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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:40:53 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:40:53 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/12871-0.txt b/12871-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a3ea82 --- /dev/null +++ b/12871-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2356 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12871 *** + +[Transcriber's note: The spelling inconsistencies of the original are +retained in this etext.] + + + _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ + + + POEMS + + + INSURRECTIONS (Maunsel) + + THE HILL OF VISION " + + GREEN BRANCHES " + + SONGS FROM THE CLAY (Macmillan) + + THE ADVENTURES OF SEUMAS BEG " + + + * * * * * + + + PROSE + + + THE CHARWOMANS DAUGHTER (Macmillan) + + THE CROCK OF GOLD " + + HERE ARE LADIES " + + THE DEMI-GODS " + + + * * * * * + + + + + THE INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN + + + BY JAMES STEPHENS + + + MAUNSEL & COMPANY, LTD. DUBLIN AND LONDON 1916 + + + + + + CONTENTS + + + FOREWORD + + + CHAP. + + I. MONDAY + + II. TUESDAY + + III. WEDNESDAY + + IV. THURSDAY + + V. FRIDAY + + VI. SATURDAY + + VII. SUNDAY + + VIII. THE INSURRECTION IS OVER + + IX. THE VOLUNTEERS + + X. SOME OF THE LEADERS + + XI. LABOUR AND THE INSURRECTION + + XII. THE IRISH QUESTIONS + + + + + + FOREWORD + +The day before the rising was Easter Sunday, and they were crying +joyfully in the Churches "Christ has risen." On the following day they +were saying in the streets "Ireland has risen." The luck of the moment +was with her. The auguries were good, and, notwithstanding all that has +succeeded, I do not believe she must take to the earth again, nor be +ever again buried. The pages hereafter were written day by day during +the Insurrection that followed Holy Week, and, as a hasty impression of +a most singular time, the author allows them to stand without any +emendation. + +The few chapters which make up this book are not a history of the +rising. I knew nothing about the rising. I do not know anything about it +now, and it may be years before exact information on the subject is +available. What I have written is no more than a statement of what +passed in one quarter of our city, and a gathering together of the +rumour and tension which for nearly two weeks had to serve the Dublin +people in lieu of news. It had to serve many Dublin people in place of +bread. + +To-day, the 8th of May, the book is finished, and, so far as Ireland is +immediately concerned, the insurrection is over. Action now lies with +England, and on that action depends whether the Irish Insurrection is +over or only suppressed. + +In their dealings with this country, English Statesmen have seldom shown +political imagination; sometimes they have been just, sometimes, and +often, unjust. After a certain point I dislike and despise justice. It +is an attribute of God, and is adequately managed by Him alone; but +between man and man no other ethics save that of kindness can give +results. I have not any hope that this ethic will replace that, and I +merely mention it in order that the good people who read these words may +enjoy the laugh which their digestion needs. + +I have faith in man, I have very little faith in States man. But I +believe that the world moves, and I believe that the weight of the +rolling planet is going to bring freedom to Ireland. Indeed, I name this +date as the first day of Irish freedom, and the knowledge forbids me +mourn too deeply my friends who are dead. + +It may not be worthy of mention, but the truth is, that Ireland is not +cowed. She is excited a little. She is gay a little. She was not with +the revolution, but in a few months she will be, and her heart which was +withering will be warmed by the knowledge that men have thought her +worth dying for. She will prepare to make herself worthy of devotion, +and that devotion will never fail her. So little does it take to raise +our hearts. + +Does it avail anything to describe these things to English readers? They +have never moved the English mind to anything except impatience, but +to-day and at this desperate conjunction they may be less futile than +heretofore. England also has grown patriotic, even by necessity. It is +necessity alone makes patriots, for in times of peace a patriot is a +quack when he is not a shark. Idealism pays in times of peace, it dies +in time of war. Our idealists are dead and yours are dying hourly. + +The English mind may to-day be enabled to understand what is wrong with +us, and why through centuries we have been "disthressful." Let them +look at us, I do not say through the fumes that are still rising from +our ruined streets, but through the smoke that is rolling from the North +Sea to Switzerland, and read in their own souls the justification for +all our risings, and for this rising. + +Is it wrong to say that England has not one friend in Europe? I say it. +Her Allies of to-day were her enemies of yesterday, and politics alone +will decide what they will be to-morrow. I say it, and yet I am not +entirely right, for she has one possible friend unless she should decide +that even one friend is excessive and irks her. That one possible friend +is Ireland. I say, and with assurance, that if our national questions +are arranged there will remain no reason for enmity between the two +countries, and there will remain many reasons for friendship. + +It may be objected that the friendship of a country such as Ireland has +little value; that she is too small geographically, and too thinly +populated to give aid to any one. Only sixty odd years ago our +population was close on ten millions of people, nor are we yet sterile; +in area Ireland is not collossal, but neither is she microscopic. Mr. +Shaw has spoken of her as a "cabbage patch at the back of beyond." On +this kind of description Rome might be called a hen-run and Greece a +back yard. The sober fact is that Ireland has a larger geographical area +than many an independent and prosperous European kingdom, and for all +human and social needs she is a fairly big country, and is beautiful and +fertile to boot. She could be made worth knowing if goodwill and trust +are available for the task. + +I believe that what is known as the "mastery of the seas" will, when the +great war is finished, pass irretrievably from the hands or the ambition +of any nation, and that more urgently than ever in her history England +will have need of a friend. It is true that we might be her enemy and +might do her some small harm--it is truer that we could be her friend, +and could be of very real assistance to her. + +Should the English Statesman decide that our friendship is worth having +let him create a little of the political imagination already spoken of. +Let him equip us (it is England's debt to Ireland) for freedom, not in +the manner of a miser who arranges for the chilly livelihood of a needy +female relative; but the way a wealthy father would undertake the +settlement of his son. I fear I am assisting my reader to laugh too +much, but laughter is the sole excess that is wholesome. + +If freedom is to come to Ireland--as I believe it is--then the Easter +Insurrection was the only thing that could have happened. I speak as an +Irishman, and am momentarily leaving out of account every other +consideration. If, after all her striving, freedom had come to her as a +gift, as a peaceful present such as is sometimes given away with a pound +of tea, Ireland would have accepted the gift with shamefacedness, and +have felt that her centuries of revolt had ended in something very like +ridicule. The blood of brave men had to sanctify such a consummation if +the national imagination was to be stirred to the dreadful business +which is the organizing of freedom, and both imagination and brains have +been stagnant in Ireland this many a year. Following on such tameness, +failure might have been predicted, or, at least feared, and war (let us +call it war for the sake of our pride) was due to Ireland before she +could enter gallantly on her inheritance. We might have crept into +liberty like some kind of domesticated man, whereas now we may be +allowed to march into freedom with the honours of war. I am still +appealing to the political imagination, for if England allows Ireland to +formally make peace with her that peace will be lasting, everlasting; +but if the liberty you give us is all half-measures, and distrusts and +stinginesses, then what is scarcely worth accepting will hardly be worth +thanking you for. + +There is a reference in the earlier pages of this record to a letter +which I addressed to Mr. George Bernard Shaw and published in the _New +Age_. This was a thoughtless letter, and subsequent events have proved +that it was unmeaning and ridiculous. I have since, through the same +hospitable journal, apologised to Mr. Shaw, but have let my reference to +the matter stand as an indication that electricity was already in the +air. Every statement I made about him in that letter and in this book +was erroneous; for, afterwards, when it would have been politic to run +for cover, he ran for the open, and he spoke there like the valiant +thinker and great Irishman that he is. + + * * * * * + +Since the foregoing was written events have moved in this country. The +situation is no longer the same. The executions have taken place. One +cannot justly exclaim against the measures adopted by the military +tribunal, and yet, in the interests of both countries one may deplore +them. I have said there was no bitterness in Ireland, and it was true at +the time of writing. It is no longer true; but it is still possible by +generous Statesmanship to allay this, and to seal a true union between +Ireland and England. + + + + + THE + + INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN + + + + + CHAPTER I + + MONDAY + + +This has taken everyone by surprise. It is possible, that, with the +exception of their Staff, it has taken the Volunteers themselves by +surprise; but, to-day, our peaceful city is no longer peaceful; guns are +sounding, or rolling and crackling from different directions, and, +although rarely, the rattle of machine guns can be heard also. + +Two days ago war seemed very far away--so far, that I have covenanted +with myself to learn the alphabet of music. Tom Bodkin had promised to +present me with a musical instrument called a dulcimer--I persist in +thinking that this is a species of guitar, although I am assured that it +is a number of small metal plates which are struck with sticks, and I +confess that this description of its function prejudices me more than a +little against it. There is no reason why I should think dubiously of +such an instrument, but I do not relish the idea of procuring music with +a stick. With this dulcimer I shall be able to tap out our Irish +melodies when I am abroad, and transport myself to Ireland for a few +minutes, or a few bars. + +In preparation for this present I had through Saturday and Sunday been +learning the notes of the Scale. The notes and spaces on the lines did +not trouble me much, but those above and below the line seemed ingenious +and complicated to a degree that frightened me. + +On Saturday I got the _Irish Times_, and found in it a long article by +Bernard Shaw (reprinted from the _New York Times_). One reads things +written by Shaw. Why one does read them I do not know exactly, except +that it is a habit we got into years ago, and we read an article by Shaw +just as we put on our boots in the morning--that is, without thinking +about it, and without any idea of reward. + +His article angered me exceedingly. It was called "Irish Nonsense +talked in Ireland." It was written (as is almost all of his journalistic +work) with that _bonhomie_ which he has cultivated--it is his +mannerism--and which is essentially hypocritical and untrue. _Bonhomie_! +It is that man-of-the-world attitude, that shop attitude, that +between-you-and-me-for-are-we-not-equal-and-cultured attitude, which is +the tone of a card-sharper or a trick-of-the-loop man. That was the tone +of Shaw's article. I wrote an open letter to him which I sent to the +_New Age_, because I doubted that the Dublin papers would print it if I +sent it to them, and I knew that the Irish people who read the other +papers had never heard of Shaw, except as a trade-mark under which very +good Limerick bacon is sold, and that they would not be interested in +the opinions of a person named Shaw on any subject not relevant to +bacon. I struck out of my letter a good many harsh things which I said +of him, and hoped he would reply to it in order that I could furnish +these acidities to him in a second letter. + +That was Saturday. + +On Sunday I had to go to my office, as the Director was absent in +London, and there I applied myself to the notes and spaces below the +stave, but relinquished the exercise, convinced that these mysteries +were unattainable by man, while the knowledge that above the stave there +were others and not less complex, stayed mournfully with me. + +I returned home, and as novels (perhaps it is only for the duration of +the war) do not now interest me I read for some time in Madame +Blavatsky's "Secret Doctrine," which book interests me profoundly. +George Russell was out of town or I would have gone round to his house +in the evening to tell him what I thought about Shaw, and to listen to +his own much finer ideas on that as on every other subject. I went to +bed. + +On the morning following I awoke into full insurrection and bloody war, +but I did not know anything about it. It was Bank Holiday, but for +employments such as mine there are not any holidays, so I went to my +office at the usual hour, and after transacting what business was +necessary I bent myself to the notes above and below the stave, and +marvelled anew at the ingenuity of man. Peace was in the building, and +if any of the attendants had knowledge or rumour of war they did not +mention it to me. + +At one o'clock I went to lunch. Passing the corner of Merrion Row I saw +two small groups of people. These people were regarding steadfastly in +the direction of St. Stephen's Green Park, and they spoke occasionally +to one another with that detached confidence which proved they were +mutually unknown. I also, but without approaching them, stared in the +direction of the Green. I saw nothing but the narrow street which +widened to the Park. Some few people were standing in tentative +attitudes, and all looking in the one direction. As I turned from them +homewards I received an impression of silence and expectation and +excitement. + +On the way home I noticed that many silent people were standing in their +doorways--an unusual thing in Dublin outside of the back streets. The +glance of a Dublin man or woman conveys generally a criticism of one's +personal appearance, and is a little hostile to the passer. The look of +each person as I passed was steadfast, and contained an enquiry instead +of a criticism. I felt faintly uneasy, but withdrew my mind to a +meditation which I had covenanted with myself to perform daily, and +passed to my house. + +There I was told that there had been a great deal of rifle firing all +the morning, and we concluded that the Military recruits or Volunteer +detachments were practising that arm. My return to business was by the +way I had already come. At the corner of Merrion Row I found the same +silent groups, who were still looking in the direction of the Green, and +addressing each other occasionally with the detached confidence of +strangers. Suddenly, and on the spur of the moment, I addressed one of +these silent gazers. + +"Has there been an accident?" said I. + +I indicated the people standing about. + +"What's all this for?" + +He was a sleepy, rough-looking man about 40 years of age, with a blunt +red moustache, and the distant eyes which one sees in sailors. He looked +at me, stared at me as at a person from a different country. He grew +wakeful and vivid. + +"Don't you know," said he. + +And then he saw that I did not know. + +"The Sinn Feiners have seized the City this morning." + +"Oh!" said I. + +He continued with the savage earnestness of one who has amazement in his +mouth: + +"They seized the City at eleven o'clock this morning. The Green there is +full of them. They have captured the Castle. They have taken the Post +Office." + +"My God!" said I, staring at him, and instantly I turned and went +running towards the Green. + +In a few seconds I banished astonishment and began to walk. As I drew +near the Green rifle fire began like sharply-cracking whips. It was from +the further side. I saw that the Gates were closed and men were standing +inside with guns on their shoulders. I passed a house, the windows of +which were smashed in. As I went by a man in civilian clothes slipped +through the Park gates, which instantly closed behind him. He ran +towards me, and I halted. He was carrying two small packets in his hand. +He passed me hurriedly, and, placing his leg inside the broken window +of the house behind me, he disappeared. Almost immediately another man +in civilian clothes appeared from the broken window of another house. He +also had something (I don't know what) in his hand. He ran urgently +towards the gates, which opened, admitted him, and closed again. + +In the centre of this side of the Park a rough barricade of carts and +motor cars had been sketched. It was still full of gaps. Behind it was a +halted tram, and along the vistas of the Green one saw other trams +derelict, untenanted. + +I came to the barricade. As I reached it and stood by the Shelbourne +Hotel, which it faced, a loud cry came from the Park. The gates opened +and three men ran out. Two of them held rifles with fixed bayonets. The +third gripped a heavy revolver in his fist. They ran towards a motor car +which had just turned the corner, and halted it. The men with bayonets +took position instantly on either side of the car. The man with the +revolver saluted, and I heard him begging the occupants to pardon him, +and directing them to dismount. A man and woman got down. They were +again saluted and requested to go to the sidewalk. They did so. + + NOTE--As I pen these words rifle shot is cracking from three + different directions and continually. Three minutes ago there was two + discharges from heavy guns. These are the first heavy guns used in + the Insurrection, 25th April. + +The man crossed and stood by me. He was very tall and thin, middle-aged, +with a shaven, wasted face. "I want to get down to Armagh to-day," he +said to no one in particular. The loose bluish skin under his eyes was +twitching. The Volunteers directed the chauffeur to drive to the +barricade and lodge his car in a particular position there. He did it +awkwardly, and after three attempts he succeeded in pleasing them. He +was a big, brown-faced man, whose knees were rather high for the seat he +was in, and they jerked with the speed and persistence of something +moved with a powerful spring. His face was composed and fully under +command, although his legs were not. He locked the car into the +barricade, and then, being a man accustomed to be commanded, he awaited +an order to descend. When the order came he walked directly to his +master, still preserving all the solemnity of his features. These two +men did not address a word to each other, but their drilled and +expressionless eyes were loud with surprise and fear and rage. They went +into the Hotel. + +I spoke to the man with the revolver. He was no more than a boy, not +more certainly than twenty years of age, short in stature, with close +curling red hair and blue eyes--a kindly-looking lad. The strap of his +sombrero had torn loose on one side, and except while he held it in his +teeth it flapped about his chin. His face was sunburnt and grimy with +dust and sweat. + +This young man did not appear to me to be acting from his reason. He was +doing his work from a determination implanted previously, days, weeks +perhaps, on his imagination. His mind was--where? It was not with his +body. And continually his eyes went searching widely, looking for +spaces, scanning hastily the clouds, the vistas of the streets, looking +for something that did not hinder him, looking away for a moment from +the immediacies and rigours which were impressed where his mind had +been. + +When I spoke he looked at me, and I know that for some seconds he did +not see me. I said:-- + +"What is the meaning of all this? What has happened?" + +He replied collectedly enough in speech, but with that ramble and +errancy clouding his eyes. + +"We have taken the City. We are expecting an attack from the military at +any moment, and those people," he indicated knots of men, women and +children clustered towards the end of the Green, "won't go home for me. +We have the Post Office, and the Railways, and the Castle. We have all +the City. We have everything." + +(Some men and two women drew behind me to listen). + +"This morning," said he, "the police rushed us. One ran at me to take my +revolver. I fired but I missed him, and I hit a--" + +"You have far too much talk," said a voice to the young man. + +I turned a few steps away, and glancing back saw that he was staring +after me, but I know that he did not see me--he was looking at turmoil, +and blood, and at figures that ran towards him and ran away--a world in +motion and he in the centre of it astonished. + +The men with him did not utter a sound. They were both older. One, +indeed, a short, sturdy man, had a heavy white moustache. He was quite +collected, and took no notice of the skies, or the spaces. He saw a man +in rubbers placing his hand on a motor bicycle in the barricade, and +called to him instantly: "Let that alone." + +The motorist did not at once remove his hand, whereupon the +white-moustached man gripped his gun in both hands and ran violently +towards him. He ran directly to him, body to body, and, as he was short +and the motorist was very tall, stared fixedly up in his face. He roared +up at his face in a mighty voice. + +"Are you deaf? Are you deaf? Move back!" + +The motorist moved away, pursued by an eye as steady and savage as the +point of the bayonet that was level with it. + +Another motor car came round the Ely Place corner of the Green and +wobbled at the sight of the barricade. The three men who had returned +to the gates roared "Halt," but the driver made a tentative effort to +turn his wheel. A great shout of many voices came then, and the three +men ran to him. + +"Drive to the barricade," came the order. + +The driver turned his wheel a point further towards escape, and +instantly one of the men clapped a gun to the wheel and blew the tyre +open. Some words were exchanged, and then a shout: + +"Drive it on the rim, drive it." + +The tone was very menacing, and the motorist turned his car slowly to +the barricade and placed it in. + +For an hour I tramped the City, seeing everywhere these knots of +watchful strangers speaking together in low tones, and it sank into my +mind that what I had heard was true, and that the City was in +insurrection. It had been promised for so long, and had been threatened +for so long. Now it was here. I had seen it in the Green, others had +seen it in other parts--the same men clad in dark green and equipped +with rifle, bayonet, and bandolier, the same silent activity. The police +had disappeared from the streets. At that hour I did not see one +policeman, nor did I see one for many days, and men said that several of +them had been shot earlier in the morning; that an officer had been shot +on Portobello Bridge, that many soldiers had been killed, and that a +good many civilians were dead also. + +Around me as I walked the rumour of war and death was in the air. +Continually and from every direction rifles were crackling and rolling; +sometimes there was only one shot, again it would be a roll of firing +crested with single, short explosions, and sinking again to whip-like +snaps and whip-like echoes; then for a moment silence, and then again +the guns leaped in the air. + +The rumour of positions, bridges, public places, railway stations, +Government offices, having been seized was persistent, and was not +denied by any voice. + +I met some few people I knew. P.H., T.M., who said: "Well!" and thrust +their eyes into me as though they were rummaging me for information. + +But there were not very many people in the streets. The greater part of +the population were away on Bank Holiday, and did not know anything of +this business. Many of them would not know anything until they found +they had to walk home from Kingstown, Dalkey, Howth, or wherever they +were. + +I returned to my office, decided that I would close it for the day. The +men were very relieved when I came in, and were more relieved when I +ordered the gong to be sounded. There were some few people in the place, +and they were soon put out. The outer gates were locked, and the great +door, but I kept the men on duty until the evening. We were the last +public institution open; all the others had been closed for hours. + +I went upstairs and sat down, but had barely reached the chair before I +stood up again, and began to pace my room, to and fro, to and fro; +amazed, expectant, inquiet; turning my ear to the shots, and my mind to +speculations that began in the middle, and were chased from there by +others before they had taken one thought forward. But then I took myself +resolutely and sat me down, and I pencilled out exercises above the +stave, and under the stave; and discovered suddenly that I was again +marching the floor, to and fro, to and fro, with thoughts bursting about +my head as though they were fired on me from concealed batteries. + +At five o'clock I left. I met Miss P., all of whose rumours coincided +with those I had gathered. She was in exceeding good humour and +interested. Leaving her I met Cy----, and we turned together up to the +Green. As we proceeded, the sound of firing grew more distinct, but when +we reached the Green it died away again. We stood a little below the +Shelbourne Hotel, looking at the barricade and into the Park. We could +see nothing. Not a Volunteer was in sight. The Green seemed a desert. +There were only the trees to be seen, and through them small green +vistas of sward. + +Just then a man stepped on the footpath and walked directly to the +barricade. He stopped and gripped the shafts of a lorry lodged near the +centre. At that instant the Park exploded into life and sound; from +nowhere armed men appeared at the railings, and they all shouted at the +man. + +"Put down that lorry. Let out and go away. Let out at once." + +These were the cries. The man did not let out. He halted with the shafts +in his hand, and looked towards the vociferous pailings. Then, and very +slowly, he began to draw the lorry out of the barricade. The shouts came +to him again, very loud, very threatening, but he did not attend to +them. + +"He is the man that owns the lorry," said a voice beside me. + +Dead silence fell on the people around while the man slowly drew his +cart down by the footpath. Then three shots rang out in succession. At +the distance he could not be missed, and it was obvious they were trying +to frighten him. He dropped the shafts, and instead of going away he +walked over to the Volunteers. + +"He has a nerve," said another voice behind me. + +The man walked directly towards the Volunteers, who, to the number of +about ten, were lining the railings. He walked slowly, bent a little +forward, with one hand raised and one finger up as though he were going +to make a speech. Ten guns were pointing at him, and a voice repeated +many times: + +"Go and put back that lorry or you are a dead man. Go before I count +four. One, two, three, four--" + +A rifle spat at him, and in two undulating movements the man sank on +himself and sagged to the ground. + +I ran to him with some others, while a woman screamed unmeaningly, all +on one strident note. The man was picked up and carried to a hospital +beside the Arts Club. There was a hole in the top of his head, and one +does not know how ugly blood can look until it has been seen clotted in +hair. As the poor man was being carried in, a woman plumped to her knees +in the road and began not to scream but to screetch. + +At that moment the Volunteers were hated. The men by whom I was and who +were lifting the body, roared into the railings:-- + +"We'll be coming back for you, damn you." + +From the railings there came no reply, and in an instant the place was +again desert and silent, and the little green vistas were slumbering +among the trees. + +No one seemed able to estimate the number of men inside the Green, and +through the day no considerable body of men had been seen, only those +who held the gates, and the small parties of threes and fours who +arrested motors and carts for their barricades. Among these were some +who were only infants--one boy seemed about twelve years of age. He was +strutting the centre of the road with a large revolver in his small +fist. A motor car came by him containing three men, and in the shortest +of time he had the car lodged in his barricade, and dismissed its +stupified occupants with a wave of his armed hand. + +The knots were increasing about the streets, for now the Bank Holiday +people began to wander back from places that were not distant, and to +them it had all to be explained anew. Free movement was possible +everywhere in the City, but the constant crackle of rifles restricted +somewhat that freedom. Up to one o'clock at night belated travellers +were straggling into the City, and curious people were wandering from +group to group still trying to gather information. + +I remained awake until four o'clock in the morning. Every five minutes +a rifle cracked somewhere, but about a quarter to twelve sharp volleying +came from the direction of Portobello Bridge, and died away after some +time. The windows of my flat listen out towards the Green, and obliquely +towards Sackville Street. In another quarter of an hour there were +volleys from Stephen's Green direction, and this continued with +intensity for about twenty-five minutes. Then it fell into a sputter of +fire and ceased. + +I went to bed about four o'clock convinced that the Green had been +rushed by the military and captured, and that the rising was at an end. + +That was the first day of the insurrection. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + TUESDAY + + +A sultry, lowering day, and dusk skies fat with rain. + +I left for my office, believing that the insurrection was at an end. At +a corner I asked a man was it all finished. He said it was not, and +that, if anything, it was worse. + +On this day the rumours began, and I think it will be many a year before +the rumours cease. The _Irish Times_ published an edition which +contained nothing but an official Proclamation that evily-disposed +persons had disturbed the peace, and that the situation was well in +hand. The news stated in three lines that there was a Sinn Fein rising +in Dublin, and that the rest of the country was quiet. + +No English or country papers came. There was no delivery or collection +of letters. All the shops in the City were shut. There was no traffic of +any kind in the streets. There was no way of gathering any kind of +information, and rumour gave all the news. + +It seemed that the Military and the Government had been taken unawares. +It was Bank Holiday, and many military officers had gone to the races, +or were away on leave, and prominent members of the Irish Government had +gone to England on Sunday. + +It appeared that everything claimed on the previous day was true, and +that the City of Dublin was entirely in the hands of the Volunteers. +They had taken and sacked Jacob's Biscuit Factory, and had converted it +into a fort which they held. They had the Post Office, and were building +baricades around it ten feet high of sandbags, cases, wire +entanglements. They had pushed out all the windows and sandbagged them +to half their height, while cart-loads of food, vegetables and +ammunition were going in continually. They had dug trenches and were +laying siege to one of the city barracks. + +It was current that intercourse between Germany and Ireland had been +frequent chiefly by means of submarines, which came up near the coast +and landed machine guns, rifles and ammunition. It was believed also +that the whole country had risen, and that many strong places and cities +were in the hands of the Volunteers. Cork Barracks was said to be taken +while the officers were away at the Curragh races, that the men without +officers were disorganised, and the place easily captured. + +It was said that Germans, thousands strong, had landed, and that many +Irish Americans with German officers had arrived also with full military +equipment. + +On the previous day the Volunteers had proclaimed the Irish Republic. +This ceremony was conducted from the Mansion House steps, and the +manifesto was said to have been read by Pearse, of St. Enda's. The +Republican and Volunteer flag was hoisted on the Mansion House. The +latter consisted of vertical colours of green, white and orange. Kerry +wireless station was reported captured, and news of the Republic flashed +abroad. These rumours were flying in the street. + +It was also reported that two transports had come in the night and had +landed from England about 8,000 soldiers. An attack reported on the +Post Office by a troop of lancers who were received with fire and +repulsed. It is foolish to send cavalry into street war. + +In connection with this lancer charge at the Post Office it is said that +the people, and especially the women, sided with the soldiers, and that +the Volunteers were assailed by these women with bricks, bottles, +sticks, to cries of: + +"Would you be hurting the poor men?" + +There were other angry ladies who threatened Volunteers, addressing to +them this petrifying query: + +"Would you be hurting the poor horses?" + +Indeed, the best people in the world live in Dublin. + +The lancers retreated to the bottom of Sackville Street, where they +remained for some time in the centre of a crowd who were carressing +their horses. It may have seemed to them a rather curious kind of +insurrection--that is, if they were strangers to Ireland. + +In the Post Office neighbourhood the Volunteers had some difficulty in +dealing with the people who surged about them while they were preparing +the barricade, and hindered them to some little extent. One of the +Volunteers was particularly noticeable. He held a lady's umbrella in his +hand, and whenever some person became particularly annoying he would +leap the barricade and chase his man half a street, hitting him over the +head with the umbrella. It was said that the wonder of the world was not +that Ireland was at war, but that after many hours the umbrella was +still unbroken. A Volunteer night attack on the Quays was spoken of, +whereat the military were said to have been taken by surprise and six +carts of their ammunition captured. This was probably untrue. Also, that +the Volunteers had blown up the Arsenal in the Phoenix Park. + +There had been looting in the night about Sackville Street, and it was +current that the Volunteers had shot twenty of the looters. + +The shops attacked were mainly haberdashers, shoe shops, and sweet +shops. Very many sweet shops were raided, and until the end of the +rising sweet shops were the favourite mark of the looters. There is +something comical in this looting of sweet shops--something almost +innocent and child-like. Possibly most of the looters are children who +are having the sole gorge of their lives. They have tasted sweetstuffs +they had never toothed before, and will never taste again in this life, +and until they die the insurrection of 1916 will have a sweet savour for +them. + +I went to the Green. At the corner of Merrion Row a horse was lying on +the footpath surrounded by blood. He bore two bullet wounds, but the +blood came from his throat which had been cut. + +Inside the Green railings four bodies could be seen lying on the ground. +They were dead Volunteers. + +The rain was falling now persistently, and persistently from the Green +and from the Shelbourne Hotel snipers were exchanging bullets. Some +distance beyond the Shelbourne I saw another Volunteer stretched out on +a seat just within the railings. He was not dead, for, now and again, +his hand moved feebly in a gesture for aid; the hand was completely red +with blood. His face could not be seen. He was just a limp mass, upon +which the rain beat pitilessly, and he was sodden and shapeless, and +most miserable to see. His companions could not draw him in for the +spot was covered by the snipers from the Shelbourne. Bystanders stated +that several attempts had already been made to rescue him, but that he +would have to remain there until the fall of night. + +From Trinity College windows and roof there was also sniping, but the +Shelbourne Hotel riflemen must have seriously troubled the Volunteers in +the Green. + +As I went back I stayed a while in front of the hotel to count the shots +that had struck the windows. There were fourteen shots through the +ground windows. The holes were clean through, each surrounded by a +star--the bullets went through but did not crack the glass. There were +three places in which the windows had holes half a foot to a foot wide +and high. Here many rifles must have fired at the one moment. It must +have been as awkward inside the Shelbourne Hotel as it was inside the +Green. + +A lady who lived in Baggot Street said she had been up all night, and, +with her neighbours, had supplied tea and bread to the soldiers who were +lining the street. The officer to whom she spoke had made two or three +attacks to draw fire and estimate the Volunteers' positions, numbers, +&c., and he told her that he considered there were 3,000 well-armed +Volunteers in the Green, and as he had only 1,000 soldiers, he could not +afford to deliver a real attack, and was merely containing them. + +Amiens Street station reported recaptured by the military; other +stations are said to be still in the Volunteers' possession. + +The story goes that about twelve o'clock on Monday an English officer +had marched into the Post Office and demanded two penny stamps from the +amazed Volunteers who were inside. He thought their uniforms were postal +uniforms. They brought him in, and he is probably still trying to get a +perspective on the occurrence. They had as prisoners in the Post Office +a certain number of soldiers, and rumour had it that these men +accommodated themselves quickly to duress, and were busily engaged +peeling potatoes for the meal which they would partake of later on with +the Volunteers. + +Earlier in the day I met a wild individual who spat rumour as though +his mouth were a machine gun or a linotype machine. He believed +everything he heard; and everything he heard became as by magic +favourable to his hopes, which were violently anti-English. One +unfavourable rumour was instantly crushed by him with three stories +which were favourable and triumphantly so. He said the Germans had +landed in three places. One of these landings alone consisted of fifteen +thousand men. The other landings probably beat that figure. The whole +City of Cork was in the hands of the Volunteers, and, to that extent, +might be said to be peaceful. German warships had defeated the English, +and their transports were speeding from every side. The whole country +was up, and the garrison was out-numbered by one hundred to one. These +Dublin barracks which had not been taken were now besieged and on the +point of surrender. + +I think this man created and winged every rumour that flew in Dublin, +and he was the sole individual whom I heard definitely taking a side. He +left me, and, looking back, I saw him pouring his news into the ear of a +gaping stranger whom he had arrested for the purpose. I almost went +back to hear would he tell the same tale or would he elaborate it into a +new thing, for I am interested in the art of story-telling. + +At eleven o'clock the rain ceased, and to it succeeded a beautiful +night, gusty with wind, and packed with sailing clouds and stars. We +were expecting visitors this night, but the sound of guns may have +warned most people away. Three only came, and with them we listened from +my window to the guns at the Green challenging and replying to each +other, and to where, further away, the Trinity snipers were crackling, +and beyond again to the sounds of war from Sackville Street. The firing +was fairly heavy, and often the short rattle of machine guns could be +heard. + +One of the stories told was that the Volunteers had taken the South +Dublin Union Workhouse, occupied it, and trenched the grounds. They were +heavily attacked by the military, who, at a loss of 150 men, took the +place. The tale went that towards the close the officer in command +offered them terms of surrender, but the Volunteers replied that they +were not there to surrender. They were there to be killed. The garrison +consisted of fifty men, and the story said that fifty men were killed. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + WEDNESDAY + + +It was three o'clock before I got to sleep last night, and during the +hours machine guns and rifle firing had been continuous. + +This morning the sun is shining brilliantly, and the movement in the +streets possesses more of animation than it has done. The movement ends +always in a knot of people, and folk go from group to group vainly +seeking information, and quite content if the rumour they presently +gather differs even a little from the one they have just communicated. + +The first statement I heard was that the Green had been taken by the +military; the second that it had been re-taken; the third that it had +not been taken at all. The facts at last emerged that the Green had not +been occupied by the soldiers, but that the Volunteers had retreated +from it into a house which commanded it. This was found to be the +College of Surgeons, and from the windows and roof of this College they +were sniping. A machine gun was mounted on the roof; other machine guns, +however, opposed them from the roofs of the Shelbourne Hotel, the United +Service Club, and the Alexandra Club. Thus a triangular duel opened +between these positions across the trees of the Park. + +Through the railings of the Green some rifles and bandoliers could be +seen lying on the ground, as also the deserted trenches and snipers' +holes. Small boys bolted in to see these sights and bolted out again +with bullets quickening their feet. Small boys do not believe that +people will really kill them, but small boys were killed. + +The dead horse was still lying stiff and lamentable on the footpath. + +This morning a gunboat came up the Liffey and helped to bombard Liberty +Hall. The Hall is breeched and useless. Rumour says that it was empty at +the time, and that Connolly with his men had marched long before to the +Post Office and the Green. The same source of information relates that +three thousand Volunteers came from Belfast on an excursion train and +that they marched into the Post Office. + +On this day only one of my men came in. He said that he had gone on the +roof and had been shot at, consequently that the Volunteers held some of +the covering houses. I went to the roof and remained there for half an +hour. There were no shots, but the firing from the direction of +Sackville Street was continuous and at times exceedingly heavy. + +To-day the _Irish Times_ was published. It contained a new military +proclamation, and a statement that the country was peaceful, and told +that in Sackville Street some houses were burned to the ground. + +On the outside railings a bill proclaiming Martial Law was posted. + +Into the newspaper statement that peace reigned in the country one was +inclined to read more of disquietude than of truth, and one said is the +country so extraordinarily peaceful that it can be dismissed in three +lines. There is too much peace or too much reticence, but it will be +some time before we hear from outside of Dublin. + +Meanwhile the sun was shining. It was a delightful day, and the streets +outside and around the areas of fire were animated and even gay. In the +streets of Dublin there were no morose faces to be seen. Almost everyone +was smiling and attentive, and a democratic feeling was abroad, to which +our City is very much a stranger; for while in private we are a sociable +and talkative people we have no street manners or public ease whatever. +Every person spoke to every other person, and men and women mixed and +talked without constraint. + +Was the City for or against the Volunteers? Was it for the Volunteers, +and yet against the rising? It is considered now (writing a day or two +afterwards) that Dublin was entirely against the Volunteers, but on the +day of which I write no such certainty could be put forward. There was a +singular reticence on the subject. Men met and talked volubly, but they +said nothing that indicated a personal desire or belief. They asked for +and exchanged the latest news, or, rather, rumour, and while expressions +were frequent of astonishment at the suddenness and completeness of the +occurrence, no expression of opinion for or against was anywhere +formulated. + +Sometimes a man said, "They will be beaten of course," and, as he +prophesied, the neighbour might surmise if he did so with a sad heart or +a merry one, but they knew nothing and asked nothing of his views, and +themselves advanced no flag. + +This was among the men. + +The women were less guarded, or, perhaps, knew they had less to fear. +Most of the female opinion I heard was not alone unfavourable but +actively and viciously hostile to the rising. This was noticeable among +the best dressed class of our population; the worst dressed, indeed the +female dregs of Dublin life, expressed a like antagonism, and almost in +similar language. The view expressed was-- + +"I hope every man of them will be shot." + +And-- + +"They ought to be all shot." + +Shooting, indeed, was proceeding everywhere. During daylight, at least, +the sound is not sinister nor depressing, and the thought that perhaps a +life had exploded with that crack is not depressing either. + +In the last two years of world-war our ideas on death have undergone a +change. It is not now the furtive thing that crawled into your bed and +which you fought with pill-boxes and medicine bottles. It has become +again a rider of the wind whom you may go coursing with through the +fields and open places. All the morbidity is gone, and the sickness, and +what remains to Death is now health and excitement. So Dublin laughed at +the noise of its own bombardment, and made no moan about its dead--in +the sunlight. Afterwards--in the rooms, when the night fell, and instead +of silence that mechanical barking of the maxims and the whistle and +screams of the rifles, the solemn roar of the heavier guns, and the red +glare covering the sky. It is possible that in the night Dublin did not +laugh, and that she was gay in the sunlight for no other reason than +that the night was past. + +On this day fighting was incessant at Mount Street Bridge. A party of +Volunteers had seized three houses covering the bridge and converted +these into forts. It is reported that military casualties at this point +were very heavy. The Volunteers are said also to hold the South Dublin +Union. The soldiers have seized Guinness's Brewery, while their +opponents have seized another brewery in the neighbourhood, and between +these two there is a continual fusilade. + +Fighting is brisk about Ringsend and along the Canal. Dame Street was +said to be held in many places by the Volunteers. I went down Dame +Street, but saw no Volunteers, and did not observe any sniping from the +houses. Further, as Dame Street is entirely commanded by the roofs and +windows of Trinity College, it is unlikely that they should be here. + +It was curious to observe this, at other times, so animated street, +broad and deserted, with at the corners of side streets small knots of +people watching. Seen from behind, Grattan's Statue in College Green +seemed almost alive, and he had the air of addressing warnings and +reproaches to Trinity College. + +The Proclamation issued to-day warns all people to remain within doors +until five o'clock in the morning, and after seven o'clock at night. + +It is still early. There is no news of any kind, and the rumours begin +to catch quickly on each other and to cancel one another out. Dublin is +entirely cut off from England, and from the outside world. It is, just +as entirely cut off from the rest of Ireland; no news of any kind +filters in to us. We are land-locked and sea-locked, but, as yet, it +does not much matter. + +Meantime the belief grows that the Volunteers may be able to hold out +much longer than had been imagined. The idea at first among the people +had been that the insurrection would be ended the morning after it had +began. But to-day, the insurrection having lasted three days, people are +ready to conceive that it may last for ever. There is almost a feeling +of gratitude towards the Volunteers because they are holding out for a +little while, for had they been beaten the first or second day the City +would have been humiliated to the soul. + +People say: "Of course, they will be beaten." The statement is almost a +query, and they continue, "but they are putting up a decent fight." For +being beaten does not greatly matter in Ireland, but not fighting does +matter. "They went forth always to the battle; and they always fell," +Indeed, the history of the Irish race is in that phrase. + +The firing from the roofs of Trinity College became violent. I crossed +Dame Street some distance up, struck down the Quays, and went along +these until I reached the Ballast Office. Further than this it was not +possible to go, for a step beyond the Ballast Office would have brought +one into the unending stream of lead that was pouring from Trinity and +other places. I was looking on O'Connell Bridge and Sackville Street, +and the house facing me was Kelly's--a red-brick fishing tackle shop, +one half of which was on the Quay and the other half in Sackville +Street. This house was being bombarded. + +I counted the report of six different machine guns which played on it. +Rifles innumerable and from every sort of place were potting its +windows, and at intervals of about half a minute the shells from a heavy +gun lobbed in through its windows or thumped mightily against its walls. + +For three hours that bombardment continued, and the walls stood in a +cloud of red dust and smoke. Rifle and machine gun bullets pattered over +every inch of it, and, unfailingly the heavy gun pounded its shells +through the windows. + +One's heart melted at the idea that human beings were crouching inside +that volcano of death, and I said to myself, "Not even a fly can be +alive in that house." + +No head showed at any window, no rifle cracked from window or roof in +reply. The house was dumb, lifeless, and I thought every one of those +men are dead. + +It was then, and quite suddenly, that the possibilities of street +fighting flashed on me, and I knew there was no person in the house, and +said to myself, "They have smashed through the walls with a hatchet and +are sitting in the next house, or they have long ago climbed out by the +skylight and are on a roof half a block away." Then the thought came to +me--they have and hold the entire of Sackville Street down to the Post +Office. Later on this proved to be the case, and I knew at this moment +that Sackville Street was doomed. + +I continued to watch the bombardment, but no longer with the anguish +which had before torn me. Near by there were four men, and a few yards +away, clustered in a laneway, there were a dozen others. An agitated +girl was striding from the farther group to the one in which I was, and +she addressed the men in the most obscene language which I have ever +heard. She addressed them man by man, and she continued to speak and cry +and scream at them with all that obstinate, angry patience of which only +a woman is capable. + +She cursed us all. She called down diseases on every human being in the +world excepting only the men who were being bombarded. She demanded of +the folk in the laneway that they should march at least into the roadway +and prove that they were proud men and were not afraid of bullets. She +had been herself into the danger zone. Had stood herself in the track of +the guns, and had there cursed her fill for half an hour, and she +desired that the men should do at least what she had done. + +This girl was quite young--about nineteen years of age--and was dressed +in the customary shawl and apron of her class. Her face was rather +pretty, or it had that pretty slenderness and softness of outline which +belong to youth. But every sentence she spoke contained half a dozen +indecent words. Alas, it was only that her vocabulary was not equal to +her emotions, and she did not know how to be emphatic without being +obscene--it is the cause of most of the meaningless swearing one hears +every day. She spoke to me for a minute, and her eyes were as soft as +those of a kitten and her language was as gentle as her eyes. She wanted +a match to light a cigarette, but I had none, and said that I also +wanted one. In a few minutes she brought me a match, and then she +recommenced her tireless weaving of six vile words into hundreds of +stupid sentences. + +About five o'clock the guns eased off of Kelly's. + +To inexperienced eyes they did not seem to have done very much damage, +but afterwards one found that although the walls were standing and +apparently solid there was no inside to the house. From roof to basement +the building was bare as a dog kennel. There were no floors inside, +there was nothing there but blank space; and on the ground within was +the tumble and rubbish that had been roof and floors and furniture. +Everything inside was smashed and pulverised into scrap and dust, and +the only objects that had consistency and their ancient shape were the +bricks that fell when the shells struck them. + +Rifle shots had begun to strike the house on the further side of the +street, a jewellers' shop called Hopkins & Hopkins. The impact of these +balls on the bricks was louder than the sound of the shot which +immediately succeeded, and each bullet that struck brought down a shower +of fine red dust from the walls. Perhaps thirty or forty shots in all +were fired at Hopkins', and then, except for an odd crack, firing +ceased. + +During all this time there had been no reply from the Volunteers, and I +thought they must be husbanding their ammunition, and so must be short +of it, and that it would be only a matter of a few days before the end. +All this, I said to myself, will be finished in a few days, and they +will be finished; life here will recommence exactly where it left off, +and except for some newly-filled graves, all will be as it had been +until they become a tradition and enter the imagination of their race. + +I spoke to several of the people about me, and found the same +willingness to exchange news that I had found elsewhere in the City, and +the same reticences as regarded their private opinions. Two of them, +indeed, and they were the only two I met with during the insurrection, +expressed, although in measured terms, admiration for the Volunteers, +and while they did not side with them they did not say anything against +them. One was a labouring man, the other a gentleman. The remark of the +latter was: + +"I am an Irishman, and (pointing to the shells that were bursting +through the windows in front of us) I hate to see that being done to +other Irishmen." + +He had come from some part of the country to spend the Easter Holidays +in Dublin, and was unable to leave town again. + +The labouring man--he was about fifty-six years of age--spoke very +quietly and collectedly about the insurrection. He was a type with whom +I had come very little in contact, and I was surprised to find how +simple and good his speech was, and how calm his ideas. He thought +labour was in this movement to a greater extent than was imagined. I +mentioned that Liberty Hall had been blown up, and that the garrison had +either surrendered or been killed. He replied that a gunboat had that +morning come up the river and had blown Liberty Hall into smash, but, he +added, there were no men in it. All the Labour Volunteers had marched +with Connolly into the Post Office. + +He said the Labour Volunteers might possibly number about one thousand +men, but that it would be quite safe to say eight hundred, and he held +that the Labour Volunteers, or the Citizens' Army, as they called +themselves, had always been careful not to reveal their numbers. They +had always announced that they possessed about two hundred and fifty +men, and had never paraded any more than that number at any one time. +Workingmen, he continued, knew that the men who marched were always +different men. The police knew it, too, but they thought that the +Citizens Army was the _most deserted-from force_ in the world. + +The men, however, were not deserters--you don't, he said, desert a man +like Connolly, and they were merely taking their turn at being drilled +and disciplined. They were raised against the police who, in the big +strike of two years ago, had acted towards them with unparallelled +savagery, and the men had determined that the police would never again +find them thus disorganised. + +This man believed that every member of the Citizen Army had marched with +their leader. + +"The men, I know," said he, "would not be afraid of anything, and," he +continued, "they are in the Post Office now." + +"What chance have they?" + +"None," he replied, "and they never said they had, and they never +thought they would have any." + +"How long do you think they'll be able to hold out?" + +He nodded towards the house that had been bombarded by heavy guns. + +"That will root them out of it quick enough," was his reply. + +"I'm going home," said he then, "the people will be wondering if I'm +dead or alive," and he walked away from that sad street, as I did myself +a few minutes afterwards. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + THURSDAY. + + +Again, the rumours greeted one. This place had fallen and had not +fallen. Such a position had been captured by the soldiers; recaptured by +the Volunteers, and had not been attacked at all. But certainly fighting +was proceeding. Up Mount Street, the rifle volleys were continuous, and +the coming and going of ambulance cars from that direction were +continuous also. Some spoke of pitched battles on the bridge, and said +that as yet the advantage lay with the Volunteers. + +At 11.30 there came the sound of heavy guns firing in the direction of +Sackville Street. I went on the roof, and remained there for some time. +From this height the sounds could be heard plainly. There was sustained +firing along the whole central line of the City, from the Green down to +Trinity College, and from thence to Sackville Street, and the report of +the various types of arm could be easily distinguished. There were +rifles, machine guns and very heavy cannon. There was another sound +which I could not put a name to, something that coughed out over all the +other sounds, a short, sharp bark, or rather a short noise something +like the popping of a tremendous cork. + +I met D.H. His chief emotion is one of astonishment at the organizing +powers displayed by the Volunteers. We have exchanged rumours, and found +that our equipment in this direction is almost identical. He says Sheehy +Skeffington has been killed. That he was arrested in a house wherein +arms were found, and was shot out of hand. + +I hope this is another rumour, for, so far as my knowledge of him goes, +he was not with the Volunteers, and it is said that he was antagonistic +to the forcible methods for which the Volunteers stood. But the tale of +his death is so persistent that one is inclined to believe it. + +He was the most absurdly courageous man I have ever met with or heard +of. He has been in every trouble that has touched Ireland these ten +years back, and he has always been in on the generous side, therefore, +and naturally, on the side that was unpopular and weak. It would seem +indeed that a cause had only to be weak to gain his sympathy, and his +sympathy never stayed at home. There are so many good people who +"sympathise" with this or that cause, and, having given that measure of +their emotion, they give no more of it or of anything else. But he +rushed instantly to the street. A large stone, the lift of a footpath, +the base of a statue, any place and every place was for him a pulpit; +and, in the teeth of whatever oppression or disaster or power, he said +his say. + +There are multitudes of men in Dublin of all classes and creeds who can +boast that they kicked Sheehy Skeffington, or that they struck him on +the head with walking sticks and umbrellas, or that they smashed their +fists into his face, and jumped on him when he fell. It is by no means +an exaggeration to say that these things were done to him, and it is +true that he bore ill-will to no man, and that he accepted blows, and +indignities and ridicule with the pathetic candour of a child who is +disguised as a man, and whose disguise cannot come off. His tongue, his +pen, his body, all that he had and hoped for were at the immediate +service of whoever was bewildered or oppressed. He has been shot. Other +men have been shot, but they faced the guns knowing that they faced +justice, however stern and oppressive; and that what they had engaged to +confront was before them. He had no such thought to soothe from his mind +anger or unforgiveness. He who was a pacifist was compelled to revolt to +his last breath, and on the instruments of his end he must have looked +as on murderers. I am sure that to the end he railed against oppression, +and that he fell marvelling that the world can truly be as it is. With +his death there passed away a brave man and a clean soul. + +Later on this day I met Mrs. Sheehy Skeffington in the street. She +confirmed the rumour that her husband had been arrested on the previous +day, but further than that she had no news. So far as I know the sole +crime of which her husband had been guilty was that he called for a +meeting of the citizens to enrol special constables and prevent looting. + +Among the rumours it was stated with every accent of certitude that +Madame Markievicz had been captured in George's Street, and taken to the +Castle. It was also current that Sir Roger Casement had been captured at +sea and had already been shot in the Tower of London. The names of +several Volunteer Leaders are mentioned as being dead. But the surmise +that steals timidly from one mouth flies boldly as a certitude from +every mouth that repeats it, and truth itself would now be listened to +with only a gossip's ear, but no person would believe a word of it. + +This night also was calm and beautiful, but this night was the most +sinister and woeful of those that have passed. The sound of artillery, +of rifles, machine guns, grenades, did not cease even for a moment. From +my window I saw a red flare that crept to the sky, and stole over it and +remained there glaring; the smoke reached from the ground to the clouds, +and I could see great red sparks go soaring to enormous heights; while +always, in the calm air, hour after hour there was the buzzing and +rattling and thudding of guns, and, but for the guns, silence. + +It is in a dead silence this Insurrection is being fought, and one +imagines what must be the feeling of these men, young for the most part, +and unused to violence, who are submitting silently to the crash and +flame and explosion by which they are surrounded. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + FRIDAY. + + +This morning there are no newspapers, no bread, no milk, no news. The +sun is shining, and the streets are lively but discreet. All people +continue to talk to one another without distinction of class, but nobody +knows what any person thinks. + +It is a little singular the number of people who are smiling. I fancy +they were listening to the guns last night, and they are smiling this +morning because the darkness is past, and because the sun is shining, +and because they can move their limbs in space, and may talk without +having to sink their voices to a whisper. Guns do not sound so bad in +the day as they do at night, and no person can feel lonely while the sun +shines. + +The men are smiling, but the women laugh, and their laughter does not +displease, for whatever women do in whatever circumstances appears to +have a rightness of its own. It seems right that they should scream +when danger to themselves is imminent, and it seems right that they +should laugh when the danger only threatens others. + +It is rumoured this morning that Sackville Street has been burned out +and levelled to the ground. It is said that the end is in sight; and, it +is said, that matters are, if anything rather worse than better. That +the Volunteers have sallied from some of their strongholds and +entrenched themselves, and that in one place alone (the South Lotts) +they have seven machine guns. That when the houses which they held +became untenable they rushed out and seized other houses, and that, +pursuing these tactics, there seemed no reason to believe that the +Insurrection would ever come to an end. That the streets are filled with +Volunteers in plain clothes, but having revolvers in their pockets. That +the streets are filled with soldiers equally revolvered and plain +clothed, and that the least one says on any subject the less one would +have to answer for. + +The feeling that I tapped was definitely Anti-Volunteer, but the number +of people who would speak was few, and one regarded the noncommital +folk who were so smiling and polite, and so prepared to talk, with much +curiosity, seeking to read in their eyes, in their bearing, even in the +cut of their clothes what might be the secret movements and cogitations +of their minds. + +I received the impression that numbers of them did not care a rap what +way it went; and that others had ceased to be mental creatures and were +merely machines for registering the sensations of the time. + +None of these people were prepared for Insurrection. The thing had been +sprung on them so suddenly that they were unable to take sides, and +their feeling of detachment was still so complete that they would have +betted on the business as if it had been a horse race or a dog fight. + +Many English troops have been landed each night, and it is believed that +there are more than sixty thousand soldiers in Dublin alone, and that +they are supplied with every offensive contrivance which military art +has invented. + +Merrion Square is strongly held by the soldiers. They are posted along +both sides of the road at intervals of about twenty paces, and their +guns are continually barking up at the roofs which surround them in the +great square. It is said that these roofs are held by the Volunteers +from Mount Street Bridge to the Square, and that they hold in like +manner wide stretches of the City. + +They appear to have mapped out the roofs with all the thoroughness that +had hitherto been expended on the roads, and upon these roofs they are +so mobile and crafty and so much at home that the work of the soldiers +will be exceedingly difficult as well as dangerous. + +Still, and notwithstanding, men can only take to the roofs for a short +time. Up there, there can be no means of transport, and their +ammunition, as well as their food, will very soon be used up. It is the +beginning of the end, and the fact that they have to take to the roofs, +even though that be in their programme, means that they are finished. + +From the roof there comes the sound of machine guns. Looking towards +Sackville Street one picks out easily Nelson's Pillar, which towers +slenderly over all the buildings of the neighbourhood. It is wreathed in +smoke. Another towering building was the D.B.C. Café. Its Chinese-like +pagoda was a landmark easily to be found, but to-day I could not find +it. It was not there, and I knew that, even if all Sackville Street was +not burned down, as rumour insisted, this great Café had certainly been +curtailed by its roof and might, perhaps, have been completely burned. + +On the gravel paths I found pieces of charred and burnt paper. These +scraps must have been blown remarkably high to have crossed all the +roofs that lie between Sackville Street and Merrion Square. + +At eleven o'clock there is continuous firing, and snipers firing from +the direction of Mount Street, and in every direction of the City these +sounds are being duplicated. + +In Camden Street the sniping and casualties are said to have been very +heavy. One man saw two Volunteers taken from a house by the soldiers. +They were placed kneeling in the centre of the road, and within one +minute of their capture they were dead. Simultaneously there fell +several of the firing party. + +An officer in this part had his brains blown into the roadway. A young +girl ran into the road picked up his cap and scraped the brains into it. +She covered this poor debris with a little straw, and carried the hat +piously to the nearest hospital in order that the brains might be buried +with their owner. + +The continuation of her story was less gloomy although it affected the +teller equally. + +"There is not," said she, "a cat or a dog left alive in Camden Street. +They are lying stiff out in the road and up on the roofs. There's lots +of women will be sorry for this war," said she, "and their pets killed +on them." + +In many parts of the City hunger began to be troublesome. A girl told me +that her family, and another that had taken refuge with them, had eaten +nothing for three days. On this day her father managed to get two loaves +of bread somewhere, and he brought these home. + +"When," said the girl, "my father came in with the bread the whole +fourteen of us ran at him, and in a minute we were all ashamed for the +loaves were gone to the last crumb, and we were all as hungry as we had +been before he came in. The poor man," said she, "did not even get a bit +for himself." She held that the poor people were against the Volunteers. + +The Volunteers still hold Jacob's Biscuit Factory. It is rumoured that a +priest visited them and counselled surrender, and they replied that they +did not go there to surrender but to be killed. They asked him to give +them absolution, and the story continues that he refused to do so--but +this is not (in its latter part) a story that can easily be credited. +The Adelaide Hospital is close to this factory, and it is possible that +the proximity of the hospital, delays or hinders military operations +against the factory. + +Rifle volleys are continuous about Merrion Square, and prolonged machine +gun firing can be heard also. + +During the night the firing was heavy from almost every direction; and +in the direction of Sackville Street a red glare told again of fire. + +It is hard to get to bed these nights. It is hard even to sit down, for +the moment one does sit down one stands immediately up again resuming +that ridiculous ship's march from the window to the wall and back. I am +foot weary as I have never been before in my life, but I cannot say that +I am excited. No person in Dublin is excited, but there exists a state +of tension and expectancy which is mentally more exasperating than any +excitement could be. The absence of news is largely responsible for +this. We do not know what has happened, what is happening, or what is +going to happen, and the reversion to barbarism (for barbarism is +largely a lack of news) disturbs us. + +Each night we have got to bed at last murmuring, "I wonder will it be +all over to-morrow," and this night the like question accompanied us. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + SATURDAY. + + +This morning also there has been no bread, no milk, no meat, no +newspapers, but the sun is shining. It is astonishing that, thus early +in the Spring, the weather should be so beautiful. + +It is stated freely that the Post Office has been taken, and just as +freely it is averred that it has not been taken. The approaches to +Merrion Square are held by the military, and I was not permitted to go +to my office. As I came to this point shots were fired at a motor car +which had not stopped on being challenged. Bystanders said it was Sir +Horace Plunkett's car, and that he had been shot. Later we found that +Sir Horace was not hurt, but that his nephew who drove the car had been +severely wounded. + +At this hour the rumour of the fall of Verdun was persistent. Later on +it was denied, as was denied the companion rumour of the relief of Kut. +Saw R. who had spent three days and the whole of his money in getting +home from County Clare. He had heard that Mrs. Sheehy Skeffington's +house was raided, and that two dead bodies had been taken out of it. Saw +Miss P. who seemed sad. I do not know what her politics are, but I think +that the word "kindness" might be used to cover all her activities. She +has a heart of gold, and the courage of many lions. I then met Mr. +Commissioner Bailey who said the Volunteers had sent a deputation, and +that terms of surrender were being discussed. I hope this is true, and I +hope mercy will be shown to the men. Nobody believes there will be any +mercy shown, and it is freely reported that they are shot in the street, +or are taken to the nearest barracks and shot there. The belief grows +that no person who is now in the Insurrection will be alive when the +Insurrection is ended. + +That is as it will be. But these days the thought of death does not +strike on the mind with any severity, and, should the European war +continue much longer, the fear of death will entirely depart from man, +as it has departed many times in history. With that great deterrent +gone our rulers will be gravely at a loss in dealing with strikers and +other such discontented people. Possibly they will have to resurrect the +long-buried idea of torture. + +The people in the streets are laughing and chatting. Indeed, there is +gaiety in the air as well as sunshine, and no person seems to care that +men are being shot every other minute, or bayoneted, or blown into +scraps or burned into cinders. These things are happening, nevertheless, +but much of their importance has vanished. + +I met a man at the Green who was drawing a plan on the back of an +envelope. The problem was how his questioner was to get from where he +was standing to a street lying at the other side of the river, and the +plan as drawn insisted that to cover this quarter of an hour's distance +he must set out on a pilgrimage of more than twenty miles. Another young +boy was standing near embracing a large ham. He had been trying for +three days to convey his ham to a house near the Gresham Hotel where his +sister lived. He had almost given up hope, and he hearkened +intelligently to the idea that he should himself eat the ham and so get +rid of it. + +The rifle fire was persistent all day, but, saving in certain +localities, it was not heavy. Occasionally the machine guns rapped in. +There was no sound of heavy artillery. + +The rumour grows that the Post Office has been evacuated, and that the +Volunteers are at large and spreading everywhere across the roofs. The +rumour grows also that terms of surrender are being discussed, and that +Sackville Street has been levelled to the ground. + +At half-past seven in the evening calm is almost complete. The sound of +a rifle shot being only heard at long intervals. + +I got to bed this night earlier than usual. At two o'clock I left the +window from which a red flare is yet visible in the direction of +Sackville Street. The morning will tell if the Insurrection is finished +or not, but at this hour all is not over. Shots are ringing all around +and down my street, and the vicious crackling of these rifles grow at +times into regular volleys. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + SUNDAY. + + +The Insurrection has not ceased. + +There is much rifle fire, but no sound from the machine guns or the +eighteen pounders and trench mortars. + +From the window of my kitchen the flag of the Republic can be seen +flying afar. This is the flag that flies over Jacob's Biscuit Factory, +and I will know that the Insurrection has ended as soon as I see this +flag pulled down. + +When I went out there were few people in the streets. I met D.H., and, +together, we passed up the Green. The Republican flag was still flying +over the College of Surgeons. We tried to get down Grafton Street (where +broken windows and two gaping interiors told of the recent visit of +looters), but a little down this street we were waved back by armed +sentries. We then cut away by the Gaiety Theatre into Mercer's Street, +where immense lines of poor people were drawn up waiting for the +opening of the local bakery. We got into George's Street, thinking to +turn down Dame Street and get from thence near enough to Sackville +Street to see if the rumours about its destruction were true, but here +also we were halted by the military, and had to retrace our steps. + +There was no news of any kind to be gathered from the people we talked +to, nor had they even any rumours. + +This was the first day I had been able to get even a short distance +outside of my own quarter, and it seemed that the people of my quarter +were more able in the manufacture of news or more imaginative than were +the people who live in other parts of the city. We had no sooner struck +into home parts than we found news. We were told that two of the +Volunteer leaders had been shot. These were Pearse and Connolly. The +latter was reported as lying in the Castle Hospital with a fractured +thigh. Pearse was cited as dead with two hundred of his men, following +their sally from the Post Office. The machine guns had caught them as +they left, and none of them remained alive. The news seemed afterwards +to be true except that instead of Pearse it was The O'Rahilly who had +been killed. Pearse died later and with less excitement. + +A man who had seen an English newspaper said that the Kut force had +surrendered to the Turk, but that Verdun had not fallen to the Germans. +The rumour was current also that a great naval battle had been fought +whereat the German fleet had been totally destroyed with loss to the +English of eighteen warships. It was said that among the captured +Volunteers there had been a large body of Germans, but nobody believed +it; and this rumour was inevitably followed by the tale that there were +one hundred German submarines lying in the Stephen's Green pond. + +At half-past two I met Mr. Commissioner Bailey, who told me that it was +all over, and that the Volunteers were surrendering everywhere in the +city. A motor car with two military officers, and two Volunteer leaders +had driven to the College of Surgeons and been admitted. After a short +interval Madame Marckievicz marched out of the College at the head of +about 100 men, and they had given up their arms; the motor car with the +Volunteer leaders was driving to other strongholds, and it was expected +that before nightfall the capitulations would be complete. + +I started home, and on the way I met a man whom I had encountered some +days previously, and from whom rumours had sprung as though he wove them +from his entrails, as a spider weaves his web. He was no less provided +on this occasion, and it was curious to listen to his tale of English +defeats on every front. He announced the invasion of England in six +different quarters, the total destruction of the English fleet, and the +landing of immense German armies on the West coast of Ireland. He made +these things up in his head. Then he repeated them to himself in a loud +voice, and became somehow persuaded that they had been told to him by a +well-informed stranger, and then he believed them and told them to +everybody he met. Amongst other things Spain had declared war on our +behalf, the Chilian Navy was hastening to our relief. For a pin he +would have sent France flying westward all forgetful of her own war. A +singular man truly, and as I do think the only thoroughly happy person +in our city. + +It is half-past three o'clock, and from my window the Republican flag +can still be seen flying over Jacob's factory. There is occasional +shooting, but the city as a whole is quiet. At a quarter to five o'clock +a heavy gun boomed once. Ten minutes later there was heavy machine gun +firing and much rifle shooting. In another ten minutes the flag at +Jacob's was hauled down. + +During the remainder of the night sniping and military replies were +incessant, particularly in my street. + +The raids have begun in private houses. Count Plunkett's house was +entered by the military who remained there for a very long time. Passing +home about two minutes after Proclamation hour I was pursued for the +whole of Fitzwilliam Square by bullets. They buzzed into the roadway +beside me, and the sound as they whistled near was curious. The sound is +something like that made by a very swift saw, and one gets the +impression that as well as being very swift they are very heavy. + +Snipers are undoubtedly on the roofs opposite my house, and they are not +asleep on these roofs. Possibly it is difficult to communicate with +these isolated bands the news of their companions' surrender, but it is +likely they will learn, by the diminution of fire in other quarters that +their work is over. + +In the morning on looking from my window I saw four policemen marching +into the street. They were the first I had seen for a week. Soon now the +military tale will finish, the police story will commence, the political +story will recommence, and, perhaps, the weeks that follow this one will +sow the seed of more hatred than so many centuries will be able to +uproot again, for although Irish people do not greatly fear the military +they fear the police, and they have very good reason to do so. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + THE INSURRECTION IS OVER. + + +The Insurrection is over, and it is worth asking what has happened, how +it has happened, and why it happened? + +The first question is easily answered. The finest part of our city has +been blown to smithereens, and burned into ashes. Soldiers amongst us +who have served abroad say that the ruin of this quarter is more +complete than any thing they have seen at Ypres, than anything they have +seen anywhere in France or Flanders. A great number of our men and women +and children, Volunteers and civilians confounded alike, are dead, and +some fifty thousand men who have been moved with military equipment to +our land are now being removed therefrom. The English nation has been +disorganised no more than as they were affected by the transport of +these men and material. That is what happened, and it is all that +happened. + +How it happened is another matter, and one which, perhaps, will not be +made clear for years. All we know in Dublin is that our city burst into +a kind of spontaneous war; that we lived through it during one singular +week, and that it faded away and disappeared almost as swiftly as it had +come. The men who knew about it are, with two exceptions, dead, and +these two exceptions are in gaol, and likely to remain there long +enough. (Since writing one of these men has been shot.) + +Why it happened is a question that may be answered more particularly. It +happened because the leader of the Irish Party misrepresented his people +in the English House of Parliament. On the day of the declaration of war +between England and Germany he took the Irish case, weighty with eight +centuries of history and tradition, and he threw it out of the window. +He pledged Ireland to a particular course of action, and he had no +authority to give this pledge and he had no guarantee that it would be +met. The ramshackle intelligence of his party and his own emotional +nature betrayed him and us and England. He swore Ireland to loyalty as +if he had Ireland in his pocket, and could answer for her. Ireland has +never been disloyal to England, not even at this epoch, because she has +never been loyal to England, and the profession of her National faith +has been unwavering, has been known to every English person alive, and +has been clamant to all the world beside. + +Is it that he wanted to be cheered? He could very easily have stated +Ireland's case truthfully, and have proclaimed a benevolent neutrality +(if he cared to use the grandiloquent words) on the part of this +country. He would have gotten his cheers, he would in a few months have +gotten Home Rule in return for Irish soldiers. He would have received +politically whatever England could have safely given him. But, alas, +these carefulnesses did not chime with his emotional moment. They were +not magnificent enough for one who felt that he was talking not to +Ireland or to England, but to the whole gaping and eager earth, and so +he pledged his country's credit so deeply that he did not leave her even +one National rag to cover herself with. + +After a lie truth bursts out, and it is no longer the radiant and +serene goddess knew or hoped for--it is a disease, it is a moral +syphilis and will ravage until the body in which it can dwell has been +purged. Mr. Redmond told the lie and he is answerable to England for the +violence she had to be guilty of, and to Ireland for the desolation to +which we have had to submit. Without his lie there had been no +Insurrection; without it there had been at this moment, and for a year +past, an end to the "Irish question." Ireland must in ages gone have +been guilty of abominable crimes or she could not at this juncture have +been afflicted with a John Redmond. + +He is the immediate cause of this our latest Insurrection--the word is +big, much too big for the deed, and we should call it row, or riot, or +squabble, in order to draw the fact down to its dimensions, but the +ultimate blame for the trouble between the two countries does not fall +against Ireland. + +The fault lies with England, and in these days while an effort is being +made (interrupted, it is true, by cannon) to found a better +understanding between the two nations it is well that England should +recognize what she has done to Ireland, and should try at least to +atone for it. The situation can be explained almost in a phrase. We are +a little country and you, a huge country, have persistently beaten us. +We are a poor country and you, the richest country in the world, have +persistently robbed us. That is the historical fact, and whatever +national or political necessities are opposed in reply, it is true that +you have never given Ireland any reason to love you, and you cannot +claim her affection without hypocrisy or stupidity. + +You think our people can only be tenacious in hate--it is a lie. Our +historical memory is truly tenacious, but during the long and miserable +tale of our relations you have never given us one generosity to remember +you by, and you must not claim our affection or our devotion until you +are worthy of them. We are a good people; almost we are the only +Christian people left in the world, nor has any nation shown such +forbearance towards their persecutor as we have always shown to you. No +nation has forgiven its enemies as we have forgiven you, time after time +down the miserable generations, the continuity of forgiveness only +equalled by the continuity of your ill-treatment. Between our two +countries you have kept and protected a screen of traders and +politicians who are just as truly your enemies as they are ours. In the +end they will do most harm to you for we are by this vaccinated against +misery but you are not, and the "loyalists" who sell their own country +for a shilling will sell another country for a penny when the +opportunity comes and safety with it. + +Meanwhile do not always hasten your presents to us out of a gun. You +have done it so often that your guns begin to bore us, and you have now +an opportunity which may never occur again to make us your friends. +There is no bitterness in Ireland against you on account of this war, +and the lack of ill-feeling amongst us is entirely due to the more than +admirable behaviour of the soldiers whom you sent over here. A peace +that will last for ever can be made with Ireland if you wish to make it, +but you must take her hand at once, for in a few months' time she will +not open it to you; the old, bad relations will re-commence, the rancor +will be born and grow, and another memory will be stored away in +Ireland's capacious and retentive brain. + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + THE VOLUNTEERS. + + +There is much talk of the extraordinary organising powers displayed in +the insurrection, but in truth there was nothing extraordinary in it. +The real essence and singularity of the rising exists in its simplicity, +and, saving for the courage which carried it out, the word extraordinary +is misplaced in this context. + +The tactics of the Volunteers as they began to emerge were reduced to +the very skeleton of "strategy." It was only that they seized certain +central and stragetical districts, garrisoned those and held them until +they were put out of them. Once in their forts there was no further +egress by the doors, and for purpose of entry and sortie they used the +skylights and the roofs. On the roofs they had plenty of cover, and this +cover conferred on them a mobility which was their chief asset, and +which alone enabled them to protract the rebellion beyond the first day. + +This was the entire of their home plan, and there is no doubt that they +had studied Dublin roofs and means of inter-communication by roofs with +the closest care. Further than that I do not think they had organised +anything. But this was only the primary plan, and, unless they were +entirely mad, there must have been a sequel to it which did not +materialise, and which would have materialised but that the English +Fleet blocked the way. + +There is no doubt that they expected the country to rise with them, and +they must have known what their own numbers were, and what chance they +had of making a protracted resistance. The word "resistance" is the +keyword of the rising, and the plan of holding out must have been +rounded off with a date. At that date something else was to have +happened which would relieve them. + +There is not much else that could happen except the landing of German +troops in Ireland or in England. It would have been, I think, immaterial +to them where these were landed, but the reasoning seems to point to the +fact that they expected and had arranged for such a landing, although +on this point there is as yet no evidence. + +The logic of this is so simple, so plausible, that it might be accepted +without further examination, and yet further examination is necessary, +for in a country like Ireland logic and plausibility are more often +wrong than right. It may just as easily be that except for furnishing +some arms and ammunition Germany was not in the rising at all, and this +I prefer to believe. It had been current long before the rising that the +Volunteers knew they could not seriously embarass England, and that +their sole aim was to make such a row in Ireland that the Irish question +would take the status of an international one, and on the discussion of +terms of peace in the European war the claims of Ireland would have to +be considered by the whole Council of Europe and the world. + +That is, in my opinion, the metaphysic behind the rising. It is quite +likely that they hoped for German aid, possibly some thousands of men, +who would enable them to prolong the row, but I do not believe they +expected German armies, nor do I think they would have welcomed these +with any cordiality. + +In this insurrection there are two things which are singular in the +history of Irish risings. One is that there were no informers, or there +were no informers among the chiefs. I did hear people say in the streets +that two days before the rising they knew it was to come; they +invariably added that they had not believed the news, and had laughed at +it. A priest said the same thing in my hearing, and it may be that the +rumour was widely spread, and that everybody, including the authorities, +looked upon it as a joke. + +The other singularity of the rising is the amazing silence in which it +was fought. Nothing spoke but the guns; and the Volunteers on the one +side and the soldiers on the other potted each other and died in +whispers; it might have been said that both sides feared the Germans +would hear them and take advantage of their preoccupation. + +There is a third reason given for the rebellion, and it also is divorced +from foreign plots. It is said, and the belief in Dublin was widespread, +that the Government intended to raid the Volunteers and seize their +arms. One remembers to-day the paper which Alderman Kelly read to the +Dublin Corporation, and which purported to be State Instructions that +the Military and Police should raid the Volunteers, and seize their arms +and leaders. The Volunteers had sworn they would not permit their arms +to be taken from them. A list of the places to be raided was given, and +the news created something of a sensation in Ireland when it was +published that evening. The Press, by instruction apparently, repudiated +this document, but the Volunteers, with most of the public, believed it +to be true, and it is more than likely that the rebellion took place in +order to forestall the Government. + +This is also an explanation of the rebellion, and is just as good a one +as any other. It is the explanation which I believe to be the true one. + +All the talk of German invasion and the landing of German troops in +Ireland is so much nonsense in view of the fact that England is master +of the seas, and that from a week before the war down to this date she +has been the undisputed monarch of those ridges. During this war there +will be no landing of troops in either England or Ireland unless Germany +in the meantime can solve the problem of submarine transport. It is a +problem which will be solved some day, for every problem can be solved, +but it will hardly be during the progress of this war. The men at the +head of the Volunteers were not geniuses, neither were they fools, and +the difficulty of acquiring military aid from Germany must have seemed +as insurmountable to them as it does to the Germans themselves. They +rose because they felt that they had to do so, or be driven like sheep +into the nearest police barracks, and be laughed at by the whole of +Ireland as cowards and braggarts. + +It would be interesting to know why, on the eve of the insurrection, +Professor MacNeill resigned the presidency of the Volunteers. The story +of treachery which was heard in the streets is not the true one, for men +of his type are not traitors, and this statement may be dismissed +without further comment or notice. One is left to imagine what can have +happened during the conference which is said to have preceded the +rising, and which ended with the resignation of Professor MacNeill. + +This is my view, or my imagining, of what occurred. The conference was +called because the various leaders felt that a hostile movement was +projected by the Government, and that the times were exceedingly black +for them. Neither Mr. Birrell nor Sir Mathew Nathan had any desire that +there should be a conflict in Ireland during the war. This cannot be +doubted. From such a conflict there might follow all kinds of political +repercussions; but although the Government favoured the policy of +_laissez faire_, there was a powerful military and political party in +Ireland whose whole effort was towards the disarming and punishment of +the Volunteers--particularly I should say the punishment of the +Volunteers. I believe, or rather I imagine, that Professor MacNeill was +approached at the instance of Mr. Birrell or Sir Mathew Nathan and +assured that the Government did not meditate any move against his men, +and that so long as his Volunteers remained quiet they would not be +molested by the authorities. I would say that Professor MacNeill gave +and accepted the necessary assurances, and that when he informed his +conference of what had occurred, and found that they did not believe +faith would be kept with them, he resigned in the dispairing hope that +his action might turn them from a purpose which he considered lunatic, +or, at least, by restraining a number of his followers from rising, he +might limit the tale of men who would be uselessly killed. + +He was not alone in his vote against a rising. The O'Rahilly and some +others are reputed to have voted with him, but when insurrection was +decided on, the O'Rahilly marched with his men, and surely a gallant man +could not have done otherwise. + +When the story of what occurred is authoritatively written (it may be +written) I think that this will be found to be the truth of the matter, +and that German intrigue and German money counted for so little in the +insurrection as to be negligible. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + SOME OF THE LEADERS. + + +Meanwhile the insurrection, like all its historical forerunners, has +been quelled in blood. It sounds rhetorical to say so, but it was not +quelled in peasoup or tisane. While it lasted the fighting was very +determined, and it is easily, I think, the most considerable of Irish +rebellions. + +The country was not with it, for be it remembered that a whole army of +Irishmen, possibly three hundred thousand of our race, are fighting with +England instead of against her. In Dublin alone there is scarcely a poor +home in which a father, a brother, or a son is not serving in one of the +many fronts which England is defending. Had the country risen, and +fought as stubbornly as the Volunteers did, no troops could have beaten +them--well that is a wild statement, the heavy guns could always beat +them--but from whatever angle Irish people consider this affair it must +appear to them tragic and lamentable beyond expression, but not mean +and not unheroic. + +It was hard enough that our men in the English armies should be slain +for causes which no amount of explanation will ever render less foreign +to us, or even intelligible; but that our men who were left should be +killed in Ireland fighting against the same England that their brothers +are fighting for ties the question into such knots of contradiction as +we may give up trying to unravel. We can only think--this has +happened--and let it unhappen itself as best it may. + +We say that the time always finds the man, and by it we mean: that when +a responsibility is toward there will be found some shoulder to bend for +the yoke which all others shrink from. It is not always nor often the +great ones of the earth who undertake these burdens--it is usually the +good folk, that gentle hierarchy who swear allegiance to mournfulness +and the under dog, as others dedicate themselves to mutton chops and the +easy nymph. It is not my intention to idealise any of the men who were +concerned in this rebellion. Their country will, some few years hence, +do that as adequately as she has done it for those who went before them. + +Those of the leaders whom I knew were not great men, nor brilliant--that +is they were more scholars than thinkers, and more thinkers than men of +action; and I believe that in no capacity could they have attained to +what is called eminence, nor do I consider they coveted any such public +distinction as is noted in that word. + +But in my definition they were good men--men, that is, who willed no +evil, and whose movements of body or brain were unselfish and healthy. +No person living is the worse off for having known Thomas MacDonagh, and +I, at least, have never heard MacDonagh speak unkindly or even harshly +of anything that lived. It has been said of him that his lyrics were +epical; in a measure it is true, and it is true in the same measure that +his death was epical. He was the first of the leaders who was tried and +shot. It was not easy for him to die leaving behind two young children +and a young wife, and the thought that his last moment must have been +tormented by their memory is very painful. We are all fatalists when we +strike against power, and I hope he put care from him as the soldiers +marched him out. + +The O'Rahilly also I knew, but not intimately, and I can only speak of a +good humour, a courtesy, and an energy that never failed. He was a man +of unceasing ideas and unceasing speech, and laughter accompanied every +sound made by his lips. + +Plunkett and Pearse I knew also, but not intimately. Young Plunkett, as +he was always called, would never strike one as a militant person. He, +like Pearse and MacDonagh, wrote verse, and it was no better nor worse +than their's were. He had an appetite for quaint and difficult +knowledge. He studied Egyptian and Sanscrit, and distant curious matter +of that sort, and was interested in inventions and the theatre. He was +tried and sentenced and shot. + +As to Pearse, I do not know how to place him, nor what to say of him. If +there was an idealist among the men concerned in this insurrection it +was he, and if there was any person in the world less fitted to head an +insurrection it was he also. I never could "touch" or sense in him the +qualities which other men spoke of, and which made him military +commandant of the rising. None of these men were magnetic in the sense +that Mr. Larkin is magnetic, and I would have said that Pearse was less +magnetic than any of the others. Yet it was to him and around him they +clung. + +Men must find some centre either of power or action or intellect about +which they may group themselves, and I think that Pearse became the +leader because his temperament was more profoundly emotional than any of +the others. He was emotional not in a flighty, but in a serious way, and +one felt more that he suffered than that he enjoyed. + +He had a power; men who came into intimate contact with him began to act +differently to their own desires and interests. His schoolmasters did +not always receive their salaries with regularity. The reason that he +did not pay them was the simple one that he had no money. Given by +another man this explanation would be uneconomic, but from him it was so +logical that even a child could comprehend it. These masters did not +always leave him. They remained, marvelling perhaps, and accepting, even +with stupefaction, the theory that children must be taught, but that no +such urgency is due towards the payment of wages. One of his boys said +there was no fun in telling lies to Mr. Pearse, for, however outrageous +the lie, he always believed it. He built and renovated and improved his +school because the results were good for his scholars, and somehow he +found builders to undertake these forlorn hopes. + +It was not, I think, that he "put his trust in God," but that when +something had to be done he did it, and entirely disregarded logic or +economics or force. He said--such a thing has to be done and so far as +one man can do it I will do it, and he bowed straightaway to the task. + +It is mournful to think of men like these having to take charge of +bloody and desolate work, and one can imagine them say, "Oh! cursed +spite," as they accepted responsibility. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + LABOUR AND THE INSURRECTION. + + +No person in Ireland seems to have exact information about the +Volunteers, their aims, or their numbers. We know the names of the +leaders now. They were recited to us with the tale of their execution; +and with the declaration of a Republic we learned something of their +aim, but the estimate of their number runs through the figures ten, +thirty, and fifty thousand. The first figure is undoubtedly too slender, +the last excessive, and something between fifteen and twenty thousand +for all Ireland would be a reasonable guess. + +Of these, the Citizen Army or Labour side of the Volunteers, would not +number more than one thousand men, and it is with difficulty such a +figure could be arrived at. Yet it is freely argued, and the theory will +grow, that the causes of this latest insurrection should be sought among +the labour problems of Dublin rather than in any national or patriotic +sentiment, and this theory is buttressed by all the agile facts which +such a theory would be furnished with. + +It is an interesting view, but in my opinion it is an erroneous one. + +That Dublin labour was in the Volunteer movement to the strength of, +perhaps, two hundred men, may be true--it is possible there were more, +but it is unlikely that a greater number, or, as many, of the Citizen +Army marched when the order came. The overwhelming bulk of Volunteers +were actuated by the patriotic ideal which is the heritage and the +burden of almost every Irishman born out of the Unionist circle, and +their connection with labour was much more manual than mental. + +This view of the importance of labour to the Volunteers is held by two +distinct and opposed classes. + +Just as there are some who find the explanation of life in a sexual +formula, so there is a class to whom the economic idea is very dear, and +beneath every human activity they will discover the shock of wages and +profit. It is truly there, but it pulls no more than its weight, and in +Irish life the part played by labour has not yet been a weighty one; +although on every view it is an important one. The labour idea in +Ireland has not arrived. It is in process of "becoming," and when labour +problems are mentioned in this country a party does not come to the +mind, but two men only--they are Mr. Larkin and James Connolly, and they +are each in their way exceptional and curious men. + +There is another class who implicate labour, and they do so because it +enables them to urge that as well as being grasping and nihilistic, +Irish labour is disloyal and treacherous. + +The truth is that labour in Ireland has not yet succeeded in organising +anything--not even discontent. It is not self-conscious to any extent, +and, outside of Dublin, it scarcely appears to exist. The national +imagination is not free to deal with any other subject than that of +freedom, and part of the policy of our "masters" is to see that we be +kept busy with politics instead of social ideas. From their standpoint +the policy is admirable, and up to the present it has thoroughly +succeeded. + +One does not hear from the lips of the Irish workingman, even in +Dublin, any of the affirmations and rejections which have long since +become the commonplaces of his comrades in other lands. But on the +subject of Irish freedom his views are instantly forthcoming, and his +desires are explicit, and, to a degree, informed. This latter subject +they understand and have fabricated an entire language to express it, +but the other they do not understand nor cherish, and they are not +prepared to die for it. + +It is possibly true that before any movement can attain to really +national proportions there must be, as well as the intellectual ideal +which gives it utterance and a frame, a sense of economic misfortune to +give it weight, and when these fuse the combination may well be +irresistible. The organised labour discontent in Ireland, in Dublin, was +not considerable enough to impose its aims or its colours on the +Volunteers, and it is the labour ideal which merges and disappears in +the national one. The reputation of all the leaders of the insurrection, +not excepting Connolly, is that they were intensely patriotic Irishmen, +and also, but this time with the exception of Connolly, that they were +not particularly interested in the problems of labour. + +The great strike of two years ago remained undoubtedly as a bitter and +lasting memory with Dublin labour--perhaps, even, it was not so much a +memory as a hatred. Still, it was not hatred of England which was evoked +at that time, nor can the stress of their conflict be traced to an +English source. It was hatred of local traders, and, particularly, +hatred of the local police, and the local powers and tribunals, which +were arrayed against them. + +One can without trouble discover reasons why they should go on strike +again, but by no reasoning can I understand why they should go into +rebellion against England, unless it was that they were patriots first +and trade unionists a very long way afterwards. + +I do not believe that this combination of the ideal and the practical +was consummated in the Dublin insurrection, but I do believe that the +first step towards the formation of such a party has now been taken, +and that if, years hence, there should be further trouble in Ireland +such trouble will not be so easily dealt with as this one has been. + +It may be that further trouble will not arise, for the co-operative +movement, which is growing slowly but steadily in Ireland, may arrange +our economic question, and, incidentally, our national question +also--that is if the English people do not decide that the latter ought +to be settled at once. + +James Connolly had his heart in both the national and the economic camp, +but he was a great-hearted man, and could afford to extend his +affections where others could only dissipate them. + +There can be no doubt that his powers of orderly thinking were of great +service to the Volunteers, for while Mr. Larkin was the magnetic centre +of the Irish labour movement, Connolly was its brains. He has been +sentenced to death for his part in the insurrection, and for two days +now he has been dead. + +He had been severely wounded in the fighting, and was tended, one does +not doubt with great care, until he regained enough strength to stand +up and be shot down again. + +Others are dead also. I was not acquainted with them, and with Connolly +I was not more than acquainted. I had met him twice many months ago, but +other people were present each time, and he scarcely uttered a word on +either of these occasions. I was told that he was by nature silent. He +was a man who can be ill-spared in Ireland, but labour, throughout the +world, may mourn for him also. + +A doctor who attended on him during his last hours says that Connolly +received the sentence of his death quietly. He was to be shot on the +morning following the sentence. This gentleman said to him: + +"Connolly, when you stand up to be shot, will you say a prayer for me?" + +Connolly replied: + +"I will." + +His visitor continued: + +"Will you say a prayer for the men who are shooting you?" + +"I will," said Connolly, "and I will say a prayer for every good man in +the world who is doing his duty." + +He was a steadfast man in all that he undertook. We may be sure he +steadfastly kept that promise. He would pray for others, who had not +time to pray for himself, as he had worked for others during the years +when he might have worked for himself. + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + THE IRISH QUESTIONS. + + +There is truly an Irish question. There are two Irish questions, and the +most important of them is not that which appears in our newspapers and +in our political propaganda. + +The first is international, and can be stated shortly. It is the desire +of Ireland to assume control of her national life. With this desire the +English people have professed to be in accord, and it is at any rate so +thoroughly understood that nothing further need be made of it in these +pages. + +The other Irish question is different, and less simply described. The +difficulty about it is that it cannot be approached until the question +of Ireland's freedom has by some means been settled, for this ideal of +freedom has captured the imagination of the race. It rides Ireland like +a nightmare, thwarting or preventing all civilising or cultural work in +this country, and it is not too much to say that Ireland cannot even +begin to live until that obsession and fever has come to an end, and her +imagination has been set free to do the work which imagination alone can +do--Imagination is intelligent kindness--we have sore need of it. + +The second question might plausibly be called a religious one. It has +been so called, and, for it is less troublesome to accept an idea than +to question it, the statement has been accepted as truth--but it is +untrue, and it is deeply and villainously untrue. No lie in Irish life +has been so persistent and so mischievous as this one, and no political +lie has ever been so ingeniously, and malevolently exploited. + +There is no religious intolerance in Ireland except that which is +political. I am not a member of the Catholic Church, and am not inclined +to be the advocate of a religious system which my mentality dislikes, +but I have never found real intolerance among my fellow-countrymen of +that religion. I have found it among Protestants. I will limit that +statement, too. I have found it among some Protestants. But outside of +the North of Ireland there is no religious question, and in the North +it is fundamentally more political than religious. + +All thinking is a fining down of one's ideas, and thus far we have come +to the statement of Ireland's second question. It is not Catholic or +Nationalist, nor have I said that it is entirely Protestant and +Unionist, but it is on the extreme wing of this latter party that +responsibility must be laid. It is difficult, even for an Irishman +living in Ireland, to come on the real political fact which underlies +Irish Protestant politics, and which fact has consistently opposed and +baffled every attempt made by either England or Ireland to come to +terms. There is such a fact, and clustered around it is a body of men +whose hatred of their country is persistent and deadly and unexplained. + +One may make broad generalisations on the apparent situation and +endeavour to solve it by those. We may say that loyalty to England is +the true centre of their action. I will believe it, but only to a point. +Loyalty to England does not inevitably include this active hatred, this +blindness, this withering of all sympathy for the people among whom one +is born, and among whom one has lived in peace, for they have lived in +peace amongst us. We may say that it is due to the idea of privilege and +the desire for power. Again, I will accept it up to a point--but these +are cultural obsessions, and they cease to act when the breaking-point +is reached. + +I know of only two mental states which are utterly without bowels or +conscience. These are cowardice and greed. Is it to a synthesis of these +states that this more than mortal enmity may be traced? What do they +fear, and what is it they covet? What can they redoubt in a country +which is practically crimeless, or covet in a land that is almost as +bare as a mutton bone? They have mesmerised themselves, these men, and +have imagined into our quiet air brigands and thugs and titans, with all +the other notabilities of a tale for children. + +I do not think that this either will tell the tale, but I do think there +is a story to be told--I imagine an esoteric wing to the Unionist Party. +I imagine that Party includes a secret organisation--they may be +Orangemen, they may be Masons, and, if there be such, I would dearly +like to know what the metaphysic of their position is, and how they +square it with any idea of humanity or social life. Meantime, all this +is surmise, and I, as a novelist, have a notoriously flighty +imagination, and am content to leave it at that. + +But this secondary Irish question is not so terrible as it appears. It +is terrible now, it would not be terrible if Ireland had national +independence. + +The great protection against a lie is--not to believe it; and Ireland, +in this instance, has that protection. The claims made by the Unionist +Wing do not rely solely on the religious base. They use all the +arguments. It is, according to them, unsafe to live in Ireland. (Let us +leave this insurrection of a week out of the question.) Life is not safe +in Ireland. Property shivers in terror of daily or nightly +appropriation. Other, undefined, but even more woeful glooms and creeps, +wriggle stealthily abroad. + +These things are not regarded in Ireland, and, in truth, they are not +meat for Irish consumption. Irish judges are presented with white +gloves with a regularity which may even be annoying to them, and were it +not for political trouble they would be unable to look their salaries in +the face. The Irish Bar almost weep in chorus at the words "Land Act," +and stare, not dumbly, on destitution. These tales are meant for England +and are sent there. They will cease to be exported when there is no +market for them, and these men will perhaps end by becoming patriotic +and social when they learn that they do not really command the Big +Battalions. But Ireland has no protection against them while England can +be thrilled by their nonsense, and while she is willing to pound Ireland +to a jelly on their appeal. Her only assistance against them is freedom. + +There are certain simplicities upon which all life is based. A man finds +that he is hungry and the knowledge enables him to go to work for the +rest of his life. A man makes the discovery (it has been a discovery to +many) that he is an Irishman, and the knowledge simplifies all his +subsequent political action. There is this comfort about being an +Irishman, you can be entirely Irish, and claim thus to be as complete +as a pebble or a star. But no Irish person can hope to be more than a +muletto Englishman, and if that be an ambition and an end it is not an +heroic one. + +But there is an Ulster difficulty, and no amount of burking it will +solve it. It is too generally conceived among Nationalists that the +attitude of Ulster towards Ireland is rooted in ignorance and bigotry. +Allow that both of these bad parts are included in the Northern outlook, +they do not explain the Ulster standpoint; and nothing can explain the +attitude of official Ireland _vis-a-vis_ with Ulster. + +What has the Irish Party ever done to allay Northern prejudice, or bring +the discontented section into line with the rest of Ireland? The answer +is pathetically complete. They have done nothing. Or, if they have done +anything, it was only that which would set every Northerner grinding his +teeth in anger. At a time when Orangeism was dying they raised and +marshalled the Hibernians, and we have the Ulsterman's answer to the +Hibernians in the situation by which we are confronted to-day. If the +Party had even a little statesmanship among them they would for the past +ten years have marched up and down the North explaining and mollifying +and courting the Black Northerner. But, like good Irishmen, they could +not tear themselves away from England, and they paraded that country +where parade was not so urgent, and they made orations there until the +mere accent of an Irishman must make Englishmen wail for very boredom. + +Some of that parade might have gladdened the eyes of the Belfast +citizens; a few of those orations might have assisted the men of Derry +to comprehend that, for the good of our common land, Home Rule and the +unity of a nation was necessary if only to rid the country of these +blatherers. + +Let the Party explain why, among their political duties, they neglected +the duty of placating Ulster in their proper persons. Why, in short, +they boycotted Ulster and permitted political and religious and racial +antagonism to grow inside of Ireland unchecked by any word from them +upon that ground. Were they afraid "nuts" would be thrown at them? +Whatever they dreaded, they gave Ulster the widest of wide berths, and +wherever else they were visible and audible, they were silent and unseen +in that part of Ireland. + +The Ulster grievance is ostensibly religious; but safeguards on this +count are so easily created and applied that this issue might almost be +left out of account. The real difficulty is economic, and it is a +tangled one. But unless profit and loss are immediately discernible the +soul of man is not easily stirred by an accountant's tale, and therefore +the religious banner has been waved for our kinsfolk of Ulster, and +under the sacred emblem they are fighting for what some people call +mammon, but which may be in truth just plain bread and butter. + + +The words Sinn Fein mean "Ourselves," and it is of ourselves I write in +this chapter. More urgent than any political emancipation is the drawing +together of men of good will in the endeavour to assist their +necessitous land. Our eyes must be withdrawn from the ends of the earth +and fixed on that which is around us and which we can touch. No +politician will talk to us of Ireland if by any trick he can avoid the +subject. His tale is still of Westminster and Chimborazo and the +Mountains of the Moon. Irishmen must begin to think for themselves and +of themselves, instead of expending energy on causes too distant to be +assisted or hindered by them. I believe that our human material is as +good as will be found in the world. No better, perhaps, but not worse. +And I believe that all but local politics are unfruitful and +soul-destroying. We have an island that is called little. It is more +than twenty times too spacious for our needs, and we will not have +explored the last of it in our children's lifetime. We have more +problems to resolve in our towns and cities than many generations of +minds will get tired of striving with. Here is the world, and all that +perplexes or delights the world is here also. Nothing is lost. Not even +brave men. They have been used. From this day the great adventure opens +for Ireland. The Volunteers are dead, and the call is now for +volunteers. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Insurrection in Dublin, by James Stephens + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12871 *** diff --git a/12871-h/12871-h.htm b/12871-h/12871-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..41fca12 --- /dev/null +++ b/12871-h/12871-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2441 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= + "text/html; charset=UTF-8"/> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of THE INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN, by JAMES STEPHENS. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem .caesura {vertical-align: -200%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12871 ***</div> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 5em;'><i>BY THE SAME AUTHOR</i></span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 10.5em;'>POEMS</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>INSURRECTIONS (Maunsel)</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>THE HILL OF VISION "</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>GREEN BRANCHES + "</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>SONGS FROM THE CLAY (Macmillan)</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>THE ADVENTURES OF SEUMAS BEG "</span></p> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;'/> + + +<p><span style='margin-left: 10em;'>PROSE</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>THE CHARWOMANS DAUGHTER (Macmillan)</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>THE CROCK OF GOLD "</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>HERE ARE LADIES "</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>THE DEMI-GODS "</span></p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'/> +<h1>THE INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN</h1> + + +<h2>BY JAMES STEPHENS</h2> + + +<h3>MAUNSEL & COMPANY, LTD. DUBLIN AND LONDON 1916</h3> + + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;'/> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#FOREWORD">FOREWORD</a> + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a> + </td> + <td> + MONDAY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a> + </td> + <td> + TUESDAY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a> + </td> + <td> + WEDNESDAY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a> + </td> + <td> + THURSDAY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a> + </td> + <td> + FRIDAY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a> + </td> + <td> + SATURDAY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a> + </td> + <td> + SUNDAY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a> + </td> + <td> + THE INSURRECTION IS OVER + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a> + </td> + <td> + THE VOLUNTEERS + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a> + </td> + <td> + SOME OF THE LEADERS + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a> + </td> + <td> + LABOUR AND THE INSURRECTION + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a> + </td> + <td> + THE IRISH QUESTIONS + </td> + </tr> +</table> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;'/> + +<h2><a name="FOREWORD"></a>FOREWORD</h2> + +<p>The day before the rising was Easter Sunday, and they were crying +joyfully in the Churches "Christ has risen." On the following day they +were saying in the streets "Ireland has risen." The luck of the moment +was with her. The auguries were good, and, notwithstanding all that has +succeeded, I do not believe she must take to the earth again, nor be +ever again buried. The pages hereafter were written day by day during +the Insurrection that followed Holy Week, and, as a hasty impression of +a most singular time, the author allows them to stand without any +emendation.</p> + +<p>The few chapters which make up this book are not a history of the +rising. I knew nothing about the rising. I do not know anything about it +now, and it may be years before exact information on the subject is +available. What I have written is no more than a statement of what +passed in one quarter of our city, and a gathering together of the +rumour and tension which for nearly two weeks had to serve the Dublin +people in lieu of news. It had to serve many Dublin people in place of +bread.</p> + +<p>To-day, the 8th of May, the book is finished, and, so far as Ireland is +immediately concerned, the insurrection is over. Action now lies with +England, and on that action depends whether the Irish Insurrection is +over or only suppressed.</p> + +<p>In their dealings with this country, English Statesmen have seldom shown +political imagination; sometimes they have been just, sometimes, and +often, unjust. After a certain point I dislike and despise justice. It +is an attribute of God, and is adequately managed by Him alone; but +between man and man no other ethics save that of kindness can give +results. I have not any hope that this ethic will replace that, and I +merely mention it in order that the good people who read these words may +enjoy the laugh which their digestion needs.</p> + +<p>I have faith in man, I have very little faith in States man. But I +believe that the world moves, and I believe that the weight of the +rolling planet is going to bring freedom to Ireland. Indeed, I name this +date as the first day of Irish freedom, and the knowledge forbids me +mourn too deeply my friends who are dead.</p> + +<p>It may not be worthy of mention, but the truth is, that Ireland is not +cowed. She is excited a little. She is gay a little. She was not with +the revolution, but in a few months she will be, and her heart which was +withering will be warmed by the knowledge that men have thought her +worth dying for. She will prepare to make herself worthy of devotion, +and that devotion will never fail her. So little does it take to raise +our hearts.</p> + +<p>Does it avail anything to describe these things to English readers? They +have never moved the English mind to anything except impatience, but +to-day and at this desperate conjunction they may be less futile than +heretofore. England also has grown patriotic, even by necessity. It is +necessity alone makes patriots, for in times of peace a patriot is a +quack when he is not a shark. Idealism pays in times of peace, it dies +in time of war. Our idealists are dead and yours are dying hourly.</p> + +<p>The English mind may to-day be enabled to understand what is wrong with +us, and why through centuries we have been "disthressful." Let them +look at us, I do not say through the fumes that are still rising from +our ruined streets, but through the smoke that is rolling from the North +Sea to Switzerland, and read in their own souls the justification for +all our risings, and for this rising.</p> + +<p>Is it wrong to say that England has not one friend in Europe? I say it. +Her Allies of to-day were her enemies of yesterday, and politics alone +will decide what they will be to-morrow. I say it, and yet I am not +entirely right, for she has one possible friend unless she should decide +that even one friend is excessive and irks her. That one possible friend +is Ireland. I say, and with assurance, that if our national questions +are arranged there will remain no reason for enmity between the two +countries, and there will remain many reasons for friendship.</p> + +<p>It may be objected that the friendship of a country such as Ireland has +little value; that she is too small geographically, and too thinly +populated to give aid to any one. Only sixty odd years ago our +population was close on ten millions of people, nor are we yet sterile; +in area Ireland is not collossal, but neither is she microscopic. Mr. +Shaw has spoken of her as a "cabbage patch at the back of beyond." On +this kind of description Rome might be called a hen-run and Greece a +back yard. The sober fact is that Ireland has a larger geographical area +than many an independent and prosperous European kingdom, and for all +human and social needs she is a fairly big country, and is beautiful and +fertile to boot. She could be made worth knowing if goodwill and trust +are available for the task.</p> + +<p>I believe that what is known as the "mastery of the seas" will, when the +great war is finished, pass irretrievably from the hands or the ambition +of any nation, and that more urgently than ever in her history England +will have need of a friend. It is true that we might be her enemy and +might do her some small harm—it is truer that we could be her friend, +and could be of very real assistance to her.</p> + +<p>Should the English Statesman decide that our friendship is worth having +let him create a little of the political imagination already spoken of. +Let him equip us (it is England's debt to Ireland) for freedom, not in +the manner of a miser who arranges for the chilly livelihood of a needy +female relative; but the way a wealthy father would undertake the +settlement of his son. I fear I am assisting my reader to laugh too +much, but laughter is the sole excess that is wholesome.</p> + +<p>If freedom is to come to Ireland—as I believe it is—then the Easter +Insurrection was the only thing that could have happened. I speak as an +Irishman, and am momentarily leaving out of account every other +consideration. If, after all her striving, freedom had come to her as a +gift, as a peaceful present such as is sometimes given away with a pound +of tea, Ireland would have accepted the gift with shamefacedness, and +have felt that her centuries of revolt had ended in something very like +ridicule. The blood of brave men had to sanctify such a consummation if +the national imagination was to be stirred to the dreadful business +which is the organizing of freedom, and both imagination and brains have +been stagnant in Ireland this many a year. Following on such tameness, +failure might have been predicted, or, at least feared, and war (let us +call it war for the sake of our pride) was due to Ireland before she +could enter gallantly on her inheritance. We might have crept into +liberty like some kind of domesticated man, whereas now we may be +allowed to march into freedom with the honours of war. I am still +appealing to the political imagination, for if England allows Ireland to +formally make peace with her that peace will be lasting, everlasting; +but if the liberty you give us is all half-measures, and distrusts and +stinginesses, then what is scarcely worth accepting will hardly be worth +thanking you for.</p> + +<p>There is a reference in the earlier pages of this record to a letter +which I addressed to Mr. George Bernard Shaw and published in the <i>New +Age</i>. This was a thoughtless letter, and subsequent events have proved +that it was unmeaning and ridiculous. I have since, through the same +hospitable journal, apologised to Mr. Shaw, but have let my reference to +the matter stand as an indication that electricity was already in the +air. Every statement I made about him in that letter and in this book +was erroneous; for, afterwards, when it would have been politic to run +for cover, he ran for the open, and he spoke there like the valiant +thinker and great Irishman that he is.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;'/> + +<p>Since the foregoing was written events have moved in this country. The +situation is no longer the same. The executions have taken place. One +cannot justly exclaim against the measures adopted by the military +tribunal, and yet, in the interests of both countries one may deplore +them. I have said there was no bitterness in Ireland, and it was true at +the time of writing. It is no longer true; but it is still possible by +generous Statesmanship to allay this, and to seal a true union between +Ireland and England.</p> + + +<hr style='width: 65%;'/> +<h2>THE</h2> + +<h1>INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN</h1> + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_I'></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>MONDAY</h3> + +<p>This has taken everyone by surprise. It is possible, that, with the +exception of their Staff, it has taken the Volunteers themselves by +surprise; but, to-day, our peaceful city is no longer peaceful; guns are +sounding, or rolling and crackling from different directions, and, +although rarely, the rattle of machine guns can be heard also.</p> + +<p>Two days ago war seemed very far away—so far, that I have covenanted +with myself to learn the alphabet of music. Tom Bodkin had promised to +present me with a musical instrument called a dulcimer—I persist in +thinking that this is a species of guitar, although I am assured that it +is a number of small metal plates which are struck with sticks, and I +confess that this description of its function prejudices me more than a +little against it. There is no reason why I should think dubiously of +such an instrument, but I do not relish the idea of procuring music with +a stick. With this dulcimer I shall be able to tap out our Irish +melodies when I am abroad, and transport myself to Ireland for a few +minutes, or a few bars.</p> + +<p>In preparation for this present I had through Saturday and Sunday been +learning the notes of the Scale. The notes and spaces on the lines did +not trouble me much, but those above and below the line seemed ingenious +and complicated to a degree that frightened me.</p> + +<p>On Saturday I got the <i>Irish Times</i>, and found in it a long article by +Bernard Shaw (reprinted from the <i>New York Times</i>). One reads things +written by Shaw. Why one does read them I do not know exactly, except +that it is a habit we got into years ago, and we read an article by Shaw +just as we put on our boots in the morning—that is, without thinking +about it, and without any idea of reward.</p> + +<p>His article angered me exceedingly. It was called "Irish Nonsense +talked in Ireland." It was written (as is almost all of his journalistic +work) with that <i>bonhomie</i> which he has cultivated—it is his +mannerism—and which is essentially hypocritical and untrue. <i>Bonhomie</i>! +It is that man-of-the-world attitude, that shop attitude, that +between-you-and-me-for-are-we-not-equal-and-cultured attitude, which is +the tone of a card-sharper or a trick-of-the-loop man. That was the tone +of Shaw's article. I wrote an open letter to him which I sent to the +<i>New Age</i>, because I doubted that the Dublin papers would print it if I +sent it to them, and I knew that the Irish people who read the other +papers had never heard of Shaw, except as a trade-mark under which very +good Limerick bacon is sold, and that they would not be interested in +the opinions of a person named Shaw on any subject not relevant to +bacon. I struck out of my letter a good many harsh things which I said +of him, and hoped he would reply to it in order that I could furnish +these acidities to him in a second letter.</p> + +<p>That was Saturday.</p> + +<p>On Sunday I had to go to my office, as the Director was absent in +London, and there I applied myself to the notes and spaces below the +stave, but relinquished the exercise, convinced that these mysteries +were unattainable by man, while the knowledge that above the stave there +were others and not less complex, stayed mournfully with me.</p> + +<p>I returned home, and as novels (perhaps it is only for the duration of +the war) do not now interest me I read for some time in Madame +Blavatsky's "Secret Doctrine," which book interests me profoundly. +George Russell was out of town or I would have gone round to his house +in the evening to tell him what I thought about Shaw, and to listen to +his own much finer ideas on that as on every other subject. I went to +bed.</p> + +<p>On the morning following I awoke into full insurrection and bloody war, +but I did not know anything about it. It was Bank Holiday, but for +employments such as mine there are not any holidays, so I went to my +office at the usual hour, and after transacting what business was +necessary I bent myself to the notes above and below the stave, and +marvelled anew at the ingenuity of man. Peace was in the building, and +if any of the attendants had knowledge or rumour of war they did not +mention it to me.</p> + +<p>At one o'clock I went to lunch. Passing the corner of Merrion Row I saw +two small groups of people. These people were regarding steadfastly in +the direction of St. Stephen's Green Park, and they spoke occasionally +to one another with that detached confidence which proved they were +mutually unknown. I also, but without approaching them, stared in the +direction of the Green. I saw nothing but the narrow street which +widened to the Park. Some few people were standing in tentative +attitudes, and all looking in the one direction. As I turned from them +homewards I received an impression of silence and expectation and +excitement.</p> + +<p>On the way home I noticed that many silent people were standing in their +doorways—an unusual thing in Dublin outside of the back streets. The +glance of a Dublin man or woman conveys generally a criticism of one's +personal appearance, and is a little hostile to the passer. The look of +each person as I passed was steadfast, and contained an enquiry instead +of a criticism. I felt faintly uneasy, but withdrew my mind to a +meditation which I had covenanted with myself to perform daily, and +passed to my house.</p> + +<p>There I was told that there had been a great deal of rifle firing all +the morning, and we concluded that the Military recruits or Volunteer +detachments were practising that arm. My return to business was by the +way I had already come. At the corner of Merrion Row I found the same +silent groups, who were still looking in the direction of the Green, and +addressing each other occasionally with the detached confidence of +strangers. Suddenly, and on the spur of the moment, I addressed one of +these silent gazers.</p> + +<p>"Has there been an accident?" said I.</p> + +<p>I indicated the people standing about.</p> + +<p>"What's all this for?"</p> + +<p>He was a sleepy, rough-looking man about 40 years of age, with a blunt +red moustache, and the distant eyes which one sees in sailors. He looked +at me, stared at me as at a person from a different country. He grew +wakeful and vivid.</p> + +<p>"Don't you know," said he.</p> + +<p>And then he saw that I did not know.</p> + +<p>"The Sinn Feiners have seized the City this morning."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said I.</p> + +<p>He continued with the savage earnestness of one who has amazement in his +mouth:</p> + +<p>"They seized the City at eleven o'clock this morning. The Green there is +full of them. They have captured the Castle. They have taken the Post +Office."</p> + +<p>"My God!" said I, staring at him, and instantly I turned and went +running towards the Green.</p> + +<p>In a few seconds I banished astonishment and began to walk. As I drew +near the Green rifle fire began like sharply-cracking whips. It was from +the further side. I saw that the Gates were closed and men were standing +inside with guns on their shoulders. I passed a house, the windows of +which were smashed in. As I went by a man in civilian clothes slipped +through the Park gates, which instantly closed behind him. He ran +towards me, and I halted. He was carrying two small packets in his hand. +He passed me hurriedly, and, placing his leg inside the broken window +of the house behind me, he disappeared. Almost immediately another man +in civilian clothes appeared from the broken window of another house. He +also had something (I don't know what) in his hand. He ran urgently +towards the gates, which opened, admitted him, and closed again.</p> + +<p>In the centre of this side of the Park a rough barricade of carts and +motor cars had been sketched. It was still full of gaps. Behind it was a +halted tram, and along the vistas of the Green one saw other trams +derelict, untenanted.</p> + +<p>I came to the barricade. As I reached it and stood by the Shelbourne +Hotel, which it faced, a loud cry came from the Park. The gates opened +and three men ran out. Two of them held rifles with fixed bayonets. The +third gripped a heavy revolver in his fist. They ran towards a motor car +which had just turned the corner, and halted it. The men with bayonets +took position instantly on either side of the car. The man with the +revolver saluted, and I heard him begging the occupants to pardon him, +and directing them to dismount. A man and woman got down. They were +again saluted and requested to go to the sidewalk. They did so.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'>NOTE—As I pen these words rifle shot is cracking from three +different directions and continually. Three minutes ago there was two +discharges from heavy guns. These are the first heavy guns used in +the Insurrection, 25th April.</div> + +<p>The man crossed and stood by me. He was very tall and thin, middle-aged, +with a shaven, wasted face. "I want to get down to Armagh to-day," he +said to no one in particular. The loose bluish skin under his eyes was +twitching. The Volunteers directed the chauffeur to drive to the +barricade and lodge his car in a particular position there. He did it +awkwardly, and after three attempts he succeeded in pleasing them. He +was a big, brown-faced man, whose knees were rather high for the seat he +was in, and they jerked with the speed and persistence of something +moved with a powerful spring. His face was composed and fully under +command, although his legs were not. He locked the car into the +barricade, and then, being a man accustomed to be commanded, he awaited +an order to descend. When the order came he walked directly to his +master, still preserving all the solemnity of his features. These two +men did not address a word to each other, but their drilled and +expressionless eyes were loud with surprise and fear and rage. They went +into the Hotel.</p> + +<p>I spoke to the man with the revolver. He was no more than a boy, not +more certainly than twenty years of age, short in stature, with close +curling red hair and blue eyes—a kindly-looking lad. The strap of his +sombrero had torn loose on one side, and except while he held it in his +teeth it flapped about his chin. His face was sunburnt and grimy with +dust and sweat.</p> + +<p>This young man did not appear to me to be acting from his reason. He was +doing his work from a determination implanted previously, days, weeks +perhaps, on his imagination. His mind was—where? It was not with his +body. And continually his eyes went searching widely, looking for +spaces, scanning hastily the clouds, the vistas of the streets, looking +for something that did not hinder him, looking away for a moment from +the immediacies and rigours which were impressed where his mind had +been.</p> + +<p>When I spoke he looked at me, and I know that for some seconds he did +not see me. I said:—</p> + +<p>"What is the meaning of all this? What has happened?"</p> + +<p>He replied collectedly enough in speech, but with that ramble and +errancy clouding his eyes.</p> + +<p>"We have taken the City. We are expecting an attack from the military at +any moment, and those people," he indicated knots of men, women and +children clustered towards the end of the Green, "won't go home for me. +We have the Post Office, and the Railways, and the Castle. We have all +the City. We have everything."</p> + +<p>(Some men and two women drew behind me to listen).</p> + +<p>"This morning," said he, "the police rushed us. One ran at me to take my +revolver. I fired but I missed him, and I hit a—"</p> + +<p>"You have far too much talk," said a voice to the young man.</p> + +<p>I turned a few steps away, and glancing back saw that he was staring +after me, but I know that he did not see me—he was looking at turmoil, +and blood, and at figures that ran towards him and ran away—a world in +motion and he in the centre of it astonished.</p> + +<p>The men with him did not utter a sound. They were both older. One, +indeed, a short, sturdy man, had a heavy white moustache. He was quite +collected, and took no notice of the skies, or the spaces. He saw a man +in rubbers placing his hand on a motor bicycle in the barricade, and +called to him instantly: "Let that alone."</p> + +<p>The motorist did not at once remove his hand, whereupon the +white-moustached man gripped his gun in both hands and ran violently +towards him. He ran directly to him, body to body, and, as he was short +and the motorist was very tall, stared fixedly up in his face. He roared +up at his face in a mighty voice.</p> + +<p>"Are you deaf? Are you deaf? Move back!"</p> + +<p>The motorist moved away, pursued by an eye as steady and savage as the +point of the bayonet that was level with it.</p> + +<p>Another motor car came round the Ely Place corner of the Green and +wobbled at the sight of the barricade. The three men who had returned +to the gates roared "Halt," but the driver made a tentative effort to +turn his wheel. A great shout of many voices came then, and the three +men ran to him.</p> + +<p>"Drive to the barricade," came the order.</p> + +<p>The driver turned his wheel a point further towards escape, and +instantly one of the men clapped a gun to the wheel and blew the tyre +open. Some words were exchanged, and then a shout:</p> + +<p>"Drive it on the rim, drive it."</p> + +<p>The tone was very menacing, and the motorist turned his car slowly to +the barricade and placed it in.</p> + +<p>For an hour I tramped the City, seeing everywhere these knots of +watchful strangers speaking together in low tones, and it sank into my +mind that what I had heard was true, and that the City was in +insurrection. It had been promised for so long, and had been threatened +for so long. Now it was here. I had seen it in the Green, others had +seen it in other parts—the same men clad in dark green and equipped +with rifle, bayonet, and bandolier, the same silent activity. The police +had disappeared from the streets. At that hour I did not see one +policeman, nor did I see one for many days, and men said that several of +them had been shot earlier in the morning; that an officer had been shot +on Portobello Bridge, that many soldiers had been killed, and that a +good many civilians were dead also.</p> + +<p>Around me as I walked the rumour of war and death was in the air. +Continually and from every direction rifles were crackling and rolling; +sometimes there was only one shot, again it would be a roll of firing +crested with single, short explosions, and sinking again to whip-like +snaps and whip-like echoes; then for a moment silence, and then again +the guns leaped in the air.</p> + +<p>The rumour of positions, bridges, public places, railway stations, +Government offices, having been seized was persistent, and was not +denied by any voice.</p> + +<p>I met some few people I knew. P.H., T.M., who said: "Well!" and thrust +their eyes into me as though they were rummaging me for information.</p> + +<p>But there were not very many people in the streets. The greater part of +the population were away on Bank Holiday, and did not know anything of +this business. Many of them would not know anything until they found +they had to walk home from Kingstown, Dalkey, Howth, or wherever they +were.</p> + +<p>I returned to my office, decided that I would close it for the day. The +men were very relieved when I came in, and were more relieved when I +ordered the gong to be sounded. There were some few people in the place, +and they were soon put out. The outer gates were locked, and the great +door, but I kept the men on duty until the evening. We were the last +public institution open; all the others had been closed for hours.</p> + +<p>I went upstairs and sat down, but had barely reached the chair before I +stood up again, and began to pace my room, to and fro, to and fro; +amazed, expectant, inquiet; turning my ear to the shots, and my mind to +speculations that began in the middle, and were chased from there by +others before they had taken one thought forward. But then I took myself +resolutely and sat me down, and I pencilled out exercises above the +stave, and under the stave; and discovered suddenly that I was again +marching the floor, to and fro, to and fro, with thoughts bursting about +my head as though they were fired on me from concealed batteries.</p> + +<p>At five o'clock I left. I met Miss P., all of whose rumours coincided +with those I had gathered. She was in exceeding good humour and +interested. Leaving her I met Cy——, and we turned together up to the +Green. As we proceeded, the sound of firing grew more distinct, but when +we reached the Green it died away again. We stood a little below the +Shelbourne Hotel, looking at the barricade and into the Park. We could +see nothing. Not a Volunteer was in sight. The Green seemed a desert. +There were only the trees to be seen, and through them small green +vistas of sward.</p> + +<p>Just then a man stepped on the footpath and walked directly to the +barricade. He stopped and gripped the shafts of a lorry lodged near the +centre. At that instant the Park exploded into life and sound; from +nowhere armed men appeared at the railings, and they all shouted at the +man.</p> + +<p>"Put down that lorry. Let out and go away. Let out at once."</p> + +<p>These were the cries. The man did not let out. He halted with the shafts +in his hand, and looked towards the vociferous pailings. Then, and very +slowly, he began to draw the lorry out of the barricade. The shouts came +to him again, very loud, very threatening, but he did not attend to +them.</p> + +<p>"He is the man that owns the lorry," said a voice beside me.</p> + +<p>Dead silence fell on the people around while the man slowly drew his +cart down by the footpath. Then three shots rang out in succession. At +the distance he could not be missed, and it was obvious they were trying +to frighten him. He dropped the shafts, and instead of going away he +walked over to the Volunteers.</p> + +<p>"He has a nerve," said another voice behind me.</p> + +<p>The man walked directly towards the Volunteers, who, to the number of +about ten, were lining the railings. He walked slowly, bent a little +forward, with one hand raised and one finger up as though he were going +to make a speech. Ten guns were pointing at him, and a voice repeated +many times:</p> + +<p>"Go and put back that lorry or you are a dead man. Go before I count +four. One, two, three, four—"</p> + +<p>A rifle spat at him, and in two undulating movements the man sank on +himself and sagged to the ground.</p> + +<p>I ran to him with some others, while a woman screamed unmeaningly, all +on one strident note. The man was picked up and carried to a hospital +beside the Arts Club. There was a hole in the top of his head, and one +does not know how ugly blood can look until it has been seen clotted in +hair. As the poor man was being carried in, a woman plumped to her knees +in the road and began not to scream but to screetch.</p> + +<p>At that moment the Volunteers were hated. The men by whom I was and who +were lifting the body, roared into the railings:—</p> + +<p>"We'll be coming back for you, damn you."</p> + +<p>From the railings there came no reply, and in an instant the place was +again desert and silent, and the little green vistas were slumbering +among the trees.</p> + +<p>No one seemed able to estimate the number of men inside the Green, and +through the day no considerable body of men had been seen, only those +who held the gates, and the small parties of threes and fours who +arrested motors and carts for their barricades. Among these were some +who were only infants—one boy seemed about twelve years of age. He was +strutting the centre of the road with a large revolver in his small +fist. A motor car came by him containing three men, and in the shortest +of time he had the car lodged in his barricade, and dismissed its +stupified occupants with a wave of his armed hand.</p> + +<p>The knots were increasing about the streets, for now the Bank Holiday +people began to wander back from places that were not distant, and to +them it had all to be explained anew. Free movement was possible +everywhere in the City, but the constant crackle of rifles restricted +somewhat that freedom. Up to one o'clock at night belated travellers +were straggling into the City, and curious people were wandering from +group to group still trying to gather information.</p> + +<p>I remained awake until four o'clock in the morning. Every five minutes +a rifle cracked somewhere, but about a quarter to twelve sharp volleying +came from the direction of Portobello Bridge, and died away after some +time. The windows of my flat listen out towards the Green, and obliquely +towards Sackville Street. In another quarter of an hour there were +volleys from Stephen's Green direction, and this continued with +intensity for about twenty-five minutes. Then it fell into a sputter of +fire and ceased.</p> + +<p>I went to bed about four o'clock convinced that the Green had been +rushed by the military and captured, and that the rising was at an end.</p> + +<p>That was the first day of the insurrection.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_II'></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>TUESDAY</h3> + +<p>A sultry, lowering day, and dusk skies fat with rain.</p> + +<p>I left for my office, believing that the insurrection was at an end. At +a corner I asked a man was it all finished. He said it was not, and +that, if anything, it was worse.</p> + +<p>On this day the rumours began, and I think it will be many a year before +the rumours cease. The <i>Irish Times</i> published an edition which +contained nothing but an official Proclamation that evily-disposed +persons had disturbed the peace, and that the situation was well in +hand. The news stated in three lines that there was a Sinn Fein rising +in Dublin, and that the rest of the country was quiet.</p> + +<p>No English or country papers came. There was no delivery or collection +of letters. All the shops in the City were shut. There was no traffic of +any kind in the streets. There was no way of gathering any kind of +information, and rumour gave all the news.</p> + +<p>It seemed that the Military and the Government had been taken unawares. +It was Bank Holiday, and many military officers had gone to the races, +or were away on leave, and prominent members of the Irish Government had +gone to England on Sunday.</p> + +<p>It appeared that everything claimed on the previous day was true, and +that the City of Dublin was entirely in the hands of the Volunteers. +They had taken and sacked Jacob's Biscuit Factory, and had converted it +into a fort which they held. They had the Post Office, and were building +baricades around it ten feet high of sandbags, cases, wire +entanglements. They had pushed out all the windows and sandbagged them +to half their height, while cart-loads of food, vegetables and +ammunition were going in continually. They had dug trenches and were +laying siege to one of the city barracks.</p> + +<p>It was current that intercourse between Germany and Ireland had been +frequent chiefly by means of submarines, which came up near the coast +and landed machine guns, rifles and ammunition. It was believed also +that the whole country had risen, and that many strong places and cities +were in the hands of the Volunteers. Cork Barracks was said to be taken +while the officers were away at the Curragh races, that the men without +officers were disorganised, and the place easily captured.</p> + +<p>It was said that Germans, thousands strong, had landed, and that many +Irish Americans with German officers had arrived also with full military +equipment.</p> + +<p>On the previous day the Volunteers had proclaimed the Irish Republic. +This ceremony was conducted from the Mansion House steps, and the +manifesto was said to have been read by Pearse, of St. Enda's. The +Republican and Volunteer flag was hoisted on the Mansion House. The +latter consisted of vertical colours of green, white and orange. Kerry +wireless station was reported captured, and news of the Republic flashed +abroad. These rumours were flying in the street.</p> + +<p>It was also reported that two transports had come in the night and had +landed from England about 8,000 soldiers. An attack reported on the +Post Office by a troop of lancers who were received with fire and +repulsed. It is foolish to send cavalry into street war.</p> + +<p>In connection with this lancer charge at the Post Office it is said that +the people, and especially the women, sided with the soldiers, and that +the Volunteers were assailed by these women with bricks, bottles, +sticks, to cries of:</p> + +<p>"Would you be hurting the poor men?"</p> + +<p>There were other angry ladies who threatened Volunteers, addressing to +them this petrifying query:</p> + +<p>"Would you be hurting the poor horses?"</p> + +<p>Indeed, the best people in the world live in Dublin.</p> + +<p>The lancers retreated to the bottom of Sackville Street, where they +remained for some time in the centre of a crowd who were carressing +their horses. It may have seemed to them a rather curious kind of +insurrection—that is, if they were strangers to Ireland.</p> + +<p>In the Post Office neighbourhood the Volunteers had some difficulty in +dealing with the people who surged about them while they were preparing +the barricade, and hindered them to some little extent. One of the +Volunteers was particularly noticeable. He held a lady's umbrella in his +hand, and whenever some person became particularly annoying he would +leap the barricade and chase his man half a street, hitting him over the +head with the umbrella. It was said that the wonder of the world was not +that Ireland was at war, but that after many hours the umbrella was +still unbroken. A Volunteer night attack on the Quays was spoken of, +whereat the military were said to have been taken by surprise and six +carts of their ammunition captured. This was probably untrue. Also, that +the Volunteers had blown up the Arsenal in the Phoenix Park.</p> + +<p>There had been looting in the night about Sackville Street, and it was +current that the Volunteers had shot twenty of the looters.</p> + +<p>The shops attacked were mainly haberdashers, shoe shops, and sweet +shops. Very many sweet shops were raided, and until the end of the +rising sweet shops were the favourite mark of the looters. There is +something comical in this looting of sweet shops—something almost +innocent and child-like. Possibly most of the looters are children who +are having the sole gorge of their lives. They have tasted sweetstuffs +they had never toothed before, and will never taste again in this life, +and until they die the insurrection of 1916 will have a sweet savour for +them.</p> + +<p>I went to the Green. At the corner of Merrion Row a horse was lying on +the footpath surrounded by blood. He bore two bullet wounds, but the +blood came from his throat which had been cut.</p> + +<p>Inside the Green railings four bodies could be seen lying on the ground. +They were dead Volunteers.</p> + +<p>The rain was falling now persistently, and persistently from the Green +and from the Shelbourne Hotel snipers were exchanging bullets. Some +distance beyond the Shelbourne I saw another Volunteer stretched out on +a seat just within the railings. He was not dead, for, now and again, +his hand moved feebly in a gesture for aid; the hand was completely red +with blood. His face could not be seen. He was just a limp mass, upon +which the rain beat pitilessly, and he was sodden and shapeless, and +most miserable to see. His companions could not draw him in for the +spot was covered by the snipers from the Shelbourne. Bystanders stated +that several attempts had already been made to rescue him, but that he +would have to remain there until the fall of night.</p> + +<p>From Trinity College windows and roof there was also sniping, but the +Shelbourne Hotel riflemen must have seriously troubled the Volunteers in +the Green.</p> + +<p>As I went back I stayed a while in front of the hotel to count the shots +that had struck the windows. There were fourteen shots through the +ground windows. The holes were clean through, each surrounded by a +star—the bullets went through but did not crack the glass. There were +three places in which the windows had holes half a foot to a foot wide +and high. Here many rifles must have fired at the one moment. It must +have been as awkward inside the Shelbourne Hotel as it was inside the +Green.</p> + +<p>A lady who lived in Baggot Street said she had been up all night, and, +with her neighbours, had supplied tea and bread to the soldiers who were +lining the street. The officer to whom she spoke had made two or three +attacks to draw fire and estimate the Volunteers' positions, numbers, +&c., and he told her that he considered there were 3,000 well-armed +Volunteers in the Green, and as he had only 1,000 soldiers, he could not +afford to deliver a real attack, and was merely containing them.</p> + +<p>Amiens Street station reported recaptured by the military; other +stations are said to be still in the Volunteers' possession.</p> + +<p>The story goes that about twelve o'clock on Monday an English officer +had marched into the Post Office and demanded two penny stamps from the +amazed Volunteers who were inside. He thought their uniforms were postal +uniforms. They brought him in, and he is probably still trying to get a +perspective on the occurrence. They had as prisoners in the Post Office +a certain number of soldiers, and rumour had it that these men +accommodated themselves quickly to duress, and were busily engaged +peeling potatoes for the meal which they would partake of later on with +the Volunteers.</p> + +<p>Earlier in the day I met a wild individual who spat rumour as though +his mouth were a machine gun or a linotype machine. He believed +everything he heard; and everything he heard became as by magic +favourable to his hopes, which were violently anti-English. One +unfavourable rumour was instantly crushed by him with three stories +which were favourable and triumphantly so. He said the Germans had +landed in three places. One of these landings alone consisted of fifteen +thousand men. The other landings probably beat that figure. The whole +City of Cork was in the hands of the Volunteers, and, to that extent, +might be said to be peaceful. German warships had defeated the English, +and their transports were speeding from every side. The whole country +was up, and the garrison was out-numbered by one hundred to one. These +Dublin barracks which had not been taken were now besieged and on the +point of surrender.</p> + +<p>I think this man created and winged every rumour that flew in Dublin, +and he was the sole individual whom I heard definitely taking a side. He +left me, and, looking back, I saw him pouring his news into the ear of a +gaping stranger whom he had arrested for the purpose. I almost went +back to hear would he tell the same tale or would he elaborate it into a +new thing, for I am interested in the art of story-telling.</p> + +<p>At eleven o'clock the rain ceased, and to it succeeded a beautiful +night, gusty with wind, and packed with sailing clouds and stars. We +were expecting visitors this night, but the sound of guns may have +warned most people away. Three only came, and with them we listened from +my window to the guns at the Green challenging and replying to each +other, and to where, further away, the Trinity snipers were crackling, +and beyond again to the sounds of war from Sackville Street. The firing +was fairly heavy, and often the short rattle of machine guns could be +heard.</p> + +<p>One of the stories told was that the Volunteers had taken the South +Dublin Union Workhouse, occupied it, and trenched the grounds. They were +heavily attacked by the military, who, at a loss of 150 men, took the +place. The tale went that towards the close the officer in command +offered them terms of surrender, but the Volunteers replied that they +were not there to surrender. They were there to be killed. The garrison +consisted of fifty men, and the story said that fifty men were killed.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_III'></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>WEDNESDAY</h3> + +<p>It was three o'clock before I got to sleep last night, and during the +hours machine guns and rifle firing had been continuous.</p> + +<p>This morning the sun is shining brilliantly, and the movement in the +streets possesses more of animation than it has done. The movement ends +always in a knot of people, and folk go from group to group vainly +seeking information, and quite content if the rumour they presently +gather differs even a little from the one they have just communicated.</p> + +<p>The first statement I heard was that the Green had been taken by the +military; the second that it had been re-taken; the third that it had +not been taken at all. The facts at last emerged that the Green had not +been occupied by the soldiers, but that the Volunteers had retreated +from it into a house which commanded it. This was found to be the +College of Surgeons, and from the windows and roof of this College they +were sniping. A machine gun was mounted on the roof; other machine guns, +however, opposed them from the roofs of the Shelbourne Hotel, the United +Service Club, and the Alexandra Club. Thus a triangular duel opened +between these positions across the trees of the Park.</p> + +<p>Through the railings of the Green some rifles and bandoliers could be +seen lying on the ground, as also the deserted trenches and snipers' +holes. Small boys bolted in to see these sights and bolted out again +with bullets quickening their feet. Small boys do not believe that +people will really kill them, but small boys were killed.</p> + +<p>The dead horse was still lying stiff and lamentable on the footpath.</p> + +<p>This morning a gunboat came up the Liffey and helped to bombard Liberty +Hall. The Hall is breeched and useless. Rumour says that it was empty at +the time, and that Connolly with his men had marched long before to the +Post Office and the Green. The same source of information relates that +three thousand Volunteers came from Belfast on an excursion train and +that they marched into the Post Office.</p> + +<p>On this day only one of my men came in. He said that he had gone on the +roof and had been shot at, consequently that the Volunteers held some of +the covering houses. I went to the roof and remained there for half an +hour. There were no shots, but the firing from the direction of +Sackville Street was continuous and at times exceedingly heavy.</p> + +<p>To-day the <i>Irish Times</i> was published. It contained a new military +proclamation, and a statement that the country was peaceful, and told +that in Sackville Street some houses were burned to the ground.</p> + +<p>On the outside railings a bill proclaiming Martial Law was posted.</p> + +<p>Into the newspaper statement that peace reigned in the country one was +inclined to read more of disquietude than of truth, and one said is the +country so extraordinarily peaceful that it can be dismissed in three +lines. There is too much peace or too much reticence, but it will be +some time before we hear from outside of Dublin.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the sun was shining. It was a delightful day, and the streets +outside and around the areas of fire were animated and even gay. In the +streets of Dublin there were no morose faces to be seen. Almost everyone +was smiling and attentive, and a democratic feeling was abroad, to which +our City is very much a stranger; for while in private we are a sociable +and talkative people we have no street manners or public ease whatever. +Every person spoke to every other person, and men and women mixed and +talked without constraint.</p> + +<p>Was the City for or against the Volunteers? Was it for the Volunteers, +and yet against the rising? It is considered now (writing a day or two +afterwards) that Dublin was entirely against the Volunteers, but on the +day of which I write no such certainty could be put forward. There was a +singular reticence on the subject. Men met and talked volubly, but they +said nothing that indicated a personal desire or belief. They asked for +and exchanged the latest news, or, rather, rumour, and while expressions +were frequent of astonishment at the suddenness and completeness of the +occurrence, no expression of opinion for or against was anywhere +formulated.</p> + +<p>Sometimes a man said, "They will be beaten of course," and, as he +prophesied, the neighbour might surmise if he did so with a sad heart or +a merry one, but they knew nothing and asked nothing of his views, and +themselves advanced no flag.</p> + +<p>This was among the men.</p> + +<p>The women were less guarded, or, perhaps, knew they had less to fear. +Most of the female opinion I heard was not alone unfavourable but +actively and viciously hostile to the rising. This was noticeable among +the best dressed class of our population; the worst dressed, indeed the +female dregs of Dublin life, expressed a like antagonism, and almost in +similar language. The view expressed was—</p> + +<p>"I hope every man of them will be shot."</p> + +<p>And—</p> + +<p>"They ought to be all shot."</p> + +<p>Shooting, indeed, was proceeding everywhere. During daylight, at least, +the sound is not sinister nor depressing, and the thought that perhaps a +life had exploded with that crack is not depressing either.</p> + +<p>In the last two years of world-war our ideas on death have undergone a +change. It is not now the furtive thing that crawled into your bed and +which you fought with pill-boxes and medicine bottles. It has become +again a rider of the wind whom you may go coursing with through the +fields and open places. All the morbidity is gone, and the sickness, and +what remains to Death is now health and excitement. So Dublin laughed at +the noise of its own bombardment, and made no moan about its dead—in +the sunlight. Afterwards—in the rooms, when the night fell, and instead +of silence that mechanical barking of the maxims and the whistle and +screams of the rifles, the solemn roar of the heavier guns, and the red +glare covering the sky. It is possible that in the night Dublin did not +laugh, and that she was gay in the sunlight for no other reason than +that the night was past.</p> + +<p>On this day fighting was incessant at Mount Street Bridge. A party of +Volunteers had seized three houses covering the bridge and converted +these into forts. It is reported that military casualties at this point +were very heavy. The Volunteers are said also to hold the South Dublin +Union. The soldiers have seized Guinness's Brewery, while their +opponents have seized another brewery in the neighbourhood, and between +these two there is a continual fusilade.</p> + +<p>Fighting is brisk about Ringsend and along the Canal. Dame Street was +said to be held in many places by the Volunteers. I went down Dame +Street, but saw no Volunteers, and did not observe any sniping from the +houses. Further, as Dame Street is entirely commanded by the roofs and +windows of Trinity College, it is unlikely that they should be here.</p> + +<p>It was curious to observe this, at other times, so animated street, +broad and deserted, with at the corners of side streets small knots of +people watching. Seen from behind, Grattan's Statue in College Green +seemed almost alive, and he had the air of addressing warnings and +reproaches to Trinity College.</p> + +<p>The Proclamation issued to-day warns all people to remain within doors +until five o'clock in the morning, and after seven o'clock at night.</p> + +<p>It is still early. There is no news of any kind, and the rumours begin +to catch quickly on each other and to cancel one another out. Dublin is +entirely cut off from England, and from the outside world. It is, just +as entirely cut off from the rest of Ireland; no news of any kind +filters in to us. We are land-locked and sea-locked, but, as yet, it +does not much matter.</p> + +<p>Meantime the belief grows that the Volunteers may be able to hold out +much longer than had been imagined. The idea at first among the people +had been that the insurrection would be ended the morning after it had +began. But to-day, the insurrection having lasted three days, people are +ready to conceive that it may last for ever. There is almost a feeling +of gratitude towards the Volunteers because they are holding out for a +little while, for had they been beaten the first or second day the City +would have been humiliated to the soul.</p> + +<p>People say: "Of course, they will be beaten." The statement is almost a +query, and they continue, "but they are putting up a decent fight." For +being beaten does not greatly matter in Ireland, but not fighting does +matter. "They went forth always to the battle; and they always fell," +Indeed, the history of the Irish race is in that phrase.</p> + +<p>The firing from the roofs of Trinity College became violent. I crossed +Dame Street some distance up, struck down the Quays, and went along +these until I reached the Ballast Office. Further than this it was not +possible to go, for a step beyond the Ballast Office would have brought +one into the unending stream of lead that was pouring from Trinity and +other places. I was looking on O'Connell Bridge and Sackville Street, +and the house facing me was Kelly's—a red-brick fishing tackle shop, +one half of which was on the Quay and the other half in Sackville +Street. This house was being bombarded.</p> + +<p>I counted the report of six different machine guns which played on it. +Rifles innumerable and from every sort of place were potting its +windows, and at intervals of about half a minute the shells from a heavy +gun lobbed in through its windows or thumped mightily against its walls.</p> + +<p>For three hours that bombardment continued, and the walls stood in a +cloud of red dust and smoke. Rifle and machine gun bullets pattered over +every inch of it, and, unfailingly the heavy gun pounded its shells +through the windows.</p> + +<p>One's heart melted at the idea that human beings were crouching inside +that volcano of death, and I said to myself, "Not even a fly can be +alive in that house."</p> + +<p>No head showed at any window, no rifle cracked from window or roof in +reply. The house was dumb, lifeless, and I thought every one of those +men are dead.</p> + +<p>It was then, and quite suddenly, that the possibilities of street +fighting flashed on me, and I knew there was no person in the house, and +said to myself, "They have smashed through the walls with a hatchet and +are sitting in the next house, or they have long ago climbed out by the +skylight and are on a roof half a block away." Then the thought came to +me—they have and hold the entire of Sackville Street down to the Post +Office. Later on this proved to be the case, and I knew at this moment +that Sackville Street was doomed.</p> + +<p>I continued to watch the bombardment, but no longer with the anguish +which had before torn me. Near by there were four men, and a few yards +away, clustered in a laneway, there were a dozen others. An agitated +girl was striding from the farther group to the one in which I was, and +she addressed the men in the most obscene language which I have ever +heard. She addressed them man by man, and she continued to speak and cry +and scream at them with all that obstinate, angry patience of which only +a woman is capable.</p> + +<p>She cursed us all. She called down diseases on every human being in the +world excepting only the men who were being bombarded. She demanded of +the folk in the laneway that they should march at least into the roadway +and prove that they were proud men and were not afraid of bullets. She +had been herself into the danger zone. Had stood herself in the track of +the guns, and had there cursed her fill for half an hour, and she +desired that the men should do at least what she had done.</p> + +<p>This girl was quite young—about nineteen years of age—and was dressed +in the customary shawl and apron of her class. Her face was rather +pretty, or it had that pretty slenderness and softness of outline which +belong to youth. But every sentence she spoke contained half a dozen +indecent words. Alas, it was only that her vocabulary was not equal to +her emotions, and she did not know how to be emphatic without being +obscene—it is the cause of most of the meaningless swearing one hears +every day. She spoke to me for a minute, and her eyes were as soft as +those of a kitten and her language was as gentle as her eyes. She wanted +a match to light a cigarette, but I had none, and said that I also +wanted one. In a few minutes she brought me a match, and then she +recommenced her tireless weaving of six vile words into hundreds of +stupid sentences.</p> + +<p>About five o'clock the guns eased off of Kelly's.</p> + +<p>To inexperienced eyes they did not seem to have done very much damage, +but afterwards one found that although the walls were standing and +apparently solid there was no inside to the house. From roof to basement +the building was bare as a dog kennel. There were no floors inside, +there was nothing there but blank space; and on the ground within was +the tumble and rubbish that had been roof and floors and furniture. +Everything inside was smashed and pulverised into scrap and dust, and +the only objects that had consistency and their ancient shape were the +bricks that fell when the shells struck them.</p> + +<p>Rifle shots had begun to strike the house on the further side of the +street, a jewellers' shop called Hopkins & Hopkins. The impact of these +balls on the bricks was louder than the sound of the shot which +immediately succeeded, and each bullet that struck brought down a shower +of fine red dust from the walls. Perhaps thirty or forty shots in all +were fired at Hopkins', and then, except for an odd crack, firing +ceased.</p> + +<p>During all this time there had been no reply from the Volunteers, and I +thought they must be husbanding their ammunition, and so must be short +of it, and that it would be only a matter of a few days before the end. +All this, I said to myself, will be finished in a few days, and they +will be finished; life here will recommence exactly where it left off, +and except for some newly-filled graves, all will be as it had been +until they become a tradition and enter the imagination of their race.</p> + +<p>I spoke to several of the people about me, and found the same +willingness to exchange news that I had found elsewhere in the City, and +the same reticences as regarded their private opinions. Two of them, +indeed, and they were the only two I met with during the insurrection, +expressed, although in measured terms, admiration for the Volunteers, +and while they did not side with them they did not say anything against +them. One was a labouring man, the other a gentleman. The remark of the +latter was:</p> + +<p>"I am an Irishman, and (pointing to the shells that were bursting +through the windows in front of us) I hate to see that being done to +other Irishmen."</p> + +<p>He had come from some part of the country to spend the Easter Holidays +in Dublin, and was unable to leave town again.</p> + +<p>The labouring man—he was about fifty-six years of age—spoke very +quietly and collectedly about the insurrection. He was a type with whom +I had come very little in contact, and I was surprised to find how +simple and good his speech was, and how calm his ideas. He thought +labour was in this movement to a greater extent than was imagined. I +mentioned that Liberty Hall had been blown up, and that the garrison had +either surrendered or been killed. He replied that a gunboat had that +morning come up the river and had blown Liberty Hall into smash, but, he +added, there were no men in it. All the Labour Volunteers had marched +with Connolly into the Post Office.</p> + +<p>He said the Labour Volunteers might possibly number about one thousand +men, but that it would be quite safe to say eight hundred, and he held +that the Labour Volunteers, or the Citizens' Army, as they called +themselves, had always been careful not to reveal their numbers. They +had always announced that they possessed about two hundred and fifty +men, and had never paraded any more than that number at any one time. +Workingmen, he continued, knew that the men who marched were always +different men. The police knew it, too, but they thought that the +Citizens Army was the <i>most deserted-from force</i> in the world.</p> + +<p>The men, however, were not deserters—you don't, he said, desert a man +like Connolly, and they were merely taking their turn at being drilled +and disciplined. They were raised against the police who, in the big +strike of two years ago, had acted towards them with unparallelled +savagery, and the men had determined that the police would never again +find them thus disorganised.</p> + +<p>This man believed that every member of the Citizen Army had marched with +their leader.</p> + +<p>"The men, I know," said he, "would not be afraid of anything, and," he +continued, "they are in the Post Office now."</p> + +<p>"What chance have they?"</p> + +<p>"None," he replied, "and they never said they had, and they never +thought they would have any."</p> + +<p>"How long do you think they'll be able to hold out?"</p> + +<p>He nodded towards the house that had been bombarded by heavy guns.</p> + +<p>"That will root them out of it quick enough," was his reply.</p> + +<p>"I'm going home," said he then, "the people will be wondering if I'm +dead or alive," and he walked away from that sad street, as I did myself +a few minutes afterwards.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_IV'></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THURSDAY</h3> + +<p>Again, the rumours greeted one. This place had fallen and had not +fallen. Such a position had been captured by the soldiers; recaptured by +the Volunteers, and had not been attacked at all. But certainly fighting +was proceeding. Up Mount Street, the rifle volleys were continuous, and +the coming and going of ambulance cars from that direction were +continuous also. Some spoke of pitched battles on the bridge, and said +that as yet the advantage lay with the Volunteers.</p> + +<p>At 11.30 there came the sound of heavy guns firing in the direction of +Sackville Street. I went on the roof, and remained there for some time. +From this height the sounds could be heard plainly. There was sustained +firing along the whole central line of the City, from the Green down to +Trinity College, and from thence to Sackville Street, and the report of +the various types of arm could be easily distinguished. There were +rifles, machine guns and very heavy cannon. There was another sound +which I could not put a name to, something that coughed out over all the +other sounds, a short, sharp bark, or rather a short noise something +like the popping of a tremendous cork.</p> + +<p>I met D.H. His chief emotion is one of astonishment at the organizing +powers displayed by the Volunteers. We have exchanged rumours, and found +that our equipment in this direction is almost identical. He says Sheehy +Skeffington has been killed. That he was arrested in a house wherein +arms were found, and was shot out of hand.</p> + +<p>I hope this is another rumour, for, so far as my knowledge of him goes, +he was not with the Volunteers, and it is said that he was antagonistic +to the forcible methods for which the Volunteers stood. But the tale of +his death is so persistent that one is inclined to believe it.</p> + +<p>He was the most absurdly courageous man I have ever met with or heard +of. He has been in every trouble that has touched Ireland these ten +years back, and he has always been in on the generous side, therefore, +and naturally, on the side that was unpopular and weak. It would seem +indeed that a cause had only to be weak to gain his sympathy, and his +sympathy never stayed at home. There are so many good people who +"sympathise" with this or that cause, and, having given that measure of +their emotion, they give no more of it or of anything else. But he +rushed instantly to the street. A large stone, the lift of a footpath, +the base of a statue, any place and every place was for him a pulpit; +and, in the teeth of whatever oppression or disaster or power, he said +his say.</p> + +<p>There are multitudes of men in Dublin of all classes and creeds who can +boast that they kicked Sheehy Skeffington, or that they struck him on +the head with walking sticks and umbrellas, or that they smashed their +fists into his face, and jumped on him when he fell. It is by no means +an exaggeration to say that these things were done to him, and it is +true that he bore ill-will to no man, and that he accepted blows, and +indignities and ridicule with the pathetic candour of a child who is +disguised as a man, and whose disguise cannot come off. His tongue, his +pen, his body, all that he had and hoped for were at the immediate +service of whoever was bewildered or oppressed. He has been shot. Other +men have been shot, but they faced the guns knowing that they faced +justice, however stern and oppressive; and that what they had engaged to +confront was before them. He had no such thought to soothe from his mind +anger or unforgiveness. He who was a pacifist was compelled to revolt to +his last breath, and on the instruments of his end he must have looked +as on murderers. I am sure that to the end he railed against oppression, +and that he fell marvelling that the world can truly be as it is. With +his death there passed away a brave man and a clean soul.</p> + +<p>Later on this day I met Mrs. Sheehy Skeffington in the street. She +confirmed the rumour that her husband had been arrested on the previous +day, but further than that she had no news. So far as I know the sole +crime of which her husband had been guilty was that he called for a +meeting of the citizens to enrol special constables and prevent looting.</p> + +<p>Among the rumours it was stated with every accent of certitude that +Madame Markievicz had been captured in George's Street, and taken to the +Castle. It was also current that Sir Roger Casement had been captured at +sea and had already been shot in the Tower of London. The names of +several Volunteer Leaders are mentioned as being dead. But the surmise +that steals timidly from one mouth flies boldly as a certitude from +every mouth that repeats it, and truth itself would now be listened to +with only a gossip's ear, but no person would believe a word of it.</p> + +<p>This night also was calm and beautiful, but this night was the most +sinister and woeful of those that have passed. The sound of artillery, +of rifles, machine guns, grenades, did not cease even for a moment. From +my window I saw a red flare that crept to the sky, and stole over it and +remained there glaring; the smoke reached from the ground to the clouds, +and I could see great red sparks go soaring to enormous heights; while +always, in the calm air, hour after hour there was the buzzing and +rattling and thudding of guns, and, but for the guns, silence.</p> + +<p>It is in a dead silence this Insurrection is being fought, and one +imagines what must be the feeling of these men, young for the most part, +and unused to violence, who are submitting silently to the crash and +flame and explosion by which they are surrounded.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_V'></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>FRIDAY</h3> + +<p>This morning there are no newspapers, no bread, no milk, no news. The +sun is shining, and the streets are lively but discreet. All people +continue to talk to one another without distinction of class, but nobody +knows what any person thinks.</p> + +<p>It is a little singular the number of people who are smiling. I fancy +they were listening to the guns last night, and they are smiling this +morning because the darkness is past, and because the sun is shining, +and because they can move their limbs in space, and may talk without +having to sink their voices to a whisper. Guns do not sound so bad in +the day as they do at night, and no person can feel lonely while the sun +shines.</p> + +<p>The men are smiling, but the women laugh, and their laughter does not +displease, for whatever women do in whatever circumstances appears to +have a rightness of its own. It seems right that they should scream +when danger to themselves is imminent, and it seems right that they +should laugh when the danger only threatens others.</p> + +<p>It is rumoured this morning that Sackville Street has been burned out +and levelled to the ground. It is said that the end is in sight; and, it +is said, that matters are, if anything rather worse than better. That +the Volunteers have sallied from some of their strongholds and +entrenched themselves, and that in one place alone (the South Lotts) +they have seven machine guns. That when the houses which they held +became untenable they rushed out and seized other houses, and that, +pursuing these tactics, there seemed no reason to believe that the +Insurrection would ever come to an end. That the streets are filled with +Volunteers in plain clothes, but having revolvers in their pockets. That +the streets are filled with soldiers equally revolvered and plain +clothed, and that the least one says on any subject the less one would +have to answer for.</p> + +<p>The feeling that I tapped was definitely Anti-Volunteer, but the number +of people who would speak was few, and one regarded the noncommital +folk who were so smiling and polite, and so prepared to talk, with much +curiosity, seeking to read in their eyes, in their bearing, even in the +cut of their clothes what might be the secret movements and cogitations +of their minds.</p> + +<p>I received the impression that numbers of them did not care a rap what +way it went; and that others had ceased to be mental creatures and were +merely machines for registering the sensations of the time.</p> + +<p>None of these people were prepared for Insurrection. The thing had been +sprung on them so suddenly that they were unable to take sides, and +their feeling of detachment was still so complete that they would have +betted on the business as if it had been a horse race or a dog fight.</p> + +<p>Many English troops have been landed each night, and it is believed that +there are more than sixty thousand soldiers in Dublin alone, and that +they are supplied with every offensive contrivance which military art +has invented.</p> + +<p>Merrion Square is strongly held by the soldiers. They are posted along +both sides of the road at intervals of about twenty paces, and their +guns are continually barking up at the roofs which surround them in the +great square. It is said that these roofs are held by the Volunteers +from Mount Street Bridge to the Square, and that they hold in like +manner wide stretches of the City.</p> + +<p>They appear to have mapped out the roofs with all the thoroughness that +had hitherto been expended on the roads, and upon these roofs they are +so mobile and crafty and so much at home that the work of the soldiers +will be exceedingly difficult as well as dangerous.</p> + +<p>Still, and notwithstanding, men can only take to the roofs for a short +time. Up there, there can be no means of transport, and their +ammunition, as well as their food, will very soon be used up. It is the +beginning of the end, and the fact that they have to take to the roofs, +even though that be in their programme, means that they are finished.</p> + +<p>From the roof there comes the sound of machine guns. Looking towards +Sackville Street one picks out easily Nelson's Pillar, which towers +slenderly over all the buildings of the neighbourhood. It is wreathed in +smoke. Another towering building was the D.B.C. Café. Its Chinese-like +pagoda was a landmark easily to be found, but to-day I could not find +it. It was not there, and I knew that, even if all Sackville Street was +not burned down, as rumour insisted, this great Café had certainly been +curtailed by its roof and might, perhaps, have been completely burned.</p> + +<p>On the gravel paths I found pieces of charred and burnt paper. These +scraps must have been blown remarkably high to have crossed all the +roofs that lie between Sackville Street and Merrion Square.</p> + +<p>At eleven o'clock there is continuous firing, and snipers firing from +the direction of Mount Street, and in every direction of the City these +sounds are being duplicated.</p> + +<p>In Camden Street the sniping and casualties are said to have been very +heavy. One man saw two Volunteers taken from a house by the soldiers. +They were placed kneeling in the centre of the road, and within one +minute of their capture they were dead. Simultaneously there fell +several of the firing party.</p> + +<p>An officer in this part had his brains blown into the roadway. A young +girl ran into the road picked up his cap and scraped the brains into it. +She covered this poor debris with a little straw, and carried the hat +piously to the nearest hospital in order that the brains might be buried +with their owner.</p> + +<p>The continuation of her story was less gloomy although it affected the +teller equally.</p> + +<p>"There is not," said she, "a cat or a dog left alive in Camden Street. +They are lying stiff out in the road and up on the roofs. There's lots +of women will be sorry for this war," said she, "and their pets killed +on them."</p> + +<p>In many parts of the City hunger began to be troublesome. A girl told me +that her family, and another that had taken refuge with them, had eaten +nothing for three days. On this day her father managed to get two loaves +of bread somewhere, and he brought these home.</p> + +<p>"When," said the girl, "my father came in with the bread the whole +fourteen of us ran at him, and in a minute we were all ashamed for the +loaves were gone to the last crumb, and we were all as hungry as we had +been before he came in. The poor man," said she, "did not even get a bit +for himself." She held that the poor people were against the Volunteers.</p> + +<p>The Volunteers still hold Jacob's Biscuit Factory. It is rumoured that a +priest visited them and counselled surrender, and they replied that they +did not go there to surrender but to be killed. They asked him to give +them absolution, and the story continues that he refused to do so—but +this is not (in its latter part) a story that can easily be credited. +The Adelaide Hospital is close to this factory, and it is possible that +the proximity of the hospital, delays or hinders military operations +against the factory.</p> + +<p>Rifle volleys are continuous about Merrion Square, and prolonged machine +gun firing can be heard also.</p> + +<p>During the night the firing was heavy from almost every direction; and +in the direction of Sackville Street a red glare told again of fire.</p> + +<p>It is hard to get to bed these nights. It is hard even to sit down, for +the moment one does sit down one stands immediately up again resuming +that ridiculous ship's march from the window to the wall and back. I am +foot weary as I have never been before in my life, but I cannot say that +I am excited. No person in Dublin is excited, but there exists a state +of tension and expectancy which is mentally more exasperating than any +excitement could be. The absence of news is largely responsible for +this. We do not know what has happened, what is happening, or what is +going to happen, and the reversion to barbarism (for barbarism is +largely a lack of news) disturbs us.</p> + +<p>Each night we have got to bed at last murmuring, "I wonder will it be +all over to-morrow," and this night the like question accompanied us.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_VI'></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>SATURDAY</h3> + +<p>This morning also there has been no bread, no milk, no meat, no +newspapers, but the sun is shining. It is astonishing that, thus early +in the Spring, the weather should be so beautiful.</p> + +<p>It is stated freely that the Post Office has been taken, and just as +freely it is averred that it has not been taken. The approaches to +Merrion Square are held by the military, and I was not permitted to go +to my office. As I came to this point shots were fired at a motor car +which had not stopped on being challenged. Bystanders said it was Sir +Horace Plunkett's car, and that he had been shot. Later we found that +Sir Horace was not hurt, but that his nephew who drove the car had been +severely wounded.</p> + +<p>At this hour the rumour of the fall of Verdun was persistent. Later on +it was denied, as was denied the companion rumour of the relief of Kut. +Saw R. who had spent three days and the whole of his money in getting +home from County Clare. He had heard that Mrs. Sheehy Skeffington's +house was raided, and that two dead bodies had been taken out of it. Saw +Miss P. who seemed sad. I do not know what her politics are, but I think +that the word "kindness" might be used to cover all her activities. She +has a heart of gold, and the courage of many lions. I then met Mr. +Commissioner Bailey who said the Volunteers had sent a deputation, and +that terms of surrender were being discussed. I hope this is true, and I +hope mercy will be shown to the men. Nobody believes there will be any +mercy shown, and it is freely reported that they are shot in the street, +or are taken to the nearest barracks and shot there. The belief grows +that no person who is now in the Insurrection will be alive when the +Insurrection is ended.</p> + +<p>That is as it will be. But these days the thought of death does not +strike on the mind with any severity, and, should the European war +continue much longer, the fear of death will entirely depart from man, +as it has departed many times in history. With that great deterrent +gone our rulers will be gravely at a loss in dealing with strikers and +other such discontented people. Possibly they will have to resurrect the +long-buried idea of torture.</p> + +<p>The people in the streets are laughing and chatting. Indeed, there is +gaiety in the air as well as sunshine, and no person seems to care that +men are being shot every other minute, or bayoneted, or blown into +scraps or burned into cinders. These things are happening, nevertheless, +but much of their importance has vanished.</p> + +<p>I met a man at the Green who was drawing a plan on the back of an +envelope. The problem was how his questioner was to get from where he +was standing to a street lying at the other side of the river, and the +plan as drawn insisted that to cover this quarter of an hour's distance +he must set out on a pilgrimage of more than twenty miles. Another young +boy was standing near embracing a large ham. He had been trying for +three days to convey his ham to a house near the Gresham Hotel where his +sister lived. He had almost given up hope, and he hearkened +intelligently to the idea that he should himself eat the ham and so get +rid of it.</p> + +<p>The rifle fire was persistent all day, but, saving in certain +localities, it was not heavy. Occasionally the machine guns rapped in. +There was no sound of heavy artillery.</p> + +<p>The rumour grows that the Post Office has been evacuated, and that the +Volunteers are at large and spreading everywhere across the roofs. The +rumour grows also that terms of surrender are being discussed, and that +Sackville Street has been levelled to the ground.</p> + +<p>At half-past seven in the evening calm is almost complete. The sound of +a rifle shot being only heard at long intervals.</p> + +<p>I got to bed this night earlier than usual. At two o'clock I left the +window from which a red flare is yet visible in the direction of +Sackville Street. The morning will tell if the Insurrection is finished +or not, but at this hour all is not over. Shots are ringing all around +and down my street, and the vicious crackling of these rifles grow at +times into regular volleys.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_VII'></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>SUNDAY</h3> + +<p>The Insurrection has not ceased.</p> + +<p>There is much rifle fire, but no sound from the machine guns or the +eighteen pounders and trench mortars.</p> + +<p>From the window of my kitchen the flag of the Republic can be seen +flying afar. This is the flag that flies over Jacob's Biscuit Factory, +and I will know that the Insurrection has ended as soon as I see this +flag pulled down.</p> + +<p>When I went out there were few people in the streets. I met D.H., and, +together, we passed up the Green. The Republican flag was still flying +over the College of Surgeons. We tried to get down Grafton Street (where +broken windows and two gaping interiors told of the recent visit of +looters), but a little down this street we were waved back by armed +sentries. We then cut away by the Gaiety Theatre into Mercer's Street, +where immense lines of poor people were drawn up waiting for the +opening of the local bakery. We got into George's Street, thinking to +turn down Dame Street and get from thence near enough to Sackville +Street to see if the rumours about its destruction were true, but here +also we were halted by the military, and had to retrace our steps.</p> + +<p>There was no news of any kind to be gathered from the people we talked +to, nor had they even any rumours.</p> + +<p>This was the first day I had been able to get even a short distance +outside of my own quarter, and it seemed that the people of my quarter +were more able in the manufacture of news or more imaginative than were +the people who live in other parts of the city. We had no sooner struck +into home parts than we found news. We were told that two of the +Volunteer leaders had been shot. These were Pearse and Connolly. The +latter was reported as lying in the Castle Hospital with a fractured +thigh. Pearse was cited as dead with two hundred of his men, following +their sally from the Post Office. The machine guns had caught them as +they left, and none of them remained alive. The news seemed afterwards +to be true except that instead of Pearse it was The O'Rahilly who had +been killed. Pearse died later and with less excitement.</p> + +<p>A man who had seen an English newspaper said that the Kut force had +surrendered to the Turk, but that Verdun had not fallen to the Germans. +The rumour was current also that a great naval battle had been fought +whereat the German fleet had been totally destroyed with loss to the +English of eighteen warships. It was said that among the captured +Volunteers there had been a large body of Germans, but nobody believed +it; and this rumour was inevitably followed by the tale that there were +one hundred German submarines lying in the Stephen's Green pond.</p> + +<p>At half-past two I met Mr. Commissioner Bailey, who told me that it was +all over, and that the Volunteers were surrendering everywhere in the +city. A motor car with two military officers, and two Volunteer leaders +had driven to the College of Surgeons and been admitted. After a short +interval Madame Marckievicz marched out of the College at the head of +about 100 men, and they had given up their arms; the motor car with the +Volunteer leaders was driving to other strongholds, and it was expected +that before nightfall the capitulations would be complete.</p> + +<p>I started home, and on the way I met a man whom I had encountered some +days previously, and from whom rumours had sprung as though he wove them +from his entrails, as a spider weaves his web. He was no less provided +on this occasion, and it was curious to listen to his tale of English +defeats on every front. He announced the invasion of England in six +different quarters, the total destruction of the English fleet, and the +landing of immense German armies on the West coast of Ireland. He made +these things up in his head. Then he repeated them to himself in a loud +voice, and became somehow persuaded that they had been told to him by a +well-informed stranger, and then he believed them and told them to +everybody he met. Amongst other things Spain had declared war on our +behalf, the Chilian Navy was hastening to our relief. For a pin he +would have sent France flying westward all forgetful of her own war. A +singular man truly, and as I do think the only thoroughly happy person +in our city.</p> + +<p>It is half-past three o'clock, and from my window the Republican flag +can still be seen flying over Jacob's factory. There is occasional +shooting, but the city as a whole is quiet. At a quarter to five o'clock +a heavy gun boomed once. Ten minutes later there was heavy machine gun +firing and much rifle shooting. In another ten minutes the flag at +Jacob's was hauled down.</p> + +<p>During the remainder of the night sniping and military replies were +incessant, particularly in my street.</p> + +<p>The raids have begun in private houses. Count Plunkett's house was +entered by the military who remained there for a very long time. Passing +home about two minutes after Proclamation hour I was pursued for the +whole of Fitzwilliam Square by bullets. They buzzed into the roadway +beside me, and the sound as they whistled near was curious. The sound is +something like that made by a very swift saw, and one gets the +impression that as well as being very swift they are very heavy.</p> + +<p>Snipers are undoubtedly on the roofs opposite my house, and they are not +asleep on these roofs. Possibly it is difficult to communicate with +these isolated bands the news of their companions' surrender, but it is +likely they will learn, by the diminution of fire in other quarters that +their work is over.</p> + +<p>In the morning on looking from my window I saw four policemen marching +into the street. They were the first I had seen for a week. Soon now the +military tale will finish, the police story will commence, the political +story will recommence, and, perhaps, the weeks that follow this one will +sow the seed of more hatred than so many centuries will be able to +uproot again, for although Irish people do not greatly fear the military +they fear the police, and they have very good reason to do so.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_VIII'></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>THE INSURRECTION IS OVER</h3> + + +<p>The Insurrection is over, and it is worth asking what has happened, how +it has happened, and why it happened?</p> + +<p>The first question is easily answered. The finest part of our city has +been blown to smithereens, and burned into ashes. Soldiers amongst us +who have served abroad say that the ruin of this quarter is more +complete than any thing they have seen at Ypres, than anything they have +seen anywhere in France or Flanders. A great number of our men and women +and children, Volunteers and civilians confounded alike, are dead, and +some fifty thousand men who have been moved with military equipment to +our land are now being removed therefrom. The English nation has been +disorganised no more than as they were affected by the transport of +these men and material. That is what happened, and it is all that +happened.</p> + +<p>How it happened is another matter, and one which, perhaps, will not be +made clear for years. All we know in Dublin is that our city burst into +a kind of spontaneous war; that we lived through it during one singular +week, and that it faded away and disappeared almost as swiftly as it had +come. The men who knew about it are, with two exceptions, dead, and +these two exceptions are in gaol, and likely to remain there long +enough. (Since writing one of these men has been shot.)</p> + +<p>Why it happened is a question that may be answered more particularly. It +happened because the leader of the Irish Party misrepresented his people +in the English House of Parliament. On the day of the declaration of war +between England and Germany he took the Irish case, weighty with eight +centuries of history and tradition, and he threw it out of the window. +He pledged Ireland to a particular course of action, and he had no +authority to give this pledge and he had no guarantee that it would be +met. The ramshackle intelligence of his party and his own emotional +nature betrayed him and us and England. He swore Ireland to loyalty as +if he had Ireland in his pocket, and could answer for her. Ireland has +never been disloyal to England, not even at this epoch, because she has +never been loyal to England, and the profession of her National faith +has been unwavering, has been known to every English person alive, and +has been clamant to all the world beside.</p> + +<p>Is it that he wanted to be cheered? He could very easily have stated +Ireland's case truthfully, and have proclaimed a benevolent neutrality +(if he cared to use the grandiloquent words) on the part of this +country. He would have gotten his cheers, he would in a few months have +gotten Home Rule in return for Irish soldiers. He would have received +politically whatever England could have safely given him. But, alas, +these carefulnesses did not chime with his emotional moment. They were +not magnificent enough for one who felt that he was talking not to +Ireland or to England, but to the whole gaping and eager earth, and so +he pledged his country's credit so deeply that he did not leave her even +one National rag to cover herself with.</p> + +<p>After a lie truth bursts out, and it is no longer the radiant and +serene goddess knew or hoped for—it is a disease, it is a moral +syphilis and will ravage until the body in which it can dwell has been +purged. Mr. Redmond told the lie and he is answerable to England for the +violence she had to be guilty of, and to Ireland for the desolation to +which we have had to submit. Without his lie there had been no +Insurrection; without it there had been at this moment, and for a year +past, an end to the "Irish question." Ireland must in ages gone have +been guilty of abominable crimes or she could not at this juncture have +been afflicted with a John Redmond.</p> + +<p>He is the immediate cause of this our latest Insurrection—the word is +big, much too big for the deed, and we should call it row, or riot, or +squabble, in order to draw the fact down to its dimensions, but the +ultimate blame for the trouble between the two countries does not fall +against Ireland.</p> + +<p>The fault lies with England, and in these days while an effort is being +made (interrupted, it is true, by cannon) to found a better +understanding between the two nations it is well that England should +recognize what she has done to Ireland, and should try at least to +atone for it. The situation can be explained almost in a phrase. We are +a little country and you, a huge country, have persistently beaten us. +We are a poor country and you, the richest country in the world, have +persistently robbed us. That is the historical fact, and whatever +national or political necessities are opposed in reply, it is true that +you have never given Ireland any reason to love you, and you cannot +claim her affection without hypocrisy or stupidity.</p> + +<p>You think our people can only be tenacious in hate—it is a lie. Our +historical memory is truly tenacious, but during the long and miserable +tale of our relations you have never given us one generosity to remember +you by, and you must not claim our affection or our devotion until you +are worthy of them. We are a good people; almost we are the only +Christian people left in the world, nor has any nation shown such +forbearance towards their persecutor as we have always shown to you. No +nation has forgiven its enemies as we have forgiven you, time after time +down the miserable generations, the continuity of forgiveness only +equalled by the continuity of your ill-treatment. Between our two +countries you have kept and protected a screen of traders and +politicians who are just as truly your enemies as they are ours. In the +end they will do most harm to you for we are by this vaccinated against +misery but you are not, and the "loyalists" who sell their own country +for a shilling will sell another country for a penny when the +opportunity comes and safety with it.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile do not always hasten your presents to us out of a gun. You +have done it so often that your guns begin to bore us, and you have now +an opportunity which may never occur again to make us your friends. +There is no bitterness in Ireland against you on account of this war, +and the lack of ill-feeling amongst us is entirely due to the more than +admirable behaviour of the soldiers whom you sent over here. A peace +that will last for ever can be made with Ireland if you wish to make it, +but you must take her hand at once, for in a few months' time she will +not open it to you; the old, bad relations will re-commence, the rancor +will be born and grow, and another memory will be stored away in +Ireland's capacious and retentive brain.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_IX'></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>THE VOLUNTEERS</h3> + + +<p>There is much talk of the extraordinary organising powers displayed in +the insurrection, but in truth there was nothing extraordinary in it. +The real essence and singularity of the rising exists in its simplicity, +and, saving for the courage which carried it out, the word extraordinary +is misplaced in this context.</p> + +<p>The tactics of the Volunteers as they began to emerge were reduced to +the very skeleton of "strategy." It was only that they seized certain +central and stragetical districts, garrisoned those and held them until +they were put out of them. Once in their forts there was no further +egress by the doors, and for purpose of entry and sortie they used the +skylights and the roofs. On the roofs they had plenty of cover, and this +cover conferred on them a mobility which was their chief asset, and +which alone enabled them to protract the rebellion beyond the first day.</p> + +<p>This was the entire of their home plan, and there is no doubt that they +had studied Dublin roofs and means of inter-communication by roofs with +the closest care. Further than that I do not think they had organised +anything. But this was only the primary plan, and, unless they were +entirely mad, there must have been a sequel to it which did not +materialise, and which would have materialised but that the English +Fleet blocked the way.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt that they expected the country to rise with them, and +they must have known what their own numbers were, and what chance they +had of making a protracted resistance. The word "resistance" is the +keyword of the rising, and the plan of holding out must have been +rounded off with a date. At that date something else was to have +happened which would relieve them.</p> + +<p>There is not much else that could happen except the landing of German +troops in Ireland or in England. It would have been, I think, immaterial +to them where these were landed, but the reasoning seems to point to the +fact that they expected and had arranged for such a landing, although +on this point there is as yet no evidence.</p> + +<p>The logic of this is so simple, so plausible, that it might be accepted +without further examination, and yet further examination is necessary, +for in a country like Ireland logic and plausibility are more often +wrong than right. It may just as easily be that except for furnishing +some arms and ammunition Germany was not in the rising at all, and this +I prefer to believe. It had been current long before the rising that the +Volunteers knew they could not seriously embarass England, and that +their sole aim was to make such a row in Ireland that the Irish question +would take the status of an international one, and on the discussion of +terms of peace in the European war the claims of Ireland would have to +be considered by the whole Council of Europe and the world.</p> + +<p>That is, in my opinion, the metaphysic behind the rising. It is quite +likely that they hoped for German aid, possibly some thousands of men, +who would enable them to prolong the row, but I do not believe they +expected German armies, nor do I think they would have welcomed these +with any cordiality.</p> + +<p>In this insurrection there are two things which are singular in the +history of Irish risings. One is that there were no informers, or there +were no informers among the chiefs. I did hear people say in the streets +that two days before the rising they knew it was to come; they +invariably added that they had not believed the news, and had laughed at +it. A priest said the same thing in my hearing, and it may be that the +rumour was widely spread, and that everybody, including the authorities, +looked upon it as a joke.</p> + +<p>The other singularity of the rising is the amazing silence in which it +was fought. Nothing spoke but the guns; and the Volunteers on the one +side and the soldiers on the other potted each other and died in +whispers; it might have been said that both sides feared the Germans +would hear them and take advantage of their preoccupation.</p> + +<p>There is a third reason given for the rebellion, and it also is divorced +from foreign plots. It is said, and the belief in Dublin was widespread, +that the Government intended to raid the Volunteers and seize their +arms. One remembers to-day the paper which Alderman Kelly read to the +Dublin Corporation, and which purported to be State Instructions that +the Military and Police should raid the Volunteers, and seize their arms +and leaders. The Volunteers had sworn they would not permit their arms +to be taken from them. A list of the places to be raided was given, and +the news created something of a sensation in Ireland when it was +published that evening. The Press, by instruction apparently, repudiated +this document, but the Volunteers, with most of the public, believed it +to be true, and it is more than likely that the rebellion took place in +order to forestall the Government.</p> + +<p>This is also an explanation of the rebellion, and is just as good a one +as any other. It is the explanation which I believe to be the true one.</p> + +<p>All the talk of German invasion and the landing of German troops in +Ireland is so much nonsense in view of the fact that England is master +of the seas, and that from a week before the war down to this date she +has been the undisputed monarch of those ridges. During this war there +will be no landing of troops in either England or Ireland unless Germany +in the meantime can solve the problem of submarine transport. It is a +problem which will be solved some day, for every problem can be solved, +but it will hardly be during the progress of this war. The men at the +head of the Volunteers were not geniuses, neither were they fools, and +the difficulty of acquiring military aid from Germany must have seemed +as insurmountable to them as it does to the Germans themselves. They +rose because they felt that they had to do so, or be driven like sheep +into the nearest police barracks, and be laughed at by the whole of +Ireland as cowards and braggarts.</p> + +<p>It would be interesting to know why, on the eve of the insurrection, +Professor MacNeill resigned the presidency of the Volunteers. The story +of treachery which was heard in the streets is not the true one, for men +of his type are not traitors, and this statement may be dismissed +without further comment or notice. One is left to imagine what can have +happened during the conference which is said to have preceded the +rising, and which ended with the resignation of Professor MacNeill.</p> + +<p>This is my view, or my imagining, of what occurred. The conference was +called because the various leaders felt that a hostile movement was +projected by the Government, and that the times were exceedingly black +for them. Neither Mr. Birrell nor Sir Mathew Nathan had any desire that +there should be a conflict in Ireland during the war. This cannot be +doubted. From such a conflict there might follow all kinds of political +repercussions; but although the Government favoured the policy of +<i>laissez faire</i>, there was a powerful military and political party in +Ireland whose whole effort was towards the disarming and punishment of +the Volunteers—particularly I should say the punishment of the +Volunteers. I believe, or rather I imagine, that Professor MacNeill was +approached at the instance of Mr. Birrell or Sir Mathew Nathan and +assured that the Government did not meditate any move against his men, +and that so long as his Volunteers remained quiet they would not be +molested by the authorities. I would say that Professor MacNeill gave +and accepted the necessary assurances, and that when he informed his +conference of what had occurred, and found that they did not believe +faith would be kept with them, he resigned in the dispairing hope that +his action might turn them from a purpose which he considered lunatic, +or, at least, by restraining a number of his followers from rising, he +might limit the tale of men who would be uselessly killed.</p> + +<p>He was not alone in his vote against a rising. The O'Rahilly and some +others are reputed to have voted with him, but when insurrection was +decided on, the O'Rahilly marched with his men, and surely a gallant man +could not have done otherwise.</p> + +<p>When the story of what occurred is authoritatively written (it may be +written) I think that this will be found to be the truth of the matter, +and that German intrigue and German money counted for so little in the +insurrection as to be negligible.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_X'></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>SOME OF THE LEADERS</h3> + + +<p>Meanwhile the insurrection, like all its historical forerunners, has +been quelled in blood. It sounds rhetorical to say so, but it was not +quelled in peasoup or tisane. While it lasted the fighting was very +determined, and it is easily, I think, the most considerable of Irish +rebellions.</p> + +<p>The country was not with it, for be it remembered that a whole army of +Irishmen, possibly three hundred thousand of our race, are fighting with +England instead of against her. In Dublin alone there is scarcely a poor +home in which a father, a brother, or a son is not serving in one of the +many fronts which England is defending. Had the country risen, and +fought as stubbornly as the Volunteers did, no troops could have beaten +them—well that is a wild statement, the heavy guns could always beat +them—but from whatever angle Irish people consider this affair it must +appear to them tragic and lamentable beyond expression, but not mean +and not unheroic.</p> + +<p>It was hard enough that our men in the English armies should be slain +for causes which no amount of explanation will ever render less foreign +to us, or even intelligible; but that our men who were left should be +killed in Ireland fighting against the same England that their brothers +are fighting for ties the question into such knots of contradiction as +we may give up trying to unravel. We can only think—this has +happened—and let it unhappen itself as best it may.</p> + +<p>We say that the time always finds the man, and by it we mean: that when +a responsibility is toward there will be found some shoulder to bend for +the yoke which all others shrink from. It is not always nor often the +great ones of the earth who undertake these burdens—it is usually the +good folk, that gentle hierarchy who swear allegiance to mournfulness +and the under dog, as others dedicate themselves to mutton chops and the +easy nymph. It is not my intention to idealise any of the men who were +concerned in this rebellion. Their country will, some few years hence, +do that as adequately as she has done it for those who went before them.</p> + +<p>Those of the leaders whom I knew were not great men, nor brilliant—that +is they were more scholars than thinkers, and more thinkers than men of +action; and I believe that in no capacity could they have attained to +what is called eminence, nor do I consider they coveted any such public +distinction as is noted in that word.</p> + +<p>But in my definition they were good men—men, that is, who willed no +evil, and whose movements of body or brain were unselfish and healthy. +No person living is the worse off for having known Thomas MacDonagh, and +I, at least, have never heard MacDonagh speak unkindly or even harshly +of anything that lived. It has been said of him that his lyrics were +epical; in a measure it is true, and it is true in the same measure that +his death was epical. He was the first of the leaders who was tried and +shot. It was not easy for him to die leaving behind two young children +and a young wife, and the thought that his last moment must have been +tormented by their memory is very painful. We are all fatalists when we +strike against power, and I hope he put care from him as the soldiers +marched him out.</p> + +<p>The O'Rahilly also I knew, but not intimately, and I can only speak of a +good humour, a courtesy, and an energy that never failed. He was a man +of unceasing ideas and unceasing speech, and laughter accompanied every +sound made by his lips.</p> + +<p>Plunkett and Pearse I knew also, but not intimately. Young Plunkett, as +he was always called, would never strike one as a militant person. He, +like Pearse and MacDonagh, wrote verse, and it was no better nor worse +than their's were. He had an appetite for quaint and difficult +knowledge. He studied Egyptian and Sanscrit, and distant curious matter +of that sort, and was interested in inventions and the theatre. He was +tried and sentenced and shot.</p> + +<p>As to Pearse, I do not know how to place him, nor what to say of him. If +there was an idealist among the men concerned in this insurrection it +was he, and if there was any person in the world less fitted to head an +insurrection it was he also. I never could "touch" or sense in him the +qualities which other men spoke of, and which made him military +commandant of the rising. None of these men were magnetic in the sense +that Mr. Larkin is magnetic, and I would have said that Pearse was less +magnetic than any of the others. Yet it was to him and around him they +clung.</p> + +<p>Men must find some centre either of power or action or intellect about +which they may group themselves, and I think that Pearse became the +leader because his temperament was more profoundly emotional than any of +the others. He was emotional not in a flighty, but in a serious way, and +one felt more that he suffered than that he enjoyed.</p> + +<p>He had a power; men who came into intimate contact with him began to act +differently to their own desires and interests. His schoolmasters did +not always receive their salaries with regularity. The reason that he +did not pay them was the simple one that he had no money. Given by +another man this explanation would be uneconomic, but from him it was so +logical that even a child could comprehend it. These masters did not +always leave him. They remained, marvelling perhaps, and accepting, even +with stupefaction, the theory that children must be taught, but that no +such urgency is due towards the payment of wages. One of his boys said +there was no fun in telling lies to Mr. Pearse, for, however outrageous +the lie, he always believed it. He built and renovated and improved his +school because the results were good for his scholars, and somehow he +found builders to undertake these forlorn hopes.</p> + +<p>It was not, I think, that he "put his trust in God," but that when +something had to be done he did it, and entirely disregarded logic or +economics or force. He said—such a thing has to be done and so far as +one man can do it I will do it, and he bowed straightaway to the task.</p> + +<p>It is mournful to think of men like these having to take charge of +bloody and desolate work, and one can imagine them say, "Oh! cursed +spite," as they accepted responsibility.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_XI'></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>LABOUR AND THE INSURRECTION</h3> + + +<p>No person in Ireland seems to have exact information about the +Volunteers, their aims, or their numbers. We know the names of the +leaders now. They were recited to us with the tale of their execution; +and with the declaration of a Republic we learned something of their +aim, but the estimate of their number runs through the figures ten, +thirty, and fifty thousand. The first figure is undoubtedly too slender, +the last excessive, and something between fifteen and twenty thousand +for all Ireland would be a reasonable guess.</p> + +<p>Of these, the Citizen Army or Labour side of the Volunteers, would not +number more than one thousand men, and it is with difficulty such a +figure could be arrived at. Yet it is freely argued, and the theory will +grow, that the causes of this latest insurrection should be sought among +the labour problems of Dublin rather than in any national or patriotic +sentiment, and this theory is buttressed by all the agile facts which +such a theory would be furnished with.</p> + +<p>It is an interesting view, but in my opinion it is an erroneous one.</p> + +<p>That Dublin labour was in the Volunteer movement to the strength of, +perhaps, two hundred men, may be true—it is possible there were more, +but it is unlikely that a greater number, or, as many, of the Citizen +Army marched when the order came. The overwhelming bulk of Volunteers +were actuated by the patriotic ideal which is the heritage and the +burden of almost every Irishman born out of the Unionist circle, and +their connection with labour was much more manual than mental.</p> + +<p>This view of the importance of labour to the Volunteers is held by two +distinct and opposed classes.</p> + +<p>Just as there are some who find the explanation of life in a sexual +formula, so there is a class to whom the economic idea is very dear, and +beneath every human activity they will discover the shock of wages and +profit. It is truly there, but it pulls no more than its weight, and in +Irish life the part played by labour has not yet been a weighty one; +although on every view it is an important one. The labour idea in +Ireland has not arrived. It is in process of "becoming," and when labour +problems are mentioned in this country a party does not come to the +mind, but two men only—they are Mr. Larkin and James Connolly, and they +are each in their way exceptional and curious men.</p> + +<p>There is another class who implicate labour, and they do so because it +enables them to urge that as well as being grasping and nihilistic, +Irish labour is disloyal and treacherous.</p> + +<p>The truth is that labour in Ireland has not yet succeeded in organising +anything—not even discontent. It is not self-conscious to any extent, +and, outside of Dublin, it scarcely appears to exist. The national +imagination is not free to deal with any other subject than that of +freedom, and part of the policy of our "masters" is to see that we be +kept busy with politics instead of social ideas. From their standpoint +the policy is admirable, and up to the present it has thoroughly +succeeded.</p> + +<p>One does not hear from the lips of the Irish workingman, even in +Dublin, any of the affirmations and rejections which have long since +become the commonplaces of his comrades in other lands. But on the +subject of Irish freedom his views are instantly forthcoming, and his +desires are explicit, and, to a degree, informed. This latter subject +they understand and have fabricated an entire language to express it, +but the other they do not understand nor cherish, and they are not +prepared to die for it.</p> + +<p>It is possibly true that before any movement can attain to really +national proportions there must be, as well as the intellectual ideal +which gives it utterance and a frame, a sense of economic misfortune to +give it weight, and when these fuse the combination may well be +irresistible. The organised labour discontent in Ireland, in Dublin, was +not considerable enough to impose its aims or its colours on the +Volunteers, and it is the labour ideal which merges and disappears in +the national one. The reputation of all the leaders of the insurrection, +not excepting Connolly, is that they were intensely patriotic Irishmen, +and also, but this time with the exception of Connolly, that they were +not particularly interested in the problems of labour.</p> + +<p>The great strike of two years ago remained undoubtedly as a bitter and +lasting memory with Dublin labour—perhaps, even, it was not so much a +memory as a hatred. Still, it was not hatred of England which was evoked +at that time, nor can the stress of their conflict be traced to an +English source. It was hatred of local traders, and, particularly, +hatred of the local police, and the local powers and tribunals, which +were arrayed against them.</p> + +<p>One can without trouble discover reasons why they should go on strike +again, but by no reasoning can I understand why they should go into +rebellion against England, unless it was that they were patriots first +and trade unionists a very long way afterwards.</p> + +<p>I do not believe that this combination of the ideal and the practical +was consummated in the Dublin insurrection, but I do believe that the +first step towards the formation of such a party has now been taken, +and that if, years hence, there should be further trouble in Ireland +such trouble will not be so easily dealt with as this one has been.</p> + +<p>It may be that further trouble will not arise, for the co-operative +movement, which is growing slowly but steadily in Ireland, may arrange +our economic question, and, incidentally, our national question +also—that is if the English people do not decide that the latter ought +to be settled at once.</p> + +<p>James Connolly had his heart in both the national and the economic camp, +but he was a great-hearted man, and could afford to extend his +affections where others could only dissipate them.</p> + +<p>There can be no doubt that his powers of orderly thinking were of great +service to the Volunteers, for while Mr. Larkin was the magnetic centre +of the Irish labour movement, Connolly was its brains. He has been +sentenced to death for his part in the insurrection, and for two days +now he has been dead.</p> + +<p>He had been severely wounded in the fighting, and was tended, one does +not doubt with great care, until he regained enough strength to stand +up and be shot down again.</p> + +<p>Others are dead also. I was not acquainted with them, and with Connolly +I was not more than acquainted. I had met him twice many months ago, but +other people were present each time, and he scarcely uttered a word on +either of these occasions. I was told that he was by nature silent. He +was a man who can be ill-spared in Ireland, but labour, throughout the +world, may mourn for him also.</p> + +<p>A doctor who attended on him during his last hours says that Connolly +received the sentence of his death quietly. He was to be shot on the +morning following the sentence. This gentleman said to him:</p> + +<p>"Connolly, when you stand up to be shot, will you say a prayer for me?"</p> + +<p>Connolly replied:</p> + +<p>"I will."</p> + +<p>His visitor continued:</p> + +<p>"Will you say a prayer for the men who are shooting you?"</p> + +<p>"I will," said Connolly, "and I will say a prayer for every good man in +the world who is doing his duty."</p> + +<p>He was a steadfast man in all that he undertook. We may be sure he +steadfastly kept that promise. He would pray for others, who had not +time to pray for himself, as he had worked for others during the years +when he might have worked for himself.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_XII'></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>THE IRISH QUESTIONS</h3> + + +<p>There is truly an Irish question. There are two Irish questions, and the +most important of them is not that which appears in our newspapers and +in our political propaganda.</p> + +<p>The first is international, and can be stated shortly. It is the desire +of Ireland to assume control of her national life. With this desire the +English people have professed to be in accord, and it is at any rate so +thoroughly understood that nothing further need be made of it in these +pages.</p> + +<p>The other Irish question is different, and less simply described. The +difficulty about it is that it cannot be approached until the question +of Ireland's freedom has by some means been settled, for this ideal of +freedom has captured the imagination of the race. It rides Ireland like +a nightmare, thwarting or preventing all civilising or cultural work in +this country, and it is not too much to say that Ireland cannot even +begin to live until that obsession and fever has come to an end, and her +imagination has been set free to do the work which imagination alone can +do—Imagination is intelligent kindness—we have sore need of it.</p> + +<p>The second question might plausibly be called a religious one. It has +been so called, and, for it is less troublesome to accept an idea than +to question it, the statement has been accepted as truth—but it is +untrue, and it is deeply and villainously untrue. No lie in Irish life +has been so persistent and so mischievous as this one, and no political +lie has ever been so ingeniously, and malevolently exploited.</p> + +<p>There is no religious intolerance in Ireland except that which is +political. I am not a member of the Catholic Church, and am not inclined +to be the advocate of a religious system which my mentality dislikes, +but I have never found real intolerance among my fellow-countrymen of +that religion. I have found it among Protestants. I will limit that +statement, too. I have found it among some Protestants. But outside of +the North of Ireland there is no religious question, and in the North +it is fundamentally more political than religious.</p> + +<p>All thinking is a fining down of one's ideas, and thus far we have come +to the statement of Ireland's second question. It is not Catholic or +Nationalist, nor have I said that it is entirely Protestant and +Unionist, but it is on the extreme wing of this latter party that +responsibility must be laid. It is difficult, even for an Irishman +living in Ireland, to come on the real political fact which underlies +Irish Protestant politics, and which fact has consistently opposed and +baffled every attempt made by either England or Ireland to come to +terms. There is such a fact, and clustered around it is a body of men +whose hatred of their country is persistent and deadly and unexplained.</p> + +<p>One may make broad generalisations on the apparent situation and +endeavour to solve it by those. We may say that loyalty to England is +the true centre of their action. I will believe it, but only to a point. +Loyalty to England does not inevitably include this active hatred, this +blindness, this withering of all sympathy for the people among whom one +is born, and among whom one has lived in peace, for they have lived in +peace amongst us. We may say that it is due to the idea of privilege and +the desire for power. Again, I will accept it up to a point—but these +are cultural obsessions, and they cease to act when the breaking-point +is reached.</p> + +<p>I know of only two mental states which are utterly without bowels or +conscience. These are cowardice and greed. Is it to a synthesis of these +states that this more than mortal enmity may be traced? What do they +fear, and what is it they covet? What can they redoubt in a country +which is practically crimeless, or covet in a land that is almost as +bare as a mutton bone? They have mesmerised themselves, these men, and +have imagined into our quiet air brigands and thugs and titans, with all +the other notabilities of a tale for children.</p> + +<p>I do not think that this either will tell the tale, but I do think there +is a story to be told—I imagine an esoteric wing to the Unionist Party. +I imagine that Party includes a secret organisation—they may be +Orangemen, they may be Masons, and, if there be such, I would dearly +like to know what the metaphysic of their position is, and how they +square it with any idea of humanity or social life. Meantime, all this +is surmise, and I, as a novelist, have a notoriously flighty +imagination, and am content to leave it at that.</p> + +<p>But this secondary Irish question is not so terrible as it appears. It +is terrible now, it would not be terrible if Ireland had national +independence.</p> + +<p>The great protection against a lie is—not to believe it; and Ireland, +in this instance, has that protection. The claims made by the Unionist +Wing do not rely solely on the religious base. They use all the +arguments. It is, according to them, unsafe to live in Ireland. (Let us +leave this insurrection of a week out of the question.) Life is not safe +in Ireland. Property shivers in terror of daily or nightly +appropriation. Other, undefined, but even more woeful glooms and creeps, +wriggle stealthily abroad.</p> + +<p>These things are not regarded in Ireland, and, in truth, they are not +meat for Irish consumption. Irish judges are presented with white +gloves with a regularity which may even be annoying to them, and were it +not for political trouble they would be unable to look their salaries in +the face. The Irish Bar almost weep in chorus at the words "Land Act," +and stare, not dumbly, on destitution. These tales are meant for England +and are sent there. They will cease to be exported when there is no +market for them, and these men will perhaps end by becoming patriotic +and social when they learn that they do not really command the Big +Battalions. But Ireland has no protection against them while England can +be thrilled by their nonsense, and while she is willing to pound Ireland +to a jelly on their appeal. Her only assistance against them is freedom.</p> + +<p>There are certain simplicities upon which all life is based. A man finds +that he is hungry and the knowledge enables him to go to work for the +rest of his life. A man makes the discovery (it has been a discovery to +many) that he is an Irishman, and the knowledge simplifies all his +subsequent political action. There is this comfort about being an +Irishman, you can be entirely Irish, and claim thus to be as complete +as a pebble or a star. But no Irish person can hope to be more than a +muletto Englishman, and if that be an ambition and an end it is not an +heroic one.</p> + +<p>But there is an Ulster difficulty, and no amount of burking it will +solve it. It is too generally conceived among Nationalists that the +attitude of Ulster towards Ireland is rooted in ignorance and bigotry. +Allow that both of these bad parts are included in the Northern outlook, +they do not explain the Ulster standpoint; and nothing can explain the +attitude of official Ireland <i>vis-a-vis</i> with Ulster.</p> + +<p>What has the Irish Party ever done to allay Northern prejudice, or bring +the discontented section into line with the rest of Ireland? The answer +is pathetically complete. They have done nothing. Or, if they have done +anything, it was only that which would set every Northerner grinding his +teeth in anger. At a time when Orangeism was dying they raised and +marshalled the Hibernians, and we have the Ulsterman's answer to the +Hibernians in the situation by which we are confronted to-day. If the +Party had even a little statesmanship among them they would for the past +ten years have marched up and down the North explaining and mollifying +and courting the Black Northerner. But, like good Irishmen, they could +not tear themselves away from England, and they paraded that country +where parade was not so urgent, and they made orations there until the +mere accent of an Irishman must make Englishmen wail for very boredom.</p> + +<p>Some of that parade might have gladdened the eyes of the Belfast +citizens; a few of those orations might have assisted the men of Derry +to comprehend that, for the good of our common land, Home Rule and the +unity of a nation was necessary if only to rid the country of these +blatherers.</p> + +<p>Let the Party explain why, among their political duties, they neglected +the duty of placating Ulster in their proper persons. Why, in short, +they boycotted Ulster and permitted political and religious and racial +antagonism to grow inside of Ireland unchecked by any word from them +upon that ground. Were they afraid "nuts" would be thrown at them? +Whatever they dreaded, they gave Ulster the widest of wide berths, and +wherever else they were visible and audible, they were silent and unseen +in that part of Ireland.</p> + +<p>The Ulster grievance is ostensibly religious; but safeguards on this +count are so easily created and applied that this issue might almost be +left out of account. The real difficulty is economic, and it is a +tangled one. But unless profit and loss are immediately discernible the +soul of man is not easily stirred by an accountant's tale, and therefore +the religious banner has been waved for our kinsfolk of Ulster, and +under the sacred emblem they are fighting for what some people call +mammon, but which may be in truth just plain bread and butter.</p> + +<p>The words Sinn Fein mean "Ourselves," and it is of ourselves I write in +this chapter. More urgent than any political emancipation is the drawing +together of men of good will in the endeavour to assist their +necessitous land. Our eyes must be withdrawn from the ends of the earth +and fixed on that which is around us and which we can touch. No +politician will talk to us of Ireland if by any trick he can avoid the +subject. His tale is still of Westminster and Chimborazo and the +Mountains of the Moon. Irishmen must begin to think for themselves and +of themselves, instead of expending energy on causes too distant to be +assisted or hindered by them. I believe that our human material is as +good as will be found in the world. No better, perhaps, but not worse. +And I believe that all but local politics are unfruitful and +soul-destroying. We have an island that is called little. It is more +than twenty times too spacious for our needs, and we will not have +explored the last of it in our children's lifetime. We have more +problems to resolve in our towns and cities than many generations of +minds will get tired of striving with. Here is the world, and all that +perplexes or delights the world is here also. Nothing is lost. Not even +brave men. They have been used. From this day the great adventure opens +for Ireland. The Volunteers are dead, and the call is now for +volunteers.</p> + +<p> +[Transcriber's note: The spelling inconsistencies of the original are +retained in this etext.] +</p> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12871 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..050852a --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #12871 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12871) diff --git a/old/12871-8.txt b/old/12871-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..58f18ad --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12871-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2744 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Insurrection in Dublin, by James Stephens + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Insurrection in Dublin + +Author: James Stephens + +Release Date: July 9, 2004 [EBook #12871] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Martin Pettit and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: The spelling inconsistencies of the original are +retained in this etext.] + + + _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ + + + POEMS + + + INSURRECTIONS (Maunsel) + + THE HILL OF VISION " + + GREEN BRANCHES " + + SONGS FROM THE CLAY (Macmillan) + + THE ADVENTURES OF SEUMAS BEG " + + + * * * * * + + + PROSE + + + THE CHARWOMANS DAUGHTER (Macmillan) + + THE CROCK OF GOLD " + + HERE ARE LADIES " + + THE DEMI-GODS " + + + * * * * * + + + + + THE INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN + + + BY JAMES STEPHENS + + + MAUNSEL & COMPANY, LTD. DUBLIN AND LONDON 1916 + + + + + + CONTENTS + + + FOREWORD + + + CHAP. + + I. MONDAY + + II. TUESDAY + + III. WEDNESDAY + + IV. THURSDAY + + V. FRIDAY + + VI. SATURDAY + + VII. SUNDAY + + VIII. THE INSURRECTION IS OVER + + IX. THE VOLUNTEERS + + X. SOME OF THE LEADERS + + XI. LABOUR AND THE INSURRECTION + + XII. THE IRISH QUESTIONS + + + + + + FOREWORD + +The day before the rising was Easter Sunday, and they were crying +joyfully in the Churches "Christ has risen." On the following day they +were saying in the streets "Ireland has risen." The luck of the moment +was with her. The auguries were good, and, notwithstanding all that has +succeeded, I do not believe she must take to the earth again, nor be +ever again buried. The pages hereafter were written day by day during +the Insurrection that followed Holy Week, and, as a hasty impression of +a most singular time, the author allows them to stand without any +emendation. + +The few chapters which make up this book are not a history of the +rising. I knew nothing about the rising. I do not know anything about it +now, and it may be years before exact information on the subject is +available. What I have written is no more than a statement of what +passed in one quarter of our city, and a gathering together of the +rumour and tension which for nearly two weeks had to serve the Dublin +people in lieu of news. It had to serve many Dublin people in place of +bread. + +To-day, the 8th of May, the book is finished, and, so far as Ireland is +immediately concerned, the insurrection is over. Action now lies with +England, and on that action depends whether the Irish Insurrection is +over or only suppressed. + +In their dealings with this country, English Statesmen have seldom shown +political imagination; sometimes they have been just, sometimes, and +often, unjust. After a certain point I dislike and despise justice. It +is an attribute of God, and is adequately managed by Him alone; but +between man and man no other ethics save that of kindness can give +results. I have not any hope that this ethic will replace that, and I +merely mention it in order that the good people who read these words may +enjoy the laugh which their digestion needs. + +I have faith in man, I have very little faith in States man. But I +believe that the world moves, and I believe that the weight of the +rolling planet is going to bring freedom to Ireland. Indeed, I name this +date as the first day of Irish freedom, and the knowledge forbids me +mourn too deeply my friends who are dead. + +It may not be worthy of mention, but the truth is, that Ireland is not +cowed. She is excited a little. She is gay a little. She was not with +the revolution, but in a few months she will be, and her heart which was +withering will be warmed by the knowledge that men have thought her +worth dying for. She will prepare to make herself worthy of devotion, +and that devotion will never fail her. So little does it take to raise +our hearts. + +Does it avail anything to describe these things to English readers? They +have never moved the English mind to anything except impatience, but +to-day and at this desperate conjunction they may be less futile than +heretofore. England also has grown patriotic, even by necessity. It is +necessity alone makes patriots, for in times of peace a patriot is a +quack when he is not a shark. Idealism pays in times of peace, it dies +in time of war. Our idealists are dead and yours are dying hourly. + +The English mind may to-day be enabled to understand what is wrong with +us, and why through centuries we have been "disthressful." Let them +look at us, I do not say through the fumes that are still rising from +our ruined streets, but through the smoke that is rolling from the North +Sea to Switzerland, and read in their own souls the justification for +all our risings, and for this rising. + +Is it wrong to say that England has not one friend in Europe? I say it. +Her Allies of to-day were her enemies of yesterday, and politics alone +will decide what they will be to-morrow. I say it, and yet I am not +entirely right, for she has one possible friend unless she should decide +that even one friend is excessive and irks her. That one possible friend +is Ireland. I say, and with assurance, that if our national questions +are arranged there will remain no reason for enmity between the two +countries, and there will remain many reasons for friendship. + +It may be objected that the friendship of a country such as Ireland has +little value; that she is too small geographically, and too thinly +populated to give aid to any one. Only sixty odd years ago our +population was close on ten millions of people, nor are we yet sterile; +in area Ireland is not collossal, but neither is she microscopic. Mr. +Shaw has spoken of her as a "cabbage patch at the back of beyond." On +this kind of description Rome might be called a hen-run and Greece a +back yard. The sober fact is that Ireland has a larger geographical area +than many an independent and prosperous European kingdom, and for all +human and social needs she is a fairly big country, and is beautiful and +fertile to boot. She could be made worth knowing if goodwill and trust +are available for the task. + +I believe that what is known as the "mastery of the seas" will, when the +great war is finished, pass irretrievably from the hands or the ambition +of any nation, and that more urgently than ever in her history England +will have need of a friend. It is true that we might be her enemy and +might do her some small harm--it is truer that we could be her friend, +and could be of very real assistance to her. + +Should the English Statesman decide that our friendship is worth having +let him create a little of the political imagination already spoken of. +Let him equip us (it is England's debt to Ireland) for freedom, not in +the manner of a miser who arranges for the chilly livelihood of a needy +female relative; but the way a wealthy father would undertake the +settlement of his son. I fear I am assisting my reader to laugh too +much, but laughter is the sole excess that is wholesome. + +If freedom is to come to Ireland--as I believe it is--then the Easter +Insurrection was the only thing that could have happened. I speak as an +Irishman, and am momentarily leaving out of account every other +consideration. If, after all her striving, freedom had come to her as a +gift, as a peaceful present such as is sometimes given away with a pound +of tea, Ireland would have accepted the gift with shamefacedness, and +have felt that her centuries of revolt had ended in something very like +ridicule. The blood of brave men had to sanctify such a consummation if +the national imagination was to be stirred to the dreadful business +which is the organizing of freedom, and both imagination and brains have +been stagnant in Ireland this many a year. Following on such tameness, +failure might have been predicted, or, at least feared, and war (let us +call it war for the sake of our pride) was due to Ireland before she +could enter gallantly on her inheritance. We might have crept into +liberty like some kind of domesticated man, whereas now we may be +allowed to march into freedom with the honours of war. I am still +appealing to the political imagination, for if England allows Ireland to +formally make peace with her that peace will be lasting, everlasting; +but if the liberty you give us is all half-measures, and distrusts and +stinginesses, then what is scarcely worth accepting will hardly be worth +thanking you for. + +There is a reference in the earlier pages of this record to a letter +which I addressed to Mr. George Bernard Shaw and published in the _New +Age_. This was a thoughtless letter, and subsequent events have proved +that it was unmeaning and ridiculous. I have since, through the same +hospitable journal, apologised to Mr. Shaw, but have let my reference to +the matter stand as an indication that electricity was already in the +air. Every statement I made about him in that letter and in this book +was erroneous; for, afterwards, when it would have been politic to run +for cover, he ran for the open, and he spoke there like the valiant +thinker and great Irishman that he is. + + * * * * * + +Since the foregoing was written events have moved in this country. The +situation is no longer the same. The executions have taken place. One +cannot justly exclaim against the measures adopted by the military +tribunal, and yet, in the interests of both countries one may deplore +them. I have said there was no bitterness in Ireland, and it was true at +the time of writing. It is no longer true; but it is still possible by +generous Statesmanship to allay this, and to seal a true union between +Ireland and England. + + + + + THE + + INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN + + + + + CHAPTER I + + MONDAY + + +This has taken everyone by surprise. It is possible, that, with the +exception of their Staff, it has taken the Volunteers themselves by +surprise; but, to-day, our peaceful city is no longer peaceful; guns are +sounding, or rolling and crackling from different directions, and, +although rarely, the rattle of machine guns can be heard also. + +Two days ago war seemed very far away--so far, that I have covenanted +with myself to learn the alphabet of music. Tom Bodkin had promised to +present me with a musical instrument called a dulcimer--I persist in +thinking that this is a species of guitar, although I am assured that it +is a number of small metal plates which are struck with sticks, and I +confess that this description of its function prejudices me more than a +little against it. There is no reason why I should think dubiously of +such an instrument, but I do not relish the idea of procuring music with +a stick. With this dulcimer I shall be able to tap out our Irish +melodies when I am abroad, and transport myself to Ireland for a few +minutes, or a few bars. + +In preparation for this present I had through Saturday and Sunday been +learning the notes of the Scale. The notes and spaces on the lines did +not trouble me much, but those above and below the line seemed ingenious +and complicated to a degree that frightened me. + +On Saturday I got the _Irish Times_, and found in it a long article by +Bernard Shaw (reprinted from the _New York Times_). One reads things +written by Shaw. Why one does read them I do not know exactly, except +that it is a habit we got into years ago, and we read an article by Shaw +just as we put on our boots in the morning--that is, without thinking +about it, and without any idea of reward. + +His article angered me exceedingly. It was called "Irish Nonsense +talked in Ireland." It was written (as is almost all of his journalistic +work) with that _bonhomie_ which he has cultivated--it is his +mannerism--and which is essentially hypocritical and untrue. _Bonhomie_! +It is that man-of-the-world attitude, that shop attitude, that +between-you-and-me-for-are-we-not-equal-and-cultured attitude, which is +the tone of a card-sharper or a trick-of-the-loop man. That was the tone +of Shaw's article. I wrote an open letter to him which I sent to the +_New Age_, because I doubted that the Dublin papers would print it if I +sent it to them, and I knew that the Irish people who read the other +papers had never heard of Shaw, except as a trade-mark under which very +good Limerick bacon is sold, and that they would not be interested in +the opinions of a person named Shaw on any subject not relevant to +bacon. I struck out of my letter a good many harsh things which I said +of him, and hoped he would reply to it in order that I could furnish +these acidities to him in a second letter. + +That was Saturday. + +On Sunday I had to go to my office, as the Director was absent in +London, and there I applied myself to the notes and spaces below the +stave, but relinquished the exercise, convinced that these mysteries +were unattainable by man, while the knowledge that above the stave there +were others and not less complex, stayed mournfully with me. + +I returned home, and as novels (perhaps it is only for the duration of +the war) do not now interest me I read for some time in Madame +Blavatsky's "Secret Doctrine," which book interests me profoundly. +George Russell was out of town or I would have gone round to his house +in the evening to tell him what I thought about Shaw, and to listen to +his own much finer ideas on that as on every other subject. I went to +bed. + +On the morning following I awoke into full insurrection and bloody war, +but I did not know anything about it. It was Bank Holiday, but for +employments such as mine there are not any holidays, so I went to my +office at the usual hour, and after transacting what business was +necessary I bent myself to the notes above and below the stave, and +marvelled anew at the ingenuity of man. Peace was in the building, and +if any of the attendants had knowledge or rumour of war they did not +mention it to me. + +At one o'clock I went to lunch. Passing the corner of Merrion Row I saw +two small groups of people. These people were regarding steadfastly in +the direction of St. Stephen's Green Park, and they spoke occasionally +to one another with that detached confidence which proved they were +mutually unknown. I also, but without approaching them, stared in the +direction of the Green. I saw nothing but the narrow street which +widened to the Park. Some few people were standing in tentative +attitudes, and all looking in the one direction. As I turned from them +homewards I received an impression of silence and expectation and +excitement. + +On the way home I noticed that many silent people were standing in their +doorways--an unusual thing in Dublin outside of the back streets. The +glance of a Dublin man or woman conveys generally a criticism of one's +personal appearance, and is a little hostile to the passer. The look of +each person as I passed was steadfast, and contained an enquiry instead +of a criticism. I felt faintly uneasy, but withdrew my mind to a +meditation which I had covenanted with myself to perform daily, and +passed to my house. + +There I was told that there had been a great deal of rifle firing all +the morning, and we concluded that the Military recruits or Volunteer +detachments were practising that arm. My return to business was by the +way I had already come. At the corner of Merrion Row I found the same +silent groups, who were still looking in the direction of the Green, and +addressing each other occasionally with the detached confidence of +strangers. Suddenly, and on the spur of the moment, I addressed one of +these silent gazers. + +"Has there been an accident?" said I. + +I indicated the people standing about. + +"What's all this for?" + +He was a sleepy, rough-looking man about 40 years of age, with a blunt +red moustache, and the distant eyes which one sees in sailors. He looked +at me, stared at me as at a person from a different country. He grew +wakeful and vivid. + +"Don't you know," said he. + +And then he saw that I did not know. + +"The Sinn Feiners have seized the City this morning." + +"Oh!" said I. + +He continued with the savage earnestness of one who has amazement in his +mouth: + +"They seized the City at eleven o'clock this morning. The Green there is +full of them. They have captured the Castle. They have taken the Post +Office." + +"My God!" said I, staring at him, and instantly I turned and went +running towards the Green. + +In a few seconds I banished astonishment and began to walk. As I drew +near the Green rifle fire began like sharply-cracking whips. It was from +the further side. I saw that the Gates were closed and men were standing +inside with guns on their shoulders. I passed a house, the windows of +which were smashed in. As I went by a man in civilian clothes slipped +through the Park gates, which instantly closed behind him. He ran +towards me, and I halted. He was carrying two small packets in his hand. +He passed me hurriedly, and, placing his leg inside the broken window +of the house behind me, he disappeared. Almost immediately another man +in civilian clothes appeared from the broken window of another house. He +also had something (I don't know what) in his hand. He ran urgently +towards the gates, which opened, admitted him, and closed again. + +In the centre of this side of the Park a rough barricade of carts and +motor cars had been sketched. It was still full of gaps. Behind it was a +halted tram, and along the vistas of the Green one saw other trams +derelict, untenanted. + +I came to the barricade. As I reached it and stood by the Shelbourne +Hotel, which it faced, a loud cry came from the Park. The gates opened +and three men ran out. Two of them held rifles with fixed bayonets. The +third gripped a heavy revolver in his fist. They ran towards a motor car +which had just turned the corner, and halted it. The men with bayonets +took position instantly on either side of the car. The man with the +revolver saluted, and I heard him begging the occupants to pardon him, +and directing them to dismount. A man and woman got down. They were +again saluted and requested to go to the sidewalk. They did so. + + NOTE--As I pen these words rifle shot is cracking from three + different directions and continually. Three minutes ago there was two + discharges from heavy guns. These are the first heavy guns used in + the Insurrection, 25th April. + +The man crossed and stood by me. He was very tall and thin, middle-aged, +with a shaven, wasted face. "I want to get down to Armagh to-day," he +said to no one in particular. The loose bluish skin under his eyes was +twitching. The Volunteers directed the chauffeur to drive to the +barricade and lodge his car in a particular position there. He did it +awkwardly, and after three attempts he succeeded in pleasing them. He +was a big, brown-faced man, whose knees were rather high for the seat he +was in, and they jerked with the speed and persistence of something +moved with a powerful spring. His face was composed and fully under +command, although his legs were not. He locked the car into the +barricade, and then, being a man accustomed to be commanded, he awaited +an order to descend. When the order came he walked directly to his +master, still preserving all the solemnity of his features. These two +men did not address a word to each other, but their drilled and +expressionless eyes were loud with surprise and fear and rage. They went +into the Hotel. + +I spoke to the man with the revolver. He was no more than a boy, not +more certainly than twenty years of age, short in stature, with close +curling red hair and blue eyes--a kindly-looking lad. The strap of his +sombrero had torn loose on one side, and except while he held it in his +teeth it flapped about his chin. His face was sunburnt and grimy with +dust and sweat. + +This young man did not appear to me to be acting from his reason. He was +doing his work from a determination implanted previously, days, weeks +perhaps, on his imagination. His mind was--where? It was not with his +body. And continually his eyes went searching widely, looking for +spaces, scanning hastily the clouds, the vistas of the streets, looking +for something that did not hinder him, looking away for a moment from +the immediacies and rigours which were impressed where his mind had +been. + +When I spoke he looked at me, and I know that for some seconds he did +not see me. I said:-- + +"What is the meaning of all this? What has happened?" + +He replied collectedly enough in speech, but with that ramble and +errancy clouding his eyes. + +"We have taken the City. We are expecting an attack from the military at +any moment, and those people," he indicated knots of men, women and +children clustered towards the end of the Green, "won't go home for me. +We have the Post Office, and the Railways, and the Castle. We have all +the City. We have everything." + +(Some men and two women drew behind me to listen). + +"This morning," said he, "the police rushed us. One ran at me to take my +revolver. I fired but I missed him, and I hit a--" + +"You have far too much talk," said a voice to the young man. + +I turned a few steps away, and glancing back saw that he was staring +after me, but I know that he did not see me--he was looking at turmoil, +and blood, and at figures that ran towards him and ran away--a world in +motion and he in the centre of it astonished. + +The men with him did not utter a sound. They were both older. One, +indeed, a short, sturdy man, had a heavy white moustache. He was quite +collected, and took no notice of the skies, or the spaces. He saw a man +in rubbers placing his hand on a motor bicycle in the barricade, and +called to him instantly: "Let that alone." + +The motorist did not at once remove his hand, whereupon the +white-moustached man gripped his gun in both hands and ran violently +towards him. He ran directly to him, body to body, and, as he was short +and the motorist was very tall, stared fixedly up in his face. He roared +up at his face in a mighty voice. + +"Are you deaf? Are you deaf? Move back!" + +The motorist moved away, pursued by an eye as steady and savage as the +point of the bayonet that was level with it. + +Another motor car came round the Ely Place corner of the Green and +wobbled at the sight of the barricade. The three men who had returned +to the gates roared "Halt," but the driver made a tentative effort to +turn his wheel. A great shout of many voices came then, and the three +men ran to him. + +"Drive to the barricade," came the order. + +The driver turned his wheel a point further towards escape, and +instantly one of the men clapped a gun to the wheel and blew the tyre +open. Some words were exchanged, and then a shout: + +"Drive it on the rim, drive it." + +The tone was very menacing, and the motorist turned his car slowly to +the barricade and placed it in. + +For an hour I tramped the City, seeing everywhere these knots of +watchful strangers speaking together in low tones, and it sank into my +mind that what I had heard was true, and that the City was in +insurrection. It had been promised for so long, and had been threatened +for so long. Now it was here. I had seen it in the Green, others had +seen it in other parts--the same men clad in dark green and equipped +with rifle, bayonet, and bandolier, the same silent activity. The police +had disappeared from the streets. At that hour I did not see one +policeman, nor did I see one for many days, and men said that several of +them had been shot earlier in the morning; that an officer had been shot +on Portobello Bridge, that many soldiers had been killed, and that a +good many civilians were dead also. + +Around me as I walked the rumour of war and death was in the air. +Continually and from every direction rifles were crackling and rolling; +sometimes there was only one shot, again it would be a roll of firing +crested with single, short explosions, and sinking again to whip-like +snaps and whip-like echoes; then for a moment silence, and then again +the guns leaped in the air. + +The rumour of positions, bridges, public places, railway stations, +Government offices, having been seized was persistent, and was not +denied by any voice. + +I met some few people I knew. P.H., T.M., who said: "Well!" and thrust +their eyes into me as though they were rummaging me for information. + +But there were not very many people in the streets. The greater part of +the population were away on Bank Holiday, and did not know anything of +this business. Many of them would not know anything until they found +they had to walk home from Kingstown, Dalkey, Howth, or wherever they +were. + +I returned to my office, decided that I would close it for the day. The +men were very relieved when I came in, and were more relieved when I +ordered the gong to be sounded. There were some few people in the place, +and they were soon put out. The outer gates were locked, and the great +door, but I kept the men on duty until the evening. We were the last +public institution open; all the others had been closed for hours. + +I went upstairs and sat down, but had barely reached the chair before I +stood up again, and began to pace my room, to and fro, to and fro; +amazed, expectant, inquiet; turning my ear to the shots, and my mind to +speculations that began in the middle, and were chased from there by +others before they had taken one thought forward. But then I took myself +resolutely and sat me down, and I pencilled out exercises above the +stave, and under the stave; and discovered suddenly that I was again +marching the floor, to and fro, to and fro, with thoughts bursting about +my head as though they were fired on me from concealed batteries. + +At five o'clock I left. I met Miss P., all of whose rumours coincided +with those I had gathered. She was in exceeding good humour and +interested. Leaving her I met Cy----, and we turned together up to the +Green. As we proceeded, the sound of firing grew more distinct, but when +we reached the Green it died away again. We stood a little below the +Shelbourne Hotel, looking at the barricade and into the Park. We could +see nothing. Not a Volunteer was in sight. The Green seemed a desert. +There were only the trees to be seen, and through them small green +vistas of sward. + +Just then a man stepped on the footpath and walked directly to the +barricade. He stopped and gripped the shafts of a lorry lodged near the +centre. At that instant the Park exploded into life and sound; from +nowhere armed men appeared at the railings, and they all shouted at the +man. + +"Put down that lorry. Let out and go away. Let out at once." + +These were the cries. The man did not let out. He halted with the shafts +in his hand, and looked towards the vociferous pailings. Then, and very +slowly, he began to draw the lorry out of the barricade. The shouts came +to him again, very loud, very threatening, but he did not attend to +them. + +"He is the man that owns the lorry," said a voice beside me. + +Dead silence fell on the people around while the man slowly drew his +cart down by the footpath. Then three shots rang out in succession. At +the distance he could not be missed, and it was obvious they were trying +to frighten him. He dropped the shafts, and instead of going away he +walked over to the Volunteers. + +"He has a nerve," said another voice behind me. + +The man walked directly towards the Volunteers, who, to the number of +about ten, were lining the railings. He walked slowly, bent a little +forward, with one hand raised and one finger up as though he were going +to make a speech. Ten guns were pointing at him, and a voice repeated +many times: + +"Go and put back that lorry or you are a dead man. Go before I count +four. One, two, three, four--" + +A rifle spat at him, and in two undulating movements the man sank on +himself and sagged to the ground. + +I ran to him with some others, while a woman screamed unmeaningly, all +on one strident note. The man was picked up and carried to a hospital +beside the Arts Club. There was a hole in the top of his head, and one +does not know how ugly blood can look until it has been seen clotted in +hair. As the poor man was being carried in, a woman plumped to her knees +in the road and began not to scream but to screetch. + +At that moment the Volunteers were hated. The men by whom I was and who +were lifting the body, roared into the railings:-- + +"We'll be coming back for you, damn you." + +From the railings there came no reply, and in an instant the place was +again desert and silent, and the little green vistas were slumbering +among the trees. + +No one seemed able to estimate the number of men inside the Green, and +through the day no considerable body of men had been seen, only those +who held the gates, and the small parties of threes and fours who +arrested motors and carts for their barricades. Among these were some +who were only infants--one boy seemed about twelve years of age. He was +strutting the centre of the road with a large revolver in his small +fist. A motor car came by him containing three men, and in the shortest +of time he had the car lodged in his barricade, and dismissed its +stupified occupants with a wave of his armed hand. + +The knots were increasing about the streets, for now the Bank Holiday +people began to wander back from places that were not distant, and to +them it had all to be explained anew. Free movement was possible +everywhere in the City, but the constant crackle of rifles restricted +somewhat that freedom. Up to one o'clock at night belated travellers +were straggling into the City, and curious people were wandering from +group to group still trying to gather information. + +I remained awake until four o'clock in the morning. Every five minutes +a rifle cracked somewhere, but about a quarter to twelve sharp volleying +came from the direction of Portobello Bridge, and died away after some +time. The windows of my flat listen out towards the Green, and obliquely +towards Sackville Street. In another quarter of an hour there were +volleys from Stephen's Green direction, and this continued with +intensity for about twenty-five minutes. Then it fell into a sputter of +fire and ceased. + +I went to bed about four o'clock convinced that the Green had been +rushed by the military and captured, and that the rising was at an end. + +That was the first day of the insurrection. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + TUESDAY + + +A sultry, lowering day, and dusk skies fat with rain. + +I left for my office, believing that the insurrection was at an end. At +a corner I asked a man was it all finished. He said it was not, and +that, if anything, it was worse. + +On this day the rumours began, and I think it will be many a year before +the rumours cease. The _Irish Times_ published an edition which +contained nothing but an official Proclamation that evily-disposed +persons had disturbed the peace, and that the situation was well in +hand. The news stated in three lines that there was a Sinn Fein rising +in Dublin, and that the rest of the country was quiet. + +No English or country papers came. There was no delivery or collection +of letters. All the shops in the City were shut. There was no traffic of +any kind in the streets. There was no way of gathering any kind of +information, and rumour gave all the news. + +It seemed that the Military and the Government had been taken unawares. +It was Bank Holiday, and many military officers had gone to the races, +or were away on leave, and prominent members of the Irish Government had +gone to England on Sunday. + +It appeared that everything claimed on the previous day was true, and +that the City of Dublin was entirely in the hands of the Volunteers. +They had taken and sacked Jacob's Biscuit Factory, and had converted it +into a fort which they held. They had the Post Office, and were building +baricades around it ten feet high of sandbags, cases, wire +entanglements. They had pushed out all the windows and sandbagged them +to half their height, while cart-loads of food, vegetables and +ammunition were going in continually. They had dug trenches and were +laying siege to one of the city barracks. + +It was current that intercourse between Germany and Ireland had been +frequent chiefly by means of submarines, which came up near the coast +and landed machine guns, rifles and ammunition. It was believed also +that the whole country had risen, and that many strong places and cities +were in the hands of the Volunteers. Cork Barracks was said to be taken +while the officers were away at the Curragh races, that the men without +officers were disorganised, and the place easily captured. + +It was said that Germans, thousands strong, had landed, and that many +Irish Americans with German officers had arrived also with full military +equipment. + +On the previous day the Volunteers had proclaimed the Irish Republic. +This ceremony was conducted from the Mansion House steps, and the +manifesto was said to have been read by Pearse, of St. Enda's. The +Republican and Volunteer flag was hoisted on the Mansion House. The +latter consisted of vertical colours of green, white and orange. Kerry +wireless station was reported captured, and news of the Republic flashed +abroad. These rumours were flying in the street. + +It was also reported that two transports had come in the night and had +landed from England about 8,000 soldiers. An attack reported on the +Post Office by a troop of lancers who were received with fire and +repulsed. It is foolish to send cavalry into street war. + +In connection with this lancer charge at the Post Office it is said that +the people, and especially the women, sided with the soldiers, and that +the Volunteers were assailed by these women with bricks, bottles, +sticks, to cries of: + +"Would you be hurting the poor men?" + +There were other angry ladies who threatened Volunteers, addressing to +them this petrifying query: + +"Would you be hurting the poor horses?" + +Indeed, the best people in the world live in Dublin. + +The lancers retreated to the bottom of Sackville Street, where they +remained for some time in the centre of a crowd who were carressing +their horses. It may have seemed to them a rather curious kind of +insurrection--that is, if they were strangers to Ireland. + +In the Post Office neighbourhood the Volunteers had some difficulty in +dealing with the people who surged about them while they were preparing +the barricade, and hindered them to some little extent. One of the +Volunteers was particularly noticeable. He held a lady's umbrella in his +hand, and whenever some person became particularly annoying he would +leap the barricade and chase his man half a street, hitting him over the +head with the umbrella. It was said that the wonder of the world was not +that Ireland was at war, but that after many hours the umbrella was +still unbroken. A Volunteer night attack on the Quays was spoken of, +whereat the military were said to have been taken by surprise and six +carts of their ammunition captured. This was probably untrue. Also, that +the Volunteers had blown up the Arsenal in the Phoenix Park. + +There had been looting in the night about Sackville Street, and it was +current that the Volunteers had shot twenty of the looters. + +The shops attacked were mainly haberdashers, shoe shops, and sweet +shops. Very many sweet shops were raided, and until the end of the +rising sweet shops were the favourite mark of the looters. There is +something comical in this looting of sweet shops--something almost +innocent and child-like. Possibly most of the looters are children who +are having the sole gorge of their lives. They have tasted sweetstuffs +they had never toothed before, and will never taste again in this life, +and until they die the insurrection of 1916 will have a sweet savour for +them. + +I went to the Green. At the corner of Merrion Row a horse was lying on +the footpath surrounded by blood. He bore two bullet wounds, but the +blood came from his throat which had been cut. + +Inside the Green railings four bodies could be seen lying on the ground. +They were dead Volunteers. + +The rain was falling now persistently, and persistently from the Green +and from the Shelbourne Hotel snipers were exchanging bullets. Some +distance beyond the Shelbourne I saw another Volunteer stretched out on +a seat just within the railings. He was not dead, for, now and again, +his hand moved feebly in a gesture for aid; the hand was completely red +with blood. His face could not be seen. He was just a limp mass, upon +which the rain beat pitilessly, and he was sodden and shapeless, and +most miserable to see. His companions could not draw him in for the +spot was covered by the snipers from the Shelbourne. Bystanders stated +that several attempts had already been made to rescue him, but that he +would have to remain there until the fall of night. + +From Trinity College windows and roof there was also sniping, but the +Shelbourne Hotel riflemen must have seriously troubled the Volunteers in +the Green. + +As I went back I stayed a while in front of the hotel to count the shots +that had struck the windows. There were fourteen shots through the +ground windows. The holes were clean through, each surrounded by a +star--the bullets went through but did not crack the glass. There were +three places in which the windows had holes half a foot to a foot wide +and high. Here many rifles must have fired at the one moment. It must +have been as awkward inside the Shelbourne Hotel as it was inside the +Green. + +A lady who lived in Baggot Street said she had been up all night, and, +with her neighbours, had supplied tea and bread to the soldiers who were +lining the street. The officer to whom she spoke had made two or three +attacks to draw fire and estimate the Volunteers' positions, numbers, +&c., and he told her that he considered there were 3,000 well-armed +Volunteers in the Green, and as he had only 1,000 soldiers, he could not +afford to deliver a real attack, and was merely containing them. + +Amiens Street station reported recaptured by the military; other +stations are said to be still in the Volunteers' possession. + +The story goes that about twelve o'clock on Monday an English officer +had marched into the Post Office and demanded two penny stamps from the +amazed Volunteers who were inside. He thought their uniforms were postal +uniforms. They brought him in, and he is probably still trying to get a +perspective on the occurrence. They had as prisoners in the Post Office +a certain number of soldiers, and rumour had it that these men +accommodated themselves quickly to duress, and were busily engaged +peeling potatoes for the meal which they would partake of later on with +the Volunteers. + +Earlier in the day I met a wild individual who spat rumour as though +his mouth were a machine gun or a linotype machine. He believed +everything he heard; and everything he heard became as by magic +favourable to his hopes, which were violently anti-English. One +unfavourable rumour was instantly crushed by him with three stories +which were favourable and triumphantly so. He said the Germans had +landed in three places. One of these landings alone consisted of fifteen +thousand men. The other landings probably beat that figure. The whole +City of Cork was in the hands of the Volunteers, and, to that extent, +might be said to be peaceful. German warships had defeated the English, +and their transports were speeding from every side. The whole country +was up, and the garrison was out-numbered by one hundred to one. These +Dublin barracks which had not been taken were now besieged and on the +point of surrender. + +I think this man created and winged every rumour that flew in Dublin, +and he was the sole individual whom I heard definitely taking a side. He +left me, and, looking back, I saw him pouring his news into the ear of a +gaping stranger whom he had arrested for the purpose. I almost went +back to hear would he tell the same tale or would he elaborate it into a +new thing, for I am interested in the art of story-telling. + +At eleven o'clock the rain ceased, and to it succeeded a beautiful +night, gusty with wind, and packed with sailing clouds and stars. We +were expecting visitors this night, but the sound of guns may have +warned most people away. Three only came, and with them we listened from +my window to the guns at the Green challenging and replying to each +other, and to where, further away, the Trinity snipers were crackling, +and beyond again to the sounds of war from Sackville Street. The firing +was fairly heavy, and often the short rattle of machine guns could be +heard. + +One of the stories told was that the Volunteers had taken the South +Dublin Union Workhouse, occupied it, and trenched the grounds. They were +heavily attacked by the military, who, at a loss of 150 men, took the +place. The tale went that towards the close the officer in command +offered them terms of surrender, but the Volunteers replied that they +were not there to surrender. They were there to be killed. The garrison +consisted of fifty men, and the story said that fifty men were killed. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + WEDNESDAY + + +It was three o'clock before I got to sleep last night, and during the +hours machine guns and rifle firing had been continuous. + +This morning the sun is shining brilliantly, and the movement in the +streets possesses more of animation than it has done. The movement ends +always in a knot of people, and folk go from group to group vainly +seeking information, and quite content if the rumour they presently +gather differs even a little from the one they have just communicated. + +The first statement I heard was that the Green had been taken by the +military; the second that it had been re-taken; the third that it had +not been taken at all. The facts at last emerged that the Green had not +been occupied by the soldiers, but that the Volunteers had retreated +from it into a house which commanded it. This was found to be the +College of Surgeons, and from the windows and roof of this College they +were sniping. A machine gun was mounted on the roof; other machine guns, +however, opposed them from the roofs of the Shelbourne Hotel, the United +Service Club, and the Alexandra Club. Thus a triangular duel opened +between these positions across the trees of the Park. + +Through the railings of the Green some rifles and bandoliers could be +seen lying on the ground, as also the deserted trenches and snipers' +holes. Small boys bolted in to see these sights and bolted out again +with bullets quickening their feet. Small boys do not believe that +people will really kill them, but small boys were killed. + +The dead horse was still lying stiff and lamentable on the footpath. + +This morning a gunboat came up the Liffey and helped to bombard Liberty +Hall. The Hall is breeched and useless. Rumour says that it was empty at +the time, and that Connolly with his men had marched long before to the +Post Office and the Green. The same source of information relates that +three thousand Volunteers came from Belfast on an excursion train and +that they marched into the Post Office. + +On this day only one of my men came in. He said that he had gone on the +roof and had been shot at, consequently that the Volunteers held some of +the covering houses. I went to the roof and remained there for half an +hour. There were no shots, but the firing from the direction of +Sackville Street was continuous and at times exceedingly heavy. + +To-day the _Irish Times_ was published. It contained a new military +proclamation, and a statement that the country was peaceful, and told +that in Sackville Street some houses were burned to the ground. + +On the outside railings a bill proclaiming Martial Law was posted. + +Into the newspaper statement that peace reigned in the country one was +inclined to read more of disquietude than of truth, and one said is the +country so extraordinarily peaceful that it can be dismissed in three +lines. There is too much peace or too much reticence, but it will be +some time before we hear from outside of Dublin. + +Meanwhile the sun was shining. It was a delightful day, and the streets +outside and around the areas of fire were animated and even gay. In the +streets of Dublin there were no morose faces to be seen. Almost everyone +was smiling and attentive, and a democratic feeling was abroad, to which +our City is very much a stranger; for while in private we are a sociable +and talkative people we have no street manners or public ease whatever. +Every person spoke to every other person, and men and women mixed and +talked without constraint. + +Was the City for or against the Volunteers? Was it for the Volunteers, +and yet against the rising? It is considered now (writing a day or two +afterwards) that Dublin was entirely against the Volunteers, but on the +day of which I write no such certainty could be put forward. There was a +singular reticence on the subject. Men met and talked volubly, but they +said nothing that indicated a personal desire or belief. They asked for +and exchanged the latest news, or, rather, rumour, and while expressions +were frequent of astonishment at the suddenness and completeness of the +occurrence, no expression of opinion for or against was anywhere +formulated. + +Sometimes a man said, "They will be beaten of course," and, as he +prophesied, the neighbour might surmise if he did so with a sad heart or +a merry one, but they knew nothing and asked nothing of his views, and +themselves advanced no flag. + +This was among the men. + +The women were less guarded, or, perhaps, knew they had less to fear. +Most of the female opinion I heard was not alone unfavourable but +actively and viciously hostile to the rising. This was noticeable among +the best dressed class of our population; the worst dressed, indeed the +female dregs of Dublin life, expressed a like antagonism, and almost in +similar language. The view expressed was-- + +"I hope every man of them will be shot." + +And-- + +"They ought to be all shot." + +Shooting, indeed, was proceeding everywhere. During daylight, at least, +the sound is not sinister nor depressing, and the thought that perhaps a +life had exploded with that crack is not depressing either. + +In the last two years of world-war our ideas on death have undergone a +change. It is not now the furtive thing that crawled into your bed and +which you fought with pill-boxes and medicine bottles. It has become +again a rider of the wind whom you may go coursing with through the +fields and open places. All the morbidity is gone, and the sickness, and +what remains to Death is now health and excitement. So Dublin laughed at +the noise of its own bombardment, and made no moan about its dead--in +the sunlight. Afterwards--in the rooms, when the night fell, and instead +of silence that mechanical barking of the maxims and the whistle and +screams of the rifles, the solemn roar of the heavier guns, and the red +glare covering the sky. It is possible that in the night Dublin did not +laugh, and that she was gay in the sunlight for no other reason than +that the night was past. + +On this day fighting was incessant at Mount Street Bridge. A party of +Volunteers had seized three houses covering the bridge and converted +these into forts. It is reported that military casualties at this point +were very heavy. The Volunteers are said also to hold the South Dublin +Union. The soldiers have seized Guinness's Brewery, while their +opponents have seized another brewery in the neighbourhood, and between +these two there is a continual fusilade. + +Fighting is brisk about Ringsend and along the Canal. Dame Street was +said to be held in many places by the Volunteers. I went down Dame +Street, but saw no Volunteers, and did not observe any sniping from the +houses. Further, as Dame Street is entirely commanded by the roofs and +windows of Trinity College, it is unlikely that they should be here. + +It was curious to observe this, at other times, so animated street, +broad and deserted, with at the corners of side streets small knots of +people watching. Seen from behind, Grattan's Statue in College Green +seemed almost alive, and he had the air of addressing warnings and +reproaches to Trinity College. + +The Proclamation issued to-day warns all people to remain within doors +until five o'clock in the morning, and after seven o'clock at night. + +It is still early. There is no news of any kind, and the rumours begin +to catch quickly on each other and to cancel one another out. Dublin is +entirely cut off from England, and from the outside world. It is, just +as entirely cut off from the rest of Ireland; no news of any kind +filters in to us. We are land-locked and sea-locked, but, as yet, it +does not much matter. + +Meantime the belief grows that the Volunteers may be able to hold out +much longer than had been imagined. The idea at first among the people +had been that the insurrection would be ended the morning after it had +began. But to-day, the insurrection having lasted three days, people are +ready to conceive that it may last for ever. There is almost a feeling +of gratitude towards the Volunteers because they are holding out for a +little while, for had they been beaten the first or second day the City +would have been humiliated to the soul. + +People say: "Of course, they will be beaten." The statement is almost a +query, and they continue, "but they are putting up a decent fight." For +being beaten does not greatly matter in Ireland, but not fighting does +matter. "They went forth always to the battle; and they always fell," +Indeed, the history of the Irish race is in that phrase. + +The firing from the roofs of Trinity College became violent. I crossed +Dame Street some distance up, struck down the Quays, and went along +these until I reached the Ballast Office. Further than this it was not +possible to go, for a step beyond the Ballast Office would have brought +one into the unending stream of lead that was pouring from Trinity and +other places. I was looking on O'Connell Bridge and Sackville Street, +and the house facing me was Kelly's--a red-brick fishing tackle shop, +one half of which was on the Quay and the other half in Sackville +Street. This house was being bombarded. + +I counted the report of six different machine guns which played on it. +Rifles innumerable and from every sort of place were potting its +windows, and at intervals of about half a minute the shells from a heavy +gun lobbed in through its windows or thumped mightily against its walls. + +For three hours that bombardment continued, and the walls stood in a +cloud of red dust and smoke. Rifle and machine gun bullets pattered over +every inch of it, and, unfailingly the heavy gun pounded its shells +through the windows. + +One's heart melted at the idea that human beings were crouching inside +that volcano of death, and I said to myself, "Not even a fly can be +alive in that house." + +No head showed at any window, no rifle cracked from window or roof in +reply. The house was dumb, lifeless, and I thought every one of those +men are dead. + +It was then, and quite suddenly, that the possibilities of street +fighting flashed on me, and I knew there was no person in the house, and +said to myself, "They have smashed through the walls with a hatchet and +are sitting in the next house, or they have long ago climbed out by the +skylight and are on a roof half a block away." Then the thought came to +me--they have and hold the entire of Sackville Street down to the Post +Office. Later on this proved to be the case, and I knew at this moment +that Sackville Street was doomed. + +I continued to watch the bombardment, but no longer with the anguish +which had before torn me. Near by there were four men, and a few yards +away, clustered in a laneway, there were a dozen others. An agitated +girl was striding from the farther group to the one in which I was, and +she addressed the men in the most obscene language which I have ever +heard. She addressed them man by man, and she continued to speak and cry +and scream at them with all that obstinate, angry patience of which only +a woman is capable. + +She cursed us all. She called down diseases on every human being in the +world excepting only the men who were being bombarded. She demanded of +the folk in the laneway that they should march at least into the roadway +and prove that they were proud men and were not afraid of bullets. She +had been herself into the danger zone. Had stood herself in the track of +the guns, and had there cursed her fill for half an hour, and she +desired that the men should do at least what she had done. + +This girl was quite young--about nineteen years of age--and was dressed +in the customary shawl and apron of her class. Her face was rather +pretty, or it had that pretty slenderness and softness of outline which +belong to youth. But every sentence she spoke contained half a dozen +indecent words. Alas, it was only that her vocabulary was not equal to +her emotions, and she did not know how to be emphatic without being +obscene--it is the cause of most of the meaningless swearing one hears +every day. She spoke to me for a minute, and her eyes were as soft as +those of a kitten and her language was as gentle as her eyes. She wanted +a match to light a cigarette, but I had none, and said that I also +wanted one. In a few minutes she brought me a match, and then she +recommenced her tireless weaving of six vile words into hundreds of +stupid sentences. + +About five o'clock the guns eased off of Kelly's. + +To inexperienced eyes they did not seem to have done very much damage, +but afterwards one found that although the walls were standing and +apparently solid there was no inside to the house. From roof to basement +the building was bare as a dog kennel. There were no floors inside, +there was nothing there but blank space; and on the ground within was +the tumble and rubbish that had been roof and floors and furniture. +Everything inside was smashed and pulverised into scrap and dust, and +the only objects that had consistency and their ancient shape were the +bricks that fell when the shells struck them. + +Rifle shots had begun to strike the house on the further side of the +street, a jewellers' shop called Hopkins & Hopkins. The impact of these +balls on the bricks was louder than the sound of the shot which +immediately succeeded, and each bullet that struck brought down a shower +of fine red dust from the walls. Perhaps thirty or forty shots in all +were fired at Hopkins', and then, except for an odd crack, firing +ceased. + +During all this time there had been no reply from the Volunteers, and I +thought they must be husbanding their ammunition, and so must be short +of it, and that it would be only a matter of a few days before the end. +All this, I said to myself, will be finished in a few days, and they +will be finished; life here will recommence exactly where it left off, +and except for some newly-filled graves, all will be as it had been +until they become a tradition and enter the imagination of their race. + +I spoke to several of the people about me, and found the same +willingness to exchange news that I had found elsewhere in the City, and +the same reticences as regarded their private opinions. Two of them, +indeed, and they were the only two I met with during the insurrection, +expressed, although in measured terms, admiration for the Volunteers, +and while they did not side with them they did not say anything against +them. One was a labouring man, the other a gentleman. The remark of the +latter was: + +"I am an Irishman, and (pointing to the shells that were bursting +through the windows in front of us) I hate to see that being done to +other Irishmen." + +He had come from some part of the country to spend the Easter Holidays +in Dublin, and was unable to leave town again. + +The labouring man--he was about fifty-six years of age--spoke very +quietly and collectedly about the insurrection. He was a type with whom +I had come very little in contact, and I was surprised to find how +simple and good his speech was, and how calm his ideas. He thought +labour was in this movement to a greater extent than was imagined. I +mentioned that Liberty Hall had been blown up, and that the garrison had +either surrendered or been killed. He replied that a gunboat had that +morning come up the river and had blown Liberty Hall into smash, but, he +added, there were no men in it. All the Labour Volunteers had marched +with Connolly into the Post Office. + +He said the Labour Volunteers might possibly number about one thousand +men, but that it would be quite safe to say eight hundred, and he held +that the Labour Volunteers, or the Citizens' Army, as they called +themselves, had always been careful not to reveal their numbers. They +had always announced that they possessed about two hundred and fifty +men, and had never paraded any more than that number at any one time. +Workingmen, he continued, knew that the men who marched were always +different men. The police knew it, too, but they thought that the +Citizens Army was the _most deserted-from force_ in the world. + +The men, however, were not deserters--you don't, he said, desert a man +like Connolly, and they were merely taking their turn at being drilled +and disciplined. They were raised against the police who, in the big +strike of two years ago, had acted towards them with unparallelled +savagery, and the men had determined that the police would never again +find them thus disorganised. + +This man believed that every member of the Citizen Army had marched with +their leader. + +"The men, I know," said he, "would not be afraid of anything, and," he +continued, "they are in the Post Office now." + +"What chance have they?" + +"None," he replied, "and they never said they had, and they never +thought they would have any." + +"How long do you think they'll be able to hold out?" + +He nodded towards the house that had been bombarded by heavy guns. + +"That will root them out of it quick enough," was his reply. + +"I'm going home," said he then, "the people will be wondering if I'm +dead or alive," and he walked away from that sad street, as I did myself +a few minutes afterwards. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + THURSDAY. + + +Again, the rumours greeted one. This place had fallen and had not +fallen. Such a position had been captured by the soldiers; recaptured by +the Volunteers, and had not been attacked at all. But certainly fighting +was proceeding. Up Mount Street, the rifle volleys were continuous, and +the coming and going of ambulance cars from that direction were +continuous also. Some spoke of pitched battles on the bridge, and said +that as yet the advantage lay with the Volunteers. + +At 11.30 there came the sound of heavy guns firing in the direction of +Sackville Street. I went on the roof, and remained there for some time. +From this height the sounds could be heard plainly. There was sustained +firing along the whole central line of the City, from the Green down to +Trinity College, and from thence to Sackville Street, and the report of +the various types of arm could be easily distinguished. There were +rifles, machine guns and very heavy cannon. There was another sound +which I could not put a name to, something that coughed out over all the +other sounds, a short, sharp bark, or rather a short noise something +like the popping of a tremendous cork. + +I met D.H. His chief emotion is one of astonishment at the organizing +powers displayed by the Volunteers. We have exchanged rumours, and found +that our equipment in this direction is almost identical. He says Sheehy +Skeffington has been killed. That he was arrested in a house wherein +arms were found, and was shot out of hand. + +I hope this is another rumour, for, so far as my knowledge of him goes, +he was not with the Volunteers, and it is said that he was antagonistic +to the forcible methods for which the Volunteers stood. But the tale of +his death is so persistent that one is inclined to believe it. + +He was the most absurdly courageous man I have ever met with or heard +of. He has been in every trouble that has touched Ireland these ten +years back, and he has always been in on the generous side, therefore, +and naturally, on the side that was unpopular and weak. It would seem +indeed that a cause had only to be weak to gain his sympathy, and his +sympathy never stayed at home. There are so many good people who +"sympathise" with this or that cause, and, having given that measure of +their emotion, they give no more of it or of anything else. But he +rushed instantly to the street. A large stone, the lift of a footpath, +the base of a statue, any place and every place was for him a pulpit; +and, in the teeth of whatever oppression or disaster or power, he said +his say. + +There are multitudes of men in Dublin of all classes and creeds who can +boast that they kicked Sheehy Skeffington, or that they struck him on +the head with walking sticks and umbrellas, or that they smashed their +fists into his face, and jumped on him when he fell. It is by no means +an exaggeration to say that these things were done to him, and it is +true that he bore ill-will to no man, and that he accepted blows, and +indignities and ridicule with the pathetic candour of a child who is +disguised as a man, and whose disguise cannot come off. His tongue, his +pen, his body, all that he had and hoped for were at the immediate +service of whoever was bewildered or oppressed. He has been shot. Other +men have been shot, but they faced the guns knowing that they faced +justice, however stern and oppressive; and that what they had engaged to +confront was before them. He had no such thought to soothe from his mind +anger or unforgiveness. He who was a pacifist was compelled to revolt to +his last breath, and on the instruments of his end he must have looked +as on murderers. I am sure that to the end he railed against oppression, +and that he fell marvelling that the world can truly be as it is. With +his death there passed away a brave man and a clean soul. + +Later on this day I met Mrs. Sheehy Skeffington in the street. She +confirmed the rumour that her husband had been arrested on the previous +day, but further than that she had no news. So far as I know the sole +crime of which her husband had been guilty was that he called for a +meeting of the citizens to enrol special constables and prevent looting. + +Among the rumours it was stated with every accent of certitude that +Madame Markievicz had been captured in George's Street, and taken to the +Castle. It was also current that Sir Roger Casement had been captured at +sea and had already been shot in the Tower of London. The names of +several Volunteer Leaders are mentioned as being dead. But the surmise +that steals timidly from one mouth flies boldly as a certitude from +every mouth that repeats it, and truth itself would now be listened to +with only a gossip's ear, but no person would believe a word of it. + +This night also was calm and beautiful, but this night was the most +sinister and woeful of those that have passed. The sound of artillery, +of rifles, machine guns, grenades, did not cease even for a moment. From +my window I saw a red flare that crept to the sky, and stole over it and +remained there glaring; the smoke reached from the ground to the clouds, +and I could see great red sparks go soaring to enormous heights; while +always, in the calm air, hour after hour there was the buzzing and +rattling and thudding of guns, and, but for the guns, silence. + +It is in a dead silence this Insurrection is being fought, and one +imagines what must be the feeling of these men, young for the most part, +and unused to violence, who are submitting silently to the crash and +flame and explosion by which they are surrounded. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + FRIDAY. + + +This morning there are no newspapers, no bread, no milk, no news. The +sun is shining, and the streets are lively but discreet. All people +continue to talk to one another without distinction of class, but nobody +knows what any person thinks. + +It is a little singular the number of people who are smiling. I fancy +they were listening to the guns last night, and they are smiling this +morning because the darkness is past, and because the sun is shining, +and because they can move their limbs in space, and may talk without +having to sink their voices to a whisper. Guns do not sound so bad in +the day as they do at night, and no person can feel lonely while the sun +shines. + +The men are smiling, but the women laugh, and their laughter does not +displease, for whatever women do in whatever circumstances appears to +have a rightness of its own. It seems right that they should scream +when danger to themselves is imminent, and it seems right that they +should laugh when the danger only threatens others. + +It is rumoured this morning that Sackville Street has been burned out +and levelled to the ground. It is said that the end is in sight; and, it +is said, that matters are, if anything rather worse than better. That +the Volunteers have sallied from some of their strongholds and +entrenched themselves, and that in one place alone (the South Lotts) +they have seven machine guns. That when the houses which they held +became untenable they rushed out and seized other houses, and that, +pursuing these tactics, there seemed no reason to believe that the +Insurrection would ever come to an end. That the streets are filled with +Volunteers in plain clothes, but having revolvers in their pockets. That +the streets are filled with soldiers equally revolvered and plain +clothed, and that the least one says on any subject the less one would +have to answer for. + +The feeling that I tapped was definitely Anti-Volunteer, but the number +of people who would speak was few, and one regarded the noncommital +folk who were so smiling and polite, and so prepared to talk, with much +curiosity, seeking to read in their eyes, in their bearing, even in the +cut of their clothes what might be the secret movements and cogitations +of their minds. + +I received the impression that numbers of them did not care a rap what +way it went; and that others had ceased to be mental creatures and were +merely machines for registering the sensations of the time. + +None of these people were prepared for Insurrection. The thing had been +sprung on them so suddenly that they were unable to take sides, and +their feeling of detachment was still so complete that they would have +betted on the business as if it had been a horse race or a dog fight. + +Many English troops have been landed each night, and it is believed that +there are more than sixty thousand soldiers in Dublin alone, and that +they are supplied with every offensive contrivance which military art +has invented. + +Merrion Square is strongly held by the soldiers. They are posted along +both sides of the road at intervals of about twenty paces, and their +guns are continually barking up at the roofs which surround them in the +great square. It is said that these roofs are held by the Volunteers +from Mount Street Bridge to the Square, and that they hold in like +manner wide stretches of the City. + +They appear to have mapped out the roofs with all the thoroughness that +had hitherto been expended on the roads, and upon these roofs they are +so mobile and crafty and so much at home that the work of the soldiers +will be exceedingly difficult as well as dangerous. + +Still, and notwithstanding, men can only take to the roofs for a short +time. Up there, there can be no means of transport, and their +ammunition, as well as their food, will very soon be used up. It is the +beginning of the end, and the fact that they have to take to the roofs, +even though that be in their programme, means that they are finished. + +From the roof there comes the sound of machine guns. Looking towards +Sackville Street one picks out easily Nelson's Pillar, which towers +slenderly over all the buildings of the neighbourhood. It is wreathed in +smoke. Another towering building was the D.B.C. Café. Its Chinese-like +pagoda was a landmark easily to be found, but to-day I could not find +it. It was not there, and I knew that, even if all Sackville Street was +not burned down, as rumour insisted, this great Café had certainly been +curtailed by its roof and might, perhaps, have been completely burned. + +On the gravel paths I found pieces of charred and burnt paper. These +scraps must have been blown remarkably high to have crossed all the +roofs that lie between Sackville Street and Merrion Square. + +At eleven o'clock there is continuous firing, and snipers firing from +the direction of Mount Street, and in every direction of the City these +sounds are being duplicated. + +In Camden Street the sniping and casualties are said to have been very +heavy. One man saw two Volunteers taken from a house by the soldiers. +They were placed kneeling in the centre of the road, and within one +minute of their capture they were dead. Simultaneously there fell +several of the firing party. + +An officer in this part had his brains blown into the roadway. A young +girl ran into the road picked up his cap and scraped the brains into it. +She covered this poor debris with a little straw, and carried the hat +piously to the nearest hospital in order that the brains might be buried +with their owner. + +The continuation of her story was less gloomy although it affected the +teller equally. + +"There is not," said she, "a cat or a dog left alive in Camden Street. +They are lying stiff out in the road and up on the roofs. There's lots +of women will be sorry for this war," said she, "and their pets killed +on them." + +In many parts of the City hunger began to be troublesome. A girl told me +that her family, and another that had taken refuge with them, had eaten +nothing for three days. On this day her father managed to get two loaves +of bread somewhere, and he brought these home. + +"When," said the girl, "my father came in with the bread the whole +fourteen of us ran at him, and in a minute we were all ashamed for the +loaves were gone to the last crumb, and we were all as hungry as we had +been before he came in. The poor man," said she, "did not even get a bit +for himself." She held that the poor people were against the Volunteers. + +The Volunteers still hold Jacob's Biscuit Factory. It is rumoured that a +priest visited them and counselled surrender, and they replied that they +did not go there to surrender but to be killed. They asked him to give +them absolution, and the story continues that he refused to do so--but +this is not (in its latter part) a story that can easily be credited. +The Adelaide Hospital is close to this factory, and it is possible that +the proximity of the hospital, delays or hinders military operations +against the factory. + +Rifle volleys are continuous about Merrion Square, and prolonged machine +gun firing can be heard also. + +During the night the firing was heavy from almost every direction; and +in the direction of Sackville Street a red glare told again of fire. + +It is hard to get to bed these nights. It is hard even to sit down, for +the moment one does sit down one stands immediately up again resuming +that ridiculous ship's march from the window to the wall and back. I am +foot weary as I have never been before in my life, but I cannot say that +I am excited. No person in Dublin is excited, but there exists a state +of tension and expectancy which is mentally more exasperating than any +excitement could be. The absence of news is largely responsible for +this. We do not know what has happened, what is happening, or what is +going to happen, and the reversion to barbarism (for barbarism is +largely a lack of news) disturbs us. + +Each night we have got to bed at last murmuring, "I wonder will it be +all over to-morrow," and this night the like question accompanied us. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + SATURDAY. + + +This morning also there has been no bread, no milk, no meat, no +newspapers, but the sun is shining. It is astonishing that, thus early +in the Spring, the weather should be so beautiful. + +It is stated freely that the Post Office has been taken, and just as +freely it is averred that it has not been taken. The approaches to +Merrion Square are held by the military, and I was not permitted to go +to my office. As I came to this point shots were fired at a motor car +which had not stopped on being challenged. Bystanders said it was Sir +Horace Plunkett's car, and that he had been shot. Later we found that +Sir Horace was not hurt, but that his nephew who drove the car had been +severely wounded. + +At this hour the rumour of the fall of Verdun was persistent. Later on +it was denied, as was denied the companion rumour of the relief of Kut. +Saw R. who had spent three days and the whole of his money in getting +home from County Clare. He had heard that Mrs. Sheehy Skeffington's +house was raided, and that two dead bodies had been taken out of it. Saw +Miss P. who seemed sad. I do not know what her politics are, but I think +that the word "kindness" might be used to cover all her activities. She +has a heart of gold, and the courage of many lions. I then met Mr. +Commissioner Bailey who said the Volunteers had sent a deputation, and +that terms of surrender were being discussed. I hope this is true, and I +hope mercy will be shown to the men. Nobody believes there will be any +mercy shown, and it is freely reported that they are shot in the street, +or are taken to the nearest barracks and shot there. The belief grows +that no person who is now in the Insurrection will be alive when the +Insurrection is ended. + +That is as it will be. But these days the thought of death does not +strike on the mind with any severity, and, should the European war +continue much longer, the fear of death will entirely depart from man, +as it has departed many times in history. With that great deterrent +gone our rulers will be gravely at a loss in dealing with strikers and +other such discontented people. Possibly they will have to resurrect the +long-buried idea of torture. + +The people in the streets are laughing and chatting. Indeed, there is +gaiety in the air as well as sunshine, and no person seems to care that +men are being shot every other minute, or bayoneted, or blown into +scraps or burned into cinders. These things are happening, nevertheless, +but much of their importance has vanished. + +I met a man at the Green who was drawing a plan on the back of an +envelope. The problem was how his questioner was to get from where he +was standing to a street lying at the other side of the river, and the +plan as drawn insisted that to cover this quarter of an hour's distance +he must set out on a pilgrimage of more than twenty miles. Another young +boy was standing near embracing a large ham. He had been trying for +three days to convey his ham to a house near the Gresham Hotel where his +sister lived. He had almost given up hope, and he hearkened +intelligently to the idea that he should himself eat the ham and so get +rid of it. + +The rifle fire was persistent all day, but, saving in certain +localities, it was not heavy. Occasionally the machine guns rapped in. +There was no sound of heavy artillery. + +The rumour grows that the Post Office has been evacuated, and that the +Volunteers are at large and spreading everywhere across the roofs. The +rumour grows also that terms of surrender are being discussed, and that +Sackville Street has been levelled to the ground. + +At half-past seven in the evening calm is almost complete. The sound of +a rifle shot being only heard at long intervals. + +I got to bed this night earlier than usual. At two o'clock I left the +window from which a red flare is yet visible in the direction of +Sackville Street. The morning will tell if the Insurrection is finished +or not, but at this hour all is not over. Shots are ringing all around +and down my street, and the vicious crackling of these rifles grow at +times into regular volleys. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + SUNDAY. + + +The Insurrection has not ceased. + +There is much rifle fire, but no sound from the machine guns or the +eighteen pounders and trench mortars. + +From the window of my kitchen the flag of the Republic can be seen +flying afar. This is the flag that flies over Jacob's Biscuit Factory, +and I will know that the Insurrection has ended as soon as I see this +flag pulled down. + +When I went out there were few people in the streets. I met D.H., and, +together, we passed up the Green. The Republican flag was still flying +over the College of Surgeons. We tried to get down Grafton Street (where +broken windows and two gaping interiors told of the recent visit of +looters), but a little down this street we were waved back by armed +sentries. We then cut away by the Gaiety Theatre into Mercer's Street, +where immense lines of poor people were drawn up waiting for the +opening of the local bakery. We got into George's Street, thinking to +turn down Dame Street and get from thence near enough to Sackville +Street to see if the rumours about its destruction were true, but here +also we were halted by the military, and had to retrace our steps. + +There was no news of any kind to be gathered from the people we talked +to, nor had they even any rumours. + +This was the first day I had been able to get even a short distance +outside of my own quarter, and it seemed that the people of my quarter +were more able in the manufacture of news or more imaginative than were +the people who live in other parts of the city. We had no sooner struck +into home parts than we found news. We were told that two of the +Volunteer leaders had been shot. These were Pearse and Connolly. The +latter was reported as lying in the Castle Hospital with a fractured +thigh. Pearse was cited as dead with two hundred of his men, following +their sally from the Post Office. The machine guns had caught them as +they left, and none of them remained alive. The news seemed afterwards +to be true except that instead of Pearse it was The O'Rahilly who had +been killed. Pearse died later and with less excitement. + +A man who had seen an English newspaper said that the Kut force had +surrendered to the Turk, but that Verdun had not fallen to the Germans. +The rumour was current also that a great naval battle had been fought +whereat the German fleet had been totally destroyed with loss to the +English of eighteen warships. It was said that among the captured +Volunteers there had been a large body of Germans, but nobody believed +it; and this rumour was inevitably followed by the tale that there were +one hundred German submarines lying in the Stephen's Green pond. + +At half-past two I met Mr. Commissioner Bailey, who told me that it was +all over, and that the Volunteers were surrendering everywhere in the +city. A motor car with two military officers, and two Volunteer leaders +had driven to the College of Surgeons and been admitted. After a short +interval Madame Marckievicz marched out of the College at the head of +about 100 men, and they had given up their arms; the motor car with the +Volunteer leaders was driving to other strongholds, and it was expected +that before nightfall the capitulations would be complete. + +I started home, and on the way I met a man whom I had encountered some +days previously, and from whom rumours had sprung as though he wove them +from his entrails, as a spider weaves his web. He was no less provided +on this occasion, and it was curious to listen to his tale of English +defeats on every front. He announced the invasion of England in six +different quarters, the total destruction of the English fleet, and the +landing of immense German armies on the West coast of Ireland. He made +these things up in his head. Then he repeated them to himself in a loud +voice, and became somehow persuaded that they had been told to him by a +well-informed stranger, and then he believed them and told them to +everybody he met. Amongst other things Spain had declared war on our +behalf, the Chilian Navy was hastening to our relief. For a pin he +would have sent France flying westward all forgetful of her own war. A +singular man truly, and as I do think the only thoroughly happy person +in our city. + +It is half-past three o'clock, and from my window the Republican flag +can still be seen flying over Jacob's factory. There is occasional +shooting, but the city as a whole is quiet. At a quarter to five o'clock +a heavy gun boomed once. Ten minutes later there was heavy machine gun +firing and much rifle shooting. In another ten minutes the flag at +Jacob's was hauled down. + +During the remainder of the night sniping and military replies were +incessant, particularly in my street. + +The raids have begun in private houses. Count Plunkett's house was +entered by the military who remained there for a very long time. Passing +home about two minutes after Proclamation hour I was pursued for the +whole of Fitzwilliam Square by bullets. They buzzed into the roadway +beside me, and the sound as they whistled near was curious. The sound is +something like that made by a very swift saw, and one gets the +impression that as well as being very swift they are very heavy. + +Snipers are undoubtedly on the roofs opposite my house, and they are not +asleep on these roofs. Possibly it is difficult to communicate with +these isolated bands the news of their companions' surrender, but it is +likely they will learn, by the diminution of fire in other quarters that +their work is over. + +In the morning on looking from my window I saw four policemen marching +into the street. They were the first I had seen for a week. Soon now the +military tale will finish, the police story will commence, the political +story will recommence, and, perhaps, the weeks that follow this one will +sow the seed of more hatred than so many centuries will be able to +uproot again, for although Irish people do not greatly fear the military +they fear the police, and they have very good reason to do so. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + THE INSURRECTION IS OVER. + + +The Insurrection is over, and it is worth asking what has happened, how +it has happened, and why it happened? + +The first question is easily answered. The finest part of our city has +been blown to smithereens, and burned into ashes. Soldiers amongst us +who have served abroad say that the ruin of this quarter is more +complete than any thing they have seen at Ypres, than anything they have +seen anywhere in France or Flanders. A great number of our men and women +and children, Volunteers and civilians confounded alike, are dead, and +some fifty thousand men who have been moved with military equipment to +our land are now being removed therefrom. The English nation has been +disorganised no more than as they were affected by the transport of +these men and material. That is what happened, and it is all that +happened. + +How it happened is another matter, and one which, perhaps, will not be +made clear for years. All we know in Dublin is that our city burst into +a kind of spontaneous war; that we lived through it during one singular +week, and that it faded away and disappeared almost as swiftly as it had +come. The men who knew about it are, with two exceptions, dead, and +these two exceptions are in gaol, and likely to remain there long +enough. (Since writing one of these men has been shot.) + +Why it happened is a question that may be answered more particularly. It +happened because the leader of the Irish Party misrepresented his people +in the English House of Parliament. On the day of the declaration of war +between England and Germany he took the Irish case, weighty with eight +centuries of history and tradition, and he threw it out of the window. +He pledged Ireland to a particular course of action, and he had no +authority to give this pledge and he had no guarantee that it would be +met. The ramshackle intelligence of his party and his own emotional +nature betrayed him and us and England. He swore Ireland to loyalty as +if he had Ireland in his pocket, and could answer for her. Ireland has +never been disloyal to England, not even at this epoch, because she has +never been loyal to England, and the profession of her National faith +has been unwavering, has been known to every English person alive, and +has been clamant to all the world beside. + +Is it that he wanted to be cheered? He could very easily have stated +Ireland's case truthfully, and have proclaimed a benevolent neutrality +(if he cared to use the grandiloquent words) on the part of this +country. He would have gotten his cheers, he would in a few months have +gotten Home Rule in return for Irish soldiers. He would have received +politically whatever England could have safely given him. But, alas, +these carefulnesses did not chime with his emotional moment. They were +not magnificent enough for one who felt that he was talking not to +Ireland or to England, but to the whole gaping and eager earth, and so +he pledged his country's credit so deeply that he did not leave her even +one National rag to cover herself with. + +After a lie truth bursts out, and it is no longer the radiant and +serene goddess knew or hoped for--it is a disease, it is a moral +syphilis and will ravage until the body in which it can dwell has been +purged. Mr. Redmond told the lie and he is answerable to England for the +violence she had to be guilty of, and to Ireland for the desolation to +which we have had to submit. Without his lie there had been no +Insurrection; without it there had been at this moment, and for a year +past, an end to the "Irish question." Ireland must in ages gone have +been guilty of abominable crimes or she could not at this juncture have +been afflicted with a John Redmond. + +He is the immediate cause of this our latest Insurrection--the word is +big, much too big for the deed, and we should call it row, or riot, or +squabble, in order to draw the fact down to its dimensions, but the +ultimate blame for the trouble between the two countries does not fall +against Ireland. + +The fault lies with England, and in these days while an effort is being +made (interrupted, it is true, by cannon) to found a better +understanding between the two nations it is well that England should +recognize what she has done to Ireland, and should try at least to +atone for it. The situation can be explained almost in a phrase. We are +a little country and you, a huge country, have persistently beaten us. +We are a poor country and you, the richest country in the world, have +persistently robbed us. That is the historical fact, and whatever +national or political necessities are opposed in reply, it is true that +you have never given Ireland any reason to love you, and you cannot +claim her affection without hypocrisy or stupidity. + +You think our people can only be tenacious in hate--it is a lie. Our +historical memory is truly tenacious, but during the long and miserable +tale of our relations you have never given us one generosity to remember +you by, and you must not claim our affection or our devotion until you +are worthy of them. We are a good people; almost we are the only +Christian people left in the world, nor has any nation shown such +forbearance towards their persecutor as we have always shown to you. No +nation has forgiven its enemies as we have forgiven you, time after time +down the miserable generations, the continuity of forgiveness only +equalled by the continuity of your ill-treatment. Between our two +countries you have kept and protected a screen of traders and +politicians who are just as truly your enemies as they are ours. In the +end they will do most harm to you for we are by this vaccinated against +misery but you are not, and the "loyalists" who sell their own country +for a shilling will sell another country for a penny when the +opportunity comes and safety with it. + +Meanwhile do not always hasten your presents to us out of a gun. You +have done it so often that your guns begin to bore us, and you have now +an opportunity which may never occur again to make us your friends. +There is no bitterness in Ireland against you on account of this war, +and the lack of ill-feeling amongst us is entirely due to the more than +admirable behaviour of the soldiers whom you sent over here. A peace +that will last for ever can be made with Ireland if you wish to make it, +but you must take her hand at once, for in a few months' time she will +not open it to you; the old, bad relations will re-commence, the rancor +will be born and grow, and another memory will be stored away in +Ireland's capacious and retentive brain. + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + THE VOLUNTEERS. + + +There is much talk of the extraordinary organising powers displayed in +the insurrection, but in truth there was nothing extraordinary in it. +The real essence and singularity of the rising exists in its simplicity, +and, saving for the courage which carried it out, the word extraordinary +is misplaced in this context. + +The tactics of the Volunteers as they began to emerge were reduced to +the very skeleton of "strategy." It was only that they seized certain +central and stragetical districts, garrisoned those and held them until +they were put out of them. Once in their forts there was no further +egress by the doors, and for purpose of entry and sortie they used the +skylights and the roofs. On the roofs they had plenty of cover, and this +cover conferred on them a mobility which was their chief asset, and +which alone enabled them to protract the rebellion beyond the first day. + +This was the entire of their home plan, and there is no doubt that they +had studied Dublin roofs and means of inter-communication by roofs with +the closest care. Further than that I do not think they had organised +anything. But this was only the primary plan, and, unless they were +entirely mad, there must have been a sequel to it which did not +materialise, and which would have materialised but that the English +Fleet blocked the way. + +There is no doubt that they expected the country to rise with them, and +they must have known what their own numbers were, and what chance they +had of making a protracted resistance. The word "resistance" is the +keyword of the rising, and the plan of holding out must have been +rounded off with a date. At that date something else was to have +happened which would relieve them. + +There is not much else that could happen except the landing of German +troops in Ireland or in England. It would have been, I think, immaterial +to them where these were landed, but the reasoning seems to point to the +fact that they expected and had arranged for such a landing, although +on this point there is as yet no evidence. + +The logic of this is so simple, so plausible, that it might be accepted +without further examination, and yet further examination is necessary, +for in a country like Ireland logic and plausibility are more often +wrong than right. It may just as easily be that except for furnishing +some arms and ammunition Germany was not in the rising at all, and this +I prefer to believe. It had been current long before the rising that the +Volunteers knew they could not seriously embarass England, and that +their sole aim was to make such a row in Ireland that the Irish question +would take the status of an international one, and on the discussion of +terms of peace in the European war the claims of Ireland would have to +be considered by the whole Council of Europe and the world. + +That is, in my opinion, the metaphysic behind the rising. It is quite +likely that they hoped for German aid, possibly some thousands of men, +who would enable them to prolong the row, but I do not believe they +expected German armies, nor do I think they would have welcomed these +with any cordiality. + +In this insurrection there are two things which are singular in the +history of Irish risings. One is that there were no informers, or there +were no informers among the chiefs. I did hear people say in the streets +that two days before the rising they knew it was to come; they +invariably added that they had not believed the news, and had laughed at +it. A priest said the same thing in my hearing, and it may be that the +rumour was widely spread, and that everybody, including the authorities, +looked upon it as a joke. + +The other singularity of the rising is the amazing silence in which it +was fought. Nothing spoke but the guns; and the Volunteers on the one +side and the soldiers on the other potted each other and died in +whispers; it might have been said that both sides feared the Germans +would hear them and take advantage of their preoccupation. + +There is a third reason given for the rebellion, and it also is divorced +from foreign plots. It is said, and the belief in Dublin was widespread, +that the Government intended to raid the Volunteers and seize their +arms. One remembers to-day the paper which Alderman Kelly read to the +Dublin Corporation, and which purported to be State Instructions that +the Military and Police should raid the Volunteers, and seize their arms +and leaders. The Volunteers had sworn they would not permit their arms +to be taken from them. A list of the places to be raided was given, and +the news created something of a sensation in Ireland when it was +published that evening. The Press, by instruction apparently, repudiated +this document, but the Volunteers, with most of the public, believed it +to be true, and it is more than likely that the rebellion took place in +order to forestall the Government. + +This is also an explanation of the rebellion, and is just as good a one +as any other. It is the explanation which I believe to be the true one. + +All the talk of German invasion and the landing of German troops in +Ireland is so much nonsense in view of the fact that England is master +of the seas, and that from a week before the war down to this date she +has been the undisputed monarch of those ridges. During this war there +will be no landing of troops in either England or Ireland unless Germany +in the meantime can solve the problem of submarine transport. It is a +problem which will be solved some day, for every problem can be solved, +but it will hardly be during the progress of this war. The men at the +head of the Volunteers were not geniuses, neither were they fools, and +the difficulty of acquiring military aid from Germany must have seemed +as insurmountable to them as it does to the Germans themselves. They +rose because they felt that they had to do so, or be driven like sheep +into the nearest police barracks, and be laughed at by the whole of +Ireland as cowards and braggarts. + +It would be interesting to know why, on the eve of the insurrection, +Professor MacNeill resigned the presidency of the Volunteers. The story +of treachery which was heard in the streets is not the true one, for men +of his type are not traitors, and this statement may be dismissed +without further comment or notice. One is left to imagine what can have +happened during the conference which is said to have preceded the +rising, and which ended with the resignation of Professor MacNeill. + +This is my view, or my imagining, of what occurred. The conference was +called because the various leaders felt that a hostile movement was +projected by the Government, and that the times were exceedingly black +for them. Neither Mr. Birrell nor Sir Mathew Nathan had any desire that +there should be a conflict in Ireland during the war. This cannot be +doubted. From such a conflict there might follow all kinds of political +repercussions; but although the Government favoured the policy of +_laissez faire_, there was a powerful military and political party in +Ireland whose whole effort was towards the disarming and punishment of +the Volunteers--particularly I should say the punishment of the +Volunteers. I believe, or rather I imagine, that Professor MacNeill was +approached at the instance of Mr. Birrell or Sir Mathew Nathan and +assured that the Government did not meditate any move against his men, +and that so long as his Volunteers remained quiet they would not be +molested by the authorities. I would say that Professor MacNeill gave +and accepted the necessary assurances, and that when he informed his +conference of what had occurred, and found that they did not believe +faith would be kept with them, he resigned in the dispairing hope that +his action might turn them from a purpose which he considered lunatic, +or, at least, by restraining a number of his followers from rising, he +might limit the tale of men who would be uselessly killed. + +He was not alone in his vote against a rising. The O'Rahilly and some +others are reputed to have voted with him, but when insurrection was +decided on, the O'Rahilly marched with his men, and surely a gallant man +could not have done otherwise. + +When the story of what occurred is authoritatively written (it may be +written) I think that this will be found to be the truth of the matter, +and that German intrigue and German money counted for so little in the +insurrection as to be negligible. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + SOME OF THE LEADERS. + + +Meanwhile the insurrection, like all its historical forerunners, has +been quelled in blood. It sounds rhetorical to say so, but it was not +quelled in peasoup or tisane. While it lasted the fighting was very +determined, and it is easily, I think, the most considerable of Irish +rebellions. + +The country was not with it, for be it remembered that a whole army of +Irishmen, possibly three hundred thousand of our race, are fighting with +England instead of against her. In Dublin alone there is scarcely a poor +home in which a father, a brother, or a son is not serving in one of the +many fronts which England is defending. Had the country risen, and +fought as stubbornly as the Volunteers did, no troops could have beaten +them--well that is a wild statement, the heavy guns could always beat +them--but from whatever angle Irish people consider this affair it must +appear to them tragic and lamentable beyond expression, but not mean +and not unheroic. + +It was hard enough that our men in the English armies should be slain +for causes which no amount of explanation will ever render less foreign +to us, or even intelligible; but that our men who were left should be +killed in Ireland fighting against the same England that their brothers +are fighting for ties the question into such knots of contradiction as +we may give up trying to unravel. We can only think--this has +happened--and let it unhappen itself as best it may. + +We say that the time always finds the man, and by it we mean: that when +a responsibility is toward there will be found some shoulder to bend for +the yoke which all others shrink from. It is not always nor often the +great ones of the earth who undertake these burdens--it is usually the +good folk, that gentle hierarchy who swear allegiance to mournfulness +and the under dog, as others dedicate themselves to mutton chops and the +easy nymph. It is not my intention to idealise any of the men who were +concerned in this rebellion. Their country will, some few years hence, +do that as adequately as she has done it for those who went before them. + +Those of the leaders whom I knew were not great men, nor brilliant--that +is they were more scholars than thinkers, and more thinkers than men of +action; and I believe that in no capacity could they have attained to +what is called eminence, nor do I consider they coveted any such public +distinction as is noted in that word. + +But in my definition they were good men--men, that is, who willed no +evil, and whose movements of body or brain were unselfish and healthy. +No person living is the worse off for having known Thomas MacDonagh, and +I, at least, have never heard MacDonagh speak unkindly or even harshly +of anything that lived. It has been said of him that his lyrics were +epical; in a measure it is true, and it is true in the same measure that +his death was epical. He was the first of the leaders who was tried and +shot. It was not easy for him to die leaving behind two young children +and a young wife, and the thought that his last moment must have been +tormented by their memory is very painful. We are all fatalists when we +strike against power, and I hope he put care from him as the soldiers +marched him out. + +The O'Rahilly also I knew, but not intimately, and I can only speak of a +good humour, a courtesy, and an energy that never failed. He was a man +of unceasing ideas and unceasing speech, and laughter accompanied every +sound made by his lips. + +Plunkett and Pearse I knew also, but not intimately. Young Plunkett, as +he was always called, would never strike one as a militant person. He, +like Pearse and MacDonagh, wrote verse, and it was no better nor worse +than their's were. He had an appetite for quaint and difficult +knowledge. He studied Egyptian and Sanscrit, and distant curious matter +of that sort, and was interested in inventions and the theatre. He was +tried and sentenced and shot. + +As to Pearse, I do not know how to place him, nor what to say of him. If +there was an idealist among the men concerned in this insurrection it +was he, and if there was any person in the world less fitted to head an +insurrection it was he also. I never could "touch" or sense in him the +qualities which other men spoke of, and which made him military +commandant of the rising. None of these men were magnetic in the sense +that Mr. Larkin is magnetic, and I would have said that Pearse was less +magnetic than any of the others. Yet it was to him and around him they +clung. + +Men must find some centre either of power or action or intellect about +which they may group themselves, and I think that Pearse became the +leader because his temperament was more profoundly emotional than any of +the others. He was emotional not in a flighty, but in a serious way, and +one felt more that he suffered than that he enjoyed. + +He had a power; men who came into intimate contact with him began to act +differently to their own desires and interests. His schoolmasters did +not always receive their salaries with regularity. The reason that he +did not pay them was the simple one that he had no money. Given by +another man this explanation would be uneconomic, but from him it was so +logical that even a child could comprehend it. These masters did not +always leave him. They remained, marvelling perhaps, and accepting, even +with stupefaction, the theory that children must be taught, but that no +such urgency is due towards the payment of wages. One of his boys said +there was no fun in telling lies to Mr. Pearse, for, however outrageous +the lie, he always believed it. He built and renovated and improved his +school because the results were good for his scholars, and somehow he +found builders to undertake these forlorn hopes. + +It was not, I think, that he "put his trust in God," but that when +something had to be done he did it, and entirely disregarded logic or +economics or force. He said--such a thing has to be done and so far as +one man can do it I will do it, and he bowed straightaway to the task. + +It is mournful to think of men like these having to take charge of +bloody and desolate work, and one can imagine them say, "Oh! cursed +spite," as they accepted responsibility. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + LABOUR AND THE INSURRECTION. + + +No person in Ireland seems to have exact information about the +Volunteers, their aims, or their numbers. We know the names of the +leaders now. They were recited to us with the tale of their execution; +and with the declaration of a Republic we learned something of their +aim, but the estimate of their number runs through the figures ten, +thirty, and fifty thousand. The first figure is undoubtedly too slender, +the last excessive, and something between fifteen and twenty thousand +for all Ireland would be a reasonable guess. + +Of these, the Citizen Army or Labour side of the Volunteers, would not +number more than one thousand men, and it is with difficulty such a +figure could be arrived at. Yet it is freely argued, and the theory will +grow, that the causes of this latest insurrection should be sought among +the labour problems of Dublin rather than in any national or patriotic +sentiment, and this theory is buttressed by all the agile facts which +such a theory would be furnished with. + +It is an interesting view, but in my opinion it is an erroneous one. + +That Dublin labour was in the Volunteer movement to the strength of, +perhaps, two hundred men, may be true--it is possible there were more, +but it is unlikely that a greater number, or, as many, of the Citizen +Army marched when the order came. The overwhelming bulk of Volunteers +were actuated by the patriotic ideal which is the heritage and the +burden of almost every Irishman born out of the Unionist circle, and +their connection with labour was much more manual than mental. + +This view of the importance of labour to the Volunteers is held by two +distinct and opposed classes. + +Just as there are some who find the explanation of life in a sexual +formula, so there is a class to whom the economic idea is very dear, and +beneath every human activity they will discover the shock of wages and +profit. It is truly there, but it pulls no more than its weight, and in +Irish life the part played by labour has not yet been a weighty one; +although on every view it is an important one. The labour idea in +Ireland has not arrived. It is in process of "becoming," and when labour +problems are mentioned in this country a party does not come to the +mind, but two men only--they are Mr. Larkin and James Connolly, and they +are each in their way exceptional and curious men. + +There is another class who implicate labour, and they do so because it +enables them to urge that as well as being grasping and nihilistic, +Irish labour is disloyal and treacherous. + +The truth is that labour in Ireland has not yet succeeded in organising +anything--not even discontent. It is not self-conscious to any extent, +and, outside of Dublin, it scarcely appears to exist. The national +imagination is not free to deal with any other subject than that of +freedom, and part of the policy of our "masters" is to see that we be +kept busy with politics instead of social ideas. From their standpoint +the policy is admirable, and up to the present it has thoroughly +succeeded. + +One does not hear from the lips of the Irish workingman, even in +Dublin, any of the affirmations and rejections which have long since +become the commonplaces of his comrades in other lands. But on the +subject of Irish freedom his views are instantly forthcoming, and his +desires are explicit, and, to a degree, informed. This latter subject +they understand and have fabricated an entire language to express it, +but the other they do not understand nor cherish, and they are not +prepared to die for it. + +It is possibly true that before any movement can attain to really +national proportions there must be, as well as the intellectual ideal +which gives it utterance and a frame, a sense of economic misfortune to +give it weight, and when these fuse the combination may well be +irresistible. The organised labour discontent in Ireland, in Dublin, was +not considerable enough to impose its aims or its colours on the +Volunteers, and it is the labour ideal which merges and disappears in +the national one. The reputation of all the leaders of the insurrection, +not excepting Connolly, is that they were intensely patriotic Irishmen, +and also, but this time with the exception of Connolly, that they were +not particularly interested in the problems of labour. + +The great strike of two years ago remained undoubtedly as a bitter and +lasting memory with Dublin labour--perhaps, even, it was not so much a +memory as a hatred. Still, it was not hatred of England which was evoked +at that time, nor can the stress of their conflict be traced to an +English source. It was hatred of local traders, and, particularly, +hatred of the local police, and the local powers and tribunals, which +were arrayed against them. + +One can without trouble discover reasons why they should go on strike +again, but by no reasoning can I understand why they should go into +rebellion against England, unless it was that they were patriots first +and trade unionists a very long way afterwards. + +I do not believe that this combination of the ideal and the practical +was consummated in the Dublin insurrection, but I do believe that the +first step towards the formation of such a party has now been taken, +and that if, years hence, there should be further trouble in Ireland +such trouble will not be so easily dealt with as this one has been. + +It may be that further trouble will not arise, for the co-operative +movement, which is growing slowly but steadily in Ireland, may arrange +our economic question, and, incidentally, our national question +also--that is if the English people do not decide that the latter ought +to be settled at once. + +James Connolly had his heart in both the national and the economic camp, +but he was a great-hearted man, and could afford to extend his +affections where others could only dissipate them. + +There can be no doubt that his powers of orderly thinking were of great +service to the Volunteers, for while Mr. Larkin was the magnetic centre +of the Irish labour movement, Connolly was its brains. He has been +sentenced to death for his part in the insurrection, and for two days +now he has been dead. + +He had been severely wounded in the fighting, and was tended, one does +not doubt with great care, until he regained enough strength to stand +up and be shot down again. + +Others are dead also. I was not acquainted with them, and with Connolly +I was not more than acquainted. I had met him twice many months ago, but +other people were present each time, and he scarcely uttered a word on +either of these occasions. I was told that he was by nature silent. He +was a man who can be ill-spared in Ireland, but labour, throughout the +world, may mourn for him also. + +A doctor who attended on him during his last hours says that Connolly +received the sentence of his death quietly. He was to be shot on the +morning following the sentence. This gentleman said to him: + +"Connolly, when you stand up to be shot, will you say a prayer for me?" + +Connolly replied: + +"I will." + +His visitor continued: + +"Will you say a prayer for the men who are shooting you?" + +"I will," said Connolly, "and I will say a prayer for every good man in +the world who is doing his duty." + +He was a steadfast man in all that he undertook. We may be sure he +steadfastly kept that promise. He would pray for others, who had not +time to pray for himself, as he had worked for others during the years +when he might have worked for himself. + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + THE IRISH QUESTIONS. + + +There is truly an Irish question. There are two Irish questions, and the +most important of them is not that which appears in our newspapers and +in our political propaganda. + +The first is international, and can be stated shortly. It is the desire +of Ireland to assume control of her national life. With this desire the +English people have professed to be in accord, and it is at any rate so +thoroughly understood that nothing further need be made of it in these +pages. + +The other Irish question is different, and less simply described. The +difficulty about it is that it cannot be approached until the question +of Ireland's freedom has by some means been settled, for this ideal of +freedom has captured the imagination of the race. It rides Ireland like +a nightmare, thwarting or preventing all civilising or cultural work in +this country, and it is not too much to say that Ireland cannot even +begin to live until that obsession and fever has come to an end, and her +imagination has been set free to do the work which imagination alone can +do--Imagination is intelligent kindness--we have sore need of it. + +The second question might plausibly be called a religious one. It has +been so called, and, for it is less troublesome to accept an idea than +to question it, the statement has been accepted as truth--but it is +untrue, and it is deeply and villainously untrue. No lie in Irish life +has been so persistent and so mischievous as this one, and no political +lie has ever been so ingeniously, and malevolently exploited. + +There is no religious intolerance in Ireland except that which is +political. I am not a member of the Catholic Church, and am not inclined +to be the advocate of a religious system which my mentality dislikes, +but I have never found real intolerance among my fellow-countrymen of +that religion. I have found it among Protestants. I will limit that +statement, too. I have found it among some Protestants. But outside of +the North of Ireland there is no religious question, and in the North +it is fundamentally more political than religious. + +All thinking is a fining down of one's ideas, and thus far we have come +to the statement of Ireland's second question. It is not Catholic or +Nationalist, nor have I said that it is entirely Protestant and +Unionist, but it is on the extreme wing of this latter party that +responsibility must be laid. It is difficult, even for an Irishman +living in Ireland, to come on the real political fact which underlies +Irish Protestant politics, and which fact has consistently opposed and +baffled every attempt made by either England or Ireland to come to +terms. There is such a fact, and clustered around it is a body of men +whose hatred of their country is persistent and deadly and unexplained. + +One may make broad generalisations on the apparent situation and +endeavour to solve it by those. We may say that loyalty to England is +the true centre of their action. I will believe it, but only to a point. +Loyalty to England does not inevitably include this active hatred, this +blindness, this withering of all sympathy for the people among whom one +is born, and among whom one has lived in peace, for they have lived in +peace amongst us. We may say that it is due to the idea of privilege and +the desire for power. Again, I will accept it up to a point--but these +are cultural obsessions, and they cease to act when the breaking-point +is reached. + +I know of only two mental states which are utterly without bowels or +conscience. These are cowardice and greed. Is it to a synthesis of these +states that this more than mortal enmity may be traced? What do they +fear, and what is it they covet? What can they redoubt in a country +which is practically crimeless, or covet in a land that is almost as +bare as a mutton bone? They have mesmerised themselves, these men, and +have imagined into our quiet air brigands and thugs and titans, with all +the other notabilities of a tale for children. + +I do not think that this either will tell the tale, but I do think there +is a story to be told--I imagine an esoteric wing to the Unionist Party. +I imagine that Party includes a secret organisation--they may be +Orangemen, they may be Masons, and, if there be such, I would dearly +like to know what the metaphysic of their position is, and how they +square it with any idea of humanity or social life. Meantime, all this +is surmise, and I, as a novelist, have a notoriously flighty +imagination, and am content to leave it at that. + +But this secondary Irish question is not so terrible as it appears. It +is terrible now, it would not be terrible if Ireland had national +independence. + +The great protection against a lie is--not to believe it; and Ireland, +in this instance, has that protection. The claims made by the Unionist +Wing do not rely solely on the religious base. They use all the +arguments. It is, according to them, unsafe to live in Ireland. (Let us +leave this insurrection of a week out of the question.) Life is not safe +in Ireland. Property shivers in terror of daily or nightly +appropriation. Other, undefined, but even more woeful glooms and creeps, +wriggle stealthily abroad. + +These things are not regarded in Ireland, and, in truth, they are not +meat for Irish consumption. Irish judges are presented with white +gloves with a regularity which may even be annoying to them, and were it +not for political trouble they would be unable to look their salaries in +the face. The Irish Bar almost weep in chorus at the words "Land Act," +and stare, not dumbly, on destitution. These tales are meant for England +and are sent there. They will cease to be exported when there is no +market for them, and these men will perhaps end by becoming patriotic +and social when they learn that they do not really command the Big +Battalions. But Ireland has no protection against them while England can +be thrilled by their nonsense, and while she is willing to pound Ireland +to a jelly on their appeal. Her only assistance against them is freedom. + +There are certain simplicities upon which all life is based. A man finds +that he is hungry and the knowledge enables him to go to work for the +rest of his life. A man makes the discovery (it has been a discovery to +many) that he is an Irishman, and the knowledge simplifies all his +subsequent political action. There is this comfort about being an +Irishman, you can be entirely Irish, and claim thus to be as complete +as a pebble or a star. But no Irish person can hope to be more than a +muletto Englishman, and if that be an ambition and an end it is not an +heroic one. + +But there is an Ulster difficulty, and no amount of burking it will +solve it. It is too generally conceived among Nationalists that the +attitude of Ulster towards Ireland is rooted in ignorance and bigotry. +Allow that both of these bad parts are included in the Northern outlook, +they do not explain the Ulster standpoint; and nothing can explain the +attitude of official Ireland _vis-a-vis_ with Ulster. + +What has the Irish Party ever done to allay Northern prejudice, or bring +the discontented section into line with the rest of Ireland? The answer +is pathetically complete. They have done nothing. Or, if they have done +anything, it was only that which would set every Northerner grinding his +teeth in anger. At a time when Orangeism was dying they raised and +marshalled the Hibernians, and we have the Ulsterman's answer to the +Hibernians in the situation by which we are confronted to-day. If the +Party had even a little statesmanship among them they would for the past +ten years have marched up and down the North explaining and mollifying +and courting the Black Northerner. But, like good Irishmen, they could +not tear themselves away from England, and they paraded that country +where parade was not so urgent, and they made orations there until the +mere accent of an Irishman must make Englishmen wail for very boredom. + +Some of that parade might have gladdened the eyes of the Belfast +citizens; a few of those orations might have assisted the men of Derry +to comprehend that, for the good of our common land, Home Rule and the +unity of a nation was necessary if only to rid the country of these +blatherers. + +Let the Party explain why, among their political duties, they neglected +the duty of placating Ulster in their proper persons. Why, in short, +they boycotted Ulster and permitted political and religious and racial +antagonism to grow inside of Ireland unchecked by any word from them +upon that ground. Were they afraid "nuts" would be thrown at them? +Whatever they dreaded, they gave Ulster the widest of wide berths, and +wherever else they were visible and audible, they were silent and unseen +in that part of Ireland. + +The Ulster grievance is ostensibly religious; but safeguards on this +count are so easily created and applied that this issue might almost be +left out of account. The real difficulty is economic, and it is a +tangled one. But unless profit and loss are immediately discernible the +soul of man is not easily stirred by an accountant's tale, and therefore +the religious banner has been waved for our kinsfolk of Ulster, and +under the sacred emblem they are fighting for what some people call +mammon, but which may be in truth just plain bread and butter. + + +The words Sinn Fein mean "Ourselves," and it is of ourselves I write in +this chapter. More urgent than any political emancipation is the drawing +together of men of good will in the endeavour to assist their +necessitous land. Our eyes must be withdrawn from the ends of the earth +and fixed on that which is around us and which we can touch. No +politician will talk to us of Ireland if by any trick he can avoid the +subject. His tale is still of Westminster and Chimborazo and the +Mountains of the Moon. Irishmen must begin to think for themselves and +of themselves, instead of expending energy on causes too distant to be +assisted or hindered by them. I believe that our human material is as +good as will be found in the world. No better, perhaps, but not worse. +And I believe that all but local politics are unfruitful and +soul-destroying. We have an island that is called little. It is more +than twenty times too spacious for our needs, and we will not have +explored the last of it in our children's lifetime. We have more +problems to resolve in our towns and cities than many generations of +minds will get tired of striving with. Here is the world, and all that +perplexes or delights the world is here also. Nothing is lost. Not even +brave men. They have been used. From this day the great adventure opens +for Ireland. The Volunteers are dead, and the call is now for +volunteers. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Insurrection in Dublin, by James Stephens + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN *** + +***** This file should be named 12871-8.txt or 12871-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/8/7/12871/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Martin Pettit and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Insurrection in Dublin + +Author: James Stephens + +Release Date: July 9, 2004 [EBook #12871] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Martin Pettit and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p><span style='margin-left: 5em;'><i>BY THE SAME AUTHOR</i></span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 10.5em;'>POEMS</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>INSURRECTIONS (Maunsel)</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>THE HILL OF VISION "</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>GREEN BRANCHES + "</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>SONGS FROM THE CLAY (Macmillan)</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>THE ADVENTURES OF SEUMAS BEG "</span></p> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;'/> + + +<p><span style='margin-left: 10em;'>PROSE</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>THE CHARWOMANS DAUGHTER (Macmillan)</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>THE CROCK OF GOLD "</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>HERE ARE LADIES "</span></p> + +<p><span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>THE DEMI-GODS "</span></p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'/> +<h1>THE INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN</h1> + + +<h2>BY JAMES STEPHENS</h2> + + +<h3>MAUNSEL & COMPANY, LTD. DUBLIN AND LONDON 1916</h3> + + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;'/> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#FOREWORD">FOREWORD</a> + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a> + </td> + <td> + MONDAY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a> + </td> + <td> + TUESDAY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a> + </td> + <td> + WEDNESDAY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a> + </td> + <td> + THURSDAY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a> + </td> + <td> + FRIDAY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a> + </td> + <td> + SATURDAY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a> + </td> + <td> + SUNDAY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a> + </td> + <td> + THE INSURRECTION IS OVER + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a> + </td> + <td> + THE VOLUNTEERS + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a> + </td> + <td> + SOME OF THE LEADERS + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a> + </td> + <td> + LABOUR AND THE INSURRECTION + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a> + </td> + <td> + THE IRISH QUESTIONS + </td> + </tr> +</table> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;'/> + +<h2><a name="FOREWORD"></a>FOREWORD</h2> + +<p>The day before the rising was Easter Sunday, and they were crying +joyfully in the Churches "Christ has risen." On the following day they +were saying in the streets "Ireland has risen." The luck of the moment +was with her. The auguries were good, and, notwithstanding all that has +succeeded, I do not believe she must take to the earth again, nor be +ever again buried. The pages hereafter were written day by day during +the Insurrection that followed Holy Week, and, as a hasty impression of +a most singular time, the author allows them to stand without any +emendation.</p> + +<p>The few chapters which make up this book are not a history of the +rising. I knew nothing about the rising. I do not know anything about it +now, and it may be years before exact information on the subject is +available. What I have written is no more than a statement of what +passed in one quarter of our city, and a gathering together of the +rumour and tension which for nearly two weeks had to serve the Dublin +people in lieu of news. It had to serve many Dublin people in place of +bread.</p> + +<p>To-day, the 8th of May, the book is finished, and, so far as Ireland is +immediately concerned, the insurrection is over. Action now lies with +England, and on that action depends whether the Irish Insurrection is +over or only suppressed.</p> + +<p>In their dealings with this country, English Statesmen have seldom shown +political imagination; sometimes they have been just, sometimes, and +often, unjust. After a certain point I dislike and despise justice. It +is an attribute of God, and is adequately managed by Him alone; but +between man and man no other ethics save that of kindness can give +results. I have not any hope that this ethic will replace that, and I +merely mention it in order that the good people who read these words may +enjoy the laugh which their digestion needs.</p> + +<p>I have faith in man, I have very little faith in States man. But I +believe that the world moves, and I believe that the weight of the +rolling planet is going to bring freedom to Ireland. Indeed, I name this +date as the first day of Irish freedom, and the knowledge forbids me +mourn too deeply my friends who are dead.</p> + +<p>It may not be worthy of mention, but the truth is, that Ireland is not +cowed. She is excited a little. She is gay a little. She was not with +the revolution, but in a few months she will be, and her heart which was +withering will be warmed by the knowledge that men have thought her +worth dying for. She will prepare to make herself worthy of devotion, +and that devotion will never fail her. So little does it take to raise +our hearts.</p> + +<p>Does it avail anything to describe these things to English readers? They +have never moved the English mind to anything except impatience, but +to-day and at this desperate conjunction they may be less futile than +heretofore. England also has grown patriotic, even by necessity. It is +necessity alone makes patriots, for in times of peace a patriot is a +quack when he is not a shark. Idealism pays in times of peace, it dies +in time of war. Our idealists are dead and yours are dying hourly.</p> + +<p>The English mind may to-day be enabled to understand what is wrong with +us, and why through centuries we have been "disthressful." Let them +look at us, I do not say through the fumes that are still rising from +our ruined streets, but through the smoke that is rolling from the North +Sea to Switzerland, and read in their own souls the justification for +all our risings, and for this rising.</p> + +<p>Is it wrong to say that England has not one friend in Europe? I say it. +Her Allies of to-day were her enemies of yesterday, and politics alone +will decide what they will be to-morrow. I say it, and yet I am not +entirely right, for she has one possible friend unless she should decide +that even one friend is excessive and irks her. That one possible friend +is Ireland. I say, and with assurance, that if our national questions +are arranged there will remain no reason for enmity between the two +countries, and there will remain many reasons for friendship.</p> + +<p>It may be objected that the friendship of a country such as Ireland has +little value; that she is too small geographically, and too thinly +populated to give aid to any one. Only sixty odd years ago our +population was close on ten millions of people, nor are we yet sterile; +in area Ireland is not collossal, but neither is she microscopic. Mr. +Shaw has spoken of her as a "cabbage patch at the back of beyond." On +this kind of description Rome might be called a hen-run and Greece a +back yard. The sober fact is that Ireland has a larger geographical area +than many an independent and prosperous European kingdom, and for all +human and social needs she is a fairly big country, and is beautiful and +fertile to boot. She could be made worth knowing if goodwill and trust +are available for the task.</p> + +<p>I believe that what is known as the "mastery of the seas" will, when the +great war is finished, pass irretrievably from the hands or the ambition +of any nation, and that more urgently than ever in her history England +will have need of a friend. It is true that we might be her enemy and +might do her some small harm—it is truer that we could be her friend, +and could be of very real assistance to her.</p> + +<p>Should the English Statesman decide that our friendship is worth having +let him create a little of the political imagination already spoken of. +Let him equip us (it is England's debt to Ireland) for freedom, not in +the manner of a miser who arranges for the chilly livelihood of a needy +female relative; but the way a wealthy father would undertake the +settlement of his son. I fear I am assisting my reader to laugh too +much, but laughter is the sole excess that is wholesome.</p> + +<p>If freedom is to come to Ireland—as I believe it is—then the Easter +Insurrection was the only thing that could have happened. I speak as an +Irishman, and am momentarily leaving out of account every other +consideration. If, after all her striving, freedom had come to her as a +gift, as a peaceful present such as is sometimes given away with a pound +of tea, Ireland would have accepted the gift with shamefacedness, and +have felt that her centuries of revolt had ended in something very like +ridicule. The blood of brave men had to sanctify such a consummation if +the national imagination was to be stirred to the dreadful business +which is the organizing of freedom, and both imagination and brains have +been stagnant in Ireland this many a year. Following on such tameness, +failure might have been predicted, or, at least feared, and war (let us +call it war for the sake of our pride) was due to Ireland before she +could enter gallantly on her inheritance. We might have crept into +liberty like some kind of domesticated man, whereas now we may be +allowed to march into freedom with the honours of war. I am still +appealing to the political imagination, for if England allows Ireland to +formally make peace with her that peace will be lasting, everlasting; +but if the liberty you give us is all half-measures, and distrusts and +stinginesses, then what is scarcely worth accepting will hardly be worth +thanking you for.</p> + +<p>There is a reference in the earlier pages of this record to a letter +which I addressed to Mr. George Bernard Shaw and published in the <i>New +Age</i>. This was a thoughtless letter, and subsequent events have proved +that it was unmeaning and ridiculous. I have since, through the same +hospitable journal, apologised to Mr. Shaw, but have let my reference to +the matter stand as an indication that electricity was already in the +air. Every statement I made about him in that letter and in this book +was erroneous; for, afterwards, when it would have been politic to run +for cover, he ran for the open, and he spoke there like the valiant +thinker and great Irishman that he is.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;'/> + +<p>Since the foregoing was written events have moved in this country. The +situation is no longer the same. The executions have taken place. One +cannot justly exclaim against the measures adopted by the military +tribunal, and yet, in the interests of both countries one may deplore +them. I have said there was no bitterness in Ireland, and it was true at +the time of writing. It is no longer true; but it is still possible by +generous Statesmanship to allay this, and to seal a true union between +Ireland and England.</p> + + +<hr style='width: 65%;'/> +<h2>THE</h2> + +<h1>INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN</h1> + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_I'></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>MONDAY</h3> + +<p>This has taken everyone by surprise. It is possible, that, with the +exception of their Staff, it has taken the Volunteers themselves by +surprise; but, to-day, our peaceful city is no longer peaceful; guns are +sounding, or rolling and crackling from different directions, and, +although rarely, the rattle of machine guns can be heard also.</p> + +<p>Two days ago war seemed very far away—so far, that I have covenanted +with myself to learn the alphabet of music. Tom Bodkin had promised to +present me with a musical instrument called a dulcimer—I persist in +thinking that this is a species of guitar, although I am assured that it +is a number of small metal plates which are struck with sticks, and I +confess that this description of its function prejudices me more than a +little against it. There is no reason why I should think dubiously of +such an instrument, but I do not relish the idea of procuring music with +a stick. With this dulcimer I shall be able to tap out our Irish +melodies when I am abroad, and transport myself to Ireland for a few +minutes, or a few bars.</p> + +<p>In preparation for this present I had through Saturday and Sunday been +learning the notes of the Scale. The notes and spaces on the lines did +not trouble me much, but those above and below the line seemed ingenious +and complicated to a degree that frightened me.</p> + +<p>On Saturday I got the <i>Irish Times</i>, and found in it a long article by +Bernard Shaw (reprinted from the <i>New York Times</i>). One reads things +written by Shaw. Why one does read them I do not know exactly, except +that it is a habit we got into years ago, and we read an article by Shaw +just as we put on our boots in the morning—that is, without thinking +about it, and without any idea of reward.</p> + +<p>His article angered me exceedingly. It was called "Irish Nonsense +talked in Ireland." It was written (as is almost all of his journalistic +work) with that <i>bonhomie</i> which he has cultivated—it is his +mannerism—and which is essentially hypocritical and untrue. <i>Bonhomie</i>! +It is that man-of-the-world attitude, that shop attitude, that +between-you-and-me-for-are-we-not-equal-and-cultured attitude, which is +the tone of a card-sharper or a trick-of-the-loop man. That was the tone +of Shaw's article. I wrote an open letter to him which I sent to the +<i>New Age</i>, because I doubted that the Dublin papers would print it if I +sent it to them, and I knew that the Irish people who read the other +papers had never heard of Shaw, except as a trade-mark under which very +good Limerick bacon is sold, and that they would not be interested in +the opinions of a person named Shaw on any subject not relevant to +bacon. I struck out of my letter a good many harsh things which I said +of him, and hoped he would reply to it in order that I could furnish +these acidities to him in a second letter.</p> + +<p>That was Saturday.</p> + +<p>On Sunday I had to go to my office, as the Director was absent in +London, and there I applied myself to the notes and spaces below the +stave, but relinquished the exercise, convinced that these mysteries +were unattainable by man, while the knowledge that above the stave there +were others and not less complex, stayed mournfully with me.</p> + +<p>I returned home, and as novels (perhaps it is only for the duration of +the war) do not now interest me I read for some time in Madame +Blavatsky's "Secret Doctrine," which book interests me profoundly. +George Russell was out of town or I would have gone round to his house +in the evening to tell him what I thought about Shaw, and to listen to +his own much finer ideas on that as on every other subject. I went to +bed.</p> + +<p>On the morning following I awoke into full insurrection and bloody war, +but I did not know anything about it. It was Bank Holiday, but for +employments such as mine there are not any holidays, so I went to my +office at the usual hour, and after transacting what business was +necessary I bent myself to the notes above and below the stave, and +marvelled anew at the ingenuity of man. Peace was in the building, and +if any of the attendants had knowledge or rumour of war they did not +mention it to me.</p> + +<p>At one o'clock I went to lunch. Passing the corner of Merrion Row I saw +two small groups of people. These people were regarding steadfastly in +the direction of St. Stephen's Green Park, and they spoke occasionally +to one another with that detached confidence which proved they were +mutually unknown. I also, but without approaching them, stared in the +direction of the Green. I saw nothing but the narrow street which +widened to the Park. Some few people were standing in tentative +attitudes, and all looking in the one direction. As I turned from them +homewards I received an impression of silence and expectation and +excitement.</p> + +<p>On the way home I noticed that many silent people were standing in their +doorways—an unusual thing in Dublin outside of the back streets. The +glance of a Dublin man or woman conveys generally a criticism of one's +personal appearance, and is a little hostile to the passer. The look of +each person as I passed was steadfast, and contained an enquiry instead +of a criticism. I felt faintly uneasy, but withdrew my mind to a +meditation which I had covenanted with myself to perform daily, and +passed to my house.</p> + +<p>There I was told that there had been a great deal of rifle firing all +the morning, and we concluded that the Military recruits or Volunteer +detachments were practising that arm. My return to business was by the +way I had already come. At the corner of Merrion Row I found the same +silent groups, who were still looking in the direction of the Green, and +addressing each other occasionally with the detached confidence of +strangers. Suddenly, and on the spur of the moment, I addressed one of +these silent gazers.</p> + +<p>"Has there been an accident?" said I.</p> + +<p>I indicated the people standing about.</p> + +<p>"What's all this for?"</p> + +<p>He was a sleepy, rough-looking man about 40 years of age, with a blunt +red moustache, and the distant eyes which one sees in sailors. He looked +at me, stared at me as at a person from a different country. He grew +wakeful and vivid.</p> + +<p>"Don't you know," said he.</p> + +<p>And then he saw that I did not know.</p> + +<p>"The Sinn Feiners have seized the City this morning."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said I.</p> + +<p>He continued with the savage earnestness of one who has amazement in his +mouth:</p> + +<p>"They seized the City at eleven o'clock this morning. The Green there is +full of them. They have captured the Castle. They have taken the Post +Office."</p> + +<p>"My God!" said I, staring at him, and instantly I turned and went +running towards the Green.</p> + +<p>In a few seconds I banished astonishment and began to walk. As I drew +near the Green rifle fire began like sharply-cracking whips. It was from +the further side. I saw that the Gates were closed and men were standing +inside with guns on their shoulders. I passed a house, the windows of +which were smashed in. As I went by a man in civilian clothes slipped +through the Park gates, which instantly closed behind him. He ran +towards me, and I halted. He was carrying two small packets in his hand. +He passed me hurriedly, and, placing his leg inside the broken window +of the house behind me, he disappeared. Almost immediately another man +in civilian clothes appeared from the broken window of another house. He +also had something (I don't know what) in his hand. He ran urgently +towards the gates, which opened, admitted him, and closed again.</p> + +<p>In the centre of this side of the Park a rough barricade of carts and +motor cars had been sketched. It was still full of gaps. Behind it was a +halted tram, and along the vistas of the Green one saw other trams +derelict, untenanted.</p> + +<p>I came to the barricade. As I reached it and stood by the Shelbourne +Hotel, which it faced, a loud cry came from the Park. The gates opened +and three men ran out. Two of them held rifles with fixed bayonets. The +third gripped a heavy revolver in his fist. They ran towards a motor car +which had just turned the corner, and halted it. The men with bayonets +took position instantly on either side of the car. The man with the +revolver saluted, and I heard him begging the occupants to pardon him, +and directing them to dismount. A man and woman got down. They were +again saluted and requested to go to the sidewalk. They did so.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'>NOTE—As I pen these words rifle shot is cracking from three +different directions and continually. Three minutes ago there was two +discharges from heavy guns. These are the first heavy guns used in +the Insurrection, 25th April.</div> + +<p>The man crossed and stood by me. He was very tall and thin, middle-aged, +with a shaven, wasted face. "I want to get down to Armagh to-day," he +said to no one in particular. The loose bluish skin under his eyes was +twitching. The Volunteers directed the chauffeur to drive to the +barricade and lodge his car in a particular position there. He did it +awkwardly, and after three attempts he succeeded in pleasing them. He +was a big, brown-faced man, whose knees were rather high for the seat he +was in, and they jerked with the speed and persistence of something +moved with a powerful spring. His face was composed and fully under +command, although his legs were not. He locked the car into the +barricade, and then, being a man accustomed to be commanded, he awaited +an order to descend. When the order came he walked directly to his +master, still preserving all the solemnity of his features. These two +men did not address a word to each other, but their drilled and +expressionless eyes were loud with surprise and fear and rage. They went +into the Hotel.</p> + +<p>I spoke to the man with the revolver. He was no more than a boy, not +more certainly than twenty years of age, short in stature, with close +curling red hair and blue eyes—a kindly-looking lad. The strap of his +sombrero had torn loose on one side, and except while he held it in his +teeth it flapped about his chin. His face was sunburnt and grimy with +dust and sweat.</p> + +<p>This young man did not appear to me to be acting from his reason. He was +doing his work from a determination implanted previously, days, weeks +perhaps, on his imagination. His mind was—where? It was not with his +body. And continually his eyes went searching widely, looking for +spaces, scanning hastily the clouds, the vistas of the streets, looking +for something that did not hinder him, looking away for a moment from +the immediacies and rigours which were impressed where his mind had +been.</p> + +<p>When I spoke he looked at me, and I know that for some seconds he did +not see me. I said:—</p> + +<p>"What is the meaning of all this? What has happened?"</p> + +<p>He replied collectedly enough in speech, but with that ramble and +errancy clouding his eyes.</p> + +<p>"We have taken the City. We are expecting an attack from the military at +any moment, and those people," he indicated knots of men, women and +children clustered towards the end of the Green, "won't go home for me. +We have the Post Office, and the Railways, and the Castle. We have all +the City. We have everything."</p> + +<p>(Some men and two women drew behind me to listen).</p> + +<p>"This morning," said he, "the police rushed us. One ran at me to take my +revolver. I fired but I missed him, and I hit a—"</p> + +<p>"You have far too much talk," said a voice to the young man.</p> + +<p>I turned a few steps away, and glancing back saw that he was staring +after me, but I know that he did not see me—he was looking at turmoil, +and blood, and at figures that ran towards him and ran away—a world in +motion and he in the centre of it astonished.</p> + +<p>The men with him did not utter a sound. They were both older. One, +indeed, a short, sturdy man, had a heavy white moustache. He was quite +collected, and took no notice of the skies, or the spaces. He saw a man +in rubbers placing his hand on a motor bicycle in the barricade, and +called to him instantly: "Let that alone."</p> + +<p>The motorist did not at once remove his hand, whereupon the +white-moustached man gripped his gun in both hands and ran violently +towards him. He ran directly to him, body to body, and, as he was short +and the motorist was very tall, stared fixedly up in his face. He roared +up at his face in a mighty voice.</p> + +<p>"Are you deaf? Are you deaf? Move back!"</p> + +<p>The motorist moved away, pursued by an eye as steady and savage as the +point of the bayonet that was level with it.</p> + +<p>Another motor car came round the Ely Place corner of the Green and +wobbled at the sight of the barricade. The three men who had returned +to the gates roared "Halt," but the driver made a tentative effort to +turn his wheel. A great shout of many voices came then, and the three +men ran to him.</p> + +<p>"Drive to the barricade," came the order.</p> + +<p>The driver turned his wheel a point further towards escape, and +instantly one of the men clapped a gun to the wheel and blew the tyre +open. Some words were exchanged, and then a shout:</p> + +<p>"Drive it on the rim, drive it."</p> + +<p>The tone was very menacing, and the motorist turned his car slowly to +the barricade and placed it in.</p> + +<p>For an hour I tramped the City, seeing everywhere these knots of +watchful strangers speaking together in low tones, and it sank into my +mind that what I had heard was true, and that the City was in +insurrection. It had been promised for so long, and had been threatened +for so long. Now it was here. I had seen it in the Green, others had +seen it in other parts—the same men clad in dark green and equipped +with rifle, bayonet, and bandolier, the same silent activity. The police +had disappeared from the streets. At that hour I did not see one +policeman, nor did I see one for many days, and men said that several of +them had been shot earlier in the morning; that an officer had been shot +on Portobello Bridge, that many soldiers had been killed, and that a +good many civilians were dead also.</p> + +<p>Around me as I walked the rumour of war and death was in the air. +Continually and from every direction rifles were crackling and rolling; +sometimes there was only one shot, again it would be a roll of firing +crested with single, short explosions, and sinking again to whip-like +snaps and whip-like echoes; then for a moment silence, and then again +the guns leaped in the air.</p> + +<p>The rumour of positions, bridges, public places, railway stations, +Government offices, having been seized was persistent, and was not +denied by any voice.</p> + +<p>I met some few people I knew. P.H., T.M., who said: "Well!" and thrust +their eyes into me as though they were rummaging me for information.</p> + +<p>But there were not very many people in the streets. The greater part of +the population were away on Bank Holiday, and did not know anything of +this business. Many of them would not know anything until they found +they had to walk home from Kingstown, Dalkey, Howth, or wherever they +were.</p> + +<p>I returned to my office, decided that I would close it for the day. The +men were very relieved when I came in, and were more relieved when I +ordered the gong to be sounded. There were some few people in the place, +and they were soon put out. The outer gates were locked, and the great +door, but I kept the men on duty until the evening. We were the last +public institution open; all the others had been closed for hours.</p> + +<p>I went upstairs and sat down, but had barely reached the chair before I +stood up again, and began to pace my room, to and fro, to and fro; +amazed, expectant, inquiet; turning my ear to the shots, and my mind to +speculations that began in the middle, and were chased from there by +others before they had taken one thought forward. But then I took myself +resolutely and sat me down, and I pencilled out exercises above the +stave, and under the stave; and discovered suddenly that I was again +marching the floor, to and fro, to and fro, with thoughts bursting about +my head as though they were fired on me from concealed batteries.</p> + +<p>At five o'clock I left. I met Miss P., all of whose rumours coincided +with those I had gathered. She was in exceeding good humour and +interested. Leaving her I met Cy——, and we turned together up to the +Green. As we proceeded, the sound of firing grew more distinct, but when +we reached the Green it died away again. We stood a little below the +Shelbourne Hotel, looking at the barricade and into the Park. We could +see nothing. Not a Volunteer was in sight. The Green seemed a desert. +There were only the trees to be seen, and through them small green +vistas of sward.</p> + +<p>Just then a man stepped on the footpath and walked directly to the +barricade. He stopped and gripped the shafts of a lorry lodged near the +centre. At that instant the Park exploded into life and sound; from +nowhere armed men appeared at the railings, and they all shouted at the +man.</p> + +<p>"Put down that lorry. Let out and go away. Let out at once."</p> + +<p>These were the cries. The man did not let out. He halted with the shafts +in his hand, and looked towards the vociferous pailings. Then, and very +slowly, he began to draw the lorry out of the barricade. The shouts came +to him again, very loud, very threatening, but he did not attend to +them.</p> + +<p>"He is the man that owns the lorry," said a voice beside me.</p> + +<p>Dead silence fell on the people around while the man slowly drew his +cart down by the footpath. Then three shots rang out in succession. At +the distance he could not be missed, and it was obvious they were trying +to frighten him. He dropped the shafts, and instead of going away he +walked over to the Volunteers.</p> + +<p>"He has a nerve," said another voice behind me.</p> + +<p>The man walked directly towards the Volunteers, who, to the number of +about ten, were lining the railings. He walked slowly, bent a little +forward, with one hand raised and one finger up as though he were going +to make a speech. Ten guns were pointing at him, and a voice repeated +many times:</p> + +<p>"Go and put back that lorry or you are a dead man. Go before I count +four. One, two, three, four—"</p> + +<p>A rifle spat at him, and in two undulating movements the man sank on +himself and sagged to the ground.</p> + +<p>I ran to him with some others, while a woman screamed unmeaningly, all +on one strident note. The man was picked up and carried to a hospital +beside the Arts Club. There was a hole in the top of his head, and one +does not know how ugly blood can look until it has been seen clotted in +hair. As the poor man was being carried in, a woman plumped to her knees +in the road and began not to scream but to screetch.</p> + +<p>At that moment the Volunteers were hated. The men by whom I was and who +were lifting the body, roared into the railings:—</p> + +<p>"We'll be coming back for you, damn you."</p> + +<p>From the railings there came no reply, and in an instant the place was +again desert and silent, and the little green vistas were slumbering +among the trees.</p> + +<p>No one seemed able to estimate the number of men inside the Green, and +through the day no considerable body of men had been seen, only those +who held the gates, and the small parties of threes and fours who +arrested motors and carts for their barricades. Among these were some +who were only infants—one boy seemed about twelve years of age. He was +strutting the centre of the road with a large revolver in his small +fist. A motor car came by him containing three men, and in the shortest +of time he had the car lodged in his barricade, and dismissed its +stupified occupants with a wave of his armed hand.</p> + +<p>The knots were increasing about the streets, for now the Bank Holiday +people began to wander back from places that were not distant, and to +them it had all to be explained anew. Free movement was possible +everywhere in the City, but the constant crackle of rifles restricted +somewhat that freedom. Up to one o'clock at night belated travellers +were straggling into the City, and curious people were wandering from +group to group still trying to gather information.</p> + +<p>I remained awake until four o'clock in the morning. Every five minutes +a rifle cracked somewhere, but about a quarter to twelve sharp volleying +came from the direction of Portobello Bridge, and died away after some +time. The windows of my flat listen out towards the Green, and obliquely +towards Sackville Street. In another quarter of an hour there were +volleys from Stephen's Green direction, and this continued with +intensity for about twenty-five minutes. Then it fell into a sputter of +fire and ceased.</p> + +<p>I went to bed about four o'clock convinced that the Green had been +rushed by the military and captured, and that the rising was at an end.</p> + +<p>That was the first day of the insurrection.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_II'></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>TUESDAY</h3> + +<p>A sultry, lowering day, and dusk skies fat with rain.</p> + +<p>I left for my office, believing that the insurrection was at an end. At +a corner I asked a man was it all finished. He said it was not, and +that, if anything, it was worse.</p> + +<p>On this day the rumours began, and I think it will be many a year before +the rumours cease. The <i>Irish Times</i> published an edition which +contained nothing but an official Proclamation that evily-disposed +persons had disturbed the peace, and that the situation was well in +hand. The news stated in three lines that there was a Sinn Fein rising +in Dublin, and that the rest of the country was quiet.</p> + +<p>No English or country papers came. There was no delivery or collection +of letters. All the shops in the City were shut. There was no traffic of +any kind in the streets. There was no way of gathering any kind of +information, and rumour gave all the news.</p> + +<p>It seemed that the Military and the Government had been taken unawares. +It was Bank Holiday, and many military officers had gone to the races, +or were away on leave, and prominent members of the Irish Government had +gone to England on Sunday.</p> + +<p>It appeared that everything claimed on the previous day was true, and +that the City of Dublin was entirely in the hands of the Volunteers. +They had taken and sacked Jacob's Biscuit Factory, and had converted it +into a fort which they held. They had the Post Office, and were building +baricades around it ten feet high of sandbags, cases, wire +entanglements. They had pushed out all the windows and sandbagged them +to half their height, while cart-loads of food, vegetables and +ammunition were going in continually. They had dug trenches and were +laying siege to one of the city barracks.</p> + +<p>It was current that intercourse between Germany and Ireland had been +frequent chiefly by means of submarines, which came up near the coast +and landed machine guns, rifles and ammunition. It was believed also +that the whole country had risen, and that many strong places and cities +were in the hands of the Volunteers. Cork Barracks was said to be taken +while the officers were away at the Curragh races, that the men without +officers were disorganised, and the place easily captured.</p> + +<p>It was said that Germans, thousands strong, had landed, and that many +Irish Americans with German officers had arrived also with full military +equipment.</p> + +<p>On the previous day the Volunteers had proclaimed the Irish Republic. +This ceremony was conducted from the Mansion House steps, and the +manifesto was said to have been read by Pearse, of St. Enda's. The +Republican and Volunteer flag was hoisted on the Mansion House. The +latter consisted of vertical colours of green, white and orange. Kerry +wireless station was reported captured, and news of the Republic flashed +abroad. These rumours were flying in the street.</p> + +<p>It was also reported that two transports had come in the night and had +landed from England about 8,000 soldiers. An attack reported on the +Post Office by a troop of lancers who were received with fire and +repulsed. It is foolish to send cavalry into street war.</p> + +<p>In connection with this lancer charge at the Post Office it is said that +the people, and especially the women, sided with the soldiers, and that +the Volunteers were assailed by these women with bricks, bottles, +sticks, to cries of:</p> + +<p>"Would you be hurting the poor men?"</p> + +<p>There were other angry ladies who threatened Volunteers, addressing to +them this petrifying query:</p> + +<p>"Would you be hurting the poor horses?"</p> + +<p>Indeed, the best people in the world live in Dublin.</p> + +<p>The lancers retreated to the bottom of Sackville Street, where they +remained for some time in the centre of a crowd who were carressing +their horses. It may have seemed to them a rather curious kind of +insurrection—that is, if they were strangers to Ireland.</p> + +<p>In the Post Office neighbourhood the Volunteers had some difficulty in +dealing with the people who surged about them while they were preparing +the barricade, and hindered them to some little extent. One of the +Volunteers was particularly noticeable. He held a lady's umbrella in his +hand, and whenever some person became particularly annoying he would +leap the barricade and chase his man half a street, hitting him over the +head with the umbrella. It was said that the wonder of the world was not +that Ireland was at war, but that after many hours the umbrella was +still unbroken. A Volunteer night attack on the Quays was spoken of, +whereat the military were said to have been taken by surprise and six +carts of their ammunition captured. This was probably untrue. Also, that +the Volunteers had blown up the Arsenal in the Phoenix Park.</p> + +<p>There had been looting in the night about Sackville Street, and it was +current that the Volunteers had shot twenty of the looters.</p> + +<p>The shops attacked were mainly haberdashers, shoe shops, and sweet +shops. Very many sweet shops were raided, and until the end of the +rising sweet shops were the favourite mark of the looters. There is +something comical in this looting of sweet shops—something almost +innocent and child-like. Possibly most of the looters are children who +are having the sole gorge of their lives. They have tasted sweetstuffs +they had never toothed before, and will never taste again in this life, +and until they die the insurrection of 1916 will have a sweet savour for +them.</p> + +<p>I went to the Green. At the corner of Merrion Row a horse was lying on +the footpath surrounded by blood. He bore two bullet wounds, but the +blood came from his throat which had been cut.</p> + +<p>Inside the Green railings four bodies could be seen lying on the ground. +They were dead Volunteers.</p> + +<p>The rain was falling now persistently, and persistently from the Green +and from the Shelbourne Hotel snipers were exchanging bullets. Some +distance beyond the Shelbourne I saw another Volunteer stretched out on +a seat just within the railings. He was not dead, for, now and again, +his hand moved feebly in a gesture for aid; the hand was completely red +with blood. His face could not be seen. He was just a limp mass, upon +which the rain beat pitilessly, and he was sodden and shapeless, and +most miserable to see. His companions could not draw him in for the +spot was covered by the snipers from the Shelbourne. Bystanders stated +that several attempts had already been made to rescue him, but that he +would have to remain there until the fall of night.</p> + +<p>From Trinity College windows and roof there was also sniping, but the +Shelbourne Hotel riflemen must have seriously troubled the Volunteers in +the Green.</p> + +<p>As I went back I stayed a while in front of the hotel to count the shots +that had struck the windows. There were fourteen shots through the +ground windows. The holes were clean through, each surrounded by a +star—the bullets went through but did not crack the glass. There were +three places in which the windows had holes half a foot to a foot wide +and high. Here many rifles must have fired at the one moment. It must +have been as awkward inside the Shelbourne Hotel as it was inside the +Green.</p> + +<p>A lady who lived in Baggot Street said she had been up all night, and, +with her neighbours, had supplied tea and bread to the soldiers who were +lining the street. The officer to whom she spoke had made two or three +attacks to draw fire and estimate the Volunteers' positions, numbers, +&c., and he told her that he considered there were 3,000 well-armed +Volunteers in the Green, and as he had only 1,000 soldiers, he could not +afford to deliver a real attack, and was merely containing them.</p> + +<p>Amiens Street station reported recaptured by the military; other +stations are said to be still in the Volunteers' possession.</p> + +<p>The story goes that about twelve o'clock on Monday an English officer +had marched into the Post Office and demanded two penny stamps from the +amazed Volunteers who were inside. He thought their uniforms were postal +uniforms. They brought him in, and he is probably still trying to get a +perspective on the occurrence. They had as prisoners in the Post Office +a certain number of soldiers, and rumour had it that these men +accommodated themselves quickly to duress, and were busily engaged +peeling potatoes for the meal which they would partake of later on with +the Volunteers.</p> + +<p>Earlier in the day I met a wild individual who spat rumour as though +his mouth were a machine gun or a linotype machine. He believed +everything he heard; and everything he heard became as by magic +favourable to his hopes, which were violently anti-English. One +unfavourable rumour was instantly crushed by him with three stories +which were favourable and triumphantly so. He said the Germans had +landed in three places. One of these landings alone consisted of fifteen +thousand men. The other landings probably beat that figure. The whole +City of Cork was in the hands of the Volunteers, and, to that extent, +might be said to be peaceful. German warships had defeated the English, +and their transports were speeding from every side. The whole country +was up, and the garrison was out-numbered by one hundred to one. These +Dublin barracks which had not been taken were now besieged and on the +point of surrender.</p> + +<p>I think this man created and winged every rumour that flew in Dublin, +and he was the sole individual whom I heard definitely taking a side. He +left me, and, looking back, I saw him pouring his news into the ear of a +gaping stranger whom he had arrested for the purpose. I almost went +back to hear would he tell the same tale or would he elaborate it into a +new thing, for I am interested in the art of story-telling.</p> + +<p>At eleven o'clock the rain ceased, and to it succeeded a beautiful +night, gusty with wind, and packed with sailing clouds and stars. We +were expecting visitors this night, but the sound of guns may have +warned most people away. Three only came, and with them we listened from +my window to the guns at the Green challenging and replying to each +other, and to where, further away, the Trinity snipers were crackling, +and beyond again to the sounds of war from Sackville Street. The firing +was fairly heavy, and often the short rattle of machine guns could be +heard.</p> + +<p>One of the stories told was that the Volunteers had taken the South +Dublin Union Workhouse, occupied it, and trenched the grounds. They were +heavily attacked by the military, who, at a loss of 150 men, took the +place. The tale went that towards the close the officer in command +offered them terms of surrender, but the Volunteers replied that they +were not there to surrender. They were there to be killed. The garrison +consisted of fifty men, and the story said that fifty men were killed.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_III'></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>WEDNESDAY</h3> + +<p>It was three o'clock before I got to sleep last night, and during the +hours machine guns and rifle firing had been continuous.</p> + +<p>This morning the sun is shining brilliantly, and the movement in the +streets possesses more of animation than it has done. The movement ends +always in a knot of people, and folk go from group to group vainly +seeking information, and quite content if the rumour they presently +gather differs even a little from the one they have just communicated.</p> + +<p>The first statement I heard was that the Green had been taken by the +military; the second that it had been re-taken; the third that it had +not been taken at all. The facts at last emerged that the Green had not +been occupied by the soldiers, but that the Volunteers had retreated +from it into a house which commanded it. This was found to be the +College of Surgeons, and from the windows and roof of this College they +were sniping. A machine gun was mounted on the roof; other machine guns, +however, opposed them from the roofs of the Shelbourne Hotel, the United +Service Club, and the Alexandra Club. Thus a triangular duel opened +between these positions across the trees of the Park.</p> + +<p>Through the railings of the Green some rifles and bandoliers could be +seen lying on the ground, as also the deserted trenches and snipers' +holes. Small boys bolted in to see these sights and bolted out again +with bullets quickening their feet. Small boys do not believe that +people will really kill them, but small boys were killed.</p> + +<p>The dead horse was still lying stiff and lamentable on the footpath.</p> + +<p>This morning a gunboat came up the Liffey and helped to bombard Liberty +Hall. The Hall is breeched and useless. Rumour says that it was empty at +the time, and that Connolly with his men had marched long before to the +Post Office and the Green. The same source of information relates that +three thousand Volunteers came from Belfast on an excursion train and +that they marched into the Post Office.</p> + +<p>On this day only one of my men came in. He said that he had gone on the +roof and had been shot at, consequently that the Volunteers held some of +the covering houses. I went to the roof and remained there for half an +hour. There were no shots, but the firing from the direction of +Sackville Street was continuous and at times exceedingly heavy.</p> + +<p>To-day the <i>Irish Times</i> was published. It contained a new military +proclamation, and a statement that the country was peaceful, and told +that in Sackville Street some houses were burned to the ground.</p> + +<p>On the outside railings a bill proclaiming Martial Law was posted.</p> + +<p>Into the newspaper statement that peace reigned in the country one was +inclined to read more of disquietude than of truth, and one said is the +country so extraordinarily peaceful that it can be dismissed in three +lines. There is too much peace or too much reticence, but it will be +some time before we hear from outside of Dublin.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the sun was shining. It was a delightful day, and the streets +outside and around the areas of fire were animated and even gay. In the +streets of Dublin there were no morose faces to be seen. Almost everyone +was smiling and attentive, and a democratic feeling was abroad, to which +our City is very much a stranger; for while in private we are a sociable +and talkative people we have no street manners or public ease whatever. +Every person spoke to every other person, and men and women mixed and +talked without constraint.</p> + +<p>Was the City for or against the Volunteers? Was it for the Volunteers, +and yet against the rising? It is considered now (writing a day or two +afterwards) that Dublin was entirely against the Volunteers, but on the +day of which I write no such certainty could be put forward. There was a +singular reticence on the subject. Men met and talked volubly, but they +said nothing that indicated a personal desire or belief. They asked for +and exchanged the latest news, or, rather, rumour, and while expressions +were frequent of astonishment at the suddenness and completeness of the +occurrence, no expression of opinion for or against was anywhere +formulated.</p> + +<p>Sometimes a man said, "They will be beaten of course," and, as he +prophesied, the neighbour might surmise if he did so with a sad heart or +a merry one, but they knew nothing and asked nothing of his views, and +themselves advanced no flag.</p> + +<p>This was among the men.</p> + +<p>The women were less guarded, or, perhaps, knew they had less to fear. +Most of the female opinion I heard was not alone unfavourable but +actively and viciously hostile to the rising. This was noticeable among +the best dressed class of our population; the worst dressed, indeed the +female dregs of Dublin life, expressed a like antagonism, and almost in +similar language. The view expressed was—</p> + +<p>"I hope every man of them will be shot."</p> + +<p>And—</p> + +<p>"They ought to be all shot."</p> + +<p>Shooting, indeed, was proceeding everywhere. During daylight, at least, +the sound is not sinister nor depressing, and the thought that perhaps a +life had exploded with that crack is not depressing either.</p> + +<p>In the last two years of world-war our ideas on death have undergone a +change. It is not now the furtive thing that crawled into your bed and +which you fought with pill-boxes and medicine bottles. It has become +again a rider of the wind whom you may go coursing with through the +fields and open places. All the morbidity is gone, and the sickness, and +what remains to Death is now health and excitement. So Dublin laughed at +the noise of its own bombardment, and made no moan about its dead—in +the sunlight. Afterwards—in the rooms, when the night fell, and instead +of silence that mechanical barking of the maxims and the whistle and +screams of the rifles, the solemn roar of the heavier guns, and the red +glare covering the sky. It is possible that in the night Dublin did not +laugh, and that she was gay in the sunlight for no other reason than +that the night was past.</p> + +<p>On this day fighting was incessant at Mount Street Bridge. A party of +Volunteers had seized three houses covering the bridge and converted +these into forts. It is reported that military casualties at this point +were very heavy. The Volunteers are said also to hold the South Dublin +Union. The soldiers have seized Guinness's Brewery, while their +opponents have seized another brewery in the neighbourhood, and between +these two there is a continual fusilade.</p> + +<p>Fighting is brisk about Ringsend and along the Canal. Dame Street was +said to be held in many places by the Volunteers. I went down Dame +Street, but saw no Volunteers, and did not observe any sniping from the +houses. Further, as Dame Street is entirely commanded by the roofs and +windows of Trinity College, it is unlikely that they should be here.</p> + +<p>It was curious to observe this, at other times, so animated street, +broad and deserted, with at the corners of side streets small knots of +people watching. Seen from behind, Grattan's Statue in College Green +seemed almost alive, and he had the air of addressing warnings and +reproaches to Trinity College.</p> + +<p>The Proclamation issued to-day warns all people to remain within doors +until five o'clock in the morning, and after seven o'clock at night.</p> + +<p>It is still early. There is no news of any kind, and the rumours begin +to catch quickly on each other and to cancel one another out. Dublin is +entirely cut off from England, and from the outside world. It is, just +as entirely cut off from the rest of Ireland; no news of any kind +filters in to us. We are land-locked and sea-locked, but, as yet, it +does not much matter.</p> + +<p>Meantime the belief grows that the Volunteers may be able to hold out +much longer than had been imagined. The idea at first among the people +had been that the insurrection would be ended the morning after it had +began. But to-day, the insurrection having lasted three days, people are +ready to conceive that it may last for ever. There is almost a feeling +of gratitude towards the Volunteers because they are holding out for a +little while, for had they been beaten the first or second day the City +would have been humiliated to the soul.</p> + +<p>People say: "Of course, they will be beaten." The statement is almost a +query, and they continue, "but they are putting up a decent fight." For +being beaten does not greatly matter in Ireland, but not fighting does +matter. "They went forth always to the battle; and they always fell," +Indeed, the history of the Irish race is in that phrase.</p> + +<p>The firing from the roofs of Trinity College became violent. I crossed +Dame Street some distance up, struck down the Quays, and went along +these until I reached the Ballast Office. Further than this it was not +possible to go, for a step beyond the Ballast Office would have brought +one into the unending stream of lead that was pouring from Trinity and +other places. I was looking on O'Connell Bridge and Sackville Street, +and the house facing me was Kelly's—a red-brick fishing tackle shop, +one half of which was on the Quay and the other half in Sackville +Street. This house was being bombarded.</p> + +<p>I counted the report of six different machine guns which played on it. +Rifles innumerable and from every sort of place were potting its +windows, and at intervals of about half a minute the shells from a heavy +gun lobbed in through its windows or thumped mightily against its walls.</p> + +<p>For three hours that bombardment continued, and the walls stood in a +cloud of red dust and smoke. Rifle and machine gun bullets pattered over +every inch of it, and, unfailingly the heavy gun pounded its shells +through the windows.</p> + +<p>One's heart melted at the idea that human beings were crouching inside +that volcano of death, and I said to myself, "Not even a fly can be +alive in that house."</p> + +<p>No head showed at any window, no rifle cracked from window or roof in +reply. The house was dumb, lifeless, and I thought every one of those +men are dead.</p> + +<p>It was then, and quite suddenly, that the possibilities of street +fighting flashed on me, and I knew there was no person in the house, and +said to myself, "They have smashed through the walls with a hatchet and +are sitting in the next house, or they have long ago climbed out by the +skylight and are on a roof half a block away." Then the thought came to +me—they have and hold the entire of Sackville Street down to the Post +Office. Later on this proved to be the case, and I knew at this moment +that Sackville Street was doomed.</p> + +<p>I continued to watch the bombardment, but no longer with the anguish +which had before torn me. Near by there were four men, and a few yards +away, clustered in a laneway, there were a dozen others. An agitated +girl was striding from the farther group to the one in which I was, and +she addressed the men in the most obscene language which I have ever +heard. She addressed them man by man, and she continued to speak and cry +and scream at them with all that obstinate, angry patience of which only +a woman is capable.</p> + +<p>She cursed us all. She called down diseases on every human being in the +world excepting only the men who were being bombarded. She demanded of +the folk in the laneway that they should march at least into the roadway +and prove that they were proud men and were not afraid of bullets. She +had been herself into the danger zone. Had stood herself in the track of +the guns, and had there cursed her fill for half an hour, and she +desired that the men should do at least what she had done.</p> + +<p>This girl was quite young—about nineteen years of age—and was dressed +in the customary shawl and apron of her class. Her face was rather +pretty, or it had that pretty slenderness and softness of outline which +belong to youth. But every sentence she spoke contained half a dozen +indecent words. Alas, it was only that her vocabulary was not equal to +her emotions, and she did not know how to be emphatic without being +obscene—it is the cause of most of the meaningless swearing one hears +every day. She spoke to me for a minute, and her eyes were as soft as +those of a kitten and her language was as gentle as her eyes. She wanted +a match to light a cigarette, but I had none, and said that I also +wanted one. In a few minutes she brought me a match, and then she +recommenced her tireless weaving of six vile words into hundreds of +stupid sentences.</p> + +<p>About five o'clock the guns eased off of Kelly's.</p> + +<p>To inexperienced eyes they did not seem to have done very much damage, +but afterwards one found that although the walls were standing and +apparently solid there was no inside to the house. From roof to basement +the building was bare as a dog kennel. There were no floors inside, +there was nothing there but blank space; and on the ground within was +the tumble and rubbish that had been roof and floors and furniture. +Everything inside was smashed and pulverised into scrap and dust, and +the only objects that had consistency and their ancient shape were the +bricks that fell when the shells struck them.</p> + +<p>Rifle shots had begun to strike the house on the further side of the +street, a jewellers' shop called Hopkins & Hopkins. The impact of these +balls on the bricks was louder than the sound of the shot which +immediately succeeded, and each bullet that struck brought down a shower +of fine red dust from the walls. Perhaps thirty or forty shots in all +were fired at Hopkins', and then, except for an odd crack, firing +ceased.</p> + +<p>During all this time there had been no reply from the Volunteers, and I +thought they must be husbanding their ammunition, and so must be short +of it, and that it would be only a matter of a few days before the end. +All this, I said to myself, will be finished in a few days, and they +will be finished; life here will recommence exactly where it left off, +and except for some newly-filled graves, all will be as it had been +until they become a tradition and enter the imagination of their race.</p> + +<p>I spoke to several of the people about me, and found the same +willingness to exchange news that I had found elsewhere in the City, and +the same reticences as regarded their private opinions. Two of them, +indeed, and they were the only two I met with during the insurrection, +expressed, although in measured terms, admiration for the Volunteers, +and while they did not side with them they did not say anything against +them. One was a labouring man, the other a gentleman. The remark of the +latter was:</p> + +<p>"I am an Irishman, and (pointing to the shells that were bursting +through the windows in front of us) I hate to see that being done to +other Irishmen."</p> + +<p>He had come from some part of the country to spend the Easter Holidays +in Dublin, and was unable to leave town again.</p> + +<p>The labouring man—he was about fifty-six years of age—spoke very +quietly and collectedly about the insurrection. He was a type with whom +I had come very little in contact, and I was surprised to find how +simple and good his speech was, and how calm his ideas. He thought +labour was in this movement to a greater extent than was imagined. I +mentioned that Liberty Hall had been blown up, and that the garrison had +either surrendered or been killed. He replied that a gunboat had that +morning come up the river and had blown Liberty Hall into smash, but, he +added, there were no men in it. All the Labour Volunteers had marched +with Connolly into the Post Office.</p> + +<p>He said the Labour Volunteers might possibly number about one thousand +men, but that it would be quite safe to say eight hundred, and he held +that the Labour Volunteers, or the Citizens' Army, as they called +themselves, had always been careful not to reveal their numbers. They +had always announced that they possessed about two hundred and fifty +men, and had never paraded any more than that number at any one time. +Workingmen, he continued, knew that the men who marched were always +different men. The police knew it, too, but they thought that the +Citizens Army was the <i>most deserted-from force</i> in the world.</p> + +<p>The men, however, were not deserters—you don't, he said, desert a man +like Connolly, and they were merely taking their turn at being drilled +and disciplined. They were raised against the police who, in the big +strike of two years ago, had acted towards them with unparallelled +savagery, and the men had determined that the police would never again +find them thus disorganised.</p> + +<p>This man believed that every member of the Citizen Army had marched with +their leader.</p> + +<p>"The men, I know," said he, "would not be afraid of anything, and," he +continued, "they are in the Post Office now."</p> + +<p>"What chance have they?"</p> + +<p>"None," he replied, "and they never said they had, and they never +thought they would have any."</p> + +<p>"How long do you think they'll be able to hold out?"</p> + +<p>He nodded towards the house that had been bombarded by heavy guns.</p> + +<p>"That will root them out of it quick enough," was his reply.</p> + +<p>"I'm going home," said he then, "the people will be wondering if I'm +dead or alive," and he walked away from that sad street, as I did myself +a few minutes afterwards.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_IV'></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THURSDAY</h3> + +<p>Again, the rumours greeted one. This place had fallen and had not +fallen. Such a position had been captured by the soldiers; recaptured by +the Volunteers, and had not been attacked at all. But certainly fighting +was proceeding. Up Mount Street, the rifle volleys were continuous, and +the coming and going of ambulance cars from that direction were +continuous also. Some spoke of pitched battles on the bridge, and said +that as yet the advantage lay with the Volunteers.</p> + +<p>At 11.30 there came the sound of heavy guns firing in the direction of +Sackville Street. I went on the roof, and remained there for some time. +From this height the sounds could be heard plainly. There was sustained +firing along the whole central line of the City, from the Green down to +Trinity College, and from thence to Sackville Street, and the report of +the various types of arm could be easily distinguished. There were +rifles, machine guns and very heavy cannon. There was another sound +which I could not put a name to, something that coughed out over all the +other sounds, a short, sharp bark, or rather a short noise something +like the popping of a tremendous cork.</p> + +<p>I met D.H. His chief emotion is one of astonishment at the organizing +powers displayed by the Volunteers. We have exchanged rumours, and found +that our equipment in this direction is almost identical. He says Sheehy +Skeffington has been killed. That he was arrested in a house wherein +arms were found, and was shot out of hand.</p> + +<p>I hope this is another rumour, for, so far as my knowledge of him goes, +he was not with the Volunteers, and it is said that he was antagonistic +to the forcible methods for which the Volunteers stood. But the tale of +his death is so persistent that one is inclined to believe it.</p> + +<p>He was the most absurdly courageous man I have ever met with or heard +of. He has been in every trouble that has touched Ireland these ten +years back, and he has always been in on the generous side, therefore, +and naturally, on the side that was unpopular and weak. It would seem +indeed that a cause had only to be weak to gain his sympathy, and his +sympathy never stayed at home. There are so many good people who +"sympathise" with this or that cause, and, having given that measure of +their emotion, they give no more of it or of anything else. But he +rushed instantly to the street. A large stone, the lift of a footpath, +the base of a statue, any place and every place was for him a pulpit; +and, in the teeth of whatever oppression or disaster or power, he said +his say.</p> + +<p>There are multitudes of men in Dublin of all classes and creeds who can +boast that they kicked Sheehy Skeffington, or that they struck him on +the head with walking sticks and umbrellas, or that they smashed their +fists into his face, and jumped on him when he fell. It is by no means +an exaggeration to say that these things were done to him, and it is +true that he bore ill-will to no man, and that he accepted blows, and +indignities and ridicule with the pathetic candour of a child who is +disguised as a man, and whose disguise cannot come off. His tongue, his +pen, his body, all that he had and hoped for were at the immediate +service of whoever was bewildered or oppressed. He has been shot. Other +men have been shot, but they faced the guns knowing that they faced +justice, however stern and oppressive; and that what they had engaged to +confront was before them. He had no such thought to soothe from his mind +anger or unforgiveness. He who was a pacifist was compelled to revolt to +his last breath, and on the instruments of his end he must have looked +as on murderers. I am sure that to the end he railed against oppression, +and that he fell marvelling that the world can truly be as it is. With +his death there passed away a brave man and a clean soul.</p> + +<p>Later on this day I met Mrs. Sheehy Skeffington in the street. She +confirmed the rumour that her husband had been arrested on the previous +day, but further than that she had no news. So far as I know the sole +crime of which her husband had been guilty was that he called for a +meeting of the citizens to enrol special constables and prevent looting.</p> + +<p>Among the rumours it was stated with every accent of certitude that +Madame Markievicz had been captured in George's Street, and taken to the +Castle. It was also current that Sir Roger Casement had been captured at +sea and had already been shot in the Tower of London. The names of +several Volunteer Leaders are mentioned as being dead. But the surmise +that steals timidly from one mouth flies boldly as a certitude from +every mouth that repeats it, and truth itself would now be listened to +with only a gossip's ear, but no person would believe a word of it.</p> + +<p>This night also was calm and beautiful, but this night was the most +sinister and woeful of those that have passed. The sound of artillery, +of rifles, machine guns, grenades, did not cease even for a moment. From +my window I saw a red flare that crept to the sky, and stole over it and +remained there glaring; the smoke reached from the ground to the clouds, +and I could see great red sparks go soaring to enormous heights; while +always, in the calm air, hour after hour there was the buzzing and +rattling and thudding of guns, and, but for the guns, silence.</p> + +<p>It is in a dead silence this Insurrection is being fought, and one +imagines what must be the feeling of these men, young for the most part, +and unused to violence, who are submitting silently to the crash and +flame and explosion by which they are surrounded.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_V'></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>FRIDAY</h3> + +<p>This morning there are no newspapers, no bread, no milk, no news. The +sun is shining, and the streets are lively but discreet. All people +continue to talk to one another without distinction of class, but nobody +knows what any person thinks.</p> + +<p>It is a little singular the number of people who are smiling. I fancy +they were listening to the guns last night, and they are smiling this +morning because the darkness is past, and because the sun is shining, +and because they can move their limbs in space, and may talk without +having to sink their voices to a whisper. Guns do not sound so bad in +the day as they do at night, and no person can feel lonely while the sun +shines.</p> + +<p>The men are smiling, but the women laugh, and their laughter does not +displease, for whatever women do in whatever circumstances appears to +have a rightness of its own. It seems right that they should scream +when danger to themselves is imminent, and it seems right that they +should laugh when the danger only threatens others.</p> + +<p>It is rumoured this morning that Sackville Street has been burned out +and levelled to the ground. It is said that the end is in sight; and, it +is said, that matters are, if anything rather worse than better. That +the Volunteers have sallied from some of their strongholds and +entrenched themselves, and that in one place alone (the South Lotts) +they have seven machine guns. That when the houses which they held +became untenable they rushed out and seized other houses, and that, +pursuing these tactics, there seemed no reason to believe that the +Insurrection would ever come to an end. That the streets are filled with +Volunteers in plain clothes, but having revolvers in their pockets. That +the streets are filled with soldiers equally revolvered and plain +clothed, and that the least one says on any subject the less one would +have to answer for.</p> + +<p>The feeling that I tapped was definitely Anti-Volunteer, but the number +of people who would speak was few, and one regarded the noncommital +folk who were so smiling and polite, and so prepared to talk, with much +curiosity, seeking to read in their eyes, in their bearing, even in the +cut of their clothes what might be the secret movements and cogitations +of their minds.</p> + +<p>I received the impression that numbers of them did not care a rap what +way it went; and that others had ceased to be mental creatures and were +merely machines for registering the sensations of the time.</p> + +<p>None of these people were prepared for Insurrection. The thing had been +sprung on them so suddenly that they were unable to take sides, and +their feeling of detachment was still so complete that they would have +betted on the business as if it had been a horse race or a dog fight.</p> + +<p>Many English troops have been landed each night, and it is believed that +there are more than sixty thousand soldiers in Dublin alone, and that +they are supplied with every offensive contrivance which military art +has invented.</p> + +<p>Merrion Square is strongly held by the soldiers. They are posted along +both sides of the road at intervals of about twenty paces, and their +guns are continually barking up at the roofs which surround them in the +great square. It is said that these roofs are held by the Volunteers +from Mount Street Bridge to the Square, and that they hold in like +manner wide stretches of the City.</p> + +<p>They appear to have mapped out the roofs with all the thoroughness that +had hitherto been expended on the roads, and upon these roofs they are +so mobile and crafty and so much at home that the work of the soldiers +will be exceedingly difficult as well as dangerous.</p> + +<p>Still, and notwithstanding, men can only take to the roofs for a short +time. Up there, there can be no means of transport, and their +ammunition, as well as their food, will very soon be used up. It is the +beginning of the end, and the fact that they have to take to the roofs, +even though that be in their programme, means that they are finished.</p> + +<p>From the roof there comes the sound of machine guns. Looking towards +Sackville Street one picks out easily Nelson's Pillar, which towers +slenderly over all the buildings of the neighbourhood. It is wreathed in +smoke. Another towering building was the D.B.C. Café. Its Chinese-like +pagoda was a landmark easily to be found, but to-day I could not find +it. It was not there, and I knew that, even if all Sackville Street was +not burned down, as rumour insisted, this great Café had certainly been +curtailed by its roof and might, perhaps, have been completely burned.</p> + +<p>On the gravel paths I found pieces of charred and burnt paper. These +scraps must have been blown remarkably high to have crossed all the +roofs that lie between Sackville Street and Merrion Square.</p> + +<p>At eleven o'clock there is continuous firing, and snipers firing from +the direction of Mount Street, and in every direction of the City these +sounds are being duplicated.</p> + +<p>In Camden Street the sniping and casualties are said to have been very +heavy. One man saw two Volunteers taken from a house by the soldiers. +They were placed kneeling in the centre of the road, and within one +minute of their capture they were dead. Simultaneously there fell +several of the firing party.</p> + +<p>An officer in this part had his brains blown into the roadway. A young +girl ran into the road picked up his cap and scraped the brains into it. +She covered this poor debris with a little straw, and carried the hat +piously to the nearest hospital in order that the brains might be buried +with their owner.</p> + +<p>The continuation of her story was less gloomy although it affected the +teller equally.</p> + +<p>"There is not," said she, "a cat or a dog left alive in Camden Street. +They are lying stiff out in the road and up on the roofs. There's lots +of women will be sorry for this war," said she, "and their pets killed +on them."</p> + +<p>In many parts of the City hunger began to be troublesome. A girl told me +that her family, and another that had taken refuge with them, had eaten +nothing for three days. On this day her father managed to get two loaves +of bread somewhere, and he brought these home.</p> + +<p>"When," said the girl, "my father came in with the bread the whole +fourteen of us ran at him, and in a minute we were all ashamed for the +loaves were gone to the last crumb, and we were all as hungry as we had +been before he came in. The poor man," said she, "did not even get a bit +for himself." She held that the poor people were against the Volunteers.</p> + +<p>The Volunteers still hold Jacob's Biscuit Factory. It is rumoured that a +priest visited them and counselled surrender, and they replied that they +did not go there to surrender but to be killed. They asked him to give +them absolution, and the story continues that he refused to do so—but +this is not (in its latter part) a story that can easily be credited. +The Adelaide Hospital is close to this factory, and it is possible that +the proximity of the hospital, delays or hinders military operations +against the factory.</p> + +<p>Rifle volleys are continuous about Merrion Square, and prolonged machine +gun firing can be heard also.</p> + +<p>During the night the firing was heavy from almost every direction; and +in the direction of Sackville Street a red glare told again of fire.</p> + +<p>It is hard to get to bed these nights. It is hard even to sit down, for +the moment one does sit down one stands immediately up again resuming +that ridiculous ship's march from the window to the wall and back. I am +foot weary as I have never been before in my life, but I cannot say that +I am excited. No person in Dublin is excited, but there exists a state +of tension and expectancy which is mentally more exasperating than any +excitement could be. The absence of news is largely responsible for +this. We do not know what has happened, what is happening, or what is +going to happen, and the reversion to barbarism (for barbarism is +largely a lack of news) disturbs us.</p> + +<p>Each night we have got to bed at last murmuring, "I wonder will it be +all over to-morrow," and this night the like question accompanied us.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_VI'></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>SATURDAY</h3> + +<p>This morning also there has been no bread, no milk, no meat, no +newspapers, but the sun is shining. It is astonishing that, thus early +in the Spring, the weather should be so beautiful.</p> + +<p>It is stated freely that the Post Office has been taken, and just as +freely it is averred that it has not been taken. The approaches to +Merrion Square are held by the military, and I was not permitted to go +to my office. As I came to this point shots were fired at a motor car +which had not stopped on being challenged. Bystanders said it was Sir +Horace Plunkett's car, and that he had been shot. Later we found that +Sir Horace was not hurt, but that his nephew who drove the car had been +severely wounded.</p> + +<p>At this hour the rumour of the fall of Verdun was persistent. Later on +it was denied, as was denied the companion rumour of the relief of Kut. +Saw R. who had spent three days and the whole of his money in getting +home from County Clare. He had heard that Mrs. Sheehy Skeffington's +house was raided, and that two dead bodies had been taken out of it. Saw +Miss P. who seemed sad. I do not know what her politics are, but I think +that the word "kindness" might be used to cover all her activities. She +has a heart of gold, and the courage of many lions. I then met Mr. +Commissioner Bailey who said the Volunteers had sent a deputation, and +that terms of surrender were being discussed. I hope this is true, and I +hope mercy will be shown to the men. Nobody believes there will be any +mercy shown, and it is freely reported that they are shot in the street, +or are taken to the nearest barracks and shot there. The belief grows +that no person who is now in the Insurrection will be alive when the +Insurrection is ended.</p> + +<p>That is as it will be. But these days the thought of death does not +strike on the mind with any severity, and, should the European war +continue much longer, the fear of death will entirely depart from man, +as it has departed many times in history. With that great deterrent +gone our rulers will be gravely at a loss in dealing with strikers and +other such discontented people. Possibly they will have to resurrect the +long-buried idea of torture.</p> + +<p>The people in the streets are laughing and chatting. Indeed, there is +gaiety in the air as well as sunshine, and no person seems to care that +men are being shot every other minute, or bayoneted, or blown into +scraps or burned into cinders. These things are happening, nevertheless, +but much of their importance has vanished.</p> + +<p>I met a man at the Green who was drawing a plan on the back of an +envelope. The problem was how his questioner was to get from where he +was standing to a street lying at the other side of the river, and the +plan as drawn insisted that to cover this quarter of an hour's distance +he must set out on a pilgrimage of more than twenty miles. Another young +boy was standing near embracing a large ham. He had been trying for +three days to convey his ham to a house near the Gresham Hotel where his +sister lived. He had almost given up hope, and he hearkened +intelligently to the idea that he should himself eat the ham and so get +rid of it.</p> + +<p>The rifle fire was persistent all day, but, saving in certain +localities, it was not heavy. Occasionally the machine guns rapped in. +There was no sound of heavy artillery.</p> + +<p>The rumour grows that the Post Office has been evacuated, and that the +Volunteers are at large and spreading everywhere across the roofs. The +rumour grows also that terms of surrender are being discussed, and that +Sackville Street has been levelled to the ground.</p> + +<p>At half-past seven in the evening calm is almost complete. The sound of +a rifle shot being only heard at long intervals.</p> + +<p>I got to bed this night earlier than usual. At two o'clock I left the +window from which a red flare is yet visible in the direction of +Sackville Street. The morning will tell if the Insurrection is finished +or not, but at this hour all is not over. Shots are ringing all around +and down my street, and the vicious crackling of these rifles grow at +times into regular volleys.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_VII'></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>SUNDAY</h3> + +<p>The Insurrection has not ceased.</p> + +<p>There is much rifle fire, but no sound from the machine guns or the +eighteen pounders and trench mortars.</p> + +<p>From the window of my kitchen the flag of the Republic can be seen +flying afar. This is the flag that flies over Jacob's Biscuit Factory, +and I will know that the Insurrection has ended as soon as I see this +flag pulled down.</p> + +<p>When I went out there were few people in the streets. I met D.H., and, +together, we passed up the Green. The Republican flag was still flying +over the College of Surgeons. We tried to get down Grafton Street (where +broken windows and two gaping interiors told of the recent visit of +looters), but a little down this street we were waved back by armed +sentries. We then cut away by the Gaiety Theatre into Mercer's Street, +where immense lines of poor people were drawn up waiting for the +opening of the local bakery. We got into George's Street, thinking to +turn down Dame Street and get from thence near enough to Sackville +Street to see if the rumours about its destruction were true, but here +also we were halted by the military, and had to retrace our steps.</p> + +<p>There was no news of any kind to be gathered from the people we talked +to, nor had they even any rumours.</p> + +<p>This was the first day I had been able to get even a short distance +outside of my own quarter, and it seemed that the people of my quarter +were more able in the manufacture of news or more imaginative than were +the people who live in other parts of the city. We had no sooner struck +into home parts than we found news. We were told that two of the +Volunteer leaders had been shot. These were Pearse and Connolly. The +latter was reported as lying in the Castle Hospital with a fractured +thigh. Pearse was cited as dead with two hundred of his men, following +their sally from the Post Office. The machine guns had caught them as +they left, and none of them remained alive. The news seemed afterwards +to be true except that instead of Pearse it was The O'Rahilly who had +been killed. Pearse died later and with less excitement.</p> + +<p>A man who had seen an English newspaper said that the Kut force had +surrendered to the Turk, but that Verdun had not fallen to the Germans. +The rumour was current also that a great naval battle had been fought +whereat the German fleet had been totally destroyed with loss to the +English of eighteen warships. It was said that among the captured +Volunteers there had been a large body of Germans, but nobody believed +it; and this rumour was inevitably followed by the tale that there were +one hundred German submarines lying in the Stephen's Green pond.</p> + +<p>At half-past two I met Mr. Commissioner Bailey, who told me that it was +all over, and that the Volunteers were surrendering everywhere in the +city. A motor car with two military officers, and two Volunteer leaders +had driven to the College of Surgeons and been admitted. After a short +interval Madame Marckievicz marched out of the College at the head of +about 100 men, and they had given up their arms; the motor car with the +Volunteer leaders was driving to other strongholds, and it was expected +that before nightfall the capitulations would be complete.</p> + +<p>I started home, and on the way I met a man whom I had encountered some +days previously, and from whom rumours had sprung as though he wove them +from his entrails, as a spider weaves his web. He was no less provided +on this occasion, and it was curious to listen to his tale of English +defeats on every front. He announced the invasion of England in six +different quarters, the total destruction of the English fleet, and the +landing of immense German armies on the West coast of Ireland. He made +these things up in his head. Then he repeated them to himself in a loud +voice, and became somehow persuaded that they had been told to him by a +well-informed stranger, and then he believed them and told them to +everybody he met. Amongst other things Spain had declared war on our +behalf, the Chilian Navy was hastening to our relief. For a pin he +would have sent France flying westward all forgetful of her own war. A +singular man truly, and as I do think the only thoroughly happy person +in our city.</p> + +<p>It is half-past three o'clock, and from my window the Republican flag +can still be seen flying over Jacob's factory. There is occasional +shooting, but the city as a whole is quiet. At a quarter to five o'clock +a heavy gun boomed once. Ten minutes later there was heavy machine gun +firing and much rifle shooting. In another ten minutes the flag at +Jacob's was hauled down.</p> + +<p>During the remainder of the night sniping and military replies were +incessant, particularly in my street.</p> + +<p>The raids have begun in private houses. Count Plunkett's house was +entered by the military who remained there for a very long time. Passing +home about two minutes after Proclamation hour I was pursued for the +whole of Fitzwilliam Square by bullets. They buzzed into the roadway +beside me, and the sound as they whistled near was curious. The sound is +something like that made by a very swift saw, and one gets the +impression that as well as being very swift they are very heavy.</p> + +<p>Snipers are undoubtedly on the roofs opposite my house, and they are not +asleep on these roofs. Possibly it is difficult to communicate with +these isolated bands the news of their companions' surrender, but it is +likely they will learn, by the diminution of fire in other quarters that +their work is over.</p> + +<p>In the morning on looking from my window I saw four policemen marching +into the street. They were the first I had seen for a week. Soon now the +military tale will finish, the police story will commence, the political +story will recommence, and, perhaps, the weeks that follow this one will +sow the seed of more hatred than so many centuries will be able to +uproot again, for although Irish people do not greatly fear the military +they fear the police, and they have very good reason to do so.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_VIII'></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>THE INSURRECTION IS OVER</h3> + + +<p>The Insurrection is over, and it is worth asking what has happened, how +it has happened, and why it happened?</p> + +<p>The first question is easily answered. The finest part of our city has +been blown to smithereens, and burned into ashes. Soldiers amongst us +who have served abroad say that the ruin of this quarter is more +complete than any thing they have seen at Ypres, than anything they have +seen anywhere in France or Flanders. A great number of our men and women +and children, Volunteers and civilians confounded alike, are dead, and +some fifty thousand men who have been moved with military equipment to +our land are now being removed therefrom. The English nation has been +disorganised no more than as they were affected by the transport of +these men and material. That is what happened, and it is all that +happened.</p> + +<p>How it happened is another matter, and one which, perhaps, will not be +made clear for years. All we know in Dublin is that our city burst into +a kind of spontaneous war; that we lived through it during one singular +week, and that it faded away and disappeared almost as swiftly as it had +come. The men who knew about it are, with two exceptions, dead, and +these two exceptions are in gaol, and likely to remain there long +enough. (Since writing one of these men has been shot.)</p> + +<p>Why it happened is a question that may be answered more particularly. It +happened because the leader of the Irish Party misrepresented his people +in the English House of Parliament. On the day of the declaration of war +between England and Germany he took the Irish case, weighty with eight +centuries of history and tradition, and he threw it out of the window. +He pledged Ireland to a particular course of action, and he had no +authority to give this pledge and he had no guarantee that it would be +met. The ramshackle intelligence of his party and his own emotional +nature betrayed him and us and England. He swore Ireland to loyalty as +if he had Ireland in his pocket, and could answer for her. Ireland has +never been disloyal to England, not even at this epoch, because she has +never been loyal to England, and the profession of her National faith +has been unwavering, has been known to every English person alive, and +has been clamant to all the world beside.</p> + +<p>Is it that he wanted to be cheered? He could very easily have stated +Ireland's case truthfully, and have proclaimed a benevolent neutrality +(if he cared to use the grandiloquent words) on the part of this +country. He would have gotten his cheers, he would in a few months have +gotten Home Rule in return for Irish soldiers. He would have received +politically whatever England could have safely given him. But, alas, +these carefulnesses did not chime with his emotional moment. They were +not magnificent enough for one who felt that he was talking not to +Ireland or to England, but to the whole gaping and eager earth, and so +he pledged his country's credit so deeply that he did not leave her even +one National rag to cover herself with.</p> + +<p>After a lie truth bursts out, and it is no longer the radiant and +serene goddess knew or hoped for—it is a disease, it is a moral +syphilis and will ravage until the body in which it can dwell has been +purged. Mr. Redmond told the lie and he is answerable to England for the +violence she had to be guilty of, and to Ireland for the desolation to +which we have had to submit. Without his lie there had been no +Insurrection; without it there had been at this moment, and for a year +past, an end to the "Irish question." Ireland must in ages gone have +been guilty of abominable crimes or she could not at this juncture have +been afflicted with a John Redmond.</p> + +<p>He is the immediate cause of this our latest Insurrection—the word is +big, much too big for the deed, and we should call it row, or riot, or +squabble, in order to draw the fact down to its dimensions, but the +ultimate blame for the trouble between the two countries does not fall +against Ireland.</p> + +<p>The fault lies with England, and in these days while an effort is being +made (interrupted, it is true, by cannon) to found a better +understanding between the two nations it is well that England should +recognize what she has done to Ireland, and should try at least to +atone for it. The situation can be explained almost in a phrase. We are +a little country and you, a huge country, have persistently beaten us. +We are a poor country and you, the richest country in the world, have +persistently robbed us. That is the historical fact, and whatever +national or political necessities are opposed in reply, it is true that +you have never given Ireland any reason to love you, and you cannot +claim her affection without hypocrisy or stupidity.</p> + +<p>You think our people can only be tenacious in hate—it is a lie. Our +historical memory is truly tenacious, but during the long and miserable +tale of our relations you have never given us one generosity to remember +you by, and you must not claim our affection or our devotion until you +are worthy of them. We are a good people; almost we are the only +Christian people left in the world, nor has any nation shown such +forbearance towards their persecutor as we have always shown to you. No +nation has forgiven its enemies as we have forgiven you, time after time +down the miserable generations, the continuity of forgiveness only +equalled by the continuity of your ill-treatment. Between our two +countries you have kept and protected a screen of traders and +politicians who are just as truly your enemies as they are ours. In the +end they will do most harm to you for we are by this vaccinated against +misery but you are not, and the "loyalists" who sell their own country +for a shilling will sell another country for a penny when the +opportunity comes and safety with it.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile do not always hasten your presents to us out of a gun. You +have done it so often that your guns begin to bore us, and you have now +an opportunity which may never occur again to make us your friends. +There is no bitterness in Ireland against you on account of this war, +and the lack of ill-feeling amongst us is entirely due to the more than +admirable behaviour of the soldiers whom you sent over here. A peace +that will last for ever can be made with Ireland if you wish to make it, +but you must take her hand at once, for in a few months' time she will +not open it to you; the old, bad relations will re-commence, the rancor +will be born and grow, and another memory will be stored away in +Ireland's capacious and retentive brain.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_IX'></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>THE VOLUNTEERS</h3> + + +<p>There is much talk of the extraordinary organising powers displayed in +the insurrection, but in truth there was nothing extraordinary in it. +The real essence and singularity of the rising exists in its simplicity, +and, saving for the courage which carried it out, the word extraordinary +is misplaced in this context.</p> + +<p>The tactics of the Volunteers as they began to emerge were reduced to +the very skeleton of "strategy." It was only that they seized certain +central and stragetical districts, garrisoned those and held them until +they were put out of them. Once in their forts there was no further +egress by the doors, and for purpose of entry and sortie they used the +skylights and the roofs. On the roofs they had plenty of cover, and this +cover conferred on them a mobility which was their chief asset, and +which alone enabled them to protract the rebellion beyond the first day.</p> + +<p>This was the entire of their home plan, and there is no doubt that they +had studied Dublin roofs and means of inter-communication by roofs with +the closest care. Further than that I do not think they had organised +anything. But this was only the primary plan, and, unless they were +entirely mad, there must have been a sequel to it which did not +materialise, and which would have materialised but that the English +Fleet blocked the way.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt that they expected the country to rise with them, and +they must have known what their own numbers were, and what chance they +had of making a protracted resistance. The word "resistance" is the +keyword of the rising, and the plan of holding out must have been +rounded off with a date. At that date something else was to have +happened which would relieve them.</p> + +<p>There is not much else that could happen except the landing of German +troops in Ireland or in England. It would have been, I think, immaterial +to them where these were landed, but the reasoning seems to point to the +fact that they expected and had arranged for such a landing, although +on this point there is as yet no evidence.</p> + +<p>The logic of this is so simple, so plausible, that it might be accepted +without further examination, and yet further examination is necessary, +for in a country like Ireland logic and plausibility are more often +wrong than right. It may just as easily be that except for furnishing +some arms and ammunition Germany was not in the rising at all, and this +I prefer to believe. It had been current long before the rising that the +Volunteers knew they could not seriously embarass England, and that +their sole aim was to make such a row in Ireland that the Irish question +would take the status of an international one, and on the discussion of +terms of peace in the European war the claims of Ireland would have to +be considered by the whole Council of Europe and the world.</p> + +<p>That is, in my opinion, the metaphysic behind the rising. It is quite +likely that they hoped for German aid, possibly some thousands of men, +who would enable them to prolong the row, but I do not believe they +expected German armies, nor do I think they would have welcomed these +with any cordiality.</p> + +<p>In this insurrection there are two things which are singular in the +history of Irish risings. One is that there were no informers, or there +were no informers among the chiefs. I did hear people say in the streets +that two days before the rising they knew it was to come; they +invariably added that they had not believed the news, and had laughed at +it. A priest said the same thing in my hearing, and it may be that the +rumour was widely spread, and that everybody, including the authorities, +looked upon it as a joke.</p> + +<p>The other singularity of the rising is the amazing silence in which it +was fought. Nothing spoke but the guns; and the Volunteers on the one +side and the soldiers on the other potted each other and died in +whispers; it might have been said that both sides feared the Germans +would hear them and take advantage of their preoccupation.</p> + +<p>There is a third reason given for the rebellion, and it also is divorced +from foreign plots. It is said, and the belief in Dublin was widespread, +that the Government intended to raid the Volunteers and seize their +arms. One remembers to-day the paper which Alderman Kelly read to the +Dublin Corporation, and which purported to be State Instructions that +the Military and Police should raid the Volunteers, and seize their arms +and leaders. The Volunteers had sworn they would not permit their arms +to be taken from them. A list of the places to be raided was given, and +the news created something of a sensation in Ireland when it was +published that evening. The Press, by instruction apparently, repudiated +this document, but the Volunteers, with most of the public, believed it +to be true, and it is more than likely that the rebellion took place in +order to forestall the Government.</p> + +<p>This is also an explanation of the rebellion, and is just as good a one +as any other. It is the explanation which I believe to be the true one.</p> + +<p>All the talk of German invasion and the landing of German troops in +Ireland is so much nonsense in view of the fact that England is master +of the seas, and that from a week before the war down to this date she +has been the undisputed monarch of those ridges. During this war there +will be no landing of troops in either England or Ireland unless Germany +in the meantime can solve the problem of submarine transport. It is a +problem which will be solved some day, for every problem can be solved, +but it will hardly be during the progress of this war. The men at the +head of the Volunteers were not geniuses, neither were they fools, and +the difficulty of acquiring military aid from Germany must have seemed +as insurmountable to them as it does to the Germans themselves. They +rose because they felt that they had to do so, or be driven like sheep +into the nearest police barracks, and be laughed at by the whole of +Ireland as cowards and braggarts.</p> + +<p>It would be interesting to know why, on the eve of the insurrection, +Professor MacNeill resigned the presidency of the Volunteers. The story +of treachery which was heard in the streets is not the true one, for men +of his type are not traitors, and this statement may be dismissed +without further comment or notice. One is left to imagine what can have +happened during the conference which is said to have preceded the +rising, and which ended with the resignation of Professor MacNeill.</p> + +<p>This is my view, or my imagining, of what occurred. The conference was +called because the various leaders felt that a hostile movement was +projected by the Government, and that the times were exceedingly black +for them. Neither Mr. Birrell nor Sir Mathew Nathan had any desire that +there should be a conflict in Ireland during the war. This cannot be +doubted. From such a conflict there might follow all kinds of political +repercussions; but although the Government favoured the policy of +<i>laissez faire</i>, there was a powerful military and political party in +Ireland whose whole effort was towards the disarming and punishment of +the Volunteers—particularly I should say the punishment of the +Volunteers. I believe, or rather I imagine, that Professor MacNeill was +approached at the instance of Mr. Birrell or Sir Mathew Nathan and +assured that the Government did not meditate any move against his men, +and that so long as his Volunteers remained quiet they would not be +molested by the authorities. I would say that Professor MacNeill gave +and accepted the necessary assurances, and that when he informed his +conference of what had occurred, and found that they did not believe +faith would be kept with them, he resigned in the dispairing hope that +his action might turn them from a purpose which he considered lunatic, +or, at least, by restraining a number of his followers from rising, he +might limit the tale of men who would be uselessly killed.</p> + +<p>He was not alone in his vote against a rising. The O'Rahilly and some +others are reputed to have voted with him, but when insurrection was +decided on, the O'Rahilly marched with his men, and surely a gallant man +could not have done otherwise.</p> + +<p>When the story of what occurred is authoritatively written (it may be +written) I think that this will be found to be the truth of the matter, +and that German intrigue and German money counted for so little in the +insurrection as to be negligible.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_X'></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>SOME OF THE LEADERS</h3> + + +<p>Meanwhile the insurrection, like all its historical forerunners, has +been quelled in blood. It sounds rhetorical to say so, but it was not +quelled in peasoup or tisane. While it lasted the fighting was very +determined, and it is easily, I think, the most considerable of Irish +rebellions.</p> + +<p>The country was not with it, for be it remembered that a whole army of +Irishmen, possibly three hundred thousand of our race, are fighting with +England instead of against her. In Dublin alone there is scarcely a poor +home in which a father, a brother, or a son is not serving in one of the +many fronts which England is defending. Had the country risen, and +fought as stubbornly as the Volunteers did, no troops could have beaten +them—well that is a wild statement, the heavy guns could always beat +them—but from whatever angle Irish people consider this affair it must +appear to them tragic and lamentable beyond expression, but not mean +and not unheroic.</p> + +<p>It was hard enough that our men in the English armies should be slain +for causes which no amount of explanation will ever render less foreign +to us, or even intelligible; but that our men who were left should be +killed in Ireland fighting against the same England that their brothers +are fighting for ties the question into such knots of contradiction as +we may give up trying to unravel. We can only think—this has +happened—and let it unhappen itself as best it may.</p> + +<p>We say that the time always finds the man, and by it we mean: that when +a responsibility is toward there will be found some shoulder to bend for +the yoke which all others shrink from. It is not always nor often the +great ones of the earth who undertake these burdens—it is usually the +good folk, that gentle hierarchy who swear allegiance to mournfulness +and the under dog, as others dedicate themselves to mutton chops and the +easy nymph. It is not my intention to idealise any of the men who were +concerned in this rebellion. Their country will, some few years hence, +do that as adequately as she has done it for those who went before them.</p> + +<p>Those of the leaders whom I knew were not great men, nor brilliant—that +is they were more scholars than thinkers, and more thinkers than men of +action; and I believe that in no capacity could they have attained to +what is called eminence, nor do I consider they coveted any such public +distinction as is noted in that word.</p> + +<p>But in my definition they were good men—men, that is, who willed no +evil, and whose movements of body or brain were unselfish and healthy. +No person living is the worse off for having known Thomas MacDonagh, and +I, at least, have never heard MacDonagh speak unkindly or even harshly +of anything that lived. It has been said of him that his lyrics were +epical; in a measure it is true, and it is true in the same measure that +his death was epical. He was the first of the leaders who was tried and +shot. It was not easy for him to die leaving behind two young children +and a young wife, and the thought that his last moment must have been +tormented by their memory is very painful. We are all fatalists when we +strike against power, and I hope he put care from him as the soldiers +marched him out.</p> + +<p>The O'Rahilly also I knew, but not intimately, and I can only speak of a +good humour, a courtesy, and an energy that never failed. He was a man +of unceasing ideas and unceasing speech, and laughter accompanied every +sound made by his lips.</p> + +<p>Plunkett and Pearse I knew also, but not intimately. Young Plunkett, as +he was always called, would never strike one as a militant person. He, +like Pearse and MacDonagh, wrote verse, and it was no better nor worse +than their's were. He had an appetite for quaint and difficult +knowledge. He studied Egyptian and Sanscrit, and distant curious matter +of that sort, and was interested in inventions and the theatre. He was +tried and sentenced and shot.</p> + +<p>As to Pearse, I do not know how to place him, nor what to say of him. If +there was an idealist among the men concerned in this insurrection it +was he, and if there was any person in the world less fitted to head an +insurrection it was he also. I never could "touch" or sense in him the +qualities which other men spoke of, and which made him military +commandant of the rising. None of these men were magnetic in the sense +that Mr. Larkin is magnetic, and I would have said that Pearse was less +magnetic than any of the others. Yet it was to him and around him they +clung.</p> + +<p>Men must find some centre either of power or action or intellect about +which they may group themselves, and I think that Pearse became the +leader because his temperament was more profoundly emotional than any of +the others. He was emotional not in a flighty, but in a serious way, and +one felt more that he suffered than that he enjoyed.</p> + +<p>He had a power; men who came into intimate contact with him began to act +differently to their own desires and interests. His schoolmasters did +not always receive their salaries with regularity. The reason that he +did not pay them was the simple one that he had no money. Given by +another man this explanation would be uneconomic, but from him it was so +logical that even a child could comprehend it. These masters did not +always leave him. They remained, marvelling perhaps, and accepting, even +with stupefaction, the theory that children must be taught, but that no +such urgency is due towards the payment of wages. One of his boys said +there was no fun in telling lies to Mr. Pearse, for, however outrageous +the lie, he always believed it. He built and renovated and improved his +school because the results were good for his scholars, and somehow he +found builders to undertake these forlorn hopes.</p> + +<p>It was not, I think, that he "put his trust in God," but that when +something had to be done he did it, and entirely disregarded logic or +economics or force. He said—such a thing has to be done and so far as +one man can do it I will do it, and he bowed straightaway to the task.</p> + +<p>It is mournful to think of men like these having to take charge of +bloody and desolate work, and one can imagine them say, "Oh! cursed +spite," as they accepted responsibility.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_XI'></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>LABOUR AND THE INSURRECTION</h3> + + +<p>No person in Ireland seems to have exact information about the +Volunteers, their aims, or their numbers. We know the names of the +leaders now. They were recited to us with the tale of their execution; +and with the declaration of a Republic we learned something of their +aim, but the estimate of their number runs through the figures ten, +thirty, and fifty thousand. The first figure is undoubtedly too slender, +the last excessive, and something between fifteen and twenty thousand +for all Ireland would be a reasonable guess.</p> + +<p>Of these, the Citizen Army or Labour side of the Volunteers, would not +number more than one thousand men, and it is with difficulty such a +figure could be arrived at. Yet it is freely argued, and the theory will +grow, that the causes of this latest insurrection should be sought among +the labour problems of Dublin rather than in any national or patriotic +sentiment, and this theory is buttressed by all the agile facts which +such a theory would be furnished with.</p> + +<p>It is an interesting view, but in my opinion it is an erroneous one.</p> + +<p>That Dublin labour was in the Volunteer movement to the strength of, +perhaps, two hundred men, may be true—it is possible there were more, +but it is unlikely that a greater number, or, as many, of the Citizen +Army marched when the order came. The overwhelming bulk of Volunteers +were actuated by the patriotic ideal which is the heritage and the +burden of almost every Irishman born out of the Unionist circle, and +their connection with labour was much more manual than mental.</p> + +<p>This view of the importance of labour to the Volunteers is held by two +distinct and opposed classes.</p> + +<p>Just as there are some who find the explanation of life in a sexual +formula, so there is a class to whom the economic idea is very dear, and +beneath every human activity they will discover the shock of wages and +profit. It is truly there, but it pulls no more than its weight, and in +Irish life the part played by labour has not yet been a weighty one; +although on every view it is an important one. The labour idea in +Ireland has not arrived. It is in process of "becoming," and when labour +problems are mentioned in this country a party does not come to the +mind, but two men only—they are Mr. Larkin and James Connolly, and they +are each in their way exceptional and curious men.</p> + +<p>There is another class who implicate labour, and they do so because it +enables them to urge that as well as being grasping and nihilistic, +Irish labour is disloyal and treacherous.</p> + +<p>The truth is that labour in Ireland has not yet succeeded in organising +anything—not even discontent. It is not self-conscious to any extent, +and, outside of Dublin, it scarcely appears to exist. The national +imagination is not free to deal with any other subject than that of +freedom, and part of the policy of our "masters" is to see that we be +kept busy with politics instead of social ideas. From their standpoint +the policy is admirable, and up to the present it has thoroughly +succeeded.</p> + +<p>One does not hear from the lips of the Irish workingman, even in +Dublin, any of the affirmations and rejections which have long since +become the commonplaces of his comrades in other lands. But on the +subject of Irish freedom his views are instantly forthcoming, and his +desires are explicit, and, to a degree, informed. This latter subject +they understand and have fabricated an entire language to express it, +but the other they do not understand nor cherish, and they are not +prepared to die for it.</p> + +<p>It is possibly true that before any movement can attain to really +national proportions there must be, as well as the intellectual ideal +which gives it utterance and a frame, a sense of economic misfortune to +give it weight, and when these fuse the combination may well be +irresistible. The organised labour discontent in Ireland, in Dublin, was +not considerable enough to impose its aims or its colours on the +Volunteers, and it is the labour ideal which merges and disappears in +the national one. The reputation of all the leaders of the insurrection, +not excepting Connolly, is that they were intensely patriotic Irishmen, +and also, but this time with the exception of Connolly, that they were +not particularly interested in the problems of labour.</p> + +<p>The great strike of two years ago remained undoubtedly as a bitter and +lasting memory with Dublin labour—perhaps, even, it was not so much a +memory as a hatred. Still, it was not hatred of England which was evoked +at that time, nor can the stress of their conflict be traced to an +English source. It was hatred of local traders, and, particularly, +hatred of the local police, and the local powers and tribunals, which +were arrayed against them.</p> + +<p>One can without trouble discover reasons why they should go on strike +again, but by no reasoning can I understand why they should go into +rebellion against England, unless it was that they were patriots first +and trade unionists a very long way afterwards.</p> + +<p>I do not believe that this combination of the ideal and the practical +was consummated in the Dublin insurrection, but I do believe that the +first step towards the formation of such a party has now been taken, +and that if, years hence, there should be further trouble in Ireland +such trouble will not be so easily dealt with as this one has been.</p> + +<p>It may be that further trouble will not arise, for the co-operative +movement, which is growing slowly but steadily in Ireland, may arrange +our economic question, and, incidentally, our national question +also—that is if the English people do not decide that the latter ought +to be settled at once.</p> + +<p>James Connolly had his heart in both the national and the economic camp, +but he was a great-hearted man, and could afford to extend his +affections where others could only dissipate them.</p> + +<p>There can be no doubt that his powers of orderly thinking were of great +service to the Volunteers, for while Mr. Larkin was the magnetic centre +of the Irish labour movement, Connolly was its brains. He has been +sentenced to death for his part in the insurrection, and for two days +now he has been dead.</p> + +<p>He had been severely wounded in the fighting, and was tended, one does +not doubt with great care, until he regained enough strength to stand +up and be shot down again.</p> + +<p>Others are dead also. I was not acquainted with them, and with Connolly +I was not more than acquainted. I had met him twice many months ago, but +other people were present each time, and he scarcely uttered a word on +either of these occasions. I was told that he was by nature silent. He +was a man who can be ill-spared in Ireland, but labour, throughout the +world, may mourn for him also.</p> + +<p>A doctor who attended on him during his last hours says that Connolly +received the sentence of his death quietly. He was to be shot on the +morning following the sentence. This gentleman said to him:</p> + +<p>"Connolly, when you stand up to be shot, will you say a prayer for me?"</p> + +<p>Connolly replied:</p> + +<p>"I will."</p> + +<p>His visitor continued:</p> + +<p>"Will you say a prayer for the men who are shooting you?"</p> + +<p>"I will," said Connolly, "and I will say a prayer for every good man in +the world who is doing his duty."</p> + +<p>He was a steadfast man in all that he undertook. We may be sure he +steadfastly kept that promise. He would pray for others, who had not +time to pray for himself, as he had worked for others during the years +when he might have worked for himself.</p> + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_XII'></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>THE IRISH QUESTIONS</h3> + + +<p>There is truly an Irish question. There are two Irish questions, and the +most important of them is not that which appears in our newspapers and +in our political propaganda.</p> + +<p>The first is international, and can be stated shortly. It is the desire +of Ireland to assume control of her national life. With this desire the +English people have professed to be in accord, and it is at any rate so +thoroughly understood that nothing further need be made of it in these +pages.</p> + +<p>The other Irish question is different, and less simply described. The +difficulty about it is that it cannot be approached until the question +of Ireland's freedom has by some means been settled, for this ideal of +freedom has captured the imagination of the race. It rides Ireland like +a nightmare, thwarting or preventing all civilising or cultural work in +this country, and it is not too much to say that Ireland cannot even +begin to live until that obsession and fever has come to an end, and her +imagination has been set free to do the work which imagination alone can +do—Imagination is intelligent kindness—we have sore need of it.</p> + +<p>The second question might plausibly be called a religious one. It has +been so called, and, for it is less troublesome to accept an idea than +to question it, the statement has been accepted as truth—but it is +untrue, and it is deeply and villainously untrue. No lie in Irish life +has been so persistent and so mischievous as this one, and no political +lie has ever been so ingeniously, and malevolently exploited.</p> + +<p>There is no religious intolerance in Ireland except that which is +political. I am not a member of the Catholic Church, and am not inclined +to be the advocate of a religious system which my mentality dislikes, +but I have never found real intolerance among my fellow-countrymen of +that religion. I have found it among Protestants. I will limit that +statement, too. I have found it among some Protestants. But outside of +the North of Ireland there is no religious question, and in the North +it is fundamentally more political than religious.</p> + +<p>All thinking is a fining down of one's ideas, and thus far we have come +to the statement of Ireland's second question. It is not Catholic or +Nationalist, nor have I said that it is entirely Protestant and +Unionist, but it is on the extreme wing of this latter party that +responsibility must be laid. It is difficult, even for an Irishman +living in Ireland, to come on the real political fact which underlies +Irish Protestant politics, and which fact has consistently opposed and +baffled every attempt made by either England or Ireland to come to +terms. There is such a fact, and clustered around it is a body of men +whose hatred of their country is persistent and deadly and unexplained.</p> + +<p>One may make broad generalisations on the apparent situation and +endeavour to solve it by those. We may say that loyalty to England is +the true centre of their action. I will believe it, but only to a point. +Loyalty to England does not inevitably include this active hatred, this +blindness, this withering of all sympathy for the people among whom one +is born, and among whom one has lived in peace, for they have lived in +peace amongst us. We may say that it is due to the idea of privilege and +the desire for power. Again, I will accept it up to a point—but these +are cultural obsessions, and they cease to act when the breaking-point +is reached.</p> + +<p>I know of only two mental states which are utterly without bowels or +conscience. These are cowardice and greed. Is it to a synthesis of these +states that this more than mortal enmity may be traced? What do they +fear, and what is it they covet? What can they redoubt in a country +which is practically crimeless, or covet in a land that is almost as +bare as a mutton bone? They have mesmerised themselves, these men, and +have imagined into our quiet air brigands and thugs and titans, with all +the other notabilities of a tale for children.</p> + +<p>I do not think that this either will tell the tale, but I do think there +is a story to be told—I imagine an esoteric wing to the Unionist Party. +I imagine that Party includes a secret organisation—they may be +Orangemen, they may be Masons, and, if there be such, I would dearly +like to know what the metaphysic of their position is, and how they +square it with any idea of humanity or social life. Meantime, all this +is surmise, and I, as a novelist, have a notoriously flighty +imagination, and am content to leave it at that.</p> + +<p>But this secondary Irish question is not so terrible as it appears. It +is terrible now, it would not be terrible if Ireland had national +independence.</p> + +<p>The great protection against a lie is—not to believe it; and Ireland, +in this instance, has that protection. The claims made by the Unionist +Wing do not rely solely on the religious base. They use all the +arguments. It is, according to them, unsafe to live in Ireland. (Let us +leave this insurrection of a week out of the question.) Life is not safe +in Ireland. Property shivers in terror of daily or nightly +appropriation. Other, undefined, but even more woeful glooms and creeps, +wriggle stealthily abroad.</p> + +<p>These things are not regarded in Ireland, and, in truth, they are not +meat for Irish consumption. Irish judges are presented with white +gloves with a regularity which may even be annoying to them, and were it +not for political trouble they would be unable to look their salaries in +the face. The Irish Bar almost weep in chorus at the words "Land Act," +and stare, not dumbly, on destitution. These tales are meant for England +and are sent there. They will cease to be exported when there is no +market for them, and these men will perhaps end by becoming patriotic +and social when they learn that they do not really command the Big +Battalions. But Ireland has no protection against them while England can +be thrilled by their nonsense, and while she is willing to pound Ireland +to a jelly on their appeal. Her only assistance against them is freedom.</p> + +<p>There are certain simplicities upon which all life is based. A man finds +that he is hungry and the knowledge enables him to go to work for the +rest of his life. A man makes the discovery (it has been a discovery to +many) that he is an Irishman, and the knowledge simplifies all his +subsequent political action. There is this comfort about being an +Irishman, you can be entirely Irish, and claim thus to be as complete +as a pebble or a star. But no Irish person can hope to be more than a +muletto Englishman, and if that be an ambition and an end it is not an +heroic one.</p> + +<p>But there is an Ulster difficulty, and no amount of burking it will +solve it. It is too generally conceived among Nationalists that the +attitude of Ulster towards Ireland is rooted in ignorance and bigotry. +Allow that both of these bad parts are included in the Northern outlook, +they do not explain the Ulster standpoint; and nothing can explain the +attitude of official Ireland <i>vis-a-vis</i> with Ulster.</p> + +<p>What has the Irish Party ever done to allay Northern prejudice, or bring +the discontented section into line with the rest of Ireland? The answer +is pathetically complete. They have done nothing. Or, if they have done +anything, it was only that which would set every Northerner grinding his +teeth in anger. At a time when Orangeism was dying they raised and +marshalled the Hibernians, and we have the Ulsterman's answer to the +Hibernians in the situation by which we are confronted to-day. If the +Party had even a little statesmanship among them they would for the past +ten years have marched up and down the North explaining and mollifying +and courting the Black Northerner. But, like good Irishmen, they could +not tear themselves away from England, and they paraded that country +where parade was not so urgent, and they made orations there until the +mere accent of an Irishman must make Englishmen wail for very boredom.</p> + +<p>Some of that parade might have gladdened the eyes of the Belfast +citizens; a few of those orations might have assisted the men of Derry +to comprehend that, for the good of our common land, Home Rule and the +unity of a nation was necessary if only to rid the country of these +blatherers.</p> + +<p>Let the Party explain why, among their political duties, they neglected +the duty of placating Ulster in their proper persons. Why, in short, +they boycotted Ulster and permitted political and religious and racial +antagonism to grow inside of Ireland unchecked by any word from them +upon that ground. Were they afraid "nuts" would be thrown at them? +Whatever they dreaded, they gave Ulster the widest of wide berths, and +wherever else they were visible and audible, they were silent and unseen +in that part of Ireland.</p> + +<p>The Ulster grievance is ostensibly religious; but safeguards on this +count are so easily created and applied that this issue might almost be +left out of account. The real difficulty is economic, and it is a +tangled one. But unless profit and loss are immediately discernible the +soul of man is not easily stirred by an accountant's tale, and therefore +the religious banner has been waved for our kinsfolk of Ulster, and +under the sacred emblem they are fighting for what some people call +mammon, but which may be in truth just plain bread and butter.</p> + +<p>The words Sinn Fein mean "Ourselves," and it is of ourselves I write in +this chapter. More urgent than any political emancipation is the drawing +together of men of good will in the endeavour to assist their +necessitous land. Our eyes must be withdrawn from the ends of the earth +and fixed on that which is around us and which we can touch. No +politician will talk to us of Ireland if by any trick he can avoid the +subject. His tale is still of Westminster and Chimborazo and the +Mountains of the Moon. Irishmen must begin to think for themselves and +of themselves, instead of expending energy on causes too distant to be +assisted or hindered by them. I believe that our human material is as +good as will be found in the world. No better, perhaps, but not worse. +And I believe that all but local politics are unfruitful and +soul-destroying. We have an island that is called little. It is more +than twenty times too spacious for our needs, and we will not have +explored the last of it in our children's lifetime. We have more +problems to resolve in our towns and cities than many generations of +minds will get tired of striving with. Here is the world, and all that +perplexes or delights the world is here also. Nothing is lost. Not even +brave men. They have been used. From this day the great adventure opens +for Ireland. The Volunteers are dead, and the call is now for +volunteers.</p> + +<p> +[Transcriber's note: The spelling inconsistencies of the original are +retained in this etext.] +</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Insurrection in Dublin, by James Stephens + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN *** + +***** This file should be named 12871-h.htm or 12871-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/8/7/12871/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Martin Pettit and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Insurrection in Dublin + +Author: James Stephens + +Release Date: July 9, 2004 [EBook #12871] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Martin Pettit and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: The spelling inconsistencies of the original are +retained in this etext.] + + + _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ + + + POEMS + + + INSURRECTIONS (Maunsel) + + THE HILL OF VISION " + + GREEN BRANCHES " + + SONGS FROM THE CLAY (Macmillan) + + THE ADVENTURES OF SEUMAS BEG " + + + * * * * * + + + PROSE + + + THE CHARWOMANS DAUGHTER (Macmillan) + + THE CROCK OF GOLD " + + HERE ARE LADIES " + + THE DEMI-GODS " + + + * * * * * + + + + + THE INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN + + + BY JAMES STEPHENS + + + MAUNSEL & COMPANY, LTD. DUBLIN AND LONDON 1916 + + + + + + CONTENTS + + + FOREWORD + + + CHAP. + + I. MONDAY + + II. TUESDAY + + III. WEDNESDAY + + IV. THURSDAY + + V. FRIDAY + + VI. SATURDAY + + VII. SUNDAY + + VIII. THE INSURRECTION IS OVER + + IX. THE VOLUNTEERS + + X. SOME OF THE LEADERS + + XI. LABOUR AND THE INSURRECTION + + XII. THE IRISH QUESTIONS + + + + + + FOREWORD + +The day before the rising was Easter Sunday, and they were crying +joyfully in the Churches "Christ has risen." On the following day they +were saying in the streets "Ireland has risen." The luck of the moment +was with her. The auguries were good, and, notwithstanding all that has +succeeded, I do not believe she must take to the earth again, nor be +ever again buried. The pages hereafter were written day by day during +the Insurrection that followed Holy Week, and, as a hasty impression of +a most singular time, the author allows them to stand without any +emendation. + +The few chapters which make up this book are not a history of the +rising. I knew nothing about the rising. I do not know anything about it +now, and it may be years before exact information on the subject is +available. What I have written is no more than a statement of what +passed in one quarter of our city, and a gathering together of the +rumour and tension which for nearly two weeks had to serve the Dublin +people in lieu of news. It had to serve many Dublin people in place of +bread. + +To-day, the 8th of May, the book is finished, and, so far as Ireland is +immediately concerned, the insurrection is over. Action now lies with +England, and on that action depends whether the Irish Insurrection is +over or only suppressed. + +In their dealings with this country, English Statesmen have seldom shown +political imagination; sometimes they have been just, sometimes, and +often, unjust. After a certain point I dislike and despise justice. It +is an attribute of God, and is adequately managed by Him alone; but +between man and man no other ethics save that of kindness can give +results. I have not any hope that this ethic will replace that, and I +merely mention it in order that the good people who read these words may +enjoy the laugh which their digestion needs. + +I have faith in man, I have very little faith in States man. But I +believe that the world moves, and I believe that the weight of the +rolling planet is going to bring freedom to Ireland. Indeed, I name this +date as the first day of Irish freedom, and the knowledge forbids me +mourn too deeply my friends who are dead. + +It may not be worthy of mention, but the truth is, that Ireland is not +cowed. She is excited a little. She is gay a little. She was not with +the revolution, but in a few months she will be, and her heart which was +withering will be warmed by the knowledge that men have thought her +worth dying for. She will prepare to make herself worthy of devotion, +and that devotion will never fail her. So little does it take to raise +our hearts. + +Does it avail anything to describe these things to English readers? They +have never moved the English mind to anything except impatience, but +to-day and at this desperate conjunction they may be less futile than +heretofore. England also has grown patriotic, even by necessity. It is +necessity alone makes patriots, for in times of peace a patriot is a +quack when he is not a shark. Idealism pays in times of peace, it dies +in time of war. Our idealists are dead and yours are dying hourly. + +The English mind may to-day be enabled to understand what is wrong with +us, and why through centuries we have been "disthressful." Let them +look at us, I do not say through the fumes that are still rising from +our ruined streets, but through the smoke that is rolling from the North +Sea to Switzerland, and read in their own souls the justification for +all our risings, and for this rising. + +Is it wrong to say that England has not one friend in Europe? I say it. +Her Allies of to-day were her enemies of yesterday, and politics alone +will decide what they will be to-morrow. I say it, and yet I am not +entirely right, for she has one possible friend unless she should decide +that even one friend is excessive and irks her. That one possible friend +is Ireland. I say, and with assurance, that if our national questions +are arranged there will remain no reason for enmity between the two +countries, and there will remain many reasons for friendship. + +It may be objected that the friendship of a country such as Ireland has +little value; that she is too small geographically, and too thinly +populated to give aid to any one. Only sixty odd years ago our +population was close on ten millions of people, nor are we yet sterile; +in area Ireland is not collossal, but neither is she microscopic. Mr. +Shaw has spoken of her as a "cabbage patch at the back of beyond." On +this kind of description Rome might be called a hen-run and Greece a +back yard. The sober fact is that Ireland has a larger geographical area +than many an independent and prosperous European kingdom, and for all +human and social needs she is a fairly big country, and is beautiful and +fertile to boot. She could be made worth knowing if goodwill and trust +are available for the task. + +I believe that what is known as the "mastery of the seas" will, when the +great war is finished, pass irretrievably from the hands or the ambition +of any nation, and that more urgently than ever in her history England +will have need of a friend. It is true that we might be her enemy and +might do her some small harm--it is truer that we could be her friend, +and could be of very real assistance to her. + +Should the English Statesman decide that our friendship is worth having +let him create a little of the political imagination already spoken of. +Let him equip us (it is England's debt to Ireland) for freedom, not in +the manner of a miser who arranges for the chilly livelihood of a needy +female relative; but the way a wealthy father would undertake the +settlement of his son. I fear I am assisting my reader to laugh too +much, but laughter is the sole excess that is wholesome. + +If freedom is to come to Ireland--as I believe it is--then the Easter +Insurrection was the only thing that could have happened. I speak as an +Irishman, and am momentarily leaving out of account every other +consideration. If, after all her striving, freedom had come to her as a +gift, as a peaceful present such as is sometimes given away with a pound +of tea, Ireland would have accepted the gift with shamefacedness, and +have felt that her centuries of revolt had ended in something very like +ridicule. The blood of brave men had to sanctify such a consummation if +the national imagination was to be stirred to the dreadful business +which is the organizing of freedom, and both imagination and brains have +been stagnant in Ireland this many a year. Following on such tameness, +failure might have been predicted, or, at least feared, and war (let us +call it war for the sake of our pride) was due to Ireland before she +could enter gallantly on her inheritance. We might have crept into +liberty like some kind of domesticated man, whereas now we may be +allowed to march into freedom with the honours of war. I am still +appealing to the political imagination, for if England allows Ireland to +formally make peace with her that peace will be lasting, everlasting; +but if the liberty you give us is all half-measures, and distrusts and +stinginesses, then what is scarcely worth accepting will hardly be worth +thanking you for. + +There is a reference in the earlier pages of this record to a letter +which I addressed to Mr. George Bernard Shaw and published in the _New +Age_. This was a thoughtless letter, and subsequent events have proved +that it was unmeaning and ridiculous. I have since, through the same +hospitable journal, apologised to Mr. Shaw, but have let my reference to +the matter stand as an indication that electricity was already in the +air. Every statement I made about him in that letter and in this book +was erroneous; for, afterwards, when it would have been politic to run +for cover, he ran for the open, and he spoke there like the valiant +thinker and great Irishman that he is. + + * * * * * + +Since the foregoing was written events have moved in this country. The +situation is no longer the same. The executions have taken place. One +cannot justly exclaim against the measures adopted by the military +tribunal, and yet, in the interests of both countries one may deplore +them. I have said there was no bitterness in Ireland, and it was true at +the time of writing. It is no longer true; but it is still possible by +generous Statesmanship to allay this, and to seal a true union between +Ireland and England. + + + + + THE + + INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN + + + + + CHAPTER I + + MONDAY + + +This has taken everyone by surprise. It is possible, that, with the +exception of their Staff, it has taken the Volunteers themselves by +surprise; but, to-day, our peaceful city is no longer peaceful; guns are +sounding, or rolling and crackling from different directions, and, +although rarely, the rattle of machine guns can be heard also. + +Two days ago war seemed very far away--so far, that I have covenanted +with myself to learn the alphabet of music. Tom Bodkin had promised to +present me with a musical instrument called a dulcimer--I persist in +thinking that this is a species of guitar, although I am assured that it +is a number of small metal plates which are struck with sticks, and I +confess that this description of its function prejudices me more than a +little against it. There is no reason why I should think dubiously of +such an instrument, but I do not relish the idea of procuring music with +a stick. With this dulcimer I shall be able to tap out our Irish +melodies when I am abroad, and transport myself to Ireland for a few +minutes, or a few bars. + +In preparation for this present I had through Saturday and Sunday been +learning the notes of the Scale. The notes and spaces on the lines did +not trouble me much, but those above and below the line seemed ingenious +and complicated to a degree that frightened me. + +On Saturday I got the _Irish Times_, and found in it a long article by +Bernard Shaw (reprinted from the _New York Times_). One reads things +written by Shaw. Why one does read them I do not know exactly, except +that it is a habit we got into years ago, and we read an article by Shaw +just as we put on our boots in the morning--that is, without thinking +about it, and without any idea of reward. + +His article angered me exceedingly. It was called "Irish Nonsense +talked in Ireland." It was written (as is almost all of his journalistic +work) with that _bonhomie_ which he has cultivated--it is his +mannerism--and which is essentially hypocritical and untrue. _Bonhomie_! +It is that man-of-the-world attitude, that shop attitude, that +between-you-and-me-for-are-we-not-equal-and-cultured attitude, which is +the tone of a card-sharper or a trick-of-the-loop man. That was the tone +of Shaw's article. I wrote an open letter to him which I sent to the +_New Age_, because I doubted that the Dublin papers would print it if I +sent it to them, and I knew that the Irish people who read the other +papers had never heard of Shaw, except as a trade-mark under which very +good Limerick bacon is sold, and that they would not be interested in +the opinions of a person named Shaw on any subject not relevant to +bacon. I struck out of my letter a good many harsh things which I said +of him, and hoped he would reply to it in order that I could furnish +these acidities to him in a second letter. + +That was Saturday. + +On Sunday I had to go to my office, as the Director was absent in +London, and there I applied myself to the notes and spaces below the +stave, but relinquished the exercise, convinced that these mysteries +were unattainable by man, while the knowledge that above the stave there +were others and not less complex, stayed mournfully with me. + +I returned home, and as novels (perhaps it is only for the duration of +the war) do not now interest me I read for some time in Madame +Blavatsky's "Secret Doctrine," which book interests me profoundly. +George Russell was out of town or I would have gone round to his house +in the evening to tell him what I thought about Shaw, and to listen to +his own much finer ideas on that as on every other subject. I went to +bed. + +On the morning following I awoke into full insurrection and bloody war, +but I did not know anything about it. It was Bank Holiday, but for +employments such as mine there are not any holidays, so I went to my +office at the usual hour, and after transacting what business was +necessary I bent myself to the notes above and below the stave, and +marvelled anew at the ingenuity of man. Peace was in the building, and +if any of the attendants had knowledge or rumour of war they did not +mention it to me. + +At one o'clock I went to lunch. Passing the corner of Merrion Row I saw +two small groups of people. These people were regarding steadfastly in +the direction of St. Stephen's Green Park, and they spoke occasionally +to one another with that detached confidence which proved they were +mutually unknown. I also, but without approaching them, stared in the +direction of the Green. I saw nothing but the narrow street which +widened to the Park. Some few people were standing in tentative +attitudes, and all looking in the one direction. As I turned from them +homewards I received an impression of silence and expectation and +excitement. + +On the way home I noticed that many silent people were standing in their +doorways--an unusual thing in Dublin outside of the back streets. The +glance of a Dublin man or woman conveys generally a criticism of one's +personal appearance, and is a little hostile to the passer. The look of +each person as I passed was steadfast, and contained an enquiry instead +of a criticism. I felt faintly uneasy, but withdrew my mind to a +meditation which I had covenanted with myself to perform daily, and +passed to my house. + +There I was told that there had been a great deal of rifle firing all +the morning, and we concluded that the Military recruits or Volunteer +detachments were practising that arm. My return to business was by the +way I had already come. At the corner of Merrion Row I found the same +silent groups, who were still looking in the direction of the Green, and +addressing each other occasionally with the detached confidence of +strangers. Suddenly, and on the spur of the moment, I addressed one of +these silent gazers. + +"Has there been an accident?" said I. + +I indicated the people standing about. + +"What's all this for?" + +He was a sleepy, rough-looking man about 40 years of age, with a blunt +red moustache, and the distant eyes which one sees in sailors. He looked +at me, stared at me as at a person from a different country. He grew +wakeful and vivid. + +"Don't you know," said he. + +And then he saw that I did not know. + +"The Sinn Feiners have seized the City this morning." + +"Oh!" said I. + +He continued with the savage earnestness of one who has amazement in his +mouth: + +"They seized the City at eleven o'clock this morning. The Green there is +full of them. They have captured the Castle. They have taken the Post +Office." + +"My God!" said I, staring at him, and instantly I turned and went +running towards the Green. + +In a few seconds I banished astonishment and began to walk. As I drew +near the Green rifle fire began like sharply-cracking whips. It was from +the further side. I saw that the Gates were closed and men were standing +inside with guns on their shoulders. I passed a house, the windows of +which were smashed in. As I went by a man in civilian clothes slipped +through the Park gates, which instantly closed behind him. He ran +towards me, and I halted. He was carrying two small packets in his hand. +He passed me hurriedly, and, placing his leg inside the broken window +of the house behind me, he disappeared. Almost immediately another man +in civilian clothes appeared from the broken window of another house. He +also had something (I don't know what) in his hand. He ran urgently +towards the gates, which opened, admitted him, and closed again. + +In the centre of this side of the Park a rough barricade of carts and +motor cars had been sketched. It was still full of gaps. Behind it was a +halted tram, and along the vistas of the Green one saw other trams +derelict, untenanted. + +I came to the barricade. As I reached it and stood by the Shelbourne +Hotel, which it faced, a loud cry came from the Park. The gates opened +and three men ran out. Two of them held rifles with fixed bayonets. The +third gripped a heavy revolver in his fist. They ran towards a motor car +which had just turned the corner, and halted it. The men with bayonets +took position instantly on either side of the car. The man with the +revolver saluted, and I heard him begging the occupants to pardon him, +and directing them to dismount. A man and woman got down. They were +again saluted and requested to go to the sidewalk. They did so. + + NOTE--As I pen these words rifle shot is cracking from three + different directions and continually. Three minutes ago there was two + discharges from heavy guns. These are the first heavy guns used in + the Insurrection, 25th April. + +The man crossed and stood by me. He was very tall and thin, middle-aged, +with a shaven, wasted face. "I want to get down to Armagh to-day," he +said to no one in particular. The loose bluish skin under his eyes was +twitching. The Volunteers directed the chauffeur to drive to the +barricade and lodge his car in a particular position there. He did it +awkwardly, and after three attempts he succeeded in pleasing them. He +was a big, brown-faced man, whose knees were rather high for the seat he +was in, and they jerked with the speed and persistence of something +moved with a powerful spring. His face was composed and fully under +command, although his legs were not. He locked the car into the +barricade, and then, being a man accustomed to be commanded, he awaited +an order to descend. When the order came he walked directly to his +master, still preserving all the solemnity of his features. These two +men did not address a word to each other, but their drilled and +expressionless eyes were loud with surprise and fear and rage. They went +into the Hotel. + +I spoke to the man with the revolver. He was no more than a boy, not +more certainly than twenty years of age, short in stature, with close +curling red hair and blue eyes--a kindly-looking lad. The strap of his +sombrero had torn loose on one side, and except while he held it in his +teeth it flapped about his chin. His face was sunburnt and grimy with +dust and sweat. + +This young man did not appear to me to be acting from his reason. He was +doing his work from a determination implanted previously, days, weeks +perhaps, on his imagination. His mind was--where? It was not with his +body. And continually his eyes went searching widely, looking for +spaces, scanning hastily the clouds, the vistas of the streets, looking +for something that did not hinder him, looking away for a moment from +the immediacies and rigours which were impressed where his mind had +been. + +When I spoke he looked at me, and I know that for some seconds he did +not see me. I said:-- + +"What is the meaning of all this? What has happened?" + +He replied collectedly enough in speech, but with that ramble and +errancy clouding his eyes. + +"We have taken the City. We are expecting an attack from the military at +any moment, and those people," he indicated knots of men, women and +children clustered towards the end of the Green, "won't go home for me. +We have the Post Office, and the Railways, and the Castle. We have all +the City. We have everything." + +(Some men and two women drew behind me to listen). + +"This morning," said he, "the police rushed us. One ran at me to take my +revolver. I fired but I missed him, and I hit a--" + +"You have far too much talk," said a voice to the young man. + +I turned a few steps away, and glancing back saw that he was staring +after me, but I know that he did not see me--he was looking at turmoil, +and blood, and at figures that ran towards him and ran away--a world in +motion and he in the centre of it astonished. + +The men with him did not utter a sound. They were both older. One, +indeed, a short, sturdy man, had a heavy white moustache. He was quite +collected, and took no notice of the skies, or the spaces. He saw a man +in rubbers placing his hand on a motor bicycle in the barricade, and +called to him instantly: "Let that alone." + +The motorist did not at once remove his hand, whereupon the +white-moustached man gripped his gun in both hands and ran violently +towards him. He ran directly to him, body to body, and, as he was short +and the motorist was very tall, stared fixedly up in his face. He roared +up at his face in a mighty voice. + +"Are you deaf? Are you deaf? Move back!" + +The motorist moved away, pursued by an eye as steady and savage as the +point of the bayonet that was level with it. + +Another motor car came round the Ely Place corner of the Green and +wobbled at the sight of the barricade. The three men who had returned +to the gates roared "Halt," but the driver made a tentative effort to +turn his wheel. A great shout of many voices came then, and the three +men ran to him. + +"Drive to the barricade," came the order. + +The driver turned his wheel a point further towards escape, and +instantly one of the men clapped a gun to the wheel and blew the tyre +open. Some words were exchanged, and then a shout: + +"Drive it on the rim, drive it." + +The tone was very menacing, and the motorist turned his car slowly to +the barricade and placed it in. + +For an hour I tramped the City, seeing everywhere these knots of +watchful strangers speaking together in low tones, and it sank into my +mind that what I had heard was true, and that the City was in +insurrection. It had been promised for so long, and had been threatened +for so long. Now it was here. I had seen it in the Green, others had +seen it in other parts--the same men clad in dark green and equipped +with rifle, bayonet, and bandolier, the same silent activity. The police +had disappeared from the streets. At that hour I did not see one +policeman, nor did I see one for many days, and men said that several of +them had been shot earlier in the morning; that an officer had been shot +on Portobello Bridge, that many soldiers had been killed, and that a +good many civilians were dead also. + +Around me as I walked the rumour of war and death was in the air. +Continually and from every direction rifles were crackling and rolling; +sometimes there was only one shot, again it would be a roll of firing +crested with single, short explosions, and sinking again to whip-like +snaps and whip-like echoes; then for a moment silence, and then again +the guns leaped in the air. + +The rumour of positions, bridges, public places, railway stations, +Government offices, having been seized was persistent, and was not +denied by any voice. + +I met some few people I knew. P.H., T.M., who said: "Well!" and thrust +their eyes into me as though they were rummaging me for information. + +But there were not very many people in the streets. The greater part of +the population were away on Bank Holiday, and did not know anything of +this business. Many of them would not know anything until they found +they had to walk home from Kingstown, Dalkey, Howth, or wherever they +were. + +I returned to my office, decided that I would close it for the day. The +men were very relieved when I came in, and were more relieved when I +ordered the gong to be sounded. There were some few people in the place, +and they were soon put out. The outer gates were locked, and the great +door, but I kept the men on duty until the evening. We were the last +public institution open; all the others had been closed for hours. + +I went upstairs and sat down, but had barely reached the chair before I +stood up again, and began to pace my room, to and fro, to and fro; +amazed, expectant, inquiet; turning my ear to the shots, and my mind to +speculations that began in the middle, and were chased from there by +others before they had taken one thought forward. But then I took myself +resolutely and sat me down, and I pencilled out exercises above the +stave, and under the stave; and discovered suddenly that I was again +marching the floor, to and fro, to and fro, with thoughts bursting about +my head as though they were fired on me from concealed batteries. + +At five o'clock I left. I met Miss P., all of whose rumours coincided +with those I had gathered. She was in exceeding good humour and +interested. Leaving her I met Cy----, and we turned together up to the +Green. As we proceeded, the sound of firing grew more distinct, but when +we reached the Green it died away again. We stood a little below the +Shelbourne Hotel, looking at the barricade and into the Park. We could +see nothing. Not a Volunteer was in sight. The Green seemed a desert. +There were only the trees to be seen, and through them small green +vistas of sward. + +Just then a man stepped on the footpath and walked directly to the +barricade. He stopped and gripped the shafts of a lorry lodged near the +centre. At that instant the Park exploded into life and sound; from +nowhere armed men appeared at the railings, and they all shouted at the +man. + +"Put down that lorry. Let out and go away. Let out at once." + +These were the cries. The man did not let out. He halted with the shafts +in his hand, and looked towards the vociferous pailings. Then, and very +slowly, he began to draw the lorry out of the barricade. The shouts came +to him again, very loud, very threatening, but he did not attend to +them. + +"He is the man that owns the lorry," said a voice beside me. + +Dead silence fell on the people around while the man slowly drew his +cart down by the footpath. Then three shots rang out in succession. At +the distance he could not be missed, and it was obvious they were trying +to frighten him. He dropped the shafts, and instead of going away he +walked over to the Volunteers. + +"He has a nerve," said another voice behind me. + +The man walked directly towards the Volunteers, who, to the number of +about ten, were lining the railings. He walked slowly, bent a little +forward, with one hand raised and one finger up as though he were going +to make a speech. Ten guns were pointing at him, and a voice repeated +many times: + +"Go and put back that lorry or you are a dead man. Go before I count +four. One, two, three, four--" + +A rifle spat at him, and in two undulating movements the man sank on +himself and sagged to the ground. + +I ran to him with some others, while a woman screamed unmeaningly, all +on one strident note. The man was picked up and carried to a hospital +beside the Arts Club. There was a hole in the top of his head, and one +does not know how ugly blood can look until it has been seen clotted in +hair. As the poor man was being carried in, a woman plumped to her knees +in the road and began not to scream but to screetch. + +At that moment the Volunteers were hated. The men by whom I was and who +were lifting the body, roared into the railings:-- + +"We'll be coming back for you, damn you." + +From the railings there came no reply, and in an instant the place was +again desert and silent, and the little green vistas were slumbering +among the trees. + +No one seemed able to estimate the number of men inside the Green, and +through the day no considerable body of men had been seen, only those +who held the gates, and the small parties of threes and fours who +arrested motors and carts for their barricades. Among these were some +who were only infants--one boy seemed about twelve years of age. He was +strutting the centre of the road with a large revolver in his small +fist. A motor car came by him containing three men, and in the shortest +of time he had the car lodged in his barricade, and dismissed its +stupified occupants with a wave of his armed hand. + +The knots were increasing about the streets, for now the Bank Holiday +people began to wander back from places that were not distant, and to +them it had all to be explained anew. Free movement was possible +everywhere in the City, but the constant crackle of rifles restricted +somewhat that freedom. Up to one o'clock at night belated travellers +were straggling into the City, and curious people were wandering from +group to group still trying to gather information. + +I remained awake until four o'clock in the morning. Every five minutes +a rifle cracked somewhere, but about a quarter to twelve sharp volleying +came from the direction of Portobello Bridge, and died away after some +time. The windows of my flat listen out towards the Green, and obliquely +towards Sackville Street. In another quarter of an hour there were +volleys from Stephen's Green direction, and this continued with +intensity for about twenty-five minutes. Then it fell into a sputter of +fire and ceased. + +I went to bed about four o'clock convinced that the Green had been +rushed by the military and captured, and that the rising was at an end. + +That was the first day of the insurrection. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + TUESDAY + + +A sultry, lowering day, and dusk skies fat with rain. + +I left for my office, believing that the insurrection was at an end. At +a corner I asked a man was it all finished. He said it was not, and +that, if anything, it was worse. + +On this day the rumours began, and I think it will be many a year before +the rumours cease. The _Irish Times_ published an edition which +contained nothing but an official Proclamation that evily-disposed +persons had disturbed the peace, and that the situation was well in +hand. The news stated in three lines that there was a Sinn Fein rising +in Dublin, and that the rest of the country was quiet. + +No English or country papers came. There was no delivery or collection +of letters. All the shops in the City were shut. There was no traffic of +any kind in the streets. There was no way of gathering any kind of +information, and rumour gave all the news. + +It seemed that the Military and the Government had been taken unawares. +It was Bank Holiday, and many military officers had gone to the races, +or were away on leave, and prominent members of the Irish Government had +gone to England on Sunday. + +It appeared that everything claimed on the previous day was true, and +that the City of Dublin was entirely in the hands of the Volunteers. +They had taken and sacked Jacob's Biscuit Factory, and had converted it +into a fort which they held. They had the Post Office, and were building +baricades around it ten feet high of sandbags, cases, wire +entanglements. They had pushed out all the windows and sandbagged them +to half their height, while cart-loads of food, vegetables and +ammunition were going in continually. They had dug trenches and were +laying siege to one of the city barracks. + +It was current that intercourse between Germany and Ireland had been +frequent chiefly by means of submarines, which came up near the coast +and landed machine guns, rifles and ammunition. It was believed also +that the whole country had risen, and that many strong places and cities +were in the hands of the Volunteers. Cork Barracks was said to be taken +while the officers were away at the Curragh races, that the men without +officers were disorganised, and the place easily captured. + +It was said that Germans, thousands strong, had landed, and that many +Irish Americans with German officers had arrived also with full military +equipment. + +On the previous day the Volunteers had proclaimed the Irish Republic. +This ceremony was conducted from the Mansion House steps, and the +manifesto was said to have been read by Pearse, of St. Enda's. The +Republican and Volunteer flag was hoisted on the Mansion House. The +latter consisted of vertical colours of green, white and orange. Kerry +wireless station was reported captured, and news of the Republic flashed +abroad. These rumours were flying in the street. + +It was also reported that two transports had come in the night and had +landed from England about 8,000 soldiers. An attack reported on the +Post Office by a troop of lancers who were received with fire and +repulsed. It is foolish to send cavalry into street war. + +In connection with this lancer charge at the Post Office it is said that +the people, and especially the women, sided with the soldiers, and that +the Volunteers were assailed by these women with bricks, bottles, +sticks, to cries of: + +"Would you be hurting the poor men?" + +There were other angry ladies who threatened Volunteers, addressing to +them this petrifying query: + +"Would you be hurting the poor horses?" + +Indeed, the best people in the world live in Dublin. + +The lancers retreated to the bottom of Sackville Street, where they +remained for some time in the centre of a crowd who were carressing +their horses. It may have seemed to them a rather curious kind of +insurrection--that is, if they were strangers to Ireland. + +In the Post Office neighbourhood the Volunteers had some difficulty in +dealing with the people who surged about them while they were preparing +the barricade, and hindered them to some little extent. One of the +Volunteers was particularly noticeable. He held a lady's umbrella in his +hand, and whenever some person became particularly annoying he would +leap the barricade and chase his man half a street, hitting him over the +head with the umbrella. It was said that the wonder of the world was not +that Ireland was at war, but that after many hours the umbrella was +still unbroken. A Volunteer night attack on the Quays was spoken of, +whereat the military were said to have been taken by surprise and six +carts of their ammunition captured. This was probably untrue. Also, that +the Volunteers had blown up the Arsenal in the Phoenix Park. + +There had been looting in the night about Sackville Street, and it was +current that the Volunteers had shot twenty of the looters. + +The shops attacked were mainly haberdashers, shoe shops, and sweet +shops. Very many sweet shops were raided, and until the end of the +rising sweet shops were the favourite mark of the looters. There is +something comical in this looting of sweet shops--something almost +innocent and child-like. Possibly most of the looters are children who +are having the sole gorge of their lives. They have tasted sweetstuffs +they had never toothed before, and will never taste again in this life, +and until they die the insurrection of 1916 will have a sweet savour for +them. + +I went to the Green. At the corner of Merrion Row a horse was lying on +the footpath surrounded by blood. He bore two bullet wounds, but the +blood came from his throat which had been cut. + +Inside the Green railings four bodies could be seen lying on the ground. +They were dead Volunteers. + +The rain was falling now persistently, and persistently from the Green +and from the Shelbourne Hotel snipers were exchanging bullets. Some +distance beyond the Shelbourne I saw another Volunteer stretched out on +a seat just within the railings. He was not dead, for, now and again, +his hand moved feebly in a gesture for aid; the hand was completely red +with blood. His face could not be seen. He was just a limp mass, upon +which the rain beat pitilessly, and he was sodden and shapeless, and +most miserable to see. His companions could not draw him in for the +spot was covered by the snipers from the Shelbourne. Bystanders stated +that several attempts had already been made to rescue him, but that he +would have to remain there until the fall of night. + +From Trinity College windows and roof there was also sniping, but the +Shelbourne Hotel riflemen must have seriously troubled the Volunteers in +the Green. + +As I went back I stayed a while in front of the hotel to count the shots +that had struck the windows. There were fourteen shots through the +ground windows. The holes were clean through, each surrounded by a +star--the bullets went through but did not crack the glass. There were +three places in which the windows had holes half a foot to a foot wide +and high. Here many rifles must have fired at the one moment. It must +have been as awkward inside the Shelbourne Hotel as it was inside the +Green. + +A lady who lived in Baggot Street said she had been up all night, and, +with her neighbours, had supplied tea and bread to the soldiers who were +lining the street. The officer to whom she spoke had made two or three +attacks to draw fire and estimate the Volunteers' positions, numbers, +&c., and he told her that he considered there were 3,000 well-armed +Volunteers in the Green, and as he had only 1,000 soldiers, he could not +afford to deliver a real attack, and was merely containing them. + +Amiens Street station reported recaptured by the military; other +stations are said to be still in the Volunteers' possession. + +The story goes that about twelve o'clock on Monday an English officer +had marched into the Post Office and demanded two penny stamps from the +amazed Volunteers who were inside. He thought their uniforms were postal +uniforms. They brought him in, and he is probably still trying to get a +perspective on the occurrence. They had as prisoners in the Post Office +a certain number of soldiers, and rumour had it that these men +accommodated themselves quickly to duress, and were busily engaged +peeling potatoes for the meal which they would partake of later on with +the Volunteers. + +Earlier in the day I met a wild individual who spat rumour as though +his mouth were a machine gun or a linotype machine. He believed +everything he heard; and everything he heard became as by magic +favourable to his hopes, which were violently anti-English. One +unfavourable rumour was instantly crushed by him with three stories +which were favourable and triumphantly so. He said the Germans had +landed in three places. One of these landings alone consisted of fifteen +thousand men. The other landings probably beat that figure. The whole +City of Cork was in the hands of the Volunteers, and, to that extent, +might be said to be peaceful. German warships had defeated the English, +and their transports were speeding from every side. The whole country +was up, and the garrison was out-numbered by one hundred to one. These +Dublin barracks which had not been taken were now besieged and on the +point of surrender. + +I think this man created and winged every rumour that flew in Dublin, +and he was the sole individual whom I heard definitely taking a side. He +left me, and, looking back, I saw him pouring his news into the ear of a +gaping stranger whom he had arrested for the purpose. I almost went +back to hear would he tell the same tale or would he elaborate it into a +new thing, for I am interested in the art of story-telling. + +At eleven o'clock the rain ceased, and to it succeeded a beautiful +night, gusty with wind, and packed with sailing clouds and stars. We +were expecting visitors this night, but the sound of guns may have +warned most people away. Three only came, and with them we listened from +my window to the guns at the Green challenging and replying to each +other, and to where, further away, the Trinity snipers were crackling, +and beyond again to the sounds of war from Sackville Street. The firing +was fairly heavy, and often the short rattle of machine guns could be +heard. + +One of the stories told was that the Volunteers had taken the South +Dublin Union Workhouse, occupied it, and trenched the grounds. They were +heavily attacked by the military, who, at a loss of 150 men, took the +place. The tale went that towards the close the officer in command +offered them terms of surrender, but the Volunteers replied that they +were not there to surrender. They were there to be killed. The garrison +consisted of fifty men, and the story said that fifty men were killed. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + WEDNESDAY + + +It was three o'clock before I got to sleep last night, and during the +hours machine guns and rifle firing had been continuous. + +This morning the sun is shining brilliantly, and the movement in the +streets possesses more of animation than it has done. The movement ends +always in a knot of people, and folk go from group to group vainly +seeking information, and quite content if the rumour they presently +gather differs even a little from the one they have just communicated. + +The first statement I heard was that the Green had been taken by the +military; the second that it had been re-taken; the third that it had +not been taken at all. The facts at last emerged that the Green had not +been occupied by the soldiers, but that the Volunteers had retreated +from it into a house which commanded it. This was found to be the +College of Surgeons, and from the windows and roof of this College they +were sniping. A machine gun was mounted on the roof; other machine guns, +however, opposed them from the roofs of the Shelbourne Hotel, the United +Service Club, and the Alexandra Club. Thus a triangular duel opened +between these positions across the trees of the Park. + +Through the railings of the Green some rifles and bandoliers could be +seen lying on the ground, as also the deserted trenches and snipers' +holes. Small boys bolted in to see these sights and bolted out again +with bullets quickening their feet. Small boys do not believe that +people will really kill them, but small boys were killed. + +The dead horse was still lying stiff and lamentable on the footpath. + +This morning a gunboat came up the Liffey and helped to bombard Liberty +Hall. The Hall is breeched and useless. Rumour says that it was empty at +the time, and that Connolly with his men had marched long before to the +Post Office and the Green. The same source of information relates that +three thousand Volunteers came from Belfast on an excursion train and +that they marched into the Post Office. + +On this day only one of my men came in. He said that he had gone on the +roof and had been shot at, consequently that the Volunteers held some of +the covering houses. I went to the roof and remained there for half an +hour. There were no shots, but the firing from the direction of +Sackville Street was continuous and at times exceedingly heavy. + +To-day the _Irish Times_ was published. It contained a new military +proclamation, and a statement that the country was peaceful, and told +that in Sackville Street some houses were burned to the ground. + +On the outside railings a bill proclaiming Martial Law was posted. + +Into the newspaper statement that peace reigned in the country one was +inclined to read more of disquietude than of truth, and one said is the +country so extraordinarily peaceful that it can be dismissed in three +lines. There is too much peace or too much reticence, but it will be +some time before we hear from outside of Dublin. + +Meanwhile the sun was shining. It was a delightful day, and the streets +outside and around the areas of fire were animated and even gay. In the +streets of Dublin there were no morose faces to be seen. Almost everyone +was smiling and attentive, and a democratic feeling was abroad, to which +our City is very much a stranger; for while in private we are a sociable +and talkative people we have no street manners or public ease whatever. +Every person spoke to every other person, and men and women mixed and +talked without constraint. + +Was the City for or against the Volunteers? Was it for the Volunteers, +and yet against the rising? It is considered now (writing a day or two +afterwards) that Dublin was entirely against the Volunteers, but on the +day of which I write no such certainty could be put forward. There was a +singular reticence on the subject. Men met and talked volubly, but they +said nothing that indicated a personal desire or belief. They asked for +and exchanged the latest news, or, rather, rumour, and while expressions +were frequent of astonishment at the suddenness and completeness of the +occurrence, no expression of opinion for or against was anywhere +formulated. + +Sometimes a man said, "They will be beaten of course," and, as he +prophesied, the neighbour might surmise if he did so with a sad heart or +a merry one, but they knew nothing and asked nothing of his views, and +themselves advanced no flag. + +This was among the men. + +The women were less guarded, or, perhaps, knew they had less to fear. +Most of the female opinion I heard was not alone unfavourable but +actively and viciously hostile to the rising. This was noticeable among +the best dressed class of our population; the worst dressed, indeed the +female dregs of Dublin life, expressed a like antagonism, and almost in +similar language. The view expressed was-- + +"I hope every man of them will be shot." + +And-- + +"They ought to be all shot." + +Shooting, indeed, was proceeding everywhere. During daylight, at least, +the sound is not sinister nor depressing, and the thought that perhaps a +life had exploded with that crack is not depressing either. + +In the last two years of world-war our ideas on death have undergone a +change. It is not now the furtive thing that crawled into your bed and +which you fought with pill-boxes and medicine bottles. It has become +again a rider of the wind whom you may go coursing with through the +fields and open places. All the morbidity is gone, and the sickness, and +what remains to Death is now health and excitement. So Dublin laughed at +the noise of its own bombardment, and made no moan about its dead--in +the sunlight. Afterwards--in the rooms, when the night fell, and instead +of silence that mechanical barking of the maxims and the whistle and +screams of the rifles, the solemn roar of the heavier guns, and the red +glare covering the sky. It is possible that in the night Dublin did not +laugh, and that she was gay in the sunlight for no other reason than +that the night was past. + +On this day fighting was incessant at Mount Street Bridge. A party of +Volunteers had seized three houses covering the bridge and converted +these into forts. It is reported that military casualties at this point +were very heavy. The Volunteers are said also to hold the South Dublin +Union. The soldiers have seized Guinness's Brewery, while their +opponents have seized another brewery in the neighbourhood, and between +these two there is a continual fusilade. + +Fighting is brisk about Ringsend and along the Canal. Dame Street was +said to be held in many places by the Volunteers. I went down Dame +Street, but saw no Volunteers, and did not observe any sniping from the +houses. Further, as Dame Street is entirely commanded by the roofs and +windows of Trinity College, it is unlikely that they should be here. + +It was curious to observe this, at other times, so animated street, +broad and deserted, with at the corners of side streets small knots of +people watching. Seen from behind, Grattan's Statue in College Green +seemed almost alive, and he had the air of addressing warnings and +reproaches to Trinity College. + +The Proclamation issued to-day warns all people to remain within doors +until five o'clock in the morning, and after seven o'clock at night. + +It is still early. There is no news of any kind, and the rumours begin +to catch quickly on each other and to cancel one another out. Dublin is +entirely cut off from England, and from the outside world. It is, just +as entirely cut off from the rest of Ireland; no news of any kind +filters in to us. We are land-locked and sea-locked, but, as yet, it +does not much matter. + +Meantime the belief grows that the Volunteers may be able to hold out +much longer than had been imagined. The idea at first among the people +had been that the insurrection would be ended the morning after it had +began. But to-day, the insurrection having lasted three days, people are +ready to conceive that it may last for ever. There is almost a feeling +of gratitude towards the Volunteers because they are holding out for a +little while, for had they been beaten the first or second day the City +would have been humiliated to the soul. + +People say: "Of course, they will be beaten." The statement is almost a +query, and they continue, "but they are putting up a decent fight." For +being beaten does not greatly matter in Ireland, but not fighting does +matter. "They went forth always to the battle; and they always fell," +Indeed, the history of the Irish race is in that phrase. + +The firing from the roofs of Trinity College became violent. I crossed +Dame Street some distance up, struck down the Quays, and went along +these until I reached the Ballast Office. Further than this it was not +possible to go, for a step beyond the Ballast Office would have brought +one into the unending stream of lead that was pouring from Trinity and +other places. I was looking on O'Connell Bridge and Sackville Street, +and the house facing me was Kelly's--a red-brick fishing tackle shop, +one half of which was on the Quay and the other half in Sackville +Street. This house was being bombarded. + +I counted the report of six different machine guns which played on it. +Rifles innumerable and from every sort of place were potting its +windows, and at intervals of about half a minute the shells from a heavy +gun lobbed in through its windows or thumped mightily against its walls. + +For three hours that bombardment continued, and the walls stood in a +cloud of red dust and smoke. Rifle and machine gun bullets pattered over +every inch of it, and, unfailingly the heavy gun pounded its shells +through the windows. + +One's heart melted at the idea that human beings were crouching inside +that volcano of death, and I said to myself, "Not even a fly can be +alive in that house." + +No head showed at any window, no rifle cracked from window or roof in +reply. The house was dumb, lifeless, and I thought every one of those +men are dead. + +It was then, and quite suddenly, that the possibilities of street +fighting flashed on me, and I knew there was no person in the house, and +said to myself, "They have smashed through the walls with a hatchet and +are sitting in the next house, or they have long ago climbed out by the +skylight and are on a roof half a block away." Then the thought came to +me--they have and hold the entire of Sackville Street down to the Post +Office. Later on this proved to be the case, and I knew at this moment +that Sackville Street was doomed. + +I continued to watch the bombardment, but no longer with the anguish +which had before torn me. Near by there were four men, and a few yards +away, clustered in a laneway, there were a dozen others. An agitated +girl was striding from the farther group to the one in which I was, and +she addressed the men in the most obscene language which I have ever +heard. She addressed them man by man, and she continued to speak and cry +and scream at them with all that obstinate, angry patience of which only +a woman is capable. + +She cursed us all. She called down diseases on every human being in the +world excepting only the men who were being bombarded. She demanded of +the folk in the laneway that they should march at least into the roadway +and prove that they were proud men and were not afraid of bullets. She +had been herself into the danger zone. Had stood herself in the track of +the guns, and had there cursed her fill for half an hour, and she +desired that the men should do at least what she had done. + +This girl was quite young--about nineteen years of age--and was dressed +in the customary shawl and apron of her class. Her face was rather +pretty, or it had that pretty slenderness and softness of outline which +belong to youth. But every sentence she spoke contained half a dozen +indecent words. Alas, it was only that her vocabulary was not equal to +her emotions, and she did not know how to be emphatic without being +obscene--it is the cause of most of the meaningless swearing one hears +every day. She spoke to me for a minute, and her eyes were as soft as +those of a kitten and her language was as gentle as her eyes. She wanted +a match to light a cigarette, but I had none, and said that I also +wanted one. In a few minutes she brought me a match, and then she +recommenced her tireless weaving of six vile words into hundreds of +stupid sentences. + +About five o'clock the guns eased off of Kelly's. + +To inexperienced eyes they did not seem to have done very much damage, +but afterwards one found that although the walls were standing and +apparently solid there was no inside to the house. From roof to basement +the building was bare as a dog kennel. There were no floors inside, +there was nothing there but blank space; and on the ground within was +the tumble and rubbish that had been roof and floors and furniture. +Everything inside was smashed and pulverised into scrap and dust, and +the only objects that had consistency and their ancient shape were the +bricks that fell when the shells struck them. + +Rifle shots had begun to strike the house on the further side of the +street, a jewellers' shop called Hopkins & Hopkins. The impact of these +balls on the bricks was louder than the sound of the shot which +immediately succeeded, and each bullet that struck brought down a shower +of fine red dust from the walls. Perhaps thirty or forty shots in all +were fired at Hopkins', and then, except for an odd crack, firing +ceased. + +During all this time there had been no reply from the Volunteers, and I +thought they must be husbanding their ammunition, and so must be short +of it, and that it would be only a matter of a few days before the end. +All this, I said to myself, will be finished in a few days, and they +will be finished; life here will recommence exactly where it left off, +and except for some newly-filled graves, all will be as it had been +until they become a tradition and enter the imagination of their race. + +I spoke to several of the people about me, and found the same +willingness to exchange news that I had found elsewhere in the City, and +the same reticences as regarded their private opinions. Two of them, +indeed, and they were the only two I met with during the insurrection, +expressed, although in measured terms, admiration for the Volunteers, +and while they did not side with them they did not say anything against +them. One was a labouring man, the other a gentleman. The remark of the +latter was: + +"I am an Irishman, and (pointing to the shells that were bursting +through the windows in front of us) I hate to see that being done to +other Irishmen." + +He had come from some part of the country to spend the Easter Holidays +in Dublin, and was unable to leave town again. + +The labouring man--he was about fifty-six years of age--spoke very +quietly and collectedly about the insurrection. He was a type with whom +I had come very little in contact, and I was surprised to find how +simple and good his speech was, and how calm his ideas. He thought +labour was in this movement to a greater extent than was imagined. I +mentioned that Liberty Hall had been blown up, and that the garrison had +either surrendered or been killed. He replied that a gunboat had that +morning come up the river and had blown Liberty Hall into smash, but, he +added, there were no men in it. All the Labour Volunteers had marched +with Connolly into the Post Office. + +He said the Labour Volunteers might possibly number about one thousand +men, but that it would be quite safe to say eight hundred, and he held +that the Labour Volunteers, or the Citizens' Army, as they called +themselves, had always been careful not to reveal their numbers. They +had always announced that they possessed about two hundred and fifty +men, and had never paraded any more than that number at any one time. +Workingmen, he continued, knew that the men who marched were always +different men. The police knew it, too, but they thought that the +Citizens Army was the _most deserted-from force_ in the world. + +The men, however, were not deserters--you don't, he said, desert a man +like Connolly, and they were merely taking their turn at being drilled +and disciplined. They were raised against the police who, in the big +strike of two years ago, had acted towards them with unparallelled +savagery, and the men had determined that the police would never again +find them thus disorganised. + +This man believed that every member of the Citizen Army had marched with +their leader. + +"The men, I know," said he, "would not be afraid of anything, and," he +continued, "they are in the Post Office now." + +"What chance have they?" + +"None," he replied, "and they never said they had, and they never +thought they would have any." + +"How long do you think they'll be able to hold out?" + +He nodded towards the house that had been bombarded by heavy guns. + +"That will root them out of it quick enough," was his reply. + +"I'm going home," said he then, "the people will be wondering if I'm +dead or alive," and he walked away from that sad street, as I did myself +a few minutes afterwards. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + THURSDAY. + + +Again, the rumours greeted one. This place had fallen and had not +fallen. Such a position had been captured by the soldiers; recaptured by +the Volunteers, and had not been attacked at all. But certainly fighting +was proceeding. Up Mount Street, the rifle volleys were continuous, and +the coming and going of ambulance cars from that direction were +continuous also. Some spoke of pitched battles on the bridge, and said +that as yet the advantage lay with the Volunteers. + +At 11.30 there came the sound of heavy guns firing in the direction of +Sackville Street. I went on the roof, and remained there for some time. +From this height the sounds could be heard plainly. There was sustained +firing along the whole central line of the City, from the Green down to +Trinity College, and from thence to Sackville Street, and the report of +the various types of arm could be easily distinguished. There were +rifles, machine guns and very heavy cannon. There was another sound +which I could not put a name to, something that coughed out over all the +other sounds, a short, sharp bark, or rather a short noise something +like the popping of a tremendous cork. + +I met D.H. His chief emotion is one of astonishment at the organizing +powers displayed by the Volunteers. We have exchanged rumours, and found +that our equipment in this direction is almost identical. He says Sheehy +Skeffington has been killed. That he was arrested in a house wherein +arms were found, and was shot out of hand. + +I hope this is another rumour, for, so far as my knowledge of him goes, +he was not with the Volunteers, and it is said that he was antagonistic +to the forcible methods for which the Volunteers stood. But the tale of +his death is so persistent that one is inclined to believe it. + +He was the most absurdly courageous man I have ever met with or heard +of. He has been in every trouble that has touched Ireland these ten +years back, and he has always been in on the generous side, therefore, +and naturally, on the side that was unpopular and weak. It would seem +indeed that a cause had only to be weak to gain his sympathy, and his +sympathy never stayed at home. There are so many good people who +"sympathise" with this or that cause, and, having given that measure of +their emotion, they give no more of it or of anything else. But he +rushed instantly to the street. A large stone, the lift of a footpath, +the base of a statue, any place and every place was for him a pulpit; +and, in the teeth of whatever oppression or disaster or power, he said +his say. + +There are multitudes of men in Dublin of all classes and creeds who can +boast that they kicked Sheehy Skeffington, or that they struck him on +the head with walking sticks and umbrellas, or that they smashed their +fists into his face, and jumped on him when he fell. It is by no means +an exaggeration to say that these things were done to him, and it is +true that he bore ill-will to no man, and that he accepted blows, and +indignities and ridicule with the pathetic candour of a child who is +disguised as a man, and whose disguise cannot come off. His tongue, his +pen, his body, all that he had and hoped for were at the immediate +service of whoever was bewildered or oppressed. He has been shot. Other +men have been shot, but they faced the guns knowing that they faced +justice, however stern and oppressive; and that what they had engaged to +confront was before them. He had no such thought to soothe from his mind +anger or unforgiveness. He who was a pacifist was compelled to revolt to +his last breath, and on the instruments of his end he must have looked +as on murderers. I am sure that to the end he railed against oppression, +and that he fell marvelling that the world can truly be as it is. With +his death there passed away a brave man and a clean soul. + +Later on this day I met Mrs. Sheehy Skeffington in the street. She +confirmed the rumour that her husband had been arrested on the previous +day, but further than that she had no news. So far as I know the sole +crime of which her husband had been guilty was that he called for a +meeting of the citizens to enrol special constables and prevent looting. + +Among the rumours it was stated with every accent of certitude that +Madame Markievicz had been captured in George's Street, and taken to the +Castle. It was also current that Sir Roger Casement had been captured at +sea and had already been shot in the Tower of London. The names of +several Volunteer Leaders are mentioned as being dead. But the surmise +that steals timidly from one mouth flies boldly as a certitude from +every mouth that repeats it, and truth itself would now be listened to +with only a gossip's ear, but no person would believe a word of it. + +This night also was calm and beautiful, but this night was the most +sinister and woeful of those that have passed. The sound of artillery, +of rifles, machine guns, grenades, did not cease even for a moment. From +my window I saw a red flare that crept to the sky, and stole over it and +remained there glaring; the smoke reached from the ground to the clouds, +and I could see great red sparks go soaring to enormous heights; while +always, in the calm air, hour after hour there was the buzzing and +rattling and thudding of guns, and, but for the guns, silence. + +It is in a dead silence this Insurrection is being fought, and one +imagines what must be the feeling of these men, young for the most part, +and unused to violence, who are submitting silently to the crash and +flame and explosion by which they are surrounded. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + FRIDAY. + + +This morning there are no newspapers, no bread, no milk, no news. The +sun is shining, and the streets are lively but discreet. All people +continue to talk to one another without distinction of class, but nobody +knows what any person thinks. + +It is a little singular the number of people who are smiling. I fancy +they were listening to the guns last night, and they are smiling this +morning because the darkness is past, and because the sun is shining, +and because they can move their limbs in space, and may talk without +having to sink their voices to a whisper. Guns do not sound so bad in +the day as they do at night, and no person can feel lonely while the sun +shines. + +The men are smiling, but the women laugh, and their laughter does not +displease, for whatever women do in whatever circumstances appears to +have a rightness of its own. It seems right that they should scream +when danger to themselves is imminent, and it seems right that they +should laugh when the danger only threatens others. + +It is rumoured this morning that Sackville Street has been burned out +and levelled to the ground. It is said that the end is in sight; and, it +is said, that matters are, if anything rather worse than better. That +the Volunteers have sallied from some of their strongholds and +entrenched themselves, and that in one place alone (the South Lotts) +they have seven machine guns. That when the houses which they held +became untenable they rushed out and seized other houses, and that, +pursuing these tactics, there seemed no reason to believe that the +Insurrection would ever come to an end. That the streets are filled with +Volunteers in plain clothes, but having revolvers in their pockets. That +the streets are filled with soldiers equally revolvered and plain +clothed, and that the least one says on any subject the less one would +have to answer for. + +The feeling that I tapped was definitely Anti-Volunteer, but the number +of people who would speak was few, and one regarded the noncommital +folk who were so smiling and polite, and so prepared to talk, with much +curiosity, seeking to read in their eyes, in their bearing, even in the +cut of their clothes what might be the secret movements and cogitations +of their minds. + +I received the impression that numbers of them did not care a rap what +way it went; and that others had ceased to be mental creatures and were +merely machines for registering the sensations of the time. + +None of these people were prepared for Insurrection. The thing had been +sprung on them so suddenly that they were unable to take sides, and +their feeling of detachment was still so complete that they would have +betted on the business as if it had been a horse race or a dog fight. + +Many English troops have been landed each night, and it is believed that +there are more than sixty thousand soldiers in Dublin alone, and that +they are supplied with every offensive contrivance which military art +has invented. + +Merrion Square is strongly held by the soldiers. They are posted along +both sides of the road at intervals of about twenty paces, and their +guns are continually barking up at the roofs which surround them in the +great square. It is said that these roofs are held by the Volunteers +from Mount Street Bridge to the Square, and that they hold in like +manner wide stretches of the City. + +They appear to have mapped out the roofs with all the thoroughness that +had hitherto been expended on the roads, and upon these roofs they are +so mobile and crafty and so much at home that the work of the soldiers +will be exceedingly difficult as well as dangerous. + +Still, and notwithstanding, men can only take to the roofs for a short +time. Up there, there can be no means of transport, and their +ammunition, as well as their food, will very soon be used up. It is the +beginning of the end, and the fact that they have to take to the roofs, +even though that be in their programme, means that they are finished. + +From the roof there comes the sound of machine guns. Looking towards +Sackville Street one picks out easily Nelson's Pillar, which towers +slenderly over all the buildings of the neighbourhood. It is wreathed in +smoke. Another towering building was the D.B.C. Cafe. Its Chinese-like +pagoda was a landmark easily to be found, but to-day I could not find +it. It was not there, and I knew that, even if all Sackville Street was +not burned down, as rumour insisted, this great Cafe had certainly been +curtailed by its roof and might, perhaps, have been completely burned. + +On the gravel paths I found pieces of charred and burnt paper. These +scraps must have been blown remarkably high to have crossed all the +roofs that lie between Sackville Street and Merrion Square. + +At eleven o'clock there is continuous firing, and snipers firing from +the direction of Mount Street, and in every direction of the City these +sounds are being duplicated. + +In Camden Street the sniping and casualties are said to have been very +heavy. One man saw two Volunteers taken from a house by the soldiers. +They were placed kneeling in the centre of the road, and within one +minute of their capture they were dead. Simultaneously there fell +several of the firing party. + +An officer in this part had his brains blown into the roadway. A young +girl ran into the road picked up his cap and scraped the brains into it. +She covered this poor debris with a little straw, and carried the hat +piously to the nearest hospital in order that the brains might be buried +with their owner. + +The continuation of her story was less gloomy although it affected the +teller equally. + +"There is not," said she, "a cat or a dog left alive in Camden Street. +They are lying stiff out in the road and up on the roofs. There's lots +of women will be sorry for this war," said she, "and their pets killed +on them." + +In many parts of the City hunger began to be troublesome. A girl told me +that her family, and another that had taken refuge with them, had eaten +nothing for three days. On this day her father managed to get two loaves +of bread somewhere, and he brought these home. + +"When," said the girl, "my father came in with the bread the whole +fourteen of us ran at him, and in a minute we were all ashamed for the +loaves were gone to the last crumb, and we were all as hungry as we had +been before he came in. The poor man," said she, "did not even get a bit +for himself." She held that the poor people were against the Volunteers. + +The Volunteers still hold Jacob's Biscuit Factory. It is rumoured that a +priest visited them and counselled surrender, and they replied that they +did not go there to surrender but to be killed. They asked him to give +them absolution, and the story continues that he refused to do so--but +this is not (in its latter part) a story that can easily be credited. +The Adelaide Hospital is close to this factory, and it is possible that +the proximity of the hospital, delays or hinders military operations +against the factory. + +Rifle volleys are continuous about Merrion Square, and prolonged machine +gun firing can be heard also. + +During the night the firing was heavy from almost every direction; and +in the direction of Sackville Street a red glare told again of fire. + +It is hard to get to bed these nights. It is hard even to sit down, for +the moment one does sit down one stands immediately up again resuming +that ridiculous ship's march from the window to the wall and back. I am +foot weary as I have never been before in my life, but I cannot say that +I am excited. No person in Dublin is excited, but there exists a state +of tension and expectancy which is mentally more exasperating than any +excitement could be. The absence of news is largely responsible for +this. We do not know what has happened, what is happening, or what is +going to happen, and the reversion to barbarism (for barbarism is +largely a lack of news) disturbs us. + +Each night we have got to bed at last murmuring, "I wonder will it be +all over to-morrow," and this night the like question accompanied us. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + SATURDAY. + + +This morning also there has been no bread, no milk, no meat, no +newspapers, but the sun is shining. It is astonishing that, thus early +in the Spring, the weather should be so beautiful. + +It is stated freely that the Post Office has been taken, and just as +freely it is averred that it has not been taken. The approaches to +Merrion Square are held by the military, and I was not permitted to go +to my office. As I came to this point shots were fired at a motor car +which had not stopped on being challenged. Bystanders said it was Sir +Horace Plunkett's car, and that he had been shot. Later we found that +Sir Horace was not hurt, but that his nephew who drove the car had been +severely wounded. + +At this hour the rumour of the fall of Verdun was persistent. Later on +it was denied, as was denied the companion rumour of the relief of Kut. +Saw R. who had spent three days and the whole of his money in getting +home from County Clare. He had heard that Mrs. Sheehy Skeffington's +house was raided, and that two dead bodies had been taken out of it. Saw +Miss P. who seemed sad. I do not know what her politics are, but I think +that the word "kindness" might be used to cover all her activities. She +has a heart of gold, and the courage of many lions. I then met Mr. +Commissioner Bailey who said the Volunteers had sent a deputation, and +that terms of surrender were being discussed. I hope this is true, and I +hope mercy will be shown to the men. Nobody believes there will be any +mercy shown, and it is freely reported that they are shot in the street, +or are taken to the nearest barracks and shot there. The belief grows +that no person who is now in the Insurrection will be alive when the +Insurrection is ended. + +That is as it will be. But these days the thought of death does not +strike on the mind with any severity, and, should the European war +continue much longer, the fear of death will entirely depart from man, +as it has departed many times in history. With that great deterrent +gone our rulers will be gravely at a loss in dealing with strikers and +other such discontented people. Possibly they will have to resurrect the +long-buried idea of torture. + +The people in the streets are laughing and chatting. Indeed, there is +gaiety in the air as well as sunshine, and no person seems to care that +men are being shot every other minute, or bayoneted, or blown into +scraps or burned into cinders. These things are happening, nevertheless, +but much of their importance has vanished. + +I met a man at the Green who was drawing a plan on the back of an +envelope. The problem was how his questioner was to get from where he +was standing to a street lying at the other side of the river, and the +plan as drawn insisted that to cover this quarter of an hour's distance +he must set out on a pilgrimage of more than twenty miles. Another young +boy was standing near embracing a large ham. He had been trying for +three days to convey his ham to a house near the Gresham Hotel where his +sister lived. He had almost given up hope, and he hearkened +intelligently to the idea that he should himself eat the ham and so get +rid of it. + +The rifle fire was persistent all day, but, saving in certain +localities, it was not heavy. Occasionally the machine guns rapped in. +There was no sound of heavy artillery. + +The rumour grows that the Post Office has been evacuated, and that the +Volunteers are at large and spreading everywhere across the roofs. The +rumour grows also that terms of surrender are being discussed, and that +Sackville Street has been levelled to the ground. + +At half-past seven in the evening calm is almost complete. The sound of +a rifle shot being only heard at long intervals. + +I got to bed this night earlier than usual. At two o'clock I left the +window from which a red flare is yet visible in the direction of +Sackville Street. The morning will tell if the Insurrection is finished +or not, but at this hour all is not over. Shots are ringing all around +and down my street, and the vicious crackling of these rifles grow at +times into regular volleys. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + SUNDAY. + + +The Insurrection has not ceased. + +There is much rifle fire, but no sound from the machine guns or the +eighteen pounders and trench mortars. + +From the window of my kitchen the flag of the Republic can be seen +flying afar. This is the flag that flies over Jacob's Biscuit Factory, +and I will know that the Insurrection has ended as soon as I see this +flag pulled down. + +When I went out there were few people in the streets. I met D.H., and, +together, we passed up the Green. The Republican flag was still flying +over the College of Surgeons. We tried to get down Grafton Street (where +broken windows and two gaping interiors told of the recent visit of +looters), but a little down this street we were waved back by armed +sentries. We then cut away by the Gaiety Theatre into Mercer's Street, +where immense lines of poor people were drawn up waiting for the +opening of the local bakery. We got into George's Street, thinking to +turn down Dame Street and get from thence near enough to Sackville +Street to see if the rumours about its destruction were true, but here +also we were halted by the military, and had to retrace our steps. + +There was no news of any kind to be gathered from the people we talked +to, nor had they even any rumours. + +This was the first day I had been able to get even a short distance +outside of my own quarter, and it seemed that the people of my quarter +were more able in the manufacture of news or more imaginative than were +the people who live in other parts of the city. We had no sooner struck +into home parts than we found news. We were told that two of the +Volunteer leaders had been shot. These were Pearse and Connolly. The +latter was reported as lying in the Castle Hospital with a fractured +thigh. Pearse was cited as dead with two hundred of his men, following +their sally from the Post Office. The machine guns had caught them as +they left, and none of them remained alive. The news seemed afterwards +to be true except that instead of Pearse it was The O'Rahilly who had +been killed. Pearse died later and with less excitement. + +A man who had seen an English newspaper said that the Kut force had +surrendered to the Turk, but that Verdun had not fallen to the Germans. +The rumour was current also that a great naval battle had been fought +whereat the German fleet had been totally destroyed with loss to the +English of eighteen warships. It was said that among the captured +Volunteers there had been a large body of Germans, but nobody believed +it; and this rumour was inevitably followed by the tale that there were +one hundred German submarines lying in the Stephen's Green pond. + +At half-past two I met Mr. Commissioner Bailey, who told me that it was +all over, and that the Volunteers were surrendering everywhere in the +city. A motor car with two military officers, and two Volunteer leaders +had driven to the College of Surgeons and been admitted. After a short +interval Madame Marckievicz marched out of the College at the head of +about 100 men, and they had given up their arms; the motor car with the +Volunteer leaders was driving to other strongholds, and it was expected +that before nightfall the capitulations would be complete. + +I started home, and on the way I met a man whom I had encountered some +days previously, and from whom rumours had sprung as though he wove them +from his entrails, as a spider weaves his web. He was no less provided +on this occasion, and it was curious to listen to his tale of English +defeats on every front. He announced the invasion of England in six +different quarters, the total destruction of the English fleet, and the +landing of immense German armies on the West coast of Ireland. He made +these things up in his head. Then he repeated them to himself in a loud +voice, and became somehow persuaded that they had been told to him by a +well-informed stranger, and then he believed them and told them to +everybody he met. Amongst other things Spain had declared war on our +behalf, the Chilian Navy was hastening to our relief. For a pin he +would have sent France flying westward all forgetful of her own war. A +singular man truly, and as I do think the only thoroughly happy person +in our city. + +It is half-past three o'clock, and from my window the Republican flag +can still be seen flying over Jacob's factory. There is occasional +shooting, but the city as a whole is quiet. At a quarter to five o'clock +a heavy gun boomed once. Ten minutes later there was heavy machine gun +firing and much rifle shooting. In another ten minutes the flag at +Jacob's was hauled down. + +During the remainder of the night sniping and military replies were +incessant, particularly in my street. + +The raids have begun in private houses. Count Plunkett's house was +entered by the military who remained there for a very long time. Passing +home about two minutes after Proclamation hour I was pursued for the +whole of Fitzwilliam Square by bullets. They buzzed into the roadway +beside me, and the sound as they whistled near was curious. The sound is +something like that made by a very swift saw, and one gets the +impression that as well as being very swift they are very heavy. + +Snipers are undoubtedly on the roofs opposite my house, and they are not +asleep on these roofs. Possibly it is difficult to communicate with +these isolated bands the news of their companions' surrender, but it is +likely they will learn, by the diminution of fire in other quarters that +their work is over. + +In the morning on looking from my window I saw four policemen marching +into the street. They were the first I had seen for a week. Soon now the +military tale will finish, the police story will commence, the political +story will recommence, and, perhaps, the weeks that follow this one will +sow the seed of more hatred than so many centuries will be able to +uproot again, for although Irish people do not greatly fear the military +they fear the police, and they have very good reason to do so. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + THE INSURRECTION IS OVER. + + +The Insurrection is over, and it is worth asking what has happened, how +it has happened, and why it happened? + +The first question is easily answered. The finest part of our city has +been blown to smithereens, and burned into ashes. Soldiers amongst us +who have served abroad say that the ruin of this quarter is more +complete than any thing they have seen at Ypres, than anything they have +seen anywhere in France or Flanders. A great number of our men and women +and children, Volunteers and civilians confounded alike, are dead, and +some fifty thousand men who have been moved with military equipment to +our land are now being removed therefrom. The English nation has been +disorganised no more than as they were affected by the transport of +these men and material. That is what happened, and it is all that +happened. + +How it happened is another matter, and one which, perhaps, will not be +made clear for years. All we know in Dublin is that our city burst into +a kind of spontaneous war; that we lived through it during one singular +week, and that it faded away and disappeared almost as swiftly as it had +come. The men who knew about it are, with two exceptions, dead, and +these two exceptions are in gaol, and likely to remain there long +enough. (Since writing one of these men has been shot.) + +Why it happened is a question that may be answered more particularly. It +happened because the leader of the Irish Party misrepresented his people +in the English House of Parliament. On the day of the declaration of war +between England and Germany he took the Irish case, weighty with eight +centuries of history and tradition, and he threw it out of the window. +He pledged Ireland to a particular course of action, and he had no +authority to give this pledge and he had no guarantee that it would be +met. The ramshackle intelligence of his party and his own emotional +nature betrayed him and us and England. He swore Ireland to loyalty as +if he had Ireland in his pocket, and could answer for her. Ireland has +never been disloyal to England, not even at this epoch, because she has +never been loyal to England, and the profession of her National faith +has been unwavering, has been known to every English person alive, and +has been clamant to all the world beside. + +Is it that he wanted to be cheered? He could very easily have stated +Ireland's case truthfully, and have proclaimed a benevolent neutrality +(if he cared to use the grandiloquent words) on the part of this +country. He would have gotten his cheers, he would in a few months have +gotten Home Rule in return for Irish soldiers. He would have received +politically whatever England could have safely given him. But, alas, +these carefulnesses did not chime with his emotional moment. They were +not magnificent enough for one who felt that he was talking not to +Ireland or to England, but to the whole gaping and eager earth, and so +he pledged his country's credit so deeply that he did not leave her even +one National rag to cover herself with. + +After a lie truth bursts out, and it is no longer the radiant and +serene goddess knew or hoped for--it is a disease, it is a moral +syphilis and will ravage until the body in which it can dwell has been +purged. Mr. Redmond told the lie and he is answerable to England for the +violence she had to be guilty of, and to Ireland for the desolation to +which we have had to submit. Without his lie there had been no +Insurrection; without it there had been at this moment, and for a year +past, an end to the "Irish question." Ireland must in ages gone have +been guilty of abominable crimes or she could not at this juncture have +been afflicted with a John Redmond. + +He is the immediate cause of this our latest Insurrection--the word is +big, much too big for the deed, and we should call it row, or riot, or +squabble, in order to draw the fact down to its dimensions, but the +ultimate blame for the trouble between the two countries does not fall +against Ireland. + +The fault lies with England, and in these days while an effort is being +made (interrupted, it is true, by cannon) to found a better +understanding between the two nations it is well that England should +recognize what she has done to Ireland, and should try at least to +atone for it. The situation can be explained almost in a phrase. We are +a little country and you, a huge country, have persistently beaten us. +We are a poor country and you, the richest country in the world, have +persistently robbed us. That is the historical fact, and whatever +national or political necessities are opposed in reply, it is true that +you have never given Ireland any reason to love you, and you cannot +claim her affection without hypocrisy or stupidity. + +You think our people can only be tenacious in hate--it is a lie. Our +historical memory is truly tenacious, but during the long and miserable +tale of our relations you have never given us one generosity to remember +you by, and you must not claim our affection or our devotion until you +are worthy of them. We are a good people; almost we are the only +Christian people left in the world, nor has any nation shown such +forbearance towards their persecutor as we have always shown to you. No +nation has forgiven its enemies as we have forgiven you, time after time +down the miserable generations, the continuity of forgiveness only +equalled by the continuity of your ill-treatment. Between our two +countries you have kept and protected a screen of traders and +politicians who are just as truly your enemies as they are ours. In the +end they will do most harm to you for we are by this vaccinated against +misery but you are not, and the "loyalists" who sell their own country +for a shilling will sell another country for a penny when the +opportunity comes and safety with it. + +Meanwhile do not always hasten your presents to us out of a gun. You +have done it so often that your guns begin to bore us, and you have now +an opportunity which may never occur again to make us your friends. +There is no bitterness in Ireland against you on account of this war, +and the lack of ill-feeling amongst us is entirely due to the more than +admirable behaviour of the soldiers whom you sent over here. A peace +that will last for ever can be made with Ireland if you wish to make it, +but you must take her hand at once, for in a few months' time she will +not open it to you; the old, bad relations will re-commence, the rancor +will be born and grow, and another memory will be stored away in +Ireland's capacious and retentive brain. + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + THE VOLUNTEERS. + + +There is much talk of the extraordinary organising powers displayed in +the insurrection, but in truth there was nothing extraordinary in it. +The real essence and singularity of the rising exists in its simplicity, +and, saving for the courage which carried it out, the word extraordinary +is misplaced in this context. + +The tactics of the Volunteers as they began to emerge were reduced to +the very skeleton of "strategy." It was only that they seized certain +central and stragetical districts, garrisoned those and held them until +they were put out of them. Once in their forts there was no further +egress by the doors, and for purpose of entry and sortie they used the +skylights and the roofs. On the roofs they had plenty of cover, and this +cover conferred on them a mobility which was their chief asset, and +which alone enabled them to protract the rebellion beyond the first day. + +This was the entire of their home plan, and there is no doubt that they +had studied Dublin roofs and means of inter-communication by roofs with +the closest care. Further than that I do not think they had organised +anything. But this was only the primary plan, and, unless they were +entirely mad, there must have been a sequel to it which did not +materialise, and which would have materialised but that the English +Fleet blocked the way. + +There is no doubt that they expected the country to rise with them, and +they must have known what their own numbers were, and what chance they +had of making a protracted resistance. The word "resistance" is the +keyword of the rising, and the plan of holding out must have been +rounded off with a date. At that date something else was to have +happened which would relieve them. + +There is not much else that could happen except the landing of German +troops in Ireland or in England. It would have been, I think, immaterial +to them where these were landed, but the reasoning seems to point to the +fact that they expected and had arranged for such a landing, although +on this point there is as yet no evidence. + +The logic of this is so simple, so plausible, that it might be accepted +without further examination, and yet further examination is necessary, +for in a country like Ireland logic and plausibility are more often +wrong than right. It may just as easily be that except for furnishing +some arms and ammunition Germany was not in the rising at all, and this +I prefer to believe. It had been current long before the rising that the +Volunteers knew they could not seriously embarass England, and that +their sole aim was to make such a row in Ireland that the Irish question +would take the status of an international one, and on the discussion of +terms of peace in the European war the claims of Ireland would have to +be considered by the whole Council of Europe and the world. + +That is, in my opinion, the metaphysic behind the rising. It is quite +likely that they hoped for German aid, possibly some thousands of men, +who would enable them to prolong the row, but I do not believe they +expected German armies, nor do I think they would have welcomed these +with any cordiality. + +In this insurrection there are two things which are singular in the +history of Irish risings. One is that there were no informers, or there +were no informers among the chiefs. I did hear people say in the streets +that two days before the rising they knew it was to come; they +invariably added that they had not believed the news, and had laughed at +it. A priest said the same thing in my hearing, and it may be that the +rumour was widely spread, and that everybody, including the authorities, +looked upon it as a joke. + +The other singularity of the rising is the amazing silence in which it +was fought. Nothing spoke but the guns; and the Volunteers on the one +side and the soldiers on the other potted each other and died in +whispers; it might have been said that both sides feared the Germans +would hear them and take advantage of their preoccupation. + +There is a third reason given for the rebellion, and it also is divorced +from foreign plots. It is said, and the belief in Dublin was widespread, +that the Government intended to raid the Volunteers and seize their +arms. One remembers to-day the paper which Alderman Kelly read to the +Dublin Corporation, and which purported to be State Instructions that +the Military and Police should raid the Volunteers, and seize their arms +and leaders. The Volunteers had sworn they would not permit their arms +to be taken from them. A list of the places to be raided was given, and +the news created something of a sensation in Ireland when it was +published that evening. The Press, by instruction apparently, repudiated +this document, but the Volunteers, with most of the public, believed it +to be true, and it is more than likely that the rebellion took place in +order to forestall the Government. + +This is also an explanation of the rebellion, and is just as good a one +as any other. It is the explanation which I believe to be the true one. + +All the talk of German invasion and the landing of German troops in +Ireland is so much nonsense in view of the fact that England is master +of the seas, and that from a week before the war down to this date she +has been the undisputed monarch of those ridges. During this war there +will be no landing of troops in either England or Ireland unless Germany +in the meantime can solve the problem of submarine transport. It is a +problem which will be solved some day, for every problem can be solved, +but it will hardly be during the progress of this war. The men at the +head of the Volunteers were not geniuses, neither were they fools, and +the difficulty of acquiring military aid from Germany must have seemed +as insurmountable to them as it does to the Germans themselves. They +rose because they felt that they had to do so, or be driven like sheep +into the nearest police barracks, and be laughed at by the whole of +Ireland as cowards and braggarts. + +It would be interesting to know why, on the eve of the insurrection, +Professor MacNeill resigned the presidency of the Volunteers. The story +of treachery which was heard in the streets is not the true one, for men +of his type are not traitors, and this statement may be dismissed +without further comment or notice. One is left to imagine what can have +happened during the conference which is said to have preceded the +rising, and which ended with the resignation of Professor MacNeill. + +This is my view, or my imagining, of what occurred. The conference was +called because the various leaders felt that a hostile movement was +projected by the Government, and that the times were exceedingly black +for them. Neither Mr. Birrell nor Sir Mathew Nathan had any desire that +there should be a conflict in Ireland during the war. This cannot be +doubted. From such a conflict there might follow all kinds of political +repercussions; but although the Government favoured the policy of +_laissez faire_, there was a powerful military and political party in +Ireland whose whole effort was towards the disarming and punishment of +the Volunteers--particularly I should say the punishment of the +Volunteers. I believe, or rather I imagine, that Professor MacNeill was +approached at the instance of Mr. Birrell or Sir Mathew Nathan and +assured that the Government did not meditate any move against his men, +and that so long as his Volunteers remained quiet they would not be +molested by the authorities. I would say that Professor MacNeill gave +and accepted the necessary assurances, and that when he informed his +conference of what had occurred, and found that they did not believe +faith would be kept with them, he resigned in the dispairing hope that +his action might turn them from a purpose which he considered lunatic, +or, at least, by restraining a number of his followers from rising, he +might limit the tale of men who would be uselessly killed. + +He was not alone in his vote against a rising. The O'Rahilly and some +others are reputed to have voted with him, but when insurrection was +decided on, the O'Rahilly marched with his men, and surely a gallant man +could not have done otherwise. + +When the story of what occurred is authoritatively written (it may be +written) I think that this will be found to be the truth of the matter, +and that German intrigue and German money counted for so little in the +insurrection as to be negligible. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + SOME OF THE LEADERS. + + +Meanwhile the insurrection, like all its historical forerunners, has +been quelled in blood. It sounds rhetorical to say so, but it was not +quelled in peasoup or tisane. While it lasted the fighting was very +determined, and it is easily, I think, the most considerable of Irish +rebellions. + +The country was not with it, for be it remembered that a whole army of +Irishmen, possibly three hundred thousand of our race, are fighting with +England instead of against her. In Dublin alone there is scarcely a poor +home in which a father, a brother, or a son is not serving in one of the +many fronts which England is defending. Had the country risen, and +fought as stubbornly as the Volunteers did, no troops could have beaten +them--well that is a wild statement, the heavy guns could always beat +them--but from whatever angle Irish people consider this affair it must +appear to them tragic and lamentable beyond expression, but not mean +and not unheroic. + +It was hard enough that our men in the English armies should be slain +for causes which no amount of explanation will ever render less foreign +to us, or even intelligible; but that our men who were left should be +killed in Ireland fighting against the same England that their brothers +are fighting for ties the question into such knots of contradiction as +we may give up trying to unravel. We can only think--this has +happened--and let it unhappen itself as best it may. + +We say that the time always finds the man, and by it we mean: that when +a responsibility is toward there will be found some shoulder to bend for +the yoke which all others shrink from. It is not always nor often the +great ones of the earth who undertake these burdens--it is usually the +good folk, that gentle hierarchy who swear allegiance to mournfulness +and the under dog, as others dedicate themselves to mutton chops and the +easy nymph. It is not my intention to idealise any of the men who were +concerned in this rebellion. Their country will, some few years hence, +do that as adequately as she has done it for those who went before them. + +Those of the leaders whom I knew were not great men, nor brilliant--that +is they were more scholars than thinkers, and more thinkers than men of +action; and I believe that in no capacity could they have attained to +what is called eminence, nor do I consider they coveted any such public +distinction as is noted in that word. + +But in my definition they were good men--men, that is, who willed no +evil, and whose movements of body or brain were unselfish and healthy. +No person living is the worse off for having known Thomas MacDonagh, and +I, at least, have never heard MacDonagh speak unkindly or even harshly +of anything that lived. It has been said of him that his lyrics were +epical; in a measure it is true, and it is true in the same measure that +his death was epical. He was the first of the leaders who was tried and +shot. It was not easy for him to die leaving behind two young children +and a young wife, and the thought that his last moment must have been +tormented by their memory is very painful. We are all fatalists when we +strike against power, and I hope he put care from him as the soldiers +marched him out. + +The O'Rahilly also I knew, but not intimately, and I can only speak of a +good humour, a courtesy, and an energy that never failed. He was a man +of unceasing ideas and unceasing speech, and laughter accompanied every +sound made by his lips. + +Plunkett and Pearse I knew also, but not intimately. Young Plunkett, as +he was always called, would never strike one as a militant person. He, +like Pearse and MacDonagh, wrote verse, and it was no better nor worse +than their's were. He had an appetite for quaint and difficult +knowledge. He studied Egyptian and Sanscrit, and distant curious matter +of that sort, and was interested in inventions and the theatre. He was +tried and sentenced and shot. + +As to Pearse, I do not know how to place him, nor what to say of him. If +there was an idealist among the men concerned in this insurrection it +was he, and if there was any person in the world less fitted to head an +insurrection it was he also. I never could "touch" or sense in him the +qualities which other men spoke of, and which made him military +commandant of the rising. None of these men were magnetic in the sense +that Mr. Larkin is magnetic, and I would have said that Pearse was less +magnetic than any of the others. Yet it was to him and around him they +clung. + +Men must find some centre either of power or action or intellect about +which they may group themselves, and I think that Pearse became the +leader because his temperament was more profoundly emotional than any of +the others. He was emotional not in a flighty, but in a serious way, and +one felt more that he suffered than that he enjoyed. + +He had a power; men who came into intimate contact with him began to act +differently to their own desires and interests. His schoolmasters did +not always receive their salaries with regularity. The reason that he +did not pay them was the simple one that he had no money. Given by +another man this explanation would be uneconomic, but from him it was so +logical that even a child could comprehend it. These masters did not +always leave him. They remained, marvelling perhaps, and accepting, even +with stupefaction, the theory that children must be taught, but that no +such urgency is due towards the payment of wages. One of his boys said +there was no fun in telling lies to Mr. Pearse, for, however outrageous +the lie, he always believed it. He built and renovated and improved his +school because the results were good for his scholars, and somehow he +found builders to undertake these forlorn hopes. + +It was not, I think, that he "put his trust in God," but that when +something had to be done he did it, and entirely disregarded logic or +economics or force. He said--such a thing has to be done and so far as +one man can do it I will do it, and he bowed straightaway to the task. + +It is mournful to think of men like these having to take charge of +bloody and desolate work, and one can imagine them say, "Oh! cursed +spite," as they accepted responsibility. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + LABOUR AND THE INSURRECTION. + + +No person in Ireland seems to have exact information about the +Volunteers, their aims, or their numbers. We know the names of the +leaders now. They were recited to us with the tale of their execution; +and with the declaration of a Republic we learned something of their +aim, but the estimate of their number runs through the figures ten, +thirty, and fifty thousand. The first figure is undoubtedly too slender, +the last excessive, and something between fifteen and twenty thousand +for all Ireland would be a reasonable guess. + +Of these, the Citizen Army or Labour side of the Volunteers, would not +number more than one thousand men, and it is with difficulty such a +figure could be arrived at. Yet it is freely argued, and the theory will +grow, that the causes of this latest insurrection should be sought among +the labour problems of Dublin rather than in any national or patriotic +sentiment, and this theory is buttressed by all the agile facts which +such a theory would be furnished with. + +It is an interesting view, but in my opinion it is an erroneous one. + +That Dublin labour was in the Volunteer movement to the strength of, +perhaps, two hundred men, may be true--it is possible there were more, +but it is unlikely that a greater number, or, as many, of the Citizen +Army marched when the order came. The overwhelming bulk of Volunteers +were actuated by the patriotic ideal which is the heritage and the +burden of almost every Irishman born out of the Unionist circle, and +their connection with labour was much more manual than mental. + +This view of the importance of labour to the Volunteers is held by two +distinct and opposed classes. + +Just as there are some who find the explanation of life in a sexual +formula, so there is a class to whom the economic idea is very dear, and +beneath every human activity they will discover the shock of wages and +profit. It is truly there, but it pulls no more than its weight, and in +Irish life the part played by labour has not yet been a weighty one; +although on every view it is an important one. The labour idea in +Ireland has not arrived. It is in process of "becoming," and when labour +problems are mentioned in this country a party does not come to the +mind, but two men only--they are Mr. Larkin and James Connolly, and they +are each in their way exceptional and curious men. + +There is another class who implicate labour, and they do so because it +enables them to urge that as well as being grasping and nihilistic, +Irish labour is disloyal and treacherous. + +The truth is that labour in Ireland has not yet succeeded in organising +anything--not even discontent. It is not self-conscious to any extent, +and, outside of Dublin, it scarcely appears to exist. The national +imagination is not free to deal with any other subject than that of +freedom, and part of the policy of our "masters" is to see that we be +kept busy with politics instead of social ideas. From their standpoint +the policy is admirable, and up to the present it has thoroughly +succeeded. + +One does not hear from the lips of the Irish workingman, even in +Dublin, any of the affirmations and rejections which have long since +become the commonplaces of his comrades in other lands. But on the +subject of Irish freedom his views are instantly forthcoming, and his +desires are explicit, and, to a degree, informed. This latter subject +they understand and have fabricated an entire language to express it, +but the other they do not understand nor cherish, and they are not +prepared to die for it. + +It is possibly true that before any movement can attain to really +national proportions there must be, as well as the intellectual ideal +which gives it utterance and a frame, a sense of economic misfortune to +give it weight, and when these fuse the combination may well be +irresistible. The organised labour discontent in Ireland, in Dublin, was +not considerable enough to impose its aims or its colours on the +Volunteers, and it is the labour ideal which merges and disappears in +the national one. The reputation of all the leaders of the insurrection, +not excepting Connolly, is that they were intensely patriotic Irishmen, +and also, but this time with the exception of Connolly, that they were +not particularly interested in the problems of labour. + +The great strike of two years ago remained undoubtedly as a bitter and +lasting memory with Dublin labour--perhaps, even, it was not so much a +memory as a hatred. Still, it was not hatred of England which was evoked +at that time, nor can the stress of their conflict be traced to an +English source. It was hatred of local traders, and, particularly, +hatred of the local police, and the local powers and tribunals, which +were arrayed against them. + +One can without trouble discover reasons why they should go on strike +again, but by no reasoning can I understand why they should go into +rebellion against England, unless it was that they were patriots first +and trade unionists a very long way afterwards. + +I do not believe that this combination of the ideal and the practical +was consummated in the Dublin insurrection, but I do believe that the +first step towards the formation of such a party has now been taken, +and that if, years hence, there should be further trouble in Ireland +such trouble will not be so easily dealt with as this one has been. + +It may be that further trouble will not arise, for the co-operative +movement, which is growing slowly but steadily in Ireland, may arrange +our economic question, and, incidentally, our national question +also--that is if the English people do not decide that the latter ought +to be settled at once. + +James Connolly had his heart in both the national and the economic camp, +but he was a great-hearted man, and could afford to extend his +affections where others could only dissipate them. + +There can be no doubt that his powers of orderly thinking were of great +service to the Volunteers, for while Mr. Larkin was the magnetic centre +of the Irish labour movement, Connolly was its brains. He has been +sentenced to death for his part in the insurrection, and for two days +now he has been dead. + +He had been severely wounded in the fighting, and was tended, one does +not doubt with great care, until he regained enough strength to stand +up and be shot down again. + +Others are dead also. I was not acquainted with them, and with Connolly +I was not more than acquainted. I had met him twice many months ago, but +other people were present each time, and he scarcely uttered a word on +either of these occasions. I was told that he was by nature silent. He +was a man who can be ill-spared in Ireland, but labour, throughout the +world, may mourn for him also. + +A doctor who attended on him during his last hours says that Connolly +received the sentence of his death quietly. He was to be shot on the +morning following the sentence. This gentleman said to him: + +"Connolly, when you stand up to be shot, will you say a prayer for me?" + +Connolly replied: + +"I will." + +His visitor continued: + +"Will you say a prayer for the men who are shooting you?" + +"I will," said Connolly, "and I will say a prayer for every good man in +the world who is doing his duty." + +He was a steadfast man in all that he undertook. We may be sure he +steadfastly kept that promise. He would pray for others, who had not +time to pray for himself, as he had worked for others during the years +when he might have worked for himself. + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + THE IRISH QUESTIONS. + + +There is truly an Irish question. There are two Irish questions, and the +most important of them is not that which appears in our newspapers and +in our political propaganda. + +The first is international, and can be stated shortly. It is the desire +of Ireland to assume control of her national life. With this desire the +English people have professed to be in accord, and it is at any rate so +thoroughly understood that nothing further need be made of it in these +pages. + +The other Irish question is different, and less simply described. The +difficulty about it is that it cannot be approached until the question +of Ireland's freedom has by some means been settled, for this ideal of +freedom has captured the imagination of the race. It rides Ireland like +a nightmare, thwarting or preventing all civilising or cultural work in +this country, and it is not too much to say that Ireland cannot even +begin to live until that obsession and fever has come to an end, and her +imagination has been set free to do the work which imagination alone can +do--Imagination is intelligent kindness--we have sore need of it. + +The second question might plausibly be called a religious one. It has +been so called, and, for it is less troublesome to accept an idea than +to question it, the statement has been accepted as truth--but it is +untrue, and it is deeply and villainously untrue. No lie in Irish life +has been so persistent and so mischievous as this one, and no political +lie has ever been so ingeniously, and malevolently exploited. + +There is no religious intolerance in Ireland except that which is +political. I am not a member of the Catholic Church, and am not inclined +to be the advocate of a religious system which my mentality dislikes, +but I have never found real intolerance among my fellow-countrymen of +that religion. I have found it among Protestants. I will limit that +statement, too. I have found it among some Protestants. But outside of +the North of Ireland there is no religious question, and in the North +it is fundamentally more political than religious. + +All thinking is a fining down of one's ideas, and thus far we have come +to the statement of Ireland's second question. It is not Catholic or +Nationalist, nor have I said that it is entirely Protestant and +Unionist, but it is on the extreme wing of this latter party that +responsibility must be laid. It is difficult, even for an Irishman +living in Ireland, to come on the real political fact which underlies +Irish Protestant politics, and which fact has consistently opposed and +baffled every attempt made by either England or Ireland to come to +terms. There is such a fact, and clustered around it is a body of men +whose hatred of their country is persistent and deadly and unexplained. + +One may make broad generalisations on the apparent situation and +endeavour to solve it by those. We may say that loyalty to England is +the true centre of their action. I will believe it, but only to a point. +Loyalty to England does not inevitably include this active hatred, this +blindness, this withering of all sympathy for the people among whom one +is born, and among whom one has lived in peace, for they have lived in +peace amongst us. We may say that it is due to the idea of privilege and +the desire for power. Again, I will accept it up to a point--but these +are cultural obsessions, and they cease to act when the breaking-point +is reached. + +I know of only two mental states which are utterly without bowels or +conscience. These are cowardice and greed. Is it to a synthesis of these +states that this more than mortal enmity may be traced? What do they +fear, and what is it they covet? What can they redoubt in a country +which is practically crimeless, or covet in a land that is almost as +bare as a mutton bone? They have mesmerised themselves, these men, and +have imagined into our quiet air brigands and thugs and titans, with all +the other notabilities of a tale for children. + +I do not think that this either will tell the tale, but I do think there +is a story to be told--I imagine an esoteric wing to the Unionist Party. +I imagine that Party includes a secret organisation--they may be +Orangemen, they may be Masons, and, if there be such, I would dearly +like to know what the metaphysic of their position is, and how they +square it with any idea of humanity or social life. Meantime, all this +is surmise, and I, as a novelist, have a notoriously flighty +imagination, and am content to leave it at that. + +But this secondary Irish question is not so terrible as it appears. It +is terrible now, it would not be terrible if Ireland had national +independence. + +The great protection against a lie is--not to believe it; and Ireland, +in this instance, has that protection. The claims made by the Unionist +Wing do not rely solely on the religious base. They use all the +arguments. It is, according to them, unsafe to live in Ireland. (Let us +leave this insurrection of a week out of the question.) Life is not safe +in Ireland. Property shivers in terror of daily or nightly +appropriation. Other, undefined, but even more woeful glooms and creeps, +wriggle stealthily abroad. + +These things are not regarded in Ireland, and, in truth, they are not +meat for Irish consumption. Irish judges are presented with white +gloves with a regularity which may even be annoying to them, and were it +not for political trouble they would be unable to look their salaries in +the face. The Irish Bar almost weep in chorus at the words "Land Act," +and stare, not dumbly, on destitution. These tales are meant for England +and are sent there. They will cease to be exported when there is no +market for them, and these men will perhaps end by becoming patriotic +and social when they learn that they do not really command the Big +Battalions. But Ireland has no protection against them while England can +be thrilled by their nonsense, and while she is willing to pound Ireland +to a jelly on their appeal. Her only assistance against them is freedom. + +There are certain simplicities upon which all life is based. A man finds +that he is hungry and the knowledge enables him to go to work for the +rest of his life. A man makes the discovery (it has been a discovery to +many) that he is an Irishman, and the knowledge simplifies all his +subsequent political action. There is this comfort about being an +Irishman, you can be entirely Irish, and claim thus to be as complete +as a pebble or a star. But no Irish person can hope to be more than a +muletto Englishman, and if that be an ambition and an end it is not an +heroic one. + +But there is an Ulster difficulty, and no amount of burking it will +solve it. It is too generally conceived among Nationalists that the +attitude of Ulster towards Ireland is rooted in ignorance and bigotry. +Allow that both of these bad parts are included in the Northern outlook, +they do not explain the Ulster standpoint; and nothing can explain the +attitude of official Ireland _vis-a-vis_ with Ulster. + +What has the Irish Party ever done to allay Northern prejudice, or bring +the discontented section into line with the rest of Ireland? The answer +is pathetically complete. They have done nothing. Or, if they have done +anything, it was only that which would set every Northerner grinding his +teeth in anger. At a time when Orangeism was dying they raised and +marshalled the Hibernians, and we have the Ulsterman's answer to the +Hibernians in the situation by which we are confronted to-day. If the +Party had even a little statesmanship among them they would for the past +ten years have marched up and down the North explaining and mollifying +and courting the Black Northerner. But, like good Irishmen, they could +not tear themselves away from England, and they paraded that country +where parade was not so urgent, and they made orations there until the +mere accent of an Irishman must make Englishmen wail for very boredom. + +Some of that parade might have gladdened the eyes of the Belfast +citizens; a few of those orations might have assisted the men of Derry +to comprehend that, for the good of our common land, Home Rule and the +unity of a nation was necessary if only to rid the country of these +blatherers. + +Let the Party explain why, among their political duties, they neglected +the duty of placating Ulster in their proper persons. Why, in short, +they boycotted Ulster and permitted political and religious and racial +antagonism to grow inside of Ireland unchecked by any word from them +upon that ground. Were they afraid "nuts" would be thrown at them? +Whatever they dreaded, they gave Ulster the widest of wide berths, and +wherever else they were visible and audible, they were silent and unseen +in that part of Ireland. + +The Ulster grievance is ostensibly religious; but safeguards on this +count are so easily created and applied that this issue might almost be +left out of account. The real difficulty is economic, and it is a +tangled one. But unless profit and loss are immediately discernible the +soul of man is not easily stirred by an accountant's tale, and therefore +the religious banner has been waved for our kinsfolk of Ulster, and +under the sacred emblem they are fighting for what some people call +mammon, but which may be in truth just plain bread and butter. + + +The words Sinn Fein mean "Ourselves," and it is of ourselves I write in +this chapter. More urgent than any political emancipation is the drawing +together of men of good will in the endeavour to assist their +necessitous land. Our eyes must be withdrawn from the ends of the earth +and fixed on that which is around us and which we can touch. No +politician will talk to us of Ireland if by any trick he can avoid the +subject. His tale is still of Westminster and Chimborazo and the +Mountains of the Moon. Irishmen must begin to think for themselves and +of themselves, instead of expending energy on causes too distant to be +assisted or hindered by them. I believe that our human material is as +good as will be found in the world. No better, perhaps, but not worse. +And I believe that all but local politics are unfruitful and +soul-destroying. We have an island that is called little. It is more +than twenty times too spacious for our needs, and we will not have +explored the last of it in our children's lifetime. We have more +problems to resolve in our towns and cities than many generations of +minds will get tired of striving with. Here is the world, and all that +perplexes or delights the world is here also. Nothing is lost. Not even +brave men. They have been used. From this day the great adventure opens +for Ireland. The Volunteers are dead, and the call is now for +volunteers. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Insurrection in Dublin, by James Stephens + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN *** + +***** This file should be named 12871.txt or 12871.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/8/7/12871/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Martin Pettit and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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