cessive waves, and succeeded in carrying it, but at heavy cost, four officers being killed and' 14 wounded, while of other ranks 216 were killed and wounded. Meanwhile heavy fighting had been taking place in the Sackville Street quarter, where the de- struction of Liberty Hall by fire from the gunboat " Helga " enabled the troops to make progress. It was not, however, till the morning of the 28th, when Gen. Sir John Maxwell arrived to take command, that troops were present in sufficient numbers to carry out the plan of encirclement efficiently. A complete cordon was now established round Dublin, and at the same time detachments were ordered to clear the various quarters of the rebels by a steady advance from house to house and street to street. This street fighting was exceedingly trying to the troops, nearly all young recruits, exposed as they were to fire from snipers on all sides, and their courage, discipline and humanity gained them the admiration even of their oppo- nents. 1 The fact that the Volunteers were for the most part not in uniform made the fighting doubly difficult.
On the 29th, the infantry having now been reenforced by a battery of field artillery, the situation of the rebels became hopeless, and at 2 o'clock Pearse surrendered unconditionally, and, in the presence of Sir John Maxwell, wrote and signed notices to the various " commanders " to follow his example. Thomas MacDonagh, who commanded the garrison of Jacob's biscuit factory, at first refused to surrender except on conditions, and two Franciscan friars were deputed to inform Gen. Maxwell of his desire to negotiate. The request was refused, and on the 3oth he, too, surrendered unconditionally. These surrenders practically ended the rebellion in the city of Dublin. Through- out the night of April 3o-May i, indeed, isolated rebels con- tinued to snipe the troops, but during the following day these were gradually cleared out, and a systematic house-to-house search for rebels and arms was continued.
The rebellion in the provinces had met with even less suc- cess. In general the country remained absolutely quiet. In Kerry, which was to have been the focus of the Rebellion rising, the capture of the consignment of German Provinces, arms nipped the insurrection in the bud, and it was only in four counties Dublin, Wexford, Galway and Louth that the Volunteers rose in arms. In Louth the rebels accomplished nothing but a single dastardly crime. A party of Irish Volunteers started on the 23rd from Dundalk to Slane, where they spent the night. On the 24th, learning that the Republic had been proclaimed in Dublin, they proceeded to commandeer motor-cars and carts which they met on the way, seriously wounding a farmer who refused to stop. At Castle- bellingham they crowned their achievements by placing Lieut. Dunville, Grenadier Guards, whose motor-car they had seized, and Constable Magee against some railings and shooting them both. In county Dublin a more serious affair took place on the 27th. A large party of rebels, led by Thomas Ashe, having been deterred by the sight of 20 soldiers and 8 police, and the more distant vision of two gunboats on their way to Skerries, from carrying out their plan of cutting the English cable at Howth, decided to attack the police barracks at Ash- bourne, in Meath. Hearing of the attack, County Inspector Gray, with 54 men of the R.I.C., went north from Navan in motor-cars to engage them. Close to Ashbourne this party fell into an ambush. The Volunteers were estimated to number 400, and the police, after fighting for five hours until their ammunition was exhausted, were forced to surrender. They had lost one officer and six men killed, and their inspector and 14 men were wounded.
This was the only serious encounter in the provinces; for though the Volunteers assembled in Galway, they fled on the slightest sign of effective opposition (only one R.I.C. man
1 Mr. James Stephens, in his " Insurrection in Dublin," p. 78, said that there was " no bitterness . . . due to the more than admirable behaviour of the troops you sent over." In his intro- duction, written later, he says that " it is no longer true that there is no bitterness in Ireland," but he ascribes this to the execution of the rebel leaders (p. 14).
was killed) and finally melted away on the 2pth without accom- plishing anything. 2 In Wexford the rebellion broke out on April 27 at Enniscorthy and spread to Ferns, both places being in the hands of the Volunteers until the arrival of the military on May i. But the police reported that the movement was unpopular in the county generally, and that large numbers of people assembled in arms to assist the authorities. The sur- render of the rebels at Enniscorthy was the closing incident of the rebellion. It had cost the lives of 450 people soldiers, police and civilians while 2,614 wer e wounded.
As soon as the rebellion in Dublin had been crushed, mobile columns, consisting of a company of infantry, a squadron of cavalry, an i8-pounder gun and an armoured car, were sent to the disturbed parts of Ireland, Punisb- a definite area being allotted to each. In coopera- fthe tion with the police these arrested dangerous Sinn Rebels. Feiners and all those who were known to have taken part in the rising. On April 25 the right to try offenders against the Defence of the Realm Regulations had been restored to the military authorities by royal proclamation, and field general courts-martial were at once constituted for the trial of the rebels. In all 3,430 men and 79 women had been arrested, and of these 1,424 men and 73 women were released after inquiry. 170 men and one woman (Countess Markievicz) were tried by court-martial, and of these 159 and the woman were convicted. The remainder of the prisoners, 1,836 men and five women, were sent to England and there interned. Of those convicted by court-martial 15 were sentenced to death and executed, 3 the death sentence in 75 other cases being commuted into penal servitude for terms varying from the duration of life (in one case) to three years, while 23 were sentenced to from two years to six months' imprisonment with hard labour.
There can be no doubt that when on April 27 Mr. Redmond expressed in the House of Commons his feeling of detesta- tion and horror for the rebellion, his claim to speak on behalf not only of the Nationalist party but of the overwhelming majority of the Irish people was Executions. justified. The troops had been welcomed by the people of Dublin with every manifestation of relief and joy, and the rebellion was hardly suppressed before corporations all over the country began passing resolutions condemning its folly and wickedness. 4 It is the painful duty of the historian to record how in the course of a few weeks this sentiment was completely changed and the rebellion converted, from the Sinn
2 The centres of the rebellion in Galway were Athenry and Lough- rea. These were described by County Inspector Clayton in his evi- dence before the Royal Commission, as " the black spots in Gal- way." " There were secret societies in this district at all times for years past. They were the centres of much of the land agitation, and many cold-blooded murders were committed there." Reported in the Sunday Independent, Dublin, May 28 1916.
3 The leaders executed were the seven who had signed the declara- tion proclaiming the formation of the Irish Republic, viz. P. H. Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, Joseph Plunkett, Edmund Kent, Thomas J. Clarke, James Connolly and John McDermott, together with such prominent leaders as Edward Daly, William Pearse, Cornelius Colbert, J. J. Heaston, Michael O'Hanrahan, John Mc- Bride and Michael Mallin. To these must be added Thomas Kent, who was executed for the murder of Head Constable Rowe at Fer- moy on May 2.
4 The attitude of Nationalists towards Sinn Fein before the rebellion, and generally the temper of politics in Ireland, are well illustrated by the following extracts from an account in the Irish Times of Jan. 29 1916 of an attempt made by the Sinn Feiners to give a concert at Carrickmore in Tyrone :
" Desperate fighting of a hand-to-hand character ensued, both within and without the hall, but for the most part the Sinn Feiners held the school, while the Nationalists remained outside. . . . The Sinn Feiners cheered for the Kaiser, and there were shouts of ' Carson ' whilst the Nationalists cheered the Allies and the con- stabulary. . . . Then the Nationalists, having gathered all their reenforcements, delivered a united and determined attack on the roof, doors and windows of the school. . . . An indescribable scene followed. . . . There were shrieks for the Kaiser from the Sinn Feiners, and counter-cheers for the Allies, King George and the constabulary, from the Nationalists. The fighting continued till half-past nine o'clock, when the Sinn Feiners decided to abandon the concert, and they were escorted home by the police."
