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1915 Augustine Birrell the appointed British Chief Secretary in Ireland, repressed all types of Irish activity with the British Military Forces and their R.I.C. police, by carrying out arrests, coercion or imprisonment on the general Irish population.

March 10th: The Irish Volunteers High Command, were now re - organized and Patrick Pearse, Michael O Rahilly, Joseph Plunkett and Bulwer Hobson were appointed to be their Commandants at their headquarters, and Edward Daly, Thomas Mac Donagh, Eammon Ceannt / Kent and Eamonn de Valera were also appointed commandants of their 4 individual Dublin Brigade Battalions. March 11th: Patrick Pearse asked Eamonn de Valera to attend a meeting with the other 3 Irish Volunteer Dublin Brigade commandants. March 13th: Patrick Pearse then held a meeting with the 4 Irish Volunteer Dublin Brigade commandants, to discuss the possibility of conducting an Irish Uprising in September, using "Howth" as their code word for their signal that they would be ready to go. Thomas Mac Donagh, now became the overall Dublin Brigade Commander of the 4 Irish Volunteer Divisions, and Eammon de Valera became their Adjutant, while continuing to command their 3rd Battalion, and was informed that if he really wanted to know what was going on, he would have to become a member of the I.R.B. / Irish Republican Brotherhood, who were really running the whole show now, so he also joined the I.R.B.

May: Edward Carson, the leader of the Unionists in the Ulster Province, now joined the British Coalition Cabinet in England under Herbert Asquith the British Prime Minister, while John Redmond the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party declined, and Andrew Bonar - Law the Conservative leader in England was to be the British Colonial Secretary until 1916.

In the meantime, Tom Clarke the Old Republican, set up the I.R.B Military Council with the younger John Mac Dermot / Sean Mac Diarmada, and Patrick Pearse the barrister and a poet, who had an English father and an Irish mother, would become the overall leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood / I.R.B. in Ireland.

May: John Mac Dermot / Sean Mac Diarmada advised P. S. O Hegarty / Ua hEigceartaigh that the Irish Republican Brotherhood / I.R.B. were planning an Irish Uprising in Dublin, and that they knew that they would have to sacrifice their lives for their principles, to try and gain Irish Independence and freedom from the continuing British Imperialism. - James Connolly, the Socialist Labour leader, was now the editor of the Worker's Republic newspaper. - The Gaelic League, which now had 600 branches throughout Ireland, held their Ard Fheis / Convention at Dundalk in Co. Louth in the north - east of Northern Leinster, where a motion was passed under the pressure of the I.R.B. members involved in it, which stated that, "The previous Gaelic League rule, that it be non - political, be abolished, and a clause inserted stating that a Free Ireland be included in the aims of the League." Douglas Hyde, who would become the 1st President of Ireland, resigned the next day as the Chairman of the Gaelic League, due to it now being a political association, and Eoin Mac Neill was elected as the new Chairman in his place, and the Gaelic League was by now well and truly under the control of the Irish Nationalists, as a movement for a Free and Independent Gaelic Ireland. - Michael Collins' brother, Patrick, seeing which way the wind was now blowing and realising his ongoing commitment to the cause of Irish Independence, decided to try to have him emigrate to America, to get him out of the way of it all.

July: John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, who was still not really grasping the reality of it all, scoffed at the suggestion that any Insurrection would occur in Ireland at this time. - Thomas Ceannt / Kent was also a member of the Supreme Council of the I.R.B. / Irish Republic Brotherhood and Sean Mac Diarmada / John Mac Dermot, who had been imprisoned by the British Imperial Government was also co - opted to the I.R.B. Military Council, while Thomas Mac Donagh the poet and overall Irish Volunteer Commander joined in with them also. The young, Sean Thomas Lemass from Dublin, who would become the future Prime Minister of Ireland in 1957, and Tomas Derrig from Co. Mayo in the mid - west of Connacht Province, who had been educated by the Christian Bros, also now joined up with the Irish Volunteers. - Dennis Mac Cullough, Liam Mellowes and Ernest Blythe, were told by the British Government Dublin Castle authorities to leave Ireland altogether and when they refused they were arrested and jailed, which now also upset many people, while Austin Stack, who was to be a Commandant in the Irish 1916 Easter Rising to come, was also arrested and put in jail. Sean O Hegarty from Co. Cork in Southern Munster and Alec Mac Cabe from Co. Sligo in the north - east of the Connacht Province, were also arrested and tried by a jury, but were acquitted, so no more political jury trials were held again by the British Imperial Government, who were then to use paid Magistrates and British Court Martials in the future to sentence the Irish. - Helena Molony, who was the Secretary of the Irish Women's Workers Union, would be a very strong advocate also for Irish independence.

August 15th: One of the original Fenians, Jeremiah O Donavon of Rossa, died in America, and Patrick Pearse and the Fenians there in America, from the Clann na Gael / The Organization decided to send his body back to Ireland to revive the Fenian tradition and spirit, and when his casket arrived back into Ireland they held a after a grand parade along the way to Glasnevin Cemetery where he was to be interred near Dublin and where Patrick Pearse who was now the leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood / I.R.B. was to read his eulogy, in which he expressed the opinion, "That Ireland would never know Peace, until she was Free and Independent, and that all of the Fenian graves would always remind the Irish people of this fact." Due to the ongoing British Imperial oppression in Ireland, there were by now 15 separate active Irish revolutionary groups operating in Ireland at this time, who were all endeavouring to bring about their individual hopes for Irish Independence and Freedom, but they were all still divided.

Michael Collins, who was now 24 year old, and who was to be a future outstanding Irish leader, was still at this time in England, were he also joined the Irish Volunteers, and was among those impatient for something to occur to change the overall situation for the general Irish population in Ireland, as he had no intention of fighting the British Government's War against Germany, and was even looking at the other alternative of going off to America, in desperation. - Standish Hayes O Grady (1832 - 1915) the writer, died this year.

+On to 1916 . 1 - January to March.

Situated on the western bank of the Hunter River, midway between Muswellbrook and Denman the doorway to the Heart of Australia's "Horse Capital" in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales., Australia.

John & Sue Markham

RAINBOW FARMS 603 Roxburgh Road., Muswellbrook., 2333.

02 65 479 100 - Fax: 02 65 479 102 E - Mail: www.rainbowfarms@bigpond.com