Easter 1916: an Inside Report on Ulster Author(S): F

Clogher Historical Society

Easter 1916: An Inside Report on Ulster Author(s): F. X. Martin Source: Clogher Record, Vol. 12, No. 2 (1986), pp. 192-208 Published by: Clogher Historical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27699230 . Accessed: 30/03/2013 09:01

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Clogher Historical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Clogher Record.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions EASTER 1916:AN INSIDEREPORT ON ULSTER by

F. X. Martin, o.s.a.

The letter published below may be considered as of singular, indeed unique, so importance. It is far the only known document written by a member of the Supreme Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (I.R.B.) during the 1916 Rising, with on inside comments the manipulations which had taken place since December 1915 within the Supreme Council of the I.R.B. and on the events in Ulster during the crucial Holy Week-Easter Week of 1916. Most of the letter deals with the bungled attempt to lead nationalist Ulster into armed rebellion, and that in itself is valuable. Yet, the most on undoubtedly, important element is the information what had been happening within the Supreme Council of the I.R.B. since December 1915. to According the proclamation of the Irish Republic, first read publicly by P?draig Pearse outside the Dublin on General Post Office (G.P.O.) Easter Monday, 24 April, it was the I.R.B. which secretly organised the Rising through its 'open military ' organisations, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army'. Dr Patrick McCartan, was author of the letter, one of the eleven members of the Supreme Council of the I.R. B. The was a Rising military failure but once it had taken place, followed by the executions of sixteen rebel leaders, all was changed, as recorded in the memorable lines of Yeats,

'.changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born'.2

The rebellion led directly to the foundation of a separate Irish Free State in 1922, with all its consequences. It is therefore a rare stroke of good fortune to have the information and a views of very active member of the Supreme Council about those all-important weeks of April 1916. was on The letter written 28 April 1916, the day before the surrender of the rebels at a Dublin, with postscript of 29 April when McCartan was still hopeful that the Rising unaware was might succeed, that Pearse that very day ceremonially handing over his sword to General Lowe at the top of Moore Street and simultaneously as commander-in-chief of the insurgents surrendering willy-nilly and unconditionally to the British army. a of a By stroke good luck series of fourteen letters written by McCartan during and the to immediately after Rising, 28 April 10 June 1916, to Joe McGarrity at Philadelphia in the U. S. A., came to light inMarch 1963. Dr McCartan, who died on 28 March 1963, generously left them for me in the hands of his wife, Elizabeth. I edited thirteen of them, in published the Clogher Record issue of 1966, pp. 5-65. Their publication elicited from an authoritative commentator, Sean ? Luing, the judgement 'As documents bearing on the circumstances and aftermath of the Rising, they are of premier interest and value. '31 withheld of one publication letter, the first and the most important, dated 28 April 1916,

1 In Irish historical documents, 1172-1922, (ed.) E. Curtis and R.B. McDowell, London 1943 (London and New York 1968), pp. 21-22. 2 W.B. 'Easter in The Yeats, 1916', collected poems ofW.B. Yeats, 2nded. London 1950(1967), pp. 202-205, at p. 205. 3 S. ? 'The in the Luing, Rising North', in Irish Times, 6 April 1967, p. 8. 192

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Easter 1916 : An Inside Report on Ulster

as some of the hitherto unknown information in itwould have caused embarrassment at that time (1966) to certain nationalists directly involved in the Rising and still alive or to ? ? their families. Today seventy years after the rebellion the time is opportune for publication. was was The importance of this particular letter set in dramatic circumstances. It written on the back of 14 unsigned blank cheques, the only paper available for McCartan, then concealed in a barn and a fugitive from British forces. He was at desperately anxious to let his close friend, Joe McGarrity Philadelphia, know what had gone wrong with the intended armed rebellion in Ulster.

Dr Patrick McCartan

I have already given an extended notice of McCartan in Clogher Record of 1966, pp some 6-12. Here I include merely a summary ofthat notice with additional information and mention of relevant bibliographical items published since 1966.

McCartan was born on 11 March 1878 at Carrickmore, in the parish of a Termonmaguirk, Co Tyrone, where his father managed modest but prosperous farm. arts After primary and secondary education young McCartan took the first university examination at St Malachy's College, Belfast, but impelled by the spirit of adventure in 1900 he ran away from home, took ship at Derry for the U. S. A., landed at New York and made his way to Philadelphia. There he called upon John McGarrity, with whose brother, Peter, he had been at school at St Patrick's College, Armagh. It was thus he met Joe, another brother of John, in 1901 and so began a life-long friendship. McCartan worked in Philadelphia for five years, as a barman, putting aside most of his earnings for university studies. It was John McGarrity who induced him in 1901 to join Clan na Gael, an open organisation but in fact the American equivalent of the I.R.B. in Ireland. Within four years McCartan had succeeded Joe McGarrity as senior guardian of Camp 428 of the Clan. When McCartan was returning to Ireland in 1905 Joe McGarrity travelled with him to New York and there introduced him to two ''fathers" of the Clan, John Devoy and Tom Clarke. They arranged for him to be transferred from the Clan to the I.R.B. in Dublin where he became a member of the Teeling Circle. Its members included Sean T. O'Kelly, Ernest Blythe, John O'Byrne and Sean O'Casey. McCartan inscribed as a medical student at University College, Dublin, and it says much for his diverse abilities and powers of concentration that while he successfully maintained normal progress with his medical studies he became a leading figure in U.C.D. student affairs, was elected to the Dublin City Corporation Council, and at a national level was elected to the executive of the Sinn F?in organisation. He campaigned Irish and toured the northern publicly for government recognition of the language, as a counties with Denis McCullough, Bulmer Hobson and Sean MacDermott speaker an as a he was a contributor on the platform for Irish republic; besides journalist regular as of a to Devoy's Gaelic American as well becoming first editor weekly newspaper, Irish Freedom, founded at Dublin in November 1910. Behind all these demanding activities he had the limited but dedicated influence and support of the I.R.B. as a at of in Ireland in did a He qualified doctor the Royal College Surgeons 1911, and returned to spell as resident house surgeon in the Mater Hospital, Dublin, Tyrone was at in the autumn to for a early in 1912 to practise medicine. He back Dublin study to of the latest fellowship of the College of Surgeons and keep abreast developments among the leaders of the Irish republican movement. Having secured his fellowship in 193

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Clogher Record

autumn was the of 1912 he appointed dispensary doctor at Gortin, Co Tyrone, where he took up residence in April 1913. He was back in his native Ulster by his own choice but he was as an also there all-important agent of the I.R.B. in the political fever which was then rapidly quickening the pulse of events in the northern province. Well before 1913 the I.R.B. was almost extinct in Tyrone; the dominant nationalist organisation was the Ancient Order of Hibernians (A.O.H.). An I.R.B. Circle for the Carrickmore area had continued to exist, but significantly McCartan as a young man had been unaware of it. It was Philadelphia, not Carrickmore, which brought McCartan into at the republican movement. The foundation of the Irish Volunteers in November 1913, Dublin, inspired by Eoin MacNeill but largely engineered by the I.R.B., changed the character of nationalism in Ulster from reliance on parliamentary procedure back to a an as militant mood. McCullough became important public figure in Belfast commandant of the Irish Volunteers, with McCartan as the leader in Tyrone. An R.I.C. report of 23 May 1916, on the outbreak of the rebellion, described McCartan, the dispensary doctor at Gortin, as4 ... a dangerous I.R.B. suspect not only a local leader in the rebellion but... a leader in the higher councils of the Dublin rebels. He had a controlling influence in all the rebel newspapers such as Sinn Fein., Irish Freedom (of which he was founder and first editor), and others. He had control of large funds from America for propaganda work.

As far back as March 1911 McCartan, not yet in the inner councils of the I.R.B., impulsively precipitated a crisis among the leaders by a defiant motion he proposed at a public meeting in the Rotunda. As a result, control of the organisation passed to the radicals, men such as Tom Clarke and Sean MacDermott. After November 1913 a number of northern priests rallied openly to the Irish Volunteers, and at least two of them, Fr James O'Daly of Clogher and Fr Eugene Coyle of Fintona, allied themselves with the I.R.B. and became closely associated with McCartan. Not surprisingly he was coopted a member of the Supreme Council of the I.R.B. late in 1914. The international upheaval created by World War I in August 1914 convinced the Supreme Council that here was a heaven-sent opportunity to make an armed strike against the ancient enemy, England. With this in mind and to clarify the minds of the Clan na Gael leaders in the U.S.A. about the complexities of the situation in Ireland McCartan travelled to America early in 1915, and at his own expense. He also put their minds at rest about Sir Roger as an Casement's sincerity Irish patriot. McCartan brought back ?2,000 in gold from the Clan to the I.R.B. and ?700 in gold as a personal gift from Joe McGarrity to Pearse for St Enda's College. The last meeting of the Supreme Council before the Rising was held in late January 1916 at Clontarf. While McCartan agreed in principle that a rising should take place he alone on the Supreme Council positively disapproved of any attempted national armed rebellion unless the Volunteers were adequately armed and until they were assured of a supporting German force landing in Ireland. As ever McCartan was a northern realist unlike the rest of his idealistic colleagues on the council. The "plan" for the Irish on Volunteers in Ulster, the outbreak of the rebellion, made little military sense. The ? ? various groups of Volunteers hopefully 1,000, possibly 500, in number from different northern counties were to assemble at Belcoo, Co Fermanagh. The combined force was then to march across country, disregarding army barracks and the many R.I.C. stations, join up in Connacht with Liam Mellows who would hopefully have at least

4 In report edited by F.X. Martin in Clogher Record, 1966, pp. 55-65. 194

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Easter 1916 : An Inside Report on Ulster

1,000 men under his command. The united Volunteers from Ulster and Connacht would then hold 'the line of the Shannon'. If the rebels in Dublin were unsuccessful in their attempt to seize control of the capital they would hopefully fight their way out of the city, withdraw across the midlands and join with their fellow Volunteers from Ulster and Connacht to defend 'the line of the Shannon' against the advancing British forces. It would be a final grand rally of the Gael against the Gall, backed up hopefully by a substantial force of German troops who would have landed on the west coast. So much was built on hopes, not realities. was a It theatrical concept, which apparently had the blessing of Pearse and Connolly, but militarily speaking it was a hare-brained scheme with a blithe disregard for practical realities. In so far as there was any overall plan for a national rebellion in 1916 scant attention was given to the unfortunate Irish Volunteers in a largely hostile Ulster. The Military Council of the I.R.B. concentrated on a coup in Dublin and on south-east Munster with the intended landing of the arms at Fenit, Co Kerry.

There is no competent study published of what may have been the overall plan, but see McCartan's information and comments in Clogher Record, 1964, p. 198; F.X. Martin, 'McCullough, Hobson, and republican Ulster', in Leaders and men of the Easter Rising, ed. F. X. Martin, London and Ithaca (U.S.A.) pp. 95-108 at pp. 106-7; ? Idem, '1916 Myth, fact and fiction' in Studia Hibernica 1 (1967), 7-126, at pp. ? 91-95; Idem, 'The 1916 rising a coup d'?tat or a "bloody protest"?', ibid, 8 (1968) 106-137, at pp. 114-118; The making of 1916: studies in the history of the rising, ed. K.B. Nowlan, Dublin 1969, and in particular chapters VIII and IX, 'The plans and the countermand: the country and Dublin', by Maureen Wall, pp. 20-51, and 'A military history of the 1916 rising', by G.A. Hayes-McCoy, pp. 255-238; Major General P. J. Hally, 'Easter rising in Dublin: the military aspects' in Irish Sword vol. 7, No. 29 (1965-6), 313-326, vol. 8, No. 30(1967-8), 48-57;ColonelEoghanO'Neill, 'Thebattle of Dublin 1916' in An Cosantoir, Vol. 26 (May 1966), 48-57. The confusion which overtook the Irish Volunteers in Ulster between Spy in brief McCartan Wednesday and Easter Wednesday, 1914, is described retrospect by in a section of his memoirs published in Clogher Record, 1964. After the failure of the on his but after six months returned to Rising in the north McCartan went "keeping", was in 1917 and residence and medical practice at Gortin. He arrested February deported in to in the in to England. He slipped back April 1917 participate important by-election then a in Lewes Jail South Longford on behalf of Joseph McGuinness, prisoner ("put him in to get him out"). as He was commissioned by the Supreme Council to go Ireland's representative to at Russia to negotiate with the revolutionaries led by Lenin, but while waiting Liverpool in June 1917 for a boat to Russia the bulk of Irish rebel prisoners in England were a released and this caused a change of plan. Itwas decided that he should present petition on Ireland's behalf to President Wilson of the U.S.A., then the white hope of the Versailles Peace Conference for all small emerging or struggling nations. The petition, written on a linen handkerchief and signed by militant Irish nationalists including de Valera and Eoin MacNeill, was sewn into McCartan's waistcoat and he travelled to the was on to U.S.A. disguised as a deckhand on the S.S. Baltic. The petition passed Joseph Tumulty, Wilson's secretary at Washington. McCartan's adventures did not end there. In October 1937 he set out in disguise for was at for ten weeks Germany to agitate on Ireland's behalf but arrested Halifax, jailed he as Sinn F?in and brought back to the U.S.A. In February 1918 stood unsuccessfully 195

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Clogher Record

M.P. candidate for South Armagh, but two months later was returned unopposed as Sinn F?in candidate for Leix-Offaly. a man He remained of two hemispheres. When the Irish Press was founded at Philadelphia inMarch 1918 as an organ of radical Irish nationalism he became its first was on editor. During these months he also acting, instructions of the Supreme Council as of the I.R.B., envoy of the provisional government of Ireland to the United States. His was appointment ratified by D?il Eireann in April 1919, and in that capacity he was active in many episodes in the U.S.A. to He travelled Dublin in February 1920 to try and explain to D?il ?ireann the rancorous differences between de Valera and leading Irish-Americans. He was again on the seas in on to high early 1921 his way Russia, seeking unsuccessfully for recognition of the Irish Republic from the Soviet government. He returned to Ireland for the explosive debates of D?il ?ireann on the proposed treaty between Ireland and Great Britain. True to his character he expressed open sympathy with the plenipotentiaries who had signed the Articles of Agreement at London, in December 1921, but declared that because of his I.R.B. oath he could not in conscience vote for the treaty. Sickened by the civil war in Ireland he withdrew from political life and went to Vienna in 1922 for a post-graduate course in surgery. Afterwards he spent some years in the U.S.A., and while there in June 1937 he married Elizabeth Kearney of Knocknabaul, Co Kerry. He remained a republican all his life and in 1945 stood as an ind?pendant candidate in the presidential election when his former Dublin Corporation Council associate, Sean T. O'Kelly, was elected to the office. He was Clann na Poblachta candidate in Cork in the 1948 general election and again in Dublin in 1957. He ran in the presidential election of 1959 when Eamon de Valera was elected. Ever since his student days in Dublin McCartan maintained an active interest in the revival of the Irish language. Besides, surprisingly for a radical republican, he was appreciative of the values of the Anglo-Irish tradition and was a patron of W.B. Yeats and Jack Yeats.

Dr McCartan settled at Grey stones, County Wicklow, and practised there until shortly before his death on 26 March 1963. He was survived by his widow and two children, P?draig and Deirdre. on see For further information McCartan the bibliography by F.X. Martin in Clogher Record, 1966, p. 12.

Joseph McGarrity

Joseph McGarrity, intimate friend and confidant of McCartan, was born in 1874 at Creggandevesky, in the parish of Termonmaguirk, Co Tyrone, but did not meet ? in the same ? an McCartan born parish in 1878 until 1901, and then in unexpected place, Philadelphia in the United States. McGarrity had emigrated to North America at a a man the age of sixteen and after few years became of independent means in the liquor distilling business. He used his money with an open hand for Irish causes. He and met McCartan for the first time in 1901 when McCartan became a member of Camp 428 na of Clan Gael of which McGarrity was senior guardian. Their mutual origins from Termonmaguirk and their intense republican sympathies bound them tightly together. The dominant preoccupation of McGarrity's life was the political ind?pendance of as a Ireland, republic of thirty-two counties. He gave large financial donations to Irish cultural in the efforts U.S.A. and in Ireland, notably to Pearse's college, St Enda's, at Dublin. He was host at Philadelphia for almost every Irish political figure, with 196

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Easter 1916 : An Inside Report on Ulster

professed republican views who visited the United States up to 1940; they included Casement, Hobson, Pearse, Sean T. O'Kelly, Liam Mellows, de Valera, and Sean Russell. He, with John Devoy and John T. Keating at Chicago, formed the directory of Clan na Gael. They were the only Irish in the U.S.A. fully aware of the plans for an Irish a rebellion at Easter 1916. McGarrity sent special courier, James Smith of Philadelphia, in early April to Tom Clarke and Pearse with the final messages about the arms ship, Aud, and the intended outbreak of the rising. In reverse, the purpose of the McCartan to news one letters of 28 April-10 June 1916 was give McGarrity the very latest from of the few remaining uncaptured republican leaders in Ireland. McGarrity maintained during the 1920s and 1930s, in considerable emotional turmoil and with grave financial expense, his radical separatist stance. To that purpose he was willing to break with Devoy in the 1920s and with de Valera in the 1930s. Logical to to the end he supported Sean Russell, the I.R. A. leader, in his escape from the U.S.A. and forces Europe to 1939-40 with the object of hamstringing England's military naval in Northern Ireland during World War II. McGarrity died at Philadelphia on 5 August 1940. Three days later Sean Russell and Frank Ryan (an I.R.A. republican-socialist leader, who had fought in the Spanish civil war, 1936-8, became an acting brigadier in the Lincoln Washington Brigade, was captured, imprisoned, then unexpectedly plucked a from the death-row at Burgos Prison in 1940) were preparing to embark in German submarine for an unsuccessful attempt to land on the south-west coast of Ireland.

For McGarrity see the bibliography by F.X. Martin in Clogher Record, 1966, p. 15, and in addition: S. Enno, Spies in Ireland, trans. A. Davidson, London 1963, pp. 155-68. T.P. Coogan, The I.R.A., London 1970 (2nd ed. Glasgow 1980), pp. 102-119, 214-18. a J. Bowyer Bell, The secret army: history of the I.R.A., 1916-1970, London 1970 (3rd ed. Dublin 1979), pp. 145-62, 189-91. S. Cronin, Frank Ryan, Dublin 1980, pp. 169-91. J.P. Duggan, Neutral Ireland and the Third Reich, Dublin and Totowa (N.J.) 1985, pp. XVII, 58, 111, 121, 150-4, 180-1, 199.

Value of the McCartan letter

was under emotional stress and in difficult Athough McCartan writing great he of mind and He wrote physical circumstances showed clarity pungent expression. one man to his 'We failed in candidly as heart-broken Tyrone another, beginning letter, ? ? but it is not the fault of but of Dublin', and he Tyrone miserably failed Tyrone the honour of we will a chance to ended defiantly, T hope only that for Tyrone get yet show the rest of Ireland that there is still red blood here.' MacNeill and to He was magnanimous in his assessment of sympathetic in Dublin he added the Casement's dilemma. Having criticised the republican leaders but should not lead a realistic comment, 'They maybe had enough to think of they is made of details.' On the same revolution if they can't think of details, for victory Pearse are and should be level-headed, but neither thought he added, 'Plunkett and good understand the North and it will be very important.' the hunted man when he comments, T am He captures the atmosphere of waiting hour is a can for news of how things are going and, Lord, every day! Nobody safely

197

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Clogher Record

come to me till dark, and dark is very slow about coming. I realize for the first time, I think, that an hour is 60 minutes.' The McCartan letter of 28 April is of rare value for the history of the Rising in area Ulster, particularly for the of County Tyrone. Much of the information given by McCartan could be pieced together from newspaper reports, personal memoirs (published and unpublished), local histories, Ulster folklore, and best of all from confidential police reports of April-May 1916. Unfortunately, with one exception5, those R.I.C. reports are not yet available and will almost certainly be withheld at London as long as the present political violence continues in Northern Irland. The unique value of the McCartan document however is what it tells, or at least indicates, of the crucial manoeuvres within the Supreme Council of the I.R.B. Taken in conjunction with an enlightening memorandum written by Eoin MacNeill in 1917 it allows an insight of how and why the Easter Rising took place, againt all the odds, and why it failed in Ulster.6 The subtle were personal forces by which the Easter Rising engineered are not yet appreciated by historians of the event. It is now generally known that from the of ? foundation the Irish Volunteers in November 1913 triggered off by Eoin MacNeill's article, 'The North Began', in An Claidheamh Soluis of 1November 1913 ? was a there within that movement conspiracy of I.R.B. members with the intention of an immediate armed revolt against the British government in Ireland.7 When we probe we find that there was a deeper conspiracy within that conspiracy, namely a "Military ? Council" established in 1915 by certain I.R.B. members Plunkett, Pearse, Ceannt, ? Clarke and MacDermott but not authorised by the Supreme Council of the I.R.B. and with its unknown to existence most of the I.R.B. members. By December 1915 the three key figures in the Supreme Council were McCullough (President), Clarke (Treasurer) and MacDermott who (Secretary), formed the executive. McCullough, despite being President of the Council was not to what was Supreme privy being hatched in Dublin by MacDermott and Clarke in with conjunction the members of the Military Council. was not a Paradoxically McCullough member of the Military Council though he knew of vaguely its existence. McCullough tolerated this arrangement not because he was ? weak or in was a gullible fact he sharp-witted business man with a natural fund of commonsense. He left the practical decisions of the I.R.B. executive to MacDermott and Clarke in Dublin, probably largely because of the geographical distance between Belfast and but more Dublin, importantly because he had implicit trust in their not on judgement, insisting knowing precisely what were their plans and decisions. Tim a Irish M.P. at Healy, leading home ruler this time and later first governor of the Irish Free State, commented in his memoirs succinctly that the Rising was 'a of a a conspiracy conspiracy of minority', that is an armed rebellion, the result of an of the intrigue Military Council, operating secretly within the I.R.B., who in their turn were within the Irish Volunteers who were an operating secretly acknowledged minority among Irish nationalists.8 Yet even the to lynx-eyed Healy failed detect the subtler complexities of the situation. There was a further conspiracy within the topmost level of the I.R.B.

5 Ed. F. X. Martin in Clogher Record, 1966, pp. 55-65. 6 The MacNeill memorandum ed. F. X. Martin, 'Eoin MacNeill on the 1916Rising', ml.H.S., xii (March 1961), pp. 226-271, at pp. 245-271. 7 F. X. Martin, 'MacNeill and the foundation of the Irish Volunteers', in The scholar Eoin revolutionary, MacNeill, 1867-1945, (ed.) F. X. Martin and F. J. Byrne, Shannon 1973, pp. 99-179, "at pp. 135-151. 8 T. Healy, Letters and leaders of my day, London 1928, ii. 561.

198

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Easter 1916 : An Inside Report on Ulster ? triumvirate McCullough, Clarke and MacDermott. Clarke and MacDermott concealed from McCullough the final plans for the Rising and how they would spring it on a reluctant Ireland. More accurately then Healy's description of the Rising should be a adjusted to read 'a conspiracy within a conspiracy in the conspiracy of minority'. As a crowning touch there was an ultimate refinement of conspiracy which bore a fruit during Holy Week-Easter Week 1916. MacDermott, dedicated revolutionary with a rare talent which combined an iron will with irresistible charm, used Clarke as his front man in I.R.B. circles while gathering control of the Military Council into his own hands. He never revealed the full scale of his own intentions, plans and activities to anyone, not even to his single-minded friend, Tom Clarke, who trusted him absolutely and whom he admired as a nationalist father-figure. A survey of this intricate web of conspiracy makes it reasonable therefore to state.9

Itwould be going too far to describe 1916 as a one-man rebellion but if any single person is to be given credit for acting as stage manager of the drama enacted in Easter Week 1916 it is Sean MacDermott. His strategic position was revealed during those last frantic three days before the rising.

Essential evidence on this issue emerges in Patrick McCartan's letter of 28 April 1916 which criticises Tom Clarke for deceiving him, with McCartan unaware that itwas as MacDermott who had pulled the wool over his eyes, MacDermott had also done with Tom Clarke. MacDermott was the model conspirator, the individual who concentrates a the knowledge (and therefore the control) of military coup within himself and thereby a was a prevents the possibility of a "leak" to the enemy. For MacDermott secret secret ? one person only should know it, the organiser of the coup.

? or men 9 F. X. Martin, '1916 revolution evolution?', in Leaders and of the Easter Rising: Dublin 1916, London and Ithaca (U.S.A.), pp. 239-252, at p. 246.

28th April 1916 Dear Joe: ? ? not but We have failed in Tyrone miserably failed but it is the fault of Tyrone minute and never asked me how it of Dublin. They did not let me know till the last long means that would take to mobilize. If they treated the rest of the country similarly it only we are cowards God it is harder for me at they courted failure. They may say but, knows, a least, and I know it is the same with the others, to be here in hiding than in the field with rifle. was cut but found later Imade a note before starting, saying I going to the railway or and so I did not do so. Instead Iwent to Fr that no troop trains had passed were passing, at once he started for action. He at once his O'Daly1 and told him my message, and got men under arms.

n. 1 Fr James O'Daly, then a curate in the parish of Clogher. He and Fr Eugene Coyle (see below 9) were members of the I.R.B. but were exempted by Tom Clarke from taking the I.R.B. oath. Both were listed as seditious priests in a confidential police report of May 1916 and were cautioned by W.J. Miller, county inspector of the R.I.C. Their strong nationalist views helped to prevent McCartan, in his own words, from becoming an anti-cleric. FrO'Daly later became a canon and vicar forane of the diocese. He was widely respected by Catholic laity and clergy as a as of Co. For Fr spiritual man. He died in July 1959 parish priest Castleblayney, Monaghan. n. O'Daly see F.X. Martin in Clogher Record (hereafter CR), 1966, pp. 32 25, 40, 58, 60. 199

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Clogher Record

are I had to go and get the others ready, but the country people slow to move so that instead of being mobilized as ordered and ready to march they worked away till night, and then I actually did not know they had gathered, so that I had to do ten men's work. Carrickmore however did turn out, and were ready about eleven o'clock to march. Itwas pouring rain and naturally damped their ardour. Donaghmore and Coalisland who got word first waited orders from me and hence did not start till 11 o'clock Tuesday. I started to meet them but missed them, so that, all round, the trial was a failure. Father O'Daly arrived about eleven, and I don't know how or we as was on why put it off I exhausted from being the road every day and night. After this attempt to mobilize there were 6,000 rounds of ammunition left at my father's. When I left to meet Donaghmore it was to be moved to safety, but as usual because I did not do it myself it was not done, with the result that the enemy swooped on down the house yesterday with 200 soldiers and police and carried it off in triumph.2 It is a terrible blow to us as it deprives the Sixmilecross and Carrickmore men of stuff. as as as I cleared out, I'm well hiding as in prison, all may not yet be lost. I slept in a barn must a we last night and say I had comfortable night. The feeling that are doing can are nothing and do nothing is, however, hell. My friends falling in Dublin and I'm a ? safe in barn in the mountains not very glorious, God knows. Already round the ? ' district here I am blamed for all the old story. 'The very men who after success would have flattered will now calumniate". But what difference, maybe things are better elsewhere. As I said the failure here is entirely due to Dublin. They provided for no system of so that we are communication isolated. I expected to know when the trouble was coming but I was believe it deliberately kept from both myself and Denis [McCullagh].31 know

2 For the seizure of the all-important ammunition and other military equipment see the police report of 23 May 1916, ed. F.X. Martin in CR, 1966, p. 64. It concluded, 'the seizure of the ammunition put the finishing touches on the rebellion in Tyrone'. 3 There is traditionally in Ulster a "Catholic" form of the surname, i.e. 'McCullough', and a "Protestant" version, i.e., 'McCullagh'. McCartan surprisingly used the "Protestant" version for his close friend, Denis, in this letter. Domhnall McCullough, son of Denis, suggests convincingly tome that this was because his father and McCartan, then both active members of the Gaelic League, had become used to Denis inscribing his surname in a Gaelic form as Mac Con Uladh. For information on Denis McCullough see F. X. Martin in CR, 1986, pp. 7, 8, 30, 34, 36, 42 n. n. n. 40, 39, 55 1, 61 13; Idem, 'MacCullough, Hobson, and republican Ulster', in Leaders and men of the Easter rising: Dublin 1916, ed. F. X. Martin, London and Ithaca (U.S.A.) 1967, pp. 95-108. McCullough died on 11 Sept. 1968. See the appreciations of him by Earn?n de Bladhd in Irish Times, 13 Sept. 1968, p. 8, and by Cathal O'Shannon in Irish 16 Times, Sept. 1968, p. 14; also Cathal O'Shannon, 'How I first met Dinny McCullough', in Evening Press, 20 Sept. 1968, p. 10. Cf. the tape record of the interview of Denis McCullough by F. X. Martin on 21 October 1963, in possession of F. X. Martin. in was McCullough 1916 president of the Supreme Council of the I.R.B., unamimously elected at a meeting of the Supreme Council in the Clontarf Town Hall in December 1915. He was also in 1916 commandant of the Irish Volunteers in Belfast. As president of the Supreme Council he automatically became, according to clause 11 of the amended 1873 constitution of the see clause 11 I.R.B., of the 1873 amended constitution of the I.R.B., edited by T. W. Moody and Leon ? Broin, 'The I.R.B. Supreme Council, 1868-78', in I.H.S., xix, no. 75 (March 1875), 286-332, at p. 314, first president of the republic proclaimed by Pearse at the G.P.O. on 23 April 1916. For this question of the presidency of the Irish republic in 1916 see F. X. Martin, 'The origins of the Irish rising in 1916', in The Irish struggle, 1916-1926, ed.

200

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Easter 1916 : An Inside Report on Ulster

they also kept it from two other members of the Council, so that so far as the Council was concerned itwas completely ignored.4 That of course Iwould not mind except that Iwas misled by being on it and thinking to know it all. The whole business was like a thunderbolt to me, and I blame Tom [Clarke] and MacDermott entirely, and especially Tom for I trusted so much to him.51 don't exactly remember what Iwrote the other night but I'd better write all now when I have time.6 When I got the message from Philadelphia that the steamer was coming I sent a reliable man to Tom on Wednesday, but Tom did not even tell him what was on.7 Fr we O'Daly came to me Thursday morning about the Government's intentions and arranged to meet that night. He sent for McCullagh, and Burk of Monaghan was also to as us was on was to be present.8 We met arranged and Burk told what foot. He said there be a German landing on Easter Monday night, and as I had the message about the ? steamer ? one steamer we did not understand.

Desmond Williams, London 1966, p. 12 n. 1. Surprisingly Leon O Broin in his excellent n. as of the Revolutionary Underground, (see below 4) p. 172, describes Pearse president of the republic. Pearse signed himself president provincial government. Letters and leaders 4 Tim Healy described the rising as the revolt of 'aminority of the minority', now and of my day, London 1928, ii. 561. In the light of evidence available, strongly is more accurate to describe it as a corroborated by the McCartan letter of 28 April 1916, it an the see F.X. revolt of 'aminority of a minority of the minority'. For analysis of conspiracy ? Martin, 'The 1916 rising a coup d'?tat or a "bloody protest"?' in Studia Hibernica, 8(1968) the in 1916 and 106-137, at pp. 131-137; Idem, 'MacNeill and the military council of I.R.B.', Leon ? Broin, University College, Dublin, ed. F.X. Martin, Dublin 1986, pp. 23-31; Dublin Revolutionary underground: the story of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, 1858-1921, information about the and 1976, pp. 140-174. McCartan's statement that precise plans timing of the Council is short of of the rising was kept from himself and two other members Supreme the mark. Of the eleven members of the Council only MacDemott and Clarke were fully in the know, and even Clarke was to some extent hoodwinked by MacDermott. of the events of Week and 5 Over thirty years later McCartan dictated his recollections Holy Easter Week, 1916, to the officials of the Bureau of Military History (1947-59). The relevant it is noticeable that there he passages were published in the Clogher Record, 1964, 149-209; in Ulster on Clarke. Cf. L.N. Le Roux, Tom lays no blame for the failure of an armed rising in 204 Clarke and the Irish freedom movement, Dublin-Cork 1936, pp. 186-220, particular p. where McCartan's messengers from Tyrone are mentioned. to Joe at to 6 Obviously McCartan wrote hurriedly his bosom friend, McGarrity Philadelphia, This letter does not to have survived. It is not explain what had gone wrong in Tyrone. appear Tralee nor is it to be found in the mentioned by Sean Cronin, The McGarrity Papers, 1972, of I am extensive collection of McGarrity papers now lodged in the National Library Ireland. of National of Ireland, for greatly indebted to Donal ? L?anaigh, Keeper Manuscripts, Library his generous assistance in my search through the McGarrity Papers. from but at 2419 Mole 7 The 'reliable man' was apparently James Smith, originally Tyrone living as from Clan-na-Gael to Tom Clarke St, Philadelphia, sent by Joe McGarrity special messenger and McCartan with the final instructions about the Aud and its cargo of arms due to arrive at and Easter Smith Fenit, County Kerry, sometime between Holy Thursday night Sunday night. ismentioned inMcCartan's recollections inCR, 1964, p. 196. Two important documents, one a other letter of Smith to his brother at Donemanagh, County Tyrone, 18 April 1916, the Smith and the final instructions to 'Memorandum on 1916' apparently by McGarrity about Clarke, are in the McGarrity Papers, N.L.I., MSS 17639 and 17530. in Ulster at the ofTom Clarke ismentioned 8 Burk, appointed organiser for the rising suggestion He is criticised as 'a dead loss from the word by McCartan inCR, 1964, p. 197. sharply go' by see above n. 3. Denis McCullough in his tape record of those events, 201

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Clogher Record

So Burk and I started for Dublin on Friday, met MacDermott first and he assured later in me there was a German landing, and so I was satisfied. On reaching Tom the was about evening, or rather night, he told me there nothing definite the German landing would come. awaited the but judging by German thoroughness he believed they They arrival of a man from Berlin. me. were I was anxious about the German landing as it was all-important to If it come a come out I don't sure, the boys would out like shot but if not, they reluctantly. no out men blame them for even personally I had hope in winning ourselves. Our locally were not half-trained. They had not learned the A.B.C. of soldiering, and hence they required to be steadied by others. I came to Omagh, and met Fr O'Daly and Fr Coyle9 and McCullagh. All depended ? mean ? on the German landing. They would not go out I Frs O'Daly and Coyle I otherwise, as they would not take the responsibility for the slaughter of the men, and don't blame them. The whole country asked what does MacNeill say or think.10 Word ' ' arrived in Fintona that he was coerced into agreeing and Hobson was kidnapped. This worse. did not tend to inspire much confidence. It was from bad to

9 Fr Eugene Coyle, then a curate at Fintona, Co Tyrone, was like Fr O'Daly a member of the I.R.B. but like him was exempted by Tom Clarke from the I.R.B. oath. Both are mentioned as seditious priests in an R.I.C. report of May 1916. Fr Coyle continued with outspoken political views and spent at least one term inCrumlin Jail, Belfast. He became a canon of the diocese and died on 24 June 1954 at Garrison, Co Fermanagh. For Fr Coyle see F.X. Martin in CR, 1966, pp. 32-33, n. 25, 58, 60.

10 McCartan's estimate of MacNeill's reputation among Irish nationalists, even the militant nationalists, was shown to be accurate by two striking incidents in 1916 and 1917. Those who took part in the rebellion knew that MacNeill's countermanding order published in Sunday Independent, 23 April, was largely responsible for preventing the rising taking place outside Dublin. Yet when he arrived as a prisoner at Dartmoor prison on 1 June 1916 he received the official "eyes left" salute for a commanding officer from Commandant Eamon de Valera and the other Irish prisoners already there. When the rebels were released in 1917 de Valera embarked on what was to be a successful campaign for his election as M. P. for east Clare in July 1917 and insisted that MacNeill should accompany him as a speaker on his platform. Later in the year, at the Sinn F?in convention in October, MacNeill was elected to the executive of the party with an outstanding majority of votes over other members such as Countess Markiewicz and Mrs Tom Clarke. His election was greeted 'with prolonged cheers' from the delegates. For those incidents see F. X. Martin, 'Eoin MacNeill on the 1916 rising', in I.H.S., xii (1961) 226-71, at pp. 270-71, n. 60; M. Tierney, Eoin MacNeill: scholar and man of action, 1867-1945, ed. F. X. Martin, Oxford 1980, pp. 242, 260. McCartan's further reflections during May and June 1916 on Mac Neill's conduct during the crucial hours of 20-24 April 1916 are embodied in 'The McCartan documents, 1916' inCR, 1966, pp. 36-7, 40-41, which he summarised, 'He [i.e. MacNeill] was inmy opinion wise on Easter Saturday in cancelling the mobilizations for Easter Sunday and he was brave on Easter Sunday when he acted upon his convictions and refused to be party to a premature rebellion', p. 41. 11 Hobson was arrested by Commandant Ned Daly on Good Friday afternoon and held captive in a house off the North Circular Road, Dublin, until the rising began on Monday, see Le Roux, Tom Clarke, cit., p. 195. See also Hobson's statement in? Broin, Revolutionary underground, cit., p. 173. MacNeill was not coerced into agreeing to the rising but he was sufficiently deceived by MacDermott and Plunkett for some hours on Good Friday to agree to issue orders to the Irish Volunteers throughout the country to be on the alert for an attempted swoop by British forces to disarm the Volunteers, now that the And was expected hourly with its all-important cargo of arms, see Tierney, Eoin MacNeill, cit., pp. 196-209. 202

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions : Easter 1916 An Inside Report on Ulster

? ? I sent three girls to Dublin12 and God!, Joe, the girls and women are brave in the hope of getting accurate information about the German expedition. The one arriving no by midnight mail had further information except that the collapsible boat caught was not a great loss, but still it was a misfortune.13 It was finally decided then to wait for a day or two for developments. There were men from Belfast, 110, and we had a rush to get them home from Tyrone.14 I had sent word for all companies to be ready but did not get into touch with Strabane. Glenelly made no move at all.

On Sunday evening when Iwas in despair the other two girls arrived from Dublin with MacNeill's order, and really Iwas glad and hoped Iwould get time to make sure of more notice next time.15 a Iwent back to work on Monday and at nine or little before it I got the message that they started in Dublin at noon and for me to go ahead. I tried to reach Fr O'Daly first, and then sent word to the others to be ready all day Tuesday and be ready to march at dark ? Irish But Tuesday night. I told you the result above the old old story of history. had the men in Dublin told me, as they should have done, I could have guarded against delay. are They did not, and hence they and they alone to blame for the fiasco here. I am mad that the powers of the Council should have been usurped by a few16, and ? ? hence whatever may come out of it all good or evil I have my mind made up to bid trust who under could I good-bye to Irish movements. When I could not Tom, God trust? to out of I Many of the boys think we have been betrayed, and it is hard get it their minds. ? know there is no foundation for it but the treatment I got from them and Denis also got ? is worse is worse than betrayal. we on a etc. an On Wednesday night agreed plan of campaign but the soldiers put was this at four o'clock end to that yesterday. My father's house searched morning again ? was also searched. I apparently for Barney17 and myself. Mary Anne Loughran's18

12 McCartan's sister, Mary Jane, with two friends, Katherine Owens and her sister, Josephine, acted as couriers for McCartan during these hectic days, see McCartan in CR, 1964, pp. 198-9; a R.I.C. report, 23 May 1916, mCR, 1966, p. 61. Cf. Nora Connolly O'Brien, Portrait of rebel was known father, Dublin-Cork 1935 (Dublin 1975), pp. 283-306. Mary Jane McCartan a also acted as a courier from locally as "The Countess"; Mary Ann Loughran, third cousin, Patrick McCartan to Dublin; information from P?draig McCartan, S.C.. at a 13 On Good Friday an R.I.C. patrol from Ardfert, Co Kerry, discovered Banna Strand come a and arrested a collapsible boat (which had from German submarine, U-19), suspicious arms bearded stranger (Casement). On Holy Saturday (22 April) itwas known inDublin that the under British naval to sail to ship, the Aud, had been detected off the Kerry coast, forced guns at entrance to the Queenstown (Cobh), where its captain, Karl Spindler, had scuttled it the harbour. was as 14 McCullough's full complement of Irish Volunteers at Belfast 132. McCartan's hope, most of at expressed later in this letter toMcGarrity, was that with these men, joined Eskerboy, from and from other Co Tyrone, with several hundred Tyrone Volunteers and contingents Derry northern counties, 'we would have marched out of Tyrone probably 1,000 strong, but at worst 500, and all well armed.' This ambitious hope was scotched by the capture of the Aud, the confusion among Volunteer leaders at Dublin, and MacNeill's countermanding order. force which According to the R.I.C. report of May 1916 the Irish Volunteer belatedly assembled at Eskerboy on 26 April numbered 'only 105 all told', see CR, 1966, p. 64. 15 See McCartan's comments overthirty years later, on the same events in CR, 1964, pp. 198-201. were 16 At this stage McCartan was not sure how many members of the Supreme Council involved in the conspiracy, see above nn. 4 and 5. 43-44. 17 For Barney McCartan, brother of Pat, see CR, 1966, pp. 27, 31, was a of Pat see 18 Mary Ann Loughran of Sixmilecross third cousin McCartan, CR, 1966, pp. 9.7-8 203

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Clogher Record

nor are don't know where Barney went last night do I know yet. We to meet tonight however. The enemy would sit tight on me as I have spoken plainly these last few days, and Barney would get salted for having the ammunition in the house. I might be able to get South or West if I tried but I'm not sure whether they are fighting there or not. Dublin is all the papers speak of, but of course they are not to be trusted. If there is no German landing it is likely the South did not rise. Imay seem a bit pessimistic, and perhaps I am, for the living hell that mentally I'm going through is hard to stand.

But I know the difference a German expedition makes to the boys here and I'm certain it is the same in all country districts. Therefore I can understand the South and West doing the same as we did ourselves. If there was promise of a German landing round that date why could not they tell me all they knew about it? I am sceptical for I feel certain that Connolly who wanted to start long ago rushed the whole lot of them.19 I'm inclined to think they even rushed Germany so no and Casement that we'll have German thoroughness. I feel Iwas kept in ignorance was till the last moment because I opposed to doing anything without a German expedition. Therefore I'm inclined to conclude that there is no expedition, or, if any, a one no use. am small of I only hope I wrong. I heard yesterday that 17,000 Germans had landed in Clare. I doubt it; it is too good to be true. However I'm not in the mood for making the best calculations. It is evident the date was fixed a month or more and if I had been told I could have had an Easter on mobilization of the whole county and marched to our position. If they not trust me at sure could they could have least made that we were having an Easter mobilization but seem to on they have concentrated Dublin pure and simple, and neglected the country. They also judged the whole country from Dublin which was It entirely misleading. would have been folly for me for instance to judge Cork by Tyrone. Conditions are entirely different. were We ordered to march to a position.20 We did not know whether there were British behind us or not. We would have been within a short distance of Enniskillen and did not know the strength of the garrison there, nor were we asked to find out. I hear there were about 80 or 100 in means we only it, which could have taken it and perhaps held it. We could also have captured Omagh and burned the barracks if we had been warned in time. When I look at the see possibilities and the actual achievements it is maddening. to Everybody wanted know what MacNeill thought. They know him and trusted him. They did not know the others, even if I gave their names.21 I of we men spoke possibilities. Well, could have had all the in Tyrone and Derry in one on or place Sunday Monday, and took up our position right away. That would have been in accordance with instructions from Dublin. We could have mobilized in five districts on cleared the on Sunday, police barracks Sunday night, also destroyed wires

' 19 For the controverted question of Connolly s influence on the decision to have an armed rising in see 1916 F.X. Martin, 'Eoin MacNeill on the 1916 rising', inI.H.S., xii (1961) pp. 251-253. was 20 The "position" apparently Belcoo, Co. Fermanagh, on which were to converge the 132 Volunteers from Belfast under McCullough, several hundred Volunteers from Tyrone under men McCartan, 25 from Deny under Joe O'Doherty, and similar smaller groups from other northern counties. 21 McCartan's estimate of MacNeill's high standing among Irish nationalists was stated already in this and was letter repeated in his letters of 24 May and 2 June toMcGarrity, see above n. 10 and CR, 1966, pp. 36-7, 40-41.

204

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Easter 1916 : An Inside Report on Ulster

and railways and got into position on Monday night. This is what Iwanted done.22 The moral effect on the country would have been splendid and it would have gained us recruits. We would have marched out of Tyrone probably 1,000 strong, but at worst 500, and all well armed. Is it any wonder I feel like cursing the Dublin men? Though I know no matter what turn they acted for the best, but just the same I'm done with them forever, events may take. I have worked my best for the movement since Imet you first23 and I don't think I was me to was ever false or negligent. But it seems it not prudent to trust sufficiently make a success of things here. on Got no news today yet so don't know how matters stand. I think I'll remain in be here and I can do more than Tyrone, for if all goes well there will fighting yet, anyone to else to stir up the boys. Besides I think I could do something allay bigotry if it raised its head, as it may. I'm Iwill This life in hiding is a terrible life, and it is only my first day of it. afraid one can and the news of how not stand it long. It seems jail enough, except that talk get is northwards I'll at once South. things are going. If I find that the fight coming go him Iwrote about Tom [Clarke] as if it were a personal grievance I had against and or else does not count. I the others. It is not personal, as my personality that of anyone have blame them because through keeping me in the dark till the last minute they kept to a extent at contributed to their own failure. Tyrone at home; they have, slight least, would have had an effect Perhaps even 200 from Tyrone going through Monaghan there; we were to forces with and Cavan not us and then again I understand join Cavan, finding will lose heart. from a of last I only heard of this Cavan business daughter [James] Connolly's so her little sister who also came to me with word.24 night. She is a brave girl too and is and she was not for Miss Connolly could tell all about the date weeks ago yet responsible a the bringing out of country. on them? had to think but But why should I go blaming They maybe enough of, they is of should not lead a revolution if they can't think of details, for victory made details. I can see but and failure All may yet go well but in my present mood nothing failure, creatures who and sold means the crushing of Ireland for a century. The slimy betrayed Ireland will come from their England of adoption and tell the gullible people T told you men. ruined Home Rule' so. I warned you against these irresponsible impulsive They

22 McCartan did not exaggerate toMcGarrity the role he played in attempting to lead his men into armed conflict. The confidential and well-informed R.I.C. report of early June 1916 stated, in CR, 1966, p. 64, When the Sinn Feiners assembled at Eskerboy on night of 26 ult. [i.e. April] they at numbered only 105 all told. The question of attacking the police barracks Carrickmore was put to a vote, and there was a majority of 3 or 4 against the attack because their forces were not sufficiently strong. Dr McCartan and the more violent of to he had not his supporters fought hard to lead the attack. He failed carry his point but yet given up hope of raising the republican flag in Tyrone. Cf. McCartan's recollections of these events over forty years later, in Tyrone among the bushes, ed. M.F. Coffey, Dublin 1962, p. 89; in CR, 1964, pp. 199-200. met for the 23 McCartan and McGarrity, both from the same parish of Termonmaguirk in Tyrone, was 428 of first time in 1901 in Philadelphia on the night when McCartan initiated into Camp see in Clan-na-Gael of which McGarrity was the pioneer Senior Guardian, F. X. Martin CR, 1966, pp. 12-13. 1935 24 Cf. the recollections of Nora Connolly O'Brien, Portrait of a rebel father, Dublin-Cork (Dublin 1975), pp. 283-306.

205

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Clogher Record

so etc., etc., and Ireland will be gulled, gagged and robbed, and unless the Unionists get or sick and turn, nobody will raise voice sword against it. If successful, and I hope it can will, we forget all mistakes and glory in the Triumph. I could write away and talk away ad lib. of our disappointment here, but what is the use now? It me morose to am makes think of it. I waiting for news of how things are going and, Lord, every hour is a day !Nobody can safely come to me till dark, and dark is very slow about coming. I realize for the first time, I think, that an hour is 60 minutes. But maybe I'll get good news, and as a result move somewhere. the Iwas to us By way, opposed interfering with the police unless simply disarming them. I have mind. I now changed my think they should all have been shot at sight as the first so step.25 By leaving them, many spies are left, and they point out one's friends and relations for have no no persecution. They country and countrymen. They slavishly obey their care one paymasters and not jot whose life they sell. I have learned so much in a few I no days. If get the chance I pray that thoughts of humanity will induce me to spare those brutes.

29th April 1916 The rumours are but a today good confusing. There is newspaper within 100 yards of me and I can't it. It get may however be a weekly, and the news seems to be a mixture of that from the daily and weekly papers. Casement is mentioned Did I as again. say he is reported being arrested and brought to London? That report true or false hindered us also for it looked as if the German was small. It be that he is and if means more landing may possible arrested, so, bungling on this side but I can't blame anybody for bungling for I have been party to some bungling here myself. I think he told me in America he would come ashore himself first and the Itwas foolish of him if he proclaim Republic. did, and thus he is arrested. I hope it is all for Ireland if false, successful will want him badly. MacNeill is as as gone far the Republic is concerned, and I have lost confidence in all the rest as far as is statesmanship concerned. Imay be wrong, and I hope I am, as I am drawing conclusions from incomplete premises. Plunkett and Pearse are good and should be level-headed, but neither understand the North it and will be very important. After the failure here Iwill have nothing to say. They will not realise for years that the fault is theirs not mine. At least it is as theirs much as mine. I don't know yet what I may do but intend to go S. West. I listened to one of our men who to turn just refused out, discussing my case and that

25 McCartan was to those who knew him a and but he ' closely genial kindly soul, hardened his heart towards the as a result his 'peelers" of observations of their activities when he was a republican activist as a medical student in Dublin and later as a dispensary doctor at Gortin, Co. Tyrone. In a letter of 24 May 1916 he mentioned that after the arrests and prosecution of four Irish Volunteer ? Denis ? agents McCullough, Herbert Pirn, Liam Mellows and Ernest Blythe in 1915 he had at a July proposed meeting (presumably private) of the Volunteers that the response should be assassination, and mentioned in particular that when MacNeill, head of the was Volunteers arrested, tried and deported inMay 1916, the response should have been the assassination of Baron Wimborne, lord lieutenant of Ireland, inCi?, 1966, pp. 36-7. In a further letter of 7 June 1916 he 'I hated contact a commented, with peelers as rule, and lately Iwas always expecting arrest and always ready to shoot' and added that when he was summoned one as a doctor to the barracks he went night police there 'with my automatic inmy jacket pocket and on the my finger trigger ready to shoot through the pocket inWestern American fashion.', in CR, 1966, p. 52.

206

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Easter 1916 : An Inside Report on Ulster

we of my brother with my host!26 He thinks won't be tried by martial law and is glad. He gathers that from the papers We have done nothing. Unfortunately that is true. I'm sorry I did not begin on Monday night with my brother as intended. It would have been better but he was strong on me consulting Fr O'Daly and so were all my friends who were in the know. I was therefore alone. The whole talk locally is about my safety and I must be grateful to them all personally but they think more of me than they do of the country. I hear now Barney is sowing corn today. They may not be looking for him as the ammunition being stored at his place is the only charge against him. But I'm certain if or they got me I would get the cell of Rossa Clarke in England. It is bad enough to be cooped up here but it would be worse there. I heard last night that Father O'Daly is not arrested yet. I'm glad, though like care myself, I'm sure he would not what happened him. Even death would be welcome. I may be able to have a talk with him next week. I hope I can, for he'll hear more than I were on can. I don't think I said that Paddy Quinn's27 and Barney Rodgers'28 searched as as in Friday morning well Loughrans'29 and my father's. They looked [sic] the beds nor so must me all the places, and did not look for ammunition rifles that it have been for me to is to they were looking. These are the houses where they would expect stop. It hard a expose one's friends but I know none of mine will regret having been friend. They would all do anything for me. It is believed locally that I have gone to Monaghan, and I are to suppose my uncle there will have a search also.30 The people generally beginning think the Patriots ("Rebels") may win out, and seem delighted. I don't hear how the Unionists are taking it. While I was at liberty they seemed an to the members paralysed, though the Grand Master of the Orangeman issued appeal to put themselves at the disposal of the Government. Carson and Redmond have, I hear,

26 It is not clear from the letter who was his host. However, McCartan in his later recollections of Easter Week, in CR, 1964, pp. 199-203, tells of those months when he was "on his keeping" with a cousin, Michael McCartan, a veterinary surgeon also politically involved. They made for the hills and stayed with another cousin, Mrs McCullough of Greencastle, near Carrickmore, who lived hardly half a mile away from McCartan's father's house. For some time McCartan and Michael McCartan slept in a barn beside Mrs McCullough's home, and itwas apparently from there that McCartan wrote his letter of 28 April to Joe McGarrity, as well as the other thirteen letters to McGarrity published in CR, 1966, pp. 5-65. McCartan's stay in the barn explains the hayseeds which fluttered from the package of letters when I opened it at Greystones inMarch 1963, see CR, 1966, pp. 11, 15-16. 27 Paddy Quinn, who owned a public house in the village of Carrickmore. His son managed the business up to his death some five years ago. I am indebted to P?draig McCartan, S.C., for this information. 28 There were Tyrone men among the over 3,000 persons arrested after the rising, of whom the majority were deported to prison in England. Many were allowed to return to Ireland after a short time. They are listed in Sinn Fein rebellion handbook, Irish Times 1917, pp. 69-91. Those released up to 2 June included M. Rodgers and R. Slane, both of Sixmilecross, ibid., p. 91. were 29 The Loughrans, who lived at Sixmilecross third cousins of McCartan. Mary Ann ("Nan") see Loughran was one of McCartan's couriers to Dublin during Holy Week-Easter Week; above, n. 12. I am indebted for this information to P?draig McCartan, S.C. 30 Rafferty, the uncle inMonaghan, had earlier emigrated to Argentina, made money there and returned to Ireland, settling at Urbleshanny, inMonaghan, near Scotstown; information from P?draig McCartan, S.C. According to Patrick McCartan, in CR, 1964, p. 201, the police 'searched relations and priests who were friends of mine as far around as Armagh and a Monaghan, and all the time Iwas hardly half mile away from my father's house, which turned out to be the safest place.' 207

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Clogher Record ' issued an appeal to their supporters to join in crushing the 'Rebels" .31Carson is an ass. If he were half Irish he could have been first President of the Republic, and could have ensured its complete success. I am in better heart today than yesterday. I suppose it is the good news for it seems certain now that the South and West are up. O Lord, what consternation even we few could have created in the North if we had got a chance! But crying now will not remedy it. I hope only that for the honour of Tyrone we will get a chance yet to show the rest of Ireland that there is still red blood here.

31 For Carson's predictable downright opposition to the rising see Ian Colvin, Life of Lord Carson, vol. iii, London 1936, pp. 162-79. There was far more at stake for Redmond, whose first considered hard-hitting public statement began, 'My first feeling on hearing of this insane one movement was of horror, discouragement, almost despair. I asked myself whether Ireland, as so often before in her tragic history, was to dash the cup of liberty from her lips.', Denis Gwynn, The life of John Redmond, London 1932, pp. 455-89, at p. 481.

208

This content downloaded from 86.174.204.174 on Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:01:42 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions