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[ Aetat. 33-34 ] J O Y C E 399Yet he could not remain altogether apart from the World War. At theend of 1915 his friend Weiss was called up by the army; he did not seeJoyce again until after the Armistice. Two other events, deaths of oldfriends, came to intrude upon Joyce's neutrality. On Easter, 1916, thereoccurred the Rising in Dublin. Among the executed leaders was PatrickPearse, for whom Joyce had no liking, either as a man or as his firstteacher of Irish; but at the same time came the wholly unnecessary deathin April of Francis Sheehy Skeffington, with whom he had published"The Day of the Rabblement' in 1901. Skeffington, recklessly faithful tohis pacifist views, was arrested while trying to keep the Dublin poor fromlooting.A^ British officer, later judged guilty of murder but insane, hadJiim^hol^without trial.* Joyce followed the eventrwith pity; alffioTigK Reevaluated tne rising^as useless, he felt also out of things. His attitudetowards Ireland became even more complex, so that he told friends, whenthe British had to give up their plans to conscript troops in Ireland, 'Eringo bragh!' and predicted that some day he and Giorgio would go back towear the shamrock in an independent Ireland; but when this temporaryfervor waned, he replied to someone who asked if he did not look forwardto the emergence of an independent country, 'So that I might declaremyself its firstenemy?' 26 Would he not die for Ireland? i say,' he said,'let Ireland die for me.' Balanced between bitterness and nostalgia, hedeclined an invitation from a woman on the Journal de Geneve, FannyGuillermet, to write an analysis of the Irish events, replying with someinaccuracy: 'Je n'ecris jamais d'articles.' 27The Sheehy family suffered another violent loss in September 1916,when Thomas Kettle, Mary Sheehy's husband, was killed in action whilefighting in the British army in France. (Kettle had volunteered with theidealistic notion that England would reward Irish help in the war bygranting independence.) Joyce at once wrote Mrs. Kettle a letter earnestin its sympathy but oddly formal in view of their long acquaintance:Seefeldstrasse 54, rechtsZurich SwitzerlandDear Mrs KettleI have read this morning, with deep regret in the 'Times' that my oldschool fellow and fellow student Lieutenant Kettle has been killed in action.I hope you will not deem it a stranger's intrusion on your grief if Ibeg you to accept from me a word of sincere condolence. I remember verygratefully his benevolent and courteous friendliness to me when I was inIreland seven years ago.my crozzier. Mirrdo! With my how on armer and hits leg an arrow cockshock rockrogn.Sparro!' As early as 1920 Joyce saw Buckley in his own role of the ordinary Irishman incombat with imperial authority."The British offered his widow indemnity, which she refused. Bernard Shaw, who knewher, wrote to urge her to be practical and take the money, but she kept to her decision. 25