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Home , John MacBride, Michael Mallin, Roger Casement

THE

By Mike McPhee

Like all histories, the story of the Easter Rising of 1916 goes back long before the event and the only question is where to begin. It will be sufficient to note that there had been uprisings against English rule in every century since the 1500s, the failures of which led to ever-greater restrictions against Catholics and dispossession of the Irish leadership. The Rising of 1798 was noteworthy for taking place in both the Protestant north and the Catholic south of the island, which so alarmed the British authorities that they put it down with appalling savagery and afterward abolished the Irish Parliament. The new that had been built in to replace the decrepit old prison was used instead for a host of political prisoners, a role it continued to fulfill until it was closed in 1924 to become a museum of the Irish national struggle.

The Irish political leadership largely devoted the next century to legal campaigns, with Daniel O’Connell agitating for the emancipation of Catholics from the many social and economic barriers against them. Charles Stewart Parnell and his Land League campaigned successfully for the rights of tenant farmers and, most importantly, for the right of Catholics to own land. Once this much progress had been made, attention turned to achieving Home Rule; that is, the restoration of Dublin Parliament. This had both Catholic and Protestant supporters, who saw the benefits of self-government, but there were also Unionists who feared a Catholic-dominated parliament.

The Irish Parliamentary Party was formed by Parnell in 1882 and soon became the dominant force in Irish politics. Two Home Rule bills were presented at Westminster by the Liberal prime minister, William Gladstone, in 1886 and 1893 but failed to become law. (The second attempt was passed in the House of Commons but was rejected by the .) The third Home Rule Bill of 1912 was successful, only because the Lords had lost their veto power and could only delay passage for two years, which they did.

Though the new bill provided for parliaments in both Dublin and , the northern Unionists were still opposed to it and formed the Ulster Volunteers militia in 1912. , who had led the IPP since 1899, raised a southern corps called the in response to that. The two groups imported large quantities of German armaments – again, the Ulster group was the first to do so – and often drilled openly. The Home Rule Act of was suspended for the duration of , during which many members of both militias enlisted into the British Army in the hope of furthering their respective positions after the war. Those who remained in Ireland declared themselves a ‘home guard’, retaining their uniforms and weapons.

Throughout the previous century, however, another political tendency had quietly arisen – or, rather, had not died out after the 1798 Rising. Alongside the Catholic Association and the Land League campaigns, there had been an Irish cultural revival of more definitively national character than those which merely sought to improve Ireland’s status within the United Kingdom. Organisations like the College Historical Society and the Phoenix National and Literary Society evolved respectively into the Young Ireland movement and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (also known as Fenians). The Gaelic League, committed to restoring the national language from virtual extinction, also found itself a gathering place for future revolutionary leaders. One such member was the poet and scholar, Patrick Henry Pearse, who founded two bilingual schools. Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, the Supreme Council of the IRB met and determined to take action while the UK armed forces were preoccupied. The IRB treasurer, Tom Clarke, formed a Military Council which consisted of of , Eamonn Ceannt, and , with himself and Seán Mac Diarmada added shortly thereafter. All except Clarke had been officers in the Irish Volunteers since its inception and had been getting fellow IRB members promoted to officer rank whenever possible. By 1916, a large proportion of the Volunteer leader-ship were committed Republicans, but not the founder and Chief-of-Staff, Eoin MacNeill.

The latter approved of a rebellion only if Westminster sought to conscript Irishmen for the war or to disarm the Volunteers, which he thought would generate sufficient popular support for such an uprising to have a chance of success. The IRB hoped to win him over closer to the event or, if necessary, to bypass his command. However, if MacNeill knew nothing about the conspiracy in his ranks, hardly anyone in the IRB knew about Sir ’s secret mission. That famous consular official had taken up the Irish cause late in life and gone to Germany to obtain weapons and recruit Irish prisoners of war. He had more success in the former endeavour than in the latter, but only learned about the planned uprising shortly before he left Germany.

Back in Dublin, another revolutionary organisation was unaware of the IRB’s plans but planning an uprising of its own. This was the , an armed group of socialist trade unionists under the leadership of , who threatened to act on their own if no other parties would do so. Because that group was only 200 strong, the IRB was concerned that any such adventure on their part would be a disaster and ruin their own chances. Consequently, they met with Connolly in January 1916 and convinced him to join forces with the Volunteers.

It emerged that both groups had essentially the same plan of seizing strategic buildings and facilities in central Dublin; however, the Volunteers had detachments all over the country who were also meant to go into action at the same time. They also had Casement arriving in a German U-boat, accompanied by a boatload of armaments, and scheduled to land in in the southwest a few days before the Rising. Unfortunately, Casement felt that his shipment was insufficient for the purpose and landed alone with the intention of warning the IRB not to proceed. Instead, he was captured by British soldiers and the freighter was scuttled when it was engaged by a vessel.

Early in April, Pearse had called the Volunteers out for three days of ostensible parades and manoeuvres commencing on Easter Sunday, which the IRB expected Eoin MacNeill and the British authorities to take at face value. However, MacNeill had finally learned of the real plan and was only dissuaded from thwarting the operation when told about Casement’s mission. When he heard of its failure, he sent countermanding orders around the country with the fatal effects of delaying the Rising by a day and greatly reducing the number of participants. Only some 1250 men mobilised in Dublin on that fateful Easter Monday, 24 April..

The Dublin division of the Volunteers consisted of four battalions, each with an IRB commandant. A makeshift 5th Battalion consisted mostly of Citizen Army personnel under the command of James Connolly, but with them were the IRB leadership – Patrick Pearse, Thomas Clarke, Seán Mac Diarmada and Joseph Plunkett – also, a young Volunteer captain named Michael Collins. This group paraded to the General Post Office in Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street) and took it over, after which Pearse read the Proclamation of the Republic from its front steps to a crowd of bemused onlookers.

The 1st Battalion, under Edward Daly, seized the Four Courts while Thomas MacDonagh’s 2nd Battalion occupied the Jacob’s Biscuit Factory, south of the city centre. The 3rd Battalion, led by Éamon de Valera (the future president), took over the Boland’s Flour Mill and adjoining railyards; and Eamonn Ceannt’s 4th Battalion established itself in the South Dublin Union workhouse to the southwest. Members of the Citizen Army, under and Countess Constance Markiewicz (the Anglo-Irish wife of a Polish nobleman), commandeered the central park of St. Stephen’s Green. The shortage of troops prevented two important targets from being taken – Dublin Castle, which was wrongly supposed to be too heavily defended, and Trinity College.

The British commander, Colonel Cowan, having only 2800 troops in the city, proceeded with caution after an attack by his Lancers on the GPO headquarters was driven back. There the rebels had barricaded themselves in and hung two flags from the poles on the roof: a green flag with a harp and the inscription, ‘Irish Republic’, and the previously unknown green, white and gold Tricolour. Cowan secured the approaches to Dublin Castle, called for reinforcements and ordered field artillery to be brought from Athlone, in the Midlands. He then placed snipers and machine guns around the rebel strongholds and awaited the arrival of troops from elsewhere in Ireland.

By the Tuesday morning, a further 1800 soldiers had arrived from Belfast and the Curragh, along with Brigadier-General Lowe, who assumed command. The lightly-manned City Hall and Daily Express buildings were recaptured and machine gun fire drove the rebels from their trenches in St. Stephen’s Green to the safety of the Royal College of Surgeons. The Lord Lieutenant, Lord Wimborne proclaimed martial law – not least, because hordes from the Dublin slums were looting the department stores and other businesses in the city centre. He was soon to have the forces he needed, as 15,000 British troops (mostly trainees) arrived from during the night.

Early on the Wednesday, a gunship sailed up the Liffey and shelled the unoccupied Liberty Hall (headquarters of Connolly’s union) to the ground. Under fierce attack from soldiers with grenades and running out of ammunition, the rebels in the Mendicity Institute near the Four Courts were forced to surrender. By midday, Brigadier Maconchy’s reinforcements marched from the port of Kingstown (now called Dún Laoghaire) to the southern suburbs of Dublin. It was here that some of the heaviest fighting of the Rising took place. A mere twelve Volunteers at the Mount Street Bridge over the blocked the advance for hours, killing or wounding 240 British troops – the army did not try to get any further that day.

Earlier that afternoon, the artillery had arrived from Athlone and two cannons bombarded the vicinity of the GPO from the grounds of Trinity College. Machine gun emplacements in adjacent buildings subjected the rebel headquarters to heavy fire. The next morning, a shell set a neighbouring building alight, starting a fire that spread the length of Sackville Street and beyond. Meanwhile, the reinforcements had finally reached the city, bringing the total troop strength to 30,000. The Four Courts were besieged, as was the South Dublin Union, where the British again took heavy losses. Eamonn Ceannt’s deputy, , made his reputation that day, suffering twenty-five wounds in the process.

De Valera’s garrison on the railway line had expected to be attacked during the night, but that came in the early afternoon in the form of shelling from a small cannon that had been taken from the gunboat. This was diverted from Boland’s Mill when a green flag was hoisted on another building as a decoy. In the GPO, Connolly was hit by a ricochet that shattered his shin, but he continued to direct the campaign from a stretcher.

Gun and cannon fire continued through the night. Early on the Friday morning, Lieutenant-General Sir John Maxwell arrived from London as Commander-in-Chief and made it clear that no amount of property damage would deter him from crushing the rebellion. Indeed, the artillery was now using incendiary shells and much of the city centre was in flames. At 3 p.m., the roof of the GPO was finally hit and the water was cut off when the rebels tried to use the building’s fire hoses. At nightfall, Pearse ordered an evacuation via the back doors and the occupants fled under fire to take refuge in a large house. Other rebels tried to fight their way out and were annihilated.

The next morning, the leadership held a ‘council of war’ and, at midday, Pearse decided to surrender rather than have any more bloodshed, not least on the part of civilians. A rebel nurse was sent to to inform the army that: “The commandant of the Irish Republican Army wishes to treat with the commandant of the British forces in Ireland.” (This was the first time that expression had ever been used.) The British insisted on unconditional surrender and, in the mid-afternoon, Pearse gave over his sword to Brigadier-General Lowe and was taken to General Maxwell, where he signed a general order for surrender. This was countersigned by Connolly, who had been taken to the Dublin Castle hospital, for the benefit of the Citizen Army.

Pearse’s party was taken prisoner, with the exception of those under 18 years of age. The other garrisons surrendered the next day when the order was conveyed to them. (This took most of the day, as fighting was still going on at most of those positions.) The rebels were taken to Richmond Barracks, where those from the GPO already were, the leadership having been imprisoned at Kilmainham. Time does not permit any discussion of the small actions of other Volunteer detachments in Belfast, Galway, Louth, Meath, Tyrone and Wexford, save to say that the rebels in Athenry were shelled from Galway Bay by a Navy warship.

The total casualties were 64 rebels killed, 157 government forces (including 17 police) and 256 civilians. The 90 people who faced the subsequent courts-martial were all sentenced to execution by firing squad but Maxwell commuted all but 15: Patrick Pearse and his brother, William, James, Connolly, Joseph Plunkett, Eamonn Ceannt, Thomas Clarke, Seán Mac Diarmada, Edward Daly, Thomas MacDonagh, Seán Heuston, Michael Mallin, Michael O'Hanrahan, John MacBride, Cornelius Colbert and . Connolly’s wound was so gangrenous that he had to be shot tied to a chair. Éamon de Valera was not executed because he was a US citizen, nor was Countess Markiewicz. Roger Casement was hanged in London on 03 August.

Immediately after the Rising, some 3,430 men and 79 women were arrested on any suspicion of having been involved. All but 579 were subsequently released and these joined the surviving rebels in being deported to the Frongoch detention camp in . If the Rising had not been a popular event at the time, the executions and arbitrary arrests had an adverse effect on public opinion that prepared the ground for the War of Independence only a few years later.

That story will have to wait for another day, but the greatest question about the Rising is still debated today: Did the leaders of that remarkable event really believe that they could succeed? At the outset, they probably did – with 10,000 Volunteers in Dublin and 100,000 in the whole country, it could have been a much larger event, especially if Casement’s shipment had got through. But, with the numbers they had on the day, they must have known it was a suicide mission, one they rightly believed would set a nationalist process in train that must ultimately be successful. Not for nothing are ‘those fearless men but few’ held in the highest honour and commemorated every year at this time.