PILGRIMAGE TO BODENSTOWN, 1914
"Oh! sweet 'tis to think that such faith can remain
To the Cause and the Man so long vanquished and slain."
-Davis.
On June, the 26th, 1914, a pilgrimage was made to Bodenstown under the auspices of the Wolfe Tone Memorial Committee, and the Citizen Army Council decided to participate. Vigorous preparations were accordingly made for a full muster of members, for we all knew that Jim Larkin had expressed his determination to visit the grave of Theobold Wolfe Tone. The Secretary visited the Wolfe Tone Committee to procure tickets; and though some of the Wolfe Tone Executive doubted the wisdom of encouraging the Citizen Army to participate, because of the differences between them and the Volunteers, who were to attend in full strength, the Chairman, Mr. T. Clarke, warmly welcomed the suggestion, and personally undertook to be responsible to the Wolfe Tone Executive for the good and earnest intentions of the Irish Citizen Army.
On the Saturday previous to the day on which the pilgrimage was to be held, the President of No.1 Branch of the Transport Union came to the room where the members of the army were assembled, and appealed to them to abandon the enterprise, as it was essential that every available man should be present at the general meeting which was to be held the following day in Croydon Park to consider the resignation of Jim Larkin from the position of General Secretary to the Transport Union.
A messenger was hastily despatched to discover if Jim was determined to carry out his intention of accompanying the pilgrimage to Bodenstown, and upon an answer in the affirmative being brought back by the messenger, upwards of two hundred men declared that they would accompany their chief. The first and second companies, headed by the Fintan Lalor Pipers' band, marched from Liberty Hall to Kingsbridge, and were met there by Jim and his eldest son, Seumas. The members were at first somewhat diffident as to the reception that would be extended to them, but their doubts in this respect were shortly set at rest by the kind and cordial welcome given to them by Tom Clarke, who appointed a special orderly to look after the Citizen Army, secure particular carriages for the members, and provide a special apartment for Jim and the members of the Army Council. The march to Bodenstown was a memorable one; large crowds lined the narrow streets of Sallins, and Jim Larkin, "the great Labour leader," was the observed of all. The march past, in a field contiguous to BodenStown graveyard, was an impressive spectacle, and certainly, without expressing any undue partiality, the members of the Irish Citizen Army, in appearance and in technical movements, left little to be desired.
At a subsequent meeting, held around the grave, it was gratifying to see that the committee in charge made every possible effort to give equal honour to all. The Finnna formed an inner ring around the grave, and the outer ring was formed by alternate members of the Volunteers and units of the Irish Citizen Army.
On the return journey a desperate attempt was made in Sallins by a great crowd of villagers who had assembled together to induce Jim to deliver a speech, but this he refused to do, because, as he said, he was the guest of the Wolfe Tone Memorial Committee, and all arrangements were in their hands, and he could not possibly allow himself to interfere with the arrangements that had probably been made before the date fixed for the Pilgrimage.
It was a journey never to be forgotten, for it heralded the possibility of a closer unity and a fuller understanding between the Irish Citizen Army and the National Volunteers. It was the first time they had stood side by side, the first time they had received and taken orders from a common commander, and this drawing together was possibly a symbol of a union that would be finally cemented together with the blood of both organisations.
From the issue of the Irish Worker succeeding the Pilgrimage, the following extract from an article that appeared in that journal is taken:-
"At the meeting, held in a field contiguous to the graveyard of Bodenstown, we were advised to regard the points of agreement between different sections of Irishmen rather than the points of difference between them.
" We venture to suggest that the Republicans should act upon their own counsel and take into consideration the points of agreement between themselves and the workers' organisations. If they took time to consider this over, they would discover that all workers are, through the force of necessity, potential rebels. Wolfe Tone held no foolish hopes of the union of all classes. He hated the aristocracy and thoroughly despised the propertied class and the merchants. He saw that these served only their own interests, and looked with affection, not upon Ireland, but on the stake they had in the country and the business they carried on in Ireland. He passed by the members of the Ascendancy Church, and linked up the oppressed Catholics with the equally oppressed Presbyterians. This union created the Society of United Irishmen.
“To-day the only possible union that Republicans can hope for is a union between themselves and the Workers, whose principles are practically identical with their own."
It seemed that the fraternal association of Citizen Army soldiers and Volunteers around the grave at Bodenstown had started in the breasts of both organisations a desire for closer communion in thought, principle and action.
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CHAPTER VI