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“…officeof LibertyHall. I agreed, and an appointmentwith JamesConnollywas
arranged. He askedmewas I prepared to take the job thatKeoghhadmentioned
tome, adding that therewasabitof riskattached to it. Whathemeantwas thathis
placewouldbe subject to raidsby theCastleAuthorities and that Imight findmy-
self indifficulties. I said toConnolly, “Certainly, Iwill take up the job”. “As you
are an experiencedman”, he said, “youwill take charge of the office and youwill
be inmy employment”. When the office was got going followingmy interview
withConnolly itwas staffedbyW. F.O’Brien, Compositor, ChrisBrady,Machine
Man, and an additional helper for piece-workby thename of JoeNewman–now
dead. Bradyandmyselfwerepaida standingwageat the time. I cannot saywhen
the first edition of “The IrishRepublic” came out. Some of the subscribers to it
were, as far as I can remember, SeánO’Casey (Playwright andAuthor), Seamus
Hughes and Seamus O’Farrell – a journalist now I think in Public Department,
Irish SweepOffice. Other articles were contributed byMajorMonteith and the
late Sheehy-Skeffington. The paper was publishedweekly. TheCountessMark-
ievicz andHelenaMoloney ran a SabyClothing Stores onEdenQuay and it was
knownas“TheCo-OperativeStores”. At thebackof this shopyoucouldgetdirect
to the roomwhere the printing inLibertyHall was carriedon. Several times the
Co-Operative stores were raided by plain-clothes detectives. While the reason
given for the raids on these stores was to search for pamphlets and literature re-
garded as illegal and seditious the main purpose was to try to locate the exact
positionofConnolly’sprintingpress. Theywerenot successful in thisbecause the
search party never got past the CountessMarkievicz who prevented them at the
point of thegun fromenteringLibertyHall throughherpremises. LibertyHall at
that timehas 99 rooms andmenof theCitizenArmywere always thereonguard.
OnGoodFriday JamesConnollysent forWilliamO’Brien,ChrisBrady
andmyself. He said that he wanted us to turn out a Bill for Easter Sunday that
would be in the nature of a Proclamation, but that wewould have to get suitable
type for it andhewouldbear theexpense. He said, “whenyouhave the type ready
letme know”. I knew that tomeet Connolly’s requirements Iwouldhave to get a
D.G. primer and itwould take two sets of cases, upper and lower, for thepurpose.
I visited a fewplaces and Iwas not successful. Ongoing to the thirdplace, which
chanced to beKeet’s of Capel Street, I toldhimwhat I wanted. He toldme to go
upstairs and seeGraham, theman inchargeof thecase roomand to tell himwhat
I wanted. I toldGraham thatMr.West had sent me up and that I was to get all
the doubleD.G. primer that he had, givingMr.West andMr. Graham a promise
that should anything happen the type the firmwould be compensated. Graham
at first putmany objections inmyway and I toldhim if he didnot give it volun-
tarily itwouldbe taken. Eventuallyhe agreed. He brought it downstairs andput
it on the hand-cart which was being pushed by a member of the Citizen Army
nick-named “Dazzler”. On returning to Liberty Hall I notified Connolly of my
success. He summoned the threeof us again tohis office and thenhe toldus that
hewould requireusonSundaymorningat 9o’clock. I toldhim that Iwaswarned
tomobilise withmy Company on that morning and he said, “Tell your Captain
that you are engagedbyme and that Iwill take responsibility for you”.
We arrived on Easter Sundaymorning at the appointed time. While
I had no clear idea of coming events I knew that something of importance was
going to happen that day. Connolly opened the conversation by saying, “We are
goingaheadwith it”. Thenhe said, “Thewhole thing iscalledoff”. I said, “What!”
He said, “BulmerHobsonand JohnMacNeill havecried themobilisationoff”. He
repeated, “We are going ahead”. He added that the jobwewere going to do that
morningwas for EasterMondaymorning and itwas toprint theProclamationof
the IrishRepublic. He said, “Thismust take place; wemust rise. If not, fathers
and sons will be tracked by the British and there will be wholesale massacre”.
The statementofMichaelMolloy, printeroftheProclamationtotheBureauofmilitaryhistory
Continuing, he said, “If we are able to hold the Capital for 48 hours we would,
in fact, be in a position to declare ourselves a Republic”. He then gave us the
manuscript of the Proclamation. He read it for us and asked us was the copy
clear enough. At that time therewereno signatureson themanuscript. “But”, he
said, “itwill be signed another time and if you care towitness the signatures you
can remainhere”. Not long after that JosephPlunkett came in from a cab and as
he was in very bad health he had to be helped into the office. Within a half an
hour themanuscript of theProclamationhadbeenduly signedby the signatories
concerned. I cannot saywhoactuallywrote theProclamation. Iwasnot familiar
with the hand-writing. While the Proclamationwas being signedwewere busy
transferring the case for the type required from the case-roomwhichwas in the
basement of LibertyHall to a small room at the backof theCo-Operative Stores
onEdenQuay, the ideabeing that therewasanEasterSundaynight commemora-
tionconcert in thehall ofLibertyHall. Toget from theoriginal case-room to the
machine-roomwewouldhave topass through the hall while the concert was on
and thiswouldhave given rise to suspicion. Noonewas allowed to contact us in
LibertyHall aswewereunder guardof theCitizenArmywhowerepostedon the
fanlight over thedoor entrance to theCo-OperativeStores, also thedoor leading
from theConcertHall into theMachineRoom and also at the rear entrance. At
about 11 a.m we set about work on setting the type and when we had the top
portionof it set half way down, even to complete that half we had to treat letters
with sealingwax. We couldnot go any further for themoment. Sowe sent up a
message toConnolly thatwewouldhave toprint theProclamation in twohalves.
And the answerwas “Go ahead”. We then ranoff, I think, 1,000 copieswithhalf
of the Proclamation printed. We then took the form off themachine andmade
arrangements for the setting up of the second half which would complete the
Proclamation. This entailedaconsiderabledelayand the secondand final half of
the Proclamationwas not printeduntil aboutmidnight onEaster Sunday night.
I donot knowwhat becameof themanuscript of theProclamationbut the signa-
turesof theProclamationwereappendedona separatepieceofpaper in theorder
inwhich theywere required. I took thiswithmeandput it inmypocket andhad
itonmypersonwhen Iwas lateraprisoner inRichmondbarracks. Realisinghow
dangerous itwouldbe if thedocument containingactual signaturesof theProcla-
mationwas found, Idestroyed it bychewing it up into small pieces and spitting it
out on the floor. Actually the suggestion came from a fellow-prisoner. Whenhe
saw that Iwas beginning to tear this document he advisedme that thebest thing
todowas to chew it up into small bits.
Whenwe left LibertyHall onEasterMondaymorning about 1o’clock
passingby theCustomHouseonourwayhomeBillyO’Brien andmyself spotted
men behind the rail pillars. Billy said “I wonder are these fellows watching us”.
I saidwewouldgo slow. The figures sloweddown and came across the road and
followed us upGardiner Street. So wemade up our minds that we would give
them a run. We continued all theway upGardiner Street, cutting across Belvi-
dere Place and up toDorset Street. Now and againwe used to do a little sprint
and our shadows were still after us. We cut into Dorset Street and at Leeche’s
Bridgewemade up ourminds to slip down theCanal and get on to Jones’ Road
where they lost us. Wemadeourwayhome toour respectivedwellings.
On Easter Monday morning I was mobilised for 9 o’clock. I was to
be mobilised for Stephen’s Green outside the College of Surgeons at 11 a.m. I
reportedasorderedandonarrivingat theGreenotherCompanyVolunteerswere
already there. We formedupunder TomHunter. He said, “We’ll get our orders
before 12o’clock. A short time later aman came alongwearing a large swinging
cloak. He shouted at TomHunter, “What are you standing here for. Get those
men to their places”. I learned later that thiswas the late…”
