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Irish Volunteers
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The Irish Volunteers was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. Its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland", in other words, the safeguarding of Home Rule. However, the intention of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in infiltrating the Volunteers was to help establish an Irish Republic.
The Volunteers included members of the Gaelic League, Ancient Order of Hibernians and Sinn Féin, and, secretly, the IRB.
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Encyclopedia
The Irish Volunteers was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. Its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland", in other words, the safeguarding of Home Rule. However, the intention of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in infiltrating the Volunteers was to help establish an Irish Republic.
The Volunteers included members of the Gaelic League, Ancient Order of Hibernians and Sinn Féin, and, secretly, the IRB. The Volunteers, commandeered by the IRB, fought for independence in 1916's Easter Rising, as they joined with the Irish Citizen Army to form the beginnings of the Irish Republican Army.
Formation
The catalyst for the eventual formation of the Irish Volunteers was the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in January 1912, composed of Protestant Unionists to oppose the passage and implementation of the Third Home Rule Bill. Bulmer Hobson (co-founder of the republican boy-scouts, Fianna Eireann and member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood) believed the IRB should use this as a pretext to persuade the public to form an Irish volunteer force. However, the IRB could not move on this themselves, as action by known physical force men in the direction of a volunteer force would be stopped, despite the precedent established by the Ulster Volunteers. The IRB knew they would need a highly regarded figure as a public front.
Michael O'Rahilly, a nationalist who usually went by "The O'Rahilly" and editor of the Gaelic League newspaper An Claidheamh Soluis, encouraged Eoin MacNeill, a Professor well known for his nationalist views, to write an article for the first issue of a new series. He suggested that it should be on some wider subject than mere Gaelic pursuits. It was this suggestion which gave rise to the article entitled The North Began, giving the Irish Volunteers its public origins. MacNeill wrote,
There is nothing to prevent the other twenty-eight counties from calling into existence citizen forces to hold Ireland for the Empire. It was precisely with this object that the Volunteers of 1782 were enrolled, and they became the instrument of establishing Irish self-government.
The article served as a call to nationalists to follow the lead given by Ulster unionists. Hobson, seeing his chance, encouraged O'Rahilly and MacNeill to act on this proposal and form a national organization inspired by the Volunteer movement of the 18th century. A series of meetings was organized, chiefly by Hobson and fellow IRB members, the first being held on 11 November 1913, at Wynn's Hotel, Dublin, with a handful of people in attendance. Hobson himself did not attend the meeting, believing his standing as an "extreme nationalist" might prove problematical. The IRB, however, was well represented by, among others, Sean MacDermott and Eamonn Ceannt, who would prove to be substantially more extreme than Hobson. Several others meetings were soon to follow, as prominent nationalists planned the formation of the Volunteers, under the leadership of MacNeill. The organisation was publicly launched on 25 November, with their first public meeting and enrollment rally at the Rotunda in Dublin. The IRB organised this meeting to which all parties were invited. The hall was filled to its 4,000 person capacity, with a further 3,000 spilling onto the grounds outside. Over the course of the following months the movement spread throughout the country, with thousands more joining every week.
Organization and leadership
The Irish Volunteers were led by a 30-member "Provisional Committee", which in May 1914 comprised (the names of the organisations with which they identified are provided in brackets):
- Honourable Secretaries: Eoin Mac Néill (Gaelic League (GL)), Laurence J. Kettle (Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP), Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH));
- Honourable Treasurers: The O'Rahilly (GL, Sinn Féin (SF)), John Gore (AOH, IPP);
- Members: Piaras Béaslaí, Sir Roger Casement (GL), Eamonn Ceannt (GL, SF), John Fitzgibbon (GL, SF), Liam Gogan, Bulmer Hobson (Fianna Éireann (FÉ)), Michael J. Judge (AOH), Thomas Kettle (IPP, AOH), James Lenehan (AOH), Michael Lonergan, Peter (Peadar) Macken (Labour leader, SF, GL), Seán Mac Diarmada (Irish Freedom), Thomas MacDonagh, Liam Mellows, Col. Maurice Moore (IPP, GL, Connaught Rangers), Séamus O'Connor, Colm O'Loughlin (St. Enda's School), Peter O'Reilly, Robert Page, Patrick Pearse (GL), Joseph M. Plunkett (Irish Review), John Walsh (AOH), Peter White (Celtic Literary Society);
- Fianna Éireann representatives: Con Colbert, Eamon Martin, Patrick O'Ryan.
Of the 30 members of the Provisional Committee, 12 were members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, while three others, Pearse, Plunkett, and MacDonagh, would join soon after. While the IRB intended to retain MacNeill as a puppet figurehead, MacNeil was not prepared to play that role, and effectively maintained leadership of the Volunteers until the eve of the Easter Rising in 1916.
From its inception, the leadership of the Volunteers were naturally heavily influenced by the Irish Republican Brotherhood. This was in keeping with the IRB's policy of infiltrating nationalist movements such as the Gaelic League, GAA, and the Land League. MacNeill himself was not a member, and at the time was unaware of the IRB's intentions. MacNeill approved of armed resistance only if the British attempted to impose conscription on Ireland for the World War, or if they launched a campaign of repression against Irish nationalist movements, in such a case he believed that they would have mass support. MacNeill's view was supported within the IRB by Bulmer Hobson. Nevertheless, the IRB hoped either to win him over to their side (through deceit if necessary) or bypass his command altogether. The IRB was unable to gain complete control of the organisation, especially after the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, John Redmond, demanded that the Volunteers accept his own personal appointments to its Provisional Committee, which would effectively place the organisation under his control. While the moderates did not like the idea, they were prepared to go along with it in order to prevent Redmond from forming a rival organisation, which would draw away most of their support. The IRB was completely opposed to Redmond's demands, as they would end their control of the Volunteers, but were unable to prevent the motion from being carried in Redmond's favour.
Arming the Volunteers
Shortly after the formation of the Volunteers, British Parliament banned the importation of weapons into Ireland. Yet, in 1914, the Ulster Volunteers successfully imported weapons in the Larne Gun Running, which brought the Irish Volunteers to the realisation that it too would have to follow suit if they were to be taken as a serious force. Indeed, many contemporary observers commented on the irony of "loyal" Ulstermen arming themselves and threatening to defy the British government by force. Patrick Pearse famously replied that "the Orangeman with a gun is not as laughable as the nationalist without one." Thus O'Rahilly, Sir Roger Casement and Bulmer Hobson worked together to coordinate a daylight gun-running expedition to Howth, just north of Dublin. The plan worked, and Erskine Childers brought nearly 1,000 rifles to the harbour and distributed them to the waiting Volunteers, without interference from the authorities. The remainder of the guns smuggled from Germany for the Irish Volunteers were landed at Kilcoole a week later by Sir Thomas Myles. As the Volunteers marched from Howth back to Dublin, however, they were met by a large patrol of the Dublin Metropolitan Police and the British Army. The Volunteers escaped largely unscathed, but when the army returned to Dublin they clashed with a group of unarmed civilians who had been heckling them at Bachelors Walk. Though no order was given, the soldiers fired on the civilians, killing four and the wounding of a further 37. This enraged the populace, and during the outcry enlistments in the Volunteers soared.
The Split
The outbreak of World War I in August 1914 provoked a serious split in the organisation. Redmond, in the interest of ensuring the enactment of the Home Rule Act 1914 then on the statute books, encouraged the Volunteers to support the British and Allied war commitment and join Irish regiments of the British New Army divisions, an action vigorously opposed by the founding members. Given the wide expectation that the war was going to be a short one, the majority however supported the war effort and the call to restore the "freedom of small nations" on the European continent. They left to form the National Volunteers, which fought in the 10th and 16th (Irish) Division, side-by-side with their volunteer counterparts from the 36th (Ulster) Division. Unlike the latter, however, the 16th Division had no trained military Irish officers of its own, and were commanded by British officers, with the exception of Irish General William Hickie. The National Volunteers ceased to exist after the Armistice in 1918 when their battalions were disbanded in 1922 under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
A minority believed that the principles used to justify the Allied war cause were best applied in restoring the freedom to one small country in particular. They retained the name "Irish Volunteers", were led by MacNeill and called for Irish neutrality. The National Volunteers kept some 175,000 members, leaving the Irish Volunteers with an estimated 13,500. This split proved advantageous to the IRB, which was now back in control of the organisation.
Following the split, the remnants of the Irish Volunteers were often, and erroneously, referred to as the "Sinn Féin Volunteers", or "Shinners", after Arthur Griffith's political organisation Sinn Féin. The term began as a derogatory one, but soon became ubiquitous in Ireland. Although the two organisations had some overlapping membership, there was no official connection between Griffith's then moderate Sinn Féin and the Volunteers. The political stance of the remaining Volunteers was not always popular, and a 1,000-strong march led by Pearse through the garrison city of Limerick on Whit Sunday, 1915, was pelted with rubbish by a hostile crowd.
After the departure of Redmond and his followers, the Volunteers adopted a constitution, which had been drawn up by the earlier provisional committee, and was ratified by a convention of 160 delegates on 25 October, 1914. It called for general council of fifty members to meet monthly, as well as an executive of the president and eight elected members. In December a headquarters staff was appointed, consisting of Eoin MacNeill as chief of staff, The O'Rahilly as director of arms, Thomas MacDonagh as director of training, Patrick Pearse as director of military organization, Bulmer Hobson as quartermaster, and Joseph Plunkett as director of military operations. The following year they were joined by Eamonn Ceannt as director of communications and J.J. O'Connell as chief of inspection. This reorganization put the IRB is a stronger position, as four important military positions (director of training, director of military organization, director of military operations, and director of communications) were held by men who were, or would soon be, members of the IRB, and who later become four of the seven signatories of the Easter Proclamation. (Hobson was also an IRB member, but had a falling out with the leadership after he supported Redmond's appointees to the provisional council, and hence played little role in the IRB thereafter.)
The Easter Rising, 1916
The official stance of the Irish Volunteers was that action would only be taken were the British authorities at Dublin Castle to attempt to disarm the Volunteers, arrest their leaders, or introduce conscription to Ireland. The IRB, however, was determined to use the Volunteers for offensive action while Britain was tied up in the First World War. Their plan was to circumvent MacNeill's command, instigating a Rising, and to get MacNeill on board once the rising was a fait accompli. Pearse issued orders for three days of parades and manoeuvres, a thinly disguised order for a general insurrection. MacNeill soon discovered the real intent behind the orders and attempted to stop all actions by the Volunteers. He succeeded only in putting the Rising off for a day, and limiting it to about 1,000 active participants within Dublin and a further 2,000-3,000 elsewhere. Almost all of the fighting was confined to Dublin. The Irish Citizen Army supplied slightly more than 200 personnel for the Dublin campaign.
The Rising was a failure in the short term, and large numbers of Irish Volunteers were arrested, even some who did not participate in the Rising. In 1919 the Irish Volunteers became the Irish Republican Army, swearing its obedience to the First Dáil during the course of August 1920.
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