Page "Irish Volunteers" Paragraph 10

The Volunteer organisation was publicly launched on 25 November, explicitly to safeguard the granting of Home Rule, with their first public meeting and enrollment rally at the Rotunda in Dublin.

The IRB organised this meeting to which all parties were invited, and brought 5000 enlistment blanks for distribution and handed out in books of one hundred each to each ot the stewards.

Every one of the stewards and officials wore on their lapel a small silken bow the center of which was white, while on one side was green and on the other side orange and had long been recognized as the colors which the Irish Republican Brotherhood had adopted as the Irish national banner.

The hall was filled to its 4, 000 person capacity, with a further 3, 000 spilling onto the grounds outside.

Speakers at the rally included MacNeill, Patrick Pearse, and Michael Davitt, son of the Land League founder of the same name.

Over the course of the following months the movement spread throughout the country, with thousands more joining every week.