Mellows envisaged a generational revolution and the boys of Na Fianna represented nothing less than the resurrection of the lost soul of Ireland, mired, as he saw it, in effete, west-British inauthenticity. Through the work of the movement, Mellows claimed, ‘the country was being roused from the lethargic and disorganised state into which constitutionalism had thrown it. The tide was beginning to turn.’ The task facing the organisation was no less than reviving ‘the spirit of nationality which foreign government and its offspring, constitutional nationalism, had done so much to destroy’. Death is a theme throughout Mellows’ writing and his history of the Fianna discusses the deaths of four boys in separate incidents. Martyrdom brought hope of salvation, however, and in paying tribute to the Fianna who fought in the 1916 Rising, ‘It is to these’, Mellows wrote, ‘that Ireland is indebted for her salvation as a Nation.’
While the Fianna was one of the harbingers of the militarism of Irish youth that was to follow the 1916 Rising, Mellows is, at times, guilty of overstating the influence and role of the organisation. While he maintains that the boys of the Fianna helped ‘save the soul’ of Ireland, he fails to acknowledge the success of the Gaelic Athletic Association in constructing a genuinely national movement that mobilised tens of thousands of young people. The Fianna was not the first Irish republican youth movement and Mellows omits any mention of the significant contribution and achievements of the pioneering girls’ republican movement, Inghinidhe na h-Éireann, founded by Maude Gonne, Helena Molony and others in 1900. This was a significant omission on Mellows’ part and he would have been aware of, though not personally involved, in the girls’ movement, which was in decline by the time the Fianna was organised.
Mellows’ history of the Fianna was serialised in the Gaelic American newspaper in New York in eight instalments between April and August 1917. The articles appeared irregularly and were published anonymously under the pseudonym ‘Irish Volunteer Officer’.8 The extracts reproduced in this chapter do not represent Mellows’ text in its entirety and omit several lengthy sections that deal with internal procedures and structures, including training exercises, internal discipline, etc., that are described in considerable detail in the original text. The purpose of reproducing an abridged version is to explore the essence of Mellows’ early political philosophy. The account provides a keen insight into Mellows’ early activities, his commitment to militarism and his contempt for constitutional nationalism and the perceived materialism of Irish public life before the Easter Rebellion. It is far from Mellows’ best writing, however, and he indulges in much bluff and exaggeration. His claim, for instance, that the British Army killings carried out at Batchelor’s Walk on the day of the Howth gun running on 26 July 1914 ‘sounded the death-knell of the British Empire, for it kept Dublin nationally right’ ignores the reality that recruitment figures for the British Army in the early years of the War were particularly high in Dublin City. Mellows’ defence of the shooting of an unarmed man, George Alexander Playfair, a 23-year-old clerk, killed by members of Na Fianna at Park Place, next to the Phoenix Park during the Easter Rebellion, represents an understandable attempt to defend the actions of his young acolytes, but is far from convincing.
1. The History of the Irish Boy Scouts (1917)
The Irish Revolution of Easter Week 1916 was the outcome of the efforts of the various National organisations that had striven to revive the spirit of nationality which foreign government and its offspring, constitutional nationalism, had done so much to destroy. The Gaelic League, Sinn Féin, the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizen Army and the Cumann na mBan have all received some attention for the efforts they made on behalf of the cause of Ireland.
There is one organisation, however, which has been accorded very little recognition; an organisation which, though small and composed of boys, has played a very important part in the National life of Ireland, and particularly, in the events of Easter Week, 1916. This movement is known as Na Fianna Éireann – the Irish national Boy Scouts – and the following is a short sketch of its activities from its inception to the Revolution of 1916.
The Anglicising influence of the so-called National Schools on the minds of the youth of Ireland, was such that they grew up ignorant of anything regarding their history. Irish history – where it was taught at all – was presented in such a fashion that it inspired no noble sentiments of patriotism, but rather left the impression that it was to England that Ireland was indebted for such civilisation and progress as was in the country. Of Ireland, as it was, they knew very little. Of Ireland, as it is, they and the reasons why, they knew less. From their parents they learned little as a rule, for Parliamentarianism and the corruption that follows closely in its wake had sapped their national spirit. A flood of lurid literature for boys, in which the glory of the vast British Empire, the freedom that all races enjoyed in it, the great work for justice, civilisation – and for all mankind – that England had done and was doing, the great traditions the Union Jack represented, the valiant deeds of the British army and navy the world over, and what a paragon the British boy was of virtue, manliness, frankness, honour and so forth, enveloped the country. And then the establishment of the Baden-Powell Boy Scout movement in Ireland, through the efforts of the garrison, aided by its tail, the seonini, completed the attempts made by England to make a ‘happy English child’ out of the Irish boy.
Some antidote was needed, if the Irish youth – the boys of Ireland – were not to be swallowed up in the tide of Anglicistion engulfing the land. Something were needed if they were not to become entirely West-British, if not indeed English altogether. And the remedy was found in Na Fianna Éireann. To the Countess de Markievicz and Bulmer Hobson, belongs the credit of conceiving the idea of an organisation to train and educate boys to work for the independence of Ireland. They were ably seconded by Dr Patrick McCartan, Miss Helena Molony, Seán McGarry, and others, as well as a few young men – youths rather, who entered into the project enthusiastically and wholeheartedly, taking upon themselves the work of teaching the boys to know, love and work for Ireland. Among these latter, two names stand out prominently, Cornelius Colbert and Pádraic Ó Riain. The former’s whole life was devoted to Ireland. None loved Ireland more than he did, none worked harder. He was loved with an extraordinary affection by all who loved him. He lived only for his country and finally gave his life for it. He was one of those whose names will go down in posterity as the martyrs of 1916. Pádraic Ó Riain became Honorary General Secretary of the Fianna, an ardent worker in the Gaelic League and was prominent in the Volunteer movement, when it came to be established.
These youths who helped to make the Fianna a success did not need to have National principles instilled into them. It was inherent in them, and by their faith, courage, example and teaching inspired hundreds of boys to believe in and work for Ireland. The Fianna was founded in September 1909 in Dublin. Its principles were defined as follows: ‘To train the youth of Ireland, mentally and physically, to work for the independence of Ireland.’ The methods through which this was proposed to be done was through the teaching of the Irish language, history and traditions; physical and military training; the inculcation of national principles and ideals; the fostering of love of country and hatred of oppression. The name of the movement was derived from Ireland’s heroic age; from the Fianna of Fionn MacCumhail, as being best likely to inspire chivalrous ideals and manly sentiments.
The movement had from the beginning a desperate fight for existence.