Fianna was held in July 1910. The attendance was small as the organisation was only in its childhood. The Countess de Markievicz was elected President and Bulmer Hobson Vice President and Pádraic Ó Riain, Hon. General Secretary. In November of this year, Irish Freedom was started. The paper was the strongest and best written national journal published in recent years. It appeared continuously until its suppression in 1914. Its columns were open to the Fianna, and through the publicity the movement received, became an important factor in its progress. That the Fianna knew the seriousness and had counted the cost of the task they had set themselves, is apparent in the following which appeared in the first number of the paper:
To those of us who are growing up boys and girls will probably fall the task of finally settling the Irish Question. Now is the time therefore for us to consider the course we are to follow and the methods to be adopted to ensure success. As we are not skilled enough in the use of platitudes we interpret Irish freedom liberally, and as we are not old enough to hide our cowardice behind a mask of so-called wisdom, we realize that Irish freedom must be won by one method by which it is won in every other part of the world – the sword and its allies.
In these days of practical patriotism we, of the Fianna, without any exaggeration, can justly claim to be the most practical element in the population, though we are but a small factor of it. We turn our eyes from the loaf, which in one form or another, we see on all sides held up as a standard of nationalism, and have firmly fixed our gaze and concentrated our attention on the dreary cell where Tone was base murdered; the gibbet which the blood of Emmet consecrated, and on the chains which the bleeding limbs of Mitchel and the Fenians turned into garlands. Not only that but we have set ourselves the task of preparing mentally and physically for the great day, on the eve of which those of us who have survived will see, with gladsome eyes, Cathleen Ni Houlihan launch Fair Freedom’s ship with the Republican colours at the mast in the blood of the Saxon.
The movement made considerable progress during 1911. It began to extend to several places in the country. Clonmel, Listowel, Rathkeale, Maryborough, Athlone and Limerick fell into the line. Through the generosity of the late John Daly a splendid hall was built in the latter place for the Fianna. Seán Heuston, who was afterwards executed in Dublin after the Easter Revolution, was in charge there and did Herculean work in bringing the organisation to a high state of perfection. In Dublin the number of branches increased from four to seven, while Belfast established six within a year.
On June 23, George V was crowned King of England. A huge meeting was held in Dublin on this date to protest against his being crowned King of Ireland also. Twenty-thousand people are estimated to have attended and the Fianna were strongly represented. The meeting was addressed by Seán Mac Diarmada, Dr Patrick McCartan and several others. A fortnight later occurred the ‘Royal visit’ to Ireland. Saturday 7 July, the day of George V’s entry into Dublin was proclaimed a public holiday. The garrison strained every nerve to make the occasion appear as if the Irish people were intensely loyal. The streets were decorated on a lavish scale and night turned into day with illuminations. The school children were bribed with buns and lemonade to be present, while all the ‘Peelers’ from the country that could be spared were drafted up in plain clothes to Dublin to swell the mob as honest workmen and cheer as the King passed.
The whole reception was engineered and did not represent the Irish people at all. The Nationalists left Dublin that day in two special trains on a pilgrimage to Wolfe Tone’s grave at Bodenstown. The Dublin Fianna, numbering about three hundred, with their pipers’ band formed an inspiring spectacle in the procession to the graveyard. There round the grave of Ireland’s noblest dead all pledged their loyalty to the cause for which Wolfe Tone’s life was given: ‘To subvert the tyranny of our execrable Government, to break the connection with England, the never failing source of all our political evils, and to assert the independence of my country’.
Pádraic Pearse, afterwards first President of the Irish Republic, took a deep interest in the movement. He gave the use of his grounds surrounding St Enda’s College, Rathfarnham, in County Dublin, to the Fianna for camping and manoeuvres, and established a Sluagh among the boys of his school. Con Colbert used to train these, cycling out from the city once a week for the purpose. The second Convention (Ard Feis) was held in July and was much more largely represented than the first. It was a splendid success, earnestness becoming the distinguishing feature. It was decided to form an Executive (Ard Coiste), to meet every three months, to direct the organisation during the year. A constitution was drawn up as follows:
Object: to establish the independence of Ireland.
Means: The training of the youth of Ireland, mentally and physically, to achieve this object by teaching scouting and military exercises, Irish history and the Irish language.
Declaration: I promise to work for the independence of Ireland, never to join England’s armed forces, and to obey my superior officers.
The Year 1912 saw the Fianna firmly established as a power for good in the land. Several incursions had taken place to the country and new branches were established in Wexford Town, Donegal, Cork and Newry, as well as several new Sluaghte in Dublin and Belfast. The training went ahead very well and the Summer was used to the greatest advantage for camping. The freedom and joyousness of the outdoor life appealed to the boys, who by now had reduced camping out to a fine art. By experience, that greatest of all teachers, they had picked up many tips for making themselves comfortable. They had become adept at lighting a fire under the most adverse circumstances, and the methods – and ingredients – of cooking were much improved. Many a rabbit, hare or bird found its way into the pot. Need it be said by what means they were secured? A good scout is necessarily a good poacher.
Once again Fianna were encamped on the mountain side, and the places made historic by Fionn and his companions were fitting spots for the new soldiers of Erin to train themselves as champions of freedom. Howth and Glen-na-Smole were the rendezvous of the Dublin boys. The Clonmel Sluagh breathed freedom on Slievenamon, and on historic Cave Hill the tents of the Belfast lads were pitched.
The green kilted bare-kneed lads were now familiar figures at all Gaelic gatherings. They sold Irish Freedom at football and hurling matches. They were ubiquitous in giving out handbills, announcing Feisanna and Emmet and Manchester Martyrs and other great commemorations, and advertising these events by marching through the streets with their pipers’ band. They collected for the Gaelic League, the Wolfe Tone Memorial and other national institutions for which money was needed.
The third annual convention or Ard Fheis was a splendid and most representative affair. It marked an epoch in the history of the movement, insomuch that it showed that a great deal had already been accomplished in work that many wiseacres and sceptics had prophesied as being impracticable and unreasonable. It was held in the second week of July 1912, in the Mansion House, Dublin, and was well attended by a throng of earnest and manly boys from the four provinces of Ireland.
Countess Markievicz presided and Dublin was strongly represented by twenty delegates. Among the delegates from Belfast, who showed up in great strength, were Joe Robinson, one of the most enthusiastic members of the Fianna, and who is now in a British prison; Alf Cotton, afterward a Volunteer organizer, who was deported from Kerry in 1915; and the Misses Nora and Ina Connolly, and several other girls representing a girls’ branch which had been established there a short time previous. Seán Heuston was the principal Limerick representative. Cork City sent Seán Ó Súilleabháin, and Kerry Edmund Leahy of Listowel. ‘Paddy’ Ramsbottom, known as ‘An Fearr Mor’ on account of his stature, voiced Athlone, and Willie Langley was the delegate from Tuam. Dozens of other places were well represented as well.
The Dublin Fianna gave a great display in August. It was held for the purpose of displaying to the public the practical work the boys were doing and also to raise funds for the movement. Exhibitions of company and ambulance drill, skirmishing, bayonet fighting, signalling and first aid were given. A splendid camp scene was presented showing how things were managed when out under canvas. This was followed by an Aeridheacht, in which a first rate programme was gone through, most of the songs, dances and recitals, etc., being contributed by the boys.
Perhaps, however, the greatest work done by the boys was their active participation in the vigorous anti-enlistment campaign. In the evidence