In
Honor Of The 100th Anniversary Of The Irish Easter Uprising,
1916-Sean Flynn’s Fight-Take Two
A
word on the Easter Uprising
In the old Irish working-class neighborhoods
where I grew up the aborted Easter Uprising of 1916 was spoken of in mythical
hushed reverent tones as the key symbol of the modern Irish liberation struggle
from bloody England. The event itself provoked such memories of heroic “boyos” (and “girlos” not acknowledged) fighting to
the end against great odds that a careful analysis of what could, and could not
be, learned from the mistakes made at the time entered my head. That was then
though in the glare of boyhood infatuations. Now is the time for a more sober
assessment.
The easy part of analyzing the Irish
Easter Uprising of 1916 is first and foremost the knowledge, in retrospect,
that it was not widely supported by people in Ireland, especially by the
“shawlies” in Dublin and the cities who received their sons’ military pay from
the Imperial British Army for service in the bloody trenches of Europe which
sustained them throughout the war. That factor and the relative ease with which
the uprising had been militarily defeated by the British forces send in main
force to crush it lead easily to the conclusion that the adventure was doomed
to failure. Still easier is to criticize the timing and the strategy and
tactics of the planned action and of the various actors, particularly in the
leadership’s underestimating the British Empire’s frenzy to crush any
opposition to its main task of victory in World War I. (Although, I think that frenzy
on Mother England’s part would be a point in the uprising’s favor under the
theory that England’s [or fill in the blank of your favorite later national
liberation struggle] woes were Ireland’s [or fill in the blank ditto on the
your favorite oppressed peoples struggle] opportunities.
The hard part is to draw any
positive lessons of that national liberation struggle experience for the
future. If nothing else remember this though, and unfortunately the Irish
national liberation fighters (and other national liberation fighters later,
including later Irish revolutionaries) failed to take this into account in their
military calculations, the British (or fill in the blank) were savagely committed
to defeating the uprising including burning that colonial country to the ground
if need be in order to maintain control. In the final analysis, it was not part
of their metropolitan homeland, so the hell with it. Needless to say, cowardly British
Labor’s position was almost a carbon copy of His Imperial Majesty’s. Labor
Party leader Arthur Henderson could barely contain himself when informed that
James Connolly had been executed. That should, even today, make every British
militant blush with shame. Unfortunately, the demand for British militants and
others today is the same as then if somewhat attenuated- All British Troops
Out of Ireland.
In various readings on national liberation
struggles I have come across a theory that the Easter Uprising was the first
socialist revolution in Europe, predating the Bolshevik Revolution by over a
year. Unfortunately, there is little truth to that idea. Of the Uprising’s
leaders only James Connolly was devoted to the socialist cause. Moreover, while
the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army were prototypical models for
urban- led national liberation forces such organizations, as we have witnessed
in later history, are not inherently socialistic. The dominant mood among the
leadership was in favor of political independence and/or fighting for a return
to a separate traditional Irish cultural hegemony. (“Let poets rule the land”).
As outlined in the famous
Proclamation of the Republic posted on the General Post Office in Dublin,
Easter Monday, 1916 the goal of the leadership appeared to be something on the
order of a society like those fought for in the European Revolutions of 1848, a
left bourgeois republic. A formation on the order of the Paris Commune of 1871 where
the working class momentarily took power or the Soviet Commune of 1917 which
lasted for a longer period did not figure in the political calculations at that
time. As noted above, James Connolly clearly was skeptical of his erstwhile
comrades on the subject of the nature of the future state and apparently was
prepared for an ensuing class struggle following the establishment of a
republic.
That does not mean that revolutionary socialists could not
support such an uprising. On the contrary, Lenin, who was an admirer of
Connolly for his anti-war stance in World War I, and Trotsky stoutly defended
the uprising against those who derided the Easter rising for involving bourgeois
elements. Participation by bourgeois and petty bourgeois elements is in the
nature of a national liberation struggle. The key, which must be learned by
militants today, is who leads the national liberation struggle and on what
program. As both Lenin and Trotsky made clear later in their own experiences in
Russia revolutionary socialists have to lead other disaffected elements of
society to overthrow the existing order. There is no other way in a
heterogeneous class-divided society. Moreover, in Ireland, the anti-imperialist
nature of the action against British imperialism during wartime on the
socialist principle that the defeat of your own imperialist overlord in war as
a way to open the road to the class struggle merited support on that basis
alone. Chocky Ar La.
********
Here
is a little commemorative piece based on the exploits of Frankie Riley from the
old neighborhood grand-uncle’s, Sean Flynn, who gave a good account of himself
when the time for fighting came:
Funny, Sean Flynn thought, about how words and phrases
can capture a moment, capture an Irish poetic moment, of which in the benighted
history of this benighted isle there were few and far between. He had been
reading, really re-reading, William Butler Yeats’ homage to the men of Easter 1916,
his men (although he had been a mere slip of a boy, if a tall manly looking boy
then), and about that powerful refrain that ended a few verses -“a terrible
beauty was born.” Yes, Sean thought, that phrase fit the occasion to a tee, fit
those working men like himself and his brother, Seamus, who gave their all
those bloody April days to free Ireland from the English yoke. Yes, funny too
how an Anglo-Irishman, a bloody heathen if you really thought about it,
captured the spirit of those times, of those times when men, a few men , had to
step up and be counted. Ordinary working men mostly, the ones from his Irish
Citizens’ Army, the one Jimmy Connolly (the late lamented martyred James
Connolly to most) put together to defend the neighborhoods against the bloody
reprisals after the big 1914 strike. The others too, too few others in Dublin
no question what with all the confusion, mainly poets and students caught up in
some professor’s exaltations.
Sean remembered, distinctly remembered, how nervous he
had been waiting, eternally waiting for the sign of the uprising to take
place-he knew for sure it would not be like some Wolfe Tone thing, or the
rising of the moon. Not this time not when the Irish finally had the British at
a disadvantage. That big war in Europe was actually to their benefit. Oh no,
not at first when everybody, even hot-headed Irishmen if one could believe
that, was ready to give his or her all for the bloody King of England against
the damn Huns. No, rather later once everybody knew that England was so
desperate to beat the Huns in Europe with everything they had that a small
military encounter with whatever remnants the British left behind to garrison
the Irish colony could be disposed of with ease and a free Ireland delivered at
little cost. The question that made Sean nervous, made many a man nervous, was
when. As 1915 slipped into 1916 those nerves only got more frayed since there
were constant rumors that the war in Europe would soon be over and a chance to
gain the upper hand would be lost.
Finally, finally word filtered down to the “boyos”
that the Irish Citizens’ Army (meaning James Connolly above all others) would
join with the Irish Volunteers (Patrick Pearse’s operation, among others) to
declare a republic and stand and fight. Naturally there were more delays as the
chieftains (now including the previously non-committal Irish Republican
Brotherhood) argued about the necessity, the validity, and then the timing of a
rising. (All this not known until later after the smoke had cleared and the
survivors could take stock of who, and who did not, do what, who did, and did
not, show up, and what else went wrong.) Then that Easter week came and the
order to arm came. And all arms to head to Dublin, to the strategic General
Post Office (their, the bloody English’s post office). Sean got there just in
time to hear the Proclamation read and posted. The battle was on and suddenly
all of Sean’s nervousness about being exposed, about not being a military man,
about being shy around guns evaporated.
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