The Irish standard., 1916-07-01
IRISH PRESS AND NEWS SERVICE

in Dublin where the volunteer Army
was formed to resist the threats of
the Ulster Volunteers. They were
mostly young men of good families.
They hired halls and drilled nightly.
The leaders like Pearse, MacNeill,
MacDonagh, Plunkett and O'Rahilly
were idealists who belonged to no spe'
cial party. Most of the members, at
first, were moderate men, opposed to
armed revolution. The feeling through
out the ranks of the Volunteers was
that Redmond had failed to bring
Home Rule and that Carson was the
real power of the coalition government
That feeling was responsible for their
opposing recruiting. Col. Moore tes'
titled 1.-THE Sim Feiners said, the Eng
lish are humbugging us; they want
our recruits, and when they have them
safely, they will tear up the Home
Rule Bill. The fact that the bill was
not to be put into force till after the
war, with the threat of an Amending
Bill, made few believe in the faith of
the government" Col. Moore said the
Sim Fem army men proper numbered
not more than 1000, the bulk of the
rebels being supplied from the Dublin
labor unions organized by Larkin and
Connolly through Liberty Hall. Col.
Moore said that the government has
no conception of the force of the In
tellectual movement in Ireland.
From the testimony of Major Price
(head of the British Secret service in
Ireland) is taken the following impor-
tant statement: 'If the rifles, ma
chine guns and munitions had been
successfully landed by the Germans
auxiliary cruiser on the coast of Kerry
the uprisings would have been most
formidable" Sir N. Chamberlin tes-
tilted that the uprising was effected
by a combination of the Citizens Army
(Labor), the Sim Fein, Clan-na-gael,
Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Gaze
lie League and section of the irish
Volunteers who had broken away from
Redmond. They had received funds
from the United States. The Citizens
Army Uarkin and Connolly's trade
unionists) took an important lead in
the Instruction. Ten of their leaders,
including Larkin, were deported early
in the war. They were financed by
Irish extremists in. Ireland asd Amer
lea. Col. Johnston said that he had
long been in favor of deporting to
England and interning all the men,
hers of Irish organizations that might
be considered dangerous to the gov
eminent. He estimated the number
of armed rebels in Dublin at 6,40O with
not more than 1000 rifles.
-, Major Price testified that the Sim
Fein movement lost $4,000 men. as
recruits, to the British army The
rebels moulded their buck-shot in Lib
erty Hall. The leaders secured $780,
600 from the United States and en-
pended it all in arms and munitions.
There were to be two German landings.
Prof. McNeill's order to the Volunteers
divided the revolutionists. Mcneil
knew the German ship had been sunk
AND ordered the Volunteers to keep
out of the uprising on Easter Sunday
He knew nothing of German money
in Ireland The outside money came
from Irish in the United States, but
re
the rebels was German, including the
flat-nosed bullets. There were also
Italian cartridges. Col. Moore, speak
ing of the character of the executed
Sim Fein leaders, said: Il mention
here that these men were OF the high
est character public and private; they
were men whose lives from childhood
had been permeated with thoughts not
of their own selfish interests. but OF
the interests of Ireland. They were
intimately acquainted with history
literature, Gaelic language and an
tiuuities, and held the most romantic
views of their country's future. Some
were scholars and professors whose
opinions are as much studied and re
spected by students abroad as al
home. Others were poets of consider
able literary gifts.
Pearse provisional President OF
the Irish Republic) was young man
of the most tender sympathies who
could not bear to give others pain. All
were men who would have been the
choicest and finest blossoms of any
nation in the world. And whose one
absorbing passion was to lay down
their lives in order that their country
might be advanced one step in pros
perity and enlightment. If those men
/, had been in Canada or Australia they
would have been great citizens. 1t is
certain they would have been fore
most in patriotic effort anywhere in
the world. They would have died else