Northern Ireland

1916: How The Irish News reported on 'the events in Dublin'

Reflecting the attitudes of a huge swath of readers at the time, The Irish News reported on the 'events in Dublin' with incredulity and hostility, its news agenda primarily focussed on the battles of the First World War then raging across Europe. Present-day Irish News reporter John Monaghan looks back at our 1916 coverage

Devastation in Dublin city centre in the aftermath of the Easter Rising (National Library of Ireland)
Devastation in Dublin city centre in the aftermath of the Easter Rising (National Library of Ireland) Devastation in Dublin city centre in the aftermath of the Easter Rising (National Library of Ireland)

IT SEEMS unthinkable in today’s age of mobiles and instant internet connection, but the first detailed news of the Easter Rising took three days to reach readers of The Irish News.

The edition of Tuesday April 25 1916, the day after the Rising began, ran to six pages and carried adverts, not news, on its front page, as was the custom at the time.

The tumultuous events which led to the birth of the Irish Republic merited brief coverage on page four of the paper, which stated that it was reporting "in the absence of detailed information".

With communications and trains to Dublin disrupted, the paper urged, in capital letters: "Keep cool, do not give way to panic or to passion. This we say to the people of Ireland."

Distancing itself from the Rising and expressing support for John Redmond, it added: "We can only refer to those Dublin happenings as grim and ghastly proofs of the far-seeing wisdom, true statesmanship and steadfast patriotism of the Irish leader."

"But it is certain that evil has been done... not irreparable from the national standpoint if the people of this country hold firmly to their principles, cleave to the leaders who brought them to the verge of victory."

Although coverage of events in Dublin increased over the course of the coming weeks as more information arrived, the news continued to be overshadowed by reports of battles in the First World War.

Two days on from the Rising, The Irish News claimed that there "is absolute unity of sentiment and action between 95 per cent of all the Irish people living in this country".

"In better times we shall look back calmly and dispassionately upon the events of these passing days. Meanwhile our duty is to act as calmly and dispassionately now."

Referring to a speech in the House of Commons in 1878, the paper’s editorial states that whoever contemplates violence "was not a patriotic Irishman, he must be marked as an enemy to his country".

The first full report on the Rising, on April 27, blamed a “large body of men identified with Sinn Feiners” and that day’s editorial hit out at those involved.

It said: "Great mischief has undoubtedly been done; its direct and moral effects have yet to be determined."

The arrest and trial of Roger Casement garnered considerable coverage in late April and early May, with the paper’s reports accusing Germany of inflaming political tensions in Ireland.

"Under these circumstances the idea of creating a diversion in Ireland naturally presented itself to the minds of the consienceless masters of the Kaiser's policy... Casement may or may not have been dispatched to create trouble in Ireland."

Another article argued that Redmond's policy "needs neither vindication nor defence before the people of this country".

"What else could Mr Redmond do at the beginning of the war? They have never furnished a reply that would convince anyone outside an asylum for lunatics."

The Irish Weekly, a sister publication published on Saturdays and also available in Britain with articles from that week's Irish News, reported on "one of the saddest and deplorable weeks in our nation’s history".

It commented: "The Irish people are not unfree – in the sense that they were 300 years ago, or even 50 years ago."

However, in an edition on May 6, days after the executions of Rising leaders had begun, the paper aired a noted of caution on General John Maxwell being appointed to oversee the British response.

"Now he is a dictator over Ireland in a truer sense than the term was applied to Cromwell in England... his authority is absolute."

By the second week of May, the editorial tone had changed noticeably and details of death sentences were listed. The paper urged clemency on the part of the British authorities: "In Ireland’s name let us protest fervently against the continuation of these executions.

"In every legal essential the Larne [UVF gun-running] was an act of rebellion as contemptuous... as the deeds of the men who raised the flag of insurrection on the Dublin Post Office."

The report added: "The military authorities have displayed... strange delay in satisfying the public thirst for knowledge regarding the circumstances under which three men were shot in Portobello barracks on April 26."

In a prophetic reference, the paper predicted that the marriage of Grace Gifford and Joseph Plunkett just hours before his execution would "live in the public memory for many generations to come".

However, the paper stopped short of offering support for the actions of the Rising leaders, giving prominent coverage to a statement from the Irish Party and a speech by the Bishop of Kerry, Dr Mangan, who said the Rising was carried out by "some misguided men" when the "constitutional loyalty of the Catholics of this country needs no apology".

In the Irish Weekly, there were also reports from the paper’s England correspondent on a change in the public mood towards the Rising leaders.

"Men who a week ago were loud in their denunciations... have expressed to me their horror."

The Manchester Guardian was quoted as reporting that "enough blood has flowed".

The May 20 edition of the Irish Weekly announced in capital letters that the executions had "shocked and horrified the world."

Its editorial stated: "Actual guilt must be proven against each separate individual before the idea of punishment can be entertained."

There were calls for martial law to end "if the government do not want to see the island plunged into a chaotic struggle".