Rebels Read online

  “A WORK OF GENIUS.”

  Michael Muller

  Author of The Hungry Land

  “The author is light years ahead of that other mass-reducer of recent Irish history, Leon Uris, in the important matter of style … The book ends powerfully with the executions. Some of the scenes are almost unbearably bleak and harrowing. Even the nameless Tommies come to life as little rays of humanity illuminate death-cell and execution yard.”

  The Sunday Press (Ireland)

  “I don’t think I have ever read a more graphic or moving last chapter of a book than that of Rebels.”

  Irish Independent

  “Rebels is the saddest story I’ve read since The Tale of Two Cities. I’ve wept for Ireland a hundred times since reading [this] book.”

  Dr. Catherine O’Mahoney-O’Shea

  Grand-niece of Michael Collins

  “Rousing … De Rosa extracts every ounce of drama from a very large cast of historical figures, with rapidly cross-cutting scenes and truly crackling dialogue.”

  Library Journal

  “A chilling account … De Rosa advances the bloody action in short, chronological episodes replete with Hemingwayesque dialogue, letters, and statements … A dramatic and stirring contribution to Irish martyrology.”

  The Kirkus Reviews

  A Fawcett Book

  Published by The Random House Publishing Group

  Copyright © 1990 by Peter de Rosa

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Fawcett Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in Great Britain by Bantam Press, a division of Transworld Publishers Ltd.

  Fawcett is a registered trademark and the Fawcett colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

  www.ballantinebooks.com

  This edition published by arrangement with Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 91–72955

  eISBN: 978-0-307-42294-1

  v3.1_r2

  NOTE TO THE READER

  REBELS is not faction, still less is

  it fiction. This is a true story, but so

  extraordinary that it is only believable

  because it happened.

  With Talleyrand, I say, ‘Je ne

  blâme, ni n’approuve: je raconte,’

  ‘I blame not, I approve not:

  I merely tell a tale.’

  ‘Why is the Rebellion so perennially fascinating?… There is nothing to equal it as a drama, except the first months of the Spanish Civil War. The spectacle of the genial Birrell (the Chief Secretary) and Sir Matthew Nathan, the hard-working, dedicated Jewish civil servant, in their fool’s paradise, hamleted in Dublin Castle by their consciences and respect for legal procedure, pondering on their list of “suspects”, is pure theatre.

  ‘And then the tragic figures come on: Pearse, steeped in Celtic mythology, longing for martyrdom, dangerous as a one-man submarine; Connolly, the militant spokesman for international Marxism; Tom Clarke, the ex-prisoner; Plunkett, the dying strategist; the complicated Casement and his last ineffectual journey by submarine and rubber boat to the Tower – there is scope here for one more masterpiece.’

  Cyril Connolly

  ‘A Terrible Shambles’,

  The Sunday Times,

  24 April 1966

  ‘What in the world’s history was ever more romantic than the gesture of a few young men who challenged England when she had a million of men in arms, and died, and won by dying?’

  Stephen Gwynn

  Dublin, Old and New

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Note to the Reader

  List of Illustrations

  Chief Characters

  Text of the Proclamation of the Republic

  Preview: May-Day 1916: ‘Shoot ’Em’

  At Kilmainham

  Part One: Preparing for the Battle

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Part Two: Count-Down to the Battle

  Chapter 3

  Part Three: The Battle

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Part Four: After the Battle

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Postscript

  Photo Insert 1

  Photo Insert 2

  Maps

  Dedication

  Select Bibliography

  Other Books by This Author

  About the Author

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  1.1 General Sir John Maxwell (Illustrated London News Picture Library)

  1.2 Erskine Childers unloading arms from the Asgard at Howth (Topham Picture Library)

  1.3 Sir Edward Carson addressing an anti-Home Rule rally in 1913 (Hulton-Deutsch)

  1.4 Patrick Pearse after his oration at the funeral of O’Donovan Rossa (National Library of Ireland)

  1.5 John Redmond (Hulton-Deutsch)

  1.6 Augustine Birrell (Sport and General)

  1.7 Sir Matthew Nathan with Augustine Birrell (Arlington Books)

  1.8 Lord Wimborne (Topham Picture Library)

  1.9 Admiral Sir Reginald Hall (Topham Picture Library)

  1.10 Sir Roger Casement (Topham Picture Library)

  1.11 Casement aboard the German submarine U-19 (Arlington Books)

  1.12 Eoin MacNeill (National Library of Ireland)

  1.13 The Countess Markievicz with her daughter and stepson (National Museum of Ireland)

  1.14 Sheehy-Skeffington with Captain White, a British soldier who trained the Irish Citizen Army (Weidenfeld Archive)

  1.15 The O’Rahilly (Private Collection)

  1.16 Patrick Pearse surrendering to General Lowe (Weidenfeld Archive)

  1.17 The Countess Markievicz after her surrender (Topham Picture Library)

  1.18 Eamon de Valera under prisoner’s escort (National Library of Ireland)

  1.19 Father John O’Flanagan (Arlington Books)

  1.20 Willie and Patrick Pearse (National Library of Ireland)

  1.21 Tom Clarke (National Library of Ireland)

  1.22 Joseph Plunkett (National Library of Ireland)

  1.23 Thomas MacDonagh (National Library of Ireland)

  1.24 Edward Daly (Topham Picture Library)

  1.25 John (Sean) MacBride (Topham Picture Library)

  1.26 Eamonn Kent (Private Collection)

  1.27 Cornelius Colbert (Private Collection)

  1.28 Sean McDermott (National Library of Ireland)

  1.29 James Connolly (Private Collection)

  CHIEF CHARACTERS

  (in alphabetical order)

  ASQUITH, H. H., British Prime Minister.

  BERNSTORFF, Count von, German Ambassador in Washington D.C.

  BIRRELL, Augustine, Chief Secretary of Ireland.

  BRUGHA, Cathal, second in command to Eamonn Kent.

  CAPUCHIN FATHERS who attended the rebels in jail: Albert, Aloysius, Augustine, Columbus.

  CARSON, Sir Edward, Dublin barrister and MP, leader of Loyalists in Ulster.

  CASEMENT, Sir Roger, former British consular official.

  CHILDERS, Erskine, yachtsman, supporter of Home Rule.

  CHRISTENSEN, Adler, Norwegian sailor, friend to Casement.

  CLARKE, Kattie, wife of Tom Clarke.

  CLARKE, Tom, tobacconist, brains of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

  COLBERT, Cornelius, unit commander of Irish Volunteers.

  CONNOLLY, James, Union boss, first in Belfast, then Dublin.

  CRAIG, James, MP, chief organizer of Loyalists in Ulster.

  DE VALERA, Eamon, maths teacher, Commandant of Irish Volunteers.

  DA
LY, Edward (Ned), Commandant of Irish Volunteers.

  DALY, John, Ned’s uncle and former prison companion of Tom Clarke.

  DEVOY, John, Head of Clan na Gael, the Irish-American Revolutionary Organization, in New York.

  DILLON, John, Irish Nationalist MP.

  FRENCH, General Sir John, British GOC Home Forces.

  FRIEND, General L. B., British GOC in Ireland.

  GRIFFITH, Arthur, journalist and founder of Sinn Fein.

  HALL, Captain (later Admiral) Reginald, Chief of Admiralty Intelligence.

  HEUSTON, Sean, unit commander of Irish Volunteers.

  HOBSON, Bulmer, Irish Republican Brotherhood, secretary of Irish Volunteers.

  KENT, Eamonn, Commandant of Irish Volunteers.

  LOWE, General W. N. C., British Army Commander in Dublin.

  MacBRIDE, John (Sean), fought as Major in Irish Brigade against British in Boer War.

  McDERMOTT, Sean, former barman, chief organizer of Irish Republican Brotherhood.

  MacDONAGH, Thomas, academic, Brigadier of Irish Volunteers.

  MacNEILL, John (Eoin), academic, Chief of Staff of Irish Volunteers.

  McGARRITY, Joseph, Irish-American from Philadelphia.

  MALLIN, Michael, silk-weaver, Chief of Staff of Citizen Army.

  MARKIEVICZ, Constance Countess, on staff of the Citizen Army.

  MAXWELL, General Sir John Grenfell, sent to put down the rebellion.

  MONTEITH, Robert, Irish Volunteer, sent to Berlin to assist Roger Casement.

  NADOLNY, Captain on German General Staff.

  NATHAN, Sir Matthew, Under-Secretary of Ireland.

  NORWAY, Hamilton, Secretary of the Post Office in Dublin.

  O’FARRELL, Elizabeth, chosen to hand over rebel surrender.

  O’FLANAGAN, Father John, Curate of Pro-Cathedral, Dublin.

  O’RAHILLY, Michael Joseph, a co-founder of Irish Volunteers.

  PEARSE, Patrick, Headmaster of St Enda’s, an Irish school.

  PEARSE, Willie, Patrick’s younger brother.

  PLUNKETT, Joseph, strategist of Irish Volunteers.

  PRICE, Major Ivor, Chief Intelligence Officer in the Castle.

  REDMOND, John, Chairman of Irish Nationalists at Westminster.

  SHEEHY-SKEFFINGTON, Francis, (alias Skeffy), pacifist.

  SHEEHY-SKEFFINGTON, Hanna, Skeffy’s wife, suffragette.

  SPINDLER, Lieutenant Karl, skipper of the German arms boat.

  STACK, Austin, leader of Irish Volunteers in Tralee.

  THOMSON, Basil, Head of CID at Scotland Yard.

  VANE, Major Sir Francis Fletcher, British officer sympathetic to Home Rule.

  WIMBORNE, Lord Ivor, British Viceroy in Ireland.

  ZIMMERMANN, Artur, German Under-Secretary at Foreign Office.

  POBLACHT NA H EIREANN.

  TEE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT

  OF THE

  IRISH REPUBLIC

  TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND.

  IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN : In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom.

  Having organised and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and through her open military organisations, 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.

  We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, not can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations.

  The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.

  Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment of a permanent National Government, representative of the whole people of Ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, the Provisional Government. hereby constituted, will administer the civil and military affairs of the Republic in trust for the people.

  We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the Most High God. Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called.

  Signed on Behalf of the Provisional Government.

  THOMAS J. CLARKE,

  SEAN Mac DIARMADA, THOMAS MacDONAGH,

  P. H. PEARSE. EAMONN CEANNT,

  JAMES CONNOLLY. JOSEPH PLUNKETT.

  PREVIEW

  MAY-DAY 1916:

  ‘Shoot ’Em’

  ‘Ireland’s history is something the English should remember and the Irish should forget.’

  Old Irish saying

  At Kilmainham, in a palatial building on the western edge of Dublin, fifty-six-year-old General Sir John Grenfell Maxwell, Knight of the Order of the Bath, Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, Commander of the Victorian Order and Distinguished Service Order, the new General Officer Commanding His Majesty’s armed forces in Ireland, was coughing like a donkey on his first cigarette of the day.

  In between respiratory explosions, he was feeling mighty pleased with himself. The rebellion was over.

  As he shaved and dressed, still with his comforter in his mouth, he was relieved to have put a stop to this Irish nonsense in no time. That should do his career a power of good. Better still, the politicians had for once had the sense to give a soldier, namely himself, plenary powers to clean Ireland up.

  With his newspaper under his arm, he went for breakfast to a room with arched windows that let in the mute gold of a May morning, a ceiling 30 feet high and panelled walls lined with life-sized portraits of former viceroys. Dead centre, on a long polished table, apart from his coffee pot, was only a silver salver with a preliminary report: 450 dead and 2,614 wounded. A sniff of contentment from his enormous nose rose with a muffled ripple-effect to the rafters. In London, Prime Minister Asquith and the Cabinet would think those casualties piffling compared with the massacres in Flanders and Gallipoli.

  Military statistics? He ran a yellow finger down the list. Officers: 17 killed and 46 wounded. Other ranks: 99 killed, 322 wounded, and 9 missing. ‘Poor buggers, brave chaps.’

  Those responsible would be punished; by God, there would be more deaths in Dublin before he was finished.

  One welcome sign of normality was the reappearance of the Irish Times, a three-day edition. The editorial read: ‘The State has struck … The surgeon’s knife has been put to the corruption in the body of Ireland and its course must not be stayed until the whole malignant growth has been removed. The rapine and bloodshed of the past week
must be punished with a severity which will make any repetition of them impossible for generations to come.’

  A bit rhetorical for his taste but true, for all that. After pushing two cups of black coffee through his yellow hedge-like moustache, he lit up again before summoning his aides to his office. He wanted all potential trouble-makers rounded up.

  ‘So get to it, gentlemen,’ he whooped. ‘If you need names, information, the Royal Irish Constabulary will provide it. They have a list of thousands.’

  Slowly, Dublin was returning to normal. The main artery, Sackville (O’Connell) Street, with most of the buildings reduced to a heap of smouldering rubble, was thronged with sightseers, their handkerchiefs pressed to their mouths. Putrefying horses were being lifted and carted away. Shopkeepers were sweeping up debris from looted shops. A coal lorry was picking up the dead. Ambulances were threading their way through the wreckage. Cars carrying priests were going in all directions to minister to the sick and injured. Official cars went by with white-jacketed doctors in the passenger seats. Red Cross nurses in long white dresses and white caps were scurrying on foot or on bicycles.

  A few older people were weeping under Nelson’s Pillar. Outside the gutted General Post Office, the rebel HQ, some women, whose men were fighting in the British army, were wailing, ‘How can we get our allowances now, after what them fecking rebels have done?’ So far they had had a reasonably good war, chiefly in the pubs.

  Down the street marched a company of British soldiers, commanded by Major Sir Francis Vane, a blimpish-looking officer in a battered peaked cap, with an eye for every pretty girl. Crowds rushed to the side of the road to cheer. But for these boys, all Irish, all loyal to the British Empire, the blood-letting would still be going on. ‘Good old Munsters,’ they called out.

  No one doubted the rebels had lost and lost badly. On street corners, in public houses and the work-place, everyone felt they had humiliated the whole country. They had allied themselves with the Germans by asking them for arms, knowing Germans were slaughtering the Irish in khaki in trenches on the continent of Europe and treading under foot a gallant little Catholic country like Belgium. They had left children hungry, homeless and orphaned, and made the city centre a wasteland worse than France, God forgive them!