The History of The Irish...Worldwide
First Casualties of the Easter Rising Were in Kerry
On the morning of Good Friday, April 21st, 1916, a very young and excited Colm Ó Lochlainn, a captain in the Irish Volunteers, set out in Dublin on his bike, knowing that he would be leading a group of men to complete a mission that was thought would have had far reaching repercussions for Ireland.
Above, Ballykissane Pier, outside Killorglin, where, nearby, three Irish Volunteers perished en route to on a secret mission. Photo by David Medcalf, licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Ó Lochlain served on the special staff of Joseph Mary Plunkett, director of military operations of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). Having gained the trust of his commanding officer on other special assignments, Ó Lochlainn realized that his mission was of vital importance.
To get the details, he was to meet up with an officer of the Irish Republican Brotherhood on O’Connell Bridge (then named Sackville Street / Carlisle Bridge ) very early that Good Friday morning. As he cycled toward the bridge, he was approached by Michael Collins -- in his witness statement Ó Lochlainn said there were few words spoken between them – “Mick said, 'Here I will take the bike, here are your tickets, you know what you have to do. There’s the tram.' The orders were clear enough, I was in charge and we had to get to Killarney by train and meet up with two motor cars that would be waiting for us.”
So off went Ó Lochlainn, a Kilkenny native and typographer by trade, to meet with the other men who would be traveling with him to Killarney. The team, chosen for their particular expertise, comprised Limerick man Thomas McInerney, who could drive a motor car; Charlie Monahan, a mechanic and a wireless (radio) installation expert; Donal Sheehan, from West Limerick, who had worked at the War Office and knew the British admiralty codes; Kerry native Dennis Daly, from Caherciveen, who knew the Caherciveen area; and fellow Caherciveen native Con Keating, a wireless-radio operator on a number of ships.
They set off by train to Killarney, where they were to pick up two cars that would be parked outside the train station, and then drive to Caherciveen. Their orders were clear: They were to take control of the wireless station at the nearby College .When they arrived at Killarney, they were met by a Limerick man, Sam Windham, who had experience with explosives -- he drove the first care with Dennis Daly navigating as he knew the way, with Colm Ó Lochlainn as another passenger. The second car was driven by Thomas McInerney [who owned that car], with passengers Charlie Monahan, Donal Sheehan and Con Keating. McInerney was to follow the first car's tail lights.
The plan was to seize control of the wireless station at the nearby College in Caherciveen, by whatever means, so that they would be able to distract British ships that were surveilling the Kerry coastline. They would accomplish this by transmitting false information and then demolishing the wireless transmitter. The plan was to signal the British navy that a German naval attack was imminent off the Scottish coast.
Once British naval forces had taken the bait, and moved from the waters off the Kerry coast, this would then facilitate the landing of the German freighter ‘The Aud’ at Banna Strand, with its cargo of 20,000 German rifles and 10 machine guns. The armaments were, of course, to be distributed around the country, in coordination with Austin Stack at Tralee, to better ensure sufficient weaponry was in place for the Easter Rising.
Pictured, three RIC constables at a checkpoint.
Then the fateful mission began to unravel. The lead car, bearing Ó Lochlainn and Daly, broke down near a checkpoint, and a curious Royal Irish Constabulary officer went to its aid. When this plan had been hatched in Dublin, the assumption was that there would be no security surrounding Caherciveen or the wireless station at the College. Unknown to them, of course, was that the Royal Irish Constabulary had received intelligence of their own -- they were out in force, with the British army as backup, surrounding the Caherciveen area and the wireless station in the College, in particular.
Having managed to convince the officer that they were medical students and tourists, they then realized that the area was securely fortified by the Royal Irish Constabulary and British army. Ó Lochlainn and Daly then set off, checking constantly to ensure that the second car was following them. Then, about three miles further on, they did not see any lights behind them. They waited for some length of time that would have allowed the other car to catch up with them, thinking either that the second car had broken down, or had been caught at the checkpoint. When the second car failed to materialize, they made the decision to abort the mission, and headed back over the hills to Killarney. They slept in the car through the night, and went back to Dublin the next morning to report the mission aborted, not knowing the fate of their four colleagues.
As so often happens in all walks of life, the best laid plans went awry; the second car lost sight of the lead car and had stopped a young girl to ask the way to Cahirciveen, which lay 25 miles to the southwest. The instructions she gave them were “to take the first turn on the right.” On that dark road, passing through Killorglin,with only the headlights of the car to outline the surface of the road, bearing in mind that this was very early days for motor cars and infrastructure, McInerney missed the first turn, which led to the quay, and headed straight for Ballykissane Pier, and beyond, the River Laune.
Some sources would suggest that with the moonlight shining on the surface of the river, the reflection on the water may have been thought to be a continuation of the road. The car was, in fact, heading straight for the river. The car with all its passengers inside went over the unprotected edge and straight into the river, where it was at its deepest and widest. At this point in time, some sources say, McInerney must have managed to get out of the car, but was, however, disoriented and started to swim the wrong way. A local man by the name of Thady O’Sullivan shouted to him, guiding him back to shore with a lamp light.
While McInerney was being cared for by O’Sullivan, other local people such as Patrick and Michael Begley, son and father, the son being an Irish teacher based in Limerick, made dangerous and strenuous efforts to rescue the other passengers, but this proved to be an impossible task. All three men, Sheehan, Monahan and Keating, were thought to be trapped in the car, and at this point the decision to abandon the rescue was made.
At this stage, it was clear that the three other occupants of the car had somehow become trapped in the vehicle and had, sadly, in all likelihood, quickly drowned. O’Sullivan took the one disheartened and cold survivor McInerney back to his house, where he was given towels to dry himself and a hot drink..
McInerney was then advised to go to the Royal Irish Constabulary Barracks and report the incident in the event that any of the other passengers had survived. While away, McInerney's wet overcoat was picked up to dry it, and a revolver was discovered in it. Patrick Begley soon realized that there was more to the night’s events than at first thought.
At that moment, the Royal Irish Constabulary arrived at the cottage to inquire if they had seen anything untoward in the area. Begley hurriedly hid the revolver under a cushion and then sat on the cushion. When McInerney later arrived to retrieve his revolver, Begley advised him that the police had started asking questions about the car driving into the River Luane, and if they returned, as he had no doubt they would, it would be better if they did not find the revolver on him.
Unknown to McInerney at this time, the Royal Irish Constabulary had arrested a man in Tralee, who was connected to the Fenian movement, and putting two and two together, had information that the Fenian could be related to the activity of the sunken car and its passengers. So not to be outwitted by the local people, lo and behold, back to the O’Sullivan and Begley cottages the Royal Irish Constabulary went. Unsurprisingly, they found McInerney sitting in the kitchen,drinking tea. Despite the fact that McInerney stuck to his accounts of the car being full of students on a tour, he was arrested and kept in custody until after the Rising was over. He was then transferred to Frongoch Prison in North Wales, which would house many of the Republicans who were captured after the Easter Rising surrender.
Local fishermen found the bodies of Keating and Sheehan the next day, on 22nd April 1916. They did not know who they were and an inquest was held. It was assumed that they were the bodies out of the car that had plunged into the river on the 21st.
Sheehan was buried as a stranger, in Dromavally Burial Ground, in Killorglin, amidst great sorrow, as the gathered crowd wept openly for a young man to have died, and none knew whom he was. Keating was buried in his native Caherciveen, as he had been identified.
Monahan was found on the banks of the Laune on the 30th October 1916 by a Mr. Sheehy, approximately a quarter of a mile from the quay. His head, one arm and two feet were missing. The trunk of his body, all that was left of him, was fitted with good quality clothes, waterproof trousers, a belt containing two gold sovereigns and a wad of soaked bank notes, more than an average amount of cash even for a man of gentrified background, as it was thought. Also found on his remains were nippers and a wrench, ready and able for the job he never got to carry out. His remains were identified as those of Charlie Monahan. The police did not think an inquest was necessary, so his remains were buried alongside those of Sheehan on Wednesday, the 1st November 1916, at Dromavally Graveyard.
Then, on the 3rd February 1917, the missing bones belonging to Monahan were found by Thady O'Sullivan -- small amounts of tweed material which had rotted, and alongside the material, a six-chamber revolver with an American pattern with 20 rounds of ammunition and a small screwdriver. The bones were interred with his remains by a local priest at Dromavally graveyard. To add insult to injury in these tragic events, Austin Stack [waiting for the illicit cargo in Tralee] was arrested the same night of the car accident, which would have made the distribution of arms shipment nigh impossible as Stack had been the liaison between ‘The Aud’ and the local Irish Republican Brotherhood. As well, Roger Casement, who orchestrated the arms shipment from the German Government, had been captured earlier that day at Banna Strand, about 18 miles north of the accident site.
This tragic story only serves to illustrate the way in which human error, in this case, making assumptions about people and places unknown to planners, often plays a significant role in determining outcomes. Hindsight is a wonderful thing [mmm, or is it?]. In hindsight, we would all, indeed, be perfect.
The 'what if's' began as soon as these tragic events started to unfold in the newspapers; 'What if ' they had managed to divert the Royal Navy as planned? 'What if ' they had not lost sight of the lead car? Nevertheless, in the aftermath of the Easter Rising, it is a very interesting and not-often-enough-told story, which should serve as a warning to those who plan operations without having full knowledge of the specific details of planned targets and surroundings.
Suffice it to say, Thomas McInerney, Colm Ó Lochlainn and Denis Daly lived to tell their tales.
A memorial was erected to Con Keating and Donal Sheehan over their graves in 1919. In 1939, 23 years after the tragic accident took the lives of the three volunteers that fateful night, a monument was erected and unveiled at Ballykissane Pier, by J.J. O’Kelly. In 2006, a mural was unveiled at Short Strand, Belfast, to honor Charlie Monahan as one of the 1916 heroes.
* My thanks to Kieron Punch who provided invaluable information about the driver of the first car.
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Comment by Micheal O Doibhilin on March 7, 2016 at 4:11am
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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.
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Heritage Partner Comment by That's Just How It Was on March 7, 2016 at 7:03am -
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.
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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.
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Comment by Richard R. Mc Gibbon Jr. on March 7, 2016 at 4:25pm
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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 !
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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!
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Heritage Partner Comment by That's Just How It Was on March 8, 2016 at 6:29am -
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
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Comment by michael dunne on March 8, 2016 at 7:00pm
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A fine and informative article Mary. Thank you. It seldom serves any worthwhile purpose to write of the "what if's" but heres one more.
Opening lines of the Proclamation...
“Having organized and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organization, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and through her open military organizations, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes that moment, and supported by her exiled children in America and by gallant allies in Europe, but relying in the first on her own strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory.”
It would be disrespectful to make little of the deaths of those who died in this tragedy at Ballykissane. Too many errors surrounding this event begs the question of exactly what was meant by “waiting for the right moment to reveal herself” I understand your article suggests Austin Stack was arrested near Tralee on the same day of this tragedy? His orders we are led to believe was to keep a low profile and do nothing that might arouse suspicion or draw attention on any rebel activity. I may have read elsewhere the Aud had no radio facilities and the Green Flashing signal light was left in a shed off the “Rink” in Tralee never to be used even though a volunteer had been dispatched to Dublin and collected it. It also may be the case the Consulate in New York was aware of Casements activities in Hamburg who was being monitored by his comrade in arms Joseph Plunkett.
So when the moment to reveal itself arrived it came as a surprise to British intelligence and to those responsible for military control of Ireland. Their best and most current information is that the planned rebellion was severely compromised, a development that convinced the O.C Eoin Mc Neill to cancel /countermand the intended rising. That the Rising occurred on a bank holiday with all the officers gone to Fairyhouse was accidental. The fifteen leaders executed by firing squad got a more dignified death than Casement who was hanged. Those sentences had to be so severe because of the ultimate treason or seditious act of soliciting help from ”our gallant allies in Europe”
The meticulous planning has to be questioned after what we now know of the internal contradictory orders and the fact that the attempted importation of arms was so close to the final hour. Any shopkeeper would have his Easter eggs on the shelves for his customers a month before Easter Sunday. To wait until Good Friday to attempt landing, distributing and training in use of these rifles can be said to be overly ambitious. Had these guns arrived, and the Ballykissane event been avoided, there is a fair chance the first of Ireland's casualties might have resulted in a civil war between the 500/600 Irish recruits to the Royal Munster Fusiliers, training depot at Ballymullen Tralee, and the Irish Volunteers which could have been every bit as bloody and more long lasting than the quick violent Rebellion of Dublin. Almost certainly these men would be summoned to the assistance of the RIC, the ADRIC and the Black and Tans. So maybe the failed Rebellion of Dublin was a glorious failure and the deaths of our three patriots in Ballykissane was a warning of harsher times to come.(Edited and errors deleted...)
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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.
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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".
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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 ....
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