January 1913
1:
Sir Edward Carson moved an amendment to the Third Home Rule Bill that the province of Ulster and it’s 9 counties be totally excluded from the operation of the Third Home Rule Bill. It was defeated by a majority of 97 but served it’s purpose by demonstrating to the British public that the Ulster Unionists were nominally willing to compromise on the Bill. John Redmond responded by saying that Nationalists could not nor would not give their consent to the mutilation of the Irish nation. ‘Ireland for us is one entity. It is one land’
In Belfast, Rt Rev Samuel Prenter, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church spoke out against Home Rule and pulled the RC bogeyman from the closet ‘In an Irish Parliament civil allegiance to the Holy See would be a test of memberhsip, and would make every Roman Catholic member a civil servant of the Vatican’
JJ Lee. Ireland 1912-85. Cambridge University Press. P9
Suffragettes took action against the ‘official seat of English dominiation in Ireland’, by breaking windows in Dublin Castle. Three women were arrested and sentenced to 30 days in Tullamore jail where they promptly went on hunger strike for political status.
4: Carson’s amendment was defeated 294 votes to 197.
6: Balkans: The Turks rejected the peace conditions demanded by the Balkan states, and the conference ended in failure.
Three hunger striking sufferagettes received political status in Tullamore Jail and ending the protest.
7: Proportional representation was introduced into Home Rule proposals to safeguard interests of what would be a Protestant minority.
9: US Politician, Richard Milhouse Nixon – 37th President 1968-74 born.
16
The Third Home Rule Bill passed through the Commons with a 110 vote majority – 367 to 257.
In Belfast, a copy of the Bill was publicly burned in front of the City Hall. T
he Bill passed to the House of Lords for reading.
The Ulster Unionist Council met and decided that all small local citizen armies set up in 1911 should be organised into an efficient unit known as the Ulster Volunteer Force. Recruitment was limited to 100,000 men aged between 17 & 75, and to those that had signed the Covenant the previous year. Lord Roberts was invited to train the Volunteers, refused and recommended an elderly professional soldier that had led long forgotten campaigns but was adept at ‘teaching the natives lessons’, so Lieutenant General Sir George Richardson was appointed Commander. Not only did this bring the growing ‘physical force Unionists’ under control but shifted the balance of military power in Ireland. The Ulster Unionist Council viewed the UVF more as a propaganda weapon rather than a fighting army.
By the end of the year, the UVF had grown into an efficient and formidable army. It’s brief was simple, to seize and control all important roads, harbours and railways in Ulster and to enforce the authority of a Provisional Government. However, they were without arms aside from importing several thousand rifles, machine guns and large quantity of ammunition. The Peace Preservation Act of 1881 had lapsed in 1907 and it was now legal to import arms but with technicalities that made legal import difficult. Rumours grew of a possible armed rebellion in Ulster, if not civil war in Ireland. The paradox of rebellion against the King in the King’s name was apparently dismissed by Redmond who said the Unionists ‘were playing at rebellion.’
17: Congressman Goodwin of Arkansas introduced a resolution ‘congratulating the people of Ireland on the passage of an Irish Home Rule Bill’. The resolution was never returned from the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Patrick Ford, editor of the Irish People sent appeals to several American public figures soliciting their favourable comments on ‘the heroic fight the people of Ireland are making for the American principle of Self-Government’ for eventual publication in his paper. Secretary of State elect, William Jennings Bryan replied ‘You are right in assuming that I am in sympathy with the fight that is being made to secure Home Rule for Ireland’ adding that he was pleased with progress of the Bill and felt it was a just settlement in the interests of both the Irish and English peoples.
18: US Comedian, Danny Kaye born. (d.3.3.1987 )
23: Constantinople: A successful coup d'état brought an extreme nationalist group to power in the Ottoman Empire, and within a week fighting resumed against the Balkan states. Again, the Empire was to take a battering. In the subsequent fighting Greece captured Ioannina (now in Epirus Region, north-western Greece), and Bulgaria took Adrianople (now Edirne, Turkey) until the Turks sued for peace in April.
28: The British Government withdrew the Franchise Bill, removing any hopes of women winning the vote in the surrent session of Parliament. Suffragettes reacted angrily, promising to step up their militant protests.
31
The Home Rule Bill was thrown out in the Lords at one minute past midnight. 326 voting against the Bill, 69 for. The Duke of Devonshire, when moving the rejection of the Bill said Home Rule would make ‘the Irish a menace in war and a disturbing influence in peace.’ This meant the return of the Bill again to the House of Commons to pass through all the stages and would ultimatly be forced through both houses by the operation of the 1911 Parliament Act and so guaranteed to become law by the summer of 1914. The US Ambassador commented to his brother that he believed the UK to be on the verge of civil war.
Having lost the Parliament battle, Conservatives now began to make representations to Buckingham Palace in the hope that George V would exercise his perogative of royal veto or disolve Parliament and force another election on the issue of Home Rule or perhaps even convince the Asquith Government to exclude Ulster from the Bill. The King however was most circumspect on affairs of state.
Sean MacDiarmada, Tom Clarke and other Gaelic Leaguers began to consider the possibility of amending the Gaelic League’s constitution to devote itself towards the concept of Gaelic and independent. The League had encouraged the growth of national industries, village crafts, even bilingual street signs.
“Far more than the Gaelic League, ..the Ulster Volunteer Force held the fascinated attention of the I.R.B. As a paramilitary force, designed to resist an Act of Parliament, it was “setting us a splendid example” said Tom Clarke. In July, the I.R.B began drilling in secret in the National Forester’s Headquarters in Parnell Square.”
George Dangerfield. “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” ( Constable, London. 1977) p.96
The Ulster Volunteer Force formed. Commanded by Gen Sir George Richardson and Capt Wilfrid Spender, it’s Heqdquarters were the Old Town Hall in Victoria St.
February 1913
2: NY – Grand Central Station, largest railway station in the world opens.
5. London – Suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst is sent to prison and imemdiately threatens a hunger strike.
7: The old Fenian and Clan leader, Dr. William Carroll wrote to John Devoy bitterly commenting on the practice of rejecting the Parliamentary solutions while waiting for more opportune times, was allowing the revolutionary concept of Irish nationalism drift into obscurity: ‘The dark side of the prospect here and overseas is…the fact that there and here the Irish people accept and applaud their betrayal of everything national they once professed to advocate’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p27
8: London – Suffragettes break the London –Glasgow telephone line.
10: Antartica: Bodies of Captain Robert Scott and two of his companions found in a tent. A diary found recorded the end of the race to the pole: Petty Officer Evans died after a fall froim the Beardmore Glacier, Captain Oates – suffering from illness and frostbite, walked from the tent in a blizzard telling the others ‘I am just going outside and may be some time’. The remaining three survivors were trapped with almost no fuel and food just eleven miles from a food depot. The last line in Scotts diary reads: ‘Fod God’s sake, look after our people’.
19: Suffragette bomb destroys Lloyd George’s new house at Walton Heath.
Canada: A bill in the Canadian Parliament to contribute towards the building of three dreadnoughts for the British navy was defeated.
22: Sean O’Casey writing in the Irish Worker: ‘The delivery of Ireland is not in the Labour Manifesto, good and salutary as it may be, but in the strenght, beauty, nobility and imagination of the Gaelic ideal’
24: Emmeline Pankhurst arrested in connection with the bombing of Lloyd George’s home.
O’Donovan Rossa now aged 82 and bedridden wrote a short letter to his old associate and former friend, John Devoy. Since their personal quarrel 33 years previously in 1880, there had been little to no communication.
‘Why can’t you come down some day.I am at home and in bed every day. I got a fall a few years ago and cannot walk out. ‘tis a lonesome kind of life. I read those Irish poems you print in the Gaelic American. Slan leat a chara mo chroidhe. Diarmuid O Donnavhainn Rossa.’
A covering letter to Devoy from Mrs O’Donovan Rossa on her husband ‘ His physician gives no hope of ultimate recovery through he thinks he may live indefinitely in his present condition…I think if you could come and talk of your earlier hopes and labours together before those differences of opinion crept in,it would do him a world of good. He has a simple loving heart and you were very dear to it long ago. Bury the between times and be again the younger brother…’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.406-7
25: US – The 16th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified which permitted a Federal Income Tax to be introduced. Previously the Supreme Court found such a tax to be un-constitutional, but now as part of the Constitution, placed the burden of tax on those who were best able to afford it and supplied the Government with enough income to undertake various tasks & functions.
Petrol increased by 2pence to 1/9 a gallon.
British metalurgist Henry Brearly introduced rust proof steel he named ‘Stainless Steel’ by adding sufficient chromium and nickel to the metal mixtures.
The RIC reports to Dublin Castle commented on Unionist feeling in Ulster: ‘ the same bitter hostility of Orangeman and Unionists towards the Home Rule Bill continued unabated…Clubs and Lodges displayed much activity in collecting for the Ulster Defence Fund and in organising the new Volunteer Force. ‘
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P23
Thomas MacClean, Secretary of T. Lyons and Co. Ltd in South Main Street Cork wrote to Margaret Lynch:
‘In reply to you letter of 24th inst to hand . I beg to state that our Debenture Bond are ‘Bearer’ Bonds – that is the holder for time being is the owner –just like bank notes held. We have as instructed registered Revd. J O’Leary P.P. of Tracton, Carrigaline as the holder of the Bonds Nos 918 to 922 inclusive ( £500 ) * ( not nos 212 to 216 as you state in your letter ) as trustee for Miss Mary Margaret Lynch of Granig, Ballyfeard, Kinsale, daughter of Mrs Margaret Lynch, the original holder.
We do not recognise trusteeships, but have registered as above that Father O’Leary holds said documents in trust for your daughter aforementioned…’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 1
* c. €100k in 2002 values.
March 1913
An analysis of Dublin Road Traffic accidents was published. Of the fatal accidents in the previous year, one was due to a horse drawn omnibus, 58 due to other horse drawn vehicles and 41 due to mechanically propelled vehicles.
2: London – mobs attack Suffragettes in Hyde Park and Wimbeldon.
4: Washiongton: Wilson is inagurated as the 28th President of the United States.
12: Australia – Canberra becomes the Nation’s capital.
18: Greece: George 1 assasinated. Suceeded by his son, reigning as Constantine 1.
24: Manchester – Suffragettes lock Labour Party delegates into their Conference Hall.
14: The Clan na Gael Executive met in Atlantic City NJ and proposals carried to fundraise to carry out the policies of the organisation. The Clan was beginning to stir again. A circular was issued, showing a major policy shift to that of partial compromise. While continuing to condemn Home Rule as a ‘fraud and a cheat’, the Clan advised that it had no objection to the Irish people ‘making whatever use they can’ of it. However it was also argued that Redmond had no right to say that Home Rule would be the final settlement of the Irish Question and that Redmond was wrong in claiming that Home Rule would permit an Anglo-American rapprochment.
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p28
16: Judge Cohalan visited the Executive meeting and ‘expressed his opinion on certain matters.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P34
17: New York
John Devoy visited O’Donovan Rossa and his wife wrote that evening ‘your visit today made us very happy and it did Rossa a lot of good. His face is still wearing the smile of satisfaction that greeted your coming and he has pleasant food for thought for many days to come…I might say no other living man means so much to him as you. For you are the last of that beloved inner crowd of political brothers that travelled the same sacrifcial road with him since ’65…I guess as we grow older we view trifles provocations that seemed very formidable in earlier years, and nothing counts but faith, fidelity and love…. I’m very glad indeed that we are friends once more.’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.407
24:
An example of an indentured agricultural worker is in the Lynch Family Archives:
Memorandum of agreement between Margaret Lynch of Granig & Bat Kiely of Granig.
He is to work for me from the 25th March 1913 to the 25 of March 1914 at the rate of 8s ( 8/ – c. €76 ) per week without diet, that is 1 /4 per day for every day he works & to attend the horses and cattle on Sundays and holidays.
He is to get a ½ ton of coals & the grass of two sheep with a quantity of garden planted. His wife to milk cows when required at 1 / 4 per week also to work out when required at 8d per day. ( €6.34 ).
Their daughter, Ellie Kiely to work as domestic servant in the house at £9 per year ( €1,800 p.a. or €34.61 pw.
Witnessed by: Margaret Kiely, Mary M Lynch, D.J.Lynch and Bat Kiely ( unable to write, made his mark. )
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
27: The formation of the British League for the Support of Ulster and the Union was announced.
31: NY – a record 6,745 immigrants arrive at Ellis Island in one day.
London – A Bill aimed at dealing with the Suffragettes was introduced by the Home secretary to counter growing public concern of forcible feeding of hunger striking women. The Bill quickly became known as the ‘Cat and Mouse Act’, while providing for a temporary release if their actions endanger their health, but allowing for their re-imprisonment to serve the remainder of sentences when recovered.
April 1913
Membership in the Ulster Volunteer Force grew. 41,000 had joined by April, organised over 9 counties into regiments, battalions and sections with large landowners playing a key role and loyalists of all social classes joining.
A meeting of the Irishwomen’s Franchise League was informed of a cinema in Dublin that employed a young girl who acted as a Book-keeper, office hand, cashier and pianist, who also stayed on after performances to lock up...all for 3 shillings a week.
An Irish nurse, Majorie Hasler, died in London following injuries received during a suffragette demonstration at Westminster.
Dr. Patrick McCartan appointed dispensary doctor in Gortin, Co. Tyrone.
3: London. Emmeline Pankhurst is found guilty of inciting arson and sentenced to 3 years jail.
15: Public meetings by Syffragettes banned throughout Britian and Ireland,
19: Constantinople: The Turks obtained an armistice with Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia. Montenegro accepted the armistice a few days later.
21: Moscow: Russia celebrated the 300th anniversary of the coming to power of the Romanov dynasty – and a last glow of glory. Within 5 years, the dynasty was over.
May 1913
Captain Anthony, Captain of the Catalpa and rescuer of the Fenian prisoners in Western Australia in 1875, died of pneumonia on May 22 aged 70 and survived by his wife and daughter. His wife, Emma Richardson joined him in November 1935.
The Earl of Meath protested against the increasing number of guns available for sale in Ireland. He said that some of these guns would be used, not only for taking pot shots at the police and other law abiding citizens, but dammit all, even for shooting game.
Meanwhile, the RIC reports to Dublin Castle advised of a seizure of 600 rifles and bayonets shipped to Herdman & Co, Strabane and labeled as ‘Electrical Plant’ and ‘ a consignment of 300 rifles and bayonets in a furniture van, for Lord Farnham of Cavan ( all being discarded Italian rifles )…in all 1166 rifles and bayonets were seized by Customs Authorities’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P21
The Cork County Eagle newspaper of Saturday, May 17th reported that Diarmuid O’Loingsigh was amongst the 12 persons gathered at the Gaelic League Meeting for Kerry in Castlehaven.
The Irish Transport Union increased efforts to unionise farm labourers in the greater Dublin district. The Chairman of the Dublin United Tramways Company, William Martin Murphy now came under attack from the pages of ‘The Irish Worker’. According to RIC reports to Dublin Castle ‘ signs were not wanting that preparations were in progress to raise a conflict between him and his men’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P38
6: London – Parliament rejects the Franchise Bill 266 votes to 219.
7: London – Suffragette bomb found in St. Paul’s Cathederal.
9: US – Report says 900,000 immigrants arrived since July 1912.
11: Castlehaven, Co. Cork: Diarmuid Lynch attended the Gaelic League Coiste Ceanntair Cairbre on Gaelic League progress in West Cork. Language teachers were paid £60 per year * and in this case salary was three months behind.
Cork County Eagle – May 17th 1913. Lynch Family Archives.
* €15,125 per year in 2002 values.
14: London – Magistrates handling Suffragette trials receive letter bombs.
20: Another peace conference between the Ottoman Empire and the Balkan States, with the major European powers again acting as mediators, met in London on May 20. By the terms of the Treaty of London, concluded on May 30, the Turks ceded the island of Crete to Greece and relinquished all territories in Europe west of a line between the Black Sea port of Midye (Turkey) and Enez, a town on the Turkish coast of the Aegean Sea. Boundary questions and the status of Albania and the Aegean Islands were referred to an international commission.
Following on from a request by Tom Clarke that Colonel Ric Burke travel to Ireland and make a speech at the annual Wolf Tone Commemoration in Bodenstown, John Devoy agreed adding that ‘$3,000 would enable us to cover all expenses we are likely to incur during most of this year…I am for taking chances and sending Ric over. We would fill the bill and the receptions and two or three public meetings, I think would have an excellent effort’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.409
Burke cabled that he was unable to travel and Tom Clarke was left to organise a suitable speaker. Patrick Pearse, the Headmaster of St. Enda’s was chosen to give the annual Wolfe Tone commemoration speech.
24: Oberst Alfred Redl, Deputy Chief of the Austrian Inteligence Bureau comitts suicide prior to being arrested as a Russian spy
29: Washington – Ban on smoking proposed during executive sessions of the US Senate.
31: Washington – the Wilson proposed 17th Amendment to the Constitution passed which directed that all Senators were to be elected by the vote of the people and for the first time, the US Congress became a democratic body.
June 1913
After a second visit to the Putumayo region in Brazil, Roger Casement retired from the British Civil Service on a small pension to Co. Antrim.
1: The Treaty of London between the Ottoman Empire and the Balkan states created friction and infighting among the Balkan allies, especially between Serbia and Bulgaria. Among the causes of the friction was the Bulgarian refusal to recognize the Serbian claim to certain Bulgarian-held portions of Macedonia. In addition, Serbia was resentful because it failed to obtain territory along the Adriatic Sea and with Vienna adamant on the independence of Albania and Serbia remaining landlocked, it was essential to keep Bulgaria from getting too strong. Greece agreed with Zagreb’s position and on June 1st Greece and Serbia concluded an alliance against Bulgaria which would lead to war by the end of June.
4: Epsom – Suffragette Emily Davison (40) was seriously injured when she attempted to stop the King’s horse at the Derby, bringing down the horse and injuring the jockey. Davison died 4 days later.
6: Berlin – The Reichstag passed a Bill authorising the German army to be increased by 33% to 863,000 men.
7: Erich v Falkenhayn becomes German Minister of War (till 21 Jan 1915)
Granig: Margaret Lynch amended her will for the second and last time. She revoked the earlier granting of £500 to Mary and £150 each to Diarmuid and Denis and changed her bequest to £200 to Diarmuid and Denis and £100 to Mary ‘in addition to any provision which I have made for her in my lifetime’. She went on to bequath to the Revd. Timothy O’Leary, Parish Priest of Tracton ‘the sum of £6 for masses for the repose of my soul’ and ‘…to the Reverned John Murphy P.D. of the Diocesan College Farranferris Cork, the usm of £3 for the repose of my soul’ and ‘£3 to the Priest who shall be at the date of my death Roman Catholic Curate of the Parish of Tracton for masses for the repose of my soul. I will and direct that all the said masses shall be said in a public church in Ireland in presence of the congregation and that the honoarium for each mass shall be five shillings.’
Daniel retained the farm but was to pay all debts, funeral & testamentary expenses. Her original executor of William Ahern of Annacarriga was revoked and appointed her three sons, Daniel, Timothy and Denis in his place. This was signed in the presence of Timothy Conway, Law Clerk of Maurice Healy, Solicitors, Cork.
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 1: 1890-1914 – 00005
9: The Home Rule Bill was re-introduced in the House of Commons.
10: In Parliament, John Redmond read a letter to him from former President, Theodore Roosevelt, that the Home Rule Bill was a ‘just settlement that bids fair to establish good will amongst the English speaking people….the measure is as much in the interest of Great Britain as it is of Ireland.’
The New York Times commented that the Ulster Volunteers as essentially political rather than military saying ‘it is not likely that military tactics will be resorted to’
11: London – A male Sufragist hurled a bag of flour at PM Asquith in the Commons Chamber.
20: The annual Wolfe Tone commemoration took place at Bodenstown, Co. Kildare. Clarke had organised a ‘Cinematograph man’ to take film of the event as some 5,000 gathered Tone’s grave in Bodenstown Churchyard.
There Patrick Pearse characterised English rule as ‘..this evil thing against which (Tone ) testified with his blood’
George Dangerfield. “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” ( Constable, London. 1977) p.140
Clarke makes no mention of this in his letter to Devoy, instead commenting ‘I made reference to Col. Ric [Burke] and to John Devoy’s cablegrams at the graveside ( when I had to preside ) and both names were wildly cheered. I’m feeling 10 years younger since Sunday. At last we see tangible results from the patient, plodding work of sowing the seed. The tide is turning strongly in our direction. We have the rising generation.’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.411
The ‘Cinematograph’ man, Jameson showed his film ‘twice or thrice nightly since ( 22nd inst ) in Rotunda and Rathmines. No pictures he has ever shown ( and he has been 14 years in the business ) ever received such tremendous applause….the pictures are grand. He is to show them next in Galway and Tralee. Afterwards Queenstown, then Cork and the Curragh, then back to Rathmines and the Rotunda…he with his ring of picture houses showing our pictures will do good business and the Dublin newspapers may go to hell or to the Empire’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.411
29: Norway – Paliament grants women equal electoral rights with men.
Balkans: A Bulgarian general, apparently acting without orders from his government, launched an attack on Serbian defensive positions. Although the Bulgarian government disclaimed knowledge of this attack, it led to the Second Balkan War when both Serbia and Greece declared war on Bulgaria.
German Army Bill and Tax Compromise accepted
July 1913
The traditional ‘Marching Season’ in Ulster brought increased rioting between Loyalist and Nationalists.
4:
Douglas Hyde in the Freeman’s Journal denounced the take over & politicising of the Gaelic League.
Drilling started for the Fianna in the Irish National Forrester’s Hall in Rutland Square ( later Parnell Square ).
Pearse’s school for boys in Rathfarnham was at this stage in financial trouble. Hobson wrote to John Devoy that Pearse was thinking of going to America..’His position here is that the school is now able to about pay its way, but there are liabilities incurred during its early stages amounting to $12 or 13,000. He can carry on his worl were it not for the creditors pressing for this amount…as to Pearse himself, he is alright and in line with us here, and is a regular contributor to [Irish] Freedom. The work he is doing is really of national importance. Every secondary college in Ireland is at least tacitly anti-national and 99% actively so…St Enda’s is the only college preparing boys for the Universities that is really and intensely national in tone…the general feeling here that the closing of the school would be a very severe blow to the movement. It has enormous possibilities… I am often ashamed of the way in which we are always begging for help from America…the people who have the money here wont give it, and we have either to ask our friends in America or see things wiped out which are of great value or importance to the movement…Pearse has a good personality…I sincerely hope you may be able to assist him.’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.412-13
7: The 3rd reading of the Third Home Rule Bill is again carried in the House of Commons ( 352 votes to 243 ) and sent to the House of Lords.
8: Balkans: Serbia and Greece declared war on Bulgaria. By the end of the following two weeks Montenegro, Romania, and surprisingly enough, the Ottoman Empire had also entered the war against Bulgaria. The war on all these fronts lasted to to the end of the month.
12:
Eamon Ceannt, employed by the City Treasurers Department in Dublin Corporation and National Council of Sinn Fein secretary, replied to Douglas Hyde in the Sinn Fein journal. He wrote that no weapon should be discarded in the battle against those who opposed the use of Irish. He was careful to specify physical force.
With the very real prospect of the army being called to enforce Home Rule, Sir Edward Carson said ‘The Government know perfectly well that they could not tomorrow rely upon the army to shoot down the people of Ulster…the army are with us’
14: 38th US President ( 1974-76 ) Gerald Ford born
15: House of Lords rejects the Third Home Rule Bill for a second time. 302 votes to 64. With the next Parliament session starting in February 1914, both supporters and opponents of the Bill began to rally support, as the Bill would then pass it’s third circuit and become law.
In Richmond, London, a woman wearing a split skirt was arrested for indecency in a public place.
19: Dublin - A midnight meeting of the Traffic Department and the Directors of the Dublin United Tramways Company was held to counteract the efforts to unionise employees of the Tramways. Murphy addressed those present on ‘ the attempts that were being made by Larkin amongst the employees of the company for the purpose of inducing them to go on strike, and stated that the Directors were determined to stamp out any incipient rebellion amongst the men. He called on the men to remain loyal to the company, and in concluding his speech, he announced some concessions in the way of wages and holidays’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P38
The I.R.B. met, reviewed the situation and decided to wait only for the initiative to come from a source less suspect before organising a body of Volunteers. The IRB continued to work behind the scenes, to stiffen Volunteer resolve, but Republicanism remained a fringe idealogy with the great majority of Irish Volunteers being committed Home Rulers.
Sir Roger Casement wrote a ‘challenging article’ ‘Ireland, Germany and the Next War’ in the Irish Review under the pen name ‘Shan Van Vocht’ arguing that a victorius Germany, in order to insure the freedom of the seas, would insist upon the freedom of Ireland before granting England peace. The theme was familiar in Sinn Fein circles ‘ I propose to show that Ireland, far from sharing the calamaties that must necessarily fall upon Britain from defeat by a Great Power, might concievably thereby emerge into a position of greater prosperity…a free Ireland restored to Europe is the key to unlock the western ocean and open the seaways of the world’
At the same time, Cunard announced that it’s liners would no longer be calling at Queenstown as part of a transatlantic journey. To counter this, he made enquiries and efforts to persuade the Hamburg-Amerika Line to make Queenstown a port of call for their steamers bound for Boston and liners bound for New York. Casement hoped that these ties with Germany would develop into political implications that could help Ireland in the future.
Pearse had been writing letters and articles advocating the formation and organisation of Volunteers.
‘Personally, I think the Orangeman with the rifle a much less ridiculous figures than the Nationalist without a rifle.’
The Dublin slums had not changed a great deal. The death rate was 24.8 per 1000, chiefly due to infant mortality and TB. Accommodation was decrepit, rodent infested hovels. No running water and at the root lay unemployment, sweated labour, social indifference, drunkenness and vice.
Paramilitary exercises continued in Ulster.
Within Ulster, a move had begun to establish a liason with the Imperial German Government ‘and to investigate the possibility of Ulster being mae into a German colony, largely controlled by the Irish Protestant majority. To explore this proposal, Carson went to Germany in July 1913. he ahd lunch with the Kaiser and they discussed the possibility of such an association. No official communique was issued following this lunch…the most serious implications for the British would be that the German could station naval squadrons in the North of Ireland. This would end the British power to enforce a naval blockade on Europe…’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p89
27
Larkin held a mass meeting of the Irish Transport Workers Union at Beresford Place in support of the newly formed Tramwaymen’s Union of Liberty Hall.
29: Bad relations continued between Connolly and Larkin. In a letter to a friend, William O’Brien, Connolly said ‘I don’t think I can stand Larkin as a boss much longer…he is consumed with jealousy and hatred of anyone who will not cringe to him nad beslaver all over him’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p29
Anglo-Turkish understanding supporting German efforts in Turkey to build Bagdad railway
30: Balkans: Bulgaria, unable to withstand this coalition, asked for and received an armistice
31: London – Lloyd George declares the Lords must be abolished as every indication appears the Home Rule Bill would be rejected for a third time.
Bonar Law and Lord Lansdowne sent the King a memorandum suggesting he urge Asquith to dissolve Parliament, sugesting that if the PM refused, he should be dismissed and replaced with somebody more amenable. The King took their advice and issued a number of lenghty memos to Asquith and asking whether he proposed using the army to supress any civil disorder. Asquith refused to dissolve Parliament but did agree to discuss matters with the Tories between October and December.
August 1913
1: Belgium – Boxing effectively outlawed by a new law requiring Magistrates to be present at all bouts.
Sir Roger Casement retired from the British consular service.
4: James Craig writing on the effect of enforcing Home Rule in Ulster: ‘According to the Government programme, we may look for Home Rule in May, Civil War in June, the Union Jack being hauled down and being trampled upon in July and the smash up of the Empire in August’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p29
5: UK – Suffragettes bomb several ministers homes in the West Country.
8: US – aviation record set with a 277 mile non-stop flight.
Lusitania undergoes extensive modifications permitting guns to be mounted and ammunition holds and ammo elevators installed prior to registration as a Reserve RN cruiser
10: Balkans: According to the ensuing peace agreement, signed at Bucharest, Romania, Bulgaria lost considerable territory, including nearly 7,770 sq km (nearly 3,000 sq mi) allotted to Romania. The agreement, among other things, awarded most of Macedonia to Serbia and Greece. By later agreements Bulgaria also yielded a large amount of territory to the Turks. Albania, which had been under Turkish suzerainty, was made an independent Muslim principality.
The outcome of both Balkan Wars profoundly influenced the subsequent course of European history. The dismantling of the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria created equally dangerous tensions in south-eastern Europe. By creating a strong and ambitious Serbia, the peace settlements had also engendered fear and anti-Serbian sentiment in neighbouring Austria-Hungary.
11: King George V sumoned Asquith to Buckingham Palace to express ‘his keen concern over the impending danger of widespread civil disorder in Ulster. The King further inquired if Asquith might not consider a devolution scheme…which would provide for a federal system of separate Parliament for Southern Ireland, Ulster, Scotland and Wales…Asquith did not oppose the plans for general devolution, but he knew the Irish Nationalists would never accept the creation of two Parliaments. Moreover he recalled that that the veto of the crown had not been exercised in 200 years, and that it's application in this instance was mor elikely to imperil the monarchy than to mend the Irish problem. Lastly the PM refused to agree to an election before the Home Rule bill became law because an election would vitiate the whole purpose of the Parliament Act and might possibly incite revoloution in southern Ireland. He did accept with reservations the King’s invitation to meet with the Conservative, Unionists and Irish Nationalist leaders for an arbitration conference to be held at Buckingham palace.’
Thomas Hachey ‘Britain and Irish Separatism’. Rand McNally College Publishing. New York 1977. p 85
12: A notice was posted in all tramway depots saying that there would be no recognition for "Mr. Larkin or his union". Meanwhile Larkin, in an attempt to consolidate the recent gains, had come up with a scheme for a Conciliation Board. By 18 votes to 3 the Committee of the Employers Federation agreed to his proposal. It can be argued that Larkin was naive to think that any long term arrangement could be maintained that would be beneficial to the workers. Murphy didn't want even a short term one, vowing to "smash the Conciliation Board".
13: Cypriot Leader, Archbishop Makarios born. ( d. 3/8/77 )
The directors of the Dublin United Tramway Company issued a notice to the press ‘ The directors are well aware of attempts being made by James Larkin to forment disturbance among the men which, however, have met with little success. The Company has no apprehension of any trouble with their employees, and are prepared to meet any emergency that may arise’
15: Belfast – troops called in to quell disturbances after police shoot a Loyalist.
Murphy took the initiative in provoking a confrontation with the I.T.G.W.U. by informing his employees in the despatch department of The Irish Independent that they had to choose between the union or their jobs. After forty employees were laid off
16: Israeli statesman, Menachem Begin born. ( D. 9/3/92 )
18: With the certainity of major unrest in the city, the DMP Chief Superintendet, Quinn, was summoned back to duty in Dublin while on a cycling holiday in Britain. He noted in his diary: 'Returned by night mail, arriving in Dublin by 5 a.m. having been wired to return at once to take charge of Division owing to pending strike.'
William Martin Murphy sacked 40 men who refused to resign from the ITGWU.
The ITGWU blacked The Independent Group of Newspapers
19:
ITGWU members in Easons had been locked out for refusing to handle Murphy's papers
21:
DMP Chief Super Quinn 'wired to Police Constables on Commissioner's leave to return off leave at once'.
Nearly 200 men and boys in the parcels office of the Tramway Company received the following notice: - "As the directors understand that you are a member of the Irish Transport Union, whose methods are disorganising the trade and business of the city, they do not further require your services. The parcels traffic will be temporarily suspended. If you are not a member of the union when traffic is resumed your application for re-employment will be favourably considered "
Tramways parcel staff of 100 dismissed.
James Larkin quickly began organising the remaining members in Murphy’s companies and requested solidairyt from the rest of the union. Murphy reacted by seeking police support and involving the British administration in Ireland.
22:
A number of ex-Constables were sworn in for duty as gaolers in Store Street and Fitzgibbon Street Stations. On the evidence of the diary, the police in the 'C' Division enjoyed two relatively quiet days on Sunday and Monday.
23
Churchill prepares contingency plans paper for Britain to send troops to aid France in war against Germany
26: The first day of the Dublin Lock Out. Larkin addressed the striking tramway workers ‘This is not a strike, it is a lock out…we are fighting for bread and butter’
At ten o'clock the tram drivers took out their union badges and pinned them in their buttonholes, They then walked off their trams, leaving them stranded in the middle of the road. The strike was on. The demands were reinstatement of and parcels staff, and equality of hours and wages with the tramway workers of Belfast.
28: Scotland – Suffragtees attack Asquith as he is playing golf at Elgin.
Carson now called on all those who had signed the Covenant the previous year to join the Ulster Volunteer Force
Mid-August, Carson met with the Kaiser at Hamburg. This resulted in strong rumours on German military support in event of Home Rule being forced upon the Unionists.
Between January and August, there were over 30 small strikes in Dublin, most accompanied by a great deal of disorder. William Martin Murphy, chairman of Dublin United Tramway Company, owner of the Irish Independent, and Dublin’s largest department store, business interests in Africa,as well as chairman of the Employer’s Federation, was sufficiently concerned that he called a meeting of 400 of Dublin’s main employers. Each agreed not to employ any member of the ITGWU.
Lead up to the ‘Great Lockout’
Larkin responded by calling a General Strike from Tuesday, 26 August 1913. The city was hot, busy and full. Horse show week. At 10am, some 200 drivers and conductors of Trams left their cars in the streets. Passengers assumed the electricitiy had failed until drivers affixed the Red Hand union badge and told their passengers that they might as well get off as the trams were going no further. The RIC stepped in and with the assistance of tram inspectors and recruits ‘ a very good service of trams was maintained through the day on most of the lines, but no cars were run after 7 p.m. Some of the strikers were arrested later in the day and charged at the Police Courts with causing an obstruction by leaving their cars on the streets’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P39
‘Murphy rushed up ‘loyal’ workers. A skeleton service started.
Larkin called a meeting of his members that evening in Beresford Place and addressed them saying:
“ This is not a strike, it is a lockout of the men who have been tyrannical treated by a most unscrupulous scoundrel…. We will demonstrate in O’Connell Street. It is our street as well as William Martin Murphy’s…. We are fighting for bread and butter, and we will hold our meetings in the streets…. By the living God, if they want war, they can have it..”
Another meeting was addressed the next night saying that a meeting would be held in Sackville Street on Sunday 31st August and at the same time advised the women and children to stay away as ‘ it would be a man’s job’.
The police on duty at the gathering were also lectured by Larkin. If they 'were worth their salt' they would demand their rights. In 1913, the DMP worked on average, 8 hours, seven days a week, with night duty every second month. A constable had ten days, a sergeant 21 days annual leave. Top pay for a constable was 30/- a week, 38/1 for sergeants, at a time when artisans in the building trade were getting up to 36/-, unskilled labourers 18/- for a six-day week. Larkin said: 'If I was doing dirty work, I would expect dirty pay. The men who are keeping the peace are getting bad hours and meagre pay'.
In his diary for Saturday, August 23rd, Supt. Quinn had recorded a visit to Liberty Hall to warn Larkin that the 'police could not allow (a) procession to pass by places affected by strike'; and that night the marching strikers were routed away from Sackville Street.
Later that evening, trams operating were stoned in parts of the city
At 2.10 p.m. the next day, Quinn returned to Liberty Hall, as the diary records: 'Warned James Larkin that no procession of any kind would be allowed through any of the streets of the city ... and if such, were attempted, it would be stopped by force.' The policeman soberly recorded what must have been a heated rejoinder. '(Larkin) said he would not be stopped by force, that police would have to accept the responsibility and that he would at once make it known in the press and to all Dublin'.
The labour leaders Larkin, O’Brien, Daly and Partridge were arrested on Thursday, 28th August for seditious speech, conspiracy and unlawful assembly. They were released on bail on provision that they would not hold any illegal meetings or use ‘inflamatory language in the meantime’
In Liberty Hall that night, Larkin announced that he was going to Sackville Street on Sunday ‘dead or alive’ and advised the people to hold their meeting there in defiance of police ‘ and hired assains’
Summerhill ( near Gardiner Street ) group of barefoot children. Child mortality was high, with children under 12 months making up 20% of total deaths in Dublin. In 1913, this figure rose to 25%, directly attributable by the lack of food and winter heating during the lock out. ( source: Sir Charles Cameron, Chief Medical Officer for Dublin City. 1914 )
29
The Chief Divisional Magistrate in Dublin, E.G.Swifte, issued a proclamation prohibiting the holding of the Sunday meeting, stating that ‘the object of the meeting was seditious, and that it would cause terror and alarm to, and dissension between, His Majesty’s subjects and would be an unlawful assembly.’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P41
James Connolly arrived from Belfast in response to a telegram from Larkin.
That night, nearly 10,000 people attended a meeting outside Liberty Hall in Beresford Place. Stretching along the quays and under the railway bridge spanning the Liffey, a vast black mass in the dusk. Larkin, Connolly and Partridge spoke, supporting the strike and strikers, threatening a no-rent cmapaign if the demands were not met and Larkin burned a copy of the Proclamation, banning the Sunday 31st August meeting saying ‘ I care as much for the King as I do for Swifte the Magistrate, People make kings, and people can unmake them… I recognise no law but the people’s law…moral persuasion and no rent are the weapons…’
The meeting closed with some minor scuffles between strikers and RIC.
30
A warrant for the arrest of Larkin, Connolly and Partridge was issued. Conolly and Patridge were brought before the Magistrate, Swifte who gave bail. Connolly refused bail and was jailed for three months. Partridge was released following payment of bail. Jim Larkin managed to evade capture until the following day.
‘Fierce rioting took place in Ringsend, Beresford Place and Eden Quay on Saturday afternoon and evening…the mobs which had collected at these places were charged by the police with drawn batons and dispersed, but not before a great number of persons, both civilians and police, were injured. A man named John Nolan, who was injured during the rioting on Eden Quay, succumbed to his injuries the following day..’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P43
Police reinforcements were rushed to Ringsend where the workers stood up to the batons, hurling stones and wielding sticks. In Brunswick Street ( now Pearse Street ) the fighting flared again. In Lower Abbey Street, it reached it’s bloodiest. Lieutenant Colonel Sir John Ross Chief Commissioner of the Police commanded in person. There he decided that the mob be ‘taught a lesson’ and the RIC were formed up rank after rank like an infantry regiment and ordered to charge. Fighting continued through to the early hours. 30 policemen were hospitalised, hundreds of workers injured.
Monteith recalled the incident of Nolan’s death: ‘I witnessed the murder of one of the unfortuanate men. He was walking quietly down Eden Quay when he was met by a mixed patrol of Dublin Metropolitan Police and Royal Irish Constabulary. The strenght of the patrol was about thirty-five, all more or less drunk. One of the Constabulary walked from the centre of the road on to the sidewalk and without the slightest provocation felled the poor man with a blow from his staff. The horrible crunching sound of the blow was clearly audible fifty yards away. The drunken scoundrel was ably seconded by two of the Metropolitan Police, who, as the unfortunate man attempted to rise, beat him about the head until his skull was smashed in, in several places. They then rejoined their patrol leaving him in his blood.’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Atwell Printing, Chicago. 1932. P4. Lynch Family Archives.
Father Michael Curran, of the Archbishop's House, observed the 'very severe mauling' of half a-dozen Constables protecting trams. The police 'behaved with singular self-restraint and in some cases with actual good humour. 'There was an absence of violence on their part, except... when they only employed such force as was necessary to secure and retain their prisoners. Their behaviour was the only redeeming feature of what was for a Dublin citizen a really humiliating and disgusting spectacle'.
Churchill writes Grey that Britain should aid Russia and France in a war with Germany
31
The forbidden ITGWU meeting was held in O’Connell Street just after midday. Larkin entered the Imperial Hotel ( owned by William Martin Murphy ) in a clergyman’s disguise and began to address the crowd from the balcony, where he was arrested minutes later around 1p.m.
The RIC report on the incident reads that his arrest was followed ‘ by some rioting in the vicinity of the hotel. Stones were thrown by a section of the crowd and the police charged with drawn batons. As the people feld from Sackville Street into Prince’s Street they were met and dispersed by another force of police which was drawn up there. During the evening…a series of conflicts between the police and the people took place, and a number of business premises in the centre of the city were partially wrecked. Several tramcars on the various lines were attacked and the glass smashed. In all over 100 arrests were made…over 400 civilians, including several women and girls, were treated in hospital for injuries…while over 50 police had also to be treated for wounds.’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P43
Not described in the official report is that the police also used sabres and three were killed.
Thomas Clarke in Irish Freedom wrote of the event:
“ Nothing that I know of during my whole career can match the downright inhuman savagery that was witnessed recently in the streets and some of the homes of our city, when the police were let run amok and indiscriminately bludgeon every man, woman and child they came across...”
Thomas J Clarke. Irish Freedom, September 1913. National Library Archives.
Captain Robert Monteith wrote of the baton charge: ‘the police clubbed people coming from public worship, both Protestant and Catholic, as impartially as they did the members of the Transport Workers Union, who were waiting to hear another chapter of the Gospel – according to Jim Larkin.’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Atwell Printing, Chicago. 1932. P3. Lynch Family Archives.
In High Street that night, a mob, 600 strong, cornered two DMP men who were rescued by another priest, Father Reilly. As they barricaded themselves in the Presbytery, the windows were shattered by a hail of stones and bottles. 'Unless the (police) officers in charge were prepared to abandon possession of the streets to the rioters, they had no alternative but to give orders to clear the various streets,' the Commission reported to the government.
On Friday the 29th at 7.15 p.m., DMP Chief Superintendent Quinn served notice of the Proclamation on Larkin at Liberty Hall. His laconic entry for this date conveys nothing of the ensuing drama in Beresford Place. 'In charge of police from 7.30 p.m... Engaged at meeting outside Liberty Hall from 8 p.m.'
A crowd of 10,000 turned up to hear James Connolly speak, and to cheer Larkin as he burned the Proclamation. 'If they are going to stop the meeting at the direction of William Martin Murphy, then I say that for every one of our men that falls, two must fall on the other side... You have every right to hold the meetings; but you have been too supine and cowardly in the past... If the Belfast Orangemen can hold a meeting, I do not see what is the matter that Dublin labourers can't hold a meeting, and if they want a revolution there that day, there will be a revolution'.
On Saturday morning, Quinn 'went to Police courts and obtained warrants for arrest of James Larkin, James Connolly and W.P. Partridge'. In his biography, Emmet Larkin recalls that O'Brien hurried to Liberty Hall to warn Larkin, who succeeded in evading arrest.
To prevent the meeting on Sunday, a massive force of over 300 police augmented by members of the RIC Reserve Force was deployed on Sackville Street. At 12.40 p.m. Supt. Quinn and a force of 40 Constables were withdrawn to supervise a meeting at Croydon Park in Fairview. The duty of arresting Larkin fell instead to the lot of Supt. Lawrence Murphy of the 'A' Division, Kevin Street, and Supt. Cornelius Kiernan, 'E' Division, Donnybrook. They were close to the Imperial Hotel when Larkin made his dramatic appearance on the balcony at 1.25 p.m., disguised as an old man, with false beard, and a long dress coat belonging to Count Markievicz.
The trouble started when stones were thrown by a section of the crowd. The battle-weary police retaliated with a baton charge, the crowd fleeing into Prince's Street where they were met head-on by another police detachment on duty at the rear of the Independent offices. The troublemakers scattered, mingling with innocent people coming from last Mass in the pro-Cathedral, and all bore the brunt of the DMP onslaught.
It was all over in two minutes, with the reputation of the DMP in ruins amid the debris in Sackville Street, business premises and tramcars wrecked; 400 injured citizens including women and children, and 50 policemen, on their way to the hospitals.
But who was really to blame for the debacle; organised labour fighting for justice, or the employers, victims themselves of inherited anti-social attitudes? Thrust by society into no-man's land the police were the prime casualties of peace. The Viceregal Commission offered a definitive judgement to history.
The police had discharged their duties 'with conspicuous courage and patience. They were exposed to great dangers and treated with great brutality and in many instances ... though suffering from injuries which would have fully justified their absence from duty, they remained at their posts under great difficulties until peace had been restored. The total number of constables injured during these riots exceeded 200.'
Winston Churchill in a letter to John Redmond ‘Something should be done to afford the characteristically Protestant and Orange counties the option of a moratorium of several years before acceding to the Irish Parliament…much is to be apprehended from a combination of rancour of the party in the ascendant and the fanatacism of these stubborn and determined Orangemen.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p29
September 1913
‘What need you, being come to sense,
but fumble in a greasy till…
Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,
It’s with O’Leary in the grave.
September 1913 – W.B.Yeats. First published 8th September in the Irish Times.
Romantic Ireland was still very much alive but underground, waiting.
1
Larkin was brought before the Magistrates and remanded in prison until trial on the 12th September.
Dublin Corporation demanded an immediate public inquiry into the general conduct of the police during the previous days. The same day, Jacobs partially closed down and the Tramway Works at Inchichore closed following the walk out of employees.
Rioting erupted throughout the city and ‘damage to property was also considerable’.
Meanwhile in Paris, the French aviator Bleriot perfromed the first ‘Loop the Loop’.
During the months of July and August Murphy was preparing for a showdown, by swelling the ranks of his employees with new recruits who had to sign an undertaking that they would not join the ITGWU. He also arranged with the British authorities that in the event of a strike the tramway company "was assured of the most ample protection for their men by the forces of the Crown".
2
The Dublin Coal Merchants Association locked out members of the ITGWU.
Two four storey tenement houses collapsed in Church Street, Dublin, killing seven and injuring many. The buildings had shops on the ground floor and 16 rooms above, occupied by ten families, more than 40 people.
An Irish Times editorial commented on the collapse that members of the ITGWU lived ‘for the most part in slums like Church Street and that the condition of the Dublin slums is responsible not only for disease and crime but for much of our industrial unrest..the workers, whose only escape from these wretched homes lies in the public house, would not be human beings if they did not turn a ready ear to anybody who promises to improve their lot’…. And drawing on the continuing unrest in the city ‘if every unskilled labourer in Dublin were the tenant of a decent cottage of three or even two rooms, the city would not be divided into two hostile camps.’
The Irish Times Book of The Century. Fintan O’Toole. Gill & Macmillan 1999. p50
William Martin Murphy's plan was to use the weapon of starvation to break the union. On September 2nd 1913 he spelled out his policy to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce - "The employer all the time managed to get his three meals a day, but the unfortunate workman and his family had no resources whatever except submission, and that was what occurred in 99 cases out of 100. The difficulty of teaching that lesson to the workmen was extraordinary."
3
400 of the prominent employers met and agreed to a unilateral lock out of all ITGWU members with the majority demanding worker pledges not to join the ITGWU. Merchants, farmers and manufacturers now began to take concerted steps to break the unions.
Despite Murphy being only one of a minority of three on the question of the Conciliation Board, the Dublin bosses rallied around him. Each employer deposited, in the name of the Employers Federation, a sum of money in the bank. If a depositor came to terms with the union he lost all his money. The first boss to follow Murphy was Shackleton of Lucan, followed by Jacobs and the coal merchants. Then on September 3rd 400 employers met and pledged not to employ a single person who remained loyal to the union.
They agreed to lock out all workers who refused to sign this pledge - "I hereby undertake to carry out all instructions given to me by or on behalf of my employers and further I agree to immediately resign my membership of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (if a member) and I further undertake that I will not join or in any way support this union." Ten days later Dublin's big farmers joined in and issued a similar ultimatum.
September 3rd when the Employers Federation issued their ultimatum to their I.T.G.W.U. employees - resign from the union or loose your job. Four hundred and four employers locked out their unionised workers. Upwards of 25,000 people were locked out, which, including their dependants, affected over 100,000 people, a third of the population of Dublin. The working class of Dublin, who, even in times of employment had to suffer squalor and poverty, now found themselves destitute and facing starvation.
Within three weeks, the numbers of workers locked out had reached 25,000. Under William Martin Murphy’s leadership, it was clear that aside from negotiation, it was a case of starve the workers into surrender. It quickly grew into a protracted, angry, brutal and hungry dispute. The union’s HQ, Liberty Hall became the centre of a vast welfare operation managed by Delia Larkin and Constance Markievicz, to feed and clothe the locked out workers and their familes. Financial support began to arrive from other unions worldwide along with two shiploads of food from Britain.
A Board of Trade enquiry headed by Sir George Askwith, could not persuade the employers to take a more humane position.
.
The funeral of James Nolan on September 3rd, attracted over 30,000 people and was guarded by I.T.G.W.U. men with pick-handles topped with a cylinder of steel, against police attack. The police kept their distance.
6:
James Connolly goes on hunger strike in prison.
The Irish Catholic of September 6th: "They are poor and have naught, but if they were rich tomorrow, debauchery would soon have them in poverty again... by folly or malice of their so-called leader, they have been placed in deplorable straits... all this to gratify the vengeful whims of an adventurer who has been battening on their credulity". Murphy pretended that his objection was only to "Larkinism" and not to legitimate trade unionism. This lie was easily exposed by mention of the previous efforts of the tram workers to organise. In 1903 Murphy had smashed the "Dublin and District Tramways Trade Union" and victimised its leading members.
The workers of Dublin met the threat to destroy the Transport Union with a heroic resistance. All over the city thousands chose the lock-out rather than sign the notorious document. Each trade served by labourers walked out when the labourers were ordered to sign. Most tradesmen showed solidarity. Even the United Builders Labourers Trade Union, who had been in conflict with Larkin, refused to sign and marched out "to help the ITGWU boys". The women and girls marched out from the factories once the document was produced
7:
Carson speaking in Newry on the consequences of the Home Rule Bill: ‘We will set up a Government. I am told it is illegal. Of course it will. Drilling is illegal…the Volunteers are illegal, and the Government knows they are illegal, and the Government dare not interfere with them. Don’t be afarid of illegalities.’
First Paris-Berlin passenger flight takes place.
8: The Irish Times published for the first time a Yeats poem awkardly titled ‘Romance in Ireland ( On reading much of the ocrrespondence against the Art Gallery)’ later revised to ‘September 1913’. Meanwhile Dublin City Council rejected a proposal to build a gallery over the Liffey to house the Hugh Lane Gallery of Modern Art.
11
Vladimir Lenin writing in Severnaya Pravda on the Dublin strikers attacked by police: ‘The police have gone positively wild, drunken policemen assault peaceful workers, break into homes, torment the aged, women and children…people are thrown into prison for making the most peaceful speeches. The city is like an armed camp.’
12
James Larkin released from prison on bail until trial on October 27th.
The lock out affected not only industry but also agriculture with many farms Co. Dublin, particularly the Ballbriggan, Howth and Lucan areas affected as large numbers of farm labourers were locked out.
US Athlete Jesse Owens born. ( d. 31.3.80 )
13
James Connolly released from prison following hunger strike.
Larkin was in Liverpool in September & said..
“ ..Hell has no terrors for me. I have lived there. Thirty Six years of hunger and poverty have been my portion. Better to be in hell with Dante and Davitt that to be in heaven with Carson and Murphy. I’m m out for revolution. What do I care? They can only kill me, and there are thousands more to come after me.”
Mark Tierney. “Modern Ireland” Gill & McMillan, Dublin 1972. p.96
15
All employees in the Building trades were called on to sign a pledge that they would not join or support the ITGWU, and on refusing to do so, were locked out. The numbers unemployed were estimated to be 8000. By now, in the words of the RIC report ‘ in the city, work was completely suspended in a number of trades and business generally was at a standstill. At the same time, the number of unemployed about the streets rendered the task of preserving the peace difficult and taxed the resources of the police to the utmost’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P45
The Midland Volunteer Force was organised by a Redmondite group, specifically for the defence against an invasion of Carsonites from the North. This in turn interested Bulmer Hobson who advised the ruling circle of the I.R.B that the time had come to launch a Volunteer Movement for all of Ireland outside of the ‘Orange counties’.
During September, many Unionist parades and meetings took place throughout Ulster.
Carson claimed to have 150,000 volunteers ready to fight against Home Rule.
16: Railway workers in Liverpool began to black all traffic to Dublin, soon some 13,000 were locked out or on strike as far afield as Birmingham, Sheffield, Crewe and Derby. This action was totally unofficial, organised by rank and file committees who aimed towards a national stoppage in support of Dublin. Sadly the railway union leaders, in particular J.H. Thomas, managed to prevent the strike spreading, isolate the militants and secure a return to work. There was a great fighting spirit and a real willingness to take solidarity action, but the militants were too unorganised and uncoordinated to overcome the manoeuvres of Thomas and his cronies.
The ITGWU launched a second appeal for solidarity action. Larkin spoke at meetings all over Britain, his "fiery cross" crusade. In response a second wave of unofficial action spread across Britain. In South Wales two train drivers were sacked for refusing to carry Dublin traffic. 30,000 of their fellow workers on the railways struck in support of them. Once again Thomas used all his schemes and pleadings to get the strikers back to work he ended up describing the two sacked train drivers as "a disgrace" to trade unionism!
Union officials reported great difficulty in keeping their members on the Liverpool and London docks from coming out in sympathy. There was no lack of support for the ITGWU's struggle but the militants just did not have enough co-ordination to take on the, bureaucrats, and break their hold.
The pressure from below was such, however, that the TUC called its first ever special conference. They hoped to kill off unofficial action by seeming to be doing something themselves, All eyes turned on the TUC. Delegates to the special conference were not elected from within their unions but simply selected from the ranks of the more cautious executive committee members. The vote for sympathy action was lost by 2,280,000 to 203,000. A shameful betrayal orchestrated by timid officials afraid to step outside the bounds of 'conciliation and arbitration'.
21
During a march through the city by strikers, tram cars were wrecked and police baton charges were made. 35 civilians and several police were injured.
The next day, timber merchants employees were locked out. The numbers unemployed were estimated at 20,000.
The Irish Citizen Army was founded to prevent any repeat of the August 30th attack by the DMP and R.I.C.. This was not only an accepted anti-establishment move, but it was also one of the first organisations to accept women on an equal basis as men. Countess Markievicz became one of it’s first commandants. According to William O' Brien's recollections in the book 'Forth The Banners Go', the name of the Citizens Army came from the Social Democratic Federation, who in the early 1880's planned to form a Citizens Army to replace the States army.
Considering the strong working class character of the Irish Citizen Army, it is surprising that members of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy were involved in it's formation. The diversity in the backgrounds of, on the one hand, Countess Constance Markievicz and Jack White and those of James Connolly and Jim Larkin, could not be more pronounced.
Jack White was the son of Field Marshal Sir George White V.C. who had won almost every honour possible in the British Army and was famous as the man who defended Ladysmith against the Boers. Coming from a military family with a Protestant ascendancy background it was strange that White should find himself organising the defence of the Dublin working class during the 1913 lockout. Having fought against the Boers himself, White subsequently began to oppose militarism and left the army to travel around Europe. This travelling led to his increasing liberalism and on returning to Ireland he opposed Sir Edward Carson's sectarian version of Protestantism along with the likes of Sir Roger Casement
Countess Constance Markievicz was also of an Anglo-Irish ascendancy background. Her grandfather, Sir Robert Gore-Booth was an M.P. in the House of Commons in the mid 1800's. As a landlord he was responsible for evicting some of his tenants so as to use their land for pasture, a situation commonplace in those days for the native Irish. It is all the more remarkable that Markievicz, coming from such a comfortable existence, would, while in her forties, throw herself into the struggle of the Irish working class against their employers and the Irish people against their British rulers. During this period of her life she became the first woman M.P. in the British Parliament and also the first Minister for Labour in the first Dail Eireann.
In complete contrast, Jim Larkin's background was that to be expected of most working class people of the time. Born of Irish parents in Liverpool in 1876, he began working at the age of nine. It was during this time that he began to read and listen to the socialists of the day. Having experienced the grinding poverty inflicted on the working class by capitalism, he joined the Independent Labour Party when he was only sixteen. Four years after joining the National Union of Dock Labourers (N.U.D.L.) he became their National Organiser. In 1907 Larkin came to Ireland to organise his union. After organising the dock workers in Belfast in 1907 and Cork in 1909, Larkin clashed with the General Secretary of the N.U.D.L. over his confrontational methods and particularly the tactic of the sympathetic strike. After being sacked by the N.U.D.L. he formed the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (I.T.G.W.U.) on January 6th 1909. So began one of the most militant periods of Irish Labour history.
James Connolly, like Larkin, had experienced the extreme poverty that was the lot of most working class people. Born in Edinburgh in 1868 to Irish parents, Connolly began working at the age of eleven. At the age of fourteen, like many before him, lack of work drove him to join the British Army. Connolly choose the Kings Liverpool Regiment, then considered an Irish regiment. His first visit to Ireland was in a British uniform and lasted seven years. Already a socialist at this time, his desertion from the army enabled him to begin his involvement with active socialism. In 1896 the Dublin Socialist Club offered him a job as a full time organiser on the strength of his writings in Justice, the journal of the Social Democratic Federation.
After arriving in Dublin he set up the Irish Socialist Republican Party (I.S.R.P.) but in 1903 he and his family were again on the move due to poverty, this time to the U.S.A., where he was to remain for seven years. By 1910 he was again back in Ireland, this time as an organiser for the Socialist Party of Ireland, which had been formed by William O'Brien a former member of the I.S.R.P. In 1911 Connolly became Belfast's secretary of the I.T.G.W.U.. After Larkin's arrest in August 1913 Connolly returned from Belfast to take over the organisation of the strike, and so into the industrial battleground that was Dublin of the time, came James Connolly
24:
‘The Ulster Unionist Council, without the formality of any election, resolved itself into the ‘Central Authority of the Provisional Government of Ulster’. Sir Edward Carson became Chairman....various committees were appointed and a Military Council was set up. An indemnity fund of £1 million was started for the relief of wounded and disabled and widows and orphans who might suffer in consequence of war against Home Rule. The fund was quickly guaranteed. In England, homes were prepared for Loyalist refugees from Ulster. Famous English generals promised their services to the covenaters in the case of war.’
Dorothy Macardle, The Irish Republic. Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p90
25
Troops were called in to assist the RIC ‘protect property and deliver coals to institutions under the control of the government.
27:
The number unemployed estimated at 24,000.
The inquiry held afterwards by Inspectors of the Local Government Board revealed the fact that in Dublin at this time, the housing conditions were the worst in Europe, and that in the city there were, 21,000 families living in only one room.
The first Food Ship ‘The Hare’ supplied by the English Trades Unionists arrived in Dublin and cargo distributed to destitute strikers and families. These were followed by additional food ships.
New air-speed record set in France – 118mph.
By September 27th there were 24,000 locked-out. Within another two weeks the number rose to about 30,000. 32 unions were involved, all sticking up for the rights of the Transport Union, and trade union principles.
Events in Ireland were coming to the attention of an obscure Russian agitator living in Swiss exile. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was using the pseudynom Lenin while in Geneva and watching for signs of incipient revolt throughout the world, thought he could see stirrings in Dublin. ‘Ireland, he wrote ‘was something of a British Poland’ increasingly dominated by the rising Catholic middle class. ‘at the present moment, the Irish Nationalists ( i.e. the Irish bourgeoise ) are the victors. They are buying up the land from the British landlords; they are getting Home Rule …they will freely govern ‘their’ land in conjunction with ‘their’ Irish priests’. But Lenin imagined, Ireland was about to ‘turn into a land with an organised army of the proletariat’
The Irish Times Book of The Century. Fintan O’Toole. Gill & Macmillan 1999. p44
Pickets were attacked by police, meetings were broken up. Strikers responded with stoning of trams driven by scabs. Larkin said the workers should arm and defend themselves, This cry was translated into the formation of the Irish Citizen Army which was trained by Captain Jack White DSO, an ex-British Army officer who now fully supported the workers' cause and later joined the ranks of the anarchist movement during the Spanish Civil War, The ICA was a workers' militia armed with sticks and hurleys, for protection against police and blacklegs
28:
At the Ulster Hall Service on Ulster Day, the Reverned Dr Patterson ’..reassured his recptive audience that ‘under home rule, the Pope would be Ireland’s ruler and king, for his word was law’…persecution would inevitably follow ‘ and he ventured to say that in 2013 there would not be a Protestant in the British Empire who would be presume to affirm that Ulster made a mistake in the stand she was now taking against the agressions of Romanism…’
Prof JJ Lee. ‘Ireland 1912-1985 Politics and Society’ Cambridge University Press 1990. P9
Professor JJ Lee draws parallels between Unionism and Nationalism, that ‘racism was far less central to the idealogy of Irish nationalism than to that of Ulster unionism. But Ulster Protestants assumed, indeed were obliged by their own premises to assume, that Irish Catholics would behave as mirror images of themselves once they had smashed Protestant supremacy. In the Unionist scenario, Home rule would place Protestants ‘under the feet of Catholics…to be governed as a conquered race’.
Prof JJ Lee. ‘Ireland 1912-1985 Politics and Society’ Cambridge University Press 1990. P10
Add to this mix another Vatican decree, this time the ‘Motu Proprio’ where a Catholic layman was subject to excomunication if he brought a Catholic clergyman into any civil or criminal law case without the prior approval of the Bishop. This in turn came to be interpreted that any Catholic Parliamentarian that took part in the passing of legislation or any Catholic Government official that took part in implementing or supporting a law or decree which ‘helps to invade the liberty or rights of the Church of Rome’ was also subject to excommunication. Naturally the assumption in Ulster was that any Catholic in public service was essentially answerable only to Rome and not to the government or to the people – again the old rallying cry ‘Home Rule is Rome Rule’.
However as Professor Lee pointed out ‘It was not that Protestants wanted the clergy taken out of politics. Far from it. That would have deprived them of much of their own leadership…the Covenant was submitted for approval to Protestant clergy [who] gave their blessings to Covenant Day. If the clergyman in politics proved a less derisive bogey than the priest in politics, it was because the Protestant imagined himself immune from clerical influence. His clergy merely reperesented him wheras Catholic clergymen dominated their flocks.’
Prof JJ Lee. ‘Ireland 1912-1985 Politics and Society’ Cambridge University Press 1990. P12
The New York Times commenting on the Ulster Volunteers ‘The indications that the wole Ulster situation is a species of political bluff grow plainer from day to day’
29:
W.B.Yeats wrote a poem, dated 29 September 1913 and published the following year called “To a Shade” - not to revisit Dublin because his enemies are at their old tricks again.
Air speed record broken again as Prevost flies at 125mph.
Inventor of the diesel engine, Rudolf Diesel dies aged 55.
Ulster Unionists announced at the Ulster Unionist Council that they would set up a Provisional Government on the day that Home Rule becomes law in ireland. ‘We will scientifically, deliberately and carefully work out a plan which will make it impossible for a parliament in Dublin to govern this province’ said Carson. Funds of up to £1 million were set up to indemnify members of the Ulster volunteer Force against loss or injury sustained when carrying '‘ut the orders of the provisional government.'’Committees were also established for defence, finance, education, agriculture, trade, law and order. ‘We say to our enemies – we are ready, strike when you please’ said Lord Londonderry at the Ulster Unionist Council.
To show that Ulster’s resistance wa smore than mere rhetoric, some 15,000 men of the Ulster Volunteer Force marched to Balmoral, near Belfast for a military review with the salute taken by General Sir George Richardson, ( formerly of the Indian Army and commander of the multi-national cavalry brigade that supressed the Boxer Rebellion in China ) who took over the UVF in July.
While the UVF claimed to have some 50,000 members, it was short on weapons. Some of the men in the military parades marched with wooden rifles and bought for 1/6 through newspaper adverts. Meanwhile in Dublin, John redmond confessed that he feared Ulster may yet be excluded from any future Home Rule agreement.
Brigadier John Gough ( whose brother Hubert was commanding the 3rd Cavalry Brigade at the Curragh Camp ) was asked his views on the Government’s Irish policy. He commented that he felt some 40-60% of officers would refuse to serve against Ulster. ‘He personally objected not to Home Rule as such, but to the type of Government he believed the nationalists would bring in; it would not be loyal or honest, and it would be priest ridden…the idea of these disloyal men becoming our rulers was an outrage to every decent feeling I possessed..we would have corruption and graft, and probably the country would be innundated with unscrupolous Irish-American low class politicians..I could not tolerate the possibility of having a priest ridden Government.’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p244
October 1913
1: Greatest German Army increase since 1871; peace strength increased by 136,000 to 760,908 NCO's and men
2: London – a new concept in air-travel was introduced – the ‘aero-bus’ carrying 10 passengers including the pilot, made it’s debut at Hendon air-field.
4:
James Larkin addressed the Tribunal of Inquiry during the Dublin lock out: ‘We are determined that Christ will not be crucifed in Dublin by these men…my suggestion to the employers is that if they want peace we are prepared to meet them, but if they want war then war they will have.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p30
A second foodship ‘The Fraternity’ carrying goods for the locked out workers in Dublin docked.
6: The report Court of Enquiry into the lockout, while mildly critical of the Dublin strikers and their organisation, put the blame for refusing a settlement on the Employers. The Report suggested that workers should be reinstated without having to give a pledge not to join the ITGWU, but that they should promise not to strike for two years unless employers reject conciliation. Employers refuse the recommendations.
7:
AE – George Russel in one of his first letters to the Irish Times on the Lockout wrote : ‘I address this warning to you, the aristocracy of industry in this city…the men whose manhood you have broken will loathe you and will always be brooding and scheming to strike a fresh blow. The children will be taught to curse you…your class will be cut off from humanity as the surgeon cuts the cancer and alien growth from the body. Be warned ere it is too late’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p30
Letter to 'the Masters of Dublin'
from The Irish Times 7 October 1913
Sirs - I address this warning to you, the aristocracy of industry in this city, because, like all aristocracies, you tend to go blind in long authority, and to be unaware that you and your class and its every action are being considered and judged day by day by those who have power to shake or overturn the whole Social Order, and whose relentlessness in poverty today is making our industrial civilisation stir like a quaking bog. You do not seem to realise that your assumption that you are answerable to yourselves alone for your actions in the industries you control is one that becomes less and less tolerable in a world so crowded with necessitous life. Some of you have helped Irish farmers to upset a landed aristocracy in this island, an aristocracy richer and more powerful in its sphere than you are in yours, with its roots deep in history. They, too, as a class, though not all of them, were scornful or neglectful of the workers in the industry by which they profited; and to many who knew them in their pride of place and thought them all-powerful, they are already becoming a memory, the good disappearing together with the bad. If they had done their duty by those from whose labour came their wealth they might have continued unquestioned in power and prestige for centuries to come.
The relation of landlord and tenant is not an ideal one, but any relations in a social order will endure if there is infused into them some of that spirit of human sympathy which qualifies life for immortality. Despotisms endure while they are benevolent and aristocracies while noblesse oblige is not a phrase to be referred to with a cynical smile. Even an oligarchy might be permanent if the spirit of human kindness, which harmonises all things otherwise incomparable, is present.
You do not seem to read history so as to learn its lessons. That you are an uncultivated class was obvious from recent utterances of some of you upon art. That you are incompetent men in the sphere in which you arrogate imperial powers is certain, because for many years, long before the present uprising of labour, your enterprises have been dwindling in the regard of investors, and this while you carried them on in the cheapest labour market in these islands, with a labour reserve always hungry and ready to accept any pittance. You are bad citizens, for we rarely, if ever, hear of the wealthy among you endowing your city with the munificent gifts which it is the pride of merchant princes in other cities to offer, and Irishmen not of your city who offer to supply the wants left by your lack of generosity are met with derision and abuse. Those who have economic powers have civil powers also, yet you have not used the power that was yours to right what was wrong in the evil administration of this city.
You have allowed the poor to be herded together so that one thinks of certain places in Dublin as of a pestilence. There are twenty thousand rooms, in each of which live entire families, and sometimes more, where no functions of the body can be concealed and delicacy and modesty are creatures that are stifled ere they are born. The obvious duty of you in regard to these things you might have left undone, and it be imputed to ignorance or forgetfulness; but your collective and conscious action as a class in the present labour dispute has revealed you to the world in so malign an aspect that the mirror must be held up to you, so that you may see yourself as every humane person sees you.
The conception of yourselves as altogether virtuous and wronged is, I assure you, not at all the one which onlookers hold of you. No doubt, some of you suffered without just cause. But nothing which has been done to you cries aloud to Heaven for condemnation as your own actions. Let me show you how it seems to those who have followed critically the dispute, trying to weigh in a balance the rights and wrongs. You were within the rights society allows when you locked out your men and insisted on the fixing of some principle to adjust your future relations with labour, when the policy of labour made it impossible for some of you to carry on your enterprises. Labour desired the fixing of some such principle as much as you did. But, having once decided on such a step, knowing how many thousands, men, women and children, nearly one-third of the population of this city, would be affected, you should not have let one day to have passed without unremitting endeavours to find a solution of the problem. What did you do? The representatives of labour unions in Great Britain met you, and you made of them a preposterous, an impossible demand, and because they would not accede to it you closed the conference; you refused to meet them further; you assumed that no other guarantees than those you asked were possible, and you determined deliberately in cold anger, to starve out one-third of the population of this city, to break the manhood of the men by the sight of the suffering of their wives and the hunger of their children. We read in the Dark Ages of the rack and thumb screw. But these iniquities were hidden and concealed from the knowledge of man in dungeons and torture chambers. Even in the Dark Ages humanity could not endure the sight of such suffering, and it learnt of such misuses of power by slow degrees, through rumour, and when it was certain it razed its Bastilles to their foundations.
It remained for the twentieth century and the capital city of Ireland to see an oligarchy of four hundred masters deciding openly upon starving one hundred thousand people, and refusing to consider any solution except that fixed by their pride. You, masters, asked men to do that which masters of labour in any other city in these islands had not dared to do. You insolently demanded of those men who were members of a trade union that they should resign from that union; and from those who were not members you insisted on a vow that they would never join it.
Your insolence and ignorance of the rights conceded to workers universally in the modern world were incredible, and as great as your inhumanity. If you had between you collectively a portion of human soul as large as a threepenny bit, you would have sat night and day with the representatives of labour, trying this or that solution of the trouble, mindful of the women and children, who at least were innocent of wrong against you. But no! You reminded labour you could always have your three square meals a day while it went hungry. You went into conference again with representatives of the State, because dull as you are, you know public opinion would not stand your holding out. You chose as your spokesman the bitterest tongue that ever wagged in this island, and then, when an award was made by men who have an experience in industrial matters a thousand times transcending yours, who have settled disputes in industries so great that the sum of your petty enterprises would not equal them, you withdraw again, and will not agree to accept their solution, and fall back again upon your devilish policy of starvation. Cry aloud to Heaven for new souls! The souls you have got cast upon the screen of publicity appear like the horrid and writhing creatures enlarged from the insect world, and revealed to us by the cinematograph.
You may succeed in your policy and ensure your own damnation by your victory. The men whose manhood you have broken will loathe you, and will always be brooding and scheming to strike a fresh blow. The children will be taught to curse you. The infant being moulded in the womb will have breathed into its starved body the vitality of hate. It is not they - it is you who are blind Samsons pulling down the pillars of the social order. You are sounding the death knell of autocracy in industry. There was autocracy in political life, and it was superseded by democracy. So surely will democratic power wrest from you the control of industry. The fate of you, the aristocracy of industry, will be as the fate of the aristocracy of land if you do not show that you have some humanity still among you. Humanity abhors, above all things, a vacuum in itself, and your class will be cut off from humanity as the surgeon cuts the cancer and alien growth from the body. Be warned, ere it is too late. - Yours, etc. ae
September 1913
William Butler Yeats
from The Irish Times 7 October 1913
What need you, being come to sense,
But fumble in a greasy till
And add the halfpence to the pence
And prayer to shivering prayer, until
You have dried the marrow from the bone?
For men were born to pray and save:
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.
Yet they were of a different kind,
The names that stilled your childish play,
They have gone about the world like wind,
But little time had they to pray
For whom the hangman's rope was spun,
And what, God help us, could they save?
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.
Was it for this the wild geese spread
The grey wing upon every tide;
For this that all that blood was shed,
For this Edward Fitzgerald died,
And Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone,
All that delirium of the brave?
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.
Yet could we turn the years again,
And call those exiles as they were
In all their loneliness and pain,
You'd cry, 'Some woman's yellow hair
Has maddened every mother's son':
They weighed so lightly what they gave,
But let them be, they're dead and gone,
They're with O'Leary in the grave.
US – Henry Ford unveiled the first moving assembly line since he introduced the static assembly line back in 1908. This effectively cut the work hours per car from 14 hours to just 2.
8: Speaking in Dundee, Churchill announced that Ulster’s claims for exlcusion under the Home Ruel Biull could not be ignored.
9: Conciliation moves from the Catholic Hierarchy towards their Ulster Protestant neighbours began as rumours gained ground that the Home Rule Bill would be implemented. The Bishop of Raphoe Dr. patrick O’Donnell wrote to Redmond ‘There is no length to which any of us would refuse to go to satisfy the Ornagemen at the start of our new Government provided Ireland did not suffer seriously.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p30
Meanwhile in the south, sectarianism was relatively muted, but latent fears and resentments began to crystalise around the case of a Protestant clerk, Mr G.H.Walton, who was dismissed from his position with the Catholic booksellers and publishers, Gills.
Walton regularly served tea on Sunday mornings for the Dublin Free Breakfasts for the Poor, a Protestant missionary charity. When the firm discovered this, it sacked him, stating he was a Protestant proselytiser. The Company Secretary accused Walton of ‘endeavouring to wean little children from the faith of their fathers’. The Irish Times took up the case commenting that no person should be sacked for practising their religion as they saw fit in their own time and even going so far as to comment that the Walton case was a ‘test case ‘ for whether or not Home Rule would indeed be Rome rule.
Shortly, the Catholic Bulletin ( coincientally published by Gill ) defending the sacking of Walton without qualification and turned a broadside on the Irish Times, whose staff it accused of ‘being calculating and unscurpulous bigots…whose stock in trade was distortion, interpolation and other traditional devices of West British journalism.’
The Irish Times Book of The Century. Fintan O’Toole. Gill & Macmillan 1999. p60
10: Presidnet Wilson opened the Panama Canal by pressing a button at his desk, detonating 40 tons of dynamite removing the last obstacle between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
11:
Bulmer Hobson apparently had not received any word from Devoy his funding request for St. Endas. [ 4 July ].
‘There is no dout that the college can only be saved if he gets help before next Spring, and if it ceases it will be a very serious loss indeed’ Pearse ‘proposes going out to America this winter to try and get financial assistance to put his college on its feet. He saw Judge Cohalan a few weeks ago and I understand the Judge promised to assist him when he went out’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.415
Not all of the Unionist tradition agreed with Carson and his policies:
“ A meeting of Liberal Protestants was held at Ballymoney, Co. Antrim, 24th October, to protest against the ‘lawless policy of Carsonism’.
Inteligencer Notes-1913-16 Government Publications Office. Dublin, 1966. p4.
‘Among those who addressed a meeting of Protestant Nationalists at Ballymoney, Co Antrim were the historian, Alice Stopford Smith, Roger Casement, returned from his labours in defence of the natives of Putumayo and the Belgian Congo, and another Ulsterman, Captain J.R. White, who had served with the British Army with distinction during the Boer War’
Dorothy Macardle, The Irish Republic. Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p91
12:
Redmond came out strongly against partition on the island, speaking in Limerick: ‘Ireland is a unit. It is true that within the bosom of the nation there is room for diversities in the treatment of Government and administaration but…the two nation theory is to us an abomination and a blasphemy’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p30
Food kitchens were set up in Liberty Hall by Countess Markievicz. Food ships organised by English & Scottish Trade unionists. Nora Connolly, daughter of James Connolly, said of these kitchens
“ ..Here the Countess Markievicz reigned supreme -- all meals were prepared under her direction. There were big tubs on the floor; around each were about half a dozen girls peeling potatoes and other vegetables. There were more girls at tables cutting up meat. The Countess kept up a steady march around the boilers as she supervised the cooking. She took me to another kitchen where more delicate food was being prepared for nursing and expectant mothers.
'We used to give the food out at first,' she said. 'But in almost every case we found that it had been divided amongst the family. Now we have the women come here to eat. We are sure then that they are getting something sufficiently nourishing to keep up their strength.' . . .
Nora Connolly. “The Irish Rebellion of 1916”& “The Unbroken Tradition” p.2
In this way the strikers were also clothed. Ms. Connolly said of this:
“…We came to the clothing shop next. Some persons had caught the idea of sending warm clothing for the wives and children of the strikers; accordingly one of the rooms of Liberty Hall was turned into an alteration room. Several women and girls were working from morning to night altering the clothes to fit the applicants. One of the girls said to me, "It was a wonder to us at first the number of strikers who had extra large families, until we found out that in many cases their wives had adopted a youngster or two for the day, and brought them along to get clothed." Not strictly honest, perhaps, but how human to wish to share their little bit of good fortune with those not so fortunate as themselves. How many little boys and girls knew for the first time in their lives the feel of warm stockings and shoes, and how many little girls had the delicious thrill of getting a new dress fitte
Nora Connolly. “The Irish Rebellion of 1916”& “The Unbroken Tradition” p.3
In the Irish Times shortly afterwards there appeared a letter from AE ( George Russell ) accusing the employers of insolence, ignorance and “ a devilish policy of starvation”.
‘You determine deliberately in cold anger to starve out one third of the population of this city, to break the manhood of the men by the sight of the suffering of their wives and the hunger of their children...blind Sampsons, pulling down the pillars of social order’
15: James Connolly leads 4,000 workers in a protest march through Dublin.
18: - Berchtold (Austria) sends an ultimatum to Serbia demanding withdrawal of forces that crossed into Albania; Serbs withdrew
20:
NY – President Wilson orders the reversal of Emmeline Pankhurst’s deportation order and orders her immediate release.
Connolly planned to alleviate some of the social problems by taking the strikers' children to Britain until after the Lock-Out. Dora Montefiore and Lucille Rand, with Larkin's approval, arrived in Dublin to take the children of consenting parents to England to be provided with food, shelter, and clothing. The Archbishop of Dublin, William Walsh, however, upset at this brotherhood between the British Protestants and the Irish Catholics, condemned the action. In a letter to the newspapers on October 20th he wrote:
‘They can be no longer held worthy of the name of Catholic mothers if they so far forget that duty as to send away their little children to be cared for in a strange land, without [ascertaining] that those to whome the poor children are to be handed over are Catholics or indeed persons of any faith at all.’
The DMP then arrested the pair for kidnapping. When James Larkin's wife, Delia Larkin, tried to take over the venture, the clergy struck again. Archbishop Walsh did, however, see to it that the clergy helped provide relief for the strikers.
Clergy & laity patrolled streets, railway stations and quaysides, seizing any children that appeared to be destined or en-route to Britain.
Asquith demanded that Chief Secretary Birrel report to him on proposals to send children of impoverished strikers to homes in England. Birrel wrote back ‘It certainly was an outrage. For the first place there are no starving childen in Dublin and in the second place, the place swarms with homes for them.’
James Connolly, while not enthuastically supporting the scheme, did strongly criticise the Archbishop, writing that if he was ‘as solictious about the poor bodies of those children as we know you to be about their souls’ then he should do everything in his power to make the employers of Dublin negotiate. Connolly next forced the issue back to the Hierarchy by abandoning the scheme, demanding that all children be cared for in Dublin. Free meals were suspended from Liberty Hall, telling the people to ask the Archbishop and the priests for food and clothing. Catholic organisation were quickly flooded with pleas for assistance, forcing the Archbisop to issue urgent appeals for funds along with a settlement of the dispute. Having made his point, Connolly reinstated the free meals at Liberty Hall.
18: NY – Emeline Pankhurst deported from the US on arrival on grounds of ‘moral turpitude’.
23
Priests led crowds in an attempt to stop locked out workers sending their hungry children to England to be cared for during the dispute. This intervention was on the grounds that the organisers were ‘Godless’ and willing to ‘pervert the faith of children’
Bishop Gaughran of Mullingar led the faithfull in prayer that the country might be protected from the doctrine of socialism ‘which recognises no God, no sin, no hell, no heaven’ Conor Kostick ‘Revolution in Ireland - popular militancy 1917-1923’ Pluto Press, London 1996 p18
Yeats weighed into the debate with a letter to the Irish Worker: ‘I charge the Dublin nationalist newspapers with deliberately arousing religious passion to break up the organisation of the working man, with appeals to mob law day by day…and I charge the Unionist press of Dublin and those who directed the police with conniving in this conspiracy’
26:
Kaiser meets Berchtold (Austrian Foregin Minister) in Vienna discussing possible Germanic-Slav (Serb) confrontation
27
At Larkin’s trial, he was found guilty on ‘uttering seditious language’ but not guilty on ‘spoken words with the intention of inciting to riot’ and ‘having spoken with intention to incite to have the shops and shopkeepers pillaged and robbed’. He was jailed for 7 months, but released on November 13th. Popular opinion at the time had it that Carson deserved the prison sentence far more than Larkin, after all, wasn’t he ‘uttering sedeitious language on a grand scale up in Belfast?’
November 1913
W.B.Yeats wrote a message for Larkin & Connolly’s “Irish Worker and People’s Advocate” in which he assails the employers for their cruelty. The I.R.B Leadership however offered no assistance to help Larkin or the strikers, the Church disapproved of the strike as did Arthur Griffith.
The playwright George Bernard Shaw travelled to Ireland and worked on the strikers' behalf.
John Dillon of the Irish Parliamentary Party summed up some of the Middle Class opinion of the time
“ Murphy is a desperate character, Larkin is as bad. It would be a blessing for Ireland if they exterminated each other”
F.S.L.Lyons. “John Dillon” Chicago. 1968. p.335
Larkin’s associates in England held a large demonstration of over 10,000 people in the Albert Hall to demand his release. This resulted in his release on the 13th November leaving shortly afterwards for America with Connolly in command of the ITGWU.
Appearing on stage as speakers included George Bernard Shaw, Delia Larkin, Dora Montifiore, AE, James Connolly and suffragist Charlotte Despard. Shaw pointed out the contrast between imprisoning Larkin for sedition and Carson’s freedom to organise an army against the Government. Connolly suggested a protest vote against the Government until Larkin was freed and AE ridiculed the Catholic bishops saying ‘they have so little concern for the bady at all that they assert it is better for the children to be starved than to be moved from the Christian athmosphere of the Dublin slums. Dublin is the most Christian city in these islands. It’s tottering tenements are holy. The spiritual athmosphere which pervades them is ample compensation for the diseases which are there and the food which is not there.’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p233
Soon after the Albert Hall meeting, Sylvia Pankhurst and her East London organisation were expelled from the Women’s Social and Political Union by her mother and sister, Emmeline and Christabel. They did not approve of Sylvia’s involvement with th working class and her appearance at this meeting on behalf of James Larkin was the last straw.
The winter caused unseen hardships. However what broke the ITGWU was a combination of starvation and the withdrawal of support by the British Trades Union Council on 9th December.
1:
The O’Rahilly had virtual control of editorial policy at “An Claidheamh Soluis”, ( The Sword of Light ) the Sinn Fein journal. He approached Eoin MacNeill, Professor of Early & Mediaeval History at UCD & Vice President of the Gaelic League, to write a general article on volunteering. The November 1 issue ran “ The North Began” by McNeill. A 1,422 word ‘tortous account of the politicial situation in the North of Ireland and the relationship between the dying remnants of feudalism there and the still living feudalism of Britain’ Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p94
However the article proposed following Ulster’s lead with the Ulster Volunteers by creating an Irish force. McNeill stating that the Irish force would not be formed with the intention to coerce Unionists, they were to be formed to bring pressure to bear on England. McNeill suggesting that Carson and the Unionists were the real Irish ‘Home Rulers’ through their self-determination. While he also did not explicitly urge the Irish to form a Volunteer force, McNeill advised that there was nothing to prevent them from doing so.
The 14 year old daughter of Robert Monteith, a British Noncommissioned Officer, was batoned unconscious following a DMP drive to clear some side streets of strikers families. Montieth ( 1880 - 1956 ) born in Newtownmountkennedy, Co. Wicklow in 1880, enlisted in the British army in 1896, serving in the Royal Horse Artillery in India and then in South Africa during the Boer War. He became somewhat disillusioned with the army and returned to Ireland and worked in the Ordnance Survey. He later joined the Irish Volunteers and as a result lost his job.
A few days later, Hobson and the O’Rahilly met with Prof. MacNeill to discuss forming a Volunteer Movement in Dublin and a meeting was arranged for 11 November.
In Scotland, Suffragetets threw themselves in front of the Prime Minister’s car.
Constantinople: German influence grew throughout the Ottoman Empire as it continued the military training for it’s troops. A German General, Otto Liman von Sanders took control of the Ottoman forces. The Russians protested strongly with the French loding equally voiceferous indignation but did little good.
2: US Actor – Burt Lancaster born
3: US – Government orders mobilisation of 500,000 men – the first time such an order has been given in peacetime.
4: Ulster – businessmen refuse to pay any tax until Home Rule is abandoned.
5: British actress Vivien Leigh ( Scarlett in Gone with the Wind 1939 ) born. (8/7/67 )
7:
O’Donovan Rossa was now in hospital suffering from senile dementia. In a letter to Devoy, his wife commented he was suffering from ‘his ususal latter day condition of childishness and illusion…hemust get out his paper and write to certain subscribers etc and the orderlies had to be called to restrain him from getting out of bed. Then he gave me messages to take to Skibereen and Roscarberry to people who have been dead for more than 50 years and he shouted to a convalescent passing by ‘Govenor,Govenor! This lady is my wife. She wants to take me home. Stop the car for us!’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.416
8:
Patrick Pearse wrote ‘The Coming Revolution’ appearing in the Gaelic League journal. His message was simple enough, that Irishmen must prepare for the difficult task of achieving control of their own country, but the language used appears inappropriate to generations later: ‘I should like to see any and every bod of Irish citizens armed. We must accustom ourselves to the thought of arms, to the use of arms. We may make mistake sin the beginning and shoot the wrong people, but bloodshed is a cleansing and sanctifying thing, and the nation wich regards it as the final horror has lost it's manhood. There are many thing more horrible that bllodshed and salvery is one of them.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p96
Major General Sir Henry Wilson, director of Military Operations at the War Office was a key supporter of the Loyalist & Unionist cause recorded in his diary that he had told Sir John French, Commander of the Imperial General Staff ‘that I could not fire on the North at the dictation of Redmond’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p244
9:
Sir Henry Wilson’s diaries of a meeting with Bonar Law records that ‘there was much talk in the Army, and that if we were ordered to coerce Ulster, there would be wholesale defections…I then told him of Cecil’s idea that Carson should pledge the Ulster troops to fight for England if she was at war. I pointed out that a move like this would render the employment of trooops against ulster more impossible than ever’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P147
At a meeting of Ulster Nationalists in Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone, J.P.Convery ( an organiser of United Ireland League ) said ‘Under no circumstances [will we] allow Ulster or any portion of it to be taken from the map of Ireland’
King Albert of Belgium invited to Berlin; Kaiser tells King that he feels war with France inevitable; similar statements by Moltke
11: A Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers met in Wynns Hotel, Middle Abbey Street, Dublin to discuss the formation of a military group similar to the Ulster Volunteers. Of the twelve that met with Prof. MacNeill at Wynns Hotel, four ( Eamonn Ceannt, Sean McDiarmada, James A Deakin and Piaras Beaslai ) were I.R.B members. Patrick Pearse was also present and sworn into the I.R.B. shortly after. W.J.Ryan, Sean Fitzgibbon, Joseph Cambell were also present along with the O’Rahilly acting as Secretary. Bulmer Hobson, though invited, sent his apologies ( later arguing that he considered it unwise as Secretary of the IRB to be present until cleared by John Devoy ). The initial discussion was conducted in Irish until it was quickly pointed out that not all members present were Irish speakers, and so was changed to English.
Among the objectives in this historic meeting were ‘to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to all the people of Ireland, without distinction of class, creed or politics’
MacNeil was asked to accept the leadership of the Volunteers, but requested some time to consider the proposal and consulted with a friend of his, George Sigerson, another distnguished Gaelic scholar. ‘Sigerson had said ‘If you accept leadership of such a movement, do you think that you will be able to control it?’ MacNeill believed he could and he accepted the leadership.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p95
The meeting concluded with a decision to call a public meeting at which the Volunteers could be launched and Irishmen invited to join.
12:
The newly formed Civic League met within Trinity Collge, Dublin to aid Dublin workes. Attended by the poet Thomas McDonagh. There Captain Jack .R.White, a decorated Boer War Veteran, proposed a scheme for drilling the strikers, to which he offered his time and professional skills and to ‘bring discipline into the distracted ranks of labour’
13:
Jim Larkin was released from Prison, 17 days into a 7 month sentence. In Dublin, Connolly held a rally to celebrate where he announced plans for a citizen army: “ ..Listen to me..I am going to talk sedition. The next time we set out for a route March, I want to be accompanied by four battalions of trained men. I want them to come out with their corporals and their seargenats and people to form fours. Why should we not drill and train in Dublin as they are drilling and training in Ulster?”
C.D.Greaves. The Life and Times of James Connolly. Dublin 1964. p.133
And so, thirteen days before the founding of the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizien Army was formed. Among those who sat at the platform with Connolly was Constance Countess Markievicz and Captain J.R.White, the decorated Boer War Veteran who had offered military training to the strikers. Countess Markievicz, the daughter of Sir Henry Gore-Booth, 5th Baronet of Lisadell, Co. Sligo, was described by her father’s tenants as a “ wild, kind girl” strongly attracted to anything militant or agressive.
Connolly announced that a citizens army was to be organised along military lines by Captain Jack White and called for volunteers. While a thousand hands were raised in response to the request for volunteers, on the first public appearance of the Irish Citizen Army in Croydon Park on November 23rd 1913, a mere forty odd men turned up to drill.
14:
The ‘Irish Churchman’ an Ulster Protestant journal reported on a meeting in Hamburg between Carson and the German Kaiser ‘We have the offer of aid from a power continental monarch…should our King sign the Home Rule Bill, the Protestants of Ireland will welcome this continental deliverer as their forefathers under similar circumstances did once before’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p31
17: Panama Canal – first ship through the newly opened canal was the SS Louise.
Berlin – The Kaiser orders men in both the Army and Navy not to dance either the tango or two step and to avoid families who do. Failure to observe this request would result in dismisisal from the armed forces.
18: Larkin and Connolly along with delegates of the Dublin Trades Council meet with the Parliamentary Committee of the British Trades Union Congress.
19:
The Civic League met for a second time. Capt. White read a telegram from another Protestant Ulsterman, Sir Roger Casement who offered his support for the military training plan. At this meeting, the “Transport Union Citizen Army” name was adopted, and planned as a defence force to protect the strikers from the police and so was born the Irish Citizen Army.
A circular announcing that a national volunteer force was being launched, with the enrolement to begin at a public meeting at the Rotunda, 8pm on November 25th.
The GAA acquired Croke Park from former GAA President and Secretary, Frank B. Dineen, on December 18 1913 for £1,500 in cash and the acceptance of a bank liability of £2,000. Dineen had bought the Jones' Road grounds in 1908 for £,250, when the City and Suburban Racecourse and Amusement Group Ltd. was wound up. The money came from financially successful inter-county hurling and football competitions which funded a memorial in Thurles to Archbishop Croke, first patron of the Association, with enough left over to purchase the grounds.
23:
Enough men to form 2 companies met at Croyden Park, the ITGWU’s recreation centre in Clontarf. Captain Jack White admits that these men are to defend workers from the police in additiont to raising worker morale and provide a worker’s force to oppose employers.
In New York, the founder and editor for the last 45 years of the Irish World newspaper, Patrick Ford dies. His nephew Robert Ford now took over the paper, supporting Redmond and the Irish Parliamentary Party until breaking with him shortly after 1914.
25:
At a public meeting at the Rotunda Gardens Ice Rink in Dublin, attended by over 3,000 persons, the Irish National Volunteers was founded. The attendance was unexpectedly large with overflows outside the building being addressed by additional speakers. Contingents from the Trade Unions, political views and opinions were present. ( The stewards were all I.R.B. men from the Gaelic Athletic League ) The Irish National Volunteers objectives were
“ ..is to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to all people of Ireland. Their duties will be defensive and protective, and they will not contemplate either aggression or domination. Their ranks are open to all able bodied Irishmen without distinction of creed, politics or social grade. Means will be found wherby Irishmen unable to serve as ordinary volunteers will be able to aid the Volunteer forces in various capacities. There will be work for women to do, and there are signs that the Women of Ireland, true to their record, be especially enthusiastic for the success of the Irish Volunteers.”
F.X.Martin. “The Irish Volunteers” Dublin 1963. p100.
MacNeill and Pearse were the principal speakers. MacNeil believed that the drilling of nationalist volunteers would strengtent the cause of Home Rule and would later become the nucleus of an Irish army. ‘The more genuine and succesful the local volunteer movement in Ulster becomes, the more completely does it establish the principle that Irishmen have the right to decide and govern their own national affairs’
Another speaker, Larry Kettle was shouted down as his father had employed ‘scab labour’ to break a strike of farm workers some time earlier. ‘As soon as he spoje there were scuffles and fights as ITGWU protestors were drowned out with the song ‘God Save Ireland’ Conor Kostick ‘Revolution in Ireland - popular militancy 1917-1923’ Pluto Press, London 1996 p18/19
The IRB were prepared to openly associate themselves with Murphy and his supporters, but not Larkin. Their strategy saw nationalist unity as more significant than popular militancy. O’Casey also believed that the IRB were trying to attract recruits away from the recently launched Irish Citizen Army.
Another speaker that received a hostile reception was Michael Davitt, the son of the famous Land League leader. The reason for this reception was that he had attempted to discourage his fellow UCD students from coming to the meeting as one body.
Eamon DeValera was among 4,000 that joined within a week of that meeting. “ .. the second phase in the revolution which the Gaelic League had initiated”
PH Pearse on the Irish Volunteers, quoted in Mark Tierney. “Modern Ireland” Gill & McMillan, Dublin 1972. p.84
A Provisional Committee was formed to run the new movement. Chairman: Eoin MacNeill, Treasurer: The O’Rahilly. The Secretary, Bulmer Hobson. 12 of the 30 provisional committeemen were IRB members as too were the office staff, Liam Mellows, Secretary, Eimear O’Duffy and Barney Mellows. No person who was known to the British Government as a revolutionary, or identified with the ‘revolutionary element’ was proposed. The O’Rahilly was given responsibility to arm the Volunteers.
MacNeill’s Manifesto to the Irish People was presented at the meeting and passed with some minor modifications. It held sharp criticisms of the actions of both Conservatives and Ulster Unionists, adding it seemed apparent that ‘a plan had been deliberatley adopted by one of the great English political parties…to make the display of military force and the menace of armed violence the determining factor in the future relations between this country and Great Britain’.
The slogan adopted was ‘Defence not Defiance’.
The Women’s army or auxiliary force was formed shortly afterwards called “Cumann na mBan” with members pledged to the cause of independence, organising Irishwomen to further this cause, assist in arming and equipping a body of men for the defence of Ireland and to form a fund for these purposes called “Defence of Ireland Fund”. This organisation gradually absorbed The “Daughters of Ireland” or “Inghinidhe na hEireann”. Founding members included the spouses of Wyse-Power, the O’Rahilly, MacNeill, Ceannt, Kettle, Dudley-Edwards, Gavan Duffy and Clarke.
Eamon de Valera in 1963 offered his own analysis for the reasons the Irish Volunteers were founded:
‘There were those who saw the nation being robbed of the fruits of years of patient constitutional endeavour by an arrogant defiance of the constitution. There were others who looked on this as an opportunity to repair the error of the late 18th century when the volunteers of that era were allowed to lapse. Finally, there were those who thought that the occasion should be seized to form a force which would be ready at any time to strike another blow for Irish freedom.’
Earl of Longford & T.P.O’Neill. ‘Eamon de Valera’ Gill & McMillan, Dublin.1970. p20
Pearse commenting on the continuing Unionist backlash against Home Rule wrote in his essay "From a Hermitage”:
“ …The Editor of Sinn Fein [Arthur Griffith] wrote the other day that when the Orangemen fire upon the King of England's troops it will become the duty of every Nationalist in Ireland to join them: there is a deal of wisdom in the thought as well as a deal of humour…. I think the Orangeman with a rifle is a much less ridiculous figure than the Nationalist without a rifle and the Orangeman who can fire a gun will certainly count for more in the end than the Nationalist who can do nothing cleverer than make a pun.’
From a Hermitage - published November, 1913. Reprinted in Political Writings and Speeches, p. 187
27: The newly formed Irish Citizen Army holds it's first drill.
December 1913
1: Drilling for the four battalions of the Irish Volunteers Dublin Brigade began in the Gaelic League Hall, Blackhall Street. The first squad was paraded by Capt. Robert Monteith. He described the scene that night:
‘Our trouble on this night was not to get the men to drill, but to get space in which to drill them. The hall was packed, and, in the anteroom, men fought to reach the secretary to have their names entered on the roll….the ages of those presenting themselves for enrolement ranged from fourteen to sisty, and the types varied. There came the well groomed bank clerk who signed his name with a flourish, the dock labourer, who held his breath and frowned ferociously as he formed the straggling characters….through the haze of tobacco smoke, one culd just distinguish a sea of faces, and the din of voices as they laughed, joked and sang was indescribable…. We worked hard, giving ten minutes to each squad of eight men…in all the three of us passed more than 600 men through our hands. It was nearly midnight when the parade was finished. We were exhausted….in that dingy little hall in Blackhall Street was the spirit of a nation reborn…’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Atwell Printing, Chicago. 1932. P9-10. Lynch Family Archives.
News of the formation of the Irish Volunteers spread across the country and in every city and county, groups of men formed their own Volunteer units. Requests for information and other prominent Volunteers to meet and address the groups flooded into the Volunteer HQ.
4: Plymouth – Suffragette Emeline Pankhurst is arrested on her return from the US.
Pearse writing in Irish Freedom ‘ A citizen wihtout arms in like a priest without religion, like a woman without chastity, like a man without manhood…I say to each one of you who read this that it is your duty to arm..if you cannot arm otherwise by joining Carson’s Volunteers, join Carson’s Volunteers. But you can for instance, start Volunteers of your own.’
ITGWU Conferenence agrees to relinquish sympathetic strike but seeks in return, reinistatement of workers locked out since August 26th.
5:
A Proclamation was issued banning all importation of arms & ammunition into Ireland. This only only encouraged smuggling and the assumption that the Irish Volunteers would not and could not be armed. The Supreme Coucnil of the I.R.B had expected either a clamp down or blanket ban on the organisation and the proclamation allowed continued training and recruitment.
‘The Ulster Unionists were reputed to be already in possession of between 50,000 and 80,000 rifles and revolvers. They were convinced, as the Irish Times, a Unionist organ, stated in commenting on the Proclamation: ‘..that there were now sufficient arms in Ulster to enable effective resistance to be made to any attempt to force Home Rule upon Ulster. ‘
Dorothy Macardle, The Irish Republic. Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p98
On the same day, all Ulster car owners agreed to make their vehicles available to the Northern Ireland Provisional Government when requested.
The organisation of the Irish Volunteers was simple & democratic. No sectional grouping allowed, men were grouped according to the locality they lived, squads were grouped in sections, the sections in companies of 100 men each under one captain. Any Volunteer, without regard to rank, might be elected on to the committee which appointed officers and made all the arrangements. The subscription was 3 pence weekly.
‘The work of the instructory staff was, for the first few weeks, very hard…the difficulty was overcome by our holding instructors meetings and mapping out a system of co-ordinated work, each company drilling in it's own hall one night weekly, with a battalion parade on Saturdays at such centres as Fr. Mathew Park, Fairview or Larkfield, Kimmage…. For some months things went on smoothly, and though closely watched by the police, we suffered no interference from them. Recruits joined steadily from all over the country. Companies and battalions were formed. Organisers were in demand everywhere.’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Atwell Printing, Chicago. 1932. P10-11. Lynch Family Archives.
Lt-Colonel Pretyman Newman, Conservative MP speaking in Potters Bar at an anti-Home Rule meeting said’ If..by any chance he should bring bloodshed in Ulster by means of Imperial Troops, then…any man would be justified in shooting Mr Asquith in the streets of London’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p32
The appearance of the Citizen Army, to quote Jack White himself, "put manners on the police". The very fact that they had weapons, even if they were only pick handles, hurleys, broomsticks etc.., and were prepared to use them, forced the police to keep their distance. The story of the Citizen Army company from Aungier Street and their dealings with the police is a good example of the situation the police found themselves in. The members of the Citizen Army from Aungier Street formed a marching band, with instruments bought with borrowed money, to accompany them on their marches. One evening after a march from Croydon Park to Liberty Hall this small company left the main body of the march and continued on its way to Aungier Street.
In Georges Street the police attacked them and tried to smash their instruments, a favourite tactic of the police at that time. The band managed to fight their way through and succeeded in getting their precious instruments to safety in their branch room. A police superintendent followed and threatened that his men would be waiting for them as they left. It was decided to face down the police. Each member who wasn't playing an instrument was to arm himself with a hurley to protect the band. The band marched out surrounded by its 'armed' guard playing the tune of 'The Peeler and The Goat'. On seeing the hurleys and the willingness of the men to use them the 'peelers' decided to back off. The Aungier Street Citizen Army had made their point.
Ironically, after the Citizen Army had been formed as a force to protect the workers they were never called into action in any major way during the lockout. Their very existence subdued the police and more importantly the employers had decided on a change of tactics by starving the strikers into submission.
Relations between the Volunteers and the Citizen Army were strained due to the presence among the Volunteers of employers who has locked out their employees during the strike. Nationalists, such as Sinn Fein leader Arthur Griffith, further added to the bad feeling between Labour and the Nationalist Movement by supporting the employers during the lockout. Venomously attacking the strikers, especially Larkin. Referring to Larkin as "the English trade unionist" Griffith accused him of trying to destroy Irish industry to the advantage of British industry.
The Citizen Army's first handbill contained a list of reasons not to join the Volunteers, (controlled by forces opposed to Labour, officials having locked out union men etc..,) and a list of reasons to join the Citizen Army (controlled by working class people, refuses membership to people opposed to Labour etc..,). Both Larkin and O'Casey were antagonistic towards the Volunteers, O'Casey bitterly so. This was not the case with all the Citizen Army though, Constance Markievicz had quite cordial relations with the Volunteers and most of the rank and file of both organisations got on quite well.
8
Tom Clarke in a letter to McGarrity commented on the situation in the country:
‘Joe, it is worth living in Ireland these times – there is an awakening – the slow silent plodding and the open preaching is at last showing results, thingsa re in full swing on the up grade…just take it for granted that the prospect today – from the national point of view is brighter than it has been in many a year – certainly as far back as my memory goes – and remember I am no spring chicken and some of the boys have no scruple about keeping me reminded of the fact by referring to me as ‘the old chap’
9: Special meeting of the British TUC rejects Larkin’s proposals for a boycott of Dublin goods.
12: The Mona Lisa was recovered in Florence.
14:
The first public meeting of the Cork city branch of the Irish Volunteers took place in the City Hall, three weeks after the movement was inaugarated in Dublin. ‘As in Dublin, Cork’s provisonal committee wa dominated by cultural activitists and – behind the scenese – by the Irish Republican Brotherhoos. Unlike in Dublin, however the southern organisation had a contentious birth as the local Ancient Order of Hibernians…objected to the involvement of the schismatic AOH (American Alliance)’
Peter Hart ‘The IRA & It's Enemies – Violence and Community in Cork 1916-1923’ Oxford University Press 1998. p45
Addressing the crowded old City Hall were Eoin McNeill and Roger Casement. As McNeill was speaking, ‘ a number of the audience understood me to ask for cheers for Sir Edward Carson. This would amount to an endoresement of Sir Edward Carson’s present policy, which was far from my mind to which they no less than the majority of the audience were, no doubt, resoltely opposed’ So opposed were they, that the platform was invaded by a number of men brandishing sticks and striking all nearby. The Chairman had to be removed to a local hospital and lights were turned off. Those that mis-understood left the building, confident that the meeting had been disrupted as did the press. After a few minutes, the lights were brought back up again and the majority remained. Casement was introduced and enrolment began.
McNeil’s comments – letter to the Cork Examiner 15 December. Quoted in Tomas MacCurtain – Soldier & Patriot. Florence O’Donoghue. Anvile Press 1955. P28
Over 400 men were enrolled that night and the first drill class took place the following week.
Press reports indicated however that the meeting was a failure despite a number of letters by both MacNeil and Casement to the contrary.
Throughout the country, small groups were starting their own Irish Volunteers branches.
16: London – one child in 12 in Britian suffered from diseases resulting from poor diet. Of more than 6 million school children, more than half needed dental treatment and one third were unhygenically dirty. One child in ten had serious eye defects, nearly three per 100 had hearing diffiuclty, 2 in 100 had heart disease, 1 in 100 had tuberculosis, 1 in 100 had ringworm and 1 in 10 needed surgery for inflamed tonsils.
18: West German statesman, Willy Brandt born. ( d. 8.1.92 )
In the town of Zabern in Alsace, a German military officer made insulting comments about the Alsatians. Hardly surprising, there was a riot as a result and in the ensuing melee, some locals were killed. Back in Berlin there was a furore over the high handed actions of the military and the Reichstag voted to censure the army. The army ignored the vote.
25: New York – A couple were arrested for kissing in public. Judge fined them $15.
30: British Ambassador in Washington, Spring Rice pointed out to Grey that if there was civil conflict in Ireland, the Irish Americans would be quick to respond to it. Grey however appeared muddled at the information and was unable to figure out ‘to whom the men and guns will be sent’. No specific instructions were sent to Spring Rice from the Foreign Office but he was told that if fighting did indeed break out in Ireland, his request for instructions ‘will be borne in mind’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p216 - notes
By the end of the year there had been two meetings between the union and the employers but negotiations were broken off when the employers refused to give any guarantee against victimisation in the re-employment of workers. There were still almost daily picket line battles between strikers and armed scabs and RIC. Many union members were still being injured and arrested. After 16 year-old Alice Brady was murdered in December angry strikers caught a revolver carrying strike breaker and beat him to death. Another was thrown into the Liffey
The defeat of the ITGWU in the lockout resulted in severe consequences for labour in Ireland. Solidarity and blacking were gone and unskilled workers fell back into apathy and demoralisation and the organisation collapsed around the country, holding just 5,000 members at years end.
Hits of 1913:
‘You made me love you’
‘Hello! Hello! Who’s your lady friend’
‘He’d have to get under, get out and get under’
1:
Sir Edward Carson moved an amendment to the Third Home Rule Bill that the province of Ulster and it’s 9 counties be totally excluded from the operation of the Third Home Rule Bill. It was defeated by a majority of 97 but served it’s purpose by demonstrating to the British public that the Ulster Unionists were nominally willing to compromise on the Bill. John Redmond responded by saying that Nationalists could not nor would not give their consent to the mutilation of the Irish nation. ‘Ireland for us is one entity. It is one land’
In Belfast, Rt Rev Samuel Prenter, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church spoke out against Home Rule and pulled the RC bogeyman from the closet ‘In an Irish Parliament civil allegiance to the Holy See would be a test of memberhsip, and would make every Roman Catholic member a civil servant of the Vatican’
JJ Lee. Ireland 1912-85. Cambridge University Press. P9
Suffragettes took action against the ‘official seat of English dominiation in Ireland’, by breaking windows in Dublin Castle. Three women were arrested and sentenced to 30 days in Tullamore jail where they promptly went on hunger strike for political status.
4: Carson’s amendment was defeated 294 votes to 197.
6: Balkans: The Turks rejected the peace conditions demanded by the Balkan states, and the conference ended in failure.
Three hunger striking sufferagettes received political status in Tullamore Jail and ending the protest.
7: Proportional representation was introduced into Home Rule proposals to safeguard interests of what would be a Protestant minority.
9: US Politician, Richard Milhouse Nixon – 37th President 1968-74 born.
16
The Third Home Rule Bill passed through the Commons with a 110 vote majority – 367 to 257.
In Belfast, a copy of the Bill was publicly burned in front of the City Hall. T
he Bill passed to the House of Lords for reading.
The Ulster Unionist Council met and decided that all small local citizen armies set up in 1911 should be organised into an efficient unit known as the Ulster Volunteer Force. Recruitment was limited to 100,000 men aged between 17 & 75, and to those that had signed the Covenant the previous year. Lord Roberts was invited to train the Volunteers, refused and recommended an elderly professional soldier that had led long forgotten campaigns but was adept at ‘teaching the natives lessons’, so Lieutenant General Sir George Richardson was appointed Commander. Not only did this bring the growing ‘physical force Unionists’ under control but shifted the balance of military power in Ireland. The Ulster Unionist Council viewed the UVF more as a propaganda weapon rather than a fighting army.
By the end of the year, the UVF had grown into an efficient and formidable army. It’s brief was simple, to seize and control all important roads, harbours and railways in Ulster and to enforce the authority of a Provisional Government. However, they were without arms aside from importing several thousand rifles, machine guns and large quantity of ammunition. The Peace Preservation Act of 1881 had lapsed in 1907 and it was now legal to import arms but with technicalities that made legal import difficult. Rumours grew of a possible armed rebellion in Ulster, if not civil war in Ireland. The paradox of rebellion against the King in the King’s name was apparently dismissed by Redmond who said the Unionists ‘were playing at rebellion.’
17: Congressman Goodwin of Arkansas introduced a resolution ‘congratulating the people of Ireland on the passage of an Irish Home Rule Bill’. The resolution was never returned from the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Patrick Ford, editor of the Irish People sent appeals to several American public figures soliciting their favourable comments on ‘the heroic fight the people of Ireland are making for the American principle of Self-Government’ for eventual publication in his paper. Secretary of State elect, William Jennings Bryan replied ‘You are right in assuming that I am in sympathy with the fight that is being made to secure Home Rule for Ireland’ adding that he was pleased with progress of the Bill and felt it was a just settlement in the interests of both the Irish and English peoples.
18: US Comedian, Danny Kaye born. (d.3.3.1987 )
23: Constantinople: A successful coup d'état brought an extreme nationalist group to power in the Ottoman Empire, and within a week fighting resumed against the Balkan states. Again, the Empire was to take a battering. In the subsequent fighting Greece captured Ioannina (now in Epirus Region, north-western Greece), and Bulgaria took Adrianople (now Edirne, Turkey) until the Turks sued for peace in April.
28: The British Government withdrew the Franchise Bill, removing any hopes of women winning the vote in the surrent session of Parliament. Suffragettes reacted angrily, promising to step up their militant protests.
31
The Home Rule Bill was thrown out in the Lords at one minute past midnight. 326 voting against the Bill, 69 for. The Duke of Devonshire, when moving the rejection of the Bill said Home Rule would make ‘the Irish a menace in war and a disturbing influence in peace.’ This meant the return of the Bill again to the House of Commons to pass through all the stages and would ultimatly be forced through both houses by the operation of the 1911 Parliament Act and so guaranteed to become law by the summer of 1914. The US Ambassador commented to his brother that he believed the UK to be on the verge of civil war.
Having lost the Parliament battle, Conservatives now began to make representations to Buckingham Palace in the hope that George V would exercise his perogative of royal veto or disolve Parliament and force another election on the issue of Home Rule or perhaps even convince the Asquith Government to exclude Ulster from the Bill. The King however was most circumspect on affairs of state.
Sean MacDiarmada, Tom Clarke and other Gaelic Leaguers began to consider the possibility of amending the Gaelic League’s constitution to devote itself towards the concept of Gaelic and independent. The League had encouraged the growth of national industries, village crafts, even bilingual street signs.
“Far more than the Gaelic League, ..the Ulster Volunteer Force held the fascinated attention of the I.R.B. As a paramilitary force, designed to resist an Act of Parliament, it was “setting us a splendid example” said Tom Clarke. In July, the I.R.B began drilling in secret in the National Forester’s Headquarters in Parnell Square.”
George Dangerfield. “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” ( Constable, London. 1977) p.96
The Ulster Volunteer Force formed. Commanded by Gen Sir George Richardson and Capt Wilfrid Spender, it’s Heqdquarters were the Old Town Hall in Victoria St.
February 1913
2: NY – Grand Central Station, largest railway station in the world opens.
5. London – Suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst is sent to prison and imemdiately threatens a hunger strike.
7: The old Fenian and Clan leader, Dr. William Carroll wrote to John Devoy bitterly commenting on the practice of rejecting the Parliamentary solutions while waiting for more opportune times, was allowing the revolutionary concept of Irish nationalism drift into obscurity: ‘The dark side of the prospect here and overseas is…the fact that there and here the Irish people accept and applaud their betrayal of everything national they once professed to advocate’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p27
8: London – Suffragettes break the London –Glasgow telephone line.
10: Antartica: Bodies of Captain Robert Scott and two of his companions found in a tent. A diary found recorded the end of the race to the pole: Petty Officer Evans died after a fall froim the Beardmore Glacier, Captain Oates – suffering from illness and frostbite, walked from the tent in a blizzard telling the others ‘I am just going outside and may be some time’. The remaining three survivors were trapped with almost no fuel and food just eleven miles from a food depot. The last line in Scotts diary reads: ‘Fod God’s sake, look after our people’.
19: Suffragette bomb destroys Lloyd George’s new house at Walton Heath.
Canada: A bill in the Canadian Parliament to contribute towards the building of three dreadnoughts for the British navy was defeated.
22: Sean O’Casey writing in the Irish Worker: ‘The delivery of Ireland is not in the Labour Manifesto, good and salutary as it may be, but in the strenght, beauty, nobility and imagination of the Gaelic ideal’
24: Emmeline Pankhurst arrested in connection with the bombing of Lloyd George’s home.
O’Donovan Rossa now aged 82 and bedridden wrote a short letter to his old associate and former friend, John Devoy. Since their personal quarrel 33 years previously in 1880, there had been little to no communication.
‘Why can’t you come down some day.I am at home and in bed every day. I got a fall a few years ago and cannot walk out. ‘tis a lonesome kind of life. I read those Irish poems you print in the Gaelic American. Slan leat a chara mo chroidhe. Diarmuid O Donnavhainn Rossa.’
A covering letter to Devoy from Mrs O’Donovan Rossa on her husband ‘ His physician gives no hope of ultimate recovery through he thinks he may live indefinitely in his present condition…I think if you could come and talk of your earlier hopes and labours together before those differences of opinion crept in,it would do him a world of good. He has a simple loving heart and you were very dear to it long ago. Bury the between times and be again the younger brother…’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.406-7
25: US – The 16th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified which permitted a Federal Income Tax to be introduced. Previously the Supreme Court found such a tax to be un-constitutional, but now as part of the Constitution, placed the burden of tax on those who were best able to afford it and supplied the Government with enough income to undertake various tasks & functions.
Petrol increased by 2pence to 1/9 a gallon.
British metalurgist Henry Brearly introduced rust proof steel he named ‘Stainless Steel’ by adding sufficient chromium and nickel to the metal mixtures.
The RIC reports to Dublin Castle commented on Unionist feeling in Ulster: ‘ the same bitter hostility of Orangeman and Unionists towards the Home Rule Bill continued unabated…Clubs and Lodges displayed much activity in collecting for the Ulster Defence Fund and in organising the new Volunteer Force. ‘
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P23
Thomas MacClean, Secretary of T. Lyons and Co. Ltd in South Main Street Cork wrote to Margaret Lynch:
‘In reply to you letter of 24th inst to hand . I beg to state that our Debenture Bond are ‘Bearer’ Bonds – that is the holder for time being is the owner –just like bank notes held. We have as instructed registered Revd. J O’Leary P.P. of Tracton, Carrigaline as the holder of the Bonds Nos 918 to 922 inclusive ( £500 ) * ( not nos 212 to 216 as you state in your letter ) as trustee for Miss Mary Margaret Lynch of Granig, Ballyfeard, Kinsale, daughter of Mrs Margaret Lynch, the original holder.
We do not recognise trusteeships, but have registered as above that Father O’Leary holds said documents in trust for your daughter aforementioned…’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 1
* c. €100k in 2002 values.
March 1913
An analysis of Dublin Road Traffic accidents was published. Of the fatal accidents in the previous year, one was due to a horse drawn omnibus, 58 due to other horse drawn vehicles and 41 due to mechanically propelled vehicles.
2: London – mobs attack Suffragettes in Hyde Park and Wimbeldon.
4: Washiongton: Wilson is inagurated as the 28th President of the United States.
12: Australia – Canberra becomes the Nation’s capital.
18: Greece: George 1 assasinated. Suceeded by his son, reigning as Constantine 1.
24: Manchester – Suffragettes lock Labour Party delegates into their Conference Hall.
14: The Clan na Gael Executive met in Atlantic City NJ and proposals carried to fundraise to carry out the policies of the organisation. The Clan was beginning to stir again. A circular was issued, showing a major policy shift to that of partial compromise. While continuing to condemn Home Rule as a ‘fraud and a cheat’, the Clan advised that it had no objection to the Irish people ‘making whatever use they can’ of it. However it was also argued that Redmond had no right to say that Home Rule would be the final settlement of the Irish Question and that Redmond was wrong in claiming that Home Rule would permit an Anglo-American rapprochment.
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p28
16: Judge Cohalan visited the Executive meeting and ‘expressed his opinion on certain matters.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P34
17: New York
John Devoy visited O’Donovan Rossa and his wife wrote that evening ‘your visit today made us very happy and it did Rossa a lot of good. His face is still wearing the smile of satisfaction that greeted your coming and he has pleasant food for thought for many days to come…I might say no other living man means so much to him as you. For you are the last of that beloved inner crowd of political brothers that travelled the same sacrifcial road with him since ’65…I guess as we grow older we view trifles provocations that seemed very formidable in earlier years, and nothing counts but faith, fidelity and love…. I’m very glad indeed that we are friends once more.’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.407
24:
An example of an indentured agricultural worker is in the Lynch Family Archives:
Memorandum of agreement between Margaret Lynch of Granig & Bat Kiely of Granig.
He is to work for me from the 25th March 1913 to the 25 of March 1914 at the rate of 8s ( 8/ – c. €76 ) per week without diet, that is 1 /4 per day for every day he works & to attend the horses and cattle on Sundays and holidays.
He is to get a ½ ton of coals & the grass of two sheep with a quantity of garden planted. His wife to milk cows when required at 1 / 4 per week also to work out when required at 8d per day. ( €6.34 ).
Their daughter, Ellie Kiely to work as domestic servant in the house at £9 per year ( €1,800 p.a. or €34.61 pw.
Witnessed by: Margaret Kiely, Mary M Lynch, D.J.Lynch and Bat Kiely ( unable to write, made his mark. )
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
27: The formation of the British League for the Support of Ulster and the Union was announced.
31: NY – a record 6,745 immigrants arrive at Ellis Island in one day.
London – A Bill aimed at dealing with the Suffragettes was introduced by the Home secretary to counter growing public concern of forcible feeding of hunger striking women. The Bill quickly became known as the ‘Cat and Mouse Act’, while providing for a temporary release if their actions endanger their health, but allowing for their re-imprisonment to serve the remainder of sentences when recovered.
April 1913
Membership in the Ulster Volunteer Force grew. 41,000 had joined by April, organised over 9 counties into regiments, battalions and sections with large landowners playing a key role and loyalists of all social classes joining.
A meeting of the Irishwomen’s Franchise League was informed of a cinema in Dublin that employed a young girl who acted as a Book-keeper, office hand, cashier and pianist, who also stayed on after performances to lock up...all for 3 shillings a week.
An Irish nurse, Majorie Hasler, died in London following injuries received during a suffragette demonstration at Westminster.
Dr. Patrick McCartan appointed dispensary doctor in Gortin, Co. Tyrone.
3: London. Emmeline Pankhurst is found guilty of inciting arson and sentenced to 3 years jail.
15: Public meetings by Syffragettes banned throughout Britian and Ireland,
19: Constantinople: The Turks obtained an armistice with Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia. Montenegro accepted the armistice a few days later.
21: Moscow: Russia celebrated the 300th anniversary of the coming to power of the Romanov dynasty – and a last glow of glory. Within 5 years, the dynasty was over.
May 1913
Captain Anthony, Captain of the Catalpa and rescuer of the Fenian prisoners in Western Australia in 1875, died of pneumonia on May 22 aged 70 and survived by his wife and daughter. His wife, Emma Richardson joined him in November 1935.
The Earl of Meath protested against the increasing number of guns available for sale in Ireland. He said that some of these guns would be used, not only for taking pot shots at the police and other law abiding citizens, but dammit all, even for shooting game.
Meanwhile, the RIC reports to Dublin Castle advised of a seizure of 600 rifles and bayonets shipped to Herdman & Co, Strabane and labeled as ‘Electrical Plant’ and ‘ a consignment of 300 rifles and bayonets in a furniture van, for Lord Farnham of Cavan ( all being discarded Italian rifles )…in all 1166 rifles and bayonets were seized by Customs Authorities’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P21
The Cork County Eagle newspaper of Saturday, May 17th reported that Diarmuid O’Loingsigh was amongst the 12 persons gathered at the Gaelic League Meeting for Kerry in Castlehaven.
The Irish Transport Union increased efforts to unionise farm labourers in the greater Dublin district. The Chairman of the Dublin United Tramways Company, William Martin Murphy now came under attack from the pages of ‘The Irish Worker’. According to RIC reports to Dublin Castle ‘ signs were not wanting that preparations were in progress to raise a conflict between him and his men’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P38
6: London – Parliament rejects the Franchise Bill 266 votes to 219.
7: London – Suffragette bomb found in St. Paul’s Cathederal.
9: US – Report says 900,000 immigrants arrived since July 1912.
11: Castlehaven, Co. Cork: Diarmuid Lynch attended the Gaelic League Coiste Ceanntair Cairbre on Gaelic League progress in West Cork. Language teachers were paid £60 per year * and in this case salary was three months behind.
Cork County Eagle – May 17th 1913. Lynch Family Archives.
* €15,125 per year in 2002 values.
14: London – Magistrates handling Suffragette trials receive letter bombs.
20: Another peace conference between the Ottoman Empire and the Balkan States, with the major European powers again acting as mediators, met in London on May 20. By the terms of the Treaty of London, concluded on May 30, the Turks ceded the island of Crete to Greece and relinquished all territories in Europe west of a line between the Black Sea port of Midye (Turkey) and Enez, a town on the Turkish coast of the Aegean Sea. Boundary questions and the status of Albania and the Aegean Islands were referred to an international commission.
Following on from a request by Tom Clarke that Colonel Ric Burke travel to Ireland and make a speech at the annual Wolf Tone Commemoration in Bodenstown, John Devoy agreed adding that ‘$3,000 would enable us to cover all expenses we are likely to incur during most of this year…I am for taking chances and sending Ric over. We would fill the bill and the receptions and two or three public meetings, I think would have an excellent effort’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.409
Burke cabled that he was unable to travel and Tom Clarke was left to organise a suitable speaker. Patrick Pearse, the Headmaster of St. Enda’s was chosen to give the annual Wolfe Tone commemoration speech.
24: Oberst Alfred Redl, Deputy Chief of the Austrian Inteligence Bureau comitts suicide prior to being arrested as a Russian spy
29: Washington – Ban on smoking proposed during executive sessions of the US Senate.
31: Washington – the Wilson proposed 17th Amendment to the Constitution passed which directed that all Senators were to be elected by the vote of the people and for the first time, the US Congress became a democratic body.
June 1913
After a second visit to the Putumayo region in Brazil, Roger Casement retired from the British Civil Service on a small pension to Co. Antrim.
1: The Treaty of London between the Ottoman Empire and the Balkan states created friction and infighting among the Balkan allies, especially between Serbia and Bulgaria. Among the causes of the friction was the Bulgarian refusal to recognize the Serbian claim to certain Bulgarian-held portions of Macedonia. In addition, Serbia was resentful because it failed to obtain territory along the Adriatic Sea and with Vienna adamant on the independence of Albania and Serbia remaining landlocked, it was essential to keep Bulgaria from getting too strong. Greece agreed with Zagreb’s position and on June 1st Greece and Serbia concluded an alliance against Bulgaria which would lead to war by the end of June.
4: Epsom – Suffragette Emily Davison (40) was seriously injured when she attempted to stop the King’s horse at the Derby, bringing down the horse and injuring the jockey. Davison died 4 days later.
6: Berlin – The Reichstag passed a Bill authorising the German army to be increased by 33% to 863,000 men.
7: Erich v Falkenhayn becomes German Minister of War (till 21 Jan 1915)
Granig: Margaret Lynch amended her will for the second and last time. She revoked the earlier granting of £500 to Mary and £150 each to Diarmuid and Denis and changed her bequest to £200 to Diarmuid and Denis and £100 to Mary ‘in addition to any provision which I have made for her in my lifetime’. She went on to bequath to the Revd. Timothy O’Leary, Parish Priest of Tracton ‘the sum of £6 for masses for the repose of my soul’ and ‘…to the Reverned John Murphy P.D. of the Diocesan College Farranferris Cork, the usm of £3 for the repose of my soul’ and ‘£3 to the Priest who shall be at the date of my death Roman Catholic Curate of the Parish of Tracton for masses for the repose of my soul. I will and direct that all the said masses shall be said in a public church in Ireland in presence of the congregation and that the honoarium for each mass shall be five shillings.’
Daniel retained the farm but was to pay all debts, funeral & testamentary expenses. Her original executor of William Ahern of Annacarriga was revoked and appointed her three sons, Daniel, Timothy and Denis in his place. This was signed in the presence of Timothy Conway, Law Clerk of Maurice Healy, Solicitors, Cork.
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 1: 1890-1914 – 00005
9: The Home Rule Bill was re-introduced in the House of Commons.
10: In Parliament, John Redmond read a letter to him from former President, Theodore Roosevelt, that the Home Rule Bill was a ‘just settlement that bids fair to establish good will amongst the English speaking people….the measure is as much in the interest of Great Britain as it is of Ireland.’
The New York Times commented that the Ulster Volunteers as essentially political rather than military saying ‘it is not likely that military tactics will be resorted to’
11: London – A male Sufragist hurled a bag of flour at PM Asquith in the Commons Chamber.
20: The annual Wolfe Tone commemoration took place at Bodenstown, Co. Kildare. Clarke had organised a ‘Cinematograph man’ to take film of the event as some 5,000 gathered Tone’s grave in Bodenstown Churchyard.
There Patrick Pearse characterised English rule as ‘..this evil thing against which (Tone ) testified with his blood’
George Dangerfield. “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” ( Constable, London. 1977) p.140
Clarke makes no mention of this in his letter to Devoy, instead commenting ‘I made reference to Col. Ric [Burke] and to John Devoy’s cablegrams at the graveside ( when I had to preside ) and both names were wildly cheered. I’m feeling 10 years younger since Sunday. At last we see tangible results from the patient, plodding work of sowing the seed. The tide is turning strongly in our direction. We have the rising generation.’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.411
The ‘Cinematograph’ man, Jameson showed his film ‘twice or thrice nightly since ( 22nd inst ) in Rotunda and Rathmines. No pictures he has ever shown ( and he has been 14 years in the business ) ever received such tremendous applause….the pictures are grand. He is to show them next in Galway and Tralee. Afterwards Queenstown, then Cork and the Curragh, then back to Rathmines and the Rotunda…he with his ring of picture houses showing our pictures will do good business and the Dublin newspapers may go to hell or to the Empire’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.411
29: Norway – Paliament grants women equal electoral rights with men.
Balkans: A Bulgarian general, apparently acting without orders from his government, launched an attack on Serbian defensive positions. Although the Bulgarian government disclaimed knowledge of this attack, it led to the Second Balkan War when both Serbia and Greece declared war on Bulgaria.
German Army Bill and Tax Compromise accepted
July 1913
The traditional ‘Marching Season’ in Ulster brought increased rioting between Loyalist and Nationalists.
4:
Douglas Hyde in the Freeman’s Journal denounced the take over & politicising of the Gaelic League.
Drilling started for the Fianna in the Irish National Forrester’s Hall in Rutland Square ( later Parnell Square ).
Pearse’s school for boys in Rathfarnham was at this stage in financial trouble. Hobson wrote to John Devoy that Pearse was thinking of going to America..’His position here is that the school is now able to about pay its way, but there are liabilities incurred during its early stages amounting to $12 or 13,000. He can carry on his worl were it not for the creditors pressing for this amount…as to Pearse himself, he is alright and in line with us here, and is a regular contributor to [Irish] Freedom. The work he is doing is really of national importance. Every secondary college in Ireland is at least tacitly anti-national and 99% actively so…St Enda’s is the only college preparing boys for the Universities that is really and intensely national in tone…the general feeling here that the closing of the school would be a very severe blow to the movement. It has enormous possibilities… I am often ashamed of the way in which we are always begging for help from America…the people who have the money here wont give it, and we have either to ask our friends in America or see things wiped out which are of great value or importance to the movement…Pearse has a good personality…I sincerely hope you may be able to assist him.’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.412-13
7: The 3rd reading of the Third Home Rule Bill is again carried in the House of Commons ( 352 votes to 243 ) and sent to the House of Lords.
8: Balkans: Serbia and Greece declared war on Bulgaria. By the end of the following two weeks Montenegro, Romania, and surprisingly enough, the Ottoman Empire had also entered the war against Bulgaria. The war on all these fronts lasted to to the end of the month.
12:
Eamon Ceannt, employed by the City Treasurers Department in Dublin Corporation and National Council of Sinn Fein secretary, replied to Douglas Hyde in the Sinn Fein journal. He wrote that no weapon should be discarded in the battle against those who opposed the use of Irish. He was careful to specify physical force.
With the very real prospect of the army being called to enforce Home Rule, Sir Edward Carson said ‘The Government know perfectly well that they could not tomorrow rely upon the army to shoot down the people of Ulster…the army are with us’
14: 38th US President ( 1974-76 ) Gerald Ford born
15: House of Lords rejects the Third Home Rule Bill for a second time. 302 votes to 64. With the next Parliament session starting in February 1914, both supporters and opponents of the Bill began to rally support, as the Bill would then pass it’s third circuit and become law.
In Richmond, London, a woman wearing a split skirt was arrested for indecency in a public place.
19: Dublin - A midnight meeting of the Traffic Department and the Directors of the Dublin United Tramways Company was held to counteract the efforts to unionise employees of the Tramways. Murphy addressed those present on ‘ the attempts that were being made by Larkin amongst the employees of the company for the purpose of inducing them to go on strike, and stated that the Directors were determined to stamp out any incipient rebellion amongst the men. He called on the men to remain loyal to the company, and in concluding his speech, he announced some concessions in the way of wages and holidays’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P38
The I.R.B. met, reviewed the situation and decided to wait only for the initiative to come from a source less suspect before organising a body of Volunteers. The IRB continued to work behind the scenes, to stiffen Volunteer resolve, but Republicanism remained a fringe idealogy with the great majority of Irish Volunteers being committed Home Rulers.
Sir Roger Casement wrote a ‘challenging article’ ‘Ireland, Germany and the Next War’ in the Irish Review under the pen name ‘Shan Van Vocht’ arguing that a victorius Germany, in order to insure the freedom of the seas, would insist upon the freedom of Ireland before granting England peace. The theme was familiar in Sinn Fein circles ‘ I propose to show that Ireland, far from sharing the calamaties that must necessarily fall upon Britain from defeat by a Great Power, might concievably thereby emerge into a position of greater prosperity…a free Ireland restored to Europe is the key to unlock the western ocean and open the seaways of the world’
At the same time, Cunard announced that it’s liners would no longer be calling at Queenstown as part of a transatlantic journey. To counter this, he made enquiries and efforts to persuade the Hamburg-Amerika Line to make Queenstown a port of call for their steamers bound for Boston and liners bound for New York. Casement hoped that these ties with Germany would develop into political implications that could help Ireland in the future.
Pearse had been writing letters and articles advocating the formation and organisation of Volunteers.
‘Personally, I think the Orangeman with the rifle a much less ridiculous figures than the Nationalist without a rifle.’
The Dublin slums had not changed a great deal. The death rate was 24.8 per 1000, chiefly due to infant mortality and TB. Accommodation was decrepit, rodent infested hovels. No running water and at the root lay unemployment, sweated labour, social indifference, drunkenness and vice.
Paramilitary exercises continued in Ulster.
Within Ulster, a move had begun to establish a liason with the Imperial German Government ‘and to investigate the possibility of Ulster being mae into a German colony, largely controlled by the Irish Protestant majority. To explore this proposal, Carson went to Germany in July 1913. he ahd lunch with the Kaiser and they discussed the possibility of such an association. No official communique was issued following this lunch…the most serious implications for the British would be that the German could station naval squadrons in the North of Ireland. This would end the British power to enforce a naval blockade on Europe…’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p89
27
Larkin held a mass meeting of the Irish Transport Workers Union at Beresford Place in support of the newly formed Tramwaymen’s Union of Liberty Hall.
29: Bad relations continued between Connolly and Larkin. In a letter to a friend, William O’Brien, Connolly said ‘I don’t think I can stand Larkin as a boss much longer…he is consumed with jealousy and hatred of anyone who will not cringe to him nad beslaver all over him’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p29
Anglo-Turkish understanding supporting German efforts in Turkey to build Bagdad railway
30: Balkans: Bulgaria, unable to withstand this coalition, asked for and received an armistice
31: London – Lloyd George declares the Lords must be abolished as every indication appears the Home Rule Bill would be rejected for a third time.
Bonar Law and Lord Lansdowne sent the King a memorandum suggesting he urge Asquith to dissolve Parliament, sugesting that if the PM refused, he should be dismissed and replaced with somebody more amenable. The King took their advice and issued a number of lenghty memos to Asquith and asking whether he proposed using the army to supress any civil disorder. Asquith refused to dissolve Parliament but did agree to discuss matters with the Tories between October and December.
August 1913
1: Belgium – Boxing effectively outlawed by a new law requiring Magistrates to be present at all bouts.
Sir Roger Casement retired from the British consular service.
4: James Craig writing on the effect of enforcing Home Rule in Ulster: ‘According to the Government programme, we may look for Home Rule in May, Civil War in June, the Union Jack being hauled down and being trampled upon in July and the smash up of the Empire in August’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p29
5: UK – Suffragettes bomb several ministers homes in the West Country.
8: US – aviation record set with a 277 mile non-stop flight.
Lusitania undergoes extensive modifications permitting guns to be mounted and ammunition holds and ammo elevators installed prior to registration as a Reserve RN cruiser
10: Balkans: According to the ensuing peace agreement, signed at Bucharest, Romania, Bulgaria lost considerable territory, including nearly 7,770 sq km (nearly 3,000 sq mi) allotted to Romania. The agreement, among other things, awarded most of Macedonia to Serbia and Greece. By later agreements Bulgaria also yielded a large amount of territory to the Turks. Albania, which had been under Turkish suzerainty, was made an independent Muslim principality.
The outcome of both Balkan Wars profoundly influenced the subsequent course of European history. The dismantling of the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria created equally dangerous tensions in south-eastern Europe. By creating a strong and ambitious Serbia, the peace settlements had also engendered fear and anti-Serbian sentiment in neighbouring Austria-Hungary.
11: King George V sumoned Asquith to Buckingham Palace to express ‘his keen concern over the impending danger of widespread civil disorder in Ulster. The King further inquired if Asquith might not consider a devolution scheme…which would provide for a federal system of separate Parliament for Southern Ireland, Ulster, Scotland and Wales…Asquith did not oppose the plans for general devolution, but he knew the Irish Nationalists would never accept the creation of two Parliaments. Moreover he recalled that that the veto of the crown had not been exercised in 200 years, and that it's application in this instance was mor elikely to imperil the monarchy than to mend the Irish problem. Lastly the PM refused to agree to an election before the Home Rule bill became law because an election would vitiate the whole purpose of the Parliament Act and might possibly incite revoloution in southern Ireland. He did accept with reservations the King’s invitation to meet with the Conservative, Unionists and Irish Nationalist leaders for an arbitration conference to be held at Buckingham palace.’
Thomas Hachey ‘Britain and Irish Separatism’. Rand McNally College Publishing. New York 1977. p 85
12: A notice was posted in all tramway depots saying that there would be no recognition for "Mr. Larkin or his union". Meanwhile Larkin, in an attempt to consolidate the recent gains, had come up with a scheme for a Conciliation Board. By 18 votes to 3 the Committee of the Employers Federation agreed to his proposal. It can be argued that Larkin was naive to think that any long term arrangement could be maintained that would be beneficial to the workers. Murphy didn't want even a short term one, vowing to "smash the Conciliation Board".
13: Cypriot Leader, Archbishop Makarios born. ( d. 3/8/77 )
The directors of the Dublin United Tramway Company issued a notice to the press ‘ The directors are well aware of attempts being made by James Larkin to forment disturbance among the men which, however, have met with little success. The Company has no apprehension of any trouble with their employees, and are prepared to meet any emergency that may arise’
15: Belfast – troops called in to quell disturbances after police shoot a Loyalist.
Murphy took the initiative in provoking a confrontation with the I.T.G.W.U. by informing his employees in the despatch department of The Irish Independent that they had to choose between the union or their jobs. After forty employees were laid off
16: Israeli statesman, Menachem Begin born. ( D. 9/3/92 )
18: With the certainity of major unrest in the city, the DMP Chief Superintendet, Quinn, was summoned back to duty in Dublin while on a cycling holiday in Britain. He noted in his diary: 'Returned by night mail, arriving in Dublin by 5 a.m. having been wired to return at once to take charge of Division owing to pending strike.'
William Martin Murphy sacked 40 men who refused to resign from the ITGWU.
The ITGWU blacked The Independent Group of Newspapers
19:
ITGWU members in Easons had been locked out for refusing to handle Murphy's papers
21:
DMP Chief Super Quinn 'wired to Police Constables on Commissioner's leave to return off leave at once'.
Nearly 200 men and boys in the parcels office of the Tramway Company received the following notice: - "As the directors understand that you are a member of the Irish Transport Union, whose methods are disorganising the trade and business of the city, they do not further require your services. The parcels traffic will be temporarily suspended. If you are not a member of the union when traffic is resumed your application for re-employment will be favourably considered "
Tramways parcel staff of 100 dismissed.
James Larkin quickly began organising the remaining members in Murphy’s companies and requested solidairyt from the rest of the union. Murphy reacted by seeking police support and involving the British administration in Ireland.
22:
A number of ex-Constables were sworn in for duty as gaolers in Store Street and Fitzgibbon Street Stations. On the evidence of the diary, the police in the 'C' Division enjoyed two relatively quiet days on Sunday and Monday.
23
Churchill prepares contingency plans paper for Britain to send troops to aid France in war against Germany
26: The first day of the Dublin Lock Out. Larkin addressed the striking tramway workers ‘This is not a strike, it is a lock out…we are fighting for bread and butter’
At ten o'clock the tram drivers took out their union badges and pinned them in their buttonholes, They then walked off their trams, leaving them stranded in the middle of the road. The strike was on. The demands were reinstatement of and parcels staff, and equality of hours and wages with the tramway workers of Belfast.
28: Scotland – Suffragtees attack Asquith as he is playing golf at Elgin.
Carson now called on all those who had signed the Covenant the previous year to join the Ulster Volunteer Force
Mid-August, Carson met with the Kaiser at Hamburg. This resulted in strong rumours on German military support in event of Home Rule being forced upon the Unionists.
Between January and August, there were over 30 small strikes in Dublin, most accompanied by a great deal of disorder. William Martin Murphy, chairman of Dublin United Tramway Company, owner of the Irish Independent, and Dublin’s largest department store, business interests in Africa,as well as chairman of the Employer’s Federation, was sufficiently concerned that he called a meeting of 400 of Dublin’s main employers. Each agreed not to employ any member of the ITGWU.
Lead up to the ‘Great Lockout’
Larkin responded by calling a General Strike from Tuesday, 26 August 1913. The city was hot, busy and full. Horse show week. At 10am, some 200 drivers and conductors of Trams left their cars in the streets. Passengers assumed the electricitiy had failed until drivers affixed the Red Hand union badge and told their passengers that they might as well get off as the trams were going no further. The RIC stepped in and with the assistance of tram inspectors and recruits ‘ a very good service of trams was maintained through the day on most of the lines, but no cars were run after 7 p.m. Some of the strikers were arrested later in the day and charged at the Police Courts with causing an obstruction by leaving their cars on the streets’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P39
‘Murphy rushed up ‘loyal’ workers. A skeleton service started.
Larkin called a meeting of his members that evening in Beresford Place and addressed them saying:
“ This is not a strike, it is a lockout of the men who have been tyrannical treated by a most unscrupulous scoundrel…. We will demonstrate in O’Connell Street. It is our street as well as William Martin Murphy’s…. We are fighting for bread and butter, and we will hold our meetings in the streets…. By the living God, if they want war, they can have it..”
Another meeting was addressed the next night saying that a meeting would be held in Sackville Street on Sunday 31st August and at the same time advised the women and children to stay away as ‘ it would be a man’s job’.
The police on duty at the gathering were also lectured by Larkin. If they 'were worth their salt' they would demand their rights. In 1913, the DMP worked on average, 8 hours, seven days a week, with night duty every second month. A constable had ten days, a sergeant 21 days annual leave. Top pay for a constable was 30/- a week, 38/1 for sergeants, at a time when artisans in the building trade were getting up to 36/-, unskilled labourers 18/- for a six-day week. Larkin said: 'If I was doing dirty work, I would expect dirty pay. The men who are keeping the peace are getting bad hours and meagre pay'.
In his diary for Saturday, August 23rd, Supt. Quinn had recorded a visit to Liberty Hall to warn Larkin that the 'police could not allow (a) procession to pass by places affected by strike'; and that night the marching strikers were routed away from Sackville Street.
Later that evening, trams operating were stoned in parts of the city
At 2.10 p.m. the next day, Quinn returned to Liberty Hall, as the diary records: 'Warned James Larkin that no procession of any kind would be allowed through any of the streets of the city ... and if such, were attempted, it would be stopped by force.' The policeman soberly recorded what must have been a heated rejoinder. '(Larkin) said he would not be stopped by force, that police would have to accept the responsibility and that he would at once make it known in the press and to all Dublin'.
The labour leaders Larkin, O’Brien, Daly and Partridge were arrested on Thursday, 28th August for seditious speech, conspiracy and unlawful assembly. They were released on bail on provision that they would not hold any illegal meetings or use ‘inflamatory language in the meantime’
In Liberty Hall that night, Larkin announced that he was going to Sackville Street on Sunday ‘dead or alive’ and advised the people to hold their meeting there in defiance of police ‘ and hired assains’
Summerhill ( near Gardiner Street ) group of barefoot children. Child mortality was high, with children under 12 months making up 20% of total deaths in Dublin. In 1913, this figure rose to 25%, directly attributable by the lack of food and winter heating during the lock out. ( source: Sir Charles Cameron, Chief Medical Officer for Dublin City. 1914 )
29
The Chief Divisional Magistrate in Dublin, E.G.Swifte, issued a proclamation prohibiting the holding of the Sunday meeting, stating that ‘the object of the meeting was seditious, and that it would cause terror and alarm to, and dissension between, His Majesty’s subjects and would be an unlawful assembly.’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P41
James Connolly arrived from Belfast in response to a telegram from Larkin.
That night, nearly 10,000 people attended a meeting outside Liberty Hall in Beresford Place. Stretching along the quays and under the railway bridge spanning the Liffey, a vast black mass in the dusk. Larkin, Connolly and Partridge spoke, supporting the strike and strikers, threatening a no-rent cmapaign if the demands were not met and Larkin burned a copy of the Proclamation, banning the Sunday 31st August meeting saying ‘ I care as much for the King as I do for Swifte the Magistrate, People make kings, and people can unmake them… I recognise no law but the people’s law…moral persuasion and no rent are the weapons…’
The meeting closed with some minor scuffles between strikers and RIC.
30
A warrant for the arrest of Larkin, Connolly and Partridge was issued. Conolly and Patridge were brought before the Magistrate, Swifte who gave bail. Connolly refused bail and was jailed for three months. Partridge was released following payment of bail. Jim Larkin managed to evade capture until the following day.
‘Fierce rioting took place in Ringsend, Beresford Place and Eden Quay on Saturday afternoon and evening…the mobs which had collected at these places were charged by the police with drawn batons and dispersed, but not before a great number of persons, both civilians and police, were injured. A man named John Nolan, who was injured during the rioting on Eden Quay, succumbed to his injuries the following day..’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P43
Police reinforcements were rushed to Ringsend where the workers stood up to the batons, hurling stones and wielding sticks. In Brunswick Street ( now Pearse Street ) the fighting flared again. In Lower Abbey Street, it reached it’s bloodiest. Lieutenant Colonel Sir John Ross Chief Commissioner of the Police commanded in person. There he decided that the mob be ‘taught a lesson’ and the RIC were formed up rank after rank like an infantry regiment and ordered to charge. Fighting continued through to the early hours. 30 policemen were hospitalised, hundreds of workers injured.
Monteith recalled the incident of Nolan’s death: ‘I witnessed the murder of one of the unfortuanate men. He was walking quietly down Eden Quay when he was met by a mixed patrol of Dublin Metropolitan Police and Royal Irish Constabulary. The strenght of the patrol was about thirty-five, all more or less drunk. One of the Constabulary walked from the centre of the road on to the sidewalk and without the slightest provocation felled the poor man with a blow from his staff. The horrible crunching sound of the blow was clearly audible fifty yards away. The drunken scoundrel was ably seconded by two of the Metropolitan Police, who, as the unfortunate man attempted to rise, beat him about the head until his skull was smashed in, in several places. They then rejoined their patrol leaving him in his blood.’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Atwell Printing, Chicago. 1932. P4. Lynch Family Archives.
Father Michael Curran, of the Archbishop's House, observed the 'very severe mauling' of half a-dozen Constables protecting trams. The police 'behaved with singular self-restraint and in some cases with actual good humour. 'There was an absence of violence on their part, except... when they only employed such force as was necessary to secure and retain their prisoners. Their behaviour was the only redeeming feature of what was for a Dublin citizen a really humiliating and disgusting spectacle'.
Churchill writes Grey that Britain should aid Russia and France in a war with Germany
31
The forbidden ITGWU meeting was held in O’Connell Street just after midday. Larkin entered the Imperial Hotel ( owned by William Martin Murphy ) in a clergyman’s disguise and began to address the crowd from the balcony, where he was arrested minutes later around 1p.m.
The RIC report on the incident reads that his arrest was followed ‘ by some rioting in the vicinity of the hotel. Stones were thrown by a section of the crowd and the police charged with drawn batons. As the people feld from Sackville Street into Prince’s Street they were met and dispersed by another force of police which was drawn up there. During the evening…a series of conflicts between the police and the people took place, and a number of business premises in the centre of the city were partially wrecked. Several tramcars on the various lines were attacked and the glass smashed. In all over 100 arrests were made…over 400 civilians, including several women and girls, were treated in hospital for injuries…while over 50 police had also to be treated for wounds.’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P43
Not described in the official report is that the police also used sabres and three were killed.
Thomas Clarke in Irish Freedom wrote of the event:
“ Nothing that I know of during my whole career can match the downright inhuman savagery that was witnessed recently in the streets and some of the homes of our city, when the police were let run amok and indiscriminately bludgeon every man, woman and child they came across...”
Thomas J Clarke. Irish Freedom, September 1913. National Library Archives.
Captain Robert Monteith wrote of the baton charge: ‘the police clubbed people coming from public worship, both Protestant and Catholic, as impartially as they did the members of the Transport Workers Union, who were waiting to hear another chapter of the Gospel – according to Jim Larkin.’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Atwell Printing, Chicago. 1932. P3. Lynch Family Archives.
In High Street that night, a mob, 600 strong, cornered two DMP men who were rescued by another priest, Father Reilly. As they barricaded themselves in the Presbytery, the windows were shattered by a hail of stones and bottles. 'Unless the (police) officers in charge were prepared to abandon possession of the streets to the rioters, they had no alternative but to give orders to clear the various streets,' the Commission reported to the government.
On Friday the 29th at 7.15 p.m., DMP Chief Superintendent Quinn served notice of the Proclamation on Larkin at Liberty Hall. His laconic entry for this date conveys nothing of the ensuing drama in Beresford Place. 'In charge of police from 7.30 p.m... Engaged at meeting outside Liberty Hall from 8 p.m.'
A crowd of 10,000 turned up to hear James Connolly speak, and to cheer Larkin as he burned the Proclamation. 'If they are going to stop the meeting at the direction of William Martin Murphy, then I say that for every one of our men that falls, two must fall on the other side... You have every right to hold the meetings; but you have been too supine and cowardly in the past... If the Belfast Orangemen can hold a meeting, I do not see what is the matter that Dublin labourers can't hold a meeting, and if they want a revolution there that day, there will be a revolution'.
On Saturday morning, Quinn 'went to Police courts and obtained warrants for arrest of James Larkin, James Connolly and W.P. Partridge'. In his biography, Emmet Larkin recalls that O'Brien hurried to Liberty Hall to warn Larkin, who succeeded in evading arrest.
To prevent the meeting on Sunday, a massive force of over 300 police augmented by members of the RIC Reserve Force was deployed on Sackville Street. At 12.40 p.m. Supt. Quinn and a force of 40 Constables were withdrawn to supervise a meeting at Croydon Park in Fairview. The duty of arresting Larkin fell instead to the lot of Supt. Lawrence Murphy of the 'A' Division, Kevin Street, and Supt. Cornelius Kiernan, 'E' Division, Donnybrook. They were close to the Imperial Hotel when Larkin made his dramatic appearance on the balcony at 1.25 p.m., disguised as an old man, with false beard, and a long dress coat belonging to Count Markievicz.
The trouble started when stones were thrown by a section of the crowd. The battle-weary police retaliated with a baton charge, the crowd fleeing into Prince's Street where they were met head-on by another police detachment on duty at the rear of the Independent offices. The troublemakers scattered, mingling with innocent people coming from last Mass in the pro-Cathedral, and all bore the brunt of the DMP onslaught.
It was all over in two minutes, with the reputation of the DMP in ruins amid the debris in Sackville Street, business premises and tramcars wrecked; 400 injured citizens including women and children, and 50 policemen, on their way to the hospitals.
But who was really to blame for the debacle; organised labour fighting for justice, or the employers, victims themselves of inherited anti-social attitudes? Thrust by society into no-man's land the police were the prime casualties of peace. The Viceregal Commission offered a definitive judgement to history.
The police had discharged their duties 'with conspicuous courage and patience. They were exposed to great dangers and treated with great brutality and in many instances ... though suffering from injuries which would have fully justified their absence from duty, they remained at their posts under great difficulties until peace had been restored. The total number of constables injured during these riots exceeded 200.'
Winston Churchill in a letter to John Redmond ‘Something should be done to afford the characteristically Protestant and Orange counties the option of a moratorium of several years before acceding to the Irish Parliament…much is to be apprehended from a combination of rancour of the party in the ascendant and the fanatacism of these stubborn and determined Orangemen.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p29
September 1913
‘What need you, being come to sense,
but fumble in a greasy till…
Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,
It’s with O’Leary in the grave.
September 1913 – W.B.Yeats. First published 8th September in the Irish Times.
Romantic Ireland was still very much alive but underground, waiting.
1
Larkin was brought before the Magistrates and remanded in prison until trial on the 12th September.
Dublin Corporation demanded an immediate public inquiry into the general conduct of the police during the previous days. The same day, Jacobs partially closed down and the Tramway Works at Inchichore closed following the walk out of employees.
Rioting erupted throughout the city and ‘damage to property was also considerable’.
Meanwhile in Paris, the French aviator Bleriot perfromed the first ‘Loop the Loop’.
During the months of July and August Murphy was preparing for a showdown, by swelling the ranks of his employees with new recruits who had to sign an undertaking that they would not join the ITGWU. He also arranged with the British authorities that in the event of a strike the tramway company "was assured of the most ample protection for their men by the forces of the Crown".
2
The Dublin Coal Merchants Association locked out members of the ITGWU.
Two four storey tenement houses collapsed in Church Street, Dublin, killing seven and injuring many. The buildings had shops on the ground floor and 16 rooms above, occupied by ten families, more than 40 people.
An Irish Times editorial commented on the collapse that members of the ITGWU lived ‘for the most part in slums like Church Street and that the condition of the Dublin slums is responsible not only for disease and crime but for much of our industrial unrest..the workers, whose only escape from these wretched homes lies in the public house, would not be human beings if they did not turn a ready ear to anybody who promises to improve their lot’…. And drawing on the continuing unrest in the city ‘if every unskilled labourer in Dublin were the tenant of a decent cottage of three or even two rooms, the city would not be divided into two hostile camps.’
The Irish Times Book of The Century. Fintan O’Toole. Gill & Macmillan 1999. p50
William Martin Murphy's plan was to use the weapon of starvation to break the union. On September 2nd 1913 he spelled out his policy to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce - "The employer all the time managed to get his three meals a day, but the unfortunate workman and his family had no resources whatever except submission, and that was what occurred in 99 cases out of 100. The difficulty of teaching that lesson to the workmen was extraordinary."
3
400 of the prominent employers met and agreed to a unilateral lock out of all ITGWU members with the majority demanding worker pledges not to join the ITGWU. Merchants, farmers and manufacturers now began to take concerted steps to break the unions.
Despite Murphy being only one of a minority of three on the question of the Conciliation Board, the Dublin bosses rallied around him. Each employer deposited, in the name of the Employers Federation, a sum of money in the bank. If a depositor came to terms with the union he lost all his money. The first boss to follow Murphy was Shackleton of Lucan, followed by Jacobs and the coal merchants. Then on September 3rd 400 employers met and pledged not to employ a single person who remained loyal to the union.
They agreed to lock out all workers who refused to sign this pledge - "I hereby undertake to carry out all instructions given to me by or on behalf of my employers and further I agree to immediately resign my membership of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (if a member) and I further undertake that I will not join or in any way support this union." Ten days later Dublin's big farmers joined in and issued a similar ultimatum.
September 3rd when the Employers Federation issued their ultimatum to their I.T.G.W.U. employees - resign from the union or loose your job. Four hundred and four employers locked out their unionised workers. Upwards of 25,000 people were locked out, which, including their dependants, affected over 100,000 people, a third of the population of Dublin. The working class of Dublin, who, even in times of employment had to suffer squalor and poverty, now found themselves destitute and facing starvation.
Within three weeks, the numbers of workers locked out had reached 25,000. Under William Martin Murphy’s leadership, it was clear that aside from negotiation, it was a case of starve the workers into surrender. It quickly grew into a protracted, angry, brutal and hungry dispute. The union’s HQ, Liberty Hall became the centre of a vast welfare operation managed by Delia Larkin and Constance Markievicz, to feed and clothe the locked out workers and their familes. Financial support began to arrive from other unions worldwide along with two shiploads of food from Britain.
A Board of Trade enquiry headed by Sir George Askwith, could not persuade the employers to take a more humane position.
.
The funeral of James Nolan on September 3rd, attracted over 30,000 people and was guarded by I.T.G.W.U. men with pick-handles topped with a cylinder of steel, against police attack. The police kept their distance.
6:
James Connolly goes on hunger strike in prison.
The Irish Catholic of September 6th: "They are poor and have naught, but if they were rich tomorrow, debauchery would soon have them in poverty again... by folly or malice of their so-called leader, they have been placed in deplorable straits... all this to gratify the vengeful whims of an adventurer who has been battening on their credulity". Murphy pretended that his objection was only to "Larkinism" and not to legitimate trade unionism. This lie was easily exposed by mention of the previous efforts of the tram workers to organise. In 1903 Murphy had smashed the "Dublin and District Tramways Trade Union" and victimised its leading members.
The workers of Dublin met the threat to destroy the Transport Union with a heroic resistance. All over the city thousands chose the lock-out rather than sign the notorious document. Each trade served by labourers walked out when the labourers were ordered to sign. Most tradesmen showed solidarity. Even the United Builders Labourers Trade Union, who had been in conflict with Larkin, refused to sign and marched out "to help the ITGWU boys". The women and girls marched out from the factories once the document was produced
7:
Carson speaking in Newry on the consequences of the Home Rule Bill: ‘We will set up a Government. I am told it is illegal. Of course it will. Drilling is illegal…the Volunteers are illegal, and the Government knows they are illegal, and the Government dare not interfere with them. Don’t be afarid of illegalities.’
First Paris-Berlin passenger flight takes place.
8: The Irish Times published for the first time a Yeats poem awkardly titled ‘Romance in Ireland ( On reading much of the ocrrespondence against the Art Gallery)’ later revised to ‘September 1913’. Meanwhile Dublin City Council rejected a proposal to build a gallery over the Liffey to house the Hugh Lane Gallery of Modern Art.
11
Vladimir Lenin writing in Severnaya Pravda on the Dublin strikers attacked by police: ‘The police have gone positively wild, drunken policemen assault peaceful workers, break into homes, torment the aged, women and children…people are thrown into prison for making the most peaceful speeches. The city is like an armed camp.’
12
James Larkin released from prison on bail until trial on October 27th.
The lock out affected not only industry but also agriculture with many farms Co. Dublin, particularly the Ballbriggan, Howth and Lucan areas affected as large numbers of farm labourers were locked out.
US Athlete Jesse Owens born. ( d. 31.3.80 )
13
James Connolly released from prison following hunger strike.
Larkin was in Liverpool in September & said..
“ ..Hell has no terrors for me. I have lived there. Thirty Six years of hunger and poverty have been my portion. Better to be in hell with Dante and Davitt that to be in heaven with Carson and Murphy. I’m m out for revolution. What do I care? They can only kill me, and there are thousands more to come after me.”
Mark Tierney. “Modern Ireland” Gill & McMillan, Dublin 1972. p.96
15
All employees in the Building trades were called on to sign a pledge that they would not join or support the ITGWU, and on refusing to do so, were locked out. The numbers unemployed were estimated to be 8000. By now, in the words of the RIC report ‘ in the city, work was completely suspended in a number of trades and business generally was at a standstill. At the same time, the number of unemployed about the streets rendered the task of preserving the peace difficult and taxed the resources of the police to the utmost’
‘Inteligence Notes of the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle 1913-1916.’ State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P45
The Midland Volunteer Force was organised by a Redmondite group, specifically for the defence against an invasion of Carsonites from the North. This in turn interested Bulmer Hobson who advised the ruling circle of the I.R.B that the time had come to launch a Volunteer Movement for all of Ireland outside of the ‘Orange counties’.
During September, many Unionist parades and meetings took place throughout Ulster.
Carson claimed to have 150,000 volunteers ready to fight against Home Rule.
16: Railway workers in Liverpool began to black all traffic to Dublin, soon some 13,000 were locked out or on strike as far afield as Birmingham, Sheffield, Crewe and Derby. This action was totally unofficial, organised by rank and file committees who aimed towards a national stoppage in support of Dublin. Sadly the railway union leaders, in particular J.H. Thomas, managed to prevent the strike spreading, isolate the militants and secure a return to work. There was a great fighting spirit and a real willingness to take solidarity action, but the militants were too unorganised and uncoordinated to overcome the manoeuvres of Thomas and his cronies.
The ITGWU launched a second appeal for solidarity action. Larkin spoke at meetings all over Britain, his "fiery cross" crusade. In response a second wave of unofficial action spread across Britain. In South Wales two train drivers were sacked for refusing to carry Dublin traffic. 30,000 of their fellow workers on the railways struck in support of them. Once again Thomas used all his schemes and pleadings to get the strikers back to work he ended up describing the two sacked train drivers as "a disgrace" to trade unionism!
Union officials reported great difficulty in keeping their members on the Liverpool and London docks from coming out in sympathy. There was no lack of support for the ITGWU's struggle but the militants just did not have enough co-ordination to take on the, bureaucrats, and break their hold.
The pressure from below was such, however, that the TUC called its first ever special conference. They hoped to kill off unofficial action by seeming to be doing something themselves, All eyes turned on the TUC. Delegates to the special conference were not elected from within their unions but simply selected from the ranks of the more cautious executive committee members. The vote for sympathy action was lost by 2,280,000 to 203,000. A shameful betrayal orchestrated by timid officials afraid to step outside the bounds of 'conciliation and arbitration'.
21
During a march through the city by strikers, tram cars were wrecked and police baton charges were made. 35 civilians and several police were injured.
The next day, timber merchants employees were locked out. The numbers unemployed were estimated at 20,000.
The Irish Citizen Army was founded to prevent any repeat of the August 30th attack by the DMP and R.I.C.. This was not only an accepted anti-establishment move, but it was also one of the first organisations to accept women on an equal basis as men. Countess Markievicz became one of it’s first commandants. According to William O' Brien's recollections in the book 'Forth The Banners Go', the name of the Citizens Army came from the Social Democratic Federation, who in the early 1880's planned to form a Citizens Army to replace the States army.
Considering the strong working class character of the Irish Citizen Army, it is surprising that members of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy were involved in it's formation. The diversity in the backgrounds of, on the one hand, Countess Constance Markievicz and Jack White and those of James Connolly and Jim Larkin, could not be more pronounced.
Jack White was the son of Field Marshal Sir George White V.C. who had won almost every honour possible in the British Army and was famous as the man who defended Ladysmith against the Boers. Coming from a military family with a Protestant ascendancy background it was strange that White should find himself organising the defence of the Dublin working class during the 1913 lockout. Having fought against the Boers himself, White subsequently began to oppose militarism and left the army to travel around Europe. This travelling led to his increasing liberalism and on returning to Ireland he opposed Sir Edward Carson's sectarian version of Protestantism along with the likes of Sir Roger Casement
Countess Constance Markievicz was also of an Anglo-Irish ascendancy background. Her grandfather, Sir Robert Gore-Booth was an M.P. in the House of Commons in the mid 1800's. As a landlord he was responsible for evicting some of his tenants so as to use their land for pasture, a situation commonplace in those days for the native Irish. It is all the more remarkable that Markievicz, coming from such a comfortable existence, would, while in her forties, throw herself into the struggle of the Irish working class against their employers and the Irish people against their British rulers. During this period of her life she became the first woman M.P. in the British Parliament and also the first Minister for Labour in the first Dail Eireann.
In complete contrast, Jim Larkin's background was that to be expected of most working class people of the time. Born of Irish parents in Liverpool in 1876, he began working at the age of nine. It was during this time that he began to read and listen to the socialists of the day. Having experienced the grinding poverty inflicted on the working class by capitalism, he joined the Independent Labour Party when he was only sixteen. Four years after joining the National Union of Dock Labourers (N.U.D.L.) he became their National Organiser. In 1907 Larkin came to Ireland to organise his union. After organising the dock workers in Belfast in 1907 and Cork in 1909, Larkin clashed with the General Secretary of the N.U.D.L. over his confrontational methods and particularly the tactic of the sympathetic strike. After being sacked by the N.U.D.L. he formed the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (I.T.G.W.U.) on January 6th 1909. So began one of the most militant periods of Irish Labour history.
James Connolly, like Larkin, had experienced the extreme poverty that was the lot of most working class people. Born in Edinburgh in 1868 to Irish parents, Connolly began working at the age of eleven. At the age of fourteen, like many before him, lack of work drove him to join the British Army. Connolly choose the Kings Liverpool Regiment, then considered an Irish regiment. His first visit to Ireland was in a British uniform and lasted seven years. Already a socialist at this time, his desertion from the army enabled him to begin his involvement with active socialism. In 1896 the Dublin Socialist Club offered him a job as a full time organiser on the strength of his writings in Justice, the journal of the Social Democratic Federation.
After arriving in Dublin he set up the Irish Socialist Republican Party (I.S.R.P.) but in 1903 he and his family were again on the move due to poverty, this time to the U.S.A., where he was to remain for seven years. By 1910 he was again back in Ireland, this time as an organiser for the Socialist Party of Ireland, which had been formed by William O'Brien a former member of the I.S.R.P. In 1911 Connolly became Belfast's secretary of the I.T.G.W.U.. After Larkin's arrest in August 1913 Connolly returned from Belfast to take over the organisation of the strike, and so into the industrial battleground that was Dublin of the time, came James Connolly
24:
‘The Ulster Unionist Council, without the formality of any election, resolved itself into the ‘Central Authority of the Provisional Government of Ulster’. Sir Edward Carson became Chairman....various committees were appointed and a Military Council was set up. An indemnity fund of £1 million was started for the relief of wounded and disabled and widows and orphans who might suffer in consequence of war against Home Rule. The fund was quickly guaranteed. In England, homes were prepared for Loyalist refugees from Ulster. Famous English generals promised their services to the covenaters in the case of war.’
Dorothy Macardle, The Irish Republic. Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p90
25
Troops were called in to assist the RIC ‘protect property and deliver coals to institutions under the control of the government.
27:
The number unemployed estimated at 24,000.
The inquiry held afterwards by Inspectors of the Local Government Board revealed the fact that in Dublin at this time, the housing conditions were the worst in Europe, and that in the city there were, 21,000 families living in only one room.
The first Food Ship ‘The Hare’ supplied by the English Trades Unionists arrived in Dublin and cargo distributed to destitute strikers and families. These were followed by additional food ships.
New air-speed record set in France – 118mph.
By September 27th there were 24,000 locked-out. Within another two weeks the number rose to about 30,000. 32 unions were involved, all sticking up for the rights of the Transport Union, and trade union principles.
Events in Ireland were coming to the attention of an obscure Russian agitator living in Swiss exile. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was using the pseudynom Lenin while in Geneva and watching for signs of incipient revolt throughout the world, thought he could see stirrings in Dublin. ‘Ireland, he wrote ‘was something of a British Poland’ increasingly dominated by the rising Catholic middle class. ‘at the present moment, the Irish Nationalists ( i.e. the Irish bourgeoise ) are the victors. They are buying up the land from the British landlords; they are getting Home Rule …they will freely govern ‘their’ land in conjunction with ‘their’ Irish priests’. But Lenin imagined, Ireland was about to ‘turn into a land with an organised army of the proletariat’
The Irish Times Book of The Century. Fintan O’Toole. Gill & Macmillan 1999. p44
Pickets were attacked by police, meetings were broken up. Strikers responded with stoning of trams driven by scabs. Larkin said the workers should arm and defend themselves, This cry was translated into the formation of the Irish Citizen Army which was trained by Captain Jack White DSO, an ex-British Army officer who now fully supported the workers' cause and later joined the ranks of the anarchist movement during the Spanish Civil War, The ICA was a workers' militia armed with sticks and hurleys, for protection against police and blacklegs
28:
At the Ulster Hall Service on Ulster Day, the Reverned Dr Patterson ’..reassured his recptive audience that ‘under home rule, the Pope would be Ireland’s ruler and king, for his word was law’…persecution would inevitably follow ‘ and he ventured to say that in 2013 there would not be a Protestant in the British Empire who would be presume to affirm that Ulster made a mistake in the stand she was now taking against the agressions of Romanism…’
Prof JJ Lee. ‘Ireland 1912-1985 Politics and Society’ Cambridge University Press 1990. P9
Professor JJ Lee draws parallels between Unionism and Nationalism, that ‘racism was far less central to the idealogy of Irish nationalism than to that of Ulster unionism. But Ulster Protestants assumed, indeed were obliged by their own premises to assume, that Irish Catholics would behave as mirror images of themselves once they had smashed Protestant supremacy. In the Unionist scenario, Home rule would place Protestants ‘under the feet of Catholics…to be governed as a conquered race’.
Prof JJ Lee. ‘Ireland 1912-1985 Politics and Society’ Cambridge University Press 1990. P10
Add to this mix another Vatican decree, this time the ‘Motu Proprio’ where a Catholic layman was subject to excomunication if he brought a Catholic clergyman into any civil or criminal law case without the prior approval of the Bishop. This in turn came to be interpreted that any Catholic Parliamentarian that took part in the passing of legislation or any Catholic Government official that took part in implementing or supporting a law or decree which ‘helps to invade the liberty or rights of the Church of Rome’ was also subject to excommunication. Naturally the assumption in Ulster was that any Catholic in public service was essentially answerable only to Rome and not to the government or to the people – again the old rallying cry ‘Home Rule is Rome Rule’.
However as Professor Lee pointed out ‘It was not that Protestants wanted the clergy taken out of politics. Far from it. That would have deprived them of much of their own leadership…the Covenant was submitted for approval to Protestant clergy [who] gave their blessings to Covenant Day. If the clergyman in politics proved a less derisive bogey than the priest in politics, it was because the Protestant imagined himself immune from clerical influence. His clergy merely reperesented him wheras Catholic clergymen dominated their flocks.’
Prof JJ Lee. ‘Ireland 1912-1985 Politics and Society’ Cambridge University Press 1990. P12
The New York Times commenting on the Ulster Volunteers ‘The indications that the wole Ulster situation is a species of political bluff grow plainer from day to day’
29:
W.B.Yeats wrote a poem, dated 29 September 1913 and published the following year called “To a Shade” - not to revisit Dublin because his enemies are at their old tricks again.
Air speed record broken again as Prevost flies at 125mph.
Inventor of the diesel engine, Rudolf Diesel dies aged 55.
Ulster Unionists announced at the Ulster Unionist Council that they would set up a Provisional Government on the day that Home Rule becomes law in ireland. ‘We will scientifically, deliberately and carefully work out a plan which will make it impossible for a parliament in Dublin to govern this province’ said Carson. Funds of up to £1 million were set up to indemnify members of the Ulster volunteer Force against loss or injury sustained when carrying '‘ut the orders of the provisional government.'’Committees were also established for defence, finance, education, agriculture, trade, law and order. ‘We say to our enemies – we are ready, strike when you please’ said Lord Londonderry at the Ulster Unionist Council.
To show that Ulster’s resistance wa smore than mere rhetoric, some 15,000 men of the Ulster Volunteer Force marched to Balmoral, near Belfast for a military review with the salute taken by General Sir George Richardson, ( formerly of the Indian Army and commander of the multi-national cavalry brigade that supressed the Boxer Rebellion in China ) who took over the UVF in July.
While the UVF claimed to have some 50,000 members, it was short on weapons. Some of the men in the military parades marched with wooden rifles and bought for 1/6 through newspaper adverts. Meanwhile in Dublin, John redmond confessed that he feared Ulster may yet be excluded from any future Home Rule agreement.
Brigadier John Gough ( whose brother Hubert was commanding the 3rd Cavalry Brigade at the Curragh Camp ) was asked his views on the Government’s Irish policy. He commented that he felt some 40-60% of officers would refuse to serve against Ulster. ‘He personally objected not to Home Rule as such, but to the type of Government he believed the nationalists would bring in; it would not be loyal or honest, and it would be priest ridden…the idea of these disloyal men becoming our rulers was an outrage to every decent feeling I possessed..we would have corruption and graft, and probably the country would be innundated with unscrupolous Irish-American low class politicians..I could not tolerate the possibility of having a priest ridden Government.’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p244
October 1913
1: Greatest German Army increase since 1871; peace strength increased by 136,000 to 760,908 NCO's and men
2: London – a new concept in air-travel was introduced – the ‘aero-bus’ carrying 10 passengers including the pilot, made it’s debut at Hendon air-field.
4:
James Larkin addressed the Tribunal of Inquiry during the Dublin lock out: ‘We are determined that Christ will not be crucifed in Dublin by these men…my suggestion to the employers is that if they want peace we are prepared to meet them, but if they want war then war they will have.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p30
A second foodship ‘The Fraternity’ carrying goods for the locked out workers in Dublin docked.
6: The report Court of Enquiry into the lockout, while mildly critical of the Dublin strikers and their organisation, put the blame for refusing a settlement on the Employers. The Report suggested that workers should be reinstated without having to give a pledge not to join the ITGWU, but that they should promise not to strike for two years unless employers reject conciliation. Employers refuse the recommendations.
7:
AE – George Russel in one of his first letters to the Irish Times on the Lockout wrote : ‘I address this warning to you, the aristocracy of industry in this city…the men whose manhood you have broken will loathe you and will always be brooding and scheming to strike a fresh blow. The children will be taught to curse you…your class will be cut off from humanity as the surgeon cuts the cancer and alien growth from the body. Be warned ere it is too late’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p30
Letter to 'the Masters of Dublin'
from The Irish Times 7 October 1913
Sirs - I address this warning to you, the aristocracy of industry in this city, because, like all aristocracies, you tend to go blind in long authority, and to be unaware that you and your class and its every action are being considered and judged day by day by those who have power to shake or overturn the whole Social Order, and whose relentlessness in poverty today is making our industrial civilisation stir like a quaking bog. You do not seem to realise that your assumption that you are answerable to yourselves alone for your actions in the industries you control is one that becomes less and less tolerable in a world so crowded with necessitous life. Some of you have helped Irish farmers to upset a landed aristocracy in this island, an aristocracy richer and more powerful in its sphere than you are in yours, with its roots deep in history. They, too, as a class, though not all of them, were scornful or neglectful of the workers in the industry by which they profited; and to many who knew them in their pride of place and thought them all-powerful, they are already becoming a memory, the good disappearing together with the bad. If they had done their duty by those from whose labour came their wealth they might have continued unquestioned in power and prestige for centuries to come.
The relation of landlord and tenant is not an ideal one, but any relations in a social order will endure if there is infused into them some of that spirit of human sympathy which qualifies life for immortality. Despotisms endure while they are benevolent and aristocracies while noblesse oblige is not a phrase to be referred to with a cynical smile. Even an oligarchy might be permanent if the spirit of human kindness, which harmonises all things otherwise incomparable, is present.
You do not seem to read history so as to learn its lessons. That you are an uncultivated class was obvious from recent utterances of some of you upon art. That you are incompetent men in the sphere in which you arrogate imperial powers is certain, because for many years, long before the present uprising of labour, your enterprises have been dwindling in the regard of investors, and this while you carried them on in the cheapest labour market in these islands, with a labour reserve always hungry and ready to accept any pittance. You are bad citizens, for we rarely, if ever, hear of the wealthy among you endowing your city with the munificent gifts which it is the pride of merchant princes in other cities to offer, and Irishmen not of your city who offer to supply the wants left by your lack of generosity are met with derision and abuse. Those who have economic powers have civil powers also, yet you have not used the power that was yours to right what was wrong in the evil administration of this city.
You have allowed the poor to be herded together so that one thinks of certain places in Dublin as of a pestilence. There are twenty thousand rooms, in each of which live entire families, and sometimes more, where no functions of the body can be concealed and delicacy and modesty are creatures that are stifled ere they are born. The obvious duty of you in regard to these things you might have left undone, and it be imputed to ignorance or forgetfulness; but your collective and conscious action as a class in the present labour dispute has revealed you to the world in so malign an aspect that the mirror must be held up to you, so that you may see yourself as every humane person sees you.
The conception of yourselves as altogether virtuous and wronged is, I assure you, not at all the one which onlookers hold of you. No doubt, some of you suffered without just cause. But nothing which has been done to you cries aloud to Heaven for condemnation as your own actions. Let me show you how it seems to those who have followed critically the dispute, trying to weigh in a balance the rights and wrongs. You were within the rights society allows when you locked out your men and insisted on the fixing of some principle to adjust your future relations with labour, when the policy of labour made it impossible for some of you to carry on your enterprises. Labour desired the fixing of some such principle as much as you did. But, having once decided on such a step, knowing how many thousands, men, women and children, nearly one-third of the population of this city, would be affected, you should not have let one day to have passed without unremitting endeavours to find a solution of the problem. What did you do? The representatives of labour unions in Great Britain met you, and you made of them a preposterous, an impossible demand, and because they would not accede to it you closed the conference; you refused to meet them further; you assumed that no other guarantees than those you asked were possible, and you determined deliberately in cold anger, to starve out one-third of the population of this city, to break the manhood of the men by the sight of the suffering of their wives and the hunger of their children. We read in the Dark Ages of the rack and thumb screw. But these iniquities were hidden and concealed from the knowledge of man in dungeons and torture chambers. Even in the Dark Ages humanity could not endure the sight of such suffering, and it learnt of such misuses of power by slow degrees, through rumour, and when it was certain it razed its Bastilles to their foundations.
It remained for the twentieth century and the capital city of Ireland to see an oligarchy of four hundred masters deciding openly upon starving one hundred thousand people, and refusing to consider any solution except that fixed by their pride. You, masters, asked men to do that which masters of labour in any other city in these islands had not dared to do. You insolently demanded of those men who were members of a trade union that they should resign from that union; and from those who were not members you insisted on a vow that they would never join it.
Your insolence and ignorance of the rights conceded to workers universally in the modern world were incredible, and as great as your inhumanity. If you had between you collectively a portion of human soul as large as a threepenny bit, you would have sat night and day with the representatives of labour, trying this or that solution of the trouble, mindful of the women and children, who at least were innocent of wrong against you. But no! You reminded labour you could always have your three square meals a day while it went hungry. You went into conference again with representatives of the State, because dull as you are, you know public opinion would not stand your holding out. You chose as your spokesman the bitterest tongue that ever wagged in this island, and then, when an award was made by men who have an experience in industrial matters a thousand times transcending yours, who have settled disputes in industries so great that the sum of your petty enterprises would not equal them, you withdraw again, and will not agree to accept their solution, and fall back again upon your devilish policy of starvation. Cry aloud to Heaven for new souls! The souls you have got cast upon the screen of publicity appear like the horrid and writhing creatures enlarged from the insect world, and revealed to us by the cinematograph.
You may succeed in your policy and ensure your own damnation by your victory. The men whose manhood you have broken will loathe you, and will always be brooding and scheming to strike a fresh blow. The children will be taught to curse you. The infant being moulded in the womb will have breathed into its starved body the vitality of hate. It is not they - it is you who are blind Samsons pulling down the pillars of the social order. You are sounding the death knell of autocracy in industry. There was autocracy in political life, and it was superseded by democracy. So surely will democratic power wrest from you the control of industry. The fate of you, the aristocracy of industry, will be as the fate of the aristocracy of land if you do not show that you have some humanity still among you. Humanity abhors, above all things, a vacuum in itself, and your class will be cut off from humanity as the surgeon cuts the cancer and alien growth from the body. Be warned, ere it is too late. - Yours, etc. ae
September 1913
William Butler Yeats
from The Irish Times 7 October 1913
What need you, being come to sense,
But fumble in a greasy till
And add the halfpence to the pence
And prayer to shivering prayer, until
You have dried the marrow from the bone?
For men were born to pray and save:
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.
Yet they were of a different kind,
The names that stilled your childish play,
They have gone about the world like wind,
But little time had they to pray
For whom the hangman's rope was spun,
And what, God help us, could they save?
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.
Was it for this the wild geese spread
The grey wing upon every tide;
For this that all that blood was shed,
For this Edward Fitzgerald died,
And Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone,
All that delirium of the brave?
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.
Yet could we turn the years again,
And call those exiles as they were
In all their loneliness and pain,
You'd cry, 'Some woman's yellow hair
Has maddened every mother's son':
They weighed so lightly what they gave,
But let them be, they're dead and gone,
They're with O'Leary in the grave.
US – Henry Ford unveiled the first moving assembly line since he introduced the static assembly line back in 1908. This effectively cut the work hours per car from 14 hours to just 2.
8: Speaking in Dundee, Churchill announced that Ulster’s claims for exlcusion under the Home Ruel Biull could not be ignored.
9: Conciliation moves from the Catholic Hierarchy towards their Ulster Protestant neighbours began as rumours gained ground that the Home Rule Bill would be implemented. The Bishop of Raphoe Dr. patrick O’Donnell wrote to Redmond ‘There is no length to which any of us would refuse to go to satisfy the Ornagemen at the start of our new Government provided Ireland did not suffer seriously.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p30
Meanwhile in the south, sectarianism was relatively muted, but latent fears and resentments began to crystalise around the case of a Protestant clerk, Mr G.H.Walton, who was dismissed from his position with the Catholic booksellers and publishers, Gills.
Walton regularly served tea on Sunday mornings for the Dublin Free Breakfasts for the Poor, a Protestant missionary charity. When the firm discovered this, it sacked him, stating he was a Protestant proselytiser. The Company Secretary accused Walton of ‘endeavouring to wean little children from the faith of their fathers’. The Irish Times took up the case commenting that no person should be sacked for practising their religion as they saw fit in their own time and even going so far as to comment that the Walton case was a ‘test case ‘ for whether or not Home Rule would indeed be Rome rule.
Shortly, the Catholic Bulletin ( coincientally published by Gill ) defending the sacking of Walton without qualification and turned a broadside on the Irish Times, whose staff it accused of ‘being calculating and unscurpulous bigots…whose stock in trade was distortion, interpolation and other traditional devices of West British journalism.’
The Irish Times Book of The Century. Fintan O’Toole. Gill & Macmillan 1999. p60
10: Presidnet Wilson opened the Panama Canal by pressing a button at his desk, detonating 40 tons of dynamite removing the last obstacle between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
11:
Bulmer Hobson apparently had not received any word from Devoy his funding request for St. Endas. [ 4 July ].
‘There is no dout that the college can only be saved if he gets help before next Spring, and if it ceases it will be a very serious loss indeed’ Pearse ‘proposes going out to America this winter to try and get financial assistance to put his college on its feet. He saw Judge Cohalan a few weeks ago and I understand the Judge promised to assist him when he went out’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.415
Not all of the Unionist tradition agreed with Carson and his policies:
“ A meeting of Liberal Protestants was held at Ballymoney, Co. Antrim, 24th October, to protest against the ‘lawless policy of Carsonism’.
Inteligencer Notes-1913-16 Government Publications Office. Dublin, 1966. p4.
‘Among those who addressed a meeting of Protestant Nationalists at Ballymoney, Co Antrim were the historian, Alice Stopford Smith, Roger Casement, returned from his labours in defence of the natives of Putumayo and the Belgian Congo, and another Ulsterman, Captain J.R. White, who had served with the British Army with distinction during the Boer War’
Dorothy Macardle, The Irish Republic. Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p91
12:
Redmond came out strongly against partition on the island, speaking in Limerick: ‘Ireland is a unit. It is true that within the bosom of the nation there is room for diversities in the treatment of Government and administaration but…the two nation theory is to us an abomination and a blasphemy’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p30
Food kitchens were set up in Liberty Hall by Countess Markievicz. Food ships organised by English & Scottish Trade unionists. Nora Connolly, daughter of James Connolly, said of these kitchens
“ ..Here the Countess Markievicz reigned supreme -- all meals were prepared under her direction. There were big tubs on the floor; around each were about half a dozen girls peeling potatoes and other vegetables. There were more girls at tables cutting up meat. The Countess kept up a steady march around the boilers as she supervised the cooking. She took me to another kitchen where more delicate food was being prepared for nursing and expectant mothers.
'We used to give the food out at first,' she said. 'But in almost every case we found that it had been divided amongst the family. Now we have the women come here to eat. We are sure then that they are getting something sufficiently nourishing to keep up their strength.' . . .
Nora Connolly. “The Irish Rebellion of 1916”& “The Unbroken Tradition” p.2
In this way the strikers were also clothed. Ms. Connolly said of this:
“…We came to the clothing shop next. Some persons had caught the idea of sending warm clothing for the wives and children of the strikers; accordingly one of the rooms of Liberty Hall was turned into an alteration room. Several women and girls were working from morning to night altering the clothes to fit the applicants. One of the girls said to me, "It was a wonder to us at first the number of strikers who had extra large families, until we found out that in many cases their wives had adopted a youngster or two for the day, and brought them along to get clothed." Not strictly honest, perhaps, but how human to wish to share their little bit of good fortune with those not so fortunate as themselves. How many little boys and girls knew for the first time in their lives the feel of warm stockings and shoes, and how many little girls had the delicious thrill of getting a new dress fitte
Nora Connolly. “The Irish Rebellion of 1916”& “The Unbroken Tradition” p.3
In the Irish Times shortly afterwards there appeared a letter from AE ( George Russell ) accusing the employers of insolence, ignorance and “ a devilish policy of starvation”.
‘You determine deliberately in cold anger to starve out one third of the population of this city, to break the manhood of the men by the sight of the suffering of their wives and the hunger of their children...blind Sampsons, pulling down the pillars of social order’
15: James Connolly leads 4,000 workers in a protest march through Dublin.
18: - Berchtold (Austria) sends an ultimatum to Serbia demanding withdrawal of forces that crossed into Albania; Serbs withdrew
20:
NY – President Wilson orders the reversal of Emmeline Pankhurst’s deportation order and orders her immediate release.
Connolly planned to alleviate some of the social problems by taking the strikers' children to Britain until after the Lock-Out. Dora Montefiore and Lucille Rand, with Larkin's approval, arrived in Dublin to take the children of consenting parents to England to be provided with food, shelter, and clothing. The Archbishop of Dublin, William Walsh, however, upset at this brotherhood between the British Protestants and the Irish Catholics, condemned the action. In a letter to the newspapers on October 20th he wrote:
‘They can be no longer held worthy of the name of Catholic mothers if they so far forget that duty as to send away their little children to be cared for in a strange land, without [ascertaining] that those to whome the poor children are to be handed over are Catholics or indeed persons of any faith at all.’
The DMP then arrested the pair for kidnapping. When James Larkin's wife, Delia Larkin, tried to take over the venture, the clergy struck again. Archbishop Walsh did, however, see to it that the clergy helped provide relief for the strikers.
Clergy & laity patrolled streets, railway stations and quaysides, seizing any children that appeared to be destined or en-route to Britain.
Asquith demanded that Chief Secretary Birrel report to him on proposals to send children of impoverished strikers to homes in England. Birrel wrote back ‘It certainly was an outrage. For the first place there are no starving childen in Dublin and in the second place, the place swarms with homes for them.’
James Connolly, while not enthuastically supporting the scheme, did strongly criticise the Archbishop, writing that if he was ‘as solictious about the poor bodies of those children as we know you to be about their souls’ then he should do everything in his power to make the employers of Dublin negotiate. Connolly next forced the issue back to the Hierarchy by abandoning the scheme, demanding that all children be cared for in Dublin. Free meals were suspended from Liberty Hall, telling the people to ask the Archbishop and the priests for food and clothing. Catholic organisation were quickly flooded with pleas for assistance, forcing the Archbisop to issue urgent appeals for funds along with a settlement of the dispute. Having made his point, Connolly reinstated the free meals at Liberty Hall.
18: NY – Emeline Pankhurst deported from the US on arrival on grounds of ‘moral turpitude’.
23
Priests led crowds in an attempt to stop locked out workers sending their hungry children to England to be cared for during the dispute. This intervention was on the grounds that the organisers were ‘Godless’ and willing to ‘pervert the faith of children’
Bishop Gaughran of Mullingar led the faithfull in prayer that the country might be protected from the doctrine of socialism ‘which recognises no God, no sin, no hell, no heaven’ Conor Kostick ‘Revolution in Ireland - popular militancy 1917-1923’ Pluto Press, London 1996 p18
Yeats weighed into the debate with a letter to the Irish Worker: ‘I charge the Dublin nationalist newspapers with deliberately arousing religious passion to break up the organisation of the working man, with appeals to mob law day by day…and I charge the Unionist press of Dublin and those who directed the police with conniving in this conspiracy’
26:
Kaiser meets Berchtold (Austrian Foregin Minister) in Vienna discussing possible Germanic-Slav (Serb) confrontation
27
At Larkin’s trial, he was found guilty on ‘uttering seditious language’ but not guilty on ‘spoken words with the intention of inciting to riot’ and ‘having spoken with intention to incite to have the shops and shopkeepers pillaged and robbed’. He was jailed for 7 months, but released on November 13th. Popular opinion at the time had it that Carson deserved the prison sentence far more than Larkin, after all, wasn’t he ‘uttering sedeitious language on a grand scale up in Belfast?’
November 1913
W.B.Yeats wrote a message for Larkin & Connolly’s “Irish Worker and People’s Advocate” in which he assails the employers for their cruelty. The I.R.B Leadership however offered no assistance to help Larkin or the strikers, the Church disapproved of the strike as did Arthur Griffith.
The playwright George Bernard Shaw travelled to Ireland and worked on the strikers' behalf.
John Dillon of the Irish Parliamentary Party summed up some of the Middle Class opinion of the time
“ Murphy is a desperate character, Larkin is as bad. It would be a blessing for Ireland if they exterminated each other”
F.S.L.Lyons. “John Dillon” Chicago. 1968. p.335
Larkin’s associates in England held a large demonstration of over 10,000 people in the Albert Hall to demand his release. This resulted in his release on the 13th November leaving shortly afterwards for America with Connolly in command of the ITGWU.
Appearing on stage as speakers included George Bernard Shaw, Delia Larkin, Dora Montifiore, AE, James Connolly and suffragist Charlotte Despard. Shaw pointed out the contrast between imprisoning Larkin for sedition and Carson’s freedom to organise an army against the Government. Connolly suggested a protest vote against the Government until Larkin was freed and AE ridiculed the Catholic bishops saying ‘they have so little concern for the bady at all that they assert it is better for the children to be starved than to be moved from the Christian athmosphere of the Dublin slums. Dublin is the most Christian city in these islands. It’s tottering tenements are holy. The spiritual athmosphere which pervades them is ample compensation for the diseases which are there and the food which is not there.’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p233
Soon after the Albert Hall meeting, Sylvia Pankhurst and her East London organisation were expelled from the Women’s Social and Political Union by her mother and sister, Emmeline and Christabel. They did not approve of Sylvia’s involvement with th working class and her appearance at this meeting on behalf of James Larkin was the last straw.
The winter caused unseen hardships. However what broke the ITGWU was a combination of starvation and the withdrawal of support by the British Trades Union Council on 9th December.
1:
The O’Rahilly had virtual control of editorial policy at “An Claidheamh Soluis”, ( The Sword of Light ) the Sinn Fein journal. He approached Eoin MacNeill, Professor of Early & Mediaeval History at UCD & Vice President of the Gaelic League, to write a general article on volunteering. The November 1 issue ran “ The North Began” by McNeill. A 1,422 word ‘tortous account of the politicial situation in the North of Ireland and the relationship between the dying remnants of feudalism there and the still living feudalism of Britain’ Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p94
However the article proposed following Ulster’s lead with the Ulster Volunteers by creating an Irish force. McNeill stating that the Irish force would not be formed with the intention to coerce Unionists, they were to be formed to bring pressure to bear on England. McNeill suggesting that Carson and the Unionists were the real Irish ‘Home Rulers’ through their self-determination. While he also did not explicitly urge the Irish to form a Volunteer force, McNeill advised that there was nothing to prevent them from doing so.
The 14 year old daughter of Robert Monteith, a British Noncommissioned Officer, was batoned unconscious following a DMP drive to clear some side streets of strikers families. Montieth ( 1880 - 1956 ) born in Newtownmountkennedy, Co. Wicklow in 1880, enlisted in the British army in 1896, serving in the Royal Horse Artillery in India and then in South Africa during the Boer War. He became somewhat disillusioned with the army and returned to Ireland and worked in the Ordnance Survey. He later joined the Irish Volunteers and as a result lost his job.
A few days later, Hobson and the O’Rahilly met with Prof. MacNeill to discuss forming a Volunteer Movement in Dublin and a meeting was arranged for 11 November.
In Scotland, Suffragetets threw themselves in front of the Prime Minister’s car.
Constantinople: German influence grew throughout the Ottoman Empire as it continued the military training for it’s troops. A German General, Otto Liman von Sanders took control of the Ottoman forces. The Russians protested strongly with the French loding equally voiceferous indignation but did little good.
2: US Actor – Burt Lancaster born
3: US – Government orders mobilisation of 500,000 men – the first time such an order has been given in peacetime.
4: Ulster – businessmen refuse to pay any tax until Home Rule is abandoned.
5: British actress Vivien Leigh ( Scarlett in Gone with the Wind 1939 ) born. (8/7/67 )
7:
O’Donovan Rossa was now in hospital suffering from senile dementia. In a letter to Devoy, his wife commented he was suffering from ‘his ususal latter day condition of childishness and illusion…hemust get out his paper and write to certain subscribers etc and the orderlies had to be called to restrain him from getting out of bed. Then he gave me messages to take to Skibereen and Roscarberry to people who have been dead for more than 50 years and he shouted to a convalescent passing by ‘Govenor,Govenor! This lady is my wife. She wants to take me home. Stop the car for us!’
Devoys Post Bag Vol 11 – 1880-1928. Dublin, C.J.Fallon Ltd. 1953. p.416
8:
Patrick Pearse wrote ‘The Coming Revolution’ appearing in the Gaelic League journal. His message was simple enough, that Irishmen must prepare for the difficult task of achieving control of their own country, but the language used appears inappropriate to generations later: ‘I should like to see any and every bod of Irish citizens armed. We must accustom ourselves to the thought of arms, to the use of arms. We may make mistake sin the beginning and shoot the wrong people, but bloodshed is a cleansing and sanctifying thing, and the nation wich regards it as the final horror has lost it's manhood. There are many thing more horrible that bllodshed and salvery is one of them.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p96
Major General Sir Henry Wilson, director of Military Operations at the War Office was a key supporter of the Loyalist & Unionist cause recorded in his diary that he had told Sir John French, Commander of the Imperial General Staff ‘that I could not fire on the North at the dictation of Redmond’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p244
9:
Sir Henry Wilson’s diaries of a meeting with Bonar Law records that ‘there was much talk in the Army, and that if we were ordered to coerce Ulster, there would be wholesale defections…I then told him of Cecil’s idea that Carson should pledge the Ulster troops to fight for England if she was at war. I pointed out that a move like this would render the employment of trooops against ulster more impossible than ever’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P147
At a meeting of Ulster Nationalists in Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone, J.P.Convery ( an organiser of United Ireland League ) said ‘Under no circumstances [will we] allow Ulster or any portion of it to be taken from the map of Ireland’
King Albert of Belgium invited to Berlin; Kaiser tells King that he feels war with France inevitable; similar statements by Moltke
11: A Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers met in Wynns Hotel, Middle Abbey Street, Dublin to discuss the formation of a military group similar to the Ulster Volunteers. Of the twelve that met with Prof. MacNeill at Wynns Hotel, four ( Eamonn Ceannt, Sean McDiarmada, James A Deakin and Piaras Beaslai ) were I.R.B members. Patrick Pearse was also present and sworn into the I.R.B. shortly after. W.J.Ryan, Sean Fitzgibbon, Joseph Cambell were also present along with the O’Rahilly acting as Secretary. Bulmer Hobson, though invited, sent his apologies ( later arguing that he considered it unwise as Secretary of the IRB to be present until cleared by John Devoy ). The initial discussion was conducted in Irish until it was quickly pointed out that not all members present were Irish speakers, and so was changed to English.
Among the objectives in this historic meeting were ‘to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to all the people of Ireland, without distinction of class, creed or politics’
MacNeil was asked to accept the leadership of the Volunteers, but requested some time to consider the proposal and consulted with a friend of his, George Sigerson, another distnguished Gaelic scholar. ‘Sigerson had said ‘If you accept leadership of such a movement, do you think that you will be able to control it?’ MacNeill believed he could and he accepted the leadership.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p95
The meeting concluded with a decision to call a public meeting at which the Volunteers could be launched and Irishmen invited to join.
12:
The newly formed Civic League met within Trinity Collge, Dublin to aid Dublin workes. Attended by the poet Thomas McDonagh. There Captain Jack .R.White, a decorated Boer War Veteran, proposed a scheme for drilling the strikers, to which he offered his time and professional skills and to ‘bring discipline into the distracted ranks of labour’
13:
Jim Larkin was released from Prison, 17 days into a 7 month sentence. In Dublin, Connolly held a rally to celebrate where he announced plans for a citizen army: “ ..Listen to me..I am going to talk sedition. The next time we set out for a route March, I want to be accompanied by four battalions of trained men. I want them to come out with their corporals and their seargenats and people to form fours. Why should we not drill and train in Dublin as they are drilling and training in Ulster?”
C.D.Greaves. The Life and Times of James Connolly. Dublin 1964. p.133
And so, thirteen days before the founding of the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizien Army was formed. Among those who sat at the platform with Connolly was Constance Countess Markievicz and Captain J.R.White, the decorated Boer War Veteran who had offered military training to the strikers. Countess Markievicz, the daughter of Sir Henry Gore-Booth, 5th Baronet of Lisadell, Co. Sligo, was described by her father’s tenants as a “ wild, kind girl” strongly attracted to anything militant or agressive.
Connolly announced that a citizens army was to be organised along military lines by Captain Jack White and called for volunteers. While a thousand hands were raised in response to the request for volunteers, on the first public appearance of the Irish Citizen Army in Croydon Park on November 23rd 1913, a mere forty odd men turned up to drill.
14:
The ‘Irish Churchman’ an Ulster Protestant journal reported on a meeting in Hamburg between Carson and the German Kaiser ‘We have the offer of aid from a power continental monarch…should our King sign the Home Rule Bill, the Protestants of Ireland will welcome this continental deliverer as their forefathers under similar circumstances did once before’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p31
17: Panama Canal – first ship through the newly opened canal was the SS Louise.
Berlin – The Kaiser orders men in both the Army and Navy not to dance either the tango or two step and to avoid families who do. Failure to observe this request would result in dismisisal from the armed forces.
18: Larkin and Connolly along with delegates of the Dublin Trades Council meet with the Parliamentary Committee of the British Trades Union Congress.
19:
The Civic League met for a second time. Capt. White read a telegram from another Protestant Ulsterman, Sir Roger Casement who offered his support for the military training plan. At this meeting, the “Transport Union Citizen Army” name was adopted, and planned as a defence force to protect the strikers from the police and so was born the Irish Citizen Army.
A circular announcing that a national volunteer force was being launched, with the enrolement to begin at a public meeting at the Rotunda, 8pm on November 25th.
The GAA acquired Croke Park from former GAA President and Secretary, Frank B. Dineen, on December 18 1913 for £1,500 in cash and the acceptance of a bank liability of £2,000. Dineen had bought the Jones' Road grounds in 1908 for £,250, when the City and Suburban Racecourse and Amusement Group Ltd. was wound up. The money came from financially successful inter-county hurling and football competitions which funded a memorial in Thurles to Archbishop Croke, first patron of the Association, with enough left over to purchase the grounds.
23:
Enough men to form 2 companies met at Croyden Park, the ITGWU’s recreation centre in Clontarf. Captain Jack White admits that these men are to defend workers from the police in additiont to raising worker morale and provide a worker’s force to oppose employers.
In New York, the founder and editor for the last 45 years of the Irish World newspaper, Patrick Ford dies. His nephew Robert Ford now took over the paper, supporting Redmond and the Irish Parliamentary Party until breaking with him shortly after 1914.
25:
At a public meeting at the Rotunda Gardens Ice Rink in Dublin, attended by over 3,000 persons, the Irish National Volunteers was founded. The attendance was unexpectedly large with overflows outside the building being addressed by additional speakers. Contingents from the Trade Unions, political views and opinions were present. ( The stewards were all I.R.B. men from the Gaelic Athletic League ) The Irish National Volunteers objectives were
“ ..is to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to all people of Ireland. Their duties will be defensive and protective, and they will not contemplate either aggression or domination. Their ranks are open to all able bodied Irishmen without distinction of creed, politics or social grade. Means will be found wherby Irishmen unable to serve as ordinary volunteers will be able to aid the Volunteer forces in various capacities. There will be work for women to do, and there are signs that the Women of Ireland, true to their record, be especially enthusiastic for the success of the Irish Volunteers.”
F.X.Martin. “The Irish Volunteers” Dublin 1963. p100.
MacNeill and Pearse were the principal speakers. MacNeil believed that the drilling of nationalist volunteers would strengtent the cause of Home Rule and would later become the nucleus of an Irish army. ‘The more genuine and succesful the local volunteer movement in Ulster becomes, the more completely does it establish the principle that Irishmen have the right to decide and govern their own national affairs’
Another speaker, Larry Kettle was shouted down as his father had employed ‘scab labour’ to break a strike of farm workers some time earlier. ‘As soon as he spoje there were scuffles and fights as ITGWU protestors were drowned out with the song ‘God Save Ireland’ Conor Kostick ‘Revolution in Ireland - popular militancy 1917-1923’ Pluto Press, London 1996 p18/19
The IRB were prepared to openly associate themselves with Murphy and his supporters, but not Larkin. Their strategy saw nationalist unity as more significant than popular militancy. O’Casey also believed that the IRB were trying to attract recruits away from the recently launched Irish Citizen Army.
Another speaker that received a hostile reception was Michael Davitt, the son of the famous Land League leader. The reason for this reception was that he had attempted to discourage his fellow UCD students from coming to the meeting as one body.
Eamon DeValera was among 4,000 that joined within a week of that meeting. “ .. the second phase in the revolution which the Gaelic League had initiated”
PH Pearse on the Irish Volunteers, quoted in Mark Tierney. “Modern Ireland” Gill & McMillan, Dublin 1972. p.84
A Provisional Committee was formed to run the new movement. Chairman: Eoin MacNeill, Treasurer: The O’Rahilly. The Secretary, Bulmer Hobson. 12 of the 30 provisional committeemen were IRB members as too were the office staff, Liam Mellows, Secretary, Eimear O’Duffy and Barney Mellows. No person who was known to the British Government as a revolutionary, or identified with the ‘revolutionary element’ was proposed. The O’Rahilly was given responsibility to arm the Volunteers.
MacNeill’s Manifesto to the Irish People was presented at the meeting and passed with some minor modifications. It held sharp criticisms of the actions of both Conservatives and Ulster Unionists, adding it seemed apparent that ‘a plan had been deliberatley adopted by one of the great English political parties…to make the display of military force and the menace of armed violence the determining factor in the future relations between this country and Great Britain’.
The slogan adopted was ‘Defence not Defiance’.
The Women’s army or auxiliary force was formed shortly afterwards called “Cumann na mBan” with members pledged to the cause of independence, organising Irishwomen to further this cause, assist in arming and equipping a body of men for the defence of Ireland and to form a fund for these purposes called “Defence of Ireland Fund”. This organisation gradually absorbed The “Daughters of Ireland” or “Inghinidhe na hEireann”. Founding members included the spouses of Wyse-Power, the O’Rahilly, MacNeill, Ceannt, Kettle, Dudley-Edwards, Gavan Duffy and Clarke.
Eamon de Valera in 1963 offered his own analysis for the reasons the Irish Volunteers were founded:
‘There were those who saw the nation being robbed of the fruits of years of patient constitutional endeavour by an arrogant defiance of the constitution. There were others who looked on this as an opportunity to repair the error of the late 18th century when the volunteers of that era were allowed to lapse. Finally, there were those who thought that the occasion should be seized to form a force which would be ready at any time to strike another blow for Irish freedom.’
Earl of Longford & T.P.O’Neill. ‘Eamon de Valera’ Gill & McMillan, Dublin.1970. p20
Pearse commenting on the continuing Unionist backlash against Home Rule wrote in his essay "From a Hermitage”:
“ …The Editor of Sinn Fein [Arthur Griffith] wrote the other day that when the Orangemen fire upon the King of England's troops it will become the duty of every Nationalist in Ireland to join them: there is a deal of wisdom in the thought as well as a deal of humour…. I think the Orangeman with a rifle is a much less ridiculous figure than the Nationalist without a rifle and the Orangeman who can fire a gun will certainly count for more in the end than the Nationalist who can do nothing cleverer than make a pun.’
From a Hermitage - published November, 1913. Reprinted in Political Writings and Speeches, p. 187
27: The newly formed Irish Citizen Army holds it's first drill.
December 1913
1: Drilling for the four battalions of the Irish Volunteers Dublin Brigade began in the Gaelic League Hall, Blackhall Street. The first squad was paraded by Capt. Robert Monteith. He described the scene that night:
‘Our trouble on this night was not to get the men to drill, but to get space in which to drill them. The hall was packed, and, in the anteroom, men fought to reach the secretary to have their names entered on the roll….the ages of those presenting themselves for enrolement ranged from fourteen to sisty, and the types varied. There came the well groomed bank clerk who signed his name with a flourish, the dock labourer, who held his breath and frowned ferociously as he formed the straggling characters….through the haze of tobacco smoke, one culd just distinguish a sea of faces, and the din of voices as they laughed, joked and sang was indescribable…. We worked hard, giving ten minutes to each squad of eight men…in all the three of us passed more than 600 men through our hands. It was nearly midnight when the parade was finished. We were exhausted….in that dingy little hall in Blackhall Street was the spirit of a nation reborn…’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Atwell Printing, Chicago. 1932. P9-10. Lynch Family Archives.
News of the formation of the Irish Volunteers spread across the country and in every city and county, groups of men formed their own Volunteer units. Requests for information and other prominent Volunteers to meet and address the groups flooded into the Volunteer HQ.
4: Plymouth – Suffragette Emeline Pankhurst is arrested on her return from the US.
Pearse writing in Irish Freedom ‘ A citizen wihtout arms in like a priest without religion, like a woman without chastity, like a man without manhood…I say to each one of you who read this that it is your duty to arm..if you cannot arm otherwise by joining Carson’s Volunteers, join Carson’s Volunteers. But you can for instance, start Volunteers of your own.’
ITGWU Conferenence agrees to relinquish sympathetic strike but seeks in return, reinistatement of workers locked out since August 26th.
5:
A Proclamation was issued banning all importation of arms & ammunition into Ireland. This only only encouraged smuggling and the assumption that the Irish Volunteers would not and could not be armed. The Supreme Coucnil of the I.R.B had expected either a clamp down or blanket ban on the organisation and the proclamation allowed continued training and recruitment.
‘The Ulster Unionists were reputed to be already in possession of between 50,000 and 80,000 rifles and revolvers. They were convinced, as the Irish Times, a Unionist organ, stated in commenting on the Proclamation: ‘..that there were now sufficient arms in Ulster to enable effective resistance to be made to any attempt to force Home Rule upon Ulster. ‘
Dorothy Macardle, The Irish Republic. Irish Press, Dublin. 1951. p98
On the same day, all Ulster car owners agreed to make their vehicles available to the Northern Ireland Provisional Government when requested.
The organisation of the Irish Volunteers was simple & democratic. No sectional grouping allowed, men were grouped according to the locality they lived, squads were grouped in sections, the sections in companies of 100 men each under one captain. Any Volunteer, without regard to rank, might be elected on to the committee which appointed officers and made all the arrangements. The subscription was 3 pence weekly.
‘The work of the instructory staff was, for the first few weeks, very hard…the difficulty was overcome by our holding instructors meetings and mapping out a system of co-ordinated work, each company drilling in it's own hall one night weekly, with a battalion parade on Saturdays at such centres as Fr. Mathew Park, Fairview or Larkfield, Kimmage…. For some months things went on smoothly, and though closely watched by the police, we suffered no interference from them. Recruits joined steadily from all over the country. Companies and battalions were formed. Organisers were in demand everywhere.’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Atwell Printing, Chicago. 1932. P10-11. Lynch Family Archives.
Lt-Colonel Pretyman Newman, Conservative MP speaking in Potters Bar at an anti-Home Rule meeting said’ If..by any chance he should bring bloodshed in Ulster by means of Imperial Troops, then…any man would be justified in shooting Mr Asquith in the streets of London’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p32
The appearance of the Citizen Army, to quote Jack White himself, "put manners on the police". The very fact that they had weapons, even if they were only pick handles, hurleys, broomsticks etc.., and were prepared to use them, forced the police to keep their distance. The story of the Citizen Army company from Aungier Street and their dealings with the police is a good example of the situation the police found themselves in. The members of the Citizen Army from Aungier Street formed a marching band, with instruments bought with borrowed money, to accompany them on their marches. One evening after a march from Croydon Park to Liberty Hall this small company left the main body of the march and continued on its way to Aungier Street.
In Georges Street the police attacked them and tried to smash their instruments, a favourite tactic of the police at that time. The band managed to fight their way through and succeeded in getting their precious instruments to safety in their branch room. A police superintendent followed and threatened that his men would be waiting for them as they left. It was decided to face down the police. Each member who wasn't playing an instrument was to arm himself with a hurley to protect the band. The band marched out surrounded by its 'armed' guard playing the tune of 'The Peeler and The Goat'. On seeing the hurleys and the willingness of the men to use them the 'peelers' decided to back off. The Aungier Street Citizen Army had made their point.
Ironically, after the Citizen Army had been formed as a force to protect the workers they were never called into action in any major way during the lockout. Their very existence subdued the police and more importantly the employers had decided on a change of tactics by starving the strikers into submission.
Relations between the Volunteers and the Citizen Army were strained due to the presence among the Volunteers of employers who has locked out their employees during the strike. Nationalists, such as Sinn Fein leader Arthur Griffith, further added to the bad feeling between Labour and the Nationalist Movement by supporting the employers during the lockout. Venomously attacking the strikers, especially Larkin. Referring to Larkin as "the English trade unionist" Griffith accused him of trying to destroy Irish industry to the advantage of British industry.
The Citizen Army's first handbill contained a list of reasons not to join the Volunteers, (controlled by forces opposed to Labour, officials having locked out union men etc..,) and a list of reasons to join the Citizen Army (controlled by working class people, refuses membership to people opposed to Labour etc..,). Both Larkin and O'Casey were antagonistic towards the Volunteers, O'Casey bitterly so. This was not the case with all the Citizen Army though, Constance Markievicz had quite cordial relations with the Volunteers and most of the rank and file of both organisations got on quite well.
8
Tom Clarke in a letter to McGarrity commented on the situation in the country:
‘Joe, it is worth living in Ireland these times – there is an awakening – the slow silent plodding and the open preaching is at last showing results, thingsa re in full swing on the up grade…just take it for granted that the prospect today – from the national point of view is brighter than it has been in many a year – certainly as far back as my memory goes – and remember I am no spring chicken and some of the boys have no scruple about keeping me reminded of the fact by referring to me as ‘the old chap’
9: Special meeting of the British TUC rejects Larkin’s proposals for a boycott of Dublin goods.
12: The Mona Lisa was recovered in Florence.
14:
The first public meeting of the Cork city branch of the Irish Volunteers took place in the City Hall, three weeks after the movement was inaugarated in Dublin. ‘As in Dublin, Cork’s provisonal committee wa dominated by cultural activitists and – behind the scenese – by the Irish Republican Brotherhoos. Unlike in Dublin, however the southern organisation had a contentious birth as the local Ancient Order of Hibernians…objected to the involvement of the schismatic AOH (American Alliance)’
Peter Hart ‘The IRA & It's Enemies – Violence and Community in Cork 1916-1923’ Oxford University Press 1998. p45
Addressing the crowded old City Hall were Eoin McNeill and Roger Casement. As McNeill was speaking, ‘ a number of the audience understood me to ask for cheers for Sir Edward Carson. This would amount to an endoresement of Sir Edward Carson’s present policy, which was far from my mind to which they no less than the majority of the audience were, no doubt, resoltely opposed’ So opposed were they, that the platform was invaded by a number of men brandishing sticks and striking all nearby. The Chairman had to be removed to a local hospital and lights were turned off. Those that mis-understood left the building, confident that the meeting had been disrupted as did the press. After a few minutes, the lights were brought back up again and the majority remained. Casement was introduced and enrolment began.
McNeil’s comments – letter to the Cork Examiner 15 December. Quoted in Tomas MacCurtain – Soldier & Patriot. Florence O’Donoghue. Anvile Press 1955. P28
Over 400 men were enrolled that night and the first drill class took place the following week.
Press reports indicated however that the meeting was a failure despite a number of letters by both MacNeil and Casement to the contrary.
Throughout the country, small groups were starting their own Irish Volunteers branches.
16: London – one child in 12 in Britian suffered from diseases resulting from poor diet. Of more than 6 million school children, more than half needed dental treatment and one third were unhygenically dirty. One child in ten had serious eye defects, nearly three per 100 had hearing diffiuclty, 2 in 100 had heart disease, 1 in 100 had tuberculosis, 1 in 100 had ringworm and 1 in 10 needed surgery for inflamed tonsils.
18: West German statesman, Willy Brandt born. ( d. 8.1.92 )
In the town of Zabern in Alsace, a German military officer made insulting comments about the Alsatians. Hardly surprising, there was a riot as a result and in the ensuing melee, some locals were killed. Back in Berlin there was a furore over the high handed actions of the military and the Reichstag voted to censure the army. The army ignored the vote.
25: New York – A couple were arrested for kissing in public. Judge fined them $15.
30: British Ambassador in Washington, Spring Rice pointed out to Grey that if there was civil conflict in Ireland, the Irish Americans would be quick to respond to it. Grey however appeared muddled at the information and was unable to figure out ‘to whom the men and guns will be sent’. No specific instructions were sent to Spring Rice from the Foreign Office but he was told that if fighting did indeed break out in Ireland, his request for instructions ‘will be borne in mind’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p216 - notes
By the end of the year there had been two meetings between the union and the employers but negotiations were broken off when the employers refused to give any guarantee against victimisation in the re-employment of workers. There were still almost daily picket line battles between strikers and armed scabs and RIC. Many union members were still being injured and arrested. After 16 year-old Alice Brady was murdered in December angry strikers caught a revolver carrying strike breaker and beat him to death. Another was thrown into the Liffey
The defeat of the ITGWU in the lockout resulted in severe consequences for labour in Ireland. Solidarity and blacking were gone and unskilled workers fell back into apathy and demoralisation and the organisation collapsed around the country, holding just 5,000 members at years end.
Hits of 1913:
‘You made me love you’
‘Hello! Hello! Who’s your lady friend’
‘He’d have to get under, get out and get under’