Sinn Fein – David and Goliath

Resources of David and Goliath for the Easter Rising in Ireland 1916.
Part II of Easter Rising. Here to Part I !

Members of the Irish Citizen Army
Members of the Irish Citizen Army parades outside Liberty Hall, Dublin.

Resources of David vs Goliath

And the second para-military force had been James Connolly’s Irish Citizen Army. Connolly had been a socialist who in 1896 had created the Socialist Republican Party. He had been a skilled soldier.
In 1908 James Larkin had come up with Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union. When that union organized a strike in 1913, and the strike was cracked by force, Connolly resolved that a workers’ protective force was necessary and established the Citizen Army. The Citizen Army was commanded on his own and also by an ex-British Army officer known as Jack White. Common sense says that this ‘army’ was the best mili­tary force within reach of the Repub­licans. It had been, nevertheless, limited. In the event it when the particular combating occurred, it had been just some 250 guys who joined, in contrast to around One Thousand coming from the Irish Volunteers.

Countess Markievicz
Countess Markievicz – a socialist.

Assisting these had been the women’s or­ganization. Countess Markievicz – an Irish­woman, brought into this world at Gore-Booth, as well as aris­tocratic origins – had been probably the most notable. She fought being an officer of the Citizen Army during the entire Easter Rising for she wasn’t merely a patriot however a socialist. There were also the so-called ‘Fianna Boys’, boys who liked the maneuvering prior to the Rising, as many kids would, and who moreover demonstrated courage as well as resourceful­ness once the real thing took place. They were messengers, runners, for example.
In opposition to them they’d what was, theoretically certainly, strongest power.

To keep up their power over Eire, the English counted mainly on the Royal Irish Constabulary, an equipped police force, staying mainly in barracks, and some Ten Thousand strong. These folks were virtually all Irishmen, were familiar with their locations totally, and had been in 1916, with hardly any exceptions, en­tirely faithful to the British Crown. They were well-equipped, well-trained, just slightly unpopular (the Irish don’t like police at all), and also up to date.
British Headquarters was Dublin Castle, and ‘the Castle’ depended on the RIC for the field intelligence.

In Dublin per se the police force weren’t armed, regarded there have been weapons in existence. Their figures were around Thousand and had been arranged on the style of the London police force.
The Special Department had been focused on politics. As a result of its investigations, and basic infiltration of Irish republican politics, Dublin Castle had been expected to realize what the IRB was preparing, The Special Department didn’t appear, having said that, to provide been notably proficient at this task, nor to have infiltrated the IRB to any large degree.
On the contrary the fault may be with individuals in Dublin Castle to whom they delivered their statements. The analysis of intelli­gence is definitely more essential compared to its collection.

And furthermore supporting those ‘occupation troops’ there had been an enormous British military within Eire along with what, in war and in Irish phrases, had been practically unlimited reserves in the UK.
If it had been just a subject of military, the Irish hadn’t any chance.

When it comes to weapons, the David vs Goliath ratio was an even way more stunning. Prior to the out­break of World War One the Ulster Volunteers had acquired some Thirty-five Thousand Ger­man rifles, the Irish Volunteers around One Thousand.
Not to mention the British military enjoyed all kinds of weapons, such as artillery of all types.

The Irish undertook an effort to resolve this by acquiring guns and firearms from Germany. Sir Roger Casement, an Irishman having a distinguish­ed history, visited Germany via neutral United States. He was to deliver the weapons for the Easter Rising that the IRB had hoped for.
His task had been a disaster. English naval intelligence had cracked some German cyphers. The Royal Navy had been therefore in a position to catch the German vessel transporting the weapons. Casement himself had been instantly imprisoned when he arrived at land from a U-boat close to Tralee, in County Kerry, on Good Friday. Afterwards the British charged him, and hanged him as a traitor.

The weapons on which the rebels had been counting, for even the desolate optimism, hadn’t delivered. Were they continue to go on ?

Sinn Fein

It is at this point that the unique personas and behaviors turn out to be significant. We have to check out the men, Irish and British, engaged; as well as at the entire concept of Sinn Fein.


Sinn Fein is generally translated as ‘our­selves alone’, which is probably the preferred statement in English language of a complex Irish philosophy. This means, to begin with and even more importantly, freedom from British govern. Consider Irish background was in those times a lot connected on top of current Irish politics, it had an additional interpretation.
For a lot of generations the Irish had been anticipating the assistance of England’s adversaries to eliminate the English rule.
The Spaniards and the French had disappointed them as the Germans would do in 1916. This has been not really for the reason that Britain’s adversaries were missing the courage to wipe out England in Ireland but due to the fact of geographical-military difficulties (tides, predominant winds, for example).

Thus, Sinn Fein furthermore meant that the Irish should rely upon themselves alone to be able to liberate them­selves of the English rulers. For the English, in the future, the ‘Shinners’ were to become the ultimate example of extreme repub­licanism in Eire.
The truth is the party, which merely had its initial yearly conference as late as 1905, had been basically demo­cratic. It had operated a parliamentary candi­date (who had been beaten) within the Leitrim election of 1908. However, as time continued it acquired more and more ex­tremists from Redmond’s Nationalist Party.

Arthur Griffith, its head as well as the publisher of the United Irishmen, never was a fanatic. He supported constitutional methods – and had been thus far a lesser amount of an ex­tremist compared to most of the IRB politicians ­ however, in contrast to Redmond’s and Parnell’s classic party, he no more counted on the partnership with the Liberal Party in the UK: ‘ourselves alone’ ! To a lot of young men it had been a most attractive concept.

The English rulers have been, generally, a shadowy bunch. The Liberal authorities in London had been undoubtedly focusing virtually all its concentration on the colossal battle on the Continent.
Considering Ireland looked like couch potatoes in 1916, neither the most efficient politi­cians nor in any respect outstanding English military had been in Ireland. Augustine Birrell had been Chief Secretary. Was born with, it was mentioned, of utmost personal charm, he had been a belle lettrist whose publications, these days for­gotten, liked within their period extensive value. He may have considered his task in Dublin – which might be recognized as energetic leader of the administration – as something of a part-time to his profession as a litterateur, and wasted a remarkably huge proportion of his time ‘being pleasant in Lon­don’.

His main Assistant Secretary, accountable for governmental matters, had been a civil servant familiar with colonial administra­tion, Sir Matthew Nathan. He appears to have had minor understanding of the Irish character and to have been happiest behind his work desk, managing routine bureaucracy.
The general officer command­ing the British garrison in Ireland was a Major-General Field. This guy, much more, has had hardly any understanding of what occurring in Eire in any way.

Lord Wimborne
Lord Wimborne, the British lord-lieutenant.

Last but not least there was Lord Wimborne, the lord-lieutenant and the King’s representative, who pre­sided over the British administration like a kind of constitutional monarch with all the powers, as well as many of the restrictions, that this suggests. On the other hand, he was familiar with Ireland definitely. He had backed the land act of 1903, which had pacified the Irish countrymen by additional beneficial adjustments of the tenant-landlord relationship. He was well-liked by the Irish ruling class, as was Birrell; however, as opposed to his Chief Secretary, he didn’t in any way look after the scenario which was creating.


The British intelligence services had, as we have noticed, infiltrated the many Irish ‘resistance’ groups. The Volunteers, it must be believed, had not many secrets unknown to Dublin Castle. And the Castle recognized that a rising had been prepared to happen immediately following the landing of Casement and the German weapons.

The last hours before Eater Rising

On April 21, 1916, Casement arrived and was instantly imprisoned. Wimborne, who was to have visited Belfast, terminated his journey and on Sunday the 23rd, in other words simply a couple of hours prior to the Easter Rising happened, required of Nathan that he im­mediately arrest ‘between 60 and 100’ of the Irish leaders. Had this recently been carried out effectively, it appears impossible that any rising would have occurred in those days. Nevertheless, it had been most likely too late for any pure police activity by that time. The members of the Citizen Army as well as the far more mili­tant Volunteers had been under arms and prepared to combat.
As it was, Nathan assured his ‘constitutional monarch’ that there wasn’t any demand for activity. And Birrell stayed again in London.

It appears to be likely that Nathan’s in­telligence service had briefed him about what had been taking place inside the high command of the Volunteers following the reports of Casement’s arrest, that he was aware Eoin MacNeill had chosen that without having weapons the Easter rising must be terminated or at least postponed.
What Nathan doubtless didn’t know was that this order ultimately divided the Volunteers, and that the IRB had been practically well supporting Patrick Pearse and those other Irish patriots who have been willing to proceed with the rising even in these disadvantageous, certainly well-nigh suicidal, conditions.

Everything looks really as well as staff-officerish when took in mind, however the truth had been much more disorganized, including a conflict of several leaders, orders and counter­orders, and incredibly significant resentment.
Without a doubt MacNeill’s choice to cancel the Rising, and Pearse”s to go forward; really was the death-knell of the Irish Volunteers as well as the Nationalist Party whose military force these folks were meant to be.
Following the failed Easter Rising, the political leaders of those opposed to British govern over Ireland left Sinn Fein, while those who struggled during Easter week turned out to be the nucleus of the Irish Republican Army.

Undoubtedly MacNeill’s last-minute action that the rising be stopped – he had boys bicycling from coast to coast and even publicized this supposed non­-happening through the Sunday papers – can’t most likely have been undiscovered by Nathan. He must have taken into consideration the possibility that several hot-heads were very likely to disregard this order: he must also have recognized that the wide majority of the Volunteers would breathe a sigh of relief and that the clergy to whom the English have usually associated an overstated political significance in Ireland because of their ubiquity and their noticeable discrepancy from the Anglican clergy in Britain – would assistance MacNeill as well as the bulk of his followers, comfortable with the commitment of future, watered down Home Rule.

The small amount of extremists could be dealt with – though by no means as simply as the British believed – by the overpowering troops arraigned versus them. Hardly any particular measures had been ordered, regardless of Lord Wim­borne’s totally justified worries.
Surely, on Easter Monday, day 1 of the Rising, numerous British officers were at Fairy­house Races.

The Easter Rising had been suicidal. Patrick Pearse had been familiar with this. Just before actually it took place he explained to the mother: ‘The day is arriving after I will be shot, taken away, and also my friends like me’. When the mother asked about her other boy, William, who was likewise an extreme nation­alist, Pearse is described to have answered: ‘Willie ? Shot such as the others. We’ll all be shot.’ And James Connolly is considered to have stated: ‘The odds versus us are a 1000 to 1.’ On the morning of the Rising, when questioned by one of his fighters if there was any optimism, he answered, happily: ‘None whatever!’

It was challenging for the British staff officers and colon­ial administrators of Dublin Castle, utilized to considering opportunities in terms of their unique methods had been involved, to understand that a number of men, maybe 1,250 strong as the Citizen Army took hardly any notice of MacNeill, had been willing to fight and die in such conditions.

Nevertheless, they should have been cleverer in these times: Langemarck was happened, Verdun was going on, the Somme was about to materialize. Hardly ever in past have men been so willing, surely so enthusiastic, to throw away their lives for the ideal, virtually any ideal, and therefore the Irish ideal had extensive origins.

The men went out for battle !


t_arrow2 to Part I: Easter Rising

t_arrow1 to Part III: Easter week 1916 in Ireland


References and literature

Illustrierte Geschichte des Ersten Weltkriegs (Christian Zentner)
History of World War I (AJP Taylos, S.L. Mayer)
Der Erste Weltkrieg – Storia illustrata della Prima Guerra Mondiale (Hans Kaiser)
Der I. Weltkrieg – Eine Chronik (Ian Westwell)
Chronicle of the First World War, 2 Bände (Randal Gray)
Unser Jahrhundert im Bild (Bertelsmann Lesering)


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