Sinn Féin and the Rising of Easter Week, 1916 (Notes)

[1] Speech at Bristol, reported in The Times, January 16, 1914.

[2] Speech at Ballyclare.

[3] Speech at Whitby, September, 1912.

[4] By the end of September, 1913, the Ulster Volunteer Force had reached a strength of 56,000 men commanded by Major-General Sir George Richardson, a retired officer. By the end of March, 1914, it numbered about 84,000, of whom 25,000 were armed with rifles. General the Right Hon. Sir Nevil Macready, Annals of an Active Life, i, 173-174.

[5] Major-General the Right Hon. J. E. B. Seely, Adventure, pp. 162-171; General the Right Hon. Sir Nevil Macready, Annals of an Active Life, vol. i, p. 176 seq. Though the Government maintained that the whole trouble had arisen owing to Sir Arthur Paget having exceeded his instructions in putting the alternative to General Gough and other officers of “active operations against Ulster” or “dismissal with loss of pension,” it seems clear that the coercion of Ulster had been seriously discussed by members of the Cabinet. See Major-General Sir C. E. Callwell, Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, his Life and Diaries, i, 138-142.

[6] The arms had been purchased by Darrell Figgis at Liège and were transhipped into a yacht brought out by Erskine Childers for the purpose of landing them.

[7] P. S. O’Hegarty, The Victory of Sinn Féin, pp. 13, 14.

[8] Published in Poblacht na h-Eireann (The Republic of Ireland), January 3, 1922. See Appendix, II. p. 460.

[9] P. H. Pearse, Ghosts (“Tracts for the Times,” No. 10, 1916).

[10] The Separatist Idea (“Tracts for the Times,” No 11, 1916).

[11] Quoted in R. M. Henry, The Evolution of Féin, p. 125.

[12] Ibid., p 127.

[13] Ibid., p. 132.

[14] Stephen Gwynn, John Redmond’s Last Years (1919), p. 126.

[15] Ibid., pp. 132-134.

[16] Speech in Dublin, quoted in Stephen Gwynn, op. cit., pp. 156-157.

[17] Sir Edward Carson’s speech at Coleraine.

[18] Speech of October 28, 1916. But in view of what afterwards happened, Kitchener’s hesitation seems to have been justified.

[19] Manifesto from twenty members of the original committee of the Volunteers, quoted in Stephen Gwynn, op. cit., p. 155.

[20] P. S. O’Hegarty, The Victory of Sinn Féin, pp. 2, 15.

[21] In September, 1924, after a long sojourn in the United States, first undertaken to incite American opinion against England in the war, Larkin returned to Dublin as Chef de bataillon in Trotsky’s “Foreign Legion,” and as “one of the twenty-five men appointed [by Moscow] to govern the world.”

[22] His proclamation was published in The Ulster Guardian of August 21, 1915, copied from the Daily Chronicle.

[23] The story of Casement’s attempt to seduce the imprisoned men was told at his trial by Corporal Robinson, who was present on the occasion, and also by Herr Liebnecht, the Socialist member of the Reichstag, who protested against it.

[24] Casement was born in Co. Dublin in 1864, but of an Ulster family. He entered the Niger Coast Protectorate service in 1892, and was later employed in the Consular service in West Africa and Rio de Janeiro. From 1909–1912 he was engaged in making enquiries as to the Congo rubber atrocities and reporting on them. In 1905 he had been made a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. He was knighted in 1911. He retired on a pension in 1913. Casement’s own statement was that he had come over to call off the rebellion, which he considered as hopeless. See letter by Miss Eva Gore Booth in The Socialist Review of September, 1916.

[25] Pearse’s order of Surrender runs as follows:—“In order to prevent the further slaughter of Dublin citizens, and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers now surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered, the members of the Provisional Government present at Headquarters have agreed to unconditional surrender, and the Commandants of the various districts in the City and Country will order their commands to lay down arms.” These conditions were also agreed to and signed by James Connolly and Thomas MacDonagh for their respective commands.

[26] A Record of the Irish Rebellion of 1916. Contemporary notes published by “Irish Life.”

[27] The Voice of Ireland, pamphlet (1916).

[28] P. S. O’Hegarty, The Victory of Sinn Féin, p. 4.

[29] The casualties are given in the official report as 450 killed, 9 missing, and 2,614 wounded, total 3,073. Payments in respect of property destroyed were made after the rising of £1,742,926, paid out of the pockets of the British taxpayer, but this does not represent the full amount of the losses sustained. See The Administration of Ireland (1920), “I.O.”

[30] A. de Blacam, What Sinn Féin stands for, p. 89.