Bachelor's Walk Massacre
The events followed the landing of 1,500 rifles and ammunition, purchased for the Irish Volunteers in Hamburg in May 1914. In a counter operation to the Unionists running guns into Ulster, Erskine Childers landed the cargo in Howth and a thousand rifle-carrying Irish Volunteers marched into Dublin. The quantity was negligible when compared to the far greater numbers of weapons landed and distributed by the Ulster Volunteers, completely without hindrance, but the reaction this time was severe from the British ruling authorities.
The incident proved a moment of political opportunity for Irish nationalists as it sharply brought out the different treatment for the Unionists and for unarmed Dublin civilians. Patrick Pearse declared, "The army is an object of odium, and the Volunteers are the heroes of the hour. The whole movement, the whole country, has been re-baptised by bloodshed for Ireland."