The following article appeared on Thursday, April 27, 2006
in the Laois Nationalist newspaper.
Unique
record of Carlow and Laois volunteers is unearthed
By Ronan Early
A list of men (above) from Carlow and
Laois involved in the Irish National Volunteers in 1914 has
been discovered by a local historian.
Brendan "Gala" Hutton has, for
several years, been examining the thousands of documents that
comprise the Pat Purcell Papers. From his research he has
unearthed evidence of nearly 100 local men who joined the
Irish National Volunteers which was formed in November 1913 to
combat the threat from the heavily armed Ulster Volunteer
Force which had been formed in January 1913.
The list of local volunteers is a
record of an attendance at a short rifle range in
Ballickmoyler, County Laois on August 4 1914, the day after
Germany declared war on France in what would turn out to be
the beginning of World War 1 . Interestingly, the meeting was
addressed by prominent local businessman, Michael Governey.
Soon after the meeting the volunteers
split when the leader of the Nationalist Party and Home-Ruler
advocate John Redmond M.P. advised INV members to join the
British Army, "to help them win this war that would be over by
Christmas" and secure the goodwill which would grant Ireland
autonomy.
Seventy five per cent of the Irish
National Volunteers backed Redmond, many of whom joined the
British forces. It is not known how many of the Carlow and
Laois volunteers fought in the "war to end all wars." One that
certainly did was Tom Mulhall who was killed in action in
1918.
Many of the names on the list went on
to become active in the Irish Republican Army in the 1920s.
Pat McDermott, Martin O'Neill and Tom Seeley are three Carlow
examples of this.
"This is a major find. It's the first
contemporaneous record of Volunteer activity in Carlow/Laois
during this period, just after the movement was formed and
just before it split," said Carlow historian Michael Purcell,
a nephew of the late Pat Purcell. Pat handed over his archive
to Michael just before he died and Michael passed them to Gala
Hutton to examine.
Pat Purcell, of Killeshin and Quinagh,
passed away in 1994 in his 99th year. He was a member of the
Irish National Volunteers and active in the movement at the
time the list was drawn up, Pat joined the Irish Republican
Brotherhood in 1915..
The letter was sent by J W Feehan,
who later ran the Post Office in Ballickmoyler, to Pat Purcell
who leased the land where the firing range was set up at
Rossena quarry from Michael Quinn who was living in America.
The meeting on August 4 takes place
soon after the Asgard, navigated by Erskine Childers, landed
1,500 guns for the Irish volunteers at Howth. Also present in
Rossena were young members of Na Fianna scouts movement.
"Many of the Irishmen who joined the
British forces for the Great War (World War 1) were often
portrayed as a betrayal to the cause ," said Michael Purcell.
"This is not the case. Those that went to fight against
Germany did so in the belief that it would secure Home Rule
for Ireland in a matter of months. They were not to know how
long that war would last or that during this war a rising
would take place in Dublin ."
Permission from
Michael Purcell to show the above on this website
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