Bulmer Hobson

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Bulmer Hobson (1882 - 1969) was a leading member of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) before the Easter Rising in 1916. Hobson was a socialist and journalist with close connections to James Connolly.

Hobson, a Protestant from County Tyrone, was one of the founding members of the Volunteers, and served as their secretary before the Rising. Earlier he had, with Constance Markiewicz founded Na Fianna Éireann as a republican scouting movement. He was an active agitator against the politics of the Irish Parliamentary Party and founded the Dungannon Clubs (named after the town where the patriot Irish Volunteers had formed in the 18th Century) to agitate in favour of republicanism as opposed to Home Rule.

He was a protegé of veteran Fenian Tom Clarke, with whom he had a close, almost father-son relationship until 1914. As a member of the Volunteers provisional council, Hobson was instrumental in allowing Parliamentary leader John Redmond to gain undue (in the view of other Fenians) influence in the Volunteers organisation. Though he was opposed to the politics of Redmond, he gave in to Home Rulers' demands for control of the IV, believing that defying Redmond (who was highly popular throughout Ireland) would lead to the demise of the Volunteers. Clarke, steadfastly opposed to this action, never forgave him or spoke to him informally again. Hobson resigned as a member of the Supreme Council of the IRB, and was fired from his job as Dublin correspondent for the newspaper the Gaelic American, leaving him in financial straits.

Though he remained a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood he was not informed of the plans for the Rising at Easter, 1916. He remained opposed to such an action, believing it was contrary to the stated purpose of the Volunteers (to whom he had as much loyalty as the decidedly more radical IRB), particularly as it stood no real chance of success. He also argued that it was in breech of the constitution of the IRB itself. He nevertheless was able to figure out what was being planned, and he subsequently alerted Volunteers chief-of-staff Eoin MacNeill about what the IRB up to. MacNeill issued a countermanding order, which meant that most Volunteers did not take part. Hobson was kidnapped by the organisers of the rising to stop him from spreading news of MacNeill's order, and was held in a safehouse in Phibsborough until the Rising was well underway.

Hobson and MacNeill argued that the rising would be poorly timed, badly organised and staged for romantic and emotional reasons rather than for anything more pressing. They argued that the moment of maximum crisis for England (as Irish Republicans always referred to the UK authorities) was yet to come.

The refusal to support the rising ruined the reputation of both men. But the argument about their views continues to this day - clearly the rising was all of the above things and it has also been argued that it was the conscription crisis of Spring 1918 that finally tipped Ireland towards republicanism - so validating the Hobson-MacNeill argument in favour of delay. To counter this it has been argued that only the inspiration of the rising, or more particualarly the British reaction to it, could have created the position in 1918 when support for a military/guerilla response to the threat of conscription became widespread, so legitimising physical force republicanism.

Although MacNeill was later to serve in the government of the Irish Free State, Hobson was confined to a minor role as a customs official after independence. Though he had been one of the most active members of the IRB for years, being largely responsible for the re-emergence of the organisation, and was instrumental in the founding of the Volunteers, Hobson did not involve himself in politics after the Rising, or the subsequent Anglo-Irish War.

Despite his profound influence on the nascient republican movement he was and is a largely forgotten figure in Irish political history - the military martyrdom of the men of 1916 being seen as more influential than the man who did much to make the rising possible yet who refused to support it at the time.

However, Hobson later emerged as a key advisor to Seán MacBride, leader of Clann na Poblachta, Minister of External Affairs in the First Inter-Party Government in Ireland.

[edit] References

• Kee, Robert (2000). The green flag: a history of Irish nationalism. London: Penguin, 877p. ISBN 0-14-029165-2.
• (1967) F.X. Martin (ed.): Leaders and men of the Easter Rising: Dublin, 1916. London: Methuen, xii, 276p.
• Townshend, Charles (2005). Easter 1916: the Irish rebellion. London: Allen Lane, xxi, 442p. ISBN 0-7139-9690-0.