If you are a writer, poet, or editorialist with material suitable for this site, we welcome your contributions! To participate, please drop us an email by pressing the "email" button in the left column of this page.

Speaker of the Month, May 2000

We proudly present a speach delivered by
Brother Daniel Herlihy, of Division 36 in Worcester, MA.
Dan has been with the Ancient Order of Hibernians for over 50 years, and proudly searved as the Mass State Board President over 35 years ago.

The Rising of Easter Monday, 1916

We have assembled here this morning to commemorate and pay tribute to the men and women who rose in armed rebellion in Dublin on Easter Monday, 1916. They declared the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish Destiny, taken from them centuries earlier by a foreign people and government. These brave visionaries paid the supreme sacrifice shortly after the events of that week. Their legacy continues today.

Who were the men who organized and led the Easter Rebellion in 1916?

Patrick Pearse, 37,
Schoolmaster, poet and dramatist. He held the role of commander general of the Irish Republican Forces and President of the Irish Provisional Government.

Thomas McDonagh, 38,
A teacher, poet, newspaper editor and a member of the Gaelic League. Commandant of the Dublin Brigade.

Eamonn Ceannt, 34,
A clerk in the City Treasurer's office. Beyond everything else he was Irish in his feelings. An expert performer on Irish War Pipes, he was invited to play for Pope Pius X in Rome.

Joseph Mary Plunkett, 29,
A descendent of an illustrious family, and son of a Papal Count. A gentle man, deeply Catholic, he read daily from St, John of the Cross and St. Thomas Aquinas.

Sean McDermott, 32,
He had hoped to be a teacher but worked as a bar man and a tram driver in order to devote himself completely to Irish Freedom.

James Connolly, 46,
A Socialist and union organizer whose undying hope was to attain better conditions for the working men and women of Ireland.

And finally, Thomas Clark, 58,
The oldest of the group, a gentle appearing man, marked by 15 « years of intense suffering in English jails. Undaunted, he was, perhaps, the chief moving force behind the Rising, since a good part of it was organized in meetings in his little tobacco shop on Parnell St.

All of these men would be executed in Kilmainham jail in the early part of May. After a long series of mistakes, these executions were to become the greatest of England's blunders in the handling of "the Irish Problem".

In 1914, Ireland had no fewer that 5 armies. There were the Official Forces, the Ulster Volunteers, The Irish Volunteers, The Citizen Army and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (a secret army).

After the outbreak of WWI the IRB, whose members held controlling positions in the Irish Volunteers, decided on an insurrection to take place before the ending of the war. They secured the cooperation of the Citizen Army, which was also planning a rising. The outcome was the Easter Rebellion.

It is a recorded fact that every unit of the Irish Volunteers was scheduled to hold maneuvers over the Easter Holidays, as they had done in the past. Eoin McNeill, professor at UCD had organized the volunteers in 1913 (to defend Irish freedom). Now, fearing disaster was eminent, he issued orders canceling the maneuvers, hence only 1200 or so men turned up to participate in the events that would become known as "The Rising".

In Dublin, on Easter Monday morning, parties of men, in arms, marched from Liberty Hall to take possession of the General Post Office in O'Connell St. Pearse and James Connolly were in the lead, but the main body of the volunteers did not follow to the GPO. They marched in three sections. One went straight to Dublin Castle; the other two marched to St. Stephen's Green.

Little attention was paid to the marching of the Citizen Army and the Volunteers on that Easter Monday morning. By the time the general populous was aware that the invasions into public buildings was no longer the mock attacks that they were accustomed to, the GPO had been occupied by the Forces of the New Republic.

Later in the day, a new tri-color flag was hoisted over the post office, while, on it's steps, Patrick Pearse read the official Proclamation claiming authority for the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic.

As republicans fortified the occupied buildings and improvised barricades, the British in Dublin called for military re-enforcements. By the second day of the rising, British artillery was being brought into action. Meanwhile, small groups of volunteers from the outside Dublin were coming to join their comrades. There were to find it impossible to make contact with the republican positions.

During the week that followed, position after position, held by republican forces, were given up to British Control. Connolly was wounded. The GPO was burning. The anticipated "Rising" in the countryside failed to materialize. The new Republic would be left to stand or fall with Dublin. By Friday, Pearse was forced to evacuate the GPO.

The decision to surrender was made on Saturday Morning. The British demanded that the surrender be unconditional and at 3:45 pm that afternoon, Pearse surrendered his sword to brigadier general Lowe, and issued the following statement:

"In order to prevent further slaughter of Dublin's citizens, and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers, now surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered, the members of the Provisional Government present a Headquarters have agreed to an unconditional surrender, and the Commandants of the various districts in the City and Country will order their commands to lay down arms."
(Signed P.H. Pearse 29 April 1916 3:45 pm)

And the Rising of 1916 was over.

During that week of fighting, the insurgents in Dublin numbered about 1500 men, women and boys, and the British force approximately 20,000 soldiers and police.

After the Rising, fourteen of the Republicans, including the seven members of the Provisional Government, were court-marshaled and executed by a firing squad. There were 97 other death sentences by court marshal, including Eamon DeValera and Countess Markievicz, and they were commuted to penal servitude for terms varying from three years to life.

In all, there were 160 court marshals and 122 sentenced. Upwards of 2000 men and women, including the unsentenced insurgents were interned in jails in England and a camp in Wales and were released at different times up to Christmas, 1916. Those sentenced to death were released from English Prisons by general amnesty in the summer of 1917.

In addition to the seven signatories of the Proclamation, the following men were also executed:

Michael O'Hanrahan
Sean McBride
William Pearse (Patrick's Brother)
Edward Daly
Sean Heuston
Michael Malin
Cornelius Colbert
Thomas Kent - executed in Cork City on May 9.
Rodger Casement - Hanged in London after a State trial on August 3.

"Grass soon grows over the battlefield, but never over the scaffold."

It has been said, that in the yard of Kilmainham Jail where 14 men were executed, the British ensured the success of an otherwise hapless Rising. The dead men, before considered "Madmen" at best, were now considered National Heroes.

We now know that the Easter Rising served ultimately to define a national purpose and to create a national will that could not have been defined or created in any other way.

Through the Easter Rising of 1916, an attainable vision was established for The Irish People who had suffered and overcome tremendous obstacles, including The Great Famine, and generations of constant political and emotional imprisonment.

These regular men became the Fathers of a Future that the Republic of Ireland celebrates today as the most successful and fruitful period of it's Ancient History.

Let's go in Peace and grateful appreciation to these martyrs.