http://www.iol.ie/~dluby/history.htm# Rising
The Easter Rebellion, was an armed uprising of Irish nationalists against the rule of Great Britain in Ireland. The uprising occurred on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, and centred mainly in Dublin. The chief objectives were the attainment of political freedom and the establishment of an Irish republic. Centuries of discontent, marked by numerous rebellions, preceded the uprising. The new crisis began to develop in September 1914, following the outbreak of World War I, when the British government suspended the recently enacted Home Rule Bill, which guaranteed a measure of political autonomy to Ireland.
Suspension of the bill stimulated the growth of the Citizen Army, an illegal force of Dublin citizens organised by the labour leader Jim Larkin (died 1948) and the socialist James Connolly (1870-1916); of the Irish Volunteers, a national defence body; and of the "extremist" (sic!) Sinn Feinn. The uprising was planned by leaders of these organisations, among whom were the British consular agent Sir Roger David Casement, the educator Padhraic Pearse (1879-1916), and the poet Thomas MacDonagh (1878-1916).
Hostilities began about noon on April 24, when about 2000 men led by Pearse seized control of the Dublin post office and other strategic points within the city. Shortly after these initial successes, the leaders of the rebellion proclaimed the Independence of Ireland and announced the establishment of a provisional government of the Irish Republic. Additional positions were occupied by the rebels during the night, and by the morning of April 25 they controlled a considerable part of Dublin.
The counteroffensive by British forces began on Tuesday with the arrival of reinforcements. Martial law was proclaimed throughout Ireland. Bitter street fighting developed in Dublin, during which the strengthened British forces steadily dislodged the Irish from their positions. By the morning of April 29, the post office building, site of the rebel headquarters, was under violent attack. Recognising the futility of further resistance, Pearse surrendered unconditionally in the afternoon of April 29.
The British immediately brought the leaders of the uprising to trial before a field court-martial. Fifteen of the group, including Pearse, Connolly, and MacDonagh, were sentenced to death and executed by firing squad. Four others, including the American-born Eamon de Valera, received death sentences that were later commuted to life imprisonment, although de Valera and some others were granted amnesty the next year. Casement was convicted of treason and hanged.
Many others prominently connected with the rebellion were sentenced to long prison terms. The uprising was the first of a series of events that culminated in the establishment of the Irish Free State (predecessor of the "Republic of Ireland") in 1921. Casualties were about 440 British troops and an estimated 75 Irish (below are their names). Property damage included the destruction of about 200 buildings in Dublin.
The seven signatories of the Irish Proclamation (from the left):
Padraig Pearse, James Connolly, Thomas Clarke, Thomas MacDonagh, Sean MacDermott, Joseph Plunkett & Eamonn Ceannt
All of the above men were executed by the British Government for their efforts in trying to secure a free Ireland!
The names of those who died or were executed (* means executed) :
Padraig Pearse *
Thomas MacDonagh *
Thomas Clarke *
Joseph Plunkett *
Edward Daly *
Michael O' Hanrahan *
William Pearse *
Sean McBride *
Con Colbert *
Eamonn Ceannt *
Michael Mallin *
Sean Hueston *
James Connolly *
Sean McDermott *
John Adams
Thomas Allen
William Burke
Andrew Byrne
James Byrne
Louis Byrne
Charles Carrigan
Philip Clarke
Sean Connolly
James Corcoran
Edward Costello
John Costello
Henry Coyle
John Crenigan
John Cromien
Charles Darcy
Brendan Donelan
Patrick Doyle
John Dwan
Edward Ennis
Patrick Farrell
James Fox
George Geoghegan
John Healy
Sean Howard
Sean Hurley
John Keely
Con Keating
Gerald Keogh
Francis Macken
Peader Macken
Michael Malone
Peter Manning
James McCormack
William McDowell
Charles Monaghan
Michael Mulvihill
Richard Murphy
Daniel Murray
Richard O' Carroll
Patrick O' Connor
Patrick O' Flanagan
John O' Grady
The O' Rahilly
John O' Reilly
Thomas O' Reilly
John Owens
James Quinn
Thomas Rafferty
George Reynolds
Fredrick Ryan
Domhnall Sheehan
Patrick Shortis
John Traynor
Edward Walsh
Philip Walshe
Thomas Weafer
Patrick Whelan
Peter Wilson
Richard Kent
Roger Casement * (1)
Thomas Kent * (2)
Thomas Ashe (3)
Note:
(1) Roger Casement was executed in Pentonville prison London.
(2) Thomas Kent was executed in Cork jail.
(3) Thomas Ashe died on a hunger-strike in 1917.
O'Connell Street after the 1916 rising
A poem:
Awaiting freedom from my mother's womb
At Resurrection time, some glint of rebel steel
Pierced deep my soul, so deep
That fifty years have not erased the thrill
The names of Pearse and Plunkett,
Clarke, MacDonagh, Connolly
Ceannt and Sean Mac Diarmada arouse,
Of freedom born in blood.
Wresting freedom from a tyrant's hand
Had often been essayed on Ireland's soil.
Essayed at cost, at bitter cost
By men of eager hearts and giant mind, yet still
Each century brought fourth The poets, princes of pen,
To thrill with their philosophy
A nation's captive hearts.
No lust of blood inflamed the freedom verse
To turn the ploughshare to the sword;
They unlocked hearts, e'en timid hearts
To dreams undreamt of within captive breasts,
And set vast floods of liberty afloat
Upon a sea too long content
With anchored hopes,
And flotsam fears.
Who can recall an Emmet or a Tone,
A Mitchel or a Davitt or Devoy,
Without a glorious surging of the blood
And anticipation of emancipation
From the long-remembered wrongs
Upon a nation's rights?
Just tribute must be paid by
Freedmen to felon's heirs.
Half a century ago our resurrection came
Heralded by another name, the name of Pearse,
An Apollo with a quiver of words,
Music-tipped arrows to reach the very souls
Of those who longed and longed for freedom's balm;
Gentle leader of a quiet few
Who braved a tyrant's might
To make a bondman free.
Let me praise him who close by Rossa's grave
Praised the virtue of a valiant man
From a heart and tongue pregnant then
With death-decision made for
Freedom's urgent birth;
A man whose spiritual eye could see the joy
Of a ladybird upon a stalk,
Or a rabbit in a field at play.
There were no deaths in Dublin on that
Easter day some fifty years ago-
Such music makers cannot die
As many mercenary soldiers do
With battles lost or won.
They have but set the music to a song
That ever holds us bound,
Yet leaves us ever free.
Like Pearse or Plunkett,
MacDonagh and Mac Diarmada
Ceantt and Clarke,
And Connolly
DOMINIC CRILLY
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