The Irish Diaspora in America and
the Easter Rising
“wherever green is worn”
The Easter Rising of 1916 did not take place in a vacuum. The
Irish Diaspora in America, and elsewhere throughout the world,
took part at some level in its planning, financing or
implementation.
The Kimmage garrison, comprised of approximately 90 Irish
emigres from England and Scotland, took a direct role in the
Rising. Argentina-born Eamonn
Bulfin raised the flag of the Irish Republic on the
Prince Street corner of the GPO and the other flag, the
tricolor, was raised by one of the Liverpool Volunteers from the
Kimmage Garrison. Not to be forgotten were the two seamen, a
Swede and a Finn, who showed up outside the GPO at the onset of
the Rising on Monday asking for permission to join the fight.
Apart from those brave Volunteers who bore arms and shed blood
for the Irish Republic, many more individuals, in faraway
places, and especially here in America, dug deep into their
pockets and purses for the same cause, an Irish Republic.
By 1916, per the United States census data, 20 million people
living in the United States claimed Irish heritage. Of these 20
million, approximately 2 million had migrated here in the
proceeding (70) years owing to the devastation caused by the
Great Hunger of 1845 thru 1851, the land wars of 1879 thru 1882
and the subsequent evictions and dispossession of tenant farmers
and tenement
dwellers by
the British enabled ruling elite. Many of these exiles and
their children harbored a historic enmity of the British
usurper, whom they considered to be the root cause of their
misfortune and exile.
These exiles and their children, who settled in every corner of
the United States, supported their cousins left behind in
Ireland through every catastrophe and crisis they endured at the
hands of the British tormentors.
They raised money and agitated for the release of the Fenian
prisoners of 1865/67; they contributed funds for the “Catalpa” rescue
of the forgotten Irish-born British soldiers, turned Fenians,
from the notorious Fremantle prison in Australia; they
contributed funds to feed and house the evicted tenant farmers
during the Land Wars of the 1880’s; they arranged speaking tours
for visiting Home Rule advocates and contributed funds for the
Home Rule campaign during the last decade of the 19th and
early decades of the 20th centuries; they contributed
funds to arm the Irish Volunteers, and prior to the Easter
Rising of 1916, raised substantial funds to help launch the
Rising.
The organization most responsible for rallying these donors and
activists was Clan na Gael (the Clan) who came into existence in
1869 because of the dysfunctional factions within the Irish
Republican Brotherhood (IRB). Its aim was the same as that of
the IRB, simply put, to rid Ireland of the British presence.
Amongst its most famous accomplishment was the planning,
financing and implementation of the Catalpa rescue. In 1879, it
entered an alliance with the Irish Parliamentary Party dubbed
the “New Departure” that resulted in members of the IRB taking
seats in the British parliament aiming to achieve land rights
for tenant farmers. The Clan was
also the main force behind the Irish Race Conventions held in
Europe and the United States between 1881 and 1994 to promote
Irish Nationalism. However, its primary focus was on raising
funds and procuring arms for a Rising in Ireland.
In the early decades of the twentieth century, the Irish
Carmelite Friars, who came to New York in 1889, involved
themselves in the Irish struggle for freedom and independence.
The bonds that formed between the Carmelites and people involved
in the Irish Freedom struggle were unique and complex; born of
empathy, a sense of justice and humanity. They maintained safe
houses, hid arms, provided secure communications, and reinforced
ideas of Irish culture and independence Their
priory's in Manhattan and the Bronx were places of worship and
refuge for Irish Republicans visiting New York. Their schools
and halls were available for socials, fund raising events and
memorials to the executed Republican leaders of the Easter
Rising, War of Independence and the Treaty War. Their
contributions to the cause of Irish Freedom must not be
forgotten by Irishmen and Irishwomen of goodwill who value
sacrifice and noble deeds.
Foremost amongst the individuals who dedicated so much of their
life’s work to the quest for an independent and sovereign Irish
Republic was, Kildare born, John
Devoy whom Padraic
Pearse referred to as “The Greatest of the
Fenian”. Devoy served five years of a fifteen-year prison
sentence for his Fenian activities in 1866 before being released
and exiled in the general amnesty of 1870. A learned man, he
was employed as a journalist in New York where he took up
residence. He became a member of Clan na Gael and had overall
responsibility for the Catalpa rescue in 1876.
In the years leading up to the rising he raised money and worked
surreptitiously with another dedicated Kildare-born Fenian, John
Kenny, Roger
Casement and others to acquire arms from the
Germans. His fundraising was the main source of funds for the
Rising. Some months before the Rising he was visited by Joseph
M. Plunkett and informed of the date for the pending Rising and
per some sources was responsible for the insertion of “and
supported by her exiled children in America” into the
Proclamation.
In response to a request by Padraic Pearse in 1914 when he
visited the United States, Tyrone- born Joseph
McGarrity, another Clan na Gael leader from
Philadelphia provided the funds to purchase the 1,500 Mauser
rifles and 49,000 rounds of ammunition used by the Irish
volunteers in the Easter 1916 uprising. (The rifles and
ammunition were brought into Howth
Harbor in
Dublin from Germany in July of 1914 by Erskine Childers, his
American-born wife Mary
Alden Osgood and Mary Spring Rice aboard Erskine’s yacht, Asgard.
Waterford-born Dr.
Gertrude Kelly primary focus was on the downtrodden
and poor working women and their families. She treated everyone
equally irrespective of gender, race or religion. To that end
she set up a medical clinic in Chelsea to provide for their
basis medical needs.
In addition to the all-consuming task of caring for the
downtrodden she found time to set-up the first branch of Cumann
na mBan in America and organize protests against every British
perpetrated atrocity in Ireland. Her enormous contributions to
Irish causes have been ignored by Irish American politicians and
organizations in New York. Not so, as far as Mayor Fiorello
Henry La Guardia was concerned who, in 1936, dedicated a
playground in
Chelsea, to
her honor.
Another Waterford-born activist was Marguerite
Moore who was active in the Ladies Land league in
Ireland. She traveled extensively through Ireland, England and
Scotland informing large crowds of the plight of the tenant
farmers and the suffering endured by the victims of landlord
tyranny. After twelve months of hard work, she was arrested and
sentenced to six months' imprisonment in Tullamore prison for
inciting discontent.
In 1882, shortly after Parnell made his infamous deal with the
British to dismantle the Ladies Land League, Marguerite and her
family of four girls and two boys, emigrated to the United
States,
In the United States, she took a leading role in the suffrage
movement. She also spoke out against the oppression of workers
and child labor during the so-called Gilded Age.
She was an outspoken advocate for Irish freedom and together
with other Irish American women activists participated in
numerous speaking engagements, demonstration, strikes, and
fundraising activities in support of Sinn Fein and the Irish
Republican Brotherhood before and after the Easter Rising of
1916. Her pen was always ready to advocate for the poor and
oppressed regardless of gender, race or creed.
American-born Joyce Kilmer was the most prominent poet in
America to garner support for Irish independence during the
historic 1916 Easter Week Rising.
He penned the poem “Easter Week,” about the Rising and a second
poem “Apology,” in which he named the three poets who were among
the Rising’s executed leaders. He also helped to organize a
rally of American poets in Central Park in support of the Rising
and wrote one
of the
most powerful interviews with a
young female rebel who fought in the GPO The interview was
published in
the New York Times.
He identified as Irish American. He died in 1918, in WWI in
France while serving with the 165th Infantry Regiment – better
known as the 'Fighting 69th.'
This narrative is but a sketch of the involvement of the Irish
Diaspora in the Easter Rising and for that matter in every other
Irish Rising since 1798. Also, one must not forget their
sacrifices for America’s freedom, unity and prosperity down
through the centuries, from Bunker Hill to the present day.
As always, we must remember, first and foremost, that the
supreme sacrifice was borne by the brave men and women who
manned the various garrisons and outposts during that fateful
week in April 1916 --- particularly the brave souls immortalized
in W. B. Yeats poem “Easter 1916”.
I write it out in a verse—
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
Contributor:
Tomás Ó Coısdealha
