By Joseph E.A. Connell Jr The Rising had hardly been the work of a massive conspiracy, but the British acted as if it were. British security forces arrested 3,430 Irish men and 79 women, of whom 1,841 were sent to Britain and interned there. These were substantial figures in relation to the scale of the … Read more
By Joseph E.A. Connell Jr Frongoch internment camp was located in a former whiskey distillery in Merionethshire, Wales. Until 1916 it housed German prisoners of war in the disused distillery buildings and crude huts, but in the wake of the Rising the German prisoners were moved and it was used as a place of internment … Read more
By Joseph E.A. Connell Jr A member of Dublin’s middle class, Tom Kettle joined the Irish Volunteers at their inception in 1913. Previously, he had been a Home Ruler and described it thus: ‘Home Rule is the art of minding your own business well. Unionism is the art of minding someone else’s business badly.’ Later, … Read more
In anticipation of the possibility of Home Rule, Edward Carson and James Craig founded the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in early 1913. Their intention was that unionists in the north would prevent the enactment of Home Rule. In March 1914 the third Home Rule Bill was introduced into the House of Commons. Because of the … Read more
by Joseph E.A. Connell Jr By the early twentieth century the Curragh army camp in County Kildare was Britain’s premier military base in Ireland. Ulster unionist opposition to the passage of Home Rule in 1912 was heightened by the support it received from elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Not surprisingly, given its predominantly privileged background, … Read more