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Ireland 1916 - The Easter Rebellion
England was fighting a war on the European Continent. Home rule had been offered the Irish but it had been postponed, like a post dated check. The Irish Republican Rebels had been preparing for an armed insurrection for some time. The time was ripe for a rising. Arms were being smuggled into Ireland in small shipments such as at Howth Harbor. On July 26th, 1914, a column of Dublin Volunteers numbering nearly a thousand, marched from Dublin North toward Howth. When the column reached the narrow isthmus which links Howth to the mainland across the sunny green waters, the small island of Ireland's Eye could be seen. A small yacht had passed the island and was nearing the mouth of the harbor. As the yacht approached an order was given to form a double line down the pier. Small contingents of picked men appeared and guarded the foot of the pier with automatic pistols. Coast guards ventured to interfere and found themselves staring into the muzzles of lethal weapons. Policemen went to their barracks to telephone Dublin and found the wires had been cut and that Howth was isolated. Suddenly straw-bound objects were being handed up from the boat to those Volunteers who held the pierhead. Straw was torn away and the Irish Volunteers first rifles appeared. In a few minutes every Volunteer held a heavy rifle in his hands. Boxes of ammunition were loaded into motorcars and spirited away. The Volunteers marched back to the City, their rifles on their shoulders. Word was carried ahead by a police motorcar it was assumed. Bodies of police marched behind them. After 9 miles of marching they approached Clontarf where a Volunteer cycle scouts rode back to the column from the direction of Dublin with word that a detachment of of British soldiers blocked the way into Dublin. A police official demanded a surrender of their arms. A discussion ensued between the police and Volunteer officers as it was believed the police official was acting beyond the scope of his power. The discussion between the two parties was prolonged while the Volunteers quietly dispersed and escaped across fields to safe hiding places for their guns. The ammunition had been held back by the Volunteer leaders and a bloody episode with huge casualties had been avoided. Though the armed men thus got away with their weapons without incident, the day was not to end peacefully. The British soldiers marched back toward their barracks. A mob that had gathered along the route that resented the an attempt to disarm Nationalists while those who opposed Irish independence were encouraged to arm, hollered at the soldiers. The soldiers fired two volleys into the crowd. Four were killed in cold blood and fifty were wounded. This tragic incident shocked the whole country. Prime Minister Asquith tried to gloss over the shooting of civilians, which infuriated the nation. Hundreds of thousands attended the victims' funeral. Volunteers kept order and fired a military salute over the graves. Revolution was now in the air. John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary party who fought for home rule in Parliament, promised the British Irish aid in the Great War and declared that Irish Volunteers' duty was to enlist en masse under England's flag. The founders of the Volunteer organization revolted and the movement was split. The original Volunteers were a minority, but they were determined. As Irish nationality received one rebuff after another, and coercion was used against Irishmen, there was an increasing body of discontentment passing over to the "extreme camp." On St. Patrick's Day of 1916 a huge demonstration took place with a great number of Volunteers paraded in College Green before the old Parliament House. As they saluted Eoin MacNeil, their leader, no one doubted that armed conflict against the forces of the Crown was quite possible.
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