Executive Meeting of Sinn Fein
Introduction from Chronology
The old and new Executives of
Sinn Féin (i.e. Executive elected before German Plot and one elected after
arrest of most members of the Executive in wake of German Plot) meet to discuss
the Castle’s prohibition of de Valera’s entry into City.
More Detail
According to Figgis, he asked at the
meeting to see the minute of the Executive on which the announcement in the
press on March 22nd was made. It turned out that the decision
was not made by the Executive and one of the signatories of the announcement
(Tom Kelly) said he had not even seen the announcement until he read it in the
Press. Then, according to Figgis, Collins stood up and said the decision
had been made not by Sinn Féin but by "the proper body, the Irish
Volunteers". He said that "the sooner fighting was forced …
through the country … the better it would be for the country" (Figgis
(1927), pg 243). Then Collins told the meeting that he held them in no
opinion at all. Griffith reacted strongly and after much debate it was
agreed that he (Griffith) would go talk to de Valera. Figgis says that
Griffith said he would not come back until he had a decision of which he
approved.
Brennan gives quite a different
account of the meeting saying that Collins proposed at the meeting that the
demonstration and reception for de Valera be called off. He goes on to
say that there was an angry debate in which there was the “odd spectacle of the
so-called gunmen in favour of retreat, while many of the moderates apparently
wanted to make a stand” (Brennan (1950), pg 238). He does say that Collins
and Figgis had an argument. The account of the meeting given by Figgis
gets some backing from Hopkinson as he quotes Collins (in a letter to Austin
Stack) as saying that the cancellation decision as equivalent to Daniel
O’Connell’s failure to go ahead with the Clontarf meeting in 1843.
Macardle says that it was de Valera’s decision to cancel the reception.