I thought of leaving it there to see what people thought. But I decided not to.
Kilmainhan Gaol...was something else. All my thoughts began to whirl about my head as I listened to the tour guide tell us things that we had heard and studied, but to hear those stories again and to see where these stories took place...it made everything so much more real.
Have you ever stopped to think about the American Revolution? We all know the story and if you are an American and don't...something's wrong. But in school as young children we are taught that it was a bloody, yet glorious thing to fight the evil British to gain our freedoms and independence. No one ever really stopped to mention to us that we were really rebels. Rebels. That's not a word people like to hear. It's a word that brings about horrible images of riots and overthrown governments and lost lives.
But that's exactly what we were. Rebels.
And so were the men in Kilmainham Gaol.
The Irish were so ecstatic when America gained independence from Britain, the world's powerhouse. They thought - If American can do it, why can't we? So in 1798 they had a rebellion. It failed. People died. People suffered. A girl named Anne who was friends with people heading up that rebellion was taken as prisoner and put in darkness for 2 1/2 years in the basement of Kilmainham, her mind toyed and played with - her eight year old brother brought in and he eventually died from his ill-treatment, but still Anne would not ever give up her friends who had fought to try and free the country that she loved so dearly. And even when she was released she could not go to said friends for help for the British were trailing her so she died alone.
But she staid silent.
And from there the Irish were constantly trying to rise above and do better for themselves. But the famine hit. People were starving because even though all the other crops grown in Ireland were successful, all of those were being shipped out of the country in order to feed others. People had no idea where their next meal was coming from. Unless they were in gaol. In gaol one got fed three times a day.
People were desperate.
Kilmainham was one of the places that people went in order to eat.
And finally in 1916 on Easter Monday some very brave men - rebels much like us Americans - got together to try and win their country the freedom it deserved. They took over buildings in Dublin, had around 1600 volunteers helping them, and took over the GPO (General Post Office) on what is now O'Connell Street and made that their headquarters. From there they read the proclamation. But you know what?
The Irish weren't really behind them.
They had been at peace and the Great War was going on so why stir up trouble?
Eventually 20,000 British troops defeated the 1600 and the leaders surrendered and were taken to Kilmainham Gaol where they were court-marshalled and sentences to death.
And that is when things began to change.
William Pearse was one of those executed. He had fought beside his brother, but he wasn't really an important person within the whole plan of the rebellion. He was the younger brother of P.H. Pearse, the face of the rebellion. He was brought to the gaol under the assumption that he was going to visit with his brother but when he arrived he heard the gunshots that were fired as his brother was being executed. William was taken prisoner, tried, and sentenced to death.
Just for being the brother of P.H. Pearse.
James Connolly was shot in the leg during the rebellion. The wound was infected. He was going to die anyway so why execute him? General Maxwell, the British soldier sent to stop the rebellion, said he would resign from his post if James Connolly was not executed. So James Connolly was brought to the walled courtyard of Kilmainham by ambulance. He couldn't walk so it was decided his spot of execution would be beside the main door. He couldn't stand because of his leg, so a chair was brought. He was so weak he couldn't sit up properly so he was tied to the chair.
Then shot.
What a mistake.
No one liked that. Not even people over in England. His death helped get the Irish firmly on the side of the rebels when before not many were on their side.
Joseph Mary Plunkett. His story is a story right out of a book. But it's real. That's what makes it so heartbreaking. He was sick so he wasn't really going to live for very long anyway. He was going to marry Grace Gifford but he was called to the rebellion first. He was captured and it was decided that he and Grace could marry in the chapel of Kilmainham. They could not speak any words to each other but that of their vows, the guards witnessed the wedding and the whole time guns were pointed at Plunkett. Once they were married Plunkett was taken back to his cell and Grace had to leave. Hours later in the early morning Grace was called back to Kilmainham where she was given ten minutes with her husband. A band of guards watched from the doorway and one even had a pocket watch to count down the minutes. Once the ten minutes were up Grace was taken away from the gaol and hours later her husband was executed.
The next day her brother-in-law, another leader of the rebellion, was executed.
There are so many more stories that one could tell but these are the ones that are remembered, the ones that rallied the Irish into standing up and taking control.
As I stood there in Kilmainham Gaol my thoughts went from the Irish to the Americans.
What would have happened if we had lost?
Obviously the great men we think of as the Fathers of Our Nation would have been executed: George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson...to name but a few. But would a younger sibling been executed just for being the younger sibling to one of them? Would one of them - wounded and dying - still have been executed?
These are questions that we will never know and I thank God that we will never know those answers. That we will never have to feel the pain that the Irish felt upon the injustices that were given to these men. These rebels.
After all - they were still human.
And from then there sparked the Irish War of Independence and from that their Civil War. But in it they began to find out exactly who they were - what their country was capable of.
So now all I can do is sit back and think over the day and praise God that America did not have to fight several rebellions in order to gain freedom. Granted we were a good fifty day's journey from England, but still. We too were rebels and we too would have suffered the Rebel Consequences. But we prevailed. We won.
I'm not exactly sure what I'm trying to say. Maybe I'm just rambling thoughts. All I know is that I have a deeper respect now - not just for the Irish - but for my forefathers. These Rebels that knew that they were rebellion and knew that if everything collapsed that they would die.
To those in Ireland they look back upon these brave rebels of the Easter Rising of 1916 and they stand proud and say "I'm proud to be Irish."
I look back to those brave rebels of the American Revolution and I stand proud and say "I'm proud to be an American."
No comments:
Post a Comment