Page "Easter Rising" Paragraph 11

Plunkett had travelled to Germany in April 1915 to join Roger Casement.

Casement had gone there from the United States the previous year with the support of Clan na Gael leader John Devoy, and after discussions with the German Ambassador in Washington, Count von Bernstorff, to try to recruit an " Irish Brigade " from among Irish prisoners of war and secure German support for Irish independence.

Together, Plunkett and Casement presented a plan which involved a German expeditionary force landing on the west coast of Ireland, while a rising in Dublin diverted the British forces so that the Germans, with the help of local Volunteers, could secure the line of the River Shannon.