Chapter thirty-three: Éirí Amach na Cásca
During the night of April 15th, 1916, the U-19, a German submarine under the command of Kapitänleutnant Raimund Weissbach (who, in May 1915, was the torpedo officer aboard the U-20 when she sank the Lusitania), surfaced off the west coast of Ireland. Under the cover of darkness, three Irishmen landed. One of them was sir Roger Casement, a Dublin-born former member of the British Colonial Service who had been knighted for his work in exposing the the brutality of the Congo Free State’s regime and thus enjoyed a positive reputation in international circles. Casement had spent the previous year trying to persuade Germany to sponsor and endorse an Irish rebellion but, disillusioned by the lack of support, he was travelling to Ireland to forestall the proposed rising. However, he was soon discovered and arrested. Tried in London for high treason, he was to be hanged at Pentonville Prison, but his death penalty was changed for a life sentence and, eventually, freed with the General amnesty of 1917. He was to be the object of a smear campaign by British authorities, which plagued him until his death - his health had suffered greatly during his time in prison- in 1920 (1).
Sir Roger Casement on the way to be judged.
At the same time, a German steamer was to transport some 20,000 captured Russian rifles, 10 machine gun, a million rounds of ammunition and a quantity of explosives to Ireland. Disguised as a Norwegian ship, the Aud, she was to bypass the main British patrol areas. The plan began well and the ship arrived to Ireland but there was finally intercepted and scuttled.
Meanwhile, the Irish nationalist leaders were divided at what to do. While Tom Clarke, Edmund Kent, Patrick Pearse, Joseph Plunkett and Sean MacDermott were committed to the use of force in defiance of Irish Parliamentary Party leader John Redmond’s plea for volunteers for the British Army, Eoin MacNeill was fundamentally opposed to acting rashly, as he thought that rebellion would be unsuccessful. Plunkett had travelled to Germany in April 1915 to join Casement. Casement had gone there from the United States the previous year to try to recruit an "Irish Brigade" from among Irish prisoners of war and secure German support for Irish independence. Together Plunkett and Casement presented a plan which involved a German expeditionary force landing on the west coast of Ireland, while a rising in Dublin diverted the British forces so that the Germans, with the help of local Volunteers, could secure the line of the River Shannon.
While this was going on, British intelligence, who knew that some act of rebellion was imminent, had even managed to establish that it would be supported by German arms. Yet British awareness of sedition was not matched by activity: Augustine Birrell, Chief Secretary for Ireland, who had spent much of 1914 and 1915 performing a difficult balancing act between both sides, stuck to his moderate line, refusing to outlaw the Irish Volunteers whilst they in turn plotted against British rule. The Viceroy of Ireland, Lord Wimborne wanted one hundred prominent republican leaders arrested, but Birrell's Under Secretary, Sir Matthew Nathan, dissuaded him from doing so. Therefore, when the Aud was scuttled and Casement arrested, Nathan conferred with Wimborne and proposed him to raid Liberty Hall, headquarters of the Citizen Army, and Volunteer properties at Father Matthew Park and at Kimmage, but Wimborne was insisting on wholesale arrests of the leaders. It was decided to postpone action until after Easter Monday and in the meantime Nathan telegraphed the Chief Secretary, Augustine Birrell, in London seeking his approval. By the time Birrell cabled his reply authorising the action, at noon on Monday 24 April 1916, the Rising had already begun.
Early on Monday morning, April 24, 1916, Volunteers and Citizen Army members took over strongpoints in Dublin city centre and gathered at Liberty Hall, but failed to take Dublin Castle, the centre of British rule in Ireland, although it was lightly guarded; they also failed to take Trinity College, which was located in the heart of the city centre and which was defended by only a handful of armed, unionist students. Fighting broke out in the city almost immediately, and the indiscriminate killing of civilians and officials altered the mood of Dubliners from confusion to hatred for the Volunteers. The British military were caught totally unprepared by the rebellion and their response of the first day was generally uncoordinated.
British cavalry of the 6th Reserve Cavalry Regiment, the only such unit to retain their horses during the fighting, on patrol in Sackville Street, May 1916.
However, the rebels had failed to take either of Dublin's two main train stations or either of its ports, at Dublin Port and Kingstown. Thus, the British were able to bring in thousands of reinforcements from England and from their garrisons at the Curragh and Belfast. By the end of the week, British strength stood at over 16,000 men. Their firepower was provided by field artillery summoned from their garrison at Athlone which they positioned on the northside of the city at Phibsborough and at Trinity College, and by the patrol vessel Helga, which sailed up the Liffey.
British soldiers and policemen cordoned off the city and began to reduce rebel strongholds with artillery fire. Fighting was extremely fierce in some areas, but the British had an overwhelming preponderance in firepower and bombed the rebels until they forced them to surrender on 29th April. Hundreds of people had been killed thousands were wounded.
The Irish Volunteers also mobilised on Easter Sunday in several places outside of Dublin, but due to countermanding orders, most of them returned home without fighting. In addition, due to the interception of the German arms aboard the Aud, the provincial Volunteer units were very poorly armed, althought there were some armed incidents and fightings in Cork, Ashbourne (where the only large scale engagement outside the city of Dublin took place), Enniscorthy and Galway.
An armoured car kept the crowd on the move in O’Connell street near the General Post Office, Dublin while a raid for arms was taking place in the vicinity. It was from the steps of the GPO that Patrick Pearse read the proclamation of the Irish republic on Easter Monday 1916. The rebels held the post office for five days.
In the aftermath of the Easter Uprising, 3,430 men and 79 women were arrested, although most were subsequently released. Local authorities in Ireland demanded that the rebels be punished in the severest of ways. The rebel leaders were marched through Dublin to prison, being heckled and berated at by the population. However, while some wanted retribution, others urged restraint. The nationalist politician, John Dillon wrote to John Redmond in London telling him to tell to the government to avoid any wholesale shooting of prisoners. "The wisest course is to execute no one for the present…" as it could change the feelings of the population, which then was against the Sinn Feiners. Redmond told so to Asquith when they met at 10 Downing Street. Asquith agreed on the wisedom of avoiding widespread punishment, but he also knew that this sensible approach would enrage the Unionists. And he needed them for his coalition government. Thus, he decided to make an example of the ring-leaders, a task which was left in the hands of the British Army’s Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, Lieutenant General Sir John Maxwell.
In a series of courts martial beginning on 2 May, ninety people were sentenced to death. Only three of those (Patrick Pearse, Tom Clarke and, Thomas MacDonagh) had their sentences confirmed by Maxwell and were executed by firing squad between 3 May and 12 May, while the others received prison sentences of varying lengths. For a while, Ireland was to remain in peace.
The aftermath: after surrendering, Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins wait with the other Irish rebels to be paraded through the streets (2)
(1) Call me a silly sod -mmmh, bad election of words, methinks-, but I couldn't hang poor sir Roger. Ok, ok, Pip et Trekkie: he was a bloody traitor who had some failed bussiness with our beloved Kaiser Billy, but I wasn't in the mood for making a martyr of him. And after all, the Black Diaries are there for anyone to make a fuss about it (Wilde revisited).
(2) Yikes! How the Hell did the Sinn Feinners were trashed if they had Snape and Qui-Gon Jinn in their side? Amateurs, if you ask me...
@quaazi: Well, there you have a joke, to cheer you up! And the Brits won thism time, for Beckham's sake!
@Enewald: time will come when everybody will get dry. Even in Finland.
@El Pip: Come on, Pip. Do you dare to suggest that British generals have something to learn from those... those... those... Froggies?!?!?!?!
And what is even worse! Dougie Haig failing to notice the pros and cons of a good planning? Be optimist, man!
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About letting Germany to keep Belgium... well, I haven't asked the Belgians, but they don't look to cheerful at the idea...
Are we sure that just letting Germany kee
@TheExecuter: Don't panick. We have "Daddy" Plummer and many competent officers. We just luck enough heavy guns and tanks.
And the only peace treaty that Germany will offer us to be accepted must be written in Billy's skull!!!!
@El Pip (2): I can tell you that the Blockade is going worse for Austria Hungary than fro Germany, which is not in a quite good shape -therefore, I'm afraid that Ukraine is going to be their next target at once...
@Nathan Madien: Only if they do properly and without resembling a mob. Remember, they are Germans. They couldn't trake a tain station without buying the tickets first.
@Davout: Ballots rigged, for sure.
Did this post answer your question?
@quaazi: Mmmh, a volunteer to police Dublin, methinks...
@FlyingDutchie: Not really. There was a purpose in the battle in both sides, even if there was not too much cunning deployed in the fighthings. About TR: you're right about quantity...
@Nathan Madien: That makes sense...
@c0d5579: Interesting options, indeed... We shall see...
@KiMaSa:" You can conquer Hell if you throw enough souls there" seems to be the motto of some generals. Oh, Mireau, nice to see you...
About TR: If his health is good enough and his son doesn't get killed, we shall see.