[Ennath]

April 24, 1916
Easter Rising

By the late 19th century, resentment against the British rule in Ireland began to show a violent side again with the Irish Republican Brotherhood secretly plotting. The formation of the Republican political party Sinn Féin (Ourselves Alone) in 1905 was further evidence of growing anti-British sentiment. Further dissatisfaction came to the surface in 1913 with a general strike in Dublin. Parallel to this, opposition to Home Rule was growing within Ireland itself (in the protestant dominated north-east) in the form of Unionism. Northern Protestants were worried about losing their privileged position, and scared of an independent Ireland. While the Unionist Ulster Volunteer Force imported arms illegally and unopposed by the law, the Nationalist Irish Volunteers were harassed by the law. (The British Army shot dead several people in Dublin after being jeered at by locals).

Home Rule was to be introduced in 1914 but was put-off because of World War I. Hundreds of thousands of young Irish Volunteers were sent off to the trenches, in the belief that Ireland would be peacefully granted Home Rule. Over 50,000 young Irishmen died in the trenches.

By the summer of 1914 it was clear that the extreme elements of Irish Nationalism were now determined on a rebellion. A meeting for September 1914 of the “Physical Force” men was organized by Thomas Clarke. All future signatories of the 1916 proclamation were present. It was agreed that they would: make contact with Germany for military assistance, plan for a Dublin Rising, and increase the size of the now severely decimated (as a result of going to France to fight) Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army (a far smaller force set-up in 1913 to protect strikers during the lockout). With such a small force (c.12,000) it seems unlikely that the IRB (Irish republican Brotherhood) thought they could beat the British in open rebellion. However, planning continued.

By 1914 Roger Casement’s (a recently retired diplomat and Irish nationalist) sympathies were firmly with Germany. It was decided that Casement would be sent to Germany to procure arms and attempt to raise an Irish Brigade from prisoners of war. He obtained a formal statement of support from the Germans, including a pledge to keep Ireland free in the event of a German victory. He failed to raise an Irish Brigade and his movements were already being monitored by the British.

In March 1915, the 7 IRB Commandants met (this was not an Irish Volunteer meeting) to discuss a possible rising in September. A military council was also set-up by the IRB in May. However, not enough arms had been landed, a crucial factor for success.

An unlikely danger came from James Connolly after he had been too open about his rebellion beliefs. Action had to be taken against him which also highlighted the need for urgency. It could only be a matter of time before the plans were uncovered by the British authorities, so the IRB decided it must act or face the possibility of being arrested. Time was by now not on their side. As 1916 neared final plans for a rebellion were made by the IRB. Easter 1916 was set as the date with Connolly in total cooperation. They all agreed that a rebellion would have to occur before the end of the war for maximum military effect. All this time Eoin MacNeill (the head of the Irish Volunteers, not an IRB member, and unaware of the IRB’s plans for a rising) had been purposely kept in the dark.

The big problem of getting enough arms for a rebellion prevailed into 1916, and henceforth plans were organized by John Devoy. The Germans were completely against the notion of sending troops but cooperated with the arms problems. 20,000 rifles with ammunition were to be sent in April, but the British authorities had broken the German codes and were expecting something. The arms left the German port of Lübeck on April 9, bound for landing on the Kerry coast (the southwest of Ireland). But by now, however, Casement was disillusioned with the both the rising and the Germans and anxiously left on a submarine with the firm intention of halting it. Things began to go horribly wrong when the Aud, the German ship disguised as a Norwegian merchantman put in at the wrong port. The British were by now scanning the horizons searching for her. On Friday while waiting in Tralee Bay the Aud was captured by the Royal Navy. When she reached Cork harbor the German captain, who was still in command, scuttled her and the arms were lost; to the British, a rising now seemed impossible. Things seemed to have gone completely their way.

An article published in The Irish Volunteer on April 8 called for maneuvers on Easter Sunday (the 23rd). Eoin MacNeill was still unaware that the maneuvers were in fact to be a rising. The famous “Castle Document”, purporting that the leaders of the Volunteers were to be arrested by the British, the organization disarmed, and Dublin to be occupied by the British Army was in fact a forgery and was planted on MacNeill. He was informed of the planned landing of arms and he issued an order to take part in a “defensive war”. He was not informed that the Aud was captured but on Saturday discovered the forgery, and issued a countermanding order. By now the Authorities in the Castle were in confusion because of the many rumors going around. The 7 main leaders spent Easter Sunday deliberating on a decision for a rising on Monday. Although it was obviously hopeless they came to a decision and Padraig Pearse issued an order at 8 PM. The rising would go ahead.

About noon on Easter Monday, April 24, elements of the Irish Volunteers began to assemble. MacNeill’s countermanding order meant that most did not turn up. Officers desperately tried to rally more men but only a pitiful 1600 turned up. The plan was to take the city by holding a defensive crescent of strongpoints on each side of the city. Headquarters would be the General Post Office (GPO). The rest of the country was expected to rise in support of the Dublin rebellion and reinforce it. A withdrawal to Tyrone (100 miles north) and a guerrilla war was to be waged if things did not go well in Dublin. Even with 10,000 turning out, this plan seemed quite optimistic, but in the present situation things were fairly hopeless. Pearse said, “There are many more things more horrible than bloodshed and slavery is one of them”.

The signal for the commencement of the rising was supposed to have been quite spectacular. The Magazine Fort, a large store of explosives owned the British Army in Phoenix Park, was to have been blown up by a small party; they broke in but failed to gain access to the main store (as the key was missing) and attempted to blow it up, but failed to explode the whole store.

A party of the Irish Citizen Army under the command of Sean Connolly proceeded at noon to Dublin Castle. A policeman appeared and was shot, but the alarm was raised. They failed to capture the Castle (it turned out they could likely have done so as it was undermanned) and withdrew to City Hall. The GPO was captured without much grief around the same time and the proclamation of the Irish Republic was read out by Padraig Pearse, President of the Provisional Government. The principal buildings captured were: The Four Courts (Edward Daly’s 1st Battalion); Jacob’s Factory in Bishop Street (Thomas MacDonagh’s 2nd Battalion); Boland’s Mills on the Grand Canal (Eamonn DeValera’s 3rd Battalion) and the South Dublin Union Workhouse (Eamonn Ceantt’s 4th Battalion). St. Stephen’s Green and the College of Surgeons were captured by Commandant Michael Mallin’s unit of the Irish Citizen Army.

To the British Forces in Dublin the rising came as quite a shock. They were confident that with only a limited supply of arms the rebels would not rise, and on Easter Monday most British officers were away enjoying a day at the races. The first British incursion into Rebel-held territory came when a party of lancers rode up O’Connell Street and were cut down by fire from the GPO. With this small success the rebels went about their work preparing their defenses with some confidence.

Rumors abounded of a German landing, and a mass rising in the rest of Ireland. However, these rumors were all untrue. The question now was: How long could they hold out? By Monday evening British reinforcements were pouring in from all over Ireland and preparations were being made in England for sending more. General Lowe took charge and Martial Law was declared. The IRB had not anticipated that the British would use artillery. They preferred to think that there would be cavalry charges and street fighting. The lack of sufficient arms proved also to be a vital factor and it was reported that some men were using pikes. Dublin was surrounded quickly and by Thursday 12,000 British had arrived. The rebels had not one machine gun. All they could do now was to sit and wait for the attack.

On Wednesday the bloodiest battle of the whole week was in progress. A party of 17 men in houses on Northumberland Road overlooking Mount Street Bridge faced a whole British battalion. Casualties were massive. After 8 hours, the British had lost 230 killed and wounded. Most of the Irish escaped with their lives. In support of their infantry attacks the British brought a gunboat, the Helga, up the River Liffey to bombard rebel positions.

By Thursday, a cordon had been established to isolate the rebel positions. They began to edge closer in on the volunteers. On Friday, the GPO had to be evacuated because the roof and much of the building was burning as a result of artillery bombardment. Much of O’Connell Street was also burning and the street was a death trap to any volunteer that ventured out. The end was in sight for the rebels. At noon on April 29, it was decided that to avoid further deaths of civilians they must surrender. At 3.30 PM, Pearse handed Gen. Lowe his sword and wrote the surrender order.

The rebels lost 64 killed and 120 wounded. The British had 132 men killed and 397 wounded. Civilian casualties were some 300 killed and 2000 wounded. As the rebels wore no uniforms, the newly-trained and inexperienced British troops took to killing any fighting-age Irish man they came across.

The immediate feeling in Dublin after the rising was of indignation. The rebels were jeered and pelted with rotten fruit by civilians. Much of the center of Dublin had been all but destroyed. Martial law remained in force. Initially 3000 men were arrested but half were released. 1800 were imprisoned in Britain and 100 were sentenced to death. The executions began on May 3 and continued until the 12th. General Maxwell, now the British commander, refused to listen to appeals and 15 were shot by the time he halted them due to public outrage. A great change in public opinion occurred and by June most showed sympathy towards the rebel cause. There was much anti-British sentiment and many felt that the rising had been Britain’s fault. Another reason was because of British atrocities against civilians during and after the rising.

The Easter Rising had a profound effect on the course of Irish history. The War of Independence of 1919-21 grew out of it. By 1918 the republican cause was the dominant one in Ireland and the Irish Volunteers were ready to fight if the British continued to refuse Irish independence. The fight would come in 1919.