Anne Bennett 3-Book Collection by Anne Bennett

Author:Anne Bennett [Anne Bennett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2013-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

On the Tuesday after Easter, the postman told Biddy of the insurrection that had begun in the GPO in Dublin the previous day.

‘Surely not,’ Thomas John said, when Biddy told him after he and Tom and Joe came in for breakfast. ‘They would not be so stupid as to take on the might of the British Army.’

‘I don’t know so much,’ Joe said. ‘There are plenty of stupid fellows in that Irish Republican Brotherhood, or whatever they call themselves these days. That’s what people say, anyway. Some fellows were talking about it only last Saturday. They seem to think that England has her hands full fighting Germany.’

‘Oh, aye,’ Thomas John commented drily. ‘So they expect them to wave good-naturedly when this motley bunch takes charge, do they? Jesus, Connolly and Pearse are leading them to be slaughtered, and what will they gain? Bugger all, that’s what.’

‘Who really cares about what is happening in Dublin anyway?’ Joe said.

Thomas John rounded on him immediately. ‘Well, you should, for a start,’ he snapped. ‘All of us should care what is happening in our own country. Someone of us must go to Buncrana and buy a paper.’

In the end, Tom went in on the old horse. When he got home, regardless of the jobs awaiting attention on the farm, Thomas John spread the paper on the table.

‘Just a thousand of them,’ he said in disgust. ‘What on earth can they hope to achieve?’

‘They have both sides of the Liffey covered, though,’ Joe put in, impressed despite himself. ‘And taken over the GPO in Sackville Street like the postman was after telling Mammy.’

‘Hoisted up the tricolour flag too,’ Tom said.

‘And the other one,’ Joe said, pointing to the picture. ‘Paper says it has a green banner and has a golden harp and “Irish Republic” written on it.’

‘It might be ill-timed, stupid or whatever you want to call it, Daddy,’ Tom said, ‘but isn’t it a fine sight to see the tricolour flying in Ireland again?’

‘Aye, it is, son,’ Thomas John said rather sadly. ‘And take joy in it, because it won’t flutter there for long. It wouldn’t hurt to get a paper each day and keep abreast of things.’

Britain’s response was immediate. Thousands of troops arrived in Dublin. Field guns were installed and by Wednesday a gunship had sailed up the Liffey and begun shelling the place to bits. Dublin was burning. Few supplies were getting through as the rebels had control of the railway stations, and those shops not shelled or burned to the ground were closed up. The Dublin people were starving, and looting became commonplace, despite the army shooting anything that moved.

‘What did they expect?’ Thomas John said. ‘It’s their own people that these bloody rebels are hurting. And in the end it will be for nothing. You’ll see.’

He was right. By Saturday it was all over and the rebels marched off to Kilmainham Gaol – apart from de Valera, who had an American passport and was taken to Richmond Barracks.

The speed of the execution of the leaders of the insurrection shocked the nation.

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