On April 24, 1916, Irish nationalists proclaimed the formation of the
Irish Republic in a doomed uprising that would galvanize the republican
movement.
Nationalists
Read Proclamation of the Irish Republic In 1914, after years of campaigning by moderate Irish leader John
Redmond, British Parliament passed the Irish Home Rule bill, granting
self-government to Ireland. However, the implementation of the bill was delayed
due to the outbreak of World War I. Redmond, hoping to retain positive
relations with Britain, advised Irishmen to join the British Army, but a group
of militant nationalists saw the war as an opportunity to launch an
insurrection. Five members of the clandestine Irish Republican Brotherhood—Patrick
Pearse, Joseph Plunkett, Sean MacDermott, Eamonn Ceannt and Thomas Clarke—
formed the IRB Military Council in 1915; they were joined a year later by
socialist labor leader James Connolly, head of the Irish Citizens Army, and
Thomas MacDonagh.
They formulated a plan to launch an insurrection in Dublin on the
weekend of Easter, using an army of men from the IRB, ICA and Irish Volunteers,
a paramilitary group of moderate nationalists. However, days before the
uprising, Irish Volunteers leader Eoin MacNeill heard of the plan and ordered
his men not to participate. The plan was further compromised when a shipment of
German arms was intercepted.
“The leaders of the Rising may have begun with the notion of staging a
real military revolt that would overthrow British rule, but by Easter Monday,
when the hoped-for German aid had failed to materialise and a countermanding
order had weakened their mobilisation, they knew that this was an
impossibility,” writes the Irish Times. “They settled for a symbolic act, a
dramatic gesture.”
On Easter Monday, the rebels marched through Dublin to the General Post
Office, where they took down the British flag and replaced it with the Irish
tricolor and a flag with the words “Irish Republic.” Pearse read the
Proclamation of the Irish Republic, declaring “the right of the people of
Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish
destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible.”
The rebels seized other points in the city with little resistance, as the
British were not prepared for such a rebellion. The outnumbered British troops
waited for reinforcements as intense street battles broke out during the week.
Some soldiers killed unarmed men, including pacifist Francis
Sheehy-Skeffington, who was killed by firing squad.
By Friday reinforcements had arrived and the British forces, roughly
five times the size of the Irish fighters, launched an assault on the post
office. On Saturday the rebels were forced to surrender, thereby ending the
Easter Rising. According to the BBC, 116 British soldiers died and were 368
wounded, while 64 rebels and 254 civilians died.
The Aftermath
and Legacy of the Easter Rising The British arrested 3,430 men and 79 women, and began court-martials on
May 2. Pearse, Clarke and MacDonagh were executed the following day; 13 others
would also be executed, including Connolly, who had been so seriously injured
during the fighting that he had to be propped up on a chair to face the firing
squad.
The majority of Dubliners had not supported the Easter Rising, and
indeed some were angered by the rebels’ actions. The brutal British response,
however, made martyrs out of the leaders and galvanized the republican cause.
The republican party Sinn Fein gained widespread support and won a
landslide victory in the 1918 elections. It formed its own Irish legislative
body—the Dail Eireann—and, as its first act, ratified the Easter Proclamation
and declared the founding of the Irish Republic.Other members of the rebellion were imprisoned in Wales’ Frongoch
internment camp, which became known as the “university of revolution.”
Prisoners such as Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera plotted future resistance
and became leaders of the republican movement upon their release.
Though a military failure, the Easter Rising is celebrated as the first
step toward the independence that was won in 1921, and its leaders are
remembered as Irish heroes.
Historical
Context: Irish Fight for Independence The Easter Rising was one event in a long history of Irish resistance to
British rule. Irish leader John Redmond, in the tradition of Daniel O’Connell
and Charles Stuart Parnell, fought for a Home Rule bill in British Parliament
and would have succeeded if not for World War I. The Irish Republican
Brotherhood favored militant action, like the doomed rebellions of Wolfe Tone
in 1798 and the Young Irelanders in 1848.
Key Players: Patrick
Pearse and James Connolly
Patrick Pearse Patrick (or Padraig) Pearse was an idealistic writer and leader of the
IRB. He is assumed to have written the Proclamation of the Irish Republic that
he read in front of the post office during the Easter Rising. He is also
considered the face of the rebellion.
After being sentenced to execution, Pearse called to the British forces,
“You cannot conquer Ireland. You cannot extinguish the Irish passion of
freedom. If our deed has not been sufficient to win freedom, then our children
will win it by a better deed.”
James Connolly James Connolly led workers’ strikes around Dublin and founded the Irish
Citizen Army. He became involved in the nationalist movement to launch a
revolution against the imperial, capitalist British government.
The ICA, originally formed to protect workers, would join the Irish
Volunteers for the Easter Rising and Connolly commanded his forces in the
General Post Office. Badly wounded during the fight, Connolly was executed by
firing squad while strapped to a chair.
Yeats’
“Easter, 1916” Irish poet Williams Butler Yeats immortalized the leaders of the Easter
Rising in his poem “Easter, 1916.” Yeats admires their sacrifice, but expresses
fear of the uncertain future.
“I write it out in a verse—
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.”
Easter Rising
Resources The Irish Times produced a section on the Easter Rising in honor of its
90th anniversary. It includes a detailed look at each day of the Rising, a copy
of the Easter Proclamation, a look at how the Irish Times covered it in 1916
and an examination of how it signaled the “beginning of the end” of the British
Empire.
The BBC offers a detailed summary of the Easter Rising by examining both
its prelude and aftermath. The summary explains the way John Redmond’s fight
for Home Rule and the rise of cultural and militant nationalism in Ireland
helped foment the rebellion, then looks at how the Easter Rising incited the
republican cause and led to the Anglo-Irish War that formed the Irish Free
State.
Related Events
Bloody Sunday (1972), Birmingham Six. Fenian Raids
Sources in
this Story
Triskelle: Easter Rising, Irish Times: The 1916 Rising, Easter Rising 1916: Poblacht na h-Eireann, The BBC: 1916 Easter Rising, The Literature Network: Easter, 1916, Library Ireland: A History of Ireland and Her People, University College, Cork: Multitext Project in Irish History: Key
personalities
Report: Denis Cummings, Finding Dulcinea