An Irishman’s Diary on a journalist’s nightmare in 1916

The 1916 Rising was a journalist’s nightmare. Censorship was in force and many papers at first published little more than the official communiqués. But some of the nightmares were of journalists’ own making and, as the anniversary approaches, one episode provides a telling example of the dangers of rushing into print without checking the facts.

‘Impartial Reporter’

The central figure of this episode was the splendidly named William Egbert Trimble, whose family owned the

Impartial Reporter

of Enniskillen, edited in 1916 by his father, William Copeland Trimble. The

Impartial Reporter and Farmers’ Journal

, to give it its full masthead title, was a unionist paper that was usually, and understandably, known in its area of circulation as the “’Partial”.

‘An Enniskillen Traitor’

The ’Partial prided itself in being the first Irish newspaper to report the Rising, and was almost certainly the first of the non-Dublin papers to send its own reporter to the capital. His initials “W.E.T.” hinted broadly at his identity.

By May 11th, W.E.T was in full voice, and his column on “Some Incidents of the Rising”, in the ’Partial of that date was redolent not only of his journalistic fervour but of his politics. One item in his column, headed “An Enniskillen Traitor”, cut straight to the chase.

“One of the rebel leaders was an Enniskillener, and an old Portora boy. George Irvine, a bookworm and student, an exhibitioner and Gaelic scholar, whose father kept a religious repository in Bridge-street . . . was one of the leading revolutionary spirits in Dublin. He donned the Irish kilt, and for his pernicious teaching of anti-British ideas, he was got rid of both by the Rathmines School and St Andrews School Boards. Then he went to the Church of Ireland Diocesan School in Molesworth-street, and his presence there and teaching had been tolerated for years till it was cut short last week by his being sentenced to death, commuted to ten years’ penal servitude. Known by the jarring nic-name ‘Gutty’, he took every opportunity of instilling into the minds of his students pernicious teaching. He was a lay religieux, and an advanced ritualist.”

‘Long march’

So far, so sensational. However, two weeks later, a letter from Mr Irvine’s sister, then living in Dublin, appeared in the ’Partial. Acknowledging that George had taken part in the Rising, and had been sentenced to 10 years, she set out to demonstrate that everything else that had been published about him was a “pure fabrication”.

It was not the kind of letter any editor likes to receive, let alone publish.

George had never taught in Rathmines and had been popular and well respected. He had gone out on Easter Monday expecting only to participate in a “long march”. Noting that he had been employed in Molesworth Street for 11 years, his loyal sister observed that if he had taken “every opportunity of instilling into the minds of his pupils pernicious teachings”, he “would not have lasted there a minute, let alone eleven years.”

She added: “Let his own opinions be what they will, right or wrong, George Irvine was at least honest and did the work he was paid to do, and to the satisfaction of both the Board and the headmaster. . . Nor was he known at any time to obtrude his opinions, political or otherwise, on other people; he formed his own opinions, and everyone else was free to do the same as far as he was concerned.”

Bookworm

Challenging Trimble’s view of her brother as a gloomy student bookworm, she then delivered the coup de grâce.

“He is by the way the exact opposite. You are evidently mixing his identity with that of his elder brother, Mr. W. Irvine, B.A., ex-Sch. TCD, though, of course, neither of them is known to you at all. The latter man taught for some years in St. Andrews College, Rathmines, and other places and he certainly was not ‘got rid of’ in any of them.”

The older brother, she noted, was not only one of the finest classical scholars in Dublin, but had actually given up a position in a good Dublin “grinding” college to join the army on the outbreak of war (with the consent and approbation of his “rebel” brother), and was currently serving with a trench mortar battery in France. He was also a fine Gaelic scholar.

“I have yet to learn”, she added caustically, “that the latter fact has in any way impaired his usefulness, either as a teacher or a soldier.”

Game, set, and match, I think. And you can almost hear the grinding of teeth as Trimble snr composed his brief, sourpuss reply to this salvo: “This letter is a natural one for a sister to write. We have always heard good things of Mr. Wm. Irvine, who, like his unhappy brother, were good sons to their mother. — Ed. I.R.”

The 'Partial is still happily with us, although it is no longer owned by the Trimbles, and in 2014 even won a British Press Award for being the UK's best weekly newspaper. Floreat!