robertemmett
02-27-2008, 07:44 PM
a little article i did on the easter rising. hopefully people will have read of it and make some comments. i do not profess to be an expert on the subject so feel free to correct glaring mistakes
The Causes of the Easter Rising.
2007 marks the 91st anniversary of the Easter Rising and while the course of the rising and its subsequent impact on Ireland and the Sinn Fein Party have been much discussed, its causes have not. The first armed insurrection since the Fenian campaign in the 1860s, why did 1916 become the year of the rising? Why Easter? Who were the main individuals and groups behind the Rising? How much involvement did Sinn Fein have in the organisation of the Rising?
The continuation of the first world war since 1914 is no doubt the main factor in explaining 1916 as the year of the rising. The European War had had a profound impact on Ireland since 1914. Home Rule had been passed, but suspended for the duration of war. This left the moderate Irish Parliamentary Party with an anti climax, they had achieved their long ambition, but could not yet celebrate, nor could they govern from a devolved Dublin Parliament. This created a vacuum in Irish politics and advanced Nationalists and republicans stepped in to fill it. The IPP were increasingly seen as a lame duck party.
The War had created no difficulties for the Unionists. They followed King and country, and united behind their patriotic duty, the UVF joined en masse being awarded their own regiment in the British Army. The War had the opposite impact on nationalist politics. The Irish Volunteers, numbering over 200,000 men, were split when John Redmond in a speech at Woodenbridge, Co. Wicklow committed them to fight in the war “...where ever the firing line extends”. The Irish Volunteers had been set up to ensure the passing of Home Rule, not to be an auxiliary force to the British Army. The organisation split, but not evenly, between those who followed Redmond and those who felt that their place was in Ireland. Only 12,000 of the Irish Volunteers remained in Ireland.
The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) had seen the war has the perfect opportunity to strike at British, following the old rule that “England’s difficulty was Ireland’s opportunity.” The split in the Irish Volunteers had created a window for the IRB. It was felt that the 12,000 men of Eoin MacNeill’s Volunteers would be more easily managed than 200,000, and that they could provide the man power for a Rising. The IRB had been infiltrating key positions within the Volunteers since 1913 and by 1915 there were 12 IRB men in the Irish Volunteer Executive Committee.
Indeed without the IRB there would have been no rising. The IRB had been virtually a dormant organisation since throwing its lot behind the Home Rule Party in the 1870s and 80s. New life had been breathed into it from 1907 with thanks to men like Bulmer Hobson, Denis McCullough and Sean Mac Dermott. The involvement of Tom Clarke had given the IRB a link back to the rising of 1867. In 1914 and 15 it was joined by Pearse, Plunkett and Mc Donagh. In May 1915 a military committee was established by the IRB to make detailed plans for a rising. Not even all members of the supreme council of the IRB knew this and it certainly was kept secret from Eoin MacNeill and the Irish Volunteers. The committee decided in late 1915 that a rising should take place by Easter 1916. Fear that the world war might end without an Irish rising was a strong motivating factor.
The example provided by the Ulster Unionists was a cause of the Easter rising. The organisation by them of the UVF and their successful procurement of German arms to fight Home Rule was a model which the republicans could follow. Eoin MacNeill’s article “The North Began” argued that Irish Nationalists should also be forming their own military units and moves were made to arm the volunteers. This led, of course, to the Howth gun running and the Bachelors Walk massacre. Pearse summed up the debt the republicans owed to the Ulster Unionist when he said “…I think the idea of an Orangeman with a rifle is a much less ridiculous figure, than a nationalist without one”.
Padraig Pearse played a important role in the rising, not only in planning but also in providing an ideological framework. Pearse had distinguished himself as a writer and as a teacher before his involvement with the IRB. He had established St. Enda’s School in 1908. Here, Pearse had concentrated on the stories of Irish history and mythology such as Cuchulainn, Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmett in an attempt to give example to the younger generation. Closer to the rebellion, Pearse adopted more overt religious influences in his writings about Ireland. His famous oration at the grave of O Donovan Rossa is fine example of how rebellion and religion were mixed in his opinion “… a new generation has been re-baptised in the Fenian faith” or “…life spring from death, and from the graves of patriotic men and women spring living nations”. There was no doubt an element of blood sacrifice about Pearse, that it was necessary for some Irishmen to fight and die so that Ireland could be saved. Such an association of Christ and Ireland pointed to a rebellion on Easter Sunday.
I do not wish to write of Pearse as pure romantic, he certainly spent considerable time making military plans for the rising. Plans of strategy had been relayed to the IRB around Ireland and Rodger Casement’s mission to buy 20,000 rifles and million rounds of ammunition showed that Pearse had every confidence of success.
However it is to James Connolly had much of the credit must go. A well recognised socialist for many years, Connolly had set up the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) and from 1915 onward was planning a rising of his own without the IRB. The banner on Liberty hall stated clearly where Connolly’s loyalties lay “We serve neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland”. Connolly justified the contradiction that he as an internationalist socialist could be involved in a nationalist rising “…the cause of labour is the cause of Ireland, and cause of Ireland is the cause of labour.” Connolly’s book “Labour in Irish History” gives an excellent socialist critique of Ireland past and English involvement here.
So anxious was Connolly for his own ICA rising that Pearse and IRB had to let him in on their plans lest he should blow their cover. Once involved in the IRB rising, Connolly contributed much. He was the 1916 leader that had given the most consideration to military matters having included instructions on street fighting and guerrilla tactics in his newspaper “Workers Republic”. Connolly’s influence can clearly seen in the words of the proclamation. His desire for a radical social programme in an independent Ireland “…The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally,”
So when should we celebrate and commemorate the Easter Rising, the Sunday or the Monday? It began of course on the Monday 24th April not on the Sunday that Pearse had planned. This was down to Eoin MacNeill, head of the Irish Volunteers, issuing countermanding orders that “maneuvers” for the Sunday were cancelled. He made this move after hearing news that Casement had been arrested and the rifles had been scuttled. There can no doubt that had Casement been successful that the complexion of the rising would have been different. The extra weapons and without the confusion around the countermanded orders could have led to a widespread rebellion throughout country.
The Causes of the Easter Rising.
2007 marks the 91st anniversary of the Easter Rising and while the course of the rising and its subsequent impact on Ireland and the Sinn Fein Party have been much discussed, its causes have not. The first armed insurrection since the Fenian campaign in the 1860s, why did 1916 become the year of the rising? Why Easter? Who were the main individuals and groups behind the Rising? How much involvement did Sinn Fein have in the organisation of the Rising?
The continuation of the first world war since 1914 is no doubt the main factor in explaining 1916 as the year of the rising. The European War had had a profound impact on Ireland since 1914. Home Rule had been passed, but suspended for the duration of war. This left the moderate Irish Parliamentary Party with an anti climax, they had achieved their long ambition, but could not yet celebrate, nor could they govern from a devolved Dublin Parliament. This created a vacuum in Irish politics and advanced Nationalists and republicans stepped in to fill it. The IPP were increasingly seen as a lame duck party.
The War had created no difficulties for the Unionists. They followed King and country, and united behind their patriotic duty, the UVF joined en masse being awarded their own regiment in the British Army. The War had the opposite impact on nationalist politics. The Irish Volunteers, numbering over 200,000 men, were split when John Redmond in a speech at Woodenbridge, Co. Wicklow committed them to fight in the war “...where ever the firing line extends”. The Irish Volunteers had been set up to ensure the passing of Home Rule, not to be an auxiliary force to the British Army. The organisation split, but not evenly, between those who followed Redmond and those who felt that their place was in Ireland. Only 12,000 of the Irish Volunteers remained in Ireland.
The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) had seen the war has the perfect opportunity to strike at British, following the old rule that “England’s difficulty was Ireland’s opportunity.” The split in the Irish Volunteers had created a window for the IRB. It was felt that the 12,000 men of Eoin MacNeill’s Volunteers would be more easily managed than 200,000, and that they could provide the man power for a Rising. The IRB had been infiltrating key positions within the Volunteers since 1913 and by 1915 there were 12 IRB men in the Irish Volunteer Executive Committee.
Indeed without the IRB there would have been no rising. The IRB had been virtually a dormant organisation since throwing its lot behind the Home Rule Party in the 1870s and 80s. New life had been breathed into it from 1907 with thanks to men like Bulmer Hobson, Denis McCullough and Sean Mac Dermott. The involvement of Tom Clarke had given the IRB a link back to the rising of 1867. In 1914 and 15 it was joined by Pearse, Plunkett and Mc Donagh. In May 1915 a military committee was established by the IRB to make detailed plans for a rising. Not even all members of the supreme council of the IRB knew this and it certainly was kept secret from Eoin MacNeill and the Irish Volunteers. The committee decided in late 1915 that a rising should take place by Easter 1916. Fear that the world war might end without an Irish rising was a strong motivating factor.
The example provided by the Ulster Unionists was a cause of the Easter rising. The organisation by them of the UVF and their successful procurement of German arms to fight Home Rule was a model which the republicans could follow. Eoin MacNeill’s article “The North Began” argued that Irish Nationalists should also be forming their own military units and moves were made to arm the volunteers. This led, of course, to the Howth gun running and the Bachelors Walk massacre. Pearse summed up the debt the republicans owed to the Ulster Unionist when he said “…I think the idea of an Orangeman with a rifle is a much less ridiculous figure, than a nationalist without one”.
Padraig Pearse played a important role in the rising, not only in planning but also in providing an ideological framework. Pearse had distinguished himself as a writer and as a teacher before his involvement with the IRB. He had established St. Enda’s School in 1908. Here, Pearse had concentrated on the stories of Irish history and mythology such as Cuchulainn, Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmett in an attempt to give example to the younger generation. Closer to the rebellion, Pearse adopted more overt religious influences in his writings about Ireland. His famous oration at the grave of O Donovan Rossa is fine example of how rebellion and religion were mixed in his opinion “… a new generation has been re-baptised in the Fenian faith” or “…life spring from death, and from the graves of patriotic men and women spring living nations”. There was no doubt an element of blood sacrifice about Pearse, that it was necessary for some Irishmen to fight and die so that Ireland could be saved. Such an association of Christ and Ireland pointed to a rebellion on Easter Sunday.
I do not wish to write of Pearse as pure romantic, he certainly spent considerable time making military plans for the rising. Plans of strategy had been relayed to the IRB around Ireland and Rodger Casement’s mission to buy 20,000 rifles and million rounds of ammunition showed that Pearse had every confidence of success.
However it is to James Connolly had much of the credit must go. A well recognised socialist for many years, Connolly had set up the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) and from 1915 onward was planning a rising of his own without the IRB. The banner on Liberty hall stated clearly where Connolly’s loyalties lay “We serve neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland”. Connolly justified the contradiction that he as an internationalist socialist could be involved in a nationalist rising “…the cause of labour is the cause of Ireland, and cause of Ireland is the cause of labour.” Connolly’s book “Labour in Irish History” gives an excellent socialist critique of Ireland past and English involvement here.
So anxious was Connolly for his own ICA rising that Pearse and IRB had to let him in on their plans lest he should blow their cover. Once involved in the IRB rising, Connolly contributed much. He was the 1916 leader that had given the most consideration to military matters having included instructions on street fighting and guerrilla tactics in his newspaper “Workers Republic”. Connolly’s influence can clearly seen in the words of the proclamation. His desire for a radical social programme in an independent Ireland “…The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally,”
So when should we celebrate and commemorate the Easter Rising, the Sunday or the Monday? It began of course on the Monday 24th April not on the Sunday that Pearse had planned. This was down to Eoin MacNeill, head of the Irish Volunteers, issuing countermanding orders that “maneuvers” for the Sunday were cancelled. He made this move after hearing news that Casement had been arrested and the rifles had been scuttled. There can no doubt that had Casement been successful that the complexion of the rising would have been different. The extra weapons and without the confusion around the countermanded orders could have led to a widespread rebellion throughout country.