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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.
Leaders of The
Rising
Tom Clarke
Joseph Plunkett
James Connolly
Patrick Pearse
San MacDiarmada
Thomas MacDonagh
amonn Ceannt
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.
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
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.
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.