On 10th May 1916, the "Daily News" posted a letter from the Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, in which he condemned the ongoing execution of the leaders of the Easter Rising: "My own view is that the men who were shot in cold blood, were prisoners of war, and that it was, therefore, entirely incorrect to slaughter them.

"I remain an Irishman, and am bound to contradict any implication that I can regard as a traitor any Irishman taken in a fight against the British Government, which was a fair fight in everything except the enormous odds my countrymen had to face."

Shaw would later play a leading role in the campaign to save Roger Casement from hanging.