Easter Rising

By Ciara, Hannah, Polly and Emma

Backround
The Easter Rising, also known as the Easter Rebellion, was
an armed insurrection in Ireland who wanted independence
from the United Kingdom.
The Easter Rising took place mostly Dublin City on the 24th
of April until the 30th of April, 1916. There was 1,200 men
and women from the nationalist militia the Irish Volunteers,
the socialist trade union group, Irish citizens army and the
women's group, Cumman na mBan.

Causes Of The Rising

There were many reasons why the rising took place in april 1916.
The great famine in 1840. Over 1 million people died of starvation in a
country where there was plenty of food. None of the English helped them which
suggested that the English government wanted to clear the land especially
since so many Irish emigrated.
The main cause was when The Home Rule Bill was rejected by the British
government in 1914. People were deeply angered by this as they had been
promised a Home Rule in 1914. Britain rejected this as they were at war with
Germany and still wanted to have Ireland in the commonwealth.
However, Irish people saw the war as an opportunity to keep British soldiers
at bay. This way it would be easier to carry out a rising with a smaller
chance of British forces interfering.And having a Rising during the Easter
Holidays would take the British by surprise...

Leaders of The Rising

Tom Clarke

Joseph Plunkett

James Connolly

San MacDiarmada

Thomas MacDonagh

Patrick Pearse

amonn Ceannt

Planning the Rising

The Military council set out to get James Connolly, Commander of the Irish Citizen Army to
join forces with them, along with Eoin Mac Neill who was commander of the Irish Volunteers.
This way they had men in the Rising to make their forces stronger.
James Connolly accepted the request, however Eoin Mac Neill would only join under the
following circumstance: If Britain had attacked Ireland or forced Conscription to be the
law.
They showed Macneill a forgery tape of Britain planning to attack Ireland. Mac Neill
accepted until he found out he had been tricked.He canceled all Volunteer maneuvers.The
Military Council confined the Rising to Dublin because of the lack of men willing to fight.
Now they knew it would be a certain failure.The only hope they had was if the British didn
t find out and if the Proclamation of Independence went down successfully.

amon de Valera : A survivor involved in the Rising

Born October 14th 1882 in New York City. He became the president of Ireland in
1917. His political career spanned over half a century from 1917 to 1973. He
served several times as head of government and state. He left Sinn Fein in
1926 due to its policy of absenteeism and he ended up founding Fianna Fil and
was head of government. He was the leader of the War of Independence and of
anti-treaty opposition.
De Valera was often characterised as stern, unbending and devious. In August
1921 he secured the Dil ireanns approval to upgrade his office to president
of the Republic instead of chairman or prime minister.

Michael Collins: A survivor involved in the Rising

Michael Collins was an Irish revolutionary leader, politician,
minister of finance, director of information and teachta Dala for
cork south in the first Dail of 1919. He was born in Sams cross,
near Clonakitty, County Cork. He was the third son and youngest of
eight. He was born on the 8th of october 1890.
Collins had been a part of the Rising but was seen as an unlikely
leader and insignificant so the British jailed him instead of
shooting him.In jail he organised a chance to rebel against the
British so Ireland could become a Republic free from the British
Commonwealth. Since then he has become an important figure in Irish
history in making Ireland a republic.
Collins died while fighting in the Irish Civil War. He was
supposedly shot in Bal na Blth on August 22nd 1922 during the
Irish Civil War for Independence.

The Easter Rising Begins

Meanwhile plans for the rising were going to go ahead, with or without the
Germans help. Due to last minute uncertainty one of its leaders cancelled the
orders for mobilization on the Saturday before the uprising.
Because of this only 1,600 showed up of the originally expected 5,000.
They gathered at the Liberty hall on April 24th and marched toward the city
center in Dublin. They seized the post office, several court buildings , St.
Stevens Green and a few other locations.

The Easter Rising

Around noon on Easter Monday, 1916, 1600 members of the Irish Volunteers
launch the Easter Rising in Dublin, taking over some of the official
buildings. They used the GPO as their headquarters. Patrick Pearse read out
the Proclamation of the Irish Republic from here. They called on all Irish
patriots to take control over the British.
A German Ship called the Aud, was loaded with 20,000 rifles and 1 million
rounds of ammunition. It was meant for the Easter rebels but before it reached
its destination a British ship intercepted it and the germans panicked and
threw everything into the sea.

The British Arrive

When the rebels took over the General Post Office..etc. The British
troops only had 400 troops against 1000 irish rebels so they had to
wait until reinforcements arrived.
By Friday, April 28th, 1916 the number of british rose to about
19,000 whilst Irish had only rose to 1,600 in the mass confusion
about the date of the rising. The British were commanded by
Brigadier-General William Lowe.

Defeat Of The Leaders

The British used heavy guns against the Irish all over Dublin.They came up through the Liffey river in their ship The Helga and shelled The
GPO which was the Headquarters for the rebels, forcing them to surrender or die. Within a week, the leaders of the rising realized they
would not be able to beat the army. They surrendered unconditionally and were arrested by the British.
The trials of the leaders of the Easter Rising were held in secret. Pearse and 14 other leaders were sentenced to death. More than 500
people had died in the rising, including many ordinary citizens.The internment of innocent civilians however made the Irish very mad at
the British and those who were once opposed to the Republic became more in favour of it after the executions and internments without
trials.
Legacy

At first, the Easter Rising had little support in Ireland. After its leaders were executed, though, people began to respect what they had
tried to do. The rising came to be admired, and its leaders became heroes. Eamon De Valera was one of those leaders. He survived the
uprising and later became a leader of Ireland after it finally achieved independence

Results of the Rising

On Saturday 29th April,Patrick Pearse was forced to surrender unconditionally
to the British Army when their forces were completely surrounded after
fighting for six days.
The British interned around 3500 men and women, many of which had never taken
part in the Rising.
Fifteen of the leaders were executed, including 90 rebels who fought alongside
the leaders.
Those who were once opposed to the rising became more intrigued as the
executions of the leaders fueled the fires of hatred, resentment and a
determined mind for freedom and justice for the Irish. In this way the old
Home Rule law was left behind and more and more people voted for Ireland to be
freed from the greedy claws of Britain

The destruction of Dublin

The 1916 Easter Rising damaged a variety of public and professional buildings and spaces in Dublin. Much of
this destruction followed from rebels use of civic buildings as defensive positions, as well as the efforts of
British forces to dislodge them. The centrality of the rebellion, which was concentrated on and adjacent to
Dublins main thoroughfare of Sackville Street (OConnell Street), claimed numerous homes and businesses,
which succumbed to fire, looting, and artillery shelling. Like the Rising itself, the destruction of Dublin
impacted Irish politics and society beyond Easter week. The establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922
failed to fully resolve the issue of financial compensation to individuals or the reconstruction and restoration
of public buildings and private property.
Children in Dublin search through rubble caused by the Rising to find firewood for fuel. Full collection available from the
National Library of Ireland

Aftermath
The aftermath of the rebellion should not have come as a surprise to anybody - arrested rebels were
interned, around 200 had to face military tribunals. The sentence of death was passed ninety times for
high treason.
All this was in line with then current British practice. Actually the death sentence was quite popular with
British military courts between 1914 and 1918, leading to more executions than the German Army saw
during the same war.
All of the sentenced deaths without court trials led to a shared injustice anger of the Irish civilians towards
the British who had interned innocent people and killed the leaders without a trial. They changed their
opinions about the Rising and decided to support the dead leaders and their hope of a Republic.

The Effects of The Rising.

The government party Sinn Fin were mistakenly blamed for the rising even though they
weren't involved.This caused an overall increase in popularity for the party.They changed
their aims to get Ireland to become an independent country by having a home government.
The Catholic Church who were once opposed to the Rising began to support a Republic for
Ireland.They believed an independent Ireland would free the Irish from their religious
discrimination problems.
The leaders and rebels who fought in the Rising were declared heroes by the nation.The
Proclamation of Independence became an important historical document in Irish history.Also
the Irish tricolour flag that was introduced during the Rising became the national flag for
Independence.
Five years later a civil war raged throughout Ireland, putting the country through
dangerous times.
Discrimination between Irish Catholics and English Protestants grew, especially in the
North of Ireland. As a result the Troubles arrised from the feuding sides.Barriors were put
up seperating Protestant neighbourhoods from their Catholic counterparts.

1916-2016 Changes
Many changes have happened over the last one hundred years that were inspired by the brave
men who took part in organising and holding the Easter Rising of 1916. Many men and women
followed in their footsteps to help make Ireland more independent.Some of these changes
include:
The Anglo- Saxon treaty in 1921 gave Ireland complete independence for home affairs and
practical independence over foreign policy.
In 1937 the Irish Constitution was formed. Also Douglas Hyde became Irelands first
president.
In 1949 Ireland was officially declared a republic and no longer part of the British
Commonwealth.
The tricolour became the official flag for Ireland, first introduced during the 1916 Rising.
It represents the nationalists(Green) and the Unionists (Orange) coming together to form a
mutual peace(White)
Ireland joined the EU in 1973.
Ireland has kept peaceful bonds with Britain ever since they became a republic to today.