Joseph O'Doherty recalls coming to Dublin on Spy Wednesday and meeting Seán MacDiarmada. MacDiarmada told him that the Rising was going to begin on Sunday 23 April and O'Doherty had to return to Derry to distribute weapons to the Volunteers.
Joseph O'Doherty had come to Dublin from Derry on Spy Wednesday to see his fiancé who was studying medicine in Dublin. He went to see his friend Seán MacDiarmada in the offices of Irish Freedom. MacDiarmada questioned him as to why he was in Dublin at that time and inquired about a consignment of weapons and ammunition O'Doherty received.
This stuff was about half a tonne of stuff I had kept under my own supervision and in safety and it was in my possession.
O'Doherty had planned to spend the Easter holidays in Dublin but MacDiarmada had other plans. The weapons had to be distributed to the Volunteers in Derry and Tyrone and O'Doherty was chosen to oversee the operation. Realising he would have to tell him further information, O'Doherty was sworn into the IRB by MacDiarmada, even though he was a member already. Once sworn in O'Doherty was told that the Rising was going to take place on Easter Sunday.
Joseph O'Doherty was interviewed for the programme 'Memories of Easter 1916' broadcast on Radio Éireann on 30 March 1964.
'They Were There'
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