1916 (55 page)

Later on, I heard of several such intelligence officers, all organised by the military in TCD. They included many of those who were members of the organisation nicknamed ‘Gorgeous Wrecks’.

I left Dr Cox and Dr O’Brien at Denzille Street where, at Browne and Nolan’s printing works, I had to see after the dispatch of the Archbishop’s circulars. I returned by Brunswick Street, O’Connell Bridge and Bachelor’s Walk. Owing to the intense sniping in O’Connell Street between the military in TCD and the Volunteers in O’Connell Street, I had to return by Bachelor’s Walk, Liffey Street and Dorset Street. There was continuous sniping, sometimes quite close at hand. Several injured people were removed in the city ambulance which seemed constantly employed.

O’Connell Street presented a ruined appearance. Its houses were looted and Lawrence’s was on fire. Volunteers occupied Kelly’s, the Hibernian bank and the Metropole Hotel.

The Volunteers attempted to blow up the NCR bridge over the MGR at Phibs­borough but were driven into the city by shrapnel. The 5th Dublin Fusiliers from Tipperary occupied Phibsborough, the fork of the road at Glasnevin Orphanage and the top of Iona Road. At 5pm several machine guns and ambulances were assembled in Dorset Street and Mountjoy Street. It is said that some hundreds of Volunteers entrenched at Finglas retreated before the soldiers to Knocksedan. It was rumoured that a few Volunteers deserted during the day. On the other hand, some joined them. I saw four.

From 8.30pm to 10pm an utter stranger, armed with a revolver, stationed himself at the Archbishop’s House and made people keep on the other side of the road. He even stopped motor cars and cyclists. We failed to find out his identity.
(He seemed to be protecting us.)

We were informed that the Volunteers held some of the ND Union building in North Brunswick St. for some time to­day, but left it for other houses in the street. There was some sniping. It was added that they took 4 soldiers prisoner, but released them later and also left the locality themselves. We also heard during the day that the Volunteers were driven out of Stephen’s Green by bombs and machine­guns, fired by the military in the Shelbourne Hotel, and that they lost many killed. The survivors fled to and held, the College of Surgeons. They were also driven out of the ‘Mail’ office or, rather, all were killed.

Such were the reports we received on the telephone from priests in different districts. They were supplying the rumours current in their own districts.

My diary continues:

Wednesday, 26 April 1916

The Archbishop removed to­day to the drawing­room. The doctors were unable to come. This was his first day out of the bedroom since April 1st.

At 7.45am sniping and machine­guns became active towards the lower Quays. At 8 the ‘Helga’, in front of the Custom House, battered at Liberty Hall for 12 minutes and fired some 6 shots at longer intervals. Everybody had withdrawn from Liberty Hall. Sniping was very general all day, the streets reverberating with sounds of shooting. A large number of civilians were killed and wounded last evening and during the night. There were 90 such cases in Jervis St. hospital alone.

Looting is spreading through Henry St. and Mary St. The fire in Lawrence’s is extending.

At 9 o’clock am I went to the Pro­Cathedral. Dorset St. was occupied by military sentries. The streets were crowded, including O’Connell St., despite the danger. There were several deaths and many were wounded. There was sniping at the Mater Hospital corner of the NCR and soldiers, lying on the pavement outside Mountjoy Prison, were sniping at Volunteers in the houses. Some wounded were brought to the Mater Hospital. The Corporation ambulance is working under great difficulties and was fired upon, presumably unintentionally, by both sides. I came back with Mr Séamus Hughes (whom I met in that neighbourhood) and I met Mr Murphy.

The Volunteers are said to have been driven from the South D. Union yester­
day. The military occupy St Mary’s, Haddington Road, and are using the tower for military purposes. The Volunteers hold the Four Courts and they have strongly barricaded the Church St. area. They sell there their paper, ‘The War News’. (Our milk­man met there young Dillon – aged about 14/15 – armed at a barricade.) From the houses on the opposite side of the Liffey at Winetavern Street, the Volunteers snipe the military on the upper side of the quays. The bridges and quays are most dangerous. The Volunteers are also sniping from the houses in Liffey St.

The soldiers guard the bridges over the MG Rly at Cabra Rd, and the NC Rd. About 1pm the soldiers were sniping at Broadstone Station. It is said 5,000 soldiers landed at Kingstown with a gun.

Fifteen soldiers were sniped at at Clanwilliam Place by Volunteers in Mount St. Fr John McMahon attended the wounded.

Jacobs is still held by the Volunteers. There is much firing at the North Wall.

Minnie and Phyllis Ryan call on Archbishop

At 2pm Minnie (Mrs Mulcahy) and Phyllis (Mrs Seán T.) Ryan called on me at Archbishop’s House to report that the military were firing on their Red Cross Post at Clery’s, and asked me whether the Archbishop could take steps to dissuade the military from doing so. Unfortunately I was unable to give them any hope as the military showed a strong disposition to ignore all requests from any quarter.

Many women like these two are working at First Aid for the Volunteers in the GPO, Stephen’s Green, etc. They also procure news and ammunition.

At 2.30 I went home
(211 North Circular Road, between Grangegorman and Cattle Market)
by Iona Road and Cabra Road, calling at the Vincentians in Phibsboro’. The district had an exciting time while the Volunteers were being dislodged from the NC Rd. bridge. The place was shaken by gunfire
.
(This same bridge was an example of the incompetence of the ‘explosives’ section of the Volunteers. I had seen them attempting to mine the bridge. Later on – next day? – I saw the results of their efforts, a mere hollow, no bigger than a bowl, in the middle of the road.)

My diary then reads:
Incident of scout sent by bicycle to Cork on Easter Sunday
.
I can’t recollect the details of this incident. It must have been an account I received from somebody I met and doubtless refers to a courier conveying Volunteer messages from Dublin.

Seán O’Cuiv called. He had just returned from Cork. There is no disturbance in the South except a little in Tralee. In Cork city the Volunteers and military were about to fight when the Bishop and the Lord Mayor intervened and induced the Volunteers to obey John MacNeill’s orders.

Mr Hughes told me that the reason why Amiens St. Station was not seized was because that duty was left to the Ulster Volunteers. They arrived in mufti and were to have been armed on arrival. By some mischance, the arms were not at hand and nothing could be done.

Mr Grace, a DMP detective, said the Volunteers very nearly captured the Castle. The gates were actually open for them, on a policeman being shot.

Fearing a trap, the Volunteers did not enter. Had they done so, they would have captured everything, including Nathan and Campbell. They then seized the City Hall.

(Lieut.) Tom Kettle, MP, called on me twice to­day in reference to his brother, Larry (a National Volunteer).

Sniping from houses, especially from roofs, has become a regular feature.

All was quiet at 7pm. Notices were distributed ordering people off the streets at 8pm. The warning was not observed and the streets were crowded.

The fire at Lawrence’s (Upper O’Connell St.) is becoming dangerous, not only to the entire block but to the Pro­Cathedral. The fire­brigade was ordered by the military not to go out. Fr Bowden, Adm., and Fr John Flanagan telephoned to ask the Archbishop to procure the intervention of the Viceregal. The Archbishop permitted me to do so. After consultation with General Friend, the Viceregal agreed to do their best (to allow the brigade to save the Pro­Cathedral). But nothing was done about the matter.

During the evening there was a big fight at Ballsbridge – perhaps an attack on the incoming troops from Kingstown. The Volunteers were defeated and 60 taken prisoner.

The Swords Volunteers have occupied the village. It is impossible to settle down to any mental work in this tense atmosphere.

Mr Séamus Hughes, whom I mentioned in my diary as having accompanied me on my way home from the Pro-Cathedral on Wednesday, the 26th April, was in the Volunteers. I wonder was he doing Intelligence work. He was afterwards secretary to Eoin MacNeill. He lived in the neighbourhood of Drumcondra.

Haddington Road Church is used by British Military

My diary referred to the occupation of Haddington Road Church by the military. This incident was reported to me by Dr Donnelly, Archbishop of Canea, Assistant Bishop of Dublin and PP of St Mary’s. One of the priests there – Father McKee – was ill and he attended him. How much sniping the military did from the tower, I do not know. They certainly used it for observation purposes. The military had first entered on the excuse that there were Volunteers up in the tower and they insisted upon inspecting it. They were allowed up; and from that on, they used it for their own purposes. It may have been to prevent other people from using it; they pretended they were fired upon from it. They imagined astonishing things and saw strange visions those days. William M. Murphy, Chairman of the Dublin Tram Company in his address (6th February, 1917) on the year’s working, related how their traffic manager found the military at the Pro-Cathedral about to bombard their premises in O’Connell Street. They were convinced that snipers were firing on them from its windows. As the manager had only just left it, he was able to persuade the officer that there was not a word of truth in the report he had received.

The ‘young Dillon’ mentioned on the same date was a son of our local building contractor. He was an apprentice and had been on jobs about the Archbishop’s house a few times.

Father John McMahon, who attended the wounded at Clanwilliam Place on the same date, was a brother of Archdeacon McMahon. They were staunch followers of John Redmond and very unfriendly to the Volunteers. I also referred to a visit I received from Tom Kettle on the 26th April, 1916. He wished to enquire had we news about his brother. I think that was only an excuse. He was in a miserable way over the whole situation. I had two talks with him that week.

Thursday, 27th April, 1916

The following are my own observations and reports which I heard and were written by me in my diary for Thursday, the 27th April, 1916:

The night was comparatively quiet except for the usual sniping and some machine gun fire.

The Castle neighbourhood has been cleared and remains quiet.

At 8.30am I went to the Pro­Cathedral.

The military are stationed at Cahill’s corner on the North Circular Road
(at Dorset Street),
awaiting with machine­guns the Volunteers from Swords.

A proclamation has been issued ordering the people off the streets between the hours of 7.30pm and 5am.

There are very few in O’Connell Street. There is continual sniping between the military stationed in both the Rotunda and the Ballast Office and the Volunteers in the GPO, Metropole, Hibernian Bank, DBC, other houses and also in Middle Abbey Street as far as Marlborough Street, that is, in Keating’s, etc. Volunteers also occupy Henry Street as far as Moore Street. The houses have been linked up. The Four Courts and Church Street are strongly barricaded.

Communication with the South side is most dangerous.

Several civilians and looters have been killed. The foolhardiness of the looters – mostly women and children – is amazing.

The Pro-­Cathedral was only saved by a miracle from the fire. A change in the wind caused the fire to shift towards Earl Street. The priests had everything ready in bags for departure, including the parochial records. The girls from Hickey’s and other houses (in Pro­Cathedral Street) spent the night in the Sacristy. The Brigade were not allowed out. Priests attending calls are in great danger. Fr John O’Reilly had a narrow escape attending a Volunteer brought into Wynn’s Hotel. Fr Richard Bowden and a Dominican heard confessions in the GPO for several hours yesterday
(Wednesday).

I noted a young sentry of fifteen in Williams Lane. He was carefully watching the approaches from Abbey Street. I was very much impressed by the courage with which he stuck to his post, all by himself, despite his nervous tension. I walked along Abbey Street from the Capel Street end to see how near I could get to O’Connell Street with
safety; and I got as far as Williams lane. Williams lane is the last thoroughfare – only for pedestrians – leading from Abbey Street to Prince’s Street. Middle Abbey Street was absolutely deserted
.

The dummy sniper on Miss Quinn’s nursing home

Returning by Mountjoy Square, I saw (what I thought was) a Volunteer sniper on the roof of what was Miss Quinn’s nursing home.
(This was near Russell Street.)
Several soldiers were firing at him from the pavement in front of Mountjoy School.
(The soldiers were firing at this target. On the day of the surrender, I passed again along that way and noticed that the ‘Volunteer’ was still on the roof. It was then I realised it was a ‘dummy’ rigged up by the Volunteers, with the head only over the roof, while they moved along sniping from other roofs.)

Towards 11am fierce rifle fire took place here (Drumcondra). We counted several bullets singing by the gate lodge and the house. Later on, one struck the house and several sang over it.