"In that case I will take them and you too," was the reply, and then, addressing the two men, he added, "Men, do your duty," and they ransacked the place, while I took down a list of the goods they took.
Eventually the officer signed a receipt for the goods taken in the name of the Irish Republic, and Mr. Oliver, much to my disappointment, pocketed the precious document.
They left, and after a few minutes came back with a ten-pound note. Again I presented myself, and ventured one or two questions.
The looting had already begun, and children were wandering through the streets with toys and food and sweets.
"Surely," I said to the officer, "you do not approve of all this indiscriminate theft?"
"No, certainly not," was his dignified reply.
I next asked the meaning of all the rising, and to this he simply replied:—
"It means that Ireland is free, that English government is at an end, and that we have established an Irish Republic. As it is, we hold the whole city, and within a few days the provinces will be ours as well."
I still pressed for a pronouncement on the real aims and objects of the new Government, and was referred to headquarters.
Accordingly, I took my courage in both hands and walked past the soldiers opposite the Post Office and the sandbagged windows, and asked the guard at the main door if I could have an interview with their President.