100 years ago this week came Easter 1916, and with it came a bloody uprising in Ireland
against British rule, but tensions had been growing for years and the war had helped polarize
the situation. Let’s take a look.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War Special episode about Ireland during the First
World War and the Easter Uprising.
The First World War was immediately preceded in Ireland by a major political crisis over
Home Rule, and the Home Rule Movement sought to reduce British political control over Ireland,
although different factions had different concepts of just what Home Rule would involve.
The Third Home Rule Bill went on the books in September 1914 and was the first British
Parliamentary law to decentralize powers to a part of the UK, but because of the War its
implementation was postponed and was never enacted. It was also fiercely resisted by
Unionists, concentrated in Ulster, and in 1913 the Ulster Volunteers had formed an armed
militia to resist Home Rule. Irish nationalists formed the Irish Volunteers in response “to
defend the constitutional rights of the Irish People” and to pressure Britain to allow
Home Rule, and conflict between the two groups loomed in early 1914, but the war temporarily
defused the crisis.
The two groups’ response to the outbreak of the war was as follows.
On August 3, 1914, John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, declared in
the House of Commons that the British government could withdraw all troops from Ireland and
rely on the Irish to defend their island themselves. This initiative was widely acclaimed, though
not by all Irish volunteers.
Unionist leader Edward Carson urged the Ulster Volunteers to enlist in the new Ulster Division
and with the Home Rule Bill passing into law, Redmond found himself under pressure to demonstrate
a similar commitment. On September 20th, he called for the Irish Volunteers to enlist
in existing Irish regiments in the British army and support the Allied war effort. Redmond
believed that having achieved future self-government, it was Ireland’s duty “to go wherever
the firing line extends, in defense of right, of freedom, and of religion in this war. It
would be a disgrace forever to our country otherwise.”
The roughly 180,000 members of the Irish Volunteers were split by Redmond’s call. A large number
did follow him and formed the National Volunteers. Of these, around 25,000 served in Irish regiments
during the war, including Redmond’s son and his 50+ year old brother Willie; while
a further 10,000 under Eoin MacNeill said they’d keep the organization together and
in Ireland until Home Rule was enacted. However, the more radical fringe of Irish nationalists,
the remaining Irish Volunteers and the underground Irish Republican Brotherhood, opposed enlistment
and some of them plotted in secret for an armed insurrection against British rule.
Back to the Unionists for a second.
Carson saw Unionist support of the Allied cause partly as a means to demonstrate loyalty
to the crown, and they were granted their own division – as I mentioned- the 36th
Ulster. Redmond requested a separate brigade for the nationalists, but the British government
was suspicious after he told the Irish Volunteers that they would return as an armed and trained
army to resist Ulster’s opposition to Home Rule. As a gesture he was granted the 16th
Irish Division, BUT unlike the Ulster Division, it was led by English officers, with the exception
of General Bernhard Hickie.
One historian described the situation like this; “Both political camps expected the
gratitude of the British Administration for their willingness to sacrifice themselves...
Neither foresaw that in the First World War all special interests would be expendable.”
In all, about 210,000 Irishmen served in British forces during World War One and some 35,000
died.
The first of the Irish New Army Divisions to see action was one I haven’t mentioned,
the 10th, which landed at Suvla Bay at Gallipoli in August 1915. The other two Divisions served
in France, both at the Battle of the Somme. The Ulster Division went over the top on July
1st, the first day of the battle, and in just the first 48 hours, lost over a third of its
15,000 men. July 1st was also an important anniversary for the Unionists, that of the
Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Now, the calendar was changed in 1752 to that anniversary now
fell on the 12th, but the parades were cancelled in 1916 after the losses at the Somme.
The 16th Division, the Irish Volunteers, went into action two months later, still at the
Somme, and eight months later at Messines, the 16th and 36th fought alongside each other,
causing some to hope that serving together at the front might help reconciliation at
home. Remember, the Somme was months after the Easter Uprising and Messines a year after
it.
Right now, I’m gonna give you some really general background info that led to the Irish
political situation during the war.
During the Great Famine of the 1840s tens of thousands of Irish immigrated to the US
to avoid starvation and by the turn of the 20th century there were well over 1.5 million
people of Irish birth there. In many ways they created a new Irish nation within America.
Many of these supported the Republican cause in Ireland by giving money and weapons. The
Irish Republican Brotherhood was formed in Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day 1858. Now, popular
opinion did not support the IRB, nor did the Church, and mainstream support came most often
from the poorer classes, but still, it soon had tens of thousands of supporters and in
1867, Clan na Gael was founded in the US to aid the IRB and to help secure an independent
Ireland.
Leaving out loads of stuff I’m gonna fast forward 40 years. In 1909 Thomas Clarke became
a member of the Supreme Council of the IRB and helped found the revolutionary paper “Irish
Freedom”. He was the link between the IRB and Clan na Gael. In 1913 the Irish Volunteers
were formed and in 1914 Padraig Pearse, another big figure, began looking for rifles, convinced
that the time was at hand for revolution.
By 1916 there WERE guns, though just before Easter the Republican Cause was dealt a blow
when Sir Roger Casement’s cargo, 20,000 rifles, ten machine guns, and a million rounds
of ammo from Germany didn’t make it to Ireland and Casement was captured and eventually executed.
Anyhow, Thomas Clarke was the main instigator of the Uprising, supported by Pearse and many
others and the Irish Volunteers were training throughout the land awaiting the call.
Now, the capture of Casement was a setback, as was the fact that plans for an uprising
were discovered in New York in a raid on German officials, but it was to proceed anyhow, now
set for Easter Monday.
On April 24, 1916 revolutionary forces occupied the General Post Office in Dublin, the headquarters
of the Irish Post Office. Padraig Pearse read a proclamation of a new provisional Irish
government, the full text of which you can read in the comments section. It was signed
by seven men, Clarke, Pearse, Sean Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, Eammonn Ceannt, James Connolly,
and Joseph Plunkett.
The volunteers seized six positions in Dublin, though they failed to take the castle and
Trinity College, which restricted their communications with each other. The country did not rise
up, though, and by Wednesday English reinforcements outnumbered the revolutionaries 20-1 and closed
in on the city, concentrating their attack on the GPO from field guns mounted at Trinity
College once the rebel’s headquarters at Liberty Hall had been destroyed. The shelling
destroyed O’Connell Street and the surroundings and by Friday the GPO was in flames, and Pearse
gave the order to surrender. By this time 450 people, many of them civilians, were dead
and over 2,500 wounded. Dublin was in ruins.
3,500 people were arrested across Ireland, 1,841 of these were interned without trial
in England. Of 171 who were court-martialed, 170 were convicted and 90 sentenced to death
though 75 of those sentences were commuted to life in prison. 15 rebel leaders were executed,
including all seven signatories of the proclamation; they were executed within days to the outrage
of the Irish public, much of who now saw those men as heroes.
But what happened afterward?
Well, the Rising was critical in terms of the fight for independence. Nationalism swept
the land in the aftermath and for the first time the masses wanted an end to English rule,
and the War of Independence in 1919, the subsequent Civil War in 1922, and the creation of the
Irish Free State can all be traced directly to those events of Easter 1916. Those postwar
events, though, are beyond the scope of this channel, but I encourage you all to look it
up yourselves to get a better idea of how it all went down and how Irish nationalism,
through all the blood and all the years, finally turned became Home Rule.
We want to thank our countless Irish viewers who sent in materials and helped us with the
research for this topic. Couldn’t have done so without you.
A lot of Irishmen died on several fronts during the war. One of their first encounters was
the disaster at Gallipoli. If you want to find out more about the Battle of Suvla Bay,
click right here.
And our Patreon supporter of this episode is Colin O'Hara who sounds suspiciously Irish too.
See you next time.