characters I have ever come across. There must be something very wrong in the ‘Istate of things that makes a man like that a Rebel.’ Major-General Charles Blackader, President of the Courts- Martial gave this account of Patrick Pearse while dining with Elizabeth, Countess of Fingall, in 1916. Pearse’s poems ‘To My Mother’, ‘To My Brother’, ‘A Mother Speaks’ and ‘The Wayfarer’ written from his cell in Arbour Hill and Kilmainham were to be given to his family along with his final letter to his mother penned just before his execution on 3 May. Signing the letter simply ‘Your son, Pat’, The young Patrick Pearse as teacher and barrister he stated that the rebels would be judged (above); and UCD’s Regina Uí Chollatáin (left) harshly but that they would be praised at the Pearse Museum in St Enda’s Park, Dublin in time. Patrick Pearse’s signature is well (below) STEVE HUMPHREYS recognised in the context of the 1916 Proclamation and his lifelong tendency to sign with his academic qualifications BA BL. The simplicity of this signature to his mother is a statement in itself on Pearse the man or, as he was fondly referred to in the West of Ireland, ‘Fear Bhaile Átha Cliath’ [the Dublin man]. While he is remembered for political writings and events, Pearse, the man, is more difficult to categorise; he was Irish and English, Victorian and modernist, respectable and revolutionary; in practical terms he was also a son, a brother, a poet, an Irish language enthusiast, a barrister, an educationalist, and a political activist. Born on 10 November 1879, turning 21 at the turn of the 20th century, he bore the classic traits of middle-class Victorian the Irish language are all commendable When Pearse finished post-primary His confidence in the approach to Irish life. Strength of character prevailed achievements in their own right. exams in 1896 he was appointed an language, culture and history was quoted alongside an often reckless pursuit of In his statement to the Court Martial on assistant teacher. With his classmate in the Gaelic American in 1914, stating traditional values and sometimes over- 2 May 1916 he stated: “When I was a child Eamon O’Neill he founded the New Ireland that “the whole experiment of Irishising zealous ambition to free Ireland. Growing of ten I went down on my bare knees by my Literary Society and became involved with education in Ireland must stand or fall with up in working-class surroundings of Great bedside one night and promised God that I the Gaelic League, joining the Executive St Enda’s”. Brunswick Street [now Pearse Street], his should devote my life to an effort to free my committee from 1898. As editor of its mixed parentage was more a source of country.” newspaper An Claidheamh Soluis from E presented his own theories on confusion than comfort as demonstrated Whether this can be judged as the last 1903-09 he left his mark on the language education in 1916 in the Murder in the letter to himself on 11 May 1912 in his testament of a man condemned to death movement’s campaigns. H Machine series and this vision of journal An Barr Buadh. for a cause he was prepared to die for, or He was steadfast in promoting a vernacular education and its relation His father James Pearse was a the honest ramblings of an Irish patriot, national education system using examples to literacy compares with the child- stonemason with English ancestry the ideal of pursuing cultural and political from the US, Denmark, Germany, Wales centred models of contemporaries Maria spanning 400 years. His mother Margaret nationalism was evidently deep rooted and Hungary. In 1906 he published a Montessori and Rudolf Steiner. Using Brady, hailed from a traditional Catholic from an early age. series of articles entitled ‘Belgium and its Eoin MacNeill’s comparison of the English farming background with roots in Meath Schools’ and he wrote more than education system in Ireland to the systems and Cavan. Patrick was the second of four 70 book reviews. Séamas Ó of slave education, the Murder Machine children, and his final words in his final On the revolutionary road Buachalla credits Pearse with generated stark theories providing letter indicate a loving, close-knit family, moulding public opinion and controversial argument for a national I am glad “Wow-Wow, Willie, Mary Brigid and that the Orangemen have armed, for it is educating League members education. In 1939 Desmond Ryan credited Mother, goodbye. I have not words to tell a goodly in a national philosophy in Pearse with being “the educationalist of the thing to see arms in Irish hands. I should of my love of you… I will call to you in my like to see education. His strength of movement… since he was by nature, a born heart at the last moment.” the A. O. H. armed. I should like to see the character in the debate on teacher”. His Gaelic nationalist sentiment was Transport the provision of fees for the In a literary context Pearse was Workers armed. I should like to see any and evident from a young age and his interest every body of Ir teaching of Irish is noteworthy criticised for attempting to impose the in Irish language developed at school. ish citizens armed. We must accustom but his main victory was the European short story model on modern ourselves Accounts from his peers in school allude to to the thought of arms, to the sight of arms, role he played in the campaign Irish language literature. He published ten an aloof and unapproachable young boy. JA to the use of arms. We may for essential Irish in 1908-09 short stories in Irish, the first, ‘An Sagart’ Duffy, who sat beside him for four years in make mistakes in the for matriculation in the new [The Priest], in An Claidheamh Soluis, beginning and Westland Row, said that he knew nothing shoot the wrong peo ple; but bloodshed National University. February 1905. The theme of a later story, of him. Others refer to his choice to be is a cleansing and a sanctifying thin At a time when the education ‘Na Bóithre’ [The Roads] challenges the alone reading rather than joining in games. g, and the system was examination- restraints experienced by a girl in a rural nation which How then did this young misfit play a regards it as the final horror has lost its focused and basically colonial environment expected to stay at home significant role in the formation of 20th manhood in approach, Pearse set up his while her parents and brother go out to a . Th ere are many things more horrible than century Ireland? His stamp on education at bloodshe own project, St Enda’s school, party. Through these he pioneered the many levels, his role in creating a modern d; and slavery is one of them . which he guided from 1908- use of new literary styles and forms in Irish literature embracing European 16. He was the driving force, Irish. Patrick Pearse, ‘The Coming Re literature, and his endeavour to reinstate volution’, too, for St Ita’s school for girls. CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 >>> November 1913

16 October 2015 I Irish Independent Irish Independent 1916 Collection | 13 PROFILE: PATRICK PEARSE The many faces of an unlikely revolutionary

>>> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12 Pearse is credited with a complete overhaul of Irish language publications and his four editorials in An Claidheamh Soluis in May-June 1906 focus on the need to use the European model in literary themes, style and form to progress from the folktale. These essays are among the first and most insightful treatises on literary criticism in modern Irish language literature. In short the first decade of the 20th century was a period of vigorous campaign and industry for Pearse, be it in an educational, literary or journalistic capacity.

Y 1912 Pearse’s leaning towards political nationalism took Bprecedence over cultural promotion. ‘The Coming Revolution’ (November 1913) and ‘The Psychology of a Volunteer’ (January 1914) in An Claidheamh Soluis are examples of this mindset. His political involvement in the Irish Volunteers was now to the fore and his graveside eulogy at O’Donovan Rossa’s funeral in August 1915 was hailed as one of his most powerful public orations, not least because of the links it summoned in the minds of those present between O’Donovan Rossa’s death and the graves of dead Fenians before him. The funeral provided the platform for a public statement for the rebels, which was “Ireland unarmed published in full in The Freeman’s will attain just as Journal. Its impact much freedom as was widely felt by those who agreed it is convenient that Ireland for England to was ready for a give her; Ireland revolution and by those who didn’t. armed will attain His educational ultimately just as and political writings at this much freedom as time indicate a PEARSE AND THE MARTYRDOM COMPLEX RICHARD McELLIGOTT she wants” definite drive to promote Gaelicism and nationalism in all aspects of Irish life. More of an orator than a military leader The four pamphlets penned by Pearse at the end of 1915 sealed the nationalist ideal proclaiming, among other arguments, that ATRICK PEARSE was an unlikely needed to justify itself in arms. the ghosts of the ‘four evangelists’, Lalor, revolutionary leader. However the Events had doomed the rebellion Mitchel, Tone and Davis needed to be laid to P emergence of the Ulster Volunteers to certain failure but Pearse still led rest. He termed the pamphlets Ghosts, The and its implications for nationalist a detachment of Irish Volunteers into Separatist Idea, The Spiritual Nation, and politics began to awaken his zeal. Pearse the GPO on Easter Monday. Though The Sovereign People as “the four gospels of described his satisfaction that the the figurehead of the rebellion, he the new testament of Irish nationality”. “Orangemen had armed, because it is a was no military leader and his talents Pearse’s role in the Rising from initiation goodly thing to see arms in Irish hands.” lay in oration. While the fighting to surrender was fearless and determined. The outbreak of the First World raged it was Connolly who physically Desmond Fitzgerald recounts his time with War turned him down the road of directed the battle. Within the walls Pearse in the GPO saying that the natural revolutionary nationalism. Like many of the GPO, Pearse confined himself to gravity in Pearse’s face conveyed a sense of of his generation across Europe, Pearse discussion about the justification for great tragedy and accounts of the Rising began to glorify the ideal of a blood the Rising with his co-conspirators and attest that Pearse was aware of the sacrifice sacrifice in pursuit of a nobler cause, autumn of 1915, the Military Council morale boosting speeches to keep the involved. In a period of high nationalism most notably when he wrote “the old perfected its plans for revolt. Pearse’s beleaguered rebels fighting. Pearse was one of its most articulate heart of the earth needed to be warmed adulation of Robert Emmet’s failed Forced to evacuate their position exponents. His reputation became bound by the red wine of the battlefields”. uprising in 1803 had a significant on Friday afternoon, Pearse and his to the fortunes of republicanism and Having joined the Irish Volunteers, influence on the planners who, like command made a chaotic retreat to nationalism in 20th century Ireland but Pearse was sworn into the IRB in Emmet, saw Dublin as the focal point for Moore Street. By Saturday, with British his was the life that was most documented December 1913. Following the larger split a new rebellion. By now Pearse had truly forces bearing down, the situation was in the articles in the organ of the Gaelic in the Volunteers, he began to develop developed a martyrdom complex and was hopeless. There are reports that after League, An Claidheamh Soluis. In this plans for a series of resistance activities convinced that Irish nationalism needed witnessing three elderly men being cut forum he was acknowledged for his role which the Irish Volunteers should engage a sacrificial gesture in order to prompt down by the crossfire, Pearse notified in the language movement and society, as in if circumstances dictated. it into a full scale war of independence his men of his intention to surrender. opposed to his role in the Revolution alone. These efforts secured him the against British rule. At approximately 3.45pm, he drafted Patrick Pearse was not a one- key position of Director of Military With the addition of James Connolly in a general to “lay down arms” so as “to dimensional figure. The multi-dimensional Organisation for the Volunteers in January 1916, the Military Council now prevent the further slaughter of Dublin legacy he left may well be the best way now December 1914. The following May consisted of all seven signatures of the citizens, and in the hope of saving the to lay his own ghost to rest. Pearse was one of three men appointed Proclamation. lives of our followers”. to the IRB’s newly created Military That document was mainly Pearse’s Dr Regina Uí Chollatáin is a senior Council, which was tasked with planning composition, and its reference to “the Dr Richard McElligott lectures in Modern lecturer in Modern Irish and Head of a rebellion against British rule using the dead generations from which she receives Irish History at University College Dublin School of the UCD School of Irish, Irish Volunteers. her old tradition of nationhood” echoed (UCD) and is the author of several works on Celtic Studies and Folklore Working in secret throughout the his conviction that each generation the Irish Revolutionary period

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