January 1914
Pearse is sworn in to the I.R.B. by Bulmer Hobson.
Pearse went on a lecture tour in the US to raise funds for St. Enda’s. There he met many of the Irish - American Fenians particularly John Devoy.
John Devoy by this stage was growing older, more grizzled and slightly deaf.
‘..A batchelor wed only to his work, snappy as a New York cabdriver, tough as a cop, wily as a Philadelphia lawyer, he lived in a seedy hotel on 14th Street. He had no friends, only allies. As the years passed, he became ever more autocratic and scurrilous. His stock reply to the query ‘why?’ was a papal, ‘Goddammit, cos I say so’. His favourite expletive was, ‘Whoreson!’ and when he got annoyed he threw down his hat and stamped on it until he felt better. His entire working day from sunrise to beyond sunset ws spent in the dusty offices of the Gaelic American, next to a noisy railroad, writing letters, articles, checking copy, stoking in every conceivable way his hatred for England...thirty years before he had prophesied in a speech in Holyoke, Massachusetts, ‘Ireland’s opportunity will come when England is engaged in a desperate struggle with some great European power or European combination..’
Peter de Rossa. Rebels, the Irish Rising of 1916. Bantam Press, London. 1990. p36
Pearse commenting on the Gaelic League said: “…it will be recognised in history as the most revolutionary influence that has ever come into Ireland. The Irish Revolution really began when the seven proto-Gaelic Leaguers met in O’Connell Satreet. Their deed of 1893 made out deed of 1913 possible. The germ of all future Irish history was in that backroom…”
Sir Roger Casement’s lobbying of the German, Hamburg-Amerika Line, produced some results when they announced that the steamer Rhaetia would leave Hamburg on January 17th and call at Queenstown three days later. However Foreign Office pressure from England resulted in the cancelation of this first contact.
In Dublin, striking dockers and seamen were told there would be no more strike pay, and a gradual return to work took place throughout the city. The Inchichore works of the Dublin United Tramway Company opened on January 19th after a closure of nearly five months.
In Tracton, Michael Lynch as the I.R.B. Centre organised with John and William O’Brien a company of Irish Volunteers. "There were about 50 men in the company until the Volunteer split in September 1914."
Statement by Michael Lynch – part of application for Military Service Pension Certificate, December 1935. Lynch Archives.
1. London – Lloyd George calls the arms build up in Europe as ‘organised insanity’
8: London – Doctors at the Middlesex Hospital announced that they had succesfully treated cancer with radium. However the process had been trialled earlier by John Joly (1857-1933) at Dr. Steeven’s Hospital, Dublin by Dr Walter Clegg Stevenson.
10: Japan – over 9 million people starving in the north-east of the country.
Carson stressed in a letter to Asquith that the exclusion of Ulster was essential in the Home Rule debate. Dublin was to have no legislative powers in the province and no MPs would be sent to Dublin, instead remaining at Westminster.
15: Ulster: Andrew Bonar Law, Tory Opposition Leader warned that ‘We are inevitably drifting to civil war’ saying that there will eb bloodshed if the government persists with Home Rule for Ireland and added ‘We have given a pledge that if Ulster resits we will suport her’ and caled for another general election.
18: A closed session of the ITGWU adopts Connolly’s proposal that workers return to work if not obliged to take a pledge.
The Geiger counter invented by Hans Geiger detected the passage of a single sub-atomic particle.
19: The Inchichore works of the Dublin United Tramway Company opens after 5 months as carters and labourers return to work.
20: Carson convened a meeting in Belfast to discuss the arms question for the Ulster Volunteers. 90,000 members and not enough rifles to arm the force. The proposal by Major Fred Crawford to buy at least 20,000 rifles and 2 million rounds of ammunition in Hamburg and smuggle them back to Ulster was considered and approved. Carson leaving James Craig in charge.
27: Britain’s man in Washington, Sir Cecil Spring-Rice reported that the unresolved Irish question gave American anglophobes a convenient base for their hostility: ‘..an unfriendly feeling exists in this country against England, that a great interest is excited by Irish affairs, and that American unfriendliness to England may and most probably will have serious results should affairs in Ireland become worse’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p27
30:
Larkin in a speech in Dublin at the end of the Lock Out ‘ We are beaten. We will make no bones about it; but we are not too badly beaten still to fight’
31: The Builders Labourers Union of some 3,000 members, promises employers that members will not join or support the ITGWU.
February 1914
1
The Great Lockout was near to collapse and the Citizen Army dwindled according to Sean O’Casey..” to no more than a single skeleton company” . Workers were drifting back to their jobs after some 22 weeks.
The Irish Times reported that no strike pay was being doled out from Liberty Hall and that two loaves of bread for each applicant was all that could be mustered.
2: John Redmond as leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party faced a growing challenge from the Irish Volunteers to his leadership and in an attempt to secure Home Rule he was willing to concede on Ulster. Meeting with Asquith he received assurances that the P.M. ‘..and his colleagues were all firmly opposed to the exclusiong of Ulster, or any part of Ulster, even temporaily’ from the operation of Home Rule.
Asquith, however was increasing the pressure on Redmond and revealed that the Tories were ‘recklessly plotting’ to obstruct the passage of the army annual bill unless they were assured that the army was not going to be used against Ulster. The army annual bill was passed each year, and failure would mean the Government would be unable to pay or control the armed forces. Asquith implied that such a crisis would result in a general election which the Tories would probably win and set back Home Rule for ‘many years’. Asquith recalled that Redmond ‘shivered visibly and was a good deal preturbed when told the news’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p240
Lloyd George in a Cabinet memorandum recommended the immediate passage of the Home Rule Bill with the proviso that parts of Ulster could postpone the operation of Home Rule until after a general election. This included a refinement that became known as the ‘county option’ in that if 10% of the voters in any Irish county demanded it, that county could opt out of Home Rule for a as yet to be determined number of years. At the end of that period, the country would automatically be incorporated under a Dublin Parliament unless Westminster decided otherwise. This plan became the foundation of the Liberal Government thinking, replacing Asquith’s earlier preference for some form of ‘Home Rule within Home Rule’.
Durnovo (Russian State Council member) writes memo to Tsar regarding Russian role in war against Germany; assumes that Britain wouldn't be able to help much and territorial gains wouldn't be worthwhile and predicted a war would lead to social revolution
3
The Irish Times reminded it's readers of the underlying causes of the Lockout ‘The brooding discontents which exploded in the mad attempt to ‘hold up’ Dublin gathered force and volume in the pestilential athmosphere of the Dublin slums…it is a cynical commentary on our social sense that we needed the stimulus of the strike to realise the squalor and misery which, in the last analysis, produced it.’
The Irish Times Book of The Century. Fintan O’Toole. Gill & Macmillan 1999. p50
4:
Joseph Devlin, MP for West Belfast and leader of the Ulster Nationalists made an offer – originally suggested by Horace Plunkett – to allow Ulster ‘to claim exclusion after, say, ten years if her representatives were not satisfied with their treatment in the Irish Parliament.’. Devlin also suggested an offer of additional representation for Ulster in a Dublin Parliament.
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p240
Suffragettes burn two Scottish mansions.
5:
Diarmuid Lynch and Thomas ` left Dublin for America on a years fund raising drive for the Gaelic League and secretly for Diarmuid to attend the biennial Clan na Gael convention as the IRB representative and where he was to report to the Revolutionary Directory on the state of the home organisation.
This report from an unknown newspaper:
‘This evening..Messrs. Diarmuid Lynch and Thomas Aghas ( Thomas Ashe ), two prominent advocates of the language movement, will leave Dublin en-route for America for the purpose of raising funds on behalf of the organisation. Other prominent Gaelic Leaguers will follow in the course of a few weeks, and the mission will extend over a period of twelve months, during which interval it has been arranged to visit every State in the Union.
The second party of delegates will consist of Mr.Fionan Mac Coluim, Miss Nellie Ni Brian ( O’Brien ), and Miss Eithne O’Kelly. Their work will consist principally of conducting Irish industries and art exhibitions in connection with which Miss O’Brien will also lecture and accept subscriptions. Thomas Ashe and Diarmuid Lynch will deliver lectures, address public meetings, interview prominent Irishmen and people of Irish descent, and collect funds throughout the States.They are taking with them a very fine collection of lantern slides, and will commence operations in New York , where Mr. Lynch has been for ten years identified with the language movement until hsi return to the country three or four years ago.
Thomas Aghas, who is a native of Lispole, Dingle, Co. Kerry, has been working for the Gaelic League in Dublin since 1908. He has been a city member of the Coisde Gnotha for the past four years, and has been one of the most active and progressive members of that body since his connection with it.He is a good vocalist, has a splendid collection of traditional Irish songs, and is an accomplished piper.
Diarmuid Lynch is a native of the parish of Tracton, Co. Cork, and for the past three years has been a most usefull member of the Coisde ( cnoiste ) Gnotha, on which he represents the Gaelic League of America. He was President of the Gaelic League for a number of years in the State of New York and was in touch with all the leading men in that city. With regard to the other members, the delegation who are to follow, will leave within the next three weeks...’
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
An unknown paper also reported their departure:
A large number of friends met last evening at the Gresham Hotel to wish Messrs Lynch and Ashe a plesant journey and every success in their efforts. Dr. Douglas Hyde, speaking on behlaf of the Gaelic League, said their delegates were to confine themselves entirely to the work of the League while in the States. They had a great work before them, and be, on behalf of those present, and on behalf of the Gaelic League throughout Ireland, wished them every success in their undertaking…Mr Lynch on behalf od Mr Ashe and himselef, suitably replied and promised they would do their utmost to make the result of their efforts in the States worthy of the cause for which they had been selected ( applause ). The delegates left Dublin by the 6:10 train from Kingsbridge and were accorded a most enthuastic send off…’
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
Diarmuid was not only fundraising for the Gaelic League but also was representing the IRB in Ireland at the biennial Clan na Gael conference.
The ‘Irish American’ took up the news of their arrival in America:
“Messrs Jeremiah Lynch and Thomas Ashe, delgates from the Gaelic League, have been very cordially received in the United States. The intention of the delegates is to tour the country and deliver lectures on the work of the Gaelic League, the proceeds to be devoted to the Language Fund. Mr. Lynch is well known and deservedly popular among the Irish of New York. The ‘Irish American’ recalls that he was President of the Philo-Celtic Society for a number of years, and it was through his untiring exertions that it became a force for good in the city. Mr. Ashe ( continued our contemporary ) has been for many years one of the most untiring, unselfish workers in the movement in Dublin. He is a member of the governing body of the League, and has done quite a considerable amount of public speaking at meetings throughout the country’
Irish American - February (?) 1914. - Lynch Family Archives.
While Lynch and Ashe were en-route fundraising, Major Crawford visited Sir Edward Carson in London to enusre his support in gun-running for the Ulster Volunteers. Funds had been raised by Lord Milner from amongst his wealthy associates. Rudyard Kipling gave £30,000, Lord Iveagh, Rotschild and the Duke of Bedford also contributed large sums. The overall cost of Crawford’s expedition would be some £60-70,000.
7: The first issue of Irish Volunteer appears. Pearse in an article wrote: ‘The Gaelic League will be recognised in history as the most revolutionary influence that has ever come into Ireland. The Irish revolution really began when the seven proto-Gaelic Leaguers met in O’Connell Street…the germ of all future Irish history was in that back room’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p32
9:
Connolly writing in Forward on the workers defeat in the Dublin lock-out ‘And so we Irish workers must again go down into hell, bow our backs to the lash of the slave driver, let our hearts be seared by the iron of his hatred, and instead of the sacramental wafer of brotherhood and common sacrificie, eat the dust of defeat and betrayal. Dublin is isolated.
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p32
11:
Carson as Ulster Unionist Leader to John Redmond in a House of Commons debate on Home Rule: ‘I say to the leader of the Nationalist Party, if you want Ulster, go and take her, or go and win her. You have never wanted her affections, you have wanted her taxes.
British TUC winds up it’s Dublin Relief Fund.
Concern was growing that Catholics in Derry were about to suffer an Orange pogrom and Colonel Moore was sent northwards to organise the Irish Volunteers in the region. Moore, a retired British army officer offered his services when the Volunteers were formed, becoming the Inspector General.
14:
An enquiry into housing conditions in Dublin was published, finding some 28,000 Dubliners living in houses unfit for human inhabitation. The report also went on to name three members of Dublin Corporation who owned some of these slum properties and ‘ were deriving rents from overcrowded, insanitary tenements’.
17:
With the defeat of Irish American moves to have tolls for American ships using the Panama Canal reduced to zero, Britain’s rather nervous ambassador in the US, Cecil Spring Rice, wrote to William Tyrell, secretary to the Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey. He observed that Irish American strenght in the US was declining ‘The Irish vote is not as well organised or as important as it was, mainly because the immigration has slackened and the Irishman becomes an American after two generations.’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p29
21:
Pearse in the US on a fund raising mission for St. Enda’s met with Hobson, Joe McGarrity and John Devoy in the offices of the 'Gaelic American', New York. Hobson brought a document from Casement dealing with possible Irish attitudes to Germany in event of war. Pearse remained in the US until May, and addressed the Emmet Commorations in Brooklyn and Manhattan, later falling ill in Philadelphia and staying with McGarrity.
25: Belfast – The UVF claimed to have 100,000 armed men.
26: New aviation passenger record set with Igor Sikorsky carrying 17 passsengers in a twin engined aircraft, Russia.
Brittanic launched from Harland & Wolff, sister ship to the Olympic and Titanic and was at the time, the largest ship built in the UK. ( sunk in the Agean Sea in 1914 )
Ernest Henry Shackleton set sail for Antartica aboard the Endurance with the aim of crossing the Antartic from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. ( > January 1915 )
March 1914
Gellingnite taken from Kynock’s Explosives Factory near Arklow, Co. Wicklow and some 4,000 rounds of .303 ammunition ‘aquired’ from troops stationed on the Curragh were stored and distibuted by Liam Mellows, Jospeh Plunkett and de Valera.
The Lusitania broke its last speed record in March 1914 on a voyage from New York to Liverpool. The outbreak of World War One meant that the role of the ship was about to change. Upon arrival in the Mersey the Admiralty decided that they did not need the ship as an armed merchant cruiser but they paid for the ship to remain at Liverpool at their disposal. The Lusitania made two trips between Liverpool and New York during October 1914 and then began a monthly service on this route. In order to save on coal and labour six of the ship's boilers were closed down and its maximum speed reduced to 21 knots.
From Neil McCart “ Atlantic Liners of the Cunard Line from 1884 to the Present Day “ - PSL, 1993.
1: Bishop McHugh called off a pro Home Rule rally in Derry following representations from John Redmond that it could lead to possible disorder. ‘The rights and interests of the nationalists of Ulster will not be neglected or betrayed by us’ John Redmond in letter to Bishop McHugh.
2:
Redmond met with Asquith and Lloyd George and took the fateful step of conceeding the principle of exclusion, agreeing to the ‘county option’ proposal that certain Ulster counties had the right to ‘opt for remaining outside the jurisdiction of the Irish Parliament…for three years covering the period when a general election must take place.’
‘The three year exclusion was a cyncial bait for the nationalists,and foredoomed to rejection by the Tories.’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p240
Joseph Devlin shortly afterwards lobbied Catholic bishops and other influential people in Ulster to support the three year exclusion.
The King wrote to Asquith protesting that ‘I must confess that I have grave fears that the proposed limit…will not be acceptable to Ulster. This will make Sir Edward Carson’s position an almost impossible one…’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p240
In New York at the Emmet Commemoration, Patrick Pearse said ‘Today, Ireland is once again organising, once more learning the noble trade of arms. There is again in Ireland the murmur or a marching and talk of guns and tactics’
Florence O’Donoghue. ‘Thomas MacCurtain – Soldier & Patriot’ Anvil Books, Tralee, Co. Kerry. 1971. p.32
He also said ‘I can only speak for myself when I say that before this generation has passed, the Volunteers will draw the sword for Ireland…I do not know how nationahood is achieved except by armed men.’
Royal Commission created to investigate condition of the RIC. Witness after witness told of the anxiety’which permeated the constabulary about their place in Irish society and their fears for the future..'
Peter Hart ‘The IRA & It's Enemies – Violence and Community in Cork 1916-1923’ Oxford University Press 1998. p3
4: British Anti-Home Rule Covenant launched.
Asquith now deputed Chief Secretary Birrell to tell Redmond that the three year county option must be extended. Redmond reluctantly agreed to an intial five years, then under some pressure from Asquith, to six years. Asquith argued that six years was essential to ensure that a general election would intervene before the opted-out counties were automatically included in a Dublin based Parliament, in that any new Government could halt the process and so make the exclusion permanent. This exclusion proposal would not be built into the Home Rule Bill, but into a separate amending bill, so that if the amending bill were rejected, Home Rule could still go ahead.
In New York, Diarmuid wrote to Michael, Dan and Tim Lynch at home in Granig. Michael’s postcard was a panoramic tinted view of New York: ‘My Dear Michael. Terrible weather here since we arrived. Everybody has the ‘poor mouth’. Business has been rotten during the past year. New York has changed wonderfully in seven years. I’m sick of it already & thank God I’m not here to stay. I hope Mama & all are well.’
Dan’s postcard was The Woolworth Building & City Hall ‘Wonderful built up here – BUT! ( Note the capitals).’
Tim’s was the Flatiron building ‘This building was here in my time. Plenty evidence of wealth but money is so hard to get as in Ireland.’
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
6: Belfast – the Union defence League issues 400,000 forms to be signed by ‘anyone opposing Home Rule’.
A delegation of Ulster suffragettes traveled to London for an unscheduled meeting with Carson. Outraged that he had reneged on earlier promises to them, they camped on his doorstep over the weekend, finally admitting them on Monday to inform tat he could not introduce votes for women as his colleagues disagreed on the issue.
7: Diarmuid Lynch, Judge Cohalan and other senior Clan Members were present at a meeting in Gaelic League Heqdquarters building, New York.
Around this time, Michael Lynch organised companies of Irish Volunteers ( with assistance from Cork City Headquarters ) at Passage West, Carrigaline, Shanbally, Ballygarvan, Riverstick & Ballinhassig. Already Company Captain of the Tracton Company, these seven companies comprised Battalion IX (Cork County) with a total strenght of 350 men. Michael was appointed Battalion Commandant.
Statement by Michael Lynch – part of application for Military Service Pension Certificate, December 1935. Lynch Archives.
9: Asquith moved the second reading of the final circuit of the Home Rule Bill when the proposal was adopted that ‘any Ulster county might, by a majority of its parliamentary electors, vote itself out of the operation of the Bill for six years’. In this period of time of course there could be another general election, perhaps on the issue of Home Rule. Both the Tories and Unionists rejected the proposal outright, with Carson declaring: “ Ulster wants this question settled now and for ever. We do not want sentence of death, with a stay of execution for six years”. But admitted that the principle of exclusion had now been recognised. Irish American leaders saw the proposal of temporary exclusion of Ulster as a calamitious concession rather than wise compromise.
To many nationalists in Ireland the US, Redmond’s concession of exclusion signalled irreperable damage to both the Irish Nationalist Party and to Irish nationalism. Irish Americans held protest meetings at the ‘dismemberment of the Island’. A growing dis-satisfaction with Redmond’s leadership of the Irish Parliamentary Party began even as the party supporters organised resolutions suporting the exclusion proposal.
Irish Nationalists were disgusted with Redmond’s handling of the principle of exclusion and through it, partition. The ‘Irish Freedom’ newspaper commented that ‘If this nation is to go down, let it go down gallantly as becomes it’s history, let it go down fighting, but let it not sink into the abjectness of carving a slice out of itself and handing it over to England.’
11:
Police reports from Ulster indicated that UVF had an estimate of 80,000 men and 17,000 weapons and rumoured to be planning raids on arms depots throughout the province. The Government quickly formed a small cabinet sub-committee to examine and verify these rumours of possible armed insurrection on the part of the Unionists. Included in this committee were Colonel J.E.B.Seely, a veteran of the Boer War and somewhat flamboyant Secretary for War and Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty. The same day, Churchill ordered the Third Battle Squadron to hold exercises off the coast of Ulster. The Government had begun a show of force to prevent any possibility of an armed, Unionist uprising in Ulster.
Arthur Griffith’s ‘Sinn Fein’ newspaper argued strongly against partition: ‘The best thing Ireland can do…is to make it manifest that no partition of Ireland, disguised as Home Rule, will be quietly submitted to…Irish nationalism is baded on the indissoluble unity of the whole people of this island in one community..’
12
Lenin writing in Put Pravdy ‘Lord Carson has threatened rebellion and has organised armed Black Hundred gangs for this purpose. This is an empty threat of course. There can be no question of rebellion by a handful of hooligans.’
14:
Colonel Seely sent the Commander in Chief in Ireland,General Sir Arthur Paget, a letter of instruction for specific preparations to be taken for guarding weapons depots throughout Ulster and specifically Armagh, Omagh, Carrickfergus and Enniskillen as these were regarded as insufficiently protected. General Paget in turn advised his reluctance to send troops from the Curragh into Ulster and was hurried back to London to consult with the Army Council and the Cabinet Committee on the 18th and 19th March.
Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty in a speech at Bradford said there were worse things than bloodshed even on an extended scale… ‘They [Ulster Unionists] denounce all violence except their own…if all the loose, wanton and reckless chatter is in the end to disclose a sinister and revolutionary purpose then if the Government and the Parliament of this great country and greater Empire are to be exposed to menance and brutality…then I can only say to you, let us go forward and put these grave matters to the proof.’
Not surprisingly, Churchill’s words were interpreted as a declaration of war on Ulster.
16:
Joseph Caillaux's wife buys a Browning automatic pistol in the morning and late that afternoon shoots Gaston Calmette the editor of Le Figaro; Cailloux resigns his political post in the Cabinet; Calmette dies that evening
The striking workers - last group to accept defeat and return to work were the women of Jacobs who held out till mid-March.
17:
The special committee appointed by the British Cabinet, recommended moving troops into camps in both southern Ireland and England to reinforce the guards stationed at Ulster armouries and weapons depots. The First Lord of the Admiralty also undertook to send several additional destroyers to Ireland. Bonar Law viewed these developments with some alarm and called for a vote of censure against the Government for turning Ulster into a ‘new Poland’.
18:
General Paget met with General French, Chief of the Imperial General Staff and Colonel Seely and was ordered to send 2 batallions of infantry into Ulster and to move a third from Belfast to “a safer location”. Armagh, Omagh, Carrickfergus, Enniskillen, Dundalk and Newry were to be reinforced. The General advised that such a movement of troops might create a ‘disturbance’ in Ulster and that the majority of officers, being Unionist, may object to taking part in operations against their “brother Unionists”.
‘Any such move of troops, would create intense excitement in Ulster, and possibly precipitate a crisis. For these reasons I do not conside myself justified in moving troops’ General Sir Arthur Paget.
General French, well known as intensely Unionist, returned from his meeting and told General Wilson, Director of Military Operations at the War office that the Government proposed..
”..to spray troops all over Ulster as if it were a Pontypool coal strike’, ..Wilson reported every word to Bonar Law & Edward Carson..” Maj Gen Sir CE Callwell. Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson. London 1927.
Meanwhile, both London and Dublin were buzzing with rumours of an army clamp down in Ulster, imposition of martial law, and warrants for the arrest of Carson and other Ulster Unionist leaders. A Motion of Censure against the Government was set down for the following day.
19:
Churchill and Col. Seely agreed that any officers ‘.domiciled in Ulster would be exempted from taking part in any operations that might take place. They would be permitted to disapear and when all was over would be allowed to resume thie place without their career or position being affected’ but that all others would have to accept orders or face summary dismissal and courts martial.
Churchill ordered naval movements around Ireland. Two warships were sent from Bantry Bay to the north-east. The 3rd Battle Squadron were ordered from Spain to proceed to Scotland’s west coast, some 60 miles from Belfast.
That afternoon in parliament, Carson, primed with confidential information from the dinner table conversations with French, accused the Government of attempting to provoke an insurection in Ulster and left the house to catch the 5.55pm mail train to Belfast. It was generally supposed that he had gone to set up his Provisional Government in Ulster, but had done so to avoid possible arrest. Also on the train was General Paget, returning to Dublin.
20:
General Paget summoned his senior officers in Ireland to a conference where they were appraised of the current situation in Ulster, advised of the Government’s orders and informed of the concession for officers with families in Ulster and said the rest must let him know whether they would prefer to do their duty or accept dismissal.
On their return to the base and training camp at the Curragh, Brigadier General Sir Hubert Gough, three Colonels and 55 Officers ( out of 70 ) in the elite 3rd Cavalry Regiment decided they would accept dismissal rather than move against loyalist Ulster.
“ Cavalary officers, it was generally considered, were not among the brightest members of His Majesties Armed Forces...but they were socially among the smartest; in those weeks Unionist and Liberal Hostesses had been vying with one another in what was called ‘war to the knife and fork’ and the connection between the Curragh mutiny... and the squabbles of privildged society was all too soon being made.”
George Dangerfield “The Damnable Question” Constable London. 1977. P85.
60 Infantry officers offered to resign as well.
However, two infantry batallions left for the North as ordered as did news of the cavalary mutiny to the War Office.
Paget reported to the War Office ‘Officers commanding 5th Lancers states that all officers, except two and one doubtful, are resigning their commisisions today. I much fear same conditions in the 16th Lancers. Fear men will refuse to move. Regert to report Brigadier-General Gough and 57 officers 3rd Cavalry Brigade prefer to accept dismissal if ordered North’
Carson, now in Craigavon, reported at once to Bonar Law. He said that he found the city:
“‘..very excited’ that troops were reported on the move everywhere, and that the Government ‘are under the impression that our people are going to take action - or it may be that they desire to provoke an outbreak. It is all a strange message of peace and really one would have thought it impossible in a country like ours.’ One cannot mistake the note of despondency in this letter. Carson was beginning to loose his taste for adventure; to his negative mind and armed outbreak was more useful as a threat than as a fact, and so, for that matter, was a Provisional Givernment”
George Dangerfield “The Damnable Question” Constable London. 1977. P89.
21:
All the morning newspapers carried the news. Asquith only disovered the same morning that part of the fleet had been ordered exercise off the coast of Ireland and countermanded Churchill’s order. A mass meeting in Hyde Park protested against any attempt to use British Forces in Ulster. Both Colonel Seely and Sir John French, Chief of the Imperial General Staff resigned their positions. However, the damage had been done. An impression had been created that the armed forces of the Crown could not be relied upon to do their duty.
Sir Herbert Gough and Sir Henry Wilson were ordered back to London where they met with the Secretary of State for War, Colonel J.E.B. Seely and managed to extract from him, a commitment that the Government would not seek to use the army to supress political opposition to the policy or principles of Home Rule. When the PM got wind of this, he was understandbly furious and demanded the resignations of Seely and both generals. Asquith ran the war office for the next four months commenting that ‘the army will hear nothing of politics from me and in return I expect to hear nothing of politics from the army.’
Thomas Hachey ‘Britain and Irish Separatism’. Rand McNally College Publishing. New York 1977. p 88-9
22:
Against the background of rumours and mutiny, a meeting was held in Liberty Hall to reorganise the Irish Citizen Army. From its foundation in November 1913, it had dwindled to ‘a single skeleton company’. The new Irish Citizen Army council had Capt White as Chairman, with honorary secretary, Sean O’Casey whose constitution was accepted and ratified. It’s vice chairman ranged from Jim Larkin to the pacifist Sheey-Skeffington. The Constitution was revised to read :
“ ..the first and last principle..that the ownership of Ireland, moral and material, is vested in the people of Ireland.’
R.M.Henry. The Evoloution of Sinn Fein. Dublin 1920. p193.
On March 22nd 1914 a general meeting of workers was held in Liberty Hall to reorganise the Citizen Army The following proposed constitution was unanimously accepted by the meeting;
1. That the first and last principle of the Irish Citizen Army is the avowal that the ownership of Ireland, moral and material, is vested of right in the people of Ireland.
2. That the Irish Citizen Army shall stand for the absolute unity of Irish nationhood and shall support the rights and liberties of the democracies of all nations.
3. That one of its objects shall be to sink all differences of birth, property and creed under the common name of the Irish people.
4. That the Citizen Army shall be open to all who accept the principle equal rights and opportunities for the Irish people.
5. Before being enrolled, every applicant must, if eligible, be a member of his Trades Union, such Union to be recognised by the Irish Trades Union Congress.
A Provisional Committee was elected consisting of:
Chairman: Captain White, D.S.O.
Vice-chairmen: Jim Larkin, P.T. Daly, Councillor W. Partridge, Thomas Foran, F. Sheehy-Skeffington.
Hon. Secretary: Sean O'Cathasaigh.
Hon. Treasurers: Richard Brannigan, Constance Markievicz.
The drilling of the reorganised Citizen Army was also to be taken more seriously. Three battalions were formed, the City Battalion, the North County Battalion and the South County Battalion. Training was held twice a week in Croydon Park. Uniforms were ordered from Arnotts which the members had to pay for themselves. A distinctive feature of the uniform was the big slouch hat pinned up at one side by the ITGWU's red hand badge. In the enthusiasm generated by the reorganisation attempts were made to extend the army around the country. A manifesto was sent to various Labour bodies in Cork, Belfast, Derry, Sligo, Limerick, Kilkenny, Waterford, Dundalk, Galway and Wexford, but no success was had in organising outside Dublin. Companies were set up in areas surrounding Dublin such as Clondalkin, Lucan, Swords, Finglas Coolock etc
The British Government, faced with a potentially growing mutiny, announced it had no intention of coercing Ulster and plans for sending troops were abandoned.
However there existed an antipathy between the Citizen Army and the Volunteers:
‘..this antipathy was quite mutual; it was a difference between lower middle class and proletariat, between stout and porter; and MacNeill had even been known to remark that the ‘Volunteers had no need of an organisation that had recently been in conflict with the police”
George Dangerfield. “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” ( Constable, London. 1977) p.153
Sean O’Casey wasn’t exactly delighted with the Irish Volunteers either. He had seen how Kettle had attempted to oust trade unionists from the city;s power station and after all, didn’t his father and former Parnellite, Adnrew Kettle, employe non-union labour on his farm? O’Casey had also broken with Bulmer Hobson because of the I.R.B’s lack of interest to become involved in a socialist class struggle and so saw the Citizen Army as an independnt working class contribution to the national struggle.
Griffith through his editorials pointed out that Ireland had paid ‘for the Home Rule in eight years of slavish support of the Liberal party in meek aquisence in increased taxation and prohibited trade…who on the side of sanity believes that England six years hence would use force to compel Ulster to do what it will not compel it to do now?…this Bill if passed into law on the basis of the exclusion of part of the island will accentuate those fatal divisions which have kept Ireland poor and impotent.’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P165
23:
War Minister Colonel J.E.B. Seely sanctioned the reinstatement of officers that rebelled at the Curragh and announced ‘His Majesties Government must retain the right to use all the forces of the Crown in Ireland to maintain law and order and to support the civil power in the ordinary execution of its duty. But they have no intention whatever of taking advantage of this right to crush political opposition to the policy or principles of the Home Rule Bill.’
There was a succesful test mobilisation of the Ulster Volunteers throughout the province. The entire force was ready in less than 5 hours before being stood down.
The Army and Ulster
from The Irish Times 23 March 1914
Grave Crisis at the Curragh
The story I now relate is one of supreme importance in the history of Ireland, and especially in its relation to the present political crisis. I will state what has actually happened as clearly and concisely as possible, and readers may form their own conclusions from the narrative. The facts can be relied on as being substantially correct.
On Thursday night instructions were conveyed to the Commander-in-Chief in Ireland to carry out certain movements of troops to Ulster, and other precautionary measures, details of which had previously been agreed upon by a conference at the War Office, to which Sir Arthur Paget was specially invited. It was then known that a certain number of officers would decline service in Ulster, but the exact numbers and positions were not accurately known. To meet this difficulty it was tentatively agreed that any officer whose domicile was in Ulster should not be asked to accompany his regiment there, and that he would be given the option of resigning his commission or of requesting prolonged leave, which it was agreed upon would be granted in exceptional circumstances, and for just cause shown. To give effect to this decision what has been generally described as an ultimatum was sent out by the War Office to all the officers in Ireland on Thursday night, asking them to state definitely if, under certain contingencies, they would be willing to serve in Ulster, and, should they be unwilling to do so, to send in their papers within twelve hours. The sending in of papers, of course, involved dismissal from the Army, and the forfeiture of all right to pension. In a word, the officer sending in his papers ruins his career, and places himself entirely at the mercy of the War Office.
Circulars Received at the Curragh
These circulars were received at the Curragh on Friday morning, and after roll-call and morning parade, the officers of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade, which comprises the 4th Hussars and 16th Lancers, were addressed by the officer in command, Brigadier-General H. De la Poer Gough, C.B., who, in a short address to his colleagues, explained the position of affairs, and asked them to consider carefully how they should act. The officers, with practical unanimity, promptly stated that they would decline service in Ulster. This involved the sending in of papers, and the decision was at once conveyed to the Commander-in-Chief at headquarters in Dublin. Sir Arthur Paget immediately got into communication with the authorities at Whitehall, which explains the unusual bustle which occurred there on Friday night, and kept the heads of Departments, together with Colonel Seely and Mr Winston Churchill, in conference to the early hours of Saturday morning. Though the War Office were fully cognisant of the serious turn of events at the Curragh on Friday night, it was not expected that the officers' papers would reach Whitehall before this (Monday) morning ...
War Office Changes Its Attitude
A different attitude was adopted by the War Office on Saturday morning. Early in the day there was a prolonged conference between Sir Arthur Paget and the officers of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade stationed at the Curragh, as well as representatives of the officers of the 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers, a portion of the same Brigade, stationed at the Marlborough Barracks, Dublin (almost all of whom have also formally handed in their papers). The conference was held in the Fire Brigade Station of the Curragh Camp, the entrances to which were specially guarded with double sentries. The greatest secrecy prevails as to what actually took place, and the officers present at the conference stated at the close that they were in honour bound not to disclose the nature of the proceedings, but did not deny that matters had taken a nasty and unexpected turn. From information subsequently elicited from quarters which can be regarded as perfectly reliable, it seems that the Commander-in-Chief intimated that the War Office would not accept the resignation of the officers as a body, but were prepared to accede to the applications of two individual officers, the position in regard of the other officers being that their requests to be relieved of their commission not being granted, it would be a personal matter with each officer whether he would obey the command to go to Ulster or not.
The Officers' Decision
These terms were considered at length by the officers. It was intimated that the movement of troops to the North was largely a precautionary measure, and that the outbreak of actual hostilities was extremely unlikely. The new conditions having been considered by the officers, it was agreed that they would lead their men to Ulster for the purpose of making a demonstration, performing what may be called police duty, or protecting Government property, but that under no conditions would they order their men to fire on the Ulster loyalists. This decision was at once conveyed to Whitehall. . . .
Labour MP John Ward furiously criticsed the Government’s apparent capitulation to Gough and his colonels:
‘This debate is the best illustration that we workmen have ever had in this House that all the talk about their being one and the same law for the rich and the poor is all a miserable hypocrisy. Hon. Gentlemen belonging to the wealthyc lasses have no more intenton of obeying the law that is against their interests that they have of flying to the moon’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p247
‘Dubliners’ by James Joyce was finally published by the firm Grant Richards. The book had been rejected by 22 publishers as Joyce would not allow any changes to his book of 15 short stories ‘which depict Dublin in its most sordid light’. In a letter to Bennet Cerf, Joyce described what happened after his book was published: ‘…when at last it was printed, some very kind person bought out the entire edition and had it burnt in Dublin – a new and private ‘auto-da-fe’ [ burning of a heretic ]’
24
Labour MP John Ward continued his attack on the Government in the House of Commons and read out a syndicalist manifesto addressed to British troops:
‘Often you are called upon to fire on unarmed and defencless crowds of men and women. You are asked to do so in order that your own flesh and blood may be bought and sold cheap that others may be rich. We therefore ask you to now resolve that from this day forward, you will never fire a shot against your own class, that you will follow the example of the generals and other officers in Ireland who have refused to take risks against their class interests.
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p247
Naturally, the Liberals enthuastically supported such speeches with much sysmpathy coming from the army rank and file.
25
Brigadier-General Hubert Gough, Commander of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade at the Curragh stated ‘I got a signed guarantee [ from the Government ] that in no circumstances shall we be used to force Home Rule on the Ulster people. If it came to civil war, I would fight for Ulster rather than against her.’
Gough prevented any attempts to secure the letter by lodging it with a solicitor and putting it in trust for his eldest daughter.
26
The Morning Post commenting on the Curragh Mutiny summed the situation up: ‘The Army has killed the Home Rule Bill’
The Irish Times commented ‘We congratulate the officers on their vindication. Especially do we congratulate General Gough, whose fearless and honourable conduct has added to the laurels of a great Irish family…all the blame rests on the Government.’
The Irish Times Book of The Century. Fintan O’Toole. Gill & Macmillan 1999. p67-8
Gough’s stand did win support throughout the officer class in the Britain and Ireland.
27
Casement in a letter to the Irish Independent: ‘..The ‘Union’ means the military occupation of Ireland as a conquered country, that the real headquarters of the Irish Government, on the Unionist principle, is the Curragh Camp…the cat is out of the Irish bag.’
The Irish people would now have to fact the fact that indpendence would not be granted to Ireland, it would have to be taken.
Suffragettes in Ulster opened a new phase in the campaign with widespread arson. Over the following 4 months, suffragettes burned down several large houses, a tea house, sports pavillion and a race stand. A bomb was expoded in Lisburn Cathederal which only resulted in some outraged town burghers attacking the house of a local sufferagette. Dorothy Evans and Maud Muir were arrested and charged with possesion of explosives.
31: T.D.Sullivan, editor of the Nation, Home Rule politician, founder of The Irish Catholic (1888) and author of ‘God Save Ireland’ dies.
Near the Baltic island of Langeland, the UVF rifles were transferred from a lighter than had carried them through the Kiel canal to the Fanny, Crawford’s aquired steamer. Danish authorities became suspicious and swooped on both vessels, removing their papers and ordered both to remain at anchor until first light.
April 1914
1: Before dawn, both the steamship Fanny and the German lighter left the area, paperless and in secret.
Diarmuid Lynch and Thomas Ashe signed an open letter to the Ancient Order of Hibernians on Gaelic League of Ireland headed paper, 624 Madison Avenue.
‘This year the Irish race celebrates the 900th anniversary of Brian Boru’s victory at Clontarf, which effectually broke the power of the foreign civilisation that then threatened the Irish nation. The Gaelic League means to mark the eventful anniversary by a strong aggressive move against the foreignism that in Ireland today threatens the very foundation of our distinctive nationality, and looks to the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America to take a leading part in supplying the sinews of war to those in the forefront of the fight.
The responsibility of preserving the Irish language – themost essential characteristic of the Irish Nation – rests on the men of today. Notable advances have been made by the Gaelic League, but much remains to be accomplished, and it is evident that of the language of our fathers is to be saved, the present generation of Irishmen must bestir themselves, and do their full duty.
The establishment of the Gaelic Chair in the Catholic University of Washington was a patiotic work of great significance. Irish Ireland appreciated that noble and generous act, and is not unmindful of the aid given by your order to the Language Movement at home.
The Gaelic League again appeals to the AOH, through us, it's Accredited Envoys at present in this country, to duplicate your generoud action of [ left blank ] years ago. The money on this occasion to be applied to preserving the language in the home of the Irish people. The material and moral effet of such a patriotic and practical decision would go far towards securing for the Ireland of the future it's national and natural continuity with the glorious civilisation of the past, and once more emphasize the importance of your Oranisation to the Irish Nation.
We trust that you fully apprecite the urgency of our request, and will take the necessary steps to have it favourably acted on at the coming Convention of your order.’
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
Listed on the letterhead : Treasurer for America – Justice Martin J Keogh, Chairman American Finance Committee – Justice Daniel F Cohalan and President: Douglas Hyde LL.D.
Another open letter, this time to other Irish American organisations:
‘We the undersigned Delegates from the Gaelic League in Ieland, solciit the financial support of our fellow countrymen generally in America, and of your society in particular, towards the saving of the Irish language.
Justice Daniel F Cohalan is chairman, and Justice Martin J. Keogh, Treasurer, of our American Finance Committee.
The camapign mapped out by us will extend over the entire United States and time amy not permit us to call in person at your meeting. However, juding from the hearty support promised to us already by Irish Socieities, we feel very confident that YOU will recognise the immense nationa value of your collective and individual support, and give unstintedly.
The Gaelic League is contesting a hard fight against the forces of Anglicisation where the battle for Irish nationhood can only be won, viz: at home in Ireland. Exactly 900 years ago Brian Borus expelled the Danes from the soil of Ireland, and we now appeal for your coperation in driving out the spirit of the newer foreignism and preserving intact our national characteristics. The question is one which affects every true son and daughter of the old land, and it is upto those who are far rmeoved from the scene of conflict to do THEIR part in financially aiding the League in tis propaganda.
We trust that you will see you r way to donate a sum of money from your Treasury, but especially request THE APPOINTMENT OF A COMMITTEE OF THREE to secure the individual support of your members in conjunction with our New York Card Committee. Kindly take the necessary steps at your next meeting, s the success of our mission depends largely on the promptness with which we can organise ech district.’
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
2: Cumman na mBan founded as the women’s counterpart to the Irish Volunteers.
In Yorkshire, over 140,000 miners were now on strike.
British actor, Sir Alec Guinness born.
4: London – a massive rally in Hyde Park protested against the potential use of British forces in Ulster. Carson condemned Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty as ‘the butcher of Belfast’ for putting the Third Battle Squadron on alert off Ulster. More serious effects were felt by the 70 army officers that resigned over the order to move into Ulster. Lord Hardinge, the Viceroy of India warned of serious consequences for British possesions overseas ‘unless the government makes peace with the army’
The US Liteary Digest writing on the tensions in Ulster ‘The old question of who shall rule Great Britain – royalty, artistocracy or democracy – is reopened by the revolt and resignation of army officers ordered to duty in Ulster, and their reinstatement by the King’s influence…the attempt to coerce Ulster, if there is one, is at a standstill…naturally the Unionists are exultant’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p24
Developments in Ulster and the British reaction were noted in detail on Whilhelmstrasse, Berlin – the Imperial German Armed Forces HQ. General von Bernhardt was certain that the the Irish situation would paralyse Britain ‘if it ever came to war with England’ and Field Marshall Conrad von Hotzendorff felt that the Ulster ciris would give him a free hand.
5: 100 women met at Wynns Hotel, Dublin for the inaugrual meeting of the Irish Women’s Council,soon to be known under it’s Irish title – Cumann na mBan. Four branches were formed in Dublin with more following countrywide. The men only Irish Volunteers had refused membership to women wishing to join. The auxilliary role of Cumman na mBan drew scathing criticism from suffragists. Hannah Sheehy Skeffington accused the new organisation as being merely ‘an animated collecting box for men’
6:
The O’Rahilly wrote to Devoy making an appeal to ‘the sincere Irish in America’ for funds to purchase arms and ammunition to equip the Irish Volunteers ‘it is our finances and not our organisation that are weak’. He believes that ‘never was such an opportunity in our time, and if we don’t grasp it, the next political development may destroy the chance’.
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P158
And ‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p31
The O’Rahilly added ‘If we are able to provide rifles etc for the men that we can rely on, there is nothing else to prevent us from creating an efficient army of, say, 200,000 Volunteers within a measurable period…it is the biggest movement of modern times…The wealthy Irish here [ in Ireland ] will not subscribe. They are intensively thick skulled, and are so bewildered by the complexity of political condisitons that they don’t even know which side they are on, to say nothing of appreciating the present opportunity…what I want is the purchase, anywhere, by anyone you like of a large quantity of workable equipment, standard in pattern, which can be retailed at popular prices’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 115
O’Rahilly’s letter prompted some intense discussion amongst the Irish American leaders as to what should be done, but caution rather than opportunism chacterised their reactions. After all, every organisation so far had been secretive, with oath bound members and private meetings and here was an open organisation, an entirely new concept.
Devoy responded by issuing a circular to leading Clan members outlining the Irish Volunteers objectives and needs and requesting their opinion whether the Clan should assist. Some replied that since the Ulster Volunteer Force now existed, determined to see off Home Rule by armed force if necessary, the arming of a rival force dedicated to achieving Home Rule would see civil war break out and that no funds should be given to the Volunteers in Dublin. Others believed that funds should be sent as one of the objectives of the Volunteers was to achieve freedom from British rule and one thought it likely that if the Clan did not give financial assistance, then a rival group would be formed in the US
The Home Rule Bill finsished it’s reading in the House of Commons.
Around this time, O’Rahilly received a letter from Mary Spring Rice, a cousin of the Volunteer organiser in Limerick, Conor O’Brien. In it she suggested a meeting to discuss the Volunteers on the 8th or 9th April.
On April 6th 1914 the Dublin Trades Council officially recognised The Irish Citizen Army.
9; London – after Suffragette attacks on artworks in the National Gallery, the British National Museum was attacked next.
O’Rahilly met with Mary Spring Rice who outlined her background connections with a small clique of London based Liberals and strong Home Rule supporters – the writer and sailor, Erskine Childers and historian, Alice Stopford Green. She also proposed a plan for importing rifles in a sailing vessel, mentioning there was a fishing boat lying unused at Foynes in Co.Limerick and that Childers was willing to organise the project. John Devoy was raised again as a possible source of armanaents and shipping them to the free port of Hamburg and leaving them up to the Irish connection to organise delivery to an Irish port. It’s unknown as to when it was agreed to include Childers, but he shortly made a visit to inspect the yacht in Foynes. There, he decided against using it due to the costs of making it seaworthy as well as being within view of the local RIC station.
Instead, Childers suggested using his own yacht, the Asgard.
New York: Delegates from 31 Irish organisations met at the Gaelic League Headquarters 624 Madison Avenue in what the Irish World termed ‘the most representative meeting of it's kind ever held in this city on behalf of the Gaelic League of Ireland.’
Justice Cohalan presided and remarked ‘that there are a great many questions upon which Irishmen and Irishwomen do nto exactly agree, but that there is one subject upon which there can be no question of division, and that is that Ireland sould be made in every way Irish. The purpose of the Gaelic League is to Irishize Ireland, to develop the old traditions, the old ideals, the old standards, and the old language of the race…he explained the necessity for rendering financial aid from the country to the men who are carrying on the fight at home and emphasised the fact that the money is to be sent to Ireland by the Finance Committee…with the understanding that it should be spent soley on the field staff of organiser and travellign teachers employed by the League. Furthermore that the policy of the League should be actively aggressive against the anti-National Boad of Education, and similar West-British institutions, and that the organisation should persistenly preach Irish nationalisty from it's platforms recognising the language as a means to an end. The business like programs mapped out by the Envoys received his warm approval, and he congratulated them on the succesful organisetion os such a representative and enthuastic meeting.’
Diarmuid Lynch acknowledged ‘the splendid reception which himself and his colleague Mr Ashe received from each and every Organisation when presenting the cause of the Gaelic League. He explained in detail the Plan of Campaign and of the most important features being the special Collection Cards issued. These cards are numbered, and officially signed and sealed. The committee from each Society is to take charge of the distribution of a number of cards among their own members…’
‘It was pointed out by Mr Lynch that each colector should have no difficulty in securing a minimum of $5 thus qualifying for membership in the Gaelic Alliance. Some individuals have already collected over $40…furthermore he asserted that no man of Irish blood with any pretence to Patriotism will refuse to subscribe at least $1.00 to such an all important national work ad the propagation of the Irish Language…he was confident that th Irish County and other associations would loyally fulfill their promises, amd impressed on the committees that it depended on thm in a large measure to secure active co-operation and best results from their fellow members.
Envoy Ashe referred to the patiotism of the Chinese in America who contributed $200,000* to found a national library in their native land, and pointed out that a national language was a much more important institution. A national library may be built at any time, but let a national language die, and no amount of money could recusitate it. He pertinently asked whether the patriotism of the Irish race in America was not equal to the that of the Chinese.’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 1
George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion had a triumphant opening in London on 12 April 1914.
15: The first parade of the Cork Irish Volunteers, some 100 members were led through the city to Blarney by a piper.
17: Yarmouth Pier destroyed by a Suffragette bomb.
18
James Connolly writing in ‘Labour, Nationality and Religion’; ‘The time has long since gone when Irish men and Irish women could be kept from thinking by hurling priestly thunder at their heads’
19: UVF arms were transferred from the Fanny to a less conspicious boat, the Clydevalley, which Major Crawford renamed the Mountjoy II after the ship that broke the blockade at the Siege of Derry in 1689.
21: Mexico: Four American sailors, arrested while in Vera Cruz were released once it was discovered who they were. However Wilson ordered the shelling by the warship of the city and occupied. 400 killed
24:
Shipments of arms for the Ulster Volunteer Force were landed at Larne, Bangor and Donaghadee and swiftly dispersed throughout Ulster by a fleet of 800 cars and UVF members. Telegraph and telephone connections to Larne were cut, police and coastguards were shut into their barracks and guarded as a UVF cordon was thrown around the town. The Volunteers used the password ‘Gough’ during the gun running at Larne. Another single word , ‘Lion’ telegraphed to Sir Edward Carson’s London home, told him that the gunrunning had been accomplished.
In early April, the arms shipment of arms was purchased in Hamburg, Germany from Crawford’s regular supplier, Bruno Spiro. These arms were 10,000 new Mannlicher rifles ( 7.9mm, model #1904, short bayonets ), 9,100 Mauser rifles ( 7.9mm, model #88, long bayonets ) and two million rounds of ammunition. In addition, several thousand old Vetterli rifles were purchased with one million rounds of ammunition. Costs were estimated at £45,640 plus £5,000 to buy a steamer and packing. Finance came from the Carson Defence Fund, the Union Defence League and fundraising by Lord Milner among wealthy, society friends including “Waldorf Astor..had subscribed his name for £30,000 and Lord Rotschild and Lord Iveagh and the Duke of Bedford for £10,000 each.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p89
Aided by a ships engineer and captain that were specially released by employers eympathetic to the cause, The Antrim Iron Ore Steamship Company, the complex task of shipping the arms to Ulster began.
The arms purchase had been organised by Major Frederick Crawford:
“ a persistent and ambitious fanatic who had once planned to kidnap Gladstone on the promenade at Brighton, ... in spite of Crawfords additction to overcomplex maneuvers, the voyage of the “Fanny” ( she ended up as the Doreen ), the transshipment into the “Clydevalley” ( she became the Mountjoy II ) and the distribution of arms at Larne, Bangor and Donaghadee, all were carried out with resolution & resourcefullness ...nonetheless, if the police had not remained in their barracks, mute but sincere friends to the whole illegal enterprise, it wuld have had a very different ending...As Augustine Birrell put it “ The recent gun-running exploit of the Ulster Volunteers excited as much admiration among the lodges of the Ancient Order of Hibernians as those of the Orange faction. ‘Well done Ireland’ was the general verdict”....lack of arms in southern Ireland, due more to the want of funds than to the Government’s embargo, was a serious embarrasment...”
George Dangerfield “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” Constable London. 1977. P111-113.
25
Asquith announced that ‘in view of this grave and unprecented outrage…His Majesty’s Government will take without delay, appropriate steps to vindicate the authority of the law’. As expected, nothing was done short of sending a cruiser and 18 destroyers to patrol the Irish sea.
Both the Curragh Mutiny and Larne gunrunning confirmed to many that the Government was evidently unable or unwilling to coerce Ulster.
Redmond was now concerned at the rapid growth of the Irish Volunteers for a number of political and personal reasons. The Irish Volunteers could be seen as a threat to the Government and so endanger the passage of the Home Rule Bill and the new organisation was threatening his dominant position in Irish politics. Some historians believe that the British Government exerted pressure over Redmond to gain control of the Volunteers, either way, Redmond had to take control of the organisation and quickly.
Redmond offered to provide adequate finances for the Irish Volunteers on ‘condition of being given control’ over them. Devlin had also made similar proposals to Casement. Both offers were refused.
26
Redmond opened negotiations with McNeil and Casement in London for control of the Irish Volunteers.
27
The House of Commons reassembled after the Easter break and in response to the gun running in Ulster, Asquith commented ‘His Majesty’s Government will take without delay, appropriate steps to vindicate the authority of the law’
However, no action was taken against the UVF or the Ulster Unionist Council membership who had publicly pledged to create a provisional Government for Ulster if the Home Rule bill became law. A cruiser and 18 destroyers were sent on patrol in the Irish Sea.
James Connolly, commenting on the gun-running:
‘Can anyone believe that if railway stations were seized, roads held up, coastguards imprisoned and telegraph systems interefered with by Nationalists or Labour men, that at least 1000 arrests would not have been made the next morning. Evidence is difficult to get, they say. Evidence be hanged! If Nationalists or Labour men were the culprits, the Liberal Government would have made the arrests first and looked for evidence afterwards.’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p251
29:
The Oppositions demands for a full inquiry into the Curragh Mutiny were given a debate and Carson welcomed Churchill’s proposal to exclude Ulster or the North Eastern part of Ulster until a general scheme of federation was approved.
Sinn Fein’s proposed establishment of an Irish Consular service abroad in 1905 ‘ was essentially the same idea ennuciated by Marcus Garvey [ the Assistant Secretary of the National Club of Jamaica –modeled on SF lines ] who in 1914 proposed to ‘establish Commissionaires or agencies in the principal countries of the world for the protection of all Negroes, irrespective of nationality’
Robert A Hill. “The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project “ UCLA ( Via Internet Site June 1997 )
May 1914
The 23 year old Michael Collins moved positions from that of the Stockbroking firm of Horne & Co in Moorgate Street to the British Board of Trade as a Clerk. This proved unsuitable but he remained there until 1915.
The Port of Dublin was closed when the Dublin Steampacket Company, the only company operating between Dublin and the British ports was hit by strike.
1
Patrick O’Mara, the New Jersey Clan leader writing to Devoy commented that he through the Irish Volunteers would be under-financed, weakly imitative and victimised by both the British army and the Ulster Volunteers, and that they would obscure the real issue of independence by quarelling with the Orangemen.
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p31
Count Johann von Bernstorff a seasoned diplomat arrived in Washington as Imperial German Ambassador during a placid and superficially cordial period in German-American relations and played very well what was largely a ceremonial role.
4
Asquith wrote to Carson, inviting him to a seceret conference on the Irish question on May 5th. Carson was seen as a somewhat moderating influence and through him, a possibility of compromise on Ulster and Home Rule.
Redmond proposed to MacNeill that there whould be an Executive Council of 5 controlling the Irish Volunteers, two from the group that formed the Volunteers, two from the Irish Party and MacNeill acting as Chairman. With hindsight, this was the option that MacNeill should have taken. With suport from the Irish Party and some control through the Executive Council, there would have been no limit to the numbers that could have joined. It’s also been argued that Redmond could have pressured Asquith to remove the rifle ban for continued support of the Government. This was not done.
5
Carson, accompanied by Bonar Law, met with Asquith. The only agreement forthcoming was to attach an amending bill to the Home Rule legislation as it might apply to Ulster.
6
Before leaving New York, Pearse wrote a short letter to Cohalan, thanking him for his ‘generous subscription’ and for ‘your unceasing and succesful efforts to put me in touch with other good friends.’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P159
The Irish Volunteers led to some strong comments from Irish American leaders. John T Ryan writing to Devoy from Buffalo saying that he had some reservations about the members of the provisional committee through he did feel that ‘the movement is of a character that should be encouraged.’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p27
The old Fenian, Colonel Ric O’Sullivan Burke was more enthuasistic about the Volunteers, although he argued that the Clan should not allow any other Irish American organisation to become the source of American support.
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p31
Despite all their talk, the Clan allowed many months to lapse without giving any direct assistance.
Over a month since the formation of Cumman na mBan, Hannah Sheehy Skeffington blasted it in the Freeman’s Journal. ‘The proposed ‘Ladies Auxilliary Committee’ [Cumman na mBan] has apparently no function beyond that of a conduit pipe to pour a stream of gold into the coffers of the male organisation [ the Irish Volunteers ], to be turned off automatically as soon as it had served this mean and subordinate purpose.’
The House of Commons rejects a Bill that would have given some women the vote.
8:
Alice Stopford Green met with Sir Roger Casement, Eoin MacNeill and Darrell Figgis in London where they discussed organising and supplying guns for the Irish Volunteers. Mrs Stopford Green said that £1500 could be raised to buy guns with Casment and Figgis agreeing the rifles should be bought first and transported afterwards, that O’Rahilly should come to London to advise them about European arms merchants, that Figgis should be sent to Europe to start negotiations and MacNeill return to Ireland to keep John Redmond as leader of the Irish Nationalists at Westminster, in the dark.
Erskine Childers had already agreed to supply his yacht ‘Asgard’ as transport in the shipment of arms. Asgard was laid up in late 1913 in Criccieth, North Wales and that she could be made seaworthy at short notice. Figgis role in the proposed arms purchase would be known only to Casement, MacNeill and O’Rahilly and had virtual carte blanche. O’Rahilly shortly sent him the name and address of an arms firm in Hamburg where it was arrange samples of two rifles would be sent to a firm in Hounsditch for inspection.
‘The supreme difficulty that confronted us at every turn was that ours was a poor man’s movement. The rich did not smile on us, now were the wealthy kind…only a few hundred pounds could be collected at so short notice’
Darrell Figgis ‘Recollections of the Irish War’ Doubleday, Doran & Co. New York. 1926 p21
Mary Colum and Louise Gavan Duffy gave reply to Hannah Sheehy Skeffington’s broadside against Cumann na mBan ‘We consider at the moment that helping to equip the Irish Volunteers is the most necessary national work. We may mention that many of the members of our Society are keen suffragists, but as an organisation we must confine ourselves within the four walls of our constitution’
11:
Diarmuid Lynch arrives in Boston on the Gaelic League fund raising tour.
12:
Asquith annmounced an amending bill to modify Home Rule would be introduced in the House of Lords.
Tom Clarke, writing to JohnDevoy commented that there had been a transformation in Nationalist Ireland since the formation of the Volunteers: ‘The country is electrified with the Volunteering business. Never have I known in any former movement anything to compare with the spontaneous rush to start drill and get hold of a rifle…and the change that had come over the young men of the country who are volunteering. Erect heads up in the air, the glint in the eye and then the talent and the ability that had been latent and is now being discovered. Young fellows who had been regarded as something like wastrels now changed to energetic soldiers.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 116
13:
MacNeill’s policy of keeping Redmond unaware of arming the Irish Volunteers was to suggest that the Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers would be superseeded by the Council of Six with 3 members from the Volunteers and the Irish Party with MacNeill holding the position of Chairman, but all members subject to approval by the other group.
This offer was made but resulted in Redmond refuting it and demanding that he should have greater involvement with an additional two names added.
14
The Boston Globe reported on Diarmuid Lynch’s work for the Gaelic League in Boston:
Urging Wider Study of Irish
Diarmuid Lynch on the Gaelic League Aims
Delegate discusses work of reviving the language
Advances made in course of the last 20 years
Diarmuid Lynch, a delegate from the Gaelic League in Ireland and a native of Tracton, County Cork, has been visiting Boston the past week.he is one of a party of seven who came from Ireland a few weeks ago to interest Irishmen here in the work of th League at home.
Mr Lynch, formerly lived in New York City, but returned to Ireland some years ago to foster the work of the League. He is staying with Rev. P.D.Murphy in South Boston. His visit to this country will embrace a trip through all the States covering about a year. He explained that the immediate object of the visit is to enable the Gaelic Alliance to increase it's field staff of organisers and travelling teachers.
In speaking of it's prospects he said ‘Extraordinary advances have been made since the League was established 20 years afo. Irish is now taught in more than 300 primary schools. It has a prominent place on the curriculum of intermediate education and is a compulsory subject for entrance to the new National University of Dublin, Cork and Galway.
It is also a compulsory subject of examination for all public appointments under several County Councils. Furthermore the hierarchy and clergy of Ireland now look on the language as one of the strongest bulwarks against the demoralising litterature of England as well as the socialistic and athiestic doctrines of Europe.
The propaganda has had a notable effect on Ireland. The league has more than 500 branches. The members are without exception, enthuastic supporters of home industries. It has revived the ancient Feis ( festival ) of Tara, the ‘Aeridheacht’ or open air concert and the ‘Ceilidh’ or social indoor party which encourages original litterary compositions, oratory and story telling in Irish, the music, songs and dances of the Gael. In other words the league has aided to a large extent the material as well as the social and intelectual progress of our people.
The Gaelic League is non political. That is, welcomes men of all politicla parties into it's ranks,but it is National in the highest sense of the term, generally speaking those who believe in the tradtional ideal for which Ireland has struggled during 700 years are the strongest supporters. Eventually through the influence of the language we hope to obliterate all affiliations, foreign to, genuine Irish nationalisty and establish a really united Irish Ireland.
The Home Rule Bill will benefit the language movement, but there are many interests in Ireland which have been sadly neglaected, the Gaelic League must see to it that the language question is not overlooked.
Some people here seemed surprised that I have been wearing kilts and they took me for a Scotchman. They are not of course ware that the Gaels of the Highlands originally emigrated from Ireland, taking with them the Gaelic language and the Gaelic dress. This old national dress of ours has become popular of late years but it is worn only on special occasions. Lord Ashbourne is one of the few Gaels who wears a kilt at all times.
Irish Americans are taking much interest in the Gaelic movement. Thos ewho have looked into it's philosophyare that the dream of their fathers – an Irish nation in the fullest sense of the word - is impossible unless the Irishlanguage lives and flourishes in the homes of the Irish people.
Our American finance committee for instance, includes men like Justice Daniel F Cohalan, Justice Martin J Keogh, Finley Peter Dunne, Robert T Emmet and othe rnotable men who were born in this country. They feel that through it, Ireland will develop a civilisation in confirmity with, but even superior to, that of old when she stood high among the nations and that the acheivement of the race in the motherland will awaken a desire on the part of Irish Americans to study more cloesly the magnificent history of Ireland and engender a pride of race which is now in great measure lacking here because of the want of that very knowledge.
Many Irish societies have not only subscribed money from their treasuries, but the individual members take our special collection cards for thepurpose of getting their friends to qualify as members of the alliance. I have already addrsssed the Boston Gaelic Alliance, Boston Gaelic School, Knights of St Brendan, Division 41 of the Ladies Auxilliary, A.O.H, Mayo Ladies Association and the Gerald Griffin Club; also the State Convention of the Knights of Columbus held here a few days ago. Next Friday night I am to speak at the Boston Gaelic Schools May Party, Hibernian Hall, Roxbury.
Since arrival here, I have had the honour of meeting Gov. Walsh, Sec of State Donoghue and State Treas. Mansfield. I am delighted to find that Irish Americans are at last receibing a measure of public recognition which their ability and high ideals and the sacrifice of our people in this country entitle them to.’
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
15: London – Commons rejects the idea of a Scottish Home Rule Bill. ( Eventually arrived in 1998 )
16: Redmond showed his imaptience in a letter to MacNeill and the seeds of the future split.
“I am extremely anxious that we should come to some understanding on this matter, as I am of the opinion that it would be the greatest misfortune if a disagreement should result in the possible establishment of a second body of Irish Volunteers. It is cleraly in the interests of the country that the Volunteer movement should be a united one, andunder a single guidance.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991. p 107
Major John MacBride wrote to Devoy on the Volunteers:
‘The Volunteer movement will be a tremendous force in National life overe here if properly handled. The country people are at last coming to kick against the Home Rule bluffers.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 116
18:
The Central Executive of the AOH instruced all its branches to co-operate in every way with Redmond’s Irish Party.
Diarmuid Lynch interviewed by the Boston Globe:
‘ Diarmuid Lynch a delegate from the Gaelic League of Ireland and a native of Tracton, Co. Cork, has been visiting Boston the past week. He is one of a party of seven who came from Ireland a few weeks ago to interest Irishmen here in the work of the league at home. Mr Lynch formerly lived in New York city, but returned to Ireland some years ago to foster the work of the league. He is staying with Rev. P.D. Murphy in South Boston. His visit to the country will embrace a trip through all States covering about a year. He explained that the immediate subject of his visit is to enable the Gaelic Alliance to increase its field staff of organisers and travelling teachers.In speaking of its prospects, he said:
“ Extraordinary advances have been made since the league was extablished 20 years ago. Irish is now taught in more than 3000 primary schools. It has a prominent place on the curriculum of intermediate education and is a complusory subject for entrance to the new National University of Dublin, Cork and Galway.
It is also a complusory subject of examination for all public appointments under several County Councils. Furthermore, the Hierarchy and Clergy of Ireland now look on the language as one of the strongest bulwarks aganist the demoralising literature of England as well as the socialistic and atheistic doctrines of Europe.
The propaganda has had a notable effect on Ireland. The league has more than 500 branches. The members are without exception, enthusiastic supporters of home industries. It has revived the ancient Feis ( festival ) of Tara, the ‘Aeridheacht’ or open air concert and the ‘Ceilidh’ or social indoor party which encourages literary compositions, oratory and story telling in Irish, the music, songs and dances of the Gael. In other words, the league has aided to a large extent the material as well as the social and intellectual progress of our people.’
The Gaelic League us ‘non-political’, that is it welcomes men of all political parties into its ranks, but it is National in the highest sense of the term. Generally speaking, those who believe in the traditional ideal for which Ireland has struggled for 700 years are its strongest supporters.
Eventually through the influence of the language, we hope to obliterate all affiliations foreign to genuine Irish nationality and establish a really united Irish Ireland.
The Home Rule Bill will benefit the language movement, but there are so many interests in Ireland which have been sadly neglected, the Gaelic League must see to it that the language is not overlooked.
Some people here seemed surprised that I have been wearing kilts, and they took me for a Scothcman. They are not, of course, aware that the Gaels of the Highlands originally emigrated from Ireland taking with them the Gaelic language and the Gaelic dress. This old national dress of ours has become popular of late years but it is worn only on special occasions. Lord Ashbourne is one of the few Gaels who wears a kilt at all times.
Irish-Americans are taking much interest in the Gaelic movement. Those who have looked into its philosophy see that the dream of their fathers - an Irish nation in the fullest sense of the word - is impossible unless the Irish language lives and flourishes in the homes of the Irish people.
Our American finance committee for instance includes men like Justice Daniel F. Cohalan, Justice Martin J Keogh, Finley Peter Dunne, Robert T. Emmet and other notable men who were born in this country. They feel that through it, Ireland will develop a civilisation in conformity with, but even superior to, that of old, when she stood high among the nations, and that the achivements of the race in the motherland will awaken a desire on the part of the Irish-Americans to study more closely the magnificent history of Ireland and engender a pride of race, which is now in a great measure lacking here because of the want of that very knowledge.
Many Irish societies have not only subscribed money from their treasuries, but the individual members take our special collection cards for the purpose of getting their friends to qualify as members of the Alliance. I have already addressed the Boston Gaelic Alliance, Boston Gaelic School, Knights of St. Brendan, Division 41 of the Ladies Auxillliary, A.O.H., Mayo Ladies Association and the Gerald Griffin Club, also the State convention of the Knights of Columbus held here a few days ago. Next Friday night I am to speak at the Boston Gaelic School’s May Party, Hibernian Hall, Roxbury.
Since my arrival here I have had the honour of meeting Governor Walsh, Secretary of State, Donohue
and State Treasurer, Mansfield. I am delighted to find that Irish-American’s are at last receivng a measure of public recognition which their ability and high ideals and the sacrifice of our people in this country entitles them to.”
Lynch Family Archives
19:
Burke-Cockran in a letter to Frewen admitted his disillusion with the Home Rule leaders in Ireland but also his admiration for the Ulster Unionists who seemed willing to fight for what they believed in ‘I don’t think there’s a Catholic in any of the four provinces who does not feel keen admiration for the manner in which these men of the North have made the Government which is supposed to rule them, treat with them [and ] actually capitulate to them’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p24
President Wilson had a more pragmatic approach to the issue and on Carson ‘I would show the rebel whether he would recognise the authority of the Government or flaunt it. He ought to be hanged for treason’ and if Asquith did not act firmly, the ‘unrest and rebellion in Ireland will spread’ but the strong assertion of the Government legimtimate power ‘would force a settlement of the Irish question right now’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p25-26
The Philadelphia District Clan Secretary, Frank Tobin, wrote to Devoy’s Assistant at the Gaelic American, James Reidy:
‘The organisation in this district feel very much aggrived at the indifference displayed by the organisation in the country to the exhortation of our brothers in Ireland to supply them with arms to defend their country.’ He proposed that the group sell the Irish American Club ‘and send the proceeds to the men who are willing to do something’. The District Clan advised that it was preferable that Clan na Gael disband and ‘let some body of men take our place who are competent of taking advantage of such a condition of affairs as that which exists in Ireland today’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p32
Devoy and Clan na Gael took the comment seriously and an emergency meeting was called for June 6th in New York.
O’Rahilly met with Darrell Figgis in London to go through plans for the arms shipment to Ireland. ‘I met him in the porch of the Victoria Hotel in Northumberland Aveneue. There he told me that he had been followed from Ireland, and that Dublin detectives wereeven at that moment waiting outside the hotel for him..’ Having given the detectives the slip, plans were discussed. ‘His plan conisted of a number of secret dumps around the southern and western Irish coast. He explained that at each of these dumps the yacht would, during June, as though cruising for pleasure, deliver agreed lots of rifles on agreed dates.’
Darrell Figgis ‘Recollections of the Irish War’ Doubleday, Doran & Co. New York. 1926 p25
Figgis and Childers disagreed with the O’Rahilly on arms dumps arguing that the risks of delivery to ten centres was greater than delivery to just one centre. Ultimatly decisions would have to be made back in Ireland on distribution of any arms brought in.
25:
After stormy debates, the Home Rule Bill passed the House of Commons for a third time, with the amending clause allowing for the temporary exclusion of one or more Ulster counties. As the Lords could no longer reject it for the third time, the Bill would be ready for Royal Assent by June 25th and would undoubtedly become law in the Autumn of 1914 – unless exceptional circumstances intervened.
William O’Brien the Irish Parliamentary Party member for Cork spoke following the third reading of the Home Rule Bill with the amending clause: ‘This Act will be born with a rope around it's neck. It is not even intended to be enforced…we regard this Bill as no longer a Home Rule Bill but as a Bill for the murder of Home Rule’
The Ulster Unionists by late Spring, had a strong organisation to hand, ready and poised for action as soon as the Home Rule Bill reached the statute books and became law. It was commonly believed that Sir Edward Carson would set up a Provisional Government in Ulster on the day that Home Rule received the Royal Assent. Major-General Macready, in command of the Belfast district feared fighting would erupt between the Ulster and Irish Volunteers in outlying regions of Ulster.
To most observers, it seemed as if Ireland was on the verge of war.
Asquith found himself between the devil and the deep blue sea. He had promised Redmond to give Home Rule to Ireland but he equally could not ignore the growing threat of an Ulster revolt. Two Volunteer forces were ready to fight, one to maintain, the other to destroy the Union.
26:
John Redmond wrote to MacNeill confirming both were agreed as to the composition of the Executive Committee as being 9 persons. The Irish Volunteers representatives were MacNeill, Kettle, Gore and the O’Rahilly. The Irish Parliamentary party nominees were Willie Redmond, Joseph Devlin, Michael Davitt and Colonel Moore with Roger Casement as the 9th.
The nomination of Davitt’s son was to prove to be the undoing of the agreement with Redmond making the initial blunder and the Provisional Committee for not accepting him.
Inter-organisation rivalry between the Irish Volunteers & Citizen Army and the success in building the Volunteers caused Jack White to resign from the Citizen Army in May 1914 and join the Volunteers. Larkin replaced White as chairman. O'Casey's animosity towards the Volunteers also led him to a clash with Constance Markievicz over her links with them. He insisted she sever her connection with the Volunteers or resign from the Citizen Army. He put forward a motion to the Citizen Army Council to this effect but lost the vote and resigned himself. Larkin tried to get O'Casey to reconsider his resignation and apologise to Constance Markievicz, but he refused and had nothing more to do with the Citizen Army
June 1914
1:
In London, Michael Collins joined the Irish Volunteers, drilling with the No. 1 Company in a hall at Kings Cross.
Colonel Moore commented on the choice of Davitt in the Executive Committee: ‘the nomination of Mr Davitt caused much resentment; he had attended the first meeting of the Volunteers but had not been allowed to speak, as it was believed the he was against the movement; he had taken the most prominent part in opposing the establishment of a Volunteer Corps in the National University…Mr Dillon, always preferring to sit in the dark background pulling the strings of an automaton, had named Mr Davitt to represent himself.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991. p 107
6:
The Clan na Gael emergency meeting on funding the Irish Volunteers took place in New York. Attending were Clan representatives from throughout the United States and the American Provisional Committee, Irish National Volunteers was set up. Joseph McGarrity, General Denis Collins, Denis Spellissy and Patrick Griffin was elected and the American Volunteer Fund to buy weapons for Ireland was begun. Shortly a draft for $5,000 was forwarded to the O’Rahilly.
10:
With the refusal of Davitt on the proposed revised Provisional Committee of 9, Redmond now issued an ultimatum to MacNeill, which was published in the Freeman’s Journal. Initially commenting with regret on the controversy within the Irish Volunteers was being played out in the press and that up to a few months previously, Redmond wrote that ‘I felt that the Volunteer movement was somewhat premature, but the effect of Sir Edward Carson’s threats upon the public opinion in England, the House of Commons and the Government; the occurrences in the Curragh Camp, and the succesful gun running in Ulster, virtually altered the position’ resulting in official approval from the Irish Party for supporters to join the movement.
Following this, various Irish Party representatives within the movement began to call for change, specifically in that ‘the Governing body should be reconstructed and places on a thoroughly representative basis so as to give confidence to all shades of national opinion.’ Redmond suggested that in view of the present Provisional Committee was self-elected, consiisting of 25 members all resident in Dublin, that the Committee be ‘immediately strenghtened by the addition of 25 representative men from different parts of the country, nominated at the instance of the Irish Party, and in sympathy with it’s objects and aims. The Committee so constituted would enjoy the confidence of all Nationalists’ leading in time to a conference of the Volunteer movement and the formation of a permanent Government Body.
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p229/230
The views from the IRB were quite different.
‘ Tom Clarke and Sean MacDiarmada – representing the ‘Executive’ of the IRB – were definitely opposed to Redmond’s demand…which in effect would give him control of that body and of the Volunteer organisation. Bulmer Hobson, Secretary of the Committee and a member of the Supreme Council IRB, not alone decided to vote for capitulation to Redmond, but induced other members of the Committee to support his view.’
Diarmuid Lynch ‘The Countermanding Orders of Holy Week 1916’ written for ‘An Cosantoir’ but not published due to objections from Bulmer Hobson. Later published in ‘The IRB and the 1916 Rising’ 1957.
While the criticism of the Volunteer Committee was valid in that there were self-elected and were too many, there was little to no realisation that if Redmond formed a rival organisation, some 90% of the members could leave and join. The Committee along with the IRB believed that the Redmond nominees may not have been as firmly committed to having an armed body under the control of any group other than the Irish Party.
13:
Kaiser Wilhelm II and Franz Ferdinand meet for the last time at Konopischt, Serbia and Russia discussed
15:
James Joyce’s ‘Dubliners’ published in London.
16:
In London, John Dillon of the Irish Parliamentary Party commented on why party leaders had not demanded prosecution of Unionists for incitement or treason: ‘You do not put down Irishmen by coercion. You simply embitter them and stiffen their backs.’
The Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers met to discuss and vote on the Redmond ultimatum. In the ensuing bitter argument, it was generally accepted no defence could be made against him, particularly after the Home Rule Bill had been through the House of Commons. 12 voted for the admission of the Redmond nominees with 8 against and Redmond assumed control of the Volunteers. This resulted in the eight members of the Executive Committee ( of which six were I.R.B. members ) publishing a dissenting circular. ( Beaslai, Ceannt, Colbert, Fitzgibbon, Martin, McDiarmada, Pearse and Judge )
Bulmer Hobson’s proposal was to have wide reaching consequnces. Immeidatley it was rejected by Tom Clarke and Sean McDiarmada, with Hobson loosing their confidence in the bargain. He was forced to resign from his paid position as editor of Irish Freedom, his honorary position on the Supreme Council of the I.R.B but allowed to retain leadership of the Dublin district IRB and permitted to retain membership. John Devoy equally was appalled at his ‘surrender to the Redmondites’ and sacked him by cable as the Dublin correspondent of the 'Gaelic American'. On this he later relented when queried by Hobson.
‘Nearly twenty years later he told McGarrity he wanted the Volunteers to remain united while ‘we would be fit to keep comparative control through our secret organisation’ and the influence the I.R.B would have on the Redmondites.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P42
Eoin MacNeill, in view of his ‘voting for the Redmondites, [ was ] not permitted to speak at Wolfe Tone’s grave as had been arranged…’
Kathleen Clark ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P47
Casement however, did support Hobsons stance citing in a letter to Devoy that ‘if Hobson had fought the matter of concessions to Redmond, there would have been a ‘hideous scuffle’ and the Volunteers would have been disbanded. The only thought ‘influencing Hobson was that that swayed me – to save the Volunteers from disruption and Ireland from a disgraceful faction fight in which all original issues would have gone by the board’.
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P159
John Devoy in New York considered the breakup of the Volunteers ‘surrender, as an act of weakness which must produce bad results” Diarmuid Lynch papers. National Library of Ireland MS 31-409(1)
John Devoy later recollected that John Redmond, by his takeover of the Irish Volunteers, had ‘ attempted to make the Irish Volunteers an annexe of the Parliamentary Party ( and) was followd by the starting of a rival Volunteer Fund in America, collected by the ‘Irish World’...the Clan na Gael fund was bitterley denounced as a ‘factionist movement’. The ‘Irish World’ attacked it as ‘unauthorised’ meaning that John Redmond had not given his permission ( for it’s collection).”
Diarmuid Lynch Papers. National Library of Ireland -Accession #2267 MS 32.597. p4.
However, despite American supporters comments on the Clan na Gael fund raising...’ over $100,000 that was raised by the Clan, steadily reached the Supreme Council of the I.R.B. and the Executive Committee of the Irish Volunteers and was used to equip the men who later participated in the Easter Week Rising.’
Diarmuid Lynch Papers. National Library of Ireland -Accession #2267 MS 32.597. p4.
Redmond now issued an appeal for funds to be collected in Ireland and the US which would be expended to promote Home Rule.
17
The 8 IrishVolunteer dissenters issued a statement from 206 Great Brunswick Street to the effect that they considered it their duty to continue to work in the movement, and they appealed to all volunteers who agreed with them to do the same.
19
Pearse writing to McGarrity commented on the Irish Volunteers-Redmond debacle:
‘You will have seen that the Provisional Committee has had to swallow redmond’s twenty-five nominees. I voted against surrender, and think I was right in so voting…we all remain in the movement, and shall be watchfull to checkmate any attempt on redmond’s part to prevent us from arming…the future of the movement depends upon our reamining at our posts, to see to it that the Volunteers are a real army, not a stage army.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P43
Larkin tenders his resignation from the ITGWU.
20
The world’s biggest ship, the Bismarck, launched by the Kaiser.
21: The ITGWU general meeting refused to accept Larkin’s resignation.
23:
The Cabinet now agreed that the Home Rule Bill itself could not be amended and neither could it be enacted, at least not until a new amending bill had been passed to qualify its provisions. This Amending Bill was intorduced by Lord Crewe to the House of Lords and allowed for a county by county option for 6 years, Carson’s original ‘stay of execution’.. In the debate that followed, Earl Roberts announced that any attempt to coerce Ulster would result in utter disintegration of His Majesty’s Armed Forces.
Tory Lords, led by William Waldegrave Palmer and the Marquess of Landsdowne who had huge estates in the south of Ireland, proceeded to effectively de-rail the bill. It was amended in such a way that it excluded all nine of the Ulster counties without either option or time limit - in effect, forever. Such a position the Commons would quickly reject. This irresponsible, not to say demented bill, was sent down to the Commons on 14th July.
Asquith faced the problems that while the Home Rule Bill would soon become law but how was it to be implemented? Home Rule could not be forced on loyalists and increasing tension in Europe pushed the PM into a series of private meetings with Redmond and Carson. Agreeing with Loyalist demands, he was willing to remove the six year time limit and the county by county vote and instead proposed an exclusion of five or five and a half counties with a partition of Tyrone or Fermanagh along sectarian grounds.
Austria-Hungary held army maeuvers in Bosnia, as much to sabre-rattle the Serbians as anything else.
24:
Clan na Gael cabled $5,000 to the Irish Volunteers in Dublin.
Serbia: Peter 1 abdicated in favour of his son, Alexander.
The Irish Volunteers saw widespread growth in new members
With the rifle purchase deal almost complete with the German weapons firm, O’Rahilly and Childers had a difference of opinion as to how rifles could be landed in Ireland. O’Rahilly wanted 7 different landing points. His idea was that mock funerals could be arranged in each of the landing zones to spirit away the rifles. Childers argued that such a timetable was impossible with a sail powered yacht due to bad weather or unsuitable winds. O’Rahilly interpreted this reply as Childer’s loosing heart with the plan and wrote to him. Childers replied ‘I have been working incessentatly at this business for a considerable time with all my strenght and think of nothing else and forsee much harder and more responsible work to come…all of which it never occurs to me to grudge for the sake of the cause…we are comitted financially and as deeply as means permit.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 122
Differences were resolved and it was agreed that two yachts, the Asgard skippered by Childers would land the arms at Howth and the Volunteers would march them through Dublin just as the Ulster Volunteers had done in Ulster. In case of any seizure or attack en-route or capture on land, the second consignment of rifles loaded in the Kelpie skippered by O’Brien would land at night on the Wicklow coast.
Asgard: Built in Norway – ‘Home of the Gods’ in old Norse.
25
The O’Rahilly writing to John Devoy on receipt of the $5,000 draft: ‘I have just received advice from the Bank of your magnificent subscription which you have cabled to our credit, and on behlaf od the Volunteers and ourselves personally, I wish to convey our deep and heartfelt grattitude for the noble way in which you have helped in our work’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 116
28:
With the Austrian-Hungarian army maneuvers continuining, the Inspector of the Army, Franz Ferdinand attended.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of the Austrian Emperor and heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was asasinated along with his wife, Sophie the Duchess of Hohenburg in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian student and member of the secret nationalist movement ‘Mlada Bosna’ [ Young Bosnia ] using weapons supplied by the Serbian terrorist organisation ‘The Black Hand’. Earlier, another member of the Young Bosnians had tossed a bomb into the Archduke's car as it traveled to the local Town Hall. The device was deflected and exploded beneath the security vehicle, injuring a number of guards. After his Town Hall meeting, the Archduke ordered his driver to take him to the hospital to visit the injured security guards. Although the driver wanted to take a different road, the Archduke insisted on using the same route where the attack took place. Princip saw them returning and as the Archduke's car passed slowly by, he stepped from the crowd into the street and fired several rounds at point-blank range into the archduke and his wife, killing both.
Ironically, Franz Ferdinand was the only member of the ruling elite sympathetic to nationalist demands in this part of the empire. The assasination led to rioting throughout the area, summary trial and execution of Serbs living in Bosnia and the jailing in an Austrian fortress of the student assasin as he was too young for the death penalty. He died there in April 1918 of tuberculosis, living long enough to see the results of his actions. To most of the Europeans, it was considered a ‘minor local difficulty’
At the annual Wolfe Tone Commeration in Bodenstown, Tom Clarke spoke. At the end of the meeting, cables were read by MacDiarmada including one from Devoy ‘Best wishes for meeting at the grave of Wolfe Tone, the Protestant apostle of Irish nationality. The voice from the grave forbids partition, and brands as infamous any man who consents to exclude Ulster for even one day’
Kathleen Clark ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P47
Figgis and Childers went to Germany and purchased 1500 rifles and 45000 rounds of ammunition for £1524, from Max & Moritz Magnus of Hamburg. Anxious not to antagonise Britain, Germany had banned the sale of all arms to Irishmen. These arms were bought through Figgis and Childers masquerading as Mexicans. There was nothing left to pay for the chartering of a ship but Childers yacht, “The Asgard” and Conor O’Brien’s “The Kelpie” were available and would be en-route shortly to a rendezvous off Cowes in the Isle of Wight and from there the plan was to collect the arms from a Hamburg tug at the mouth of the Scheldt, with O’Brien trans-shipping his quota into Sir Thomas Myles’ schooner ‘The Chotah’ off the coast of Wales and landing the arms at Kilcoole at midnight, July 26th. Childers was running his arms directly to Howth. Planned date for collection, July 12th, 1914. These arms were stored in Liege, Belgium where Darrell Figgis checked each rifle before they were sent by train to Hamburg. From there, he would travel to Hamburg, charter a tug and take te rifles to the rendezvous point. Arms were shipped to Hamburg as the organisers believed that Germany would be less likely to bend to any British pressure if the arms and their destination were discovered. Once the arms were transhipped, then Figgis was to return to Howth and be outisde the harbour in a motor boat to advise that the volunteers were in place and waiting when Childers was expected to make landfall at noon on July 26th.
29:
Belgrade wires its condolences to Vienna. Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pasic renounces the Black Hand and orders all public meeting places closed. The week long festival celebrating St. Vitus Day festival is cancelled. Widespread rioting and looting by Croats and Moslems in Sarajevo directed towards the Serbian population. Good deal of property damage with injuries. Austrian Foreign Minister Count Leopold von Berchtold's initial stance is one of moderation; dismiss Belgrade's minister of police, jail all suspected terrorists, and dissolve extremist groups. Austrian army Chief of Staff General Conrad von Hotzendorff wants invasion but needs sixteen days to mobilize his troops. The Austrians are aware of a trip by French President Raymond Poincare and Prime Minister Rene Viviani to Russia that will end 23-Jul-1914. It was agreed that no action should take place until then. It would not do to have French and Russians in such close contact during the crisis to follow. Hungarian Prime Minister, Count Istvan Tisza, does not want any action that could bring war with Russia. He is in direct conflict with Austrian counterpart, Count Berchtold. London newspaper runs headline: "To Hell with Serbia". However, King George V decrees seven days of mourning. Not to be outdone, Czar Nicholas II orders twelve days of mourning.
30:
Shortly before Casement went to America, he wrote to Colonel Maurice Moore, Inspector General of the Irish Volunteers:
‘..I think money could be got where I am going shortly. This is in strict confidence - don't tell outsiders. That is my chief object in going... I hope to go soon, very soon - and quietly - and see only a few of the right ones and if funds can be got there we may carry on ourselves..’
Casement to Moore. 30 June 1914. National Library of Ireland. MSS 10561 (5)
Reaction to the assinations in Bosnia was immediate. ‘It shakes the conscience of the world’ thundered the Times. In Rome, the Pope fainted when hearing the news and in Vienna, Emperor Franz Joseph said ‘No sorrow is spared me’ German Ambassador to Vienna, Count Heinrich von Tschirschky, warns Berchtold against employing "hasty measures in settling accounts with Serbia".
Judge O’Neill Ryan in a letter to Devoy commented on the Redmond-Irish Volunteers issue ‘I do not know where we are at on this Volunteer question’. It appeared to him and others that the revolutionaries in Ireland had lost effective control of the organisation and that any funding received from America could be channelled into Redmond’s Irish Parliamentary Party with a case in point the $5,000 cabled to Dublin on June 24th.
By this stage, the Ulster Volunteers had over 50,000 rifles with some 25,000 purchased legally through gunsmiths in Belfast and other centres in Ulster. With the arms ban in place throughout Ireland, a High Court action was taken in Dublin questioning the valdity of a law which differentiated Ireland from Britain when they were supposed to be one legal entity. Two of the judges ruled that the ban was legal, one did not. The judgement was to be appealed.
July 1914
The old Fenian, Luke Dillon was released from prison in Canada after serving 13 years under the name Karl Dullman. He had placed a bomb in the British Houses of Parliament during the Dynamiting Campaign in 1883-4 but was jailed for his part in attempting to blow up the locks of the Welland Canal in Ontario to stop supplies going to the British during the Boer War.
On his release, we was startled at the changes in the world. Commenting on cars, trains and aircraft he said ‘It’s a wonderful age, a wonderful age, but why don’t they train their reason and why can't they be wise in other things as well?…They ought to give women the vote – they ought to give them whatever they want; that’s reasonable, seeing what they are to the world.’.
Dillon rejoined the Clan and continued in a leading position up to his death in 1930. He never saw Ireland.
2:
Vienna: Emperor Franz Josef sends a letter to Kaiser Wilhelm II thanking him for his condolences regarding the Archduke's death. The letter contains undertones of the actions to follow
Trial of Madame Cailloux for the murder of Gaston Calmette; French public absorbed and distracted by details of the trial and surrounding scandals; on July 28th, the verdict of "not guilty" was rendered
3:
Devoy sent an acrimonious letter to Bulmer Hobson stating that by voting for the Irish Party nominees, he had weakened the movement in Ireland and America by allowing new factions to develop. His vote to accept Redmond’s candidates ‘places us and you on divergent lines of action’.
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p33
Devoy then sacked Hobson as the Gaelic American correspondent in Ireland.
4:
Vienna: Archduke Franz Ferdinand and wife are buried. Victor Naumann, messenger for the German Foreign Office, arrives in Vienna to assure German support in the event Russia was provoked by Austrian action. Foreign Office Chief Alexander Hoyos volunteers to take the letter requesting support, composed by Franz Josef and Berchtold, to Berlin and deliver it to the Kaiser personally. The letter has been composed with moderation. Hoyos will see that it is interpreted with hostility.
5
Clan na Gael finalised the Volunteer Fund Committee with McGarrity as chairman to fundraise for the Irish Volunteers. In a cable to Eoin MacNeill, the Committee urged the Volunteers to stand firm against the sepreation of Ulster from the rest of Ireland, promising to furnish a gun to every Volunteer prepared to fight for ‘Ireland undivided and free’.
A cable was also sent to Redmond, calling on him to inist that the Home Rule Bill be applied to to all of Ireland stating
‘ We would approve the concession to Ulster Protestants which would allay their distrust of an Irish national Government, and would join them in reistance if their liberties or interests were attacked. But dismemberment of Ireland on religious lines will prolong and intensify sectarian strife, hurt Ulster equally with the rest of Ireland and bring shame and humiliation to the race throughout the world. It is in your power to prevent that.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P40
In additon, they asked Redmond how he could maintain the apparent double standard of applying to America for arms when he had earlier approved a British ban on arms importation to Ireland. However it was apparent that while they were more than a little displeased with the situation, they were willing to take a moderate view for the time being and continue their work with the Volunteers. However many were priavtely furious that the Provisional Committee had capitulated to Redmond.
Berlin – Kaiser Wilhelm confirmed Germany’s alliance with Austria was intact.German Foreign Minister Gottlieb von Jagow leaves for his honeymoon in Lucerne. Hoyos arrives in Berlin and is accompanied to Potsdam Palace by the Austrian Ambassador to Germany, Count L. de Szogyeny-Marich, where they meet with the Kaiser. The goal of the mission is to secure German backing for any actions Austria-Hungary might take. No notes exist from this meeting but it is widely accepted that they received the promises of support they sought. The blank check had been given. In Sarajevo, all but one of the seven assassins have now been apprehended. Mehmedbasic would be the only member of the assassination team to escape.
The German Ambassador in the US, Count von Bernstorff was recalled home ostensibly to consult with the German Foreign Ministry. Instead, he met with Section 3B, military intelligence, of the German General Staff. Bernstorff was told that German military intelligence had no experienced officers it could devote to the United States. Section 3-B told Bernstorff that he was to be Germany's espionage and sabotage chief for the Western Hemisphere. To support his effort, he would be assisted by Captain Franz von Papen, currently military attaché in Mexico who was to be transferred to the United States, Captain Karl Boy-Ed, naval attaché, and Dr. Heinrich Albert, the commercial attaché who would be the finance officer for the sabotage operations. With this small group of men, Bernstorff was to carry out the German strategy against the United State as and when directed.
With Bernstorff in Washington, the other three officials established their operational base in New York City. Albert opened an office at 45 Broadway and von Papen and Boy-Ed use an office in the Wall Street area. Their first task was to identify and recruit agents for their sabotage and subversion operations.
Childers, accompanied by his wife, Molly and Mary Spring Rice took longer than anticipated to get the Asgard ready and there was some delay in getting out of Conway harbour in North Wales where she had been moored. They were battling against headwinds day after day along the Welsh coast.
6:
Berlin: Having completed his meeting with Hoyos and Szogyeny, the Kaiser departs for his annual North Sea cruise. The twenty day cruise had been planned for months and the Kaiser saw nothing in events that would cause him to cancel it. Besides it might appear that something was wrong should the cruise be cancelled
7:
The Austro-Hungarian Ministerial Council meets to consider the implications of the 'blank check'. Some sort of action will be taken against Serbia. Hungarian Prime Minister Tisza voices reservations on these plans.
8:
The Government of Ireland (Amendment) Bill amended in the House of Lords to provide for permanent exclusion of six counties of Ulster.
The Asgard took a battering as she made her way to the rendezvous with O’Brien and the Kelpie in Cowes. With sails damaged, she arrived only to find ‘O’Brien was in a towerng rage at the delay. He complained that he had spent all his money while waiting for them and he had been sending off telegrams to try and find where they were.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 123
While some essential repairs were made to the Asgard, O’Brien and Kelpie set out a day ahead of Childers to make the rendezvous with Figgis and the arms off the mouth of the Scheldt.
9:
The Austrians meet to formalize their strategy. A non-ultamatum super-ultimatum will be used. A non-ultimatum in that it will be in the form of a simple timed note; a super-ultamatum in that it will be formulated to generate a refusal. The fate of Serbia has been sealed.
10
Carson took over as head of the Provisional Government of Ulster as more rifles and ammunition were landed openely on the Belfast quays.
The Asgard sailed early and passed the British Navy holding a review of the fleet in the English Channel. War was in the air.
Berchtold dispatches Friedrich von Wiesner to Sarajevo to report on the assassination inquest's findings. The Russian minister to Serbia drops dead.
11
Griffith in an editorial in the “Sinn Fein” paper, wrote: “… we would give much to see a national legislature, no matter how limited its scope, reestablished in this country, for, poor thought he thing might be, it would give us again a national centre. But this ‘Home Rule’ no longer proposes to set up such a legislature – instead it proposes to cut ireland in two and to stereotype the vanishing differences between Southern and Northern, Catholic and Protestant. We would tell those who accept such a measure and think it gain that they will bring not peace to Ireland but a poisoned sword”
The Asgard jettisoned most of the furniture in the main cabin to make room for the arms.
German Naval HQ sends telegram to Admiral Spee on Scharnhorst advising that England would probably be hostile in event of war
12:
Late in the afternoon, Darrell Figgis aboard a Hamburg Tug ‘Gladiator’, rendevoused with Conor O’Brien’s yacht ‘The Kelpie’ near the Roetigen Lightship at the mouth of the River Scheldt. There, some 600 of the arms stored in the tug’s hold were transferred with the tug’s captain believing they were intended for a Central American revolution. Shortly after 7 p.m. as the Kelpie cast off, the Asgard, skippered by the author, Boer War veteran and former clerk in the House of Commons, Erskine Childers, arrived at the rendevous point with his passengers, wife Molly and Mary Spring-Rice, cousin of the British Ambassador in Washington. As O’Brien had only collected 600 of his agreed 750, Childers had to take on board and extra 150, in all collecting 900 rifles and 29,000 rounds of ammunition. By 2am, the Asgard was loaded but sitting dangerously low in the water as the last two boxes of ammunition, which could not be stored in the hold, were lashed to the deck.
Meanwhile in Ulster, the Ulster Volunteer’s rifles shipped in the gun-running episode 10 weeks earlier were on show for the first time. Carson’s speech included: ‘I see no hopes of peace... I see nothing at present but darkness and shadows…give us a clean cut’
Later that evening, Carson presided over a secret meeting in Craig’s family home, Craigavon. The group was the Ulster Provisional Government which was to take over every civic post ‘ in trust for His Majesty the King in every Court and office of the Crown in Northern Ireland ‘ in event of Home Rule being granted to Ireland. At the end of the meeting, Craig handed Carson a piece of paper with a code-word on it. Carson had only to send a telegram containing that word and the Ulster Rising would begin.
On the return leg of their journey, Childers had ‘a sudden uneasy thought. They had never checked whether the ammunition fittted the rifles. Nervously he got a box open and was greatly relieved where he was able to fire a round to check the fit..’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 124
13:
Wiesner wires his findings back to Berchtold: Nothing has been found to implicate the Serbian government in the assassination. Berchtold keeps the findings away from Franz Josef.
14:
The Amending Bill to the Home Rule Bill was sent down to the House of Commons by the House of Lords. John Redmond said that any further concessions would force him to vote against the Amending Bill on it’s second reading, threatening to bring down the Government.
Hobson wrote to McGarrity explaining his views on the Provisional Committee affair:
‘As regards the Provisional Committee and Redmond. When he forced the situation we had no alternative but toa ccept his terms or else break the Volunter movement. We could not have fought him for half of the Committee would have seceeded and only the Sepratists would have been left on it. Redmond would have collared nine-tenths of the Volunteer movement and that would have been an end of it as a real volunteer force. The only thing we could do was to yield him a Pyrrhric victory and stay on and try to keep things right from the inside. He has not gained control and I don’t think he will. He could not if our friends acted with inteligence and unity thought both these comodities are rather scarce with some of them…. I do not anticipate that Redmond’s action will affect the movement very much – though of course it is very damaging in America. Sveerla of his nominees are deadly enemies and will never work together…the deciding factor will be rifles.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P47
Casement, in Montreal and enroute to New York wrote to Devoy:
“Our mutual friend Hobson has probably told you of my journey across. I hope to be in New York by end of this week at latest and shall call on you on arrival….it is possible you may not be in New York now – as I see by the papers there is great heat there and thousands are leaving the city. There are things to discuss with you, and one or two more of interest, and I propose staying a few weeks in USA with New York my headquarters…’
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P410
Casement’s visit was eagerly promoted within Irish American ranks. His knighthood, reputation and religion were exceptional for an Irish nationalist leader and through this attracted a great deal of support from the more moderate Irish Americans for the Irish Volunteers.
16:
The IRB Supreme Council had not accepted the compromise of MacNeil, Hobson and Casement and sent Patrick McCartan on a mission to the Clan to put forward their point of view.
PM Asquith suggested to the King that a conference between Redmond and Carson should be held in Buckingham Palace.
A United Irish League meeting was held in New York where $10,000 was raised and sent to Redmond, a further $100,000 pledged and a goal of $1,000,000 declared. The Clan considered this rival as a distinct threat to the American Volunteer Fund and diminishing the amount of cash that could be raised in America to fund weapons.
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p33
Both the Italian and Russian ambassadors in Vienna warn the Russian government in St. Petersburg: Austria is considering decisive action against the Serbs. Word of the planned Austrian action against Serbia has hit the diplomatic circuit.
Grey tells Russian Ambassador that Germans can no longer be counted on as peacemakers under all circumstances
17
Pearse sent McGarrity a request ‘on behalf of the men who are still dteremined to keep the movement straight and to bend it, if they can, to a genuine national purpose.’ He wanted enough arms and ammunition at once ‘as will arm our men in Dublin – say 1,000 rifles and with a fair amount of ammunition for each’. ..the men acting with him, he said were ‘Sean McDiarmada, Eamonn Kent and Sean Fitzgibbon.’ Pearse was unaware of the gun running that was in progress from Germany to Howth.
18: Admiralty Grand Review of the First Fleet (223 ships)
19:
The Austrian Ministerial Council meets in secret. It is decided that Conrad shall be given his chance and Serbia will be "beaten to earth." The Ultimatum to Serbia is drafted
20
Casement arrived in New York after traveling secretly via Glasgow and Montreal. There he was met by the leaders of the Clan as an honoured guest, founder member of the Irish Volunteers, distinguished diplomat and supporter of ‘an Irish understanding with Germany’. Casement advised Devoy of the situation in Ireland. When Devoy expressed indignation at the way Bulmer Hobson supported Redmond’s take-over of the Irish Volunteers, Casement defended him. Clan na Gael’s Revolutionary Directory accepted Casement as a personage of ‘proven sincerity’ and he addressed meetings in Philadelphia and Norfolk, Virginia. There was a great deal in common with Casement and Devoy, both believed that Germany would provide important assistance during any war with Britain. Casement later met with Count Bernstorff, the German ambassador in Washington.
The Gaelic American started an Irish Volunteers fund. This eventually realised $44,000 ( but of how much was actually allocated to direct help cannot be ascertained. )
In New York, Casement stayed with John Quinn and through his social position, had access to many levels of public life. Quinn arranged for Bourke Cochrane to go the National Convention of the AOH in Norfolk with Casement where the two made well received speeches on the Volunteers. Through the efforts of the Clan, Casement also addressed meetings in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Buffalo, Chicago and New York.
French President Raymond Poincaire and the PM Rene Viviani visited St Petersburg to discuss the Serbian crisis. Austria-Hungary, noting the visit, waited until the conference was completed and the French were back in Paris before issuing it’s fateful ultimatum to Serbia.
Churchill orders First Fleet not to disperse
21:
Asquith arranged a secret conference in Buckingham Palace, bringing the Government, Opposition, Redmond and Carson together. The King was accused of being partisan and siding with the Ulster Unionists by Liberals, Irish Nationalists and Labour MP’s. The PM replied by saying the King’s highly controversial move was on Cabinet advice and that everything must be done to avert fighting in Ireland. The meeting broke up three days later in disarray with nothing achieved. The King thought otherwise, convinced he had ‘contributed to a more friendly understanding between all parties.’
Thomas Hachey ‘Britain and Irish Separatism’. Rand McNally College Publishing. New York 1977. p 92
The conference wasn’t all that secret either – suffragettes got wind of the meeting and picketed the palace.
Casement wrote to Devoy outlining in detail the role Hobson had played citing that ‘if Hobson had fought the matter of concessions to Redmond, there would have been a ‘hideous scuffle’ and the Volunteers would have been disbanded. The only thought ‘influencing Hobson was that that swayed me – to save the Volunteers from disruption and Ireland from a disgraceful faction fight in which all original issues would have gone by the board’.
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P159
Berchtold visits Franz Josef at Bad Ischl to get final approval of the ultimatum to Serbia. Berchtold finesses approval from the Emperor. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov warns German Ambassador Count Friedrich von Pourtales that Russia will not allow Austria-Hungary to take any military action against Serbia. Everything is ready. Now it's just a waiting game until the French president and prime minister end their Russian visit on the 23rd.
22:
Casements letter was shown to the Executive Directory and other men in Clann na Gael.
Berlin: After viewing the text of the Austria-Hungary ultimatum, German Undersecretary Arthur Zimmermann comments that "the note is too sharp."
23
Vienna, insisting that the Serbian Government had insitgated the plot to assasinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand, issued an ultimatum to Serbia at 6pm. This demanded that Serbia allow Austrian officials to take part in its investigatiuons in Serbia into Serbian complicity in the assisination of Franz Ferdinand and to collaborate with Austrian representatives in supressing subversive movements directed against the Austro-Hungarian Empire and an answer is expected within 48 hours.
The ultimatum by Vienna was unexpected by most of the European governments, expecting a settlement by negotiaiton or arbitration rather than by an ultimatum. Most of Europes leaders were absent, the Kaiser was in Norway on a yachting holiday, General Von Molkte, head of the German Army was taking a cure in a French Spa, the French President had just returned from a state visit to Russia, the Serbian president was absent from the capital preparing to begin an elctoral campaign and the Russian Ambassador in Vienna was on leave.
Lloyd George tells House of Commons that relations with Germany were better than they have been for years
24:
Molly Childers wrote to Alice Stopford Green en-route with the Asgard: ‘The whole boat xcept foc’sle is evenly full of guns. One can’t stand; one crawls on one’s knees, or walks doubled up, very low down. Mary andI are covered with black bruises!…we lie, like the ancient Romans, at our meals, only twisted Romans, for we are generally clinging to something to prvent toboggannig across the table which is now our floor..’ Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p255-6
Austria-Hungarian embassy staff begin burning sensitive diplomatic papers and cipher books. They are already preparing for their departure from Belgrade on tomorrow's evening train. Prince Alexander urgently wires the Russian Czar for assistance and guidance in the matter. Russia advises Pasic to "proceed with extreme caution." Serbia makes the contents of the ultimatum public in a hope to gain public support. The world is aghast at the contents. They ask for the impossible. The Kaiser hears about the ultimatum from his yacht's radio officer who read it in the Norwegian newspaper.
Asquith writes a friend that he expected a war between Austria and Germany on one side, and France and Russia on the other ( "a real Armageddon") and hopes Britain can remain out of it
Austria-Hungary informs France, Russia, and Britain of ultimatum at 9 AM; Grey informed at 2 PM
Grey informs Cabinet of contents of ultimatum and proposes to mediate among the powers
German ambassadors transmit note in Paris, London, and St Petersburg that conflict be localised
Paul Cambon proposes conference and announces support of Russia in case of Russians at war with Austria
Delbrück meets Reich and Prussian authourities
Russian Council of Ministers considers partial mobilization and asks Austria to extend the time for the ultimatum to Serbia; Sazanov says Serbia would become a protectorate of the Central Powers, loss of Russia's historic mission, and loss of prestige of Russia in Balkans
Churchill sends Fleet advisory notice of crisis, but not a full alert
Italian Government takes conciliatory stance towards crisis and attempts to maintain interests in Balkans and Adriatic without war
25:
The reply to the note is formulated in such a way as to yield where at all possible. This reply must also win public support. The Serbian leadership fears for the worst. Austria will attack no matter what the contents of the reply. Serbia orders general mobilization of it's army at 3:00 pm. Nobody knew it, but, World War I had just begun. With a mere 5 minutes to go, Pasic personally delivers the reply to Giesl at 5:55 pm. The Austrian legation departs Belgrade on the 6:30 pm train as planned. The train is across the Danube and back in the Empire by 6:40 pm. The Austrian mobilization order must be signed by Emperor Franz Josef. Berchtold obtains this signature at 7:23 pm by telling the aged Emperor that the Serbs were already attacking. Conrad was given his marching orders. Alarm Day for the Austrian army was set for 27-Jul and troop movements would begin on the day following. An oversight: Germany has not been informed of these actions by her ally, Austria-Hungary.
Serbian Parliament meets in special session and sends reply to ultimatum
King Peter of Serbia moves capital from Belgrade to Kraguyavatz
Vienna breaks off diplomatic relations with Belgrade and Serbian envoy
dismissed
Austro-Hungarian Government declares martial law and war measures begun
Moltke and Falkenhayn return to Berlin; Wilhelm II leaves Norway to return to Berlin
Wilhelm II orders return of Fleet
French Ministerial Council urges immediate return of Poincaré and Vivianni
Paris and Berlin crowds demonstrate in favor of war
Grey again proposes mediation
Jagow forwards Grey's proposal to Vienna
Russian Crown Council meets with Tsar and approves resolutions of Ministerial Council; Tsar orders preparations for Italian Government shows no interest in suporting Austria
"Part of your demands we have accepted... For the rest, we place our hopes on your loyalty and chivalry as an Austrian general." Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pasic delivering the reply to the Austrian ambassador, Baron Vladimir von Giesl
26:
A proposal, on July 26, by the British foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, that a conference of Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy settle the Austro-Serbian dispute, was rejected by Germany. A copy of the ultimatum is wired to Poincare aboard the French battle cruiser France. Russia enters state of pre-mobilization.
Royal Navy holds test mobilization for one day and plans to disperse next morning (27th)
Serbian army begins mobilizing and panic in Belgrade
Russians begin preparatory measure for war (not mobilization)
Russia asks Germany to exert moderating influence on Austria-Hungary; Germans try to localize war
Grey proposes Four-Power conference of Ambassadors in London
Austrian reservist in U.S. are warned to return for service; some Serbs in New York make ready to return home
Emergency meeting of French Cabinet
France takes precautionary military measures and French fleet order to prepare; French officers and men excused for harvesting recalled to their units
Italy masses its fleet
Belgium increases its army to enforce neutrality
24
As the Buckingham Palace Conference onUlster broke up in disagreement, Redmond said to Carson ‘’Lets have a good shake hands for the sake of the old days together on circuit’ PM Asquith commented on the hopes of the Conference: ‘Nothing could have been more amicable in tone or more desperately fruitless in result.’
25:
The Asgard passed through the Royal Navy fleet review at Spithead and into the Irish Sea. There, the worst storm for 32 years hit, the yacht broke it’s tackle, was damaged but Childer’s managed to keep her on course staying at the helm. All that was left to do was to pass the British gun-boat which was on patrol in Dublin Bay and land the arms in Howth.
Urged by both Great Britain and Russia, Serbia on July 25 accepted all but two of the demands, but Austria declared the Serbian reply to be unsatisfactory.
The Russians then attempted to persuade Austria to modify the terms of the ultimatum, declaring that if Austria marched on Serbia, Russia would mobilize against Austria
Meanwhile in the US, the worst fears of the Clan were about to come true, when Michael J Ryan, as National President of the United Irish League, acting on Redmond’s instructions, announced the creation of a new fund raising drive for the Irish Volunteers in the pages of the Irish World. The UIL however were far better prepared to undertake a nationwide campaign to raise funds and attract support from more moderate groups such as the Ancient Order of Hibernians than an allignment with the more revolutionary Clan.
Sunday 26:
Bulmer Hobson organised a wild goose chase that took the patroling British gun-boat south and away from the arms landing site. Capt Robert Monteith commanded a march of some 400 Volunteers through Dundrum to Killiney Bay, attracting a great deal of interest from the RIC and DMP.
Another group of Irish Volunteers set out that morning on what seemed like a normal route march to Howth, with broom handles for rifles and batons. Darrell Figgis had arranged for a motor boat to meet the Asgard at 10am as a signal that it was safe to enter Howth harbour. However, the motor boat’s owner had decided against travelling out from Bray in a rough sea.
Adogan O’Rahilly contests this ‘Figgis’s failure to meet them could not have been due to bad weaher; the photograph of the Asgard sailing away after discharging her cargo shows clearly that the storm had abated, the wind was offshore and the sea was calm…there had never been an explanation for the failure of Figgis to meet the Asgard. It raises the suspicion that some of the Vlunteer leaders decided that the gun running was too risky and hoped to abort it by not sending out the motor boat’ Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 124-5
Kathleen Clarke recalled the morning ‘ we were living over the shop in 77 Amiens Street at the time, and I remember watching the marchpast of the Irish Volunteers that morning, feeling very proud of them and wildly excited knowing what they were going for. Sean MacDiarmada was having dinner with us that day, and he and Tom would be going to Howth after dinner to see how things were. They had engaged a Cabinet as Sean was not able to walk far; he dragged one leg… ‘
Kathleen Clark ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P47/48
Childers opted to sail into Howth, signal or no signal from Figgis and at 12:45pm, 45 minutes behind schedule, the Asgard docked. O’Rahilly called it ‘The harbringer of Liberty’. The bulk of the 900 rifles were landed quickly by 800 Volunteers, some of the Fianna and Eamon De Valera ,Cathal Brugha and Arthur Griffith. As soon as the arms were unloaded, the Asgard set sail for England and the Volunteers marched back to the city with rifles, but no ammunition ( on directions from Hobson and MacNeill – the men were not sufficiently trained in live fire ). This was the first time that armed Irishmen under Irish command were about to march through the streets of Dublin since the Volunteers 132 years earlier. The Ulster Volunteers, when their arms were landed, issued each man with a quota of ammunition.
A Scotsman named Doller living at Howth reported the events to Dublin Castle as did the Police Inspector at Howth, who contacted The Assistant Commissioner of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, H.V. Harrel who in turn called out 80 soldiers of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers & on trams, attempted to stop the Volunteers at Clontarf.
While the Volunteers present armed up and marched back to the city, a fleet of cars and taxis began loading the remaning rifles and ammunition.
Hobson halted the Volunteers at Raheny and was still there 30 minutes later when MacNeill, having had lunch in Howth, arrived in a city bound tram. He requested Hobson resume the march. Adogan O’Rahilly comments ‘ The halt at Raheny was not just for a rest and a smoke…it seems likely that Hobson lost his courage as they approached the city and was afraid to proceed until MacNeill ‘requested’ them to do so.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 126
MacNeill marched some distance with them and then was given a lift in a car to Nelson’s pillar and from there took a tram home. In a letter to Casement, he commented that there was no sign of any police or military. However that was to change within an hour.
Kathleen Clarke wrote ‘before dinner was over, I looked out the window and noticed that the Howth trams passing were full of British soldiers with rifles. I told Tom and Sean, and they left their dinner and rushed off…they found that the soldiers had got off the trams at the junction of the Howth and Clontarf roads and were stationed there. The Cab passed through without interference…they met the Volunteers on their return march; they had rifles but no ammunition. Tom and Sean told them to drop their rifles in the hedges and ditches before the British soldiers reached them…’
Kathleen Clark ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P48
As the Volunteers marched down through Clontarf, the road ahead was barred by a cordon of soldiers and RIC, swung right onto the Malahide Road. There the troops headed them off and both sides came to a stand-off. The police officer in charge announced that the Volunteers would not be allowed march through the city and their reifles should be surrendered. Thomas MacDonagh at the head of the marchers argued that there was no law compelling them to do this and as it was, the Ulster Volunteers were regularaly parading through Belfast with arms and how could this be any different in Dublin. When it was made clear that the Volunteers would not be allowed any further, the constables were ordered to disarm the men. Scuffles followed but a number of constables also refused to follow orders leading to dismissal on the spot. Most of the Volunteers towards the rear managed to disappear through side roads and over garden walls as soldiers with fixed bayonets assisted the RIC in disarming those present.
Some 19 rifles were captured but were returned the following day. It was said that some of the rifles that were hidden in various gardens and houses along the route were recovered by members of the Irish Citizen Army before these could be recovered by the Volunteers! As the Volunteers dispersed, the RIC Commisoner in Clontarf ordered his men and soldiers back to barracks.
De Valera now ferried volunteers to their homes throughout the city in motor bike and sidecar, each with three of the Howth rifles hidden. Some of the rifles arrived at the Citizen Army HQ in Croydon Park. Clarke and MacDiarmada returned to the area, loaded up the cab with rifles and stored in 77 Amiens Street.
On the return march to the city, the Scottish Borders marching without police escort, were harassed by crowds on their attempt to disarm the Volunteers. As they got closer to Dublin, the crowds became more violent, throwing sticks and stones, as well as bottles. Major Haigh left the barracks to take command of the Borders when he heard what was taking place and joined his troops. In Bachelor's Walk in the city centre, Haigh ordered the rear-guard soldiers to make feints with fixed bayonets causing the crowd to pull back but quickly regrouping and continuing the taunting. Some of the troops did pursue the crowds during these feints, on one occasion chasing men into shops and driving a bayonet through a door. Throughout this, Major Haigh was unaware that the rifles had been loaded at Clontarf.
At the corner of Liffey Street and Batchelors Walk, the Major odered 30 men to turn and line the road with fixed bayonets, four or five men kneeling. As the crowd got closer, as he raised his hand for silence, one of the soldiers mistook it for a signal to fire, and 20 other troops followed, some bayoneting as well. 29 shots were fired, three were killed outright and one civilian died as a result of wounds, and thirty-seven others were wounded. One of those killed was the mother of a Irishman serving in the British Army. These killings, especially that of the soldier's mother, were snatched up and used as propaganda for the Irish cause, especially in the US. As a result of this and the successful gun-running, contributions poured into the Volunteer and Clan na Gael coffers. Public opinion was raised so much against the Borderers that they were kept under under camp in their barracks and only secretly left Dublin after the declaration of war in August. At the enquiry, Major Haigh admitted that he had decided to inflict summary sentence of death on one ringleader in the crowd. Another witness stated that an officer deliberately shot a woman at point blank range. Dublin had a new rallying cry “Remember Batchelor’s Walk”.
It was also the first time in over a hundred years that troops had fired on civilians in Ireland or Britain.
According to Pearse, the arms landed by both the Asgard and the Chotah were:
‘ 11mm Mausers of rather antiquated pattern, without magazines and are much inferior to the British rifle and even to those which Carson’s men have. Moreover the ammunition landed is useless. It consists of explosive bullets which are against the rules of civilised war and which, therefore, we are not serving out to the men.”
Pearse to Joseph McGarrity 12 August 1914. National Library of Ireland. Mss 13,162.
Anticipating Austrian reprisals, Serbia mobilises its army. From Moscow, the Tsar warns Germany that he cannot remain indifferent if Serbia is invaded by Austrian forces. A proposal by the British foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, that a conference of Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy settle the Austro-Serbian dispute, was rejected by Germany.
Casement writing to Alice Stopford Green from Philadelphia commented on the differences between the Clan and the Volunteers: ‘I think I’ve put it straight now – Devoy admits a change of view’ But, while attending the Ancient Order of Hibernians Annual Convention in Norfolk, Casement observed that amongst the delegates ‘All here without exception almost ae against Redmond’s surrender to Ulster and a very little thing now would rent the Party irrecoverably with the Irish in America. Devoy soeaks for the prob [sic] majority I think - and it is absurd for Redmond to claim that he had the Irish here behind him’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p216
27:
Following the Batchelor’s Walk incident, a massive boost to Irish Volunteer Recruiting took place. The Chief Secretary announced the suspension of the Assistant Police Commisioner of the Dublin Metropolitan Police pending an inquiry into the Howth gunrunning and Batchelor’s walk incident. For good measure, he called into question the judgement of the DMP’s Police Commisioner and his assistant.
In the House of Commons, Balfour’s casual reply to an Irish MP’s demand for justice in Ireland was ‘there isn’t enough justice to go round’
Michael McCarthy Murrough ‘The Irish Century’ Widenfeld & Nicolson. London 1998 p.47
Bulmer Hobson received the first cable from the US pledging £1,000 ‘in recognition of splendid gun-running into Howth’
From now until the Kings Own Scottish Borderers left Dublin, Volunteer spotters kept watch on the Royal Barracks should any of the men involved leave.
John Redmond demanded and received an adjournment of the House and a full judicial and military inquiry into the shootings on Batchelor’s Walk. The second reading of the Home Rule Amendment Bill was adjourned until July 30th.
Casement was staying with McGarrity in Philadelphia when word came through of the Howth arms landings. ‘McGarrity said Casement threw his hat in the air with the remark ‘Hurrah! The first blood has been shed in a new fight for an Irish Republic’.
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P51
Devoy told Casment that the Howth gun running was ‘the greatest deed done in Ireland for 100 years’ as it made the Irish Volunteers, whatever the composition of the Provisonal Committee, a serious and popular organisation among the American Irish.
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p35
In fact, the shootings in Dublin stimulated support throughout Irish America for the Volunteers. Large public meetings were held in many cities with Devoy and Casement the principal speakers in Philadelphia. ‘The blood of these murdered people’ the Gaelic American wrote ‘is the price that Ireland pays for victory in the first skirmish in a war for National Indpendence which must be fought to the finish’
American mainstream newspapers also commented on the incident in some detail but the growing threat of war diverted attention from further speculation.
London: The British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey made several additional proposals to Germany for mediation in the dispute between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. The Kaiser took offence at what he saw as ‘British insolence’ in making such suggestions and intimated he would support Austria.
In the offices of the Gaelic American in New York, the recent instalation of a telephone caused Devoy no end of frustration.
‘He couldn’t hear his callers and was often forced to use middlemen to conduct telephone conversations. He was similiarily at a loss when his co-consiprators met ….muffled conversation passed him by, forcing him to rely on colleagues to provide unheard details after the meetinfs adjourned. He complained to his ally McGarrity that his impariment was ‘an awful handicap at a time when important matters were being disucssed.’
Irish Rebel – John Devoy and America’s Fight for Irish Freedom. Terry Golway. St Martin’s Press, New York. 1998. p198.
The New York Times reported on the Batchelors Walk shootings ‘British Troops Shed First Blood in Ulster War’
Casement, who had earlier counseled his American friends on compromise with Redmond, now shrewdly warned his friends that any financial support sent to Redmond ‘for arming volunteers is money in doubt’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p34
Kaiser Wilhelm cuts short his cruise and returns to Potsdam. The British fleet has just completed its summer maneuvers and is preparing to return to routine duty. Churchill orders the fleet to proceed to war stations. The fleet would be ready if the crisis got out of hand. Germany officially and publicly advises Austria against British mediation. Grey feels out the British cabinet by posing the hypothetical question of Great Britain's entering into a war if France were attacked by Germany. The French Chief of Staff, Joffre, and the French War Minister, Adolphe Messimy, express their hopes through the military attache in St. Petersburg that should war break out, the Russians would immediatly take the offensive in East Prussia. The French issue standby mobilization orders.
Wilhelm II returns to Potsdam/ Berlin
France accepts Grey's proposals of mediation while telling Russians the French army would fully stand by Russia militarily
French units in Morocco ordered to France
Bethmann-Hollweg rejects idea of Four Power conference
(AM) Churchill orders Royal Navy to be kept together and not disperse as planned and later informs Grey of his action
Anti-war demonstrations in Paris
28:
On July 28 Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia, either because it felt Russia would not actually fight for Serbia, or because it was prepared to risk a general European conflict in order to put an end to the Greater Serbia movement. Russia responded by partially mobilizing against Austria-Hungary but with an eye to gaining control of Constantinople and with it access to the Mediteranean. Germany warned Russia that continued mobilization would entail war with Germany, and it made Austria agree to discuss with Russia possible modification of the ultimatum to Serbia. Germany insisted, however, that Russia immediately demobilize. Russia’s huge size and lack of an efficient rail network and incapacity of local government,meant it would take many weeks to fully mibilise it’s forces.
At funerals of the Batchelor’s Walk victims, the Irish Volunteers and Citizen Army co-operated to form honour guards.
Churchill orders fleet to sail to its war base at Scapa Flow
- Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia; Austrian reservists in U.S. are ordered to return to Austria
- King Peter of Serbia goes to Nish
- Prince Henry of Prussia reports to Wilhem II on his conversations with George V
- Wilhelm issues 'Halt-in-Belgrade' appeal shortly after seeing the Serb reply to the Austrian ultimatum
- Wilhelm II appeals to Tsar's monarchial solidarity; crosses the Tsar's telegram to him
- Russia orders mobilization of four western military districts and Black Sea coastline black-out
- Grey hopes that Austria-Hungary and Russia can be brought to negotiate
- Bethmann-Hollweg meets Südekem (S.P.D.)
- French General Staff informs Russian military attache in Paris that French Army is fully ready and active to do her duty as an ally of Russia
- French Army moves to the frontier areas
- French Socialists demonstrate against war; German Socialist anti-war rallies
- Italian Government orders concentration of 1st and 2nd naval squadrons at Gaeta and Italian vessels ordered home
29:
Churchill persuades Asquith to authorize "Warning Telegram" to fleet
- Nicholas II telegrams Kaiser, start of "Willy-Nicky" telegrams in English over next three days
- Vienna refuses to negotiate with Serbia, Belgrade shelled by Austrian artillery
- Franz Josef sends letter to Tsar Nicholas
- Austrian forces repulsed at Losnitza
- Montenegrins occupy Cattaro
- Serbs blow up bridges at Semlin
- Belgian army reserves called up
- Trade in Antwerp "paralyzed"
- Tschirischky transmits Kaiser's 'Halt-in-Belgrade" proposal
- Poincaré and Vivianni return to Paris and hold Cabinet council meeting
- Business in Paris almost at standstill
- Kaiser holds military councils and issues German warnings to Russia
- Moltke sends a memorandum to Chancellor and demands general mobilization of German Armed forces; Moltke also send telegram to Conrad suggesting Austria begin full mobilization and Germany would follow
- Bethmann-Hollweg makes moves to keep Britain neutral; final draft of ultimatum to Belgian Government sent to German ambassador in Brussels
- Grey informs Lichnowsky (German Ambassador) that Britain could not remain neutral in the event of a continental war; proposes mediation
- Grey and Cabinet begin meeting daily, sometimes twice or more a day over next several days; following this meeting "Warning Telegram" sent to all British naval, military and colonial stations warning that war was possible
- (and 30th) R.N. leaves Portsmouth
- British and German fleets in Far East begin mobilizing
- King of Montenegro's yacht evades capture by Austrian destroyers
- Russian general mobilization ordered, but revoked by Tsar later that same evening; Russian hopes for Serb victory; Russians black-out Baltic coastline
- Kaiser holds Crown Council at Potsdam over possibility of British involvement over France
30:
The Home Rule Amendment Bill was postponed indefinetly at it’s second reading in the House of Commons in view of the deepening European crisis.
Mrs Asquith, writing to Redmond suggested that he should go ‘to the House of Commons on the Monday and in a great speech offer all his soldiers to the Government’. This would be a very ‘dramatic thing to do at such a moment, and it might strenghtent he claim of Ireland upon the grattitude of the Irish people’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P153
Russia ordered a full mobilisation of all troops while Germany was attempting to use diplomatic efforts with Austria to accept mediation proposals with Serbia. The Kaiser warned the Tsar that Germany will mobilise in defence unless Russia ceases to do so within 24 hours.
Just past midnight, Bethmann-Hollweg, worried about the true extent of the crisis, summons British Ambassador Edward Goschen in order to strike a bargain. Would Britain stay out if Germany's war with France placed no territorial demands on France or Belgium? The same could not be promised for the French colonies. Goschen discussed this offer with Grey who regarded it as a "disgrace." The answer was no. Jagow warns Grey that if Germany mobilizes, France, current threat or not, would be attacked per Germany's war plan At 5:00 pm Austrian Emperor Franz Josef declares full mobilization. Bethmann-Hollweg wires his Ambassador in Vienna, Tschirschky, that the Austrians must be made to negotiate some sort of settlement. Occupation of Belgrade would be preferable to war. The Chancellor is convinced that Britain will come in against Germany. In a final attempt to avert war, Bethmann-Hollweg goes against earlier German advice and wires Berchtold that he should accept the British offer of mediation. Berchtold declines. The Czar changes his mind for the third time: Russia proclaims general mobilization.
- Bethmann-Hollweg unsuccessfully tries to reverse German policy
- Belgian forts provisioned and Belgian Government forbids export of horses or vehicles
- Holland declares neutrality
- Austria-Hungary agrees to negotiations with Russia but refuses to delay operations against Serbia
- Austria expels newspaper correspondants from Semlin
- Moltke presses for general mobilization
- Berliner Lokalanzeiger announces German mobilization but issue is withdrawn; official denial
- Prussian State Ministry meets at Potsdam
- Austria-Hungary orders general mobilization including men up to 50 years old
- Russian general monilization ordered for 31 July; Russian Government takes control of railways
- Unionist papers in England call for Britain to go to war against Germany if France attacked
- Halifax garrison in Canada begins preparations
- French troops guard railways; French Army withdraws 10 kilmeters along entire border with Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany; Germans covering troops along border. In Paris, nothing yet known of Austrian and Russian mobilization.
- Guiseppe Garibaldi says he will fight for Serbia if Italy remains neutral
31:
The Inspector General of the Irish Volunteers, Colonel Maurice Moore wrote to John Redmond proposing that all Irish reservists and all members of the Special Reserve should refuse to join the British army unless the King gave immediate assent to Home Rule.
Berlin: The Kaiser issues a formal ultimatum to Russia and asks for reassurances of French intentions.
French armed forces mobilise.
Triggered by the Russian general mobilization, at 11:55 am Germany declares Kriegsgefahr Zustand. Danger of war - a state of pre-mobilization. Germany issues an ultimatum to Russia: demobilize fully within 12 hours or Germany would begin mobilization and declare war on Russia. Germany issues an ultimatum to France: declare neutrality within 18 hours and hand over the frontier forts at Liege and Namur in a show of good faith. At 5:15 pm the French cabinet authorizes full mobilization.
- Vienna rejects international conference and orders general mobilization
- Austrian Government assures Italy Government that more territory is not wanted
- Russian general mobilization becomes known in Berlin at noon
- Russian Council of Ministers meet at Peterhof and Government does not reply to German note
- Russian reserves called up
- Russians blow up railway bridge on Vienna-Warsaw line
- Serbs halt Austrians at Semendria and on Bosnia frontier
- 10 AM London Stock Exchange closes in a wave of financial panic (Monday a Bank Holiday) started in New York
- Reichstag summoned
- Kaiser proclaims 'state of imminent war' at 1 PM (one hour after Russian mobilization learned of); martial law declared and Kaiser makes speeches
- Crown Prince Wilhelm assigned military command
- Germany refuses to mediate and issues ultimatum to Russia to halt demobilization within 24 hours
- Germans send ultimatum to Paris demanding to know if France will stay neutral and if so, to hand over forts at Toul and Verdun; given 18 hours to reply
- French Government prepares to refuse German ultimatum; Paul Cambon goes to see Grey for British committment
- Churchill orders confiscation of Turkish ships Sultan Osman and Reshadieh cancelling delivery
- French socialist leader Jean Jaurès assassinated in Paris
- French Ministerial Council decides to order mobilization for 1 August
- Grey asks French and German Governments if they will respect Belgian neutrality; France agrees, Germans evasive; British Cabinet close to abandoning France; Tory leaders be called to London to confer on crisis
- French answer to German note about Russia
- French Government mobilizes steamship La France for Government service
- Belgian Army mobilizes
- Dutch Army ordered to mobilize
- Belgian State Railway schedule of trains into Germany suspended
- Italian Council of Ministers votes to remain neutral
August 1914
1:
O’Brien landed his 600 rifles from the ‘Chotah’ in the middle of the night at Kilcoole, Co Wicklow. Sean Fitzgibbon organised the landing and distribution, but in the middle of it, the truck bringing the rifles to Dublin broke down at Bray. It was then necessary to organise a fleet of private cars and taxis to take them to various safe dumps in the city. Within days, the Provisional Committee of the Volunteers,now containing a majority of the Redmondites, heard of the secret landing at Kilcoole and wanted the rifles for use in Ulster. When the rifles could not be found, an internal enquiry was called but none of the Volunteers that had them, was willing to hand them up. The majority of the Howth rifles went north to be used by Nationalists to defend themselves against anticipated attacks by the Ulster Volunteers.
O’Rahilly in the ‘Secret History of the Irish Volunteers’ pointed out that the Volunteers had missed their best opportunity of ‘getting a supply of arms when Lawrence Kettle received an offer of 27,000 modern magazine rifles, with a supply of ammunition, at a price of £4 each. Kettle did not inform O’Rahilly, who was responsible for the procurement of arms, of this offer.’ Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 135
James Connolly writing in The Irish Worker: ‘Governments in a capitalist society are but committes of the rich to manage the affairs of the capitalist class’ and on the possibility of the outbreak of war in Europe: ‘Should a German army land in Ireland tomorrow, we should be perfectly justified in joining it, if by doing so we could rid this country once and for all from it's connections with the Brigand Empire that drags us unwillingly to war.’
Crowds had gathered throughout Germany, sensing a patriotic war in the offing. In Munich, thousands gathered including one individual amongst the throng, a 25 year old failed artist and architect, Adolf Hitler.
As expected, at 5 p.m., Germany declared war on Russia. The German Foreign Office understood that Britain would remain neutral provided Germany did not violate French territory. The Kaiser authorised a telegram to his cousin, King George V, that if England guaranteed French neutrality, German forces would not cross the Belgian frontier before 7 p.m. on August 3rd. Germany had demanded from Belgium the right to pass through it’s territory. However Britain’s Treaty with Belgium signed in 1839 was just another of the alliances that would shortly plunge Europe into war.
German stategists under Alfred Von Schlieffen had calculated that the German army smashing through the Netherlands and Belgium into nothern France, turning in a hinge at the Alps and gathering in Paris would effectively crush French forces in a pincers movement. This would then allow for an equally swift strike against Russia before it's forces were fully moblised, bringing the giant down and avoid any protracted, bloody war in the east. That was the theory, but with Von Schlifen dead since 1913, Hemuth von Moltke had been tinkering with the plan.
Italy declared neutrality as a member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary. PM Salandra arguing that as the war was offensive, then Italy was not compelled to join. In reality, Itlay was not prepared for war as well as having aspirations towards Austrian-Hungarian territory that was ethnic Italian. Italy was to spend some 10 months in secret negotiations with each side.
- 2AM Izvolsky (Russian Ambassador) awakens Poincaré, who had retired for the night, and asks what France plans to do
- (morning) Governor of Bank of England visits Lloyd George to tell him that Bank was opposed to British intervention; Asquith gets similar messages from others in financial community
- French Army ordered to begin mobilization at 3:40 PM; French Government says it will respect Belgian neutrality
- Cambon asks Grey if Britain will intervene and asks if "honor" was erased from the British dictionary
- Delcassé becomes War Minister in France
- German Ambassador prepares to leave Paris and American Ambassador and Council will look after German affairs there
- War rallies in Vienna and pressure on Austrian Government to keep war localized and to negotiate with Russia
- German ultimatum to Russia expires at noon; Germany declares war on Russia at 12:52 PM and begins mobilization at 5 PM when announcement made to crowd at Imperial palace gates
- German ultimatum to France expires at 1 PM
- (ca 7 PM) Kaiser orders troops planning to invade Luxemburg to halt and tells Molke that it may be possible to prevent war with France and Moltke says that once mobilization began stopping war with France was no longer possible
- Reichstag convened
1914 ! August - German reservists in China begin concentrating at Tsing-tau; German officals in South Africa begin returning home
- Russian forces fire on German patrol near Prostken
- Continued hopes in Berlin that Britain might stay neutral
- Belgian Government buys the entire wheat supply on market in Antwerp
- Special meeting of British Cabinet (night session); Churchill asks to mobilize the fleet and call up reserves and is turned down; Grey asks to use fleet to support French in event of Germans in Channel (as promised to French); Lloyd Geroge not in favor of war; on leaving the meeting, Grey tells Churchill he will honor pledge to Cambon and close the Channel with RN
- King George appeals to the Tsar for peace
- London Times denunciation of Germany
- Canadian Cabinet meets and agrees to send its offer of Canadian troops to England
- Italian Government tells Germany that Triple Alliance agreement only applied to a defensive war
- Japanese navy prepares for war
2
In Philadelphia, Casement and Devoy attended a protest demonstration against the Bathcelor’s Walk shootings and organised by McGarrity. The demonstation took the form of a giant funeral procession with three hearses carrying empty coffins leading the march from Washington Square to the Garrick Theatre. A packed house heard Casement denounce the killings and a collection made $2,000 to buy additional arms for the volunteers. Numerous photographs were taken of Sir Roger with John Devoy which caused him to fear that ‘it would lessen his chances of escaping detection by the English in case he wanted to go on any mission unknown to them. He was evidently, even then, thinking of going to Germany, although he had not mentioned it up to that time..’ John Devoy. Recollections of an Irish Rebel. P.417
When Casement later broached the subject of a visit to Germany, Devoy was against it. ‘While I recognised his intimate knowledge of foreign affairs, I had doubts of his tempramental fitness to deal with the Germans in the conditions then existing…I strongly doubted the possibility of his getting trhough the close scrutiny of English naval officers who examined every ship bound for any country through which access ti Germany could be made…however he had set his heart on going, so the Clann na Gael executive, after discussing the matter fully, decided to sanction the trip and pay his expenses.’
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P417
Devoy comments that even though Casement was obviusly frugal in his expenditure, a visit he made on him in Brooylyn heights convinced him that his personal funds were low and he was advanced $1,000. He was next provided with introductions and instructions as to how to get in touch with the German Government following his arrival in Norway. Devoy introduced him to George Von Skal who in turn was more than delighted to present the high profile Englishman to the German ambassador, Count von Bernstorff. He was to sail in mid-October.
In Cork, the Postmaster of Queenstown with a spotless Post Office record, came under military suspicion as having recently been in communication with the German Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Patrick Sarsfield O’Hegarty was immediately transferred to Whitchurch in Shropshire and then later to Welshpool in North Wales where he remained for the duration of the war. In reality he was a senior member of the IRB but accepted the move initially as a nominal promotion. Shortly afterwards another IRB activist, JJ Walsh was also transferred to Britain, it became clear there was a policy in operation by the British Administration. Hegarty’s brother, also employed in the Post Office in Cork shortly afterwards came under scrutiny from the British forces. The head of the Post Office in Ireland, Norway attempted to have him transferred to Britian as he had done with his brother, but chose Hegarty chose to contest it. He was suspended from duty for insubordination and within days was ordered to leave the Cork area under the Defence of the Realm Act.
P.S.O’Hegarty resigned from the post office in 1918, became a bookseller in Dublin and was later to become the Free State’s first Secretary of Posts and Telegraphs.
Germany invades Luxemourg and it’s troops quickly occupy the country. While the invasion of Luxembourg was taking place, the German government informed the government of Belgium of its intention to march on France through Belgium in order, as it claimed, to forestall an attack on Germany by French troops marching through Belgium. The Belgian government refused to permit the passage of German troops and called on the signatories of the Treaty of 1839, which guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium in case of a conflict in which Great Britain, France, and Germany were involved, to observe their guarantee.
British Royal Navy is mobilised.
Pope Pius X appeals for peace.
- German troops occupy Luxembourg
- Ambassador Cambon blames Germany for cause of conflict
- French Government declares a state of siege in France and Algiers
- French Socialists desplay patriotism in support of war
- French cut railway communications with Germany and Belgium
- Russian Ambassador in Berlin given passport
- (afternoon) Tsar formally declares war on Germany
- Russians cross German frontier and seize railroad station
- fighting between Russian and German cruisers near Libau; German ships at sea ordered to seek neutral ports
- Germans in Kiao-Chau declare martial law
- German High Seas Fleet captures Wilson Liner Castro and a collier
- Montenegrin King signs mobilization order
- Austrian military cadets commissioned
- Germans and French recall all military reserves at home and abroad
- Two British Cabinet meetings (11AM-2PM and 6:30 PM-8PM); during second meeting Cabinet agrees that if Belgium invaded Britain would declare war
- Trafalgar Square anti-war demonstration evaporates and pro-war sentiments spread in Britain
- German ambassador in Brussels delivers ultimatum to Belgian Government at 8 PM; 12 hour period to reply
- Belgian King holds Council of State at 9 PM-midnight to discuss ultimatum
- Invasion fears in Holland result in plans to flood the country to prevent it
- Belgian guards posted at bridges at Liege and Namur and Belgian "civic guard" called out
- Kitchener orders military censorship for British papers
- Canadian volunteers enlisting for possible war
- Canadian Royal Naval reserve called up
- Italian Cabinet ratifies neutrality declaration but troops called to colors as precautionary measure
- Japanese Emporer summons Council and asks for report on army; Japanese navy warships readied
3:
Though a Bank Holiday in England and Ireland, the House of Commons met in Westminster to discuss the European situation.
Sir Edward Grey made public for the first time the extent of British commitments to France and in a short comment on Ireland said ‘the one bright spot in the very dreadful situation is Ireland. The position in Ireland – and this I should like to be clearly understood abroad – is not a consideration among the things we have to take into account now..’
Following the speech, Redmond in discussion with his colleague John Hayden advised ‘I’m going to tell them they can take all their troops out of Ireland and we will defend the country ourselves’. Hayden approved but T.M.Healy countered otherwise in view of the recent shootings on Batchelor’s Walk, a pledge of support was not opportune.
Redmond’s speech marked a turning point in the battle for Home Rule. ‘I say to the Government that they may tomorrow withdraw every one of their troops from Ireland. I say that the coast of Ireland will be defended from foreign invasion by her armed sons and for this purpose armed nationalist Catholics in the South will be only too glad to join arms with the armed Protestant Ulstermen in the North. Is it too much to hope that out of this situation there may spring a result which will be good, not merley for the Empire, but good for the future welfare and integrity of the Irish nation’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P154
The opposition benchs and Ulster Unionists stood to cheer him. Redmond’s original intention was that the Irish Volunteers would not be required to take the Oath of Allegiance and would solely defend Ireland and not be drafted overseas.
Pearse considered this speech ‘..either madness or treachery..’. Clan na Gael agreed with Pearse, encouraging the Parnell hope of indpendence.
The same day, Pearse wrote to McGarrity ‘Heaven knows what the future holds if England is drwan into the European war…if the British army is engaged elsewhere, Ireland falls to the Volunteers, and then – well, we must rise to the occasion….publicly the movement has been committed to the loyal support of England…all Hibernains and Redmondites vote with the new members and steadily vote us down…I am scarcely allowed to speak…I blame macNeill more than anyone. He has the reputation of being ‘tactful’ but his ‘tact’ consists in bowing to the will of the Redmondites every time. He never makes a fight except when they assail his personal honour and then he bridles up at once….he is in a very delicate position, and he is waek, hoplessly weak… Now it is perfectly clear that whatever is to be done for Ireland in this crisis must be done outside the Provisional Committee. The men are sound, especially in Dublin. We could at any moment rally the best of them tio our support by a coup d’etat; and rally the whole country if the coup d’etat were succesful. But a coup d’etat while the men are still unarmed is unthinkable.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P48
Devoy wrote to Hobson informing him that his apparent support for Redmond, the resulting ‘surrender’ of the Irish Volunteers had damaged the Clann na Gael work in the US. He therefore advised he was unable to publish any more articles from him in the Gaelic American even though as Hobson replied, these were his ‘sole remaining source of income’.
Germany declared war on Belgium and invaded led by von Kluck but halted at Liege. London advises Germany that Britain would stand by the 1839 Treaty of London guaranteeing Belgian neutrality and would protect French coasts.
- 2:30 AM Belgian Council of State re-convenes to approve reply to German ultimatum, over at 4:00 AM; reply given at 7 AM
- Bank Holiday in England; crowds in Whitehall
- British Cabinet meets at 11AM (still unaware of Belgium's plans to refuse ultimatum) and learns of Belgian reply during session; King Albert sends George V telegram asking for Britain to back its treaty obligations towards Belgium; Cabinet sanctions mobilization of Fleet and Army but no decision to send BEF to France yet; Grey says Britain will keep the German Navy out of the Channel
- Haldane sending out mobilization telegrams calling up Reservists and Territorials
- Dense crowds in Whitehall in support of war
- Italy declares neutrality
- Germans seize three towns in Russian Poland
- Tsar calls Russians to war and issues paper on causes of war
- Austrians and Serbs fighting along the Drona River
- Germany declares war on France and German Ambassador leaves Paris; French Ambassador leaves Berlin
- American Ambassador in Moscow will look after German interests in Russia and Eastern Europe
- Belgium rejects German demands
- German-Turkish Treaty concluded
- German Ambassador sees Grey and asks about British intentions and decisions regarding the war
- Grey addresses House of Commons (ca. 3 PM) and debate follows with dinner break; German ultimatum to Belgium becomes known; Redmond promises Irish support
- British ultimatum contemplated being sent to Germany regarding Belgian neutrality
- German declaration of war on France (ca. 5:30 PM)
- Canadian ports of Quebec and Montreal put in charge of military authorities
- Canadian militia called up and reserves prepared to sail for England
Karl Spindler, with the Imperial Navy for a number of years was made commander of the outpost boat "Polarstern" ("Polar Star"), one of several ships of the Second Half Flotilla of the North Sea Outpost Flotilla, based in Wilhelmshaven where he was to remain until early 1916.
4:
Redmond in a letter to Asquith, requested that the Home Rule Bill be given the Royal Assent at once subject to the Amending Bill being cleared through Parliament in the Winter session. Carson, also in a letter on the same day was demanding that the status quo be preserved.
Rumours abounded that more rifles were to be landed in Ireland. In Cork, the Irish Volunteers companies were mobilised to travel by special train to Skibereen and owners of cars were also requested to assemble there. On Saturday night, John Redmond cabled Talbot Crosbie to cancel the arrangement. It wa believed that either all or part of a cargo of 3,500 Italian rifles purchased by the Redmondites would be landed. However after hanging around the coast for a few days, the freighter put into Dublin where it was impounded until the prohibition on arms imports was lifted on August 6th. These rifles, purchased for 5/6 each were accepted as useless and with no ammunition. Each was sold for £1 to various Volunteer committees.
Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) passed.
Kitchener appointed Secretary of War.
Two German battleships dashed eastwards toward Constaninople.
War Declared
Great Britain sent an ultimatum to Germany demanding that Belgian neutrality be respected. Germany refused and swept through Belgium. Von Moltke’s alterations to the von Schliffen plan removed the invasion of the Nerherlands and limited the advance to Belgium effectively slowing down the projected German advance.
At 11pm, Britain declared war with Germany and Austria-Hungary and the question of Irish Home Rule was pushed aside for more international concerns. Sir Edward Grey of the Foreign Office said ‘The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime’ This was the first European war that Britain and Ireland was involved in for almost a century.
Grey’s speech to Parliament included ‘The one bright spot in a very dreadful situation is Ireland. The postion in Ireland…is not a consideration in the things we have to take into account now.’
Redmond rose shortly afterwards and addressed the house, pointing out the analogy with the situation in Ireland at the time of the American Revolution when British power was at a low ebb and the Irish Volunteers of the day formed themselves to repel a possible invasion of Ireland, adding that the British ‘may take their troops away, and that if it be allowed to us, in comradeship with our brothers in the North, we will ourselves defend the coasts of our country’
Casement’s comment to McGarrity on the declaration of war ‘Perhaps Ireland’s chance has come’.
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P52
As for the Irish Nationalists, the war would bring division. Up to this time, both the Revolutionary Nationalists and the Constitutional Nationalists were united against Carson’s Ulster Volunteers. Once Redmond ascended the recruitment platform, the splits within the groups became more and more apparent.
Germany’s Initial War Plans
The initial German plan of the campaign was to defeat France quickly in the west, while a small part of the German army and the entire Austro-Hungarian army held in check an expected Russian invasion in the east. The speedy defeat of France was to be accomplished by a strategic plan known as the Schlieffen plan, which had been drawn up by Count Alfred von Schlieffen, German chief of staff from 1891 to 1907. The Schlieffen plan called for powerful German forces to sweep through Belgium, outflank the French by their rapid movement, then wheel about, surround, and destroy them. As executed with certain modifications in the fall of 1914, the plan at first seemed likely to succeed. The swift German incursion into Belgium at the beginning of August routed the Belgian army, which abandoned the strongholds of Liège and Namur and took safety in the fortress of Antwerp. The Germans, rushing onward, then defeated the French at Charleroi and the British Expeditionary Force of 90,000 men at Mons, causing the entire Allied line in Belgium to retreat. At the same time the Germans drove the French out of Lorraine, which they had briefly invaded, and back from the borders of Luxembourg. The British and French hastily fell back to the River Marne, but three German armies advanced steadily to the Marne, which they then crossed. The fall of the French capital seemed so imminent that the French government moved to Bordeaux. After the Germans had crossed the Marne, however, the French under General Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre wheeled around Paris and attacked the First German Army, commanded by General Alexander von Kluck, on the right of the three German armies moving on Paris.
5:
As German Troops continued the invasion of Belgium, the British cable ship, Teleconia, used giant grapnels to to cut Germany’s five cable network that entered the North Sea at Emden, connecting it to the US and Western Europe. This prevented all telegraphic communications reaching the US and effecively sealed Germany from direct cable communication with the overseas world. German military, diplomatic and secret service now had to use radio or other countries telegraph systems for cipher messages. The powerful wireles station at Nauen outside Berlin began sending communications in cipher.
Ireland and the war
from The Irish Times 5 August 1914
We believe that the people of these kingdoms are today more cheerful than they have been at any time since the war cloud began to gather over Europe. The period of suspense and uncertainty is ended. In Ireland today the national feeling is not merely one of courage and confidence. Faced with terrible and urgent danger though we be, our hearts find room for thankfulness - even for exultation. In this hour of trial the Irish nation has 'found itself' at last. Unionist and Nationalist have ranged themselves together against the invader of their common liberties. A few weeks ago it used to be said by despairing English politicians that Ireland was two armed camps. Today she is one armed camp, and its menace is directed against a foreign foe. Mr Redmond's speech is receiving from Irish Unionists the whole-hearted welcome which we claimed and predicted for it yesterday. It gives to Southern Unionists, in particular, the boon which was hitherto denied to them - the opportunity of asserting their nationality, of rendering personal service to the motherland. Today Mr Bryan Cooper, former Unionist member, and present Unionist candidate, for South County Dublin, announces that he has joined the National Volunteers.
The Earl of Bessborough and Lord Monteagle, both Irish Unionist Peers, invite support and sympathy for the same movement. We believe that hundreds of young Unionists will be glad to follow Mr Cooper's example, and to stand shoulder to shoulder with their Nationalist fellow-countrymen in the danger that threatens us all. We are sure that co-operation between the Ulster and Nationalist Volunteer forces will now prove to be a simple and easy thing. The Nationalist army has hastened to endorse Mr Redmond's speech. It is not only ready, but eager, to unite with Ulster's army for purposes of home defence. We do not pretend that the political question of Home Rule is affected by this splendid act of union, but Sir Edward Carson and Mr Redmond have done a noble work for Ireland. They have achieved the beginning of national reconciliation: they have opened a great door.
That morning the entire German spy network was rounded up in Britain. All ships belonging to the enemy were seized in both countries, including a British steamer, the “Castro” stuck in the Kiel Canal and later destined to play a pivotal role in the 1916 Rising. The British Admiralty now began to rceeive copies of all intercepted messages to Germany but neither they nor the War Office had any codebreakers to decipher them. The Teleconia’s action, planned in February 1912, was to also play a role in the 1916 Rising.
Redmond and Carson met in Parliament to discuss existing difference between them. Parliament was to shortly pass the Appropriations Bill which would give formal approval to the Government’s declaration of war and after this it would rise and either adjourn or be prorogued. ( Parliamentary procedure is that if it is adjourned, it takes up Parliamentary business where it left off. If it is prorogued, the effect is to suspend all business until it sits again, with the effect that every bill must be introduced again.) Redmond wanted Parliament prorogued and not adjourned as this would effectively kill the Home Rule Amendment Bill, but allow the Home Rule Bill to become law. Naturally, Carson refused this and threatened to stay and block the Appropriations Bill.
Redmond wrote that he found Carson ‘utterley irreconcilable’ and in a letter to Asquith the same evening commented that the Liberals now had ‘the greatest opportunity that has ever occurred in the history of Ireland to win the Irish people to loyalty to the Empire…I beg of you not to allow threats…to prevent you from taking the course which will enable me to preach the doctrines of peace, goodwill and loyalty in Ireland.’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P154
Asquith understood that neither request or threat would be followed through, reassuring Redmond that the Home Rule Bill was safe and that Parliament would be adjourned. While Redmond protested saying that “ ..the happiest moment in Irish History will be lost, not only will Ireland be divided and distracted, but the same will happen in every colony in the Empire....and all for what? To avoid a protest from Carson, who would not have the Unionist Party behind him?
Quoted in George Dangerfield “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” Constable London. 1977. P126
While the meeting in the House of Commons was taking place, the Supreme Council of the I.R.B. met to discuss future plans in view of the European war that was developing. Tom Clarke proposed that a Rising woould take place in Ireland before the war ended supported by financial and military aid from Clan na Gael in the US.
Asquith on the same day passed over control as Secretary of State for War to Field Marshall Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, becoming the first soldier on active duty to serve in the British cabinet since the Restoration of 1660. While born in Ireland in 1850, he was militantly unionist and positively sectarain. He gathered a cooterie of fellow-minded persons around him in the War office.
James Connolly commented: “ The war of nation against nation in the interests of royal freebooters, and cosmopolitan thieves, is a thing accursed.
A Socialist Theorist, Connolly like many others was surprised when ‘ the working class of Europe, unimpressed by the inconvience their behaviour was cuasing socialist theorists, flocked to slaughter each other for God, King and Country. This finally compelled Connolly to reconsider the theory that socialism would bury nationalism. He concluded that if socialism were to come to Ireland at all, it could only come through nationalism, or rather through Republicanism.’
Prof JJ Lee. ‘Ireland 1912-1985 Politics and Society’ Cambridge University Press 1990. P20
Suffragettes were ordered to suspend their campaign by Mrs Pankhurst and turn their energies to supporting the war effort.
Following the declaration of war with Germany, ‘things in Dublin became very hectic. For a few days traffic through a route to the North Wall was stopped in order to leave a clear passage for the movement of troops to the North Wall for embarkation. They passed our shop in Amiens Street… the British used every device to induce young Irishmen to join their army. Posters with inducements were pasted up everywhere. One poster I rember was ‘Join up and see the world, and be paid for doing it’ some wag wrote under it ‘…and see the next world’, which was the fate of many’
Kathleen Clarke ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P53
Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty, in a letter to Redmond ‘I have called the new battleship Erin* on account of your memorable speech, the echoes of which will long linger in British ears’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.35
Battleship Erin: In Aug 1914 the Turkish battleship Resadiye (or Reshadieh) that was fitting out at Vickers (Barrow) was seized by the Royal Navy and taken into service as HMS Erin. Ordered in 1911 and built to a private design she mounted the same main battery as the contemporary British King George V on a hull that was 40-ft shorter. The design was generally on a par with British types - while her armour was slightly thinner she did have an anti-torpedo bulkhead that ran the full length of the citadel and her armament was better positioned. However, being shorter than contemporary British designs she was quite cramped and had considerably less bunker capacity. By the end of the First World War 2x3" HA [2x1] had been added to her armament along with aircraft flying-off platforms atop 'B' and 'Q' turrets. Paid off for disposal in May 1922 and sold for breaking up 19 Dec 1922.Displacement: 22120t (std) - 25250t (dpl) Dimensions: 559'06" (oa) x 91'07" (bm) x 32'00" (md) Armament: 10x13·5" BL [5x2], 16x6" BL [16x1], 2x3" HA [2x1], 4x21" TT [sub beam] Protection: 12·00-8·00" belt, 8·00-5·00" bulkheads, 2·50-1·00" deck(s), 11·00-3·00" turrets, 10·00-3·00" barbettes, 1·50" anti-torpedo bulkhead Machinery: 4-shaft steam turbines [15 boilers] = 26500shp Speed: 21·25kts (std) - 20·75kts (dpl) Endurance: 2120t coal & 710t oil = 4600nm @ 15kts Complement: 976
The Irish Times rejoiced that ‘the call to arms has come…we are glad that the formal declaration has come from our own Government and not from the enemies who have forced this quarrel upon us. This is the fitting answer to a direct and insolent challenge. The whole nation will welcome the ending of suspense.’
The Irish Times Book of The Century. Fintan O’Toole. Gill & Macmillan 1999. p70
20 million men were now under arms in Europe. By wars end, it would be 65 million. This war would cause the deaths of 26 million, half of them civilians dying from malnutition, disease and lack of medical care. A further 20 million would be maimed, deranged or otherwise disabled. Almost every state in Europe would become involved. Colonial forces from Canda, Australia and New Zealand would fight on European soil. Japan would join the Allied war effort with an eye to taking over German colonies in the East and Pacific. The US would join by 1917 but not before seeing the dramatic economic and social effects that would have longterm ramifications in future years.
Meanwhile in the US, the world’s first traffic lights were installed in Cleveland.
- Serbs ban the sending of press dispatches
- German ambassador in Brussel delivers German response to Belgian reply at 6 AM
- 8:02 AM Germans invade Belgium
- 9 AM King Alfred meets Belgian parliament
- German troops cross French border near Mars-La-Tour and Moineville
- Joffre leaves for the frontier
- Riots in Paris
- Noon. King Alfred appeals to Britain and France for military support regarding Belgian neutrality
- British Cabinet meets at 11 AM after hearing of Belgian invasion and issues ultimatum to expire at midnight
- Whitehall filled with crowds in support of British intervention in war
- British ulitmatum transmitted to Berlin and British Ambassador prepares to leave Berlin
- German Government appeals to Italians to honor treaty go unheeded
- Reichstag opens; speech by Kaiser (morning), stops for church services, reconvenes for German Chancellor speech (3 PM); Reichstag support of war and votes for war credits then adjourns (Socialists agree to set diferences aside and vote in support).
- (circa 2 PM and concurrent with Bethmann-Hollweg in Reichstag) Asquith announces to House of Commons that he has a message from King (Mobilization Proclamation) and reads terms of British ultimatum to Germany.
- 7 PM British ultimatum (two parts) becomes known in Berlin; British Amabassador presents it to Bethmann-Hollweg
- circa 9 PM, British intercept German message from Berlin that Germany considers itself at war with Britain the moment the British Ambassador asked for his passport (during delivery of British ultimatum)
- Japanese Government proclamation preparing country for war on behalf of England (war on 23 Aug)
- Canadian Cabinet meeting and mobilzation of Canadian Expeditionary Force begins; reservists sail
- Message of appreciation sent to Canada by King George
- Rival warship off Port of New York; Foreign consulates in U.S. busy with returning nationals
6:
Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia. Serbia delcared war on Germany. HMS Amphion became the first British ship to be sunk. German forces capture Liege.
7:
French forces invade Alsace. Gen. Joffre in supreme command of French army. Montenegro declares war with Austria and Britain's Expeditionary Force lands at Ostend, Calais and Dunkirk.
A special commitee of Clan na Gael led by John Devoy met with the German Ambassador, Count Von Bernstorff and his military attache, Captain Franz Von Papen at the German Club on 59th Street, New York. They advised that the I.R.B. intended to ‘use the opportunity presented by the war to make an effort to overthrow English rule in Ireland and set up an independent Government, that they had not an adequate supply of arms, no trained officers, and wanted Germany to supply the arms and a sufficient number of capable officers to make a good start, but that we wanted no money. We needed military help only…’
John Devoy. Recollections of an Irish Rebel. P.403
Also present was Wolf Von Igel, Von Papen’s assistant, a Herr Dernburg, journalist George Von Skal ( Devoy’s friend from the anti-Boer war demonstarations ) and others connected with the embasy. The Clann na Gael delegation emphasised that ‘a rebellion in Ireland would necessarily divert a large part of the British army from the fighting front on the Continent and that therefore it would be to Germany’s interests to help Ireland in her fight for freedom’
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P403
Bernstorff listened with ‘evident sympathy’ according to Devoy and promised to arrange a dispatch to the German Imperial Command in Berlin. However, historian Sean Cronin cites Professor Fritz Fischer , author of ‘Germany’s Aims in the First World War’ as stating that while the Ambassador sent the proposal to Berlin, he also commented he was opposed ‘since he feared that such an atempt would give the politcally and culturally dominant English element in the United States, its chance to prejudice the United States against Germany.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P51
Cables between Germany and the Embassy were soon describing Devoy as a ‘confidential agent of Germany…although it’s not clear exactly what he did on Germany’s behalf beyond organising and addressing pro-German meetings and turning the Gaelic American into a propaganda arm of the Kaiser’s armed forces…he soon became co-chairman of an innocent sounding, New York based group called Friends of Peace, which organised huge anti-ware demonstations in New York, Chicago and other heavily immigrant cities…the groups founder was a German spy – and an associate of Devoy’s – named Albert Sanders.’
Irish Rebel – John Devoy and America’s Fight for Irish Freedom. Terry Golway. St Martin’s Press, New York. 1998. p1980
In addition to the wireless ciphers, several copies were sent by courier. One was taken by Michael Francis Doyle of Philadelphia to Holland where he had been sent by the US State Department to provide for the return home of American citizens stranded by the war. Two more were taken by the Clann na Gael member, John Kenny.
Redmond met with the new Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener on ‘regularising and re-arming the Irish Volunteers’ but found him unresponsive to the extent that Redmond wrote a letter of protest to Asquith. Redmond’s request for the Irish Volunteers to serve at home and defend the country was flatly rejected by Kitchener who said “Get me 5000 men and I will say “Thank You”, get me 10,000 men and I will take my hat off to you”
The War divided Ireland, some looked upon it as the opportunity to demonstrate loyalty to “King and Country”, others as an opportunity to prepare and plan for future action “England’s difficulty was Ireland’s opportunity”
The opinion of Redmond and the Nationalist party was summed up by Pearse as..
“ I believe them honest, but they have sat so long at English feasts”
Redmond considered that Griffith and Sinn Fein were Pro-German and roundly denounced them. As for the majority of the population..’the general sentiment of our people is, unquestionably on the side of England in this war’
John Redmond to M.J.Ryan. Quoted in Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P166
The ‘Defence of the Realm’ Act 1914 becomes law.
8
Arthur Griffith, president of Sinn Fein commented: ‘Ireland is not at war with Germany…we are Irish nationalists and the only duty we have is to stand for Ireland’s interestes…if irishmen are to defend Ireland they must defend it for Ireland, under Ireland’s flag and under Irish Officers.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.36
An anti-war flyer published in Ireland:
WAR!!
ENGLAND, GERMANY AND IRELAND.
The mighty British Empire s on the verge of destruction. ‘The hand of the Lord had touched her’. The English live in daily terror of Germany. War between England and Germany is at hand. England’s cowardly and degenerate population wont make sldiers; not so the Germans. They are trained and ready.
WHAT WILL ENGLAND DO?
She’ll get Irish Fools to join her Army and Navy, send them to fight and die for her Empire. England has never fought her own battles. Irish traitos have ever been the backbone of her Army and Navy. How has she rewarded them? When they are no longer able to fight, she flings them back to Ireland, reeking with foul, filthy diseases to die in the workhouses.
WHY SHOULD YOU FIGHT FOR ENGLAND?
Is it in grattitude for the Priest hunters and the rack of the Penal days! The Gibbet! The Pitch Cap! The half hangings and all the horrors of ’98?
Is it in grattitude for the Famine when One Million of our people were slowly starved to death and Christian England thanking God that the Celts were going, going with a vengeance?
Is it grattitude for the blazing homesteads and the people half naked and satrved to death by the roadside?
STAND ASIDE
And have your revenge. Wihtout Ireland’s help England will go down before Germany as she would have gone down before the Boers had not the Irish fought her battle in South Africa. The English know this and they have offered us a bribe and call it
HOME RULE
It is not yet law, but believing us to be a nation of fools she wants payment in advance, and has sent her warships to our coasts to entrap young Irishmen.
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE
Feels bound to issue this solemn warning to young Irishmen against joining the English Army or Navy – for your own sake as well as for your country’s sake. You denounce as traitors the men who sold their votes to pass the Union. You denounce Judas who sold Christ, but generations yet unborn will curse YOU who now join England’s Army of Navy. Aye, will curse not alone the dupes who join, but also those who neglect to aid the VIGILANCE COMMITTEE in their crusade against the most Immoral Army and Navy in the world.
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
Serbia declares war with Germany.
9
The Supreme Council of the I.R.B. came cautiously to the surface in August and called for an open conference at 25 Parnell Square, the Headquarters of the Gaelic League. The Supreme Council had discussed the possibilities open to support a Rising, either a German landing, the imposition of conscription or an imminent end to the war. These were to be examined and decided upon in the September meeting.
‘With the outbreak of war, Casement threw off the mask of fund raiser and stood forth as a fanatical Anglophobe. The pleas that England had gone to war in defence of little Belgium meant less than nothing to him: he had seen what little Belgium could do in the Congo “I pray for the salvation of Germany” he wrote “ night and day - and God Save Ireland is another form of God Save Germany”. He now composed a memorial to Kaiser Wilhelm, setting forth the old argument that the freedom of Ireland was essential to the freedom of the seas, but setting it forth in language so fulsome that the Clan Executives themselves were taken aback, although they all signed the document. It was apprently sent to Germany by diplomatic pouch...Casement also...visited Captain Von Papen to suggest that an Irish Brigade could be recruited from Irish prisoners of war in German prison camps- a suggestion that Von Bernstorff relayed to Berlin as ‘a grand idea, if only it could be carried out”
George Dangerfield “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” Constable London. 1977. P.156-157
Casement’s address to the Kaiser included the statement that millions of Irish-American’s had a feeling of ‘sympathy and admiration for the heroic people of Germany.... We draw your Majesty’s attention to the part that Ireland necessarily, if not openly, must play in this conflict.... So long as Britain is allowed to exploit and misappropriate Ireland and her resources... she will dominate the seas.... Ireland must be freed from British control...’
The Clan na Gael Executive signed the statement which was then passed to the German Embassy in Washington for transmission to Berlin. Devoy, by nature both thorough and cautious, sent a courier, John Kenny to Berlin with the Clan na Gael programme where it was handed in person to the Chancellor. From there Kenny went on to Dublin where he briefed Tom Clarke on his mission and with additional information from the Clan.
Germany and Austria threatened to invade Italy if it refused to renounce its neutrality.
In Celtic Park, New York, some 10,000 Irish Americans assembled to hear speeches condemning Redmond’s pledge of co-operation with Britain and denoucning the Irish Parliamentary Party. Cheers were given for the Kaiser and German flags were carried by the marching units.
Arms from the landings at Howth and Wicklow made their way to various Irish Volunteers bodies.Cork received 50 rifles and passed to Tomas MacCurtain and J.J.Walsh. Terence McSwiney was given one for Ballingeary Company, twelve each went to Ballinadee and Courtbrack and two to Dunmanway. The remainder stayed in Cork with only enough ammunition for 20 rounds per weapon.
10:
The Education (Provision of Meals-Ireland ) Act becomes law. This allowed local authorities to provide meals for school-children.
The PM announced in the House of Commons that Kitchener the War Secretary would ‘do everything in his power, after consultation with gentlemen in Ireland, to arrange for the full equipment and organisation of the Irish Volunteers’
Florence O’Donoghue. ‘Thomas MacCurtain – Soldier & Patriot’ Anvil Books, Tralee, Co. Kerry. 1971. p.45
DORA ‘Defence of the Realm Act’ introduced as an all-encompassing legislationa llowing for trial by court martial of any suspected saboteur or spy and Government ministers to rule by decree. This was introduced along with state controls on food prices, state control of all railways and the total release without conditions of all jailed sufragettes and strikers.
In Dublin, the head of the Post Office in Ireland, Arthur Hamilton Norway arranged for a military guard to be provided at the GPO in Sackville Street. However up until the aftermath of the Rising in April 1916, these soldiers were never issued ammunition.
12
The New York Times commenting that anti-British passions in Ireland were somewhat diminished with the war and that ‘the union of the kingdom would be imperiled and it's strnght for defense imparied’ by Irish Home Rule were completely unfounded. ‘The Irish, without distinction of party, section or religion, were absolutley united and were all equally loyal to the national cause’.
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p37
John Phillip Holland, inventor of the submarine, dies in the US aged 79.
Britain declares war with Austria-Hungary and Montenegro at war with Germany.
13
On the night of 13 August, the German light cruisers, Magdeburg, ran aground in the fog on the reefs off Odensholm Island, Finland. With two Russian cruisers bearing down on the warship, the Magdeburg’s captain ordered his signalman to take the ships code books, the German Naval codebook, Singnalbuch der Kaiserlichen Marine, into a dinghy and to throw the books in their lead container, overboard. As this was happening, Russian shellfire killed the signalman. Shortly afterwards, sailors from the Pallada and Bogatyr captured the Magdeburg's commander and 56 crewmen. The most valuable items recovered were the signal logs and code tables, found in the signalman’s arms. Though sea-stained, they contained the work columns on which the codes were based, plus the key to the cipher system by which the codes had maximum variability, being able to change from hour to hour. This was to prove to be an invaluable discovery as were later used for decoding all the German radio transmissions throughout the entire war. Within days the books were with the Russian Admiralty in St Petersburg. Shortly afterwards, the Admiralty decided the books would be of better use by the British and were sent by courier to London.
Believing that Germany's advance into Belgium was a diversion, most of the French army moved northeast to attack Germany through the lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine.
14
Redmond and Devlin held talks with Lord Kitchener, Secretary for War, about how the Irish Volunteers could be incorporated into the British Army. Following this apparent about face, within days, moderate Irish American support for Redmond began to waver. The Irish World, while recognising the magntiude to the war, refused to accept that that European rivalries should in any way affect Ireland’s vital interests and for Redmond and Devoy to ‘fritter away any part of her military resources by going to England’s defense would be treason of the blackest kind’
John Devoy traveled by train to Newark, New Jersey with Jeremiah O’Leary ( later to be indicted in New York on treason charges in 1918 ) to address a meeting of German societies.
During the next few weeks, Devoy’s health detiorated somewhat. According to Patrick Egan, he was ‘a ‘sleepless demon’, an incomniac rushing from work to meting and from meetings to rallies and fund raisers, all the while corresponding regularly with Tom Clarke, McGarrity and other conspirators privvy to the secrets of the IRB and the Clan. During business hours he was a regular visitor to the German Consulate on Wall Street, a short walk from the Gaelic American and Friends of Peace offices…’
Irish Rebel – John Devoy and America’s Fight for Irish Freedom. Terry Golway. St Martin’s Press, New York. 1998. p201
German forces advanced into France.
The war caused great excitement throughout the country. ‘The Kaiser was denounced in pubs and on street corners. A thrill of suspicion grippe dthe coast, and German spies were discovered everywhere. One unfortunate ‘mysterious stranger’ on a sketching holiday was arrested three times in two days and finally ‘forwarded, under heavy escort, to the General commanding the forces in Cork.’ Only republicans and other dissident nationalists voiced their opposition’
Peter Hart ‘The IRA & It's Enemies – Violence and Community in Cork 1916-1923’ Oxford University Press 1998. p46
15
Press censorship came into operation in Ireland. It was to last until indpendence seven years later.
Americas: The Panama Canal was opened but due to the worsening situation in Europe, the formal opening was delayed for some years.
Sir Bryan Mahon was in Ireland, inspecting Volunteer companies and at the end of each review, asking the men if they would join the British Army to fight for ‘the freedom of small nations’. The reply he received after each meeting was it depended on what John Redmond advised. Redmond was shortly to come under increasing pressure to encourage the Volunteers to enlist.
16: Belgium: Liege falls to German forces after fierce resistance and heavy casualties.
17: France: British Expeditionary Force of 70,000 lands and within hours were fighting German forces.
German Army invasion and Allied counters.
Belgian administration removed from Brussels to Antwerp.
19:
The Dublin Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers in a statement denied they had entered into any agreement by which the Irish Volunteers force was to be handed over to the control of the British War Office, and statting that the committee had agreed only to carry out Redmond’s undertaking in the House of Commons to take joint action with the Ulster Volunteers in the defence of the island of Ireland.
20:
Belgium: German forces take Brussels
Pope Pius X (1835-1914) elected Pope 1903-1914 died aged 79. Conservative in both religion and politics, Pius stressed the inner life of the church and firmly opposed intellectual liberalism. He opposed Modernism, a reinterpretation of religious doctrine in the light of 19th-century scientific thought. In 1907 he issued a decree condemning 65 Modernist propositions and placed several Modernist works on the Index of Forbidden Books. During Pius's reign the church was weakened by anticlerical legislation in France and Portugal. Pius condemned the seizure of church property and the prohibition of religious education in those countries. Pius initiated the recodification of canon law, restored Gregorian chant to the liturgy, and established a new breviary as the standard for the whole church. Anticipating the Roman Catholic Action movement, he encouraged the laity to undertake church-supervised social action programmes. Pius was canonized in 1954.
In New York a German meeting pledged itself to an alliance of Germany, Austria and Ireland.
21
The British Army authorises the raising of 6 ‘new army’ divisions including that of the 10th (Irish) Division.
A Clan emissary, John Kenny left New York for Germany, carrying secret credentials from the German Embassy in Washington DC to introduce him to Von Flotow, the Ambassador in Rome. This in turn would allow him to travel direct to Germany and allow him to present the papers to Von Beulow personally in Berlin. From there he was to travel to Ireland and advise Tom Clarke. The address expressed a hope for a German victory, poitning out the strategic importance of Ireland and ‘impose a lasting peace upon the seas by effecting the independence of Ireland and securing it's recognition as a fixed condition of the terms of final settlement between the great maritime Powers’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p259
Irish Americans in Philadelphia condemned Redmond’s pledge to defend Ireland from foreign invaders.
22
Redmond wrote to Asquith that any postponement of the Home Rule legislation would be interpreted as ‘betrayal of our hopes, as a sham’ and how it was difficult to exagerate the intensity of the ‘sympathy which is now felt for England and of enthuastic approval of her cause in entering into the war with Germany…but all this splendid temper may be destroyed if there be any postponement of the Home Rule Bill.’
23:
Japan, which had made an alliance with Great Britain in 1902, declared war on Germany.
On the Western Front, German forces continue to push along the 150 mile Belgian front from Mons to Luxembourg.
In the East, Russian forces advanced 50 miles into Prussia.
British forces sent across the channel met the Germans at Mons in Belgium near the French frontier, and while holding them for a time, had to retreat. Von Moltke overestimating the German advance to the north, now sent more troops southwards, detached two army corps from the western front and sent them to the east where the Russian’s were attacking Prussia. Their arrival in the east was too late for actions there but profoundly influenced events on the Western Front.
The First Victoria Cross of the war was awarded posthumously to an Irishman, Lt.Maurice Dease.
24
Germans enter France near Lille.
25:
Austria-Hungary now at war with Japan.
Casement’s address to the Kaiser was finalised. As Devoy commented ‘we of Clann na Gael would have worded some portions of it differently, we accepted it as written, which was as follows:
(Insert OCR version of address here )
26: Russia – German forces attacked Samsonov’s Russain armies at Tannenberg and by the 30th, competely defeated them, taking more than 100,000 prisoners.
28
Austria-Hungary declares war on Belgium.
30
Amiens occupied by German forces.
James Connolly speaking at a memorial to three killed during the Dublin Lockout in 1913 declared: ‘If you are itching for a rifle, itching to fight, have a country of your own; better to fight for our country than for the robber empire. If you ever shoulder a rifle let it be for Ireland…make up your mind to strike before your opportunity goes.’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p259
31:
Asquith recorded his feelings for the Irish in his diary, that he wished he could ‘submerge the whole lot of them and their island for, say, ten years under the waves of the Atlantic’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P156
The invading Russian Army defeated at the Battle of Tannenberg over August 28-31st led by General Paul von Hindenburg,
St Petersburg renamed Petrograd as the original name was considered to be ‘too Germanic’.
September 1914
1:
‘An army marches on it’s stomach’ and no exception were the British and German troops in 1914:
British Daily Ration, 1914:
1 1/4 lb fresh or frozen meat, or 1 lb preserved or salt meat; 1 1/4 lb bread, or 1 lb biscuit or flour; 4 oz. bacon; 3 oz. cheese; 5/8 oz. tea; 4 oz. jam; 3 oz. sugar; 1/2 oz salt; 1/36 oz. pepper; 1/20 oz. mustard; 8 oz. fresh or 2 oz. dried vegetables; 1/10 gill lime juice if fresh vegetables not issued;* 1/2 gill rum;* not exceeding 2 oz. tobacco per week.
(* at discretion of commanding general.)
The following substitutions were permitted if necessary: 4 oz. oatmeal or rice instead of 4 oz. bread or biscuit; 1/30 oz. choclate instead of 1/6 oz. tea; 1 pint porter instead of 1 ration spirit; 4 oz. dried fruit instead of 4 oz. jam; 4 oz. butter, lar d or margarine, or 1/2 gill oil, instead of 4 oz. bacon.
British Iron Ration, carried in the field:
1 lb. preserved meat; 12 oz. biscuit; 5/8 oz. tea; 2 oz. sugar; 1/2 oz. salt; 3 oz. cheese; 1 oz. meat extract (2 cubes.)
German Daily Ration, 1914
(measured in grams; ounce equivalent in parentheses):
750g (26 1/2 oz) bread, or 500g (17 1/2 oz) field biscuit, or 400g (14 oz.) egg biscuit; 375g (13 oz.) fresh or frozen meat, or 200g (7 oz) preserved meat; 1,500g (53 oz.) potatoes, or 125-250g (4 1/2-9 oz.) vegetables, or 60g (2 oz.) dried vegetables, or 600g (21 oz.) mixed potatoes and dried vegetables; 25g (9/10 oz.) coffee, or 3g (1/10 oz.) tea; 20g (7/10 oz.) sugar; 25g (9/10 oz.) salt; two cigars and two cigarettes or 1 oz. pipe tobacco, or 9/10 oz. plug tobacco, or 1/5 oz. snuff; at discretion of commanding officer: 0.17 pint spirits, 0.44 pint wine, 0.88 pint beer.
The meat ration was reduced progressively during the war, and one meatless day per week was introduced from June 1916; by the end of that year it was 250g (8 3/4 oz.) fresh meat or 150g (5 1/4 oz.) preserved, or 200g (7 oz) fresh meat for support and trai n personnel. At the same time the sugar ration was only 17g (6/10 oz.).
German Iron Ration:
250g (8.8 oz) biscuit; 200g (7 oz.) preserved meat or 170g (6 oz.) bacon; 150g (5.3 oz.) preserved vegetables; 25g (9/10 oz.) coffee; 25g (9/10 oz.) salt.
Haythornthwaite, Philip J, The World War One Sourcebook, Arms and Armour Press, A Cassell Imprint, 1992, pps 380-81.
September 1914 Allied unity was made stronger by the Pact of London, signed by France, Great Britain, and Russia. As the war progressed, other countries, including Turkey, Japan, the United States, and other nations of the western hemisphere, were drawn into the conflict
German troops occupied the town of Arras in northern France.
Mountjoy Prison saw a phased release of certain categories of prisoners, released to join up and fight. Sandbag-making became the new form of prison labour and a new type of prisoner began to arrive – concientious objectors.
2:
Turkey orders a general mobilisation of all armed forces.
Plans were now drafted by Churchill and the British Admiralty to requestiion British merchant shipping for service either as mine sweeping, submarine chasing or converted to ‘Q Ships’. These were the mystery ships, craft plucked from an assortment of trawlers, tramp steamers and cargo vessels. Crews were paid off and vessels sailed to Queenstown, Co. Cork for conversion to decoys and so the term ‘Q-Ships’. Conversion varied a great deal, from name change, adjustment of ships colours, a dummy funnel, altering deck housing but with the main objective of installing a deck gun and disguising it. These vessels would steam the high seas and entice U-Boat attacks in the belief they were unarmed merchant shipping. Crews were specially trained Royal Navy gunners and all operated under the objective of lulling any U-Boat into a false sense of security before opening fire. The Navy rewarded all succesful sinkings with £1000 to be divided amongst the crew at the Captains discretion. U-Boats however were generally quick to realise the subterfuge and by years end and the loss of about 12 subs, the German Navy had adopted a ‘shoot first – ask questions later’ policy.
To the disgust of many of his supporters, William O’Brien held a recruiting meeting in Cork City Hall.
3:
Edward Carson in a speech at meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council announced that the War Office had agreed to allow members of the Ulster Volunteer Force to form a division of their own, the 36th Ulster with their own officers and training in Ulster camps. ‘Our country and our Empire are in danger. I say to our volunteers without hesitation, go and help to save your country’
The War Office refused similar concessions to nationalist regiments.
John Devoy received word that his brother Michael had died in New Mexico. Devoy left on the long train journey to the South West that afternoon with all meetings and plans put on hold until his return. Commenting to McGarrity that his brother’s death ‘comes at a most inconvient time’ he sent him a cheque for $3,500 to send onto the IRB in Dublin. Devoy was absent for a week but came back substantially wealthier as he was his brother’s only heir and the inheirtance eventually made it’s way to John’s orphanced nephews and niece in Dublin.
Paris under a state of seige and the French Government moved from Paris to Bordeaux.
5: UK, France and Russia agree not to conlcude separate peace deals with Germany.
Germany captured Rheims and took 12,000 prisoners.
A meeting of the St Louis Irish Americans repudiated Redmond’s leadership.
6:
In the First Battle of the Marne ( September 6-9) French troops under General Joffre halted the German advance near the Marne, less than 48 km (30 mi) from Paris. Initially, German forces had been meeting with little resistance in their march on Paris, when supposedly because of an error in decoding an order, they wheeled to the south-east. Joseph Simon Gallieni, the military governor of Paris, persuaded the French commander in chief, Joseph Joffre, to attack the flank exposed. Under Joffre's orders, troops were rushed from Paris to the front by all available means, including 600 taxicabs, and the Allied attack began on September 6 in what was to become the First Battle of the Marne. By September 9 the German armies had retreated, and the threat to Paris was ended.
The bloody 7 day Battle of the Marne proved to be the most decisive since Waterloo and of the 1914-18 conflict. Both sides quickly settled down to a war of attrition over meters of ground crisscrossed with trenches. Each side had now suffered close to 500,000 casualties.
The French halted the advance of Kluck's army, which had outdistanced the other two German armies and could not obtain their support. French pressure on the German right flank caused the retreat of Kluck's army and then a general retreat of all the German forces to the River Aisne. The French advanced and, in an endeavour to force the Germans from the Aisne, engaged them in three battles: the Battle of the Aisne; a battle on the River Somme; and the First Battle of Arras.
A monilisation of the Irish Volunteers took place of the city and country took place, assebling at various centres, primarily Parnell Square and then marched to Three Rock Mountain where 6,000 went through military operations.
7: Sir Edward Carson urges the Ulster Volunteers to join the army.
US: The Passenger Pigeon became extinct as the last bird died in captivity.
8: Katie Kolvitz, a German sculptor recalled sending her only son off to war, where he died two days later.
‘I knew it all even then. I sat on the bed and wept, wept, wept. Where do all these women find the courage to send their dear ones to the front and their deaths when they have watched over them all their lives with love and care.’
Tragedy struck in Granig and was reported in the ‘From the Four Corners of Eirinn’ section of the Gaelic American:
‘Peter Duffy, 18, a farm hand with Timothy Lynch, Granig, Ballyfeard, was attacked by a bull, which mauled him with such ferocity that he lived only half an hour afterwards, the bull goring him for several minutes before assistance arrived.’
P3 Gaelic American October 3rd , 1914 Lynch Family Archives.
Family recollection is that Peter Duffy was an orphan who was billeted with the Lynchs.
Check local press for additional information
9:
A meeting or “Council of War” was held in Dublin in the offices of the Gaelic League in 25 Parnell Street a location suggested by Sean T. O’Kelly as the premises ‘was not under police surveilance’.
Organised by the Supreme Council of the I.R.B., Tom Clarke presided along with Pearse, MacDonagh, Plunkett, McDermott, Ceannt, McBride, O’Kelly, William O’Brien, Tobin, McGarry and Connolly. This was a crucial meeting at which a decision was reached to make war against England on behalf of the Irish republic in order to secure a seat at the peace conference at war’s end as a beligerent, to speed up recruitment for the Irish Volunteers, the Citizen Army, Cumman na mBan and Fianna Eireann, to resist any attempt by the British to enforce conscription in Ireland and/or to disarm the Irish Volunteers. They also agreed should a German landing be made in Ireland, they would receive support provided they received German assistance when an insurrection was planned.
The IRB also appointed a military committee to secretly take over control of the Irish Volunteers and prepare for a possible armed rising depending on progress on the Western Front.
“ Much hinged on the length of the war. Its continuation deprived Redmond of his anticipated postwar home rule army, as well as giving the IRB time to actually do something. The stalemate in Flanders salvaged the reputation of the IRB and doomed the remaining hopes of Redmond”
Prof JJ Lee. ‘Ireland 1912-1985 Politics and Society’ Cambridge University Press 1990. P23
According to Austen Morgan, little came of the meeting. Connolly proposed 2 sub-committees, one to plan an insurection by getting in touch with the Germans, and the other to recruit through an open organisation. ‘Connolly came away from the meeting with a low opinion of the participants’
Austen Morgan. ‘James Connolly – a political biography’. Manchester University Press. 1988. .p147
Prime Minister Asquith called for another 500,000 men to sign up promising the soldiers would be ‘treated as never before’. Soldiers pay was 1/ a day or if lodging outside the barracks, an extra 2/ a day board and lodgings.
German armies scored another victory against the Russians between the 9th and 14th taking 125,000 captive. These battles and the victory at Tannenberg meant the German’s never had their eastern territory threatened by the Russians for the remainder of the war. Nevertheless, the initial advance into Prussia had effecively won the 1914-18 war by frigtening von Molkte into sending two corps eastwards from the Western front and allowing the Allies to win the Battle of the Marne and contain the German advance.
10th
German forces retreat from the Marne and take up defensive positions at the Soissoins-Rheims line.
11
The British Army authorised the raising of 6 further divisions, the ‘Second new army’ of which the 16th (Irish) Division was to be a part.
Both Allied and German forces since the Battle of the Marne, now extended their front lines northwards in an attempt to outflank the other, within months leading from the Swiss border to the Channel. Both sides had dug in for the longest and bloodiest stalemate seen. Von Molkte was sacked by the Imperial High Command and replaced by Erich von Falkenhayn. While he argued that the war would be won in the West, both Hindenburg and Ludendorff wanted to pursue the Russians and the Kaiser agreed with them. Von Falkenhayn was advised to remain on the defensive in the West allowing German forces to continue against the Russians.
12
Connolly described the Irish press as ‘a sewer pipe for the pouring of English filth upon the shores of Ireland.’ Adding that he hoped the Irish would not have to ‘pay an awful price for the lying attacks…upon the noble German nation’.
Austen Morgan. ‘James Connolly – a political biography’. Manchester University Press. 1988. .p150
In the House of Commons, PM Herbert Asquith proposed the suspension of the Home Rule Bill for the duration of the war.
‘We must all recognise…that employment of force, any kind of force, for what you call the coercion of Ulster, is an absoultely unthinkable thing…the Home Rule Bill will not, and cannot come into operation until Parliament has had the fullest opportunity, by an Amending Bill, of altering, modifying or wualifying it's provisions in such a way as to secure the general consent both of Ireland and of the United Kingdom.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.36
Asquith also reported to the King that in the Cabinet meeting to decide to pass the Home Rule bill ‘Sir E. Grey laid especial stress, in view of the situation in the United States, upon the necessity at the earliest foreseeable date o fputting the Itihs Bill on the Statute Book, though not into immediate operation’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p217 notes
American opinion was strongly behind the granting of Home Rule and now for the first time, Redmond was forced to define the relationship between Britain and Ireland. To many, this appeared to be a betrayal of Irish nationality.
13:
Joseph Devlin spoke at a review in Midleton, Co.Cork – disapointing many Irish Volunteers supporters that he would not be as pro-British as Redmond.
14:
French reoccupy Amiens and Rheims.
The first Naval battle took place in the Bight of Heligoland when three German cruisers were sunk by the Royal Navy.
15:
The Home Rule Bill would be allowed to pass onto the statute book but at the same time a Suspensory Bill to suspend the operation of Home Rule was introduced by the Government in the House of Commons and passed all three readings without division for a period of 12 months or till a later date if the war continued.
Asquith had won. Bonar Law responded with a bitter speech and then led the Tories out of the Commons in protest, which Asquith described as:
‘Not really an impressive spectacle, a lot of prosaic and for the most part, middle-aged gentlemen, trying to look like early French revolutionists in the tennis court’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p260
Despite the suspension of the Home Rule process, Redmond stood in the House of Commons and said ‘Just as Botha and Smuts have been able to say…that the concession of free institutions in South Africa has changed the men who but ten or a little more years ago were your bitter enemies in the field into your loyal comrades and fellow citizens in the Empire, just as truthfull can I say to you that…Ireland has been transformed from what George Meredith described a short time ago as ‘the broken arm of England’ into one of the strongest bulwarks of the Empire.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.36
17
Casement decided to issue a statement to the press with regard to the situation in Ireland and the European war. He consulted with John Quinn and Burke Cockran, and both tried to persuade him from issuing it. Cockran was cautious about taking any stand on a policy to be pursued in Ireland. Quinn on the other hand, was a close friend of Devoy, Cohalan and other Irish-American leaders, but with the outbreak of war, became more pro-Ally and anti- Clan na Gael ‘the staunchest supporter that the Allies had among Irish American leaders’ and so disagreed with Casement’s pro-German sentiments. The release date of 17 September 1914 was delayed temporarily as Casement sought further advice, but was later printed in the US Press and in the Irish Independent on October 5th was titled an ‘Open Letter to Irishmen’ to stay out of the war.
‘Ireland has no blood to give to any land, to any cause but that of Ireland.... has suffered at the hands of British administrators a more prolonger series of evils, deliberately inflicted than any other community of civilised men...no Irishman fit to bear arms in the cause of his country’s freedom can join the Allied millions now attacking Germany, in a war that at best concerns Ireland not at all, and that can only add fresh burdens and establish a new drain in the interests of another community .…if this be a war for the ‘small nationalities’ as it’s planners assert, then let it begin, for one small nationality at home.’
18:
Devoy recalled receiving a letter from Casement on the ‘Open Letter to Irishmen’: ‘We were more surprised that Sir Roger had, without saying a word to any of us, taken Burke Cochran and John Quinn into his confidence by consulting with them on this matter. They were both honourable men, but neither of them was in agreement with our policy…while a highly intelectual man, Casement was very emotional and as trustful as a child. He was also obssessed with the idea that he was a better judge than any of us, at either side of the Atlantic, of what ought to be done….this created many difficulties and embarrassments for us.’
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P406
The Home Rule Bill came to fuition after some 30 years of campaigning, received Royal assent, but with two provisos: (1) That the bill should not come into operation until the end of the war, (2) That it would not come into operation until Parliament had time to make special amending legislation for Ulster.
“Redmond like Parnell, was thus thwarted of his ambition to lead the Irish people into the promised land of Home Rule” Mark Tierney. ”Modern Ireland”. Gill & McMillan, Dublin 1972. p57
Sinn Fein warned ‘If the Home Rule Bill be signed, but not brought into immediate operation by the appointment of a Home Rule Executive Government, Ireland is sold and betrayed. Let every Irishman get that into his head and keep it there.’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p261
Home rule was shelved for the moment and the crisis postponed, but the Ulster Question remained unresolved.
The Irish World commented ‘The accursed Union ended’ and ‘Home Rule is come at last’ but warned of the crisis in Irish affairs with Irishmen serving in the British Army. The Irish World felt that Irishmen had no obligation to fight for England and Redmond certainly had no right to serve as a British recruiting agent.
French forces recaptured the northern French town of Arras from the Germans and began to fortify it on September 18.
19:
Terence McSwiney produced the first issue of his weekly paper ‘Fianna Fail’. It published 11 times up until 5 December when it was supressed. While it supported IRB policy, it was produced and financed exclusively by McSwiney. He wrote:
‘…the present crisis has called us into being, not to disseminate news, but principles; to help in framing a policy for Ireland, consistent with her soverign rights that will seize the opportunity of the moment and restore her the supreme power of deciding her affairs within and her relations without’
Florence O’Donoghue. ‘Thomas MacCurtain – Soldier & Patriot’ Anvil Books, Tralee, Co. Kerry. 1971. p.49
The flow of copied German cipher messages continued to the Admiralty and War Office in London, but remained undeciphered. The Admiralty finally detailed a small team of four and routed interception and decoding of all German military telegraph messages to an area that became known as Room 40 at the Admiralty. There the group was led by Captain ( later Admiral ) Reginald Hall, a 44 year old with a voice ‘like a machine gun’. Nicknamed ‘Blinker’ from a facial tick, he recruited a close knit team around him, including women as cipher experts and typists that became known as ‘Blinker’s Beauty Chorus’.
20:
Popular opinion was that the war would be short with a romantic aspect. It was after all, for a small Catholic country (Belgium) and there was a wave of enlistment into the British forces. However the Battle of the Marne would be the last manoeuvre of the pre-war type and that the dreadful stalemate was about to begin.
The Woodenbridge Speech.
John Redmond received a motor car from a number of his supporters as a token of appreciation for getting the Home Rule bill passed and met up with Colonel Maurice Moore, stopping off for lunch in Co. Wicklow. During this lunch, they were told that there was to be a Volunteer parade in nearby Woodenbridge and the local organisers were anxious that Redmond stop off and make an encouraging speech. He advised them that he was planning to make his first public speech in his home constituency of Waterford, but finally agreed to a brief and impromptu speech to the local Volunteers.
Within an hour, Redmond had inspected the Volunteers in Woodenbridge and then made the promised brief and impromptu but as it turned out, the most disastrous and politically fatal speech of his career. This came to be recognised as the speech that brought the Irish Party to an inglorious end.
Redmond proposed that the Volunteers go “wherever the firing line extends in deference of right, of freedom and religion in this war”, with the immediate result of transfering the Volunteers from a defence force who would never go overseas, to a reservoir of recruits for the English Army.
His traveling companion, Colonel Moore was aghast, considering it utterely irresponsible for Redmond to have delivered a politicla harangue to men on parade and blamed himself later that he had not, there and then spoken to the men, telling them that Mr Redmond’s speech was a personal political opinion and one that he did not share with the leader of the Irish Party.
This “Woodenbridge Speech” in which Redmond had attempted to throw the strenght of the Irish Volunteers behind Britain’s war effort quickly led to an immediate split in the organisation. Redmond’s original speech in the House of Commons on the declaration of war was acceptable, with some military defence of the country being devolved to the Volunteers, but to enlist and fight with the British was entirely unacceptable to many. Within a few days, the Irish Volunteers Executive Committee expelled Redmond’s 25 nominees from the organisation. The majority 170,000 volunteers stayed with Redmond to form the Irish National Volunteers ( known as National Volunteers ). Just under 6.5% or 11,000 declared their allegiance to MacNeill, retained the name Irish Volunteers.
From this date until the end of the war, the main activity of the Irish Party was giving all possible assistance to the British drive for recruits with meetings held throughout the country. The first to join were young men from an Anglo-Irish background, the Catholic bourgeoisie and those from the other end of the social spectrum, the unemployed and those on subsistence wages. By wars end, the ratio of Irishmen killed to the total troops serving would be one in five.
At the time, the war was anticipated to last only a few months, the Home Rule Bill was on the Statute Books with the proviso that it be suspended for the duration of the war with Parliament then making a special case for Ulster. The thinking amongst the Irish Parliamentary Party as well as the majority in Ireland, that should the Irish stand idly by in the Empire’s hour of need, then the soon to be implemented Home Rule Act could be very substantially altered as well in addition to loosing any possible fsupport from the Ulster Unionists. Irish American moderate opinion were incensed with Redmond with the Irish World newspaper stating ‘We must part company with hime when he asks the Irish Volunteers to help his recruiting campaign for the British Army’ and for a number of weeks afterwards ran anti-recruitment editorials and letters
Professor JJ Lee surmises that Redmond in fact sought to strenghten his hand. The Irish Volunteers were not effectively armed, but men returning from the War, possibly at the latest in 1915, with military training, would offer ‘ some bargaining power vis-à-vis both Carson and Asquith’.
Prof JJ Lee. ‘Ireland 1912-1985 Politics and Society’ Cambridge University Press 1990. P21
It was announced that Prime Minister Asquith would speak in the Mansion House on September 25th.
21:
MacNeill’s 20 member re-organised Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers issued a call for a Convention in an attempt to win back as many as possible that followed Redmond. The Provisional Committee repudiated Redmond’s proposal, opting to expel him & his associates. Redmond in turn formed a separate body of his own calling them “The National Volunteers” and called on all the Irish Volunteers members to leave and join his organisation. Over 80% ( 150,000 )of the Volunteers countrywide followed him. Pearse commented: ‘Mr Redmond is no longer entitled, through his nominees, to any place in the administration and guidance of the Irish Volunteers’
The Tracton Irish Volunteers Company numbering some 50 men under command of Michael Lynch was not immune to the effects of the Redmond split. The strength was reduced to 19 or 20 men and continued unchanged up to Easter Week 1916. However drilling, weekly parades, Sunday route marches and target practice with their sole rifle, a .22, continued. Their activities were monitored by the local R.I.C. and reported to Dublin Castle on a regular basis.
Both the Irish Volunteers and Citizen Army leadership decided that the Mansion House should be occupied at an early stage to prevent Asquith speaking in support of Redmond’s National Volunteers and recruitment for British forces. Some discussion took place and tentative arrangements made to occupy the building on September 24th, the evening before the meeting and should an occupation not go ahead, for an Irish Volunteers Convention meeting to be held in opposition to the Mansion House meeting on the 25th.
‘Two or three nights before this meeting, Tom Clarke informed me of the proposed coup and asked me to hold the men on parade that night as long as possible, and to get as big a muster as I could, so when the action of the committee was announced, we might have something of a demonstation, and thus guage the feelings of the men.’ Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P15
22: Royal Navy cruisers Cresy, Aboukir and Hogue are sunk by U-Boats – 1,500 sailors die.
23: British aircraft bomb Zeppelin workshops in Dusseldorf.
24:
80 Volunteers and 40 Citizen Army men assembled to march and occupy the Mansion House, but was called off due to the high military presence in the streets adjoining the building.
The Gaelic American began publication of Casement’s ‘Ireland, Germany and Freedom of the Seas’ in which he argued her control of the seas was allied to that of her control over Ireland, allowing ‘her to become a law unto herself’ in regard to international trade and to dictate terms on which other nations are permitted to carry on commerce and to effectively blockade other nations.
25:
The Irish Volunteers Convention took place with the remainder of the Volunteers, about 13,500 keeping the original name and became known as “The Irish Volunteers”. 150 delegates at a meeting in the Abbey Theatre elected: Eoin MacNeill - Chairman & Chief of Staff - P.H.Pearse - Director of Operations - represented the I.R.B, Joseph Plunkett - Director of Military Operations - represented the I.R.B, Thomas MacDonagh - Director of Training - represented the I.R.B. The O’Rahilly - Director of Arms. Bulmer Hobson - Quartermaster General
British Prime Minister Asquith arrived on an official visit to Dublin and was scheduled to address a recruiting meeting with Redmond in the Mansion House garrisoned for the visit by a regiment of troops and a number of machine gun outposts.
The Irish Volunteer Executive ordered it’s members not to protest or demonstrate against the meeting, instead ordering the 1st Battalion out to escort the body of the last victim of the Batchelor Walk shootings from the hospital where he died the previous day to his home in the Coombe, and to return to the drill hall in Parnell Square West.
As the Irish Volunteers Provisonal Committee met in opposition to the Asquith-Redmond meeting across town in the Mansion House, some 2,000 members drilled in the Parnell Square Hall and awaited developments.
Over a number of hours, the commitee approved a new policy declaration, calling for a trained and armed Volunteer force to defend the Irish people, denoucing partition, disunion, conscription and the system of governing Ireland through Dublin Castle and military power.
‘ From the very inception of the Irish Volunteers, men prominent in the IRB throughout the country, especially in the most populous centres, took a leading part in organising and training the various Companies and Battalions. What with this and the further fact that the secret organisation was well represented among the rank and file of the Volunteers, the force as a whole gradually and perhaps unconciously, became imbued with an ‘offensive’ rather than a ‘defensive’ concept.’
Diarmuid Lynch ‘The Countermanding Orders of Holy Week 1916’ written for ‘An Cosantoir’ but not published due to objections from Bulmer Hobson. Later published in ‘The IRB and the 1916 Rising’ 1957.
Next, the Provisonal Committee of the Irish Volunteers agreed to expel the 25 men who had been nominated to the organisation by John Redmond.
‘This action was well planned and carried out without a hitch. It came as a bombshell to the Parliamentary Party and to the men who joined when they assumed control’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P18.
The O’Rahilly cabled John Devoy in the Gaelic American: ‘Redmond’s nominees fired out. O’Rahilly.’
P1 Gaelic American October 3rd , 1914 Lynch Family Archives.
Meanwhil in the Mansion House, the Asquith-Redmond meeting was attended by ‘business men and supporters of the Parliamentary Party, admission being by ticket, this was in an attempt to limit the attendance to symathisers with the Allied cause.’ Both employers and Government departments were by this stage effectivly promoting recruitment within the workplace, some with ‘ a thinly veiled threat of dismissal in the event of non-enlistment’ Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P15
Monteith had received two scarce tickets to the meeting the previous night from Sean Hesuton and passed them along to Tom Clarke. He in turn arranged for two men to be present – one ( un-named ) from the Irish Volunteers and one from the Citizen Army – Eddie Kavanagh*, labour activist, artist and writer known by initials ‘E.K.’ in his ‘Irish Worker’ articles and cartoons. E.K. sat in the audience making caricatures of the speakers as Redmond appealed for the support of Ireland in the fight for the freedom of small nationalities. The irony wasn’t lost on any in the Nationalist movement.
(* Monteith described Kavanagh as a man with an overpowering social conciousness: ‘The poverty and wretchedness of the Dublin workers weighed heavily upon his heart, enshrouding him in pessimism when it did not half madden him. I have seen the blood surge in a crimson wave over his usually pale face at the sight of a shivering half starved child whilst his hand went to his pocket for his last few coppers. It was not unusual for E.K. to dispose of his weeks salary to the waifs and strays of Dublin within five hundred yards of Liberty Hall where he was employed as a clerk in the Insurance section of the Transport Worker’s Union, leaving him penniless for a week to come…’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P6
Eddie Kavanagh was later killed during the Rising at Liberty Hall according to Monteith. )
Asquith for the first time publicly supported the concept of ‘an Irish Brigade – better still an Irish Army Corps’ Irish recruits would not lose their identity ‘and become absorbed in some inveterbrate mass, or …artificially distributed into units which have no national cohesion or character’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P161
Nothing came of the pledge, as Irish soldiers joining the colours continued to be dispersed through British regiments and not allowed form any exclusive Irish brigades or divisions. Kitchener. who held an abiding memory of the military Fenians combined with an intense dislike of the Irish and all things Irish, obtuesly refused the formation of any exculsive Irish division.
Despite the Irish Volunteers reaction, Labour and the Citizen Army had no difficulty in protesting against the British Prmeier’s visit. Connolly had returned to Dublin and took part in leading a protest march against the Asquith’s recruiting drive address from the Mansion House, leading the march from Liberty Hall to Stephen’s Green with Larkin, Daly and Countess Markievicz at the head of 100 Citizen Army men.
That evening, as the Irish Volunteers announcement of the expulsion became known, Monteith recalled: ‘About 11.20pm, we heard the news boys on the street yelling ‘Stop Press Edition’ and at that moment Mr. M.J. Judge appeared on the stage and read the manifesto of the original committee…the boys simply went wild with joy, so tired were they of the old Parliamentarian regime…it took at least three quarters of an hour to get them out of the hall and started to their homes.’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P18
Devoy writing later in the Gaelic American commented ‘John Redmond put the finsihing touches on his treasonto Ireland by appearing at a meeting the the Dublin Mansion House with the English PM Mr Asquith…to appeal to Irishmen to join the British Army at the front in France. ..to stand up to be shot so that England may win in her most unjust and unprovoked war to destroy German commerce and maintain for herslf the mastery of the sea which enables her to menace the peace of the world continually and break it at her convience…Loyalists filled the Mansion House and cheered Redmond and Asquith…’
P4 Gaelic American October 3rd , 1914 Lynch Family Archives.
German Ambassador in Washington, Count von Bernstorff in dipatch #166 to Berlin commented to the Foreign Office ‘The decisive point seems to me lie in the question whether any prospect of an understanding with England is now in view, or must we prepare ourselves for a life and death struggle. If so, I recommend falling in with Irish wishes provided that there are really Irishmen who are prepared to help us…’
W. J.Maloney. “The Forged Casement Diaries.” Talbot Press, Dublin 1936. p233-6.
The dispatch was intercepted by Room 40 at the British Admiralty, decoded and later published in the British White Paper ‘Documents relative to Sinn Fein’.
26:
While the I.R.B succeeded in controlling one section of the Volunteers, they had no control over the Redmondite Constitutional Nationalists wing. The National Committee of the National Volunteers was founded with Redmond becoming it’s president. The organisation opened offices in 24 Parnell Square, next door to the Gaelic League and not far from the Irish Volunteers HQ.
Ireland now had four military organisations in Ireland, each distinct and separate:
Cumman na mBan also suffered through the Irish Volunteers split. At a meeting of the Dublin branches, the organisation split. Kathleen Clarke’s Central Branch lost 176 of the original 200 members.
The split divided Nationalist Ireland initially down the middle. Many felt the only was to achieve a semblance of Home Rule was to prove the nation’s determination to assist Britian in her hour of need so that when war was won and peace came, Ireland would receive her fair reward. The Irish Volunteers thought otherwise – the only route to self-government would be through violence and revoloution. Members of the Irish Volunteers voted with their feet – either moving to the National Volunteers and enlisting or leaving the organisation completely through a growing fear of possible conscription later in the year or in 1915.
In August 1914 two Russian armies advanced into East Prussia, and four Russian armies invaded the Austrian province of Galicia. In East Prussia a series of Russian victories against numerically inferior German forces had made the evacuation of that region by the Germans imminent, when a reinforced German army commanded by General Paul von Hindenburg decisively defeated the Russians in the Battle of Tannenberg, fought on August 26-30, 1914.
27
Unaware that Kitchener was determined to prevent the formation of any Irish Corp other than a loyal Ulster Corp, Redmond was to shortly begin to tour the country on an intensive recruitment drive reinforcing the promises made by the Prime Minsiter.
Clan na Gael Conference
The Clan na Gael conference in Atlantic City, NJ was underway and attended by Diarmuid Lynch representing the IRB in Ireland. A public statement was released repudiating Redmond’s action in guaranteeing Irish support of England during the war with Germany:
‘We the representatives of Clan na Gael of America, in convention assembled, deem it our duty to protest against the worst betrayal of Ireland since Castlereagh sold the Irish Parliament, and to seek the earnest co-operation of every true Irishman in preventing it's consumation.
The action of John Redmond in guaranteeing Irish military support to England in her war with Germany is treason to Ireland, dishonouring to the Irish race and intended to destroy for ever the hope of Irish Freedom. No baser act has ever been committed in all Irish history. If it is not frustrated by prompt and decisive action by the Irish people it must inevtiably bring disaster to the Irish Cause.
It is were possible to regard it as an honest act of weakness, it's consequences to Ireland would be none the less harmful, and it could only be characterised as the worst act of folly ever committed by an Irish leader. It is paying in advance an enormous price for the promise of a worthless political concession. It guarantees the salvation of the British Empire in it's hour of greatest peril in return for a measure which would rivet Ireland’s chains more securely, keep her in perpetual penury and ensure the continued stifling of her industrial life
But Mr Redmond’s record for several years past leave sno room for doubt that his action is the the result of a courrpupt bargain with the English Government. It was a deliberate and wanton act of treachery to his own country in the interests of it's only enemy and with the purpose of destroying the greatest opportunity for winning it's freedom that has come to it since the American Revoloution.
Daniel O’Connell’s maxim that ‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity’ was founded on and justified by the facts of Irish history. It is equally appliable to all forms of Irish political effort. England has never yet granted any concession to Ireland willingly or because of the justice of Ireland’s demand. Every such concesion has been wrung from England’s fears. She yeilded only to the use of force or the menace of force, to avert serious inconvience to her foreign or domestic policy and to safeguard her own interests. And she never fully redressed any wrongs or made a genuine effort to promote the interests of Ireland.
England still holds Ireland down with deliberate and unrelenting purpose of stifling her industrial and commercial growth and to preserve her own mastery of the sea, which is the chief menance to the peace of the world. This sinister purpose is revealed in every provision of the Bill which pretends to give Ireland Home Rule, but which witholds from her all control over her vital interests and every power and attribute of self Government, from the right to foster and promote her industries to the collection of taxes.
The measure for which Redmond has guaranteed Ireland’s loyalty, the blood of her sons in an unjust and unprovoked war and the betrayal of the United States by Irish Citizens is the worst political abortion and the meanest act of cheating in the annals of legislation. After going through the farce of ‘placing it on the Statute Book’ another Bill is hurried through Parliament suspending it till the close of the war, and the Government makes the announcement that it will later introduce an Amendment Bill which will exclude part of the country from it's operations and perpetuate the religious strife which has cursed Ireland for generations.
All this is done with the ocnsent and the approfal of the Irish Parliamentary Party, which boasts that he ‘holds the Minsitry in the hollow of it's hand;’ and when Ireland most need a body of Irishmen in Dublin to guide the people in a time of sore trial and danger. The party could have compelled the Government to grant a much larger measure, but they did not even try. They consented to every amendment making the wretched bill worse and made no effort whatever to improve it. Able to turn out the Government in an hour, they kept it in power and submissively obeyed it's orders. It is a notorious fact that they could have madebetter terms with the Tories, but they rejected their advances and in the interests of English measures which do not affect Ireland, made an alliance with the Liberals. They played a game of English politics at the expense of Ireland and deliberately sacrificed Irish interests. They voted for Budgets which robbed Ireland, and permitted the breach of a postal contract so that Irish business would be further injured and Ireladn cut off from direct communications with the outside world. And they voted for the war against Germany which will impose intolerable financial burdens on Ireland, and their leader is now doing his utmost to send thousands of Irishmen to be slaughtered for England’s benefit.
Read by the light of his present attitude Redmond action in obtaining control of the Irish Volunteers and keeping them disarmed, his traitorous purposes become apparaent. He is acting for the English Government, so as to prevent a repetion of 1782.
Judged by his own political standards Mr Redmond was a conspicious failure as a champion of Irish rights long befor e he openly betrayed his country. He has been deceiving the Irish people for years, so that he might gradually prepare the way for his treason.Irish history records only one instance of deciet and treachery as base and deliberate as that of Redmond. The perjured demagogue Keogh, who incited to assasination so that he might climb to the bench and to wreak England’s vengeance onIrish patriots was Redmond’s model.
P1 Gaelic American October 3rd , 1914 Lynch Family Archives.
St Enda’s College Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, Ireland.
A boarding and day school for Catholic boys.
Headmaster – P.H.Pearse B.A. B.L.
St Enda’s gives it's pupils a wide and generous culture, with an Irish inspiration.
It has classical and modern sides, and specialises in viva-voce teaching of languages.
It's system appeals to the imagination, and aims at developing the best that is in the
Individual. Pupils are prepared for university, the professions and business life.
Commercial subjects and manual training have their proper place. Special attention
is given to the Preparatory and Elementary classes. St Enda’s has a high reputation for
it's comfortable and homelike domestic arrangements. The college stands on 50 acres
of beautiful grounds. Special provision is made for Irish American pupils, who, while
receving a genuine Irish education, are prepared for professional or business life in America.
Masters meet pupilas at Queenstown or other landing ports. Classes resume 7th September.
For prospectus apply to the Headmaster.
P2 Gaelic American October 3rd , 1914 Lynch Family Archives.
28
As the split widened in Nationalist Ireland, the political posturing in Ulster continued. Carson in a speech announced that the Home Rule Bill ‘is nothing but a scrap of paper…we are never going to allow Home Rule in Ulster…our volunteers are going to kick out anybody who tries to put it into force in Ulster’
And ‘When the war is over and we have beaten the Germans, as we are going to do, I tell you what we will do, we will call our Provisional Government together, and we will repeal the Home Rule Bill, so far as it concerns us, in ten minutes.’
The Irish neutrality League was formed with James Connolly as President.
George eastman annouynced the invention of a colour photographic process by the Eastman Kodak Company.
29
German bombardment of Antwerp begins.
30
Asquith writing to Redmond ‘I have spoken to Lord Kitchener on the subject of your letter, and he will have the announcement made that the War Office has sanctioned the formation of an Irish Army Corps.’
Thomas Hachey ‘Britain and Irish Separatism’. Rand McNally College Publishing. New York 1977. p132
The announcement was never made and Irish soldiers recruited were dispersed throughout the army.
October 1914
1:
A Royal Commission of Inquiry was established to investigate the landing of arms at Howth.
In Cork, 28 rifles from the August shipment of Italian rifles were stolen ‘By the Redmondites’
Northern France: Heavy German counter-attacks throughout October in Arras were repulsed.
Room 40 in the Admiralty intercepted a cable from the German Embassy in Washington DC to the Foreign Office in Berlin: ‘ An Irish priest ...and Sir Roger Casement are going to Germany in order to visit the Irish prisoners...’
W. J.Maloney. “The Forged Casement Diaries.” Talbot Press, Dublin 1936. p85
2
British Admiralty announces intention to mine North Sea areas.
A German spy named Lody was arrested in Killarney. Taken to London and imprisoned in the Tower.
Michael J Ryan, National President of the Pro-Redmond United Irish league of America wrote to Redmond informing him that his Wodenbridge speech had ‘left him cold…no money worth speaking of can be raised in this country from Irish people to even indirectly aid England…all my sympathies are with Germany, and I believe that nine-tenths of the Americans of Irish blood think as I do.’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P166
Ryan also felt that as Home Rule was now on the Statute Books, ‘the work of the League in America can end with honor’
Redmond was not without friends in the US however. Patrick Egan, the business manager of the Irish World, resigned in protest over the paper’s new policy against Redmond.
The Irish American press were sharply critical of Redmond’s action and the United Irish League’s membership base in the US began to fall dramatically, most uping stakes and moving to Clan na Gael and the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
3:
Casement’s proposed visit to Germany to seek aid, according to Kathleen Clarke was not approved by any revoloutionary group. ‘When Tom heard of this he was very upset. For one thing , he and the men working with him towards the Rising did not want men from Germany – they needed and asked for arms only. Casement, he heard, intended getting to Germany through the USA, so Tom sent word to John Devoy to have nothing to do with him, and to give him no help to reach Germany’
Kathleen Clark ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P51/52
The Gaelic American publishing from 165-167 William St, New York headlined the Irish Volunteers split:
VOLUNTEERS COMMITTEE EXPELS TRAITORS
Detected in underhand negotiations with British War Office to put the Volunteers under it's authority and send the men to fight for England against Germany, Redmond’s apointees are driven out in disgrace – this has the Arch Traitor’s purpose of selling Ireland’s national army to England been frustrated and a telling blow struck for Ireland – inside story of the treachery, in which Nugent and Father O’Hare were Redmond’s chief aids.
P1 Gaelic American October 3rd , 1914 Lynch Family Archives.
Dr Gertrude Kelly in a leter to the Gaelic American protested against Redmond’s action in seekign to send Irishmen to be slaughtered for England, leaving Ireland desolate and manless – is Home Rule to be for the cattle? ‘…and one hundred thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand of our young men are part of the soil of continental Europe, who is going to man the Houses of Parliament, who is going to people free Ireland? Has the Party gone mad?…we are told our help is demanded not for Ireland with her four millions and a half of people ( largely the very old and the very young ) but for rich England with forty millions, France with forty four millions, Russia with one hundred and twenty millions, Belgium with seven and a half millions with India and South Africa and Canada and Morocco thrown in! it is to laugh!..if Irish youth is to be sacrificed – for God’s sake let it be sacrificed in Ireland for Irealnd, not in the foreign soil for our ancient enemy. We trrust that the women at home to see to it that no husband, lover, father, brother or son leave the shores till Ireland’s freedom is secured from the centre to the sea..’
P2 Gaelic American October 3rd , 1914 Lynch Family Archives.
In the paper was another letter, this time titled ‘An Irish Woman’s Hope’: ‘My hope is that all the pro-British will enlist and I shall pray that their bodies shall be so bullet riddled that their mothers in heaven could not recognise their spirits. A thousand times better to have no country and no countrymen than to have a crawling weak-kneed lot’
The San Francisco Leader commented on Redmond’s actions as ‘Once more the cup has been dashed from Ireland’s lips. The Home Rule Bill has been hung up indefinietley – that is to say, till after the war. Sir Edward Carson has triumphed. The influence of Lord Kitchener and the military clique has outweighed the mandate of the people. The ‘base, bloody and brutal Whigs” have for the thousandth time sold their Irish allies….worst of all John Redmond is a consenting party to the great betrayal. No matter what his motives may be, whether he is selling his country for ambition or whether he is sacrificing his opportunity through poor judgement, the effect is the same…he has crowned his infamy by calling on the Irish to enlist in England’s war to crush Germany. What quarrel do the Irish have with Germany? What do they get in return for their young lives Mother Ireland can so ill afford to spare? There are three possible endings to this war. The result may be indecisive – that is, they may fight one another to a standstill. The Allies may win. Germany may win. If the Germans win or the result is indecisive, the Irish can take anything they want in the way of self-Government. If the Allies win, there will be such a Tory reaction in England that the Home Rule Bill and the Parliament Act will be repealed in the twinkling of an eye. The Irish representation will be reduce to a nominal figure and another century of ‘resolute Government ‘ will be the price that England will pay the poor fools that took the Saxon shilling and saved the Saxon flag..’
Devoy took a swipe at Count John McCormack, the Irish Tenor for his purchase of 100,000 cigarettes to be sent to British troops on the frontlines. ‘None of the Irish papers, however, announces that Mr McCormack has contributed as much as would purchase one rifle for the National Volunteers. Mr McCormack is due in the United States for another concert tour this Fall, with the expectation presumably that Irish Americans will reimburse him for the expenditure involved in his gift of cigarettes to the British army.’
There was a certain amount of glee as Devoy wrote of Germany advances on land and sea at the expense of the British…’Here’s to the German navy and may it have many more days like September 22* to celebrate… the English papers and our own Anglomaniac sheets at once came out with the usual stereotyped rubbish about the Briton’s calmness under the knockout blow, but to use a common English phrase ‘it knocked ‘em silly’ and they have not recovered from it yet. More such blows are to be expected….Here’s again to the Germany Navy!…..on the water the Germans are making it so lively for British merchant vessels that ships are being detached from the Home Fleet to distant seas to protect English commerce’ and ‘so far the only reliable reports have been from the German side, the statements from the Allied and Russian sources being vague or fantastic. The British and the Russians are congenital liars in a military sense and preder false statements to silence or the truth; while the statements of the London papers are obvuously designed to exite religious animosity and humanitarian sentiment against the Germans, especially here in America…this war may be easily transformed into a great revolutionary movement if it lasts much longer, and the untrained and undiciplined armed mob Kitchener is collecting in England can, under ceerain conditions, become a greater danger to the classes that made the war than to the Germans…’
* When three British cruisers were sunk by U-boats with the loss of 1,500 men.
Devoy tackled the statements made in some quarters that ‘If you don’t have the English, you will have the Germans’. Devoy comments that not only is it nonsense but it diverts the Irish mind from national independence. ‘What Germany wants, and when Europe somes to it's senses she will want it too, is a free and independent Ireland which will no longer be an auxilliary of the destryoer of nations and the oppressors of peoples – an Ireland prosperous and able and willing to defend it's own freedom and integrity, and take it's place in the community of independent nations…’
As for writers such as Conan Doyle who said that England will ‘fight to the end’. Devoy comments that Doyle doesn’t say what the end will be ‘The warriors of the pen who are staying at home are evidently more determined to keep it up than the fellows on the firing line.’
New York: Fund raising for the Irish Volunteers, which had been slow prior to the Woodenbridge Speech, suddenly surged forwards with $27,790 [ €611k ] raised to arm the Irish Volunteers.
4:
The first bomb dropped on London took place overnight from a German Air Force Zeppelin.
With the split, the majority of the Irish Volunteers went over to Redmond’s National Volunteers. The remainder, some 13,500 countrywide were in a poor position – unarmed, virtually bankrupt and facing a hostile press. All volunteers were just that, volunteers. Each had to provide his own rifle, uniform and equipment, not an easy task for the majority being working men and poorly paid. Arms were obtained through official channels as well as un-official. Many war-weary Irish soldiers returning from the French battlefields had their Lee Enfield rifles taken after being plied with drink in a dockside pub. The broad arrow stamp of the English War Department would be filed down and the rifle carried on the next parade. Some British troops were also known to sell their rifles, ‘Over The Wall’ from some British barracks in return for hard cash.
Monteith details that while the Irish Volunteers had plenty of halls in which to drill, but few drill fields. So many of the Dublin Battalions used the Phoenix Park for exercises. On occasion, as they marched a body of Volunteers through the Park, they passed the depot of the RIC. ‘The time was just at dusk and apparently the police were expecting an armed party of some sort. When we reached the gate, an orderly ran forward, swung it open, and the entire guard turned out and presented arms. Returning the salute I said ‘Not tonight Sergeant. Perhaps we’ll go in on some future occasion’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P19
The ‘occasion’ was to be eight years later in 1922.
5
Casement’s letter calling on all Irishmen to refrain from bearing arms against Germany was published by the Irish Independent. Had not Ireland suffered at the hands of Great Britain ‘a more prolonged series of evils deliberately inflicted, than any other community of civlised men?… Ireland has no blood to give to any land, to any cause, but that of Ireland.’
Funding for the Irish Volunteers from the Irish-American Pro-Redmond group, the United Irish League had dried up but funds were beginning to filter in from the long established and growing Irish-American group, Clan na Gael. $26,000 had been collected by the Gaelic American Newspaper, with $5,000 already received. $44,000 was eventually raised but allocated to direct help cannot be ascertained.
Pearse however ‘...still thought of insurrection as something which would take place only if Germans landed or food became scarce or the authorities tried to disarm the Volunteers or if the leaders were arrested: contingencies which, to be sure, he thought quite likely. Even then he told Joseph McGarrity of the Clan na Gael in America, ‘We are not ready, for we have no arms’. Of the 1500 rifles landed at Howth and Kilcoole in July, he said that the greater part had been ‘stolen’ by Nugent and other Redmondites; the Volunteers had retained no more than 600.” And as to the remaining $21,000 in funds collected by the Gaelic American, Pearse requested that these be sent directly to himself or Clarke, McDiarmada, Ceannt or Hobson but not be sent to the O’Rahilly or MacNeill as “..they are not in or of our counsels and they are not formally pledged to strike, if the chance comes, for the complete thing”.
George Dangerfield. “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” ( Constable, London. 1977) p.141
The Irish Volunteers & in particular the Citizen Army, attracted a great deal of official attention, with many of the leaders getting a detective noting their movements and a group of RIC men accompanying all exercises throughout the country and in the capital. Monteith details some practical jokes played on some elderly and unfit policemen: ‘ a detachment of three companies was marching from Beresford Place toward Croydon Park…accompanied by about twenty police, all wearing heavy overcoats. The men marched down Amiens Street, and, on reaching the intersection of the North Circular Road, gave the police the time of their lives. At this point, the Commander blew his whistle and the men started off at the double, breaking up into three parties. ...Those heavy policemen, being in line with the head of the column were puffing and blowing their way down the North Strand before they noticed the deflection of the rear companies. Then there was a halt, a hasty consultation, a dividing into three parties and a despairing race to catch the nimble footed men of the Citizen Army.’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P19
A growing hostility became apparent throughout the country to the members of the Irish Volunteers. Many of the clergy frowned upon or read them from the pulpit, parades were stoned and jeered at, collection boxes taken and many Volunteers were shunned.
Jim Larkin sailed to the US to raise funds for the ITGWU and repay the debts incurred by the protracted strike. There he stayed for 9 years becoming involved, as Connolly did, in the American Socilialist Movement. In Larkin’s absence, James Connolly became Acting General Secretary of the ITGWU and immediately erected a large banner over the front of Liberty Hall: “We serve neither King nor Kaiser - but Ireland” This understandably attracted a great deal of attention, not only for the neutral stance taken but the fact it remained on Liberty Hall until December 19th when it was taken down by a large force of British troops.
"One day in 1914, a knock came on our door at 511 East 134th Street, in the Bronx. We lived up three flights of stairs and the bell was usually out of order. There stood a gaunt man with a rough-hewn shock of greying hair, who spoke with an Irish accent. He asked for Mrs Flynn. When my mother went to the door, he said simply, 'I'm Jim Larkin, James Connolly sent me'."
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. ‘The Rebel Girl’
Larkin went on to spend ten years in America doing what he did in Belfast in 1907 and in Dublin in 1913 - organising and agitating from Greenwich Village in New York to Chicago to San Francisco.
His voice reached its highest and most dramatic pitch when he delivered the eulogy at the funeral of Joe Hill, when he preached, "Arouse! Arouse! Ye sons of toil from every rank of labour! Ye are not murderers such as they who break ye day and hour! Arise! Unite! Win back your world with a whirlwind stroke of power!"
Much of brother Larkin's time in America was, of course, as a "guest" of "Uncle Sam" in posh accommodation like Sing Sing prison, the Toombs, Auburn and Dannemora.
Those were tough times for the American working class and Jim Larkin roused the unskilled workers, the low-paid workers, non-Irish as well as Irish. He caught the imagination of writers and artists as diverse as Charlie Chaplin, Sean O Faolain and Brendan Behan. And he awed political leaders like Eugene Debs, George Lansbury
and New York Governor Al Smith - who commuted his latest sentence and allowed him to go back to Ireland in 1924.
6:
Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl born.
With the Irish Volunteers and Citizen Army acting as one unit, it was only a matter of time before a potential clash with the National Volunteers took place. One such incident took place as the three groups assembled in Parnell Square after completing a march to the grave of Parnell in Glasnevin on the 23rd anniversary of his death.
Returning National Volunteers attempted to force through a group of Citizen Army men listening to a speech from Larkin. ‘Across the road was a thin line of the Citizen Army together with a few Irish Volunteers, all with fixed bayonets, facing a body of at least four times their number of National Volunteers who also had bayonets fixed. The sidewalks were crowded with spectators, and two or three police inspectors were present. Here were two bodies of Irishmen ready to fly at each others throats. ‘
Monteith distibuted ammunition to each man in the ranks ‘in as ostentaious a manner as possible, so that the men opposite would see that we meant business.’ According to Monteith, an attempt to negotiate some rights came to nothing when Colonel Nugent in charge of the National Volunteer parade said ‘ send a picket of your men to clear that footpath, we will clear this and when the women and children are away, we can have it out. ‘.
This was done, and on the suggestion of one of the Colonel’s staff officers, the matter of forcing their way through the Citizen Army and Irish Volunteers ranks was reconsidered and the parade was led to their reviewing stand via Dorset Street. As they left, Monteith tried to collect the ammunition issued ‘but none of them recollected having received any. Cartridges were
valuable in those days.’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P23-24-25
9
Antwerp surrenders to Germans. Government moved to Ostend.
10:
The Magdeburg’s Signalbuch der Kaiserlichen Marine was handed over to the British Admiralty by the Imperial Russian Embassy in London. Within days, another German codebook, the Handelsverkehrsbuch, used by German merchant shipping and some warships was handed over after being captured by the Royal Australian Navy on a German steamer. On checking the Imperial German transmissions, the code was found to be still in operation as it remained throughout the war. Decryption remained only part of the task. Room 40 remained a closely guarded secret known only to a handful of naval commanders and was not allowed to communicate directly with the fleet. All intercepts and decodings were passed to the Admiralty’s Operations Division which was to asses and decide on the significance and/or importance of each message.
After taking Antwerp on October 10, the Germans endeavoured to break through the British positions in Belgium, but were checked in a series of engagements known collectively as the Battle of Flanders.
11:
Germans bomb Paris.
The I.R.B Council appointed Clarke and MacDermott as a committee to investigate the matter of a potential rising and report at a later stage to a Supreme Council meeting. While it was, as Sean Cronin described it, ‘very indefinite’ but both men had powers to co-opt others to act with them. This sub-committee later became known as the Military Council and it planned the rising of 1916.
Members of the Irish Volunteers had an ‘altercation’ with some members of the Citizen Army at a ceremony marking the 23rd anniversary of Parnell’s death.
12
Asquith gave Agustine Birrell, the Chief Secretary of Ireland a new Under Secretary, Sir Matthew Nathan (52). His political beliefs mirror than of Birrell, Liberals which would not endear them to most Irish civil servants, who were Unionist or Tory. Nathan worked from 9.30 a.m. to 7 p.m seeing his top civil servants and police chiefs daily and described as:
“..a handsome man, with charming manners and a fine voice, very attractive to ladies, whose advances he had resisted to the point of still remaining a bachelor, although he is said to have proposed to one of Lytton Strachey’s sisters. He was hard working, efficient and loyal..”
George Dangerfield. “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” ( Constable, London. 1977) p.150
13
British occupy Ypres.
Casement left McGarrity’s home in Philadelphia and traveled to New York and Judge Cohalan’s home on East 94th Street. There he was met by the Judge, Devoy and McGarrity. Devoy writes that he and others handed Casement ‘$2,500 in gold as the initial payment towards his expenses in Germany.’ John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P418
Casements mission to Germany had three main objectives:
McGarrity’s account of Casement’s departure is in his papers:
‘We decided to send by messenger $10,000 to the Volunteer committee in Dublin. After hearing from the Judge how he had a conference with the German representative I took leave of Sir. R…I shook hands, saying ‘God take care of you’. Sir R’s reply was: ‘Oh no, God save Ireland’. I replied ‘And you.’ Devoy and I left. Coming downstairs the Judge beckoned me into the parlour and asked me ‘Have you absoloute confidence in this man?’ I answered ‘I will trust him with my life. You’ve had nothing like him since Tone.’ The Judge felt assurred. We parted. Devoy and I left to go to the Ennis Hotel. Devoy went to mail some letters he wished to go on a certain boat. He complained of his hearing, said it was an awful handicap at a time when such important matters were being dicussed. He said it was a gamble whether Sir. R would ‘make it’ get over safe or not.’ Reaching the Ennis Hotel on 42nd Street, Devoy and I had some hot milk and made ready for bed. Devoy gloated over the success of the Germans over the English, saying with a smile ‘What a long wait we’ve had for this’. I said ‘I fear much for Rory’s success.’ He said ‘I envy him.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P52-53
Devoy touches on Casement’s comments that he was also bringing along a ‘servant or companion, a Norwegian sailor named Christensen….those present at the consultation, after questioning casement, accepted his judgement and were convinced that Christensen’s knoweldge of English and German and his Norwegian nationality would be a great help to Casement, who did not know German’ but ‘owing to my deafness, I missed one very important statement…had I understood that, I would have objected strongly to Christensen’s going as Sir Roger’s companion. The thorough knowledge of the man’s character, which I later acquired …made me deeply regert that he had thus allowed to become a participant in our activities..’
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P418
14:
The Belgian Government flee to Le Harve, France.
Canadian Expeditionary Force of 32,000 men lands at Plymouth, UK.
Bulgaria joins with the Central Powers and declares war on Serbia, attacking from the East. This combined with the attacks of Austrian-Hungarian and German trooops led to the surrender of Serbia and Montenegro within months.
In New York, Casement had shaved off his beard for his journey to Norway. James Landy,a New York businessman and Clan na Gael member gave him his identity papers and a ‘Sons of Veterans’ badge and Casement became James Landy. A room was booked in Chicago’s La Salle Hotel under the name Roger Casement as a false lead. Another contact ( probably Michael F Ryan – friend of both Secretary of State Jennings Bryan and Clan member James K Maguire, former mayor of Syracuse, New York ) supplied some US State Department letterheads attesting to Landy’s character.
McGarrity’s journal carries details of his meeting with Diarmuid Lynch:
‘Met with Denis Spellessy and Dermot [sic] Lynch, the messenger who is to take the $10,000 to MacNeill. After arrangign certain matters I returned to Philadelphia and on reaching my home I found a telegram from Sir Roger asking for his little and great coat to be sent by messenger to ‘Dans’. Here I am on my way with coats and letters. Rory sails tomorrow at 2 o’clock on the Oskar 11 for Christiania. Rory had said to me that he was superstitious, that he had a feeling he was going to get over safely. He had travelled on a Pullman car on his last two trips and he found the name of the car was Christiania. I wonder if the omen is good or bad. I eat my supper hurridly and taking leave of the family, and getting nine letters received for Rory and his overcoats, I took the seven o’clock train on the Penna [ Pennsylvania Railroad ] for New York, reaching the Judge’s house at 9.35pm. Rory entered after I had sat down. All papers were ready, passport etc got my Mr. Landy under whose name Rory is to sail.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P53
Casement spent his last day in America with McGarrity…
‘Dan arranged to have his ticket procurred in the morning. The money for that purpose I gave Dan in gold…Rory and I left Dan’s at 11:45pm. We took a trolley car and conversed until reaching 42nd St. alighting there we went to the Athens café on 42nd St. we viewed pictures of the city of that name hung on the walls of the café while waiting for two small steaks which we ordered and ate as we talked. R said ‘When will I see you or where will we meet again?’ I said ‘In Ireland or Berlin.’
We talked of Devoy and his life and agreed he had one thought, the freedom of Ireland. Rory said ‘What a wonderful man! What a heroic figure!’. I claimed there should be a vigorous attack on English submarine bases and shipping all along the coast towns, that it was one of the blows that can be struck. Finishing our meal, we left. Rory took a Madison Ave surface car as it was about to enter under the arch at 42nd Street…he shook my hand with a firm grip and took a stand on the rear platform of the trolley car and as he waved his hat and kerchief I watched him and waved back until the trolley disapeared into the darkness and I saw him no more. I went to the Hotel Ennis and found rooms all taken. I was told that my friend devoy was in a room having two single beds and that if I desired I could coccupy the empty one. I agreed and given a pass key I made my way to the room and turning on the light, the old man jumped up suddenly as though in fear of an attack. I excused my intrusion and went to bed.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P53
15:
Germans occupy Ostend.
Before beginning his expedition to Germany, Casement wrote a brief letter to Devoy:
“My Dear Old Friend.
I cannot go without a farewell word and grip of the heart. Without you there would be nothing and if success comes, or even a greater hope for the future, it will be due to you and your life of unceasing devotion to the most unselfish cause on earth.
May God keep you safe and well to see your first fruits of all your years of sufferring and waiting and working. I shall not forget you. I am only sorry now I did not talk much louder that last evening for you to hear our final words.
But please God, we meet again – and meantimes work and plan….Goodbye and au revoir….”
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P418-419
At miday, Casement boarded the Norwegian steam Oskar II with a young Norwegian sailor named Adler Christiansen and the Clan na Gael contact, John Landy. A British agent on the quays spotted the boarding and contacted MI5 in London. Before the ship sailed at 2pm, Landy disembarked.
16:
Lieutenant General Sir Lawrence Parsons wrote to Redmond that ‘Three essentially Irish Brigades’ were to form the 16th Division, which then could be called ‘The Irish Division’. Redmonds hopes were to be dashed 10 days later.
17:
First edition of the National Volunteer appears.
An announcement was made by Redmond that a shipload of arms for the National Volunteers had arrived at the North Wall and would shortly be distributed. Many at the time questioned this ‘mythical shipment’ of arms arriving under permit from the British Government as no ship was unloading such a cargo. Monteith, as an employee in the Ordnance Department was able to shed some light on it. The rifles and ammunition in fact had come from an RIC raid on a cargo being sent to the Ulster Volunteers through Dublin. Taken to the Ordnance depot at Islandbridge, work on detsroying them had commenced when the order came through to remove them to the Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park. Shortly after this, the ‘Arms Ship’ arrived in Dublin port and the five-round Mausers were distibuted.
Redmond also commented ‘The Union of 1800 is dead…a new era has arised for our country. We have won at last a free constitution.’
18:
A joint Irish Volunteers and Citizen Army parade was held in Swords, Co. Dublin and attended by some 5,000 men.
19
Connolly began work from Liberty Hall on his first ‘Irish Worker’. Under Larkin’s direction, the paper had held a lively, muck-raking attitude but now Connolly wanted it to become a more orthodox labour paper. Not surprisingly, circulation dropped. ‘The ITGWU President suggested he should give ‘a whole lot of moonshine talk’ but Connolly refused to ‘talk bosh to the crowds in Beresford Place’ Austen Morgan. ‘James Connolly – a political biography’. Manchester University Press. 1988. .p153
While his family remained in Belfast, Conolly was staying with Countess Markievicz paying her 10/ a week as a regular lodger.
Meanwhile, Pearse wrote to McGarrity requesting immediate funding from the Volunteer fund as ‘we do not know the moment when action may be forced upon us…we shall have to act (1) if the Germans land either in Ireland or in England; (2) if the Government enforces the Militia Ballot Act, or any other drastic way of securing recruits; (3) if the food supply becomes scarce; (4) if the Government tries to disarm the ‘disloyal’ Volunteers; and (5) if the Government commences to arrets our leaders, who are being pointed out to them ( if they did not know them before ) by the Redmondite press. Any one of these things could happen at any moment; any one of them could preciptate a crisis – the crisis; and we are not ready; for we have not arms. If the chance comes and goes, it will in all probability have come and gone forever, certainly for our lifetime….in the last Gaelic American to hand the total acknowledged was some $24,000. You have sent us $5,000. That seems to leave $22,000 now available in America for arms for the Volunteers. I ask you to send that sum at once by trustworthy hands. Its coming in time may mean the success fo whatever we have to do; it may mean vistory. Its failure to come may mean either a bloody debacle like ’98 or a dreary fizzling out lke ’48 or’67..’ Pearse suggested that the money be put at the disposal of such men as Sean McDermott, Tom Clarke, Eamon Ceannt, Bulmer Hobson and himself. They would use it to arm companies each was in touch with, ensuring weapons I the right hands when needed…Pearse proposed that $2,500 be given each to the men listed and that the money not be entrusted to MacNeill, O’Rahilly or any other two men ‘Not that I doubt their honesty, but simply that they are not in our counsels and that they are nto formally pledged to strike, if the chance comes, for the complete thing.
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’ Anvil Press 1972. P56
24
Close to the Faroe Island, the Oskar II was aprehended by a British cruiser, the Hibernia and ordered to proceed to Stornoway in the Island of Lewis for examination of it’s crew, passengers and cargo. En-route Casement threw diaries and papers into the sea and handed his travel companion, Christiansen, some papers along with a considerable sum of American gold coin. It is believed that Christiansen then copied the papers. At Stornoway, the ship was detained for 36 hours before being allowed to proceed. While there, 6 German nationals ( the 2nd cook, 2 stowaways, the bandmaster and 3 sailors ) were removed for questioning but Casement was not detected.
Big Jim Larkin left for the United States and succeded by James Connolly.
French forces forced to yield Vimy Ridge, a strategic location about 16 km (about 10 mi) north of Arras.
25
The first Annual Convention of the Irish Volunteers was held at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin under MacNeill. At this meeting, it was pledged that the allegiance of the Volunteers was to Ireland only with their ultimate object to save the Home Rule Act, avoid partition and to resist any military service until such stage as a free national Government is elected by the Irish people.
The convention put the organisations training and discipline on a military basis and adopted a constitution and organisation under a General Council with representaives from each country and major city. The convention refused Connolly’s proposal that the Citizen Army affiliate to them.
26:
General Parsons wrote to Redmond advising that Kitchener was issuing an order to disperse the Irish recruits and every candidate recommended for commission ( including his own son ) was rejected. As for suggestions that some thousands of Irishmen living in Britian be permitted to enlist in a new Irish Division, these were rejected on the basis they were little more than ‘slum-birds…I want to see the clean, fine strong temperate, hurley playing country fellows such as we used to get in the Munsters, Royal Irish, Connaught Rangers’.
The decline of the Irish Parliamentary Party’s confidence in the Liberals continued.
27:
Welsh poet and writer Dylan Thomas born. ( d. 9/11/53 )
William Dillon, the expatriate brother of John and a lawyer in Chicago along with P.T.Barry, another promiment Irish American, attempted to show that the Irish Parliamentary Party still had some considerable strenght in America by drafting a cable to be signed by leading Irish Americans, stating an appreciation of Redmond’s actions in supporting the British Government. Dillon appealed for signatures, including Burke Cockran but received few. Most either downright dismissed it or felt it breached US neutrality. Others commented that it would stir up animosity bewteen Irish Americans and German Americans and more moderates felt it would play into the camp of the radical, revolutionary Irish Americans such as Clan na Gael.
29:
The Oskar II with Casement aboard arrived in Christiania ( Oslo ) harbour in the early hours of the 29th and checked into the Grand Hotel with Christensen at 1.30am. Later that morning, he sent Christensen to the post office with a cable for ‘my cousin – James, New York , telling of my arrival’. At 11am he went to present his credentials in the form of a letter of introduction from the German Ambassador in Washington to Minister von Oberndorff at the German Legation requesting papers to allow entry to Germany. As the letter would take some time to dechipher, Casement was asked to return to the Legation the next day. Casement in his diary comments: “I noticed a man watching me – and found out he was following, and I told Adler I thought there was a ‘spy’ on my tracks. “
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.45
Here was the beginning of what was to be a minor sensation when attempts were made either by the British Legation in Christiania to kidnap Casement or to induce his assistant, Christensen to do so. Casement, writing in January 1915 chronicles the events:
‘’Within a few hours of my landing, the man I had engaged and in whom I reposed trust, was accosted by one of the secret service agents of the British Minister, and carried off , in a private motor car, to the British Legation, where the first attempt was made on his honour to induce him to be false to me. Your agent in the Legation that afternoon proffessed ignorance of who I was, and sought, as he put it, merely to find out my identity and movements.’
Captain Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’ Chicago 1932. P.81
Casement immediately ‘wrote to Count von Oberndorff a few lines telling him my man would personally inform him of what had taken place and begging him to expedite the papers for my departure and try to see me at some place other than the German Legation that evening. I sent this note by Adler telling him to use every precaution against being followed.’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.47
Oberndorff agreed to meet Casement that evening at the German Consulate, where he advised that the request for papers had been telegraphed to the Foreign Office and nothing further could be done until instructions were received. Returning to the hotel, the nervous Casement made provisional plans to drive across the border to Sweden and in turn take a boat to Denmark and into Germany. Count von Oberndorff suspecting this might take place, sent one of his staff to request that Casement remain ‘quietly’ in his hotel as the necessary permit would probably arrive and then take the late afternoon train to Copenhagen.
The Ottoman Empire, impressed with the victories in France and Belgium, joined with Germany and entered the war. The Ottoman leaders recognising the gains that could be added to the empire, decided to fight against Russia in the Caucuses. However the terrain was mountainous and the Ottoman troops gained little. However, their entry into the war disrpted the supply routes between the Allies and Russia. This was to lead to the Gallipoli campaign the following year.
30:
The next day, Christensen was seen by the Head of the British Legation, Mansfeldt Findlay.
‘….This, the second interview held in the early afternoon was with the Minister himself. Mr Findlay was quick to come to the point. The ignorance assumed or actual, of the previous day as to my identity was now discarded. He confessed that he knew me, but did not know where I was going to, what I intended doing, or what might be the specific end I had in view. It was enough for him that I was an Irish Nationalist. He admitted that the British Government had no evidence of anything wrong done or contemplated by me that empowerd them either morally or lawfully to interfere with my movements. But he was bent on doing so. Therefore he boldly invoked lawless metholds, and suggested to my dependent that were I to ‘disapear’ it would be a very good thing ‘for whoever brought it about’. He was careful to point out that nothing could happen to the perpatrator of the crime, since my presence in Kristiania was known only to the British Government, and that the Government would screen and provide for those responsible for my disapaearance. He indicated wuite plainly, the methols to be employed, by assuring Adler Christensen that whoever ‘knocked him on the head need not do any work for the rest of his life’ and proceeded to apply the moral by asking Christensen ‘I suppose you would not mind having an easy time of it for the rest of your days?’ My faithful follower concealed the anger he felt at this suggestion and continued the conversation in order to become more fully aware of the plot that might be devised against my safety. He pointed out that I had not only been very kidn to him but that I trusted him implicity….If I could be intercepted, cut off, ‘disappear’ no one would know and no questions could be asked, as there was no Government save the British Government knew of my presence in Norway…That his man was faithful to me and to the law of his country was a triumph of Norwegian integrity over the ignoble inducement proffered to him by the richest and most powerful Government in the world to be false to both. Havign thus outlined his project, Mr Findlay invited Christensen to ‘think the matter over and return at 3 o’clock if you are disposed to go with it’. He handed him in Norwegian paper money, twenty five kroner ‘just to pay your taxicab fares’ and dismissed him.’
According to Casement, Christen reported the facts at once, whereupon he was asked to return and to ‘sell me dear, and to secure the promise of a respectable sum for so very disreputable an act…’ Christensen returned and spent two hours ‘closseted with Mr Findlay…my follower pretended to fall in with the British ministers projects, only stipulating a good sum to be paid in return for his treachery. Mr Findlay promised on his ‘word of honour’ ( such was the quaint phraseology employed to guarantee the transaction ) that Christensen should received five thousand pounds sterling whenever he should deliver me into the hands of the British authorities. If in the course of this kidnapping process, I should come to harm or personal injury be done me, then no questions would be asked and full immunity granted the kidnapper.’ As Casement and Christensen had reserved a compartment on that evenings mail train to Copenhagen, Findlay was advised that it would not be immediately possible to arrange the kidnapping, to which the Minister suggested that it might then be advisable to delay and wait for a ‘favourable opportunity offered of decoying me down to the coats ‘anywhere on the Skaggerack or North Sea’ where British war ships might be in waiting to seize me.’
Christensen was further requested to steal Casement’s private correspondence with his ‘supposed associates in America and Ireland, particualrly in Ireland, so that they too might particiapte in the ‘sensible punishment’ being devised for me’. A secret address was given, written in block capitals to ‘prevent the handwriting being traced’ to which Christensen was to report. 100 Norwegian Crowns were also given ‘as an earnest of more to follow’ When Casement was advised of the discussion, he immediately changed travel arrangements and publically left for Copenhagen, but leaving the train and taking one for Sassnitz and onto Berlin. More communication between the British Legation in Norway and Christensen followed.
Captain Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’ Chicago 1932. P.81-82
Von Oberndorff made arrangements for Casement to travel to Germany with a Foreign Office Official, Richard Meyer. Crossing by ferry to Sweden, arriving in Berlin late the following evening.
Historian George Dangerfield claims that:
‘...the facts were just the other way around - that Christiansen tried to betray his master to Mr. Findlay, and that he was put off by a subordinate in the legation with a few kroner. Christiansen later slipped into Norway and extracted a written promise from Mr Findlay ( to whom Casement had now become an interesting traitor ) that he would receive £5,000 if he brought about his capture. Casement knew nothing of this: to him Mr Findlay was and remained a murderous villain who tried in vain to bribe his faithful companion’
George Dangerfield “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” Constable London. 1977. P157-158 & quoting from Bryan Ingliss “Roger Casement”, London 1973. p.277-278.
31:
Connolly through the pages of the ‘Irish Worker’ argued that a German victory was necessary ‘to free the minds of the British working class’ quoted by Austen Morgan. ‘James Connolly – a political biography’. Manchester University Press. 1988. .p150
Turkey attacks the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.
Casement and Christensen arrived in Sweden and from there took the ferry to Sassnitz where he was cleared through on his fake American passport and arrived early evening in Berlin. There they booked into the Continental Hotel with Casement signing himself as Mr Hammond of New York.
November 1914
Diarmuid Lynch returned to Ireland with a draft for £2,000 to purchase arms for the Irish Volunteers.
1: Russia, the UK and France break off diplomatic relations with Turkey. General Paul Von Hindenburg becomes CIC German Forces on the eastern Front.
Casement, requested by the Foreign Office to remain at his hotel until further notice, wrote “Here I am in the heart of the enemy’s country – a State guest and almost a State prisoner’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.69
2:
Casement went to see the Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office on Wilhelmstrasse, Artur Zimmermann and the head of the English Department, Count Georg von Wedel. With Zimmermann, he discussed a memorandum that the German Government make a formal declaration of attitude towards Ireland. With von Wedel, Casement discussed the plan of recruiting Irish Prisoners of War into an Irish Brigade once the proposed memorandum with Zimmerman was formally declared.
The Memorandum, Casement felt, would give ‘some further guarantees for the men and for Ireland…these were:
The issue of personal safety for Casement and Christensen was also raised, and a card was later issued by the Chief of Political Police in Berlin along with the suggested wearing of little American flags in their button holes.
Casement recorded that in his meeting with Zimmerman on the memorandum, that .. ‘he demurred ( and naturally ) to the first – pointing out the difficulty of Germany interfering to that extent, in peace deliberations, in the internal affairs of another country…that if Germany failed…it was not easy for the German Government to discuss the details of an Irish settlement between Great Britain and Ireland as a peace condition.
‘I accepted the justice of this standpoint…as to points (2) and (3) he agreed with me – and on the question of the suggested amnesty he was formally explicit. I embodied my views and wishes in a lenghty memorandum which I handed to the Uner-Secretary of State…and proceeded to Limburg.’
W. J.Maloney. “The Forged Casement Diaries.” Talbot Press, Dublin1936. p116
The Count wrote a favourable report to the Chancellor recomending all Irish Prisoners of War be relocated to one camp to allow Casement to recruit them.
Writing later of his thoughts as he sat on a big sofa in the Foreign Office, we get what would become a prophetic insight into the man and and the times: “…I thought of Irleand, the land I should almost fatally never see again. Only a miracle of victory could ever bring me to her shores…but victory or defeat, it is all for Ireland. And she cannot suffer from what I do. I may, I must suffer – even those near and dear to me – but my country can only gain from my treason…If I win all it is national resurrection – a free Ireland, a world nation after centuries of slavery. A people lost in Middle Ages refound and returned to Europa. If fail – if Germany be defeated – still the blow struck today for Ireland must change the course of British policy towards that country. Things will never be quite again the same. The ‘Irish Question’ will have been lifted from the mire and mud and petty, false strife of British domestic politics into an international athmosphere…’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.71
Between the 3rd and 17th November, there were no further diary entries as Casement rested and liased with the Foreign Office on publication of the Memorandum declaration. In addition, he insisted on Christensen continue his attempts to get a written confirmation in Findlay’s handwriting of the verbal offer of £500 for the capture of Casement.
4: Turkey declares war on Russia, the UK, France and Serbia.
Christensen, with the assistance of Casement, reported Casement’s progress to the British agent Sigvald in Christiania, advsing in code that he had stolen a letter naming ‘accomplices’ in both Ireland and the US, but rather than mail it, money should be sent to pay Christensen along with travel expenses to Norway to present it in person.
5:
Britain and France declare war on Turkey. Cyprus annexed by Britain.
6:
Lody, the German spy arrested in Killarney on October 2nd, was executed in the Tower of London.
The same day, Casement sent a message to Judge Cohalan in New York via the German Foreign Office:
‘Lody’s identity discovered by enemy who are greatly alarmed and taking steps to defend Ireland and possibly arrest friends. They are ignorant here to purpose of my coming to Germany, but seek evidence at all costs. Here everything is favourable: authority helping warmly. Send messenger immediately to Ireland fully informed verbally. No letter (upon) him. He should be native-born American citizen, otherwise arrest likely. Let him despatch priest here via Christiania quickly. German legation there will arrange passage: also let him tell Biggar, solicitor, Belfast, conceal everything belonging to me’
Documents relative to the Sinn Fein movement. London 1921. 1108-p3-4. Quoted in Tansill, ‘America and the Fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’ p.180
Devoy reported in a letter to McGarrity that $15,000 would be transferred to the IRB in Dublin shortly
Aodogan O’Rahilly in his biography on the O’Rahilly, comments that in November 1914, Count von Bernstorff sent a message to the Foreign Office in Berlin: ‘There have been purchased for India elevn thousand rifles, four million cartridges, two hundred and fifty Mauser pistols, five hundred revolvers with ammunition. Devoy does not think it possible to ship them to Ireland.’ Pointing out that Devoy had refused them. ‘The very least that Devoy should have done when he received this offer was to have sent a messenger urgently to Dublin to enquire from the Volunteer leaders what to do about it…Devoy was clearly ashamed of this refusal and he never made any references to it in anything he wrote subsequently. The facts did not come to light until the British published their ‘Documents relative to the Sinn Fein Movement’ in the early 1920’s.’ But O’Rahilly Junior continues with the supposition that ‘If a motive is sought for Devoy’s refusal of the German offer of weapons, the only one which comes to mind is that he realised that if such an arsenal of weapons had been sent to Ireland and distributed to the Volunteers, an Irish rising might have suceeded in driving out the British. If this had been achieved, it would have finished his political existence. The end of British occupation of Ireland would also have meant the end of Clan na Gael ‘ Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 135
10: Australian cruiser Sydney sinks the German cruiser Emden off Sumatra.
11: The Western Front was now one continuous line of trenches, filled with war weary soldiers, stretching from the North Sea to Switzerland. Stalemate amid the barbed wire entaglements, machine gun posts and mud.
12:
Captain Robert Monteith was sacked from his position in the Ordnance Department on orders from the Irish Command Headquarters, his membership of the Citizen Army being seen as somewhat prejudicial to the authorities. At 11pm that night, he was ordered under the DORA regulations to leave his home at 6 Palmerston Place, Broadstone, Dublin and reside in an area other than Dublin and any other proclaimed district within 48 hours.
13
Monteith visited Conolly in Liberty Hall as the next edition of the ‘Irish Worker’ went to press. Having told him of the deportation order, Connolly stopped the presses and wrote an article for inclusion in the city edition. He suggested that Monteith go to Cork or Tralee and train the volunteers there in addition to some organising work for the Transport Workers Union, but as proscribed areas, it was not an option. Connolly suggested he next see Bulmer Hobson to advise the Irish Volunteers and suggested that ‘If I had the handling of the matter, I would put you in position in Dublin, turn out every Volunteer in the city and say to the Government: ‘Now come and take him!. Tell Hobson this and if necessary, I’ll turn out the Citizen Army. That would stop all these deportation orders.’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P31
Bulmer Hobson on the other hand suggested the order be obeyed as there was plenty of work organising the Volunteers in other parts of the country. As no definite plans could be made until the Committee met, Hobson contacted Countess Marckievicz who arranged for Monteith and family to use a house she had in the Dublin mountains. That night the Committee met and voted Monteith a sum of money to cover his immediate expenses. A resoloution was passed condemning the expulsion and published the following day.
Monteith returned to Liberty Hall to find Connolly had produced a poster calling a general meeting for Sunday, November 15th to protest against the deportation. Monteith opted to obey the order, moved to Athboy, Co. Meath and then on to Limerick where he spent the next
Kuno Meyer made contact with John Devoy carrying news of Casement. Their first reactions was ‘we in the US were greatly surprised to learn that he had only funds enough to keep him until about the end of the year. Christensen had tapped his pocketbook pretty heavily running back and forth between Berlin and Christiania, with the alleged purpoise od getting written proof of Findlay’s guilt. He certainly did gte it in Findlay’s own handwriting on the official letter head of the Legation. It establishes Findlay’s guilt beyond all doubt but left open the question as to who began to negotiations. The German officials believed it was Christensen. Keno Meyer was half inclinded to share their opinion, as I came to do wholly after my experience of the man in New York…within a few days after my own meeting with Kuno Meyer, we sent Casement $1,000. I handed the amount in bills to Captain Von Papen, the German Military Attache, and he at once wirelessed the order to Berlin…’
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P420
Clann na Gael continued to believe that Casement would be able to convince the Imperial German Government of the importance of giving military aid to Ireland when the opportunity would present itself and that if he succeded in recruting Irishmen taken prisoner while serving in the British army, that the German Government would maintain, feed and clothe them.
Devoy makes speciic mention of funding and their sources in the years preceeding 1916:
“The Clann na Gael was an organisation with but limited resources, and the Volunteer Fund was raised specially for the support of the men in Ireland. The vast majority of our members were not men of much means. They paid six dollars a year dues, but the contributed to the Volunteer Fund ‘till it hurt’ and other occasional special funds taxed the majority to the utmost….with afew notable exceptions, moneyed Irishmen and Irish-Americans were unfortunatly not then interested in the freedom of their motherland’.
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P420-421
15:
The protest meeting organised by Connolly went ahead in Stephen’s Green. Expecting some trouble, the authorities had the Fifth Lancers standing by in Dublin Castle and two companies were under arms in city barracks.
The RIC Inteligence report to Dublin Castle sumarised the event: ‘The Irish Volunteers associated themselves with Larkin’s labour organisation in Dublin at a meeting at Stephen’s Green…the language used by the speakers on this occasion was extremely bad and disloyal’
RIC Inteligence Notes 1913-16. State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P108
To discover just how ‘bad and disloyal’ the language used, the Irish Times gives a summary under the headline
‘VIOLENT SPEECHES IN DUBLIN’
‘…The meeting was largely attended, and was continued although rain began to fall before it was long in progress. A contingent of the Volunteers, armed with rifles, was present.
Mr. O’Brien of the Trades Council who presided, said that the authorities might break a man, but they could not break the principles for which the man stood. This meeting would show how the people of Dublin regarded this act of tyranny.
Mr John Milroy said that they were told their King and country need you, but they had no King or country but Ireland. They would have none of it. The Empire which they were asked to serve had done all that inhuman ingenuity could do to crush and destroy their nation. But it had not succeeded. The Irish nation had survived and would outlive the British Empire. (Applause).
He said to them deliberately, …that the Empire had met at last an opponent which would give them back blow for blow (Applause and a voice ‘Three cheers for the Germans’ )…this traitorous blow against Ireland’s army has got to be answered, and they, the men of Dublin, were the men to answer it. They must all join either the Volunteers or the Citizen Army to be prepared for the day of reckoning, which was much nearer than any of them imagined. Let them be ready for the day when their arms would not be words but cold steel.
Mr Patridge sais they were asked to put down militarism. Well, they were there to put it down and they meant to put it down. They had no King, but they had a country, thank God. In God’s name, in Ireland’s name, let every one of them get ready, let every one of them get a gun, get ammunition and sleep with one eye open. (Applause).
The O’Rahilly said that Captain Monteith’s crime…was that he had acted as umpire at the manoeuvers which were held on the previous Sunday at Swords. He was speaking of the Irish Volunteers, not of the so called National Volunteers. If Captain Monteith had officiated for the latter, he would have been as safe as if he had been at luncheon at the Castle.
Mr. P.T. Daly …. Conscription is in the air and they had to go or fight ( Cries ‘to Fight!’ ) It was better to die fighting in Ireland than in Flanders.
Mme. Markievicz announced that the members of her society, the women of Ireland, were learning to shoot so that they might help to resist conscription.
Mr James Connolly said that sooner or later they had to get rid of the British Government, or the British Government would get rid of them…he had arranged, if the police or military were let loose on the citizens of Dublin, that before the week was over it would be known to every soldier serving at the front ( Applause ) and when it was known that they were being slaughtered in Dublin, the next time that the Dublin Fuseiliers were sent to cover the retreat of the British, the Dublin Fusiliers would forget to follow the British. (Appaluse ). If there was a landing of Germans in England or Ireland, ten minutes after that landing, every Volunteer officer, every leader of rebel tendencies would be sent away to Mountjoy or Arbour Hill. Any such wholsale arrest of leaders would be proof that the British Empire was tottering to it’s destruction.
On the motion of Mr. Connolly, the crowd pledged themselves as fighters for Ireland, never to rest until they were provildged to see Ireland a free and independent Republic among the nations.
‘A Nation Once Again’ was then sung and a number of shots fired by Volunteers. With this demonstration the meeting ended. Whilst it was taking place, a force of police was present, but did not attempt to intervene in any way.’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P33-34
16: Christensen received a reply from the British agent in Christiania, Sigvald. When decoded it indicated that for each letter stolen, £30 would be paid if the information contained was reliable.
17: London – Income tax for Britian and Ireland was to be doubled from 1915, announced Lloyd George in War Budget
Germany – Casement was on a formal visit to the Headquarters of the German General Staff at Charleville, returning on the 20th.
19: German and Austrian POW’s riot at an isle of Man POW camp.
20:
The German Chancellor authorised and released a statement that Casement had drafted, confirming that the well-known Irish Nationalist and defender of human rights, Sir Roger Casement was in Berlin and had been received by the German Foreign Office, in addition the official German attitude towards Ireland was included. This was the memorandum that Zimmermann in the Foreign Office had been persuaded to issue: …‘The Imperial German Government formally declares that under no circumstances would Germany invade Ireland with a view to its conquest or the overthrow of any native institutions in that country. Should the fortunes of this great war, that was not of Germany’s seeking, ever bring in its course German trooops to the shores of Ireland, they would land there, not as an army of invaders to pillage and destroy, but as forces of a Government that is inspired by goodwill towards a country and a people for whom Germany desires only NATIONAL PROSPERITY and NATIONAL FREEDOM’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P181
This appeared in Berlin’s morning and afternoon newspapers, some with comment and others without. US papers carried it the following day but nothing appeared in the British press until November 28th.
The next task for Sir Roger Casement was to raise an Irish Brigade from the Irish Prisoners of War in German Camps. While such a Brigade was of small military value, the effect otherwise would be, according to a German viewpoint ‘worth some ten army corps’.
In the meantime, Casement was much in demand by the Berlin social set, lunching with colourful characters as an old friend from his days in Africa, Prince Blucher. Blucher had leased an island from Britain to rear kangaroos until the outbreak of war when he was summarilly removed and deported back to Germany. In his diaries are recorded the comments from various society belles: ‘Countess Blucher hopes sincerely I may suceed in raising a really good rebellion in Ireland – and so bring peace by terrifying the British Government.’ And ‘she would really like to see England get not an overthrow, but a good birching from Germany’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.90-1
However, Blucher’s wife, the Princess saw things somewhat differently, writing in her memoirs: ‘On our return to Berlin at the end of November, we were startled by the announcement that Sir Roger Casement had arrived there…we knew his anti-English feelings well, and his rabid anti-Home Rule mania,but we did not expect it to have taken this intense form of becoming pro-German…my husband went to see him shortly after his arrival and tried to show him what a false position he had put himself in, and that he had better leave the country as quickly as possible, but it was no use. So after that, we refused to see him or have anything more to do with him”
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.92-3
Dr Curry counters Princess Blucher’s recollections. ‘The statement that Count Blucher ‘tried to show him what a false position he had put himself in’ is also false; on the contrary, the Count did everything in his power to induce Sir Roger to publish the Christiania incident and finally became so persistent in his endeavours and consequently such a nuisance that Sir Roger was inclined to avoid his company’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.93
Cork’s first Lord Mayor, Daniel Hegarty died.
23: British forces land in Ottoman held Mesopotamia ( later Iran & Iraq ) capturing Basra, an important oil centre.
25: US Baseball star, Joe Dimaggio born.
27: Russians rout German forces on the Polish front.
Washington: British Ambassador Sir Cecil Spring-Rice apparently tried to laugh off the news of Casement’s securing of the German pledge: ‘Sir Roger Casement is credited with a delicious interview with the Acting Secretary of State in Berlin, who promises that the German Army will land in Ireland not to pillage churches and sack towns, as is falsely but somewhat naturally asserted, but on a mission of mercy and culture. I hope the good news is being spread in Ireland.’
W. J.Maloney. “The Forged Casement Diaries.” Talbot Press, Dublin 1936. p229-6
28
In a letter to Eoin MacNeill, Sir Roger Casement reported on his misson’s progress and advised that Germany
‘..will do all in their power to help us win national freedom...tell me all your needs at home, viz. Rifles, officers, men. Send priest or priests at all costs - one not afraid to fight and die for Ireland ...we may win everything by this war if we are true to Germany.’
Documents relative to the Sinn Fein movement. London 1921. 1108-P3-4. Quoted in Tansill, ‘America and the Fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’ p.181.
The Irish Prisoners of War throughout Germany were collected in one camp, Limburg, just north-west of Frankfurt.
Casement’s presence in Germany was first commented on in the pages of the London Daily Chronicle along with the full text of the German pledge: ‘In a moment of infatuation…Sir Roger Casement, the ex-British official and prominent Irish Nationalist, has visited the Berlin Foreign Office and has received official assurance that in the event of a German invasion – an event, by the way, as unlikely as a German invaion of the planet Mars – Ireland will be well and sympatetically treated…Sir Roger Casement’s precise object in obtaining this quaint assurance it is impossible to fathom. Of all the absurdities that have emanated from Berlin during the war, this is surely the most absurd.’
The London Daily News and Westminster Gazette also carried the full text, the Daily Mail quoted most of the pledge along with the Daily Telegrapgh & Morning Post. The Times either refused to print what was released by the censor or not allowed to print. The Westminster Gazette reminded it’s readers that Berlin was a long, long way fom Tipperary. The Daily News commented on the traitorous British knight: “…the very greatness of Sir Roger Casement’s achievements in the service of his country heightens the offence of the crime he has committed, which admits no palliation…Sir Roger Casement’s conduct consists of open betrayal of a Government which trusted him and of a country which showered honours upon him. If he disaproved of the war to which they were committed there were many courses open to him which did not involve treachery. He has made his election with a quite incomprehensible perversity, and closed forever by one foul blow an honourable career.’
W. J.Maloney. “The Forged Casement Diaries.” Talbot Press, Dublin 1936. p41
British provincial papers did not carry news of the Berlin press-release and Casement’s involvement.
US papers carried British reaction to the news such as: ‘Casement’s visit to Berlin severely censured’ New York Times.
New York: The United Irish League and affiliated councils met in New York where a resolution moved by Patrick Egan, foremerly US Ambassador to Chile ‘repudiated Casement as an Irish leader and denounced the German pledge.’
W. J.Maloney. “The Forged Casement Diaries.” Talbot Press, Dublin 1936. p43
29: Washington: Former President Roosevelt criticises the US administartion for its ‘tame and spiritless neutrality’ in the war.
30:
A British trawler fishing in the North Sea found a copy of the German naval codebook, Vekersbuch in it’s nets. Within days, Room 40 of the Admiralty had three major German codebooks, The Signalbuch der Kaiserlichen Marine, the Handlesverkerhsbuch and the Vekehrsbuch.
MP’s in the House of Commons were officially ‘induced’ to withdraw questions concerning the German Pledge to Ireland and the Irish Nationalists in the House formally repudiated Sir Roger Casement: ‘We deny that Casement has the right or title to speak in the name of nationalists of Ireland. The only aim that he and those like him are seeking to accomplish is to injure our Nationalism and prejuidce our cause in the eyes of the British people
December 1914
2:
Sinn Fein, Irish Freedom and Irish Volunteer were supressed under DORA.
Germany: Casement continued to produce fake letters for Adler to present to Findlay in Christiania. He also received an Imperial German passport valid for three months from December 2nd 1914, valid for ‘traveling in Germany’ and issued to the ‘Irishman Sir Roger Casement’. Von Wedel in the Foreign Office commented that there was a degree of mistrust regarding Christensen due to his ‘loose habits’ the potential of being a double-agent and that the ‘Christiania affair’ would be better dropped. On the other hand both Count Blucher and Professor Schiemann wanted Casement to publish details of the Findlay incident at once without waiting for any additional proof. Casement also realised that the fake letters produced to trap Findlay ‘have long since been handed to the Foreign Office and constitute for Downing Street overwhelming proof of my guilt. To now retire from the affair, merely because Wilhelmstrasse does not like it, would be to make the British Government a present of my character..and enable them to poison the ears of everyone in Ireland and the United States against me and to prove their charge against me..’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.116
2.
Belgium is put under German military control. Austria-Hungary takes Belgrade but can’t hold the city for long.
Germany: Casement leaves Berlin at 10.20pm on the overnight train to Frankfurt and a meeting with the Irish prisoner’s of war at Limburg.
3:
Germany: Casement arrived in Frankfurt.
Casement met and addressed the Irish Prisoners of War in Limburg for the first time. He introduced himself, explaining he was recruting for an Irish Brigade, named after the 300 Irishmen who fought with against the British during the Boer War. He then handed out copies of the Gaelic American and put up a poster calling for volunteers.
In what turned out to be the last issue of Irish Freedom, Griffith gave a summary of the situation in Ireland:
‘Today in Ireland there are men dismised from their employment and banished from their homes, there are men in jail because they have dared to stand in the trench that the Irish Parliamentary Party tried to hand over to the enemey. And those things, starvation, imprisonment, death maybe, lie at the door of Mr. Redmond and Mr Dillon and Mr. Devlin, and their party and their press…’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P165
Copies of Irish Freedom were seized throughout the country while the printers of Griffith’s paper ‘Sinn Fein’ were told that their plant would be seized if they continued printing. The I.R.B brought out another newspaper to replace Irish Freedom, named ‘Eire’ but were also seized by police. A substitute paper was printed in Glasgow until it too was supressed.
O’Rahilly approached Ernest Blythe, who was working in the Kerry Gaeltacht while learning Irish with an offer to go to Germany as an Irish Volunteer emissary and make contact with the German Government. Blythe refused the offer, later commenting that as an IRB member, he would only take orders from the IRB and it’s leadership.
5:
Casement met with the Irish Prisoners of War again in Limburg. This time the majority were hostile, jeering and jostling.
‘Casment succeded in recruiting only one prisoner; a Sergeant Timothy Quinlisk ( who would be shot by the I.R.A in 1920) ‘
Austen Morgan. ‘James Connolly – a political biography’. Manchester University Press. 1988. .p157
Connolly’s Irish Worker appears with leader page blank in protest at Government censorship under DORA. The leading article was published 4 days later in leaflet form ‘while the censor wasn’t looking’
John Devoy was delighted with the German statement made on November 20th. He sent a message through the German Embassy in Washington advising Casement that the statement had made an excellent impression on Irish-America, and as to his requests in message of November 6th:
‘..the confidential agent arrived in Ireland end November...the priest starts as soon as the leave of absence which he requires has been granted...Judge Cohalan recomends not publishing statement about attempt on life until actual proofs are secured’
Documents relative to the Sinn Fein movement. London 1921. 1108-p6. Quoted in Tansill, ‘America and the Fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’ p.181.
Devoy makes no mention of this in his ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’.
‘Dubliners’ by James Joyce published.
6:
The General Council of the I.R.B met and Pearse was appointed as Director of Military Organisation.
Germany: Casement writing in his diary commented that ‘I will not accept the responsibility for putting a couple of thousand Irish soldiers into the high treason pot unless I get very precise and sure promises both in their regard and for the political future of Ireland.’
W. J.Maloney. “The Forged Casement Diaries.” Talbot Press, Dublin 1936. p114
7:
Germany: Casement wrote of another meeting between the British Legation Minister in Christania, Mansfeldt Findlay and Adler Christensen, in which he was ‘handed..the key of the back entrance of the British Legation, so that he might go and come unobserved and at all hours.’ Since the first meeting, Casement through Christensen had laid an intricate false trail ‘bogus letters, fictisious maps and charts and other indictments to Mr Findlay’s appetite for the incredible – were part of my necessary plan of self-defense to lay bare the conspiracy’
Captain Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’ Chicago 1932. P.83
This was in addition to two separate sums of 500 Norwegian Crowns and British gold.
Casement read of the seizing of Irish Worker in the Frankfurter Zeitung ‘and there is something about Sinn Fein I cannot translate.’ Doubts increasing, Casement wrote to the Foreign Office requesting seeing the Chancellor or Secretary of State before proceeding further with the Irish Brigade.
8
Off the Falkland Isles, British squadron under command of Rear-Admiral Sturdee, sinks three of the German cruisers Nurnburg, Scharnhorst and Gneiseau which had destroyed the Good Hope and Monmouth on Nov. 1. The Dresden escapes.
Germany: Casement ill in Limburg.
9: Italy demands the Southern Tyrol from Austria as the price for it’s neutrality.
Germany: Casement ill in Limburg.
11: German cruisers sunk in an encounter with the Royal Navy off the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
Germany: Casement returns to Berlin and confided in his diary that he was ‘wholly undecided what is best to do first. I think the Findlay business should be settled and done for, before anything else.’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.119
In the afternoon, he went to the ForeignOffice and saw Von Wedel who agreed that he should proceed with what he thought best with the Findlay business.
12: Germany: Casement met with Blucher for lunch ‘I said to Blucher that if neither the Chancellor nor von Jagow cared to receive me I thought my right course would be to leave Germany…in my heart I am very sorry I came! I do not think the German Government has any soul for great enterprises - it lacks the divine spark of imagination…’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.122
13:
Allies attacked along the entire front, from Nieuport in the west to Verdun in the east, but failed to make any appreciable gains.
15: Serbians recapture Belgrade from Austria-Hungary.
16
German naval squadron bombards Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby on east coast of England, sinking two torpedo boats and returning to base with no casualties.
17: Norway: Adler Christensen met with Findlay and ‘told him a tissue of lies; of American gold, yachts, men high up in the Government service even, all coming to meet me off the coast of Schleswig, where I would join them with two boats…German admirals called on me in Berlin …and I was getting arms and ammunition to land in Ireland’. At this Findlay became more upset, calling Casement ‘a very clever, a very dangerous son of a bitch’ but added ‘ he is a gentleman’
Chiistensen was to discover what lattitude and longitude Casement was to meet the imaginary yacht.
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.122
18: Berlin: Casement met with von Wedel at the Foreign Office – “who was more than friendly and told me they agreed to all my conditions as to the Irish Brigade’ later meeting with the Chancellor where he ‘wished me all success in your aims and projects’. Meeting again with von Wedel ‘he said they would support me in every way andgive me all the assurances I needed and that the Chancellor’s reception of me was to convince me of their friendship and regard…whatever the immediate outcome of the war and fate of Ireland might be, I might rest assured they would pursue a policy of good will to Ireland commercially, if they could not achieve a positive act of political assistance.’
Casement suggested that the German navy make use of the Findlay case and in turn lay a trap. Von Wedel advised it would be passed to the Admiralty.
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.133-34
However, Casement somewhat mistakenly attributes newspaper supression and jailing of editors in Ireland to his work on Findlay in Norway. Writing of the British reaction ..’so they are now panicking through Ireland and trying to get hold of the ‘dangerous’ men before my attempted landing comes off. The bombardment of the Yorkshire towns will also have helped and will probably be attributed to my malign influence here in Berlin…my only hope is that in their fury of rage and fear combined ( the British Government ) will show their hand so openly against Irish nationality that Redmond and his gang of traitors will have to either repudiate England openly or repudiate the cause they have so grossly misrepresented for years and finally so cruelly betrayed.’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.137
19:
By this stage, Ireland was at fever pitch. Mass meetings had been held throughout the country and Home Rule was looking more probable than ever before. The Liberty Hall banner “ We serve neither King nor Kaiser - but Ireland” removed by British Authorities. The Irish Volunteer Force by now was regarded by the Government and Authorities as a seditious force but of little paramilitary threat, but only because they were so poorly armed. They were estimated s 13,500 at mid-December. The consensus of opinion within the movement was not so much pro-German as more an England weakened by war,would be unable to resist a demand for independence.
Kathleen Clarke describes meeting Mary MacSwiney (1872-1942) then head of Cumman na mBan in Cork in their shop in Parnell Street and inviting her to a lecture in the Irish Volunteers hall in 25 Parnell Square. ‘ but little either of us heard of that lecture. She would talk. She began by saying that she did not agree with seekign help from Germany. I asked why. ‘Well’ she said, ‘I lived in Germany and I dislike the Germans. They are a tyranical people and if we accept their help we will be under their rule’ which led on to a large argument bewteen both women. ‘it was no use continuing; she had her views and I had mine, and we both held on to them and parted in no friendly frame of mind. I thought her stupid and narrow. What she thought of me, God knows’
Kathleen Clark ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P51
21: Berlin: Casment received a letter from his friend, Kuno Meyer in New York mailed on November 28th telling of having met ‘Cohalan, McGarrity, Devoy and John Quinn. They all disapprove the publication of the Christiania incident’
Curry ‘Sir Roger Casement Diaries’ p 140. Quoted in Tansill, ‘America and the Fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’ p.181. p140 in Curry’s book.
24: German forces have taken more than 578,000 Allied prisoners since August.
25: Truce in the trenches shocks generals as British and German troops played football together on Christmas day.
27:
Casement signed a ‘Treaty’ with the German Government of ten articles for the development of an Irish Brigade, to be fed, equipped and trained but not paid, by the Germans. To be furnished with a distinctive, Irish uniform, to be commanded by Irish officers and to fight under the Irish flag. The final article promised to recognise Ireland as an independent nation once its Government had been established. More important though was Article 6 which indicated in event of a German Naval victory allowing the means to reach the Irish coast, an amphibious landing of the Irish Brigade and supporting troops would be made.
The Treaty would not be published until Casement had conscripted a large enough force.
30:
Casement left Berlin on the night train for Frankfurt and then to the Irish POW camp at Limburg.
By years end, the Supreme Council of the I.R.B., had passed virtually unlimited powers when the council was not in session to Thomas Clake and Sean McDiarmada. This in turn allowed Pearse to work out plans for the deployment of Volunteers should the Government introduce conscription or attempt to forcibly disarm the Volunteers. This was encouraged by Clarke and McDermott ‘possibly because it distrcated him from planning a rising with Plunkett and Ceannt’.
Hits of 1914:
‘Keep the home fires burning’
‘St. Louis Blues’
Pearse is sworn in to the I.R.B. by Bulmer Hobson.
Pearse went on a lecture tour in the US to raise funds for St. Enda’s. There he met many of the Irish - American Fenians particularly John Devoy.
John Devoy by this stage was growing older, more grizzled and slightly deaf.
‘..A batchelor wed only to his work, snappy as a New York cabdriver, tough as a cop, wily as a Philadelphia lawyer, he lived in a seedy hotel on 14th Street. He had no friends, only allies. As the years passed, he became ever more autocratic and scurrilous. His stock reply to the query ‘why?’ was a papal, ‘Goddammit, cos I say so’. His favourite expletive was, ‘Whoreson!’ and when he got annoyed he threw down his hat and stamped on it until he felt better. His entire working day from sunrise to beyond sunset ws spent in the dusty offices of the Gaelic American, next to a noisy railroad, writing letters, articles, checking copy, stoking in every conceivable way his hatred for England...thirty years before he had prophesied in a speech in Holyoke, Massachusetts, ‘Ireland’s opportunity will come when England is engaged in a desperate struggle with some great European power or European combination..’
Peter de Rossa. Rebels, the Irish Rising of 1916. Bantam Press, London. 1990. p36
Pearse commenting on the Gaelic League said: “…it will be recognised in history as the most revolutionary influence that has ever come into Ireland. The Irish Revolution really began when the seven proto-Gaelic Leaguers met in O’Connell Satreet. Their deed of 1893 made out deed of 1913 possible. The germ of all future Irish history was in that backroom…”
Sir Roger Casement’s lobbying of the German, Hamburg-Amerika Line, produced some results when they announced that the steamer Rhaetia would leave Hamburg on January 17th and call at Queenstown three days later. However Foreign Office pressure from England resulted in the cancelation of this first contact.
In Dublin, striking dockers and seamen were told there would be no more strike pay, and a gradual return to work took place throughout the city. The Inchichore works of the Dublin United Tramway Company opened on January 19th after a closure of nearly five months.
In Tracton, Michael Lynch as the I.R.B. Centre organised with John and William O’Brien a company of Irish Volunteers. "There were about 50 men in the company until the Volunteer split in September 1914."
Statement by Michael Lynch – part of application for Military Service Pension Certificate, December 1935. Lynch Archives.
1. London – Lloyd George calls the arms build up in Europe as ‘organised insanity’
8: London – Doctors at the Middlesex Hospital announced that they had succesfully treated cancer with radium. However the process had been trialled earlier by John Joly (1857-1933) at Dr. Steeven’s Hospital, Dublin by Dr Walter Clegg Stevenson.
10: Japan – over 9 million people starving in the north-east of the country.
Carson stressed in a letter to Asquith that the exclusion of Ulster was essential in the Home Rule debate. Dublin was to have no legislative powers in the province and no MPs would be sent to Dublin, instead remaining at Westminster.
15: Ulster: Andrew Bonar Law, Tory Opposition Leader warned that ‘We are inevitably drifting to civil war’ saying that there will eb bloodshed if the government persists with Home Rule for Ireland and added ‘We have given a pledge that if Ulster resits we will suport her’ and caled for another general election.
18: A closed session of the ITGWU adopts Connolly’s proposal that workers return to work if not obliged to take a pledge.
The Geiger counter invented by Hans Geiger detected the passage of a single sub-atomic particle.
19: The Inchichore works of the Dublin United Tramway Company opens after 5 months as carters and labourers return to work.
20: Carson convened a meeting in Belfast to discuss the arms question for the Ulster Volunteers. 90,000 members and not enough rifles to arm the force. The proposal by Major Fred Crawford to buy at least 20,000 rifles and 2 million rounds of ammunition in Hamburg and smuggle them back to Ulster was considered and approved. Carson leaving James Craig in charge.
27: Britain’s man in Washington, Sir Cecil Spring-Rice reported that the unresolved Irish question gave American anglophobes a convenient base for their hostility: ‘..an unfriendly feeling exists in this country against England, that a great interest is excited by Irish affairs, and that American unfriendliness to England may and most probably will have serious results should affairs in Ireland become worse’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p27
30:
Larkin in a speech in Dublin at the end of the Lock Out ‘ We are beaten. We will make no bones about it; but we are not too badly beaten still to fight’
31: The Builders Labourers Union of some 3,000 members, promises employers that members will not join or support the ITGWU.
February 1914
1
The Great Lockout was near to collapse and the Citizen Army dwindled according to Sean O’Casey..” to no more than a single skeleton company” . Workers were drifting back to their jobs after some 22 weeks.
The Irish Times reported that no strike pay was being doled out from Liberty Hall and that two loaves of bread for each applicant was all that could be mustered.
2: John Redmond as leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party faced a growing challenge from the Irish Volunteers to his leadership and in an attempt to secure Home Rule he was willing to concede on Ulster. Meeting with Asquith he received assurances that the P.M. ‘..and his colleagues were all firmly opposed to the exclusiong of Ulster, or any part of Ulster, even temporaily’ from the operation of Home Rule.
Asquith, however was increasing the pressure on Redmond and revealed that the Tories were ‘recklessly plotting’ to obstruct the passage of the army annual bill unless they were assured that the army was not going to be used against Ulster. The army annual bill was passed each year, and failure would mean the Government would be unable to pay or control the armed forces. Asquith implied that such a crisis would result in a general election which the Tories would probably win and set back Home Rule for ‘many years’. Asquith recalled that Redmond ‘shivered visibly and was a good deal preturbed when told the news’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p240
Lloyd George in a Cabinet memorandum recommended the immediate passage of the Home Rule Bill with the proviso that parts of Ulster could postpone the operation of Home Rule until after a general election. This included a refinement that became known as the ‘county option’ in that if 10% of the voters in any Irish county demanded it, that county could opt out of Home Rule for a as yet to be determined number of years. At the end of that period, the country would automatically be incorporated under a Dublin Parliament unless Westminster decided otherwise. This plan became the foundation of the Liberal Government thinking, replacing Asquith’s earlier preference for some form of ‘Home Rule within Home Rule’.
Durnovo (Russian State Council member) writes memo to Tsar regarding Russian role in war against Germany; assumes that Britain wouldn't be able to help much and territorial gains wouldn't be worthwhile and predicted a war would lead to social revolution
3
The Irish Times reminded it's readers of the underlying causes of the Lockout ‘The brooding discontents which exploded in the mad attempt to ‘hold up’ Dublin gathered force and volume in the pestilential athmosphere of the Dublin slums…it is a cynical commentary on our social sense that we needed the stimulus of the strike to realise the squalor and misery which, in the last analysis, produced it.’
The Irish Times Book of The Century. Fintan O’Toole. Gill & Macmillan 1999. p50
4:
Joseph Devlin, MP for West Belfast and leader of the Ulster Nationalists made an offer – originally suggested by Horace Plunkett – to allow Ulster ‘to claim exclusion after, say, ten years if her representatives were not satisfied with their treatment in the Irish Parliament.’. Devlin also suggested an offer of additional representation for Ulster in a Dublin Parliament.
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p240
Suffragettes burn two Scottish mansions.
5:
Diarmuid Lynch and Thomas ` left Dublin for America on a years fund raising drive for the Gaelic League and secretly for Diarmuid to attend the biennial Clan na Gael convention as the IRB representative and where he was to report to the Revolutionary Directory on the state of the home organisation.
This report from an unknown newspaper:
‘This evening..Messrs. Diarmuid Lynch and Thomas Aghas ( Thomas Ashe ), two prominent advocates of the language movement, will leave Dublin en-route for America for the purpose of raising funds on behalf of the organisation. Other prominent Gaelic Leaguers will follow in the course of a few weeks, and the mission will extend over a period of twelve months, during which interval it has been arranged to visit every State in the Union.
The second party of delegates will consist of Mr.Fionan Mac Coluim, Miss Nellie Ni Brian ( O’Brien ), and Miss Eithne O’Kelly. Their work will consist principally of conducting Irish industries and art exhibitions in connection with which Miss O’Brien will also lecture and accept subscriptions. Thomas Ashe and Diarmuid Lynch will deliver lectures, address public meetings, interview prominent Irishmen and people of Irish descent, and collect funds throughout the States.They are taking with them a very fine collection of lantern slides, and will commence operations in New York , where Mr. Lynch has been for ten years identified with the language movement until hsi return to the country three or four years ago.
Thomas Aghas, who is a native of Lispole, Dingle, Co. Kerry, has been working for the Gaelic League in Dublin since 1908. He has been a city member of the Coisde Gnotha for the past four years, and has been one of the most active and progressive members of that body since his connection with it.He is a good vocalist, has a splendid collection of traditional Irish songs, and is an accomplished piper.
Diarmuid Lynch is a native of the parish of Tracton, Co. Cork, and for the past three years has been a most usefull member of the Coisde ( cnoiste ) Gnotha, on which he represents the Gaelic League of America. He was President of the Gaelic League for a number of years in the State of New York and was in touch with all the leading men in that city. With regard to the other members, the delegation who are to follow, will leave within the next three weeks...’
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
An unknown paper also reported their departure:
A large number of friends met last evening at the Gresham Hotel to wish Messrs Lynch and Ashe a plesant journey and every success in their efforts. Dr. Douglas Hyde, speaking on behlaf of the Gaelic League, said their delegates were to confine themselves entirely to the work of the League while in the States. They had a great work before them, and be, on behalf of those present, and on behalf of the Gaelic League throughout Ireland, wished them every success in their undertaking…Mr Lynch on behalf od Mr Ashe and himselef, suitably replied and promised they would do their utmost to make the result of their efforts in the States worthy of the cause for which they had been selected ( applause ). The delegates left Dublin by the 6:10 train from Kingsbridge and were accorded a most enthuastic send off…’
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
Diarmuid was not only fundraising for the Gaelic League but also was representing the IRB in Ireland at the biennial Clan na Gael conference.
The ‘Irish American’ took up the news of their arrival in America:
“Messrs Jeremiah Lynch and Thomas Ashe, delgates from the Gaelic League, have been very cordially received in the United States. The intention of the delegates is to tour the country and deliver lectures on the work of the Gaelic League, the proceeds to be devoted to the Language Fund. Mr. Lynch is well known and deservedly popular among the Irish of New York. The ‘Irish American’ recalls that he was President of the Philo-Celtic Society for a number of years, and it was through his untiring exertions that it became a force for good in the city. Mr. Ashe ( continued our contemporary ) has been for many years one of the most untiring, unselfish workers in the movement in Dublin. He is a member of the governing body of the League, and has done quite a considerable amount of public speaking at meetings throughout the country’
Irish American - February (?) 1914. - Lynch Family Archives.
While Lynch and Ashe were en-route fundraising, Major Crawford visited Sir Edward Carson in London to enusre his support in gun-running for the Ulster Volunteers. Funds had been raised by Lord Milner from amongst his wealthy associates. Rudyard Kipling gave £30,000, Lord Iveagh, Rotschild and the Duke of Bedford also contributed large sums. The overall cost of Crawford’s expedition would be some £60-70,000.
7: The first issue of Irish Volunteer appears. Pearse in an article wrote: ‘The Gaelic League will be recognised in history as the most revolutionary influence that has ever come into Ireland. The Irish revolution really began when the seven proto-Gaelic Leaguers met in O’Connell Street…the germ of all future Irish history was in that back room’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p32
9:
Connolly writing in Forward on the workers defeat in the Dublin lock-out ‘And so we Irish workers must again go down into hell, bow our backs to the lash of the slave driver, let our hearts be seared by the iron of his hatred, and instead of the sacramental wafer of brotherhood and common sacrificie, eat the dust of defeat and betrayal. Dublin is isolated.
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999. p32
11:
Carson as Ulster Unionist Leader to John Redmond in a House of Commons debate on Home Rule: ‘I say to the leader of the Nationalist Party, if you want Ulster, go and take her, or go and win her. You have never wanted her affections, you have wanted her taxes.
British TUC winds up it’s Dublin Relief Fund.
Concern was growing that Catholics in Derry were about to suffer an Orange pogrom and Colonel Moore was sent northwards to organise the Irish Volunteers in the region. Moore, a retired British army officer offered his services when the Volunteers were formed, becoming the Inspector General.
14:
An enquiry into housing conditions in Dublin was published, finding some 28,000 Dubliners living in houses unfit for human inhabitation. The report also went on to name three members of Dublin Corporation who owned some of these slum properties and ‘ were deriving rents from overcrowded, insanitary tenements’.
17:
With the defeat of Irish American moves to have tolls for American ships using the Panama Canal reduced to zero, Britain’s rather nervous ambassador in the US, Cecil Spring Rice, wrote to William Tyrell, secretary to the Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey. He observed that Irish American strenght in the US was declining ‘The Irish vote is not as well organised or as important as it was, mainly because the immigration has slackened and the Irishman becomes an American after two generations.’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p29
21:
Pearse in the US on a fund raising mission for St. Enda’s met with Hobson, Joe McGarrity and John Devoy in the offices of the 'Gaelic American', New York. Hobson brought a document from Casement dealing with possible Irish attitudes to Germany in event of war. Pearse remained in the US until May, and addressed the Emmet Commorations in Brooklyn and Manhattan, later falling ill in Philadelphia and staying with McGarrity.
25: Belfast – The UVF claimed to have 100,000 armed men.
26: New aviation passenger record set with Igor Sikorsky carrying 17 passsengers in a twin engined aircraft, Russia.
Brittanic launched from Harland & Wolff, sister ship to the Olympic and Titanic and was at the time, the largest ship built in the UK. ( sunk in the Agean Sea in 1914 )
Ernest Henry Shackleton set sail for Antartica aboard the Endurance with the aim of crossing the Antartic from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. ( > January 1915 )
March 1914
Gellingnite taken from Kynock’s Explosives Factory near Arklow, Co. Wicklow and some 4,000 rounds of .303 ammunition ‘aquired’ from troops stationed on the Curragh were stored and distibuted by Liam Mellows, Jospeh Plunkett and de Valera.
The Lusitania broke its last speed record in March 1914 on a voyage from New York to Liverpool. The outbreak of World War One meant that the role of the ship was about to change. Upon arrival in the Mersey the Admiralty decided that they did not need the ship as an armed merchant cruiser but they paid for the ship to remain at Liverpool at their disposal. The Lusitania made two trips between Liverpool and New York during October 1914 and then began a monthly service on this route. In order to save on coal and labour six of the ship's boilers were closed down and its maximum speed reduced to 21 knots.
From Neil McCart “ Atlantic Liners of the Cunard Line from 1884 to the Present Day “ - PSL, 1993.
1: Bishop McHugh called off a pro Home Rule rally in Derry following representations from John Redmond that it could lead to possible disorder. ‘The rights and interests of the nationalists of Ulster will not be neglected or betrayed by us’ John Redmond in letter to Bishop McHugh.
2:
Redmond met with Asquith and Lloyd George and took the fateful step of conceeding the principle of exclusion, agreeing to the ‘county option’ proposal that certain Ulster counties had the right to ‘opt for remaining outside the jurisdiction of the Irish Parliament…for three years covering the period when a general election must take place.’
‘The three year exclusion was a cyncial bait for the nationalists,and foredoomed to rejection by the Tories.’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p240
Joseph Devlin shortly afterwards lobbied Catholic bishops and other influential people in Ulster to support the three year exclusion.
The King wrote to Asquith protesting that ‘I must confess that I have grave fears that the proposed limit…will not be acceptable to Ulster. This will make Sir Edward Carson’s position an almost impossible one…’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p240
In New York at the Emmet Commemoration, Patrick Pearse said ‘Today, Ireland is once again organising, once more learning the noble trade of arms. There is again in Ireland the murmur or a marching and talk of guns and tactics’
Florence O’Donoghue. ‘Thomas MacCurtain – Soldier & Patriot’ Anvil Books, Tralee, Co. Kerry. 1971. p.32
He also said ‘I can only speak for myself when I say that before this generation has passed, the Volunteers will draw the sword for Ireland…I do not know how nationahood is achieved except by armed men.’
Royal Commission created to investigate condition of the RIC. Witness after witness told of the anxiety’which permeated the constabulary about their place in Irish society and their fears for the future..'
Peter Hart ‘The IRA & It's Enemies – Violence and Community in Cork 1916-1923’ Oxford University Press 1998. p3
4: British Anti-Home Rule Covenant launched.
Asquith now deputed Chief Secretary Birrell to tell Redmond that the three year county option must be extended. Redmond reluctantly agreed to an intial five years, then under some pressure from Asquith, to six years. Asquith argued that six years was essential to ensure that a general election would intervene before the opted-out counties were automatically included in a Dublin based Parliament, in that any new Government could halt the process and so make the exclusion permanent. This exclusion proposal would not be built into the Home Rule Bill, but into a separate amending bill, so that if the amending bill were rejected, Home Rule could still go ahead.
In New York, Diarmuid wrote to Michael, Dan and Tim Lynch at home in Granig. Michael’s postcard was a panoramic tinted view of New York: ‘My Dear Michael. Terrible weather here since we arrived. Everybody has the ‘poor mouth’. Business has been rotten during the past year. New York has changed wonderfully in seven years. I’m sick of it already & thank God I’m not here to stay. I hope Mama & all are well.’
Dan’s postcard was The Woolworth Building & City Hall ‘Wonderful built up here – BUT! ( Note the capitals).’
Tim’s was the Flatiron building ‘This building was here in my time. Plenty evidence of wealth but money is so hard to get as in Ireland.’
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
6: Belfast – the Union defence League issues 400,000 forms to be signed by ‘anyone opposing Home Rule’.
A delegation of Ulster suffragettes traveled to London for an unscheduled meeting with Carson. Outraged that he had reneged on earlier promises to them, they camped on his doorstep over the weekend, finally admitting them on Monday to inform tat he could not introduce votes for women as his colleagues disagreed on the issue.
7: Diarmuid Lynch, Judge Cohalan and other senior Clan Members were present at a meeting in Gaelic League Heqdquarters building, New York.
Around this time, Michael Lynch organised companies of Irish Volunteers ( with assistance from Cork City Headquarters ) at Passage West, Carrigaline, Shanbally, Ballygarvan, Riverstick & Ballinhassig. Already Company Captain of the Tracton Company, these seven companies comprised Battalion IX (Cork County) with a total strenght of 350 men. Michael was appointed Battalion Commandant.
Statement by Michael Lynch – part of application for Military Service Pension Certificate, December 1935. Lynch Archives.
9: Asquith moved the second reading of the final circuit of the Home Rule Bill when the proposal was adopted that ‘any Ulster county might, by a majority of its parliamentary electors, vote itself out of the operation of the Bill for six years’. In this period of time of course there could be another general election, perhaps on the issue of Home Rule. Both the Tories and Unionists rejected the proposal outright, with Carson declaring: “ Ulster wants this question settled now and for ever. We do not want sentence of death, with a stay of execution for six years”. But admitted that the principle of exclusion had now been recognised. Irish American leaders saw the proposal of temporary exclusion of Ulster as a calamitious concession rather than wise compromise.
To many nationalists in Ireland the US, Redmond’s concession of exclusion signalled irreperable damage to both the Irish Nationalist Party and to Irish nationalism. Irish Americans held protest meetings at the ‘dismemberment of the Island’. A growing dis-satisfaction with Redmond’s leadership of the Irish Parliamentary Party began even as the party supporters organised resolutions suporting the exclusion proposal.
Irish Nationalists were disgusted with Redmond’s handling of the principle of exclusion and through it, partition. The ‘Irish Freedom’ newspaper commented that ‘If this nation is to go down, let it go down gallantly as becomes it’s history, let it go down fighting, but let it not sink into the abjectness of carving a slice out of itself and handing it over to England.’
11:
Police reports from Ulster indicated that UVF had an estimate of 80,000 men and 17,000 weapons and rumoured to be planning raids on arms depots throughout the province. The Government quickly formed a small cabinet sub-committee to examine and verify these rumours of possible armed insurrection on the part of the Unionists. Included in this committee were Colonel J.E.B.Seely, a veteran of the Boer War and somewhat flamboyant Secretary for War and Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty. The same day, Churchill ordered the Third Battle Squadron to hold exercises off the coast of Ulster. The Government had begun a show of force to prevent any possibility of an armed, Unionist uprising in Ulster.
Arthur Griffith’s ‘Sinn Fein’ newspaper argued strongly against partition: ‘The best thing Ireland can do…is to make it manifest that no partition of Ireland, disguised as Home Rule, will be quietly submitted to…Irish nationalism is baded on the indissoluble unity of the whole people of this island in one community..’
12
Lenin writing in Put Pravdy ‘Lord Carson has threatened rebellion and has organised armed Black Hundred gangs for this purpose. This is an empty threat of course. There can be no question of rebellion by a handful of hooligans.’
14:
Colonel Seely sent the Commander in Chief in Ireland,General Sir Arthur Paget, a letter of instruction for specific preparations to be taken for guarding weapons depots throughout Ulster and specifically Armagh, Omagh, Carrickfergus and Enniskillen as these were regarded as insufficiently protected. General Paget in turn advised his reluctance to send troops from the Curragh into Ulster and was hurried back to London to consult with the Army Council and the Cabinet Committee on the 18th and 19th March.
Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty in a speech at Bradford said there were worse things than bloodshed even on an extended scale… ‘They [Ulster Unionists] denounce all violence except their own…if all the loose, wanton and reckless chatter is in the end to disclose a sinister and revolutionary purpose then if the Government and the Parliament of this great country and greater Empire are to be exposed to menance and brutality…then I can only say to you, let us go forward and put these grave matters to the proof.’
Not surprisingly, Churchill’s words were interpreted as a declaration of war on Ulster.
16:
Joseph Caillaux's wife buys a Browning automatic pistol in the morning and late that afternoon shoots Gaston Calmette the editor of Le Figaro; Cailloux resigns his political post in the Cabinet; Calmette dies that evening
The striking workers - last group to accept defeat and return to work were the women of Jacobs who held out till mid-March.
17:
The special committee appointed by the British Cabinet, recommended moving troops into camps in both southern Ireland and England to reinforce the guards stationed at Ulster armouries and weapons depots. The First Lord of the Admiralty also undertook to send several additional destroyers to Ireland. Bonar Law viewed these developments with some alarm and called for a vote of censure against the Government for turning Ulster into a ‘new Poland’.
18:
General Paget met with General French, Chief of the Imperial General Staff and Colonel Seely and was ordered to send 2 batallions of infantry into Ulster and to move a third from Belfast to “a safer location”. Armagh, Omagh, Carrickfergus, Enniskillen, Dundalk and Newry were to be reinforced. The General advised that such a movement of troops might create a ‘disturbance’ in Ulster and that the majority of officers, being Unionist, may object to taking part in operations against their “brother Unionists”.
‘Any such move of troops, would create intense excitement in Ulster, and possibly precipitate a crisis. For these reasons I do not conside myself justified in moving troops’ General Sir Arthur Paget.
General French, well known as intensely Unionist, returned from his meeting and told General Wilson, Director of Military Operations at the War office that the Government proposed..
”..to spray troops all over Ulster as if it were a Pontypool coal strike’, ..Wilson reported every word to Bonar Law & Edward Carson..” Maj Gen Sir CE Callwell. Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson. London 1927.
Meanwhile, both London and Dublin were buzzing with rumours of an army clamp down in Ulster, imposition of martial law, and warrants for the arrest of Carson and other Ulster Unionist leaders. A Motion of Censure against the Government was set down for the following day.
19:
Churchill and Col. Seely agreed that any officers ‘.domiciled in Ulster would be exempted from taking part in any operations that might take place. They would be permitted to disapear and when all was over would be allowed to resume thie place without their career or position being affected’ but that all others would have to accept orders or face summary dismissal and courts martial.
Churchill ordered naval movements around Ireland. Two warships were sent from Bantry Bay to the north-east. The 3rd Battle Squadron were ordered from Spain to proceed to Scotland’s west coast, some 60 miles from Belfast.
That afternoon in parliament, Carson, primed with confidential information from the dinner table conversations with French, accused the Government of attempting to provoke an insurection in Ulster and left the house to catch the 5.55pm mail train to Belfast. It was generally supposed that he had gone to set up his Provisional Government in Ulster, but had done so to avoid possible arrest. Also on the train was General Paget, returning to Dublin.
20:
General Paget summoned his senior officers in Ireland to a conference where they were appraised of the current situation in Ulster, advised of the Government’s orders and informed of the concession for officers with families in Ulster and said the rest must let him know whether they would prefer to do their duty or accept dismissal.
On their return to the base and training camp at the Curragh, Brigadier General Sir Hubert Gough, three Colonels and 55 Officers ( out of 70 ) in the elite 3rd Cavalry Regiment decided they would accept dismissal rather than move against loyalist Ulster.
“ Cavalary officers, it was generally considered, were not among the brightest members of His Majesties Armed Forces...but they were socially among the smartest; in those weeks Unionist and Liberal Hostesses had been vying with one another in what was called ‘war to the knife and fork’ and the connection between the Curragh mutiny... and the squabbles of privildged society was all too soon being made.”
George Dangerfield “The Damnable Question” Constable London. 1977. P85.
60 Infantry officers offered to resign as well.
However, two infantry batallions left for the North as ordered as did news of the cavalary mutiny to the War Office.
Paget reported to the War Office ‘Officers commanding 5th Lancers states that all officers, except two and one doubtful, are resigning their commisisions today. I much fear same conditions in the 16th Lancers. Fear men will refuse to move. Regert to report Brigadier-General Gough and 57 officers 3rd Cavalry Brigade prefer to accept dismissal if ordered North’
Carson, now in Craigavon, reported at once to Bonar Law. He said that he found the city:
“‘..very excited’ that troops were reported on the move everywhere, and that the Government ‘are under the impression that our people are going to take action - or it may be that they desire to provoke an outbreak. It is all a strange message of peace and really one would have thought it impossible in a country like ours.’ One cannot mistake the note of despondency in this letter. Carson was beginning to loose his taste for adventure; to his negative mind and armed outbreak was more useful as a threat than as a fact, and so, for that matter, was a Provisional Givernment”
George Dangerfield “The Damnable Question” Constable London. 1977. P89.
21:
All the morning newspapers carried the news. Asquith only disovered the same morning that part of the fleet had been ordered exercise off the coast of Ireland and countermanded Churchill’s order. A mass meeting in Hyde Park protested against any attempt to use British Forces in Ulster. Both Colonel Seely and Sir John French, Chief of the Imperial General Staff resigned their positions. However, the damage had been done. An impression had been created that the armed forces of the Crown could not be relied upon to do their duty.
Sir Herbert Gough and Sir Henry Wilson were ordered back to London where they met with the Secretary of State for War, Colonel J.E.B. Seely and managed to extract from him, a commitment that the Government would not seek to use the army to supress political opposition to the policy or principles of Home Rule. When the PM got wind of this, he was understandbly furious and demanded the resignations of Seely and both generals. Asquith ran the war office for the next four months commenting that ‘the army will hear nothing of politics from me and in return I expect to hear nothing of politics from the army.’
Thomas Hachey ‘Britain and Irish Separatism’. Rand McNally College Publishing. New York 1977. p 88-9
22:
Against the background of rumours and mutiny, a meeting was held in Liberty Hall to reorganise the Irish Citizen Army. From its foundation in November 1913, it had dwindled to ‘a single skeleton company’. The new Irish Citizen Army council had Capt White as Chairman, with honorary secretary, Sean O’Casey whose constitution was accepted and ratified. It’s vice chairman ranged from Jim Larkin to the pacifist Sheey-Skeffington. The Constitution was revised to read :
“ ..the first and last principle..that the ownership of Ireland, moral and material, is vested in the people of Ireland.’
R.M.Henry. The Evoloution of Sinn Fein. Dublin 1920. p193.
On March 22nd 1914 a general meeting of workers was held in Liberty Hall to reorganise the Citizen Army The following proposed constitution was unanimously accepted by the meeting;
1. That the first and last principle of the Irish Citizen Army is the avowal that the ownership of Ireland, moral and material, is vested of right in the people of Ireland.
2. That the Irish Citizen Army shall stand for the absolute unity of Irish nationhood and shall support the rights and liberties of the democracies of all nations.
3. That one of its objects shall be to sink all differences of birth, property and creed under the common name of the Irish people.
4. That the Citizen Army shall be open to all who accept the principle equal rights and opportunities for the Irish people.
5. Before being enrolled, every applicant must, if eligible, be a member of his Trades Union, such Union to be recognised by the Irish Trades Union Congress.
A Provisional Committee was elected consisting of:
Chairman: Captain White, D.S.O.
Vice-chairmen: Jim Larkin, P.T. Daly, Councillor W. Partridge, Thomas Foran, F. Sheehy-Skeffington.
Hon. Secretary: Sean O'Cathasaigh.
Hon. Treasurers: Richard Brannigan, Constance Markievicz.
The drilling of the reorganised Citizen Army was also to be taken more seriously. Three battalions were formed, the City Battalion, the North County Battalion and the South County Battalion. Training was held twice a week in Croydon Park. Uniforms were ordered from Arnotts which the members had to pay for themselves. A distinctive feature of the uniform was the big slouch hat pinned up at one side by the ITGWU's red hand badge. In the enthusiasm generated by the reorganisation attempts were made to extend the army around the country. A manifesto was sent to various Labour bodies in Cork, Belfast, Derry, Sligo, Limerick, Kilkenny, Waterford, Dundalk, Galway and Wexford, but no success was had in organising outside Dublin. Companies were set up in areas surrounding Dublin such as Clondalkin, Lucan, Swords, Finglas Coolock etc
The British Government, faced with a potentially growing mutiny, announced it had no intention of coercing Ulster and plans for sending troops were abandoned.
However there existed an antipathy between the Citizen Army and the Volunteers:
‘..this antipathy was quite mutual; it was a difference between lower middle class and proletariat, between stout and porter; and MacNeill had even been known to remark that the ‘Volunteers had no need of an organisation that had recently been in conflict with the police”
George Dangerfield. “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” ( Constable, London. 1977) p.153
Sean O’Casey wasn’t exactly delighted with the Irish Volunteers either. He had seen how Kettle had attempted to oust trade unionists from the city;s power station and after all, didn’t his father and former Parnellite, Adnrew Kettle, employe non-union labour on his farm? O’Casey had also broken with Bulmer Hobson because of the I.R.B’s lack of interest to become involved in a socialist class struggle and so saw the Citizen Army as an independnt working class contribution to the national struggle.
Griffith through his editorials pointed out that Ireland had paid ‘for the Home Rule in eight years of slavish support of the Liberal party in meek aquisence in increased taxation and prohibited trade…who on the side of sanity believes that England six years hence would use force to compel Ulster to do what it will not compel it to do now?…this Bill if passed into law on the basis of the exclusion of part of the island will accentuate those fatal divisions which have kept Ireland poor and impotent.’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P165
23:
War Minister Colonel J.E.B. Seely sanctioned the reinstatement of officers that rebelled at the Curragh and announced ‘His Majesties Government must retain the right to use all the forces of the Crown in Ireland to maintain law and order and to support the civil power in the ordinary execution of its duty. But they have no intention whatever of taking advantage of this right to crush political opposition to the policy or principles of the Home Rule Bill.’
There was a succesful test mobilisation of the Ulster Volunteers throughout the province. The entire force was ready in less than 5 hours before being stood down.
The Army and Ulster
from The Irish Times 23 March 1914
Grave Crisis at the Curragh
The story I now relate is one of supreme importance in the history of Ireland, and especially in its relation to the present political crisis. I will state what has actually happened as clearly and concisely as possible, and readers may form their own conclusions from the narrative. The facts can be relied on as being substantially correct.
On Thursday night instructions were conveyed to the Commander-in-Chief in Ireland to carry out certain movements of troops to Ulster, and other precautionary measures, details of which had previously been agreed upon by a conference at the War Office, to which Sir Arthur Paget was specially invited. It was then known that a certain number of officers would decline service in Ulster, but the exact numbers and positions were not accurately known. To meet this difficulty it was tentatively agreed that any officer whose domicile was in Ulster should not be asked to accompany his regiment there, and that he would be given the option of resigning his commission or of requesting prolonged leave, which it was agreed upon would be granted in exceptional circumstances, and for just cause shown. To give effect to this decision what has been generally described as an ultimatum was sent out by the War Office to all the officers in Ireland on Thursday night, asking them to state definitely if, under certain contingencies, they would be willing to serve in Ulster, and, should they be unwilling to do so, to send in their papers within twelve hours. The sending in of papers, of course, involved dismissal from the Army, and the forfeiture of all right to pension. In a word, the officer sending in his papers ruins his career, and places himself entirely at the mercy of the War Office.
Circulars Received at the Curragh
These circulars were received at the Curragh on Friday morning, and after roll-call and morning parade, the officers of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade, which comprises the 4th Hussars and 16th Lancers, were addressed by the officer in command, Brigadier-General H. De la Poer Gough, C.B., who, in a short address to his colleagues, explained the position of affairs, and asked them to consider carefully how they should act. The officers, with practical unanimity, promptly stated that they would decline service in Ulster. This involved the sending in of papers, and the decision was at once conveyed to the Commander-in-Chief at headquarters in Dublin. Sir Arthur Paget immediately got into communication with the authorities at Whitehall, which explains the unusual bustle which occurred there on Friday night, and kept the heads of Departments, together with Colonel Seely and Mr Winston Churchill, in conference to the early hours of Saturday morning. Though the War Office were fully cognisant of the serious turn of events at the Curragh on Friday night, it was not expected that the officers' papers would reach Whitehall before this (Monday) morning ...
War Office Changes Its Attitude
A different attitude was adopted by the War Office on Saturday morning. Early in the day there was a prolonged conference between Sir Arthur Paget and the officers of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade stationed at the Curragh, as well as representatives of the officers of the 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers, a portion of the same Brigade, stationed at the Marlborough Barracks, Dublin (almost all of whom have also formally handed in their papers). The conference was held in the Fire Brigade Station of the Curragh Camp, the entrances to which were specially guarded with double sentries. The greatest secrecy prevails as to what actually took place, and the officers present at the conference stated at the close that they were in honour bound not to disclose the nature of the proceedings, but did not deny that matters had taken a nasty and unexpected turn. From information subsequently elicited from quarters which can be regarded as perfectly reliable, it seems that the Commander-in-Chief intimated that the War Office would not accept the resignation of the officers as a body, but were prepared to accede to the applications of two individual officers, the position in regard of the other officers being that their requests to be relieved of their commission not being granted, it would be a personal matter with each officer whether he would obey the command to go to Ulster or not.
The Officers' Decision
These terms were considered at length by the officers. It was intimated that the movement of troops to the North was largely a precautionary measure, and that the outbreak of actual hostilities was extremely unlikely. The new conditions having been considered by the officers, it was agreed that they would lead their men to Ulster for the purpose of making a demonstration, performing what may be called police duty, or protecting Government property, but that under no conditions would they order their men to fire on the Ulster loyalists. This decision was at once conveyed to Whitehall. . . .
Labour MP John Ward furiously criticsed the Government’s apparent capitulation to Gough and his colonels:
‘This debate is the best illustration that we workmen have ever had in this House that all the talk about their being one and the same law for the rich and the poor is all a miserable hypocrisy. Hon. Gentlemen belonging to the wealthyc lasses have no more intenton of obeying the law that is against their interests that they have of flying to the moon’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p247
‘Dubliners’ by James Joyce was finally published by the firm Grant Richards. The book had been rejected by 22 publishers as Joyce would not allow any changes to his book of 15 short stories ‘which depict Dublin in its most sordid light’. In a letter to Bennet Cerf, Joyce described what happened after his book was published: ‘…when at last it was printed, some very kind person bought out the entire edition and had it burnt in Dublin – a new and private ‘auto-da-fe’ [ burning of a heretic ]’
24
Labour MP John Ward continued his attack on the Government in the House of Commons and read out a syndicalist manifesto addressed to British troops:
‘Often you are called upon to fire on unarmed and defencless crowds of men and women. You are asked to do so in order that your own flesh and blood may be bought and sold cheap that others may be rich. We therefore ask you to now resolve that from this day forward, you will never fire a shot against your own class, that you will follow the example of the generals and other officers in Ireland who have refused to take risks against their class interests.
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p247
Naturally, the Liberals enthuastically supported such speeches with much sysmpathy coming from the army rank and file.
25
Brigadier-General Hubert Gough, Commander of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade at the Curragh stated ‘I got a signed guarantee [ from the Government ] that in no circumstances shall we be used to force Home Rule on the Ulster people. If it came to civil war, I would fight for Ulster rather than against her.’
Gough prevented any attempts to secure the letter by lodging it with a solicitor and putting it in trust for his eldest daughter.
26
The Morning Post commenting on the Curragh Mutiny summed the situation up: ‘The Army has killed the Home Rule Bill’
The Irish Times commented ‘We congratulate the officers on their vindication. Especially do we congratulate General Gough, whose fearless and honourable conduct has added to the laurels of a great Irish family…all the blame rests on the Government.’
The Irish Times Book of The Century. Fintan O’Toole. Gill & Macmillan 1999. p67-8
Gough’s stand did win support throughout the officer class in the Britain and Ireland.
27
Casement in a letter to the Irish Independent: ‘..The ‘Union’ means the military occupation of Ireland as a conquered country, that the real headquarters of the Irish Government, on the Unionist principle, is the Curragh Camp…the cat is out of the Irish bag.’
The Irish people would now have to fact the fact that indpendence would not be granted to Ireland, it would have to be taken.
Suffragettes in Ulster opened a new phase in the campaign with widespread arson. Over the following 4 months, suffragettes burned down several large houses, a tea house, sports pavillion and a race stand. A bomb was expoded in Lisburn Cathederal which only resulted in some outraged town burghers attacking the house of a local sufferagette. Dorothy Evans and Maud Muir were arrested and charged with possesion of explosives.
31: T.D.Sullivan, editor of the Nation, Home Rule politician, founder of The Irish Catholic (1888) and author of ‘God Save Ireland’ dies.
Near the Baltic island of Langeland, the UVF rifles were transferred from a lighter than had carried them through the Kiel canal to the Fanny, Crawford’s aquired steamer. Danish authorities became suspicious and swooped on both vessels, removing their papers and ordered both to remain at anchor until first light.
April 1914
1: Before dawn, both the steamship Fanny and the German lighter left the area, paperless and in secret.
Diarmuid Lynch and Thomas Ashe signed an open letter to the Ancient Order of Hibernians on Gaelic League of Ireland headed paper, 624 Madison Avenue.
‘This year the Irish race celebrates the 900th anniversary of Brian Boru’s victory at Clontarf, which effectually broke the power of the foreign civilisation that then threatened the Irish nation. The Gaelic League means to mark the eventful anniversary by a strong aggressive move against the foreignism that in Ireland today threatens the very foundation of our distinctive nationality, and looks to the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America to take a leading part in supplying the sinews of war to those in the forefront of the fight.
The responsibility of preserving the Irish language – themost essential characteristic of the Irish Nation – rests on the men of today. Notable advances have been made by the Gaelic League, but much remains to be accomplished, and it is evident that of the language of our fathers is to be saved, the present generation of Irishmen must bestir themselves, and do their full duty.
The establishment of the Gaelic Chair in the Catholic University of Washington was a patiotic work of great significance. Irish Ireland appreciated that noble and generous act, and is not unmindful of the aid given by your order to the Language Movement at home.
The Gaelic League again appeals to the AOH, through us, it's Accredited Envoys at present in this country, to duplicate your generoud action of [ left blank ] years ago. The money on this occasion to be applied to preserving the language in the home of the Irish people. The material and moral effet of such a patriotic and practical decision would go far towards securing for the Ireland of the future it's national and natural continuity with the glorious civilisation of the past, and once more emphasize the importance of your Oranisation to the Irish Nation.
We trust that you fully apprecite the urgency of our request, and will take the necessary steps to have it favourably acted on at the coming Convention of your order.’
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
Listed on the letterhead : Treasurer for America – Justice Martin J Keogh, Chairman American Finance Committee – Justice Daniel F Cohalan and President: Douglas Hyde LL.D.
Another open letter, this time to other Irish American organisations:
‘We the undersigned Delegates from the Gaelic League in Ieland, solciit the financial support of our fellow countrymen generally in America, and of your society in particular, towards the saving of the Irish language.
Justice Daniel F Cohalan is chairman, and Justice Martin J. Keogh, Treasurer, of our American Finance Committee.
The camapign mapped out by us will extend over the entire United States and time amy not permit us to call in person at your meeting. However, juding from the hearty support promised to us already by Irish Socieities, we feel very confident that YOU will recognise the immense nationa value of your collective and individual support, and give unstintedly.
The Gaelic League is contesting a hard fight against the forces of Anglicisation where the battle for Irish nationhood can only be won, viz: at home in Ireland. Exactly 900 years ago Brian Borus expelled the Danes from the soil of Ireland, and we now appeal for your coperation in driving out the spirit of the newer foreignism and preserving intact our national characteristics. The question is one which affects every true son and daughter of the old land, and it is upto those who are far rmeoved from the scene of conflict to do THEIR part in financially aiding the League in tis propaganda.
We trust that you will see you r way to donate a sum of money from your Treasury, but especially request THE APPOINTMENT OF A COMMITTEE OF THREE to secure the individual support of your members in conjunction with our New York Card Committee. Kindly take the necessary steps at your next meeting, s the success of our mission depends largely on the promptness with which we can organise ech district.’
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
2: Cumman na mBan founded as the women’s counterpart to the Irish Volunteers.
In Yorkshire, over 140,000 miners were now on strike.
British actor, Sir Alec Guinness born.
4: London – a massive rally in Hyde Park protested against the potential use of British forces in Ulster. Carson condemned Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty as ‘the butcher of Belfast’ for putting the Third Battle Squadron on alert off Ulster. More serious effects were felt by the 70 army officers that resigned over the order to move into Ulster. Lord Hardinge, the Viceroy of India warned of serious consequences for British possesions overseas ‘unless the government makes peace with the army’
The US Liteary Digest writing on the tensions in Ulster ‘The old question of who shall rule Great Britain – royalty, artistocracy or democracy – is reopened by the revolt and resignation of army officers ordered to duty in Ulster, and their reinstatement by the King’s influence…the attempt to coerce Ulster, if there is one, is at a standstill…naturally the Unionists are exultant’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p24
Developments in Ulster and the British reaction were noted in detail on Whilhelmstrasse, Berlin – the Imperial German Armed Forces HQ. General von Bernhardt was certain that the the Irish situation would paralyse Britain ‘if it ever came to war with England’ and Field Marshall Conrad von Hotzendorff felt that the Ulster ciris would give him a free hand.
5: 100 women met at Wynns Hotel, Dublin for the inaugrual meeting of the Irish Women’s Council,soon to be known under it’s Irish title – Cumann na mBan. Four branches were formed in Dublin with more following countrywide. The men only Irish Volunteers had refused membership to women wishing to join. The auxilliary role of Cumman na mBan drew scathing criticism from suffragists. Hannah Sheehy Skeffington accused the new organisation as being merely ‘an animated collecting box for men’
6:
The O’Rahilly wrote to Devoy making an appeal to ‘the sincere Irish in America’ for funds to purchase arms and ammunition to equip the Irish Volunteers ‘it is our finances and not our organisation that are weak’. He believes that ‘never was such an opportunity in our time, and if we don’t grasp it, the next political development may destroy the chance’.
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P158
And ‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p31
The O’Rahilly added ‘If we are able to provide rifles etc for the men that we can rely on, there is nothing else to prevent us from creating an efficient army of, say, 200,000 Volunteers within a measurable period…it is the biggest movement of modern times…The wealthy Irish here [ in Ireland ] will not subscribe. They are intensively thick skulled, and are so bewildered by the complexity of political condisitons that they don’t even know which side they are on, to say nothing of appreciating the present opportunity…what I want is the purchase, anywhere, by anyone you like of a large quantity of workable equipment, standard in pattern, which can be retailed at popular prices’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 115
O’Rahilly’s letter prompted some intense discussion amongst the Irish American leaders as to what should be done, but caution rather than opportunism chacterised their reactions. After all, every organisation so far had been secretive, with oath bound members and private meetings and here was an open organisation, an entirely new concept.
Devoy responded by issuing a circular to leading Clan members outlining the Irish Volunteers objectives and needs and requesting their opinion whether the Clan should assist. Some replied that since the Ulster Volunteer Force now existed, determined to see off Home Rule by armed force if necessary, the arming of a rival force dedicated to achieving Home Rule would see civil war break out and that no funds should be given to the Volunteers in Dublin. Others believed that funds should be sent as one of the objectives of the Volunteers was to achieve freedom from British rule and one thought it likely that if the Clan did not give financial assistance, then a rival group would be formed in the US
The Home Rule Bill finsished it’s reading in the House of Commons.
Around this time, O’Rahilly received a letter from Mary Spring Rice, a cousin of the Volunteer organiser in Limerick, Conor O’Brien. In it she suggested a meeting to discuss the Volunteers on the 8th or 9th April.
On April 6th 1914 the Dublin Trades Council officially recognised The Irish Citizen Army.
9; London – after Suffragette attacks on artworks in the National Gallery, the British National Museum was attacked next.
O’Rahilly met with Mary Spring Rice who outlined her background connections with a small clique of London based Liberals and strong Home Rule supporters – the writer and sailor, Erskine Childers and historian, Alice Stopford Green. She also proposed a plan for importing rifles in a sailing vessel, mentioning there was a fishing boat lying unused at Foynes in Co.Limerick and that Childers was willing to organise the project. John Devoy was raised again as a possible source of armanaents and shipping them to the free port of Hamburg and leaving them up to the Irish connection to organise delivery to an Irish port. It’s unknown as to when it was agreed to include Childers, but he shortly made a visit to inspect the yacht in Foynes. There, he decided against using it due to the costs of making it seaworthy as well as being within view of the local RIC station.
Instead, Childers suggested using his own yacht, the Asgard.
New York: Delegates from 31 Irish organisations met at the Gaelic League Headquarters 624 Madison Avenue in what the Irish World termed ‘the most representative meeting of it's kind ever held in this city on behalf of the Gaelic League of Ireland.’
Justice Cohalan presided and remarked ‘that there are a great many questions upon which Irishmen and Irishwomen do nto exactly agree, but that there is one subject upon which there can be no question of division, and that is that Ireland sould be made in every way Irish. The purpose of the Gaelic League is to Irishize Ireland, to develop the old traditions, the old ideals, the old standards, and the old language of the race…he explained the necessity for rendering financial aid from the country to the men who are carrying on the fight at home and emphasised the fact that the money is to be sent to Ireland by the Finance Committee…with the understanding that it should be spent soley on the field staff of organiser and travellign teachers employed by the League. Furthermore that the policy of the League should be actively aggressive against the anti-National Boad of Education, and similar West-British institutions, and that the organisation should persistenly preach Irish nationalisty from it's platforms recognising the language as a means to an end. The business like programs mapped out by the Envoys received his warm approval, and he congratulated them on the succesful organisetion os such a representative and enthuastic meeting.’
Diarmuid Lynch acknowledged ‘the splendid reception which himself and his colleague Mr Ashe received from each and every Organisation when presenting the cause of the Gaelic League. He explained in detail the Plan of Campaign and of the most important features being the special Collection Cards issued. These cards are numbered, and officially signed and sealed. The committee from each Society is to take charge of the distribution of a number of cards among their own members…’
‘It was pointed out by Mr Lynch that each colector should have no difficulty in securing a minimum of $5 thus qualifying for membership in the Gaelic Alliance. Some individuals have already collected over $40…furthermore he asserted that no man of Irish blood with any pretence to Patriotism will refuse to subscribe at least $1.00 to such an all important national work ad the propagation of the Irish Language…he was confident that th Irish County and other associations would loyally fulfill their promises, amd impressed on the committees that it depended on thm in a large measure to secure active co-operation and best results from their fellow members.
Envoy Ashe referred to the patiotism of the Chinese in America who contributed $200,000* to found a national library in their native land, and pointed out that a national language was a much more important institution. A national library may be built at any time, but let a national language die, and no amount of money could recusitate it. He pertinently asked whether the patriotism of the Irish race in America was not equal to the that of the Chinese.’
Lynch Family Archives – Folder 1
George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion had a triumphant opening in London on 12 April 1914.
15: The first parade of the Cork Irish Volunteers, some 100 members were led through the city to Blarney by a piper.
17: Yarmouth Pier destroyed by a Suffragette bomb.
18
James Connolly writing in ‘Labour, Nationality and Religion’; ‘The time has long since gone when Irish men and Irish women could be kept from thinking by hurling priestly thunder at their heads’
19: UVF arms were transferred from the Fanny to a less conspicious boat, the Clydevalley, which Major Crawford renamed the Mountjoy II after the ship that broke the blockade at the Siege of Derry in 1689.
21: Mexico: Four American sailors, arrested while in Vera Cruz were released once it was discovered who they were. However Wilson ordered the shelling by the warship of the city and occupied. 400 killed
24:
Shipments of arms for the Ulster Volunteer Force were landed at Larne, Bangor and Donaghadee and swiftly dispersed throughout Ulster by a fleet of 800 cars and UVF members. Telegraph and telephone connections to Larne were cut, police and coastguards were shut into their barracks and guarded as a UVF cordon was thrown around the town. The Volunteers used the password ‘Gough’ during the gun running at Larne. Another single word , ‘Lion’ telegraphed to Sir Edward Carson’s London home, told him that the gunrunning had been accomplished.
In early April, the arms shipment of arms was purchased in Hamburg, Germany from Crawford’s regular supplier, Bruno Spiro. These arms were 10,000 new Mannlicher rifles ( 7.9mm, model #1904, short bayonets ), 9,100 Mauser rifles ( 7.9mm, model #88, long bayonets ) and two million rounds of ammunition. In addition, several thousand old Vetterli rifles were purchased with one million rounds of ammunition. Costs were estimated at £45,640 plus £5,000 to buy a steamer and packing. Finance came from the Carson Defence Fund, the Union Defence League and fundraising by Lord Milner among wealthy, society friends including “Waldorf Astor..had subscribed his name for £30,000 and Lord Rotschild and Lord Iveagh and the Duke of Bedford for £10,000 each.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p89
Aided by a ships engineer and captain that were specially released by employers eympathetic to the cause, The Antrim Iron Ore Steamship Company, the complex task of shipping the arms to Ulster began.
The arms purchase had been organised by Major Frederick Crawford:
“ a persistent and ambitious fanatic who had once planned to kidnap Gladstone on the promenade at Brighton, ... in spite of Crawfords additction to overcomplex maneuvers, the voyage of the “Fanny” ( she ended up as the Doreen ), the transshipment into the “Clydevalley” ( she became the Mountjoy II ) and the distribution of arms at Larne, Bangor and Donaghadee, all were carried out with resolution & resourcefullness ...nonetheless, if the police had not remained in their barracks, mute but sincere friends to the whole illegal enterprise, it wuld have had a very different ending...As Augustine Birrell put it “ The recent gun-running exploit of the Ulster Volunteers excited as much admiration among the lodges of the Ancient Order of Hibernians as those of the Orange faction. ‘Well done Ireland’ was the general verdict”....lack of arms in southern Ireland, due more to the want of funds than to the Government’s embargo, was a serious embarrasment...”
George Dangerfield “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” Constable London. 1977. P111-113.
25
Asquith announced that ‘in view of this grave and unprecented outrage…His Majesty’s Government will take without delay, appropriate steps to vindicate the authority of the law’. As expected, nothing was done short of sending a cruiser and 18 destroyers to patrol the Irish sea.
Both the Curragh Mutiny and Larne gunrunning confirmed to many that the Government was evidently unable or unwilling to coerce Ulster.
Redmond was now concerned at the rapid growth of the Irish Volunteers for a number of political and personal reasons. The Irish Volunteers could be seen as a threat to the Government and so endanger the passage of the Home Rule Bill and the new organisation was threatening his dominant position in Irish politics. Some historians believe that the British Government exerted pressure over Redmond to gain control of the Volunteers, either way, Redmond had to take control of the organisation and quickly.
Redmond offered to provide adequate finances for the Irish Volunteers on ‘condition of being given control’ over them. Devlin had also made similar proposals to Casement. Both offers were refused.
26
Redmond opened negotiations with McNeil and Casement in London for control of the Irish Volunteers.
27
The House of Commons reassembled after the Easter break and in response to the gun running in Ulster, Asquith commented ‘His Majesty’s Government will take without delay, appropriate steps to vindicate the authority of the law’
However, no action was taken against the UVF or the Ulster Unionist Council membership who had publicly pledged to create a provisional Government for Ulster if the Home Rule bill became law. A cruiser and 18 destroyers were sent on patrol in the Irish Sea.
James Connolly, commenting on the gun-running:
‘Can anyone believe that if railway stations were seized, roads held up, coastguards imprisoned and telegraph systems interefered with by Nationalists or Labour men, that at least 1000 arrests would not have been made the next morning. Evidence is difficult to get, they say. Evidence be hanged! If Nationalists or Labour men were the culprits, the Liberal Government would have made the arrests first and looked for evidence afterwards.’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p251
29:
The Oppositions demands for a full inquiry into the Curragh Mutiny were given a debate and Carson welcomed Churchill’s proposal to exclude Ulster or the North Eastern part of Ulster until a general scheme of federation was approved.
Sinn Fein’s proposed establishment of an Irish Consular service abroad in 1905 ‘ was essentially the same idea ennuciated by Marcus Garvey [ the Assistant Secretary of the National Club of Jamaica –modeled on SF lines ] who in 1914 proposed to ‘establish Commissionaires or agencies in the principal countries of the world for the protection of all Negroes, irrespective of nationality’
Robert A Hill. “The Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project “ UCLA ( Via Internet Site June 1997 )
May 1914
The 23 year old Michael Collins moved positions from that of the Stockbroking firm of Horne & Co in Moorgate Street to the British Board of Trade as a Clerk. This proved unsuitable but he remained there until 1915.
The Port of Dublin was closed when the Dublin Steampacket Company, the only company operating between Dublin and the British ports was hit by strike.
1
Patrick O’Mara, the New Jersey Clan leader writing to Devoy commented that he through the Irish Volunteers would be under-financed, weakly imitative and victimised by both the British army and the Ulster Volunteers, and that they would obscure the real issue of independence by quarelling with the Orangemen.
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p31
Count Johann von Bernstorff a seasoned diplomat arrived in Washington as Imperial German Ambassador during a placid and superficially cordial period in German-American relations and played very well what was largely a ceremonial role.
4
Asquith wrote to Carson, inviting him to a seceret conference on the Irish question on May 5th. Carson was seen as a somewhat moderating influence and through him, a possibility of compromise on Ulster and Home Rule.
Redmond proposed to MacNeill that there whould be an Executive Council of 5 controlling the Irish Volunteers, two from the group that formed the Volunteers, two from the Irish Party and MacNeill acting as Chairman. With hindsight, this was the option that MacNeill should have taken. With suport from the Irish Party and some control through the Executive Council, there would have been no limit to the numbers that could have joined. It’s also been argued that Redmond could have pressured Asquith to remove the rifle ban for continued support of the Government. This was not done.
5
Carson, accompanied by Bonar Law, met with Asquith. The only agreement forthcoming was to attach an amending bill to the Home Rule legislation as it might apply to Ulster.
6
Before leaving New York, Pearse wrote a short letter to Cohalan, thanking him for his ‘generous subscription’ and for ‘your unceasing and succesful efforts to put me in touch with other good friends.’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P159
The Irish Volunteers led to some strong comments from Irish American leaders. John T Ryan writing to Devoy from Buffalo saying that he had some reservations about the members of the provisional committee through he did feel that ‘the movement is of a character that should be encouraged.’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p27
The old Fenian, Colonel Ric O’Sullivan Burke was more enthuasistic about the Volunteers, although he argued that the Clan should not allow any other Irish American organisation to become the source of American support.
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p31
Despite all their talk, the Clan allowed many months to lapse without giving any direct assistance.
Over a month since the formation of Cumman na mBan, Hannah Sheehy Skeffington blasted it in the Freeman’s Journal. ‘The proposed ‘Ladies Auxilliary Committee’ [Cumman na mBan] has apparently no function beyond that of a conduit pipe to pour a stream of gold into the coffers of the male organisation [ the Irish Volunteers ], to be turned off automatically as soon as it had served this mean and subordinate purpose.’
The House of Commons rejects a Bill that would have given some women the vote.
8:
Alice Stopford Green met with Sir Roger Casement, Eoin MacNeill and Darrell Figgis in London where they discussed organising and supplying guns for the Irish Volunteers. Mrs Stopford Green said that £1500 could be raised to buy guns with Casment and Figgis agreeing the rifles should be bought first and transported afterwards, that O’Rahilly should come to London to advise them about European arms merchants, that Figgis should be sent to Europe to start negotiations and MacNeill return to Ireland to keep John Redmond as leader of the Irish Nationalists at Westminster, in the dark.
Erskine Childers had already agreed to supply his yacht ‘Asgard’ as transport in the shipment of arms. Asgard was laid up in late 1913 in Criccieth, North Wales and that she could be made seaworthy at short notice. Figgis role in the proposed arms purchase would be known only to Casement, MacNeill and O’Rahilly and had virtual carte blanche. O’Rahilly shortly sent him the name and address of an arms firm in Hamburg where it was arrange samples of two rifles would be sent to a firm in Hounsditch for inspection.
‘The supreme difficulty that confronted us at every turn was that ours was a poor man’s movement. The rich did not smile on us, now were the wealthy kind…only a few hundred pounds could be collected at so short notice’
Darrell Figgis ‘Recollections of the Irish War’ Doubleday, Doran & Co. New York. 1926 p21
Mary Colum and Louise Gavan Duffy gave reply to Hannah Sheehy Skeffington’s broadside against Cumann na mBan ‘We consider at the moment that helping to equip the Irish Volunteers is the most necessary national work. We may mention that many of the members of our Society are keen suffragists, but as an organisation we must confine ourselves within the four walls of our constitution’
11:
Diarmuid Lynch arrives in Boston on the Gaelic League fund raising tour.
12:
Asquith annmounced an amending bill to modify Home Rule would be introduced in the House of Lords.
Tom Clarke, writing to JohnDevoy commented that there had been a transformation in Nationalist Ireland since the formation of the Volunteers: ‘The country is electrified with the Volunteering business. Never have I known in any former movement anything to compare with the spontaneous rush to start drill and get hold of a rifle…and the change that had come over the young men of the country who are volunteering. Erect heads up in the air, the glint in the eye and then the talent and the ability that had been latent and is now being discovered. Young fellows who had been regarded as something like wastrels now changed to energetic soldiers.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 116
13:
MacNeill’s policy of keeping Redmond unaware of arming the Irish Volunteers was to suggest that the Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers would be superseeded by the Council of Six with 3 members from the Volunteers and the Irish Party with MacNeill holding the position of Chairman, but all members subject to approval by the other group.
This offer was made but resulted in Redmond refuting it and demanding that he should have greater involvement with an additional two names added.
14
The Boston Globe reported on Diarmuid Lynch’s work for the Gaelic League in Boston:
Urging Wider Study of Irish
Diarmuid Lynch on the Gaelic League Aims
Delegate discusses work of reviving the language
Advances made in course of the last 20 years
Diarmuid Lynch, a delegate from the Gaelic League in Ireland and a native of Tracton, County Cork, has been visiting Boston the past week.he is one of a party of seven who came from Ireland a few weeks ago to interest Irishmen here in the work of th League at home.
Mr Lynch, formerly lived in New York City, but returned to Ireland some years ago to foster the work of the League. He is staying with Rev. P.D.Murphy in South Boston. His visit to this country will embrace a trip through all the States covering about a year. He explained that the immediate object of the visit is to enable the Gaelic Alliance to increase it's field staff of organisers and travelling teachers.
In speaking of it's prospects he said ‘Extraordinary advances have been made since the League was established 20 years afo. Irish is now taught in more than 300 primary schools. It has a prominent place on the curriculum of intermediate education and is a compulsory subject for entrance to the new National University of Dublin, Cork and Galway.
It is also a compulsory subject of examination for all public appointments under several County Councils. Furthermore the hierarchy and clergy of Ireland now look on the language as one of the strongest bulwarks against the demoralising litterature of England as well as the socialistic and athiestic doctrines of Europe.
The propaganda has had a notable effect on Ireland. The league has more than 500 branches. The members are without exception, enthuastic supporters of home industries. It has revived the ancient Feis ( festival ) of Tara, the ‘Aeridheacht’ or open air concert and the ‘Ceilidh’ or social indoor party which encourages original litterary compositions, oratory and story telling in Irish, the music, songs and dances of the Gael. In other words the league has aided to a large extent the material as well as the social and intelectual progress of our people.
The Gaelic League is non political. That is, welcomes men of all politicla parties into it's ranks,but it is National in the highest sense of the term, generally speaking those who believe in the tradtional ideal for which Ireland has struggled during 700 years are the strongest supporters. Eventually through the influence of the language we hope to obliterate all affiliations, foreign to, genuine Irish nationalisty and establish a really united Irish Ireland.
The Home Rule Bill will benefit the language movement, but there are many interests in Ireland which have been sadly neglaected, the Gaelic League must see to it that the language question is not overlooked.
Some people here seemed surprised that I have been wearing kilts and they took me for a Scotchman. They are not of course ware that the Gaels of the Highlands originally emigrated from Ireland, taking with them the Gaelic language and the Gaelic dress. This old national dress of ours has become popular of late years but it is worn only on special occasions. Lord Ashbourne is one of the few Gaels who wears a kilt at all times.
Irish Americans are taking much interest in the Gaelic movement. Thos ewho have looked into it's philosophyare that the dream of their fathers – an Irish nation in the fullest sense of the word - is impossible unless the Irishlanguage lives and flourishes in the homes of the Irish people.
Our American finance committee for instance, includes men like Justice Daniel F Cohalan, Justice Martin J Keogh, Finley Peter Dunne, Robert T Emmet and othe rnotable men who were born in this country. They feel that through it, Ireland will develop a civilisation in confirmity with, but even superior to, that of old when she stood high among the nations and that the acheivement of the race in the motherland will awaken a desire on the part of Irish Americans to study more cloesly the magnificent history of Ireland and engender a pride of race which is now in great measure lacking here because of the want of that very knowledge.
Many Irish societies have not only subscribed money from their treasuries, but the individual members take our special collection cards for thepurpose of getting their friends to qualify as members of the alliance. I have already addrsssed the Boston Gaelic Alliance, Boston Gaelic School, Knights of St Brendan, Division 41 of the Ladies Auxilliary, A.O.H, Mayo Ladies Association and the Gerald Griffin Club; also the State Convention of the Knights of Columbus held here a few days ago. Next Friday night I am to speak at the Boston Gaelic Schools May Party, Hibernian Hall, Roxbury.
Since arrival here, I have had the honour of meeting Gov. Walsh, Sec of State Donoghue and State Treas. Mansfield. I am delighted to find that Irish Americans are at last receibing a measure of public recognition which their ability and high ideals and the sacrifice of our people in this country entitle them to.’
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
15: London – Commons rejects the idea of a Scottish Home Rule Bill. ( Eventually arrived in 1998 )
16: Redmond showed his imaptience in a letter to MacNeill and the seeds of the future split.
“I am extremely anxious that we should come to some understanding on this matter, as I am of the opinion that it would be the greatest misfortune if a disagreement should result in the possible establishment of a second body of Irish Volunteers. It is cleraly in the interests of the country that the Volunteer movement should be a united one, andunder a single guidance.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991. p 107
Major John MacBride wrote to Devoy on the Volunteers:
‘The Volunteer movement will be a tremendous force in National life overe here if properly handled. The country people are at last coming to kick against the Home Rule bluffers.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 116
18:
The Central Executive of the AOH instruced all its branches to co-operate in every way with Redmond’s Irish Party.
Diarmuid Lynch interviewed by the Boston Globe:
‘ Diarmuid Lynch a delegate from the Gaelic League of Ireland and a native of Tracton, Co. Cork, has been visiting Boston the past week. He is one of a party of seven who came from Ireland a few weeks ago to interest Irishmen here in the work of the league at home. Mr Lynch formerly lived in New York city, but returned to Ireland some years ago to foster the work of the league. He is staying with Rev. P.D. Murphy in South Boston. His visit to the country will embrace a trip through all States covering about a year. He explained that the immediate subject of his visit is to enable the Gaelic Alliance to increase its field staff of organisers and travelling teachers.In speaking of its prospects, he said:
“ Extraordinary advances have been made since the league was extablished 20 years ago. Irish is now taught in more than 3000 primary schools. It has a prominent place on the curriculum of intermediate education and is a complusory subject for entrance to the new National University of Dublin, Cork and Galway.
It is also a complusory subject of examination for all public appointments under several County Councils. Furthermore, the Hierarchy and Clergy of Ireland now look on the language as one of the strongest bulwarks aganist the demoralising literature of England as well as the socialistic and atheistic doctrines of Europe.
The propaganda has had a notable effect on Ireland. The league has more than 500 branches. The members are without exception, enthusiastic supporters of home industries. It has revived the ancient Feis ( festival ) of Tara, the ‘Aeridheacht’ or open air concert and the ‘Ceilidh’ or social indoor party which encourages literary compositions, oratory and story telling in Irish, the music, songs and dances of the Gael. In other words, the league has aided to a large extent the material as well as the social and intellectual progress of our people.’
The Gaelic League us ‘non-political’, that is it welcomes men of all political parties into its ranks, but it is National in the highest sense of the term. Generally speaking, those who believe in the traditional ideal for which Ireland has struggled for 700 years are its strongest supporters.
Eventually through the influence of the language, we hope to obliterate all affiliations foreign to genuine Irish nationality and establish a really united Irish Ireland.
The Home Rule Bill will benefit the language movement, but there are so many interests in Ireland which have been sadly neglected, the Gaelic League must see to it that the language is not overlooked.
Some people here seemed surprised that I have been wearing kilts, and they took me for a Scothcman. They are not, of course, aware that the Gaels of the Highlands originally emigrated from Ireland taking with them the Gaelic language and the Gaelic dress. This old national dress of ours has become popular of late years but it is worn only on special occasions. Lord Ashbourne is one of the few Gaels who wears a kilt at all times.
Irish-Americans are taking much interest in the Gaelic movement. Those who have looked into its philosophy see that the dream of their fathers - an Irish nation in the fullest sense of the word - is impossible unless the Irish language lives and flourishes in the homes of the Irish people.
Our American finance committee for instance includes men like Justice Daniel F. Cohalan, Justice Martin J Keogh, Finley Peter Dunne, Robert T. Emmet and other notable men who were born in this country. They feel that through it, Ireland will develop a civilisation in conformity with, but even superior to, that of old, when she stood high among the nations, and that the achivements of the race in the motherland will awaken a desire on the part of the Irish-Americans to study more closely the magnificent history of Ireland and engender a pride of race, which is now in a great measure lacking here because of the want of that very knowledge.
Many Irish societies have not only subscribed money from their treasuries, but the individual members take our special collection cards for the purpose of getting their friends to qualify as members of the Alliance. I have already addressed the Boston Gaelic Alliance, Boston Gaelic School, Knights of St. Brendan, Division 41 of the Ladies Auxillliary, A.O.H., Mayo Ladies Association and the Gerald Griffin Club, also the State convention of the Knights of Columbus held here a few days ago. Next Friday night I am to speak at the Boston Gaelic School’s May Party, Hibernian Hall, Roxbury.
Since my arrival here I have had the honour of meeting Governor Walsh, Secretary of State, Donohue
and State Treasurer, Mansfield. I am delighted to find that Irish-American’s are at last receivng a measure of public recognition which their ability and high ideals and the sacrifice of our people in this country entitles them to.”
Lynch Family Archives
19:
Burke-Cockran in a letter to Frewen admitted his disillusion with the Home Rule leaders in Ireland but also his admiration for the Ulster Unionists who seemed willing to fight for what they believed in ‘I don’t think there’s a Catholic in any of the four provinces who does not feel keen admiration for the manner in which these men of the North have made the Government which is supposed to rule them, treat with them [and ] actually capitulate to them’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p24
President Wilson had a more pragmatic approach to the issue and on Carson ‘I would show the rebel whether he would recognise the authority of the Government or flaunt it. He ought to be hanged for treason’ and if Asquith did not act firmly, the ‘unrest and rebellion in Ireland will spread’ but the strong assertion of the Government legimtimate power ‘would force a settlement of the Irish question right now’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p25-26
The Philadelphia District Clan Secretary, Frank Tobin, wrote to Devoy’s Assistant at the Gaelic American, James Reidy:
‘The organisation in this district feel very much aggrived at the indifference displayed by the organisation in the country to the exhortation of our brothers in Ireland to supply them with arms to defend their country.’ He proposed that the group sell the Irish American Club ‘and send the proceeds to the men who are willing to do something’. The District Clan advised that it was preferable that Clan na Gael disband and ‘let some body of men take our place who are competent of taking advantage of such a condition of affairs as that which exists in Ireland today’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p32
Devoy and Clan na Gael took the comment seriously and an emergency meeting was called for June 6th in New York.
O’Rahilly met with Darrell Figgis in London to go through plans for the arms shipment to Ireland. ‘I met him in the porch of the Victoria Hotel in Northumberland Aveneue. There he told me that he had been followed from Ireland, and that Dublin detectives wereeven at that moment waiting outside the hotel for him..’ Having given the detectives the slip, plans were discussed. ‘His plan conisted of a number of secret dumps around the southern and western Irish coast. He explained that at each of these dumps the yacht would, during June, as though cruising for pleasure, deliver agreed lots of rifles on agreed dates.’
Darrell Figgis ‘Recollections of the Irish War’ Doubleday, Doran & Co. New York. 1926 p25
Figgis and Childers disagreed with the O’Rahilly on arms dumps arguing that the risks of delivery to ten centres was greater than delivery to just one centre. Ultimatly decisions would have to be made back in Ireland on distribution of any arms brought in.
25:
After stormy debates, the Home Rule Bill passed the House of Commons for a third time, with the amending clause allowing for the temporary exclusion of one or more Ulster counties. As the Lords could no longer reject it for the third time, the Bill would be ready for Royal Assent by June 25th and would undoubtedly become law in the Autumn of 1914 – unless exceptional circumstances intervened.
William O’Brien the Irish Parliamentary Party member for Cork spoke following the third reading of the Home Rule Bill with the amending clause: ‘This Act will be born with a rope around it's neck. It is not even intended to be enforced…we regard this Bill as no longer a Home Rule Bill but as a Bill for the murder of Home Rule’
The Ulster Unionists by late Spring, had a strong organisation to hand, ready and poised for action as soon as the Home Rule Bill reached the statute books and became law. It was commonly believed that Sir Edward Carson would set up a Provisional Government in Ulster on the day that Home Rule received the Royal Assent. Major-General Macready, in command of the Belfast district feared fighting would erupt between the Ulster and Irish Volunteers in outlying regions of Ulster.
To most observers, it seemed as if Ireland was on the verge of war.
Asquith found himself between the devil and the deep blue sea. He had promised Redmond to give Home Rule to Ireland but he equally could not ignore the growing threat of an Ulster revolt. Two Volunteer forces were ready to fight, one to maintain, the other to destroy the Union.
26:
John Redmond wrote to MacNeill confirming both were agreed as to the composition of the Executive Committee as being 9 persons. The Irish Volunteers representatives were MacNeill, Kettle, Gore and the O’Rahilly. The Irish Parliamentary party nominees were Willie Redmond, Joseph Devlin, Michael Davitt and Colonel Moore with Roger Casement as the 9th.
The nomination of Davitt’s son was to prove to be the undoing of the agreement with Redmond making the initial blunder and the Provisional Committee for not accepting him.
Inter-organisation rivalry between the Irish Volunteers & Citizen Army and the success in building the Volunteers caused Jack White to resign from the Citizen Army in May 1914 and join the Volunteers. Larkin replaced White as chairman. O'Casey's animosity towards the Volunteers also led him to a clash with Constance Markievicz over her links with them. He insisted she sever her connection with the Volunteers or resign from the Citizen Army. He put forward a motion to the Citizen Army Council to this effect but lost the vote and resigned himself. Larkin tried to get O'Casey to reconsider his resignation and apologise to Constance Markievicz, but he refused and had nothing more to do with the Citizen Army
June 1914
1:
In London, Michael Collins joined the Irish Volunteers, drilling with the No. 1 Company in a hall at Kings Cross.
Colonel Moore commented on the choice of Davitt in the Executive Committee: ‘the nomination of Mr Davitt caused much resentment; he had attended the first meeting of the Volunteers but had not been allowed to speak, as it was believed the he was against the movement; he had taken the most prominent part in opposing the establishment of a Volunteer Corps in the National University…Mr Dillon, always preferring to sit in the dark background pulling the strings of an automaton, had named Mr Davitt to represent himself.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991. p 107
6:
The Clan na Gael emergency meeting on funding the Irish Volunteers took place in New York. Attending were Clan representatives from throughout the United States and the American Provisional Committee, Irish National Volunteers was set up. Joseph McGarrity, General Denis Collins, Denis Spellissy and Patrick Griffin was elected and the American Volunteer Fund to buy weapons for Ireland was begun. Shortly a draft for $5,000 was forwarded to the O’Rahilly.
10:
With the refusal of Davitt on the proposed revised Provisional Committee of 9, Redmond now issued an ultimatum to MacNeill, which was published in the Freeman’s Journal. Initially commenting with regret on the controversy within the Irish Volunteers was being played out in the press and that up to a few months previously, Redmond wrote that ‘I felt that the Volunteer movement was somewhat premature, but the effect of Sir Edward Carson’s threats upon the public opinion in England, the House of Commons and the Government; the occurrences in the Curragh Camp, and the succesful gun running in Ulster, virtually altered the position’ resulting in official approval from the Irish Party for supporters to join the movement.
Following this, various Irish Party representatives within the movement began to call for change, specifically in that ‘the Governing body should be reconstructed and places on a thoroughly representative basis so as to give confidence to all shades of national opinion.’ Redmond suggested that in view of the present Provisional Committee was self-elected, consiisting of 25 members all resident in Dublin, that the Committee be ‘immediately strenghtened by the addition of 25 representative men from different parts of the country, nominated at the instance of the Irish Party, and in sympathy with it’s objects and aims. The Committee so constituted would enjoy the confidence of all Nationalists’ leading in time to a conference of the Volunteer movement and the formation of a permanent Government Body.
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p229/230
The views from the IRB were quite different.
‘ Tom Clarke and Sean MacDiarmada – representing the ‘Executive’ of the IRB – were definitely opposed to Redmond’s demand…which in effect would give him control of that body and of the Volunteer organisation. Bulmer Hobson, Secretary of the Committee and a member of the Supreme Council IRB, not alone decided to vote for capitulation to Redmond, but induced other members of the Committee to support his view.’
Diarmuid Lynch ‘The Countermanding Orders of Holy Week 1916’ written for ‘An Cosantoir’ but not published due to objections from Bulmer Hobson. Later published in ‘The IRB and the 1916 Rising’ 1957.
While the criticism of the Volunteer Committee was valid in that there were self-elected and were too many, there was little to no realisation that if Redmond formed a rival organisation, some 90% of the members could leave and join. The Committee along with the IRB believed that the Redmond nominees may not have been as firmly committed to having an armed body under the control of any group other than the Irish Party.
13:
Kaiser Wilhelm II and Franz Ferdinand meet for the last time at Konopischt, Serbia and Russia discussed
15:
James Joyce’s ‘Dubliners’ published in London.
16:
In London, John Dillon of the Irish Parliamentary Party commented on why party leaders had not demanded prosecution of Unionists for incitement or treason: ‘You do not put down Irishmen by coercion. You simply embitter them and stiffen their backs.’
The Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers met to discuss and vote on the Redmond ultimatum. In the ensuing bitter argument, it was generally accepted no defence could be made against him, particularly after the Home Rule Bill had been through the House of Commons. 12 voted for the admission of the Redmond nominees with 8 against and Redmond assumed control of the Volunteers. This resulted in the eight members of the Executive Committee ( of which six were I.R.B. members ) publishing a dissenting circular. ( Beaslai, Ceannt, Colbert, Fitzgibbon, Martin, McDiarmada, Pearse and Judge )
Bulmer Hobson’s proposal was to have wide reaching consequnces. Immeidatley it was rejected by Tom Clarke and Sean McDiarmada, with Hobson loosing their confidence in the bargain. He was forced to resign from his paid position as editor of Irish Freedom, his honorary position on the Supreme Council of the I.R.B but allowed to retain leadership of the Dublin district IRB and permitted to retain membership. John Devoy equally was appalled at his ‘surrender to the Redmondites’ and sacked him by cable as the Dublin correspondent of the 'Gaelic American'. On this he later relented when queried by Hobson.
‘Nearly twenty years later he told McGarrity he wanted the Volunteers to remain united while ‘we would be fit to keep comparative control through our secret organisation’ and the influence the I.R.B would have on the Redmondites.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P42
Eoin MacNeill, in view of his ‘voting for the Redmondites, [ was ] not permitted to speak at Wolfe Tone’s grave as had been arranged…’
Kathleen Clark ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P47
Casement however, did support Hobsons stance citing in a letter to Devoy that ‘if Hobson had fought the matter of concessions to Redmond, there would have been a ‘hideous scuffle’ and the Volunteers would have been disbanded. The only thought ‘influencing Hobson was that that swayed me – to save the Volunteers from disruption and Ireland from a disgraceful faction fight in which all original issues would have gone by the board’.
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P159
John Devoy in New York considered the breakup of the Volunteers ‘surrender, as an act of weakness which must produce bad results” Diarmuid Lynch papers. National Library of Ireland MS 31-409(1)
John Devoy later recollected that John Redmond, by his takeover of the Irish Volunteers, had ‘ attempted to make the Irish Volunteers an annexe of the Parliamentary Party ( and) was followd by the starting of a rival Volunteer Fund in America, collected by the ‘Irish World’...the Clan na Gael fund was bitterley denounced as a ‘factionist movement’. The ‘Irish World’ attacked it as ‘unauthorised’ meaning that John Redmond had not given his permission ( for it’s collection).”
Diarmuid Lynch Papers. National Library of Ireland -Accession #2267 MS 32.597. p4.
However, despite American supporters comments on the Clan na Gael fund raising...’ over $100,000 that was raised by the Clan, steadily reached the Supreme Council of the I.R.B. and the Executive Committee of the Irish Volunteers and was used to equip the men who later participated in the Easter Week Rising.’
Diarmuid Lynch Papers. National Library of Ireland -Accession #2267 MS 32.597. p4.
Redmond now issued an appeal for funds to be collected in Ireland and the US which would be expended to promote Home Rule.
17
The 8 IrishVolunteer dissenters issued a statement from 206 Great Brunswick Street to the effect that they considered it their duty to continue to work in the movement, and they appealed to all volunteers who agreed with them to do the same.
19
Pearse writing to McGarrity commented on the Irish Volunteers-Redmond debacle:
‘You will have seen that the Provisional Committee has had to swallow redmond’s twenty-five nominees. I voted against surrender, and think I was right in so voting…we all remain in the movement, and shall be watchfull to checkmate any attempt on redmond’s part to prevent us from arming…the future of the movement depends upon our reamining at our posts, to see to it that the Volunteers are a real army, not a stage army.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P43
Larkin tenders his resignation from the ITGWU.
20
The world’s biggest ship, the Bismarck, launched by the Kaiser.
21: The ITGWU general meeting refused to accept Larkin’s resignation.
23:
The Cabinet now agreed that the Home Rule Bill itself could not be amended and neither could it be enacted, at least not until a new amending bill had been passed to qualify its provisions. This Amending Bill was intorduced by Lord Crewe to the House of Lords and allowed for a county by county option for 6 years, Carson’s original ‘stay of execution’.. In the debate that followed, Earl Roberts announced that any attempt to coerce Ulster would result in utter disintegration of His Majesty’s Armed Forces.
Tory Lords, led by William Waldegrave Palmer and the Marquess of Landsdowne who had huge estates in the south of Ireland, proceeded to effectively de-rail the bill. It was amended in such a way that it excluded all nine of the Ulster counties without either option or time limit - in effect, forever. Such a position the Commons would quickly reject. This irresponsible, not to say demented bill, was sent down to the Commons on 14th July.
Asquith faced the problems that while the Home Rule Bill would soon become law but how was it to be implemented? Home Rule could not be forced on loyalists and increasing tension in Europe pushed the PM into a series of private meetings with Redmond and Carson. Agreeing with Loyalist demands, he was willing to remove the six year time limit and the county by county vote and instead proposed an exclusion of five or five and a half counties with a partition of Tyrone or Fermanagh along sectarian grounds.
Austria-Hungary held army maeuvers in Bosnia, as much to sabre-rattle the Serbians as anything else.
24:
Clan na Gael cabled $5,000 to the Irish Volunteers in Dublin.
Serbia: Peter 1 abdicated in favour of his son, Alexander.
The Irish Volunteers saw widespread growth in new members
With the rifle purchase deal almost complete with the German weapons firm, O’Rahilly and Childers had a difference of opinion as to how rifles could be landed in Ireland. O’Rahilly wanted 7 different landing points. His idea was that mock funerals could be arranged in each of the landing zones to spirit away the rifles. Childers argued that such a timetable was impossible with a sail powered yacht due to bad weather or unsuitable winds. O’Rahilly interpreted this reply as Childer’s loosing heart with the plan and wrote to him. Childers replied ‘I have been working incessentatly at this business for a considerable time with all my strenght and think of nothing else and forsee much harder and more responsible work to come…all of which it never occurs to me to grudge for the sake of the cause…we are comitted financially and as deeply as means permit.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 122
Differences were resolved and it was agreed that two yachts, the Asgard skippered by Childers would land the arms at Howth and the Volunteers would march them through Dublin just as the Ulster Volunteers had done in Ulster. In case of any seizure or attack en-route or capture on land, the second consignment of rifles loaded in the Kelpie skippered by O’Brien would land at night on the Wicklow coast.
Asgard: Built in Norway – ‘Home of the Gods’ in old Norse.
25
The O’Rahilly writing to John Devoy on receipt of the $5,000 draft: ‘I have just received advice from the Bank of your magnificent subscription which you have cabled to our credit, and on behlaf od the Volunteers and ourselves personally, I wish to convey our deep and heartfelt grattitude for the noble way in which you have helped in our work’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 116
28:
With the Austrian-Hungarian army maneuvers continuining, the Inspector of the Army, Franz Ferdinand attended.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of the Austrian Emperor and heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was asasinated along with his wife, Sophie the Duchess of Hohenburg in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian student and member of the secret nationalist movement ‘Mlada Bosna’ [ Young Bosnia ] using weapons supplied by the Serbian terrorist organisation ‘The Black Hand’. Earlier, another member of the Young Bosnians had tossed a bomb into the Archduke's car as it traveled to the local Town Hall. The device was deflected and exploded beneath the security vehicle, injuring a number of guards. After his Town Hall meeting, the Archduke ordered his driver to take him to the hospital to visit the injured security guards. Although the driver wanted to take a different road, the Archduke insisted on using the same route where the attack took place. Princip saw them returning and as the Archduke's car passed slowly by, he stepped from the crowd into the street and fired several rounds at point-blank range into the archduke and his wife, killing both.
Ironically, Franz Ferdinand was the only member of the ruling elite sympathetic to nationalist demands in this part of the empire. The assasination led to rioting throughout the area, summary trial and execution of Serbs living in Bosnia and the jailing in an Austrian fortress of the student assasin as he was too young for the death penalty. He died there in April 1918 of tuberculosis, living long enough to see the results of his actions. To most of the Europeans, it was considered a ‘minor local difficulty’
At the annual Wolfe Tone Commeration in Bodenstown, Tom Clarke spoke. At the end of the meeting, cables were read by MacDiarmada including one from Devoy ‘Best wishes for meeting at the grave of Wolfe Tone, the Protestant apostle of Irish nationality. The voice from the grave forbids partition, and brands as infamous any man who consents to exclude Ulster for even one day’
Kathleen Clark ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P47
Figgis and Childers went to Germany and purchased 1500 rifles and 45000 rounds of ammunition for £1524, from Max & Moritz Magnus of Hamburg. Anxious not to antagonise Britain, Germany had banned the sale of all arms to Irishmen. These arms were bought through Figgis and Childers masquerading as Mexicans. There was nothing left to pay for the chartering of a ship but Childers yacht, “The Asgard” and Conor O’Brien’s “The Kelpie” were available and would be en-route shortly to a rendezvous off Cowes in the Isle of Wight and from there the plan was to collect the arms from a Hamburg tug at the mouth of the Scheldt, with O’Brien trans-shipping his quota into Sir Thomas Myles’ schooner ‘The Chotah’ off the coast of Wales and landing the arms at Kilcoole at midnight, July 26th. Childers was running his arms directly to Howth. Planned date for collection, July 12th, 1914. These arms were stored in Liege, Belgium where Darrell Figgis checked each rifle before they were sent by train to Hamburg. From there, he would travel to Hamburg, charter a tug and take te rifles to the rendezvous point. Arms were shipped to Hamburg as the organisers believed that Germany would be less likely to bend to any British pressure if the arms and their destination were discovered. Once the arms were transhipped, then Figgis was to return to Howth and be outisde the harbour in a motor boat to advise that the volunteers were in place and waiting when Childers was expected to make landfall at noon on July 26th.
29:
Belgrade wires its condolences to Vienna. Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pasic renounces the Black Hand and orders all public meeting places closed. The week long festival celebrating St. Vitus Day festival is cancelled. Widespread rioting and looting by Croats and Moslems in Sarajevo directed towards the Serbian population. Good deal of property damage with injuries. Austrian Foreign Minister Count Leopold von Berchtold's initial stance is one of moderation; dismiss Belgrade's minister of police, jail all suspected terrorists, and dissolve extremist groups. Austrian army Chief of Staff General Conrad von Hotzendorff wants invasion but needs sixteen days to mobilize his troops. The Austrians are aware of a trip by French President Raymond Poincare and Prime Minister Rene Viviani to Russia that will end 23-Jul-1914. It was agreed that no action should take place until then. It would not do to have French and Russians in such close contact during the crisis to follow. Hungarian Prime Minister, Count Istvan Tisza, does not want any action that could bring war with Russia. He is in direct conflict with Austrian counterpart, Count Berchtold. London newspaper runs headline: "To Hell with Serbia". However, King George V decrees seven days of mourning. Not to be outdone, Czar Nicholas II orders twelve days of mourning.
30:
Shortly before Casement went to America, he wrote to Colonel Maurice Moore, Inspector General of the Irish Volunteers:
‘..I think money could be got where I am going shortly. This is in strict confidence - don't tell outsiders. That is my chief object in going... I hope to go soon, very soon - and quietly - and see only a few of the right ones and if funds can be got there we may carry on ourselves..’
Casement to Moore. 30 June 1914. National Library of Ireland. MSS 10561 (5)
Reaction to the assinations in Bosnia was immediate. ‘It shakes the conscience of the world’ thundered the Times. In Rome, the Pope fainted when hearing the news and in Vienna, Emperor Franz Joseph said ‘No sorrow is spared me’ German Ambassador to Vienna, Count Heinrich von Tschirschky, warns Berchtold against employing "hasty measures in settling accounts with Serbia".
Judge O’Neill Ryan in a letter to Devoy commented on the Redmond-Irish Volunteers issue ‘I do not know where we are at on this Volunteer question’. It appeared to him and others that the revolutionaries in Ireland had lost effective control of the organisation and that any funding received from America could be channelled into Redmond’s Irish Parliamentary Party with a case in point the $5,000 cabled to Dublin on June 24th.
By this stage, the Ulster Volunteers had over 50,000 rifles with some 25,000 purchased legally through gunsmiths in Belfast and other centres in Ulster. With the arms ban in place throughout Ireland, a High Court action was taken in Dublin questioning the valdity of a law which differentiated Ireland from Britain when they were supposed to be one legal entity. Two of the judges ruled that the ban was legal, one did not. The judgement was to be appealed.
July 1914
The old Fenian, Luke Dillon was released from prison in Canada after serving 13 years under the name Karl Dullman. He had placed a bomb in the British Houses of Parliament during the Dynamiting Campaign in 1883-4 but was jailed for his part in attempting to blow up the locks of the Welland Canal in Ontario to stop supplies going to the British during the Boer War.
On his release, we was startled at the changes in the world. Commenting on cars, trains and aircraft he said ‘It’s a wonderful age, a wonderful age, but why don’t they train their reason and why can't they be wise in other things as well?…They ought to give women the vote – they ought to give them whatever they want; that’s reasonable, seeing what they are to the world.’.
Dillon rejoined the Clan and continued in a leading position up to his death in 1930. He never saw Ireland.
2:
Vienna: Emperor Franz Josef sends a letter to Kaiser Wilhelm II thanking him for his condolences regarding the Archduke's death. The letter contains undertones of the actions to follow
Trial of Madame Cailloux for the murder of Gaston Calmette; French public absorbed and distracted by details of the trial and surrounding scandals; on July 28th, the verdict of "not guilty" was rendered
3:
Devoy sent an acrimonious letter to Bulmer Hobson stating that by voting for the Irish Party nominees, he had weakened the movement in Ireland and America by allowing new factions to develop. His vote to accept Redmond’s candidates ‘places us and you on divergent lines of action’.
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p33
Devoy then sacked Hobson as the Gaelic American correspondent in Ireland.
4:
Vienna: Archduke Franz Ferdinand and wife are buried. Victor Naumann, messenger for the German Foreign Office, arrives in Vienna to assure German support in the event Russia was provoked by Austrian action. Foreign Office Chief Alexander Hoyos volunteers to take the letter requesting support, composed by Franz Josef and Berchtold, to Berlin and deliver it to the Kaiser personally. The letter has been composed with moderation. Hoyos will see that it is interpreted with hostility.
5
Clan na Gael finalised the Volunteer Fund Committee with McGarrity as chairman to fundraise for the Irish Volunteers. In a cable to Eoin MacNeill, the Committee urged the Volunteers to stand firm against the sepreation of Ulster from the rest of Ireland, promising to furnish a gun to every Volunteer prepared to fight for ‘Ireland undivided and free’.
A cable was also sent to Redmond, calling on him to inist that the Home Rule Bill be applied to to all of Ireland stating
‘ We would approve the concession to Ulster Protestants which would allay their distrust of an Irish national Government, and would join them in reistance if their liberties or interests were attacked. But dismemberment of Ireland on religious lines will prolong and intensify sectarian strife, hurt Ulster equally with the rest of Ireland and bring shame and humiliation to the race throughout the world. It is in your power to prevent that.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P40
In additon, they asked Redmond how he could maintain the apparent double standard of applying to America for arms when he had earlier approved a British ban on arms importation to Ireland. However it was apparent that while they were more than a little displeased with the situation, they were willing to take a moderate view for the time being and continue their work with the Volunteers. However many were priavtely furious that the Provisional Committee had capitulated to Redmond.
Berlin – Kaiser Wilhelm confirmed Germany’s alliance with Austria was intact.German Foreign Minister Gottlieb von Jagow leaves for his honeymoon in Lucerne. Hoyos arrives in Berlin and is accompanied to Potsdam Palace by the Austrian Ambassador to Germany, Count L. de Szogyeny-Marich, where they meet with the Kaiser. The goal of the mission is to secure German backing for any actions Austria-Hungary might take. No notes exist from this meeting but it is widely accepted that they received the promises of support they sought. The blank check had been given. In Sarajevo, all but one of the seven assassins have now been apprehended. Mehmedbasic would be the only member of the assassination team to escape.
The German Ambassador in the US, Count von Bernstorff was recalled home ostensibly to consult with the German Foreign Ministry. Instead, he met with Section 3B, military intelligence, of the German General Staff. Bernstorff was told that German military intelligence had no experienced officers it could devote to the United States. Section 3-B told Bernstorff that he was to be Germany's espionage and sabotage chief for the Western Hemisphere. To support his effort, he would be assisted by Captain Franz von Papen, currently military attaché in Mexico who was to be transferred to the United States, Captain Karl Boy-Ed, naval attaché, and Dr. Heinrich Albert, the commercial attaché who would be the finance officer for the sabotage operations. With this small group of men, Bernstorff was to carry out the German strategy against the United State as and when directed.
With Bernstorff in Washington, the other three officials established their operational base in New York City. Albert opened an office at 45 Broadway and von Papen and Boy-Ed use an office in the Wall Street area. Their first task was to identify and recruit agents for their sabotage and subversion operations.
Childers, accompanied by his wife, Molly and Mary Spring Rice took longer than anticipated to get the Asgard ready and there was some delay in getting out of Conway harbour in North Wales where she had been moored. They were battling against headwinds day after day along the Welsh coast.
6:
Berlin: Having completed his meeting with Hoyos and Szogyeny, the Kaiser departs for his annual North Sea cruise. The twenty day cruise had been planned for months and the Kaiser saw nothing in events that would cause him to cancel it. Besides it might appear that something was wrong should the cruise be cancelled
7:
The Austro-Hungarian Ministerial Council meets to consider the implications of the 'blank check'. Some sort of action will be taken against Serbia. Hungarian Prime Minister Tisza voices reservations on these plans.
8:
The Government of Ireland (Amendment) Bill amended in the House of Lords to provide for permanent exclusion of six counties of Ulster.
The Asgard took a battering as she made her way to the rendezvous with O’Brien and the Kelpie in Cowes. With sails damaged, she arrived only to find ‘O’Brien was in a towerng rage at the delay. He complained that he had spent all his money while waiting for them and he had been sending off telegrams to try and find where they were.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 123
While some essential repairs were made to the Asgard, O’Brien and Kelpie set out a day ahead of Childers to make the rendezvous with Figgis and the arms off the mouth of the Scheldt.
9:
The Austrians meet to formalize their strategy. A non-ultamatum super-ultimatum will be used. A non-ultimatum in that it will be in the form of a simple timed note; a super-ultamatum in that it will be formulated to generate a refusal. The fate of Serbia has been sealed.
10
Carson took over as head of the Provisional Government of Ulster as more rifles and ammunition were landed openely on the Belfast quays.
The Asgard sailed early and passed the British Navy holding a review of the fleet in the English Channel. War was in the air.
Berchtold dispatches Friedrich von Wiesner to Sarajevo to report on the assassination inquest's findings. The Russian minister to Serbia drops dead.
11
Griffith in an editorial in the “Sinn Fein” paper, wrote: “… we would give much to see a national legislature, no matter how limited its scope, reestablished in this country, for, poor thought he thing might be, it would give us again a national centre. But this ‘Home Rule’ no longer proposes to set up such a legislature – instead it proposes to cut ireland in two and to stereotype the vanishing differences between Southern and Northern, Catholic and Protestant. We would tell those who accept such a measure and think it gain that they will bring not peace to Ireland but a poisoned sword”
The Asgard jettisoned most of the furniture in the main cabin to make room for the arms.
German Naval HQ sends telegram to Admiral Spee on Scharnhorst advising that England would probably be hostile in event of war
12:
Late in the afternoon, Darrell Figgis aboard a Hamburg Tug ‘Gladiator’, rendevoused with Conor O’Brien’s yacht ‘The Kelpie’ near the Roetigen Lightship at the mouth of the River Scheldt. There, some 600 of the arms stored in the tug’s hold were transferred with the tug’s captain believing they were intended for a Central American revolution. Shortly after 7 p.m. as the Kelpie cast off, the Asgard, skippered by the author, Boer War veteran and former clerk in the House of Commons, Erskine Childers, arrived at the rendevous point with his passengers, wife Molly and Mary Spring-Rice, cousin of the British Ambassador in Washington. As O’Brien had only collected 600 of his agreed 750, Childers had to take on board and extra 150, in all collecting 900 rifles and 29,000 rounds of ammunition. By 2am, the Asgard was loaded but sitting dangerously low in the water as the last two boxes of ammunition, which could not be stored in the hold, were lashed to the deck.
Meanwhile in Ulster, the Ulster Volunteer’s rifles shipped in the gun-running episode 10 weeks earlier were on show for the first time. Carson’s speech included: ‘I see no hopes of peace... I see nothing at present but darkness and shadows…give us a clean cut’
Later that evening, Carson presided over a secret meeting in Craig’s family home, Craigavon. The group was the Ulster Provisional Government which was to take over every civic post ‘ in trust for His Majesty the King in every Court and office of the Crown in Northern Ireland ‘ in event of Home Rule being granted to Ireland. At the end of the meeting, Craig handed Carson a piece of paper with a code-word on it. Carson had only to send a telegram containing that word and the Ulster Rising would begin.
On the return leg of their journey, Childers had ‘a sudden uneasy thought. They had never checked whether the ammunition fittted the rifles. Nervously he got a box open and was greatly relieved where he was able to fire a round to check the fit..’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 124
13:
Wiesner wires his findings back to Berchtold: Nothing has been found to implicate the Serbian government in the assassination. Berchtold keeps the findings away from Franz Josef.
14:
The Amending Bill to the Home Rule Bill was sent down to the House of Commons by the House of Lords. John Redmond said that any further concessions would force him to vote against the Amending Bill on it’s second reading, threatening to bring down the Government.
Hobson wrote to McGarrity explaining his views on the Provisional Committee affair:
‘As regards the Provisional Committee and Redmond. When he forced the situation we had no alternative but toa ccept his terms or else break the Volunter movement. We could not have fought him for half of the Committee would have seceeded and only the Sepratists would have been left on it. Redmond would have collared nine-tenths of the Volunteer movement and that would have been an end of it as a real volunteer force. The only thing we could do was to yield him a Pyrrhric victory and stay on and try to keep things right from the inside. He has not gained control and I don’t think he will. He could not if our friends acted with inteligence and unity thought both these comodities are rather scarce with some of them…. I do not anticipate that Redmond’s action will affect the movement very much – though of course it is very damaging in America. Sveerla of his nominees are deadly enemies and will never work together…the deciding factor will be rifles.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P47
Casement, in Montreal and enroute to New York wrote to Devoy:
“Our mutual friend Hobson has probably told you of my journey across. I hope to be in New York by end of this week at latest and shall call on you on arrival….it is possible you may not be in New York now – as I see by the papers there is great heat there and thousands are leaving the city. There are things to discuss with you, and one or two more of interest, and I propose staying a few weeks in USA with New York my headquarters…’
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P410
Casement’s visit was eagerly promoted within Irish American ranks. His knighthood, reputation and religion were exceptional for an Irish nationalist leader and through this attracted a great deal of support from the more moderate Irish Americans for the Irish Volunteers.
16:
The IRB Supreme Council had not accepted the compromise of MacNeil, Hobson and Casement and sent Patrick McCartan on a mission to the Clan to put forward their point of view.
PM Asquith suggested to the King that a conference between Redmond and Carson should be held in Buckingham Palace.
A United Irish League meeting was held in New York where $10,000 was raised and sent to Redmond, a further $100,000 pledged and a goal of $1,000,000 declared. The Clan considered this rival as a distinct threat to the American Volunteer Fund and diminishing the amount of cash that could be raised in America to fund weapons.
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p33
Both the Italian and Russian ambassadors in Vienna warn the Russian government in St. Petersburg: Austria is considering decisive action against the Serbs. Word of the planned Austrian action against Serbia has hit the diplomatic circuit.
Grey tells Russian Ambassador that Germans can no longer be counted on as peacemakers under all circumstances
17
Pearse sent McGarrity a request ‘on behalf of the men who are still dteremined to keep the movement straight and to bend it, if they can, to a genuine national purpose.’ He wanted enough arms and ammunition at once ‘as will arm our men in Dublin – say 1,000 rifles and with a fair amount of ammunition for each’. ..the men acting with him, he said were ‘Sean McDiarmada, Eamonn Kent and Sean Fitzgibbon.’ Pearse was unaware of the gun running that was in progress from Germany to Howth.
18: Admiralty Grand Review of the First Fleet (223 ships)
19:
The Austrian Ministerial Council meets in secret. It is decided that Conrad shall be given his chance and Serbia will be "beaten to earth." The Ultimatum to Serbia is drafted
20
Casement arrived in New York after traveling secretly via Glasgow and Montreal. There he was met by the leaders of the Clan as an honoured guest, founder member of the Irish Volunteers, distinguished diplomat and supporter of ‘an Irish understanding with Germany’. Casement advised Devoy of the situation in Ireland. When Devoy expressed indignation at the way Bulmer Hobson supported Redmond’s take-over of the Irish Volunteers, Casement defended him. Clan na Gael’s Revolutionary Directory accepted Casement as a personage of ‘proven sincerity’ and he addressed meetings in Philadelphia and Norfolk, Virginia. There was a great deal in common with Casement and Devoy, both believed that Germany would provide important assistance during any war with Britain. Casement later met with Count Bernstorff, the German ambassador in Washington.
The Gaelic American started an Irish Volunteers fund. This eventually realised $44,000 ( but of how much was actually allocated to direct help cannot be ascertained. )
In New York, Casement stayed with John Quinn and through his social position, had access to many levels of public life. Quinn arranged for Bourke Cochrane to go the National Convention of the AOH in Norfolk with Casement where the two made well received speeches on the Volunteers. Through the efforts of the Clan, Casement also addressed meetings in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Buffalo, Chicago and New York.
French President Raymond Poincaire and the PM Rene Viviani visited St Petersburg to discuss the Serbian crisis. Austria-Hungary, noting the visit, waited until the conference was completed and the French were back in Paris before issuing it’s fateful ultimatum to Serbia.
Churchill orders First Fleet not to disperse
21:
Asquith arranged a secret conference in Buckingham Palace, bringing the Government, Opposition, Redmond and Carson together. The King was accused of being partisan and siding with the Ulster Unionists by Liberals, Irish Nationalists and Labour MP’s. The PM replied by saying the King’s highly controversial move was on Cabinet advice and that everything must be done to avert fighting in Ireland. The meeting broke up three days later in disarray with nothing achieved. The King thought otherwise, convinced he had ‘contributed to a more friendly understanding between all parties.’
Thomas Hachey ‘Britain and Irish Separatism’. Rand McNally College Publishing. New York 1977. p 92
The conference wasn’t all that secret either – suffragettes got wind of the meeting and picketed the palace.
Casement wrote to Devoy outlining in detail the role Hobson had played citing that ‘if Hobson had fought the matter of concessions to Redmond, there would have been a ‘hideous scuffle’ and the Volunteers would have been disbanded. The only thought ‘influencing Hobson was that that swayed me – to save the Volunteers from disruption and Ireland from a disgraceful faction fight in which all original issues would have gone by the board’.
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P159
Berchtold visits Franz Josef at Bad Ischl to get final approval of the ultimatum to Serbia. Berchtold finesses approval from the Emperor. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov warns German Ambassador Count Friedrich von Pourtales that Russia will not allow Austria-Hungary to take any military action against Serbia. Everything is ready. Now it's just a waiting game until the French president and prime minister end their Russian visit on the 23rd.
22:
Casements letter was shown to the Executive Directory and other men in Clann na Gael.
Berlin: After viewing the text of the Austria-Hungary ultimatum, German Undersecretary Arthur Zimmermann comments that "the note is too sharp."
23
Vienna, insisting that the Serbian Government had insitgated the plot to assasinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand, issued an ultimatum to Serbia at 6pm. This demanded that Serbia allow Austrian officials to take part in its investigatiuons in Serbia into Serbian complicity in the assisination of Franz Ferdinand and to collaborate with Austrian representatives in supressing subversive movements directed against the Austro-Hungarian Empire and an answer is expected within 48 hours.
The ultimatum by Vienna was unexpected by most of the European governments, expecting a settlement by negotiaiton or arbitration rather than by an ultimatum. Most of Europes leaders were absent, the Kaiser was in Norway on a yachting holiday, General Von Molkte, head of the German Army was taking a cure in a French Spa, the French President had just returned from a state visit to Russia, the Serbian president was absent from the capital preparing to begin an elctoral campaign and the Russian Ambassador in Vienna was on leave.
Lloyd George tells House of Commons that relations with Germany were better than they have been for years
24:
Molly Childers wrote to Alice Stopford Green en-route with the Asgard: ‘The whole boat xcept foc’sle is evenly full of guns. One can’t stand; one crawls on one’s knees, or walks doubled up, very low down. Mary andI are covered with black bruises!…we lie, like the ancient Romans, at our meals, only twisted Romans, for we are generally clinging to something to prvent toboggannig across the table which is now our floor..’ Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p255-6
Austria-Hungarian embassy staff begin burning sensitive diplomatic papers and cipher books. They are already preparing for their departure from Belgrade on tomorrow's evening train. Prince Alexander urgently wires the Russian Czar for assistance and guidance in the matter. Russia advises Pasic to "proceed with extreme caution." Serbia makes the contents of the ultimatum public in a hope to gain public support. The world is aghast at the contents. They ask for the impossible. The Kaiser hears about the ultimatum from his yacht's radio officer who read it in the Norwegian newspaper.
Asquith writes a friend that he expected a war between Austria and Germany on one side, and France and Russia on the other ( "a real Armageddon") and hopes Britain can remain out of it
Austria-Hungary informs France, Russia, and Britain of ultimatum at 9 AM; Grey informed at 2 PM
Grey informs Cabinet of contents of ultimatum and proposes to mediate among the powers
German ambassadors transmit note in Paris, London, and St Petersburg that conflict be localised
Paul Cambon proposes conference and announces support of Russia in case of Russians at war with Austria
Delbrück meets Reich and Prussian authourities
Russian Council of Ministers considers partial mobilization and asks Austria to extend the time for the ultimatum to Serbia; Sazanov says Serbia would become a protectorate of the Central Powers, loss of Russia's historic mission, and loss of prestige of Russia in Balkans
Churchill sends Fleet advisory notice of crisis, but not a full alert
Italian Government takes conciliatory stance towards crisis and attempts to maintain interests in Balkans and Adriatic without war
25:
The reply to the note is formulated in such a way as to yield where at all possible. This reply must also win public support. The Serbian leadership fears for the worst. Austria will attack no matter what the contents of the reply. Serbia orders general mobilization of it's army at 3:00 pm. Nobody knew it, but, World War I had just begun. With a mere 5 minutes to go, Pasic personally delivers the reply to Giesl at 5:55 pm. The Austrian legation departs Belgrade on the 6:30 pm train as planned. The train is across the Danube and back in the Empire by 6:40 pm. The Austrian mobilization order must be signed by Emperor Franz Josef. Berchtold obtains this signature at 7:23 pm by telling the aged Emperor that the Serbs were already attacking. Conrad was given his marching orders. Alarm Day for the Austrian army was set for 27-Jul and troop movements would begin on the day following. An oversight: Germany has not been informed of these actions by her ally, Austria-Hungary.
Serbian Parliament meets in special session and sends reply to ultimatum
King Peter of Serbia moves capital from Belgrade to Kraguyavatz
Vienna breaks off diplomatic relations with Belgrade and Serbian envoy
dismissed
Austro-Hungarian Government declares martial law and war measures begun
Moltke and Falkenhayn return to Berlin; Wilhelm II leaves Norway to return to Berlin
Wilhelm II orders return of Fleet
French Ministerial Council urges immediate return of Poincaré and Vivianni
Paris and Berlin crowds demonstrate in favor of war
Grey again proposes mediation
Jagow forwards Grey's proposal to Vienna
Russian Crown Council meets with Tsar and approves resolutions of Ministerial Council; Tsar orders preparations for Italian Government shows no interest in suporting Austria
"Part of your demands we have accepted... For the rest, we place our hopes on your loyalty and chivalry as an Austrian general." Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pasic delivering the reply to the Austrian ambassador, Baron Vladimir von Giesl
26:
A proposal, on July 26, by the British foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, that a conference of Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy settle the Austro-Serbian dispute, was rejected by Germany. A copy of the ultimatum is wired to Poincare aboard the French battle cruiser France. Russia enters state of pre-mobilization.
Royal Navy holds test mobilization for one day and plans to disperse next morning (27th)
Serbian army begins mobilizing and panic in Belgrade
Russians begin preparatory measure for war (not mobilization)
Russia asks Germany to exert moderating influence on Austria-Hungary; Germans try to localize war
Grey proposes Four-Power conference of Ambassadors in London
Austrian reservist in U.S. are warned to return for service; some Serbs in New York make ready to return home
Emergency meeting of French Cabinet
France takes precautionary military measures and French fleet order to prepare; French officers and men excused for harvesting recalled to their units
Italy masses its fleet
Belgium increases its army to enforce neutrality
24
As the Buckingham Palace Conference onUlster broke up in disagreement, Redmond said to Carson ‘’Lets have a good shake hands for the sake of the old days together on circuit’ PM Asquith commented on the hopes of the Conference: ‘Nothing could have been more amicable in tone or more desperately fruitless in result.’
25:
The Asgard passed through the Royal Navy fleet review at Spithead and into the Irish Sea. There, the worst storm for 32 years hit, the yacht broke it’s tackle, was damaged but Childer’s managed to keep her on course staying at the helm. All that was left to do was to pass the British gun-boat which was on patrol in Dublin Bay and land the arms in Howth.
Urged by both Great Britain and Russia, Serbia on July 25 accepted all but two of the demands, but Austria declared the Serbian reply to be unsatisfactory.
The Russians then attempted to persuade Austria to modify the terms of the ultimatum, declaring that if Austria marched on Serbia, Russia would mobilize against Austria
Meanwhile in the US, the worst fears of the Clan were about to come true, when Michael J Ryan, as National President of the United Irish League, acting on Redmond’s instructions, announced the creation of a new fund raising drive for the Irish Volunteers in the pages of the Irish World. The UIL however were far better prepared to undertake a nationwide campaign to raise funds and attract support from more moderate groups such as the Ancient Order of Hibernians than an allignment with the more revolutionary Clan.
Sunday 26:
Bulmer Hobson organised a wild goose chase that took the patroling British gun-boat south and away from the arms landing site. Capt Robert Monteith commanded a march of some 400 Volunteers through Dundrum to Killiney Bay, attracting a great deal of interest from the RIC and DMP.
Another group of Irish Volunteers set out that morning on what seemed like a normal route march to Howth, with broom handles for rifles and batons. Darrell Figgis had arranged for a motor boat to meet the Asgard at 10am as a signal that it was safe to enter Howth harbour. However, the motor boat’s owner had decided against travelling out from Bray in a rough sea.
Adogan O’Rahilly contests this ‘Figgis’s failure to meet them could not have been due to bad weaher; the photograph of the Asgard sailing away after discharging her cargo shows clearly that the storm had abated, the wind was offshore and the sea was calm…there had never been an explanation for the failure of Figgis to meet the Asgard. It raises the suspicion that some of the Vlunteer leaders decided that the gun running was too risky and hoped to abort it by not sending out the motor boat’ Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 124-5
Kathleen Clarke recalled the morning ‘ we were living over the shop in 77 Amiens Street at the time, and I remember watching the marchpast of the Irish Volunteers that morning, feeling very proud of them and wildly excited knowing what they were going for. Sean MacDiarmada was having dinner with us that day, and he and Tom would be going to Howth after dinner to see how things were. They had engaged a Cabinet as Sean was not able to walk far; he dragged one leg… ‘
Kathleen Clark ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P47/48
Childers opted to sail into Howth, signal or no signal from Figgis and at 12:45pm, 45 minutes behind schedule, the Asgard docked. O’Rahilly called it ‘The harbringer of Liberty’. The bulk of the 900 rifles were landed quickly by 800 Volunteers, some of the Fianna and Eamon De Valera ,Cathal Brugha and Arthur Griffith. As soon as the arms were unloaded, the Asgard set sail for England and the Volunteers marched back to the city with rifles, but no ammunition ( on directions from Hobson and MacNeill – the men were not sufficiently trained in live fire ). This was the first time that armed Irishmen under Irish command were about to march through the streets of Dublin since the Volunteers 132 years earlier. The Ulster Volunteers, when their arms were landed, issued each man with a quota of ammunition.
A Scotsman named Doller living at Howth reported the events to Dublin Castle as did the Police Inspector at Howth, who contacted The Assistant Commissioner of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, H.V. Harrel who in turn called out 80 soldiers of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers & on trams, attempted to stop the Volunteers at Clontarf.
While the Volunteers present armed up and marched back to the city, a fleet of cars and taxis began loading the remaning rifles and ammunition.
Hobson halted the Volunteers at Raheny and was still there 30 minutes later when MacNeill, having had lunch in Howth, arrived in a city bound tram. He requested Hobson resume the march. Adogan O’Rahilly comments ‘ The halt at Raheny was not just for a rest and a smoke…it seems likely that Hobson lost his courage as they approached the city and was afraid to proceed until MacNeill ‘requested’ them to do so.’
Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 126
MacNeill marched some distance with them and then was given a lift in a car to Nelson’s pillar and from there took a tram home. In a letter to Casement, he commented that there was no sign of any police or military. However that was to change within an hour.
Kathleen Clarke wrote ‘before dinner was over, I looked out the window and noticed that the Howth trams passing were full of British soldiers with rifles. I told Tom and Sean, and they left their dinner and rushed off…they found that the soldiers had got off the trams at the junction of the Howth and Clontarf roads and were stationed there. The Cab passed through without interference…they met the Volunteers on their return march; they had rifles but no ammunition. Tom and Sean told them to drop their rifles in the hedges and ditches before the British soldiers reached them…’
Kathleen Clark ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P48
As the Volunteers marched down through Clontarf, the road ahead was barred by a cordon of soldiers and RIC, swung right onto the Malahide Road. There the troops headed them off and both sides came to a stand-off. The police officer in charge announced that the Volunteers would not be allowed march through the city and their reifles should be surrendered. Thomas MacDonagh at the head of the marchers argued that there was no law compelling them to do this and as it was, the Ulster Volunteers were regularaly parading through Belfast with arms and how could this be any different in Dublin. When it was made clear that the Volunteers would not be allowed any further, the constables were ordered to disarm the men. Scuffles followed but a number of constables also refused to follow orders leading to dismissal on the spot. Most of the Volunteers towards the rear managed to disappear through side roads and over garden walls as soldiers with fixed bayonets assisted the RIC in disarming those present.
Some 19 rifles were captured but were returned the following day. It was said that some of the rifles that were hidden in various gardens and houses along the route were recovered by members of the Irish Citizen Army before these could be recovered by the Volunteers! As the Volunteers dispersed, the RIC Commisoner in Clontarf ordered his men and soldiers back to barracks.
De Valera now ferried volunteers to their homes throughout the city in motor bike and sidecar, each with three of the Howth rifles hidden. Some of the rifles arrived at the Citizen Army HQ in Croydon Park. Clarke and MacDiarmada returned to the area, loaded up the cab with rifles and stored in 77 Amiens Street.
On the return march to the city, the Scottish Borders marching without police escort, were harassed by crowds on their attempt to disarm the Volunteers. As they got closer to Dublin, the crowds became more violent, throwing sticks and stones, as well as bottles. Major Haigh left the barracks to take command of the Borders when he heard what was taking place and joined his troops. In Bachelor's Walk in the city centre, Haigh ordered the rear-guard soldiers to make feints with fixed bayonets causing the crowd to pull back but quickly regrouping and continuing the taunting. Some of the troops did pursue the crowds during these feints, on one occasion chasing men into shops and driving a bayonet through a door. Throughout this, Major Haigh was unaware that the rifles had been loaded at Clontarf.
At the corner of Liffey Street and Batchelors Walk, the Major odered 30 men to turn and line the road with fixed bayonets, four or five men kneeling. As the crowd got closer, as he raised his hand for silence, one of the soldiers mistook it for a signal to fire, and 20 other troops followed, some bayoneting as well. 29 shots were fired, three were killed outright and one civilian died as a result of wounds, and thirty-seven others were wounded. One of those killed was the mother of a Irishman serving in the British Army. These killings, especially that of the soldier's mother, were snatched up and used as propaganda for the Irish cause, especially in the US. As a result of this and the successful gun-running, contributions poured into the Volunteer and Clan na Gael coffers. Public opinion was raised so much against the Borderers that they were kept under under camp in their barracks and only secretly left Dublin after the declaration of war in August. At the enquiry, Major Haigh admitted that he had decided to inflict summary sentence of death on one ringleader in the crowd. Another witness stated that an officer deliberately shot a woman at point blank range. Dublin had a new rallying cry “Remember Batchelor’s Walk”.
It was also the first time in over a hundred years that troops had fired on civilians in Ireland or Britain.
According to Pearse, the arms landed by both the Asgard and the Chotah were:
‘ 11mm Mausers of rather antiquated pattern, without magazines and are much inferior to the British rifle and even to those which Carson’s men have. Moreover the ammunition landed is useless. It consists of explosive bullets which are against the rules of civilised war and which, therefore, we are not serving out to the men.”
Pearse to Joseph McGarrity 12 August 1914. National Library of Ireland. Mss 13,162.
Anticipating Austrian reprisals, Serbia mobilises its army. From Moscow, the Tsar warns Germany that he cannot remain indifferent if Serbia is invaded by Austrian forces. A proposal by the British foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, that a conference of Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy settle the Austro-Serbian dispute, was rejected by Germany.
Casement writing to Alice Stopford Green from Philadelphia commented on the differences between the Clan and the Volunteers: ‘I think I’ve put it straight now – Devoy admits a change of view’ But, while attending the Ancient Order of Hibernians Annual Convention in Norfolk, Casement observed that amongst the delegates ‘All here without exception almost ae against Redmond’s surrender to Ulster and a very little thing now would rent the Party irrecoverably with the Irish in America. Devoy soeaks for the prob [sic] majority I think - and it is absurd for Redmond to claim that he had the Irish here behind him’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p216
27:
Following the Batchelor’s Walk incident, a massive boost to Irish Volunteer Recruiting took place. The Chief Secretary announced the suspension of the Assistant Police Commisioner of the Dublin Metropolitan Police pending an inquiry into the Howth gunrunning and Batchelor’s walk incident. For good measure, he called into question the judgement of the DMP’s Police Commisioner and his assistant.
In the House of Commons, Balfour’s casual reply to an Irish MP’s demand for justice in Ireland was ‘there isn’t enough justice to go round’
Michael McCarthy Murrough ‘The Irish Century’ Widenfeld & Nicolson. London 1998 p.47
Bulmer Hobson received the first cable from the US pledging £1,000 ‘in recognition of splendid gun-running into Howth’
From now until the Kings Own Scottish Borderers left Dublin, Volunteer spotters kept watch on the Royal Barracks should any of the men involved leave.
John Redmond demanded and received an adjournment of the House and a full judicial and military inquiry into the shootings on Batchelor’s Walk. The second reading of the Home Rule Amendment Bill was adjourned until July 30th.
Casement was staying with McGarrity in Philadelphia when word came through of the Howth arms landings. ‘McGarrity said Casement threw his hat in the air with the remark ‘Hurrah! The first blood has been shed in a new fight for an Irish Republic’.
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P51
Devoy told Casment that the Howth gun running was ‘the greatest deed done in Ireland for 100 years’ as it made the Irish Volunteers, whatever the composition of the Provisonal Committee, a serious and popular organisation among the American Irish.
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p35
In fact, the shootings in Dublin stimulated support throughout Irish America for the Volunteers. Large public meetings were held in many cities with Devoy and Casement the principal speakers in Philadelphia. ‘The blood of these murdered people’ the Gaelic American wrote ‘is the price that Ireland pays for victory in the first skirmish in a war for National Indpendence which must be fought to the finish’
American mainstream newspapers also commented on the incident in some detail but the growing threat of war diverted attention from further speculation.
London: The British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey made several additional proposals to Germany for mediation in the dispute between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. The Kaiser took offence at what he saw as ‘British insolence’ in making such suggestions and intimated he would support Austria.
In the offices of the Gaelic American in New York, the recent instalation of a telephone caused Devoy no end of frustration.
‘He couldn’t hear his callers and was often forced to use middlemen to conduct telephone conversations. He was similiarily at a loss when his co-consiprators met ….muffled conversation passed him by, forcing him to rely on colleagues to provide unheard details after the meetinfs adjourned. He complained to his ally McGarrity that his impariment was ‘an awful handicap at a time when important matters were being disucssed.’
Irish Rebel – John Devoy and America’s Fight for Irish Freedom. Terry Golway. St Martin’s Press, New York. 1998. p198.
The New York Times reported on the Batchelors Walk shootings ‘British Troops Shed First Blood in Ulster War’
Casement, who had earlier counseled his American friends on compromise with Redmond, now shrewdly warned his friends that any financial support sent to Redmond ‘for arming volunteers is money in doubt’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p34
Kaiser Wilhelm cuts short his cruise and returns to Potsdam. The British fleet has just completed its summer maneuvers and is preparing to return to routine duty. Churchill orders the fleet to proceed to war stations. The fleet would be ready if the crisis got out of hand. Germany officially and publicly advises Austria against British mediation. Grey feels out the British cabinet by posing the hypothetical question of Great Britain's entering into a war if France were attacked by Germany. The French Chief of Staff, Joffre, and the French War Minister, Adolphe Messimy, express their hopes through the military attache in St. Petersburg that should war break out, the Russians would immediatly take the offensive in East Prussia. The French issue standby mobilization orders.
Wilhelm II returns to Potsdam/ Berlin
France accepts Grey's proposals of mediation while telling Russians the French army would fully stand by Russia militarily
French units in Morocco ordered to France
Bethmann-Hollweg rejects idea of Four Power conference
(AM) Churchill orders Royal Navy to be kept together and not disperse as planned and later informs Grey of his action
Anti-war demonstrations in Paris
28:
On July 28 Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia, either because it felt Russia would not actually fight for Serbia, or because it was prepared to risk a general European conflict in order to put an end to the Greater Serbia movement. Russia responded by partially mobilizing against Austria-Hungary but with an eye to gaining control of Constantinople and with it access to the Mediteranean. Germany warned Russia that continued mobilization would entail war with Germany, and it made Austria agree to discuss with Russia possible modification of the ultimatum to Serbia. Germany insisted, however, that Russia immediately demobilize. Russia’s huge size and lack of an efficient rail network and incapacity of local government,meant it would take many weeks to fully mibilise it’s forces.
At funerals of the Batchelor’s Walk victims, the Irish Volunteers and Citizen Army co-operated to form honour guards.
Churchill orders fleet to sail to its war base at Scapa Flow
- Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia; Austrian reservists in U.S. are ordered to return to Austria
- King Peter of Serbia goes to Nish
- Prince Henry of Prussia reports to Wilhem II on his conversations with George V
- Wilhelm issues 'Halt-in-Belgrade' appeal shortly after seeing the Serb reply to the Austrian ultimatum
- Wilhelm II appeals to Tsar's monarchial solidarity; crosses the Tsar's telegram to him
- Russia orders mobilization of four western military districts and Black Sea coastline black-out
- Grey hopes that Austria-Hungary and Russia can be brought to negotiate
- Bethmann-Hollweg meets Südekem (S.P.D.)
- French General Staff informs Russian military attache in Paris that French Army is fully ready and active to do her duty as an ally of Russia
- French Army moves to the frontier areas
- French Socialists demonstrate against war; German Socialist anti-war rallies
- Italian Government orders concentration of 1st and 2nd naval squadrons at Gaeta and Italian vessels ordered home
29:
Churchill persuades Asquith to authorize "Warning Telegram" to fleet
- Nicholas II telegrams Kaiser, start of "Willy-Nicky" telegrams in English over next three days
- Vienna refuses to negotiate with Serbia, Belgrade shelled by Austrian artillery
- Franz Josef sends letter to Tsar Nicholas
- Austrian forces repulsed at Losnitza
- Montenegrins occupy Cattaro
- Serbs blow up bridges at Semlin
- Belgian army reserves called up
- Trade in Antwerp "paralyzed"
- Tschirischky transmits Kaiser's 'Halt-in-Belgrade" proposal
- Poincaré and Vivianni return to Paris and hold Cabinet council meeting
- Business in Paris almost at standstill
- Kaiser holds military councils and issues German warnings to Russia
- Moltke sends a memorandum to Chancellor and demands general mobilization of German Armed forces; Moltke also send telegram to Conrad suggesting Austria begin full mobilization and Germany would follow
- Bethmann-Hollweg makes moves to keep Britain neutral; final draft of ultimatum to Belgian Government sent to German ambassador in Brussels
- Grey informs Lichnowsky (German Ambassador) that Britain could not remain neutral in the event of a continental war; proposes mediation
- Grey and Cabinet begin meeting daily, sometimes twice or more a day over next several days; following this meeting "Warning Telegram" sent to all British naval, military and colonial stations warning that war was possible
- (and 30th) R.N. leaves Portsmouth
- British and German fleets in Far East begin mobilizing
- King of Montenegro's yacht evades capture by Austrian destroyers
- Russian general mobilization ordered, but revoked by Tsar later that same evening; Russian hopes for Serb victory; Russians black-out Baltic coastline
- Kaiser holds Crown Council at Potsdam over possibility of British involvement over France
30:
The Home Rule Amendment Bill was postponed indefinetly at it’s second reading in the House of Commons in view of the deepening European crisis.
Mrs Asquith, writing to Redmond suggested that he should go ‘to the House of Commons on the Monday and in a great speech offer all his soldiers to the Government’. This would be a very ‘dramatic thing to do at such a moment, and it might strenghtent he claim of Ireland upon the grattitude of the Irish people’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P153
Russia ordered a full mobilisation of all troops while Germany was attempting to use diplomatic efforts with Austria to accept mediation proposals with Serbia. The Kaiser warned the Tsar that Germany will mobilise in defence unless Russia ceases to do so within 24 hours.
Just past midnight, Bethmann-Hollweg, worried about the true extent of the crisis, summons British Ambassador Edward Goschen in order to strike a bargain. Would Britain stay out if Germany's war with France placed no territorial demands on France or Belgium? The same could not be promised for the French colonies. Goschen discussed this offer with Grey who regarded it as a "disgrace." The answer was no. Jagow warns Grey that if Germany mobilizes, France, current threat or not, would be attacked per Germany's war plan At 5:00 pm Austrian Emperor Franz Josef declares full mobilization. Bethmann-Hollweg wires his Ambassador in Vienna, Tschirschky, that the Austrians must be made to negotiate some sort of settlement. Occupation of Belgrade would be preferable to war. The Chancellor is convinced that Britain will come in against Germany. In a final attempt to avert war, Bethmann-Hollweg goes against earlier German advice and wires Berchtold that he should accept the British offer of mediation. Berchtold declines. The Czar changes his mind for the third time: Russia proclaims general mobilization.
- Bethmann-Hollweg unsuccessfully tries to reverse German policy
- Belgian forts provisioned and Belgian Government forbids export of horses or vehicles
- Holland declares neutrality
- Austria-Hungary agrees to negotiations with Russia but refuses to delay operations against Serbia
- Austria expels newspaper correspondants from Semlin
- Moltke presses for general mobilization
- Berliner Lokalanzeiger announces German mobilization but issue is withdrawn; official denial
- Prussian State Ministry meets at Potsdam
- Austria-Hungary orders general mobilization including men up to 50 years old
- Russian general monilization ordered for 31 July; Russian Government takes control of railways
- Unionist papers in England call for Britain to go to war against Germany if France attacked
- Halifax garrison in Canada begins preparations
- French troops guard railways; French Army withdraws 10 kilmeters along entire border with Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany; Germans covering troops along border. In Paris, nothing yet known of Austrian and Russian mobilization.
- Guiseppe Garibaldi says he will fight for Serbia if Italy remains neutral
31:
The Inspector General of the Irish Volunteers, Colonel Maurice Moore wrote to John Redmond proposing that all Irish reservists and all members of the Special Reserve should refuse to join the British army unless the King gave immediate assent to Home Rule.
Berlin: The Kaiser issues a formal ultimatum to Russia and asks for reassurances of French intentions.
French armed forces mobilise.
Triggered by the Russian general mobilization, at 11:55 am Germany declares Kriegsgefahr Zustand. Danger of war - a state of pre-mobilization. Germany issues an ultimatum to Russia: demobilize fully within 12 hours or Germany would begin mobilization and declare war on Russia. Germany issues an ultimatum to France: declare neutrality within 18 hours and hand over the frontier forts at Liege and Namur in a show of good faith. At 5:15 pm the French cabinet authorizes full mobilization.
- Vienna rejects international conference and orders general mobilization
- Austrian Government assures Italy Government that more territory is not wanted
- Russian general mobilization becomes known in Berlin at noon
- Russian Council of Ministers meet at Peterhof and Government does not reply to German note
- Russian reserves called up
- Russians blow up railway bridge on Vienna-Warsaw line
- Serbs halt Austrians at Semendria and on Bosnia frontier
- 10 AM London Stock Exchange closes in a wave of financial panic (Monday a Bank Holiday) started in New York
- Reichstag summoned
- Kaiser proclaims 'state of imminent war' at 1 PM (one hour after Russian mobilization learned of); martial law declared and Kaiser makes speeches
- Crown Prince Wilhelm assigned military command
- Germany refuses to mediate and issues ultimatum to Russia to halt demobilization within 24 hours
- Germans send ultimatum to Paris demanding to know if France will stay neutral and if so, to hand over forts at Toul and Verdun; given 18 hours to reply
- French Government prepares to refuse German ultimatum; Paul Cambon goes to see Grey for British committment
- Churchill orders confiscation of Turkish ships Sultan Osman and Reshadieh cancelling delivery
- French socialist leader Jean Jaurès assassinated in Paris
- French Ministerial Council decides to order mobilization for 1 August
- Grey asks French and German Governments if they will respect Belgian neutrality; France agrees, Germans evasive; British Cabinet close to abandoning France; Tory leaders be called to London to confer on crisis
- French answer to German note about Russia
- French Government mobilizes steamship La France for Government service
- Belgian Army mobilizes
- Dutch Army ordered to mobilize
- Belgian State Railway schedule of trains into Germany suspended
- Italian Council of Ministers votes to remain neutral
August 1914
1:
O’Brien landed his 600 rifles from the ‘Chotah’ in the middle of the night at Kilcoole, Co Wicklow. Sean Fitzgibbon organised the landing and distribution, but in the middle of it, the truck bringing the rifles to Dublin broke down at Bray. It was then necessary to organise a fleet of private cars and taxis to take them to various safe dumps in the city. Within days, the Provisional Committee of the Volunteers,now containing a majority of the Redmondites, heard of the secret landing at Kilcoole and wanted the rifles for use in Ulster. When the rifles could not be found, an internal enquiry was called but none of the Volunteers that had them, was willing to hand them up. The majority of the Howth rifles went north to be used by Nationalists to defend themselves against anticipated attacks by the Ulster Volunteers.
O’Rahilly in the ‘Secret History of the Irish Volunteers’ pointed out that the Volunteers had missed their best opportunity of ‘getting a supply of arms when Lawrence Kettle received an offer of 27,000 modern magazine rifles, with a supply of ammunition, at a price of £4 each. Kettle did not inform O’Rahilly, who was responsible for the procurement of arms, of this offer.’ Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 135
James Connolly writing in The Irish Worker: ‘Governments in a capitalist society are but committes of the rich to manage the affairs of the capitalist class’ and on the possibility of the outbreak of war in Europe: ‘Should a German army land in Ireland tomorrow, we should be perfectly justified in joining it, if by doing so we could rid this country once and for all from it's connections with the Brigand Empire that drags us unwillingly to war.’
Crowds had gathered throughout Germany, sensing a patriotic war in the offing. In Munich, thousands gathered including one individual amongst the throng, a 25 year old failed artist and architect, Adolf Hitler.
As expected, at 5 p.m., Germany declared war on Russia. The German Foreign Office understood that Britain would remain neutral provided Germany did not violate French territory. The Kaiser authorised a telegram to his cousin, King George V, that if England guaranteed French neutrality, German forces would not cross the Belgian frontier before 7 p.m. on August 3rd. Germany had demanded from Belgium the right to pass through it’s territory. However Britain’s Treaty with Belgium signed in 1839 was just another of the alliances that would shortly plunge Europe into war.
German stategists under Alfred Von Schlieffen had calculated that the German army smashing through the Netherlands and Belgium into nothern France, turning in a hinge at the Alps and gathering in Paris would effectively crush French forces in a pincers movement. This would then allow for an equally swift strike against Russia before it's forces were fully moblised, bringing the giant down and avoid any protracted, bloody war in the east. That was the theory, but with Von Schlifen dead since 1913, Hemuth von Moltke had been tinkering with the plan.
Italy declared neutrality as a member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary. PM Salandra arguing that as the war was offensive, then Italy was not compelled to join. In reality, Itlay was not prepared for war as well as having aspirations towards Austrian-Hungarian territory that was ethnic Italian. Italy was to spend some 10 months in secret negotiations with each side.
- 2AM Izvolsky (Russian Ambassador) awakens Poincaré, who had retired for the night, and asks what France plans to do
- (morning) Governor of Bank of England visits Lloyd George to tell him that Bank was opposed to British intervention; Asquith gets similar messages from others in financial community
- French Army ordered to begin mobilization at 3:40 PM; French Government says it will respect Belgian neutrality
- Cambon asks Grey if Britain will intervene and asks if "honor" was erased from the British dictionary
- Delcassé becomes War Minister in France
- German Ambassador prepares to leave Paris and American Ambassador and Council will look after German affairs there
- War rallies in Vienna and pressure on Austrian Government to keep war localized and to negotiate with Russia
- German ultimatum to Russia expires at noon; Germany declares war on Russia at 12:52 PM and begins mobilization at 5 PM when announcement made to crowd at Imperial palace gates
- German ultimatum to France expires at 1 PM
- (ca 7 PM) Kaiser orders troops planning to invade Luxemburg to halt and tells Molke that it may be possible to prevent war with France and Moltke says that once mobilization began stopping war with France was no longer possible
- Reichstag convened
1914 ! August - German reservists in China begin concentrating at Tsing-tau; German officals in South Africa begin returning home
- Russian forces fire on German patrol near Prostken
- Continued hopes in Berlin that Britain might stay neutral
- Belgian Government buys the entire wheat supply on market in Antwerp
- Special meeting of British Cabinet (night session); Churchill asks to mobilize the fleet and call up reserves and is turned down; Grey asks to use fleet to support French in event of Germans in Channel (as promised to French); Lloyd Geroge not in favor of war; on leaving the meeting, Grey tells Churchill he will honor pledge to Cambon and close the Channel with RN
- King George appeals to the Tsar for peace
- London Times denunciation of Germany
- Canadian Cabinet meets and agrees to send its offer of Canadian troops to England
- Italian Government tells Germany that Triple Alliance agreement only applied to a defensive war
- Japanese navy prepares for war
2
In Philadelphia, Casement and Devoy attended a protest demonstration against the Bathcelor’s Walk shootings and organised by McGarrity. The demonstation took the form of a giant funeral procession with three hearses carrying empty coffins leading the march from Washington Square to the Garrick Theatre. A packed house heard Casement denounce the killings and a collection made $2,000 to buy additional arms for the volunteers. Numerous photographs were taken of Sir Roger with John Devoy which caused him to fear that ‘it would lessen his chances of escaping detection by the English in case he wanted to go on any mission unknown to them. He was evidently, even then, thinking of going to Germany, although he had not mentioned it up to that time..’ John Devoy. Recollections of an Irish Rebel. P.417
When Casement later broached the subject of a visit to Germany, Devoy was against it. ‘While I recognised his intimate knowledge of foreign affairs, I had doubts of his tempramental fitness to deal with the Germans in the conditions then existing…I strongly doubted the possibility of his getting trhough the close scrutiny of English naval officers who examined every ship bound for any country through which access ti Germany could be made…however he had set his heart on going, so the Clann na Gael executive, after discussing the matter fully, decided to sanction the trip and pay his expenses.’
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P417
Devoy comments that even though Casement was obviusly frugal in his expenditure, a visit he made on him in Brooylyn heights convinced him that his personal funds were low and he was advanced $1,000. He was next provided with introductions and instructions as to how to get in touch with the German Government following his arrival in Norway. Devoy introduced him to George Von Skal who in turn was more than delighted to present the high profile Englishman to the German ambassador, Count von Bernstorff. He was to sail in mid-October.
In Cork, the Postmaster of Queenstown with a spotless Post Office record, came under military suspicion as having recently been in communication with the German Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Patrick Sarsfield O’Hegarty was immediately transferred to Whitchurch in Shropshire and then later to Welshpool in North Wales where he remained for the duration of the war. In reality he was a senior member of the IRB but accepted the move initially as a nominal promotion. Shortly afterwards another IRB activist, JJ Walsh was also transferred to Britain, it became clear there was a policy in operation by the British Administration. Hegarty’s brother, also employed in the Post Office in Cork shortly afterwards came under scrutiny from the British forces. The head of the Post Office in Ireland, Norway attempted to have him transferred to Britian as he had done with his brother, but chose Hegarty chose to contest it. He was suspended from duty for insubordination and within days was ordered to leave the Cork area under the Defence of the Realm Act.
P.S.O’Hegarty resigned from the post office in 1918, became a bookseller in Dublin and was later to become the Free State’s first Secretary of Posts and Telegraphs.
Germany invades Luxemourg and it’s troops quickly occupy the country. While the invasion of Luxembourg was taking place, the German government informed the government of Belgium of its intention to march on France through Belgium in order, as it claimed, to forestall an attack on Germany by French troops marching through Belgium. The Belgian government refused to permit the passage of German troops and called on the signatories of the Treaty of 1839, which guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium in case of a conflict in which Great Britain, France, and Germany were involved, to observe their guarantee.
British Royal Navy is mobilised.
Pope Pius X appeals for peace.
- German troops occupy Luxembourg
- Ambassador Cambon blames Germany for cause of conflict
- French Government declares a state of siege in France and Algiers
- French Socialists desplay patriotism in support of war
- French cut railway communications with Germany and Belgium
- Russian Ambassador in Berlin given passport
- (afternoon) Tsar formally declares war on Germany
- Russians cross German frontier and seize railroad station
- fighting between Russian and German cruisers near Libau; German ships at sea ordered to seek neutral ports
- Germans in Kiao-Chau declare martial law
- German High Seas Fleet captures Wilson Liner Castro and a collier
- Montenegrin King signs mobilization order
- Austrian military cadets commissioned
- Germans and French recall all military reserves at home and abroad
- Two British Cabinet meetings (11AM-2PM and 6:30 PM-8PM); during second meeting Cabinet agrees that if Belgium invaded Britain would declare war
- Trafalgar Square anti-war demonstration evaporates and pro-war sentiments spread in Britain
- German ambassador in Brussels delivers ultimatum to Belgian Government at 8 PM; 12 hour period to reply
- Belgian King holds Council of State at 9 PM-midnight to discuss ultimatum
- Invasion fears in Holland result in plans to flood the country to prevent it
- Belgian guards posted at bridges at Liege and Namur and Belgian "civic guard" called out
- Kitchener orders military censorship for British papers
- Canadian volunteers enlisting for possible war
- Canadian Royal Naval reserve called up
- Italian Cabinet ratifies neutrality declaration but troops called to colors as precautionary measure
- Japanese Emporer summons Council and asks for report on army; Japanese navy warships readied
3:
Though a Bank Holiday in England and Ireland, the House of Commons met in Westminster to discuss the European situation.
Sir Edward Grey made public for the first time the extent of British commitments to France and in a short comment on Ireland said ‘the one bright spot in the very dreadful situation is Ireland. The position in Ireland – and this I should like to be clearly understood abroad – is not a consideration among the things we have to take into account now..’
Following the speech, Redmond in discussion with his colleague John Hayden advised ‘I’m going to tell them they can take all their troops out of Ireland and we will defend the country ourselves’. Hayden approved but T.M.Healy countered otherwise in view of the recent shootings on Batchelor’s Walk, a pledge of support was not opportune.
Redmond’s speech marked a turning point in the battle for Home Rule. ‘I say to the Government that they may tomorrow withdraw every one of their troops from Ireland. I say that the coast of Ireland will be defended from foreign invasion by her armed sons and for this purpose armed nationalist Catholics in the South will be only too glad to join arms with the armed Protestant Ulstermen in the North. Is it too much to hope that out of this situation there may spring a result which will be good, not merley for the Empire, but good for the future welfare and integrity of the Irish nation’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P154
The opposition benchs and Ulster Unionists stood to cheer him. Redmond’s original intention was that the Irish Volunteers would not be required to take the Oath of Allegiance and would solely defend Ireland and not be drafted overseas.
Pearse considered this speech ‘..either madness or treachery..’. Clan na Gael agreed with Pearse, encouraging the Parnell hope of indpendence.
The same day, Pearse wrote to McGarrity ‘Heaven knows what the future holds if England is drwan into the European war…if the British army is engaged elsewhere, Ireland falls to the Volunteers, and then – well, we must rise to the occasion….publicly the movement has been committed to the loyal support of England…all Hibernains and Redmondites vote with the new members and steadily vote us down…I am scarcely allowed to speak…I blame macNeill more than anyone. He has the reputation of being ‘tactful’ but his ‘tact’ consists in bowing to the will of the Redmondites every time. He never makes a fight except when they assail his personal honour and then he bridles up at once….he is in a very delicate position, and he is waek, hoplessly weak… Now it is perfectly clear that whatever is to be done for Ireland in this crisis must be done outside the Provisional Committee. The men are sound, especially in Dublin. We could at any moment rally the best of them tio our support by a coup d’etat; and rally the whole country if the coup d’etat were succesful. But a coup d’etat while the men are still unarmed is unthinkable.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P48
Devoy wrote to Hobson informing him that his apparent support for Redmond, the resulting ‘surrender’ of the Irish Volunteers had damaged the Clann na Gael work in the US. He therefore advised he was unable to publish any more articles from him in the Gaelic American even though as Hobson replied, these were his ‘sole remaining source of income’.
Germany declared war on Belgium and invaded led by von Kluck but halted at Liege. London advises Germany that Britain would stand by the 1839 Treaty of London guaranteeing Belgian neutrality and would protect French coasts.
- 2:30 AM Belgian Council of State re-convenes to approve reply to German ultimatum, over at 4:00 AM; reply given at 7 AM
- Bank Holiday in England; crowds in Whitehall
- British Cabinet meets at 11AM (still unaware of Belgium's plans to refuse ultimatum) and learns of Belgian reply during session; King Albert sends George V telegram asking for Britain to back its treaty obligations towards Belgium; Cabinet sanctions mobilization of Fleet and Army but no decision to send BEF to France yet; Grey says Britain will keep the German Navy out of the Channel
- Haldane sending out mobilization telegrams calling up Reservists and Territorials
- Dense crowds in Whitehall in support of war
- Italy declares neutrality
- Germans seize three towns in Russian Poland
- Tsar calls Russians to war and issues paper on causes of war
- Austrians and Serbs fighting along the Drona River
- Germany declares war on France and German Ambassador leaves Paris; French Ambassador leaves Berlin
- American Ambassador in Moscow will look after German interests in Russia and Eastern Europe
- Belgium rejects German demands
- German-Turkish Treaty concluded
- German Ambassador sees Grey and asks about British intentions and decisions regarding the war
- Grey addresses House of Commons (ca. 3 PM) and debate follows with dinner break; German ultimatum to Belgium becomes known; Redmond promises Irish support
- British ultimatum contemplated being sent to Germany regarding Belgian neutrality
- German declaration of war on France (ca. 5:30 PM)
- Canadian ports of Quebec and Montreal put in charge of military authorities
- Canadian militia called up and reserves prepared to sail for England
Karl Spindler, with the Imperial Navy for a number of years was made commander of the outpost boat "Polarstern" ("Polar Star"), one of several ships of the Second Half Flotilla of the North Sea Outpost Flotilla, based in Wilhelmshaven where he was to remain until early 1916.
4:
Redmond in a letter to Asquith, requested that the Home Rule Bill be given the Royal Assent at once subject to the Amending Bill being cleared through Parliament in the Winter session. Carson, also in a letter on the same day was demanding that the status quo be preserved.
Rumours abounded that more rifles were to be landed in Ireland. In Cork, the Irish Volunteers companies were mobilised to travel by special train to Skibereen and owners of cars were also requested to assemble there. On Saturday night, John Redmond cabled Talbot Crosbie to cancel the arrangement. It wa believed that either all or part of a cargo of 3,500 Italian rifles purchased by the Redmondites would be landed. However after hanging around the coast for a few days, the freighter put into Dublin where it was impounded until the prohibition on arms imports was lifted on August 6th. These rifles, purchased for 5/6 each were accepted as useless and with no ammunition. Each was sold for £1 to various Volunteer committees.
Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) passed.
Kitchener appointed Secretary of War.
Two German battleships dashed eastwards toward Constaninople.
War Declared
Great Britain sent an ultimatum to Germany demanding that Belgian neutrality be respected. Germany refused and swept through Belgium. Von Moltke’s alterations to the von Schliffen plan removed the invasion of the Nerherlands and limited the advance to Belgium effectively slowing down the projected German advance.
At 11pm, Britain declared war with Germany and Austria-Hungary and the question of Irish Home Rule was pushed aside for more international concerns. Sir Edward Grey of the Foreign Office said ‘The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime’ This was the first European war that Britain and Ireland was involved in for almost a century.
Grey’s speech to Parliament included ‘The one bright spot in a very dreadful situation is Ireland. The postion in Ireland…is not a consideration in the things we have to take into account now.’
Redmond rose shortly afterwards and addressed the house, pointing out the analogy with the situation in Ireland at the time of the American Revolution when British power was at a low ebb and the Irish Volunteers of the day formed themselves to repel a possible invasion of Ireland, adding that the British ‘may take their troops away, and that if it be allowed to us, in comradeship with our brothers in the North, we will ourselves defend the coasts of our country’
Casement’s comment to McGarrity on the declaration of war ‘Perhaps Ireland’s chance has come’.
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P52
As for the Irish Nationalists, the war would bring division. Up to this time, both the Revolutionary Nationalists and the Constitutional Nationalists were united against Carson’s Ulster Volunteers. Once Redmond ascended the recruitment platform, the splits within the groups became more and more apparent.
Germany’s Initial War Plans
The initial German plan of the campaign was to defeat France quickly in the west, while a small part of the German army and the entire Austro-Hungarian army held in check an expected Russian invasion in the east. The speedy defeat of France was to be accomplished by a strategic plan known as the Schlieffen plan, which had been drawn up by Count Alfred von Schlieffen, German chief of staff from 1891 to 1907. The Schlieffen plan called for powerful German forces to sweep through Belgium, outflank the French by their rapid movement, then wheel about, surround, and destroy them. As executed with certain modifications in the fall of 1914, the plan at first seemed likely to succeed. The swift German incursion into Belgium at the beginning of August routed the Belgian army, which abandoned the strongholds of Liège and Namur and took safety in the fortress of Antwerp. The Germans, rushing onward, then defeated the French at Charleroi and the British Expeditionary Force of 90,000 men at Mons, causing the entire Allied line in Belgium to retreat. At the same time the Germans drove the French out of Lorraine, which they had briefly invaded, and back from the borders of Luxembourg. The British and French hastily fell back to the River Marne, but three German armies advanced steadily to the Marne, which they then crossed. The fall of the French capital seemed so imminent that the French government moved to Bordeaux. After the Germans had crossed the Marne, however, the French under General Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre wheeled around Paris and attacked the First German Army, commanded by General Alexander von Kluck, on the right of the three German armies moving on Paris.
5:
As German Troops continued the invasion of Belgium, the British cable ship, Teleconia, used giant grapnels to to cut Germany’s five cable network that entered the North Sea at Emden, connecting it to the US and Western Europe. This prevented all telegraphic communications reaching the US and effecively sealed Germany from direct cable communication with the overseas world. German military, diplomatic and secret service now had to use radio or other countries telegraph systems for cipher messages. The powerful wireles station at Nauen outside Berlin began sending communications in cipher.
Ireland and the war
from The Irish Times 5 August 1914
We believe that the people of these kingdoms are today more cheerful than they have been at any time since the war cloud began to gather over Europe. The period of suspense and uncertainty is ended. In Ireland today the national feeling is not merely one of courage and confidence. Faced with terrible and urgent danger though we be, our hearts find room for thankfulness - even for exultation. In this hour of trial the Irish nation has 'found itself' at last. Unionist and Nationalist have ranged themselves together against the invader of their common liberties. A few weeks ago it used to be said by despairing English politicians that Ireland was two armed camps. Today she is one armed camp, and its menace is directed against a foreign foe. Mr Redmond's speech is receiving from Irish Unionists the whole-hearted welcome which we claimed and predicted for it yesterday. It gives to Southern Unionists, in particular, the boon which was hitherto denied to them - the opportunity of asserting their nationality, of rendering personal service to the motherland. Today Mr Bryan Cooper, former Unionist member, and present Unionist candidate, for South County Dublin, announces that he has joined the National Volunteers.
The Earl of Bessborough and Lord Monteagle, both Irish Unionist Peers, invite support and sympathy for the same movement. We believe that hundreds of young Unionists will be glad to follow Mr Cooper's example, and to stand shoulder to shoulder with their Nationalist fellow-countrymen in the danger that threatens us all. We are sure that co-operation between the Ulster and Nationalist Volunteer forces will now prove to be a simple and easy thing. The Nationalist army has hastened to endorse Mr Redmond's speech. It is not only ready, but eager, to unite with Ulster's army for purposes of home defence. We do not pretend that the political question of Home Rule is affected by this splendid act of union, but Sir Edward Carson and Mr Redmond have done a noble work for Ireland. They have achieved the beginning of national reconciliation: they have opened a great door.
That morning the entire German spy network was rounded up in Britain. All ships belonging to the enemy were seized in both countries, including a British steamer, the “Castro” stuck in the Kiel Canal and later destined to play a pivotal role in the 1916 Rising. The British Admiralty now began to rceeive copies of all intercepted messages to Germany but neither they nor the War Office had any codebreakers to decipher them. The Teleconia’s action, planned in February 1912, was to also play a role in the 1916 Rising.
Redmond and Carson met in Parliament to discuss existing difference between them. Parliament was to shortly pass the Appropriations Bill which would give formal approval to the Government’s declaration of war and after this it would rise and either adjourn or be prorogued. ( Parliamentary procedure is that if it is adjourned, it takes up Parliamentary business where it left off. If it is prorogued, the effect is to suspend all business until it sits again, with the effect that every bill must be introduced again.) Redmond wanted Parliament prorogued and not adjourned as this would effectively kill the Home Rule Amendment Bill, but allow the Home Rule Bill to become law. Naturally, Carson refused this and threatened to stay and block the Appropriations Bill.
Redmond wrote that he found Carson ‘utterley irreconcilable’ and in a letter to Asquith the same evening commented that the Liberals now had ‘the greatest opportunity that has ever occurred in the history of Ireland to win the Irish people to loyalty to the Empire…I beg of you not to allow threats…to prevent you from taking the course which will enable me to preach the doctrines of peace, goodwill and loyalty in Ireland.’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P154
Asquith understood that neither request or threat would be followed through, reassuring Redmond that the Home Rule Bill was safe and that Parliament would be adjourned. While Redmond protested saying that “ ..the happiest moment in Irish History will be lost, not only will Ireland be divided and distracted, but the same will happen in every colony in the Empire....and all for what? To avoid a protest from Carson, who would not have the Unionist Party behind him?
Quoted in George Dangerfield “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” Constable London. 1977. P126
While the meeting in the House of Commons was taking place, the Supreme Council of the I.R.B. met to discuss future plans in view of the European war that was developing. Tom Clarke proposed that a Rising woould take place in Ireland before the war ended supported by financial and military aid from Clan na Gael in the US.
Asquith on the same day passed over control as Secretary of State for War to Field Marshall Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, becoming the first soldier on active duty to serve in the British cabinet since the Restoration of 1660. While born in Ireland in 1850, he was militantly unionist and positively sectarain. He gathered a cooterie of fellow-minded persons around him in the War office.
James Connolly commented: “ The war of nation against nation in the interests of royal freebooters, and cosmopolitan thieves, is a thing accursed.
A Socialist Theorist, Connolly like many others was surprised when ‘ the working class of Europe, unimpressed by the inconvience their behaviour was cuasing socialist theorists, flocked to slaughter each other for God, King and Country. This finally compelled Connolly to reconsider the theory that socialism would bury nationalism. He concluded that if socialism were to come to Ireland at all, it could only come through nationalism, or rather through Republicanism.’
Prof JJ Lee. ‘Ireland 1912-1985 Politics and Society’ Cambridge University Press 1990. P20
Suffragettes were ordered to suspend their campaign by Mrs Pankhurst and turn their energies to supporting the war effort.
Following the declaration of war with Germany, ‘things in Dublin became very hectic. For a few days traffic through a route to the North Wall was stopped in order to leave a clear passage for the movement of troops to the North Wall for embarkation. They passed our shop in Amiens Street… the British used every device to induce young Irishmen to join their army. Posters with inducements were pasted up everywhere. One poster I rember was ‘Join up and see the world, and be paid for doing it’ some wag wrote under it ‘…and see the next world’, which was the fate of many’
Kathleen Clarke ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P53
Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty, in a letter to Redmond ‘I have called the new battleship Erin* on account of your memorable speech, the echoes of which will long linger in British ears’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.35
Battleship Erin: In Aug 1914 the Turkish battleship Resadiye (or Reshadieh) that was fitting out at Vickers (Barrow) was seized by the Royal Navy and taken into service as HMS Erin. Ordered in 1911 and built to a private design she mounted the same main battery as the contemporary British King George V on a hull that was 40-ft shorter. The design was generally on a par with British types - while her armour was slightly thinner she did have an anti-torpedo bulkhead that ran the full length of the citadel and her armament was better positioned. However, being shorter than contemporary British designs she was quite cramped and had considerably less bunker capacity. By the end of the First World War 2x3" HA [2x1] had been added to her armament along with aircraft flying-off platforms atop 'B' and 'Q' turrets. Paid off for disposal in May 1922 and sold for breaking up 19 Dec 1922.Displacement: 22120t (std) - 25250t (dpl) Dimensions: 559'06" (oa) x 91'07" (bm) x 32'00" (md) Armament: 10x13·5" BL [5x2], 16x6" BL [16x1], 2x3" HA [2x1], 4x21" TT [sub beam] Protection: 12·00-8·00" belt, 8·00-5·00" bulkheads, 2·50-1·00" deck(s), 11·00-3·00" turrets, 10·00-3·00" barbettes, 1·50" anti-torpedo bulkhead Machinery: 4-shaft steam turbines [15 boilers] = 26500shp Speed: 21·25kts (std) - 20·75kts (dpl) Endurance: 2120t coal & 710t oil = 4600nm @ 15kts Complement: 976
The Irish Times rejoiced that ‘the call to arms has come…we are glad that the formal declaration has come from our own Government and not from the enemies who have forced this quarrel upon us. This is the fitting answer to a direct and insolent challenge. The whole nation will welcome the ending of suspense.’
The Irish Times Book of The Century. Fintan O’Toole. Gill & Macmillan 1999. p70
20 million men were now under arms in Europe. By wars end, it would be 65 million. This war would cause the deaths of 26 million, half of them civilians dying from malnutition, disease and lack of medical care. A further 20 million would be maimed, deranged or otherwise disabled. Almost every state in Europe would become involved. Colonial forces from Canda, Australia and New Zealand would fight on European soil. Japan would join the Allied war effort with an eye to taking over German colonies in the East and Pacific. The US would join by 1917 but not before seeing the dramatic economic and social effects that would have longterm ramifications in future years.
Meanwhile in the US, the world’s first traffic lights were installed in Cleveland.
- Serbs ban the sending of press dispatches
- German ambassador in Brussel delivers German response to Belgian reply at 6 AM
- 8:02 AM Germans invade Belgium
- 9 AM King Alfred meets Belgian parliament
- German troops cross French border near Mars-La-Tour and Moineville
- Joffre leaves for the frontier
- Riots in Paris
- Noon. King Alfred appeals to Britain and France for military support regarding Belgian neutrality
- British Cabinet meets at 11 AM after hearing of Belgian invasion and issues ultimatum to expire at midnight
- Whitehall filled with crowds in support of British intervention in war
- British ulitmatum transmitted to Berlin and British Ambassador prepares to leave Berlin
- German Government appeals to Italians to honor treaty go unheeded
- Reichstag opens; speech by Kaiser (morning), stops for church services, reconvenes for German Chancellor speech (3 PM); Reichstag support of war and votes for war credits then adjourns (Socialists agree to set diferences aside and vote in support).
- (circa 2 PM and concurrent with Bethmann-Hollweg in Reichstag) Asquith announces to House of Commons that he has a message from King (Mobilization Proclamation) and reads terms of British ultimatum to Germany.
- 7 PM British ultimatum (two parts) becomes known in Berlin; British Amabassador presents it to Bethmann-Hollweg
- circa 9 PM, British intercept German message from Berlin that Germany considers itself at war with Britain the moment the British Ambassador asked for his passport (during delivery of British ultimatum)
- Japanese Government proclamation preparing country for war on behalf of England (war on 23 Aug)
- Canadian Cabinet meeting and mobilzation of Canadian Expeditionary Force begins; reservists sail
- Message of appreciation sent to Canada by King George
- Rival warship off Port of New York; Foreign consulates in U.S. busy with returning nationals
6:
Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia. Serbia delcared war on Germany. HMS Amphion became the first British ship to be sunk. German forces capture Liege.
7:
French forces invade Alsace. Gen. Joffre in supreme command of French army. Montenegro declares war with Austria and Britain's Expeditionary Force lands at Ostend, Calais and Dunkirk.
A special commitee of Clan na Gael led by John Devoy met with the German Ambassador, Count Von Bernstorff and his military attache, Captain Franz Von Papen at the German Club on 59th Street, New York. They advised that the I.R.B. intended to ‘use the opportunity presented by the war to make an effort to overthrow English rule in Ireland and set up an independent Government, that they had not an adequate supply of arms, no trained officers, and wanted Germany to supply the arms and a sufficient number of capable officers to make a good start, but that we wanted no money. We needed military help only…’
John Devoy. Recollections of an Irish Rebel. P.403
Also present was Wolf Von Igel, Von Papen’s assistant, a Herr Dernburg, journalist George Von Skal ( Devoy’s friend from the anti-Boer war demonstarations ) and others connected with the embasy. The Clann na Gael delegation emphasised that ‘a rebellion in Ireland would necessarily divert a large part of the British army from the fighting front on the Continent and that therefore it would be to Germany’s interests to help Ireland in her fight for freedom’
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P403
Bernstorff listened with ‘evident sympathy’ according to Devoy and promised to arrange a dispatch to the German Imperial Command in Berlin. However, historian Sean Cronin cites Professor Fritz Fischer , author of ‘Germany’s Aims in the First World War’ as stating that while the Ambassador sent the proposal to Berlin, he also commented he was opposed ‘since he feared that such an atempt would give the politcally and culturally dominant English element in the United States, its chance to prejudice the United States against Germany.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P51
Cables between Germany and the Embassy were soon describing Devoy as a ‘confidential agent of Germany…although it’s not clear exactly what he did on Germany’s behalf beyond organising and addressing pro-German meetings and turning the Gaelic American into a propaganda arm of the Kaiser’s armed forces…he soon became co-chairman of an innocent sounding, New York based group called Friends of Peace, which organised huge anti-ware demonstations in New York, Chicago and other heavily immigrant cities…the groups founder was a German spy – and an associate of Devoy’s – named Albert Sanders.’
Irish Rebel – John Devoy and America’s Fight for Irish Freedom. Terry Golway. St Martin’s Press, New York. 1998. p1980
In addition to the wireless ciphers, several copies were sent by courier. One was taken by Michael Francis Doyle of Philadelphia to Holland where he had been sent by the US State Department to provide for the return home of American citizens stranded by the war. Two more were taken by the Clann na Gael member, John Kenny.
Redmond met with the new Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener on ‘regularising and re-arming the Irish Volunteers’ but found him unresponsive to the extent that Redmond wrote a letter of protest to Asquith. Redmond’s request for the Irish Volunteers to serve at home and defend the country was flatly rejected by Kitchener who said “Get me 5000 men and I will say “Thank You”, get me 10,000 men and I will take my hat off to you”
The War divided Ireland, some looked upon it as the opportunity to demonstrate loyalty to “King and Country”, others as an opportunity to prepare and plan for future action “England’s difficulty was Ireland’s opportunity”
The opinion of Redmond and the Nationalist party was summed up by Pearse as..
“ I believe them honest, but they have sat so long at English feasts”
Redmond considered that Griffith and Sinn Fein were Pro-German and roundly denounced them. As for the majority of the population..’the general sentiment of our people is, unquestionably on the side of England in this war’
John Redmond to M.J.Ryan. Quoted in Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P166
The ‘Defence of the Realm’ Act 1914 becomes law.
8
Arthur Griffith, president of Sinn Fein commented: ‘Ireland is not at war with Germany…we are Irish nationalists and the only duty we have is to stand for Ireland’s interestes…if irishmen are to defend Ireland they must defend it for Ireland, under Ireland’s flag and under Irish Officers.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.36
An anti-war flyer published in Ireland:
WAR!!
ENGLAND, GERMANY AND IRELAND.
The mighty British Empire s on the verge of destruction. ‘The hand of the Lord had touched her’. The English live in daily terror of Germany. War between England and Germany is at hand. England’s cowardly and degenerate population wont make sldiers; not so the Germans. They are trained and ready.
WHAT WILL ENGLAND DO?
She’ll get Irish Fools to join her Army and Navy, send them to fight and die for her Empire. England has never fought her own battles. Irish traitos have ever been the backbone of her Army and Navy. How has she rewarded them? When they are no longer able to fight, she flings them back to Ireland, reeking with foul, filthy diseases to die in the workhouses.
WHY SHOULD YOU FIGHT FOR ENGLAND?
Is it in grattitude for the Priest hunters and the rack of the Penal days! The Gibbet! The Pitch Cap! The half hangings and all the horrors of ’98?
Is it in grattitude for the Famine when One Million of our people were slowly starved to death and Christian England thanking God that the Celts were going, going with a vengeance?
Is it grattitude for the blazing homesteads and the people half naked and satrved to death by the roadside?
STAND ASIDE
And have your revenge. Wihtout Ireland’s help England will go down before Germany as she would have gone down before the Boers had not the Irish fought her battle in South Africa. The English know this and they have offered us a bribe and call it
HOME RULE
It is not yet law, but believing us to be a nation of fools she wants payment in advance, and has sent her warships to our coasts to entrap young Irishmen.
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE
Feels bound to issue this solemn warning to young Irishmen against joining the English Army or Navy – for your own sake as well as for your country’s sake. You denounce as traitors the men who sold their votes to pass the Union. You denounce Judas who sold Christ, but generations yet unborn will curse YOU who now join England’s Army of Navy. Aye, will curse not alone the dupes who join, but also those who neglect to aid the VIGILANCE COMMITTEE in their crusade against the most Immoral Army and Navy in the world.
Lynch Family Archives. Folder 1 – 1890-1914
Serbia declares war with Germany.
9
The Supreme Council of the I.R.B. came cautiously to the surface in August and called for an open conference at 25 Parnell Square, the Headquarters of the Gaelic League. The Supreme Council had discussed the possibilities open to support a Rising, either a German landing, the imposition of conscription or an imminent end to the war. These were to be examined and decided upon in the September meeting.
‘With the outbreak of war, Casement threw off the mask of fund raiser and stood forth as a fanatical Anglophobe. The pleas that England had gone to war in defence of little Belgium meant less than nothing to him: he had seen what little Belgium could do in the Congo “I pray for the salvation of Germany” he wrote “ night and day - and God Save Ireland is another form of God Save Germany”. He now composed a memorial to Kaiser Wilhelm, setting forth the old argument that the freedom of Ireland was essential to the freedom of the seas, but setting it forth in language so fulsome that the Clan Executives themselves were taken aback, although they all signed the document. It was apprently sent to Germany by diplomatic pouch...Casement also...visited Captain Von Papen to suggest that an Irish Brigade could be recruited from Irish prisoners of war in German prison camps- a suggestion that Von Bernstorff relayed to Berlin as ‘a grand idea, if only it could be carried out”
George Dangerfield “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” Constable London. 1977. P.156-157
Casement’s address to the Kaiser included the statement that millions of Irish-American’s had a feeling of ‘sympathy and admiration for the heroic people of Germany.... We draw your Majesty’s attention to the part that Ireland necessarily, if not openly, must play in this conflict.... So long as Britain is allowed to exploit and misappropriate Ireland and her resources... she will dominate the seas.... Ireland must be freed from British control...’
The Clan na Gael Executive signed the statement which was then passed to the German Embassy in Washington for transmission to Berlin. Devoy, by nature both thorough and cautious, sent a courier, John Kenny to Berlin with the Clan na Gael programme where it was handed in person to the Chancellor. From there Kenny went on to Dublin where he briefed Tom Clarke on his mission and with additional information from the Clan.
Germany and Austria threatened to invade Italy if it refused to renounce its neutrality.
In Celtic Park, New York, some 10,000 Irish Americans assembled to hear speeches condemning Redmond’s pledge of co-operation with Britain and denoucning the Irish Parliamentary Party. Cheers were given for the Kaiser and German flags were carried by the marching units.
Arms from the landings at Howth and Wicklow made their way to various Irish Volunteers bodies.Cork received 50 rifles and passed to Tomas MacCurtain and J.J.Walsh. Terence McSwiney was given one for Ballingeary Company, twelve each went to Ballinadee and Courtbrack and two to Dunmanway. The remainder stayed in Cork with only enough ammunition for 20 rounds per weapon.
10:
The Education (Provision of Meals-Ireland ) Act becomes law. This allowed local authorities to provide meals for school-children.
The PM announced in the House of Commons that Kitchener the War Secretary would ‘do everything in his power, after consultation with gentlemen in Ireland, to arrange for the full equipment and organisation of the Irish Volunteers’
Florence O’Donoghue. ‘Thomas MacCurtain – Soldier & Patriot’ Anvil Books, Tralee, Co. Kerry. 1971. p.45
DORA ‘Defence of the Realm Act’ introduced as an all-encompassing legislationa llowing for trial by court martial of any suspected saboteur or spy and Government ministers to rule by decree. This was introduced along with state controls on food prices, state control of all railways and the total release without conditions of all jailed sufragettes and strikers.
In Dublin, the head of the Post Office in Ireland, Arthur Hamilton Norway arranged for a military guard to be provided at the GPO in Sackville Street. However up until the aftermath of the Rising in April 1916, these soldiers were never issued ammunition.
12
The New York Times commenting that anti-British passions in Ireland were somewhat diminished with the war and that ‘the union of the kingdom would be imperiled and it's strnght for defense imparied’ by Irish Home Rule were completely unfounded. ‘The Irish, without distinction of party, section or religion, were absolutley united and were all equally loyal to the national cause’.
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p37
John Phillip Holland, inventor of the submarine, dies in the US aged 79.
Britain declares war with Austria-Hungary and Montenegro at war with Germany.
13
On the night of 13 August, the German light cruisers, Magdeburg, ran aground in the fog on the reefs off Odensholm Island, Finland. With two Russian cruisers bearing down on the warship, the Magdeburg’s captain ordered his signalman to take the ships code books, the German Naval codebook, Singnalbuch der Kaiserlichen Marine, into a dinghy and to throw the books in their lead container, overboard. As this was happening, Russian shellfire killed the signalman. Shortly afterwards, sailors from the Pallada and Bogatyr captured the Magdeburg's commander and 56 crewmen. The most valuable items recovered were the signal logs and code tables, found in the signalman’s arms. Though sea-stained, they contained the work columns on which the codes were based, plus the key to the cipher system by which the codes had maximum variability, being able to change from hour to hour. This was to prove to be an invaluable discovery as were later used for decoding all the German radio transmissions throughout the entire war. Within days the books were with the Russian Admiralty in St Petersburg. Shortly afterwards, the Admiralty decided the books would be of better use by the British and were sent by courier to London.
Believing that Germany's advance into Belgium was a diversion, most of the French army moved northeast to attack Germany through the lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine.
14
Redmond and Devlin held talks with Lord Kitchener, Secretary for War, about how the Irish Volunteers could be incorporated into the British Army. Following this apparent about face, within days, moderate Irish American support for Redmond began to waver. The Irish World, while recognising the magntiude to the war, refused to accept that that European rivalries should in any way affect Ireland’s vital interests and for Redmond and Devoy to ‘fritter away any part of her military resources by going to England’s defense would be treason of the blackest kind’
John Devoy traveled by train to Newark, New Jersey with Jeremiah O’Leary ( later to be indicted in New York on treason charges in 1918 ) to address a meeting of German societies.
During the next few weeks, Devoy’s health detiorated somewhat. According to Patrick Egan, he was ‘a ‘sleepless demon’, an incomniac rushing from work to meting and from meetings to rallies and fund raisers, all the while corresponding regularly with Tom Clarke, McGarrity and other conspirators privvy to the secrets of the IRB and the Clan. During business hours he was a regular visitor to the German Consulate on Wall Street, a short walk from the Gaelic American and Friends of Peace offices…’
Irish Rebel – John Devoy and America’s Fight for Irish Freedom. Terry Golway. St Martin’s Press, New York. 1998. p201
German forces advanced into France.
The war caused great excitement throughout the country. ‘The Kaiser was denounced in pubs and on street corners. A thrill of suspicion grippe dthe coast, and German spies were discovered everywhere. One unfortunate ‘mysterious stranger’ on a sketching holiday was arrested three times in two days and finally ‘forwarded, under heavy escort, to the General commanding the forces in Cork.’ Only republicans and other dissident nationalists voiced their opposition’
Peter Hart ‘The IRA & It's Enemies – Violence and Community in Cork 1916-1923’ Oxford University Press 1998. p46
15
Press censorship came into operation in Ireland. It was to last until indpendence seven years later.
Americas: The Panama Canal was opened but due to the worsening situation in Europe, the formal opening was delayed for some years.
Sir Bryan Mahon was in Ireland, inspecting Volunteer companies and at the end of each review, asking the men if they would join the British Army to fight for ‘the freedom of small nations’. The reply he received after each meeting was it depended on what John Redmond advised. Redmond was shortly to come under increasing pressure to encourage the Volunteers to enlist.
16: Belgium: Liege falls to German forces after fierce resistance and heavy casualties.
17: France: British Expeditionary Force of 70,000 lands and within hours were fighting German forces.
German Army invasion and Allied counters.
Belgian administration removed from Brussels to Antwerp.
19:
The Dublin Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers in a statement denied they had entered into any agreement by which the Irish Volunteers force was to be handed over to the control of the British War Office, and statting that the committee had agreed only to carry out Redmond’s undertaking in the House of Commons to take joint action with the Ulster Volunteers in the defence of the island of Ireland.
20:
Belgium: German forces take Brussels
Pope Pius X (1835-1914) elected Pope 1903-1914 died aged 79. Conservative in both religion and politics, Pius stressed the inner life of the church and firmly opposed intellectual liberalism. He opposed Modernism, a reinterpretation of religious doctrine in the light of 19th-century scientific thought. In 1907 he issued a decree condemning 65 Modernist propositions and placed several Modernist works on the Index of Forbidden Books. During Pius's reign the church was weakened by anticlerical legislation in France and Portugal. Pius condemned the seizure of church property and the prohibition of religious education in those countries. Pius initiated the recodification of canon law, restored Gregorian chant to the liturgy, and established a new breviary as the standard for the whole church. Anticipating the Roman Catholic Action movement, he encouraged the laity to undertake church-supervised social action programmes. Pius was canonized in 1954.
In New York a German meeting pledged itself to an alliance of Germany, Austria and Ireland.
21
The British Army authorises the raising of 6 ‘new army’ divisions including that of the 10th (Irish) Division.
A Clan emissary, John Kenny left New York for Germany, carrying secret credentials from the German Embassy in Washington DC to introduce him to Von Flotow, the Ambassador in Rome. This in turn would allow him to travel direct to Germany and allow him to present the papers to Von Beulow personally in Berlin. From there he was to travel to Ireland and advise Tom Clarke. The address expressed a hope for a German victory, poitning out the strategic importance of Ireland and ‘impose a lasting peace upon the seas by effecting the independence of Ireland and securing it's recognition as a fixed condition of the terms of final settlement between the great maritime Powers’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p259
Irish Americans in Philadelphia condemned Redmond’s pledge to defend Ireland from foreign invaders.
22
Redmond wrote to Asquith that any postponement of the Home Rule legislation would be interpreted as ‘betrayal of our hopes, as a sham’ and how it was difficult to exagerate the intensity of the ‘sympathy which is now felt for England and of enthuastic approval of her cause in entering into the war with Germany…but all this splendid temper may be destroyed if there be any postponement of the Home Rule Bill.’
23:
Japan, which had made an alliance with Great Britain in 1902, declared war on Germany.
On the Western Front, German forces continue to push along the 150 mile Belgian front from Mons to Luxembourg.
In the East, Russian forces advanced 50 miles into Prussia.
British forces sent across the channel met the Germans at Mons in Belgium near the French frontier, and while holding them for a time, had to retreat. Von Moltke overestimating the German advance to the north, now sent more troops southwards, detached two army corps from the western front and sent them to the east where the Russian’s were attacking Prussia. Their arrival in the east was too late for actions there but profoundly influenced events on the Western Front.
The First Victoria Cross of the war was awarded posthumously to an Irishman, Lt.Maurice Dease.
24
Germans enter France near Lille.
25:
Austria-Hungary now at war with Japan.
Casement’s address to the Kaiser was finalised. As Devoy commented ‘we of Clann na Gael would have worded some portions of it differently, we accepted it as written, which was as follows:
(Insert OCR version of address here )
26: Russia – German forces attacked Samsonov’s Russain armies at Tannenberg and by the 30th, competely defeated them, taking more than 100,000 prisoners.
28
Austria-Hungary declares war on Belgium.
30
Amiens occupied by German forces.
James Connolly speaking at a memorial to three killed during the Dublin Lockout in 1913 declared: ‘If you are itching for a rifle, itching to fight, have a country of your own; better to fight for our country than for the robber empire. If you ever shoulder a rifle let it be for Ireland…make up your mind to strike before your opportunity goes.’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p259
31:
Asquith recorded his feelings for the Irish in his diary, that he wished he could ‘submerge the whole lot of them and their island for, say, ten years under the waves of the Atlantic’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P156
The invading Russian Army defeated at the Battle of Tannenberg over August 28-31st led by General Paul von Hindenburg,
St Petersburg renamed Petrograd as the original name was considered to be ‘too Germanic’.
September 1914
1:
‘An army marches on it’s stomach’ and no exception were the British and German troops in 1914:
British Daily Ration, 1914:
1 1/4 lb fresh or frozen meat, or 1 lb preserved or salt meat; 1 1/4 lb bread, or 1 lb biscuit or flour; 4 oz. bacon; 3 oz. cheese; 5/8 oz. tea; 4 oz. jam; 3 oz. sugar; 1/2 oz salt; 1/36 oz. pepper; 1/20 oz. mustard; 8 oz. fresh or 2 oz. dried vegetables; 1/10 gill lime juice if fresh vegetables not issued;* 1/2 gill rum;* not exceeding 2 oz. tobacco per week.
(* at discretion of commanding general.)
The following substitutions were permitted if necessary: 4 oz. oatmeal or rice instead of 4 oz. bread or biscuit; 1/30 oz. choclate instead of 1/6 oz. tea; 1 pint porter instead of 1 ration spirit; 4 oz. dried fruit instead of 4 oz. jam; 4 oz. butter, lar d or margarine, or 1/2 gill oil, instead of 4 oz. bacon.
British Iron Ration, carried in the field:
1 lb. preserved meat; 12 oz. biscuit; 5/8 oz. tea; 2 oz. sugar; 1/2 oz. salt; 3 oz. cheese; 1 oz. meat extract (2 cubes.)
German Daily Ration, 1914
(measured in grams; ounce equivalent in parentheses):
750g (26 1/2 oz) bread, or 500g (17 1/2 oz) field biscuit, or 400g (14 oz.) egg biscuit; 375g (13 oz.) fresh or frozen meat, or 200g (7 oz) preserved meat; 1,500g (53 oz.) potatoes, or 125-250g (4 1/2-9 oz.) vegetables, or 60g (2 oz.) dried vegetables, or 600g (21 oz.) mixed potatoes and dried vegetables; 25g (9/10 oz.) coffee, or 3g (1/10 oz.) tea; 20g (7/10 oz.) sugar; 25g (9/10 oz.) salt; two cigars and two cigarettes or 1 oz. pipe tobacco, or 9/10 oz. plug tobacco, or 1/5 oz. snuff; at discretion of commanding officer: 0.17 pint spirits, 0.44 pint wine, 0.88 pint beer.
The meat ration was reduced progressively during the war, and one meatless day per week was introduced from June 1916; by the end of that year it was 250g (8 3/4 oz.) fresh meat or 150g (5 1/4 oz.) preserved, or 200g (7 oz) fresh meat for support and trai n personnel. At the same time the sugar ration was only 17g (6/10 oz.).
German Iron Ration:
250g (8.8 oz) biscuit; 200g (7 oz.) preserved meat or 170g (6 oz.) bacon; 150g (5.3 oz.) preserved vegetables; 25g (9/10 oz.) coffee; 25g (9/10 oz.) salt.
Haythornthwaite, Philip J, The World War One Sourcebook, Arms and Armour Press, A Cassell Imprint, 1992, pps 380-81.
September 1914 Allied unity was made stronger by the Pact of London, signed by France, Great Britain, and Russia. As the war progressed, other countries, including Turkey, Japan, the United States, and other nations of the western hemisphere, were drawn into the conflict
German troops occupied the town of Arras in northern France.
Mountjoy Prison saw a phased release of certain categories of prisoners, released to join up and fight. Sandbag-making became the new form of prison labour and a new type of prisoner began to arrive – concientious objectors.
2:
Turkey orders a general mobilisation of all armed forces.
Plans were now drafted by Churchill and the British Admiralty to requestiion British merchant shipping for service either as mine sweeping, submarine chasing or converted to ‘Q Ships’. These were the mystery ships, craft plucked from an assortment of trawlers, tramp steamers and cargo vessels. Crews were paid off and vessels sailed to Queenstown, Co. Cork for conversion to decoys and so the term ‘Q-Ships’. Conversion varied a great deal, from name change, adjustment of ships colours, a dummy funnel, altering deck housing but with the main objective of installing a deck gun and disguising it. These vessels would steam the high seas and entice U-Boat attacks in the belief they were unarmed merchant shipping. Crews were specially trained Royal Navy gunners and all operated under the objective of lulling any U-Boat into a false sense of security before opening fire. The Navy rewarded all succesful sinkings with £1000 to be divided amongst the crew at the Captains discretion. U-Boats however were generally quick to realise the subterfuge and by years end and the loss of about 12 subs, the German Navy had adopted a ‘shoot first – ask questions later’ policy.
To the disgust of many of his supporters, William O’Brien held a recruiting meeting in Cork City Hall.
3:
Edward Carson in a speech at meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council announced that the War Office had agreed to allow members of the Ulster Volunteer Force to form a division of their own, the 36th Ulster with their own officers and training in Ulster camps. ‘Our country and our Empire are in danger. I say to our volunteers without hesitation, go and help to save your country’
The War Office refused similar concessions to nationalist regiments.
John Devoy received word that his brother Michael had died in New Mexico. Devoy left on the long train journey to the South West that afternoon with all meetings and plans put on hold until his return. Commenting to McGarrity that his brother’s death ‘comes at a most inconvient time’ he sent him a cheque for $3,500 to send onto the IRB in Dublin. Devoy was absent for a week but came back substantially wealthier as he was his brother’s only heir and the inheirtance eventually made it’s way to John’s orphanced nephews and niece in Dublin.
Paris under a state of seige and the French Government moved from Paris to Bordeaux.
5: UK, France and Russia agree not to conlcude separate peace deals with Germany.
Germany captured Rheims and took 12,000 prisoners.
A meeting of the St Louis Irish Americans repudiated Redmond’s leadership.
6:
In the First Battle of the Marne ( September 6-9) French troops under General Joffre halted the German advance near the Marne, less than 48 km (30 mi) from Paris. Initially, German forces had been meeting with little resistance in their march on Paris, when supposedly because of an error in decoding an order, they wheeled to the south-east. Joseph Simon Gallieni, the military governor of Paris, persuaded the French commander in chief, Joseph Joffre, to attack the flank exposed. Under Joffre's orders, troops were rushed from Paris to the front by all available means, including 600 taxicabs, and the Allied attack began on September 6 in what was to become the First Battle of the Marne. By September 9 the German armies had retreated, and the threat to Paris was ended.
The bloody 7 day Battle of the Marne proved to be the most decisive since Waterloo and of the 1914-18 conflict. Both sides quickly settled down to a war of attrition over meters of ground crisscrossed with trenches. Each side had now suffered close to 500,000 casualties.
The French halted the advance of Kluck's army, which had outdistanced the other two German armies and could not obtain their support. French pressure on the German right flank caused the retreat of Kluck's army and then a general retreat of all the German forces to the River Aisne. The French advanced and, in an endeavour to force the Germans from the Aisne, engaged them in three battles: the Battle of the Aisne; a battle on the River Somme; and the First Battle of Arras.
A monilisation of the Irish Volunteers took place of the city and country took place, assebling at various centres, primarily Parnell Square and then marched to Three Rock Mountain where 6,000 went through military operations.
7: Sir Edward Carson urges the Ulster Volunteers to join the army.
US: The Passenger Pigeon became extinct as the last bird died in captivity.
8: Katie Kolvitz, a German sculptor recalled sending her only son off to war, where he died two days later.
‘I knew it all even then. I sat on the bed and wept, wept, wept. Where do all these women find the courage to send their dear ones to the front and their deaths when they have watched over them all their lives with love and care.’
Tragedy struck in Granig and was reported in the ‘From the Four Corners of Eirinn’ section of the Gaelic American:
‘Peter Duffy, 18, a farm hand with Timothy Lynch, Granig, Ballyfeard, was attacked by a bull, which mauled him with such ferocity that he lived only half an hour afterwards, the bull goring him for several minutes before assistance arrived.’
P3 Gaelic American October 3rd , 1914 Lynch Family Archives.
Family recollection is that Peter Duffy was an orphan who was billeted with the Lynchs.
Check local press for additional information
9:
A meeting or “Council of War” was held in Dublin in the offices of the Gaelic League in 25 Parnell Street a location suggested by Sean T. O’Kelly as the premises ‘was not under police surveilance’.
Organised by the Supreme Council of the I.R.B., Tom Clarke presided along with Pearse, MacDonagh, Plunkett, McDermott, Ceannt, McBride, O’Kelly, William O’Brien, Tobin, McGarry and Connolly. This was a crucial meeting at which a decision was reached to make war against England on behalf of the Irish republic in order to secure a seat at the peace conference at war’s end as a beligerent, to speed up recruitment for the Irish Volunteers, the Citizen Army, Cumman na mBan and Fianna Eireann, to resist any attempt by the British to enforce conscription in Ireland and/or to disarm the Irish Volunteers. They also agreed should a German landing be made in Ireland, they would receive support provided they received German assistance when an insurrection was planned.
The IRB also appointed a military committee to secretly take over control of the Irish Volunteers and prepare for a possible armed rising depending on progress on the Western Front.
“ Much hinged on the length of the war. Its continuation deprived Redmond of his anticipated postwar home rule army, as well as giving the IRB time to actually do something. The stalemate in Flanders salvaged the reputation of the IRB and doomed the remaining hopes of Redmond”
Prof JJ Lee. ‘Ireland 1912-1985 Politics and Society’ Cambridge University Press 1990. P23
According to Austen Morgan, little came of the meeting. Connolly proposed 2 sub-committees, one to plan an insurection by getting in touch with the Germans, and the other to recruit through an open organisation. ‘Connolly came away from the meeting with a low opinion of the participants’
Austen Morgan. ‘James Connolly – a political biography’. Manchester University Press. 1988. .p147
Prime Minister Asquith called for another 500,000 men to sign up promising the soldiers would be ‘treated as never before’. Soldiers pay was 1/ a day or if lodging outside the barracks, an extra 2/ a day board and lodgings.
German armies scored another victory against the Russians between the 9th and 14th taking 125,000 captive. These battles and the victory at Tannenberg meant the German’s never had their eastern territory threatened by the Russians for the remainder of the war. Nevertheless, the initial advance into Prussia had effecively won the 1914-18 war by frigtening von Molkte into sending two corps eastwards from the Western front and allowing the Allies to win the Battle of the Marne and contain the German advance.
10th
German forces retreat from the Marne and take up defensive positions at the Soissoins-Rheims line.
11
The British Army authorised the raising of 6 further divisions, the ‘Second new army’ of which the 16th (Irish) Division was to be a part.
Both Allied and German forces since the Battle of the Marne, now extended their front lines northwards in an attempt to outflank the other, within months leading from the Swiss border to the Channel. Both sides had dug in for the longest and bloodiest stalemate seen. Von Molkte was sacked by the Imperial High Command and replaced by Erich von Falkenhayn. While he argued that the war would be won in the West, both Hindenburg and Ludendorff wanted to pursue the Russians and the Kaiser agreed with them. Von Falkenhayn was advised to remain on the defensive in the West allowing German forces to continue against the Russians.
12
Connolly described the Irish press as ‘a sewer pipe for the pouring of English filth upon the shores of Ireland.’ Adding that he hoped the Irish would not have to ‘pay an awful price for the lying attacks…upon the noble German nation’.
Austen Morgan. ‘James Connolly – a political biography’. Manchester University Press. 1988. .p150
In the House of Commons, PM Herbert Asquith proposed the suspension of the Home Rule Bill for the duration of the war.
‘We must all recognise…that employment of force, any kind of force, for what you call the coercion of Ulster, is an absoultely unthinkable thing…the Home Rule Bill will not, and cannot come into operation until Parliament has had the fullest opportunity, by an Amending Bill, of altering, modifying or wualifying it's provisions in such a way as to secure the general consent both of Ireland and of the United Kingdom.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.36
Asquith also reported to the King that in the Cabinet meeting to decide to pass the Home Rule bill ‘Sir E. Grey laid especial stress, in view of the situation in the United States, upon the necessity at the earliest foreseeable date o fputting the Itihs Bill on the Statute Book, though not into immediate operation’
‘American Opinion & The Irish Question 1910-23’ Francis M Carroll – Gill & McMillian & St. Martin’s Press 1978. p217 notes
American opinion was strongly behind the granting of Home Rule and now for the first time, Redmond was forced to define the relationship between Britain and Ireland. To many, this appeared to be a betrayal of Irish nationality.
13:
Joseph Devlin spoke at a review in Midleton, Co.Cork – disapointing many Irish Volunteers supporters that he would not be as pro-British as Redmond.
14:
French reoccupy Amiens and Rheims.
The first Naval battle took place in the Bight of Heligoland when three German cruisers were sunk by the Royal Navy.
15:
The Home Rule Bill would be allowed to pass onto the statute book but at the same time a Suspensory Bill to suspend the operation of Home Rule was introduced by the Government in the House of Commons and passed all three readings without division for a period of 12 months or till a later date if the war continued.
Asquith had won. Bonar Law responded with a bitter speech and then led the Tories out of the Commons in protest, which Asquith described as:
‘Not really an impressive spectacle, a lot of prosaic and for the most part, middle-aged gentlemen, trying to look like early French revolutionists in the tennis court’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p260
Despite the suspension of the Home Rule process, Redmond stood in the House of Commons and said ‘Just as Botha and Smuts have been able to say…that the concession of free institutions in South Africa has changed the men who but ten or a little more years ago were your bitter enemies in the field into your loyal comrades and fellow citizens in the Empire, just as truthfull can I say to you that…Ireland has been transformed from what George Meredith described a short time ago as ‘the broken arm of England’ into one of the strongest bulwarks of the Empire.’
Conor O’Clery ‘Ireland in Quotes’ The O’Brien Press Dublin 1999 p.36
17
Casement decided to issue a statement to the press with regard to the situation in Ireland and the European war. He consulted with John Quinn and Burke Cockran, and both tried to persuade him from issuing it. Cockran was cautious about taking any stand on a policy to be pursued in Ireland. Quinn on the other hand, was a close friend of Devoy, Cohalan and other Irish-American leaders, but with the outbreak of war, became more pro-Ally and anti- Clan na Gael ‘the staunchest supporter that the Allies had among Irish American leaders’ and so disagreed with Casement’s pro-German sentiments. The release date of 17 September 1914 was delayed temporarily as Casement sought further advice, but was later printed in the US Press and in the Irish Independent on October 5th was titled an ‘Open Letter to Irishmen’ to stay out of the war.
‘Ireland has no blood to give to any land, to any cause but that of Ireland.... has suffered at the hands of British administrators a more prolonger series of evils, deliberately inflicted than any other community of civilised men...no Irishman fit to bear arms in the cause of his country’s freedom can join the Allied millions now attacking Germany, in a war that at best concerns Ireland not at all, and that can only add fresh burdens and establish a new drain in the interests of another community .…if this be a war for the ‘small nationalities’ as it’s planners assert, then let it begin, for one small nationality at home.’
18:
Devoy recalled receiving a letter from Casement on the ‘Open Letter to Irishmen’: ‘We were more surprised that Sir Roger had, without saying a word to any of us, taken Burke Cochran and John Quinn into his confidence by consulting with them on this matter. They were both honourable men, but neither of them was in agreement with our policy…while a highly intelectual man, Casement was very emotional and as trustful as a child. He was also obssessed with the idea that he was a better judge than any of us, at either side of the Atlantic, of what ought to be done….this created many difficulties and embarrassments for us.’
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P406
The Home Rule Bill came to fuition after some 30 years of campaigning, received Royal assent, but with two provisos: (1) That the bill should not come into operation until the end of the war, (2) That it would not come into operation until Parliament had time to make special amending legislation for Ulster.
“Redmond like Parnell, was thus thwarted of his ambition to lead the Irish people into the promised land of Home Rule” Mark Tierney. ”Modern Ireland”. Gill & McMillan, Dublin 1972. p57
Sinn Fein warned ‘If the Home Rule Bill be signed, but not brought into immediate operation by the appointment of a Home Rule Executive Government, Ireland is sold and betrayed. Let every Irishman get that into his head and keep it there.’
Liz Curtis ‘The Cause of Ireland – from the United Irishmen to Partition’. Beyond the Pale, Belfast 1994. p261
Home rule was shelved for the moment and the crisis postponed, but the Ulster Question remained unresolved.
The Irish World commented ‘The accursed Union ended’ and ‘Home Rule is come at last’ but warned of the crisis in Irish affairs with Irishmen serving in the British Army. The Irish World felt that Irishmen had no obligation to fight for England and Redmond certainly had no right to serve as a British recruiting agent.
French forces recaptured the northern French town of Arras from the Germans and began to fortify it on September 18.
19:
Terence McSwiney produced the first issue of his weekly paper ‘Fianna Fail’. It published 11 times up until 5 December when it was supressed. While it supported IRB policy, it was produced and financed exclusively by McSwiney. He wrote:
‘…the present crisis has called us into being, not to disseminate news, but principles; to help in framing a policy for Ireland, consistent with her soverign rights that will seize the opportunity of the moment and restore her the supreme power of deciding her affairs within and her relations without’
Florence O’Donoghue. ‘Thomas MacCurtain – Soldier & Patriot’ Anvil Books, Tralee, Co. Kerry. 1971. p.49
The flow of copied German cipher messages continued to the Admiralty and War Office in London, but remained undeciphered. The Admiralty finally detailed a small team of four and routed interception and decoding of all German military telegraph messages to an area that became known as Room 40 at the Admiralty. There the group was led by Captain ( later Admiral ) Reginald Hall, a 44 year old with a voice ‘like a machine gun’. Nicknamed ‘Blinker’ from a facial tick, he recruited a close knit team around him, including women as cipher experts and typists that became known as ‘Blinker’s Beauty Chorus’.
20:
Popular opinion was that the war would be short with a romantic aspect. It was after all, for a small Catholic country (Belgium) and there was a wave of enlistment into the British forces. However the Battle of the Marne would be the last manoeuvre of the pre-war type and that the dreadful stalemate was about to begin.
The Woodenbridge Speech.
John Redmond received a motor car from a number of his supporters as a token of appreciation for getting the Home Rule bill passed and met up with Colonel Maurice Moore, stopping off for lunch in Co. Wicklow. During this lunch, they were told that there was to be a Volunteer parade in nearby Woodenbridge and the local organisers were anxious that Redmond stop off and make an encouraging speech. He advised them that he was planning to make his first public speech in his home constituency of Waterford, but finally agreed to a brief and impromptu speech to the local Volunteers.
Within an hour, Redmond had inspected the Volunteers in Woodenbridge and then made the promised brief and impromptu but as it turned out, the most disastrous and politically fatal speech of his career. This came to be recognised as the speech that brought the Irish Party to an inglorious end.
Redmond proposed that the Volunteers go “wherever the firing line extends in deference of right, of freedom and religion in this war”, with the immediate result of transfering the Volunteers from a defence force who would never go overseas, to a reservoir of recruits for the English Army.
His traveling companion, Colonel Moore was aghast, considering it utterely irresponsible for Redmond to have delivered a politicla harangue to men on parade and blamed himself later that he had not, there and then spoken to the men, telling them that Mr Redmond’s speech was a personal political opinion and one that he did not share with the leader of the Irish Party.
This “Woodenbridge Speech” in which Redmond had attempted to throw the strenght of the Irish Volunteers behind Britain’s war effort quickly led to an immediate split in the organisation. Redmond’s original speech in the House of Commons on the declaration of war was acceptable, with some military defence of the country being devolved to the Volunteers, but to enlist and fight with the British was entirely unacceptable to many. Within a few days, the Irish Volunteers Executive Committee expelled Redmond’s 25 nominees from the organisation. The majority 170,000 volunteers stayed with Redmond to form the Irish National Volunteers ( known as National Volunteers ). Just under 6.5% or 11,000 declared their allegiance to MacNeill, retained the name Irish Volunteers.
From this date until the end of the war, the main activity of the Irish Party was giving all possible assistance to the British drive for recruits with meetings held throughout the country. The first to join were young men from an Anglo-Irish background, the Catholic bourgeoisie and those from the other end of the social spectrum, the unemployed and those on subsistence wages. By wars end, the ratio of Irishmen killed to the total troops serving would be one in five.
At the time, the war was anticipated to last only a few months, the Home Rule Bill was on the Statute Books with the proviso that it be suspended for the duration of the war with Parliament then making a special case for Ulster. The thinking amongst the Irish Parliamentary Party as well as the majority in Ireland, that should the Irish stand idly by in the Empire’s hour of need, then the soon to be implemented Home Rule Act could be very substantially altered as well in addition to loosing any possible fsupport from the Ulster Unionists. Irish American moderate opinion were incensed with Redmond with the Irish World newspaper stating ‘We must part company with hime when he asks the Irish Volunteers to help his recruiting campaign for the British Army’ and for a number of weeks afterwards ran anti-recruitment editorials and letters
Professor JJ Lee surmises that Redmond in fact sought to strenghten his hand. The Irish Volunteers were not effectively armed, but men returning from the War, possibly at the latest in 1915, with military training, would offer ‘ some bargaining power vis-à-vis both Carson and Asquith’.
Prof JJ Lee. ‘Ireland 1912-1985 Politics and Society’ Cambridge University Press 1990. P21
It was announced that Prime Minister Asquith would speak in the Mansion House on September 25th.
21:
MacNeill’s 20 member re-organised Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers issued a call for a Convention in an attempt to win back as many as possible that followed Redmond. The Provisional Committee repudiated Redmond’s proposal, opting to expel him & his associates. Redmond in turn formed a separate body of his own calling them “The National Volunteers” and called on all the Irish Volunteers members to leave and join his organisation. Over 80% ( 150,000 )of the Volunteers countrywide followed him. Pearse commented: ‘Mr Redmond is no longer entitled, through his nominees, to any place in the administration and guidance of the Irish Volunteers’
The Tracton Irish Volunteers Company numbering some 50 men under command of Michael Lynch was not immune to the effects of the Redmond split. The strength was reduced to 19 or 20 men and continued unchanged up to Easter Week 1916. However drilling, weekly parades, Sunday route marches and target practice with their sole rifle, a .22, continued. Their activities were monitored by the local R.I.C. and reported to Dublin Castle on a regular basis.
Both the Irish Volunteers and Citizen Army leadership decided that the Mansion House should be occupied at an early stage to prevent Asquith speaking in support of Redmond’s National Volunteers and recruitment for British forces. Some discussion took place and tentative arrangements made to occupy the building on September 24th, the evening before the meeting and should an occupation not go ahead, for an Irish Volunteers Convention meeting to be held in opposition to the Mansion House meeting on the 25th.
‘Two or three nights before this meeting, Tom Clarke informed me of the proposed coup and asked me to hold the men on parade that night as long as possible, and to get as big a muster as I could, so when the action of the committee was announced, we might have something of a demonstation, and thus guage the feelings of the men.’ Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P15
22: Royal Navy cruisers Cresy, Aboukir and Hogue are sunk by U-Boats – 1,500 sailors die.
23: British aircraft bomb Zeppelin workshops in Dusseldorf.
24:
80 Volunteers and 40 Citizen Army men assembled to march and occupy the Mansion House, but was called off due to the high military presence in the streets adjoining the building.
The Gaelic American began publication of Casement’s ‘Ireland, Germany and Freedom of the Seas’ in which he argued her control of the seas was allied to that of her control over Ireland, allowing ‘her to become a law unto herself’ in regard to international trade and to dictate terms on which other nations are permitted to carry on commerce and to effectively blockade other nations.
25:
The Irish Volunteers Convention took place with the remainder of the Volunteers, about 13,500 keeping the original name and became known as “The Irish Volunteers”. 150 delegates at a meeting in the Abbey Theatre elected: Eoin MacNeill - Chairman & Chief of Staff - P.H.Pearse - Director of Operations - represented the I.R.B, Joseph Plunkett - Director of Military Operations - represented the I.R.B, Thomas MacDonagh - Director of Training - represented the I.R.B. The O’Rahilly - Director of Arms. Bulmer Hobson - Quartermaster General
British Prime Minister Asquith arrived on an official visit to Dublin and was scheduled to address a recruiting meeting with Redmond in the Mansion House garrisoned for the visit by a regiment of troops and a number of machine gun outposts.
The Irish Volunteer Executive ordered it’s members not to protest or demonstrate against the meeting, instead ordering the 1st Battalion out to escort the body of the last victim of the Batchelor Walk shootings from the hospital where he died the previous day to his home in the Coombe, and to return to the drill hall in Parnell Square West.
As the Irish Volunteers Provisonal Committee met in opposition to the Asquith-Redmond meeting across town in the Mansion House, some 2,000 members drilled in the Parnell Square Hall and awaited developments.
Over a number of hours, the commitee approved a new policy declaration, calling for a trained and armed Volunteer force to defend the Irish people, denoucing partition, disunion, conscription and the system of governing Ireland through Dublin Castle and military power.
‘ From the very inception of the Irish Volunteers, men prominent in the IRB throughout the country, especially in the most populous centres, took a leading part in organising and training the various Companies and Battalions. What with this and the further fact that the secret organisation was well represented among the rank and file of the Volunteers, the force as a whole gradually and perhaps unconciously, became imbued with an ‘offensive’ rather than a ‘defensive’ concept.’
Diarmuid Lynch ‘The Countermanding Orders of Holy Week 1916’ written for ‘An Cosantoir’ but not published due to objections from Bulmer Hobson. Later published in ‘The IRB and the 1916 Rising’ 1957.
Next, the Provisonal Committee of the Irish Volunteers agreed to expel the 25 men who had been nominated to the organisation by John Redmond.
‘This action was well planned and carried out without a hitch. It came as a bombshell to the Parliamentary Party and to the men who joined when they assumed control’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P18.
The O’Rahilly cabled John Devoy in the Gaelic American: ‘Redmond’s nominees fired out. O’Rahilly.’
P1 Gaelic American October 3rd , 1914 Lynch Family Archives.
Meanwhil in the Mansion House, the Asquith-Redmond meeting was attended by ‘business men and supporters of the Parliamentary Party, admission being by ticket, this was in an attempt to limit the attendance to symathisers with the Allied cause.’ Both employers and Government departments were by this stage effectivly promoting recruitment within the workplace, some with ‘ a thinly veiled threat of dismissal in the event of non-enlistment’ Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P15
Monteith had received two scarce tickets to the meeting the previous night from Sean Hesuton and passed them along to Tom Clarke. He in turn arranged for two men to be present – one ( un-named ) from the Irish Volunteers and one from the Citizen Army – Eddie Kavanagh*, labour activist, artist and writer known by initials ‘E.K.’ in his ‘Irish Worker’ articles and cartoons. E.K. sat in the audience making caricatures of the speakers as Redmond appealed for the support of Ireland in the fight for the freedom of small nationalities. The irony wasn’t lost on any in the Nationalist movement.
(* Monteith described Kavanagh as a man with an overpowering social conciousness: ‘The poverty and wretchedness of the Dublin workers weighed heavily upon his heart, enshrouding him in pessimism when it did not half madden him. I have seen the blood surge in a crimson wave over his usually pale face at the sight of a shivering half starved child whilst his hand went to his pocket for his last few coppers. It was not unusual for E.K. to dispose of his weeks salary to the waifs and strays of Dublin within five hundred yards of Liberty Hall where he was employed as a clerk in the Insurance section of the Transport Worker’s Union, leaving him penniless for a week to come…’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P6
Eddie Kavanagh was later killed during the Rising at Liberty Hall according to Monteith. )
Asquith for the first time publicly supported the concept of ‘an Irish Brigade – better still an Irish Army Corps’ Irish recruits would not lose their identity ‘and become absorbed in some inveterbrate mass, or …artificially distributed into units which have no national cohesion or character’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P161
Nothing came of the pledge, as Irish soldiers joining the colours continued to be dispersed through British regiments and not allowed form any exclusive Irish brigades or divisions. Kitchener. who held an abiding memory of the military Fenians combined with an intense dislike of the Irish and all things Irish, obtuesly refused the formation of any exculsive Irish division.
Despite the Irish Volunteers reaction, Labour and the Citizen Army had no difficulty in protesting against the British Prmeier’s visit. Connolly had returned to Dublin and took part in leading a protest march against the Asquith’s recruiting drive address from the Mansion House, leading the march from Liberty Hall to Stephen’s Green with Larkin, Daly and Countess Markievicz at the head of 100 Citizen Army men.
That evening, as the Irish Volunteers announcement of the expulsion became known, Monteith recalled: ‘About 11.20pm, we heard the news boys on the street yelling ‘Stop Press Edition’ and at that moment Mr. M.J. Judge appeared on the stage and read the manifesto of the original committee…the boys simply went wild with joy, so tired were they of the old Parliamentarian regime…it took at least three quarters of an hour to get them out of the hall and started to their homes.’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P18
Devoy writing later in the Gaelic American commented ‘John Redmond put the finsihing touches on his treasonto Ireland by appearing at a meeting the the Dublin Mansion House with the English PM Mr Asquith…to appeal to Irishmen to join the British Army at the front in France. ..to stand up to be shot so that England may win in her most unjust and unprovoked war to destroy German commerce and maintain for herslf the mastery of the sea which enables her to menace the peace of the world continually and break it at her convience…Loyalists filled the Mansion House and cheered Redmond and Asquith…’
P4 Gaelic American October 3rd , 1914 Lynch Family Archives.
German Ambassador in Washington, Count von Bernstorff in dipatch #166 to Berlin commented to the Foreign Office ‘The decisive point seems to me lie in the question whether any prospect of an understanding with England is now in view, or must we prepare ourselves for a life and death struggle. If so, I recommend falling in with Irish wishes provided that there are really Irishmen who are prepared to help us…’
W. J.Maloney. “The Forged Casement Diaries.” Talbot Press, Dublin 1936. p233-6.
The dispatch was intercepted by Room 40 at the British Admiralty, decoded and later published in the British White Paper ‘Documents relative to Sinn Fein’.
26:
While the I.R.B succeeded in controlling one section of the Volunteers, they had no control over the Redmondite Constitutional Nationalists wing. The National Committee of the National Volunteers was founded with Redmond becoming it’s president. The organisation opened offices in 24 Parnell Square, next door to the Gaelic League and not far from the Irish Volunteers HQ.
Ireland now had four military organisations in Ireland, each distinct and separate:
- The Irish Volunteers – seeking seperation from England and the establishment of a Republican Government by the people for the people by violence if necessary.
- The National Volunteers – seeking Home Rule through constitutional means.
- The Ulster Volunteers – prepared to defend the Union and to refuse any measure of Home Rule for Ireland.
- The Citizen Army – manned mostly by trade unionists and seeking an independent Irerland from Britian. The Citizen army was also a ‘class concious body…with eyes turned towards what was for them a new order of civilisation, which Connolly styled: ‘The reconversion of Ireland to the Gaelic principle of common ownership by a people of the sources of food and maintenance.’ Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P15
Cumman na mBan also suffered through the Irish Volunteers split. At a meeting of the Dublin branches, the organisation split. Kathleen Clarke’s Central Branch lost 176 of the original 200 members.
The split divided Nationalist Ireland initially down the middle. Many felt the only was to achieve a semblance of Home Rule was to prove the nation’s determination to assist Britian in her hour of need so that when war was won and peace came, Ireland would receive her fair reward. The Irish Volunteers thought otherwise – the only route to self-government would be through violence and revoloution. Members of the Irish Volunteers voted with their feet – either moving to the National Volunteers and enlisting or leaving the organisation completely through a growing fear of possible conscription later in the year or in 1915.
In August 1914 two Russian armies advanced into East Prussia, and four Russian armies invaded the Austrian province of Galicia. In East Prussia a series of Russian victories against numerically inferior German forces had made the evacuation of that region by the Germans imminent, when a reinforced German army commanded by General Paul von Hindenburg decisively defeated the Russians in the Battle of Tannenberg, fought on August 26-30, 1914.
27
Unaware that Kitchener was determined to prevent the formation of any Irish Corp other than a loyal Ulster Corp, Redmond was to shortly begin to tour the country on an intensive recruitment drive reinforcing the promises made by the Prime Minsiter.
Clan na Gael Conference
The Clan na Gael conference in Atlantic City, NJ was underway and attended by Diarmuid Lynch representing the IRB in Ireland. A public statement was released repudiating Redmond’s action in guaranteeing Irish support of England during the war with Germany:
‘We the representatives of Clan na Gael of America, in convention assembled, deem it our duty to protest against the worst betrayal of Ireland since Castlereagh sold the Irish Parliament, and to seek the earnest co-operation of every true Irishman in preventing it's consumation.
The action of John Redmond in guaranteeing Irish military support to England in her war with Germany is treason to Ireland, dishonouring to the Irish race and intended to destroy for ever the hope of Irish Freedom. No baser act has ever been committed in all Irish history. If it is not frustrated by prompt and decisive action by the Irish people it must inevtiably bring disaster to the Irish Cause.
It is were possible to regard it as an honest act of weakness, it's consequences to Ireland would be none the less harmful, and it could only be characterised as the worst act of folly ever committed by an Irish leader. It is paying in advance an enormous price for the promise of a worthless political concession. It guarantees the salvation of the British Empire in it's hour of greatest peril in return for a measure which would rivet Ireland’s chains more securely, keep her in perpetual penury and ensure the continued stifling of her industrial life
But Mr Redmond’s record for several years past leave sno room for doubt that his action is the the result of a courrpupt bargain with the English Government. It was a deliberate and wanton act of treachery to his own country in the interests of it's only enemy and with the purpose of destroying the greatest opportunity for winning it's freedom that has come to it since the American Revoloution.
Daniel O’Connell’s maxim that ‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity’ was founded on and justified by the facts of Irish history. It is equally appliable to all forms of Irish political effort. England has never yet granted any concession to Ireland willingly or because of the justice of Ireland’s demand. Every such concesion has been wrung from England’s fears. She yeilded only to the use of force or the menace of force, to avert serious inconvience to her foreign or domestic policy and to safeguard her own interests. And she never fully redressed any wrongs or made a genuine effort to promote the interests of Ireland.
England still holds Ireland down with deliberate and unrelenting purpose of stifling her industrial and commercial growth and to preserve her own mastery of the sea, which is the chief menance to the peace of the world. This sinister purpose is revealed in every provision of the Bill which pretends to give Ireland Home Rule, but which witholds from her all control over her vital interests and every power and attribute of self Government, from the right to foster and promote her industries to the collection of taxes.
The measure for which Redmond has guaranteed Ireland’s loyalty, the blood of her sons in an unjust and unprovoked war and the betrayal of the United States by Irish Citizens is the worst political abortion and the meanest act of cheating in the annals of legislation. After going through the farce of ‘placing it on the Statute Book’ another Bill is hurried through Parliament suspending it till the close of the war, and the Government makes the announcement that it will later introduce an Amendment Bill which will exclude part of the country from it's operations and perpetuate the religious strife which has cursed Ireland for generations.
All this is done with the ocnsent and the approfal of the Irish Parliamentary Party, which boasts that he ‘holds the Minsitry in the hollow of it's hand;’ and when Ireland most need a body of Irishmen in Dublin to guide the people in a time of sore trial and danger. The party could have compelled the Government to grant a much larger measure, but they did not even try. They consented to every amendment making the wretched bill worse and made no effort whatever to improve it. Able to turn out the Government in an hour, they kept it in power and submissively obeyed it's orders. It is a notorious fact that they could have madebetter terms with the Tories, but they rejected their advances and in the interests of English measures which do not affect Ireland, made an alliance with the Liberals. They played a game of English politics at the expense of Ireland and deliberately sacrificed Irish interests. They voted for Budgets which robbed Ireland, and permitted the breach of a postal contract so that Irish business would be further injured and Ireladn cut off from direct communications with the outside world. And they voted for the war against Germany which will impose intolerable financial burdens on Ireland, and their leader is now doing his utmost to send thousands of Irishmen to be slaughtered for England’s benefit.
Read by the light of his present attitude Redmond action in obtaining control of the Irish Volunteers and keeping them disarmed, his traitorous purposes become apparaent. He is acting for the English Government, so as to prevent a repetion of 1782.
Judged by his own political standards Mr Redmond was a conspicious failure as a champion of Irish rights long befor e he openly betrayed his country. He has been deceiving the Irish people for years, so that he might gradually prepare the way for his treason.Irish history records only one instance of deciet and treachery as base and deliberate as that of Redmond. The perjured demagogue Keogh, who incited to assasination so that he might climb to the bench and to wreak England’s vengeance onIrish patriots was Redmond’s model.
P1 Gaelic American October 3rd , 1914 Lynch Family Archives.
St Enda’s College Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, Ireland.
A boarding and day school for Catholic boys.
Headmaster – P.H.Pearse B.A. B.L.
St Enda’s gives it's pupils a wide and generous culture, with an Irish inspiration.
It has classical and modern sides, and specialises in viva-voce teaching of languages.
It's system appeals to the imagination, and aims at developing the best that is in the
Individual. Pupils are prepared for university, the professions and business life.
Commercial subjects and manual training have their proper place. Special attention
is given to the Preparatory and Elementary classes. St Enda’s has a high reputation for
it's comfortable and homelike domestic arrangements. The college stands on 50 acres
of beautiful grounds. Special provision is made for Irish American pupils, who, while
receving a genuine Irish education, are prepared for professional or business life in America.
Masters meet pupilas at Queenstown or other landing ports. Classes resume 7th September.
For prospectus apply to the Headmaster.
P2 Gaelic American October 3rd , 1914 Lynch Family Archives.
28
As the split widened in Nationalist Ireland, the political posturing in Ulster continued. Carson in a speech announced that the Home Rule Bill ‘is nothing but a scrap of paper…we are never going to allow Home Rule in Ulster…our volunteers are going to kick out anybody who tries to put it into force in Ulster’
And ‘When the war is over and we have beaten the Germans, as we are going to do, I tell you what we will do, we will call our Provisional Government together, and we will repeal the Home Rule Bill, so far as it concerns us, in ten minutes.’
The Irish neutrality League was formed with James Connolly as President.
George eastman annouynced the invention of a colour photographic process by the Eastman Kodak Company.
29
German bombardment of Antwerp begins.
30
Asquith writing to Redmond ‘I have spoken to Lord Kitchener on the subject of your letter, and he will have the announcement made that the War Office has sanctioned the formation of an Irish Army Corps.’
Thomas Hachey ‘Britain and Irish Separatism’. Rand McNally College Publishing. New York 1977. p132
The announcement was never made and Irish soldiers recruited were dispersed throughout the army.
October 1914
1:
A Royal Commission of Inquiry was established to investigate the landing of arms at Howth.
In Cork, 28 rifles from the August shipment of Italian rifles were stolen ‘By the Redmondites’
Northern France: Heavy German counter-attacks throughout October in Arras were repulsed.
Room 40 in the Admiralty intercepted a cable from the German Embassy in Washington DC to the Foreign Office in Berlin: ‘ An Irish priest ...and Sir Roger Casement are going to Germany in order to visit the Irish prisoners...’
W. J.Maloney. “The Forged Casement Diaries.” Talbot Press, Dublin 1936. p85
2
British Admiralty announces intention to mine North Sea areas.
A German spy named Lody was arrested in Killarney. Taken to London and imprisoned in the Tower.
Michael J Ryan, National President of the Pro-Redmond United Irish league of America wrote to Redmond informing him that his Wodenbridge speech had ‘left him cold…no money worth speaking of can be raised in this country from Irish people to even indirectly aid England…all my sympathies are with Germany, and I believe that nine-tenths of the Americans of Irish blood think as I do.’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P166
Ryan also felt that as Home Rule was now on the Statute Books, ‘the work of the League in America can end with honor’
Redmond was not without friends in the US however. Patrick Egan, the business manager of the Irish World, resigned in protest over the paper’s new policy against Redmond.
The Irish American press were sharply critical of Redmond’s action and the United Irish League’s membership base in the US began to fall dramatically, most uping stakes and moving to Clan na Gael and the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
3:
Casement’s proposed visit to Germany to seek aid, according to Kathleen Clarke was not approved by any revoloutionary group. ‘When Tom heard of this he was very upset. For one thing , he and the men working with him towards the Rising did not want men from Germany – they needed and asked for arms only. Casement, he heard, intended getting to Germany through the USA, so Tom sent word to John Devoy to have nothing to do with him, and to give him no help to reach Germany’
Kathleen Clark ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P51/52
The Gaelic American publishing from 165-167 William St, New York headlined the Irish Volunteers split:
VOLUNTEERS COMMITTEE EXPELS TRAITORS
Detected in underhand negotiations with British War Office to put the Volunteers under it's authority and send the men to fight for England against Germany, Redmond’s apointees are driven out in disgrace – this has the Arch Traitor’s purpose of selling Ireland’s national army to England been frustrated and a telling blow struck for Ireland – inside story of the treachery, in which Nugent and Father O’Hare were Redmond’s chief aids.
P1 Gaelic American October 3rd , 1914 Lynch Family Archives.
Dr Gertrude Kelly in a leter to the Gaelic American protested against Redmond’s action in seekign to send Irishmen to be slaughtered for England, leaving Ireland desolate and manless – is Home Rule to be for the cattle? ‘…and one hundred thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand of our young men are part of the soil of continental Europe, who is going to man the Houses of Parliament, who is going to people free Ireland? Has the Party gone mad?…we are told our help is demanded not for Ireland with her four millions and a half of people ( largely the very old and the very young ) but for rich England with forty millions, France with forty four millions, Russia with one hundred and twenty millions, Belgium with seven and a half millions with India and South Africa and Canada and Morocco thrown in! it is to laugh!..if Irish youth is to be sacrificed – for God’s sake let it be sacrificed in Ireland for Irealnd, not in the foreign soil for our ancient enemy. We trrust that the women at home to see to it that no husband, lover, father, brother or son leave the shores till Ireland’s freedom is secured from the centre to the sea..’
P2 Gaelic American October 3rd , 1914 Lynch Family Archives.
In the paper was another letter, this time titled ‘An Irish Woman’s Hope’: ‘My hope is that all the pro-British will enlist and I shall pray that their bodies shall be so bullet riddled that their mothers in heaven could not recognise their spirits. A thousand times better to have no country and no countrymen than to have a crawling weak-kneed lot’
The San Francisco Leader commented on Redmond’s actions as ‘Once more the cup has been dashed from Ireland’s lips. The Home Rule Bill has been hung up indefinietley – that is to say, till after the war. Sir Edward Carson has triumphed. The influence of Lord Kitchener and the military clique has outweighed the mandate of the people. The ‘base, bloody and brutal Whigs” have for the thousandth time sold their Irish allies….worst of all John Redmond is a consenting party to the great betrayal. No matter what his motives may be, whether he is selling his country for ambition or whether he is sacrificing his opportunity through poor judgement, the effect is the same…he has crowned his infamy by calling on the Irish to enlist in England’s war to crush Germany. What quarrel do the Irish have with Germany? What do they get in return for their young lives Mother Ireland can so ill afford to spare? There are three possible endings to this war. The result may be indecisive – that is, they may fight one another to a standstill. The Allies may win. Germany may win. If the Germans win or the result is indecisive, the Irish can take anything they want in the way of self-Government. If the Allies win, there will be such a Tory reaction in England that the Home Rule Bill and the Parliament Act will be repealed in the twinkling of an eye. The Irish representation will be reduce to a nominal figure and another century of ‘resolute Government ‘ will be the price that England will pay the poor fools that took the Saxon shilling and saved the Saxon flag..’
Devoy took a swipe at Count John McCormack, the Irish Tenor for his purchase of 100,000 cigarettes to be sent to British troops on the frontlines. ‘None of the Irish papers, however, announces that Mr McCormack has contributed as much as would purchase one rifle for the National Volunteers. Mr McCormack is due in the United States for another concert tour this Fall, with the expectation presumably that Irish Americans will reimburse him for the expenditure involved in his gift of cigarettes to the British army.’
There was a certain amount of glee as Devoy wrote of Germany advances on land and sea at the expense of the British…’Here’s to the German navy and may it have many more days like September 22* to celebrate… the English papers and our own Anglomaniac sheets at once came out with the usual stereotyped rubbish about the Briton’s calmness under the knockout blow, but to use a common English phrase ‘it knocked ‘em silly’ and they have not recovered from it yet. More such blows are to be expected….Here’s again to the Germany Navy!…..on the water the Germans are making it so lively for British merchant vessels that ships are being detached from the Home Fleet to distant seas to protect English commerce’ and ‘so far the only reliable reports have been from the German side, the statements from the Allied and Russian sources being vague or fantastic. The British and the Russians are congenital liars in a military sense and preder false statements to silence or the truth; while the statements of the London papers are obvuously designed to exite religious animosity and humanitarian sentiment against the Germans, especially here in America…this war may be easily transformed into a great revolutionary movement if it lasts much longer, and the untrained and undiciplined armed mob Kitchener is collecting in England can, under ceerain conditions, become a greater danger to the classes that made the war than to the Germans…’
* When three British cruisers were sunk by U-boats with the loss of 1,500 men.
Devoy tackled the statements made in some quarters that ‘If you don’t have the English, you will have the Germans’. Devoy comments that not only is it nonsense but it diverts the Irish mind from national independence. ‘What Germany wants, and when Europe somes to it's senses she will want it too, is a free and independent Ireland which will no longer be an auxilliary of the destryoer of nations and the oppressors of peoples – an Ireland prosperous and able and willing to defend it's own freedom and integrity, and take it's place in the community of independent nations…’
As for writers such as Conan Doyle who said that England will ‘fight to the end’. Devoy comments that Doyle doesn’t say what the end will be ‘The warriors of the pen who are staying at home are evidently more determined to keep it up than the fellows on the firing line.’
New York: Fund raising for the Irish Volunteers, which had been slow prior to the Woodenbridge Speech, suddenly surged forwards with $27,790 [ €611k ] raised to arm the Irish Volunteers.
4:
The first bomb dropped on London took place overnight from a German Air Force Zeppelin.
With the split, the majority of the Irish Volunteers went over to Redmond’s National Volunteers. The remainder, some 13,500 countrywide were in a poor position – unarmed, virtually bankrupt and facing a hostile press. All volunteers were just that, volunteers. Each had to provide his own rifle, uniform and equipment, not an easy task for the majority being working men and poorly paid. Arms were obtained through official channels as well as un-official. Many war-weary Irish soldiers returning from the French battlefields had their Lee Enfield rifles taken after being plied with drink in a dockside pub. The broad arrow stamp of the English War Department would be filed down and the rifle carried on the next parade. Some British troops were also known to sell their rifles, ‘Over The Wall’ from some British barracks in return for hard cash.
Monteith details that while the Irish Volunteers had plenty of halls in which to drill, but few drill fields. So many of the Dublin Battalions used the Phoenix Park for exercises. On occasion, as they marched a body of Volunteers through the Park, they passed the depot of the RIC. ‘The time was just at dusk and apparently the police were expecting an armed party of some sort. When we reached the gate, an orderly ran forward, swung it open, and the entire guard turned out and presented arms. Returning the salute I said ‘Not tonight Sergeant. Perhaps we’ll go in on some future occasion’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P19
The ‘occasion’ was to be eight years later in 1922.
5
Casement’s letter calling on all Irishmen to refrain from bearing arms against Germany was published by the Irish Independent. Had not Ireland suffered at the hands of Great Britain ‘a more prolonged series of evils deliberately inflicted, than any other community of civlised men?… Ireland has no blood to give to any land, to any cause, but that of Ireland.’
Funding for the Irish Volunteers from the Irish-American Pro-Redmond group, the United Irish League had dried up but funds were beginning to filter in from the long established and growing Irish-American group, Clan na Gael. $26,000 had been collected by the Gaelic American Newspaper, with $5,000 already received. $44,000 was eventually raised but allocated to direct help cannot be ascertained.
Pearse however ‘...still thought of insurrection as something which would take place only if Germans landed or food became scarce or the authorities tried to disarm the Volunteers or if the leaders were arrested: contingencies which, to be sure, he thought quite likely. Even then he told Joseph McGarrity of the Clan na Gael in America, ‘We are not ready, for we have no arms’. Of the 1500 rifles landed at Howth and Kilcoole in July, he said that the greater part had been ‘stolen’ by Nugent and other Redmondites; the Volunteers had retained no more than 600.” And as to the remaining $21,000 in funds collected by the Gaelic American, Pearse requested that these be sent directly to himself or Clarke, McDiarmada, Ceannt or Hobson but not be sent to the O’Rahilly or MacNeill as “..they are not in or of our counsels and they are not formally pledged to strike, if the chance comes, for the complete thing”.
George Dangerfield. “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” ( Constable, London. 1977) p.141
The Irish Volunteers & in particular the Citizen Army, attracted a great deal of official attention, with many of the leaders getting a detective noting their movements and a group of RIC men accompanying all exercises throughout the country and in the capital. Monteith details some practical jokes played on some elderly and unfit policemen: ‘ a detachment of three companies was marching from Beresford Place toward Croydon Park…accompanied by about twenty police, all wearing heavy overcoats. The men marched down Amiens Street, and, on reaching the intersection of the North Circular Road, gave the police the time of their lives. At this point, the Commander blew his whistle and the men started off at the double, breaking up into three parties. ...Those heavy policemen, being in line with the head of the column were puffing and blowing their way down the North Strand before they noticed the deflection of the rear companies. Then there was a halt, a hasty consultation, a dividing into three parties and a despairing race to catch the nimble footed men of the Citizen Army.’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P19
A growing hostility became apparent throughout the country to the members of the Irish Volunteers. Many of the clergy frowned upon or read them from the pulpit, parades were stoned and jeered at, collection boxes taken and many Volunteers were shunned.
Jim Larkin sailed to the US to raise funds for the ITGWU and repay the debts incurred by the protracted strike. There he stayed for 9 years becoming involved, as Connolly did, in the American Socilialist Movement. In Larkin’s absence, James Connolly became Acting General Secretary of the ITGWU and immediately erected a large banner over the front of Liberty Hall: “We serve neither King nor Kaiser - but Ireland” This understandably attracted a great deal of attention, not only for the neutral stance taken but the fact it remained on Liberty Hall until December 19th when it was taken down by a large force of British troops.
"One day in 1914, a knock came on our door at 511 East 134th Street, in the Bronx. We lived up three flights of stairs and the bell was usually out of order. There stood a gaunt man with a rough-hewn shock of greying hair, who spoke with an Irish accent. He asked for Mrs Flynn. When my mother went to the door, he said simply, 'I'm Jim Larkin, James Connolly sent me'."
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. ‘The Rebel Girl’
Larkin went on to spend ten years in America doing what he did in Belfast in 1907 and in Dublin in 1913 - organising and agitating from Greenwich Village in New York to Chicago to San Francisco.
His voice reached its highest and most dramatic pitch when he delivered the eulogy at the funeral of Joe Hill, when he preached, "Arouse! Arouse! Ye sons of toil from every rank of labour! Ye are not murderers such as they who break ye day and hour! Arise! Unite! Win back your world with a whirlwind stroke of power!"
Much of brother Larkin's time in America was, of course, as a "guest" of "Uncle Sam" in posh accommodation like Sing Sing prison, the Toombs, Auburn and Dannemora.
Those were tough times for the American working class and Jim Larkin roused the unskilled workers, the low-paid workers, non-Irish as well as Irish. He caught the imagination of writers and artists as diverse as Charlie Chaplin, Sean O Faolain and Brendan Behan. And he awed political leaders like Eugene Debs, George Lansbury
and New York Governor Al Smith - who commuted his latest sentence and allowed him to go back to Ireland in 1924.
6:
Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl born.
With the Irish Volunteers and Citizen Army acting as one unit, it was only a matter of time before a potential clash with the National Volunteers took place. One such incident took place as the three groups assembled in Parnell Square after completing a march to the grave of Parnell in Glasnevin on the 23rd anniversary of his death.
Returning National Volunteers attempted to force through a group of Citizen Army men listening to a speech from Larkin. ‘Across the road was a thin line of the Citizen Army together with a few Irish Volunteers, all with fixed bayonets, facing a body of at least four times their number of National Volunteers who also had bayonets fixed. The sidewalks were crowded with spectators, and two or three police inspectors were present. Here were two bodies of Irishmen ready to fly at each others throats. ‘
Monteith distibuted ammunition to each man in the ranks ‘in as ostentaious a manner as possible, so that the men opposite would see that we meant business.’ According to Monteith, an attempt to negotiate some rights came to nothing when Colonel Nugent in charge of the National Volunteer parade said ‘ send a picket of your men to clear that footpath, we will clear this and when the women and children are away, we can have it out. ‘.
This was done, and on the suggestion of one of the Colonel’s staff officers, the matter of forcing their way through the Citizen Army and Irish Volunteers ranks was reconsidered and the parade was led to their reviewing stand via Dorset Street. As they left, Monteith tried to collect the ammunition issued ‘but none of them recollected having received any. Cartridges were
valuable in those days.’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P23-24-25
9
Antwerp surrenders to Germans. Government moved to Ostend.
10:
The Magdeburg’s Signalbuch der Kaiserlichen Marine was handed over to the British Admiralty by the Imperial Russian Embassy in London. Within days, another German codebook, the Handelsverkehrsbuch, used by German merchant shipping and some warships was handed over after being captured by the Royal Australian Navy on a German steamer. On checking the Imperial German transmissions, the code was found to be still in operation as it remained throughout the war. Decryption remained only part of the task. Room 40 remained a closely guarded secret known only to a handful of naval commanders and was not allowed to communicate directly with the fleet. All intercepts and decodings were passed to the Admiralty’s Operations Division which was to asses and decide on the significance and/or importance of each message.
After taking Antwerp on October 10, the Germans endeavoured to break through the British positions in Belgium, but were checked in a series of engagements known collectively as the Battle of Flanders.
11:
Germans bomb Paris.
The I.R.B Council appointed Clarke and MacDermott as a committee to investigate the matter of a potential rising and report at a later stage to a Supreme Council meeting. While it was, as Sean Cronin described it, ‘very indefinite’ but both men had powers to co-opt others to act with them. This sub-committee later became known as the Military Council and it planned the rising of 1916.
Members of the Irish Volunteers had an ‘altercation’ with some members of the Citizen Army at a ceremony marking the 23rd anniversary of Parnell’s death.
12
Asquith gave Agustine Birrell, the Chief Secretary of Ireland a new Under Secretary, Sir Matthew Nathan (52). His political beliefs mirror than of Birrell, Liberals which would not endear them to most Irish civil servants, who were Unionist or Tory. Nathan worked from 9.30 a.m. to 7 p.m seeing his top civil servants and police chiefs daily and described as:
“..a handsome man, with charming manners and a fine voice, very attractive to ladies, whose advances he had resisted to the point of still remaining a bachelor, although he is said to have proposed to one of Lytton Strachey’s sisters. He was hard working, efficient and loyal..”
George Dangerfield. “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” ( Constable, London. 1977) p.150
13
British occupy Ypres.
Casement left McGarrity’s home in Philadelphia and traveled to New York and Judge Cohalan’s home on East 94th Street. There he was met by the Judge, Devoy and McGarrity. Devoy writes that he and others handed Casement ‘$2,500 in gold as the initial payment towards his expenses in Germany.’ John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P418
Casements mission to Germany had three main objectives:
- To secure German military help for Ireland when the opportunity arose.
- To educate German public opinion on the Irish situation so that the people would support their Government when it took action in Ireland.
- To organise if possible, Irish prisoners of war into a military unit to take part in a fight for Irish Freedom.
McGarrity’s account of Casement’s departure is in his papers:
‘We decided to send by messenger $10,000 to the Volunteer committee in Dublin. After hearing from the Judge how he had a conference with the German representative I took leave of Sir. R…I shook hands, saying ‘God take care of you’. Sir R’s reply was: ‘Oh no, God save Ireland’. I replied ‘And you.’ Devoy and I left. Coming downstairs the Judge beckoned me into the parlour and asked me ‘Have you absoloute confidence in this man?’ I answered ‘I will trust him with my life. You’ve had nothing like him since Tone.’ The Judge felt assurred. We parted. Devoy and I left to go to the Ennis Hotel. Devoy went to mail some letters he wished to go on a certain boat. He complained of his hearing, said it was an awful handicap at a time when such important matters were being dicussed. He said it was a gamble whether Sir. R would ‘make it’ get over safe or not.’ Reaching the Ennis Hotel on 42nd Street, Devoy and I had some hot milk and made ready for bed. Devoy gloated over the success of the Germans over the English, saying with a smile ‘What a long wait we’ve had for this’. I said ‘I fear much for Rory’s success.’ He said ‘I envy him.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P52-53
Devoy touches on Casement’s comments that he was also bringing along a ‘servant or companion, a Norwegian sailor named Christensen….those present at the consultation, after questioning casement, accepted his judgement and were convinced that Christensen’s knoweldge of English and German and his Norwegian nationality would be a great help to Casement, who did not know German’ but ‘owing to my deafness, I missed one very important statement…had I understood that, I would have objected strongly to Christensen’s going as Sir Roger’s companion. The thorough knowledge of the man’s character, which I later acquired …made me deeply regert that he had thus allowed to become a participant in our activities..’
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P418
14:
The Belgian Government flee to Le Harve, France.
Canadian Expeditionary Force of 32,000 men lands at Plymouth, UK.
Bulgaria joins with the Central Powers and declares war on Serbia, attacking from the East. This combined with the attacks of Austrian-Hungarian and German trooops led to the surrender of Serbia and Montenegro within months.
In New York, Casement had shaved off his beard for his journey to Norway. James Landy,a New York businessman and Clan na Gael member gave him his identity papers and a ‘Sons of Veterans’ badge and Casement became James Landy. A room was booked in Chicago’s La Salle Hotel under the name Roger Casement as a false lead. Another contact ( probably Michael F Ryan – friend of both Secretary of State Jennings Bryan and Clan member James K Maguire, former mayor of Syracuse, New York ) supplied some US State Department letterheads attesting to Landy’s character.
McGarrity’s journal carries details of his meeting with Diarmuid Lynch:
‘Met with Denis Spellessy and Dermot [sic] Lynch, the messenger who is to take the $10,000 to MacNeill. After arrangign certain matters I returned to Philadelphia and on reaching my home I found a telegram from Sir Roger asking for his little and great coat to be sent by messenger to ‘Dans’. Here I am on my way with coats and letters. Rory sails tomorrow at 2 o’clock on the Oskar 11 for Christiania. Rory had said to me that he was superstitious, that he had a feeling he was going to get over safely. He had travelled on a Pullman car on his last two trips and he found the name of the car was Christiania. I wonder if the omen is good or bad. I eat my supper hurridly and taking leave of the family, and getting nine letters received for Rory and his overcoats, I took the seven o’clock train on the Penna [ Pennsylvania Railroad ] for New York, reaching the Judge’s house at 9.35pm. Rory entered after I had sat down. All papers were ready, passport etc got my Mr. Landy under whose name Rory is to sail.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P53
Casement spent his last day in America with McGarrity…
‘Dan arranged to have his ticket procurred in the morning. The money for that purpose I gave Dan in gold…Rory and I left Dan’s at 11:45pm. We took a trolley car and conversed until reaching 42nd St. alighting there we went to the Athens café on 42nd St. we viewed pictures of the city of that name hung on the walls of the café while waiting for two small steaks which we ordered and ate as we talked. R said ‘When will I see you or where will we meet again?’ I said ‘In Ireland or Berlin.’
We talked of Devoy and his life and agreed he had one thought, the freedom of Ireland. Rory said ‘What a wonderful man! What a heroic figure!’. I claimed there should be a vigorous attack on English submarine bases and shipping all along the coast towns, that it was one of the blows that can be struck. Finishing our meal, we left. Rory took a Madison Ave surface car as it was about to enter under the arch at 42nd Street…he shook my hand with a firm grip and took a stand on the rear platform of the trolley car and as he waved his hat and kerchief I watched him and waved back until the trolley disapeared into the darkness and I saw him no more. I went to the Hotel Ennis and found rooms all taken. I was told that my friend devoy was in a room having two single beds and that if I desired I could coccupy the empty one. I agreed and given a pass key I made my way to the room and turning on the light, the old man jumped up suddenly as though in fear of an attack. I excused my intrusion and went to bed.’
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’. Anvil Press, Co. Kerry. P53
15:
Germans occupy Ostend.
Before beginning his expedition to Germany, Casement wrote a brief letter to Devoy:
“My Dear Old Friend.
I cannot go without a farewell word and grip of the heart. Without you there would be nothing and if success comes, or even a greater hope for the future, it will be due to you and your life of unceasing devotion to the most unselfish cause on earth.
May God keep you safe and well to see your first fruits of all your years of sufferring and waiting and working. I shall not forget you. I am only sorry now I did not talk much louder that last evening for you to hear our final words.
But please God, we meet again – and meantimes work and plan….Goodbye and au revoir….”
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P418-419
At miday, Casement boarded the Norwegian steam Oskar II with a young Norwegian sailor named Adler Christiansen and the Clan na Gael contact, John Landy. A British agent on the quays spotted the boarding and contacted MI5 in London. Before the ship sailed at 2pm, Landy disembarked.
16:
Lieutenant General Sir Lawrence Parsons wrote to Redmond that ‘Three essentially Irish Brigades’ were to form the 16th Division, which then could be called ‘The Irish Division’. Redmonds hopes were to be dashed 10 days later.
17:
First edition of the National Volunteer appears.
An announcement was made by Redmond that a shipload of arms for the National Volunteers had arrived at the North Wall and would shortly be distributed. Many at the time questioned this ‘mythical shipment’ of arms arriving under permit from the British Government as no ship was unloading such a cargo. Monteith, as an employee in the Ordnance Department was able to shed some light on it. The rifles and ammunition in fact had come from an RIC raid on a cargo being sent to the Ulster Volunteers through Dublin. Taken to the Ordnance depot at Islandbridge, work on detsroying them had commenced when the order came through to remove them to the Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park. Shortly after this, the ‘Arms Ship’ arrived in Dublin port and the five-round Mausers were distibuted.
Redmond also commented ‘The Union of 1800 is dead…a new era has arised for our country. We have won at last a free constitution.’
18:
A joint Irish Volunteers and Citizen Army parade was held in Swords, Co. Dublin and attended by some 5,000 men.
19
Connolly began work from Liberty Hall on his first ‘Irish Worker’. Under Larkin’s direction, the paper had held a lively, muck-raking attitude but now Connolly wanted it to become a more orthodox labour paper. Not surprisingly, circulation dropped. ‘The ITGWU President suggested he should give ‘a whole lot of moonshine talk’ but Connolly refused to ‘talk bosh to the crowds in Beresford Place’ Austen Morgan. ‘James Connolly – a political biography’. Manchester University Press. 1988. .p153
While his family remained in Belfast, Conolly was staying with Countess Markievicz paying her 10/ a week as a regular lodger.
Meanwhile, Pearse wrote to McGarrity requesting immediate funding from the Volunteer fund as ‘we do not know the moment when action may be forced upon us…we shall have to act (1) if the Germans land either in Ireland or in England; (2) if the Government enforces the Militia Ballot Act, or any other drastic way of securing recruits; (3) if the food supply becomes scarce; (4) if the Government tries to disarm the ‘disloyal’ Volunteers; and (5) if the Government commences to arrets our leaders, who are being pointed out to them ( if they did not know them before ) by the Redmondite press. Any one of these things could happen at any moment; any one of them could preciptate a crisis – the crisis; and we are not ready; for we have not arms. If the chance comes and goes, it will in all probability have come and gone forever, certainly for our lifetime….in the last Gaelic American to hand the total acknowledged was some $24,000. You have sent us $5,000. That seems to leave $22,000 now available in America for arms for the Volunteers. I ask you to send that sum at once by trustworthy hands. Its coming in time may mean the success fo whatever we have to do; it may mean vistory. Its failure to come may mean either a bloody debacle like ’98 or a dreary fizzling out lke ’48 or’67..’ Pearse suggested that the money be put at the disposal of such men as Sean McDermott, Tom Clarke, Eamon Ceannt, Bulmer Hobson and himself. They would use it to arm companies each was in touch with, ensuring weapons I the right hands when needed…Pearse proposed that $2,500 be given each to the men listed and that the money not be entrusted to MacNeill, O’Rahilly or any other two men ‘Not that I doubt their honesty, but simply that they are not in our counsels and that they are nto formally pledged to strike, if the chance comes, for the complete thing.
Sean Cronin. ‘The McGarrity Papers’ Anvil Press 1972. P56
24
Close to the Faroe Island, the Oskar II was aprehended by a British cruiser, the Hibernia and ordered to proceed to Stornoway in the Island of Lewis for examination of it’s crew, passengers and cargo. En-route Casement threw diaries and papers into the sea and handed his travel companion, Christiansen, some papers along with a considerable sum of American gold coin. It is believed that Christiansen then copied the papers. At Stornoway, the ship was detained for 36 hours before being allowed to proceed. While there, 6 German nationals ( the 2nd cook, 2 stowaways, the bandmaster and 3 sailors ) were removed for questioning but Casement was not detected.
Big Jim Larkin left for the United States and succeded by James Connolly.
French forces forced to yield Vimy Ridge, a strategic location about 16 km (about 10 mi) north of Arras.
25
The first Annual Convention of the Irish Volunteers was held at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin under MacNeill. At this meeting, it was pledged that the allegiance of the Volunteers was to Ireland only with their ultimate object to save the Home Rule Act, avoid partition and to resist any military service until such stage as a free national Government is elected by the Irish people.
The convention put the organisations training and discipline on a military basis and adopted a constitution and organisation under a General Council with representaives from each country and major city. The convention refused Connolly’s proposal that the Citizen Army affiliate to them.
26:
General Parsons wrote to Redmond advising that Kitchener was issuing an order to disperse the Irish recruits and every candidate recommended for commission ( including his own son ) was rejected. As for suggestions that some thousands of Irishmen living in Britian be permitted to enlist in a new Irish Division, these were rejected on the basis they were little more than ‘slum-birds…I want to see the clean, fine strong temperate, hurley playing country fellows such as we used to get in the Munsters, Royal Irish, Connaught Rangers’.
The decline of the Irish Parliamentary Party’s confidence in the Liberals continued.
27:
Welsh poet and writer Dylan Thomas born. ( d. 9/11/53 )
William Dillon, the expatriate brother of John and a lawyer in Chicago along with P.T.Barry, another promiment Irish American, attempted to show that the Irish Parliamentary Party still had some considerable strenght in America by drafting a cable to be signed by leading Irish Americans, stating an appreciation of Redmond’s actions in supporting the British Government. Dillon appealed for signatures, including Burke Cockran but received few. Most either downright dismissed it or felt it breached US neutrality. Others commented that it would stir up animosity bewteen Irish Americans and German Americans and more moderates felt it would play into the camp of the radical, revolutionary Irish Americans such as Clan na Gael.
29:
The Oskar II with Casement aboard arrived in Christiania ( Oslo ) harbour in the early hours of the 29th and checked into the Grand Hotel with Christensen at 1.30am. Later that morning, he sent Christensen to the post office with a cable for ‘my cousin – James, New York , telling of my arrival’. At 11am he went to present his credentials in the form of a letter of introduction from the German Ambassador in Washington to Minister von Oberndorff at the German Legation requesting papers to allow entry to Germany. As the letter would take some time to dechipher, Casement was asked to return to the Legation the next day. Casement in his diary comments: “I noticed a man watching me – and found out he was following, and I told Adler I thought there was a ‘spy’ on my tracks. “
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.45
Here was the beginning of what was to be a minor sensation when attempts were made either by the British Legation in Christiania to kidnap Casement or to induce his assistant, Christensen to do so. Casement, writing in January 1915 chronicles the events:
‘’Within a few hours of my landing, the man I had engaged and in whom I reposed trust, was accosted by one of the secret service agents of the British Minister, and carried off , in a private motor car, to the British Legation, where the first attempt was made on his honour to induce him to be false to me. Your agent in the Legation that afternoon proffessed ignorance of who I was, and sought, as he put it, merely to find out my identity and movements.’
Captain Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’ Chicago 1932. P.81
Casement immediately ‘wrote to Count von Oberndorff a few lines telling him my man would personally inform him of what had taken place and begging him to expedite the papers for my departure and try to see me at some place other than the German Legation that evening. I sent this note by Adler telling him to use every precaution against being followed.’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.47
Oberndorff agreed to meet Casement that evening at the German Consulate, where he advised that the request for papers had been telegraphed to the Foreign Office and nothing further could be done until instructions were received. Returning to the hotel, the nervous Casement made provisional plans to drive across the border to Sweden and in turn take a boat to Denmark and into Germany. Count von Oberndorff suspecting this might take place, sent one of his staff to request that Casement remain ‘quietly’ in his hotel as the necessary permit would probably arrive and then take the late afternoon train to Copenhagen.
The Ottoman Empire, impressed with the victories in France and Belgium, joined with Germany and entered the war. The Ottoman leaders recognising the gains that could be added to the empire, decided to fight against Russia in the Caucuses. However the terrain was mountainous and the Ottoman troops gained little. However, their entry into the war disrpted the supply routes between the Allies and Russia. This was to lead to the Gallipoli campaign the following year.
30:
The next day, Christensen was seen by the Head of the British Legation, Mansfeldt Findlay.
‘….This, the second interview held in the early afternoon was with the Minister himself. Mr Findlay was quick to come to the point. The ignorance assumed or actual, of the previous day as to my identity was now discarded. He confessed that he knew me, but did not know where I was going to, what I intended doing, or what might be the specific end I had in view. It was enough for him that I was an Irish Nationalist. He admitted that the British Government had no evidence of anything wrong done or contemplated by me that empowerd them either morally or lawfully to interfere with my movements. But he was bent on doing so. Therefore he boldly invoked lawless metholds, and suggested to my dependent that were I to ‘disapear’ it would be a very good thing ‘for whoever brought it about’. He was careful to point out that nothing could happen to the perpatrator of the crime, since my presence in Kristiania was known only to the British Government, and that the Government would screen and provide for those responsible for my disapaearance. He indicated wuite plainly, the methols to be employed, by assuring Adler Christensen that whoever ‘knocked him on the head need not do any work for the rest of his life’ and proceeded to apply the moral by asking Christensen ‘I suppose you would not mind having an easy time of it for the rest of your days?’ My faithful follower concealed the anger he felt at this suggestion and continued the conversation in order to become more fully aware of the plot that might be devised against my safety. He pointed out that I had not only been very kidn to him but that I trusted him implicity….If I could be intercepted, cut off, ‘disappear’ no one would know and no questions could be asked, as there was no Government save the British Government knew of my presence in Norway…That his man was faithful to me and to the law of his country was a triumph of Norwegian integrity over the ignoble inducement proffered to him by the richest and most powerful Government in the world to be false to both. Havign thus outlined his project, Mr Findlay invited Christensen to ‘think the matter over and return at 3 o’clock if you are disposed to go with it’. He handed him in Norwegian paper money, twenty five kroner ‘just to pay your taxicab fares’ and dismissed him.’
According to Casement, Christen reported the facts at once, whereupon he was asked to return and to ‘sell me dear, and to secure the promise of a respectable sum for so very disreputable an act…’ Christensen returned and spent two hours ‘closseted with Mr Findlay…my follower pretended to fall in with the British ministers projects, only stipulating a good sum to be paid in return for his treachery. Mr Findlay promised on his ‘word of honour’ ( such was the quaint phraseology employed to guarantee the transaction ) that Christensen should received five thousand pounds sterling whenever he should deliver me into the hands of the British authorities. If in the course of this kidnapping process, I should come to harm or personal injury be done me, then no questions would be asked and full immunity granted the kidnapper.’ As Casement and Christensen had reserved a compartment on that evenings mail train to Copenhagen, Findlay was advised that it would not be immediately possible to arrange the kidnapping, to which the Minister suggested that it might then be advisable to delay and wait for a ‘favourable opportunity offered of decoying me down to the coats ‘anywhere on the Skaggerack or North Sea’ where British war ships might be in waiting to seize me.’
Christensen was further requested to steal Casement’s private correspondence with his ‘supposed associates in America and Ireland, particualrly in Ireland, so that they too might particiapte in the ‘sensible punishment’ being devised for me’. A secret address was given, written in block capitals to ‘prevent the handwriting being traced’ to which Christensen was to report. 100 Norwegian Crowns were also given ‘as an earnest of more to follow’ When Casement was advised of the discussion, he immediately changed travel arrangements and publically left for Copenhagen, but leaving the train and taking one for Sassnitz and onto Berlin. More communication between the British Legation in Norway and Christensen followed.
Captain Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’ Chicago 1932. P.81-82
Von Oberndorff made arrangements for Casement to travel to Germany with a Foreign Office Official, Richard Meyer. Crossing by ferry to Sweden, arriving in Berlin late the following evening.
Historian George Dangerfield claims that:
‘...the facts were just the other way around - that Christiansen tried to betray his master to Mr. Findlay, and that he was put off by a subordinate in the legation with a few kroner. Christiansen later slipped into Norway and extracted a written promise from Mr Findlay ( to whom Casement had now become an interesting traitor ) that he would receive £5,000 if he brought about his capture. Casement knew nothing of this: to him Mr Findlay was and remained a murderous villain who tried in vain to bribe his faithful companion’
George Dangerfield “The Damnable Question - a study in Anglo-Irish Relations” Constable London. 1977. P157-158 & quoting from Bryan Ingliss “Roger Casement”, London 1973. p.277-278.
31:
Connolly through the pages of the ‘Irish Worker’ argued that a German victory was necessary ‘to free the minds of the British working class’ quoted by Austen Morgan. ‘James Connolly – a political biography’. Manchester University Press. 1988. .p150
Turkey attacks the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.
Casement and Christensen arrived in Sweden and from there took the ferry to Sassnitz where he was cleared through on his fake American passport and arrived early evening in Berlin. There they booked into the Continental Hotel with Casement signing himself as Mr Hammond of New York.
November 1914
Diarmuid Lynch returned to Ireland with a draft for £2,000 to purchase arms for the Irish Volunteers.
1: Russia, the UK and France break off diplomatic relations with Turkey. General Paul Von Hindenburg becomes CIC German Forces on the eastern Front.
Casement, requested by the Foreign Office to remain at his hotel until further notice, wrote “Here I am in the heart of the enemy’s country – a State guest and almost a State prisoner’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.69
2:
Casement went to see the Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office on Wilhelmstrasse, Artur Zimmermann and the head of the English Department, Count Georg von Wedel. With Zimmermann, he discussed a memorandum that the German Government make a formal declaration of attitude towards Ireland. With von Wedel, Casement discussed the plan of recruiting Irish Prisoners of War into an Irish Brigade once the proposed memorandum with Zimmerman was formally declared.
The Memorandum, Casement felt, would give ‘some further guarantees for the men and for Ireland…these were:
- That whenever the end of the War might be, Germany should pledge herself to stand by Ireland and see that Ireland should in no wise suffer for any action of mine on the Continent…in so far as German representations with the British Government in peace negotiations could assure this..
- That is all out efforts failed and the end of the War found us ‘just where we were’ the German Government should seek to obtain an amnesty from the British Government for all men sho might have joined the Brigade, in the event of these preferring to return to Ireland rather than seek their fortunes in America.
- That when peace was re-established, the German Government would facilitate commercial intercourse between Ireland and the Continent and America – and take up the effort of the Hamburg-Amerika line abandoned in January 1914, as the result of British opposition in flagrant violation of Irish rights.’
The issue of personal safety for Casement and Christensen was also raised, and a card was later issued by the Chief of Political Police in Berlin along with the suggested wearing of little American flags in their button holes.
Casement recorded that in his meeting with Zimmerman on the memorandum, that .. ‘he demurred ( and naturally ) to the first – pointing out the difficulty of Germany interfering to that extent, in peace deliberations, in the internal affairs of another country…that if Germany failed…it was not easy for the German Government to discuss the details of an Irish settlement between Great Britain and Ireland as a peace condition.
‘I accepted the justice of this standpoint…as to points (2) and (3) he agreed with me – and on the question of the suggested amnesty he was formally explicit. I embodied my views and wishes in a lenghty memorandum which I handed to the Uner-Secretary of State…and proceeded to Limburg.’
W. J.Maloney. “The Forged Casement Diaries.” Talbot Press, Dublin1936. p116
The Count wrote a favourable report to the Chancellor recomending all Irish Prisoners of War be relocated to one camp to allow Casement to recruit them.
Writing later of his thoughts as he sat on a big sofa in the Foreign Office, we get what would become a prophetic insight into the man and and the times: “…I thought of Irleand, the land I should almost fatally never see again. Only a miracle of victory could ever bring me to her shores…but victory or defeat, it is all for Ireland. And she cannot suffer from what I do. I may, I must suffer – even those near and dear to me – but my country can only gain from my treason…If I win all it is national resurrection – a free Ireland, a world nation after centuries of slavery. A people lost in Middle Ages refound and returned to Europa. If fail – if Germany be defeated – still the blow struck today for Ireland must change the course of British policy towards that country. Things will never be quite again the same. The ‘Irish Question’ will have been lifted from the mire and mud and petty, false strife of British domestic politics into an international athmosphere…’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.71
Between the 3rd and 17th November, there were no further diary entries as Casement rested and liased with the Foreign Office on publication of the Memorandum declaration. In addition, he insisted on Christensen continue his attempts to get a written confirmation in Findlay’s handwriting of the verbal offer of £500 for the capture of Casement.
4: Turkey declares war on Russia, the UK, France and Serbia.
Christensen, with the assistance of Casement, reported Casement’s progress to the British agent Sigvald in Christiania, advsing in code that he had stolen a letter naming ‘accomplices’ in both Ireland and the US, but rather than mail it, money should be sent to pay Christensen along with travel expenses to Norway to present it in person.
5:
Britain and France declare war on Turkey. Cyprus annexed by Britain.
6:
Lody, the German spy arrested in Killarney on October 2nd, was executed in the Tower of London.
The same day, Casement sent a message to Judge Cohalan in New York via the German Foreign Office:
‘Lody’s identity discovered by enemy who are greatly alarmed and taking steps to defend Ireland and possibly arrest friends. They are ignorant here to purpose of my coming to Germany, but seek evidence at all costs. Here everything is favourable: authority helping warmly. Send messenger immediately to Ireland fully informed verbally. No letter (upon) him. He should be native-born American citizen, otherwise arrest likely. Let him despatch priest here via Christiania quickly. German legation there will arrange passage: also let him tell Biggar, solicitor, Belfast, conceal everything belonging to me’
Documents relative to the Sinn Fein movement. London 1921. 1108-p3-4. Quoted in Tansill, ‘America and the Fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’ p.180
Devoy reported in a letter to McGarrity that $15,000 would be transferred to the IRB in Dublin shortly
Aodogan O’Rahilly in his biography on the O’Rahilly, comments that in November 1914, Count von Bernstorff sent a message to the Foreign Office in Berlin: ‘There have been purchased for India elevn thousand rifles, four million cartridges, two hundred and fifty Mauser pistols, five hundred revolvers with ammunition. Devoy does not think it possible to ship them to Ireland.’ Pointing out that Devoy had refused them. ‘The very least that Devoy should have done when he received this offer was to have sent a messenger urgently to Dublin to enquire from the Volunteer leaders what to do about it…Devoy was clearly ashamed of this refusal and he never made any references to it in anything he wrote subsequently. The facts did not come to light until the British published their ‘Documents relative to the Sinn Fein Movement’ in the early 1920’s.’ But O’Rahilly Junior continues with the supposition that ‘If a motive is sought for Devoy’s refusal of the German offer of weapons, the only one which comes to mind is that he realised that if such an arsenal of weapons had been sent to Ireland and distributed to the Volunteers, an Irish rising might have suceeded in driving out the British. If this had been achieved, it would have finished his political existence. The end of British occupation of Ireland would also have meant the end of Clan na Gael ‘ Aodogan O’Rahilly “Winding The Clock – O’Rahilly and the 1916 Rising” Lilliput Press, 1991.p 135
10: Australian cruiser Sydney sinks the German cruiser Emden off Sumatra.
11: The Western Front was now one continuous line of trenches, filled with war weary soldiers, stretching from the North Sea to Switzerland. Stalemate amid the barbed wire entaglements, machine gun posts and mud.
12:
Captain Robert Monteith was sacked from his position in the Ordnance Department on orders from the Irish Command Headquarters, his membership of the Citizen Army being seen as somewhat prejudicial to the authorities. At 11pm that night, he was ordered under the DORA regulations to leave his home at 6 Palmerston Place, Broadstone, Dublin and reside in an area other than Dublin and any other proclaimed district within 48 hours.
13
Monteith visited Conolly in Liberty Hall as the next edition of the ‘Irish Worker’ went to press. Having told him of the deportation order, Connolly stopped the presses and wrote an article for inclusion in the city edition. He suggested that Monteith go to Cork or Tralee and train the volunteers there in addition to some organising work for the Transport Workers Union, but as proscribed areas, it was not an option. Connolly suggested he next see Bulmer Hobson to advise the Irish Volunteers and suggested that ‘If I had the handling of the matter, I would put you in position in Dublin, turn out every Volunteer in the city and say to the Government: ‘Now come and take him!. Tell Hobson this and if necessary, I’ll turn out the Citizen Army. That would stop all these deportation orders.’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P31
Bulmer Hobson on the other hand suggested the order be obeyed as there was plenty of work organising the Volunteers in other parts of the country. As no definite plans could be made until the Committee met, Hobson contacted Countess Marckievicz who arranged for Monteith and family to use a house she had in the Dublin mountains. That night the Committee met and voted Monteith a sum of money to cover his immediate expenses. A resoloution was passed condemning the expulsion and published the following day.
Monteith returned to Liberty Hall to find Connolly had produced a poster calling a general meeting for Sunday, November 15th to protest against the deportation. Monteith opted to obey the order, moved to Athboy, Co. Meath and then on to Limerick where he spent the next
Kuno Meyer made contact with John Devoy carrying news of Casement. Their first reactions was ‘we in the US were greatly surprised to learn that he had only funds enough to keep him until about the end of the year. Christensen had tapped his pocketbook pretty heavily running back and forth between Berlin and Christiania, with the alleged purpoise od getting written proof of Findlay’s guilt. He certainly did gte it in Findlay’s own handwriting on the official letter head of the Legation. It establishes Findlay’s guilt beyond all doubt but left open the question as to who began to negotiations. The German officials believed it was Christensen. Keno Meyer was half inclinded to share their opinion, as I came to do wholly after my experience of the man in New York…within a few days after my own meeting with Kuno Meyer, we sent Casement $1,000. I handed the amount in bills to Captain Von Papen, the German Military Attache, and he at once wirelessed the order to Berlin…’
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P420
Clann na Gael continued to believe that Casement would be able to convince the Imperial German Government of the importance of giving military aid to Ireland when the opportunity would present itself and that if he succeded in recruting Irishmen taken prisoner while serving in the British army, that the German Government would maintain, feed and clothe them.
Devoy makes speciic mention of funding and their sources in the years preceeding 1916:
“The Clann na Gael was an organisation with but limited resources, and the Volunteer Fund was raised specially for the support of the men in Ireland. The vast majority of our members were not men of much means. They paid six dollars a year dues, but the contributed to the Volunteer Fund ‘till it hurt’ and other occasional special funds taxed the majority to the utmost….with afew notable exceptions, moneyed Irishmen and Irish-Americans were unfortunatly not then interested in the freedom of their motherland’.
John Devoy ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’ C.P.Young. New York 1929. P420-421
15:
The protest meeting organised by Connolly went ahead in Stephen’s Green. Expecting some trouble, the authorities had the Fifth Lancers standing by in Dublin Castle and two companies were under arms in city barracks.
The RIC Inteligence report to Dublin Castle sumarised the event: ‘The Irish Volunteers associated themselves with Larkin’s labour organisation in Dublin at a meeting at Stephen’s Green…the language used by the speakers on this occasion was extremely bad and disloyal’
RIC Inteligence Notes 1913-16. State Paper Office, Dublin. 1966. P108
To discover just how ‘bad and disloyal’ the language used, the Irish Times gives a summary under the headline
‘VIOLENT SPEECHES IN DUBLIN’
‘…The meeting was largely attended, and was continued although rain began to fall before it was long in progress. A contingent of the Volunteers, armed with rifles, was present.
Mr. O’Brien of the Trades Council who presided, said that the authorities might break a man, but they could not break the principles for which the man stood. This meeting would show how the people of Dublin regarded this act of tyranny.
Mr John Milroy said that they were told their King and country need you, but they had no King or country but Ireland. They would have none of it. The Empire which they were asked to serve had done all that inhuman ingenuity could do to crush and destroy their nation. But it had not succeeded. The Irish nation had survived and would outlive the British Empire. (Applause).
He said to them deliberately, …that the Empire had met at last an opponent which would give them back blow for blow (Applause and a voice ‘Three cheers for the Germans’ )…this traitorous blow against Ireland’s army has got to be answered, and they, the men of Dublin, were the men to answer it. They must all join either the Volunteers or the Citizen Army to be prepared for the day of reckoning, which was much nearer than any of them imagined. Let them be ready for the day when their arms would not be words but cold steel.
Mr Patridge sais they were asked to put down militarism. Well, they were there to put it down and they meant to put it down. They had no King, but they had a country, thank God. In God’s name, in Ireland’s name, let every one of them get ready, let every one of them get a gun, get ammunition and sleep with one eye open. (Applause).
The O’Rahilly said that Captain Monteith’s crime…was that he had acted as umpire at the manoeuvers which were held on the previous Sunday at Swords. He was speaking of the Irish Volunteers, not of the so called National Volunteers. If Captain Monteith had officiated for the latter, he would have been as safe as if he had been at luncheon at the Castle.
Mr. P.T. Daly …. Conscription is in the air and they had to go or fight ( Cries ‘to Fight!’ ) It was better to die fighting in Ireland than in Flanders.
Mme. Markievicz announced that the members of her society, the women of Ireland, were learning to shoot so that they might help to resist conscription.
Mr James Connolly said that sooner or later they had to get rid of the British Government, or the British Government would get rid of them…he had arranged, if the police or military were let loose on the citizens of Dublin, that before the week was over it would be known to every soldier serving at the front ( Applause ) and when it was known that they were being slaughtered in Dublin, the next time that the Dublin Fuseiliers were sent to cover the retreat of the British, the Dublin Fusiliers would forget to follow the British. (Appaluse ). If there was a landing of Germans in England or Ireland, ten minutes after that landing, every Volunteer officer, every leader of rebel tendencies would be sent away to Mountjoy or Arbour Hill. Any such wholsale arrest of leaders would be proof that the British Empire was tottering to it’s destruction.
On the motion of Mr. Connolly, the crowd pledged themselves as fighters for Ireland, never to rest until they were provildged to see Ireland a free and independent Republic among the nations.
‘A Nation Once Again’ was then sung and a number of shots fired by Volunteers. With this demonstration the meeting ended. Whilst it was taking place, a force of police was present, but did not attempt to intervene in any way.’
Capt. Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’. Private Printing – 1st Edition. Chiacgo 1932. Lynch Family Archives. P33-34
16: Christensen received a reply from the British agent in Christiania, Sigvald. When decoded it indicated that for each letter stolen, £30 would be paid if the information contained was reliable.
17: London – Income tax for Britian and Ireland was to be doubled from 1915, announced Lloyd George in War Budget
Germany – Casement was on a formal visit to the Headquarters of the German General Staff at Charleville, returning on the 20th.
19: German and Austrian POW’s riot at an isle of Man POW camp.
20:
The German Chancellor authorised and released a statement that Casement had drafted, confirming that the well-known Irish Nationalist and defender of human rights, Sir Roger Casement was in Berlin and had been received by the German Foreign Office, in addition the official German attitude towards Ireland was included. This was the memorandum that Zimmermann in the Foreign Office had been persuaded to issue: …‘The Imperial German Government formally declares that under no circumstances would Germany invade Ireland with a view to its conquest or the overthrow of any native institutions in that country. Should the fortunes of this great war, that was not of Germany’s seeking, ever bring in its course German trooops to the shores of Ireland, they would land there, not as an army of invaders to pillage and destroy, but as forces of a Government that is inspired by goodwill towards a country and a people for whom Germany desires only NATIONAL PROSPERITY and NATIONAL FREEDOM’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P181
This appeared in Berlin’s morning and afternoon newspapers, some with comment and others without. US papers carried it the following day but nothing appeared in the British press until November 28th.
The next task for Sir Roger Casement was to raise an Irish Brigade from the Irish Prisoners of War in German Camps. While such a Brigade was of small military value, the effect otherwise would be, according to a German viewpoint ‘worth some ten army corps’.
In the meantime, Casement was much in demand by the Berlin social set, lunching with colourful characters as an old friend from his days in Africa, Prince Blucher. Blucher had leased an island from Britain to rear kangaroos until the outbreak of war when he was summarilly removed and deported back to Germany. In his diaries are recorded the comments from various society belles: ‘Countess Blucher hopes sincerely I may suceed in raising a really good rebellion in Ireland – and so bring peace by terrifying the British Government.’ And ‘she would really like to see England get not an overthrow, but a good birching from Germany’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.90-1
However, Blucher’s wife, the Princess saw things somewhat differently, writing in her memoirs: ‘On our return to Berlin at the end of November, we were startled by the announcement that Sir Roger Casement had arrived there…we knew his anti-English feelings well, and his rabid anti-Home Rule mania,but we did not expect it to have taken this intense form of becoming pro-German…my husband went to see him shortly after his arrival and tried to show him what a false position he had put himself in, and that he had better leave the country as quickly as possible, but it was no use. So after that, we refused to see him or have anything more to do with him”
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.92-3
Dr Curry counters Princess Blucher’s recollections. ‘The statement that Count Blucher ‘tried to show him what a false position he had put himself in’ is also false; on the contrary, the Count did everything in his power to induce Sir Roger to publish the Christiania incident and finally became so persistent in his endeavours and consequently such a nuisance that Sir Roger was inclined to avoid his company’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.93
Cork’s first Lord Mayor, Daniel Hegarty died.
23: British forces land in Ottoman held Mesopotamia ( later Iran & Iraq ) capturing Basra, an important oil centre.
25: US Baseball star, Joe Dimaggio born.
27: Russians rout German forces on the Polish front.
Washington: British Ambassador Sir Cecil Spring-Rice apparently tried to laugh off the news of Casement’s securing of the German pledge: ‘Sir Roger Casement is credited with a delicious interview with the Acting Secretary of State in Berlin, who promises that the German Army will land in Ireland not to pillage churches and sack towns, as is falsely but somewhat naturally asserted, but on a mission of mercy and culture. I hope the good news is being spread in Ireland.’
W. J.Maloney. “The Forged Casement Diaries.” Talbot Press, Dublin 1936. p229-6
28
In a letter to Eoin MacNeill, Sir Roger Casement reported on his misson’s progress and advised that Germany
‘..will do all in their power to help us win national freedom...tell me all your needs at home, viz. Rifles, officers, men. Send priest or priests at all costs - one not afraid to fight and die for Ireland ...we may win everything by this war if we are true to Germany.’
Documents relative to the Sinn Fein movement. London 1921. 1108-P3-4. Quoted in Tansill, ‘America and the Fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’ p.181.
The Irish Prisoners of War throughout Germany were collected in one camp, Limburg, just north-west of Frankfurt.
Casement’s presence in Germany was first commented on in the pages of the London Daily Chronicle along with the full text of the German pledge: ‘In a moment of infatuation…Sir Roger Casement, the ex-British official and prominent Irish Nationalist, has visited the Berlin Foreign Office and has received official assurance that in the event of a German invasion – an event, by the way, as unlikely as a German invaion of the planet Mars – Ireland will be well and sympatetically treated…Sir Roger Casement’s precise object in obtaining this quaint assurance it is impossible to fathom. Of all the absurdities that have emanated from Berlin during the war, this is surely the most absurd.’
The London Daily News and Westminster Gazette also carried the full text, the Daily Mail quoted most of the pledge along with the Daily Telegrapgh & Morning Post. The Times either refused to print what was released by the censor or not allowed to print. The Westminster Gazette reminded it’s readers that Berlin was a long, long way fom Tipperary. The Daily News commented on the traitorous British knight: “…the very greatness of Sir Roger Casement’s achievements in the service of his country heightens the offence of the crime he has committed, which admits no palliation…Sir Roger Casement’s conduct consists of open betrayal of a Government which trusted him and of a country which showered honours upon him. If he disaproved of the war to which they were committed there were many courses open to him which did not involve treachery. He has made his election with a quite incomprehensible perversity, and closed forever by one foul blow an honourable career.’
W. J.Maloney. “The Forged Casement Diaries.” Talbot Press, Dublin 1936. p41
British provincial papers did not carry news of the Berlin press-release and Casement’s involvement.
US papers carried British reaction to the news such as: ‘Casement’s visit to Berlin severely censured’ New York Times.
New York: The United Irish League and affiliated councils met in New York where a resolution moved by Patrick Egan, foremerly US Ambassador to Chile ‘repudiated Casement as an Irish leader and denounced the German pledge.’
W. J.Maloney. “The Forged Casement Diaries.” Talbot Press, Dublin 1936. p43
29: Washington: Former President Roosevelt criticises the US administartion for its ‘tame and spiritless neutrality’ in the war.
30:
A British trawler fishing in the North Sea found a copy of the German naval codebook, Vekersbuch in it’s nets. Within days, Room 40 of the Admiralty had three major German codebooks, The Signalbuch der Kaiserlichen Marine, the Handlesverkerhsbuch and the Vekehrsbuch.
MP’s in the House of Commons were officially ‘induced’ to withdraw questions concerning the German Pledge to Ireland and the Irish Nationalists in the House formally repudiated Sir Roger Casement: ‘We deny that Casement has the right or title to speak in the name of nationalists of Ireland. The only aim that he and those like him are seeking to accomplish is to injure our Nationalism and prejuidce our cause in the eyes of the British people
December 1914
2:
Sinn Fein, Irish Freedom and Irish Volunteer were supressed under DORA.
Germany: Casement continued to produce fake letters for Adler to present to Findlay in Christiania. He also received an Imperial German passport valid for three months from December 2nd 1914, valid for ‘traveling in Germany’ and issued to the ‘Irishman Sir Roger Casement’. Von Wedel in the Foreign Office commented that there was a degree of mistrust regarding Christensen due to his ‘loose habits’ the potential of being a double-agent and that the ‘Christiania affair’ would be better dropped. On the other hand both Count Blucher and Professor Schiemann wanted Casement to publish details of the Findlay incident at once without waiting for any additional proof. Casement also realised that the fake letters produced to trap Findlay ‘have long since been handed to the Foreign Office and constitute for Downing Street overwhelming proof of my guilt. To now retire from the affair, merely because Wilhelmstrasse does not like it, would be to make the British Government a present of my character..and enable them to poison the ears of everyone in Ireland and the United States against me and to prove their charge against me..’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.116
2.
Belgium is put under German military control. Austria-Hungary takes Belgrade but can’t hold the city for long.
Germany: Casement leaves Berlin at 10.20pm on the overnight train to Frankfurt and a meeting with the Irish prisoner’s of war at Limburg.
3:
Germany: Casement arrived in Frankfurt.
Casement met and addressed the Irish Prisoners of War in Limburg for the first time. He introduced himself, explaining he was recruting for an Irish Brigade, named after the 300 Irishmen who fought with against the British during the Boer War. He then handed out copies of the Gaelic American and put up a poster calling for volunteers.
In what turned out to be the last issue of Irish Freedom, Griffith gave a summary of the situation in Ireland:
‘Today in Ireland there are men dismised from their employment and banished from their homes, there are men in jail because they have dared to stand in the trench that the Irish Parliamentary Party tried to hand over to the enemey. And those things, starvation, imprisonment, death maybe, lie at the door of Mr. Redmond and Mr Dillon and Mr. Devlin, and their party and their press…’
Charles Callan Tansill. ‘America and the fight for Irish Freedom-1866-1922’. Devin-Adair, New York 1957. P165
Copies of Irish Freedom were seized throughout the country while the printers of Griffith’s paper ‘Sinn Fein’ were told that their plant would be seized if they continued printing. The I.R.B brought out another newspaper to replace Irish Freedom, named ‘Eire’ but were also seized by police. A substitute paper was printed in Glasgow until it too was supressed.
O’Rahilly approached Ernest Blythe, who was working in the Kerry Gaeltacht while learning Irish with an offer to go to Germany as an Irish Volunteer emissary and make contact with the German Government. Blythe refused the offer, later commenting that as an IRB member, he would only take orders from the IRB and it’s leadership.
5:
Casement met with the Irish Prisoners of War again in Limburg. This time the majority were hostile, jeering and jostling.
‘Casment succeded in recruiting only one prisoner; a Sergeant Timothy Quinlisk ( who would be shot by the I.R.A in 1920) ‘
Austen Morgan. ‘James Connolly – a political biography’. Manchester University Press. 1988. .p157
Connolly’s Irish Worker appears with leader page blank in protest at Government censorship under DORA. The leading article was published 4 days later in leaflet form ‘while the censor wasn’t looking’
John Devoy was delighted with the German statement made on November 20th. He sent a message through the German Embassy in Washington advising Casement that the statement had made an excellent impression on Irish-America, and as to his requests in message of November 6th:
‘..the confidential agent arrived in Ireland end November...the priest starts as soon as the leave of absence which he requires has been granted...Judge Cohalan recomends not publishing statement about attempt on life until actual proofs are secured’
Documents relative to the Sinn Fein movement. London 1921. 1108-p6. Quoted in Tansill, ‘America and the Fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’ p.181.
Devoy makes no mention of this in his ‘Recollections of an Irish Rebel’.
‘Dubliners’ by James Joyce published.
6:
The General Council of the I.R.B met and Pearse was appointed as Director of Military Organisation.
Germany: Casement writing in his diary commented that ‘I will not accept the responsibility for putting a couple of thousand Irish soldiers into the high treason pot unless I get very precise and sure promises both in their regard and for the political future of Ireland.’
W. J.Maloney. “The Forged Casement Diaries.” Talbot Press, Dublin 1936. p114
7:
Germany: Casement wrote of another meeting between the British Legation Minister in Christania, Mansfeldt Findlay and Adler Christensen, in which he was ‘handed..the key of the back entrance of the British Legation, so that he might go and come unobserved and at all hours.’ Since the first meeting, Casement through Christensen had laid an intricate false trail ‘bogus letters, fictisious maps and charts and other indictments to Mr Findlay’s appetite for the incredible – were part of my necessary plan of self-defense to lay bare the conspiracy’
Captain Robert Monteith. ‘Casement’s Last Adventure’ Chicago 1932. P.83
This was in addition to two separate sums of 500 Norwegian Crowns and British gold.
Casement read of the seizing of Irish Worker in the Frankfurter Zeitung ‘and there is something about Sinn Fein I cannot translate.’ Doubts increasing, Casement wrote to the Foreign Office requesting seeing the Chancellor or Secretary of State before proceeding further with the Irish Brigade.
8
Off the Falkland Isles, British squadron under command of Rear-Admiral Sturdee, sinks three of the German cruisers Nurnburg, Scharnhorst and Gneiseau which had destroyed the Good Hope and Monmouth on Nov. 1. The Dresden escapes.
Germany: Casement ill in Limburg.
9: Italy demands the Southern Tyrol from Austria as the price for it’s neutrality.
Germany: Casement ill in Limburg.
11: German cruisers sunk in an encounter with the Royal Navy off the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
Germany: Casement returns to Berlin and confided in his diary that he was ‘wholly undecided what is best to do first. I think the Findlay business should be settled and done for, before anything else.’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.119
In the afternoon, he went to the ForeignOffice and saw Von Wedel who agreed that he should proceed with what he thought best with the Findlay business.
12: Germany: Casement met with Blucher for lunch ‘I said to Blucher that if neither the Chancellor nor von Jagow cared to receive me I thought my right course would be to leave Germany…in my heart I am very sorry I came! I do not think the German Government has any soul for great enterprises - it lacks the divine spark of imagination…’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.122
13:
Allies attacked along the entire front, from Nieuport in the west to Verdun in the east, but failed to make any appreciable gains.
15: Serbians recapture Belgrade from Austria-Hungary.
16
German naval squadron bombards Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby on east coast of England, sinking two torpedo boats and returning to base with no casualties.
17: Norway: Adler Christensen met with Findlay and ‘told him a tissue of lies; of American gold, yachts, men high up in the Government service even, all coming to meet me off the coast of Schleswig, where I would join them with two boats…German admirals called on me in Berlin …and I was getting arms and ammunition to land in Ireland’. At this Findlay became more upset, calling Casement ‘a very clever, a very dangerous son of a bitch’ but added ‘ he is a gentleman’
Chiistensen was to discover what lattitude and longitude Casement was to meet the imaginary yacht.
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.122
18: Berlin: Casement met with von Wedel at the Foreign Office – “who was more than friendly and told me they agreed to all my conditions as to the Irish Brigade’ later meeting with the Chancellor where he ‘wished me all success in your aims and projects’. Meeting again with von Wedel ‘he said they would support me in every way andgive me all the assurances I needed and that the Chancellor’s reception of me was to convince me of their friendship and regard…whatever the immediate outcome of the war and fate of Ireland might be, I might rest assured they would pursue a policy of good will to Ireland commercially, if they could not achieve a positive act of political assistance.’
Casement suggested that the German navy make use of the Findlay case and in turn lay a trap. Von Wedel advised it would be passed to the Admiralty.
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.133-34
However, Casement somewhat mistakenly attributes newspaper supression and jailing of editors in Ireland to his work on Findlay in Norway. Writing of the British reaction ..’so they are now panicking through Ireland and trying to get hold of the ‘dangerous’ men before my attempted landing comes off. The bombardment of the Yorkshire towns will also have helped and will probably be attributed to my malign influence here in Berlin…my only hope is that in their fury of rage and fear combined ( the British Government ) will show their hand so openly against Irish nationality that Redmond and his gang of traitors will have to either repudiate England openly or repudiate the cause they have so grossly misrepresented for years and finally so cruelly betrayed.’
Dr. Charles E Curry. “Diaries of Sir Roger Casement – His Mission to Germany & The Findlay Affair.” Arche Publishing Co, Munich. Germany 1922. Lynch Archives – Granig. P.137
19:
By this stage, Ireland was at fever pitch. Mass meetings had been held throughout the country and Home Rule was looking more probable than ever before. The Liberty Hall banner “ We serve neither King nor Kaiser - but Ireland” removed by British Authorities. The Irish Volunteer Force by now was regarded by the Government and Authorities as a seditious force but of little paramilitary threat, but only because they were so poorly armed. They were estimated s 13,500 at mid-December. The consensus of opinion within the movement was not so much pro-German as more an England weakened by war,would be unable to resist a demand for independence.
Kathleen Clarke describes meeting Mary MacSwiney (1872-1942) then head of Cumman na mBan in Cork in their shop in Parnell Street and inviting her to a lecture in the Irish Volunteers hall in 25 Parnell Square. ‘ but little either of us heard of that lecture. She would talk. She began by saying that she did not agree with seekign help from Germany. I asked why. ‘Well’ she said, ‘I lived in Germany and I dislike the Germans. They are a tyranical people and if we accept their help we will be under their rule’ which led on to a large argument bewteen both women. ‘it was no use continuing; she had her views and I had mine, and we both held on to them and parted in no friendly frame of mind. I thought her stupid and narrow. What she thought of me, God knows’
Kathleen Clark ‘Revoloutionary Woman’ O’Brien Press, Dublin 1991. P51
21: Berlin: Casment received a letter from his friend, Kuno Meyer in New York mailed on November 28th telling of having met ‘Cohalan, McGarrity, Devoy and John Quinn. They all disapprove the publication of the Christiania incident’
Curry ‘Sir Roger Casement Diaries’ p 140. Quoted in Tansill, ‘America and the Fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922’ p.181. p140 in Curry’s book.
24: German forces have taken more than 578,000 Allied prisoners since August.
25: Truce in the trenches shocks generals as British and German troops played football together on Christmas day.
27:
Casement signed a ‘Treaty’ with the German Government of ten articles for the development of an Irish Brigade, to be fed, equipped and trained but not paid, by the Germans. To be furnished with a distinctive, Irish uniform, to be commanded by Irish officers and to fight under the Irish flag. The final article promised to recognise Ireland as an independent nation once its Government had been established. More important though was Article 6 which indicated in event of a German Naval victory allowing the means to reach the Irish coast, an amphibious landing of the Irish Brigade and supporting troops would be made.
The Treaty would not be published until Casement had conscripted a large enough force.
30:
Casement left Berlin on the night train for Frankfurt and then to the Irish POW camp at Limburg.
By years end, the Supreme Council of the I.R.B., had passed virtually unlimited powers when the council was not in session to Thomas Clake and Sean McDiarmada. This in turn allowed Pearse to work out plans for the deployment of Volunteers should the Government introduce conscription or attempt to forcibly disarm the Volunteers. This was encouraged by Clarke and McDermott ‘possibly because it distrcated him from planning a rising with Plunkett and Ceannt’.
Hits of 1914:
‘Keep the home fires burning’
‘St. Louis Blues’