THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY 941.5 B69L Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books ore reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. University of Illinois Library NOV 8 1M2 d.:> % OtT 3 1 1982 20 1992 4', *> ^» MRY 2 { I '•-.-k i 1 OEe^ d^cn^973 NOV 2 \ 1978 13 i.C -7I9B9 NOV 2 6 1978 - M 2 I !8I fm 2 / ftov %yfM«- THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 ^^,^^ A BRIEF HISTORT OF THE REVOLT AND ITS SUPPRESSION BY JOHN F. BOYLE LONDON CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED 1916 The Map and Plan are included by permission of the Proprietors of The Times. o PREFACE My aim in wfftmg this short account of ^ the Rebellion that broke out in Ireland ^ during Easter-week, 191 6, has been to pre- ^ sent the facts in a clear and lucid manner, ^ so that a just appreciation of what actually readers in \ occurred may be gleaned by Great Britain and Ireland as well as abroad. The facts I have set forth are r obtained from official sources, as well as i, from the accounts of the rising that ap- jd peared in the Press from well-informed r i correspondents. It has been a task of ^"g considerable difficulty to collate and re- "-^ arrange them so that a complete and graphic pen-picture of the whole affair may result from the chaos, but I trust the work will be found to have been at least not negligently performed in the following 5 3G2246 PREFACE pages. It is too early yet to estimate the real causes of the revolt or its probable consequences, and I have ventured no opinions, merely confining myself to as plain and impartial a presentation of the actual facts as I could, under all the cir- cumstances, set forth. JOHN F. BOYLE. — CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION II The Sinn Fein movement. CHAPTER ONE. THE RISING IN DUBLIN 27 The Irish or Sinn Fein Volunteers—^Their rise, progress, and objects—No secrecy about the movement—Open hostility to Great Britain—Their efforts to obtain arms—Germany and Ireland Anti-recruiting newspapers in Dublin—Causes that led to the rebellion—A fateful Easter Monday General Post Office and other buildings seized An Irish Republic proclaimed—Insurgents publish a newspaper—Their successes and failures—The position after the first two days. CHAPTER TWO. STREET FIGHTING 68 Martial Law in Dublin—The barricades—A Com- mune similarity—Shooting from houses—Fighting at Fairview—^Troops hold railway line—Boland's Bakery—^A clever rebel ruse—^The Mount Street Bridge affray—Soldiers attacked—Heavy losses of the Sherwood Foresters—Firing from villa resi- dences and from shrubberies—Painful plight of families—Stephen's Green—How the insurgents were driven out—Jacob's Factory—Insurgents in ———• CONTENTS PAGE possession—An abundance of food—South Dublin Union—Heavy and continuous fighting—^The Four Courts—Sniping in lanes and alleys—Difficulties of the troops—Liberty Hall destroyed by a gunboat. CHAPTER THREE. END OF THE DUBLIN REVOLT 95 The military cordon closes in—Insurgents trapped Official reports—Sackville Street in flames—Awful scenes of devastation—^The surrender of the leaders —^What Pearse signed—^The Countess Markievicz —Her dramatic capture—An account of her career —Isolated fighting—The appearance of the rank and file—Their occupations—How they fought King's tribute to his troops—Last snipers rounded up in Dublin. CHAPTER FOUR. OUTBREAKS IN THE COUNTRY ... I27 What happened in Kerry—The Casement fiasco—Small rising in Louth—Serious County Dublin attempt Police barracks captured—Post Offices raided Telegraph wires cut—The Ashbourne tragedy Eight policemen shot dead and twenty-three wounded—The Enniscorthy insurrection—Town captured and held for several days—^The rising in the West—Railway line torn up—Galway saved by a gunboat—Country, as a whole, quiet. CHAPTER FIVE. THE DAMAGE TO DUBLIN I53 Fire and looting—How the capital suffered—^The wreck of Sackville Street—An appalling scene of ruin Wholesale robbery—Daring acts of the looters— 8 ——— CONTENTS pAor Shot by troops and by rebels alike—Stolen goods hidden in churches—Shortage of supplies—Remark- able effects of the revolt—Hundreds of innocent people killed and wounded—Burials in gardens Firemen fired at when fighting the flames List of prominent buildings destroyed—Estimate of the damage—The Government asked to pay. CHAPTER SIX. EXECUTIONS AND DEPORTATIONS l88 P. H. Pearse shot—^The orator and inspirer of the rebellion—His last poem—Thomas MacDonagh dies—A gloomy poet—Clarke, the old Fenian, shot at 74 years of age—Edmond Kent, the Sinn Feiner —His end and his life-story—^Joseph Plunkett His midnight marriage before execution—^James Connolly—^An able leader—Nationalist or An- archist?—John MacDermott—A troubled life Major McBride and the Boer War—Penal servitude and deportations. CHAPTER SEVEN. PUBLIC OPINION AND THE REVOLT ... 221 Feeling in Great Britain—Amazement and disgust Government criticised—Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Chief Secretary, and Under Secretary resign—^The Colonies and the rebellion—Irish public bodies The rising denounced—" Worse than Huns " Gradual change in Irish Nationalist opinion Sympathy evoked by the executions—Alarm caused by the arrests and deportations—Mr. Redmond's views—Irish Party's manifesto—A new develop- ment—Mr. Dillon's vehement speech—^America and the insurrection—^The Irish-Americans—Germany's glee—Use made in Berlin of the rebellion. 9 — CONTENTS CHAPTER EIGHT. PAGE AFTER THE REBELLION 243 Mr. Birrell's extraordinary admission—Peers indict the Government—General Sir John Maxwell's powers —Irish Catholic Bishops and the revolt—Nation- alists and the Carsonite campaign—Conscription and Ireland—Colonel Churchill's strange hint The military and civilian casualties in Ireland Mr. Asquith visits Dublin, Belfast, and Cork Speculations as to the causes—The Government and the rebuilding of Dublin—Official announce- ment—How the insurgents fought—British testi- mony—Irish at the Front—Dismay caused by the revolt—^The Skeffington and North King Street affairs—^The Casement trial—The Royal Commis- sion—Astonishing evidence by Sir Matthew Nathan and Mr. Birrell. CHAPTER NINE. THE ROYAL COMMISSION 274 Sir Matthew Nathan's story—How the rebellion was planned—Money from America and arms from England—^Why the Volunteers were not suppressed —Mr. Birrell in the witness-box—His remarkable evidence—Nationalist leaders and the Sinn Feiners —His request for more troops—Reply of the War Office—Lord Midleton examined—His warnings to the Government—How they were treated—Lord Wimborne and the Viceroyalty—His limited — " powers " An incredible rebellion —Brighter hopes for the future. ID THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 INTRODUCTION THE SINN FEIN MOVEMENT The Irish words " Sinn Fein " mean, literally, " Ourselves alone." Irishmen should depend on themselves, and not on outsiders—this was the essence of the teaching in the Sinn Fein movement. They should think in Irish, speak in Irish, write in Irish, dress in Irish, develop Irish resources, support Irish industries, and generally progress on purely Irish lines. This, too, was, in a great measure, the pro- gramme of the Gaelic League, which was founded some years in advance of the Sinn Fein movement. There were, however, II THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 wide divergences, at first, in the policies of the Gaelic League and the Sinn Fein movement. The Gaelic League was not political. Its propaganda was purely edu- cational. Its chief aims were to restore the Irish language as a medium of con- versation, to re-create an Irish literature in the vernacular, to foster Irish games and amusements, and in every way possible to render Ireland a distinctive cultural entity. It hoped to enlist in this work Protestant and Catholic, Unionist and Nationalist, and for this purpose it eschewed politics and religion. Not alone was it non-poli- tical, but it was also non-sectarian. The Sinn Fein movement was, from the first, political. It was Nationalist in the widest and most extreme form of that word. Founded in 1905, some five years or so after the Gaelic League, to a large extent, it left to the latter organisation the educational work it might, under other cir- cumstances, have itself undertaken, and proceeded to supplement that work by the wider means at its disposal owing to its 12 INTRODUCTION freer constitution. Though strictly non- sectarian, it was not, like the Gaelic League, trammelled by non-political bonds, and it was able to expound a policy and formulate a programme that the Gaelic League, committed as it then was to a severe estrangement from all that politics mean, could not undertake. The Sinn Feiners, from the first, were dissatisfied with, and disapproved of, the Irish repre- sentation in the Imp€frial Parliament. They held that, under the best circum- stances, such representation was bound to be prejudicial to Ireland, and, under the worst, to be absolutely disastrous to the country. They based this belief on the futility that had followed nearly a hundred years' agitation in the British Parliament for a measure of self-government for Ire- land. They were also convinced of the truth of some saying attributed to Charles Stewart Parnell that a couple of years in the British Parliament was sufficient to sap the nationality of even the strongest Irish- man. Holding such views, it is not sur- 13 THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1916 prising to find them, from the very start of their movement, in deadly and uncom- promising hostility to the Irish Nationalist Parliamentary Party. They hurled charges against members of that Party. They alleged that instead of attending to the true interests of Ireland they spent the most of their time in London or in the lobby of the House of Commons seeking jobs of all kinds for their friends and relations.