Irish Independent Monday 24th April 1916 - (6 page edition) Page 4

Irish Independent Monday 24th April 1916 - (6 page edition) Page 4 - Published the morning of the Easter Rising this page contains the story of McNeill's the order to the Irish Volunteers, which was published in the Sunday Independent on Easter Sunday 23rd April, to obey orders to cancel parades:

 "THE IRISH VOLUNTEERS - PARADES SUDDENLY CANCELLED -Mr Eoin MacNeill, Chief of Staff, Irish Volunteers, in a circular issued on Saturday rescinded, "owing to the very critical position, all orders given to the Volunteer Corps," and ordered that "no parades, marches, or movements of the Irish Volunteers will take place". "Each individual Volunteer" added the circular "will obey this order strictly in every particular". MacNeill's order, having being informed of the planned Rising on Good Friday, caused confusion amongst the Volunteers, and consternation among the IRB leadership which Thomas Clarke described  as "treachery". However in order not to cause further confusion they decided to confirm the order and postpone the Rising until Monday. Owing to the nature of communications at the time, thousands of volunteers did not get to hear about the Rising on Monday until it started.MacNeill's countermanding was contentious in Republican circles for many years, with many blaming him for the Rising's failure. In 1922, at Michael Collins instigation, he gave an interview to the journalist , Haydn Talbot, which was published in full in Talbot's book of the same year "Michael Collins own story" and which I intend to provide extracts from on this subject at a future date. MacNeill was against the idea of a martyrdom sacrifice of lives for the cause and  it is hard not to agree with his view, from a military perspective, that the rebellion was doomed to failure without the arms due from the Aud , and that the the subsequent success of the Rising was only due to the incompetence of the British authorities in their behaviour and response during and after the Rising, however that is another day's work and debate.

The paper itself is also full of war news from the Front but an intriguing article at the top of this page called "REMARKABLE SCENE-THREAT TO SHOOT SOLDIERS" details an incident in Hogans pub the previous Saturday, where a Mr John O'Neill, culter, 111 Foley Street, was arrested under the influence of alcohol for threatening to shoot two soliders. He had a revolver and 20 rounds of ammunition in his possession. Private Massey told a police consable that O'Neill approached him and his fellow soldier, Prviate Beggs, and started talking about Sinn Feiners ,"'98 and Wexford" , and when he said he was Welsh and knew nothing about these things O'Neill said " I carry more weapons than you" and taking out his revolver, pointing it at the witnesses chest, he said " I could blow your brains out and somebody elses". O'Neill later said to the constable, following his arrest, that he wasn't in the Volunteers organisation and had broke from it about a month ago..... he claimed he had the revolver for personal reasons..." He could not give any reason to the magistrate when asked for threatening to shoot the two soldiers . O'Neill was remanded in custody "until Wednesday" and "the revolver and ammuntion were retained by the authorities"!

Another story details the drowing of 3 men in the River Larne in Kilorglin Co. Kerry when their "CAR PLUNGES IN RIVER" when their chauffeur (who was the only survivor) took a wrong turn having been given instructions on asking for directions to Tralee at a petrol station to "take "the first turn left". The person who gave the instructions had assumed he would ignore the boreen leading to Ballykissane Quay where they plunged into the river. The identities of the dead men were unknown. On reading this for the first time , I? felt is was possible that unidentified men were Volunteers, possibly on their way to liaise with Roger Casement. A subequent story in the Irish Times after the Rising told the same story and confirmed the Chauffeur had been arrested. Interestingly, when browsing wikipedia recently on Roger Casement's life I came accross the follwing statement in his biography: " As John Devoy had either misunderstood or disobeyed Pearse's instructions that the arms were under no circumstances to land before Easter Sunday, the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) members set to unload the arms under the command of the Irish Citizen Army and trade unionist William Partridge were not ready. The IRB men sent to meet the boat drove off a pier and drowned. It therefore seems that whoever added the above uncited information on Wikipedia is correct and has confirmed the true background to this revealing and sad story just before the Rising. 

This remarkable narrative captures all the detail of the original on 210 gsm Satin Art paper and is set on a mottled green suede background, behind glass, in an antique style Gold Leaf frame.