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Causes
What were the rebels fighting against? At the time of the First World War, Ireland was ruled by Britain as it had been for hundreds of years. A large number of people wanted independence for Ireland. They wanted Ireland to be able to elect its own government and be free of British rule. These people were called Nationalists. Another group wanted Ireland to continue to be ruled by Britain. These were known as Unionists. The British were about to give Ireland a form of self government called “Home Rule” (Britain would allow Ireland more say in how it was governed – freeing Ireland from being governed by London). However, Home Rule was put on hold because of the outbreak of the First World War. It would be put in place, it was promised, when the war was over Postcard supporting Home Rule. (Courtesy of John Mullen) In Ulster, a Unionist private army called the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was formed and brought in 35,000 rifles and 5 million rounds of ammunition from Europe in order to defend their right to remain part of Britain. The rifles were brought in at Larne, County Antrim. The police could have arrested the people involved in the unloading of the weapons, but because in Ulster many of the police were Unionist, they took no action. Parade of Ulster Volunteers. The setting up of a Unionist armed force in Ulster made the rest of Ireland believe that a Nationalist private army was needed too. This army, the Irish Volunteers, was formed in November 1913. Later in 1914 they also bought 1,500 rifles from the Germans. These were brought in on a sailboat called the Asgard, and were collected at the pier on Howth, Dublin, by Irish Volunteers who were helped by boy scouts called the Fianna. Their actions were reported to the police who didn’t make much of an effort to stop them. This showed that many in the Dublin police were on the side of the rebels. The Volunteers and Fianna made their escape with the rifles in taxis and on bicycles. Irish Volunteers arrive in Howth on bicycles to collect German rifles… …and march away along the Howth Road towards Dublin. (Howth images courtesy of the National Library of Ireland) Later that day, a regiment of the British Army were marching along Bachelors Walk in Dublin when some members of the public started jeering them. They opened fire, killing three men and a woman and wounding 38 more. This incident made the British Army very unpopular in Ireland, and the incident encouraged more and more people to join the Volunteers. The Irish Volunteers, now with many more members, started meeting and marching in the streets all over the country. However they weren’t treated seriously ‐ either by the authorities or the public. It was possible to buy weapons and Volunteer uniforms in Dublin shops without the need for a licence and without question. Newspaper ad suggesting some Christmas presents for volunteers including rifles and revolvers. Opportunity for Revolution By 1916, two years into the war, Britain was bogged down fighting in Europe. The Irish Volunteers, now led by Patrick Pearse, and joined by the Irish Citizen Army, had an ideal opportunity to try and get rid of British Rule. The war was taking up all of Britain’s time and effort and, as the saying went, “Britain’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity”. On Easter Monday the 24th of April, the Irish Volunteers went out marching as usual. However this time it was different. They were ordered to take over many areas of Dublin City including Jacob’s biscuit factory, Boland’s factory, the South Dublin Union (now James’s Hospital) and Stephen’s Green among others. The headquarters of the Volunteers were to be in the GPO on Sackville Street (now known as O’Connell Street). Even though these plans were well‐known among the volunteers, the Rising almost didn’t happen. Eoin MacNeill, one of the men who founded the Irish Volunteers, put an ad into the Sunday newspapers saying that no marching was to take place on Easter Monday. MacNeill believed that without sufficient guns and people to fight, the Rising would not succeed and lives would be lost in vain. He preferred to wait until more volunteers joined and more rifles were bought. The confusion the newspaper ad caused among the volunteers meant that the turnout out on Easter Monday was much smaller than it should have been. But turn out they did. Inside the GPO, the people who worked there were ordered to leave, and the rebels smashed the windows, pointing rifles into the street, lying in wait for the arrival of the British Army. The rebels took down the British flag from the flagpole on the roof and put up the green flag of the Irish Republic at one corner, and the green white and orange flag we know today on the other. Patrick Pearse read out a proclamation outside the GPO declaring the formation of the Republic. People looked on with curiosity at what was going on. Within a very short time, there was open warfare on the streets of Dublin. The Proclamation of the Irish Republic. (Courtesy of Kilmainham Gaol Museum) The British Army was sent out to attack the rebel areas. A lot of the Army officers were on Easter holidays, so there wasn’t a lot of reaction from the British Army at first. However, along O’Connell Street, soldiers on horseback with lances (a type of very long pointed weapon) could be seen galloping towards the GPO. All over the city, the sound of rifle and machinegun fire could be heard as the rebels and British army fought. You can still see bullet holes today in Daniel O’Connell’s statue in O’Connell Street and in some of the other Dublin buildings that survive to this day. Lancers in Dublin, 1916. The Rising had its unusual moments. One was when the British Army took over the Shelbourne Hotel to shoot (from the bedrooms) at the rebels below in Stephen’s Green. The park ranger, James Kearney, walked across to the duck pond as usual to feed the ducks. As he did this, the shooting stopped and then started again when he had fed his birds. The duck pond in Stephen’s Green before 1916 with the Shelbourne Hotel in the background. Destruction Two days after the start of the Rising, on Wednesday the 26th of April, the British military, in a bid to end the trouble in Dublin, sent a gunboat called the “Helga” up the River Liffey to destroy Liberty Hall (the headquarters of the Irish Citizen Army), the GPO and O’Connell Street. Heavy artillery was also used to destroy the other rebel‐held areas. After the bombardment, Dublin city centre lay in ruins. There were reports of Dublin City’s poor heading towards O’Connell Street to grab goods from destroyed shops. Most popular were the sweet shops and sports shops, along with clothes shops containing clothes that most people of the inner city could never afford to buy. The gunboat Helga managed to survive the Rising and was later bought by the Irish government. It became one of the first ships in the new‐formed Irish Navy. Gunboat Helga. O’Connell Street before the Rising. O’Connell Street after the Rising. The GPO destroyed Bullet holes in the window of a house in Ballsbridge, Dublin. The Surrender The Rising was very unpopular at the time. Many Irish women’s husbands were with the British Army fighting in Europe against Germany. The leaders of the Rising were mostly seen by the public as troublemakers who had done nothing more than destroy Dublin’s main street, and were on Germany’s side. This was all to change however. Five days after the start of the Rising, Patrick Pearse ordered a surrender “to prevent any further slaughter of innocent civilians”. The surrender was signed by Patrick Pearse, James Connolly and Thomas MacDonagh. The original surrender document. (Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland) The person who went around Dublin delivering the surrender document was a brave nurse named Elizabeth O’Farrell. She had to wave a white flag so she wouldn’t be shot. Below is a famous photograph of the moment of Patrick Pearse’s surrender. He stands in front of two British Officers. If you look closely you will see a pair of boots beside Pearse’s. Nurse O’Farrell was actually standing beside Patrick Pearse, but when she saw the cameraman she moved back so she wouldn’t appear in the photo. This is why you can only see her boots. During the Rising, 116 members of the British Army were killed, 368 were wounded and nine were reported as missing. 29 policemen were wounded, and 16 died. 318 rebels and ordinary citizens were killed. 40 children aged between 2 and 16 were killed – mostly accidentally by stray bullets. 2,217 civilians were wounded. An interesting fact is that all 16 policemen who were killed were Irish, and 22 of the British soldiers killed were also from Ireland. A warning poster issued by British authorities (Courtesy of National Library of Ireland) Children gather firewood in the ruins of Dublin. Executions The seven leaders whose names appeared on the Proclamation, along with nine others were found guilty of treason (attempting to overthrow the British government) and were sentenced to be shot by a British Army firing squad in the stonebreaker’s yard in Kilmainham Jail. Inside of Kilmainham Jail showing cell doors. (Kilmainham photos by David Power, courtesy of Kilmainham Gaol Museum) Views of the inside of a cell in Kilmainham. These seven leaders of the Rising were shot by British Army firing squad because they signed the Proclamation: Sean MacDermott
Tom Clarke
Owned a newspaper
Revolutionary and
and tobacco shop in
newspaper manager.
Dublin. Executed on
Executed on 12th of May
rd
3 of May 1916.
1916.
Thomas McDonagh
Patrick Pearse
A schoolteacher,
playwright and poet
from Co. Tipperary.
Executed on 3rd of
May 1916.
A teacher and poet born of English parents.
He founded St. Enda’s School in
Rathfarnham. Seen as the leader of the
Rising, he was executed on the 3rd of May
1916.
Eamonn Ceannt
James Connolly
Also known as Edmund Kent in
English, he was born in Galway
and was an accountant. He was
master of many languages and a
great musician. Executed on 8th of
May 1916.
James Connolly was born in Scotland to
Irish parents. He was a fighter for
workers’ rights, helping to establish the
Irish Transport Union. He helped create
the Irish Citizen Army to protect
workers on strike. He was executed,
after being heavily wounded, on the12th
of May 1916.
Joseph Mary Plunkett
Joseph Mary Plunkett was born in
Dublin and was a poet and a
journalist. He married his partner,
Grace Gifford, in Kilmainham Jail
hours before he was shot. He was
executed on 4th of May 1916.
The Public Mood Changes The Rising, as a military plan, was a failure. The rebels had not defeated the British army, and in reality they knew they wouldn’t. However Patrick Pearse believed in “Blood Sacrifice” and was convinced that the deaths of the leaders as heroic freedom fighters would help make Ireland a free country. He was partly correct. The Irish public were shocked at the executions and they turned against British rule, thinking the sentences passed on the leaders were too harsh. James Connolly, one of the executed leaders, had been wounded during the fighting in the GPO and could not stand up when he was being shot. He was put into a chair and executed. Hundreds of men who the British believed were involved in the Rising were rounded up and put into prisoner of war camps. A large number of these men were innocent, but when they were imprisoned they too ended up wanting to fight against British rule in Ireland. Relations between Ireland and Britain would never be the same again. People now didn’t believe Ireland would be given Home Rule after the war in Europe was over, and began to demand complete independence from Britain: An Irish Republic. Aftermath
The executions and imprisonments were not the end of Ireland’s bid for independence. Not many people turned out in Easter 1916. However after the executions and imprisonments, thousands of Irishmen and Irishwomen were now ready to fight against British Rule. It was now time for a more organised fight. Another War in Ireland
Original ticket for the first Dáil. Courtesy of the Capuchin Order Three years after the Easter Rising, the Irish War of Independence began. Irish members of the British government came together to form an independent Irish parliament called the Dáil. This parliament was declared to be illegal by the British and so the Irish Volunteers (now called the Irish Republican Army or IRA) used the formation of the Dáil as a reason to continue the fight against British Rule. Fighting in the War of Independence was different to the fighting in 1916. Instead of attacking in the open and taking over buildings, the IRA was now hiding and using ambush techniques against the police and army (Guerilla fighting). Britain was losing control of the situation in Ireland and decided to send around ten thousand mostly ex‐British Army soldiers to Ireland to help the police to fight the IRA. In the beginning these ex‐soldiers wore tan army jackets and dark trousers leading to them being called the Black and Tans. They were extremely violent and deeply unpopular in Ireland, terrorising the local population. Two black and Tans with two British Army soldiers near the Custom House in Dublin. Men under arrest can be seen in the background. After two years of aggression on both sides, a truce was agreed in July 1921, followed by a Treaty (agreement) between Britain and Ireland. Britain would keep the six northern counties where the population was mostly Loyalist (wanted to remain under British rule). The rest of the country would be given its independence, and would be known as the Irish Free State. The Irish Free State/Northern Ireland solution was acceptable to some Irish people, but not others. Some Irish people believed that Britain “keeping” six counties was wrong and wanted to fight on. Other Irish people believed that the Free State gave Ireland its own government and were happy with that. This caused a third war in Ireland – the Civil War. Civil War The Civil War was a disaster for Ireland. The Irish were no longer fighting the British, but were now fighting each other. One brother could be “Pro‐Treaty” which meant they agreed with Britain keeping the six northern counties. Another brother could be “Anti‐Treaty”, and wanting the six counties back. Ireland now had two opposing armies – the Free State army (the official army of the new State) and the IRA. It regularly happened that men who fought together in 1916 and the War of Independence against the British were now fighting each other because of disagreement about the Treaty. The Civil War came to a halt in May 1923 when the IRA agreed to “Dump Arms”. However there was never a surrender, and the weapons were never handed over. Violence in Ireland would continue on and off mostly in the North, but also occasionally south of the border, for another 70 years. Black and Tans and civilians together at the Olympia Theatre after War of Independence Truce 1922 (Courtesy Mercier Press) Free State Army and IRA members shake hands at the end of the Civil War in 1923 (Courtesy Kilmainham Gaol Museum)