Years after 1916, a worried W.B. Yeats asked himself – “Did that play of mine send out, certain men the English shot? The play, THE COUNTESS CATHLEEN, was staged in 1899. The poor poet was innocent. It was “THE TIMES” of London wot done it, though it’s taken it 100 years to ‘fess up to it.
“THE TIMES” April 19 2016 reprints an opinion piece “SINN FEIN’S ‘NATIONAL PASTIMES’ ” from April 19 1916, which was a clear incitement to violence.
I quote – “Last night the House of Commons, which has very properly exempted ‘entertainments of a wholly educational character’ from the new tax on amusements, agreed to give the benefit of this exemption to any institution or society, not conducted for profit, ‘which has been founded with the object of reviving national pastimes.’ ……..On Friday, according to the official organ of the Irish Nationalists, a deputation from the Gaelic Athletic Association had an interview with Mr McKenna at the Treasury, ‘in the hope of securing a modification of the amusement tax so far as it affects outdoor sports’. We are not told whether Mr McKenna encouraged this hope, but it is a fair assumption that he did, and that the latest amendment to the act is a direct outcome of the deputation.
A few facts about the Gaelic Athletic Association may therefore be timely. It is a party largely supported by Sinn Fein, the notoriously disloyal section of Irish Nationalists; it organizes football and other matches, at one of which last year the attendance was nearly 100,000, and it refuses to allow soldiers, sailors or policemen to compete at its meetings.At the present time its chief supporters are the only able-bodied young men in the three kingdoms to whom the Service Act does not apply.
The Solicitor-General informed the House of Commons yesterday that ‘Morris dances and some other special cases were brought to the notice of the Government, and it was thought that there would be no objection to exemption being granted in such instances.’
‘Morris Dances’ are admirable institutions, though quite negligible from the Treasury point of view. Unfortunately it did not occur to any member to ask for particulars of the other ‘special cases’ and the House of Commons has therefore been bluffed by the Government, by what we can only describe as sharp practice, into an unconscious endorsement of disloyalty. There should be only one ‘national pastime’ just now, and if the Sinn Feiners want to have their hurling free of tax, they can go into the trenches and hurl bombs.”
That piece from THE TIMES was published a mere five days before the Rising. It may well have goaded some “Sinn Feiners” to hurl bombs without the inconvenience of “going into the trenches.”
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