SIX DAYS OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC

A NARRATIVE AND CRITICAL ACCOUNT OF THE LATESTPHASE 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 OFTHE STORY OF ENGLISH RULE IN IRELAND

(_Passed by Censor_)

INTRODUCTION

The following pages are an attempt at a simple narrative and criticismof what must appear the most inexplicable occurrence in Irish history. 

The climax of a century of arguments, futile only because of theproverbial dullness of the race to which they were addressed, the risinghas lifted the Home Rule controversy at one stroke from the region ofthe village pump into the very midst of the counsels of Europe, for itwas a challenge--of madmen, if you like--to the greatest Empire in theworld, at the very moment of its gravest crisis, upon the mostfundamental portion of its policy of interference with the affairs ofthe Continent, namely, England's claim to be the champion of smallnationalities. 

Unless Ireland can be shown to be held by her own free consent, inperfect contentment, the whole of our contention falls to theground--for our policy in Ireland is only in microcosm our policy ofEmpire; and Germany will be able to point the finger of scorn andridicule at us, and prove thereby to France and Russia that, tyrants athome, 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 theimmediate causes that provoked them to rise, nor the nature of themethods by which they were "stamped out"; I only state the moral oftheir failure, and I must take this opportunity to thank Lord Decies, the official Press censor, for the freedom with which he has allowed meto speak at what I feel to be a very critical juncture in the history ofmy country and of our common Empire; for I have gone upon the principlethat it is far better to distribute the blame all round than to try andmake the Sinn Feiners the scapegoats of faults which each partycontributed towards the catastrophe. 

There never was, I believe, an Irish crime--if crime it can becalled--which had not its roots in an English folly; and I repeat herewhat the late Mr. Stead always impressed upon me: Ireland is our schoolof Empire, and the mistakes which would lose us Ireland would lose usthe Empire. 

It is England's move next: we have protested in blood; the eyes ofEurope await her decision. 

At the same time I cannot help blaming Irishmen as well for thecatastrophe, for politicians of all parties have been tending towardsisolating their followers in the old ancestral bigotries, instead ofdrawing them together in sympathy, as Mr. William O'Brien has beenadvocating for years, with the result that we are now threatened withpermanent constitutional separation for another generation. 

It is a mistake which all the younger men deplore, and which couldeasily have been avoided by bringing in the men of Ulster into thenational deliberations, as they have every right, in the name of theirSouthern followers, and then giving them the option to veto theapplication of any measure to their own districts--which would have beenthe best guarantee of justice which the Nationalists could have givenand the most they had a right to expect of England, whose politicalposition of dependence upon the Irish vote is a scandal of empire. 

These things, however, are beyond the scope of the present pages, and Ishall confine myself with thanking those of my many friends who havehelped me in compiling this volume--notably Councillor Keogh, who waswith me during the Battle of Mount Street Bridge, and others, whosecriticisms helped me considerably. Likewise I must thank my publishersand Mr. O'Keefe, of O'Keefe's Press-cutting Agency; and Mr. GeorgeAtkinson, who designed the cover, and Mr. Crampton Walker; and also Mr. Marsh, the manager of the Coliseum, with whom I had several dangerousadventures while in Sackville Street; and lastly, those among my SinnFein friends who enabled me to get an inner view of a movement to whichI have endeavoured to do the best of justice--that of a true statementof 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 towitness a scene which for dramatic setting and for paradoxicalconception is certainly the most extraordinary of any of the long lineof rebellions in Irish history, for at a time when it seemed almostuniversally admitted that "Separatism" was from an economic, racial, andmilitary point of view utterly impossible, there suddenly arose withoutwarning, without apparent reason, and as if from nowhere, a body of men, fully armed and completely organized, who within the space of a singlehour had captured every strategic point in the capital, and to its utteramazement held it up in the name of a new "Republic, " in much the sameway 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 thegeneral public got of the rising was the sudden spread of the wildestrumours--"Dublin Castle has just been taken by the Irish Volunteers, ""The Post Office has been captured by the Sinn Feiners, " "Soldiers andpolice are being shot at sight, " "Larkin's Citizen Army are firing onwomen and children, " but, for the most part, these rumours werediscredited as impossible, at most being put down as some accidentalclash between military and civilians, and it was only as people rushedinto the street and heard the stories of the encounters first-hand thatthey began to realize that anything unusual was taking place. 

Bodies of armed men had indeed been remarked in unusually large numbersin the streets all the morning, increasing and concentrating towardstwelve, but everyone had grown so accustomed to these demonstrations forthe past three years, since they had been inaugurated in Ulster by SirEdward Carson, that nobody had taken any particular notice. 

People merely remarked that it was rather strange, in view of theabandonment of the "Easter manoeuvres" which had been organized forSunday, and which had been cancelled at the last moment, late onSaturday night, by special order of Professor Eoin MacNeill, editor ofthe _Irish Volunteer_, which ran: "Owing to the very critical position, all orders given to Irish Volunteers for to-morrow, Easter Sunday, arehereby rescinded, and no parades, marches, or other movements of IrishVolunteers will take place. Each individual Volunteer will obey thisorder strictly in every particular. "

It was supposed, therefore, that the numbers were due to the newrecruits which had been the outcome of the protest against thedeportation of the Sinn Fein leaders some time previous to this, andmoderate people hoped that the Sinn Fein authorities were about to showthe same discretion in the matter of an armed demonstration in Dublinwhich the authorities had shown in the matter of the proposed inclusionof the military in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Cork. 

Possibly they may have had secret information--for they had their spiesin every department--that the long-meditated disarmament had beendetermined upon, and immediately decided to anticipate the offensive bya strong defensive of their own choosing. At any rate, Monday found themfully prepared, each in his proper place. 

Accordingly, on the exact stroke of midday the Volunteers in SackvilleStreet were suddenly seen to stop short opposite the Post Office. "I wasoutside the building at the time, " said an eye-witness of that nowhistoric event, Mr. E. A. Stoker, the well-known Grafton Streetjeweller, "and noticed a mixed crowd of, I should say, roughly, aboutone hundred men and boys, all armed, and half the number carrying oldportmanteaux and parcels of every description. It is said that Connollywas leading. 

"He called, 'Halt! Left turn! Come on. ' The crowd then ran into the PostOffice. I also followed. Several men crossed the counter and heldrevolvers at the officials' heads. 

"One youth, intensely pale and nervous, put a revolver at my breast andsaid, '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 fiveminutes everyone else had been bundled out in the same unceremoniousway, and they were in possession. "

Once in possession of the Post Office--which from its position andcharacter was admirably suited for a general headquarters--the nextthing was to fortify the place, for there was no knowing what hadhappened to the other enterprises which had been timed to take placesimultaneously, or when the authorities would send out an armed forcefor its recapture. Next, a number of shots--all blank--were dischargedwith the purpose of clearing the streets of sightseers and inquisitiveidlers. These had the desired effect, after which floor after floor ofthe Post Office was systematically occupied, the officials being eitherplaced under arrest or allowed to disperse, as each case suggested fitto the commander, and the air began to reverberate with the sounds ofcrashing glass and masonry as the lower windows were turned intofortified loopholes with the aid of furniture and bags. 

Meanwhile a small group of policemen stood near the Nelson Monumenthelpless, but one must evidently have telegraphed for help, for within afew 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 emptiedand the rest at once turned and galloped for all they were worth up inthe direction of the Rotunda. 

One poor fellow was killed outright and a horse shot dead; after which agreat cheer went up from the crowd in the G. P. O. , who proceeded to takeoff the harness and carry it in triumph back to headquarters, one of therebels in uniform taking the young lancer's sword. 

Immediately after this a tramway car was blown up with dynamite at thecorner of North Earl Street, making a sort of barricade against anypossible approach from Amiens Street Station, where the Belfast trainswere expected to arrive. 

By this time I was on the scene of the crisis myself, having only heardthe news on my way into Trinity, which had been quickly occupied by theO. T. C. , who were thus able to practically cut the chief line ofcommunication of the rebels and command a huge area of important streetswhich would otherwise have presented the utmost difficulties to theadvance of regular troops. 

Only the military were allowed in College, and, anxious to be on thespot at what everybody then expected would be no more than an hour orso's brisk encounter, I took a car to the "Metropole" in order to bepresent when the Post Office was taken--the hotel actually adjoining andoverlooking 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 personallytestify to it. 

Everyone at the hotel was in a state of consternation, for hardly sixyards away the windows of the Post Office were crashing to the ground inthe street, and at everyone bags of refuse were being piled up, and themuzzles of rifles were commanding all the windows of the hotel guests. 

Several soldiers were staying at the "Metropole, " and as I saw the SinnFeiners watching us, I suggested their changing the khaki into mufti, ifonly for the safety of the civilians--for on all sides soldiers werebeing shot at sight by snipers--a suggestion which found acceptance, formost of the officers were young subalterns on leave, and thereforeunarmed. 

For a long time we could not tell what was going to happen; everyminute we expected the soldiers or the constabulary, and peeredanxiously out, but it seemed as if they were never coming, and men inthe hotel were anxiously consulting what to do and women packing uptheir 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 hallentrance, from an officer arrayed in green and gold, wearing cocked hatand feathers and high top-boots, with a sword in one hand and a revolverin the other. 

Behind him were two minor officials, each armed with a loaded rifle ofmodern pattern, with bayonets fixed. 

I was at Mr. Oliver's side at the time, and we could see that only apane 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 cockedhat, "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 theyransacked 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 nameof 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 thestreets with toys and food and sweets. 

"Surely, " I said to the officer, "you do not approve of all thisindiscriminate theft?"

"No, certainly not, " was his dignified reply. 

I next asked the meaning of all the rising, and to this he simplyreplied:--

"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 thewhole 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 thenew Government, and was referred to headquarters. 

Accordingly, I took my courage in both hands and walked past thesoldiers opposite the Post Office and the sandbagged windows, and askedthe guard at the main door if I could have an interview with theirPresident. 

At first I thought I was going to get it, but I suddenly noticed achange come over the man, and saw guns covering me in a mostuncomfortable way. 

I argued my case with some of the minor officials, and pleaded theimportance of such a pronouncement, but, taking me possibly for a spy, Iwas ordered off, and told that my safest way was to get back to myhotel, where no harm would come to me as a civilian if only I left themen 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 thebalcony, and was able to secure a unique snapshot of the hoisting of thenew flag of the Republic, and took another of the cheering of thecrowd--though this was very insignificant and in no way represented anyconsiderable body of citizens, any of the better class havingdisappeared, leaving the streets to idlers and women and children orelse stray sightseers. 

This was certainly a thing that struck me, and I realized at once thatthe movement was at that time a dismal failure as far as the vastmajority of Nationalist Ireland was concerned. There was practically noresponse whatever from the people: it seemed the very antithesis of theemancipation of a race as we see it, say, in the capture of the Bastillein the French Revolution. They looked on partly with amazement, partlywith curiosity--waiting for something dramatic to happen. 

The point struck me with particular pathos--there they were posing asthe saviours of their country, and yet there they were already doomedbefore they had even struck a single blow--and doomed by the verdict oftheir own countrymen. 

As I was making the remark to one of the men in the hotel, a boy with ahandful of sheets issued from the Post Office--they were theproclamation of the new Republic of Ireland. 

Instead of eagerly scanning the sheets and picking out the watchwords ofthe new liberty, or glowing with enthusiastic admiration at the phrasesor sentiments, most of the crowd "bought a couple as a souvenir"--somewith the cute business instinct "that they'd be worth a fiver each someday, 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'sPillar and there read out the new charter of liberty to the emancipatedcitizens. 

He read it with deep emotion to a pack of squabbling women andchildren--and he had hardly half finished the document when suddenlythere was a crash, followed by the sound of breaking glass. 

At once the crowd turned round and looked in the direction whence itproceeded, and one old woman, half sodden with drink, exclaimed withdelight, "Hooroosh!--they're raiding Noblet's toffee-shop. " Whereuponthe newly emancipated slaves of a foreign tyranny rushed to partake inthe orgy of sweetmeats which came tumbling out into the street. 

It was to me the saddest picture of the whole revolution, and even ifnot true, was certainly typical of much of the pathos which crowned thismixture of humour and tragedy. 

The document in question, however, was by no means undignified, taken asan explanation of the ideals that animated the rebels, but it was simplyridiculous when judged by the hard common-sense standards of sternreality, though it was probably never meant for anything more than arhetorical protest in the name of the fast-ebbing sense of Nationality. 

This Utopian outburst perhaps speaks best for itself, and I quote it infull:--

 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 generationsfrom which she receives her old traditions of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for herfreedom. Having organized and trained her manhood through her secretrevolutionary organization, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, andthrough her open military organizations, the Irish Volunteers and theIrish Citizen Army; having patiently perfected her discipline, havingresolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizesthat moment, and, supported by her exiled children in America and bygallant Allies in Europe, but relying in the first place on her ownstrength, she strikes in full confidence of victory. 

We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership ofIreland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to besovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by aforeign people and Government has not extinguished the right, nor can itever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. Inevery generation the Irish people have asserted their right to nationalfreedom and sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred yearsthey have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right andagain asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaimthe Irish Republic as a sovereign independent State, and we pledge ourlives 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 ofevery Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic guarantees religious andcivil liberty, equal rights, and equal opportunities to all itscitizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness andprosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all thechildren of the nation equally and oblivious of the differencescarefully fostered by an alien Government, which have divided a minorityfrom the majority in the past. 

Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishmentof a permanent national Government representative of the whole people ofIreland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, theProvisional Government hereby constituted will administer the civil andmilitary affairs of the Republic in trust for the people. 

We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of theMost High God, whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray thatnone who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour anddiscipline, and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselvesfor the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to whichit 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 theG. P. O. The Sinn Feiners had chosen the place for their headquarterspartly because they were already familiar with the place, which wasproved by the way they settled down each to his own work the moment theyentered 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. Theattack upon the Castle was hardly less dramatic than that upon theG. P. O. , but it seems to have been undertaken by fewer troops ofVolunteers and carried out less cleverly, so that it eventually fellback into the hands of the military. I believe it was originallyintended to burn the place to the ground, as symbolical of thecenturies of tyranny with which it has been associated. Strategically itmight not have been of such value to the insurgents, but the moraleffect of its capture would undoubtedly have been enormous upon theprovinces if they had been able to telegraph it within the first fewhours of the rising. 

The Castle, however, had never formed the main point of attack; it wasat most an emotional side-issue. The scheme for the defence of Dublinwas a far greater conception, and there was hardly a bookseller in thecity, as I learnt later from Fred Hanna, of Nassau Street, whose shophad not been visited during the past few weeks by one or other of theinsurgent leaders with the object of securing all the standard works onstrategy and military operations--which rather goes to prove that thestep had been long in contemplation. 

The idea seems to have been to draw a cordon around the city by securingfirst of all the chief railway stations and the larger dominatingbuildings, such as Jacob's biscuit factory, and then to man the cornerhouses that overlooked the main roadways at the point where they crossedthe canals, and thus prevent all approach of the military tillmessengers should be dispatched from Dublin to tell the counties torise. 

Probably the greatest disappointment to the rebels was the capture ofthe famous Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park. 

It was generally understood that this was crammed to the very door withguns and ammunition--heavy guns especially--and the most elaboratepreparations had consequently been made for its capture, the ideaprobably being that once Ireland had heard of the capture of Dublinthere would be a general movement from the country towards the capital, and that the new recruits could be fitted out from the magazine and thendispatched to provincial headquarters. It was probably for this reasonthe long line of the quays along the Liffey had been kept clear--theFour Courts being a sort of halfway fort. 

The loss of the Magazine Fort--or rather the failure of theirexpectation in its regard, for it was found to be practically emptywhen searched--meant that they were bound to depend entirely uponGermany for the larger ammunition. The railways were of course ofsupreme importance, and simultaneously with the raid of the Post Office, Jacob's, and the Castle, attacks were made on all the principalstations. 

At twelve prompt Westland Row was occupied without a struggle and thedoors closed, sentinels being placed on the bridge spanning the streetbelow--arousing no little local curiosity, for the news had notcirculated through the town by this time. 

Harcourt Street Station was also taken over and an attempt made tofortify it, but this was abandoned after some time, quite early in theafternoon. Broadstone Station also fell before the insurgents; butneither the attempt upon Amiens Street or Kingsbridge, where thesoldiers 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 clearby means of an engine, on which several armed snipers were placed, andwhich was kept moving continually up and down, sweeping the country ofany Sinn Feiners who might attempt to approach in order to tamper withthe permanent way. 

This was rendered necessary because immediately the rebels gotpossession of a line their first steps were to destroy signalling pointsand junctions, and in one or two instances, such as on the Kingstownline, actually tore up the permanent way, while in several other placesattempts were made to blow up the bridges with dynamite. 

Had it not been for this the whole coup might have been ended on Mondayor Tuesday at latest, instead of dragging on day after day. 

Every bridge across the canal which bounds Dublin on the south wascommanded by corner-houses, entered at the point of the revolver andturned, in spite of all protest, into fortresses in an almost mediævalfashion. 

Liberty Hall, from whence floated the green emblem which had first beenhoisted when the four Labour leaders were deported, was a sort ofcentral storehouse of munitions, and was strongly guarded, but strangeto say the Custom House on the other side of the railway was leftuntouched. 

This was probably because the docks were sufficiently defended by thefactories, like Ringsend and Boland's bakery, vast straggling buildingson either side of the railway approach, and which were not onlyoccupied, but stored with food and ammunition and loopholed andsandbagged to stand a fortnight's siege if necessary. 

The one great mistake made by the rebels appears to have been theoccupation of Stephen's Green, a huge open square, which, surrounded asit is by tall buildings on all four sides, was bound to become adeath-trap, and eventually did so become. 

At exactly the same time as the Post Office was occupied, Volunteersentered the famous square, which might almost be called a park, andordered the civilians out at the point of the revolver. They thenproceeded to entrench themselves and make barricades of any convenientobject, seizing trams, cabs, benches, and even holding up motor-cars andturning 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 obedienceto the new self-constituted authorities. 

Great carts, filled presumably with ammunition, were next escorted intothe Green, and then the doors were locked and barred and tied verystrongly, and finally the ropes greased--which shows how carefullyalmost 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 theShelbourne Hotel--about half an hour after the seizure of the opensquare for a camp--a rush was made for the hotel, which luckily had justbeen captured in the nick of time by a few of the military, whoimmediately began to fire on the rebels below, at the same time guardingthe doors. A short while afterwards the main body of new Sinn Feinarrivals were noticed to make their way, instead, to the Royal Collegeof Surgeons at the opposite end, which became one of their most stoutlydefended strongholds under the famous Countess Markievicz. 

Two further mistakes of the most vital importance were made in therebels' plan for the capture of Dublin, however, which were eventuallyto be the deciding factor of the whole situation, and to which more thananything they must be said to owe the sudden collapse of their movementas well in the capital as in the provinces. The first was the omissionto capture the telephone system after securing the telegraphs socompletely. 

This meant not only that the military authorities could still keep intouch with the few troops that still remained in Ireland, but it meantthat the authorities at the Castle were able to get into touch withLondon. 

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 occurrenceof the rising and communication with London--which might have been quitepossible, 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 thestrategic key to Dublin City, to fall into the hands of a few of theOfficers' Training Corps, who must be given the credit of saving thecapital from total capture and Grafton Street from pillage. 

For as long as this was held by soldiers all the internal lines ofcommunication of the rebels were blocked and they themselves threatenedon all sides. 

Otherwise the republicans had complete control of the city: the policewere confined to barracks, civilians were on all sides at the mercy of aperfectly organized and armed body of revolutionaries all in touch witha headquarter staff, and the military, somewhere beyond the outskirts ofthe city, were--nobody knew exactly where, and the whole population onall 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 Mondayafternoon and Wednesday morning, knowing themselves absolutely at themercy of what appeared to be a "secret society suddenly gone mad and inpossession of the reins of government, " will never forget theexperience. 

The whole thing was so sudden, so unprecedented, so inexplicable thatthe intelligence simply refused to perform the ordinary functions ofthought. 

Everywhere civilians were being bullied into obedience at the point ofthe bayonet: young boys in their teens brandished revolvers in the highroads: rough, brawny dockers walked about endowed apparently withunlimited authority, and in the dark recesses of the General PostOffice, beyond the reach of law or argument, the mysterious RepublicanBrotherhood--omnipotent. 

All the while stories were coming in of hairbreadth escapes, of strayshots, apparently from the sky, picking off unfortunate wayfarers, andof whole parties of officers on their way back from the races in theircars being captured and held up by the Volunteers--and every story wentone further than the one before it, till one was ready to believe almostanything. 

Personally, I kept within the "Metropole, " expecting every minute thatthe "climax" of the situation would be reached, but still the soldierydid not arrive, and we began to come to the belief that in allprobability the authorities were only waiting until dusk. 

I could not tear myself from the windows. That instinct of expectationgripped me like a vice, and continued to do so for twenty-four solidhours--and if I quote my own experience it is only as an example of whatothers all around me went through. 

It was now about four o'clock, and still I looked out into the streetbelow--the people were beginning to go wild with excitement, for everynow and then the Sinn Feiners would fire blank cartridges, and each timethey did so, with the one cry "The soldiers are coming!" a mass ofseveral thousand men, women, and children would rush now to one end ofSackville Street, now to the other. After Noblet's it was the Saxon ShoeCompany and Dunn's hat-shop's turn to be looted, and one could seelittle guttersnipe wearing high silk hats and new bowlers and straws, who had never worn headgear before: bare-footed little devils with legsburied in Wellington top-boots, unable to bend their knees, and drunkenwomen brandishing satin shoes and Russian boots till it seemed as if thewhole revolution would collapse in ridicule or pandemonium. For therewas no animosity in the crowd at first, just as there was noenthusiasm--certainly no avarice or desire for theft--only sheerdemoralization and mischief for mischief's sake: but every hour itbecame worse. Sometimes there was absolutely no point in the loot. I sawan urchin of nine brandishing with pride More's "Utopia" and Wells's"New Machiavelli, " which he compared with a rival urchin's--agirl's--bunch of newspapers on "Poultry" and "Wireless, " and solemnlyexchanging their treasures. 

I saw a tussle between two drunken harlots for the possession of aheadless dummy taken from a draper's shop, and noted a youngster go upto the very steps of the Provisional Government House of the NewRepublic of Ireland and amuse the armed rebels with impersonations ofCharlie Chaplin. 

In another portion of the street I saw a drunken sailor mad with hatemake a furious assault upon a woman, and then, when the crowd yelled inhorror, suddenly change his mind from murder and kiss his victim: whilein yet another portion of the street a woman of about sixty was kneelingwith hands outstretched to heaven, clasping a rosary and crying herprayers to the Mother of God in heaven for "Ireland to be a nation onceagain!"

Time after time I felt inclined to weep with very shame at the wholething; for as I passed a group of young English _revue_ girls who hadcome along to see the "show, " I heard one exclaim, "A little bit ofheaven, and they call it Ireland!" and everyone laughed; and anotherthrew out the gibe: "Irish, and proud of it, eh?"

They were not meant as insults--no, certainly not--merely the happylaughing cynicism of the common-sense view that would be taken of us byhundreds of cartoonists; but I must say they went through me as hardlyanything else I witnessed, for they showed in such a terrible light thecontrast between the dream that had inspired these men and the realitythat they had brought forth. 

Meantime, however, things were maturing, and as they matured theridiculous element faded and the tragic element began to come into thepicture. 

Every few minutes dispatch riders would come up on motor-cycles to thePost Office, and emerge a few minutes later with sealed orders. A longline of motor-cars "held up" at the point of the revolver was alsorequisitioned and placed at the disposal of the rebels in a queue beforethe Post Office side-entrance. Then came the supplies of food andammunition on huge lorries from the country districts, each with itsescort of six young farmers fully armed, with double bandoliers filledto bursting-point with cartridges; and as I stood outside the _Freeman_offices, just at the side-gate of the "fortress, " I was amazed at theregularity of the whole proceeding: password, cheques, guards, orders, everything, in fact, went off without the slightest hitch. And nowonder--as I found out later--for during the past few weeks nearly everymanoeuvre had been rehearsed in mufti by the Volunteers, acting underthe 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 wholecity of Dublin with the ease of a highwayman holding up a coach on alonely common in Georgian days. 

I shall never forget the awful growing stillness of that afternoon asthe hours flew by, for all traffic was at an end. Now and again in thegeneral silence one heard the crack of a rifle, the hoot of a capturedmotor and the cry "Stop, in the name of the Irish Republic!" from theVolunteers, and the ghastly howling of the mob as more shop-fronts gaveway--but all these sounds came spasmodically and only intensified thesurrounding stillness. And all the while everyone was expecting thearrival of the military, and saying, "When will the soldiers come?"Then, "Will the soldiers come?" and later, "Will the soldiers nevercome?"

Soon dusk began to come on more rapidly, and we conjectured that theauthorities must have determined to wait till dark. The Volunteers, too, felt this, and took up positions on the roof and strengthened theiroutposts, every hour or so a dozen or two Volunteers fully armed goingoff from the Post Office. 

The "Metropole" being situated alongside the Post Office, I could notget 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 thefullest view of the rebel headquarters. 

There I found everyone, including the manager, Mr. Woods, in the samestate of bewilderment as at the "Metropole. "

I mentioned who I was, and was told that a priest in the smoking-roomhad just heard that John Redmond had been captured by the Sinn Feinersand had, in all probability, been shot--but this was only one of thethousand rumours that were by this time flying about the city, anotherbeing that the Castle was in flames, with the Lord-Lieutenant in themiddle of the inner yard, and yet another describing the heroic death ofFather O'Doherty of Marlborough Street, who was supposed to have beenshot through the head in full vestments, having endeavoured toremonstrate, cross in hand, with the rebels, in order to persuade themto lay down their arms in the name of God. 

The street was now (9. 30) in a perfect state of pandemonium, for a firehad begun in the premises of the Cable Shoe Company, which immediatelyadjoined 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 thecrowd of two hundred spectators who seemed to be aware of, or even tocare about, the fate of the flat over the shop, which from the look ofthe curtains appeared to be inhabited. 

The cellars were crackling as if they contained some fatty, resinoussubstance, purposely placed there with incendiary intent, and the smokewas blinding and suffocating. The door of the side entrance was lockedand I could not force it, so I called for a few volunteers to try tobreak it down by ramming it with some planks that were lying about, andthough we did not succeed in breaking it, we were able to arouse theattention of the sleepers, and a dentist popped his head out and told usthere were women and children in the house. 

Some by this time had run off for the fire-engine, and others, realizingthe danger, helped us to carry the inmates to safety, one woman beingactually in her confinement and frightened almost to death. After thatwe rescued a few personal belongings with difficulty, but the smoke wastoo terrible to do more, and the stairs were perfectly hot; and so Iwent back with the owner to the hotel, where the family were put up andgiven clothes, having been forced to rise from their beds. 

Soon after this I met Mr. Marsh, the manager of the Coliseum, who toldme that the rebels had just commandeered the building, which immediatelybacks the Post Office, and had placed a guard at the door to preventlooting. 

As a matter of fact, as we afterwards found out, it was merely to securethe building as a means of retreat in case of a rout of theirheadquarters at the Post Office--with the result that the building isnow burnt to the ground by naval shells, which pursued the rebels intheir retreat. 

Sleep on such a night was of course out of the question--we did not knowat what time the military would arrive--but in any case we secured aroom on the second floor, looking into the street, for we weredetermined to see the thing out, still never dreaming but that the wholething would be over within a few dramatic hours. Meanwhile the streetbelow became worse and worse. On all sides now the looters came up fromthe black depths of the slums like packs of hungry wolves, so that everyminute we expected that Clery's underneath would be the next to go. Indeed, over at Mansfield's opposite we heard one of the crowd tellingthe looters to go over and smash William Martin Murphy's windows--Murphywas 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 thelock-out in the days of Jim Larkin"; but the looters, having tasted theblood of theft, were far too avaricious by this time to think ofpolitics in their orgy, and instead began to make a raid on atobacco-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 thatthose who had not the pluck to steal salved their consciences by buyingthe loot, in most cases getting some fifteen or twenty shillings' worthfor 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 beingpitched into the street below from second, third, and fourth storywindows, till the barricades were eight or ten feet high, composed ofchairs, tables, desks, sofas, beds, and all kinds of furniture andstores. 

In one place, "Kelly's" of Abbey Street, hundreds of cycles and motorcycles were piled up--at least five thousand pounds' worth--andbrand-new motor-cars were then run into it, thus forming a steel wall ofsolid machinery, upon which, later in the "war, " the rebels pouredpetrol and set the whole pile alight, with the result that theneighbouring houses, hotels, and eventually the Hibernian Academy, withits five hundred pictures, were burnt to the ground. 

As the early hours of the morning approached the crowd began todisperse, the most enthusiastic singing the latest music-hall songs, andsoon O'Connell Street became black and deserted, save for a few specksof candlelight moving about in the G. P. O. , which was otherwise incomplete darkness, and a few guards marching up and down beneath thegreat Greek portico. 

We retired then to our own room to watch and think. Never to my dyingday shall I ever forget those long hours of midnight stillness, brokenonly by the distant rattle of the rifles in the direction of PhoenixPark, where the two forces had by this time come into contact. 

One could easily distinguish the crack of the respective rifles: theGovernment weapons had a harsher and lower note, but for each "spit" ofthe rebel guns one could hear the dread rattle of the military machineguns; and then we knew that there could only be one possibleend--defeat, ignominious and complete. 

Before us, hardly fifty yards away, stood the Post Office, lit up by thestreet arc lamps in pale blues and greens, and looking for all the worldlike the drop-cloth of a theatre; and there were we, it might have beenthe dress circle of some gigantic opera house, and the feeling--thefeeling was excruciatingly morbid. We felt like cynical critics sent toreview a drama foredoomed to fiasco, yet with the difference that theactors were all real and that the tragedy would be enacted in the bloodof hundreds of innocent lives. 

We were watching the climax of years of planning and the culminatingpoint of so many lifetimes of idealism, effort, and sacrifice, howevermistaken. 

We knew they would fail: we knew the penalty of the failure--thetraitor's death or the convict's cell; but we were held to the spot, tosee just how "dramatic" the fiasco would be. 

The very thought was a continuous torture, and it haunted us like aghost or a madness. 

We knew they were our own flesh and blood that had rebelled: it would bestrangers who would conquer, and yet we knew that order was right: andthis too was a torture-thought. 

Hour after hour passed, and when I was not at the window Marsh was onwatch, and when he was asleep I mounted my pensive guard. 

Incidents never ceased, but the incidents were as nothing compared withthe reflections they aroused. 

Hour after hour unarmed Volunteers came in from the country, stayed inan hour or so, and then moved out armed. Carts and cars of ammunitionand food arrived and gave the password and were admitted. As the earlyhours of dawn approached we could see milk and bread carts driving up attop speed, the driver with the cold muzzle of a revolver at his ear andhis captors seated behind him. 

Sometimes flash signals would shoot across the sky, and at others a manat the "Metropole" corner of the G. P. O. Would open a basket and releasecarrier pigeons, so complete was their organization. 

At daybreak we found our room covered by a guard, with rifles pointed atour heads, the light shining over their backs full into our faces: butwe made no movement, and an hour or so later moved to another portion ofthe 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 wecould 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 thebase of Nelson's Pillar, we saw men running from a thin blue spiral ofsmoke rising up, followed by a terrific explosion. They were trying toblow up the monument. 

So Tuesday had come, but it found the situation no further advanced: themilitary had not come: the rebels had had time to entrench and fortifythemselves: the city was really fully in their possession: but thebattle 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 theywould reach Sackville Street, for we could hear the military machineguns raking Dame Street from Trinity College. 

As a matter of fact, a machine gun had been hoisted upon the roof ofthe Hibernian Bank, which commanded the old Houses of Parliament, uponwhich the rebels had climbed, and in the space of a few seconds wipedout the whole contingent. 

As the afternoon wore on Sackville Street began to assume two totallydistinct characteristics--one of tragedy and the other of comedy. Southof the Pillar the scene might have been a battlefield; north of thePillar it might have been a nursery gone tipsy, for by this time all thechildren of the slums had discovered that a perfect paradise of toys layat their absolute mercy at Lawrence's bazaar, and accordingly a pinaforeand knickerbocker army began to lay siege to it, the mothers takingseats upon the stiffened corpses of the lancers' horses to watch thesight of thousands of Union-jacks made into bonfires. 

The scene was indescribable for chaos: there were men locked in deadlycombat for the sake of Empire and Fatherland, and here were the verychildren they were fighting for--some dying for--revelling in achildren'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 gunseach, one on each shoulder--followed up by a toy anti-aircraft gun onwheels, and the whole cavalcade brought up by a Noah's Ark the size of aperambulator. 

The captain, about eight years of age, wore a blue silk waistcoat (withits price ticket) and a new grey silk hat. The band then formed up inIndian file, marched up to the G. P. O. , saluted majestically, and thenimpertinently fired their pellets slap-bang into the faces of theinsurgents, and then broke up and ran for all they were worth. 

All the while, in the opposite direction, Red War was at its height: therifle-fire along the quays was terrific, and ambulances were rushingbackwards and forwards and relays of Volunteers were issuing from thecentral depôt to the firing-line. 

Probably never in the world's history had there been such a strangecombination of pathos and humour, and it will haunt everyone who saw itto their dying day: and if mere passive spectators felt the clash ofdivergent emotions how much more must these, for all their idealism musthave 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 lootand degradation--nay, worse, it seemed a very pantomime. 

Suddenly, as the sound of maxims grew louder, a terrific black cloudrose into the sky. A fire had broken out in the heart of the bazaar andthe flames had just reached the fireworks, and for a solid half-hour thewhole gaze of rebel and civilian alike was centred upon Lawrence's, which presented the appearance of a diminutive Crystal Palace, withCatherine wheels, Roman candles, Chinese crackers going forth in alldirections. At last, in a big blue, green, red and yellow bouquet, themain stock went bodily into the air, scattering the crowd of men andwomen 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 toimagine: but it was so symbolical of the whole eruption that I cannotforbear to describe it. 

It was shortly after this--about 4. 30--that Mr. Marsh and myself cameoff 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 thingwas set in the background and framework of the penal days and the timesof the famine. He was as cool as an icicle--he even suggested chess, andhad a pocket set--but, chess in revolution?--what next!

We were not at a loss for our next course, however, for we had no soonersat down to lunch--three hours late--than we noticed two of the SinnFeiners who had long watched us on the roof suddenly come across thestreet. 

For one moment we made sure we were going to be taken out and shot forspies: for we had kept our eyes fixed on them twelve hours, and ofcourse, as the telephone system still worked, could have kept incontinual communication with the military authorities--it was the SinnFeiners' one oversight, to leave the telephone intact--but we were soonreassured, for Mr. Woods came up and announced that the hotel had beentaken over by the rebels. 

The next moment the dining-room was invaded by a crowd who might havestepped direct off the French Revolution scenes of the "ScarletPimpernel" or "The Only Way, " but their officer was perfectly courteous. 

"Finish your meal, gentlemen, " he said; "there is no hurry, but I mustask 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 youwish us to go?"

"No immediate danger whatever, sir, save from your own resistance, " washis reply. "Civilians are all perfectly safe: we are only fighting thetroops of England. 

"There is no cause for excitement or flurry, " he added; "you may findour men firing over your heads as you pass into the street, but take nonotice. 

"These are partly our own signallers giving us warning, and also theyare intended to clear the streets of loiterers. You will have safeconduct out of the city by the north, where our guards have orders toallow all citizens to pass--I can only counsel you to move as far fromthe city as possible, as it is more than probable that our positionswill be shelled from the sea at any time, and gas bombs may be used inorder to save the buildings, which I need not say would be equally fatalto civilians as to ourselves. "

With that he asked the way to the fire-escape and the roof, which one ofus showed him, and then we hastily made parcels of anything we wished totake with us. 

I took occasion to get into conversation with one of the guards, arough-looking fellow, upon the aims of the revolution, but could elicitnothing very intelligent, save that "England always hated Ireland, andthat now was the time to free her, or within a couple of years everyonewould be slaves and conscripts. "

There seemed to be a rumour, too, that John Redmond had consented toconscription for Ireland and that it was to be passed at the secretsession--but I could gather nothing definite, and before I could getfurther details a superior officer came and severely reprimanded him forallowing himself to be drawn into conversation at all. 

There was nothing for it, therefore, but to march out, and as I couldnot cross a bridge to get back to the south side of the city, I acceptedan offer of hospitality for the night with Mr. Marsh--provided I waswilling 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 womanand child, caught by the fire, trying to reach the ladders of the firebrigade, which were short; the side wall was tottering, there werescreams, but I turned my head: I felt too sick to look, save at thegaping crowd, that even disgusted the rebels, who fired several blankshots among them in the vain attempt to scatter them. 

As soon as we reached the Parnell Monument, close to the Rotunda, weturned to the right, and made our way through the long lines oftenements--refugees. 

There was quite a string of refugees, as one might have seen fleeingfrom Ypres, for we knew that the place was now doomed to be shelled--itonly 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 theColiseum and the manager of the "Imperial, " who made up our party, trudged on, on, on. Every cross-road had its Sinn Fein sentries, everypoint of vantage was loopholed for miles around, and it was a merestroke of luck that Annesley Bridge had not been blown up and so cut offAmiens Street Station, which held 300 troops, from the north. We onlysaw two soldiers in nine miles, and these were at a pier-head atDollymount, half way. 

When we arrived at Howth we were wet as fish and black as miners, for wefinished the last couple of miles upon a charitable coal-cart. 

The next morning was bright and warm as a midsummer day, but in thedistance across the bay we could hear the sound of the naval gunsthundering 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 thestreets and preparing the field for the battle which was to lastcontinuously until late on Saturday evening, but it seems a pity, looking back on the situation, that the time was not employed in tryingto avoid such a fatal issue; and that it would have been possible isproved by the example of Cork, where all conflict was avoided by atimely negotiation between the rebels and the ordinary civil andecclesiastical authorities. 

However, of this more later; it was decided to treat the matter in thesternest possible manner, which was just, as it turned out, what theSinn Feiners wanted, and the military authorities, as it were, fell intothe trap prepared for them by those astute politicians: for that theyforesaw the political effects of ruthless suppression is now an admittedfact. 

On Tuesday, April 25th, therefore, the day following the _coup_, thecitizens of Dublin--or such as were not totally isolated--read in theirmorning _Irish Times_ (the _Express_ and the _Freeman_ having ceasedpublication) two proclamations announcing the official English view ofthe rising, and people noted particularly the words that traced theattempt to subvert the supremacy of the Crown "to the foreign enemies oftheir King and country"--in a word, it was to be put down purely andsimply to Germany. 

As regards details, however, the inhabitants had to content themselveswith the simple statement that "yesterday morning an insurrectionaryrising took place in the City of Dublin"; that "the authorities hadtaken active and energetic measures to cope with the situation, whichmeasures were proceeding favourably"; but this official condolence intheir plight was rather discomforting, as the whole city was still inthe possession of the insurgents. 

Next, another proclamation was issued declaring the county of Dublinunder martial law, warning all peaceable and law-abiding subjects withinthe area of the danger of frequenting or being in any place in thevicinity of which His Majesty's forces were engaged in the suppressionof disorder, and enjoining upon them the duty and necessity of remainingso far as practicable within their own homes so long as such dangerousconditions prevailed, and proclaiming that all persons found carryingarms without lawful authority were liable to be dealt with severely byvirtue of such proclamation. 

All this, of course, was anything but reassuring, especially in view ofthe danger everybody felt of a provincial rising and the whispers of aGerman invasion; but towards the evening another statement was issued tothe effect that the trouble was confined to Dublin and one or two otherdistricts 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 inevitablebattle, but these preparations merely took the shape of consolidatingthe positions already occupied. 

At O'Connell Bridge, for example, Kelly's shop at the corner ofBachelors' Walk was garrisoned, and Hopkins's jewellery establishment atthe opposite corner was similarly occupied. 

In Lower Abbey Street, opposite Wynn's Hotel, a formidable barricade waserected, composed partly of paper taken from the _Irish Times_ store. 

The wireless station was also seized, and all day long messages wereflashed to the four corners of the world announcing the establishment ofan Irish Republic, which messages were picked up at sea by specialenvoys who had been forewarned, and sent on till they finally reachedNew York and Petrograd. 

The amazement of Russia and America must have beenconsiderable--especially Russia's. 

Yet it was not all preparation, for already the troops, or such ascould be brought up in time, had come into contact with the Sinn Feinerson the outskirts of the town; but the chief activity appears to havebeen the strengthening of the position in Trinity College, which allowedthe troops to form a wedge between Westland Row at one end and DameStreet on the other, thus cutting off Stephen's Green from SackvilleStreet. 

On Monday night the danger in this quarter had been from the easternside, but on Tuesday morning it was the College Green entrances thatappeared most open to attack, and which were accordingly strengthened bysandbags within the windows of the main entrance and wings. 

Irish Volunteer scouts on bicycles tried several times to get pastthrough Grafton Street, but they could not get past the Colonialsharpshooters 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 otherthrough Westmorland Street as far up as O'Connell's Statue at the end ofthe bridge; but this was as far north as the military got, for all alongto Clontarf, Glasnevin, and Drumcondra the insurgents held practicallyundisputed sway. 

Another minor position of great importance was the clearing of Stephen'sGreen by means of a maxim from the "Shelbourne. "

The first actual entry of the military in force from an outside areatook place on Tuesday evening, when a body of Royal Dublin Fusiliersforced their way into the centre of the city by Cabra Road. Theinsurgents had placed barricades both on the Park Road and on CabraRoad, near the point at which Charleville Road links up thesethoroughfares. Houses overlooking the barricades were occupied by theinsurgents, and some brisk fighting took place before the way wascleared for the military advance. A well-directed shell or twodemolished the barricades, and within a short time the defenders, underthe thunder of artillery, machine guns and rifle-fire, were forced fromthese positions. There were a couple of civilian casualties resultingfrom the shrapnel. Attempts by the insurgents to blow up the CabraBridge and the bridge crossing the Midland Railway on the North CircularRoad beyond Phibsborough Church were unsuccessful. 

It was not until Wednesday morning, as we have already seen, that thecity realized that an attack in full force was contemplated, and ifnecessary heavy artillery would be used to dislodge the rebels. 

Up to that it had been thought that at the worst gas shells might bedropped upon the enemy strongholds and that the city would be spared:but it early became evident that the disproportion would be too great inthe street fighting, which everyone now saw was becoming inevitable. 

Accordingly, during the early hours of Wednesday morning a party of sixvolunteers from Trinity--including both civilians and members of theO. 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, whichwas looked upon as the centre and symbol of the anarchy. 

After much difficulty two 18-pounders were brought up and machine gunswere placed on the tower of the Fire Station and the Tivoli, and then, when all was ready, the bombardment began. Evidently the rebels had gotwind of this intention, however, and though much damage was done, practically no casualties were scored, the rebels getting away throughthe basement or along the roofs. 

The _Helga_, an old police patrol boat belonging to the FisheriesDepartment, next contributed, though the task was an extremely delicateone, owing to the position of the Custom House and the Railway Bridge, having eventually to retire further down the river and adopt a droppinginstead of a direct fire. 

For over an hour this naval bombardment continued without eliciting anyreply. 

It seemed to be generally hoped that the very threat of artillery wouldbe sufficient to cow the rebels, but this was far from being the case. There was a perfect rabbit warren of retreat, and when the troopsrushed forward with bayonets fixed and cheering triumphantly, theironrush was unchecked and they found themselves established in--ruins. 

The rebel loss was a considerable gain to the troops, for it meant thatthe military would find themselves connected up with Amiens StreetStation; but this was not so easy: they needed more reserves toaccomplish a junction, and it was in order to secure these that the"Battle of Mount Street" bridge was fought, an engagement which has beencalled the "Dardanelles of Dublin, " because the place commanded thedirect approach of the troops from Kingstown, and I quote my ownexperience to illustrate the kind of struggle that went on at everyentrance to the city. 

The "battle" was in every way typical of the kind of fighting which wewere destined to witness for the rest of the week, and I was luckyenough 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 cornerresidence--wonderfully barricaded, and the Sherwood Foresters, who hadjust taken Carisbrook House and Ballsbridge after considerable losses, were now advancing to cross over the canal and so enter the town andrelieve the O. T. C. In Trinity. 

Clanwilliam House not only dominated the bridge, but also the whole ofNorthumberland Road. 

Along this road the troops had to pass, and they crouched down in longrows of heads--like great khaki caterpillars--in a most terribly exposedorder, so that if the rebel shot failed to hit the first head it wasbound to hit the second head, provided the rifle was anywhere in thevertical line. For the most part the soldiers were boys in their earlytwenties, utterly ignorant of the district, with orders to take thetown, which was reported in the hands of a body of men whose very namewas a mysterious puzzle in pronunciation, and not an enemy in sight, only a mass of civilian spectators up to within fifty yards of them anddirectly in front, blocking the street--the rebel enemy meanwhileinside 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 theroadway, where the advanced line had been sniped by the terrible leadenbullets of the Sinn Feiners. 

For half an hour or so I was a passive spectator, though intenselyinterested by the sight of a real battle going on under my very eyes ata distance hardly more than that of the gallery from a large music-hallstage; but suddenly I felt a complete change come over me, which I yetfail to explain to myself. The usual cowardice of the spectator seemedto leave me, and I wanted to rush over and help, but I was assured thatit would mean instant death to come between the line of combatants--"TheSinn Feiners would fire on anyone, the blackguards. " This I refused tobelieve, and spoke to a Methodist clergyman, who soon shared my views, and together we made our way to Dun's Hospital, where the doctors andnurses in white stood in the doorway. Within a couple of minutes'conversation we had all spontaneously decided to venture under the RedCross and put it to the test. They gave me the white coat of anambulance worker, and within five minutes we were all on the bridgetogether. 

Anticipating us all, however, were two little girls of sixteen andseventeen--Kathleen Pierce and Loo Nolan by name--who rushed out of thethrong with water in a jug for one of the wounded Tommies who was lyingacross the bridge bleeding. 

A great shout went up from the crowd as they saw this, and bothcombatants ceased firing, and, after having given the soldiers a drink, they came back amidst the cheers of soldiers, crowd, and Sinn Feinersalike, and they are now known as the bravest colleens in Ireland--Godbless 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 ofthe hail of bullets which passed over them and around them on everyside. For, try as they would, the two sides could not completely ceasefire 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 ahand, together with a clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Hall, of St. John'sVoluntary Aid Detachment. I was with Councillor Keogh myself, and poorHylands, who was afterwards killed, with whom I bore a stretcher, continually bringing in wounded between us. In little over an hour webrought in about seventy poor fellows, who lay about all along the roadand 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 alltogether!" Immediately there was a simultaneous rush across thebridge--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 werein the garden of Clanwilliam House--one poor fellow falling and blowingthe top of his head off at the gate with his own grenade. 

There was a "Crash! crash! crash!" as the windows burst with theconcussion, and within a few seconds the sky was lit up with the flareof the burning houses and the air rent with the screams of the SinnFeiners as they faced cold steel. It was a ghastly scene!

The smell of roasting flesh was still around the blazing buildings atten o'clock, when we brought in the last of the dead--some of them mereboys of thirteen--and laid them out in dread rows like a Raemaekercartoon. 

One lad of twelve whom I carried in I afterwards interrogated as to whyhe was out in such an exposed position. He wanted to give a poor Tommy adrink, and got sniped as he was preparing to get down to the water ofthe canal. 

The Dardanelles had been forced, however, and the highway into Dublinsecured. 

All Wednesday night the whole town was kept awake by the snipers, whonow became one of the main features of the turmoil; they seemed to beeverywhere, but it was almost impossible to locate them. 

Troops lined the streets in the direction of Merrion and FitzwilliamSquares, and were picked off from windows and roofs all night in themost bewildering fashion, while the slum courts in the centre of thelarge blocks of buildings re-echoed with the sharp click of the oldrebel mausers, till the military were tempted to fire on any strangefigure looming up in the distance. 

During the night several transports had arrived, we now heard, and thetroops soon began to land in force. 

All Thursday I spent with the Red Cross at Sir Patrick Dun's, which wascrowded with casualties, poor fellows! one raving and asking "Is theschool taken?--is the school taken?": for this point had been thestrategic 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 offby the deadly snipers, all firing from cover, with thick lead bulletsthat spread and made dreadful wounds--some, inches wide. In the yard theRaemaeker picture of the dead soldiers--Sinn Feiners--was broader bysome half-dozen: for several had died of wounds during the night. Thesmall boy who had been sniped while trying to get the soldiers a drinklay stiff now, and my mind went back to the scene of the night before asI made a little space of a couple of yards in the corner of the crowdedward, with everyone lying on the floor, while the good priest anointedhim just before he died. 

All day long and all around there was a perfect hail of bullets from thesnipers, some going right through the hospital grounds from Boland'sbakery, which, sandbagged and loopholed, was filled with Sinn Feiners. It was a terrible fight, for of course it was next to impossible for thesoldiers to distinguish them, being all in civilian clothes so that theyjust had to doff their bandoliers and they could go about from house tohouse in safety. Sometimes they did this purposely, having arms inseveral places. Hence the order had to go out that all civilians wouldhave to stay indoors, and after that all suspicious characters were shotat, with the terrible result that innocent civilians were killed on allsides. 

Accordingly, while on our way to pick up a body I went with one of thestretcher-bearers and a priest and a parson to warn them to keepindoors. 

One poor fellow we brought in, shot through the breast, was apparently acivilian, 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 factorthat precipitated the rising, is perhaps best told in the words of theRoyal 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 inof 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 aroundthe central position of the rebels at the Post Office. 

Hence, by Thursday evening the tables had been completely turned uponthe rebels, and instead of dominating the city, the city on every sidehemmed them in; and the Law Courts, the College of Surgeons, Jacobs'sbiscuit factory and Boland's bakery, though amply supplied with food andammunition, had been all practically isolated one from another--in thelast-named place the rebels forced the bakers, at the point of thebayonet, to continue making bread. 

The military were also in possession of Brunswick Street, and portionsof Talbot Street and North Earl Street, while from D'Olier Street afusillade swept O'Connell Bridge, and from T. C. D. A 9-pounder began tobatter down Kelly's corner house and send shells along Bachelors' Walk. 

Everybody now expected the collapse of the rebels, who were beingcaptured on all sides, and crowds of British pressmen, with specialfacilities for the edification of neutral countries, began to arrive. 

Certainly never had journalists ever had such a finale to send flashingalong the wires; for a cordon of soldiers completely encircled the cityon every side, and grew gradually tighter and tighter around the PostOffice, the heart of the rebel position. From all sides shells now beganto drop into Sackville Street, and we knew that it was the beginning ofthe end. 

That end was in every way as dramatic as the beginning--a melodramaworthy of the Lyceum at its best--and for thirty hours, as theartillery thundered, the sky was one huge blaze of flame, which, at onetime, threatened to engulf the whole northern centre of the city in asea of fire. 

Driven from Kelly's corner, which commanded the left entrance toSackville Street, the insurgents still held Hopkins's corner on theother side, and on this the artillery next concentrated not only highexplosive shells but incendiary bombs as well, and the whole placebecame a mass of blazing ruins, the flames leaping across Lower AbbeyStreet like a prairie fire. 

Whether this was intentional or inevitable, one thing was certain, andthat was that nothing could stand up against it--it meant utterannihilation as far as human lives were concerned, absolute ruination asfar as material property. 

That strong measures had been found necessary, however, had been provedby the appointment of a military dictator in General Sir John Maxwell, with plenary powers, and the announcement of Mr. Asquith in the Housethat the situation had still serious features, and that there seemed tobe 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 thatwas the total isolation of the movement as a political campaign, bothSir Edward Carson and Mr. John Redmond disclaiming all responsibility, while in Drogheda the National Volunteers, according to a telegram fromthe Viceroy, actually turned out to assist the military. 

This background of peace only served to intensify the catastrophe whichbecame known as the Sack of Sackville Street, and it is probable thatonly the gap made by the fire which occurred on Tuesday afternoon atLawrence's bazaar saved the northern portion of the city. 

It was under cover of the blazing buildings that the troops advancedupon the central position of the Sinn Feiners, one of the pickets beinginside Clery's while the embers beneath his feet were still red, as Iwas told: but it was not until Saturday morning that the actual finalshelling and capture of the place was begun. 

For this purpose only light shells, happily, were used, and someincendiary bombs, which soon set fire to the roof of the beautifulhistoric 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 completetunnel right back as far as Arnot's Stores, blasting their way with theaid of dynamite, in the use of which they seem to have been coached by aBerlin expert, who was afterwards captured. 

The last struggles of the rebels have been variously described, but theyseem rather early to have made an attempt in force to evacuate thebuilding from the back, and some hundred and fifty are described astaking part in the stampede, which was turned into a rout by the machineguns of the military. 

A single shell which exploded right in the barricade in front of theColiseum building, which faces a side street, had the effect not only ofclosing it by the wreckage of the two corner buildings, but also ofburying one of the rebel leaders. 

Everyone then expected that the place would be taken at the point of thebayonet and a terrible hand-to-hand struggle ensue, as the troops wouldthrust the despairing rebels back into the fortress, which was rapidlyturning 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 atruce, as one rumour had it, in order to enable the city to get infoodstuffs?--for the food problem had by this time become most acute inseveral of the isolated districts. 

It proved to be an armistice, during which terms of formal surrenderwere concluded with the insurgent leaders, and a short while after four, Sackville Street beheld the sight of all that were left of them, thegallant but misguided six hundred, marching into captivity. 

"It is a sight I shall never forget, " said one eye-witness who beheldthe surrender from a window in the Gresham Hotel. "That thin, short lineof no more than a hundred men at most, some in the green uniform of theVolunteers, some in the plainer equipment of Larkin's Citizen Army, somelooking like ordinary civilians, some again mere lads of fifteen, not afew wounded and bandaged, the whole melancholy procession threading itsway through long lines of khaki soldiers--but downhearted? No; and asthey passed, I heard just for a couple of seconds the subdued strains ofthat scaffold-song of many an Irishman before them--'God saveIreland'--waft up to me. 

"Roughs, dockers, labourers, shop-assistants--all kinds and conditionsof men, even the lowest class in the city--yet all exactly the same inthe look of defiance which will haunt me to my dying day. 

"Whatever they were, these men were no cowards--and even the soldiersadmitted this readily; they had shown courage of the finest type, worthyof a nobler cause; and had they been man for man at the front andaccomplished what they had accomplished in the face of such odds, thewhole Empire would have been proud of them--the whole world ringing withtheir praise; for, as a soldier prisoner afterwards said, 'Not even thehell of Loos or Neuve Chapelle was like the hell of those last hours inthe General Post Office. '

"Instead of that, they were doomed to the double stigma of failure inaccomplishment and futility in aim--but every Irish heart went out tothem, 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 theirhead, Pearse in full uniform, with sword across one arm in regularsurrender fashion. For a moment the young British officer in commandseemed perplexed at the solemnity of the procession and at thecorrectness and courtesy of the rebel leader; and he hesitatinglyaccepted 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 countrythe following note signed by Commander P. H. Pearse. 

"In order to prevent further slaughter, " it ran, "of unarmed people, andin the hope of saving the lives of our followers, now surrounded andhopelessly outnumbered, members of the Provisional Government present atheadquarters have agreed to unconditional surrender, and the commandersof all units of the Republican forces will order their followers to laydown their arms. "

Yet so confident were the rebels of success in some of the besiegedfortresses that they positively refused to believe that their commandershad given in: moreover, the difficulty of obtaining access to some ofthe insurgents also tended to prolong the conflict, especially in themore 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 furtherdestruction and desolation was avoided. 

Jacobs's factory, for example--second only to Guinness's Brewery insize, and occupied at first by some 1, 500 rebels, who had takenpossession while the workers were on holiday--put up a strenuous fight, and though it was by now surrounded by the military, the men, firmlyprotected and encouraged by the feeling that headquarters depended uponthem, refused all offers to surrender. 

Several priests had previously made the attempt to influence them, buthad been quietly and courteously refused, and only succeeded eventuallyabout 4 p. M. On Sunday, when the Volunteers finally evacuated thepremises. 

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 therebels were saved by a somewhat picturesque climax. 

A well-known Carmelite monk from Whitefriars Street suddenly made hisway through the crowd of spectators and signalled to the insurgents, whereupon one of the sandbagged windows was dismantled and, amid auniversal cheer from the crowd, the venerable peacemaker was hoisted upinto the fortress. 

A short while later his efforts were seen to have succeeded, for thegarrison surrendered. 

At the Four Courts a priest was likewise instrumental in bringing aboutthe surrender. 

The place had been strongly barricaded and provisioned, and would, nodoubt, have suffered the same fate as the Post Office had the strugglecontinued, but for this intervention and the desire on the part of theauthorities no doubt to save the Record Office at all costs. Such a losswould, 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 purposesof defence, at one particular spot a whole barricade having beenconstructed of wills alone. 

Father Columbus, O. S. F. C. , who was at the time attending to the woundedand dying, saw a girl waving a large white sheet from the building, andwe immediately proceeded to inform the military authorities, who werestill pounding away at the building with maxims, of the intention of theinsurgents to surrender. 

An officer was dispatched, and to him Commander Daly, of the RepublicanArmy, rendered unconditional surrender on behalf of the besieged. 

Another dramatic surrender on Sunday was that of the College ofSurgeons, where the rebels had been making a stout resistance, under thepersonal command of the celebrated Countess Markievicz. 

The green flag which had floated there throughout the week in spite ofshot and shell was suddenly lowered, and one of the rebels was seen toclimb on the parapet and tie a white scarf, quaintly enough, on to thearm of the central statue, which stood out against the skyline, insteadof the flagstaff. 

A few seconds later this formal announcement of surrender was followedby the order to "cease fire, " and a detachment of soldiers was sent tothat side of Stephen's Green. 

As they approached, the Countess, who was dressed in a complete outfitof the green uniform of the Irish Volunteers, including green boots andgreen cock's feathers, something like those on the Italian bersaglieri, emerged from the central doorway. She was closely followed by anattendant carrying a white flag and some sixty to eighty of thedefenders. 

Solemnly they advanced towards the English officer, and then theCountess, taking off her bandolier and sword, was seen to kiss themreverently and hand them over in the most touching manner--not a littleto the perplexity of the young officer. 

Dr. Myles Keogh, who, in company with others, acted so bravely inrescuing the wounded, tells of the actual incident of the surrender ofDe Valera, near Ringsend. Dr. Keogh was on Sunday returning at oneo'clock from Glasnevin Cemetery on a hearse, which, under the Red Cross, had left a number of dead for burial, and when opposite Sir PatrickDun's Hospital a voice hailed him. Two men had come out of the Poor LawDispensary opposite, in which the Sinn Feiners were installed. Socovered with dust were they that he thought both were in khaki. One wasa military cadet who had been captured by the Sinn Feiners, the otherwas the Sinn Fein leader De Valera. "Hullo!" cried De Valera. "Who areyou?" 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. Theywant to surrender. " Dr. Keogh replied that Sir Arthur Ball, who was inthe hospital, would make arrangements. Then the military came up, andafter some preliminaries the Sinn Feiners were marched out of thedispensary and conveyed to Lower Mount Street. The hopelessness of theSinn Feiners was exemplified in some remarks dropped by De Valera. "Shoot me, " he said, "if you will, but arrange for my men. " Then headded, walking up and down: "If only the people had come out with knivesand forks. "

I saw Dr. Keogh immediately after this, and he told me that De Valerahad complained bitterly that the "English" had continuously violated thewhite flag and Red Cross, but we could testify to the falsity of this byour own experience, the whole staff having time after time complainedthat shots appeared to go right across the hospital--and, in point offact, the right wing of "Elpis" Hospital is simply peppered withbullets--in fact, the wounded Tommies "sunning" themselves on thehospital roof of Dun's had been deliberately fired at till they wentdown, though I must admit that in this case the Sinn Feiners couldhardly have been able to make the distinction required of them. A shortwhile later I saw the professor himself--a tall man, hatless and in thegreen uniform of the Volunteers--pass along Mount Street with a lad witha white flag, going to point out the positions of the snipers from thefactory. 

For a moment the soldiers thought he was about to "betray" his pals tosave his own life, and, I was glad to notice, instinctively looked withcontempt upon him; but the truth of the general order having gone out tosurrender soon became known, and as the line of captives marched by thesoldiers for the first time got a real look at these men who had, so tospeak, staggered the Empire. 

Weak, poor, ragged--some cripples; one, his whole face a mass ofbandages--I never saw a more reckless or determined body of men in mylife, and they contrasted strangely with the placid demeanour of theirconquerors. Each marched with a certain lightness of tread--greybeardswho no doubt remembered the days of the Famine and boys born since theBoer War; and as they stood there, their hands aloft, between the linesof khaki, not one face flinched. Here and there, however, one could seethe older men shaking hands with the younger, muttering, "It isn't thefirst time we've suffered. But it's all for dear old Ireland, " orwishing each other good-bye. That was pathetic to a degree that, I knowfor a fact, moved some of the English officers themselves. 

Suddenly a car came dashing up at full speed. Some turned their headsinstinctively, and as they did so noticed that in addition to four khakiuniforms there were two green figures with eyes bandaged. 

In an instant the captives had recognized their leaders, themselves alsogoing--God only knew to what punishment, and at once such a cheer wentup that the whole street echoed again. 

It only needed "God save Ireland" to have completed the drama, but theyknew they would be stopped if they began, and, instead, one of themcried out "Are we downhearted?" and immediately every voice, clear andresonant, answered in one ringing "No!"

"If it had not been for the women and children, we should be fightingyou still, " was the reply of one Sinn Feiner to a soldier; and whenasked why they were fighting, another man answered, "We have our ordersas 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 nexttime when you're fighting, our children will win. "

Dramatic was no word for the situation, and as I gazed at themthere--now no more than a dread convict roll--I pictured the wretchedtenements from which most must have come--the worst slums in Europe, bycommon consent of all Commissions--and asked myself the question whatchance or reason they had ever had in life to love either their countryor the Empire; and then the picture of the long years of penalservitude, such as John Mitchel had endured for Ireland, arose before mymind, but I consoled myself with the thought, "At least England willunderstand what caused these men to turn despairingly to revolution, "and the words of Mr. Asquith consoled me as I thought of the terriblewholesale vengeance a Prussian officer would take--for had he not saidthat England had sent the General in whose discretion she had morecomplete confidence than any other?--but I stopped thinking: it was alltoo sad: after all, England was surely not going to treat them like theHuns would. 

I heard one young Lancashire Tommy say: "The poor beggars! They onlyobeyed the word of command, and they fought like heroes, " but he was cutshort by an English officer with an Oxford drawl: "Damn sympathizingwith the swine! I'd shoot all these Irish rebels down like rats--everyone of them--if I had my way. "

The words struck me forcibly at the time, for I knew that it only neededthis to make martyrs of every one of them. 

"England has learnt how fatal that mistake has been, " I replied. "We'resurely not going to set Ireland back a hundred years by such a pogrom asfollowed '98. .. . "

Meanwhile, though in Dublin we knew very little, the movement in theprovinces had long since been crushed: indeed, it never appears to havehad much chance of success. 

It was said that some delay or interruption in the sending of the signalmessage was the cause. Others say that the South had orders to await thelanding of arms from the German cruiser which brought over Sir RogerCasement, and which was sunk on April 21st--which seems the moreprobable. 

This news, however, seems, for mysterious reasons, to have been keptfrom the general public, for it was not till the Monday evening, at10. 23, that this announcement was made, and, reaching Ireland on themorrow of the announcement of the triumph of the Republic in thecapital, must have shown the waverers that the rising was bound to endin a fiasco--a fact which they possibly realized better than the men inDublin, 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 SinnFeiners had been organizing the city and county for upwards of threeyears--in most cases the gradually increasing forces being drilled byex-soldiers privately, so that when they eventually appeared publiclyon parade and in full uniform, marching through the streets in a bodyfour deep, with rifles on their shoulders, everyone realized that themovement had amply justified itself. 

Every Sunday, public parades showed a growing strength that at timesalarmed the authorities to no little degree. 

The mass demonstration at Limerick about a year ago still furtherrevealed their strength, and from that moment to the fateful Easter weekthe organization, already considerable in point of numbers, perfecteditself by the addition of ammunition, uniforms, equipment, and financialaid. 

Everybody expected that there would be some sort of ructions between theVolunteers and the military on last St. Patrick's Day, when it wasannounced that the Sinn Feiners would parade fully armed and with a realmaxim gun, but luckily nothing happened. 

The next crisis was seen to approach in Holy Week, when large numbers ofstrangers were noticed to be arriving daily from every part of thecountry and putting up at lodging-houses. 

The strangers were next noticed to be paying continual visits to theSinn Fein headquarters in Shears Street, extensive premises that wereonce a hospital. 

On the outbreak in Dublin the whole place was put into a state ofexpectant siege, with passwords and guards, much in the same way as atthe G. P. O. In the capital, but no outbreak occurred. 

On the Wednesday the Lord Mayor and the Bishop of Cork were able toobtain an interview with the leaders, and as a result of the conferencea 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 noless than six hundred men at headquarters, and anything up from athousand within the boundaries of the city, to say nothing of thesurrounding districts, which were anything but favourable either to JohnRedmond or William O'Brien. 

Now, the inner history of the negotiation, which was later made publicin a letter from the Assistant-Bishop of Cork to the _Freeman'sJournal_, is of supreme importance for two reasons. 

In the first place, it explains the kind of influences which were atwork all over the country to prevent the spread of the outbreak by thebetter-disposed and more sober-minded of the population. 

In the second place, by revealing the psychology of some of theprovincial leaders it goes not a little to establish my theory that evenas late as Monday night something might have been done had the leadersof the "Republic"--which it must never be forgotten had always been a"provisional" term--been approached by the best spirits in Irelandherself, instead of immediately launching an army corps of troops and anaval detachment bald-headed on to the guns of the Volunteers, who couldnever have expected to bring off a victory in the real sense of theterm, and who were only anxious to offer themselves as a willingholocaust to the Spirit of Nationality they thought was dying fastbecause it had merged itself into the Spirit of Empire. 

As to Kerry, it was looked upon as being "rotten" with Sinn Fein, andhad there been a rising, these men would undoubtedly have marched to thehelp of their Cork brethren. 

The theory of the Kerry correspondent of the _Times_ is that the Southwas awaiting the advent of Sir Roger Casement, who was to have invadedIreland with a fleet of battle cruisers and an army of 40, 000 men, butthis ended in as complete a fiasco as the landing of Napper Tandy atRutland or Wolf Tone in Lough Swilly in 1798. 

The rising, however, was not strictly speaking dependent on Sir RogerCasement at all: indeed, as afterwards appeared, he had himself tried tostop the rising by saying that German help had failed. 

It appears, moreover, that in Dublin the heads of the Irish Volunteershad long since come under the strong personal influence of the heads ofthe Citizen Army, and it was these latter who forced the pace; and inadmitting this, one is forced to conclude that the rising was as muchsocialistic and economic as national. This, too, would explain why itwas almost entirely confined to Dublin. For only in about three or fourother places in Ireland were there risings of any note, and even thesewere comparatively unimportant: though, of course, there is no knowingto what proportions they might not have swelled had the risings in Kerryand Cork been carried out. 

The Volunteers of Swords, for example, who only began activities aboutseven o'clock on the Wednesday morning, commenced by a capture of thebarracks and post office, both of which were in their possession byabout 8. 30. 

Their _coup_ was a minor replica of the Dublin affray. Two of theirleaders, a doctor and a school-teacher, rode up in a motor-car as ifpaying a harmless call, and then suddenly produced revolvers and coveredthe sergeant, who was standing at the door, saying at the same time: "Wewant 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 nothingbut surrender, and the booty was distributed amongst the unarmedVolunteers, and whatever was over stored for any recruits the valour ofthis exploit might bring to the new colours. 

The door of the post office was next charged at by three of thestrongest of the Volunteers, but being ajar, was consequently entered inthe most undignified way by the invaders, who fell head-over-heels intothe place, which was a couple of feet below the street-level--luckilyfor 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 atRodgerstown was blown up, cutting off Dublin. 

Meanwhile, information had reached Malahide, and there the constabularyat once proceeded to entrench themselves along the railway, in order toprotect the important bridge there; but the insurgents did not venture, having already found the contingent that was engaged in a deadlyencounter with the Meath police at Ashbourne, towards the end of theweek, encamping between Fieldstown and Kilsallaghan. 

Here, early on Sunday morning, they were surprised to receive a copy ofthe proclamation issued by P. H. Pearse, advising them to surrenderunconditionally. So surprised in fact were they, that they determined tokeep "the ambassador of peace" as a hostage until they verified theastounding news for themselves, one of their leaders motoring up toDublin with the Chief Constable. On their return, of course, with thenews confirmed, there was nothing to do but surrender, and this theyaccordingly did--their only stipulation being that they should be sparedthe humiliation of going back through Swords, where most of them lived. 

The rising at Enniscorthy at one time threatened to be a more seriousaffair, though it only began on the Thursday, when the Athenæum, one ofthe principal buildings of the town, was seized and turned into aheadquarters by the insurgent staff. 

Several hundreds of Sinn Feiners now assembled outside, and severaldozen motor-cars which had been "commandeered, " together with stores ofpetrol and food, and the men were all served out with ammunition, whileamidst huge enthusiasm the green, white, and orange Republican flag washoisted over the building. 

Afterwards railway lines and telegraphs were destroyed by a specialforce and the town methodically taken over, all business houses andlicensed premises being closed, with the exception of the gasworks andthe bakeries, where the employees were compelled to perform their publicduties 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 sortof siege day after day. 

Enniscorthy Castle, which commands the town, was taken from Mr. HenryRoche, J. P. All food and arms and vehicles throughout the town werecommandeered. But there was no looting, a considerable body of young menhaving been formed into a species of Republican police--an organizationwhich would have saved the Dublin rising half its horrors. 

The ladies of the "Cumann na Ban" next turned the top story of theAthenæum into an improvised hospital, and here were brought the woundedin the attack on the constabulary barracks, which lasted all Thursdayand part of Friday. 

Friday was spent in preparation and expectation--the news of thecollapse of the revolt in Dublin not having yet reached them--and onSaturday a motor expedition to Ferns resulted in the capture of the postoffice and barracks. 

As food had now become scarce, shops were only allowed to sell limitedquantities, and as the situation was becoming dangerous, with theexpected 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 ofVolunteers going up to the Cathedral for confession, and on the Sundayattending Mass. 

The clergy, while not refusing them the consolations of religion, however, in no way encouraged them in their illusion of success, for onthe Sunday morning a party of citizens from Arklow brought a priestunder cover of the white flag to announce to the rebels the collapse ofthe rising in Dublin. 

A deputation of the town was then sent to Wexford to interview themilitary there, who confirmed the news; but, as elsewhere, even this didnot satisfy them, and they refused to surrender the town of Enniscorthyuntil their leaders had seen Dublin's disaster with their own eyes. 

Even then the "commanders" wanted to hold out, and, as the _DailySketch_ correspondent pointed out, it was only when the chief citizensthemselves made the petition that the Volunteers at last consented. 

Indeed, it would have been hard to conceive how they could logicallyhave insisted on defending the town, which refused to acknowledge them;and the rebels, in justice be it said of them, were nothing if notlogical--even if only the logic of madmen. If Ireland refused to lookupon them as saviours, then they were not going to play the part oftyrants; and it seems to me that if the civil authorities of Dublin hadtaken up this stand on the Tuesday morning, the whole thing might havefizzled off without a single further military casualty. 

On Monday therefore--to continue the story of the Enniscorthyrising--the rebels surrendered unconditionally to Colonel French, whoentered the town at the head of two thousand military. 

At Wexford the situation was saved, as at Drogheda, by the assistance ofthe National Volunteers, who, under Colonel Jameson Davis, turned out toassist the police, the Lord Mayor and six hundred of the chief citizensenrolling 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 wereresponsible for the Phoenix Park murders, came; and an interestingaccount was given of the rising which now took place at Athenry by oneof 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 hisescape from England, and avoiding detection by the constabulary underthe disguise of a priest, suddenly turned up at the psychological momenta few days before the outbreak of the rising in Dublin. 

The Town Hall of Athenry, on Sunday and Monday, seemed to have aroused acertain amount of suspicion--it was suspected of being a centre ofillegal munition making--but it was not till the Tuesday, thirty-sixhours after the seizure of the Dublin Post Office, that it suddenlyrevealed itself in its true colours, when "Captain" Mellows unexpectedlyappeared in the green uniform of an Irish Volunteer and proclaimed theestablishment of an Irish Republic to a body of some five hundredVolunteers, two-thirds of whom were armed with rifles and the rest withshot-guns and pikes. 

Overcoming the local police, they proceeded to take one of the IrishBoard of Agriculture's model farms about three-quarters of a mile fromAthenry, 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, theymarched, several hundreds strong, with a whole train of wagons and cartsfilled with food of every description, towards Loughrea, where theycaptured 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 overthe men as the "Captain" himself. 

His influence seems to have been on the whole for good, for the accountdescribes him as hearing the men's confessions and insisting that thefifteen to twenty young colleens who were one of the most curiousfeatures of the local rising, marching beside the men and doing alltheir cooking, should be separately accommodated in the castle at night. 

Some isolated R. I. C. Men who happened to fall into their hands weretreated as prisoners, but when on the Thursday afternoon the police fromAthenry made an attack, they were chased with motor-cars for a distanceof about four miles back to Athenry, where the forces of the Crown onlyjust managed to get into their barracks in the nick of time. 

The next day--Friday--saw the positions reversed, and news reached therebels that troops and artillery were on their way from Loughrea, somesix 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 invasionby Germany. 

Some made for the hills, others tried to get back to their homes, butmost were seized by the Belfast police, in cars driven by UlsterVolunteers, and those who did get back had to face not only the taunt ofignominious defeat but the anger of the Redmondites, who now foresaw thepossibilities of a retribution quite out of all proportion to thechances they had ever had of success. 

Indeed, that seems to have been the general result of the collapse ofthe rebellion all over Ireland; and though at first it apparently tendedto weaken the hands of the Irish Constitutional leader--who, when thenews 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 nearManchester, he was handed the news of the Phoenix Park murders--on thewhole it really considerably strengthened his position, much in the sameway 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 thetwo cases, and wired at once to Redmond, though it can of course only betaken as a very superficial verdict of the South African Premier on thereal grievances underlying the movement, since he could hardly beexpected to understand Sinn Fein, much less those subtle provocationswhich eventually counselled the mad appeal to Germany; for there can belittle doubt but that, if Castle rule had prevailed in Pretoria as itstill does in Dublin, South Africa would long since have been aconsenting party to German occupation. 

This, however, was only one of the subtler aspects of the rising whichhardly found its way across the Channel, and consequently could scarcelybe expected to appeal to a colonial who was not an Irishman himself. 

As the collapse became more general, however, it became more and moreevident to intelligent statesmen that it was more a hatred of Castlerule 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, morean armed protest against a domestic state of affairs than a real attemptto sever the Imperial link; nevertheless, the latter idea still survivedin the minds of the military authorities, who could see in it nothingelse, with the disastrous results that only became evident in theaftermath. 

CHAPTER THE FIFTH

AFTERMATH

The surrender and collapse of the abortive rising was no sooner overthan the whole affair took an entirely new aspect and passed through acompletely new phase when it came to deciding what should be thought ofthe incident and what should be done to the prisoners. 

It called for the utmost delicacy of handling on all sides, but this isjust what it did not get, and at once there was a complete revulsion offeeling for the Sinn Feiners which, had it come before the rising, mighthave 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 butthose immediately concerned entirely by surprise, and after a moment ofalmost speechless amazement the movement was promptly denounced by everymoderate man in Ireland. 

To the Nationalists it appeared at first as if it were the tearingasunder of the Home Rule Bill and the ruination of the constitutionalcause for ever. Consequently their attitude was, from their own point ofview, perfectly correct, viz. Unqualified denunciation. But as furtherdetails came along and their opponents in England began to make capitalout of it, the case became different. The cry went up that it was wantof strength on the part of Mr. Birrell, the Chief Secretary, who coulddo nothing but resign under the circumstances; and so pained was he thathe even went to the length of what was called a confession of guilt: buthis weakness had really been great strength--for any weakling can bestrong enough to sign an order for wholesale slaughter if he "damns theconsequences. "

True, there could be no minimizing of the event either in the matter ofcasualties or damage done. 

A fortnight previous and Ireland was still the "one bright spot" andSackville Street one of the finest thoroughfares in the kingdom, butduring those momentous days the capital had been for the greater part ofa week almost entirely in the hands of the rebels; a Republican flag hadtaken the place of the English Jack, which had floated over it for sevencontinuous centuries, and now Dublin lay a heap of crumbling buildings, whose smoking ruins looked like the track of the Huns--it might now becalled Ypres-on-the-Liffey. 

The loss of life, too, had been tremendous, but the military casualtieswere out of all proportion to those of the rebels, in some cases theskirmishes representing a proportion of ten, and even twenty, to one. The casualties, in fact, were as high as many a Boer War battle, andamounted to three hundred killed and over a thousand wounded, of whichnearly two hundred were civilians. They included over sixty officers andabout four hundred rank and file. The Royal Irish Constabulary lost twokilled and thirty-five wounded; the Dublin Metropolitan Police six; theRoyal Navy three; and the Loyal Volunteers sixteen. With regard to theSinn Feiners no figures are available, but they must have beenconsiderably 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 JohnMaxwell, who issued the following statement with regard to the action ofthe courts martial:--

"In view of the gravity of the rebellion and its connection with Germanintrigue propaganda, and in view of the great loss of life anddestruction of property resulting therefrom, the General OfficerCommanding-in-Chief has found it imperative to inflict the most severesentences on the known organizers of this detestable rising and on thosecommanders who took an active part in the actual fighting whichoccurred. It is hoped that these examples will be sufficient to act as adeterrent to intriguers and to bring home to them that the murder ofHis Majesty's liege subjects or other acts calculated to imperil thesafety of the realm will not be tolerated. "

The military authorities have been blamed for the excessive rigour withwhich these orders were carried out, especially for the use of shells, but it may be questioned how far this did not arise purely from thenature of the situation. 

Certainly the rebels were at a disadvantage, and consequently won acertain amount of sympathy, yet only a day before that sympathy wasentirely with the unfortunate military; but eventually a point wasreached when, instead of the military retrieving the situation lost bythe weakness of the politicians, it became a question whether they werenot undoing a good deal that it had taken a great deal of hard work uponthe part of the politicians to build up. 

Now this is no idle theory, but the only possible explanation of aseries of changes that ensued. 

When the news of the rising was first announced to John Redmond, he madea dignified if not too diplomatic reply, in which he expressed despairabout the situation and utter disgust about the culprits. 

The next official utterance was the somewhat ponderous manifesto of theIrish Party--interesting as an historical summary of Ireland's realattitude to the Empire, but lacking a grip of the actual psychologicaldrama of the situation. 

The same may be said of the Irish leader's first appeal for clemency inthe treatment of the prisoners. 

It was in the shape of a question asked of Mr. Asquith as to whether hewas aware that the continuance of military executions in Ireland hadcaused rapidly increasing bitterness and exasperation among largesections of the population who had no sympathy with the rising, andwhether it might not be better to follow the precedent set up by GeneralBotha in South Africa, where only one had been executed and the restexceedingly leniently treated, and stop the executions forthwith. 

The Premier's reply was a curt refusal, phrased in the terms of anabsolute confidence in the discretion of the military authorities. 

Unfortunately that "discretion" was exercised in such a manner as atonce to place its victims in the same category as Emmet, Wolf Tone, andthe Manchester Martyrs. In a word, to use the words of an Englishcritic, "It gave the Sinn Feiners the real victory, for it was lookedupon as the verification of all that they had feared and prophesied, andfor which they had, until that point, been looked upon as fools andscaremongers. "

Looking back over the situation at this critical juncture, it may wellbe doubted whether it was altogether wise to carry out any sentencesinto execution, and the Bishop of Limerick referred very pointedly tothe example of a very similar situation in the case of the Jameson raid, when the leniency of the Boer Republicans towards the raiders avoidedwar with England. 

Technically, of course, the two were exactly parallel--by all the lawsof sovereignty a rebel deserves instant death; but it became a questionof diplomacy as well--a point which seems to have been lost in the clashof battle. 

In other words, had time allowed--and of course there was no knowingwhat effect the resistance of Dublin might have on the country--it maybe a moot point whether it might not have been advisable to separate thetwo questions of the sentence of death and the actual executions, andone can well imagine the conciliatory effect of a Royal Act of Clemencyin the event of maturer consideration making it advisable to commutethose sentences. 

Thus Lord Bryce, who might have been considered not only to know Irelandfrom past experience, but to speak with his hand on the mental pulse ofthe American people on this matter, strongly advised clemency in thefollowing letter to the _Westminster Gazette_, in which he endorsed theadvice of Sir West Ridgeway, a former Under-Secretary for Ireland:--

"Permit me to express hearty concurrence with Sir West Ridgeway in theadvice which his thoughtful letter of yesterday contains. He knows, asothers who have lived in Ireland or have studied her history know, thatexcessive severities have done far more harm by provoking afreshrevengeful disaffection than punishment has ever done to quell it. Thiswas eminently true of the rebellion of 1798, suppressed with a crueltywhich shocked the humane minds of the Viceroy (Lord Cornwallis) and SirRalph Abercromby. The abortive rising of 1848 (which I am old enough toremember) was treated with a comparative leniency which the publicopinion of that day approved, and which was justified by the result. Itschiefs did not become heroes. 

"That condign punishment should be meted out to a few of those mostresponsible for this mad outbreak in Dublin, with its deplorablebloodshed, is inevitable. But this once done, a large and generousclemency is the course recommended by wisdom as well as by pity, and isall the more fitting because it will be a recognition of the fact thatthe rising was the work of a handful of persons, mostly ignorant, unbalanced visionaries, and is unequivocally condemned by the vastmajority 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 proclamationbeen executed, but every day brought another victim to the wall and toldof another long list of sentences to penal servitude and otherpenalties, while deportations--the old Cromwellian touch, when the WestIndies were peopled with Irish political offenders--reached the colossalfigure of over two thousand. 

Militarism is of course always a last painful resort, but there weresome 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 thesituation called for a soldier, and the hero of Omdurman was the nearestapproach to the good old Cromwellian type. 

The _Irish Times_, more English than the English themselves, then cameout with the following amazing solution:--

"We hope that martial law will be maintained in Ireland for manymonths. When the time comes for its removal, the change to civilgovernment ought to be smooth and gradual. This end can best besecured--in fact can only be secured--by the presence at the ViceregalLodge of a soldier who, having taken his part in government undermartial law, will be able to transmit the spirit of militaryadministration 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 outburstthat be Sir John Maxwell's character what it might--and he confessed tonever having heard of him in his life--"he would refuse, and Irelandwould refuse, to accept the character of any man as the sole guaranteeof a nation's liberty, " and the idea of military discretion fell dead atthe 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 ourwhole complaint against the Germans in Belgium. [1]

The case was particularly striking, as it was only because he happenedto be a well-known public man that any attention was paid to it, and ittended to give credence to the horrible rumours which now began tospread through Dublin of the secret carnage which was supposed to havetaken place during what was euphemistically called "the rounding-up ofthe rebels" and "house-to-house visitation, " while the citizens ofDublin were confined to their own houses under penalty of death if theystirred out without a permit after certain hours: and one has only towalk through the slums to hear the colossal proportions which theserumours have already attained, and which nothing but public civilinvestigation will stay. 

I had noticed Sheehy Skeffington myself upon the Tuesday, looking veryanxious and perplexed, and walking by himself without arms, and thepoint struck me at the time because of the remark of my companion thatit was rather strange that he did not seem to be in any way officiallyconnected with the rebels. 

It was in Sackville Street--just at the time when the looting was beingcarried on in North Earl Street, where they had been making abarricade--and with a paper in his hand, possibly the very notice he wascontemplating, he went in the direction of the Post Office porch, as ifto go in and consult about something that was on his mind: again Ipresume to try to stop the looting, for a couple of hours later I sawthe crowd of looters scattered several times by the firing of shots intheir direction; and when the Imperial Hotel was raided, a Sinn Feinertold me not to be alarmed at this when leaving the city, as they wereonly blanks and intended to prevent the wholesale robbery that was goingon. 

As a matter of fact, as his wife afterwards explained, Skeffington, farfrom taking any part in the rising, was actually helping to look afterthe innocent victims of the affray, such as the Dublin Castle officerwho was bleeding to death in the street, and this at imminent personaldanger to himself; and at the time of his arrest near Portobello Bridgewas actually engaged in the work of trying to stop the looting, havingjust come back from a meeting called to that effect, and had beenputting up the following poster:--

"When there are no regular police in the streets it becomes the duty ofthe citizens to police the streets themselves, to prevent such spasmodiclooting as has taken place. 

"Civilians (both men and women) who are willing to co-operate to thisend are asked to attend at Westmoreland Chambers (over Eden Bros. ) atfive o'clock on this (Tuesday) afternoon. 

 "FRANCIS SHEEHY SKEFFINGTON. "

Far from being a combatant, he was on principle a pacifist, and thusopposed to all use of physical force; but perhaps it is better to lethis own wife tell the story:--

"After he was arrested and had been sentenced to death, " to use thestatement 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 theauthorities would find out after his death what a mistake they made. "

Now, the concession of the mere possibility of such a colossal blunderwas, of course, the admission of the whole of John Dillon'scontention--namely, that, whatever might happen in Egypt, Ireland wasright in not accepting the discretion of any man as the sole guaranteeof her liberties. 

For if it could happen in such an eminent case, there could hardly beany doubt but that there was considerable truth in the rumours thatsimilar catastrophes were taking place all over Dublin, and indeed allover Ireland, and this in such a way as to madden the Irish people, andspread, if not insurrection, at least disaffection and bitterness fromone end of the country to the other; but it is useless, before anofficial investigation, to go into such examples as the Eustace Streetand King Street cases. Public investigations at the moment, however, would restore no lives, and possibly only endanger the chances ofreconciliation, which is the one great need of Ireland in the name ofEmpire. 

Quite apart from any examples, however, John Dillon maintained that thesystem in itself was far more likely to prejudice than to attain thevery ends expected of it, "for, if they only knew it, the BritishCabinet had far less power in Dublin than the Kildare Street Club andcertain other institutions which were running the military authorities;"but he struck the keynote of the situation when he said: "Ours is afighting race, and, as I told you when I was speaking before on theMilitary Service Bill, it is not a Military Service Bill that you wantin Ireland. If you had passed a Military Service Bill for Ireland itwould have taken 150, 000 men and three months' hard fighting to havedealt with it. It is not a Military Service Bill that you want inIreland; it is to find a way to the hearts of the Irish people, and whenyou do that you will find that you have got a supply of the best troopsin the whole world. "

Yet what John Dillon resented most, as indeed every moderate man inIreland resented it, was the insinuation that the rising had beennothing more nor less than an orgy of murder by a band of criminals, sothat it accordingly rendered every single Sinn Feiner liable to be shotat sight, whether he had actually taken part in the insurrection or not. 

For this conception the band of English journalists who had been sentover under escort to the captured capital were much to blame. With pensreeking with the description of Hunnish crimes, they wrote theiraccounts of "nameless atrocities" which were supposed to have takenplace 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 isintended to rouse the somewhat lethargic Briton to fight against a raceof which he knows next to nothing otherwise; but was doubly dangerouswhen applied to one's fellow-countrymen in the name of a party, and wereit employed, say, against Wales or Scotland would soon prove disastrous, for Scotchmen and Welshmen would rise in protest to a man--which is justwhat Irishmen did at the "hate" wave. 

Yet there was another reason--viz. The veracity and moderation of theBritish Press--at stake: the Press on whose veracity and moderationIrishmen depended for their motives for going away to fight for England, and this excess tended, so to speak, to tear down every recruitingposter in the country. 

Now, had the British censor refused to allow any mention of the risingat all in the English Press, it might have been unjust to Ireland, butit would have been far juster to England. Much the same applies to theEnglish Churchmen and their Church. When the Rev. R. J. Campbell, in aSunday illustrated, discovered that Holy Writ had already long beforethe rising declared in favour of Castle government and conscription forIreland, Irish sinners felt inclined to say: "So much the worse for HolyWrit. " And when the Rev. Lord William Cecil, preaching at Hatfield, summed up the ethical situation in a confusion between the meaning ofpride and patriotism, Dublin wits thanked him for the phrase, andremarked that indeed it had long been so, but ne'er so well expressed, and amplified the cynical aphorism to "whenever Irishmen are patrioticit is in reality nothing but pride, yet whenever Englishmen areoverproud it is nothing but the height of patriotism. "

None, in fact, could have damaged the English cause in this crisis morethan the English did themselves, in spite of all the Irish Nationalistswere doing to help them out of the difficulty; for, as one wit remarked, the whole catastrophe had been precipitated not by English Tories somuch as Irish Unionists--men, who it is difficult to say whether theymisrepresent England more to Irishmen than they do Irishmen to theEnglish, and a class which has ever got England into all Irish crisesand 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 ofthe enterprise. "Separatism" was, and will ever be probably, aneconomic, racial, and Imperial impossibility; yet it was just this pointthat was forgotten in the heat of the combat by Englishmen, with a fewnoble exceptions, of course. 

Instead of expounding the folly of the undertaking, they preferred todilate upon the criminality of methods and the character of the SinnFeiners, which is just where they fell into the most fatal mistake ofall and made the aftermath what it has been since--a far morecomplicated problem to deal with than ever existed before the rising orin the rising itself. Thus, when Sir Edward Carson raised his Volunteersin Ulster he had calculated most upon the moral effect the spilling ofblood would have upon Englishmen. The Sinn Feiners had calculated uponexactly the same psychological factor with their countrymen. 

When the Government had refused to take their arms by force, whichUnionists were in their hearts hoping they would, the refusal left thempowerless and discredited, save in the eyes of cinema operators, whoonly looked upon them as so much copy. 

When the authorities proposed, after this example, to take the arms ofthe 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 SinnFeiners, who, like the Covenanters, looked more to the moral effect thanto the material results of their efforts. 

Once the link of race had been appealed to, of course every attack thatreflected in any way upon the character of the fighters was resented bythe whole nation as a matter of honour, and that was what led JohnDillon, provoked by countless insinuations and accusations to hisonslaught upon the principle underlying the wholesale executions anddeportations. 

Had these penalties been inflicted upon those who had perpetrated the"cold-blooded murders" of the first few days, whose cry for vengeancehad been voiced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it would have been equally amatter of national pride to see the culprits were yielded up to justice;but "it was not these murderers that were being pursued, " as Dillonpointed out; it was the rank and file of the insurgents, and these had, by almost universal admission, behaved in a manner absolutely beyondreproach as fighting men. He admitted they were wrong, but they fought aclean fight, and they fought with superb bravery and skill, and no actof 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 thatthey were nothing but a pack of cowards--and this brought out acharacteristically telling taunt, namely, "that it would be a damnedgood thing for England if her soldiers had been able to put up as gooda fight as did these men in Dublin--three thousand men against twentythousand with machine guns and artillery"--which, coming at the verymoment of the announcement of the fall of Kut, must have beenparticularly 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 aheroic 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, asif there had been a formal declaration of war; but from the first momentthat they had felt their position nothing can be attributed to the rebelleaders which was not in the most complete accord with militaryprecedent. 

Indeed, not a few of the soldiers were struck by the self-control of theVolunteers, and the sense of discipline that pervaded their ranks; norwas it surprising, considering that while some of the Derby boys hadonly been in khaki for a couple of months the Volunteers had been intraining ever since the beginning of the war, going through routemarches, manoeuvres, and sham fighting week by week and, towards theend, night by night. 

True, the money may have been appropriated from such Government suppliesas fell into their hands, and there is no doubt that technically theyhad no right to such stores; but they had every precedent, and there iseven a story which tells of one of the leaders particularly asking oneof the captured military to see that the safe in the G. P. O. Was nottouched. 

There were certainly no cases of prisoners surrendering and beinginstantly shot; nor did civilians complain of any wanton looting of theoccupied premises, though at Jacobs's and Boland's full use was made ofthe stores; nor were there any of the Volunteers found drunk. Certainlythey should have prevented looting, but it was a duty as much incumbentupon any civilian. 

In other words, in so far as it could reflect upon the nationalcharacter, there was little that could be reproached against themovement save its insensate folly and, of course, the technicalcriminality of revolt. 

On the whole the thing was on a far higher ethical plane than themethods employed by the Fenians, as well as more widespread, and thething 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, inflictingghastly 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 wereoffered their freedom as non-combatants because they had merely beendoing hospital work, they refused on the ground that as they were infull sympathy with the movement they claimed the full honours of thepenalties of failure. 

Two things, however, must be mentioned--the one was their use ofcivilian clothes, and the second was their employment of "sniping"methods, both of which were highly dangerous to the rest of thenon-combatant population. 

With regard to the first--the use of civilian clothes--everybody whopossessed a uniform wore it, but the enthusiasm of the recruits outranthe means of equipment; and in any case it was adopted equally by themilitary, who in not a few cases owed their lives to a quick change intomufti, and who in other cases spent most of Monday and Tuesday inSackville Street in smart lounge suits as passive spectators of thescene, when as a matter of fact they were merely spying out--and ofcourse rightly so doing--the movements of the Sinn Feiners, togetherwith their strength and dispositions, and then 'phoning up theinformation 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 ofthe military than the Volunteer; in fact, over and over again I cameacross instances, sometimes of ignorance, sometimes of anger, sometimesof sheer recklessness, of the troops firing at anyone who appeared incertain localities. 

As regards the general "sniping" methods employed in the whole of theDublin rising it is hard to speak: certainly many of the Sinn Feinerswould have preferred a fight in the open, and the soldiers--especiallyat Mount Street Bridge--felt it desperately unfair, but, under thecircumstances, it became the only chance of the rebels, just as the useof 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 hadSinn Fein sympathies, and was on the list of suspects, which was ratherunfair, not so much to the Sinn Feiner himself, who knew he could nothave got any justice from him in any case, but unfair to the soldier andunfair to England. Thus, while elderly retired colonels and academicprofessors called for drastic vengeance on the scoundrels, whatimpressed such men as Colonel Brereton, who had actually had theexperience of falling into their hands in the G. P. O. , was "theinternational military tone adopted by the Sinn Feiners" and theirpeculiarly high standard of character. 

"They were not, " he declared, "out for massacre, for burning, or forloot. They were out for war, observing all the rules of civilizedwarfare, and fighting clean. So far as I saw they fought like gentlemen(?). They had possession of the restaurant in the Courts, stocked withspirits and champagne and other wines, yet there was no sign ofdrinking. I was informed that they were all total abstainers. Theytreated their prisoners with the utmost courtesy and consideration--infact, they proved by their conduct what they were--men of education, incapable of acts of brutality, though, also, misguided and fed up withlies and false expectations. "

Accordingly, upon their liberation, just before the surrender, theColonel was profuse in his gratitude for the most unexpectedly generoustreatment he himself and his fellow-prisoners had received at theirhands. 

Such stories came as rather awkward comments on the indiscriminateprosecutions that followed when the tables were reversed, and it wasrather a relief when English Conservative papers were at last forced inthe name of Empire to abandon the attitude taken up by Irish Unionistorgans in the name of the Castle; for it must have been compellingevidence indeed that made the _Daily Mail_, of all newspapers, come outwith the following, so to speak, unsolicited testimonial, which many anUlster organ would have preferred to close down rather than publish:--

"The leaders were absolute blood-guilty traitors to Britain, but in someways their sentiments were worthy of respect, " said the writer. "Theirswas an intense local patriotism. They believed in Ireland. They believedthat she would never prosper or be happy under British rule. They knewthat there were 16, 000 families in Dublin living on less than one pounda week. They saw the infinite misery of the Dublin slums, the foulestspot in Europe, where a quarter of the total population are forced tolive in the indescribable squalor of one-room tenements--I quote fromofficial records--and they believed that this was due to England'sneglect (as, indeed, it was), and that the Irish Republic would endthese things. Therefore they struck, and as far as they could exercisedirect control over the rebel army they tried to fight a clean fight. They begged their followers not to disgrace the Republican flag. Theyposted guards to prevent looting. They fought with magnificent courage. Nevertheless, their control was not far-reaching, and they weredisgraced by the anarchy of some of their followers. But it is necessaryto point out their virtues, because it is those and their ideals thatnon-rebel Irishmen are remembering to-day. "

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Cf. The telegram received by the Prime Minister from the man inwhose discretion the whole British Legislature had placed its absoluteconfidence: "Mr. Skeffington was shot on morning of 26th April withoutthe knowledge of the military authorities. The matter is now underinvestigation. The officer concerned has been under arrest since 6thMay. "

CHAPTER THE SIXTH

SINN FEIN--GERMAN GOLD

Two questions here confront us before going from the mere dramaticnarrative of the rebellion to its critical consideration. 

The first is, What exactly is Sinn Fein? and secondly, How far was therising actuated by German gold?

The words "Sinn Fein" mean literally "We ourselves, " _not_ "Ourselvesalone, " and, as the title and expression of a movement, are theantithesis of what they term "Parliamentarianism, " or "help fromoutside": but I know no better definition of it than the passage in thewriter in the _Irish Year-book_ article on "The Ethics of Sinn Fein. "

"We are always telling the Parliamentarians that we need not wait forthe Act of the British Parliament to make Ireland a Nation. We oughtequally to remember that we do not require an Act of the BritishParliament in order ourselves to become pure or temperate, or diligentor unselfish. Our liberty--our real liberty--the liberty both ofourselves and our country--is in our own hands. England cannot crush orkill it, or even seriously injure it. England can only remain inIreland, indeed, as long as our character is weaker than her guns. Gunsare stronger than middling character. Against real character, passionate, determined, and organized, they are less availing thanchildren's catapults. English domination feeds and thrives on weakcharacter. When every Nationalist makes his or her character strong andself-reliant and beautiful, English domination will die from sheer lackof sustenance. If you are weak of will or base in your character, youare as valuable a support to the English garrison in Ireland as thoughyou hated the Irish language and imported all your clothes fromYorkshire. _The only way to be a patriotic Irishman is to do your bestto become a perfect man. _"

The necessity for individual action, to continue the illustration of itsspirit, is emphasized by a very wholesome phrase. It is that "the onlypart of the Irish Nation which a good many of us have any chance ofsetting free immediately is ourselves. " In other words, no Parliamentcan make a nation free--not even a native Parliament; or, as ArthurGriffith 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 theGaelic element in Sinn Fein seemed to think, that "every Irishman whodoes not speak Irish is against his will a representative of EnglishDomination in Ireland and striking a blow at his country's heart. " Forwhen we come to consider it, English literature owes not a little to theCeltic spirit, as on the other hand Ireland of to-day contains not alittle of the Saxon strain. 

The attempt on the part of the Sinn Feiners therefore to establish suchan extreme and antiquated definition was strictly against nature--aretrospective move, in other words, as against the blending progressiveforce of evolution represented by Parliamentarianism. 

At the same time it would be hard to find a more fruitful, inspiring, orelevating passage than the following:--

"Choose the Ireland that you think is best, and fashion yourself in itslikeness. If you wish to see Ireland become a perfect country, a kingdomof 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 imaginaryIrish nation which is outside themselves, but in the actual Irish nationwhich 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 theindividual 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 couldproduce perfect men and women, and so my argument may appear to run in acircle. The State and the individual react on each other, however, eachhelping the other forward on the way towards some ultimate decency. _Some thinkers lay too much stress on the part that must be played by theState in producing the perfect individual; others have their mindsoccupied too exclusively by the part played by the individual inbringing about the perfect State. The man with broad views will, Ithink, see that both progressive individuals and a progressive State arenecessary, that they are complementary one to the other. He will aspireafter a free and self-reliant Ireland, and the first thing he will do inorder to realize his aspirations will be to make himself self-reliantand free--free from everything that is shameful and ignoble, as hewishes to see his country free from the shame of foreign conquest andthe ignominy of English rule. He will attempt to become himself amonghis neighbours what he wishes to see Ireland among thenations--conspicuous for honour and courage, and courtesy and virtue. "

As regards the best methods of propagating Sinn Fein, the writer laysstress upon "example being better than precept, " and then he remarks:"If the average professing Nationalist had been a perceptibly finercharacter than the average professing Unionist during the lasthalf-century, all the noble men and women in Ireland would by the law oftheir natures have been attracted to the national banner. "

The one blow which the Sinn Feiner strikes is at the unreality of theusual political distinctions of Nationalists and Unionists; both havetheir demonstrations, the writer points out, at which political speakersmake speeches consciously insincere, but justified by a sort oftraditional instinct; and both crowds go home equally convinced of theintolerance of their opponents, relying for victory "on the strength oftheir fists and lungs, " but all the thinkers despise it all, and this tosuch an extent that he is led on to remark: "If an impartial spectatorwere to go to an ordinary Green demonstration in Ireland, he wouldprobably be inclined to be an Orangeman; while if he were to attend anOrange demonstration he would probably come away feeling strangelysympathetic towards Nationalism. "

Which, after all, is only what every independent writer and thinker hasbeen bellowing forth for the past generation. 

With regard to the employment of physical force there is thissignificant passage:--

"Whatever is to be said in favour of the use of physical force againstEngland, there is nothing to be said in favour of Irishmen making use ofit against each other. It would be as wrong, for instance, for SinnFeiners to wreck a meeting of Parliamentarians as it would be forParliamentarians forcibly to break up a meeting of Sinn Feiners. Youmight compel timid people to join you in this way, and you would win thesupport of that great body of people that likes always to be on thestronger side. But it is not in the hands of the timid and the selfishthat the destinies of Ireland are. _The destinies of Ireland are in thehands of the free and noble men and women of Ireland whom you canpersuade, but could never compel, to join you_"; and he ends up: "If youhad all the force of all the Empires in the world at your back you couldnot increase the number of genuine Nationalists in Ireland byone"--which is perfectly true. 

In policy it is both selfish and altruistic: as a national movement itsaim is "Ireland first and Ireland alone and Ireland always"; as anindividual movement it inculcates that "no personal sacrifice is toogreat for one's country, " and it is probably this last feature that drewthe younger generation in thousands to its standards, and no doubt willcontinue to do so, for in this sense of self-reliance Sinn Fein willcontinue to exist as long as there is a single Irishman in Ireland. 

As to the constitution of "Sinn Fein, " it differs very little in idealfrom that of average Nationalism, save in the respect of itsapplication, and may be quoted in full, in view of its present interestand the importance of fully appreciating at the present critical momentwhat Sinn Fein really is. 

Sinn Fein means, as we have already seen, literally "Ourselves, " and isthe title and expression of a movement which denies the lawful existenceof the Incorporating Union in contradistinction to Unionism (which see)and Parliamentarianism (which see). Sinn Fein declares Ireland to be bynatural and constitutional right a sovereign State, and teaches that theelection of Irishmen to serve in the British Parliament is treason tothe Irish State, as no lawful power exists, has existed, or can exist inthat Parliament to legislate for Ireland. It advocates the withdrawal ofthe Irish representation from Westminster, and the formation in Irelandof a voluntary legislature endowed with the moral authority of the Irishnation. The constitution and aims of the Sinn Fein organization are asfollows:--

 CONSTITUTION. 

"The object of Sinn Fein is the re-establishment of the Independence ofIreland. 

"The aim of the Sinn Fein Policy is to unite Ireland on this broadNational platform. --1st. That we are a distinct nation. 2nd. That wewill not make any voluntary agreement with Great Britain until GreatBritain keeps her own compact which she made by the Renunciation Act of1783, which enacted 'that the right claimed by the people of Ireland tobe bound only by laws enacted by His Majesty and the Parliament of thatKingdom 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 atany time in the future, to work for our own advancement, and for thecreation of a prosperous, virile, and independent nation. 

"That the people of Ireland are a free people, and that no law madewithout their authority or consent is, or ever can be, binding on theirconscience. 

"That the General Council of County Councils presents the nucleus of aNational authority, and we urge upon it to extend the scope of itsdeliberation and action; to take within its purview every question ofnational interest, and to formulate lines of procedure for the nation. 

"That national self-development through the recognition of the dutiesand rights of citizenship on the part of the individual and by the aidand support of all movements originating from within Ireland, instinctwith national tradition and not looking outside Ireland for theaccomplishment of their aims, is vital to Ireland. "

Sinn Fein has been formed to re-establish a National Government inIreland, and, pending its establishment, advance that object by:--

I. The introduction of a Protective System for Irish Industries andCommerce by combined action of the Irish County Councils, UrbanCouncils, Rural Councils, Poor Law Boards, Harbour Boards, and otherbodies directly responsible to the Irish people. 

II. The establishment and maintenance under the direction of the GeneralCouncil of County Councils or other authority approved by the people ofIreland of an Irish Consular Service for the advancement of IrishCommerce and Irish Interests generally. 

III. The re-establishment of an Irish Mercantile Marine to facilitatedirect 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 mineralresources, under the auspices of the General Council of County Councilsor other national authorities approved by the people of Ireland. 

V. The establishment of an Irish National Bank and a National StockExchange under charter from the General Council of County Councils. 

VI. The creation of a National Civil Service embracing all the employeesof the County Councils, Rural Councils, Poor Law Boards, Harbour Boards, and other bodies responsible to the Irish people, by the institution ofa common national qualifying examination and a local competitiveexamination (the latter at the discretion of the local bodies). 

VII. The establishment of National Courts of Arbitration for the speedyand satisfactory adjustment of disputes. 

VIII. The establishment of a National System of Insurance of propertyand individuals. 

IX. The control and management of transit by rail, road, and water, andthe control and management of waste lands for the national benefit by anational authority approved by the people of Ireland. 

X. The control and management of the Irish sea fisheries by the GeneralCouncil of County Councils or other national authority approved by thepeople of Ireland. 

XI. The reform of Education to render its basis national and industrialby the compulsory teaching of the Irish Language, Irish History, andIrish manufacturing and agricultural potentialities in the primarysystem, and, in addition, in the University system the institution ofthe degrees of Doctor of Agriculture and Doctor of National Economics. 

XII. The non-consumption so far as practicable of articles paying dutyto the British Exchequer. 

XIII. The withdrawal of all voluntary support to the British ArmedForces. 

XIV. The non-recognition of the British Parliament as invested withconstitutional or moral authority to legislate for Ireland, and theAnnual Assembly in Dublin of persons elected by the voters of the Irishcities and counties, and delegates from the County, County Borough, Urban and Rural Councils and Poor Law and Harbour Boards to devise andformulate measures for the benefit of the whole people of Ireland. 

XV. The abolition of the Poorhouse System and the substitution in itsstead of adequate outdoor relief to the aged and the infirm, and theemployment 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 hardto say, and it was the greatest mistake that they ever made--some willsay, perhaps, their only one--but it must have been due either to theinfluence of Sir Roger Casement or James Connolly. 

Before this amalgamation it might have been said to have correspondedin methods to the ideals of the English Fabians and Economists likeSidney Webb and H. G. Wells. 

Had it proclaimed the motto "Put not your trust in soldiers" with thesame vigour as it had continuously preached "Put not your trust inParliamentarians, " it would undoubtedly have become the party of thefuture. 

It was, in fact, a protest against "oratory, oratory, oratory, " andpreached a doctrine of "works, works, works, " but with such vehemence asto become, like everything else in Ireland, eventually political, andwhen "Carsonism" became a recognized principle of legislation, militaryfrom sheer necessity. It might have been said to have been the onlyideal truly national, in that it endeavoured to unite, and in many casesdid unite, Nationalist and Orangeman, and did this to such an extent asto threaten to drain both parties, and consequently incurred theirjealousy. 

Not only were the distinctions of Catholic and Protestant abolished by"Sinn Fein, " but even those of Liberal and Conservative as well, and insome cases landlord and tenant, master and man. 

To bring about this fusion an intellectual group arose, which wasgradually, as we have said, drawing to itself some of the best brainsand hearts of the nation, and these, working hand in hand with thesocial reformers, brought abstract theories into touch with concreterealities. 

So far so good: their only enemies were the official Parliamentarians, but then, as their methods were diametrically opposed, this was onlywhat 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, whichapparently was to give the Parliamentarians victory within the span of acouple of years at most, the organization became a negligible quantity. 

Indeed, they voluntarily withdrew from opposition for fear it should besaid that in a moment of acute difficulty they had hampered any Irishmanin winning liberties for Ireland, and their daily newspaper waswithdrawn. 

As year after year passed, however, and Home Rule seemed to hang upon asnap division, and its hypothetical results possibly hung up for anothergeneration, Sinn Feiners grew stronger and stronger as Englishopposition to the Parliamentarians grew in strength, and they once morereiterated their old principle that, Home Rule or no Home Rule, muchcould be done by individual effort, and that eventually, even underself-government, they would have to depend upon themselves alone, andthey pointed to the Hungarian example of national regeneration outsidepolitics. 

At the first they were not, strictly speaking, in opposition at all to, but rather complementary of, the politicians; but the first moment thatCarson's followers began to arm, ostensibly against them both, therearose a general cry from Nationalist Sinn Feiner and Gaelic Leagueralike, to take measures for self-defence, which gradually grew into avolunteer organization on the lines already in force in Ulster. 

From the first it must be said that John Redmond was radically opposedto any appeal to arms, even as a threat, staking all upon aConstitutional movement. 

Hence in the winter of 1913-14 arose the first body of what were thencalled Nationalist Volunteers, the leading spirits being Mr. EoinMacNeill, Professor of Irish in the National University, and Sir RogerCasement. 

John Redmond was continually appealed to to come in with them, but asoften refused, until it became a certainty that Home Rule would beplaced upon the Statute Book, when he ultimately consented; but only oncondition that he had the nomination of half the controllingcommittee--a demand which was somewhat resented. 

Strange enough, it was the _Irish Times_ which criticized John Redmondthe most mercilessly of all for his attitude; and the passage is wellworth referring to (June 6, 1914), if only as a testimony to thecharacter both of the Irish leader and his opponents as well. The SinnFein 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 NationalistVolunteers were indeed still one, though the opposition between the twoparties was still alive, but at this point a new phase was entered into. 

John Redmond, it will be remembered, upon the declaration ofhostilities, at once offered the assistance of the NationalistVolunteers to defend the shores of Ireland. Possibly the Sinn Feinersthought they smelt conscription and militarism in this, for not only didthey formally expel the Redmondites, but entered upon precisely the sametactics in regard to the present war that the Parnellites adopted duringthe South African War. This consisted in violent pro-German sentiments, just as there had been pro-Boer sentiments a couple of decades ago. Likethe Parliamentarians of 1900, they laughed at the most extremesentiments of self-righteousness which at once came over the EnglishPress, in which "the hereditary foe of small nationalities" was suddenlychanged into "the champion of all honour, justice, and truth in theworld"--which was particularly galling, if not actually ludicrous, to arace 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_ quotedone of Joe Devlin's early poetic effusions which lucidly described themiseries existent "where the Flag of England flies. " _Honesty_, anotherof the Mosquito Press, as it came to be called, quoted John Dillon'sTralee speech of October 20, 1901, when he said: "I see there is agentleman coming over here looking for recruits for the Irish Guards, and I hope you will put him out if he comes, " which sentiments wereapplied to Mike O'Leary by the Sinn Feiners of the South when he turnedup, and I myself saw the eyes plucked from his posters as I passedMacroom. For Sir Roger Casement's attempt to form an Irish Brigadeanother parallel was taken, this time from Mr. Patrick O'Brien's Dublinspeech of October 1, 1899, when he said "he would not say shame to theIrishmen who belonged to British Regiments, because he had hopes that. .. Instead of firing on the Boers they would fire on the Englishmen. Itwas encouraging to think that out in the Transvaal there was a body ofIrishmen ready and willing to go into the field against England. "

Meanwhile, the party which once held these views as "the immutable firstprinciples of Irish Nationalism" and was now so vigorously loyal andenergetically military, appeared to the Sinn Feiners to have changed itsground, and thus to be betraying Ireland--quite forgetting that all thewhile it was England that had to a large extent changed its attitude. 

Thus a passage in the _Irish Republic_ pilloried them in a quotationfrom Parnell. "Parnell, " it said, "speaking at Limerick on the occasionof his receiving the Freedom of that city, foretold the corruption anddemoralization which a prolonged stay at Westminster would effect in theranks of the Parliamentary Party in the following memorable words: 'I amnot one of those who believe in the permanence of an Irish Party in theEnglish Parliament. I feel convinced that sooner or later the influencewhich every English Government has at its command--the powerful anddemoralizing influence--sooner or later will sap the best party you canreturn to the House of Commons. '"

As early as October 30, 1915, many Irishmen had begun to adopt the SinnFein attitude in this matter so strongly that Gilbert Galbraith came outwith a striking leader in _Honesty_, which, referring to the famousdictum of the defeated loyalists at the Battle of the Boyne--"Changekings, and we'll fight the battle over again"--openly advocated thechange, if not of leaders, at least of the methods of leadership fromRedmondism to Carsonism. "In nearly every crisis of his bitter fightwith Redmond, " said Gilbert Galbraith, "Carson had displayed thequalities of a successful leader with strength of character and boldnessof resource, and Redmond those of a weak, temporizing Stuart, and no mansince Parnell had so browbeaten, insulted, and lashed with scorn theBritish people. "

What the Sinn Feiners admired in Carson was his scrupulous honesty indeclaring what he wanted, and his gloriously unscrupulous determinationto see that he got it, and they called aloud that Nationalist Irelandshould find someone with the Ulster spirit to lead them. 

As a matter of fact it was curiously like what actually occurred, forthey found those leaders in two other Ulster men, Connolly and Casement, for Germany was merely their common tool--again a leaf out of theCarsonite book. 

Whence then came this link with Germany?

It is modern, very modern indeed--in fact, contemporary, certainlyaccidental. Sir Roger Casement had been abroad in the tropics most ofhis life: he hated politics; he cannot speak German, and has had to haveall his negotiations done through translators and interpreters. 

His sympathy with Germany was based upon the conviction that until thefreedom of the seas had been established by England's naval downfallIreland was bound to remain in intellectual, moral, and politicalvassalage; but that once Germany had broken the spell, Ireland couldthen come freely forward among the nations of the earth, free andunfettered 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 thatfreedom he wished to establish the future peace of the world, bringingSaxon and Teuton together as they are to-day together in the UnitedStates through the medium of the Celt; for the Irishman can speak withfar more truth of his "German cousins" than the Englishman, at least inAmerica; and America was to count in Sir Roger Casement's dream ofworld-politics. If the Clan-na-Gael did indeed forward German gold toIreland, it was with this aim, just as it was with this aim, it wassaid, that the Irish in America had steadily opposed the break withGermany. 

Now, it was never expected that Ireland would free herself in the comingstruggle, but there is a story current that he was supposed to haveobtained some guarantees--of what kind I could not find out--that in theevent of Germany winning Ireland would be mentioned at the peaceconference in the some category as Belgium and Poland when the principleof the re-establishment of small nationalities came up for discussion, but only upon one condition, and that was "that Ireland should rise andbe able to hold the Capital for a week. "

One can well imagine with what avidity such plans, with their reactionupon the very delicate negotiations now going on at Washington, would bereceived in Germany at the present moment. But his plans--or rather Ishould say his dreams--appear to have been matured long before the war;dreams dreamt in the solitude of the tropics when Europe still claspedthe illusion of universal peace. [2]

It was the Carson Volunteers that gave him the idea of the possibilityof a physical force movement. If Orangemen could drill, why notNationalists; if the planter could fight, why not the native; if thehands of Government could be forced by threats and arms brought in undertheir very eyes, why not take advantage of it; if war was inevitablesooner or later, why not prepare?--any way, it would be as noble to diefor a race's emancipation as the privileges of an hereditaryofficialdom. 

Plan for plan, and man for man, then followed the constitution of theIrish Volunteers--Carsonism turned on Carson--and Germany "used" ratherthan "served" in the interests of Ireland. 

When John Redmond, therefore, with the doubtful facility of oratoryattempted to explain away the whole rebellion with the insinuation thatthe whole movement was the outcome of German gold, he must for themoment have forgotten that he was talking to men who invariably lookedupon him as long ago bought up with American gold, and that he wasreferring to his fellow-countrymen in a protest against a class he hadhimself times out of number denounced as subsidized by English gold--andSir Roger Casement's denial of such an imputation as both insolent andinsulting was as true as it was dignified. 

As a matter of fact the only thing German about the whole rebellion wasthe "Prussianism" of the Castle, which was equally responsible for theoccurrence of the rising and these harsh methods of repression whicheventually--paradoxically enough--made it the moral success it has sincebecome in the hearts of Irishmen. 

FOOTNOTE:

[2] Cf. "Sir Roger Casement"--a character sketch without prejudice, byL. G. Redmond-Howard. Dublin: Hodges & Figgis. 

CHAPTER THE SEVENTH

MINDS AND MEN

In considering any sudden yet organized popular movement, such as arevolution, the most important things to examine are the minds and themen that directed it, for it is only by means of these forces thatsimmering discontents take definite shape and concrete determination. 

But it often happens that the characters of the leaders themselves andeven the objective remedies they propose are quite out of keeping withthe solution of the real grievances they complain of. 

Once given leadership, and confidence, fidelity, and sincerity followamong the rank and file as naturally as water flows from a spring--beingthe common factor of humanity--and this seems to have been the case inthe Sinn Fein rebellion of 1916. 

On the whole they had no reason to be ashamed of their leaders, thoughthey might have questioned their wisdom. Now, wickedness in thepolitical sense connotes the revolt against the organized authority ofthe State--political foolishness, the utter impossibility of realizing apractical aim. Naturally, therefore, the law was officially bound tolook upon them as a species of criminal lunatics. Public men, moreover, were forced by the very theory of government to denounce them, inconsequence, as enemies, and call for the sternest penalties ofretribution known to the Constitution, in order that the individual'sfate might become an object-lesson to the mass. 

Once having granted this, however, the civilian mind is free to make theinquiry--whether from morbid, scientific, dramatic, or emotional reasonsmatters little--as to what manner of men these leaders were, and whatmanner of minds gave the revolt its psychological aspect: but in thatinquiry no criterion of loyalty except that of fidelity to their ownpersonal convictions must be allowed to enter. Probably the most seriousmistake usually made by Irish politicians is that of classing successiverebellions as the acts of traitors or martyrs, according to theirrespective points of view, and certainly statesmen and thinkers couldmake no greater error in diagnosing the present one. 

Rebellions are not the outcome of innate perversity of race, but purelyscientific phenomena with objective causes. First, then, let us examinethe men themselves who led the revolt, before we pass on to theliterature that informed and inspired it. 

Sir Roger Casement was not the founder of "Sinn Fein, " nor was he theoriginator of the Labour Movement in Ireland: he found both ready-madeand used them to serve his own ideals for the future of Ireland and thuscan be termed a leader. 

Sir Roger Casement is an Ulsterman of the old type that was the backboneof the Rebellion of '98, when the Presbyterians of the North tried toemulate those English and Irish exiles who, persecuted out of theirnative shores by High Church tyranny, had laid the foundations ofAmerican liberty under Washington. 

That he is a man of character, and not the "bounder and scoundrel" thePress now makes him out to be, goes without saying, or otherwise hewould not have received the honour of a title at the hands of a gratefulcountry: in fact, until his entrance into the troubled waters of Irishpolitics he was one of the most universally respected of our civilservants. 

For ten years, from 1895 to 1905, for example, he was in the wilds ofAfrica, for the greater portion of his sojourn as Consul in PortugueseWest Africa and then later in the Congo Free State. 

After this he was sent to South America, and in 1909 he was appointedConsul-General at Rio de Janeiro. So trusted was he that when theBritish Government wished to investigate the labour atrocities on theIndians 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 ofbribery, or else he would not in 1905 have received the C. M. G. And in1911 knighthood--moreover, he was a man who may be said to have hadample opportunity of getting outside the narrow groove of Irish politicsand seeing something of the Empire. 

Yet while Irish politics had been moving with tremendous rapidity duringhis absence--the fateful years between 1895-1905--Sir Roger Casementseems never to have got beyond the Ulster of 1798--which I need hardlyremind anyone conversant with history was as rebellious to England aswas Wexford under Cromwell. 

This _idée fixe_ began to appear at once upon his return to Ireland inthe year 1913, when he found politics in a chaos of ferment, and seeingSir Edward Carson preparing to appeal to arms and his supporters toGermany, he too "began to indulge in treason in the same spirit asCarson and the Curragh crew, " as he himself described his attitude ofthat time. 

Possibly Germany was equally willing to sell her old rifles to bothparties, but the war precipitated matters. 

Autumn 1914 found Sir Roger (who, as we have already seen, had founded abody of volunteers in Ireland) in Berlin, where he was not only receivedat the German Foreign Office, but, in answer to an inquiry regarding theKaiser's attitude to Ireland, was assured by the Foreign Department andthe Imperial Chancellor that "Germany would never invade Ireland withthe object of conquering it, " and that, "supposing the fortune of warshould ever bring German troops to Ireland's coasts, they would land asthe forces of a Government inspired by goodwill towards a land and apeople for whom Germany only wishes national welfare and nationalfreedom. " That he was not acting in any way as the representative of thenation whose ambassador he was supposed to be was amply proved by hisrepudiation after this adventure by the Irish leaders at home and suchbodies as the Council of the United Irish League in America. 

Such was the dream or delusion, however, which changed one of the mostrespected of British Consuls into a rebel traitor to the Empire. Thereis no need to insinuate selfishness or vilify his character, for he musthave 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 maketheir choice and use their judgment, and they decided against him, notpersonally, but on the merits of the case he put before them, and therewas nothing to do but to pay the penalty; and it is better on the wholefor Englishmen to accept Ireland's own verdict upon Sir Roger Casementthan to place him in the same rank as those who really representedIreland 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, " saveas a protest against not so much the theory as the reality of what wentby the name of "Unionism. " There seems a certain tendency among themiddle classes and the mediocrities of mind in Ireland to class, eversince the days of Jim Larkin, the whole Labour Movement in Ireland as aspecies of hooliganism, though, strange to say, no one ever appealedmore successfully or was received with more genuine enthusiasm inEngland than the socialist leader when he was pleading the cause of thechildren of the Dublin slums. 

When Jim Larkin went to America, his mantle fell upon his right-handman, James Connolly, and it is impossible to understand the rebellionwithout understanding the man who was a far more important, and will bea far more lasting, factor in the movement than Sir Roger Casement. 

Casement used the magic hope of German help, but it was Connolly whopointed to the concrete grievances that would make any rebellion welcometo the workers. 

Yet there was nothing of the wild dreamer or the hysterical patriotabout James Connolly, the Ulster organizer of the Transport Union, muchless anything of the hooligan. 

His proper place should have been within the ranks of the ParliamentaryParty, like so many of the other leaders, especially the Sinn Feiners;and it is a very significant fact that, in spite of their nationalclaims, two of the greatest economic movements Ireland has seen sinceParnell should have failed to be assimilated by the politicians--but itreflects as much upon one as the other. 

Probably when he wrote his last work, a pamphlet entitled "TheReconquest of Ireland, " which was printed at Liberty Hall early in 1915, he had no idea that it would mean anything more than an upward economicstruggle of the submerged classes. 

"The Labour Movement of Ireland, " he wrote, "must set itself theReconquest of Ireland as its final aim, " and by the word "reconquest" ofIreland he means "the taking possession of the entire country, all itspowers of wealth, production, and its natural resources, and organizingthese on a co-operative basis for the good of all. "

It is significant that there is no religious or political bigotry: themovement is right outside both Carsonism and Redmondism, as indeed theirnew flag, with its significant colours--green, white, andorange--symbolizes; and he repeats the hope of the United Irishmen atthe end of the eighteenth century, "that our animosities were buriedwith the bones of our ancestors and that we could unite as citizens andclaim the rights of man"--the first of which is to be able to livefreely, that is, with the means of life no longer the property of aclass. 

He had, in fact, realized "that the old lines of political demarcationno longer served to express any reality in the lives of the people. " Ifanything, the new movement was antagonistic to them all, for in thesumming-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 HomeRule Press was a foretaste of the possibilities of the new combinationswith which Labour in Ireland will have to reckon. "

As I read all this once again during the height of the rebellion, withthe rattle of the maxims playing upon Boland's mills immediately behindme, where a couple of hundred of the men he had described were nowfighting Labour's first war under the name of an Irish Republic, at oncethe whole aspect of the rebellion changed. 

I still wondered, however, why it was that he had left the company ofWells and Webb and Booth, who were but his English counterparts afterall, and the general policy of Fabianism, when I suddenly discovered thekey not only to the man but to the movement as well, in his definitionof prophecy: "The only true prophets are they who carve out the futurewhich they announce. "

This, then, was the key to it all. Every dreamer should also be a man ofaction, every soldier a volunteer to his own idealism; and at once Iunderstood that strange combination between the "intellectuals" and the"workers" which formed such a unique feature of the rebellion, and whichthe prosperous citizens of Dublin--penned up in their houses for thefirst time hungry, and for the first time aware of the reality of life'sstruggle--could only blindly mass together under the name of "criminallunatics, " like the anarchists of Sidney Street in London some yearsbefore. 

Much less could the pink-faced Derby boys understand--and so I supposethought, because the crisis had synchronized with the European war andwas aimed at a state of things tolerated by English rule, it wastherefore only another indication of Ireland's double dose of originalsin, which always drove her to disloyalty to her benefactor. 

Dr. O'Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick, one of the ablest as well as the mostindependent thinkers in Ireland, has been mentioned as one of the forcesof the rebellion--in fact, he was generally supposed to be one of themarked men of the Fein programme of suppression, being considered moredangerous to the realm than Connolly--in a word, he was looked upon as ared-hot Sinn Feiner. Yet if his famous Lenten pastoral be examined onewill find it merely the broad Christian aspect of the war--nor would thecynical diplomatist, if we could get him to be candid, say he was farwrong in his facts. 

Thus, for example, speaking of the only possible result of theprolongation of the war to final victory for either party, he says:--

"No one can foresee even the smallest part of the consequences of thiswar. One thing, however, is certain, that it will leave the world in acondition 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 itwould have impoverished all Europe beyond recovery for generations, butthat poverty, by itself, will probably be the least of its evils. Itwill mean the paralysis of industry, the restriction of commerce, unemployment on a scale that has never been known before, and it is ananxious question how a hitherto powerful, well-paid, well-organizedpopulation of workers will submit to the altered state of things. Wehave had, from time to time, some ugly threatenings of socialism, but wemay fear that they are no more than the first mutterings of the stormwhich 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 fouryears, may well be worse than the war itself, and deluge Europe again inblood. If anyone thinks that millions of working men, trained to arms inevery country in Europe, will settle down peaceably to starvation inorder to help to re-amass fortunes for their 'betters, ' he may have arude awakening. "

It is his attitude towards England, however, that has brought him intoconflict with the recruiting authorities--yet what is the followingpassage, taken from his famous Lenten pastoral, but the purely Catholicattitude 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 feverfrom spreading to his own flock, for, after all, he spoke as aChurchman, not as a politician. 

I think it is now universally admitted that Belgium was not the solereason of our entrance, as it will not be the sole reason of ourcontinuance, in the war; in a word, that it is really "Britishinterests" that are at stake. 

The learned Irish Bishop merely puts the case in so many words--had wenot been engaged, the _Times_ might have said, "with the impartiality ofthe blunt, plain-speaking Englishman. "

He writes: "Then see the case of the small nationalities on whosebehalf many people have believed that the war is being waged. 

"What good has it done for them? What part have they played in it exceptthat of catspaws for the larger nations that used them? Belgium delayedthe German advance for two weeks and gave time to the English and Frencharmies to rally. For her pains she has been conquered and ruined. Serviabegan the war by an atrocious crime, and as reparation for it mightweaken Russia's aims in the Balkans, she was encouraged to resist. She, too, has played her temporary rôle and has followed in the wake ofBelgium. Montenegro is the next to go; and it would seem that the greatbelligerent nations look to themselves only, and use their weakerneighbours for their own purposes. This war is not waged by any of thegreat Powers as a quixotic enterprise for lofty ideals. 'Smallnationalities' and other such sentimental pretexts are good enough forplatform addresses to an imaginative but uninformed people, but they donot reveal the true inwardness of this war. All the belligerents havehad practical and substantial aims in view. France wants her lostprovinces of Alsace and Lorraine; Russia wants Constantinople; Englandwants the undisputed supremacy of the sea and riddance from Germancommercial rivalry; Austria wants domination in the Balkans and anoutlet on the Ægean; Italy wants Trieste and what is called _Italiairredenta_; Germany wants a colonial empire and a powerful navy; and allthese 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 materialgain. All the talk about righteousness is simply the cloak for ambition, and the worst of it is, that some of the belligerents have gone onrepeating the profession of their disinterestedness until they have cometo 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 notwant this war; there is no hatred of one another amongst them: but thegoverning cliques in each country have led or driven them like sheep tothe slaughter. God has been ignored; His law has been put aside;Christianity is not allowed to govern the relations of nations. And nowthe retribution is on them all. The fair dreams of victory and expandedempire and increased wealth and prosperity with which they set out havevanished long ago, and there is not a Government amongst them but istrembling for the day when it shall have to answer for its stewardshipto 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 goeson for another year they will curse the cowardice which kept them frommanfully facing the problem of peace, for which every principle ofreligion 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 aSinn Feiner, but it also goes to prove that one cannot shake thefoundations of international relations without stirring internalconditions to their very depths. 

The clergy, however, were upon the whole, as they always are, with theGovernment, as was instanced in a hundred different cases during therebellion. 

Two of the leaders were typical of the old Fenians of darker days. Onewas Thomas Clarke, who earned his living by running a newsagent's andtobacconist's shop, but who was also engaged a lot in writing for manyof the minor newspapers which were responsible for much of thepropaganda 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 fightfor the Boers against the British, and who must consequently have felt avery kindred spirit in Sir Roger Casement, who was merely repeating histactics. 

It shows how much Irish politics have progressed, however, that whileall Nationalist Ireland is now watching the trial for high treason ofSir Roger Casement with indifference, the Nationalists of those daysnominated McBride as Parliamentary candidate for South Mayo when avacancy occurred by the resignation of Mr. Davitt. 

He was at the time of the rising engaged as an official of the DublinCorporation, and had been married to--and divorced from--Miss MaudGonne, 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 andthe Anglo-German War, to use a Sinn Fein phrase--and if his laterattitude was now impracticable, it was certainly logical and consistentwith 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 fromthe Irish Transvaal Committee to ex-President Kruger, who told him that"he would never forget how the Irish Brigade stood by the men of theTransvaal in their hour of need. "

Captain William Redmond, M. P. , now in the trenches with the BritishArmy, had also been a delegate from Ireland, and had seen Oom Paul atthe Hague in much the same spirit of sympathy; but then Home Rule wasnot upon the Statute Book, and if that "scrap of paper" bound England, it was certainly no less binding upon Ireland, in that it had beenfreely entered into by her constitutional representatives. 

Probably McBride thought of the motto inscribed upon the flag that theIrish Brigade had used (later presented him by one of the officials ofthe 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, whenat the Manchester Martyr celebration he had appealed to his audiencenever to degrade themselves by entering the British Army, telling themthat if ever they wished to fight they ought to wait for the prospect ofa German invasion of Ireland. 

One of the strangest figures in the rebel ranks was that of the famousCountess Markievicz--formerly a Miss Gore-Booth, daughter of Sir H. W. Gore-Booth, the head of a well-known and respected Sligo family ofCromwellian descent. 

It was while in Paris as an art student some fifteen years ago that sheimbibed those extreme principles of democracy--almost, one might say, anarchy--with which her name became associated on her return to Dublinafter 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 Bohemianlife of her own, becoming notorious by her extreme socialistic opinions. 

During the Larkin crisis, when the transport workers and dockers wentout on strike, she opened a "soup kitchen" at Liberty Hall. 

She was also responsible for the organization of the "National BoyScouts, " an Irish replica of the English original, with a politicalbias, of course; and these soon attracted hundreds of Dublin lads, andfrom time to time the Countess would give them lectures and hold reviewsand inspections. 

These formed a considerable portion of the Citizen Army, and wereprobably the most violent of those elements in the Republic whodisgraced the otherwise remarkable "military" combat. 

One remark of the Countess's is very typical of both her temper and hertemperament, and in a way prophetic. 

It was supposed to have been said to a local Dundalk man, and was to theeffect that if she could only shoot one British soldier she would diehappy--a wish she must certainly have realized, for she was continuallyseen 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 anotherinteresting character, not only in view of the part he had taken toraise the revolutionary army, but also for the way, to use the words ofJohn Dillon, "he broke its back" when he found out that they were torise on that fatal Easter Monday--though this did not save him from thevengeance of the law. 

In striking contrast to the rather vapid sentimentalism and abstracttheorizing of many of the periodicals controlled by the Sinn Feiners washis own sheet, the _Irish Volunteer_. It was the most practical of allthe periodicals, and, beyond ordinary editorials and topical articles, always contained "Orders for the Week, " which included night classes andlectures and drills, while diagrams of trenches and earthworks appearedwhich covered the whole of Ireland. 

It is only when looking back over past numbers, with their articles onnight operations, local guides, reconnoitring, organization oftransports, reserves, signalling, and so forth, that one sees how it isthat they were able to hold up Dublin for a solid week; but Eoin McNeillowed his inspiration entirely to the men of Ulster. 

Some of the men, on the other hand, were of the gentlest disposition. Noone, for example, could be more the antithesis of the revolutionary inreal life than P. H. Pearse, President and Commander-in-Chief of theRepublican Army. Indeed, according to one account he was to havereplaced Dr. Mahaffy as Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, in the eventof the rising proving successful. Pearse was not even an Irishman, beingthe son of an English convert to Catholicism who had emigrated toIreland, but he was an enthusiastic Gaelic scholar, and there wasnothing he loved better than wandering among the peasantry of Galway andConnemara, while in his own establishment all the servants spoke Irishfluently. 

Though he had at one time intended taking up journalism, and was evencalled to the Bar, he was both by profession and inclination aneducationalist, being especially keen on the study of continentalmethods of education, such as those of Belgium and Germany. 

He conducted a secondary boarding school for boys, where all the wallswere decorated with the works of modern Irish artists, such as JackYeats and George W. Russell. He later, in order to give vent to hisviews, developed a gift for oratory, his oration at the grave ofO'Donovan Rossa having stirred all Ireland. He was also the author of acharming little volume of short stories entitled "Josagan, " or "LittleJesus, " while his translations of Irish folk-lore and cradle songs wereequally delicate. 

Crowds of the victims, in fact, were men of character, talent, andeminence--numerous writers, journalists, poets, authors, professors; butall were classed in the same category of felons. 

Indeed, it has been said that the blow was aimed as much at the freedomof the Press and the liberty of thought as the actual rising in arms;but as the majority of the sentiments maintained were but repetitions ofthe muzzled grievances of labour and thought in England, the effect willundoubtedly react through British democracy upon the heads of those whotook 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 ofimprisonment for speeches which had been interpreted as prejudicial torecruiting. Edward de Valera, who commanded at Boland's mill, and whowas sentenced to penal servitude for life, had been a professor inBlackrock College. W. O'Clery Curtis, who was deported, was ajournalist, and Arthur Griffiths the able editor of the _IrishYear-book_. 

Then came the disciples of the muses. Thomas MacDonagh seems to havebeen always more or less haunted with the vision of revolution, and asearly as eight years ago produced a play entitled "When the Dawn isCome, " though the insurrection it foretold was placed fifty years hence. 

He, too, wrote poetry, like Pearse, under whom he was at school, but hewas better known and his verse of a higher standard. He seems almost tohave had an inkling of his future fate, and might also be said to havedeliberately chosen the lost cause of his heart, for, in one of hisearlier 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 "LyricalPoems, " reprinted by the _Irish Review_. 

At the time of his death he was Lecturer in English Literature at theNational University. 

Probably one of the most pathetic figures of the whole revolt was thatof young Joseph Plunkett, the son of Count Plunkett, whose marriage uponthe morn of his execution sent such a thrill of romance through theEnglish-speaking world when it became announced. 

He too was a poet, and at one time the editor of the _Irish Review_, nowno more, and he was also a contributor to the _Academy_ and the _DublinReview_. 

A little volume entitled "The Circle and the Sword, " published byMaunsel, 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 writtenyesterday, 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 willbe most remembered. 

"Late on Wednesday night, " as Mr. Stoker, the Grafton Street jewelleralready 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 womanstepped out and asked me to show her some wedding-rings--'the best, ' asshe put it, 'that money could buy. '

"She had a thick veil, but I could see that her eyes were red withweeping, and, noticing continued convulsive sobs as she spoke, Iventured to ask her the reason. 

"It was then that she revealed the terrible tragedy she was about tosuffer. 

"'I am poor Joe Plunkett's--the rebel's--fiancée, ' she said, 'and we areto be married in prison to-morrow morning, an hour before hisexecution. '

"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 whenshe added: 'Oh! I can't tell you how I love him and how he loves me; webelong to each other, and even if we are only to be together for asingle hour I mean to marry him in spite of everybody, in order to bearhis 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 asthe story went round like lightning, but no one knew who she was untilthe next day, when we heard that she was Grace Gifford, the beautifuland gifted young art student whose portrait by William Orpen, entitled"Young Ireland, " had won the admiration of all London a few yearsbefore. 

Not all the character and talent and romance of these leaders, however, would have been sufficient to launch Ireland into open rebellion hadthere not been some concrete grievance as well which gave their wordsobjective worth. 

Style alone makes no martyrs, and the best way to understand theinfluence these men had upon their followers is to study the concretegrievances which they preached in season and out of season, makingrevolution not only sound plausible but actually practicable; and forthis we must turn to the literature, which explains the remoter homecauses of the rebellion. 

CHAPTER THE EIGHTH

REMOTER CAUSES OF THE REBELLION

Those who think they can explain away the Sinn Fein rising of 1916 bythe factor of German gold make much the same mistake as those who wereso anxious to explain away the Home Rule movement by American dollars. The fact of the matter is, great movements and national uprisings shouldnot 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 mewith the biography of my uncle, Mr. John Redmond, emphasizing upon methe tremendous importance of the study of Irish problems to an Empirelike ours, where nearly every one of its component nations is arepetition of Ireland. 

"We have made every mistake we could possibly make as a ruling race inour government of you Irish, " he said to me, "and we cannot, as we loveand wish to keep our Empire, continue to perpetuate them. 

"We can keep Ireland down if we like by force of arms, but we shallnever be able to keep our Empire by the same means, and that is why itis so important that with such an object-lesson at our very doors weshould be ever prepared to study how conquered or incorporated nationslook upon our rule. 

"That rule may be a protection, and it should be, but our stupidity canmake it a yoke; yet of this we can be certain, that what fails to winfriendship and respect in Ireland will fail to win security for ourEmpire when we employ those methods on nations who have it in theirpower to say us nay. "

In other words, as long as the suppression has only been a militarysuppression it has been no suppression at all; any more than a deliriouspatient who is drugged or held down by force by a couple of hospitalporters is cured by that expedient. 

Moreover, all such expedients are necessarily merely temporary, and whatwe want to get at are the root causes of the complaint. 

We must therefore fully diagnose those grievances of which the rebellionwas only the outward symptom, and against which the Republic was more, after all, a symbolic protest than anything else; it was no more reallyintended to establish a Celtic Commonwealth than Sir Edward Carson'sarmy was to change a Province into a Kingdom. Both were _façons deparler_, and the word "provisional" saved them from ridicule they wouldotherwise have deserved. 

I remember speaking to a prominent Sinn Feiner only a couple of daysbefore 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 atpresent, for things are trembling in the balance. There is a mosttremendous battle going on at the present moment at the Castle, weunderstand, between General Friend and Augustine Birrell--in otherwords, between the military and the civil authorities--and everythingdepends upon that issue. 

"They want to take away our arms, for example, and not those of Redmondor 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 completesubjugation of Ireland to the soldier, as in the days of Cromwell, andeven if we stand alone we will stop that. 

"They don't half of them know a tenth of our power; even people inIreland don't realize it. We are completely organized and perfectlyequipped, far better even than the Ulster Volunteers are, and they willfind out their mistake when they try. 

"They've made two attempts already, in a hole-and-corner sort of way, atthe Gaelic Press and at Liberty Hall, and the police found themselveslooking 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 ofit--you may depend upon it the whole world will get a surprise; it willbe 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 ofcode messages which never go through the post, but are distributed bymeans 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 wouldhave taken it--_cum grano salis_, but it all came back to me the momentI heard the first shot. Especially did it flash across my mind when, bringing back to Dun's Hospital a dead Sinn Feiner, the famous documentfell out of his pocket, which is strikingly similar in thought to myfriend's prognostications. 

According to Alderman Kelly, speaking on the Thursday before theoutbreak in the Dublin Corporation, some such order had been "recentlyaddressed to and was on the files of Dublin Castle, " according to whichthe arrest of all the leaders of the Irish Volunteers, together with themembers of the Sinn Fein Council, the Executive Committee of theNational (Redmondite) Volunteers, and the Executive Committee of theGaelic League, had been sanctioned. 

Probably, however, the best diagnosis of the situation immediatelypreceding 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 byhim, 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 thesilence of the daily Press, the military authorities are pursuing theirPrussian plans in Ireland unobserved by the British public; and, whenthe explosion which they have provoked occurs, they will endeavour todelude the British public as to where the responsibility lies. I writein the hope that, despite war-fever, there may be enough sanity andcommon 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 upto the present situation--the two years' immunity accorded to Sir EdwardCarson's Volunteers in their defiant illegalities, the systematicpersecution of the Irish Volunteers _from the moment of their formation_(_nine months before the war_), the militarist provocations, raids onprinting offices, arbitrary deportations, and savage sentences whichhave punctuated Mr. Redmond's recruiting appeals for the past eighteenmonths. As a result of this recent series of events, Irish Nationalistand Labour opinion is now in a state of extreme exasperation. Recruitingfor the British Army is dead; recruiting for the Irish Volunteers has, for the moment, almost reached the mark of one thousand per week--whichis Lord Wimborne's demand for the British Army. A special stimulus hasbeen given to the Irish Volunteer movement by the arrest and threatenedforcible deportation (at the moment of writing it is still uncertainwhether the threat will be carried out) of two of its most activeorganizers. 

"There are two distinct danger-points in the position. In the firstplace, the Irish Volunteers are prepared, if any attempt is madeforcibly to disarm them, to resist, and to defend their rifles withtheir lives. In the second place, the Irish Citizen Army (the LabourVolunteers) are prepared to offer similar resistance, not only todisarmament, but to any attack upon the Press which turns out the_Workers' Republic_--successor to the suppressed _Irish Worker_--whichis printed in Liberty Hall. 

"There is no bluff in either case. That was shown (1) in Tullamore onMarch 20th, when an attempt at disarming the small local corps of IrishVolunteers was met with revolver shots and a policeman waswounded--fortunately not seriously; (2) in Dublin, on March 24th andfollowing days, when, at the rumour of an intended raid on the _Workers'Republic_, the Irish Citizen Army stood guard night and day in LibertyHall--many of them having thrown up their jobs to answer promptly themobilization order--armed and prepared to sell their lives dearly. TheBritish military authorities in Ireland know perfectly well that themembers of both these organizations are earnest, determined men. If, knowing this, General Friend and his subordinate militarists proceedeither to disarm the Volunteers or to raid the Labour Press, it can onlybe 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 convincedthat this is precisely what the militarists do want. The younger Englishofficers in Dublin make no secret of their eagerness 'to have a whack atthe Sinn Feiners'; they would much rather fight them than theGermans. [3] They are spurred on by the Carson-Northcliffeconscriptionist gang in London. On April 5th the _Morning Post_vehemently demanded the suppression of the _Workers' Republic_; on April6th a question was put down in the House of Commons urging Mr. Birrellto disarm the Irish Volunteers. These gentry know well the precisepoints where a pogrom can most easily be started. 

"Twice already General Friend has been on the point of setting Irelandin a blaze--once last November, when he had a warrant made out for thearrest of Bishop O'Dwyer, of Limerick; once on March 25th, when he had adetachment of soldiers with machine guns in readiness to raid LibertyHall. In both cases Mr. Birrell intervened in the nick of time, anddecisively vetoed the militarist plans. But some day Mr. Birrell may beoverborne or may intervene too late. Then, once bloodshed is started inIreland, who can say where or how it will end?

"In the midst of world-wide carnage, bloodshed in our little island mayseem a trivial thing. The wiping out of all the Irish Nationalist andLabour Volunteers would hardly involve as much slaughter as the singlebattle of Loos. Doubtless that is the military calculation--that theircrime may be overlooked in a world of criminals. Accordingly, the nearerpeace comes, the more eager will they be to force a conflict beforetheir chance vanishes. Is there in Great Britain enough real sympathywith Small Nationalities, enough real hatred of militarism, to frustratethis Pogrom Plot of British Militarist Junkerdom?

 "Yours, etc. , "F. SHEEHY SKEFFINGTON. "

Personally, I think I can diagnose the rebellion into ten perfectlydistinct factors, but by far the least of them all is Germany. Germanywas the personal note which Sir Roger Casement brought in, and whichleft it with his failure. It was accidental and extraneous both to theSinn Fein Volunteers and the Citizen Army, though both were willing tomake use of it. 

Anyone who has taken the trouble to peruse the literature which fed themovement will recognize these diverse elements under various forms whichappear in different places, but they are perfectly distinct. 

The most immediate cause was the undoubted intention of the authoritiesto disarm them--a threat which had been overhanging them for some time, and which, in view of the well-known leniency of the Government withregard both to Sir Edward Carson and John Redmond in the same matter, struck them as particularly unjust, the more so perhaps because bothSinn Feiners and Larkinites thought that the Nationalists and theOrangemen would be only too glad to combine with the Government againstthem 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 howConnolly, the Commandant of the Citizens' Army, stopped the police raid, in search of papers, on the shop of the Workers' Co-operative Society at31, Eden Quay, having been informed of their intention. 

"Connolly, " says the account, "arrived on the scene just as one of thepolice got in behind the counter. Inquiring if the police had any searchwarrant, they answered that they had not. On hearing this, Mr. Connolly, turning to the policeman behind the counter as he had lifted up abundle of papers, covered him with an automatic pistol, and quietlysaid: '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. Hisfellow-burglar tried to be insolent, and was quickly told that as theyhad no search warrant they were doing an illegal act, and the first onewho ventured to touch a paper would be shot like a dog. After someparley, they slunk away, vowing vengeance. "

The story runs on for a column or more, and ends with furtherdiscomfiture for the police. Then one reads:--

"In an hour from the first issue of the summons Liberty Hall wasgarrisoned by a hundred and fifty determined armed men, and more weretrooping in every few minutes. It was splendid to see the enthusiasm ofthe men, and when in the course of the evening all the Women's AmbulanceCorps trooped in, closely followed by the Boy Scouts, excitement andlonging for battle was running high in all our veins. The IrishVolunteers were also on the alert, and stood, we are informed, untilafter 2 a. M. On Saturday morning. Since then the hall has been guardedday and night. "

The paper then goes on to speak of how "the heroic fighting at SuvlaBay, and even the valorous defence of Verdun, fades into insignificanceside by side in Dublin by the Citizen Army, and describes how LibertyHall is being guarded by day and by night, " and then goes on to pointout the danger which such open disregard of authority may lead toeventually. 

Then follow two significant quotations, one from the _Irish Volunteer_and the other from _The Spark_. The latter is an open boast of theefficacy of arms, and runs:--

"A few thousand Irishmen, who took the precaution or providingthemselves with lethal weapons of one kind or another, have, withoutcontesting a constituency and without sending a man to Westminster, compelled the Westminster Parliament to admit publicly that it dared notpass any legislation which they, the armed men, did not choose topermit. "

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 effectiveresistance in our power. Let there be no mistake or misunderstanding onthat point. .. . We shall defend our arms with our lives. "

Now, whatever may be thought of such sentiments, there can be no doubtwhence they originated, for they are sheer Carsonism through andthrough; and it was, as I have repeatedly pointed out, a pure stroke ofluck that it was not Belfast's City Hall instead of Dublin's Post Officethat was burnt to the ground. 

This physical force element, therefore, the Sinn Feiners and Larkiniteshad in common with the Redmondites and Ulstermen: the fact that theyactually were the first to put the principle into operation is nodifference at all. 

In other words, we have to go deeper for a specific distinction, andthat distinction is to be found in the very nature of the partiesthemselves who combined to form the provisional Republic. 

They were two movements which had grown up outside the two Parliamentaryparties and which refused to believe in Parliamentarianism as much forthe simple reason that their respective watchwords had become more orless worn-out tags, out of touch with the realities of modern Irishproblems, as because their leaders had, unable to assimilate them, takenup an attitude of almost personal antipathy to them and their ideals. 

It is certainly a most remarkable thing how John Redmond has lost theold Parnellite grip upon the younger life of the country, and it seemshardly credible that such an attitude should be due entirely to theperversity of youth and in no way to the natural consequence oftradition-loving age; but in any case the broad fact remains, and a toneof persistent criticism seems to have taken the place of the meekobedience of other days; and newspapers, dramas, novels, criticism, andmovements on all sides bear witness to it. The same, too, applies to SirEdward 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 entirelyto the "bankruptcy of Redmondism. " No doubt the justice of theaccusation 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 wewant to see the Sinn Feiners as they saw themselves and as they sawRedmond. 

The Government trusted to Redmond almost entirely, but, as Mr. Healycontinues, they forgot that--

"New crystallizations were taking place. The jobbery of the officialparty disgusted all earnest and unselfish minds amongst the youth ofIreland. The forces of Larkinism were embittered; and the acceptance ofsalaries by Irish members, after their formal declaration that theywould not accept them, sank deeply into the hearts of extremists. 

"The Insurance Act, the killing of land purchase, and the founding ofthe A. O. H. , sapped the foundations of belief, and it became known that'a high official achieved his ambitions on the judicial bench only bybecoming a professing Catholic and accepting initiation under the ritesof Mr. Devlin's brotherhood. The staff of the _Freeman's Journal_, theofficial patriot organ, got endless jobs. At the same time Mr. Redmondexcluded from his party, without trial or grounds, a dozen leadingmembers opposed to this policy. '

"All that was sober, unselfish, self-respecting, and self-reliantquitted his ranks and joined the Sinn Fein movement without thought ofrebellion or pro-Germanism. 

"The courage of the Sinn Feiners atoned for much of their folly in themind of those who realized that their spirit was not pro-German, but, inthe main, a revolt against the conversion of Dublin Castle into aRedmondite Tammany Hall. Their uprising was the answer to thecorruption, jobbery, and judge-mongering of the Molly Maguiresmasquerading in the vestments of religion. Hence the wholesale arrestsof men not in rebellion have evoked no protest from Mr. Redmond, 'whowatches calmly the dispersal of his critics, ' hoping to find a new leaseof life under a new jobbing nominee. "

The Larkinists were, if anything, still more out of sympathy with theofficial party because, in the words of Connolly, they looked upon themas no better than the English conqueror, since they took the side ofthe 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 ofmen resembled the unfortunate victims of rural landlords it was thesewretched victims of the tenement slums, the denunciation of which seemedto have no part in the official Parliamentary programme, so much so asto 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 atthe soldier for a week; they must examine the life-long student ofeconomics and read his "History of Labour in Irish History" and his"Reconquest of Ireland, " for it is here we have the revolution in itscause, which was just as much economic as political. 

It is the custom to speak of the Larkinites with scant respect, as ifthey were the mad, blind multitude of the "have nots" in perpetual preyupon the "haves"; but it is quite a false idea, for they have in theirmovement some of those who count socially and intellectually. 

Thus, for example, the training of the Citizens' Army was almostentirely carried out by Captain J. R. White, D. S. O. , son of the lateField-Marshal Sir George White, whose "Labour" ideas got him threemonths' imprisonment only a few weeks ago. 

As to the attitude of the average Dublin merchant towards the new labourparty that is arising, I know of no finer apology for Larkin than thebrilliant letter of "Æ. " to the _Irish Times_ in the days of the greatstrike, when he addressed the "masters of the city. "

In it he warned them--the aristocracy of industry--because like allaristocracies they tended to grow blind in long authority, and to beunaware that they and their class and their every action were beingconsidered and judged day by day by those who had the power to shake oroverturn the whole social order, and whose restlessness in poverty wasmaking our industrial civilization stir like a quaking bog. He remindedthem that their assumption that they were answerable to themselves alonefor their actions in the industries they controlled was becoming lessand less tolerable, in a world so crowded with necessitous life; butwhat he chiefly held them responsible for was their incompetence ascommercial men, because, with the cheapest market in the world at theircommand, 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 thepoor to be herded together so that one could only think of certainplaces in Dublin as of a pestilence?

"There are twenty thousand rooms in Dublin, " continued the terribleindictment, "in each of which live entire families and sometimes more, where no functions of the body can be concealed, and delicacy andmodesty are creatures that are stifled ere they are born. " In fact, "nothing that had ever been done against them cried so much to heavenfor vengeance as their own actions, such as the terrible lock-out, whichthrew 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 wasautocracy in political life, and it was superseded by democracy. Sosurely will democratic power wrest from you the control of industry. Thefate of the aristocracy of industry will be as the fate of thearistocracy of land, if you do not show that you have some humanitystill among you. "

It was from such roots that the spirit of the Citizens' Army drew itsinspiration (and possibly not a few of the looters as well), and it isimpossible to understand the rage of these men without fullycomprehending the condition in which they were compelled to live andmove. 

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 madethem resent the fear of any additional burdens and sacrifices such aswere demanded of their patriotism. 

Yet what did patriotism and Empire mean to them, save only the doublingof their burdens and their masters' profits?

If the Scotch workman in London and the Scotch worker on the Clyde andthe Welsh miner in the coalfields round Cardiff felt it, much more mustthe Irish docker; and it must never be forgotten that there is a triplelink of blood, interest, and common sympathy between the workers of thetwo islands; and one has only to glance at the way the respective labourPresses of the two countries kept in touch with each other for the pastyear to realize how much an English labour problem the Irish politicalproblem really was. 

This brings me to some further factors which can be discerned in therising--firstly, the fear of conscription; secondly, the hatred ofmilitarism; and, thirdly, the chronic loathing of Castle government. 

With regard to conscription, there has always been a dread of it. Theyhad seen it come in England, and had watched anxiously the way it hadbeen introduced and applied, and the farce of the Tribunals, whoseaction, in the words of the _Freeman's Journal_, would have beensufficient to cause a revolution had they behaved in Ireland as theybehaved in England. 

All during the summer months they had seen the cloud gathering, andIrishmen caught by a legal technicality and forced into the system; butall this came to a climax when the cry of cowardice was raised atLiverpool, as five hundred young emigrants, who would never have beenhelped to live for Ireland in their own country, were suddenly held upby order of the Cunard Company--which, as a matter of fact, owed nearlyits whole prosperity to its coffin boats of the Famine days, and whoseglaringly seductive posters had emptied Ireland, neither for America norIreland's sake, but purely to get the passage-money of the emigrants whowere now asked to go instead and "help England to give Constantinople toRussia, even if it cost them their lives. "

For they had a way of blunt speaking, these men whose everyday life wasan heroic fight for the home against "Hun" poverty. 

When the cry of "cowardice" was raised, however, it was high time toprotest, and none voiced that protest so well as Dr. O'Dwyer, the Bishopof Limerick, who wrote the following letter to the _Munster News_:--

"SIR, --The treatment which the poor Irish emigrant lads have received atLiverpool is enough to make any Irishman's blood boil with anger andindignation. What wrong have they done to deserve insults and outrage atthe hands of a brutal English mob? They do not want to be forced intothe English Army, and sent to fight English battles in some part of theworld. 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 compelledto lay down their lives for a cause that is not worth 'three rows ofpins' to them. 

"It is very probable that these poor Connaught peasants know little ornothing of the meaning of the war. Their blood is not stirred by thememories 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 inpeace in Connemara. Small nationalities, and the wrongs of Belgium andRheims Cathedral, and all the other cosmopolitan considerations thatrouse the enthusiasm of the Irish Party, but do not get enough ofrecruits in England, are far too high-flying for uneducated peasants, and it seems a cruel wrong to attack them because they cannot rise tothe level of the disinterested Imperialism of Mr. T. P. O'Connor and therest of the New Brigade. 

"But in all the shame and humiliation of this disgraceful episode, whatangers one most is that there is no one, not even one of their owncountrymen, to stand up and defend them. Their crime is that they arenot ready to die for England. Why should they? What have they or theirforbears ever got from England that they should die for her? Mr. Redmondwill say a Home Rule Act on the Statute Book. But any intelligentIrishman will say a simulacrum of Home Rule, with an express notice thatit is never to come into operation. 

"This war may be just or unjust, but any fair-minded man will admitthat it is England's war, not Ireland's. When it is over, if Englandwins, she will hold a dominant power in this world, and her manufacturesand her commerce will increase by leaps and bounds. Win or lose, Irelandwill go on, in our old round of misgovernment, intensified by a grindingpoverty which will make life intolerable. Yet the poor fellows who donot 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 andinfluence have not one word to say on their behalf. 

"If there is to be conscription, let it be enforced all round, but itseems to be the very intensity of injustice to leave English shirkers bythe million to go free, and coerce the small remnant of the Irish raceinto a war which they do not understand, and which, whether it is rightor 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 beenapplied to her own sons, yet England was applying it to Irishmen, " saidGilbert Galbraith in _Honesty_; adding: "for all she wants of Irishmenis their lives that she might live, " and he warned Irishmen that "she(England) who took everything they had and stripped them naked and leftthem like Christ to the ribald jest and sneer of the rabble in theworld's back-streets, would, like every bully, try to have revenge whenshe got them by themselves. "

Had this been mere verbal sword-play, however, I should not quote it; itwas more: it was the taking up of the challenge of cowardice. 

"Will you in God's name get ready to answer her?" concluded the famousarticle in which he appealed to these would-be exiles repatriated byforce; "because, if you want to, all you have to do is to get into touchwith the nearest corps of Irish Volunteers. " They would give theminstructions, he added pointedly, how to act, and what they did they hadbetter do quickly, for it might be too late on the morrow. 

Could one be surprised, I ask, if some of these would-be emigrantsanswered the taunt gun in hand?--especially when men like Captain White, who was afterwards to try to rouse the South Wales miners to endeavourto save Connolly, was telling them plainly:--

"You are fast being led into industrial slavery. You know it, and I amapprehensive and angry, but too bewildered to move. To rob you of yourright over your own poor bodies is the workers' tyrant. To rob you ofyour sovereign power over your own will is the workers' devil. 

"Awake, brothers, before your liberty is dead. Arm yourselves againstyour real enemies. Say to the tyrants and their agents, 'The first manwho lays hands on me against my will dies. '"

All this, I say, jumps to the eyes of anyone perusing the literaturethat 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 inthis quasi-medical diagnosis of diseased mentality, is whether or notthese thoughts were present in the psychology of the combatants, and Imaintain that the evidence is undeniable. 

The attitude of "conscientious objectors" to militarism in England isEngland's own affair. Yet I cannot, in my own mind, separate thepersonality of Sir John Simon from that of John Hampden. No doubtship-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 tothe principle of the King taking money without the consent ofParliament, John Hampden thought it his duty to the traditions of hiscountry to resist, just as Sir John Simon thought it his duty to thetraditions of the British conscience to passively protest--but thatagain, I say, is a matter for Englishmen. 

The attitude of the Irish conscientious objector, however, has alwaysbeen of a more militant form, and this began to assert itself among thelabour leaders in Ireland through the medium of the more outspoken ofthe English labour leaders. Whereas in England the masses of workers arenaturally loyal, in Ireland loyalty is a sustained effort against thegrain of tradition. Hence, while in England the right to rebel fell onunsympathetic soil, in Ireland it merely relit the smouldering embers ofpast grievances into flame. 

For there had been a growing epidemic of the phrase "Shoot them, "applied almost indiscriminately, like a quack panacea, by politicalorators 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 LibertyHall, to illustrate the strength of the feeling on this subject:--

"Although Great Britain is suffering neither from invasion from withoutnor insurrection from within, the military authorities are not only incommand of the defences of our shores but of the civil authorities, andthe whole population of the realm. The birthrights of Britishcitizenship embodied in the Magna Charta, Habeas Corpus, and Bill ofRights are no longer inviolable. Martial Law--that is to say, militarydespotism--may be put in operation at will by the military commanders. Civilians may be seized and tried by Army officers, and even sentencedto any penalty short of death without appeal to trial by jury. Our WarLord is made virtual dictator. A military censorship has beenestablished over the Press and public meetings. Military officers mayenter 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 privateproperty. Strikes may be declared acts of treason, Trade Union officialsarrested and tried by courts martial, and soldiers used asblacklegs--and no knowledge whatever of these happenings, not even ofthe existence of strikes or trade disputes, may reach the general publicat all if the authorities so determine. .. . "

A phrase that seems to have done great harm, and was specially singledout by the men of Liberty Hall, was "Shoot him!"--as a form of argumentemployed by every Tom, Dick, and Harry orator, on every conceivablesubject without the slightest constitutional authority; but it must besaid it was one used by all parties. 

During the Home Rule controversy, for example, the Nationalists werejust as fond of employing the phrase towards Carson as during the Welshcoal strikes Conservatives were of using it towards the miners. 

The danger of such doctrines in Ireland is this, that whereas in Englandit is the upper class principally that is militarist, in Ireland it isprincipally the lower class, and whereas it is the Castle authoritieswho are always preaching the iniquity of physical force, it is the lowerclasses who mainly admire it. 

Realizing this, as any student of Irish history would, there should nothave been the slightest doubt about the danger of employing force to menwho not only had the principle of active resistance but the armsnecessary to make it effective, and it has always appeared to me as themost marvellous thing the Liberals ever did that they were able to allowUlster the full possession of arms without once provoking an occasion onwhich to actually put them to use. 

The result of this fatal misuse of the words "Shoot him!" as a form ofargument--which unauthoritative should be made a penal offence--was thatthe workers really feared that such irresponsible individuals if giventhe power would really carry out the threat, and determined toanticipate the danger by a protest in arms. 

Another contributory cause was undoubtedly Castle rule, and the fearthat with the holding up of Home Rule it might continue for ever, unlesssome effective protest were made. 

The Chief Secretary was himself the foremost in admitting this to be oneof the contributory causes of the rebellion. 

"There are a number of contributory causes, which lately have createdantipathy to constitutional methods and tended to increase in numbers. First--growing doubts about the actual advent of Home Rule. If the HomeRule Bill had not been placed on the Statute Book there must have beenin Ireland and the United States a great and dangerous explosion ofrage and disappointment, which when the war broke out would have assumedthe most alarming proportions in Ireland. All (outside parts of Ulster)would have joined hands, whilst our reports from Washington tell us whatthe effect in America would have been. Still, even with Home Rule on theStatute Book, the chance of its ever becoming a fact was so uncertain, the outstanding difficulty about Ulster was so obvious, and the detailsof the measure itself were so unattractive and difficult to transmuteinto telling platform phrases, that Home Rule as an emotional flag fellout of daily use in current Irish life. People left off talking about itor waving it in the air. 

"Second, in Ireland, whenever Constitutional and Parliamentary procedurecease to be of absorbing influence, other men, other methods, otherthoughts, before somewhat harshly snubbed, come rapidly to the surface, and secure attention, sympathy, and support. The sneers of theO'Brienites, the daily naggings in the Dublin _Irish Independent_, alsocontributed to the partial eclipse of Home Rule, and this eclipseforetold danger. "

Another point is worth noting in this connection, and that was thegrowing power, first of the Coalition and then of the Unionist cliquewho were capturing it. Thus says Mr. Birrell:--

"The Coalition Government, with Sir Edward Carson in it--it isimpossible 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 thesame Cabinet with Sir Edward Carson had no mollifying influence. If Mr. Redmond had consented, he would, on the instant, have ceased to be anIrish leader. This step seemed to make an end of Home Rule, andstrengthened the Sinn Feiners enormously all over the country. "

A general desire for peace and a sort of Socialistic feeling ofbrotherhood, I should say, were two further contributory causes. 

"The prolongation of the war and its dubious end, " as Mr. Birrellobserved, "turned many heads. Criticism was not of the optimistic typeprevalent in Britain, and consequently, when every event had beenthoroughly weighed, there was always a chance of Germany lending ahand. "

As to the general attitude of Sinn Fein and Larkinite Ireland, it mightbe described as one of benevolent neutrality where, as in many cases, itwas not one of actual hostility. 

True, recruiting figures had reached a total quite unprecedented inIrish history (150, 000), and loyalty had received an official stimuluswhen the Irish leader and the Lord-Lieutenant toured the provincestogether; but this was discounted in the country districts by thedeliberate plans of the Sinn Feiners, and in the towns, or rather inDublin, by a sense of the futility of all war, and in particular thiswar, whose aims were vague enough to the statesmen, and appeared almostillusory to the worker. Hence anyone reading the _Workers Republic_could have noticed whole passages that might have been taken direct fromthe German Socialist Liebknecht. 

One very significant leader (Saturday, February 5, 1916) on "The Tiesthat Bind" is well worth quoting in parts as an example of thisfeeling:--

"Recently we have been pondering deeply over the ties that bind thiscountry to England. It is not a new theme for our thoughts; for longyears we have carried on propaganda in Ireland, pointing out how thestrings of self-interest bound the capitalist and landlord classes tothe Empire, and how it thus became a waste of time to appeal to thoseclasses 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 andfinancial security, whereas to the working class that meant only thethings it was in rebellion against. 

"Therefore from the intelligent working class could alone come therevolutionary impulse. 

"Recently we have seen the spread of those ties of self-interest bindingcertain classes and individuals to the Empire--we have seen it spread toa 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 thepopulation not evilly affected by this social, political, and moralleprosy. .. . 

"For the sake of £400 a year our parliamentary representatives becomeImperialists; for the sake of large travelling expenses and luxuriousliving they become lying recruiters. .. . 

"There is nobody in a representative position so mean that the BritishGovernment will not pay some price for his Irish soul. Newspaper mensell their Irish souls for Government advertisements paid for at alavish rate. Professors sell their souls for salaries and expenses, clergymen sell theirs for jobs for their relatives, business men selltheir souls and become recruiters lest they lose the custom ofGovernment officials. In all the grades of Irish society the onlysection that has not furnished even one apostate to the cause it hadworked for in times of peace is that of the much hated and traducedmilitant labour leaders. 

"But if the militant labour leaders of Ireland have not apostatized, thesame cannot be said of the working class as a whole. .. . 

"Perhaps some day the same evil passions the enemy has stirred up in somany of our Irish people will play havoc with his own hopes, and makemore bitter and deadly the cup of his degradation and defeat. 

"But deep in the heart of Ireland has sunk the sense of the degradationwrought upon its people--our lost brothers and sisters--so deep andhumiliating that no agency less potent than the red tide of war on Irishsoil will ever be able to enable the Irish race to recover itsself-respect, or establish its national dignity in the face of a worldhorrified and scandalized by what must seem to them our nationalapostasy. "

Now the strange thing about Ireland is her definition of "loyalty. " Itis not with her a species of sentimental altruism but a plain, business-like, common-sense view of her own interests, and nothing canmake her change that view, for she has through centuries ofdisillusionment become chronically suspicious. 

"I dare say I don't take the same view as you would were you in myplace, " wrote Mr. Birrell to the Prime Minister on January 25th. "Loyalty in Ireland is of slow growth, and the soil is uncongenial. Theplant grows slowly. Landlords, grand juries, loyalist magistrates, haveall gone; yet the plant grows, though slowly. "

Her patriotism, on the other hand, is almost necessarily a matter ofinternal administration; and for this she fights with all the spiritthat animated her in the past against Dane and Saxon. Hence it is quiteeasy for an economic grievance at once to assume the proportions of anational movement, and once it becomes resisted as such, the spirit ofnationality becomes rekindled again, and it was this latter thatprompted the final efforts in the evolution of the Republic. 

America and Germany both contributed to intensify the spirit ofnationality and gave material assistance that made the attempt at"Separatism" a practicable ideal, but it was only made possible becauseof 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 questionwhich the breakdown of the old regime suggests seriously to all thinkersis whether there are not ample means within the Constitution, and Ithink it is the universal opinion of the more moderate that there is;and it is just these moderates whose views will be the more welcomebecause of the failure not merely of the Sinn Feiners to establish aRepublic, but of Sir Edward Carson and John Redmond to come to anunderstanding that would have placed them in a position to havecontrolled it in time, and, which is more important still, to be able todeal with any repetition of a similar character in the future. 

Probably no analysis of the remoter causes of the rebellion, however, ismore accurate than the psychological origin given by George Bernard Shawin a letter to the _Daily News_ on May 10th. 

"The relation of Ireland to Dublin Castle is in this respect preciselythat of the Balkan States to Turkey, of Belgium or the city of Lille tothe Kaiser, and of the United States to Great Britain. 

"Until Dublin Castle is superseded by a National Parliament and Irelandvoluntarily incorporated with the British Empire, as Canada, Australasia, and South Africa have been incorporated, an Irishmanresorting to arms to achieve the independence of his country is doingonly what Englishmen will do if it be their misfortune to be invaded andconquered by the Germans in the course of the present war. Further, suchan Irishman is as much in order morally in accepting assistance from theGermans in this struggle with England as England is in accepting theassistance of Russia in her struggle with Germany. The fact that heknows that his enemies will not respect his rights if they catch him, and that he must, therefore, fight with a rope round his neck, increaseshis risk, but adds in the same measure to his glory in the eyes of hiscompatriots and of the disinterested admirers of patriotism throughoutthe world. It is absolutely impossible to slaughter a man in thisposition without making him a martyr and a hero, even though the daybefore the rising he may have been only a minor poet. The shot Irishmenwill now take their places beside Emmet and the Manchester Martyrs inIreland, and beside the heroes or Poland and Serbia and Belgium inEurope; 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 forsuch passages, and I know that in many cases officers were particularlydistressed at having to fight Irishmen instead of Germans. 

CHAPTER THE NINTH

REFLECTIONS TOWARDS RECONSTRUCTION

One of the most gratifying things about the terrible catastrophe throughwhich we have been passing during the last few weeks is the spirit ofhope which has taken the place of the spirit of despair whichimmediately followed the outbreak. 

Ireland has ever been more of a problem suited to statesmen than tosoldiers; indeed, the soldier has more often than not come in to spoilthe work of the statesman, and Mr. Asquith's hurried visit to Dublin, Cork, and Belfast after John Dillon's speech was chiefly undertaken inorder 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 matterto the test as to whether England held Ireland by her own freeconstitutional consent, or whether it was merely a permanent militaryoccupation, like Belgium and Poland. "England is not the champion ofsmall nations, " they said. "She never was and never will be, and whileshe is masquerading before the world as such it is our intention, inIreland's name, to give her the lie--yes, even though it be in our ownblood. "

Indeed, as I have already said, there appears to have been a beliefamong the Sinn Feiners that if only they could hold the capital fortwelve days by force of arms they would have a sort of claim to bementioned at the Peace Conference along with Poland and Belgium. 

Now, it matters very little whether such a suggestion came from Berlinor Washington, or whether the whole thing was a fable, for the grandfact remains that England now stands before Europe with the point ofIreland's loyalty openly questioned, and she has only two courses open:she must either neglect Irish opinion and proclaim that she holds thesister isle by right of conquest--when, of course, the fate of Belgiumis sealed as far as England's ethical pleading is concerned--or she maymake such a final compact with Ireland that she can afterwards maintainbefore the whole world, without fear of contradiction, that Ireland isfreely one with England without the help of a single soldier. 

It's really more important than winning the war, if Englishmen couldonly realize it--for the psychology of Ireland is the psychology ofevery one of the constituent nations of our common Empire; and the lateMr. Stead used to say to me, "A blunder in Irish government is a blunderin Imperial government"; but I never realized this so much as when Ilearnt with what an intense interest the Indian students present inDublin had followed the whole case. 

When the Irish leader, therefore, in the acuteness of the momentexpressed the hope that no party would be allowed to make capital out ofthe event, he expressed a hope which was re-echoed in every Irishbreast; but it would have been far more effective if he had insteadexpressed the hope that each party should bear its proper share in theguilt of the catastrophe. 

For the danger is the making of the Sinn Feiners into a nationalscapegoat for the faults of all. 

For in a sense all were responsible. True, neither Redmondites norCarsonites took any part in it--and it is very lucky they did not, forit would have meant civil war and fearful bloodshed from one end of thecountry to the other--but in neither case was it out of any love forEngland, for both of them fully realized that they might have been inthe position of the Sinn Feiners themselves, and both were equallydetermined to rid Ireland of English meddlers. 

It might almost be called a "tragedy of errors, " for there was nothingbut blundering all round. England should never have allowed Carson toarm, nor should Redmond have followed suit if he wished to play theconstitutional game to the end; but once both had appealed to theprinciple of physical force, neither had a right to censure the methodsof a third party which had arisen out of their own incapacity to keepthe country in hand. 

England was in principle perfectly justified in employing force againstthe whole three of them, and hastened to take full advantage of thesituation by handing the reins of government over to the military--butthat 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 endin itself: it was only the protest of conscientious objectors which wasbeing lashed into activity under continual provocation--the provocationof being threatened with the loss of everything they held most dear inlife, and eminently admired by Englishmen for that very fact. 

Normally Sinn Feiners and Orangemen were men of peace, the oneeconomists, the other business men, who might indeed have been easilypacified had they been openly and sympathetically treated with, insteadof being galled into fury by the taunt of bluff or cowardice, and suchepithets as insignificant, negligible minorities. 

In an orgy of majority government both stood out for the sanctity ofminorities, especially when those minorities represented inviolableprinciples 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 considerabledistress, and it at once became necessary to organize a system of fooddistribution and relief for the sufferers. 

This was largely undertaken by the St. Vincent de Paul Society, underSir Henry Robinson, Vice-President of the Local Government Board, andwith the help of the military authorities, who lent motor-lorries andmoney, food was distributed to over one hundred thousand persons. 

House-to-house visitations were made, and these revealed all forms ofdistress, from lack of food, which, of course, it had been impossible toobtain as long as the city was in a state of siege, down to absoluteruination of whole families. 

In places the city looked like Antwerp during the siege, or London uponthe arrival of the Belgian refugees. 

No one has yet been able to estimate the full extent of the materialdamage sustained by the reckless bombardment of the city--for no otherword can be used; and though Captain Purcell, the chief of the DublinFire Brigade, gave the rough figure of £2, 500, 000, this must be taken asa 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 acatastrophe. 

Take, for example, the loss of the Royal Hibernian Academy, withthousands of pounds of pictures. No price can repay these, for theyrepresented perhaps the culminating point, or at least the turningpoint, in careers which had had years of hard struggles, and which hadset perhaps a lifetime's hopes upon a single canvas. 

From all accounts, too, it was the merest chance that the whole northernportion of the town did not fall a victim to the devouring flames, andit is hard to understand the psychology of the military mind which couldrisk even the mere possibility of such an event, as it is hard tounderstand why the firemen were fired on by the rebels when trying toextinguish the flames. 

The hardest part of it all was, moreover, that the blow fell almostentirely upon the shoulders of the innocent, viz. The merchants, tradesmen, shopkeepers, and employees, who were thus ruined at a singlestroke within the space of a few hours without even a chance of aprotest. 

People began to ask seriously whether it had really been necessary atall, and the verdict was not always complimentary to the authorities. Mr. Healy raised the question in the House whether any such measures hadever been really necessary, considering that the rebels held such fewpositions, and these could have been isolated by the municipal watersupply being cut off. It certainly seems plausible that some less brutalmethods could have been adopted, considering the way Cork was saved froma similar catastrophe by the tact of the clergy, who would only havebeen too willing, and undoubtedly would have had the power, to act asmediators between the rebels and military in the name of the civilauthorities and in the interests of the inhabitants principally andIreland generally. 

A very cute suggestion I heard from Mr. George Atkinson, the well-knownDublin artist, as we were preparing the cover of the present volume inhis 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 themselveswith contempt and ridicule if they had been left alone. 

"These men were asking for martyrdom and the glory of battle: why onearth give them their admitted object?

"They were in possession of the Post Office. Very well, but they couldnot have run the postal service. They were in possession of therailways. Well and good, but they would not have been able to conductthe train service. They had assumed the reins of government, but wouldthe people of Ireland have acknowledged them? Certainly not. They hadtaken over the management of the capital, but were they able to policeit even, or protect private property? Why, from the very first moment oftheir victory--if victory it could be called--the whole place had beenat the mercy of the mob. 

"Again, they issued receipts in the name of the Irish Republic'sexchequer, but what financier would have honoured their bills? Couldthey have even taken the gold from the banks they could not have gotcredit or cash for any further transactions. They had assumed soleauthority over the people of Ireland, yet they could not have commandedenough votes to secure a single constituency. 

"These men, left to themselves, in fact, and treated with a sense ofhumour, were on the highroad to the greatest political fiasco the worldhad ever seen, and could only have made themselves ridiculous andcontemptible in the eyes of their own countrymen and others throughoutthe world. 

"They had appealed to Germany: very well; let them look to German helpfor assistance, and in the meanwhile let them know that Casement hadbeen captured already, before the rising, and the phantom Prussianarmada had been sunk to the bottom of the sea. 

"What could have happened? You say 'Pillage and murder. ' They were notout for that, in the first place, nor were they that type; and it may bequestioned whether, had they set about it with deliberate purpose, theywould have worked such havoc as the military and naval artillery wroughtin that fatal week. "

The theory is certainly one which would have had no precedent torecommend it, but to my mind it was just this that was its bestrecommendation; in fact, what was most needed was to avoid a repetitionof the old fatal precedents which had turned so many futile revolts intoglorious outbursts of patriotism. 

Just imagine the situation. England would first of all have told themshe wished for no bloodshed beyond the punishment of those who hadactually 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 theyin any way sympathized with such a revolt, and let the penalties beknown--the immediate erasure of Home Rule from the Statute Book and thecessation of land purchase, as well as the stoppage of all commercial orfinancial transactions. 

Finally, if these failed and the people of Ireland really wished for warin its full reality, they could have it, but they must not everafterward appeal as constitutional partners in the Empire, but merely asa conquered race: mercy they might have, rights they would haveforfeited by conquest. 

Had such a course been followed, there would not only have been anopportunity 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 whichto establish their preposterous claims to continuance in the positionthey had taken up. 

In a word, the English would have made fools of them, or rather allowedthe Irish to make fools of them. Instead of this, all the old fatal, discredited methods were employed with the same fatal results, and theybecame national heroes, whose suppression by force could only give themgreater power. 

The whole thing would have taken no longer than the campaign; no furtherblood would have been spilt, and time would have been allowed for thegreat adventure to reveal itself in the true grotesqueness of coldreality. 

Possibly it was looked upon as _infra dig. _ to treat with rebels, but itwas so obviously a mental case that it is hard to see how anything couldpossibly have been _infra dig. _ under such circumstances. 

On Monday and Tuesday the Republic was no more representative of thepeople of Ireland than the tailors of Tooley Street were the people ofEngland, but upon the old Grecian principle that the sufferings of onecitizen are the sufferings of the whole State, it became national fromthe moment the national sentiment had been aroused by the indiscriminateshedding 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 theofficial party almost to--in fact, actually to--a state of desperation, and an act of despair became their last resort. The Statute Book indeedproclaimed Ireland a nation once again, but the Government treatedIreland more like a province than ever, and her own representativesseemed to acquiesce; so, as Mrs. Pearse, the mother of the "President, "told me afterwards, "there was nothing left for them but to accomplishthe sacrifice demanded to save the soul of Ireland and proclaim her onthe 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 theleaders brought out their true character, it has ceased to be lookedupon as a piece of knavery, for these men, according to all accounts ofthe priests, died the death of saints, not scoundrels; so that we nowrealize 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 misunderstandingwhich has been growing between all parties in Ireland, then they havenot died in vain, for every party must feel to a certain extentresponsible for the catastrophe. Several things, however, seem to standout prominently amidst the chaos. 

Castle government is dead as Queen Anne and Home Rule as natural and asinevitable as the morrow's sunrise; Unionism, in the English sense ofEmpire, survives: everyone is a Unionist now; but what still remainsinexorable is the attitude of Sir Edward Carson, whose "Unionism" ismerely a euphemism for "bureaucracy, " and who, with the UlsterVolunteers still in arms, equally prepared to resist constitutionalgovernment, whether from Westminster or from Dublin, is the greatestHome Ruler of us all--or should we say Sinn Feiner?

Personally, I have always thought, and still think, that the Orangemanhas more to gain in an Irish Parliament than anyone else as representingthe layman, the business man; but I, for one, should be sorry to seeHome 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 inconsequence, but his successful opponents have not gained the victory, for we are now rapidly drifting towards the total exclusion of severalcounties--the thing of all things they most wished to avoid. 

All the while people are wondering whether it is the people themselvesor the politicians who are responsible for the antagonism, and three ofthe greatest national movements since the days of tenant grievancesstare us in the face as outside, if not politics, at least outside theordinary conventional politicians--I mean Sir Horace Plunkett'sCo-operative Movement, Larkin-Connolly's Labour Movement, and Sinn Fein. 

Surely something is wrong if such movements cannot be assimilated byeither of the great political parties, as they should have been if thoseparties 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 orthreatening the unfortunate Premier, already sufficiently occupied withthe intricacies of English politics, let alone European. 

The step must come from the Englishman in his own defence: Englishpolitics must no longer be dominated by the votes or the threats of anyIrishman, and some method must be found, while safeguarding the Imperiallink, to force Irishmen to meet each other and settle with each other:for the only result of ruling Tipperary from Downing Street is thatWestminster 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 ofDublin Castle seems to be definitely doomed. The question is rather whatthe change will be. Speculation, which may or may not be partiallyinformed, concentrates upon the scheme of a new Irish Advisory Council. I may offer a more detailed sketch of this scheme, of which I will onlysay that some responsible Irish members think it is very likely to benear the mark. An Irish Council, if created now, would probably be anadvisory body, resembling the Viceroy's Council in India. TheLord-Lieutenant, who ought to be an active and energetic administrator, would no doubt preside over it. As to the membership, it would have toconsist of representatives of both Irish Parties. It is thought possiblethat some Nationalist and Ulster Unionist members of the House ofCommons would be on it, and would, of course, sit with it in Dublin. Inaddition there might be responsible Irish public men (like, for example, Sir Horace Plunkett), both Home Rulers and Unionists, who are notmembers of the House of Commons or officially attached to a party. Theremight also, in view of the educational problem of Ireland, be one or tworepresentatives of the Churches. This would form what is talked of asthe Irish Coalition, in which it is assumed both Mr. Redmond's Party andSir Edward Carson's would join. "

The tribute which Mr. Birrell paid to the Irish Literary Revival and itsinfluence upon Irish life is worth quoting, for it indicates one of thesources whence much may be hoped in the work of reconstruction. 

"This period, " he said, referring to the period immediately precedingthe rebellion, "was also marked by a genuine literary Irish revival, inprose, poetry, and the drama, which has produced remarkable books andplays, and a school of acting, all characterized by originality andindependence of thought and expression, quite divorced from anypolitical party, and all tending towards and feeding latent desires forsome kind of separate Irish national existence. It was a curioussituation to watch, but there was nothing in it suggestive of revolt orrebellion, except in the realm of thought. Indeed, it was quite theother way. The Abbey Theatre made merciless fun of mad politicalenterprise, and lashed with savage satire some historical aspects of theIrish revolutionary. I was often amazed at the literary detachment andcourage of the playwright, the relentless audacity of the actors andactresses, and the patience and comprehension of the audience. This newcritical tone and temper, noticeable everywhere, penetrating everything, and influencing many minds in all ranks, whilst having itsdisintegrating effects upon old-fashioned political beliefs and worn-outcontroversial phrases, was the deadly foe of that wild sentimentalpassion which has once more led so many brave young fellows to a certaindoom, 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 newcritical temper would, in my belief, have finally prevailed, not indeedto destroy national sentiment (for that is immortal), but to kill byridicule insensate revolt. But this was not to be. "

With regard to "Separatism, " I believe this--and I think in so saying Iam echoing the sentiments of most of my fellow-countrymen, that the onlyway to liberate Ireland is to dominate England, not physically, for thiswould be as useless as it would be impossible, but mentally and morally. 

If the Irishman has been persecuted and tyrannized over, it is in virtueof certain ideals and principles which are ethically and economicallyinferior to his, and which he has consequently to crush in the verysource, as much for his own sake as for those other members of theEmpire to which, if it has been a misfortune to belong in the past, itmay be an advantage and an honour to belong to-morrow. 

If Castle government is wrong in Dublin it is wrong elsewhere; ifmilitarism was wrong and foolish and futile in Cromwell's day, it iswrong to-day, to-morrow, and for all time; if England really intends atthe great Peace Congress to come forward as the champion of smallnations, she must be able to show an Ireland prosperous, contented, andfreely allied to her without the aid of a single soldier or a singlethreat. 

Such at least is the hope of all those who believe that only when wehave solved the Irish problem have we solved the problem of Empire. 

Primarily, however, the task is in Ireland's own hands: for England atthis moment stands not unwilling or hostile so much as perplexed andbewildered at the strange eruption that has taken place, and which mustbe taken rather as an indication of a chronic state than the expressionof any concrete or definite complaint. 

In other words, there is already a new nationalism in the making, moreidealistic, more spiritual, more constructive, and more comprehensivethan the old nationalism, which was to a large extent geographical, material, and traditional to an almost stifling degree: the eyes of theyounger men are fixed on the future, those of the older men are fixedupon 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 spherethe younger generation has already shaken hands. 

The spirit of the two is the same, the aspirations just as intense, buttheir methods are different: geographical isolation is against naturalevolution and "Separatism" an economic, racial, and militaryimpossibility--this last rebellion has exploded the myth; but all thiswill only have the effect of changing the ever-living consciousness ofnationality into different channels. 

Instead of being expansive, our patriotism will tend to be moreintensive: our combat with England will no longer be with arms, but withthoughts and ideas, and the nobler and the truer will win; and it is inthis contest that "Sinn Fein" will come forward with new force of the"living dead. " If Ireland cannot be the strongest nation, she can be thefreest; if she cannot be the greatest, she can be the purest; if shecannot be the richest, she can be the happiest and the kindliest: and asGreece conquered ancient Rome, so may Ireland some day conquer England, if those ideals which were bred and nurtured within her bosom can bemade to dominate the inferior Saxon till they spread throughout theworld; and that is why, whatever happens, Ireland must keep her"nationality" free by whatever means lie at her hands, and that was theroot cause of the revolt, if we are to believe the words of the men whosuffered. 

"Others have been struck before now, " said Pearse in the course of anaddress which he delivered in October 1897 to a young men's literarysociety, "by the fact that hundreds of noble men and true have foughtand bled for the emancipation of the Gaelic race, and yet have allfailed. Surely, if ever cause was worthy of success, it was the causefor which Laurence prayed, for which Hugh of Dungannon planned, forwhich Hugh Roe and Owen Roe fought, for which Wolfe Tone and Lord Edwardand Robert Emmet gave their lives, for which Grattan pleaded, for whichMoore and Davis sang, for which O'Connell wore himself out with toil. Yet these men prayed and planned, and fought and bled, and pleaded andwrote and toiled in vain. May it not be that there is some reason forthis? May it not be that the ends they struggled for were ends neverintended for the Gael?. .. The Gael is not like other men; the spade andthe loom and the sword are not for him. But a destiny more glorious thanthat of Rome, more glorious than that of Britain, awaits him: to becomethe saviour of idealism in modern intellectual and social life, theregenerator and rejuvenator of the literature of the world, theinstructor of the nations, the preacher of the gospel of nature-worship, hero-worship, God-worship--such is the destiny of the Gael. "

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