: Ann Matthews
: The Irish Citizen Army
: Mercier Press
: 9781781173084
: 1
: CHF 10.90
:
: Regional- und Ländergeschichte
: English
: 256
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
The Irish Citizen Army was originally established as a defence corps during the 1913 Lockout, but under the leadership of James Connolly its aims became more Republican and the IRB, fearing Connolly would pre-empt their plans for the Easter Rising, convinced him to join his force with the Irish Volunteers. During the Rising the ICA was active in three garrisons and the book describes for the first time in depth its involvement at St Stephen's Green and the Royal College of Surgeons, at City Hall and its environs and, using the first-hand account of journalist J.J. O'Leary who was on the scene, in the battle around the GPO. The author questions the much-vaunted myth of the equality of men and women in the ICA and scrutinises the credentials of Larkin and Connolly as champions of both sexes. She also asserts that the Proclamation was not read by Patrick Pearse from the steps of the GPO, but by Tom Clarke from Nelson's Pillar. She provides sources to suggest that the Proclamation was not, as has always been believed, printed in Liberty Hall, and that the final headquarters of the rebels was not at number 16 Moore Street, but somewhere between numbers 21 and 26.

Ann Matthews is a historian. Originally, from Dublin she now lives in Kildare. She currently lectures at NUI Maynooth on Women and War and Republican women and iconography. She has contributed to The Journal of Irish Military History and The Irish Archive Journal among others.She has also contributed chapters to The Impact of the 1916 Rising: Among the Nations, (ed) Ruan O Donnell (2008) and Associational Culture in Ireland and Abroad (eds) Jennifer Kelly R.V Comerford Eds) (2010). She is the author of Renegades (2010) and The Kimmage Garrison 1916: Making Billy Can-Bombs at Larkfield (2010).

2
The Second and Third Phases
of the ICA, 1914–1915


In the aftermath of the Lockout the Citizen Army still operated under the domain of the ITGWU as a workers’ army. In March 1914 a decision was made to reform the army with a properly written constitution, and to this endTheIrish Worker published a notice of ‘a general meeting of present and intending members’ for Sunday 22 March at Liberty Hall. Captain White was to chair the meeting.1 At this meeting a constitution was agreed and an Army Council elected. The principal clauses of the constitution approved were as follows:

That the first and last principle of the Citizen Army is the avowal that the ownership of Ireland, moral and material, is vested of right in the people of Ireland.

That the Citizen Army shall stand for the absolute Unity of Irish Nationhood, and shall support the rights and liberties of the democracies of all nations.

That the Citizen Army shall be open to all who accept the principle of equal rights and opportunities for the people of Ireland.

That one of its objects shall be to sink all differences of birth, property, and creed under the common noun of the Irish People.

Before being enrolled every applicant must, if eligible, be a member of his trade union, such union to be recognised by the Irish Trades Council.2

A provisional Citizen Army Council was elected to hold office for six months. James Larkin presided at this meeting and a provisional officer council was elected with Captain Jack White as chairman and five vice-chairmen, four of whom were senior members of the ITGWU, namely James Larkin, P. T. Daly, Councillor William Partridge and Thomas Foran. The fifth member was Francis Sheehy-Skeffington. Sean O’Casey was elected secretary, while Countess de Markievicz and Richard Brannigan were elected joint treasurers. Four days before this meeting the Countess had been made an honorary member of the ITGWU and Thomas Foran, the general president of the union, presented her with an illuminated address.

An army executive committee was also formed and it, too, comprised members of the ITGWU. Those elected were J. Bohan, T. Burke, Patrick Coady, T. Fogarty, P. J. Fox, T. Healy, T. Kennedy, Seamus (J.) McGowan, P. Morgan, F. Moss, M. Mullin, P. O’Brien, Christopher Poole, John Shelly and T. Blair. Sean O’Casey, secretary of the ICA, wrote:

We are out for the right to work and eat and live. As John Mitchel says: Let the canting, well-fed classes shout and rave as they may. Where you see a respectable fair-spoken lie sitting in high places, feeding itself on human sacrifices, down with it, strip it naked and pitch it to the devil.3

The weekly levy for the rank-and-file membership was one penny and membership cards were distributed for the first time. The army executive committee adopted a uniform and Captain White ordered fifty mens’ uniforms made of dark green serge from Arnott’s department store. Every man was required to buy his uniform, with most purchasing it by weekly instalments. Before delivery of the uniforms, when the men were out marching or drilling at Croydon Park, the rank and file wore blue armbands and the officers had red ones. These colours were represented in the ICA flag which was ‘designed by Mr Megahy of the city art gallery. Its design consisted of a stylised plough in dark red on a peacock blue field.’4

Sean O’Casey recalled that ‘the Dublin Regiment was divided into three battalions, 1st City Battalion, the second North County Battalion and the third South County Battalion’.5 Each battalion was subdivided into companie