On Easter Friday Emily is is almost half way to Dublin but, that is a far as she gets. Somewhere on the road near Rochfordbridge she was intercepted by the police. What she did or how she got caught is lost in time. Only a brief transcription from Tullamore Prison Register book tells of her arrest. Only her vital statistics and her conviction: Suspected of an Offense against the Defense of the Realm Act 1914, are listed. No further notes or even a brief explanation of the suspected offense. No other record remains not even a court listing. Nevertheless the authorities believed her to be dangerous in some way and she was sent to nearby Tullamore Prison until the Rising was well and truly over.
The prison sentence must have been more frustrating than frightening to intrepid Emily, her mission to fight for her country scuppered. Her dreams of freeing Ireland from British Rule, put on hold. She would get her chance again but for now she would bide her time until her seventeen year old niece Enid could make her way from Achill to Tullamore to get her aunt out of prison.
Tullamore Gaol
In Dublin, the place Emily could not get to, her friend Ella Young was kept informed on the progress of the rebels. She was also noted as a subversive.
City Hall Dublin
They must Burn to the Bone or Surrender
Phyllis MacMurdo came to see me. Since she is the niece of General Sir William MacMurdo, and strongly pro-British in sympathy, she is in touch with the military here. She has authentic news: Pearse, Clarke, Connolly, The O’Rahilly and others are still in the charred Post Office, they must burn to the bone or surrender. A small column of the citizen army, under Sean Connolly, almost captured Dublin Castle. Emear [Helena] Moloney and Dr. Kathleen Lynn were with that column that barricaded itself inside of City Hall. They are prisoners now. Sean Connolly is dead. Sheedy-Skeffington, the noted pacifist (who had nothing to do with the Rising), was shot in Portobello Barracks on Wednesday. The English arrested him on O’Connell Street on Tuesday night when he was trying to stop the looting of the big shops. It is pandemonium there, unchecked and even encouraged by the soldiery. Plate-glass splintered on the sidewalk, men, women and children staggered under fur coats, damask armchairs, and bales of silk. Diamond rings and jeweled watches are sold in the streets for little more than the price of a drink. Phyllis came to warn me that I must leave Dublin at once. She has information that my name is on a “black list”.
Portobello now Cathal Brugha Barracks
I shall stay, but will be advisable to take my pistol to my fathers house (he is pro-British).The ammunition I can hide. Rodger Casement is in the hand of the English. They will hang him.
Sources