Imminent Death Will Do That To A Man

Wise old folk are fond of commenting on atheists proclaiming their lack of belief until they are facing their mortality and all of the sudden they've found God again.

No less a non-believer than James Connolly had one of those miraculous conversions. It was not until after the Easter Rising had gone wrong, and he was listening to the sound of the firing squad murder his co-conspirators, that he became a Catholic once again.

It's the sort of revelation that could tarnish a Marxist's image.

An unpublished manuscript has turned up in England, said to have been written by the British Army chaplain who was in Dublin in 1916 when the Empire struck back against the rebellious Irish.

In the memoir, George Kendall claims that he met James Connolly on two occasions. One, when Mr. Connolly was in hospital being treated for wounds suffered in battle, and again when Mr. Connolly was in Kilmainham awaiting execution. It was at their second encounter that the man who wanted to create a worker's paradise in Ireland asked to see a priest. He made a confession and received the Eucharist, embracing God as if he was preparing for the judgment that really mattered, before he was propped up in a chair and shot to death.

Mr. Kendall's grandson would like to get the memoir published. Although written in 1961, it is an important document penned by someone who was there and saw things through his own lens, a very British prism. Without the publication of manuscripts like this, the public could forget that a British Army chaplain truly believed that the Easter Rising was misguided and due largely to the stumblings of an incompetent government. Not that religious intolerance or centuries of prejudice had anything to do with it. Not at all. Mr. Kendall was fond of the Irish people. Like some people are fond of cute little dogs and small children?

While it is almost amusing to realize that a hard-bitten agnostic like James Connolly could bend at the end and seek comfort in the faith of his fathers, the faith that was once illegal to practice in Ireland, the attitude and opinion of an Englishman is well worth preserving for all time.

It's but three years away, the centennial of the Easter Rising that set the Republic of Ireland into existence. It is time for a book that shows a different view of events, from the side of those who could not understand why anyone would want to leave the glorious United Kingdom.