KEYNOTE

Sixteen nails With the GPO ablaze, the end of the insurrection came swiftly —

HE ‘blood sacrifice’ ’s last act as Principal of many of them teenagers or in their days anointing the wounded lying on dimension of the Rising Corduff National School in instructing his early twenties who had come to join the the streets and in Jervis Street — the idea that a Christ- assistant to take flowers from the school Volunteers having previously been active Hospital), returned to the GPO on like act of sacrifice was garden and place them on the local church within the GAA, Na Fianna, Cumann na Thursday to tend the wounded, he was necessary in order to altar in front of the Blessed Sacrament, mBan or had family associations with the besieged by requests from various rebels to ‘save’ Ireland — has further imply that many of the leaders Fenians. Secondly, owing to the confusion deliver notes to their wives and mothers. always been emphasised. involved in the Rising were also aware and secrecy surrounding the organisation Aware that there was a strong likelihood T But was this really the that their actions would result in their of the Rising, very few of the ‘foot-soldiers’ that they would not be returning home case? Certainly the chief protagonists, in deaths. Yet, as with so many other aspects within the Volunteers and the Irish Citizen following the end of the insurgency, the particular and Tom Clarke, of the Rising, it would be contentious to Army (ICA) comprehended the difficulties rebels chose to put their affairs in order on were convinced in the weeks leading argue that death was the accepted — and that they and their comrades faced. any available scraps of paper. By the time up to the Rising that it would probably expected — outcome for all those involved As the week progressed and the Dublin Fr Flanagan left on the Friday morning, end in defeat and death for most of its in staging the Rising. rebels learned of their harsh reality, his pockets were full of scraps of paper and participants. Indeed, observation of witness that there would be no German support envelopes (pinched from the Post Office Famously, at a meeting convened for statements recorded by the Bureau of nor had any of the planned provincial supplies) spelling out final instructions the officers of the Dublin Brigade of the Military History in the late 1940s and rebellions been successful, the rebels and parting messages for various loved Volunteers, a few weeks prior to the Rising, early 1950s demonstrate that many of the began to prepare for the worst — especially ones. Pearse apparently asked those assembled if participants in the rebellion were wholly as the fighting intensified. While hopes of a victory were they were ready ‘to meet… God?’ Allegedly, unprepared for the realities of battle. Their Thus when Father John Flanagan, a diminished by the Friday of Easter Week, only a handful of the audience members naivety can be attributed to two things. priest in the Pro-Cathedral (who had few would have suspected that the official were unnerved by his implication. Tales Firstly, their age. Typically, the Volunteers heard confessions in the GPO on Easter surrender was only a matter of hours away. of Éamonn Ceannt preparing his will and were comprised of young men and women, Monday and had spent the subsequent With the exception of the GPO, most of the

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in the coffin with deadly consequences for its leaders, writes Leanne Blaney

garrisons had managed to avoid coming send Elizabeth O’Farrell to meet with the evident among the rebels as they learned Joseph McGuinness, described as ‘a mixed under direct assault and serious artillery Commander of the British Forces, General of their leaders’ decision. Some such as the reception, cheering, jeering, booing and bombardment. However the Volunteers William Lowe, and express the Irish Moore Street fighters, had to be talked out of making remarks, mostly uncomplimentary’. had been forced out of their Headquarters Republican Army’s desire to agree terms disobeying orders and continuing the fight By the May 1, the rebellion was over in the GPO on the Friday evening on of surrender. Within three hours, Pearse by (ironically) the two most strident leaders, and the military’s investigations were account of the building being ablaze. Even (accompanied by Elizabeth O’Farrell) Clarke and Mac Diarmada. underway. General Sir John Maxwell, then, Louise Gavan Duffy was convinced officially surrendered unconditionally to Justification for the leaders’ decision the newly arrived British commander-in- that the plan was for the remaining General Lowe at the top of Moore Street. to surrender has often been attributed chief, lived up to his military credentials Volunteers to join other garrisons. While the moment of to their concern for the and by May 5, 3,430 men and 79 women Including the one at Jameson’s Distillery surrender captured by a British lives of ordinary Dublin were arrested on suspicion of being ‘Sinn on Marrowbone Lane, where spirits army photographer appears civilians. Unfortunately, these Féiners’. Confusion persisted among remained high following the capture of a peaceful and reserved, in “ civilians did not universally Dubliners who assumed the Rising was load of cabbages and preparations were reality it was very different. High emotions acknowledge the rebels’ lead by Sinn Féin owing to the similarity underway for Mass to be held within the O’Farrell delivered the ranging from sorrow noble intentions. Instead between the Volunteers and Sinn Féin’s garrison on the Sunday. order signed by Pearse and as the army rounded up the rhetoric as well as the public knowledge Instead on the Saturday morning, countersigned by Connolly to great anger were surrendering rebels and that a number of the prominent rebels having held a council of war in the lying in his Red Cross bed in evident among the marched them towards the were members of Sinn Féin. backroom of 16 Moore Street, where James Dublin Castle, to the various Rotunda Hospital and later However, Arthur Griffith’s political Connolly lay injured in bed, the assembled garrisons around Dublin rebels as they learned Richmond Barracks, large organisation was not behind the Rising, members of the Provisional Government during the next 24 hours. of their leaders’ crowds gathered along the and instead only in 1917 would Sinn Féin — Pearse, Connolly, , Tom High emotions ranging from route and gave the rebels formally join with republicans to form Clarke and Seán MacDiarmada — chose to sorrow to great anger were decision to surrender what Bridget Lyons, niece of CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 >>>

Thursday 18 February 2016 I Irish Independent Irish Independent 1916 Collection | 5 KEYNOTE Sixteen nails in the coffin

>>> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 a new political party. Consequently, following inquiry, 1,424 men and 73 women imprisoned on suspicion had to be released without charge — after their homes had been ransacked and many had lost their jobs due to their association with the rebellion. The court martial trials began immediately, as General Maxwell continued to impose martial law. The first batch of rebels to be tried and sentenced to death by Brigadier Charles Blackader on a charge of ‘waging war against His Majesty the King, with the intention and for the purpose of assisting the enemy’ were Pearse, Clarke and MacDonagh. The three were shot in the disused prison yard of at dawn on May 3. The executions of Edward ‘Ned’ Daly, Willie Pearse, Joseph Plunkett and Michael O’Hanrahan followed on the May 4. John MacBride was executed on May 5 while Éamonn Ceantt, , Sean Heuston and were executed on May 8. was the only individual executed outside of Dublin and who did not participate in the Dublin Rising. Found guilty of shooting dead a Royal Irish Constabulary officer, his execution occurred on May 9 in the yard of Cork Detention Barracks. Séan Mac Diarmada and the injured were the last of the two rebel leaders to be executed in Kilmainham on May 12. By then the British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith had arrived in Dublin and insisted on suspending further executions.

earning of the sympathetic romanticism developing around L the dead leaders, as well as the controversial shooting of Francis Sheehy- Skeffington and the journalists Thomas Dickson and Patrick MacIntyre on the orders of Captain JC Bowen-Colthurst, the The Rising that remaining male prisoners were deported to prison camps in England and Wales. Though many received lengthy prison sentences they would all be released by the end of 1917. guarded cable station provided a coded Choosing a suitable punishment for the Tremors from the momentous Easter tip off to American and German Irish female prisoners perplexed the authorities, sympathisers that the Rising had begun. as they had no precedent for punishment of These actions propelled a small uprising female prisoners of war. Held in Richmond 1916 events in Dublin were felt on the into global front page news. Barracks, the women were all interviewed Ireland’s Rising would occupy the front by the barrister William Wylie. page of The New York Times for 14 days. On his recommendation, Maxwell other side of the globe, sparking anger A fact owing largely to New Jersey-born released 62 of them but held on to 18 Joyce Kilmer, whose contribution has ‘prominent and dangerous’ women who been traced elegantly by Robert Schmuhl. were placed in Mountjoy Prison. Of this — and action, writes Eoin Hahessy A poet and staff writer with the Sunday number, eight were deported to Britain, Magazine of The New York Times, Kilmer including Countess Markievicz who, as the AUSE and think of life in 1916. Joseph Plunkett ordered seven men to had converted to Catholicism in 1913 and only one of the Rising’s leaders witnessed A world two years etched into occupy that building and to restore the despite his American lineage declared shooting dead a British soldier, should have a weary world war. The one radio equipment. Setting up the antenna himself to be ‘half-Irish’. received the death penalty. Instead ‘owing superpower being challenged on the roof, the rebels came under sniper On May 7 1916, as the Irish rebels were to her sex’, she was eventually sentenced as it grappled to assert its fire from McBirney’s Department Store on being executed, Kilmer published ‘Poets P Aston Quay. Their perseverance paid off March in the Van of Irish Revolt’ that to penal servitude for life. She remained in influence across its Empire. Aylesbury Prison until her release in 1917. A social struggle, as a heaving mass of and in what is considered the world’s first stressed the involvement of writers in was the final individual working class resentment and frustration pirate broadcast, they sent the following the Rising noting with flurry that ‘the linked to the Rising to be executed. simmered under a dominant social order Morse code.“Irish Republic declared in Leaders of the revolutionary forces were Following a lengthy trial, his hanging was nervous of its position. Dublin today. Irish troops have captured almost without exception men of literary carried out on August 3 in Pentonville In such a world where embers of city and are in full possession. Enemy tastes and training, who went into battle, Prison, London. Eventually his body would disaffection flickered, information was cannot move in city. The whole country as one of the dispatches phrased it, be repatriated back to Ireland in 1965, by controlled and constrained by those who rising.” ‘with a revolver in one had and a copy of which time the legacy of the Rising was held power. The leaders of the Easter Meanwhile in Kerry, two Valentia Island Sophocles in the other.’ Kilmer’s reporting assured. Rising knew that in this historical brothers under British noses in a heavily was joined by a slew of journalism window of opportunity they had to throughout the year, the first 20th make the case for freedom to the world century challenge to British imperial Dr Leanne Blaney is a and they put a plan into action. power was news, as were the tales of social and transport On the corner of O’Connell Street and courage and sacrifice. The British grew historian who recently Abbey Street in Dublin sits the Grand fearful that faith in the Empire would be completed her PhD in Central. Striking yet easily missed shaken. the School of History in a Dublin throng, in 1916 it was the A press censor’s office was established (UCD). Her site of the Reis building, and on its in Dublin to swat any international research focuses on 20th century top floor was occupied by the Dublin reporting that could have an impact Irish and Northern Irish history Wireless School of Telegraphy. Closed in surly Ireland or across the Empire. with a particular focus on cross- by the British upon the outbreak of One notable missive that got through border relations during the early the First World War, in Easter week was Kilmer’s vividly descriptive article

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