Uncommon Valour Read Online Free Page A

continued.
    In the corrugated hut at the Rialto gate the situation was becoming desperate. The British covering fire from the Rialto buildings and the houses opposite the gate was intense and the din was ear-shattering and unnerving. Captain Irvine realised his section was isolated and the position untenable, and in a last desperate attempt to get orders, he decided to send Paddy Morrissey to Volunteer headquarters at the Nurses’ Home. As Morrissey left the hut, their post came under heavy fire. Within minutes he crawled back through the door, blood pouring from a wound in his leg. The Volunteers attempted to return fire, but were under attack from all sides. The superior firepower of the British army had enabled them to move closer. The metal corrugated hut became a hothouse of explosions, smoke, vibrations and the bitter smell of burning gunpowder. The Volunteers now realised they were surrounded. James Burke and Willie Corrigan fired desperately as the khaki-clad enemy moved into range. Corrigan received a wound to the eye as bullets shattered the glass windows of the hut. Both men were covered in blood, but continued to fight on furiously. Soon, with their weapons overheating, the Volunteers had to take turns stopping fire to allow their rifles to cool. 10
    The door of the hut was well barricaded. Members of the Royal Irish Regiment prepared to make an assault on the door using a large, iron lawnmower as a makeshift battering ram. Three British soldiers charged the door with the makeshift device and as it crashed open, soldiers poured in through the breach shouting: ‘Put up your hands and surrender.’ Hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, the Volunteers reluctantly surrendered and were led out of the Union at gunpoint. Captain George Irvine, Jimmy Morrissey, Willie Corrigan, Seán Dowling and James Burke were taken to Kilmainham police station. Paddy Morrissey, whose leg had been shattered, was escorted to hospital.
    With the fall of the Rialto gate, the British crown forces had secured an access point into the Union grounds. However, they still had to cross open terrain in order to attack Ceannt’s other positions within the complex. Commandant Ceannt and his men would ensure that every inch of the South Dublin Union would be contested, a tactic that resulted in no quarter being given by either side.

Chapter 3
    Easter Monday, 24 April 1916
Afternoon
    A squad of British troops was moving up along the southern wall of the Union, parallel to the canal. They planned to gain access to the Union grounds via the rear entrance (7) and sweep northwards towards the front entrance, clearing buildings of insurgents as they advanced. However, as they attempted to force open the southern gate, they came under a barrage of fire from the Volunteers in the Marrowbone Lane Distillery.
    From his position on the top floor of the distillery, Volunteer Robert Holland was able to dominate the surrounding area for miles. He fired rapidly into the ranks of the soldiers who had taken up position at the Union’s southern gate. The large number of soldiers had made an easy target for Holland. Armed with a Howth Mauser rifle and a Lee Enfield rifle, he fired continuously into the ranks of the British soldiers. Josie O’Keeffe, a member of Cumann na mBan, the women’s organisation which worked closely with the Irish Volunteers, loaded the weapons and handed them to Holland, who used them with deadly accuracy. 11
    Caught in the open, the troops took cover along the bank of the canal and returned fire. Heavy casualties were inflicted on the attacking force and their dead and wounded littered the canal bank. A number of soldiers, pinned down by the accurate fire, attempted to scale the nine-foot wall that surrounded the Union. One soldier who managed to climb the wall, took up position behind a telegraph pole. As he raised his rifle to fire he was hit. His body fell from the wall and bounced off the canal bank before