Uncommon Valour (6 page)

During Easter week there were a number of Irish Volunteers who attempted to link up with their respective units. Although Eoin MacNeill's countermanding order of the previous Sunday had caused many men not to turn out initially, as the week progressed a number of Volunteers came out of their own accord. Due to the cordon of British troops around the city, these Volunteers were unable to join their units. However, they were undeterred and began harassing crown forces by taking up sniping positions, injuring many and delaying the British advance into the city.

By nightfall, both battalions of the Sherwood Foresters had suffered heavy casualties having engaged Irish Volunteer forces on Northumberland Road and at Mount Street Bridge. Relieved by the South Staffordshire Regiment, the remnants of the Sherwood Foresters made their way to the Royal Dublin Society where they billeted overnight.

On Wednesday evening, as the battle raged throughout Dublin city, the Volunteers in the South Dublin Union could move freely around the inner courtyard since the British military had ceased firing and had withdrawn their forces from within the complex. However, although the Volunteers did not know it, this was just the calm before the storm.

Chapter 6

Thursday, 27 April 1916
Morning

During the night of 26–27 April, the Sherwood Forester Regiment received orders from Brigadier General Lowe to concentrate their forces in the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham.
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They were detailed to escort a consignment of ammunition to the headquarters' building. Lieutenant Colonel Oates would lead the advance guard that consisted of the 2/8th Sherwood Foresters, who would then be followed by the main body of the regiment comprising the 2/7th Sherwood Foresters, Brigade Headquarters, the Royal Engineers and the Army Service Corps. The 2/7th Sherwood Foresters would also throw out a small rearguard.

The convoy was to follow a route that crossed Leeson Street Bridge, went past Wellington barracks (now Griffith College), and continued along the South Circular Road, across Rialto Bridge and on to the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham. Lieutenant Colonel Oates was familiar with the route, as he had been stationed at Wellington barracks for two years when he had served with the Munster Fusiliers.

On the previous day, Wednesday 26 April, the 2/5th and 2/6th Sherwood Foresters had crossed the Rialto Bridge without incident. British crown forces expected little or no opposition on the journey. Ammunition was issued to the men while the Army Service Corps loaded the wagons. Accompanying Lieutenant Colonel Oates were two veterans of the First World War, Captain ‘Mickey' Martyn and Lieutenant Colonel Oates' son, Captain John S. Oates, the officer commanding ‘D' company. Captain Martyn had fought on the Western Front in actions at ‘Plug Street' and Neuve Chapelle. Both of these officers had missed the action at Mount Street Bridge, as ‘D' company of the 2/8th Sherwood Foresters had been held up in Liverpool. They now joined the somewhat depleted ranks of the other companies of the Sherwood Foresters and prepared to move out.

Thursday morning broke as a calm and beautiful spring morning. From their vantage points within the Union complex, the Volunteers could see people moving freely through the surrounding streets, stopping to chat and going about their daily business. Having procured razors many men took the opportunity to wash and shave. The atmosphere was relaxed as the Volunteers stretched their legs in the small garden to the rear of the Nurses' Home. Brugha, seated on the floor of that building, dismantled and cleaned his automatic pistol. He carefully reloaded his empty clips. Commandant Ceannt arrived and the two officers assessed the situation. Their entire force now consisted of only forty-one officers and men, as eight of the Volunteers had been killed in action and another twelve were either wounded or taken prisoner. They held the boardroom and the offices over the main entrance as well as the Nurses' Home (10). Their positions covered James's Street on the outside and from the inside, the main courtyard as well as the fields between the Rialto entrance and the main gate. They had lost all contact with their outlying posts.

A dispatch had been received from Volunteer headquarters at the General Post Office that morning. The news was positive, but the messenger reported that he had great difficulty in breaking through the British lines in order to deliver the communiqué. Commandant Ceannt decided not to send a written reply but relayed verbally the events of the previous days to the messenger. The Volunteers watched him leave and wondered if the message would make it to Patrick Pearse and the headquarter staff.

By this stage the hospital staff had transferred many of the patients in the wards adjoining Ceannt's positions to the Rialto end of the complex for their safety. Ceannt was anticipating an all out attack on the Union in the near future and instructed his men to make ready. Ammunition was distributed to each section of Volunteers and Ceannt and Brugha toured the defences encouraging their men. Both Volunteer officers were confident of their position in the Union. They claimed that though setbacks were possible, the Volunteers would not be defeated. The sentiment among the Volunteers was that this was a fight of the spirit, for the spirit is never conquered. In the hours that were to follow, this belief would be put to the test.

Chapter 7

Thursday, 27 April 1916
Early Afternoon

In the early afternoon, the British column heading for the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, accompanied by Brigadier General Maconchy, set off from the Ballsbridge Showgrounds. As they approached Rialto Street at 2.15 p.m., a fusillade was opened on the column causing a number of horses to stampede. The advance guard of the column led by Lieutenant Colonel Oates took cover on the approach to Rialto Bridge. Irish Volunteers had opened fire in an attempt to delay the column's advance.

Lieutenant Colonel Oates ordered Captain Martyn to take a section from the leading company and clear the buildings in Rialto, and also those in the vicinity of the bridge, of rogue snipers. As Captain Martyn moved to counteract the sniping, a number of shots came from a nearby rhubarb field, south-west of Rialto Bridge. Soldiers scattered as more shots also came from the buildings of the South Dublin Union. The military were forced to take cover as single shots snapped through the nearby trees that ran parallel to the road.

Brigadier General Maconchy took the decision to risk sending one wagon across the bridge. The army service driver approached the bridge at a gallop and a volley of shots rang out, many of them hitting the wooded slats of the wagon. Although the vehicle cleared the bridge, Brigadier Maconchy realised he would suffer severe casualties if he attempted to get the rest of the transport across. The approach to Rialto Bridge was a steep and narrow defile that would slow the column and make it an easy target for Irish snipers. The column was halted and Lieutenant Colonel Oates realised that he had to thoroughly clear the way ahead and protect the column's flanks in order to proceed safely. Captain Dimock, leading ‘A' company, was ordered to clear the rhubarb field, then cross the bridge and clear out the enemy snipers ahead of the main advance. ‘C' company were brought up to secure the line of advance along the South Circular Road. Lieutenant Colonel Oates sent an urgent message to Portobello barracks requesting reinforcements.

Sir Francis Fletcher Vane of the Royal Munster Fusiliers responded to Oates' request for assistance. Vane assembled all the men not on duty, about fifty in all, many of them from the Royal Irish Rifles, with no fewer than six officers from five different regiments.
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Two members of the Royal Irish Constabulary, Constable Christopher Miller and Constable Martin Meany accompanied the soldiers. They were conspicuous in their uniforms as they wore army khaki breeches and the police cap and tunic. Both men were attending the school of instruction for non-commissioned officers at the barracks. They marched out of the barracks and found the convoy in great trouble about two miles away. The men were already suffering from battle fatigue after their engagement at Mount Street Bridge the day before and Lieutenant Colonel Oates was greatly distracted.

Captain Martyn returned to the column having completed his task and received further orders from Oates:

The advance guard to clear the Auxiliary Workhouse (3), and occupy as much as possible of the South Dublin Union, with a view to distracting the enemy's attention whilst the transport crossed the bridge.
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Lieutenant Colonel Oates handed over command of the assault on the Union to Sir Francis Fletcher Vane. Major Vane wore a soft peaked cap and carried a swagger stick that he used to direct his men to their positions. As the troops made ready, the column made contact with Lieutenant Monk Gibbon who was newly arrived from Kingsbridge Station with a number of men. As the lieutenant's unit approached the bridge from the station direction they came under fire from a section of the Sherwood Foresters. As his men took cover, the lieutenant called out and the firing ceased. By mistakenly firing on their own soldiers the British troops showed that they were nervous and suffering from exhaustion. Approaching the column, Gibbon offered his services to Major Vane who was glad to have more experienced troops under his command. Vane directed the men to where he could see a rebel flag flying from the rooftop. That was to be their target. Entering the Union grounds, British soldiers moved north, spreading out in a skirmish line across the open ground. Advancing in short runs, about five sections of twenty men each moved towards the Nurses' Home.

Major Vane and Captain Martyn led the first wave that moved swiftly through the Auxiliary Workhouse (3) at the Rialto end, which they found unoccupied. In close support were Captain Oates and another section advancing in a series of rushes. Wave after wave of soldiers advanced through the Union gaining seven to eight yards in each advancing movement. As each section took up position they concentrated their fire on the windows of the buildings occupied by the Volunteers, enabling the other sections to move forward. Major Vane described the assault in a letter to his wife:

Well I have been in some fights but never in such an odd one as this, for we commenced by open fighting in fields and so far as right flank was concerned fought up to literally three feet of the enemy. But everything was bizarre on that day for we advanced through a convent where the nuns were all praying and expecting to be shot poor creatures, then through the wards of imbeciles who were all shrieking – and through one of poor old people. To get from one door to another was a gymnastic feat because you had to run the gauntlet of the snipers.
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Having passed through the chapel in the convent (8), the soldiers had 250 yards of open ground to negotiate. Lieutenant Gibbon and his unit remained in support, lying on the grass to the rear. When the advance troop reached an outcrop of buildings, they summoned the support group. Dashing through the grounds, Lieutenant Gibbon made his way into a small orchard near the rear of the Nurses' Home. Volunteer sentries were the first to open fire on the khaki figures as the shout of ‘alarm, stand to' was given by the Volunteer lookouts. As Gibbon's men took cover, the air was filled with shattering noise and confusion. Men shouted to one another, gunfire rattled out from the buildings and explosions cracked throughout the complex. Lance Corporal Chapman, gamekeeper to the Duke of Newcastle, was shot and killed as he advanced towards the Volunteers' position.

A number of the Volunteer garrison had been engaged in wall-boring operations in the buildings between the front offices over the main gate at James's Street (14) and the Nurses' Home (10). When this was completed, the pierced walls enabled the Volunteers to move freely from the offices to headquarters at the Nurses' Home. When they heard the shooting, they grabbed their rifles and rushed to their positions in the Nurses' Home. A well-directed and concentrated fire was being maintained against all the windows to the rear of the building by the British. Many of the bullets entered the rooms diagonally, splitting the brickwork at the sides of the windows, preventing the Volunteers from returning fire. The machine-gunners on the roof of the Royal Hospital added to the intense fire that was now being directed into the Union complex.

The gunfire was so intense that the rooms in the Nurses' Home soon filled with dense clouds of plaster dust. Bullets flew through the back windows, entered the rooms and exited through the front of the building. The Volunteers crouched low behind the granite walls of the building for cover. Volunteer James Coughlan, unable to return fire, moved out from the rear room to the first landing that overlooked the front entrance of the Nurses' Home. Looking over the porch barricade, his field of fire covered the windows at the side of the front door. Taking cover behind a sand-bagged emplacement on the landing, he was joined by Douglas fFrench Mullen and Jack Doherty. Khaki figures darted across the front of the building and the Volunteers opened a rapid fire.

Some British soldiers entered the wards (11) that were opposite the Nurses' Home. The ward staff incorrectly reported that the Irish Volunteers numbered in the region of 200 men. After breaking the windows, the British soldiers opened fire in an attempt to cover a frontal assault on the Volunteer headquarters. The frontage of the Nurses' Home was raked by a terrible concentration of rifle fire. A party of soldiers broke cover and charged across the square towards the Nurses' Home. They were repulsed and retreated suffering heavy casualties, one of whom, Constable Meany, was severely wounded. This scenario was repeated a number of times.

Volunteer Peadar Doyle noticed that the barricade at the front door had been tampered with and reported this to Commandant Ceannt. Both men made a desperate dash to the entrance. As they put their shoulders to the now open door in an attempt to close it, they felt a huge force pushing from the other side. Constable Miller of the Royal Irish Constabulary had seen the door open and was now forcing his way in. Constable Christopher Miller was thirty years old and originally from County Limerick. He had eight years and three months of service with the RIC. As he heaved on the door Ceannt and Doyle slid across the floor as they lost their footing. The RIC man was almost six foot tall and of a strong build. He was gaining the upper hand and the door was slowly opening. Then Ceannt stuck his automatic pistol out through the gap in the door and squeezed the trigger. The policeman was hit and he staggered backwards a few yards before collapsing. The Volunteers managed to close the door and secure the position.
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Lieutenant Monk Gibbon was called upon to give aid to the stricken policeman. He picked up a water bottle and darted across in front of the Volunteers' position, but as soon as he reached Miller's body he could see by his pallor that he was dead.