First Casualties of the Easter Rising Were in Kerry

Kieron Punch.. Thank you so much for that piece of information, that I definitely did not find in my research . I will of course add this piece of info to the story ... if you do not mind .. 

I don't mind, at all. Glad I could help!

This is a grand adventure and now we have a few more parts to the puzzle.  Studying history is a wee bit like putting a puzzle together with no picture on the box to go by we don't know if there are any straight edges nor how many pieces to this puzzle, thus it (the perceived picture) is always changing ! Jakkers I love this thing called history. Slainte

Very informative! Thanks for sharing this information. We love learning more about Ireland's quest for freedom. When in Ireland 2 years ago, we visited some historic sites that were significant to us -- especially Beal na Blath and Kilmachael memorials.

Your story adds rich details to an important time. Looking at events with this richness gives a fuller glimpse to Ireland's history.

Thanks again.

O'Lochlainn and Daly, I believe, actually threatened the inquisitive policeman that if he didn't back off they would plug him.

Colm O'Lochlainn, remained an active Republican and later became a printer of international renown, setting up the Three Candles press. He represented Ireland at international print fairs, and was considered one of the best letterpress printers in the world. I had the honour of studying typography and print design under his son, Dara O'lochlainn, in Dublin's College of Art in the '60s. Dara was a fantastic graphic designer and a keen musician, playing the trumpet in his group "The Jazzberry Jam Band"!

The story of the abortive attempt to get to Kerry, of course, has been mentioned in many histories. it is told in detail in "Rebel Radio - Ireland's first international radio" by Eddie Bohan, published by Kilmainham Tales.

A cara,

Wonderful article. Just one small detail, you mentioned the 'Sackville Street Bridge (now the O'Connell) however

it was actually the 'Carlisle Bridge'.

Is mise

Risteárd Sinclair

Thank you all for you comments.. The Wild Geese has given us all a wonderful forum to write and discuss theories, about our Irish history, and to debate and comment on our shared historical perspectives... I do try and get the balance right for my articles, as there is so much documents , files, books, all having differing perspectives 

Richard R Mc Gibbon .... it is all indeed a puzzle, just as we have a grasp of some of our history , another historian writes a book , and low and behold, here we are once again questioning  out own perspectives.. What I have learned from doing all this research is, that historians differ in their opinion and perspective, and that we can only take what each of them have to say, and look at the fuller picture, of all documents/ books and references, to glean a smidgen of fact that is in there somewhere. !  

Janet ..Thank you, I love our Irish History ..

Michael O' Doibhilin  ...I am coping the exact words from O'Lochlinn own statement, which was made many years later,...for your reference as well as my own, just so I know I have done my research 

"""we heard a police whistle and saw
in the gleam of its headlights two R.I.C. men swinging a
lantern. I remember grasping the .32 Savage I had borrowed
from Joe Plunkett (my own Webley being a bit heavy for
travelling) while I heard Denny say "Will we shoot"? "No",
says I "let someone else start the war. Talk will do these
fellows". And so it did...""""

It must have been a pleasure to have trained under a son of one of our lest know hero's...

Risteárd Sinclair  .. Indeed you are correct .. it was called Carlisle Bridge in that era. Howveer in O'Lochlinn own state , he writes and I copy his statement ,he called it O'Connell Bridge  ....

Good Friday it was, in the year of glory 1916, and
I had made an early start. As I
jumped off my old Lucania
at O'Connell Bridge, Collins stepped out from the path.

To all of you , Thank you, I love getting these comments and sharing our history 

I learned this story many years ago in Killorglin, but not with the details you have provided.  It was also mentioned in a discussion I had in Caherciveen later in the same trip.  I even saw the pier mentioned.  Thank you so much for the detailed version of this historic event.  It is now in my archives for future trips to Kerry.

Thank you Mike for commenting --- the wild geese have given us all Irish such a lovely forum to learn and participate in all discussion about our history 

Michael

Some interesting points, and thought provoking.

Re the late arrival of the guns - I don't think it would have made much sense to import them earlier as this would have attracted undue attention to the planned rebellion. The Howth landings were of a small number of guns and in direct response to the Larne landings which were uncontested. but to bring in a massive amount of weapons might have brought about the feared round-up of the Volunteers before they were ready. By not having the weapons here there could be no leaks - and thus no advance warning of the Volunteers' intentions.

The main reason the rebellion was compromised was the countermanding order, which meant so few people turned out on the Easter Monday. Easter, I presume, had been chosen for its religious significance as much as the fact that many officers would be out of Ireland - back with their families in England on holidays. I agree that Monday was opportunistic rather than deliberate - forced by circumstances rather than planning.

had the rebellion gone ahead as planned it undoubtedly would have lasted much longer before being defeated. It would have been bloodier, and it is likely that the rebels could have surrendered "on terms".

The abortive rising that occurred, and the enforced unconditional surrender, with the subsequent executions, meat that the British "overkill" reaction helped turn public opinion more so than a major rebellion would have done. In terms of ultimate effect, I believe the rebellion that occurred was more successful than the planned one would have been - contradictory as that might seem.

Hello Michael,

The lopsided reaction to the Nationalist importation of arms through the Asgard with the fatal shooting of three civilians and many injuries at Bachelors Walk two years before 1916 Rebellion was a tacit admission of British allegiance to the Unionist and their threats. They imported significantly more tonnage of firearms a few months before and also from Hamburg where all Irish arms, imported or attempted, were sourced. Their password during the distribution cynically was "Goff" So I think the decision to stage a major rebellion m and openly drilling was born out of these events. You make the point the Larne Landings were uncontested which is correct. But at the expense of the removal of the Home Secretary who ordered the British Army in Ireland to go disarm these Carsonite Covenanters. You will be aware that the officers including Goff threatened they would resign than try to disarm the Unionists, which in many peoples book constitutes Mutiny. Craig effectively threatened the same mutatis mutandis strategy in the treaty negotiations in 1922.

So the planning allowed up to two years to devise ways and means of importing guns, and if it was a decision the Rebellion would take place, which I think was the plan, then there was distinctly flawed operational planning. Casement was disappointed in not having German 'Boots on the Ground' and may have been suffering from depression when arrested in McKennas Fort, and may have been opposed to the rebellion for the same reasons as McNeill. Accounts exist of opportunities afforded Casement to escape which he chose to ignore, particularly when arriving in Kingsbridge (Heuston) Railway Station on route to London and Pentonville. His escort, an unarmed RIC sergeant, suggested to him he go and buy some cigarettes. Further validation of this account may be required.

That the RIC were in strength at locations as remote as Cahersiveen College, minding the wireless station, suggests their information was substantial, although they may not have known the Aud did not have radio communication facilities, no more than our own organizers knew. The other business about the Consulate in New York passing word to London and Dublin Castle about the Hamburg connection, and the fact that the Aud was boarded by British Naval personnel in Tralee Bay, who permitted the case to develop and disembarked,  suggests the British were all over this attempted importation.

If there was the remotest hint of this planned importation of a shipment at Banna or anywhere along the coast, I think the officers and God knows who else would have been put on alert in the RMF recruitment HQ at Ballymullen Tralee. Apparently they were not alerted which suggests the British felt events were well under control, and this humiliation and failure would have the desired effect of calling off the rebellion. They were half right and half wrong. They were fully wrong in their actions after the half rebellion.

Correction to first submission. The ADRIC and Black and Tans had not arrived in Ireland for another four years. So the RIC would have been totally inadequate to cope with any major conflict or upheaval. In the event, this would have made the military intervention of the soldiers/recruits in Ballymullen necessary

Michael + michael ... that the British had a substantial amount of boots on the ground in and around Cahersiveen College, is indicative of the intelligence that they had gained, in an era where communication, was not ,as sophisticated as it became it later years....The planning for the cargo of armory by the IRB arriving on the  Aud,at Banna Strand,  to be met by the Volunteers and others, woudl suggest that British Intelligence had got it right again.... It was not a coincidence that all of British boots were on the ground, in and around the whole area.....

michael. the  Easter Eggs, I woudl agree did  have to be ordered, however I also agree that to leave it as late,as Thursday / Friday for a delivery is a bit frustrating to say the least.... People would want to have bought  their Easter Eggs a week before hand if not longer than that... to unload; to dispatch all this armory around the country, in two days, in an era when transportation was a real issue, then to train all personnel in the differing equipment, was , in my opinion, naive , to say the least , and downright high-handed , that all of this could be achieved in two/three day, before an insurance, beggars belief.      

One thing the RIC personal missed however, when they stopped O'Lochlinn car was the guns and other offence weapons hidden in the back of the boot---.

Michael Collins was also strongly advised not to travel to Cork by his most trusted colleague's ... did they know that something was going to take place ?.. was there a leak in his personnel... it was not a coincidence that he was where he was , when he was assassinated, and importantly , only  Anti.- Treaty and Pro- Treaty were "supposedly "  the only personnel at the scene.... all giving conflicting statements... a crime scene that was so  dreadfully left bereft of  any evidence, is a dreadful indictment on our history, that a man who was so significant and powerful in the country, could be shot and all his diary's documents and other personal stuff went missing, only to turn up decades later ... History is indeed , like a jigsaw puzzle..       

The  'what if'' will continue I have no doubt ... ,  .  

Aye, it is a grand job indeed to study the historical jigsaw puzzle. It always leaves it up to the interpretation of the latest piece found and how we make it fit. My grand da use to make puzzles and always had a wee pocket knife on the table, to which he used to make the pieces fit better as to the picture he envisioned. Maybe we all have that wee "pocket knife" to assist us in our understanding of the past. Even when an event happens, each of the eyewitnesses will have a slightly different view of what just happened.  It is a lovely "game" we play.  Slainte !

That's Just How It was and Michael

My understanding is that the British had cracked the German radio codes and knew all about the Aud and its mission. That is why, as you say TJHIW, the 'boots were on the ground'. They also knew of the rebels' plans to try to send international messages and therefore protected the local transmitter.

With all of this information the obvious question is how come they did not suspect that the rebellion was about to take place? The answer may be that they did and that there was more truth to the Castle Document than we have been allowed to think, which makes the Rising imperative not optional.

As the information leaks were undoubtedly two-way, bringing in a major cache of arms to distribute throughout the country long before the Rising risked having them seized. no-one was sure who would rise when called - even Redmond's call to join the British army only generated about less than a 20% response - so why supply weapons to people who may not join a rebellion or, even worse, might use those weapons against you by joining with the police and army to save their own skins?

The Irish Volunteers were well trained in the use of rifles of varying sorts. This is obvious when one looks at the ease with which they changed weapons as required during the actual fighting. Weapons only needed to be distributed to depots on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday for distribution to those who needed them. The confusion that would have ensued nationally had the rebellion gone to plan would have facilitated movement of arms and munitions as all communications would have been cut, rail transport disrupted etc. With isolated RIC unaware of the national situation, the better informed rebels would, initially, have had the upper hand.

But, of course, all this is speculation and, apart from passing time, is of little real value.

The Castle Document "Fake or the real McCoy"  .. its relevance to the Easter Rising of 1916, should not be undermined. The debate over this document has raged over many decades,  and will no doubt continue to be debated , long after I am gone,  Was it a genuine  piece of Info, either leaked from the Castle or was it, in fact stolen from the Castle ,,, or indeed was it a ploy by the IRB to force the Volunteers into action .. Fake or the real McCoy ... it certainly forced MacNeills hand, to countermand the orders and cancel  the Volunteers   nation-wide plans for the Rising, and thereby leaving the rebellion itself to take place,  mainly in Dublin .   

. Whatever it was, it forced McNeill to countermand the orders to mobilise the IV, and cancel the nation-wide plans for the Rising, leaving the Rebellion itself to take place primarily in Dublin. 

The question is, and  once again we are back to the "what if", MacNeill had not sent out the message to countermand the Rising on the Easter Sunday ..

Redmonds call to join the British Army was a catastrophe, and those that did join, only did so , to earn a few bob to feed their family's .. Even Erskine Childers  was against this,

The  support of weapons to the volunteers, was a must , they were after all going to be in the forefront of any fighting , yes I agree that some of them had been trained ; but the vast majority who were members of the Volunteers, had not had a been trained,   

 I agree with micheal dunne on this one ;;;; the Easter Eggs , should have been in the shops, days beforehand, so that the people who were going to  be buying and dealing with the armory, had the opportunity to fit themselves  to the weapons. 

  The ,,,, "What if" will no doubt continue , like a jigsaw  

That's Just How It Was

The Castle Document was used to force McNeill to OK the Rising, not to cancel it. He cancelled when he discovered that the Aud had been intercepted and the arms lost.

Re joining the British Army - don't be too quick to ascribe reasons to those who did. The poet Francis Ledwidge, for example, joined because he did not want England saying she had fought to protect us and we would not raise a hand to help.

Michael, the guns on the Aud were old and outdated. The ammunition likewise. These were guns Germany was scrapping, but all that Casement could get. They still would have been of use - just because something is superceded does not mean it is useless.

once the Irish rose up, what the Unionists had became irrelevant as we were now going to be fighting the British army with its modern weapons.

I agree that England knew well the best places to place a barracks - she had centuries of practice. She still lost the war with her nearest neighbour, however, because she could not fight a non-conventional war successfully.

This Rebellion was botched. To expect a gun shipment to land on Good Friday and have the 20,000 rifles and the ammunition distributed nationwide to all the relevant insurgents for Easter Saturday is madness. Given the articles included in the papers in this thread, the local CO Austin Stack was in custody as was Casement on the same Saturday and the deaths of those killed in Ballykissane also a matter of record. The excellent Proclamation had to be drafted and printed and its assertion of good planning is at a remove from what actually occurred. One cannot dress this up as being anything other than a botched job that it even fooled the British.

Without going into the rationale or philosophy or British counter blunders, most Irish people respect the courage shown by those who fought in the knowledge that their situation was hopeless.

My understanding of the “Fake or the real McCoy document” is … that it was planted on MacNeill, purporting that the leaders of the Volunteers were to be arrested by the British Authorities, to effectively disarm all of the organisation, arrest them, and that Dublin was to be occupied by the British Army. This was not so far off the truth.. as the British Authorities had received intelligence that “something was afoot” but decided to put off any action until after the Easter Monday.

MacNeill  was then informed of the planned landing of the arms, and he issued an order for the Volunteers to take part in a ‘defensive war’. He was not informed that the Aud had been captured when he had issued his this order , but on the Saturday,however only  discovered the forgery of the “ Fake Or Real McCoy” note, and it was at this time he issued the now infamous countermanding order…. …

By this time the Castle Authorities were in confusion, because of the many rumours going around… but had made the decision to act on the Tuesday … so in effect, even with all the intelligence that they did have, they were still caught off guard, by their own postponement of action….

Plunket et.al-- did not trust Casement that is why Plunket was sent to Germany, to ensure that Casement  was acting in Ireland’s interests. Neither Casement nor Childers were ever fully accepted trusted by the IRB  ..

michael dunne , I whole-heartily agree with you that the British had centuries to build and  “establish   locations and expensive upkeep of these military barracks is clear testament that Ireland was never a colony but a hostile place for those who would attempt to suppress this nation.”…

 Finally , now that we have some notion  of how defunct and outdated the armory was on the Aud ; would suggest to me , that these eggs should have been in the shops before Thursday, Friday or Saturday,,,

That's Just How It Was - the Castle Document is now acknowledged to have been at least part genuine. It may have been "sexed up" by Joseph Plunkett and others, but it was real. McNeill cancelled the Rising when he discovered that the Aud had been captured - he never had any doubts about the Castle Document.

Birrell was lazy and incompetent. he was unable to act, or uninterested. His lethargy percolated through the ranks and inhibited action. The British intelligence operation was fine, but the superiors were loathe to act without direct orders or at least implied permission form the top.

Casement was on his way to Ireland to stop the Rising - he had an inflated notion of his own importance in the scheme of things and, to some degree, was an embarrassment to those planning the Rising.

The age of the armoury on the Aud is irrelevant - an old gun will kill you just as easily as a new one. These weapons would have been a great asset to the rebels in the event that the whole country had risen.

Surplus or 'obsolete' weapons are often used by insurgents as they are cheaper than new, ammunition is usually plentiful and readily available. Look at how long the 'obsolete' Thompson submachine gun was used by the IRA - some, indeed, were in use right up to the Good Friday Agreement.

Michael - you are right - brave men all who did what they did according to their lights.

Like all out history Michael Ó.... there are so many conflicting documents out there, the even if we were to gather them all together , we would be hard pressed to come up with all of the true facts...... I bow to your superiors knowledge  on the issue of MacNeill ; 

Yes- with regard to Casement, despite all his good intentions, he was never really accepted by the 'Big Guns', neither was Childers .

The weaponry  however, is still a matter of debate, 'if ' all that cargo had been unloaded, it was still obsolete and men would have had to have been trained,... in that era to get this all to its destination, get teh men gathered, and train,, woudl have been a logistical nightmare..

Despite all of that however , these brave men ; one and ll ;  gave their lives so that Ireland woudl be free. Regardless of the confusing and conflicting historical sources that we are basing out opinion on ... Ireland is in part Free from the tierneyy of British rule ...............    So lets salute all of these brave men and women who we own this debt of freedom too. 

TJHIW - Yes indeed, they were brave men and women, all prepared to do whatever they had to do, not for themselves, but for us. We must salute them, be proud of them, and honour them by trying to produce the kind of democracy which they envisaged, where "all the children of the nation" will be cherished equally.

IF superior weapons had anything to do with it the British would not have lost the colonies, Ireland included. The Germans would not have lost WW II and the United States would have had no real resistance in Vietnam; and the list goes on throughout history. I have seen people with training and poor weaponry do well.  It has more to do with the internal forces within each person and what they are willing to do to gain their goal. Sometimes it may require one to loose everything of value to gain one's freedom. Few are willing to commit this depth of passion, for those who do well they deserve our respect and we are indeed indebted to them. Slainte !

Richard R. Mc Gibbon Jr. Well said, valid points.

it is often forgotten that the rebels in 1916 bought, begged, borrowed or stole their own weapons for the most part. Many of these were "obsolete", but they still sufficed. The German weapons would/could have been used with ease by anyone who could shoot a gun or rifle - I was shown how to use a Mauser and a lee Enfield SMLE in just a couple of minutes and had no problem using them. As those teaching me pointed out, in 1916 and later the age of the gun mattered little to the person the bullet struck!

All of the above comments have valid points .... the fact that these men and women. were brave enough to even contemplate taking action against  the powerful might of the Crown Forces, is beyond  comprehension ... That they were prepared to buy their own guns[ Winnie Carney and her Webley] is testament  to their commitment ... James Connolly is on record as say ' we have no chance of winning ' .. yet continued to fight for their beliefs...

The Irish people own all of these brave men and women a debt of gratitude, that can never be repaid...  After seven hundred years of British rule, whereby the people of Ireland were brutalized, beyond unimaginable  suffering and pain, workhouses,  living is squalor with mud huts being the norm; Ireland  achieved its freedom  from the tyranny of the British Crown, and living a life way beyond their forefathers expectations....  thanks to all of these brave men , starting from the Lockouts in Wexford 1911- Dublin Lockout  1913 , the Easter Rising 1916  the Guerrilla war 1919-1921;  with  Bloody Sunday 1920 culminating in a truce , that led to the Treaty.....

Ireland's civil war was, ant- treaty V pro treaty ; Irish man against Irish man .... with virtually ended with the assassination  of Collins.............  All played a very big part in what the present day Ireland.... Lest we forget      

Michael,

Good to get your revised version of your points. As you say, this is "edited and errors deleted". Like all of us, you are human and can make mistakes - as those involved in the Easter Rising (on all sides) did. Their logic may, with hindsight, be proven faulty, but that does not mean that they were wrong as they saw it.

The Easter Rising was meticulously planned. There were manuals for training recruits, there were detailed plans for the take-over of Dublin, there were plans for cutting and eliminating British and Occupation communication, there was a communication network of their own in place, there were plans to radio the world of the rebellion and seek international support ... there were plans for everything, except for the countermanding order.

This order threw everything into chaos. The arrest of Casement, the capture of the Aud and the existence of the Castle document (even in its original form) meant that if the rebellion did not happen when it did, the jig would be up. Even with Augustus Birrell's tardiness, arrests were about to begin, arms swoops would happen and any chance of a rebellion the foreseeable future were gone.

Connolly's rebellion was affected by none of this - his tiny army was going out anyway. So, in a sense, the leaders had no choice but to disobey the unilateral and dictatorial countermanding and go, and hope for the best. Just as a cornered rat will fight even when there is no hope, so the men and women of 1916 had no choice.

The rebellion became inevitable by force of circumstances.

That's Just How It Was

Well said, and I agree totally with you. As Dr. Ruán O'Donnell said at the launch of his biography of Patrick Pearse recently (I paraphrase, but hope I remember correctly) "I will celebrate these men and women, not commemorate them. We are to be proud of them, and damn the begrudgers". 

I should add that it was very hard to hear on the night in question, so if I have the quote wrong, I apologise to Ruán. But if it is wrong, attribute it to me ....

I have read many paper from Ireland that speaks about commemorating all the hero's of the 1916 Easter ... what I don't read is anything about the women who also put their lives on the line in the Easter Rising........ Nurse Elizabeth O'Farrell; Julia Sheila Grenan ;  Maud Gonne.. Countess Markievize ;Helene Molony ;Jenny Wise Power ; Winnie Carney, to name just a few of these remarkable, and very brave women .

Why is that the Irish Politicians of today, cannot bring themselves, to get to grips with the fact that all of these woman played a vital role in all of the Irish movements of that era......  It is beyond rational !  

TWJHIT

I don't know what papers you are reading but if you were here now you would get the distinct impressions that there were no men in the Easter Rising at all

Oh Michael .. I live in England ........ so maybe the articles I am reading are are biased !! 

TJHIW

I don't see why that should happen. Though I suppose you're only getting articles about Ireland in English papers, and they would be mostly rehashed. here we have a huge movement to put the women back in their rightful place in 1916 - I've even got caught up in this - one of my talks for the Centenary is on Josie McGowan who was only 18 when she took part in the Rising. There has been a slew of books by authors and historians such as Liz Gillis on women, and even conferences.

When one remembers that almost 2,500 people took part in the Easter Rising, only about 250 of them were women. yet virtually every talk, every magazine, every TV and Radio show, is about women. Even in my own publishing company we have two books (of 7 on the Rising) about women, but only one about men (priests!) - the others are about events. And of the texts I have in for forthcoming books two of the four on my desk are about women, and one of the other two includes them. Hence my rather frustrated comment above!

Now then Michael Ó Doibhilin,,, you are a publisher; no wonder you are so such of a expert on Irish  History... I had my book published with Author House... What is your company called? 

All of the English papers give a skewed  slate on what is happening in Ireland in this year of the centenary.. 

I am really glad that the USA are highlighting the women of 1916 ..

Well folks how about we discuss the different aspects of Irish history and include all our hero's regardless of age, sex, height, complexion etc. I  The sad thing is that many people who helped with Ireland's fight for independence will never be known. Their job was intelligence gathering and that meant being one of the unknown hero's. Maybe we should try to connect the "dots" of history and see if their sacrifice can be improved upon by our generation to make Ireland, the USA and the world a better place, with freedom and justice for all. Slainte !

Now the Richard R McGibbon JR. I will endorse that line of history 100% .. where do we start? ..... Are files available anywhere in Ireland taht woudl allow access to the public to search , for all of these unknown hero's of our History ....

If anyone out there has any knowledge of where to obtain files, documents  that contain info on any unknown hero , please let me know. I am will to do the research , if I know where to start looking    

TJHIW,

I publish books on Irish history because I love the history. I learned the history and decided that what I wanted was not available so I started by writing my own and then got others to write for me. many of 'my' authors have gone on to the mainstream press and had some serious and acclaimed books published there too. My company is Kilmainham Tales and we have a website of the same name.

I am in Ireland (not the USA) and see that much work is being done to expose the little-known names of our history. Currently, for example, I am giving a talk on Josie McGowan who fought in Marrowbone Lane in the Easter Rising. She died two ears later at the age of just 20.

Richard, I have a problem with the current sexual revolution in history, where your sex or sexual orientation is more important than what you did. I think ALL should be remembered for their contribution to the rebellion, and for no other reason. To quote an example, I don't give two hoots whether Roger Casement was gay or a paedophile - he did what he could for Ireland, he exposed atrocities in Africa - that is what is important. So agree with you - remember the people, not sexual icons.

The heart and soul of a patriot know no gender.  With regard to all the prior comments, it is great to see so many involved and so much material being revealed.  Let me add the following:

1. With regard to the interception of the Aud, the U.S. Federal agents had raided the office of German Embassy Attache Wolf Von Igel days earlier and confiscated correspondence between Devoy and Germany regarding the arms delivery which was perfectly legal since America had not yet entered the war.  When the Clan learned of that, they cabled Germany to redirect the landing.  If  radio interception and code breaking played a part in intercepting Aud, the Brits would have been waiting at the alternate location.  As it was, the Aud had no radio and the arms were intercepted at the original landing spot as described in Devoy's correspondence. Devoy always believed that since President Wilson was descended from Unionist stock, he had tipped the Brits and betrayed the Irish!

2. In my personal interview with Sam O'Reilly, Armorer of the Dublin Brigade, he insisted that the 'Castle Document' was real because they had inside information that the Castle was planning to arrest the leaders.  Later documentation revealed that on 12 April, Under-Secretary Nathan had cabled Chief Secretary Birrell in London to obtain permission to raid the Irish Volunteer and Citizen Army premises and arrest their leaders and was only awaiting his reply when the rising took place.

3. With regard to the intensity of the patriot's resolve, I am reminded of the death of Terence MacSwiney and the impact it made on a young Vietnamese dishwasher in London’s Carlton Hotel named Nguyen Ai Quyoc.  He actually wept and observed  that A Nation which has such citizens will never surrender. In 1941 he adopted the name Ho Chi Minh and took the lessons of Ireland’s anti-imperialist fight to his own country against the French.

t is sometimes thought that the test of a democracy or its maturity can be measured by the track record in the field of human rights and specifically the level of access the ordinary man has to the law!? The second biggie is how women fare out in equality with particular reference to pay and working conditions. Recently our hung Dáil had an opportunity of living up to their new found ideologies of government reform, by electing an excellent female candidate with a proven record to the position of Ceann Comhairle. At least she got to be nominated and the new assembly dropped the ball once again electing a male member to the post.

As with Health and Safety, Minimum Pay, Banking regulation etc, it has been the European Union that has been the champion of these causes including and especially issues of equality. Brexit is an amusing charade where the old boys want to get back to the game of pushing children up chimneys to clean them. The Banking Racket in Ireland went unchecked for years and now our government issued general absolution and nationalized them. Interest rates are made more favourable to those in the jurisdiction of Northern Ireland today than us here in Pearse's Republic who have been compelled to bankroll the speculative punts taken by the cosseted few whose gambles are now the liability of the ordinary Irish citizen.

This may be dismissed as a rant but consider that under Brehon Law women held property rights and positions of privilege until the arrival of the Normans in 1169. The old laws came under the systemic attack of the Norman and Roman Catholic laws resulting in the subjugation of women which is still the case in Ireland and other European countries today. Lets not talk of human rights elsewhere. I agree to a great extent with Michael that women's role in the rising is getting perhaps more cover than is merited, but this corrective is understandable after the mysonogist treatment they received until recently. I would have my own preferences in terms of who the great Irish women were in these turbulent times and Dr Cathleen Lynn would feature a lot more highly than another who had no scruples about shooting dead a uniformed policeman to prove some point.

It was not until 1970's that a book on Patrick H Pearse was written and very critically at that. He was virtually accused of being a child molester without a scintilla of evidence. He was believed to have a blood lust and is shown with the smoking hand gun in the GPO. Pearse studied Rousseau and it is thought he read Emile by the same author. and had secular views on education thus his booklet The Murder Machine. Pearse's fervour and Nationalism including his love for the Irish language prompted him to present an award of a 303 rifle for the best written Gaelic essay. It can be argued that even today Pearse is greatly misunderstood and misrepresented like Casement. The latter appeared to be suffering depression after landing in Banna but this is speculative and the notion that he was of the same view as MC Neill that the rebellion was doomed to failure and should be called off is further speculation that does not come with the exact science of retrospection. This botched rebellion, poorly planned, without even a projected duration or provision for drinking water or food, was a resounding success because of typical British arrogance. Even the existence of the  row boat left as a token to the people of Kerry was denied  by officials of Government in the 1950's and the holy people really would prefer if he had never existed. Now we have the Centenary and should be very proud to have a distinctive and courageous history..a cause for real celebration as already suggested. And the Devil take the hindmost... Arterial drainage!

Michael Ó with regard to Casement and his sexuality ... I quite agree with you that people's  gender  should not be an issue ... that they fought and died for Ireland is the real issue.. Nobody wants to know anything about their gender / sexuality... these wer rave mean and women , lets celebrate that    

From  my blog on Casement April 6th 2915 --- During the  trial and the appeal that took place shortly after, he had been condemned to death. The British Government had found his journals (known as The Black Diaries), and had circulated excerpts from them. Notables of the day who may well have intervened on his behalf, left him floundering for support when these diaries became widely distributed. His homosexuality had sealed his fate. In the fact of socially excepted norms and the illegality of homosexuality in this era, he was a doomed man.

Casement read out a statement at his trial which referred to the statute under which he was charged:

”When this statute was passed, in 1351, what was the state of men's minds on the question of a far higher allegiance - that of man to God and His Kingdom; and “ I was not tried by my peers."

On the day of his execution, as an adult he was received and baptized into the Catholic Faith. He was attended to  by Dean Ring and Father Carey. Father Carey called him a "saint."

Casement was hanged in Pentonville Prison on August 3, 1916, aged 51 years. Sir Roger Casement  was buried in quicklime: the British Authorities' way of showing their contempt for him.

Since his death, then there has been speculation, debate; forgery theories, and even forensic testing to determine if the handwriting in The Black Diaries was Casement's.

His sister Nora and cousin Gertrude Bannister went to their graves always adamant that while the handwriting may be his, the contents were accounts of the foul conduct he investigated at Putumayo, Peru. They both insist that the British government got the diaries and forged them to make it look like it was his own experiences he had written about.  

Sláinte 

TJHIW

Yes, what you say is true. I must admit that I believe the diaries to be Casement', but I don't care because I am only interested in and judging him as a patriot.

in the eyes of the British, many of whom were doing more 'unspeakable' things than Casement (and still are, as we can see by the latest scandals emanating from across the pond). Casement's real crime was that he conspired against England and that he was not, as all good Irishmen should be, grateful for 800 years of being put down, robbed, starved and humiliated. how dare he.

Nicely said Michael. I too like and admire Kathleen Lynn, but not at the expense of others. Countess Markievicz, whom you allude to, is accused of shooting dead an unarmed policeman without a scintilla of evidence. We are told she was shortsighted and could not be a markswoman, yet at the same time she pulled off this miraculous shot with a handgun? we need to get our stories straight. The evidence for the shooting relies in the main on the diary of a nurse. Read Ray Bateson's "The Rising Dead" for a forensic analysis of this diary - suffice it to say the nurse could not have seen what she claimed to have seen from where she was. Her diary must be treated with grave suspicion, perhaps another forgery from the same hand that might have worked on Casement's?

We gained most of legislation on this island from the British, including that which legislates for women. Stop Church-bashing - the Catholic Church accepted the Irish stance on most things (including married priests) before we invaded. Our new mores were imposed, not from the Church, but our invaders.

 I think what we all forget in our own analysis of our Irish History, is that ,, all of these people we are analyzing, have put down on paper their own thoughts and feeling at that particular time.  Nurse Farrell for example, told her story as she perceived it, other's have told their stories as they have perceived it... Pierce spoke glowing of Connolly in his prison cell.. all their own perceptions..... That Historians/ armatures, and others like myself, continue to pick over the pieces,  to then write books, based on what that written word said, at that time, leaves all of us in a quandary..

Some words or sentences for example  in O'Lochlinn own statement after many years [writing about the tragedy ] have contradictory sentences.  Many years had passed before he wrote his statement and he referred to  O'Connell Bridge;[ not Carlisle Bridge] ...    

I suppose what I am trying to say is , that all of the books that have been written , all of the personal documents that were written by all of these courage's men and women, is written in the perspective of that person... So what we believe to be the facts, may or may not be factual..      

Why don't we all just hoist a pint to all that assisted in the Irish liberation with the hope that others will follow with clarity of thought and purpose. And another pint raising to all that try to record history. Time is much like a river and the person's that undertake the passion of trying to record it are on a boat on that river. The boat's can be many with slightly different position on that river and each one has a unique vantage point. Alas, its time to tune me guitar and sing some tunes, think I will start with; "A Nation Once Again" and from that point,... the river will take me along for a ride.   Slainte !

TJHIW

Many of the major people in our history did, indeed, write their own "Apologia Pro Vita Sua", and told their history as they lived it. They gave their reasons for what they did, and they talked about others who joined them.

Whe they are talking about themselves, that is primary source material and as near as we will get in most cases to their motivations. I say this because, after all, they are writing with the benefit of hindsight and may try to justify something in the public mind.

When they write about others they are on shaky ground because they will attribute motives that we cannot verify.

But it really doesn't matter because it is their actions and their actions' consequences that we must judge. Of course, something wrong done with the best intention must be understood as that.

historians who try to interpret history by today's rules and standards are frauds - we can only understand our history when we understand the times in which it was created. The old adage "If you want to know me come and live with me" is as true in history as elsewhere. We must "live" with these people to truly understand them and the good historian will always put people and events in context. Second guessing, playing "what-if" or alternate histories are the tools of the failed or incompetent historian.

Richard R. Mc Gibbon Jr.

I'll drink to that!

We are all standing on the shoulders of giants - the people who did what they did for us. let us be grateful to them, even when they made mistakes, because we would not enjoy our present-day freedoms were it not for them.

The following link opens up the Trinity College Dublin Future Learn course for Irish History from 1912 to 1923. This free course can be done at ones leisure and I have found it to be the best MOOC course available to date. It starts this week and is well worth a visit.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/153729e62b361629

Risteard,

As Larkin said so rightly..."The great are only great because we are on our knees...arise!" Our restricted present day freedoms you speak of were hard earned and we still have some way to go to enjoy them. Britain cut its colonial teeth on Ireland and made many of the basic mistakes typical of such policies of conquest. We resisted and bear the scars for doing so as do Britain for its folly. Could it rid itself of the North of Ireland and cut it adrift into the North Atlantic, in my opinion She would be glad to do so.

British Colonialism can be compared with Bart Simpsons analogy of family members and making pancakes...the first is often the worst, being misshapen, rough around the edges and sometimes scorched (The Emerald Isle). The second and subsequent pancakes are more successful or normal as the maker practices his craft. The  final pancake can also be imperfect as the maker is only using up the last of the batter. Arterial drainage...

I will drink to that  as well Michael Ó... [ mines a sparkling water !!]  One of my Grandmothers adages was ; "  If you want to know me, , come and live with me " It is nice  to see put into the context above... because.... "fine feather do not make fine birds" .... and " good looks never boiled the kettle yet" ... I could go on /on about all of the adages that she woudl say, to qualify the rational about an issue  that she was  trying to make... 

We are indeed all standing on the shoulders of Giants , and other one of her favorites [!!] , 

To some extend I agree with michael dunne , on the issue  around chaos.... communication was a real issue in that era, that these three men died on their way to scupper the radio singles in the College at Caherciveen. and only reported in a Newspaper as a accident the next day... The Aud ..already scuppered Casement arrested along with Stack and O'Lochlinn , with other's in and around also arrested , was not a coincidence- British Intelligence had some part to play in this..

The British had sufficient intelligence to arrest Patrick Pearse et.al.. but choose to wait for clearances or whatever ,  to do this on the Easter Tuesday...

Is there not just a tiny bit of  " chaotic poor planning ", in there somewhere ??  on both side ??       

TJHIW

I believe the Castle was holding off until after the Easter weekend to arrest the leaders as most of their men would be at the races or back in England on holiday. So it was a practical issue that cost dear.