The rebels entertained (how seriously will never be known) hopes of one of three successful results. Firstly, the Irish people following the trigger of the rising would en masse attack their British oppressors and drive them into the sea. Secondly, the British might suddenly realise, after almost a millenium of supression, that the Irish didn't want them and it wasn't worth the price in blood and treasure to stay there. Thirdly, the Germans might rush to Ireland's aid. Of course none of these things happened. In reality there were only two possible endings. One, the rising would be put down savagely. Two, it would be put down with some restraint on the part of the authorities. The only thing that was certain was it would be put down. The forces of rebellion were so pitifully small and the forces of repression so great there could be no other outcome. 

Monday 
Easter Monday was a Bank Holiday and as little more than a thousand volunteers marched through the city they were seen by holiday crowds out enjoying the fine weather. It may seem strange that groups of armed men, some uniformed, marching their way through the city would arouse so little attention but such a thing had become a common sight for Dubliners in the past two years. The Dublin police had had no warning of a rising and though arms were available to the police, unless there was an emergency they usually went about there duties unarmed. Most of the rebels objectives were seized with almost no opposition. In two crucial areas, however, they failed to press home the surprise that lay on their side. In Phoenix Park was a government arsenal and for the arms-hungry rebels it should have been a target of the utmost priority. They failed to take the arsenal and the weapons it contained. Similarly, Dublin Castle was threatened but not taken. Although the presence of armed Irishmen without the gates caused no little amount of panic to the British within, the attempt to take this symbol of British power in Ireland was not pursued vigorously enough, the rebels believing it to be held more strongly than it was. The British were left in peace to organise their riposte. 

The rebels successfully seized areas both north and south of the River Liffey. Pearse and Connolly and about 150 men including Joseph Plunkett and his aide Michael Collins took over the General Post Office in Sackville (now O'Connell) Street, ejected the staff, barricaded the doors and prepared for the inevitable British reply. Above the roof of the GPO they defiantly 'flung out a flag of war', actually two; the Irish tricolour and a green banner bearing a golden harp and the words 'Irish republic' written in Irish letters. Five other main areas were taken. The South Dublin Union, a group of workhouse buildings, was held by Eamonn Ceannt, the Four Courts were seized by Ned Daly and his 1st Battalion, Jacob's Factory by men under the command of Thomas MacDonagh, St. Stephen's Green by Michael Mallin and Countess Markiewitz's unit and Boland's Mill by Eamonn De Valera. The latter position was of great mportance as it covered the road from Kingstown, the port through which any British reinforcements would surely pass. Some men rose in Meath and there was fighting in both Wexford and Galway but apart from a few widely separated and unco-ordinated skirmishes the rest of the country stayed quiet. Those who rose outside Dublin were too few and too widely scattered to offer any save emotional support to the men in the capital. Dublin quickly became the focus of the rebellion and of British attempts to suppress it. 

One of the first successful rebel actions in defence of what they had seized occured in Sackville Street barely an hour after the GPO was taken. A troop of British lancers, forgetting how vulnerable cavalry had become in the face of modern rifles and probably naively thinking that a simple show of force would be enough to bring the 'restless natives' to their senses, charged down the street towards the post office. Accurate rifle fire soon disabused them of that notion. Four lancers and many horses were killed, more wounded. Taken by surprise the British authorities responded quickly and forcefully. Dublin Castle called in units from the nearby Curragh army base and urgently appealed to London for extra troops. The C-in-C Land Forces in Britain was Field Marshal Sir John French. Ex-commander of the BEF in France and onetime cavalry commander in the Boer War, French was an Irishman and a determined Unionist. He ordered four divisions to be ready to transfer to Ireland. These forces totalled over 50,000 men. There was not much more fighting on Monday as the British marshalled their forces and the rebels tried to fortify their positions. By that evening they had establish effective control of the city centre but they were hampered by a lack of signalling equipment which forced them to use runners to maintain contact between their strongpoints. As the fighting intensified in the coming days communications between the different units broke down. 

Tuesday 
There was not much fighting on Tuesday either, but serious looting broke out and despite appeals by the self-proclaimed leaders of the Provisional Government it could not be stopped. Meanwhile the British had declared martial law and managed to assemble over 6,500 troops in Dublin itself. They had also brought in artillery and were quite prepared to use it. Connolly had always assumed that capitalist sentiment would prevent the British from destroying their own property. He couldn't have been more wrong. Not only had the British brought 13 and 18 pounder field guns into the city but a Royal Navy sloop, the Helga, had been summoned.

It was on Tuesday that the atrocities began. A British officer, a certain Captain Bowen-Colthurst executed four men without trial; men entirely innocent who had simply been unlucky enough to have crossed Colthurst's path. One of them Francis 'Skeffy' Skeffington was a well known Dublin character. Colthurst never answered for his crimes before a court of law. He was certainly insane, but this begs the question as to why the British Army allowed a mad officer to remain on active service and in command of troops. More atrocities were to follow but they had little of the premeditaion of Colthurst's crimes. The newly arrived British reinforcements were mostly young, raw recruits and they faced fire for the first time not on a battlefield but in a modern city. Their confusion was understandable and compounded by the fact that few of the rebels wore uniform. It did not become long for any adult male to be seen as a possible enemy. Also when soldiers are used in the role of policemen, their discipline tends to deteriorate, a fact not unknown in the Ireland of more modern times. 

Wednesday 
On Wednesday 26th, the gunboat Helga steamed up the Liffey and bombarded Liberty hall, HQ of the Citizen's Army. Luckily, it had been evacuated and there were no casualties. People in other buildings were not so lucky as behind the cover of their artillery, the British tried to work themselves closer to the GPO. Guns set up in Trinity College fired into Sackville Street and Dublin began to burn. Then a further 10,000 British troops arrived and as they march up the road from Kingstown were ambushed by De Valera's men and the rebels in St. Stephen's Green. The British suffered heavy casualties but the rebels were hopelessly outnumbered and forced out of the Green and back into the Royal College of Surgeons, the British hot on their heels. The fighting was much more widespread and vicious now, with large parts of the centre of Dublin being virtual free-fire zones. Normal life in the city came to a standstill. Organised firefighting was impossible, evacuation of civilians difficult and dangerous and worse, no food was coming into the city. Already burning, the city began to starve. In the GPO conditions were appalling but the handful of brave men and women held out as best they could while the flames from burning buildings and the British infantry crept inexorably closer. 

Thursday 
As more British poured into the city, the South Dublin Union and Boland's Mill were attacked by British forces and the rebel perimeters forced back. Both positions held out, however. At the GPO conditions continued to deteriorate. In an abortive sally intended to set up an outpost, Connolly was hit twice. Seriously wounded he continued giving orders even though he was in great pain and unable to walk. A new C-in-C Ireland arrived on the Thursday. His name was General Sir John Maxwell, a chain-smoking soldier who had but recently successfully defended the Suez canal from a major Turkish invasion. He knew little of Ireland , however, and in his determination to follow his orders to squash the rebellion as soon as possible his was to be very heavy-handed. As martial law was in force Maxwell had full powers to act as he saw fit. 

Friday 
By Friday morning, the GPO was on the point of becoming untenable. It was being heavily bombarded and was burning from the top down. It became obvious that evacuation of the building was necessary and whilst attempting to establish a position to cover the withdrawal, the O'Rahilly led an assault in Moore Street. It was repulsed with the loss of twenty men, the O'Rahilly among them. Small groups tried, some successfully, to break out and finally only the leaders and a few others remained in the building. Carrying Connoly in a litter they crossed into a row of houses in Moore Street and tried to move from house to house. It was almost impossible with the British firing at anything, rebel or civilian, that moved. 

Saturday 
Still in Moore Street, on Saturday morning a meeting was held between Patrick Pearse, his brother Willie, Joseph Plunkett, Tom Clarke and Mac Diarmada. It must have been a melancholy gathering indeed. They knew they were beaten and worse that any continued resistance would only result in more horror for the people of Dublin and more innocent deaths. Whatever the desire for a fight to the finish, concern for the civilian inhabitants of the city thankfully prevailed and the decision to surrender was taken. Pearse tried to negotiate with the British commander, General Lowe, but confident in his own overwhelming superiority of military force Lowe offered only unconditional surrender. Pearse had no choice but to accept. Slowly and painfully word was got out to the other scattered units of rebels to lay down their arms. After six days of struggle against insuperable odds, it was all over. De Valera was the last to surrender. 

Maxwell had gone too far. He had indeed put the rebellion down quickly but his repressive methods shocked world opinion and sickened the Irish people. The same people who had jeered the rebels on their capture now revered them as martyrs for the cause of Irish liberty. Pearse and all his semi-mystical ideas of blood sacrifice was right in the end. What his small band of rebels had been unable to do in life they were to accomplish in death. The road to Irish freedom had still a long way to go but barely had the smoke cleared from the firing squads in Kilmainham Gaol than a new stronger flame of Irish resistance was born. It was this flame that would finally see the backs of the British.