XVI
For the benefit of the reader in whose mind there might rise some confusion with regard to the demobilization of the Irish Volunteers, and how this demobilization order could spoil the plans for the Rising, and why Eoin MacNeill had the power to send out such an order, I am adding the following statement:
When the Irish Volunteers were first organized, it was necessary to have a man known throughout Ireland, a man of some reputation and authority, as the head of the organization. Eoin MacNeill was such a man. He was an authority on Irish History and Ancient Ireland. Also, what was more necessary, he was an unknown quantity to the English Government. Had there been elected as President a man well known as a revolutionary and as an Extremist, there would have been short work made of the Irish Volunteers. The English Government would then have known immediately that the Irish Volunteers were being organized, drilled, and supplied with arms for the sole purpose of a rebellion against it, and would have given it no opportunity to spread and grow, and become disciplined. As it was, with MacNeill as the President, whom they knew as a rather conservative, academic person, whose politics at that time were more of the Home Rule order than anything else, they felt quite at ease and contented about the growth of the Irish Volunteers.
MacNeill, although friendly with, and because of the Irish Volunteers in continual contact with, the revolutionary members, was not a member of the Revolutionary Organization. He was not of the type to which revolutionists belong. His mind was of the academic order which must weigh all things, consider well all actions, and count the cost. A true revolutionist must never count the cost, for he knows that a revolution always repays itself, though it cost blood, and through it life be lost and sacrifice made. He knows that the flame of the ideal which caused the revolution burns all the more brightly, and steadily, and thus attracts more men and minds, and because of the life-blood and sacrifice becomes more enduring.
That a man of MacNeill's type of mind should have gone so far along the road to revolution is the extraordinary thing. Due credit should be given to him for that, although he did fail his comrades at the critical moment.
MacNeill was made President, and all orders affecting the organization as a whole, that is all important orders, came from him under his signature. Therefore, when an order came with his signature, the Irish Volunteers obeyed it unquestioningly.
Padraic Pearse as Commandant-General of the Irish Volunteers was Chief in military affairs. And that is where the Irish Volunteers made the first mistake. The office of President should have been of a purely civil character. So that when a military order was issued from Headquarters, it would bear, not the signature of the President but the signature of the Military chief. That this would have been difficult, I am aware,—it is so easy to see mistakes after they are made.
MacNeill, through the columns of the Irish Volunteer (the official organ of the Irish Volunteers), always preached prudence, and a waiting policy. He advised the Volunteers not to be the first to attack, but to wait to be attacked. He counseled them to recruit their ranks, so that when the war was ended their number would reach three hundred thousand; and that an armed force of three hundred thousand men would then be in a position to demand the freedom of Ireland from England. Still, as before, this counsel was regarded by the rank and file of the Irish Volunteers as a necessary evil, knowing that it is not wise policy to show your hand to the enemy before the appointed time.
The revolutionary members, all this time, were completing their plans, strengthening the organization, and waiting eagerly and hopefully for the days to pass, and the Day of all days to come. Every time they thought of the approaching day they were quietly exultant. They knew that their chance of success was greater than it had ever been since the days of Shane and Hugh O'Neill. And they joyfully, and prayerfully thanked God that the opportunity had come in their day. All things went well, their plans matured, and at last they were ready for the fight.
The order for mobilizing was sent through the length and breadth of Ireland, and it was signed by Eoin MacNeill. The order was received and obeyed by the Irish Volunteers. Then, on Good Friday, came the news that Roger Casement was arrested.
Roger Casement had gone to Germany, shortly after the outbreak of the war, to seek an expression of goodwill toward Ireland from Germany. Germany knew that Ireland was held in subjection to England, contrary to the wishes of the vast majority of the Irish people, and that Ireland had always considered the enemy of her oppressor as her friend. Germany knew that when Spain was England's enemy, Ireland had sought the assistance of the Spanish King, and when France was the enemy of England, Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmet had both sought the aid of France; she knew that when England was at war with the Boers, Irishmen had organized a brigade, and gone to South Africa, in the hope of helping to defeat the English enemy. She knew, that then, as now, Ireland was anti-British, and would remain so. Therefore, Germany declared her goodwill towards Ireland, and to the present day Ireland has been free from the terrors of Zeppelin raids, and there has been no German bombardment of our coast.
Soon after arriving in Germany, Roger Casement lost touch with Irish affairs. He still believed that the Irish Volunteers were as badly armed as when he left Ireland. He did not know of the plans for the rising, nor did he know who were to be the leaders, or whether they had military ability or not.
He did not know that the leaders, acting on the expression of goodwill, had asked Germany to send them some arms. I wish to make it plain that Germany never made an offer to the men in Ireland, that she gave nothing to them, not even the expression of goodwill, till she was asked, and that when a request for aid came from Ireland, it was not for money (England has kept us so poor that we have almost learned to do without money), nor was it for men, but for arms, guns, and ammunition. All that Germany promised in return to the request, was that she would make the attempt to send us a certain amount of arms, but as the ship would have to run the gauntlet of the British fleet, she would promise nothing.
This answer was satisfactory to the revolutionary leaders. A date was set for the ship to arrive, and a place designated.
After setting the date and sending it on to Germany, the leaders found that it was necessary to change the date. Word was sent to Germany, but only arrived there after the shipload of arms had set out.
About this time Roger Casement heard that a revolution was about to take place. He asked that he be sent over to Ireland. There was some demur at this, but finally they consented and gave him a submarine. With him on the submarine went two followers of Casement.
The shipload of arms arrived on the first appointed date but the men in Ireland, not knowing that their final message had been too late, had no one there to meet it. Consequently, the ship had to hang about for a number of hours, and finally attracted the suspicion of the fleet which was in Queenstown Harbor. When challenged by the fleet, knowing that subterfuge was hopeless, the Captain ran up the German flag, and sunk the vessel with all the arms and ammunition.
Shortly after this, the submarine with Casement and the two other men arrived off the Irish coast. They were landed with the aid of a collapsible boat belonging to the submarine. Casement, after sending a message to MacNeill advising against the Rising, and saying in the message that Germany had failed us, sought shelter in an old ruin. One of the men managed to make his way into the country and so escaped. Casement was arrested.
Before he was hanged he said that his whole object in coming to Ireland was to prevent the Revolution. He did not do so, but was, perhaps, the primary cause of its failure.
Acting on Casement's message and believing it, MacNeill sent out the demobilizing orders. He had sent out many of them before the other leaders became aware of it. He also gave instructions to the Secretary of the Irish Volunteers to send out more. Then Pearse and MacDonagh had a conference with him. After the conference he said to the Secretary that although the thing was hopeless, he was afraid it must go on.
He knew that the revolutionary leaders had decided that the revolution must take place, even though the loss of the arms had seriously crippled their plans. He knew that a disarmament of the Irish Volunteers had been threatened, also the imprisonment of the leaders. He knew that the Volunteers would resist the disarming, and that the leaders still thought that they would have a good fighting chance.
When he knew that the fight would go on in Dublin, in spite of his order, he began to weigh up the consequences, and saw nothing before the Irish Volunteers save death and imprisonment. The responsibility of allowing these men to go out to meet these, weighed too heavily on him, and he thought that he might save the Irish Volunteers in the country from them. He then had a message inserted in the Sunday Independent, a paper that went to all the nooks and corners of the country, to the effect that:
"All Volunteer maneuvers for Sunday are canceled. Volunteers everywhere will obey this order.
(Signed) EOIN MACNEILL.
It was not until Sunday morning that the other leaders knew of this demobilization order in the paper.
The consequences of this order in the paper, and the orders that were sent out before it, I have already told.