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Welcome
to our archive of key writings on republicanism and national liberation
by Irish revolutionaries including Patrick Pearse, James
Connolly, James Fintan Lalor, Robert Emmet, and Wolfe Tone. Here you
will find some of the most important documents in Irish history.
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1916-1921:
The Easter Rising and the
First Dáil
The Proclamation of the
Republic
issued by the rebels of Easter 1916, and
the Democratic Programme
adopted by the First Dail in January 1919 remain pivotal documents for
modern republicanism. Also included here is the Manifesto on the basis
of which Sinn Féin won its landslide election victory in 1918.
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Patrick
Pearse
Patrick Pearse began his career as an Irish language activist and
educationalist. However, the reluctance of the London government to
implement the promised measure of Home Rule for Ireland in the face of
unionist resistence pushed him towards a more militant
nationalism.
He was a founding member of the Irish Volunteers in 1913, and joined
the underground Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in 1914. Within a
year he was a member of the organisation's Military Council.
"How Does She Stand" is a collection of three speeches delivered by
Pearse in 1913 and 1914. Commemorating republican heroes of
the past, they are a call to
arms addressed to Pearse's own contemporaries:
Written in the same period, "The
Coming Revolution" marks a decisive
step in Pearse's transition from immersion in the cultural work of
the language revival and the Gaelic League to an openly revolutionary
republicanism.
In 1915, Pearse delivered his famous Oration at the
Grave of O'Donovan Rossa at the
funeral of the veteran Fenian. It ended with the memorable words: "The
fools, the fools, the fools! They have left
us our Fenian dead; and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland
unfree shall never be at peace".
By this time, the Military Council of the IRB was making preparations
for a Rising. In the months
leading up to Easter 1916, Pearse wrote a series of
four pamphlets; Ghosts, The
Separatist Idea, The
Spiritual Nation, and The
Sovereign People. The pamphlets stress the continuity of the
republican
tradition and outline the nature of Ireland's demand for freedom.
Pearse also wrote poetry, including Renunciation, The Fool, and The
Rebel.
It was Pearse who authored the 1916 Proclamation, and he was nominated
as both President of the Provisional Government and Commandant-General
of the republican forces by the rebels. Following the defeat of the
rebellion, Pearse was brought before a
British Court Martial, condemned to death, and executed by firing
squad. At the court martial, he gave a speech outlining
his motives and
claiming that the Rising had been a success as it had re-awakened Irish
national
consciousness. |
James
Connolly
Although
he left school at 11, James
Connolly became one of the leading Marxist theorists of his day. He was
the
founder of the Irish Socialist Republican Party and, alongside James
Larkin,
the driving force of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union. In response
to the 1913
lock-out, Connolly helped form the Irish Citizens Army to protect
workers from
the brutality of the Dublin Metropolitan Police. The Citizen Army soon
committed itself to the establishment of an Irish socialist republic,
and joined
the Irish Volunteers in the 1916 Rising.
Connolly's
Last
Statement was handed by him to his daughter Nora on the eve of his
execution.
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John Mitchel
John Mitchel was born in 1815
near Dungiven
in County Derry. He was a member of the Young Ireland group and a
regular
contributor to The Nation. He reacted
with fury to English policy in Ireland
during the famine, and resigned from The
Nation on the grounds that the policy of Young Ireland was not
vigorous
enough. Mitchel then founded his own
paper, The United Irishman. In its pages he called on
the people to refuse to pay rent and to forcibly
prevent the
export of food, and justified a policy of armed insurrection.
After only
sixteen editions, The United Irishman was
suppressed and
Mitchel arrested. He was convicted of treason felony and sentenced to
be
transported for fourteen years. While in captivity he wrote his Jail Journal. In 1853 he escaped from Van Diemen’s Land
and settled
in the United
States,
where he spent most of the remainder of his life.
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James Fintan Lalor
James Fintan
Lalor was born in 1807 in County Laois.
At
first a supporter of Daniel O’Connell, he broke with him over his
alliance with
the English Whig Party and his reluctance to urge Irish tenant farmers
to
refuse payment of rent and tithes. Against the backdrop of the Great
Hunger,
Lalor wrote a series of articles in The
Nation in 1847 arguing that Ireland
needed full independence, not just Repeal of the Union, and that
Irish
nationalists should be ready to resort to physical force if necessary.
The
following year he founded his own newspaper, The Felon. In
this paper appeared his most influential writings, "The Rights of
Ireland", "Clearing
The Decks", and "The Faith of
A Felon".
Lalor was
imprisoned as a result of the
Young Irelanders’ failed rebellion in 1848, but released six months
later on
the grounds of ill-health. He immediately tried to organise another
rebellion
in Counties Tipperary and Waterford,
leading an attack on the RIC barracks in Cappoquin. Arrested
again, Lalor died in December 1848 and was buried at Glasnevin Cemetery.
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Thomas Davis
Thomas Davis was born at Mallow in Co. Cork
in 1814. He was the leader of the Young Ireland group which left
O’Connell’s
Repeal Movement over its focus on narrowly Catholic concerns and its
refusal to
consider using physical force as a means to achieve Irish Independence.
In 1848
he co-founded The Nation newspaper,
dedicated to reviving Irish national consciousness. Davis’ articles in the paper popularised
the study of Irish history, poetry, language, music and art at a time
when
the dominant colonial mindset looked on them as inferior to those of England. He argued for the revival of the Irish
language, declaring that “A people without a language is only half a
nation”,
and was passionately anti-sectarian. The
Nation was read by 250,000 people, and had the largest circulation
of any
newspaper in Ireland at the time. A selection of Davis' articles
appears below:
Davis
also wrote nationalist poetry which stirred popular feeling. His most
popular pieces include "A Nation Once
Again", "The West's Awake",
"Fontenoy",
"Lament
on the Death of Eoghan Ruadh O'Neill", "Tone's
Grave", and "The Lost Path".
Davis
died of scarlet fever aged just 31 in 1845.
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Robert Emmet
Robert Emmet
joined the United Irishmen while he was a student at Trinity College, and
fled to France following the collapse of their rebellion in 1798. In
1803
he returned
to Ireland and together with other revolutionaries such as Thomas
Russell and
James Hope prepared a new revolt. His Proclamation
set
out his vision for an Irish republic.
An explosion at
one of Emmet’s arms depots forced him to bring forward the date of the
rising
and the premature rebellion quickly collapsed. Emmet fled into
hiding but was captured and tried for treason. His Speech
from the Dock became one of the great
classics of Irish nationalism. On 20th
September 1803 Emmet was executed
at Thomas Street
in Dublin and his remains secretly buried.
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Theobald
Wolfe Tone
Wolfe Tone was
one of the founders of the Society of United Irishmen in 1791,
along with Thomas
Russell, Napper Tandy and others. The Society's Declaration was
written by Tone to mark the second anniversary of the fall of the
Bastille. The United Irishmen at first aimed simply
to
unite Catholics
and Protestants and to achieve parliamentary reform. However, as it
became
clear
that this could not be achieved by constitutional methods, they began
to
advocate the
establishment of an Irish Republic separate from England and prepare
for armed
rebellion.
Despite
being an
Anglican, Tone was appointed secretary of the Catholic Committee, which
advocated the enfranchisement of Catholics, in 1792. It was at this
period he wrote An Argument on
Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland,
setting out the argument for religious toleration.
In 1794,
the United
Irishmen decided to seek French aid.
The
suppression of the Society soon afterwards forced him to emigrate to
the United
States, from
where he journeyed to Paris in 1796 to
persuade the French government to send an expedition to assist a rebellion in Ireland. As part of his campaign he wrote two Memorials on the Present State of Ireland.
First Memorial
Second Memorial
Tone's arguments proved persuasive, and a fleet with
14,000 soldiers was dispatched in December 1796 and
reached Bantry Bay, but prevented from landing by severe gales. Tone's Address to the People of
Ireland was written at this time.
In October 1798 Tone
accompanied another, smaller,
expedition to Ireland but was captured off the coast of Donegal. Taken to Dublin,
he was court-martialled and sentenced to death by hanging. In his Address to His Court
Martial he justified his actions. Subsequently, to avoid hanging -
a death usually reserved for criminals - Tone committed suicide by
cutting his throat with a razor.
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