Alice Beresford

In the late hours of 23rd April 1916, a furious Countess Markievicz was admitted to the Machine Room in Liberty Hall.

Brandishing what looked like a telegram she said to James Connolly:

“I will shoot Eoin MacNeill”,

James Connolly replied:

“You are not to hurt a hair on MacNeill’s head. If anything happens to MacNeill I will hold you responsible”.

The telegram in question was one of a several handwritten letters sent to Commanders across Ireland cancelling manoeuvres planned for that day. MacNeill, upon hearing of Roger Casement’s arrest after being caught trying to bring German arms ashore in Kerry, felt an uprising was a

fruitless task and took it upon himself to try and cancel it.

 

Christopher Brady who was a staff printer on the Workers Republic Newspaper, which was printed in Liberty Hall, told this account of Countess Markievicz.  He had been commandeered by James Connolly to print the Proclamation.

His witness account was told to the Bureau of Military History in 1952.