The Wearing of the Green | Page 3

of course ample notice will be given either by proclamation or
otherwise."
The Dublin funeral committee thereupon at once issued the following
announcement, by placard and advertisement:--
GOD SAVE IRELAND! A PUBLIC FUNERAL PROCESSION
In honour of the Irish Patriots Executed at Manchester, 23rd November,
Will take place in Dublin On Sunday next, the 8th inst.
* * * * *
The procession will assemble in Beresford-place, near the Custom
House, and will start from thence at the hour of twelve o'clock noon.
* * * * *
No flags, banners, or party emblems will be allowed.
* * * * *
IRISHMEN

Assemble in your thousands, and show by your numbers and your
orderly demeanour your sympathy with the fate of the executed
patriots.
* * * * *
IRISHWOMEN
You are requested to lend the dignity of your presence to this important
National Demonstration.
By Order of the Committee.
JOHN MARTIN, Chairman. J.C. WATERS, Hon. Secretary. JAMES
SCANLAN, Hon. Secretary. J.J. LALOR, Hon. Secretary. DONAL
SULLIVAN, Up. Buckingham-street, Treasurer.
The appearance of the "funeral procession placards" all over the city on
Thursday, 5th December, increased the public excitement. No other
topic was discussed in any place of public resort, but the event
forthcoming on Sunday. The first evidence of what it was about to be,
was the appearance of the drapery establishments in the city on
Saturday morning; the windows, exteriorly and interiorly, being one
mass of crape and green ribbon--funeral knots, badges, scarfs,
hat-bands, neckties, &c., exposed for sale. Before noon most of the
retail, and several of the wholesale houses had their entire stock of
green ribbon and crape exhausted, it being computed that nearly one
hundred thousand yards had been sold up to midnight of Saturday!
Meantime the committee sat en permanance, zealously pushing their
arrangements for the orderly and successful carrying out of their great
undertaking--appointing stewards, marshals, &c.--in a word,
completing the numerous details on the perfection of which it greatly
depended whether Sunday was to witness a successful demonstration or
a scene of disastrous disorder. On this, as upon every occasion when a
national demonstration was to be organized, the trades of Dublin,
Kingstown, and Dalkey, exhibited that spirit of patriotism for which
they have been proverbial in our generation. From their ranks came the
most efficient aids in every department of the preparations. On

Saturday evening the carpenters, in a body, immediately after their
day's work was over, instead of seeking home and rest, refreshment or
recreation after their week of toil, turned into the Nation office machine
rooms, which they quickly improvised into a vast workshop, and there,
as volunteers, laboured away till near midnight, manufacturing "wands"
for the stewards of next morning's procession.
Sunday, 8th December, 1867, dawned through watery skies. From
shortly after day-break, rain, or rather half-melted sleet, continued to
fall; and many persons concluded that there would be no attempt to
hold the procession under such inclement weather. This circumstance
was, no doubt, a grievous discouragement, or rather a discomfort and
an inconvenience; but so far from preventing the procession, it was
destined to add a hundred-fold to the significance and importance of the
demonstration. Had the day been fine, tens of thousands of persons
who eventually only lined the streets, wearing the funeral emblems,
would have marched in the procession as they had originally intended;
but hostile critics would in this case have said that the fineness of the
day and the excitement of the pageant had merely caused a hundred
thousand persons to come out for a holiday. Now, however, the depth,
reality, and intensity of the popular feeling was about to be keenly
tested. The subjoined account of this memorable demonstration is
summarised from the Dublin daily papers of the next ensuing
publication, the report of the _Freeman's Journal_ being chiefly used:--
As early as ten o'clock crowds began to gather in Beresford-place, and
in an hour about ten thousand men were present. The morning had
succeeded to the hopeless humidity of the night, and the drizzling rain
fell with almost dispiteous persistence. The early trains from
Kingstown and Dalkey, and all the citerior townlands, brought large
numbers into Dublin; and Westland-row, Brunswick, D'Olier, and
Sackville-streets, streamed with masses of humanity. A great number
of the processionists met in Earlsfort-terrace, all round the Exhibition,
and at twelve o'clock some thousands had collected. It was not easy to
learn the object of this gathering; it may have been a mistake, and most
probably it was, as they fell in with the great body in the course of half
an hour. The space from the quays, including the great sweep in front

of the Custom-house, was swarming with men, and women, and small
children, and the big ungainly crowd bulged out in Gardiner-street, and
the broad space leading