Airbrushing the Rising

Today we have all heard about photo shopping and airbrushing with these terms often associated with propaganda battles in modern war zones but in 1916 the British were already airbrushing their take on Irish history and attempting to rewrite factual narratives. The most famous incident during the 1916 Rising of this airbrushing was the attempted removal of Nurse Elizabeth O'Farrell from the surrender photograph that was posed for the newspapers featuring Padraig Pearse with General Lowe and his son. These altered photographs were printed in the newspapers eliminating any questions that women took an active role in the Rising. 

Another photograph was published and appeared in newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic. The newspaper reported that it was a photograph of 'rebel snipers taking aim at British forces'. The problem is two fold, firstly the photograph was not taken during the Rising but in 1914 and to prove it was posed in 1914, the suited gentleman at the bad of the four volunteers is seated in a relaxed pose. This man has been airbrushed out to make it look like the 'action' photograph was taken in the middle of the fight. Perhaps if we look closely at today's media very little has changed.

The Countess as seen from America

Rebel Radio 1916

This is an editorial from the September 1916 edition of Wireless World published in the UK. There was an awareness that the rebels had used radio to announce the declaration of the Republic and it is obvious that it was of concern not only that the rebels had used radio but the future ramifications of such actions. This was still the First World War and the British use of The Defense of the Realm act to control the media.

The location of the rebel radio station had been mentioned in the same publication in June 1914 when it was reported that the School's owner PK Turner had offered that the Dublin Wireless Club founded a year earlier could meet at the School for their monthly meetings. At their first meeting in O'Connell Street in April 1914 PK Turner demonstrated his Marconi equipment using a short indoor aerial and receiving signals from Paris and from a number of ships in the Irish Sea.

(c) 1916 Easter Rising Coach Tour

1916 & The Propaganda War Over The Airwaves

A British Soldier protecting the Valentia Wireless station in 1916

In a paper given on December 1, 2000 by Jonathan A. Epstein 'German and English Propaganda in WW1' explained that,

     'One function of propaganda is to put forward one’s own view of the world and its history.  This was played out during the Great War by competing allegations about responsibility for the war (naturally, neither side admitted guilt in this matter), atrocities, and political superiority.  The British generally took the offensive in these matters.'

One of the first propaganda battles of the airwaves was the Easter Rising as both the rebels and The British attempted to dictate the news narrative.

Communications were heavily hampered by actions on both sides as the rebels attempted to prevent the British calling in reinforcements and the British smothering the rebels attempts to contact forces around the country and any outside agencies that maybe helping the rebellion. 

While newspapers were heavily censored in the UK due to the implementation of the Defense of the Realm Act their first reports came primarily from Irish Secretary Augustine Birrell news delivered to the House of Commons, while the mainstream press in Ireland halted due to both the battles on the streets and the declaration of martial law. 

The battle moved to the hearts and minds of those outside Ireland especially in the United States and the large Irish immigrant community who had financially assisted in the planning of the Rising. Britain were anxious to keep US public opinion on their side in the battle against Germany in World War One as the United States were still a neutral nation. 

While all reports in the UK press were copied from official Government communiques the US press were harder to control and it was done with the use of wireless on both sides of the Rising. 

Many of the US newspapers received their news from wire services. In August 1914 the British Government created the Press Bureau with the intention to gather news and telegraphic reports from the British Army and then censor it and issue the sanitized version to the press. The Bureau allowed neutral journalists (The US was still neutral in April 1916) to write their own articles after providing official communiques. This was of major importance to American journalists. This helped camouflage the source of the propaganda, making it more acceptable to the reading public.

The official communiques reprinted often without a by line, simply a 'report from London'

began to appear on Tuesday in New York and Washington with the official line from the UK Government which had been wireless telegraphed from Caernavon in Wales via the Press Bureau.

In a report in the 'Evening World' on Tuesday the GPO had been captured by rebels but had almost immediately been retaken by British forces. The 'revolution in Ireland had been planned by the German Government' slanting the view and exaggerating the influence of the Germans on the Rising. In the space of seven paragraphs the rebels were referred to as 'rebels', 'rioters','revolutionists' and 'a mob'. 

The rebels realised in planning the Rising that the British would attempt to control all communications and therefore the setting up of the rebel radio station in Reis's Chambers allowed an alternative view to be broadcast and those reports then wireless telegraphed to non partisan newspapers through the London based International News Service owned and operated by the Hearst family. Some newspapers in the US reported word for word the communiques issued by the rebels from their station in O'Connell Street on Tuesday and Wednesday of Easter Week. 

Newspapers reported that wireless messages had been received by Irish American organisations in New York from Ireland but some papers countered this by stating that was impossible as 'cipher messages out of Ireland were impossible due to a strict British ban on cipher messages'. And while many of the news reports were certainly fanciful, rumour based and displayed a vivid imagination by some Irish Americans of exactly what was happening on the streets of Dublin, we know now that the Ring brothers did telegraph news of the Rising launch from the Valentia Wireless station in the early days of the Rising before the British gained control of Valentia. 

The Perfect Actor for The Role

I was watching an episode of the BBC series New Tricks and David Haig played the role of a 'baddie' in the episode and he seemed very familiar. I was reminded that he played the role of the gun ho special branch detective in Rowan Atkinson's sitcom 'The Thin Blue Line' but I was doing some research today and it hit me that David would be the ideal actor to play the role of James Connolly. What do you think?

Humbled & Chuffed

O'Donovan Rossa 1913

Early Shots of the Rising in Kerry

According to the Irish Times published on May 1^st outside O’Sullivans Pub near Farranfore, Kerry two constables were shot and wounded. RIC Constable Michael Cleary (23) was shot in the right breast while his colleague Constable Thomas McLoughlin (23)  in right arm. The incident took place on Easter Saturday April 22nd, two days before the main outbreak. 

The two constables had been posting a martial law proclamation forbidding all meetings and assemblies. They were spotted by Jim Reardon a captain in the Firies Company of the Irish Volunteers. According to Michael Spillane's Witness Statement

"  He went over to read it and then tore it down. The two R.I.C. men thought to arrest him and tried to club him with their carbines. Jim Reardon drew his gun and shot them both."

Ashbourne

While Dublin was the epicentre of the Easter Rising there was some action outside the confines of the capital. Apart from Galway, Ashbourne and Enniscorthy, the Volunteers drilled and trained in Dundalk County Louth saw action as they made their way to assist their comrades in Dublin. Led by Dan Hannigan there first confrontation with the enemy as they believed was the accidental shooting a local at a rebel checkpoint when the gun belonging to Sean McEntee went off. Struggling to make any progress on foot, the company of rebels hijacked a number of cars taking punters home northwards from the race meeting at Fairyhouse. The rebels held onto the drivers as they were unable to drive themselves. Their next engagement was at Castlebellingham where they captured and made prisoners of the two local policemen. They then raided the grocery shops for provisions seizing them in the name of the new Irish Republic. While in charge of the town another policemen arrived on a bicycle but was more stubborn than his colleagues when it came to surrendering to the rebels. It was only after encouragement from his colleagues did he surrender and hand over his weapon. Just as the rebels were about to re-board the cars another car entered town with a driver and a British soldier. The soldier surrendered to the rebels only after a heated argument.

As the rebels were about to continue their journey to Dublin a shot rang out and as Sean McEntee wrote in his book he looked back at the point in the hedge where the prisoners of war were being held and saw the officer slump to the ground. It was only later at his court martial that he realised that the officer had been injured by the same shot that had killed RIC Constable Magee.

The rebels rested in the hijacked cars in a secluded field overnight and the following morning following reports of up to 5000 British troops in Dunslaughlin decided to release the drivers with the rebels conscious of doing the right thing within the new Republic gave their captives money for food and their fare home if they could get a train or bus with the rebellion in full swing.

McEntee then walked the rest of the journey into Dublin via Finglas joining up with the rebel forces in the GPO on Wednesday morning.   

Bovril & The Rising

Invented by John Lawson Johnson in 1870, Bovril operated a distribution warehouse on Eustace Street now at the heart of Dublin's Temple Bar. Due to food shortages in the aftermath of the Rising especially with the forced closure of bakeries, Bovril which was used to feed troops in many fields of battle from Crimea to The Boer War to the fields of France was distributed free to the citizens of Dublin.