1917

20 Jan.  Count Plunkett formally expelled from the Royal Dublin Society. Joseph having being executed his other sons George and John were doing penal servitude. Vacancy in North Roscommon and the Count declared his intention to run but not necessarily on a Sinn Fein abstention ticket.
Feb. Plunkett wins election by 3,000 votes to 1,200. Defeated IPP man T.P. O' Connor correctly called it "Ireland's answer to the executions"
19 Feb.  Collins becomes secretary to the National Aid Fund/Association funded by public subscription and Clan na Gael money from America under the direction of Kathleen Clarke. Salary £2 10 sh. a week.Collins also starts making trips to London (Sam Maguire), Liverpool (Neil Kerr -Frongoch), and Manchester (Patrick O' Donoghue) to set up arms supply networks.
19 April Mansion House meeting convened by Count Plunkett proposing a new organisation be set up scrapping all previous outfits. This was shouted down and a split only avoided when it was agreed that pre-existing radical groupings should maintain their identity (SF, Labour, Volunteers) and work together as a loose coalition.
9 May. Longford by-election. Lewes prisoner Joseph McGuinness put forward at the behest of Collins. De Valera recommends not contesting the election on the grounds of doctrinaire separatism as well as fears of the movement losing face if McGuinness weren't elected. During the campaign Collins stays in the Greville Arms ran by the four Kiernan sisters. Patrick McKenna, the IPP candidate was defeated but only narrowly. Alasdair McCaba, later chief of the Irish Educational Building Society said he stuck a .45 into the face of the returning officer and asked him 'to think again'. "Put him in to get him out" had the been the campaign slogan and now Lloyd George was faced with a common criminal being elected in lieu of the 'responsible' IPP candidate.
10 June Protest meeting in Beresford Place on behalf of Lewes prisoners proscribed but convened anyway. First casualty among Crown forces since the Rising when a police inspector is killed with a blow by a hurley. Cathal Brugha and Count Plunkett arrested.
15 June Bonar Law announces the unconditional release of all Irish prisoners still held in English jails in order to create a conciliatory atmosphere prior to the proposed National Convention.
10 July De Valera wins East Clare by-election from IPP. Insists that Eoin MacNeill share a platform to placate the moderates.
25 July National Convention set up by Lloyd George supposedly representative of all shades of Irish opinion.
Aug Thomas Ashe (12months), Austin Stack (18months), and Fionan Lynch (2yrs) arrested under the Defence of the Realm Act. Along with 40 other DORA victims at Mountjoy the trio mutually agreed to go on hunger strike.
20 Sept. DORA hunger strike begins in Mountjoy. Austin Stack elected leader.
25 Sept Thomas Ashe dies from force feeding. Some 30,000 visited the body as it lay in state at the Mater. Dick McKee's Dublin Brigade marshalling the crowd through the city. Three volleys fired at the graveside as Collins in Volunteer uniform; " Nothing additional remains to be said. That volley which we have just heard is the only speech which it is proper to make above the grave of a dead Fenian." Thousands of copies of "The Last Poem of Thomas Ashe" are circulated. Written in Lewes prison, "Let me carry your cross for Ireland, Lord! For Ireland weak with tears, For the aged man of the clouded brow, And the child of tender years. For the empty homes of her golden plains, For the hopes of her future too, Let me carry your cross for Ireland Lord, For the cause of Roisin Dhu".
18 Oct De Valera and Griffith meet in a Grafton café a week before the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis, the former urging the latter to step down as president to make way for himself as he had the support of both the Volunteers and the IRB.
25 Oct  Mansion House SF AF; Dev elected President; Griffith VP - SF aims at establishing international recognition for Ireland as an independent Republic. SF would contest the next general election and that any Sinn Feiners elected would form themselves into a new national assembly. New Executive of SF elected with IRB backed members polling badly and Collins himself only getting in on the last count.
27 Oct  Secret convention of Volunteers held at the GAA ground of Jones Park, Drumcondra. IRB dominated these proceedings securing Dev's election as President, Collin's as Director of Organisation, and two IRB Supreme Council men Diarmaid Lynch and Sean McGarry in key posts of Director of Communication and General Secretary respectively. Dublin Executive of the Volunteers also taken over by the IRB except the post of Chief of Staff, won by Cathal Brugha, who, along with Dev began at this point to loathe the IRB.
1 Nov Inquest into death of Thomas Ashe releases its verdict after 3 weeks of deliberation. Censored the Castle, the prison authority and spoke of 'inhuman punishment'. Mountjoy prisoners first awarded special category status, then transferred to Dundalk.
17 Nov  After another hunger strike Dundalk prisoners released.