Souvenir Boer War captured rifles and carbines were among the arms found by the British after the battle. Most were Model 1895/1896 Mauser rifles and short rifles in 7x57 mm, and some even had the distinctive stock carvings favored by the Boers. At least one Danish Krag-Jorgensen rifle, another “bring-back” from South Africa, was included in the lot. Ernie O’Malley, one of the few chroniclers at the time who actually had an interest in rifles—and knew what he saw—relates that he and his friend carried a souvenir German 7.92x57 mm Gewehr 98 service rifle and that they had used it to take potshots at British troops during the battle.

In early 1914, a shipment of Italian bolt-action repeating rifles arrived in Ireland. Members of the Irish Parliamentary Party had imported the Vetterli-Vitali Model 1870/87 rifles, and they were distributed to those units of the Irish Volunteers in Dublin and Ulster which had strong links to the party and which later formed part of the Irish National Volunteers. The republican rebels later procured some of the rifles. This obsolete Model 1870/87 rifle was chambered for the 10.35x47 mm rimmed blackpowder cartridge and utilized a unique wood and sheet-metal charger to load the four-round magazine.

Curiously, a stylized directional arrow was printed in black ink on the wooden top of the clip, so that the soldier would know in which way to load the cartridges. While there are extant photographs of Vetterlis being carried in formations, most of these show them in the hands of the Irish National Volunteers, the group that split off and supported the British war effort in 1914. Moreover, an Irish military historian, Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc, notes that almost all of the veterans of the period who mentioned the Vetterli stated that the rifles were used only for parades, as the Volunteers did not have ammunition for them. However, ammunition was available in Ulster, so a few Vetterlis probably saw service in the Easter Rising. One Vetterli rifle had been on exhibit for many years in the former “1916 Room” at the National Museum of Ireland, with a label identifying it as one used during the fight, and its image can be found in many books on the Easter Rising. There are other examples in the collections of the new national military museum at Collins Barracks and at Kilmainham Gaol Museum in Dublin, including a few Vetterli-Vitalis in relic condition, with one having “1916” carved on its stock.

Finally, both double-barreled and especially single-barreled shotguns were seen among the ranks of the insurgents. The Volunteers had set up clandestine ammunition factories where, in addition to making hand grenades, shotshells were reloaded with cast lead slugs. Interestingly, the rebels also made makeshift bayonets for single-barreled shotguns in a locomotive works. The knife-bladed bayonets clamped onto the shotgun barrels with crude wing nuts and, according to a veteran of the fight at Roe’s distillery, at least one of the improvised bayonets had been made from a set of garden shears.

As can be imagined, many of the insurgents did not have bayonets, nor were they well-trained in the use of the ones that they had. As related by Max Caulfield in his excellent account of the action, The Easter Rebellion, Capt. Simon Donnelly (one of Commandant Eamon DeValera’s men at Boland’s Bakery) said about the men in his company, “I never had any faith in the men acquitting themselves well in a bayonet charge, especially in the dark.”

Nonetheless, there was some desperate hand-to-hand fighting at several points in the city, and the British troops advanced on many rebel positions with bayonets fixed. As had been the case with the Ulster Volunteer Force, the Irish Volunteers obtained French Model 1874 Gras rifle bayonets and altered them to fit the other rifles in their arsenal. Those bayonets were reconfigured to fit the German Commission rifles and Vetterlis in Ulster, the Irish Volunteers altered them, along with French Model 1866 Chassepot bayonets, to fit “Howth” rifles. Some of the insurgents armed with Long Lee rifles had the appropriate Model 1888 knife bayonet.

If the “Howth” rifle is the emblematic shoulder arm of the Easter Rising, then the C96 “Broomhandle” Mauser pistol-carbine, with its distinctive shoulder stock holster, must be afforded the title of “most remembered” handgun. While it is not known just how many of these pistols were carried in the uprising, at least three instances of their use have secured them a place in Irish history, prior to their widespread service in the ensuing War of Independence (1919-1922) and Irish Civil War (1922-1923). Known throughout Ireland as “Peter the Painter” (after a Latvian revolutionary whose gang used them to great effect during London’s “Sidney Street Riot” in 1911), many of the pistols used during the Easter Rising were chambered in 7.63x25 mm, although they had also been available in 9 mm Parabellum since 1912. Padriac Pearse, the leader of the Rising, surrendered his C96 Mauser at the end of the week-long fight.

Although she also carried a .455 Smith & Wesson revolver, as well as a small .32-cal. S&W revolver, Countess Markievicz, the colorful second-in-command of the Irish Citizen Army forces at St. Stephen’s Green and later in the Royal College of Surgeons, carried a 7.63x25 mm broomhandle, and used it to silence a British machine gun crew on the roof of the nearby Shelbourne Hotel. Cathal Brugha, later a driving force in the War of Independence, used his “Peter the Painter” very effectively in his epic defense of the South Dublin Union, a fight in which he suffered numerous wounds. His gallant action kept the attacking British at bay, while he bellowed out the nationalist song, “God Save Ireland.”

The most incredible tale of the broomhandle’s effectiveness in the hands of an experienced marksman is that of Lt. Michael “Mick” Malone during the battle of Mount Street Bridge. Using a Mauser borrowed from his commanding officer, DeValera, he and James Grace accounted for scores of British “Sherwood Foresters” who were passing their stronghold at 25 Northumberland Road, heading for the center of the city. While Grace had his Long Lee Enfield rifle, as noted earlier, and a magazine-fed semi-automatic pistol, Malone only paused using his Mauser pistol when the barrel heated up, and then took up his “Howth” gun. In one instance, Malone, reputed to be one of the best shots in the Dublin Brigade, knocked over 10 British soldiers in 10 shots with his pistol. In all, the 17 Irish Volunteers engaged in the extended battle at the bridge killed or wounded some 240 British soldiers.

Pistols and revolvers of all types, makes and calibers are mentioned in existing accounts of the battle, and many more simply refer to “revolvers” and “pistols,” regrettably interchangeably in many instances. It is safe to say that Webleys, Colts, Smith & Wessons, and Belgian, Spanish, and other revolvers were used, as well as Colt, Mauser, Browning, Webley & Scott, and souvenir Luger semi-automatics, in addition to the “Peter the Painter” Mausers. Many of these same types of handguns would later see action in the War of Independence (also known as the “Black and Tan” war) a few years later.

The wide variety of arms in the Easter Rising was a result of a disarmed populace trying to end foreign domination by using whatever firearms it could find. This same motley array of armament would plague the men and women who would fight another war, just three years later, in their successful attempt to make “Ireland, once a province, be a nation once again.”

The author thanks Lar Joye of the National Museum of Ireland, Niall Bergin of the Kilmainham Gaol Museum, Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc, Maj. Richard Keogh, U.S. Army (Ret.), and Robert M. McDonough for their assistance in the preparation of this article.