inaugural meeting: Labour," he said, "in its own defence must begin to train itself to act with disciplined courage and with organised and concentrated force. How can we accomplish this? By taking a leaf out of the book of Carson. If Carson has permission to train his braves of the North to fight against the aspirations of the Irish people, then it is legitimate and fair for labour to organise in the same militant way to preserve their rights and to ensure that, if they are attacked, they will be able to give a satisfactory account of themselves Labour might no longer be defenceless, but might be able to utilise that great physical power which it possessed to prevent their elemental rights from being taken from them and to evolve such a system of unified action, self-control and ordered discipline that labour in Ireland might march in the forefront of all movements for the betterment of the whole people of Ireland."*

The initiation of the Irish Volunteers provided a rival organisation of greater attraction, so that the bulk of the Citizen Army was recruited into the new movement; after a period of recrimination and dissension between the I.V. and the C.A., the latter were finally reformed in March, 1914, by Captain White, a social renegade of some notoriety in Irish affairs. "On this new basis it was established 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

* R. M. Henry, op. cit. p. 142–143.

the absolute unity of Irish nationhood and shall support the rights and liberties of the democracies of all nations; that one of its objects shall be to sink all differences of birth, property and creed under the common name of the Irish people; that the Citizen Army shall be open to all who accept the principle of equal rights and opportunities for the Irish people."*

The attitude of the Irish Volunteers was paradoxical; they declared that they were not hostile to the Ulster Volunteers and applauded the latter for taking up arms to resist the decrees of the British Government. This attitude on the part of the I.V. was readily understood by the bulk of the Irish people, who were not yet ready to believe that the organisation of the younger generation seriously contemplated any form of armed opposition to British power.

The recalcitrant attitude of Ulster and the wave of public sympathy and support of the Unionist party had made the Home Rule Bill unworkable. Early in 1914 the Prime Minister, Mr. Asquith, explained the amendments; the Cabinet had evolved a new scheme providing for the exclusion of Ulster, and the Irish Nationalist party had agreed to accept this partition. At this all Home Rule Ireland rose in wrath at what they deemed the surrender of the vital principle of Irish nationality by the Parliamentary party. Consent to the exclusion of Ulster was held to be the Great Betrayal. "As for Ulster, Ulster is Ireland's and shall remain Ireland's. Though the Irish

* R. M. Henry, op. cit. p. 144.

nation in its political and corporate capacity were gall and wormwood to every Unionist in Ulster, yet shall they swallow it. We will fight them if they want fighting; but we shall never let them go, never." Thus spoke the organ of the Republicans.

Sinn Fein and labour spokesmen were no less emphatic, and it became manifest to all that the Home Rule party had lost the support of the country on the issue. Ulster also rejected the proposal for partition and roundly declared its intention to fight and smash the whole Home Rule agitation for ever and a day-and they meant it. The British Army, which had always been "outside politics," suddenly came into them, and signified by the Curragh incident that the Army would have no hand in the coercion of Ulster. Affairs became more and more chaotic, and at last John Redmond, the leader of the Home Rule party, realised in some measure what a menace the Irish Volunteer movement was becoming.

He decided to attempt to control them and demanded the right to nominate to the I.V. Committee twenty-five members of the Home Rule party. This demand was bitterly resented, but could not be withstood, for the existing members of the I.V. Committee were not men of standing or political importance. The situation was that the I.V. did not feel strong enough to oppose the Home Rulers and that the latter did not feel sure enough of their power to attempt to suppress a movement which seemed patriotic." The Redmondite nominees were, therefore, acceptedbut allowed no real insight or control in Volunteer

affairs. There were four priests among the nominees and the balance were true Redmondites; it was, however, merely a gloss for the continuance of the old duel between the A.O.H. and the I.R.B.

We admit," said The Irish Worker, "the bulk of the rank and file (of Parliamentary Nationalists) are men of principle and men who are out for liberty for all men; but why allow the foulest growth that ever cursed this land (the Hibernian Board of Erin) to control an organisation that might, if properly handled, accomplish great things?

The Irish Volunteers were still without a standard pattern of arms, though the members possessed a great store of miscellaneous and privately-owned arms with which they practised and paraded. Redmond tried to raise funds for the advertised purpose of purchasing arms at some future date, but before this came about the members of the original committee purchased a stock of serviceable weapons with money supplied by the I.R.B., and succeeded in running the cargoes in at Kilcool and Howth.

Then came the declaration of war between Britain and Germany, and all Irish affairs remained for a time in suspense.

The old rules and regulations of the I.R.B. were not sufficiently flexible to permit of the incorporation of members of various volunteer bodies, whose existence had not been contemplated at the time when these were drawn up. A new constitution was therefore framed, a draft of which is given in Appendix J of this volume.

CHAPTER X

GERMANY AND THE REBELS

THE outbreak of war introduced a new element in the shape of an alliance between the I.R.B., the Clan-na-Gael, and Germany. Devoy had certainly seen the inevitable years before, but more recently Germany had been keeping a watchful eye on the march toward civil war and had indeed supplied Ulster with excellent rifles at a ridiculously low price, in order that Britain's embarrassments with Ireland might ensure sufficient distractions to keep Great Britain out of the European arena. It is indeed difficult to understand why Germany did not make a fuller use of her opportunities and furnish free of cost to both groups of would-be belligerents sufficient obsolescent firearms and ammunition to achieve an explosion.

The possible relationships between Germany and Ireland in the event of war with England had been keenly debated in the various seditious organs, and it had been more or less established that, whereas the Irish did not desire to exchange British for German-or for the matter of that, any other-domination, it was yet thought that in the event of German victory Ireland would be given Home Rule in a more liberal form than England would ever be prepared to yield.

The chief supporter of the doctrine of a German