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.
**********************************************************
Easter Rising
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The
Easter Rising (
Irish:
Éirí Amach na Cásca)
[1] was an
insurrection staged in Ireland during
Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by
Irish republicans with the aims of ending
British rule in Ireland and establishing the
Irish Republic
at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First
World War. It was the most significant uprising in Ireland since the
rebellion of 1798.
[2]
Organised by the Military Council of the
Irish Republican Brotherhood,
[3] the Rising lasted from Easter Monday 24 to 30 April 1916. Members of the
Irish Volunteers—led by schoolteacher and
barrister Pádraig (Patrick) Pearse, joined by the smaller
Irish Citizen Army of
James Connolly, along with 200 members of
Cumann na mBan—seized key locations in
Dublin
and proclaimed the Irish Republic independent of Britain. There were
some actions in other parts of Ireland, however, except for the attack
on the
Royal Irish Constabulary barracks at
Ashbourne, County Meath, they were minor.
The Rising was suppressed after seven days of fighting, and its
leaders were court-martialled and executed, but it succeeded in bringing
physical force republicanism back to the forefront of Irish politics. Less than two years after the Rising, republicans (then represented by the
Sinn Féin party) won 73 Irish seats out of 105 in the
1918 General Election to the
British Parliament, on a policy of
abstentionism
and Irish independence. In January 1919, the elected members of Sinn
Féin who were not still in prison at the time, including survivors of
the Rising, convened the
First Dáil
and established the Irish Republic. The British government refused to
accept the legitimacy of the newly declared nation, precipitating the
Irish War of Independence
Background
The
Acts of Union 1800 united the
Kingdom of Great Britain and the
Kingdom of Ireland as the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, abolishing the
Irish Parliament and giving Ireland representation at
Westminster. From early on, many Irish nationalists opposed the union and what was seen as the exploitation of the country.
[4]
Opposition took various forms: constitutional (the
Repeal Association; the
Home Rule League), social (
disestablishment of the Church of Ireland; the
Land League) and revolutionary (
Rebellion of 1848;
Fenian Rising).
[5] Constitutional nationalism enjoyed its greatest success in the 1880s and 1890s when the
Irish Parliamentary Party under
Charles Stewart Parnell succeeded in having two
Home Rule bills introduced by the Liberal government of
William Ewart Gladstone, though both failed. The
First Home Rule Bill of 1886 was defeated in the
House of Commons, while the
Second Home Rule Bill of 1893 was passed by the Commons but rejected by the
House of Lords.
After the fall of Parnell, younger and more radical nationalists became
disillusioned with parliamentary politics and turned toward more
extreme forms of separatism. The
Gaelic Athletic Association, the
Gaelic League and the cultural revival under
W. B. Yeats and
Lady Augusta Gregory, together with the new political thinking of
Arthur Griffith expressed in his newspaper
Sinn Féin and the organisations the
National Council and the
Sinn Féin League led to the identification of Irish people with the concept of a Gaelic nation and culture, completely independent of Britain.
[6][7] This was sometimes referred to by the generic term
Sinn Féin.
[8]
The
Third Home Rule Bill was introduced by British Prime Minister
H. H. Asquith in 1912. The
Irish Unionists, led by
Sir Edward Carson, opposed home rule in the light of what they saw as an impending Roman Catholic-dominated
Dublin government. They formed the
Ulster Volunteer Force on 13 January 1913.
[9]
The
Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) saw an opportunity to create an armed organisation to advance its own ends, and on 25 November 1913 the
Irish Volunteers,
whose stated object was "to secure and to maintain the rights and
liberties common to all the people of Ireland", was formed. Its leader
was
Eoin MacNeill, who was not an IRB member.
[10]
A Provisional Committee was formed that included people with a wide
range of political views, and the Volunteers' ranks were open to "all
able-bodied Irishmen without distinction of creed, politics or social
group."
[11] Another militant group, the
Irish Citizen Army, was formed by trade unionists as a result of the
Dublin Lockout of that year.
[12]
However, the increasing militarisation of Irish politics was
overshadowed soon after by the outbreak of a larger conflict—the First
World War
[13] — and
Ireland's involvement in the conflict.
Though large numbers of Irishmen had willingly joined
Irish regiments and
divisions of the
New British Army at the outbreak of war in 1914,
[14] the likelihood of
enforced conscription created a backlash – particularly as the
Government of Ireland Act 1914 (as previously recommended in March by the
Irish Convention) was controversially linked with a "dual policy" enactment of the Military Service Bill.
[15] The linking of conscription and Home Rule outraged the Irish nationalist parties at Westminster, (including the
IPP,
AFIL and others) who walked out in protest and returned to Ireland to organise opposition.
[16]
Planning the Rising
The Supreme Council of the IRB met on 5 September 1914, a month after the British government had declared war on
Germany. At this meeting, they decided to stage a rising before the war ended and to accept whatever help Germany might offer.
[17] Responsibility for the planning of the rising was given to
Tom Clarke and
Seán MacDermott.
[18]
The Irish Volunteers—the smaller of the two forces resulting from the
September 1914 split over support for the British war effort—
[19] set up a "headquarters staff" that included
Patrick Pearse[20] as Director of Military Organisation,
Joseph Plunkett as Director of Military Operations and
Thomas MacDonagh as Director of Training.
Éamonn Ceannt was later added as Director of Communications.
[21]
In May 1915, Clarke and MacDermott established a Military Committee
within the IRB, consisting of Pearse, Plunkett and Ceannt, to draw up
plans for a rising.
[22]
This dual rôle allowed the Committee, to which Clarke and MacDermott
added themselves shortly afterward, to promote their own policies and
personnel independently of both the Volunteer Executive and the IRB
Executive—in particular Volunteer Chief of Staff
Eoin MacNeill,
who supported a rising only on condition of an increase in popular
support following unpopular moves by the London government, such as the
introduction of conscription or an attempt to suppress the Volunteers or
its leaders, and IRB President
Denis McCullough, who held similar views.
[23]
IRB members held officer rank in the Volunteers throughout the country
and would take their orders from the Military Committee, not from
MacNeill.
[24]
Plunkett had travelled to Germany in April 1915 to join
Roger Casement. Casement had gone there from the United States the previous year with the support of
Clan na Gael leader
John Devoy, and after discussions with the German Ambassador in Washington,
Count von Bernstorff, to try to recruit an "Irish Brigade" from among Irish prisoners of war and secure German support for Irish independence.
[25][26]
Together, Plunkett and Casement presented a plan which involved a
German expeditionary force landing on the west coast of Ireland, while a
rising in Dublin diverted the British forces so that the Germans, with
the help of local Volunteers, could secure the line of the
River Shannon.
[27]
James Connolly—head of the
Irish Citizen Army
(ICA), a group of armed socialist trade union men and women—was unaware
of the IRB's plans, and threatened to start a rebellion on his own if
other parties failed to act. If they had gone it alone, the IRB and the
Volunteers would possibly have come to their aid;
[28]
however, the IRB leaders met with Connolly in January 1916 and
convinced him to join forces with them. They agreed to act together the
following Easter and made Connolly the sixth member of the Military
Committee.
Thomas MacDonagh would later become the seventh and final member.
Build-up to Easter Week
General Post Office, Dublin. Centre of the Easter Rising
In an effort to thwart informers and, indeed, the Volunteers' own
leadership, Pearse issued orders in early April for three days of
"parades and manoeuvres" by the Volunteers for Easter Sunday (which he
had the authority to do, as Director of Organization). The idea was that
the republicans within the organisation (particularly IRB members)
would know exactly what this meant, while men such as MacNeill and the
British authorities in
Dublin Castle
would take it at face value. However, MacNeill got wind of what was
afoot and threatened to "do everything possible short of phoning Dublin
Castle" to prevent the rising.
MacNeill was briefly convinced to go along with some sort of action
when Mac Diarmada revealed to him that a shipment of German arms was
about to land in
County Kerry, planned by the IRB in conjunction with
Roger Casement;
he was certain that the authorities' discovery of such a shipment would
inevitably lead to suppression of the Volunteers, thus the Volunteers
were justified in taking defensive action (including the originally
planned manoeuvres).
[29] Casement—disappointed with the level of support offered by the Germans—returned to Ireland on a German
U-boat and was captured upon landing at
Banna Strand in Tralee Bay. The arms shipment was lost when the German ship carrying,
Aud, was scuttled after interception by the
Royal Navy, after the local Volunteers had failed to rendezvous with it.
The following day, MacNeill reverted to his original position when he
found out that the ship carrying the arms had been scuttled. With the
support of other leaders of like mind, notably
Bulmer Hobson and
The O'Rahilly,
he issued a countermand to all Volunteers, cancelling all actions for
Sunday. This only succeeded in putting the rising off for a day,
although it greatly reduced the number of Volunteers who turned out.
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 Navy and
deciphered in
Room 40 of the Admiralty.
[30] The information was passed to the
Under-Secretary for Ireland, Sir
Matthew Nathan, on 17 April, but without revealing its source, and Nathan was doubtful about its accuracy.
[31] When news reached Dublin of the capture of the
Aud and the arrest of Casement, Nathan conferred with the
Lord Lieutenant,
Lord Wimborne. Nathan proposed to raid
Liberty Hall, headquarters of the Citizen Army, and Volunteer properties at Father Matthew Park and at
Kimmage,
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 the
Chief Secretary,
Augustine Birrell, in London seeking his approval.
[32] By the time Birrell cabled his reply authorising the action, at noon on Monday 24 April 1916, the Rising had already begun.
The Rising Itself
Easter Monday
One of two flags flown over the GPO during the Rising
Early on Monday morning, 24 April 1916, roughly 1,200 Volunteers and
Citizen Army members took over strongpoints in Dublin city centre. A
joint force of about 400 Volunteers and Citizen Army gathered at
Liberty Hall under the command of Commandant
James Connolly.
The rebel headquarters was located at the
General Post Office (GPO) where James Connolly, overall military commander and four other members of the Military Council:
Patrick Pearse,
Tom Clarke,
Seán Mac Dermott and
Joseph Plunkett were located.
[33] After occupying the Post Office, the Volunteers hoisted two republican flags and Pearse read a Proclamation of the Republic
[34]
Elsewhere, rebel forces took up positions at the
Four Courts,
the centre of the Irish legal establishment, at Jacob's Biscuit Factory
and Boland's Mill and at the hospital complex at South Dublin Union and
the adjoining Distillery at
Marrowbone Lane. Another contingent, under Michal Mallin, dug in on
St. Stephen's Green.
[35]
However, although it was lightly guarded, Volunteer and Citizen Army forces under Seán Connolly failed to take
Dublin Castle,
the centre of British rule in Ireland, shooting dead a police sentry
and overpowering the soldiers in the guardroom, but failing to press
home the attack. The Under-secretary,
Sir Matthew Nathan, was alerted by the shots and helped close the castle gates.
[36] The rebels occupied the
Dublin City Hall and adjacent buildings.
[37] They also failed to take
Trinity College, which was located in the heart of the city centre and which was defended by only a handful of armed unionist students.
[38] At midday a small team of Volunteers and Fianna members attacked the Magazine Fort in the
Phoenix Park
and disarmed the guards, with the intent to seize weapons and blow up
the building as a signal that the rising had begun. They set explosives
but failed to obtain any arms.
[39]
In at least two incidents, at Jacobs
[40] and Stephens Green,
[41]
the Volunteers and Citizen Army shot dead civilians who were trying to
attack them or dismantle their barricades. Elsewhere, they hit civilians
with their rifle butts to drive them off.
[42]
The British military were caught totally unprepared by the rebellion
and their response of the first day was generally un-coordinated. Two
troops of British cavalry, one at the Four Courts, the other on
O'Connell Street, sent out to investigate what was happening, took fire
and casualties from rebel forces
[43][44]
On Mount Street, a group of reserve volunteer soldiers, stumbled upon
the rebel position and four were killed before they reached
Beggars Bush barracks.
[45]
The only substantial combat of the first day of the Rising took place at the South Dublin Union where a piquet from the
Royal Irish Regiment,
encountered an outpost of Éamonn Ceannt's force at the north-western
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.
[46] However, the Union complex as a whole remained in rebel hands.
Three of the unarmed
Dublin Metropolitan Police
were shot dead on the first day of the Rising and their Commissioner
pulled them off the streets. Partly as result of the withdrawal of the
police, a wave of looting broke out in the city centre, especially in
the O'Connell Street area. A total of 425 people were arrested after the
Rising for looting.
[47]
Tuesday to Saturday
A British armoured truck, hastily built from the
smokeboxes of several steam locomotives at
Inchicore railway works
[48]
Lord Wimborne, the Lord Lieutenant, declared
martial law on Tuesday evening and handed over civil power to Brigadier-General
W. H. M. 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 the
Curragh 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.
[49][50]
The rebels had failed to take either of Dublin's two main train stations or either of its ports, at Dublin Port and
Kingstown.
As a result, during the following week, the British were able to bring
in thousands of reinforcements from England and from their garrisons at
the Curragh and Belfast. By the end of the week, British strength stood at over 16,000 men.
[50][51] Their firepower was provided by field artillery summoned from their garrison at
Athlone which they positioned on the northside of the city at
Phibsborough and at
Trinity College, and by the patrol vessel
Helga,
which sailed up the Liffey, having been summoned from the port at
Kingstown. On Wednesday, 26 April, the guns at Trinity College and
Helga
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.
[50]
Combat
"Birth of the Irish Republic" by Walter Paget, depicting the GPO during the shelling
The principal rebel positions at the GPO, the Four Courts, Jacob's
Factory and Boland's Mill saw little combat. 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".
[52] Similarly, the rebel position at
St Stephen's Green, held by the Citizen Army under
Michael Mallin, was made untenable after the British placed snipers and machine guns in the
Shelbourne Hotel and surrounding buildings. As a result, Mallin's men retreated to the
Royal College of Surgeons
building where they remained for the rest of the week. However, where
the insurgents dominated the routes by which the British tried to funnel
reinforcements into the city, there was fierce fighting.
Reinforcements were sent to Dublin from England, and disembarked at
Kingstown on the morning of 26 April. Heavy fighting occurred at the
rebel-held positions around the
Grand Canal as these troops advanced towards Dublin. The
Sherwood Foresters
were repeatedly caught in a cross-fire trying to cross the canal at
Mount Street. Seventeen Volunteers were able to severely disrupt the
British advance, killing or wounding 240 men.
[53]
Despite there being alternative routes across the canal nearby, General
Lowe ordered repeated frontal assaults on the Mount Street position.
[54]
The British eventually took the position, which had not been reinforced
by the nearby rebel garrison at Boland's Mills, on Thursday
[55]
but the fighting there inflicted up to two thirds of their casualties
for the entire week for a cost of just four dead Volunteers.
[56]
The rebel position at the South Dublin Union (site of the present day
St. 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.
[57] British troops also took casualties in unsuccessful frontal assaults on the Marrowbone Lane Distillery.
[58]
Placements of Rebel forces and British troops around the River Liffey in Dublin
The third major scene of combat during the week was at North King
Street, behind the Four Courts, where the British, on Thursday, tried to
take a well-barricaded rebel position. By the time of the rebel
headquarter's surrender, the
South Staffordshire Regiment under Colonel Taylor had advanced only 150 yd (140 m) down the street at a cost of 11 dead and 28 wounded.
[59]
The enraged troops broke into the houses along the street and shot or
bayonetted 15 male civilians whom they accused of being rebel fighters.
[60]
Elsewhere, at
Portobello Barracks, an officer named Bowen Colthurst summarily executed six civilians, including the pacifist nationalist activist,
Francis Sheehy-Skeffington.
[61] These instances of British troops killing Irish civilians would later be highly controversial in Ireland.
Surrender
The headquarters garrison at the GPO, after days of shelling, was
forced to abandon their headquarters when fire caused by the shells
spread to the GPO. Connolly had been incapacitated by a bullet wound to
the ankle and has 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 16
Moore Street.
On Saturday 29 April, from this new headquarters, after realising that
they could not break out of this position without further loss of
civilian life, Pearse issued an order for all companies to surrender.
[62] Pearse
surrendered 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."
[63]
The GPO was the only major rebel post to be physically taken during
the week. The others surrendered only after Pearse's surrender order,
carried by nurse named Elizabeth O'Farrell, reached them.
[64] Sporadic fighting therefore continued until Sunday, when word of the surrender was got to the other rebel garrisons.
[65]
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.
[66]
The Rising outside Dublin
Irish Volunteer units mobilised on
Easter Sunday
in several places outside of Dublin, but due to Eoin MacNeill's
countermanding order, most of them returned home without fighting. In
addition, due to the interception of the German arms aboard the
Aud, the provincial Volunteer units were very poorly armed.
In the south, around 1,200 Volunteers mustered in
Cork, under
Tomás Mac Curtain
on the Sunday, but they dispersed after receiving nine contradictory
orders by dispatch from the Volunteer leadership in Dublin. Much to the
anger of many Volunteers, MacCurtain, under pressure from Catholic
clergy, agreed to surrender his men's arms to the British on Wednesday.
[67]
The only violence in Cork occurred when the Kent brothers resisted
arrest by the RIC, shooting one. One brother was killed in the shootout
and another later executed.
[68]
Similarly, in the north, several Volunteer companies were mobilised at
Coalisland in
County Tyrone including 132 men from
Belfast led by IRB President
Dennis McCullough. However, in part due to the confusion caused by the countermanding order, the Volunteers there dispersed without fighting.
[69]
Ashbourne
The only large scale engagement outside the city of Dublin occurred at
Ashbourne, County Meath. The Volunteers′ Dublin Brigade, 5th Battalion (also known as the
Fingal Battalion), led by
Thomas Ashe and his second in command
Richard Mulcahy, composed of some 60 men, mobilised at
Swords, where they seized the RIC Barracks and the Post Office. They did the same in the nearby villages of
Donabate and
Garristown before attacking the RIC barracks at Ashtown
[70][71]
During the attack on the barracks, an RIC patrol from
Slane
happened upon the firefight – leading to a five-hour gun battle, in
which eight RIC constables were killed and 15 wounded. Two Volunteers
were also killed and five wounded.
[72] One civilian was also mortally wounded.
[73] Ashe's men camped at Kilsalaghan, near Dublin until they received orders to surrender on Saturday.
[74]
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. In
County Louth, Volunteers shot dead an RIC man near the village of
Castlebellingham on 24 April, in an incident in which 15 RIC men were also taken prisoner.
[70][75]
Enniscorthy
Irish War News, produced during the Rising
In
County Wexford, some 100 Volunteers took over
Enniscorthy on Thursday 27 April until the following Sunday.
[70]
The made a brief and unsuccessful attack on the RIC barracks, but
unable to take it, resolved to blockade it instead. During their
occupation of the town, they made such gestures as flying the tricolour
over the Atheneum theatre, which they had made their headquarters, and
parading uniformed in the streets.
[76]
A small party set off for Dublin, but turned back when they met a
train full of British troops (part of a 1,000-strong force) on their way
to Enniscorthy. On Saturday, two Volunteer leaders were escorted by the
British to
Arbour Hill Prison, where Pearse ordered them to surrender.
[77]
Galway
In the west,
Liam Mellows led 600–700 Volunteers in abortive attacks on several police stations, at
Oranmore and
Clarinbridge in
County Galway. There was also a skirmish at
Carnmore
in which two RIC men were killed. However, his men were poorly-armed,
with only 25 rifles and 300 shotguns, many of them being equipped only
with
pikes.
Toward the end of the week, Mellows′ followers were increasingly
poorly-fed and heard that large British reinforcements were being sent
westwards. In addition, the British
cruiser HMS Gloucester arrived in
Galway Bay and shelled the fields around
Athenry where the rebels were based.
[78]
On 29 April, the Volunteers, judging the situation to be hopeless,
dispersed from the town of Athenry. Many of these Volunteers were
arrested in the period following the rising, while others, including
Mellows had to go "on the run" to escape. By the time British
reinforcements arrived in the west, the rising there had already
disintegrated.
[79]
Casualties
The British Army reported casualties of 116 dead, 368 wounded and nine missing.
[80][81]
Sixteen policemen died, and 29 were wounded. Rebel and civilian
casualties were 318 dead and 2,217 wounded. The Volunteers and ICA
recorded 64 killed in action, but otherwise Irish casualties were not
divided into rebels and civilians.
[82] All 16 police fatalities and 22 of the British soldiers killed were Irishmen
[83]
British families came to Dublin Castle in May 1916 to reclaim the
bodies and funerals were arranged. British bodies which were not claimed
were given military funerals in
Grangegorman Military Cemetery.
The majority of the casualties, both killed and wounded, were
civilians. Both sides, British and rebel, shot civilians deliberately on
occasion when they refused to obey orders such as to stop at
checkpoints.
[84]
On top of that, there were two instances of British troops killing
civilians out of revenge or frustration, at Portobello Barracks, where
six were shot and North King Street, where 15 were killed.
[85]
However the majority of civilian casualties were killed by
indirect fire
from artillery, heavy machine guns and incendiary shells. The British,
who used such weapons extensively, therefore seem to have caused most
non-combatant deaths. One Royal Irish Regiment officer recalled, "they
[British troops] regarded everyone as an enemy and fired at everything
that moved".
[86]
Aftermath
The burial spot of the Leaders of the Rising, in the old prison yard of
Arbour Hill prison. The memorial was designed by G. McNicholl. The
Proclamation of 1916 is inscribed on the wall in both Irish and English
British soldiers searching the River Tolka in Dublin for arms and ammunition after the Easter Rising. May 1916
Arrests and executions
General Maxwell
quickly 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",
[87]
reflecting the popular belief that Sinn Féin, a separatist organisation
that was neither militant nor republican, was behind the Rising.
A total of 3,430 men and 79 women were arrested, although most were
subsequently released. In attempting to arrest members of the Kent
family in
County Cork on 2 May, a Head Constable was shot dead in a gun battle. Richard Kent was also killed, and
Thomas and William Kent were arrested.
In a series of
courts martial beginning on 2 May 90 people were sentenced to death. Fifteen of those (including all seven signatories of the
Proclamation)
had their sentences confirmed by Maxwell and were executed by firing
squad between 3 and 12 May (among them the seriously-wounded Connolly,
shot while tied to a chair due to a shattered ankle). Not all of those
executed were leaders:
Willie Pearse described himself as "a personal attaché to my brother, Patrick Pearse";
John MacBride had not even been aware of the Rising until it began, but had fought against the British in the
Boer War fifteen years before;
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. The president of the courts martial was
Charles Blackader.
1,480 men
[citation needed] were interned in England and Wales under Regulation 14B of the
Defence of the Realm Act 1914, many of whom, like
Arthur Griffith, had little or nothing to do with the affair. Camps such as
Frongoch internment camp became "Universities of Revolution" where future leaders like
Michael Collins,
Terence McSwiney and
J. J. O'Connell began to plan the coming struggle for independence.
[88] Sir
Roger Casement was tried in London for
high treason and
hanged at
Pentonville Prison on 3 August.
Inquiry
A
Royal Commission was set up to enquire into the causes of the Rising. It began hearings on 18 May under the chairmanship of
Lord Hardinge of Penshurst. The Commission heard evidence from Sir Matthew Nathan, Augustine Birrell, Lord Wimborne, Sir
Neville Chamberlain (Inspector-General of the
Royal Irish Constabulary), General
Lovick Friend, Major Ivor Price of Military Intelligence and others.
[89]
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."
[90]
Birrell and Nathan had resigned immediately after the Rising. Wimborne
had also reluctantly resigned, but was re-appointed, and Chamberlain
resigned soon after.
Reaction of the Dublin public
At first, many members of the Dublin public were simply bewildered by the outbreak of the Rising.
[91] 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".
[92]
There was considerable hostility towards the Volunteers in some parts
of the city. When occupying positions in the South Dublin Union and
Jacob's factory, the rebels got involved in physical confrontations with
civilians trying to prevent them from taking over the buildings. The
Volunteers′ shooting and clubbing of civilians made them extremely
unpopular in these localities.
[93]
There was outright hostility to the Volunteers from the "separation
women", (so-called because they were paid "Separation Money" by the
British government) who had husbands and son fighting in the British
Army in World War I, and among
unionists.
[94] Supporters of the
Irish Parliamentary Party also felt the rebellion was a betrayal of their party.
[95]
Finally, the fact that the Rising had caused a great deal of death
and destruction also contributed towards antagonism toward the rebels.
After the surrender, the Volunteers were hissed at, pelted with refuse,
and denounced as "murderers" and "starvers of the people".
[96]
Volunteer Robert Holland for example remembered being abused by people
he knew as he was being marched into captivity and said the British
troops saved them from being manhandled by the crowds.
[97]
However, there was not universal hostility towards the defeated
insurgents. Some onlookers were cowed rather than hostile and it
appeared to the Volunteers that some of those watching in silence were
sympathetic.
[98]
Canadian journalist and writer Frederick Arthur McKenzie wrote that in
poorer areas, "there was a vast amount of sympathy with the rebels,
particularly after the rebels were defeated."
[99] Thomas Johnson, the
Labour leader thought there was, "no sign of sympathy for the rebels, but general admiration for their courage and strategy"
[100]
The aftermath of the Rising, and in particular the British reaction
to it, helped to sway a large section of Irish nationalist opinion away
from hostility or ambivalence and towards support for the rebels of
Easter 1916. Dublin businessman and
Quaker James Douglas,
for example, hitherto a Home Ruler, wrote that his political outlook
changed radically during the course of the Rising due to the British
military occupation of the city and that he became convinced that
parliamentary methods would not be sufficient to remove the British
presence.
[101]
Rise of Sinn Féin
A meeting called by
Count Plunkett on 19 April 1917 led to the formation of a broad political movement under the banner of Sinn Féin
[102] which was formalised at the Sinn Féin
Ard Fheis of 25 October 1917. The
Conscription Crisis of 1918 further intensified public support for Sinn Féin before the
general elections to the
British Parliament on 14 December 1918, which resulted in a landslide victory for Sinn Féin, whose
MPs gathered in Dublin on 21 January 1919 to form
Dáil Éireann and adopt the
Declaration of Independence.
[103]
Legacy
The
Garden of Remembrance
was opened in 1966, to mark the anniversary of the Rising. The Garden
is "dedicated to all those who gave their lives in the fight for
Ireland's freedom"
A few months after the Easter Rising,
W. B. Yeats
commemorated some of the fallen figures of the Irish Republican
movement, as well as expressed his torn emotions regarding these events,
in the poem
Easter, 1916.
Some survivors of the Rising went on to become leaders of the
independent Irish state and those who died were venerated by many as
martyrs. Their graves in the former military prison of
Arbour Hill in Dublin became a national monument and the text of the
Proclamation
was taught in schools. An annual commemoration, in the form of a
military parade, was held each year on Easter Sunday, culminating in a
huge national celebration on the 50th anniversary in 1966.
[104] RTÉ
the Irish national broadcaster, as one of its first major undertakings
made a series of commemorative programmes for the 1966 anniversary of
the Rising. Roibéárd Ó Faracháin, head of programming said, "While still
seeking historical truth, the emphasis will be on homage, on
salutation".
[105]
With the outbreak of
the Troubles
in Northern Ireland, government, academics and the media began to
revise the country's militant past, and particularly the Easter Rising.
The
coalition government of 1973—77, in particular the
Minister for Posts and Telegraphs,
Conor Cruise O'Brien,
began to promote the view that the violence of 1916 was essentially no
different from the violence then taking place in the streets of Belfast
and Derry.
Cruise O'Brien and others asserted that the Rising was doomed to
military defeat from the outset, and that it failed to account for the
determination of
Ulster Unionists to remain in the United Kingdom.
[106] "Revisionist" historians
[107] began to write of it in terms of a "blood sacrifice".
[108]
While the Rising and its leaders continued to be venerated by Irish republicans—including members and supporters of the
Provisional IRA and the modern
Sinn Féin—with
murals in republican areas of Belfast and other towns celebrating the
actions of Pearse and his comrades, and a number of parades held
annually in remembrance of the Rising, the Irish government discontinued
its annual parade in Dublin in the early 1970s, and in 1976 it took the
unprecedented step of proscribing (under the
Offences against the State Act) a 1916 commemoration ceremony at the GPO organised by Sinn Féin and the Republican commemoration Committee.
[109]
A
Labour Party TD,
David Thornley, embarrassed the government (of which Labour was a member) by appearing on the platform at the ceremony, along with
Máire Comerford, a survivor of the Rising, and Fiona Plunkett, sister of Joseph Plunkett.
[110]
With the advent of a
Provisional IRA ceasefire and the beginning of what became known as the
Peace Process during the 1990s, the official view of the Rising became more positive and in 1996 an 80th anniversary commemoration at the
Garden of Remembrance in Dublin was attended by the
Taoiseach and leader of
Fine Gael,
John Bruton.
[111] In 2005, the Taoiseach,
Bertie Ahern,
announced the government's intention to resume the military parade past
the GPO from Easter 2006, and to form a committee to plan centenary
celebrations in 2016.
[112]
The 90th anniversary was celebrated with military parade in Dublin on
Easter Sunday, 2006, attended by the President of Ireland, the Taoiseach
and the Lord Mayor of Dublin.
[113]
Notes
- ^ "Department of the Taoiseach – Easter Rising". Taoiseach.gov.ie. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
- ^ "Soldiers are we" by Charles Townshend, History Today, 1 April 2006
- ^ Leaders and Men of the Easter Rising: Dublin 1916 Francis X. Martin 1967 p105
- ^ MacDonagh, Oliver, Ireland: The Union and its aftermath, George Allen & Unwin, 1977, ISBN 0049410040, pp. 14–17
- ^ Mansergh, Nicholas, The Irish Question 1840–1921, George Allen & Unwin, 1978, ISBN 0049010220 p. 244
- ^ MacDonagh, Oliver, Ireland: The Union and its aftermath, pp. 72–74
- ^ Feeney, Brian, Sinn Féin: A Hundred Turbulent Years, O'Brien Press, 2002, ISBN 0862786959 p. 22
- ^ Feeney, Brian, Sinn Féin: A Hundred Turbulent Years, p. 37
- ^ "Those who set the stage". The 1916 Rising: Personalities and Perspectives. National Library of Ireland. Retrieved 7 December 2009.
- ^ Foy and Barton, The Easter Rising, pp. 7–8
- ^ Macardle, The Irish Republic, pp. 90–92
- ^ Townshend, Easter 1916, p. 49
- ^ Townshend, Easter 1916, pp. 59–60
- ^ BBC – The forgotten soldiers (Article highlighting pre- and post-war attitudes to participation of Irish in Great War)
- ^ Dave Hennessy (2004). The Hay Plan & Conscription In Ireland During WW1, p.5 [1]
- ^ Alan J., Ward (1974). Lloyd George and the 1918 Irish Conscription Crisis. The Historical Journal, Vol. XVII, no. 1.
- ^ Caulfield, Max, The Easter Rebellion, p. 18
- ^ Foy and Barton, The Easter Rising, p. 16
- ^ Foy and Barton, The Easter Rising, p. 13
- ^ Sean Farrell Moran, Patrick Pearse and the Politics of Redemption: The Mind of the Easter Rising, (1994), Ruth Dudley Edwards, Patrick Pearse and the Triumph of Failure, (1977), Joost Augustin, "Patrick Pearse," (2009)
- ^ Townshend, Easter 1916, p. 92
- ^ Foy and Barton, The Easter Rising, pp. 16, 19
- ^ Townshend, Easter 1916, p. 94
- ^ Macardle, The Irish Republic, p. 119
- ^ Townshend, Easter 1916, p. 104
- ^ Foy and Barton, The Easter Rising, p. 105
- ^ McNally and Dennis, Easter Rising 1916: Birth of the Irish Republic, p. 30
- ^ Eoin Neeson, Myths from Easter 1916, p. ?
- ^ Michael Tierney, Eoin MacNeill, pp. 199, 214
- ^ Ó Broin, Leon, Dublin Castle & the 1916 Rising, p. 138
- ^ Ó Broin, Leon, Dublin Castle & the 1916 Rising, p. 79
- ^ Ó Broin, Leon, Dublin Castle & the 1916 Rising, pp. 81–87
- ^ McNally, Michael and Dennis, Peter, Easter Rising 1916: Birth of the Irish Republic, p. 41
- ^ Foy and Barton, The Easter Rising, pp. 192, 195
- ^ McNally, Michael and Dennis, Peter, Easter Rising 1916: Birth of the Irish Republic, p39- 40
- ^ Foy and Barton, The Easter Rising, pp. 84–85
- ^ Foy and Barton, The Easter Rising, pp. 87–90
- ^ Townshend p163-164
- ^ Caulfield, Max, The Easter Rebellion, pp. 48–50
- ^ McGarry p142
- ^ Stephens p18
- ^ McGarry, The Risng, p142-143, Townshend, Easter 1916, p174
- ^ Caulfield, Max, the Easter Rebellion, pp. 54–55
- ^ Agony at Easter:The 1916 Irish Uprising, Thomas M. Coffey, pages 38, 44, 155
- ^ Paul O’Brien, Blood on the Streets, the Battle for Mount Street, p22-23
- ^ Caulfield, Max, The Easter Rebellion, pp. 76–80
- ^ Townshend p263-264
- ^ "Statement by Jospeh Sweeney Curious Journey: An Oral History of Ireland’s Unfinished Revolution". BBC. Retrieved 18 October 2009.
- ^ Tim Pat Coogan,The Easter Rising p107
- ^ a b c Townshend p191
- ^ McGarry, p167-169
- ^ McGarry p 175
- ^ Coogan p 122
- ^ Caulfield p251
- ^ O'Brien p69
- ^ McGarry p173
- ^ Caulfield p287-292
- ^ Annie Ryan, Witnesses, p128-133
- ^ Coogan p152-155
- ^ Coogan, p155, McGarry p187
- ^ Caulfield p198
- ^ Townshend p243-246
- ^ "BBC News". BBC News. 2006-01-09. Retrieved 2011-11-13.
- ^ Townshend, p246-247
- ^ Townshend p246-250
- ^ McGarry, p203-204
- ^ Townshend p235
- ^ Townshend, p238
- ^ Townshend p226
- ^ a b c Boyle, John F. The Irish Rebellion of 1916: a brief history of the revolt and its suppression (Chapter IV: Outbreaks in the Country). BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009. Pages 127–152.
- ^ TownshendEaster 1916, The Irish Rebellion, p215-216
- ^ Townshend p218-221
- ^ Fearghal McGarry, The Rising, Ireland Easter 1916, p235-237
- ^ Townshend p221
- ^ Townshend p224
- ^ Townshend p 241
- ^ Townshend p241-242
- ^ Townshend p227-230
- ^ McGary p233
- ^ "British Soldiers KIA 1916 Rising". Irishmedals.org. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
- ^ "Ireland 1916". Glosters.tripod.com. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
- ^ Foy and Barton, The Easter Rising, page 325
- ^ Kilberd, Declan: 1916, Rebellion Handbook, p.50-55
- ^ McGarry, p184-185
- ^ McGarry, p186-187
- ^ both 'indirect fire' and quote from McGarry p184
- ^ Townshend, Easter 1916, page 273
- ^ "''The Green Dragon'' No 4, Autumn 1997". Ballinagree.freeservers.com. 31 March 2005. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
- ^ Ó Broin, Leon, Dublin Castle & the 1916 Rising pp. 153–159
- ^ Townshend, Charles, Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion p. 297
- ^ According
to historian Charles Townshend, "In many areas the reaction of
civilians was puzzlement, they simply had no idea what was going on."
Townshend Easter 1916, The Irish Rebellion
- ^ James Stephens, The Insurrection in Dublin, p57
- ^ Fearghal McGarry, The Rising:Ireland Easter 1916, p143
- ^ The Easter Rising, Brian Barton & Micheal Foy, Sutton Publishing Ltd. Gloucestershire, UK, ISBN 10: 0750934336, pg.203-9
- ^ Ernie O’Malley,
On Another Man's Wound, p 60, ““The loyalists spoke with an air of
contempt, ‘the troops will settle the matter in an hour or two, these
pro-Germans will run away’…The Redmondites were more bitter, ‘I hope
they’ll all be hanged’, ... ‘Shooting’s too good for them. Trying to
stir up trouble for us all’
- ^ McGarry, p252
- ^ Annie Ryan, Witnesses, Inside the Easter Rising, p135
- ^ McGarry, The Rising, Ireland Easter 1916 p252-256
- ^ The Impact of the 1916 Rising: Among the Nations, Edited by Ruán O’Donnell, Irish Academic Press Dublin 2008, ISBN 978 0 7165 2965, pg. 196-97
- ^ Townshend, Easter 1916, p265-268
- ^ J. Anthony Gaughan, ed. (1998). Memoirs of Senator James G. Douglas; concerned citizen. University College Dublin Press. pp. 52, 53. ISBN 9781900621199. Retrieved 30 May 2010.
- ^ J. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army: The IRA, page 27
- ^ Robert Kee The Green Flag: Ourselves Alone
- ^ News Items Relating to the 1916 Easter Rising Commemorations, IE: RTÉ, 1966
- ^ Brennan, Cathal, A TV pageant, the Golden Jubille Commemorations of the 1916 Rising
- ^ O’Brien, Conor Cruise (1972), States of Ireland, Hutchinson, pp. 88, 99, ISBN 0-09-113100-6
- ^ Deane, Seamus (1991), "Wherever Green is Read", in Ní Dhonnchadha; Dorgan, Revising the Rising, Derry: Field Day, p. 91, ISBN 0-946755-25-6
- ^ Foster, Roy F., Modern Ireland 1600–1972, Penguin 1989 ISBN 978-0140132502, p. 484
- ^ Irish Times, 22 April 1976
- ^ Irish times, 26 April 1976
- ^ Reconstructing the Easter Rising, Colin Murphy, The Village, 16 February 2006
- ^ Irish Times, 22 October 2005
- ^ "In pictures: Easter Rising commemorations". BBC News. 16 April 2006. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
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