The Easter Rising 1916 

The Easter Rising of 1916 had profound and far-reaching effects on Ireland's subsequent history. It has been referred to as 'The Irish War for Independence' and was the pivotal event in ultimately securing independence for the Republic of Ireland. 


For centuries, Ireland had been under English rule, the English perceiving the Irish to be barbarians who had to be tamed. The invasion by King Henry II of England in the twelfth century, the attempts by future English monarchs to colonize Ireland with English, the massacres orchestrated by Cromwell (1652), and the way the English had treated the Irish during their 'darkest hour' (The Famine 1845-1852) had all contributed to the growing dissatisfaction among the Irish natives. Many had attempted rebellions before, none had succeeded in obtaining what most of the Irish population desired - a free country, one in which they could claim back their rightful heritage as landowners. 



Several events led up to the 1916 Rising, all of which had bearing on what would take place. Firstly, the centuries of national oppression by British landlords and increasing capitalism had led to the formation, in a Dublin timber yard, of the Irish Republican Brotherhood or I.R.B. in 1858. They were direct descendents of the rebels known as the Fenians. Their numbers never exceeded more than 2000 men, who were mostly intellectuals - writers, poets, teachers, professionals - and they were fiercely patriotic. Significantly, they were prepared to use force in order to achieve national independence for Ireland. 


Another military force had been created on November 13, 1913, as a direct counterforce to the Ulster Volunteer Force, the latter of which had been formed by the English as a resistance to Home Rule. The Irish Volunteers numbered around 200,000 Irish men and women, but only 2,000 were trained and armed. These two Irish armies were therefore waiting to fight for their country. Also, around the turn of the century, the English had tried to reduce the rights of Irish workers. The socialist and General Secretary of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, James Connolly, supported a rebellion by the workers. 


Before the English could impose more laws on the Irish, another event occurred which would have massive impact - World War 1. This was the opportunity the I.R.B had been waiting for. They decided that another armed resistance should occur before the end of the War, believing that as most of the English army would be involved in the fighting in mainland Europe, their numbers would be weakened. The I.R.B. set up a Military Council, whose chief mission was to plan the rising, in secret. 


The Council initially was made up of just three men - Eamonn Ceannt, Padriag Pearse and Joseph Plunkett. Pearse (1879-1916) was a poet and schoolmaster, but he was also a member of the I.R.B. with direct links with the Irish Volunteers. Later, Tom Clarke and Sean MacDiarmada joined the Council and by January 1916, James Connolly had become a member. Connolly had formed the Socialist Republican Party in 1896 and the Irish Citizen Army in 1913. He was later regarded by many to be the leader of the Easter Rising. Thomas MacDonagh joined the Council in April of 1916. These seven men were the 'intelligence' behind the uprising. 


The Council continued to plot. They remained secret due to the fact that they did not have complete control over the military organizations and also because they knew that the Irish Volunteers Chief of Staff (Eoin MacNeill) opposed any military action against the British garrisons. 


The Irish rebels had obtained a shipment of arms in 1914, aided by the Carsonite Volunteers and British sympathizers, but they were relying on more arms to be shipped from Germany. These were due to arrive between the 20th and 23rd April into Fenit, Tralee Bay. The Council had already decided on Easter Sunday for the rising since January 1916. 


Pearse had ordered mobilization of the Irish Volunteers on 8th April to prepare for an Uprising on Easter Sunday. MacNeill, the Chief of Staff of the Volunteers, first heard about the planned rebellion on the Wednesday of Holy Week. He tried to prevent it from happening which caused some confusion among the troops. When MacNeill heard about the expected arrival of arms at Fenit he withdrew his opposition believing that the fighting was inevitable. 


Unfortunately, the shipment of arms arrived earlier than expected and no one was there to meet it. The ship's captain, Spindler, could not convey the message that they had arrived due to the fact that there was no wireless on board. By the Friday evening (before Easter Sunday), the British Navy captured the ship, and while being escorted toward Cork Harbor, the Captain and his crew sank her. There were 20,000 rifles on board. 


The loss of the arms was a huge blow to the Council as was the news that Sir Roger Casement, an Englishman who had been instrumental in securing the arms, had been captured at Banna Strand. MacNeill ordered the Volunteers not to 'move' on Sunday and the Council's plans were thrown into disarray. They met on the morning of Easter Sunday, at Liberty Hall in Dublin, to discuss their next step. The mood of that meeting was somber - with the loss of the arms all chance of victory seemed to have vanished. 


Despite the huge setback the Council leaders decided to carry on. The Rising was now given the 'go-ahead' for the next day - Easter Monday, but could only feasibly (due to the lack of weapons) take place in Dublin. Smaller Risings were still scheduled for Galway and Wexford, however. Pearse ordered the troops for action at noon. 


Headquarters was the General Post Office (G.P.O.) in the center of Dublin, which Pearse, Connolly and their men held. Commandant Edward Daly held the Four Courts, the Mendicity Institute and various central Dublin streets; Commandant Thomas MacDonagh was stationed at Jacob's biscuit factory; Commandant Eamonn de Valera held Boland's Flour Mill and various streets; Commandant Eamonn Ceantt was stationed at the South Dublin Union and Marrowbone Distillery and, the only woman, Countess Markievicz held, along with Commandant Michael Mallin, St. Stephen's Green and the College of Surgeons. All the rebel armies were now in place. The British were ill prepared and little fighting took place on the first day of the Rising. 


At 12.30 on Easter Monday, flags that had been sent for from Liberty Hall, flew over the G.P.O.; one was green with a golden harp bearing the words (in Irish) 'The Irish Republic', and the other was a flag that had never been seen before - a tricolor of green, white and gold (the Tricolor was to later become the national flag of Ireland). Pearse emerged from the G.P.O. into O'Connell street, where he read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic or 'Poblacht na h Eireann' to a bemused and bewildered gathering of Dubliners. 


The English plan to quash the Rising was a simple one - put a cordon around the central city Irish position and then use force to strike the headquarters - the G.P.O. At the beginning of Easter week the Irish numbered 1,800 and the British 2,500. By the end of the week the British, reinforced by additional troops, numbered 5,500. Despite being outnumbered and out armed the Irish put up a brave fight, which lasted for a week. 


The inevitable attack on the G.P.O. came from the south, across the River Liffey, and by Friday, the British were in position to overtake it. The Rising had been a bloody war, the worst fighting and loss of life occurring at Mount Street Bridge. By Friday evening many central buildings were on fire, including the G.P.O. Pearse signed an order for unconditional surrender on Saturday at 3.45pm, but officially, the Rising ended on Sunday 30th April. 


In the aftermath, 15 executions followed which included all seven of the Council leaders. Eamonn de Valera was given a life sentence, which was overturned a year later (thanks to propaganda in the USA, where there were many Irish sympathizers). The Rising had been momentarily unsuccessful, but it had made the Irish population more aware of the Republican Cause. The executions also caused widespread outrage. The Rising sowed the seeds of an Irish Republic, which was granted in 1921 with the clause that Ulster should remain part of the United Kingdom. Also, de Valera was to become the new Free State's President in 1931. 


The leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916 had partially achieved their aim. Today, Ulster remains tied to Britain, and the fight for a United Ireland continues.......

No sooner had the new Government begun to flourish, established its Courts, appointed Concils, started a stock-taking of the country’s undeveloped natural resources, and put a hundred constructive schemes to work, than Britain stepped in, with her army of Soldiers and Constabulary, to counter the work, harassing and imprisoning the workers. This move of England's called forth a secretly built-up Irish Republican Army which, early in 1920, began a guerilla warfare, and quickly succeeded in clearing vast districts of the Constabulary who were ever England's right arm in Ireland.

Lloyd George met this not only by pouring into Ireland regiments of soldiers equipped with tanks, armored cars and all the other horrifying paraphernalia that had been found useful in the European War, but also by organizing and turning loose upon Ireland an irregular force of Britons, to become among the most vicious and bloodthirsty known to history - the force which quickly became notorious to the world under the title of the Black and Tans. Yet, this well planned campaign for the quick wasting of Ireland, and breaking of Irelands spirit did not come off on schedule

Those atrocities which had been meant to frighten and subdue, instead only stimulated the outraged nation to more vigor; and by the time the fight was expected to end it was found to the contrary, to be only well begun. Probably more than by anything else, the world was awakened to the truth of this horrible situation in Ireland through the extraordinary heroism of of a man named Terence MacSwiney.

MacSwiney, a man who in protest against the foreign tyranny which had seized and jailed him as a criminal for the guilt of working for his country, refused to eat in the British dungeon. After three months of slow and painful starving to death, with the wondering world literally by his bedside watching his death agonies. MacSwiney at length went to join the joyful company of those other martyrs of the past, who had died that Ireland might live.

At long last the world was stirred and the terrible truth about Britain's rape of Ireland began to be realized - and began to call forth muttered foreign protest. In the spring of 1921 there was galloped through the English Parliament a "Home Rule Bill" for Ireland - whose object was by giving the eastern part of Ulster, the Orange corner, a Parliament of its own, to detach it from the rest of Ireland, thus dividing the nation on sectarian lines, and by the Orangemen's aid strengthening the foreign grip on the whole country. In deference to his Kings pious wish, the Prime Minister invited Sinn Fein to a parley, as Ireland had proved unconquerable by any other means.

President De Valera for the Irish Republic accepted the invitation. To De Valera in this parley, an offer was made to give Ireland what George called "Dominion status" - supposedly that amount of freedom under the British Crown which is the lot of Canada and Australia - but less the control by Britain of the Irish harbors, seas, skies and some other perquisites - which offer was promptly and unanimously rejected by An Dail Eireann.

Then, after resorting to threat of a renewed war upon Ireland far more fierce than had ever gone before, the English Prime Minister invited Ireland to send delegates to a peace conference, on the understanding that the idea of separating Ireland from the British Crown should not be considered. De Valera, for An Dail Eireann, refused such condition. Lloyd George finally called for a conference free of conditions to be held in London on October 11th 1921. President De Valera accepted the invitation.

An Irish delegation headed by Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins met representatives of the British Cabinet in London, and after six weeks conference, the Irish delegates, compelled by threat of renewed ruthless warfare on their prostate land, signed a compromise treaty on December 6th. The British Parliament almost unanimously ratified the treaty for Britain.

But in Ireland De Valera fought for a change in the treaty terms - and a change in the form of oath. He would "externally associate" Ireland with the British Empire and would have elected Irish representatives swear to "recognize" the English king as the head of the association of British nations with which Ireland now joined. An important group of the Irish workers and fighters held out for the Irish Republic, which had been consecrated by the blood of Pearse, Connolly, Clarke and their gallant companions, and by a thousand martyrs since. After long and hot debate, the Dail Eireann, on January 7th 1922, ratified the treaty by a narrow majority. And so, seemingly an end was put to one phase of Irelands struggle. But the end was not yet.

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The treaty was signed on behalf of Ireland by Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, Robert Barton, Eamon Duggan and George Gavan Duffy. The first three were Ministers of the Irish Executive Council. The delegates returned to find the Dail already split - those members who were in favor of the Treaty on one side and those opposed on the other. President de Valera heading the opposition, opposed the Treaty because:

(1) the Partition clause
(2) the inclusion of an oath of allegiance to the King of England.
(3) the appointment of a Governor General to represent the British King in Dublin
(4) the retention by the British of certain Irish ports which were to be used by the British naval fleet as naval bases.

The proponents of the Treaty held it would be madness to reject it because, while Ireland was too exhausted to continue the fight now, it gave Ireland an immensely greater measure of independence than had ever been offered in any Home Rule bill, involving complete control of Local Government, education, customs and excise, police force and a limited army. Arthur Griffith believed that the Boundary clause in the Treaty would end partition. The vote, taken on January 7th 1922, revealed 64 of the deputies in favor of the Treaty and 57 against. The pro-Treaty party, under Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, became known henceforth as the Free State party, the anti-Treaty party as the Republicans.

A provisional government was formed with Arthur Griffith as President, Michael Collins of Finance, William Cosgrave as Minister for Local Government, George Gavan Duffy as Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin O’Higgins as Minister for Economic Affairs and Richard Mulcahy as Minister for Defense. On January 14th the 64 pro-Treaty members met to form a Provisional Government and officially approve the Treaty. Evacuation of British troops from the twenty-six counties was begun at once, also disbanding of the disreputable Irish Constabulary and evacuation of the hated Auxiliaries and bloody-handed Black and Tans.

An Irish police force, the Civic Guard was formed. During the first six months of 1922 the country gradually drifted into Civil War. Republican troops had occupied the Four Courts and other public buildings in Dublin in April and were entrenched there. On June 1926 came what amounted to an ultimatum from Winston Churchill, speaking for the British Government, demanding that the Provisional Government should immediately dislodge the Irish Republican Army from these positions. The Free State troops opened fire on the Four Courts on June 26, the siege lasted two days and ended in the burning of the building. The fighting continued intermittently throughout the country until May 1923, when De Valera called on the remnant of the Republicans to cease fire - but, despite this, many small bodies of them perseveringly carried on a harassing guerilla warfare.

In August 1922, Arthur Griffith, President of the Dail, died suddenly. A few days later, Michael Collins, Commander-in-Chief of the Free State forces was killed in an ambush in Cork. During the succeeding months seventy-seven (77) Republican prisoners were executed. They included Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows and Erskine Childers. The first meeting of the newly elected Dail was held under heavy guard in the autumn of 1922.

In September was begun the formulation of the Free State Constitution. William Cosgrave, who had been chosen as Vice President by Arthur Griffith, was President of this Dail. Cabinet members were Kevin O’Higgins, Richard Mulcahy, Ernest Blythe, Desmond Fitzgerald and Patrick Hogan. The Republican party did not take their seats in this Dail as they refused to take the oath of allegiance - so from 1923 to 1927 the Government paarty functioned without opposition except from a small Labour group and a few pro-British Independents. In 1924, in accordance with terms of the Treaty, a Boundary Commission was set up - for altering or confirming the provisional boundary between "Northern" Ireland and the Free State. The situation was aggravated by the continuing bitterness between the Government party and the Republicans and by the severe agricultural depression - which was a part of the prevailing world depression.

The second General Election was held in 1927, showing a decided gain for the Republicans. Fianna Fail (Republicans) still declined to sit because of the oath of allegiance and things seemed about to progress as before. But on Sunday July 10th 1927, Kevin O’Higgins, Vice President was assassinated. Faced with the alternative of seeing his party denied all power to register the amount of popular support accorded them, and being determined to embark on a constitutional movement, Mr. De Valera after publicly declaring that he attached no binding power to an oath that was forced on them, led his party into the Dail and went through the form of oath-taking on August 12th 1927. Early in 1932 Cosgrave government was defeated on a vote in the Dail and a General Election was called. De Valera took 72 of the 151 seats against Cosgrave’s 65, and assumed office forthwith. Heat once introduced a bill to remove the oath of allegiance and with the help of the Labor party carried it through the Dail.

From the time the Fianna Fail party took office, payment of the land annuities to Britain were withheld, leading to a bitter quarrel between the two countries and developing into an economic war. In 1938 the British government called a halt, and began negotiations for settlement of the dispute. Mr. De Valera refused to enter the negotiations unless the whole general field of relations between the two counties was brought into review. In the result, the British accepted the sum of ten million pounds in lieu of the annuities - a small fraction of their worth - and agreed to hand over the reserved ports of Cobh, Berehaven and Lough Swilly to the Irish government. The British refused however, to negotiate on the question of Ireland's partition and that problem remained outstanding. In 1938 came one of the greatest achievements of the Irish government - the enactment of the new Constitution.

The Constitution asserts that Ireland is a sovereign and democratic state, and all powers derive under God from the people, who are the final arbiters of any and every question. The principles of social justice which are set forth in the Constitution are of the highest order. Shortly after de Valera came to power, it was the turn of Irelands representative to preside at the League of Nations. De Valera did so with distinction and pride. Later in 1938 he told the world through the medium of the League, that civilization was heading for disaster and destruction in another world war. He said that if and when that war came and was over, there would be another "Peace" conference - but why should not a real peace conference come first, so that the world might be saved pain, misery, disillusionment and destruction. His words were not listened to...

From The Rebel by Patrick Pearse