KEYNOTE Assembling armies Ulster in general. Stressing its non- Ultimately, only 25,000 National Volunteers The years leading up to the Rising denominational ethos and how it was open had enlisted for service with the British to all Irishmen, the Irish Volunteers openly Army by the spring of 1917. Meanwhile, welcomed cooperation with the UVF, Eoin MacNeill, the founder of the Irish saw plenty of activity as the Irish ignoring the fact that the Ulster Volunteers Volunteers, retained the name and 12,500 was pledged to resistance to Home Rule, (seven percent) of the membership of the whereas the Irish Volunteers had been original volunteer force. nationalists began to make long-term constituted with the defence of that same The other thing which MacNeill’s principle as its primary objective. Volunteers retained was a concealed By the summer of 1914, both the Irish cohort of Irish Republican Brotherhood plans, writes Dr Conor Mulvagh and Ulster Volunteers had swollen their (IRB) activists. This secret movement had ranks. The Irish Volunteers’ numbers been reinvigorated after 1905 when two peaked at approximately 180,000 and the northern republicans, Bulmer Hobson and OOKING back on the north, where the Ulster Volunteer Force UVF had between 80,000 and 110,000 Denis McCullough, took over and revamped Easter Rising, many in (UVF) was established in January 1913. members at its height. Both were genuinely the movement. Irish administration and The establishment of the UVF actually mass movements and, with major arms The IRB had seized the opportunity British politics asked why represented the formalisation of a situation shipments coming in for the unionists in presented by the vogue for volunteering the clear warning signs which had been ongoing in Ulster for some April 1914 and for the nationalists in July to infiltrate the Irish Volunteers from its had not been taken more time whereby unionists had been drilling of that year, both clearly possessed funds inception. The infiltration went to the seriously. In hindsight, and arming in localised and uncoordinated and organisational abilities that made them very highest echelons of the force. When L the evidence was there initiatives. forces to be reckoned with. the provisional committee of the Irish to suppress nationalist and socialist The UVF brought a central command On the outbreak of the First World War, Volunteers was formed in November 1913, paramilitary organisations who paraded structure to this. Within 11 months, the John Redmond, chairman of the Irish 12 of its 25 members were also members and trained unmolested across Ireland precedent made by the UVF was deemed Parliamentary Party at Westminster, of the Brotherhood. Subsequently, other but, on the advice of Irish MPs fearing a worthy of emulation by nationalists. pledged the Irish Volunteers to the defence provisional committee members, most backlash if the government was seen to Again, prior local initiatives preceded the of Ireland during wartime. When, on 20 notably Patrick Pearse, Joseph Plunkett, and act harshly against these groups, tolerance foundation of a nationwide organisation September 1914 he urged Volunteers to fight Thomas MacDonagh were sworn into the rather than a clampdown was the policy for the defence of Home Rule: the Irish abroad as the surest means of securing IRB; their potential having been recognised pursued. Volunteers, founded in November 1913. Home Rule for Ireland, he precipitated a through their work in the Volunteers. Who were these private armies that Interestingly, although it was perhaps split in the movement. Roughly 153,000 Though by no means as large as the carried on drilling and arming before and more rhetorical than sincere, the Irish sided with Redmond becoming ‘National aforementioned Irish, Ulster, and National during the First World War, provoking the Volunteers maintained that it did not stand Volunteers’. However, this organisation Volunteers, two other forces — the Irish ire of the authorities? It had begun in the in opposition to the UVF or to unionist lapsed into inactivity by the middle of 1915. Citizen Army and the Hibernian Rifles — 4 | Irish Independent 1916 Collection Irish Independent I 29 October 2015 KEYNOTE UCD’s Conor Mulvagh. MARK CONDREN Clockwise from left: A mounted National Volunteer saluting the flag during a drill at Keash, County Sligo in 1914; members of the Ulster Volunteers practise their rifle shooting in a remote location in Northern Ireland in 1914; the Constitution of The Irish Volunteers published in October 1914. GETTY IMAGES, MILITARY ARCHIVES and acquiring arms were also founded prior to the First World Hibernian Rifles fought during Easter By contrast, Cumann na mBan, which and republicanism more generally. War and joined with the Irish Volunteers week. The unit suffered combat casualties, was officially an ‘auxiliary’ organisation Returning to the British government’s in forming the combat troops of the Easter most notably when it was dispatched to to the all-male Irish Volunteers, was an attitudes to these organisations, Sir Rebellion in 1916. engage in heavy fighting at the Exchange autonomous organisation with its own Mathew Nathan had been appointed Under The Irish Citizen Army had been founded Hotel on Parliament Street. leadership and command structures. Secretary at Dublin Castle in September in 1913 to protect the citizens of Dublin Two further organisations were Cumann All five of these bodies: the Irish 1914, after the First World War had broken from the Dublin Metropolitan Police na mBan and Na Fianna Éireann. Cumann Volunteers, the Citizen Army, Cumann na out. From then until his resignation in the following notable clashes such as Bloody na mBan was the women’s auxiliary to the mBan, Fianna Éireann, and the Hibernian wake of the Easter rebellion, he was the Sunday on 31 August 1913 in which a DMP Irish Volunteers and Na Fianna Éireann a Rifles fought as part of the rebel army of top civil servant on the ground in Ireland. baton charge resulted in the deaths of two rebel boy-scouts organisation which long the provisional government of the Irish He reported directly to his Chief Secretary, citizens. Approximately 500 were injured in predated the rush to arming and drilling Republic declared on Easter Monday 1916. Augustine Birrell, who was a member of that incident alone. The Irish Citizen Army but who nonetheless militarised as the While historians often dwell on Cabinet in London. numbered no more than 350 members in vogue for volunteering swept Ireland the importance of nomenclature Nathan and Birrell were the focus of 1916 but, an impressive 250 of these turned in 1913. Both units served prominently nowadays, Dublin Castle was happy blame when the Royal Commission of out to fight during Easter 1916. during the insurrection. to dub any organisation Investigation into the Irish Rebellion The Hibernian Rifles was smaller again. unsympathetic to the reported on 10 May 1916. Although others So small, in fact, that it has been almost HE question of gender official Home Rule party such as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, forgotten in the history of the Rising. is an important one. In a climate“where all and to the British war Lord Wimborne, and the heads of the TAlthough entirely effort as ‘Sinn Féiners’ and Royal Irish Constabulary and the Dublin While the Irish Citizen Army wore its own uniform, distinctive to that of the gender equal on paper, sorts of activities from referred to Irish Volunteers Metropolitan Police, weathered the much larger Irish Volunteers, by 1916, the the Irish Citizen Army has eating seed potatoes to as ‘Sinn Féin Volunteers’. storm, both Birrell and Nathan resigned Hibernian Rifles wore a uniform identical come in for fresh scrutiny in Strictly speaking, ‘Sinn thereafter. Inactivity rather than ineptitude to that of the Volunteers but with ‘blue recent years as files in the lighting bonfires were Féin’ denoted membership was the criticism levelled at them. facings on the cuffs and collars and slacks’. Bureau of Military History outlawed, the relative of Arthur Griffith’s dual- Why were large musters of armed citizens Numbering around 50, the Hibernian Rifles reveal that traditional monarchist party which allowed to parade and drill in public even was established by a faction of the Ancient gender roles perpetuated lack of suppression, advocated parliamentary after the First World War had broken out? Order of Hibernians (AOH) known as the in the army. Only two surveillance, and abstention in this period. In a climate where all sorts of activities Irish American Alliance. Whereas the better female members, Constance infiltration of these However, the term from eating seed potatoes to lighting known and more populous AOH ‘Bord of Markievicz and Margaret features regularly in bonfires were outlawed, the relative lack of Éireann’ was a key part of the Home Rule Skinnider, played full private armies can often police reports and Under suppression, surveillance, and infiltration electoral and constituency machine, the combatant roles during the appear remarkable to Secretary’s dossiers during of these private armies can often appear AOH IAA had, as its name suggests, links Rising with others confined the war years with reference remarkable to modern observers. to radical Irish America. Around 20 of the to cook or messenger duties. modern observers to advanced nationalism CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 >>> 29 October 2015 I Irish Independent Irish Independent 1916 Collection | 5 KEYNOTE Assembling armies and acquiring arms >>> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 Assembling young men and women willing to become members of these paramilitary organisations was one thing, the acquisition of arms was quite another. After spectacular large scale arms importations by the UVF and Irish Volunteers prior to the declaration of war, a steady stream of rifles continued to be acquired by nationalists through various methods after the First World War broke out.