John Bulmer Hobson (1883–1969) was a leading member of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) before the Easter Rising in 1916.[1] Though he was a member of the organisation that planned the Rising, he was opposed to it being carried out, and attempted to prevent it.
He is also notable for swearing Patrick Pearse into the IRB in late 1913.

Hobson was, along with Tom Clarke one of the driving forces behind the resurgence of the IRB and was an leading light in the nationalist Dungannon club movement. Hosbon joined the IRB's Supreme Council in 1911 and was secretary and a member of the Volunteers provisional council and played a key role in the founding and development of the force. Hobson opposed the 1916 rising and withdrew from political activities after the Rising. This book is his account of the formation and development of the Irish Volunteers.