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Easter Rising
Part of the movement towards Irish independence
Proclamation of the Republic, Easter 1916
Date April 24 to April 30, 1916 Location Dublin small action in Ashbourne skirmishes in counties Galway, Louth and Wexford Result Unconditional surrender of rebel forces, execution of leaders
Belligerents
Irish Republican Brotherhood Irish Volunteers, Irish Citizen Army, Cumann na mBan	British Army Dublin Metropolitan Police File:RIC Station Badge.gif Royal Irish Constabulary
Commanders and leaders
Patrick Pearse, James Connolly	Brigadier-General Lowe General Sir John Maxwell
Strength
1,250 in Dublin, c. 2-3,000 elsewhere, however the latter took little or no part in the fighting.	16,000 troops and 1000 armed police in Dublin by end of the week
Casualties and losses
82 killed, 1,617 wounded, 16 executed	157 killed, 318 wounded
220 civilians killed, 600 wounded

The Easter Rising (Irish: Éirí Amach na Cásca) was a rebellion staged in Ireland in Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was an attempt by militant Irish republicans to win independence from Britain. It was the most significant uprising in Ireland since the rebellion of 1798.

Organised by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Rising lasted from Easter Monday April 24 to April 30, 1916. Members of the Irish Volunteers, led by school teacher and barrister 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 an Irish Republic independent of Britain. There were some actions in other parts of Ireland, but they were minor, including Ashbourne, County Meath, and were also suppressed.

The Rising was suppressed after six days of fighting, and its leaders were court-martialled and executed, but it succeeded in bringing Irish Nationalism back to the forefront of Irish politics. In the 1918 General Election, the last all-island election held in Ireland, to the British Parliament, Republicans won 73 seats out of 105, on a policy of abstentionism from Westminster and independence. This came less than two years after the Rising. In January, 1919, of the elected members of Sinn Féin who were not then still in prison, and which included 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, leading to the Irish War of Independence.

Background

Since the Act of Union (1800) that joined Ireland and Great Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, opposition to the union had taken two forms: parliamentary constitutionalism and physical force. Daniel O’Connell, who founded the Repeal Association in 1840, pursued repeal of the Act in the British House of Commons and through mass meetings. The Young Ireland's were active members of the repeal movement, but broke with O’Connell in 1846 and established the Irish Confederation, and its leaders, William Smith O'Brien, Thomas Francis Meagher and John Blake Dillon, led the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848. The Fenian's staged another revolt in 1867. Though defeated, they continued as a secret, oath-bound society. In 1873, a Fenian convention was held in Dublin, and adopted the name Irish Republican Brotherhood, and a constitution. It passed two resolutions:The first, that the central committee of the IRB, constituted itself to act as the government of the Irish Republic, until such time as the Irish people freely elected is own government, secondly, that the Head Centre (chairman), of the IRB, would be President of the Republic until such time, etc. The Home Rule League and Charles Stuart Parnell’s Irish Parliamentary Party succeeded in having a large number of members elected to Westminster where, through the tactic of obstructionism and by virtue of holding the balance of power, they succeeded in having three Home Rule bills introduced. Parnell's objectives however, went beyond that of limited Home Rule. This became clear when in a speech in January, 1885, he said "No man has a right to fix the boundary of a march of a nation..." The First Home Rule Bill of 1886 was defeated in the House of Commons. The Second Home Rule Bill of 1893 was passed by the Commons but rejected by the House of Lords. The Third Home Rule Bill of 1912 was again rejected by the Lords, but under the new Parliament Act (passed by H. H. Asquith with the support of John Redmond who became IPP leader on the death of Parnell) would become law after two years. Redmond, unlike Parnell saw Home Rule as an end in itself. Ulster Unionists, led by Sir Edward Carson, and both the Tories and lords were violently opposed to home rule.. Ulster Unionists then formed the Ulster Volunteer Force on 13 January 1913. This led to the formation of the Irish Volunteers, a force dedicated to defending home rule, on 11 November 1913. The Home Rule Act received Royal Assent on 18 September 1914, but excluded an as yet undefined area in the Province of Ulster. The Bill was then suspended until after the World War, which had broken out a month previously causing the Irish Volunteers to split, a majority called the National Volunteers supporting the Allied and British war effort. Meanwhile, the IRB, reorganised by Thomas Clarke, a former prisoner, and Seán MacDermott, continued to plan, not for limited home rule under the British Crown, but for an independent Irish republic.

Planning the Rising

Template:IrishR Plans for the Easter Rising began within days of the August declaration of the war against Germany. The Supreme Council of the IRB held a meeting in 25 Parnell Square and, under the old dictum that "England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity", decided to take action sometime before the conclusion of the war. The Council made three decisions: to establish a military council, seek whatever help possible from Germany, and secure control of the Volunteers.

According to noted historian RTEPrincess Grace Irish Library (Monaco) Eoin Neeson, a plan involving a military victory was never a consideration; while the Leaders considered there would be some military success, an overall military victory was never an objective of the Rising. The IRB set out three objectives for the Rising: First, declare an Irish Republic, second, revitalise the sprit of the people and arouse separatist national fervour, and thirdly, claim a place at the post war peace conference.

To this end, the IRB's treasurer, Tom Clarke formed a Military Council to plan the rising, initially consisting of Padraig Pearse, Eamonn Ceannt, and Joseph Plunkett, with himself and Seán Mac Diarmada added shortly thereafter. All of these were members of both the IRB, and (with the exception of Clarke) the Irish Volunteers.

The second object of the IRB was at this stage already well advanced. The IRB had infiltrated a number of social organisations, including the GAA , the Gaelic League, Sinn Féin, trades unions, and later the Irish Citizen Army. Through these organisations they wanted to provide the drive for nationalism, separatism and ultimately change.

Since its inception in 1913, the Volunteers, whose formation was instigated by the IRB precisely for the purpose of staging a rising, was increasingly coming under the control of that organisation, as IRB members worked to promote one another to officer rank whenever possible; hence by 1916 a large proportion of the Volunteer leadership were devoted republicans. A notable exception was their founder and Chief-of-Staff Eoin MacNeill who at the time was unaware of the IRB's intentions. MacNeill planned to use the Volunteers as a bargaining tool with Britain following World War I.

Negotiations were opened with the German High Command represented by Count Bethmann Hollweg, Count Nadolny and Captain Heydal in Germany. The IRB was represented by Joseph Plunkett (who travelled to Berlin in 1915) in addition to his father Count Plunkett, and Roger Casement. Casement was never a member of the IRB, and was kept unaware of the degree that the IRB had infiltrated the Volunteers, for whom he viewed himself as the representative. In America also there were negotiations taking place with the German Ambassador in Washington, Count von Bernsdorff and first secetary Wolf von Igel. John Devoy leader of Clan na Gael, was also involved in these negotiation. These negotiations were to continue through 1914, 1915 and 1916. From these negotiations the IRB received the agreement from the German Government that if the Irish could establish their status as a nation “deprived of lawful statehood,” then Germany would afford them a hearing at the post-war peace conference.

James Connolly, head of the Irish Citizen Army (ICA), a group of armed socialist trade union men and women, were completely unaware of the IRB's plans, and threatened to initiate a rebellion on their own if other parties refused to act. As the ICA was barely 200 strong, any action they might take would have been in the nature of a forlorn hope. Though if they had decided to go it alone, the IRB and the Volunteers would possibly have come to their aid. Thus 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).

In an effort to thwart informers, and, indeed, the Volunteers' own leadership, early in April Pearse issued orders 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 organization (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 Sir 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 maneuvers). Casement, disappointed with the level of support the Germans were offering, had just returned to Ireland from Germany via a German U-boat, but was captured upon his landing at Banna Strand, in Tralee Bay. The arms shipment, aboard the German ship Aud --disguised as a Norwegian fishing trawler -- had been scuttled after interception by the British navy, as 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.

The Rising

The outbreak of the Rising

The original plan, largely devised by Plunkett (and apparently very similar to a plan worked out independently by Connolly), was to seize strategic buildings throughout Dublin in order to cordon off the city, and resist the inevitable counter-attack by the British army. If successful, the plan would have left the rebels holding a compact area of central Dublin, roughly bounded by the canals and the circular roads. However, this strategy would have required more men than the 1,600 or so who were actually mobilized on Easter Monday. As a result, the rebels left several key points within the city, notably Dublin Castle, Trinity College, and the old Parliament building in College Green in British hands. In the west of the country, local units with limited numbers and arms intended to try to hold the west bank of the river Shannon for as long as possible.

The Volunteers' Dublin division had been organized into 4 battalions, each under a commandant who the IRB made sure were loyal to them. A makeshift 5th battalion was put together from parts of the others, and with the aid of the ICA. This was the battalion of the headquarters at the General Post Office, and included the President and Commander-in-Chief, Pearse, the commander of the Dublin division, Connolly, as well as Clarke, Mac Diarmada, Plunkett, and a then-obscure young captain named Michael Collins. Connolly asked Eamon Bulfin to hoist two flags up on the flag poles on either end of the GPO roof. The tricolour was hoisted at the right corner of Henry Street while a green flag with the inscription 'Irish Republic' was hoisted at the left corner at Princess Street. A short time later, Pearse read the Proclamation of the Republic outside the GPO.

A small team of volunteers attacked the Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park in an effort to obtain weapons and create a large explosion to signal the start of the rising. Meanwhile the 1st battalion under Commandant Ned Daly seized the Four Courts and areas to the northwest; the 2nd battalion under Thomas MacDonagh established itself at Jacob's Biscuit Factory, south of the city center; in the east Commandant Éamon de Valera commanded the 3rd battalion at Boland's Bakery; and Ceannt's 4th battalion took the workhouse known as the South Dublin Union to the southwest. Members of the ICA under Michael Mallin and Constance Markievicz also commandeered St. Stephen's Green. An ICA unit under Seán Connolly made a minor assault on Dublin Castle, not knowing that it was defended by only a handful of troops. After shooting dead an unarmed police sentry and taking several casualties themselves from sniper fire, the group occupied the adjacent Dublin City Hall. Seán Connolly was the first rebel casualty of the week, being killed outside Dublin Castle. Other volunteers also occupied 25 Northumberland Road and Clanwilliam House where seven Volunteers held off the British advance for nine hours..

The breakdown of law and order that accompanied the rebellion was marked by widespread looting, as Dublin's slum population ransacked the city's shops. Ideological tensions came to the fore when a Volunteer officer gave an order to shoot looters, only to be angrily countermanded by James Connolly.

As Eoin MacNeill's countermanding order prevented nearly all areas outside of Dublin from rising, the command of the great majority of active rebels fell under Connolly. After being badly wounded, Connolly was still able to command by having himself moved around on a bed. (Although he had optimistically insisted that a capitalist government would never use artillery against their own property, it took the British less than 48 hours to prove him wrong.) The British commander, Brigadier-General Lowe, worked slowly, unsure of how many he was up against, and with only 1,200 troops in the city at the outset. Lord Wimborne, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, declared martial law and the British forces put their efforts into securing the approaches to Dublin Castle and isolating the rebel headquarters at the GPO. Their main firepower was provided by the gunboat Helga and field artillery summoned from their garrison at Athlone which they positioned on the northside of the city at Prussia Street, Phibsborough and the Cabra road. These guns shelled large parts of the city throughout the week and burned much of it down. (The first building shelled was Liberty Hall, which ironically had been abandoned since the beginning of the Rising.) So inaccurate was much of the fire that British units, believing that they were being shelled by rebel guns--of which the insurgents had none--returned fire against their own artillery. Interestingly the Helga's guns had to stop firing as the elevation necessary to fire over the railway bridge meant that her shells were endangering the Viceregal Lodge in Phoenix Park, (Helga was later bought by the Government of the Irish Free State, and was the first ship in its Navy ).

British reinforcements arrive

Reinforcements were rushed to Dublin from England, along with a new commander, General John Maxwell. Outnumbering the rebels with approximately 16,000 British troops and 1,000 armed Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) (the Volunteers were estimated at about 1,000, the ICA at under 250 and Cumann na mBan at 200), they bypassed many of the defences and isolated others to the extent that by the end of the week the only order they were able to receive was the order to surrender. The headquarters itself saw little real action. The heaviest fighting occurred at the rebel-held positions around the Grand Canal, which the British seemed to think they had to take to bring up troops who had landed in Dún Laoghaire port. The rebels held only a few of the bridges across the canal and the British might have availed themselves of any of the others and isolated the positions. Due to this failure of intelligence, the Sherwood Foresters regiment were repeatedly caught in a cross-fire trying to cross the canal at Mount Street. Here a mere seventeen volunteers were able to severely disrupt the British advance, killing or wounding 240 men. The rebel position at the South Dublin Union (site of the present day St James' Hospital), further west along the canal, also inflicted heavy losses on British troops trying to advance towards Dublin Castle. Cathal Brugha, a rebel officer, distinguished himself in this action and was badly wounded. Shell fire and shortage of ammunition eventually forced the rebels to abandon these positions before the end of the week. 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 surrounding buildings. As a result, Mallin's men retreated to the Royal College of Surgeons building, where they held out until they received orders to surrender.

Many of the insurgents, who could have been deployed along the canals or elsewhere where British troops were vulnerable to ambush, were instead ensconced in large buildings such as the GPO, the Four Courts and Boland's Mill, where they could achieve little. The rebel garrison at the GPO barricaded themselves within the post office and were soon shelled from afar, unable to return effective fire, until they were forced to abandon their headquarters when their position became untenable. The GPO garrison then hacked 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 Moore Street. On Saturday April 29 from this new headquarters, after realizing that all that could be achieved was further loss of life, Pearse issued an order for all companies to surrender.

The Rising outside Dublin

Irish Volunteer units turned out for the Rising 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 north, several Volunteer companies were mobilised in County Tyrone and 132 men on the Falls Road in Belfast.

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 very badly armed, with only 25 rifles and 300 shotguns, many of them being equipped only with pikes. Towards 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 warship, HMS Gloucester arrived in Galway Bay and shelled the fields around Athenry where the rebels were based. On April 29, 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.

In the east, Seán MacEntee and County Louth Volunteers killed a policeman and a prison guard. In county Wexford, the Volunteers took over Enniscorthy from Tuesday until Friday, before symbolically surrendering to the British Army at Vinegar Hill – site of a famous battle during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

Around 1,000 Volunteers mustered in Cork, under Thomas MacCurtain on Easter Sunday, but they dispersed after receiving several contradictory orders from the Volunteer leadership in Dublin. Only at Ashbourne, County Meath was there real fighting. There, the North County Dublin Volunteers also know as the Fingal Volunteers, under Thomas Ashe and second in command, Richard Mulcahy, attacked the RIC barracks there. Reinforcements came from Slane, and after a 5 hours battle the Volunteers captured over 90 prisoners. There were 8-10 RIC deaths, and two Volunteer fatalities, (John Crennigan & Thomas Rafferty). The action pre-figured the guerrilla tactics of the Irish Republican Army in the Irish War of Independence 1919-1921.

Casualties

The British Army reported casualties of 116 dead, 368 wounded and 9 missing. 16 policemen died and 29 were wounded. Irish 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.

Aftermath

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,” 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 ninety 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 May and 12 May (among them the seriously-wounded Connolly, shot while tied to a chair because he was too weak to stand). 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 Eamon de Valera, Commandant of the 3rd Battalion.

1,480 men 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. Roger Casement was tried in London for high treason and hanged at Pentonville Prison on 3 August.

Some historians consider the decision to execute the leaders backfired. Public opinion in Ireland was initially opposed to the Rising. Prisoners were jeered after the surrender, and executions were demanded in motions passed in some Irish local authorities and by many newspapers, including the Irish Independent and The Irish Times. However, the number and swiftness of the executions, combined with the arrests and deportations and the destruction of the centre of Dublin by the artillery, led to a surge of support for the rebels, and freed internees returning from England received a hero’s welcome on their arrival in Ireland.

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 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.

Legacy of the Rising

The Easter Rising was the first blow in the struggle that culminated in the War of Independence, and therefore the first step on the road to that Independence. Some survivors of the Rising went on to become leaders of the nation, those who died were venerated as martyrs, their grave in Arbour Hill military prison 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.

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 State's Easter parade was discontinued after 1970.

The coalition government of 1973 – 1977, 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 to the violence then taking place in the streets of Belfast and Derry.

Critics of the Rising pointed to the fact that the Rising was seen as having been doomed to military defeat from the outset, and to have been understood as such by at least some of its leaders. Such critics saw in it elements of a "blood sacrifice."

The Rising and its leaders were indeed venerated by Irish republicans, including members and supporters of the IRA and Sinn Féin. Murals in republican areas of Belfast and other towns celebrated the actions of Pearse and his comrades, and a number of parades in Ireland are held annually in remembrance of the Rising. In 1976 the Irish government 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. 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.

On 21 October 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.

90th Anniversary of the 1916 Rising

The 90th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising was commemorated by a military parade held in Dublin on Easter Sunday, 16th April, 2006. The President of Ireland, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, the Taoiseach, members of the Government of Ireland and other invited guests reviewed the parade as it passed the General Post Office, headquarters of the Rising. The parade comprised some 2500 personnel from the Irish Defence Forces (representing the Army, Air Corps, Naval Service, Irish Army Reserve and Naval Reserve), the Garda Síochána, Irish UN Veterans Association and members of the Organisation of Ex-Servicemen and Ex-Servicewomen. The parade started at Dublin Castle and proceeded via Dame Street and College Green to the GPO, where a wreath was laid by the President. This was the first major military parade held in Dublin since the early 1966.

See also

• Easter, 1916, a poem by William Butler Yeats
• Ballymun flats

Notes

1. ^ Eoin Neeson, Myths from Easter 1916, Aubane Historical Society, Cork, 2007, ISBN 978 1 903497 34 0
2. Easter 1916: The Irish rebellion, Charles Townshend, 2005, page 18, The McGarrity Papers: revelations of the Irish revolutionary movement in Ireland and America 1900 – 1940, Sean Cronin, 1972, page 16, 30, The Provisional IRA, Patrick Bishop & Eamonn Mallie, 1988, page 23, The Secret Army: The IRA, Rv Ed, J Bowyer Bell 1997, page 9, The IRA, Tim Pat Coogan, 1984, page 31
3. P. S. O’Hegarty writes that “of the seven founding members they were probably all Fenian’s, but at least four of them were.” While the Fenian’s used it naturally, it was not a political organisation, according to Hegarty; it remained faithful to its purpose: the Preservation and Cultivation of National Pastimes, though they did use it for the strengthening of national feeling generally. Pg.611-612, P. S. O'Hegarty, A History of Ireland Under the Union 1801 to 1922, Methuen & Co. Ltd, London
4. Myths from Easter 1916, Eoin Neeson, 2007, page 79, Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion, Charles Townshend, 2005, page 41, The IRA, Tim Pat Coogan, 1970, page 33, The Irish Volunteers 1913-1915,F. X. Martin 1963, page 24, The Easter Rising, Michael Foy & Brian Barton, 2004, page 7, Myths from Easter 1916, Eoin Neeson, 2007, page 79, Victory of Sinn Féin, P.S. O’Hegarty, page 9-10, The Path to Freedom, Michael Collins, 1922, page 54, Irish Nationalism, Sean Cronin, 1981, page 105, A History of Ireland Under the Union, P. S. O’Hegarty, page 669, 1916: Easter Rising, Pat Coogan, page 50, Revolutionary Woman, Kathleen Clarke, 1991, page 44, The Bold Fenian Men, Robert Kee, 1976, page 203, The IRB: The Irish Republican Brotherhood from the League to Sinn Féin, Owen McGee, 2005, 353-354
5. F.S.L. Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine, Collins/Fontana, 1971; p. 341
6. MacNeill approved of armed resistance only if the British attempted to impose conscription on Ireland for the World War or if they launched a campaign of repression against Irish nationalist movements, in such a case he believed that they would have mass support. MacNeill's view was supported within the IRB, by Bulmer Hobson. Nevertheless, the IRB hoped either to win him over to their side (through deceit if necessary) or bypass his command altogether.Myths from Easter 1916, Eoin Neeson, 2007
7. Brian Inglis, Roger Casement, HBJ, 1973, p. 299
8. Michael Tierney, Eoin MacNeill, p.199, 214
9. Mick O'Farrell, A Walk through Rebel Dublin 1916, Mercier Press. 1999, p. 19
10. Irish Times article - 1916 - "Helga's roles after Rising"
11. Foy and Barton, The Easter Rising, page 325
12. Townshend, Easter 1916, page 273
13. The Green Dragon No 4, Autumn 1997
14. 1916 Easter Rising - Newspaper archive — from the BBC History website
15. J. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army: The IRA, page 27
16. Robert Kee The Green Flag: Ourselves Alone
17. RTÉ: 1966 News Items Relating to the 1916 Easter Rising Commemorations
18. Irish Times, 22 April 1976
19. Irish times, 26 April 1976
20. Irish Times, 220October 2005

Bibliography

• Max Caulfield, The Easter Rebellion, Dublin 1916 ISBN 1-57098-042-X
• Tim Pat Coogan, 1916: The Easter Rising ISBN 0-304-35902-5
• Michael Foy and Brian Barton, The Easter Rising ISBN 0-7509-2616-3
• C Desmond Greaves The Life and Times of James Connolly
• Robert Kee, The Green Flag ISBN 0-14-029165-2
• F.X. Martin (ed.), Leaders and Men of the Easter Rising, Dublin 1916
• Dorothy Macardle, The Irish Republic
• F.S.L. Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine ISBN 0-00-633200-5
• John A. Murphy, Ireland In the Twentieth Century
• Edward Purdon, The 1916 Rising
• Charles Townshend, Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion
• The Memoirs of John M. Regan, a Catholic Officer in the RIC and RUC, 1909–48, Joost Augusteijn, editor, Witnessed Rising, ISBN 978-1-84682-069-4.
• J Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army: The IRA ISBN 1-85371-813-0
• Conor Kostick & Lorcan Collins, The Easter Rising, A Guide to Dublin in 1916 ISBN 0-86278-638-X
• Eoin Neeson, Myths from Easter 1916, Aubane Historical Society, Cork, 2007, ISBN 978 1 903497 34 0

External links

• The 1916 Rising - an Online Exhibition. National Library of Ireland
• Essay on the Rising, by Garret FitzGerald
• Special 90th Anniversary supplement from The Irish Times
• Easter Rising 50th Anniversary audio & video footage from RTÉ (Irish public television)
• Easter Rising site and walking tour of 1916 Dublin
• News articles and letters to the editor in "The Age", 27 April 1916
• Press comments 1916-1996

Template:Link FA

• History of Ireland 1801-1922
• Irish rebellions
• Wars involving Ireland
• Conflicts in 1916
• History of County Dublin
• 1916 in Ireland