Courtney McGrailPathway to Rebellion: Galway 1916
by William Henry
(Mercier Press, €14.99)
J. Anthony Gaughan
Galway was one of the few places outside Dublin that rose in rebellion during Easter 1916. This is a useful account of the actions of the Irish Volunteers in Galway during that memorable week.
As elsewhere they were confused by the conflicting messages from Dublin.
They were also concerned that Pearse’s directive to rise on Easter Monday was not signed but merely initialled. However, more than 700 Volunteers from east and south Galway, supported by Cumann na mBan, mobilised on the Tuesday of Easter week, under the command of Liam Mellows.
They attacked the RIC barracks at Clarenbridge and Oranmore. They desisted from the attack at Clarenbridge when the local parish priest implored them not to be responsible for the shedding of blood and they were driven from Oranmore by a large party of police and military.
Fatally wounded
On Wednesday the Volunteers engaged a party of police at Carnmore, during which Constable Patrick Whelan of the RIC was fatally wounded.
Subsequently they retreated to the Agricultural College, near Athenry. Earlier they had established the college as their headquarters and had succeeded in resisting attempts by the RIC to eject them from it.
Support for the Volunteers was confined to the rural parts of County Galway. Their activities were condemned by the overwhelming majority of the residents of the towns, not least those in Galway, Loughrea and Tuam. In those places Special Constables were appointed to assist the police and military to crush the Rising and capture rebels.
Even National Volunteers, erstwhile colleagues of the Irish Volunteers, enthusiastically joined this group! Also in the urban areas the authorities moved swiftly to arrest all known Volunteers and following their arrest they were subjected to much abuse by hostile crowds who had relatives serving in the British army.
Eventually the Galway Volunteers disbanded on the Friday of Easter week after an address by Fr Thomas Fahy.
He informed them that the Rising in Dublin was over and that a large force of British soldiers was advancing towards Galway. He claimed that the Sherwood Foresters had been ordered not to take prisoners and emphasised that the Volunteers were more valuable and useful alive than dead.
Even as many of the Volunteers returned home they were rounded-up and arrested. To this end over two hundred police had been drafted in from the north of Ireland who combed the countryside with a persistence never witnessed before. The homes of suspected rebels were destroyed and some suspected supporters had their homes torn apart during searches for weapons.
A number of priests were closely involved with the Volunteers and exercised considerable influence over them, not least Fr Thomas Fahy.
Following the execution of the 1916 leaders, the change of mood was as dramatic in Galway as elsewhere. The author’s early chapters on rebellious behaviour in Galway city and, in particular, the land agitation in the county during the previous 100 years illustrates that this change should not have been unexpected.
The book concludes with a comprehensive overview of the 1916 rebellion commemorations in Galway city and county over the years, especially those on the fiftieth anniversary, over which the refurbishment of the statue of Liam Mellows in Eyre Square loomed large.