the week after our excursion to wormwood scrubbs, seven men were sent down to us from frongoch, where trouble had already begun. there were no cells to hold them in our prison, and so they were lodged in the reception-cells under the offices, where neither light nor air was bold enough to venture. they were brought over to us for breakfast, and lived during the day with us until they were taken back to bed.
shortly afterwards five of our number were summoned to the governor’s office, and returned saying they were to be released that day. we already had had that joke played on us several times, and so we gave no heed to them. but when in a short time we saw them industriously packing their kit, the joke wore a more earnest expression. it was no jest, however. although no man changed his mien yet none but felt what a jewel freedom was when it became within the grasp of his neighbour, and when that [122]neighbour rose up and went forth proudly wearing it. we sang them home, however, gaily enough. in a week two more were sent home. these seven comprised all the releases from reading at the same time that two thousand and more were released from frongoch. it was not very difficult to discover the reasons prompting most of these releases, and it need hardly be said that they had little relation to the events of easter week. the internments covered a much wider ground, which was chosen for much subtler reasons. the soldier’s hand might rule in ireland, but the politician’s hand indexed the internments. and as usual the politician over-reached himself. for the men who were released found on their return that the country judged them unworthy to remain; and the home office officials were finally convinced that ireland was inhabited by the mad when they received shoals of letters from released men pitifully arguing that their releases must have been in error, and giving proofs of their part in the rising-out.
we, however, settled down to the honour of imprisonment with fortitude. already, when we had learned that the celebrations of the 12th of july had been forbidden in ulster [123]we had filled the gap with a procession and a meeting in which excellent orange speeches had been made. now we held a hibernian meeting. such things enlivened our days.
we suffered greatly from lack of exercise, and the closeness of our confinement began to tell upon us as the autumn approached. we had given up going out to the work-yard for our morning exercise, and kept to the little yard. this yard was beset on three sides by the buildings of the jail, and on the fourth side, beyond the high wall, huntley & palmer’s chimneys belched black smoke that blotted the sky. in a corner of this yard we made a hand-ball alley. no stranger alley was ever devised. two windows, a drain-pipe, a railing across steps leading to the basement, and a ventilator grating, gave opportunity for chance and skill. and the exercise saved us.
nevertheless, with the coming of winter the effects of our confinement could be seen on most of us. the food, also, had become bad. the margarine was often rancid. on two occasions the meat made several of us ill; and for three months i lived only on bread and porridge, both of which were, at least, clean and wholesome. prisons are not built as health resorts, yet [124]precautions are supposed to be taken that a mean of temperature is maintained. during a week of frost, however, the temperature in my room was 46° to 48° fahrenheit. this was inside the cells: outside, the passage was full of draughts. yet the prison was never ventilated, for the only place where air could come or go was the door. the result was that when one of the warders came in once with influenza, every man in the prison in time fell to it.
yet we kept our backs straight. p. j. d. was informed by the governor, on the authority of the home office, that if he would sign an undertaking to be of good behaviour for the future he would at once be liberated. he replied that the offer was adding insult to injury, and he declared that if his liberation depended on his signature of any manner of undertaking, he was destined to remain long in prison. the chief warder approached others of us, thinking to try the ground before any other offers were made; but he left matters as he found them.
in frongoch at this time the same attitude was being taken. matters there were also complicated by the attempt of the military to search out irishmen who had returned home from england on the passage of the military [125]service act—to search them out, not for the army, but for the pleasure of thrusting them into jails. and the result of the ensuing resistance was that seven of the leaders there were brought to reading and put into the reception-cells, making our number thirty-five once again.
