Howth gun-running

The unloading of guns from a private yacht during daylight hours attracted a crowd, which prompted police and military forces to intervene.

As the King's Own Scottish Borderers returned to barracks, they were accosted by a mob at Bachelors Walk, who threw stones and exchanged insults with the soldiers.

In an event later termed the Bachelor's Walk massacre, the soldiers shot into the crowd, resulting in the deaths of four civilians and the wounding of at least 38.

The Childers offered their pleasure yacht, the Asgard, to carry 900 of the Mauser M1871 11 mm single-shot rifles and 29,000 rounds of its black powder ammunition.

To buy these guns, Erskine Childers – who drafted the contract – told the German arms dealers that the rifles were destined for Mexico.

A much smaller number of Mauser rifles was landed from the Chotah simultaneously at Kilcoole in County Wicklow by Sir Thomas Myles, Tom Kettle, and James Meredith.

The Asgard and Conor O'Brien's yacht Kelpie sailed to the Ruytingen buoy near the Belgian coast, crewed by O'Brien, the Childers, Spring Rice, and two sailors from Gola Island, County Donegal: Patrick McGinley (Páidí Dhónaill Pháidí Mac Fhionnghaile) and Charles Duggan (Séarlaí Pháidí Shéarlais Ó Dugáin).

[8] In the confusion Thomas MacDonagh and Bulmer Hobson succeeded in ordering the back ranks of Fianna Éireann Volunteers to quietly relay the guns away and hide them in the nearby Christian Brothers' grounds.

Kathleen Boland (sister of Harry and Gerald) said in her statement to the Irish Bureau of Military History: In July 1914, when the guns were brought in at Howth, my brothers were in Dungarvan but I was at home in Marino Crescent, Clontarf.

Whilst returning to their barracks, some soldiers from the Borderers reached Bachelors Walk, where they came across an unarmed but hostile crowd[11] who baited them.

An officer who had joined them en route was unaware that their arms were prepared to fire, and gave the order to face the crowd.

[11] By contrast, the Ulster Volunteers split their weapons into three caches, used a decoy vessel to distract the authorities, and landed their arms under the cover of darkness.

With limited funds, the Irish Volunteers bought only 1500 19th-century Mauser M1871, which used gunpowder (black powder) that can foul a gun after several shots, and required each round to be hand-loaded individually.

[17] In 1961, the Irish government arranged a re-enactment of the Howth gun running, procuring the original Asgard from its owner and featuring some of the Mausers and surviving Volunteers who were present that day.