After a week's hard fighting, both day and night, the British troops were getting the best of the Irish Volunteers. P. H. Pearse saw that they were completely surrounded by troops and artillery. In order to prevent further slaughter of the unarmed, he agreed to surrender and accordingly advised the Republicans. Ladies and shop girls fought bravely for Irish freedom. Contrary to the rules of warfare, sixteen leaders were shot dead. Eight of them signed the document proclaiming the Irish Republic.
The men shot after surrendering were Patrick H. Pearse, Thomas J. Clark, Thomas MacDonagh, Joseph Plunket, Edward Daly, William O'Hanrahan, William Pearse, Edmond Kent, John McBride, Cornelius Culbert, J. J. Hewston, Michael Mallon, Thomas Kent, James Connelly, John M. Dermott, F. S. Skeffington. Killing these men cannot improve the conditions of the country because they were no traitors to their native land. They were prepared to accept aid for the freedom of Ireland from any country and refused to be hirelings.
The immediate cause of the revolution was, it appears, a secret document distributed in cypher amongst the military authorities containing instructions to the military to seize the Sinn Feiners, Gaelic Leaguers and Irish Volunteers' headquarters, and arrest the leaders. Conscription was then to be enforced in Ireland. Postoffice officials who were Irish Republicans evidently kept a close eye on the Government proceedings and the documents fell into the hands of the Irish Republicans. The Irish Volunteers stood pledged to the single service of Ireland, and decided that if they were to die fighting they should do it for the cause of Ireland. Accordingly they broke out two days before the day fixed for capturing their strongholds.
The plan of the British Government failed completely, but it cost many valuable lives, both of men and women—Catholic and Protestant. The revolution is condemned by Mr. John Redmond and his other Parliamentary followers. On the other hand, John Redmond and his followers are classed as traitors and job hunters by the Irish Volunteers in Ireland, and almost by every national body in the United States, and the spirit to avenge the deaths of these martyrs is growing fast.
Since 1907, the present Parliamentary party showed signs of departure from the course outlined by Parnell, by accepting a half measure of Home Rule.[8] The Sinn Fein National Council repudiated a definition by the National Directory of the Irish demand, to the effect that the minimum Irish demand was a sovereign Parliament, in Irish affairs "to be equal to and co-extensive with those of the Parliament of Great Britain," or, in other words, Grattan's Irish Parliament.
When the half measure of Home Rule was passed and Sir Edward Carson, a Unionist M. P., went to Ulster to get the people of Ulster to sign a covenant to resist with firearms Home Rule, he boasted he had 40,000 (more or less) Ulster volunteers to prevent the Act from going into operation. The Irish Volunteers asked the Government of Great Britain "If the Orangemen can arm and drill, why cannot the rest of Ireland do the same?" Irish Volunteers were allowed to arm because the war cloud was hanging over Europe and it was considered useful to have Irish half-trained soldiers ready to fight.
When the European war broke out, Home Rule was quickly passed, and on the 18th of September, 1914, signed by King George, and placed on the Statute Book, but suspended from operation until after the end of the war. The German people were painted in every false color for the Irish people. Most of the common people did not believe that the Germans were as bad as they were painted. Moreover they had no confidence in the British Government and looked upon this Home Rule scheme as a recruiting bait.
Next a demand was made on the Irish people to "furnish men to fight for the protection of their homes and Home Rule." Then a split started in the ranks of all Irish Volunteers. John Redmond preached that "the cause of the Allies was just and the neutrality of Ireland impossible, and that England stood for the protection of little nationalities." The Irish Volunteers answered that they stood pledged to the single service of Ireland; that the war was not an Irish war, but an English war, and in that war Irishmen should not fight; that the sacrifice for the honor of having Home Rule on the Statute Book only, was too great; and also Irishmen received only coercion from England until England's difficulty.
By the Defense of the Realms Act free speech was completely suppressed and Irishmen imprisoned. For advising his son not to join the army, a father was imprisoned and in fact conscription was partly in force in Ireland, but not on the Statute Book.[9] When the people were deserted by their leaders, free speech suppressed, as usual in such cases the country became honeycombed with secret societies. Now Sir Roger Casement is hanged on a charge of high treason.[10]