Darrell Figgis : A Chronicle of Jails

A copy of Darrell Figgis's A Chronicle of Jails is available to view online. Detailing his time in Reading Jail and others, it carries a chapter outlining how he heard about the start of the Easter Rising :

A Chronicle of Jails

Appropriately, Reading University appears to have an original copy

Reading University copy

Darrell Figgis : The Irish Constitution

Darrell Figgis is a name that doesn't crop up in a lot of conversations re Irish independence yet he was heavily involved in the running of arms for the Irish Volunteers in 1914 and in the drawing up of the constitution of the Irish Free State.

He appears to have been at odds with Michael Collins over a number of matters and to have made a number of enemies within the independence movement.

Both he and his wife committed suicide, though at different dates.

Definitely a chap to appear in future blog entries.

He wrote a series of articles re the Irish Constitution which were gathered together into a book which can be viewed online :

The Irish Constitution

Irish Volunteer Uniform Jacket

A nice blog entry from The Cricket Bat That Died for Ireland re an Irish Volunteer uniform jacket left behind at Jacob's after the Easter Rising had been put down :

Irish Volunteer Jacket

Irish Volunteers

For anyone interested in the development, arms, equipment and operation of the Irish Volunteers/Irish National Volunteers in the period 1913 to 1922, there is an active group on Facebook with lots of photos and discussions

http://www.facebook.com/groups/irishvolunteers/

The Irish Volunteers group website is at 

http://irishvolunteers.org/