History: The Kilcoole gunrunning

Monday August 05, 2002 23:12

by McMean

One of the least known but most important gunrunning operations in Irish history took place in Kilcoole, County Wicklow on 1 August 1914. It arose from an initiative taken in early 1914 by Michael, The O'Rahilly, Director of Arms of the recently formed Irish Volunteers, in conjunction with Erskine Childers, Sir Roger Casement and other prominent nationalists.

Funding from the American-based Clan na Gael and several wealthy
donors enabled Darrel Figgis to purchase 1,500 Prussian rifles
and 45,000 rounds of ammunition from the Hamburg firm of Moritz
Magnus in June 1914. The mission was given added urgency by the
arming of the Ulster Volunteer Force in April with the tacit
support of high ranking British army officers and the
Conservative Party. Many Volunteers and revolutionaries of the
Irish Republican Brotherhood were determined to hasten the
armament of their followers to protect northern nationalist
communities and to encourage the weak London government to honour
its commitment to granting Home Rule for Ireland.

With the guns and ammunition expected in Hamburg from a Liege
warehouse on 4 July, advanced planning for getting the contraband
to Ireland took place. Two yachts, the Asgard, captained by
Childers, and the Kelpie, owned by Limerick Volunteer Conor
O'Brien, sailed separately to meet a German vessel hired by
Figgis off the Belgian coast on 10 July. Kelpie left the Shannon
river port of Foynes on 29 June and made slow progress towards
Cowes in the Isle of Wight, where it eventually met up with the
Asgard. As Childers was delayed by unfavourable weather and did
not arrive from north Wales until 9 July, the rendezvous was
postponed until the 12th. Contact was then made off the Scheldt
near the Ruytigen lightship and the weaponry was quickly loaded.

Asgard, famously, landed its guns in broad daylight at Howth on
29 July, where Bulmer Hobson had arranged a large party of
Volunteers and Na Fianna Eireann to spirit way the cargo. The
Kelpie's munitions, however, had been expected in Kilcoole at
midnight on the 25th after transhipment to the Chotah off Bardsey
Island in the Irish Sea. Sir Thomas Myles' Chotah had an engine
and as such could be relied upon to time its night arrival in
Kilcoole but, once again, adverse weather and storm damage
prevented its meeting with the Kelpie. Instead, both ships took
shelter in St. Tudwell's Roads, off Abersoch, Wales, and plans
were laid to complete the mission the following week.

In Dublin, Sean MacDiarmada helped Hobson select Volunteers to
unload the Chotah and move its contents to safety. On 1 August
the men went in small groups to Kilmacanoge posing as tourists
and after dark made their way to Kilcoole beach, where Sean
Fitzgibbon supervised the unloading. Liam Mellows, tasked with
getting the 600 rifles to secure dumps, was driven to Kilcoole by
Eamon de Valera, a rising figure in the Volunteers. Disaster
almost struck in Bray near dawn when the overloaded charabanc
used as the main transport broke down. The day was saved when a
fleet of taxis was summoned from the city to bring the arms and
Volunteers to safety.

An added concern for the IRB clique on the Volunteer Executive
was keeping the precious guns away from moderates influenced by
John Redmond's constitutional nationalists. Mellows consequently
delivered the rifles to Joseph Plunkett, who apparently hid them
on his Kimmage property yet disclaimed all knowledge when pressed
by the Redmonites. The availability of the Kilcoole guns in the
Dublin area gave the Volunteers a tremendous morale boost and
obliged the British government to take the movement seriously. A
secondary effect of the Howth and Kilcoole landings was the
temporary lifting of the arms importation ban, a useful respite
which enabled The O'Rahilly to obtain a large stock of modern
British rifles. An arguably more important outcome of the
gunrunning, however, was its role in shaping and consolidating
the republican leadership cadre that triggered the 1916 Rising
and later commenced the War of Independence.