The man who forced Irish nationalist opinion to identify with the Easter Rebels was Sir John Maxwell. Discuss.
20/10/2006
The man who forced Irish nationalist opinion to identify with the Easter Rebels was Sir John Maxwell. Discuss.
Irish nationalism has had a long and complicated history. The modest revival of the IRB was but one symptom of a change, which was taking place in the character of Irish nationalism at the turn of the century. These romantic ideas of nationalism are clearly illustrated in the establishment of many cultural movements, such as the GAA and the Gaelic League. While movements such as these looked back to an idealised past, they also gave birth to a new distinctive ideology. The Irish began to see their country as a cultural nation, not a political one. It was this ideology which coloured the aims and motives of the 1916 leaders, and which impressed itself strongly on the minds of those who drew up the 1916 Proclamation. The leaders, alive, had few supporters. Dead, they became, and have remained, their countries heroes. One man played a huge role in this dramatic shift in Irish opinion, Sir John Maxwell.
The circumstances that lead to the rebellion of 1916 were of intense complexity. The outbreak of WWI saw the British Government postpone all immediate constitutional changes in Ireland. The beginning of hostilities in Europe were quickly followed by a decision of the Supreme Council of the IRB that preparations for a rising should be made as soon as possible and certainly before the end of the war. “England’s difficulty was to be Ireland Opportunity”. The planning of the Rising was the work of a very small minority group as early as 1914 comprising of members of the IRB and the Irish Volunteers. Hence, by 1916, a large proportion of the Volunteer leadership were devoted republicans in favour of physical force. Once James Connolly, of the Irish Citizen Army, joined with the IRB, they agreed to stage a rebellion the following Easter. However, the people were temporarily agreeable to the Home Rule solution, even if its terms left a lot to be desired. Furthermore, the farming community was doing very well out of the war. Thus the IRB had little or no support with their aims. There was no telling how the Irish population would react to a rising. The Catholic Church would certainly doom such an attempt at rebellion. As far as fighting men went, any insurrection would be suicidal. Nevertheless, the rebellion went ahead and was incredibly unpopular among the Irish. Widespread looting marked the breakdown of law and order that accompanied the events, as Dublin’s slum population ransacked the city’s shops. Ideological tensions came to the fore when an order was given to shot looters, only to be angrily countermanded by Connolly.
