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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/24296-8.txt b/24296-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9d4056 --- /dev/null +++ b/24296-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5590 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Six days of the Irish Republic, by Louis Redmond-Howard + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Six days of the Irish Republic + A Narrative and Critical Account of the Latest Phase of Irish Politics + +Author: Louis Redmond-Howard + +Release Date: January 15, 2008 [EBook #24296] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIX DAYS OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC *** + + + + +Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + +SIX DAYS OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC + +A NARRATIVE AND CRITICAL ACCOUNT OF THE LATEST +PHASE OF IRISH POLITICS + +BY + +L. G. REDMOND-HOWARD + +NEPHEW AND BIOGRAPHER OF THE IRISH LEADER + +AUTHOR OF + +"LIFE OF JOHN REDMOND," "SIR ROGER CASEMENT," "AN IRISHMAN'S HOME," +"THE NEW BIRTH OF IRELAND," ETC. + +LONDON: MAUNSEL & CO. LTD. + +40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C. + +DUBLIN: E. PONSONBY LTD. + +116 GRAFTON STREET + +1916 + + + + +TO + +WILFRED MEYNEL + +ONE OF THE FEW HONEST ENGLISHMEN WHO ARE ENGLISH ENOUGH TO BE ASHAMED OF +THE STORY OF ENGLISH RULE IN IRELAND + +(_Passed by Censor_) + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The following pages are an attempt at a simple narrative and criticism +of what must appear the most inexplicable occurrence in Irish history. + +The climax of a century of arguments, futile only because of the +proverbial dullness of the race to which they were addressed, the rising +has lifted the Home Rule controversy at one stroke from the region of +the village pump into the very midst of the counsels of Europe, for it +was a challenge--of madmen, if you like--to the greatest Empire in the +world, at the very moment of its gravest crisis, upon the most +fundamental portion of its policy of interference with the affairs of +the Continent, namely, England's claim to be the champion of small +nationalities. + +Unless Ireland can be shown to be held by her own free consent, in +perfect contentment, the whole of our contention falls to the +ground--for our policy in Ireland is only in microcosm our policy of +Empire; and Germany will be able to point the finger of scorn and +ridicule at us, and prove thereby to France and Russia that, tyrants at +home, we only used them to fight a battle we dared not fight alone. + +I say nothing here of the motives that inspired the rebels, nor the +immediate causes that provoked them to rise, nor the nature of the +methods by which they were "stamped out"; I only state the moral of +their failure, and I must take this opportunity to thank Lord Decies, +the official Press censor, for the freedom with which he has allowed me +to speak at what I feel to be a very critical juncture in the history of +my country and of our common Empire; for I have gone upon the principle +that it is far better to distribute the blame all round than to try and +make the Sinn Feiners the scapegoats of faults which each party +contributed towards the catastrophe. + +There never was, I believe, an Irish crime--if crime it can be +called--which had not its roots in an English folly; and I repeat here +what the late Mr. Stead always impressed upon me: Ireland is our school +of Empire, and the mistakes which would lose us Ireland would lose us +the Empire. + +It is England's move next: we have protested in blood; the eyes of +Europe await her decision. + +At the same time I cannot help blaming Irishmen as well for the +catastrophe, for politicians of all parties have been tending towards +isolating their followers in the old ancestral bigotries, instead of +drawing them together in sympathy, as Mr. William O'Brien has been +advocating for years, with the result that we are now threatened with +permanent constitutional separation for another generation. + +It is a mistake which all the younger men deplore, and which could +easily have been avoided by bringing in the men of Ulster into the +national deliberations, as they have every right, in the name of their +Southern followers, and then giving them the option to veto the +application of any measure to their own districts--which would have been +the best guarantee of justice which the Nationalists could have given +and the most they had a right to expect of England, whose political +position of dependence upon the Irish vote is a scandal of empire. + +These things, however, are beyond the scope of the present pages, and I +shall confine myself with thanking those of my many friends who have +helped me in compiling this volume--notably Councillor Keogh, who was +with me during the Battle of Mount Street Bridge, and others, whose +criticisms helped me considerably. Likewise I must thank my publishers +and Mr. O'Keefe, of O'Keefe's Press-cutting Agency; and Mr. George +Atkinson, who designed the cover, and Mr. Crampton Walker; and also Mr. +Marsh, the manager of the Coliseum, with whom I had several dangerous +adventures while in Sackville Street; and lastly, those among my Sinn +Fein friends who enabled me to get an inner view of a movement to which +I have endeavoured to do the best of justice--that of a true statement +of their intentions. + + L. G. REDMOND-HOWARD. +T.C.D., + 1916. + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE + +INTRODUCTION iii + +CHAPTER THE FIRST + +A BOLT FROM THE BLUE 1 + +CHAPTER THE SECOND + +JUST BEFORE THE BATTLE 14 + +CHAPTER THE THIRD + +BATTLE 27 + +CHAPTER THE FOURTH + +SURRENDER--COLLAPSE 40 + +CHAPTER THE FIFTH + +AFTERMATH 54 + +CHAPTER THE SIXTH + +SINN FEIN--GERMAN GOLD 69 + +CHAPTER THE SEVENTH + +MINDS AND MEN 82 + +CHAPTER THE EIGHTH + +REMOTER CAUSES OF THE REBELLION 98 + +CHAPTER THE NINTH + +REFLECTIONS TOWARDS RECONSTRUCTION 120 + + + + +SIX DAYS OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC + + + + +CHAPTER THE FIRST + +A BOLT FROM THE BLUE + + +Those who were in Dublin on Easter Monday 1916 were privileged to +witness a scene which for dramatic setting and for paradoxical +conception is certainly the most extraordinary of any of the long line +of rebellions in Irish history, for at a time when it seemed almost +universally admitted that "Separatism" was from an economic, racial, and +military point of view utterly impossible, there suddenly arose without +warning, without apparent reason, and as if from nowhere, a body of men, +fully armed and completely organized, who within the space of a single +hour had captured every strategic point in the capital, and to its utter +amazement held it up in the name of a new "Republic," in much the same +way as a highwayman of old used to hold up coaches on Hounslow Heath. + +It was in very deed a bolt from the blue. The first intimation that the +general public got of the rising was the sudden spread of the wildest +rumours--"Dublin Castle has just been taken by the Irish Volunteers," +"The Post Office has been captured by the Sinn Feiners," "Soldiers and +police are being shot at sight," "Larkin's Citizen Army are firing on +women and children," but, for the most part, these rumours were +discredited as impossible, at most being put down as some accidental +clash between military and civilians, and it was only as people rushed +into the street and heard the stories of the encounters first-hand that +they began to realize that anything unusual was taking place. + +Bodies of armed men had indeed been remarked in unusually large numbers +in the streets all the morning, increasing and concentrating towards +twelve, but everyone had grown so accustomed to these demonstrations for +the past three years, since they had been inaugurated in Ulster by Sir +Edward Carson, that nobody had taken any particular notice. + +People merely remarked that it was rather strange, in view of the +abandonment of the "Easter manoeuvres" which had been organized for +Sunday, and which had been cancelled at the last moment, late on +Saturday night, by special order of Professor Eoin MacNeill, editor of +the _Irish Volunteer_, which ran: "Owing to the very critical position, +all orders given to Irish Volunteers for to-morrow, Easter Sunday, are +hereby rescinded, and no parades, marches, or other movements of Irish +Volunteers will take place. Each individual Volunteer will obey this +order strictly in every particular." + +It was supposed, therefore, that the numbers were due to the new +recruits which had been the outcome of the protest against the +deportation of the Sinn Fein leaders some time previous to this, and +moderate people hoped that the Sinn Fein authorities were about to show +the same discretion in the matter of an armed demonstration in Dublin +which the authorities had shown in the matter of the proposed inclusion +of the military in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Cork. + +Possibly they may have had secret information--for they had their spies +in every department--that the long-meditated disarmament had been +determined upon, and immediately decided to anticipate the offensive by +a strong defensive of their own choosing. At any rate, Monday found them +fully prepared, each in his proper place. + +Accordingly, on the exact stroke of midday the Volunteers in Sackville +Street were suddenly seen to stop short opposite the Post Office. "I was +outside the building at the time," said an eye-witness of that now +historic event, Mr. E. A. Stoker, the well-known Grafton Street +jeweller, "and noticed a mixed crowd of, I should say, roughly, about +one hundred men and boys, all armed, and half the number carrying old +portmanteaux and parcels of every description. It is said that Connolly +was leading. + +"He called, 'Halt! Left turn! Come on.' The crowd then ran into the Post +Office. I also followed. Several men crossed the counter and held +revolvers at the officials' heads. + +"One youth, intensely pale and nervous, put a revolver at my breast and +said, 'Clear out.' + +"I replied, 'What's up?' + +"He said, 'Hands up, or I'll blow your heart out.' + +"Up went my hands, and he backed me out to the entrance, and within five +minutes everyone else had been bundled out in the same unceremonious +way, and they were in possession." + +Once in possession of the Post Office--which from its position and +character was admirably suited for a general headquarters--the next +thing was to fortify the place, for there was no knowing what had +happened to the other enterprises which had been timed to take place +simultaneously, or when the authorities would send out an armed force +for its recapture. Next, a number of shots--all blank--were discharged +with the purpose of clearing the streets of sightseers and inquisitive +idlers. These had the desired effect, after which floor after floor of +the Post Office was systematically occupied, the officials being either +placed under arrest or allowed to disperse, as each case suggested fit +to the commander, and the air began to reverberate with the sounds of +crashing glass and masonry as the lower windows were turned into +fortified loopholes with the aid of furniture and bags. + +Meanwhile a small group of policemen stood near the Nelson Monument +helpless, but one must evidently have telegraphed for help, for within a +few minutes a small detachment of mounted lancers came riding up. + +People stood breathless in expectation. + +The insurgents just allowed the first line to get abreast of the Pillar, +and then they opened fire; and at once a couple of saddles were emptied +and the rest at once turned and galloped for all they were worth up in +the direction of the Rotunda. + +One poor fellow was killed outright and a horse shot dead; after which a +great cheer went up from the crowd in the G.P.O., who proceeded to take +off the harness and carry it in triumph back to headquarters, one of the +rebels in uniform taking the young lancer's sword. + +Immediately after this a tramway car was blown up with dynamite at the +corner of North Earl Street, making a sort of barricade against any +possible approach from Amiens Street Station, where the Belfast trains +were expected to arrive. + +By this time I was on the scene of the crisis myself, having only heard +the news on my way into Trinity, which had been quickly occupied by the +O.T.C., who were thus able to practically cut the chief line of +communication of the rebels and command a huge area of important streets +which would otherwise have presented the utmost difficulties to the +advance of regular troops. + +Only the military were allowed in College, and, anxious to be on the +spot at what everybody then expected would be no more than an hour or +so's brisk encounter, I took a car to the "Metropole" in order to be +present when the Post Office was taken--the hotel actually adjoining and +overlooking the building. + +My own experience must have been that of thousands of people in Dublin, +but I quote it, as I will quote it again, because I can personally +testify to it. + + +Everyone at the hotel was in a state of consternation, for hardly six +yards away the windows of the Post Office were crashing to the ground in +the street, and at everyone bags of refuse were being piled up, and the +muzzles of rifles were commanding all the windows of the hotel guests. + +Several soldiers were staying at the "Metropole," and as I saw the Sinn +Feiners watching us, I suggested their changing the khaki into mufti, if +only for the safety of the civilians--for on all sides soldiers were +being shot at sight by snipers--a suggestion which found acceptance, for +most of the officers were young subalterns on leave, and therefore +unarmed. + +For a long time we could not tell what was going to happen; every +minute we expected the soldiers or the constabulary, and peered +anxiously out, but it seemed as if they were never coming, and men in +the hotel were anxiously consulting what to do and women packing up +their jewels. + +The one man who all the while kept as cool as a cucumber was Mr. Oliver, +the manager of the "Metropole." + +At last there came a martial tap, tap at the glass door of the hall +entrance, from an officer arrayed in green and gold, wearing cocked hat +and feathers and high top-boots, with a sword in one hand and a revolver +in the other. + +Behind him were two minor officials, each armed with a loaded rifle of +modern pattern, with bayonets fixed. + +I was at Mr. Oliver's side at the time, and we could see that only a +pane divided us from a whole line of them ranged along the pavement. +Resistance was useless, and Mr. Oliver gave orders to admit them. + +"We intend to commandeer your food supply," said the man in the cocked +hat, "and I must ask you to show me the way to your provisions." + +For a second Mr. Oliver hesitated. "Suppose I refuse?" he said. + +"In that case I will take them and you too," was the reply, and then, +addressing the two men, he added, "Men, do your duty," and they +ransacked the place, while I took down a list of the goods they took. + +Eventually the officer signed a receipt for the goods taken in the name +of the Irish Republic, and Mr. Oliver, much to my disappointment, +pocketed the precious document. + +They left, and after a few minutes came back with a ten-pound note. +Again I presented myself, and ventured one or two questions. + +The looting had already begun, and children were wandering through the +streets with toys and food and sweets. + +"Surely," I said to the officer, "you do not approve of all this +indiscriminate theft?" + +"No, certainly not," was his dignified reply. + +I next asked the meaning of all the rising, and to this he simply +replied:-- + +"It means that Ireland is free, that English government is at an end, +and that we have established an Irish Republic. As it is, we hold the +whole city, and within a few days the provinces will be ours as well." + +I still pressed for a pronouncement on the real aims and objects of the +new Government, and was referred to headquarters. + +Accordingly, I took my courage in both hands and walked past the +soldiers opposite the Post Office and the sandbagged windows, and asked +the guard at the main door if I could have an interview with their +President. + +At first I thought I was going to get it, but I suddenly noticed a +change come over the man, and saw guns covering me in a most +uncomfortable way. + +I argued my case with some of the minor officials, and pleaded the +importance of such a pronouncement, but, taking me possibly for a spy, I +was ordered off, and told that my safest way was to get back to my +hotel, where no harm would come to me as a civilian if only I left the +men of action alone. + +As soon as I realized the impossibility of penetrating the headquarters, +I returned to the "Metropole" and took up a position of vantage upon the +balcony, and was able to secure a unique snapshot of the hoisting of the +new flag of the Republic, and took another of the cheering of the +crowd--though this was very insignificant and in no way represented any +considerable body of citizens, any of the better class having +disappeared, leaving the streets to idlers and women and children or +else stray sightseers. + +This was certainly a thing that struck me, and I realized at once that +the movement was at that time a dismal failure as far as the vast +majority of Nationalist Ireland was concerned. There was practically no +response whatever from the people: it seemed the very antithesis of the +emancipation of a race as we see it, say, in the capture of the Bastille +in the French Revolution. They looked on partly with amazement, partly +with curiosity--waiting for something dramatic to happen. + +The point struck me with particular pathos--there they were posing as +the saviours of their country, and yet there they were already doomed +before they had even struck a single blow--and doomed by the verdict of +their own countrymen. + +As I was making the remark to one of the men in the hotel, a boy with a +handful of sheets issued from the Post Office--they were the +proclamation of the new Republic of Ireland. + +Instead of eagerly scanning the sheets and picking out the watchwords of +the new liberty, or glowing with enthusiastic admiration at the phrases +or sentiments, most of the crowd "bought a couple as a souvenir"--some +with the cute business instinct "that they'd be worth a fiver each some +day, when the beggars were hanged." + +I give another pathetic story told to me, though I cannot vouch for it. +It was that young Plunkett was deputed to go to the base of Nelson's +Pillar and there read out the new charter of liberty to the emancipated +citizens. + +He read it with deep emotion to a pack of squabbling women and +children--and he had hardly half finished the document when suddenly +there was a crash, followed by the sound of breaking glass. + +At once the crowd turned round and looked in the direction whence it +proceeded, and one old woman, half sodden with drink, exclaimed with +delight, "Hooroosh!--they're raiding Noblet's toffee-shop." Whereupon +the newly emancipated slaves of a foreign tyranny rushed to partake in +the orgy of sweetmeats which came tumbling out into the street. + +It was to me the saddest picture of the whole revolution, and even if +not true, was certainly typical of much of the pathos which crowned this +mixture of humour and tragedy. + +The document in question, however, was by no means undignified, taken as +an explanation of the ideals that animated the rebels, but it was simply +ridiculous when judged by the hard common-sense standards of stern +reality, though it was probably never meant for anything more than a +rhetorical protest in the name of the fast-ebbing sense of Nationality. + +This Utopian outburst perhaps speaks best for itself, and I quote it in +full:-- + + + POBLACHT NA H-EIREANN. + THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT + OF THE + IRISH REPUBLIC + TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND. + + +Irishmen and Irishwomen: In the name of God and of the dead generations +from which she receives her old traditions of nationhood, Ireland, +through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her +freedom. Having organized and trained her manhood through her secret +revolutionary organization, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and +through her open military organizations, the Irish Volunteers and the +Irish Citizen Army; having patiently perfected her discipline, having +resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes +that moment, and, supported by her exiled children in America and by +gallant Allies in Europe, but relying in the first place on her own +strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory. + +We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of +Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be +sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a +foreign people and Government has not extinguished the right, nor can it +ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In +every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national +freedom and sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred years +they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and +again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim +the Irish Republic as a sovereign independent State, and we pledge our +lives and the lives of our comrades in arms to the cause of its freedom, +of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations. + +The Irish Republic is entitled to and hereby claims the allegiance of +every Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic guarantees religious and +civil liberty, equal rights, and equal opportunities to all its +citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and +prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the +children of the nation equally and oblivious of the differences +carefully fostered by an alien Government, which have divided a minority +from the majority in the past. + +Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment +of a permanent national Government representative of the whole people of +Ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, the +Provisional Government hereby constituted will administer the civil and +military affairs of the Republic in trust for the people. + +We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the +Most High God, whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that +none who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, +or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and +discipline, and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves +for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which +it is called. + +Signed on behalf of the Provisional Government:-- + + THOMAS J. CLARKE. + SEAN MACDIARMADA. + THOMAS MACDONAGH. + J. H. PEARSE. EAMONN CEANNT. + JAMES CONNOLLY. JOSEPH PLUNKETT. + + +But to continue the narrative. According to a young woman cleric in the +G.P.O. the Sinn Feiners had chosen the place for their headquarters +partly because they were already familiar with the place, which was +proved by the way they settled down each to his own work the moment they +entered it, and partly because they had already made it a storehouse. + +All this while much the same process was going on all over the city. The +attack upon the Castle was hardly less dramatic than that upon the +G.P.O., but it seems to have been undertaken by fewer troops of +Volunteers and carried out less cleverly, so that it eventually fell +back into the hands of the military. I believe it was originally +intended to burn the place to the ground, as symbolical of the +centuries of tyranny with which it has been associated. Strategically it +might not have been of such value to the insurgents, but the moral +effect of its capture would undoubtedly have been enormous upon the +provinces if they had been able to telegraph it within the first few +hours of the rising. + +The Castle, however, had never formed the main point of attack; it was +at most an emotional side-issue. The scheme for the defence of Dublin +was a far greater conception, and there was hardly a bookseller in the +city, as I learnt later from Fred Hanna, of Nassau Street, whose shop +had not been visited during the past few weeks by one or other of the +insurgent leaders with the object of securing all the standard works on +strategy and military operations--which rather goes to prove that the +step had been long in contemplation. + +The idea seems to have been to draw a cordon around the city by securing +first of all the chief railway stations and the larger dominating +buildings, such as Jacob's biscuit factory, and then to man the corner +houses that overlooked the main roadways at the point where they crossed +the canals, and thus prevent all approach of the military till +messengers should be dispatched from Dublin to tell the counties to +rise. + +Probably the greatest disappointment to the rebels was the capture of +the famous Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park. + +It was generally understood that this was crammed to the very door with +guns and ammunition--heavy guns especially--and the most elaborate +preparations had consequently been made for its capture, the idea +probably being that once Ireland had heard of the capture of Dublin +there would be a general movement from the country towards the capital, +and that the new recruits could be fitted out from the magazine and then +dispatched to provincial headquarters. It was probably for this reason +the long line of the quays along the Liffey had been kept clear--the +Four Courts being a sort of halfway fort. + +The loss of the Magazine Fort--or rather the failure of their +expectation in its regard, for it was found to be practically empty +when searched--meant that they were bound to depend entirely upon +Germany for the larger ammunition. The railways were of course of +supreme importance, and simultaneously with the raid of the Post Office, +Jacob's, and the Castle, attacks were made on all the principal +stations. + +At twelve prompt Westland Row was occupied without a struggle and the +doors closed, sentinels being placed on the bridge spanning the street +below--arousing no little local curiosity, for the news had not +circulated through the town by this time. + +Harcourt Street Station was also taken over and an attempt made to +fortify it, but this was abandoned after some time, quite early in the +afternoon. Broadstone Station also fell before the insurgents; but +neither the attempt upon Amiens Street or Kingsbridge, where the +soldiers from Belfast and the Curragh would necessarily arrive, +succeeded. The military did not secure the former without a struggle, +having to stand a siege, while the latter's approaches were kept clear +by means of an engine, on which several armed snipers were placed, and +which was kept moving continually up and down, sweeping the country of +any Sinn Feiners who might attempt to approach in order to tamper with +the permanent way. + +This was rendered necessary because immediately the rebels got +possession of a line their first steps were to destroy signalling points +and junctions, and in one or two instances, such as on the Kingstown +line, actually tore up the permanent way, while in several other places +attempts were made to blow up the bridges with dynamite. + +Had it not been for this the whole coup might have been ended on Monday +or Tuesday at latest, instead of dragging on day after day. + +Every bridge across the canal which bounds Dublin on the south was +commanded by corner-houses, entered at the point of the revolver and +turned, in spite of all protest, into fortresses in an almost mediæval +fashion. + +Liberty Hall, from whence floated the green emblem which had first been +hoisted when the four Labour leaders were deported, was a sort of +central storehouse of munitions, and was strongly guarded, but strange +to say the Custom House on the other side of the railway was left +untouched. + +This was probably because the docks were sufficiently defended by the +factories, like Ringsend and Boland's bakery, vast straggling buildings +on either side of the railway approach, and which were not only +occupied, but stored with food and ammunition and loopholed and +sandbagged to stand a fortnight's siege if necessary. + +The one great mistake made by the rebels appears to have been the +occupation of Stephen's Green, a huge open square, which, surrounded as +it is by tall buildings on all four sides, was bound to become a +death-trap, and eventually did so become. + +At exactly the same time as the Post Office was occupied, Volunteers +entered the famous square, which might almost be called a park, and +ordered the civilians out at the point of the revolver. They then +proceeded to entrench themselves and make barricades of any convenient +object, seizing trams, cabs, benches, and even holding up motor-cars and +turning them to this purpose. + +In the carrying out of this several civilians were shot at and wounded, +either by accidental shots meant for soldiers or for refusing obedience +to the new self-constituted authorities. + +Great carts, filled presumably with ammunition, were next escorted into +the Green, and then the doors were locked and barred and tied very +strongly, and finally the ropes greased--which shows how carefully +almost any eventuality had been planned. + +Whether their danger on the Green dawned upon them in time I cannot say, +but when they saw themselves dominated by the great roof of the +Shelbourne Hotel--about half an hour after the seizure of the open +square for a camp--a rush was made for the hotel, which luckily had just +been captured in the nick of time by a few of the military, who +immediately began to fire on the rebels below, at the same time guarding +the doors. A short while afterwards the main body of new Sinn Fein +arrivals were noticed to make their way, instead, to the Royal College +of Surgeons at the opposite end, which became one of their most stoutly +defended strongholds under the famous Countess Markievicz. + +Two further mistakes of the most vital importance were made in the +rebels' plan for the capture of Dublin, however, which were eventually +to be the deciding factor of the whole situation, and to which more than +anything they must be said to owe the sudden collapse of their movement +as well in the capital as in the provinces. The first was the omission +to capture the telephone system after securing the telegraphs so +completely. + +This meant not only that the military authorities could still keep in +touch with the few troops that still remained in Ireland, but it meant +that the authorities at the Castle were able to get into touch with +London. + +One can hardly imagine the chaos that would have ensued if, for example, +a delay of a couple of days had had to intervene between the occurrence +of the rising and communication with London--which might have been quite +possible, since they held the wireless stations as well as the cables, +and German submarines were supposed to be watching the mail boats. + +The other great mistake was to allow Trinity College, which was the +strategic key to Dublin City, to fall into the hands of a few of the +Officers' Training Corps, who must be given the credit of saving the +capital from total capture and Grafton Street from pillage. + +For as long as this was held by soldiers all the internal lines of +communication of the rebels were blocked and they themselves threatened +on all sides. + +Otherwise the republicans had complete control of the city: the police +were confined to barracks, civilians were on all sides at the mercy of a +perfectly organized and armed body of revolutionaries all in touch with +a headquarter staff, and the military, somewhere beyond the outskirts of +the city, were--nobody knew exactly where, and the whole population on +all sides hushed in expectation of the inevitable battle. + +For it had ceased to be a mere riot: it had become a revolution. + + + + +CHAPTER THE SECOND + +JUST BEFORE THE BATTLE + + +Those who went through that period of anxious expectancy between Monday +afternoon and Wednesday morning, knowing themselves absolutely at the +mercy of what appeared to be a "secret society suddenly gone mad and in +possession of the reins of government," will never forget the +experience. + +The whole thing was so sudden, so unprecedented, so inexplicable that +the intelligence simply refused to perform the ordinary functions of +thought. + +Everywhere civilians were being bullied into obedience at the point of +the bayonet: young boys in their teens brandished revolvers in the high +roads: rough, brawny dockers walked about endowed apparently with +unlimited authority, and in the dark recesses of the General Post +Office, beyond the reach of law or argument, the mysterious Republican +Brotherhood--omnipotent. + +All the while stories were coming in of hairbreadth escapes, of stray +shots, apparently from the sky, picking off unfortunate wayfarers, and +of whole parties of officers on their way back from the races in their +cars being captured and held up by the Volunteers--and every story went +one further than the one before it, till one was ready to believe almost +anything. + +Personally, I kept within the "Metropole," expecting every minute that +the "climax" of the situation would be reached, but still the soldiery +did not arrive, and we began to come to the belief that in all +probability the authorities were only waiting until dusk. + +I could not tear myself from the windows. That instinct of expectation +gripped me like a vice, and continued to do so for twenty-four solid +hours--and if I quote my own experience it is only as an example of what +others all around me went through. + +It was now about four o'clock, and still I looked out into the street +below--the people were beginning to go wild with excitement, for every +now and then the Sinn Feiners would fire blank cartridges, and each time +they did so, with the one cry "The soldiers are coming!" a mass of +several thousand men, women, and children would rush now to one end of +Sackville Street, now to the other. After Noblet's it was the Saxon Shoe +Company and Dunn's hat-shop's turn to be looted, and one could see +little guttersnipe wearing high silk hats and new bowlers and straws, +who had never worn headgear before: bare-footed little devils with legs +buried in Wellington top-boots, unable to bend their knees, and drunken +women brandishing satin shoes and Russian boots till it seemed as if the +whole revolution would collapse in ridicule or pandemonium. For there +was no animosity in the crowd at first, just as there was no +enthusiasm--certainly no avarice or desire for theft--only sheer +demoralization and mischief for mischief's sake: but every hour it +became worse. Sometimes there was absolutely no point in the loot. I saw +an urchin of nine brandishing with pride More's "Utopia" and Wells's +"New Machiavelli," which he compared with a rival urchin's--a +girl's--bunch of newspapers on "Poultry" and "Wireless," and solemnly +exchanging their treasures. + +I saw a tussle between two drunken harlots for the possession of a +headless dummy taken from a draper's shop, and noted a youngster go up +to the very steps of the Provisional Government House of the New +Republic of Ireland and amuse the armed rebels with impersonations of +Charlie Chaplin. + +In another portion of the street I saw a drunken sailor mad with hate +make a furious assault upon a woman, and then, when the crowd yelled in +horror, suddenly change his mind from murder and kiss his victim: while +in yet another portion of the street a woman of about sixty was kneeling +with hands outstretched to heaven, clasping a rosary and crying her +prayers to the Mother of God in heaven for "Ireland to be a nation once +again!" + +Time after time I felt inclined to weep with very shame at the whole +thing; for as I passed a group of young English _revue_ girls who had +come along to see the "show," I heard one exclaim, "A little bit of +heaven, and they call it Ireland!" and everyone laughed; and another +threw out the gibe: "Irish, and proud of it, eh?" + +They were not meant as insults--no, certainly not--merely the happy +laughing cynicism of the common-sense view that would be taken of us by +hundreds of cartoonists; but I must say they went through me as hardly +anything else I witnessed, for they showed in such a terrible light the +contrast between the dream that had inspired these men and the reality +that they had brought forth. + +Meantime, however, things were maturing, and as they matured the +ridiculous element faded and the tragic element began to come into the +picture. + +Every few minutes dispatch riders would come up on motor-cycles to the +Post Office, and emerge a few minutes later with sealed orders. A long +line of motor-cars "held up" at the point of the revolver was also +requisitioned and placed at the disposal of the rebels in a queue before +the Post Office side-entrance. Then came the supplies of food and +ammunition on huge lorries from the country districts, each with its +escort of six young farmers fully armed, with double bandoliers filled +to bursting-point with cartridges; and as I stood outside the _Freeman_ +offices, just at the side-gate of the "fortress," I was amazed at the +regularity of the whole proceeding: password, cheques, guards, orders, +everything, in fact, went off without the slightest hitch. And no +wonder--as I found out later--for during the past few weeks nearly every +manoeuvre had been rehearsed in mufti by the Volunteers, acting under +the orders of their chiefs, and each man knew his position, his work, +and the exact minute at which he was to perform it. + +In this way, at a given signal it had been possible to hold up the whole +city of Dublin with the ease of a highwayman holding up a coach on a +lonely common in Georgian days. + +I shall never forget the awful growing stillness of that afternoon as +the hours flew by, for all traffic was at an end. Now and again in the +general silence one heard the crack of a rifle, the hoot of a captured +motor and the cry "Stop, in the name of the Irish Republic!" from the +Volunteers, and the ghastly howling of the mob as more shop-fronts gave +way--but all these sounds came spasmodically and only intensified the +surrounding stillness. And all the while everyone was expecting the +arrival of the military, and saying, "When will the soldiers come?" +Then, "Will the soldiers come?" and later, "Will the soldiers never +come?" + +Soon dusk began to come on more rapidly, and we conjectured that the +authorities must have determined to wait till dark. The Volunteers, too, +felt this, and took up positions on the roof and strengthened their +outposts, every hour or so a dozen or two Volunteers fully armed going +off from the Post Office. + +The "Metropole" being situated alongside the Post Office, I could not +get any direct view of what I knew would be the centre of the battle, +and so I determined to move across to the "Imperial," which, situated +_vis-à-vis_ the Post Office on the top of Clery's Stores, commanded the +fullest view of the rebel headquarters. + +There I found everyone, including the manager, Mr. Woods, in the same +state of bewilderment as at the "Metropole." + +I mentioned who I was, and was told that a priest in the smoking-room +had just heard that John Redmond had been captured by the Sinn Feiners +and had, in all probability, been shot--but this was only one of the +thousand rumours that were by this time flying about the city, another +being that the Castle was in flames, with the Lord-Lieutenant in the +middle of the inner yard, and yet another describing the heroic death of +Father O'Doherty of Marlborough Street, who was supposed to have been +shot through the head in full vestments, having endeavoured to +remonstrate, cross in hand, with the rebels, in order to persuade them +to lay down their arms in the name of God. + +The street was now (9.30) in a perfect state of pandemonium, for a fire +had begun in the premises of the Cable Shoe Company, which immediately +adjoined Clery's, and hence was an imminent danger to us. + +I rushed down, and to my amazement found that the place, already looted, +had been set on fire deliberately, and that there was not one of the +crowd of two hundred spectators who seemed to be aware of, or even to +care about, the fate of the flat over the shop, which from the look of +the curtains appeared to be inhabited. + +The cellars were crackling as if they contained some fatty, resinous +substance, purposely placed there with incendiary intent, and the smoke +was blinding and suffocating. The door of the side entrance was locked +and I could not force it, so I called for a few volunteers to try to +break it down by ramming it with some planks that were lying about, and +though we did not succeed in breaking it, we were able to arouse the +attention of the sleepers, and a dentist popped his head out and told us +there were women and children in the house. + +Some by this time had run off for the fire-engine, and others, realizing +the danger, helped us to carry the inmates to safety, one woman being +actually in her confinement and frightened almost to death. After that +we rescued a few personal belongings with difficulty, but the smoke was +too terrible to do more, and the stairs were perfectly hot; and so I +went back with the owner to the hotel, where the family were put up and +given clothes, having been forced to rise from their beds. + +Soon after this I met Mr. Marsh, the manager of the Coliseum, who told +me that the rebels had just commandeered the building, which immediately +backs the Post Office, and had placed a guard at the door to prevent +looting. + +As a matter of fact, as we afterwards found out, it was merely to secure +the building as a means of retreat in case of a rout of their +headquarters at the Post Office--with the result that the building is +now burnt to the ground by naval shells, which pursued the rebels in +their retreat. + +Sleep on such a night was of course out of the question--we did not know +at what time the military would arrive--but in any case we secured a +room on the second floor, looking into the street, for we were +determined to see the thing out, still never dreaming but that the whole +thing would be over within a few dramatic hours. Meanwhile the street +below became worse and worse. On all sides now the looters came up from +the black depths of the slums like packs of hungry wolves, so that every +minute we expected that Clery's underneath would be the next to go. +Indeed, over at Mansfield's opposite we heard one of the crowd telling +the looters to go over and smash William Martin Murphy's windows--Murphy +was one of the directors of Clery's--and reminding them that it was he, +Boss Murphy, was the real enemy of the people--"the man who caused the +lock-out in the days of Jim Larkin"; but the looters, having tasted the +blood of theft, were far too avaricious by this time to think of +politics in their orgy, and instead began to make a raid on a +tobacco-shop, and next a small jeweller's. One could see small boys, +too, going to the outskirts of the crowd to sell the booty, so that +those who had not the pluck to steal salved their consciences by buying +the loot, in most cases getting some fifteen or twenty shillings' worth +for as many farthings. + +About twelve the Sinn Feiners, without directly encouraging loot, +unconsciously helped it by the order to "barricade the side streets," +and for hours nothing could be heard but the crash of furniture being +pitched into the street below from second, third, and fourth story +windows, till the barricades were eight or ten feet high, composed of +chairs, tables, desks, sofas, beds, and all kinds of furniture and +stores. + +In one place, "Kelly's" of Abbey Street, hundreds of cycles and motor +cycles were piled up--at least five thousand pounds' worth--and +brand-new motor-cars were then run into it, thus forming a steel wall of +solid machinery, upon which, later in the "war," the rebels poured +petrol and set the whole pile alight, with the result that the +neighbouring houses, hotels, and eventually the Hibernian Academy, with +its five hundred pictures, were burnt to the ground. + +As the early hours of the morning approached the crowd began to +disperse, the most enthusiastic singing the latest music-hall songs, and +soon O'Connell Street became black and deserted, save for a few specks +of candlelight moving about in the G.P.O., which was otherwise in +complete darkness, and a few guards marching up and down beneath the +great Greek portico. + +We retired then to our own room to watch and think. Never to my dying +day shall I ever forget those long hours of midnight stillness, broken +only by the distant rattle of the rifles in the direction of Phoenix +Park, where the two forces had by this time come into contact. + +One could easily distinguish the crack of the respective rifles: the +Government weapons had a harsher and lower note, but for each "spit" of +the rebel guns one could hear the dread rattle of the military machine +guns; and then we knew that there could only be one possible +end--defeat, ignominious and complete. + +Before us, hardly fifty yards away, stood the Post Office, lit up by the +street arc lamps in pale blues and greens, and looking for all the world +like the drop-cloth of a theatre; and there were we, it might have been +the dress circle of some gigantic opera house, and the feeling--the +feeling was excruciatingly morbid. We felt like cynical critics sent to +review a drama foredoomed to fiasco, yet with the difference that the +actors were all real and that the tragedy would be enacted in the blood +of hundreds of innocent lives. + +We were watching the climax of years of planning and the culminating +point of so many lifetimes of idealism, effort, and sacrifice, however +mistaken. + +We knew they would fail: we knew the penalty of the failure--the +traitor's death or the convict's cell; but we were held to the spot, to +see just how "dramatic" the fiasco would be. + +The very thought was a continuous torture, and it haunted us like a +ghost or a madness. + +We knew they were our own flesh and blood that had rebelled: it would be +strangers who would conquer, and yet we knew that order was right: and +this too was a torture-thought. + +Hour after hour passed, and when I was not at the window Marsh was on +watch, and when he was asleep I mounted my pensive guard. + +Incidents never ceased, but the incidents were as nothing compared with +the reflections they aroused. + +Hour after hour unarmed Volunteers came in from the country, stayed in +an hour or so, and then moved out armed. Carts and cars of ammunition +and food arrived and gave the password and were admitted. As the early +hours of dawn approached we could see milk and bread carts driving up at +top speed, the driver with the cold muzzle of a revolver at his ear and +his captors seated behind him. + +Sometimes flash signals would shoot across the sky, and at others a man +at the "Metropole" corner of the G.P.O. would open a basket and release +carrier pigeons, so complete was their organization. + +At daybreak we found our room covered by a guard, with rifles pointed at +our heads, the light shining over their backs full into our faces: but +we made no movement, and an hour or so later moved to another portion of +the roof. + +Next the street was cleared and barbed wire stretched across. + +About six o'clock we saw Connolly emerge at the head of a band, and we +could hear one of his subordinates call out Mr. Connolly this and Mr. +Connolly that, and the commander-in-chief give his orders in a clear, +resonant, and fearless voice. + +About eight we thought our last hour had come, for, looking towards the +base of Nelson's Pillar, we saw men running from a thin blue spiral of +smoke rising up, followed by a terrific explosion. They were trying to +blow up the monument. + +So Tuesday had come, but it found the situation no further advanced: the +military had not come: the rebels had had time to entrench and fortify +themselves: the city was really fully in their possession: but the +battle had begun. + +We could now hear it in the direction of the Castle and the Four Courts, +and we thought it could only be a matter of a few hours before they +would reach Sackville Street, for we could hear the military machine +guns raking Dame Street from Trinity College. + +As a matter of fact, a machine gun had been hoisted upon the roof of +the Hibernian Bank, which commanded the old Houses of Parliament, upon +which the rebels had climbed, and in the space of a few seconds wiped +out the whole contingent. + +As the afternoon wore on Sackville Street began to assume two totally +distinct characteristics--one of tragedy and the other of comedy. South +of the Pillar the scene might have been a battlefield; north of the +Pillar it might have been a nursery gone tipsy, for by this time all the +children of the slums had discovered that a perfect paradise of toys lay +at their absolute mercy at Lawrence's bazaar, and accordingly a pinafore +and knickerbocker army began to lay siege to it, the mothers taking +seats upon the stiffened corpses of the lancers' horses to watch the +sight of thousands of Union-jacks made into bonfires. + +The scene was indescribable for chaos: there were men locked in deadly +combat for the sake of Empire and Fatherland, and here were the very +children they were fighting for--some dying for--revelling in a +children's paradise of toys--balloons, soldiers, rackets, and lollypops, +as if it had all been arranged for their special benefit. + +An air-gun battalion was now formed of the young highwaymen--two guns +each, one on each shoulder--followed up by a toy anti-aircraft gun on +wheels, and the whole cavalcade brought up by a Noah's Ark the size of a +perambulator. + +The captain, about eight years of age, wore a blue silk waistcoat (with +its price ticket) and a new grey silk hat. The band then formed up in +Indian file, marched up to the G.P.O., saluted majestically, and then +impertinently fired their pellets slap-bang into the faces of the +insurgents, and then broke up and ran for all they were worth. + +All the while, in the opposite direction, Red War was at its height: the +rifle-fire along the quays was terrific, and ambulances were rushing +backwards and forwards and relays of Volunteers were issuing from the +central depôt to the firing-line. + +Probably never in the world's history had there been such a strange +combination of pathos and humour, and it will haunt everyone who saw it +to their dying day: and if mere passive spectators felt the clash of +divergent emotions how much more must these, for all their idealism must +have appeared to them as crashing down at the first touch of reality. + +It was so much the repetition of Emmet's revolt, ending in riot and loot +and degradation--nay, worse, it seemed a very pantomime. + +Suddenly, as the sound of maxims grew louder, a terrific black cloud +rose into the sky. A fire had broken out in the heart of the bazaar and +the flames had just reached the fireworks, and for a solid half-hour the +whole gaze of rebel and civilian alike was centred upon Lawrence's, +which presented the appearance of a diminutive Crystal Palace, with +Catherine wheels, Roman candles, Chinese crackers going forth in all +directions. At last, in a big blue, green, red and yellow bouquet, the +main stock went bodily into the air, scattering the crowd of men and +women head-over-heels over the dead horses, and all was still. + +What the scene must have been like to the leaders, I do not dare to +imagine: but it was so symbolical of the whole eruption that I cannot +forbear to describe it. + +It was shortly after this--about 4.30--that Mr. Marsh and myself came +off the roof, where we had been four solid hours watching, tired, sad, +and sick at heart. I was a mass of tingling nerves, for the whole thing +was set in the background and framework of the penal days and the times +of the famine. He was as cool as an icicle--he even suggested chess, and +had a pocket set--but, chess in revolution?--what next! + +We were not at a loss for our next course, however, for we had no sooner +sat down to lunch--three hours late--than we noticed two of the Sinn +Feiners who had long watched us on the roof suddenly come across the +street. + +For one moment we made sure we were going to be taken out and shot for +spies: for we had kept our eyes fixed on them twelve hours, and of +course, as the telephone system still worked, could have kept in +continual communication with the military authorities--it was the Sinn +Feiners' one oversight, to leave the telephone intact--but we were soon +reassured, for Mr. Woods came up and announced that the hotel had been +taken over by the rebels. + +The next moment the dining-room was invaded by a crowd who might have +stepped direct off the French Revolution scenes of the "Scarlet +Pimpernel" or "The Only Way," but their officer was perfectly courteous. + +"Finish your meal, gentlemen," he said; "there is no hurry, but I must +ask you to leave with all possible speed." And then, addressing his men, +he added: "Now, then, two men to every window; take furniture, tables, +chairs, anything, and barricade away--we may have to stand siege." + +"Is there any immediate danger?" I ventured; "and if so, where do you +wish us to go?" + +"No immediate danger whatever, sir, save from your own resistance," was +his reply. "Civilians are all perfectly safe: we are only fighting the +troops of England. + +"There is no cause for excitement or flurry," he added; "you may find +our men firing over your heads as you pass into the street, but take no +notice. + +"These are partly our own signallers giving us warning, and also they +are intended to clear the streets of loiterers. You will have safe +conduct out of the city by the north, where our guards have orders to +allow all citizens to pass--I can only counsel you to move as far from +the city as possible, as it is more than probable that our positions +will be shelled from the sea at any time, and gas bombs may be used in +order to save the buildings, which I need not say would be equally fatal +to civilians as to ourselves." + +With that he asked the way to the fire-escape and the roof, which one of +us showed him, and then we hastily made parcels of anything we wished to +take with us. + +I took occasion to get into conversation with one of the guards, a +rough-looking fellow, upon the aims of the revolution, but could elicit +nothing very intelligent, save that "England always hated Ireland, and +that now was the time to free her, or within a couple of years everyone +would be slaves and conscripts." + +There seemed to be a rumour, too, that John Redmond had consented to +conscription for Ireland and that it was to be passed at the secret +session--but I could gather nothing definite, and before I could get +further details a superior officer came and severely reprimanded him for +allowing himself to be drawn into conversation at all. + +There was nothing for it, therefore, but to march out, and as I could +not cross a bridge to get back to the south side of the city, I accepted +an offer of hospitality for the night with Mr. Marsh--provided I was +willing to walk to Howth for it, nine miles away. + +The rain was drizzling as we made our way into Sackville Street. +Lawrence's was a blazing furnace, and on the roof we could see a woman +and child, caught by the fire, trying to reach the ladders of the fire +brigade, which were short; the side wall was tottering, there were +screams, but I turned my head: I felt too sick to look, save at the +gaping crowd, that even disgusted the rebels, who fired several blank +shots among them in the vain attempt to scatter them. + +As soon as we reached the Parnell Monument, close to the Rotunda, we +turned to the right, and made our way through the long lines of +tenements--refugees. + +There was quite a string of refugees, as one might have seen fleeing +from Ypres, for we knew that the place was now doomed to be shelled--it +only remained the chance of a tossed coin where the blows would fall. + +The rain poured down, but the seven of us, including the manager of the +Coliseum and the manager of the "Imperial," who made up our party, +trudged on, on, on. Every cross-road had its Sinn Fein sentries, every +point of vantage was loopholed for miles around, and it was a mere +stroke of luck that Annesley Bridge had not been blown up and so cut off +Amiens Street Station, which held 300 troops, from the north. We only +saw two soldiers in nine miles, and these were at a pier-head at +Dollymount, half way. + +When we arrived at Howth we were wet as fish and black as miners, for we +finished the last couple of miles upon a charitable coal-cart. + +The next morning was bright and warm as a midsummer day, but in the +distance across the bay we could hear the sound of the naval guns +thundering out shot and shell. + +They had given the rebels till eight to surrender--and they had refused. +It was no longer a riot--it was civil war. + + + + +CHAPTER THE THIRD + +BATTLE + + +Monday and Tuesday were for the most part employed in clearing the +streets and preparing the field for the battle which was to last +continuously until late on Saturday evening, but it seems a pity, +looking back on the situation, that the time was not employed in trying +to avoid such a fatal issue; and that it would have been possible is +proved by the example of Cork, where all conflict was avoided by a +timely negotiation between the rebels and the ordinary civil and +ecclesiastical authorities. + +However, of this more later; it was decided to treat the matter in the +sternest possible manner, which was just, as it turned out, what the +Sinn Feiners wanted, and the military authorities, as it were, fell into +the trap prepared for them by those astute politicians: for that they +foresaw the political effects of ruthless suppression is now an admitted +fact. + +On Tuesday, April 25th, therefore, the day following the _coup_, the +citizens of Dublin--or such as were not totally isolated--read in their +morning _Irish Times_ (the _Express_ and the _Freeman_ having ceased +publication) two proclamations announcing the official English view of +the rising, and people noted particularly the words that traced the +attempt to subvert the supremacy of the Crown "to the foreign enemies of +their King and country"--in a word, it was to be put down purely and +simply to Germany. + +As regards details, however, the inhabitants had to content themselves +with the simple statement that "yesterday morning an insurrectionary +rising took place in the City of Dublin"; that "the authorities had +taken active and energetic measures to cope with the situation, which +measures were proceeding favourably"; but this official condolence in +their plight was rather discomforting, as the whole city was still in +the possession of the insurgents. + +Next, another proclamation was issued declaring the county of Dublin +under martial law, warning all peaceable and law-abiding subjects within +the area of the danger of frequenting or being in any place in the +vicinity of which His Majesty's forces were engaged in the suppression +of disorder, and enjoining upon them the duty and necessity of remaining +so far as practicable within their own homes so long as such dangerous +conditions prevailed, and proclaiming that all persons found carrying +arms without lawful authority were liable to be dealt with severely by +virtue of such proclamation. + +All this, of course, was anything but reassuring, especially in view of +the danger everybody felt of a provincial rising and the whispers of a +German invasion; but towards the evening another statement was issued to +the effect that the trouble was confined to Dublin and one or two other +districts only in a minor way. + +Yet the trouble was by no means even at its height. + +All Tuesday the Sinn Feiners had been preparing for the inevitable +battle, but these preparations merely took the shape of consolidating +the positions already occupied. + +At O'Connell Bridge, for example, Kelly's shop at the corner of +Bachelors' Walk was garrisoned, and Hopkins's jewellery establishment at +the opposite corner was similarly occupied. + +In Lower Abbey Street, opposite Wynn's Hotel, a formidable barricade was +erected, composed partly of paper taken from the _Irish Times_ store. + +The wireless station was also seized, and all day long messages were +flashed to the four corners of the world announcing the establishment of +an Irish Republic, which messages were picked up at sea by special +envoys who had been forewarned, and sent on till they finally reached +New York and Petrograd. + +The amazement of Russia and America must have been +considerable--especially Russia's. + +Yet it was not all preparation, for already the troops, or such as +could be brought up in time, had come into contact with the Sinn Feiners +on the outskirts of the town; but the chief activity appears to have +been the strengthening of the position in Trinity College, which allowed +the troops to form a wedge between Westland Row at one end and Dame +Street on the other, thus cutting off Stephen's Green from Sackville +Street. + +On Monday night the danger in this quarter had been from the eastern +side, but on Tuesday morning it was the College Green entrances that +appeared most open to attack, and which were accordingly strengthened by +sandbags within the windows of the main entrance and wings. + +Irish Volunteer scouts on bicycles tried several times to get past +through Grafton Street, but they could not get past the Colonial +sharpshooters posted in the College, and tried by way of side streets, +which were more or less covered by their own snipers, but in vain also. + +Machine guns swept right up Dame Street on the one hand and on the other +through Westmorland Street as far up as O'Connell's Statue at the end of +the bridge; but this was as far north as the military got, for all along +to Clontarf, Glasnevin, and Drumcondra the insurgents held practically +undisputed sway. + +Another minor position of great importance was the clearing of Stephen's +Green by means of a maxim from the "Shelbourne." + +The first actual entry of the military in force from an outside area +took place on Tuesday evening, when a body of Royal Dublin Fusiliers +forced their way into the centre of the city by Cabra Road. The +insurgents had placed barricades both on the Park Road and on Cabra +Road, near the point at which Charleville Road links up these +thoroughfares. Houses overlooking the barricades were occupied by the +insurgents, and some brisk fighting took place before the way was +cleared for the military advance. A well-directed shell or two +demolished the barricades, and within a short time the defenders, under +the thunder of artillery, machine guns and rifle-fire, were forced from +these positions. There were a couple of civilian casualties resulting +from the shrapnel. Attempts by the insurgents to blow up the Cabra +Bridge and the bridge crossing the Midland Railway on the North Circular +Road beyond Phibsborough Church were unsuccessful. + +It was not until Wednesday morning, as we have already seen, that the +city realized that an attack in full force was contemplated, and if +necessary heavy artillery would be used to dislodge the rebels. + +Up to that it had been thought that at the worst gas shells might be +dropped upon the enemy strongholds and that the city would be spared: +but it early became evident that the disproportion would be too great in +the street fighting, which everyone now saw was becoming inevitable. + +Accordingly, during the early hours of Wednesday morning a party of six +volunteers from Trinity--including both civilians and members of the +O.T.C.--went forth to dig holes below the cobbles for the gun-trails. +The position was at the Tara Street end of Butt Bridge, and the object, +in order to be ready to begin early the shelling of Liberty Hall, which +was looked upon as the centre and symbol of the anarchy. + +After much difficulty two 18-pounders were brought up and machine guns +were placed on the tower of the Fire Station and the Tivoli, and then, +when all was ready, the bombardment began. Evidently the rebels had got +wind of this intention, however, and though much damage was done, +practically no casualties were scored, the rebels getting away through +the basement or along the roofs. + +The _Helga_, an old police patrol boat belonging to the Fisheries +Department, next contributed, though the task was an extremely delicate +one, owing to the position of the Custom House and the Railway Bridge, +having eventually to retire further down the river and adopt a dropping +instead of a direct fire. + +For over an hour this naval bombardment continued without eliciting any +reply. + +It seemed to be generally hoped that the very threat of artillery would +be sufficient to cow the rebels, but this was far from being the case. +There was a perfect rabbit warren of retreat, and when the troops +rushed forward with bayonets fixed and cheering triumphantly, their +onrush was unchecked and they found themselves established in--ruins. + +The rebel loss was a considerable gain to the troops, for it meant that +the military would find themselves connected up with Amiens Street +Station; but this was not so easy: they needed more reserves to +accomplish a junction, and it was in order to secure these that the +"Battle of Mount Street" bridge was fought, an engagement which has been +called the "Dardanelles of Dublin," because the place commanded the +direct approach of the troops from Kingstown, and I quote my own +experience to illustrate the kind of struggle that went on at every +entrance to the city. + +The "battle" was in every way typical of the kind of fighting which we +were destined to witness for the rest of the week, and I was lucky +enough to get back from Howth, a journey which I had to cover on foot, +just in time to see it from a few minutes after the start. + +The Sinn Feiners had got Clanwilliam House--a corner +residence--wonderfully barricaded, and the Sherwood Foresters, who had +just taken Carisbrook House and Ballsbridge after considerable losses, +were now advancing to cross over the canal and so enter the town and +relieve the O.T.C. in Trinity. + +Clanwilliam House not only dominated the bridge, but also the whole of +Northumberland Road. + +Along this road the troops had to pass, and they crouched down in long +rows of heads--like great khaki caterpillars--in a most terribly exposed +order, so that if the rebel shot failed to hit the first head it was +bound to hit the second head, provided the rifle was anywhere in the +vertical line. For the most part the soldiers were boys in their early +twenties, utterly ignorant of the district, with orders to take the +town, which was reported in the hands of a body of men whose very name +was a mysterious puzzle in pronunciation, and not an enemy in sight, +only a mass of civilian spectators up to within fifty yards of them and +directly in front, blocking the street--the rebel enemy meanwhile +inside private houses to the right and left of the narrow bridgehead, +they knew not where. + +I arrived on the scene a few minutes after the start of the engagement, +but already one could see the poor fellows writhing in agony in the +roadway, where the advanced line had been sniped by the terrible leaden +bullets of the Sinn Feiners. + +For half an hour or so I was a passive spectator, though intensely +interested by the sight of a real battle going on under my very eyes at +a distance hardly more than that of the gallery from a large music-hall +stage; but suddenly I felt a complete change come over me, which I yet +fail to explain to myself. The usual cowardice of the spectator seemed +to leave me, and I wanted to rush over and help, but I was assured that +it would mean instant death to come between the line of combatants--"The +Sinn Feiners would fire on anyone, the blackguards." This I refused to +believe, and spoke to a Methodist clergyman, who soon shared my views, +and together we made our way to Dun's Hospital, where the doctors and +nurses in white stood in the doorway. Within a couple of minutes' +conversation we had all spontaneously decided to venture under the Red +Cross and put it to the test. They gave me the white coat of an +ambulance worker, and within five minutes we were all on the bridge +together. + +Anticipating us all, however, were two little girls of sixteen and +seventeen--Kathleen Pierce and Loo Nolan by name--who rushed out of the +throng with water in a jug for one of the wounded Tommies who was lying +across the bridge bleeding. + +A great shout went up from the crowd as they saw this, and both +combatants ceased firing, and, after having given the soldiers a drink, +they came back amidst the cheers of soldiers, crowd, and Sinn Feiners +alike, and they are now known as the bravest colleens in Ireland--God +bless them! But little as they realized it, the danger was considerable, +and it must ever reflect to the credit of Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, +that scene of the young nurses who flocked out in a body, in spite of +the hail of bullets which passed over them and around them on every +side. For, try as they would, the two sides could not completely cease +fire when every second and every yard was a question of life and death, +defeat or victory. + +Never shall I forget the experience--the whole staff of doctors gave a +hand, together with a clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Hall, of St. John's +Voluntary Aid Detachment. I was with Councillor Keogh myself, and poor +Hylands, who was afterwards killed, with whom I bore a stretcher, +continually bringing in wounded between us. In little over an hour we +brought in about seventy poor fellows, who lay about all along the road +and canal banks, heavy packs upon their backs. + +At last, however, when we had cleared the road of wounded, about dusk, +there came a shout from Captain Melleville: "Now, lads, up and all +together!" Immediately there was a simultaneous rush across the +bridge--a tactic which should have been adopted from the very first. +Some dropped, but the numbers were too many for the handful of snipers. + +We moved aside to give them room, and the next moment the bombers were +in the garden of Clanwilliam House--one poor fellow falling and blowing +the top of his head off at the gate with his own grenade. + +There was a "Crash! crash! crash!" as the windows burst with the +concussion, and within a few seconds the sky was lit up with the flare +of the burning houses and the air rent with the screams of the Sinn +Feiners as they faced cold steel. It was a ghastly scene! + +The smell of roasting flesh was still around the blazing buildings at +ten o'clock, when we brought in the last of the dead--some of them mere +boys of thirteen--and laid them out in dread rows like a Raemaeker +cartoon. + +One lad of twelve whom I carried in I afterwards interrogated as to why +he was out in such an exposed position. He wanted to give a poor Tommy a +drink, and got sniped as he was preparing to get down to the water of +the canal. + +The Dardanelles had been forced, however, and the highway into Dublin +secured. + +All Wednesday night the whole town was kept awake by the snipers, who +now became one of the main features of the turmoil; they seemed to be +everywhere, but it was almost impossible to locate them. + +Troops lined the streets in the direction of Merrion and Fitzwilliam +Squares, and were picked off from windows and roofs all night in the +most bewildering fashion, while the slum courts in the centre of the +large blocks of buildings re-echoed with the sharp click of the old +rebel mausers, till the military were tempted to fire on any strange +figure looming up in the distance. + +During the night several transports had arrived, we now heard, and the +troops soon began to land in force. + +All Thursday I spent with the Red Cross at Sir Patrick Dun's, which was +crowded with casualties, poor fellows! one raving and asking "Is the +school taken?--is the school taken?": for this point had been the +strategic point in the Battle of Mount Street Bridge. It was pathetic. + +All day long the troops arrived, but whenever crossing the side streets, +which were slums honeycombed with snipers, they would have to "double" +and rush across in single file; but each time one or two were picked off +by the deadly snipers, all firing from cover, with thick lead bullets +that spread and made dreadful wounds--some, inches wide. In the yard the +Raemaeker picture of the dead soldiers--Sinn Feiners--was broader by +some half-dozen: for several had died of wounds during the night. The +small boy who had been sniped while trying to get the soldiers a drink +lay stiff now, and my mind went back to the scene of the night before as +I made a little space of a couple of yards in the corner of the crowded +ward, with everyone lying on the floor, while the good priest anointed +him just before he died. + +All day long and all around there was a perfect hail of bullets from the +snipers, some going right through the hospital grounds from Boland's +bakery, which, sandbagged and loopholed, was filled with Sinn Feiners. +It was a terrible fight, for of course it was next to impossible for the +soldiers to distinguish them, being all in civilian clothes so that they +just had to doff their bandoliers and they could go about from house to +house in safety. Sometimes they did this purposely, having arms in +several places. Hence the order had to go out that all civilians would +have to stay indoors, and after that all suspicious characters were shot +at, with the terrible result that innocent civilians were killed on all +sides. + +Accordingly, while on our way to pick up a body I went with one of the +stretcher-bearers and a priest and a parson to warn them to keep +indoors. + +One poor fellow we brought in, shot through the breast, was apparently a +civilian, but on examination we found on him a curious document, +undoubtedly proving him a Sinn Feiner. + +The story of this document, which was perhaps the final decisive factor +that precipitated the rising, is perhaps best told in the words of the +Royal Commission:-- + + + On the 19th of April a special meeting of the Dublin Corporation + was held at the Mansion House to discuss the police rate. Alderman + Thomas Kelly, in the course of a speech attacking Mr. Justice Kenny + (who had alluded at the opening of his Commission to the state of + disorder in Dublin and had urged military action), made a statement + to the effect that he had received that morning from the editor of + _New Ireland_ a circular which he would read. It was from a man + named Little, _New Ireland_ Office, 13, Fleet Street, Dublin, April + 16, 1916, and ran:-- + + "The following precautionary measures have been sanctioned by the + Irish Office on the recommendation of the General Officer + Commanding the Forces in Ireland. All preparations will be made to + put these measures in force immediately on receipt of an Order + issued from the Chief Secretary's Office, Dublin Castle, and signed + by the Under Secretary and the General Officer Commanding the + Forces in Ireland. First, the following persons to be placed under + arrest:--All members of the Sinn Fein National Council, the Central + Executive Irish Sinn Fein Volunteers, General Council Irish Sinn + Fein Volunteers, County Board Irish Sinn Fein Volunteers, Executive + Committee National Volunteers, Coisde Gnota Committee Gaelic + League. See List A 3 and 4 and supplementary list A 2.... Dublin + Metropolitan Police and Royal Irish Constabulary Forces in Dublin + City will be confined to barracks under the direction of the + Competent Military Authority. An order will be issued to + inhabitants of city to remain in their houses until such time as + the Competent Military Authority may otherwise direct or permit. + Pickets chosen from units of Territorial Forces will be placed at + all points marked on maps 3 and 4. Accompanying mounted patrols + will continuously visit all points and report every hour. The + following premises will be occupied by adequate forces, and all + necessary measures used without need of reference to headquarters; + after which followed a list. + + "Alderman Kelly, in continuing, said that the document was + evidently genuine, and that he had done a public service in drawing + attention to it, in order to prevent these military operations + being carried on in a city which he declared was under God the most + peaceable in Europe. + + "This document was an entire fabrication. Copies of it found since + the outbreak are shown by identification of type to have been + printed at Liberty Hall, the headquarters of the Citizen Army. It + is not known who was the author of this invention, or whether Mr. + Little was in any way responsible for it. Many copies of this + forged document were printed and distributed, and it was widely + considered by the people to be genuine, and no doubt led to the + belief by the members of the Irish Volunteers and Citizen Army that + they would shortly be disarmed. This undoubtedly became one of the + proximate causes of the outbreak." + + +All Thursday seems to have been devoted principally to the bringing in +of reinforcements, which, by this time, were pouring in from England. + +Instead of using them for isolated attacks on the different strongholds, +they appear to have been concentrated as an ever-narrowing cordon around +the central position of the rebels at the Post Office. + +Hence, by Thursday evening the tables had been completely turned upon +the rebels, and instead of dominating the city, the city on every side +hemmed them in; and the Law Courts, the College of Surgeons, Jacobs's +biscuit factory and Boland's bakery, though amply supplied with food and +ammunition, had been all practically isolated one from another--in the +last-named place the rebels forced the bakers, at the point of the +bayonet, to continue making bread. + +The military were also in possession of Brunswick Street, and portions +of Talbot Street and North Earl Street, while from D'Olier Street a +fusillade swept O'Connell Bridge, and from T.C.D. a 9-pounder began to +batter down Kelly's corner house and send shells along Bachelors' Walk. + +Everybody now expected the collapse of the rebels, who were being +captured on all sides, and crowds of British pressmen, with special +facilities for the edification of neutral countries, began to arrive. + +Certainly never had journalists ever had such a finale to send flashing +along the wires; for a cordon of soldiers completely encircled the city +on every side, and grew gradually tighter and tighter around the Post +Office, the heart of the rebel position. From all sides shells now began +to drop into Sackville Street, and we knew that it was the beginning of +the end. + +That end was in every way as dramatic as the beginning--a melodrama +worthy of the Lyceum at its best--and for thirty hours, as the +artillery thundered, the sky was one huge blaze of flame, which, at one +time, threatened to engulf the whole northern centre of the city in a +sea of fire. + +Driven from Kelly's corner, which commanded the left entrance to +Sackville Street, the insurgents still held Hopkins's corner on the +other side, and on this the artillery next concentrated not only high +explosive shells but incendiary bombs as well, and the whole place +became a mass of blazing ruins, the flames leaping across Lower Abbey +Street like a prairie fire. + +Whether this was intentional or inevitable, one thing was certain, and +that was that nothing could stand up against it--it meant utter +annihilation as far as human lives were concerned, absolute ruination as +far as material property. + +That strong measures had been found necessary, however, had been proved +by the appointment of a military dictator in General Sir John Maxwell, +with plenary powers, and the announcement of Mr. Asquith in the House +that the situation had still serious features, and that there seemed to +be indications of the movement spreading to other parts of the country, +especially the West. + +Yet one thing must have been particularly pleasing to announce, and that +was the total isolation of the movement as a political campaign, both +Sir Edward Carson and Mr. John Redmond disclaiming all responsibility, +while in Drogheda the National Volunteers, according to a telegram from +the Viceroy, actually turned out to assist the military. + +This background of peace only served to intensify the catastrophe which +became known as the Sack of Sackville Street, and it is probable that +only the gap made by the fire which occurred on Tuesday afternoon at +Lawrence's bazaar saved the northern portion of the city. + +It was under cover of the blazing buildings that the troops advanced +upon the central position of the Sinn Feiners, one of the pickets being +inside Clery's while the embers beneath his feet were still red, as I +was told: but it was not until Saturday morning that the actual final +shelling and capture of the place was begun. + +For this purpose only light shells, happily, were used, and some +incendiary bombs, which soon set fire to the roof of the beautiful +historic landmark. + +It was expected that at least a thousand of the rebels were entrapped, +but it was later found out that during the week they had made a complete +tunnel right back as far as Arnot's Stores, blasting their way with the +aid of dynamite, in the use of which they seem to have been coached by a +Berlin expert, who was afterwards captured. + +The last struggles of the rebels have been variously described, but they +seem rather early to have made an attempt in force to evacuate the +building from the back, and some hundred and fifty are described as +taking part in the stampede, which was turned into a rout by the machine +guns of the military. + +A single shell which exploded right in the barricade in front of the +Coliseum building, which faces a side street, had the effect not only of +closing it by the wreckage of the two corner buildings, but also of +burying one of the rebel leaders. + +Everyone then expected that the place would be taken at the point of the +bayonet and a terrible hand-to-hand struggle ensue, as the troops would +thrust the despairing rebels back into the fortress, which was rapidly +turning into a furnace, when suddenly the order was given to cease fire, +and for fully three hours there was a mysterious silence. + +Had the place been taken, had the men surrendered, or was it only a +truce, as one rumour had it, in order to enable the city to get in +foodstuffs?--for the food problem had by this time become most acute in +several of the isolated districts. + +It proved to be an armistice, during which terms of formal surrender +were concluded with the insurgent leaders, and a short while after four, +Sackville Street beheld the sight of all that were left of them, the +gallant but misguided six hundred, marching into captivity. + +"It is a sight I shall never forget," said one eye-witness who beheld +the surrender from a window in the Gresham Hotel. "That thin, short line +of no more than a hundred men at most, some in the green uniform of the +Volunteers, some in the plainer equipment of Larkin's Citizen Army, some +looking like ordinary civilians, some again mere lads of fifteen, not a +few wounded and bandaged, the whole melancholy procession threading its +way through long lines of khaki soldiers--but downhearted? No; and as +they passed, I heard just for a couple of seconds the subdued strains of +that scaffold-song of many an Irishman before them--'God save +Ireland'--waft up to me. + +"Roughs, dockers, labourers, shop-assistants--all kinds and conditions +of men, even the lowest class in the city--yet all exactly the same in +the look of defiance which will haunt me to my dying day. + +"Whatever they were, these men were no cowards--and even the soldiers +admitted this readily; they had shown courage of the finest type, worthy +of a nobler cause; and had they been man for man at the front and +accomplished what they had accomplished in the face of such odds, the +whole Empire would have been proud of them--the whole world ringing with +their praise; for, as a soldier prisoner afterwards said, 'Not even the +hell of Loos or Neuve Chapelle was like the hell of those last hours in +the General Post Office.' + +"Instead of that, they were doomed to the double stigma of failure in +accomplishment and futility in aim--but every Irish heart went out to +them, for all that, for were they not our own flesh and blood after all? + +"At either end a lad carried an improvised white flag of truce--at their +head, Pearse in full uniform, with sword across one arm in regular +surrender fashion. For a moment the young British officer in command +seemed perplexed at the solemnity of the procession and at the +correctness and courtesy of the rebel leader; and he hesitatingly +accepted the sword from his hands. + +"The next moment the spell was broken: the man was a captive criminal, +and with two officers, each with a loaded revolver pointing at his head, +the chief and his gallant band disappeared from my view." + + + + +CHAPTER THE FOURTH + +SURRENDER--COLLAPSE + + +Late on that fateful Saturday evening upon which the Post Office fell, +the Royal Irish Constabulary were posting in all parts of the country +the following note signed by Commander P. H. Pearse. + +"In order to prevent further slaughter," it ran, "of unarmed people, and +in the hope of saving the lives of our followers, now surrounded and +hopelessly outnumbered, members of the Provisional Government present at +headquarters have agreed to unconditional surrender, and the commanders +of all units of the Republican forces will order their followers to lay +down their arms." + +Yet so confident were the rebels of success in some of the besieged +fortresses that they positively refused to believe that their commanders +had given in: moreover, the difficulty of obtaining access to some of +the insurgents also tended to prolong the conflict, especially in the +more outlying districts, and so the struggle went on. + +In some cases the rebels, expecting no mercy, preferred to die fighting, +and it was only by the interference of the clergy that further +destruction and desolation was avoided. + +Jacobs's factory, for example--second only to Guinness's Brewery in +size, and occupied at first by some 1,500 rebels, who had taken +possession while the workers were on holiday--put up a strenuous fight, +and though it was by now surrounded by the military, the men, firmly +protected and encouraged by the feeling that headquarters depended upon +them, refused all offers to surrender. + +Several priests had previously made the attempt to influence them, but +had been quietly and courteously refused, and only succeeded eventually +about 4 p.m. on Sunday, when the Volunteers finally evacuated the +premises. + +The majority of the exits had by Sunday become occupied by the military, +who had gradually turned the place into a death-trap, and from this the +rebels were saved by a somewhat picturesque climax. + +A well-known Carmelite monk from Whitefriars Street suddenly made his +way through the crowd of spectators and signalled to the insurgents, +whereupon one of the sandbagged windows was dismantled and, amid a +universal cheer from the crowd, the venerable peacemaker was hoisted up +into the fortress. + +A short while later his efforts were seen to have succeeded, for the +garrison surrendered. + +At the Four Courts a priest was likewise instrumental in bringing about +the surrender. + +The place had been strongly barricaded and provisioned, and would, no +doubt, have suffered the same fate as the Post Office had the struggle +continued, but for this intervention and the desire on the part of the +authorities no doubt to save the Record Office at all costs. Such a loss +would, of course, have been far more serious than that of the G.P.O., +for in some cases all kinds of documents had been used for the purposes +of defence, at one particular spot a whole barricade having been +constructed of wills alone. + +Father Columbus, O.S.F.C., who was at the time attending to the wounded +and dying, saw a girl waving a large white sheet from the building, and +we immediately proceeded to inform the military authorities, who were +still pounding away at the building with maxims, of the intention of the +insurgents to surrender. + +An officer was dispatched, and to him Commander Daly, of the Republican +Army, rendered unconditional surrender on behalf of the besieged. + +Another dramatic surrender on Sunday was that of the College of +Surgeons, where the rebels had been making a stout resistance, under the +personal command of the celebrated Countess Markievicz. + +The green flag which had floated there throughout the week in spite of +shot and shell was suddenly lowered, and one of the rebels was seen to +climb on the parapet and tie a white scarf, quaintly enough, on to the +arm of the central statue, which stood out against the skyline, instead +of the flagstaff. + +A few seconds later this formal announcement of surrender was followed +by the order to "cease fire," and a detachment of soldiers was sent to +that side of Stephen's Green. + +As they approached, the Countess, who was dressed in a complete outfit +of the green uniform of the Irish Volunteers, including green boots and +green cock's feathers, something like those on the Italian bersaglieri, +emerged from the central doorway. She was closely followed by an +attendant carrying a white flag and some sixty to eighty of the +defenders. + +Solemnly they advanced towards the English officer, and then the +Countess, taking off her bandolier and sword, was seen to kiss them +reverently and hand them over in the most touching manner--not a little +to the perplexity of the young officer. + +Dr. Myles Keogh, who, in company with others, acted so bravely in +rescuing the wounded, tells of the actual incident of the surrender of +De Valera, near Ringsend. Dr. Keogh was on Sunday returning at one +o'clock from Glasnevin Cemetery on a hearse, which, under the Red Cross, +had left a number of dead for burial, and when opposite Sir Patrick +Dun's Hospital a voice hailed him. Two men had come out of the Poor Law +Dispensary opposite, in which the Sinn Feiners were installed. So +covered with dust were they that he thought both were in khaki. One was +a military cadet who had been captured by the Sinn Feiners, the other +was the Sinn Fein leader De Valera. "Hullo!" cried De Valera. "Who are +you?" replied Dr. Keogh. The response was, "I am De Valera," from one, +and from the other it was: "I am a prisoner for the past five days. They +want to surrender." Dr. Keogh replied that Sir Arthur Ball, who was in +the hospital, would make arrangements. Then the military came up, and +after some preliminaries the Sinn Feiners were marched out of the +dispensary and conveyed to Lower Mount Street. The hopelessness of the +Sinn Feiners was exemplified in some remarks dropped by De Valera. +"Shoot me," he said, "if you will, but arrange for my men." Then he +added, walking up and down: "If only the people had come out with knives +and forks." + +I saw Dr. Keogh immediately after this, and he told me that De Valera +had complained bitterly that the "English" had continuously violated the +white flag and Red Cross, but we could testify to the falsity of this by +our own experience, the whole staff having time after time complained +that shots appeared to go right across the hospital--and, in point of +fact, the right wing of "Elpis" Hospital is simply peppered with +bullets--in fact, the wounded Tommies "sunning" themselves on the +hospital roof of Dun's had been deliberately fired at till they went +down, though I must admit that in this case the Sinn Feiners could +hardly have been able to make the distinction required of them. A short +while later I saw the professor himself--a tall man, hatless and in the +green uniform of the Volunteers--pass along Mount Street with a lad with +a white flag, going to point out the positions of the snipers from the +factory. + +For a moment the soldiers thought he was about to "betray" his pals to +save his own life, and, I was glad to notice, instinctively looked with +contempt upon him; but the truth of the general order having gone out to +surrender soon became known, and as the line of captives marched by the +soldiers for the first time got a real look at these men who had, so to +speak, staggered the Empire. + +Weak, poor, ragged--some cripples; one, his whole face a mass of +bandages--I never saw a more reckless or determined body of men in my +life, and they contrasted strangely with the placid demeanour of their +conquerors. Each marched with a certain lightness of tread--greybeards +who no doubt remembered the days of the Famine and boys born since the +Boer War; and as they stood there, their hands aloft, between the lines +of khaki, not one face flinched. Here and there, however, one could see +the older men shaking hands with the younger, muttering, "It isn't the +first time we've suffered. But it's all for dear old Ireland," or +wishing each other good-bye. That was pathetic to a degree that, I know +for a fact, moved some of the English officers themselves. + +Suddenly a car came dashing up at full speed. Some turned their heads +instinctively, and as they did so noticed that in addition to four khaki +uniforms there were two green figures with eyes bandaged. + +In an instant the captives had recognized their leaders, themselves also +going--God only knew to what punishment, and at once such a cheer went +up that the whole street echoed again. + +It only needed "God save Ireland" to have completed the drama, but they +knew they would be stopped if they began, and, instead, one of them +cried out "Are we downhearted?" and immediately every voice, clear and +resonant, answered in one ringing "No!" + +"If it had not been for the women and children, we should be fighting +you still," was the reply of one Sinn Feiner to a soldier; and when +asked why they were fighting, another man answered, "We have our orders +as well as you--we're both soldiers and fight when our country demands"; +while yet a third ventured defiantly, "You've won this time, but next +time when you're fighting, our children will win." + +Dramatic was no word for the situation, and as I gazed at them +there--now no more than a dread convict roll--I pictured the wretched +tenements from which most must have come--the worst slums in Europe, by +common consent of all Commissions--and asked myself the question what +chance or reason they had ever had in life to love either their country +or the Empire; and then the picture of the long years of penal +servitude, such as John Mitchel had endured for Ireland, arose before my +mind, but I consoled myself with the thought, "At least England will +understand what caused these men to turn despairingly to revolution," +and the words of Mr. Asquith consoled me as I thought of the terrible +wholesale vengeance a Prussian officer would take--for had he not said +that England had sent the General in whose discretion she had more +complete confidence than any other?--but I stopped thinking: it was all +too sad: after all, England was surely not going to treat them like the +Huns would. + +I heard one young Lancashire Tommy say: "The poor beggars! They only +obeyed the word of command, and they fought like heroes," but he was cut +short by an English officer with an Oxford drawl: "Damn sympathizing +with the swine! I'd shoot all these Irish rebels down like rats--every +one of them--if I had my way." + +The words struck me forcibly at the time, for I knew that it only needed +this to make martyrs of every one of them. + +"England has learnt how fatal that mistake has been," I replied. "We're +surely not going to set Ireland back a hundred years by such a pogrom as +followed '98...." + +Meanwhile, though in Dublin we knew very little, the movement in the +provinces had long since been crushed: indeed, it never appears to have +had much chance of success. + +It was said that some delay or interruption in the sending of the signal +message was the cause. Others say that the South had orders to await the +landing of arms from the German cruiser which brought over Sir Roger +Casement, and which was sunk on April 21st--which seems the more +probable. + +This news, however, seems, for mysterious reasons, to have been kept +from the general public, for it was not till the Monday evening, at +10.23, that this announcement was made, and, reaching Ireland on the +morrow of the announcement of the triumph of the Republic in the +capital, must have shown the waverers that the rising was bound to end +in a fiasco--a fact which they possibly realized better than the men in +Dublin, who to the very end seem to have expected something to turn up. + +It was generally expected that Cork would rise _en masse_, for the Sinn +Feiners had been organizing the city and county for upwards of three +years--in most cases the gradually increasing forces being drilled by +ex-soldiers privately, so that when they eventually appeared publicly +on parade and in full uniform, marching through the streets in a body +four deep, with rifles on their shoulders, everyone realized that the +movement had amply justified itself. + +Every Sunday, public parades showed a growing strength that at times +alarmed the authorities to no little degree. + +The mass demonstration at Limerick about a year ago still further +revealed their strength, and from that moment to the fateful Easter week +the organization, already considerable in point of numbers, perfected +itself by the addition of ammunition, uniforms, equipment, and financial +aid. + +Everybody expected that there would be some sort of ructions between the +Volunteers and the military on last St. Patrick's Day, when it was +announced that the Sinn Feiners would parade fully armed and with a real +maxim gun, but luckily nothing happened. + +The next crisis was seen to approach in Holy Week, when large numbers of +strangers were noticed to be arriving daily from every part of the +country and putting up at lodging-houses. + +The strangers were next noticed to be paying continual visits to the +Sinn Fein headquarters in Shears Street, extensive premises that were +once a hospital. + +On the outbreak in Dublin the whole place was put into a state of +expectant siege, with passwords and guards, much in the same way as at +the G.P.O. in the capital, but no outbreak occurred. + +On the Wednesday the Lord Mayor and the Bishop of Cork were able to +obtain an interview with the leaders, and as a result of the conference +a temporary sort of truce was arranged, which was never really broken, +though at times it was a matter of touch and go. + +That it would have been serious cannot be doubted, for they claimed no +less than six hundred men at headquarters, and anything up from a +thousand within the boundaries of the city, to say nothing of the +surrounding districts, which were anything but favourable either to John +Redmond or William O'Brien. + +Now, the inner history of the negotiation, which was later made public +in a letter from the Assistant-Bishop of Cork to the _Freeman's +Journal_, is of supreme importance for two reasons. + +In the first place, it explains the kind of influences which were at +work all over the country to prevent the spread of the outbreak by the +better-disposed and more sober-minded of the population. + +In the second place, by revealing the psychology of some of the +provincial leaders it goes not a little to establish my theory that even +as late as Monday night something might have been done had the leaders +of the "Republic"--which it must never be forgotten had always been a +"provisional" term--been approached by the best spirits in Ireland +herself, instead of immediately launching an army corps of troops and a +naval detachment bald-headed on to the guns of the Volunteers, who could +never have expected to bring off a victory in the real sense of the +term, and who were only anxious to offer themselves as a willing +holocaust to the Spirit of Nationality they thought was dying fast +because it had merged itself into the Spirit of Empire. + +As to Kerry, it was looked upon as being "rotten" with Sinn Fein, and +had there been a rising, these men would undoubtedly have marched to the +help of their Cork brethren. + +The theory of the Kerry correspondent of the _Times_ is that the South +was awaiting the advent of Sir Roger Casement, who was to have invaded +Ireland with a fleet of battle cruisers and an army of 40,000 men, but +this ended in as complete a fiasco as the landing of Napper Tandy at +Rutland or Wolf Tone in Lough Swilly in 1798. + +The rising, however, was not strictly speaking dependent on Sir Roger +Casement at all: indeed, as afterwards appeared, he had himself tried to +stop the rising by saying that German help had failed. + +It appears, moreover, that in Dublin the heads of the Irish Volunteers +had long since come under the strong personal influence of the heads of +the Citizen Army, and it was these latter who forced the pace; and in +admitting this, one is forced to conclude that the rising was as much +socialistic and economic as national. This, too, would explain why it +was almost entirely confined to Dublin. For only in about three or four +other places in Ireland were there risings of any note, and even these +were comparatively unimportant: though, of course, there is no knowing +to what proportions they might not have swelled had the risings in Kerry +and Cork been carried out. + +The Volunteers of Swords, for example, who only began activities about +seven o'clock on the Wednesday morning, commenced by a capture of the +barracks and post office, both of which were in their possession by +about 8.30. + +Their _coup_ was a minor replica of the Dublin affray. Two of their +leaders, a doctor and a school-teacher, rode up in a motor-car as if +paying a harmless call, and then suddenly produced revolvers and covered +the sergeant, who was standing at the door, saying at the same time: "We +want no trouble, but the arms and ammunition you have in the barracks." + +At the same moment about fifty other Volunteers closed in from behind, +with the result that the three unfortunate policemen could do nothing +but surrender, and the booty was distributed amongst the unarmed +Volunteers, and whatever was over stored for any recruits the valour of +this exploit might bring to the new colours. + +The door of the post office was next charged at by three of the +strongest of the Volunteers, but being ajar, was consequently entered in +the most undignified way by the invaders, who fell head-over-heels into +the place, which was a couple of feet below the street-level--luckily +for themselves, their rifles not going off. + +The telegraphic wires and apparatus were then broken up, and then, +proceeding in the direction of Donabate, the railway bridge at +Rodgerstown was blown up, cutting off Dublin. + +Meanwhile, information had reached Malahide, and there the constabulary +at once proceeded to entrench themselves along the railway, in order to +protect the important bridge there; but the insurgents did not venture, +having already found the contingent that was engaged in a deadly +encounter with the Meath police at Ashbourne, towards the end of the +week, encamping between Fieldstown and Kilsallaghan. + +Here, early on Sunday morning, they were surprised to receive a copy of +the proclamation issued by P. H. Pearse, advising them to surrender +unconditionally. So surprised in fact were they, that they determined to +keep "the ambassador of peace" as a hostage until they verified the +astounding news for themselves, one of their leaders motoring up to +Dublin with the Chief Constable. On their return, of course, with the +news confirmed, there was nothing to do but surrender, and this they +accordingly did--their only stipulation being that they should be spared +the humiliation of going back through Swords, where most of them lived. + +The rising at Enniscorthy at one time threatened to be a more serious +affair, though it only began on the Thursday, when the Athenæum, one of +the principal buildings of the town, was seized and turned into a +headquarters by the insurgent staff. + +Several hundreds of Sinn Feiners now assembled outside, and several +dozen motor-cars which had been "commandeered," together with stores of +petrol and food, and the men were all served out with ammunition, while +amidst huge enthusiasm the green, white, and orange Republican flag was +hoisted over the building. + +Afterwards railway lines and telegraphs were destroyed by a special +force and the town methodically taken over, all business houses and +licensed premises being closed, with the exception of the gasworks and +the bakeries, where the employees were compelled to perform their public +duties in the name of the Commonwealth. + +The R.I.C. barracks alone held out, being well supplied with ammunition, +but the police there were powerless to interfere, having to stand a sort +of siege day after day. + +Enniscorthy Castle, which commands the town, was taken from Mr. Henry +Roche, J.P. All food and arms and vehicles throughout the town were +commandeered. But there was no looting, a considerable body of young men +having been formed into a species of Republican police--an organization +which would have saved the Dublin rising half its horrors. + +The ladies of the "Cumann na Ban" next turned the top story of the +Athenæum into an improvised hospital, and here were brought the wounded +in the attack on the constabulary barracks, which lasted all Thursday +and part of Friday. + +Friday was spent in preparation and expectation--the news of the +collapse of the revolt in Dublin not having yet reached them--and on +Saturday a motor expedition to Ferns resulted in the capture of the post +office and barracks. + +As food had now become scarce, shops were only allowed to sell limited +quantities, and as the situation was becoming dangerous, with the +expected advent of the military, pickets were placed at street corners, +and these insisted on the civilian population keeping within doors. + +Another strange, though by no means uncommon, sight was whole rows of +Volunteers going up to the Cathedral for confession, and on the Sunday +attending Mass. + +The clergy, while not refusing them the consolations of religion, +however, in no way encouraged them in their illusion of success, for on +the Sunday morning a party of citizens from Arklow brought a priest +under cover of the white flag to announce to the rebels the collapse of +the rising in Dublin. + +A deputation of the town was then sent to Wexford to interview the +military there, who confirmed the news; but, as elsewhere, even this did +not satisfy them, and they refused to surrender the town of Enniscorthy +until their leaders had seen Dublin's disaster with their own eyes. + +Even then the "commanders" wanted to hold out, and, as the _Daily +Sketch_ correspondent pointed out, it was only when the chief citizens +themselves made the petition that the Volunteers at last consented. + +Indeed, it would have been hard to conceive how they could logically +have insisted on defending the town, which refused to acknowledge them; +and the rebels, in justice be it said of them, were nothing if not +logical--even if only the logic of madmen. If Ireland refused to look +upon them as saviours, then they were not going to play the part of +tyrants; and it seems to me that if the civil authorities of Dublin had +taken up this stand on the Tuesday morning, the whole thing might have +fizzled off without a single further military casualty. + +On Monday therefore--to continue the story of the Enniscorthy +rising--the rebels surrendered unconditionally to Colonel French, who +entered the town at the head of two thousand military. + +At Wexford the situation was saved, as at Drogheda, by the assistance of +the National Volunteers, who, under Colonel Jameson Davis, turned out to +assist the police, the Lord Mayor and six hundred of the chief citizens +enrolling themselves also as special constables. + +In Galway rebellion has always been in the blood. It was from Athenry, +eleven miles east of Galway, that the "Invincibles," who were +responsible for the Phoenix Park murders, came; and an interesting +account was given of the rising which now took place at Athenry by one +of the special correspondents of the Press, Mr. Hugh Martin. + +According to this account the central figure was a "Captain" Mellows, +who, deported a month before from Ireland, had managed to make his +escape from England, and avoiding detection by the constabulary under +the disguise of a priest, suddenly turned up at the psychological moment +a few days before the outbreak of the rising in Dublin. + +The Town Hall of Athenry, on Sunday and Monday, seemed to have aroused a +certain amount of suspicion--it was suspected of being a centre of +illegal munition making--but it was not till the Tuesday, thirty-six +hours after the seizure of the Dublin Post Office, that it suddenly +revealed itself in its true colours, when "Captain" Mellows unexpectedly +appeared in the green uniform of an Irish Volunteer and proclaimed the +establishment of an Irish Republic to a body of some five hundred +Volunteers, two-thirds of whom were armed with rifles and the rest with +shot-guns and pikes. + +Overcoming the local police, they proceeded to take one of the Irish +Board of Agriculture's model farms about three-quarters of a mile from +Athenry, and having captured the place and appropriated all money, +settled for the night. + +The next day, after a vain attempt by the police to dislodge them, they +marched, several hundreds strong, with a whole train of wagons and carts +filled with food of every description, towards Loughrea, where they +captured Lady Ardilaun's seat, Moyode Castle, from the lonely caretaker, +John Shackleton, and his pretty eighteen-year-old daughter Maisie. + +A curious figure now appeared in the person of Father Feeny, who, +according to Hugh Martin, appears to have exercised as much control over +the men as the "Captain" himself. + +His influence seems to have been on the whole for good, for the account +describes him as hearing the men's confessions and insisting that the +fifteen to twenty young colleens who were one of the most curious +features of the local rising, marching beside the men and doing all +their cooking, should be separately accommodated in the castle at night. + +Some isolated R.I.C. men who happened to fall into their hands were +treated as prisoners, but when on the Thursday afternoon the police from +Athenry made an attack, they were chased with motor-cars for a distance +of about four miles back to Athenry, where the forces of the Crown only +just managed to get into their barracks in the nick of time. + +The next day--Friday--saw the positions reversed, and news reached the +rebels that troops and artillery were on their way from Loughrea, some +six miles' distance, and it was the rebels' turn to turn tail, +scattering as they went to right and left, in spite of every effort of +"Captain" Mellows to encourage them with stories of the coming invasion +by Germany. + +Some made for the hills, others tried to get back to their homes, but +most were seized by the Belfast police, in cars driven by Ulster +Volunteers, and those who did get back had to face not only the taunt of +ignominious defeat but the anger of the Redmondites, who now foresaw the +possibilities of a retribution quite out of all proportion to the +chances they had ever had of success. + +Indeed, that seems to have been the general result of the collapse of +the rebellion all over Ireland; and though at first it apparently tended +to weaken the hands of the Irish Constitutional leader--who, when the +news came to him, must have felt as he had on that famous occasion when, +as a young man, five minutes before having to make a great speech near +Manchester, he was handed the news of the Phoenix Park murders--on the +whole it really considerably strengthened his position, much in the same +way as the revolt of De Wet brought out the loyalty of General Botha. + +Botha, indeed, was one of the very first to see the similarity of the +two cases, and wired at once to Redmond, though it can of course only be +taken as a very superficial verdict of the South African Premier on the +real grievances underlying the movement, since he could hardly be +expected to understand Sinn Fein, much less those subtle provocations +which eventually counselled the mad appeal to Germany; for there can be +little doubt but that, if Castle rule had prevailed in Pretoria as it +still does in Dublin, South Africa would long since have been a +consenting party to German occupation. + +This, however, was only one of the subtler aspects of the rising which +hardly found its way across the Channel, and consequently could scarcely +be expected to appeal to a colonial who was not an Irishman himself. + +As the collapse became more general, however, it became more and more +evident to intelligent statesmen that it was more a hatred of Castle +rule than a love of German rule that had been at the bottom of it all, +and that it had been, in spite of the bluster of foreign alliance, more +an armed protest against a domestic state of affairs than a real attempt +to sever the Imperial link; nevertheless, the latter idea still survived +in the minds of the military authorities, who could see in it nothing +else, with the disastrous results that only became evident in the +aftermath. + + + + +CHAPTER THE FIFTH + +AFTERMATH + + +The surrender and collapse of the abortive rising was no sooner over +than the whole affair took an entirely new aspect and passed through a +completely new phase when it came to deciding what should be thought of +the incident and what should be done to the prisoners. + +It called for the utmost delicacy of handling on all sides, but this is +just what it did not get, and at once there was a complete revulsion of +feeling for the Sinn Feiners which, had it come before the rising, might +have enabled them to sweep everything before them. + +The psychological change is curious as a study in Irish politics. + +The first announcement of the rising was so sudden that it took all but +those immediately concerned entirely by surprise, and after a moment of +almost speechless amazement the movement was promptly denounced by every +moderate man in Ireland. + +To the Nationalists it appeared at first as if it were the tearing +asunder of the Home Rule Bill and the ruination of the constitutional +cause for ever. Consequently their attitude was, from their own point of +view, perfectly correct, viz. unqualified denunciation. But as further +details came along and their opponents in England began to make capital +out of it, the case became different. The cry went up that it was want +of strength on the part of Mr. Birrell, the Chief Secretary, who could +do nothing but resign under the circumstances; and so pained was he that +he even went to the length of what was called a confession of guilt: but +his weakness had really been great strength--for any weakling can be +strong enough to sign an order for wholesale slaughter if he "damns the +consequences." + +True, there could be no minimizing of the event either in the matter of +casualties or damage done. + +A fortnight previous and Ireland was still the "one bright spot" and +Sackville Street one of the finest thoroughfares in the kingdom, but +during those momentous days the capital had been for the greater part of +a week almost entirely in the hands of the rebels; a Republican flag had +taken the place of the English Jack, which had floated over it for seven +continuous centuries, and now Dublin lay a heap of crumbling buildings, +whose smoking ruins looked like the track of the Huns--it might now be +called Ypres-on-the-Liffey. + +The loss of life, too, had been tremendous, but the military casualties +were out of all proportion to those of the rebels, in some cases the +skirmishes representing a proportion of ten, and even twenty, to one. +The casualties, in fact, were as high as many a Boer War battle, and +amounted to three hundred killed and over a thousand wounded, of which +nearly two hundred were civilians. They included over sixty officers and +about four hundred rank and file. The Royal Irish Constabulary lost two +killed and thirty-five wounded; the Dublin Metropolitan Police six; the +Royal Navy three; and the Loyal Volunteers sixteen. With regard to the +Sinn Feiners no figures are available, but they must have been +considerably less than a quarter of these--perhaps even under. + +The circumstances under which the troops and police suffered, however, +were such that the severest measures were adopted by General Sir John +Maxwell, who issued the following statement with regard to the action of +the courts martial:-- + +"In view of the gravity of the rebellion and its connection with German +intrigue propaganda, and in view of the great loss of life and +destruction of property resulting therefrom, the General Officer +Commanding-in-Chief has found it imperative to inflict the most severe +sentences on the known organizers of this detestable rising and on those +commanders who took an active part in the actual fighting which +occurred. It is hoped that these examples will be sufficient to act as a +deterrent to intriguers and to bring home to them that the murder of +His Majesty's liege subjects or other acts calculated to imperil the +safety of the realm will not be tolerated." + +The military authorities have been blamed for the excessive rigour with +which these orders were carried out, especially for the use of shells, +but it may be questioned how far this did not arise purely from the +nature of the situation. + +Certainly the rebels were at a disadvantage, and consequently won a +certain amount of sympathy, yet only a day before that sympathy was +entirely with the unfortunate military; but eventually a point was +reached when, instead of the military retrieving the situation lost by +the weakness of the politicians, it became a question whether they were +not undoing a good deal that it had taken a great deal of hard work upon +the part of the politicians to build up. + +Now this is no idle theory, but the only possible explanation of a +series of changes that ensued. + +When the news of the rising was first announced to John Redmond, he made +a dignified if not too diplomatic reply, in which he expressed despair +about the situation and utter disgust about the culprits. + +The next official utterance was the somewhat ponderous manifesto of the +Irish Party--interesting as an historical summary of Ireland's real +attitude to the Empire, but lacking a grip of the actual psychological +drama of the situation. + +The same may be said of the Irish leader's first appeal for clemency in +the treatment of the prisoners. + +It was in the shape of a question asked of Mr. Asquith as to whether he +was aware that the continuance of military executions in Ireland had +caused rapidly increasing bitterness and exasperation among large +sections of the population who had no sympathy with the rising, and +whether it might not be better to follow the precedent set up by General +Botha in South Africa, where only one had been executed and the rest +exceedingly leniently treated, and stop the executions forthwith. + +The Premier's reply was a curt refusal, phrased in the terms of an +absolute confidence in the discretion of the military authorities. + +Unfortunately that "discretion" was exercised in such a manner as at +once to place its victims in the same category as Emmet, Wolf Tone, and +the Manchester Martyrs. In a word, to use the words of an English +critic, "It gave the Sinn Feiners the real victory, for it was looked +upon as the verification of all that they had feared and prophesied, and +for which they had, until that point, been looked upon as fools and +scaremongers." + +Looking back over the situation at this critical juncture, it may well +be doubted whether it was altogether wise to carry out any sentences +into execution, and the Bishop of Limerick referred very pointedly to +the example of a very similar situation in the case of the Jameson raid, +when the leniency of the Boer Republicans towards the raiders avoided +war with England. + +Technically, of course, the two were exactly parallel--by all the laws +of sovereignty a rebel deserves instant death; but it became a question +of diplomacy as well--a point which seems to have been lost in the clash +of battle. + +In other words, had time allowed--and of course there was no knowing +what effect the resistance of Dublin might have on the country--it may +be a moot point whether it might not have been advisable to separate the +two questions of the sentence of death and the actual executions, and +one can well imagine the conciliatory effect of a Royal Act of Clemency +in the event of maturer consideration making it advisable to commute +those sentences. + +Thus Lord Bryce, who might have been considered not only to know Ireland +from past experience, but to speak with his hand on the mental pulse of +the American people on this matter, strongly advised clemency in the +following letter to the _Westminster Gazette_, in which he endorsed the +advice of Sir West Ridgeway, a former Under-Secretary for Ireland:-- + + +"Permit me to express hearty concurrence with Sir West Ridgeway in the +advice which his thoughtful letter of yesterday contains. He knows, as +others who have lived in Ireland or have studied her history know, that +excessive severities have done far more harm by provoking afresh +revengeful disaffection than punishment has ever done to quell it. This +was eminently true of the rebellion of 1798, suppressed with a cruelty +which shocked the humane minds of the Viceroy (Lord Cornwallis) and Sir +Ralph Abercromby. The abortive rising of 1848 (which I am old enough to +remember) was treated with a comparative leniency which the public +opinion of that day approved, and which was justified by the result. Its +chiefs did not become heroes. + +"That condign punishment should be meted out to a few of those most +responsible for this mad outbreak in Dublin, with its deplorable +bloodshed, is inevitable. But this once done, a large and generous +clemency is the course recommended by wisdom as well as by pity, and is +all the more fitting because it will be a recognition of the fact that +the rising was the work of a handful of persons, mostly ignorant, +unbalanced visionaries, and is unequivocally condemned by the vast +majority of the Irish people.--I am, faithfully yours, + + "BRYCE. +"FOREST ROW, SUSSEX, _May 4th._" + + +By this time, however, the matter had almost reached the character of a +"pogrom." Not only had the seven signatories of the famous proclamation +been executed, but every day brought another victim to the wall and told +of another long list of sentences to penal servitude and other +penalties, while deportations--the old Cromwellian touch, when the West +Indies were peopled with Irish political offenders--reached the colossal +figure of over two thousand. + +Militarism is of course always a last painful resort, but there were +some who seemed to look upon it as an end in itself. A writer in the +_Spectator_ said Lord Kitchener must be made Lord-Lieutenant, as the +situation called for a soldier, and the hero of Omdurman was the nearest +approach to the good old Cromwellian type. + +The _Irish Times_, more English than the English themselves, then came +out with the following amazing solution:-- + +"We hope that martial law will be maintained in Ireland for many +months. When the time comes for its removal, the change to civil +government ought to be smooth and gradual. This end can best be +secured--in fact can only be secured--by the presence at the Viceregal +Lodge of a soldier who, having taken his part in government under +martial law, will be able to transmit the spirit of military +administration to the civil instruments of the State." + +The situation had reached a crisis, and it was then, and not till then, +that the true feeling of the country came out in John Dillon's outburst +that be Sir John Maxwell's character what it might--and he confessed to +never having heard of him in his life--"he would refuse, and Ireland +would refuse, to accept the character of any man as the sole guarantee +of a nation's liberty," and the idea of military discretion fell dead at +the phrase, shot through the heart. + +It was high time too, for, as the case of Sheehy Skeffington proved, +that discretion had been so discreet as to be unaware of its own acts, +the investigation being promised after execution, which was just our +whole complaint against the Germans in Belgium.[1] + +The case was particularly striking, as it was only because he happened +to be a well-known public man that any attention was paid to it, and it +tended to give credence to the horrible rumours which now began to +spread through Dublin of the secret carnage which was supposed to have +taken place during what was euphemistically called "the rounding-up of +the rebels" and "house-to-house visitation," while the citizens of +Dublin were confined to their own houses under penalty of death if they +stirred out without a permit after certain hours: and one has only to +walk through the slums to hear the colossal proportions which these +rumours have already attained, and which nothing but public civil +investigation will stay. + +I had noticed Sheehy Skeffington myself upon the Tuesday, looking very +anxious and perplexed, and walking by himself without arms, and the +point struck me at the time because of the remark of my companion that +it was rather strange that he did not seem to be in any way officially +connected with the rebels. + +It was in Sackville Street--just at the time when the looting was being +carried on in North Earl Street, where they had been making a +barricade--and with a paper in his hand, possibly the very notice he was +contemplating, he went in the direction of the Post Office porch, as if +to go in and consult about something that was on his mind: again I +presume to try to stop the looting, for a couple of hours later I saw +the crowd of looters scattered several times by the firing of shots in +their direction; and when the Imperial Hotel was raided, a Sinn Feiner +told me not to be alarmed at this when leaving the city, as they were +only blanks and intended to prevent the wholesale robbery that was going +on. + +As a matter of fact, as his wife afterwards explained, Skeffington, far +from taking any part in the rising, was actually helping to look after +the innocent victims of the affray, such as the Dublin Castle officer +who was bleeding to death in the street, and this at imminent personal +danger to himself; and at the time of his arrest near Portobello Bridge +was actually engaged in the work of trying to stop the looting, having +just come back from a meeting called to that effect, and had been +putting up the following poster:-- + + +"When there are no regular police in the streets it becomes the duty of +the citizens to police the streets themselves, to prevent such spasmodic +looting as has taken place. + +"Civilians (both men and women) who are willing to co-operate to this +end are asked to attend at Westmoreland Chambers (over Eden Bros.) at +five o'clock on this (Tuesday) afternoon. + + "FRANCIS SHEEHY SKEFFINGTON." + + +Far from being a combatant, he was on principle a pacifist, and thus +opposed to all use of physical force; but perhaps it is better to let +his own wife tell the story:-- + +"After he was arrested and had been sentenced to death," to use the +statement which she issued to the Press, "he refused to be blindfolded, +and met death with a smile on his lips, saying before he died that the +authorities would find out after his death what a mistake they made." + +Now, the concession of the mere possibility of such a colossal blunder +was, of course, the admission of the whole of John Dillon's +contention--namely, that, whatever might happen in Egypt, Ireland was +right in not accepting the discretion of any man as the sole guarantee +of her liberties. + +For if it could happen in such an eminent case, there could hardly be +any doubt but that there was considerable truth in the rumours that +similar catastrophes were taking place all over Dublin, and indeed all +over Ireland, and this in such a way as to madden the Irish people, and +spread, if not insurrection, at least disaffection and bitterness from +one end of the country to the other; but it is useless, before an +official investigation, to go into such examples as the Eustace Street +and King Street cases. Public investigations at the moment, however, +would restore no lives, and possibly only endanger the chances of +reconciliation, which is the one great need of Ireland in the name of +Empire. + +Quite apart from any examples, however, John Dillon maintained that the +system in itself was far more likely to prejudice than to attain the +very ends expected of it, "for, if they only knew it, the British +Cabinet had far less power in Dublin than the Kildare Street Club and +certain other institutions which were running the military authorities;" +but he struck the keynote of the situation when he said: "Ours is a +fighting race, and, as I told you when I was speaking before on the +Military Service Bill, it is not a Military Service Bill that you want +in Ireland. If you had passed a Military Service Bill for Ireland it +would have taken 150,000 men and three months' hard fighting to have +dealt with it. It is not a Military Service Bill that you want in +Ireland; it is to find a way to the hearts of the Irish people, and when +you do that you will find that you have got a supply of the best troops +in the whole world." + +Yet what John Dillon resented most, as indeed every moderate man in +Ireland resented it, was the insinuation that the rising had been +nothing more nor less than an orgy of murder by a band of criminals, so +that it accordingly rendered every single Sinn Feiner liable to be shot +at sight, whether he had actually taken part in the insurrection or not. + +For this conception the band of English journalists who had been sent +over under escort to the captured capital were much to blame. With pens +reeking with the description of Hunnish crimes, they wrote their +accounts of "nameless atrocities" which were supposed to have taken +place in Dublin, and which, if they astounded their English readers, +absolutely amazed their Irish ones. + +The danger of this hate campaign which may be all very well when it is +intended to rouse the somewhat lethargic Briton to fight against a race +of which he knows next to nothing otherwise; but was doubly dangerous +when applied to one's fellow-countrymen in the name of a party, and were +it employed, say, against Wales or Scotland would soon prove disastrous, +for Scotchmen and Welshmen would rise in protest to a man--which is just +what Irishmen did at the "hate" wave. + +Yet there was another reason--viz. the veracity and moderation of the +British Press--at stake: the Press on whose veracity and moderation +Irishmen depended for their motives for going away to fight for England, +and this excess tended, so to speak, to tear down every recruiting +poster in the country. + +Now, had the British censor refused to allow any mention of the rising +at all in the English Press, it might have been unjust to Ireland, but +it would have been far juster to England. Much the same applies to the +English Churchmen and their Church. When the Rev. R. J. Campbell, in a +Sunday illustrated, discovered that Holy Writ had already long before +the rising declared in favour of Castle government and conscription for +Ireland, Irish sinners felt inclined to say: "So much the worse for Holy +Writ." And when the Rev. Lord William Cecil, preaching at Hatfield, +summed up the ethical situation in a confusion between the meaning of +pride and patriotism, Dublin wits thanked him for the phrase, and +remarked that indeed it had long been so, but ne'er so well expressed, +and amplified the cynical aphorism to "whenever Irishmen are patriotic +it is in reality nothing but pride, yet whenever Englishmen are +overproud it is nothing but the height of patriotism." + +None, in fact, could have damaged the English cause in this crisis more +than the English did themselves, in spite of all the Irish Nationalists +were doing to help them out of the difficulty; for, as one wit remarked, +the whole catastrophe had been precipitated not by English Tories so +much as Irish Unionists--men, who it is difficult to say whether they +misrepresent England more to Irishmen than they do Irishmen to the +English, and a class which has ever got England into all Irish crises +and never got her out of a single one. + +For the main point about the rebellion that struck Nationalists, who, +after all, were the vast majority of the Irishmen who at all mattered, +was not so much the incidental crime or heroism as the utter folly of +the enterprise. "Separatism" was, and will ever be probably, an +economic, racial, and Imperial impossibility; yet it was just this point +that was forgotten in the heat of the combat by Englishmen, with a few +noble exceptions, of course. + +Instead of expounding the folly of the undertaking, they preferred to +dilate upon the criminality of methods and the character of the Sinn +Feiners, which is just where they fell into the most fatal mistake of +all and made the aftermath what it has been since--a far more +complicated problem to deal with than ever existed before the rising or +in the rising itself. Thus, when Sir Edward Carson raised his Volunteers +in Ulster he had calculated most upon the moral effect the spilling of +blood would have upon Englishmen. The Sinn Feiners had calculated upon +exactly the same psychological factor with their countrymen. + +When the Government had refused to take their arms by force, which +Unionists were in their hearts hoping they would, the refusal left them +powerless and discredited, save in the eyes of cinema operators, who +only looked upon them as so much copy. + +When the authorities proposed, after this example, to take the arms of +the Sinn Feiners and leave the other two bodies in possession of theirs, +they were, in fact, deliberately provoking rebellion; but not only this, +but unconsciously they were also strengthening the cause of the Sinn +Feiners, who, like the Covenanters, looked more to the moral effect than +to the material results of their efforts. + +Once the link of race had been appealed to, of course every attack that +reflected in any way upon the character of the fighters was resented by +the whole nation as a matter of honour, and that was what led John +Dillon, provoked by countless insinuations and accusations to his +onslaught upon the principle underlying the wholesale executions and +deportations. + +Had these penalties been inflicted upon those who had perpetrated the +"cold-blooded murders" of the first few days, whose cry for vengeance +had been voiced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it would have been equally a +matter of national pride to see the culprits were yielded up to justice; +but "it was not these murderers that were being pursued," as Dillon +pointed out; it was the rank and file of the insurgents, and these had, +by almost universal admission, behaved in a manner absolutely beyond +reproach as fighting men. He admitted they were wrong, but they fought a +clean fight, and they fought with superb bravery and skill, and no act +of savagery or act against the usual customs of war, that he knew of, +had been brought home to any leader or any organized body of insurgents. + +The House was inclined to resent the tribute--as much as to say that +they were nothing but a pack of cowards--and this brought out a +characteristically telling taunt, namely, "that it would be a damned +good thing for England if her soldiers had been able to put up as good +a fight as did these men in Dublin--three thousand men against twenty +thousand with machine guns and artillery"--which, coming at the very +moment of the announcement of the fall of Kut, must have been +particularly galling. + +Now, it was doubly a pity that such a controversy had been aroused, for, +as most intelligent people in Dublin had begun to admit, it had been a +heroic if tragically mad combat from the beginning. + +Not that there had not been the most cold-blooded murders, I repeat, +upon the part of some of the rank and file within the first few hours, +when every representative of the law was suddenly attacked unawares, as +if there had been a formal declaration of war; but from the first moment +that they had felt their position nothing can be attributed to the rebel +leaders which was not in the most complete accord with military +precedent. + +Indeed, not a few of the soldiers were struck by the self-control of the +Volunteers, and the sense of discipline that pervaded their ranks; nor +was it surprising, considering that while some of the Derby boys had +only been in khaki for a couple of months the Volunteers had been in +training ever since the beginning of the war, going through route +marches, manoeuvres, and sham fighting week by week and, towards the +end, night by night. + +True, the money may have been appropriated from such Government supplies +as fell into their hands, and there is no doubt that technically they +had no right to such stores; but they had every precedent, and there is +even a story which tells of one of the leaders particularly asking one +of the captured military to see that the safe in the G.P.O. was not +touched. + +There were certainly no cases of prisoners surrendering and being +instantly shot; nor did civilians complain of any wanton looting of the +occupied premises, though at Jacobs's and Boland's full use was made of +the stores; nor were there any of the Volunteers found drunk. Certainly +they should have prevented looting, but it was a duty as much incumbent +upon any civilian. + +In other words, in so far as it could reflect upon the national +character, there was little that could be reproached against the +movement save its insensate folly and, of course, the technical +criminality of revolt. + +On the whole the thing was on a far higher ethical plane than the +methods employed by the Fenians, as well as more widespread, and the +thing was far and away more dignified than poor Smith O'Brien's rising, +which ended, as it began, in a humble cabbage-patch. + +Some of their bullets were of course of the vilest type, inflicting +ghastly wounds; but I heard of no misuse of the white flag--in fact, +when the ladies who had been found in the College of Surgeons were +offered their freedom as non-combatants because they had merely been +doing hospital work, they refused on the ground that as they were in +full sympathy with the movement they claimed the full honours of the +penalties of failure. + +Two things, however, must be mentioned--the one was their use of +civilian clothes, and the second was their employment of "sniping" +methods, both of which were highly dangerous to the rest of the +non-combatant population. + +With regard to the first--the use of civilian clothes--everybody who +possessed a uniform wore it, but the enthusiasm of the recruits outran +the means of equipment; and in any case it was adopted equally by the +military, who in not a few cases owed their lives to a quick change into +mufti, and who in other cases spent most of Monday and Tuesday in +Sackville Street in smart lounge suits as passive spectators of the +scene, when as a matter of fact they were merely spying out--and of +course rightly so doing--the movements of the Sinn Feiners, together +with their strength and dispositions, and then 'phoning up the +information to headquarters. + +Naturally it was a method of operations which greatly endangered the +_bona fide_ civilian, but on the whole he suffered more at the hands of +the military than the Volunteer; in fact, over and over again I came +across instances, sometimes of ignorance, sometimes of anger, sometimes +of sheer recklessness, of the troops firing at anyone who appeared in +certain localities. + +As regards the general "sniping" methods employed in the whole of the +Dublin rising it is hard to speak: certainly many of the Sinn Feiners +would have preferred a fight in the open, and the soldiers--especially +at Mount Street Bridge--felt it desperately unfair, but, under the +circumstances, it became the only chance of the rebels, just as the use +of shells was that of the military. + +The extreme Irish loyalist merchant, of course, would have none of this; +he denounced them all with the words "cowards, murderers, and criminals" +in the full sense of the terms, and anyone who differed from him had +Sinn Fein sympathies, and was on the list of suspects, which was rather +unfair, not so much to the Sinn Feiner himself, who knew he could not +have got any justice from him in any case, but unfair to the soldier and +unfair to England. Thus, while elderly retired colonels and academic +professors called for drastic vengeance on the scoundrels, what +impressed such men as Colonel Brereton, who had actually had the +experience of falling into their hands in the G.P.O., was "the +international military tone adopted by the Sinn Feiners" and their +peculiarly high standard of character. + +"They were not," he declared, "out for massacre, for burning, or for +loot. They were out for war, observing all the rules of civilized +warfare, and fighting clean. So far as I saw they fought like gentlemen +(?). They had possession of the restaurant in the Courts, stocked with +spirits and champagne and other wines, yet there was no sign of +drinking. I was informed that they were all total abstainers. They +treated their prisoners with the utmost courtesy and consideration--in +fact, they proved by their conduct what they were--men of education, +incapable of acts of brutality, though, also, misguided and fed up with +lies and false expectations." + +Accordingly, upon their liberation, just before the surrender, the +Colonel was profuse in his gratitude for the most unexpectedly generous +treatment he himself and his fellow-prisoners had received at their +hands. + +Such stories came as rather awkward comments on the indiscriminate +prosecutions that followed when the tables were reversed, and it was +rather a relief when English Conservative papers were at last forced in +the name of Empire to abandon the attitude taken up by Irish Unionist +organs in the name of the Castle; for it must have been compelling +evidence indeed that made the _Daily Mail_, of all newspapers, come out +with the following, so to speak, unsolicited testimonial, which many an +Ulster organ would have preferred to close down rather than publish:-- + +"The leaders were absolute blood-guilty traitors to Britain, but in some +ways their sentiments were worthy of respect," said the writer. "Theirs +was an intense local patriotism. They believed in Ireland. They believed +that she would never prosper or be happy under British rule. They knew +that there were 16,000 families in Dublin living on less than one pound +a week. They saw the infinite misery of the Dublin slums, the foulest +spot in Europe, where a quarter of the total population are forced to +live in the indescribable squalor of one-room tenements--I quote from +official records--and they believed that this was due to England's +neglect (as, indeed, it was), and that the Irish Republic would end +these things. Therefore they struck, and as far as they could exercise +direct control over the rebel army they tried to fight a clean fight. +They begged their followers not to disgrace the Republican flag. They +posted guards to prevent looting. They fought with magnificent courage. +Nevertheless, their control was not far-reaching, and they were +disgraced by the anarchy of some of their followers. But it is necessary +to point out their virtues, because it is those and their ideals that +non-rebel Irishmen are remembering to-day." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] Cf. the telegram received by the Prime Minister from the man in +whose discretion the whole British Legislature had placed its absolute +confidence: "Mr. Skeffington was shot on morning of 26th April without +the knowledge of the military authorities. The matter is now under +investigation. The officer concerned has been under arrest since 6th +May." + + + + +CHAPTER THE SIXTH + +SINN FEIN--GERMAN GOLD + + +Two questions here confront us before going from the mere dramatic +narrative of the rebellion to its critical consideration. + +The first is, What exactly is Sinn Fein? and secondly, How far was the +rising actuated by German gold? + +The words "Sinn Fein" mean literally "We ourselves," _not_ "Ourselves +alone," and, as the title and expression of a movement, are the +antithesis of what they term "Parliamentarianism," or "help from +outside": but I know no better definition of it than the passage in the +writer in the _Irish Year-book_ article on "The Ethics of Sinn Fein." + +"We are always telling the Parliamentarians that we need not wait for +the Act of the British Parliament to make Ireland a Nation. We ought +equally to remember that we do not require an Act of the British +Parliament in order ourselves to become pure or temperate, or diligent +or unselfish. Our liberty--our real liberty--the liberty both of +ourselves and our country--is in our own hands. England cannot crush or +kill it, or even seriously injure it. England can only remain in +Ireland, indeed, as long as our character is weaker than her guns. Guns +are stronger than middling character. Against real character, +passionate, determined, and organized, they are less availing than +children's catapults. English domination feeds and thrives on weak +character. When every Nationalist makes his or her character strong and +self-reliant and beautiful, English domination will die from sheer lack +of sustenance. If you are weak of will or base in your character, you +are as valuable a support to the English garrison in Ireland as though +you hated the Irish language and imported all your clothes from +Yorkshire. _The only way to be a patriotic Irishman is to do your best +to become a perfect man._" + +The necessity for individual action, to continue the illustration of its +spirit, is emphasized by a very wholesome phrase. It is that "the only +part of the Irish Nation which a good many of us have any chance of +setting free immediately is ourselves." In other words, no Parliament +can make a nation free--not even a native Parliament; or, as Arthur +Griffith puts it, "Every Irish man or woman's self is the Irish Nation." + +With this no one of course would quarrel, but it does not follow, as the +Gaelic element in Sinn Fein seemed to think, that "every Irishman who +does not speak Irish is against his will a representative of English +Domination in Ireland and striking a blow at his country's heart." For +when we come to consider it, English literature owes not a little to the +Celtic spirit, as on the other hand Ireland of to-day contains not a +little of the Saxon strain. + +The attempt on the part of the Sinn Feiners therefore to establish such +an extreme and antiquated definition was strictly against nature--a +retrospective move, in other words, as against the blending progressive +force of evolution represented by Parliamentarianism. + +At the same time it would be hard to find a more fruitful, inspiring, or +elevating passage than the following:-- + +"Choose the Ireland that you think is best, and fashion yourself in its +likeness. If you wish to see Ireland become a perfect country, a kingdom +of God, do you yourself become a perfect individual, a kingdom of God. +The perfect country can only be established by individual men and women, +who are striving after perfection--perfection not only in an imaginary +Irish nation which is outside themselves, but in the actual Irish nation +which is within themselves, in their own brains and hearts and sinews, +to mar or to make beautiful as they will." + +The Sinn Fein theory of the interdependence of the State and the +individual is also worth noting:-- + +"I realize, of course," says the writer, "that it would be equally true, +or nearly so, to say that _it is only the perfect State that could +produce perfect men and women, and so my argument may appear to run in a +circle. The State and the individual react on each other, however, each +helping the other forward on the way towards some ultimate decency._ +Some thinkers lay too much stress on the part that must be played by the +State in producing the perfect individual; others have their minds +occupied too exclusively by the part played by the individual in +bringing about the perfect State. The man with broad views will, I +think, see that both progressive individuals and a progressive State are +necessary, that they are complementary one to the other. He will aspire +after a free and self-reliant Ireland, and the first thing he will do in +order to realize his aspirations will be to make himself self-reliant +and free--free from everything that is shameful and ignoble, as he +wishes to see his country free from the shame of foreign conquest and +the ignominy of English rule. He will attempt to become himself among +his neighbours what he wishes to see Ireland among the +nations--conspicuous for honour and courage, and courtesy and virtue." + +As regards the best methods of propagating Sinn Fein, the writer lays +stress upon "example being better than precept," and then he remarks: +"If the average professing Nationalist had been a perceptibly finer +character than the average professing Unionist during the last +half-century, all the noble men and women in Ireland would by the law of +their natures have been attracted to the national banner." + +The one blow which the Sinn Feiner strikes is at the unreality of the +usual political distinctions of Nationalists and Unionists; both have +their demonstrations, the writer points out, at which political speakers +make speeches consciously insincere, but justified by a sort of +traditional instinct; and both crowds go home equally convinced of the +intolerance of their opponents, relying for victory "on the strength of +their fists and lungs," but all the thinkers despise it all, and this to +such an extent that he is led on to remark: "If an impartial spectator +were to go to an ordinary Green demonstration in Ireland, he would +probably be inclined to be an Orangeman; while if he were to attend an +Orange demonstration he would probably come away feeling strangely +sympathetic towards Nationalism." + +Which, after all, is only what every independent writer and thinker has +been bellowing forth for the past generation. + +With regard to the employment of physical force there is this +significant passage:-- + +"Whatever is to be said in favour of the use of physical force against +England, there is nothing to be said in favour of Irishmen making use of +it against each other. It would be as wrong, for instance, for Sinn +Feiners to wreck a meeting of Parliamentarians as it would be for +Parliamentarians forcibly to break up a meeting of Sinn Feiners. You +might compel timid people to join you in this way, and you would win the +support of that great body of people that likes always to be on the +stronger side. But it is not in the hands of the timid and the selfish +that the destinies of Ireland are. _The destinies of Ireland are in the +hands of the free and noble men and women of Ireland whom you can +persuade, but could never compel, to join you_"; and he ends up: "If you +had all the force of all the Empires in the world at your back you could +not increase the number of genuine Nationalists in Ireland by +one"--which is perfectly true. + +In policy it is both selfish and altruistic: as a national movement its +aim is "Ireland first and Ireland alone and Ireland always"; as an +individual movement it inculcates that "no personal sacrifice is too +great for one's country," and it is probably this last feature that drew +the younger generation in thousands to its standards, and no doubt will +continue to do so, for in this sense of self-reliance Sinn Fein will +continue to exist as long as there is a single Irishman in Ireland. + +As to the constitution of "Sinn Fein," it differs very little in ideal +from that of average Nationalism, save in the respect of its +application, and may be quoted in full, in view of its present interest +and the importance of fully appreciating at the present critical moment +what Sinn Fein really is. + +Sinn Fein means, as we have already seen, literally "Ourselves," and is +the title and expression of a movement which denies the lawful existence +of the Incorporating Union in contradistinction to Unionism (which see) +and Parliamentarianism (which see). Sinn Fein declares Ireland to be by +natural and constitutional right a sovereign State, and teaches that the +election of Irishmen to serve in the British Parliament is treason to +the Irish State, as no lawful power exists, has existed, or can exist in +that Parliament to legislate for Ireland. It advocates the withdrawal of +the Irish representation from Westminster, and the formation in Ireland +of a voluntary legislature endowed with the moral authority of the Irish +nation. The constitution and aims of the Sinn Fein organization are as +follows:-- + + + CONSTITUTION. + +"The object of Sinn Fein is the re-establishment of the Independence of +Ireland. + +"The aim of the Sinn Fein Policy is to unite Ireland on this broad +National platform.--1st. That we are a distinct nation. 2nd. That we +will not make any voluntary agreement with Great Britain until Great +Britain keeps her own compact which she made by the Renunciation Act of +1783, which enacted 'that the right claimed by the people of Ireland to +be bound only by laws enacted by His Majesty and the Parliament of that +Kingdom is hereby declared to be established, and ascertained for ever, +and shall, at no time hereafter, be questioned or questionable.' 3rd. +That we are determined to make use of any powers we have, or may have at +any time in the future, to work for our own advancement, and for the +creation of a prosperous, virile, and independent nation. + +"That the people of Ireland are a free people, and that no law made +without their authority or consent is, or ever can be, binding on their +conscience. + +"That the General Council of County Councils presents the nucleus of a +National authority, and we urge upon it to extend the scope of its +deliberation and action; to take within its purview every question of +national interest, and to formulate lines of procedure for the nation. + +"That national self-development through the recognition of the duties +and rights of citizenship on the part of the individual and by the aid +and support of all movements originating from within Ireland, instinct +with national tradition and not looking outside Ireland for the +accomplishment of their aims, is vital to Ireland." + +Sinn Fein has been formed to re-establish a National Government in +Ireland, and, pending its establishment, advance that object by:-- + +I. The introduction of a Protective System for Irish Industries and +Commerce by combined action of the Irish County Councils, Urban +Councils, Rural Councils, Poor Law Boards, Harbour Boards, and other +bodies directly responsible to the Irish people. + +II. The establishment and maintenance under the direction of the General +Council of County Councils or other authority approved by the people of +Ireland of an Irish Consular Service for the advancement of Irish +Commerce and Irish Interests generally. + +III. The re-establishment of an Irish Mercantile Marine to facilitate +direct trading between Ireland and the countries of Continental Europe, +America, Africa, and the Far East. + +IV. The General Survey of Ireland and the development of its mineral +resources, under the auspices of the General Council of County Councils +or other national authorities approved by the people of Ireland. + +V. The establishment of an Irish National Bank and a National Stock +Exchange under charter from the General Council of County Councils. + +VI. The creation of a National Civil Service embracing all the employees +of the County Councils, Rural Councils, Poor Law Boards, Harbour Boards, +and other bodies responsible to the Irish people, by the institution of +a common national qualifying examination and a local competitive +examination (the latter at the discretion of the local bodies). + +VII. The establishment of National Courts of Arbitration for the speedy +and satisfactory adjustment of disputes. + +VIII. The establishment of a National System of Insurance of property +and individuals. + +IX. The control and management of transit by rail, road, and water, and +the control and management of waste lands for the national benefit by a +national authority approved by the people of Ireland. + +X. The control and management of the Irish sea fisheries by the General +Council of County Councils or other national authority approved by the +people of Ireland. + +XI. The reform of Education to render its basis national and industrial +by the compulsory teaching of the Irish Language, Irish History, and +Irish manufacturing and agricultural potentialities in the primary +system, and, in addition, in the University system the institution of +the degrees of Doctor of Agriculture and Doctor of National Economics. + +XII. The non-consumption so far as practicable of articles paying duty +to the British Exchequer. + +XIII. The withdrawal of all voluntary support to the British Armed +Forces. + +XIV. The non-recognition of the British Parliament as invested with +constitutional or moral authority to legislate for Ireland, and the +Annual Assembly in Dublin of persons elected by the voters of the Irish +cities and counties, and delegates from the County, County Borough, +Urban and Rural Councils and Poor Law and Harbour Boards to devise and +formulate measures for the benefit of the whole people of Ireland. + +XV. The abolition of the Poorhouse System and the substitution in its +stead of adequate outdoor relief to the aged and the infirm, and the +employment of the able-bodied in the reclamation of waste lands, +afforestation, and other National and reproductive works. + + +At what precise point the Sinn Feiners became "Republicans" it is hard +to say, and it was the greatest mistake that they ever made--some will +say, perhaps, their only one--but it must have been due either to the +influence of Sir Roger Casement or James Connolly. + +Before this amalgamation it might have been said to have corresponded +in methods to the ideals of the English Fabians and Economists like +Sidney Webb and H. G. Wells. + +Had it proclaimed the motto "Put not your trust in soldiers" with the +same vigour as it had continuously preached "Put not your trust in +Parliamentarians," it would undoubtedly have become the party of the +future. + +It was, in fact, a protest against "oratory, oratory, oratory," and +preached a doctrine of "works, works, works," but with such vehemence as +to become, like everything else in Ireland, eventually political, and +when "Carsonism" became a recognized principle of legislation, military +from sheer necessity. It might have been said to have been the only +ideal truly national, in that it endeavoured to unite, and in many cases +did unite, Nationalist and Orangeman, and did this to such an extent as +to threaten to drain both parties, and consequently incurred their +jealousy. + +Not only were the distinctions of Catholic and Protestant abolished by +"Sinn Fein," but even those of Liberal and Conservative as well, and in +some cases landlord and tenant, master and man. + +To bring about this fusion an intellectual group arose, which was +gradually, as we have said, drawing to itself some of the best brains +and hearts of the nation, and these, working hand in hand with the +social reformers, brought abstract theories into touch with concrete +realities. + +So far so good: their only enemies were the official Parliamentarians, +but then, as their methods were diametrically opposed, this was only +what was to be expected. + +Both stood forth as rival means to an immediate end--the peace, unity, +and prosperity of Ireland--and with the advent of the Liberals, which +apparently was to give the Parliamentarians victory within the span of a +couple of years at most, the organization became a negligible quantity. + +Indeed, they voluntarily withdrew from opposition for fear it should be +said that in a moment of acute difficulty they had hampered any Irishman +in winning liberties for Ireland, and their daily newspaper was +withdrawn. + +As year after year passed, however, and Home Rule seemed to hang upon a +snap division, and its hypothetical results possibly hung up for another +generation, Sinn Feiners grew stronger and stronger as English +opposition to the Parliamentarians grew in strength, and they once more +reiterated their old principle that, Home Rule or no Home Rule, much +could be done by individual effort, and that eventually, even under +self-government, they would have to depend upon themselves alone, and +they pointed to the Hungarian example of national regeneration outside +politics. + +At the first they were not, strictly speaking, in opposition at all to, +but rather complementary of, the politicians; but the first moment that +Carson's followers began to arm, ostensibly against them both, there +arose a general cry from Nationalist Sinn Feiner and Gaelic Leaguer +alike, to take measures for self-defence, which gradually grew into a +volunteer organization on the lines already in force in Ulster. + +From the first it must be said that John Redmond was radically opposed +to any appeal to arms, even as a threat, staking all upon a +Constitutional movement. + +Hence in the winter of 1913-14 arose the first body of what were then +called Nationalist Volunteers, the leading spirits being Mr. Eoin +MacNeill, Professor of Irish in the National University, and Sir Roger +Casement. + +John Redmond was continually appealed to to come in with them, but as +often refused, until it became a certainty that Home Rule would be +placed upon the Statute Book, when he ultimately consented; but only on +condition that he had the nomination of half the controlling +committee--a demand which was somewhat resented. + +Strange enough, it was the _Irish Times_ which criticized John Redmond +the most mercilessly of all for his attitude; and the passage is well +worth referring to (June 6, 1914), if only as a testimony to the +character both of the Irish leader and his opponents as well. The Sinn +Fein leaders were then "all that was best in the country," John Redmond +"all that was worst." + +When the war-cloud loomed up in the horizon of Europe, the Nationalist +Volunteers were indeed still one, though the opposition between the two +parties was still alive, but at this point a new phase was entered into. + +John Redmond, it will be remembered, upon the declaration of +hostilities, at once offered the assistance of the Nationalist +Volunteers to defend the shores of Ireland. Possibly the Sinn Feiners +thought they smelt conscription and militarism in this, for not only did +they formally expel the Redmondites, but entered upon precisely the same +tactics in regard to the present war that the Parnellites adopted during +the South African War. This consisted in violent pro-German sentiments, +just as there had been pro-Boer sentiments a couple of decades ago. Like +the Parliamentarians of 1900, they laughed at the most extreme +sentiments of self-righteousness which at once came over the English +Press, in which "the hereditary foe of small nationalities" was suddenly +changed into "the champion of all honour, justice, and truth in the +world"--which was particularly galling, if not actually ludicrous, to a +race which was so obviously the negation of any such a claim--at least, +so thought the Sinn Fein element. + +As in those days, this spread to recruiting, and the _Hibernian_ quoted +one of Joe Devlin's early poetic effusions which lucidly described the +miseries existent "where the Flag of England flies." _Honesty_, another +of the Mosquito Press, as it came to be called, quoted John Dillon's +Tralee speech of October 20, 1901, when he said: "I see there is a +gentleman coming over here looking for recruits for the Irish Guards, +and I hope you will put him out if he comes," which sentiments were +applied to Mike O'Leary by the Sinn Feiners of the South when he turned +up, and I myself saw the eyes plucked from his posters as I passed +Macroom. For Sir Roger Casement's attempt to form an Irish Brigade +another parallel was taken, this time from Mr. Patrick O'Brien's Dublin +speech of October 1, 1899, when he said "he would not say shame to the +Irishmen who belonged to British Regiments, because he had hopes that +... instead of firing on the Boers they would fire on the Englishmen. It +was encouraging to think that out in the Transvaal there was a body of +Irishmen ready and willing to go into the field against England." + +Meanwhile, the party which once held these views as "the immutable first +principles of Irish Nationalism" and was now so vigorously loyal and +energetically military, appeared to the Sinn Feiners to have changed its +ground, and thus to be betraying Ireland--quite forgetting that all the +while it was England that had to a large extent changed its attitude. + +Thus a passage in the _Irish Republic_ pilloried them in a quotation +from Parnell. "Parnell," it said, "speaking at Limerick on the occasion +of his receiving the Freedom of that city, foretold the corruption and +demoralization which a prolonged stay at Westminster would effect in the +ranks of the Parliamentary Party in the following memorable words: 'I am +not one of those who believe in the permanence of an Irish Party in the +English Parliament. I feel convinced that sooner or later the influence +which every English Government has at its command--the powerful and +demoralizing influence--sooner or later will sap the best party you can +return to the House of Commons.'" + +As early as October 30, 1915, many Irishmen had begun to adopt the Sinn +Fein attitude in this matter so strongly that Gilbert Galbraith came out +with a striking leader in _Honesty_, which, referring to the famous +dictum of the defeated loyalists at the Battle of the Boyne--"Change +kings, and we'll fight the battle over again"--openly advocated the +change, if not of leaders, at least of the methods of leadership from +Redmondism to Carsonism. "In nearly every crisis of his bitter fight +with Redmond," said Gilbert Galbraith, "Carson had displayed the +qualities of a successful leader with strength of character and boldness +of resource, and Redmond those of a weak, temporizing Stuart, and no man +since Parnell had so browbeaten, insulted, and lashed with scorn the +British people." + +What the Sinn Feiners admired in Carson was his scrupulous honesty in +declaring what he wanted, and his gloriously unscrupulous determination +to see that he got it, and they called aloud that Nationalist Ireland +should find someone with the Ulster spirit to lead them. + +As a matter of fact it was curiously like what actually occurred, for +they found those leaders in two other Ulster men, Connolly and Casement, +for Germany was merely their common tool--again a leaf out of the +Carsonite book. + +Whence then came this link with Germany? + +It is modern, very modern indeed--in fact, contemporary, certainly +accidental. Sir Roger Casement had been abroad in the tropics most of +his life: he hated politics; he cannot speak German, and has had to have +all his negotiations done through translators and interpreters. + +His sympathy with Germany was based upon the conviction that until the +freedom of the seas had been established by England's naval downfall +Ireland was bound to remain in intellectual, moral, and political +vassalage; but that once Germany had broken the spell, Ireland could +then come freely forward among the nations of the earth, free and +unfettered to fulfill her destiny. He did not, as far as I can gather, +want England's downfall in itself, only Ireland's freedom: and on that +freedom he wished to establish the future peace of the world, bringing +Saxon and Teuton together as they are to-day together in the United +States through the medium of the Celt; for the Irishman can speak with +far more truth of his "German cousins" than the Englishman, at least in +America; and America was to count in Sir Roger Casement's dream of +world-politics. If the Clan-na-Gael did indeed forward German gold to +Ireland, it was with this aim, just as it was with this aim, it was +said, that the Irish in America had steadily opposed the break with +Germany. + +Now, it was never expected that Ireland would free herself in the coming +struggle, but there is a story current that he was supposed to have +obtained some guarantees--of what kind I could not find out--that in the +event of Germany winning Ireland would be mentioned at the peace +conference in the some category as Belgium and Poland when the principle +of the re-establishment of small nationalities came up for discussion, +but only upon one condition, and that was "that Ireland should rise and +be able to hold the Capital for a week." + +One can well imagine with what avidity such plans, with their reaction +upon the very delicate negotiations now going on at Washington, would be +received in Germany at the present moment. But his plans--or rather I +should say his dreams--appear to have been matured long before the war; +dreams dreamt in the solitude of the tropics when Europe still clasped +the illusion of universal peace.[2] + +It was the Carson Volunteers that gave him the idea of the possibility +of a physical force movement. If Orangemen could drill, why not +Nationalists; if the planter could fight, why not the native; if the +hands of Government could be forced by threats and arms brought in under +their very eyes, why not take advantage of it; if war was inevitable +sooner or later, why not prepare?--any way, it would be as noble to die +for a race's emancipation as the privileges of an hereditary +officialdom. + +Plan for plan, and man for man, then followed the constitution of the +Irish Volunteers--Carsonism turned on Carson--and Germany "used" rather +than "served" in the interests of Ireland. + +When John Redmond, therefore, with the doubtful facility of oratory +attempted to explain away the whole rebellion with the insinuation that +the whole movement was the outcome of German gold, he must for the +moment have forgotten that he was talking to men who invariably looked +upon him as long ago bought up with American gold, and that he was +referring to his fellow-countrymen in a protest against a class he had +himself times out of number denounced as subsidized by English gold--and +Sir Roger Casement's denial of such an imputation as both insolent and +insulting was as true as it was dignified. + +As a matter of fact the only thing German about the whole rebellion was +the "Prussianism" of the Castle, which was equally responsible for the +occurrence of the rising and these harsh methods of repression which +eventually--paradoxically enough--made it the moral success it has since +become in the hearts of Irishmen. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[2] Cf. "Sir Roger Casement"--a character sketch without prejudice, by +L. G. Redmond-Howard. Dublin: Hodges & Figgis. + + + + +CHAPTER THE SEVENTH + +MINDS AND MEN + + +In considering any sudden yet organized popular movement, such as a +revolution, the most important things to examine are the minds and the +men that directed it, for it is only by means of these forces that +simmering discontents take definite shape and concrete determination. + +But it often happens that the characters of the leaders themselves and +even the objective remedies they propose are quite out of keeping with +the solution of the real grievances they complain of. + +Once given leadership, and confidence, fidelity, and sincerity follow +among the rank and file as naturally as water flows from a spring--being +the common factor of humanity--and this seems to have been the case in +the Sinn Fein rebellion of 1916. + +On the whole they had no reason to be ashamed of their leaders, though +they might have questioned their wisdom. Now, wickedness in the +political sense connotes the revolt against the organized authority of +the State--political foolishness, the utter impossibility of realizing a +practical aim. Naturally, therefore, the law was officially bound to +look upon them as a species of criminal lunatics. Public men, moreover, +were forced by the very theory of government to denounce them, in +consequence, as enemies, and call for the sternest penalties of +retribution known to the Constitution, in order that the individual's +fate might become an object-lesson to the mass. + +Once having granted this, however, the civilian mind is free to make the +inquiry--whether from morbid, scientific, dramatic, or emotional reasons +matters little--as to what manner of men these leaders were, and what +manner of minds gave the revolt its psychological aspect: but in that +inquiry no criterion of loyalty except that of fidelity to their own +personal convictions must be allowed to enter. Probably the most serious +mistake usually made by Irish politicians is that of classing successive +rebellions as the acts of traitors or martyrs, according to their +respective points of view, and certainly statesmen and thinkers could +make no greater error in diagnosing the present one. + +Rebellions are not the outcome of innate perversity of race, but purely +scientific phenomena with objective causes. First, then, let us examine +the men themselves who led the revolt, before we pass on to the +literature that informed and inspired it. + +Sir Roger Casement was not the founder of "Sinn Fein," nor was he the +originator of the Labour Movement in Ireland: he found both ready-made +and used them to serve his own ideals for the future of Ireland and thus +can be termed a leader. + +Sir Roger Casement is an Ulsterman of the old type that was the backbone +of the Rebellion of '98, when the Presbyterians of the North tried to +emulate those English and Irish exiles who, persecuted out of their +native shores by High Church tyranny, had laid the foundations of +American liberty under Washington. + +That he is a man of character, and not the "bounder and scoundrel" the +Press now makes him out to be, goes without saying, or otherwise he +would not have received the honour of a title at the hands of a grateful +country: in fact, until his entrance into the troubled waters of Irish +politics he was one of the most universally respected of our civil +servants. + +For ten years, from 1895 to 1905, for example, he was in the wilds of +Africa, for the greater portion of his sojourn as Consul in Portuguese +West Africa and then later in the Congo Free State. + +After this he was sent to South America, and in 1909 he was appointed +Consul-General at Rio de Janeiro. So trusted was he that when the +British Government wished to investigate the labour atrocities on the +Indians in the rubber forests of Peru, they chose Sir Roger Casement; +and when his report was printed in 1912 it caused the profoundest stir, +not merely in England, but throughout the civilized world. + +This was surely a man of character and above the ordinary temptations of +bribery, or else he would not in 1905 have received the C.M.G. and in +1911 knighthood--moreover, he was a man who may be said to have had +ample opportunity of getting outside the narrow groove of Irish politics +and seeing something of the Empire. + +Yet while Irish politics had been moving with tremendous rapidity during +his absence--the fateful years between 1895-1905--Sir Roger Casement +seems never to have got beyond the Ulster of 1798--which I need hardly +remind anyone conversant with history was as rebellious to England as +was Wexford under Cromwell. + +This _idée fixe_ began to appear at once upon his return to Ireland in +the year 1913, when he found politics in a chaos of ferment, and seeing +Sir Edward Carson preparing to appeal to arms and his supporters to +Germany, he too "began to indulge in treason in the same spirit as +Carson and the Curragh crew," as he himself described his attitude of +that time. + +Possibly Germany was equally willing to sell her old rifles to both +parties, but the war precipitated matters. + +Autumn 1914 found Sir Roger (who, as we have already seen, had founded a +body of volunteers in Ireland) in Berlin, where he was not only received +at the German Foreign Office, but, in answer to an inquiry regarding the +Kaiser's attitude to Ireland, was assured by the Foreign Department and +the Imperial Chancellor that "Germany would never invade Ireland with +the object of conquering it," and that, "supposing the fortune of war +should ever bring German troops to Ireland's coasts, they would land as +the forces of a Government inspired by goodwill towards a land and a +people for whom Germany only wishes national welfare and national +freedom." That he was not acting in any way as the representative of the +nation whose ambassador he was supposed to be was amply proved by his +repudiation after this adventure by the Irish leaders at home and such +bodies as the Council of the United Irish League in America. + +Such was the dream or delusion, however, which changed one of the most +respected of British Consuls into a rebel traitor to the Empire. There +is no need to insinuate selfishness or vilify his character, for he must +have known his effort was bound to fail and counted the cost beforehand. +The great point to remember is that the Irish people were free to make +their choice and use their judgment, and they decided against him, not +personally, but on the merits of the case he put before them, and there +was nothing to do but to pay the penalty; and it is better on the whole +for Englishmen to accept Ireland's own verdict upon Sir Roger Casement +than to place him in the same rank as those who really represented +Ireland against England, failed, and paid the price only too willingly. + +The same might apply equally well to P. H. Pearse and James Connolly, +neither of whom was by nature militant nor, indeed, "Separatist," save +as a protest against not so much the theory as the reality of what went +by the name of "Unionism." There seems a certain tendency among the +middle classes and the mediocrities of mind in Ireland to class, ever +since the days of Jim Larkin, the whole Labour Movement in Ireland as a +species of hooliganism, though, strange to say, no one ever appealed +more successfully or was received with more genuine enthusiasm in +England than the socialist leader when he was pleading the cause of the +children of the Dublin slums. + +When Jim Larkin went to America, his mantle fell upon his right-hand +man, James Connolly, and it is impossible to understand the rebellion +without understanding the man who was a far more important, and will be +a far more lasting, factor in the movement than Sir Roger Casement. + +Casement used the magic hope of German help, but it was Connolly who +pointed to the concrete grievances that would make any rebellion welcome +to the workers. + +Yet there was nothing of the wild dreamer or the hysterical patriot +about James Connolly, the Ulster organizer of the Transport Union, much +less anything of the hooligan. + +His proper place should have been within the ranks of the Parliamentary +Party, like so many of the other leaders, especially the Sinn Feiners; +and it is a very significant fact that, in spite of their national +claims, two of the greatest economic movements Ireland has seen since +Parnell should have failed to be assimilated by the politicians--but it +reflects as much upon one as the other. + +Probably when he wrote his last work, a pamphlet entitled "The +Reconquest of Ireland," which was printed at Liberty Hall early in 1915, +he had no idea that it would mean anything more than an upward economic +struggle of the submerged classes. + +"The Labour Movement of Ireland," he wrote, "must set itself the +Reconquest of Ireland as its final aim," and by the word "reconquest" of +Ireland he means "the taking possession of the entire country, all its +powers of wealth, production, and its natural resources, and organizing +these on a co-operative basis for the good of all." + +It is significant that there is no religious or political bigotry: the +movement is right outside both Carsonism and Redmondism, as indeed their +new flag, with its significant colours--green, white, and +orange--symbolizes; and he repeats the hope of the United Irishmen at +the end of the eighteenth century, "that our animosities were buried +with the bones of our ancestors and that we could unite as citizens and +claim the rights of man"--the first of which is to be able to live +freely, that is, with the means of life no longer the property of a +class. + +He had, in fact, realized "that the old lines of political demarcation +no longer served to express any reality in the lives of the people." If +anything, the new movement was antagonistic to them all, for in the +summing-up he had observed: "In the great Dublin lock-out of 1913-14, +the manner in which the Dublin employers, overwhelmingly Unionist, +received the enthusiastic and unscrupulous support of the entire Home +Rule Press was a foretaste of the possibilities of the new combinations +with which Labour in Ireland will have to reckon." + +As I read all this once again during the height of the rebellion, with +the rattle of the maxims playing upon Boland's mills immediately behind +me, where a couple of hundred of the men he had described were now +fighting Labour's first war under the name of an Irish Republic, at once +the whole aspect of the rebellion changed. + +I still wondered, however, why it was that he had left the company of +Wells and Webb and Booth, who were but his English counterparts after +all, and the general policy of Fabianism, when I suddenly discovered the +key not only to the man but to the movement as well, in his definition +of prophecy: "The only true prophets are they who carve out the future +which they announce." + +This, then, was the key to it all. Every dreamer should also be a man of +action, every soldier a volunteer to his own idealism; and at once I +understood that strange combination between the "intellectuals" and the +"workers" which formed such a unique feature of the rebellion, and which +the prosperous citizens of Dublin--penned up in their houses for the +first time hungry, and for the first time aware of the reality of life's +struggle--could only blindly mass together under the name of "criminal +lunatics," like the anarchists of Sidney Street in London some years +before. + +Much less could the pink-faced Derby boys understand--and so I suppose +thought, because the crisis had synchronized with the European war and +was aimed at a state of things tolerated by English rule, it was +therefore only another indication of Ireland's double dose of original +sin, which always drove her to disloyalty to her benefactor. + +Dr. O'Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick, one of the ablest as well as the most +independent thinkers in Ireland, has been mentioned as one of the forces +of the rebellion--in fact, he was generally supposed to be one of the +marked men of the Fein programme of suppression, being considered more +dangerous to the realm than Connolly--in a word, he was looked upon as a +red-hot Sinn Feiner. Yet if his famous Lenten pastoral be examined one +will find it merely the broad Christian aspect of the war--nor would the +cynical diplomatist, if we could get him to be candid, say he was far +wrong in his facts. + +Thus, for example, speaking of the only possible result of the +prolongation of the war to final victory for either party, he says:-- + +"No one can foresee even the smallest part of the consequences of this +war. One thing, however, is certain, that it will leave the world in a +condition of the direst poverty. The destruction of capital is enormous, +not in one country, but in all of them. If the war ceased to-morrow it +would have impoverished all Europe beyond recovery for generations, but +that poverty, by itself, will probably be the least of its evils. It +will mean the paralysis of industry, the restriction of commerce, +unemployment on a scale that has never been known before, and it is an +anxious question how a hitherto powerful, well-paid, well-organized +population of workers will submit to the altered state of things. We +have had, from time to time, some ugly threatenings of socialism, but we +may fear that they are no more than the first mutterings of the storm +which will burst upon European society as soon as this war is over. + +"This terrible danger, which may be on us within the next three or four +years, may well be worse than the war itself, and deluge Europe again in +blood. If anyone thinks that millions of working men, trained to arms in +every country in Europe, will settle down peaceably to starvation in +order to help to re-amass fortunes for their 'betters,' he may have a +rude awakening." + +It is his attitude towards England, however, that has brought him into +conflict with the recruiting authorities--yet what is the following +passage, taken from his famous Lenten pastoral, but the purely Catholic +attitude of a bishop who looks to the head of his Church for guidance, +and seeing the Papacy neutral on the chaos, tries to keep the war fever +from spreading to his own flock, for, after all, he spoke as a +Churchman, not as a politician. + +I think it is now universally admitted that Belgium was not the sole +reason of our entrance, as it will not be the sole reason of our +continuance, in the war; in a word, that it is really "British +interests" that are at stake. + +The learned Irish Bishop merely puts the case in so many words--had we +not been engaged, the _Times_ might have said, "with the impartiality of +the blunt, plain-speaking Englishman." + +He writes: "Then see the case of the small nationalities on whose +behalf many people have believed that the war is being waged. + +"What good has it done for them? What part have they played in it except +that of catspaws for the larger nations that used them? Belgium delayed +the German advance for two weeks and gave time to the English and French +armies to rally. For her pains she has been conquered and ruined. Servia +began the war by an atrocious crime, and as reparation for it might +weaken Russia's aims in the Balkans, she was encouraged to resist. She, +too, has played her temporary rôle and has followed in the wake of +Belgium. Montenegro is the next to go; and it would seem that the great +belligerent nations look to themselves only, and use their weaker +neighbours for their own purposes. This war is not waged by any of the +great Powers as a quixotic enterprise for lofty ideals. 'Small +nationalities' and other such sentimental pretexts are good enough for +platform addresses to an imaginative but uninformed people, but they do +not reveal the true inwardness of this war. All the belligerents have +had practical and substantial aims in view. France wants her lost +provinces of Alsace and Lorraine; Russia wants Constantinople; England +wants the undisputed supremacy of the sea and riddance from German +commercial rivalry; Austria wants domination in the Balkans and an +outlet on the Ægean; Italy wants Trieste and what is called _Italia +irredenta_; Germany wants a colonial empire and a powerful navy; and all +these Powers have formed alliances and laid their plans for many a day, +simply for the realization of their respective purposes. + +"They planned and schemed solely for the sake of power and material +gain. All the talk about righteousness is simply the cloak for ambition, +and the worst of it is, that some of the belligerents have gone on +repeating the profession of their disinterestedness until they have come +to believe it themselves. + +"Truth, and right, and justice have had very little to say to this war, +which is an outbreak of materialism and irreligion. The peoples did not +want this war; there is no hatred of one another amongst them: but the +governing cliques in each country have led or driven them like sheep to +the slaughter. God has been ignored; His law has been put aside; +Christianity is not allowed to govern the relations of nations. And now +the retribution is on them all. The fair dreams of victory and expanded +empire and increased wealth and prosperity with which they set out have +vanished long ago, and there is not a Government amongst them but is +trembling for the day when it shall have to answer for its stewardship +to its own people. If they knew as much in July 1914 as they do now, +which of them would have plunged into war? And probably if the war goes +on for another year they will curse the cowardice which kept them from +manfully facing the problem of peace, for which every principle of +religion and humanity, every interest, social, material, and political, +of their countries, calls aloud." + +All this, of course, goes to disprove that the Bishop of Limerick was a +Sinn Feiner, but it also goes to prove that one cannot shake the +foundations of international relations without stirring internal +conditions to their very depths. + +The clergy, however, were upon the whole, as they always are, with the +Government, as was instanced in a hundred different cases during the +rebellion. + +Two of the leaders were typical of the old Fenians of darker days. One +was Thomas Clarke, who earned his living by running a newsagent's and +tobacconist's shop, but who was also engaged a lot in writing for many +of the minor newspapers which were responsible for much of the +propaganda which prepared the way for the rising. + +The other--better known especially in the days of the South African War, +when he was, like Colonel Lynch, one of the Nationalist heroes--was +"Major" John McBride, who had actually raised an Irish Brigade to fight +for the Boers against the British, and who must consequently have felt a +very kindred spirit in Sir Roger Casement, who was merely repeating his +tactics. + +It shows how much Irish politics have progressed, however, that while +all Nationalist Ireland is now watching the trial for high treason of +Sir Roger Casement with indifference, the Nationalists of those days +nominated McBride as Parliamentary candidate for South Mayo when a +vacancy occurred by the resignation of Mr. Davitt. + +He was at the time of the rising engaged as an official of the Dublin +Corporation, and had been married to--and divorced from--Miss Maud +Gonne, a patriot of much the same type as the Countess Markievicz. + +It was he who had conducted the fight at Jacobs's factory. + +McBride was really the one link between the two wars--the Anglo-Boer and +the Anglo-German War, to use a Sinn Fein phrase--and if his later +attitude was now impracticable, it was certainly logical and consistent +with itself. + +The main difference, however, was in the circumstances, and these he, +like many others, refused to admit had changed. + +Thus ten years before he had gone to Paris as one of the delegates from +the Irish Transvaal Committee to ex-President Kruger, who told him that +"he would never forget how the Irish Brigade stood by the men of the +Transvaal in their hour of need." + +Captain William Redmond, M.P., now in the trenches with the British +Army, had also been a delegate from Ireland, and had seen Oom Paul at +the Hague in much the same spirit of sympathy; but then Home Rule was +not upon the Statute Book, and if that "scrap of paper" bound England, +it was certainly no less binding upon Ireland, in that it had been +freely entered into by her constitutional representatives. + +Probably McBride thought of the motto inscribed upon the flag that the +Irish Brigade had used (later presented him by one of the officials of +the Boer Republic), which ran:-- + + + "'Tis better to have fought and lost + Than never to have fought at all." + + +In any case his attitude remained exactly what it had been in 1909, when +at the Manchester Martyr celebration he had appealed to his audience +never to degrade themselves by entering the British Army, telling them +that if ever they wished to fight they ought to wait for the prospect of +a German invasion of Ireland. + +One of the strangest figures in the rebel ranks was that of the famous +Countess Markievicz--formerly a Miss Gore-Booth, daughter of Sir H. W. +Gore-Booth, the head of a well-known and respected Sligo family of +Cromwellian descent. + +It was while in Paris as an art student some fifteen years ago that she +imbibed those extreme principles of democracy--almost, one might say, +anarchy--with which her name became associated on her return to Dublin +after her marriage with a young Polish artist named Count Marckievicz. + +Presented at Court, she was not fond of the conventional "society" +circles of the Irish capital, and lived for the most part a Bohemian +life of her own, becoming notorious by her extreme socialistic opinions. + +During the Larkin crisis, when the transport workers and dockers went +out on strike, she opened a "soup kitchen" at Liberty Hall. + +She was also responsible for the organization of the "National Boy +Scouts," an Irish replica of the English original, with a political +bias, of course; and these soon attracted hundreds of Dublin lads, and +from time to time the Countess would give them lectures and hold reviews +and inspections. + +These formed a considerable portion of the Citizen Army, and were +probably the most violent of those elements in the Republic who +disgraced the otherwise remarkable "military" combat. + +One remark of the Countess's is very typical of both her temper and her +temperament, and in a way prophetic. + +It was supposed to have been said to a local Dundalk man, and was to the +effect that if she could only shoot one British soldier she would die +happy--a wish she must certainly have realized, for she was continually +seen with a small rifle in her hand, and, according to a rumour, +actually did shoot one on Stephen's Green. + +Eoin McNeill, the able editor of the _Irish Volunteer_, is another +interesting character, not only in view of the part he had taken to +raise the revolutionary army, but also for the way, to use the words of +John Dillon, "he broke its back" when he found out that they were to +rise on that fatal Easter Monday--though this did not save him from the +vengeance of the law. + +In striking contrast to the rather vapid sentimentalism and abstract +theorizing of many of the periodicals controlled by the Sinn Feiners was +his own sheet, the _Irish Volunteer_. It was the most practical of all +the periodicals, and, beyond ordinary editorials and topical articles, +always contained "Orders for the Week," which included night classes and +lectures and drills, while diagrams of trenches and earthworks appeared +which covered the whole of Ireland. + +It is only when looking back over past numbers, with their articles on +night operations, local guides, reconnoitring, organization of +transports, reserves, signalling, and so forth, that one sees how it is +that they were able to hold up Dublin for a solid week; but Eoin McNeill +owed his inspiration entirely to the men of Ulster. + +Some of the men, on the other hand, were of the gentlest disposition. No +one, for example, could be more the antithesis of the revolutionary in +real life than P. H. Pearse, President and Commander-in-Chief of the +Republican Army. Indeed, according to one account he was to have +replaced Dr. Mahaffy as Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, in the event +of the rising proving successful. Pearse was not even an Irishman, being +the son of an English convert to Catholicism who had emigrated to +Ireland, but he was an enthusiastic Gaelic scholar, and there was +nothing he loved better than wandering among the peasantry of Galway and +Connemara, while in his own establishment all the servants spoke Irish +fluently. + +Though he had at one time intended taking up journalism, and was even +called to the Bar, he was both by profession and inclination an +educationalist, being especially keen on the study of continental +methods of education, such as those of Belgium and Germany. + +He conducted a secondary boarding school for boys, where all the walls +were decorated with the works of modern Irish artists, such as Jack +Yeats and George W. Russell. He later, in order to give vent to his +views, developed a gift for oratory, his oration at the grave of +O'Donovan Rossa having stirred all Ireland. He was also the author of a +charming little volume of short stories entitled "Josagan," or "Little +Jesus," while his translations of Irish folk-lore and cradle songs were +equally delicate. + +Crowds of the victims, in fact, were men of character, talent, and +eminence--numerous writers, journalists, poets, authors, professors; but +all were classed in the same category of felons. + +Indeed, it has been said that the blow was aimed as much at the freedom +of the Press and the liberty of thought as the actual rising in arms; +but as the majority of the sentiments maintained were but repetitions of +the muzzled grievances of labour and thought in England, the effect will +undoubtedly react through British democracy upon the heads of those who +took advantage of the racial prejudice to crush out of opposition. + +Thus John MacDermot, one of the signatories of the rebel proclamation, +was editor of a paper called _Freedom_, and had already served a term of +imprisonment for speeches which had been interpreted as prejudicial to +recruiting. Edward de Valera, who commanded at Boland's mill, and who +was sentenced to penal servitude for life, had been a professor in +Blackrock College. W. O'Clery Curtis, who was deported, was a +journalist, and Arthur Griffiths the able editor of the _Irish +Year-book_. + +Then came the disciples of the muses. Thomas MacDonagh seems to have +been always more or less haunted with the vision of revolution, and as +early as eight years ago produced a play entitled "When the Dawn is +Come," though the insurrection it foretold was placed fifty years hence. + +He, too, wrote poetry, like Pearse, under whom he was at school, but he +was better known and his verse of a higher standard. He seems almost to +have had an inkling of his future fate, and might also be said to have +deliberately chosen the lost cause of his heart, for, in one of his +earlier poems, entitled "The War Legacy," we find the following: + + + Far better War's battering breeze than the Peace that barters the + Past, + Better the fear of our fathers' God than friendship false with + their foe: + And better anointed Death than the Nation's damnation at last, + And the crawling of craven limbs in life and the curse of the + coward below. + + +Among his publications are "Songs of Myself" (Hodges, Figgis & Co.), +"Thomas Campion" (Hodges, Figgis & Co.), and a larger volume of "Lyrical +Poems," reprinted by the _Irish Review_. + +At the time of his death he was Lecturer in English Literature at the +National University. + +Probably one of the most pathetic figures of the whole revolt was that +of young Joseph Plunkett, the son of Count Plunkett, whose marriage upon +the morn of his execution sent such a thrill of romance through the +English-speaking world when it became announced. + +He too was a poet, and at one time the editor of the _Irish Review_, now +no more, and he was also a contributor to the _Academy_ and the _Dublin +Review_. + +A little volume entitled "The Circle and the Sword," published by +Maunsel, is dedicated to his fellow-rebel, Thomas MacDonagh. + +One poem among them is especially significant and is entitled "1867," +but one feels inclined to call it 1916, for it might have been written +yesterday, as he blindfold faced the levelled rifles:-- + + + All our best ye have branded + When the people were choosing them. + When 'twas death they demanded, + Ye laughed! ye were losing them. + But the blood that ye spilt in the night + Crieth loudly to God, + And their name hath the strength and the might + Of a sword for the sod. + + * * * * * + + In the days of our doom and our dread + Ye were cruel and callous. + Grim Death with our fighters ye fed + Through the jaws of your gallows. + But a blasting and blight was the fee + For which ye had bartered them. + And we smite with the sword that from ye + We had gained when ye martyred them! + + +It is probably by the romance of his last hours, however, that he will +be most remembered. + +"Late on Wednesday night," as Mr. Stoker, the Grafton Street jeweller +already mentioned, told me the story, "just as I was about to go home, +suddenly a taxi stopped at the shop door, and a beautiful young woman +stepped out and asked me to show her some wedding-rings--'the best,' as +she put it, 'that money could buy.' + +"She had a thick veil, but I could see that her eyes were red with +weeping, and, noticing continued convulsive sobs as she spoke, I +ventured to ask her the reason. + +"It was then that she revealed the terrible tragedy she was about to +suffer. + +"'I am poor Joe Plunkett's--the rebel's--fiancée,' she said, 'and we are +to be married in prison to-morrow morning, an hour before his +execution.' + +"I tell you it was the most pathetic thing I had ever heard in my life," +continued the jeweller; "and I felt inclined to break down myself when +she added: 'Oh! I can't tell you how I love him and how he loves me; we +belong to each other, and even if we are only to be together for a +single hour I mean to marry him in spite of everybody, in order to bear +his name through life.'" + +The young woman at once stepped into the same category as Sarah Curran, +poor Robert Emmet's sweetheart, in the heart of everyone in Dublin as +the story went round like lightning, but no one knew who she was until +the next day, when we heard that she was Grace Gifford, the beautiful +and gifted young art student whose portrait by William Orpen, entitled +"Young Ireland," had won the admiration of all London a few years +before. + +Not all the character and talent and romance of these leaders, however, +would have been sufficient to launch Ireland into open rebellion had +there not been some concrete grievance as well which gave their words +objective worth. + +Style alone makes no martyrs, and the best way to understand the +influence these men had upon their followers is to study the concrete +grievances which they preached in season and out of season, making +revolution not only sound plausible but actually practicable; and for +this we must turn to the literature, which explains the remoter home +causes of the rebellion. + + + + +CHAPTER THE EIGHTH + +REMOTER CAUSES OF THE REBELLION + + +Those who think they can explain away the Sinn Fein rising of 1916 by +the factor of German gold make much the same mistake as those who were +so anxious to explain away the Home Rule movement by American dollars. +The fact of the matter is, great movements and national uprisings should +not be explained away: they should be, on the contrary, amplified, +emphasized, and deeply studied. + +I remember on one occasion the late W. T. Stead, when he was helping me +with the biography of my uncle, Mr. John Redmond, emphasizing upon me +the tremendous importance of the study of Irish problems to an Empire +like ours, where nearly every one of its component nations is a +repetition of Ireland. + +"We have made every mistake we could possibly make as a ruling race in +our government of you Irish," he said to me, "and we cannot, as we love +and wish to keep our Empire, continue to perpetuate them. + +"We can keep Ireland down if we like by force of arms, but we shall +never be able to keep our Empire by the same means, and that is why it +is so important that with such an object-lesson at our very doors we +should be ever prepared to study how conquered or incorporated nations +look upon our rule. + +"That rule may be a protection, and it should be, but our stupidity can +make it a yoke; yet of this we can be certain, that what fails to win +friendship and respect in Ireland will fail to win security for our +Empire when we employ those methods on nations who have it in their +power to say us nay." + +In other words, as long as the suppression has only been a military +suppression it has been no suppression at all; any more than a delirious +patient who is drugged or held down by force by a couple of hospital +porters is cured by that expedient. + +Moreover, all such expedients are necessarily merely temporary, and what +we want to get at are the root causes of the complaint. + +We must therefore fully diagnose those grievances of which the rebellion +was only the outward symptom, and against which the Republic was more, +after all, a symbolic protest than anything else; it was no more really +intended to establish a Celtic Commonwealth than Sir Edward Carson's +army was to change a Province into a Kingdom. Both were _façons de +parler_, and the word "provisional" saved them from ridicule they would +otherwise have deserved. + +I remember speaking to a prominent Sinn Feiner only a couple of days +before the revolt with a view to writing an article on the Volunteers, +and this is what he said:-- + +"It would be very difficult for anyone to write anything just at +present, for things are trembling in the balance. There is a most +tremendous battle going on at the present moment at the Castle, we +understand, between General Friend and Augustine Birrell--in other +words, between the military and the civil authorities--and everything +depends upon that issue. + +"They want to take away our arms, for example, and not those of Redmond +or Carson, and the latter will stand by and see it done without a word; +but we know that's only the thin end of the wedge of the complete +subjugation of Ireland to the soldier, as in the days of Cromwell, and +even if we stand alone we will stop that. + +"They don't half of them know a tenth of our power; even people in +Ireland don't realize it. We are completely organized and perfectly +equipped, far better even than the Ulster Volunteers are, and they will +find out their mistake when they try. + +"They've made two attempts already, in a hole-and-corner sort of way, at +the Gaelic Press and at Liberty Hall, and the police found themselves +looking into the barrels of revolvers each time. Well, all I can say is, +when the day comes and they determine to strike--and we'll get wind of +it--you may depend upon it the whole world will get a surprise; it will +be like nothing else in Irish history for seven hundred years. + +"We have our supplies at regular intervals, and our local commanders, +with each province fully organized under them, and a complete system of +code messages which never go through the post, but are distributed by +means of secret dispatch-riders, and if the signal went forth to-night, +to-morrow morning the whole of Ireland would be up in arms." + +All of which, I need hardly say, I took--as everyone in my place would +have taken it--_cum grano salis_, but it all came back to me the moment +I heard the first shot. Especially did it flash across my mind when, +bringing back to Dun's Hospital a dead Sinn Feiner, the famous document +fell out of his pocket, which is strikingly similar in thought to my +friend's prognostications. + +According to Alderman Kelly, speaking on the Thursday before the +outbreak in the Dublin Corporation, some such order had been "recently +addressed to and was on the files of Dublin Castle," according to which +the arrest of all the leaders of the Irish Volunteers, together with the +members of the Sinn Fein Council, the Executive Committee of the +National (Redmondite) Volunteers, and the Executive Committee of the +Gaelic League, had been sanctioned. + +Probably, however, the best diagnosis of the situation immediately +preceding the outbreak was the letter published by the _New Statesman_ +of May 6th, that had been written as early as April 7th, and which, +coming from the most eminent victim of the danger so clearly foreseen by +him, must have special force at the present moment. + +It was from no less than F. Sheehy Skeffington. + + +"SIR,--The situation in Ireland is extremely grave. Thanks to the +silence of the daily Press, the military authorities are pursuing their +Prussian plans in Ireland unobserved by the British public; and, when +the explosion which they have provoked occurs, they will endeavour to +delude the British public as to where the responsibility lies. I write +in the hope that, despite war-fever, there may be enough sanity and +common sense left to restrain the militarists while there is yet time. + +"I will not take up your space by recounting the events that have led up +to the present situation--the two years' immunity accorded to Sir Edward +Carson's Volunteers in their defiant illegalities, the systematic +persecution of the Irish Volunteers _from the moment of their formation_ +(_nine months before the war_), the militarist provocations, raids on +printing offices, arbitrary deportations, and savage sentences which +have punctuated Mr. Redmond's recruiting appeals for the past eighteen +months. As a result of this recent series of events, Irish Nationalist +and Labour opinion is now in a state of extreme exasperation. Recruiting +for the British Army is dead; recruiting for the Irish Volunteers has, +for the moment, almost reached the mark of one thousand per week--which +is Lord Wimborne's demand for the British Army. A special stimulus has +been given to the Irish Volunteer movement by the arrest and threatened +forcible deportation (at the moment of writing it is still uncertain +whether the threat will be carried out) of two of its most active +organizers. + +"There are two distinct danger-points in the position. In the first +place, the Irish Volunteers are prepared, if any attempt is made +forcibly to disarm them, to resist, and to defend their rifles with +their lives. In the second place, the Irish Citizen Army (the Labour +Volunteers) are prepared to offer similar resistance, not only to +disarmament, but to any attack upon the Press which turns out the +_Workers' Republic_--successor to the suppressed _Irish Worker_--which +is printed in Liberty Hall. + +"There is no bluff in either case. That was shown (1) in Tullamore on +March 20th, when an attempt at disarming the small local corps of Irish +Volunteers was met with revolver shots and a policeman was +wounded--fortunately not seriously; (2) in Dublin, on March 24th and +following days, when, at the rumour of an intended raid on the _Workers' +Republic_, the Irish Citizen Army stood guard night and day in Liberty +Hall--many of them having thrown up their jobs to answer promptly the +mobilization order--armed and prepared to sell their lives dearly. The +British military authorities in Ireland know perfectly well that the +members of both these organizations are earnest, determined men. If, +knowing this, General Friend and his subordinate militarists proceed +either to disarm the Volunteers or to raid the Labour Press, it can only +be because they _want_ bloodshed--because they want to provoke another +'98, and to get an excuse for a machine-gun massacre. + +"Irish pacifists who have watched the situation closely are convinced +that this is precisely what the militarists do want. The younger English +officers in Dublin make no secret of their eagerness 'to have a whack at +the Sinn Feiners'; they would much rather fight them than the +Germans.[3] They are spurred on by the Carson-Northcliffe +conscriptionist gang in London. On April 5th the _Morning Post_ +vehemently demanded the suppression of the _Workers' Republic_; on April +6th a question was put down in the House of Commons urging Mr. Birrell +to disarm the Irish Volunteers. These gentry know well the precise +points where a pogrom can most easily be started. + +"Twice already General Friend has been on the point of setting Ireland +in a blaze--once last November, when he had a warrant made out for the +arrest of Bishop O'Dwyer, of Limerick; once on March 25th, when he had a +detachment of soldiers with machine guns in readiness to raid Liberty +Hall. In both cases Mr. Birrell intervened in the nick of time, and +decisively vetoed the militarist plans. But some day Mr. Birrell may be +overborne or may intervene too late. Then, once bloodshed is started in +Ireland, who can say where or how it will end? + +"In the midst of world-wide carnage, bloodshed in our little island may +seem a trivial thing. The wiping out of all the Irish Nationalist and +Labour Volunteers would hardly involve as much slaughter as the single +battle of Loos. Doubtless that is the military calculation--that their +crime may be overlooked in a world of criminals. Accordingly, the nearer +peace comes, the more eager will they be to force a conflict before +their chance vanishes. Is there in Great Britain enough real sympathy +with Small Nationalities, enough real hatred of militarism, to frustrate +this Pogrom Plot of British Militarist Junkerdom? + + "Yours, etc., + "F. SHEEHY SKEFFINGTON." + + +Personally, I think I can diagnose the rebellion into ten perfectly +distinct factors, but by far the least of them all is Germany. Germany +was the personal note which Sir Roger Casement brought in, and which +left it with his failure. It was accidental and extraneous both to the +Sinn Fein Volunteers and the Citizen Army, though both were willing to +make use of it. + +Anyone who has taken the trouble to peruse the literature which fed the +movement will recognize these diverse elements under various forms which +appear in different places, but they are perfectly distinct. + +The most immediate cause was the undoubted intention of the authorities +to disarm them--a threat which had been overhanging them for some time, +and which, in view of the well-known leniency of the Government with +regard both to Sir Edward Carson and John Redmond in the same matter, +struck them as particularly unjust, the more so perhaps because both +Sinn Feiners and Larkinites thought that the Nationalists and the +Orangemen would be only too glad to combine with the Government against +them if need be. + +Thus, if we take the issue of the _Workers' Republic_ of April 22, 1916, +we find an account, quoted from the _Liverpool Courier_, of how +Connolly, the Commandant of the Citizens' Army, stopped the police raid, +in search of papers, on the shop of the Workers' Co-operative Society at +31, Eden Quay, having been informed of their intention. + +"Connolly," says the account, "arrived on the scene just as one of the +police got in behind the counter. Inquiring if the police had any search +warrant, they answered that they had not. On hearing this, Mr. Connolly, +turning to the policeman behind the counter as he had lifted up a +bundle of papers, covered him with an automatic pistol, and quietly +said: 'Then drop those papers, or I'll drop you.' He dropped the papers. +Then he was ordered out from behind the counter, and he cleared. His +fellow-burglar tried to be insolent, and was quickly told that as they +had no search warrant they were doing an illegal act, and the first one +who ventured to touch a paper would be shot like a dog. After some +parley, they slunk away, vowing vengeance." + +The story runs on for a column or more, and ends with further +discomfiture for the police. Then one reads:-- + +"In an hour from the first issue of the summons Liberty Hall was +garrisoned by a hundred and fifty determined armed men, and more were +trooping in every few minutes. It was splendid to see the enthusiasm of +the men, and when in the course of the evening all the Women's Ambulance +Corps trooped in, closely followed by the Boy Scouts, excitement and +longing for battle was running high in all our veins. The Irish +Volunteers were also on the alert, and stood, we are informed, until +after 2 a.m. on Saturday morning. Since then the hall has been guarded +day and night." + +The paper then goes on to speak of how "the heroic fighting at Suvla +Bay, and even the valorous defence of Verdun, fades into insignificance +side by side in Dublin by the Citizen Army, and describes how Liberty +Hall is being guarded by day and by night," and then goes on to point +out the danger which such open disregard of authority may lead to +eventually. + +Then follow two significant quotations, one from the _Irish Volunteer_ +and the other from _The Spark_. The latter is an open boast of the +efficacy of arms, and runs:-- + +"A few thousand Irishmen, who took the precaution or providing +themselves with lethal weapons of one kind or another, have, without +contesting a constituency and without sending a man to Westminster, +compelled the Westminster Parliament to admit publicly that it dared not +pass any legislation which they, the armed men, did not choose to +permit." + +Eoin MacNeill's threat is hardly less significant:-- + +"If our arms are demanded from us, we shall refuse to surrender them. +If force is used to take them from us, we shall make the most effective +resistance in our power. Let there be no mistake or misunderstanding on +that point.... We shall defend our arms with our lives." + +Now, whatever may be thought of such sentiments, there can be no doubt +whence they originated, for they are sheer Carsonism through and +through; and it was, as I have repeatedly pointed out, a pure stroke of +luck that it was not Belfast's City Hall instead of Dublin's Post Office +that was burnt to the ground. + +This physical force element, therefore, the Sinn Feiners and Larkinites +had in common with the Redmondites and Ulstermen: the fact that they +actually were the first to put the principle into operation is no +difference at all. + +In other words, we have to go deeper for a specific distinction, and +that distinction is to be found in the very nature of the parties +themselves who combined to form the provisional Republic. + +They were two movements which had grown up outside the two Parliamentary +parties and which refused to believe in Parliamentarianism as much for +the simple reason that their respective watchwords had become more or +less worn-out tags, out of touch with the realities of modern Irish +problems, as because their leaders had, unable to assimilate them, taken +up an attitude of almost personal antipathy to them and their ideals. + +It is certainly a most remarkable thing how John Redmond has lost the +old Parnellite grip upon the younger life of the country, and it seems +hardly credible that such an attitude should be due entirely to the +perversity of youth and in no way to the natural consequence of +tradition-loving age; but in any case the broad fact remains, and a tone +of persistent criticism seems to have taken the place of the meek +obedience of other days; and newspapers, dramas, novels, criticism, and +movements on all sides bear witness to it. The same, too, applies to Sir +Edward Carson, whose party has to recruit in England, witness Sir F. E. +Smith. + +According to Mr. T. M. Healy, the whole movement was due almost entirely +to the "bankruptcy of Redmondism." No doubt the justice of the +accusation may be questioned, though I hold no brief for any relative, +but there can be no doubt that it was the Sinn Fein attitude, and we +want to see the Sinn Feiners as they saw themselves and as they saw +Redmond. + +The Government trusted to Redmond almost entirely, but, as Mr. Healy +continues, they forgot that-- + +"New crystallizations were taking place. The jobbery of the official +party disgusted all earnest and unselfish minds amongst the youth of +Ireland. The forces of Larkinism were embittered; and the acceptance of +salaries by Irish members, after their formal declaration that they +would not accept them, sank deeply into the hearts of extremists. + +"The Insurance Act, the killing of land purchase, and the founding of +the A.O.H., sapped the foundations of belief, and it became known that +'a high official achieved his ambitions on the judicial bench only by +becoming a professing Catholic and accepting initiation under the rites +of Mr. Devlin's brotherhood. The staff of the _Freeman's Journal_, the +official patriot organ, got endless jobs. At the same time Mr. Redmond +excluded from his party, without trial or grounds, a dozen leading +members opposed to this policy.' + +"All that was sober, unselfish, self-respecting, and self-reliant +quitted his ranks and joined the Sinn Fein movement without thought of +rebellion or pro-Germanism. + +"The courage of the Sinn Feiners atoned for much of their folly in the +mind of those who realized that their spirit was not pro-German, but, in +the main, a revolt against the conversion of Dublin Castle into a +Redmondite Tammany Hall. Their uprising was the answer to the +corruption, jobbery, and judge-mongering of the Molly Maguires +masquerading in the vestments of religion. Hence the wholesale arrests +of men not in rebellion have evoked no protest from Mr. Redmond, 'who +watches calmly the dispersal of his critics,' hoping to find a new lease +of life under a new jobbing nominee." + +The Larkinists were, if anything, still more out of sympathy with the +official party because, in the words of Connolly, they looked upon them +as no better than the English conqueror, since they took the side of +the social conqueror in the economic struggles of life in the city. + +This seems certainly to have a touch of truth, for if ever any body of +men resembled the unfortunate victims of rural landlords it was these +wretched victims of the tenement slums, the denunciation of which seemed +to have no part in the official Parliamentary programme, so much so as +to compel Labour to create its own party and evolve its own leader, +which it had accordingly done in the person of Jim Larkin. + +Now, if anyone wishes to judge James Connolly they should not look at +the soldier for a week; they must examine the life-long student of +economics and read his "History of Labour in Irish History" and his +"Reconquest of Ireland," for it is here we have the revolution in its +cause, which was just as much economic as political. + +It is the custom to speak of the Larkinites with scant respect, as if +they were the mad, blind multitude of the "have nots" in perpetual prey +upon the "haves"; but it is quite a false idea, for they have in their +movement some of those who count socially and intellectually. + +Thus, for example, the training of the Citizens' Army was almost +entirely carried out by Captain J. R. White, D.S.O., son of the late +Field-Marshal Sir George White, whose "Labour" ideas got him three +months' imprisonment only a few weeks ago. + +As to the attitude of the average Dublin merchant towards the new labour +party that is arising, I know of no finer apology for Larkin than the +brilliant letter of "Æ." to the _Irish Times_ in the days of the great +strike, when he addressed the "masters of the city." + +In it he warned them--the aristocracy of industry--because like all +aristocracies they tended to grow blind in long authority, and to be +unaware that they and their class and their every action were being +considered and judged day by day by those who had the power to shake or +overturn the whole social order, and whose restlessness in poverty was +making our industrial civilization stir like a quaking bog. He reminded +them that their assumption that they were answerable to themselves alone +for their actions in the industries they controlled was becoming less +and less tolerable, in a world so crowded with necessitous life; but +what he chiefly held them responsible for was their incompetence as +commercial men, because, with the cheapest market in the world at their +command, they could never invite the confidence of investors. + +What was even worse than their business incompetence, however, was, +according to "Æ.," their bad citizenship, for had they not allowed the +poor to be herded together so that one could only think of certain +places in Dublin as of a pestilence? + +"There are twenty thousand rooms in Dublin," continued the terrible +indictment, "in each of which live entire families and sometimes more, +where no functions of the body can be concealed, and delicacy and +modesty are creatures that are stifled ere they are born." In fact, +"nothing that had ever been done against them cried so much to heaven +for vengeance as their own actions, such as the terrible lock-out, which +threw nearly a third of the whole city on to the verge of starvation"; +and he concluded:-- + +"You are sounding the death-knell of autocracy in industry. There was +autocracy in political life, and it was superseded by democracy. So +surely will democratic power wrest from you the control of industry. The +fate of the aristocracy of industry will be as the fate of the +aristocracy of land, if you do not show that you have some humanity +still among you." + +It was from such roots that the spirit of the Citizens' Army drew its +inspiration (and possibly not a few of the looters as well), and it is +impossible to understand the rage of these men without fully +comprehending the condition in which they were compelled to live and +move. + +True, the revolt was not with any concrete economic end in view; but, +none the less, it was coloured throughout with economic grievances. + +It was the very torture of the ordinary conditions of peace that made +them resent the fear of any additional burdens and sacrifices such as +were demanded of their patriotism. + +Yet what did patriotism and Empire mean to them, save only the doubling +of their burdens and their masters' profits? + +If the Scotch workman in London and the Scotch worker on the Clyde and +the Welsh miner in the coalfields round Cardiff felt it, much more must +the Irish docker; and it must never be forgotten that there is a triple +link of blood, interest, and common sympathy between the workers of the +two islands; and one has only to glance at the way the respective labour +Presses of the two countries kept in touch with each other for the past +year to realize how much an English labour problem the Irish political +problem really was. + +This brings me to some further factors which can be discerned in the +rising--firstly, the fear of conscription; secondly, the hatred of +militarism; and, thirdly, the chronic loathing of Castle government. + +With regard to conscription, there has always been a dread of it. They +had seen it come in England, and had watched anxiously the way it had +been introduced and applied, and the farce of the Tribunals, whose +action, in the words of the _Freeman's Journal_, would have been +sufficient to cause a revolution had they behaved in Ireland as they +behaved in England. + +All during the summer months they had seen the cloud gathering, and +Irishmen caught by a legal technicality and forced into the system; but +all this came to a climax when the cry of cowardice was raised at +Liverpool, as five hundred young emigrants, who would never have been +helped to live for Ireland in their own country, were suddenly held up +by order of the Cunard Company--which, as a matter of fact, owed nearly +its whole prosperity to its coffin boats of the Famine days, and whose +glaringly seductive posters had emptied Ireland, neither for America nor +Ireland's sake, but purely to get the passage-money of the emigrants who +were now asked to go instead and "help England to give Constantinople to +Russia, even if it cost them their lives." + +For they had a way of blunt speaking, these men whose everyday life was +an heroic fight for the home against "Hun" poverty. + +When the cry of "cowardice" was raised, however, it was high time to +protest, and none voiced that protest so well as Dr. O'Dwyer, the Bishop +of Limerick, who wrote the following letter to the _Munster News_:-- + + +"SIR,--The treatment which the poor Irish emigrant lads have received at +Liverpool is enough to make any Irishman's blood boil with anger and +indignation. What wrong have they done to deserve insults and outrage at +the hands of a brutal English mob? They do not want to be forced into +the English Army, and sent to fight English battles in some part of the +world. Is not that within their right? They are supposed to be free men, +but they are made to feel that they are prisoners, who may be compelled +to lay down their lives for a cause that is not worth 'three rows of +pins' to them. + +"It is very probable that these poor Connaught peasants know little or +nothing of the meaning of the war. Their blood is not stirred by the +memories of Kossovo, and they have no burning desire to die for Serbia. +They would much prefer to be allowed to till their own potato gardens in +peace in Connemara. Small nationalities, and the wrongs of Belgium and +Rheims Cathedral, and all the other cosmopolitan considerations that +rouse the enthusiasm of the Irish Party, but do not get enough of +recruits in England, are far too high-flying for uneducated peasants, +and it seems a cruel wrong to attack them because they cannot rise to +the level of the disinterested Imperialism of Mr. T. P. O'Connor and the +rest of the New Brigade. + +"But in all the shame and humiliation of this disgraceful episode, what +angers one most is that there is no one, not even one of their own +countrymen, to stand up and defend them. Their crime is that they are +not ready to die for England. Why should they? What have they or their +forbears ever got from England that they should die for her? Mr. Redmond +will say a Home Rule Act on the Statute Book. But any intelligent +Irishman will say a simulacrum of Home Rule, with an express notice that +it is never to come into operation. + +"This war may be just or unjust, but any fair-minded man will admit +that it is England's war, not Ireland's. When it is over, if England +wins, she will hold a dominant power in this world, and her manufactures +and her commerce will increase by leaps and bounds. Win or lose, Ireland +will go on, in our old round of misgovernment, intensified by a grinding +poverty which will make life intolerable. Yet the poor fellows who do +not see the advantage of dying for such a Cause are to be insulted as +'shirkers' and 'cowards,' and the men whom they have raised to power and +influence have not one word to say on their behalf. + +"If there is to be conscription, let it be enforced all round, but it +seems to be the very intensity of injustice to leave English shirkers by +the million to go free, and coerce the small remnant of the Irish race +into a war which they do not understand, and which, whether it is right +or wrong, has but a secondary and indirect interest for them. + + "I am, dear sir, + "Your obedient servant, + "-|- EDWARD THOMAS, + "Bishop of Limerick. +"_November 10, 1915._" + + +The seditious Press took up the cry: "Conscription had not even been +applied to her own sons, yet England was applying it to Irishmen," said +Gilbert Galbraith in _Honesty_; adding: "for all she wants of Irishmen +is their lives that she might live," and he warned Irishmen that "she +(England) who took everything they had and stripped them naked and left +them like Christ to the ribald jest and sneer of the rabble in the +world's back-streets, would, like every bully, try to have revenge when +she got them by themselves." + +Had this been mere verbal sword-play, however, I should not quote it; it +was more: it was the taking up of the challenge of cowardice. + +"Will you in God's name get ready to answer her?" concluded the famous +article in which he appealed to these would-be exiles repatriated by +force; "because, if you want to, all you have to do is to get into touch +with the nearest corps of Irish Volunteers." They would give them +instructions, he added pointedly, how to act, and what they did they had +better do quickly, for it might be too late on the morrow. + +Could one be surprised, I ask, if some of these would-be emigrants +answered the taunt gun in hand?--especially when men like Captain White, +who was afterwards to try to rouse the South Wales miners to endeavour +to save Connolly, was telling them plainly:-- + +"You are fast being led into industrial slavery. You know it, and I am +apprehensive and angry, but too bewildered to move. To rob you of your +right over your own poor bodies is the workers' tyrant. To rob you of +your sovereign power over your own will is the workers' devil. + +"Awake, brothers, before your liberty is dead. Arm yourselves against +your real enemies. Say to the tyrants and their agents, 'The first man +who lays hands on me against my will dies.'" + +All this, I say, jumps to the eyes of anyone perusing the literature +that produced the rising. + +It is beside the point whether such argumentation be true or false, +patriotic or seditious. The only point, as far as we are concerned in +this quasi-medical diagnosis of diseased mentality, is whether or not +these thoughts were present in the psychology of the combatants, and I +maintain that the evidence is undeniable. + +The attitude of "conscientious objectors" to militarism in England is +England's own affair. Yet I cannot, in my own mind, separate the +personality of Sir John Simon from that of John Hampden. No doubt +ship-money was necessary, and it was the patriotic thing to give it up, +and no doubt the same applies to men for the Army: but when it came to +the principle of the King taking money without the consent of +Parliament, John Hampden thought it his duty to the traditions of his +country to resist, just as Sir John Simon thought it his duty to the +traditions of the British conscience to passively protest--but that +again, I say, is a matter for Englishmen. + +The attitude of the Irish conscientious objector, however, has always +been of a more militant form, and this began to assert itself among the +labour leaders in Ireland through the medium of the more outspoken of +the English labour leaders. Whereas in England the masses of workers are +naturally loyal, in Ireland loyalty is a sustained effort against the +grain of tradition. Hence, while in England the right to rebel fell on +unsympathetic soil, in Ireland it merely relit the smouldering embers of +past grievances into flame. + +For there had been a growing epidemic of the phrase "Shoot them," +applied almost indiscriminately, like a quack panacea, by political +orators to every opponent on every conceivable subject since the war, +and this was producing the most evil results. + +Two quotations may suffice from the work by J. Bruce Glasier on +"Militarism," which was freely circulated in Dublin by means of Liberty +Hall, to illustrate the strength of the feeling on this subject:-- + +"Although Great Britain is suffering neither from invasion from without +nor insurrection from within, the military authorities are not only in +command of the defences of our shores but of the civil authorities, and +the whole population of the realm. The birthrights of British +citizenship embodied in the Magna Charta, Habeas Corpus, and Bill of +Rights are no longer inviolable. Martial Law--that is to say, military +despotism--may be put in operation at will by the military commanders. +Civilians may be seized and tried by Army officers, and even sentenced +to any penalty short of death without appeal to trial by jury. Our War +Lord is made virtual dictator. A military censorship has been +established over the Press and public meetings. Military officers may +enter our houses, quarter troops upon us, take possession of our horses, +motor-cars, cows, pigs, and pigeons. They may commandeer schools, +factories, warehouses, farms, or any other kinds of public or private +property. Strikes may be declared acts of treason, Trade Union officials +arrested and tried by courts martial, and soldiers used as +blacklegs--and no knowledge whatever of these happenings, not even of +the existence of strikes or trade disputes, may reach the general public +at all if the authorities so determine...." + +A phrase that seems to have done great harm, and was specially singled +out by the men of Liberty Hall, was "Shoot him!"--as a form of argument +employed by every Tom, Dick, and Harry orator, on every conceivable +subject without the slightest constitutional authority; but it must be +said it was one used by all parties. + +During the Home Rule controversy, for example, the Nationalists were +just as fond of employing the phrase towards Carson as during the Welsh +coal strikes Conservatives were of using it towards the miners. + +The danger of such doctrines in Ireland is this, that whereas in England +it is the upper class principally that is militarist, in Ireland it is +principally the lower class, and whereas it is the Castle authorities +who are always preaching the iniquity of physical force, it is the lower +classes who mainly admire it. + +Realizing this, as any student of Irish history would, there should not +have been the slightest doubt about the danger of employing force to men +who not only had the principle of active resistance but the arms +necessary to make it effective, and it has always appeared to me as the +most marvellous thing the Liberals ever did that they were able to allow +Ulster the full possession of arms without once provoking an occasion on +which to actually put them to use. + +The result of this fatal misuse of the words "Shoot him!" as a form of +argument--which unauthoritative should be made a penal offence--was that +the workers really feared that such irresponsible individuals if given +the power would really carry out the threat, and determined to +anticipate the danger by a protest in arms. + +Another contributory cause was undoubtedly Castle rule, and the fear +that with the holding up of Home Rule it might continue for ever, unless +some effective protest were made. + +The Chief Secretary was himself the foremost in admitting this to be one +of the contributory causes of the rebellion. + +"There are a number of contributory causes, which lately have created +antipathy to constitutional methods and tended to increase in numbers. +First--growing doubts about the actual advent of Home Rule. If the Home +Rule Bill had not been placed on the Statute Book there must have been +in Ireland and the United States a great and dangerous explosion of +rage and disappointment, which when the war broke out would have assumed +the most alarming proportions in Ireland. All (outside parts of Ulster) +would have joined hands, whilst our reports from Washington tell us what +the effect in America would have been. Still, even with Home Rule on the +Statute Book, the chance of its ever becoming a fact was so uncertain, +the outstanding difficulty about Ulster was so obvious, and the details +of the measure itself were so unattractive and difficult to transmute +into telling platform phrases, that Home Rule as an emotional flag fell +out of daily use in current Irish life. People left off talking about it +or waving it in the air. + +"Second, in Ireland, whenever Constitutional and Parliamentary procedure +cease to be of absorbing influence, other men, other methods, other +thoughts, before somewhat harshly snubbed, come rapidly to the surface, +and secure attention, sympathy, and support. The sneers of the +O'Brienites, the daily naggings in the Dublin _Irish Independent_, also +contributed to the partial eclipse of Home Rule, and this eclipse +foretold danger." + +Another point is worth noting in this connection, and that was the +growing power, first of the Coalition and then of the Unionist clique +who were capturing it. Thus says Mr. Birrell:-- + +"The Coalition Government, with Sir Edward Carson in it--it is +impossible to describe or overestimate the effect of this in Ireland. +The fact that Mr. Redmond could, had he chosen to do so, have sat in the +same Cabinet with Sir Edward Carson had no mollifying influence. If Mr. +Redmond had consented, he would, on the instant, have ceased to be an +Irish leader. This step seemed to make an end of Home Rule, and +strengthened the Sinn Feiners enormously all over the country." + +A general desire for peace and a sort of Socialistic feeling of +brotherhood, I should say, were two further contributory causes. + +"The prolongation of the war and its dubious end," as Mr. Birrell +observed, "turned many heads. Criticism was not of the optimistic type +prevalent in Britain, and consequently, when every event had been +thoroughly weighed, there was always a chance of Germany lending a +hand." + +As to the general attitude of Sinn Fein and Larkinite Ireland, it might +be described as one of benevolent neutrality where, as in many cases, it +was not one of actual hostility. + +True, recruiting figures had reached a total quite unprecedented in +Irish history (150,000), and loyalty had received an official stimulus +when the Irish leader and the Lord-Lieutenant toured the provinces +together; but this was discounted in the country districts by the +deliberate plans of the Sinn Feiners, and in the towns, or rather in +Dublin, by a sense of the futility of all war, and in particular this +war, whose aims were vague enough to the statesmen, and appeared almost +illusory to the worker. Hence anyone reading the _Workers Republic_ +could have noticed whole passages that might have been taken direct from +the German Socialist Liebknecht. + +One very significant leader (Saturday, February 5, 1916) on "The Ties +that Bind" is well worth quoting in parts as an example of this +feeling:-- + +"Recently we have been pondering deeply over the ties that bind this +country to England. It is not a new theme for our thoughts; for long +years we have carried on propaganda in Ireland, pointing out how the +strings of self-interest bound the capitalist and landlord classes to +the Empire, and how it thus became a waste of time to appeal to those +classes in the name of Irish patriotism. + +"We have said that the working class was the only class to whom the word +'Empire,' and the things of which it was the symbol, did not appeal; +that to the propertied classes 'Empire' meant high dividends and +financial security, whereas to the working class that meant only the +things it was in rebellion against. + +"Therefore from the intelligent working class could alone come the +revolutionary impulse. + +"Recently we have seen the spread of those ties of self-interest binding +certain classes and individuals to the Empire--we have seen it spread to +a most astonishing degree until its ramifications cover the island, +like the spread of a foul disease. + +"It would be almost impossible to name a single class or section of the +population not evilly affected by this social, political, and moral +leprosy.... + +"For the sake of £400 a year our parliamentary representatives become +Imperialists; for the sake of large travelling expenses and luxurious +living they become lying recruiters.... + +"There is nobody in a representative position so mean that the British +Government will not pay some price for his Irish soul. Newspaper men +sell their Irish souls for Government advertisements paid for at a +lavish rate. Professors sell their souls for salaries and expenses, +clergymen sell theirs for jobs for their relatives, business men sell +their souls and become recruiters lest they lose the custom of +Government officials. In all the grades of Irish society the only +section that has not furnished even one apostate to the cause it had +worked for in times of peace is that of the much hated and traduced +militant labour leaders. + +"But if the militant labour leaders of Ireland have not apostatized, the +same cannot be said of the working class as a whole.... + +"Perhaps some day the same evil passions the enemy has stirred up in so +many of our Irish people will play havoc with his own hopes, and make +more bitter and deadly the cup of his degradation and defeat. + +"But deep in the heart of Ireland has sunk the sense of the degradation +wrought upon its people--our lost brothers and sisters--so deep and +humiliating that no agency less potent than the red tide of war on Irish +soil will ever be able to enable the Irish race to recover its +self-respect, or establish its national dignity in the face of a world +horrified and scandalized by what must seem to them our national +apostasy." + +Now the strange thing about Ireland is her definition of "loyalty." It +is not with her a species of sentimental altruism but a plain, +business-like, common-sense view of her own interests, and nothing can +make her change that view, for she has through centuries of +disillusionment become chronically suspicious. + +"I dare say I don't take the same view as you would were you in my +place," wrote Mr. Birrell to the Prime Minister on January 25th. +"Loyalty in Ireland is of slow growth, and the soil is uncongenial. The +plant grows slowly. Landlords, grand juries, loyalist magistrates, have +all gone; yet the plant grows, though slowly." + +Her patriotism, on the other hand, is almost necessarily a matter of +internal administration; and for this she fights with all the spirit +that animated her in the past against Dane and Saxon. Hence it is quite +easy for an economic grievance at once to assume the proportions of a +national movement, and once it becomes resisted as such, the spirit of +nationality becomes rekindled again, and it was this latter that +prompted the final efforts in the evolution of the Republic. + +America and Germany both contributed to intensify the spirit of +nationality and gave material assistance that made the attempt at +"Separatism" a practicable ideal, but it was only made possible because +of the internal troubles in Ireland herself. + +So long as a constitutional outlet is not afforded for such grievances, +so long must unconstitutional means be appealed to; but the question +which the breakdown of the old regime suggests seriously to all thinkers +is whether there are not ample means within the Constitution, and I +think it is the universal opinion of the more moderate that there is; +and it is just these moderates whose views will be the more welcome +because of the failure not merely of the Sinn Feiners to establish a +Republic, but of Sir Edward Carson and John Redmond to come to an +understanding that would have placed them in a position to have +controlled it in time, and, which is more important still, to be able to +deal with any repetition of a similar character in the future. + +Probably no analysis of the remoter causes of the rebellion, however, is +more accurate than the psychological origin given by George Bernard Shaw +in a letter to the _Daily News_ on May 10th. + +"The relation of Ireland to Dublin Castle is in this respect precisely +that of the Balkan States to Turkey, of Belgium or the city of Lille to +the Kaiser, and of the United States to Great Britain. + +"Until Dublin Castle is superseded by a National Parliament and Ireland +voluntarily incorporated with the British Empire, as Canada, +Australasia, and South Africa have been incorporated, an Irishman +resorting to arms to achieve the independence of his country is doing +only what Englishmen will do if it be their misfortune to be invaded and +conquered by the Germans in the course of the present war. Further, such +an Irishman is as much in order morally in accepting assistance from the +Germans in this struggle with England as England is in accepting the +assistance of Russia in her struggle with Germany. The fact that he +knows that his enemies will not respect his rights if they catch him, +and that he must, therefore, fight with a rope round his neck, increases +his risk, but adds in the same measure to his glory in the eyes of his +compatriots and of the disinterested admirers of patriotism throughout +the world. It is absolutely impossible to slaughter a man in this +position without making him a martyr and a hero, even though the day +before the rising he may have been only a minor poet. The shot Irishmen +will now take their places beside Emmet and the Manchester Martyrs in +Ireland, and beside the heroes or Poland and Serbia and Belgium in +Europe; and nothing in heaven or on earth can prevent it." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[3] I give the well-known letter in its entirety, but I cannot vouch for +such passages, and I know that in many cases officers were particularly +distressed at having to fight Irishmen instead of Germans. + + + + +CHAPTER THE NINTH + +REFLECTIONS TOWARDS RECONSTRUCTION + + +One of the most gratifying things about the terrible catastrophe through +which we have been passing during the last few weeks is the spirit of +hope which has taken the place of the spirit of despair which +immediately followed the outbreak. + +Ireland has ever been more of a problem suited to statesmen than to +soldiers; indeed, the soldier has more often than not come in to spoil +the work of the statesman, and Mr. Asquith's hurried visit to Dublin, +Cork, and Belfast after John Dillon's speech was chiefly undertaken in +order to prevent any repetition of the old mistake. + +The need for conciliation, everybody will admit, was exceedingly urgent, +for it was the admitted intention of the Sinn Feiners to put the matter +to the test as to whether England held Ireland by her own free +constitutional consent, or whether it was merely a permanent military +occupation, like Belgium and Poland. "England is not the champion of +small nations," they said. "She never was and never will be, and while +she is masquerading before the world as such it is our intention, in +Ireland's name, to give her the lie--yes, even though it be in our own +blood." + +Indeed, as I have already said, there appears to have been a belief +among the Sinn Feiners that if only they could hold the capital for +twelve days by force of arms they would have a sort of claim to be +mentioned at the Peace Conference along with Poland and Belgium. + +Now, it matters very little whether such a suggestion came from Berlin +or Washington, or whether the whole thing was a fable, for the grand +fact remains that England now stands before Europe with the point of +Ireland's loyalty openly questioned, and she has only two courses open: +she must either neglect Irish opinion and proclaim that she holds the +sister isle by right of conquest--when, of course, the fate of Belgium +is sealed as far as England's ethical pleading is concerned--or she may +make such a final compact with Ireland that she can afterwards maintain +before the whole world, without fear of contradiction, that Ireland is +freely one with England without the help of a single soldier. + +It's really more important than winning the war, if Englishmen could +only realize it--for the psychology of Ireland is the psychology of +every one of the constituent nations of our common Empire; and the late +Mr. Stead used to say to me, "A blunder in Irish government is a blunder +in Imperial government"; but I never realized this so much as when I +learnt with what an intense interest the Indian students present in +Dublin had followed the whole case. + +When the Irish leader, therefore, in the acuteness of the moment +expressed the hope that no party would be allowed to make capital out of +the event, he expressed a hope which was re-echoed in every Irish +breast; but it would have been far more effective if he had instead +expressed the hope that each party should bear its proper share in the +guilt of the catastrophe. + +For the danger is the making of the Sinn Feiners into a national +scapegoat for the faults of all. + +For in a sense all were responsible. True, neither Redmondites nor +Carsonites took any part in it--and it is very lucky they did not, for +it would have meant civil war and fearful bloodshed from one end of the +country to the other--but in neither case was it out of any love for +England, for both of them fully realized that they might have been in +the position of the Sinn Feiners themselves, and both were equally +determined to rid Ireland of English meddlers. + +It might almost be called a "tragedy of errors," for there was nothing +but blundering all round. England should never have allowed Carson to +arm, nor should Redmond have followed suit if he wished to play the +constitutional game to the end; but once both had appealed to the +principle of physical force, neither had a right to censure the methods +of a third party which had arisen out of their own incapacity to keep +the country in hand. + +England was in principle perfectly justified in employing force against +the whole three of them, and hastened to take full advantage of the +situation by handing the reins of government over to the military--but +that was the greatest blunder of the lot. + +For there can be no doubt that to the rank and file of the Sinn Feiners, +as to the rank and file of the Orangemen, physical force was not an end +in itself: it was only the protest of conscientious objectors which was +being lashed into activity under continual provocation--the provocation +of being threatened with the loss of everything they held most dear in +life, and eminently admired by Englishmen for that very fact. + +Normally Sinn Feiners and Orangemen were men of peace, the one +economists, the other business men, who might indeed have been easily +pacified had they been openly and sympathetically treated with, instead +of being galled into fury by the taunt of bluff or cowardice, and such +epithets as insignificant, negligible minorities. + +In an orgy of majority government both stood out for the sanctity of +minorities, especially when those minorities represented inviolable +principles of vital import to the majority. + +It was the method of suppression that really did most of the mischief, +for in addition to casualties and damages there was also considerable +distress, and it at once became necessary to organize a system of food +distribution and relief for the sufferers. + +This was largely undertaken by the St. Vincent de Paul Society, under +Sir Henry Robinson, Vice-President of the Local Government Board, and +with the help of the military authorities, who lent motor-lorries and +money, food was distributed to over one hundred thousand persons. + +House-to-house visitations were made, and these revealed all forms of +distress, from lack of food, which, of course, it had been impossible to +obtain as long as the city was in a state of siege, down to absolute +ruination of whole families. + +In places the city looked like Antwerp during the siege, or London upon +the arrival of the Belgian refugees. + +No one has yet been able to estimate the full extent of the material +damage sustained by the reckless bombardment of the city--for no other +word can be used; and though Captain Purcell, the chief of the Dublin +Fire Brigade, gave the rough figure of £2,500,000, this must be taken as +a mere minimum of the extent covered by the conflagrations. + +It cannot represent the loss of business, employment, goodwill, trade, +and the thousand and one other losses inseparable from such a +catastrophe. + +Take, for example, the loss of the Royal Hibernian Academy, with +thousands of pounds of pictures. No price can repay these, for they +represented perhaps the culminating point, or at least the turning +point, in careers which had had years of hard struggles, and which had +set perhaps a lifetime's hopes upon a single canvas. + +From all accounts, too, it was the merest chance that the whole northern +portion of the town did not fall a victim to the devouring flames, and +it is hard to understand the psychology of the military mind which could +risk even the mere possibility of such an event, as it is hard to +understand why the firemen were fired on by the rebels when trying to +extinguish the flames. + +The hardest part of it all was, moreover, that the blow fell almost +entirely upon the shoulders of the innocent, viz. the merchants, +tradesmen, shopkeepers, and employees, who were thus ruined at a single +stroke within the space of a few hours without even a chance of a +protest. + +People began to ask seriously whether it had really been necessary at +all, and the verdict was not always complimentary to the authorities. +Mr. Healy raised the question in the House whether any such measures had +ever been really necessary, considering that the rebels held such few +positions, and these could have been isolated by the municipal water +supply being cut off. It certainly seems plausible that some less brutal +methods could have been adopted, considering the way Cork was saved from +a similar catastrophe by the tact of the clergy, who would only have +been too willing, and undoubtedly would have had the power, to act as +mediators between the rebels and military in the name of the civil +authorities and in the interests of the inhabitants principally and +Ireland generally. + +A very cute suggestion I heard from Mr. George Atkinson, the well-known +Dublin artist, as we were preparing the cover of the present volume in +his studio, struck me as particularly plausible. + +"As long as the rebels were in their strongholds untouched," he said, +"they were practically powerless, and could only have covered themselves +with contempt and ridicule if they had been left alone. + +"These men were asking for martyrdom and the glory of battle: why on +earth give them their admitted object? + +"They were in possession of the Post Office. Very well, but they could +not have run the postal service. They were in possession of the +railways. Well and good, but they would not have been able to conduct +the train service. They had assumed the reins of government, but would +the people of Ireland have acknowledged them? Certainly not. They had +taken over the management of the capital, but were they able to police +it even, or protect private property? Why, from the very first moment of +their victory--if victory it could be called--the whole place had been +at the mercy of the mob. + +"Again, they issued receipts in the name of the Irish Republic's +exchequer, but what financier would have honoured their bills? Could +they have even taken the gold from the banks they could not have got +credit or cash for any further transactions. They had assumed sole +authority over the people of Ireland, yet they could not have commanded +enough votes to secure a single constituency. + +"These men, left to themselves, in fact, and treated with a sense of +humour, were on the highroad to the greatest political fiasco the world +had ever seen, and could only have made themselves ridiculous and +contemptible in the eyes of their own countrymen and others throughout +the world. + +"They had appealed to Germany: very well; let them look to German help +for assistance, and in the meanwhile let them know that Casement had +been captured already, before the rising, and the phantom Prussian +armada had been sunk to the bottom of the sea. + +"What could have happened? You say 'Pillage and murder.' They were not +out for that, in the first place, nor were they that type; and it may be +questioned whether, had they set about it with deliberate purpose, they +would have worked such havoc as the military and naval artillery wrought +in that fatal week." + +The theory is certainly one which would have had no precedent to +recommend it, but to my mind it was just this that was its best +recommendation; in fact, what was most needed was to avoid a repetition +of the old fatal precedents which had turned so many futile revolts into +glorious outbursts of patriotism. + +Just imagine the situation. England would first of all have told them +she wished for no bloodshed beyond the punishment of those who had +actually shot defenceless men or whose orders had led to these murders. +It would have redounded entirely to the credit of the Englishman. + +England would then have asked the politicians and people alike if they +in any way sympathized with such a revolt, and let the penalties be +known--the immediate erasure of Home Rule from the Statute Book and the +cessation of land purchase, as well as the stoppage of all commercial or +financial transactions. + +Finally, if these failed and the people of Ireland really wished for war +in its full reality, they could have it, but they must not ever +afterward appeal as constitutional partners in the Empire, but merely as +a conquered race: mercy they might have, rights they would have +forfeited by conquest. + +Had such a course been followed, there would not only have been an +opportunity upon the part of the nation at large to disown the usurpers, +who would then have had not even the vestige of a grievance upon which +to establish their preposterous claims to continuance in the position +they had taken up. + +In a word, the English would have made fools of them, or rather allowed +the Irish to make fools of them. Instead of this, all the old fatal, +discredited methods were employed with the same fatal results, and they +became national heroes, whose suppression by force could only give them +greater power. + +The whole thing would have taken no longer than the campaign; no further +blood would have been spilt, and time would have been allowed for the +great adventure to reveal itself in the true grotesqueness of cold +reality. + +Possibly it was looked upon as _infra dig._ to treat with rebels, but it +was so obviously a mental case that it is hard to see how anything could +possibly have been _infra dig._ under such circumstances. + +On Monday and Tuesday the Republic was no more representative of the +people of Ireland than the tailors of Tooley Street were the people of +England, but upon the old Grecian principle that the sufferings of one +citizen are the sufferings of the whole State, it became national from +the moment the national sentiment had been aroused by the indiscriminate +shedding of blood. + +It was in their defeat that the Sinn Feiners won their great victory, +and they knew it. They had been scoffed at, derided, denounced by the +official party almost to--in fact, actually to--a state of desperation, +and an act of despair became their last resort. The Statute Book indeed +proclaimed Ireland a nation once again, but the Government treated +Ireland more like a province than ever, and her own representatives +seemed to acquiesce; so, as Mrs. Pearse, the mother of the "President," +told me afterwards, "there was nothing left for them but to accomplish +the sacrifice demanded to save the soul of Ireland and proclaim her on +the scaffold once again unconquered and unconquerable." + +It was an act of folly, if you like, to try to set up a republic, +especially during such a crisis as this war, but since the death of the +leaders brought out their true character, it has ceased to be looked +upon as a piece of knavery, for these men, according to all accounts of +the priests, died the death of saints, not scoundrels; so that we now +realize the old, old story of the tragedy of misunderstanding, as much, +indeed, by their own countrymen as by the Englishman. + +If it was to illustrate in one dramatic coup that misunderstanding +which has been growing between all parties in Ireland, then they have +not died in vain, for every party must feel to a certain extent +responsible for the catastrophe. Several things, however, seem to stand +out prominently amidst the chaos. + +Castle government is dead as Queen Anne and Home Rule as natural and as +inevitable as the morrow's sunrise; Unionism, in the English sense of +Empire, survives: everyone is a Unionist now; but what still remains +inexorable is the attitude of Sir Edward Carson, whose "Unionism" is +merely a euphemism for "bureaucracy," and who, with the Ulster +Volunteers still in arms, equally prepared to resist constitutional +government, whether from Westminster or from Dublin, is the greatest +Home Ruler of us all--or should we say Sinn Feiner? + +Personally, I have always thought, and still think, that the Orangeman +has more to gain in an Irish Parliament than anyone else as representing +the layman, the business man; but I, for one, should be sorry to see +Home Rule at the cost of a single Ulster Volunteer's life. + +Mr. William O'Brien has for years, as a species of political outcast, +been preaching the doctrine of conciliation, and has suffered in +consequence, but his successful opponents have not gained the victory, +for we are now rapidly drifting towards the total exclusion of several +counties--the thing of all things they most wished to avoid. + +All the while people are wondering whether it is the people themselves +or the politicians who are responsible for the antagonism, and three of +the greatest national movements since the days of tenant grievances +stare us in the face as outside, if not politics, at least outside the +ordinary conventional politicians--I mean Sir Horace Plunkett's +Co-operative Movement, Larkin-Connolly's Labour Movement, and Sinn Fein. + +Surely something is wrong if such movements cannot be assimilated by +either of the great political parties, as they should have been if those +parties were together completely representative of the nation. + +All our greatest men were isolated--Redmond, Carson, Plunkett, O'Brien, +Connolly, W. M. Murphy, the Lord-Lieutenant--all appealing to or +threatening the unfortunate Premier, already sufficiently occupied with +the intricacies of English politics, let alone European. + +The step must come from the Englishman in his own defence: English +politics must no longer be dominated by the votes or the threats of any +Irishman, and some method must be found, while safeguarding the Imperial +link, to force Irishmen to meet each other and settle with each other: +for the only result of ruling Tipperary from Downing Street is that +Westminster is ruled from Dublin or Belfast. + +According to the "political correspondent" of the _Manchester Guardian_, +the tendency is towards an Irish Coalition. "The question," he writes, +"is not whether there will be a change. The old and anarchic system of +Dublin Castle seems to be definitely doomed. The question is rather what +the change will be. Speculation, which may or may not be partially +informed, concentrates upon the scheme of a new Irish Advisory Council. +I may offer a more detailed sketch of this scheme, of which I will only +say that some responsible Irish members think it is very likely to be +near the mark. An Irish Council, if created now, would probably be an +advisory body, resembling the Viceroy's Council in India. The +Lord-Lieutenant, who ought to be an active and energetic administrator, +would no doubt preside over it. As to the membership, it would have to +consist of representatives of both Irish Parties. It is thought possible +that some Nationalist and Ulster Unionist members of the House of +Commons would be on it, and would, of course, sit with it in Dublin. In +addition there might be responsible Irish public men (like, for example, +Sir Horace Plunkett), both Home Rulers and Unionists, who are not +members of the House of Commons or officially attached to a party. There +might also, in view of the educational problem of Ireland, be one or two +representatives of the Churches. This would form what is talked of as +the Irish Coalition, in which it is assumed both Mr. Redmond's Party and +Sir Edward Carson's would join." + +The tribute which Mr. Birrell paid to the Irish Literary Revival and its +influence upon Irish life is worth quoting, for it indicates one of the +sources whence much may be hoped in the work of reconstruction. + +"This period," he said, referring to the period immediately preceding +the rebellion, "was also marked by a genuine literary Irish revival, in +prose, poetry, and the drama, which has produced remarkable books and +plays, and a school of acting, all characterized by originality and +independence of thought and expression, quite divorced from any +political party, and all tending towards and feeding latent desires for +some kind of separate Irish national existence. It was a curious +situation to watch, but there was nothing in it suggestive of revolt or +rebellion, except in the realm of thought. Indeed, it was quite the +other way. The Abbey Theatre made merciless fun of mad political +enterprise, and lashed with savage satire some historical aspects of the +Irish revolutionary. I was often amazed at the literary detachment and +courage of the playwright, the relentless audacity of the actors and +actresses, and the patience and comprehension of the audience. This new +critical tone and temper, noticeable everywhere, penetrating everything, +and influencing many minds in all ranks, whilst having its +disintegrating effects upon old-fashioned political beliefs and worn-out +controversial phrases, was the deadly foe of that wild sentimental +passion which has once more led so many brave young fellows to a certain +doom, in the belief that in Ireland any revolution is better than none. +A little more time, and, but for the outbreak of the war, this new +critical temper would, in my belief, have finally prevailed, not indeed +to destroy national sentiment (for that is immortal), but to kill by +ridicule insensate revolt. But this was not to be." + +With regard to "Separatism," I believe this--and I think in so saying I +am echoing the sentiments of most of my fellow-countrymen, that the only +way to liberate Ireland is to dominate England, not physically, for this +would be as useless as it would be impossible, but mentally and morally. + +If the Irishman has been persecuted and tyrannized over, it is in virtue +of certain ideals and principles which are ethically and economically +inferior to his, and which he has consequently to crush in the very +source, as much for his own sake as for those other members of the +Empire to which, if it has been a misfortune to belong in the past, it +may be an advantage and an honour to belong to-morrow. + +If Castle government is wrong in Dublin it is wrong elsewhere; if +militarism was wrong and foolish and futile in Cromwell's day, it is +wrong to-day, to-morrow, and for all time; if England really intends at +the great Peace Congress to come forward as the champion of small +nations, she must be able to show an Ireland prosperous, contented, and +freely allied to her without the aid of a single soldier or a single +threat. + +Such at least is the hope of all those who believe that only when we +have solved the Irish problem have we solved the problem of Empire. + +Primarily, however, the task is in Ireland's own hands: for England at +this moment stands not unwilling or hostile so much as perplexed and +bewildered at the strange eruption that has taken place, and which must +be taken rather as an indication of a chronic state than the expression +of any concrete or definite complaint. + +In other words, there is already a new nationalism in the making, more +idealistic, more spiritual, more constructive, and more comprehensive +than the old nationalism, which was to a large extent geographical, +material, and traditional to an almost stifling degree: the eyes of the +younger men are fixed on the future, those of the older men are fixed +upon the past. + +The older generation will probably die immutable in mind, like veterans, +nor will they ever try to mingle, but on all sides and in every sphere +the younger generation has already shaken hands. + +The spirit of the two is the same, the aspirations just as intense, but +their methods are different: geographical isolation is against natural +evolution and "Separatism" an economic, racial, and military +impossibility--this last rebellion has exploded the myth; but all this +will only have the effect of changing the ever-living consciousness of +nationality into different channels. + +Instead of being expansive, our patriotism will tend to be more +intensive: our combat with England will no longer be with arms, but with +thoughts and ideas, and the nobler and the truer will win; and it is in +this contest that "Sinn Fein" will come forward with new force of the +"living dead." If Ireland cannot be the strongest nation, she can be the +freest; if she cannot be the greatest, she can be the purest; if she +cannot be the richest, she can be the happiest and the kindliest: and as +Greece conquered ancient Rome, so may Ireland some day conquer England, +if those ideals which were bred and nurtured within her bosom can be +made to dominate the inferior Saxon till they spread throughout the +world; and that is why, whatever happens, Ireland must keep her +"nationality" free by whatever means lie at her hands, and that was the +root cause of the revolt, if we are to believe the words of the men who +suffered. + +"Others have been struck before now," said Pearse in the course of an +address which he delivered in October 1897 to a young men's literary +society, "by the fact that hundreds of noble men and true have fought +and bled for the emancipation of the Gaelic race, and yet have all +failed. Surely, if ever cause was worthy of success, it was the cause +for which Laurence prayed, for which Hugh of Dungannon planned, for +which Hugh Roe and Owen Roe fought, for which Wolfe Tone and Lord Edward +and Robert Emmet gave their lives, for which Grattan pleaded, for which +Moore and Davis sang, for which O'Connell wore himself out with toil. +Yet these men prayed and planned, and fought and bled, and pleaded and +wrote and toiled in vain. May it not be that there is some reason for +this? May it not be that the ends they struggled for were ends never +intended for the Gael?... The Gael is not like other men; the spade and +the loom and the sword are not for him. But a destiny more glorious than +that of Rome, more glorious than that of Britain, awaits him: to become +the saviour of idealism in modern intellectual and social life, the +regenerator and rejuvenator of the literature of the world, the +instructor of the nations, the preacher of the gospel of nature-worship, +hero-worship, God-worship--such is the destiny of the Gael." + + +The Gresham Press +UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED +WOKING AND LONDON + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Six days of the Irish Republic, by +Louis Redmond-Howard + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIX DAYS OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC *** + +***** This file should be named 24296-8.txt or 24296-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/2/9/24296/ + +Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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G. Redmond-Howard. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + hr.smler { width: 10%; } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 5px; border: none; } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + text-indent: 0px; + } /* page numbers */ + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .right {text-align: right;} + .tbrk { margin-top: 2.75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em;} + + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem div {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem div.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em;} + + + /* index */ + + div.index ul li { padding-top: 1em ;text-align: center; } + + div.index ul ul ul, div.index ul li ul li { padding: 0; text-align: left; } + + div.index ul { list-style: none; margin: 0; } + + div.index ul, div.index ul ul ul li { display: inline; } + + div.index .subitem { display: block; padding-left: 2em; } + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Six days of the Irish Republic, by Louis Redmond-Howard + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Six days of the Irish Republic + A Narrative and Critical Account of the Latest Phase of Irish Politics + +Author: Louis Redmond-Howard + +Release Date: January 15, 2008 [EBook #24296] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIX DAYS OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC *** + + + + +Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>SIX DAYS OF THE<br />IRISH REPUBLIC</h1> + +<h2>A NARRATIVE AND CRITICAL<br />ACCOUNT OF THE LATEST<br />PHASE OF IRISH POLITICS</h2> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>L. G. REDMOND-HOWARD</h2> + +<h3>NEPHEW AND BIOGRAPHER OF THE IRISH LEADER</h3> + +<h3>AUTHOR OF<br />"LIFE OF JOHN REDMOND," "SIR ROGER CASEMENT," "AN IRISHMAN'S HOME,"<br /> +"THE NEW BIRTH OF IRELAND," ETC.</h3> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<h2>LONDON: MAUNSEL & CO. LTD.</h2> + +<h3>40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.</h3> + +<h2>DUBLIN: E. PONSONBY LTD.</h2> + +<h3>116 GRAFTON STREET</h3> + +<h3>1916</h3> + +<hr /> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<h3>TO</h3> + +<h2>WILFRED MEYNEL</h2> + +<h3>ONE OF THE FEW HONEST ENGLISHMEN WHO ARE<br /> +ENGLISH ENOUGH TO BE ASHAMED OF THE<br />STORY OF ENGLISH RULE IN IRELAND</h3> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="center">(<i>Passed by Censor</i>)</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION</h2> + +<p>The following pages are an attempt at a simple narrative and criticism +of what must appear the most inexplicable occurrence in Irish history.</p> + +<p>The climax of a century of arguments, futile only because of the +proverbial dullness of the race to which they were addressed, the rising +has lifted the Home Rule controversy at one stroke from the region of +the village pump into the very midst of the counsels of Europe, for it +was a challenge—of madmen, if you like—to the greatest Empire in the +world, at the very moment of its gravest crisis, upon the most +fundamental portion of its policy of interference with the affairs of +the Continent, namely, England's claim to be the champion of small +nationalities.</p> + +<p>Unless Ireland can be shown to be held by her own free consent, in +perfect contentment, the whole of our contention falls to the +ground—for our policy in Ireland is only in microcosm our policy of +Empire; and Germany will be able to point the finger of scorn and +ridicule at us, and prove thereby to France and Russia that, tyrants at +home, we only used them to fight a battle we dared not fight alone.</p> + +<p>I say nothing here of the motives that inspired the rebels, nor the +immediate causes that provoked them to rise, nor the nature of the +methods by which they were "stamped out"; I only state the moral of +their failure, and I must take this opportunity to thank Lord Decies, +the official Press censor, for the freedom with which he has allowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span> me +to speak at what I feel to be a very critical juncture in the history of +my country and of our common Empire; for I have gone upon the principle +that it is far better to distribute the blame all round than to try and +make the Sinn Feiners the scapegoats of faults which each party +contributed towards the catastrophe.</p> + +<p>There never was, I believe, an Irish crime—if crime it can be +called—which had not its roots in an English folly; and I repeat here +what the late Mr. Stead always impressed upon me: Ireland is our school +of Empire, and the mistakes which would lose us Ireland would lose us +the Empire.</p> + +<p>It is England's move next: we have protested in blood; the eyes of +Europe await her decision.</p> + +<p>At the same time I cannot help blaming Irishmen as well for the +catastrophe, for politicians of all parties have been tending towards +isolating their followers in the old ancestral bigotries, instead of +drawing them together in sympathy, as Mr. William O'Brien has been +advocating for years, with the result that we are now threatened with +permanent constitutional separation for another generation.</p> + +<p>It is a mistake which all the younger men deplore, and which could +easily have been avoided by bringing in the men of Ulster into the +national deliberations, as they have every right, in the name of their +Southern followers, and then giving them the option to veto the +application of any measure to their own districts—which would have been +the best guarantee of justice which the Nationalists could have given +and the most they had a right to expect of England, whose political +position of dependence upon the Irish vote is a scandal of empire.</p> + +<p>These things, however, are beyond the scope of the present pages, and I +shall confine myself with thanking those of my many friends who have +helped me in compiling this volume—notably Councillor Keogh, who was +with me during the Battle of Mount Street Bridge, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span> others, whose +criticisms helped me considerably. Likewise I must thank my publishers +and Mr. O'Keefe, of O'Keefe's Press-cutting Agency; and Mr. George +Atkinson, who designed the cover, and Mr. Crampton Walker; and also Mr. +Marsh, the manager of the Coliseum, with whom I had several dangerous +adventures while in Sackville Street; and lastly, those among my Sinn +Fein friends who enabled me to get an inner view of a movement to which +I have endeavoured to do the best of justice—that of a true statement +of their intentions.</p> + +<p class="right">L. G. REDMOND-HOWARD.</p> + +<p>T.C.D.,<br /> 1916.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="index"> +<ul> +<li><a href="#INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</a></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_THE_FIRST">CHAPTER THE FIRST</a> +<ul> + <li class="subitem">A BOLT FROM THE BLUE</li> +</ul></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_THE_SECOND">CHAPTER THE SECOND</a> +<ul> + <li class="subitem">JUST BEFORE THE BATTLE</li> +</ul></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_THE_THIRD">CHAPTER THE THIRD</a> +<ul> + <li class="subitem">BATTLE</li> +</ul></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_THE_FOURTH">CHAPTER THE FOURTH</a> +<ul> + <li class="subitem">SURRENDER—COLLAPSE</li> +</ul></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_THE_FIFTH">CHAPTER THE FIFTH</a> +<ul> + <li class="subitem">AFTERMATH</li> +</ul></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_THE_SIXTH">CHAPTER THE SIXTH</a> +<ul> + <li class="subitem">SINN FEIN—GERMAN GOLD</li> +</ul></li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span><a href="#CHAPTER_THE_SEVENTH">CHAPTER THE SEVENTH</a> +<ul> + <li class="subitem">MINDS AND MEN</li> +</ul></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_THE_EIGHTH">CHAPTER THE EIGHTH</a> +<ul> + <li class="subitem">REMOTER CAUSES OF THE REBELLION</li> +</ul></li> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_THE_NINTH">CHAPTER THE NINTH</a> +<ul> + <li class="subitem">REFLECTIONS TOWARDS RECONSTRUCTION</li> +</ul></li> +</ul> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<h1>SIX DAYS OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC</h1> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THE_FIRST" id="CHAPTER_THE_FIRST"></a>CHAPTER THE FIRST</h2> + +<h3>A BOLT FROM THE BLUE</h3> + +<p>Those who were in Dublin on Easter Monday 1916 were privileged to +witness a scene which for dramatic setting and for paradoxical +conception is certainly the most extraordinary of any of the long line +of rebellions in Irish history, for at a time when it seemed almost +universally admitted that "Separatism" was from an economic, racial, and +military point of view utterly impossible, there suddenly arose without +warning, without apparent reason, and as if from nowhere, a body of men, +fully armed and completely organized, who within the space of a single +hour had captured every strategic point in the capital, and to its utter +amazement held it up in the name of a new "Republic," in much the same +way as a highwayman of old used to hold up coaches on Hounslow Heath.</p> + +<p>It was in very deed a bolt from the blue. The first intimation that the +general public got of the rising was the sudden spread of the wildest +rumours—"Dublin Castle has just been taken by the Irish Volunteers," +"The Post Office has been captured by the Sinn Feiners," "Soldiers and +police are being shot at sight," "Larkin's Citizen Army are firing on +women and children," but, for the most part, these rumours were +discredited as impossible, at most being put down as some accidental +clash between military and civilians, and it was only as people rushed +into the street<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> and heard the stories of the encounters first-hand that +they began to realize that anything unusual was taking place.</p> + +<p>Bodies of armed men had indeed been remarked in unusually large numbers +in the streets all the morning, increasing and concentrating towards +twelve, but everyone had grown so accustomed to these demonstrations for +the past three years, since they had been inaugurated in Ulster by Sir +Edward Carson, that nobody had taken any particular notice.</p> + +<p>People merely remarked that it was rather strange, in view of the +abandonment of the "Easter manœuvres" which had been organized for +Sunday, and which had been cancelled at the last moment, late on +Saturday night, by special order of Professor Eoin MacNeill, editor of +the <i>Irish Volunteer</i>, which ran: "Owing to the very critical position, +all orders given to Irish Volunteers for to-morrow, Easter Sunday, are +hereby rescinded, and no parades, marches, or other movements of Irish +Volunteers will take place. Each individual Volunteer will obey this +order strictly in every particular."</p> + +<p>It was supposed, therefore, that the numbers were due to the new +recruits which had been the outcome of the protest against the +deportation of the Sinn Fein leaders some time previous to this, and +moderate people hoped that the Sinn Fein authorities were about to show +the same discretion in the matter of an armed demonstration in Dublin +which the authorities had shown in the matter of the proposed inclusion +of the military in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Cork.</p> + +<p>Possibly they may have had secret information—for they had their spies +in every department—that the long-meditated disarmament had been +determined upon, and immediately decided to anticipate the offensive by +a strong defensive of their own choosing. At any rate, Monday found them +fully prepared, each in his proper place.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, on the exact stroke of midday the Volunteers in Sackville +Street were suddenly seen to stop short opposite the Post Office. "I was +outside the building at the time," said an eye-witness of that now +historic event, Mr. E. A. Stoker, the well-known Grafton Street<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +jeweller, "and noticed a mixed crowd of, I should say, roughly, about +one hundred men and boys, all armed, and half the number carrying old +portmanteaux and parcels of every description. It is said that Connolly +was leading.</p> + +<p>"He called, 'Halt! Left turn! Come on.' The crowd then ran into the Post +Office. I also followed. Several men crossed the counter and held +revolvers at the officials' heads.</p> + +<p>"One youth, intensely pale and nervous, put a revolver at my breast and +said, 'Clear out.'</p> + +<p>"I replied, 'What's up?'</p> + +<p>"He said, 'Hands up, or I'll blow your heart out.'</p> + +<p>"Up went my hands, and he backed me out to the entrance, and within five +minutes everyone else had been bundled out in the same unceremonious +way, and they were in possession."</p> + +<p>Once in possession of the Post Office—which from its position and +character was admirably suited for a general headquarters—the next +thing was to fortify the place, for there was no knowing what had +happened to the other enterprises which had been timed to take place +simultaneously, or when the authorities would send out an armed force +for its recapture. Next, a number of shots—all blank—were discharged +with the purpose of clearing the streets of sightseers and inquisitive +idlers. These had the desired effect, after which floor after floor of +the Post Office was systematically occupied, the officials being either +placed under arrest or allowed to disperse, as each case suggested fit +to the commander, and the air began to reverberate with the sounds of +crashing glass and masonry as the lower windows were turned into +fortified loopholes with the aid of furniture and bags.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile a small group of policemen stood near the Nelson Monument +helpless, but one must evidently have telegraphed for help, for within a +few minutes a small detachment of mounted lancers came riding up.</p> + +<p>People stood breathless in expectation.</p> + +<p>The insurgents just allowed the first line to get abreast of the Pillar, +and then they opened fire; and at once a couple of saddles were emptied +and the rest at once turned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> and galloped for all they were worth up in +the direction of the Rotunda.</p> + +<p>One poor fellow was killed outright and a horse shot dead; after which a +great cheer went up from the crowd in the G.P.O., who proceeded to take +off the harness and carry it in triumph back to headquarters, one of the +rebels in uniform taking the young lancer's sword.</p> + +<p>Immediately after this a tramway car was blown up with dynamite at the +corner of North Earl Street, making a sort of barricade against any +possible approach from Amiens Street Station, where the Belfast trains +were expected to arrive.</p> + +<p>By this time I was on the scene of the crisis myself, having only heard +the news on my way into Trinity, which had been quickly occupied by the +O.T.C., who were thus able to practically cut the chief line of +communication of the rebels and command a huge area of important streets +which would otherwise have presented the utmost difficulties to the +advance of regular troops.</p> + +<p>Only the military were allowed in College, and, anxious to be on the +spot at what everybody then expected would be no more than an hour or +so's brisk encounter, I took a car to the "Metropole" in order to be +present when the Post Office was taken—the hotel actually adjoining and +overlooking the building.</p> + +<p>My own experience must have been that of thousands of people in Dublin, +but I quote it, as I will quote it again, because I can personally +testify to it.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>Everyone at the hotel was in a state of consternation, for hardly six +yards away the windows of the Post Office were crashing to the ground in +the street, and at everyone bags of refuse were being piled up, and the +muzzles of rifles were commanding all the windows of the hotel guests.</p> + +<p>Several soldiers were staying at the "Metropole," and as I saw the Sinn +Feiners watching us, I suggested their changing the khaki into mufti, if +only for the safety of the civilians—for on all sides soldiers were +being shot at sight by snipers—a suggestion which found acceptance, for +most of the officers were young subalterns on leave, and therefore +unarmed.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p><p>For a long time we could not tell what was going to happen; every +minute we expected the soldiers or the constabulary, and peered +anxiously out, but it seemed as if they were never coming, and men in +the hotel were anxiously consulting what to do and women packing up +their jewels.</p> + +<p>The one man who all the while kept as cool as a cucumber was Mr. Oliver, +the manager of the "Metropole."</p> + +<p>At last there came a martial tap, tap at the glass door of the hall +entrance, from an officer arrayed in green and gold, wearing cocked hat +and feathers and high top-boots, with a sword in one hand and a revolver +in the other.</p> + +<p>Behind him were two minor officials, each armed with a loaded rifle of +modern pattern, with bayonets fixed.</p> + +<p>I was at Mr. Oliver's side at the time, and we could see that only a +pane divided us from a whole line of them ranged along the pavement. +Resistance was useless, and Mr. Oliver gave orders to admit them.</p> + +<p>"We intend to commandeer your food supply," said the man in the cocked +hat, "and I must ask you to show me the way to your provisions."</p> + +<p>For a second Mr. Oliver hesitated. "Suppose I refuse?" he said.</p> + +<p>"In that case I will take them and you too," was the reply, and then, +addressing the two men, he added, "Men, do your duty," and they +ransacked the place, while I took down a list of the goods they took.</p> + +<p>Eventually the officer signed a receipt for the goods taken in the name +of the Irish Republic, and Mr. Oliver, much to my disappointment, +pocketed the precious document.</p> + +<p>They left, and after a few minutes came back with a ten-pound note. +Again I presented myself, and ventured one or two questions.</p> + +<p>The looting had already begun, and children were wandering through the +streets with toys and food and sweets.</p> + +<p>"Surely," I said to the officer, "you do not approve of all this +indiscriminate theft?"</p> + +<p>"No, certainly not," was his dignified reply.</p> + +<p>I next asked the meaning of all the rising, and to this he simply +replied:—</p> + +<p>"It means that Ireland is free, that English government<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> is at an end, +and that we have established an Irish Republic. As it is, we hold the +whole city, and within a few days the provinces will be ours as well."</p> + +<p>I still pressed for a pronouncement on the real aims and objects of the +new Government, and was referred to headquarters.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, I took my courage in both hands and walked past the +soldiers opposite the Post Office and the sandbagged windows, and asked +the guard at the main door if I could have an interview with their +President.</p> + +<p>At first I thought I was going to get it, but I suddenly noticed a +change come over the man, and saw guns covering me in a most +uncomfortable way.</p> + +<p>I argued my case with some of the minor officials, and pleaded the +importance of such a pronouncement, but, taking me possibly for a spy, I +was ordered off, and told that my safest way was to get back to my +hotel, where no harm would come to me as a civilian if only I left the +men of action alone.</p> + +<p>As soon as I realized the impossibility of penetrating the headquarters, +I returned to the "Metropole" and took up a position of vantage upon the +balcony, and was able to secure a unique snapshot of the hoisting of the +new flag of the Republic, and took another of the cheering of the +crowd—though this was very insignificant and in no way represented any +considerable body of citizens, any of the better class having +disappeared, leaving the streets to idlers and women and children or +else stray sightseers.</p> + +<p>This was certainly a thing that struck me, and I realized at once that +the movement was at that time a dismal failure as far as the vast +majority of Nationalist Ireland was concerned. There was practically no +response whatever from the people: it seemed the very antithesis of the +emancipation of a race as we see it, say, in the capture of the Bastille +in the French Revolution. They looked on partly with amazement, partly +with curiosity—waiting for something dramatic to happen.</p> + +<p>The point struck me with particular pathos—there they were posing as +the saviours of their country, and yet there they were already doomed +before they had even struck a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> single blow—and doomed by the verdict of +their own countrymen.</p> + +<p>As I was making the remark to one of the men in the hotel, a boy with a +handful of sheets issued from the Post Office—they were the +proclamation of the new Republic of Ireland.</p> + +<p>Instead of eagerly scanning the sheets and picking out the watchwords of +the new liberty, or glowing with enthusiastic admiration at the phrases +or sentiments, most of the crowd "bought a couple as a souvenir"—some +with the cute business instinct "that they'd be worth a fiver each some +day, when the beggars were hanged."</p> + +<p>I give another pathetic story told to me, though I cannot vouch for it. +It was that young Plunkett was deputed to go to the base of Nelson's +Pillar and there read out the new charter of liberty to the emancipated +citizens.</p> + +<p>He read it with deep emotion to a pack of squabbling women and +children—and he had hardly half finished the document when suddenly +there was a crash, followed by the sound of breaking glass.</p> + +<p>At once the crowd turned round and looked in the direction whence it +proceeded, and one old woman, half sodden with drink, exclaimed with +delight, "Hooroosh!—they're raiding Noblet's toffee-shop." Whereupon +the newly emancipated slaves of a foreign tyranny rushed to partake in +the orgy of sweetmeats which came tumbling out into the street.</p> + +<p>It was to me the saddest picture of the whole revolution, and even if +not true, was certainly typical of much of the pathos which crowned this +mixture of humour and tragedy.</p> + +<p>The document in question, however, was by no means undignified, taken as +an explanation of the ideals that animated the rebels, but it was simply +ridiculous when judged by the hard common-sense standards of stern +reality, though it was probably never meant for anything more than a +rhetorical protest in the name of the fast-ebbing sense of Nationality.</p> + +<p>This Utopian outburst perhaps speaks best for itself, and I quote it in +full:—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Poblacht na h-Eireann.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">The Provisional Government</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">of the</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Irish Republic</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">to the People of Ireland.</span></p> + +<p>Irishmen and Irishwomen: In the name of God and of the dead generations +from which she receives her old traditions of nationhood, Ireland, +through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her +freedom. Having organized and trained her manhood through her secret +revolutionary organization, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and +through her open military organizations, the Irish Volunteers and the +Irish Citizen Army; having patiently perfected her discipline, having +resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes +that moment, and, supported by her exiled children in America and by +gallant Allies in Europe, but relying in the first place on her own +strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory.</p> + +<p>We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of +Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be +sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a +foreign people and Government has not extinguished the right, nor can it +ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In +every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national +freedom and sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred years +they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and +again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim +the Irish Republic as a sovereign independent State, and we pledge our +lives and the lives of our comrades in arms to the cause of its freedom, +of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations.</p> + +<p>The Irish Republic is entitled to and hereby claims the allegiance of +every Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic guarantees religious and +civil liberty, equal rights, and equal opportunities to all its +citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and +prosperity of the whole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the +children of the nation equally and oblivious of the differences +carefully fostered by an alien Government, which have divided a minority +from the majority in the past.</p> + +<p>Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment +of a permanent national Government representative of the whole people of +Ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, the +Provisional Government hereby constituted will administer the civil and +military affairs of the Republic in trust for the people.</p> + +<p>We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the +Most High God, whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that +none who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, +or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and +discipline, and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves +for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which +it is called.</p> + +<p>Signed on behalf of the Provisional Government:—</p> + +<table summary="signatures"> + <tr> + <td></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Thomas J. Clarke.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Sean MacDiarmada.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Thomas MacDonagh.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><span class="smcap">J. H. Pearse.</span></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Eamonn Ceannt.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><span class="smcap">James Connolly.</span> </td> + <td><span class="smcap">Joseph Plunkett.</span></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>But to continue the narrative. According to a young woman cleric in the +G.P.O. the Sinn Feiners had chosen the place for their headquarters +partly because they were already familiar with the place, which was +proved by the way they settled down each to his own work the moment they +entered it, and partly because they had already made it a storehouse.</p> + +<p>All this while much the same process was going on all over the city. The +attack upon the Castle was hardly less dramatic than that upon the +G.P.O., but it seems to have been undertaken by fewer troops of +Volunteers and carried out less cleverly, so that it eventually fell +back into the hands of the military. I believe it was originally +intended to burn the place to the ground, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> symbolical of the +centuries of tyranny with which it has been associated. Strategically it +might not have been of such value to the insurgents, but the moral +effect of its capture would undoubtedly have been enormous upon the +provinces if they had been able to telegraph it within the first few +hours of the rising.</p> + +<p>The Castle, however, had never formed the main point of attack; it was +at most an emotional side-issue. The scheme for the defence of Dublin +was a far greater conception, and there was hardly a bookseller in the +city, as I learnt later from Fred Hanna, of Nassau Street, whose shop +had not been visited during the past few weeks by one or other of the +insurgent leaders with the object of securing all the standard works on +strategy and military operations—which rather goes to prove that the +step had been long in contemplation.</p> + +<p>The idea seems to have been to draw a cordon around the city by securing +first of all the chief railway stations and the larger dominating +buildings, such as Jacob's biscuit factory, and then to man the corner +houses that overlooked the main roadways at the point where they crossed +the canals, and thus prevent all approach of the military till +messengers should be dispatched from Dublin to tell the counties to +rise.</p> + +<p>Probably the greatest disappointment to the rebels was the capture of +the famous Magazine Fort in the Phœnix Park.</p> + +<p>It was generally understood that this was crammed to the very door with +guns and ammunition—heavy guns especially—and the most elaborate +preparations had consequently been made for its capture, the idea +probably being that once Ireland had heard of the capture of Dublin +there would be a general movement from the country towards the capital, +and that the new recruits could be fitted out from the magazine and then +dispatched to provincial headquarters. It was probably for this reason +the long line of the quays along the Liffey had been kept clear—the +Four Courts being a sort of halfway fort.</p> + +<p>The loss of the Magazine Fort—or rather the failure of their +expectation in its regard, for it was found to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> practically empty +when searched—meant that they were bound to depend entirely upon +Germany for the larger ammunition. The railways were of course of +supreme importance, and simultaneously with the raid of the Post Office, +Jacob's, and the Castle, attacks were made on all the principal +stations.</p> + +<p>At twelve prompt Westland Row was occupied without a struggle and the +doors closed, sentinels being placed on the bridge spanning the street +below—arousing no little local curiosity, for the news had not +circulated through the town by this time.</p> + +<p>Harcourt Street Station was also taken over and an attempt made to +fortify it, but this was abandoned after some time, quite early in the +afternoon. Broadstone Station also fell before the insurgents; but +neither the attempt upon Amiens Street or Kingsbridge, where the +soldiers from Belfast and the Curragh would necessarily arrive, +succeeded. The military did not secure the former without a struggle, +having to stand a siege, while the latter's approaches were kept clear +by means of an engine, on which several armed snipers were placed, and +which was kept moving continually up and down, sweeping the country of +any Sinn Feiners who might attempt to approach in order to tamper with +the permanent way.</p> + +<p>This was rendered necessary because immediately the rebels got +possession of a line their first steps were to destroy signalling points +and junctions, and in one or two instances, such as on the Kingstown +line, actually tore up the permanent way, while in several other places +attempts were made to blow up the bridges with dynamite.</p> + +<p>Had it not been for this the whole coup might have been ended on Monday +or Tuesday at latest, instead of dragging on day after day.</p> + +<p>Every bridge across the canal which bounds Dublin on the south was +commanded by corner-houses, entered at the point of the revolver and +turned, in spite of all protest, into fortresses in an almost mediæval +fashion.</p> + +<p>Liberty Hall, from whence floated the green emblem which had first been +hoisted when the four Labour leaders were deported, was a sort of +central storehouse of munitions,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> and was strongly guarded, but strange +to say the Custom House on the other side of the railway was left +untouched.</p> + +<p>This was probably because the docks were sufficiently defended by the +factories, like Ringsend and Boland's bakery, vast straggling buildings +on either side of the railway approach, and which were not only +occupied, but stored with food and ammunition and loopholed and +sandbagged to stand a fortnight's siege if necessary.</p> + +<p>The one great mistake made by the rebels appears to have been the +occupation of Stephen's Green, a huge open square, which, surrounded as +it is by tall buildings on all four sides, was bound to become a +death-trap, and eventually did so become.</p> + +<p>At exactly the same time as the Post Office was occupied, Volunteers +entered the famous square, which might almost be called a park, and +ordered the civilians out at the point of the revolver. They then +proceeded to entrench themselves and make barricades of any convenient +object, seizing trams, cabs, benches, and even holding up motor-cars and +turning them to this purpose.</p> + +<p>In the carrying out of this several civilians were shot at and wounded, +either by accidental shots meant for soldiers or for refusing obedience +to the new self-constituted authorities.</p> + +<p>Great carts, filled presumably with ammunition, were next escorted into +the Green, and then the doors were locked and barred and tied very +strongly, and finally the ropes greased—which shows how carefully +almost any eventuality had been planned.</p> + +<p>Whether their danger on the Green dawned upon them in time I cannot say, +but when they saw themselves dominated by the great roof of the +Shelbourne Hotel—about half an hour after the seizure of the open +square for a camp—a rush was made for the hotel, which luckily had just +been captured in the nick of time by a few of the military, who +immediately began to fire on the rebels below, at the same time guarding +the doors. A short while afterwards the main body of new Sinn Fein +arrivals were noticed to make their way, instead, to the Royal College +of Surgeons at the opposite end, which became one of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> most stoutly +defended strongholds under the famous Countess Markievicz.</p> + +<p>Two further mistakes of the most vital importance were made in the +rebels' plan for the capture of Dublin, however, which were eventually +to be the deciding factor of the whole situation, and to which more than +anything they must be said to owe the sudden collapse of their movement +as well in the capital as in the provinces. The first was the omission +to capture the telephone system after securing the telegraphs so +completely.</p> + +<p>This meant not only that the military authorities could still keep in +touch with the few troops that still remained in Ireland, but it meant +that the authorities at the Castle were able to get into touch with +London.</p> + +<p>One can hardly imagine the chaos that would have ensued if, for example, +a delay of a couple of days had had to intervene between the occurrence +of the rising and communication with London—which might have been quite +possible, since they held the wireless stations as well as the cables, +and German submarines were supposed to be watching the mail boats.</p> + +<p>The other great mistake was to allow Trinity College, which was the +strategic key to Dublin City, to fall into the hands of a few of the +Officers' Training Corps, who must be given the credit of saving the +capital from total capture and Grafton Street from pillage.</p> + +<p>For as long as this was held by soldiers all the internal lines of +communication of the rebels were blocked and they themselves threatened +on all sides.</p> + +<p>Otherwise the republicans had complete control of the city: the police +were confined to barracks, civilians were on all sides at the mercy of a +perfectly organized and armed body of revolutionaries all in touch with +a headquarter staff, and the military, somewhere beyond the outskirts of +the city, were—nobody knew exactly where, and the whole population on +all sides hushed in expectation of the inevitable battle.</p> + +<p>For it had ceased to be a mere riot: it had become a revolution.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THE_SECOND" id="CHAPTER_THE_SECOND"></a>CHAPTER THE SECOND</h2> + +<h3>JUST BEFORE THE BATTLE</h3> + +<p>Those who went through that period of anxious expectancy between Monday +afternoon and Wednesday morning, knowing themselves absolutely at the +mercy of what appeared to be a "secret society suddenly gone mad and in +possession of the reins of government," will never forget the +experience.</p> + +<p>The whole thing was so sudden, so unprecedented, so inexplicable that +the intelligence simply refused to perform the ordinary functions of +thought.</p> + +<p>Everywhere civilians were being bullied into obedience at the point of +the bayonet: young boys in their teens brandished revolvers in the high +roads: rough, brawny dockers walked about endowed apparently with +unlimited authority, and in the dark recesses of the General Post +Office, beyond the reach of law or argument, the mysterious Republican +Brotherhood—omnipotent.</p> + +<p>All the while stories were coming in of hairbreadth escapes, of stray +shots, apparently from the sky, picking off unfortunate wayfarers, and +of whole parties of officers on their way back from the races in their +cars being captured and held up by the Volunteers—and every story went +one further than the one before it, till one was ready to believe almost +anything.</p> + +<p>Personally, I kept within the "Metropole," expecting every minute that +the "climax" of the situation would be reached, but still the soldiery +did not arrive, and we began to come to the belief that in all +probability the authorities were only waiting until dusk.</p> + +<p>I could not tear myself from the windows. That instinct<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> of expectation +gripped me like a vice, and continued to do so for twenty-four solid +hours—and if I quote my own experience it is only as an example of what +others all around me went through.</p> + +<p>It was now about four o'clock, and still I looked out into the street +below—the people were beginning to go wild with excitement, for every +now and then the Sinn Feiners would fire blank cartridges, and each time +they did so, with the one cry "The soldiers are coming!" a mass of +several thousand men, women, and children would rush now to one end of +Sackville Street, now to the other. After Noblet's it was the Saxon Shoe +Company and Dunn's hat-shop's turn to be looted, and one could see +little guttersnipe wearing high silk hats and new bowlers and straws, +who had never worn headgear before: bare-footed little devils with legs +buried in Wellington top-boots, unable to bend their knees, and drunken +women brandishing satin shoes and Russian boots till it seemed as if the +whole revolution would collapse in ridicule or pandemonium. For there +was no animosity in the crowd at first, just as there was no +enthusiasm—certainly no avarice or desire for theft—only sheer +demoralization and mischief for mischief's sake: but every hour it +became worse. Sometimes there was absolutely no point in the loot. I saw +an urchin of nine brandishing with pride More's "Utopia" and Wells's +"New Machiavelli," which he compared with a rival urchin's—a +girl's—bunch of newspapers on "Poultry" and "Wireless," and solemnly +exchanging their treasures.</p> + +<p>I saw a tussle between two drunken harlots for the possession of a +headless dummy taken from a draper's shop, and noted a youngster go up +to the very steps of the Provisional Government House of the New +Republic of Ireland and amuse the armed rebels with impersonations of +Charlie Chaplin.</p> + +<p>In another portion of the street I saw a drunken sailor mad with hate +make a furious assault upon a woman, and then, when the crowd yelled in +horror, suddenly change his mind from murder and kiss his victim: while +in yet another portion of the street a woman of about sixty was kneeling +with hands outstretched to heaven, clasping a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> rosary and crying her +prayers to the Mother of God in heaven for "Ireland to be a nation once +again!"</p> + +<p>Time after time I felt inclined to weep with very shame at the whole +thing; for as I passed a group of young English <i>revue</i> girls who had +come along to see the "show," I heard one exclaim, "A little bit of +heaven, and they call it Ireland!" and everyone laughed; and another +threw out the gibe: "Irish, and proud of it, eh?"</p> + +<p>They were not meant as insults—no, certainly not—merely the happy +laughing cynicism of the common-sense view that would be taken of us by +hundreds of cartoonists; but I must say they went through me as hardly +anything else I witnessed, for they showed in such a terrible light the +contrast between the dream that had inspired these men and the reality +that they had brought forth.</p> + +<p>Meantime, however, things were maturing, and as they matured the +ridiculous element faded and the tragic element began to come into the +picture.</p> + +<p>Every few minutes dispatch riders would come up on motor-cycles to the +Post Office, and emerge a few minutes later with sealed orders. A long +line of motor-cars "held up" at the point of the revolver was also +requisitioned and placed at the disposal of the rebels in a queue before +the Post Office side-entrance. Then came the supplies of food and +ammunition on huge lorries from the country districts, each with its +escort of six young farmers fully armed, with double bandoliers filled +to bursting-point with cartridges; and as I stood outside the <i>Freeman</i> +offices, just at the side-gate of the "fortress," I was amazed at the +regularity of the whole proceeding: password, cheques, guards, orders, +everything, in fact, went off without the slightest hitch. And no +wonder—as I found out later—for during the past few weeks nearly every +manœuvre had been rehearsed in mufti by the Volunteers, acting under +the orders of their chiefs, and each man knew his position, his work, +and the exact minute at which he was to perform it.</p> + +<p>In this way, at a given signal it had been possible to hold up the whole +city of Dublin with the ease of a highwayman holding up a coach on a +lonely common in Georgian days.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p><p>I shall never forget the awful growing stillness of that afternoon as +the hours flew by, for all traffic was at an end. Now and again in the +general silence one heard the crack of a rifle, the hoot of a captured +motor and the cry "Stop, in the name of the Irish Republic!" from the +Volunteers, and the ghastly howling of the mob as more shop-fronts gave +way—but all these sounds came spasmodically and only intensified the +surrounding stillness. And all the while everyone was expecting the +arrival of the military, and saying, "When will the soldiers come?" +Then, "Will the soldiers come?" and later, "Will the soldiers never +come?"</p> + +<p>Soon dusk began to come on more rapidly, and we conjectured that the +authorities must have determined to wait till dark. The Volunteers, too, +felt this, and took up positions on the roof and strengthened their +outposts, every hour or so a dozen or two Volunteers fully armed going +off from the Post Office.</p> + +<p>The "Metropole" being situated alongside the Post Office, I could not +get any direct view of what I knew would be the centre of the battle, +and so I determined to move across to the "Imperial," which, situated +<i>vis-à-vis</i> the Post Office on the top of Clery's Stores, commanded the +fullest view of the rebel headquarters.</p> + +<p>There I found everyone, including the manager, Mr. Woods, in the same +state of bewilderment as at the "Metropole."</p> + +<p>I mentioned who I was, and was told that a priest in the smoking-room +had just heard that John Redmond had been captured by the Sinn Feiners +and had, in all probability, been shot—but this was only one of the +thousand rumours that were by this time flying about the city, another +being that the Castle was in flames, with the Lord-Lieutenant in the +middle of the inner yard, and yet another describing the heroic death of +Father O'Doherty of Marlborough Street, who was supposed to have been +shot through the head in full vestments, having endeavoured to +remonstrate, cross in hand, with the rebels, in order to persuade them +to lay down their arms in the name of God.</p> + +<p>The street was now (9.30) in a perfect state of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>pandemonium, for a fire +had begun in the premises of the Cable Shoe Company, which immediately +adjoined Clery's, and hence was an imminent danger to us.</p> + +<p>I rushed down, and to my amazement found that the place, already looted, +had been set on fire deliberately, and that there was not one of the +crowd of two hundred spectators who seemed to be aware of, or even to +care about, the fate of the flat over the shop, which from the look of +the curtains appeared to be inhabited.</p> + +<p>The cellars were crackling as if they contained some fatty, resinous +substance, purposely placed there with incendiary intent, and the smoke +was blinding and suffocating. The door of the side entrance was locked +and I could not force it, so I called for a few volunteers to try to +break it down by ramming it with some planks that were lying about, and +though we did not succeed in breaking it, we were able to arouse the +attention of the sleepers, and a dentist popped his head out and told us +there were women and children in the house.</p> + +<p>Some by this time had run off for the fire-engine, and others, realizing +the danger, helped us to carry the inmates to safety, one woman being +actually in her confinement and frightened almost to death. After that +we rescued a few personal belongings with difficulty, but the smoke was +too terrible to do more, and the stairs were perfectly hot; and so I +went back with the owner to the hotel, where the family were put up and +given clothes, having been forced to rise from their beds.</p> + +<p>Soon after this I met Mr. Marsh, the manager of the Coliseum, who told +me that the rebels had just commandeered the building, which immediately +backs the Post Office, and had placed a guard at the door to prevent +looting.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, as we afterwards found out, it was merely to secure +the building as a means of retreat in case of a rout of their +headquarters at the Post Office—with the result that the building is +now burnt to the ground by naval shells, which pursued the rebels in +their retreat.</p> + +<p>Sleep on such a night was of course out of the question—we did not know +at what time the military would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>arrive—but in any case we secured a +room on the second floor, looking into the street, for we were +determined to see the thing out, still never dreaming but that the whole +thing would be over within a few dramatic hours. Meanwhile the street +below became worse and worse. On all sides now the looters came up from +the black depths of the slums like packs of hungry wolves, so that every +minute we expected that Clery's underneath would be the next to go. +Indeed, over at Mansfield's opposite we heard one of the crowd telling +the looters to go over and smash William Martin Murphy's windows—Murphy +was one of the directors of Clery's—and reminding them that it was he, +Boss Murphy, was the real enemy of the people—"the man who caused the +lock-out in the days of Jim Larkin"; but the looters, having tasted the +blood of theft, were far too avaricious by this time to think of +politics in their orgy, and instead began to make a raid on a +tobacco-shop, and next a small jeweller's. One could see small boys, +too, going to the outskirts of the crowd to sell the booty, so that +those who had not the pluck to steal salved their consciences by buying +the loot, in most cases getting some fifteen or twenty shillings' worth +for as many farthings.</p> + +<p>About twelve the Sinn Feiners, without directly encouraging loot, +unconsciously helped it by the order to "barricade the side streets," +and for hours nothing could be heard but the crash of furniture being +pitched into the street below from second, third, and fourth story +windows, till the barricades were eight or ten feet high, composed of +chairs, tables, desks, sofas, beds, and all kinds of furniture and +stores.</p> + +<p>In one place, "Kelly's" of Abbey Street, hundreds of cycles and motor +cycles were piled up—at least five thousand pounds' worth—and +brand-new motor-cars were then run into it, thus forming a steel wall of +solid machinery, upon which, later in the "war," the rebels poured +petrol and set the whole pile alight, with the result that the +neighbouring houses, hotels, and eventually the Hibernian Academy, with +its five hundred pictures, were burnt to the ground.</p> + +<p>As the early hours of the morning approached the crowd began to +disperse, the most enthusiastic singing the latest music-hall songs, and +soon O'Connell Street became black<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> and deserted, save for a few specks +of candlelight moving about in the G.P.O., which was otherwise in +complete darkness, and a few guards marching up and down beneath the +great Greek portico.</p> + +<p>We retired then to our own room to watch and think. Never to my dying +day shall I ever forget those long hours of midnight stillness, broken +only by the distant rattle of the rifles in the direction of Phœnix +Park, where the two forces had by this time come into contact.</p> + +<p>One could easily distinguish the crack of the respective rifles: the +Government weapons had a harsher and lower note, but for each "spit" of +the rebel guns one could hear the dread rattle of the military machine +guns; and then we knew that there could only be one possible +end—defeat, ignominious and complete.</p> + +<p>Before us, hardly fifty yards away, stood the Post Office, lit up by the +street arc lamps in pale blues and greens, and looking for all the world +like the drop-cloth of a theatre; and there were we, it might have been +the dress circle of some gigantic opera house, and the feeling—the +feeling was excruciatingly morbid. We felt like cynical critics sent to +review a drama foredoomed to fiasco, yet with the difference that the +actors were all real and that the tragedy would be enacted in the blood +of hundreds of innocent lives.</p> + +<p>We were watching the climax of years of planning and the culminating +point of so many lifetimes of idealism, effort, and sacrifice, however +mistaken.</p> + +<p>We knew they would fail: we knew the penalty of the failure—the +traitor's death or the convict's cell; but we were held to the spot, to +see just how "dramatic" the fiasco would be.</p> + +<p>The very thought was a continuous torture, and it haunted us like a +ghost or a madness.</p> + +<p>We knew they were our own flesh and blood that had rebelled: it would be +strangers who would conquer, and yet we knew that order was right: and +this too was a torture-thought.</p> + +<p>Hour after hour passed, and when I was not at the window Marsh was on +watch, and when he was asleep I mounted my pensive guard.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p><p>Incidents never ceased, but the incidents were as nothing compared with +the reflections they aroused.</p> + +<p>Hour after hour unarmed Volunteers came in from the country, stayed in +an hour or so, and then moved out armed. Carts and cars of ammunition +and food arrived and gave the password and were admitted. As the early +hours of dawn approached we could see milk and bread carts driving up at +top speed, the driver with the cold muzzle of a revolver at his ear and +his captors seated behind him.</p> + +<p>Sometimes flash signals would shoot across the sky, and at others a man +at the "Metropole" corner of the G.P.O. would open a basket and release +carrier pigeons, so complete was their organization.</p> + +<p>At daybreak we found our room covered by a guard, with rifles pointed at +our heads, the light shining over their backs full into our faces: but +we made no movement, and an hour or so later moved to another portion of +the roof.</p> + +<p>Next the street was cleared and barbed wire stretched across.</p> + +<p>About six o'clock we saw Connolly emerge at the head of a band, and we +could hear one of his subordinates call out Mr. Connolly this and Mr. +Connolly that, and the commander-in-chief give his orders in a clear, +resonant, and fearless voice.</p> + +<p>About eight we thought our last hour had come, for, looking towards the +base of Nelson's Pillar, we saw men running from a thin blue spiral of +smoke rising up, followed by a terrific explosion. They were trying to +blow up the monument.</p> + +<p>So Tuesday had come, but it found the situation no further advanced: the +military had not come: the rebels had had time to entrench and fortify +themselves: the city was really fully in their possession: but the +battle had begun.</p> + +<p>We could now hear it in the direction of the Castle and the Four Courts, +and we thought it could only be a matter of a few hours before they +would reach Sackville Street, for we could hear the military machine +guns raking Dame Street from Trinity College.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p><p>As a matter of fact, a machine gun had been hoisted upon the roof of +the Hibernian Bank, which commanded the old Houses of Parliament, upon +which the rebels had climbed, and in the space of a few seconds wiped +out the whole contingent.</p> + +<p>As the afternoon wore on Sackville Street began to assume two totally +distinct characteristics—one of tragedy and the other of comedy. South +of the Pillar the scene might have been a battlefield; north of the +Pillar it might have been a nursery gone tipsy, for by this time all the +children of the slums had discovered that a perfect paradise of toys lay +at their absolute mercy at Lawrence's bazaar, and accordingly a pinafore +and knickerbocker army began to lay siege to it, the mothers taking +seats upon the stiffened corpses of the lancers' horses to watch the +sight of thousands of Union-jacks made into bonfires.</p> + +<p>The scene was indescribable for chaos: there were men locked in deadly +combat for the sake of Empire and Fatherland, and here were the very +children they were fighting for—some dying for—revelling in a +children's paradise of toys—balloons, soldiers, rackets, and lollypops, +as if it had all been arranged for their special benefit.</p> + +<p>An air-gun battalion was now formed of the young highwaymen—two guns +each, one on each shoulder—followed up by a toy anti-aircraft gun on +wheels, and the whole cavalcade brought up by a Noah's Ark the size of a +perambulator.</p> + +<p>The captain, about eight years of age, wore a blue silk waistcoat (with +its price ticket) and a new grey silk hat. The band then formed up in +Indian file, marched up to the G.P.O., saluted majestically, and then +impertinently fired their pellets slap-bang into the faces of the +insurgents, and then broke up and ran for all they were worth.</p> + +<p>All the while, in the opposite direction, Red War was at its height: the +rifle-fire along the quays was terrific, and ambulances were rushing +backwards and forwards and relays of Volunteers were issuing from the +central depôt to the firing-line.</p> + +<p>Probably never in the world's history had there been such a strange +combination of pathos and humour, and it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> will haunt everyone who saw it +to their dying day: and if mere passive spectators felt the clash of +divergent emotions how much more must these, for all their idealism must +have appeared to them as crashing down at the first touch of reality.</p> + +<p>It was so much the repetition of Emmet's revolt, ending in riot and loot +and degradation—nay, worse, it seemed a very pantomime.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, as the sound of maxims grew louder, a terrific black cloud +rose into the sky. A fire had broken out in the heart of the bazaar and +the flames had just reached the fireworks, and for a solid half-hour the +whole gaze of rebel and civilian alike was centred upon Lawrence's, +which presented the appearance of a diminutive Crystal Palace, with +Catherine wheels, Roman candles, Chinese crackers going forth in all +directions. At last, in a big blue, green, red and yellow bouquet, the +main stock went bodily into the air, scattering the crowd of men and +women head-over-heels over the dead horses, and all was still.</p> + +<p>What the scene must have been like to the leaders, I do not dare to +imagine: but it was so symbolical of the whole eruption that I cannot +forbear to describe it.</p> + +<p>It was shortly after this—about 4.30—that Mr. Marsh and myself came +off the roof, where we had been four solid hours watching, tired, sad, +and sick at heart. I was a mass of tingling nerves, for the whole thing +was set in the background and framework of the penal days and the times +of the famine. He was as cool as an icicle—he even suggested chess, and +had a pocket set—but, chess in revolution?—what next!</p> + +<p>We were not at a loss for our next course, however, for we had no sooner +sat down to lunch—three hours late—than we noticed two of the Sinn +Feiners who had long watched us on the roof suddenly come across the +street.</p> + +<p>For one moment we made sure we were going to be taken out and shot for +spies: for we had kept our eyes fixed on them twelve hours, and of +course, as the telephone system still worked, could have kept in +continual communication with the military authorities—it was the Sinn +Feiners' one oversight, to leave the telephone intact—but we were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> soon +reassured, for Mr. Woods came up and announced that the hotel had been +taken over by the rebels.</p> + +<p>The next moment the dining-room was invaded by a crowd who might have +stepped direct off the French Revolution scenes of the "Scarlet +Pimpernel" or "The Only Way," but their officer was perfectly courteous.</p> + +<p>"Finish your meal, gentlemen," he said; "there is no hurry, but I must +ask you to leave with all possible speed." And then, addressing his men, +he added: "Now, then, two men to every window; take furniture, tables, +chairs, anything, and barricade away—we may have to stand siege."</p> + +<p>"Is there any immediate danger?" I ventured; "and if so, where do you +wish us to go?"</p> + +<p>"No immediate danger whatever, sir, save from your own resistance," was +his reply. "Civilians are all perfectly safe: we are only fighting the +troops of England.</p> + +<p>"There is no cause for excitement or flurry," he added; "you may find +our men firing over your heads as you pass into the street, but take no +notice.</p> + +<p>"These are partly our own signallers giving us warning, and also they +are intended to clear the streets of loiterers. You will have safe +conduct out of the city by the north, where our guards have orders to +allow all citizens to pass—I can only counsel you to move as far from +the city as possible, as it is more than probable that our positions +will be shelled from the sea at any time, and gas bombs may be used in +order to save the buildings, which I need not say would be equally fatal +to civilians as to ourselves."</p> + +<p>With that he asked the way to the fire-escape and the roof, which one of +us showed him, and then we hastily made parcels of anything we wished to +take with us.</p> + +<p>I took occasion to get into conversation with one of the guards, a +rough-looking fellow, upon the aims of the revolution, but could elicit +nothing very intelligent, save that "England always hated Ireland, and +that now was the time to free her, or within a couple of years everyone +would be slaves and conscripts."</p> + +<p>There seemed to be a rumour, too, that John Redmond had consented to +conscription for Ireland and that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> it was to be passed at the secret +session—but I could gather nothing definite, and before I could get +further details a superior officer came and severely reprimanded him for +allowing himself to be drawn into conversation at all.</p> + +<p>There was nothing for it, therefore, but to march out, and as I could +not cross a bridge to get back to the south side of the city, I accepted +an offer of hospitality for the night with Mr. Marsh—provided I was +willing to walk to Howth for it, nine miles away.</p> + +<p>The rain was drizzling as we made our way into Sackville Street. +Lawrence's was a blazing furnace, and on the roof we could see a woman +and child, caught by the fire, trying to reach the ladders of the fire +brigade, which were short; the side wall was tottering, there were +screams, but I turned my head: I felt too sick to look, save at the +gaping crowd, that even disgusted the rebels, who fired several blank +shots among them in the vain attempt to scatter them.</p> + +<p>As soon as we reached the Parnell Monument, close to the Rotunda, we +turned to the right, and made our way through the long lines of +tenements—refugees.</p> + +<p>There was quite a string of refugees, as one might have seen fleeing +from Ypres, for we knew that the place was now doomed to be shelled—it +only remained the chance of a tossed coin where the blows would fall.</p> + +<p>The rain poured down, but the seven of us, including the manager of the +Coliseum and the manager of the "Imperial," who made up our party, +trudged on, on, on. Every cross-road had its Sinn Fein sentries, every +point of vantage was loopholed for miles around, and it was a mere +stroke of luck that Annesley Bridge had not been blown up and so cut off +Amiens Street Station, which held 300 troops, from the north. We only +saw two soldiers in nine miles, and these were at a pier-head at +Dollymount, half way.</p> + +<p>When we arrived at Howth we were wet as fish and black as miners, for we +finished the last couple of miles upon a charitable coal-cart.</p> + +<p>The next morning was bright and warm as a midsummer day, but in the +distance across the bay we could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> hear the sound of the naval guns +thundering out shot and shell.</p> + +<p>They had given the rebels till eight to surrender—and they had refused. +It was no longer a riot—it was civil war.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THE_THIRD" id="CHAPTER_THE_THIRD"></a>CHAPTER THE THIRD</h2> + +<h3>BATTLE</h3> + +<p>Monday and Tuesday were for the most part employed in clearing the +streets and preparing the field for the battle which was to last +continuously until late on Saturday evening, but it seems a pity, +looking back on the situation, that the time was not employed in trying +to avoid such a fatal issue; and that it would have been possible is +proved by the example of Cork, where all conflict was avoided by a +timely negotiation between the rebels and the ordinary civil and +ecclesiastical authorities.</p> + +<p>However, of this more later; it was decided to treat the matter in the +sternest possible manner, which was just, as it turned out, what the +Sinn Feiners wanted, and the military authorities, as it were, fell into +the trap prepared for them by those astute politicians: for that they +foresaw the political effects of ruthless suppression is now an admitted +fact.</p> + +<p>On Tuesday, April 25th, therefore, the day following the <i>coup</i>, the +citizens of Dublin—or such as were not totally isolated—read in their +morning <i>Irish Times</i> (the <i>Express</i> and the <i>Freeman</i> having ceased +publication) two proclamations announcing the official English view of +the rising, and people noted particularly the words that traced the +attempt to subvert the supremacy of the Crown "to the foreign enemies of +their King and country"—in a word, it was to be put down purely and +simply to Germany.</p> + +<p>As regards details, however, the inhabitants had to content themselves +with the simple statement that "yesterday morning an insurrectionary +rising took place in the City of Dublin"; that "the authorities had +taken active and energetic measures to cope with the situation, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +measures were proceeding favourably"; but this official condolence in +their plight was rather discomforting, as the whole city was still in +the possession of the insurgents.</p> + +<p>Next, another proclamation was issued declaring the county of Dublin +under martial law, warning all peaceable and law-abiding subjects within +the area of the danger of frequenting or being in any place in the +vicinity of which His Majesty's forces were engaged in the suppression +of disorder, and enjoining upon them the duty and necessity of remaining +so far as practicable within their own homes so long as such dangerous +conditions prevailed, and proclaiming that all persons found carrying +arms without lawful authority were liable to be dealt with severely by +virtue of such proclamation.</p> + +<p>All this, of course, was anything but reassuring, especially in view of +the danger everybody felt of a provincial rising and the whispers of a +German invasion; but towards the evening another statement was issued to +the effect that the trouble was confined to Dublin and one or two other +districts only in a minor way.</p> + +<p>Yet the trouble was by no means even at its height.</p> + +<p>All Tuesday the Sinn Feiners had been preparing for the inevitable +battle, but these preparations merely took the shape of consolidating +the positions already occupied.</p> + +<p>At O'Connell Bridge, for example, Kelly's shop at the corner of +Bachelors' Walk was garrisoned, and Hopkins's jewellery establishment at +the opposite corner was similarly occupied.</p> + +<p>In Lower Abbey Street, opposite Wynn's Hotel, a formidable barricade was +erected, composed partly of paper taken from the <i>Irish Times</i> store.</p> + +<p>The wireless station was also seized, and all day long messages were +flashed to the four corners of the world announcing the establishment of +an Irish Republic, which messages were picked up at sea by special +envoys who had been forewarned, and sent on till they finally reached +New York and Petrograd.</p> + +<p>The amazement of Russia and America must have been +considerable—especially Russia's.</p> + +<p>Yet it was not all preparation, for already the troops, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> such as +could be brought up in time, had come into contact with the Sinn Feiners +on the outskirts of the town; but the chief activity appears to have +been the strengthening of the position in Trinity College, which allowed +the troops to form a wedge between Westland Row at one end and Dame +Street on the other, thus cutting off Stephen's Green from Sackville +Street.</p> + +<p>On Monday night the danger in this quarter had been from the eastern +side, but on Tuesday morning it was the College Green entrances that +appeared most open to attack, and which were accordingly strengthened by +sandbags within the windows of the main entrance and wings.</p> + +<p>Irish Volunteer scouts on bicycles tried several times to get past +through Grafton Street, but they could not get past the Colonial +sharpshooters posted in the College, and tried by way of side streets, +which were more or less covered by their own snipers, but in vain also.</p> + +<p>Machine guns swept right up Dame Street on the one hand and on the other +through Westmorland Street as far up as O'Connell's Statue at the end of +the bridge; but this was as far north as the military got, for all along +to Clontarf, Glasnevin, and Drumcondra the insurgents held practically +undisputed sway.</p> + +<p>Another minor position of great importance was the clearing of Stephen's +Green by means of a maxim from the "Shelbourne."</p> + +<p>The first actual entry of the military in force from an outside area +took place on Tuesday evening, when a body of Royal Dublin Fusiliers +forced their way into the centre of the city by Cabra Road. The +insurgents had placed barricades both on the Park Road and on Cabra +Road, near the point at which Charleville Road links up these +thoroughfares. Houses overlooking the barricades were occupied by the +insurgents, and some brisk fighting took place before the way was +cleared for the military advance. A well-directed shell or two +demolished the barricades, and within a short time the defenders, under +the thunder of artillery, machine guns and rifle-fire, were forced from +these positions. There were a couple of civilian casualties resulting +from the shrapnel. Attempts by the insurgents to blow up the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> Cabra +Bridge and the bridge crossing the Midland Railway on the North Circular +Road beyond Phibsborough Church were unsuccessful.</p> + +<p>It was not until Wednesday morning, as we have already seen, that the +city realized that an attack in full force was contemplated, and if +necessary heavy artillery would be used to dislodge the rebels.</p> + +<p>Up to that it had been thought that at the worst gas shells might be +dropped upon the enemy strongholds and that the city would be spared: +but it early became evident that the disproportion would be too great in +the street fighting, which everyone now saw was becoming inevitable.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, during the early hours of Wednesday morning a party of six +volunteers from Trinity—including both civilians and members of the +O.T.C.—went forth to dig holes below the cobbles for the gun-trails. +The position was at the Tara Street end of Butt Bridge, and the object, +in order to be ready to begin early the shelling of Liberty Hall, which +was looked upon as the centre and symbol of the anarchy.</p> + +<p>After much difficulty two 18-pounders were brought up and machine guns +were placed on the tower of the Fire Station and the Tivoli, and then, +when all was ready, the bombardment began. Evidently the rebels had got +wind of this intention, however, and though much damage was done, +practically no casualties were scored, the rebels getting away through +the basement or along the roofs.</p> + +<p>The <i>Helga</i>, an old police patrol boat belonging to the Fisheries +Department, next contributed, though the task was an extremely delicate +one, owing to the position of the Custom House and the Railway Bridge, +having eventually to retire further down the river and adopt a dropping +instead of a direct fire.</p> + +<p>For over an hour this naval bombardment continued without eliciting any +reply.</p> + +<p>It seemed to be generally hoped that the very threat of artillery would +be sufficient to cow the rebels, but this was far from being the case. +There was a perfect rabbit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> warren of retreat, and when the troops +rushed forward with bayonets fixed and cheering triumphantly, their +onrush was unchecked and they found themselves established in—ruins.</p> + +<p>The rebel loss was a considerable gain to the troops, for it meant that +the military would find themselves connected up with Amiens Street +Station; but this was not so easy: they needed more reserves to +accomplish a junction, and it was in order to secure these that the +"Battle of Mount Street" bridge was fought, an engagement which has been +called the "Dardanelles of Dublin," because the place commanded the +direct approach of the troops from Kingstown, and I quote my own +experience to illustrate the kind of struggle that went on at every +entrance to the city.</p> + +<p>The "battle" was in every way typical of the kind of fighting which we +were destined to witness for the rest of the week, and I was lucky +enough to get back from Howth, a journey which I had to cover on foot, +just in time to see it from a few minutes after the start.</p> + +<p>The Sinn Feiners had got Clanwilliam House—a corner +residence—wonderfully barricaded, and the Sherwood Foresters, who had +just taken Carisbrook House and Ballsbridge after considerable losses, +were now advancing to cross over the canal and so enter the town and +relieve the O.T.C. in Trinity.</p> + +<p>Clanwilliam House not only dominated the bridge, but also the whole of +Northumberland Road.</p> + +<p>Along this road the troops had to pass, and they crouched down in long +rows of heads—like great khaki caterpillars—in a most terribly exposed +order, so that if the rebel shot failed to hit the first head it was +bound to hit the second head, provided the rifle was anywhere in the +vertical line. For the most part the soldiers were boys in their early +twenties, utterly ignorant of the district, with orders to take the +town, which was reported in the hands of a body of men whose very name +was a mysterious puzzle in pronunciation, and not an enemy in sight, +only a mass of civilian spectators up to within fifty yards of them and +directly in front, blocking the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>street—the rebel enemy meanwhile +inside private houses to the right and left of the narrow bridgehead, +they knew not where.</p> + +<p>I arrived on the scene a few minutes after the start of the engagement, +but already one could see the poor fellows writhing in agony in the +roadway, where the advanced line had been sniped by the terrible leaden +bullets of the Sinn Feiners.</p> + +<p>For half an hour or so I was a passive spectator, though intensely +interested by the sight of a real battle going on under my very eyes at +a distance hardly more than that of the gallery from a large music-hall +stage; but suddenly I felt a complete change come over me, which I yet +fail to explain to myself. The usual cowardice of the spectator seemed +to leave me, and I wanted to rush over and help, but I was assured that +it would mean instant death to come between the line of combatants—"The +Sinn Feiners would fire on anyone, the blackguards." This I refused to +believe, and spoke to a Methodist clergyman, who soon shared my views, +and together we made our way to Dun's Hospital, where the doctors and +nurses in white stood in the doorway. Within a couple of minutes' +conversation we had all spontaneously decided to venture under the Red +Cross and put it to the test. They gave me the white coat of an +ambulance worker, and within five minutes we were all on the bridge +together.</p> + +<p>Anticipating us all, however, were two little girls of sixteen and +seventeen—Kathleen Pierce and Loo Nolan by name—who rushed out of the +throng with water in a jug for one of the wounded Tommies who was lying +across the bridge bleeding.</p> + +<p>A great shout went up from the crowd as they saw this, and both +combatants ceased firing, and, after having given the soldiers a drink, +they came back amidst the cheers of soldiers, crowd, and Sinn Feiners +alike, and they are now known as the bravest colleens in Ireland—God +bless them! But little as they realized it, the danger was considerable, +and it must ever reflect to the credit of Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, +that scene of the young nurses who flocked out in a body, in spite of +the hail of bullets which passed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> over them and around them on every +side. For, try as they would, the two sides could not completely cease +fire when every second and every yard was a question of life and death, +defeat or victory.</p> + +<p>Never shall I forget the experience—the whole staff of doctors gave a +hand, together with a clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Hall, of St. John's +Voluntary Aid Detachment. I was with Councillor Keogh myself, and poor +Hylands, who was afterwards killed, with whom I bore a stretcher, +continually bringing in wounded between us. In little over an hour we +brought in about seventy poor fellows, who lay about all along the road +and canal banks, heavy packs upon their backs.</p> + +<p>At last, however, when we had cleared the road of wounded, about dusk, +there came a shout from Captain Melleville: "Now, lads, up and all +together!" Immediately there was a simultaneous rush across the +bridge—a tactic which should have been adopted from the very first. +Some dropped, but the numbers were too many for the handful of snipers.</p> + +<p>We moved aside to give them room, and the next moment the bombers were +in the garden of Clanwilliam House—one poor fellow falling and blowing +the top of his head off at the gate with his own grenade.</p> + +<p>There was a "Crash! crash! crash!" as the windows burst with the +concussion, and within a few seconds the sky was lit up with the flare +of the burning houses and the air rent with the screams of the Sinn +Feiners as they faced cold steel. It was a ghastly scene!</p> + +<p>The smell of roasting flesh was still around the blazing buildings at +ten o'clock, when we brought in the last of the dead—some of them mere +boys of thirteen—and laid them out in dread rows like a Raemaeker +cartoon.</p> + +<p>One lad of twelve whom I carried in I afterwards interrogated as to why +he was out in such an exposed position. He wanted to give a poor Tommy a +drink, and got sniped as he was preparing to get down to the water of +the canal.</p> + +<p>The Dardanelles had been forced, however, and the highway into Dublin +secured.</p> + +<p>All Wednesday night the whole town was kept awake<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> by the snipers, who +now became one of the main features of the turmoil; they seemed to be +everywhere, but it was almost impossible to locate them.</p> + +<p>Troops lined the streets in the direction of Merrion and Fitzwilliam +Squares, and were picked off from windows and roofs all night in the +most bewildering fashion, while the slum courts in the centre of the +large blocks of buildings re-echoed with the sharp click of the old +rebel mausers, till the military were tempted to fire on any strange +figure looming up in the distance.</p> + +<p>During the night several transports had arrived, we now heard, and the +troops soon began to land in force.</p> + +<p>All Thursday I spent with the Red Cross at Sir Patrick Dun's, which was +crowded with casualties, poor fellows! one raving and asking "Is the +school taken?—is the school taken?": for this point had been the +strategic point in the Battle of Mount Street Bridge. It was pathetic.</p> + +<p>All day long the troops arrived, but whenever crossing the side streets, +which were slums honeycombed with snipers, they would have to "double" +and rush across in single file; but each time one or two were picked off +by the deadly snipers, all firing from cover, with thick lead bullets +that spread and made dreadful wounds—some, inches wide. In the yard the +Raemaeker picture of the dead soldiers—Sinn Feiners—was broader by +some half-dozen: for several had died of wounds during the night. The +small boy who had been sniped while trying to get the soldiers a drink +lay stiff now, and my mind went back to the scene of the night before as +I made a little space of a couple of yards in the corner of the crowded +ward, with everyone lying on the floor, while the good priest anointed +him just before he died.</p> + +<p>All day long and all around there was a perfect hail of bullets from the +snipers, some going right through the hospital grounds from Boland's +bakery, which, sandbagged and loopholed, was filled with Sinn Feiners. +It was a terrible fight, for of course it was next to impossible for the +soldiers to distinguish them, being all in civilian clothes so that they +just had to doff their bandoliers and they could go about from house to +house in safety. Sometimes they did this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> purposely, having arms in +several places. Hence the order had to go out that all civilians would +have to stay indoors, and after that all suspicious characters were shot +at, with the terrible result that innocent civilians were killed on all +sides.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, while on our way to pick up a body I went with one of the +stretcher-bearers and a priest and a parson to warn them to keep +indoors.</p> + +<p>One poor fellow we brought in, shot through the breast, was apparently a +civilian, but on examination we found on him a curious document, +undoubtedly proving him a Sinn Feiner.</p> + +<p>The story of this document, which was perhaps the final decisive factor +that precipitated the rising, is perhaps best told in the words of the +Royal Commission:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>On the 19th of April a special meeting of the Dublin Corporation +was held at the Mansion House to discuss the police rate. Alderman +Thomas Kelly, in the course of a speech attacking Mr. Justice Kenny +(who had alluded at the opening of his Commission to the state of +disorder in Dublin and had urged military action), made a statement +to the effect that he had received that morning from the editor of +<i>New Ireland</i> a circular which he would read. It was from a man +named Little, <i>New Ireland</i> Office, 13, Fleet Street, Dublin, April +16, 1916, and ran:—</p> + +<p>"The following precautionary measures have been sanctioned by the +Irish Office on the recommendation of the General Officer +Commanding the Forces in Ireland. All preparations will be made to +put these measures in force immediately on receipt of an Order +issued from the Chief Secretary's Office, Dublin Castle, and signed +by the Under Secretary and the General Officer Commanding the +Forces in Ireland. First, the following persons to be placed under +arrest:—All members of the Sinn Fein National Council, the Central +Executive Irish Sinn Fein Volunteers, General Council Irish Sinn +Fein Volunteers, County Board Irish Sinn Fein Volunteers, Executive +Committee National Volunteers, Coisde Gnota Committee Gaelic +League. See List A 3 and 4 and supplementary list A 2.... Dublin +Metropolitan Police and Royal Irish Constabulary Forces in Dublin +City will be confined to barracks under the direction of the +Competent Military Authority. An order will be issued to +inhabitants of city to remain in their houses until such time as +the Competent Military Authority may otherwise direct or permit. +Pickets chosen from units of Territorial Forces will be placed at +all points marked on maps 3 and 4. Accompanying mounted patrols +will continuously visit all points and report every hour. The +following premises will be occupied by adequate forces, and all +necessary measures used without need of reference to headquarters; +after which followed a list.</p> + +<p>"Alderman Kelly, in continuing, said that the document was +evidently genuine, and that he had done a public service in drawing +attention to it, in order to prevent these military operations +being carried on in a city which he declared was under God the most +peaceable in Europe.</p> + +<p>"This document was an entire fabrication. Copies of it found since +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> outbreak are shown by identification of type to have been +printed at Liberty Hall, the headquarters of the Citizen Army. It +is not known who was the author of this invention, or whether Mr. +Little was in any way responsible for it. Many copies of this +forged document were printed and distributed, and it was widely +considered by the people to be genuine, and no doubt led to the +belief by the members of the Irish Volunteers and Citizen Army that +they would shortly be disarmed. This undoubtedly became one of the +proximate causes of the outbreak."</p></blockquote> + +<p>All Thursday seems to have been devoted principally to the bringing in +of reinforcements, which, by this time, were pouring in from England.</p> + +<p>Instead of using them for isolated attacks on the different strongholds, +they appear to have been concentrated as an ever-narrowing cordon around +the central position of the rebels at the Post Office.</p> + +<p>Hence, by Thursday evening the tables had been completely turned upon +the rebels, and instead of dominating the city, the city on every side +hemmed them in; and the Law Courts, the College of Surgeons, Jacobs's +biscuit factory and Boland's bakery, though amply supplied with food and +ammunition, had been all practically isolated one from another—in the +last-named place the rebels forced the bakers, at the point of the +bayonet, to continue making bread.</p> + +<p>The military were also in possession of Brunswick Street, and portions +of Talbot Street and North Earl Street, while from D'Olier Street a +fusillade swept O'Connell Bridge, and from T.C.D. a 9-pounder began to +batter down Kelly's corner house and send shells along Bachelors' Walk.</p> + +<p>Everybody now expected the collapse of the rebels, who were being +captured on all sides, and crowds of British pressmen, with special +facilities for the edification of neutral countries, began to arrive.</p> + +<p>Certainly never had journalists ever had such a finale to send flashing +along the wires; for a cordon of soldiers completely encircled the city +on every side, and grew gradually tighter and tighter around the Post +Office, the heart of the rebel position. From all sides shells now began +to drop into Sackville Street, and we knew that it was the beginning of +the end.</p> + +<p>That end was in every way as dramatic as the beginning—a melodrama +worthy of the Lyceum at its best—and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> for thirty hours, as the +artillery thundered, the sky was one huge blaze of flame, which, at one +time, threatened to engulf the whole northern centre of the city in a +sea of fire.</p> + +<p>Driven from Kelly's corner, which commanded the left entrance to +Sackville Street, the insurgents still held Hopkins's corner on the +other side, and on this the artillery next concentrated not only high +explosive shells but incendiary bombs as well, and the whole place +became a mass of blazing ruins, the flames leaping across Lower Abbey +Street like a prairie fire.</p> + +<p>Whether this was intentional or inevitable, one thing was certain, and +that was that nothing could stand up against it—it meant utter +annihilation as far as human lives were concerned, absolute ruination as +far as material property.</p> + +<p>That strong measures had been found necessary, however, had been proved +by the appointment of a military dictator in General Sir John Maxwell, +with plenary powers, and the announcement of Mr. Asquith in the House +that the situation had still serious features, and that there seemed to +be indications of the movement spreading to other parts of the country, +especially the West.</p> + +<p>Yet one thing must have been particularly pleasing to announce, and that +was the total isolation of the movement as a political campaign, both +Sir Edward Carson and Mr. John Redmond disclaiming all responsibility, +while in Drogheda the National Volunteers, according to a telegram from +the Viceroy, actually turned out to assist the military.</p> + +<p>This background of peace only served to intensify the catastrophe which +became known as the Sack of Sackville Street, and it is probable that +only the gap made by the fire which occurred on Tuesday afternoon at +Lawrence's bazaar saved the northern portion of the city.</p> + +<p>It was under cover of the blazing buildings that the troops advanced +upon the central position of the Sinn Feiners, one of the pickets being +inside Clery's while the embers beneath his feet were still red, as I +was told: but it was not until Saturday morning that the actual final +shelling and capture of the place was begun.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p><p>For this purpose only light shells, happily, were used, and some +incendiary bombs, which soon set fire to the roof of the beautiful +historic landmark.</p> + +<p>It was expected that at least a thousand of the rebels were entrapped, +but it was later found out that during the week they had made a complete +tunnel right back as far as Arnot's Stores, blasting their way with the +aid of dynamite, in the use of which they seem to have been coached by a +Berlin expert, who was afterwards captured.</p> + +<p>The last struggles of the rebels have been variously described, but they +seem rather early to have made an attempt in force to evacuate the +building from the back, and some hundred and fifty are described as +taking part in the stampede, which was turned into a rout by the machine +guns of the military.</p> + +<p>A single shell which exploded right in the barricade in front of the +Coliseum building, which faces a side street, had the effect not only of +closing it by the wreckage of the two corner buildings, but also of +burying one of the rebel leaders.</p> + +<p>Everyone then expected that the place would be taken at the point of the +bayonet and a terrible hand-to-hand struggle ensue, as the troops would +thrust the despairing rebels back into the fortress, which was rapidly +turning into a furnace, when suddenly the order was given to cease fire, +and for fully three hours there was a mysterious silence.</p> + +<p>Had the place been taken, had the men surrendered, or was it only a +truce, as one rumour had it, in order to enable the city to get in +foodstuffs?—for the food problem had by this time become most acute in +several of the isolated districts.</p> + +<p>It proved to be an armistice, during which terms of formal surrender +were concluded with the insurgent leaders, and a short while after four, +Sackville Street beheld the sight of all that were left of them, the +gallant but misguided six hundred, marching into captivity.</p> + +<p>"It is a sight I shall never forget," said one eye-witness who beheld +the surrender from a window in the Gresham Hotel. "That thin, short line +of no more than a hundred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> men at most, some in the green uniform of the +Volunteers, some in the plainer equipment of Larkin's Citizen Army, some +looking like ordinary civilians, some again mere lads of fifteen, not a +few wounded and bandaged, the whole melancholy procession threading its +way through long lines of khaki soldiers—but downhearted? No; and as +they passed, I heard just for a couple of seconds the subdued strains of +that scaffold-song of many an Irishman before them—'God save +Ireland'—waft up to me.</p> + +<p>"Roughs, dockers, labourers, shop-assistants—all kinds and conditions +of men, even the lowest class in the city—yet all exactly the same in +the look of defiance which will haunt me to my dying day.</p> + +<p>"Whatever they were, these men were no cowards—and even the soldiers +admitted this readily; they had shown courage of the finest type, worthy +of a nobler cause; and had they been man for man at the front and +accomplished what they had accomplished in the face of such odds, the +whole Empire would have been proud of them—the whole world ringing with +their praise; for, as a soldier prisoner afterwards said, 'Not even the +hell of Loos or Neuve Chapelle was like the hell of those last hours in +the General Post Office.'</p> + +<p>"Instead of that, they were doomed to the double stigma of failure in +accomplishment and futility in aim—but every Irish heart went out to +them, for all that, for were they not our own flesh and blood after all?</p> + +<p>"At either end a lad carried an improvised white flag of truce—at their +head, Pearse in full uniform, with sword across one arm in regular +surrender fashion. For a moment the young British officer in command +seemed perplexed at the solemnity of the procession and at the +correctness and courtesy of the rebel leader; and he hesitatingly +accepted the sword from his hands.</p> + +<p>"The next moment the spell was broken: the man was a captive criminal, +and with two officers, each with a loaded revolver pointing at his head, +the chief and his gallant band disappeared from my view."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THE_FOURTH" id="CHAPTER_THE_FOURTH"></a>CHAPTER THE FOURTH</h2> + +<h3>SURRENDER—COLLAPSE</h3> + +<p>Late on that fateful Saturday evening upon which the Post Office fell, +the Royal Irish Constabulary were posting in all parts of the country +the following note signed by Commander P. H. Pearse.</p> + +<p>"In order to prevent further slaughter," it ran, "of unarmed people, and +in the hope of saving the lives of our followers, now surrounded and +hopelessly outnumbered, members of the Provisional Government present at +headquarters have agreed to unconditional surrender, and the commanders +of all units of the Republican forces will order their followers to lay +down their arms."</p> + +<p>Yet so confident were the rebels of success in some of the besieged +fortresses that they positively refused to believe that their commanders +had given in: moreover, the difficulty of obtaining access to some of +the insurgents also tended to prolong the conflict, especially in the +more outlying districts, and so the struggle went on.</p> + +<p>In some cases the rebels, expecting no mercy, preferred to die fighting, +and it was only by the interference of the clergy that further +destruction and desolation was avoided.</p> + +<p>Jacobs's factory, for example—second only to Guinness's Brewery in +size, and occupied at first by some 1,500 rebels, who had taken +possession while the workers were on holiday—put up a strenuous fight, +and though it was by now surrounded by the military, the men, firmly +protected and encouraged by the feeling that headquarters depended upon +them, refused all offers to surrender.</p> + +<p>Several priests had previously made the attempt to influence them, but +had been quietly and courteously<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> refused, and only succeeded eventually +about 4 p.m. on Sunday, when the Volunteers finally evacuated the +premises.</p> + +<p>The majority of the exits had by Sunday become occupied by the military, +who had gradually turned the place into a death-trap, and from this the +rebels were saved by a somewhat picturesque climax.</p> + +<p>A well-known Carmelite monk from Whitefriars Street suddenly made his +way through the crowd of spectators and signalled to the insurgents, +whereupon one of the sandbagged windows was dismantled and, amid a +universal cheer from the crowd, the venerable peacemaker was hoisted up +into the fortress.</p> + +<p>A short while later his efforts were seen to have succeeded, for the +garrison surrendered.</p> + +<p>At the Four Courts a priest was likewise instrumental in bringing about +the surrender.</p> + +<p>The place had been strongly barricaded and provisioned, and would, no +doubt, have suffered the same fate as the Post Office had the struggle +continued, but for this intervention and the desire on the part of the +authorities no doubt to save the Record Office at all costs. Such a loss +would, of course, have been far more serious than that of the G.P.O., +for in some cases all kinds of documents had been used for the purposes +of defence, at one particular spot a whole barricade having been +constructed of wills alone.</p> + +<p>Father Columbus, O.S.F.C., who was at the time attending to the wounded +and dying, saw a girl waving a large white sheet from the building, and +we immediately proceeded to inform the military authorities, who were +still pounding away at the building with maxims, of the intention of the +insurgents to surrender.</p> + +<p>An officer was dispatched, and to him Commander Daly, of the Republican +Army, rendered unconditional surrender on behalf of the besieged.</p> + +<p>Another dramatic surrender on Sunday was that of the College of +Surgeons, where the rebels had been making a stout resistance, under the +personal command of the celebrated Countess Markievicz.</p> + +<p>The green flag which had floated there throughout the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> week in spite of +shot and shell was suddenly lowered, and one of the rebels was seen to +climb on the parapet and tie a white scarf, quaintly enough, on to the +arm of the central statue, which stood out against the skyline, instead +of the flagstaff.</p> + +<p>A few seconds later this formal announcement of surrender was followed +by the order to "cease fire," and a detachment of soldiers was sent to +that side of Stephen's Green.</p> + +<p>As they approached, the Countess, who was dressed in a complete outfit +of the green uniform of the Irish Volunteers, including green boots and +green cock's feathers, something like those on the Italian bersaglieri, +emerged from the central doorway. She was closely followed by an +attendant carrying a white flag and some sixty to eighty of the +defenders.</p> + +<p>Solemnly they advanced towards the English officer, and then the +Countess, taking off her bandolier and sword, was seen to kiss them +reverently and hand them over in the most touching manner—not a little +to the perplexity of the young officer.</p> + +<p>Dr. Myles Keogh, who, in company with others, acted so bravely in +rescuing the wounded, tells of the actual incident of the surrender of +De Valera, near Ringsend. Dr. Keogh was on Sunday returning at one +o'clock from Glasnevin Cemetery on a hearse, which, under the Red Cross, +had left a number of dead for burial, and when opposite Sir Patrick +Dun's Hospital a voice hailed him. Two men had come out of the Poor Law +Dispensary opposite, in which the Sinn Feiners were installed. So +covered with dust were they that he thought both were in khaki. One was +a military cadet who had been captured by the Sinn Feiners, the other +was the Sinn Fein leader De Valera. "Hullo!" cried De Valera. "Who are +you?" replied Dr. Keogh. The response was, "I am De Valera," from one, +and from the other it was: "I am a prisoner for the past five days. They +want to surrender." Dr. Keogh replied that Sir Arthur Ball, who was in +the hospital, would make arrangements. Then the military came up, and +after some preliminaries the Sinn Feiners were marched out of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +dispensary and conveyed to Lower Mount Street. The hopelessness of the +Sinn Feiners was exemplified in some remarks dropped by De Valera. +"Shoot me," he said, "if you will, but arrange for my men." Then he +added, walking up and down: "If only the people had come out with knives +and forks."</p> + +<p>I saw Dr. Keogh immediately after this, and he told me that De Valera +had complained bitterly that the "English" had continuously violated the +white flag and Red Cross, but we could testify to the falsity of this by +our own experience, the whole staff having time after time complained +that shots appeared to go right across the hospital—and, in point of +fact, the right wing of "Elpis" Hospital is simply peppered with +bullets—in fact, the wounded Tommies "sunning" themselves on the +hospital roof of Dun's had been deliberately fired at till they went +down, though I must admit that in this case the Sinn Feiners could +hardly have been able to make the distinction required of them. A short +while later I saw the professor himself—a tall man, hatless and in the +green uniform of the Volunteers—pass along Mount Street with a lad with +a white flag, going to point out the positions of the snipers from the +factory.</p> + +<p>For a moment the soldiers thought he was about to "betray" his pals to +save his own life, and, I was glad to notice, instinctively looked with +contempt upon him; but the truth of the general order having gone out to +surrender soon became known, and as the line of captives marched by the +soldiers for the first time got a real look at these men who had, so to +speak, staggered the Empire.</p> + +<p>Weak, poor, ragged—some cripples; one, his whole face a mass of +bandages—I never saw a more reckless or determined body of men in my +life, and they contrasted strangely with the placid demeanour of their +conquerors. Each marched with a certain lightness of tread—greybeards +who no doubt remembered the days of the Famine and boys born since the +Boer War; and as they stood there, their hands aloft, between the lines +of khaki, not one face flinched. Here and there, however, one could see +the older men shaking hands with the younger, muttering, "It isn't the +first time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> we've suffered. But it's all for dear old Ireland," or +wishing each other good-bye. That was pathetic to a degree that, I know +for a fact, moved some of the English officers themselves.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a car came dashing up at full speed. Some turned their heads +instinctively, and as they did so noticed that in addition to four khaki +uniforms there were two green figures with eyes bandaged.</p> + +<p>In an instant the captives had recognized their leaders, themselves also +going—God only knew to what punishment, and at once such a cheer went +up that the whole street echoed again.</p> + +<p>It only needed "God save Ireland" to have completed the drama, but they +knew they would be stopped if they began, and, instead, one of them +cried out "Are we downhearted?" and immediately every voice, clear and +resonant, answered in one ringing "No!"</p> + +<p>"If it had not been for the women and children, we should be fighting +you still," was the reply of one Sinn Feiner to a soldier; and when +asked why they were fighting, another man answered, "We have our orders +as well as you—we're both soldiers and fight when our country demands"; +while yet a third ventured defiantly, "You've won this time, but next +time when you're fighting, our children will win."</p> + +<p>Dramatic was no word for the situation, and as I gazed at them +there—now no more than a dread convict roll—I pictured the wretched +tenements from which most must have come—the worst slums in Europe, by +common consent of all Commissions—and asked myself the question what +chance or reason they had ever had in life to love either their country +or the Empire; and then the picture of the long years of penal +servitude, such as John Mitchel had endured for Ireland, arose before my +mind, but I consoled myself with the thought, "At least England will +understand what caused these men to turn despairingly to revolution," +and the words of Mr. Asquith consoled me as I thought of the terrible +wholesale vengeance a Prussian officer would take—for had he not said +that England had sent the General in whose discretion she had more +complete <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>confidence than any other?—but I stopped thinking: it was all +too sad: after all, England was surely not going to treat them like the +Huns would.</p> + +<p>I heard one young Lancashire Tommy say: "The poor beggars! They only +obeyed the word of command, and they fought like heroes," but he was cut +short by an English officer with an Oxford drawl: "Damn sympathizing +with the swine! I'd shoot all these Irish rebels down like rats—every +one of them—if I had my way."</p> + +<p>The words struck me forcibly at the time, for I knew that it only needed +this to make martyrs of every one of them.</p> + +<p>"England has learnt how fatal that mistake has been," I replied. "We're +surely not going to set Ireland back a hundred years by such a pogrom as +followed '98...."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, though in Dublin we knew very little, the movement in the +provinces had long since been crushed: indeed, it never appears to have +had much chance of success.</p> + +<p>It was said that some delay or interruption in the sending of the signal +message was the cause. Others say that the South had orders to await the +landing of arms from the German cruiser which brought over Sir Roger +Casement, and which was sunk on April 21st—which seems the more +probable.</p> + +<p>This news, however, seems, for mysterious reasons, to have been kept +from the general public, for it was not till the Monday evening, at +10.23, that this announcement was made, and, reaching Ireland on the +morrow of the announcement of the triumph of the Republic in the +capital, must have shown the waverers that the rising was bound to end +in a fiasco—a fact which they possibly realized better than the men in +Dublin, who to the very end seem to have expected something to turn up.</p> + +<p>It was generally expected that Cork would rise <i>en masse</i>, for the Sinn +Feiners had been organizing the city and county for upwards of three +years—in most cases the gradually increasing forces being drilled by +ex-soldiers privately, so that when they eventually appeared publicly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +on parade and in full uniform, marching through the streets in a body +four deep, with rifles on their shoulders, everyone realized that the +movement had amply justified itself.</p> + +<p>Every Sunday, public parades showed a growing strength that at times +alarmed the authorities to no little degree.</p> + +<p>The mass demonstration at Limerick about a year ago still further +revealed their strength, and from that moment to the fateful Easter week +the organization, already considerable in point of numbers, perfected +itself by the addition of ammunition, uniforms, equipment, and financial +aid.</p> + +<p>Everybody expected that there would be some sort of ructions between the +Volunteers and the military on last St. Patrick's Day, when it was +announced that the Sinn Feiners would parade fully armed and with a real +maxim gun, but luckily nothing happened.</p> + +<p>The next crisis was seen to approach in Holy Week, when large numbers of +strangers were noticed to be arriving daily from every part of the +country and putting up at lodging-houses.</p> + +<p>The strangers were next noticed to be paying continual visits to the +Sinn Fein headquarters in Shears Street, extensive premises that were +once a hospital.</p> + +<p>On the outbreak in Dublin the whole place was put into a state of +expectant siege, with passwords and guards, much in the same way as at +the G.P.O. in the capital, but no outbreak occurred.</p> + +<p>On the Wednesday the Lord Mayor and the Bishop of Cork were able to +obtain an interview with the leaders, and as a result of the conference +a temporary sort of truce was arranged, which was never really broken, +though at times it was a matter of touch and go.</p> + +<p>That it would have been serious cannot be doubted, for they claimed no +less than six hundred men at headquarters, and anything up from a +thousand within the boundaries of the city, to say nothing of the +surrounding districts, which were anything but favourable either to John +Redmond or William O'Brien.</p> + +<p>Now, the inner history of the negotiation, which was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> later made public +in a letter from the Assistant-Bishop of Cork to the <i>Freeman's +Journal</i>, is of supreme importance for two reasons.</p> + +<p>In the first place, it explains the kind of influences which were at +work all over the country to prevent the spread of the outbreak by the +better-disposed and more sober-minded of the population.</p> + +<p>In the second place, by revealing the psychology of some of the +provincial leaders it goes not a little to establish my theory that even +as late as Monday night something might have been done had the leaders +of the "Republic"—which it must never be forgotten had always been a +"provisional" term—been approached by the best spirits in Ireland +herself, instead of immediately launching an army corps of troops and a +naval detachment bald-headed on to the guns of the Volunteers, who could +never have expected to bring off a victory in the real sense of the +term, and who were only anxious to offer themselves as a willing +holocaust to the Spirit of Nationality they thought was dying fast +because it had merged itself into the Spirit of Empire.</p> + +<p>As to Kerry, it was looked upon as being "rotten" with Sinn Fein, and +had there been a rising, these men would undoubtedly have marched to the +help of their Cork brethren.</p> + +<p>The theory of the Kerry correspondent of the <i>Times</i> is that the South +was awaiting the advent of Sir Roger Casement, who was to have invaded +Ireland with a fleet of battle cruisers and an army of 40,000 men, but +this ended in as complete a fiasco as the landing of Napper Tandy at +Rutland or Wolf Tone in Lough Swilly in 1798.</p> + +<p>The rising, however, was not strictly speaking dependent on Sir Roger +Casement at all: indeed, as afterwards appeared, he had himself tried to +stop the rising by saying that German help had failed.</p> + +<p>It appears, moreover, that in Dublin the heads of the Irish Volunteers +had long since come under the strong personal influence of the heads of +the Citizen Army, and it was these latter who forced the pace; and in +admitting this, one is forced to conclude that the rising was as much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +socialistic and economic as national. This, too, would explain why it +was almost entirely confined to Dublin. For only in about three or four +other places in Ireland were there risings of any note, and even these +were comparatively unimportant: though, of course, there is no knowing +to what proportions they might not have swelled had the risings in Kerry +and Cork been carried out.</p> + +<p>The Volunteers of Swords, for example, who only began activities about +seven o'clock on the Wednesday morning, commenced by a capture of the +barracks and post office, both of which were in their possession by +about 8.30.</p> + +<p>Their <i>coup</i> was a minor replica of the Dublin affray. Two of their +leaders, a doctor and a school-teacher, rode up in a motor-car as if +paying a harmless call, and then suddenly produced revolvers and covered +the sergeant, who was standing at the door, saying at the same time: "We +want no trouble, but the arms and ammunition you have in the barracks."</p> + +<p>At the same moment about fifty other Volunteers closed in from behind, +with the result that the three unfortunate policemen could do nothing +but surrender, and the booty was distributed amongst the unarmed +Volunteers, and whatever was over stored for any recruits the valour of +this exploit might bring to the new colours.</p> + +<p>The door of the post office was next charged at by three of the +strongest of the Volunteers, but being ajar, was consequently entered in +the most undignified way by the invaders, who fell head-over-heels into +the place, which was a couple of feet below the street-level—luckily +for themselves, their rifles not going off.</p> + +<p>The telegraphic wires and apparatus were then broken up, and then, +proceeding in the direction of Donabate, the railway bridge at +Rodgerstown was blown up, cutting off Dublin.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, information had reached Malahide, and there the constabulary +at once proceeded to entrench themselves along the railway, in order to +protect the important bridge there; but the insurgents did not venture, +having already found the contingent that was engaged in a deadly +encounter with the Meath police at Ashbourne, towards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> the end of the +week, encamping between Fieldstown and Kilsallaghan.</p> + +<p>Here, early on Sunday morning, they were surprised to receive a copy of +the proclamation issued by P. H. Pearse, advising them to surrender +unconditionally. So surprised in fact were they, that they determined to +keep "the ambassador of peace" as a hostage until they verified the +astounding news for themselves, one of their leaders motoring up to +Dublin with the Chief Constable. On their return, of course, with the +news confirmed, there was nothing to do but surrender, and this they +accordingly did—their only stipulation being that they should be spared +the humiliation of going back through Swords, where most of them lived.</p> + +<p>The rising at Enniscorthy at one time threatened to be a more serious +affair, though it only began on the Thursday, when the Athenæum, one of +the principal buildings of the town, was seized and turned into a +headquarters by the insurgent staff.</p> + +<p>Several hundreds of Sinn Feiners now assembled outside, and several +dozen motor-cars which had been "commandeered," together with stores of +petrol and food, and the men were all served out with ammunition, while +amidst huge enthusiasm the green, white, and orange Republican flag was +hoisted over the building.</p> + +<p>Afterwards railway lines and telegraphs were destroyed by a special +force and the town methodically taken over, all business houses and +licensed premises being closed, with the exception of the gasworks and +the bakeries, where the employees were compelled to perform their public +duties in the name of the Commonwealth.</p> + +<p>The R.I.C. barracks alone held out, being well supplied with ammunition, +but the police there were powerless to interfere, having to stand a sort +of siege day after day.</p> + +<p>Enniscorthy Castle, which commands the town, was taken from Mr. Henry +Roche, J.P. All food and arms and vehicles throughout the town were +commandeered. But there was no looting, a considerable body of young men +having been formed into a species of Republican police—an organization +which would have saved the Dublin rising half its horrors.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p><p>The ladies of the "Cumann na Ban" next turned the top story of the +Athenæum into an improvised hospital, and here were brought the wounded +in the attack on the constabulary barracks, which lasted all Thursday +and part of Friday.</p> + +<p>Friday was spent in preparation and expectation—the news of the +collapse of the revolt in Dublin not having yet reached them—and on +Saturday a motor expedition to Ferns resulted in the capture of the post +office and barracks.</p> + +<p>As food had now become scarce, shops were only allowed to sell limited +quantities, and as the situation was becoming dangerous, with the +expected advent of the military, pickets were placed at street corners, +and these insisted on the civilian population keeping within doors.</p> + +<p>Another strange, though by no means uncommon, sight was whole rows of +Volunteers going up to the Cathedral for confession, and on the Sunday +attending Mass.</p> + +<p>The clergy, while not refusing them the consolations of religion, +however, in no way encouraged them in their illusion of success, for on +the Sunday morning a party of citizens from Arklow brought a priest +under cover of the white flag to announce to the rebels the collapse of +the rising in Dublin.</p> + +<p>A deputation of the town was then sent to Wexford to interview the +military there, who confirmed the news; but, as elsewhere, even this did +not satisfy them, and they refused to surrender the town of Enniscorthy +until their leaders had seen Dublin's disaster with their own eyes.</p> + +<p>Even then the "commanders" wanted to hold out, and, as the <i>Daily +Sketch</i> correspondent pointed out, it was only when the chief citizens +themselves made the petition that the Volunteers at last consented.</p> + +<p>Indeed, it would have been hard to conceive how they could logically +have insisted on defending the town, which refused to acknowledge them; +and the rebels, in justice be it said of them, were nothing if not +logical—even if only the logic of madmen. If Ireland refused to look +upon them as saviours, then they were not going to play the part of +tyrants; and it seems to me that if the civil authorities<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> of Dublin had +taken up this stand on the Tuesday morning, the whole thing might have +fizzled off without a single further military casualty.</p> + +<p>On Monday therefore—to continue the story of the Enniscorthy +rising—the rebels surrendered unconditionally to Colonel French, who +entered the town at the head of two thousand military.</p> + +<p>At Wexford the situation was saved, as at Drogheda, by the assistance of +the National Volunteers, who, under Colonel Jameson Davis, turned out to +assist the police, the Lord Mayor and six hundred of the chief citizens +enrolling themselves also as special constables.</p> + +<p>In Galway rebellion has always been in the blood. It was from Athenry, +eleven miles east of Galway, that the "Invincibles," who were +responsible for the Phœnix Park murders, came; and an interesting +account was given of the rising which now took place at Athenry by one +of the special correspondents of the Press, Mr. Hugh Martin.</p> + +<p>According to this account the central figure was a "Captain" Mellows, +who, deported a month before from Ireland, had managed to make his +escape from England, and avoiding detection by the constabulary under +the disguise of a priest, suddenly turned up at the psychological moment +a few days before the outbreak of the rising in Dublin.</p> + +<p>The Town Hall of Athenry, on Sunday and Monday, seemed to have aroused a +certain amount of suspicion—it was suspected of being a centre of +illegal munition making—but it was not till the Tuesday, thirty-six +hours after the seizure of the Dublin Post Office, that it suddenly +revealed itself in its true colours, when "Captain" Mellows unexpectedly +appeared in the green uniform of an Irish Volunteer and proclaimed the +establishment of an Irish Republic to a body of some five hundred +Volunteers, two-thirds of whom were armed with rifles and the rest with +shot-guns and pikes.</p> + +<p>Overcoming the local police, they proceeded to take one of the Irish +Board of Agriculture's model farms about three-quarters of a mile from +Athenry, and having captured the place and appropriated all money, +settled for the night.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p><p>The next day, after a vain attempt by the police to dislodge them, they +marched, several hundreds strong, with a whole train of wagons and carts +filled with food of every description, towards Loughrea, where they +captured Lady Ardilaun's seat, Moyode Castle, from the lonely caretaker, +John Shackleton, and his pretty eighteen-year-old daughter Maisie.</p> + +<p>A curious figure now appeared in the person of Father Feeny, who, +according to Hugh Martin, appears to have exercised as much control over +the men as the "Captain" himself.</p> + +<p>His influence seems to have been on the whole for good, for the account +describes him as hearing the men's confessions and insisting that the +fifteen to twenty young colleens who were one of the most curious +features of the local rising, marching beside the men and doing all +their cooking, should be separately accommodated in the castle at night.</p> + +<p>Some isolated R.I.C. men who happened to fall into their hands were +treated as prisoners, but when on the Thursday afternoon the police from +Athenry made an attack, they were chased with motor-cars for a distance +of about four miles back to Athenry, where the forces of the Crown only +just managed to get into their barracks in the nick of time.</p> + +<p>The next day—Friday—saw the positions reversed, and news reached the +rebels that troops and artillery were on their way from Loughrea, some +six miles' distance, and it was the rebels' turn to turn tail, +scattering as they went to right and left, in spite of every effort of +"Captain" Mellows to encourage them with stories of the coming invasion +by Germany.</p> + +<p>Some made for the hills, others tried to get back to their homes, but +most were seized by the Belfast police, in cars driven by Ulster +Volunteers, and those who did get back had to face not only the taunt of +ignominious defeat but the anger of the Redmondites, who now foresaw the +possibilities of a retribution quite out of all proportion to the +chances they had ever had of success.</p> + +<p>Indeed, that seems to have been the general result of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> the collapse of +the rebellion all over Ireland; and though at first it apparently tended +to weaken the hands of the Irish Constitutional leader—who, when the +news came to him, must have felt as he had on that famous occasion when, +as a young man, five minutes before having to make a great speech near +Manchester, he was handed the news of the Phœnix Park murders—on the +whole it really considerably strengthened his position, much in the same +way as the revolt of De Wet brought out the loyalty of General Botha.</p> + +<p>Botha, indeed, was one of the very first to see the similarity of the +two cases, and wired at once to Redmond, though it can of course only be +taken as a very superficial verdict of the South African Premier on the +real grievances underlying the movement, since he could hardly be +expected to understand Sinn Fein, much less those subtle provocations +which eventually counselled the mad appeal to Germany; for there can be +little doubt but that, if Castle rule had prevailed in Pretoria as it +still does in Dublin, South Africa would long since have been a +consenting party to German occupation.</p> + +<p>This, however, was only one of the subtler aspects of the rising which +hardly found its way across the Channel, and consequently could scarcely +be expected to appeal to a colonial who was not an Irishman himself.</p> + +<p>As the collapse became more general, however, it became more and more +evident to intelligent statesmen that it was more a hatred of Castle +rule than a love of German rule that had been at the bottom of it all, +and that it had been, in spite of the bluster of foreign alliance, more +an armed protest against a domestic state of affairs than a real attempt +to sever the Imperial link; nevertheless, the latter idea still survived +in the minds of the military authorities, who could see in it nothing +else, with the disastrous results that only became evident in the +aftermath.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THE_FIFTH" id="CHAPTER_THE_FIFTH"></a>CHAPTER THE FIFTH</h2> + +<h3>AFTERMATH</h3> + +<p>The surrender and collapse of the abortive rising was no sooner over +than the whole affair took an entirely new aspect and passed through a +completely new phase when it came to deciding what should be thought of +the incident and what should be done to the prisoners.</p> + +<p>It called for the utmost delicacy of handling on all sides, but this is +just what it did not get, and at once there was a complete revulsion of +feeling for the Sinn Feiners which, had it come before the rising, might +have enabled them to sweep everything before them.</p> + +<p>The psychological change is curious as a study in Irish politics.</p> + +<p>The first announcement of the rising was so sudden that it took all but +those immediately concerned entirely by surprise, and after a moment of +almost speechless amazement the movement was promptly denounced by every +moderate man in Ireland.</p> + +<p>To the Nationalists it appeared at first as if it were the tearing +asunder of the Home Rule Bill and the ruination of the constitutional +cause for ever. Consequently their attitude was, from their own point of +view, perfectly correct, viz. unqualified denunciation. But as further +details came along and their opponents in England began to make capital +out of it, the case became different. The cry went up that it was want +of strength on the part of Mr. Birrell, the Chief Secretary, who could +do nothing but resign under the circumstances; and so pained was he that +he even went to the length of what was called a confession of guilt: but +his weakness had really been great strength—for any weakling can be +strong enough to sign an order for wholesale slaughter if he "damns the +consequences."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p><p>True, there could be no minimizing of the event either in the matter of +casualties or damage done.</p> + +<p>A fortnight previous and Ireland was still the "one bright spot" and +Sackville Street one of the finest thoroughfares in the kingdom, but +during those momentous days the capital had been for the greater part of +a week almost entirely in the hands of the rebels; a Republican flag had +taken the place of the English Jack, which had floated over it for seven +continuous centuries, and now Dublin lay a heap of crumbling buildings, +whose smoking ruins looked like the track of the Huns—it might now be +called Ypres-on-the-Liffey.</p> + +<p>The loss of life, too, had been tremendous, but the military casualties +were out of all proportion to those of the rebels, in some cases the +skirmishes representing a proportion of ten, and even twenty, to one. +The casualties, in fact, were as high as many a Boer War battle, and +amounted to three hundred killed and over a thousand wounded, of which +nearly two hundred were civilians. They included over sixty officers and +about four hundred rank and file. The Royal Irish Constabulary lost two +killed and thirty-five wounded; the Dublin Metropolitan Police six; the +Royal Navy three; and the Loyal Volunteers sixteen. With regard to the +Sinn Feiners no figures are available, but they must have been +considerably less than a quarter of these—perhaps even under.</p> + +<p>The circumstances under which the troops and police suffered, however, +were such that the severest measures were adopted by General Sir John +Maxwell, who issued the following statement with regard to the action of +the courts martial:—</p> + +<p>"In view of the gravity of the rebellion and its connection with German +intrigue propaganda, and in view of the great loss of life and +destruction of property resulting therefrom, the General Officer +Commanding-in-Chief has found it imperative to inflict the most severe +sentences on the known organizers of this detestable rising and on those +commanders who took an active part in the actual fighting which +occurred. It is hoped that these examples will be sufficient to act as a +deterrent to intriguers and to bring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> home to them that the murder of +His Majesty's liege subjects or other acts calculated to imperil the +safety of the realm will not be tolerated."</p> + +<p>The military authorities have been blamed for the excessive rigour with +which these orders were carried out, especially for the use of shells, +but it may be questioned how far this did not arise purely from the +nature of the situation.</p> + +<p>Certainly the rebels were at a disadvantage, and consequently won a +certain amount of sympathy, yet only a day before that sympathy was +entirely with the unfortunate military; but eventually a point was +reached when, instead of the military retrieving the situation lost by +the weakness of the politicians, it became a question whether they were +not undoing a good deal that it had taken a great deal of hard work upon +the part of the politicians to build up.</p> + +<p>Now this is no idle theory, but the only possible explanation of a +series of changes that ensued.</p> + +<p>When the news of the rising was first announced to John Redmond, he made +a dignified if not too diplomatic reply, in which he expressed despair +about the situation and utter disgust about the culprits.</p> + +<p>The next official utterance was the somewhat ponderous manifesto of the +Irish Party—interesting as an historical summary of Ireland's real +attitude to the Empire, but lacking a grip of the actual psychological +drama of the situation.</p> + +<p>The same may be said of the Irish leader's first appeal for clemency in +the treatment of the prisoners.</p> + +<p>It was in the shape of a question asked of Mr. Asquith as to whether he +was aware that the continuance of military executions in Ireland had +caused rapidly increasing bitterness and exasperation among large +sections of the population who had no sympathy with the rising, and +whether it might not be better to follow the precedent set up by General +Botha in South Africa, where only one had been executed and the rest +exceedingly leniently treated, and stop the executions forthwith.</p> + +<p>The Premier's reply was a curt refusal, phrased in the terms of an +absolute confidence in the discretion of the military authorities.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p><p>Unfortunately that "discretion" was exercised in such a manner as at +once to place its victims in the same category as Emmet, Wolf Tone, and +the Manchester Martyrs. In a word, to use the words of an English +critic, "It gave the Sinn Feiners the real victory, for it was looked +upon as the verification of all that they had feared and prophesied, and +for which they had, until that point, been looked upon as fools and +scaremongers."</p> + +<p>Looking back over the situation at this critical juncture, it may well +be doubted whether it was altogether wise to carry out any sentences +into execution, and the Bishop of Limerick referred very pointedly to +the example of a very similar situation in the case of the Jameson raid, +when the leniency of the Boer Republicans towards the raiders avoided +war with England.</p> + +<p>Technically, of course, the two were exactly parallel—by all the laws +of sovereignty a rebel deserves instant death; but it became a question +of diplomacy as well—a point which seems to have been lost in the clash +of battle.</p> + +<p>In other words, had time allowed—and of course there was no knowing +what effect the resistance of Dublin might have on the country—it may +be a moot point whether it might not have been advisable to separate the +two questions of the sentence of death and the actual executions, and +one can well imagine the conciliatory effect of a Royal Act of Clemency +in the event of maturer consideration making it advisable to commute +those sentences.</p> + +<p>Thus Lord Bryce, who might have been considered not only to know Ireland +from past experience, but to speak with his hand on the mental pulse of +the American people on this matter, strongly advised clemency in the +following letter to the <i>Westminster Gazette</i>, in which he endorsed the +advice of Sir West Ridgeway, a former Under-Secretary for Ireland:—</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>"Permit me to express hearty concurrence with Sir West Ridgeway in the +advice which his thoughtful letter of yesterday contains. He knows, as +others who have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> lived in Ireland or have studied her history know, that +excessive severities have done far more harm by provoking afresh +revengeful disaffection than punishment has ever done to quell it. This +was eminently true of the rebellion of 1798, suppressed with a cruelty +which shocked the humane minds of the Viceroy (Lord Cornwallis) and Sir +Ralph Abercromby. The abortive rising of 1848 (which I am old enough to +remember) was treated with a comparative leniency which the public +opinion of that day approved, and which was justified by the result. Its +chiefs did not become heroes.</p> + +<p>"That condign punishment should be meted out to a few of those most +responsible for this mad outbreak in Dublin, with its deplorable +bloodshed, is inevitable. But this once done, a large and generous +clemency is the course recommended by wisdom as well as by pity, and is +all the more fitting because it will be a recognition of the fact that +the rising was the work of a handful of persons, mostly ignorant, +unbalanced visionaries, and is unequivocally condemned by the vast +majority of the Irish people.—I am, faithfully yours,</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Bryce.</span></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Forest Row, Sussex</span>, <i>May 4th.</i>"</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>By this time, however, the matter had almost reached the character of a +"pogrom." Not only had the seven signatories of the famous proclamation +been executed, but every day brought another victim to the wall and told +of another long list of sentences to penal servitude and other +penalties, while deportations—the old Cromwellian touch, when the West +Indies were peopled with Irish political offenders—reached the colossal +figure of over two thousand.</p> + +<p>Militarism is of course always a last painful resort, but there were +some who seemed to look upon it as an end in itself. A writer in the +<i>Spectator</i> said Lord Kitchener must be made Lord-Lieutenant, as the +situation called for a soldier, and the hero of Omdurman was the nearest +approach to the good old Cromwellian type.</p> + +<p>The <i>Irish Times</i>, more English than the English themselves, then came +out with the following amazing solution:—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p><p>"We hope that martial law will be maintained in Ireland for many +months. When the time comes for its removal, the change to civil +government ought to be smooth and gradual. This end can best be +secured—in fact can only be secured—by the presence at the Viceregal +Lodge of a soldier who, having taken his part in government under +martial law, will be able to transmit the spirit of military +administration to the civil instruments of the State."</p> + +<p>The situation had reached a crisis, and it was then, and not till then, +that the true feeling of the country came out in John Dillon's outburst +that be Sir John Maxwell's character what it might—and he confessed to +never having heard of him in his life—"he would refuse, and Ireland +would refuse, to accept the character of any man as the sole guarantee +of a nation's liberty," and the idea of military discretion fell dead at +the phrase, shot through the heart.</p> + +<p>It was high time too, for, as the case of Sheehy Skeffington proved, +that discretion had been so discreet as to be unaware of its own acts, +the investigation being promised after execution, which was just our +whole complaint against the Germans in Belgium.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>The case was particularly striking, as it was only because he happened +to be a well-known public man that any attention was paid to it, and it +tended to give credence to the horrible rumours which now began to +spread through Dublin of the secret carnage which was supposed to have +taken place during what was euphemistically called "the rounding-up of +the rebels" and "house-to-house visitation," while the citizens of +Dublin were confined to their own houses under penalty of death if they +stirred out without a permit after certain hours: and one has only to +walk through the slums to hear the colossal proportions which these +rumours have already attained, and which nothing but public civil +investigation will stay.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p><p>I had noticed Sheehy Skeffington myself upon the Tuesday, looking very +anxious and perplexed, and walking by himself without arms, and the +point struck me at the time because of the remark of my companion that +it was rather strange that he did not seem to be in any way officially +connected with the rebels.</p> + +<p>It was in Sackville Street—just at the time when the looting was being +carried on in North Earl Street, where they had been making a +barricade—and with a paper in his hand, possibly the very notice he was +contemplating, he went in the direction of the Post Office porch, as if +to go in and consult about something that was on his mind: again I +presume to try to stop the looting, for a couple of hours later I saw +the crowd of looters scattered several times by the firing of shots in +their direction; and when the Imperial Hotel was raided, a Sinn Feiner +told me not to be alarmed at this when leaving the city, as they were +only blanks and intended to prevent the wholesale robbery that was going +on.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, as his wife afterwards explained, Skeffington, far +from taking any part in the rising, was actually helping to look after +the innocent victims of the affray, such as the Dublin Castle officer +who was bleeding to death in the street, and this at imminent personal +danger to himself; and at the time of his arrest near Portobello Bridge +was actually engaged in the work of trying to stop the looting, having +just come back from a meeting called to that effect, and had been +putting up the following poster:—</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>"When there are no regular police in the streets it becomes the duty of +the citizens to police the streets themselves, to prevent such spasmodic +looting as has taken place.</p> + +<p>"Civilians (both men and women) who are willing to co-operate to this +end are asked to attend at Westmoreland Chambers (over Eden Bros.) at +five o'clock on this (Tuesday) afternoon.</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Francis Sheehy Skeffington.</span>"</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p><p>Far from being a combatant, he was on principle a pacifist, and thus +opposed to all use of physical force; but perhaps it is better to let +his own wife tell the story:—</p> + +<p>"After he was arrested and had been sentenced to death," to use the +statement which she issued to the Press, "he refused to be blindfolded, +and met death with a smile on his lips, saying before he died that the +authorities would find out after his death what a mistake they made."</p> + +<p>Now, the concession of the mere possibility of such a colossal blunder +was, of course, the admission of the whole of John Dillon's +contention—namely, that, whatever might happen in Egypt, Ireland was +right in not accepting the discretion of any man as the sole guarantee +of her liberties.</p> + +<p>For if it could happen in such an eminent case, there could hardly be +any doubt but that there was considerable truth in the rumours that +similar catastrophes were taking place all over Dublin, and indeed all +over Ireland, and this in such a way as to madden the Irish people, and +spread, if not insurrection, at least disaffection and bitterness from +one end of the country to the other; but it is useless, before an +official investigation, to go into such examples as the Eustace Street +and King Street cases. Public investigations at the moment, however, +would restore no lives, and possibly only endanger the chances of +reconciliation, which is the one great need of Ireland in the name of +Empire.</p> + +<p>Quite apart from any examples, however, John Dillon maintained that the +system in itself was far more likely to prejudice than to attain the +very ends expected of it, "for, if they only knew it, the British +Cabinet had far less power in Dublin than the Kildare Street Club and +certain other institutions which were running the military authorities;" +but he struck the keynote of the situation when he said: "Ours is a +fighting race, and, as I told you when I was speaking before on the +Military Service Bill, it is not a Military Service Bill that you want +in Ireland. If you had passed a Military Service Bill for Ireland it +would have taken 150,000 men and three months' hard fighting to have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +dealt with it. It is not a Military Service Bill that you want in +Ireland; it is to find a way to the hearts of the Irish people, and when +you do that you will find that you have got a supply of the best troops +in the whole world."</p> + +<p>Yet what John Dillon resented most, as indeed every moderate man in +Ireland resented it, was the insinuation that the rising had been +nothing more nor less than an orgy of murder by a band of criminals, so +that it accordingly rendered every single Sinn Feiner liable to be shot +at sight, whether he had actually taken part in the insurrection or not.</p> + +<p>For this conception the band of English journalists who had been sent +over under escort to the captured capital were much to blame. With pens +reeking with the description of Hunnish crimes, they wrote their +accounts of "nameless atrocities" which were supposed to have taken +place in Dublin, and which, if they astounded their English readers, +absolutely amazed their Irish ones.</p> + +<p>The danger of this hate campaign which may be all very well when it is +intended to rouse the somewhat lethargic Briton to fight against a race +of which he knows next to nothing otherwise; but was doubly dangerous +when applied to one's fellow-countrymen in the name of a party, and were +it employed, say, against Wales or Scotland would soon prove disastrous, +for Scotchmen and Welshmen would rise in protest to a man—which is just +what Irishmen did at the "hate" wave.</p> + +<p>Yet there was another reason—viz. the veracity and moderation of the +British Press—at stake: the Press on whose veracity and moderation +Irishmen depended for their motives for going away to fight for England, +and this excess tended, so to speak, to tear down every recruiting +poster in the country.</p> + +<p>Now, had the British censor refused to allow any mention of the rising +at all in the English Press, it might have been unjust to Ireland, but +it would have been far juster to England. Much the same applies to the +English Churchmen and their Church. When the Rev. R. J. Campbell, in a +Sunday illustrated, discovered that Holy Writ had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> already long before +the rising declared in favour of Castle government and conscription for +Ireland, Irish sinners felt inclined to say: "So much the worse for Holy +Writ." And when the Rev. Lord William Cecil, preaching at Hatfield, +summed up the ethical situation in a confusion between the meaning of +pride and patriotism, Dublin wits thanked him for the phrase, and +remarked that indeed it had long been so, but ne'er so well expressed, +and amplified the cynical aphorism to "whenever Irishmen are patriotic +it is in reality nothing but pride, yet whenever Englishmen are +overproud it is nothing but the height of patriotism."</p> + +<p>None, in fact, could have damaged the English cause in this crisis more +than the English did themselves, in spite of all the Irish Nationalists +were doing to help them out of the difficulty; for, as one wit remarked, +the whole catastrophe had been precipitated not by English Tories so +much as Irish Unionists—men, who it is difficult to say whether they +misrepresent England more to Irishmen than they do Irishmen to the +English, and a class which has ever got England into all Irish crises +and never got her out of a single one.</p> + +<p>For the main point about the rebellion that struck Nationalists, who, +after all, were the vast majority of the Irishmen who at all mattered, +was not so much the incidental crime or heroism as the utter folly of +the enterprise. "Separatism" was, and will ever be probably, an +economic, racial, and Imperial impossibility; yet it was just this point +that was forgotten in the heat of the combat by Englishmen, with a few +noble exceptions, of course.</p> + +<p>Instead of expounding the folly of the undertaking, they preferred to +dilate upon the criminality of methods and the character of the Sinn +Feiners, which is just where they fell into the most fatal mistake of +all and made the aftermath what it has been since—a far more +complicated problem to deal with than ever existed before the rising or +in the rising itself. Thus, when Sir Edward Carson raised his Volunteers +in Ulster he had calculated most upon the moral effect the spilling of +blood would have upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> Englishmen. The Sinn Feiners had calculated upon +exactly the same psychological factor with their countrymen.</p> + +<p>When the Government had refused to take their arms by force, which +Unionists were in their hearts hoping they would, the refusal left them +powerless and discredited, save in the eyes of cinema operators, who +only looked upon them as so much copy.</p> + +<p>When the authorities proposed, after this example, to take the arms of +the Sinn Feiners and leave the other two bodies in possession of theirs, +they were, in fact, deliberately provoking rebellion; but not only this, +but unconsciously they were also strengthening the cause of the Sinn +Feiners, who, like the Covenanters, looked more to the moral effect than +to the material results of their efforts.</p> + +<p>Once the link of race had been appealed to, of course every attack that +reflected in any way upon the character of the fighters was resented by +the whole nation as a matter of honour, and that was what led John +Dillon, provoked by countless insinuations and accusations to his +onslaught upon the principle underlying the wholesale executions and +deportations.</p> + +<p>Had these penalties been inflicted upon those who had perpetrated the +"cold-blooded murders" of the first few days, whose cry for vengeance +had been voiced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it would have been equally a +matter of national pride to see the culprits were yielded up to justice; +but "it was not these murderers that were being pursued," as Dillon +pointed out; it was the rank and file of the insurgents, and these had, +by almost universal admission, behaved in a manner absolutely beyond +reproach as fighting men. He admitted they were wrong, but they fought a +clean fight, and they fought with superb bravery and skill, and no act +of savagery or act against the usual customs of war, that he knew of, +had been brought home to any leader or any organized body of insurgents.</p> + +<p>The House was inclined to resent the tribute—as much as to say that +they were nothing but a pack of cowards—and this brought out a +characteristically telling taunt, namely, "that it would be a damned +good thing for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> England if her soldiers had been able to put up as good +a fight as did these men in Dublin—three thousand men against twenty +thousand with machine guns and artillery"—which, coming at the very +moment of the announcement of the fall of Kut, must have been +particularly galling.</p> + +<p>Now, it was doubly a pity that such a controversy had been aroused, for, +as most intelligent people in Dublin had begun to admit, it had been a +heroic if tragically mad combat from the beginning.</p> + +<p>Not that there had not been the most cold-blooded murders, I repeat, +upon the part of some of the rank and file within the first few hours, +when every representative of the law was suddenly attacked unawares, as +if there had been a formal declaration of war; but from the first moment +that they had felt their position nothing can be attributed to the rebel +leaders which was not in the most complete accord with military +precedent.</p> + +<p>Indeed, not a few of the soldiers were struck by the self-control of the +Volunteers, and the sense of discipline that pervaded their ranks; nor +was it surprising, considering that while some of the Derby boys had +only been in khaki for a couple of months the Volunteers had been in +training ever since the beginning of the war, going through route +marches, manœuvres, and sham fighting week by week and, towards the +end, night by night.</p> + +<p>True, the money may have been appropriated from such Government supplies +as fell into their hands, and there is no doubt that technically they +had no right to such stores; but they had every precedent, and there is +even a story which tells of one of the leaders particularly asking one +of the captured military to see that the safe in the G.P.O. was not +touched.</p> + +<p>There were certainly no cases of prisoners surrendering and being +instantly shot; nor did civilians complain of any wanton looting of the +occupied premises, though at Jacobs's and Boland's full use was made of +the stores; nor were there any of the Volunteers found drunk. Certainly +they should have prevented looting, but it was a duty as much incumbent +upon any civilian.</p> + +<p>In other words, in so far as it could reflect upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> national +character, there was little that could be reproached against the +movement save its insensate folly and, of course, the technical +criminality of revolt.</p> + +<p>On the whole the thing was on a far higher ethical plane than the +methods employed by the Fenians, as well as more widespread, and the +thing was far and away more dignified than poor Smith O'Brien's rising, +which ended, as it began, in a humble cabbage-patch.</p> + +<p>Some of their bullets were of course of the vilest type, inflicting +ghastly wounds; but I heard of no misuse of the white flag—in fact, +when the ladies who had been found in the College of Surgeons were +offered their freedom as non-combatants because they had merely been +doing hospital work, they refused on the ground that as they were in +full sympathy with the movement they claimed the full honours of the +penalties of failure.</p> + +<p>Two things, however, must be mentioned—the one was their use of +civilian clothes, and the second was their employment of "sniping" +methods, both of which were highly dangerous to the rest of the +non-combatant population.</p> + +<p>With regard to the first—the use of civilian clothes—everybody who +possessed a uniform wore it, but the enthusiasm of the recruits outran +the means of equipment; and in any case it was adopted equally by the +military, who in not a few cases owed their lives to a quick change into +mufti, and who in other cases spent most of Monday and Tuesday in +Sackville Street in smart lounge suits as passive spectators of the +scene, when as a matter of fact they were merely spying out—and of +course rightly so doing—the movements of the Sinn Feiners, together +with their strength and dispositions, and then 'phoning up the +information to headquarters.</p> + +<p>Naturally it was a method of operations which greatly endangered the +<i>bona fide</i> civilian, but on the whole he suffered more at the hands of +the military than the Volunteer; in fact, over and over again I came +across instances, sometimes of ignorance, sometimes of anger, sometimes +of sheer recklessness, of the troops firing at anyone who appeared in +certain localities.</p> + +<p>As regards the general "sniping" methods employed in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> whole of the +Dublin rising it is hard to speak: certainly many of the Sinn Feiners +would have preferred a fight in the open, and the soldiers—especially +at Mount Street Bridge—felt it desperately unfair, but, under the +circumstances, it became the only chance of the rebels, just as the use +of shells was that of the military.</p> + +<p>The extreme Irish loyalist merchant, of course, would have none of this; +he denounced them all with the words "cowards, murderers, and criminals" +in the full sense of the terms, and anyone who differed from him had +Sinn Fein sympathies, and was on the list of suspects, which was rather +unfair, not so much to the Sinn Feiner himself, who knew he could not +have got any justice from him in any case, but unfair to the soldier and +unfair to England. Thus, while elderly retired colonels and academic +professors called for drastic vengeance on the scoundrels, what +impressed such men as Colonel Brereton, who had actually had the +experience of falling into their hands in the G.P.O., was "the +international military tone adopted by the Sinn Feiners" and their +peculiarly high standard of character.</p> + +<p>"They were not," he declared, "out for massacre, for burning, or for +loot. They were out for war, observing all the rules of civilized +warfare, and fighting clean. So far as I saw they fought like gentlemen +(?). They had possession of the restaurant in the Courts, stocked with +spirits and champagne and other wines, yet there was no sign of +drinking. I was informed that they were all total abstainers. They +treated their prisoners with the utmost courtesy and consideration—in +fact, they proved by their conduct what they were—men of education, +incapable of acts of brutality, though, also, misguided and fed up with +lies and false expectations."</p> + +<p>Accordingly, upon their liberation, just before the surrender, the +Colonel was profuse in his gratitude for the most unexpectedly generous +treatment he himself and his fellow-prisoners had received at their +hands.</p> + +<p>Such stories came as rather awkward comments on the indiscriminate +prosecutions that followed when the tables were reversed, and it was +rather a relief when English <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>Conservative papers were at last forced in +the name of Empire to abandon the attitude taken up by Irish Unionist +organs in the name of the Castle; for it must have been compelling +evidence indeed that made the <i>Daily Mail</i>, of all newspapers, come out +with the following, so to speak, unsolicited testimonial, which many an +Ulster organ would have preferred to close down rather than publish:—</p> + +<p>"The leaders were absolute blood-guilty traitors to Britain, but in some +ways their sentiments were worthy of respect," said the writer. "Theirs +was an intense local patriotism. They believed in Ireland. They believed +that she would never prosper or be happy under British rule. They knew +that there were 16,000 families in Dublin living on less than one pound +a week. They saw the infinite misery of the Dublin slums, the foulest +spot in Europe, where a quarter of the total population are forced to +live in the indescribable squalor of one-room tenements—I quote from +official records—and they believed that this was due to England's +neglect (as, indeed, it was), and that the Irish Republic would end +these things. Therefore they struck, and as far as they could exercise +direct control over the rebel army they tried to fight a clean fight. +They begged their followers not to disgrace the Republican flag. They +posted guards to prevent looting. They fought with magnificent courage. +Nevertheless, their control was not far-reaching, and they were +disgraced by the anarchy of some of their followers. But it is necessary +to point out their virtues, because it is those and their ideals that +non-rebel Irishmen are remembering to-day."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Cf. the telegram received by the Prime Minister from the +man in whose discretion the whole British Legislature had placed its +absolute confidence: "Mr. Skeffington was shot on morning of 26th April +without the knowledge of the military authorities. The matter is now +under investigation. The officer concerned has been under arrest since +6th May."</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THE_SIXTH" id="CHAPTER_THE_SIXTH"></a>CHAPTER THE SIXTH</h2> + +<h3>SINN FEIN—GERMAN GOLD</h3> + +<p>Two questions here confront us before going from the mere dramatic +narrative of the rebellion to its critical consideration.</p> + +<p>The first is, What exactly is Sinn Fein? and secondly, How far was the +rising actuated by German gold?</p> + +<p>The words "Sinn Fein" mean literally "We ourselves," <i>not</i> "Ourselves +alone," and, as the title and expression of a movement, are the +antithesis of what they term "Parliamentarianism," or "help from +outside": but I know no better definition of it than the passage in the +writer in the <i>Irish Year-book</i> article on "The Ethics of Sinn Fein."</p> + +<p>"We are always telling the Parliamentarians that we need not wait for +the Act of the British Parliament to make Ireland a Nation. We ought +equally to remember that we do not require an Act of the British +Parliament in order ourselves to become pure or temperate, or diligent +or unselfish. Our liberty—our real liberty—the liberty both of +ourselves and our country—is in our own hands. England cannot crush or +kill it, or even seriously injure it. England can only remain in +Ireland, indeed, as long as our character is weaker than her guns. Guns +are stronger than middling character. Against real character, +passionate, determined, and organized, they are less availing than +children's catapults. English domination feeds and thrives on weak +character. When every Nationalist makes his or her character strong and +self-reliant and beautiful, English domination will die from sheer lack +of sustenance. If you are weak of will or base in your character, you +are as valuable a support to the English garrison in Ireland as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> though +you hated the Irish language and imported all your clothes from +Yorkshire. <i>The only way to be a patriotic Irishman is to do your best +to become a perfect man.</i>"</p> + +<p>The necessity for individual action, to continue the illustration of its +spirit, is emphasized by a very wholesome phrase. It is that "the only +part of the Irish Nation which a good many of us have any chance of +setting free immediately is ourselves." In other words, no Parliament +can make a nation free—not even a native Parliament; or, as Arthur +Griffith puts it, "Every Irish man or woman's self is the Irish Nation."</p> + +<p>With this no one of course would quarrel, but it does not follow, as the +Gaelic element in Sinn Fein seemed to think, that "every Irishman who +does not speak Irish is against his will a representative of English +Domination in Ireland and striking a blow at his country's heart." For +when we come to consider it, English literature owes not a little to the +Celtic spirit, as on the other hand Ireland of to-day contains not a +little of the Saxon strain.</p> + +<p>The attempt on the part of the Sinn Feiners therefore to establish such +an extreme and antiquated definition was strictly against nature—a +retrospective move, in other words, as against the blending progressive +force of evolution represented by Parliamentarianism.</p> + +<p>At the same time it would be hard to find a more fruitful, inspiring, or +elevating passage than the following:—</p> + +<p>"Choose the Ireland that you think is best, and fashion yourself in its +likeness. If you wish to see Ireland become a perfect country, a kingdom +of God, do you yourself become a perfect individual, a kingdom of God. +The perfect country can only be established by individual men and women, +who are striving after perfection—perfection not only in an imaginary +Irish nation which is outside themselves, but in the actual Irish nation +which is within themselves, in their own brains and hearts and sinews, +to mar or to make beautiful as they will."</p> + +<p>The Sinn Fein theory of the interdependence of the State and the +individual is also worth noting:—</p> + +<p>"I realize, of course," says the writer, "that it would be equally true, +or nearly so, to say that <i>it is only the perfect</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> <i>State that could +produce perfect men and women, and so my argument may appear to run in a +circle. The State and the individual react on each other, however, each +helping the other forward on the way towards some ultimate decency.</i> +Some thinkers lay too much stress on the part that must be played by the +State in producing the perfect individual; others have their minds +occupied too exclusively by the part played by the individual in +bringing about the perfect State. The man with broad views will, I +think, see that both progressive individuals and a progressive State are +necessary, that they are complementary one to the other. He will aspire +after a free and self-reliant Ireland, and the first thing he will do in +order to realize his aspirations will be to make himself self-reliant +and free—free from everything that is shameful and ignoble, as he +wishes to see his country free from the shame of foreign conquest and +the ignominy of English rule. He will attempt to become himself among +his neighbours what he wishes to see Ireland among the +nations—conspicuous for honour and courage, and courtesy and virtue."</p> + +<p>As regards the best methods of propagating Sinn Fein, the writer lays +stress upon "example being better than precept," and then he remarks: +"If the average professing Nationalist had been a perceptibly finer +character than the average professing Unionist during the last +half-century, all the noble men and women in Ireland would by the law of +their natures have been attracted to the national banner."</p> + +<p>The one blow which the Sinn Feiner strikes is at the unreality of the +usual political distinctions of Nationalists and Unionists; both have +their demonstrations, the writer points out, at which political speakers +make speeches consciously insincere, but justified by a sort of +traditional instinct; and both crowds go home equally convinced of the +intolerance of their opponents, relying for victory "on the strength of +their fists and lungs," but all the thinkers despise it all, and this to +such an extent that he is led on to remark: "If an impartial spectator +were to go to an ordinary Green demonstration in Ireland, he would +probably be inclined to be an Orangeman; while if he were to attend an +Orange demonstration he would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> probably come away feeling strangely +sympathetic towards Nationalism."</p> + +<p>Which, after all, is only what every independent writer and thinker has +been bellowing forth for the past generation.</p> + +<p>With regard to the employment of physical force there is this +significant passage:—</p> + +<p>"Whatever is to be said in favour of the use of physical force against +England, there is nothing to be said in favour of Irishmen making use of +it against each other. It would be as wrong, for instance, for Sinn +Feiners to wreck a meeting of Parliamentarians as it would be for +Parliamentarians forcibly to break up a meeting of Sinn Feiners. You +might compel timid people to join you in this way, and you would win the +support of that great body of people that likes always to be on the +stronger side. But it is not in the hands of the timid and the selfish +that the destinies of Ireland are. <i>The destinies of Ireland are in the +hands of the free and noble men and women of Ireland whom you can +persuade, but could never compel, to join you</i>"; and he ends up: "If you +had all the force of all the Empires in the world at your back you could +not increase the number of genuine Nationalists in Ireland by +one"—which is perfectly true.</p> + +<p>In policy it is both selfish and altruistic: as a national movement its +aim is "Ireland first and Ireland alone and Ireland always"; as an +individual movement it inculcates that "no personal sacrifice is too +great for one's country," and it is probably this last feature that drew +the younger generation in thousands to its standards, and no doubt will +continue to do so, for in this sense of self-reliance Sinn Fein will +continue to exist as long as there is a single Irishman in Ireland.</p> + +<p>As to the constitution of "Sinn Fein," it differs very little in ideal +from that of average Nationalism, save in the respect of its +application, and may be quoted in full, in view of its present interest +and the importance of fully appreciating at the present critical moment +what Sinn Fein really is.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p><p>Sinn Fein means, as we have already seen, literally "Ourselves," and is +the title and expression of a movement which denies the lawful existence +of the Incorporating Union in contradistinction to Unionism (which see) +and Parliamentarianism (which see). Sinn Fein declares Ireland to be by +natural and constitutional right a sovereign State, and teaches that the +election of Irishmen to serve in the British Parliament is treason to +the Irish State, as no lawful power exists, has existed, or can exist in +that Parliament to legislate for Ireland. It advocates the withdrawal of +the Irish representation from Westminster, and the formation in Ireland +of a voluntary legislature endowed with the moral authority of the Irish +nation. The constitution and aims of the Sinn Fein organization are as +follows:—</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Constitution.</span></p> + +<p>"The object of Sinn Fein is the re-establishment of the Independence of +Ireland.</p> + +<p>"The aim of the Sinn Fein Policy is to unite Ireland on this broad +National platform.—1st. That we are a distinct nation. 2nd. That we +will not make any voluntary agreement with Great Britain until Great +Britain keeps her own compact which she made by the Renunciation Act of +1783, which enacted 'that the right claimed by the people of Ireland to +be bound only by laws enacted by His Majesty and the Parliament of that +Kingdom is hereby declared to be established, and ascertained for ever, +and shall, at no time hereafter, be questioned or questionable.' 3rd. +That we are determined to make use of any powers we have, or may have at +any time in the future, to work for our own advancement, and for the +creation of a prosperous, virile, and independent nation.</p> + +<p>"That the people of Ireland are a free people, and that no law made +without their authority or consent is, or ever can be, binding on their +conscience.</p> + +<p>"That the General Council of County Councils presents the nucleus of a +National authority, and we urge upon it to extend the scope of its +deliberation and action; to take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> within its purview every question of +national interest, and to formulate lines of procedure for the nation.</p> + +<p>"That national self-development through the recognition of the duties +and rights of citizenship on the part of the individual and by the aid +and support of all movements originating from within Ireland, instinct +with national tradition and not looking outside Ireland for the +accomplishment of their aims, is vital to Ireland."</p> + +<p>Sinn Fein has been formed to re-establish a National Government in +Ireland, and, pending its establishment, advance that object by:—</p> + +<p>I. The introduction of a Protective System for Irish Industries and +Commerce by combined action of the Irish County Councils, Urban +Councils, Rural Councils, Poor Law Boards, Harbour Boards, and other +bodies directly responsible to the Irish people.</p> + +<p>II. The establishment and maintenance under the direction of the General +Council of County Councils or other authority approved by the people of +Ireland of an Irish Consular Service for the advancement of Irish +Commerce and Irish Interests generally.</p> + +<p>III. The re-establishment of an Irish Mercantile Marine to facilitate +direct trading between Ireland and the countries of Continental Europe, +America, Africa, and the Far East.</p> + +<p>IV. The General Survey of Ireland and the development of its mineral +resources, under the auspices of the General Council of County Councils +or other national authorities approved by the people of Ireland.</p> + +<p>V. The establishment of an Irish National Bank and a National Stock +Exchange under charter from the General Council of County Councils.</p> + +<p>VI. The creation of a National Civil Service embracing all the employees +of the County Councils, Rural Councils, Poor Law Boards, Harbour Boards, +and other bodies responsible to the Irish people, by the institution of +a common national qualifying examination and a local competitive +examination (the latter at the discretion of the local bodies).</p> + +<p>VII. The establishment of National Courts of Arbitration for the speedy +and satisfactory adjustment of disputes.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p><p>VIII. The establishment of a National System of Insurance of property +and individuals.</p> + +<p>IX. The control and management of transit by rail, road, and water, and +the control and management of waste lands for the national benefit by a +national authority approved by the people of Ireland.</p> + +<p>X. The control and management of the Irish sea fisheries by the General +Council of County Councils or other national authority approved by the +people of Ireland.</p> + +<p>XI. The reform of Education to render its basis national and industrial +by the compulsory teaching of the Irish Language, Irish History, and +Irish manufacturing and agricultural potentialities in the primary +system, and, in addition, in the University system the institution of +the degrees of Doctor of Agriculture and Doctor of National Economics.</p> + +<p>XII. The non-consumption so far as practicable of articles paying duty +to the British Exchequer.</p> + +<p>XIII. The withdrawal of all voluntary support to the British Armed +Forces.</p> + +<p>XIV. The non-recognition of the British Parliament as invested with +constitutional or moral authority to legislate for Ireland, and the +Annual Assembly in Dublin of persons elected by the voters of the Irish +cities and counties, and delegates from the County, County Borough, +Urban and Rural Councils and Poor Law and Harbour Boards to devise and +formulate measures for the benefit of the whole people of Ireland.</p> + +<p>XV. The abolition of the Poorhouse System and the substitution in its +stead of adequate outdoor relief to the aged and the infirm, and the +employment of the able-bodied in the reclamation of waste lands, +afforestation, and other National and reproductive works.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>At what precise point the Sinn Feiners became "Republicans" it is hard +to say, and it was the greatest mistake that they ever made—some will +say, perhaps, their only one—but it must have been due either to the +influence of Sir Roger Casement or James Connolly.</p> + +<p>Before this amalgamation it might have been said to have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> corresponded +in methods to the ideals of the English Fabians and Economists like +Sidney Webb and H. G. Wells.</p> + +<p>Had it proclaimed the motto "Put not your trust in soldiers" with the +same vigour as it had continuously preached "Put not your trust in +Parliamentarians," it would undoubtedly have become the party of the +future.</p> + +<p>It was, in fact, a protest against "oratory, oratory, oratory," and +preached a doctrine of "works, works, works," but with such vehemence as +to become, like everything else in Ireland, eventually political, and +when "Carsonism" became a recognized principle of legislation, military +from sheer necessity. It might have been said to have been the only +ideal truly national, in that it endeavoured to unite, and in many cases +did unite, Nationalist and Orangeman, and did this to such an extent as +to threaten to drain both parties, and consequently incurred their +jealousy.</p> + +<p>Not only were the distinctions of Catholic and Protestant abolished by +"Sinn Fein," but even those of Liberal and Conservative as well, and in +some cases landlord and tenant, master and man.</p> + +<p>To bring about this fusion an intellectual group arose, which was +gradually, as we have said, drawing to itself some of the best brains +and hearts of the nation, and these, working hand in hand with the +social reformers, brought abstract theories into touch with concrete +realities.</p> + +<p>So far so good: their only enemies were the official Parliamentarians, +but then, as their methods were diametrically opposed, this was only +what was to be expected.</p> + +<p>Both stood forth as rival means to an immediate end—the peace, unity, +and prosperity of Ireland—and with the advent of the Liberals, which +apparently was to give the Parliamentarians victory within the span of a +couple of years at most, the organization became a negligible quantity.</p> + +<p>Indeed, they voluntarily withdrew from opposition for fear it should be +said that in a moment of acute difficulty they had hampered any Irishman +in winning liberties for Ireland, and their daily newspaper was +withdrawn.</p> + +<p>As year after year passed, however, and Home Rule seemed to hang upon a +snap division, and its hypothetical results possibly hung up for another +generation, Sinn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> Feiners grew stronger and stronger as English +opposition to the Parliamentarians grew in strength, and they once more +reiterated their old principle that, Home Rule or no Home Rule, much +could be done by individual effort, and that eventually, even under +self-government, they would have to depend upon themselves alone, and +they pointed to the Hungarian example of national regeneration outside +politics.</p> + +<p>At the first they were not, strictly speaking, in opposition at all to, +but rather complementary of, the politicians; but the first moment that +Carson's followers began to arm, ostensibly against them both, there +arose a general cry from Nationalist Sinn Feiner and Gaelic Leaguer +alike, to take measures for self-defence, which gradually grew into a +volunteer organization on the lines already in force in Ulster.</p> + +<p>From the first it must be said that John Redmond was radically opposed +to any appeal to arms, even as a threat, staking all upon a +Constitutional movement.</p> + +<p>Hence in the winter of 1913-14 arose the first body of what were then +called Nationalist Volunteers, the leading spirits being Mr. Eoin +MacNeill, Professor of Irish in the National University, and Sir Roger +Casement.</p> + +<p>John Redmond was continually appealed to to come in with them, but as +often refused, until it became a certainty that Home Rule would be +placed upon the Statute Book, when he ultimately consented; but only on +condition that he had the nomination of half the controlling +committee—a demand which was somewhat resented.</p> + +<p>Strange enough, it was the <i>Irish Times</i> which criticized John Redmond +the most mercilessly of all for his attitude; and the passage is well +worth referring to (June 6, 1914), if only as a testimony to the +character both of the Irish leader and his opponents as well. The Sinn +Fein leaders were then "all that was best in the country," John Redmond +"all that was worst."</p> + +<p>When the war-cloud loomed up in the horizon of Europe, the Nationalist +Volunteers were indeed still one, though the opposition between the two +parties was still alive, but at this point a new phase was entered into.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p><p>John Redmond, it will be remembered, upon the declaration of +hostilities, at once offered the assistance of the Nationalist +Volunteers to defend the shores of Ireland. Possibly the Sinn Feiners +thought they smelt conscription and militarism in this, for not only did +they formally expel the Redmondites, but entered upon precisely the same +tactics in regard to the present war that the Parnellites adopted during +the South African War. This consisted in violent pro-German sentiments, +just as there had been pro-Boer sentiments a couple of decades ago. Like +the Parliamentarians of 1900, they laughed at the most extreme +sentiments of self-righteousness which at once came over the English +Press, in which "the hereditary foe of small nationalities" was suddenly +changed into "the champion of all honour, justice, and truth in the +world"—which was particularly galling, if not actually ludicrous, to a +race which was so obviously the negation of any such a claim—at least, +so thought the Sinn Fein element.</p> + +<p>As in those days, this spread to recruiting, and the <i>Hibernian</i> quoted +one of Joe Devlin's early poetic effusions which lucidly described the +miseries existent "where the Flag of England flies." <i>Honesty</i>, another +of the Mosquito Press, as it came to be called, quoted John Dillon's +Tralee speech of October 20, 1901, when he said: "I see there is a +gentleman coming over here looking for recruits for the Irish Guards, +and I hope you will put him out if he comes," which sentiments were +applied to Mike O'Leary by the Sinn Feiners of the South when he turned +up, and I myself saw the eyes plucked from his posters as I passed +Macroom. For Sir Roger Casement's attempt to form an Irish Brigade +another parallel was taken, this time from Mr. Patrick O'Brien's Dublin +speech of October 1, 1899, when he said "he would not say shame to the +Irishmen who belonged to British Regiments, because he had hopes that +... instead of firing on the Boers they would fire on the Englishmen. It +was encouraging to think that out in the Transvaal there was a body of +Irishmen ready and willing to go into the field against England."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the party which once held these views as "the immutable first +principles of Irish Nationalism" and was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> now so vigorously loyal and +energetically military, appeared to the Sinn Feiners to have changed its +ground, and thus to be betraying Ireland—quite forgetting that all the +while it was England that had to a large extent changed its attitude.</p> + +<p>Thus a passage in the <i>Irish Republic</i> pilloried them in a quotation +from Parnell. "Parnell," it said, "speaking at Limerick on the occasion +of his receiving the Freedom of that city, foretold the corruption and +demoralization which a prolonged stay at Westminster would effect in the +ranks of the Parliamentary Party in the following memorable words: 'I am +not one of those who believe in the permanence of an Irish Party in the +English Parliament. I feel convinced that sooner or later the influence +which every English Government has at its command—the powerful and +demoralizing influence—sooner or later will sap the best party you can +return to the House of Commons.'"</p> + +<p>As early as October 30, 1915, many Irishmen had begun to adopt the Sinn +Fein attitude in this matter so strongly that Gilbert Galbraith came out +with a striking leader in <i>Honesty</i>, which, referring to the famous +dictum of the defeated loyalists at the Battle of the Boyne—"Change +kings, and we'll fight the battle over again"—openly advocated the +change, if not of leaders, at least of the methods of leadership from +Redmondism to Carsonism. "In nearly every crisis of his bitter fight +with Redmond," said Gilbert Galbraith, "Carson had displayed the +qualities of a successful leader with strength of character and boldness +of resource, and Redmond those of a weak, temporizing Stuart, and no man +since Parnell had so browbeaten, insulted, and lashed with scorn the +British people."</p> + +<p>What the Sinn Feiners admired in Carson was his scrupulous honesty in +declaring what he wanted, and his gloriously unscrupulous determination +to see that he got it, and they called aloud that Nationalist Ireland +should find someone with the Ulster spirit to lead them.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact it was curiously like what actually occurred, for +they found those leaders in two other Ulster men, Connolly and Casement, +for Germany was merely their common tool—again a leaf out of the +Carsonite book.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p><p>Whence then came this link with Germany?</p> + +<p>It is modern, very modern indeed—in fact, contemporary, certainly +accidental. Sir Roger Casement had been abroad in the tropics most of +his life: he hated politics; he cannot speak German, and has had to have +all his negotiations done through translators and interpreters.</p> + +<p>His sympathy with Germany was based upon the conviction that until the +freedom of the seas had been established by England's naval downfall +Ireland was bound to remain in intellectual, moral, and political +vassalage; but that once Germany had broken the spell, Ireland could +then come freely forward among the nations of the earth, free and +unfettered to fulfill her destiny. He did not, as far as I can gather, +want England's downfall in itself, only Ireland's freedom: and on that +freedom he wished to establish the future peace of the world, bringing +Saxon and Teuton together as they are to-day together in the United +States through the medium of the Celt; for the Irishman can speak with +far more truth of his "German cousins" than the Englishman, at least in +America; and America was to count in Sir Roger Casement's dream of +world-politics. If the Clan-na-Gael did indeed forward German gold to +Ireland, it was with this aim, just as it was with this aim, it was +said, that the Irish in America had steadily opposed the break with +Germany.</p> + +<p>Now, it was never expected that Ireland would free herself in the coming +struggle, but there is a story current that he was supposed to have +obtained some guarantees—of what kind I could not find out—that in the +event of Germany winning Ireland would be mentioned at the peace +conference in the some category as Belgium and Poland when the principle +of the re-establishment of small nationalities came up for discussion, +but only upon one condition, and that was "that Ireland should rise and +be able to hold the Capital for a week."</p> + +<p>One can well imagine with what avidity such plans, with their reaction +upon the very delicate negotiations now going on at Washington, would be +received in Germany at the present moment. But his plans—or rather I +should say his dreams—appear to have been matured long before the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> war; +dreams dreamt in the solitude of the tropics when Europe still clasped +the illusion of universal peace.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>It was the Carson Volunteers that gave him the idea of the possibility +of a physical force movement. If Orangemen could drill, why not +Nationalists; if the planter could fight, why not the native; if the +hands of Government could be forced by threats and arms brought in under +their very eyes, why not take advantage of it; if war was inevitable +sooner or later, why not prepare?—any way, it would be as noble to die +for a race's emancipation as the privileges of an hereditary +officialdom.</p> + +<p>Plan for plan, and man for man, then followed the constitution of the +Irish Volunteers—Carsonism turned on Carson—and Germany "used" rather +than "served" in the interests of Ireland.</p> + +<p>When John Redmond, therefore, with the doubtful facility of oratory +attempted to explain away the whole rebellion with the insinuation that +the whole movement was the outcome of German gold, he must for the +moment have forgotten that he was talking to men who invariably looked +upon him as long ago bought up with American gold, and that he was +referring to his fellow-countrymen in a protest against a class he had +himself times out of number denounced as subsidized by English gold—and +Sir Roger Casement's denial of such an imputation as both insolent and +insulting was as true as it was dignified.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact the only thing German about the whole rebellion was +the "Prussianism" of the Castle, which was equally responsible for the +occurrence of the rising and these harsh methods of repression which +eventually—paradoxically enough—made it the moral success it has since +become in the hearts of Irishmen.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Cf. "Sir Roger Casement"—a character sketch without +prejudice, by L. G. Redmond-Howard. Dublin: Hodges & Figgis.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THE_SEVENTH" id="CHAPTER_THE_SEVENTH"></a>CHAPTER THE SEVENTH</h2> + +<h3>MINDS AND MEN</h3> + +<p>In considering any sudden yet organized popular movement, such as a +revolution, the most important things to examine are the minds and the +men that directed it, for it is only by means of these forces that +simmering discontents take definite shape and concrete determination.</p> + +<p>But it often happens that the characters of the leaders themselves and +even the objective remedies they propose are quite out of keeping with +the solution of the real grievances they complain of.</p> + +<p>Once given leadership, and confidence, fidelity, and sincerity follow +among the rank and file as naturally as water flows from a spring—being +the common factor of humanity—and this seems to have been the case in +the Sinn Fein rebellion of 1916.</p> + +<p>On the whole they had no reason to be ashamed of their leaders, though +they might have questioned their wisdom. Now, wickedness in the +political sense connotes the revolt against the organized authority of +the State—political foolishness, the utter impossibility of realizing a +practical aim. Naturally, therefore, the law was officially bound to +look upon them as a species of criminal lunatics. Public men, moreover, +were forced by the very theory of government to denounce them, in +consequence, as enemies, and call for the sternest penalties of +retribution known to the Constitution, in order that the individual's +fate might become an object-lesson to the mass.</p> + +<p>Once having granted this, however, the civilian mind is free to make the +inquiry—whether from morbid, scientific, dramatic, or emotional reasons +matters little—as to what manner of men these leaders were, and what +manner of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> minds gave the revolt its psychological aspect: but in that +inquiry no criterion of loyalty except that of fidelity to their own +personal convictions must be allowed to enter. Probably the most serious +mistake usually made by Irish politicians is that of classing successive +rebellions as the acts of traitors or martyrs, according to their +respective points of view, and certainly statesmen and thinkers could +make no greater error in diagnosing the present one.</p> + +<p>Rebellions are not the outcome of innate perversity of race, but purely +scientific phenomena with objective causes. First, then, let us examine +the men themselves who led the revolt, before we pass on to the +literature that informed and inspired it.</p> + +<p>Sir Roger Casement was not the founder of "Sinn Fein," nor was he the +originator of the Labour Movement in Ireland: he found both ready-made +and used them to serve his own ideals for the future of Ireland and thus +can be termed a leader.</p> + +<p>Sir Roger Casement is an Ulsterman of the old type that was the backbone +of the Rebellion of '98, when the Presbyterians of the North tried to +emulate those English and Irish exiles who, persecuted out of their +native shores by High Church tyranny, had laid the foundations of +American liberty under Washington.</p> + +<p>That he is a man of character, and not the "bounder and scoundrel" the +Press now makes him out to be, goes without saying, or otherwise he +would not have received the honour of a title at the hands of a grateful +country: in fact, until his entrance into the troubled waters of Irish +politics he was one of the most universally respected of our civil +servants.</p> + +<p>For ten years, from 1895 to 1905, for example, he was in the wilds of +Africa, for the greater portion of his sojourn as Consul in Portuguese +West Africa and then later in the Congo Free State.</p> + +<p>After this he was sent to South America, and in 1909 he was appointed +Consul-General at Rio de Janeiro. So trusted was he that when the +British Government wished to investigate the labour atrocities on the +Indians in the rubber forests of Peru, they chose Sir Roger Casement; +and when his report was printed in 1912 it caused the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>profoundest stir, +not merely in England, but throughout the civilized world.</p> + +<p>This was surely a man of character and above the ordinary temptations of +bribery, or else he would not in 1905 have received the C.M.G. and in +1911 knighthood—moreover, he was a man who may be said to have had +ample opportunity of getting outside the narrow groove of Irish politics +and seeing something of the Empire.</p> + +<p>Yet while Irish politics had been moving with tremendous rapidity during +his absence—the fateful years between 1895-1905—Sir Roger Casement +seems never to have got beyond the Ulster of 1798—which I need hardly +remind anyone conversant with history was as rebellious to England as +was Wexford under Cromwell.</p> + +<p>This <i>idée fixe</i> began to appear at once upon his return to Ireland in +the year 1913, when he found politics in a chaos of ferment, and seeing +Sir Edward Carson preparing to appeal to arms and his supporters to +Germany, he too "began to indulge in treason in the same spirit as +Carson and the Curragh crew," as he himself described his attitude of +that time.</p> + +<p>Possibly Germany was equally willing to sell her old rifles to both +parties, but the war precipitated matters.</p> + +<p>Autumn 1914 found Sir Roger (who, as we have already seen, had founded a +body of volunteers in Ireland) in Berlin, where he was not only received +at the German Foreign Office, but, in answer to an inquiry regarding the +Kaiser's attitude to Ireland, was assured by the Foreign Department and +the Imperial Chancellor that "Germany would never invade Ireland with +the object of conquering it," and that, "supposing the fortune of war +should ever bring German troops to Ireland's coasts, they would land as +the forces of a Government inspired by goodwill towards a land and a +people for whom Germany only wishes national welfare and national +freedom." That he was not acting in any way as the representative of the +nation whose ambassador he was supposed to be was amply proved by his +repudiation after this adventure by the Irish leaders at home and such +bodies as the Council of the United Irish League in America.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p><p>Such was the dream or delusion, however, which changed one of the most +respected of British Consuls into a rebel traitor to the Empire. There +is no need to insinuate selfishness or vilify his character, for he must +have known his effort was bound to fail and counted the cost beforehand. +The great point to remember is that the Irish people were free to make +their choice and use their judgment, and they decided against him, not +personally, but on the merits of the case he put before them, and there +was nothing to do but to pay the penalty; and it is better on the whole +for Englishmen to accept Ireland's own verdict upon Sir Roger Casement +than to place him in the same rank as those who really represented +Ireland against England, failed, and paid the price only too willingly.</p> + +<p>The same might apply equally well to P. H. Pearse and James Connolly, +neither of whom was by nature militant nor, indeed, "Separatist," save +as a protest against not so much the theory as the reality of what went +by the name of "Unionism." There seems a certain tendency among the +middle classes and the mediocrities of mind in Ireland to class, ever +since the days of Jim Larkin, the whole Labour Movement in Ireland as a +species of hooliganism, though, strange to say, no one ever appealed +more successfully or was received with more genuine enthusiasm in +England than the socialist leader when he was pleading the cause of the +children of the Dublin slums.</p> + +<p>When Jim Larkin went to America, his mantle fell upon his right-hand +man, James Connolly, and it is impossible to understand the rebellion +without understanding the man who was a far more important, and will be +a far more lasting, factor in the movement than Sir Roger Casement.</p> + +<p>Casement used the magic hope of German help, but it was Connolly who +pointed to the concrete grievances that would make any rebellion welcome +to the workers.</p> + +<p>Yet there was nothing of the wild dreamer or the hysterical patriot +about James Connolly, the Ulster organizer of the Transport Union, much +less anything of the hooligan.</p> + +<p>His proper place should have been within the ranks of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> the Parliamentary +Party, like so many of the other leaders, especially the Sinn Feiners; +and it is a very significant fact that, in spite of their national +claims, two of the greatest economic movements Ireland has seen since +Parnell should have failed to be assimilated by the politicians—but it +reflects as much upon one as the other.</p> + +<p>Probably when he wrote his last work, a pamphlet entitled "The +Reconquest of Ireland," which was printed at Liberty Hall early in 1915, +he had no idea that it would mean anything more than an upward economic +struggle of the submerged classes.</p> + +<p>"The Labour Movement of Ireland," he wrote, "must set itself the +Reconquest of Ireland as its final aim," and by the word "reconquest" of +Ireland he means "the taking possession of the entire country, all its +powers of wealth, production, and its natural resources, and organizing +these on a co-operative basis for the good of all."</p> + +<p>It is significant that there is no religious or political bigotry: the +movement is right outside both Carsonism and Redmondism, as indeed their +new flag, with its significant colours—green, white, and +orange—symbolizes; and he repeats the hope of the United Irishmen at +the end of the eighteenth century, "that our animosities were buried +with the bones of our ancestors and that we could unite as citizens and +claim the rights of man"—the first of which is to be able to live +freely, that is, with the means of life no longer the property of a +class.</p> + +<p>He had, in fact, realized "that the old lines of political demarcation +no longer served to express any reality in the lives of the people." If +anything, the new movement was antagonistic to them all, for in the +summing-up he had observed: "In the great Dublin lock-out of 1913-14, +the manner in which the Dublin employers, overwhelmingly Unionist, +received the enthusiastic and unscrupulous support of the entire Home +Rule Press was a foretaste of the possibilities of the new combinations +with which Labour in Ireland will have to reckon."</p> + +<p>As I read all this once again during the height of the rebellion, with +the rattle of the maxims playing upon Boland's mills immediately behind +me, where a couple of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> hundred of the men he had described were now +fighting Labour's first war under the name of an Irish Republic, at once +the whole aspect of the rebellion changed.</p> + +<p>I still wondered, however, why it was that he had left the company of +Wells and Webb and Booth, who were but his English counterparts after +all, and the general policy of Fabianism, when I suddenly discovered the +key not only to the man but to the movement as well, in his definition +of prophecy: "The only true prophets are they who carve out the future +which they announce."</p> + +<p>This, then, was the key to it all. Every dreamer should also be a man of +action, every soldier a volunteer to his own idealism; and at once I +understood that strange combination between the "intellectuals" and the +"workers" which formed such a unique feature of the rebellion, and which +the prosperous citizens of Dublin—penned up in their houses for the +first time hungry, and for the first time aware of the reality of life's +struggle—could only blindly mass together under the name of "criminal +lunatics," like the anarchists of Sidney Street in London some years +before.</p> + +<p>Much less could the pink-faced Derby boys understand—and so I suppose +thought, because the crisis had synchronized with the European war and +was aimed at a state of things tolerated by English rule, it was +therefore only another indication of Ireland's double dose of original +sin, which always drove her to disloyalty to her benefactor.</p> + +<p>Dr. O'Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick, one of the ablest as well as the most +independent thinkers in Ireland, has been mentioned as one of the forces +of the rebellion—in fact, he was generally supposed to be one of the +marked men of the Fein programme of suppression, being considered more +dangerous to the realm than Connolly—in a word, he was looked upon as a +red-hot Sinn Feiner. Yet if his famous Lenten pastoral be examined one +will find it merely the broad Christian aspect of the war—nor would the +cynical diplomatist, if we could get him to be candid, say he was far +wrong in his facts.</p> + +<p>Thus, for example, speaking of the only possible result of the +prolongation of the war to final victory for either party, he says:—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p><p>"No one can foresee even the smallest part of the consequences of this +war. One thing, however, is certain, that it will leave the world in a +condition of the direst poverty. The destruction of capital is enormous, +not in one country, but in all of them. If the war ceased to-morrow it +would have impoverished all Europe beyond recovery for generations, but +that poverty, by itself, will probably be the least of its evils. It +will mean the paralysis of industry, the restriction of commerce, +unemployment on a scale that has never been known before, and it is an +anxious question how a hitherto powerful, well-paid, well-organized +population of workers will submit to the altered state of things. We +have had, from time to time, some ugly threatenings of socialism, but we +may fear that they are no more than the first mutterings of the storm +which will burst upon European society as soon as this war is over.</p> + +<p>"This terrible danger, which may be on us within the next three or four +years, may well be worse than the war itself, and deluge Europe again in +blood. If anyone thinks that millions of working men, trained to arms in +every country in Europe, will settle down peaceably to starvation in +order to help to re-amass fortunes for their 'betters,' he may have a +rude awakening."</p> + +<p>It is his attitude towards England, however, that has brought him into +conflict with the recruiting authorities—yet what is the following +passage, taken from his famous Lenten pastoral, but the purely Catholic +attitude of a bishop who looks to the head of his Church for guidance, +and seeing the Papacy neutral on the chaos, tries to keep the war fever +from spreading to his own flock, for, after all, he spoke as a +Churchman, not as a politician.</p> + +<p>I think it is now universally admitted that Belgium was not the sole +reason of our entrance, as it will not be the sole reason of our +continuance, in the war; in a word, that it is really "British +interests" that are at stake.</p> + +<p>The learned Irish Bishop merely puts the case in so many words—had we +not been engaged, the <i>Times</i> might have said, "with the impartiality of +the blunt, plain-speaking Englishman."</p> + +<p>He writes: "Then see the case of the small nationalities<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> on whose +behalf many people have believed that the war is being waged.</p> + +<p>"What good has it done for them? What part have they played in it except +that of catspaws for the larger nations that used them? Belgium delayed +the German advance for two weeks and gave time to the English and French +armies to rally. For her pains she has been conquered and ruined. Servia +began the war by an atrocious crime, and as reparation for it might +weaken Russia's aims in the Balkans, she was encouraged to resist. She, +too, has played her temporary rôle and has followed in the wake of +Belgium. Montenegro is the next to go; and it would seem that the great +belligerent nations look to themselves only, and use their weaker +neighbours for their own purposes. This war is not waged by any of the +great Powers as a quixotic enterprise for lofty ideals. 'Small +nationalities' and other such sentimental pretexts are good enough for +platform addresses to an imaginative but uninformed people, but they do +not reveal the true inwardness of this war. All the belligerents have +had practical and substantial aims in view. France wants her lost +provinces of Alsace and Lorraine; Russia wants Constantinople; England +wants the undisputed supremacy of the sea and riddance from German +commercial rivalry; Austria wants domination in the Balkans and an +outlet on the Ægean; Italy wants Trieste and what is called <i>Italia +irredenta</i>; Germany wants a colonial empire and a powerful navy; and all +these Powers have formed alliances and laid their plans for many a day, +simply for the realization of their respective purposes.</p> + +<p>"They planned and schemed solely for the sake of power and material +gain. All the talk about righteousness is simply the cloak for ambition, +and the worst of it is, that some of the belligerents have gone on +repeating the profession of their disinterestedness until they have come +to believe it themselves.</p> + +<p>"Truth, and right, and justice have had very little to say to this war, +which is an outbreak of materialism and irreligion. The peoples did not +want this war; there is no hatred of one another amongst them: but the +governing cliques in each country have led or driven them like sheep<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> to +the slaughter. God has been ignored; His law has been put aside; +Christianity is not allowed to govern the relations of nations. And now +the retribution is on them all. The fair dreams of victory and expanded +empire and increased wealth and prosperity with which they set out have +vanished long ago, and there is not a Government amongst them but is +trembling for the day when it shall have to answer for its stewardship +to its own people. If they knew as much in July 1914 as they do now, +which of them would have plunged into war? And probably if the war goes +on for another year they will curse the cowardice which kept them from +manfully facing the problem of peace, for which every principle of +religion and humanity, every interest, social, material, and political, +of their countries, calls aloud."</p> + +<p>All this, of course, goes to disprove that the Bishop of Limerick was a +Sinn Feiner, but it also goes to prove that one cannot shake the +foundations of international relations without stirring internal +conditions to their very depths.</p> + +<p>The clergy, however, were upon the whole, as they always are, with the +Government, as was instanced in a hundred different cases during the +rebellion.</p> + +<p>Two of the leaders were typical of the old Fenians of darker days. One +was Thomas Clarke, who earned his living by running a newsagent's and +tobacconist's shop, but who was also engaged a lot in writing for many +of the minor newspapers which were responsible for much of the +propaganda which prepared the way for the rising.</p> + +<p>The other—better known especially in the days of the South African War, +when he was, like Colonel Lynch, one of the Nationalist heroes—was +"Major" John McBride, who had actually raised an Irish Brigade to fight +for the Boers against the British, and who must consequently have felt a +very kindred spirit in Sir Roger Casement, who was merely repeating his +tactics.</p> + +<p>It shows how much Irish politics have progressed, however, that while +all Nationalist Ireland is now watching the trial for high treason of +Sir Roger Casement with indifference, the Nationalists of those days +nominated McBride as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> Parliamentary candidate for South Mayo when a +vacancy occurred by the resignation of Mr. Davitt.</p> + +<p>He was at the time of the rising engaged as an official of the Dublin +Corporation, and had been married to—and divorced from—Miss Maud +Gonne, a patriot of much the same type as the Countess Markievicz.</p> + +<p>It was he who had conducted the fight at Jacobs's factory.</p> + +<p>McBride was really the one link between the two wars—the Anglo-Boer and +the Anglo-German War, to use a Sinn Fein phrase—and if his later +attitude was now impracticable, it was certainly logical and consistent +with itself.</p> + +<p>The main difference, however, was in the circumstances, and these he, +like many others, refused to admit had changed.</p> + +<p>Thus ten years before he had gone to Paris as one of the delegates from +the Irish Transvaal Committee to ex-President Kruger, who told him that +"he would never forget how the Irish Brigade stood by the men of the +Transvaal in their hour of need."</p> + +<p>Captain William Redmond, M.P., now in the trenches with the British +Army, had also been a delegate from Ireland, and had seen Oom Paul at +the Hague in much the same spirit of sympathy; but then Home Rule was +not upon the Statute Book, and if that "scrap of paper" bound England, +it was certainly no less binding upon Ireland, in that it had been +freely entered into by her constitutional representatives.</p> + +<p>Probably McBride thought of the motto inscribed upon the flag that the +Irish Brigade had used (later presented him by one of the officials of +the Boer Republic), which ran:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div>"'Tis better to have fought and lost</div> +<div>Than never to have fought at all."</div> +</div></div> + +<p>In any case his attitude remained exactly what it had been in 1909, when +at the Manchester Martyr celebration he had appealed to his audience +never to degrade themselves by entering the British Army, telling them +that if ever they wished to fight they ought to wait for the prospect of +a German invasion of Ireland.</p> + +<p>One of the strangest figures in the rebel ranks was that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>of the famous +Countess Markievicz—formerly a Miss Gore-Booth, daughter of Sir H. W. +Gore-Booth, the head of a well-known and respected Sligo family of +Cromwellian descent.</p> + +<p>It was while in Paris as an art student some fifteen years ago that she +imbibed those extreme principles of democracy—almost, one might say, +anarchy—with which her name became associated on her return to Dublin +after her marriage with a young Polish artist named Count Marckievicz.</p> + +<p>Presented at Court, she was not fond of the conventional "society" +circles of the Irish capital, and lived for the most part a Bohemian +life of her own, becoming notorious by her extreme socialistic opinions.</p> + +<p>During the Larkin crisis, when the transport workers and dockers went +out on strike, she opened a "soup kitchen" at Liberty Hall.</p> + +<p>She was also responsible for the organization of the "National Boy +Scouts," an Irish replica of the English original, with a political +bias, of course; and these soon attracted hundreds of Dublin lads, and +from time to time the Countess would give them lectures and hold reviews +and inspections.</p> + +<p>These formed a considerable portion of the Citizen Army, and were +probably the most violent of those elements in the Republic who +disgraced the otherwise remarkable "military" combat.</p> + +<p>One remark of the Countess's is very typical of both her temper and her +temperament, and in a way prophetic.</p> + +<p>It was supposed to have been said to a local Dundalk man, and was to the +effect that if she could only shoot one British soldier she would die +happy—a wish she must certainly have realized, for she was continually +seen with a small rifle in her hand, and, according to a rumour, +actually did shoot one on Stephen's Green.</p> + +<p>Eoin McNeill, the able editor of the <i>Irish Volunteer</i>, is another +interesting character, not only in view of the part he had taken to +raise the revolutionary army, but also for the way, to use the words of +John Dillon, "he broke its back" when he found out that they were to +rise on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> that fatal Easter Monday—though this did not save him from the +vengeance of the law.</p> + +<p>In striking contrast to the rather vapid sentimentalism and abstract +theorizing of many of the periodicals controlled by the Sinn Feiners was +his own sheet, the <i>Irish Volunteer</i>. It was the most practical of all +the periodicals, and, beyond ordinary editorials and topical articles, +always contained "Orders for the Week," which included night classes and +lectures and drills, while diagrams of trenches and earthworks appeared +which covered the whole of Ireland.</p> + +<p>It is only when looking back over past numbers, with their articles on +night operations, local guides, reconnoitring, organization of +transports, reserves, signalling, and so forth, that one sees how it is +that they were able to hold up Dublin for a solid week; but Eoin McNeill +owed his inspiration entirely to the men of Ulster.</p> + +<p>Some of the men, on the other hand, were of the gentlest disposition. No +one, for example, could be more the antithesis of the revolutionary in +real life than P. H. Pearse, President and Commander-in-Chief of the +Republican Army. Indeed, according to one account he was to have +replaced Dr. Mahaffy as Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, in the event +of the rising proving successful. Pearse was not even an Irishman, being +the son of an English convert to Catholicism who had emigrated to +Ireland, but he was an enthusiastic Gaelic scholar, and there was +nothing he loved better than wandering among the peasantry of Galway and +Connemara, while in his own establishment all the servants spoke Irish +fluently.</p> + +<p>Though he had at one time intended taking up journalism, and was even +called to the Bar, he was both by profession and inclination an +educationalist, being especially keen on the study of continental +methods of education, such as those of Belgium and Germany.</p> + +<p>He conducted a secondary boarding school for boys, where all the walls +were decorated with the works of modern Irish artists, such as Jack +Yeats and George W. Russell. He later, in order to give vent to his +views, developed a gift for oratory, his oration at the grave of +O'Donovan Rossa having stirred all Ireland. He was also the author<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> of a +charming little volume of short stories entitled "Josagan," or "Little +Jesus," while his translations of Irish folk-lore and cradle songs were +equally delicate.</p> + +<p>Crowds of the victims, in fact, were men of character, talent, and +eminence—numerous writers, journalists, poets, authors, professors; but +all were classed in the same category of felons.</p> + +<p>Indeed, it has been said that the blow was aimed as much at the freedom +of the Press and the liberty of thought as the actual rising in arms; +but as the majority of the sentiments maintained were but repetitions of +the muzzled grievances of labour and thought in England, the effect will +undoubtedly react through British democracy upon the heads of those who +took advantage of the racial prejudice to crush out of opposition.</p> + +<p>Thus John MacDermot, one of the signatories of the rebel proclamation, +was editor of a paper called <i>Freedom</i>, and had already served a term of +imprisonment for speeches which had been interpreted as prejudicial to +recruiting. Edward de Valera, who commanded at Boland's mill, and who +was sentenced to penal servitude for life, had been a professor in +Blackrock College. W. O'Clery Curtis, who was deported, was a +journalist, and Arthur Griffiths the able editor of the <i>Irish +Year-book</i>.</p> + +<p>Then came the disciples of the muses. Thomas MacDonagh seems to have +been always more or less haunted with the vision of revolution, and as +early as eight years ago produced a play entitled "When the Dawn is +Come," though the insurrection it foretold was placed fifty years hence.</p> + +<p>He, too, wrote poetry, like Pearse, under whom he was at school, but he +was better known and his verse of a higher standard. He seems almost to +have had an inkling of his future fate, and might also be said to have +deliberately chosen the lost cause of his heart, for, in one of his +earlier poems, entitled "The War Legacy," we find the following:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div>Far better War's battering breeze than the Peace that barters the Past,</div> +<div class="i1">Better the fear of our fathers' God than friendship false with their foe:</div> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span><div>And better anointed Death than the Nation's damnation at last,</div> +<div class="i1">And the crawling of craven limbs in life and the curse of the coward below.</div> +</div></div> + +<p>Among his publications are "Songs of Myself" (Hodges, Figgis & Co.), +"Thomas Campion" (Hodges, Figgis & Co.), and a larger volume of "Lyrical +Poems," reprinted by the <i>Irish Review</i>.</p> + +<p>At the time of his death he was Lecturer in English Literature at the +National University.</p> + +<p>Probably one of the most pathetic figures of the whole revolt was that +of young Joseph Plunkett, the son of Count Plunkett, whose marriage upon +the morn of his execution sent such a thrill of romance through the +English-speaking world when it became announced.</p> + +<p>He too was a poet, and at one time the editor of the <i>Irish Review</i>, now +no more, and he was also a contributor to the <i>Academy</i> and the <i>Dublin +Review</i>.</p> + +<p>A little volume entitled "The Circle and the Sword," published by +Maunsel, is dedicated to his fellow-rebel, Thomas MacDonagh.</p> + +<p>One poem among them is especially significant and is entitled "1867," +but one feels inclined to call it 1916, for it might have been written +yesterday, as he blindfold faced the levelled rifles:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div>All our best ye have branded</div> +<div>When the people were choosing them.</div> +<div>When 'twas death they demanded,</div> +<div>Ye laughed! ye were losing them.</div> +<div>But the blood that ye spilt in the night</div> +<div>Crieth loudly to God,</div> +<div>And their name hath the strength and the might</div> +<div>Of a sword for the sod.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="center">* * * * *</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div>In the days of our doom and our dread</div> +<div>Ye were cruel and callous.</div> +<div>Grim Death with our fighters ye fed</div> +<div>Through the jaws of your gallows.</div> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span><div>But a blasting and blight was the fee</div> +<div>For which ye had bartered them.</div> +<div>And we smite with the sword that from ye</div> +<div>We had gained when ye martyred them!</div> +</div></div> + +<p>It is probably by the romance of his last hours, however, that he will +be most remembered.</p> + +<p>"Late on Wednesday night," as Mr. Stoker, the Grafton Street jeweller +already mentioned, told me the story, "just as I was about to go home, +suddenly a taxi stopped at the shop door, and a beautiful young woman +stepped out and asked me to show her some wedding-rings—'the best,' as +she put it, 'that money could buy.'</p> + +<p>"She had a thick veil, but I could see that her eyes were red with +weeping, and, noticing continued convulsive sobs as she spoke, I +ventured to ask her the reason.</p> + +<p>"It was then that she revealed the terrible tragedy she was about to +suffer.</p> + +<p>"'I am poor Joe Plunkett's—the rebel's—fiancée,' she said, 'and we are +to be married in prison to-morrow morning, an hour before his +execution.'</p> + +<p>"I tell you it was the most pathetic thing I had ever heard in my life," +continued the jeweller; "and I felt inclined to break down myself when +she added: 'Oh! I can't tell you how I love him and how he loves me; we +belong to each other, and even if we are only to be together for a +single hour I mean to marry him in spite of everybody, in order to bear +his name through life.'"</p> + +<p>The young woman at once stepped into the same category as Sarah Curran, +poor Robert Emmet's sweetheart, in the heart of everyone in Dublin as +the story went round like lightning, but no one knew who she was until +the next day, when we heard that she was Grace Gifford, the beautiful +and gifted young art student whose portrait by William Orpen, entitled +"Young Ireland," had won the admiration of all London a few years +before.</p> + +<p>Not all the character and talent and romance of these leaders, however, +would have been sufficient to launch Ireland into open rebellion had +there not been some concrete grievance as well which gave their words +objective worth.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p><p>Style alone makes no martyrs, and the best way to understand the +influence these men had upon their followers is to study the concrete +grievances which they preached in season and out of season, making +revolution not only sound plausible but actually practicable; and for +this we must turn to the literature, which explains the remoter home +causes of the rebellion.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THE_EIGHTH" id="CHAPTER_THE_EIGHTH"></a>CHAPTER THE EIGHTH</h2> + +<h3>REMOTER CAUSES OF THE REBELLION</h3> + +<p>Those who think they can explain away the Sinn Fein rising of 1916 by +the factor of German gold make much the same mistake as those who were +so anxious to explain away the Home Rule movement by American dollars. +The fact of the matter is, great movements and national uprisings should +not be explained away: they should be, on the contrary, amplified, +emphasized, and deeply studied.</p> + +<p>I remember on one occasion the late W. T. Stead, when he was helping me +with the biography of my uncle, Mr. John Redmond, emphasizing upon me +the tremendous importance of the study of Irish problems to an Empire +like ours, where nearly every one of its component nations is a +repetition of Ireland.</p> + +<p>"We have made every mistake we could possibly make as a ruling race in +our government of you Irish," he said to me, "and we cannot, as we love +and wish to keep our Empire, continue to perpetuate them.</p> + +<p>"We can keep Ireland down if we like by force of arms, but we shall +never be able to keep our Empire by the same means, and that is why it +is so important that with such an object-lesson at our very doors we +should be ever prepared to study how conquered or incorporated nations +look upon our rule.</p> + +<p>"That rule may be a protection, and it should be, but our stupidity can +make it a yoke; yet of this we can be certain, that what fails to win +friendship and respect in Ireland will fail to win security for our +Empire when we employ those methods on nations who have it in their +power to say us nay."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p><p>In other words, as long as the suppression has only been a military +suppression it has been no suppression at all; any more than a delirious +patient who is drugged or held down by force by a couple of hospital +porters is cured by that expedient.</p> + +<p>Moreover, all such expedients are necessarily merely temporary, and what +we want to get at are the root causes of the complaint.</p> + +<p>We must therefore fully diagnose those grievances of which the rebellion +was only the outward symptom, and against which the Republic was more, +after all, a symbolic protest than anything else; it was no more really +intended to establish a Celtic Commonwealth than Sir Edward Carson's +army was to change a Province into a Kingdom. Both were <i>façons de +parler</i>, and the word "provisional" saved them from ridicule they would +otherwise have deserved.</p> + +<p>I remember speaking to a prominent Sinn Feiner only a couple of days +before the revolt with a view to writing an article on the Volunteers, +and this is what he said:—</p> + +<p>"It would be very difficult for anyone to write anything just at +present, for things are trembling in the balance. There is a most +tremendous battle going on at the present moment at the Castle, we +understand, between General Friend and Augustine Birrell—in other +words, between the military and the civil authorities—and everything +depends upon that issue.</p> + +<p>"They want to take away our arms, for example, and not those of Redmond +or Carson, and the latter will stand by and see it done without a word; +but we know that's only the thin end of the wedge of the complete +subjugation of Ireland to the soldier, as in the days of Cromwell, and +even if we stand alone we will stop that.</p> + +<p>"They don't half of them know a tenth of our power; even people in +Ireland don't realize it. We are completely organized and perfectly +equipped, far better even than the Ulster Volunteers are, and they will +find out their mistake when they try.</p> + +<p>"They've made two attempts already, in a hole-and-corner sort of way, at +the Gaelic Press and at Liberty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> Hall, and the police found themselves +looking into the barrels of revolvers each time. Well, all I can say is, +when the day comes and they determine to strike—and we'll get wind of +it—you may depend upon it the whole world will get a surprise; it will +be like nothing else in Irish history for seven hundred years.</p> + +<p>"We have our supplies at regular intervals, and our local commanders, +with each province fully organized under them, and a complete system of +code messages which never go through the post, but are distributed by +means of secret dispatch-riders, and if the signal went forth to-night, +to-morrow morning the whole of Ireland would be up in arms."</p> + +<p>All of which, I need hardly say, I took—as everyone in my place would +have taken it—<i>cum grano salis</i>, but it all came back to me the moment +I heard the first shot. Especially did it flash across my mind when, +bringing back to Dun's Hospital a dead Sinn Feiner, the famous document +fell out of his pocket, which is strikingly similar in thought to my +friend's prognostications.</p> + +<p>According to Alderman Kelly, speaking on the Thursday before the +outbreak in the Dublin Corporation, some such order had been "recently +addressed to and was on the files of Dublin Castle," according to which +the arrest of all the leaders of the Irish Volunteers, together with the +members of the Sinn Fein Council, the Executive Committee of the +National (Redmondite) Volunteers, and the Executive Committee of the +Gaelic League, had been sanctioned.</p> + +<p>Probably, however, the best diagnosis of the situation immediately +preceding the outbreak was the letter published by the <i>New Statesman</i> +of May 6th, that had been written as early as April 7th, and which, +coming from the most eminent victim of the danger so clearly foreseen by +him, must have special force at the present moment.</p> + +<p>It was from no less than F. Sheehy Skeffington.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—The situation in Ireland is extremely grave. Thanks to the +silence of the daily Press, the military authorities are pursuing their +Prussian plans in Ireland unobserved by the British public; and, when +the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>explosion which they have provoked occurs, they will endeavour to +delude the British public as to where the responsibility lies. I write +in the hope that, despite war-fever, there may be enough sanity and +common sense left to restrain the militarists while there is yet time.</p> + +<p>"I will not take up your space by recounting the events that have led up +to the present situation—the two years' immunity accorded to Sir Edward +Carson's Volunteers in their defiant illegalities, the systematic +persecution of the Irish Volunteers <i>from the moment of their formation</i> +(<i>nine months before the war</i>), the militarist provocations, raids on +printing offices, arbitrary deportations, and savage sentences which +have punctuated Mr. Redmond's recruiting appeals for the past eighteen +months. As a result of this recent series of events, Irish Nationalist +and Labour opinion is now in a state of extreme exasperation. Recruiting +for the British Army is dead; recruiting for the Irish Volunteers has, +for the moment, almost reached the mark of one thousand per week—which +is Lord Wimborne's demand for the British Army. A special stimulus has +been given to the Irish Volunteer movement by the arrest and threatened +forcible deportation (at the moment of writing it is still uncertain +whether the threat will be carried out) of two of its most active +organizers.</p> + +<p>"There are two distinct danger-points in the position. In the first +place, the Irish Volunteers are prepared, if any attempt is made +forcibly to disarm them, to resist, and to defend their rifles with +their lives. In the second place, the Irish Citizen Army (the Labour +Volunteers) are prepared to offer similar resistance, not only to +disarmament, but to any attack upon the Press which turns out the +<i>Workers' Republic</i>—successor to the suppressed <i>Irish Worker</i>—which +is printed in Liberty Hall.</p> + +<p>"There is no bluff in either case. That was shown (1) in Tullamore on +March 20th, when an attempt at disarming the small local corps of Irish +Volunteers was met with revolver shots and a policeman was +wounded—fortunately not seriously; (2) in Dublin, on March 24th and +following days, when, at the rumour of an intended raid on the <i>Workers' +Republic</i>, the Irish Citizen Army stood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> guard night and day in Liberty +Hall—many of them having thrown up their jobs to answer promptly the +mobilization order—armed and prepared to sell their lives dearly. The +British military authorities in Ireland know perfectly well that the +members of both these organizations are earnest, determined men. If, +knowing this, General Friend and his subordinate militarists proceed +either to disarm the Volunteers or to raid the Labour Press, it can only +be because they <i>want</i> bloodshed—because they want to provoke another +'98, and to get an excuse for a machine-gun massacre.</p> + +<p>"Irish pacifists who have watched the situation closely are convinced +that this is precisely what the militarists do want. The younger English +officers in Dublin make no secret of their eagerness 'to have a whack at +the Sinn Feiners'; they would much rather fight them than the +Germans.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> They are spurred on by the Carson-Northcliffe +conscriptionist gang in London. On April 5th the <i>Morning Post</i> +vehemently demanded the suppression of the <i>Workers' Republic</i>; on April +6th a question was put down in the House of Commons urging Mr. Birrell +to disarm the Irish Volunteers. These gentry know well the precise +points where a pogrom can most easily be started.</p> + +<p>"Twice already General Friend has been on the point of setting Ireland +in a blaze—once last November, when he had a warrant made out for the +arrest of Bishop O'Dwyer, of Limerick; once on March 25th, when he had a +detachment of soldiers with machine guns in readiness to raid Liberty +Hall. In both cases Mr. Birrell intervened in the nick of time, and +decisively vetoed the militarist plans. But some day Mr. Birrell may be +overborne or may intervene too late. Then, once bloodshed is started in +Ireland, who can say where or how it will end?</p> + +<p>"In the midst of world-wide carnage, bloodshed in our little island may +seem a trivial thing. The wiping out of all the Irish Nationalist and +Labour Volunteers would hardly involve as much slaughter as the single +battle of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> Loos. Doubtless that is the military calculation—that their +crime may be overlooked in a world of criminals. Accordingly, the nearer +peace comes, the more eager will they be to force a conflict before +their chance vanishes. Is there in Great Britain enough real sympathy +with Small Nationalities, enough real hatred of militarism, to frustrate +this Pogrom Plot of British Militarist Junkerdom?</p> + +<p class="center">"Yours, etc.,</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">F. Sheehy Skeffington</span>."</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>Personally, I think I can diagnose the rebellion into ten perfectly +distinct factors, but by far the least of them all is Germany. Germany +was the personal note which Sir Roger Casement brought in, and which +left it with his failure. It was accidental and extraneous both to the +Sinn Fein Volunteers and the Citizen Army, though both were willing to +make use of it.</p> + +<p>Anyone who has taken the trouble to peruse the literature which fed the +movement will recognize these diverse elements under various forms which +appear in different places, but they are perfectly distinct.</p> + +<p>The most immediate cause was the undoubted intention of the authorities +to disarm them—a threat which had been overhanging them for some time, +and which, in view of the well-known leniency of the Government with +regard both to Sir Edward Carson and John Redmond in the same matter, +struck them as particularly unjust, the more so perhaps because both +Sinn Feiners and Larkinites thought that the Nationalists and the +Orangemen would be only too glad to combine with the Government against +them if need be.</p> + +<p>Thus, if we take the issue of the <i>Workers' Republic</i> of April 22, 1916, +we find an account, quoted from the <i>Liverpool Courier</i>, of how +Connolly, the Commandant of the Citizens' Army, stopped the police raid, +in search of papers, on the shop of the Workers' Co-operative Society at +31, Eden Quay, having been informed of their intention.</p> + +<p>"Connolly," says the account, "arrived on the scene just as one of the +police got in behind the counter. Inquiring if the police had any search +warrant, they answered that they had not. On hearing this, Mr. Connolly, +turning to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> the policeman behind the counter as he had lifted up a +bundle of papers, covered him with an automatic pistol, and quietly +said: 'Then drop those papers, or I'll drop you.' He dropped the papers. +Then he was ordered out from behind the counter, and he cleared. His +fellow-burglar tried to be insolent, and was quickly told that as they +had no search warrant they were doing an illegal act, and the first one +who ventured to touch a paper would be shot like a dog. After some +parley, they slunk away, vowing vengeance."</p> + +<p>The story runs on for a column or more, and ends with further +discomfiture for the police. Then one reads:—</p> + +<p>"In an hour from the first issue of the summons Liberty Hall was +garrisoned by a hundred and fifty determined armed men, and more were +trooping in every few minutes. It was splendid to see the enthusiasm of +the men, and when in the course of the evening all the Women's Ambulance +Corps trooped in, closely followed by the Boy Scouts, excitement and +longing for battle was running high in all our veins. The Irish +Volunteers were also on the alert, and stood, we are informed, until +after 2 a.m. on Saturday morning. Since then the hall has been guarded +day and night."</p> + +<p>The paper then goes on to speak of how "the heroic fighting at Suvla +Bay, and even the valorous defence of Verdun, fades into insignificance +side by side in Dublin by the Citizen Army, and describes how Liberty +Hall is being guarded by day and by night," and then goes on to point +out the danger which such open disregard of authority may lead to +eventually.</p> + +<p>Then follow two significant quotations, one from the <i>Irish Volunteer</i> +and the other from <i>The Spark</i>. The latter is an open boast of the +efficacy of arms, and runs:—</p> + +<p>"A few thousand Irishmen, who took the precaution or providing +themselves with lethal weapons of one kind or another, have, without +contesting a constituency and without sending a man to Westminster, +compelled the Westminster Parliament to admit publicly that it dared not +pass any legislation which they, the armed men, did not choose to +permit."</p> + +<p>Eoin MacNeill's threat is hardly less significant:—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p><p>"If our arms are demanded from us, we shall refuse to surrender them. +If force is used to take them from us, we shall make the most effective +resistance in our power. Let there be no mistake or misunderstanding on +that point.... We shall defend our arms with our lives."</p> + +<p>Now, whatever may be thought of such sentiments, there can be no doubt +whence they originated, for they are sheer Carsonism through and +through; and it was, as I have repeatedly pointed out, a pure stroke of +luck that it was not Belfast's City Hall instead of Dublin's Post Office +that was burnt to the ground.</p> + +<p>This physical force element, therefore, the Sinn Feiners and Larkinites +had in common with the Redmondites and Ulstermen: the fact that they +actually were the first to put the principle into operation is no +difference at all.</p> + +<p>In other words, we have to go deeper for a specific distinction, and +that distinction is to be found in the very nature of the parties +themselves who combined to form the provisional Republic.</p> + +<p>They were two movements which had grown up outside the two Parliamentary +parties and which refused to believe in Parliamentarianism as much for +the simple reason that their respective watchwords had become more or +less worn-out tags, out of touch with the realities of modern Irish +problems, as because their leaders had, unable to assimilate them, taken +up an attitude of almost personal antipathy to them and their ideals.</p> + +<p>It is certainly a most remarkable thing how John Redmond has lost the +old Parnellite grip upon the younger life of the country, and it seems +hardly credible that such an attitude should be due entirely to the +perversity of youth and in no way to the natural consequence of +tradition-loving age; but in any case the broad fact remains, and a tone +of persistent criticism seems to have taken the place of the meek +obedience of other days; and newspapers, dramas, novels, criticism, and +movements on all sides bear witness to it. The same, too, applies to Sir +Edward Carson, whose party has to recruit in England, witness Sir F. E. +Smith.</p> + +<p>According to Mr. T. M. Healy, the whole movement was due almost entirely +to the "bankruptcy of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>Redmondism." No doubt the justice of the +accusation may be questioned, though I hold no brief for any relative, +but there can be no doubt that it was the Sinn Fein attitude, and we +want to see the Sinn Feiners as they saw themselves and as they saw +Redmond.</p> + +<p>The Government trusted to Redmond almost entirely, but, as Mr. Healy +continues, they forgot that—</p> + +<p>"New crystallizations were taking place. The jobbery of the official +party disgusted all earnest and unselfish minds amongst the youth of +Ireland. The forces of Larkinism were embittered; and the acceptance of +salaries by Irish members, after their formal declaration that they +would not accept them, sank deeply into the hearts of extremists.</p> + +<p>"The Insurance Act, the killing of land purchase, and the founding of +the A.O.H., sapped the foundations of belief, and it became known that +'a high official achieved his ambitions on the judicial bench only by +becoming a professing Catholic and accepting initiation under the rites +of Mr. Devlin's brotherhood. The staff of the <i>Freeman's Journal</i>, the +official patriot organ, got endless jobs. At the same time Mr. Redmond +excluded from his party, without trial or grounds, a dozen leading +members opposed to this policy.'</p> + +<p>"All that was sober, unselfish, self-respecting, and self-reliant +quitted his ranks and joined the Sinn Fein movement without thought of +rebellion or pro-Germanism.</p> + +<p>"The courage of the Sinn Feiners atoned for much of their folly in the +mind of those who realized that their spirit was not pro-German, but, in +the main, a revolt against the conversion of Dublin Castle into a +Redmondite Tammany Hall. Their uprising was the answer to the +corruption, jobbery, and judge-mongering of the Molly Maguires +masquerading in the vestments of religion. Hence the wholesale arrests +of men not in rebellion have evoked no protest from Mr. Redmond, 'who +watches calmly the dispersal of his critics,' hoping to find a new lease +of life under a new jobbing nominee."</p> + +<p>The Larkinists were, if anything, still more out of sympathy with the +official party because, in the words of Connolly, they looked upon them +as no better than the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> English conqueror, since they took the side of +the social conqueror in the economic struggles of life in the city.</p> + +<p>This seems certainly to have a touch of truth, for if ever any body of +men resembled the unfortunate victims of rural landlords it was these +wretched victims of the tenement slums, the denunciation of which seemed +to have no part in the official Parliamentary programme, so much so as +to compel Labour to create its own party and evolve its own leader, +which it had accordingly done in the person of Jim Larkin.</p> + +<p>Now, if anyone wishes to judge James Connolly they should not look at +the soldier for a week; they must examine the life-long student of +economics and read his "History of Labour in Irish History" and his +"Reconquest of Ireland," for it is here we have the revolution in its +cause, which was just as much economic as political.</p> + +<p>It is the custom to speak of the Larkinites with scant respect, as if +they were the mad, blind multitude of the "have nots" in perpetual prey +upon the "haves"; but it is quite a false idea, for they have in their +movement some of those who count socially and intellectually.</p> + +<p>Thus, for example, the training of the Citizens' Army was almost +entirely carried out by Captain J. R. White, D.S.O., son of the late +Field-Marshal Sir George White, whose "Labour" ideas got him three +months' imprisonment only a few weeks ago.</p> + +<p>As to the attitude of the average Dublin merchant towards the new labour +party that is arising, I know of no finer apology for Larkin than the +brilliant letter of "Æ." to the <i>Irish Times</i> in the days of the great +strike, when he addressed the "masters of the city."</p> + +<p>In it he warned them—the aristocracy of industry—because like all +aristocracies they tended to grow blind in long authority, and to be +unaware that they and their class and their every action were being +considered and judged day by day by those who had the power to shake or +overturn the whole social order, and whose restlessness in poverty was +making our industrial civilization stir like a quaking bog. He reminded +them that their assumption that they were answerable to themselves alone +for their actions in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> the industries they controlled was becoming less +and less tolerable, in a world so crowded with necessitous life; but +what he chiefly held them responsible for was their incompetence as +commercial men, because, with the cheapest market in the world at their +command, they could never invite the confidence of investors.</p> + +<p>What was even worse than their business incompetence, however, was, +according to "Æ.," their bad citizenship, for had they not allowed the +poor to be herded together so that one could only think of certain +places in Dublin as of a pestilence?</p> + +<p>"There are twenty thousand rooms in Dublin," continued the terrible +indictment, "in each of which live entire families and sometimes more, +where no functions of the body can be concealed, and delicacy and +modesty are creatures that are stifled ere they are born." In fact, +"nothing that had ever been done against them cried so much to heaven +for vengeance as their own actions, such as the terrible lock-out, which +threw nearly a third of the whole city on to the verge of starvation"; +and he concluded:—</p> + +<p>"You are sounding the death-knell of autocracy in industry. There was +autocracy in political life, and it was superseded by democracy. So +surely will democratic power wrest from you the control of industry. The +fate of the aristocracy of industry will be as the fate of the +aristocracy of land, if you do not show that you have some humanity +still among you."</p> + +<p>It was from such roots that the spirit of the Citizens' Army drew its +inspiration (and possibly not a few of the looters as well), and it is +impossible to understand the rage of these men without fully +comprehending the condition in which they were compelled to live and +move.</p> + +<p>True, the revolt was not with any concrete economic end in view; but, +none the less, it was coloured throughout with economic grievances.</p> + +<p>It was the very torture of the ordinary conditions of peace that made +them resent the fear of any additional burdens and sacrifices such as +were demanded of their patriotism.</p> + +<p>Yet what did patriotism and Empire mean to them,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> save only the doubling +of their burdens and their masters' profits?</p> + +<p>If the Scotch workman in London and the Scotch worker on the Clyde and +the Welsh miner in the coalfields round Cardiff felt it, much more must +the Irish docker; and it must never be forgotten that there is a triple +link of blood, interest, and common sympathy between the workers of the +two islands; and one has only to glance at the way the respective labour +Presses of the two countries kept in touch with each other for the past +year to realize how much an English labour problem the Irish political +problem really was.</p> + +<p>This brings me to some further factors which can be discerned in the +rising—firstly, the fear of conscription; secondly, the hatred of +militarism; and, thirdly, the chronic loathing of Castle government.</p> + +<p>With regard to conscription, there has always been a dread of it. They +had seen it come in England, and had watched anxiously the way it had +been introduced and applied, and the farce of the Tribunals, whose +action, in the words of the <i>Freeman's Journal</i>, would have been +sufficient to cause a revolution had they behaved in Ireland as they +behaved in England.</p> + +<p>All during the summer months they had seen the cloud gathering, and +Irishmen caught by a legal technicality and forced into the system; but +all this came to a climax when the cry of cowardice was raised at +Liverpool, as five hundred young emigrants, who would never have been +helped to live for Ireland in their own country, were suddenly held up +by order of the Cunard Company—which, as a matter of fact, owed nearly +its whole prosperity to its coffin boats of the Famine days, and whose +glaringly seductive posters had emptied Ireland, neither for America nor +Ireland's sake, but purely to get the passage-money of the emigrants who +were now asked to go instead and "help England to give Constantinople to +Russia, even if it cost them their lives."</p> + +<p>For they had a way of blunt speaking, these men whose everyday life was +an heroic fight for the home against "Hun" poverty.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p><p>When the cry of "cowardice" was raised, however, it was high time to +protest, and none voiced that protest so well as Dr. O'Dwyer, the Bishop +of Limerick, who wrote the following letter to the <i>Munster News</i>:—</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—The treatment which the poor Irish emigrant lads have received at +Liverpool is enough to make any Irishman's blood boil with anger and +indignation. What wrong have they done to deserve insults and outrage at +the hands of a brutal English mob? They do not want to be forced into +the English Army, and sent to fight English battles in some part of the +world. Is not that within their right? They are supposed to be free men, +but they are made to feel that they are prisoners, who may be compelled +to lay down their lives for a cause that is not worth 'three rows of +pins' to them.</p> + +<p>"It is very probable that these poor Connaught peasants know little or +nothing of the meaning of the war. Their blood is not stirred by the +memories of Kossovo, and they have no burning desire to die for Serbia. +They would much prefer to be allowed to till their own potato gardens in +peace in Connemara. Small nationalities, and the wrongs of Belgium and +Rheims Cathedral, and all the other cosmopolitan considerations that +rouse the enthusiasm of the Irish Party, but do not get enough of +recruits in England, are far too high-flying for uneducated peasants, +and it seems a cruel wrong to attack them because they cannot rise to +the level of the disinterested Imperialism of Mr. T. P. O'Connor and the +rest of the New Brigade.</p> + +<p>"But in all the shame and humiliation of this disgraceful episode, what +angers one most is that there is no one, not even one of their own +countrymen, to stand up and defend them. Their crime is that they are +not ready to die for England. Why should they? What have they or their +forbears ever got from England that they should die for her? Mr. Redmond +will say a Home Rule Act on the Statute Book. But any intelligent +Irishman will say a simulacrum of Home Rule, with an express notice that +it is never to come into operation.</p> + +<p>"This war may be just or unjust, but any fair-minded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> man will admit +that it is England's war, not Ireland's. When it is over, if England +wins, she will hold a dominant power in this world, and her manufactures +and her commerce will increase by leaps and bounds. Win or lose, Ireland +will go on, in our old round of misgovernment, intensified by a grinding +poverty which will make life intolerable. Yet the poor fellows who do +not see the advantage of dying for such a Cause are to be insulted as +'shirkers' and 'cowards,' and the men whom they have raised to power and +influence have not one word to say on their behalf.</p> + +<p>"If there is to be conscription, let it be enforced all round, but it +seems to be the very intensity of injustice to leave English shirkers by +the million to go free, and coerce the small remnant of the Irish race +into a war which they do not understand, and which, whether it is right +or wrong, has but a secondary and indirect interest for them.</p> + +<p class="center">"I am, dear sir,<br /> +"Your obedient servant,<br /> +"✠ <span class="smcap">Edward Thomas</span>,<br /> +"Bishop of Limerick.</p> + +<p>"<i>November 10, 1915.</i>"</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>The seditious Press took up the cry: "Conscription had not even been +applied to her own sons, yet England was applying it to Irishmen," said +Gilbert Galbraith in <i>Honesty</i>; adding: "for all she wants of Irishmen +is their lives that she might live," and he warned Irishmen that "she +(England) who took everything they had and stripped them naked and left +them like Christ to the ribald jest and sneer of the rabble in the +world's back-streets, would, like every bully, try to have revenge when +she got them by themselves."</p> + +<p>Had this been mere verbal sword-play, however, I should not quote it; it +was more: it was the taking up of the challenge of cowardice.</p> + +<p>"Will you in God's name get ready to answer her?" concluded the famous +article in which he appealed to these would-be exiles repatriated by +force; "because, if you want to, all you have to do is to get into touch +with the nearest corps of Irish Volunteers." They would give them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +instructions, he added pointedly, how to act, and what they did they had +better do quickly, for it might be too late on the morrow.</p> + +<p>Could one be surprised, I ask, if some of these would-be emigrants +answered the taunt gun in hand?—especially when men like Captain White, +who was afterwards to try to rouse the South Wales miners to endeavour +to save Connolly, was telling them plainly:—</p> + +<p>"You are fast being led into industrial slavery. You know it, and I am +apprehensive and angry, but too bewildered to move. To rob you of your +right over your own poor bodies is the workers' tyrant. To rob you of +your sovereign power over your own will is the workers' devil.</p> + +<p>"Awake, brothers, before your liberty is dead. Arm yourselves against +your real enemies. Say to the tyrants and their agents, 'The first man +who lays hands on me against my will dies.'"</p> + +<p>All this, I say, jumps to the eyes of anyone perusing the literature +that produced the rising.</p> + +<p>It is beside the point whether such argumentation be true or false, +patriotic or seditious. The only point, as far as we are concerned in +this quasi-medical diagnosis of diseased mentality, is whether or not +these thoughts were present in the psychology of the combatants, and I +maintain that the evidence is undeniable.</p> + +<p>The attitude of "conscientious objectors" to militarism in England is +England's own affair. Yet I cannot, in my own mind, separate the +personality of Sir John Simon from that of John Hampden. No doubt +ship-money was necessary, and it was the patriotic thing to give it up, +and no doubt the same applies to men for the Army: but when it came to +the principle of the King taking money without the consent of +Parliament, John Hampden thought it his duty to the traditions of his +country to resist, just as Sir John Simon thought it his duty to the +traditions of the British conscience to passively protest—but that +again, I say, is a matter for Englishmen.</p> + +<p>The attitude of the Irish conscientious objector, however, has always +been of a more militant form, and this began to assert itself among the +labour leaders in Ireland through the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> medium of the more outspoken of +the English labour leaders. Whereas in England the masses of workers are +naturally loyal, in Ireland loyalty is a sustained effort against the +grain of tradition. Hence, while in England the right to rebel fell on +unsympathetic soil, in Ireland it merely relit the smouldering embers of +past grievances into flame.</p> + +<p>For there had been a growing epidemic of the phrase "Shoot them," +applied almost indiscriminately, like a quack panacea, by political +orators to every opponent on every conceivable subject since the war, +and this was producing the most evil results.</p> + +<p>Two quotations may suffice from the work by J. Bruce Glasier on +"Militarism," which was freely circulated in Dublin by means of Liberty +Hall, to illustrate the strength of the feeling on this subject:—</p> + +<p>"Although Great Britain is suffering neither from invasion from without +nor insurrection from within, the military authorities are not only in +command of the defences of our shores but of the civil authorities, and +the whole population of the realm. The birthrights of British +citizenship embodied in the Magna Charta, Habeas Corpus, and Bill of +Rights are no longer inviolable. Martial Law—that is to say, military +despotism—may be put in operation at will by the military commanders. +Civilians may be seized and tried by Army officers, and even sentenced +to any penalty short of death without appeal to trial by jury. Our War +Lord is made virtual dictator. A military censorship has been +established over the Press and public meetings. Military officers may +enter our houses, quarter troops upon us, take possession of our horses, +motor-cars, cows, pigs, and pigeons. They may commandeer schools, +factories, warehouses, farms, or any other kinds of public or private +property. Strikes may be declared acts of treason, Trade Union officials +arrested and tried by courts martial, and soldiers used as +blacklegs—and no knowledge whatever of these happenings, not even of +the existence of strikes or trade disputes, may reach the general public +at all if the authorities so determine...."</p> + +<p>A phrase that seems to have done great harm, and was specially singled +out by the men of Liberty Hall, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> "Shoot him!"—as a form of argument +employed by every Tom, Dick, and Harry orator, on every conceivable +subject without the slightest constitutional authority; but it must be +said it was one used by all parties.</p> + +<p>During the Home Rule controversy, for example, the Nationalists were +just as fond of employing the phrase towards Carson as during the Welsh +coal strikes Conservatives were of using it towards the miners.</p> + +<p>The danger of such doctrines in Ireland is this, that whereas in England +it is the upper class principally that is militarist, in Ireland it is +principally the lower class, and whereas it is the Castle authorities +who are always preaching the iniquity of physical force, it is the lower +classes who mainly admire it.</p> + +<p>Realizing this, as any student of Irish history would, there should not +have been the slightest doubt about the danger of employing force to men +who not only had the principle of active resistance but the arms +necessary to make it effective, and it has always appeared to me as the +most marvellous thing the Liberals ever did that they were able to allow +Ulster the full possession of arms without once provoking an occasion on +which to actually put them to use.</p> + +<p>The result of this fatal misuse of the words "Shoot him!" as a form of +argument—which unauthoritative should be made a penal offence—was that +the workers really feared that such irresponsible individuals if given +the power would really carry out the threat, and determined to +anticipate the danger by a protest in arms.</p> + +<p>Another contributory cause was undoubtedly Castle rule, and the fear +that with the holding up of Home Rule it might continue for ever, unless +some effective protest were made.</p> + +<p>The Chief Secretary was himself the foremost in admitting this to be one +of the contributory causes of the rebellion.</p> + +<p>"There are a number of contributory causes, which lately have created +antipathy to constitutional methods and tended to increase in numbers. +First—growing doubts about the actual advent of Home Rule. If the Home +Rule Bill had not been placed on the Statute Book there must have been +in Ireland and the United States a great and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> dangerous explosion of +rage and disappointment, which when the war broke out would have assumed +the most alarming proportions in Ireland. All (outside parts of Ulster) +would have joined hands, whilst our reports from Washington tell us what +the effect in America would have been. Still, even with Home Rule on the +Statute Book, the chance of its ever becoming a fact was so uncertain, +the outstanding difficulty about Ulster was so obvious, and the details +of the measure itself were so unattractive and difficult to transmute +into telling platform phrases, that Home Rule as an emotional flag fell +out of daily use in current Irish life. People left off talking about it +or waving it in the air.</p> + +<p>"Second, in Ireland, whenever Constitutional and Parliamentary procedure +cease to be of absorbing influence, other men, other methods, other +thoughts, before somewhat harshly snubbed, come rapidly to the surface, +and secure attention, sympathy, and support. The sneers of the +O'Brienites, the daily naggings in the Dublin <i>Irish Independent</i>, also +contributed to the partial eclipse of Home Rule, and this eclipse +foretold danger."</p> + +<p>Another point is worth noting in this connection, and that was the +growing power, first of the Coalition and then of the Unionist clique +who were capturing it. Thus says Mr. Birrell:—</p> + +<p>"The Coalition Government, with Sir Edward Carson in it—it is +impossible to describe or overestimate the effect of this in Ireland. +The fact that Mr. Redmond could, had he chosen to do so, have sat in the +same Cabinet with Sir Edward Carson had no mollifying influence. If Mr. +Redmond had consented, he would, on the instant, have ceased to be an +Irish leader. This step seemed to make an end of Home Rule, and +strengthened the Sinn Feiners enormously all over the country."</p> + +<p>A general desire for peace and a sort of Socialistic feeling of +brotherhood, I should say, were two further contributory causes.</p> + +<p>"The prolongation of the war and its dubious end," as Mr. Birrell +observed, "turned many heads. Criticism was not of the optimistic type +prevalent in Britain, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>consequently, when every event had been +thoroughly weighed, there was always a chance of Germany lending a +hand."</p> + +<p>As to the general attitude of Sinn Fein and Larkinite Ireland, it might +be described as one of benevolent neutrality where, as in many cases, it +was not one of actual hostility.</p> + +<p>True, recruiting figures had reached a total quite unprecedented in +Irish history (150,000), and loyalty had received an official stimulus +when the Irish leader and the Lord-Lieutenant toured the provinces +together; but this was discounted in the country districts by the +deliberate plans of the Sinn Feiners, and in the towns, or rather in +Dublin, by a sense of the futility of all war, and in particular this +war, whose aims were vague enough to the statesmen, and appeared almost +illusory to the worker. Hence anyone reading the <i>Workers Republic</i> +could have noticed whole passages that might have been taken direct from +the German Socialist Liebknecht.</p> + +<p>One very significant leader (Saturday, February 5, 1916) on "The Ties +that Bind" is well worth quoting in parts as an example of this +feeling:—</p> + +<p>"Recently we have been pondering deeply over the ties that bind this +country to England. It is not a new theme for our thoughts; for long +years we have carried on propaganda in Ireland, pointing out how the +strings of self-interest bound the capitalist and landlord classes to +the Empire, and how it thus became a waste of time to appeal to those +classes in the name of Irish patriotism.</p> + +<p>"We have said that the working class was the only class to whom the word +'Empire,' and the things of which it was the symbol, did not appeal; +that to the propertied classes 'Empire' meant high dividends and +financial security, whereas to the working class that meant only the +things it was in rebellion against.</p> + +<p>"Therefore from the intelligent working class could alone come the +revolutionary impulse.</p> + +<p>"Recently we have seen the spread of those ties of self-interest binding +certain classes and individuals to the Empire—we have seen it spread to +a most astonishing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> degree until its ramifications cover the island, +like the spread of a foul disease.</p> + +<p>"It would be almost impossible to name a single class or section of the +population not evilly affected by this social, political, and moral +leprosy....</p> + +<p>"For the sake of £400 a year our parliamentary representatives become +Imperialists; for the sake of large travelling expenses and luxurious +living they become lying recruiters....</p> + +<p>"There is nobody in a representative position so mean that the British +Government will not pay some price for his Irish soul. Newspaper men +sell their Irish souls for Government advertisements paid for at a +lavish rate. Professors sell their souls for salaries and expenses, +clergymen sell theirs for jobs for their relatives, business men sell +their souls and become recruiters lest they lose the custom of +Government officials. In all the grades of Irish society the only +section that has not furnished even one apostate to the cause it had +worked for in times of peace is that of the much hated and traduced +militant labour leaders.</p> + +<p>"But if the militant labour leaders of Ireland have not apostatized, the +same cannot be said of the working class as a whole....</p> + +<p>"Perhaps some day the same evil passions the enemy has stirred up in so +many of our Irish people will play havoc with his own hopes, and make +more bitter and deadly the cup of his degradation and defeat.</p> + +<p>"But deep in the heart of Ireland has sunk the sense of the degradation +wrought upon its people—our lost brothers and sisters—so deep and +humiliating that no agency less potent than the red tide of war on Irish +soil will ever be able to enable the Irish race to recover its +self-respect, or establish its national dignity in the face of a world +horrified and scandalized by what must seem to them our national +apostasy."</p> + +<p>Now the strange thing about Ireland is her definition of "loyalty." It +is not with her a species of sentimental altruism but a plain, +business-like, common-sense view of her own interests, and nothing can +make her change that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> view, for she has through centuries of +disillusionment become chronically suspicious.</p> + +<p>"I dare say I don't take the same view as you would were you in my +place," wrote Mr. Birrell to the Prime Minister on January 25th. +"Loyalty in Ireland is of slow growth, and the soil is uncongenial. The +plant grows slowly. Landlords, grand juries, loyalist magistrates, have +all gone; yet the plant grows, though slowly."</p> + +<p>Her patriotism, on the other hand, is almost necessarily a matter of +internal administration; and for this she fights with all the spirit +that animated her in the past against Dane and Saxon. Hence it is quite +easy for an economic grievance at once to assume the proportions of a +national movement, and once it becomes resisted as such, the spirit of +nationality becomes rekindled again, and it was this latter that +prompted the final efforts in the evolution of the Republic.</p> + +<p>America and Germany both contributed to intensify the spirit of +nationality and gave material assistance that made the attempt at +"Separatism" a practicable ideal, but it was only made possible because +of the internal troubles in Ireland herself.</p> + +<p>So long as a constitutional outlet is not afforded for such grievances, +so long must unconstitutional means be appealed to; but the question +which the breakdown of the old regime suggests seriously to all thinkers +is whether there are not ample means within the Constitution, and I +think it is the universal opinion of the more moderate that there is; +and it is just these moderates whose views will be the more welcome +because of the failure not merely of the Sinn Feiners to establish a +Republic, but of Sir Edward Carson and John Redmond to come to an +understanding that would have placed them in a position to have +controlled it in time, and, which is more important still, to be able to +deal with any repetition of a similar character in the future.</p> + +<p>Probably no analysis of the remoter causes of the rebellion, however, is +more accurate than the psychological origin given by George Bernard Shaw +in a letter to the <i>Daily News</i> on May 10th.</p> + +<p>"The relation of Ireland to Dublin Castle is in this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> respect precisely +that of the Balkan States to Turkey, of Belgium or the city of Lille to +the Kaiser, and of the United States to Great Britain.</p> + +<p>"Until Dublin Castle is superseded by a National Parliament and Ireland +voluntarily incorporated with the British Empire, as Canada, +Australasia, and South Africa have been incorporated, an Irishman +resorting to arms to achieve the independence of his country is doing +only what Englishmen will do if it be their misfortune to be invaded and +conquered by the Germans in the course of the present war. Further, such +an Irishman is as much in order morally in accepting assistance from the +Germans in this struggle with England as England is in accepting the +assistance of Russia in her struggle with Germany. The fact that he +knows that his enemies will not respect his rights if they catch him, +and that he must, therefore, fight with a rope round his neck, increases +his risk, but adds in the same measure to his glory in the eyes of his +compatriots and of the disinterested admirers of patriotism throughout +the world. It is absolutely impossible to slaughter a man in this +position without making him a martyr and a hero, even though the day +before the rising he may have been only a minor poet. The shot Irishmen +will now take their places beside Emmet and the Manchester Martyrs in +Ireland, and beside the heroes or Poland and Serbia and Belgium in +Europe; and nothing in heaven or on earth can prevent it."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> I give the well-known letter in its entirety, but I cannot +vouch for such passages, and I know that in many cases officers were +particularly distressed at having to fight Irishmen instead of Germans.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THE_NINTH" id="CHAPTER_THE_NINTH"></a>CHAPTER THE NINTH</h2> + +<h3>REFLECTIONS TOWARDS RECONSTRUCTION</h3> + +<p>One of the most gratifying things about the terrible catastrophe through +which we have been passing during the last few weeks is the spirit of +hope which has taken the place of the spirit of despair which +immediately followed the outbreak.</p> + +<p>Ireland has ever been more of a problem suited to statesmen than to +soldiers; indeed, the soldier has more often than not come in to spoil +the work of the statesman, and Mr. Asquith's hurried visit to Dublin, +Cork, and Belfast after John Dillon's speech was chiefly undertaken in +order to prevent any repetition of the old mistake.</p> + +<p>The need for conciliation, everybody will admit, was exceedingly urgent, +for it was the admitted intention of the Sinn Feiners to put the matter +to the test as to whether England held Ireland by her own free +constitutional consent, or whether it was merely a permanent military +occupation, like Belgium and Poland. "England is not the champion of +small nations," they said. "She never was and never will be, and while +she is masquerading before the world as such it is our intention, in +Ireland's name, to give her the lie—yes, even though it be in our own +blood."</p> + +<p>Indeed, as I have already said, there appears to have been a belief +among the Sinn Feiners that if only they could hold the capital for +twelve days by force of arms they would have a sort of claim to be +mentioned at the Peace Conference along with Poland and Belgium.</p> + +<p>Now, it matters very little whether such a suggestion came from Berlin +or Washington, or whether the whole thing was a fable, for the grand +fact remains that England<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> now stands before Europe with the point of +Ireland's loyalty openly questioned, and she has only two courses open: +she must either neglect Irish opinion and proclaim that she holds the +sister isle by right of conquest—when, of course, the fate of Belgium +is sealed as far as England's ethical pleading is concerned—or she may +make such a final compact with Ireland that she can afterwards maintain +before the whole world, without fear of contradiction, that Ireland is +freely one with England without the help of a single soldier.</p> + +<p>It's really more important than winning the war, if Englishmen could +only realize it—for the psychology of Ireland is the psychology of +every one of the constituent nations of our common Empire; and the late +Mr. Stead used to say to me, "A blunder in Irish government is a blunder +in Imperial government"; but I never realized this so much as when I +learnt with what an intense interest the Indian students present in +Dublin had followed the whole case.</p> + +<p>When the Irish leader, therefore, in the acuteness of the moment +expressed the hope that no party would be allowed to make capital out of +the event, he expressed a hope which was re-echoed in every Irish +breast; but it would have been far more effective if he had instead +expressed the hope that each party should bear its proper share in the +guilt of the catastrophe.</p> + +<p>For the danger is the making of the Sinn Feiners into a national +scapegoat for the faults of all.</p> + +<p>For in a sense all were responsible. True, neither Redmondites nor +Carsonites took any part in it—and it is very lucky they did not, for +it would have meant civil war and fearful bloodshed from one end of the +country to the other—but in neither case was it out of any love for +England, for both of them fully realized that they might have been in +the position of the Sinn Feiners themselves, and both were equally +determined to rid Ireland of English meddlers.</p> + +<p>It might almost be called a "tragedy of errors," for there was nothing +but blundering all round. England should never have allowed Carson to +arm, nor should Redmond have followed suit if he wished to play the +constitutional<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> game to the end; but once both had appealed to the +principle of physical force, neither had a right to censure the methods +of a third party which had arisen out of their own incapacity to keep +the country in hand.</p> + +<p>England was in principle perfectly justified in employing force against +the whole three of them, and hastened to take full advantage of the +situation by handing the reins of government over to the military—but +that was the greatest blunder of the lot.</p> + +<p>For there can be no doubt that to the rank and file of the Sinn Feiners, +as to the rank and file of the Orangemen, physical force was not an end +in itself: it was only the protest of conscientious objectors which was +being lashed into activity under continual provocation—the provocation +of being threatened with the loss of everything they held most dear in +life, and eminently admired by Englishmen for that very fact.</p> + +<p>Normally Sinn Feiners and Orangemen were men of peace, the one +economists, the other business men, who might indeed have been easily +pacified had they been openly and sympathetically treated with, instead +of being galled into fury by the taunt of bluff or cowardice, and such +epithets as insignificant, negligible minorities.</p> + +<p>In an orgy of majority government both stood out for the sanctity of +minorities, especially when those minorities represented inviolable +principles of vital import to the majority.</p> + +<p>It was the method of suppression that really did most of the mischief, +for in addition to casualties and damages there was also considerable +distress, and it at once became necessary to organize a system of food +distribution and relief for the sufferers.</p> + +<p>This was largely undertaken by the St. Vincent de Paul Society, under +Sir Henry Robinson, Vice-President of the Local Government Board, and +with the help of the military authorities, who lent motor-lorries and +money, food was distributed to over one hundred thousand persons.</p> + +<p>House-to-house visitations were made, and these revealed all forms of +distress, from lack of food, which, of course, it had been impossible to +obtain as long as the city was in a state of siege, down to absolute +ruination of whole families.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p><p>In places the city looked like Antwerp during the siege, or London upon +the arrival of the Belgian refugees.</p> + +<p>No one has yet been able to estimate the full extent of the material +damage sustained by the reckless bombardment of the city—for no other +word can be used; and though Captain Purcell, the chief of the Dublin +Fire Brigade, gave the rough figure of £2,500,000, this must be taken as +a mere minimum of the extent covered by the conflagrations.</p> + +<p>It cannot represent the loss of business, employment, goodwill, trade, +and the thousand and one other losses inseparable from such a +catastrophe.</p> + +<p>Take, for example, the loss of the Royal Hibernian Academy, with +thousands of pounds of pictures. No price can repay these, for they +represented perhaps the culminating point, or at least the turning +point, in careers which had had years of hard struggles, and which had +set perhaps a lifetime's hopes upon a single canvas.</p> + +<p>From all accounts, too, it was the merest chance that the whole northern +portion of the town did not fall a victim to the devouring flames, and +it is hard to understand the psychology of the military mind which could +risk even the mere possibility of such an event, as it is hard to +understand why the firemen were fired on by the rebels when trying to +extinguish the flames.</p> + +<p>The hardest part of it all was, moreover, that the blow fell almost +entirely upon the shoulders of the innocent, viz. the merchants, +tradesmen, shopkeepers, and employees, who were thus ruined at a single +stroke within the space of a few hours without even a chance of a +protest.</p> + +<p>People began to ask seriously whether it had really been necessary at +all, and the verdict was not always complimentary to the authorities. +Mr. Healy raised the question in the House whether any such measures had +ever been really necessary, considering that the rebels held such few +positions, and these could have been isolated by the municipal water +supply being cut off. It certainly seems plausible that some less brutal +methods could have been adopted, considering the way Cork was saved from +a similar catastrophe by the tact of the clergy, who would only have +been too<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> willing, and undoubtedly would have had the power, to act as +mediators between the rebels and military in the name of the civil +authorities and in the interests of the inhabitants principally and +Ireland generally.</p> + +<p>A very cute suggestion I heard from Mr. George Atkinson, the well-known +Dublin artist, as we were preparing the cover of the present volume in +his studio, struck me as particularly plausible.</p> + +<p>"As long as the rebels were in their strongholds untouched," he said, +"they were practically powerless, and could only have covered themselves +with contempt and ridicule if they had been left alone.</p> + +<p>"These men were asking for martyrdom and the glory of battle: why on +earth give them their admitted object?</p> + +<p>"They were in possession of the Post Office. Very well, but they could +not have run the postal service. They were in possession of the +railways. Well and good, but they would not have been able to conduct +the train service. They had assumed the reins of government, but would +the people of Ireland have acknowledged them? Certainly not. They had +taken over the management of the capital, but were they able to police +it even, or protect private property? Why, from the very first moment of +their victory—if victory it could be called—the whole place had been +at the mercy of the mob.</p> + +<p>"Again, they issued receipts in the name of the Irish Republic's +exchequer, but what financier would have honoured their bills? Could +they have even taken the gold from the banks they could not have got +credit or cash for any further transactions. They had assumed sole +authority over the people of Ireland, yet they could not have commanded +enough votes to secure a single constituency.</p> + +<p>"These men, left to themselves, in fact, and treated with a sense of +humour, were on the highroad to the greatest political fiasco the world +had ever seen, and could only have made themselves ridiculous and +contemptible in the eyes of their own countrymen and others throughout +the world.</p> + +<p>"They had appealed to Germany: very well; let them look to German help +for assistance, and in the meanwhile<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> let them know that Casement had +been captured already, before the rising, and the phantom Prussian +armada had been sunk to the bottom of the sea.</p> + +<p>"What could have happened? You say 'Pillage and murder.' They were not +out for that, in the first place, nor were they that type; and it may be +questioned whether, had they set about it with deliberate purpose, they +would have worked such havoc as the military and naval artillery wrought +in that fatal week."</p> + +<p>The theory is certainly one which would have had no precedent to +recommend it, but to my mind it was just this that was its best +recommendation; in fact, what was most needed was to avoid a repetition +of the old fatal precedents which had turned so many futile revolts into +glorious outbursts of patriotism.</p> + +<p>Just imagine the situation. England would first of all have told them +she wished for no bloodshed beyond the punishment of those who had +actually shot defenceless men or whose orders had led to these murders. +It would have redounded entirely to the credit of the Englishman.</p> + +<p>England would then have asked the politicians and people alike if they +in any way sympathized with such a revolt, and let the penalties be +known—the immediate erasure of Home Rule from the Statute Book and the +cessation of land purchase, as well as the stoppage of all commercial or +financial transactions.</p> + +<p>Finally, if these failed and the people of Ireland really wished for war +in its full reality, they could have it, but they must not ever +afterward appeal as constitutional partners in the Empire, but merely as +a conquered race: mercy they might have, rights they would have +forfeited by conquest.</p> + +<p>Had such a course been followed, there would not only have been an +opportunity upon the part of the nation at large to disown the usurpers, +who would then have had not even the vestige of a grievance upon which +to establish their preposterous claims to continuance in the position +they had taken up.</p> + +<p>In a word, the English would have made fools of them, or rather allowed +the Irish to make fools of them. Instead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> of this, all the old fatal, +discredited methods were employed with the same fatal results, and they +became national heroes, whose suppression by force could only give them +greater power.</p> + +<p>The whole thing would have taken no longer than the campaign; no further +blood would have been spilt, and time would have been allowed for the +great adventure to reveal itself in the true grotesqueness of cold +reality.</p> + +<p>Possibly it was looked upon as <i>infra dig.</i> to treat with rebels, but it +was so obviously a mental case that it is hard to see how anything could +possibly have been <i>infra dig.</i> under such circumstances.</p> + +<p>On Monday and Tuesday the Republic was no more representative of the +people of Ireland than the tailors of Tooley Street were the people of +England, but upon the old Grecian principle that the sufferings of one +citizen are the sufferings of the whole State, it became national from +the moment the national sentiment had been aroused by the indiscriminate +shedding of blood.</p> + +<p>It was in their defeat that the Sinn Feiners won their great victory, +and they knew it. They had been scoffed at, derided, denounced by the +official party almost to—in fact, actually to—a state of desperation, +and an act of despair became their last resort. The Statute Book indeed +proclaimed Ireland a nation once again, but the Government treated +Ireland more like a province than ever, and her own representatives +seemed to acquiesce; so, as Mrs. Pearse, the mother of the "President," +told me afterwards, "there was nothing left for them but to accomplish +the sacrifice demanded to save the soul of Ireland and proclaim her on +the scaffold once again unconquered and unconquerable."</p> + +<p>It was an act of folly, if you like, to try to set up a republic, +especially during such a crisis as this war, but since the death of the +leaders brought out their true character, it has ceased to be looked +upon as a piece of knavery, for these men, according to all accounts of +the priests, died the death of saints, not scoundrels; so that we now +realize the old, old story of the tragedy of misunderstanding, as much, +indeed, by their own countrymen as by the Englishman.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p><p>If it was to illustrate in one dramatic coup that misunderstanding +which has been growing between all parties in Ireland, then they have +not died in vain, for every party must feel to a certain extent +responsible for the catastrophe. Several things, however, seem to stand +out prominently amidst the chaos.</p> + +<p>Castle government is dead as Queen Anne and Home Rule as natural and as +inevitable as the morrow's sunrise; Unionism, in the English sense of +Empire, survives: everyone is a Unionist now; but what still remains +inexorable is the attitude of Sir Edward Carson, whose "Unionism" is +merely a euphemism for "bureaucracy," and who, with the Ulster +Volunteers still in arms, equally prepared to resist constitutional +government, whether from Westminster or from Dublin, is the greatest +Home Ruler of us all—or should we say Sinn Feiner?</p> + +<p>Personally, I have always thought, and still think, that the Orangeman +has more to gain in an Irish Parliament than anyone else as representing +the layman, the business man; but I, for one, should be sorry to see +Home Rule at the cost of a single Ulster Volunteer's life.</p> + +<p>Mr. William O'Brien has for years, as a species of political outcast, +been preaching the doctrine of conciliation, and has suffered in +consequence, but his successful opponents have not gained the victory, +for we are now rapidly drifting towards the total exclusion of several +counties—the thing of all things they most wished to avoid.</p> + +<p>All the while people are wondering whether it is the people themselves +or the politicians who are responsible for the antagonism, and three of +the greatest national movements since the days of tenant grievances +stare us in the face as outside, if not politics, at least outside the +ordinary conventional politicians—I mean Sir Horace Plunkett's +Co-operative Movement, Larkin-Connolly's Labour Movement, and Sinn Fein.</p> + +<p>Surely something is wrong if such movements cannot be assimilated by +either of the great political parties, as they should have been if those +parties were together completely representative of the nation.</p> + +<p>All our greatest men were isolated—Redmond, Carson,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> Plunkett, O'Brien, +Connolly, W. M. Murphy, the Lord-Lieutenant—all appealing to or +threatening the unfortunate Premier, already sufficiently occupied with +the intricacies of English politics, let alone European.</p> + +<p>The step must come from the Englishman in his own defence: English +politics must no longer be dominated by the votes or the threats of any +Irishman, and some method must be found, while safeguarding the Imperial +link, to force Irishmen to meet each other and settle with each other: +for the only result of ruling Tipperary from Downing Street is that +Westminster is ruled from Dublin or Belfast.</p> + +<p>According to the "political correspondent" of the <i>Manchester Guardian</i>, +the tendency is towards an Irish Coalition. "The question," he writes, +"is not whether there will be a change. The old and anarchic system of +Dublin Castle seems to be definitely doomed. The question is rather what +the change will be. Speculation, which may or may not be partially +informed, concentrates upon the scheme of a new Irish Advisory Council. +I may offer a more detailed sketch of this scheme, of which I will only +say that some responsible Irish members think it is very likely to be +near the mark. An Irish Council, if created now, would probably be an +advisory body, resembling the Viceroy's Council in India. The +Lord-Lieutenant, who ought to be an active and energetic administrator, +would no doubt preside over it. As to the membership, it would have to +consist of representatives of both Irish Parties. It is thought possible +that some Nationalist and Ulster Unionist members of the House of +Commons would be on it, and would, of course, sit with it in Dublin. In +addition there might be responsible Irish public men (like, for example, +Sir Horace Plunkett), both Home Rulers and Unionists, who are not +members of the House of Commons or officially attached to a party. There +might also, in view of the educational problem of Ireland, be one or two +representatives of the Churches. This would form what is talked of as +the Irish Coalition, in which it is assumed both Mr. Redmond's Party and +Sir Edward Carson's would join."</p> + +<p>The tribute which Mr. Birrell paid to the Irish Literary Revival and its +influence upon Irish life is worth quoting,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> for it indicates one of the +sources whence much may be hoped in the work of reconstruction.</p> + +<p>"This period," he said, referring to the period immediately preceding +the rebellion, "was also marked by a genuine literary Irish revival, in +prose, poetry, and the drama, which has produced remarkable books and +plays, and a school of acting, all characterized by originality and +independence of thought and expression, quite divorced from any +political party, and all tending towards and feeding latent desires for +some kind of separate Irish national existence. It was a curious +situation to watch, but there was nothing in it suggestive of revolt or +rebellion, except in the realm of thought. Indeed, it was quite the +other way. The Abbey Theatre made merciless fun of mad political +enterprise, and lashed with savage satire some historical aspects of the +Irish revolutionary. I was often amazed at the literary detachment and +courage of the playwright, the relentless audacity of the actors and +actresses, and the patience and comprehension of the audience. This new +critical tone and temper, noticeable everywhere, penetrating everything, +and influencing many minds in all ranks, whilst having its +disintegrating effects upon old-fashioned political beliefs and worn-out +controversial phrases, was the deadly foe of that wild sentimental +passion which has once more led so many brave young fellows to a certain +doom, in the belief that in Ireland any revolution is better than none. +A little more time, and, but for the outbreak of the war, this new +critical temper would, in my belief, have finally prevailed, not indeed +to destroy national sentiment (for that is immortal), but to kill by +ridicule insensate revolt. But this was not to be."</p> + +<p>With regard to "Separatism," I believe this—and I think in so saying I +am echoing the sentiments of most of my fellow-countrymen, that the only +way to liberate Ireland is to dominate England, not physically, for this +would be as useless as it would be impossible, but mentally and morally.</p> + +<p>If the Irishman has been persecuted and tyrannized over, it is in virtue +of certain ideals and principles which are ethically and economically +inferior to his, and which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> he has consequently to crush in the very +source, as much for his own sake as for those other members of the +Empire to which, if it has been a misfortune to belong in the past, it +may be an advantage and an honour to belong to-morrow.</p> + +<p>If Castle government is wrong in Dublin it is wrong elsewhere; if +militarism was wrong and foolish and futile in Cromwell's day, it is +wrong to-day, to-morrow, and for all time; if England really intends at +the great Peace Congress to come forward as the champion of small +nations, she must be able to show an Ireland prosperous, contented, and +freely allied to her without the aid of a single soldier or a single +threat.</p> + +<p>Such at least is the hope of all those who believe that only when we +have solved the Irish problem have we solved the problem of Empire.</p> + +<p>Primarily, however, the task is in Ireland's own hands: for England at +this moment stands not unwilling or hostile so much as perplexed and +bewildered at the strange eruption that has taken place, and which must +be taken rather as an indication of a chronic state than the expression +of any concrete or definite complaint.</p> + +<p>In other words, there is already a new nationalism in the making, more +idealistic, more spiritual, more constructive, and more comprehensive +than the old nationalism, which was to a large extent geographical, +material, and traditional to an almost stifling degree: the eyes of the +younger men are fixed on the future, those of the older men are fixed +upon the past.</p> + +<p>The older generation will probably die immutable in mind, like veterans, +nor will they ever try to mingle, but on all sides and in every sphere +the younger generation has already shaken hands.</p> + +<p>The spirit of the two is the same, the aspirations just as intense, but +their methods are different: geographical isolation is against natural +evolution and "Separatism" an economic, racial, and military +impossibility—this last rebellion has exploded the myth; but all this +will only have the effect of changing the ever-living consciousness of +nationality into different channels.</p> + +<p>Instead of being expansive, our patriotism will tend to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> more +intensive: our combat with England will no longer be with arms, but with +thoughts and ideas, and the nobler and the truer will win; and it is in +this contest that "Sinn Fein" will come forward with new force of the +"living dead." If Ireland cannot be the strongest nation, she can be the +freest; if she cannot be the greatest, she can be the purest; if she +cannot be the richest, she can be the happiest and the kindliest: and as +Greece conquered ancient Rome, so may Ireland some day conquer England, +if those ideals which were bred and nurtured within her bosom can be +made to dominate the inferior Saxon till they spread throughout the +world; and that is why, whatever happens, Ireland must keep her +"nationality" free by whatever means lie at her hands, and that was the +root cause of the revolt, if we are to believe the words of the men who +suffered.</p> + +<p>"Others have been struck before now," said Pearse in the course of an +address which he delivered in October 1897 to a young men's literary +society, "by the fact that hundreds of noble men and true have fought +and bled for the emancipation of the Gaelic race, and yet have all +failed. Surely, if ever cause was worthy of success, it was the cause +for which Laurence prayed, for which Hugh of Dungannon planned, for +which Hugh Roe and Owen Roe fought, for which Wolfe Tone and Lord Edward +and Robert Emmet gave their lives, for which Grattan pleaded, for which +Moore and Davis sang, for which O'Connell wore himself out with toil. +Yet these men prayed and planned, and fought and bled, and pleaded and +wrote and toiled in vain. May it not be that there is some reason for +this? May it not be that the ends they struggled for were ends never +intended for the Gael?... The Gael is not like other men; the spade and +the loom and the sword are not for him. But a destiny more glorious than +that of Rome, more glorious than that of Britain, awaits him: to become +the saviour of idealism in modern intellectual and social life, the +regenerator and rejuvenator of the literature of the world, the +instructor of the nations, the preacher of the gospel of nature-worship, +hero-worship, God-worship—such is the destiny of the Gael."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="center">The Gresham Press<br />UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED<br />WOKING AND LONDON</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Six days of the Irish Republic, by +Louis Redmond-Howard + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIX DAYS OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC *** + +***** This file should be named 24296-h.htm or 24296-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/2/9/24296/ + +Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Six days of the Irish Republic + A Narrative and Critical Account of the Latest Phase of Irish Politics + +Author: Louis Redmond-Howard + +Release Date: January 15, 2008 [EBook #24296] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIX DAYS OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC *** + + + + +Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + +SIX DAYS OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC + +A NARRATIVE AND CRITICAL ACCOUNT OF THE LATEST +PHASE OF IRISH POLITICS + +BY + +L. G. REDMOND-HOWARD + +NEPHEW AND BIOGRAPHER OF THE IRISH LEADER + +AUTHOR OF + +"LIFE OF JOHN REDMOND," "SIR ROGER CASEMENT," "AN IRISHMAN'S HOME," +"THE NEW BIRTH OF IRELAND," ETC. + +LONDON: MAUNSEL & CO. LTD. + +40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C. + +DUBLIN: E. PONSONBY LTD. + +116 GRAFTON STREET + +1916 + + + + +TO + +WILFRED MEYNEL + +ONE OF THE FEW HONEST ENGLISHMEN WHO ARE ENGLISH ENOUGH TO BE ASHAMED OF +THE STORY OF ENGLISH RULE IN IRELAND + +(_Passed by Censor_) + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The following pages are an attempt at a simple narrative and criticism +of what must appear the most inexplicable occurrence in Irish history. + +The climax of a century of arguments, futile only because of the +proverbial dullness of the race to which they were addressed, the rising +has lifted the Home Rule controversy at one stroke from the region of +the village pump into the very midst of the counsels of Europe, for it +was a challenge--of madmen, if you like--to the greatest Empire in the +world, at the very moment of its gravest crisis, upon the most +fundamental portion of its policy of interference with the affairs of +the Continent, namely, England's claim to be the champion of small +nationalities. + +Unless Ireland can be shown to be held by her own free consent, in +perfect contentment, the whole of our contention falls to the +ground--for our policy in Ireland is only in microcosm our policy of +Empire; and Germany will be able to point the finger of scorn and +ridicule at us, and prove thereby to France and Russia that, tyrants at +home, we only used them to fight a battle we dared not fight alone. + +I say nothing here of the motives that inspired the rebels, nor the +immediate causes that provoked them to rise, nor the nature of the +methods by which they were "stamped out"; I only state the moral of +their failure, and I must take this opportunity to thank Lord Decies, +the official Press censor, for the freedom with which he has allowed me +to speak at what I feel to be a very critical juncture in the history of +my country and of our common Empire; for I have gone upon the principle +that it is far better to distribute the blame all round than to try and +make the Sinn Feiners the scapegoats of faults which each party +contributed towards the catastrophe. + +There never was, I believe, an Irish crime--if crime it can be +called--which had not its roots in an English folly; and I repeat here +what the late Mr. Stead always impressed upon me: Ireland is our school +of Empire, and the mistakes which would lose us Ireland would lose us +the Empire. + +It is England's move next: we have protested in blood; the eyes of +Europe await her decision. + +At the same time I cannot help blaming Irishmen as well for the +catastrophe, for politicians of all parties have been tending towards +isolating their followers in the old ancestral bigotries, instead of +drawing them together in sympathy, as Mr. William O'Brien has been +advocating for years, with the result that we are now threatened with +permanent constitutional separation for another generation. + +It is a mistake which all the younger men deplore, and which could +easily have been avoided by bringing in the men of Ulster into the +national deliberations, as they have every right, in the name of their +Southern followers, and then giving them the option to veto the +application of any measure to their own districts--which would have been +the best guarantee of justice which the Nationalists could have given +and the most they had a right to expect of England, whose political +position of dependence upon the Irish vote is a scandal of empire. + +These things, however, are beyond the scope of the present pages, and I +shall confine myself with thanking those of my many friends who have +helped me in compiling this volume--notably Councillor Keogh, who was +with me during the Battle of Mount Street Bridge, and others, whose +criticisms helped me considerably. Likewise I must thank my publishers +and Mr. O'Keefe, of O'Keefe's Press-cutting Agency; and Mr. George +Atkinson, who designed the cover, and Mr. Crampton Walker; and also Mr. +Marsh, the manager of the Coliseum, with whom I had several dangerous +adventures while in Sackville Street; and lastly, those among my Sinn +Fein friends who enabled me to get an inner view of a movement to which +I have endeavoured to do the best of justice--that of a true statement +of their intentions. + + L. G. REDMOND-HOWARD. +T.C.D., + 1916. + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE + +INTRODUCTION iii + +CHAPTER THE FIRST + +A BOLT FROM THE BLUE 1 + +CHAPTER THE SECOND + +JUST BEFORE THE BATTLE 14 + +CHAPTER THE THIRD + +BATTLE 27 + +CHAPTER THE FOURTH + +SURRENDER--COLLAPSE 40 + +CHAPTER THE FIFTH + +AFTERMATH 54 + +CHAPTER THE SIXTH + +SINN FEIN--GERMAN GOLD 69 + +CHAPTER THE SEVENTH + +MINDS AND MEN 82 + +CHAPTER THE EIGHTH + +REMOTER CAUSES OF THE REBELLION 98 + +CHAPTER THE NINTH + +REFLECTIONS TOWARDS RECONSTRUCTION 120 + + + + +SIX DAYS OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC + + + + +CHAPTER THE FIRST + +A BOLT FROM THE BLUE + + +Those who were in Dublin on Easter Monday 1916 were privileged to +witness a scene which for dramatic setting and for paradoxical +conception is certainly the most extraordinary of any of the long line +of rebellions in Irish history, for at a time when it seemed almost +universally admitted that "Separatism" was from an economic, racial, and +military point of view utterly impossible, there suddenly arose without +warning, without apparent reason, and as if from nowhere, a body of men, +fully armed and completely organized, who within the space of a single +hour had captured every strategic point in the capital, and to its utter +amazement held it up in the name of a new "Republic," in much the same +way as a highwayman of old used to hold up coaches on Hounslow Heath. + +It was in very deed a bolt from the blue. The first intimation that the +general public got of the rising was the sudden spread of the wildest +rumours--"Dublin Castle has just been taken by the Irish Volunteers," +"The Post Office has been captured by the Sinn Feiners," "Soldiers and +police are being shot at sight," "Larkin's Citizen Army are firing on +women and children," but, for the most part, these rumours were +discredited as impossible, at most being put down as some accidental +clash between military and civilians, and it was only as people rushed +into the street and heard the stories of the encounters first-hand that +they began to realize that anything unusual was taking place. + +Bodies of armed men had indeed been remarked in unusually large numbers +in the streets all the morning, increasing and concentrating towards +twelve, but everyone had grown so accustomed to these demonstrations for +the past three years, since they had been inaugurated in Ulster by Sir +Edward Carson, that nobody had taken any particular notice. + +People merely remarked that it was rather strange, in view of the +abandonment of the "Easter manoeuvres" which had been organized for +Sunday, and which had been cancelled at the last moment, late on +Saturday night, by special order of Professor Eoin MacNeill, editor of +the _Irish Volunteer_, which ran: "Owing to the very critical position, +all orders given to Irish Volunteers for to-morrow, Easter Sunday, are +hereby rescinded, and no parades, marches, or other movements of Irish +Volunteers will take place. Each individual Volunteer will obey this +order strictly in every particular." + +It was supposed, therefore, that the numbers were due to the new +recruits which had been the outcome of the protest against the +deportation of the Sinn Fein leaders some time previous to this, and +moderate people hoped that the Sinn Fein authorities were about to show +the same discretion in the matter of an armed demonstration in Dublin +which the authorities had shown in the matter of the proposed inclusion +of the military in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Cork. + +Possibly they may have had secret information--for they had their spies +in every department--that the long-meditated disarmament had been +determined upon, and immediately decided to anticipate the offensive by +a strong defensive of their own choosing. At any rate, Monday found them +fully prepared, each in his proper place. + +Accordingly, on the exact stroke of midday the Volunteers in Sackville +Street were suddenly seen to stop short opposite the Post Office. "I was +outside the building at the time," said an eye-witness of that now +historic event, Mr. E. A. Stoker, the well-known Grafton Street +jeweller, "and noticed a mixed crowd of, I should say, roughly, about +one hundred men and boys, all armed, and half the number carrying old +portmanteaux and parcels of every description. It is said that Connolly +was leading. + +"He called, 'Halt! Left turn! Come on.' The crowd then ran into the Post +Office. I also followed. Several men crossed the counter and held +revolvers at the officials' heads. + +"One youth, intensely pale and nervous, put a revolver at my breast and +said, 'Clear out.' + +"I replied, 'What's up?' + +"He said, 'Hands up, or I'll blow your heart out.' + +"Up went my hands, and he backed me out to the entrance, and within five +minutes everyone else had been bundled out in the same unceremonious +way, and they were in possession." + +Once in possession of the Post Office--which from its position and +character was admirably suited for a general headquarters--the next +thing was to fortify the place, for there was no knowing what had +happened to the other enterprises which had been timed to take place +simultaneously, or when the authorities would send out an armed force +for its recapture. Next, a number of shots--all blank--were discharged +with the purpose of clearing the streets of sightseers and inquisitive +idlers. These had the desired effect, after which floor after floor of +the Post Office was systematically occupied, the officials being either +placed under arrest or allowed to disperse, as each case suggested fit +to the commander, and the air began to reverberate with the sounds of +crashing glass and masonry as the lower windows were turned into +fortified loopholes with the aid of furniture and bags. + +Meanwhile a small group of policemen stood near the Nelson Monument +helpless, but one must evidently have telegraphed for help, for within a +few minutes a small detachment of mounted lancers came riding up. + +People stood breathless in expectation. + +The insurgents just allowed the first line to get abreast of the Pillar, +and then they opened fire; and at once a couple of saddles were emptied +and the rest at once turned and galloped for all they were worth up in +the direction of the Rotunda. + +One poor fellow was killed outright and a horse shot dead; after which a +great cheer went up from the crowd in the G.P.O., who proceeded to take +off the harness and carry it in triumph back to headquarters, one of the +rebels in uniform taking the young lancer's sword. + +Immediately after this a tramway car was blown up with dynamite at the +corner of North Earl Street, making a sort of barricade against any +possible approach from Amiens Street Station, where the Belfast trains +were expected to arrive. + +By this time I was on the scene of the crisis myself, having only heard +the news on my way into Trinity, which had been quickly occupied by the +O.T.C., who were thus able to practically cut the chief line of +communication of the rebels and command a huge area of important streets +which would otherwise have presented the utmost difficulties to the +advance of regular troops. + +Only the military were allowed in College, and, anxious to be on the +spot at what everybody then expected would be no more than an hour or +so's brisk encounter, I took a car to the "Metropole" in order to be +present when the Post Office was taken--the hotel actually adjoining and +overlooking the building. + +My own experience must have been that of thousands of people in Dublin, +but I quote it, as I will quote it again, because I can personally +testify to it. + + +Everyone at the hotel was in a state of consternation, for hardly six +yards away the windows of the Post Office were crashing to the ground in +the street, and at everyone bags of refuse were being piled up, and the +muzzles of rifles were commanding all the windows of the hotel guests. + +Several soldiers were staying at the "Metropole," and as I saw the Sinn +Feiners watching us, I suggested their changing the khaki into mufti, if +only for the safety of the civilians--for on all sides soldiers were +being shot at sight by snipers--a suggestion which found acceptance, for +most of the officers were young subalterns on leave, and therefore +unarmed. + +For a long time we could not tell what was going to happen; every +minute we expected the soldiers or the constabulary, and peered +anxiously out, but it seemed as if they were never coming, and men in +the hotel were anxiously consulting what to do and women packing up +their jewels. + +The one man who all the while kept as cool as a cucumber was Mr. Oliver, +the manager of the "Metropole." + +At last there came a martial tap, tap at the glass door of the hall +entrance, from an officer arrayed in green and gold, wearing cocked hat +and feathers and high top-boots, with a sword in one hand and a revolver +in the other. + +Behind him were two minor officials, each armed with a loaded rifle of +modern pattern, with bayonets fixed. + +I was at Mr. Oliver's side at the time, and we could see that only a +pane divided us from a whole line of them ranged along the pavement. +Resistance was useless, and Mr. Oliver gave orders to admit them. + +"We intend to commandeer your food supply," said the man in the cocked +hat, "and I must ask you to show me the way to your provisions." + +For a second Mr. Oliver hesitated. "Suppose I refuse?" he said. + +"In that case I will take them and you too," was the reply, and then, +addressing the two men, he added, "Men, do your duty," and they +ransacked the place, while I took down a list of the goods they took. + +Eventually the officer signed a receipt for the goods taken in the name +of the Irish Republic, and Mr. Oliver, much to my disappointment, +pocketed the precious document. + +They left, and after a few minutes came back with a ten-pound note. +Again I presented myself, and ventured one or two questions. + +The looting had already begun, and children were wandering through the +streets with toys and food and sweets. + +"Surely," I said to the officer, "you do not approve of all this +indiscriminate theft?" + +"No, certainly not," was his dignified reply. + +I next asked the meaning of all the rising, and to this he simply +replied:-- + +"It means that Ireland is free, that English government is at an end, +and that we have established an Irish Republic. As it is, we hold the +whole city, and within a few days the provinces will be ours as well." + +I still pressed for a pronouncement on the real aims and objects of the +new Government, and was referred to headquarters. + +Accordingly, I took my courage in both hands and walked past the +soldiers opposite the Post Office and the sandbagged windows, and asked +the guard at the main door if I could have an interview with their +President. + +At first I thought I was going to get it, but I suddenly noticed a +change come over the man, and saw guns covering me in a most +uncomfortable way. + +I argued my case with some of the minor officials, and pleaded the +importance of such a pronouncement, but, taking me possibly for a spy, I +was ordered off, and told that my safest way was to get back to my +hotel, where no harm would come to me as a civilian if only I left the +men of action alone. + +As soon as I realized the impossibility of penetrating the headquarters, +I returned to the "Metropole" and took up a position of vantage upon the +balcony, and was able to secure a unique snapshot of the hoisting of the +new flag of the Republic, and took another of the cheering of the +crowd--though this was very insignificant and in no way represented any +considerable body of citizens, any of the better class having +disappeared, leaving the streets to idlers and women and children or +else stray sightseers. + +This was certainly a thing that struck me, and I realized at once that +the movement was at that time a dismal failure as far as the vast +majority of Nationalist Ireland was concerned. There was practically no +response whatever from the people: it seemed the very antithesis of the +emancipation of a race as we see it, say, in the capture of the Bastille +in the French Revolution. They looked on partly with amazement, partly +with curiosity--waiting for something dramatic to happen. + +The point struck me with particular pathos--there they were posing as +the saviours of their country, and yet there they were already doomed +before they had even struck a single blow--and doomed by the verdict of +their own countrymen. + +As I was making the remark to one of the men in the hotel, a boy with a +handful of sheets issued from the Post Office--they were the +proclamation of the new Republic of Ireland. + +Instead of eagerly scanning the sheets and picking out the watchwords of +the new liberty, or glowing with enthusiastic admiration at the phrases +or sentiments, most of the crowd "bought a couple as a souvenir"--some +with the cute business instinct "that they'd be worth a fiver each some +day, when the beggars were hanged." + +I give another pathetic story told to me, though I cannot vouch for it. +It was that young Plunkett was deputed to go to the base of Nelson's +Pillar and there read out the new charter of liberty to the emancipated +citizens. + +He read it with deep emotion to a pack of squabbling women and +children--and he had hardly half finished the document when suddenly +there was a crash, followed by the sound of breaking glass. + +At once the crowd turned round and looked in the direction whence it +proceeded, and one old woman, half sodden with drink, exclaimed with +delight, "Hooroosh!--they're raiding Noblet's toffee-shop." Whereupon +the newly emancipated slaves of a foreign tyranny rushed to partake in +the orgy of sweetmeats which came tumbling out into the street. + +It was to me the saddest picture of the whole revolution, and even if +not true, was certainly typical of much of the pathos which crowned this +mixture of humour and tragedy. + +The document in question, however, was by no means undignified, taken as +an explanation of the ideals that animated the rebels, but it was simply +ridiculous when judged by the hard common-sense standards of stern +reality, though it was probably never meant for anything more than a +rhetorical protest in the name of the fast-ebbing sense of Nationality. + +This Utopian outburst perhaps speaks best for itself, and I quote it in +full:-- + + + POBLACHT NA H-EIREANN. + THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT + OF THE + IRISH REPUBLIC + TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND. + + +Irishmen and Irishwomen: In the name of God and of the dead generations +from which she receives her old traditions of nationhood, Ireland, +through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her +freedom. Having organized and trained her manhood through her secret +revolutionary organization, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and +through her open military organizations, the Irish Volunteers and the +Irish Citizen Army; having patiently perfected her discipline, having +resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes +that moment, and, supported by her exiled children in America and by +gallant Allies in Europe, but relying in the first place on her own +strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory. + +We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of +Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be +sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a +foreign people and Government has not extinguished the right, nor can it +ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In +every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national +freedom and sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred years +they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and +again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim +the Irish Republic as a sovereign independent State, and we pledge our +lives and the lives of our comrades in arms to the cause of its freedom, +of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations. + +The Irish Republic is entitled to and hereby claims the allegiance of +every Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic guarantees religious and +civil liberty, equal rights, and equal opportunities to all its +citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and +prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the +children of the nation equally and oblivious of the differences +carefully fostered by an alien Government, which have divided a minority +from the majority in the past. + +Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment +of a permanent national Government representative of the whole people of +Ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, the +Provisional Government hereby constituted will administer the civil and +military affairs of the Republic in trust for the people. + +We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the +Most High God, whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that +none who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, +or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and +discipline, and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves +for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which +it is called. + +Signed on behalf of the Provisional Government:-- + + THOMAS J. CLARKE. + SEAN MACDIARMADA. + THOMAS MACDONAGH. + J. H. PEARSE. EAMONN CEANNT. + JAMES CONNOLLY. JOSEPH PLUNKETT. + + +But to continue the narrative. According to a young woman cleric in the +G.P.O. the Sinn Feiners had chosen the place for their headquarters +partly because they were already familiar with the place, which was +proved by the way they settled down each to his own work the moment they +entered it, and partly because they had already made it a storehouse. + +All this while much the same process was going on all over the city. The +attack upon the Castle was hardly less dramatic than that upon the +G.P.O., but it seems to have been undertaken by fewer troops of +Volunteers and carried out less cleverly, so that it eventually fell +back into the hands of the military. I believe it was originally +intended to burn the place to the ground, as symbolical of the +centuries of tyranny with which it has been associated. Strategically it +might not have been of such value to the insurgents, but the moral +effect of its capture would undoubtedly have been enormous upon the +provinces if they had been able to telegraph it within the first few +hours of the rising. + +The Castle, however, had never formed the main point of attack; it was +at most an emotional side-issue. The scheme for the defence of Dublin +was a far greater conception, and there was hardly a bookseller in the +city, as I learnt later from Fred Hanna, of Nassau Street, whose shop +had not been visited during the past few weeks by one or other of the +insurgent leaders with the object of securing all the standard works on +strategy and military operations--which rather goes to prove that the +step had been long in contemplation. + +The idea seems to have been to draw a cordon around the city by securing +first of all the chief railway stations and the larger dominating +buildings, such as Jacob's biscuit factory, and then to man the corner +houses that overlooked the main roadways at the point where they crossed +the canals, and thus prevent all approach of the military till +messengers should be dispatched from Dublin to tell the counties to +rise. + +Probably the greatest disappointment to the rebels was the capture of +the famous Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park. + +It was generally understood that this was crammed to the very door with +guns and ammunition--heavy guns especially--and the most elaborate +preparations had consequently been made for its capture, the idea +probably being that once Ireland had heard of the capture of Dublin +there would be a general movement from the country towards the capital, +and that the new recruits could be fitted out from the magazine and then +dispatched to provincial headquarters. It was probably for this reason +the long line of the quays along the Liffey had been kept clear--the +Four Courts being a sort of halfway fort. + +The loss of the Magazine Fort--or rather the failure of their +expectation in its regard, for it was found to be practically empty +when searched--meant that they were bound to depend entirely upon +Germany for the larger ammunition. The railways were of course of +supreme importance, and simultaneously with the raid of the Post Office, +Jacob's, and the Castle, attacks were made on all the principal +stations. + +At twelve prompt Westland Row was occupied without a struggle and the +doors closed, sentinels being placed on the bridge spanning the street +below--arousing no little local curiosity, for the news had not +circulated through the town by this time. + +Harcourt Street Station was also taken over and an attempt made to +fortify it, but this was abandoned after some time, quite early in the +afternoon. Broadstone Station also fell before the insurgents; but +neither the attempt upon Amiens Street or Kingsbridge, where the +soldiers from Belfast and the Curragh would necessarily arrive, +succeeded. The military did not secure the former without a struggle, +having to stand a siege, while the latter's approaches were kept clear +by means of an engine, on which several armed snipers were placed, and +which was kept moving continually up and down, sweeping the country of +any Sinn Feiners who might attempt to approach in order to tamper with +the permanent way. + +This was rendered necessary because immediately the rebels got +possession of a line their first steps were to destroy signalling points +and junctions, and in one or two instances, such as on the Kingstown +line, actually tore up the permanent way, while in several other places +attempts were made to blow up the bridges with dynamite. + +Had it not been for this the whole coup might have been ended on Monday +or Tuesday at latest, instead of dragging on day after day. + +Every bridge across the canal which bounds Dublin on the south was +commanded by corner-houses, entered at the point of the revolver and +turned, in spite of all protest, into fortresses in an almost mediaeval +fashion. + +Liberty Hall, from whence floated the green emblem which had first been +hoisted when the four Labour leaders were deported, was a sort of +central storehouse of munitions, and was strongly guarded, but strange +to say the Custom House on the other side of the railway was left +untouched. + +This was probably because the docks were sufficiently defended by the +factories, like Ringsend and Boland's bakery, vast straggling buildings +on either side of the railway approach, and which were not only +occupied, but stored with food and ammunition and loopholed and +sandbagged to stand a fortnight's siege if necessary. + +The one great mistake made by the rebels appears to have been the +occupation of Stephen's Green, a huge open square, which, surrounded as +it is by tall buildings on all four sides, was bound to become a +death-trap, and eventually did so become. + +At exactly the same time as the Post Office was occupied, Volunteers +entered the famous square, which might almost be called a park, and +ordered the civilians out at the point of the revolver. They then +proceeded to entrench themselves and make barricades of any convenient +object, seizing trams, cabs, benches, and even holding up motor-cars and +turning them to this purpose. + +In the carrying out of this several civilians were shot at and wounded, +either by accidental shots meant for soldiers or for refusing obedience +to the new self-constituted authorities. + +Great carts, filled presumably with ammunition, were next escorted into +the Green, and then the doors were locked and barred and tied very +strongly, and finally the ropes greased--which shows how carefully +almost any eventuality had been planned. + +Whether their danger on the Green dawned upon them in time I cannot say, +but when they saw themselves dominated by the great roof of the +Shelbourne Hotel--about half an hour after the seizure of the open +square for a camp--a rush was made for the hotel, which luckily had just +been captured in the nick of time by a few of the military, who +immediately began to fire on the rebels below, at the same time guarding +the doors. A short while afterwards the main body of new Sinn Fein +arrivals were noticed to make their way, instead, to the Royal College +of Surgeons at the opposite end, which became one of their most stoutly +defended strongholds under the famous Countess Markievicz. + +Two further mistakes of the most vital importance were made in the +rebels' plan for the capture of Dublin, however, which were eventually +to be the deciding factor of the whole situation, and to which more than +anything they must be said to owe the sudden collapse of their movement +as well in the capital as in the provinces. The first was the omission +to capture the telephone system after securing the telegraphs so +completely. + +This meant not only that the military authorities could still keep in +touch with the few troops that still remained in Ireland, but it meant +that the authorities at the Castle were able to get into touch with +London. + +One can hardly imagine the chaos that would have ensued if, for example, +a delay of a couple of days had had to intervene between the occurrence +of the rising and communication with London--which might have been quite +possible, since they held the wireless stations as well as the cables, +and German submarines were supposed to be watching the mail boats. + +The other great mistake was to allow Trinity College, which was the +strategic key to Dublin City, to fall into the hands of a few of the +Officers' Training Corps, who must be given the credit of saving the +capital from total capture and Grafton Street from pillage. + +For as long as this was held by soldiers all the internal lines of +communication of the rebels were blocked and they themselves threatened +on all sides. + +Otherwise the republicans had complete control of the city: the police +were confined to barracks, civilians were on all sides at the mercy of a +perfectly organized and armed body of revolutionaries all in touch with +a headquarter staff, and the military, somewhere beyond the outskirts of +the city, were--nobody knew exactly where, and the whole population on +all sides hushed in expectation of the inevitable battle. + +For it had ceased to be a mere riot: it had become a revolution. + + + + +CHAPTER THE SECOND + +JUST BEFORE THE BATTLE + + +Those who went through that period of anxious expectancy between Monday +afternoon and Wednesday morning, knowing themselves absolutely at the +mercy of what appeared to be a "secret society suddenly gone mad and in +possession of the reins of government," will never forget the +experience. + +The whole thing was so sudden, so unprecedented, so inexplicable that +the intelligence simply refused to perform the ordinary functions of +thought. + +Everywhere civilians were being bullied into obedience at the point of +the bayonet: young boys in their teens brandished revolvers in the high +roads: rough, brawny dockers walked about endowed apparently with +unlimited authority, and in the dark recesses of the General Post +Office, beyond the reach of law or argument, the mysterious Republican +Brotherhood--omnipotent. + +All the while stories were coming in of hairbreadth escapes, of stray +shots, apparently from the sky, picking off unfortunate wayfarers, and +of whole parties of officers on their way back from the races in their +cars being captured and held up by the Volunteers--and every story went +one further than the one before it, till one was ready to believe almost +anything. + +Personally, I kept within the "Metropole," expecting every minute that +the "climax" of the situation would be reached, but still the soldiery +did not arrive, and we began to come to the belief that in all +probability the authorities were only waiting until dusk. + +I could not tear myself from the windows. That instinct of expectation +gripped me like a vice, and continued to do so for twenty-four solid +hours--and if I quote my own experience it is only as an example of what +others all around me went through. + +It was now about four o'clock, and still I looked out into the street +below--the people were beginning to go wild with excitement, for every +now and then the Sinn Feiners would fire blank cartridges, and each time +they did so, with the one cry "The soldiers are coming!" a mass of +several thousand men, women, and children would rush now to one end of +Sackville Street, now to the other. After Noblet's it was the Saxon Shoe +Company and Dunn's hat-shop's turn to be looted, and one could see +little guttersnipe wearing high silk hats and new bowlers and straws, +who had never worn headgear before: bare-footed little devils with legs +buried in Wellington top-boots, unable to bend their knees, and drunken +women brandishing satin shoes and Russian boots till it seemed as if the +whole revolution would collapse in ridicule or pandemonium. For there +was no animosity in the crowd at first, just as there was no +enthusiasm--certainly no avarice or desire for theft--only sheer +demoralization and mischief for mischief's sake: but every hour it +became worse. Sometimes there was absolutely no point in the loot. I saw +an urchin of nine brandishing with pride More's "Utopia" and Wells's +"New Machiavelli," which he compared with a rival urchin's--a +girl's--bunch of newspapers on "Poultry" and "Wireless," and solemnly +exchanging their treasures. + +I saw a tussle between two drunken harlots for the possession of a +headless dummy taken from a draper's shop, and noted a youngster go up +to the very steps of the Provisional Government House of the New +Republic of Ireland and amuse the armed rebels with impersonations of +Charlie Chaplin. + +In another portion of the street I saw a drunken sailor mad with hate +make a furious assault upon a woman, and then, when the crowd yelled in +horror, suddenly change his mind from murder and kiss his victim: while +in yet another portion of the street a woman of about sixty was kneeling +with hands outstretched to heaven, clasping a rosary and crying her +prayers to the Mother of God in heaven for "Ireland to be a nation once +again!" + +Time after time I felt inclined to weep with very shame at the whole +thing; for as I passed a group of young English _revue_ girls who had +come along to see the "show," I heard one exclaim, "A little bit of +heaven, and they call it Ireland!" and everyone laughed; and another +threw out the gibe: "Irish, and proud of it, eh?" + +They were not meant as insults--no, certainly not--merely the happy +laughing cynicism of the common-sense view that would be taken of us by +hundreds of cartoonists; but I must say they went through me as hardly +anything else I witnessed, for they showed in such a terrible light the +contrast between the dream that had inspired these men and the reality +that they had brought forth. + +Meantime, however, things were maturing, and as they matured the +ridiculous element faded and the tragic element began to come into the +picture. + +Every few minutes dispatch riders would come up on motor-cycles to the +Post Office, and emerge a few minutes later with sealed orders. A long +line of motor-cars "held up" at the point of the revolver was also +requisitioned and placed at the disposal of the rebels in a queue before +the Post Office side-entrance. Then came the supplies of food and +ammunition on huge lorries from the country districts, each with its +escort of six young farmers fully armed, with double bandoliers filled +to bursting-point with cartridges; and as I stood outside the _Freeman_ +offices, just at the side-gate of the "fortress," I was amazed at the +regularity of the whole proceeding: password, cheques, guards, orders, +everything, in fact, went off without the slightest hitch. And no +wonder--as I found out later--for during the past few weeks nearly every +manoeuvre had been rehearsed in mufti by the Volunteers, acting under +the orders of their chiefs, and each man knew his position, his work, +and the exact minute at which he was to perform it. + +In this way, at a given signal it had been possible to hold up the whole +city of Dublin with the ease of a highwayman holding up a coach on a +lonely common in Georgian days. + +I shall never forget the awful growing stillness of that afternoon as +the hours flew by, for all traffic was at an end. Now and again in the +general silence one heard the crack of a rifle, the hoot of a captured +motor and the cry "Stop, in the name of the Irish Republic!" from the +Volunteers, and the ghastly howling of the mob as more shop-fronts gave +way--but all these sounds came spasmodically and only intensified the +surrounding stillness. And all the while everyone was expecting the +arrival of the military, and saying, "When will the soldiers come?" +Then, "Will the soldiers come?" and later, "Will the soldiers never +come?" + +Soon dusk began to come on more rapidly, and we conjectured that the +authorities must have determined to wait till dark. The Volunteers, too, +felt this, and took up positions on the roof and strengthened their +outposts, every hour or so a dozen or two Volunteers fully armed going +off from the Post Office. + +The "Metropole" being situated alongside the Post Office, I could not +get any direct view of what I knew would be the centre of the battle, +and so I determined to move across to the "Imperial," which, situated +_vis-a-vis_ the Post Office on the top of Clery's Stores, commanded the +fullest view of the rebel headquarters. + +There I found everyone, including the manager, Mr. Woods, in the same +state of bewilderment as at the "Metropole." + +I mentioned who I was, and was told that a priest in the smoking-room +had just heard that John Redmond had been captured by the Sinn Feiners +and had, in all probability, been shot--but this was only one of the +thousand rumours that were by this time flying about the city, another +being that the Castle was in flames, with the Lord-Lieutenant in the +middle of the inner yard, and yet another describing the heroic death of +Father O'Doherty of Marlborough Street, who was supposed to have been +shot through the head in full vestments, having endeavoured to +remonstrate, cross in hand, with the rebels, in order to persuade them +to lay down their arms in the name of God. + +The street was now (9.30) in a perfect state of pandemonium, for a fire +had begun in the premises of the Cable Shoe Company, which immediately +adjoined Clery's, and hence was an imminent danger to us. + +I rushed down, and to my amazement found that the place, already looted, +had been set on fire deliberately, and that there was not one of the +crowd of two hundred spectators who seemed to be aware of, or even to +care about, the fate of the flat over the shop, which from the look of +the curtains appeared to be inhabited. + +The cellars were crackling as if they contained some fatty, resinous +substance, purposely placed there with incendiary intent, and the smoke +was blinding and suffocating. The door of the side entrance was locked +and I could not force it, so I called for a few volunteers to try to +break it down by ramming it with some planks that were lying about, and +though we did not succeed in breaking it, we were able to arouse the +attention of the sleepers, and a dentist popped his head out and told us +there were women and children in the house. + +Some by this time had run off for the fire-engine, and others, realizing +the danger, helped us to carry the inmates to safety, one woman being +actually in her confinement and frightened almost to death. After that +we rescued a few personal belongings with difficulty, but the smoke was +too terrible to do more, and the stairs were perfectly hot; and so I +went back with the owner to the hotel, where the family were put up and +given clothes, having been forced to rise from their beds. + +Soon after this I met Mr. Marsh, the manager of the Coliseum, who told +me that the rebels had just commandeered the building, which immediately +backs the Post Office, and had placed a guard at the door to prevent +looting. + +As a matter of fact, as we afterwards found out, it was merely to secure +the building as a means of retreat in case of a rout of their +headquarters at the Post Office--with the result that the building is +now burnt to the ground by naval shells, which pursued the rebels in +their retreat. + +Sleep on such a night was of course out of the question--we did not know +at what time the military would arrive--but in any case we secured a +room on the second floor, looking into the street, for we were +determined to see the thing out, still never dreaming but that the whole +thing would be over within a few dramatic hours. Meanwhile the street +below became worse and worse. On all sides now the looters came up from +the black depths of the slums like packs of hungry wolves, so that every +minute we expected that Clery's underneath would be the next to go. +Indeed, over at Mansfield's opposite we heard one of the crowd telling +the looters to go over and smash William Martin Murphy's windows--Murphy +was one of the directors of Clery's--and reminding them that it was he, +Boss Murphy, was the real enemy of the people--"the man who caused the +lock-out in the days of Jim Larkin"; but the looters, having tasted the +blood of theft, were far too avaricious by this time to think of +politics in their orgy, and instead began to make a raid on a +tobacco-shop, and next a small jeweller's. One could see small boys, +too, going to the outskirts of the crowd to sell the booty, so that +those who had not the pluck to steal salved their consciences by buying +the loot, in most cases getting some fifteen or twenty shillings' worth +for as many farthings. + +About twelve the Sinn Feiners, without directly encouraging loot, +unconsciously helped it by the order to "barricade the side streets," +and for hours nothing could be heard but the crash of furniture being +pitched into the street below from second, third, and fourth story +windows, till the barricades were eight or ten feet high, composed of +chairs, tables, desks, sofas, beds, and all kinds of furniture and +stores. + +In one place, "Kelly's" of Abbey Street, hundreds of cycles and motor +cycles were piled up--at least five thousand pounds' worth--and +brand-new motor-cars were then run into it, thus forming a steel wall of +solid machinery, upon which, later in the "war," the rebels poured +petrol and set the whole pile alight, with the result that the +neighbouring houses, hotels, and eventually the Hibernian Academy, with +its five hundred pictures, were burnt to the ground. + +As the early hours of the morning approached the crowd began to +disperse, the most enthusiastic singing the latest music-hall songs, and +soon O'Connell Street became black and deserted, save for a few specks +of candlelight moving about in the G.P.O., which was otherwise in +complete darkness, and a few guards marching up and down beneath the +great Greek portico. + +We retired then to our own room to watch and think. Never to my dying +day shall I ever forget those long hours of midnight stillness, broken +only by the distant rattle of the rifles in the direction of Phoenix +Park, where the two forces had by this time come into contact. + +One could easily distinguish the crack of the respective rifles: the +Government weapons had a harsher and lower note, but for each "spit" of +the rebel guns one could hear the dread rattle of the military machine +guns; and then we knew that there could only be one possible +end--defeat, ignominious and complete. + +Before us, hardly fifty yards away, stood the Post Office, lit up by the +street arc lamps in pale blues and greens, and looking for all the world +like the drop-cloth of a theatre; and there were we, it might have been +the dress circle of some gigantic opera house, and the feeling--the +feeling was excruciatingly morbid. We felt like cynical critics sent to +review a drama foredoomed to fiasco, yet with the difference that the +actors were all real and that the tragedy would be enacted in the blood +of hundreds of innocent lives. + +We were watching the climax of years of planning and the culminating +point of so many lifetimes of idealism, effort, and sacrifice, however +mistaken. + +We knew they would fail: we knew the penalty of the failure--the +traitor's death or the convict's cell; but we were held to the spot, to +see just how "dramatic" the fiasco would be. + +The very thought was a continuous torture, and it haunted us like a +ghost or a madness. + +We knew they were our own flesh and blood that had rebelled: it would be +strangers who would conquer, and yet we knew that order was right: and +this too was a torture-thought. + +Hour after hour passed, and when I was not at the window Marsh was on +watch, and when he was asleep I mounted my pensive guard. + +Incidents never ceased, but the incidents were as nothing compared with +the reflections they aroused. + +Hour after hour unarmed Volunteers came in from the country, stayed in +an hour or so, and then moved out armed. Carts and cars of ammunition +and food arrived and gave the password and were admitted. As the early +hours of dawn approached we could see milk and bread carts driving up at +top speed, the driver with the cold muzzle of a revolver at his ear and +his captors seated behind him. + +Sometimes flash signals would shoot across the sky, and at others a man +at the "Metropole" corner of the G.P.O. would open a basket and release +carrier pigeons, so complete was their organization. + +At daybreak we found our room covered by a guard, with rifles pointed at +our heads, the light shining over their backs full into our faces: but +we made no movement, and an hour or so later moved to another portion of +the roof. + +Next the street was cleared and barbed wire stretched across. + +About six o'clock we saw Connolly emerge at the head of a band, and we +could hear one of his subordinates call out Mr. Connolly this and Mr. +Connolly that, and the commander-in-chief give his orders in a clear, +resonant, and fearless voice. + +About eight we thought our last hour had come, for, looking towards the +base of Nelson's Pillar, we saw men running from a thin blue spiral of +smoke rising up, followed by a terrific explosion. They were trying to +blow up the monument. + +So Tuesday had come, but it found the situation no further advanced: the +military had not come: the rebels had had time to entrench and fortify +themselves: the city was really fully in their possession: but the +battle had begun. + +We could now hear it in the direction of the Castle and the Four Courts, +and we thought it could only be a matter of a few hours before they +would reach Sackville Street, for we could hear the military machine +guns raking Dame Street from Trinity College. + +As a matter of fact, a machine gun had been hoisted upon the roof of +the Hibernian Bank, which commanded the old Houses of Parliament, upon +which the rebels had climbed, and in the space of a few seconds wiped +out the whole contingent. + +As the afternoon wore on Sackville Street began to assume two totally +distinct characteristics--one of tragedy and the other of comedy. South +of the Pillar the scene might have been a battlefield; north of the +Pillar it might have been a nursery gone tipsy, for by this time all the +children of the slums had discovered that a perfect paradise of toys lay +at their absolute mercy at Lawrence's bazaar, and accordingly a pinafore +and knickerbocker army began to lay siege to it, the mothers taking +seats upon the stiffened corpses of the lancers' horses to watch the +sight of thousands of Union-jacks made into bonfires. + +The scene was indescribable for chaos: there were men locked in deadly +combat for the sake of Empire and Fatherland, and here were the very +children they were fighting for--some dying for--revelling in a +children's paradise of toys--balloons, soldiers, rackets, and lollypops, +as if it had all been arranged for their special benefit. + +An air-gun battalion was now formed of the young highwaymen--two guns +each, one on each shoulder--followed up by a toy anti-aircraft gun on +wheels, and the whole cavalcade brought up by a Noah's Ark the size of a +perambulator. + +The captain, about eight years of age, wore a blue silk waistcoat (with +its price ticket) and a new grey silk hat. The band then formed up in +Indian file, marched up to the G.P.O., saluted majestically, and then +impertinently fired their pellets slap-bang into the faces of the +insurgents, and then broke up and ran for all they were worth. + +All the while, in the opposite direction, Red War was at its height: the +rifle-fire along the quays was terrific, and ambulances were rushing +backwards and forwards and relays of Volunteers were issuing from the +central depot to the firing-line. + +Probably never in the world's history had there been such a strange +combination of pathos and humour, and it will haunt everyone who saw it +to their dying day: and if mere passive spectators felt the clash of +divergent emotions how much more must these, for all their idealism must +have appeared to them as crashing down at the first touch of reality. + +It was so much the repetition of Emmet's revolt, ending in riot and loot +and degradation--nay, worse, it seemed a very pantomime. + +Suddenly, as the sound of maxims grew louder, a terrific black cloud +rose into the sky. A fire had broken out in the heart of the bazaar and +the flames had just reached the fireworks, and for a solid half-hour the +whole gaze of rebel and civilian alike was centred upon Lawrence's, +which presented the appearance of a diminutive Crystal Palace, with +Catherine wheels, Roman candles, Chinese crackers going forth in all +directions. At last, in a big blue, green, red and yellow bouquet, the +main stock went bodily into the air, scattering the crowd of men and +women head-over-heels over the dead horses, and all was still. + +What the scene must have been like to the leaders, I do not dare to +imagine: but it was so symbolical of the whole eruption that I cannot +forbear to describe it. + +It was shortly after this--about 4.30--that Mr. Marsh and myself came +off the roof, where we had been four solid hours watching, tired, sad, +and sick at heart. I was a mass of tingling nerves, for the whole thing +was set in the background and framework of the penal days and the times +of the famine. He was as cool as an icicle--he even suggested chess, and +had a pocket set--but, chess in revolution?--what next! + +We were not at a loss for our next course, however, for we had no sooner +sat down to lunch--three hours late--than we noticed two of the Sinn +Feiners who had long watched us on the roof suddenly come across the +street. + +For one moment we made sure we were going to be taken out and shot for +spies: for we had kept our eyes fixed on them twelve hours, and of +course, as the telephone system still worked, could have kept in +continual communication with the military authorities--it was the Sinn +Feiners' one oversight, to leave the telephone intact--but we were soon +reassured, for Mr. Woods came up and announced that the hotel had been +taken over by the rebels. + +The next moment the dining-room was invaded by a crowd who might have +stepped direct off the French Revolution scenes of the "Scarlet +Pimpernel" or "The Only Way," but their officer was perfectly courteous. + +"Finish your meal, gentlemen," he said; "there is no hurry, but I must +ask you to leave with all possible speed." And then, addressing his men, +he added: "Now, then, two men to every window; take furniture, tables, +chairs, anything, and barricade away--we may have to stand siege." + +"Is there any immediate danger?" I ventured; "and if so, where do you +wish us to go?" + +"No immediate danger whatever, sir, save from your own resistance," was +his reply. "Civilians are all perfectly safe: we are only fighting the +troops of England. + +"There is no cause for excitement or flurry," he added; "you may find +our men firing over your heads as you pass into the street, but take no +notice. + +"These are partly our own signallers giving us warning, and also they +are intended to clear the streets of loiterers. You will have safe +conduct out of the city by the north, where our guards have orders to +allow all citizens to pass--I can only counsel you to move as far from +the city as possible, as it is more than probable that our positions +will be shelled from the sea at any time, and gas bombs may be used in +order to save the buildings, which I need not say would be equally fatal +to civilians as to ourselves." + +With that he asked the way to the fire-escape and the roof, which one of +us showed him, and then we hastily made parcels of anything we wished to +take with us. + +I took occasion to get into conversation with one of the guards, a +rough-looking fellow, upon the aims of the revolution, but could elicit +nothing very intelligent, save that "England always hated Ireland, and +that now was the time to free her, or within a couple of years everyone +would be slaves and conscripts." + +There seemed to be a rumour, too, that John Redmond had consented to +conscription for Ireland and that it was to be passed at the secret +session--but I could gather nothing definite, and before I could get +further details a superior officer came and severely reprimanded him for +allowing himself to be drawn into conversation at all. + +There was nothing for it, therefore, but to march out, and as I could +not cross a bridge to get back to the south side of the city, I accepted +an offer of hospitality for the night with Mr. Marsh--provided I was +willing to walk to Howth for it, nine miles away. + +The rain was drizzling as we made our way into Sackville Street. +Lawrence's was a blazing furnace, and on the roof we could see a woman +and child, caught by the fire, trying to reach the ladders of the fire +brigade, which were short; the side wall was tottering, there were +screams, but I turned my head: I felt too sick to look, save at the +gaping crowd, that even disgusted the rebels, who fired several blank +shots among them in the vain attempt to scatter them. + +As soon as we reached the Parnell Monument, close to the Rotunda, we +turned to the right, and made our way through the long lines of +tenements--refugees. + +There was quite a string of refugees, as one might have seen fleeing +from Ypres, for we knew that the place was now doomed to be shelled--it +only remained the chance of a tossed coin where the blows would fall. + +The rain poured down, but the seven of us, including the manager of the +Coliseum and the manager of the "Imperial," who made up our party, +trudged on, on, on. Every cross-road had its Sinn Fein sentries, every +point of vantage was loopholed for miles around, and it was a mere +stroke of luck that Annesley Bridge had not been blown up and so cut off +Amiens Street Station, which held 300 troops, from the north. We only +saw two soldiers in nine miles, and these were at a pier-head at +Dollymount, half way. + +When we arrived at Howth we were wet as fish and black as miners, for we +finished the last couple of miles upon a charitable coal-cart. + +The next morning was bright and warm as a midsummer day, but in the +distance across the bay we could hear the sound of the naval guns +thundering out shot and shell. + +They had given the rebels till eight to surrender--and they had refused. +It was no longer a riot--it was civil war. + + + + +CHAPTER THE THIRD + +BATTLE + + +Monday and Tuesday were for the most part employed in clearing the +streets and preparing the field for the battle which was to last +continuously until late on Saturday evening, but it seems a pity, +looking back on the situation, that the time was not employed in trying +to avoid such a fatal issue; and that it would have been possible is +proved by the example of Cork, where all conflict was avoided by a +timely negotiation between the rebels and the ordinary civil and +ecclesiastical authorities. + +However, of this more later; it was decided to treat the matter in the +sternest possible manner, which was just, as it turned out, what the +Sinn Feiners wanted, and the military authorities, as it were, fell into +the trap prepared for them by those astute politicians: for that they +foresaw the political effects of ruthless suppression is now an admitted +fact. + +On Tuesday, April 25th, therefore, the day following the _coup_, the +citizens of Dublin--or such as were not totally isolated--read in their +morning _Irish Times_ (the _Express_ and the _Freeman_ having ceased +publication) two proclamations announcing the official English view of +the rising, and people noted particularly the words that traced the +attempt to subvert the supremacy of the Crown "to the foreign enemies of +their King and country"--in a word, it was to be put down purely and +simply to Germany. + +As regards details, however, the inhabitants had to content themselves +with the simple statement that "yesterday morning an insurrectionary +rising took place in the City of Dublin"; that "the authorities had +taken active and energetic measures to cope with the situation, which +measures were proceeding favourably"; but this official condolence in +their plight was rather discomforting, as the whole city was still in +the possession of the insurgents. + +Next, another proclamation was issued declaring the county of Dublin +under martial law, warning all peaceable and law-abiding subjects within +the area of the danger of frequenting or being in any place in the +vicinity of which His Majesty's forces were engaged in the suppression +of disorder, and enjoining upon them the duty and necessity of remaining +so far as practicable within their own homes so long as such dangerous +conditions prevailed, and proclaiming that all persons found carrying +arms without lawful authority were liable to be dealt with severely by +virtue of such proclamation. + +All this, of course, was anything but reassuring, especially in view of +the danger everybody felt of a provincial rising and the whispers of a +German invasion; but towards the evening another statement was issued to +the effect that the trouble was confined to Dublin and one or two other +districts only in a minor way. + +Yet the trouble was by no means even at its height. + +All Tuesday the Sinn Feiners had been preparing for the inevitable +battle, but these preparations merely took the shape of consolidating +the positions already occupied. + +At O'Connell Bridge, for example, Kelly's shop at the corner of +Bachelors' Walk was garrisoned, and Hopkins's jewellery establishment at +the opposite corner was similarly occupied. + +In Lower Abbey Street, opposite Wynn's Hotel, a formidable barricade was +erected, composed partly of paper taken from the _Irish Times_ store. + +The wireless station was also seized, and all day long messages were +flashed to the four corners of the world announcing the establishment of +an Irish Republic, which messages were picked up at sea by special +envoys who had been forewarned, and sent on till they finally reached +New York and Petrograd. + +The amazement of Russia and America must have been +considerable--especially Russia's. + +Yet it was not all preparation, for already the troops, or such as +could be brought up in time, had come into contact with the Sinn Feiners +on the outskirts of the town; but the chief activity appears to have +been the strengthening of the position in Trinity College, which allowed +the troops to form a wedge between Westland Row at one end and Dame +Street on the other, thus cutting off Stephen's Green from Sackville +Street. + +On Monday night the danger in this quarter had been from the eastern +side, but on Tuesday morning it was the College Green entrances that +appeared most open to attack, and which were accordingly strengthened by +sandbags within the windows of the main entrance and wings. + +Irish Volunteer scouts on bicycles tried several times to get past +through Grafton Street, but they could not get past the Colonial +sharpshooters posted in the College, and tried by way of side streets, +which were more or less covered by their own snipers, but in vain also. + +Machine guns swept right up Dame Street on the one hand and on the other +through Westmorland Street as far up as O'Connell's Statue at the end of +the bridge; but this was as far north as the military got, for all along +to Clontarf, Glasnevin, and Drumcondra the insurgents held practically +undisputed sway. + +Another minor position of great importance was the clearing of Stephen's +Green by means of a maxim from the "Shelbourne." + +The first actual entry of the military in force from an outside area +took place on Tuesday evening, when a body of Royal Dublin Fusiliers +forced their way into the centre of the city by Cabra Road. The +insurgents had placed barricades both on the Park Road and on Cabra +Road, near the point at which Charleville Road links up these +thoroughfares. Houses overlooking the barricades were occupied by the +insurgents, and some brisk fighting took place before the way was +cleared for the military advance. A well-directed shell or two +demolished the barricades, and within a short time the defenders, under +the thunder of artillery, machine guns and rifle-fire, were forced from +these positions. There were a couple of civilian casualties resulting +from the shrapnel. Attempts by the insurgents to blow up the Cabra +Bridge and the bridge crossing the Midland Railway on the North Circular +Road beyond Phibsborough Church were unsuccessful. + +It was not until Wednesday morning, as we have already seen, that the +city realized that an attack in full force was contemplated, and if +necessary heavy artillery would be used to dislodge the rebels. + +Up to that it had been thought that at the worst gas shells might be +dropped upon the enemy strongholds and that the city would be spared: +but it early became evident that the disproportion would be too great in +the street fighting, which everyone now saw was becoming inevitable. + +Accordingly, during the early hours of Wednesday morning a party of six +volunteers from Trinity--including both civilians and members of the +O.T.C.--went forth to dig holes below the cobbles for the gun-trails. +The position was at the Tara Street end of Butt Bridge, and the object, +in order to be ready to begin early the shelling of Liberty Hall, which +was looked upon as the centre and symbol of the anarchy. + +After much difficulty two 18-pounders were brought up and machine guns +were placed on the tower of the Fire Station and the Tivoli, and then, +when all was ready, the bombardment began. Evidently the rebels had got +wind of this intention, however, and though much damage was done, +practically no casualties were scored, the rebels getting away through +the basement or along the roofs. + +The _Helga_, an old police patrol boat belonging to the Fisheries +Department, next contributed, though the task was an extremely delicate +one, owing to the position of the Custom House and the Railway Bridge, +having eventually to retire further down the river and adopt a dropping +instead of a direct fire. + +For over an hour this naval bombardment continued without eliciting any +reply. + +It seemed to be generally hoped that the very threat of artillery would +be sufficient to cow the rebels, but this was far from being the case. +There was a perfect rabbit warren of retreat, and when the troops +rushed forward with bayonets fixed and cheering triumphantly, their +onrush was unchecked and they found themselves established in--ruins. + +The rebel loss was a considerable gain to the troops, for it meant that +the military would find themselves connected up with Amiens Street +Station; but this was not so easy: they needed more reserves to +accomplish a junction, and it was in order to secure these that the +"Battle of Mount Street" bridge was fought, an engagement which has been +called the "Dardanelles of Dublin," because the place commanded the +direct approach of the troops from Kingstown, and I quote my own +experience to illustrate the kind of struggle that went on at every +entrance to the city. + +The "battle" was in every way typical of the kind of fighting which we +were destined to witness for the rest of the week, and I was lucky +enough to get back from Howth, a journey which I had to cover on foot, +just in time to see it from a few minutes after the start. + +The Sinn Feiners had got Clanwilliam House--a corner +residence--wonderfully barricaded, and the Sherwood Foresters, who had +just taken Carisbrook House and Ballsbridge after considerable losses, +were now advancing to cross over the canal and so enter the town and +relieve the O.T.C. in Trinity. + +Clanwilliam House not only dominated the bridge, but also the whole of +Northumberland Road. + +Along this road the troops had to pass, and they crouched down in long +rows of heads--like great khaki caterpillars--in a most terribly exposed +order, so that if the rebel shot failed to hit the first head it was +bound to hit the second head, provided the rifle was anywhere in the +vertical line. For the most part the soldiers were boys in their early +twenties, utterly ignorant of the district, with orders to take the +town, which was reported in the hands of a body of men whose very name +was a mysterious puzzle in pronunciation, and not an enemy in sight, +only a mass of civilian spectators up to within fifty yards of them and +directly in front, blocking the street--the rebel enemy meanwhile +inside private houses to the right and left of the narrow bridgehead, +they knew not where. + +I arrived on the scene a few minutes after the start of the engagement, +but already one could see the poor fellows writhing in agony in the +roadway, where the advanced line had been sniped by the terrible leaden +bullets of the Sinn Feiners. + +For half an hour or so I was a passive spectator, though intensely +interested by the sight of a real battle going on under my very eyes at +a distance hardly more than that of the gallery from a large music-hall +stage; but suddenly I felt a complete change come over me, which I yet +fail to explain to myself. The usual cowardice of the spectator seemed +to leave me, and I wanted to rush over and help, but I was assured that +it would mean instant death to come between the line of combatants--"The +Sinn Feiners would fire on anyone, the blackguards." This I refused to +believe, and spoke to a Methodist clergyman, who soon shared my views, +and together we made our way to Dun's Hospital, where the doctors and +nurses in white stood in the doorway. Within a couple of minutes' +conversation we had all spontaneously decided to venture under the Red +Cross and put it to the test. They gave me the white coat of an +ambulance worker, and within five minutes we were all on the bridge +together. + +Anticipating us all, however, were two little girls of sixteen and +seventeen--Kathleen Pierce and Loo Nolan by name--who rushed out of the +throng with water in a jug for one of the wounded Tommies who was lying +across the bridge bleeding. + +A great shout went up from the crowd as they saw this, and both +combatants ceased firing, and, after having given the soldiers a drink, +they came back amidst the cheers of soldiers, crowd, and Sinn Feiners +alike, and they are now known as the bravest colleens in Ireland--God +bless them! But little as they realized it, the danger was considerable, +and it must ever reflect to the credit of Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, +that scene of the young nurses who flocked out in a body, in spite of +the hail of bullets which passed over them and around them on every +side. For, try as they would, the two sides could not completely cease +fire when every second and every yard was a question of life and death, +defeat or victory. + +Never shall I forget the experience--the whole staff of doctors gave a +hand, together with a clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Hall, of St. John's +Voluntary Aid Detachment. I was with Councillor Keogh myself, and poor +Hylands, who was afterwards killed, with whom I bore a stretcher, +continually bringing in wounded between us. In little over an hour we +brought in about seventy poor fellows, who lay about all along the road +and canal banks, heavy packs upon their backs. + +At last, however, when we had cleared the road of wounded, about dusk, +there came a shout from Captain Melleville: "Now, lads, up and all +together!" Immediately there was a simultaneous rush across the +bridge--a tactic which should have been adopted from the very first. +Some dropped, but the numbers were too many for the handful of snipers. + +We moved aside to give them room, and the next moment the bombers were +in the garden of Clanwilliam House--one poor fellow falling and blowing +the top of his head off at the gate with his own grenade. + +There was a "Crash! crash! crash!" as the windows burst with the +concussion, and within a few seconds the sky was lit up with the flare +of the burning houses and the air rent with the screams of the Sinn +Feiners as they faced cold steel. It was a ghastly scene! + +The smell of roasting flesh was still around the blazing buildings at +ten o'clock, when we brought in the last of the dead--some of them mere +boys of thirteen--and laid them out in dread rows like a Raemaeker +cartoon. + +One lad of twelve whom I carried in I afterwards interrogated as to why +he was out in such an exposed position. He wanted to give a poor Tommy a +drink, and got sniped as he was preparing to get down to the water of +the canal. + +The Dardanelles had been forced, however, and the highway into Dublin +secured. + +All Wednesday night the whole town was kept awake by the snipers, who +now became one of the main features of the turmoil; they seemed to be +everywhere, but it was almost impossible to locate them. + +Troops lined the streets in the direction of Merrion and Fitzwilliam +Squares, and were picked off from windows and roofs all night in the +most bewildering fashion, while the slum courts in the centre of the +large blocks of buildings re-echoed with the sharp click of the old +rebel mausers, till the military were tempted to fire on any strange +figure looming up in the distance. + +During the night several transports had arrived, we now heard, and the +troops soon began to land in force. + +All Thursday I spent with the Red Cross at Sir Patrick Dun's, which was +crowded with casualties, poor fellows! one raving and asking "Is the +school taken?--is the school taken?": for this point had been the +strategic point in the Battle of Mount Street Bridge. It was pathetic. + +All day long the troops arrived, but whenever crossing the side streets, +which were slums honeycombed with snipers, they would have to "double" +and rush across in single file; but each time one or two were picked off +by the deadly snipers, all firing from cover, with thick lead bullets +that spread and made dreadful wounds--some, inches wide. In the yard the +Raemaeker picture of the dead soldiers--Sinn Feiners--was broader by +some half-dozen: for several had died of wounds during the night. The +small boy who had been sniped while trying to get the soldiers a drink +lay stiff now, and my mind went back to the scene of the night before as +I made a little space of a couple of yards in the corner of the crowded +ward, with everyone lying on the floor, while the good priest anointed +him just before he died. + +All day long and all around there was a perfect hail of bullets from the +snipers, some going right through the hospital grounds from Boland's +bakery, which, sandbagged and loopholed, was filled with Sinn Feiners. +It was a terrible fight, for of course it was next to impossible for the +soldiers to distinguish them, being all in civilian clothes so that they +just had to doff their bandoliers and they could go about from house to +house in safety. Sometimes they did this purposely, having arms in +several places. Hence the order had to go out that all civilians would +have to stay indoors, and after that all suspicious characters were shot +at, with the terrible result that innocent civilians were killed on all +sides. + +Accordingly, while on our way to pick up a body I went with one of the +stretcher-bearers and a priest and a parson to warn them to keep +indoors. + +One poor fellow we brought in, shot through the breast, was apparently a +civilian, but on examination we found on him a curious document, +undoubtedly proving him a Sinn Feiner. + +The story of this document, which was perhaps the final decisive factor +that precipitated the rising, is perhaps best told in the words of the +Royal Commission:-- + + + On the 19th of April a special meeting of the Dublin Corporation + was held at the Mansion House to discuss the police rate. Alderman + Thomas Kelly, in the course of a speech attacking Mr. Justice Kenny + (who had alluded at the opening of his Commission to the state of + disorder in Dublin and had urged military action), made a statement + to the effect that he had received that morning from the editor of + _New Ireland_ a circular which he would read. It was from a man + named Little, _New Ireland_ Office, 13, Fleet Street, Dublin, April + 16, 1916, and ran:-- + + "The following precautionary measures have been sanctioned by the + Irish Office on the recommendation of the General Officer + Commanding the Forces in Ireland. All preparations will be made to + put these measures in force immediately on receipt of an Order + issued from the Chief Secretary's Office, Dublin Castle, and signed + by the Under Secretary and the General Officer Commanding the + Forces in Ireland. First, the following persons to be placed under + arrest:--All members of the Sinn Fein National Council, the Central + Executive Irish Sinn Fein Volunteers, General Council Irish Sinn + Fein Volunteers, County Board Irish Sinn Fein Volunteers, Executive + Committee National Volunteers, Coisde Gnota Committee Gaelic + League. See List A 3 and 4 and supplementary list A 2.... Dublin + Metropolitan Police and Royal Irish Constabulary Forces in Dublin + City will be confined to barracks under the direction of the + Competent Military Authority. An order will be issued to + inhabitants of city to remain in their houses until such time as + the Competent Military Authority may otherwise direct or permit. + Pickets chosen from units of Territorial Forces will be placed at + all points marked on maps 3 and 4. Accompanying mounted patrols + will continuously visit all points and report every hour. The + following premises will be occupied by adequate forces, and all + necessary measures used without need of reference to headquarters; + after which followed a list. + + "Alderman Kelly, in continuing, said that the document was + evidently genuine, and that he had done a public service in drawing + attention to it, in order to prevent these military operations + being carried on in a city which he declared was under God the most + peaceable in Europe. + + "This document was an entire fabrication. Copies of it found since + the outbreak are shown by identification of type to have been + printed at Liberty Hall, the headquarters of the Citizen Army. It + is not known who was the author of this invention, or whether Mr. + Little was in any way responsible for it. Many copies of this + forged document were printed and distributed, and it was widely + considered by the people to be genuine, and no doubt led to the + belief by the members of the Irish Volunteers and Citizen Army that + they would shortly be disarmed. This undoubtedly became one of the + proximate causes of the outbreak." + + +All Thursday seems to have been devoted principally to the bringing in +of reinforcements, which, by this time, were pouring in from England. + +Instead of using them for isolated attacks on the different strongholds, +they appear to have been concentrated as an ever-narrowing cordon around +the central position of the rebels at the Post Office. + +Hence, by Thursday evening the tables had been completely turned upon +the rebels, and instead of dominating the city, the city on every side +hemmed them in; and the Law Courts, the College of Surgeons, Jacobs's +biscuit factory and Boland's bakery, though amply supplied with food and +ammunition, had been all practically isolated one from another--in the +last-named place the rebels forced the bakers, at the point of the +bayonet, to continue making bread. + +The military were also in possession of Brunswick Street, and portions +of Talbot Street and North Earl Street, while from D'Olier Street a +fusillade swept O'Connell Bridge, and from T.C.D. a 9-pounder began to +batter down Kelly's corner house and send shells along Bachelors' Walk. + +Everybody now expected the collapse of the rebels, who were being +captured on all sides, and crowds of British pressmen, with special +facilities for the edification of neutral countries, began to arrive. + +Certainly never had journalists ever had such a finale to send flashing +along the wires; for a cordon of soldiers completely encircled the city +on every side, and grew gradually tighter and tighter around the Post +Office, the heart of the rebel position. From all sides shells now began +to drop into Sackville Street, and we knew that it was the beginning of +the end. + +That end was in every way as dramatic as the beginning--a melodrama +worthy of the Lyceum at its best--and for thirty hours, as the +artillery thundered, the sky was one huge blaze of flame, which, at one +time, threatened to engulf the whole northern centre of the city in a +sea of fire. + +Driven from Kelly's corner, which commanded the left entrance to +Sackville Street, the insurgents still held Hopkins's corner on the +other side, and on this the artillery next concentrated not only high +explosive shells but incendiary bombs as well, and the whole place +became a mass of blazing ruins, the flames leaping across Lower Abbey +Street like a prairie fire. + +Whether this was intentional or inevitable, one thing was certain, and +that was that nothing could stand up against it--it meant utter +annihilation as far as human lives were concerned, absolute ruination as +far as material property. + +That strong measures had been found necessary, however, had been proved +by the appointment of a military dictator in General Sir John Maxwell, +with plenary powers, and the announcement of Mr. Asquith in the House +that the situation had still serious features, and that there seemed to +be indications of the movement spreading to other parts of the country, +especially the West. + +Yet one thing must have been particularly pleasing to announce, and that +was the total isolation of the movement as a political campaign, both +Sir Edward Carson and Mr. John Redmond disclaiming all responsibility, +while in Drogheda the National Volunteers, according to a telegram from +the Viceroy, actually turned out to assist the military. + +This background of peace only served to intensify the catastrophe which +became known as the Sack of Sackville Street, and it is probable that +only the gap made by the fire which occurred on Tuesday afternoon at +Lawrence's bazaar saved the northern portion of the city. + +It was under cover of the blazing buildings that the troops advanced +upon the central position of the Sinn Feiners, one of the pickets being +inside Clery's while the embers beneath his feet were still red, as I +was told: but it was not until Saturday morning that the actual final +shelling and capture of the place was begun. + +For this purpose only light shells, happily, were used, and some +incendiary bombs, which soon set fire to the roof of the beautiful +historic landmark. + +It was expected that at least a thousand of the rebels were entrapped, +but it was later found out that during the week they had made a complete +tunnel right back as far as Arnot's Stores, blasting their way with the +aid of dynamite, in the use of which they seem to have been coached by a +Berlin expert, who was afterwards captured. + +The last struggles of the rebels have been variously described, but they +seem rather early to have made an attempt in force to evacuate the +building from the back, and some hundred and fifty are described as +taking part in the stampede, which was turned into a rout by the machine +guns of the military. + +A single shell which exploded right in the barricade in front of the +Coliseum building, which faces a side street, had the effect not only of +closing it by the wreckage of the two corner buildings, but also of +burying one of the rebel leaders. + +Everyone then expected that the place would be taken at the point of the +bayonet and a terrible hand-to-hand struggle ensue, as the troops would +thrust the despairing rebels back into the fortress, which was rapidly +turning into a furnace, when suddenly the order was given to cease fire, +and for fully three hours there was a mysterious silence. + +Had the place been taken, had the men surrendered, or was it only a +truce, as one rumour had it, in order to enable the city to get in +foodstuffs?--for the food problem had by this time become most acute in +several of the isolated districts. + +It proved to be an armistice, during which terms of formal surrender +were concluded with the insurgent leaders, and a short while after four, +Sackville Street beheld the sight of all that were left of them, the +gallant but misguided six hundred, marching into captivity. + +"It is a sight I shall never forget," said one eye-witness who beheld +the surrender from a window in the Gresham Hotel. "That thin, short line +of no more than a hundred men at most, some in the green uniform of the +Volunteers, some in the plainer equipment of Larkin's Citizen Army, some +looking like ordinary civilians, some again mere lads of fifteen, not a +few wounded and bandaged, the whole melancholy procession threading its +way through long lines of khaki soldiers--but downhearted? No; and as +they passed, I heard just for a couple of seconds the subdued strains of +that scaffold-song of many an Irishman before them--'God save +Ireland'--waft up to me. + +"Roughs, dockers, labourers, shop-assistants--all kinds and conditions +of men, even the lowest class in the city--yet all exactly the same in +the look of defiance which will haunt me to my dying day. + +"Whatever they were, these men were no cowards--and even the soldiers +admitted this readily; they had shown courage of the finest type, worthy +of a nobler cause; and had they been man for man at the front and +accomplished what they had accomplished in the face of such odds, the +whole Empire would have been proud of them--the whole world ringing with +their praise; for, as a soldier prisoner afterwards said, 'Not even the +hell of Loos or Neuve Chapelle was like the hell of those last hours in +the General Post Office.' + +"Instead of that, they were doomed to the double stigma of failure in +accomplishment and futility in aim--but every Irish heart went out to +them, for all that, for were they not our own flesh and blood after all? + +"At either end a lad carried an improvised white flag of truce--at their +head, Pearse in full uniform, with sword across one arm in regular +surrender fashion. For a moment the young British officer in command +seemed perplexed at the solemnity of the procession and at the +correctness and courtesy of the rebel leader; and he hesitatingly +accepted the sword from his hands. + +"The next moment the spell was broken: the man was a captive criminal, +and with two officers, each with a loaded revolver pointing at his head, +the chief and his gallant band disappeared from my view." + + + + +CHAPTER THE FOURTH + +SURRENDER--COLLAPSE + + +Late on that fateful Saturday evening upon which the Post Office fell, +the Royal Irish Constabulary were posting in all parts of the country +the following note signed by Commander P. H. Pearse. + +"In order to prevent further slaughter," it ran, "of unarmed people, and +in the hope of saving the lives of our followers, now surrounded and +hopelessly outnumbered, members of the Provisional Government present at +headquarters have agreed to unconditional surrender, and the commanders +of all units of the Republican forces will order their followers to lay +down their arms." + +Yet so confident were the rebels of success in some of the besieged +fortresses that they positively refused to believe that their commanders +had given in: moreover, the difficulty of obtaining access to some of +the insurgents also tended to prolong the conflict, especially in the +more outlying districts, and so the struggle went on. + +In some cases the rebels, expecting no mercy, preferred to die fighting, +and it was only by the interference of the clergy that further +destruction and desolation was avoided. + +Jacobs's factory, for example--second only to Guinness's Brewery in +size, and occupied at first by some 1,500 rebels, who had taken +possession while the workers were on holiday--put up a strenuous fight, +and though it was by now surrounded by the military, the men, firmly +protected and encouraged by the feeling that headquarters depended upon +them, refused all offers to surrender. + +Several priests had previously made the attempt to influence them, but +had been quietly and courteously refused, and only succeeded eventually +about 4 p.m. on Sunday, when the Volunteers finally evacuated the +premises. + +The majority of the exits had by Sunday become occupied by the military, +who had gradually turned the place into a death-trap, and from this the +rebels were saved by a somewhat picturesque climax. + +A well-known Carmelite monk from Whitefriars Street suddenly made his +way through the crowd of spectators and signalled to the insurgents, +whereupon one of the sandbagged windows was dismantled and, amid a +universal cheer from the crowd, the venerable peacemaker was hoisted up +into the fortress. + +A short while later his efforts were seen to have succeeded, for the +garrison surrendered. + +At the Four Courts a priest was likewise instrumental in bringing about +the surrender. + +The place had been strongly barricaded and provisioned, and would, no +doubt, have suffered the same fate as the Post Office had the struggle +continued, but for this intervention and the desire on the part of the +authorities no doubt to save the Record Office at all costs. Such a loss +would, of course, have been far more serious than that of the G.P.O., +for in some cases all kinds of documents had been used for the purposes +of defence, at one particular spot a whole barricade having been +constructed of wills alone. + +Father Columbus, O.S.F.C., who was at the time attending to the wounded +and dying, saw a girl waving a large white sheet from the building, and +we immediately proceeded to inform the military authorities, who were +still pounding away at the building with maxims, of the intention of the +insurgents to surrender. + +An officer was dispatched, and to him Commander Daly, of the Republican +Army, rendered unconditional surrender on behalf of the besieged. + +Another dramatic surrender on Sunday was that of the College of +Surgeons, where the rebels had been making a stout resistance, under the +personal command of the celebrated Countess Markievicz. + +The green flag which had floated there throughout the week in spite of +shot and shell was suddenly lowered, and one of the rebels was seen to +climb on the parapet and tie a white scarf, quaintly enough, on to the +arm of the central statue, which stood out against the skyline, instead +of the flagstaff. + +A few seconds later this formal announcement of surrender was followed +by the order to "cease fire," and a detachment of soldiers was sent to +that side of Stephen's Green. + +As they approached, the Countess, who was dressed in a complete outfit +of the green uniform of the Irish Volunteers, including green boots and +green cock's feathers, something like those on the Italian bersaglieri, +emerged from the central doorway. She was closely followed by an +attendant carrying a white flag and some sixty to eighty of the +defenders. + +Solemnly they advanced towards the English officer, and then the +Countess, taking off her bandolier and sword, was seen to kiss them +reverently and hand them over in the most touching manner--not a little +to the perplexity of the young officer. + +Dr. Myles Keogh, who, in company with others, acted so bravely in +rescuing the wounded, tells of the actual incident of the surrender of +De Valera, near Ringsend. Dr. Keogh was on Sunday returning at one +o'clock from Glasnevin Cemetery on a hearse, which, under the Red Cross, +had left a number of dead for burial, and when opposite Sir Patrick +Dun's Hospital a voice hailed him. Two men had come out of the Poor Law +Dispensary opposite, in which the Sinn Feiners were installed. So +covered with dust were they that he thought both were in khaki. One was +a military cadet who had been captured by the Sinn Feiners, the other +was the Sinn Fein leader De Valera. "Hullo!" cried De Valera. "Who are +you?" replied Dr. Keogh. The response was, "I am De Valera," from one, +and from the other it was: "I am a prisoner for the past five days. They +want to surrender." Dr. Keogh replied that Sir Arthur Ball, who was in +the hospital, would make arrangements. Then the military came up, and +after some preliminaries the Sinn Feiners were marched out of the +dispensary and conveyed to Lower Mount Street. The hopelessness of the +Sinn Feiners was exemplified in some remarks dropped by De Valera. +"Shoot me," he said, "if you will, but arrange for my men." Then he +added, walking up and down: "If only the people had come out with knives +and forks." + +I saw Dr. Keogh immediately after this, and he told me that De Valera +had complained bitterly that the "English" had continuously violated the +white flag and Red Cross, but we could testify to the falsity of this by +our own experience, the whole staff having time after time complained +that shots appeared to go right across the hospital--and, in point of +fact, the right wing of "Elpis" Hospital is simply peppered with +bullets--in fact, the wounded Tommies "sunning" themselves on the +hospital roof of Dun's had been deliberately fired at till they went +down, though I must admit that in this case the Sinn Feiners could +hardly have been able to make the distinction required of them. A short +while later I saw the professor himself--a tall man, hatless and in the +green uniform of the Volunteers--pass along Mount Street with a lad with +a white flag, going to point out the positions of the snipers from the +factory. + +For a moment the soldiers thought he was about to "betray" his pals to +save his own life, and, I was glad to notice, instinctively looked with +contempt upon him; but the truth of the general order having gone out to +surrender soon became known, and as the line of captives marched by the +soldiers for the first time got a real look at these men who had, so to +speak, staggered the Empire. + +Weak, poor, ragged--some cripples; one, his whole face a mass of +bandages--I never saw a more reckless or determined body of men in my +life, and they contrasted strangely with the placid demeanour of their +conquerors. Each marched with a certain lightness of tread--greybeards +who no doubt remembered the days of the Famine and boys born since the +Boer War; and as they stood there, their hands aloft, between the lines +of khaki, not one face flinched. Here and there, however, one could see +the older men shaking hands with the younger, muttering, "It isn't the +first time we've suffered. But it's all for dear old Ireland," or +wishing each other good-bye. That was pathetic to a degree that, I know +for a fact, moved some of the English officers themselves. + +Suddenly a car came dashing up at full speed. Some turned their heads +instinctively, and as they did so noticed that in addition to four khaki +uniforms there were two green figures with eyes bandaged. + +In an instant the captives had recognized their leaders, themselves also +going--God only knew to what punishment, and at once such a cheer went +up that the whole street echoed again. + +It only needed "God save Ireland" to have completed the drama, but they +knew they would be stopped if they began, and, instead, one of them +cried out "Are we downhearted?" and immediately every voice, clear and +resonant, answered in one ringing "No!" + +"If it had not been for the women and children, we should be fighting +you still," was the reply of one Sinn Feiner to a soldier; and when +asked why they were fighting, another man answered, "We have our orders +as well as you--we're both soldiers and fight when our country demands"; +while yet a third ventured defiantly, "You've won this time, but next +time when you're fighting, our children will win." + +Dramatic was no word for the situation, and as I gazed at them +there--now no more than a dread convict roll--I pictured the wretched +tenements from which most must have come--the worst slums in Europe, by +common consent of all Commissions--and asked myself the question what +chance or reason they had ever had in life to love either their country +or the Empire; and then the picture of the long years of penal +servitude, such as John Mitchel had endured for Ireland, arose before my +mind, but I consoled myself with the thought, "At least England will +understand what caused these men to turn despairingly to revolution," +and the words of Mr. Asquith consoled me as I thought of the terrible +wholesale vengeance a Prussian officer would take--for had he not said +that England had sent the General in whose discretion she had more +complete confidence than any other?--but I stopped thinking: it was all +too sad: after all, England was surely not going to treat them like the +Huns would. + +I heard one young Lancashire Tommy say: "The poor beggars! They only +obeyed the word of command, and they fought like heroes," but he was cut +short by an English officer with an Oxford drawl: "Damn sympathizing +with the swine! I'd shoot all these Irish rebels down like rats--every +one of them--if I had my way." + +The words struck me forcibly at the time, for I knew that it only needed +this to make martyrs of every one of them. + +"England has learnt how fatal that mistake has been," I replied. "We're +surely not going to set Ireland back a hundred years by such a pogrom as +followed '98...." + +Meanwhile, though in Dublin we knew very little, the movement in the +provinces had long since been crushed: indeed, it never appears to have +had much chance of success. + +It was said that some delay or interruption in the sending of the signal +message was the cause. Others say that the South had orders to await the +landing of arms from the German cruiser which brought over Sir Roger +Casement, and which was sunk on April 21st--which seems the more +probable. + +This news, however, seems, for mysterious reasons, to have been kept +from the general public, for it was not till the Monday evening, at +10.23, that this announcement was made, and, reaching Ireland on the +morrow of the announcement of the triumph of the Republic in the +capital, must have shown the waverers that the rising was bound to end +in a fiasco--a fact which they possibly realized better than the men in +Dublin, who to the very end seem to have expected something to turn up. + +It was generally expected that Cork would rise _en masse_, for the Sinn +Feiners had been organizing the city and county for upwards of three +years--in most cases the gradually increasing forces being drilled by +ex-soldiers privately, so that when they eventually appeared publicly +on parade and in full uniform, marching through the streets in a body +four deep, with rifles on their shoulders, everyone realized that the +movement had amply justified itself. + +Every Sunday, public parades showed a growing strength that at times +alarmed the authorities to no little degree. + +The mass demonstration at Limerick about a year ago still further +revealed their strength, and from that moment to the fateful Easter week +the organization, already considerable in point of numbers, perfected +itself by the addition of ammunition, uniforms, equipment, and financial +aid. + +Everybody expected that there would be some sort of ructions between the +Volunteers and the military on last St. Patrick's Day, when it was +announced that the Sinn Feiners would parade fully armed and with a real +maxim gun, but luckily nothing happened. + +The next crisis was seen to approach in Holy Week, when large numbers of +strangers were noticed to be arriving daily from every part of the +country and putting up at lodging-houses. + +The strangers were next noticed to be paying continual visits to the +Sinn Fein headquarters in Shears Street, extensive premises that were +once a hospital. + +On the outbreak in Dublin the whole place was put into a state of +expectant siege, with passwords and guards, much in the same way as at +the G.P.O. in the capital, but no outbreak occurred. + +On the Wednesday the Lord Mayor and the Bishop of Cork were able to +obtain an interview with the leaders, and as a result of the conference +a temporary sort of truce was arranged, which was never really broken, +though at times it was a matter of touch and go. + +That it would have been serious cannot be doubted, for they claimed no +less than six hundred men at headquarters, and anything up from a +thousand within the boundaries of the city, to say nothing of the +surrounding districts, which were anything but favourable either to John +Redmond or William O'Brien. + +Now, the inner history of the negotiation, which was later made public +in a letter from the Assistant-Bishop of Cork to the _Freeman's +Journal_, is of supreme importance for two reasons. + +In the first place, it explains the kind of influences which were at +work all over the country to prevent the spread of the outbreak by the +better-disposed and more sober-minded of the population. + +In the second place, by revealing the psychology of some of the +provincial leaders it goes not a little to establish my theory that even +as late as Monday night something might have been done had the leaders +of the "Republic"--which it must never be forgotten had always been a +"provisional" term--been approached by the best spirits in Ireland +herself, instead of immediately launching an army corps of troops and a +naval detachment bald-headed on to the guns of the Volunteers, who could +never have expected to bring off a victory in the real sense of the +term, and who were only anxious to offer themselves as a willing +holocaust to the Spirit of Nationality they thought was dying fast +because it had merged itself into the Spirit of Empire. + +As to Kerry, it was looked upon as being "rotten" with Sinn Fein, and +had there been a rising, these men would undoubtedly have marched to the +help of their Cork brethren. + +The theory of the Kerry correspondent of the _Times_ is that the South +was awaiting the advent of Sir Roger Casement, who was to have invaded +Ireland with a fleet of battle cruisers and an army of 40,000 men, but +this ended in as complete a fiasco as the landing of Napper Tandy at +Rutland or Wolf Tone in Lough Swilly in 1798. + +The rising, however, was not strictly speaking dependent on Sir Roger +Casement at all: indeed, as afterwards appeared, he had himself tried to +stop the rising by saying that German help had failed. + +It appears, moreover, that in Dublin the heads of the Irish Volunteers +had long since come under the strong personal influence of the heads of +the Citizen Army, and it was these latter who forced the pace; and in +admitting this, one is forced to conclude that the rising was as much +socialistic and economic as national. This, too, would explain why it +was almost entirely confined to Dublin. For only in about three or four +other places in Ireland were there risings of any note, and even these +were comparatively unimportant: though, of course, there is no knowing +to what proportions they might not have swelled had the risings in Kerry +and Cork been carried out. + +The Volunteers of Swords, for example, who only began activities about +seven o'clock on the Wednesday morning, commenced by a capture of the +barracks and post office, both of which were in their possession by +about 8.30. + +Their _coup_ was a minor replica of the Dublin affray. Two of their +leaders, a doctor and a school-teacher, rode up in a motor-car as if +paying a harmless call, and then suddenly produced revolvers and covered +the sergeant, who was standing at the door, saying at the same time: "We +want no trouble, but the arms and ammunition you have in the barracks." + +At the same moment about fifty other Volunteers closed in from behind, +with the result that the three unfortunate policemen could do nothing +but surrender, and the booty was distributed amongst the unarmed +Volunteers, and whatever was over stored for any recruits the valour of +this exploit might bring to the new colours. + +The door of the post office was next charged at by three of the +strongest of the Volunteers, but being ajar, was consequently entered in +the most undignified way by the invaders, who fell head-over-heels into +the place, which was a couple of feet below the street-level--luckily +for themselves, their rifles not going off. + +The telegraphic wires and apparatus were then broken up, and then, +proceeding in the direction of Donabate, the railway bridge at +Rodgerstown was blown up, cutting off Dublin. + +Meanwhile, information had reached Malahide, and there the constabulary +at once proceeded to entrench themselves along the railway, in order to +protect the important bridge there; but the insurgents did not venture, +having already found the contingent that was engaged in a deadly +encounter with the Meath police at Ashbourne, towards the end of the +week, encamping between Fieldstown and Kilsallaghan. + +Here, early on Sunday morning, they were surprised to receive a copy of +the proclamation issued by P. H. Pearse, advising them to surrender +unconditionally. So surprised in fact were they, that they determined to +keep "the ambassador of peace" as a hostage until they verified the +astounding news for themselves, one of their leaders motoring up to +Dublin with the Chief Constable. On their return, of course, with the +news confirmed, there was nothing to do but surrender, and this they +accordingly did--their only stipulation being that they should be spared +the humiliation of going back through Swords, where most of them lived. + +The rising at Enniscorthy at one time threatened to be a more serious +affair, though it only began on the Thursday, when the Athenaeum, one of +the principal buildings of the town, was seized and turned into a +headquarters by the insurgent staff. + +Several hundreds of Sinn Feiners now assembled outside, and several +dozen motor-cars which had been "commandeered," together with stores of +petrol and food, and the men were all served out with ammunition, while +amidst huge enthusiasm the green, white, and orange Republican flag was +hoisted over the building. + +Afterwards railway lines and telegraphs were destroyed by a special +force and the town methodically taken over, all business houses and +licensed premises being closed, with the exception of the gasworks and +the bakeries, where the employees were compelled to perform their public +duties in the name of the Commonwealth. + +The R.I.C. barracks alone held out, being well supplied with ammunition, +but the police there were powerless to interfere, having to stand a sort +of siege day after day. + +Enniscorthy Castle, which commands the town, was taken from Mr. Henry +Roche, J.P. All food and arms and vehicles throughout the town were +commandeered. But there was no looting, a considerable body of young men +having been formed into a species of Republican police--an organization +which would have saved the Dublin rising half its horrors. + +The ladies of the "Cumann na Ban" next turned the top story of the +Athenaeum into an improvised hospital, and here were brought the wounded +in the attack on the constabulary barracks, which lasted all Thursday +and part of Friday. + +Friday was spent in preparation and expectation--the news of the +collapse of the revolt in Dublin not having yet reached them--and on +Saturday a motor expedition to Ferns resulted in the capture of the post +office and barracks. + +As food had now become scarce, shops were only allowed to sell limited +quantities, and as the situation was becoming dangerous, with the +expected advent of the military, pickets were placed at street corners, +and these insisted on the civilian population keeping within doors. + +Another strange, though by no means uncommon, sight was whole rows of +Volunteers going up to the Cathedral for confession, and on the Sunday +attending Mass. + +The clergy, while not refusing them the consolations of religion, +however, in no way encouraged them in their illusion of success, for on +the Sunday morning a party of citizens from Arklow brought a priest +under cover of the white flag to announce to the rebels the collapse of +the rising in Dublin. + +A deputation of the town was then sent to Wexford to interview the +military there, who confirmed the news; but, as elsewhere, even this did +not satisfy them, and they refused to surrender the town of Enniscorthy +until their leaders had seen Dublin's disaster with their own eyes. + +Even then the "commanders" wanted to hold out, and, as the _Daily +Sketch_ correspondent pointed out, it was only when the chief citizens +themselves made the petition that the Volunteers at last consented. + +Indeed, it would have been hard to conceive how they could logically +have insisted on defending the town, which refused to acknowledge them; +and the rebels, in justice be it said of them, were nothing if not +logical--even if only the logic of madmen. If Ireland refused to look +upon them as saviours, then they were not going to play the part of +tyrants; and it seems to me that if the civil authorities of Dublin had +taken up this stand on the Tuesday morning, the whole thing might have +fizzled off without a single further military casualty. + +On Monday therefore--to continue the story of the Enniscorthy +rising--the rebels surrendered unconditionally to Colonel French, who +entered the town at the head of two thousand military. + +At Wexford the situation was saved, as at Drogheda, by the assistance of +the National Volunteers, who, under Colonel Jameson Davis, turned out to +assist the police, the Lord Mayor and six hundred of the chief citizens +enrolling themselves also as special constables. + +In Galway rebellion has always been in the blood. It was from Athenry, +eleven miles east of Galway, that the "Invincibles," who were +responsible for the Phoenix Park murders, came; and an interesting +account was given of the rising which now took place at Athenry by one +of the special correspondents of the Press, Mr. Hugh Martin. + +According to this account the central figure was a "Captain" Mellows, +who, deported a month before from Ireland, had managed to make his +escape from England, and avoiding detection by the constabulary under +the disguise of a priest, suddenly turned up at the psychological moment +a few days before the outbreak of the rising in Dublin. + +The Town Hall of Athenry, on Sunday and Monday, seemed to have aroused a +certain amount of suspicion--it was suspected of being a centre of +illegal munition making--but it was not till the Tuesday, thirty-six +hours after the seizure of the Dublin Post Office, that it suddenly +revealed itself in its true colours, when "Captain" Mellows unexpectedly +appeared in the green uniform of an Irish Volunteer and proclaimed the +establishment of an Irish Republic to a body of some five hundred +Volunteers, two-thirds of whom were armed with rifles and the rest with +shot-guns and pikes. + +Overcoming the local police, they proceeded to take one of the Irish +Board of Agriculture's model farms about three-quarters of a mile from +Athenry, and having captured the place and appropriated all money, +settled for the night. + +The next day, after a vain attempt by the police to dislodge them, they +marched, several hundreds strong, with a whole train of wagons and carts +filled with food of every description, towards Loughrea, where they +captured Lady Ardilaun's seat, Moyode Castle, from the lonely caretaker, +John Shackleton, and his pretty eighteen-year-old daughter Maisie. + +A curious figure now appeared in the person of Father Feeny, who, +according to Hugh Martin, appears to have exercised as much control over +the men as the "Captain" himself. + +His influence seems to have been on the whole for good, for the account +describes him as hearing the men's confessions and insisting that the +fifteen to twenty young colleens who were one of the most curious +features of the local rising, marching beside the men and doing all +their cooking, should be separately accommodated in the castle at night. + +Some isolated R.I.C. men who happened to fall into their hands were +treated as prisoners, but when on the Thursday afternoon the police from +Athenry made an attack, they were chased with motor-cars for a distance +of about four miles back to Athenry, where the forces of the Crown only +just managed to get into their barracks in the nick of time. + +The next day--Friday--saw the positions reversed, and news reached the +rebels that troops and artillery were on their way from Loughrea, some +six miles' distance, and it was the rebels' turn to turn tail, +scattering as they went to right and left, in spite of every effort of +"Captain" Mellows to encourage them with stories of the coming invasion +by Germany. + +Some made for the hills, others tried to get back to their homes, but +most were seized by the Belfast police, in cars driven by Ulster +Volunteers, and those who did get back had to face not only the taunt of +ignominious defeat but the anger of the Redmondites, who now foresaw the +possibilities of a retribution quite out of all proportion to the +chances they had ever had of success. + +Indeed, that seems to have been the general result of the collapse of +the rebellion all over Ireland; and though at first it apparently tended +to weaken the hands of the Irish Constitutional leader--who, when the +news came to him, must have felt as he had on that famous occasion when, +as a young man, five minutes before having to make a great speech near +Manchester, he was handed the news of the Phoenix Park murders--on the +whole it really considerably strengthened his position, much in the same +way as the revolt of De Wet brought out the loyalty of General Botha. + +Botha, indeed, was one of the very first to see the similarity of the +two cases, and wired at once to Redmond, though it can of course only be +taken as a very superficial verdict of the South African Premier on the +real grievances underlying the movement, since he could hardly be +expected to understand Sinn Fein, much less those subtle provocations +which eventually counselled the mad appeal to Germany; for there can be +little doubt but that, if Castle rule had prevailed in Pretoria as it +still does in Dublin, South Africa would long since have been a +consenting party to German occupation. + +This, however, was only one of the subtler aspects of the rising which +hardly found its way across the Channel, and consequently could scarcely +be expected to appeal to a colonial who was not an Irishman himself. + +As the collapse became more general, however, it became more and more +evident to intelligent statesmen that it was more a hatred of Castle +rule than a love of German rule that had been at the bottom of it all, +and that it had been, in spite of the bluster of foreign alliance, more +an armed protest against a domestic state of affairs than a real attempt +to sever the Imperial link; nevertheless, the latter idea still survived +in the minds of the military authorities, who could see in it nothing +else, with the disastrous results that only became evident in the +aftermath. + + + + +CHAPTER THE FIFTH + +AFTERMATH + + +The surrender and collapse of the abortive rising was no sooner over +than the whole affair took an entirely new aspect and passed through a +completely new phase when it came to deciding what should be thought of +the incident and what should be done to the prisoners. + +It called for the utmost delicacy of handling on all sides, but this is +just what it did not get, and at once there was a complete revulsion of +feeling for the Sinn Feiners which, had it come before the rising, might +have enabled them to sweep everything before them. + +The psychological change is curious as a study in Irish politics. + +The first announcement of the rising was so sudden that it took all but +those immediately concerned entirely by surprise, and after a moment of +almost speechless amazement the movement was promptly denounced by every +moderate man in Ireland. + +To the Nationalists it appeared at first as if it were the tearing +asunder of the Home Rule Bill and the ruination of the constitutional +cause for ever. Consequently their attitude was, from their own point of +view, perfectly correct, viz. unqualified denunciation. But as further +details came along and their opponents in England began to make capital +out of it, the case became different. The cry went up that it was want +of strength on the part of Mr. Birrell, the Chief Secretary, who could +do nothing but resign under the circumstances; and so pained was he that +he even went to the length of what was called a confession of guilt: but +his weakness had really been great strength--for any weakling can be +strong enough to sign an order for wholesale slaughter if he "damns the +consequences." + +True, there could be no minimizing of the event either in the matter of +casualties or damage done. + +A fortnight previous and Ireland was still the "one bright spot" and +Sackville Street one of the finest thoroughfares in the kingdom, but +during those momentous days the capital had been for the greater part of +a week almost entirely in the hands of the rebels; a Republican flag had +taken the place of the English Jack, which had floated over it for seven +continuous centuries, and now Dublin lay a heap of crumbling buildings, +whose smoking ruins looked like the track of the Huns--it might now be +called Ypres-on-the-Liffey. + +The loss of life, too, had been tremendous, but the military casualties +were out of all proportion to those of the rebels, in some cases the +skirmishes representing a proportion of ten, and even twenty, to one. +The casualties, in fact, were as high as many a Boer War battle, and +amounted to three hundred killed and over a thousand wounded, of which +nearly two hundred were civilians. They included over sixty officers and +about four hundred rank and file. The Royal Irish Constabulary lost two +killed and thirty-five wounded; the Dublin Metropolitan Police six; the +Royal Navy three; and the Loyal Volunteers sixteen. With regard to the +Sinn Feiners no figures are available, but they must have been +considerably less than a quarter of these--perhaps even under. + +The circumstances under which the troops and police suffered, however, +were such that the severest measures were adopted by General Sir John +Maxwell, who issued the following statement with regard to the action of +the courts martial:-- + +"In view of the gravity of the rebellion and its connection with German +intrigue propaganda, and in view of the great loss of life and +destruction of property resulting therefrom, the General Officer +Commanding-in-Chief has found it imperative to inflict the most severe +sentences on the known organizers of this detestable rising and on those +commanders who took an active part in the actual fighting which +occurred. It is hoped that these examples will be sufficient to act as a +deterrent to intriguers and to bring home to them that the murder of +His Majesty's liege subjects or other acts calculated to imperil the +safety of the realm will not be tolerated." + +The military authorities have been blamed for the excessive rigour with +which these orders were carried out, especially for the use of shells, +but it may be questioned how far this did not arise purely from the +nature of the situation. + +Certainly the rebels were at a disadvantage, and consequently won a +certain amount of sympathy, yet only a day before that sympathy was +entirely with the unfortunate military; but eventually a point was +reached when, instead of the military retrieving the situation lost by +the weakness of the politicians, it became a question whether they were +not undoing a good deal that it had taken a great deal of hard work upon +the part of the politicians to build up. + +Now this is no idle theory, but the only possible explanation of a +series of changes that ensued. + +When the news of the rising was first announced to John Redmond, he made +a dignified if not too diplomatic reply, in which he expressed despair +about the situation and utter disgust about the culprits. + +The next official utterance was the somewhat ponderous manifesto of the +Irish Party--interesting as an historical summary of Ireland's real +attitude to the Empire, but lacking a grip of the actual psychological +drama of the situation. + +The same may be said of the Irish leader's first appeal for clemency in +the treatment of the prisoners. + +It was in the shape of a question asked of Mr. Asquith as to whether he +was aware that the continuance of military executions in Ireland had +caused rapidly increasing bitterness and exasperation among large +sections of the population who had no sympathy with the rising, and +whether it might not be better to follow the precedent set up by General +Botha in South Africa, where only one had been executed and the rest +exceedingly leniently treated, and stop the executions forthwith. + +The Premier's reply was a curt refusal, phrased in the terms of an +absolute confidence in the discretion of the military authorities. + +Unfortunately that "discretion" was exercised in such a manner as at +once to place its victims in the same category as Emmet, Wolf Tone, and +the Manchester Martyrs. In a word, to use the words of an English +critic, "It gave the Sinn Feiners the real victory, for it was looked +upon as the verification of all that they had feared and prophesied, and +for which they had, until that point, been looked upon as fools and +scaremongers." + +Looking back over the situation at this critical juncture, it may well +be doubted whether it was altogether wise to carry out any sentences +into execution, and the Bishop of Limerick referred very pointedly to +the example of a very similar situation in the case of the Jameson raid, +when the leniency of the Boer Republicans towards the raiders avoided +war with England. + +Technically, of course, the two were exactly parallel--by all the laws +of sovereignty a rebel deserves instant death; but it became a question +of diplomacy as well--a point which seems to have been lost in the clash +of battle. + +In other words, had time allowed--and of course there was no knowing +what effect the resistance of Dublin might have on the country--it may +be a moot point whether it might not have been advisable to separate the +two questions of the sentence of death and the actual executions, and +one can well imagine the conciliatory effect of a Royal Act of Clemency +in the event of maturer consideration making it advisable to commute +those sentences. + +Thus Lord Bryce, who might have been considered not only to know Ireland +from past experience, but to speak with his hand on the mental pulse of +the American people on this matter, strongly advised clemency in the +following letter to the _Westminster Gazette_, in which he endorsed the +advice of Sir West Ridgeway, a former Under-Secretary for Ireland:-- + + +"Permit me to express hearty concurrence with Sir West Ridgeway in the +advice which his thoughtful letter of yesterday contains. He knows, as +others who have lived in Ireland or have studied her history know, that +excessive severities have done far more harm by provoking afresh +revengeful disaffection than punishment has ever done to quell it. This +was eminently true of the rebellion of 1798, suppressed with a cruelty +which shocked the humane minds of the Viceroy (Lord Cornwallis) and Sir +Ralph Abercromby. The abortive rising of 1848 (which I am old enough to +remember) was treated with a comparative leniency which the public +opinion of that day approved, and which was justified by the result. Its +chiefs did not become heroes. + +"That condign punishment should be meted out to a few of those most +responsible for this mad outbreak in Dublin, with its deplorable +bloodshed, is inevitable. But this once done, a large and generous +clemency is the course recommended by wisdom as well as by pity, and is +all the more fitting because it will be a recognition of the fact that +the rising was the work of a handful of persons, mostly ignorant, +unbalanced visionaries, and is unequivocally condemned by the vast +majority of the Irish people.--I am, faithfully yours, + + "BRYCE. +"FOREST ROW, SUSSEX, _May 4th._" + + +By this time, however, the matter had almost reached the character of a +"pogrom." Not only had the seven signatories of the famous proclamation +been executed, but every day brought another victim to the wall and told +of another long list of sentences to penal servitude and other +penalties, while deportations--the old Cromwellian touch, when the West +Indies were peopled with Irish political offenders--reached the colossal +figure of over two thousand. + +Militarism is of course always a last painful resort, but there were +some who seemed to look upon it as an end in itself. A writer in the +_Spectator_ said Lord Kitchener must be made Lord-Lieutenant, as the +situation called for a soldier, and the hero of Omdurman was the nearest +approach to the good old Cromwellian type. + +The _Irish Times_, more English than the English themselves, then came +out with the following amazing solution:-- + +"We hope that martial law will be maintained in Ireland for many +months. When the time comes for its removal, the change to civil +government ought to be smooth and gradual. This end can best be +secured--in fact can only be secured--by the presence at the Viceregal +Lodge of a soldier who, having taken his part in government under +martial law, will be able to transmit the spirit of military +administration to the civil instruments of the State." + +The situation had reached a crisis, and it was then, and not till then, +that the true feeling of the country came out in John Dillon's outburst +that be Sir John Maxwell's character what it might--and he confessed to +never having heard of him in his life--"he would refuse, and Ireland +would refuse, to accept the character of any man as the sole guarantee +of a nation's liberty," and the idea of military discretion fell dead at +the phrase, shot through the heart. + +It was high time too, for, as the case of Sheehy Skeffington proved, +that discretion had been so discreet as to be unaware of its own acts, +the investigation being promised after execution, which was just our +whole complaint against the Germans in Belgium.[1] + +The case was particularly striking, as it was only because he happened +to be a well-known public man that any attention was paid to it, and it +tended to give credence to the horrible rumours which now began to +spread through Dublin of the secret carnage which was supposed to have +taken place during what was euphemistically called "the rounding-up of +the rebels" and "house-to-house visitation," while the citizens of +Dublin were confined to their own houses under penalty of death if they +stirred out without a permit after certain hours: and one has only to +walk through the slums to hear the colossal proportions which these +rumours have already attained, and which nothing but public civil +investigation will stay. + +I had noticed Sheehy Skeffington myself upon the Tuesday, looking very +anxious and perplexed, and walking by himself without arms, and the +point struck me at the time because of the remark of my companion that +it was rather strange that he did not seem to be in any way officially +connected with the rebels. + +It was in Sackville Street--just at the time when the looting was being +carried on in North Earl Street, where they had been making a +barricade--and with a paper in his hand, possibly the very notice he was +contemplating, he went in the direction of the Post Office porch, as if +to go in and consult about something that was on his mind: again I +presume to try to stop the looting, for a couple of hours later I saw +the crowd of looters scattered several times by the firing of shots in +their direction; and when the Imperial Hotel was raided, a Sinn Feiner +told me not to be alarmed at this when leaving the city, as they were +only blanks and intended to prevent the wholesale robbery that was going +on. + +As a matter of fact, as his wife afterwards explained, Skeffington, far +from taking any part in the rising, was actually helping to look after +the innocent victims of the affray, such as the Dublin Castle officer +who was bleeding to death in the street, and this at imminent personal +danger to himself; and at the time of his arrest near Portobello Bridge +was actually engaged in the work of trying to stop the looting, having +just come back from a meeting called to that effect, and had been +putting up the following poster:-- + + +"When there are no regular police in the streets it becomes the duty of +the citizens to police the streets themselves, to prevent such spasmodic +looting as has taken place. + +"Civilians (both men and women) who are willing to co-operate to this +end are asked to attend at Westmoreland Chambers (over Eden Bros.) at +five o'clock on this (Tuesday) afternoon. + + "FRANCIS SHEEHY SKEFFINGTON." + + +Far from being a combatant, he was on principle a pacifist, and thus +opposed to all use of physical force; but perhaps it is better to let +his own wife tell the story:-- + +"After he was arrested and had been sentenced to death," to use the +statement which she issued to the Press, "he refused to be blindfolded, +and met death with a smile on his lips, saying before he died that the +authorities would find out after his death what a mistake they made." + +Now, the concession of the mere possibility of such a colossal blunder +was, of course, the admission of the whole of John Dillon's +contention--namely, that, whatever might happen in Egypt, Ireland was +right in not accepting the discretion of any man as the sole guarantee +of her liberties. + +For if it could happen in such an eminent case, there could hardly be +any doubt but that there was considerable truth in the rumours that +similar catastrophes were taking place all over Dublin, and indeed all +over Ireland, and this in such a way as to madden the Irish people, and +spread, if not insurrection, at least disaffection and bitterness from +one end of the country to the other; but it is useless, before an +official investigation, to go into such examples as the Eustace Street +and King Street cases. Public investigations at the moment, however, +would restore no lives, and possibly only endanger the chances of +reconciliation, which is the one great need of Ireland in the name of +Empire. + +Quite apart from any examples, however, John Dillon maintained that the +system in itself was far more likely to prejudice than to attain the +very ends expected of it, "for, if they only knew it, the British +Cabinet had far less power in Dublin than the Kildare Street Club and +certain other institutions which were running the military authorities;" +but he struck the keynote of the situation when he said: "Ours is a +fighting race, and, as I told you when I was speaking before on the +Military Service Bill, it is not a Military Service Bill that you want +in Ireland. If you had passed a Military Service Bill for Ireland it +would have taken 150,000 men and three months' hard fighting to have +dealt with it. It is not a Military Service Bill that you want in +Ireland; it is to find a way to the hearts of the Irish people, and when +you do that you will find that you have got a supply of the best troops +in the whole world." + +Yet what John Dillon resented most, as indeed every moderate man in +Ireland resented it, was the insinuation that the rising had been +nothing more nor less than an orgy of murder by a band of criminals, so +that it accordingly rendered every single Sinn Feiner liable to be shot +at sight, whether he had actually taken part in the insurrection or not. + +For this conception the band of English journalists who had been sent +over under escort to the captured capital were much to blame. With pens +reeking with the description of Hunnish crimes, they wrote their +accounts of "nameless atrocities" which were supposed to have taken +place in Dublin, and which, if they astounded their English readers, +absolutely amazed their Irish ones. + +The danger of this hate campaign which may be all very well when it is +intended to rouse the somewhat lethargic Briton to fight against a race +of which he knows next to nothing otherwise; but was doubly dangerous +when applied to one's fellow-countrymen in the name of a party, and were +it employed, say, against Wales or Scotland would soon prove disastrous, +for Scotchmen and Welshmen would rise in protest to a man--which is just +what Irishmen did at the "hate" wave. + +Yet there was another reason--viz. the veracity and moderation of the +British Press--at stake: the Press on whose veracity and moderation +Irishmen depended for their motives for going away to fight for England, +and this excess tended, so to speak, to tear down every recruiting +poster in the country. + +Now, had the British censor refused to allow any mention of the rising +at all in the English Press, it might have been unjust to Ireland, but +it would have been far juster to England. Much the same applies to the +English Churchmen and their Church. When the Rev. R. J. Campbell, in a +Sunday illustrated, discovered that Holy Writ had already long before +the rising declared in favour of Castle government and conscription for +Ireland, Irish sinners felt inclined to say: "So much the worse for Holy +Writ." And when the Rev. Lord William Cecil, preaching at Hatfield, +summed up the ethical situation in a confusion between the meaning of +pride and patriotism, Dublin wits thanked him for the phrase, and +remarked that indeed it had long been so, but ne'er so well expressed, +and amplified the cynical aphorism to "whenever Irishmen are patriotic +it is in reality nothing but pride, yet whenever Englishmen are +overproud it is nothing but the height of patriotism." + +None, in fact, could have damaged the English cause in this crisis more +than the English did themselves, in spite of all the Irish Nationalists +were doing to help them out of the difficulty; for, as one wit remarked, +the whole catastrophe had been precipitated not by English Tories so +much as Irish Unionists--men, who it is difficult to say whether they +misrepresent England more to Irishmen than they do Irishmen to the +English, and a class which has ever got England into all Irish crises +and never got her out of a single one. + +For the main point about the rebellion that struck Nationalists, who, +after all, were the vast majority of the Irishmen who at all mattered, +was not so much the incidental crime or heroism as the utter folly of +the enterprise. "Separatism" was, and will ever be probably, an +economic, racial, and Imperial impossibility; yet it was just this point +that was forgotten in the heat of the combat by Englishmen, with a few +noble exceptions, of course. + +Instead of expounding the folly of the undertaking, they preferred to +dilate upon the criminality of methods and the character of the Sinn +Feiners, which is just where they fell into the most fatal mistake of +all and made the aftermath what it has been since--a far more +complicated problem to deal with than ever existed before the rising or +in the rising itself. Thus, when Sir Edward Carson raised his Volunteers +in Ulster he had calculated most upon the moral effect the spilling of +blood would have upon Englishmen. The Sinn Feiners had calculated upon +exactly the same psychological factor with their countrymen. + +When the Government had refused to take their arms by force, which +Unionists were in their hearts hoping they would, the refusal left them +powerless and discredited, save in the eyes of cinema operators, who +only looked upon them as so much copy. + +When the authorities proposed, after this example, to take the arms of +the Sinn Feiners and leave the other two bodies in possession of theirs, +they were, in fact, deliberately provoking rebellion; but not only this, +but unconsciously they were also strengthening the cause of the Sinn +Feiners, who, like the Covenanters, looked more to the moral effect than +to the material results of their efforts. + +Once the link of race had been appealed to, of course every attack that +reflected in any way upon the character of the fighters was resented by +the whole nation as a matter of honour, and that was what led John +Dillon, provoked by countless insinuations and accusations to his +onslaught upon the principle underlying the wholesale executions and +deportations. + +Had these penalties been inflicted upon those who had perpetrated the +"cold-blooded murders" of the first few days, whose cry for vengeance +had been voiced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it would have been equally a +matter of national pride to see the culprits were yielded up to justice; +but "it was not these murderers that were being pursued," as Dillon +pointed out; it was the rank and file of the insurgents, and these had, +by almost universal admission, behaved in a manner absolutely beyond +reproach as fighting men. He admitted they were wrong, but they fought a +clean fight, and they fought with superb bravery and skill, and no act +of savagery or act against the usual customs of war, that he knew of, +had been brought home to any leader or any organized body of insurgents. + +The House was inclined to resent the tribute--as much as to say that +they were nothing but a pack of cowards--and this brought out a +characteristically telling taunt, namely, "that it would be a damned +good thing for England if her soldiers had been able to put up as good +a fight as did these men in Dublin--three thousand men against twenty +thousand with machine guns and artillery"--which, coming at the very +moment of the announcement of the fall of Kut, must have been +particularly galling. + +Now, it was doubly a pity that such a controversy had been aroused, for, +as most intelligent people in Dublin had begun to admit, it had been a +heroic if tragically mad combat from the beginning. + +Not that there had not been the most cold-blooded murders, I repeat, +upon the part of some of the rank and file within the first few hours, +when every representative of the law was suddenly attacked unawares, as +if there had been a formal declaration of war; but from the first moment +that they had felt their position nothing can be attributed to the rebel +leaders which was not in the most complete accord with military +precedent. + +Indeed, not a few of the soldiers were struck by the self-control of the +Volunteers, and the sense of discipline that pervaded their ranks; nor +was it surprising, considering that while some of the Derby boys had +only been in khaki for a couple of months the Volunteers had been in +training ever since the beginning of the war, going through route +marches, manoeuvres, and sham fighting week by week and, towards the +end, night by night. + +True, the money may have been appropriated from such Government supplies +as fell into their hands, and there is no doubt that technically they +had no right to such stores; but they had every precedent, and there is +even a story which tells of one of the leaders particularly asking one +of the captured military to see that the safe in the G.P.O. was not +touched. + +There were certainly no cases of prisoners surrendering and being +instantly shot; nor did civilians complain of any wanton looting of the +occupied premises, though at Jacobs's and Boland's full use was made of +the stores; nor were there any of the Volunteers found drunk. Certainly +they should have prevented looting, but it was a duty as much incumbent +upon any civilian. + +In other words, in so far as it could reflect upon the national +character, there was little that could be reproached against the +movement save its insensate folly and, of course, the technical +criminality of revolt. + +On the whole the thing was on a far higher ethical plane than the +methods employed by the Fenians, as well as more widespread, and the +thing was far and away more dignified than poor Smith O'Brien's rising, +which ended, as it began, in a humble cabbage-patch. + +Some of their bullets were of course of the vilest type, inflicting +ghastly wounds; but I heard of no misuse of the white flag--in fact, +when the ladies who had been found in the College of Surgeons were +offered their freedom as non-combatants because they had merely been +doing hospital work, they refused on the ground that as they were in +full sympathy with the movement they claimed the full honours of the +penalties of failure. + +Two things, however, must be mentioned--the one was their use of +civilian clothes, and the second was their employment of "sniping" +methods, both of which were highly dangerous to the rest of the +non-combatant population. + +With regard to the first--the use of civilian clothes--everybody who +possessed a uniform wore it, but the enthusiasm of the recruits outran +the means of equipment; and in any case it was adopted equally by the +military, who in not a few cases owed their lives to a quick change into +mufti, and who in other cases spent most of Monday and Tuesday in +Sackville Street in smart lounge suits as passive spectators of the +scene, when as a matter of fact they were merely spying out--and of +course rightly so doing--the movements of the Sinn Feiners, together +with their strength and dispositions, and then 'phoning up the +information to headquarters. + +Naturally it was a method of operations which greatly endangered the +_bona fide_ civilian, but on the whole he suffered more at the hands of +the military than the Volunteer; in fact, over and over again I came +across instances, sometimes of ignorance, sometimes of anger, sometimes +of sheer recklessness, of the troops firing at anyone who appeared in +certain localities. + +As regards the general "sniping" methods employed in the whole of the +Dublin rising it is hard to speak: certainly many of the Sinn Feiners +would have preferred a fight in the open, and the soldiers--especially +at Mount Street Bridge--felt it desperately unfair, but, under the +circumstances, it became the only chance of the rebels, just as the use +of shells was that of the military. + +The extreme Irish loyalist merchant, of course, would have none of this; +he denounced them all with the words "cowards, murderers, and criminals" +in the full sense of the terms, and anyone who differed from him had +Sinn Fein sympathies, and was on the list of suspects, which was rather +unfair, not so much to the Sinn Feiner himself, who knew he could not +have got any justice from him in any case, but unfair to the soldier and +unfair to England. Thus, while elderly retired colonels and academic +professors called for drastic vengeance on the scoundrels, what +impressed such men as Colonel Brereton, who had actually had the +experience of falling into their hands in the G.P.O., was "the +international military tone adopted by the Sinn Feiners" and their +peculiarly high standard of character. + +"They were not," he declared, "out for massacre, for burning, or for +loot. They were out for war, observing all the rules of civilized +warfare, and fighting clean. So far as I saw they fought like gentlemen +(?). They had possession of the restaurant in the Courts, stocked with +spirits and champagne and other wines, yet there was no sign of +drinking. I was informed that they were all total abstainers. They +treated their prisoners with the utmost courtesy and consideration--in +fact, they proved by their conduct what they were--men of education, +incapable of acts of brutality, though, also, misguided and fed up with +lies and false expectations." + +Accordingly, upon their liberation, just before the surrender, the +Colonel was profuse in his gratitude for the most unexpectedly generous +treatment he himself and his fellow-prisoners had received at their +hands. + +Such stories came as rather awkward comments on the indiscriminate +prosecutions that followed when the tables were reversed, and it was +rather a relief when English Conservative papers were at last forced in +the name of Empire to abandon the attitude taken up by Irish Unionist +organs in the name of the Castle; for it must have been compelling +evidence indeed that made the _Daily Mail_, of all newspapers, come out +with the following, so to speak, unsolicited testimonial, which many an +Ulster organ would have preferred to close down rather than publish:-- + +"The leaders were absolute blood-guilty traitors to Britain, but in some +ways their sentiments were worthy of respect," said the writer. "Theirs +was an intense local patriotism. They believed in Ireland. They believed +that she would never prosper or be happy under British rule. They knew +that there were 16,000 families in Dublin living on less than one pound +a week. They saw the infinite misery of the Dublin slums, the foulest +spot in Europe, where a quarter of the total population are forced to +live in the indescribable squalor of one-room tenements--I quote from +official records--and they believed that this was due to England's +neglect (as, indeed, it was), and that the Irish Republic would end +these things. Therefore they struck, and as far as they could exercise +direct control over the rebel army they tried to fight a clean fight. +They begged their followers not to disgrace the Republican flag. They +posted guards to prevent looting. They fought with magnificent courage. +Nevertheless, their control was not far-reaching, and they were +disgraced by the anarchy of some of their followers. But it is necessary +to point out their virtues, because it is those and their ideals that +non-rebel Irishmen are remembering to-day." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] Cf. the telegram received by the Prime Minister from the man in +whose discretion the whole British Legislature had placed its absolute +confidence: "Mr. Skeffington was shot on morning of 26th April without +the knowledge of the military authorities. The matter is now under +investigation. The officer concerned has been under arrest since 6th +May." + + + + +CHAPTER THE SIXTH + +SINN FEIN--GERMAN GOLD + + +Two questions here confront us before going from the mere dramatic +narrative of the rebellion to its critical consideration. + +The first is, What exactly is Sinn Fein? and secondly, How far was the +rising actuated by German gold? + +The words "Sinn Fein" mean literally "We ourselves," _not_ "Ourselves +alone," and, as the title and expression of a movement, are the +antithesis of what they term "Parliamentarianism," or "help from +outside": but I know no better definition of it than the passage in the +writer in the _Irish Year-book_ article on "The Ethics of Sinn Fein." + +"We are always telling the Parliamentarians that we need not wait for +the Act of the British Parliament to make Ireland a Nation. We ought +equally to remember that we do not require an Act of the British +Parliament in order ourselves to become pure or temperate, or diligent +or unselfish. Our liberty--our real liberty--the liberty both of +ourselves and our country--is in our own hands. England cannot crush or +kill it, or even seriously injure it. England can only remain in +Ireland, indeed, as long as our character is weaker than her guns. Guns +are stronger than middling character. Against real character, +passionate, determined, and organized, they are less availing than +children's catapults. English domination feeds and thrives on weak +character. When every Nationalist makes his or her character strong and +self-reliant and beautiful, English domination will die from sheer lack +of sustenance. If you are weak of will or base in your character, you +are as valuable a support to the English garrison in Ireland as though +you hated the Irish language and imported all your clothes from +Yorkshire. _The only way to be a patriotic Irishman is to do your best +to become a perfect man._" + +The necessity for individual action, to continue the illustration of its +spirit, is emphasized by a very wholesome phrase. It is that "the only +part of the Irish Nation which a good many of us have any chance of +setting free immediately is ourselves." In other words, no Parliament +can make a nation free--not even a native Parliament; or, as Arthur +Griffith puts it, "Every Irish man or woman's self is the Irish Nation." + +With this no one of course would quarrel, but it does not follow, as the +Gaelic element in Sinn Fein seemed to think, that "every Irishman who +does not speak Irish is against his will a representative of English +Domination in Ireland and striking a blow at his country's heart." For +when we come to consider it, English literature owes not a little to the +Celtic spirit, as on the other hand Ireland of to-day contains not a +little of the Saxon strain. + +The attempt on the part of the Sinn Feiners therefore to establish such +an extreme and antiquated definition was strictly against nature--a +retrospective move, in other words, as against the blending progressive +force of evolution represented by Parliamentarianism. + +At the same time it would be hard to find a more fruitful, inspiring, or +elevating passage than the following:-- + +"Choose the Ireland that you think is best, and fashion yourself in its +likeness. If you wish to see Ireland become a perfect country, a kingdom +of God, do you yourself become a perfect individual, a kingdom of God. +The perfect country can only be established by individual men and women, +who are striving after perfection--perfection not only in an imaginary +Irish nation which is outside themselves, but in the actual Irish nation +which is within themselves, in their own brains and hearts and sinews, +to mar or to make beautiful as they will." + +The Sinn Fein theory of the interdependence of the State and the +individual is also worth noting:-- + +"I realize, of course," says the writer, "that it would be equally true, +or nearly so, to say that _it is only the perfect State that could +produce perfect men and women, and so my argument may appear to run in a +circle. The State and the individual react on each other, however, each +helping the other forward on the way towards some ultimate decency._ +Some thinkers lay too much stress on the part that must be played by the +State in producing the perfect individual; others have their minds +occupied too exclusively by the part played by the individual in +bringing about the perfect State. The man with broad views will, I +think, see that both progressive individuals and a progressive State are +necessary, that they are complementary one to the other. He will aspire +after a free and self-reliant Ireland, and the first thing he will do in +order to realize his aspirations will be to make himself self-reliant +and free--free from everything that is shameful and ignoble, as he +wishes to see his country free from the shame of foreign conquest and +the ignominy of English rule. He will attempt to become himself among +his neighbours what he wishes to see Ireland among the +nations--conspicuous for honour and courage, and courtesy and virtue." + +As regards the best methods of propagating Sinn Fein, the writer lays +stress upon "example being better than precept," and then he remarks: +"If the average professing Nationalist had been a perceptibly finer +character than the average professing Unionist during the last +half-century, all the noble men and women in Ireland would by the law of +their natures have been attracted to the national banner." + +The one blow which the Sinn Feiner strikes is at the unreality of the +usual political distinctions of Nationalists and Unionists; both have +their demonstrations, the writer points out, at which political speakers +make speeches consciously insincere, but justified by a sort of +traditional instinct; and both crowds go home equally convinced of the +intolerance of their opponents, relying for victory "on the strength of +their fists and lungs," but all the thinkers despise it all, and this to +such an extent that he is led on to remark: "If an impartial spectator +were to go to an ordinary Green demonstration in Ireland, he would +probably be inclined to be an Orangeman; while if he were to attend an +Orange demonstration he would probably come away feeling strangely +sympathetic towards Nationalism." + +Which, after all, is only what every independent writer and thinker has +been bellowing forth for the past generation. + +With regard to the employment of physical force there is this +significant passage:-- + +"Whatever is to be said in favour of the use of physical force against +England, there is nothing to be said in favour of Irishmen making use of +it against each other. It would be as wrong, for instance, for Sinn +Feiners to wreck a meeting of Parliamentarians as it would be for +Parliamentarians forcibly to break up a meeting of Sinn Feiners. You +might compel timid people to join you in this way, and you would win the +support of that great body of people that likes always to be on the +stronger side. But it is not in the hands of the timid and the selfish +that the destinies of Ireland are. _The destinies of Ireland are in the +hands of the free and noble men and women of Ireland whom you can +persuade, but could never compel, to join you_"; and he ends up: "If you +had all the force of all the Empires in the world at your back you could +not increase the number of genuine Nationalists in Ireland by +one"--which is perfectly true. + +In policy it is both selfish and altruistic: as a national movement its +aim is "Ireland first and Ireland alone and Ireland always"; as an +individual movement it inculcates that "no personal sacrifice is too +great for one's country," and it is probably this last feature that drew +the younger generation in thousands to its standards, and no doubt will +continue to do so, for in this sense of self-reliance Sinn Fein will +continue to exist as long as there is a single Irishman in Ireland. + +As to the constitution of "Sinn Fein," it differs very little in ideal +from that of average Nationalism, save in the respect of its +application, and may be quoted in full, in view of its present interest +and the importance of fully appreciating at the present critical moment +what Sinn Fein really is. + +Sinn Fein means, as we have already seen, literally "Ourselves," and is +the title and expression of a movement which denies the lawful existence +of the Incorporating Union in contradistinction to Unionism (which see) +and Parliamentarianism (which see). Sinn Fein declares Ireland to be by +natural and constitutional right a sovereign State, and teaches that the +election of Irishmen to serve in the British Parliament is treason to +the Irish State, as no lawful power exists, has existed, or can exist in +that Parliament to legislate for Ireland. It advocates the withdrawal of +the Irish representation from Westminster, and the formation in Ireland +of a voluntary legislature endowed with the moral authority of the Irish +nation. The constitution and aims of the Sinn Fein organization are as +follows:-- + + + CONSTITUTION. + +"The object of Sinn Fein is the re-establishment of the Independence of +Ireland. + +"The aim of the Sinn Fein Policy is to unite Ireland on this broad +National platform.--1st. That we are a distinct nation. 2nd. That we +will not make any voluntary agreement with Great Britain until Great +Britain keeps her own compact which she made by the Renunciation Act of +1783, which enacted 'that the right claimed by the people of Ireland to +be bound only by laws enacted by His Majesty and the Parliament of that +Kingdom is hereby declared to be established, and ascertained for ever, +and shall, at no time hereafter, be questioned or questionable.' 3rd. +That we are determined to make use of any powers we have, or may have at +any time in the future, to work for our own advancement, and for the +creation of a prosperous, virile, and independent nation. + +"That the people of Ireland are a free people, and that no law made +without their authority or consent is, or ever can be, binding on their +conscience. + +"That the General Council of County Councils presents the nucleus of a +National authority, and we urge upon it to extend the scope of its +deliberation and action; to take within its purview every question of +national interest, and to formulate lines of procedure for the nation. + +"That national self-development through the recognition of the duties +and rights of citizenship on the part of the individual and by the aid +and support of all movements originating from within Ireland, instinct +with national tradition and not looking outside Ireland for the +accomplishment of their aims, is vital to Ireland." + +Sinn Fein has been formed to re-establish a National Government in +Ireland, and, pending its establishment, advance that object by:-- + +I. The introduction of a Protective System for Irish Industries and +Commerce by combined action of the Irish County Councils, Urban +Councils, Rural Councils, Poor Law Boards, Harbour Boards, and other +bodies directly responsible to the Irish people. + +II. The establishment and maintenance under the direction of the General +Council of County Councils or other authority approved by the people of +Ireland of an Irish Consular Service for the advancement of Irish +Commerce and Irish Interests generally. + +III. The re-establishment of an Irish Mercantile Marine to facilitate +direct trading between Ireland and the countries of Continental Europe, +America, Africa, and the Far East. + +IV. The General Survey of Ireland and the development of its mineral +resources, under the auspices of the General Council of County Councils +or other national authorities approved by the people of Ireland. + +V. The establishment of an Irish National Bank and a National Stock +Exchange under charter from the General Council of County Councils. + +VI. The creation of a National Civil Service embracing all the employees +of the County Councils, Rural Councils, Poor Law Boards, Harbour Boards, +and other bodies responsible to the Irish people, by the institution of +a common national qualifying examination and a local competitive +examination (the latter at the discretion of the local bodies). + +VII. The establishment of National Courts of Arbitration for the speedy +and satisfactory adjustment of disputes. + +VIII. The establishment of a National System of Insurance of property +and individuals. + +IX. The control and management of transit by rail, road, and water, and +the control and management of waste lands for the national benefit by a +national authority approved by the people of Ireland. + +X. The control and management of the Irish sea fisheries by the General +Council of County Councils or other national authority approved by the +people of Ireland. + +XI. The reform of Education to render its basis national and industrial +by the compulsory teaching of the Irish Language, Irish History, and +Irish manufacturing and agricultural potentialities in the primary +system, and, in addition, in the University system the institution of +the degrees of Doctor of Agriculture and Doctor of National Economics. + +XII. The non-consumption so far as practicable of articles paying duty +to the British Exchequer. + +XIII. The withdrawal of all voluntary support to the British Armed +Forces. + +XIV. The non-recognition of the British Parliament as invested with +constitutional or moral authority to legislate for Ireland, and the +Annual Assembly in Dublin of persons elected by the voters of the Irish +cities and counties, and delegates from the County, County Borough, +Urban and Rural Councils and Poor Law and Harbour Boards to devise and +formulate measures for the benefit of the whole people of Ireland. + +XV. The abolition of the Poorhouse System and the substitution in its +stead of adequate outdoor relief to the aged and the infirm, and the +employment of the able-bodied in the reclamation of waste lands, +afforestation, and other National and reproductive works. + + +At what precise point the Sinn Feiners became "Republicans" it is hard +to say, and it was the greatest mistake that they ever made--some will +say, perhaps, their only one--but it must have been due either to the +influence of Sir Roger Casement or James Connolly. + +Before this amalgamation it might have been said to have corresponded +in methods to the ideals of the English Fabians and Economists like +Sidney Webb and H. G. Wells. + +Had it proclaimed the motto "Put not your trust in soldiers" with the +same vigour as it had continuously preached "Put not your trust in +Parliamentarians," it would undoubtedly have become the party of the +future. + +It was, in fact, a protest against "oratory, oratory, oratory," and +preached a doctrine of "works, works, works," but with such vehemence as +to become, like everything else in Ireland, eventually political, and +when "Carsonism" became a recognized principle of legislation, military +from sheer necessity. It might have been said to have been the only +ideal truly national, in that it endeavoured to unite, and in many cases +did unite, Nationalist and Orangeman, and did this to such an extent as +to threaten to drain both parties, and consequently incurred their +jealousy. + +Not only were the distinctions of Catholic and Protestant abolished by +"Sinn Fein," but even those of Liberal and Conservative as well, and in +some cases landlord and tenant, master and man. + +To bring about this fusion an intellectual group arose, which was +gradually, as we have said, drawing to itself some of the best brains +and hearts of the nation, and these, working hand in hand with the +social reformers, brought abstract theories into touch with concrete +realities. + +So far so good: their only enemies were the official Parliamentarians, +but then, as their methods were diametrically opposed, this was only +what was to be expected. + +Both stood forth as rival means to an immediate end--the peace, unity, +and prosperity of Ireland--and with the advent of the Liberals, which +apparently was to give the Parliamentarians victory within the span of a +couple of years at most, the organization became a negligible quantity. + +Indeed, they voluntarily withdrew from opposition for fear it should be +said that in a moment of acute difficulty they had hampered any Irishman +in winning liberties for Ireland, and their daily newspaper was +withdrawn. + +As year after year passed, however, and Home Rule seemed to hang upon a +snap division, and its hypothetical results possibly hung up for another +generation, Sinn Feiners grew stronger and stronger as English +opposition to the Parliamentarians grew in strength, and they once more +reiterated their old principle that, Home Rule or no Home Rule, much +could be done by individual effort, and that eventually, even under +self-government, they would have to depend upon themselves alone, and +they pointed to the Hungarian example of national regeneration outside +politics. + +At the first they were not, strictly speaking, in opposition at all to, +but rather complementary of, the politicians; but the first moment that +Carson's followers began to arm, ostensibly against them both, there +arose a general cry from Nationalist Sinn Feiner and Gaelic Leaguer +alike, to take measures for self-defence, which gradually grew into a +volunteer organization on the lines already in force in Ulster. + +From the first it must be said that John Redmond was radically opposed +to any appeal to arms, even as a threat, staking all upon a +Constitutional movement. + +Hence in the winter of 1913-14 arose the first body of what were then +called Nationalist Volunteers, the leading spirits being Mr. Eoin +MacNeill, Professor of Irish in the National University, and Sir Roger +Casement. + +John Redmond was continually appealed to to come in with them, but as +often refused, until it became a certainty that Home Rule would be +placed upon the Statute Book, when he ultimately consented; but only on +condition that he had the nomination of half the controlling +committee--a demand which was somewhat resented. + +Strange enough, it was the _Irish Times_ which criticized John Redmond +the most mercilessly of all for his attitude; and the passage is well +worth referring to (June 6, 1914), if only as a testimony to the +character both of the Irish leader and his opponents as well. The Sinn +Fein leaders were then "all that was best in the country," John Redmond +"all that was worst." + +When the war-cloud loomed up in the horizon of Europe, the Nationalist +Volunteers were indeed still one, though the opposition between the two +parties was still alive, but at this point a new phase was entered into. + +John Redmond, it will be remembered, upon the declaration of +hostilities, at once offered the assistance of the Nationalist +Volunteers to defend the shores of Ireland. Possibly the Sinn Feiners +thought they smelt conscription and militarism in this, for not only did +they formally expel the Redmondites, but entered upon precisely the same +tactics in regard to the present war that the Parnellites adopted during +the South African War. This consisted in violent pro-German sentiments, +just as there had been pro-Boer sentiments a couple of decades ago. Like +the Parliamentarians of 1900, they laughed at the most extreme +sentiments of self-righteousness which at once came over the English +Press, in which "the hereditary foe of small nationalities" was suddenly +changed into "the champion of all honour, justice, and truth in the +world"--which was particularly galling, if not actually ludicrous, to a +race which was so obviously the negation of any such a claim--at least, +so thought the Sinn Fein element. + +As in those days, this spread to recruiting, and the _Hibernian_ quoted +one of Joe Devlin's early poetic effusions which lucidly described the +miseries existent "where the Flag of England flies." _Honesty_, another +of the Mosquito Press, as it came to be called, quoted John Dillon's +Tralee speech of October 20, 1901, when he said: "I see there is a +gentleman coming over here looking for recruits for the Irish Guards, +and I hope you will put him out if he comes," which sentiments were +applied to Mike O'Leary by the Sinn Feiners of the South when he turned +up, and I myself saw the eyes plucked from his posters as I passed +Macroom. For Sir Roger Casement's attempt to form an Irish Brigade +another parallel was taken, this time from Mr. Patrick O'Brien's Dublin +speech of October 1, 1899, when he said "he would not say shame to the +Irishmen who belonged to British Regiments, because he had hopes that +... instead of firing on the Boers they would fire on the Englishmen. It +was encouraging to think that out in the Transvaal there was a body of +Irishmen ready and willing to go into the field against England." + +Meanwhile, the party which once held these views as "the immutable first +principles of Irish Nationalism" and was now so vigorously loyal and +energetically military, appeared to the Sinn Feiners to have changed its +ground, and thus to be betraying Ireland--quite forgetting that all the +while it was England that had to a large extent changed its attitude. + +Thus a passage in the _Irish Republic_ pilloried them in a quotation +from Parnell. "Parnell," it said, "speaking at Limerick on the occasion +of his receiving the Freedom of that city, foretold the corruption and +demoralization which a prolonged stay at Westminster would effect in the +ranks of the Parliamentary Party in the following memorable words: 'I am +not one of those who believe in the permanence of an Irish Party in the +English Parliament. I feel convinced that sooner or later the influence +which every English Government has at its command--the powerful and +demoralizing influence--sooner or later will sap the best party you can +return to the House of Commons.'" + +As early as October 30, 1915, many Irishmen had begun to adopt the Sinn +Fein attitude in this matter so strongly that Gilbert Galbraith came out +with a striking leader in _Honesty_, which, referring to the famous +dictum of the defeated loyalists at the Battle of the Boyne--"Change +kings, and we'll fight the battle over again"--openly advocated the +change, if not of leaders, at least of the methods of leadership from +Redmondism to Carsonism. "In nearly every crisis of his bitter fight +with Redmond," said Gilbert Galbraith, "Carson had displayed the +qualities of a successful leader with strength of character and boldness +of resource, and Redmond those of a weak, temporizing Stuart, and no man +since Parnell had so browbeaten, insulted, and lashed with scorn the +British people." + +What the Sinn Feiners admired in Carson was his scrupulous honesty in +declaring what he wanted, and his gloriously unscrupulous determination +to see that he got it, and they called aloud that Nationalist Ireland +should find someone with the Ulster spirit to lead them. + +As a matter of fact it was curiously like what actually occurred, for +they found those leaders in two other Ulster men, Connolly and Casement, +for Germany was merely their common tool--again a leaf out of the +Carsonite book. + +Whence then came this link with Germany? + +It is modern, very modern indeed--in fact, contemporary, certainly +accidental. Sir Roger Casement had been abroad in the tropics most of +his life: he hated politics; he cannot speak German, and has had to have +all his negotiations done through translators and interpreters. + +His sympathy with Germany was based upon the conviction that until the +freedom of the seas had been established by England's naval downfall +Ireland was bound to remain in intellectual, moral, and political +vassalage; but that once Germany had broken the spell, Ireland could +then come freely forward among the nations of the earth, free and +unfettered to fulfill her destiny. He did not, as far as I can gather, +want England's downfall in itself, only Ireland's freedom: and on that +freedom he wished to establish the future peace of the world, bringing +Saxon and Teuton together as they are to-day together in the United +States through the medium of the Celt; for the Irishman can speak with +far more truth of his "German cousins" than the Englishman, at least in +America; and America was to count in Sir Roger Casement's dream of +world-politics. If the Clan-na-Gael did indeed forward German gold to +Ireland, it was with this aim, just as it was with this aim, it was +said, that the Irish in America had steadily opposed the break with +Germany. + +Now, it was never expected that Ireland would free herself in the coming +struggle, but there is a story current that he was supposed to have +obtained some guarantees--of what kind I could not find out--that in the +event of Germany winning Ireland would be mentioned at the peace +conference in the some category as Belgium and Poland when the principle +of the re-establishment of small nationalities came up for discussion, +but only upon one condition, and that was "that Ireland should rise and +be able to hold the Capital for a week." + +One can well imagine with what avidity such plans, with their reaction +upon the very delicate negotiations now going on at Washington, would be +received in Germany at the present moment. But his plans--or rather I +should say his dreams--appear to have been matured long before the war; +dreams dreamt in the solitude of the tropics when Europe still clasped +the illusion of universal peace.[2] + +It was the Carson Volunteers that gave him the idea of the possibility +of a physical force movement. If Orangemen could drill, why not +Nationalists; if the planter could fight, why not the native; if the +hands of Government could be forced by threats and arms brought in under +their very eyes, why not take advantage of it; if war was inevitable +sooner or later, why not prepare?--any way, it would be as noble to die +for a race's emancipation as the privileges of an hereditary +officialdom. + +Plan for plan, and man for man, then followed the constitution of the +Irish Volunteers--Carsonism turned on Carson--and Germany "used" rather +than "served" in the interests of Ireland. + +When John Redmond, therefore, with the doubtful facility of oratory +attempted to explain away the whole rebellion with the insinuation that +the whole movement was the outcome of German gold, he must for the +moment have forgotten that he was talking to men who invariably looked +upon him as long ago bought up with American gold, and that he was +referring to his fellow-countrymen in a protest against a class he had +himself times out of number denounced as subsidized by English gold--and +Sir Roger Casement's denial of such an imputation as both insolent and +insulting was as true as it was dignified. + +As a matter of fact the only thing German about the whole rebellion was +the "Prussianism" of the Castle, which was equally responsible for the +occurrence of the rising and these harsh methods of repression which +eventually--paradoxically enough--made it the moral success it has since +become in the hearts of Irishmen. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[2] Cf. "Sir Roger Casement"--a character sketch without prejudice, by +L. G. Redmond-Howard. Dublin: Hodges & Figgis. + + + + +CHAPTER THE SEVENTH + +MINDS AND MEN + + +In considering any sudden yet organized popular movement, such as a +revolution, the most important things to examine are the minds and the +men that directed it, for it is only by means of these forces that +simmering discontents take definite shape and concrete determination. + +But it often happens that the characters of the leaders themselves and +even the objective remedies they propose are quite out of keeping with +the solution of the real grievances they complain of. + +Once given leadership, and confidence, fidelity, and sincerity follow +among the rank and file as naturally as water flows from a spring--being +the common factor of humanity--and this seems to have been the case in +the Sinn Fein rebellion of 1916. + +On the whole they had no reason to be ashamed of their leaders, though +they might have questioned their wisdom. Now, wickedness in the +political sense connotes the revolt against the organized authority of +the State--political foolishness, the utter impossibility of realizing a +practical aim. Naturally, therefore, the law was officially bound to +look upon them as a species of criminal lunatics. Public men, moreover, +were forced by the very theory of government to denounce them, in +consequence, as enemies, and call for the sternest penalties of +retribution known to the Constitution, in order that the individual's +fate might become an object-lesson to the mass. + +Once having granted this, however, the civilian mind is free to make the +inquiry--whether from morbid, scientific, dramatic, or emotional reasons +matters little--as to what manner of men these leaders were, and what +manner of minds gave the revolt its psychological aspect: but in that +inquiry no criterion of loyalty except that of fidelity to their own +personal convictions must be allowed to enter. Probably the most serious +mistake usually made by Irish politicians is that of classing successive +rebellions as the acts of traitors or martyrs, according to their +respective points of view, and certainly statesmen and thinkers could +make no greater error in diagnosing the present one. + +Rebellions are not the outcome of innate perversity of race, but purely +scientific phenomena with objective causes. First, then, let us examine +the men themselves who led the revolt, before we pass on to the +literature that informed and inspired it. + +Sir Roger Casement was not the founder of "Sinn Fein," nor was he the +originator of the Labour Movement in Ireland: he found both ready-made +and used them to serve his own ideals for the future of Ireland and thus +can be termed a leader. + +Sir Roger Casement is an Ulsterman of the old type that was the backbone +of the Rebellion of '98, when the Presbyterians of the North tried to +emulate those English and Irish exiles who, persecuted out of their +native shores by High Church tyranny, had laid the foundations of +American liberty under Washington. + +That he is a man of character, and not the "bounder and scoundrel" the +Press now makes him out to be, goes without saying, or otherwise he +would not have received the honour of a title at the hands of a grateful +country: in fact, until his entrance into the troubled waters of Irish +politics he was one of the most universally respected of our civil +servants. + +For ten years, from 1895 to 1905, for example, he was in the wilds of +Africa, for the greater portion of his sojourn as Consul in Portuguese +West Africa and then later in the Congo Free State. + +After this he was sent to South America, and in 1909 he was appointed +Consul-General at Rio de Janeiro. So trusted was he that when the +British Government wished to investigate the labour atrocities on the +Indians in the rubber forests of Peru, they chose Sir Roger Casement; +and when his report was printed in 1912 it caused the profoundest stir, +not merely in England, but throughout the civilized world. + +This was surely a man of character and above the ordinary temptations of +bribery, or else he would not in 1905 have received the C.M.G. and in +1911 knighthood--moreover, he was a man who may be said to have had +ample opportunity of getting outside the narrow groove of Irish politics +and seeing something of the Empire. + +Yet while Irish politics had been moving with tremendous rapidity during +his absence--the fateful years between 1895-1905--Sir Roger Casement +seems never to have got beyond the Ulster of 1798--which I need hardly +remind anyone conversant with history was as rebellious to England as +was Wexford under Cromwell. + +This _idee fixe_ began to appear at once upon his return to Ireland in +the year 1913, when he found politics in a chaos of ferment, and seeing +Sir Edward Carson preparing to appeal to arms and his supporters to +Germany, he too "began to indulge in treason in the same spirit as +Carson and the Curragh crew," as he himself described his attitude of +that time. + +Possibly Germany was equally willing to sell her old rifles to both +parties, but the war precipitated matters. + +Autumn 1914 found Sir Roger (who, as we have already seen, had founded a +body of volunteers in Ireland) in Berlin, where he was not only received +at the German Foreign Office, but, in answer to an inquiry regarding the +Kaiser's attitude to Ireland, was assured by the Foreign Department and +the Imperial Chancellor that "Germany would never invade Ireland with +the object of conquering it," and that, "supposing the fortune of war +should ever bring German troops to Ireland's coasts, they would land as +the forces of a Government inspired by goodwill towards a land and a +people for whom Germany only wishes national welfare and national +freedom." That he was not acting in any way as the representative of the +nation whose ambassador he was supposed to be was amply proved by his +repudiation after this adventure by the Irish leaders at home and such +bodies as the Council of the United Irish League in America. + +Such was the dream or delusion, however, which changed one of the most +respected of British Consuls into a rebel traitor to the Empire. There +is no need to insinuate selfishness or vilify his character, for he must +have known his effort was bound to fail and counted the cost beforehand. +The great point to remember is that the Irish people were free to make +their choice and use their judgment, and they decided against him, not +personally, but on the merits of the case he put before them, and there +was nothing to do but to pay the penalty; and it is better on the whole +for Englishmen to accept Ireland's own verdict upon Sir Roger Casement +than to place him in the same rank as those who really represented +Ireland against England, failed, and paid the price only too willingly. + +The same might apply equally well to P. H. Pearse and James Connolly, +neither of whom was by nature militant nor, indeed, "Separatist," save +as a protest against not so much the theory as the reality of what went +by the name of "Unionism." There seems a certain tendency among the +middle classes and the mediocrities of mind in Ireland to class, ever +since the days of Jim Larkin, the whole Labour Movement in Ireland as a +species of hooliganism, though, strange to say, no one ever appealed +more successfully or was received with more genuine enthusiasm in +England than the socialist leader when he was pleading the cause of the +children of the Dublin slums. + +When Jim Larkin went to America, his mantle fell upon his right-hand +man, James Connolly, and it is impossible to understand the rebellion +without understanding the man who was a far more important, and will be +a far more lasting, factor in the movement than Sir Roger Casement. + +Casement used the magic hope of German help, but it was Connolly who +pointed to the concrete grievances that would make any rebellion welcome +to the workers. + +Yet there was nothing of the wild dreamer or the hysterical patriot +about James Connolly, the Ulster organizer of the Transport Union, much +less anything of the hooligan. + +His proper place should have been within the ranks of the Parliamentary +Party, like so many of the other leaders, especially the Sinn Feiners; +and it is a very significant fact that, in spite of their national +claims, two of the greatest economic movements Ireland has seen since +Parnell should have failed to be assimilated by the politicians--but it +reflects as much upon one as the other. + +Probably when he wrote his last work, a pamphlet entitled "The +Reconquest of Ireland," which was printed at Liberty Hall early in 1915, +he had no idea that it would mean anything more than an upward economic +struggle of the submerged classes. + +"The Labour Movement of Ireland," he wrote, "must set itself the +Reconquest of Ireland as its final aim," and by the word "reconquest" of +Ireland he means "the taking possession of the entire country, all its +powers of wealth, production, and its natural resources, and organizing +these on a co-operative basis for the good of all." + +It is significant that there is no religious or political bigotry: the +movement is right outside both Carsonism and Redmondism, as indeed their +new flag, with its significant colours--green, white, and +orange--symbolizes; and he repeats the hope of the United Irishmen at +the end of the eighteenth century, "that our animosities were buried +with the bones of our ancestors and that we could unite as citizens and +claim the rights of man"--the first of which is to be able to live +freely, that is, with the means of life no longer the property of a +class. + +He had, in fact, realized "that the old lines of political demarcation +no longer served to express any reality in the lives of the people." If +anything, the new movement was antagonistic to them all, for in the +summing-up he had observed: "In the great Dublin lock-out of 1913-14, +the manner in which the Dublin employers, overwhelmingly Unionist, +received the enthusiastic and unscrupulous support of the entire Home +Rule Press was a foretaste of the possibilities of the new combinations +with which Labour in Ireland will have to reckon." + +As I read all this once again during the height of the rebellion, with +the rattle of the maxims playing upon Boland's mills immediately behind +me, where a couple of hundred of the men he had described were now +fighting Labour's first war under the name of an Irish Republic, at once +the whole aspect of the rebellion changed. + +I still wondered, however, why it was that he had left the company of +Wells and Webb and Booth, who were but his English counterparts after +all, and the general policy of Fabianism, when I suddenly discovered the +key not only to the man but to the movement as well, in his definition +of prophecy: "The only true prophets are they who carve out the future +which they announce." + +This, then, was the key to it all. Every dreamer should also be a man of +action, every soldier a volunteer to his own idealism; and at once I +understood that strange combination between the "intellectuals" and the +"workers" which formed such a unique feature of the rebellion, and which +the prosperous citizens of Dublin--penned up in their houses for the +first time hungry, and for the first time aware of the reality of life's +struggle--could only blindly mass together under the name of "criminal +lunatics," like the anarchists of Sidney Street in London some years +before. + +Much less could the pink-faced Derby boys understand--and so I suppose +thought, because the crisis had synchronized with the European war and +was aimed at a state of things tolerated by English rule, it was +therefore only another indication of Ireland's double dose of original +sin, which always drove her to disloyalty to her benefactor. + +Dr. O'Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick, one of the ablest as well as the most +independent thinkers in Ireland, has been mentioned as one of the forces +of the rebellion--in fact, he was generally supposed to be one of the +marked men of the Fein programme of suppression, being considered more +dangerous to the realm than Connolly--in a word, he was looked upon as a +red-hot Sinn Feiner. Yet if his famous Lenten pastoral be examined one +will find it merely the broad Christian aspect of the war--nor would the +cynical diplomatist, if we could get him to be candid, say he was far +wrong in his facts. + +Thus, for example, speaking of the only possible result of the +prolongation of the war to final victory for either party, he says:-- + +"No one can foresee even the smallest part of the consequences of this +war. One thing, however, is certain, that it will leave the world in a +condition of the direst poverty. The destruction of capital is enormous, +not in one country, but in all of them. If the war ceased to-morrow it +would have impoverished all Europe beyond recovery for generations, but +that poverty, by itself, will probably be the least of its evils. It +will mean the paralysis of industry, the restriction of commerce, +unemployment on a scale that has never been known before, and it is an +anxious question how a hitherto powerful, well-paid, well-organized +population of workers will submit to the altered state of things. We +have had, from time to time, some ugly threatenings of socialism, but we +may fear that they are no more than the first mutterings of the storm +which will burst upon European society as soon as this war is over. + +"This terrible danger, which may be on us within the next three or four +years, may well be worse than the war itself, and deluge Europe again in +blood. If anyone thinks that millions of working men, trained to arms in +every country in Europe, will settle down peaceably to starvation in +order to help to re-amass fortunes for their 'betters,' he may have a +rude awakening." + +It is his attitude towards England, however, that has brought him into +conflict with the recruiting authorities--yet what is the following +passage, taken from his famous Lenten pastoral, but the purely Catholic +attitude of a bishop who looks to the head of his Church for guidance, +and seeing the Papacy neutral on the chaos, tries to keep the war fever +from spreading to his own flock, for, after all, he spoke as a +Churchman, not as a politician. + +I think it is now universally admitted that Belgium was not the sole +reason of our entrance, as it will not be the sole reason of our +continuance, in the war; in a word, that it is really "British +interests" that are at stake. + +The learned Irish Bishop merely puts the case in so many words--had we +not been engaged, the _Times_ might have said, "with the impartiality of +the blunt, plain-speaking Englishman." + +He writes: "Then see the case of the small nationalities on whose +behalf many people have believed that the war is being waged. + +"What good has it done for them? What part have they played in it except +that of catspaws for the larger nations that used them? Belgium delayed +the German advance for two weeks and gave time to the English and French +armies to rally. For her pains she has been conquered and ruined. Servia +began the war by an atrocious crime, and as reparation for it might +weaken Russia's aims in the Balkans, she was encouraged to resist. She, +too, has played her temporary role and has followed in the wake of +Belgium. Montenegro is the next to go; and it would seem that the great +belligerent nations look to themselves only, and use their weaker +neighbours for their own purposes. This war is not waged by any of the +great Powers as a quixotic enterprise for lofty ideals. 'Small +nationalities' and other such sentimental pretexts are good enough for +platform addresses to an imaginative but uninformed people, but they do +not reveal the true inwardness of this war. All the belligerents have +had practical and substantial aims in view. France wants her lost +provinces of Alsace and Lorraine; Russia wants Constantinople; England +wants the undisputed supremacy of the sea and riddance from German +commercial rivalry; Austria wants domination in the Balkans and an +outlet on the AEgean; Italy wants Trieste and what is called _Italia +irredenta_; Germany wants a colonial empire and a powerful navy; and all +these Powers have formed alliances and laid their plans for many a day, +simply for the realization of their respective purposes. + +"They planned and schemed solely for the sake of power and material +gain. All the talk about righteousness is simply the cloak for ambition, +and the worst of it is, that some of the belligerents have gone on +repeating the profession of their disinterestedness until they have come +to believe it themselves. + +"Truth, and right, and justice have had very little to say to this war, +which is an outbreak of materialism and irreligion. The peoples did not +want this war; there is no hatred of one another amongst them: but the +governing cliques in each country have led or driven them like sheep to +the slaughter. God has been ignored; His law has been put aside; +Christianity is not allowed to govern the relations of nations. And now +the retribution is on them all. The fair dreams of victory and expanded +empire and increased wealth and prosperity with which they set out have +vanished long ago, and there is not a Government amongst them but is +trembling for the day when it shall have to answer for its stewardship +to its own people. If they knew as much in July 1914 as they do now, +which of them would have plunged into war? And probably if the war goes +on for another year they will curse the cowardice which kept them from +manfully facing the problem of peace, for which every principle of +religion and humanity, every interest, social, material, and political, +of their countries, calls aloud." + +All this, of course, goes to disprove that the Bishop of Limerick was a +Sinn Feiner, but it also goes to prove that one cannot shake the +foundations of international relations without stirring internal +conditions to their very depths. + +The clergy, however, were upon the whole, as they always are, with the +Government, as was instanced in a hundred different cases during the +rebellion. + +Two of the leaders were typical of the old Fenians of darker days. One +was Thomas Clarke, who earned his living by running a newsagent's and +tobacconist's shop, but who was also engaged a lot in writing for many +of the minor newspapers which were responsible for much of the +propaganda which prepared the way for the rising. + +The other--better known especially in the days of the South African War, +when he was, like Colonel Lynch, one of the Nationalist heroes--was +"Major" John McBride, who had actually raised an Irish Brigade to fight +for the Boers against the British, and who must consequently have felt a +very kindred spirit in Sir Roger Casement, who was merely repeating his +tactics. + +It shows how much Irish politics have progressed, however, that while +all Nationalist Ireland is now watching the trial for high treason of +Sir Roger Casement with indifference, the Nationalists of those days +nominated McBride as Parliamentary candidate for South Mayo when a +vacancy occurred by the resignation of Mr. Davitt. + +He was at the time of the rising engaged as an official of the Dublin +Corporation, and had been married to--and divorced from--Miss Maud +Gonne, a patriot of much the same type as the Countess Markievicz. + +It was he who had conducted the fight at Jacobs's factory. + +McBride was really the one link between the two wars--the Anglo-Boer and +the Anglo-German War, to use a Sinn Fein phrase--and if his later +attitude was now impracticable, it was certainly logical and consistent +with itself. + +The main difference, however, was in the circumstances, and these he, +like many others, refused to admit had changed. + +Thus ten years before he had gone to Paris as one of the delegates from +the Irish Transvaal Committee to ex-President Kruger, who told him that +"he would never forget how the Irish Brigade stood by the men of the +Transvaal in their hour of need." + +Captain William Redmond, M.P., now in the trenches with the British +Army, had also been a delegate from Ireland, and had seen Oom Paul at +the Hague in much the same spirit of sympathy; but then Home Rule was +not upon the Statute Book, and if that "scrap of paper" bound England, +it was certainly no less binding upon Ireland, in that it had been +freely entered into by her constitutional representatives. + +Probably McBride thought of the motto inscribed upon the flag that the +Irish Brigade had used (later presented him by one of the officials of +the Boer Republic), which ran:-- + + + "'Tis better to have fought and lost + Than never to have fought at all." + + +In any case his attitude remained exactly what it had been in 1909, when +at the Manchester Martyr celebration he had appealed to his audience +never to degrade themselves by entering the British Army, telling them +that if ever they wished to fight they ought to wait for the prospect of +a German invasion of Ireland. + +One of the strangest figures in the rebel ranks was that of the famous +Countess Markievicz--formerly a Miss Gore-Booth, daughter of Sir H. W. +Gore-Booth, the head of a well-known and respected Sligo family of +Cromwellian descent. + +It was while in Paris as an art student some fifteen years ago that she +imbibed those extreme principles of democracy--almost, one might say, +anarchy--with which her name became associated on her return to Dublin +after her marriage with a young Polish artist named Count Marckievicz. + +Presented at Court, she was not fond of the conventional "society" +circles of the Irish capital, and lived for the most part a Bohemian +life of her own, becoming notorious by her extreme socialistic opinions. + +During the Larkin crisis, when the transport workers and dockers went +out on strike, she opened a "soup kitchen" at Liberty Hall. + +She was also responsible for the organization of the "National Boy +Scouts," an Irish replica of the English original, with a political +bias, of course; and these soon attracted hundreds of Dublin lads, and +from time to time the Countess would give them lectures and hold reviews +and inspections. + +These formed a considerable portion of the Citizen Army, and were +probably the most violent of those elements in the Republic who +disgraced the otherwise remarkable "military" combat. + +One remark of the Countess's is very typical of both her temper and her +temperament, and in a way prophetic. + +It was supposed to have been said to a local Dundalk man, and was to the +effect that if she could only shoot one British soldier she would die +happy--a wish she must certainly have realized, for she was continually +seen with a small rifle in her hand, and, according to a rumour, +actually did shoot one on Stephen's Green. + +Eoin McNeill, the able editor of the _Irish Volunteer_, is another +interesting character, not only in view of the part he had taken to +raise the revolutionary army, but also for the way, to use the words of +John Dillon, "he broke its back" when he found out that they were to +rise on that fatal Easter Monday--though this did not save him from the +vengeance of the law. + +In striking contrast to the rather vapid sentimentalism and abstract +theorizing of many of the periodicals controlled by the Sinn Feiners was +his own sheet, the _Irish Volunteer_. It was the most practical of all +the periodicals, and, beyond ordinary editorials and topical articles, +always contained "Orders for the Week," which included night classes and +lectures and drills, while diagrams of trenches and earthworks appeared +which covered the whole of Ireland. + +It is only when looking back over past numbers, with their articles on +night operations, local guides, reconnoitring, organization of +transports, reserves, signalling, and so forth, that one sees how it is +that they were able to hold up Dublin for a solid week; but Eoin McNeill +owed his inspiration entirely to the men of Ulster. + +Some of the men, on the other hand, were of the gentlest disposition. No +one, for example, could be more the antithesis of the revolutionary in +real life than P. H. Pearse, President and Commander-in-Chief of the +Republican Army. Indeed, according to one account he was to have +replaced Dr. Mahaffy as Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, in the event +of the rising proving successful. Pearse was not even an Irishman, being +the son of an English convert to Catholicism who had emigrated to +Ireland, but he was an enthusiastic Gaelic scholar, and there was +nothing he loved better than wandering among the peasantry of Galway and +Connemara, while in his own establishment all the servants spoke Irish +fluently. + +Though he had at one time intended taking up journalism, and was even +called to the Bar, he was both by profession and inclination an +educationalist, being especially keen on the study of continental +methods of education, such as those of Belgium and Germany. + +He conducted a secondary boarding school for boys, where all the walls +were decorated with the works of modern Irish artists, such as Jack +Yeats and George W. Russell. He later, in order to give vent to his +views, developed a gift for oratory, his oration at the grave of +O'Donovan Rossa having stirred all Ireland. He was also the author of a +charming little volume of short stories entitled "Josagan," or "Little +Jesus," while his translations of Irish folk-lore and cradle songs were +equally delicate. + +Crowds of the victims, in fact, were men of character, talent, and +eminence--numerous writers, journalists, poets, authors, professors; but +all were classed in the same category of felons. + +Indeed, it has been said that the blow was aimed as much at the freedom +of the Press and the liberty of thought as the actual rising in arms; +but as the majority of the sentiments maintained were but repetitions of +the muzzled grievances of labour and thought in England, the effect will +undoubtedly react through British democracy upon the heads of those who +took advantage of the racial prejudice to crush out of opposition. + +Thus John MacDermot, one of the signatories of the rebel proclamation, +was editor of a paper called _Freedom_, and had already served a term of +imprisonment for speeches which had been interpreted as prejudicial to +recruiting. Edward de Valera, who commanded at Boland's mill, and who +was sentenced to penal servitude for life, had been a professor in +Blackrock College. W. O'Clery Curtis, who was deported, was a +journalist, and Arthur Griffiths the able editor of the _Irish +Year-book_. + +Then came the disciples of the muses. Thomas MacDonagh seems to have +been always more or less haunted with the vision of revolution, and as +early as eight years ago produced a play entitled "When the Dawn is +Come," though the insurrection it foretold was placed fifty years hence. + +He, too, wrote poetry, like Pearse, under whom he was at school, but he +was better known and his verse of a higher standard. He seems almost to +have had an inkling of his future fate, and might also be said to have +deliberately chosen the lost cause of his heart, for, in one of his +earlier poems, entitled "The War Legacy," we find the following: + + + Far better War's battering breeze than the Peace that barters the + Past, + Better the fear of our fathers' God than friendship false with + their foe: + And better anointed Death than the Nation's damnation at last, + And the crawling of craven limbs in life and the curse of the + coward below. + + +Among his publications are "Songs of Myself" (Hodges, Figgis & Co.), +"Thomas Campion" (Hodges, Figgis & Co.), and a larger volume of "Lyrical +Poems," reprinted by the _Irish Review_. + +At the time of his death he was Lecturer in English Literature at the +National University. + +Probably one of the most pathetic figures of the whole revolt was that +of young Joseph Plunkett, the son of Count Plunkett, whose marriage upon +the morn of his execution sent such a thrill of romance through the +English-speaking world when it became announced. + +He too was a poet, and at one time the editor of the _Irish Review_, now +no more, and he was also a contributor to the _Academy_ and the _Dublin +Review_. + +A little volume entitled "The Circle and the Sword," published by +Maunsel, is dedicated to his fellow-rebel, Thomas MacDonagh. + +One poem among them is especially significant and is entitled "1867," +but one feels inclined to call it 1916, for it might have been written +yesterday, as he blindfold faced the levelled rifles:-- + + + All our best ye have branded + When the people were choosing them. + When 'twas death they demanded, + Ye laughed! ye were losing them. + But the blood that ye spilt in the night + Crieth loudly to God, + And their name hath the strength and the might + Of a sword for the sod. + + * * * * * + + In the days of our doom and our dread + Ye were cruel and callous. + Grim Death with our fighters ye fed + Through the jaws of your gallows. + But a blasting and blight was the fee + For which ye had bartered them. + And we smite with the sword that from ye + We had gained when ye martyred them! + + +It is probably by the romance of his last hours, however, that he will +be most remembered. + +"Late on Wednesday night," as Mr. Stoker, the Grafton Street jeweller +already mentioned, told me the story, "just as I was about to go home, +suddenly a taxi stopped at the shop door, and a beautiful young woman +stepped out and asked me to show her some wedding-rings--'the best,' as +she put it, 'that money could buy.' + +"She had a thick veil, but I could see that her eyes were red with +weeping, and, noticing continued convulsive sobs as she spoke, I +ventured to ask her the reason. + +"It was then that she revealed the terrible tragedy she was about to +suffer. + +"'I am poor Joe Plunkett's--the rebel's--fiancee,' she said, 'and we are +to be married in prison to-morrow morning, an hour before his +execution.' + +"I tell you it was the most pathetic thing I had ever heard in my life," +continued the jeweller; "and I felt inclined to break down myself when +she added: 'Oh! I can't tell you how I love him and how he loves me; we +belong to each other, and even if we are only to be together for a +single hour I mean to marry him in spite of everybody, in order to bear +his name through life.'" + +The young woman at once stepped into the same category as Sarah Curran, +poor Robert Emmet's sweetheart, in the heart of everyone in Dublin as +the story went round like lightning, but no one knew who she was until +the next day, when we heard that she was Grace Gifford, the beautiful +and gifted young art student whose portrait by William Orpen, entitled +"Young Ireland," had won the admiration of all London a few years +before. + +Not all the character and talent and romance of these leaders, however, +would have been sufficient to launch Ireland into open rebellion had +there not been some concrete grievance as well which gave their words +objective worth. + +Style alone makes no martyrs, and the best way to understand the +influence these men had upon their followers is to study the concrete +grievances which they preached in season and out of season, making +revolution not only sound plausible but actually practicable; and for +this we must turn to the literature, which explains the remoter home +causes of the rebellion. + + + + +CHAPTER THE EIGHTH + +REMOTER CAUSES OF THE REBELLION + + +Those who think they can explain away the Sinn Fein rising of 1916 by +the factor of German gold make much the same mistake as those who were +so anxious to explain away the Home Rule movement by American dollars. +The fact of the matter is, great movements and national uprisings should +not be explained away: they should be, on the contrary, amplified, +emphasized, and deeply studied. + +I remember on one occasion the late W. T. Stead, when he was helping me +with the biography of my uncle, Mr. John Redmond, emphasizing upon me +the tremendous importance of the study of Irish problems to an Empire +like ours, where nearly every one of its component nations is a +repetition of Ireland. + +"We have made every mistake we could possibly make as a ruling race in +our government of you Irish," he said to me, "and we cannot, as we love +and wish to keep our Empire, continue to perpetuate them. + +"We can keep Ireland down if we like by force of arms, but we shall +never be able to keep our Empire by the same means, and that is why it +is so important that with such an object-lesson at our very doors we +should be ever prepared to study how conquered or incorporated nations +look upon our rule. + +"That rule may be a protection, and it should be, but our stupidity can +make it a yoke; yet of this we can be certain, that what fails to win +friendship and respect in Ireland will fail to win security for our +Empire when we employ those methods on nations who have it in their +power to say us nay." + +In other words, as long as the suppression has only been a military +suppression it has been no suppression at all; any more than a delirious +patient who is drugged or held down by force by a couple of hospital +porters is cured by that expedient. + +Moreover, all such expedients are necessarily merely temporary, and what +we want to get at are the root causes of the complaint. + +We must therefore fully diagnose those grievances of which the rebellion +was only the outward symptom, and against which the Republic was more, +after all, a symbolic protest than anything else; it was no more really +intended to establish a Celtic Commonwealth than Sir Edward Carson's +army was to change a Province into a Kingdom. Both were _facons de +parler_, and the word "provisional" saved them from ridicule they would +otherwise have deserved. + +I remember speaking to a prominent Sinn Feiner only a couple of days +before the revolt with a view to writing an article on the Volunteers, +and this is what he said:-- + +"It would be very difficult for anyone to write anything just at +present, for things are trembling in the balance. There is a most +tremendous battle going on at the present moment at the Castle, we +understand, between General Friend and Augustine Birrell--in other +words, between the military and the civil authorities--and everything +depends upon that issue. + +"They want to take away our arms, for example, and not those of Redmond +or Carson, and the latter will stand by and see it done without a word; +but we know that's only the thin end of the wedge of the complete +subjugation of Ireland to the soldier, as in the days of Cromwell, and +even if we stand alone we will stop that. + +"They don't half of them know a tenth of our power; even people in +Ireland don't realize it. We are completely organized and perfectly +equipped, far better even than the Ulster Volunteers are, and they will +find out their mistake when they try. + +"They've made two attempts already, in a hole-and-corner sort of way, at +the Gaelic Press and at Liberty Hall, and the police found themselves +looking into the barrels of revolvers each time. Well, all I can say is, +when the day comes and they determine to strike--and we'll get wind of +it--you may depend upon it the whole world will get a surprise; it will +be like nothing else in Irish history for seven hundred years. + +"We have our supplies at regular intervals, and our local commanders, +with each province fully organized under them, and a complete system of +code messages which never go through the post, but are distributed by +means of secret dispatch-riders, and if the signal went forth to-night, +to-morrow morning the whole of Ireland would be up in arms." + +All of which, I need hardly say, I took--as everyone in my place would +have taken it--_cum grano salis_, but it all came back to me the moment +I heard the first shot. Especially did it flash across my mind when, +bringing back to Dun's Hospital a dead Sinn Feiner, the famous document +fell out of his pocket, which is strikingly similar in thought to my +friend's prognostications. + +According to Alderman Kelly, speaking on the Thursday before the +outbreak in the Dublin Corporation, some such order had been "recently +addressed to and was on the files of Dublin Castle," according to which +the arrest of all the leaders of the Irish Volunteers, together with the +members of the Sinn Fein Council, the Executive Committee of the +National (Redmondite) Volunteers, and the Executive Committee of the +Gaelic League, had been sanctioned. + +Probably, however, the best diagnosis of the situation immediately +preceding the outbreak was the letter published by the _New Statesman_ +of May 6th, that had been written as early as April 7th, and which, +coming from the most eminent victim of the danger so clearly foreseen by +him, must have special force at the present moment. + +It was from no less than F. Sheehy Skeffington. + + +"SIR,--The situation in Ireland is extremely grave. Thanks to the +silence of the daily Press, the military authorities are pursuing their +Prussian plans in Ireland unobserved by the British public; and, when +the explosion which they have provoked occurs, they will endeavour to +delude the British public as to where the responsibility lies. I write +in the hope that, despite war-fever, there may be enough sanity and +common sense left to restrain the militarists while there is yet time. + +"I will not take up your space by recounting the events that have led up +to the present situation--the two years' immunity accorded to Sir Edward +Carson's Volunteers in their defiant illegalities, the systematic +persecution of the Irish Volunteers _from the moment of their formation_ +(_nine months before the war_), the militarist provocations, raids on +printing offices, arbitrary deportations, and savage sentences which +have punctuated Mr. Redmond's recruiting appeals for the past eighteen +months. As a result of this recent series of events, Irish Nationalist +and Labour opinion is now in a state of extreme exasperation. Recruiting +for the British Army is dead; recruiting for the Irish Volunteers has, +for the moment, almost reached the mark of one thousand per week--which +is Lord Wimborne's demand for the British Army. A special stimulus has +been given to the Irish Volunteer movement by the arrest and threatened +forcible deportation (at the moment of writing it is still uncertain +whether the threat will be carried out) of two of its most active +organizers. + +"There are two distinct danger-points in the position. In the first +place, the Irish Volunteers are prepared, if any attempt is made +forcibly to disarm them, to resist, and to defend their rifles with +their lives. In the second place, the Irish Citizen Army (the Labour +Volunteers) are prepared to offer similar resistance, not only to +disarmament, but to any attack upon the Press which turns out the +_Workers' Republic_--successor to the suppressed _Irish Worker_--which +is printed in Liberty Hall. + +"There is no bluff in either case. That was shown (1) in Tullamore on +March 20th, when an attempt at disarming the small local corps of Irish +Volunteers was met with revolver shots and a policeman was +wounded--fortunately not seriously; (2) in Dublin, on March 24th and +following days, when, at the rumour of an intended raid on the _Workers' +Republic_, the Irish Citizen Army stood guard night and day in Liberty +Hall--many of them having thrown up their jobs to answer promptly the +mobilization order--armed and prepared to sell their lives dearly. The +British military authorities in Ireland know perfectly well that the +members of both these organizations are earnest, determined men. If, +knowing this, General Friend and his subordinate militarists proceed +either to disarm the Volunteers or to raid the Labour Press, it can only +be because they _want_ bloodshed--because they want to provoke another +'98, and to get an excuse for a machine-gun massacre. + +"Irish pacifists who have watched the situation closely are convinced +that this is precisely what the militarists do want. The younger English +officers in Dublin make no secret of their eagerness 'to have a whack at +the Sinn Feiners'; they would much rather fight them than the +Germans.[3] They are spurred on by the Carson-Northcliffe +conscriptionist gang in London. On April 5th the _Morning Post_ +vehemently demanded the suppression of the _Workers' Republic_; on April +6th a question was put down in the House of Commons urging Mr. Birrell +to disarm the Irish Volunteers. These gentry know well the precise +points where a pogrom can most easily be started. + +"Twice already General Friend has been on the point of setting Ireland +in a blaze--once last November, when he had a warrant made out for the +arrest of Bishop O'Dwyer, of Limerick; once on March 25th, when he had a +detachment of soldiers with machine guns in readiness to raid Liberty +Hall. In both cases Mr. Birrell intervened in the nick of time, and +decisively vetoed the militarist plans. But some day Mr. Birrell may be +overborne or may intervene too late. Then, once bloodshed is started in +Ireland, who can say where or how it will end? + +"In the midst of world-wide carnage, bloodshed in our little island may +seem a trivial thing. The wiping out of all the Irish Nationalist and +Labour Volunteers would hardly involve as much slaughter as the single +battle of Loos. Doubtless that is the military calculation--that their +crime may be overlooked in a world of criminals. Accordingly, the nearer +peace comes, the more eager will they be to force a conflict before +their chance vanishes. Is there in Great Britain enough real sympathy +with Small Nationalities, enough real hatred of militarism, to frustrate +this Pogrom Plot of British Militarist Junkerdom? + + "Yours, etc., + "F. SHEEHY SKEFFINGTON." + + +Personally, I think I can diagnose the rebellion into ten perfectly +distinct factors, but by far the least of them all is Germany. Germany +was the personal note which Sir Roger Casement brought in, and which +left it with his failure. It was accidental and extraneous both to the +Sinn Fein Volunteers and the Citizen Army, though both were willing to +make use of it. + +Anyone who has taken the trouble to peruse the literature which fed the +movement will recognize these diverse elements under various forms which +appear in different places, but they are perfectly distinct. + +The most immediate cause was the undoubted intention of the authorities +to disarm them--a threat which had been overhanging them for some time, +and which, in view of the well-known leniency of the Government with +regard both to Sir Edward Carson and John Redmond in the same matter, +struck them as particularly unjust, the more so perhaps because both +Sinn Feiners and Larkinites thought that the Nationalists and the +Orangemen would be only too glad to combine with the Government against +them if need be. + +Thus, if we take the issue of the _Workers' Republic_ of April 22, 1916, +we find an account, quoted from the _Liverpool Courier_, of how +Connolly, the Commandant of the Citizens' Army, stopped the police raid, +in search of papers, on the shop of the Workers' Co-operative Society at +31, Eden Quay, having been informed of their intention. + +"Connolly," says the account, "arrived on the scene just as one of the +police got in behind the counter. Inquiring if the police had any search +warrant, they answered that they had not. On hearing this, Mr. Connolly, +turning to the policeman behind the counter as he had lifted up a +bundle of papers, covered him with an automatic pistol, and quietly +said: 'Then drop those papers, or I'll drop you.' He dropped the papers. +Then he was ordered out from behind the counter, and he cleared. His +fellow-burglar tried to be insolent, and was quickly told that as they +had no search warrant they were doing an illegal act, and the first one +who ventured to touch a paper would be shot like a dog. After some +parley, they slunk away, vowing vengeance." + +The story runs on for a column or more, and ends with further +discomfiture for the police. Then one reads:-- + +"In an hour from the first issue of the summons Liberty Hall was +garrisoned by a hundred and fifty determined armed men, and more were +trooping in every few minutes. It was splendid to see the enthusiasm of +the men, and when in the course of the evening all the Women's Ambulance +Corps trooped in, closely followed by the Boy Scouts, excitement and +longing for battle was running high in all our veins. The Irish +Volunteers were also on the alert, and stood, we are informed, until +after 2 a.m. on Saturday morning. Since then the hall has been guarded +day and night." + +The paper then goes on to speak of how "the heroic fighting at Suvla +Bay, and even the valorous defence of Verdun, fades into insignificance +side by side in Dublin by the Citizen Army, and describes how Liberty +Hall is being guarded by day and by night," and then goes on to point +out the danger which such open disregard of authority may lead to +eventually. + +Then follow two significant quotations, one from the _Irish Volunteer_ +and the other from _The Spark_. The latter is an open boast of the +efficacy of arms, and runs:-- + +"A few thousand Irishmen, who took the precaution or providing +themselves with lethal weapons of one kind or another, have, without +contesting a constituency and without sending a man to Westminster, +compelled the Westminster Parliament to admit publicly that it dared not +pass any legislation which they, the armed men, did not choose to +permit." + +Eoin MacNeill's threat is hardly less significant:-- + +"If our arms are demanded from us, we shall refuse to surrender them. +If force is used to take them from us, we shall make the most effective +resistance in our power. Let there be no mistake or misunderstanding on +that point.... We shall defend our arms with our lives." + +Now, whatever may be thought of such sentiments, there can be no doubt +whence they originated, for they are sheer Carsonism through and +through; and it was, as I have repeatedly pointed out, a pure stroke of +luck that it was not Belfast's City Hall instead of Dublin's Post Office +that was burnt to the ground. + +This physical force element, therefore, the Sinn Feiners and Larkinites +had in common with the Redmondites and Ulstermen: the fact that they +actually were the first to put the principle into operation is no +difference at all. + +In other words, we have to go deeper for a specific distinction, and +that distinction is to be found in the very nature of the parties +themselves who combined to form the provisional Republic. + +They were two movements which had grown up outside the two Parliamentary +parties and which refused to believe in Parliamentarianism as much for +the simple reason that their respective watchwords had become more or +less worn-out tags, out of touch with the realities of modern Irish +problems, as because their leaders had, unable to assimilate them, taken +up an attitude of almost personal antipathy to them and their ideals. + +It is certainly a most remarkable thing how John Redmond has lost the +old Parnellite grip upon the younger life of the country, and it seems +hardly credible that such an attitude should be due entirely to the +perversity of youth and in no way to the natural consequence of +tradition-loving age; but in any case the broad fact remains, and a tone +of persistent criticism seems to have taken the place of the meek +obedience of other days; and newspapers, dramas, novels, criticism, and +movements on all sides bear witness to it. The same, too, applies to Sir +Edward Carson, whose party has to recruit in England, witness Sir F. E. +Smith. + +According to Mr. T. M. Healy, the whole movement was due almost entirely +to the "bankruptcy of Redmondism." No doubt the justice of the +accusation may be questioned, though I hold no brief for any relative, +but there can be no doubt that it was the Sinn Fein attitude, and we +want to see the Sinn Feiners as they saw themselves and as they saw +Redmond. + +The Government trusted to Redmond almost entirely, but, as Mr. Healy +continues, they forgot that-- + +"New crystallizations were taking place. The jobbery of the official +party disgusted all earnest and unselfish minds amongst the youth of +Ireland. The forces of Larkinism were embittered; and the acceptance of +salaries by Irish members, after their formal declaration that they +would not accept them, sank deeply into the hearts of extremists. + +"The Insurance Act, the killing of land purchase, and the founding of +the A.O.H., sapped the foundations of belief, and it became known that +'a high official achieved his ambitions on the judicial bench only by +becoming a professing Catholic and accepting initiation under the rites +of Mr. Devlin's brotherhood. The staff of the _Freeman's Journal_, the +official patriot organ, got endless jobs. At the same time Mr. Redmond +excluded from his party, without trial or grounds, a dozen leading +members opposed to this policy.' + +"All that was sober, unselfish, self-respecting, and self-reliant +quitted his ranks and joined the Sinn Fein movement without thought of +rebellion or pro-Germanism. + +"The courage of the Sinn Feiners atoned for much of their folly in the +mind of those who realized that their spirit was not pro-German, but, in +the main, a revolt against the conversion of Dublin Castle into a +Redmondite Tammany Hall. Their uprising was the answer to the +corruption, jobbery, and judge-mongering of the Molly Maguires +masquerading in the vestments of religion. Hence the wholesale arrests +of men not in rebellion have evoked no protest from Mr. Redmond, 'who +watches calmly the dispersal of his critics,' hoping to find a new lease +of life under a new jobbing nominee." + +The Larkinists were, if anything, still more out of sympathy with the +official party because, in the words of Connolly, they looked upon them +as no better than the English conqueror, since they took the side of +the social conqueror in the economic struggles of life in the city. + +This seems certainly to have a touch of truth, for if ever any body of +men resembled the unfortunate victims of rural landlords it was these +wretched victims of the tenement slums, the denunciation of which seemed +to have no part in the official Parliamentary programme, so much so as +to compel Labour to create its own party and evolve its own leader, +which it had accordingly done in the person of Jim Larkin. + +Now, if anyone wishes to judge James Connolly they should not look at +the soldier for a week; they must examine the life-long student of +economics and read his "History of Labour in Irish History" and his +"Reconquest of Ireland," for it is here we have the revolution in its +cause, which was just as much economic as political. + +It is the custom to speak of the Larkinites with scant respect, as if +they were the mad, blind multitude of the "have nots" in perpetual prey +upon the "haves"; but it is quite a false idea, for they have in their +movement some of those who count socially and intellectually. + +Thus, for example, the training of the Citizens' Army was almost +entirely carried out by Captain J. R. White, D.S.O., son of the late +Field-Marshal Sir George White, whose "Labour" ideas got him three +months' imprisonment only a few weeks ago. + +As to the attitude of the average Dublin merchant towards the new labour +party that is arising, I know of no finer apology for Larkin than the +brilliant letter of "AE." to the _Irish Times_ in the days of the great +strike, when he addressed the "masters of the city." + +In it he warned them--the aristocracy of industry--because like all +aristocracies they tended to grow blind in long authority, and to be +unaware that they and their class and their every action were being +considered and judged day by day by those who had the power to shake or +overturn the whole social order, and whose restlessness in poverty was +making our industrial civilization stir like a quaking bog. He reminded +them that their assumption that they were answerable to themselves alone +for their actions in the industries they controlled was becoming less +and less tolerable, in a world so crowded with necessitous life; but +what he chiefly held them responsible for was their incompetence as +commercial men, because, with the cheapest market in the world at their +command, they could never invite the confidence of investors. + +What was even worse than their business incompetence, however, was, +according to "AE.," their bad citizenship, for had they not allowed the +poor to be herded together so that one could only think of certain +places in Dublin as of a pestilence? + +"There are twenty thousand rooms in Dublin," continued the terrible +indictment, "in each of which live entire families and sometimes more, +where no functions of the body can be concealed, and delicacy and +modesty are creatures that are stifled ere they are born." In fact, +"nothing that had ever been done against them cried so much to heaven +for vengeance as their own actions, such as the terrible lock-out, which +threw nearly a third of the whole city on to the verge of starvation"; +and he concluded:-- + +"You are sounding the death-knell of autocracy in industry. There was +autocracy in political life, and it was superseded by democracy. So +surely will democratic power wrest from you the control of industry. The +fate of the aristocracy of industry will be as the fate of the +aristocracy of land, if you do not show that you have some humanity +still among you." + +It was from such roots that the spirit of the Citizens' Army drew its +inspiration (and possibly not a few of the looters as well), and it is +impossible to understand the rage of these men without fully +comprehending the condition in which they were compelled to live and +move. + +True, the revolt was not with any concrete economic end in view; but, +none the less, it was coloured throughout with economic grievances. + +It was the very torture of the ordinary conditions of peace that made +them resent the fear of any additional burdens and sacrifices such as +were demanded of their patriotism. + +Yet what did patriotism and Empire mean to them, save only the doubling +of their burdens and their masters' profits? + +If the Scotch workman in London and the Scotch worker on the Clyde and +the Welsh miner in the coalfields round Cardiff felt it, much more must +the Irish docker; and it must never be forgotten that there is a triple +link of blood, interest, and common sympathy between the workers of the +two islands; and one has only to glance at the way the respective labour +Presses of the two countries kept in touch with each other for the past +year to realize how much an English labour problem the Irish political +problem really was. + +This brings me to some further factors which can be discerned in the +rising--firstly, the fear of conscription; secondly, the hatred of +militarism; and, thirdly, the chronic loathing of Castle government. + +With regard to conscription, there has always been a dread of it. They +had seen it come in England, and had watched anxiously the way it had +been introduced and applied, and the farce of the Tribunals, whose +action, in the words of the _Freeman's Journal_, would have been +sufficient to cause a revolution had they behaved in Ireland as they +behaved in England. + +All during the summer months they had seen the cloud gathering, and +Irishmen caught by a legal technicality and forced into the system; but +all this came to a climax when the cry of cowardice was raised at +Liverpool, as five hundred young emigrants, who would never have been +helped to live for Ireland in their own country, were suddenly held up +by order of the Cunard Company--which, as a matter of fact, owed nearly +its whole prosperity to its coffin boats of the Famine days, and whose +glaringly seductive posters had emptied Ireland, neither for America nor +Ireland's sake, but purely to get the passage-money of the emigrants who +were now asked to go instead and "help England to give Constantinople to +Russia, even if it cost them their lives." + +For they had a way of blunt speaking, these men whose everyday life was +an heroic fight for the home against "Hun" poverty. + +When the cry of "cowardice" was raised, however, it was high time to +protest, and none voiced that protest so well as Dr. O'Dwyer, the Bishop +of Limerick, who wrote the following letter to the _Munster News_:-- + + +"SIR,--The treatment which the poor Irish emigrant lads have received at +Liverpool is enough to make any Irishman's blood boil with anger and +indignation. What wrong have they done to deserve insults and outrage at +the hands of a brutal English mob? They do not want to be forced into +the English Army, and sent to fight English battles in some part of the +world. Is not that within their right? They are supposed to be free men, +but they are made to feel that they are prisoners, who may be compelled +to lay down their lives for a cause that is not worth 'three rows of +pins' to them. + +"It is very probable that these poor Connaught peasants know little or +nothing of the meaning of the war. Their blood is not stirred by the +memories of Kossovo, and they have no burning desire to die for Serbia. +They would much prefer to be allowed to till their own potato gardens in +peace in Connemara. Small nationalities, and the wrongs of Belgium and +Rheims Cathedral, and all the other cosmopolitan considerations that +rouse the enthusiasm of the Irish Party, but do not get enough of +recruits in England, are far too high-flying for uneducated peasants, +and it seems a cruel wrong to attack them because they cannot rise to +the level of the disinterested Imperialism of Mr. T. P. O'Connor and the +rest of the New Brigade. + +"But in all the shame and humiliation of this disgraceful episode, what +angers one most is that there is no one, not even one of their own +countrymen, to stand up and defend them. Their crime is that they are +not ready to die for England. Why should they? What have they or their +forbears ever got from England that they should die for her? Mr. Redmond +will say a Home Rule Act on the Statute Book. But any intelligent +Irishman will say a simulacrum of Home Rule, with an express notice that +it is never to come into operation. + +"This war may be just or unjust, but any fair-minded man will admit +that it is England's war, not Ireland's. When it is over, if England +wins, she will hold a dominant power in this world, and her manufactures +and her commerce will increase by leaps and bounds. Win or lose, Ireland +will go on, in our old round of misgovernment, intensified by a grinding +poverty which will make life intolerable. Yet the poor fellows who do +not see the advantage of dying for such a Cause are to be insulted as +'shirkers' and 'cowards,' and the men whom they have raised to power and +influence have not one word to say on their behalf. + +"If there is to be conscription, let it be enforced all round, but it +seems to be the very intensity of injustice to leave English shirkers by +the million to go free, and coerce the small remnant of the Irish race +into a war which they do not understand, and which, whether it is right +or wrong, has but a secondary and indirect interest for them. + + "I am, dear sir, + "Your obedient servant, + "-|- EDWARD THOMAS, + "Bishop of Limerick. +"_November 10, 1915._" + + +The seditious Press took up the cry: "Conscription had not even been +applied to her own sons, yet England was applying it to Irishmen," said +Gilbert Galbraith in _Honesty_; adding: "for all she wants of Irishmen +is their lives that she might live," and he warned Irishmen that "she +(England) who took everything they had and stripped them naked and left +them like Christ to the ribald jest and sneer of the rabble in the +world's back-streets, would, like every bully, try to have revenge when +she got them by themselves." + +Had this been mere verbal sword-play, however, I should not quote it; it +was more: it was the taking up of the challenge of cowardice. + +"Will you in God's name get ready to answer her?" concluded the famous +article in which he appealed to these would-be exiles repatriated by +force; "because, if you want to, all you have to do is to get into touch +with the nearest corps of Irish Volunteers." They would give them +instructions, he added pointedly, how to act, and what they did they had +better do quickly, for it might be too late on the morrow. + +Could one be surprised, I ask, if some of these would-be emigrants +answered the taunt gun in hand?--especially when men like Captain White, +who was afterwards to try to rouse the South Wales miners to endeavour +to save Connolly, was telling them plainly:-- + +"You are fast being led into industrial slavery. You know it, and I am +apprehensive and angry, but too bewildered to move. To rob you of your +right over your own poor bodies is the workers' tyrant. To rob you of +your sovereign power over your own will is the workers' devil. + +"Awake, brothers, before your liberty is dead. Arm yourselves against +your real enemies. Say to the tyrants and their agents, 'The first man +who lays hands on me against my will dies.'" + +All this, I say, jumps to the eyes of anyone perusing the literature +that produced the rising. + +It is beside the point whether such argumentation be true or false, +patriotic or seditious. The only point, as far as we are concerned in +this quasi-medical diagnosis of diseased mentality, is whether or not +these thoughts were present in the psychology of the combatants, and I +maintain that the evidence is undeniable. + +The attitude of "conscientious objectors" to militarism in England is +England's own affair. Yet I cannot, in my own mind, separate the +personality of Sir John Simon from that of John Hampden. No doubt +ship-money was necessary, and it was the patriotic thing to give it up, +and no doubt the same applies to men for the Army: but when it came to +the principle of the King taking money without the consent of +Parliament, John Hampden thought it his duty to the traditions of his +country to resist, just as Sir John Simon thought it his duty to the +traditions of the British conscience to passively protest--but that +again, I say, is a matter for Englishmen. + +The attitude of the Irish conscientious objector, however, has always +been of a more militant form, and this began to assert itself among the +labour leaders in Ireland through the medium of the more outspoken of +the English labour leaders. Whereas in England the masses of workers are +naturally loyal, in Ireland loyalty is a sustained effort against the +grain of tradition. Hence, while in England the right to rebel fell on +unsympathetic soil, in Ireland it merely relit the smouldering embers of +past grievances into flame. + +For there had been a growing epidemic of the phrase "Shoot them," +applied almost indiscriminately, like a quack panacea, by political +orators to every opponent on every conceivable subject since the war, +and this was producing the most evil results. + +Two quotations may suffice from the work by J. Bruce Glasier on +"Militarism," which was freely circulated in Dublin by means of Liberty +Hall, to illustrate the strength of the feeling on this subject:-- + +"Although Great Britain is suffering neither from invasion from without +nor insurrection from within, the military authorities are not only in +command of the defences of our shores but of the civil authorities, and +the whole population of the realm. The birthrights of British +citizenship embodied in the Magna Charta, Habeas Corpus, and Bill of +Rights are no longer inviolable. Martial Law--that is to say, military +despotism--may be put in operation at will by the military commanders. +Civilians may be seized and tried by Army officers, and even sentenced +to any penalty short of death without appeal to trial by jury. Our War +Lord is made virtual dictator. A military censorship has been +established over the Press and public meetings. Military officers may +enter our houses, quarter troops upon us, take possession of our horses, +motor-cars, cows, pigs, and pigeons. They may commandeer schools, +factories, warehouses, farms, or any other kinds of public or private +property. Strikes may be declared acts of treason, Trade Union officials +arrested and tried by courts martial, and soldiers used as +blacklegs--and no knowledge whatever of these happenings, not even of +the existence of strikes or trade disputes, may reach the general public +at all if the authorities so determine...." + +A phrase that seems to have done great harm, and was specially singled +out by the men of Liberty Hall, was "Shoot him!"--as a form of argument +employed by every Tom, Dick, and Harry orator, on every conceivable +subject without the slightest constitutional authority; but it must be +said it was one used by all parties. + +During the Home Rule controversy, for example, the Nationalists were +just as fond of employing the phrase towards Carson as during the Welsh +coal strikes Conservatives were of using it towards the miners. + +The danger of such doctrines in Ireland is this, that whereas in England +it is the upper class principally that is militarist, in Ireland it is +principally the lower class, and whereas it is the Castle authorities +who are always preaching the iniquity of physical force, it is the lower +classes who mainly admire it. + +Realizing this, as any student of Irish history would, there should not +have been the slightest doubt about the danger of employing force to men +who not only had the principle of active resistance but the arms +necessary to make it effective, and it has always appeared to me as the +most marvellous thing the Liberals ever did that they were able to allow +Ulster the full possession of arms without once provoking an occasion on +which to actually put them to use. + +The result of this fatal misuse of the words "Shoot him!" as a form of +argument--which unauthoritative should be made a penal offence--was that +the workers really feared that such irresponsible individuals if given +the power would really carry out the threat, and determined to +anticipate the danger by a protest in arms. + +Another contributory cause was undoubtedly Castle rule, and the fear +that with the holding up of Home Rule it might continue for ever, unless +some effective protest were made. + +The Chief Secretary was himself the foremost in admitting this to be one +of the contributory causes of the rebellion. + +"There are a number of contributory causes, which lately have created +antipathy to constitutional methods and tended to increase in numbers. +First--growing doubts about the actual advent of Home Rule. If the Home +Rule Bill had not been placed on the Statute Book there must have been +in Ireland and the United States a great and dangerous explosion of +rage and disappointment, which when the war broke out would have assumed +the most alarming proportions in Ireland. All (outside parts of Ulster) +would have joined hands, whilst our reports from Washington tell us what +the effect in America would have been. Still, even with Home Rule on the +Statute Book, the chance of its ever becoming a fact was so uncertain, +the outstanding difficulty about Ulster was so obvious, and the details +of the measure itself were so unattractive and difficult to transmute +into telling platform phrases, that Home Rule as an emotional flag fell +out of daily use in current Irish life. People left off talking about it +or waving it in the air. + +"Second, in Ireland, whenever Constitutional and Parliamentary procedure +cease to be of absorbing influence, other men, other methods, other +thoughts, before somewhat harshly snubbed, come rapidly to the surface, +and secure attention, sympathy, and support. The sneers of the +O'Brienites, the daily naggings in the Dublin _Irish Independent_, also +contributed to the partial eclipse of Home Rule, and this eclipse +foretold danger." + +Another point is worth noting in this connection, and that was the +growing power, first of the Coalition and then of the Unionist clique +who were capturing it. Thus says Mr. Birrell:-- + +"The Coalition Government, with Sir Edward Carson in it--it is +impossible to describe or overestimate the effect of this in Ireland. +The fact that Mr. Redmond could, had he chosen to do so, have sat in the +same Cabinet with Sir Edward Carson had no mollifying influence. If Mr. +Redmond had consented, he would, on the instant, have ceased to be an +Irish leader. This step seemed to make an end of Home Rule, and +strengthened the Sinn Feiners enormously all over the country." + +A general desire for peace and a sort of Socialistic feeling of +brotherhood, I should say, were two further contributory causes. + +"The prolongation of the war and its dubious end," as Mr. Birrell +observed, "turned many heads. Criticism was not of the optimistic type +prevalent in Britain, and consequently, when every event had been +thoroughly weighed, there was always a chance of Germany lending a +hand." + +As to the general attitude of Sinn Fein and Larkinite Ireland, it might +be described as one of benevolent neutrality where, as in many cases, it +was not one of actual hostility. + +True, recruiting figures had reached a total quite unprecedented in +Irish history (150,000), and loyalty had received an official stimulus +when the Irish leader and the Lord-Lieutenant toured the provinces +together; but this was discounted in the country districts by the +deliberate plans of the Sinn Feiners, and in the towns, or rather in +Dublin, by a sense of the futility of all war, and in particular this +war, whose aims were vague enough to the statesmen, and appeared almost +illusory to the worker. Hence anyone reading the _Workers Republic_ +could have noticed whole passages that might have been taken direct from +the German Socialist Liebknecht. + +One very significant leader (Saturday, February 5, 1916) on "The Ties +that Bind" is well worth quoting in parts as an example of this +feeling:-- + +"Recently we have been pondering deeply over the ties that bind this +country to England. It is not a new theme for our thoughts; for long +years we have carried on propaganda in Ireland, pointing out how the +strings of self-interest bound the capitalist and landlord classes to +the Empire, and how it thus became a waste of time to appeal to those +classes in the name of Irish patriotism. + +"We have said that the working class was the only class to whom the word +'Empire,' and the things of which it was the symbol, did not appeal; +that to the propertied classes 'Empire' meant high dividends and +financial security, whereas to the working class that meant only the +things it was in rebellion against. + +"Therefore from the intelligent working class could alone come the +revolutionary impulse. + +"Recently we have seen the spread of those ties of self-interest binding +certain classes and individuals to the Empire--we have seen it spread to +a most astonishing degree until its ramifications cover the island, +like the spread of a foul disease. + +"It would be almost impossible to name a single class or section of the +population not evilly affected by this social, political, and moral +leprosy.... + +"For the sake of L400 a year our parliamentary representatives become +Imperialists; for the sake of large travelling expenses and luxurious +living they become lying recruiters.... + +"There is nobody in a representative position so mean that the British +Government will not pay some price for his Irish soul. Newspaper men +sell their Irish souls for Government advertisements paid for at a +lavish rate. Professors sell their souls for salaries and expenses, +clergymen sell theirs for jobs for their relatives, business men sell +their souls and become recruiters lest they lose the custom of +Government officials. In all the grades of Irish society the only +section that has not furnished even one apostate to the cause it had +worked for in times of peace is that of the much hated and traduced +militant labour leaders. + +"But if the militant labour leaders of Ireland have not apostatized, the +same cannot be said of the working class as a whole.... + +"Perhaps some day the same evil passions the enemy has stirred up in so +many of our Irish people will play havoc with his own hopes, and make +more bitter and deadly the cup of his degradation and defeat. + +"But deep in the heart of Ireland has sunk the sense of the degradation +wrought upon its people--our lost brothers and sisters--so deep and +humiliating that no agency less potent than the red tide of war on Irish +soil will ever be able to enable the Irish race to recover its +self-respect, or establish its national dignity in the face of a world +horrified and scandalized by what must seem to them our national +apostasy." + +Now the strange thing about Ireland is her definition of "loyalty." It +is not with her a species of sentimental altruism but a plain, +business-like, common-sense view of her own interests, and nothing can +make her change that view, for she has through centuries of +disillusionment become chronically suspicious. + +"I dare say I don't take the same view as you would were you in my +place," wrote Mr. Birrell to the Prime Minister on January 25th. +"Loyalty in Ireland is of slow growth, and the soil is uncongenial. The +plant grows slowly. Landlords, grand juries, loyalist magistrates, have +all gone; yet the plant grows, though slowly." + +Her patriotism, on the other hand, is almost necessarily a matter of +internal administration; and for this she fights with all the spirit +that animated her in the past against Dane and Saxon. Hence it is quite +easy for an economic grievance at once to assume the proportions of a +national movement, and once it becomes resisted as such, the spirit of +nationality becomes rekindled again, and it was this latter that +prompted the final efforts in the evolution of the Republic. + +America and Germany both contributed to intensify the spirit of +nationality and gave material assistance that made the attempt at +"Separatism" a practicable ideal, but it was only made possible because +of the internal troubles in Ireland herself. + +So long as a constitutional outlet is not afforded for such grievances, +so long must unconstitutional means be appealed to; but the question +which the breakdown of the old regime suggests seriously to all thinkers +is whether there are not ample means within the Constitution, and I +think it is the universal opinion of the more moderate that there is; +and it is just these moderates whose views will be the more welcome +because of the failure not merely of the Sinn Feiners to establish a +Republic, but of Sir Edward Carson and John Redmond to come to an +understanding that would have placed them in a position to have +controlled it in time, and, which is more important still, to be able to +deal with any repetition of a similar character in the future. + +Probably no analysis of the remoter causes of the rebellion, however, is +more accurate than the psychological origin given by George Bernard Shaw +in a letter to the _Daily News_ on May 10th. + +"The relation of Ireland to Dublin Castle is in this respect precisely +that of the Balkan States to Turkey, of Belgium or the city of Lille to +the Kaiser, and of the United States to Great Britain. + +"Until Dublin Castle is superseded by a National Parliament and Ireland +voluntarily incorporated with the British Empire, as Canada, +Australasia, and South Africa have been incorporated, an Irishman +resorting to arms to achieve the independence of his country is doing +only what Englishmen will do if it be their misfortune to be invaded and +conquered by the Germans in the course of the present war. Further, such +an Irishman is as much in order morally in accepting assistance from the +Germans in this struggle with England as England is in accepting the +assistance of Russia in her struggle with Germany. The fact that he +knows that his enemies will not respect his rights if they catch him, +and that he must, therefore, fight with a rope round his neck, increases +his risk, but adds in the same measure to his glory in the eyes of his +compatriots and of the disinterested admirers of patriotism throughout +the world. It is absolutely impossible to slaughter a man in this +position without making him a martyr and a hero, even though the day +before the rising he may have been only a minor poet. The shot Irishmen +will now take their places beside Emmet and the Manchester Martyrs in +Ireland, and beside the heroes or Poland and Serbia and Belgium in +Europe; and nothing in heaven or on earth can prevent it." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[3] I give the well-known letter in its entirety, but I cannot vouch for +such passages, and I know that in many cases officers were particularly +distressed at having to fight Irishmen instead of Germans. + + + + +CHAPTER THE NINTH + +REFLECTIONS TOWARDS RECONSTRUCTION + + +One of the most gratifying things about the terrible catastrophe through +which we have been passing during the last few weeks is the spirit of +hope which has taken the place of the spirit of despair which +immediately followed the outbreak. + +Ireland has ever been more of a problem suited to statesmen than to +soldiers; indeed, the soldier has more often than not come in to spoil +the work of the statesman, and Mr. Asquith's hurried visit to Dublin, +Cork, and Belfast after John Dillon's speech was chiefly undertaken in +order to prevent any repetition of the old mistake. + +The need for conciliation, everybody will admit, was exceedingly urgent, +for it was the admitted intention of the Sinn Feiners to put the matter +to the test as to whether England held Ireland by her own free +constitutional consent, or whether it was merely a permanent military +occupation, like Belgium and Poland. "England is not the champion of +small nations," they said. "She never was and never will be, and while +she is masquerading before the world as such it is our intention, in +Ireland's name, to give her the lie--yes, even though it be in our own +blood." + +Indeed, as I have already said, there appears to have been a belief +among the Sinn Feiners that if only they could hold the capital for +twelve days by force of arms they would have a sort of claim to be +mentioned at the Peace Conference along with Poland and Belgium. + +Now, it matters very little whether such a suggestion came from Berlin +or Washington, or whether the whole thing was a fable, for the grand +fact remains that England now stands before Europe with the point of +Ireland's loyalty openly questioned, and she has only two courses open: +she must either neglect Irish opinion and proclaim that she holds the +sister isle by right of conquest--when, of course, the fate of Belgium +is sealed as far as England's ethical pleading is concerned--or she may +make such a final compact with Ireland that she can afterwards maintain +before the whole world, without fear of contradiction, that Ireland is +freely one with England without the help of a single soldier. + +It's really more important than winning the war, if Englishmen could +only realize it--for the psychology of Ireland is the psychology of +every one of the constituent nations of our common Empire; and the late +Mr. Stead used to say to me, "A blunder in Irish government is a blunder +in Imperial government"; but I never realized this so much as when I +learnt with what an intense interest the Indian students present in +Dublin had followed the whole case. + +When the Irish leader, therefore, in the acuteness of the moment +expressed the hope that no party would be allowed to make capital out of +the event, he expressed a hope which was re-echoed in every Irish +breast; but it would have been far more effective if he had instead +expressed the hope that each party should bear its proper share in the +guilt of the catastrophe. + +For the danger is the making of the Sinn Feiners into a national +scapegoat for the faults of all. + +For in a sense all were responsible. True, neither Redmondites nor +Carsonites took any part in it--and it is very lucky they did not, for +it would have meant civil war and fearful bloodshed from one end of the +country to the other--but in neither case was it out of any love for +England, for both of them fully realized that they might have been in +the position of the Sinn Feiners themselves, and both were equally +determined to rid Ireland of English meddlers. + +It might almost be called a "tragedy of errors," for there was nothing +but blundering all round. England should never have allowed Carson to +arm, nor should Redmond have followed suit if he wished to play the +constitutional game to the end; but once both had appealed to the +principle of physical force, neither had a right to censure the methods +of a third party which had arisen out of their own incapacity to keep +the country in hand. + +England was in principle perfectly justified in employing force against +the whole three of them, and hastened to take full advantage of the +situation by handing the reins of government over to the military--but +that was the greatest blunder of the lot. + +For there can be no doubt that to the rank and file of the Sinn Feiners, +as to the rank and file of the Orangemen, physical force was not an end +in itself: it was only the protest of conscientious objectors which was +being lashed into activity under continual provocation--the provocation +of being threatened with the loss of everything they held most dear in +life, and eminently admired by Englishmen for that very fact. + +Normally Sinn Feiners and Orangemen were men of peace, the one +economists, the other business men, who might indeed have been easily +pacified had they been openly and sympathetically treated with, instead +of being galled into fury by the taunt of bluff or cowardice, and such +epithets as insignificant, negligible minorities. + +In an orgy of majority government both stood out for the sanctity of +minorities, especially when those minorities represented inviolable +principles of vital import to the majority. + +It was the method of suppression that really did most of the mischief, +for in addition to casualties and damages there was also considerable +distress, and it at once became necessary to organize a system of food +distribution and relief for the sufferers. + +This was largely undertaken by the St. Vincent de Paul Society, under +Sir Henry Robinson, Vice-President of the Local Government Board, and +with the help of the military authorities, who lent motor-lorries and +money, food was distributed to over one hundred thousand persons. + +House-to-house visitations were made, and these revealed all forms of +distress, from lack of food, which, of course, it had been impossible to +obtain as long as the city was in a state of siege, down to absolute +ruination of whole families. + +In places the city looked like Antwerp during the siege, or London upon +the arrival of the Belgian refugees. + +No one has yet been able to estimate the full extent of the material +damage sustained by the reckless bombardment of the city--for no other +word can be used; and though Captain Purcell, the chief of the Dublin +Fire Brigade, gave the rough figure of L2,500,000, this must be taken as +a mere minimum of the extent covered by the conflagrations. + +It cannot represent the loss of business, employment, goodwill, trade, +and the thousand and one other losses inseparable from such a +catastrophe. + +Take, for example, the loss of the Royal Hibernian Academy, with +thousands of pounds of pictures. No price can repay these, for they +represented perhaps the culminating point, or at least the turning +point, in careers which had had years of hard struggles, and which had +set perhaps a lifetime's hopes upon a single canvas. + +From all accounts, too, it was the merest chance that the whole northern +portion of the town did not fall a victim to the devouring flames, and +it is hard to understand the psychology of the military mind which could +risk even the mere possibility of such an event, as it is hard to +understand why the firemen were fired on by the rebels when trying to +extinguish the flames. + +The hardest part of it all was, moreover, that the blow fell almost +entirely upon the shoulders of the innocent, viz. the merchants, +tradesmen, shopkeepers, and employees, who were thus ruined at a single +stroke within the space of a few hours without even a chance of a +protest. + +People began to ask seriously whether it had really been necessary at +all, and the verdict was not always complimentary to the authorities. +Mr. Healy raised the question in the House whether any such measures had +ever been really necessary, considering that the rebels held such few +positions, and these could have been isolated by the municipal water +supply being cut off. It certainly seems plausible that some less brutal +methods could have been adopted, considering the way Cork was saved from +a similar catastrophe by the tact of the clergy, who would only have +been too willing, and undoubtedly would have had the power, to act as +mediators between the rebels and military in the name of the civil +authorities and in the interests of the inhabitants principally and +Ireland generally. + +A very cute suggestion I heard from Mr. George Atkinson, the well-known +Dublin artist, as we were preparing the cover of the present volume in +his studio, struck me as particularly plausible. + +"As long as the rebels were in their strongholds untouched," he said, +"they were practically powerless, and could only have covered themselves +with contempt and ridicule if they had been left alone. + +"These men were asking for martyrdom and the glory of battle: why on +earth give them their admitted object? + +"They were in possession of the Post Office. Very well, but they could +not have run the postal service. They were in possession of the +railways. Well and good, but they would not have been able to conduct +the train service. They had assumed the reins of government, but would +the people of Ireland have acknowledged them? Certainly not. They had +taken over the management of the capital, but were they able to police +it even, or protect private property? Why, from the very first moment of +their victory--if victory it could be called--the whole place had been +at the mercy of the mob. + +"Again, they issued receipts in the name of the Irish Republic's +exchequer, but what financier would have honoured their bills? Could +they have even taken the gold from the banks they could not have got +credit or cash for any further transactions. They had assumed sole +authority over the people of Ireland, yet they could not have commanded +enough votes to secure a single constituency. + +"These men, left to themselves, in fact, and treated with a sense of +humour, were on the highroad to the greatest political fiasco the world +had ever seen, and could only have made themselves ridiculous and +contemptible in the eyes of their own countrymen and others throughout +the world. + +"They had appealed to Germany: very well; let them look to German help +for assistance, and in the meanwhile let them know that Casement had +been captured already, before the rising, and the phantom Prussian +armada had been sunk to the bottom of the sea. + +"What could have happened? You say 'Pillage and murder.' They were not +out for that, in the first place, nor were they that type; and it may be +questioned whether, had they set about it with deliberate purpose, they +would have worked such havoc as the military and naval artillery wrought +in that fatal week." + +The theory is certainly one which would have had no precedent to +recommend it, but to my mind it was just this that was its best +recommendation; in fact, what was most needed was to avoid a repetition +of the old fatal precedents which had turned so many futile revolts into +glorious outbursts of patriotism. + +Just imagine the situation. England would first of all have told them +she wished for no bloodshed beyond the punishment of those who had +actually shot defenceless men or whose orders had led to these murders. +It would have redounded entirely to the credit of the Englishman. + +England would then have asked the politicians and people alike if they +in any way sympathized with such a revolt, and let the penalties be +known--the immediate erasure of Home Rule from the Statute Book and the +cessation of land purchase, as well as the stoppage of all commercial or +financial transactions. + +Finally, if these failed and the people of Ireland really wished for war +in its full reality, they could have it, but they must not ever +afterward appeal as constitutional partners in the Empire, but merely as +a conquered race: mercy they might have, rights they would have +forfeited by conquest. + +Had such a course been followed, there would not only have been an +opportunity upon the part of the nation at large to disown the usurpers, +who would then have had not even the vestige of a grievance upon which +to establish their preposterous claims to continuance in the position +they had taken up. + +In a word, the English would have made fools of them, or rather allowed +the Irish to make fools of them. Instead of this, all the old fatal, +discredited methods were employed with the same fatal results, and they +became national heroes, whose suppression by force could only give them +greater power. + +The whole thing would have taken no longer than the campaign; no further +blood would have been spilt, and time would have been allowed for the +great adventure to reveal itself in the true grotesqueness of cold +reality. + +Possibly it was looked upon as _infra dig._ to treat with rebels, but it +was so obviously a mental case that it is hard to see how anything could +possibly have been _infra dig._ under such circumstances. + +On Monday and Tuesday the Republic was no more representative of the +people of Ireland than the tailors of Tooley Street were the people of +England, but upon the old Grecian principle that the sufferings of one +citizen are the sufferings of the whole State, it became national from +the moment the national sentiment had been aroused by the indiscriminate +shedding of blood. + +It was in their defeat that the Sinn Feiners won their great victory, +and they knew it. They had been scoffed at, derided, denounced by the +official party almost to--in fact, actually to--a state of desperation, +and an act of despair became their last resort. The Statute Book indeed +proclaimed Ireland a nation once again, but the Government treated +Ireland more like a province than ever, and her own representatives +seemed to acquiesce; so, as Mrs. Pearse, the mother of the "President," +told me afterwards, "there was nothing left for them but to accomplish +the sacrifice demanded to save the soul of Ireland and proclaim her on +the scaffold once again unconquered and unconquerable." + +It was an act of folly, if you like, to try to set up a republic, +especially during such a crisis as this war, but since the death of the +leaders brought out their true character, it has ceased to be looked +upon as a piece of knavery, for these men, according to all accounts of +the priests, died the death of saints, not scoundrels; so that we now +realize the old, old story of the tragedy of misunderstanding, as much, +indeed, by their own countrymen as by the Englishman. + +If it was to illustrate in one dramatic coup that misunderstanding +which has been growing between all parties in Ireland, then they have +not died in vain, for every party must feel to a certain extent +responsible for the catastrophe. Several things, however, seem to stand +out prominently amidst the chaos. + +Castle government is dead as Queen Anne and Home Rule as natural and as +inevitable as the morrow's sunrise; Unionism, in the English sense of +Empire, survives: everyone is a Unionist now; but what still remains +inexorable is the attitude of Sir Edward Carson, whose "Unionism" is +merely a euphemism for "bureaucracy," and who, with the Ulster +Volunteers still in arms, equally prepared to resist constitutional +government, whether from Westminster or from Dublin, is the greatest +Home Ruler of us all--or should we say Sinn Feiner? + +Personally, I have always thought, and still think, that the Orangeman +has more to gain in an Irish Parliament than anyone else as representing +the layman, the business man; but I, for one, should be sorry to see +Home Rule at the cost of a single Ulster Volunteer's life. + +Mr. William O'Brien has for years, as a species of political outcast, +been preaching the doctrine of conciliation, and has suffered in +consequence, but his successful opponents have not gained the victory, +for we are now rapidly drifting towards the total exclusion of several +counties--the thing of all things they most wished to avoid. + +All the while people are wondering whether it is the people themselves +or the politicians who are responsible for the antagonism, and three of +the greatest national movements since the days of tenant grievances +stare us in the face as outside, if not politics, at least outside the +ordinary conventional politicians--I mean Sir Horace Plunkett's +Co-operative Movement, Larkin-Connolly's Labour Movement, and Sinn Fein. + +Surely something is wrong if such movements cannot be assimilated by +either of the great political parties, as they should have been if those +parties were together completely representative of the nation. + +All our greatest men were isolated--Redmond, Carson, Plunkett, O'Brien, +Connolly, W. M. Murphy, the Lord-Lieutenant--all appealing to or +threatening the unfortunate Premier, already sufficiently occupied with +the intricacies of English politics, let alone European. + +The step must come from the Englishman in his own defence: English +politics must no longer be dominated by the votes or the threats of any +Irishman, and some method must be found, while safeguarding the Imperial +link, to force Irishmen to meet each other and settle with each other: +for the only result of ruling Tipperary from Downing Street is that +Westminster is ruled from Dublin or Belfast. + +According to the "political correspondent" of the _Manchester Guardian_, +the tendency is towards an Irish Coalition. "The question," he writes, +"is not whether there will be a change. The old and anarchic system of +Dublin Castle seems to be definitely doomed. The question is rather what +the change will be. Speculation, which may or may not be partially +informed, concentrates upon the scheme of a new Irish Advisory Council. +I may offer a more detailed sketch of this scheme, of which I will only +say that some responsible Irish members think it is very likely to be +near the mark. An Irish Council, if created now, would probably be an +advisory body, resembling the Viceroy's Council in India. The +Lord-Lieutenant, who ought to be an active and energetic administrator, +would no doubt preside over it. As to the membership, it would have to +consist of representatives of both Irish Parties. It is thought possible +that some Nationalist and Ulster Unionist members of the House of +Commons would be on it, and would, of course, sit with it in Dublin. In +addition there might be responsible Irish public men (like, for example, +Sir Horace Plunkett), both Home Rulers and Unionists, who are not +members of the House of Commons or officially attached to a party. There +might also, in view of the educational problem of Ireland, be one or two +representatives of the Churches. This would form what is talked of as +the Irish Coalition, in which it is assumed both Mr. Redmond's Party and +Sir Edward Carson's would join." + +The tribute which Mr. Birrell paid to the Irish Literary Revival and its +influence upon Irish life is worth quoting, for it indicates one of the +sources whence much may be hoped in the work of reconstruction. + +"This period," he said, referring to the period immediately preceding +the rebellion, "was also marked by a genuine literary Irish revival, in +prose, poetry, and the drama, which has produced remarkable books and +plays, and a school of acting, all characterized by originality and +independence of thought and expression, quite divorced from any +political party, and all tending towards and feeding latent desires for +some kind of separate Irish national existence. It was a curious +situation to watch, but there was nothing in it suggestive of revolt or +rebellion, except in the realm of thought. Indeed, it was quite the +other way. The Abbey Theatre made merciless fun of mad political +enterprise, and lashed with savage satire some historical aspects of the +Irish revolutionary. I was often amazed at the literary detachment and +courage of the playwright, the relentless audacity of the actors and +actresses, and the patience and comprehension of the audience. This new +critical tone and temper, noticeable everywhere, penetrating everything, +and influencing many minds in all ranks, whilst having its +disintegrating effects upon old-fashioned political beliefs and worn-out +controversial phrases, was the deadly foe of that wild sentimental +passion which has once more led so many brave young fellows to a certain +doom, in the belief that in Ireland any revolution is better than none. +A little more time, and, but for the outbreak of the war, this new +critical temper would, in my belief, have finally prevailed, not indeed +to destroy national sentiment (for that is immortal), but to kill by +ridicule insensate revolt. But this was not to be." + +With regard to "Separatism," I believe this--and I think in so saying I +am echoing the sentiments of most of my fellow-countrymen, that the only +way to liberate Ireland is to dominate England, not physically, for this +would be as useless as it would be impossible, but mentally and morally. + +If the Irishman has been persecuted and tyrannized over, it is in virtue +of certain ideals and principles which are ethically and economically +inferior to his, and which he has consequently to crush in the very +source, as much for his own sake as for those other members of the +Empire to which, if it has been a misfortune to belong in the past, it +may be an advantage and an honour to belong to-morrow. + +If Castle government is wrong in Dublin it is wrong elsewhere; if +militarism was wrong and foolish and futile in Cromwell's day, it is +wrong to-day, to-morrow, and for all time; if England really intends at +the great Peace Congress to come forward as the champion of small +nations, she must be able to show an Ireland prosperous, contented, and +freely allied to her without the aid of a single soldier or a single +threat. + +Such at least is the hope of all those who believe that only when we +have solved the Irish problem have we solved the problem of Empire. + +Primarily, however, the task is in Ireland's own hands: for England at +this moment stands not unwilling or hostile so much as perplexed and +bewildered at the strange eruption that has taken place, and which must +be taken rather as an indication of a chronic state than the expression +of any concrete or definite complaint. + +In other words, there is already a new nationalism in the making, more +idealistic, more spiritual, more constructive, and more comprehensive +than the old nationalism, which was to a large extent geographical, +material, and traditional to an almost stifling degree: the eyes of the +younger men are fixed on the future, those of the older men are fixed +upon the past. + +The older generation will probably die immutable in mind, like veterans, +nor will they ever try to mingle, but on all sides and in every sphere +the younger generation has already shaken hands. + +The spirit of the two is the same, the aspirations just as intense, but +their methods are different: geographical isolation is against natural +evolution and "Separatism" an economic, racial, and military +impossibility--this last rebellion has exploded the myth; but all this +will only have the effect of changing the ever-living consciousness of +nationality into different channels. + +Instead of being expansive, our patriotism will tend to be more +intensive: our combat with England will no longer be with arms, but with +thoughts and ideas, and the nobler and the truer will win; and it is in +this contest that "Sinn Fein" will come forward with new force of the +"living dead." If Ireland cannot be the strongest nation, she can be the +freest; if she cannot be the greatest, she can be the purest; if she +cannot be the richest, she can be the happiest and the kindliest: and as +Greece conquered ancient Rome, so may Ireland some day conquer England, +if those ideals which were bred and nurtured within her bosom can be +made to dominate the inferior Saxon till they spread throughout the +world; and that is why, whatever happens, Ireland must keep her +"nationality" free by whatever means lie at her hands, and that was the +root cause of the revolt, if we are to believe the words of the men who +suffered. + +"Others have been struck before now," said Pearse in the course of an +address which he delivered in October 1897 to a young men's literary +society, "by the fact that hundreds of noble men and true have fought +and bled for the emancipation of the Gaelic race, and yet have all +failed. Surely, if ever cause was worthy of success, it was the cause +for which Laurence prayed, for which Hugh of Dungannon planned, for +which Hugh Roe and Owen Roe fought, for which Wolfe Tone and Lord Edward +and Robert Emmet gave their lives, for which Grattan pleaded, for which +Moore and Davis sang, for which O'Connell wore himself out with toil. +Yet these men prayed and planned, and fought and bled, and pleaded and +wrote and toiled in vain. May it not be that there is some reason for +this? May it not be that the ends they struggled for were ends never +intended for the Gael?... The Gael is not like other men; the spade and +the loom and the sword are not for him. But a destiny more glorious than +that of Rome, more glorious than that of Britain, awaits him: to become +the saviour of idealism in modern intellectual and social life, the +regenerator and rejuvenator of the literature of the world, the +instructor of the nations, the preacher of the gospel of nature-worship, +hero-worship, God-worship--such is the destiny of the Gael." + + +The Gresham Press +UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED +WOKING AND LONDON + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Six days of the Irish Republic, by +Louis Redmond-Howard + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIX DAYS OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC *** + +***** This file should be named 24296.txt or 24296.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/2/9/24296/ + +Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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