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The Volunteers were formed in repsonse to the formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force by Edward Carson and James Craig the same year. The Ulster Volunteers were founded by Protestant Unionists in the north in order to prevent enactment of Home Rule. It was seen that with armed men in Ulster threatening force to counter Home Rule, a similar force would be prudent to pressure Britain in the other direction. To this end Eoin MacNeill published an article The North Began, arguing for the necessity of such a force. His friend The O'Rahilly encouraged him to follow through with this idea, and on November 11, 1913, at Wynn's Hotel in Dublin, eleven prominent nationalists sat down to plan the formation of the Volunteers, among them were Patrick Pearse, Eamonn Ceannt, and Sean MacDermott.
On November 25November 25 is the 329th (in leap years the 330th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 36 days remaining. Events 1034 Malcolm II of Scotland died. Duncan, the son of his second daughter, instead of Macbeth, the son of his eldest daughter, the Volunteers had their first public meeting and call for enlistments at the Rotunda in Dublin. The turnout was beyond what anyone expected. The hall was filled to its 4,000 person capacity, with a further 3,000 spilling onto the grounds outside. Over the course of the following months the movement spread throughout the country with thousands more joining every week.
From its inception, the leadership of the Volunteers was heavily influenced by the radical Irish Republican BrotherhoodHistory of Ireland The Irish Republican Brotherhood IRB played an important role in the history of Ireland. It was the chief group advocating armed revolt during the campaign for Ireland's independence from the United Kingdom during the latter half of the (although MacNeill was not among them). This was the IRB's plan from the beginning, but it had a major drawback when the leader of the Irish Parliamentary PartyThe Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) was an political party formed in 1882 under the leadership of Charles Stewart Parnell and others, replacing the Home Rule League. It was instrumental in laying the groundwork for Irish self-government. Following Parnell, John RedmondJohn Edward Redmond ( 1856- 1918) was the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918. John Redmond was born in County Wexford in Ireland in 1856. A nationalist by birth, whose father had been a nationalist Irish MP he was educated by the Je demanded that the Volunteers accept his own personal appointments to the Provisional Committee, affectively placing the organization in his control. While the moderates didn't like the idea, they were prepared to go along with it in order to prevent the very popular Redmond from forming his own similar organization that would draw away most of their support. The IRB was completely opposed, as it would end their control of the Volunteers, but were unable to prevent the motion from being carried in Redmond's favor.
Shortly after the formation of the Volunteers, British Parliament banned the importation of weapons into Ireland. The Ulster Volunteers were able to get away with it nevertheless, and the Irish Volunteers realized they would have to as well if they were to be a serious force. Thus O'Rahilly, Sir Roger CasementSir Roger David Casement ( September 1, 1864 August 3, 1916) was a British diplomat by profession and a poet, Irish revolutionary and nationalist by inclination. Exposing Belgian brutality in the Congo Casement joined the British consular service in 1892, and Bulmer Hobson worked together to coordinate a daylight gun running expedition to the port of Howth, just north of Dublin. The plan worked beautifully, and Erskine ChildersOverview Robert Erskine Childers ( June 25 1870 November 24, 1922) was a British soldier, sailor, author and Irish nationalist who was killed during the Irish Civil War for his opposition to the Anglo-Irish Treaty. He was the son of British Orientalist sc brought nearly 1,000 rifles to the harbor and distributed them to the waiting Volunteers without interference from the authorities. As the Volunteers returned to Dublin, however, they were met by a large patrol of the Royal Irish ConstabularyThe Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), was one of Ireland's two police-forces in the early twentieth century, alongside the Dublin Metropolitan Police. Londonderry and Belfast had had their own forces, but problems, including sectarian violence saw them both and the British Army. The Vounteers escaped largely unscathed, but when the army returned to Dublin they fired on a group of unarmed civilians who had been heckling them. This massacre caused enlistments in the Volunteers to soar.