3 May 1916 – Padraig Pearse, Thomas Clarke and Thomas MacDonagh were executed at dawn  by firing squad on this day. They were shot in the stonebreakers yard [above] of Kilmainham Jail, Dublin on the orders of General Maxwell.

 Pearse, MacDonagh and Clarke were all shot minutes apart by a firing squad of British soldiers drawn from the Sherwood Foresters Regiment. They were commanded by a Major Rhodes. As far as we know all died bravely but while Pearse wished to die and Clarke reckoned execution was better than imprisonment again at the hands of the British it was a different story for McDonagh as he left a wife and young family behind him.

 MAY 3rd

 We paraded at the time appointed, marched to Kilmainham Jail. At 3.45 the first rebel MacDonoghue [Thomas MacDonagh] was marched in blindfolded, and the firing party placed 10 paces distant. Death was instantaneous. The second, P.H. Pierce [Pádraig Pearse] whistled as he came out of the cell (after taking a sad farewell of his wife.) [Pearse wasn’t married, and was visited only by a Capuchin priest, Fr Aloysius.] The same applied to him. The third, J.H. Clarke [Tom Clarke], an old man, was not quite so fortunate, requiring a bullet from the officer to complete the ghastly business (it was sad to think that these three brave men who met their death so bravely should be fighting for a cause which proved so useless and had been the means of so much bloodshed).

Diary of Company Sgt Maj. Samuel Henry Lomas Sherwood Foresters

 The 1916 Diaries, published by Mercier Press

 

After their deaths had been confirmed the bodies were quickly transported to Arbour Hill prison where their remains were buried in quicklime. They were the first of 16 men to be executed for their part in the Rising. But their deaths rather than suppressing dissent ignited it and lit the spark that turned them from ‘rebels’ into Heroes.

 

2 May 1882: Charles Stewart Parnell , the Leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party was released from Kilmainham Jail in Dublin on this day. He was let go under the terms of what became known as the ‘Kilmainham Treaty’.

 Parnell had been incarcerated there on the personal orders of the British Prime Minister Gladstone back in October of the previous year. The Irish Leader had vehemently opposed Gladstone in his attempts to implement the 2nd Land Act that was meant to alleviate the rent many Irish people had to pay to rapacious Landlords. Parnell felt that it did not go far enough and roused the people to resist it. Agrarian unrest spread through much of the countryside and ‘Captain Moonlight’ ruled the hours of darkness - that is by night the laws of the British ceased to operate in many of the villages and fields of Ireland.

 Under the terms of the ‘The Kilmainham Treaty’ the British Prime Minister agreed that rent arrears due from some 130,000 tenants would be dropped and 150,000 leaseholders would be allowed the benefits of the 1881 Land Act. In return Parnell agreed to ‘co operate cordially for the future with the Liberal Party in forwarding Liberal principles and measures of general reform.’

 It was seen as a triumph for Parnell as it made him the undisputed Leader of Nationalist Ireland and by daubing the agreement a ‘Treaty’ * he gave people at home the impression that Ireland and Britain could negotiate as two recognisably separate political bodies - in other words as Nation to Nation.

 * Something that Gladstone denied ever took place.

 

 

1 May 1169: This is the date traditionally assigned to mark the beginning of the Anglo Norman Invasion of Ireland by military forces drawn from England & Wales. The genesis of the Expedition was the bid by  Diarmait Mac Murchada the deposed king of the province of Leinster to win back his kingdom. To do this he needed help from abroad as he knew he could not hope to succeed against the combined armies of - Rory O’Connor/Ruaidhrí Ó Conchobhair -the High King/Ard Rí  of Ireland.

King Diarmait left Ireland in late 1166 to seek help in England from King Henry II. However he was not just king of England but also Duke of Normandy and held extensive territories in France that he was constantly called upon to tour in order to maintain his patchwork Empire. When Diarmait finally caught up with him in France he won his backing on condition that he be Henry’s man - i.e. he recognised Henry as his Overlord. Presumably he would have secured a Charter to carry with him to produce in front of the men of England to show that he had Royal Assent for his raising of Mercenaries in that Country. His efforts met with success.

Thus it came about that in May of 1169 a force from England landed at Bannow Bay Wexford under the command of Robert Fitzstephen - whose own mother Nesta was a Lady of Wales. These forerunners of the English Forces of eight  and a half centuries consisted of approximately 30 knights, 60 other horsemen and some 300 archers & footmen. Maurice de Prendergast from Wales arrived the following day with another 10 knights and 60 archers. They weren't of course all ‘English’ as they were would have been many Welsh -esp. the archers - in their ranks and quite possibly some real ‘Normans’ too - but to the Gaels of Ireland they were ‘the English’.

 It was a good place to land as it was on King Diarmait’s home turf. It was also within striking distance of two of Ireland’s most important ports - the Norse held towns of Wexford and Waterford.  King Diarmait was already back in Ireland by this stage and after a period of operating incognito had shown his hand  and had raised a force to dispute with the High King his claim to re take his seat as king of Leinster. He even had a small force of mercenaries with him that he paid out of his own resources. He sent one of his own sons with a force of 500 men to rendezvous with these outside reinforcements and with the combined force Diarmait then advanced and layed siege to Wexford. After initially being repulsed, they forced the Wexfordmen to submit. By prior terms the town and the lands around it were granted to Fitzstephen and de Prendergast.

Then Robert the son of Stephen

Got himself ready the first;

He wished to cross over to Ireland

In order to aid King Dermot.

 Brave knights of great renown

He brought with him, nine or ten.

One was Meiler the son of Henry,

Who was very powerful;

And Miles came there also

The son of the bishop of St. Davids.

Knights came there and barons

Whose names for the most part I do not know.

There crossed over a baron

With seven companions,

Maurice de Prendergast was his name,

As the song tells us.

Hervey too, in truth, crossed over,

He was of Mount-Maurice.

About three hundred crossed over

Knights and common folk besides.

At Bannow they landed

With all their men.

When they had landed

And had all disembarked,

They made their men encamp

On the sea-shore.

The English folk sent word

To King Dermot by messenger

That at Bannow with three ships

They had at that time landed,

And that the king should speedily

Come there without delay.

Song of Dermot and the Earl

Thus Fortune, constant only in her instability, almost deserted not only MacMurchad, but Fitzstephen also. However on the following morning, after Mass had been celebrated throughout the Army, they proceeded to renew the assault with more circumspection and order, relying on their skill as well as their courage, and when they drew near to the walls the townsmen despairing of being able to defend them and reflecting that they were disloyally resisting their Prince sent envoys Dermitius [Diarmait] commissioned to treat of the terms of Peace. At length by the mediation of two bishops who chanced to be in town at the time, and other worthy and peaceable men peace was restored, the townsmen submitting to Dermitius and delivering four of their chief men as hostages for their fealty to him. And the more to animate the courage of his adherents and reward their chiefs for their first success he forthwith granted the town with the whole territory appertaining to it to Fitzstephen and Maurice according to the stipulations in their original Treaty. 

 Expugnatio Hibernica by Giraldus Cambrenus

So these arrivals did not want a payment in specie for their efforts but wished to be rewarded with lands and towns and cities of their own which must of course be at the expense of those who already held them - i.e. lands either granted to them by  Diarmait from those of his underlings or taken at the expense of their common enemies in the rest of Ireland. This was  the root of the idea of the Conquest in the eyes of the men who made it - to usurp the Irish kings and rule in their stead. From such small beginnings emanated many great and bloody events in the History of Ireland.

* Illustration by Angus McBride

 

 30‭ April 1916: The Rising in Dublin fizzled out on this day. Sniping had continued overnight as the fighting came to an end. The captured insurgents who were held outside the Rotunda over the night were marched off to Richmond Barracks, Inchicore. Here they were screened and questioned by detectives of the DMO ‘G’ Division under military supervision.

In his Prison Cell Padraig Pearse wrote out a brief note reiterating his instructions of the previous day that was forwarded on to the Republican Garrisons that still held out:

In order to prevent further slaughter of the civil population and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers,‭ the members of the Provisional Government present at headquarters have decided on an unconditional surrender, and commandants or officers commanding districts will order their commands to lay down arms.

P.H.‭ Pearse. Dublin 30th April 1916.

This brought about the surrender of the various outlying Insurgent positions as orders were brought to them to lay down their arms.‭ However at first the various garrison Commanders refused to believe that the Rising was over and had deep suspicions that the messages brought to them were genuine. But by late afternoon it became apparent that the fighting had stopped and further confirmation arrived that the messages were indeed genuine.

By last light that day the Rising in Dublin was effectively over. The cost had been high, some 485 people were dead and over 2,500 wounded. The centre of the City of Dublin was in ruins and the financial cost ran into the millions. It estimated that about half the casualties of Easter Week were innocent civilians. Nothing would ever be the same again after the most seminal event in modern Irish History.

 

29‭ April 1916: Padraig Pearse decided to cease fighting on this day. Nurse Elizabeth O’Farrell was allowed into the British lines carrying an offer to lay down arms. General Lowe offered only Unconditional Surrender and at 3.30 pm that afternoon Pearse agreed and handed over his sword to the General in token of the acceptance of terms.

It was about‭ 3.30 pm when General Lowe received Commandant Pearse at the top of Moore Street, in Parnell Street. One of the officers that had been a prisoner in the GPO was asked to identify Pearse and he could not - he said he did not see him in the GPO. He asked Commandant Pearse was he in the GPO, and he said he was - the officer said: 'I did not see you there'. Commandant Pearse then handed his sword to General Lowe."

Nurse Farrell

After meeting General Maxwell at British Army HQ at Parkgate St beside the Phoenix Park orders were sent out by Pearse to the various Republican garrisons still holding out to lay down their arms and surrender:

In order to prevent the further slaughter of Dublin citizens,‭ and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers now surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered, members of the Provisional Government present at headquarters have agreed to an unconditional surrender, and the commandants of the various districts in the city and county will order their commands to lay down their arms.

(Signed) P.H. Pearse, 29 April, 1916, 3.45 pm

James Connolly also countersigned the surrender order,‭ but only for men under his command in Moore Street and the St Stephen's Green area.

Commandant Ned Daly was allowed to lead a march of his men from the Four Courts to the surrender point at the Gresham Hotel in Upper O’Connell St.

One of the prisoners from Moore St recalled:

We filed out onto Moore Street and were lined up into fours and were marched up O'Connell Street and formed into two lines on each side of the street.‭ We marched up to the front and left all our arms and ammunition and then went back to our original places. Officers with notebooks then came along and took down our names…

JOSEPH SWEENEY

That night the Insurgents who surrendered were held under armed guard on open ground beside the Rotunda at the top of O’Connell St.

We were ordered to dump as much stuff as we could in the houses…We laid down arms between the Gresham and Parnell Monument.‭ I don't remember any white flag. We were herded into the Rotunda Gardens, in a patch of grass in front. We were lying on top of one another. I was quite near Collins and Joe Plunkett. I remember the British officer threatening to shoot the whole lot of us, and Collins saying to this officer, 'This is a very sick man; will you leave him alone' - or words to that effect. He was, of course, referring to Joe Plunkett.

Eamon Bulfin

Pearse’s surrender that day in Dublin was by a twist of fate one that to the day matched with a far greater surrender of soldiers to their enemies. Far away on the plains of Mesopotamia a British Army under Major General Townsend was forced to surrender to the Turks after a four month siege in the town of Kut on the banks of the Tigris river. Some 13,500 British and Indian troops were taken prisoner, many of whom were to die in captivity. It was the largest capitulation of a British Army in the Great War.

 

28‭ April 1916: The Insurrection continued in Dublin on this day.

General Sir John Maxwell arrived by boat from England.‭ ‬He came with orders to crush the Rising by whatever means were necessary. He was previously the GOC Egypt and a veteran of Britain’s Colonial Wars. He had recently suppressed a revolt of the Senussi People in the Western Desert. He issued a Proclamation:

The most vigorous measures will be taken by me to stop the loss of life and damage to property which certain misguided persons are causing in their armed resistance to the law.‭ If necessary I shall not hesitate to destroy any buildings within any area occupied by the rebels and I warn all persons within the area specified below, and now surrounded by HM troops, forthwith to leave such area.

By Friday morning much of the GPO was on fire and sections of the roof were collapsing.‭ ‬It was obvious to the men inside that they would have to evacuate the building sooner or later. One plan being considered was to tunnel through to the adjoining buildings and join up with the Four Courts garrison. However, this was not possible because of the worsening military situation. The British now had most of the streets around the GPO well covered with snipers and machine guns.

At around‭ 8 pm Padraig Pearse decided to evacuate the GPO, which was aflame and under constant bombardment.[above] He decided to try to escape via Henry Street and establish a new headquarters somewhere near there. The narrow streets around Henry Street and Moore Street were filled with smoke from the burning buildings. There was a great deal of confusion. In addition, nobody was quite sure exactly what the exact locations of the British Army were. Several groups of garrison tried to make their way down Henry Street but came under heavy fire. One of the casualties was The O’Rahilly who had come to Liberty Hall on Easter Monday to join the Rising even though he had initially tried to stop it going ahead.

Elizabeth O'Farrell,‭ had been one of only three women (all members of Cumann na mBan) left in the GPO after Pearse had ordered the others to leave that morning. She recalled:

We left in three sections,‭ ‬I being in the last. Commandant Pearse was the last to leave the building. He went round to see that no one was left behind. We immediately preceded him, bullets raining from all quarters as we rushed to Moore Lane.

Eventually Pearse,‭ Connolly, Plunkett, Clarke and MacDermott halted in a house at  Moore Street, number 16, where they planned to make their way through back streets to the Four Courts for a last stand. However the British were not much the wiser of their opponents movements and continued to attack the GPO even after it was evacuated.

British troops killed up to a dozen innocent civilians on North King St in heavy fighting.‭ At least some of these were killed in cold blood. But here only a handful of fighters remained and the British effectively controlled the area by nightfall.

In the north of County Dublin a Volunteer column under Thomas Ashe ambushed a convoy of RIC men.‭ A running battle between members of the RIC and the insurgents took place, lasting five hours. The police casualties were heavy: the Meath County and District Inspectors, two sergeants and four constables were killed, and 16 constables wounded. Ashbourne barracks was captured but Volunteers Thomas Rafferty and John Crennigan lost their lives in the engagement.

 

20 April 1946: Johanna Mary "Hanna" Sheehy Skeffington Suffragette, Republican and political activist died on this day. She was born in 1877 in Kanturk Co Cork, the daughter of the future Nationalist MP David Sheehy &. Elizabeth "Bessie" McCoy. From an early age she was imbued with the spirit of political activity to free Ireland from British Rule and to improve the lot of women in Irish Society. Whilst still very young her family moved to Dublin.

When Hanna was a teenager, the Sheehys held an open house on the second Sunday night of each month. They encouraged young people to visit them and their six children. The Sheehys were fond of singing and playing games, and would ask their guests to sing. Hanna was sent to Germany for a short period when she was 18 years old to get treatment for tuberculosis. After graduating from the Royal University of Ireland, she moved to Paris to work as an Au Pair and returned to Ireland in 1902. She sat for examinations at Royal University of Ireland and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1899, and a Master of Arts Degree with first-class honours in 1902. This led to a career as a teacher in Eccles Street and an examiner in the Intermediate Certificate examination.

Hanna married Francis Skeffington on June 3, 1903 at University Chapel in St. Stephen's Green, Dublin. The couple wore their graduation gowns as a substitute for a traditional wedding gown and suit. Both husband and wife took the surname Sheehy Skeffington as a symbol of their honour for one another.

It was this point on that her political activity really took off as her husband was as a committed activist as she was. In 1908 she was a founder member of The Irish Women's Franchise League dedicated to ensuring Votes for Women in Parliamentary elections. On 13 June 1912, she, along with seven other women, were arrested for smashing the glass windows of Dublin Castle. They served a month long sentence in Mountjoy Prison alongside another month after they refused to pay a fine. They were granted the privileges of political prisoners. Sheehy Skeffington was fired in 1913 from her job as a teacher at Rathmines School of Commerce for her continued involvement in feminist militancy.

When the Great War broke out in 1914 she became involved in the anti-recruiting campaign and was prevented by the British government from attending a conference held in The Hague in April 1915 on Women’s Rights. The watershed in her life came during the Easter Rising 1916 when her husband Francis was brutally murdered by a deranged British Officer. She did not find out about his death until two days had passed.

She joined Sinn Fein in the aftermath of the Rising. In December 1916 she went to the US to raise awareness of Ireland’s Cause and she attended some 250 meetings there across America. She was later imprisoned by the British in Holloway Prison London for actively opposing the War. In 1920 she joined Dublin corporation as a councillor. She resumed work on The Irish Citizen and in 1919 became organising secretary of Sinn Fein.

She opposed the Treaty in 1921 and again toured the USA in 1922 to raise funds to help Republican prisoners. In 1926 she joined Fianna Fáil as an executive, however she only kept this position for one year. She was disillusioned with the new Irish Free State and felt that women had not yet achieved their rightful place in Society especially in the new Irish Constitution of 1937. She stood for election to the Dáil in 1943 but was not returned.