1 Contae Ciarraighe 31/V/16 A Chaitlin, a chara dhil, Your letter
delayed owing to censorship, reached
me a week later than it should
in the ordinary course. I immediately wrote
the" Cork Free Press" and the "Cork
Examiner" people, and asked them
to forward you the papers extending
over the period of the rebellion, which
will give you all the news, if they
reach you which is doubtful.
I have had acknowledgements from
the newspaper people stating that they
forwarded the newspapers in due course.
Ireland is under martial law at
present and a strict censorship is
kept on all letters, even letters from
point to point in Ireland. Letters
to America come in for special
attention, hence the newspaper reports
are the only things available for information 2 at present. I think you met a good many
of the men who were mixed up in the
business the time you were up in Dundalk
at the Oireachtas. Of these the best
known would be P.H. Pierce who was
shot by sentence of court marshal, Seán
McDermott who was also shot, Major
John McBride, Ditto, The O'Rahilly
who was killed in action at the
Post Office, Thomas Clarke who was shot.
There were in all 15 shot by sentence
of court marshal and about 100
sentenced to penal servitude. Of the
latter were Tom Ashe, Diarmuid Lynch,
Fionán Lynch (Fr. John Lynch's brother
of Killmakerin). Ashe was sentenced
to penal servitude for life and Lynch
(Diarmuid) got 10 years. He was
I believe sentenced to be hanged, but
the American Authorities intervened
and his sentence was commuted to
10 years. Fionán Lynch got 10 3 years also. There are about 2000
deported to England awaiting trial
including Arthur Griffith. John
McNeill has been tried and found
guilty but has not been sentenced
so far. I think he is likely to get
off lightly for at the last moment
he issued an order to all his
followers prohibiting them from taking
part in parades or anything else on
that day. This order kept the
Country out of reach from Dublin,
absolutely quiet, and prevented the
trouble from spreading. We haven't
got the rights or wrongs of the thing
yet but it would appear that McNeill
was against the rising and certainly
his order prevented the Rebellion from
being on a much larger scale. Sean T. O'C. is a prisoner awaiting
trial and wounded I believe. Kerry kept very quiet during
the business. The volunteers in this County
looked upon McNeill as their chief and
they acted on his order. That accounts 4 for good many of them being out of jail
today probably. The newspapers state that the
Government had made arrangements to
suppress the Irish volunteer organisation
on the day in which it broke forth. One
hundred of the leaders were to be arrested
and deported and all were to be disarmed.
You will be interested to hear that the
National volunteers (Mr Redmond's volunteers)
loyally assisted the military in various
parts of the country in putting down the
Rebellion. So that when you hear over
there that we are a rebelly lot, you'll be
able to realise that we are not all as black as
we are painted. The "Kilkenny
Journal" in a burst of indignation informed
the world that Mr Redmond's volunteers
in that town paraded the streets, headed
by a piper's band to celebrate the shooting
of the first batch of rebels, who were shot
by order of court marshal. What a
satisfaction it must be to Mr Redmond
today to realise that the sentiments of
loyalty which he implanted so carefully in
the breasts of his followers has borne
such good fruit. 5 Pierce Beasley got 3 years. It was a sad business all round
but I believe the rebels did terrible
havoc among the military too. They
fought with tremendous bravery and
even Mr Asquith paid a tribute to
"their bravery and to their "clean fighting"
in the English House of Commons. One
thing is to be placed to their credit,
all declare and that is that they
knew how to fight and they knew
how to die. The last words of
Pierce as he faced the guns were:- "Ireland
is unconquered and unconquerable" and
he was singing "A Nation Once Again"
as he fell. They all refused to have
their eyes bandaged saying that they
wished to face their executioners. Rebels
against the Crown and Constitution
of course, but brave men all. The
firing party paid them that tribute.
Isn't it sad to think of such men
under the sod, instead of leading
their men against the common foe in
France and Flanders. If they had
taken Mr Redmond's advice they might 6 have been starred as Victoria Cross
heroes in England's Roll of Honour. Curiously enough there appears to
have been a large number of Irish
girls involved in the Rebellion. They
fought with the men, many of them
sniping away with rifles and doing
serious damage by all accounts.
I read an article written by an
English Red Cross nurse, who
was all through the business in
the London 'Daily Express' a few
days ago. She paid a wonderful
tribute to the bravery of the girls
and stated that they acted as
messengers in many cases, going
into the zone of fire with the
utmost nonchalance. It was a
question of honour with them she
states to carry through their orders
or to be shot. She was present on
one occasion when a volunteer Captain
asked for a volunteer to carry a message
to one of his colleagues. The carrying
of the message necessitated a journey 7 through an area swept by machine gun
fire but the whole twenty girls sprang
towards him and clamoured to be left
go on the errand - each one of them. Eventually
a well-known authoress was selected
and she set off after calmly saying
"good-bye" to the others. She got back
safely I am glad to say. One would
feel sorry to think of such a woman
being shot. There are about 70 girls imprisoned
in Kilmainham Jail according to the
press and about 30 in Mountjoy.
It is thought however, that they will
be all released immediately. I suppose the American papers
have by this time the romantic marriage
of Joseph Plunkett, son of Count
Plunkett, who was shot by order of
Court martial. He was engaged to
be married to the daughter of a
Dublin solicitor, a Miss Gifford.
She desired to be his bride, so they
were married in prison the night
before his Execution at midnight and
he was shot the next morning. She
was bride and widow within the 24 8 hours. Miss Gifford's sister was
married to Thomas McDonagh the
poet, who was also shot by order of
Court martial. So that the two sisters
gave their all. I think you were present last
year at O'Donovan Rossa's funeral
when Pierce delivered the funeral oration
over his grave. There were few more
eloquent speakers than he. How
curiously apt are the words in which
he wound up his speech, nowadays,
"The fools, the fools, do they seek to
destroy our Nationality, while they leave
us the graves of our dead" I suppose his own grave will
now become an inspiration for Young
Ireland, ensuring the struggle goes on from
generation to generation with passionate
devotion and willing self sacrifice on the
one side, and ineptitude and stupidity
and callous indifference on the other. "Thou art not Conquered yet Dear Land." With very kind regards
Your Sincere friend Padraig