Sir,—The news that Eamonn Ceannt’s now-iconic uilleann pipes would be presented, on loan, to the Jackie Clarke Collection Museum in Ballina, Co. Mayo, caught my attention (HI 31.4, May/June 2023, Bite-sized History, p. 11). I was well aware that my grand-uncle, James Glynn, had fought side by side with Ceannt, and indeed with Cathal Brugha and W.T. Cosgrave. But what I was completely unaware of, until a recent visit to the Museum, was the existence and the dark significance of a seemingly unremarkable scrap of paper which, incredibly, bore my grand-uncle’s name. This small, 3in. x 2½in., yellowed dispatch, significantly dated 29 April 1916, was written and, again significantly, signed by Eamonn Ceannt. The dispatch refers to James Glynn’s wounding at the South Dublin Union and subsequent hospitalisation. The note displays Ceannt’s characteristic empathy and care for his men, a quality which inspired remarkable loyalty and perhaps a quality that ensured his untimely departure at the hands of a military firing squad.
James Glynn was born in 1893 at Rialto cottages in the shadow of two great institutions: the South Dublin Union (now St James’ Hospital), the largest and most notorious workhouse in Ireland, and the Guinness brewery, once the largest in the world. Both establishments loomed large, literally and psychologically, for the inhabitants of Rialto cottages, and both would exert a huge influence on the trajectory of young James’s life.
Like his father, he would be employed by the giant brewery, working largely under Protestant/loyalist overseers, and in 1916 he would, along with 65 other brave men, take up arms and stand against the tyranny of the British Empire at the South Dublin Union. The ranks of the Volunteers were made up of working men and women—idealists, philosophers, poets and romantics—and on that fateful Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, James, along with men of the 4th Dublin Battalion, would, under Commandant Eamonn Ceannt, Vice-Commandant Cathal Brugha and Lieutenant W.T. Cosgrave, take possession of the nurses’ home, establishing their HQ under a standard of green.
The battalion was woefully under-strength. Confusion around the call to arms would result in a depleted turnout and, worse still, their arsenal consisted of old German Mauser rifles, a few old British and Italian rifles, some pistols, shotguns, crowbars, sledgehammers and even antique pikes! In July 1914 the 4th Battalion, under the leadership of Eamonn Ceannt, had played a leading role in the famous Howth gunrunning incident, facilitating the arrival of 900 German Mauser 1871 model rifles and 29,000 rounds of ammunition.
James’s wounding and subsequent hospitalisation had been dutifully recorded by Commandant Ceannt in dispatches, and the document was used as evidence at his trial, along with a personal letter from Patrick Pearse which referenced the Howth gunrunning incident. Both contributed to the case for his execution!
Generally, the evidence was flimsy and circumstantial, delivered by British soldiers to a ‘drumhead’ court martial presided over by Brigadier General Charles Blackader, commander of the 176 Brigade, which included the Sherwood Foresters, the regiment responsible for the frontal attack on the South Dublin Union and which consequently incurred the highest casualties in the Rising. Crucially, the dispatch places Ceannt at the South Dublin Union on 24–29 April and not, as a leading witness had claimed, at the Jacob’s biscuit factory. Major James Armstrong of the Inniskilling Fusiliers had testified that Ceannt had surrendered at the Jacob’s biscuit factory. Ceannt refuted the testament, requesting that John MacBride and other witnesses were called, who testified and corroborated his absence.—Yours etc.,
BRENDAN FARRELL
Ashford, Co. Wicklow