Irish volunteers
The Irish Volunteers ( Irish Óglaigh na hÉireann ) were an Irish Republican independence movement in Ireland at the beginning of the 20th century. It was founded in 1913 "to uphold the common rights and freedoms of all people in Ireland." This paramilitary group soon had more than 40,000 members. At the beginning of World War I , almost 70% of the members joined the British Army . They hoped that in return the British government would do more for the Irish.
origin
It was founded in response to the founding of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) by Edward Carson and James Craig in the same year. The UVF was created by Protestant unionists in the northeast to prevent the implementation of the Home Rule . It was believed that if armed men in Ulster could put pressure on the Home Rule, it was also possible, through a similar group, to put pressure on Britain in the other direction. For this purpose, published Eoin MacNeill an article entitled The North Began ( The North has begun ), to provide a justification for such a group. His friend The O'Rahilly encouraged him to pursue this idea further, and so it came about that on November 11, 1913, 11 well-known nationalists met in Wynn's Hotel in Dublin to plan the formation of the Irish Volunteers. Among them were Patrick Pearse , Éamonn Ceannt and Seán Mac Diarmada .
On November 25th there was the first public meeting of the volunteers in the Rotunda in Dublin, in the run-up to which they were already looking for volunteers for the group. The number of participants was beyond all expectations. The hall was totally overcrowded with 4,000 people. Another 3,000 people waited outside. Over the next few months the movement spread to the rest of the island. Thousands joined every week.
Right from the start, the leadership of the volunteers was strongly influenced by the radical Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), although MacNeill was not one of them. This was part of the IRB's plan from the start. There was a serious setback, however, when John Redmond , leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party , demanded that the volunteers agree to his own appointment within the Provisional Committee - control of the organization was then with him. Although the moderates did not approve of the idea, they agreed to prevent the very popular Redmond from starting their own (similar) organization, which would have resulted in the loss of much of the support. The IRB was closed to Redmond's involvement as it would be the end of their own control, but ultimately they could not prevent the Irish Volunteers from moving in Redmond's direction.
Arming the volunteers
Shortly after the Irish Volunteers were formed, the British Parliament banned arms from entering Ireland. The Ulster Volunteers managed to cope with this situation, however, and the Irish Volunteers realized that if they were to be a serious force they had to do the same. Many reporters at the time found the fact amusing that the loyal "Ulstermen" armed themselves and violently defied the British government. Pearse replied that "an Orange with a weapon is not as ridiculous as an unarmed nationalist". So O'Rahilly, Sir Roger Casement and Bulmer Hobson worked to organize an arms smuggling into Howth Harbor , north of Dublin . The plan was a complete success and Robert Erskine Childers delivered nearly 1,000 rifles and distributed them to the waiting Irish Volunteers without interference. When the volunteers returned to Dublin under the leadership of Cathal Brugha, however, they discovered a large group of the Dublin Metropolitan Police and the British Army . The volunteers escaped almost unharmed. On their return to Dublin, the British Army fired in response to a group of unarmed civilians who allegedly had disturbed them. This massacre led to a steep increase in the number of members joining the Irish Volunteers.
The split
The outbreak of World War I in August 1914 led to a serious split within the organization. Redmond, under the Home Rule law but postponed due to the war , encouraged the volunteers to support the struggle of the British and joined the Irish Brigade of the British Army - a fact strongly condemned by the founders of the Irish Volunteers . But the majority (almost 70%) of the Irish Volunteers supported the war, received the new name of the National Volunteers and fought largely in the 16th Division of the British Army, side by side with their former opponents from the Ulster Volunteer Force. Unlike the "Northern Irish", however, the Irish did not fight under their own officers, but were commanded by the British.
A minority within the Irish Volunteers, however, believed that freedom must first be restored in Ireland. This group kept the name Irish Volunteers, was led by MacNeill and fought for Irish neutrality. This division of the group was in turn beneficial for the Irish Republican Brotherhood, which now took control again.
After the division, the remnants of the Irish Volunteers were often mistakenly referred to as the "Sinn Féin Volunteers", or "Shinners", named after Arthur Griffith 's political organization Sinn Féin . At first just a derogatory term, it eventually became common throughout Ireland. Although the two organizations partly consisted of the same members, there were never any official connections between the (then moderate) Sinn Féin and the Irish Volunteers.
Easter Rising
The official stance of the Irish Volunteers was that violent action would not begin until the British occupiers at Dublin Castle made efforts to disarm the Volunteers, arrest their leaders or introduce military service in Ireland. The IRB, on the other hand, was determined to use the volunteers for offensive actions as long as the British had to focus on the First World War. Their plan was, bypassing the Irish Volunteers Leader MacNeill, to instigate an Easter riot and later get MacNeill back on board if the riot was a fait accompli .
Patrick Pearse ordered parades and maneuvers for three days - a poorly disguised order for a planned uprising. MacNeill quickly saw the real point behind these orders and tried to stop all volunteer actions. But he was only able to postpone the uprising for a day and reduce the number of participants to around 1,000 - almost all of them in Dublin. The Irish Citizen Army , which was also involved, supported the uprising with almost all of its men - although there were only around 250. The uprising was a military failure and a large number of Irish volunteers were arrested - even those who were not involved in the uprising .
In 1919 the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army merged with the Irish Republican Army .