St Stephen’s Green, 1916

On April 24 1916, a group of about 1,250 armed Irish Republicans launched an insurgency in the heart of Dublin. Demanding an end to British Rule in Ireland, they seized important sites in the center, erected roadblocks and cut transport and communication lines. Taking the General Post Office as their headquarters, they hoisted up Republican flags and read out a ‘Proclamation of the Irish Republic.’

The British Army reacted quickly, sending 16,000 troops and suppressing the rebellion after a few days. Sixteen of the leaders were executed by firing squad and about 1,800 insurgents were sent to internment camps and prisons. The harsh British response resulted in an increase in Irish support for the Republican cause and, arguably, accelerated the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922 and, in 1949, the Irish Republic.

It seemed fitting then, that one of the first places John and I visited after arriving in Dublin was St. Stephen’s Green, one of the sites occupied by insurgents during the Easter Rising. Sedate as it is today, with box hedging and fledgling swans, it’s hard to imagine it as a battleground peppered with bullets and strewn with wounded volunteers. But as we strolled around the park’s outermost path reading informative plaques about the events that transpired more than a century ago, history flickered momentarily into life.

Home Rule

The burning issue in Ireland at the turn of the twentieth century was Home Rule, a drive to secure internal autonomy for Ireland within the British Empire. In fact, it had been a topic of debate since at least the 1870s. Twice William Gladstone had introduced a Home Rule Bill in British Parliament and twice it had been defeated—the first time (1886) by the House of Commons, the second time (1893) by the House of Lords. In 1911, when the House of Lords lost some power to block legislation, a chance came to push it through once and for all. John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party and an MP in the House of Commons, persuaded Prime Minister Asquith to lend his support for the cause and the Bill was introduced into the House of Commons in April 1912.

Unionists saw the prospect of Home rule as a threat. Ulster unionists in particular were relatively rich, predominantly Protestant, and identified strongly as both Irish and British. Belfast was the largest city on the island and relied on Britain for much of their trade. They feared that rule from Dublin would disadvantage them economically and that they would lose advantages that had been enshrined in law for more than a century. On September 28, 1912, more than 500,000 unionists signed the Ulster Covenant, vowing to defy Home Rule by all means possible. They founded the Ulster Volunteer Force, a militia that was about 100,000 strong. In the beginning of 1913, Sir Edward Carson (one of the authors of the Ulster Covenant) moved an amendment to the Home Rule Bill, requesting the exclusion of all nine counties of Ulster.

Later that year, Britain started making provisions for possible armed resistance from the UVF. However, when they briefed military commanders stationed in Ireland, about 60 officers chose to resign rather than take up arms against the unionists. This was later known as the Curragh Incident and indicated the depth of tension. Both sides of the conflict illegally imported arms. In the Larne gun-running, unionists received a shipment of nearly 25,000 rifles and between 3 and 5 million rounds of ammunition of German make. In the Howth gun-running, the novelist Erskine Childers smuggle 1,000 Mausers into Ireland on his private yacht.

In May 1914, the British Government passed the Third Home Rule Act, allowing a bicameral Irish Parliament the power to deal with most national affairs. Sir Edward Carson managed to secure a temporary exclusion for six Protestant-majority counties in Ulster but it was not clear what ‘temporary’ meant. Tensions rose. Civil war threatened.

Negotiations over the details dragged on for months until August 4, when the Great War broke out. Prime Minister Asquith hurriedly put the Irish Home Rule question on the backburner by passing the Suspensory Act 1914, suspending the ‘operation of the Government of Ireland Act’ until after the war.

Manpower, Workerpower, Womanpower

In 1915, there were several significant nationalist militias. The following three would have a major role in the Easter Rising.

Óglaigh na hÉireann or the Irish Volunteers was officially founded in 1913, incorporating several different nationalist groups under the same umbrella. Publicly, the group’s aim was to ensure that Home Rule came to fruition. However, it was the organic result of a decade-long effort by the Irish Republican Brotherhood to divert Irish manpower away from the British Army and towards the Irish nationalist cause. The group gained the support of John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party. By mid-1914, the Volunteers had a force of around 200,000 people.

Arm Cathartha na hÉireann or the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) was a small (200-300 members) paramiitary group formed in 1913 as a response to police brutality experienced by strikers during the 1913 Lockout, a major industrial dispute in central Dublin. The army’s goal was the establishment of an independent and socialist Irish nation and it was one of the first organizations of its kind to offer equal membership to both men and women, training both in the use of weapons. In mid-1914, the leader was Marxist orator, writer and trade-union organizer James Connolly.

Cumann na mBan, the Irish Women’s Council, was formed in Dublin in 1914 with the aim to “advance the cause of Irish liberty and to organize Irishwomen in the furtherance of this object.” It was led by Agnes O’Farrelly and determined to work with the Irish Volunteers. Their constitution references the use of force of arms. Some members were Irish suffragettes as Irish women at the time were still fighting for the vote and had a particular beef with John Redmond, who objected to their cry “No Home Rule before Suffrage.” For a few years they’d been engaged in acts of civil disobedience. In June 1912, several members went on a rampage through Dublin and smashed windows in the GPO, the Custom’s House and Dublin Castle. In May 1913 Geraldine Manning defaced a bust of John Redmond. However, for suffragists who were members of Cumann na mBan, the nationalist cause now took precedence. In the words of Countess de Markievicz, co-founder of the Sligo Woman’s Suffrage Association: “I would ask every Nationalist woman to pause before she joined a Suffrage Society or Franchise League that did not include in their Programme the Freedom of the Nation.”

World War I

At the outbreak of World War I in August, John Redmond attempted to gain control of the Irish Volunteers. He was determined to see Home Rule finally enacted and believed the Irish troops could help him enforce it at the end of the short war. Moreover, he claimed that if Irish people participated in the war it would unite the country and magically end the differences with Ulster. He gave rousing speeches encouraging men to enlist in the British Army: “Let Irishmen come together in the trenches and risk their lives together and spill their blood together, and I say there is no power on earth that when they come home can induce them to turn as enemies upon one another.”

Redmond’s support for Irish involvement in the Great War led to a split in the Irish Volunteers. Most of them followed Redmond’s lead—after all, he had just recently pulled off the amazing political feat of having Home Rule passed into law. His followers became the Irish National Volunteers and went off to fight in Flanders. But about 10,000 volunteers remained in Ireland, not interested in getting involved with England’s war.

Plans

In 1915 the Irish Republican Brotherhood set up a secret Military Council and began planning an insurrection to take place over Easter of the following year. One of the key members was Thomas Clarke, who had spent 15 years in British prisons for trying to blow up London Bridge. Other members included Sean MacDermott, Patrick Pearse, Éamon Ceannt, Joseph Plunkett, James Connolly and Thomas MacDonagh. Although they planned to make use of the Irish Volunteers, they initially hid their plans from leaders of that organization.

When James Connolly of the ICU began publishing articles exhorting armed insurrection, they were worried that he would spoil their attempt. In January 1916, they kidnapped him for three days and briefed him on their plan.

On April 23, the Military Council finalized its plans for the Easter Rising. The Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizen Army and Cumann na mBan were now one force christened the ‘Army of the Irish Republic.’

The Easter Rising at St Stephen’s Green

Monday April 24

Commandant Michael Mallin was second-in-command and chief training officer of the Irish Citizen Army. Starting from January 1916, briefed by James Connolly, he had been preparing members for the revolution. On Easter Monday, Mallin took up a position at St Stephen’s Green with a small force of ICA men and women. Captain Christopher Poole was his second and Constance Markievicz was third-in-command.

The army ordered civilians out of the park, dug trenches, put up kitchen and first aid stations, and built barricades in the surrounding streets. A field hospital was established at the bandstand. Sergeant Madeleine ffrench-Mullen was in charge of the field hospital and it was staffed by some of the other female members of the Irish Citizen Army. A Red Cross flag was hoisted over the post to distinguish it as a hospital.

Originally Mallin planned to occupy the Shelbourne Hotel but had insufficient manpower to do so. Instead, the British Army occupied it on Monday night and on Tuesday began firing down on the rebels.

Tuesday April 25

While this house looks as if it has never seen anything more interesting than summer rain, a plaque in St Stephens Green proves otherwise:

“The Superintendent’s lodge proved to be a valuable place of refuge for the Cumann na mBan unit under the command of Sergeant Madeleine ffrench-Mullen. As the British Army employed their machine guns on Tuesday morning, the exposed makeshift hospital at the bandstand was abandoned and the medical unit made their way to the Superintendent’s lodge.” 

Soon, however, with the Volunteers under intense fire from machine guns positioned on the roof of the United Service Club and at the Shelbourne Hotel, Commandant Michael Mallin issued orders to withdraw from St Stephen’s Green Park altogether.

All the Volunteers were to rally at the statue of Lord Ardilaun and cross the road to the side entrance of the Royal College of Surgeons on York Street. In so doing, the rebels had to run the gauntlet of snipers and the Lewis machine gun positioned in the United Service Club, which had a clear line of sight onto the road in front of the College.

Volunteers lined up behind the statue to time their run with the changing of spent machine gun magazines. This gave them seconds to make it to the safety of York Street, thirty five meters away, before bullets started to fly again. Several Volunteers were hit, but none died.

Wednesday April 26

As on every day of the conflict, both sides observed a truce twice daily so that James Kearney, the Park Superintendent could feed the ducks.

Thursday April 27

Early on Thursday morning, a Company of British soldiers from the Royal Irish Regiment, armed with a Lewis machine gun, took up position on the roof of the University Church. A squad of Volunteers, now garrisoned in the Royal College of Surgeons and led by Margaret Skinnider and William Partridge, were ordered to neutralize this position.

Leaving the safety of the fortified Royal College of Surgeons, the squad successfully crossed St Stephen’s Green West and now faced another thirty metre run, in the face of the new machine gun position, across the Green’s south side.

Two Volunteers fell in the attempt. Fred Ryan was killed in a hail of bullets, while Margaret Skinnider was seriously wounded, the only female Volunteer to be wounded in action during the Rising. It was decided that the volume of fire was too high to attempt further action and the squad made their way back to the Royal College of Surgeons with the wounded.

Friday April 28

The Citizen Army in Stephen’s Green was not only suffering from bullet fire but also from hunger. British snipers had been vigilant about preventing anyone into the building to supply the troops with food.

Saturday April 29

Patrick Pearse issues the order to surrender to Volunteers across the city but word did not reach St Stephens Green.

Sunday April 30

The Irish Citizen Army at St Stephen’s Green surrender at around midday and 120 men and women march from the Green. In the course of the battle of St Stephen’s Green, five Irish Citizen Army Volunteers were killed and five were seriously wounded.

After the week of fighting, Mallin wrote on the back of an envelope:

“My darling wife all is lost. My love to all my children, no matter what my fate I am satisfied I have done my duty to my beloved Ireland, and you, and to my darling children. I charge you as their sole guardian now to bring them up in the national faith of your father, and of my faith, of our unborn child [may] God and his blessed Mother help you and it. I said all was lost, I meant all but honour and courage. God and his blessed Mother again guard and keep you my own darling wife”

Along with most of the other leaders, Mallin was executed by firing squad in the Stone Breakers Yard in Kilmainham Gaol.