Rebel Sisters (36 page)

There would be a new onslaught, a new attack, of that there could be no doubt. The military were now aware of the rebels' position and possible numbers, and they would regroup and return.

She was afraid for Joe, afraid for all of them. Was Nellie with them? How could they possibly expect to defeat the large numbers of the British army garrisoned in barracks all across the city? They would be wiped out. She stayed watching from the window, frozen with dread at what might happen once the army launched a proper attack on them.

Fifteen minutes later there was a knock on the door of her room. She ran to it, hoping that it was Joe. Instead a young Larkfield Volunteer nervously handed her a message.

It was from Joe, telling her that she must leave
immediately
as it was too unsafe for her to stay in Sackville Street. He had signed it with all my love forever, Joe.

Suddenly afraid, Grace went downstairs as quickly as she could and left the hotel.

THE SUN SHIMMERED
on the River Liffey as they marched up towards College Green past Trinity College, heads held high, singing as they turned up Grafton Street, the bells of Clarendon Street church ringing out midday.

People paid little heed to them, assuming they were on yet another route march or manoeuvre.

‘Isn't it a grand day for you to be out playing soldiers?' jeered a policeman.

Minutes later they had reached St Stephen's Green. Nellie had always loved the city-centre park, which was only a few minutes from her father's legal office and close to the Volunteers' headquarters. Peter Jackson had the keys to the main gate and they quickly entered through the tall Fusiliers' Arch. The smaller gates were open, the park already busy with families, children running around with bats and balls and toys, nannies pushing perambulators, young couples walking hand in hand, older couples sitting enjoying the beautiful warm Easter sunshine.

They streamed into the park, telling people to ‘Move' as they began to surround it.

MacDonagh and his 2nd Battalion had assembled over on the west side of the park. He immediately sought out Michael Mallin, asking if any more men were coming.

‘Unfortunately it's just us,' the commandant replied tersely.

‘We should have had thousands of men here,' MacDonagh said, unable to hide his deep disappointment. Obviously, like Connolly, he had expected that a much larger contingent of Volunteers would amass at the park, but unfortunately MacNeill's counter-order had been rigidly obeyed.

Nellie watched as her brother-in-law and his garrison took their leave and began to march away.

‘St Stephen's Green is under the control of the Irish Republican Army and you must leave immediately,' they ordered the public loudly as they set about clearing the twenty-acre park and gardens. Frightened, most families gathered their young children quickly and fled, though some argued and refused to budge.

‘This is a public park and we are entitled to remain here.'

Nellie, with some of the other women, went about trying to calm the situation, urging people to leave for their own safety; nobody wanted to see a baby or child or anyone else injured.

The head park keeper stubbornly refused to leave, saying it was his duty to protect the plants, the waterfowl and the facility. An elderly priest who had been visiting the park gave absolution to some of the Citizen Army men before he left. There were a few off-duty soldiers relaxing in the park and Nellie felt pity for them as they were immediately arrested and held in the glasshouse.

Laurence Kettle, chief of the city's electrical department, was spotted and held at gunpoint too, by order of Commandant Mallin, in case he could be useful if the city authorities tried to take action against them. His brother Tom was a friend of MacDonagh's and Nellie remembered how he had tried to broker a peace between the unions and the employers during the Lockout. Laurence told her proudly that Tom was now serving overseas in the British army.

Eventually they had cleared the park, then locked and barricaded the gates, using benches, wheelbarrows and tools to keep the civilians out. The men from their company were set to digging trenches for gunpits all around the edge of the park, while Madeleine ffrench-Mullen set up a Red Cross area in the bandstand, a Red Cross flag hoisted over it. Nellie joined Mary Hyland and Kathleen Cleary organizing a kitchen in the summerhouse.

Countess Markievicz arrived in her car – dressed in full uniform. She was a sight to see, wearing a man's pair of trousers and sporting a green hat with a jaunty white feather, her gun on a belt around her body. She was inspecting the garrisons, but Mallin told her that she was urgently needed in the Green with them as he was short of people who could use a gun. He appointed her his Vice-Commandant and they all gave a cheer as she agreed to join them.

The countess set off to patrol the park and soon got involved in a loud, heated argument with a DMP man on duty across from the far entrance who refused to abandon his post and ordered them to leave the Green. In the end the countess took out her gun and aimed a shot at him.

Although Nellie greatly admired the countess, she felt shocked. The men of the Dublin Metropolitan Police Force were unarmed, so the man could not retaliate or defend himself. The shooting of another human being was not something she could bring herself to do unless confronted with no other choice.

A gunpit was set up at the edge of the Green opposite Dawson Street, across from the Shelbourne Hotel, by James O'Shea and young Jim Fox. The hotel was busy with soldiers and visitors and soon shooting began as the rebels aimed at soldiers driving by in their cars. Nellie's heart was in her mouth as she listened to the shots ringing out in the still air.

She and her group were sent to commandeer extra food supplies, stopping cars, delivery vans and carts that passed along by the Green. Mary Hyland held up a milk cart. Young Lily Kempson bravely jumped out brandishing a gun at a poor bread man, who was terrified.

‘Give us all your loaves and soda breads and brown breads,' she demanded fiercely. Nellie helped her carry it all back to their makeshift kitchen.

Some of the men were building roadblocks and barricades in the streets around the Green and Nellie watched as a man adamantly refused to let them have his cart.

‘You boyos are not taking my cart! It's got costumes and props to deliver to the D'Oyly Carte Opera at the Gaiety Theatre,' he argued, pulling his cart back. ‘I'm not one of your rebel army – I'm a decent working man.'

Despite his protests the cart, complete with its contents, was fixed into the tall barricade. As the rebels moved away the man returned and, red-faced, climbed over and pulled it out again, but three of their men pushed it firmly back into place. Next thing, to Nellie's horror, the man was shot as he tried to remove it again. He lay on the ground bleeding profusely from his head, a woman passer-by screaming loudly as onlookers rushed to carry him to the nearby hospital.

Groups from their garrison had been despatched to take the station and also Portobello and Leeson Street Bridges; and they could hear the distant gunfire. Margaret was sent on her bicycle to the GPO to inform the leaders there that all was well and that they held the Green.

Later that Monday evening, as Nellie was bringing bread and milk to some of the men, they noticed a drunken British soldier standing up close to the park railings, staring at their gunpit.

‘You should be fighting for your king and country,' he slurred, goading them.

‘Go away home,' James O'Shea told him, ignoring him.

The soldier began to curse and Nellie and Kathleen blushed as he started to say terrible things about them and use bad language.

‘Prostitutes,' he taunted them. ‘That's what you girls are, agreeing to fight with these fellows.'

Young Jim Fox blushed, embarrassed by his swearing.

‘You shouldn't talk like that in front of these ladies. I'll give you one last chance to get away,' said James slowly, but the soldier refused to budge.

‘He's not drunk,' James murmured. A second later he had shot the man.

‘He's a spy,' he told them. ‘Not a whiff of drink on him. He's been trying to assess our defences here.'

Nellie felt shaky as men came to take their soldier friend to the hospital.

As it began to get darker it got colder and colder, then it began to rain. There were very few places to shelter in the park, so she and the other women all huddled together to sleep in the bandstand near to where the wounded lay. They certainly had not prepared for this.

‘We should have taken the Shelbourne Hotel or one of the big clubs overlooking the Green,' Nellie yawned. ‘Then we would have had a roof over us and beds and food at least.'

‘That was part of the plan,' admitted Madeleine ruefully as she wound up some rolls of bandages, ‘to block all the roads around here and to take over the hospital and the hotel, but we hadn't the numbers.'

Near dawn they were woken by the sound of rapid machine-gun fire from the Shelbourne Hotel.

There was utter panic and pandemonium as bullets rained down everywhere. They were under heavy gunfire. Screams and shouts filled the early-morning air as men ran or crawled among the bushes and shrubs for some form of cover from the relentless attack. They were like ducks on a pond, with nowhere to hide, for while they slept the British army had crept in and stealthily taken over the hotel and the nearby United Services Club. Their soldiers were firing a barrage at them from the front windows of the hotel, where a Vickers machine gun and rifles were positioned. Bullets whizzed loudly all around, banging and exploding everywhere. Poor James Corcoran from Wexford was shot dead immediately.

It was hopeless. They couldn't stay here or they would all be killed, they were such an easy target. They had to try to find cover and escape. Another machine gun from the United Services Club also began to fire at them. Some of the men took their positions and started to fire back, but this only seemed to help the British gunners take aim at them. They were pinned down by machine-gun and rifle fire.

Nellie watched in horror as sixteen-year-old Jim Fox, to whom she had been talking the night before, desperately tried to get away and find cover. He was caught in a hail of bullets, screaming in pain as he tried to crawl away, but he was shot at again and again. Tears filled her eyes as she was forced to stand uselessly by and watch him die.

Commandant Mallin, under heavy fire himself, carried the badly shot Philip Clarke to safety but, unfortunately, he died of his wounds.

The Red Cross flag flying over the bandstand provided no protection and the women too were soon under fire as they tried to tend to the wounded, risking their own lives. As the bandstand came under increasingly heavy attack, Madeleine urged them to make for the gate keeper's lodge. Nellie felt certain they'd all be shot unless they found some way to escape, get out of this park.

Michael Mallin had sent out some scouts earlier to search for a place of safety and soon the order came. He blew his whistle, the sound thinly penetrating the gunfire.

‘Evacuate the Green! Evacuate!'

They were all to leave carefully by the west side, where the statue of Arthur Guinness, Lord Ardilaun stood. In units of fours and fives they were to try to make it safely across to the College of Surgeons on the opposite side of the street which Countess Markievicz and a few of their men had managed to take.

‘Don't stop! Don't hesitate even for a second!' ordered Captain Poole. ‘Ignore the shooting and go as fast as you can.'

Nellie's heart was in her mouth as she watched the groups try to reach the safety of the tall, grey-granite medical school building with its three striking statues of Athena, Asclepius and Hygeia, the gods of wisdom and war, medicine and health, looking down on them while the British snipers and machine guns kept firing. They were forced to leave most of their precious food and first aid supplies behind, and the bodies of their dead lay abandoned on the ground in the early-morning rain.

The enemy now centred their attack on the College of Surgeons, bombarding the short open route they had to cross. Christine Caffrey hunkered down in front of their group.

‘Wait till they have to change their magazines of ammunition,' Captain Poole ordered, getting ready to signal them when to move. ‘You have only a few seconds.'

Suddenly he gave the signal and Chris began to duck and dive and run.

Nellie took a deep, shuddering breath and said a silent prayer as she followed, running as fast as she could through a hail of bullets, the sound ringing in her ears, her breath catching as she kept going towards the sanctuary of the college and its York Street entrance.

To their shock, a crowd of angry women from the tenement buildings beside the college, whose husbands were away fighting in the war, tried to block them entering their street. Chris pulled her gun on them and they let them pass. Terrified, Nellie reached the door and felt arms reaching to pull her safely inside.

THEY ALL HELD
their breaths, waiting near the narrow side entrance for the rest of their comrades to make it safely across into the College of Surgeons. Some of their own snipers went up to the roof to try to provide some cover for them.

Nellie worried how Michael Mallin, James O'Shea and a few others would get across when the enemy were concentrating all their fire on the building. As the bullets hit the granite they had to shut the door. Outside, the mob of supplementary women were still set on preventing them gaining entry to the college.

‘The army will have you.'

‘Traitors!'

Suddenly Commandant Mallin and the last of his men banged at the side door, Captain McCormick with blood flowing from his head as they managed to drag him inside. Madeleine and Rosie rushed forward straight away to help him.