An Cosantóir

The Birth of an Army: 26 | A bicycle company in Howth to receive the rifles and ammunition by Erskine Childers The Formation of Óglaigh na hÉireann 1913-1915 (Part I) This article was previously printed in our November 2003 issue. We are reprinting it, with minor amendments, over two months as our contribution to the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Irish Volunteers' (Óglaigh na hÉireann). by CQMS Gerry White and Lt Col Brendan O'Shea Photos courtesy of Military Archives W hen William Gladstone introduced the first Home Rule Bill in 1886 the issue of Home Rule for Ireland' quickly came to dominate political debate. Seven years later the second Home Rule Bill actually passed through the House of Commons but was vetoed in the House of Lords. However, it was the third Home Rule Bill, introduced in April 1912, that sparked off a major crisis in Ireland, with the majority of Nationalists fully embracing the concept and the Ulster Unionists remaining bitterly opposed. On September 28th 250,000 Unionists gathered at Belfast's City Hall and signed a 'Solemn League and Covenant' pledging to resist Home Rule, with some even signing in their own blood. This was quickly followed in January 1913 by the formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an organisation dedicated to resist Home Rule by force of arms if necessary. Within a year the UVF would claim a strength of nearly 100,000. Nationalist Ireland, especially the leadership of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), was alarmed. Founded in 1858 by James Stephens, the IRB was a secret, oath-bound organisation dedicated to establishing an independent Irish Republic by force of arms. Bulmer Hobson, a Quaker from Co Down and a member of the IRB's Supreme Council, was quite clear in his views that the time had come to organise a volunteer organisation in the South, albeit that the IRB could not overtly play any part. Instead it was decided to seek out a respected figure to become the focal point for the new movement. Within weeks such a leader emerged in the person of Eoin MacNeill, Professor of Early and Medieval Irish History at University College Dublin. MacNeill had independently advocated the formation of such an organisation and in his article 'The North Began', published in the Gaelic League journal An Claidheamh Soluis (The Sword of Light) on November 1st 1913, he wrote: "There is nothing to prevent the other twenty-eight counties from calling into existence citizen forces to hold Ireland 'for the Empire'. It was precisely with this object that the Volunteers of 1782 were enrolled, and they became an instrument of establishing self-government and Irish prosperity." Hobson, together with The O'Rahilly, editor of An Claidheamh Soluis, approached MacNeill and began discussing plans for the institution of a volunteer force. "I had no doubt that both these men came to me from the old physical force party whose organi- An Cosantóir November 2013 www.dfmagazine.ie sation was the IRB", MacNeill said. "I also had little doubt of the part I was expected to play." On November 11th a meeting was convened at Wynns Hotel, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin. In attendance were MacNeill, The O'Rahilly, Hobson, Padraig Pearse, Seán McDermott, Eamon Ceannt, Sean Fitzgibbon, Píaras Beaslaí, Joseph Cambell, James Deakin and WJ Ryan. With the exception of the last three, those present agreed to constitute themselves as a Provisional Committee tasked with the formation of an 'Irish Volunteer Force'. At subsequent meetings additional personnel were added until the committee totalled 30 and on November 20th a letter was circulated to various national organisations outlining the objectives of the new movement, of which the primary goal was to "secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland". A public meeting to formally establish the Irish Volunteers was held at the Rotunda Rink, Dublin, at 8pm on November 25th 1913. Interest proved so great that a crowd of over 7,000 tried to gain admission. Addressing the 4,000 people who were crammed into the building, and relaying his message to the additional 3,000 gathered in the gardens, MacNeill presided over the meeting and declared, "We are meeting in public in order to proceed at once to the enrolment and organisation of a national force of Volunteers. We believe that the national instinct of the people and their reasoned opinion has been steadily forming itself for some time past in favour of this undertaking. All that is now needed is to create a suitable opportunity to make a beginning and from a public meeting, of the most unrestricted and representative kind, in the capital of the country, to invite all the able-bodied men of Ireland to form themselves into a united and disciplined body of freemen prepared to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to all the people of Ireland." Pearse also spoke, and informed the crowd that "The bearing of arms is not only the proudest right of citizenship, but it is the most essential duty, because the ability to enjoy the other rights and to discharge the other duties of citizenship can only be guarded by the ability to defend citizenship." Addressing the on-going Home Rule debate he went on to say: "There are people in the hall who share the belief that for Ireland there can be no true freedom within the British Empire. There are, doubtless, many more who believe that Ireland can achieve and

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