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    Battleground: The Battle for the GPO, 1916
    Battleground: The Battle for the GPO, 1916
    Battleground: The Battle for the GPO, 1916
    Ebook164 pages2 hours

    Battleground: The Battle for the GPO, 1916

    By Paul O'Brien

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    About this ebook

    On Easter Monday, 24th April 1916, members of the Irish Citizen Army and the Irish Volunteers, under the command of Pádraig Pearse and James Connolly, occupied the General Post Office in Sackville Street, Dublin. From the portico of the iconic building, an independent Irish Republic was declared. For seven days, this newly proclaimed republic fought a week-long bloody engagement with British Crown Forces as part of the 1916 Rising that would see hundreds die and Dublin city reduced to rubble after an intensive military bombardment.
    Battleground - The Battle for the General Post Office, 1916 is a detailed account of the actions in the area of operations in and around the General Post Office. The building served as the General Headquarters of the Republican Army and witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of Easter Week as the beleaguered garrison fought against overwhelming odds. The Rising was quickly and brutally suppressed, but the memory of the heroism depicted that week and of the executions that followed changed Irish history forever.
    Military historian Paul O'Brien is the author of Shootout: The Battle for St. Stephen's Green, 1916, Crossfire: The Battle of the Four Courts, 1916, Field of Fire: The Battle of Ashbourne, 1916 and A Question of Duty. He lives in Dublin.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNew Island
    Release dateMay 15, 2015
    ISBN9781848404489
    Battleground: The Battle for the GPO, 1916
    Author

    Paul O'Brien

    Paul O’Brien is an entrepreneurial strategist, philosopher, and raconteur who invented divination software and created the world’s largest astrology and divination ecommerce business, Tarot.com. He is a sought-after advisor, interview subject, and speaker, as well as author of The Visionary I Ching: A Book of Changes for the 21st Century and the Visionary I Ching app for smartphones. Executive director of the Divination Foundation (Divination.com), for 30 years Paul has hosted Pathways radio in Portland, Oregon, an interview program focused on personal and cultural transformation (podcasts at Divination.com and iTunes).

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      Book preview

      Battleground - Paul O'Brien

      Chapter 1

      Easter Monday,

      24 April 1916: Morning

      CHARGE!

      At 08.00 hours on Monday, 24 April 1916, Liberty Hall, the headquarters of the Irish Citizen Army at Beresford Place, was a hive of activity. Armed guards stood to attention at the main door of the premises, allowing entrance only to the countless couriers that came and went from the building with great urgency. Sandbags festooned the windows and a small armed picquet of men stood guard in case there was an attempt to attack the building.

      Throughout the morning, members of the Irish Citizen Army, Cumann na mBán, Fianna Éireann and the Irish Volunteers mobilised at Liberty Hall to await further orders. Following the capture of the German ammunition ship, the Aud, and MacNeill’s countermanding order, Volunteer mobilisation throughout the country had been incomplete.

      The Military Council of the IRB had sent out messengers to the various battalions across the country rescheduling the insurrection for noon on the Easter Bank Holiday Monday, 24 April 1916. Confusion reigned amongst the rank and file of the various republican organisations, resulting in many refusing or ignoring the order to mobilise on the Monday. The turnout for those Companies that did mobilise in rural areas was small and many returned home, presuming that the Rising would not go ahead.

      Many members of the Irish Citizen Army, anticipating some form of action, had slept in Liberty Hall overnight and others had arrived in the early hours of the morning. Corridors were filled with men and women dressed in an array of clothing and military accoutrements, waiting for something to happen. Helena Molony of the ICA recalls:

      The [Citizen Army] women had no uniform, in the ordinary sense, nor the men either. Some of the men had green coats. They wore an ordinary slouch hat, like the Boer hat, and mostly a belt. They insisted they were citizen soldiers, not military soldiers – at the same time regimented and disciplined. I had an Irish tweed costume, with a Sam Browne [military belt]. I had my own revolver and ammunition.¹

      Many Volunteers were dressed in their grey-green uniforms with puttees, water bottles and haversacks. Others wore their everyday clothes criss-crossed with ammunition bandoliers. They were armed with a variety of weapons, including rifles, revolvers, shotguns and automatic pistols.

      Those Volunteers who would make up the Headquarters Battalion to occupy the General Post Office (I) on Sackville Street were drawn from the four city battalions, the Irish Citizen Army and the Kimmage Volunteers. Among the latter group, some had evaded conscription in Britain while others were on the run in Ireland for nationalist activities. This group, commanded by George Plunkett and Frank Thornton, numbered seventy-five members and was loosely attached to the 4th Battalion. It took the name ‘Pearse’s Own’ but was more commonly known as the ‘Kimmage Garrison’ or the ‘London Irish’. In total there were only 150 men available to seize and hold the building on Dublin’s main thoroughfare.

      In an attic room within Liberty Hall, the General Headquarters staff were assembling.

      The Headquarters Battalion was to be led to the GPO by James Connolly, Commandant General of the Dublin Division of the newly formed Irish Republican Army and signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. Connolly, an ardent socialist and union official, had formed the Irish Citizen Army during the turbulent period of the 1913 Lockout. The amalgamation of his force and the Irish Volunteers had resulted in his new command.

      On a table ready for collection were a number of copies of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic that had been printed over the weekend. These were handed to a junior officer for safe keeping. The Proclamation had been signed by Connolly and six others: Patrick Pearse, Thomas Clarke, Seán Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, Eamonn Ceannt and Joseph Plunkett, some of whom were in the cramped and dimly lit attic room.

      Patrick Pearse, who held the rank of Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Republic and President of the Provisional Government, was also a poet, writer, educationalist, lawyer and revolutionary. A member of the Military Council of the IRB, he had helped plan the Rising. His younger brother, William, was also in attendance, as he was assigned to his older brother’s staff as his personal attaché.

      Seated on a chair was Thomas Clarke, who was the first of the seven signatories to sign the Proclamation. Clarke had spent many years in prison for Fenian activities and was responsible for reorganising the IRB. He was also responsible for establishing the secret Military Council of the IRB. Seán Mac Diarmada, a native of County Leitrim, was a member of the Military Council. He stood nearby, supported by his walking cane, having suffered from polio four years earlier.

      Outside, Joseph Plunkett arrived by cab accompanied by two officers, his aide-de-camp, Michael Collins, and W. J. Brennan Whitmore. Plunkett held the post of Director of Military Operations and was responsible, along with Connolly, for the military planning of the Rising. He had suffered from bad health throughout his life and was weak due to having recently undergone an operation for glandular tuberculosis. As he exited the cab and made his way into Liberty Hall, the officers received a general salute. Once inside, the officers made their way upstairs to the small attic room where they were greeted by the other members of the Military Council. The only signatories absent were Commandant Eamonn Ceannt and Commandant Thomas MacDonagh. Ceannt was commanding the 4th Battalion in the field and was at that moment taking up position within the South Dublin Union.² MacDonagh was occupying Jacob’s Biscuit Factory with elements of the 2nd

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