Major Sir Francis Fletcher Vane

1861-1934

A Dublin-born major in the Royal Munster Fusiliers, Sir Francis Fletcher Vane, was in overall charge of defence at Portabello Barracks but was not present when these executions took place. He arrived shortly afterwards, was horrified at what unfolded. He recognised the killings as murder, and called Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington.

He reported his views (that Bowen-Colthurst was mentally deranged) to the deputy commander of the garrison, Major Rosborough. Rosborough telephoned Dublin Castle and was told to bury the bodies. Vane subsequently travelled to London where he met Lord Kitchener in Downing Street on 3 May 1916. A telegram was sent to Sir John Maxwell, commander-in-chief of British forces in Ireland, ordering the arrest of Bowen-Colthurst but Maxwell refused to arrest him.

Vane was dishonorably discharged from the army in the summer of 1916 owing to his actions in the Skeffington murder case.

Major General Sir Lovick Bransby Friend

25 April 1856 — 19 November 1944

He was appointed Major-General in charge of Administration at Irish Command in 1912 and Commander-in-Chief, Ireland in 1914:he was replaced following the Easter Rising in 1916.

Field Marshal John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres

28 September 1852 – 22 May 1925

French returned to England to be appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Home Forces in December 1915 and oversaw the suppression of the Irish uprising in 1916. In January 1916, he was created Viscount French, of Ypres and of High Lake in the County of Roscommon.

Admiral Sir William Reginald Hall

28 June 1870 – 22 October 1943

Thanks to intercepts from Room 40, Hall was instrumental in the interception of the steamer Aud on 21 April 1916 by HMS Bluebell, which was carrying German arms to Ireland. The following day the man who had organised the arms shipment, Sir Roger Casement, was arrested in Tralee Bay after disembarking from a German U-Boat. Hall was aware of the upcoming Easter Rising in Dublin, but refused to reveal his sources, so that when information of the rising did reach the government, its authenticity was questioned. Hall interrogated Casement and allegedly refused Casement the opportunity of making a public demand for the cancellation of the uprising.

Edward Henry Carson, Baron Carson

9 February 1854, Dublin, Ireland – died 22 October 1935, Kent, England

Carson campaigned against Home Rule. He spoke against the Bill in the House of Commons and organised rallies in Ireland. At one rally, Carson told a crowd of 50,000 that a provisional government for "the Protestant province of Ulster" should be ready, should a third Home Rule Bill come into law.

On 28 September 1912, he was the first signatory on the Ulster Covenant, which bound its signatories to resist Home Rule with the threat that they would use "all means necessary" after Carson had established the Ulster Volunteers, the first loyalist paramilitary group. From it the Ulster Volunteer Force was formed in January 1913, and received a large arms cache from Germany in April 1914.

Imperial Germany was very eager to promote political tension in the United Kingdom at the time, and readily allowed the delivery of arms to both sides of the political divide in Ireland.

The Home Rule Bill was passed by the Commons on 25 May 1914 by a majority of 77 and due to the Parliament Act 1911, it did not need the Lords' consent, so the bill was awaiting royal assent. To enforce the legislation, given the activities of the Unionists, Herbert Asquith's Liberal government had prepared to send troops to Ulster. This sparked the Curragh Incident on 20 March. Together with the arming of the southern Irish Volunteers, Ireland was on the brink of civil war when the outbreak of the First World War led to the suspension of the Home Rule Act's operation until the end of the war. By this time Carson had announced in Belfast that an Ulster Division would be formed from the U.V.F., and the 36th (Ulster) Division was swiftly organised.

John Edward Redmond M.P.

1 September 1856 – 6 March 1918

During 1915, Redmond felt secure in his course and that the path was already partly cleared for independence to be achieved without bloodshed. He was supported by continued by-election successes of the IPP, and felt strong enough to turn down the offer of a cabinet seat, which would have offset Carson’s appointment to the war cabinet but would have been unpopular in Ireland. Even in 1916 he felt supremely confident and optimistic despite timely warnings from Bonar Law of an impending insurrection.

Redmond did not expect the 1916 Easter Rising, which was staged by the remaining Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, led by a number of influential republicans, under Pádraig Pearse. Pearse, who had in 1913 stood with Redmond on the same platform where the Rising now took place, at that time had praised Redmond’s efforts in achieving Home Rule. Redmond later acknowledged that the Rising was a shattering blow to his life-long policy of constitutional action.

It equally helped fuel republican sentiment, particularly when Britain's General Maxwell, in a highly misguided act, executed the leaders of the Rising, treating them as traitors in wartime. Redmond's plea, and John Dillon's, that the rebels be treated leniently were ignored. There followed Asquith’s attempt to introduce Home Rule in July 1916, failing on the issue of partition.

Major-General William Henry Muir Lowe

20 October 1861 – 7 February 1944

On the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Lowe rejoined the army as Inspector of Cavalry, and was appointed as a Brigade Commander with rank of Brigadier-General in 1915. He was commander of the 3rd Reserve Cavalry Brigade, stationed at the Curragh Camp, at the outbreak of the Easter Rising on Monday, 24 April 1916.

On being informed of the Rising by phone, he ordered the brigade to Dublin by train. Arriving himself in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Lowe assumed command of British forces in Dublin and set about securing the line between the railway station, Dublin Castle and Trinity College, thus dividing the rebel positions north and south of the river.

It was Lowe who ordered the shelling of Liberty Hall by field guns from Trinity College, and who ordered the Sherwood Foresters to continue advancing on Mount Street Bridge with a high cost in casualties.

On Saturday evening, 29 April, after being approached by Nurse Elizabeth O'Farrell, he agreed to negotiate with the leaders only if they would surrender unconditionally, and at 2.30 pm that day, accompanied by Nurse O'Farrell, Patrick Pearse surrendered to Lowe.

He was awarded the honorary rank of major-general when he finally retired in March 1919.

Sir Matthew Nathan

3 January 1862 – 18 April 1939

On Good Friday, 21 April 1916, Nathan was informed that a German boat had been stopped off the coast of County Kerry carrying arms and ammunition, and that a man had been arrested after coming ashore from another vessel. The man arrested was subsequently identified as Sir Roger Casement.

A mobilization of the Irish Volunteers fixed for Easter Sunday was cancelled the day before. Nathan, believing that a rising had been averted, discussed with the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Wimborne, the necessity of raiding premises associated with the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army and arresting their leaders. Nathan cabled Birrell, the Chief Secretary, in London to obtain authorisation for these actions.

On Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, while he was in his office in Dublin Castle awaiting Birrell's response, the Easter Rising broke out and Dublin Castle itself was attacked. The Castle gates were closed and the rebels did not press the attack, but Nathan was a virtual prisoner until troops arrived from the Curragh Camp on Monday evening.

Nathan remained in the Castle for the rest of the week (being moved to the stables to accommodate the military) where he kept in contact with London, keeping the government up to date with the situation and helping to answer questions in Parliament.

The Rising was finally brought to an end on 30 April. The same day Birrell offered his resignation, and on 3 May, at Birrell's request, Nathan also resigned.

The Royal Commission on the 1916 Rebellion (the Hardinge commission) was critical of Birrell and Nathan, in particular their failure to take action against the rebels in the weeks and months before the Rising.

Augustine Birrell

19 January 1850 – 20 November 1933

A further threat to Birrell's administration had arisen with the formation in November 1913 of the Irish Volunteers, ostensibly to safeguard Home Rule but in fact, under the influence of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) aiming to break the union with Britain altogether. Feelings in nationalist Ireland were further aroused by the possibility of conscription.

Sir Matthew Nathan, Birrell's Under-Secretary since October 1914, told him in September 1915 that the Nationalist Party was losing ground in the country and that extreme nationalists, often referred to as Sinn Féiners, were gaining support. Nathan took measures such as suppressing newspapers and forcing Irish Volunteer organisers to leave the country.

The Irish Party leaders, Redmond and Dillon, cautioned against taking direct action against the 'Sinn Féiners' and the administration kept to that policy. Birrell himself felt that the danger of a bomb outrage was greater than that of an insurrection. His assessment was proved wrong when the Easter Rising began on 24 April 1916.

Birrell had spent Easter in London, where Nathan had telegraphed him with news of the capture and scuttling of the arms ship the Aud and the arrest of Sir Roger Casement. He had just sent approval for the arrest of the movement's leaders on Easter Monday morning when he was told by Lord French, Commander-in-Chief of the British Home Forces, that the Rising was on.

He maintained contact with Nathan by telegraph and answered questions in Parliament on Tuesday and Wednesday, then travelled by destroyer to Dublin, arriving in the early hours of Thursday morning.

From there he wrote to the Prime Minister, giving him his assessment of the situation. In one of his letters he wrote that he 'couldn't go on'. On 1 May, the day after the Rising ended, Asquith accepted his resignation 'with infinite regret'. The Royal Commission on the 1916 Rebellion (the Hardinge commission) was critical of Birrell and Nathan, in particular their failure to take action against the rebels in the weeks and months before the Rising.

Ivor Churchill Guest, 1st Viscount Wimborne

Ivor Churchill Guest, 1st Viscount Wimborne (16 January 1873 – 14 June 1939)

Known as the Lord Ashby St Ledgers from 1910 to 1914 and as the Lord Wimborne from 1914 to 1918, was a British politician, and one of the last Lords Lieutenant of Ireland, serving in that position at the time of the Easter Rising.

In February 1915, Wimborne was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in succession to Lord Aberdeen. At this time the Lord Lieutenant was largely a ceremonial position; real power was in the hands of the Chief Secretary and the Under-Secretary. Determined to be more involved in decision-making, he was appointed Director of Recruiting in October 1915, heading up the new Department of Recruiting for Ireland. He insisted on being kept up to date on the state of the country, and had the Under-Secretary, Sir Matthew Nathan, send him police reports, details of prosecutions and recruitment figures.

On the weekend preceding the Easter Rising, following the capture of the German arms ship Aud and the arrest of Sir Roger Casement, Wimborne urged Nathan to order the arrest of a large number of rebel leaders. Nathan was unwilling to do so without the authorisation of the Chief Secretary, Augustine Birrell, who was in London.

Before the authorisation was received the Rising began on 24 April 1916. Wimborne proclaimed martial law in Dublin. Thereafter the military took control. A new Commander-in Chief, General Sir John Maxwell, arrived in Ireland on 28 April and the rebels surrendered on 29 April. Wimborne initially refused to offer his resignation after the Rising. He resigned under pressure from the government but was re-appointed. The Royal Commission on the 1916 Rebellion (the Hardinge commission) exonerated Wimborne of any blame for the Rising, saying that his position as Lord Lieutenant was "anomalous in quiet times and almost unworkable in times of crisis". He continued as Lord Lieutenant for another two years. On his retirement in 1918 he was created Viscount Wimborne, of Canford Magna in the County of Dorset.

Herbert Henry Asquith

Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928)

The price of Irish support in this effort was the Third Irish Home Rule Bill, which Asquith delivered in legislation in 1912. Asquith's efforts over Irish Home Rule nearly provoked a civil war in Ireland over Ulster, only averted by the outbreak of a European war. Ulster Protestants, who wanted no part of a semi-independent Ireland, formed armed volunteer bands. British army officers (the so-called Curragh Mutiny) threatened to resign rather than move against Ulstermen whom they saw as loyal British subjects; Asquith was forced to take on the job of Secretary of State for War himself on the resignation of the incumbent, Seeley. The legislation for Irish Home Rule was due to come into effect, allowing for the two-year delay under the Parliament Act, in 1914 - by which time the Cabinet were discussing allowing the six predominantly Protestant counties of Ulster to opt out of the arrangement, which was ultimately suspended owing to the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

Asquith's perceived lack of vigour over the conduct of the war dissatisfied certain Liberals and the Conservative Party. On Whit Monday 1916 Bonar Law travelled to Asquith's home — the Wharf, at Sutton Courtenay, Berkshire — to discuss the succession to the job of Secretary of State for War (Kitchener had just drowned on a trip to Russia — Asquith offered the job to Bonar Law, who declined as he had already agreed with Lloyd George that the latter should have the job), and later told Max Aitken that he had been kept waiting while Asquith finished playing bridge with three ladies, although Asquith's daughter Violet later denied that this had been so. Women's Rights activists also turned against him when he adopted the 'Business as Usual' policy at the beginning of the war, while the introduction of conscription was unpopular with mainstream Liberals. Opponents partly blamed Asquith for a series of political and military disasters, including the 1916 Battle of the Somme, at which Asquith's son Raymond was killed, and the Easter Rising in Ireland (April 1916).

General John Maxwell

Now, we turn to the British Administration during the Easter Rising of 1916.

Maxwell, himself, did not come in on the rising until it just about over and Pearse had surrendered.

He is best known for his role in the suppression and controversial handling of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland. After it broke out on 24 April 1916, Martial law was declared for the city and county of Dublin by the Lord Lieutenant Lord Wimborne, to allow court trial of persons breaching the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA), passed 8 August 1914 and to deal with such occurrences as the Rising.

Maxwell arrived in Ireland on Friday 28 April as "military governor" with "plenary powers" under Martial law. He set about dealing with the rebellion under his understanding of Martial law, namely the will of the commander, which means absence of law. During the week 2-9 May, Maxwell was in sole charge of trials and sentences by "field general court martial", which was trial without defence or jury and in camera. He had 3,400 people arrested, 183 civilians tried, 90 of whom were sentenced to death. Fifteen were shot between 3 and 12 May.

Prime Minister Herbert Asquith and the government were all at once terribly alarmed at the speed and secrecy of events before intervening to stop more executions. In particular great embarrassment ensued due to the failure of applying DORA regulations of general court martial with a full court of thirteen members, a professional judge, legal advocate and held in public, which could have prevented some executions.

Maxwell admitted in a report to Asquith in June that the impression that the leaders were murdered in cold blood without trial had resulted in a ‘revulsion of feeling‘ that had set in, in favour of the rebels, and was the result of the confusion between applying DORA as opposed to Martial law (which Maxwell actually pressed for himself from the beginning).

Although Asquith promised on two occasions to publish the court martial proceedings, they were held suppressed by the British government until the 1990s.

Maxwell was in 1916 assigned to be General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Northern Command at York. He was promoted in June 1919 to full general and retired in 1922.

Maps of the Easter Rising

Easter 1916
Author: W. B. Yeats
September 25, 1916

I

I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

II

That woman's days were spent
In ignorant good-will,
Her nights in argument
Until her voice grew shrill.
What voice more sweet than hers
When, young and beautiful,
She rode to harriers?
This man had kept a school
And rode our winged horse;
This other his helper and friend
Was coming into his force;
He might have won fame in the end,
So sensitive his nature seemed,
So daring and sweet his thought.
This other man I had dreamed
A drunken, vainglorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near to my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

III

Hearts with one purpose alone
Through summer and winter seem
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.
The horse that comes from the road,
The rider, the birds that range
From cloud to tumbling cloud,
Minute by minute they change;
A shadow of cloud on the stream
Changes minute by minute;
A horse-hoof slides on the brim,
And a horse plashes within it;
The long-legged moor-hens dive,
And hens to moor-cocks call;
Minute by minute they live:
The stone's in the midst of it all.

IV

Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven's part, our part
To murmer name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?
For England may keep faith
For all that is done and said.
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse--
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

Prisoners taken to Straford on 1 May 1916

This list of prisoners were taken to Straford on the 1st of May 1916

ID Surname First Name Address County Occupation Released Notes
1 Agnew A 11 Emeral Street Dublin Home, 33 Clare Street, Liverpool
2 Bagley T 16 Whitworth Row, Seville Place Dublin
3 Bird J 4 Rutland Cottages Dublin
4 Bolger J Blackwater Co Wexford
5 Brennan E 19 Ardrigh Road, Arbour Hill Dublin
6 Boland P 8 Viking Road, Arbour Hill Dublin
7 Breslin J 50 New Street Dublin
8 Breslin P 49 New Street Dublin
9 Bridgeman E 19 Richmond Hill, Rathmines Dublin
10 Broughan J 10 St Lawrence Street Dublin
11 Bryan T 31 Guild Street Dublin
12 Byrne A 42 Arran Quay Dublin
13 Byrne C 3 Camden Place Dublin
14 Byrne C 45 St Mary's Road, Church Road Dublin
15 Burke E 63 Meath Street Dublin
16 Burke F Hermitage, Rathfarnham Dublin
17 Byrne J 28 Malachi Road Dublin
18 Byrne J 6 Whitworth Road Dublin
19 Byrne J 3 Erin Place Lower Dublin
20 Byrne J 45 St Mary's Road, Church Road Dublin
21 Byrne L 42 Arran Quay Dublin
22 Cassidy T 22 Bolton Street Dublin
23 Chancey W 5 Northcourt Avenue, Church Road Dublin
24 Coates P 12 Upper Oriel Street Dublin
25 Cody J 12 Bessboro Avenue, North Strand Dublin
26 Cole P 1 Aughrim Street Dublin
27 Coughlin J Larkfield, Kimmage Dublin
28 Connoughton P 23 Nicholas Street Dublin Home Market Square, Longford
29 Cowling J 6 Sussex Terrace, Mespil Road Dublin
30 Craven B 21 Pool Street Dublin
31 Croke M 4 Milbourne Avenue, Drumcondra Dublin
32 Cullen J 6 Whitworth Place Dublin
33 Callaghan J 18 Moss Street Dublin
34 Carroll M 24 Georges Quay Dublin
35 Carroll R 38 Susanville Road, Drumcondra Dublin
36 Carton O 21 Temple Street Dublin
37 Casey H 11 St Georges Avenue, Drumcondra Dublin
38 Cassidy J 508 North Circular Road Dublin Home, Aughanagh, Letterbreen, Enniskillen
39 Chaney P 5 Northcourt Avenue, Church Road Dublin
40 Clifford D 4 Upper Gardiner Street Dublin
41 Clinch P 28 North Fredrick Street Dublin
42 Coffey J 34 Botanic Avenue Dublin
43 Cullin P 12 Parnell Street Dublin
44 Collins M 16 Rathdown Road, NCR Dublin
45 Conroy J 40 Railway Street Dublin
46 Corbally R 7 Moor Row, Gardiner Street Dublin
47 Corbally T 38 St Patrick's Cottages, Willbrook, Rathfarnham Dublin
48 Cosgrove M Abbotstown, Castleknock Dublin Home, Coolridge, Kilcock
49 Coughlan F 33 Dargle Road Dublin
50 Cowley M Orchardstown, Rathfarnham Dublin
51 Coyle w 21 Temple Street Dublin
52 Cremen M Rockbrook, Rathfarnham Dublin
53 Dalamere E 34 Patrick Street Dublin
54 Daly D Main Street, Cahirciveen Kerry
55 Darcy W 51 Lower Camden Street Dublin
56 Darritt C 4 Russell Street Dublin
57 Dennany P 9a Buckingham Buildings Dublin
58 Dervin P 14 Summer Place Dublin
59 Doggett C 8 Charlemont Street Dublin
60 Donegan J 17 Grantham Street Dublin Parents, 6 Wye Street, Birkenhead
61 Donnelly P Hermitage, Rathgfarnham Dublin
62 Donohoe R 2 Eccles Street Dublin
63 Donohoe S 47 Montpelier Hill Dublin
64 Dore E Main Street, Glin Limerick
65 Dowling A Main Street, Castleknock Dublin
66 Dowling J Main Street, Castleknock Dublin
67 Doyle J 8 Church Lane, Lower Kevin Street Dublin
68 Doyle J 8 Harbour Road, Bullock, Dalky Co Dublin
69 Doyle J 117 Capel Street Dublin
70 Duffy C 3 River Road Cottages, Castleknock Dublin
71 Duffy E Back Road, Castleknock Dublin
72 Duffy J 11 Emeral Street Dublin
73 Duffy J 7 Reuban Avenue Dublin
74 Dunne J 13 Upper Liffey Street Dublin
75 Dunne P 23 North Great Georges Street Dublin
76 Dunne T 14 Upper Liffey Street Dublin
77 Dwyer J 7 Inns Quay Dublin
78 Early J 607 Richmond Place Dublin
79 Edwards M 25 St Michaels Terrace, Bellerville, SCR Dublin
80 English P Dunsink Cottage, Castleknock Dublin
81 Ennis T 3 Richmond Crescent Dublin
82 Farrell M 20 Lower Dorset Street Dublin
83 Farrelly J 5 Temple Cottages, Broadstone Dublin
84 Feeney G 20 Henry Street Dublin
85 Fitzsimons M 8 Blessington Place Dublin
86 Fitzharris J 2 Oriel Place Dublin
87 Fitzmaurice G 2 Orchard Terrace Dublin
88 Flanagan M 40 Moore Street Dublin
89 Flanagan F 30 Moore Street Dublin
90 Flanagan G 30 Moore Street Dublin
91 Flanigan M 14 St Clements Road, Drumcondra Dublin
92 Flood J 19 Summerhill Parade Dublin
93 Ford J 30 Upper Georges Street, Kingstown Dublin
94 Fox J 9 Hawthorn Terrace Dublin
95 Fox M Brasscastle, Knockmaroon, Chapelizod Dublin
96 Foy F Lower Palmerstown, Chapelizod Dublin
97 Fulham T 15 Synott Place Dublin
98 Gahan M 19 Nicholas Street Dublin
99 Gallagher P Edmondstown, Rathfarnham Dublin
100 Garland P 27 Lower Kevin Street Dublin
101 Gavan J 283 Richmond Road, Fairview Dublin
102 Geoghegan J. J 134 North Strand Road Dublin Parents, Ballingrone Juction, Limerick
103 Geraghty C 3 Fingal Place Dublin
104 Gleeson T 50 Lower Domnick Street Dublin
105 Gough J 1 North Richmond Street Dublin Home, New Road, Baldoyle
106 Halpin P 35 Oxmanstown Road Dublin
107 Hammil T 17 St James Terrace, SCR Dublin
108 Hands N 12 Great Longford Street Dublin
109 Harper J 70 Benburb Street Dublin
110 Hayden J 126 James Street Dublin
111 Hayes J 77 Heytesbury Street Dublin
112 Hayes J 5 Marino Avenue, Malahide Road Dublin
113 Healy J 12 Upper Gardiner Street Dublin
114 Healy P 86 Phibsborough Avenue Dublin
115 Heery J 40 Fitzroy Avenue Dublin
116 Hendrick E 12 Upper Domnick Street Dublin
117 Henderson F 5 Windsor Villas, Fairview Dublin
118 Henderson M 14 St Kearin Road, SCR Dublin
119 Henderson T 14 St Kearin Road, SCR Dublin
120 Henry F 25 Charlemont Street Dublin
121 Henry F 5 Fennell's Cottages, Charlemont Street Dublin
122 Horan J 4 Francis Street, Tralee Kerry
123 Hughes T 8 Summerhill Dublin
124 Jackson P 40 Augustine Street Dublin
125 Joyce B Hermitage, Rathfarnham Dublin
126 Joyce D 29 Charles Street Dublin
127 Karns P 10 Daniel Street South Dublin
128 Kavanagh J 45 South Great Georges Street Dublin
129 Kavanagh P 24 St Mary's Road, North Strand Dublin
130 Kearney T Ballyboden, Rathfarnham Co Dublin
131 Keating C 14 Portland Place Dublin
132 Kelly F Coolgariff, Stillorgan Co Dublin
133 Kelly K 93 Lower Dorset Street Dublin
134 Keogh J 11 Brabazon Street Dublin
135 Kelly F. M 53 Gordon Street, Ringsend Dublin
136 Kert P 14 Walkins Street, Ardee Street Dublin
137 Kenny J 25 North Brunswick Street Dublin
138 Kerwin P Maynooth Co Kildare
139 Kilgallon J Hermitage, Rathfarnham Co Dublin
140 King G 25 St Ignatius Road Dublin
141 King G Larkfield, Kimmage Dublin
142 King M 25 St Ignatius Road Dublin
143 King P Larkfield, Kimmage Dublin
144 Lawlor L 29 Ardrigh Road Dublin
145 Ledwith P 63 Blessington Street Dublin
146 Little J 31 Rear Upper Clanbrassil Street Dublin
147 Lowe A 2 Dean Street Dublin
148 Landy J Larkfield, Kimmage Dublin
149 Lynch M 7 St Bridget's Avenue, North Strand Dublin
150 Lynch P 14 Nelson Street Dublin Home, Jonsbrook, Kells, Co Meath
151 Lyons J 39 Finglas Road, Glasnevin Dublin
152 McArdle J 10 North Portland Row Dublin
153 McArdle P 4 North Portland Row Dublin
154 McCormack J 220 Parnell Street Dublin
155 McDonough J 18 Cottages, Station Road, Baldoyle Co Dublin
156 McElligott M 11 Lower St Columbas Road Dublin
157 McEntee J. F 42 Mill Street, Belfast Co Antrim
158 McErratt L 31 Ushers Quay Dublin
159 McGrath M Larkfield, Kimmage Dublin Brothers address, 1 Herbert Street, Kentish Town, London
160 McGuire F. J c/o T. McGuire Derrygonnelly, Fermanagh
161 McGuire R 65 Rathmines Road Dublin
162 McGuirk P 54 Donore Avenue Dublin
163 McKeown O University Coll, Earlsfort Terrace Dublin
164 McMahon D 11 Newmarket Dublin
165 McNulty M The Mill, Blanchardstown Co Dublin
166 McNulty P The Mill, Blanchardstown Co Dublin
167 McPartlin P 32 St Joseph's Place, Dorset Street Dublin
168 MacGinley F 103 Drumcondra Road Dublin
169 Madden J 27 Clonliffe Road Dublin
170 Magee M 20 Ostman Place Dublin
171 Maghar J 1a Montague Street Dublin
172 Mahon J 4 Nixon Street Dublin
173 Marie L 17 Granham Street Dublin
174 Mason Frank 4 Lower Domnick Street Dublin
175 Meade H 68 Cabra Park Dublin
176 Meade J 68 Cabra Park Dublin
177 Meagher P 138 Upper Dorset Street Dublin
178 Meakin G 38 East Essex Street Dublin
179 Monks A 1 Malpas Terrace, New Street Dublin
180 Mooney J River Road cottages, Castleknock Co Dublin
181 Mooney P Riverview, Castleknock Co Dublin
182 Moore J 16 St Josephs Square, Vernon Avenue, Clontarf Dublin
183 Munroe T 7 Little Denmark Street Dublin
184 Murnane W 14 Blackhall Place Dublin
185 Murphy F 9 North Wall Dublin
186 Murphy F Hermitage, Rathfarnham Co Dublin
187 Murphy H 31 Ushers Quay Dublin
188 Murphy J Kilmore Cottages, Artane Co Dublin
189 Murphy P 45 Broughton street, Dundalk Co Louth
190 Murtagh F. D 196 Parnell Street Dublin
191 Murtagh L Lower Palmerstown, Chapelizod Co Dublin
192 Murray T 102 Lower Gardiner Street Dublin
193 Murphy C 9 Upper St Brigid's Road, Drumcondra Dublin
194 Musgrave L 4 St Patrick's Road, Drumcondra Dublin
195 Nolan N Burrowfield, Baldoyle Co Dublin
196 Nolan T 8 Norseman Place Dublin
197 Noonan C 28 Blackhall Place Dublin
198 Noonan E Larkfield, Kimmage Dublin
199 Noonan J Larkfield,Kimmage Dublin
200 O'Brien J 8 Dolphin Barn Dublin
201 O'Brien M 2 Walker's Cottages, Rathmines Dublin
202 O'Brien O 7 Bessborough Parade, Rathmines Dublin
203 O'Brien P 26 St Michael's Terrace, SCR Dublin
204 O'Brien W 75 Fairview Strand, Clontarf Dublin
205 O'Brien T 6 Parkgate Street Dublin
206 O'Byrne J 32 Connaught Street Dublin
207 O'Byrne J 2 Camden Street Dublin
208 O'Connell M 44 Mountjoy Street Dublin
209 O'Connor J 18 Francis Street Dublin
210 O'Connor J 77 Parnell Street Dublin Address, 13 White Lion Street, London
211 O'Connor J 4 Lower Sherrard Street Dublin
212 O'Connor J 10 Beresford Place Dublin
213 O'Connor T 58 Harold's Cross Road Dublin
214 O'Dokerty W 15 Shamrock Terrace, Blarney Cork
215 O'Gorman W 16 Drumcondra Park Dublin
216 O'Hanlon P 31 Upper Wellington Street Dublin
217 O'Higgings B Finglas Co Dublin
218 O'Kelly M 27 Upper Rutland Street Dublin
219 O'Neal M 69 North King Street Dublin
220 O'Neil J 4 Russell Terrace, Church Road Dublin
221 O'Neil J 18 Manor Place Dublin
222 O'Neil T 8 St Mary's Road, Church Road Dublin
223 O'Neil W 7 North Great Georges Street Dublin
224 O'Reilly D 181 North Circular Road Dublin
225 O'Reilly J 32 Commons Street Dublin
226 O'Reilly J 3 Ballybough Lane Dublin
227 O'Reilly J 35 Drumcondra Road Dublin
228 O'Reilly J Chapel Street, Bantry Cork
229 O'Reilly P 43 Geraldine Street Dublin
230 O'Reilly T 10 St Michael's Hill Dublin
231 O'Rourke J 14 Carlingford Terrace, Drumcondra Dublin
232 Oman R 8 Daniels Street Dublin
233 Pollard F 31 Lower Domnick Street Dublin
234 Perry W 19 Ushers Island Dublin
235 Poole C 2 Lower Rutland Street Dublin
236 Poole P 50 Marlborough Street Dublin
237 Price J 15 Killarney Parade Dublin
238 Rankin P 24 Queens Street, Newry Co Down
239 Rath T 12 Grand Canal Harbour Dublin
240 Redmond A 15 Curzon Street Dublin
241 Richmond J 275 North Circular Road Dublin
242 Ring C 5 Sackville Gardens Dublin
243 Ring J 17 Clonmore Terrace Dublin
244 Ring W 4 Sackville Gardens Dublin
245 Ross W 11 Sherrard Street Dublin
246 Ryan D St Enda's College, Rathfarnham Dublin
247 Ryan J 19 Ranalagh Road Dublin
248 Ryan L 4 Portobello Harbour Dublin
249 Seery J 10 Beresford Place Dublin
250 Shelly C 78 St Agustine Street Dublin
251 Sheridan J 10 Carters Lane, Smithfield Dublin
252 Shorthall W 3 St Joseph's Terrace, Upper Wellington Street Dublin
253 Shonldice F 3 Marino Crescent, Clontarf Dublin
254 Sheils T 36 Moyelta Road, West Road Dublin
255 Smith J 3 Pile's Buildings, Wood Street Dublin
256 Steinmayer C 70 Lombard Street Dublin
257 Sullivan J 4 Camden Place Dublin
258 Sullivan J 550 North Circular Road Dublin
259 Summers J 7 Henrietta Street Dublin
260 Swan P 15 Belvedere Avenue, NCR Dublin
261 Sweeney J Hermitage, Rathfarnham Dublin
262 Sweeney J Butterfield Avenue, Rathfarnham Dublin
263 Sweeney P Butterfield Avenue, Rathfarnham Dublin
264 Thornton H Larkfield, Kimmage Dublin
265 Toban M 35 Sullivan Street Dublin
266 Tobin M 28 Castlewood Avenue, Rathfarnham Dublin
267 Touhy S 73 Bride Street Dublin
268 Turmley J 37 Garden Lane Dublin
269 Turner H 10 Summerhill Dublin
270 Tyrall T Maynooth Co Kildare
271 Vize J 70 Seville Place Dublin
272 Waler P Shannon Hill, Enniscorthy Co Wexford
273 Walpole H 3 Ranelagh Road Dublin
274 Walsh J 74 Parnell Street Dublin
275 Walsh J 3 Sherrard Avenue Dublin
276 Ward G 44 Home Farm Road, Drumcondra Dublin
277 Whelan G 19 Russell Street Dublin
278 Whelan J 50 Marlborough Street Dublin
279 Whelan J 14 Marlborough Street Dublin
280 Whelan W 31 Ballybough Road Dublin
281 White J 10 Summers Street Dublin

St. Patrick

It would not be Irish History with a discussion of St. Patrick on March 17th.

Saint Patrick's Day (March 17th), is an Irish holiday honoring Saint Patrick, the missionary credited with converting the Irish to Christianity (in the A.D. 400's).

Saint Patrick was not actually Irish. Historical sources report that he was born around 373 A.D. in either Scotland (near the town of Dumbarton) or in Roman Britain (the Romans left Britain in 410 A.D.). His real name is believed to be Maewyn Succat (he took on Patrick, or Patricus, after he became a priest). He was kidnapped at the age of 16 by pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland (I am not making this up). During his 6-year captivity (he worked as a shepherd), he began to have religious visions, and found strength in his faith. He finally escaped (after voices in one of his visions told him where he could find a getaway ship) and went to France, where he became a priest (and later a bishop).

When he was about 60 years old, St. Patrick travelled to Ireland to spread the Christian word. It's said that Patrick had an unusually winning personality, and that helped him win converts. He used the shamrock, which resembles a three-leafed clover, as a metaphor to explain the concept of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).

Legend has it that Saint Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland -- that they all went into the sea and drowned. Poor snakes. I don't know why he would want to do this, except that the snake was a revered pagan symbol,and perhaps this was a figurative tale alluding to the fact that he drove paganism out of Ireland.

In America, Saint Patrick's Day is a basically a time to wear green and party. The first American celebration of Saint Patrick's Day was in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1737. As the saying goes, on this day "everybody is Irish!" Over 100 U.S. cities now hold Saint Patrick's Day parades, the largest held in New York City.

Green is associated with Saint Patrick's Day because it is the color of spring, Ireland, and the shamrock. (However, the color blue is associated with St. Patrick - my edit.) Leprechauns are also associated with this holiday, although I'm not sure why. Leprechauns of legend are actually mean little creatures, with the exception of the Lucky Charms guy. They were probably added later on because capitalists needed something cute to put on greeting cards.

The Breastplate of St. Patrick

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this day to me for ever.
By power of faith, Christ's incarnation;
His baptism in the Jordan river;
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb;
His riding up the heavenly way;
His coming at the day of doom;*
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of the cherubim;
The sweet 'well done' in judgment hour,
The service of the seraphim,
Confessors' faith, Apostles' word,
The Patriarchs' prayers, the Prophets' scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord,
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the starlit heaven,
The glorious sun's life-giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea,
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward,
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility,
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan's spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart's idolatry,
Against the wizard's evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave and the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

The Tri-Colour Flag Over the GPO

Despite the huge setback the Council leaders decided to carry on. The Rising was now given the 'go-ahead' for the next day - Easter Monday, but could only feasibly (due to the lack of weapons) take place in Dublin. Smaller Risings were still scheduled for Galway and Wexford, however. Pearse ordered the troops for action at noon.

Headquarters was the General Post Office (G.P.O.) in the center of Dublin, which Pearse, Connolly and their men held. Commandant Edward Daly held the Four Courts, the Mendicity Institute and various central Dublin streets; Commandant Thomas MacDonagh was stationed at Jacob's biscuit factory; Commandant Eamonn de Valera held Boland's Flour Mill and various streets; Commandant Eamonn Ceantt was stationed at the South Dublin Union and Marrowbone Distillery and, the only woman, Countess Markievicz held, along with Commandant Michael Mallin, St. Stephen's Green and the College of Surgeons. All the rebel armies were now in place. The British were ill prepared and little fighting took place on the first day of the Rising.

At 12.30 on Easter Monday, flags that had been sent for from Liberty Hall, flew over the G.P.O.; one was green with a golden harp bearing the words (in Irish) 'The Irish Republic', and the other was a flag that had never been seen before - a tricolor of green, white and gold (the Tricolor was to later become the national flag of Ireland). Pearse emerged from the G.P.O. into O'Connell street, where he read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic or 'Poblacht na h Eireann' to a bemused and bewildered gathering of Dubliners.

Kilmainham Goal - Main Entrance

Edmund Wellisha, the head guard at the prison, was convicted of undernourishing prisoners in support of the rebellion.

Kilmainham Gaol has played an important part in Irish history, as many leaders of Irish rebellions were imprisioned and some executed in the prison by the British and latterly in 1923 by the Irish Free State.

When it was first built in 1796, Kilmainham Gaol was called the 'New Gaol' to distinguish it from the old gaol it was intended to replace - a noisome dungeon, just a few hundred yards from the present site. It was officially called the County of Dublin Gaol, and was originally run by the Grand Jury for County Dublin. Over the 128 years it served as a prison, its cells held many of the most famous people involved in the campaign for Irish independence. The British imprisoned and executed the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising here.its cells were roughly 28metre squared.

Children were sometimes arrested for petty theft, the youngest said to be a seven year-old boy, while many of the adult prisoners were deported to Australia.

There was no segregation of prisoners; men, women and children were incarcerated up to 5 in each cell, with only a single candle for light and heat, most of their time was spent in the cold and the dark.
Kilmainham Gaol was abandoned as a prison in 1924, by the government of the new Irish Free State. Following lengthy restoration, it now houses a museum on the history of Irish nationalism and offers guided tours of the building. An art gallery on the top floor exhibits paintings, sculptures and jewelry of prisoners incarcerated in prisons all over contemporary Ireland.

The Proclamation

POBLACHT NA h-EIREANNTHE

PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC

TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND

Irishmen and Irishwomen:

In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom.

Having organized and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organization, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and through her open military organizations, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes that moment, and, supported by her exiled children in America and by gallant allies in Europe, but relying in the first on her own strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory.

We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State. And we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations.

The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irish woman. The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities of 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, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority in the past.

Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment of a permanent National Government, representative of the whole people of Ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, the Provision Government, hereby constituted, will administer the civil and military affairs of the Republic in trust for the people.
　
We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the Most High God, Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called.

Signed on behalf of the Provisional Government,

THOMAS J. CLARKE

SEAN MAC DIERMADA

THOMAS MACDONAGH

P.H. PEARSE

EAMONN CEANNT

JAMES CONNOLLY

JOSEPH PLUNKETT

All of the above men were executed by the British Government for their efforts in trying to secure a free Ireland!

Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa

September 1831 – 29 June 1915
Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa was an Irish Fenian leader and prominent member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. His life as an Irish Fenian is well documented but is perhaps known best in death for the graveside oration given at his funeral by Pádraig Pearse.

Original handwritten script is on display in the Pearse Museum. St. Enda’s, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16. Speech given August 1, 1915 (- 9 months before the Easter Rising. This was a pivotal event with Pearse.)
　
It has been thought right, before we turn away from this place in which we have laid the mortal remains of O’Donovan Rossa that one among us should, in the name of all, speak the praise of that valiant man, and endeavour to formulate the thought and the hope that are in us as we stand around his grave. And if there is anything that makes it fitting that I rather than another, I rather than one of the greyhaired men who were young with him and shared in his labour and in his suffering, should speak here, it is perhaps that I may be taken as speaking on behalf of a new generation that has been re-baptised in the Fenian faith and that has accepted the responsibility of carrying out the Fenian programme.

I propose to you then that, here by the grave of this unrepentant Fenian, we renew our baptismal vows; that, here by the grave of this unconquered and unconquerable man, we ask of God, each one for himself, such unshakable purpose, such high and gallant courage, such unbreakable strength of soul as belonged to O’Donovan Rossa. Deliberately here we avow ourselves, as he avowed himself in the dock, Irishmen of one allegiance only. We of the Irish volunteers and you others who are associated with us in today’s task and duty are bound together and must stand together henceforth in brotherly union for the achievement of the freedom of Ireland. And we know only one definition of freedom: it is Tone’s definition, it is Mitchel’s definition, it is Rossa’s definition. Let no man blaspheme the cause that the dead generations of Ireland served by giving it any other name or definition than their name and their definition.

We stand at Rossa’s grave not in sadness but rather in exaltation of spirit that it has been given to us to come thus into so close a communion with that brave and splendid Gael. Splendid and holy causes are served by men who are themselves splendid and holy. O’Donovan Rossa was splendid in the proud manhood of him, splendid in the heroic grace of him, splendid in the Gaelic strength and clarity and truth of him. All that splendour and pride and strength was compatible with a humility and a simplicity of devotion to Ireland, to all that was olden and beautiful and Gaelic in Ireland, the holiness and simplicity of patriotism of a Michael O’ Cleary or of an Eoghan O’Growney. The clear true eyes of this man almost alone in his day visioned Ireland as we of today would surely have her: not free merely, but Gaelic as well; not Gaelic merely, but free and noble as well.

In a closer spiritual communion with him now than ever before or perhaps ever again, in spiritual communion with those of his day, living and dead, who suffered with him in English prisons, in communion of spirit too with our own dear comrades who suffer in English prisons today, and speaking on their behalf as well as on our own. we pledge to Ireland our love, and we pledge to English rule in Ireland our hate. This is a place of peace, sacred to the dead, where men should speak with all charity and with all restraint but I hold it a Christian thing, as O’Donovan Rossa held it, to hate evil, to hate untruth, to hate oppression; and, hating them, to strive to overthrow them. Our foes are strong and wise and wary; but, strong and wise and wary as they are, they cannot undo the miracles of God who ripens in the hearts of young men the seeds sown by the young men of a former generation. And the seed sown by the young men of ‘65 and ‘67 are coming to their miraculous ripening today.

Rulers and Defenders of Realms had need to be wary if they would guard against such processes. Life springs from death: and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations. The Defenders of this Realm have worked well in secret and in the open. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools! — they have left us our Fenian dead, and, while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.

Arthur Zimmermann

October 5, 1864 - June 6, 1940

He was State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the German Empire from November 22, 1916, until his resignation on August 6, 1917.

In late 1914, Zimmermann was visited by Roger Casement, the Irish revolutionary. A plan was laid to land 25,000 soldiers in the west of Ireland with 75,000 rifles. However, the German general staff did not agree.

In 1916, Casement returned to Ireland in a U-boat and was captured and executed. A German ship renamed the "Aud", flying Norwegian colours, shipped 20,000 rifles to the south Irish coast but it failed to link up with the rebels and was scuttled. Planning on this support, a minority of the Irish volunteers launched the Easter Rising in Dublin. Though the Rising failed, its political effect led on to the Anglo-Irish war in 1919-21 and the formation of the Irish Free State.

Michael Flanagan

1876 - 7 August 1942

He was not involved in the Easter Rising but in the aftermath he became one of the key figures in the resurgent Republican Movement. He was the main organiser of Count Plunkett’s by-election campaign in north Roscommon. This was the first of three by-election victories for Sinn Féin in 1917. In October of that year, O’Flanagan was elected vice-president of Sinn Féin.

Robert Monteith

Robert Monteith & Group of Commanders - the National Volunteers

Captain Robert Monteith (1880-1956) was summoned to General Staff in Berlin on 1st March 1916 and was told of the Easter Rising and the German arms that were to be sent by sea to Ireland. Monteith informed Casement, who was motivated to leave his sick bed for Berlin. The Germans wanted to send Casement and all his 56 man Brigade to Ireland with the weapons, so ridding themselves of both Casement and his men.There was a few weeks of bad tempered negotiations between Casement and the German General Staff, as Casement thought the proposed Rising in Ireland was futile and did not wish to send the Irish brigade. Finally, and it is not clear why, the Germans agreed to provide a submarine to take Casement, Monteith and Bailey ( a sergeant in the Irish brigade) to Ireland ahead of the ship, the Aud, carrying the arms.

They set off in the U-20 bound for Ireland on 11 April 1916, but technical problems forced the submarine to return to port. They transfered to the U-20 and set off again on 15 April 1916. The submarine reached Tralee Bay in Kerry on 21 April The reception committee from the Irish failed to materialise. About 2 a.m., Robert Monteith, Daniel Bailey (calling himself Beverly), and Casement climbed into a small boat for the trip to shore. Their boat capsized before they reached Banna Strand, near Tralee. Monteith helped an exhausted Casement to safety on shore. Casement was convinced that the Rising could not work without a large number of German troops, and the best he had been able to obtain was one boatload of arms. Leaving Casement at the ruins of McKenna's Fort, Monteith and Bailey headed for Tralee. About 1:30 p.m., Casement was discovered by two Royal Irish Constabulary officers. He nearly talked his way out of being arrested, but a 12-year-old boy at the scene pointed out a piece of paper Casement had tossed away as the police approached. On that paper was a German code list.

Monteith avoided capture, unlike his two companons, and in December 1916 was finally about to make his escape from Ireland to Liverpool, and then on to New York. The transatlantic journey he made using the false papers of a stoker, and acted that role, for which he was not physically capable, with difficulty. Eventually he was put on lighter work, and managed to get ashore in New York undetected.

John Bulmer Hobson

John Bulmer Hobson (1883 - 1969) was a leading member of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) before the Easter Rising in 1916. Though he was a member of the organisation that planned the Rising, he was opposed to it being carried out, and attempted to prevent it.

He is also notable for swearing Patrick Pearse into the IRB in late 1913.

Though he remained a member of the IRB, like Volunteers chief-of-staff, Eoin MacNeill, he was kept unaware of the plans for the Rising. Though he could detect underground preparations, he had no certain evidence.

He would later be told by Volunteers officers J. J. O'Connell and Éimer Duffy that the Volunteers had received orders for the Rising, timed for Easter Sunday, and he subsequently alerted MacNeill about what the IRB had planned. MacNeill issued a countermanding order, which meant that most Volunteers did not take part.

Hobson was kidnapped by the organisers of the rising to stop him from spreading news of MacNeill's order, and was held in a safehouse in Phibsboro until the Rising was well underway.

Robert Erskine Childers

25 June 1870 – 24 November 1922

Unbeknown to Childers the Irish Volunteers organiser at Howth, Bulmer Hobson, was a founding member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and at Easter 1916 the Brotherhood used the "Howth Mausers" to mount the historic Easter Rising.

Hobson himself did not support the rising and Casement, who had arranged to supply the rebels with a further shipload of arms direct from the German military, was under arrest with his consignment sunk. The uprising was crushed in heavy fighting and was followed by a strict imposition of martial law.

Childers, on temporary leave in London, was shocked by the harsh and summary punishments authorised by General John Maxwell, but as a serving officer he could do little. The violent suppression of the Easter Rising had dismayed Childers and a Westminster bill to extend military conscription to Ireland, while the Army still controlled much of the country in the aftermath of the insurrection angered him further: he described the proposal as "insane and criminal".

Austin Stack

7 December 1879 – 27 April 1929

He became politically active in 1908 when he joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood. In 1916, as commandant of the Kerry Brigade of the Irish Volunteers, he made preparations for the landing of arms by Roger Casement. Although he was made aware that Casement was arrested on Easter Saturday and was being held in Tralee, he made no attempt to rescue him from Ballymullen Barracks. District Inspector Kearney (RIC) treated Casement very well and made sure Stack was aware that Casement could have been rescued, yet he refused to act as his orders were to rise later.

Stack was arrested and sentenced to death for his involvement in the Rising, however, this was later commuted to penal servitude for life. He was released under general amnesty in June 1917 and was elected as an abstentionist Sinn Féin Member of Parliament for Kerry West in the 1918 Westminster election, becoming a member of the 1st Dáil. He was automatically elected as an abstentionist member of the House of Commons of Southern Ireland and a member of the 2nd Dáil as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála for Kerry–Limerick West at the 1921 elections.

Thomas Ashe

12 January 1885 – 25 September 1917

Leader of the North County Dublin Volunteers in the Rising), Sentenced to Death; Sentence commuted to Penal servitude for life.

Born in Kerry, Ashe was an active member of both the Irish Volunteers and the Gaelic League. During the rising, he led his command in an engagement with the RIC (Royal Irish Constabulary) Ashbourne in County Dublin, capturing four barracks and large quantities of arms and ammunition. After the surrender he was sentenced to death, but this was commuted and he was released from
jail in 1917.

Later that same year he was arrested again, this time for making 'speeches calculated to cause disaffection' and was sentenced to one year hard labour at Mountjoy Prison. He demanded, along with other Republicans in the jail, to be treated as a prisoner of war. When these demands were refused, the prisoners went on hunger strike. Thomas Ashe died 25 September, 1917, as a result of incorrectly administered forcible feeding. 30,000 people marched in his funeral procession, led by Irish Volunteers in uniform.

Sean Heuston

21 February 1891(1891-02-21) – Executed 8 May 1916

Heuston joined the Irish Volunteers soon after their formation in November 1913, eventually becoming a captain in Ned Daly’s 1st Battalion. He worked hard with his company, organising marches and field manoeuvres, fostering a spirit of commitment and camaraderie, and procuring arms and equipment by purchase and any other means at his disposal.

On Easter Monday he was assigned command at the Mendicity Institution, a building on the south side of the river Liffey, to the west of the Four Courts where Daly and the 1st Battalion were based. Heuston’s function was to control the route between the Royal Barracks (later Collins Barracks, now the National Museum of Ireland) and the Four Courts for some hours so that Daly and the remainder of the 1st Battalion would have time to settle in. In the event, Heuston and his force of less than 30 men held out for over two days. Surrounded and in a hopeless situation, Heuston surrendered on Wednesday to save the lives of his men. Seán Heuston was tried by court-martial and sentenced to death. He was executed on 8 May.

At twenty-five years and two months, he was the youngest of those executed. Between 3.45 and 4.05am on 8 May 1916, Sean Heuston was shot in the former stonebreakers yard at Kilmainham Prison. His remains were later buried in Arbour Lane Cemetery. He was unmarried. He was survived by his mother and his brother Michael, then a student for the priesthood at the Dominican Priory, Tallaght.

Sean Connolly

Only a week before the rising, Sean Connolly of the Abbey Theatre was playing the lead role in James Connolly's new play 'Under Which Flag' in its first performance at Liberty Hall. The play was about an Irishman torn between serving in the Irish or the British army, and ended with Connolly raising a green flag and uttering the words 'Under this flag only will I serve. Under this flag, if need be, will I die.'

During the rising, it was Connolly who lead the group that entered Dublin Castle, firing the first shot that killed a British soldier, Castle guard, James O'Brien. Connolly's men moved from there to take up a position at City Hall, where Connolly himself was shot while attempting to hoist to the top of the City Hall dome the very same green flag that he had used in the play. The first to kill, he became the first of the Rebels to be killed in the Easter Uprising.

Michael O’Hanrahan

March 17, 1877 – Executed May 4, 1916

He was second in command of Dublin's 3rd battalion under Commandant Thomas MacDonagh, though his role as such was usurped by the last minute addition of John MacBride to the battalion (as, one could argue, was MacDonagh's). He fought at Jacob's Biscuit Factory, though the battalion saw little action throughout Easter week, as the British Army largely circumvented their position.
O'Hanrahan was executed by firing squad on May 4, 1916. His brother, Henry O'Hanrahan, was sentenced to penal servitude for life for his role in the Easter Rising.

Wexford railway station is named in commemoration of O'Hanrahan, as is the road bridge over the River Barrow at New Ross.

Michael Mallin

Birth: 1874 Death: Executed May 8, 1916

Michael drew James Connelly's attention when these bands were included in the Irish Citizens Army (ICA) and he became drill instructor. At the time of the Easter Rising Michael Mallin was the second in command of the Irish Citizens Army (ICA).

According his own statement Michael Mallin was not informed about an upcoming rising. James Connolly ordered him on Easter Monday to go to Saint Stephens Green with 36 men and report at the officer of the Irish Volunteer Force (IVF) there. Soon after he had arrived the shooting began and Countess Markievicz made him the commanding officer of Saint Stephens Green. In no-time the serene city park was transformed in a wasteland with hasty raised barricades of motorcycles and criss-cross dug trenches. Remarkably they did not made attempts to seize the buildings. Although one might question Mallin's statement it is apparent that there were no plans for occupying and defending Saint Stephens Green. For those unfamiliar with the situation: Saint Stephens Green is a real city park, with several access roads and enclosed by buildings. It is simply impossible to keep such location without controlling the buildings. Not surprising that Saint Stephens Green was the first stronghold to collapse on the third day of the Rising, forcing the Republicans to withdraw in the adjacent Royal College of Surgeons.

Michael Mallin refused to abandon the Royal College of Surgeons. It took a direct order from James Connelly to persuade Michael Mallin to surrender on Sunday 30 April, two days after Pádraig Pearse and James Connolly. Michael Mallin was executed on 8 May 1916 in Kilmainham Gaol.

Martin Savage

1898 – 19 December 1919

Savage moved to Dublin in 1915 and joined the Irish Volunteers. As a 17 year old he took part in the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin and fought with Padraig Pearse and James Connolly in the GPO. He was captured by the British Army and imprisoned in Richmond Barracks. On 30 April 1916, he was deported to Knutsford Detention Barracks in Cheshire, England along with 200 other captured prisoners. Upon his release Savage returned to Dublin and resumed his fight for Irish freedom and became a Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion of the Dublin Brigade. Within republican circles he was known as a shy, slim built, handsome Sligonian who was a popular and trusted comrade especially amongst the likes of Dan Breen, Seán Treacy and Seán Hogan.