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Showing posts with label Easter Rising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easter Rising. Show all posts
Dr John Coulter ✍ The latest ‘equality’ propaganda stunt from the republican movement is to use the commemorations of the failed 1916 Easter Rising as an excuse to egg on the pro-Union community to attend such republican coat-trailing events.

Republicans will use the excuse of how Sinn Fein elected representatives have attended Remembrance Sunday and Somme battle commemoration events, so the pro-Union community needs to return that ‘respect’ by attending Rising commemorations.

However, it seems in throwing down the ‘respect our tradition’ gauntlet to Unionists, republicans have ripped the word ‘context’ out of their political dictionaries.

Easter should be about commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but the real Easter message also seems to have become largely buried under the traditions of chocolate eggs and bunnies, bonnet competitions and shifting the caravan season into top gear.

For many in the pro-Union community, Easter marks the start of the traditional marching season with the Loyal Orders and bands taking to the streets. Many republicans, likewise, see Easter as the traditional homage to the men and women of 1916 who used the excuse of the Great War to stage yet another failed coup in Ireland.

Given the current splits within republicanism, it’s hard for us Unionists to know which is the real 1916 commemoration and which republican groups are merely jumping on the homage bandwagon.

However, what many republicans conveniently ignore is that there is a major difference between the events of the failed Rising and what was happening in the trenches of Europe in 1916.

Catholics and Protestants, nationalists and Unionists, died in their tens of thousands side by side during World War One. Remembrance Sunday commemorates all who served and sacrificed to combat the tyranny of the German Kaiser and the evils of Hitler’s Nazism during the Second World War. So why would the pro-Union community want to commemorate a ‘stab in the back coup’ during the Dublin Rising of 1916?

Has republican airbrushing and revising history now become so cocky that they actually push the myth that German machine-gunners at the Somme only targeted the 36th Ulster Division, made up mainly of Protestants from Lord Carson’s original 1912 Ulster Volunteer Force.

Surely the Germans did not yell – ‘would all the nationalists in the 16th Irish Division please move aside so that we can shoot only the Unionists in the 36th Ulster Division!’

Whilst that last paragraph may seem flippant, the pro-Union community should not underestimate the desire of republicanism to rewrite or airbrush history to suit its ideological agenda for Irish unity.

Republicans are entitled to commemorate their so-called ‘patriotic dead’, but many Unionists see the Easter Rising events as an insult to the tens of thousands of Irish nationalists who joined the British Army to fight in the Western front’s horrific trench warfare.

The 1916 Rising was not like 1798 and the Presbyterian-led United Irishmen’s rebellion where Protestant and Catholic fought alongside each other.

Neither is it like the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 where King William, the Prince of Orange, used his elite Catholic troops – the Dutch Royal Blues – to cross the river and strategically win the battle.

Of course, republicans may try to muddy the historical waters by insisting that a small number of the Irish Volunteers or members of the Irish Citizen Army who took part in the failed 1916 coup were actually from the Protestant tradition.

Likewise, given the ethnic cleansing policies against the pro-Union community by the Provisional IRA during the Troubles, especially by its so-called East Tyrone and South Armagh ‘brigades’, does the Sinn Fein leadership really expect Unionists to attend events honouring dead IRA terrorists?

There is a major difference between an Irish nationalist who donned the military uniform of the 16th Irish Division and fought German soldiers in the Great War, often in hand to hand combat, and the Provisional IRA terrorist who sneaks into a town and plants a no-warning bomb at the Cenotaph in Enniskillen aimed at killing civilians.

That’s why calls from republican elected representatives for the pro-Union community to attend Easter Rising events ring hallow just because a few Sinn Fein representatives have attended wreath laying ceremonies to mark all religions who served in the First and Second World wars.

Just as the republican movement has weaponised the Irish language – a language which Sinn Fein conveniently forgets was saved from extinction by mainstream Presbyterians – so too republicans seemed to have even weaponised the dead.

While republicans should have the freedom to honour those they consider to be their ‘patriotic dead’, they should not force those ceremonies on other people.

My cousin was an RUC Reservist killed on duty in Tyrone by an IRA booby-trap bomb in the Seventies. Does Sinn Fein actually expect me to attend any ceremony which ‘commemorates’ IRA terrorists who served in the East Tyrone ‘brigade’?

One of my chums was also an RUC Reservist; he was shot dead by the IRA in Ballymena in the Seventies as he walked home. Does Sinn Fein also think I would attend any ‘ceremony’ to mark its so-called North Antrim ‘brigade’?

Republicans also hold regular commemorations to remember the eight IRA terrorists from the East Tyrone ‘brigade’ who were shot dead by the SAS in the Loughgall ambush in May 1987.

One of the terrorists shot dead was Sinn Fein councillor Jim Lynagh, nicknamed the Executioner. He once turned up outside a church to shoot my late dad, Rev Dr Robert Coulter MBE, a Presbyterian minister and a former North Antrim UUP MLA.

Fortunately, the church service finished ahead of schedule and dad had left the area. Does Sinn Fein actually believe that I, as a life-long Unionist, would seriously attend any ‘commemoration’ to Lynagh and his fellow terrorists?

Republicans may crow that the late Queen Elizabeth II, as part of a state visit to Southern Ireland, laid a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance memorial to Irish folk who fought the British during the War of Independence.

However, that does not mean that relatives of loved ones murdered by the Provisional IRA will be queuing up to attend any so-called ‘commemoration’ events organised by the republican movement. Republicans really need to get a better understanding of the word ‘context’.
 
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. 

Do Republican Dictionaries Not Have The Word ‘Context’?

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ Students of Irish history will be aware, or certainly should be aware, of the events which took place in Dublin beginning on the 24th April 1916. 

The Easter Rising was originally scheduled for Sunday 23rd April of that year but due to the nominal chief of the Irish Volunteers, Eoin MacNeill, cancelling all volunteer manoeuvres and activities for that day due to the fact he, as nominal chief of Staff, had heard the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) were planning not the usual manoeuvres but a rising against British rule in Ireland which he opposed. 

The Easter Rising had been planned in secret by the IRB which now included the Marxist trade union leader James Connolly among the Army Council. It was decided to postpone the rising for 24 hours after MacNeill’s countermand which was in most newspapers. The two armies to lead the rebellion were the Irish Volunteers, officered by the bourgeois strata of society (the employing classes) with many middle-class men in their ranks as well as trade unionists and shopkeepers or petit bourgeoisie. It would be fair to say the Volunteers would represent the interests of the bourgeoisie generally and their vision of a post rising Ireland, should it have been successful, was poles apart from their allies the Irish Citizen Army. 

The ICA was predominantly working-class though not exclusively, as Constance (Countess) Markievicz was an officer in the ICA as was Dr Kathleen Lynn, the ICA medical officer. Most ICA officers were working-class and were elected by the rank and file of the army. Unlike the Irish Volunteers the Irish Citizen Army practiced gender equality as can be gauged by both Markievicz and Lynn holding officer rank, and women were armed and fought alongside the men. A marriage of convenience putting all political ideologies to aside for the duration. The difference was summed up in the RTE series; Rebellion, when an ICA Volunteer met an Irish Volunteers to tell him the rebellion was still on for the 24th. The reaction of both was friendly hugs, with the Irish Citizen Army man shouting “up the workers republic” and the Irish Volunteer man replying “up the republic”. As can be gleaned the word “workers” makes a world of difference to both armed groups ultimate goals. James Connolly, Commandant of the ICA and General Secretary of the Irish Transport and Workers Union (ITGWU), had his own long-term plans depending on three important factors!

Connolly had been planning a rising of his own using the Irish Citizen Army as the vanguard. When an ICA Volunteer asked about their inferior numbers, the ICA had weapons for around 200 volunteers, Connolly replied; “the working-class will make up the numbers”. When the leadership of the IRB found out about Connolly’s plan for his own rebellion, they held a meeting with him persuading the union boss that he should come in with them. Connolly was co-opted on to the IRB leadership putting him in pole position, unknown to Padraig Pearse, Thomas Clarke and the rest of the council, to carry out his own plans post rebellion. This was entirely dependent on the Easter Rising being a success which, after MacNeill’s cancellation order, looked increasingly unlikely. And prior to this countermanding it was essential the arms ship, the Aud, landed its cargo of 20,000 rifles and ammo at Fenit County Kerry between Thursday 20th and Sunday 23rd April 1916. 

Connolly was in a position within the IRB to ensure no repeat of the Howth landing of guns in 1914 when Bulmer Hobson said; “none of these rifles must go to the Irish Citizen Army.” This would be different - the Irish Citizen Army were to have the cream of the crop so to speak. James Connolly despatched William Partridge, ITGWU and Irish Citizen Army, to supervise the offloading of the guns using ITGWU labour only. This way the ICA would have the cream of the weapons, as the Irish Volunteers already had their guns from the 1914 landing and they would get some of the Aud's cargo after the ICA. Connolly intended arming the Irish Citizen Army, making it a force five times larger than the present 200. His intentions were to formulate a socialist revolution, led by the working-class, if these two factors fell into place. The third factor for Connolly’s plan to succeed was the involvement of the working class, using the trade union movement particularly the ITGWU. There were many Volunteers, Connolly would hope, who would come over to the ICA and the cause of socialism. Richard O’Carroll, a union leader in the building trade, would probably be one such Volunteer who would come over. His union, The Ancient Guild of Incorporated Brick and Stonelayers Trade Union, supported the unskilled workers in the Dublin Lockout 1913/14, perhaps the only craft union to do so. He, it was hoped, would not be alone. The main points here were the Aud landing being a success and the Irish coming out of the rising victorious. Then the ‘socialist revolution would begin’ that Connolly had planned with the mass mobilisation of the working-class. When the bourgeoisie lead a revolution towards a republic, they do it only for their own class, when the proletariat (working-class) lead such a revolution they do it for everybody.

There were those who accused Connolly of “betraying” socialism by going in with the IRB and the rising. One such tormentor was P.O Cathasaigh (Sean O’Casey) the former Secretary to the Irish Citizen Army. He accused Connolly of forsaking the “noble cause” of socialism for the “narrow” path of Irish nationalism. Nothing could have been further from the truth but James Connolly could hardly make his long-term objectives public knowledge and P.O Cathasaigh was no longer a member of the ICA and therefore had no need to know. Connolly could not forewarn the employing classes, some of whom were members of the Irish Volunteers, that he intended, after the defeat of the British, to unleash socialist revolution. It is, however, a myth which over the years has gained traction among some historians that James Connolly ‘turned his back’ on socialism which frankly is untrue. When Connolly heard of MacNeill’s countermanding he was livid, more so than any of the Irish Volunteer leaders. “What has this fool done?” he shouted and no wonder: the chances of victory were now slim to say the least and so was Connolly’s socialist revolution.

At the outset of any revolution or rebellion class politics are put on the back burner and with the exception of James Connolly the Easter Rising would be no different. It is only when the proletarian led revolution gets underway, as was the case between February and October 1917 in Russia when the capitalist class took the lead with the Czar abdicating in March, that the class question comes to the fore. Unfortunately the Irish Rebellion did not last long enough for this ideology, outside the ICA, to take hold. Prior to the Easter Rising James Connolly spoke to the ICA telling them:

in the event of victory hold on to your rifles, as those with whom we are fighting may stop before our goals are reached. We are out for economic as well as political freedom. 

It is clear James Connolly had far different long-term plans to those of Padraig Pearse, Thomas Clarke, Eamonn Ceant, Thomas McDonagh, Joseph Plunket and Sean MacDiarmada. MacDiarmada particularly opposed trade unionism and was against Jim Larkin and James Connolly’s tactics of secondary action during the 1913/14 Dublin Lockout. MacDiarmada was particularly opposed to the ITGWU's request for help from British trade unions. He was not alone in the Irish Volunteers with these centre right views. The Irish Volunteers were a very broad-church movement with members of the centre right, like MacDiarmada and some even that could be described as far right, to those on the revolutionary left like trade union leader Richard O’Carroll. Connolly was hoping this socialist faction would come over to the ICA once the British had been defeated. With the countermanding order given by MacNeill the chances of an Irish victory were greatly diminished.

It is all hypothetical now and is based very much on conjecture. The Aud did not manage to land her cargo due to many events which conspired against the rebels. Secondly as we all know the Easter Rising was not a success, certainly in its military sense. Therefore Connolly’s plans to arm the Irish Citizen Army, multiplying its numerical strength by five or more could not be carried out. Thirdly the question of the working-class coming out in support and Connolly arming them did not come into fruition. It is true that during Easter week many came out on the streets for all the wrong reasons, looting and drinking. The women who received benefits from the British state because their husbands were away fighting for the Crown opposed the Rising because they could not get their assistance money! It was not this section of the working-class, the ‘Lumpen Proletariat’, who James Connolly would have been appealing to. Who knows, had Connolly’s plans come to fruition Ireland could have been the first socialist republic in the world, a year before Russia, later Soviet Russia, achieved for a short time this ideological achievement. Unfortunately this did not happen and we have finished up with a 26-county bourgeoisie republic with mass homelessness, poor health services (not to be confused with health care) and relatively weak organised labour. How much better things may have turned out! 

Ireland would have to wait until 1919 and the ‘Limerick Soviet’ for such Marxist ideology to surface again and that is another episode in Irish history.
       
Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

1916 🪶James Connolly And Beyond 🪶The Possibilities

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ Ireland is full of historical recurrences reappearing in slightly different guises but essentially a remake of past events. 


The Good Friday Agreement in many respects is no different to this trend, as it mirrors the Treaty of Limerick, 1641 and the Anglo/Irish Treaty of 1921/22 by way of a sell-out. 

Like the GFA, the Treaty of Limerick was consisted of two parts: the first was a military surrender by the forces of King James II to those of King William III and the second was a guarantee of religious and civil liberties to Catholics in Ireland which were ignored greatly. The military agreement led to what is historically called  the “Flight of the Wild Geese” 1691/92. The GFA was also two separate agreements, the Multi Party Agreement (MPA) and the British/Irish Agreement (BIA), the latter being annexed to the former to give the GFA legal status. Like the Treaty of Limerick and the 1921/22 Agreement the latter which sold The Republic down the river, the GFA brings Irish unification no closer as the British Secretary of State can veto many aspects if he/she does not think “it is the right time” for say, a border poll. In fact, arguably the GFA is the sell-out of sell outs!

Since the signing of the “Terms of the Agreement”, leading to the “Anglo Irish Treaty” on 6th December 1921 no Irish Government has accepted partition as a done deal. Even the W.T. Cosgrave administration, pro-treaty, harboured hopes, based on the ill-fated Border Commission, that partition would be temporary. When de Valera came to power in 1932, he abolished many of the minor details of the treaty and in 1937, taking advantage of the constitutional crisis in London, he drafted his constitution of that year. Articles two and three of that constitution laid claim to the area covered by the six counties governed by Britain. Admittedly he did not do much to achieve the reconquest of the occupied areas but at least he had it written into the constitution of the time - the Dublin Government laid claim to the land, which has now been removed. Today we hear broadly accepted narratives like “Ireland and Northern Ireland” which accepts that two countries exist on the island of Ireland. Such discourse is used by both the twenty-six-county administration and the London Government as well these days as Sinn Fein.

Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 it has become noticeable that both Sinn Fein (P) who were then the political voice of the IRA and the Dublin Government have accepted partition as a living entity which, at least for the foreseeable future is here to stay. This is a historical first insofar as recognition of partition goes, even superficially, because part of the GFA was the removal, or replacement of articles two and three written into the 1937 constitution. 

As for Sinn Fein? Well, what can be said? They have, at very best, parked the bus, at worst driven it over a cliff as regards ending partition. From the twenty-six-county government we have grown to expect nothing less but Sinn Fein, the party who gave political weight to the IRAs military campaign for thirty years, surely nobody expected this did they? I remember a friend of mine and former comrade in the IRSP back in 1988 commenting saying “the Provos are talking of a non- use of weaponry.” So perhaps this about turn in political direction is not such a huge surprise after all! Some party members who, it is alleged, once held high ranking positions in the IRA are now sitting pretty as TDs in the Dail on a high salary. What then of the young volunteers they sent out on active service and, again in many cases, are now pushing up daisies in Milltown or other graveyards across Ireland? 

Like their predecessors who accepted the treaty in 1921/22 and formed the first “Executive Council” of Cumann na nGaedheal in league with the British they have probably conveniently forgotten the republican dead they themselves bear much responsibility for. These young men and women did not die for this. They did not sacrifice their young lives in order that certain elements of the leadership could enjoy well paid cushy numbers in politics, part of which is the betrayal of the republican ideal and certainly forgetting as an immediate issue the ending of partition. 

Again, there is nothing new about this, it has happened before and even as recent as the mid-sixty’s veterans of the War of Independence and the Civil War were sitting in Dail Eireann. In fact, Sean Lemmas, Taoiseach during the mid-sixties himself was a former fighter in both conflicts and did nothing to end partition, something he once thought worth going to war over! When Fianna Fail came to power in 1932, they were the anti-Treaty party in the Irish Civil War. Despite this, veterans and families of who fought on the anti-Treaty side had huge problems obtaining their IRA pensions even after de Valera introduced to 1934 Pensions Act which covered anti-Treaty veterans. Treatment of former volunteers from both sides was not good as unemployment after the Civil War was high as was emigration. For further reading on this I recommend No Middle Path,  Owen O’Shea chapters 14-20.

Today the modern Sinn Fein(P) appear to have forgotten the young volunteers who put them, inadvertently, where they are. Would it not have been more honest (that’s a joke) to have told the young volunteers something along the lines of; “you are all going out today to fight for not The Republic and ending partition by driving the Brits out, but even more importantly so we, in the leadership, can retire on well-paid salaries to Dail Eireann, now that is worth fighting for isn’t it.”? Would that not have been a more honest appraisal of events? Admittedly, not many if any would have volunteered but the leadership's consciences would have been clear!

The shift in policies by Sinn Fein is tantamount to Margaret Thatcher announcing she wished to enter talks with the Dublin Government about handing the six counties back! After this she may have announced compulsory trade union membership as a condition of employment and a massive nationalisation of industry programme before travelling to Argentina for talks over the Falklands/Malvinas!! Like all former revolutionary parties which enter the various bourgeois parliaments around the globe, and Sinn Fein (P) are no exception, they join a right-wing conveyor belt. They cease to be revolutionary in any shape. Both the Irish and British Labour Parties at their inception were, at the time, considered revolutionary. They were formed at a time when liberal democracy was in its infancy. Socialist politics at that time were revolutionary. Once they gained popularity, more so in Britain than the twenty-six-counties, and seats in the parliament the right wing charged begins. It becomes unstoppable and the net results are today’s variants of those once revolutionary parties founded by revolutionary thinkers. Today Sinn Fein epitomise such a shift!!

Let us skip forward now to the so-called “Northern Ireland Protocol” and the ability of a few hundred seventeenth century religious nutters to disrupt it. In fact, unless the Democratic Unionist Party agree to every I being dotted and T being crossed the whole thing, along with that joke of a so-called government, Stormont, collapses. Even if the new deal British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is negotiating on the “Northern Ireland Protocol” is satisfactory to both the UK and EU sides but not the DUP then there is no deal! Sinn Fein and the twenty-six-county government are bending over backwards to accommodate the DUP, even though this party does not represent a majority in the six counties. Sinn Fein are now the largest party in Stormont but insist on allowing the DUP to act as if they are. 

Even by the undemocratic standards of liberal democracy this is a joke beyond jokes. So, we have a situation where 25 DUP MLAs are holding the government of the 26 counties and 27 EU member states to ransom!! 25, 26, 27 how nice, neat and convenient for the DUP. How much longer are the majority going to be bullied by the minority of the DUP? If an agreement is reached tomorrow morning or, by the time of publication of this blog has been reached it will only be with the approval of the DUP. Therefore, in any future negotiations it will be the DUP, irrespective of how many people they represent, even as low as 20%, who will call the shots!! That is worrying, very worrying indeed. One night on TV a loyalist was caught off guard when he was asked; “if in a referendum a majority voted for a united Ireland, would you accept that verdict”. He answered an unreserved “no”. This then is very much in line with DUP thinking it would appear.

While the DUP deliberate over whether they will condescend to support any deal British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is trying to negotiate with the EU the people of the six-counties have no local government, no goods and services or any of the things promised by these parties, including the DUP in the election. Sinn Fein, the largest party in the assembly appear to be allowing the DUP to act as if they are the largest gang! Is this not taking the “chuckle brothers” bollocks a bit too far? The DUP, and their allies in the ERG (European Research Group) in Parliament only care about their own right-wing political aims. The electorate can go and whistle. Is it not time for the people, going without their daily needs due to no assembly sitting, courtesy of the DUP, is it not time for them, republican, loyalist, unionist, nationalist and neither to kick out the self-interested DUP once and for all? Equally, is it not time for Sinn Fein to stand up to this gang of proto-fascists with more than a religious tinge?

As for Sinn Fein (P) (I use the P to differentiate from Republican Sinn Fein who do not go along with this folly) I cannot recall anywhere in the world a party which has binned or, to be kind, done such a dramatic U Turn on their political position in such a short time span. The British Labour Party are now unrecognisable to that of 1905 and have been since the abolition of Clause IV, a commitment to the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, under Tony Blair back in 1997. 

This transformation, though gradually coming since the early eighties, has taken the best part of a century to achieve. The Irish Labour Party probably started their reforms six years after their formation in 1912, in 1918, under the leadership of Thomas Johnson when, in 1918 they agreed to stand “aside” in the general election of that year thus giving the Sinn Fein of the day a clear run. Would James Connolly have accepted the “labour must wait” position held by Sinn Fein as they pushed the labour party aside? I doubt that very, very much. 

So, let us move a little further afield and Germany or, to be a little more precise, West Germany. Founded in 1875 the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) are the oldest political party in the country, now a unified Germany. They adopted a Marxist position for the first eighty-four years of their existence until 1959 at their Bad Godesberg conference they agreed to reform and drop Marxism as their political position thus taking a bourgeois avenue. They too are unrecognisable compare to the original party. Here are three large parties in different countries who have abandoned their positions in favour of reforms and gentrification. It took all of them a number of years to a greater or lesser extent. It took Sinn Fein (P) the time it for the ink to dry on the GFA they had signed to start their reforms publicly. Gone has the thirty-two- county democratic socialist republic, gone has the demand for an immediate British withdrawal, in fact gone have most of the policies, including immediate Irish unity, which had made this variant of Sinn Fein a household name. And what of the IRA? Well, we can forget they ever came about, won’t mention them again and hope nobody else does eh!

So, we have Jefferey Donaldson, leader of the DUP calling all the shots with no apparent opposition either from the British Government, the EU or the twenty-six-county government now accompanied by Sinn Fein (P). Why not give Jeff Dono (sic) and his mob the keys to Number Ten and to the European Parliament, and, while we are at it, Dail Eireann kicking out Sunak and the MEPs of other countries and the TDs of the twenty-six-counties. Where could these leaders go? Broadmoor springs to mind as a permanent residence!!

🖼 Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist

What Would The Men And Women Of Easter Week Have Made Of This Farce?

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ Could the Easter Rising of 1916 have been won by the Irish? 

Yes, it probably could had a different set of conditions prevailed and areas of neglect had not been neglected. 

Perhaps too much was put on the shoulders of James Connolly who, although an able commander and political genius had his limitations. In any situation of such seriousness one person often comes to the fore as the most competent and Connolly was certainly that. However, this does not mean contributing ideas from others would not have been helpful, like suggestions on areas perhaps missed. 

The fact was the other leaders involved at overall command level were not in any way military strategists. The rising itself was organised by the sickly, though very brave, Joe Plunket who had suffered from TB all his life, Padraig Pearse was a School Teacher and a poet, he was not a military man, yet he was the overall Commander in Chief. According to Ernest Blythe, Plunket would have steeled for a German Crowned Prince to become King of Ireland, an idea he proposed to the IRB in January 1915 before Connolly came onboard. Connolly, rightly so, was the overall military commander of all Irish forces, confined for disastrous factors, mainly to Dublin as he was the Commandant General of the Irish Citizen Army, one of the two components making up Irish forces, the other being the much larger Irish Volunteers. These came together, despite overwhelming ideological differences, for the duration, to form the “Army of the Irish Republic”, not, as some think, the Irish Republican Army. 

The Easter Rising was lost for a number of reasons, some of the major ones I shall examine.

Perhaps the first and by far most obvious failing of the rising was man made by the Volunteers Chief of Staff, Eoin MacNeill. The Irish Volunteers had been infiltrated by the secret Irish Republican Brotherhood which had planned on using the Volunteers to stage an armed rebellion against the British Empire of which Ireland was a part. The aim being not so much to smash the empire, just the bit that affected Ireland, meaning separating the country from British rule. Eoin MacNeill was opposed to such an armed confrontation, fearing the Volunteers would stand little chance against the British Army. MacNeill would sanction such armed action only if the promised Home Rule for Ireland was not forthcoming or the British attempted to bring in conscription in Ireland to fight in the slaughter which was covering Europe in the First World War.

The IRB, which now included Connolly who, according to myths, and that is all it is, a myth, had been kidnapped by the IRB due to the fact he was planning an uprising of his own using the Irish Citizen Army. They felt Connolly’s plans may disrupt their own and wanted him onboard, along with the ICA. This is the only part of the story which bears any truth, he was planning to use the ICA for this purpose, but any notion about kidnapping should be quashed. Connolly attended a meeting with the IRB of his own accord, he was not kidnapped. On hearing of the panned rising MacNeill countermanded all Volunteers manoeuvres for Sunday 23rd April 1916, the date originally planned for the rising. This countermanding seriously weakened the manpower who turned out, with the majority under the impression nothing was happening on the Sunday. 

The ICA turned out to a man for the duration, but the numbers for their allies, the Irish Volunteers, were depleted. Obviously, this had an effect on the plans of the IRB. They decided to postpone the rising for twenty-four hours until Monday 24th April at which such time hostilities would begin. MacNeill’s countermanding, though effective in reducing the efficiency of the Irish forces, was not the only reason the Rising failed, or lasted only one week. Even though their numbers were depleted the bravery of those who took part in the field cannot be questioned. On issuing the surrender, countersigned by James Connolly on behalf of the Irish Citizen Army, Padraig Pearse told all outlying garrisons to save any “further damage” to Dublin and hardships for its citizens all Irish forces were to surrender their arms. Sean Heuston, who held command in the Mendicity Institute on the river Liffey argued to fight on, as did Edward Daly, Commandant of the 1st Battalion, as they both felt the Irish side were winning.

The second and perhaps most obvious overlooked building during the rising, or before to be accurate, was perhaps Trinity College. Here were based the Army Officer Training Corps and hundreds of state-of-the-arts rifles, unlike the dated equipment the rebels had at their disposal, and grenades along with much other ordnance. With the loss of the Aud this kit would have been more than useful and would have helped the determined Irish forces to compensate for their lack of numbers. Why did nobody think and bring this to Connolly’s attention? James Connolly had got much right, the defending of the headquarters in the GPO using barricades, the choosing of outlying areas for attack though he did miss, apart from Trinity College other opportunities. Again, it could not all be left to Connolly alone and he should have been helped.

The British were bringing in reinforcements via Kingstown, now Dun Laoghaire, pier. Had this pier been secured they could not have landed these extra men, chiefly the Sherwood Foresters who suffered huge losses at the hands of the rebels in the Battle of Mount Street Bridge. However, if they had been prevented landing in the first place those of the Sherwoods who went to fight on would not have been able to do so. Was this an opportunity missed through not paying enough attention to Britain’s maritime capabilities? Or, would such action by the insurgents have been impractical given the man shortage? Did anybody even think of securing Dun Laoghaire? Who knows? All is well with hindsight. Could such an area have been secured without artillery? Perhaps even with a full complement of volunteers this may have been too much, it would have involved hand-to-hand combat with seasoned troops. The main question is, was this point of disembarkation of Crown forces ever considered?

With greater reconnaissance the poorly defended Dublin City Hall and Dublin Castle could have been taken by Captain Sean Connolly and the ICA. Connolly inflicted the first casualty of the insurrection when he shot a member of the Dublin Metropolitan Police. Many have criticised this action as the DMP were an unarmed police force but it must be remembered the duty of any soldier, in any conflict, is to take his objective. This DMP officer was preventing this so he was shot. This objective could have been done far more completely if the ICA had known how weakly defended the complex of Dublin Castle and City Hall were. They could have marched straight in and taken it with little opposition. Instead they allowed the few British troops inside to know of their presence and a firefight began which cost Sean Connolly his life. Again, this oversight regards reconnaissance could not be laid at the feet of James Connolly, the commanding officers on the ground should have thought of this before moving. Once these officers knew their objectives reconnaissance measures to ascertain the enemy strength should have been taken. This complex would have been a strategically important stronghold to take plus, with Dublin Castle being the seat of British administration in Ireland, a brilliant propaganda fete.

Predominantly though perhaps not exclusively, the failure to capture the Shelbourne Hotel on Stephens Green was costly. Again, with more reconnaissance this building could, and should, have been taken. It cost Michael Malin and the ICA dearly as the British moved a machinegun into the hotel keeping Malin’s troops pinned down for the duration. Eventually they evacuated Stephens Green and set up HQ in the Royal College of Surgeons where they ultimately surrendered. Taking the hotel could have been invaluable, particularly if they had also taken Trinity College and all the arms and equipment available to the insurgents, toys of the OTC, there. No doubt, a machinegun would have been in Trinity for the taking and then it may have been the rebels and not the British with a machine gun nest in the Shelbourne.

Finally, James Connolly’s conviction that capitalism would not use artillery against capital proved a huge miscalculation. They bombed the crap out of Dublin City even using a gunboat, The Helga to shell Liberty Hall.

This is not a criticism of those men and women who fought at Easter week 1916, their bravery is beyond question. Even some British officers admired young Edward Daly on the war he had fought, and some had made their feelings known. Unfortunately, those higher up the British command decided that committing today what we would call a war crime, by executing captured prisoners, did not share their subordinate’s views. It was a war crime to execute the sixteen men because the British had on occasions referred to the situation that week as a war and therefore these prisoners were “prisoners of war.” Some, wrongly, called it a second front of the misleadingly termed “Great War” in Europe. 

My observations are done in hindsight and, no doubt these which I have paid attention to may not have been the only oversights by the rebels. Amid all the confusion, exasperated by MacNeill’s countermanding there is little wonder points were missed, irrespective of their importance. James Connolly, in line with his Marxist ideology, perhaps was hoping the masses would come out in support of the rising and had half an eye on such a scenario. Others should have helped him by pointing out minor details which could have helped and were overlooked. They did not, not because they did not want to, but moreover lacked the military expertise to offer anything of relevance. The same could not be said of the officers in the field whose actions were worthy of any supposed “military tactician” in any full-time army of the day, including the finest the British had at their disposal on the western front.

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent 
Socialist Republican and Marxist

Military Errors 1916

Sean Doyle reading a piece of writing of his to mark the 104th anniversary of the military surrender of 1916.




Sean Doyle is an activist with Anti Imperialist Action Ireland


We Aim To Be Free

Professor of Literature, John L. Murphy presented the following paper to the American Conference for Irish Studies-Western Region. U. of Montana, Missoula. 21st Oct. 2016. John L. Murphy runs Blogtrotter. 

San Francisco’s Anarchist Responses To The Rising

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