In 1858, a secret society, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, better known as the Fenians, was founded by James Stephens. The Brotherhood was a militant organization which inherited the ideas of John Mitchell, an earlier patriot-convict. He had asserted that the physical force argument was the only one to which England had ever listened in her relations with Ireland. Any alleviations of the miseries of the Irish under English rule had come only after violence or preparation for violence. The Fenians, further, shared his view that unless a people from time to time asserted its right to freedom by force of arms it surrendered its claim to be a nation.
The existence of the Irish Republican Brotherhood was in due course discovered by the police (the Royal Irish Constabulary, who were trained to act as political detectives), and Stephens and most of the Executive Council, including the writer and patriot, O’Donovan Rossa, were arrested and sentenced to long terms of penal servitude.
The Fenian policy was embodied in the phrase ‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity’. The organization survived the arrests of 1865 and was kept in being secretly all through the era of the Irish Parliamentary Party. It was part of its policy that there should be at all times at least a few men who would be prepared to strike a blow for Irish independence whenever a suitable opportunity arose.
In the United States there was a branch of the Brotherhood. It was known there as the Clan-na-Gael. Its leader was John Devoy, who had been arrested with the other Fenians, and who had emigrated to America after serving a long sentence in an English penal prison. Through John Devoy, the Clan-na-Gael was in close touch with the parent organization at home and kept it supplied with funds for every kind of genuine patriotic purpose.
In Ireland the Brotherhood was strengthened by the release in 1909 of another Fenian, an old comrade of Devoy’s – Tom Clarke. Clarke had spent twenty years in penal servitude in England, and, on his release, he took a small tobacconist’s shop in Parnell Street, Dublin. There he administered the oath of the Brotherhood to a number of ardent young men who found no inspiration in the policy of the parliamentarians.
Besides this secret militant organization there was another with similar aims – the liberation of Ireland from the domination of England – but which looked to other methods to achieve them. This was the Sinn Féin organization founded by Arthur Griffith. In his weekly paper, The United Irishman (afterwards Nationality), Griffith wrote that Ireland could only be freed by the determined action of Irishmen themselves. He pointed to the example of Hungary and the means by which it was liberated from the grip of Austria. He preached passive resistance to English rule and an active social constructive policy in Ireland, by which the people should gradually take their political affairs into their own hands and squeeze out the British administration. Griffith was not opposed to the use of physical force (when it found its place afterwards in defending Dáil Éireann and in resisting the campaign of the Black and Tans, he supported every action of the Irish Republican Army), but he saw no hope of his people ever being strong enough to free their country by a military victory.
The men who formed these two organizations were in numbers insignificant, but in brain and character they were by no means so. Tom Clarke was a man of burning patriotic faith and unquenchable courage, and his private influence was enormous. He was looked up to by the men who gathered round him as the bearer of the traditional torch of Irish freedom out of the heroic days of the past. Amongst others, he inspired a young man of great charm of personality – Seán MacDermott, who, though in delicate health, tramped through the country towns and villages, enrolling small groups of young patriots into the Brotherhood.
Arthur Griffith’s powerful mind and indomitable character were also bound to draw to him men of force and sincerity. Devoted to his faith, he was content to preach in poverty and obscurity, confident that if the time ever came when his policy could be put into practice, Ireland would be free.
There were two other organizations, which, though non-political, fostered the spirit of patriotism and helped to produce the great national revival of later years. They were the Gaelic League and the Gaelic Athletic Association. The Gaelic League was founded to revive the national language and the Gaelic Athletic Association for the preservation of Gaelic sport. Many of the men of the Irish Republican Brotherhood were members also of one or both of these organizations, and were often recruited from them. There were also the Fianna, a Republican organization of youths recruited from the Dublin streets by Countess Markiewicz, and drilled and trained by her to act as scouts and carry despatches; and Cumann na mBan, the women’s branch of the military organization.
This was the position in Ireland when, at last, in 1914, the efforts of the Irish Parliamentary Party were so far rewarded that a Home Rule Act, authorizing the setting up of a Dublin Parliament with limited powers, was put upon the English Statute Book.
The first effect of this new situation was shown in N.E. Ulster. Encouraged by English Unionists, the Orangemen declared their hostility to the Act, and their determination to wreck it so far as Ulster was concerned. Sir Edward Carson, the Orange leader, began at once to enrol a volunteer force and to import arms from Germany.
This was a chance not to be missed by Tom Clarke and the Brotherhood. If England would not interfere with Irishmen arming themselves to prevent the operation of a British Act of Parliament, it could not interfere with Irishmen who armed themselves ostensibly to defend it. A meeting was held in the largest hall in Dublin to enrol recruits for an Irish Volunteer Army in defence of the Home Rule Act.
But to Tom Clarke and the Irish Republican Brotherhood it was the opportunity to bring their men out into the open and to drill and arm them for the next revolt. The meeting was crowded to overflowing. Thousands of young men were eager to be enrolled, and thousands more were recruited in the country. John Redmond took alarm and did the only thing left to him. He approached the Executive of the Volunteers and asked for representation upon it for his nominees. To avoid a split, this was granted, but the aims of the two sections were diametrically opposed, and this became apparent a few months later with the outbreak of the European War.
To the IRB, the Volunteers were to make ‘England’s difficulty Ireland’s opportunity’ and to fight for Ireland against England at home. Redmond’s idea was that they should be used to hold Ireland for England against a possible invasion of England’s enemies; and when, without consulting the Executive Council, he pledged them for this purpose in the British House of Commons, and, from recruiting platforms in Ireland, appealed for recruits for the British Army in Flanders, cohesion was no longer possible. The Volunteers broke up into two sections – the Irish Volunteers controlled by the original Executive Council, and the National Volunteers controlled by John Redmond.
Meanwhile, the English Parliament passed a suspensory Act to prevent the Home Rule Act from coming into force, and at a meeting of the Supreme Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood held in August 1914 it was decided that the war should not be allowed to end without a rising in arms. Lord Salisbury, after the Boer War, had taunted the Irish Parliamentary Party with the fact that he had been able to withdraw every British soldier fit for active service out of Ireland. The IRB decided that a similar boast should not be made in their day. They had no illusions about what the end of the revolt would be, but they believed that in suffering the extreme penalties which would follow, they would reawaken their countrymen to faith in the old cause of Irish freedom, which was being overlaid by the conciliatory policy of the Parliamentarians.
On Easter Monday, 1916, Ireland rang with the news that the Volunteers had risen in Dublin. The Rising, during which Dublin was held for a week, was made by 687 men, including the soldiers of the Irish Citizen Army under James Connolly, a Republican Socialist.
The Rising was not only a renewal of the age-long struggle for national liberation, but was a protest against the continued British occupation while England was professedly fighting a war in Europe to free sma
ll subject nationalities from the domination of the Central Powers. The advertisement given by the European War to the principle of self-determination did much to rouse and stimulate to action many in Ireland who might not otherwise have resorted to extreme measures, and determined them to draw attention to the fact that the principle was not being applied to one of the oldest nations in Europe. Among the 687 Irishmen who left their homes on that historic Easter Monday with little hope of ever returning to them, were men of education and high position whose names were known and respected by their countrymen.
The surrender was followed by the execution of sixteen leaders, including Tom Clarke, aged seventy-four, and Seán MacDermott; sentences of death, commuted to penal servitude for life or long terms of years upon seventy-one other persons, including William Cosgrave, then Minister of Local Government and President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State since 1922, and one woman, Countess Markiewicz; and the imprisonment without trial of thousands who were suspected to have taken part or been in sympathy with the Rising, or to have been connected in any way with the Volunteers, Sinn Féin or any other patriotic organization.
While the Rising itself was unpopular, sprung as a surprise upon the country, the effect of the death sentences and imprisonments was immediate. A wave of passionate patriotism swept over the country amongst the relatives and friends of the sufferers, and all nationalist Ireland began to turn to the men, dead or imprisoned, whom they hailed as the lineal descendants of their national martyrs.
A more practical result came from the throwing together in the internment camps in England of thousands of young Irishmen. Men came together who might never have met otherwise. Hardy, stalwart Gaels from the South and the West found themselves the daily and nightly companions of the more thoughtful men of the towns and cities, who had worked out in detail their plans for the freedom and regeneration of Ireland. With their release at Christmas 1916, and during 1917, the prisoners brought home with them a new spirit of comradeship, of faith in themselves and their fellows, fresh energy, detailed plans of reorganization and supreme confidence in their power to achieve success.
They were received in Dublin, and in the towns and villages to which they returned, with scenes of wild enthusiasm and lavish welcome. The torrent of national feeling, such as had never been known before, swept away in its course the power of the Irish Parliamentary Party and the moderate counsels for which it stood.
But unlike similar situations in the past, when the patriotic fervour aroused passed away with the passing of the events which produced it, there were leaders and a policy ready by which the national emotion could be directed into channels where it could be used effectively.
Arthur Griffith was not in the Rising, but he was arrested in the general round-up which followed. On his release with the other prisoners, he was ready with his definite, constructive policy of Sinn Féin. He had been preparing for years for such a situation. He had got at last what he believed was alone wanted for the success of his policy – the support of the people.
On his release from Frongoch Internment Camp, Michael Collins, whose powers were beginning to be recognized, threw himself into the work of reorganizing the Volunteers.
By their genius, sincerity and devotion, these two men, and the other young leaders co-operating with them, seized a situation such as had never before arisen in Ireland, and used it to bring the national cause to a successful issue.
From the time of the release of the prisoners during 1916 and 1917 until the General Election at the end of the war in December 1918, Sinn Féin was busy perfecting its organization, selecting candidates, conducting by-elections and building up an election machine. The Volunteers were being drilled and new recruits enrolled for the greater struggle which was felt by all to be impending, and Michael Collins was smuggling in arms and creating and organizing a national Secret Service which was to be ready for any eventualities.
Michael Collins was the first leader Ireland ever had who recognized intelligently wherein lay England’s power to render all national movements abortive, and who had the character to stand up to it and reply to it unflinchingly. That power lay in the completeness and thoroughness of the British Secret Service in Ireland.
Throughout the country the Royal Irish Constabulary (the RIC) was not a mere police force for the protection of the civil population, such as exists in other countries. The work of this police [force] was mainly political. They were armed. Their numbers were far in excess of what was required for a country notoriously free from civil crime. A village where ordinary offences against the law were practically unknown was ‘guarded’ by three or four policemen resident in a barracks stocked with arms and ammunition. They were all engaged in secret service activities. It was an important part of their duties to know everyone, and to know the political opinions, moderate or extreme, of everyone in their district. The RIC were ‘the eyes and the ears’ of the British authorities, without which they were powerless to deal with any political situation which might arise, and without whose knowledge a British Army coming into the country was helpless.
In Dublin this part of the British machine was established more openly. There were the detectives of the political branch of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, known as ‘G Men’. It was these agents in the city, and those who were brought up from the country for the purpose, and the RIC in the country districts, who were used by the British military after the Rising to point out the men for court martial and subsequent execution or imprisonment, and without whom they could not have been identified. Michael Collins’ intelligence department was created to counteract such activities in the future.
All was prepared, and all that was needed was a clear mandate from the people. It came with the General Election of December 1918, when Sinn Féin swept the whole of Ireland, winning seventy-three seats out of the total of 105.
Arthur Griffith, elected for Cavan, was now in a position to put his policy into execution. A National Parliament, Dáil Éireann, was set up, in which the people’s representatives could assemble to carry out their election pledges. Departments of Finance, Defence, Trade and Commerce, Home Affairs, Labour, and Propaganda were established. Ministers were appointed. The Volunteers became automatically the defence force of the new government and were known henceforth as the Irish Republican Army, or the IRA.
The British Government declared Dáil Éireann an illegal assembly, and warrants were issued for the arrest of its Ministers and members, and of the leaders of the army. To effect this, the RIC in the country and the G men in the capital were brought into action. Their training was to come again into use. The Sinn Féin reply was obvious. The IRA set out to defend its parliament and to protect its members and the officers and soldiers of the army, and Michael Collins mobilized his new force to the counter-attack.
In January 1920 the Municipal Elections, and in June 1920 the Rural Elections, confirmed the Sinn Féin victory at the polls.
Dáil Éireann continued to meet – in secret. Its Ministers put forward their proposals, which were debated and voted upon. Their decisions were made public and approved by the people, who more and more obeyed their decrees, looked to them for good government and gave them their whole-hearted support. A National Loan of £400,000 was raised by Michael Collins, who had been made Minister of Finance. This sum was collected though the loan was declared illegal, though it was an illegal act to subscribe to it, to ask subscriptions for it, or to paste up a notice advertising it, and many suffered imprisonment for these or kindred offences. Several newspapers were suppressed for advertising the loan. All the complicated business in connection with the raising and the banking, secretly, of this large sum was done by a Minister who was already outlawed and who had to work and live in hiding.
The Ministers and members of Dáil Éireann had to lie concealed, and to meet and to do their administrative business in places only known among themselves. Yet the business was done; the departments were kept going; and when one man was tracked
down and arrested another was ready to step into his place.
British civil law disappeared and Dáil Éireann law took its place. Sinn Féin Courts were set up in Dublin and in twenty-seven counties, with judges chosen by the districts, at which justice was administered to the satisfaction of the people. They continued in spite of the fact that when the court was discovered it was raided by the police and the officials arrested. Sinn Féin Police maintained order, and arrested criminals and restored stolen property, while themselves risking arrest and death at the hands of the British armed forces. While those forces closed fairs and markets and burned down creameries, factories and stocks of food, the Sinn Féin departments of government were busy with the development of natural resources, the revival of Irish industry and commerce, and the proper cultivation of the soil.
A commission of experts was appointed to investigate and report upon the natural resources of the country and their proper utilization, and held sittings at many places, though harassed by raids of the British forces. A National Bank was established. In the congested districts of the West, where the ‘mere Irish’ had been driven by Cromwell’s soldiers ‘to hell or Connacht’, the people had struggled for centuries in a state of semi-starvation on holdings created out of the bog by their own work, surrounded by wide, untenanted grass lands. Dáil Éireann established a Land Commission and Arbitration Courts, which took steps to appease the land hunger. The courts, which Mr Lloyd George boasted he had driven into cellars, re-settled 80,000 acres and made and enforced awards which restored peace in districts which were on the verge of a serious land war.
Espionage and Assasination with Michael Collins' Intelligence Unit: With the Dublin Brigade Page 2