his nationalist background, it was not surprising that Emmet was among the 4,000 who joined the Irish Volunteers, at the inaugural meeting in the Rotunda Rink in Dublin in November 1913.17 James F. Dalton became heavily involved in the movement, as did his friend Tom Kettle. The organization had been founded by Gaelic scholar Eoin MacNeill, in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force by Ulster Unionists opposed to Irish Home Rule. The bill to enact this legislative autonomy for Ireland was then working its way through the House of Commons. Many nationalists were not yet ready to accept the idea that the Ulster Protestants might be regarded as a separate people entitled to self-determination.
In April 1914 the UVF raised the level of tension on the island of Ireland by landing 25,000 rifles at Larne, Bangor and Donaghadee. On 26 July a small consignment of about 900 Mauser rifles was landed by the Irish Volunteers very publicly at Howth, County Dublin from the yacht Asgard skippered by the writer Erskine Childers. Authorities attempted to capture the rifles landed at Howth; a small number seized by the police were returned later as they had been confiscated illegally. Soldiers from a detachment of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers had been involved in an unsuccessful attempt to seize the rifles. When they were jeered by a crowd at Bachelor’s Walk in Dublin city centre some soldiers lost control and opened fire, killing three civilians and wounding dozens. The deployment of the military that led to the shooting aroused considerable outrage throughout Ireland. James F. Dalton attended a meeting of Dublin City magistrates who protested at the military being called out.18
In June, James F. Dalton was one of twenty-seven nominees submitted by John Redmond to join the ruling Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers. However, the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914 quickly split the Volunteer movement. To avoid a civil war, the British government placed Home Rule on the statute book, but postponed its implementation until the end of the war. On 20 September IPP leader John Redmond made a historic speech in Woodenbridge, County Wicklow, where he declared it was in Ireland’s interest for the Volunteers to enlist in the British forces and fight in the war in defence ‘of right, of freedom, and religion’. He reasoned that Irish nationalists by fighting in the war alongside Ulster Unionists, would ensure Irish unity when Home Rule was enacted. He also envisaged that the Volunteers who joined the British forces would form the nucleus of a future Irish army that would secure the unity of Ireland. Militant nationalists opposed participating in the war effort, and this split the Irish Volunteer movement. The anti-Redmond element were in a minority and continued to be known as the Irish Volunteers, led by Eoin MacNeill. The vast majority, however, followed Redmond and became known as the National Volunteers. By this time the revolutionary Irish Republican Brotherhood had secretly manoeuvred itself into key controlling positions within the Irish Volunteers and was seeking to capitalize on England’s difficulty by using the Irish Volunteers in an uprising against British rule.
James F. Dalton served on the national committee of the new National Volunteers as the militia raised funds, built its organization and armed its members. At a meeting in Dublin City Hall on 30 September 1914, James seconded the motion making Willie Redmond MP (younger brother of John Redmond) one of the Honorary Treasurers.19 Willie Redmond would later die in British uniform during the Great War. Among the others on hand that night was James’s friend, Tom Kettle. Kettle had been in Belgium to procure arms for the Volunteer movement when the war broke out. Like Willie Redmond, he also died in the war. He would be comforted in his dying moments at the Somme by James’s son, Emmet.
James F. Dalton had helped supply arms to the Volunteer movement. Patrick Moylett, a businessman from County Mayo, later described how he bought rifles from James Dalton during an arms-buying trip to Dublin in 1914. The arms were to equip local Volunteers in his home town of Ballyhaunis. Probably acting on behalf of the Volunteers, Dalton provided six Mausers of the 1896 Spanish model pattern, and one 1877 Mauser for a total of £25.20 The transaction seems to have occurred after the outbreak of the Great War in August, possibly before the split in the movement, which would explain Dalton’s dealing with Moylett, who affiliated himself to the militant Irish Volunteer group.
Although only about sixteen years old, Emmet Dalton was given the task by his father of delivering the rifles across Ireland to County Mayo. Emmet later recalled the delivery of the heavy parcel, wrapped in sack cloth, to his family home.21 James Dalton saw his son off on the train at Kingsbridge station for the journey to Ballyhaunis. For a youth of such tender years, it was a challenging assignment. The police could become suspicious and, besides, Emmet could barely lift the heavy parcel. Emmet was wearing his Christian Brothers school cap and this may have helped convey an image of innocence that allayed any suspicions. Dalton senior helped his son heave the package onto the luggage rack of the train.
Moylett stated that a week after he paid for the weapons, Emmet arrived at his business premises in Ballyhaunis with the six rifles, but no ammunition. Moylett had managed to get some ammunition from Belfast from another unlikely source – an Orangeman – but it was only about 25 rounds. ‘I took Emmet Dalton and my foreman, Pat Kennedy, who was in the Volunteers, to the police rifle range and we did our practice openly.’22 Clearly, even as a schoolboy, Emmet knew how to fire a rifle – a useful accomplishment in light of his later military career. Moylett recalled that Emmet told him that he was 18 years of age [sic] and that John Redmond was getting him a commission in the British Army. ‘His statement made me sad because it cut straight across what he was doing. I tried to persuade him not to join, but I was not successful.’ Moylett became a senior figure in the Irish Republican Brotherhood during the War of Independence, though he took no part in the Civil War.
Emmet Dalton Joins the British Army
In late 1915, Emmet Dalton, aged 17, joined the British Army. He showed considerable independence of spirit and sense of adventure by doing so without consulting his parents. He was said to have been a student of ‘great ability’ at the college in Roscrea, and he reportedly gained a scholarship to the Royal College of Science but abandoned it to go into the British forces.23 He was following the call of his father’s great idol, John Redmond, who had encouraged the Volunteer movement and Irishmen generally to fight for Britain in the Great War. Dalton later reminisced that the overwhelming majority of the Irish people at this time supported the action being taken by John Redmond and his followers in the National Volunteers. He was imbued with the same feeling of patriotism that existed all around. There was also the glamour of going to war: ‘I mean, at eighteen years of age, what do you know?’24
His enlistment was assisted by his father’s friend, Joe Devlin MP. Devlin gave him a letter of introduction to a man who was in charge of recruiting and who had an office on Grafton Street, Dublin. So far as Dalton could recall, the man’s name was Macartney Filgate.25 Dalton called to the recruiting office, and applied for a temporary commission in the British Army. Dalton lied about his age, claiming to be 18 years old.26 He received a letter dated 29 December 1915 from the War Office, London appointing him a to a ‘temporary Second-Lieutenancy in the New Army (on probation)’, posted to the 7th Service Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He was required to attend a class of instruction at Cork, and was to present himself, without fail, to the Commandant, School of Instruction, Garrison Office, Cork in one week. He was instructed to report in uniform, but if his uniform was not ready, to report in plain clothes. In a rather parsimonious tone, the letter added: ‘Expenses incurred in travelling to join on first appointment must be paid by yourself.’27
During the interviews for a 1978 RTÉ TV documentary, Cathal O’Shannon asked Dalton if in joining the British Army he felt he was fighting for Britain, or fighting for Ireland, or for little Belgium? Dalton replied that he was fighting for all three. The ‘Irish Brigade’ subscribed to the idea of fighting for small countries. They all felt sympathetic to Belgium. Dalton also agreed that in joining the army he was motivated partly by a sense of adventure.28
Dalton’s father was utterly dismayed when Emmet turned up at the family home in British Army uniform. As an avid supporter of John Redmond, James Dalton probably backed Redmond’s call on the Volunteers to join the British Army. At the very least, he had not distanced himself publicly
