According to Richard Walsh (later a Fianna Fail TD):-
"The Volunteer Convention was held in a building in Croke Park, known as the Pavilion, (the) end portion of this building was filled with hay. The large number of delegates seated themse1ves where convenient on portions of an open stand and around on the hay. Planks and forms were also used for seats. At the end of the building where the hay was a group of men assembled, of whom it could be said they were the men of destiny in the Ireland of our time. The Chairman of the Convention was Eamon de Valera. Behind him, lying on the pile of hay, were Michael Collins, Cathal Brugha, Austin Stack, Dermot Lynch, Eamon Duggan, Dermot O'Hegarty, Michael Staines, Liam Lynch of Cork, Terence McSwiney of Cork, Ernest Blythe, Joe McKelvey, Dick Barrett, Frank Barrett of Clare, Mick Brennan and one of his brothers of Clare, Sean MacEntee of Belfast, James Keaveney, Sligo, Alec McCabe of Sligo, Rory O'Connor, Dick McKee, Oscar Traynor, William M. O'Reilly and some of the McQuills of Dundalk, Brian O'Higgins, Laurence O'Toole, etc. All the prominent men in the republican physical force movement of that time were present."
Assume wartime British intelligence sent someone a bit nastier than OTL to Dublin following the 1916 Rising to ensure no repetition, be they a fanatical unionist or someone revengeful who had lost a relative on the British side in the 1916 rising or just a sociopath, who had a background with the use of explosives and using informers gets advanced notice of where the Volunteer Convention will be held rigs a large bomb or series of bombs under the hay. All those named are killed. There is a subsequent cover-up that "the men appeared to be either concealing or removing a store of ammunition which exploded" which even some of their supporters believe to be a genuine statement of fact
What happens to Ireland's campaign for independence and War of Independence? Is there a Civil War over the Treaty?
"The Volunteer Convention was held in a building in Croke Park, known as the Pavilion, (the) end portion of this building was filled with hay. The large number of delegates seated themse1ves where convenient on portions of an open stand and around on the hay. Planks and forms were also used for seats. At the end of the building where the hay was a group of men assembled, of whom it could be said they were the men of destiny in the Ireland of our time. The Chairman of the Convention was Eamon de Valera. Behind him, lying on the pile of hay, were Michael Collins, Cathal Brugha, Austin Stack, Dermot Lynch, Eamon Duggan, Dermot O'Hegarty, Michael Staines, Liam Lynch of Cork, Terence McSwiney of Cork, Ernest Blythe, Joe McKelvey, Dick Barrett, Frank Barrett of Clare, Mick Brennan and one of his brothers of Clare, Sean MacEntee of Belfast, James Keaveney, Sligo, Alec McCabe of Sligo, Rory O'Connor, Dick McKee, Oscar Traynor, William M. O'Reilly and some of the McQuills of Dundalk, Brian O'Higgins, Laurence O'Toole, etc. All the prominent men in the republican physical force movement of that time were present."
Assume wartime British intelligence sent someone a bit nastier than OTL to Dublin following the 1916 Rising to ensure no repetition, be they a fanatical unionist or someone revengeful who had lost a relative on the British side in the 1916 rising or just a sociopath, who had a background with the use of explosives and using informers gets advanced notice of where the Volunteer Convention will be held rigs a large bomb or series of bombs under the hay. All those named are killed. There is a subsequent cover-up that "the men appeared to be either concealing or removing a store of ammunition which exploded" which even some of their supporters believe to be a genuine statement of fact
What happens to Ireland's campaign for independence and War of Independence? Is there a Civil War over the Treaty?