1916 (76 page)

1. See
   Everyman
   , War cabinet number, 5 June 1915 for a detailed contemporary view of the new coalition cabinet.
   
2. Pearse,
   From a hermitage
   , ‘Preface’.
   
3. Diarmuid O’Donovan Rossa,
   1831–1915, Souvenir of public funeral, 1 August 1915
   , np, Dublin, 1915. See above fn 28.
   
4. Ibid
   . p. 40.
   
5. Ibid
   . p. 36.
   
6. Irish Volunteer
   , December 1914, supplement. The scheme had been drawn up on 16 December 1914. Pearse was entitled director of military organisation in 1915;
   Irish Volunteer
   , 6 November 1915. See Martin, F.X. (ed.),
   The Irish Volunteers 1913–1915
   , Dublin, 1963, for valuable articles and selected extracts from the
   Irish Volunteer
   .
   
7. Carty,
   Bibliography
   , p. 51.
   
8. See Ó Buachalla, Séamus (ed.),
   The letters of P.H. Pearse
   , Smythe, Gerrard’s Cross, 1980; in particular the foreword, by F.S.L. Lyons, for his opinion that the letters are ‘for the most part extremely down-to-earth and as such they are bound to change the traditional view of Pearse.’
   Ibid
   ., p. vii.
   
9. Novick,
   Conceiving revolution
   , p. 58.
   
10. Ibid
    . p. 60, citing the
    Irish Volunteer
    , 12 February 1916.
    
11. Casement, Roger, ‘The far-extended baleful power of the lie’,
    The Continental Times
    , 3 November 1915 cited in Mackey,
    The crime against Europe
    , p. 130, and
    Gaelic American
    , 4 December 1915; Mitchell,
    Casement
    , p. 107; Novick,
    Conceiving revolution
    , pp. 107–9 for Bryce report and chapters 2 and 3 for more on ‘atrocity propaganda’ including an evaluation of Horne, John and Kramer, Alan,
    German atrocities 1914: a history of denial
    , YUP, London, 2001. See also de Schaepdrijver, Sophie, ‘Champion or still birth? The symbolic uses of Belgium in the Great War’, in Barnard, Benno et al. (eds),
    How can one not be interested in Belgian history? War, language and consensus in Belgium since 1830
    , Academica, Ghent 1995, pp. 55–81. See
    The Continental Times War Book
    ,
    Continental Times
    , Berlin, 1915, for a selection of articles.
    
12. Cited in Mackey,
    The crime against Europe
    , p. 127.
    
13. See Messinger,
    British propaganda
    , for chapters on Masterman, Parker and Bryce.
    
14. Gaelic American
    , 9 October, 27 November and 18 December 1915; Case-ment, Roger,
    The crime against Ireland and how the war may right it
    , np, New York, 1914. The book was composed of previous articles.
    
15. See Murphy,
    Catholic Bulletin
    , pp. 210–13 for ‘The Catholic Bulletin, Bishop O’Dwyer and the Roman dimension, 1915–1916’; see also Keogh, Dermot,
    The Vatican, the bishops and Irish politics 1919–1939
    , CUP, Cambridge, 1986 for important background material.
    
16. Murphy,
    Catholic Bulletin
    , p. 212.
    
17. aan de Wiel, Jérôme, ‘Easter 1916: Count Plunkett’s letter to Pope Benedict XV’,
    Irish Sword
    , vol. xxiv, no. 96, winter 2004, p. 224; also idem,
    The Catholic church in Ireland 1914–1918: war and politics
    , IAP, Dublin, 2003, for more on the context of the Plunkett mission.
    
18. Carty,
    Bibliography
    , pp. 62–3, ‘Tracts for the times’, number 10 Ghosts, dated 25 December 1915; number 11, The separatist idea, 1 February 1916; number 12, The spiritual nation, 13 February 1916; number 13, The sovereign people, 31 March 1916, Whelan, Dublin, 1916.
    
19. Pearse, P.H., The sovereign people in Pearse, P.H.,
    Collected Works of Padraic H. Pearse
    , Maunsel, Dublin, 1922, pp. 350 and 342–3 for women’s rights.
    
20. Ibid
    ., p. 372.
    
21. Ibid
    ., p. 335.
    
22. Carty,
    Bibliography
    , p. 71.
    
23. Report of the Royal Commission on the Rebellion in Ireland
    , p. 9.
    
24. Letter of Joseph Stanley, Childers, CD 6/8, Bureau of Military History, Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks; Carty,
    Bibliography
    , p. 70 for the
    Spark
    , p. 48 for Honesty; and p. 45 for
    The Gael
    ;
    Ibid
    ., p. 45 citing evidence of Price to the Royal Commission. Also Reilly, Tom,
    Joe Stanley: printer to the Rising
    , Brandon, Dingle, 2005, pp. 28–30. There is a photo of the raid after p. 96.
    
25. O’Connor, John,
    The 1916 Proclamation
    , Anvil, Dublin, 1999, pp. 26–9. All three men submitted Witness Statements to the Bureau of Military History.
    
26. Report of the Royal Commission on the Rebellion in Ireland
    , p. 10; 1916 rebellion handbook, p. 209; Coates, Tim (ed.),
    The Irish uprising 1914–1921
    , HMSO, London, 2000, gives the report of the Royal Commission, p. 71 et seq.
    
27. Report of the Royal Commission on the Rebellion in Ireland
    , p. 13.
    
28. Ibid
    .
    
29. Ibid
    . General Friend, however, was asked to explain his absence from Ireland.
    
30. Ibid
    .
    
31. Irish Opinion
    , 21 October 1916;
    Catholic Bulletin
    , November 1916, pp. 594–95; Lyons, John Dillon, pp. 386–87. See Eoin MacNeill papers, NLI, MS 11,437/1 for the original handwritten account by MacNeill.
    
32. See Sheehy Skeffington, Hanna,
    British militarism as I have known it
    , Kerryman, Tralee, 1946 [first published 1917], p. 13; also
    Ibid
    ., pp. 20–2 for a letter, dated 9 April 1917, by Major Vane, giving his account of the events surrounding Sheehy Skeffington’s death.
    
33. Report of the Royal Commission on the Rebellion in Ireland
    , p. 10.
    
34. Cited in Sheehy Skeffington, Owen, ‘Francis Sheehy Skeffington’, p. 143.
    
35. Sheehy Skeffington, Hanna,
    British militarism
    , pp. 14–15. Colthurst was released from Broadmoor in 1918;
    Report of Commission on the arrest and subsequent treatment of Mr Francis Sheehy Skeffington
    , 1916 [Cd.8376] xi 311, pp. 11–12; Ginnell, DORA at Westminster, pp. 183–91 for 9 May and 28 June 1916.
    
36. Dillon to Lloyd George, 11 June 1916, Lloyd George papers, D/4/2/25, quoted in Lyons, John Dillon, p. 392;
    Ibid
    ., p. 393 for T. P. O’Connor to Lloyd George, 11 June 1916, expressing the same critical opinion of Price.
    
37. Ibid
    ., p. 392.
    
38. Keohane to Price, 8 June 1916, chief secretary’s office, press censorship records, white cards 1916–17, number 54, National Archives, Dublin; see Murphy,
    Catholic Bulletin
    , pp. 230–31. The letter was passed on to Lord Decies, press secretary to General Maxwell, who became the official press censor in June 1916. See
    The old public school boys who’s who
    , Eton, np, London, 1933, p. 65.
    
39. Catholic Bulletin
    , May–June 1916, p. 245.
    
40. Ibid
    ., p. 246.
    
41. Report of the Royal Commission on the Rebellion in Ireland
    , p. 5.
    
42. Ibid
    . Handwritten addition on report by Brennan. See fn. 34.
    
43. The text of the poem appeared in
    Poems and songs of Easter Week
    , np, Dublin, nd. See McCoole, Sinead,
    No ordinary woman: Irish female activists in the revolutionary years, 1900–1923
    , O’Brien, Dublin, 2003, p. 141 for more personal details.
    
44. FitzHenry, Edna C. (ed.),
    Nineteen sixteen: an anthology
    , Browne and Nolan, Dublin, 1935, pp. 59–60 and 112. See De Burca rare books, catalogue no. 77, spring 2006, p. 1 for details of the poem’s origins. The first edition was limited to twenty five copies.
    
45. Catholic Bulletin
    , July 1916, p. 393.
    
46. Ibid
    ., pp. 393–408.
    
47. Freeman’s Journal
    , 23 and 26 February 1917. See Murphy, Brian P.,
    Patrick Pearse and the lost republican ideal
    , James Duffy, Dublin, 1991, pp. 80–81 for the political context of the arrests.
    
48. Quoted in
    Freeman’s Journal
    , 28 February 1917.
    
49. Sheehy Skeffington, Hanna,
    British militarism
    , p. 16.
    
50. See the
    Times
    , 17 November 1931 for obituary tribute, wherein Price is described as ‘a very gallant gentleman’.
    

Easter 1916 in Cork – order, counter-order, and disorder:

1. In a letter to Cathal Brugha, sent from Brixton prison on the thirty seventh day of his hunger strike, Terence MacSwiney wrote, ‘Ah Cathal, the pain of Easter is properly dead at last’. Cited in Costello, Francis J.,
   Enduring the most: the life and death of Terence MacSwiney
   , Brandon, Dingle, 1995, p. 150.
   
2. By April 1916 Tomás MacCurtain had succeeded in organsing the Cork Brigade of Irish Volunteers into forty seven companies. Forty four of these units, with strengths varying from ten men to eighty, formed the Cork brigade under MacCurtain’s command while the remaining three (Charleville, Glanworth and Mitchlestown) were attached to the Galtee battalion which was then under the command of Thomas Kent.
   
3. O’Donoghue, Florence,
   Tomás MacCurtain: soldier and patriot
   , Anvil, Tralee, 1955, pp. 72–73.
   
4. O’Donoghue, Florence, ‘The Irish Volunteers in Cork 1913–1916’ in the
   Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society
   , vol. lxxi, nos 213– 14, 1966, p. 42.
   
5. Murphy, Seán, ‘Account of Easter Week 1916 in Cork’ (unpublished manuscript), p. 2. This document was compiled by Murphy on behalf of the Cork branch of the 1916 Association in November 1956 (authors’ collection).
   
6. Ibid
   .
   
7. Returns from the twenty companies which still survive, and which are archived at Cork Public Museum, record the statistics as follows: 57 rifles (ammunition 2,776 rounds); 254 shotguns (ammunition 3,075 cartridges); 84 revolvers (ammunition 828 rounds); 131 pikes; and 10lbs gelignite.
   
8. By Easter 1916 the Military Council also included Thomas Clarke, Thomas MacDonagh, Seán MacDermott and James Connolly.
   
9. Success was contingent on the successful landing of the German arms. Critical to all IRB planning was the expectation that Germany would send an expeditionary force together with artillery and a large quantity of arms and ammunition. It was also expected that at least one submarine would deploy in the Irish Sea and patrol the east coast in order to prevent the landing of British reinforcements. However, as events unfolded, the German high command were only willing to provide 20,000 old Russian rifles captured at the battle of Tannenburg in 1914, and a relatively small quantity of mixed ammunition.
   
10. Foley, Brigid, Witness Statement (WS) 1598, Bureau of Military History, Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.
    
11. Murphy, ‘Account of Easter Week 1916 in Cork’, p. 3.
    
12. Brigid Foley returned to Cork on the same day with another dispatch from MacDermott, the contents of which remain unknown.
    
13. O’Donoghue,
    Tomás MacCurtain
    , pp. 78–79.
    
14. MacSwiney, Eithne, WS 119, Bureau of Military History, Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.
    
15. Foy, Michael and Barton, Brian,
    The Easter Rising
    , Sutton, Stroud, 1999, pp. 37–38.
    
16. O’Donoghue,
    Tomás MacCurtain
    , pp. 78–79.
    
17. Ibid
    .
    
18. Ryan, James, ‘General Post Office area’ in
    The Capuchin annual
    , 1966, p.170.
    
19. MacSwiney, Eithne, WS 119, Bureau of Military History, Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.
    
20. Ibid
    .
    
21. The
    Aud
    was originally due to arrive off the Kerry coast at Tralee Bay and rendezvous with a contingent of waiting Volunteers on Holy Thursday, 20 April. However the Military Council became concerned that an early landing might alert the British and decided to change the date of the rendezvous to Easter Sunday. This information was transmitted by way of the United States and didn’t reach Germany until after the
    Aud
    had left for Ireland. As wireless was not then fitted to German ships, it never reached its captain, Karl Spindler. The information was, however, intercepted by British naval intelligence but no action was taken at that stage lest it might become clear to Germany that their codes had actually broken. Casement was also at this time trying unsuccessfully to raise an ‘Irish brigade’ to fight the Allies from Irish soldiers languishing in prisoner of war camps. When he discovered the quantity and quality of the arms being supplied by the Germans he decided to return to Ireland to try and persuade the Military Council to postpone the Rising. Three days after the
    Aud
    departed Casement left Williamshaven for Ireland, accompanied by Robert Montieth and Daniel Bailey, on board the submarine U19 which was commanded by Lieutenant Weisbach.
    
22. O’Donoghue,
    Tomás MacCurtain
    , p. 84.
    
23. Ibid
    ., p. 87.
    
24. Sunday Independent
    , 23 April 1916.
    
25. O’Donoghue,
    Tomás MacCurtain
    , p. 87.
    
26. Ryan, ‘General Post Office area’, pp. 171–72.
    
27. O’Donoghue,
    Tomás MacCurtain
    , p. 95.
    
28. Feeney, P.J.,
    Glory O, glory O, ye bold Fenian men
    , np, Dripsey, 1996, p. 48.
    
29. Murphy, ‘Account of Easter Week 1916 in Cork’, p. 4.
    
30. O’Donoghue,
    Tomás MacCurtain
    , p. 98.
    
31. Ibid
    ., p. 108. In his account of events in Cork Seán Murphy states that the order read: ‘We go into action at noon today’. Murphy, ‘Account of Easter Week 1916 in Cork’, p. 7.
    
32. Transcript of Tomás MacCurtain’s diary, L. 1945. 29, Cork Public Museum.
    
33. Robaird Langford papers, U 156, Cork City and County Archive.
    
34. Letter from Bishop Cohalan in the
    Cork Free Press
    , 20 May 1916.
    
35. Ibid
    .
    
36. Cork Constitution
    , 29 April 1916.
    
37. Mac Giolla Ghoille, Breandán (ed.)
    Intelligence notes 1913–1916
    , Stationery Office, Dublin, 1966, p. 234.
    
38. Chavasse, Moirin, Terence MacSwiney, Clonmore and Reynolds, Dublin 1961, pp. 73–74.
    
39. Notwithstanding the rigid stance taken by Captain Dickie during the final stages of the negotiations, in his account of the events in Cork Seán Murphy states that Bishop Cohalan wrote that ‘the one bright feature of the events of the past fortnight was our experience of the military gentleman [Dickie] who took part in our peace conferences. He was insistent on securing that there should be no military danger in the city but he wanted no irritating or humiliating conditions. He is a North of Ireland Protestant.’ Murphy, ‘Account of Easter Week 1916 in Cork’, p. 14.
    
40. Chavasse,
    Terence MacSwiney
    , p. 76.
    
41. Cornelius Collins, Dáithí Cotter, Donal Óg O’Callaghan, Christopher O’Gorman, Seán Nolan, Fred Murray, Cornelius Murphy, James Murphy and Patrick Trahey. Mary MacSwiney, the president of Cumann na mBan and Nora O’Brien, its secretary, were also arrested in Cork that Tuesday.
    
42. Richard Kent died of his wounds two days later.
    
43. Thomas Kent court martial documentation, p. 5, ‘Charge Schedule’. A copy of this documentation can be viewed at the military museum, Collins Barracks, Cork.
    
44. General Maxwell confirmed the findings of the court martial on 6 May 1916.
    
45. Leahy, Michael WS 96, Bureau of Military History, Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.
    
46. MacCurtain diary, L. 1945. 29, Cork Public Museum.
    
47. Ibid
    .
    
48. Ibid
    .
    
49. According to a copy of the ‘Frongoch Roll’ compiled by Joseph Murray, secretary to the Volunteers’ committee of camp management, which is held in the Allen Library, O’Connell school, North Richmond St Dublin, a total of eighty nine Volunteers from Co. Cork were detained in Frogoch.
    
50. Ibid
    .
    
51. MacSwiney, Eithne, WS 119, Bureau of Military History, Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.
    
52. The leadership of the Limerick and Kerry brigades also requested that an inquiry be held into the failure of their units to take part in the Rising.
    
53. Murphy, ‘Account of Easter Week 1916 in Cork’, p. 11.
    
54. Chavasse,
    Terence MacSwiney
    , p. 82.