200,000 people cheer on Redmond’s Volunteers in Dublin
Dublin, 4 April 1915 - A hugely successful and well attended review and parade organised by the National Volunteers took place in Dublin yesterday. Each of the four provinces was well represented.
All morning, Volunteers had arrived in Dublin from all over Ireland. The 27,000 men mustered at the Fifteen Acres in the Phoenix Park where they were inspected in their columns by Mr John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, just before two o'clock. They then divided into four provincial divisions for the parade.
Rows of National Volunteers marching past at the Fifteen Acres in the Phoenix Park. (Image: Irish Life, 9 April 1915. Full collection of Irish Life available from the National Library of Ireland)
The lines of men from Ulster and Leinster walked out Islandbridge Gate and along Conyngham Road before crossing to the South Quays. Leading the Leinster Division was an Irish wolfhound, lent by a chemist from the North Strand. The Munster and Connacht men left by Parkgate Street and walked along the North Quays. Martial music and national airs were played by the bands who accompanied the Volunteers as they marched.
Crowds lined the streets
The street was full with spectators two hours before the parade began - it is estimated that some 200,000 people witnessed the Volunteers march through the city. So great were the crowds that lined the route that it was only with great difficulty that the Volunteers were able to pass through.
The procession made its way to the Parnell Monument beside the Rotunda Hospital where a platform had been erected. Joining Mr Redmond on the platform were his parliamentary colleagues Messrs Dillon and Devlin, along with mayors of cities, chairmen of county, urban and rural councils and members of the Executive Committee of the Volunteers.
Mr Redmond on the platform at the Parnell statue near the Rotunda in Dublin (Image: Irish Life, 9 April 1915. Full collection of Irish Life available from the National Library of Ireland)
Mr Redmond made no speech to the assembled crowd, preferring that the spectacle should be kept a purely military affair. He did, however, consent to an interview with members of the press, during the course of which he reiterated his earlier offer to the British government to avail of the Volunteers for the protection of the island of Ireland.
'I am informed that 20,000 regular troops are today engaged in the work of home defence, which most undoubtedly could be quite efficiently carried out by the magnificent body of Volunteers who visited Dublin today.'
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
