Whatever lingering misgivings the Clan leaders had about the intervention of Redmond and his followers into the Volunteer organisation, in the end they continued to support it. Casement travelled along the eastern seaboard and as far west as Chicago, meeting Irish leaders and speaking to Irish groups, even meeting Theodore Roosevelt. He was a particularly effective publicist for the Volunteers. Devoy recorded that $50,000 was raised specifically for the Volunteers by the Clan and that roughly another $50,000 was sent to the IRB in the years before the 1916 Rising.24
Many of the anxieties that people had about the Volunteers were overshadowed by the momentous events that occurred at the end of July and early August of 1914. First of all, 1,500 rifles and ammunition that had been purchased in Germany were run into Howth harbour by Erskine Childers on 26 July and Kilcoole, in Co. Wicklow, by Conor O’Brien several days later. These were organised by Casement’s circle of friends in Dublin and London, although the £1,000 sent in June helped to finance the purchase. The gun-running had an electrifying effect among the Irish in the United States, and as Bulmer Hobson wrote in his history of the Volunteers, the organisation never again lacked funds. Casement quoted Devoy as saying that the gun-running was ‘the greatest deed done in Ireland in 100 years’.25 Secondly, the attempt by the police and British army troops to seize the weapons as the Volunteers marched back into Dublin and the subsequent shooting by the soldiers at jeering crowds on Batchelor’s Walk in Dublin seemed to many to signal the beginning of hostilities in Ireland over home rule and Ulster’s separation. Even the New York Times came to this conclusion and ran the headline: ‘British troops shed first blood in Ulster war’.26 Finally, these dramatic events were themselves overshadowed by the outbreak of the Great War on 3 and 4 August 1914. The war, of course, created a whole new set of circumstances.
Quite apart from the matter of Redmond’s control of the Irish Volunteers, which preoccupied the leaders of Clan na Gael in the United States, was the growing discussion about Ulster’s exclusion from home rule for an undefined period of time. These talks, and Redmond’s agreement, caused growing alarm among the supporters of the Irish party in the United States. While many non Irish-Americans saw nothing untoward in this proposition, it was anathema to the Irish-American community. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge wrote to a friend that he had always supported home rule for Ireland, but he saw nothing wrong with home rule for Ulster, using as an example the determination of Maine to separate from Massachusetts in the early nineteenth century. ‘If you are going to have home rule and local self-government it must be applied fairly to all,’ he concluded.27 But W. Bourke Cockran, a congressman from New York and a moderate nationalist and long-time supporter of the Irish party, wrote in March of 1914, following a protest meeting at Carnegie Hall, that ‘Irishmen here have been shocked beyond expression to learn that partition of the Island has become not merely a proposal that might be considered, but a proposal that has been actually accepted.’ In a statement that was incredibly prescient Cockran concluded that if ‘a revolt [against Redmond] were started in Ireland, I think the Irish in America would support it to a man’.28
The signing of the home rule bill into law by the king on 18 September, with the provision that implementation be suspended until the end of the war, met with a mixed response in the United States. Many now accepted home rule as an accomplished fact, but not all. Redmond’s public statement just two days later, at Woodenbridge, Co. Wicklow, urging the Volunteers to join the British army, together with his speech in support of Britain in the war on 3 August, had the powerful effect of alienating large numbers of the Irish in America who had not aligned themselves with the Clan. In Ireland his appeal led to the separation of the original Irish Volunteers from Redmond’s National Volunteers. In the United States, the leading home rule newspaper, the Irish World , came out in opposition to him, and Michael J. Ryan, president of the United Irish League of America (who had a German-American wife) was also opposed.29 With the national leadership divided, the activities of the UIL were virtually suspended, and even the maintenance of a national office was in doubt. Redmond sent Alderman Daniel Boyle MP on a tour of the United States in 1915, but without much success. Early in the following year Boyle made another trip to raise money for a new publication, a monthly called Ireland , to be edited by J.C. Walsh and Shane Leslie. But even with lead articles by distinguished figures such as Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore, the publication failed to find a readership or rally much support.30 The passage and suspension of home rule for a divided Ireland, the urging of enlistment in British forces, the split in the Volunteer movement, and the reality of a major war between Britain and Germany placed in doubt the continued loyalty of many Irish-Americans to Redmond.
The outbreak of the Great War profoundly changed the direction of events for the Clan leadership in the United States and for Sir Roger Casement as well. When war was declared, Casement told Joseph McGarrity: ‘Perhaps Ireland’s chance has come.’31 Irish-Americans had worked together with German-Americans in years past to obstruct efforts to improve Anglo-American relations, so it was to be expected that as soon as war broke out they would again show solidarity. In large public meetings in New York, Newark, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Chicago and St Louis, Britain’s role in the war was condemned and John Redmond criticised for encouraging Irish involvement. As early as 9 August as many as 10,000 Irish-Americans gathered at Celtic Park in New York to denounce Redmond and home rule and to cheer the Kaiser. Prominent Irish leaders, such as John Devoy, Jeremiah A. O’Leary, and Shaemus O’Sheel, were conspicuous at these events and at German-American rallies as well.32
Devoy also arranged for a meeting between Casement and Georg von Skal, a journalist who worked as a propagandist for the German embassy. The same day the German military attaché, Franz von Papen, reported to the Foreign Office on the Celtic Park rally, saying that he had met Casement, from whom he learned that the Irish were ‘ready to free themselves’ if supported by Germany and supplied with arms for 50,000.33 Casement drafted a long letter for the Irish-American community to the Kaiser on 25 August in which he outlined Irish-American support for Germany in the war, pointed out that while Britain held Ireland, Britain was able to maintain mastery of the seas, and petitioned that when Germany won the war the Kaiser would ‘impose a lasting peace upon the seas by effecting the independence of Ireland and securing its recognition’. This was signed by the Clan executive, Devoy’s name first, and sent to Germany through the embassy. There appear to have been several meetings with Ambassador Count Johann Heinrich von Bernsdorff, Captain von Papen, assistant attaché Wolf von Igel, von Skal, and other members of the embassy. On the basis of these contacts von Bernsdorff advised the Foreign Office on 27 September that if the war were expected to be a prolonged one, he recommended Germany’s ‘falling in with Irish wishes, provided that there are really Irishmen who are prepared to help’.34 On 10 October Devoy, McGarrity, Judge Cohalan and Casement met with Ambassador von Bernsdorff, Captain von Papen, and Dr Bernhard Dernburg for an hour and a half at the German Club in New York. The ambassador was told that the war presented an opportunity for Ireland ‘to overthrow English rule in Ireland and set up an independent government’, that both weapons and officers were needed, but not money. Von Bernsdorff reported to the Foreign Office that it was being urged upon him that the German government make a statement in favour of Irish independence and that Casement be permitted to travel to Germany.35
Casement’s original trip to the United States did not encompass any mission in Germany. The precise origins are unclear. Joseph McGarrity sent Tom Clarke an undated letter, probably in August 1914, in which, in guarded language, he wrote: ‘A friend whom you trust will be soon on his way to Germany,’ which would seem to refer to Casement. William Irwin Thompson has argued that the German philologist, Kuno Meyer, in the United States in the autumn of 1914, suggested that an Irish brigade be formed by Irish prisoners of war from the British army, and Ambassador von Bernsdorf
f mentioned such a possibility in a dispatch to his Foreign Office on 27 September.36 In any case, Casement was talking about a mission to Germany in letters to McGarrity on 23 September and the commitment was made at a meeting with Devoy, McGarrity, and Judge Cohalan on 5 October. The Clan, which had already been looking after Casement’s expenses in the United States, provided $3,000 to get him started. Von Bernsdorff provided a letter of introduction to the imperial Chancellor, Theobald von Bethman Hollweg, and the Austrian consulate in New York booked the tickets to Norway on the Oscar II . Casement shaved his beard to become less recognisable and travelled with the passport of an Irish-American businessman, James E. Landy. Devoy and Judge Cohalan had some doubts about Casement’s ability to carry out this enterprise, but McGarrity said: ‘I will trust him with my life.’37 Casement sailed on 15 October and arrived in Germany on the 31st. British attempts to intercept him in Christiania (Oslo), Norway, failed, and he was escorted from Norway to Germany by Richard Meyer of the German Foreign Office. Once in Germany, Casement had several objectives: to obtain a statement of German commitment to Irish independence; to enlist German support for an insurrection in Ireland; to publicise the Irish cause in Germany; and to create an Irish brigade from among the Irish prisoners of war. He was successful in obtaining a statement supporting Irish independence; had mixed results, at least to his own satisfaction, in enlisting support for and publicising the Irish cause; and was very discouraged with his attempts to organise an Irish brigade.38
The IRB also saw the outbreak of war as an opportunity to exploit Britain’s difficulty. Bulmer Hobson later recounted: ‘In the autumn of 1914, under the influence of [Seán] MacDermott, the Supreme Council of the IRB decided they would embark on an insurrection against the British government before the European war came to an end.’39 Although there were some objections, MacDermott and Tom Clarke were delegated to pursue the matter, which they did without much further consultation with the rest of the Supreme Council. They did work with a similarly small group from within the General Council of the Irish Volunteers, thus secretly committing that organisation to a rebellion also. All of this needed money, and the Clan and the Irish-American community began sending funds to both the IRB and the Volunteers. In September and November £2,000 was sent to the IRB when Thomas Ashe and Diarmuid Lynch returned to Ireland.40 It was recognised that when the Irish Volunteers and the National Volunteers split in the autumn of 1914 a good portion of the money was seized by Redmond’s forces. Funds had to be sent to the Irish Volunteers right away. The Cohalan papers show that $10,000 was withdrawn from the Irving National Bank on 20 October by the treasurer of the Irish National Volunteer Fund (and also taken to Ireland by Lynch), followed by another $15,000 on 12 November (taken to Ireland by John Kenney). More monies followed and in 1915 the Clan created an ‘arms fund’ to raise new money. Much of this was couriered to Ireland by an IRB messenger, Tommy O’Connor, who worked on a White Star passenger liner making regular transatlantic crossings.41 The Clan also continued to subsidise Casement in Germany, although not the expenses of the Irish brigade. Funds for Casement were sent through the German embassy and by couriers, such as John Kenney, Seán T. O’Kelly, Joseph Mary Plunkett, Plunkett’s sister Philomena, and the Philadelphia lawyer, Michael Francis Doyle.42 Indeed, as plans for the Rising developed, quite apart from providing funds, Devoy, McGarrity, and Judge Cohalan became the main link between the IRB in Ireland and the German embassy and government.
It is fair to say that the Irish-American community was not unanimous in their support for Germany in the war. This should not be surprising; even people who did not favour the Allies and did not want the United States involved in the war found German objectives and practices to be deplorable. However, there was a significant portion of the Irish-American community who consistently saw all British actions as ruthless and selfish and regarded Germany as a possible saviour of Irish fortunes. In the aftermath of the sinking of the Lusitania , a turning point in the war, a large public meeting was held on 24 June 1915 in Madison Square Garden in New York. An enormous crowd of 75,000 people, largely Irish-Americans and German-Americans, came to hear the key speaker, William Jennings Bryan, President Wilson’s former secretary of state, who had just resigned over the strength of Wilson’s Lusitania note to the Germans. Georg von Skal chaired the meeting and Devoy and Jeremiah O’Leary were among the speakers. O’Leary, who ran the American Truth Society and published an anti-British journal called Bull , became so outspoken in his criticism of Britain and the United States, as it edged closer to war in 1916 and 1917, that he was eventually tried for treason.43 Devoy, although he was regarded as a ‘confidential agent’ by the German embassy and his newspaper was barred from the mails when the United States entered the war, managed to avoid treason charges. James K. McGuire, the former mayor of Syracuse, New York, fully embraced an Irish-German alliance and wrote two books promoting the idea: The King, the Kaiser and Irish freedom in 1915, and What could Germany do for Ireland ? in 1916. Years later all of these people would be accused of being in the employ of the German embassy.44
There were Irish-Americans employed by the German embassy, largely to sabotage the sale and shipment of munitions to the Allies in the war. Captains von Papen, von Igel, and Karl Boy-Ed hired Irish-American dock workers on both coasts to go on strike in order to slow down and disrupt the shipments, and to place incendiary devices on munitions ships to disable or sink them at sea. To expand this programme Captain Franz Rintelen von Kleist, of German naval intelligence, was sent to the United States in 1915, rather separate from the embassy. Because of his prestige and his good relationship with Devoy and other Clan leaders, James Larkin was actively recruited to serve as an intermediary between the Germans and the workers. Larkin had numerous meetings with the Germans, to the extent of being shown explosive facilities in Hoboken, New Jersey, and seems to have taken their money from time to time, but refused to become an active participant in their sabotage.45 These activities linked the Irish and the Germans in the public mind in the United States and also served to demonstrate to the Germans the reliable anti-British sentiment of the Irish. These activities also came to the attention of the American government. On 18 April 1916, in an effort to stop the sabotage in the munitions industry, secret service agents raided the offices of Captain von Igel in New York. When the files and paper in the office were seized, much of the correspondence between Devoy and Judge Cohalan and the German embassy fell into the hands of the American government. There was immediate alarm that information about the Rising and its date would become public knowledge, or at least be conveyed to the British. Devoy, however, sent a reassuring note to McGarrity in a thinly disguised code:
I know you will be anxious after hearing of the fire in the house to learn if we all came off safe. I am glad to be able to inform you that all the papers relating to the property were saved except one little scrap, and that will not be much of a loss. The sale will come off on time and everything looks all right. We were very anxious for the whole day, but when the firemen got through with their work of salvage we found we had no cause for worry.46
Nine days later, and six days after the Rising, the British asked the State Department for any relevant information but were turned down by Secretary of State Robert Lansing.47 Devoy, who despised the Wilson administration, publicly maintained that the Rising had been betrayed by the United States government. In fact, British intelligence had by this time broken the German code and was reading German transatlantic messages and had most of the material the American government had seized.
As the war unfolded there was a growing feeling among the Clan leaders that something had to be done to shape public opinion within the Irish-American community. By the autumn of 1915 Devoy became the centre of a discussion about the need for a national meeting to create a platform for opponents of Redmond and the current home rule measures. In December the idea of an Irish race convention was settled and on 15 January 1916 invitations were sent to Clan members; o
n 9 February the ‘call’ went out to the Irish-American community for a meeting in New York on 4 and 5 March.48 The invitations were sent to Irish-American organisations all over the United States to send delegates. Well over 2,000 people attended, making it the largest Irish-American meeting ever held, and it was a perfect venue for strong speeches in favour of Irish self-government. The most important accomplishment of the Race Convention was the creation of a new public organisation, the Friends of Irish Freedom (FOIF). The president was Victor Herbert, famous composer and grandson of Samuel Lover; the treasurer was Thomas Hughes Kelly; and the secretary was John D. Moore – all blue ribbon figures, although the Executive Committee was dominated by Clan members. One of the first acts of the Friends was to create a bureau in Stockholm, Sweden, staffed by the former US diplomat, T. St John Gaffney, who was to serve as a link to Germany. The FOIF drew thousands of people across the United States, particularly from the moribund UIL, and specific provisions were made for associate membership for existing local Irish-American societies.49 Of course no mention was made of the coming Rising in Ireland, although in retrospect it is clear that the organisation was intending to provide American support for the Rising and the subsequent Irish struggle. Indeed, the FOIF became the most important Irish-American nationalist organisation in the country over the next five years.
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