1916 (73 page)

The First World War and the Rising: mode, moment and memory

1. Jeffery, Keith,
   Ireland and the Great War
   , CUP, Cambridge, 2000, p. 2.
   
2. For a more ‘microcosmic’ exploration of 1916, see my
   The GPO and the Easter Rising
   , IAP, Dublin, 2006, where I focus not just on the Rising but specifically on the Post Office itself.
   
3. Arthur Hamilton Norway (secretary to the Irish Post Office), quoted in Ibid
   ., p. 30.
   
4. See the discussion in Howard, Michael,
   Clausewitz
   , OUP, Oxford, 1983, chapter 3.
   
5. Black, Jeremy,
   War and the world: military power and the fate of continents, 1450–2000
   , YUP, New Haven, 1998, pp. 227–29.
   
6. The hymn was written for a ‘Children’s Festival’ at Horbury Bridge, Yorkshire (where Baring-Gould was a curate) in 1864. Watson, Richard and Trickett, Kenneth (eds),
   Companion to hymns and psalms
   , Methodist publishing house, Peterborough, 1988, p. 407.
   
7. Springhall, John,
   Youth, empire and society: British youth movements, 1883–1940
   , Croom Helm, London, 1977.
   
8. See, for example, his chapter, ‘Militarism in Ireland, 1900–1922’ in Bartlett, Thomas and Jeffery, Keith (eds),
   A military history of Ireland
   , CUP, Cambridge, 1996, pp. 379–406.
   
9. Verhey, Jeffrey,
   The spirit of 1914: militarism, myth and mobilisation in Germany
   , CUP, Cambridge, 2000, is a salutary corrective to easy generalisations about war enthusiasm.
   
10. For a discussion of Irish recruitment, upon which I have drawn for this essay, see Jeffery,
    Ireland and the Great War
    , pp. 5–20.
    
11. Barry, Tom,
    Guerrilla days in Ireland
    , Anvil edition, Tralee, 1962, p. 8.
    
12. A phrase used by Philip Orr in his splendid
    The road to the Somme: men of the Ulster division tell their story
    , Blackstaff, Belfast, 1987, p. 38.
    
13. See
    Workers’ Republic
    , 25 December 1915, quoted in Dudley Edwards, Ruth,
    Patrick Pearse: the triumph of failure
    , Faber edition, London, 1979, p. 245.
    
14. Jeffery,
    Ireland and the Great War
    , pp. 14–15.
    
15. Pearse to Joseph McGarrity, 19 October 1914, quoted in Dudley Edwards, Patrick Pearse: the triumph of failure
    , p. 357.
    
16. ‘Peace and the Gael’, in Pearse, Patrick H.,
    Political writings and speeches
    , Phoenix, Dublin, 1924, p. 216.
    
17. See Dudley Edwards,
    Patrick Pearse: the triumph of failure
    , p. 245.
    
18. From the
    Irish Worker
    , 8 August 1914, reprinted in Musgrove, P.J. (ed.), Connolly, James: a socialist and war, 1914–1916
    , Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1941, p. 36.
    
19. For those who welcomed the war (if, in most cases, only briefly), see Hynes, Samuel,
    A war imagined: the First World War and English culture
    , Bodley Head, London, 1990, part I.
    
20. Quoted in Foster, R.H. ‘Irish Methodism and war’ in McCrea, Alexander (ed.),
    Irish Methodism in the twentieth century
    , Irish Methodist Publishing Company, Belfast, 1931, p. 76.
    
21. Church of Ireland Gazette
    , 4 September 1914, quoted in McDowell, R.B.,
    The Church of Ireland 1869–1969
    , Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1975, p. 106.
    
22. Report of diocesan council of Meath for 1914, p. 76.
    
23. The Tablet
    , 3 April 1915, quoted in aan de Wiel, Jérôme,
    The Catholic Church in Ireland 1914–1918: war and politics
    , IAP, Dublin, 2003, p. 16.
    
24. Irish Catholic
    , 25 September 1916, quoted in Privilege, John, ‘Michael Logue, the Catholic church and public affairs in Ireland, 1879–1924’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Ulster, 2005, p. 174.
    
25. Redmond, John, Strong words from Mr Redmond, Joseph Causton, London, 1916, p. 3, quoted in Denman, Terence,
    Ireland’s unknown soldiers: the 16th (Irish) division in the Great War
    , IAP, Dublin, 1992, p. 129.
    
26. ‘Anon’ [Vivienne Smyly], ‘Experiences of a VAD’, in
    Blackwoods Magazine
    , no. 200, July–December 1916, p. 839.
    
27. Foster, R.F.,
    Modern Ireland, 1600–1972
    , Penguin, London, 1988, p. 483.
    
28. Dublin and the ‘Sinn Féin Rising’
    , Wilson Hartnell, Dublin, 1916.
    
29. These names have been extracted from Donnelly, Mary,
    The last post: Glasnevin cemetery. Being a record of Ireland’s heroic dead in Dublin city and county
    , National Graves Association, Dublin, n.d. [1932], p. 26, and War Office,
    Soldiers died in the Great War, 1914–19
    , part 23, The Royal Irish Regiment, HMSO, London, 1921, pp. 19–20.
    
30. Denman,
    Ireland’s unknown soldiers
    , p. 19.
    
31. This follows the argument advanced (at greater length) in my 2003–4 Parnell lecture, published as
    Ireland and war in the twentieth century
    , Magdalene College Cambridge occasional paper no. 33, Cambridge, 2006.
    
32. A good illustration of this can be found in the activities accompanying the bicentenary of the 1798 Rebellion. Some of the debates can be followed (from a distinct standpoint) in the stimulating work of the distinguished Cork historian, Tom Dunne, including his deservedly prize-winning,
    Rebellions: memoir, memory and 1798
    , Lilliput, Dublin, 2004.
    
33. Hill, Judith,
    Irish public sculpture
    , Four Courts, Dublin, 1998, pp. 71–72.
    
34. Irish Builder
    , 13 September 1919.
    
35. Martin, F.X., ’1916 – myth, fact and mystery’,
    Studia Hibernica
    , vol. vii, 1967, p. 68.
    
36. For the UVF see Timothy Bowman’s assessment that ‘the UVF certainly did not transform itself en bloc into a division of Kitchener’s army’ in, ‘The Ulster Volunteer Force and the formation of the 36th (Ulster) division’,
    Irish Historical Studies
    , vol. xxxii, no. 128, November 2001, pp. 498–518, at p. 517. For the ‘pets’ remark see the entry in the diary of Sir Henry Wilson, 31 December 1915, quoted in Jeffery, Keith,
    Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: a political soldier
    , OUP, Oxford, 2006, p. 158. For the 16th (Irish) division generally, see the excellent survey in Denman,
    Ireland’s unknown soldiers
    .
    
37. Messines ridge was chosen for the site of the ‘Island of Ireland peace tower’, the location of which is discussed in Jeffery,
    Ireland and the Great War
    , pp. 138–40.
    
38. A topic valuably, and thoughtfully, explored in Dolan, Anne,
    Commemorating the Irish civil war: history and memory, 1923–2000
    , CUP, Cambridge, 2003.
    
39. I have discussed Irish First World War memorials in
    Ireland and the Great War
    , chapter 4; and ‘The Great War in modern Irish memory’ in Fraser, T.G. and Jeffery, Keith (eds), Men, women and war (Historical Studies XVIII), Lilliput, Dublin, 1993, pp. 136–57. Nationalist and republican memorials are additionally covered in Dolan,
    Commemorating the Irish civil war
    .
    
40. See Aalen, F.H.A., ‘Homes for Irish heroes: housing under the Irish Land (Provision for Soldiers and Sailors) Act 1919, and the Irish Sailors’ and Soldiers’ Land Trust’ in
    Town Planning Review
    , vol. lix, no. 3, 1988, pp 305–23; and Fraser, Murray,
    John Bull’s other homes: state housing and British policy in Ireland, 1883–1922
    , LUP, Liverpool, 1996, chapter 7.
    
41. See Morris, Ewan,
    ‘Our own devices’: national symbols and political conflict in twentieth century Ireland
    , IAP, Dublin, 2004, for an excellent exploration of the creation and use of ‘national’ symbols.
    
42. See Jeffery,
    Ireland and the Great War
    , pp. 132 (for a photograph of the unveiling of the Longford memorial) and 135.
    
43. Cork Weekly Examiner
    , 21 November 1925.
    
44. This starry-eyed attitude attracted some critical comment in reviews of the book. See those by Michael Hopkinson, in
    Twentieth Century British History
    , vol. xv, no. 2, 2004, p. 205, and Timothy Bowman in
    War in History
    , vol. xi, no. 3, 2004, pp. 369–71.
    
45. What Nugent said in August 1923 was: ‘The day is not, I hope, far distant when the memory of all those of our country who gave their lives for civilisation as we interpret it and obedience to what they believed to be their duty will be honoured and perpetuated in every town and village in Ireland.’ Nugent papers, D.3835/E/7/23, PRONI.
    
46. Faber, London, 2005.
    
47. In the discussion following the presentation of this paper in University College Cork on 27 January 2006.
    
48. Barry,
    A long, long way
    , p. 157.
    
49. Ibid
    ., p. 190.
    
50. Winter, Jay,
    Sites of memory, sites of mourning: the Great War in European cultural history
    , CUP, Cambridge, 1995.
    
51. Barry,
    A long, long way
    , p. 286.
    
52. Irish Times
    , 14 November 1998.
    

1. O’Hegarty, P.S.,
   The victory of Sinn Féin
   , Talbot, Dublin, 1924, p. 8.
   
2. Jenkins, Brian,
   Fenians and Anglo­American relations during reconstruction
   , CUP, London, 1969; Ó Broin, Leon,
   Fenian fever: an Anglo­American dilemma
   , NYUP, New York, 1971; Quinlivan, Patrick and Rose, Paul,
   The Fenians in England, 1865–72: a sense of insecurity
   , Calder, London, 1982; Rafferty, O.P.,
   The church, the state and the Fenian threat, 1861–1875
   , Basingstoke, Palgrave, 1999.
   
3. Campbell, Christy,
   Fenian fire: the British government plot to assasinate Queen Victoria
   , HarperCollins, London, 2002.
   
4. Owens, Gary, ‘Popular mobilization and the rising of 1848: the clubs of the Irish Confederation’, in Geary, L.M. (ed.),
   Rebellion and remembrance in modern Ireland
   , Four Courts, Dublin, 2001, pp. 51–63.
   
5. For the history of the IRB at this time, see McGee, Owen,
   The IRB: the Irish Republican Brotherhood, from the Land League to Sinn Féin
   , Four Courts, Dublin, 2005.
   
6. O’Brien, C.C.,
   Parnell and his party
   , OUP, Oxford, 1957, pp. 89–90, 128–30.
   
7. Ulster Presbyterians, such as J.B. Killen, Rev. Isaac Nelson and Louis Smyth, had been pro-republican leaders of the Land League, while IRB leaders of the 1860s and 1870s included Ulster Presbyterians such as Rev. David Bell and T.N. Underwood. The most well-known champions of republicanism in mid-nineteenth century Ireland, John Mitchel and John Martin, were both Ulster Presbyterians and passive supporters of the IRB.
   
8. Davitt, Michael,
   The fall of feudalism in Ireland
   , Harper, New York, 1904, pp. 377–78, 466–67.
   
9. Thornley, David,
   Isaac Butt and home rule
   , Macgibbon, London, 1964, pp. 175–77, 227–31, 241; McGee, IRB, pp. 63, 86–87.
   
10. Price, Roger,
    The revolutions of 1848
    , Macmillan, London, 1988, pp. 96–100; Taylor, A.J.P.,
    Revolutions and revolutionaries
    , Hamilton, London, 1980, pp. 112–38; Thompson, Dorothy,
    The Chartists
    , Temple Smith, London, 1984, pp. 335–39.
    
11. Larkin, Emmet,
    The Roman Catholic church and the creation of the modern Irish state 1878–1886
    , Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 1975, p. 396. Several church–state concordats were arranged across Europe during the 1850s to help undo the democratic upheavals of 1848.
    
12. O’Brien,
    Parnell and his party
    , pp. 92–103.
    
13. O’Day, Alan,
    Irish home rule 1867–1921
    , MUP, Manchester, 1999, pp.319–24.
    
14. McGee, IRB, pp. 39, 48, 88; Sullivan, A.M.,
    New Ireland: political sketches and personal reminiscences of thirty years of Irish public life
    ,
    Second edition
    , Sampson, London, 1882, p. 394.
    
15. Comerford, R.V.,
    The Fenians in context (Second edition)
    , Wolfhound, Dublin, 1998, p. 30; Paseta, Senia,
    Before the revolution: nationalism, social change and Ireland’s Catholic elite 1879–1922
    , CUP, Cork, 1999.
    
16. Sullivan,
    New Ireland
    , pp. 394, 463.
    
17. Meagher, T.F., ‘Catholicism and republicanism’, in Lyons, W.F. (ed.),
    Brigadier Thomas Francis Meagher
    , Burns Oates, London, 1869, pp. 142–47; O’Leary, John,
    Recollections of Fenians and Fenianism
    , 2 vols, Downey, London, 1896, passim.
    
18. Clarke was sworn into the IRB by John Daly while working as an assistant teacher in Dungannon. Shortly after taking part in a Land League protest demonstration in late 1880 a warrant was issued for his arrest, and he was forced to emigrate to America. Le Roux, Louis,
    Tom Clarke and the Irish freedom movement
    , Talbot, Dublin, 1936, pp. 15–16.
    
19. For the role of freemasonry in inspiring European revolutionary movements, see Billington, James,
    Fire in the minds of men: the revolutionary faith
    , Basic, New York, 1981 and Zamoyski, Adam,
    Holy madness: romantics, patriots and revolutionaries 1776–1871
    , Viking, London, 1999.
    
20. Agulhon, Maurice,
    Marianne into battle: republican imagery and symbolism in France 1789–1880
    , CUP, Cambridge, 1981, p. 35.
    
21. McGee,
    IRB
    , chapter 1; Pilbeam, Pamela,
    Republicanism in nineteenth century France
    , Palgrave, London, 1995, pp. 1–22.
    
22. Browne, Fr. P. (ed.),
    Collected works of Padraic H. Pearse
    , Maunsel, Dublin, 1917, Introduction, pp. xviii–xix.
    
23. Maume, Patrick,
    The long gestation: Irish nationalist life 1891–1918
    , Gill Macmillan, Dublin, 1999, pp. 54–55; McGee,
    IRB
    , pp. 299–300, 308, 310, 314, 316.
    
24. British in Ireland microfilm, DMP and RIC précis, report 3–4 May, 2–4 June, 6 July, 2 September 1909, National Archives, Dublin.
    
25. Denis McCullough papers, P120/24 (9), Denis McCullough statement to Bureau of Military History, UCD Archives.
    
26. Hobson, Bulmer,
    Ireland yesterday and tomorrow
    , Anvil, Tralee, 1968, p.17.
    
27. Norman, Diana,
    Terrible beauty: a life of Constance Markievicz
    , Poolbeg, Dublin, 1987, pp. 60–66.
    
28. The IRB was split during the 1890s after the emergence of a rival ‘Irish National Brotherhood’ (INB) wing, which was extensively manipulated by the British secret service.
    
29. O’Brien, William and Ryan, Desmond (eds),
    Devoy’s post bag
    , Fallon, Dublin, 1953, vol. ii, pp. 382, 570; Home Office précis, carton 3, 27742/s, 27804/s, 28377/s, 28429/s, 28634/s, National Archives, Dublin; British in Ireland microfilm collection, DMP and RIC précis, monthly reports for February, April, July and August 1905, and August and September 1908, National Archives, Dublin.
    
30. Home Office précis, carton 3, 28765/s, 29427/s, 29621/s, National Archives, Dublin.
    
31. O’Brien and Ryan (eds),
    Devoy’s post bag
    , vol. ii, p. 354.
    
32. Lynch, Diarmuid,
    The IRB and the 1916 insurrection
    , Mercier, Cork, 1957, p. 95; O’Brien and Ryan (eds),
    Devoy’s post bag
    , vol. ii, p. 570.
    
33. Denis McCullough papers, P120/24 (5), statement to Bureau of Military History on IRB personnel, UCD Archives.
    
34. O’Brien and Ryan (eds),
    Devoy’s post bag
    , vol. ii, pp. 401–2.
    
35. Ibid
    ., pp. 365–66, 377, 383–84, 390–93.
    
36. The old (British secret service dominated) INB wing of the Clan, responsible for the ‘dynamite war’ of the 1880s, still existed as late as 1915, with McGarrity as one of its leaders,
    Ibid
    ., pp. 480–81 During McGarrity’s sole visit to Ireland in late 1904 he advocated a revival of the ‘dynamite war’. British in Ireland microfilm collection, DMP and RIC précis, monthly report for Nov. 1904, National Archives, Dublin. Later, McGarrity would finance the institutionalisation of the post-treaty IRA and its dynamite campaign of 1939–40
    
37. O’Hegarty, P.S., ‘Introduction’, in Clarke, Tom,
    Glimpses of an Irish felon’s prison life
    , Maunsel, Dublin, 1922; Denis McCullough papers, P120/24 (4), Patrick McCartan statement to Bureau of Military History, UCD Archives.
    
38. O’Halpin, Eunan, ‘The British secret service vote and Ireland, 1868–1922’ in
    Irish Historical Studies
    , vol. xxii, no 93, 1983, pp. 348–53.
    
39. Ryan, Mark,
    Fenian memories
    , Gill, Dublin, 1945, p. 211.
    
40. McGee,
    IRB
    , pp. 120–21, 131.
    
41. Thornley,
    Butt
    , 240–4; British in Ireland microfilm, CO 904/17/130, National Archives, Dublin; McGee,
    IRB
    , pp. 191, 294, passim; O’Connor, Frank,
    Leinster, Munster and Connaught
    , Hale, London, 1950, p. 215.
    
42. This is clear from the autobiography of Clarke’s wife, Kathleen,
    Revolutionary woman
    , O’Brien, Dublin, 1991, as well as the recent biography, MacAtasney, Gerard,
    Seán MacDiarmada: the mind of the revolution
    , Drumlin, Manorhamilton, Dublin, 2005.
    
43. Hobson would in turn dedicate his writings to Clarke, Daly and Devoy. Anon. [Hobson, Bulmer] (ed.),
    The voice of freedom
    , np, Dublin, 1913.
    
44. This was particularly true of John Daly and James Egan, who died in 1909. Clarke,
    Glimpses of an Irish felon’s life
    , passim; Le Roux, Tom Clarke, pp. 109–11.
    
45. Michael McGinn (c.1850–.c1918), native of Omagh. A well-educated man and prosperous baker, he was Tyrone IRB leader from the 1870s until the 1890s, played a prominent role in the Land League agitation and Parnell split controversy and, upon moving to Dublin, worked with Fred Allan in reviving the IRB after 1895. McGee, IRB, passim; British in Ireland microfilm, CO 904/18/752, National Archives, Dublin.
    
46. Denis McCullough papers, P120/24 (6) & (9), statements of O’Hegarty and McCullough, UCD Archives.
    
47. Fitzpatrick, David,
    Harry Boland’s Irish revolution
    , CUP, Cork, 2004, p. 34; Hobson,
    Ireland yesterday and tomorrow
    , p. 42. The ‘National Club’ at 41 Rutland (later Parnell) Square, founded by Fred Allan in 1887, served as an IRB headquarters for several years, and was also a meeting place of the Wolfe Tone clubs.
    
48. For a list of the members of the Volunteer executive see O’Brien and Ryan (eds),
    Devoy’s post bag
    , vol. ii, pp. 440–41.
    
49. Garvin, Tom, ‘Introduction’, in O’Hegarty, P.S.,
    The victory of Sinn Féin
    , UCDP edition, Dublin, 1998; Coogan, T.P.,
    Michael Collins
    , Hutchinson, London, 1990, pp. 6–10.
    
50. O’Hegarty,
    Victory of Sinn Féin
    , pp. 9–10;
    Michael Collins, The path to freedom
    , Talbot, Dublin, 1922, p. 54.
    
51. Whyte, John H., ‘1916 – revolution and religion’, in Martin, F.X. (ed.), Leaders and men of the Easter Rising: Dublin 1916
    , Methuen, London, 1967, pp. 215–26.
    
52. McHugh, Roger, ‘Casement and German help’ in
    Ibid
    , pp. 169–70, 181.
    
53. Ibid
    ., p. 207.
    
54. O’Brien and Ryan (eds),
    Devoy’s post bag
    , vol. ii, pp. 430–35.
    
55. Clarke,
    Revolutionary woman
    , pp. 46–47; O’Brien and Ryan (eds),
    Devoy’s post bag
    , vol. ii, p. 458.
    
56. Maume,
    Long gestation
    , p. 166.
    
57. O’Brien and Ryan (eds),
    Devoy’s post bag
    , vol. ii, pp. 429, 439.
    
58. McGee,
    IRB
    , pp. 142, 202, 211.
    
59. O’Brien and Ryan (eds),
    Devoy’s post bag
    , vol. ii, pp. 445, 448.
    
60. Devoy, John, ‘The story of Clan na Gael’,
    Gaelic American
    , 15 August 1923, 1 September 1923.
    
61. MacAtasney,
    Seán MacDiarmada
    , pp. 69, 161.
    
62. Clarke,
    Revolutionary woman
    , pp. 51–52
    
63. O’Brien and Ryan (eds),
    Devoy’s post bag
    , vol. ii, pp. 464–80.
    
64. The IRB Supreme Council from 1915–16 was as follows. The executive was Denis McCullough (president), Seán MacDermott (secretary) and Tom Clarke (treasurer). The fourth co–opted member was Diarmuid Lynch. The seven district representatives were Seán Tobin (Leinster), Diarmuid Lynch (Munster), Alex McCabe (Connacht), Denis McCullough (Ulster), Patrick McCormick (Scotland), Richard Connolly (southern England) and Joseph Gleeson (northern England), although very few of these had any organisation behind them or experience in directing the IRB. Denis McCullough papers, P120/24 (5), UCD Archives.
    
65. MacAtasney,
    Seán MacDiarmada
    , p. 69.
    
66. Lynch,
    The IRB and the 1916 insurrection
    , pp. 47, 102, 130–32.
    
67. Freeman’s Journal
    , 24 November 1913, 23 November 1914 Delia Larkin’s Irish Women’s Workers Union, Cumann na mBan and Fianna Éireann also took part.
    
68. Rossa had experienced the horrors of the Irish famine first hand, helped found the IRB in the late 1850s, was tortured in prison during the late 1860s, excommunicated and ostracised by the Catholic church in New York during the 1870s (along with all members of John O’Mahony’s Fenian Brotherhood), and, having been squeezed out of Irish revolutionary politics (and subject to assassination attempts) by British agents during the mid-1880s had lost all influence by the 1890s.