1916 courts martial and executions: Patrick Pearse

Patrick Pearse’s court martial included as evidence a letter to his mother in which he confirmed that the rebels had sought the support of Germany for the Easter Rising.

The letter was written in Arbour Hill detention barracks on May 1st, 1916, on the day before his court martial and two days before he was executed.

It was handed into the court martial as evidence by a Sgt Goodman, who said he witnessed Pearse writing it and that Pearse had given it to him for posting. It was never sent and remained in the execution files until made public in 2003.

Significantly, it contains a postscript written, not at the end of the letter, but at the start in which Pearse writes: “P.S I understand that the German expedition which I was counting on actually set sail but was defeated by the British.”

This has since been interpreted as a deliberate attempt by Pearse to seek his own death on the basis that the British would certainly execute someone who had collaborated with Britain’s wartime enemy.

Pearse’s letter to his mother is partially a plea for clemency for his followers and partly a vindication for himself.

“Our hope and belief is that the Government will spare the lives of all our followers, but we do not expect that they will spare the lives of the leaders. We are ready to die and we shall die cheerfully and proudly,” he wrote.

“Personally I do not hope or even desire to live, but I do hope and desire and believe that the lives of all our followers will be saved.”

The court martial took place on May 2nd, 1916, and was presided over by Brig Gen Charles Blackader (president) assisted by Lieut Col George German and Col William John Kent.

Pearse pleaded not guilty to the charge of staging an armed rebellion “with the intention and purpose of assisting the enemy”.

Constable Daniel Coffey, a detective with Dublin Metropolitan Police, gave evidence that identified Pearse as a member of the Irish Volunteers. “I have seen him several times going through the city with bodies of men and acting as an officer,” he told the court.

Second Lieut SL King gave evidence at several of the court martials. He had been a prisoner in the GPO during Easter Week. He was the only witness that Pearse cross-examined.

Pearse asked him, “Were you a prisoner in our hands and how were you treated?” King responded: “I was and was very well treated.”

In addition to the letter, Pearse made an address to his court-martial in which he admitted they had been negotiating with the Germans.

“I have deemed it my duty as an Irishman to fight for the freedom of my country. I admit I have organised men to fight against Britain,” he told the members of the court martial.

“As far as I can see, she [Germany] did her best to help us. She sent a ship with men. Germany has not sent us gold.”

Pearse’s file includes a note from Capt HV Stanley of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), sent shortly after the first executions of Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh and Thomas Clarke.

It states: “This is to certify that I was present at the execution of the prisoners enumerated below, which took place at Kilmainham Jail on morning of 3/5/1916 and that the prisoners were dead before the commandant disposed of the bodies.”

Pearse was executed on May 3rd, 1916. In her memoirs, Elizabeth, Countess of Fingal, recalled Blackader stating to her that he regarded Pearse as “one of the finest characters I have ever come across. There must be something very wrong in the state of things that makes a man like that a rebel.”