Arming the Volunteers
By Aengus O'Snodaigh
Republican leaders in 1913 decided that it was an opportune time
to challenge England's illegal occupation of Ireland through
force of arms or threat of armed revolt. Following their
establishment to the Irish Volunteers in the Rotunda Rink,
Dublin, on 25 November 1913 they set about arming and equipping
the new force.
The order prohibiting the importation of arms was making it
difficult to obtain rifles, revolvers and heavy weaponry. Seeing
unionists import huge quantities of arms unhindered into Ulster,
they undertook to follow suit.
Darrell Figgis accompanied Erskine Childers to Hamburg in Germany
where they purchased 1,500 second-hand Mauser rifles and 49,000
rounds of ammunition. In a ruse Childers let it be known that an
Irish trawler was transporting the cargo to Ireland. English
warships spent their time intercepting all Irish trawlers in the
area while in fact it was Childers' yacht Asgard and Conor
O'Brien's Kelpie which carried the precious cargo to Ireland,
having been loaded from a tug in the North Sea.
At home preparations were put in place to receive the weapons.
The Volunteers organised regular route marches and parades so
when the day came they wouldn't appear out of place or alert
police attention. Unknown to most Volunteers and Fianna the march
scheduled for 26 July 1914 had a secondary purpose. Just prior to
the arms landing the officers were appraised of what was
occurring, phonelines were cut, the Fianna trek-cart was emptied
of its 150 oak batons, guards were put on coastguard and police
stations.
Unlike the unionists' Larne gun-running episode the Volunteer
leaders predicted that British forces would make a move against
the arms landing and so only Childers' boat was detailed to land
its cargo in full view in daylight in Howth, County Dublin.
Nearly half of the shipment was destined for Kilcoole, County
Wicklow aboard Sir Thomas Myles' Chotah which had relieved the
Kelpie of its load. These were landed a week after the Howth
landing due to a storm.
Howth republican Pearse McLoughlin who died last year, was the
first to reveal the role played by Howth fishermen in the
Kilcoole gun-running. He wrote:
``Eoin MacNeill - a prominent member of the Irish Volunteers -
lived in Howth at that time and the task of collecting the arms
from the yacht Chota was assigned to MacNeill to organise.
MacNeill appraoched the owner of a local fishing boat - Peter
McLoughlin - and requested his co-operation. Enthusiastic
co-operation was assured by Peter, who owned a 35-foot fishing
boat called the Nugget. This vessel was the first Howth fishing
boat to be fitted with an engine.
``On the night the Chota was due at a pre-arranged position
outside the Kish Bank, the Nugget sailed from Howth crewed by
three brothers of Peter, James who was skipper, Nicholas and
William, and Michael Moore. Also on board were a number of
MacNeill's men to supervise the transfer of weapons. On the
votage to the Kish Bank a stowaway was discovered. He was a young
schoolboy whose name was Edward Moore.
``The arms were safely transferred to the Nugget by the fishermen
and landed on Kilcoole Strand before dawn, where they were taken
in charge by Cathal Bruagha and Sean T.O'Kelly with a unit of
Volunteers. The boat was taken out to sea then and a day's
fishing was done before it returned to Howth.''
Meanwhile lying off Lambay Island outside Howth in the Asgard
Childers and his companions Mary Spring Rice and Mary Osgood had
awaited Darrell Figgis' `all ready' signal. With no sign of it
and having passed through a naval review in Spithead and
encountered the British warship HMS Froward Childers decided to
proceed regardless.
As the Asgard came alongside within a minute of its planned time
the main body of Volunteers came down to the pier at the double.
Not a moment was wasted. The O'Rahilly said:
`Twenty minutes sufficed to discharge her cargo; as many
motor-cars flew with the ammunition to pre-arranged caches; and
for the first time in a century 1,000 Irishmen with guns on their
shoulders marched on Dublin town.''
The police and coastguard attempted to interfere, but the sight
of rifles made them back off. They weren't to know that they
weren't loaded.
The Volunteers and Fianna headed back into Dublin in military
formation, passing armed policemen in Raheny, bypassing a
military blockade against them in Clontarf. The military, Kings
Own Scottish Borderers and Dublin Metropolitan Police under
Assistant Commissioner Harrel rushed in front of them again. With
bayonets drawn they declared the march ``an illegal assembly''.
Bulmer Hobson at the head of the Volunteers confronted them and
said they couldn't have the weapons they were demanding and that
they would continue to march. Harrel ordered his men to disarm
the Volunteers and a number charge the Volunteer ranks. A
hand-to-hand fight followed and a number of shots were fired. A
few Volunteers received bayonet wounds before order was restored
on the pretext of a parley with Harrel.
While Thomas McDonagh and Darrell Figgis remonstrated with him
Hobson gave the order to disperse from the rear, and each to
bring their rifle home with them. Thus the parade dissolved
before Harrel realised what was happening.
He marched his men towards the city and made several vain
attempts to intercept the homeward bound Volunteers. A hostile
crowd gathered behind them and jeered and threw stones at them
all the way to Bachelor's Walk. Here Major Haig ordered his
soldiers to fire at the crowd. Four died and 38 were injured
despite what a later Royal Commission said: ``that no occasion had
actually arisen for using loaded firearms.''
Public indignation at the firing on an unarmed crowd was
increased by the British prime minister's statement that he was
sure that the military would be found blameless. At the massive
funerals for the dead of Batchelor's Walk the Volunteers in full
military attire and armed, marched to the graveyard and a salute
was fired over the graves.
The successful Howth gun-running operation commenced in Dublin
with the Kelpie leaving for Hamburg on 2 July 83 years ago.
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