The Easter Rising of 1916 and Irish American involvement

Easter Uprising

American influence on events in Ireland have always been strong, just as the Irish influence on political and social events in the United States. Unlike many immigrant groups, the Irish immigrants were more likely to participate in politics and were especially mindful of events taking place in their homeland. This is as true today as it was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In fact, one of the earliest evidences of Irish organizations in America can be found in the Irish Charitable Society that was founded in 1737. Other societies such as the Ancient and Most Benevolent Order of the Friendly Brothers of Saint Patrick and the Society of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick for the Relief of Immigrants were also formed at about the same time.

One of the most influential groups throughout the years was founded in America by some of the leaders who had left, or had been forced to leave, Ireland.

Upon their arrival in America, unlike most immigrant groups, the Irish were seen as the one group that would return to their homeland at some future point. Most American citizens believed that the Irish would return to Ireland when British rule of the island was rescinded. One of the organizations included The Fenian Brotherhood founded by John O'Mahoney, one of the leaders most friendly to James Stephens, who together were key figures in the 1848 Rebellion.

The 1848 Rebellion was brought about primarily as a byproduct of many of the other revolutions that took place that year. The 2nd French Revolution and revolutions in Berlin, Rome, Prague and Vienna were all factors in the attempted revolution in Ireland.

Some of the revolutions were relatively free of violence, and the leaders of the Young Irelanders believed that the same event could take place in Ireland.

What these revolutionaries forgot was that the British was using their island as a source for essential materials, and secondly that their fellow citizens had not all bought into the concept of a free and unfettered Ireland. The 'revolution' was quickly brought to a close by the authorities. John O'Mahoney and James Stephens both left Ireland for safety reasons and John immigrated to the United States in 1853. Shortly thereafter he founded the Fenian Brotherhood as a sister group to the Irish Republican Brotherhood and other groups in Ireland. Initially the group was named the Emmet Monument Association. The Association firmly believed that Great Britian would be at war with Russia and they proposed to the Russians a back-door method of hurting Great Britian through an overthrow of British control of Ireland. The Russian assistance never materialized and the EMA was disbanded. Two years later John O'Mahoney rescesitated the group, naming it The Fenian Brotherhood looked to foster support for the goal of an independent Ireland. Along with other groups, the Fenian Brotherhood set about raising money and awareness amongst American citizens, establishing chapters in a number of the larger cities. The establishment of the Fenian Brotherhood provided yet another group for Irish immigrants and exiles to flock to in America in order to satisfy many of their feelings of disenchantment. Initially many of these immigrants were treated poorly by Americans due to their prominent Catholic religion and their emigrant status.

However, most of these immigrants did not forget why they had to come to America in the first place. "In fact, one purpose of the famed 'Irish Brigade' of the New York state militia during the American Civil War was to gain training, equipment and battle-hardening necessary to return to fight for Ireland's freedom" (Kautt, 1999, pg. 16).

Many of these individuals were patriotic to a fault and the groups they belonged to sought to take advantage of that patriotism by offering them a way to voice their displeasure with the Irish situation. One of the primary problems with having so many groups seeking to be the 'voice' of the Irish-Americans is that each group had different goals, values, objectives and ideas of how to accomplish their goals, even when their particular goals were closely aligned to another group's stated objectives. Ir was about this same time that James Stephens promoted an idea of preparing Irishmen in Ireland for a rebellion. At the same time Michael Doheny, John O'Mahoney, Joseph Denieffe, Owen Considine and Michael Corcoran contacted leaders in Ireland to guage any interest in Irish-American troops traveling to Ireland as foot soldiers for a rebellion.

All the groups were aligned one with another, including the organizations based in America, and the groups with their home in Ireland. Not all the groups believed that an independent Ireland was the highest priority. Some of the groups were more worried about jobs, education and a free society.

As an example, the "Young Irelanders believed primarily in the rule of the virtuous and the educated, regardless of what class the virtuous and educated may belong to" (McGee, 2005, pg. 19) but individuals such as the Manchester Martyrs were down and dirty dealers in violence who believed that their use of violence was the only solution the British would understand. The Manchester Martyrs were men who attacked a police van carrying Fenian prisoners in Manchester and in the process killing a police sergeant. Other leaders such as Charles Stewart Parnell ended up in Kilmainham Jail accused of being a ringleader in the Ireland Republican Brotherhood who advocated witholding rents from British landlords by Irish farmers.

Parnell believed that Ireland was capable of managing its own affairs and while he abhorred violence he also realized that education was a standard that was to be implemented if the Irish were to ever have a free society. Parnell knew that "access to education was the key to greater social mobility" (McGee, pg. 329) and that another key in regards to establishing an independent Ireland was to control the media. "Irish Tory papers generally represented Fenianism as any threat to the existing social order posed by the proverbial rabble (McGee, pg. 328). The Irish were hobbled by the fact that even their homeland newspaper(s) downplayed any idea of a free and independent nation and they had limited access to the benefits of education.

These daily hinderances were not in place across the globe in America. Americans were prospering and growing in record numbers.

Funds were plentiful and the weapons such funds could purchase were available and easily obtained. The British knew that American groups offered an advantage over the groups in Ireland and used their intelligence gathering capabilities to keep a watchful eye on events taking place in America. One article states, "government authorities in Dublin Castle were able to distinguish between the two (organizations), seeing the IRB as a secret revolutionary body...and the FB as an auxilliary whose mission was to provide the sinews of war" (O'Broin, 1976, pg. 3). John O'Mahoney viewed the two organizations as one in purpose, and a continuation of the Emmet Monument Association though the British viewed the groups as two separate organizations. This could be due to the often-bickering groups and the many various ideas and objectives the various groups would present.

This bickering and in-fighting between the groups was addressed by Jerome J. Collins who found another group in an attempt to combine all the groups into one. This newly created group would ultimately wield a strong influence on both the homeland and in the New World. The group was called the Clan Na Gael, created on June 20, 1867 which was Wolfe Tone's birthday. Wolfe Tone was an early Irish revolutionary who led a failed attempt at independence in the late 1700's. Along with the Clan Na Gael, two additional groups wielding some influence were the Gaelic League and Sinn Fein. As Paul O'Brien writes, "many organizations, including the Gaelic Leagueand Sinn Fein, were founded to further Irish culture heritage and nationalist beliefs" (O'Brien, 2008, pg. 12).

Many of the groups created by the Irish to address the British rule of Ireland were initially set up as cultural groups or clubs, this approach was likely in response to the threat of arrest, abuse and even hanging by the British, but it was also to help the Irish remember their failed attempts from the past as well as inspiring them to keep trying.

In response to the threat from American groups, British rule became somewhat more even-handed. British actions may have been misread by some of the Irish leaders who likely believed that those actions showed weakness by the British, a weakness that could be exploited. This misreading has been a consistent and constant factor in many of the Irish uprisings, and ultimately ended in supression of the Irish by their British overlords. This has been true from the late 1700's until the present day, and was an especially strong factor in the Easter uprising of 1916. Paul O'Brien states that the "roots of the rebellion were fixed in the preceding years, beginning in 1911" (O'Brien, pg. 13) but some would contend that the uprising was just another in a long line of failed uprisings by the Irish in their quest for a free Ireland.

O'Brien believes that the roots of the rebellion started when the British House of Commons introduced a bill that offered limited independence to Ireland but the House would still retain complete power to nullify or amend any laws passed by the newly created Irish House of Commons and Senate. A more immediate event may have been the harbinger of the 1916 uprising by adding fuel to an already burning fire.

William Martin Murphy, an industrialist, conducted a lockout of a number of workers who were participants in the Irish Transport and General Worker's Union (ITGWU). Murphy was worried that a union would lead its workers to demand more and more freedoms. By the time the dispute was over more than 400 employers had locked out over 20,000 workers. The dispute ended six months later when the workers were forced to return to work or face starvation. It was at this time that James Connolly created the Irish Citizens Army as a protective measure to guard against repercussions on those employees who had participated in the union.

All three groups, Sinn Fein, the Irish Citizen Army and the Gaelic League conducted military training and were active in working with American Irish organizations in gun-running and raising funds for weapons to fight a war. At the same time World War 1 was going on, and the Irish sensed an opportunity to take advantage of the circumstances. This time the Irish had two advantages; the first was that the Irish were hopeful that (after the war) home rule would be granted and in anticipation of such an event, many young Irish men joined the British army to fight against the German aggressors. It was hoped that such actions would show loyalty to the British and result in home rule. Secondly, some of the groups, including the Ireland Republican Brotherhood, had been in contact with the Germans and were planning on using them the same way they had planned to use the Russians half a century earlier.

The Germans realized that an advantage was to be had if Britian had to fight on two fronts and promised weapons and money to the Irish if they would rebel against the British. A first delivery of help arrived in a timely manner, but a week before the uprising was planned to take place word came that the German captain of the Aud, a ship carrying ammunition and weapons from Germany for the rebels, was scuttled shortly after being apprehended by a British war ship. An announcement was made later that Sir Roger Casement was captured by the British as a 'neutral merchant ship' that was in reality a German auxilliary ship attempted to land with arems and ammunition. News of this event was a motivating factor in the cancellation by Eoin MacNeill of a mobilization by a large number of volunteers. This cancellation was countermanded by the IRB's military council but many of the volunteers never received the order. Instead, they disbanded and returned to their homes on the very day they were most needed. As O'Brien wrote in Blood on the Streets, "Eoin MacNeill's decision to countermand the order was to have a detrimental effect on the Rising and especially the events that unfolded around the Mount Street Bridge area" (pg. 17).

Another factor in the futility of the uprising was the fact that the American government knew that the uprising was planned having intercepted a cable early in 1916 to Berlin from Count Bernstorff, the German Ambassador in Washington.

The cable stated that "an armed uprising was planned in Dublin for April 23rd, Easter Sunday, and requesting that 50,000 rifles with machineguns and field guns be supplied to the Nationalists" (Nicholas, 2007, pg. 56).

Most of the experts believe that the uprising was poorly planned and poorly executed and that it would have had a much higher chance of success if MacNeill had not published his rescinding of the order to mobilize. In fact, one of the main objects of interest by the Irish was to capture the Dublin Castle, which was the headquarters of the Irish Executive. The Easter Rebellion Handbook states, "Dublin Castle...was attacked by a handful of Volunteers, and had any force of Sinn Feiners joined in the attack they would most certainly have captured the castle, as there were only a few soldiers on duty" (Kiberd, 2000, pg. 4). That the Germans were not coming was a lost fact on many of the insurgents, and in fact many of them may have believed that the Germans were going to make a major push at the same time as the uprising. "One Dublin citizen, a Robert Tweedy, wrote to his mother in London that, in his opinion the insurgents were convinced that they were taking part in a great German push by sea and land, and they had adopted defensive tactics from the beginning" (Warwick-Haller, 1995, pg. 23).