Did Markiewicz plead for her life? RTÉ documentary looks at new account of the aftermath of the 1916 Rising.
A new documentary to be screened next Tuesday on RTÉ One will look at new evidence surrounding the courts-martial in the aftermath of the Easter Rising in 1916.
Did Countess Markievicz really break down in her court-martial and plead for her life? Newly unearthed writings by the courts-martial prosecutor William Wylie allege that the Countess ‘curled up’ under cross-examination, eventually breaking down and pleading with her accusers, begging not to be shot. “You must not shoot me,” Wylie alleges Markiewicz to have shouted, stating that her principal defence was that she was “only a woman!”
Yet the official courts-martial records are at odds with Wylie’s eye-witness testimony. The official record claims that Markiewicz was defiant: “I went out to fight for freedom. I did what was right and I stand by it.”
William Wylie, a young barrister at the time, went on to be a well-regarded Irish high court judge. He is on record as having objected to legal corners being cut during the trials of the rebel leaders. Indeed the secrecy of the trials, hastily convened just two days after the rebels’ surrender, were ultimately to be ruled illegal.
1916: The Man Who Lost Ireland dramatically reconstructs the trials of the rebel leaders using recently disclosed British records. Offering a fresh perspective on the event, the documentary weaves together newly released eyewitness testimonies with the documented events of Easter Week. New testimony from a key participant in the courts-martial sheds light on what really happened to Patrick Pearse and the other 1916 leaders.
1916: The Man Who Lost Ireland also questions why De Valera was spared the firing squad. Wylie’s account reveals that he played down De Valera’s role in the Rising, resulting in his death sentence being commuted. But a definitive explanation for the leniency shown to Dev may never be found; when the courts martial records were finally released by the British, one was missing – Eamon de Valera’s.
1916: The Man Who Lost Ireland, to be broadcast next Tuesday on RTÉ One at 10.15 pm as part of RTÉ’s Hidden Histories strand, examines the actions of the British in the immediate aftermath of the Rising – particularly those of General Sir John Maxwell – and asks whether it was these actions that fuelled the fire of public patriotism, lending the Easter Rising a purpose and significance not even its organisers could have hoped for.
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The Easter Rising of 1916 is today synonymous with Pearse’s vision of ‘blood sacrifice’. But was it Pearse’s rebellion that awoke the slumbering national spirit? Or was it the actions of the British in the immediate aftermath of the Rising – particularly those of General Sir John Maxwell — that fuelled the fire of public patriotism, lending the Easter Rising a purpose and significance not even its organisers could have hoped for?
For the first time on Irish television, 1916: The Man Who Lost Ireland dramatically reconstructs the secret courts-martial using recently disclosed British records. Offering a fresh perspective on an event we all think we know, 1916 weaves together newly released eyewitness testimonies with the documented events of Easter Week.
The Irish public were shocked by the events of Easter 1916. Initially hostile to the rebels cause, they were quickly appalled by the British response, when a series of hastily convened and secret courts-martial led to a string of executions. Agonisingly drawn out over two weeks, one observer described it as “like watching a stream of blood seeping from under a closed door”. The secrecy surrounding the trials and executions left many wondering when the firing squads would cease – would hundreds die?
General Sir John Maxwell, dispatched to Ireland as Military Governor with orders to crush the rebellion, felt no need to explain his actions. These men were traitors, allied to the Kaiser at a time when Britain was locked in a life or death struggle with Germany. In London, Prime Minister Asquith alternated between pressing for firm action and imploring Maxwell to “proceed with caution”.
But John Dillon, deputy leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, realised that the British authorities were falling into a trap set by Pearse. Just a week after the Rising he warned a shocked House of Commons that General Maxwell was “washing out our life’s work in a sea of blood”. The Home Rulers, and not the dead rebel leaders, would indeed prove to be the ultimate casualties of the Easter Rising.
1916: The Man Who Lost Ireland looks at the Easter Rising from a fresh perspective, weaving together newly released eyewitness testimonies with the documented events of Easter Week, and the immediate aftermath. For the first time on Irish television, 1916 dramatically reconstructs the secret courts-martial using recently discovered British records. Fresh new testimony from a key participant in the courts-martial sheds new light on what really happened to Pearse and the other leaders, and poses controversial questions in relation to two others.
Arguing that the fortnight following the Rising was as crucial as the events of Easter Week itself, this new film asks how would we view the Rising today if the British authorities had taken a different approach. Was General Sir John Maxwell a soldier with conflicting orders, placed in an impossible position? Or was he, in fact, the man who lost Ireland?