Voices from the Easter Rising,
Ruán O’Donnell and Mícheál Ó hAodha
(Merrion Press 2016)
J. Anthony Gaughan
This is a collection of eye-witness accounts of the Easter Rising. Most of them are taken from the Bureau of Military History Archive, which is now online. Also included are statements in previously unpublished letters, diaries, and memoirs by members of the public of their experiences in Dublin during that fateful week.
In addition there are the reminiscences of two serving officers of the British forces in Ireland. Captain E. Gerrard describes some of the fighting on the outskirts of Dublin, and Captain Harry De Courcy-Wheeler details how the surrender was effected at the end of the week.
Guard
The authorities in Dublin Castle were totally unprepared for the Rising. As Louisa Hamilton Norway, wife of the manager of the General Post Office, informed a friend, it was not until the outbreak of the World War that a guard was placed in the GPO and on Easter Monday when the insurgents broke in that guard – a sergeant and four squaddies – had no ammunition for their weapons!
More remarkable was the official mindset, with regard to the Sinn Féin movement. The policy of John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, was to treat it with utter contempt, referring to it “as a small body of cranks who were thirsting for notoriety”; and the authorities in Dublin Castle adopted his view. It was a view shared by loyalists.
St John G. Ervine, the playwright, viewed the parade of Irish Volunteers on St Patrick’s Day just before the Rising and commented contemptuously on their ragtag appearance and obsolete and useless arms.
Desmond Ryan, a pupil in St Enda’s, describes the week-long preparations for the Rising in Patrick Pearse’s school. Frank de Búrca, another pupil, recalls the confusion caused by Eoin MacNeill’s countermand: he relates that when the group from St Enda’s mobilised on Easter Monday at the church in Rathfarnham they were approached by MacNeill in person who warned them that they were being led into a trap and unsuccessfully urged them to disband and return home.
The witness statements indicate the deep commitment of the Irish volunteers to their Catholic faith. The first response of some of them to the mobilisation order was to go to Confession and receive Communion.
Prayer, it seems, was never far from their minds. The Rosary was recited intermittently in the GPO, where some of the insurgents were to be seen with a rifle in one hand and a Rosary beads in the other.
Priests were active throughout the week in organising the provision of food and shelter in the areas worst affected by the fighting. By invitation they provided facilities for Confession to Volunteers in a number of their outposts, including the GPO. They assisted the wounded and the dying, be they insurgents or members of the Crown forces. The Capuchin, Fr Augustine of the Church Street community, played a crucial role in ensuring that the surrender by the Volunteers was concluded without further loss of life.
This is a timely publication. One of its merits is that it reveals the state of mind of the rank and file of the Irish Volunteers who, whether successful or not, were determined to strike a blow for Irish independence.
The biographical notes on the contributors are helpful. However, the book could be improved with the addition of an index and more careful editing.