The Glasgow Irish

A significant contingent of Scots were involved in this fight to the death

by Mary Edward

IN 2016 Ireland celebrated the centenary of the Easter Rising. The Rising was an armed insurrection which aimed to overthrow British rule and establish an independent Irish Republic. Organised by a seven man Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the action began on Easter Monday 24th April 1916, only to last six days before being defeated by the British Army bringing in thousands of reinforcements and heavy artillery. On 29th April the leader of the Irish Volunteers agreed to an unconditional surrender.

While all this is a well-known aspect of Irish history, what appears to have been less well-known until recently, was the contribution of a significant contingent of Scots who were involved in this fight to the death, as it turned out to be, since James Connolly was executed by firing squad with the rest of the 15 men recognised as the leaders. James Connolly, born in Edinburgh to Irish immigrant parents, the Commandant General of the Irish forces during that Easter week, and a signatory to the proclamation of the Irish Republic, was perhaps the most notable figure from the Irish diaspora in Scotland. He was not alone: Margaret Skinnider, a schoolteacher and suffragette from Coatbridge served the uprising as scout, despatch rider, sniper and raider and was the only female combatant injured in action. Those were just two of an estimated 30 - 50 Irish Scots active in the events of that fateful week in Dublin, together with an even larger number offering assistance, legal and otherwise, from this side of the Irish Sea in Glasgow.