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THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 AS I SAW IT 
 
THE SINN FEIN 
 REBELLION 
 
 AS I SAW IT 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. HAMILTON NORWAY 
 
 (WIFB OF THE SECRETARY FOR THE POST OFFICE 
 IN IRELAND) 
 
 With Illustrations^ and Reproduction of the Irish 
 Republican Stamp on Cover 
 
 LONDON 
 SMITH, ELDER & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 
 
 1916 
 
-f \ 
 
 ^\ 
 
For these letters I claim no literary 
 merit : they were written during a period 
 of extraordinary strain for family perusal 
 only, and are a faithful record hour by 
 hour of the Sinn Fein rebellion as I saw it. 
 The wide interest the letters excited in 
 the family circle and the little that seems 
 to be known of a period of such intense 
 interest is my reason for offering them to 
 a wider public. 
 
 M. L. N. 
 
 July, 1916. 
 
 r^ f~> r> r\ MW r\ 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 BuRNT-ouT Shell op General Post Office, 
 
 SHOWING THE FALLEN FLAGSTAFF WHICH 
 
 BORE THE Eepublioan Flag . FrontttpiecB 
 Armoured Cab Facing p. 66 
 
The Sinn Fein Rebellion 
 as I Saw It 
 
 Royal Hibernian Hotel, 
 
 Dawson Street, Dublin, 
 Tuesday, April 25th. 
 
 Dearest G., — I am afraid by this time 
 you will have seen a good deal in the papers 
 to cause you alarm, and as it is impossible 
 to get a letter or telegram through, I will 
 write you a detailed account of what we 
 are going through and post it to you at 
 the first opportunity. 
 
 To begin at the beginning, the Sinn 
 Fein movement, which is now frankly 
 revolutionary and which must not be 
 confounded with Redmond's Nationalist 
 Party, has been in existence for years, 
 but has always been looked on as a small 
 body of cranks who were thirsting for 
 
2 THE SINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 notoriety. Eedmond's policy has always 
 been to treat them with utter contempt, 
 and the Government adopted his view. 
 
 Since the outbreak of war this move- 
 ment, encouraged no doubt by German 
 intrigue and German money, has grown 
 by leaps and bounds, and about eighteen 
 months ago a large number broke away 
 from Eedmond's National Volunteers and 
 formed a volunteer force which they called 
 the Irish Volunteers. They are frankly 
 and openly revolutionary, and when it 
 became known some months ago that they 
 were obtaining large quantities of arms 
 and ammunition various persons did all 
 they could to open the eyes of the autho- 
 rities to the dangerous situation that was 
 growing up. But as the explanation was 
 always given that the force was for 
 national defence only, the Government 
 failed to take any steps to put down the 
 movement. 
 
As I SAW IT S 
 
 During the past six months the body has 
 grown enormously, as many as seven 
 hundred recruits being enlisted on one 
 night, and of course doing enormous harm 
 to recruiting for the Army. On St. 
 Patrick's Day they held a large review 
 of several battalions, armed, and the 
 trams were all held up for about an hour 
 in College Green. Up to the last moment 
 there was hope that this would be stopped, 
 but protests were like a voice crying in 
 the wilderness. Another time they held 
 a full dress rehearsal of what has actually 
 taken place when they " took " the Castle, 
 St. Stephen's Green, and various build- 
 ings. About a month ago one of their 
 meetings in the country was broken up 
 and the two leaders arrested and deported 
 to England. A huge meeting of protest 
 was held at the Mansion House, almost 
 opposite this hotel, and attended by the 
 Volunteers, all armed, who marched in 
 
4 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 procession. After the meeting they 
 marched down Grafton Street, singing 
 ** Die Wacht am Rhein " and revolu- 
 tionary songs ; a slight disturbance with 
 the police took place and some shots were 
 fired. People began to ask anxiously 
 what next ? but the Government looked 
 on and smiled and H. tore his hair. 
 
 On Saturday we were going to tea with 
 friends at Bray, when just as we were 
 starting H. got an '* ofl&cial " from the 
 Castle, so I went alone and he went to the 
 Castle. News had come that a boat had 
 been taken off the Kerry coast, landing 
 ammunition, and a very important arrest 
 had been made. Easter Sunday passed off 
 in absolute calm, and yesterday (Easter 
 Monday) morning H. said he had a lot 
 of letters to write and he would go and 
 write them at his club, almost next door 
 to the Sackville Street G.P.O. He found 
 he wanted to answer some letters that 
 
AS I SAW IT 5 
 
 were in his desk at the G.P.O., so he walked 
 over to his room and was just sitting down 
 when his 'phone went, an urgent message 
 to go at once to the Castle. 
 
 He had only just arrived there, and was 
 in consultation with Sir M. N., when 
 suddenly a volley of shots rang out at the 
 Castle gate, and it was found armed bodies 
 of men were in possession of the City Hall 
 and other houses that commanded the 
 other gates to the Castle, and anyone 
 attempting to leave the Castle was shot. 
 All the ofl&cials in the Castle were prisoners. 
 
 News quickly came that the magazine 
 in the Park had been taken, the G.P.O., 
 two stations, and all the houses that 
 commanded O'Connell Bridge had been 
 stormed and taken, and the rebels had 
 taken St. Stephen's Green, where they were 
 entrenching themselves. 
 
 Meantime, knowing nothing of this, 
 N. went for a country motor bike ride, 
 
6 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 and I did some sewing and wrote letters, 
 etc., and when N. came in about 12.30 I 
 said I wanted a walk before lunch and we 
 would walk down to the club and meet H. 
 The streets were quiet and deserted till 
 we crossed O'Connell Bridge, when N. 
 remarked there was a dense crowd round 
 Nelson's Pillar, but we supposed it was 
 a bank holiday crowd waiting for trams. 
 We were close to the General Post Office 
 when two or three shots were fired, followed 
 by a volley, and the crowd began rushing 
 down towards the bridge, the people call- 
 ing, out " Go back, go back ; the Sinn 
 Feiners are firing." N. said, *' You'd 
 better go back. Mother ; there's going to 
 be a row ; I'll go on to the club and find 
 Dad " ; so I turned and fled with the 
 crowd and got back safely to the hotel. 
 
 Here was excitement and consternation. 
 Every moment people were coming in with 
 tales of civilians being shot in the streets, 
 
AS I SAW IT 7 
 
 and houses commanding wide thorough- 
 fares and prominent positions being taken 
 possession of by the Sinn Feiners, whose 
 method was to go in detachments of four 
 or six armed men, ring the bell, and demand 
 to see the owners of the houses. In many 
 instances they were away for the Easter 
 holidays, when the frightened servants 
 were just turned into the street to go where 
 they would ; but if the master or mistress 
 were at home they were told with a 
 revolver at their heads that the house was 
 required by the Irish Republic for strategic 
 purposes, and the owners were given the 
 option of leaving the house or remaining 
 as prisoners in the basement. A few elected 
 to do this in preference to leaving all 
 their household goods to the mercy of 
 the rebels ; but most thought " discretion 
 the better part of valour " and cleared 
 out to friends, in some instances only to 
 be hunted out from their house of refuge 
 
8 THE SINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 a second time. The windows of the houses 
 were then barricaded with a reckless 
 disregard to valuable furniture, which in 
 many cases was turned into the street to 
 form barricades. 
 
 You remember my nice housemaid Mary, 
 gentle as a dove and timid as a hare. I 
 had got her a very nice place with a lady 
 who had taken a large house in Leeson 
 Street close to the bridge and commanding 
 Fitzwilliam Place. She went this morning 
 by appointment to meet the lady at the 
 house and found the Sinn Feiners on the 
 steps, who pointed their revolvers at her 
 and told her to clear out. She was so 
 scared she nearly fell into the area, and 
 came to the hotel looking like a ghost. 
 
 But to return to our own adventures. 
 Directly I got back to the hotel I rang 
 up the club and was told by old Mac- 
 Dermott, the hall-porter, that H. had left 
 the club at 11.30 to go to the G.P.O., 
 
AS I SAW IT 9 
 
 saying he would be back shortly ; but he 
 had not returned, and since then the Post 
 Office had been stormed and the guard 
 shot or overpowered, and the Sinn Feiners 
 were in possession of the whole building, 
 and firing volleys on the poHce from the 
 windows ! Imagine my feelings ! 
 
 About 1.80 N. returned, having failed to 
 find any trace of H., but he had seen some 
 cavalry shot coming out of Talbot Street 
 into Sackville Street. The first three or 
 four were just picked off their horses and 
 fell wounded or dead, and the horses 
 were shot. He said the scene of excitement 
 in Sackville Street was indescribable. We 
 were just going in to lunch when a tele- 
 phone message came through saying H. 
 was at the Castle but could not leave. 
 
 This relieved our minds as to his fate, 
 and after lunch I was kept busy at the 
 telephone answering distracted messages 
 from Post Office officials who were wander- 
 
10 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 ing about looking for H. At about 4 p.m. 
 N. returned from a tour of inspection, and 
 told me all was quiet in Sackville Street, 
 and begged me to go out with him and 
 see the G.P.O. 
 
 I quaked rather, but we set off and 
 reached Sackville Street safely. 
 
 Over the fine building of the G.P.O. 
 floated a great green flag with the words 
 ** Irish Republic '' on it in large white 
 letters. Every window on the ground 
 floor was smashed and barricaded with 
 furniture, and a big placard announced 
 '' The Headquarters of the Provisional 
 Government of the Irish Republic.*' At 
 every window were two men with rifles, 
 and on the roof the parapet was lined with 
 men. H.'s room appeared not to have 
 been touched, and there were no men at 
 his windows. 
 
 We stood opposite and were gazing, 
 when suddenly two shots were fired, and, 
 
AS I SAW IT 11 
 
 seeing there was likely to be an ugly rush, 
 I fled again, exhorting N. to take refuge 
 at the club. 
 
 He never reached the club, but came 
 back to the hotel, and we had tea, and he 
 then went to inspect St. Stephen's Green. 
 
 He found all round the Green, just 
 inside the railings among the shrubberies, 
 the rebels had dug deep pits or holes, and 
 in every hole were three men. They had 
 barricaded the street opposite the Shel- 
 bourne Hotel, and there had been a lot of 
 firing and several people killed, and shots 
 had gone into the hotel, which is, as you 
 know, a fine building facing the Green. 
 
 All the evening we heard firing in all 
 directions of the city and rumours of troops 
 having arrived from the Curragh. While 
 at dinner another message came through 
 from H. to say we were not to be alarmed ; 
 he was quite safe, but might not get home 
 that night. 
 
12 THE SINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 After dinner N, went out to see if he 
 could get near the Castle, but he found 
 awful fighting. The troops were storming 
 the City Hall and using machine-guns, 
 and it was too " unhealthy " for him to get 
 near, so he came back at 9 and went to bed. 
 
 I stayed up in case of being wanted on 
 the 'phone, and at 11.30 p.m. went up to 
 my room, and a few minutes later H. 
 walked in, to my immense relief. 
 
 The troops had arrived from the Curragh 
 at about 5 p.m. and had promptly stormed 
 the City Hall, which commanded the main 
 gate of the Castle, and had taken it after 
 fierce fighting. 
 
 H. saw prisoners being brought into 
 the Castle yard, and when all was quiet 
 he and several other officials crept out and 
 reached their various homes. 
 
 People are appalled at the utter unpre- 
 paredness of the Government. In the face 
 of a huge body of trained and armed men, 
 
AS I SAW IT 18 
 
 openly revolutionary, they had taken no 
 precautions whatever for the defence of 
 the city in the event of an outbreak. At 
 the beginning of the war H. obtained a 
 miUtary guard, armed, for the G.P.O., 
 and they have always been there. When 
 the outbreak occurred yesterday the armed 
 guard were there, but with no ammuni- 
 tion ! The sergeant was wounded in two 
 places and the rest overpowered. 
 
 All night the firing continued. Between 
 1 and 2 a.m. it was awful, and I lay and 
 quaked. It was all in the direction of the 
 Castle. 
 
 This morning we hear the military are 
 pouring into the city, and are in the Shel- 
 bourne Hotel and Trinity College. 
 
 The rebels have barricaded Sackville 
 Street, and it is expected to be very fierce 
 fighting over the G.P.O. It is terrible ! 
 
 All our valuables were stored in H.'s 
 safe and cupboard when we gave up our 
 
14 THE SINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 house, and all our dear F.'s books, sword, 
 and all his possessions, which we value 
 more than anything else in the world. We 
 
 ^fv^^fj^oil^iT 
 
 o 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 STEPHEN'S GREEN 
 
 
 Smlhmrn^Hfflel 
 
 would not trust them with the stored fur- 
 niture. 
 
 Yesterday afternoon the mob broke all 
 the windows in various streets and looted 
 all the shops. The streets were strewn with 
 
AS I SAW IT 15 
 
 clothes, boots, furniture, tram cushions, 
 and everything you can imagine. 
 
 While I am writing now there is inces- 
 sant firing in St. Stephen's Green, and we 
 fear there may be street fighting in this 
 street. 
 
 In case you have forgotten, I will put 
 a Httle plan here (see p. 14). 
 
 Tuesday, 5 p.m. 
 
 This morning martial law was pro- 
 claimed (I will try and get a copy of the 
 proclamation) at 11.30 and the rebels given 
 four hours to surrender. 
 
 A cruiser and two transports are said 
 to have arrived at Kingstown, with troops 
 from England. At 3.30 p.m., as there had 
 been no surrender, the troops started to 
 clear St. Stephen's Green, and raked it 
 with machine-guns from the top of the 
 Shelbourne Hotel and the United Service 
 Club. We hear there are many casualties. 
 N. has just come in, and says a big fire is 
 
16 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 raging in Sackville Street in the shops 
 opposite the G.P.O., supposed to have been 
 caused by the mob finding fireworks in a 
 toy shop. The fire brigade arrived almost 
 at once and could easily have overcome 
 the fire, but the brigade was fired on by 
 the Sinn Feiners, making it impossible for 
 them to bring the engines into action, 
 and they had to beat a retreat and leave 
 the shops to burn themselves out. N. 
 says the troops are clearing the houses of 
 rebels behind Dame Street and the region 
 of the Castle, and there is a lot of firing. 
 It has turned to rain, which has cleared 
 the streets of people. 
 
 A telegram has just come from the 
 Admiralty stopping the mail boat from 
 crossing. No boat has gone to-day, and 
 we are absolutely cut off. 
 
 All the roads leading out of Dublin are 
 in the hands of the rebels. 
 
 H. and N. have just come in, having 
 
AS I SAW IT 17 
 
 seen Dr. W. (now Major W.), Surgeon to 
 the Forces in Ireland. He told them that 
 so far we had had about 500 casualties, 
 two-thirds of them being civilians, shot 
 in the streets. 
 
 The first thing Dr. W. heard of the out- 
 break was a 'phone message telling him to 
 go at once to the Shelbourne as a man 
 had been shot. He supposed it was a case 
 of suicide, so jumped into his car and 
 went off, fortunately in mufti. In Nassau 
 Street his car was stopped and he was 
 ordered to get out by rebels. He attempted 
 to argue, and was told if he did not obey 
 instantly he would be shot. Had he been 
 in uniform he would have been shot at 
 sight. As a civilian doctor they allowed 
 him to go, and he took his bag and ran. 
 He found three men shot in the Shelbourne, 
 and a boy was shot as he reached the 
 door. 
 
18 THE SINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 Wednesday, April 26ih, 9.30 a.m. 
 Last evening was quiet till we went to 
 bed at 10.30, when almost immediately 
 a furious machine-gun fire began. It 
 seemed just at the back of the hotel, but 
 was really at the top of Grafton Street 
 and the street leading to Mercer's Hospital. 
 It lasted about twenty minutes, and then 
 almost immediately after we got into bed 
 a 'phone came that H. was to go at once 
 to the Vice-Eegal Lodge in the Phoenix 
 Park, so he dressed and tried every way to 
 get a motor ; but of course no motor would 
 go out. After some delay he got the field 
 ambulance of the fire brigade at Dr. W.'s 
 suggestion ; but when it came the men 
 told H. they had been carrying wounded 
 all day, and that they had been constantly 
 stopped by pickets and the car searched, 
 and if they went and the car was stopped 
 and found to contain H. they would 
 undoubtedly all be shot ; so H. considered 
 
AS I SAW IT 19 
 
 it too risky, and it had to be abandoned. 
 Eventually his Excellency gave his instruc- 
 tions over the 'phone, first in French, 
 but that particular 'phone either did not 
 speak or did not understand French, so 
 eventually he took the risk of the 'phone 
 being tapped and gave them in English. 
 At last H. got to bed about 1 a.m., to be 
 at the 'phone again at 5 a.m. 
 
 While we were dressing a terrific bom- 
 bardment with field guns began — the first 
 we had heard — and gave me cold shivers. 
 The sound seemed to come from the direc- 
 tion of the G.P.O., and we concluded they 
 were bombarding it. It went on for a 
 quarter of an hour — awful ! big guns and 
 machine-guns — and then ceased, but we 
 hear they were bombarding Liberty Hall, 
 the headquarters of Larkin and the 
 strikers two years ago, and always a nest 
 of sedition. It is now crammed with Sinn 
 Feiners. The guns were on H.M.S. Helga, 
 
20 THE SINN FEIN KEBELLION 
 
 that came up the river and smashed it 
 from within about three hundred yards. 
 It made me feel quite sick. 
 
 We think that they are leaving the Post 
 Office for a time with the hope that when 
 other strongholds are taken the Republican 
 Government will surrender. H. has just 
 been summoned to the Castle, and there is 
 no knowing when he will be back. All 
 who go out carry their lives in their hands. 
 I went out twice yesterday, but we were 
 turned back by shots being fired from 
 upper windows, and the Lord Lieutenant 
 has issued a proclamation begging people 
 to keep in their houses, so I must restrain 
 my curiosity. 
 
 All the shops remain closed, and no 
 papers are issued except the proclamation, 
 and we know nothing of what is going on 
 in other parts of Ireland. But there are 
 wild rumours of insurrection in Cork and 
 other places. 
 
AS I SAW IT 21 
 
 This morning there is firing again in St. 
 Stephen's Green, so the rebels are still 
 there. 
 
 N. did a very fine thing yesterday. 
 After the Green had been raked by our 
 machine-gun fire he strolled up, in his 
 casual way, to see the result ! In front of 
 one of the side gates in the railings, which 
 are seven feet high and spiked three ways, 
 he saw a small group of men peering into 
 the Green. He went to see what they 
 were looking at. The rebels had barricaded 
 the gate, which opened inwards, by putting 
 one of the heavy garden seats against it 
 upside down and on the top of it another 
 right side up, and lying full length on 
 the seat, face downwards, was a man, a 
 civilian, with all his lower jaw blown away 
 and bleeding profusely. N. immediately 
 climbed the raihngs and dropped down on 
 the Sinn Fein side and found that the man 
 was still living ; he then turned and fairly 
 
22 THEISINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 cursed the men who were looking on, and 
 asked if there was not one man enough 
 to come over the railings and help him. 
 Whereupon three men climbed over and 
 together they lifted down the seat with the 
 poor creature on it, dragged away the 
 other seat, when they were able to open 
 the gate, and then brought out the seat 
 and the man on it and carried him to the 
 nearest hospital, where he died in about 
 five minutes. 
 
 N.'s theory is he was probably one of 
 the civilians taken prisoner by the Sinn 
 Fein the previous day, and was trying to 
 escape from the awful machine-gun fire 
 when he was shot down and fell back on to 
 the seat. It was a terrible case. 
 
 The rebels from St. Stephen's Green are 
 now also in possess'on of the College of 
 Surgeons and are firing across the Green at 
 the troops in the Shelbourne Hotel. 
 
 Lord S. tells me that 80,000 troops were 
 
AS I SAW IT 23 
 
 landed at Kingstown this morning, and 
 we hear they are amazed at their reception, 
 as they had been told that they were going 
 to quell a rebellion in Ireland, and lo ! 
 on their arrival at Kingstown the whole 
 population turned out to cheer them, 
 giving them food, cigarettes, chocolate, 
 and everything the hospitable inhabitants 
 could provide, so that the puzzled troops 
 asked plaintively : ** Who then are we 
 going to fight, and where is the rebeUion ? " 
 However, they were quickly disillusioned, 
 for in marching into Dublin, when they 
 reached Ballsbridge they came within 
 range of several houses occupied by Sinn 
 Feiners, and without a word of warning 
 the battalion of Sherwood Foresters came 
 under terrible cross-fire and were just 
 shot down, unable to return a single shot. 
 I have not heard how many casualties 
 occurred but two or three officers and 
 many men were killed and a number 
 
24 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 wounded. So surely soon we must be 
 relieved. 
 
 Thursday, April ^Ith. 
 
 Last night the mail boat left carrying 
 passengers, and if it goes this evening Lord 
 S. may be crossing, and he will take this 
 to you. 
 
 Yesterday afternoon and evening there 
 was terrible fighting. The rebels hold all 
 the bridges over the canal, one on the tram 
 line between this and Blackrock, another 
 at the end of Baggot Street, and the other 
 at Leeson Street. The fighting was terrible, 
 but in the end we took the Leeson Street 
 bridge, and I hope still hold it, as this 
 opens a road to Kingstown. We failed to 
 take the other two. 
 
 At the end of Lower Mount Street the 
 rebels held the schools, and there was 
 fierce fighting : our troops failed to sur- 
 round the schools, and in the end, when 
 they at last took them by a frontal attack 
 
AS I SAW IT 25 
 
 with the loss of eighteen men and one 
 officer, only one rebel was taken, the rest 
 having escaped by the back. 
 
 Yesterday, to our great indignation, the 
 public-houses were allowed to be open from 
 2 till 5, though every shop, bank, and 
 public building was closed — just to in- 
 flame the mob, it could not have been on 
 any other grounds ; and yet at 8 p.m., 
 after being on duty from 5 a.m., H. could 
 not get a whiskey and soda, or even a 
 glass of cider with his dinner, as it was 
 out of hours. I was furious I 
 
 I must close this, as Lord S. has come in 
 and says he expects to go to-night and will 
 take this and H.'s report, so I will start a 
 fresh letter to-morrow. 
 
 Don't worry overmuch about us. We 
 quite expect to come out of this, but if 
 we don't N. is yours, 
 
 L. N. 
 
26 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 Second Letter. 
 
 Friday f 10 a.m. 
 
 Dearest G., — After all my letter did 
 not get off last night, as the roads were 
 too dangerous to admit of Dr, W. motoring 
 Lord S. to Kingstown. He got a permit 
 to pass our troops, but there were too 
 many Sinn Fein positions and snipers to 
 make it possible for them to pass through. 
 
 If the position improves, he will go to- 
 night, so I may be able to send this too, 
 if I can write enough to make it worth 
 while, but I am still rather shaky from a 
 fright I had last night. 
 
 Yesterday morning the Red Cross ambu- 
 lance sent in to the hotel to ask for volun- 
 teer workers to act as stretcher-bearers 
 and do all sorts of jobs connected with the 
 Red Cross, and N. and several men stay- 
 ing in the hotel volunteered. I was glad 
 he should, as he is of course safer attached 
 
AS I SAW IT 27 
 
 to the Eed Cross than roaming the streets 
 making rescues on his own, and if he was 
 killed or wounded we should at least hear 
 of it. But the risks are many and great, 
 as in this kind of street fighting, where all 
 the firing is from windows or from house- 
 tops, the ambulance are frequently under 
 fire. 
 
 However, N. having volunteered 
 promptly went off, and we saw him no 
 more. While we were having dinner 
 Mr. O'B., who had been out all day with 
 the ambulance, was dining with us. H. 
 was called to the telephone to receive this 
 message : ** You must not expect to see 
 or hear from me till this is over." 
 
 H. asked who the message was from, 
 and the answer came back : ** Your son," 
 in a voice that H. was sure was not N.'s. 
 H. then asked where the message came 
 from, and was told ** The Castle." 
 
 He returned to us greatly perturbed, 
 
28 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 and we held a consultation. We all 
 agreed there was only one interpretation 
 to be put on it, viz., that N. had been 
 taken prisoner by the rebels, and that 
 someone who was well disposed to H. had 
 taken this opportunity of letting him know, 
 and that saying the message came from 
 the Castle was just a blind. H. rang up 
 the head of the Red Cross, and he told 
 us only two of the Red Cross volunteers 
 were missing who had been out that day, 
 and both of them were known, and N. 
 was not one of them, so we were still more 
 mystified. 
 
 It then occurred to H. that it might be 
 possible to trace back the message and find 
 out where it really had been sent from, 
 so he called up the exchange, and after 
 a little delay he heard the message had 
 actually been sent from the Castle and by 
 N., who was there. 
 
 Imagine our relief ! though still com- 
 
AS I SAW IT 29 
 
 pletely in the dark as to why the boy had 
 not come back like other workers, and 
 why we were not to expect to see him 
 again. 
 
 Next morning in walked the truant, not 
 best pleased that we had been inquiring 
 for him. His explanation was quite simple. 
 He had been attached to a branch of the 
 ambulance that had its depot at the 
 Castle, so worked from there and returned 
 to the Castle at night. Hearing this, and 
 not knowing in the least to what part of 
 the city his work would take him, and the 
 impossibility of sending any message or 
 note to tell us where he was, and knowing 
 how anxious I should be if he did not 
 return, he asked the Castle authorities if 
 he might send a message to relieve our 
 minds! He was told he might do so, 
 but it must only be one sentence, and he 
 must have the censor in the box with him. 
 This so flustered N. that he could think of 
 
30 THE SINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 nothing to say but the words I have quoted ; 
 they seemed to him to express the position 
 exactly, and he never dreamt of the 
 interpretation we should put on them. 
 As it was I spent an hour I don't ever Uke 
 to remember and which unnerved me more 
 than I thought possible, and all I got was 
 a trouncing from N. for being so '* nervy." 
 Surely much is expected from mothers 
 these days ! 
 
 The volunteer workers, among other 
 things, enter houses where there are known 
 to be wounded Sinn Peiners and bring 
 them out and take them to hospitals. 
 
 This N. was doing yesterday. One of 
 the most awful things in this terrible 
 time is that there must be scores of dead 
 and dying Sinn Feiners, many of them 
 mere lads, that no one can get at in the 
 houses, and where they will remain till 
 after the rebellion ; and in some cases the 
 houses take fire and they are all burnt. 
 
AS I SAW IT 31 
 
 However, whatever is possible is being 
 done. 
 
 Yesterday was the worst day we have 
 had, as there was desperate fighting in 
 Grafton Street, just at our back, and the 
 side streets ; and several volleys in our 
 street. 
 
 In the morning I was sitting on a settee 
 near the window of the lounge, knitting 
 and looking out and listening to the firing 
 in Grafton Street, when shots were fired 
 just outside our windows, and Mr. B., the 
 manager, came in and said, ** We must 
 shut all the shutters, Mrs. N., it is getting 
 a bit too hot, and I am taking no risks." 
 So all the shutters were closed, and I 
 moved to the drawing-room above, which 
 also overlooks the street. 
 
 All the afternoon an awful battle raged 
 in the neighbourhood of the river and 
 quays, and the din of the great guns and 
 machine-guns was tremendous. We now 
 
32 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 have 30,000 troops and plenty of artillery 
 and machine-guns, so the result cannot be 
 uncertain, though there is desperate work 
 to be done before the end is in sight. 
 The troops are said to have formed 
 
 a huge semi-circle with the G.P.O. as the 
 centre, and, starting from the river, are 
 driving the rebels back street by street, till 
 eventually they will be in a small enclo- 
 sure, when they will bombard it to pieces. 
 
AS I SAW IT 33 
 
 The G.P.O. has such valuable records, 
 etc., and the contents of the safes are so 
 precious, that they will not raze it to the 
 ground if they can help it ; but it has so 
 much subterranean space, that would afford 
 cover to thousands of Sinn Feiners, that 
 we hear they are going to fire some ** gas " 
 shells into it and then rush it ! 
 
 Up to yesterday afternoon they had got 
 to Abbey Street on the right, and no doubt 
 were closing in equally on other sides. The 
 shells had started several fires ; nearly all the 
 shops on the quay on the side of the Custom 
 House were burning yesterday afternoon, 
 and later in the evening many others 
 broke out. 
 
 I cannot give you any idea of what it 
 was Hke when I went to bed. I sent for 
 Mrs. B., the manager's wife, such a splendid 
 Uttle woman, and together we watched 
 it from my window, which is high up and 
 looked in the right direction. 
 
34 THE SINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 It was the most awe-inspiring sight I 
 have ever seen. It seemed as if the whole 
 city was on fire, the glow extending right 
 across the heavens, and the red glare 
 hundreds of feet high, while above the roar 
 of the fires the whole air seemed vibrating 
 with the noise of the great guns and 
 machine-guns. It was an inferno ! W^ 
 remained spell-bound, and I can't tell 
 you how I longed for you to see it. We 
 had only just come down from the window 
 — we had been standing on the window 
 ledge leaning out — when H. came and told 
 us no one was to look out of the windows 
 as there was cross-firing from the United 
 Service Club and another building, and 
 Mr. O'B., who was watching the fires 
 from his window, had a bullet a few inches 
 from his head ! ! 
 
 About 2 a.m. I woke to find the room 
 illuminated in spite of dark blinds and 
 curtains, and I rushed to the window and 
 
AS I SAW IT 35 
 
 saw an enormous fire ; it seemed to be in 
 the direction of the Pour Courts, which is 
 in the hands of the Sinn Feiners, and we 
 hear this morning that a portion of the 
 buildings was burnt last night.* 
 
 Yesterday Lord S. had a narrow escape 
 from a sniper who has been worrying this 
 street for two days and could not be 
 located. He was picking off soldiers during 
 the fighting in Grafton Street, but later 
 turned his attention to the cross streets 
 between this and Grafton Street, and there 
 as nearly as possible got Lord S., who 
 was coming back to us from the Castle. 
 
 The military thought the man was on 
 our roof, which made us all bristle with 
 indignation — the mere idea of the wretch 
 being on our hotel ; but a thorough search 
 proved he was not here, though he evi- 
 dently had access to some roof. 
 
 • This was incorrect j it was the Linen Hall 
 barracks that were burnt. 
 
36 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 In this respect we are much better off 
 than our friends the V.'s. They came into 
 their town house only about a month 
 ago, and being in Upper Mount Street it 
 was in one of the most active haunts of 
 the snipers. They had several on their 
 roof, and when they went up to bed 
 at night they could hear the snipers walk- 
 ing about and talking on the roof. Does 
 it not make one creep to think of it ? 
 Mr. V. had his bed put on the upper land- 
 ing exactly under the trap-door on to the 
 roof, so that had the rebels attempted 
 to enter the house at night they would have 
 come down ** plop " on to him in his bed. 
 He surrounded himself with all the arms 
 he could muster, and the wretched Mrs. V. 
 lay in bed and quaked, expecting any 
 minute to hear a battle royal raging out- 
 side her bedroom door. In this street an 
 old lady of seventy-three was shot through 
 the leg in her own room, and was taken 
 
AS I SAW IT 37 
 
 to Dr. W.'s home, where she had to have 
 her leg amputated ; and in another house 
 a servant flashed on her electric Kght when 
 going to bed and was instantly shot 
 through the head ! Our friend Miss K. 
 also had a narrow escape. She had only 
 just left her drawing-room, when a bullet 
 passed straight through the room and 
 buried itself in a picture. 
 
 Yesterday afternoon, when the firing in 
 Grafton Street was over, the mob appeared 
 and looted the shops, clearing the great 
 provision shops and others. From the 
 back of this hotel you look down on an 
 alley that connects with Grafton Street, — 
 and at the corner, the shop front in Grafton 
 Street, but with a side entrance into this 
 lane, is a very large and high-class fruiterer. 
 From the windows we watched the pro- 
 ceedings, and I never saw anything so 
 brazen ! The mob were chiefly women and 
 children, with a sprinkling of men. They 
 
38 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 swarmed in and out of the side door bear- 
 ing huge consignments of bananas, the 
 great bunches on the stalk, to which the 
 children attached a cord and ran away 
 dragging it along. Other boys had big 
 orange boxes which they filled with tinned 
 and bottled fruits. Women with their 
 skirts held up received showers of apples 
 and oranges and all kinds of fruit which 
 were thrown from the upper windows by 
 their pals ; and ankle-deep on the ground 
 lay all the pink and white and silver 
 paper and paper shavings used for packing 
 choice fruits. It was an amazing sight, 
 and nothing daunted these people. Higher 
 up at another shop we were told a woman 
 was hanging out of a window dropping 
 down loot to a friend, when she was shot 
 through the head by a sniper, probably our 
 man ; the body dropped into the street 
 and the mob cleared. In a few minutes 
 a hand-cart appeared and gathered up the 
 
AS I SAW IT 39 
 
 body, and instantly all the mob swarmed 
 back to continue the joyful proceedings ! 
 
 H. and Lord S. were sitting at the window 
 for a few minutes yesterday when the fruit 
 shop was being looted, and saw one of the 
 funniest sights they had ever seen. A 
 very fat, very blousy old woman emerged 
 from the side street and staggered on to 
 the pavement laden with far more loot 
 than she could carry. In her arms she had 
 an orange box full of fruit, and under her 
 shawl she had a great bundle tied up which 
 kept slipping down. Having reached the 
 pavement, she put down her box and sat 
 on it, and from her bundle rolled forth 
 many tins of fruit. These she surveyed 
 ruefully, calling on the Almighty and all 
 the saints to help her ! ! From these she 
 solemnly made her selection, which she 
 bound up in her bundle and hoisted, with 
 many groans and lamentations, on her 
 back and made off with, casting back 
 
40 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 many longing looks at the pile of things 
 left on the pavement, which were speedily 
 disposed of by small boys. 
 
 On Wednesday when the looting was 
 going on in Sackville Street a fine, large 
 boot shop was receiving attention from 
 swarms of looters. Ragged women and 
 children were seen calmly sitting in the 
 window trying on boots and shoes, and 
 one old woman with an eye to future needs 
 made up a bundle of assorted sizes and tied 
 them up in her apron. She had only 
 reached the pavement, when she bethought 
 her to leave her bundle in a corner and 
 return for a further consignment which 
 she tied up in her shawl. On returning 
 to the street great was her rage and 
 indignation on finding the original bundle 
 had disappeared. Then were there sore 
 lamentations and violent abuse of the 
 police, who could not even '* protect the 
 property of a poor old woman." 
 
AS I SAW IT 41 
 
 In Sackville Street was a very large shop 
 called Clery's ; for some reason the looters 
 were afraid to start on it, and old women 
 passed up and down gazing longingly at 
 fur coats and silken raiment and saying 
 sorrowfully, *' Isn't Clery's broke yet?" 
 and ** Isn't it a great shame that Clery's 
 is not broke ! " Humour and tragedy 
 are so intermixed in this catastrophe. 
 A very delicate elderly lady who is staying 
 here said to me this morning, in answer 
 to my inquiry as to how she had slept : 
 " I could not sleep at all. When the guns 
 ceased the awful silence made me so ner- 
 vous ! " I know exactly what she meant. 
 When the roar of the guns ceases you can 
 jeel the silence. 
 
 When I had got so far this morning I 
 got an urgent message from the Red Cross 
 asking me to make more armlets for the 
 workers. With two other ladies I had been 
 
42 THE SINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 making them yesterday, so I collected 
 my helpers and we worked till lunch, when 
 another request came that we would make 
 four large Eed Cross flags, as they were 
 going to try to bury some of the dead 
 and needed the flags for the protection of 
 the parties. We have just finished them, 
 and are wondering what will be the next 
 call. It is such a good thing I have my 
 sewing-machine here. 
 
 On Wednesday evening Lord S. was at 
 Mercer's Hospital with a doctor when 
 eleven dead were brought in, and a priest 
 brought in a rifle he had taken from a dead 
 Sinn Feiner. It had an inscription in 
 German and the name of the factory in 
 Berlin, which Lord S. copied. It is 
 believed that nearly all the arms and 
 ammunition are of German make, and it 
 is said that the cruiser that was sunk on 
 Saturday was bringing heavy guns and 
 forty officers, but I don't know if there is 
 
AS I SAW IT 43 
 
 any truth in that. The opinion is very 
 strong that the Sinn Feiners were led to 
 believe that they would have great German 
 reinforcements, and that all they had to 
 do was to hold the troops here for a couple 
 of days while the Germans landed a big 
 force on the west coast of Ireland. We 
 also hear that Sir R. Casement has been 
 shot in London, but you probably know 
 a great deal more about that than I do, 
 as we see no papers and are completely 
 cut off from all news. 
 
 On Wednesday three of the ringleaders 
 were caught, and it is said they were shot 
 immediately ! It is also believed that 
 Larkin was shot on the top of a house in 
 St. Stephen's Green, but as the rebels 
 still hold the house it has not been possible 
 to identify him, but he is said to have been 
 here on Monday.* 
 
 * This was incorrect; it appears Larkin was 
 not in Dublin. 
 
44 THE SINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 5 p.m. 
 
 Colonel 0. has just come in, having been 
 in the thick of it for forty-eight hours. 
 He tells us the Post Office has been set 
 on fire by the Sinn Feiners, who have left 
 it. If this is true, and it probably is, I 
 fear we have lost all our valuable posses- 
 sions, including my diamond pendant, 
 which was in my jewel-case in H.'s safe. 
 
 To-day about lunch-time a horrid 
 machine-gun suddenly gave voice very 
 near us. We thought it was in this street, 
 but it may have been in Kildare Street ; 
 also the sniper reappeared on the roofs, 
 and this afternoon was opposite my bed- 
 room window judging from the sound. 
 I pulled down my blinds. A man might 
 hide for weeks on the roofs of these houses 
 among the chimney stacks and never be 
 found as long as he had access to some 
 house for food. When we were working 
 in my room this afternoon he fired some 
 
AS I SAW IT 45 
 
 shots that could not have been more 
 than twenty yards away. 
 
 The serious problem of food is looming 
 rather near, as nothing has come into the 
 city since Saturday. Boland's bakery, 
 an enormous building, is in the hands of 
 the rebels, who have barricaded all the 
 windows with sacks of flour, and it is said 
 it will have to be blown up. There is 
 not a chance of getting them out in any 
 other way. The rebels also have Jacob's 
 biscuit factory, where there are still huge 
 stores of flour. Every prominent building 
 and every strategic position was taken 
 before the authorities at the Castle woke 
 to the fact that there was a rebellion ! 
 
 I was almost forgetting to tell you 
 how splendidly one of H.'s men behaved 
 when the G.P.O. was taken. When the 
 rebels took possession they demanded the 
 keys from the man who had them in 
 charge. He quietly handed over the keys. 
 
46 THE SINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 having first abstracted the keys of H.'s 
 room ! 
 
 Imagine such self-possession at such a 
 terrible moment. 
 
 A young man has come to stay in the 
 hotel who saw the taking of the G.P.O. 
 He was staying at the hotel exactly oppo- 
 site the building and went into the G.P.O. 
 to get some stamps. As he was leaving 
 the office a detachment of about fifteen 
 Irish Volunteers marched up and formed 
 up in front of the great entrance. He 
 looked at them with some curiosity, 
 supposing they were going to hold a 
 parade ; two more detachments arrived, 
 and immediately the word of command was 
 given, and they rushed in through the door. 
 Shots were fired inside the building, and, 
 as the young man said, he ** hooked it " 
 back to the hotel, which was one of those 
 burnt a few days later. The whole thing 
 occupied only a few moments, as, being 
 
AS I SAW IT 47 
 
 Bank Holiday, there was only a small 
 staff in the building. 
 
 6.30 p.m. 
 
 A party of soldiers and a young ofl&cer 
 have just arrived to search the roof for 
 the sniper. They say he is on the roof 
 of the annexe, which is connected with 
 the main building by covered-in bridges. 
 They are now on the roof and shots are 
 being fired, so I expect they have spotted 
 him. 
 
 When N. was out last night another 
 ambulance had a bad experience. They 
 had fetched three wounded Sinn Peiners 
 out of a house, and were taking them to 
 hospital, when they came under heavy 
 fire. The driver was killed, so the man 
 beside him took the wheel and was 
 promptly wounded in both legs. The car 
 then ran away and wrecked itself on a 
 lamp post. Another ambulance had to 
 run the gauntlet and go to the rescue ! 
 
48 THE SINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 On the whole as far as possible the rebels 
 have respected the Bed Cross, but not the 
 white flag. In house-to-house fighting 
 there can be no connected action, and 
 yesterday when a house was being stormed 
 the rebels hung out a white flag, and 
 when the troops advanced to take them 
 prisoners they were shot down from a 
 house a few doors higher up the street, 
 so now no more white flag signals are to 
 be recognised. If they want to surrender 
 they must come out and take their own 
 risks. 
 
 We asked N. if he knew what had 
 happened to the ambulance that had two 
 men missing yesterday, and he told us 
 they were in the act of entering a Sinn 
 Fein house to bring out wounded with 
 two other men when the ambulance came 
 under such heavy fire that, as it contained 
 one or two other wounded men, it had to 
 beat a retreat and moved off. Two of the 
 
AS I SAW IT 49 
 
 volunteer helpers ran after it and suc- 
 ceeded in reaching it and climbed in, but 
 the other two took refuge in the area, 
 and N. did not know how or when they 
 were rescued. This is an instance of the 
 extreme danger that attends the ambulance 
 work. The marvel is that the casualties 
 are so few. 
 
 Guinness's Brewery have made three 
 splendid armoured cars by putting great 
 long boilers six feet in diameter on to their 
 large motor lorries. Holes are bored down 
 the sides to let in air, and they are painted 
 grey. The driver sits inside too. They 
 each carry twenty-two men or a ton of 
 food in absolute security. N. saw them 
 at the Castle being packed with men ; 
 nineteen got in packed like herrings, and 
 three remained outside. Up came the 
 sergeant : " Now then, gentlemen, move 
 up, move up : the car held twenty-two 
 yesterday ; it must hold twenty-two to- 
 
50 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 day " ; and in the unfortunate three were 
 stuffed. It must have been suffocating, 
 but they were taken to their positions in 
 absolute safety. 
 
 Saturday, 29th, 10 a.m. 
 Last night was an agitating one. The 
 sniper was very active, and after dinner 
 several shots struck the annexe, one or 
 two coming through the windows, and one 
 broke the glass roof of the bridge. Mr. B., 
 who never loses his head, decided to get 
 all the people out of the annexe, with 
 staff (about forty people) ; and all we in 
 the main building, whose rooms look out 
 on the back, were forbidden to have lights 
 in our rooms at all. There was such a 
 strong feeling of uneasiness throughout the 
 hotel, and always the danger of its being 
 set on fire, that about 10 p.m. H. said 
 we must be prepared at any moment to 
 leave the hotel if necessary. So we went 
 up to our room and in pitch darkness 
 
AS I SAW IT 51 
 
 groped about and collected a few things 
 (F.'s miniature and the presentation por- 
 trait of him, my despatch case with his 
 letters, my fur coat, hat and boots), 
 and we took them down to the sitting- 
 room, which H. uses as an ofl&ce, on the 
 first floor. All the people in the hotel 
 were collected in the lounge, which is 
 very large and faces the street, and the 
 whole of the back was in complete dark- 
 ness. The firing quieted down, and about 
 11.30 we crept up to our room and lay 
 down in our clothes. When dawn broke 
 I got up and undressed and had two 
 hours' sleep. All the rest of the guests 
 spent the night in the lounge. 
 
 This morning we hear an officer has been 
 to say that the shots fired into the hotel 
 last night were fired by the military. 
 People were constantly pulling up their 
 blinds for a moment with the lights on to 
 look at the city on fire, and the military have 
 
52 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 orders to fire on anything that resembles 
 signalling without asking questions. 
 
 Reliable news has come in this morning 
 that nothing remains of the G.P.O. but 
 the four main walls and the great portico. 
 It is absolutely burnt out. The fires last 
 night were terrible, but we dared not look 
 out. Eason's Library and all the shops 
 and buildings between O'Connell Bridge 
 and the G.P.O. on both sides of Sackville 
 Street are gone. 
 
 It is difficult to think of the position 
 without intense bitterness, though God 
 knows it is the last thing one wishes for 
 at such a time. In pandering to Sir E. 
 Carson's fanaticism and allowing him to 
 raise a body of 100,000 armed men for the 
 sole purpose of rebellion and provisional 
 government the Government tied^their own 
 hands and rendered it extremely difficult 
 to stop the arming of another body of 
 men, known to be disloyal, but whose 
 
AS I SAW IT 53 
 
 avowed reason was the internal defence of 
 Ireland ! In Ulster the wind was sown, 
 and, my God, we have reaped the whirl- 
 wind ! 
 
 We hear that many of our wounded are 
 being sent to Belfast, as the hospitals 
 here are crowded, and the food problem 
 must soon become acute. Mr. O'B. told 
 me his ambulance picked up four wounded, 
 three men and a woman, and took them 
 to the nearest hospital. The woman was 
 dying, so they stopped at a church and 
 picked up a priest ; arrived at the hos- 
 pital the authorities said they could not 
 possibly take them in as they had not 
 enough food for those they had already 
 taken, but when they saw the condition 
 of the woman they took her in to die, and 
 the others had to be taken elsewhere. 
 
 If the main walls of the G.P.O. remain 
 standing it may be we shall find the safe 
 in H.'s room still intact. It was built 
 
64 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 into the wall, and my jewel-case was in 
 it, but all our silver, old engravings, and 
 other valuables were stored in the great 
 mahogany cupboards when we gave up 
 our house in the autumn, as being the 
 safest place in Dublin. 
 
 4 p.m. 
 
 Sir M. N. has just rung up to say the 
 rebels have surrendered unconditionally. 
 We have no details, and the firing continues 
 in various parts of the town. But if the 
 leaders have surrendered it can only be a 
 question of a few hours before peace is 
 restored, and we can go forth and look on 
 the wreck and desolation of this great city. 
 
 So ends, we hope, this appalling chapter 
 
 in the history of Ireland — days of horror 
 
 and slaughter comparable only to the 
 
 Indian Mutiny. This seems a suitable 
 
 place, dear G., to end this letter, and I 
 
 hope to start a happier one to-morrow. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 L. N. 
 
AS I SAW IT 65 
 
 Third Letter 
 
 Sunday, April SOth, 10 a.m. 
 
 Dearest G., — ^When I closed my letter 
 last night with the news that the rebel 
 leaders had surrendered I hoped to start 
 this new letter in a more cheerful strain ; 
 but while we were dining last night H. 
 was rung up from the Castle to hear that 
 the whole of Sackville Street north of the 
 G.P.O. right up to the Rotunda was on 
 fire and blazing so furiously that the fire 
 brigade were powerless ; nothing could 
 go near such an inferno. There was 
 nothing to be done but let the fire exhaust 
 itself. 
 
 If this was true, it involved the loss of 
 the Post Ofl&ce Accountant's Ofl&ce opposite 
 the G.P.O., the Sackville Street Club, 
 Gresham and Imperial Hotels, and other 
 important buildings, and would have 
 increased H.'s dijB&culties enormously, as 
 
56 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 it would have been necessary to build up 
 the Post Office organisation again, with 
 no records, registers, accounts, or docu- 
 ments of any kind — at best a stupendous 
 task. However, fortunately this morning 
 we hear the reports were exaggerated. 
 The Imperial Hotel, Clery's great shop, 
 and one or two others were burnt, but the 
 upper part of the street escaped, and the 
 Accountant's Office and the Sackville 
 Street Club were not touched. 
 
 This morning Mr. C, who has been H.'s 
 great support all through this trying time 
 (his second in command being away ill), 
 and several other members of the staff 
 are coming here, and with H. they are 
 going down to see what remains of the 
 G.P.O. It is being guarded from looters, 
 as, from the enormous number of telegraph 
 instruments destroyed, there must be a 
 large quantity of copper and other metal, — 
 a very valuable asset, — and also several 
 
AS I SAW IT 67 
 
 thousand pounds in cash for payment of 
 staff and soldiers' dependants, besides heaps 
 of other valuable property. 
 
 Here I must tell you how absolutely 
 heroic the telephone staff have been at the 
 Exchange. It is in a building a consider- 
 able distance from the G.P.O., and the 
 Sinn Feiners have made great efforts to 
 capture it. The girls have been surrounded 
 by firing ; shots have several times come 
 into the switch-room, where the men 
 took down the boards from the back of 
 the switch-boards and arranged them as 
 shelters over the girls' heads to protect 
 them from bullets and broken glass. Eight 
 snipers have been shot on buildings com- 
 manding the Exchange, and one of the 
 guard was killed yesterday ; and these 
 twenty girls have never failed. They have 
 been on duty since Tuesday, sleeping 
 when possible in a cellar and with indif- 
 ferent food, and have cheerfully and 
 
68 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 devotedly stuck to their post, doing the 
 work of forty. Only those on duty on 
 the outbreak of the rebellion could remain ; 
 those in their homes could never get back, 
 so with the aid of the men who take the 
 night duty these girls have kept the whole 
 service going. All telegrams have had to 
 be sent by 'phone as far as the railway 
 termini, and they have simply saved the 
 situation. It has been magnificent ! 
 
 The shooting is by no means over, as 
 many of the Sinn Fein strongholds refuse 
 to surrender. Jacob's biscuit factory is 
 very strongly held, and when the rebels 
 were called on to surrender they refused 
 unless they were allowed to march out 
 carrying their arms ! 
 
 It is said that when Jacob was told that 
 the military might have to blow up the 
 factory he replied : " They may blow it to 
 blazes for all I care ; I shall never make 
 another biscuit in Ireland." I don't know 
 
AS I SAW IT 69 
 
 As the book passes through the press, I learn on the 
 one unimpeachable authority that the story about Messrs. 
 Jacob & Co., however picturesque, is purely apocryphal. 
 
 M.L.N. 
 
 Yesterday I made a joyful discovery. 
 When we came back from Italy in March, 
 H. brought back from the office my large 
 despatch-case in which I keep all F/s 
 letters. I did not remember what else 
 was in it, so I investigated and found my 
 necklet with jewelled cross and the pink 
 topaz set (both of these being in large 
 cases would not go in the jewel-case), 
 also the large old paste buckle ; so I am 
 not absolutely destitute of jewellery. But, 
 best of all, there were the three Uttle 
 handkerchiefs P. sent me from Armen- 
 tieres with my initial worked on them ; 
 for these I was grieving more than for 
 
58 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 devotedly stuck to thmV T^^-A ■• 
 
 __ ^^1. as ine railway 
 termini, and they have simply saved the 
 situation. It has been magnificent ! 
 
 The shooting is by no means over, as 
 many of the Sinn Fein strongholds refuse 
 to surrender. Jacob's biscuit factory is 
 very strongly held, and when the rebels 
 were called on to surrender they refused 
 unless they were allowed to march out 
 carrying their arms ! 
 
 It is said that when Jacob was told that 
 the military might have to blow up the 
 factory he replied : " They may blow it to 
 blazes for all I care ; I shall never make 
 another biscuit in Ireland." I don't know 
 
AS I SAW IT 69 
 
 if this is true, but it very well may be, for 
 he has been one of the model employers in 
 Dublin, and almost gave up the factory 
 at the time of the Larkin strike, and only 
 continued it for the sake of his people ; 
 and so it will be with the few great indus- 
 tries in the city. Dublin is ruined. 
 
 Yesterday I made a joyful discovery. 
 When we came back from Italy in March, 
 H. brought back from the office my large 
 despatch-case in which I keep all F.'s 
 letters. I did not remember what else 
 was in it, so I investigated and found my 
 necklet with jewelled cross and the pink 
 topaz set (both of these being in large 
 cases would not go in the jewel-case), 
 also the large old paste buckle ; so I am 
 not absolutely destitute of jewellery. But, 
 best of all, there were the three Uttle 
 handkerchiefs F. sent me from Armen- 
 tieres with my initial worked on them ; 
 for these I was grieving more than for 
 
60 THE SINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 anything, and when I found them the 
 relief was so great I sat with them in my 
 hand and cried. 
 
 This week has been a wonderful week 
 for N. Never before has a boy of just 
 seventeen had such an experience. Yes- 
 terday morning he was at the Automobile 
 Club filling cans of petrol from casks for 
 the Eed Cross ambulance. He came in to 
 lunch reeking of petrol. In the afternoon 
 he went round with the Lord Mayor in 
 an ambulance collecting food for forty 
 starving refugees from the burnt-out 
 district housed in the Mansion House, and 
 after tea went out for wounded and 
 brought in an old man of seventy-eight 
 shot through the body. He was quite 
 cheery over it, and asked N. if he thought 
 he would recover. '' Good Lord ! yes ; 
 why not ? " said N., and bucked the 
 old man up ! 
 
 Some of the staff who came here this 
 
AS I SAW IT 61 
 
 morning had seen a copy of the Daily 
 Mail yesterday, which devoted about 
 six lines to the condition of things in Ire- 
 land and spoke of a Sinn Fein riot in which 
 four soldiers and about six rebels had been 
 killed. If that is all the English people 
 are being told of a rebellion which 30,000 
 troops and many batteries of artillery are 
 engaged in putting down, my letter will be 
 rather a surprise to you ; and as the news 
 must come out, the English people will 
 hardly be pleased at being kept in the dark. 
 Such a rebellion cannot be suppressed like 
 a Zeppelin raid. During the first three 
 days our casualties were nearly 1,000 ; now 
 we hear they are close on 2,000.* 
 
 The College of Surgeons in St. Stephen's 
 Green is still held by the rebels, so the 
 firing of machine-guns from the Shelbourne 
 Hotel and the United Service Club goes 
 
 * This was exaggerated, our total casualties 
 being about 1,880. 
 
62 THE SINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 on as before, and there is intermittent 
 firing in all directions. I doubt if it will 
 quite cease for some days, as these strong- 
 holds will not surrender. Also the incen- 
 diary fires will probably continue. The 
 great fire in Sackville Street last night was 
 no doubt the work of incendiaries, as all 
 the fires had died down. There was no 
 wind, no shells were being fired, and no 
 reason for the outbreak, but with all the 
 relations and sympathisers of the rebels at 
 large the fires may very well continue. 
 
 The staff have just returned. They are 
 quite unnerved by what they have seen ; 
 they report nothing left of the G.P.O. but 
 the four outside walls and portico, so we 
 have lost everything. They say it is like a 
 burned city in France. 
 
 May 1st, 11 a.m. 
 
 I had no time to continue this yesterday, 
 but during the afternoon three of the 
 rebel strongholds surrendered — Jacob's, 
 
AS I SAW IT 63 
 
 Boland's, and the College of Surgeons on St. 
 Stephen's Green. From this last building 
 160 men surrendered and were marched 
 down Grafton Street. It is said that 
 among them was Countess Markievicz, 
 dressed in a man's uniform. It is also 
 said that the miUtary made her take down 
 the green republican flag flying over the 
 building herself and replace it by a white 
 one : when she surrendered she took off her 
 bandolier and kissed it and her revolver 
 before handing them to the officer. She 
 has been one of the most dangerous of the 
 leaders, and I hope will be treated with 
 the same severity as the men. People 
 who saw them marched down Grafton 
 Street said they held themselves erect, 
 and looked absolutely defiant ! 
 
 2 p.m. 
 To-day for the first time since Easter 
 Monday the Irish Times issued a paper 
 with news of the rebeUion. Very pluckily 
 
64 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 they had brought out a paper on Tuesday, 
 but it contained only the proclamation 
 and no reference to the rebellion, but a 
 long account of Gilbert and Sullivan's 
 operas which were to have been performed 
 this week. 
 
 To-day's paper bears the dates " Friday, 
 Saturday, and Monday, April 28th, 29th, 
 and May 1st " — an incident unique, I 
 should think, in the history of the paper. 
 
 It contains the various proclamations 
 in full, which I will cut out and send to you. 
 Please keep them, as they will be of 
 interest in the future. 
 
 The paper states that Sir E. Casement 
 is a prisoner in the Tower. So he was not 
 shot without trial, as we were told. It 
 also gives a list of the large shops and 
 business establishments that have been 
 destroyed — a total of 146. 
 
 It really seemed delightful to hear the 
 little paper boys calling their papers about 
 
AS I SAW IT 66 
 
 the streets again, and they had a ready sale 
 for their papers at three times their value. 
 This so encouraged them that in the 
 afternoon they were running about again 
 calling " Stop press." Several people went 
 out and bought papers, only to find they 
 were the same papers they had paid 3d. for 
 in the morning. 
 
 " But this is the same paper I bought 
 this morning." 
 
 " Sure, and it is, ma'am, but there's 
 been a power of these papers printed, 
 and they're not going to print any more 
 till they're all sold." 
 
 Another lady thought she would drive a 
 lesson home, so she said : " But you said it 
 was a* Stop press,'and you knew it was not." 
 
 ** It is, miss, but sure they hadn't time 
 to print the ' stop press ' on it ! ! " 
 
 (*' Stop press " is the latest news, usually 
 printed on the back of the paper.) 
 
 Anyway, so great was the reUef at seeing 
 
66 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 a paper again that no one grudged the 
 urchins their Kttle harvest. 
 
 Yesterday H. visited the Telephone 
 Exchange, and a point was cleared 
 up that has mystified everyone ; and 
 that is why, when the rebels on 
 Easter Monday took every building of 
 importance and every strategic position, 
 did they overlook the Telephone Ex- 
 change? Had they taken it we should 
 have been absolutely powerless, unable to 
 send messages or telegrams for troops. 
 The exchange is situated in Crown Alley, 
 off Dame Street, and the superintendent 
 told H. an extraordinary story. It seems 
 when the rebels had taken the G.P.O. 
 they marched a detachment to take the 
 exchange, when just as they were turning 
 into Crown Alley an old woman rushed 
 towards them with arms held up calling 
 out, ** Go back, boys, go back ; the place is 
 crammed with military " ; and supposing 
 
AS I SAW IT 67 
 
 it to be in the hands of our troops they 
 turned back. This was at noon. At 
 5 p.m. our troops arrived and took it over. 
 
 This saved the whole situation. Whether 
 the woman was on our side or whether she 
 thought she had seen soldiers will never 
 be known. 
 
 When at the Castle yesterday H. got 
 a copy of The Times for Saturday, the first 
 paper we have seen since Monday, so you 
 can imagine how eagerly we scanned the 
 news about Ireland. More has got out 
 than we expected, but still nothing like 
 the true position. We rubbed our eyes 
 when we read that ** two battalions " 
 had been sent to Ireland, and wondered 
 if it could possibly have been a printer's 
 error for two divisions (40,000 men) which 
 actually arrived on Wednesday. The 
 people were in the streets of Kingstown 
 for twenty hours watching the troops pass 
 through. Since then many more troops 
 and artillery have come in. 
 
68 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 I have just returned from walking round 
 the G.P.O. and Sackville Street with H. 
 and some of the officials. It passes all my 
 powers of description, only one word 
 describes it, '* Desolation." If you look 
 at pictures of Ypr^s or Louvain after the 
 bombardment it will give you some idea of 
 the scene. 
 
 We looked up through the windows of the 
 G.P.O. and saw the safe that was in H.'s 
 room still in the wall, and the door does 
 not appear to have been opened or the 
 safe touched, but the whole place has been 
 such an inferno one would think the door 
 must have been red-hot. Among all the 
 Mhris the fire was still smouldering, and 
 we could not penetrate inside. I picked up 
 a great lump of molten metal, a fantastic 
 shape with bits of glass embedded in 
 it. It is bright like silver, but they tell 
 me it is lead. It is quite curious. Do you 
 
AS I SAW IT 69 
 
 realise, G., that out of all H.'s library he 
 now does not possess a single book, except 
 one volume of his Dante, and I not even a 
 silver teaspoon ! ! 
 
 Everything belonging to F. has gone ; 
 as he gave his hfe in the war, so an act of 
 war has robbed us of everything belong- 
 ing to him — our most precious possession. 
 
 It has almost broken H. up ; but he has 
 no time to think, which is perhaps a good 
 thing. 
 
 The old Morland and Smith mezzotints 
 have also gone — things we can never 
 replace. 
 
 Behind the G.P.O. was the CoHseum 
 Theatre, now only a shell ; and on the 
 other side of the street was the ofl&ce of 
 the Freeman's Journal, with all the print- 
 ing machinery lying among the dAbris, all 
 twisted and distorted ; but, worst of all, 
 behind that was a great riding school, 
 where all the horses were burnt to death. 
 
70 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 If at all possible you ought to come over 
 for Whitsuntide. You will see such a 
 sight as you will never see in your life 
 unless you go to Belgium. 
 
 When we came here H. was scandalised 
 at the condition of the G.P.O. The whole 
 frontage was given up to sorting offices, 
 and the public office was in a side street, 
 a miserable, dirty little place, that would 
 have been a disgrace to a small country 
 town. 
 
 H. found that plans had been drawn up 
 and passed for the complete reconstruc- 
 tion of the interior, building in a portion 
 of the courtyard an office for sorting pur- 
 poses, leaving the frontage for the public 
 office with entrance under the great 
 portico. 
 
 So H. hustled, and the work was com- 
 pleted and opened to the pubHc six weeks 
 ago. 
 
 It was really beautiful. The roof was 
 
AS I SAW IT 71 
 
 a large glass dome, with elaborate plaster 
 work, beautiful white pillars, mosaic floor, 
 counters all of red teak wood, and bright 
 brass fittings everywhere — a public build- 
 ing of which any great city might be 
 proud ; and in six weeks all that is left 
 is a smoking heap of ashes ! 
 
 N. had an extraordinary find inside one 
 of the rooms. About six yards from the 
 main wall he found, covered with ashes 
 and a beam lying across it, a motor cycle. 
 It was lying on its side. He got it out 
 and found it perfect, tyres uninjured and 
 petrol in the tank, and he rode it to the 
 hotel, and has now taken it to the Castle 
 to hand over to the police. 
 
 May 2ndy 10 a.m. 
 
 Last evening after tea I walked all 
 
 round the ruined district with N. and two 
 
 ladies from the hotel. The streets were 
 
 thronged with people, and threading their 
 
72 THE SINN FEIN KEBELLION 
 
 way among the crowd were all sorts of 
 vehicles : carts carrying the bodies of 
 dead horses that had been shot the first 
 day and lain in the streets ever since ; 
 fire brigade ambulances, followed by Irish 
 cars bringing priests and driven by fire 
 brigade men. Then motors with Eed 
 Cross emblems carrying white-jacketed 
 doctors would dart along, followed by a 
 trail of Bed Cross nurses on bicycles, in 
 their print dresses and white overalls, 
 their white cap-ends floating behind them, 
 all speeding on their errand of mercy to 
 the stricken city. 
 
 From time to time we came across on 
 the unwashed pavement the large dark 
 stain telling its own grim story, and in one 
 place the blood had flowed along the pave- 
 ment for some yards and down into the 
 gutter ; but enough of horrors. We came 
 sadly back, and on the steps we met Mr. 
 O'B. returning from a similar walk. He 
 
AS i SAW IT 73 
 
 could hardly speak of it, and said he stood 
 in Sackville Street and cried, and many 
 other men did the same. 
 
 Last night after dinner we were sitting 
 in the room H. uses as a temporary office 
 overlooking the street, when firing began 
 just outside. They were evidently firing 
 at the offices of the Sinn Fein Volunteers 
 at the bottom of the road. It was 
 probably the last stand of the rebels, and 
 the firing was very sharp and quick. We 
 thought bullets must come into the hotel. 
 I was reading aloud some bits out of the 
 Daily Mail, and the men were smoking. 
 They moved my chair back to the wall 
 between the windows out of the line of 
 fire ; but the firing became so violent we 
 decided it was foolhardy to remain, so 
 we deserted the room, took our papers, 
 and went and sat on the stairs till it was 
 over. 
 
 Since then we have not heard a shot 
 
74 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 fired ; and it would seem that as we were 
 present at the first shots fired in Sackville 
 Street on Easter Monday so we have been 
 present at the last fired eight days later 
 in Dawson Street. 
 
 Out of all the novel experiences of the 
 last eight days two things strike me very 
 forcibly. The first is that, under circum- 
 stances that might well have tried the 
 nerves of the strongest, there has been 
 no trace of fear or panic among the people 
 in the hotel, either among the guests or 
 staff. Anxiety for absent friends of whom 
 no tidings could be heard, though living 
 only in the next square, one both felt 
 and heard ; but of fear for their own 
 personal safety I have seen not one trace, 
 and the noise of battle after the first two 
 days seemed to produce nothing but bore- 
 dom. The other is a total absence of thank- 
 fulness at our own escape. 
 
 It may come ; I don't know. Others 
 
AS I SAW IT 75 
 
 may feel it ; I don't. I don't pretend to 
 understand it ; but so it is. Life as it has 
 been lived for the last two years in the 
 midst of death seems to have blunted 
 one's desire for it, and completely changed 
 one's feelings towards the Hereafter. 
 
 Now, G., I will end this long letter, and 
 my next will probably deal with normal 
 if less interesting matters, but intense 
 interest must remain in the reconstruc- 
 tion of this great city. 
 
 Surely it must be possible to find men 
 who will rule with firmness and under- 
 standing this fine people — so kindly, so 
 emotional, so clever, so easily guided, 
 and so magnificent when wisely led. One 
 prays they may be found, and found 
 quickly, and that we may live to see a 
 Dublin restored to its former stateliness 
 with a Government worthy of the nation. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 L. N. 
 
76 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 FouBTH Letter 
 
 Thursday, May Uh. 
 Dearest G., — I had not intended writ- 
 ing again so soon, but things are still 
 happening that I think you will like to 
 know, so I am going on with this series 
 of letters, though I don't know when you 
 will get them. But as by this time you 
 will have seen N. you will have heard 
 many details from him. How much he 
 will have to tell his school-fellows when he 
 returns to Shrewsbury to-morrow ! I 
 hoped to have sent my second and third 
 letters by N., and in fact had actually 
 packed them with his things. But when 
 I told H. he said the rules were so stringent 
 about letters that N. would certainly be 
 questioned as to whether he was carrying 
 any, and if he replied in the afl&rmative, 
 which he certainly would have done, the 
 letters would undoubtedly be confiscated 
 
AS I SAW IT 77 
 
 and N. might get into serious trouble. 
 So I had to unpack them again and must 
 keep them till the censorship is removed, 
 which will probably be in a few days. 
 They have been written under much stress 
 of circumstances, and are the only record we 
 have of this most deeply interesting time, 
 so I don't want to lose them altogether. 
 
 I am not too well, as they say here. The 
 loss of eight nights' sleep seems to have 
 robbed me of the power of sleeping for 
 more than an hour or two at a stretch, 
 and even that is attended often with horrid 
 dreams and nightmares. But this is only 
 the effect of over-strain, and no doubt 
 will pass, though my head feels like a 
 feather bed ; so don't expect too much 
 from these later letters. 
 
 Last night after dinner, when H. and 
 I were sitting upstairs in attendance on 
 the telephone, who should walk in but 
 Dr. W. We had not met throughout the 
 
78 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 rebellion, so he had heaps to tell us. His 
 wife and children were down at Grey- 
 stones, and the poor thing had had a 
 terribly anxious time, hearing nothing 
 reliable of her husband or of her father, 
 Lord S. What she did hear was that Dr. 
 W. had been killed and also that H. had 
 been shot in the G.P.O. She became so 
 anxious that her faithful Scotch nurse 
 was determined to get into Dublin and 
 get news or die in the attempt. I must 
 tell you her adventures, not only to show 
 you how impossible it was to get into the 
 city, but also it is such an extraordinary 
 story of endurance and devotion that 
 it ought to be recorded. 
 
 The girl started from Greystones at 
 2.30 p.m. on the Thursday, I think it 
 was, carrying for the officers' home 14 lbs. 
 of beef and 4 lbs. of butter, as Mrs. W. 
 feared supplies would have run short, since 
 nothing could be got in Dublin except 
 
AS 1 SAW IT 79 
 
 at exorbitant prices (75. a dozen for eggs and 
 145. for a pair of chickens) ; so the girl 
 started carrying a dead weight of 18 lbs. 
 She walked to Bray (five miles) and took 
 train to Kingstown ; here she had to take 
 to the road, as the line beyond Kingstown 
 was wrecked. She walked to Merrion 
 Gates along the tram line about four 
 miles, when she was stopped by sentries. 
 She retraced her steps as far as Merrion 
 Avenue (one mile), went up Merrion Avenue, 
 and tried the Stillorgan - Donnybrook 
 route. Here she got as far as Leeson 
 Street Bridge (six miles), when she was 
 within 300 yards of her destination. Dr. 
 W.'s house. Here again she was stopped 
 by sentries and turned back. She walked 
 back to Blackrock (seven miles), when she 
 was again stopped by sentries. She then 
 returned up Merrion Avenue and, seeing 
 that all routes were impossible to Dublin, 
 took the road to Killiney (five miles). 
 
80 THE SINN fEIN REBELLION 
 
 where she arrived about 11.30 p.m., 
 having done thirty miles. Here she got 
 hospitality at a cottage and stayed the 
 remainder of the night there, paying for 
 her accommodation with the 4 ibs. of 
 butter, but she stuck gamely to the beef. 
 
 Next day she walked five miles to 
 Shankhill, when she met a cart going to 
 Bray via Killiney, so she rode back to 
 Killiney on it and from thence to Bray. 
 She then walked the five miles from Bray 
 back to Greystones, her starting point. 
 
 Arrived back, she reached home abso- 
 lutely exhausted, having walked forty 
 miles, and dropped down saying, " There's 
 your beef, and I never got there or heard 
 anything." Mrs. W. was greatly dis- 
 tressed at her having carried the meat 
 back when so exhausted and asked her 
 why she had not given it away. *' And 
 what for should I give it away when we'll 
 be wanting it ourselves maybe ? " 
 
AS I SAW IT 81 
 
 Next day Dr. W. managed to get a 
 telephone message through to his wife 
 and relieved her anxiety. 
 
 He told us that on the first or second 
 night of the rebellion — ^he could not remem- 
 ber which — two ladies of the Vigilance 
 Committee patrolling the streets at night 
 came on a soldier lying wounded in an 
 alley off Dawson Street, where he had 
 crawled on being wounded. They went 
 to Mercer's Hospital and gave information, 
 and stretcher-bearers were sent out to 
 bring in the man, the ladies accompanying 
 them. When he was on the stretcher 
 the two ladies walked up to the railings 
 of St. Stephen's Green and gave the Sinn 
 Feiners inside a regular dressing down, 
 telling them they were skunks and cowards 
 to shoot people down from behind bushes 
 and asking them why they did not come 
 out and fight in the open hke men. Mean- 
 while the stretcher-bearers had taken the 
 
82 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 man to the hospital, where Dr, W. saw 
 him. 
 
 '' Well, my man ; where are you hurt ? " 
 
 *' Divil a pellet, sorr, above the knee," 
 laughing. 
 
 '' Does it pain you ? " 
 
 '* Not at all, sorr. Wait till I show 
 you." He pulled up his trousers and 
 showed five bullet shots below the knee. 
 
 '' What regiment ? " 
 
 " Royal Irish, sorr, like Michael Cassidy, 
 of Irish nationality ; and I bear no ill- 
 will to nobody." 
 
 Cheery soul ! His great pride was that 
 about forty shots had been fired at him 
 and not one hit him above the knee. 
 
 Dr. W. must bear a charmed life. He 
 told us of several escapes he had. One, 
 the most dramatic, I must tell you. 
 
 You know he is one of the surgeons to 
 Mercer's Hospital, and had to be per- 
 petually operating there at all hours of the 
 
AS I SAW IT 83 
 
 day and night, besides having his own 
 private hospital, in which he takes 
 wounded officers. It too was filled with 
 rebellion victims, so his work was tre- 
 mendous. 
 
 One night he left Mercer's about 1 a.m., 
 accompanied by another doctor. When 
 passing in front of the Shelbourne Hotel 
 they were challenged by our troops there. 
 On explaining who they were they were 
 of course allowed to proceed, and they 
 stepped briskly out, wanting to get home. 
 Suddenly, on the same pavement, about 
 twenty yards away as far as they could 
 judge in the black darkness, out flashed 
 two Httle lights from small electric lamps, 
 evidently Sinn Fein signals. Dr. W. 
 stopped and said to his companion : ** Did 
 you see that ? it was a signal," when 
 almost before the words were out of his 
 mouth two rifles blazed straight at them, 
 almost blinding them with the flash, and 
 
84 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 they felt the bullets whiz past their heads. 
 The two Sinn Peiners, having signalled, 
 waited long enough to see if their signal 
 was returned, and then fired straight at 
 where by their footsteps they supposed 
 Dr. W. and his friend to be, and missed 
 them by an inch or two. 
 
 Dr. W. and his friend got into the shelter 
 of a doorway and flattened themselves 
 out, trying to look as if they were not 
 there, and quite forgetting that they both 
 had Hghted cigarettes, whose red tips 
 should have been a beacon light to a vital 
 spot had the Sinn Feiners noticed them. 
 But for some reason they did not proceed 
 further, and Dr. W. heard their steps 
 dying away in the distance. Meanwhile 
 his companion had his finger on the electric 
 bell of the doorway where they were 
 hiding, and after a time which seemed like 
 an eternity an upper window opened and 
 a voice inquired who was there, whereupon 
 
AS I SAW IT 85 
 
 the woman of the house came down and 
 let them in, and they spent the remainder 
 of the night there. 
 
 Yesterday the Post OflSce was able to 
 pay the separation allowances to the 
 soldiers' wives. Last week of course it 
 was impossible, but as it would have been 
 equally impossible for them to have 
 bought anything it did not so much 
 matter. The question was how to get so 
 large a sum of money round to the out- 
 lying post offices in safety, for, though 
 the city is now comparatively safe, there 
 are still snipers in outlying districts, and 
 any party of Post Office officials known 
 to have possession of large sums of money 
 would undoubtedly have been attacked. 
 So H. bethought him to requisition for 
 one of the boiler armoured cars with 
 military guard, and it was at once granted 
 him. We had heard of them from N., 
 but had not seen one, and great was the 
 
86 THE SINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 excitement at the hotel when this huge 
 monster arrived for H.'s instructions. We 
 all went out and examined it. 
 
 It was not one of Guinness's, but one that 
 had been rigged up by one of the railway- 
 companies, with an engine boiler fixed on 
 to a huge motor trolley, all painted light 
 grey ; and all down each side were black 
 dots in an elegant design — something like 
 this : — 
 
 nan 
 DDD ann ddd 
 
 D D D 
 
 Here and there one of these squares was 
 cut out and acted as an air-hole, but they 
 all looked exactly alike, so a sniper on a 
 roof or from a window aiming at one of 
 these squares probably found his bullet 
 struck iron and bounded off to the accom- 
 paniment of derisive jeers from the 
 ** Tommies " inside. 
 From the hotel the car proceeded to the 
 
Q 
 25 
 
 
AS I SAW IT 87 
 
 Bank of Ireland, and took over £10,000 
 in silver, and started on its round to all 
 the post offices, delivering the money in 
 perfect safety. I will try and send you a 
 photograph of one of these most ingenious 
 conveyances. 
 
 After it had started on its round I went 
 with H. to see the temporary sorting offices. 
 H. had secured an enormous skating rink 
 at the back of the Eotunda, and here all 
 the sorting of letters was going on, with 
 no apparatus whatever except what the 
 men had contrived for themselves out of 
 seats, benches and old scenery. They were 
 all hard at work — a regular hive of bees. 
 We think it is greatly to the credit of the 
 Post Office staff that in twelve days from 
 the outbreak of the rebellion and three 
 days after the actual cessation of hostilities 
 the whole service was reorganised, with 
 two deHveries a day in Dublin, besides the 
 ordinary country and mail deHveries. The 
 
88 THE SINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 engineers and telegraphists were no less 
 wonderful. Indeed the staff from top to 
 bottom of the office have worked splen- 
 didly, and H. is very proud of them. We 
 looked in at the poor G.P.O. on our way 
 back. It is still smouldering, and it will be 
 quite a fortnight before any excavations 
 can be begun, but H. hopes to get the safe 
 that contains many of our treasures out of 
 the wall and opened in a few days. 
 
 To-day a Dr. C. who is staying in the 
 hotel told me of an extraordinary escape 
 he had had during one of the days of the 
 rebeUion. He was walking through one 
 of the squares, which he had been told 
 was clear of snipers, with an old friend 
 of about eighty, when suddenly a bullet 
 struck the pavement at the feet of his 
 friend and ricochetted off. It was within 
 an inch of the old gentleman's feet, and 
 he was greatly interested, wanting to find 
 the bullet to keep as a memento. While 
 
AS I SAW IT 89 
 
 they were looking about for it a man who 
 had been walking just behind them passed 
 them on the pavement, and had only gone 
 a few yards when they heard a second 
 rifle shot, and the man dropped like a stone, 
 shot through the heart. Dr. C. ran up to 
 him, but he was quite dead. There was 
 absolutely no safety anywhere from the 
 snipers ; man, woman, or child, nothing 
 came amiss to them. It was dastardly 
 fighting, if it could be called fighting at 
 all. 
 
 A few days after St. Stephen's Green was 
 supposed to have been cleared of rebels, 
 we were told of a young woman whose 
 husband was home from the war wounded 
 and in one of the hospitals. She was going 
 to see him, so took a short cut through 
 the Green, when she was shot through the 
 thigh ; it is supposed by a rebel, in hiding 
 in the shrubberies. 
 
90 THE SINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 Sunday, 1th. 
 
 I am sending off my other letters to you 
 to-morrow, as we hear the censorship is 
 no longer so strict, and as from the papers 
 the position here seems now to be known in 
 England private letters are not likely to 
 be stopped. I will keep this till the safe 
 is opened and tell you the result. 
 
 15th. 
 
 To-day Mr. O'B. brought his wife to 
 see me, and they have offered us their 
 lovely house, Celbridge Abbey, about ten 
 miles from Dublin, for five or six weeks 
 from June 1st as they are going abroad 
 again, and they thought we should like 
 it for a change. We are more than grate- 
 ful, as all our plans for going to Greystones 
 for June and July are knocked on the 
 head ; but to Celbridge there is a good 
 train service, and H. can come into 
 Dublin every day, while I can revel in 
 the lovely garden and grounds and recover 
 
AS I SAW IT 91 
 
 in the peace and quiet my lost powers of 
 sleep. What a kind thought it is, and 
 how we' come at such a fme ! Celbridge 
 Abbey was the home of Swift's *' Vanessa," 
 and later of Grattan, Ireland's greatest 
 orator, so is a most interesting and his- 
 torical pace. 
 
 im. 
 
 To-day the safe was opened, and con- 
 tained nothing of any value, — only a 
 few ofl&cial papers ! 
 
 With this has gone our last hope of any 
 salvage from the wreck of our property. 
 Dillon's *' perfect gentlemen," of whom he 
 expressed himself so proud in the House 
 the other night, had evidently broken open 
 H.'s great official desk, and found the key 
 of the safe and abstracted my jewel-case, 
 F.'s field-glasses and several other of his 
 much-prized possessions, and then locked 
 the safe again. The only document they 
 gtol^ from amojag the official documeiits 
 
92 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 was F.'s commission. Why, we cannot 
 imagine, unless the fact that it bore the 
 King's signature made it worthy of special 
 insult and desecration. 
 
 H. was very sad when he told me, but 
 I think I am past caring about any pos- 
 sessions now. F. and all his precious 
 things are gone. Nothing else seems worth 
 considering. Perhaps some day we may 
 pluck up heart to collect things again 
 around us, but at present one can only 
 feel, " Let the dead bury the dead." 
 
 20th. 
 
 To-day they are beginning on the exca- 
 vations of H.'s room ; the fire burnt with 
 such ferocity that there is much less rubble 
 in it than one would imagine. As you 
 probably remember, H.'s room was on the 
 first floor, with a storey above it. When 
 the whole place fell in, H.'s room fell 
 through into the room below, and a portion 
 of that had fallen through to the cellars. 
 
AS I SAW IT 93 
 
 The men are removing everything of the 
 nature of bricks and iron and stone coping 
 of the roof, and then four extra-careful 
 men are to be put on to shovel up the rest 
 of the dibriSy which is burnt to powder, 
 and Noblett, H.'s confidential messenger, 
 is going to be there to receive anything of 
 ours that may be found. 
 
 2Srd. 
 Yesterday morning and this morning 
 I have been down watching the excava- 
 tions of H.'s room. It is quite hke the 
 excavations at Pompeii. Every shovelful 
 is most carefully overlooked, and several 
 of our things have turned up, though so 
 far nothing of any intrinsic value. When 
 I went there yesterday morning Noblett 
 produced a great lump of molten glass of 
 no shape or form with one or two metal 
 nobs sticking up at odd angles. He thought 
 it was the remains of a cruet, but we had 
 none ; and on further examination it 
 
94 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 flashed across my mind that it was the 
 cut-glass bottles in the large rosewood 
 and brass-bound dressing-case in which 
 I had packed all my jewellery — family 
 miniatures, four gold watches and chains, 
 diamond pendant, etc. It had been stolen 
 out of the safe, and evidently the looters 
 had not been able to get it away. Noblett 
 was thrilled, and the men redoubled their 
 carefulness, hoping to find some of the 
 jewellery. When I went down again in 
 the afternoon Noblett produced three little 
 brooches that P. had given me on various 
 birthdays when a wee boy. He always 
 went out with his own sixpence, and 
 nearly always returned with a brooch, 
 which I used to wear with great pride. One, 
 a Swastika brooch, he gave me when he 
 was at Margate after that terrible illness, 
 and he used to go on the pier in his bath- 
 chair. The blue enamel on it was intact 
 in several places ; the other two were 
 
AS I SAW IT 95 
 
 intact in form, but charred and black, 
 with the pins burnt off. But how glad I 
 was to see them again ! During the after- 
 noon two or three more brooches turned 
 up, but nothing of any value whatever. 
 So we came to the conclusion the rebels had 
 broken open the box and taken out every- 
 thing of value and thrown away the rest. 
 The few burnt bits of jewellery that were 
 found all came from one spot. 
 
 This morning when I went Noblett had 
 nearly a sackful of curiosities, which I 
 sorted over. Evidently these were the 
 whole contents of the canteen of plated 
 things we used to take with us when we 
 took a furnished house and put the silver 
 in a bank, quantities of spoons and forks, 
 black, and looking like old iron, many 
 twisted into weird shapes, and the knives, 
 which were new when we came here, 
 without a scrap of ivory handle, and the 
 blades buriit and twisted in the most 
 
96 THE SINN FEIN EEBELLION 
 
 extraordinary way. A most miserable- 
 looking collection, fit only for the dust- 
 heap. 
 
 25th. 
 They are nearing the end of the excava- 
 tions, and nothing of any value has been 
 found. This morning when I went I found 
 them cutting into a mound of what looked 
 like solid white chalk. I could not imagine 
 what it could be, but the men told me it was 
 the books that had been stored in one of 
 the great mahogany presses ; not a trace 
 of burnt wood was found. I could not 
 beheve that books could be reduced to 
 such a substance. I had expected to find 
 quantities of charred black paper, with 
 possibly some fragments of binding, and 
 was quite incredulous. However, on 
 examining it I found the substance was 
 in layers like the leaves of a book, but 
 when I picked some up it felt Uke silk 
 between my fingers, and you could blow 
 
AS I SAW IT 97 
 
 it away like thistle-down. Had I not 
 seen it myself I should never have believed 
 such a thing possible. Besides H.'s and 
 F.'s books there were a number of great 
 official books in leather bindings half 
 an inch thick, but all was reduced to the 
 same substance. 
 
 Noblett gave me to-day one of Princess 
 Mary's gift boxes that had been sent to 
 me by a soldier at the front; except for 
 being black instead of bright brass, it was 
 absolutely uninjured — the medallion in 
 the centre, and the inscription, date, etc., 
 perfect. The Christmas card inside and 
 the Queen's letter were just black charred 
 paper, but you could see the M. and the 
 crown above it on the card. Also an 
 antique brass snuff-box inlaid with mother- 
 of-pearl turned up but little injured, 
 
 2m. 
 
 To-day the men finished their work on 
 H.'s room. At the last about eight frag- 
 
98 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 ments of silver forks and two tablespoons 
 were taken out and a foot of a silver 
 sugar-bowl with a bit of something that 
 looked like burnt tissue paper attached 
 to it ; and that was all that was found 
 of all our silver. The half of a copper 
 base of one of our beautiful Sheffield plate 
 candelabra came out of one of the last 
 shovelfuls, — and there was an end of all 
 our property. 
 
 So that page is turned, and it seems a 
 good place to end this over-long letter. 
 On Thursday we go down to Celbridge, 
 where with memories of Swift and the 
 wretched and foolish Vanessa and in 
 company with a beautiful swan and 
 swaness, which bring their babies to the 
 lawn to be admired and duly fed, I am 
 going to rest and recuperate for the next 
 five weeks and try to remember out of 
 this awful time only the kindness and 
 sympathy that has been shown to us by 
 
AS I SAW IT 99 
 
 so many Irish friends. I shall not write 
 any more of these diary letters unless 
 there are further acute developments, which 
 God forbid. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 L. N. 
 
PKOCLAMATION DECLARING MAR- 
 TIAL LAW. 
 
 Whereas, in dififerent parts of Ireland 
 certain evilly disposed persons and associa- 
 tions, with the intent to subvert the 
 Supremacy of the Crown in Ireland, have 
 committed divers acts of violence, and have 
 with deadly weapons attacked the Forces 
 of the Crown, and have resisted by armed 
 forces the lawful authority of His Majesty's 
 Police and MiUtary Forces : 
 
 And, WHEREAS, by reason thereof, 
 several of His Majesty's hege subjects 
 have been killed, and many others severely 
 injured, and much damage to property 
 has been caused : 
 
 And, WHEREAS, such armed resistance 
 to His Majesty's authority still continues. 
 
 Now I, Ivor Churchill Baron Wim- 
 BORNB, Lord Lieutenant General and 
 
THE SINN FEIN EEBfiMcfi^r-.jlfOt 
 
 General Governor of Ireland, by virtue 
 of all the powers thereunto me enabling, 
 
 Do HEREBY PROCLAIM that, from and 
 after the date of this Proclamation, and 
 for the period of one month thereafter 
 (unless otherwise ordered), that part of 
 the United Kingdom called Ireland is 
 under and subject to Martial Law. 
 
 And I DO HEREBY call on all loyal and 
 well-affected subjects of the Crown to aid 
 in upholding and maintaining the peace 
 of this Realm and the Supremacy and 
 authority of the Crown, and to obey and 
 conform to all Orders and Regulations of 
 the Military Authority. And I warn all 
 peaceable and law-abiding subjects in 
 Ireland of the danger of frequenting, or 
 being in, any place in or in the vicinity 
 of which His Majesty's Forces are engaged 
 in the suppression of disorder. 
 
 And I DO DECLARE that all persons found 
 carrying arms, without lawful authority, 
 
102 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 are liable to be dealt with by virtue of this 
 Proclamation. 
 
 Given at Dublin 
 This 29th Day of April 1916. 
 (Signed) Wimborne. 
 
 God save the King. 
 
PROCLAMATION POSTED OUTSIDE 
 THE GENERAL POST OFFICE. 
 
 POBLAGHT NA H EiREANN. 
 
 The Provisional Government 
 of the 
 Irish Republic. 
 To the People of Ireland. 
 Irishmen and Irishwomen : In the 
 name of God and of the dead generations 
 from which she receives her old tradition of 
 Nationhood, Ireland, through us, sum- 
 mons her Children to her flag and strikes 
 for her freedom. 
 
 Having organised and trained her man- 
 hood through her secret revolutionary 
 organisation, the Irish Republican Brother- 
 hood, and through her open military organi- 
 sations, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish 
 Citizen Army, having patiently perfected 
 her discipline, having resolutely waited 
 
104 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 for the right moment to reveal itself, she 
 now seizes that moment, and, supported* 
 by her exiled Children in America and by 
 gallant Allies in Europe, but relying in 
 the first on her own strength, she strikes in 
 full confidence of victory. 
 
 We declare the right of the people of 
 Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and 
 to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, 
 to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long 
 usurpation of that right by a foreign 
 people and Government has not extin- 
 guished the right, nor can it ever be extin- 
 guished except by the destruction of the 
 Irish people. In every generation the 
 Irish people have asserted their right to 
 national freedom and sovereignty ; six 
 times during the past three hundred years 
 they have asserted it in arms. Standing 
 on that fundamental right and again 
 asserting it in arms in the face of the 
 world, we hereby proclaim the Irish 
 
AS 1 SAW IT 105 
 
 Kepublic as a Sovereign Independent 
 State, and we pledge our lives and the lives 
 of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of 
 its freedom, of its welfare, and of its 
 exaltation among the nations. 
 
 The Irish Republic is entitled to, and 
 HEREBY CLAIMS, the allegiance of every 
 Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic 
 guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal 
 rights and equal opportunities to all its 
 citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue 
 the happiness and prosperity of the whole 
 nation and of all its parts, cherishing all 
 the children of the Nation equally, and 
 obUvious of the differences carefully fos- 
 tered by an Alien Government, which 
 have divided a minority from the majority 
 in the past. 
 
 Until our armB have brought the oppor- 
 tune moment for the estabhshment of a 
 permanent National Government, repre- 
 sentative of the whole people of Ireland 
 
106 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 and elected by the suffrages of all her 
 men and women, the Provisional Govern- 
 ment hereby constituted, will administer 
 the civil and military affairs of the Republic 
 in trust for the people. 
 
 We place the cause of the Irish Republic 
 under the protection of the Most High 
 God, Whose blessing we invoke upon our 
 arms, and we pray that no one who serves 
 that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, 
 inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme 
 hour the Irish Nation must, by its valour 
 and discipline and by the readiness of 
 ^ts children to sacrifice themselves for the 
 common good, prove itself worthy of the 
 august destiny to which it is called. 
 
 Signed on behalf of the Provisional 
 Government, 
 
 Thomas Clarke. 
 Sean Macdiarmada. Thomas Macdonagh. 
 P. H. Pearse. Eamonn Ceannt. 
 
 James Connolly. Joseph Plunkett. 
 
MANIFESTO ISSUED FEOM THE 
 REBEL HEADQUARTEES, 
 GENERAL POST OFFICE. 
 
 Headquarters Army of the Irish 
 Republic. 
 
 General Post Office, Dublin. 
 28th April 1916—9.30 a.m. 
 
 The Forces of the Irish Republic, which 
 was proclaimed in Dublin on Easter 
 Monday 24th April, have been in possession 
 of the central part of the Capital since 12 
 noon on that day. Up to yesterday after- 
 noon Headquarters was in touch with all 
 the main outlying positions, and despite 
 furious and almost continuous assaults 
 by the British Forces all those positions 
 were then still being held, and the Com- 
 mandants in charge were confident of 
 their ability to hold them for a long time. 
 
108 THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 During the course of yesterday afternoon 
 and evening the enemy succeeded in cutting 
 our communications with our other posi- 
 tions in the city, and Headquarters is 
 to-day isolated. 
 
 The enemy has burnt down whole blocks 
 of houses, apparently with the object of 
 giving themselves a clear field for the play 
 of artillery and field guns against us. 
 
 We have been bombarded during the 
 evening and night by shrapnel and 
 machine-gun fire, but without material 
 damage to our position, which is of great 
 strength. 
 
 We are busy completing arrangements 
 for the final defence of Headquarters and 
 are determined to hold it while the build- 
 ings last. 
 
 I desire now, lest I may not have an 
 opportunity later, to pay homage to the 
 gallantry of the soldiers of Irish Freedom 
 who have during the past four days been 
 
AS I SAW IT 109 
 
 writing with fire and steel the most 
 glorious chapter in the later history of 
 Ireland. Justice can never be done to 
 their heroism, to their discipline, to their 
 gay and unconquerable spirit in the midst 
 of peril and death. 
 
 Let me, who have led them into this, 
 speak in my own, and in my fellow Com- 
 manders' names, and in the name of Ire- 
 land present and to come, their praises, 
 and ask those who come after them to 
 remember them. 
 
 For four days they have fought and 
 toiled, almost without cessation, almost 
 without sleep ; and in the intervals of 
 fighting they have sung songs of the free- 
 dom of Ireland. 
 
 No man has complained, no man has 
 asked " Why ? " Each individual has 
 spent himself, happy to pour out his 
 strength for Ireland and for freedom. If 
 they do not win this fight, they will at least 
 
no THE SINN FEIN REBELLION 
 
 have deserved to win it. But win it they 
 will, although they may win it in death. 
 Already they have won a great thing. 
 They have redeemed Dublin from many 
 shames, and made her name splendid 
 among the names of cities. 
 
 If I were to mention names of individuals 
 my Hst would be a long one. I will name 
 only that of Commandant General James 
 Connolly, commanding the Dublin division. 
 He is wounded, but is still the guiding brain 
 of our resistance. 
 
 If we accompUsh no more than we have 
 accomplished, I am satisfied. I am satis- 
 fied that we have saved Ireland's honour. 
 I am satisfied that we should have accom- 
 plished more, that we should have accom- 
 plished the task of enthroning, as well as 
 proclaiming the Irish Republic as a Sove- 
 reign State, had our arrangements for a 
 simultaneous rising of the whole country, 
 with a combined plan as sound as the 
 
AS I SAW IT 111 
 
 Dublin plan has been proved to be, been 
 allowed to go through on Easter Sunday. 
 Of the fatal countermanding order which 
 prevented those plans from being carried 
 out, I shall not speak further. Both 
 Eoin MacNeill and we have acted in the 
 best interests of Ireland. 
 
 For my part, as to anything I have done 
 in this, I am not afraid to face either 
 the judgment of God, or the judgment of 
 posterity. 
 
 (Signed) P. H. Pbarsb, 
 
 Commandant General, 
 Commanding-in-Chief the Army of the 
 
 Irish Republic and President of the 
 
 Provisional Government. 
 
 The day following this proclamation the 
 rebels surrendered unconditionally. 
 
 Bradbury, A|^ew, & Co. Ld., London and Tonbridf «. 
 
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