Uncommon Valour (9 page)
On arrival at Richmond barracks, about sixty men were locked in each room with no furniture and little ventilation. The only sanitary provision was a large bucket in the corner of the room. For breakfast buckets containing tea and a basket of hard biscuits were distributed. The biscuits were tumbled out onto the floor and empty bully-beef tins were used as tea containers. Later in the day, police from âG' division of the Dublin Metropolitan Police arrived and began to identify those who had played a prominent role in the week's insurrection. Commandant Ceannt and Lieutenant Cosgrave were singled out, separated and marched away for interrogation.
Those Volunteers, such as James Burke, who had been taken prisoner early in the week, had been taken to Kilmainham police station. They were questioned by military intelligence officers and then moved to Richmond barracks and placed in the guardroom. From there they were conveyed to Kilmainham Gaol. Burke recalled:
We were brought over to Kilmainham Gaol, where some drunken soldiery of the Dublin Fusiliers immediately set upon us, kicking us, beating us and threatening us with bayonets. We looked at one another the next morning and thought we were dead. The Dublin Fusiliers were the worst of the lot.
The soldiers threatened the Volunteers throughout the night and shouted, âWho is Sinn Féin?' They seemed to think that âSinn Féin' was the name of the Volunteers' leader. The English soldiers were mostly decent. Most of them were young fellows who did not know one end of a rifle from the other as far as I could see.
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The Volunteers were taken from Richmond barracks, marched to the quays and then sent to Knutsford. They were then transferred to Frongoch prison camp in Wales. Volunteer Paddy Morrissey who had been wounded in the leg on Monday had been transferred to hospital under military escort. He escaped from hospital soon afterwards in a milk cart. He was never formally arrested.
Some time after the battle, Major Sir Francis Fletcher Vane walked through the shattered remains of the Nurses' Home and wrote, âI am sorry for our poor fellows who were killed. They fought splendidly. So did the enemy.'
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On 3 May 1916, Commandant Ãamonn Ceannt was tried by field general court-martial in the gymnasium of Richmond barracks, Inchicore. His trial lasted two days. The presiding judges were Brigadier General C.G. Blackader (President), Lieutenant Colonel G. German and Lieutenant Colonel W.J. Kent. The trial was held in secret, behind closed doors. The charges against him stated that he:
Did an act to wit; did take part in an armed rebellion and in the waging of war against his Majesty the King, such act being of such a nature as to be calculated to be prejudicial to the Defence to the Realm and being done with the intention and for the purpose of assisting the enemy.
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Ceannt pleaded not guilty to the charges put before him.
William G. Wylie was appointed as counsel for the prosecution. Born in Dublin, Wylie had been called to the Irish bar in 1905 and in 1914 he was appointed King's Counsel. During the rebellion he was stationed in Trinity College as a member of the Officer Training Corps and had accepted the surrender of many of those he was now going to prosecute. In Ceannt's case, Wylie called the only witness for the prosecution, a Major J.E. Armstrong of the First Royal Enniskillen Fusiliers. Major Armstrong had been present at the surrender of Ceannt in St Patrick's Park on 30 April, but this was the first time he had actually seen the defendant. Armstrong implied that Ceannt had surrendered as one of the party from the Jacob's biscuit factory and had therefore been involved in firing at British troops in the area. He also stated that Ceannt held the rank of commandant and was armed at the time of the surrender.
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The evidence provided by Major Armstrong was circumstantial and Ceannt denied being a member of the garrison at Jacob's. The court was adjourned until the following day as Ceannt requested a number of witnesses. One of these, Thomas McDonagh, had already been executed on 3 May. Ceannt called John MacBride as a witness in his defence. MacBride testified that Ceannt was not part of the Jacob's garrison and two others, Richard Davis and Patrick Sweeny, also testified that Ceannt was not at Jacob's.
Ceannt claimed that he had surrendered in the area of St Patrick's Park and had arrived there at the head of two bodies of Volunteers, but that he was only in command of one. He declared that the sworn testimonies of his witnesses proved that he was not in the vicinity of Jacob's and so had not fired on British troops. In his final address to the court he said: âI claim at least that there is reasonable doubt and the benefit of the doubt should be given to the accused.'
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The court did not accept his plea and returned the verdict of guilty â the punishment was death by firing squad. Before leaving his men in Richmond barracks, Ceannt gave instructions that each man was to make the best defence possible.
On the evening of 5 May, Ceannt was transferred from Richmond barracks to Kilmainham Gaol to await his execution. On 6 May, General Sir John Maxwell, Commander of the British forces in Ireland, confirmed the court verdict of guilty. The day before his execution, Ceannt wrote a statement from his cell in Kilmainham about the action in the South Dublin Union:
I leave for the guidance of other Irish revolutionaries who may tread the path which I have trod this advice: never to treat with the enemy, never to surrender to his mercy, but fight to a finish. I see nothing gained but grave disaster caused, by the surrender which has marked the end of the Irish insurrection of 1916 â so far at least as Dublin is concerned. The enemy has not cherished one generous thought for those who, with little hope, with poor equipment, and weak in numbers, withstood his forces for one glorious week. Ireland has shown she is a nation. This generation can claim to have raised sons as brave as any that went before. And in the years to come Ireland will honour those who risked all for her honour at Easter in 1916. I bear no ill will towards those against whom I fought. I have found the common soldiers and the higher officers humane and companionable, even the English who were actually in the fight against us. Thank God soldiering for Ireland has opened my heart and made me see poor humanity where I expected to see only scorn and reproach. I have met the man who escaped from me by a ruse under the Red Cross. But I do not regret having withheld my fire. He gave me cakes!
I wish to record the magnificent gallantry and fearless calm determination of the men who fought with me. All, all, were simply splendid. Even I knew no fear nor panic and shrunk from no risk even as I shrink not now for a moment in the morning. His will be done. All are very kind. My poor wife saw me yesterday and bore up so my warden told me â even after she left my presence. Poor Ãine and Ronan. God is their only shield now that I am removed. And God is a better shield than I. I have just seen Ãine, Nell, Richard and Mick and bade them a conditioned goodbye. Even now they hope!
Ãamonn Ceannt
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At dawn on Monday 8 May, 1916, Ãamonn Ceannt was led out to the stonebreaker's yard in Kilmainham Gaol. His hands had been tied behind his back, he had been blindfolded and a piece of white paper had been placed over his heart to act as a target. He held a crucifix in his tied hands given to him by Father Augustine. As Ceannt was placed sitting on an upturned wooden soapbox, a British army officer moved forward and asked him to stretch his legs out. The firing squad entered the yard after the prisoner and took up their firing position, six kneeling and six standing. On command the firing squad made ready, presented arms and fired. Ceannt tumbled over as the bullets found their mark. However, he was still alive. The officer moved forward, withdrew his revolver and performed the final
coup de grâce
with a single shot to Ceannt's head. As Father Augustine administered extreme unction, he retrieved the cross from Ceannt's hands and saw that it was spattered with blood.
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The squad were marched out of the yard, grounded their weapons and the spent cartridges were collected. They then cleaned their rifles. All the firing squads were drawn from the Sherwood Forester Regiment. They had suffered the heaviest casualties in their engagements at Mount Street Bridge and also at the South Dublin Union. The regimental history of the Sherwood Forester Regiment states that all those who were executed met their fate bravely.
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Official records show that Ãamonn Ceannt was executed by firing squad between 3:45 a.m. and 4:05 a.m. Captain H.M. Whitehead of the 7th Battalion Sherwood Foresters, acting as Assistant Provost Marshal, signed the confirmation of Ceannt's death.
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Brigadier J. Young issued a memorandum from Irish command headquarters at Parkgate Street in relation to the procedure for the burial of those who were executed:
After each prisoner has been shot, a medical officer will certify that he is dead, and his body will be immediately removed to an ambulance, with a label pinned on his breast giving his name. When the ambulance is full, it will be sent to Arbour Hill detention barracks, entering by the gate at the Garrison Chapel. The party will put the bodies close alongside one another in the grave, cover them quickly in quicklime and commence filling the grave. One of the officers with his party is to keep a note of the position of each body in the grave, taking the name from the label. A priest will attend for the funeral service.
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Between 3â12 May 1916, fourteen men were executed at Kilmainham Gaol and removed to Arbour Hill detention barracks for burial. General Sir John Grenfell Maxwell, officer in command, was adamant that the bodies of those executed should not be released to their families. In an attempt to prevent the graves being turned into a martyr's shrine, the executed men were buried in quicklime and without coffins.
On 11 May 1916, General Maxwell wrote a memorandum to Herbert Asquith in relation to Ceannt:
This man was one of the signatories to the declaration of Irish Independence. He was on the executive committee and central council of the Irish Volunteers and attended all their meetings. He was an extremist in his views and identified himself with all pro-German movements. He held the rank of commandant in the rebel army and was in command at the South Dublin Union in the capture of which the British troops suffered heavily, losing both officers and men. He was armed at the time of his surrender.
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Ãamonn Ceannt had carried out his orders to the last detail. He held his position within the South Dublin Union, inflicting heavy casualties on his attackers. He fought the British government on the battlefield and in the courtroom of Richmond barracks â in both cases, the odds were stacked heavily against him. And, in the end, he reluctantly obeyed the order to surrender, knowing that as a signatory of the Proclamation of the Republic, he had voluntarily signed his own death warrant.
Murder and Mayhem at the
Guinness Brewery?
On Monday 12 June, 1916, a general court-martial assembled at Richmond barracks in Dublin to try Company Quartermaster Sergeant Robert Flood of the 5th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
Quartermaster Sergeant Robert Flood, a career soldier, enlisted in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers on 11 January 1899, aged fourteen years and nine months.
He saw service at home, in Egypt, India and in the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. The accused was standing trial for the murders of Lieutenant Algernon Lucas of the 2nd King Edward's Horse and William John Rice, an employee of the Guinness Brewery on James's Street. The series of tragic events that led to the deaths of these two men took place during the panic and confusion that gripped the area as the battle raged within the South Dublin Union.
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The Guinness Brewery on James's Street stood in close proximity to the South Dublin Union. The brewing complex covered over sixty-five acres and consisted of offices, brewing facilities and storage areas. From their vantage point in the Guinness storehouse, a few employees could see the buildings burning on Sackville Street and Capel Street. In order to protect the Bond Street boundary of the Brewery from possible attack by the Irish Volunteers positioned at the Jameson's Distillery on Marrowbone Lane, the management of the brewery arranged with the British military for a small picket of soldiers to be deployed in the Robert Street Malt Store near the Grand Canal harbour. Colonel Williams promised to reinforce this small section as soon as more men became available.
Nine men and one officer of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers took up position throughout the Malt Store on the evening of Friday 28 April at 9 p.m. Their officer, Captain Charles McNamara, 5th RDF, was ordered to occupy the building, not to answer sniper fire unless there were attempts to enter the brewery, not to open any windows and to hold the place overnight. The soldiers were placed at strategic points throughout the building and were ordered to watch a small footbridge at the harbour, as this is where they believed an attack would emanate from. The sound of rifle and machine-gun fire was continuous and the boom of artillery added to the fears of the staff and military who expected to be attacked at any moment. McNamara was told that the only brewery officials on duty that night were three night watchmen who would have lamps.
The sound of gunfire steadily increased outside the Malt Store, so it was arranged to leave the brewery in darkness in order to escape the possibility of sniping. It was a very dark night and the Malt Store was an eerie place, illuminated only by the fires in Dublin city. Sinister shadows were cast across the halls and stairwells as the soldiers patrolled the building, their boots echoing on the stone floors accompanied by the rattle of their military accoutrements. During the night it was decided to relieve Captain McNamara and at 11 p.m., Captain A.R. Rotheram of the 10th Cavalry Reserve arrived and presented 2nd Lieutenant Algernon Lucas of the 2nd King Edward's Horse. As Lieutenant Lucas prepared to take command, Captain McNamara related the orders to the lieutenant in the presence of Quartermaster Sergeant Robert Flood. Captain Rotheram and Captain McNamara withdrew from the Malt Store leaving the picket alone in the darkness.
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