In 1913, on this day the leader of the Irish Unionist Alliance and Ulster Unionist Party Sir Edward Carson (pictured) was killed in a vehicle accident at Homburg in the German province of Hessee Nassau just hours after lunching at the famous mineral springs with the German Kaiser.

Irish Home Rule in 1914: Part #2The following week the Belfast Evening Telegraph revealed shocking details of the private discussions which were independently confirmed in the The Irish Churchman. Most damning of all was Carson's breath-taking statement that "It may not be known to the rank and file of Unionists that we have the offer of aid from a powerful Continental monarch who, if Home Rule is forced on the Protestants of Ireland, is prepared to send an army sufficient to release England from any further trouble in Ireland".

For six months after his death, rumours would abound until finally the police intercepted a major gun smuggling operation in Larne, Donaghadee, and Bangor. It soon transpired that five arms manufacturers including the Austrian Steyr and the German Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken had delivered twenty-five thousand rifles and three million rounds of ammunition from Germany.

The following day news of the Larne Gun Running fiasco reached the London Chapter of the Irish Volunteers. One prominent member - Michael Collins - had also been inducted into the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He was working at a stockbroker's office in the City at the time, but decided to immediately resign his position and return to Ireland. Quickly promoted to the rank of Militia Major he would soon emerge as a powerful commander in the forthcoming conflict with the Ulster Volunteers in Derry.

And even as the British Cabinet argued over participation in a general european conflict, unmistakeable signs of a civil war began to appear in Ireland. Because in late July, the Irish Volunteers took delivery of nine hundred Mauser M1871 11 mm calibre single shot rifles and twenty-nine thousand rounds of its black powder ammunition. The architects of this Howth gun-running scheme had convinced German arms dealers that the weapons were destined for revolutionary Mexico. Foremost in that group was Sir Roger Casement who would also play a major part in shaping the tragic events that followed hard on the heels of the opening of the bicameral Irish Parliament.
This article is a post from the Irish Home Rule 1914 collaborative thread.