The 1913 lockout, 1916 rising, the treaty of 1921 and the causes of the civil war, 1922 John Redmond became the leader of the Home rule party when the English election was a draw
The 1913 lockout, 1916 rising, the treaty of 1921 and the causes of the civil war, 1922
John Redmond became the leader of the Home rule party when the English election was a draw. Neither the conservatives nor liberals got a majority. Redmond and the home rule party now held the balance of power. The leader of the liberals, Asquith, promised Redmond in 1910 that Ireland would have home rule by 1914. Redmond accepted. The unionists refused to accept and decided to fight against it.
They got 2 great leaders, Edward Carson and James Craig. They monster demonstrations they had were the only demonstration ever were 90% of their population turned out. They signed the "Ulster solemn league and covenant" in their own blood. They sent this petition to the British parliament to show they were completely against home rule and it wouldn't be accepted. The British didn't pay much attention to it so they formed the Ulster Volunteers and armed themselves with guns form Hamburg. These guns were moved to and stored in Larne, Co. Antrim. No-one made any effort to stop them as the police agreed with them. They now had a private unionist army in Northern Ireland, ready to fight.
In response to this, Eoin Mc Neill set up the Irish Volunteers in the south. They also got their guns from Hamburg. These were transported to Howth. Women took them from there, up their dresses, past the British checkpoints.
There were now 2 private armies in Ireland and looking at civil war. The British didn't know what to do but they got lucky and didn't have to anything. World War 1 started and home rule was postponed. The Ulster and Irish Volunteers joined the British army to fight the Germans. Both joined as the Irish Volunteers wanted home rule and Ulster Volunteers wanted it to be forgotten about.
Out of the 200,000 Irish Volunteers that joined the British army, 60,000 died. Not all of the Irish Volunteers joined the British army. The 11,000 that refused became known as the Sinn Fèin volunteers. The 1916 rebellion came from this group. Eoin Mc Neill was the leader but he didn't want to start a rebellion. But the I.R.B. secretly had members in these volunteers and another secret group called "Cabal" had members in the I.R.B. It was this group who organised the 1916 rising without telling anyone. Cabal was made up of Sean Mc Dermott and Tom Clarke. They recruited 5 more members; Padraig Pearse, James Connolly, Tom Mc Donagh, Eamon Ceannt and James Plunkett. These were the seven organisers and leaders of the rebellion.
Padraig Pearse was a school teacher, poet, writer and Catholic. He set up his own school in Rathfarnham. He put forward the "Blood sacrifice theory". He got this theory from his 2 heroes; Jesus Christ and Cù Chulainn who both died for their causes. The theory was that you are to die for your cause, that victory wasn't important but you must spill your blood on Irish soil to disinfect it from the British. He believed that your blood would cleanse your country from the English.
Another of the recruited leaders, James Connolly, was Scottish. He was self educated and had joined the British army were he was transferred to Ireland. He was horrified at the poverty of the Irish due to the English rule. He was a Marxist atheist. He set up his own army called the Irish Citizen army during the 1913 lockout.
James Larkin set up the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (I.T.G.W.U.) which is now known as S.I.P.T.U. He used strike as a weapon to get better terms for employees. He took on the employers with success. William ...
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Another of the recruited leaders, James Connolly, was Scottish. He was self educated and had joined the British army were he was transferred to Ireland. He was horrified at the poverty of the Irish due to the English rule. He was a Marxist atheist. He set up his own army called the Irish Citizen army during the 1913 lockout.
James Larkin set up the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (I.T.G.W.U.) which is now known as S.I.P.T.U. He used strike as a weapon to get better terms for employees. He took on the employers with success. William Martin Murphy led the employers against the trade union. The employers locked their employees out from work and literally starved they back to work. When they protested outside their workplaces the police charged on the employees with batons. James Connolly set up the Irish Citizen Army to protect the workers from these baton charges. Eventually the employers won and the employees returned to work.
The leaders set about planning for the rebellion. They sent Roger Casement to Germany to get guns and get German soldiers to help with the rebellion. The Germans agreed to send arms but not soldiers. At this time Eoin Mc Neill was still against having a rebellion but was heard saying that if the Irish Volunteers were going to be arrested afterwards he would sanction the rebellion. A letter was forged on Dublin castle paper called "The castle Document". This said that Mc Neill and Irish Volunteers officers would be arrested and that the Archbishop of Dublin would be too. Mc Neill believed it and gave the orders to rebel. While this was happening a German boat called "The Aud" arrived off the Old Head of Kinsale with Captain Spindler in charge. But the volunteers who drove down from Dublin didn't know the area very well and ended up driving straight into the harbour as they couldn't see threw thick fog. They drowned which meant that no-one was going to meet Spindler to get the arms. Spindler had to sink the boat as a British gun boat came. All Germans on board were arrested and all the guns ended up on the sea bed with the boat. Shortly afterwards Roger Casement arrived off the Kerry coast in a German submarine. He landed on Bannast Strand. He couldn't find a road and eventually was arrested. Also, soon afterwards, Mc Neill realised that the letter was a fake and pulled his troops out of the rebellion. The rebellion plans were now in ruins.
Even though they had very little arms and were completely out-numbered the rebellion went ahead on Easter Monday, 24th of April, 1916. There was no hop of success. It was confined to Dublin. They marched from Liberty Hall to the G.P.O. on O'Connell St. On their way to the G.P.O. Connolly remarked: "We are going out to be slaughtered". The volunteers took the G.P.O. and read the proclamation on the steps outside while they barricaded themselves in and closed off the streets around the G.P.O. Eamon De Valera was in command at Boland's Mill. His snipers pinned down 500 British troops. Countess Markevich was in charge of Irish Volunteers at Stephen's Green. The Irish Citizen Army went to Dublin Castle were they were confronted by an R.I.C. man called Connolly. They shot him dead. They ran into the civic offices instead of Dublin Castle. The British sent "lancers" to O'Connell St. to sort out the rebels. The rebels killed 4 before they retreated. The British then brought troops from the Curragh camp and from Britain. They also sent a gunboat called "helga" up the River Liffey. It attacked and blew O'Connell St. to bits. The rebels then retreated to Moore St. and surrendered. This was a complete military disaster for the Irish. There were 450 killed, 2,600 wounded and 1,840 Irish rebels sent to prison camps in Britain. General Maxwell and General Lowe were in charge of the British troops. After the rebellion was over the British left both of them in charge and were warned not to do anything else, that the rebellion was over and they should just leave it at that. They decided to execute the 15 leaders of the rebellion in Killmaonon Gaol, 2 by 2. Between the 3rd and the 12th of May, 1916, 15 rebel leaders were executed. The British even executed James Connolly and James Plunkett who were already dying.
The Irish public were outraged by the executions and started to support the rebels. Their books and poems became bestsellers and posters of them sold out. A British military victory had become a rebel's political victory. The Irish people now wanted a 32 county Irish Republic. They wanted complete freedom from British rule.
Arthur Griffith set up Sinn Fèin. Although they didn't take part in the rebellion, Griffith was arrested and jailed and Sinn Fèin was blamed for the rebellion. Eamon De Valera took part in the 1916 rebellion but his life was spared because he was an American citizen was in a prison camp in Britain. Michael Collins who fought in the G.P.O. was also in one of these camps. Lloyd George became the prime minister of Britain and was known as the "Welsh wizard". He released all Irish prisoners saying that he would deal with them at a later stage. De Valera returned home as the only commander to survive the 1916 rebellion. He won the Clare election in 1917 and became the new leader of Sinn Fèin and the Irish volunteers. He was in charge of the political and the military wings of both. With this there the two were united which was very unusual.
In early 1918 the British were seriously short on troops for the western front. The Germans had begun a bombardment 40 miles wide on France. British troops were out numbered by 4 to 1 in most places. To solve this problem the British decided to enforce conscription in Ireland. Because there were already large numbers of Irish men in the British army, who joined willingly, there was a backlash. Despite opposition from all Irish parties it was voted through at Westminster. In protest all Irish parties walked out and returned home to make plans against conscription.
On the 18th of April 1918 the Lord Mayor of Dublin called a meeting with all Irish parties in the Mansion House. They decided on a 9 man anti-conscription committee; Griffith, De Valera, Devlin, W. O'Brien, Egan, Healy, Johnson, WX O'Brien and Dillon. On the same day the catholic bishops were holding their annual meeting at Maynooth. They met the anti-conscription committee and both decided on a pledge that was to be taken by everyone at the church door the next Sunday; "Denying the right of the British government to enforce compulsory service in this country, we pledge ourselves solemnly to one another to resist conscription by the most effective means at our disposal".
After this the Labour party made its own plans to help the anti-conscription movement. They called a nation-wide general strike on the 23rd of April 1918. This was described as "complete and entire, an unprecedented event outside the continental countries. Also anti-conscription rallies were held nation-wide in the following weeks. In one rally in Roscommon, 15,000 people attended a rally where the stage was shared by Eamon De Valera of Sinn Fèin and John Dillon of the Irish Parliamentary party. This showed unusual united ness between the 2 parties who had very different views on the best way to get freedom from Britain. The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Lawrence O'Neill wrote a letter to the American president, Woodrow Wilson, calling for support against conscription.
Lloyd George and his government were starting to get worried of the growing support for the anti-conscription movement. They saw Sinn Fèin as the main piece in this movement and moved to stop them. The viceroy Lord French claimed he had evidence of a plot between Sinn Fèin and the Germans against Britain and in 1 night in May Dublin Castle authorities arrested 73 Sinn Fèin members, including De Valera and Griffith. This "plot against Britain" was little believed in Britain, Ireland or the U.S.A. and just improved support for Sinn Fèin. At the same time the "Hay plan", thought of by Stuart Hay a British army caption, was put into place. This relied on the catholic bishops in Ireland not wanting German occupation of catholic countries like France and Belgium. The plan was for letter that was written by Hay to be sent by the French Primate to the Irish catholic bishops asking them to encourage Irish men to join the French army and help the war effort. Despite progress on this plan it was abandoned due to political rivalries. Eventually conscription itself was abandoned in November of that year, the same month the war ended.
The delay in granting home rule to Ireland because of the war and then the British trying to enforce conscription in Ireland support for Sinn Fèin increased. This led to them having a landslide victory in the next election, the elimination of the Irish parliamentary party, the formation of the first Dàil Eireann and the start of the war of independence in 1919.
During the war of independence the Irish used guerrilla warfare. These were hit and run tactics devised by Michael Collins. He had his own, 12 private assassins. These were known as the "12 apostles" or the "squad".
920 was known as "the year of blood". The I.R.A, the official Irish army, ruled. The politicians couldn't control them or Michael Collins. Liam Lynch, Liam Melones, Tom Barry and Sean Tracey were the I.R.A leaders. Terence Mc Swinney, the lord mayor of Cork, died on a hunger strike after 73 days and 17 year old Kevin Barry was hanged.
Sunday, 21st Nov., 1920 was "Bloody Sunday". Collins sent his apostles after 12 British agents and killed 11. In retaliation the "black and tans" burnt down Cork city and opened fire on the crowd and players in Croke Park. Eventually a truce was called and the British prime minister invited de Valera to London to enter talks on the future of Ireland.
Irish sent a team to the treaty talks, headed by Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith. There was some confusion as they were called the plenipotentiaries which meant they had full power to negotiate and sign a treaty on the behalf of Ireland but De Valera instructed them not to sign anything without permission from the government in Dublin. Lloyd George offered:
. Irish free state which meant there was no republic, remain part of the British Empire and the king of England would remain the king of Ireland.
2. Had to take an oath of allegiance to the king.
3. You can deal with domestic affairs yourself (army, passports, currency etc.)
4. Your own parliament in Dublin.
5. Boundary commission would be set up to examine boarder with view to getting rid of it
6. English wanted to keep some ports: Bearstown, Cobh, and Lough Swilley.
The treaty was signed in London and brought back to Dublin for ratification. The politicians and the army were divided. De Valera especially was angry. The I.R.A took sides. The Dail met on Dec. 14th, 1921 and had a bitter debate. Arguments for the treaty were that there would be peace, a withdrawal of British troops and limited freedom to get full freedom. Collins described it as a "stepping stone" to a full republic. The arguments against the treaty were that we weren't free, still part of British Empire, had to take an oath of allegiance and that we already had a republic but a free state was brought back.
On the 7th of Jan., 1922 the Dail voted on the treaty. 64 TD's voted for and 57 against, a majority of 7 in favour of the treaty. But the I.R.A opposed to the treaty and in April, 1922 they seized the 4 courts in Dublin. In June, 1922 the people of Ireland voted for the treaty but the I.R.A still refused to listen and the Irish civil war began. Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins were both killed during this war. Collins was shot dead in Beal Na Blath and Griffith died from a brain haemorrhage because of stress.
