The Guns of Easter by Gerard Whelan Read Free Book Online Page A

Volunteers seemed stunned. Then someone else shouted: ‘Take the GPO!’
    Wild yells broke from the column. The men raced in a ragged charge for the doors of the Post Office.
    ‘Lord save us!’ said the old woman. Her voice sounded dry and frightened. ‘What do the bowseys think they’re doin’?’
    Nobody answered her. The other onlookers were as shocked as she was herself.

8
GLORIOUS MADNESS
    JIMMY FELT AS THOUGH a storm had broken out inside him on this sunny day. It was a storm of emotions. He knew now that it really was political business that had kept Mick from going to Fairyhouse.
    These men who’d just led the attack on the Post Office were then the real cause of Jimmy’s shame. He should hate them. But what he actually felt was curiosity and a kind of wonder.
    Groups of people were gathering and they chatted excitedly.
    ‘I saw another gang of them going down Grafton Street towards Stephen’s Green,’ Jimmy heard someone say.
    ‘Volunteers or that union crowd?’ someone else asked.
    ‘How do I know?’ said the first man. ‘They all look the same to me.’
    Someone else said there’d been an explosion of some kind in the Phoenix Park, while others told of meeting groups of armed Sinn Féiners at various points around the city. Could the war be coming to Dublin?
    Someone touched Jimmy’s arm, and he looked around to see the excited face of Tommy Doyle. This was themeeting he’d been most dreading, but Tommy didn’t even mention the races. He seemed to have forgotten all about them. He was too interested in Sackville Street now. His face shone with the excitement.
    ‘Did you see them?’ he gasped. ‘Charging the Post Office!’
    ‘Yeh!’ Jimmy said. ‘Wasn’t it grand?’
    Tommy nodded. ‘Like the war,’ he said. A strange, admiring look came into his eyes as he looked at Jimmy. ‘You’re a cute one,’ he said.
    Jimmy was taken aback. ‘Me?’ he asked. ‘Why?’
    Tommy gave him a playful dig in the arm. ‘It’s okay,’ he said. ‘You kept Mick’s secret, but you’ve no need to let on any more. I wish you’d’a told me – but I suppose it was a military secret.’
    Mick’s secret? What was all that about? ‘Did you see Mick?’ Jimmy asked. ‘Was he with the Volunteers?’
    Tommy grinned. ‘I went over to Kevin Street with Billy Moran,’ he said. ‘He’s gone to stay with his sister down there. When I was coming back I saw Mick marching down Grafton Street with the Citizen Army men. I hear they’re after taking the Green – but I’m sure you know all about that already. When did Mick tell you?’
    Jimmy suddenly understood what Tommy was talking about. Tommy thought the whole Fairyhouse story was some kind of scheme to hide Mick’s part in the rebellion – for that’s what it must be, a rebellion. Jimmy didn’t knowwhat to say. Should he tell the truth?
    But Tommy was already leaving. ‘I’m going home to tell me Ma,’ he shouted back to Jimmy. ‘She’ll want to see this. See ya later!’
    A crash of glass made Jimmy look back towards the Post Office. Men were breaking out the windows there with rifle butts. Pieces of glass were falling down into the street. A woman screamed somewhere, and people began to move off the pavement beneath the rain of shards. A stream of complaining customers was being ejected from the building at the same time. Outside, the onlookers murmured in shock. Most of them didn’t yet seem to grasp what was going on.
    A rebellion! Jimmy knew there’d been rebellions against England in the past, but he’d never expected to see one himself. That old man who’d been with the Volunteers today, Mr Clarke: people said he was an old revolutionary, one of the ones who’d taken part in the last uprising – but that must be forty or fifty years ago.
    Jimmy was excited. So Mick was with the Citizen Army, down in the Green. He found himself wishing he could be down there at Mick’s side. He pictured himself with a gun in his hand. The picture