Frontline volume 2, issue 1.

The Easter Rising 100 Years On

On the centenary of this great event, Bill Bonnar remembers the Easter Rising of 1916.

In November 1918, Sinn Fein won a landslide victory in the Irish general election. Ireland at that time was a British colony in all but name although could send MPs to Westminster. Winning a majority in 26 of Ireland’s 32 counties they immediately sued for independence. What followed was a British Government refusal to recognise the result, three years of armed struggle by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a secret deal between the government and unionists in six out of the eight Ulster counties, a civil war between republicans and the ultimate division of the country between the independent Free State in the South and Northern Ireland. All of these momentous events began with the Easter Rising in Dublin in April 1916. In fact, as was stated by Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, at the recent anniversary commemoration, the origin of the modern Irish state can be located in the events of 90 years ago.

Republican Traditions

Just as the Easter Rising had consequences which shaped and continue to shape Ireland today, (e.g. Bertie Ahern’s Fianna Fail party being the heir to the anti-treaty forces which lost the civil war) its origins are in the years up to and during the First World War and in the much older traditions of Irish Republicanism.

The weight, some might say burden, of that tradition was a key factor for those who took part in the Easter Rising. That tradition would have it that each and every generation had struck its own blow for Irish Independence. In 1798, the United Irishmen organisation, led by the Protestant Wolf Tone and with significant support among Ulster Protestants, staged an armed uprising which, although defeated, cemented their place among the heroes of Irish history. Their struggle is still commemorated today. Future actions by organisations like the Land Leagues and the Fenian Brotherhood provided both inspiration and a blueprint for action. Their activities centred on two ideas: that the British occupation of Ireland was immoral, illegal and only sustained by force, and that it was the duty of Irish people to resist that occupation, by force if necessary. At the same time the Irish people had been cowed into accepting British rule and needed to be awoken from their long sleep. This could be done through the courageous actions of principled men heroically battling against overwhelming odds in the name of freedom. In the words of one republican song, ‘and righteous men will make our land a nation once again’. Such actions would provoke a British reaction, exposing the true nature of its colonial rule, and light a fire under the Irish people which would not be extinguished until Ireland was free. For those who took part in the Easter Rising, those earlier struggles were both an inspiration and responsibility. It was their turn.

Another factor had a major impact on the politics around the Easter Rising. In the early part of the 20th century Ireland saw an explosion of working class struggle with few parallels in Europe. In 1913, Dublin was gripped by intense industrial action and a lockout by employers attempting to destroy the emerging Irish labour movement. This movement centred on the Irish Transport & General Workers Union led by Jim Larkin and James Connolly. This mass organisation was led by two self-proclaimed revolutionaries and developed its own military wing, the Irish Citizens Army. This speaks volumes for the level of political consciousness of significant sections of the Irish working class. Equally significant is the fact that Connolly emerged as the key leader of the uprising and that the Citizens Army fully participated in the struggle. It was an early example of the coming together of a national movement and a movement for socialism that would later find echo in such places as Vietnam and Cuba.

War and Independence

A third factor was that the uprising took place during the First World War. The war had a profound effect on both Irish nationalists and socialists. The Home Rule movement that had made promising advances prior to 1914 was a spent force. Most of its former leaders, in an attempt to persuade the Government that British interests would be safe in their hands, encouraged thousands of Irishmen to fight for Britain in the war. For many republicans it was the ultimate betrayal and proof that the constitutional route to independence was a dead end. For socialists all over Europe the war was a defining moment signalling the final descent of capitalism into barbarism. For socialists in Ireland, the fight for independence would strike a blow at the very heart of the most powerful capitalist state on the planet; the first stage in a process which would bring the whole system crashing down. It seemed a fanciful idea until taken up by the Bolsheviks less than two years later.

So who were the rebels who rose up in April 1916? They were comprised of two distinct and hitherto rival groups. The Irish Volunteer Movement was the latest in a long line of republican organisations drawing direct descendence from the United Irishmen in the late 18th century and the Fenians a century later. Numbering around 13,000 men and women under arms (although arms might be overstating their military capability) they met and drilled in secret for the day when the blow against British rule would be struck. Within the Volunteer Movement, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (forerunners of the IRA), held enormous influence and at the time of the rising were comprised of the leadership of the movement. The Volunteer Movement consisted of petty-bourgeois nationalists for whom Irish independence consisted of them forming the new ruling class within an independent capitalist republic. Their distrust of and hostility to the Citizens Army is therefore not suprising. They were a very different kettle of fish. A workers militia was developed as the self-defence wing of the Irish Transport & Workers Union. It was under the direct leadership of the Irish revolutionary leader James Connolly and a young Sean McLoughlin, later to become Secretary of the Irish Communist Party. They believed that the fight for independence was simply the first stage in the fight for socialism both in Ireland and the rest of Europe and as such were deeply suspicious of the Volunteer Movement. Famously, Connolly was reported to have said at a meeting of the Citizens Army that, when the rising was over, their soldiers should hang on to their weapons for the real fight to come. No doubt similar discussions were taking place in Volunteer Movement.

The Rising

In January 1916 both these forces came together and agreed on military action to take place that Easter. The plan was to seize and fortify a number of strategic points in Dublin which would hold back the British forces while a provisional government would be formed in the city centre. With risings planned in a number of other towns it was thought that if they could hold out long enough it would spark an uprising throughout the country. Under the premise that ‘our enemy’s enemy is our friend’ support was attained from Germany in the form of a promise to deliver 20,000 rifles. These would arrive in Kerry on Easter Friday. A secret military committee was formed although crucially it did not include key leaders of the Volunteer Movement such as Chief of Staff Eoin McNeill. He was only told on the Thursday and left with no choice but to go to along with it. It was at this point that things began to fall apart. The Aud, the German ship delivering the weapons, was scuttled by its crew after a failure to land in Kerry. This gave McNeill the excuse to call off the rising by cancelling a general mobilisation of volunteers planned for Easter Sunday.

In response the secret military committee decided to go ahead with the rising anyway on Easter Monday. Their decision to proceed has long been a subject of debate. Always a risky venture at the best of times, they were now looking at a much smaller military action that would certainly be defeated and probably lead to the deaths of most who would take part. Yet there appears to have been no hesitation by those leading the proposed action that adopted a no turning back approach irrespective of the consequences. They would fulfil their historic responsibility by being the next generation to strike that blow for freedom.

The decision to go ahead was spread by word of mouth, although the calling off of the general mobilisation by Eoin O’Neill, severely limited the numbers of those taking part. Although most of the Citizens Army in Dublin turned up- around 300- only 1300 Irish Volunteers took part. Despite this the rebels continued with their strategy hoping that if they could hold out long enough others would rally to their side. The GPO in Dublin was seized and a provisional Government established under James Connelly’s military command. The Irish Republic was proclaimed in the form of a notice nailed to the front door of the post office by Padraig Pearse. This declared the ownership of Ireland on behalf of the Irish people and equality for all Irish citizens. It went on, ‘In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old traditions of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to the flag.’

Several other republican positions were set up around the city. Fighting began immediately and was exceptionally fierce continuing through Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, British tactics changed and they began a relentless bombardment of the city centre with scant regard for property or lives. By this time they had realised the seriousness of the rebellion. On Thursday, Connolly was seriously wounded and by Friday the rebellion was all but over. The centre of Dublin was completely destroyed by the British bombardment. Around 350 rebels remained with many wanting to fight on until the end but a decision was taken by Pearse to surrender on the Saturday. The British Army suffered 106 casualties while most of the rebels were either killed or captured. Evidence has it that the initial response from many Dubliners was to blame the rebels for the carnage, a position reinforced by Dublin newspapers, British propaganda and the respectable Home Rulers. This quickly changed to outrage when the remaining living leaders of the rising were sentenced by British Military tribunals to summary execution. In particular, the strapping of the badly wounded James Connolly to a chair so he could be shot caused particular anger. In all 15 leaders were shot while other participants were dispatched to British jails where they suffered the harshest of prison conditions. Perhaps worst were those participants who had deserted from the British Army. They were sent back to the Front where few survived.

Repression

The sense of outrage quickly became more general as a wave of repression swept through Ireland; a forerunner of what was to come under the Black and Tans. Those who took part in the rising, especially the leaders, became heroes in the eyes of many. An inevitable military defeat it may have been, yet the strategy of those who planned the rising proved correct. The true nature of Britain’s brutal colonial presence was there for all to see in the smouldering rubble that was the centre of Dublin and the rising succeeded in igniting a more general movement for independence resulting in Sinn Fein’s electoral triumph eighteen months later.

For most socialists at the time and still some today the participation of Connolly and the ICA in the rising was problematic. This was a nationalist event with the limited aim of independence. What’s more, some of those who supported it made strange bedfellows. Eamon De Valera, who would later become the leader of the Free State for almost all its existence was a particularly right wing character who throughout the thirties maintained close links and sympathies with fascist governments and movements throughout Europe. In particular, he was an enthusiastic supporter of Franco during the Spanish Civil War. The criticism of Connolly and other socialists at the time was that they were subverting their principled commitment to socialism to the expediencies of petty-bourgeois nationalism. Yet it was Lenin, no less, who on the eve of the Bolshevik Revolution enthusiastically endorsed their action. In the era of imperialism the national struggle was a key component in the struggle against capitalism and for socialism. His only regret was that it happened before the Bolshevik Revolution unleashed a tidal wave of revolution across Europe. And certainly the British Government was in no doubt as to the likely impact of the Easter Rising throughout the empire if allowed to succeed.

Nationalism

The rising also tells us something of the nature of revolutionary movements. Revolutions are not created by abstract theories. They are forged in the objective conditions in which they occur and are often moulded by the people who participate. The historic traditions of Irish republicanism and the need to strike a blow against British rule whatever the circumstances was a key part of the mindset of those who took part. It was certainly the deciding factor in the decision to proceed after the Rising was officially called off when the prospect of certain defeat was staring them in the face. Were those young republicans who manned the barricades in Dublin against the might of the greatest military power on earth and who probably had never read any political theory in their lives, any less revolutionary than the Marxist intellectuals in London or Paris who criticised them for their actions? As ever history was their judge.

As the century wore on we became used to the alliance between socialists and nationalists in the struggle against colonialism and imperialism. China, Vietnam, Cuba, Angola, Nicaragua, Indonesia. The list could go on. Is the struggle in Venezuela today nationalist or socialist? The answer is of course both and represents one of a multitude of contradictions that all revolutionary movements throw up. For James Connolly and socialist leaders associated with the Easter Rising these issues were new and untried. What they had was an unshakable belief that the struggle for a socialist Ireland could not be detached from the struggle for an independent Ireland, and that both struggles were linked to something much bigger.

On a final note, this year also marks the 90th anniversary of the death of James Connolly. Connolly was one of the most influential socialists of the 20th century. Born and brought up in Edinburgh, his contribution to socialist ideas and his role in a number of momentous struggles deserve to be better known.

From his initial involvement in socialist politics in Scotland at the beginning of the 20th century to the part played in the development of the labour movement in both Ireland and America and his pivotal role in the Easter Rising; his legacy is enormous. Linked to a vast collection of written work, particularly in the complex relationship between socialism and nationalism, his place in history is secure as one of the great European socialist leaders.

Top