Come Here To Me!

Recently, we’ve featured a series of blog posts looking at the year 1913, which primarily have involved the Lockout and its effect on the city of Dublin. While browsing the archives, I stumbled across a very interesting article from November 1913 which was printed in The Irish Times, dealing with the ‘Dublin Volunteer Corps’, or ‘Dublin Volunteer Force’. This was an armed movement established by Dublin loyalists, following in the footsteps of the Ulster Volunteer Force, and about whom little has been written. The article claimed in its subheading that “over 2,000 men” were enrolled within this band of men, and noted that:

While Ulster is preparing to resist Home Rule by force if necessary, and is busy building up a great citizen army, the spirit of militarism that has gripped that province and fired the enthusiasm of its young manhood is also at work in Dublin.

Dubliner Edward Carson inspects the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in 1914.

The paper noted that “should a Home Rule Parliament be established in Dublin, this volunteer force is intended to be used in the preservation of the civil and religious liberties of Protestants in Dublin and the south.” It was noted that “company after company was formed, and drill instructors were appointed”, and that while membership was at first confined to members of the Orange Institution, due to an excess of applications it was decided to broaden the ranks, with “over 2,000 men already enrolled.”

It was claimed that the force would serve as a reserve of the Ulster Volunteers, and that:

should civil war break out in Ulster as a consequence of Home Rule, the leaders of the Dublin Volunteers have undertaken to hold in readiness a force of at least 2,000 men for service wherever required by the Commander-In-Chief of the Ulster Army.

Union flags can be seen on Grafton Street, in this photograph taken around the time of the last Royal Visit to a British Dublin, 1911.

The training of these men was reported to take place “at various centres in the city three nights of every week”, and that firing exercises and musket training featured. It was also claimed that similar training was happening in various locations outside of the city, in South County Dublin.

From that 1913 report, I wondered what else I could find online. A recent report in the Belfast Newsletter shined further light on this force, noting that:

IN June 1935, a Dublin Board of Works employee was among a group working at part of the Dublin GPO (General Post Office), the men having been assigned to remove presses from the cellar of the GPO Customs Parcels Section, located at 10 Parnell Square.

When several presses were removed however, some mortar appeared insecure, and when touched, collapsed. Upon further investigation the employee realised he had uncovered a large cavity several feet long. Within it, in perfectly dry conditions, lay a massive arms cache. He had discovered over 90 rifles and over 2000 rounds of ammunition.

This weapons were not in fact for Irish nationalists, but rather the new Dublin loyalist organisation. The Belfast Newsletter piece is a fascinating insight into the group, focusing on the role of Fowler Hall for Dublin Loyalists. Located at 10 Parnell Square, this was one of several Orange Halls in the city and a centre of activity for the organisation.

Interestingly, a 1964 article in The Irish Times claimed that these weapons were actually found during renovations in 1927, and claimed that at least one rifle was stamped “For God and Ulster.”

The arms from Fowlers Hall discussed in The Irish Times in 1964.

The Orange Order were forced from the Fowler Hall by the IRA at the time of the split of the organisation into Pro and Anti-Treaty wings, and in his Witness Statement to the Bureau of Military History republican Patrick J. Kelly noted that “During the period when Belfast refugees were pouring into Dublin the Dublin Brigade H/Q quartered the homeless in the Fowler Hall, Parnell Square, and supplied them with food.”

It’s certainly interesting to think about this band of Dublin loyalists, willing to take up arms against their fellow Irishmen. What else is known about this organisation?