TheEaster Rising (Irish:Éirí Amach na Cásca),[2] also known as theEaster Rebellion, was an armedinsurrection inIreland duringEaster Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched byIrish republicans againstBritish rule in Ireland with the aim of establishing an independentIrish Republic while the United Kingdom was fighting theFirst World War. It was the most significantuprising in Ireland since therebellion of 1798 and the first armed conflict of theIrish revolutionary period. Sixteen of the Rising's leaders were executed starting in May 1916. The nature of the executions, and subsequent political developments, ultimately contributed to an increase in popular support for Irish independence.
Organised by a seven-man Military Council of theIrish Republican Brotherhood, the Rising began onEaster Monday, 24 April 1916 and lasted for six days.[3] Members of theIrish Volunteers, led by schoolmaster and Irish language activistPatrick Pearse, joined by the smallerIrish Citizen Army ofJames Connolly and 200 women ofCumann na mBan seized strategically important buildings inDublin andproclaimed the Irish Republic. TheBritish Army brought in thousands of reinforcements as well as artillery and agunboat. There was street fighting on the routes into the city centre, where the rebels slowed the British advance and inflicted many casualties. Elsewhere in Dublin, the fighting mainly consisted of sniping and long-range gun battles. The main rebel positions were gradually surrounded and bombarded with artillery. There were isolated actions in other parts of Ireland; Volunteer leaderEoin MacNeill had issued a countermand in a bid to halt the Rising, which greatly reduced the extent of the rebel actions.
With much greater numbers and heavier weapons, the British Army suppressed the Rising. Pearse agreed to an unconditional surrender on Saturday 29 April, although sporadic fighting continued briefly. After the surrender, the country remained undermartial law. About 3,500 people were taken prisoner by the British and 1,800 of them were sent to internment camps or prisons in Britain. Most of the leaders of the Rising were executed followingcourts martial. The Rising broughtphysical force republicanism back to the forefront of Irish politics, which for nearly fifty years had been dominated by constitutional nationalism. Opposition to the British reaction to the Rising contributed to changes in public opinion and the move toward independence, as shown in theDecember 1918 election in Ireland which was won by theSinn Féin party, which convened theFirst Dáil anddeclared independence.
Of the 485 people killed,[1] 260 were civilians, 143 were British military and police personnel, and 82 were Irish rebels, including 16 rebels executed for their roles in the Rising. More than 2,600 people were wounded. Many of the civilians were killed or wounded by British artillery fire or were mistaken for rebels. Others were caught in the crossfire during firefights between the British and the rebels. The shelling and resulting fires left parts of central Dublin in ruins.
After the death of Parnell, younger and more radical nationalists became disillusioned with parliamentary politics and turned toward more extreme forms of separatism. TheGaelic Athletic Association, theGaelic League, and thecultural revival underW. B. Yeats andAugusta, Lady Gregory, together with the new political thinking ofArthur Griffith expressed in his newspaperSinn Féin and organisations such as the National Council and the Sinn Féin League, led many Irish people to identify with the idea of an independentGaelic Ireland.[9][10][a]
TheThird Home Rule Bill was introduced by British Liberal Prime MinisterH. H. Asquith in 1912.Irish Unionists, who were overwhelmingly Protestants, opposed it, as they did not want to be ruled by a Catholic-dominated Irish government. Led bySir Edward Carson andJames Craig, they formed theUlster Volunteers (UVF) in January 1913.[13] The UVF's opposition included arming themselves, in the event that they had to resist by force.[6]
Seeking to defend Home Rule, theIrish Volunteers was formed in November 1913. Although sporting broadly open membership and without avowed support for separatism, the executive branch of the Irish Volunteers – excludingleadership – was dominated by theIrish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) who rose to prominence via the organisation, having had restarted recruitment in 1909.[6][14][15][16] These members feared that Home Rule's enactment would result in a broad, seemingly perpetual, contentment with the British Empire.[17] Another militant group, theIrish Citizen Army, was formed by trade unionists as a result of theDublin Lock-out of that year.[18] The issue of Home Rule, appeared to some, as the basis of an "imminent civil war".[6]
Although the Third Home Rule Bill was eventually enacted, the outbreak of theFirst World War resulted in its implementation being postponed for the war's duration.[19] It was widely believed at the time that the war would not last more than a few months.[20] The Irish Volunteers split. The vast majority – thereafter known as theNational Volunteers – enlisted in the British Army. The minority that objected – retaining the name – did so in accordance with separatist principles, official policy thus becoming "the abolition of the system of governing Ireland throughDublin Castle and the British military power and the establishment of a National Government in its place"; the Volunteers believed that "England's difficulty" was "Ireland's opportunity".[6][21]
In May 1915, Clarke and Mac Diarmada established a Military Council within the IRB, consisting of Pearse, Plunkett and Éamonn Ceannt – and soon themselves – to devise plans for a rising.[24] The Military Council functioned independently and in opposition to those who considered a possible uprising inopportune.[25] Volunteer Chief-of-Staff Eoin MacNeill supported a rising only if the British government attempted to suppress the Volunteers or introduceconscription in Ireland, and if such a rising had some chance of success. Hobson and IRB PresidentDenis McCullough held similar views as did much of the executive branches of both organisations.[26][27]
The Military Council kept its plans secret, so as to prevent the British authorities from learning of the plans, and to thwart those within the organisation who might try to stop the rising. The secrecy of the plans was such that the Military Council largely superseded the IRB's Supreme Council with even McCullough being unaware of some of the plans, whereas the likes of MacNeill were only informed as the Rising rapidly approached.[28] Although most Volunteers were oblivious to any plans their training increased in the preceding year. The public nature of their training heightened tensions with authorities, which, come the next year, manifested in rumours of the Rising.[29][b] Public displays likewise existed in the espousal of anti-recruitment.[16] The number of Volunteers also increased: between December 1914 and February 1916 the rank and file rose from 9,700 to 12,215.[32] Although the likes of the civil servants were discouraged from joining the Volunteers, the organisation was permitted by law.[33]
Shortly after the outbreak of World War I,Roger Casement andJohn Devoy went to Germany and began negotiations with the German government and military. Casement – later accompanied by Plunkett – persuaded the Germans to announce their support for Irish independence in November 1914.[34] Casement envisioned the recruitment of Irish prisoners of war, to be known as theIrish Brigade, aided by a Germanexpeditionary force who would secure the line of theRiver Shannon, before advancing on the capital.[35][36][37] Neither intention came to fruition, but the German military did agree to ship arms and ammunition to the Volunteers,[38] gunrunning having become difficult and dangerous on account of the war.[39]
In late 1915 and early 1916 Devoy had trusted couriers deliver approximately $100,000 from the American-based Irish Republican organizationClan na Gael to the IRB. In January 1916 the Supreme Council of the IRB decided that he rising would begin on Easter Sunday, 23 April 1916.[40] On 5 February 1916 Devoy received a coded message from the Supreme Council of the IRB informing him of their decision to start a rebellion at Easter 1916: "We have decided to begin action on Easter Sunday. We must have your arms and munitions in Limerick between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We expect German help immediately after beginning action. We might have to begin earlier."[41]
Head of the Irish Citizen Army, James Connolly, was unaware of the IRB's plans, and threatened to start a rebellion on his own if other parties failed to act. The IRB leaders met with Connolly inDolphin's Barn in January 1916 and convinced him to join forces with them. They agreed that they would launch a rising together at Easter and made Connolly the sixth member of the Military Council.[42][43] Thomas MacDonagh would later become the seventh and final member.[44]
The death of the oldFenian leaderJeremiah O'Donovan Rossa in New York City in August 1915 was an opportunity to mount a spectacular demonstration. His body was sent to Ireland for burial inGlasnevin Cemetery, with the Volunteers in charge of arrangements. Huge crowds lined the route and gathered at the graveside. Pearse (wearing the uniform of the Irish Volunteers) made a dramatic funeral oration, a rallying call to republicans, which ended with the words "Ireland unfree shall never be at peace".[45]
In early April, Pearse issued orders to the Irish Volunteers for three days of "parades and manoeuvres" beginning on Easter Sunday. He had the authority to do this, as the Volunteers' Director of Organisation. The idea was that IRB members within the organisation would know these were orders to begin the rising, while men such as MacNeill and the British authorities would take it at face value.
On 9 April, theGerman Navy dispatched theSSLibau forCounty Kerry, disguised as the Norwegian shipAud.[46] It was loaded with 20,000 rifles, one million rounds of ammunition, and explosives. Casement also left for Ireland aboard the German submarineU-19. He was disappointed with the level of support offered by the Germans and he intended to stop or at least postpone the rising.[47] During this time, the Volunteers amassed ammunition from various sources, including the adolescent Michael McCabe.[48]
On Wednesday 19 April, AldermanTom Kelly, a Sinn Féin member ofDublin Corporation, read out at a meeting of the corporation a document purportedly leaked fromDublin Castle, detailing plans by the British authorities to shortly arrest leaders of the Irish Volunteers, Sinn Féin and the Gaelic League, and occupy their premises.[49] Although the British authorities said the "Castle Document" was fake, MacNeill ordered the Volunteers to prepare to resist.[50] Unbeknownst to MacNeill, the document had beenforged by the Military Council to persuade moderates of the need for their planned uprising. It was an edited version of a real document outlining British plans in the event of conscription.[51] That same day, the Military Council informed senior Volunteer officers that the rising would begin on Easter Sunday. However, it chose not to inform therank-and-file, or moderates such as MacNeill, until the last minute.[52]
The following day, MacNeill got wind that a rising was about to be launched and threatened to do everything he could to prevent it, short of informing the British.[53] He and Hobson confronted Pearse, but refrained from decisive action as to avoiding instigating a rebellion of any kind; Hobson would be detained by Volunteers until the Rising occurred.[54][c]
TheSS Libau (disguised as theAud) and theU-19 reached the coast of Kerry on Good Friday, 21 April. This was earlier than the Volunteers expected and so none were there to meet the vessels. TheRoyal Navy had known about the arms shipment and intercepted theSS Libau, prompting the captain toscuttle the ship. Furthermore, Casement was captured shortly after he landed atBanna Strand.[56]
When MacNeill learned that the arms shipment had been lost, he reverted to his original position. With the support of other leaders of like mind, notably Bulmer Hobson andThe O'Rahilly, he issued a countermand to all Volunteers, cancelling all actions for Sunday. This countermanding order was relayed to Volunteer officers and printed in the Sunday morning newspapers. The order resulted in a delay to the rising by a day,[57] and some confusion over strategy for those who took part.[58]
British Naval Intelligence had been aware of the arms shipment, Casement's return, and the Easter date for the rising through radio messages between Germany and its embassy in the United States that were intercepted by the Royal Navy and deciphered inRoom 40 of the Admiralty.[59] It is unclear how extensive Room 40's decryptions preceding the Rising were.[60] On the eve of the Rising,John Dillon wrote to Redmond of Dublin being "full of most extraordinary rumours. And I have no doubt in my mind that the Clan men – are planning some devilish business – what it is I cannot make out. It may not come off – But you must not be surprised if something very unpleasant and mischievous happens this week".[61]
The information was passed to theUnder-Secretary for Ireland, SirMatthew Nathan, on 17 April, but without revealing its source; Nathan was doubtful about its accuracy.[62] When news reached Dublin of the capture of theSS Libau and the arrest of Casement, Nathan conferred with theLord Lieutenant,Lord Wimborne. Nathan proposed to raidLiberty Hall, headquarters of the Citizen Army, and Volunteer properties at Father Matthew Park and atKimmage, but Wimborne insisted on wholesale arrests of the leaders. It was decided to postpone action until after Easter Monday, and in the meantime, Nathan telegraphed theChief Secretary,Augustine Birrell, in London seeking his approval.[63] By the time Birrell cabled his reply authorising the action, at noon on Monday 24 April 1916, the Rising had already begun.[64]
On the morning of Easter Sunday, 23 April, the Military Council met at Liberty Hall to discuss what to do in light of MacNeill's countermanding order. They decided that the Rising would go ahead the following day, Easter Monday, and that the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army would go into action as the 'Army of the Irish Republic'. They elected Pearse as president of the Irish Republic, and also as Commander-in-Chief of the army; Connolly became Commandant of the Dublin Brigade.[65] That weekend was largely spent preparing rations and manufacturing ammunition and bombs.[66] Messengers were then sent to all units informing them of the new orders.[67]
TheGeneral Post Office in Dublin – the rebel headquartersOne of two flags flown over the GPO during the RisingPositions of rebel and British forces in central Dublin
On the morning of Monday 24 April, about 1,200 members of the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army mustered at several locations in central Dublin. Among them were members of the all-femaleCumann na mBan. Some wore Irish Volunteer and Citizen Army uniforms, while others wore civilian clothes with a yellow Irish Volunteer armband, military hats, andbandoliers.[68][69] They were armed mostly with rifles (especially1871 Mausers), but also with shotguns, revolvers, a fewMauser C96 semi-automatic pistols, and grenades.[70] The number of Volunteers who mobilised was much smaller than expected. This was due to MacNeill's countermanding order, and the fact that the new orders had been sent so soon beforehand. However, several hundred Volunteers joined the Rising after it began.[71]
Shortly before midday, the rebels began to seize important sites in central Dublin. The rebels' plan was to hold Dublin city centre. This was a large, oval-shaped area bounded by two canals: theGrand to the south and theRoyal to the north, with theRiver Liffey running through the middle. On the southern and western edges of this district were five British Army barracks. Most of the rebels' positions had been chosen to defend against counter-attacks from these barracks.[72] The rebels took the positions with ease. Civilians were evacuated and policemen were ejected or taken prisoner.[73] Windows and doors were barricaded, food and supplies were secured, and first aid posts were set up. Barricades were erected on the streets to hinder British Army movement.[74]
A joint force of about 400 Volunteers and the Citizen Army gathered at Liberty Hall under the command of Commandant James Connolly. This was the headquarters battalion, and it also included Commander-in-Chief Patrick Pearse, as well as Tom Clarke, Seán Mac Diarmada andJoseph Plunkett.[75] They marched to theGeneral Post Office (GPO) onO'Connell Street, Dublin's main thoroughfare, occupied the building and hoisted two republican flags. Pearse stood outside and read theProclamation of the Irish Republic.[76] Copies of the Proclamation were also pasted on walls and handed out to bystanders by Volunteers and newsboys.[77] The GPO would be the rebels' headquarters for most of the Rising. Volunteers from the GPO also occupied other buildings on the street, including buildings overlookingO'Connell Bridge. They took over awireless telegraph station and sent out a radio broadcast inMorse code, announcing that an Irish Republic had been declared. This was the first radio broadcast in Ireland.[78]
Elsewhere, some of the headquarters battalion underMichael Mallin occupiedSt Stephen's Green, where they dug trenches and barricaded the surrounding roads. The 1st battalion, underEdward 'Ned' Daly, occupied theFour Courts and surrounding buildings, while a company underSeán Heuston occupied theMendicity Institution, across the River Liffey from the Four Courts. The 2nd battalion, under Thomas MacDonagh, occupiedJacob's biscuit factory. The 3rd battalion, underÉamon de Valera, occupiedBoland's Mill and surrounding buildings (uniquely, without the presence of Cumann na mBan women whom de Valera expressly excluded).[79] The 4th battalion, under Éamonn Ceannt, occupied theSouth Dublin Union and the distillery onMarrowbone Lane. From each of these garrisons, small units of rebels establishedoutposts in the surrounding area.[80]
The rebels also attempted to cut transport and communication links. As well as erecting roadblocks, they took control of various bridges and cut telephone and telegraph wires.Westland Row andHarcourt Street railway stations were occupied, though the latter only briefly. The railway line was cut atFairview and the line was damaged by bombs atAmiens Street,Broadstone,Kingsbridge andLansdowne Road.[81]
Around midday, a small team of Volunteers andFianna Éireann members swiftly captured theMagazine Fort in thePhoenix Park and disarmed the guards. The goal was to seize weapons and blow up the ammunition store to signal that the Rising had begun. They seized weapons and planted explosives, but the blast was not loud enough to be heard across the city.[82] The 23-year-old son of the fort's commander was fatally shot when he ran to raise the alarm.[83]
A street barricade erected by the rebels outside theWestmoreland Lock Hospital in Dublin during the Rising
A contingent under Seán Connolly occupiedDublin City Hall and adjacent buildings.[84] They attempted to seize neighbouring Dublin Castle, the heart of British rule in Ireland. As they approached the gate a lone and unarmed police sentry, James O'Brien, attempted to stop them and was shot dead by Connolly. According to some accounts, he was the first casualty of the Rising. The rebels overpowered the soldiers in the guardroom but failed to press further. The British Army's chief intelligence officer, Major Ivon Price, fired on the rebels while the Under-Secretary for Ireland, Sir Matthew Nathan, helped shut the castle gates. Unbeknownst to the rebels, the Castle was lightly guarded and could have been taken with ease.[85] The rebels instead laid siege to the Castle from City Hall. Fierce fighting erupted there after British reinforcements arrived. The rebels on the roof exchanged fire with soldiers on the street. Seán Connolly was shot dead by a sniper, becoming the first rebel casualty.[67] By the following morning, British forces had re-captured City Hall and taken the rebels prisoner.[67]
The rebels did not attempt to take some other key locations, notablyTrinity College, in the heart of the city centre and defended by only a handful of armed unionist students.[86] Failure to capture the telephone exchange in Crown Alley left communications in the hands of the Government with GPO staff quickly repairing telephone wires that had been cut by the rebels.[87] The failure to occupy strategic locations was attributed to lack of manpower.[71] In at least two incidents, at Jacob's[88] and Stephen's Green,[89] the Volunteers and Citizen Army shot dead civilians trying to attack them or dismantle their barricades. Elsewhere, they hit civilians with their rifle butts to drive them off.[90]
The British military were caught totally unprepared by the Rising and their response of the first day was generally un-coordinated. Two squadrons[91] of British cavalry were sent to investigate what was happening. They took fire and casualties from rebel forces at the GPO and at the Four Courts.[92][93] As one troop passedNelson's Pillar, the rebels opened fire from the GPO, killing three cavalrymen and two horses[93] and fatally wounding a fourth man. The cavalrymen retreated and were withdrawn to barracks. On Mount Street, a group ofVolunteer Training Corps men stumbled upon the rebel position and four were killed before they reachedBeggars Bush Barracks.[94] Although ransacked, the barracks were never seized.[95]
The only substantial combat of the first day of the Rising took place at the South Dublin Union where apiquet from theRoyal Irish Regiment encountered an outpost of Éamonn Ceannt's force at the northwestern corner of the South Dublin Union. The British troops, after taking some casualties, managed to regroup and launch several assaults on the position before they forced their way inside and the small rebel force in the tin huts at the eastern end of the Union surrendered.[96] However, the Union complex as a whole remained in rebel hands. A nurse in uniform, Margaret Keogh, was shot dead by British soldiers at the Union. She is believed to have been the first civilian killed in the Rising.[97]
Three unarmedDublin Metropolitan Police were shot dead on the first day of the Rising and their Commissioner pulled them off the streets. Partly as a result of the police withdrawal, a wave of looting broke out in the city centre, especially in the area of O'Connell Street (still officially called "Sackville Street" at the time).[98]
Lord Wimborne, the Lord Lieutenant, declaredmartial law on Tuesday evening and handed over civil power to Brigadier-GeneralWilliam Lowe. British forces initially put their efforts into securing the approaches to Dublin Castle and isolating the rebel headquarters, which they believed was in Liberty Hall. The British commander, Lowe, worked slowly, unsure of the size of the force he was up against, and with only 1,269 troops in the city when he arrived from theCurragh Camp in the early hours of Tuesday 25 April. City Hall was taken from the rebel unit that had attacked Dublin Castle on Tuesday morning.[99][100]
In the early hours of Tuesday, 120 British soldiers, with machine guns, occupied two buildings overlooking St Stephen's Green: theShelbourne Hotel and United Services Club.[101] At dawn they opened fire on the Citizen Army occupying the green. The rebels returned fire but were forced to retreat to theRoyal College of Surgeons building. They remained there for the rest of the week, exchanging fire with British forces.[67]
Fighting erupted along the northern edge of the city centre on Tuesday afternoon. In the northeast, British troops left Amiens Street railway station in an armoured train, to secure and repair a section of damaged tracks. They were attacked by rebels who had taken up position atAnnesley Bridge. After a two-hour battle, the British were forced to retreat and several soldiers were captured.[102] AtPhibsborough, in the northwest, rebels had occupied buildings and erected barricades at junctions on theNorth Circular Road. The British summoned18-pounder field artillery fromAthlone and shelled the rebel positions, destroying the barricades. After a fierce firefight, the rebels withdrew.[102]
That afternoon Pearse walked out into O'Connell Street with a small escort and stood in front of Nelson's Pillar. As a large crowd gathered, he read out a 'manifesto to the citizens of Dublin,' calling on them to support the Rising.[103]
The rebels had failed to take either of Dublin's two main railway stations or either of its ports, atDublin Port andKingstown. As a result, during the following week, the British were able to bring in thousands of reinforcements from Britain and from their garrisons atthe Curragh andBelfast. By the end of the week, British strength stood at over 16,000 men.[100][104] Their firepower was provided by field artillery which they positioned on theNorthside of the city at Phibsborough and at Trinity College, and by the patrol vesselHelga, which sailed up the Liffey, having been summoned from the port at Kingstown. On Wednesday, 26 April, the guns at Trinity College andHelga shelled Liberty Hall, and the Trinity College guns then began firing at rebel positions, first at Boland's Mill and then in O'Connell Street.[100] Some rebel commanders, particularly James Connolly, did not believe that the British would shell the 'second city' of the British Empire.[105][106]
British soldiers in position behind a stack of barrels during the Rising in Dublin
The principal rebel positions at the GPO, the Four Courts, Jacob's Factory and Boland's Mill saw little action. The British surrounded and bombarded them rather than assault them directly. One Volunteer in the GPO recalled, "we did practically no shooting as there was no target".[107] Entertainment ensued within the factory, "everybody merry & cheerful", bar the "occasional sniping", noted one Volunteer.[108] However, where the rebels dominated the routes by which the British tried to funnel reinforcements into the city, there was fierce fighting.
At 5:25 PM a dozen Volunteers, includingEamon Martin, Garry Holohan, Robert Beggs, Sean Cody, Dinny O'Callaghan, Charles Shelley, and Peadar Breslin, attempted to occupy Broadstone railway station on Church Street. The attack was unsuccessful and Martin was injured.[67][109][110][111][112]
On Wednesday morning, hundreds of British troops encircled the Mendicity Institution, which was occupied by 26 Volunteers under Seán Heuston. British troops advanced on the building, supported by snipers and machine-gun fire, but the Volunteers put up stiff resistance. Eventually, the troops got close enough to hurl grenades into the building, some of which the rebels threw back. Exhausted and almost out of ammunition, Heuston's men became the first rebel position to surrender. Heuston had been ordered to hold his position for a few hours, to delay the British, but had held on for three days.[113]
Reinforcements were sent to Dublin from Britain and disembarked at Kingstown on the morning of Wednesday 26 April.Heavy fighting occurred at the rebel-held positions around theGrand Canal as these troops advanced towards Dublin. More than 1,000Sherwood Foresters were repeatedly caught in a crossfire trying to cross the canal at Mount Street Bridge. Seventeen Volunteers were able to severely disrupt the British advance, killing or wounding 240 men.[114] Despite there being alternative routes across the canal nearby, General Lowe ordered repeated frontal assaults on the Mount Street position.[115] The British eventually took the position, which had not been reinforced by the nearby rebel garrison at Boland's Mills, on Thursday,[116] but the fighting there inflicted up to two-thirds of their casualties for the entire week for a cost of just four dead Volunteers.[117] It had taken nearly nine hours for the British to advance 300 yd (270 m).[67]
The rebel position at the South Dublin Union (site of the present-daySt. James's Hospital) and Marrowbone Lane, further west along the canal, also inflicted heavy losses on British troops. The South Dublin Union was a large complex of buildings and there was vicious fighting around and inside the buildings.Cathal Brugha, a rebel officer, distinguished himself in this action and was badly wounded. By the end of the week, the British had taken some of the buildings in the Union, but others remained in rebel hands.[119] British troops also took casualties in unsuccessful frontal assaults on the Marrowbone Lane Distillery.[120]
Birth of the Irish Republic byWalter Paget, depicting the GPO during the shelling
The third major scene of fighting during the week was in the area of North King Street, north of the Four Courts. The rebels had established strong outposts in the area, occupying numerous small buildings and barricading the streets. From Thursday to Saturday, the British made repeated attempts to capture the area, in what was some of the fiercest fighting of the Rising. As the troops moved in, the rebels continually opened fire from windows and behind chimneys and barricades. At one point, a platoon led by Major Sheppard made abayonet charge on one of the barricades but was cut down by rebel fire. The British employed machine guns and attempted to avoid direct fire by usingmakeshift armoured trucks, and bymouse-holing through the inside walls of terraced houses to get near the rebel positions.[121] By the time of the rebel headquarters' surrender on Saturday, theSouth Staffordshire Regiment under Colonel Taylor had advanced only 150 yd (140 m) down the street at a cost of 11 dead and 28 wounded.[122] The enraged troops broke into the houses along the street and shot or bayoneted fifteen unarmed male civilians whom they accused of being rebel fighters.[123]
Elsewhere, atPortobello Barracks, an officer named Bowen Colthurstsummarily executed six civilians, including the pacifist nationalist activist,Francis Sheehy-Skeffington.[124] These instances of British troops killing Irish civilians would later be highly controversial in Ireland.
British soldiers marching rebel prisoners away after the surrender
The headquarters garrison at the GPO was forced to evacuate after days of shelling when a fire caused by the shells spread to the GPO. Connolly had been incapacitated by a bullet wound to the ankle and had passed command on to Pearse. The O'Rahilly was killed in a sortie from the GPO. They tunnelled through the walls of the neighbouring buildings in order to evacuate the Post Office without coming under fire and took up a new position in 16Moore Street. The youngSeán McLoughlin was given military command and planned a breakout, but Pearse realised this plan would lead to further loss of civilian life.[125]
On the eve of the surrender, there had been about 35 Cumann na mBan women remaining in the GPO. In the final group that left with Pearse and Connolly, there were three: Connolly's aide de camp,Winifred Carney, who had entered with the original ICA contingent, and the dispatchers and nursesElizabeth O'Farrell, andJulia Grenan.[126][127][128]
On Saturday 29 April, from this new headquarters, Pearse issued an order for all companies to surrender.[129] Pearsesurrendered unconditionally to Brigadier-General Lowe. The surrender document read:
In order to prevent the further slaughter of Dublin citizens, and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers now surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered, the members of the Provisional Government present at headquarters have agreed to an unconditional surrender, and the commandants of the various districts in the City and County will order their commands to lay down arms.[130]
The other posts surrendered only after Pearse's surrender order, carried by O'Farrell, reached them.[131] Sporadic fighting, therefore, continued until Sunday, when word of the surrender was got to the other rebel garrisons.[132] Command of British forces had passed from Lowe to General John Maxwell, who arrived in Dublin just in time to take the surrender. Maxwell was made temporary military governor of Ireland.[133]
Irish War News, produced by the rebels during the Rising
The Rising was planned to occur across the nation, but MacNeill's countermanding order coupled with the failure to secure German arms hindered this objective significantly.[6]Charles Townshend contended that serious intentions for a national Rising were meagre, being diminished by a focus upon Dublin – although this is an increasingly contentious notion.[28]
In the south, around 1,200 Volunteers commanded byTomás Mac Curtain mustered on the Sunday inCork, but they dispersed on Wednesday after receiving nine contradictory orders by dispatch from the Volunteer leadership in Dublin. At their Sheares Street headquarters, some of the Volunteers engaged in a standoff with British forces. Much to the anger of many Volunteers, MacCurtain, under pressure from Catholic clergy, agreed to surrender his men's arms to the British.[134] The only violence in County Cork occurred when the RIC attempted to raid the home of theKent family. The Kent brothers, who were Volunteers, engaged in a three-hour firefight with the RIC. An RIC officer and one of the brothers were killed, while another brother was later executed.[135] Virtually all rebel family homes were raided, either during or after the Rising.[136]
In the north, Volunteer companies were mobilised inCounty Tyrone atCoalisland (including 132 men from Belfast led by IRB PresidentDennis McCullough) andCarrickmore, under the leadership ofPatrick McCartan. They also mobilised atCreeslough, County Donegal under Daniel Kelly andJames McNulty.[137] However, in part because of the confusion caused by the countermanding order, the Volunteers in these locations dispersed without fighting.[138]
In north County Dublin, about 60 Volunteers mobilised nearSwords. They belonged to the 5th Battalion of the Dublin Brigade (also known as the Fingal Battalion), and were led byThomas Ashe and his second in command,Richard Mulcahy. Unlike the rebels elsewhere, the Fingal Battalion successfully employedguerrilla tactics. They set up camp and Ashe split the battalion into four sections: three would undertake operations while the fourth was kept in reserve, guarding camp and foraging for food.[139] The Volunteers moved against the RIC barracks in Swords,Donabate andGarristown, forcing the RIC to surrender and seizing all the weapons.[139] They also damaged railway lines and cut telegraph wires. The railway line atBlanchardstown was bombed to prevent a troop train from reaching Dublin.[139] This derailed a cattle train, which had been sent ahead of the troop train.[140]
The only large-scale engagement of the Rising, outside Dublin city, was atAshbourne, County Meath.[141][142] On Friday, about 35 Fingal Volunteers surrounded the Ashbourne RIC barracks and called on it to surrender, but the RIC responded with a volley of gunfire.[139] A firefight followed, and the RIC surrendered after the Volunteers attacked the building with a homemade grenade.[139] Before the surrender could be taken, up to sixty RIC men arrived in a convoy, sparking a five-hour gun battle, in which eight RIC men were killed and 18 wounded.[139] Two Volunteers were also killed and five wounded,[143] and a civilian was fatally shot.[144] The RIC surrendered and were disarmed. Ashe let them go after warning them not to fight against the Irish Republic again.[139] Ashe's men camped at Kilsalaghan near Dublin until they received orders to surrender on Saturday.[145] The Fingal Battalion's tactics during the Rising foreshadowed those of the IRA during theWar of Independence that followed.[139]
Volunteer contingents also mobilised nearby in counties Meath and Louth but proved unable to link up with the North Dublin unit until after it had surrendered. InCounty Louth, Volunteers shot dead an RIC man near the village ofCastlebellingham on 24 April, in an incident in which 15 RIC men were also taken prisoner.[141][146]
InCounty Wexford, 100–200 Volunteers—led byRobert Brennan,Séamus Doyle andSeán Etchingham—took over the town ofEnniscorthy on Thursday 27 April until Sunday.[141] Volunteer officer Paul Galligan had cycled 200 km from rebel headquarters in Dublin with orders to mobilise.[147] They blocked all roads into the town and made a brief attack on the RIC barracks, but chose to blockade it rather than attempt to capture it. They flew the tricolour over the Athenaeum building, which they had made their headquarters, and paraded uniformed in the streets.[148] They also occupied Vinegar Hill, where theUnited Irishmen hadmade a last stand in the1798 rebellion.[147] The public largely supported the rebels and many local men offered to join them.[147]
By Saturday, up to 1,000 rebels had been mobilised, and a detachment was sent to occupy the nearby village ofFerns.[147] InWexford, the British assembled a column of 1,000 soldiers (including theConnaught Rangers[141]), twofield guns and a4.7 inch naval gun on a makeshift armoured train.[147] On Sunday, the British sent messengers to Enniscorthy, informing the rebels of Pearse's surrender order. However, the Volunteer officers were sceptical.[147] Two of them were escorted by the British toArbour Hill Prison, where Pearse confirmed the surrender order.[149]
InCounty Galway, 600–700 Volunteers mobilised on Tuesday underLiam Mellows. His plan was to "bottle up the British garrison and divert the British from concentrating on Dublin".[150] However, his men were poorly armed, with only 25 rifles, 60 revolvers, 300 shotguns and some homemade grenades – many of them only hadpikes.[151] Most of the action took place in a rural area to the east ofGalway city. They made unsuccessful attacks on the RIC barracks atClarinbridge andOranmore, captured several officers, and bombed a bridge and railway line, before taking up position nearAthenry.[151] There was also a skirmish between rebels and an RIC mobile patrol atCarnmore crossroads. A constable, Patrick Whelan, was shot dead after he had called to the rebels: "Surrender, boys, I know ye all".[150]
On Wednesday,HMS Laburnum arrived inGalway Bay and shelled the countryside on the northeastern edge of Galway.[151] The rebels retreated southeast to Moyode, an abandoned country house and estate. From here they set up lookout posts and sent out scouting parties.[151] On Friday,HMS Gloucester landed 200Royal Marines and began shelling the countryside near the rebel position.[150][152] The rebels retreated further south to Limepark, another abandoned country house. Deeming the situation to be hopeless, they dispersed on Saturday morning. Many went home and were arrested following the Rising, while others, including Mellows, went "on the run". By the time British reinforcements arrived in the west, the Rising there had already disintegrated.[153]
InCounty Clare,Micheal Brennan marched with 100 Volunteers (from Meelick, Oatfield, and Cratloe) to the River Shannon on Easter Monday to await orders from the Rising leaders in Dublin, and weapons from the expected Casement shipment. However, neither arrived and no actions were taken.[157]
More than 2,600 were wounded; including at least 2,200 civilians and rebels, at least 370 British soldiers and 29 policemen.[160] All 16 police fatalities and 22 of the British soldiers killed were Irishmen.[161] About 40 of those killed were children (under 17 years old),[162] four of whom were members of the rebel forces.[163]
The number of casualties each day steadily rose, with 55 killed on Monday and 78 killed on Saturday.[1] The British Army suffered their biggest losses in theBattle of Mount Street Bridge on Wednesday when at least 30 soldiers were killed. The rebels also suffered their biggest losses on that day. The RIC suffered most of their casualties in theBattle of Ashbourne on Friday.[1]
The majority of the casualties, both killed and wounded, were civilians. Most of the civilian casualties and most of the casualties overall were caused by the British Army.[164] This was due to the British using artillery,incendiary shells andheavy machine guns in built-up areas, as well as their "inability to discern rebels from civilians".[164] One Royal Irish Regiment officer recalled, "they regarded, not unreasonably, every one they saw as an enemy, and fired at anything that moved".[164] Many other civilians were killed when caught in the crossfire. Both sides, British and rebel, also shot civilians deliberately on occasion; for not obeying orders (such as to stop at checkpoints), for assaulting or attempting to hinder them, and for looting.[164] There were also instances of British troops killing unarmed civilians out of revenge or frustration: notably in the North King Street Massacre, where fifteen were killed, and at Portobello Barracks, where six were shot.[165] Furthermore, there were incidents offriendly fire. On 29 April, theRoyal Dublin Fusiliers under Company Quartermaster SergeantRobert Flood shot dead two British officers and two Irish civilian employees of theGuinness Brewery after he decided they were rebels. Flood was court-martialled for murder but acquitted.[166]
According to the historianFearghal McGarry, the rebels attempted to avoid needless bloodshed.Desmond Ryan stated that Volunteers were told "no firing was to take place except under orders or to repel attack".[167] Aside from the engagement at Ashbourne, policemen and unarmed soldiers were not systematically targeted, and a large group of policemen was allowed to stand at Nelson's Pillar throughout Monday.[167] McGarry writes that the Irish Citizen Army "were more ruthless than Volunteers when it came to shooting policemen" and attributes this to the "acrimonious legacy" of the Dublin Lock-out.[167]
The vast majority of the Irish casualties were buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in the aftermath of the fighting.[1][158] British families came to Dublin Castle in May 1916 to reclaim the bodies of British soldiers, and funerals were arranged. Soldiers whose bodies were not claimed were given military funerals inGrangegorman Military Cemetery.
Ruins of the Metropole Hotel on Sackville Street, next to the GPOThe spot at Kilmainham Gaol where most of the leaders were executedThe burial spot of the leaders of the Rising, in the old prison yard ofArbour Hill Prison. The Proclamation of 1916 is inscribed on the wall in both Irish and EnglishBritish soldiers searching theRiver Tolka in Dublin for arms and ammunition after the Easter Rising. May 1916View of O'Connell Bridge, 1916, on a German postcard. The caption reads:Rising of the Sinn Feiners in Ireland. O'Connell bridge with Dublin city, where the fiercest clashes took place.
In the immediate aftermath, the Rising was commonly described as the "Sinn Féin Rebellion",[168][169][170] reflecting a popular belief thatSinn Féin, a separatist organisation that was neither militant nor republican, was behind it.[171]General Maxwell, for example, signalled his intention "to arrest all dangerous Sinn Feiners", including "those who have taken an active part in the movement although not in the present rebellion".[172]
A total of 3,430 men and 79 women were arrested, including 425 people for looting – roughly, 1,500 of these arrests accounted for the rebels.[98][173][174] Detainees were overwhelmingly young, Catholic and religious.[175][d] 1,424 men and 73 women were released after a few weeks of imprisonment; those interned without trial in England and Wales (seebelow) were released on Christmas Eve, 1916;[177] the remaining majority of convicts were held until June 1917.[178]
A series ofcourts martial began on 2 May, in which 187 people were tried. Controversially, Maxwell decided that the courts martial would be held in secret and without a defence, which Crown law officers later ruled to have been illegal.[173] Some of those who conducted the trials had commanded British troops involved in suppressing the Rising, a conflict of interest that the Military Manual prohibited.[173] Only one of those tried by courts martial was a woman,Constance Markievicz, who was also the only woman to be kept in solitary confinement.[173][e] Ninety were sentenced to death. Fifteen of those (including all seven signatories of the Proclamation) had their sentences confirmed by Maxwell and fourteen wereexecuted by firing squad atKilmainham Gaol between 3 and 12 May.
Maxwell stated that only the "ringleaders" and those proven to have committed "cold-blooded murder" would be executed. However, some of those executed were not leaders and did not kill anyone, such asWillie Pearse andJohn MacBride;Thomas Kent did not come out at all—he was executed for the killing of a police officer during the raid on his house the week after the Rising. The most prominent leader to escape execution was Éamon de Valera, Commandant of the 3rd Battalion, who did so partly because of his American birth.[181] Hobson went into hiding, re-emerging after the June amnesty, largely to scorn.[182]
Most of the executions took place over a ten-day period:
The arrests greatly affected hundreds of families and communities; anti-English sentiment developed among the public, as separatists declared the arrests as indicative of a draconian approach.[6][183] The public, at large, feared that the response was "an assault on the entirety of the Irish national cause".[184] This radical transformation was recognised in the moment and had become a point of concern among British authorities; after Connolly's execution, the remaining death sentences were commuted to penal servitude.[6][185][186][187] Growing support for republicanism can be found as early as June 1916; imprisonment largely failed to deter militants – interned rebels would proceed to fight at higher rates than those who weren't – who thereafter quickly reorganised the movement.[188][189][190]
Under Regulation 14B of theDefence of the Realm Act 1914 1,836 men wereinterned at internment camps and prisons in England andWales.[173] As urban areas were becoming the nexus for republicanism, Internees were largely from such areas.[16][f] Many Internees had not taken part in the Rising; many thereafter became sympathetic to the nationalist cause.[58][191]
Internees occupied themselves with the likes of lectures, craftwork, music and sports. These activities – which included games ofGaelic football, crafting of Gaelic symbols, and lessons inIrish – regularly had a nationalist character and the cause itself developed a sense of cohesion within the camps.[192][193] The military studies included discussion of the Rising.[194] Internment lasted until December of that year with releases having started in July.[194] Martial law had ceased by the end of November.[195]
Grave inDonaghcumper,Celbridge, of Peter Connolly, one of 15 civilians murdered in the North King Street Massacre.
On Tuesday 25 April, DublinerFrancis Sheehy Skeffington, a pacifist nationalist activist, was arrested and then taken as hostage andhuman shield by Captain John Bowen-Colthurst; that night Bowen-Colthurst shot dead a teenage boy.[197] Skeffington was executed the next day – alongside two journalists.[197][198] Two hours later, Bowen-Colthurst captured theLabour Party councillor and IRB lieutenant,Richard O'Carroll and had him shot in the street.[199] Major SirFrancis Vane raised concerns over Bowen-Colthurst's actions and saw to him being court martialled. Bowen-Colthurst was found guilty but insane and was sentenced to an insane asylum. Owing to political pressure, an inquiry soon transpired, revealing the murders and their cover-up.[197] The killing of Skeffington and others provoked outrage among citizens.[200]
The other incident was the "North King Street Massacre". On the night of 28–29 April, British soldiers of the South Staffordshire Regiment, under Colonel Henry Taylor, had burst into houses on North King Street and killed fifteen male civilians whom they accused of being rebels. The soldiers shot or bayoneted the victims, and then secretly buried some of them in cellars or backyards after robbing them. The area saw some of the fiercest fighting of the Rising and the British had taken heavy casualties for little gain. Maxwell attempted to excuse the killings and argued that the rebels were ultimately responsible. He claimed that "the rebels wore no uniform" and that the people of North King Street were rebel sympathisers. Maxwell concluded that such incidents "are absolutely unavoidable in such a business as this" and that "under the circumstance the troops [...] behaved with the greatest restraint". A private brief, prepared for the Prime Minister, said the soldiers "had orders not to take any prisoners" but took it to mean they were to shoot any suspected rebel. The City Coroner's inquest found that soldiers had killed "unarmed and unoffending" residents. The military court of inquiry ruled that no specific soldiers could be held responsible, and no action was taken.[201][202][203]
ARoyal Commission was set up to enquire into the causes of the Rising. It began hearings on 18 May under the chairmanship ofLord Hardinge of Penshurst. The Commission heard evidence from Sir Matthew Nathan, Augustine Birrell, Lord Wimborne, SirNeville Chamberlain (Inspector-General of theRoyal Irish Constabulary), GeneralLovick Friend, Major Ivor Price of Military Intelligence and others.[204] The report, published on 26 June, was critical of the Dublin administration, saying that "Ireland for several years had been administered on the principle that it was safer and more expedient to leave the law in abeyance if collision with any faction of the Irish people could thereby be avoided."[205] Birrell and Nathan had resigned immediately after the Rising. Wimborne resisted the pressure to resign, but was recalled to London by Asquith.[206] He was re-appointed in July 1916.[205] Chamberlain also resigned.
At first, many Dubliners were bewildered by the outbreak of the Rising.[207]James Stephens, who was in Dublin during the week, thought, "None of these people were prepared for Insurrection. The thing had been sprung on them so suddenly they were unable to take sides."[208][g] Eyewitnesses compared the ruin of Dublin with the destruction of towns in Europe in the war: the physical damage, which included over ninety fires, was largely confined to Sackville Street.[210][211] In the immediate aftermath, the Irish government was in disarray.[212]
There was great hostility towards the Volunteers in some parts of the city which escalated to physical violence in some instances.[213] HistorianKeith Jeffery noted that most of the opposition came from the dependents of British Army personnel.[214] The death and destruction, which resulted in disrupted trade, considerable looting and unemployment, contributed to the antagonism of the Volunteers, who were denounced as "murderers" and "starvers of the people" – the monetary consequences of the Rising were estimated to be at £2,500,000.[215][h] International aid was supplied to residents – nationalists aided the dependents of Volunteers.[217] The British Government compensated the consequences to the sum of £2,500,000.[211]
Commemoration of Connolly's execution, 12 May 1917Crowds in Dublin waiting to welcome republican prisoners released in 1917
Support for the rebels did exist among Dubliners, expressed through both crowds cheering at prisoners and reverent silence.[218][219] With martial law seeing this expression prosecuted, many would-be supporters elected to remain silent although "a strong undercurrent of disloyalty" was still felt.[219] Drawing upon this support, and amidst the deluge of nationalist ephemera, the significantly popularCatholic Bulletin eulogised Volunteers killed in action and implored readers to donate; entertainment was offered as an extension of those intentions, targeting local sectors to great success.[217][220][i] TheBulletin's Catholic character allowed it to evade the widespread censorship of press and seizure of republican propaganda; it therefore exposed many unaware readers to such propaganda.[195]
During that election, they drew directly upon the Rising and their popularity was significantly accreditable to that association, one that accrued political prestige until the end of the century.[224] Many participants of the Rising would soon assume electoral positions.[225] Sinn Féin served as an alternative to the Irish Parliamentary Party whose support for British establishments alienated voters.[226]
Sinn Féin would become closely aligned with theIrish Republican Army, who sought to continue the IRB's ideals and waged armed conflict against British forces.[58]
In 1935, Éamon de Valera unveiled a statue byOliver Sheppard of the mythical Irish heroCú Chulainn at the General Post Office to commemorate the Rising.[227] Similar remembrance is present throughout Dublin.[228]
1916 – containing both the Rising and theBattle of the Somme, events paramount to the memory of Irish Republicans andUlster Unionists, respectively – had a profound effect on Ireland and is remembered accordingly.[229][j] The Rising was among the events that ended colonial rule in Ireland, succeeded by theIrish War of Independence.[234] The legacy of the Rising possess many dimensions although the declaration of the Republic and the ensuing executions remain focal points.[235]
Annual parades in celebration of the Rising occurred for many years, however, ceased afterThe Troubles in Northern Ireland began, being seen as supportive of republican paramilitary violence – the Rising is a common feature of republicanmurals in Northern Ireland.[229][236][k] These commemorations celebrated the Rising as the origin of the Irish state, a stance reiterated through extensive analysis.[239][240] Unionists contend that the Rising was an illegal attack on the British State that should not be celebrated.[238] Revivalism of the parades has inspired significant public debate, although the centenary of the Rising, which featured the likes of ceremonies and memorials, was largely successful and praised for its sensitivity.[229][241][l]
The leaders of the Rising were "instantlyapotheosized" and remembrance was situated within a larger republican tradition of claimed martyrdom – the Catholic Church would contend this narrative as thefoundational myth of theIrish Free State, assuming a place within the remembrance as an association between republicanism and Catholicism grew.[229][243][192][m] The "Pearsean combination of Catholicism, Gaelicism, and spiritual nationalism" would become dominant within republicanism, the ideas gaining a quasi-religiosity, whilst helping unify later strands thereof.[247][248][249] Within the Free State, the Rising was sanctified by officials, positioned as a "highly disciplined military operation".[250] Historians largely agree that the Rising succeeded by offering a symbolic display of sacrifice, while the military action was a considerable failure.[251][n] AsMonk Gibbon remarked, the "shots from khaki-uniformed firing parties did more to create the Republic of Ireland than any shot fired by a Volunteer in the course of Easter week".[254]
Literature surrounding the Rising was significant: MacDonagh, Plunkett, and Pearse were themselves poets, whose ideals were granted a spiritual dimension in their work;Arnold Bax,Francis Ledwidge,George William Russell andW. B. Yeats responded through verse that ranged from endorsement to elegies.[255][o] AlthoughJames Joyce was ambivalent to the insurgence, metaphors of and imagery consistent with the Rising appear in his later work.[253]Hugh Leonard,Denis Johnston,Tom Murphy,Roddy Doyle andSorley MacLean are among writers would later invoke the Rising.[257][258] Now extensively dramatised, its theatricality was identified in the moment and has been stressed in its remembrance.[259] Literary and political evocation position the Rising as a "watershed moment" central to Irish history.[260]
During the Troubles, significantrevisionism of the Rising occurred. Revisionists contended that it was not a "heroic drama" as thought but rather informed the violence transpiring, by having legitimised a "cult of 'blood sacrifice'".[272][273] With the advent of aProvisional IRA ceasefire and the beginning of what became known as thePeace Process during the 1990s, the government's view of the Rising grew more positive and in 1996 an 80th anniversary commemoration at theGarden of Remembrance in Dublin was attended by theTaoiseach and leader ofFine Gael,John Bruton.[274]
Memorial inCobh, County Cork, to the Volunteers from that town
Memorial inClonmacnoise commemorating men ofCounty Offaly (then King's County) who fought in 1916: James Kenny, Kieran Kenny and Paddy McDonnell are named
Insurrection is an eight-part 1966docudrama made byTelefís Éireann for the 50th anniversary of the Rising. It was rebroadcast during the centenary celebrations in 2016.[276]
"Grace" is a 1985 song about the marriage of Joseph Plunkett toGrace Gifford in Kilmainham Gaol before his execution.[277]
1916, A Novel of the Irish Rebellion is a 1998 historical novel byMorgan Llywelyn.
A Star Called Henry is a 1999 novel byRoddy Doyle that partly recounts the Easter Rising through the involvement of the novel's protagonist Henry Smart.
^This was sometimes referred to by the generic termSinn Féin,[11] with the British authorities using it as acollective noun for republicans and advanced nationalists.[12]
^Increased training was present within the Glasgow-based contingency of Volunteers.[30] Other metropolitan mainland branches existed in Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Newcastle. Eighty-seven of the Volunteers involved in the Rising came from Britain.[31]
^MacNeill was briefly persuaded to go along with some sort of action when Mac Diarmada revealed to him that a German arms shipment was about to land in County Kerry. MacNeill believed that when the British learned of the shipment they would immediately suppress the Volunteers, thus the Volunteers would be justified in taking defensive action, including the planned manoeuvres.[55]
^Roughly 70% of the GPO garrison was under the age of 30, with 29% of that total being under the age of 20.[176]
^Following Markievicz's arrest, an apocryphal story spread, stating that she kissed her revolver before surrendering. This story circulated amidst similar reports of rebel women and their "ferocity". Scholar in Irish Studies, Lisa Weihman wrote that these tales "surely helped justify the swift and brutal repression of the Easter Rising", for even "Ireland's women were out of control."[179] Historian Fionnuala Walsh noted that "[m]any of thosewomen imprisoned could have avoided arrest by leaving the garrisons before the surrender as they were encouraged to do by the rebel leaders. It appears that women wished to endure the same treatment and danger as men."[180]
^Electoral support for republicanism was, however, more prominent in rural areas.[16]
^The Irish Times, for example, "scrambled" to report the Rising while maintaining their intended coverage of the Tercentenary of Shakespeare's birth, thus imploring readers to revise his work, along with other errands, during the "enforced domesticity" of martial law.[209]
^Soldiers' wives were reported to be starving during the Easter Week; The DublinMetropolitan Police sought to provide bread and milk.[216]
^Historian Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid wrote that "the widespread popularity of these special events was perhaps the most tangible of the shift in the politics."[217]Peter Hart posited that the souvenirs which quickly circulated after the Rising were ultimately "more influential than revolutionary ideology and writing".[221]
^Following the Rising, political identity in Ireland "became much more exclusivist".[217] The Home Rule movement's Protestant contingency was uniquely impaired by the Rising, which was lambasted as "southern Catholic treachery" by Ulster Unionists; the Home Rule Crisis unified unionists, defining protestant allegiances thereafter.[230][231]These events have often been invoked as the "origin stories for the respective states of Ireland and Northern Ireland."[232] Although remembrance rarely intersects, the established binary of these events became "much less oppressive" following theNorthern Ireland peace process.[232][233]
^The republican movement found the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising provided an "opportunity to stake its claim to be the true inheritor of the mantle of the revolutionaries."[237]Ian McBride wrote that "the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising spawned a new generation of republicans in Belfast."[238]
^Unionist parties did, however, boycott the event.[242]
^There were few Protestant rebels present and thus the Rising became strongly associated with Catholicism.[244] The likes ofGrace Gifford, Markievicz and Casement converted from Protestantism to Catholicism just before, during and after the Rising, respectively.[245] The Catholic character of the rebels was stressed by priests influential in the Church's acceptance of the insurgency.[246]
^Thishistoriography largely manifested around the fiftieth anniversary in defiance of a "hagiographical" perception.[252] On the symbolic power,Sarah Cole wrote that the Easter Rising was "understood and presented, at every level, in a metaphoric language, which stressed apotheosis, resurrection, transformation." These tropes - central to the morale of the Volunteers - are evidenced in Pearse'soration at the funeral of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa.[253] The occupation of areas laden with iconography but of negligible military value support the understanding of the Rising as primarily a symbolic act.[66]
^The executed poets possessed similar motifs: pastoral imagery,Celtic mythology, notions of saintliness, sacrifice, and martyrdom, and inspiration from English poets.[255] Pearse equated his eminent execution, and that ofRobert Emmet, with the death of Jesus Christ; patriotism with religious faith.[236]Although there existed little anti-Anglo sentiment in their work, their radicalism was, in part, begotten from resentment at the "anglicisation" of Ireland and the resulting marginalisation of Gaelic identity.[6][255]D. G. Boyce stressed the importance of the Gaelic revival upon the philosophy of the Rising which, via Pearse, aggregated and created a continuity of prior nationalist thinking.[256]
^The broadcast declaration was intercepted and relayed to the United States thus considerable coverage in the press ensued: "The use of modern technology to declare an Irish Republic indicates an attempt to place the Rising at the heart of world affairs, which in turn reflected the rebel leader's experience as propagandists."[267] When enacting a censorship control on the Rising, British officials sought for America, in particular, to be ignorant.[195] Irish-American support proved remunerative for the Rising.[268]
^Although participants largely didn't espouse socialist beliefs – Connolly being a notable exception – a varied amount of left-wing organisations commented upon and thereafter disparaged the Rising.[269][270] The "Connolly tradition" would later be invoked positively by socialist and labor activists in relation to their own aspirations.[271]
^"1916 Rising Postcards".UCD Digital Library. UCD.doi:10.7925/drs1.ucdlib_38376 (inactive 1 November 2024). Retrieved2 September 2023.these postcards were published in 1916 in the immediate aftermath of the Insurrection [..] one showing a "before and after" photograph of Sackville (O'Connell) Street [..] O'Connell Bridge and quays Dublin : before and after "Sinn Fein Rebellion"{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
^Hanley, Brian (21 January 2016)."The Sinn Féin rebellion?".Citizens in Conflict: Dublin 1916. Dublin City Library & Archive.
^McElligott, Jason; Conboy, Martin, eds. (17 December 2019). "The Cato Street Conspiracy: Plotting, counter-intelligence and the revolutionary tradition in Britain and Ireland".The Cato Street Conspiracy. Manchester University Press. p. 9.ISBN978-1-5261-4499-7.
^Hay, Marnie (17 May 2019),Na Fianna Éireann and the Irish Revolution, 1909–23: Scouting for rebels, Manchester University Press, p. 71,ISBN978-1-5261-2775-4
^Gerald Keatinge. Some experiences of a Cadet during the Irish Rebellion of Easter Week, 1916. Unpublished. Quoted in Neil Richardson'sAccording to their lights. Collins Press, 2015. p.178.
^Delap, Lucy; Morgan, Sue, eds. (2013).Men, Masculinities and Religious Change in Twentieth-Century Britain. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 225.ISBN978-1-137-28174-6.
^Whelehan, Neil, ed. (2014).Transnational Perspectives on Modern Irish History. Taylor & Francis. p. 177.ISBN9781317963219.
^Augusteijn, Joost; Dassen, Patrick; Janse, Maartje Johanna (2013).Political Religion Beyond Totalitarianism: The Sacralization of Politics in the Age of Democracy. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 148.ISBN978-1-137-29171-4.
^Crosson, Seán; Huber, Werner, eds. (2015). "(Valérie Morisson) Rewriting Irish History (1916–1921) in popular Culture: Blood Upon the Rose and at War with the Empire by Gerry Hunt".Towards 2016: 1916 and Irish Literature, Culture & Society. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier. pp. 113–132.ISBN978-3-86821-622-6.
^"1916".1916.rte.ie.Archived from the original on 15 March 2020. Retrieved19 July 2019.
De Rosa, Peter.Rebels: The Irish Rising of 1916. Fawcett Columbine, New York. 1990.ISBN0-449-90682-5
Eberspächer, Cord/Wiechmann, Gerhard: "Erfolg Revolution kann Krieg entscheiden". Der Einsatz von S.M.H. LIBAU im irischen Osteraufstand 1916 ("Successful revolution may decide war". The use of S.M.H. LIBAU in the Irish Easter rising 1916), in: Schiff & Zeit, Nr. 67, Frühjahr 2008, S. 2–16.
Feeney, Brian (2002).Sinn Féin: A Hundred Turbulent Years. O'Brien Press.ISBN0-86278-695-9.
Flanagan, Frances (2015).Remembering the Revolution: Dissent, Culture, and Nationalism in the Irish Free State. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0198739159.
Foster, R. F.Vivid Faces: The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland, 1890–1923 (2015)excerptArchived 14 July 2020 at theWayback Machine
Royal Commission on the Rebellion in Ireland (1916).Report.Command papers. Vol. Cd.8279. London:HMSO.Archived from the original on 26 October 2016. Retrieved11 September 2016.
Curran, Constantine Peter (1916). "History".1916 Rising Postcards. UCD Library, University College Dublin.doi:10.7925/drs1.ucdlib_38376 (inactive 1 November 2024).{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
UCD Library. UCD Library Special Collections (1928).Towards 2016. UCD Library, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.doi:10.7925/drs1.ivrla_30530 (inactive 1 November 2024).{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
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