Introduction In the years leading up to the First World War, Nationalists and Unionists were opposed over the issue of Irish Home Rule. The Nationalists wanted their own Parliament in Dublin, while Unionists were opposed to this on religious and economic grounds. By 1914 the Home Rule Crisis had deepened and sharply divided the country, leading to the formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Irish Volunteers. Both groups had armed themselves with guns covertly brought in from Germany. The outbreak of war in August 1914 temporarily defused the situation as both sides throughout Ireland provided recruits and generally supported the war effort. Nationalists, who wanted Home Rule, had been committed to the war by John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP). A minority of the Irish Volunteers, led by Eoin MacNeill, disagreed with Redmond and broke away. The larger Redmonite group became known as National Volunteers, and was supported by most Nationalists in south Armagh and south Down. The anti-war minority retained the name, Irish Volunteers. The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), a secret revolutionary group, exercised influence with the Volunteers and planned the Rising without MacNeill’s knowledge. Despite two major setbacks, the interception of a ship carrying weapons from Germany and the subsequent cancellation order given by MacNeill, rd the Rising took place on Easter Sunday 23 April 1916. Poster advertising a Home Rule meeting in Newry, 1911 Armagh County Museum Collection
Illuminated front cover of Newry’s Roll of Honour Newry had reputedly one of the highest enlistment rates of any town in Ireland and the Roll of Honour records 867 names. It remains unfinished as no further names were added after April1915. From 1916 onwards, recruitment began to fall away due to the heavy losses sustained on the western front. By 1918 supporters of Sinn Féin began to disrupt some of the recruiting rallies, most notably in Newry at the end of August 1918. Newry and Mourne Museum Collection
The Rising had some direct impact on the local area. A Newry man, Patrick Rankin, took part in the Rising and was involved in forming barricades in the General Post Office (GPO), and in street fighting. Newry IRB members, John Southwell and Robert Kelly, were arrested after the Rising and imprisoned. The shooting of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, a famous pacifist, writer and supporter of women’s suffrage, by Captain Bowen-Colhurst had local repercussions as Skeffington was originally from Downpatrick.
Members of the South Down UVF marching through Kilkeel Courtesy of PRONI d2638/D/49/145
Postcard of Downpatrick under ‘Home Rule’ These postcards were issued by Unionists to show what they thought towns in Ireland might be like under Home Rule. Down County Museum Collection