text:
Quotes from Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
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- Dak: Right now I feel like I could take on the whole Empire myself.
- Yoda: Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph! Adventure. Heh! Excitement. Heh! A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless!
- [annoyed]
- Princess Leia: Why, you stuck up... half-witted... scruffy-looking... Nerf-herder!
- Han Solo: Who's scruffy-looking?
- Admiral Piett: Lord Vader, our ships have completed their scan of the area and found nothing. If the Millennium Falcon went into light-speed, which I doubt, it'll be on the other side of the galaxy by now.
- Darth Vader: Alert all commands. Calculate every possible destination along their last known trajectory.
- Admiral Piett: Yes, my Lord. We'll find them.
- Darth Vader: Don't fail me again, Admiral. I've had quite enough.
- Yoda: Stopped they must be; on this all depends. Only a fully trained Jedi Knight, with the Force as his ally, will conquer Vader and his Emperor. If you end your training now - if you choose the quick and easy path as Vader did - you will become an agent of evil.
- Obi-Wan: Patience.
- Luke: And sacrifice Han and Leia?
- Yoda: If you honor what they fight for? Yes.
- Obi-Wan: If you choose to face Vader, you will do it alone. I cannot interfere.
- Luke: I understand. R2? Fire up the converters.
- Obi-Wan: Luke! Don't give in to hate. That leads to the Dark Side.
- Yoda: Strong is Vader. Mind what you have learned. Save you it can.
- Luke: I will. And I'll return, I promise.
- [Luke has seen a vision of Han, Leia and Chewie being tortured in Cloud City]
- Luke: I've got to go to them.
- Yoda: Decide you must, how to serve them best. If you leave now, help them you could; but you would destroy all for which they have fought, and suffered.
- Luke: I saw - I saw a city in the clouds.
- [nods]
- Yoda: Friends you have there.
- Luke: They were in pain...
- Yoda: It is the future you see.
- Luke: The future?
- [pause]
- Luke: Will they die?
- [closes his eyes for a moment]
- Yoda: Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.
- C-3PO: Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1.
- Han Solo: Never tell me the odds.
- Darth Vader: Yes, Admiral?
- Admiral Piett: Our ships have sighted the Millennium Falcon, my Lord. But it has entered an asteroid field and we cannot risk...
- [interrupting]
- Darth Vader: Asteroids do not concern me, Admiral! I want that ship, not excuses!
- Admiral Piett: Yes, my Lord.
- [kneeling before Emperor Palpatine's hologram]
- Darth Vader: What is thy bidding, my master?
- [intrigued]
- Emperor Palpatine: Yes... He would be a great asset. Can it be done?
- Darth Vader: He will join us or die, master.
- Emperor Palpatine: There is a great disturbance in the Force.
- Darth Vader: I have felt it.
- Emperor Palpatine: We have a new enemy. The young Rebel who destroyed the Death Star. I have no doubt this boy is the offspring of Anakin Skywalker.
- Darth Vader: How is that possible?
- Emperor Palpatine: Search your feelings, Lord Vader. You will know it to be true. He could destroy us.
- Darth Vader: He's just a boy. Obi-Wan can no longer help him.
- Emperor Palpatine: The Force is strong with him. The son of Skywalker must not become a Jedi.
- Darth Vader: If he could be turned, he would become a powerful ally.
- Yoda: You must unlearn what you have learned.
- Luke: I want my lamp back. I'm gonna need it to get out of this slimy mudhole.
- Yoda: Mudhole? Slimy? My home this is!
- [a tremor knocks Leia into Solo's arms]
- Princess Leia: Let go.
- Han Solo: Shh.
- Princess Leia: Let go, please.
- Han Solo: Don't get excited.
- Princess Leia: Captain, being held by you isn't quite enough to get me excited.
- Han Solo: Sorry sweetheart. I haven't got time for anything else.
- [Luke can't levitate his X-Wing out of the bog]
- Luke: I can't. It's too big.
- Yoda: Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship.
- Han Solo: It's not my fault.
- Lando: Punch it!
- [Chewbacca attempts to engage the hyperdrive on the Millenium Falcon - it fails. Chewie and Leia both glare at Lando]
- Lando: They told me they fixed it! I *trusted* them to *fix* it! It's not my fault!
- Han Solo: Afraid I was gonna leave without giving you a goodbye kiss?
- Princess Leia: I'd just as soon kiss a Wookiee.
- Han Solo: I can arrange that. You could use a good kiss.
- Han Solo: Well Princess, it looks like you managed to keep me here a while longer.
- Princess Leia: I had nothing to do with it. General Rieekan thinks it's dangerous for anyone to leave the system until they've activated the energy shield.
- Han Solo: That's a good story. I think you just can't bear to let a gorgeous guy like me out of your sight.
- Princess Leia: I don't know where you get your delusions, laser brain.
- [Chewbacca laughs]
- Han Solo: Laugh it up, fuzzball.
- Darth Vader: The force is with you, young Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet.
- C-3PO: Artoo says that the chances of survival are 725 to 1. Actually Artoo has been known to make mistakes... from time to time... Oh dear...
- [cutting open his dead Tauntaun and shoving Luke inside]
- Han Solo: This may smell bad, kid, but it'll keep you warm until I get the shelter up... Ugh. And I thought they smelled bad on the *outside*.
- Yoda: I am wondering, why are you here?
- Luke: I'm looking for someone.
- Yoda: Looking? Found someone, you have, I would say, hmmm?
- Luke: Right...
- Yoda: Help you I can. Yes, mmmm.
- Luke: I don't think so. I'm looking for a great warrior.
- Yoda: Ohhh. Great warrior.
- [laughs and shakes his head]
- Yoda: Wars not make one great.
- Luke: All right, I'll give it a try.
- Yoda: No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try.
- [Using the Force, Yoda effortlessly frees the X-Wing from the bog]
- Luke: I don't, I don't believe it.
- Yoda: That is why you fail.
- Darth Vader: Impressive. Most impressive. Obi-Wan has taught you well. You have controlled your fear. Now, release your anger. Only your hatred can destroy me.
- Princess Leia: I'll be back.
- Han Solo: You said you wanted to be around when I made a mistake, well, this could be it, sweetheart.
- Princess Leia: I take it back.
- [to Han]
- Princess Leia: Well, I guess you don't know everything about women yet.
- [Leia gives Luke a kiss in front of Han]
- [Yoda tries to convince Luke not to leave]
- Yoda: You must not go!
- Luke: But Han and Leia will die if I don't.
- [Obi-Wan's Force-spirit suddenly appears]
- Obi-Wan: You don't know that. Even Yoda cannot see their fate.
- Luke: But I can help them! I feel the Force!
- Obi-Wan: But you cannot control it. This is a dangerous time for you, when you will be tempted by the Dark Side of the Force.
- Yoda: Control, control, you must learn control!
- [heading into a cave on a large asteroid]
- Princess Leia: I hope you know what you're doing.
- Han Solo: Yeah, me too.
- Luke: I don't know. I feel like...
- Yoda: Feel like what?
- [Luke whips around and pulls out his blaster in defense]
- Luke: Like we're being watched.
- Yoda: Away put your weapon. I mean you no harm.
- Yoda: Why wish you become Jedi?
- Luke: Well, mostly because of my father, I guess.
- Yoda: Ahh... father. Powerful Jedi was he. Powerful Jedi.
- [suspcious]
- Luke: Oh, come on! How can you know my father? You don't even know who I am. Oh, I don't even know what I'm doing here! We're wasting our time!
- [Looking away from Luke]
- Yoda: I cannot teach him. The boy has no patience.
- [voice-over]
- Obi-Wan: He will learn patience.
- Yoda: Much anger in him... like his father.
- [voice]
- Obi-Wan: Was I any different when you taught me?
- [on Han's escape plan]
- C-3PO: I really don't see how that is going to help! Surrender is a perfectly acceptable alternative in extreme circumstances! The Empire may be gracious enough to...
- [Han signals to Leia, who shuts 3PO down]
- Darth Vader: Your destiny lies with me Skywalker. Obi-Wan knew this to be true.
- Luke: No...
- Darth Vader: Calrissian. Take the princess and the Wookie to my ship.
- Lando: You said they'd be left at the city under my supervision!
- Darth Vader: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.
- Darth Vader: There will be a substantial reward for the one who finds the Millennium Falcon. You are free to use any methods necessary, but I want them alive. No disintegrations.
- Boba Fett: As you wish.
- Imperial Officer: Sir, rebel ships are coming into our sector.
- Captain Lennox: Good, our first catch of the day.
- [Han reveals his clever plan of escape]
- Princess Leia: You have your moments. Not many of them, but you do have them.
- Yoda: Yes, run! Yes, a Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice.
- Luke: Vader... Is the dark side stronger?
- Yoda: No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive.
- Luke: But how am I to know the good side from the bad?
- Yoda: You will know... when you are calm, at peace, passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, NEVER for attack.
- Luke: But tell my why I can't...
- Yoda: No, no! There is no "why".
- Princess Leia: You're not actually going IN to an asteroid field?
- Han Solo: They'd be crazy to follow us, wouldn't they?
- [Amid the violence of colliding asteroids]
- [to Han Solo]
- Princess Leia: You don't have to do this to impress me.
- [the asteroid quakes]
- C-3PO: Sir, it's quite possible this asteroid is not entirely stable.
- Han Solo: Not entirely stable. I'm glad you're here to tell us these things. Chewie! Take the Professor in back and plug him into the hyperdrive!
- [the Millennium Falcon, under siege, won't start]
- [sarcastic]
- Princess Leia: Would it help if I got out and pushed?
- [also sarcastic]
- Han Solo: It might!
- Han Solo: Hey, Your Worship, I'm only trying to help.
- Han Solo: Stop what?
- [timidly]
- Princess Leia: Stop that. My hands are dirty.
- Han Solo: My hands are dirty, too. What are you afraid of?
- Princess Leia: Afraid?
- Han Solo: You're trembling.
- Princess Leia: I'm not trembling.
- [Han moves in closer]
- Han Solo: You like me because I'm a scoundrel. There aren't enough scoundrels in your life.
- Princess Leia: I happen to like nice men.
- Han Solo: I'm a nice man.
- Princess Leia: Would you please stop calling me that?
- Princess Leia: No, you're not...
- [they kiss]
- Han Solo: Sure, Leia.
- Princess Leia: You make it so difficult sometimes.
- Han Solo: I do, I really do. You could be a little nicer, though. Come on, admit it. Sometimes you think I'm all right.
- Princess Leia: Occasionally, maybe... when you aren't acting like a scoundrel.
- Han Solo: Scoundrel? Scoundrel... I like the sound of that.
- [Han starts to massage Leia's hand]
- Princess Leia: Stop that.
- Luke: I won't fail you. I'm not afraid.
- Yoda: You will be. You... will... be.
- [greeting "old friend" Han Solo]
- Lando: Why you slimy, double-crossing, no-good swindler. You've got a lot of guts coming here, after what you pulled.
- Lando: What are you doing here?
- Han Solo: Ah, repairs. I was hoping you could help me out.
- Lando: What have you done to my ship?
- Han Solo: YOUR ship? Hey, remember you lost her to me, fair and square.
- Darth Vader: You may take Captain Solo to Jabba the Hutt after I have Skywalker.
- Boba Fett: He's no good to me dead.
- Darth Vader: He will not be permanently damaged.
- C-3PO: Excuse me sir, but might I inquire as to what's going on?
- Han Solo: Why not?
- C-3PO: Impossible man.
- [Han heads out of the Asteroids toward a Star Destroyer]
- C-3PO: The odds of successfully surviving an attack on an Imperial Star Destroyer are approximately...
- Leia: Shut up!
- Han Solo: No time to discuss this as a committee.
- Princess Leia: I am not a committee!
- [Leia and Han prepares to escape in the Falcon]
- Princess Leia: This bucket of bolts's never gonna get us past that blockade.
- C-3PO: Sir, If I may venture an opinion...
- Han Solo: I'm not really interested in your opinion 3PO.
- Lando: Lord Vader, what about Leia and the Wookiee?
- Darth Vader: They must never again leave this city.
- [outraged]
- Lando: That was never a condition of our agreement, nor was giving Han to this bounty hunter!
- Darth Vader: Perhaps you think you're being treated unfairly?
- [after a pause; nervous tone]
- Lando: No.
- Darth Vader: Good, it would be unfortunate if I had to leave a garrison here.
- [to himself]
- Lando: This deal is getting worse all the time!
- [having cornered Luke during their lightsaber battle]
- Darth Vader: You are beaten. It is useless to resist. Don't let yourself be destroyed as Obi-Wan did.
- Echo Base Officer: Echo station 3-T-8, we have spotted Imperial walkers.
- Boba Fett: What if he doesn't survive? He's worth a lot to me.
- Darth Vader: The Empire will compensate you, if he dies. Put him in.
- [as Chewie tries to fight off the imperials and free Han]
- Han Solo: No! Stop, Chewie, stop! Chewie! Chewie this won't help me! Hey! Save your strength. There'll be another time. The Princess. You have to take care of her. You hear me? Huh?
- [Leia and Han share a passionate kiss before Han is dragged towards the freezing chamber by the imperials]
- Princess Leia: I love you.
- Han Solo: I know.
- [C-3PO is broken almost beyond repair]
- Lando: Having trouble with your droid?
- Han Solo: No, no problem. Why?
- [after R2-D2 gets fried]
- C-3PO: Well, don't blame me. I'm an interpreter. I'm not supposed to know a power socket from a computer terminal.
- [after choking Captain Needa to death]
- Darth Vader: Apology accepted, Captain Needa.
- [evacuating the Rebel Hoth base]
- [to C-3PO]
- Han Solo: Hurry up, goldenrod! Or you're gonna be a permanent resident!
- C-3PO: Oh. They've encased him in Carbonite. He should be quite well protected. If he survived the freezing process, that is.
- Darth Vader: Well, Calrissian, did he survive?
- Lando: Yes, he's alive, and in perfect hibernation.
- Darth Vader: He's all yours, bounty hunter. Reset the chamber for Skywalker.
- [Darth Vader has just learned of Admiral Ozzel's big blunder, and activates a viewscreen]
- [appearing onscreen with Captain Piett]
- Admiral Ozzel: Lord Vader, the fleet has moved out of lightspeed and we're preparing to...
- [Ozzel stops, and suddenly begins to choke, clutching at his throat]
- Darth Vader: You have failed me for the last time, Admiral! Captain Piett?
- Captain Piett: Yes, my lord?
- Darth Vader: Make ready to land our troops beyond their energy field, and deploy the fleet, so that nothing gets off the system.
- [beside Piett, Admiral Ozzel utters one last strangled gasp, and falls over dead]
- Darth Vader: You are in command now... Admiral Piett!
- Admiral Piett: Thank you, Lord Vader. I won't fail you.
- Darth Vader: All too easy.
- Luke: How far away is Yoda? Will it take us long to get there?
- Yoda: Not far. Yoda not far. Patience. Soon you will be with him.
- [the storm troopers are taken prisoner by Calrissian's men]
- C-3PO: What are you doing? Trust him, trust him!
- Leia: Oh, well, we understand, don't we, Chewie. You had "no choice".
- Lando: Just trying to help...
- Leia: We don't need any of your help!
- [gasps]
- Lando: Han! Ha- Ha...
- Leia: What?
- Lando: HAN!
- C-3PO: It sounds like Han!
- [gasping]
- Lando: There's still a chance to save Han! At the east... platform!
- Leia: Chewie!
- [to Lobot, his aide]
- Lando: Well done. Hold them in the security tower, and keep it quiet. Move.
- [Leia gets Chewie to drop Lando]
- C-3PO: I'm terribly sorry about all this. After all, he's only a Wookiee!
- [Lando's aide and their men walk off with the troops as Lando hands Leia the imperials' weapons and starts taking off Chewie's c]
- Leia: What do you think you're doing?
- Lando: We're getting out of here.
- C-3PO: I knew all along. Had to be a mistake.
- [angrily]
- Leia: Do you think that after what you did to Han that we're going to trust you?
- [Chewie grabs Lando by the throat]
- [choking]
- Lando: I had no choice!
- [Chewbacca is fixing C-3PO]
- C-3PO: Oh, yes, that's very good, I like that... Oh!
- [the lights in his eyes go out]
- C-3PO: Well, now, something's not right, because now I can't see!
- [Chewie fiddles with something and his eyes turn back on]
- C-3PO: Oh, oh, that's much better. Wait... wait. Oh, my! What have you done? I'm BACKWARDS. You flea-bitten furball! Only an overgrown mop-head like you would be stupid enough to...
- [Chewie switches 3PO off]
- Leia: They're getting closer.
- Han Solo: Oh, yeah? Watch this.
- [he throws the hyperdrive lever, the engine sputters and dies]
- Leia: Watch what?
- Han Solo: I think we're in trouble.
- C-3PO: If I may say so, sir, I noticed earlier the hyperdrive motivator has been damaged. It's impossible to go to lightspeed!
- Han Solo: We're in trouble!
- Leia: I thought you knew this person.
- [Chewie barks something to Han]
- Han Solo: Well, that was a long time ago, I'm sure he's forgotten about that.
- [Interrupting Han and Leia kissing]
- C-3PO: Sir. Sir, I've isolated the reverse, power flux coupling.
- Han Solo: Thank you. Thank you very much.
- C-3PO: Oh you're perfectly welcome, sir.
- [trying to fix the hyperdrive]
- Han Solo: Horizontal boosters. Alluvial dampers? Ow! That's not it, bring me the Hydrospanner. I don't know how we're going to get out of this one.
- [the ship is hit, causing the tool box to fall on Han]
- Han Solo: OW! Chewie!
- Darth Vader: Luke, you can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny. Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son.
- C-3PO: I thought that hairy beast would be the end of me.
- [R2-D2 bleeps an inquiry]
- C-3PO: Of course I've looked better.
- [repeated line]
- Luke: Ben... Ben. Why didn't you tell me?
- C-3PO: Master Luke, Sir, it's so good to see you fully functional again. R2 expresses his relief also.
- Han Solo: How ya feeling kid? You don't look so bad to me. You look strong enough to pull the ears off a gundark.
- Luke: Thanks to you.
- Han Solo: That's two you owe me, junior.
- Lando: I had no choice. They arrived right before you did. I'm sorry.
- Han Solo: I'm sorry too.
- [R2 is trying to open the door as Storm Troopers shoot at them; he beeps]
- C-3PO: No! We're not interested in the hyperdrive on the Millenium Falcon, it's fixed!
- [R2 beeps again]
- C-3PO: Just open the door, you stupid lug!
- [he opens the door]
- C-3PO: I never doubted him for a second! Wonderful!
- Captain Needa: They can't have disappeared. No ship that small has a cloaking device.
- C-3PO: I'm terribly sorry about all this. After all, he's only a Wookiee.
- C-3PO: Sir, I don't know where your ship learned to communicate, but it has the most peculiar dialect.
- [after R2D2 is spit out by a swamp creature on Dagobah - the line is changed in the Special Edition]
- Luke: You were lucky to get out of there.
- Darth Vader: What is it, General?
- General Veers: My Lord, the fleet has moved out of lightspeed. Com Scan has detected an energy field protecting an area on the sixth planet of the Hoth System. The field is strong enough to deflect any bombardment.
- [getting angry]
- Darth Vader: The Rebels are alerted to our presence. Admiral Ozzel came out of lightspeed too close to the system.
- General Veers: He... he felt surprise was wiser...
- Darth Vader: He is as clumsy as he is stupid! A clean bombardment is now impossible. General... prepare your troops for a surface attack.
- General Veers: Yes, my Lord.
- [On the asteroid]
- Princess Leia: I have a bad feeling about this...
- [about Lando]
- C-3PO: : Well, he seems very friendly.
- Princess Leia: Yes, very friendly...
- [to Leia]
- Lando: You look absolutely beautiful. You truly belong here with us among the clouds.
- [cooly]
- Princess Leia: Thank you.
- [clinging to an antennae below Cloud City]
- Luke: Leia... Hear me, Leia...
- [in the Falcon]
- Princess Leia: Luke... We've got to go back.
- Lando: What?
- Princess Leia: I know where Luke is!
- Lando: Lord Vader, we only use this facility for carbon freezing. If you put him in there it might kill him.
- Darth Vader: I do not want the Emperor's prize damaged. We will test it on Captain Solo.
- General Veers: Yes, Lord Vader. I've reached the main power generators. The shield will be down in no time. You may start your landing.
- [Wedge and Janson succeeds in bring down an Imperial Walker]
- Wedge Antilles: Whoa! That got him!
- Darth Vader: You have learned much, young one.
- Luke: You'll find I'm full of surprises.
- Darth Vader: Yes, Admiral, what is it?
- Admiral Piett: The Emperor commands you make contact with him.
- Darth Vader: Move the ship out of the asteroid field so that we can send a clear transmission.
- Luke: There's something not right here... I feel cold. Death.
- [points to a cave opening beneath a large tree]
- Yoda: That place... is strong with the dark side of the Force. A domain of evil it is. In you must go.
- Luke: What's in there?
- Yoda: Only what you take with you.
- General Rieekan: I don't think we can protect two transports at a time.
- Princess Leia: It's risky but we can't hold out much longer. We have no choice.
- General Rieekan: Launch patrols.
- Princess Leia: Evacuate remaining ground staff.
- Yoda: Your weapons, you will not need them.
- Princess Leia: All troop carriers will assemble at the north entrance. The heavy transport ships will leave as soon as they're loaded. Only two fighter escorts per ship. The energy shield can only be opened for a short time, so you'll have to stay very close to your transports.
- Derek 'Hobbie' Klivian: Two fighters against a Star Destroyer?
- Princess Leia: The ion cannon will fire several shots to make sure any enemy ships will be out of your flight path. When you've gotten past the energy shield, proceed directly to the rendezvous point. Understood? Good luck.
- C-3PO: Don't worry about Master Luke. I'm sure he'll be all right. He's quite clever, you know... for a human being.
- [R2 is outside the Hoth base, scanning the area]
- C-3PO: You must come along now R2. There's really nothing more we can do. And my joints are freezing up.
- [R2 Beeps something about Luke]
- C-3PO: Don't say things like that! Of course we'll see Master Luke again! And he'll be quite all right, you'll see!
- [to himself]
- C-3PO: Stupid little short-circuit! He'll be *quite* all right.
- [R2 beeps again and keeps scanning]
- [in the Asteroid Field]
- Princess Leia: We're going to get pulverized if we stay out here much longer.
- Han Solo: I'm not going to argue with that.
- C-3PO: Pulverized?
- Princess Leia: Some day you're gonna be wrong, I just hope I'm there to see it.
- [to Han]
- Princess Leia: You certainly have a way with people...
- [Luke's ship sinks into the mud]
- Luke: We'll never get it out now!
- Yoda: So certain are you. Always with you what cannot be done. Hear you nothing that I say?
- [first title cards]
- Title card/crawl: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
- Title card/crawl: It is a dark time for the Rebellion. Although the Death Star has been destroyed, Imperial troops have driven the Rebel forces from their hidden base and pursued them across the galaxy. Evading the dreaded Imperial Starfleet, a group of freedom fighters led by Luke Skywalker has established a new secret base on the remote ice world of Hoth. The evil lord Darth Vader, obsessed with finding young Skywalker, has dispatched thousands of remote probes into the far reaches of space...
- [first lines]
- Luke: Echo Three to Echo Seven. Han, old buddy, do you read me?
- Han Solo: Loud and clear, kid. What's up?
- Luke: Well, I finished my circle. I don't pick up any life readings.
- Han Solo: There isn't enough life on this ice cube to fill a space cruiser. Sensors are placed. I'm going back.
- Luke: Right. I'll see you shortly. There's a meteorite that hit the ground near here. I want to check it out. It won't take long.
- [last lines]
- Lando: Princess, we'll find Han. I promise.
- Luke: Chewie, I'll be waiting for your signal. Take care, you two. May the force be with you.
- [Han has decided to go searching for Luke]
- Echo Base Officer: Your Tauntaun will freeze before you reach the first marker!
- Han Solo: Then I'll see you in Hell!
- [after being tortured]
- Han Solo: I feel terrible.
- [to Han]
- Lando: You know, seeing you sure brings back a few things. Yeah, I'm responsible now, the price you pay for being successful.
- [seeing Leia for the first time]
- Lando: Hello, what have we here?
- Lando: How you doin' Chewbacca? Still hanging around with this loser?
- Darth Vader: Alert my Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival.
- [C-3PO and R2-D2 are first seen walking in the underground base on Ice Planet Hoth]
- C-3PO: I didn't ask you to turn on the thermal heater. I merely commented that it was freezing in the princess's chamber...
- [Chirps his objection]
- C-3PO: But it's SUPPOSED to be freezing! How we are ever going to dry out her clothes, I really don't know!
- [in 1997 Special Edition only]
- C-3PO: Oh, this is suicide! There's nowhere to go.
- Luke: Watch that cross fire boys.
- [in 1997 Special Edition only]
- Luke: This is it.
- [to Luke]
- Yoda: How do you get so big eating food of this kind?
- Princess Leia: The cave is collapsing.
- Han Solo: This is no cave.
- C-3PO: That sounds like an R2 unit in there! I wonder if... Hello? Hello? How interesting.
- Stormtrooper: Who are you?
- C-3PO: Oh, my! I... I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to intrude. No, please don't get up.
- [the Stormtrooper shoots C-3PO]
- Han Solo: What's going on... Buddy?
- Lando: You're being put into carbon-freeze.
- Princess Leia: Luke! Luke! Don't! It's a trap! It's a trap!
- [in 1997 Special Edition only]
- Darth Vader: Alert my Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival.
- [Chewbacca is carrying the dismembered C3PO on his back]
- C-3PO: If only you'd attached my legs, I wouldn't be in this ridiculous position. Now remember, Chewbacca, you have a responsibility to me, so don't do anything foolish!
- Lando: I've just made a deal that'll keep the Empire out of here forever.
- Darth Vader: We would be honored if you would join us.
- [talks to Darth Vader about trapping Luke Skywalker]
- Lando: Lord Vader, we only use this facility for carbon freezing. You put him in there, it might kill him!
- Darth Vader: I do not want the Emperor's prize damaged. We will test it... on Captain Solo.
- [C-3PO won't stop complaining]
- Han Solo: Either shut him up or shut him down!
- [while the Falcon is fleeing from Imperial fighters, and R2-D2 is stitching C-3PO back together]
- C-3PO: Noisy brute. Why don't we just go to lightspeed?
- [beeps]
- C-3PO: We can't? How would you know the hyperdrive is deactivated?
- [beeps]
- C-3PO: The City's central computer told you? R2-D2, you know better than to trust a strange computer.
- [R2's welding arm shocks his ankle]
- C-3PO: Ouch! Pay attention to what you're doing!
- Princess Leia: Han, we need you.
- Han Solo: No! That's not it. Come on. Come on!
- Princess Leia: You're imagining things.
- Han Solo: Am I? Then why are you following me? Afraid I was gonna leave without giving you a goodbye kiss?
- Princess Leia: I'd just as soon kiss a wookiee.
- Han Solo: I can arrange that.
- [Han walks away]
- Han Solo: You could use a good kiss!
- Han Solo: *We* need?
- Princess Leia: Yes.
- Han Solo: Well, what about *you* need?
- Princess Leia: I need? I don't know what you are talking about.
- Han Solo: You probably don't.
- Princess Leia: What precisely am I supposed to know?
- Han Solo: Come on. You want me to stay because of the way you feel about me.
- Princess Leia: Yes, you're great help to us. You're a natural leader.
- Wedge Antilles: Detach cable!
- Rebel Force Janson: Cable detached!
- Darth Vader: Alert my Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival.
- Han Solo: Deck officer! Deck officer!
- [when a toolbox falls on his head]
- Han Solo: OOOOW!
- [walks into a room with Han, Leia, and Chewbacca in it]
- Lando: Sorry, am I interrupting anything?
- [he and Leia walk away as Lando glances at 3PO again then follows with Chewie]
- Princess Leia: Not really.
- [smiles]
- Lando: You look absolutely beautiful. You truly belong here with us among the clouds.
- [Han looks jealous]
- [bitterly]
- Princess Leia: Thank you.
- Lando: Would you join us for a little refreshment? Everyone's invited, of course.
- [looks at the broken C-3PO]
- Lando: Having trouble with your droid?
- Han Solo: No, no problem. Why?
- Princess Leia: I love you.
- Han Solo: I know.
- Boba Fett: What if he doesn't survive? He's worth a lot to me.
- Princess Leia: Would it help if I got out and pushed?
- Han Solo: It might!
- Luke: Now all I got to is find this Yoda. If he even exists. It's a really strange place to find a Jedi Master. This place gives me the creeps.
- Yoda: Looking? Found someone, you have, I would say! Hmm?
- [laughs]
- [lowers his gun]
- Luke: Right...
- Yoda: Help you, I can. Yes, mmm.
- Luke: I don't think so.
- [Yoda frowns]
- Luke: I'm looking for a great warrior.
- Yoda: Oh!
- [chuckles and comes toward Luke]
- Yoda: Great warrior!
- [starts to eat something]
- [laughs again]
- Yoda: Wars not make one great, heh heh heh!
- [grunts as he comes over to Luke's area and picks up the thing Luke was eating]
- Luke: Put that down, now we...
- [Yoda takes a bite of the food]
- Luke: Hey! My dinner!
- [takes the food out of Yoda's hand and puts it in the lunch pack]
- Luke: Still... there's something familiar about this place.
- [R2-D2 beeps]
- Luke: I don't know, I feel like...
- [suddenly whips around and aims his gun at Yoda, who cowers and whimpers]
- Luke: ... like we're being watched!
- Yoda: Away put your weapon, I mean you no harm! I am wondering, why are you here?
- Luke: I'm looking for someone.
- [on a hologram]
- Captain Needa: And that, Lord Vader, was the last time they appeared in any of our scopes. Considering the amount of damage we've sustained, they must've been destroyed.
- Darth Vader: What is thy bidding, my master?
- Emperor Palpatine: There is a great disturbance in the Force.
- Darth Vader: I have felt it.
- Emperor Palpatine: We have a new enemy. The young rebel who destroyed the Death Star. I have no doubt this boy is the offspring of Anakin Skywalker.
- Darth Vader: How is that possible?
- Emperor Palpatine: Search your feelings, Lord Vader. You will know it to be true. He could destroy us.
- Darth Vader: He's just a boy. Obi-Wan can no longer help him.
- Emperor Palpatine: The Force is strong with him. The son of Skywalker must not become a Jedi.
- Darth Vader: If he could be turned, he would become a powerful ally.
- Emperor Palpatine: Yes. He would be a great asset. Can it be done?
- [not on the hologram]
- Darth Vader: No, Captain. They're alive. I want every ship available to sweep the asteroid field until they are found.
- Darth Vader: He will join us, or die, my master.
- [bows]
- [Needa bows and the hologram disappears]
- [walks up to Vader]
- Admiral Piett: Lord Vader.
- Darth Vader: Yes, Admiral, what is it?
- Admiral Piett: The Emperor commands you to make contact with him.
- Darth Vader: Move the ship out of the asteroid field so that we can send a clear transmission.
- Admiral Piett: Yes, my Lord.
- [Vader goes into his room and bows as Emperor Palpatine appears on a giant hologram]
- [Luke is preparing his X-Wing fighter for take off]
- Yoda: Luke. You must complete the training.
- Yoda: Yes! Yes! To Obi Wan, you listen. The cave. Remember your failure with the cave?
- Luke: But I've learnt so much since then. Master Yoda, I promise to return and finish what I've begun. You have my word.
- Obi-Wan: It is you and your abilities the Emperor wants. That is why your friends are made to suffer.
- Luke: That's why I have to go.
- Obi-Wan: Luke. I don't want to lose you to the Emperor, the way I lost Vader.
- Luke: You won't.
- Yoda: Stopped, they must be. On this, all depends. Only a fully trained Jedi Knight, with the Force as his ally, will conquer Vader and his Emperor. If you end your training now, if you choose the quick and easy path as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil.
- Obi-Wan: Patience.
- Luke: And sacrifice Han and Leia?
- Yoda: If you honor what they fight for? Yes!
- Luke: No, I can't keep the vision out of my head. They are my friends; I've got to help them.
- Obi-Wan: If you choose to face Vader, you will do it alone. I cannot interfere.
- Luke: I understand.
- [Yoda looks surprised]
- Luke: R2, fire up the converters.
- [Luke boards his X-Wing fighter]
- Obi-Wan: Luke! Don't give in to hate. That leads to the dark side.
- Obi-Wan: Strong, is Vader. Mind what you have learned. Save you, it can!
- Luke: I will! And I'll return. I promise!
- [Luke takes off and departs Degobah]
- [Obi-Wan and Yoda watches Luke fly away. Obi-Wan vanishes]
- Yoda: Told you I did. Reckless, is he. Now... matters are worse.
- Yoda: You must not go.
- Obi-Wan: That boy is our last hope.
- Yoda: No. There is another.
- Luke: But, Han and Leia will die if I don't.
- Obi-Wan: You don't know that.
- [Force ghost of Obi-Wan appears]
- Obi-Wan: Even Yoda cannot see their fate.
- Luke: But, I can help them. I feel the Force.
- Obi-Wan: But, you cannot control it. This is a dangerous time for you. When you will be tempted by the dark side of the force.
- Han Solo: Get out of here, Lando.
- Lando: Lord Vader has set a trap for him.
- Leia: And we're the bait.
- Lando: Yeah? Well, he's on his way.
- Han Solo: Perfect. You fixed us all real good, didn't you? My friend?
- [Han punches Lando. The two friends are instantly engaged in a frantic close-quarters fight. The guards hit him with their rifle]
- Lando: Stop! I've done all I care. I'm sorry I couldn't do better, but I got my own problems. I've already stuck my neck out farther than I should.
- Han Solo: Yeah... You're a real hero.
- [Lando and the guards leave]
- Lando: Shut up and listen. Vader has agreed that turn Leia and Chewie over to me.
- Han Solo: Over to you?
- Lando: They'll have to stay here at least, they'll be safe.
- Leia: What about Han?
- Lando: Vader's giving him to the bounty hunter.
- Leia: Vader wants us all dead.
- Lando: No, he doesn't want you at all. He's after somebody called, uh... Skywalker.
- Han Solo: Luke?
- [as Chewie tries to fight off the imperials and free Han]
- C-3PO: Oh, no! No, no, no! Stop, Chewbacca! Stop!
- [Boba Fett prepares to blast him, Darth Vader blocks him]
- Han Solo: No! Chewie, stop! You're gonna get us all killed! Chewie, stop!
- C-3PO: Oh, yes! Stop, please! I am not ready to die!
- Han Solo: Hey, hey! Listen to me, Chewie! Chewie, this won't help me! Hey! Save your strength. There'll be another time. The Princess. You have to take care of her. You hear me? Huh?
- [Leia and Han share a passionate kiss before Han is dragged towards the freezing chamber by the imperials]
- Princess Leia: I love you.
- Han Solo: I know.
- Han Solo: Get out of here, Lando.
- Lando: Lord Vader has set a trap for him.
- Princess Leia: And we're the bait.
- Lando: Yeah? Well, he's on his way.
- Han Solo: Perfect. You fixed us all real good, didn't you? My friend!
- [Han punches Lando. The two friends are instantly engaged in a frantic close-quarters fight. The guards hit him with their rifle]
- Lando: Stop! I've done all I can. I'm sorry I couldn't do better, but I've got my own problems. I've already stuck my neck out farther than I should.
- Han Solo: Yeah. You're a real hero.
- [Lando and the guards leave]
- Princess Leia: You certainly have a way with people.
- Lando: Shut up and listen. Now Vader has agreed to turn Leia and Chewie over to me.
- Han Solo: Over to you?
- Lando: They'll have to stay here, but at least they'll be safe.
- Princess Leia: What about Han?
- Lando: Vader's giving him to the bounty hunter.
- Princess Leia: Vader wants us all dead.
- Lando: No, he doesn't want you at all! He's after somebody called, uh... Skywalker.
- Han Solo: Luke?
- [Luke has encountered Yoda. Thinking he is a stranger, Luke points his blaster at Yoda who cowers down, holding his arms over hi]
- [fearfully]
- Yoda: Put away your weapon! I mean you no harm!
- [lowering his weapon]
- Luke: Who are you?
- [poking his head up, so his eyes are visible]
- Yoda: I was just wondering... Why are you here?
- Luke: I'm looking for someone.
- [uncovers his elderly, but friendly face completely, eyes wide]
- Yoda: *Looking?* Been looking at someone, you have! Mmmm.
- [Yoda laughs]
- [Luke has just encountered Yoda. Yoda is pretending to be senile to test Luke's patience; R2-D2 watches as Yoda plays with a lit]
- [R2 relents, sinking his pinchers into his metallic body. Yoda uses his cane to close the side door for R2-D2's pinchers]
- Yoda: Mine! Or I'll help you not.
- Luke: I don't want your help. I want my lamp back. I need it to get out of this slimy mudhole.
- [insulted; as he speaks, R2-D2 opens a side door and extends a pair of pinchers and grabs hold of the lamp and tries to pull the]
- Yoda: Mudhole? Slimy? MY home, is this!
- [startled]
- Yoda: Wha?
- [Yoda and R2-D2 start a tug-of-war with the lamp; R2 beeping and humming protestingly]
- Luke: R2, let him have it.
- [Yoda grabs his cane and starts whacking R2-D2 repeatedly with it]
- [as he is whacking R2]
- Yoda: Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!
- [firmly]
- Luke: *R2!*
- General Rieekan: Send Rogues Ten and Eleven to Station 3-8.
- Darth Vader: There is no escape. Don't make me destroy you.
- [anguished]
- Luke: No! No!
- [pauses]
- Darth Vader: Luke, you do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy.
- Luke: I'll never join you!
- Darth Vader: If you only knew the power of the Dark Side. Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.
- Luke: He told me enough! He told me *you* killed him!
- Darth Vader: No. *I* am your father.
- Luke: No. No. That's not true. That's impossible!
- Darth Vader: Search your feelings, you *know* it to be true!


text:
"It is a true fact that the greatest swordsman in Italy would not fear the second greatest but would fear the worst, for that one would be unpredictable" – The Masque of Red Death (1964)
A Simple Soul
Towards noon on Easter Monday 1916, Monsignor Michael J. Curran received word that Count George Plunkett was waiting outside his office. Guessing that this would be about some new development in the unfolding, but so far still uncertain, situation in Dublin, Monsignor Curran agreed to see him.
Five minutes later, Curran was sitting with the Count, grey-haired and bearded. His caller asked to see the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr William Walsh, to whom Curran was secretary. Curran replied that His Grace was ill in bed and not to receive anyone except his doctor.
Which was not entirely true but the Monsignor's duties included acting as gatekeeper to his master. Things were tense enough as it was, what with the news of Roger Casement's arrest in Kerry, the planned mobilisation of the Irish Volunteers and the abrupt countermanding orders by their Chief of Staff, Eoin MacNeill.
"Well," said the Count, according to Curran's recollections, "it is not necessary that I see him personally but, if you would tell him, it would be alright."
Plunkett proceeded to inform Curran that there was going to be an uprising in Ireland and that he had already visited Pope Benedict XV in Rome to inform him of such. His Holiness had been asked not to be shocked or alarmed as the rebellion was to be purely in pursuit of the same independence that every country was entitled to. The Count had then asked for the Pontiff's blessing for the endeavour.
Monsignor Curran was still listening to the story when the telephone rang in his office. Curran answered it to learn that the General Post Office (GPO) had just been seized and occupied by the Irish Volunteers. He returned to inform his visitor that the uprising the latter had warned about was already underway. Curran would later consider it noteworthy that Plunkett had come to him on the day the rebellion began and not before, presumably to leave no window of opportunity for the Archbishop to change anyone's mind.
Once his visitor had left, Curran hurried to relay what had occurred to his superior. Even after being told the Count's message, Walsh was more concerned about what MacNeill, rather than Plunkett, might do, looking upon the Count as less of a leader and more "as a simple soul and [he] could not conceive a man like him being at the head of a revolution."[1]
A Conservative Catholic Gentleman
The Archbishop's scepticism was understandable, considering how the Count had never shown a radical bone in his body. As far as many were concerned, he was simply:
…a conservative Catholic gentleman with harmless literary and cultural tastes which his job as Director of the National Gallery (bestowed on him by the Liberal Government) gave him ample time and opportunity to indulge in.[2]
This, at least, was the view of the political activist Kevin O'Shiel. It was not an altogether wrong one, though O'Shiel was incorrect about the Gallery. According to Geraldine Plunkett, her father had been offered its directorship by Dublin Castle in the spring of 1916 on the condition that his family stay out of politics but he defiantly turned it down (being already the director of the National Museum, which was probably what O'Shiel meant).[3]
Similar sentiments were expressed by William O'Brien, a trade unionist who had been closely involved in the planning of the Rising. O'Brien knew very little about Plunkett by the time the latter grew in prominence in early 1917, only that he had previously only seen his name "in connection with various projects supported by people of the Unionist type." Whatever else about the Count, O'Brien certainly did not think of him as much of a Nationalist.[4]
In fact, the Count had had a reasonably active time in politics as a Nationalist, and an honourable one at that. This tended to be overlooked, much like how Walsh, O'Shiel and O'Brien were content to discount the man in general. And yet, for a while, it looked as if the post-Rising upheaval would be regarded as the Plunkett Revolution.
Early Years
Born in 1851 as a privileged scion of an illustrious name (the 17th century St. Oliver Plunkett was an ancestor), George Noble Plunkett was sent abroad to a Jesuit school in Nice at the age of six. The reason for this was to protect his health and, as he was the only one of his three siblings to survive to adulthood, this may have been a wise precaution.
Recently ceded to France by Italy, Nice was at a cultural crossroads, and there young George grew up fluent in French, Italian and Niçoise. George, according to a flattering write-up in the Catholic Bulletin, was sufficiently immersed in such a cosmopolitan environment to temporarily forget English but he remained, nonetheless, "in feeling intensely Irish."[5]
This may be a slight exaggeration as he was not to return to Ireland until 1862, aged eleven. Afterwards, though, he would have ample opportunity to show the intensity of these Irish feelings of his.
Even at an early age, his passion for art, literature and other forms of high culture was evident. He became a regular visitor to various art galleries in Europe, and collected a string of presidencies or vice-presidencies at societies such as the Academy of Christian Science, the Royal Irish Academy and the Society of Catholic Poetry.[6]
George soon developed a system on how best to explore a gallery: (1) a visit should never last more than two hours, for past that and mental fatigue sets in, (2) always focus on the best pieces even to the exclusion of the rest (advice he was happy to pass on to anyone interested).[7]
George made his mark on the literary scene when he published a collection of his poetry, God's Chosen Festival (A Christmas Song) and Other Poems in 1877. Many of the poem titles – such as 'Ave Maria', 'The Sleep of the Infant Jesus' and 'An Orphan's Prayer to the Blessed Virgin' – display a distinctly Catholic sensibility, with the occasional foray into Irish nationalism, such as in 'To Ireland', where he laments the subject's history:
Woe! Woe! That we cannot blot
The records of countless crimes!
For the blood and tears you shed
Leave their strains to the latest times.
But worst of the heartless foes
That his hand hath deep imbed
In the warm hearts-blood of our Nationhood,
Is that monster, Ingratitude.[8]
Another, 'Erinn', both celebrates his homeland while hinting at the poet's status as a world traveller:
Fair is God's world!
I have wondered it tho':
Fancy's unfurled
His best scenes to my view;
When seems the fairest,
Of all the bright earth –
The dearest, the rarest?
The land of my birth!
Golden expanse
Poetized by the Rhine,
Gay land of France,
Repose of wit and of wine,
But one can claim –
Though it hath not the smile
Of Italy – the name
Of the Emerald Isle![9]
Upon reviewing some later poems of Plunkett's in 1921, the novelist Katherine Tynan summed up the main themes as "two strains – God and Ireland, sometimes single, oftener intermingled." As Plunkett was then prominently involved in Irish politics, Tyan could not resist making the connection: "In a sense, such poetry…bears witness for Sinn Fein. That the singer of these noble numbers should be of the movement is eloquent."[10]
One could debate the quality of the poems and perhaps compare them unfavourably to that of his eldest son's, Joseph Mary Plunkett, whose works, such as 'I See His Blood Upon the Rose' and 'I Saw the Sun at Midnight', are still recited today. George Plunkett's efforts, on the other hand, have almost entirely receded from public consciousness. As a literary man, his legacy can perhaps be felt through that of Joseph's, who followed in his father's footsteps in his ambition to be a poet.
Taste and Scholarship
George did not hoard his talents to himself. From 1883 to 1884, he was editor of the Hibernia, a literary journal with a good deal of, in Tynan's opinion, "taste and scholarship." As a budding writer herself, Tynan had contributed a couple of her poems. That the Hibernia, alas, did not last long, Tynan attributed to it being "too bookish" for the philistines of Dublin (she remained friends with Plunkett, with him donating a few books for her shelves, and later sent a cheque for copies of her first publication).[11]
He had by then married his second cousin, Mary Josephine Cranny (who went by her middle name), in 1884. A fruitful union, the couple went on to produce seven children – four girls and three boys. Their two families had worked closely for years, becoming rich in property together. As a sign of how little money was a concern, George and Josephine were set up a year after their wedding in 26 Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin, the residence having been bought, furnished and decorated by the former's father.[12]
George could be equally generous with others. The nuns of the Little Company of Mary had been asked by Pope Leo XIII in 1883 to set up a centre in Rome. George happened to be there at the time and in a position to assist with the purchasing and refurbishment of the new convent.
He was rewarded a year later with the title of Papal Count. It was, apparently, something of a "source of great embarrassment and annoyance to him… as an ardent Nationalist he did not like being mistaken for some kind of English or Continental aristocrat" (Josephine, on the other hand, was delighted to be addressed as Countess by friends and servants alike). It was not until he was requested by the Vatican to use the title, and from then on, he was Count Plunkett to the world.[13]
That is, at least, according to his daughter Geraldine, who left a memoir that is revealing in its depiction of the Plunkett home life but also problematic due to her naked prejudices. She adored her father and loathed her mother, and it is thus not surprising that her reminisces frequently leaned in favour of one parent at the expense of the other.
For one, Geraldine overlooked how her father was capable of stubborn streaks throughout his life, and it is unlikely that even the Holy Father could have forced him into bearing a title he did not want (he was not above using it for political point-scoring, though – when a rival Nationalist sneered at the title, Plunkett retorted that since it had been awarded by the Pope, any slight on the title was thus a slur against the Vicar of Christ[14]).
Secondly, Geraldine's depiction of her mother as an insufferable, tight-fisted harridan does not necessarily chime with that of others'. The future Fianna Fáil minister, Todd Andrews, was a regular visitor to the family house after the Civil War, and found the Countess to be "a kind and humorous woman who could laugh at her own oddities."[15]
But then, Andrews did not have to live with her. George came out of his study one time to find his wife beating their daughter Moya mercilessly with her fists in the hallway, the crime of the wretched girl being to ask her miserly mother to buy her sister Fiona a coat for the winter.
As told by Geraldine, 'Pa' Plunkett somehow interpreted the scene as Moya attacking the Countess instead of vice versa, and began thrashing Moya with his walking-stick. Joseph intervened to snatch the stick away and break it over his knee:
Ma took this as a personal insult and redoubled her screaming. Joe comforted Moya while Pa, realising his mistake, stood helplessly patting her on the head to show he was sorry. By the time I came in, Pa had retreated to the study, Ma to the dining-room, and Joe was still trying to comfort poor Moya.[16]
At least Fiona ended up with a new winter-coat after all that.
"You must remember that Mammy is only a little girl," Plunkett told Geraldine by way of explanation after the latest fight with her mother.[17] An indulgent parent, more a friend than an authority figure to his children, Count Plunkett preferred to avoid household drama – Jane Austen's Mr Bennett would have understood.
One Missing Plank
One source of drama which Count Plunkett did display an interest in was politics; unfortunately, those already in politics did not reciprocate with an interest in him. He wrote to T.D. Sullivan, the Nationalist Member of Parliament (MP), in 1885, asking to be proposed for the Irish National League of Charles Stewart Parnell, whose words Plunkett quoted about how the national platform lacked but "one plank" – with himself presumably being that missing plank.
If Plunkett had been hoping to ingratiate himself with Parnell's colleagues, then he was in for a rude awakening. Sullivan's reply could not have been more condescending. Plunkett, he wrote back, must have taken the line about the plank too literally. "It seems to me," Sullivan continued, "that if that be so, your joining the League might possibly some day bring disappointment to you, and I would not like to be party thereto."
The main barrier to Plunkett was his hostility towards the Land League, by then supressed and to which the National League was intended to replace, focusing this time on the issue of Home Rule rather than of land distribution like before. Plunkett's attitude towards the Land League still rankled with Sullivan: "I can well remember how bitterly opposed you were."
Academic debates, Sullivan warned, were not enough to win Home Rule – which sums up what he thought of the other man's style. Also, Home Rule would not be the sole focus of the new League. With the issues of land unresolved and requiring their full attention for the moment, Sullivan took "the liberty of suggesting that you should very well consider your course before 'casting your lot,' as the saying is, with the leaders of the National League."[18]
Although stonewalled from politics, Plunkett could not avoid being affected by the 'Divorce Crisis' in 1890, which saw Parnell exposed as an adulterer and a political liability. Most of his allies deserted him, including the caustic T.D. Sullivan; one who did not was George Plunkett.
That the Count would stand by the stricken statesman surprised even the former's friend, Tynan, who saw him as "one of those trusted Catholic laymen who represented the best and most orthodox Catholic feeling of Dublin" – in other words, a very conventional man. Yet he was prepared to go against the tide when he felt it necessary, a fact that impressed Tynan. Together, they endured the "obloquy, the unjust condemnation, the wrongs", as she put it, from the Anti-Parnellites (while such words may strike the modern reader as excessively dramatic, events in Mid-Tyrone would show them to be, if anything, understated).[19]
Such unjust obloquy did much to toughen up the Count. In a letter to John Redmond in 1895, Plunkett advised his fellow Parnellite on the best ways to deal with power-brokering clerics such as Dr William Walsh. Redmond was feuding with the Archbishop over stories unflattering to the Church that had appeared in newspapers controlled by the politician. Due to past experience teaching him to "neither fear nor despise the clergy," Plunkett advised Redmond to moderate such stories, which would hopefully persuade the Archbishop to side with them against their Anti-Parnell rivals.[20]
Such talk sat oddly with his public proofs of piety – in addition to the papal counthood, he amassed an impressive set of papal medals: the Cross of Commander of the Holy Sepulchre, the Grand Cross of Saints Cyril and Methodius, the Cross of the Order of the Advocates of St Peter, and two medals of the Cross of St John of Lateran for him and his wife.[21]
But then, as indicated by his earlier defence of Parnell in the teeth of clerical condemnation – and how his visit to Rome on the eve of the Easter Rising would show – Count Plunkett was quite capable of following his own mind, even where Holy Mother Church was concerned.
Political Pursuits
Plunkett stayed loyal to Parnell to the end, the latter dropping in to see him before leaving for England in 1891. Unfortunately, the Count was out of the house at the time. After waiting for a long while, Parnell left, saying only as he departed: "Perhaps it is just as well." He died shortly afterwards. Plunkett, who was already upset at having missed Parnell, mourned him deeply.[22]
From then on, the Count took a more active role in politics, albeit with mixed results. In the 1892 general election, he stood as the Parnellite candidate for Mid-Tyrone, the sundered Irish National League no longer able to be quite so fussy in who it took.
That the Parnellite faction could put forward a candidate at all was a surprise. When the news was announced on posters around the town of Omagh, many Anti-Parnellites were inclined to regard it as a joke. It was not until a delegation of Parnellites left Omagh on the evening of the 18th June to greet their incoming candidate that the matter was confirmed.
The Count arrived in town, with a torchlight procession and the sounds of band music, through streets filled with knots of curious onlookers. Plunkett – "who spoke under difficulties," according to a local newspaper – explained to the crowd his Party's stance, which was that of the late Parnell, "the policy which his followers over his grave at Glasnevin had pledged themselves to carry out." Though an outsider, Plunkett busied himself with paying personal visits around the constituency.[23]
The election was to be a three-way contest. According to Geraldine, her father withdrew in order to support his Anti-Parnellite counterpart, Matthew Joseph Kenny, lest he split the Nationalist vote and allow in a Unionist. However, that is untrue, as the parliamentary records show that he continued to stand and received 123 votes, compared to Kenny's 3,667 and the Unionist candidate's 2,590. The best that could be said of such a result is that at least Plunkett's share was too small to have threatened the other Nationalist.[24]
There was nothing that could be said against Plunkett's courage, however. While making the electioneering rounds by wagon, his party was attacked upon stopping at the Catholic churchyard of Carrickmore by its Anti-Parnellite congregation when their parish priest recognised the rival candidate (it is unclear if the padre had incited the crowd or merely made his hostility known to them). Plunkett was punched in the mouth and, bleeding heavily, hurried back with his companions to their wagon, on which they narrowly escaped amidst a hail of stones.
Little wonder, then, that after the election results were read out on the 8th July, Plunkett praised his fellow loser, the Unionist candidate, as having behaved honourably, while pointedly omitting Kenny and the conduct of his followers.[25]
At least his time there was not to be a complete waste. Three years later, the poet Alice Milligan asked him for the names of Tyrone Nationalists to help gather interest for her politically-themed publications. Literature, art and culture were always there as consolations for Count Plunkett when politics failed.[26]
St Stephen's Ward
Plunkett picked himself up from this loss to stand again for Parliament in 1895, this time for the St Stephen's Green Ward, Dublin, which was at least a more plausible seat than faraway Tyrone. He was also better prepared this time, taking care to announce and explain his candidacy in an open letter to the newspapers:
Having been selected by a National Convention to contest your division, I gladly accept the task imposed on me.
I am in complete accord with the Independent [Parnellite] Party. I have always held the Policy of Independence of English Parties to be Ireland's only hope in the Imperial Parliament.
As I do not seek a seat in Parliament as a stepping-stone to office, I will not subordinate the interests of Ireland to any other interest whatsoever.
As a Catholic, I am in favour of Denominational Education.
I am in favour of Peasant Proprietary for Ireland.
I sympathise warmly with the movement for the release of political prisoners,
I will do all in my power for the welfare of the Irish working man, and for the promotion and protection of Irish industries.
It is now our duty to wrest the St Stephen's Green Division from the Unionist, and to show by our energy and enthusiasm that Ireland is solid for Home Rule.
To secure the result, upon which such vital interests may depend, EVERY HOME RULE VOTE MUST BE POLLED.
Trusting in your tried fidelity to the Old Cause,
I remain, Fellow-Citizens,
Your faithful servant,
His support for peasant landownership may have come as a surprise to those who had known his aversion towards the Land League. Everything else was standard Nationalist aspiration, particularly the appeal to Home Rule, even if that was very much dead in the water for the while.
This time Count Plunkett was the sole Nationalist candidate, standing against a Unionist, William Kenny (who, by a strange coincidence, shared the same surname as Plunkett's archenemy in Mid-Tyrone three years ago, although there was no relation). Still, the election was a tense one, with the Irish Times noting that on polling day:
The aspect of Dublin yesterday was unusual. The air was fully charged with political electricity, and for years past the city has not seen busier or more anxious hours than those of the intervals during which the polling booth remained open.[28]
Plunkett and Kenny were seen putting in their fair shares of electioneering work as they drove around to the various polling stations and encouraged their respective adherents throughout the day. Despite the Count's efforts, Kenny was to be announced as the victor, beating his Nationalist foe by 3,661 votes to 3,205.[29]
Further Attempts
Opportunity knocked again for Plunkett the aspiring politician when, three years later, Kenny was appointed a judge, prompting a by-election for St Stephen's Ward. Once more, Plunkett was defeated by a Unionist candidate, though the results were closer this time – 3,525 to 3,387.[30]
The cause for this second defeat was attributed by Nationalist critics to a system whereby "lodgers" – the sons of local Unionists – who normally lived in England could stay in their families' homes in Dublin for a minimum of twelve months to count as lodgers and thus vote in the elections.
Polling day had been notably skittish. Even before the results were known, Plunkettite canvassers were handing out cards objecting to the unfair odds against them. "Notice to Lodger voters take notice," they read, "That the vote of every person who is registered as a lodger, and who has not signed his claim himself, is objected to, and if necessary, will be objected to on a petition."
Large placards to the same effect were put up around the constituency. The rebellious mood spread to the polling booths. In Pembroke, a polling clerk made himself conspicuous by pestering 'lodger' voters with questions like "What rent do you pay?" Another clerk of Nationalist sympathies attempted to stop a voter on the grounds that he had already left the house for which his name was on the register. The voter, however, insisted on his rights and his contribution to the ballot was duly noted.
The military authorities had caught wind of the tension. To avoid the risk of further unrest, they confined their troops stationed nearby to their barracks for the duration of the poll. Those soldiers entitled to vote were allowed passes to leave on condition that they return at once when done.[31]
Stymied yet again, Plunkett at least had found a cause to work on, and he campaigned for two years to change these rigged electoral procedures. His efforts bore fruit by 1900 when a Nationalist candidate finally took St Stephen's Ward at 3,429 votes to the Unionist's 2,873.[32]
The Count had not stood that time. Geraldine attributed his withdrawal from politics to the mutual dislike between him and John Redmond, leader of the reunited Irish Party, not to mention the opposition of his hard-headed wife (who held the purse-strings) to any more expensive elections.[33]
Corroborating this explanation are letters by John Redmond, one from 1896 in which he regretfully – but nonetheless quite firmly – declined to pay for the expenses incurred by Plunkett as part of the unsuccessful election for St Stephen's Ward the previous year. The Count made one last push for reimbursement in 1902, but received the same rebuff from Redmond, who pleaded money shortages – "It is not a fact I am sorry to say that the National Organisations are well provided with funds" – and ended with how he saw "great difficulty in dealing with the matter satisfactorily to you."[34]
For all his hard work and money spent, Plunkett had not progressed in the Irish Party from anything higher than a hanger-on. The professional politicians who the Count had aspired to join had had a use for him before, and now, with the Party reunited, they did not.
Cultural Pursuits
Frustrated, Plunkett threw himself into his studies, in particular the writing of a scholarly work on Sandro Botticelli, the Renaissance painter about whom he felt strongly enough to name one of his dogs after. The Renaissance in general was a topic close to his heart; his favourite reading material being, besides the Bible, Dante's Divine Comedy. When Todd Andrews was invited to inspect the Count's considerable library, he was too distracted by the "splendid collection" of books on Renaissance art to investigate the rest of the shelves.[35]
Published in 1900, Sandro Botticelli was a success, and earned its author a string of honorary memberships at the Academy of St Luke in Rome, the Academy of the Fine Arts in Florence, and the Pontifical Academy of Fine Arts and Letters of the Virtuosi al Pantheon.[36]
Plunkett went from strength to strength in 1907 when he was made Director of the National Museum. He would regard it as much a calling as a job, and as work in service to the nation. "To my mind a museum is more than a system," he told a conference of the Museums' Association in 1912. "It is a part of the national life, it is an expression of the national life and of the higher qualities of the people to whom it belongs."
One cause for development was that, while the Museum had many ancient objects from Ireland – "We are fortunate in having the greatest collection of Celtic antiquities in Europe," as he put it – the exhibitions were lacking in later items: "There is the long period during the occupation of Ireland by the English, which is hardly represented at all. We have works of extraordinary beauty extending down as far as the thirteenth century, but then occurs this gap which we have hitherto been unable to fill." And it was important that this gap in question be filled, "so that our people may be in a position to realise vividly the elements of their own past."[37]
Equipped with this vision and passion, Plunkett thrived, as did the Museum, such as when he succeeded in dramatically increasing attendance levels from a hundred students in one year to three thousand in another. A theatre room was built, where the Director took the opportunity to mix pleasure with business, and used the venue to deliver lectures of his own.
"To have had lessons on art history from a master such as Count Plunkett does not fall to the lot of many," was how an appreciative Andrews described his time with him.[38]
He was to remain in that happy role for nine years until the Easter Week of 1916 threw the country into turmoil and uprooted his quiet, orderly life. It was an upset he had had some small hand in.
A Family Affair
By the time of the Rising, the Plunkett family had already been steeped in the sort of politics that Dublin Castle had tried to tempt the Count out of with its National Gallery offer. The clan patriarch was preoccupied with the demands of running his museum (there was no doubt that it was 'his'), and so it was the new generation who led the charge.
In November 1913, Joseph, saw a notice in certain newspapers, calling a meeting to organise an Irish Volunteer force in order to ensure and, if necessary, fight for the passing of the Home Rule Bill The notice was signed by Eoin MacNeill, co-founder of the Gaelic League.
Joseph was intrigued but, stricken with tuberculosis as he was, not think much of his chances of being accepted, plaintively asking his sister Geraldine: "Do you think I could be of any use? I'm afraid I won't be able to do very much."
Geraldine encouraged him to try anyway. After an encouraging talk with MacNeill, Joseph attended the meeting, held on the 25th in a skating rink at the back of the Rotunda Rooms on Parnell Square. Much to his surprise, Joseph found himself on the platform and nominated to the Provisional Committee of the newly-founded Irish Volunteers, under the chairmanship of MacNeill and in the company of other soon-to-be celebrated men such as Patrick Pearse and Thomas MacDonagh.
Joseph returned home excited and not a little confused by his sudden elevation, which Geraldine attributed to his friendships with insiders in the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), some of whom were also on the committee. In time, he would be inducted into that oath-bound secret society and, later, its Military Council (which also included Pearse and MacDonagh).
This was despite not being, as his brother Jack admitted, the most practical of people (few in the family were, their mother notwithstanding), his talents instead lying with the suggestion of ideas that others could then implement.[39]
Personal connections also played a role. Joseph had met MacDonagh when the latter was hired in 1909 to tutor him for exams. His resultant low marks did not stop the two from developing a friendship. Both shared literary and poetic tastes, and the pair worked together on the Irish Review magazine, of which MacDonagh was editor. MacDonagh might also have been the one to introduce Joseph to fellow poet Pearse, possibly in 1910 or 1911, making the Military Council sometimes seem like the continuation of the same social circle.[40]
The other Plunkett siblings were not to be left out. Though still a schoolboy, Jack also joined the Volunteers, later working full-time on Joseph's staff. His main duties were the rigging of wireless radios, at which he admitted to being largely unsuccessful (Jack was still the most technically-minded Plunkett, and in later years would indulge in his hobby of tinkering with motor-car engines).[41]
For her part, Geraldine made to join Cumann na mBan, but was dissuaded by Joseph. Unwilling to risk letters or telephones, her older brother wanted her to relay messengers on his behalf to his co-conspirators, a role which would be easier to perform without attracting the notice of Dublin Castle detectives if she was unknown to them.[42]
Secrecy became the watchword of the day. Jack only learnt years later that he and the third Plunkett brother, George Oliver, had worked on the same project – he could not remember which – despite the two of them living under the same roof. It was not until Easter Week, when the brothers were holed up together in the GPO, that Joseph felt comfortable enough to talk to Jack about certain, previously hush-hush matters.[43]
The family property at Larkfield in Kimmage, south of Dublin, was utilised into a base for the younger Plunketts as they became more involved in radical politics. Consisting of twelve acres of land, with yards, paddocks, an old farm and a mill, complete with a "beautiful middle-sized house…and a garden full of roses," Larkfield had originally been purchased by the Countess for the family (one of the few times Geraldine was prepared to concede when her mother had not been a complete ogress).
Given the poor state of Joseph's health, it was easier for his IRB partners to visit him in Larkfield as he had taken to living there along with the rest of the family. Their paterfamilias was the last to join them, and 26 Upper Fitzwilliam Street was left to store his books, receive mail but otherwise gather dust. The Count soon settled into a pleasant routine of heading off to the Museum for a day's work before walking back to Kimmage from the tram at Harold's Cross.[44]
He was presumably unconcerned about the growing number of young men on the Larkfield property. Unsettled by the threat of conscription, these newcomers had departed from Britain, intending to fight at home for their country rather than in France for another.
"Suddenly one morning about forty young men descended on us," was how Geraldine remembered the beginning of the 'Kimmage Garrison', as they became known by. The numbers of this impromptu company swelled to approximately ninety members, fresh off the boat from cities such as London, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow.
They were kept busy with military drills in between the manufacture of munitions, namely shotgun pellets and cast-iron grenades. One member proudly recounted how, on a peak night, they could produce up to five thousand lead pellets and twenty grenades, sometimes working twenty-four hour shifts.[45]
Joseph's work on the Military Council intensified. After Christmas 1915, he told Geraldine that he was off to Germany, which she assumed was for the purpose of procuring weapons. He entrusted his sister with the cipher he would use in any letters sent, to be passed on to her via a cousin and then forwarded to Pearse or another of the conspirators.
He did not trust his mother as much, telling her only that he was leaving for the Continent. In an insight into the complicated dynamics of the household, Joseph changed his mind and informed the Countess that he was going on Volunteer business that might take him to Germany. When Geraldine asked him why "on God's earth he had done such a thing," he replied that their mother, adept at prying as she was, would have found out anyway.[46]
Count Plunkett's involvement, if any, goes unstated in Geraldine's memoir until early April 1916, when the reader learns of him being sworn into the IRB by Joseph. Geraldine did not record her father's thoughts on the matter, only that "he was very pleased that his son was now his superior officer."[47]
But Pa Plunkett was not to be just another ordinary member, for his son had a very particular mission in mind for his new subordinate.
His Holiness
On Easter Sunday, W.J. Brennan-Whitmore was preparing for the start of the uprising in Dublin when he was informed by his commanding officer, Thomas MacDonagh, that Count Plunkett had just returned from Rome, bringing with him the blessing of the Pope for their venture. While pleased to hear such news, Brennan-Whitmore could not help but wonder, just a little, for "it seemed unusual," and he was still not wholly convinced by the time he penned his memoirs years later.[48]
Brennan-Whitmore was not the only one uncertain, and it was to answer such doubts that Count Plunkett told his side of the story in a brief article for the Irish Press newspaper in 1933:
I have heard that it is denied that I went to Rome immediately before the Rising of 1916 to communicate with His Holiness, Pope Benedict XV. I had no desire to publish information that at the time was not intended for the Press; but now I must disclose certain facts in the interest of truth.
Why he had waited so long before revealing all was left unstated. A need for secrecy seems unlikely, given the length of time that had passed, not to mention how participation in the Rising rapidly became a badge of honour (and political asset) in the months that followed. That the Count had managed for seventeen years to refrain from publicising his role in the most celebrated rebellion in national history – despite the advantages it would have brought to his subsequent career as a Republican firebrand – was an impressive act of restraint in itself.
About three weeks before the Rising, I was, through my son Joseph, commissioned by the Executive of the Irish Volunteers (the Provisional Government) to act as their Envoy on the Continent.[49]
According to Geraldine (whose account fills in some of the gaps in her father's), Joseph had heard news of the visit of the British Prime Minister, H.H. Asquith, to the Vatican. Concerned that His Holiness might be pressured or persuaded to instruct his Irish bishops to condemn any rebellion, Joseph decided that his father would make the best emissary to plead their case. As a papal count, he was, after all, entitled to such an audience.[50]
One task given to me I needed not particular here. When it was carried out, I went onto Rome, according to my instructions.
The task in question was to send a communication to Germany where Sir Roger Casement was attempting to solicit aid for the rebels. The Count was to memorise the message (papers being too vulnerable to carry around) before sending it from neutral Switzerland en route to Italy. Again, it is unclear as to why he felt the need to omit this detail – perhaps he was simply concerned about the length of the article.[51]
Having arrived at his destination, the Count was granted his audience with Pope Benedict:
For nigh on two hours we discussed freely the question of the coming struggle for Irish independence. The Pope was much moved when I disclosed the fact that the date for the Rising was fixed and the reason for that decision. Finally, I stated that the Volunteer Executive pledged the Republic to fidelity to the Holy See and the interests of religion. Then the Pope conferred His Apostolic Benediction on the men who were facing death for Ireland's liberty.
The wording makes it sound as if Plunkett was handing the country over on a silver platter. Most likely, he was reassuring the Pope that the insurgents had no distastefully left-leaning, anti-clerical or – God forbid – socialist tendencies.
(Such consideration for papal sensitivity was not untypical. Four years later, Sean T. O'Kelly stressed to the same pontiff that "as practising Catholics we have never allowed our national movement for independence to be contaminated by anti-religious or other dangerous movements condemned by the Church."[52])
The article also gives the impression that the Pope took all of this in with serene acceptance. Plunkett gave a more dramatic version to Geraldine, in which the Vicar of Christ bestowed his blessing with tears of sympathy pouring down his face.[53]
Monsignor Curran's record of what the Count had told him on Easter Monday was less striking but perhaps more likely. Here, Benedict XV comes across as noticeably circumspect upon being asked to approve of a venture that had just been sprung on him:
The Pope showed great perturbation and asked was there no peaceful way out of the difficulty…Count Plunkett answered every question, making it plain that it was the will of the leaders of the movement to act entirely with the good-will or approval – I forget which now – of the Pope and to give an assurance that they wished to act as Catholics. It was for that reason they came to inform his Holiness. All the Pope could do was express his profound anxiety.[54]
One consistent detail in the different versions is how Plunkett informed the Pope that the date of the uprising was fixed, leaving the latter with no chance at dissuasion. It was the same Machiavellian deference he would apply when dropping in to see Archbishop Walsh. The Count may have been a man of a lofty intellect and cultured tastes, but he was also capable of low cunning when it was called for.
The Rising
Count Plunkett finished his article with his return to Ireland, just in time for the big event:
Back in Dublin on Good Friday, 1916, I sent in my report on the results of my mission to the Provisional Government. In the General Post Office, when the fight began, I saw again the portion of that paper relating to my audience with His Holiness in 1916.
According to Geraldine, her father arrived back in Ireland on Holy Thursday and spent the remaining four days before the Rising travelling around the country to meet with various bishops to request that they also refrain from condemnation. Geraldine thought he visited five bishops altogether, but Monsignor Curran was not aware of any of this when he saw the Count on Easter Monday, and it is hard to believe that these other bishops would not have passed word to the Archbishop of Dublin beforehand.
Count Plunkett omitted his talk with Curran in his 1933 article and also how afterwards, according to Geraldine, he had made his way to the GPO, with the Rising unfolding all around, to ask Joseph to take him on as another Volunteer. Recognising that a 65-year old man did not make for an credible soldier, Joseph told his father that they had enough men inside already and instead sent him home.[55]
In the meantime, the members of the 'Kimmage Garrison' had been preparing themselves. Pearse had addressed them a week before, urging them to be ready. His enthusiasm was infectious and the men looked forward to Easter Sunday when they would finally see action.
When Sunday came, the 'Garrison' was assembled and armed when a car pulled up at Larkfield with the news that the operation was cancelled.
The following day saw the men in a sullen mood. Before, they had been early risers to a man but now they did nothing but lounge about. The only flicker of interest was in the talk of heading into town to start their own insurrection, orders and countermands be damned.
It was sometime before noon when a whistle blew, calling the 'Garrison' into line. George Oliver Plunkett, the 22-year old younger brother of Joseph, had been placed in charge – no one seemed perturbed by such nepotism – and was now wearing, according to one of his subordinates, "a broad, proud, confident smile."[56]
George read out a dispatch, saying they were to parade at Liberty Hall. To the men, this could mean only one thing: they would have their Rising after all. Enthusiasm overrode discipline as they broke ranks and ran to gather their weapons.
Now prepared, the Volunteers marched to where they boarded a tram (their fares paid for by a considerate George) and were taken to the city centre, where they disembarked at O'Connell Street. Making their way to Liberty Hall, they saw Joseph waiting for them outside. He was, as one of them recalled, "beautifully dressed, having high tan boots, spurs, pince-nez and looked like any British brass hat staff officer."[57]
Family Matters
It had been a turbulent few days for Joseph as he tried balancing the imminent rebellion with his love life. His fiancée, Grace Gifford, remembered him in high spirits the previous week. Things took a darker turn on the Saturday when Michael Collins visited her at home to deliver, on Joseph's behalf, a revolver and money, one to fight with and the other to bribe a British soldier if needs be. Grace did not know of which to be more frightened.
When she saw her betrothed the next day, he was "wretched looking", having skipped the nursing home he was due to check into. Afterwards, Grace could not recall what they had talked about, not even if it was about their wedding, for they were due at the altar the next day, alongside his sister Geraldine and her nuptials in the same church.
Grace and he had been discussing marriage dates for some time. Joseph had suggested Lent which Grace, as a newly converted Catholic, was against. She suggested Easter instead, but Joseph at first resisted on the grounds that "we may be having a revolution then."[58]
Though Grace and Joseph would not have their wedding until they were in a prison cell, hours before the latter was due to be executed, Geraldine plunged ahead with her own on Easter Sunday. The happy couple cycled to the Imperial Hotel on Sackville (now O'Connell) Street for the night.
The following morning, Geraldine watched from the hotel window with her new husband as uniformed Volunteers advanced up the street and halted in front of the GPO. She recognised her brothers, Joseph and George, the older accompanied by his aide-de-camp Michael Collins, as they and their men set to work constructing barricades.
One Volunteer tried to drive an abandoned tram into another but failed to pick up the necessary speed. Instead, Joseph threw a Larkfield-made bomb into the vehicle and shot it with his pistol from about thirty yards away – "a beautiful shot," as Geraldine remembered. The shot detonated the bomb, mangling the tram and rendering it a perfect obstacle.
This was the last time Geraldine would see her brother. When she tried talking her way into the GPO, she was told on behalf of Joseph to go home as the building was already full up. It was the same line Joseph gave his father. He may have been willing to risk his own life but he drew a line at certain family members.[59]
Count Plunkett was arrested on the 1st May, two days after the collapse of the Rising. His experiences were described in two short documents: a pencil manuscript in the Count's hand in the first person, and a typescript in the third, possibly intended for publication.
The Count was in his Upper Fitzwilliam Street residence when a body of soldiers demanded admittance. Despite their lack of a warrant, Plunkett decided that compliance was the wisest course. The men searched the house, breaking open desks and spilling their contents onto the floor, while taking the opportunity to pocket a number of items, including the Count's prized collection of papal medals.
Also seized were two historical dress-swords which the Count had labelled for loan to the Museum. Plunkett was unaware of these thefts at the time as the only item officially taken was a third ceremonial sword that came with his uniform as Director. The soldiers also tried to get him to admit to having guns in the house but he insisted there was none.
Their search complete, the soldiers arrested Plunkett and took him in an iron-sided van to Dublin Castle. There, he was brought to a small, dirty cell, occupied by twenty others, where they spent the night. His roommates were a mixed bunch, some being "men of education" like himself, others having been arrested for looting. A few were injured, indicating that they had played a part in the recent fighting.
"I cannot" – at this point, the manuscript broke off. The typescript continued the unhappy narration. After a breakfast of canned 'bully beef', stale biscuits and tea served in cans, the prisoners were ordered out and marched through the streets to Richmond Barracks, "being subject to insult by the military and the disreputable camp-followers on the way."
Upon reaching the Barracks, they were again crammed, twenty-seven of them, into a space intended for eleven. As before, their confinements were filthy despite the presence of wounded men who received no special consideration (one fellow prisoner who shared the cell with Plunkett corroborated the crowded squalor of their confinement, and how the prisoners discovered that a pair of boots could make a much-welcomed pillow[60]).
For nearly a week, the prisoners were left to sleep on bare floorboards. Sometimes it was so cold that even the weariest were kept awake through the night. Mealtimes were a drudge of hard biscuits, 'bully beef' and black tea, assuaged only when the guards were bribed for food from outside. The Count – or least the document – made the claim that he broke three teeth on a biscuit, but as this is mentioned nowhere else, it was probably untrue.
Things improved somewhat when their treatment was publicised in the newspapers, and the medical staff warned of a fever outbreak should conditions remain as they were. The prisoners were first given rugs to lie on. Sanitary arrangements improved. Food became at least tolerable.
After a fortnight, the Count was finally granted a bed; a hard one, but better than the floorboards. He began receiving visits from his family except his wife, who had been arrested in turn two days after him, a fact he had been previously unaware of.
Twice he was taken to Kilmainham Jail and brought out to the grounds where a court-martial had been convened, apparently for a session, but each time he was sent back, still untried. At least such outings allowed him to see Joseph, George and Jack, also waiting as prisoners. A soldier later said within earshot that all three had been shot. Another clarified a few days later that George and Jack had 'only' been sentenced to ten years. All their father could glimpse of the pair was from a window before they were dispatched to Portland Prison in England.[61]
He had already witnessed his eldest son on the day of Joseph's court-martial, standing in the square of Richmond Barracks, from a first storey window. The two looked at each other for a long while before Joseph was moved on, soon to be before a firing-squad. The Count was weeping as he told this to Geraldine: "Even after the executions, it was not thought right to weep openly, but Pa did, and it was one of the reasons I loved him."[62]
Visitors' Hours
For all the hardship, Count Plunkett did his best to stay in good humour. A friendly priest, Father Eugene Nevin, visited him in Kilmainham, finding the "dear old man in a small white-washed room, the only furniture of any kind being what looked like a large soap box on which he sat reading the last evening's Mail."
Not only could Plunkett greet his visitor with a smile, but he was soon laughing out loud, finding much merriment in the published correspondence between the Bishop of Limerick, Dr Edward O'Dwyer, and General Maxwell. Bishop O'Dwyer had replied to Maxwell's requests for cooperation with a notably acerbic pen, and Plunkett could at least vicariously enjoy the Bishop's defiance of the man who had overseen Joseph's execution two weeks before.[63]
Another source of humour, albeit of a black kind, was a piece of pantomime by him and his fellow prisoners. Plunkett played the role of judge in a mock-trial of Éamon de Valera, awaiting his own court-martial in Kilmainham, who was 'charged' with conspiring to become King of the Periwinkles and Emperor of the Muglins.
Everyone present would have known of similar 'trials' performed by the imprisoned Young Irelanders after their own failed uprising almost seventy years before. Despite the intent of the charade to relieve some of the tension, de Valera could not help but be unsettled, particularly when the onlookers took the game a little too far by clapping their hands to imitate the sound of a firing squad.[64]
But such diversions could not hold off the reality of the situation indefinitely. When Geraldine was able to visit her father on the 8th May, a week after his arrest, she was shocked by what she saw:
We were taken upstairs to a guardroom where Pa was alone, sitting on the bed. I hardly recognised him. He had been arrested more than a fortnight before and was extremely dirty and miserable and more pleased to see the soap and towel than the food. His beard had practically all fallen off and although he was only sixty-five, he looked eighty-five, a poor tired old man.[65]
Under such conditions, it is unsurprising that his attempts at poetry, composed on scraps of paper and spare envelopes, should have a suitably anguished tone:
My foes are many, my friends are but few,
But who can measure my joy in my treasure,
My God, my Heaven, by baby Jesú,
O sleep, sleep deep, my joy, my treasure,
O sleep, my baby, my baby Jesú.[66]
The Countess was having it no better. Another woman imprisoned at Mountjoy in the cell next to Josephine's remembered her being "in a terrible state about her son having been executed, and she used to get awfully lonely and upset at night." Talking to each other through the wall brought at least a measure of comfort.[67]
Relief came for the pair when they were both notified on the 5th June that they could be released on condition of signing a form, agreeing to deportation to a place in England of their choice. Both signed, with Oxfordshire decided as their destination. They were reunited at Upper Fitzwilliam Street and spent four days there before leaving the country on the 9th, taking their daughter Fiona with them.
As part of their agreement, the couple promised to "abstain from making any speeches or attending or taking part, directly or indirectly, in any political or other demonstration or meeting before leaving Ireland." They also agreed not to return home without written permission from the Home Secretary or the military authorities.[68]
Exactly why either of them had been arrested at all is unclear. Unlike their sons, they had not been arrested at the scene of an armed uprising. Neither had held leadership positions or any rank among the Irish Volunteers. The lack of a court-martial or trial means that whatever evidence the authorities had against the couple, as well the reasons for detaining two aging non-combatants in the first place, will remain unknown.
The exiles arrived in London on the morning of the 10th before pressing on to Oxford. Count Plunkett attended Mass the following day before getting down to business and writing to the Prime Minister and later the Home Secretary to ask for a meeting (there is no indication that either replied, however).
Always ready to balance politics with his craft, he sent copies of some verse to a number of Irish publications. Hinting at his state of mind was the title of one: 'O Blessed Gift of Poverty'.[69]
While their Oxford lodgings were a far cry from the luxurious residence on Upper Fitzwilliam Street or the idyllic surroundings of Larkfield, materially the couple could have been worse. A natural entrepreneur, the Countess crafted furniture to sell and, though Geraldine snidely commented on their quality in her memoirs, she made enough to cover the rent and shopping (the latter task falling to Fiona). For home fires, the family made do with old newspapers and lumps of sugar.[70]
Still, the future looked bleak. They were to be dispossessed for an indefinite period, many of their belongings in Dublin had been stolen, and their eldest son was dead with the other two were about to embark on lengthy penal sentences. The National Museum lay over a burnt bridge, the Count having received notice of his suspension as its director. His position would "be determined upon the receipt of a Report from the Military Authorities," which made any chance of reclamation an unlikely one.[71]
As if to rub salt into the wounds, Count Plunkett, who had chosen Oxford for access to its famous Bodleian Library, had his application for a library ticket refused.[72]
Continued in: Plunkett's Turbulence: Count Plunkett and his Return to Ireland, 1917 (Part II)
[1] Curran, M. (BMH / WS 687), pp. 53-55
[2] O'Shiel, Kevin (BMH / WS 1770 – Part V) p. 7
[3] Plunkett Dillon, Geraldine (edited by O Brolchain, Honor) In the Blood: A Memoir of the Plunkett family, the 1916 Rising, and the War of Independence (Dublin: A. & A. Farmar Ltd, 2006), p. 210
[4] O'Brien, William (BMH / WS 1776), p. 108
[5] Catholic Bulletin, Vol. VII, No. 1, January 1917, p. 53
[6] Laffan, Moira. Count Plunkett and his Times (1992), p. 77
[7] Andrews, C.S. Man of No Property (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 2001), p. 43
[8] Plunkett, G.N. God's Chosen Festival (A Christmas Song) and Other Poems (Dublin: John Mullany, 1877), p. 41
[9] Ibid, p. 55
[10] Studies: an Irish Quarterly Review (1921) Vol. X, No. 40, p. 662
[11] Tynan, Katharine. Twenty-Five Years: Reminisces (New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1913), pp. 128, 167
[12] Laffan, pp. 7-9
[13] Plunkett Dillon, pp. 22, 30
[14] Tyrone Constitution, 08/07/1892
[15] Andrews, p. 49
[16] Plunkett Dillon, p. 125
[17] Ibid, 96
[18] Count Plunkett Papers, National Library of Ireland (NLI), MS 11,374/3/7
[19] Tynan, p. 383
[20] Count Plunkett Papers, National Library of Ireland (NLI), MS 11,376/1/9
[22] Plunkett Dillon, pp. 32-3
[23] Tyrone Constitution, 01/07/1892
[24] Plunkett Dillon, p. 33 ; Walker, Brian M. (ed.) Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922 (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1978), p. 149
[25] Tyrone Constitution, 15/07/1892
[27] Irish Times, 08/07/1895
[28] Ibid, 17/07/1895
[29] Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, p. 153
[30] Ibid, p. 157
[31] Irish Times, 22/01/1898
[32] Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, p. 160
[33] Plunkett Dillon, pp. 34-35
[35] Plunkett Dillon, pp. 31, 60 ; Andrews, p. 42
[36] Catholic Bulletin, Vol. VII, No. 1, January 1917
[37] Irish Monthly, Vol. XL, pp. 608-12, November 1912
[38] Laffan, p. 13 ; Catholic Bulletin, Vol. VII, No. 1, January 1917, p. 56 ; Andrews, p. 43
[39] Plunkett Dillon, pp. 153-4 ; Plunkett, Jack (BMH / WS 488), pp. 2-3
[40] Plunkett, Jack, p. 2
[41] Plunkett, Jack, p. 12 ; Andrews, p. 42
[42] Plunkett Dillon, pp. 155-6
[43] Plunkett, Jack, pp. 20, 32
[44] Plunkett Dillon, pp. 151, 188, 201
[45] Ibid, p. 100 ; Good, Joseph (BMH / WS 388), pp. 5-6, 8
[46] Plunkett Dillon, p. 176
[47] Ibid, p. 211
[48] Brennan-Whitmore, W.J. (introduction and notes by Travers, Pauric) Dublin Burning: The Easter Rising from Behind the Barricades (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1996), p. 29
[49] Irish Press, 26/05/1933
[50] Plunkett Dillon, p. 211
[51] Ibid
[52] 'Memorandum by Sean T. O'Ceallaigh to Pope Benedict XV', 18/05/1920, Documents on Irish Foreign Policy, http://www.difp.ie/docs/1920/Appeal-to-Vatican/35.htm (Accessed 21/02/2017)
[53] Plunkett Dillon, p. 211
[54] Curran, p. 54
[55] Plunkett Dillon, p. 227
[56] Robinson, Séumas (BMH / WS 156), p. 14
[57] Good, pp. 7-8
[58] Plunkett, Grace, (BMH / WS 257, pp. 7-10
[59] Plunkett Dillon, pp. 222-3, 226
[60] Daly, Seamus (BMH / WS 360), p. 56
[62] Plunkett Dillon, p. 238
[63] Nevin, Eugene (BMH / WS 1605), p. 53
[64] Coogan, Tim Pat. De Valera – Long Fellow, Long Shadow (London: Random House, 1993), p. 76
[65] Plunkett Dillon, pp. 237-8
[67] Ibid, MS 11,381/4/1 ; Lynn, Kathleen (BMH / WS 357), p. 11
[70] Plunkett Dillon, pp. 251-2
[72] Plunkett Dillion, pp. 246, 252
Bureau of Military Statements
Curran, M., WS 687
Daly, Seamus, WS 360
Good, Joseph, WS 388
Lynn, Kathleen, WS 357
Nevin, Eugene, WS 1605
O'Brien, William, WS 1776
O'Shiel, Kevin, WS 1770
Plunkett, Grace, WS 257
Plunkett, Jack, WS 488
Robinson, Séumas, WS 156
Andrews, C.S. Man of No Property (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 2001)
Brennan-Whitmore, W.J. (introduction and notes by Travers, Pauric) Dublin Burning: The Easter Rising from Behind the Barricades (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1996)
Coogan, Tim Pat. De Valera – Long Fellow, Long Shadow (London: Random House, 1993)
Laffan, Moira. Count Plunkett and his Times (1992)
Plunkett, G.N. God's Chosen Festival (A Christmas Song) and Other Poems (Dublin: John Mullany, 1877)
Plunkett Dillon, Geraldine (edited by O Brolchain, Honor) In the Blood: A Memoir of the Plunkett family, the 1916 Rising, and the War of Independence (Dublin: A. & A. Farmar Ltd, 2006)
Tynan, Katharine. Twenty-Five Years: Reminisces (New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1913)
Walker, Brian M. (ed.) Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922 (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1978)
National Library of Ireland Collection
Count Plunkett Papers
Freeman's Journal
Irish Press
Irish Times
Tyrone Constitution
Catholic Bulletin
Irish Monthly
Studies: an Irish Quarterly Review
Online Source
Documents on Irish Foreign Policy

subset: commoncrawl