The Howth gun-running ( ) involved the delivery of 1,500 Mauser rifles to the Irish Volunteers at Howth harbour in Ireland on 26 July 1914. The unloading of guns from a private yacht during daylight hours attracted a crowd, and the authorities ordered police and military intervention. Despite this the Volunteers evaded the security forces and carried away the arms. As the King's Own Scottish Borderers returned to barracks, they were accosted by civilians at Bachelors Walk, who threw stones and exchanged insults with the regulars. In an event later termed the Bachelor's Walk massacre, the soldiers shot into the civilian crowd and bayoneted one man, resulting in the deaths of four civilians and wounding of at least 38.
Gun-running plan
According to Darrell Figgis, the plan was first conceived in April 1914, in response to the Curragh incident on 20 March. Many Irish people believed that the British Army could not be relied on to enforce Home Rule when it was enacted, and many Irish Volunteers also felt that availability of arms would aid recruitment. At a lunch attended by Alice Stopford Green, Sir Roger Casement, Figgis and Eoin MacNeill, it was decided that Figgis would contact Michael O'Rahilly to raise funds to buy arms. George Fitz-Hardinge Berkeley subscribed the largest amount.
He was unsuccessful and the group was dismayed to learn of the Larne gun-running of the Ulster Volunteers (UVF). Senior Irish Volunteer Patrick Pearse had commented that: "the only thing more ridiculous than an Ulsterman with a rifle is a Nationalist without one". Casement asked Alice Green for a loan to be repaid when the volunteers bought their rifles. Casement, Figgis and Erskine Childers visited the London agent of a Belgian arms dealer. They eventually closed with a dealer in Hamburg, introduced to them by O'Rahilly, and settled on a sale of 1,500 rifles.
Transport from Germany to Ireland was carried out by Erskine Childers, Molly Childers, Sir Roger Casement, Alice Green and Mary Spring Rice. Molly Childers and Spring Rice established a board to raise more funds for the arms, and succeeded in obtaining just over £2,000. Molly kept a diary of the events, a witty historical document. The Childers offered their pleasure yacht, the Asgard, to carry 900 of the Mauser M1871 11 mm single-shot rifles and 29,000 rounds of its black powder ammunition. To buy these guns, Erskine Childers – who drafted the contract – told the German arms dealers that the rifles were destined for Mexico. The guns, although obsolete, were still functioning. They were later used in the attack on the GPO in the Easter Rising of 1916.
A much smaller number of Mauser rifles was landed from the Chotah simultaneously at Kilcoole in County Wicklow by Sir Thomas Myles, Tom Kettle, and James Meredith.
Transporting the guns
The Asgard and Conor O'Brien's yacht Kelpie sailed to the Ruytingen buoy near the Belgian coast, crewed by O'Brien, the Childers, Spring Rice, and two sailors from Gola Island, County Donegal: Patrick McGinley (Páidí Dhónaill Pháidí Mac Fhionnghaile) and Charles Duggan (Séarlaí Pháidí Shéarlais Ó Dugáin). There they met the tugboat that had carried the rifles from Hamburg. The arms filled the yacht's cabin entirely, leaving little space to sleep or prepare food, all of which was done on top of the arms. On the return journey, they met with bad storms. Next they encountered an entire fleet of the British navy, out in anticipation of the outbreak of the coming war, and had to sail through with their illicit cargo. Spring Rice's diary is a moving personal account.
Arrival in Howth
The Asgard unloaded the arms in Howth harbour on 26 July 1914. It was met by members of Fianna Éireann, led by Countess Markievicz, ready with hand carts and wheelbarrows. Also present were Bulmer Hobson, Douglas Hyde, Darrell Figgis, Peadar Kearney and Thomas MacDonagh. The harbour master informed the authorities about the situation, and the Dublin Metropolitan Police were called out. Assistant Commissioner Harrell also appealed for military assistance, and a detachment of the King's Own Scottish Borderers were dispatched from their barracks at Kilmainham.The two groups met at Clontarf.