I had always assumed that official records relating to the courts martial held in Dublin following the 1916 Rising would only become available for public inspection 100 years after the event. So it came as quite a surprise when I was recently shown the secret file concerning the trial and execution of Thomas MacDonagh which, for many years, had been sealed in the archives of the Judge Advocate General's office in London.
In the US and most European countries, the British have acquired, perhaps without reason, a reputation for relative fair play when it comes to administering justice. I was anxious to see how due process had worked in a case which determined the fate of one of the signatories of the Proclamation.
The Rising came to an end on the afternoon of April 30th, 1916, when the final order of surrender was signed by MacDonagh and handed by him to Gen Lowe. The following day, Gen Sir John Maxwell, commander of the British forces in Ireland, moved swiftly to convene a Field General Court-Martial for the trial to be held at Richmond Barracks. Gen Blackadder was appointed president of the court, which also consisted of two other senior British officers, Lt Col German and Lt Col Kent.
The court record confirms that the members of the court were duly sworn, but, contrary to customary practice, the witnesses were not asked to testify under oath. In the form ordering the assembly of a Field General Court-Martial, Maxwell stated that he was of the opinion that it was "not practicable that the offences should be tried by an ordinary General Court-Martial". Presumably he was concerned that such a procedure might limit his powers of discretion and unnecessarily delay his uncompromising plans for execution.
On the morning of May 2nd, 1916, the court assembled and proceedings commenced with a presentation of the formal indictment: "Did an act to wit: did take part in an armed rebellion and in the waging of war against His Majesty the King, such an act being of such a nature as to be calculated to be prejudicial to the Defence of the Realm and being done with the intention and for the purpose of assisting the enemy." A plea of not guilty was entered on behalf of the accused.
The prosecution then called its sole witness, Maj J.A. Armstrong, who testified: "I was present at St Patrick's Park, Dublin, on 30th April 1916. There were British troops there, and I saw them fired on. I was under fire myself. The shots came from the direction of Jacob's factory. There were several casualties among the British troops. At a later hour I saw the accused coming from Jacob's factory under a white flag. He made several journeys through our lines. About 5 p.m. he surrendered with over 100 others to General Carleton. He was acting as an officer when he surrendered. I made a list of the unarmed men and the accused was not on that list. He made a statement to me that he was a commandant. He was subsequently sent under escort to Richmond Barracks."
At this point in the trial, the witness was examined by the accused. However, the hand-written transcript does not indicate what specific questions were asked. Maj Armstrong simply completed his testimony with the comment: "I did not know that the accused came out at the invitation of General Lowe. The accused made the statement to me that it was no use my searching for papers as they had all been destroyed." This statement constituted the entire case for the prosecution, and the minutes then concluded: "The witness withdraws. Prosecution closed."
MacDonagh did not call any witnesses in his defence. He simply asserted: "I did everything I could to assist the officers in the matters of the surrender, telling them where the arms and ammunition were after the surrender was decided upon." As was the case for all of the other leaders, he did not have the benefit of legal representation. W.E. Wylie, a prosecutor at the trials who subsequently became a High Court judge in Ireland, had suggested to James Campbell, the Attorney General, that the prisoners should be defended. Campbell rejected this idea out of hand and told Wylie that he would not be satisfied "until 40 of them were shot".
ON reading Major Armstrong's evidence, I was quite intrigued by the statement that he had made a list of unarmed men, but that "the accused was not on that list". Why, I asked myself, did he not simply state that the accused was armed at the time? The answer, of course, is that he could not have done so without lying. It is a well-known fact that MacDonagh surrendered to Gen Lowe at exactly 3.15 p.m. on April 30th, 1916, since that is the time indicated on the document signed by him. It is also of interest to note that Father Augustine O.F.M., the Capuchin, who accompanied MacDonagh throughout his negotiations for surrender, had this recollection of the event: "Having regained the car, we were soon at Jacob's, and at 3 p.m. arrived again at St Patrick's Park, where MacDonagh informed General Lowe of his decision to surrender and handed his revolver and belt to an officer". Clearly, Maj Armstrong's statement was intended to be misleading. If MacDonagh was not on his list of unarmed men at 5 p.m., then he should have been. Of course, this would not have changed anything in the outcome of the trial, but at least it would have been a fairer representation of the facts.
In a letter from Kilmainham Gaol, written at midnight on May 2nd, MacDonagh referred to his trial in these terms: "Yesterday at my court-martial, in rebutting some trifling evidence, I made a statement as to my negotiations for surrender with General Lowe. On hearing it read after, it struck me that it might sound like an appeal. It was not such. I made no appeal, no recantation, no apology for my acts. In what I said I merely claimed that I had acted honourably and thoroughly in all that I had set myself to do. My enemies have, in return, treated me in an unworthy manner. But that can pass."
At the conclusion of the trial, MacDonagh was found guilty and sentenced to death. The sentence was immediately confirmed by Gen Maxwell. Together with Patrick Pearse and Thomas Clarke, he was executed at 3.30 a.m. in Kilmainham on May 3rd in the presence of Capt H.V. Stanley and Lt Col W.J. Macnamara, who immediately confirmed, in a dispatch to headquarters, that "the prisoners were dead before the commandant disposed of their bodies". Maj-Gen A.E. Sandbach did likewise, enclosing certificates of death and execution, together with a sketch of the position of the graves.
On the afternoon of May 3rd, 1916, Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith made a statement to the House of Commons concerning the events of Easter week, confirming that the first three of the leaders had been executed in the early hours of the morning. His speech was received with warm applause. Statements were also made by several Members of Parliament, including one by Sir Edward Carson who, referring to the trials, issued this warning to the assembled audience: "It will be a matter requiring the greatest wisdom and the greatest coolness, may I say, in dealing with these men, and all I can say to the Executive is, whatever is done, let it be done not in a moment of temporary excitement but with due deliberation in regard both to the past and to the future."
In implementing his misguided strategy of unrelenting revenge and retribution, the unimaginative Gen Maxwell does not appear to have realised the true extent of the damage he was about to inflict on Britain's stronghold in Ireland. Shortly before the execution of Sean MacDiarmada and James Connolly on May 12th, 1916, he is alleged to have confided to members of his staff: "That will be the end of the so-called Government of the Republic. I assure you, gentlemen, no more will be heard ever again of an Irish Rising of 1916."
Dara Redmond is a grandson of Thomas MacDonagh. He lives in France.
dararedmond@infonie.fr
