Report of 25 March 1916

(NAI, CSO/JD/2/237)

The report of 25 March 1916 records a brief visit to his shop at 75 Parnell Street by Thomas J Clarke. During this time, he is observed in conversation with Seán MacDiarmada, Joseph Murray and [James] O’Connor. The shop is visited in Clarke’s absence by Thomas Byrne, Jeremiah Joseph O’Connell, John McGarry and William Sheehan.

A meeting in the office of the Irish Volunteers, 2 Dawson Street, is attended by Bulmer Hobson, Michael O’Hanrahan, Herbert ‘Barney’ Mellows, JJ Burke, James Whelan and James O’Sullivan. A second meeting in the same location is attended by John Fitzgibbon, Éamonn J Duggan, Countess Markievicz, Patrick Ryan, Edward Daly and George Irvine. A further meeting, held late in the evening, is attended by Éamon de Valera, Thomas MacDonagh, John Fitzgibbon, Thomas Hunter, Thomas McCarthy, Piaras Béaslaí, Michael O’Hanrahan, John E Lyons, John O’Hanrahan and Éamonn Ceannt.

Arthur Griffith and Seán MacDiarmada are observed together at 12 D’Olier Street, while Jeremiah Joseph O’Connell and Eimar O’Duffy are seen together in Grafton Street.

A report is given of a raid on the premises of the Gaelic Press Works, Upper Liffey Street, printer of The Gael newspaper and other publications. The raid ‘caused a good deal of commotion and anxiety among Sinn Feiners’.

The report concludes with details of attempts by James Connolly and Countess Markievicz to protect The Workers’ Republic by summoning members of the Citizen Army to Liberty Hall. ‘Every door, window and passage leading to the building were, from an early hour, guarded by men in uniform with rifles and fixed bayonets’.

A copy of The Workers’ Republic referred to in the report is not present.

For the full report please see Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) Detective Department report on the movement of Dublin extremists on 25 March 1916.