Scots role in Ireland’s 1916 Rising examined

MSPs, academics and writers are expected to attend the event at the Irish Consulate in Edinburgh for the launch of the 1916 Rising Centenary Committee (Scotland).

The group is also planning a series of seminars and exhibitions over the next 12 months and wants to embrace both the Nationalist and Unionist traditions in Ireland as its marks the key anniversary next year.

Willy Maley, professor of English literature at Glasgow University, who will chair Tuesday’s launch, said the committee wanted to raise awareness about the role of Scots in the Rising as well as examine the historical connections between the Scots and Irish on a wider basis.

“In Ireland, they are talking about a decade of events to mark the Rising and we want to underline the part played by Scots.”

He added: “This is hugely important. One of the obvious reasons is that one of the leaders of the Rising was a Scot, James Connolly, who was Edinburgh-born, yet there are people who don’t realise this.”

He added: “I think, more generally, it is extremely important Scotland recalls and celebrates its links with Ireland. We want to celebrate the positive connections and want people from both traditions to take part.”

Bothwell-born John McGallogly was another rebel. Aged 18, he travelled to Dublin in January 1916 to take part in the Rising and was sentenced to death for this role. This was later commuted to penal servitude.

Seamus Reader, grand-uncle of Scots musician Eddie Reader, also played a part in organising support in Scotland for activists as did the Glasgow revolutionary John McLean.

McLean was imprisoned because of his activities in Clydeside in opposing the First World War, while Reader was arrested in January 1916 and imprisoned for his activities in supporting the Irish rebels.

Stephen Coyle, a Glasgow-based Scots Irish historian, said many Scots travelled to County Tyrone in Ulster as it was to be an Irish-wide rising, but plans were changed when explosives destined for the rebellion were discovered and seized.

Dozens of political activists did travel across the Irish Sea to take part in the Rising which took place over Easter week in April 1916 and which saw revolutionaries take over government buildings in Dublin and proclaim an Irish Republic.

The uprising was spear-headed by a small group of radical activists, thinkers and poets.

Historians in Ireland tend to agree that while the Rising failed to win widespread support among most Irish people and was swiftly crushed by the British Army, support soared for the Republicans when 15 of the Rising’s leaders were executed.

There was widespread revulsion when Connolly, founder of the Irish Citizen Army, was shot by firing squad tied to a chair as he couldn’t stand because of the gangrene ravaging his body.

In total, 450 people were killed, including 254 civilians and 2,614 were injured.

Some 190 men and one woman, Countess Markievicz were arrested. She was later released and became one of the first women in the world to hold a cabinet position as Minister for Labour of the Irish Republic from 1919-1922.

A total of 15 leaders, including Connolly, Patrick Pearse and John MacBride were executed in May 1916.

Sir Roger Casement, an Irish-born diplomat who in 1911 was knighted by King George V, was tried for high treason and hanged for his role in the Rising.

He won international acclaim after exposing slavery in the Congo and parts of South America and, despite his Ulster Protestant roots, became an ardent supporter of the Irish independence movement travelling to the United States and Germany to secure support for the Irish activists.

The Sixteen Dead Men about whom WB Yeats wrote his poem in the aftermath of the Easter Rising were a diverse group. Ranging in age from 25 to 58, their occupations included headmaster, tobacconist, poet, railway clerk, university lecturer, printer, humanitarian, water bailiff, art teacher, silk weaver, corporation clerk, farmer, trade union leader, bookkeeper, chemist’s clerk and newspaper manager.