Why the 1916 rising happened

World War I presented an unparalleled opportunity for these revolutionaries. By October , lead plotters Tom Clarke and Sean MacDermott had asked a team to look into the prospects of holding a successful rebellion in wartime.

In plotting, they succeeded where no previous Irish rebellion had before, most notably by successfully shutting out spies and informers. Chief plotter Tom Clarke. Only in the weeks immediately prior to the Rising did the police manage to secure two human intelligence sources — and even these were relatively low level. Despite gathering evidence that would prove useful at post-insurrectionary trials, Granite and Chalk failed to penetrate the inner circles of the conspiracy and plotting continued.

Secret wires and messengers travelled both to the US and Germany to progress different strands of ambitious plans for a nationwide rebellion. Meanwhile, across Ireland, the open military organisations of the rebellion — the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army — drilled and paraded with weapons in broad daylight. The officials at the Irish Office were reluctant to suppress these organisations.

Even when they began to conduct mock attacks on buildings around Dublin, the decision was made to let them be. The view from Dublin Castle, working on the advice of senior Irish home rule MPs, was that suppression might be counterproductive.

Irish support for the war effort had begun to diminish from the spring of onwards. The disastrous Gallipoli landings , first in April and again in August , witnessed the decimation of Irish units in the British army, including the Dublin and Muster Fusiliers and the 10th Irish Division. As Tynan saw it:. For the first time came bitterness, for we felt that their lives had been thrown away and their heroism had gone unrecognised.

There are several reasons why Irish nationalists were justified in believing that the social contract had been broken by For one thing, the mandate of the British parliament had run out by December The decision to rise was based on the traditional dictum that England's difficulty was Ireland's opportunity.

But it also reflected the military council's fear that Irish nationalism was in decline, a concern reinforced by popular Irish nationalist support for the aims of the Irish Parliamentary Party and the British war effort.

On 23 April, the council agreed to proceed with the rising the next day, Easter Monday. The drafting of a proclamation declaring the establishment of a republic was one of the final steps taken by those who planned the rising. Shortly after noon on Easter Monday, Pearse accompanied by an armed guard, stood on the steps of the GPO and read the proclamation, signalling the beginning of the Easter Rising.

Ireland's 'national right to freedom and sovereignty' was asserted. The conflict that followed was largely confined to Dublin. The British military onslaught, which the rebels had anticipated, did not at first materialise.

When the rising began, the authorities had just troops to confront roughly 1, insurgents. As the week progressed, the fighting in some areas became more intense, leading to several prolonged, fiercely contested street battles.

Military casualties were highest at Mount Street Bridge. By Friday 28 April, about , soldiers had been amassed in the capital against about 1, rebels while much of the city centre had been destroyed by British artillery fire. The next day, Pearse surrendered unconditionally on behalf of the Volunteers and issued orders to this effect.

A total of people were killed during the rebellion, among them 64 rebels. Easter Rising — Day 2: A baptism of unremitting fire On the second day of the Easter Rising, soldiers poured into Dublin, and martial law was declared. Easter Rising — Day 3: The tide starts to turn Mount Street battle erupts, an engagement in which killed or wounded.

Easter Rising — Day 6: And then it was all over On the last day of the Rising, the rebels are forced to surrender unconditionally and brought to Richmond Barracks, where the leaders are identified. Easter Rising — the aftermath: arrests and executions After a chaotic week, British commander Maxwell proceeds, against advice, with executions.

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