During the Easter week 1916 Darrell Figgis had been busy with his writing. He had now idea about the events that were unfolding in Dublin over the last few days. The only idication that there was anything out of the ordinary was the post was late.
It was not till some hours after noon that, looking along the road for the post that was so unaccountably late, I saw a friend making her way toward to house on her bicycle. As she come nearer and dismounted I could see the traces of tears on her cheeks, and wondered.
“The post is very late, ” I said.
“There is no post,” she replied, “but there’s terrible news. “There has been fighting in Dublin…”
The woman was possibly Emily and the event in Dublin was the Easter Rising. Darrell grew nervous he knew that he was under scrutiny from the authorities since the Howth Gunrunning in 1914. His fears were not unfounded, a few days later the dreaded knock came to the door.
A large number of men were passing round the house. We [he and his wife Millie] leapt out of bed, and, peering through the windows, could see two peelers [policemen] at each window, with rifles at the “ready.”
he was hauled off to Castlebar Jail and then transferred to Richmond Gaol in Dublin before been sent to Stafford Gaol in England before serving further time in Reading Gaol, before he was released in December of that year. This was not the last time he would see English prisons…
Sources
Figgis, Darrell, and William Murphy. A Chronicle of Jails. Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2010.
Thanks to;
Edward King, Achill