Reflecting on the contribution of Bulmer Hobson to the Irish republican movement.
A leading figure in the Irish republican movement John Bulmer Hobson died on 8 August 1969. Professor Kevin B Nowlan from University College Dublin describes Bulmer Hobson's contribution to the republican spirit.
Bulmer Hobson was essentially a political realist, a conservative revolutionary if you like, and it was that which in a sense cut him off from the thinking and the planning which made the 1916 Rising possible.
Professor Kevin B Nowlan feels that Bulmer Hobson's main contribution was to help restore the republican movement at the beginning of the 20th century.
Bulmer Hobson came from northern Quaker stock which is a reminder of the Ulster tradition of revolutionary descent despite the rise of unionism in the previous century.
His great contribution was that he helped to make republicanism a reality as a movement in the 20th century.
John Bulmer Hobson was born into a Quaker family in Belfast in 1883. Interested in Irish history and nationalism from an early age, he was sworn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in 1904, and also held membership of the Gaelic League and Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA).
In 1905 he founded the Dungannon Clubs in Belfast with Denis McCullough, a non-sectarian nationalist organisation whose aim was to work towards Ireland's independence. With Countess Constance Markievicz, he founded Na Fianna Éireann (the Irish National Boy Scouts) in 1909.
He was instrumental in planning the Howth gun-running in 1914 and was secretary and member of the Irish Volunteers provisional council. Hobson opposed the 1916 Rising as the taking up of arms was incompatible with his Quaker upbringing.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 8 August 1969.
