The shooting of unarmed civilians during the Easter Rising arose from British orders that soldiers should not take any prisoners, according to War Office files released at the Public Record Office in London yesterday.
A War Office document from June 1916, marked "very confidential", written by Sir Edward Troup, who was permanent secretary to the Home Department, for the British prime minister, Herbert Asquith, refers to several cases of civilians shot by British soldiers during the Easter Rising in Dublin.
The typed report is covered with handwritten corrections - sentences have been crossed out and rewritten - suggesting Sir Edward made a second draft of the report on the shootings, possibly after a request from Asquith, who was facing pressure from Irish politicians, such as John Dillon, to publish a detailed account of the Rising.
One case refers to the shootings of Peter Connolly, a member of the Redmondite Irish National Volunteers and the owner of a hardware shop; and Thomas Hickey and his son, Christopher, aged 15, in North King Street on April 28th. They were "shot as rebels taken red-handed" and the British soldiers "had orders not to take prisoners, which they took to mean that they were to shoot anyone whom they believed to be an active rebel".
After this sentence several additions are made to the first draft of the report. The original script says: "Some of the persons were rightly shot, and that probably the others were not taking any active part, though the police evidence is clear that the whole of this street was a nest of Sinn Feiners." But additional notes provide more information so the sentence reads: "Some of the persons shot were probably fighting or sniping, but there can be little doubt that others were not taking any active part and, though the police evidence is clear that the whole of this street was a nest of Sinn Feiners, some were probably not even sympathisers."
And a handwritten note at the end of the document provides a revealing insight: "The source of the mischief was the military order to take no prisoners. This in itself may have been justifiable - but it should have been made clear that it did not mean that an unarmed rebel might be shot after he had been taken prisoner."
The next part of the sentence - "To kill an enemy who has surrendered without trial can't . . . " - has been crossed out and the sentence continues: "still less could it mean that a person taken on mere suspicion could be shot without trial." The second War Office file, registered on January 11th, 1917, details resistance to calls to publish transcripts of courtsmartial.
There were "161 Field General Courts-Martial" of civilians, with one referring to a non-commissioned officer and "22 General Courts-Martial" in connection with the Rising.
Asquith had given an undertaking to provide relatives of Irish "rebels" who had been shot with a copy of courts-martial proceedings, and when he was replaced as prime minister by David Lloyd George at the end of 1916 efforts were still being made to resist publishing details of the courts-martial.
Legal advisers to the government warned publication was unwise because several trials were held in camera and there was "no legal justification" for this under current legislation, "and in certain cases the evidence against Sinn Feiners who were killed was not too strong".