Curragh Incident
Encyclopedia
The Curragh Incident of 20 March 1914, also known as the Curragh Mutiny, occurred in the Curragh
, County Kildare
, Ireland
. The Curragh Camp
was then the main base for the British Army
in Ireland, which at the time formed part of the United Kingdom
.
had introduced the Third Home Rule Bill for Ireland
, which proposed the creation of an autonomous Irish Parliament in Dublin. Unionists had objected to inclusion to potential rule by the proposed Dublin Parliament and had founded the Ulster Volunteers paramilitary group in 1912 to fight if necessary against the British government and/or against a future Irish Home Rule government proposed by the Bill. During 1913 a number of senior officers such as Lord French and Henry Hughes Wilson had expressed their concerns to the government that the British Army
would find it difficult to act against the Ulster Volunteers, given that they shared the same basic aim of preserving and defending the British Empire
and believed Home Rule would threaten it.
to be able to deal with any violence that might break out there. The plan was to occupy government buildings and to repel any assaults by the Ulster Volunteers, putting the latter on the wrong foot, and to guard the armouries at Omagh
, Enniskillen
, Armagh
, Dundalk
and Carrickfergus
to prevent thefts of weapons. Paget misinterpreted his orders for precautionary deployments as an immediate order to march against the Ulstermen.
Prior to the deployment, the Secretary of State for War
Col. John Seely
had told Paget that, regarding all army officers serving in Ireland -
Seely also promised Paget reinforcements "... to the last man .." to uphold the law in Ireland. In the event of a railway strike, or other obstacle, Winston Churchill
offered transport of forces by the Royal Navy
.
, Cuthbert
, Gough
, Fergusson, and three staff officers, at his Parkgate Street H.Q. in Dublin, passing on Seely's "ultimatum". The deployment orders were headed "'Duty as ordered – Active Operations in Ulster", and Gough later suggested that "active operations" sounded as if it were more than a cautionary protective deployment. Gough then offered the officers under his command at nearby Marlborough Barracks (now McKee Barracks) the choice of resignation rather than fighting against the Ulster Volunteers. Out of the 70 British Army Officers based in the Curragh Camp, 57 accepted Paget's offer to resign their commissions in the British Army, or to accept being dismissed from it, rather than enforce the Home Rule Bill in Ulster
whenever it passed into law. Led by Brigadier-General Hubert Gough
, the officers were not technically guilty of mutiny
, as they had resigned before refusing to carry out a direct order.
Paget then sent a telegram to the War Office
in London:
government backed down, claiming an "honest misunderstanding", and the officers were reinstated. The War Office
in London declared that the Army would not be used to enforce the Home Rule Act, but the men who issued this statement were later forced to resign.
General Sir Charles Fergusson, then commanding the 5th division in Ireland, interviewed officers to ensure their future compliance with government policy. One of his officers said later that: "He [Fergusson] reminded us that although we must naturally hold private political views, officially we should not be on the side of any one political party. It was our duty to obey orders, to go wherever we were sent and to comply with instructions of any political party that happened to be in power. There was no sloppy sentiment, it was good stuff straight from the shoulder and just what we wanted."
The matter was debated in the Commons at length on 23 and 25 March.
About a month later, on 24 April the Ulster Volunteers covertly landed about 24,000 rifles at night in the "Larne gun-running" incident, without any of those involved being discovered or arrested.
The event contributed both to unionist confidence and to the growing Irish separatist movement, convincing nationalists that they could not expect support from the British army in Ireland
. In turn, this naturally increased nationalist support for its paramilitary force, the Irish Volunteers
. While the Home Rule Bill was approved by the House of Commons on 25 May, the growing fear of civil war in Ireland led on to the government considering some form of partition of Ireland
in July 1914 by an amending Bill; further discussions at the Buckingham Palace Conference
could not solve the arguments about partition. The main Bill received the Royal Assent
on 18 September, but was also suspended for the duration of the First World War.
[Note: Many Internet
sources refer to a "Herbert Gough" when they actually mean Hubert Gough
. It is unclear to this writer whether this page is correct or not.]
Curragh
The Curragh is a flat open plain of almost 5,000 acres of common land in County Kildare, Ireland, between Newbridge and Kildare. This area is well-known for Irish horse breeding and training. The Irish National Stud is located on the edge of Kildare town, beside the famous Japanese Gardens. Also...
, County Kildare
County Kildare
County Kildare is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. The Curragh Camp
Curragh Camp
The Curragh Camp is an army base and military college located in The Curragh, County Kildare, Ireland. It is the main training centre for the Irish Army.- Brief history of the Curragh's military heritage :...
was then the main base for the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
in Ireland, which at the time formed part of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
.
Background
In the spring of 1912, the Liberal coalition British government of H. H. AsquithH. H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KG, PC, KC served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916...
had introduced the Third Home Rule Bill for Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, which proposed the creation of an autonomous Irish Parliament in Dublin. Unionists had objected to inclusion to potential rule by the proposed Dublin Parliament and had founded the Ulster Volunteers paramilitary group in 1912 to fight if necessary against the British government and/or against a future Irish Home Rule government proposed by the Bill. During 1913 a number of senior officers such as Lord French and Henry Hughes Wilson had expressed their concerns to the government that the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
would find it difficult to act against the Ulster Volunteers, given that they shared the same basic aim of preserving and defending the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
and believed Home Rule would threaten it.
Paget's orders
To deal with the threat of violence from the Ulster Volunteers should the Home Rule Bill be passed in the British Parliament, the commander of the Curragh base, Sir Arthur Paget, was ordered by the War Office in London in March 1914 to start preparations to move troops to UlsterUlster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
to be able to deal with any violence that might break out there. The plan was to occupy government buildings and to repel any assaults by the Ulster Volunteers, putting the latter on the wrong foot, and to guard the armouries at Omagh
Omagh
Omagh is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated where the rivers Drumragh and Camowen meet to form the Strule. The town, which is the largest in the county, had a population of 19,910 at the 2001 Census. Omagh also contains the headquarters of Omagh District Council and...
, Enniskillen
Enniskillen
Enniskillen is a town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is located almost exactly in the centre of the county between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of 13,599 in the 2001 Census...
, Armagh
Armagh
Armagh is a large settlement in Northern Ireland, and the county town of County Armagh. It is a site of historical importance for both Celtic paganism and Christianity and is the seat, for both the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland, of the Archbishop of Armagh...
, Dundalk
Dundalk
Dundalk is the county town of County Louth in Ireland. It is situated where the Castletown River flows into Dundalk Bay. The town is close to the border with Northern Ireland and equi-distant from Dublin and Belfast. The town's name, which was historically written as Dundalgan, has associations...
and Carrickfergus
Carrickfergus
Carrickfergus , known locally and colloquially as "Carrick", is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is located on the north shore of Belfast Lough, from Belfast. The town had a population of 27,201 at the 2001 Census and takes its name from Fergus Mór mac Eirc, the 6th century king...
to prevent thefts of weapons. Paget misinterpreted his orders for precautionary deployments as an immediate order to march against the Ulstermen.
Prior to the deployment, the Secretary of State for War
Secretary of State for War
The position of Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a British cabinet-level position, first held by Henry Dundas . In 1801 the post became that of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The position was re-instated in 1854...
Col. John Seely
J. E. B. Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone
John Edward Bernard Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone CB, CMG, DSO, PC, TD was a British soldier and politician. He was a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1900 to 1904 and a Liberal MP from 1904 to 1922 and from 1923 to 1924...
had told Paget that, regarding all army officers serving in Ireland -
- 1. "Officers whose homes are actually in the province of Ulster who wish to do so may apply for permission to be absent from duty during the period of operations, and will be allowed to disappear from Ireland. Such officers will, subsequently, be reinstated, and will suffer no loss in their career.
- 2. "Any other officer who from conscientious or other motives is not prepared to carry out his duty as ordered, should say so at once. Such officers will at once be dismissed from the service."
Seely also promised Paget reinforcements "... to the last man .." to uphold the law in Ireland. In the event of a railway strike, or other obstacle, Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
offered transport of forces by the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
.
Resignations
On 20 March Paget met with Generals RoltStuart Peter Rolt
Brigadier-General Stuart Peter Rolt CB was a British Army officer who became Commandant of the Royal Military College Sandhurst.-Military career:Stuart Rolt was the son of Peter Rolt, a Conservative MP...
, Cuthbert
Gerald Cuthbert
Major-General Gerald James Cuthbert CB, CMG was a British Army officer who commanded a battalion in the Boer War and a division in the First World War. Cuthbert joined the Scots Guards in 1882 and served in Egypt and the Sudan during the late 19th century...
, Gough
Hubert Gough
General Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough GCB, GCMG, KCVO was a senior officer in the British Army, who commanded the British Fifth Army from 1916 to 1918 during the First World War.-Family background:...
, Fergusson, and three staff officers, at his Parkgate Street H.Q. in Dublin, passing on Seely's "ultimatum". The deployment orders were headed "'Duty as ordered – Active Operations in Ulster", and Gough later suggested that "active operations" sounded as if it were more than a cautionary protective deployment. Gough then offered the officers under his command at nearby Marlborough Barracks (now McKee Barracks) the choice of resignation rather than fighting against the Ulster Volunteers. Out of the 70 British Army Officers based in the Curragh Camp, 57 accepted Paget's offer to resign their commissions in the British Army, or to accept being dismissed from it, rather than enforce the Home Rule Bill in Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
whenever it passed into law. Led by Brigadier-General Hubert Gough
Hubert Gough
General Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough GCB, GCMG, KCVO was a senior officer in the British Army, who commanded the British Fifth Army from 1916 to 1918 during the First World War.-Family background:...
, the officers were not technically guilty of mutiny
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...
, as they had resigned before refusing to carry out a direct order.
Paget then sent a telegram to the War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
in London:
Results
Asquith's LiberalLiberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
government backed down, claiming an "honest misunderstanding", and the officers were reinstated. The War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
in London declared that the Army would not be used to enforce the Home Rule Act, but the men who issued this statement were later forced to resign.
General Sir Charles Fergusson, then commanding the 5th division in Ireland, interviewed officers to ensure their future compliance with government policy. One of his officers said later that: "He [Fergusson] reminded us that although we must naturally hold private political views, officially we should not be on the side of any one political party. It was our duty to obey orders, to go wherever we were sent and to comply with instructions of any political party that happened to be in power. There was no sloppy sentiment, it was good stuff straight from the shoulder and just what we wanted."
The matter was debated in the Commons at length on 23 and 25 March.
About a month later, on 24 April the Ulster Volunteers covertly landed about 24,000 rifles at night in the "Larne gun-running" incident, without any of those involved being discovered or arrested.
The event contributed both to unionist confidence and to the growing Irish separatist movement, convincing nationalists that they could not expect support from the British army in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. In turn, this naturally increased nationalist support for its paramilitary force, the Irish Volunteers
Irish Volunteers
The Irish Volunteers was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland"...
. While the Home Rule Bill was approved by the House of Commons on 25 May, the growing fear of civil war in Ireland led on to the government considering some form of partition of Ireland
Partition of Ireland
The partition of Ireland was the division of the island of Ireland into two distinct territories, now Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland . Partition occurred when the British Parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act 1920...
in July 1914 by an amending Bill; further discussions at the Buckingham Palace Conference
Buckingham Palace Conference
The Buckingham Palace Conference, sometimes referred to as the Buckingham Palace Conference on Ireland, was a conference called in Buckingham Palace in 1914 by King George V of the United Kingdom to which the leaders of Irish Nationalism and Irish Unionism were invited to discuss plans to introduce...
could not solve the arguments about partition. The main Bill received the Royal Assent
Royal Assent
The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...
on 18 September, but was also suspended for the duration of the First World War.
See also
- Edward Carson, Baron CarsonEdward Carson, Baron CarsonEdward Henry Carson, Baron Carson PC, PC , Kt, QC , often known as Sir Edward Carson or Lord Carson, was a barrister, judge and politician from Ireland...
- Henry Hughes Wilson
- Unionism in IrelandUnionism in IrelandUnionism in Ireland is an ideology that favours the continuation of some form of political union between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain...
Further reading
- Beckett, Ian F. W. The Army and the Curragh Incident 1914 Bodley Head for the ARS, 1986
- Fergusson, Sir James The Curragh Incident, London, 1964.
- Ryan, A.P. Mutiny at the Curragh, London, 1956.
External links
[Note: Many Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
sources refer to a "Herbert Gough" when they actually mean Hubert Gough
Hubert Gough
General Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough GCB, GCMG, KCVO was a senior officer in the British Army, who commanded the British Fifth Army from 1916 to 1918 during the First World War.-Family background:...
. It is unclear to this writer whether this page is correct or not.]