Ireland Marks 100 Years Since 'Easter Rising' Against British Rule | VICE News Ireland Marks 100 Years Since 'Easter Rising' Against British Rule Photo by Sally Hayden/VICE News By Sally Hayden March 28, 2016 | 3:40 pm "It was the volunteers who were the experts and the British who were the amateurs," says a uniformed man holding an 1871 "Howth" Mauser rifle. The gun weighs nearly 10 pounds and it's an original — the same kind many rebels were armed with during Ireland's momentous uprising in 1916. The man then grips a wooden chair with one hand, the whites of his knuckles showing, "just as [rebellion leader and trade unionist] James Connolly would have done" as he was executed by firing squad, he notes. We're in a mock-up of Kilmainham Jail, where the uprising's leaders were imprisoned and later shot, sandbags piled against the wall behind us.

The exhibition in Dublin's Ambassador Theater is being run by Sinn Fein, the Irish republican party historically associated with the paramilitary Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), until it disarmed in 2005. It's billed as "the original and authentic exhibition" documenting "the nationalist narrative of what led to the 1916 Rising." The exhibition has been open for two weeks and one of the men on the door estimates 10,000 people have already visited. Every day at noon for 33 weeks an actor dressed as revolutionary Pádraig Pearse ventures outside onto the city center's O'Connell Street to read aloud the Irish proclamation — the document that declared Ireland's independence from the UK. This is just one of many events being held to mark the 100th anniversary of Ireland's Easter Rising — a landmark that means many different things to different people and has awakened a debate on who controls the narrative around historical events, and whether violent uprisings should be celebrated or commemorated more sedately. An Irish soldier holds a copy of the proclamation read out by rebels during the Easter Rising in 1916 (Photo by Sally Hayden/VICE News) Irish President Michael D.

Higgins inspects the guard of honor during Easter Sunday's commemoration events (Photo by Sally Hayden/VICE News) The Easter Rising has been described as the "beginning of the end of the British empire," an armed rebellion that took place on Easter Monday, 1916, when a group of Irish nationalists including poets, teachers, and ex-British army soldiers took control of locations around Dublin, including the city center's prominent General Post Office (GPO). Though the British — who ruled over Ireland for centuries — were entrenched in World War One at the time, the uprising lasted just five days before it was suppressed, and the majority of public opinion rested strongly against it. However, after 15 of the leaders were executed during the following weeks, sympathy swayed sharply towards the dead and their fight for independence — the ensuing actions eventually culminated in a 26-county republic. Through the last century the Easter Rising has taken on almost mythical proportions in Ireland, being retold again and again through plays, music, and poetry . Though all its survivors have now passed away, many Irish people have some link to those who fought or were involved in the event.

Related: 'I'm in Trouble': The Women Boarding Ireland's Illegal Abortion Bus Most of the almost 500 people who died during the Rising were civilians, though 107 British soldiers were also killed, including 31 from the Sherwood Foresters Regiment who were ambushed by Irish Volunteers near Dublin's Mount Street Bridge. This has prompted arguments by some UK politicians that those who died on the British side should also be formally remembered. The biggest of 2016's many memorial events in Ireland was Easter Sunday's military parade, which saw thousands of Irish citizens line the capital city's streets to witness more than one third of Ireland's military forces march 2.8 miles through Dublin, with seating around the GPO reserved for dignitaries and relatives of those who fought. Security was tight, with access to the area around the GPO completely blocked off to the public on Sunday. All police leave was reportedly canceled over the Easter weekend because of fears the commemorations could be disrupted by dissident republican groups. Among the thousands of participants in the march were members of the national police force, customs officials, firefighters, the National Ambulance Service, the Irish Red Cross, and the Irish Coast Guard.

Armored personnel carriers (APCs), boats, and guns were paraded, while the air force flew overhead trailing the Irish flag. After the marching ended, there was a 21-gun salute. More than 3,000 members of the Irish Defense Forces took part in Easter Sunday's military parade (Photo by Sally Hayden/VICE News) APCs drive down Dublin's O'Connell Street during the Easter Rising commemorations (Photo by Sally Hayden/VICE News) Sheila O'Leary, 94, turned up for the parade at the GPO carrying the medals of her father, Thomas Byrne, and grandmother, Lucy Smyth, who both fought inside the post office. As photographers jostled to take her picture, O'Leary's daughter Maeve asked whether she was getting tired of the publicity or "are you enjoying yourself?" "Yes I am," the nonagenarian replied, smiling. Her daughter explained the family's role was important to them — they wanted it recorded. In a ceremony before more than 3,000 marchers passed by, Irish President Michael D. Higgins laid a large wreath outside the GPO, and the assembled crowd stood for a minute's silence.

Seamus Madigan, head chaplain of the Irish Defense Forces, said a prayer in a mixture of Irish and English, before army captain Peter Kelleher read aloud the proclamation that was premiered by Pearse on the same spot 100 years before. Related: Gay Marriage Is Legal but Abortion Is Still a Crime in Ireland — Even in Rape or Incest Cases Acting as compère was Captain Deirdre Carberry, 29, who has been in the military for 12 years and is involved in human rights and gender training. Her great grandfather Charles Carberry was a member of the Irish Volunteers who fought during Easter in 1916. Carberry told VICE News that her generation remembers the Rising "in a really symbolic way. It creates this distinct sense of what's Irish." "It's very much a commemoration, and a really respectful commemoration," she said.

"We are commemorating the lives that were lost as a direct aftermath of the Rising." Though a military parade was held to mark the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising in 1966, subsequent events were halted by later governments because of fears about how they could be interpreted in the six counties of Northern Ireland — still part of the UK — where sectarian violence broke out in the late 1960s. While that violence has not completely ended today, the 1998 Good Friday Agreement marked an end to a bloody 30-year period known as the Troubles and saw the Provisional IRA enter a ceasefire that lasted eight years until disarmament was completed. Carberry said that as a nation she thinks the Irish republic has "moved beyond" violence, adding that the values outlined in the Irish proclamation — dignity, rights for all, equality for men and women — should still be the values of the Irish Defense Forces today. Others outlined what they saw as the impact of the rebellion on other countries that were once colonized by the British. "The Rising really is Ireland's gift to the world.

It showed that the British empire had an end date," Padraig Pearse's closest living relative, English-born Ben Phillips, said in an interview this week. A soldier passes Dublin's General Post Office in an APC during Easter Sunday's military parade (Photo by Sally Hayden/VICE News) An APC passes Dublin's General Post Office during Easter Sunday's military parade (Photo by Sally Hayden/VICE News) At the Royal College of Surgeons on St. Stephen's Green, another part of Dublin taken over by the rebels, 45-year-old Sergeant Rob Delaney was taking part in a flag party. His great-grandfather, Christopher Poole, was a captain in the Irish Citizen Army in 1916, and also a former British army soldier — he had fought with the East Yorkshire Regiment in the Boer War, and he used that experience to train the rebels. "With my ancestors being involved I do feel a sense of pride," Delaney told VICE News. "I'm proud of what I do and the small part I'll play in the parade." Commenting on the high civilian death toll during the rebellion, Delaney said: "I'm in no position to judge.

It was 100 years ago, it's so easy for us all to sit back and analyze now. I suppose in any situation like that there are casualties." Related: Ireland's General Election Could Finally End Almost 100 Years of Civil War Polit ics Other descendants were more equivocal. "They're celebrating them as heroes now but if they were around today they'd be regarded as terrorists," one relative of a 1916 participant, who didn't want to be named, said. In total, this year's official state commemorative events will include 32 wreath-laying ceremonies and eight guards of honor, along with outreach programs. The Irish Defence Forces have already carried out 3,300 visits to primary schools across the country, where they delivered handmade Irish flags and copies of the 1916 proclamation. Further initiatives include a Google Street View tour that will take viewers around Dublin's center, highlighting the Rising's landmarks.

Other companies are also getting involved in commemorations, with Irish Rail inter-city train fares set at 19.16 euros ($21.39) Sheila O'Reilly, 94, whose father and grandmother fought in the GPO during the Easter Rising (Photo by Sally Hayden/VICE News) The Irish air force flies over the Easter Rising commemorations in Dublin (Photo by Sally Hayden/VICE News) On O'Connell Street this week, sellers have been marketing themed wares. "Michael Collins on a proclamation poster," one woman shouted, advertising her prints of the Irish revolutionary leader. "Three for a fiver." "Get your Easter lilies, one euro," a hoarse-voiced man cried. "Easter Rising flags, Easter Rising hats," another chimed in. "A lot of the holes in the columns are still there," a GPO passerby with a Northern Irish accent pointed out to a blonde woman walking with him. To his left, a bagpipe player wearing a jersey with "rebels 1916" emblazoned on the back stood rigid as he began to play the song On Raglan Road.

In the foreword for an official state program of the commemorative events, a government spokesperson wrote: "For the Irish people to realize their full potential, it was necessary for Ireland to be an independent country." However, President Higgins has also said that Ireland must not "become a prisoner of the past" or "allow any distortions of history." Discussion has also focused on the future for Ireland and Northern Ireland; in a poll conducted this week, 54 percent of Irish people said they would still like to see the island united, despite the unlikeliness of it happening any time soon. Meanwhile, with politicians branding the Easter Rising centenary as an opportunity to look towards the future, some Irish residents are using the focus on Ireland to highlight the country's social issues. On a tour of the streets around the GPO, Tony Duffin, director of the Ana Liffey Drug Project, an organization that works with drug addicts, showed VICE News the 1916 landmarks where heroin addicts openly inject.

At least 400 people are shooting up on Dublin's streets monthly, according to Duffin, who quickly spotted abandoned syringes and other drug paraphernalia, and is calling for the next government to bring in a law providing for supervised injecting rooms, which he says could prevent deaths from overdoses that average one a day. Also in close proximity to the GPO, a group of homeless people held a protest on Easter Sunday, aimed at highlighting the country's growing housing problem, while thousands more citizens have said they'll attend a demonstration on O'Connell Street next month to "demand change" against "corrupt" leadership. They have labelled 1916 as "unfinished business." Follow Sally Hayden on Twitter: @sallyhayd Newsela | Ireland recalls 1916 Easter Rising against British rule Ireland recalls 1916 Easter Rising against British rule By Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press 03.31.16 Word Count 840 Irish soldiers march solemnly through the streets of Dublin, Ireland, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising against Britain, March 27, 2016.

AP/Peter Morrison DUBLIN — Thousands of soldiers marched solemnly through the crowded streets of Dublin on Sunday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising against Britain, a fateful rebellion that reduced parts of the capital to ruins and fired the country's flame of independence. The Easter parade through Dublin featured military ceremonies at key buildings seized in 1916, when about 1,200 rebels sought to ignite a popular revolt against Ireland's place in the United Kingdom. The five-hour procession paused at noon outside the colonnaded General Post Office on O'Connell Street, the rebel headquarters a century ago, where commander Padraig Pearse formally launched the revolt by proclaiming to bemused Dubliners the creation of a "provisional" Republic of Ireland. A soldier in today's Irish Defence Forces, Capt. Peter Kelleher, stood in front of the restored post office Sunday to read the full, florid text of Pearse's 1916 proclamation.

"In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom," Kelleher said to an audience that included Ireland's leaders and scores of grandchildren of the rebels. Many donned their ancestors' Easter Rising bronze service medals, which Ireland issued in 1941 on the rebellion's 25th anniversary. British forces, among them many Irishmen focused on fighting Germany in World War I, were caught off guard by the seizure of largely unguarded buildings in 1916. Most officers were attending horse races in the Irish countryside. But Britain quickly deployed army reinforcements who were cheered by some locals as they marched into Dublin. Artillery based at Trinity College and a gunboat on the River Liffey, which bisects the city, shelled the post office and other rebel strongholds, forcing their surrender within six days. The fighting left nearly 500 dead, most of them civilians caught in the crossfire or shot — by both sides — as suspected looters. Some 126 British soldiers, 82 rebels and 17 police were slain.

Many Dubliners opposed the insurrection as an act of treason in a time of war, but public sentiment swiftly swung in the rebels' favor once a newly arrived British Army commander decided to execute Pearse and 14 other rebel leaders by firing squad in Dublin's Kilmainham Jail. A 16th figure, Roger Casement, who days before the Easter Rising was caught trying to smuggle German weapons by sea to Ireland, was hanged inside a London prison. In the rebellion's immediate wake, the poet W.B. Yeats reflected Ireland's conflicted feelings about how violent nationalism appeared to be hastening Ireland's journey to political freedom but at a debatable cost. His "Easter, 1916" poem, among the most quoted works in all of Irish literature, listed the names of executed Rising commanders and concluded that Ireland had "changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born." Easter Rising veterans led Ireland's 1919-21 War of Independence, their ranks swelled by combat veterans returning to Ireland from World War I trenches. As the newly founded Irish Republican Army fought police and soldiers in the predominantly Catholic south, Protestants in northeast Ireland carved out a new U.K.-linked state of Northern Ireland.

A treaty accepted by most southern rebels established an Irish Free State in 1922 that grudgingly accepted the reality of the island's partition. The new Irish state survived a fratricidal 1922-23 civil war between IRA factions. Michael Collins' pro-treaty forces crushed IRA die-hards who, backed by Eamon de Valera, rejected the treaty because the new state was not fully independent of Britain. Both men had fought in the 1916 Rising. Ireland remained neutral in World War II and declared itself a republic on Easter Monday 1949. Ireland long has struggled to embrace Easter as its effective independence day, in part because the enemy camps from the Irish civil war forged the country's two dominant political parties: Fine Gael by allies of the slain IRA leader Collins; and de Valera's Fianna Fail party. Both parties claim to be the true defenders of the 1916 rebels' ideals. Official unease with 1916's disputed legacy grew from the early 1970s as a new Belfast-based IRA launched a ruthless campaign to force Northern Ireland out of the U.K. and into the republic.

This outlawed faction called itself the Provisional IRA and killed nearly 1,800 people before calling a 1997 cease-fire to support leaders of its revived Sinn Fein party, who today help govern Northern Ireland alongside British Protestant politicians. In a sign of changing times, leaders of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein stood side by side at Sunday's events, including a ceremony inside Kilmainham Jail, where Pearse and other commanders were executed. Sunday's commemorations are the centerpiece of an estimated 2,500 events nationwide this spring and summer reflecting on the uprising's legacy. The anniversary date is imprecise, given that Easter falls on different dates each year and the 1916 rebellion actually started on Easter Monday — an official holiday in Ireland — not on the Sunday. The rebellion began April 24 and ended on April 29, 1916. The executions began four days later. Sign up for a free account to read the full article.

Easter Rising - British History - HISTORY.com Google 1916 Easter Rising: Background With the Act of Union in 1800, Ireland (which had been under some form of English control since the 12th century) merged with Great Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. As a result, Ireland lost its parliament in Dublin and was governed by a united parliament from Westminster in London. During the 19th century, groups of Irish nationalists opposed this arrangement in varying degrees. Did You Know? After the Easter Rising, one of the rebels, American-born Eamon de Valera, was sentenced to death. However, he ended up serving only a brief prison term and went on to become one of Ireland’s leading political figures, with a career spanning half a century. Some moderate nationalists advocated for home rule, under which Ireland would remain part of the United Kingdom but also have some form of self-government. Several home rule bills were defeated in Parliament in the late 1800s before one finally passed in 1914. However, implementation of home rule was suspended due to the outbreak of World War I (1914-18).

Meanwhile, members of a secret revolutionary organization called the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), who believed home rule wouldn’t go far enough and instead sought complete independence for Ireland, began planning what would become the Easter Rising. They hoped their rebellion would be aided by military support from Germany, which was fighting the British in World War I. Roger Casement (1864-1916), an Irish nationalist, arranged for a shipment of German arms and ammunition for the rebels; however, shortly before the insurrection began, the British detected the ship and it was scuttled by its captain. Casement was charged with treason and executed in August 1916 Easter Rising: April 1916 The Easter Rising was intended to take place across Ireland; however, various circumstances resulted in it being carried out primarily in Dublin. On April 24, 1916, the rebel leaders and their followers (whose numbers reached some 1,600 people over the course of the insurrection, and many of whom were members of a nationalist organization called the Irish Volunteers, or a small radical militia group, the Irish Citizen Army), seized the city’s general post office and other strategic locations.

Early that afternoon, from the steps of the post office, Patrick Pearse (1879-1916), one of the uprising’s leaders, read a proclamation declaring Ireland an independent republic and stating that a provisional government (comprised of IRB members) had been appointed. Despite the rebels’ hopes, the public did not rise to support them. The British government soon declared martial law in Ireland, and in less than a week the rebels were crushed by the government forces sent against them. Some 450 people were killed and more than 2,000 others, many of them civilians, were wounded in the violence, which also destroyed much of the Dublin city center. Initially, many Irish people resented the rebels for the destruction and death caused by the uprising. 1916 Easter Rising: Aftermath In May, 15 leaders of the uprising were executed by firing squad. More than 3,000 people suspected of supporting the uprising, directly or indirectly, were arrested, and some 1,800 were sent to England and imprisoned there without trial.

The rushed executions, mass arrests and martial law (which remained in effect through the fall of 1916), fueled public resentment toward the British and were among the factors that helped build support for the rebels and the movement for Irish independence. In the 1918 general election to the parliament of the United Kingdom, the Sinn Fein political party (whose goal was to establish a republic) won a majority of the Irish seats. The Sinn Fein members then refused to sit in the UK Parliament, and in January 1919 met in Dublin to convene an Irish Parliament (known as the Dail Eireann) and declare Ireland’s independence. The Irish Republican Army then launched a guerilla war against the British government and its forces in Ireland. Following a July 1921 cease-fire, the two sides signed a treaty in December that called for the establishment of the Irish Free State, a self-governing nation of the British Commonwealth, the following year. Ireland’s six northern counties opted out of the Free State and remained with the United Kingdom.

The fully independent Republic of Ireland (consisting of the 26 counties in the southern and western part of the island) was formally proclaimed on Easter Monday, April 18, 1949. Tags 100 Years On: What Was The Easter Rising? 100 Years On: What Was The Easter Rising? A hundred years have passed since Irish rebels masterminded the Easter Rising and changed the country forever. 15:56, UK, Monday 07 March 2016 Image Caption: Seven days of fighting left 485 people dead and another 1,500 wounded By David Blevins, Ireland Correspondent It was short-lived but the Easter Rising against British rule in Ireland had long-term consequences. For seven centuries, Ireland had been under some form of English control. With the Act of Union (1800), it became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. But Irish nationalists opposed the fact that they were governed from Westminster. Moderates advocated for home rule, under which Ireland would have some form of self-rule.

It was finally passed in 1914 but the outbreak of World War One suspended the plan - and even if it did come in to force, for the secret Irish Republican Brotherhood, it fell short of the independence they sought. Seven members hatched a plot that would grow to become the Easter Rising. Image Caption: Soldiers survey the damage at the city's General Post Office It was supposed to take place all over Ireland but was largely contained in Dublin. On 24 April 1916, Easter Monday, the rebels and their supporters stormed the city's General Post Office. With the support of 1,600 others, they seized prominent buildings and clashed with British troops. That afternoon, Patrick Pearse, one of the leaders, read a proclamation from the steps. It declared Ireland an independent republic and announced formation of a provisional government. They had expected the public to rise in support of them but were disappointed. The British government declared martial law and crushed the revolt in the space of seven days - but what occurred in that short space of time left 485 people dead and another 1,500 wounded.

From a military perspective, it was a failure and at first the rebellion garnered little support, but the public mood shifted when the British executed 15 rebel leaders by firing squad just two weeks later. Three thousand suspected of supporting them were arrested, 1,800 imprisoned without trial. Image Caption: How the Easter Rising was reported in London The rushed executions, mass arrests and martial law turned the tide of public opinion as the rebels became martyrs. The Irish uprising had failed but Britain's response fuelled the movement for independence. By 1921, the Irish Free State had been created, a self-ruling nation of the British Commonwealth. The six northern counties of Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom. The fully independent Republic of Ireland finally came into existence on Easter Monday, 1949. Top Stories The 1916 Easter Rising - History Learning Site Home » Ireland 1845 to 1922 » The 1916 Easter Rising The 1916 Easter Rising Citation: C N Trueman "The 1916 Easter Rising" historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 25 Mar 2015.

16 Aug 2016. The Easter Uprising took place in April 1916 in Dublin and is one of the pivotal events in modern Irish history . At the end of the Easter Uprising , 15 men identified as leaders were executed at Kilmainham Jail. To some, these men were traitors, to others they became heroes. Why did a small group of people try to take on the military might of what was then one of the world’s major powers? From the time of the Great Famine from 1845 to 1847, certain sections of the Irish population had lost all faith in the British government (and even from before this date). These people felt that the government neither listened to the complaints and grievances of the Irish – nor did they care about such grievances. To them, the Irish had become second class citizens in the world’s greatest empire builder. Any arguments presented to London about freeing up Ireland from British rule fell on seemingly deaf ears. The issue of Home Rule satisfied some in Ireland, but not all. It was this latter group of people who simply rejected that London had any right to impose any rule on Ireland.

Their target was simple: Irish independence and the removal of all aspects of British rule from the island. As the British would be unwilling to simply go along with this, such independence would have to be fought for – hence the armed uprising. Ironically, though many in what is now the south wanted independence, they did not support the ways of movements such as the Fenians and the IRB. Given the population of Dublin and the surrounding area, comparatively few people took part in the rebellion. Even once it had started, few Dubliners took the opportunity to join the rebels. The evidence suggests that people were concerned about the tactics of known republicans such as Patrick Pearse and James Connolly – especially what the reaction of the British might be. The IRB (Irish Republican Brotherhood) had been formed in 1858. It was a secret organisation and it is thought that it never had more than 2,000 members in it. It had one simple desire – Irish independence. In 1910, the IRB started its own publication – the ‘Irish Freedom’ – and all those men who signed the proclamation of an Irish Republic in Easter 1916 were members of the IRB.

By the start of the war, Irish politics had become very complicated. The issue of Home Rule had led to the creation of the Ulster Volunteers in November 1913. This group was against any lessening of the rule that London had over the whole of Ireland. The Ulster Volunteers had no problems flying the Union Jack. In response, those in the south had founded the Irish Volunteers in 1914. Possibly as many as 200,000 joined the Irish Volunteers but only a few thousands were ever trained in a military manner. Even if the Irish Volunteers had wanted to arm those who joined it, sheer logistics meant that this was impossible. When the First World War broke out in August 1914, the leader of the Irish Nationalist Party, John Redmond, accepted that the whole issue of Home Rule would have to be postponed until the war had finished. Many in the Irish Volunteers accepted this and men from all over Ireland rallied to the cause and fought in the British Army against the Germans. However, such views were not shared by those in the IRB.

As early as August 1914, the month war was declared, the IRB supreme council decided that the British involvement in the war would give them the opportunity to overthrow British rule in Ireland. The logic was that the actions of the government in London would be driven by what went on in Flanders – and the vast bulk of Britain’s military might was either abroad or in the stages of being sent abroad to fight. Therefore, British military presence would be sparse in Ireland. The IRB spent many months planning the rebellion. The organisation had money – most from Irish Americans – and capable leaders but little else. As a secret organisation it could not act like a political party going out to meet the people to persuade them to support their cause. Therefore, the numbers in it were small. Also, many in Ireland were willing to support the decision to postpone Home Rule – and some were doing well out of the war itself. Therefore, though many may have sympathised with the IRB with regards to its desires, these people did not offer the IRB any practical help. Also, if an uprising was to take place, the IRB would need access to weapons – and the only obvious source would be Germany.

The IRB was not the only organisation involved in the movement against the British. Others were: The Irish Citizen’s Army founded in 1913 by James Connolly . This organisation was founded as a citizens guard to the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union. The ITGWU had organised a strike in 1913, which was harshly broken up using force. The Irish Citizens Army was created in response and it was led by a former British Army officer – Jack White. It was meant to have been a highly disciplined force but it only numbered about 250 men. The ‘Fianna Boys’ were youths who were to act as messengers and runners during the actual uprising. Some women’s movements had republican sympathies. The most famous female of the Uprising was the Countess Markievicz who was a member of the Irish Civilian Army. Clearly, when all actual support was counted, the planned uprising could not count on that many people. What would it be up against? There was not a huge army presence in Ireland. Most of the law enforcement was done by the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). There were about 10,000 police officers in the RIC.

At a time when employment opportunities were reasonably limited, the RIC seemed to offer a sound career and, in general, those in it were loyal to Britain and the government. Members of the RIC invariably worked in or near the district they lived in, the theory being that they would pick up on any information that could prove useful to the authorities in Dublin. British intelligence, based at Dublin Castle, gained a great deal of its information from the RIC. 1000 members of the RIC were based in Dublin itself. The IRB and other movements were woefully short of weapons. The RIC in Dublin did not carry arms but it had easy access to them. The British Army in Ireland had as many weapons as it needed – including armed personnel carriers, tanks and artillery guns. The Ulster Volunteers had gained 35,000 rifles by August 1914; the Irish Volunteers had just 1000, and there were those in the Irish Volunteers who did not support what the IRB wanted. An attempt by Sir Roger Casement to land German guns also failed as the British Navy intercepted the ship (the ‘Aud’) carrying weapons. Casement was arrested and hanged as a traitor.

However, to the authorities both in Dublin and London, this proved just how untrustworthy the republican movement was. In April 1916, the war in Europe was not going well for the British and French. The French, our allies, were taking a desperate hammering at Verdun and wanted Britain to launch an attack across the Somme to take pressure off of the French. What Casement did provoked a very negative response at a time when Britain needed unity throughout its lands. The men in Ireland who represented the government in London were: Augustine Birrell, Chief Secretary Sir Matthew Nathan, Assistant Secretary Major-General Field, commanding officer of the British army in Ireland. Lord Wimborne, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. What seemed to link all four men was their failure to grasp what was going on in Ireland. Wimborne had an extensive knowledge of what might be termed the Irish psyche, but he seemingly failed to recognise what was happening. This could have been a failure of the security agencies based at the Castle. Special Branch had infiltrated the IRB but either they had not done this too well, or the information sent through to Dublin Castle simply was not being acted on.

The intelligence service at Dublin Castle knew that a rising was planned fairly quickly after Casement’s arrest. As Casement landed on April 21st, those in charge in Dublin knew that something was about to take place. On April 23rd, Wimborne demanded that Nathan issue arrest warrants for between 60 and 100 known republican leaders. Nathan managed to persuade Wimborne that there was no need for action as there was no immediate crisis to worry about. Birrell, as was often the case, was in London and took no part in this decision. Why did Nathan take this decision? It seems that British spies in the Irish Volunteers had informed him that Eoin MacNeill, the accepted leader of the Irish Volunteers, had decided not to go ahead with the uprising because of the failure of Casement to get the required German weapons into Ireland. What Nathan almost certainly did not know was that Patrick Pearse , a young lawyer and member of the IRB, did not agree with him and decided that the rising should go ahead regardless. There were others who also agreed with Pearse. This dispute split the Irish Volunteers and meant the end of it as a major player in Irish politics.

After the uprising, those who followed Pearse and had been members of the IRB joined the Irish Republican Army; those with a political bent joined Sinn Fein. There were those, of course, who did both. MacNeill further hindered Pearse by getting the cancellation of the uprising advertised in newspapers. Young boys were even used to cycle round Ireland with the information. Therefore, it seems completely untenable to accept that the authorities in Dublin did not know that something had been planned even if it appeared to have been cancelled. At the very least, the authorities should have been on the alert. In fact, Nathan had concluded that if anyone did participate in the uprising, the numbers would be small and those involved would be hopelessly disunited. With the Irish Volunteers split and with no weapons, what did the British have to fear? On the morning of the uprising, many British army officers were at the races!

Easter Rising 1916: Six days of armed struggle that changed Irish and British history - BBC News BBC News Easter Rising 1916: Six days of armed struggle that changed Irish and British history 23 March 2016 Image copyright Willow Design and Publishing Image caption Pádraig Pearse and James Connolly, two of the leaders of the military council The years leading up to the rebellion against British rule in Ireland in April 1916 were marked by significant political, cultural and military developments in Ireland and throughout Europe. The rebellion became known as the Easter Rising . Home Rule came to dominate domestic British politics in the era from 1885 to the start of World War One. Under Home Rule, Ireland would be given more say in how it was governed while continuing to remain part of the United Kingdom. More than 100 years earlier, Ireland lost its parliament in Dublin and was governed directly from Westminster as a result of the Act of Union in 1800. The threat of Home Rule led unionists in Ulster to establish the military organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force , which in turn prompted the formation of the Irish Volunteers. The emergence of these forces undermined British rule in Ireland.

However, the possibility of violence in Ulster was averted by the outbreak of World War One. The main party in favour of Home Rule, the Irish Parliamentary Party, agreed that attempts to secure self-governance should be postponed for the duration of the war. Many Irishmen joined the call to arms and fought in western Europe. However, others were angered by what they regarded as the Irish Parliamentary Party's acquiescence to Westminster. Image copyright National Library of Ireland Image caption The Irish Citizen Army, a socialist militia, led by James Connolly also played an important role in the rising Three groups were behind the rising but the most important was the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) which was formed in the mid-19th century. Thomas Clarke and Seán Mac Diarmada were the key figures in the IRB. The Irish Volunteers were a military group formed in 1913 and its members accounted for the largest number of men who were called out on Easter Monday. The Irish Citizen Army , a socialist militia, led by James Connolly also played an important role. Over 200 women, most members of Cumann na mBan, the 'League of Women ', also played a role in the rising.

The key group was a seven-man IRB military council, drawn from those three organisations, which planned the Easter Rising with complete secrecy. The decision to rise was based on the traditional dictum that England's difficulty was Ireland's opportunity. But it also reflected the military council's fear that Irish nationalism was in decline, a concern reinforced by popular Irish nationalist support for the aims of the Irish Parliamentary Party and the British war effort. On 23 April, the council agreed to proceed with the rising the next day, Easter Monday. The drafting of a proclamation declaring the establishment of a republic was one of the final steps taken by those who planned the rising. It decided that the proclamation should be read to the public outside Dublin's General Post Office (GPO) by the president of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic. Image copyright Hulton Archive/Getty Images Image caption Irish Volunteers barricade Townsend Street, Dublin, to slow down the advance of troops, during the Easter Rising Despite Thomas Clarke's seniority, it was agreed that Pádraig Pearse should act as president. Shortly after noon on Easter Monday, Pearse accompanied by an armed guard, stood on the steps of the GPO and read the proclamation, signalling the beginning of the Easter Rising.

Ireland's 'national right to freedom and sovereignty' was asserted. The conflict that followed was largely confined to Dublin. The British military onslaught, which the rebels had anticipated, did not at first materialise. When the rising began, the authorities had just 400 troops to confront roughly 1,000 insurgents. Image copyright National Library of Ireland Image caption Crowds in Sackville Street (now O'Connell Street) can be seen next to the General Post Office showing damage from shelling following the Easter Uprising As the week progressed, the fighting in some areas became more intense, leading to several prolonged, fiercely contested street battles. Military casualties were highest at Mount Street Bridge. By Friday 28 April, about 18-20,000 soldiers had been amassed in the capital against about 1,600 rebels while much of the city centre had been destroyed by British artillery fire. The next day, Pearse surrendered unconditionally on behalf of the Volunteers and issued orders to this effect. A total of 450 people were killed during the rebellion, among them 64 rebels. 2,614 were injured, and nine others were reported missing, almost all in Dublin.

The British capture of a shipment of German arms three days before the rebellion was partly responsible for the failure of the nationwide mobilisation. In addition, confusion was caused by conflicting orders sent out to the Irish Volunteers by their leader Eoin MacNeill, Dr Fearghal McGarry, from Queen's University Belfast, said although there was very little support for the rising at the time, it was enormously successful in terms of what the organisers of the rising wanted to achieve. "They did not expect it to win power, what they planned was a spectacle, a gesture to transform public opinion," he said. "They knew they would not win, they knew some of them would die." He said that, in political terms, the rising achieved everything that the organisers thought it would. "It destroyed the Irish Parliamentary Party's credibility and it derailed Home Rule," he said. "It exposed the oppressive nature of British rule and it transformed public opinion by winning public support for republicanism. Image copyright Trinity College Dublin Image caption British soldiers parading in front square of Trinity College Dublin in the aftermath of the Easter Rising "What might have surprised the leaders was how quickly all this happened.

Within a year and a half republicanism had become the most important movement in Ireland." Dr McGarry suggests that, for many Irish people, the significance of the rising lies less in the events of Easter week than in their longer term legacy. "I think for most Irish, certainly people south of the border, the event's significance is not primarily centred on the week-long violence that took place in Dublin," he said. "Rather it's focused on the attainment of Irish sovereignty, self-determination. "It's bound up with national identity. In contrast, the rising's significance for many northern nationalists over the past century reflects partition and the failure to achieve a united Irish Republic. "In the south, the rising is increasingly seen as history, not politics." Top 5 Easter Rising Facts! (Watch) Top 5 Easter Rising Facts! (Watch) SHARE: Facebook Twitter A century ago nationalists from the Irish Republican Brotherhood stood up against British rule on the Emerald Isle. The Irish capital of Dublin became ground zero in the battle for Irish sovereignty. With the revolution, executions and German intervention all part of the struggle, here are five things to know about the Easter Rising. The Irish Rebels sought help from the Germans.

Easter Rising happened two years into the First World War in 1916. With Britain occupied with Germany on the Western Front, Irish rebel leaders courted military backing from the Germans. Assistance was requested through an American-Irish Republican Group known as the Clarn Na Noile, whose members had developed a relationship with the German government. Plans were made for a German Expeditionary Force to land on Ireland’s western shores but they never came to fruition. The rebels found themselves stranded ashore alone when the British military captured a German weapons ship. A miscommunication on the date almost undid The Rising By April 28, 1928, the British had a mustered force of 19,000 troops strong in Dublin compared to the Irish Republics 1,600 freedom fighters who had answered the call due to mass confusion over the actual date of the Rising. Originally, the Irish Republican Brotherhood’s Military Council planned the revolt for Good Friday. A subsequent pushback and rescheduling to Easter Sunday had confused the heck of out of everyone in the process.

Dublin was not the only battleground While Easter Rising is most famously known for taking place on the streets of the Irish capital city, fighting did also take place elsewhere through the Emerald Isle. Most prominently was the Battle of Ashbourne County Meath, a skirmish outside of Dublin and fought to lure British troops away from the capital. For five hours rebel forces disrupted rail lines and attacked military barracks and held off the British army before they were crushed by arriving reinforcements. A Rebel leader died on the day he got married Irish poet, nationalist and rising leader Joseph Plunkett wed his fiancée, Grace Gifford, at Kilmainham Gaol just eight hours before he was executed. Tragically romantic and poetic at the same time, but the harsh reality records his kissing hot lead only hours after kissing his new bride. Forever scarred, Gifford would wear her widow’s mourning clothes the rest of her days. The British executions were remorseless. The British painted white crosses on the hearts of the Irish dissenters as targets to assist the execution squads in carrying out the executions. This wore heavily on the executioners as usually they were randomly assigned dummy bullets so they did not know who fired the fatal shot.

A leader of the rebellion, James Connolly, was so gravely wounded in battle he needed to be carried to his execution on a stretcher and shot while sitting because he was incapable of standing. Video Easter Rebellion begins - Apr 24, 1916 - HISTORY.com Easter Rebellion begins Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1916, on Easter Monday in Dublin, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a secret organization of Irish nationalists led by Patrick Pearse, launches the so-called Easter Rebellion, an armed uprising against British rule. Assisted by militant Irish socialists under James Connolly, Pearse and his fellow Republicans rioted and attacked British provincial government headquarters across Dublin and seized the Irish capital’s General Post Office. Following these successes, they proclaimed the independence of Ireland, which had been under the repressive thumb of the United Kingdom for centuries, and by the next morning were in control of much of the city. Later that day, however, British authorities launched a counteroffensive, and by April 29 the uprising had been crushed. Nevertheless, the Easter Rebellion is considered a significant marker on the road to establishing an independent Irish republic.

Following the uprising, Pearse and 14 other nationalist leaders were executed for their participation and held up as martyrs by many in Ireland. There was little love lost among most Irish people for the British, who had enacted a series of harsh anti-Catholic restrictions, the Penal Laws, in the 18th century, and then let 1.5 million Irish starve during the Potato Famine of 1845-1848. Armed protest continued after the Easter Rebellion and in 1921, 26 of Ireland’s 32 counties won independence with the declaration of the Irish Free State. The Free State became an independent republic in 1949. However, six northeastern counties of the Emerald Isle remained part of the United Kingdom, prompting some nationalists to reorganize themselves into the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to continue their struggle for full Irish independence. In the late 1960s, influenced in part by the U.S. civil rights movement, Catholics in Northern Ireland, long discriminated against by British policies that favored Irish Protestants, advocated for justice. Civil unrest broke out between Catholics and Protestants in the region and the violence escalated as the pro-Catholic IRA battled British troops.

An ongoing series of terrorist bombings and attacks ensued in a drawn-out conflict that came to be known as “The Troubles.” Peace talks eventually took place throughout the mid- to late 1990s, but a permanent end to the violence remained elusive. Finally, in July 2005, the IRA announced its members would give up all their weapons and pursue the group’s objectives solely through peaceful means. By the fall of 2006, the Independent Monitoring Commission reported that the IRA’s military campaign to end British rule was over. Related Videos History Ireland Published in 20th-century / Contemporary History , Features , Issue 2 (Mar/Apr 2006) , Revolutionary Period 1912-23 , Volume 14 Liam Mellows-pictured here (extreme right) with pro- and anti-Treaty commanders on the eve of the Civil War on 8 May 1922-was sent to organise the Irish Volunteers in County Galway in March 1915.

(George Morrison) As soon as the Great War broke out in August 1914, members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), operating as a secret caucus within the Irish Volunteers, began to plan a rebellion against British rule in Ireland. Operating on the old IRB maxim that ‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity’, they planned for a countrywide rebellion. The Germans agreed to supply 20,000 rifles; organisers were sent throughout the country to radicalise local nationalists and train them in arms; and conspirators met in Dublin and elsewhere to discuss military strategy and political objectives. As part of this initiative, Liam Mellows was sent to organise the Irish Volunteers in County Galway in March 1915. Mellows was born in Lancashire in 1892 to Irish parents, and was then reared in County Wexford. Later he gained some military training and joined the IRB in Dublin. Frank Hynes, captain of the Athenry branch of the Irish Volunteers, recalled the arrival of Mellows in the town: ‘We got word from Dublin that an officer was being sent down to organise and train the Volunteers in County Galway . . .

When he arrived I was introduced to a little fellow with glasses. My impression of him was that he may be a clever lad—he was about 22 years—but couldn’t be much good at fighting. His name by the way was Liam Mellows. He came in when the men were lined up, six footers most of them. Liam addressed them, “Now men I was sent down to get you to do a bit of hard work, so I want you to be prepared for a week of very hard work”. I could see the faintest trace of a supercilious smile on some of the men. When he was finished talking Larry [Lardner, the commanding officer of the Galway brigade of the Irish Volunteers] and himself went off to arrange about digs. Then the smiles broke out to laughing. “Who is the ladeen,” asked one fellow, “who talks to us about hard work?”’ In time, however, Mellows won the support and respect of the majority of the Irish Volunteers in Galway, and in 1966 a statue of him was erected in Eyre Square in Galway city.

Class conflict Mellows quickly organised the separatists in Galway and found many recruits for the Irish Volunteers in a well-organised secret society that had links to the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). An agrarian secret society had existed in Galway since 1907 and was largely responsible for the waves of land agitation that swept across the county during the first two decades of the new century. However, this secret society was itself a revival of a secret society that had originated in the early 1880s, and probably had roots in the secret society tradition of the early nineteenth century. There was enormous poverty throughout the west of Ireland at that time, with the majority of the population surviving on a diet of potatoes and little else. Indeed, most landholdings were too small and too poor in quality to provide the small farmers who lived on them with a reasonable standard of living. Consequently, there was continued agitation by small farmers to implement land redistribution in the region. In particular, smallholders agitated against farmers (known as graziers) who occupied large farms on which they grazed cattle for export to the lucrative British market.

Small farmers believed that their living conditions could be improved by the redistribution of this grazing land amongst the rural poor—small farmers and agricultural labourers—and the secret society supported their struggle for a more just division of land. Members of the Galway secret society—then under the leadership of the Craughwell blacksmith Tom Kenny—flocked into the ranks of the Irish Volunteers and provided Mellows with almost 2,000 supporters in the county on the eve of the Rising. Kenny, who was 38 in 1916, was the IRB centre for County Galway but was also an associate of leading republicans in Dublin (John MacBride, Seán MacDiarmuida and Arthur Griffith, for instance), as well as president of the Connacht GAA council. ‘Surrender, boys, I know ye all’ The insurgents who assembled in Galway on Easter Monday 1916 undertook a number of separate attacks on the British army and the police in the county. There were two unsuccessful attacks on police barracks at Clarinbridge and Oranmore on Tuesday.

Another group of rebels, who had camped out at Carnmore crossroads overnight on Tuesday, encountered a British army patrol coming out of the city at dawn on Wednesday morning. Michael Newell, one of the rebels at Carnmore, remembers what happened: ‘I noticed a girl on a hill at Kiltullagh waving a white apron, apparently in order to attract our attention . . . I looked to see what was wrong and saw a number of motor cars about half a mile away coming in our direction from Galway City . . . Captain Molloy ordered us to take cover behind the walls. Just as we had taken cover, fire was opened on us. Tom Kenny of Craughwell Martin Finnerty of Gurteen The cars proceeded to about one hundred yards from our position and then halted. The enemy advanced on foot on our position, firing all the time. Captain Molloy ordered us to open fire, which we did, but the enemy fire was so intense and the bullets striking the top of the walls, we were compelled to keep down, and we were only able to take an occasional shot.

The enemy advanced up to the crossroads and Constable Whelan was pushed by District Inspector He[a]rd up to the wall which was about four feet high, the district inspector standing behind Whelan and holding him by the collar of his tunic. Constable Whelan shouted, “Surrender, boys, I know ye all”. Whelan was shot dead and the district inspector fell also and lay motionless on the ground. The enemy then made an attempt to outflank our position but were beaten back. The enemy then retreated and continued to fire until well out of range of our shotguns. They got back into the cars and went in the direction of Oranmore.’ After this incident all the rebels united at Athenry, where there were about 500 men (from Oranmore, Clarinbridge, Maree, Athenry, Craughwell, Rockfield, Newcastle, Derrydonnell, Cussaun and Kilconieron) armed with just 25 rifles, 60 revolvers, 300 shotguns and 60 pikes.

However, the rebel position at Athenry was exposed and open to attack, and so the rebels retreated to Moyode Castle and Limepark, to the south of Athenry, both of which were deserted ‘big houses’. Frank Hynes explained the decision to decamp to Moyode: ‘Anyone reading this account would be inclined to think that we were acting in a rather cowardly manner . . . why did we keep retreating[?] . . . The Volunteers who were out in Galway numbered between five and six hundred; we had about fifty full service rifles and about thirty rounds for each rifle. The rest were old shotguns . . . and a good many [Volunteers] . . . were not armed at all . . . After the scrap with the peelers we called a meeting and decided to retreat to a place called Moyode. This was a castle which was owned by one of the big landlords called Pers[s]e. It was about five miles from us. The argument in favour of Moyode was that we could defend it at least until our ammunition would be spent.

The castle was in charge of a caretaker so there was no trouble in capturing it.’ Athenry – about 500 rebels gathered there at the outbreak of the Rising but owing to its exposed position soon retreated to Moyode Castle In fact, the Galway rebellion (like that in Ireland more generally) was undermined by two events. The first was the capture of 20,000 German rifles en route to the insurgents. If these arms had been distributed in Galway (and elsewhere throughout Ireland) as had been planned, then a much more extensive insurrection could have been attempted. The second was Eoin MacNeill’s countermanding order, which cast rebel forces into a state of confusion on the day before the rising was due to begin. Thus the vast majority of Irish Volunteers did nothing during Easter week. Although many of the Galway Volunteers did ‘come out’, they were insufficiently armed to take on the military forces that gathered around them. In fact, marines began to encircle the rebel position at Limepark on the Friday, and HMS Gloucester in Galway Bay had been shelling the fields around Athenry from Tuesday onwards. Ultimately the Galway rebels were forced to bow to the inevitable.

On Saturday 29 April, five days after the Galway rising began, the rebels returned to their homes, while Mellows and the other leaders went on the run. Mellows escaped to New York, Lawrence Lardner went into hiding in Belfast, and Tom Kenny travelled to Boston, where he remained until 1923. Most of the rebels were arrested the foll Most of the rebels were arrested the following week and imprisoned in English and Scottish jails before being transported to Frongoch in south Wales, where the rank-and-file were detained until August. The more prominent rebels were finally released at Christmas 1916. ‘I was looking for the freedom of my country as any decent man would do in an unfree country’ In terms of their social composition, the Galway rebels were young Catholic men from small farm, labouring and artisan backgrounds. Some of them were Irish-speakers and members of the Gaelic League; most of them were hurlers and members of their local GAA clubs. Almost all of them were members of the Galway secret society who had been sworn into the IRB by the two most prominent Fenians in the county, Martin Finnerty of Gurteen and Tom Kenny of Craughwell.

The Galway insurgents had not—in most cases—benefited from the various land acts passed by the British government, and probably held firm to the belief that the land question could only be solved by an independent Irish republic. It was for this reason that they staged an insurrection against both the British state in Ireland and the landlords who owned the thousands of acres of grazing land that surrounded their smallholdings. In their responses to the questions put to them by the Royal Commission on the Rebellion, the insurgents generally explained their motivation in nationalistic terms. When asked if he knew what he was doing when he joined the Galway rebellion, Michael Kelly of Clarinbridge ‘answered that I did, and [said] that I was looking for the freedom of my country as any decent man would do in an unfree country’. However, the rebels’ concept of ‘freedom’ encompassed economic as well as political liberty, and the two struggles against the British state and the landlord class were viewed as one and the same. Gilbert Morrissey of Craughwell explained that the aim of the secret society was ‘. . . to keep the spark of nationality alive in us until the opportunity came.

This was not so difficult in County Galway because, in a sense, arms were never put away. If the people were not fighting against the British forces proper, they were making a fair stand against its henchmen, the tyrant landlord class, their agents and bailiffs, who were backed up and protected by the Royal Irish Constabulary.’ There was, however, some division among the leadership of the Galway rising. Liam Mellows identified the rising primarily as an insurrection against British rule in Ireland, but the local leaders of the secret society viewed the insurrection as a broader agitation in favour of land redistribution. The conflict within the leadership was primarily between Mellows and Tom Kenny, the leader of the Galway secret society. Kenny was an extraordinary figure who was so influential in south-east Galway that the police described him as a ‘local monarch’. He envisaged a radical transformation of Irish society and the creation of a more egalitarian Ireland that was fairer to small farmers and labourers. During the rising, Kenny tried to push Mellows in a more radical direction by proposing that the rebels seize cattle and land as well as attacking the police and army.

This conflict came to a head at Moyode Castle on Thursday when the two men discussed the future direction of the insurrection. In the event, Mellows rejected Kenny’s suggestions that the rebels should seize land and attack the bourgeois members of the home rule movement in the locality. Kenny was infuriated and later characterised Mellows as a coward and an inept political leader, writing in 1917: ‘Fair-headed Bill, you are good for nothing only drinking tea at Walshes of Killeeneen’. The Galway rising, despite Kenny’s best efforts, remained on a straightforward nationalist footing. ‘We could not have held it’ The Galway rising demonstrates that if arms had been successfully distributed throughout Ireland a countrywide insurrection would have been a distinct possibility.

The county inspector for west Galway explained that if MacNeill had not issued his countermanding order the rebels would have taken control of the entire county: ‘It is pretty plain now [May 1916] that the rebellion was precipitated and if it had been deferred until later when all was ready it would not have been confined to the districts of Galway and Gort but would have embraced the whole county and we could not have held it.’ If a full-scale provincial insurrection had been staged, then the Easter Rising could have constituted an extremely serious military outbreak, given that there were about 15,000 Irish Volunteers in the country before the Rising and about the same number of British soldiers and police (RIC). Certainly, this was the view of the RIC’s inspector-general, writing in May 1916: ‘That the Sinn Féin insurrection was so quickly put down and that it was confined to so few districts outside the metropolitan area, must be ascribed to the fortunate arrest of Sir R. Casement and the failure of the German ship to land the required arms and ammunition. There is no reason whatever to believe that if these arrangements had not miscarried the Irish Volunteers in any county would have held back.

In fact the evidence is all the other way.’ Secondly, the Galway rising—like that at Ashbourne and Enniscorthy—demonstrates that the Easter Rising was not a ‘blood sacrifice’. If all that was intended by the leaders of the Rising was a gesture to provoke British violence and therefore Irish republicanism (as some historians have suggested), it is unclear why 20,000 German rifles were imported and why arrangements were made for an insurrection throughout the provinces. HMS Gloucester in Galway Bay had been shelling the fields surrounding Athenry from Tuesday onwards. Sir Roger Casement (bare-headed) on board the German submarine U19-‘That the Sinn Féin insurrection was so quickly put down . . . must be ascribed to the fortunate arrest of Sir R. Casement and the failure of the German ship to land the required arms and ammunition’. (George Morrison) The rationale for the Rising may have been poorly worked out and even foolhardy, but the intention at the outset was military victory and not glorious suicide. Fergus Campbell lectures in British and Irish history at the School of Historical Studies, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Further reading:

Question: In which year did the Easter Rising, against British rule in Ireland, take place?
Answer: 1916