He succeeded only in putting the Rising off for a day, and limiting it to about 1,000 active participants within Dublin and a further 2,000-3,000 elsewhere. This was followed in January 1913 with the formation of the Ulster Volunteers composed of adult male Unionists to oppose the passage and implementation of the bill by force of arms if necessary.The initiative for a series of meetings leading up to the public inauguration of the Volunteers came from the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). The second Home Rule Bill, seven years later having passed the House of Commons, was vetoed by the House of Lords. Several others meetings were soon to follow, as prominent nationalists planned the formation of the Volunteers, under the leadership of MacNeill. The IRB then specifically brought Liam Mellows to Dublin to strengthen the Fianna representation and they were eventually to recruit Pearse, Plunkett and MacDonagh, and thus hold over half the strength of the Committee. This enraged the populace, and during the outcry enlistments in the Volunteers soared.The outbreak of world war in August 1914 provoked a serious split in the organisation. The Irish Volunteers was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. If Irishmen accepted this new policy he said they would be surrendering their rights as men and citizens. They retained the name “Irish Volunteers”, were led by MacNeill and called for Irish neutrality. Patrick Pearse famously replied that “the Orangeman with a gun is not as laughable as the nationalist without one.” Thus O’Rahilly, Sir Roger Casement  and Bulmer Hobson worked together to coordinate a daylight gun-running expedition to Howth , just north of Dublin.The plan worked, and Erskine Childers brought nearly 1,000 rifles, purchased from Germany, to the harbour on the 26 July and distributed them to the waiting Volunteers, without interference from the authorities. Hobson himself did not attend this meeting, believing his standing as an “extreme nationalist” might prove problematical.The IRB, however, was well represented by, among others, Sean MacDermott and Eamonn Ceannt, who would prove to be substantially more extreme than Hobson.

Their plan was to circumvent MacNeill’s command, instigating a rising, and to get MacNeill on board once the rising was a fait accompli.Pearse issued orders for three days of parades and manoeuvres, a thinly disguised order for a general insurrection. The Irish Volunteer’ was recorded by Derek Warfield and featured on his third solo album ‘Sons of Erin’. He knew the purpose as to why he was chosen, but he was determined not to be a puppet.With MacNeill willing to take part, O’Rahilly and Hobson sent out invitations for the first meeting at Wynn’s Hotel in Abbey Street, Dublin, on November 11. Many joined the British Army to fight against Germany, but a minority refused to enlist and went on to fight in the 1916 Easter Rising. Now when the traitors in the south commenced a warlike raid, I quickly then laid down my hod, to the devil went my spade! Within a year it had an estimated 160,000 members, but quickly split at the outbreak of World War One. The Irish Citizen army supplied slightly more than 200 personnel for the Dublin campaign.The Rising was a failure in the short term, and large numbers of Irish Volunteers were arrested, even some who did not participate in the Rising. MacNeill wrote:After the article was published, Hobson asked The O’Rahilly to see MacNeill, to suggest to him that a conference should be called in order to make arrangements for publicly starting the new movement. They began by drilling a small number of IRB associated with the Dublin Gaelic Athletic Association, led by Harry Boland.Michael Collins along with several other IRB members claim that the formation of the Irish Volunteers was not merely a “knee-jerk reaction” to the Ulster Volunteers, which is often supposed, but was in fact the “old Irish Republican Brotherhood in fuller force.The IRB knew they would need a highly regarded figure as a public front that would conceal the reality of their control. Page 1 of 3 - About 27 Essays The Benefits Of Volunteering.