Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of figures and tables
- Preface
- Note on the text
- List of abbreviations
- PROLOGUE: BEFORE THE EASTER RISING
- THE IRISH REVOLUTION, 1916–1923
- 2 Rebellion and hibernation, 1916
- 3 Organizers and converts, 1917
- 4 Reverses and victory, 1918
- 5 The party: structures and members
- 6 Policy: beliefs and attitudes
- 7 War and repression, 1919–1921
- 8 Ministers and bureaucrats, 1919–1921
- 9 The treaty and the split, 1921–1922
- 10 The Pact election and the Civil War, 1922–1923
- EPILOGUE: AFTER THE CIVIL WAR
- Select bibliography
- Index
3 - Organizers and converts, 1917
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of figures and tables
- Preface
- Note on the text
- List of abbreviations
- PROLOGUE: BEFORE THE EASTER RISING
- THE IRISH REVOLUTION, 1916–1923
- 2 Rebellion and hibernation, 1916
- 3 Organizers and converts, 1917
- 4 Reverses and victory, 1918
- 5 The party: structures and members
- 6 Policy: beliefs and attitudes
- 7 War and repression, 1919–1921
- 8 Ministers and bureaucrats, 1919–1921
- 9 The treaty and the split, 1921–1922
- 10 The Pact election and the Civil War, 1922–1923
- EPILOGUE: AFTER THE CIVIL WAR
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
Soon after he displaced Asquith as prime minister in December 1916, Lloyd George decided to release all the remaining Irish internees; only those who had been tried and sentenced for their involvement in the Easter Rising remained in jail. This proved to be the first step in the revival of the separatist movement, and Redmond must soon have regretted his recent advice that ‘they can do much more harm as prisoners in Frongoch than at liberty in Ireland’. The combined efforts of political veterans such as Griffith and of younger activists such as Collins transformed Irish public life within the next six months. Herbert Moore Pim and others who had flourished in their absence were soon hustled back to obscurity.
Early in the new year the released prisoners and detainees began reorganizing the Volunteers, the body to which most of them had belonged before Easter Week. But they also reactivated the political wing of the separatist movement which had been dormant for many years. Gradually the tone of police reports became more apprehensive. In Clare, for instance, it was noted that ‘in each place where an interned prisoner has returned, the Sinn Feiners have begun to meet, use seditious expressions and up to a certain point defy law and authority’.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Resurrection of IrelandThe Sinn Féin Party, 1916–1923, pp. 77 - 121Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999