The first group of southern nationalists to respond in a practical way to those developments, at the behest of Bulmer Hobson and with the assistance of Seán MacDiarmada, was the Dublin centres board of the IRB:86 ‘every member would have to do a certain amount of drill, and arrangements were then made to make drill compulsory for all the young members’.87 Accordingly, within a week, in July 1912, secret drill practice took place in the hall at the back of the Irish National Foresters’88 premises at 41 Parnell Square under the guidance of Con Colbert and Seán Heuston, who were former Fianna Éireann boys.89 For his part Mulcahy felt invigorated by the training: ‘The drills … brought new life into the organisation.’90
Also, he might possibly have got wind of the tentative rise in militarism among some of the moderate nationalists associated with Sinn Féin during the spring and summer of 1913 because, five months later, on 20 January 1913, at the quarterly meeting of Sinn Féin’s national council, The O’Rahilly91 successfully proposed a resolution, seconded by Éamonn Ceannt, that it behoved all Irish men to acquire competence in the use of guns. More than that, Sinn Féin rented a shooting range in Harold’s Cross on Sunday mornings during the following summer months. But, most significantly of all, on 1 November 1913, O’Rahilly accepted for publication in An Claidheamh Soluis (The Sword of Light), i.e. the Gaelic League bilingual weekly newspaper, Eoin MacNeill’s famous call to arms, ‘The North Began’. This article, while not attracting a wide readership, was the very catalyst which advanced republicans had been waiting for. Hobson immediately contacted O’Rahilly. Both were agreed that MacNeill, who was founder, along with Douglas Hyde and Eugene O’Growney, of the Gaelic League in 1893 and a prestigious Gaelic scholar, was the ideal person to front the foundation of a volunteer army. They went to MacNeill and his response was so positive that, on the evening of 25 November 1913, the Irish Volunteers were launched at the Rotunda complex, Parnell Square.92
So, having spent the previous two years attending his IRB monthly meetings ‘in a spirit of patience and hope’ that the issue of Home Rule would work for the better of the country,93 and having of late received a welcome fillip from the introduction of basic military training into the IRB syllabus, Mulcahy very much welcomed the arrival of the Irish Volunteers onto the political scene. He categorised that movement as a ‘rallying point’.94 And he was more than satisfied ‘to “join [up] … and [then to] take your orders from your superior officers”.’95
CHAPTER 2
Zealous
Home Rule and the Irish Volunteers,
1913–16
Richard Mulcahy joined the overflow crowd of approximately seven thousand men who constituted the inaugural Irish Volunteer meeting on the evening of 25 November 1913 at the Rotunda complex, Parnell Square, Dublin.1 Yet, for whatever reason, more than likely due to the press of bodies rather than due to any reticence on his part, he did not submit his enrolment form until the following afternoon.
For organisational purposes, this form requested not alone the name and address of the applicant but also the name of the municipal ward within which he resided. As a consequence, the Volunteer provisional committee was able to divide the city into four battalions (almost quadrants, named clockwise, one to four, from the west), the demarcation lines of which were not orthogonal, but can be approximated by the intersection of the River Liffey and the route along Phibsboro Road/ Church Street/Parliament Street/South Great George’s Street/ Aungier Street/ Rathmines Road.2
And, because he lived as a lodger on the Clonliffe Road, Drumcondra (as well as in Sutton, Howth, 1916, and in Fernside, Upper Drumcondra, 1918), Mulcahy was posted to ‘C’ Company, Second Battalion, which had its drill hall in the Gaelic League premises at 25 Parnell Square, the place where he had already handed in his form.3 Five days later, on 1 December, in unison with the other three battalions,4 the Second Battalion held its first parade at the same venue under the command of Thomas MacDonagh, who then proceeded to administer a pledge to his men,5 the sentiment of which, because it was not an oath,6 was somewhat benign: ‘To secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to all the people of Ireland without distinction of creed, class or politics.’7
One would expect that the next step was the formation of an officer corps. Yet this was a very important and challenging step for the members of the committee. Clearly they could not give free reign to their democratic founding principles and let a free vote occur because, in a novel situation of relative ignorance, other than within nationalist circles where there was some social familiarity, unsuitable people might come to the fore, thereby running the risk of the organisation faltering at the first hurdle. (Hobson, astute as ever, while still retaining faith in his own people, knew that talent was vital.8) In that event, ‘a combination of civil and military systems’ was utilised, whereby ‘selected men’ were given particular positions based upon their aptitudes and experiences, on the proviso that ‘Promotion will come only after the candidate has passed the necessary test, and his retention as a “selected man” depends altogether on his proficiency in his work’.9
On those grounds, having been promoted quickly to the engineering section of the postal service and having learned Morse code and now also semaphore, Mulcahy became company signaller.10 (That he started in a low position is also a result of the meritocratic nature of the selection process whereby, in comparison, someone like Eamon, alias Bob, Price, five years younger than Mulcahy but having attained the position of high court clerk by open competitive examination at sixteen years of age, became second lieutenant.11)
It is easy to recognise MacDonagh’s hand in the development of those procedures. Being a well-liked and much respected Director of Training (DT)12 – ‘our principal guid[e] and inspiration in our early days’13 – as well as coming from a teaching and academic background, he devoted himself selflessly and scrupulously to the attainment of the highest possible standards of performance among the men in general, but among the officers in particular. Under his watch, even when voting replaced the selection phase, only the best, as attested to by objective standards, would be given his nihil obstat: ‘the various Companies shall elect … Company Commanders and Half Company Commanders … and at the end of two months the men elected must pass a preliminary examination, and their appointments will not be ratified until they pass the final examination six months after election.’14
However, throughout the summer of 1914, extraneous circumstances adversely affected MacDonagh’s work.15 On 9 June, John Redmond, who, as leader of the IPP, was not prepared to countenance the rise to prominence within his hegemony of an autonomous army, issued a press statement which, by suggesting, under the threat of closure, the expansion of the provisional committee to include twenty-five of his nominees, effectively signalled his takeover of the Volunteers. Then, on 20 September, he proceeded to make his famous ‘wherever the firing lines extend’ British army enlistment speech at Woodenbridge, County Wicklow, namely twelve weeks after the First World War had started and two days after the Home Rule Bill had been signed into law.
Four days later, the die was cast when the non-Redmondite members of the provisional committee publicly retorted that ‘Ireland cannot, with honour or safety, take part in foreign quarrels.’16 This meant that the vast majority of the membership – approximately 96 per cent out of a maximum membership of 185,09317 – backed Redmond and enrolled in his newly formed force, the National Volunteers, with most of them again expressing their intention to proceed therefrom into the ranks of the British army.18
After all of that, from the perspective of the remaining Irish Volunteers,