These three brave men...

From the Diary of Company Sergeant Major S. H. Lomas. 2/6 Battalion Sherwood Foresters*

Richmond Barracks, Dublin: 2nd May 1916

9pm I was warned to provide a party of 48 men and 4 sergeants for a special duty parade at 3am the following morning. I was told as a special favour I had been allowed to go as one of the party as senior NCO.

May 3rd 1916: We paraded at the time appointed, marched to Kilmainham Jail.

The signatories who were executed on May 3 1916.
 'These three brave men...'
Stamps collected by the author in 1966

At 3.45 the first rebel MacDonoghue [Thomas MacDonagh] was marched in blindfolded, and the firing party placed 10 paces distant. Death was instantaneous. The second P.H. Pierce [Pearse] whistled as he came out of his cell... The same applied to him. The third J.H. [Thomas J.] Clarke, an old man, was not quite so fortunate, requiring a bullet from an officer to complete the ghastly business (it was sad to think that these three brave men who met their death so bravely should be fighting for a cause which proved so useless and had been the means of so much bloodshed).

5am - This business being over; I was able to return to bed for two hours and excused from duty until noon.

*Mick O'Farrell, The 1916 Diaries, Mercier Press, 2014