The Easter Rising

1
The Easter Rising

• Monday 24 April
• to
• Sunday 30th April
• 1916

2
What was it?

• The Easter Rising was an armed uprising by Irish
  Nationalists organised to take place during
  Easter week in 1916.
• They wanted an end to British rule in Ireland.
• It was the worst uprising in Ireland since 1798.

3
Who was involved? The Main Groups

• The Irish Volunteers led by schoolteacher Patrick
  Pearse

• The Irish Citizen Army led by James Connolly

4
Causes long term

• Many Catholic Republicans saw the 1800 Act of
  Union that officially made Northern Ireland a
  part of the United Kingdom and subject to rule
  from London as unjust.
• They thought that Northern Ireland was being
  exploited.
• 1886 and 1893 saw two Home Rule Bills attempted.
  If these had passed through both the house of
  Commons and the House of Lords, Ireland would
  have been given powers to self govern.
• However, both Bills failed to get enough support.

5
Causes short term

• The Third Home Rule Bill was proposed by Prime
  Minister Herbert Asquith in 1912.
• Protestant Unionists opposed the Bill and formed
  a more extreme, armed opposition the Ulster
  Volunteer Force (UVF)
• Other such groups were also then formed on both
  sides, most notably for the Republicans, the
  Irish Volunteers.

6
Other short-term factors

• World War I
• The introduction of conscription in World War I
  Republicans didnt see why they should be
  fighting for Britain.
• The Dublin lock-out of 1913 in which workers
  joined forces over the right to belong to a trade
  union had showed that joint action was possible
  and also led to more extreme, violent groups
  being formed.

7
Plans and great speeches

• The Rising was planned as early as 1915. All
  groups involved were busy recruiting volunteers.
  Pearse delivered this famous speech in 1915 (a
  full transcript is in The People Speak resources)
• In a closer spiritual communion with him now
  than ever before or perhaps ever again, in a
  spiritual communion with those of his day, living
  and dead, who suffered with him in English
  prisons, in communion of spirit too with our own
  dear comrades who suffer in English prisons
  to-day, and speaking on their behalf as well as
  our own, we pledge to Ireland our love, and we
  pledge to English rule in Ireland our hate.
• Speeches like this struck a cord with Republican
  men who were dissatisfied with rule by the
  British.

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Day 1 Monday 24 April

• The rebels were
• organised in
• military style
• into batallions
• ofmen. They
• then charged
• And occupied
• various areas
• and buildings in
• Dublin, as
• shown on the
• map.

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The conflict

• The Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in
  Ireland, General Lovick Friend, was on leave in
  England.
• When the insurrection began the Officer
  Commanding the Dublin Garrison, Colonel Kennard,
  could not be located.
• His adjutant, Col. H V Cowan, telephoned
  Marlborough Barracks and asked for a detachment
  of troops to be sent to Sackville Street
  (O'Connell Street) to investigate the situation
  at the GPO. He then telephoned Portobello,
  Richmond and the Royal Barracks and ordered them
  to send troops to relieve Dublin Castle.

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The conflict (continued)

• Finally, he contacted the Curragh and asked for
  reinforcements to be sent to Dublin.
• A troop of the 6th Reserve Cavalry Regiment,
  dispatched from Marlborough Barracks, proceeded
  down O'Connell Street.
• As it passed Nelson's Pillar, level with the GPO,
  the rebels opened fire, killing three cavalrymen
  and two horses and fatally wounding a fourth man.
  The cavalrymen retreated and were withdrawn to
  barracks. This action is often referred to,
  inaccurately, as the "Charge of the Lancers."

11
The conflict (continued)

• A piquet from the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Royal
  Irish Regiment(RIR), approaching the city from
  Richmond Barracks, encountered an outpost of
  Éamonn Ceannt's force under Section-Commander
  John Joyce in Mount Brown, at the north-western
  corner of the South Dublin Union.
• A party of t20 men under Lieutenant George Malone
  was ordered to march on to Dublin Castle. They
  proceeded a short distance with rifles sloped and
  unloaded before coming under fire, losing three
  men in the first volley, then broke into a
  tan-yard opposite.
• Malone's jaw was shattered by a bullet as he went
  in. The Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel RL
  Owens, brought up the remainder of his men from
  Richmond Barracks.

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The conflict (continued)

• A company with a Lewis Gun was sent to the Royal
  Hospital not then a hospital but the British
  military headquarters), overlooking the Union.
• The main body took up positions along the east
  and south walls of the Union, occupying houses
  and a block of flats, then opened fire on the
  rebel positions, forcing Joyce and his men to
  retreat across open ground.
• A party led by Lieut. Alan Ramsey broke open a
  small door next to the Rialto gate, but Ramsey
  was shot and killed, and the attack was repulsed.
  

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The conflict (continued)

• A second wave led by Capt. Warmington charged the
  door but Warmington, too, was killed. The
  remaining troops, trying to break in further
  along the wall, were enfiladed from Jameson's
  distillery in Marrowbone Lane.
• Eventually the superior numbers and firepower of
  the British were decisive they forced their way
  inside and the small rebel force in the tin huts
  at the eastern end of the Union surrendered.

14
Day 2 Tuesday 25 April

• British forces initially put their efforts into
  securing the approaches to Dublin Castle and
  isolating the rebel headquarters, which they
  believed was in Liberty Hall. The British
  commander, Brigadier-General W. H. M. Lowe,
  worked slowly, unsure of the size of the force he
  was up against, and with only 1,269 troops in the
  city when he arrived from the Curragh Camp in the
  early hours of Tuesday 25 April. City Hall was
  taken on Tuesday morning.
• The rebel position at St Stephen's Green held by
  the Citizen Army under Michael Mallin, was made
  untenable after the British placed snipers and
  machine guns in the Shelbourne Hotel and
  surrounding buildings. As a result, Mallin's men
  retreated to the Royal College of Surgeons.

15
Tuesday 25 April

• British forces put their efforts into securing
  the approaches to Dublin Castle and isolating the
  rebel headquarters, which they believed was in
  Liberty Hall.
• The British commander, Brigadier-General W H M
  Lowe, worked slowly, unsure of the size of the
  force he was up against, and with only 1,269
  troops in the city when he arrived from the
  Curragh Camp in the early hours of Tuesday 25
  April.
• City Hall was taken on Tuesday morning. The rebel
  position at St Stephen's Green held by the
  Citizen Army under Michael Mallin, was made
  untenable after the British placed snipers and
  machine guns in the Shelbourne Hotel and
  surrounding buildings. As a result, Mallin's men
  retreated to the Royal College of Surgeons.

16
Day 3 Wednesday 26 April

• British firepower was provided by soldiers which
  they positioned on the northside of the city at
  Phibsborough and at Trinity College, and by the
  patrol vessel Helga, which sailed upriver from
  Kingstown.
• On Wednesday, 26 April, the guns at Trinity
  College and Helga shelled Liberty Hall, and the
  Trinity College guns then began firing at rebel
  positions in O'Connell Street.
• Reinforcements were sent to Dublin from England,
  and disembarked at Kingstown on the morning of 26
  April.

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The conflict raged

• Heavy fighting occurred at the rebel-held
  positions around the Grand Canal as these troops
  advanced towards Dublin.
• The Sherwood Foresters were repeatedly caught in
  a cross-fire trying to cross the canal at Mount
  Street. Seventeen Volunteers were able to
  severely disrupt the British advance.
• The rebel position at the South Dublin Union,
  further west along the canal, also inflicted
  heavy losses on British troops trying to advance
  towards Dublin Castle.

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Saturday 29 April

• The headquarters garrison, after days of
  shelling, were forced to abandon their
  headquarters when fire caused by the shells
  spread to the GPO. They tunnelled through the
  walls of the neighbouring buildings in order to
  evacuate the Post Office without coming under
  fire and took up a new position in Moore Street.
• On Saturday 29 April, from this new headquarters,
  after realising that they could not break out of
  this position without further loss of civilian
  life, Pearse issued an order for all companies to
  surrender. Pearce surrendered unconditionally to
  Brigadier-General Lowe.

20
Sunday 30 April

• The surrender document read
• "In order to prevent the further slaughter of
  Dublin citizens, and in the hope of saving the
  lives of our followers now surrounded and
  hopelessly outnumbered, the members of the
  Provisional Government present at headquarters
  have agreed to an unconditional surrender, and
  the commandants of the various districts in the
  City and County will order their commands to lay
  down arms."

21
The results

• The Uprising was crushed after 7 days of
  fighting.
• The leaders were arrested, court martialled and
  executed.
• However, the Easter Rising did put Irish
  Republican beliefs back on the agenda.
• In the 1918 elections, Sinn Fein won 73 of the
  105 seats available in Northern Ireland
• The Uprising led to the War of Independence of
  1919.

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Election Results 1918