Hibernian Rifles

The Hibernian Rifles was a marginal Irish nationalist militia that organised in Ireland in the early years of the 20th Century, having its Dublin Headquarters at 28, North Frederick Street. Its membership was exclusively Roman Catholic.

The Hibernian Rifles were active in Dublin during the Easter Rising of 1916. In an article in the Irish War News, Patrick Pearse thanked the Hibernian Rifles for its contribution.

The Hibernian Rifles was the product of a split in the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH); it was the military arm of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (Irish-American Alliance), which had broken away from Ancient Order of Hibernians (Board of Erin) in about 1907. As the name suggests, most of the former were in the USA where they were under the influence of Clan-na-Gael. The AOH (Irish-American Alliance) claimed to be opposed to "the narrow sectarianism" of the AOH (Board of Erin). In a characteristic lecture, "Treason in Ireland", the Rifles commandant J. Scollan said: "Many more of us through God’s grace shall live to see the Union Jack of England down in the dust and our own immortal green interwoven with the yellow and white of the Irish Republic waving proudly and victoriously…over the land."

During the 1913 Dublin Lockout, a special subscription was placed on the Rifles members in Ireland and a fund was also opened in the USA for the relief of distress of those affected by the strike. The Hibernian Rifles developed friendly relations with the Irish Citizen Army after it was founded by James Connolly, and some members of the former joined the latter, a fact which was advertised regularly in The Irish Worker.

While it was willing to co-operate with other nationalist groups, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) does not seem to have trusted it completely and therefore it had to obtain some of their rifles from James Connolly, and others which they bought from British soldiers.

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