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THIS WEEK, our Voices section is dedicated to the men, women and children whose first-hand experiences contributed to the rich patchwork of testimony that chronicles the events of 1916.
Elizabeth Colbert’s brother Con – known as Cornelius to his family – was executed in Kilmainham Gaol for his part in the Easter Rising, aged just 27.
At the time of the rebellion, he was working as a clerk in Kennedy’s Bakery on Parnell Street (then called Britain Street). He had been born in Monalena, Castlemahon, Co Limerick, one of 13 children, but had come to live and finish his schooling with his elder sister Katherine in Ranelagh, Dublin after the death of their mother at the age of 37.
It was in Dublin that he became fluent in Irish and “enthusiastic about everything Irish; he always bought clothes of Irish manufacture”.
Even so, Elizabeth, called Lila by her family, knew little of his connection with the Fianna:
He was constantly telling us that there would surely be a fight but I don’t think I ever took him seriously. He came to say goodbye to me before the Rising. I can’t say what day. He was very solemn about it but I don’t think I was.
However, Con did bring Lila into his confidence about the other matter close to his heart, giving us a poignant insight into a future cut short by his execution. This testimony is recorded in full here from Elizabeth/Lila at the Bureau of Military History.
I went to a céilidhe with Con shortly before the Rising. There were a lot of prominent people in the movement at it and many of them have since become well known.
In the course of the evening he said to me “I’ll show you the nicest girl in Dublin”. He introduced me to Lucy Smith. I think he was in love with her and would probably have married her if he had lived.
She was a nice, gentle, refined girl, a member of Cumann na mBan and a great worker in the movement. She afterwards married Tom Byrne of Boer War fame who was also keen on her at the same time. He was Con’s rival.
After Con’s execution I got to know Lucy well and she visited us in my brother’s place at Ballysten near Shanagolden. On one occasion when I visited her own she showed me the letters that Con had written to her. It was from reading them that I came to the conclusion that he was in love with her.
I heard afterwards from Fr O’Mahony, a member of the CSSp order who was at that time at St Mary’s College in Rathmines, that Con handed him a bulky packet addressed to Lucy when he visited Marrowbone Lane during Easter Week. It was to be delivered to her. Lucy never got it and afterwards, hearing about it from someone who was present when the packet was handed over, she went to see Fr O’Mahony about it. I was with her.
He told us that when he was taking the packet from Con, one of the girls present, probably a member of Cumann na mBan – he said her name was McNamara – took it from him and said she would deliver it as she was going there. I imagine she meant the GPO where Lucy was, I think, during Easter Week.
We went around to various places and people seeking information about the packet, but it was never located. We spent days and days at this and we were both very disappointed at its loss.
Elizabeth paints an intimate portrait of her brother’s character in her testimony. Remembering him, she notes:
Con was always full of life and fun. He was constantly making jokes, though he took his work for the Fianna and the Volunteers very seriously and spent all his spare time at it.
He cycled all over Ireland organising Companies. I remember he inspected the Company at home in Athea and there is no fear that he showed them any more favour than he did to any of the others.
He was very serious where work for Ireland was concerned and that is why I never thought he was taking an interest in girls. So I was surprised when I found out that he had been writing love letters to Lucy Smith and thinking very seriously about her.
Con’s earnestness was applied to every thing he did. When he was at school he felt he had to do his very best at his lessons. And when he worked at Kennedy’s he thought he should improve his position in the best way possible, so he devoted himself to the study of accountancy.
He did not waste a moment and no matter how late he went to bed, he would make sure to get up in time by tying the alarm clock to the head of his bed. He had to be at work at Kennedy’s at 8 o’clock. He never wasted a moment.
His favourite phrase was “for my God and my country”. He had unbounded energy and was very healthy.
While Con refused visits from his family while in jail awaiting execution in May 1916 – he feared it would upset them too much – he wrote prodigiously to them. To Lila he wrote:
Con’s movements during Easter Week are more detailed in an eyewitness account by Annie O’Brien (née Cooney), who was 19 at the time of the Rising. She and her sister Lily had been members of Cumann na mBan and good friends to Con.
It was from their city centre house that Con would leave for the Rising on Easter Monday. She seemed to think that Con was too interested in “his work for Ireland” to be interested in girls. And her statement would indicate that Con was more than capable of balancing the two:
I remember particularly one might a couple of weeks before that he [Con] came after one of his meetings. He had asked me to make some signalling flags. He took two photographs out of his pocket and asked me: “Would you care to have one of these?”
One of the photos was of himself alone and the other of himself and Liam Clarke. I said I would be delighted and he actually gave me both and I have brought in one of them to show you. I was charmed because, to tell the truth, I thought an awful lot of him and, of course, he must have known it.
He was not, however, at all interested in girls; he was entirely engrossed in his work for Ireland and devoted all his time to it. He had taken me to a few ceilis and concerts and always brought me home. There would be others in the party.
He said, rather significantly: “Would you mind very much if anything happened to me in this fight that is coming on?”
I said, “I would indeed, why do you ask?”
He answered: “I might just be the one to be killed.”
Sadly, Con’s prophecy would come true, but Annie also recalls the enthusiasm with which he embraced the fight of Easter Week, notwithstanding the danger to himself.
Lily, when she came back, and myself were feverishly busy filling Christy Byrne’s and Con Colbert’s haversacks and our own with any food we could find.
They were both now in uniform. We helped them to buckle on the haversacks and Sam Brown belts and they were all excited to get out. During the time I was buckling him up Con – who had not a note in his head – was singing “For Tone is coming back again,” he was so excited and charmed that at last the fight was coming off. He thought of nothing else.
Con Colbert fought at Watkin’s Brewery and Jameson’s Distillery in Marrowbone Lane during the Rising. Following the surrender, Annie and Lily were also imprisoned in Kilmainham and saw Con receive Communion along with Eamon Ceannt, Michael Mallin and Sean Heuston, all four marked out for execution.
They were the only ones to receive Holy Communion, which we thought significant. That affected us all and I began to cry. When the Volunteer prisoners were leaving the church, those four were the last to leave and they looked up at us.
We waved down to Con Colbert, who waved his hand in reply shaking his head up and down as if in farewell. They evidently knew what their fate would be. They were all four executed next morning.
A portrait of Con Colbert is to be unveiled on 8 May, the centenary of his execution at Colbert train station in Limerick city.
The chaplain’s story: ‘Crying, terrified children came to us for shelter’>
The nurse’s story: ‘John Healy, 14, a schoolboy, had his brain hanging all over his forehead’>
The printer’s story: ‘I knew it meant war but I was honoured to print the Proclamation’>
The doctor’s story: ‘As I arrived I saw the dead body of a big policeman on the ground’>
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Mario, the former managing director of Goldman Sachs, appointed in 2002. This man is not credible.
The recession ( robbery) will not stop until the social contracts of Europe are broken up and countries assets are given to the likes of the Bilderberg group…This was always the plan from the get go.
Prince Draghi faces huge opposition from the Germans. He plans to monetise the debt as they are doing in Japan and the US. Kick the can down the road. We should be having a plan B…
He’s looking a bit green about the gills, European economy isn’t the only thing that’s sick. A bagman, still on GS payroll.
This comes highly recommended …
The Euro is a failure, when it was announced it was going to replace the $ as a world reserve currency lol! , there is more trade done in the Chinese Yuan now. this is what happens when you leave economics to politicians and lawyers. The Euro will continue to cause havoc in countries like Greece and Spain for years to come because their national debts have been revalued in Euros over the years.
Miserable looking git that Mario Draghi.
” If you believe the public comments made by the world’s central bankers, the prices that consumers pay for items are not rising fast enough; in some places like Europe they worry that prices might actually fall (a tragedy for the possessing classes, as their manic one-way long bets might not work then). Central bankers are terrified of this outcome. Setting aside for a second the apparent insanity of this logic for your average consumer, who experiences price rises on a near continuous basis, let’s examine in detail one of the (jokes) gauges economists use for measuring prices: the Consumer Price Index (CPI).”
Why do people think it’s ok to comment negatively on the appearance of male politicians? If someone called Mary Lou McDonald a miserable looking git there would be an outcry on the journal.
Where was the give away budget, did I miss something, Mr Noonan gleefully tells us tax take way ahead if target, were still have austerity
It’s time that all Europeans realised three things:
1) The Euro is broken.
2) The Euro is here to stay.
3) These positions actually aren’t contradictory at all, so stop saying that they are.
1 is self evident. 2 is only debatable if you think that an unstable currency pegged to the sterling is desirable. For some reason, nobody accepts 3. A direct implication of 3 is 4, that the Euro has to be fixed. That means treaty change.
In order to make monetary union work, some kind of fiscal union will have to be worked out. Among other things, Ireland will be forced to stop being a tax haven masquerading as a high-tech economy, and raise its corporation tax. More democracy will have to be breathed into the system, through direct elections to top European positions, and a stronger role for the Parliament.
The only reason that we’re not having this discussion is the fact that Germany is stalling. Yet even the staunch inflationphobe, Wolfgang Schäuble, knows that this cannot go on forever. It would be nice if Irish politicians would actually have a debate about the future of Europe, and our place within the Union before the government formulates its negotiating position – which predictably will consist of trying to get as much money as possible for farmers etc.
If it’s broken then throw it out !
a fiscal union promoting more national democracy?? sounds like an oxymoron to me. the euro has failed miserably. ireland and germany are the only countries in the eurozone that export more outside it than inside it. a devalued currency helps in that respect. the current woes of the euro and the mass emigration we have seen as well as speaking english as our first language has helped our situation. ireland is certainly not representative of the eu as a whole.
there are a lot of Mediterranean countries as well as others that need to devalue their currency further, for them the euro has been an economic straitjacket. what is the europhiles solution? more centralised power and control. it wont happen.
the euro is a beast that needs to die.
The US is able to get by, because bailouts in the US don’t have the same drastic connotations that they have here. Look at California. The US is able to do this because the federal government has a budget and an unquestioned mandate to use it. It also works like that in Canada, and in most functioning currency areas.
That’s the kind of fiscal union that Europe needs. We need to hand over more power to Brussels, to allow it to transfer money through federal programs to help states cope with and adjust to a strong currency. However this power shouldn’t be wielded by unelected technocrats. The EP should have the power to initiate legislation, the Commission President should be directly elected by the people, and states shouldn’t be allowed to use the Commission as a retirement scheme for unpopular ministers, a la Phil Hogan.
Even if bringing back the punt wouldn’t have the disastrous effect that many predict it would have (inflation, high interest rates etc), it wouldn’t give us much additional manoeuver. For over half a century the punt was unquestioningly tied to the Sterling, and after that it was effectively tied to the Deutschmark through the EMS. Having your own currency does not mean that you can do whatever you like. In small economies like Ireland, the choices are almost always dictated by outsiders.
Using fiscal policy reform to correct monetary policy dysfunction is like servicing your car with a pound of sausages.
You cannot equate the US economy (a nation that evolved under a shared gold-backed currency) with Europe’s diverse economies (nations that evolved under a variety of currency systems).
” The manifest unsuitability of a one-interest-rate-fits-all economic policy inside the eurozone is shown by our recent interest rate reductions to get in line for EMU. These further boost soaring house and asset prices here. They are precisely the opposite of what the Irish public welfare needs, although low interest rates suit recession-locked Germany and France.” (1999)
http://www.aislingmagazine.com/aislingmagazine/articles/TAM25/WhyProtest.html
We need to hand over more power to Brussels – your words
you should have put that in the first line of your response. it would have saved me some time. the US is a ticking time bomb. when was the last time they had a balanced budget. were it not for deficit spending and an ever increasing national debt 17.5 thousand billion and growing. they would be a banana republic. look at their labour participation charts and youth unemployment. if things are so good why is the figures so bleak.
It is over 40 years since the US achieved a trade surplus. Since then the US has been consuming more than it produces. While living on the never-never and exporting its currency and treasury bills.
The US economy is unique in this respect. No other nation has the military fire power to invade any wayward OPEC/Arab nations that opts out of their currencies hegemony.
@johnfergus. The US has the largest economy in the world, accounting for over 22% of global GDP. It’s the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas. AAA+ credit ratings. Most trusted currency in the world. Most of its national debt is owed to Americans not foreigners.
The US has not experience a trade surplus in over 40 years. Its economic strength and affluence is illusory and transitory, while the strength of its economy relies on its ability to intimidate key nations such as Saudi Arabia.
While the US has benefited from 4 decades of money printing an unholy alliance are conspiring against the Dollar hegemony. This includes Russia, China and the EU would also appear to be in league with the unholy.
http://www.innovationfiles.org/think-the-trade-deficit-couldnt-get-any-worse-think-again/
The only reason the US hasn’t imploded is because they have a gun to the head of everyone else…times are a changing thou, BRICS are challenging the petrodollar and the dam is about burst.
Join the queue of pundits that have for decades predicted the demise of the U.S. Economy and its influence. As Sean’s linked article stated The U.S. Is not about to lose it Reserve status anytime soon and neither will the dollar, check out today’s values for BRIC currencies. Most of the U.S. national debt is owed to Americans. China accounts for less than 8% of that.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/25/1301968/-Guess-Who-s-America-s-Largest-Creditor-Hint-It-s-NOT-China
Seán, for a start, I don’t think you appreciate how diverse the US economy is.
Second, your argument is that we shouldn’t have joined the Euro in the first place. Few would argue that point with you. However, we we have never been in control of our own monetary policy. That point should be underlined and printed in bold.
Third, using fiscal policy to correct monetary policy is normal – pretty much every government welfare program contains aspects of this.
Fourth, why shouldn’t a large economy like the US need a trade surpluss? I thought that the whole problem of the Eurozone is that every economy is fighting to maintain their surplusses? Begger thy neighbour much?
In America if the powers that be decide to introduce a minimum wage then it is introduced across the 50 States – In Europe this is not the case and is perfect for slave labour conditions in the richer economies ………
Look at the Iirsh children’s allowance flowing through our sovereign to eastern Europe – the children’s allowance is probably worth the price of two or three mortgages in the poorer countries ….
They were cursed the day they hung Ireland out to dry , as the saying goes The crows come home to roost .. No Irish to bail them out this time , lets hope they all go down together .
If the rest of Europe is tanking it kinda brings into question the give-away budget our crowd just brought in. We could be back in the shi!te next year.
@ John lucky that we do the least amount of trade with our fellow eurozone members
All it takes a a slight wobble in the European economy and that’s us seriously goosed again,no matter how much spin Kenny spews.
No matter how you dress it up communism does not work and the EUSSR is doomed to fail just as the USSR did. Anything after signing up to the old Common Market idea was a step too far.
Well said Mort.
The system is broken and the banks have been exposed for what they are.
Are we going to rely on credit expansion as a cure to debt saturation?
To preserve our current monetary system debt must increase.
Are you willing to take on more debt and sacrifice your collateral to save the Euro?
“The wavelike movement affecting the economic system, the recurrence of periods of boom which are followed by periods of depression, is the unavoidable outcome of the attempts, repeated again and again, to lower the gross market rate of interest by means of credit expansion.
There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, p. 572
I bet Dessie Ellis would show him the way to the Elves workshop !
have your say