Pearse: Scríbinní

Pearse, Patrick, Scribinni, Dublin: Maunsel & Co., 1919

Scribinni is a collection of poems and stories by executed Irish nationalist rebel leader Patrick H. Pearse (1879-1916) which was published posthumously in 1919. Pearse was a barrister, teacher, writer and poet who had became an active Irish nationalist eventually becoming one of the executed leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. He soon became a cult figure for Irish republicans. His writings, speeches and poems became widely popular during the subsequent violent struggle for Irish independence and in subsequent decades.

Pearse, Patrick, Scribinni, Dublin: Maunsel & Co., 1919

Pearse, Patrick, Scribinni, Dublin: Maunsel & Co., 1919

Scribinni is a collection of poems and stories by executed Irish nationalist rebel leader Patrick H. Pearse (1879-1916) which was published posthumously in 1919. Pearse was a barrister, teacher, writer and poet who had became an active Irish nationalist eventually becoming one of the executed leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. He soon became a cult figure for Irish republicans. His writings, speeches and poems became widely popular during the subsequent violent struggle for Irish independence and in subsequent decades.

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Scribinni is a collection of poems and stories by executed Irish nationalist  rebel leader Patrick H. Pearse (1879-1916) which was published posthumously in 1919. Pearse was a barrister, teacher, writer and poet who had became an active Irish nationalist eventually becoming one of the executed leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising.  He soon became a cult figure for Irish republicans. His writings, speeches and poems became widely popular during the subsequent violent struggle for Irish independence and in subsequent decades.

Patrick Pearse was the son of James Pearse, a Unitarian stonemason from Birmingham who moved to Dublin and established a successful business on Great Brunswick Street later renamed Pearse Street. James Pearse married his second wife Margaret Brady. His great aunt also named Margaret and his schooling at Westland Row CBS, gave Pearse a life long love of the Irish language and influenced his Irish nationalist outlook.

As a teenager Pearse joined the Gaelic League and in his early 20s became editor of its newspaper An Claidheamh Soluis. His heroes were Cuchulainn and rebel leaders such as Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmet. Pearse was also a devout Roman Catholic. He studied in the Royal University of Ireland and studied law at the King's Inns, Dublin before becoming a barrister.

In the early 1900s, Pearse set up St. Enda's School in south Dublin where boys were taught in both the English and Irish language while a St. Ita's had similar aims for girls. He believed that schooling in the Irish language would ensure its survival and the Irish language was inseparable from Irish nationhood. However the project led to financial difficulties while many parents who sent their children to the school were disturbed by Pearse's radical nationalist ideas. Several former students fought against British rule in later years.

Pearse's activities came to the notice of radical Irish republicans in Ireland and the U.S. By 1913 Pearse was a leading member of the IRB and the Irish Volunteers. He shared political platforms with the nationalist John Redmond MP leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party and supported the campaign for Irish Home Rule. A Home Rule bill was passed by the House of Commons in 1914 but was shelved following the outbreak of the Great War the same year. The majority of the volunteers joined the British Army and fought in the conflict.

Pearse lost faith in Home Rule and with other IRB leaders plotted a rising against British rule. Pearse gave a famous oration in 1915 at the graveside of veteran Fenian Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa declaring that ' Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.' On Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, a rump of the Irish Volunteers joined forces with radical socialist James Connally's Irish Citizens Army militia and captured the GPO and other buildings in Dublin . Pearse read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic which declared Ireland to be an independent republic. A week of bloody fighting followed before the rebels surrendered to British forces in Dublin .

Pearse and his fellow prisoners were treated with hostility by many Dubliners for the death and destruction of property caused during the Rising. He and fourteen others including his brother Willie were court martialled by General Maxwell and sentenced to death. Pearse was executed at Kilmainham Jail on 3rd May, 1916. Subsequent to the executions, Irish public opinion swung in favour of Irish republicanism and in the election of 1918, Sinn Fein candidates, many of whom had fought with Pearse in 1916, eclipsed the Home Rule orientated Irish Parliamentary Party. The outcome of the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War that followed was the partition of Ireland and not the fully independent Irish republic that Pearse had envisioned.