1. Lecture 9 Rising and Revolution: 1916 and After

2. Easter Rising – debate & controversy
The planning of the insurrection
The rising as blood sacrifice
Public opinion and the rising

3. I. Easter 1916 Origins Planning the insurrection
The course of the rising
1916: Coup or sacrifice?
The British response to the rising
Public opinion and the rising

4. II. Ireland Post-1916 Sinn Féin gains ground The Irish Convention
The Conscription Crisis
General Election 1918 and the establishment of Dáil Éireann
Emergence of the IRA

5. Easter Rising - Origins
Cultural nationalism
A series of social, political and military crises
The failure of Home Rule
British governance
First World War
War weariness
Blocked mobility thesis

7. Easter 1916 The Rising began on Easter Monday, 24 April
Approximately 1,000 Volunteers and 200 members of the Irish Citizen Army seized the General Post Office and other sites in Dublin
The rebels surrendered on April 29.
Supporting action also took place in Wexford, Galway and Co. Dublin.
In Dublin 64 insurgents, 132 crown forces and 230 civilians were killed.
Extensive use of artillery devastated much of Dublin’s city centre.

10. British army officers pose beneath the statue of Parnell with the ‘Irish Republic’ flag that had flown over the GPO in O’Connell Street during Easter week, 1916

11. Constance Markievicz

12. ‘Mug shot’ of Constance Markievicz after her arrest following the Easter Rising

13. British troops firing at the GPO during Easter week

14. British response to 1916 Fifteen rebel leaders executed in early May
Executions carried out in a protracted, semi-secret manner
Martial law was imposed indefinitely under a Military Governor, General Maxwell
Civilians were dealt with under the statutory powers of the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA)
Heavily armed mobile columns arrested 3340 men and 79 women throughout Ireland

16. Public Opinion and Easter 1916
‘The consensus among historians is that an initially hostile public opinion was transformed by the executions into retrospective support for, and romanticisation of, the rebels.’
Lee, Ireland pp28-29.

17. Public Opinion and Easter 1916
Not easy to gauge
Initially the middle classes sided with the government
The attitude of the lower classes has been described as more complex and uncertain
Public opinion had begun to shift by mid May
Unfriendliness or hostility towards the police
Sympathy for the rebels increased

18. Public Opinion and Easter 1916
Difficult to decipher whether, as Townshend puts it, ‘opinion was ‘transformed’ from hostility to sympathy…or…‘crystallised’ (meaning that a latent sympathy was solidified).’
Townshend, Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion p307.

19. Public Opinion and Easter 1916
‘The city is quiet now, but there is a very menacing tone among the lower classes who openly praise the Sinn Féiners for their courage and bravery, and there is a lot of abuse of the soldiers. At the same time the latter seem to be popular, at least with the female population. The sympathies of the ordinary Irish are with Sinn Féin. They want independence and their only criticism of the rebellion is that it was foolish (not criminal or otherwise wrong), but just foolish because it had no chance of success.’
AM Bonaparte-Wyse quoted in Lee, Ireland , p32.

20. Sinn Féin Rising referred to inaccurately as the Sinn Féin rebellion
SF benefited from this – sparked curiosity about the organization
SF became a militant nationalist movement post 1916
A coalition of radical republicans and moderate nationalists

21. Emergence of the IRA
Easter Rising left the Irish Volunteers in disarray
October 1917: it was decided that the Volunteers were to be used to exert political pressure on the British government to recognize the Irish republic
The Volunteers began to arm, train and organise. With the establishment of Dáil Éireann in Janaury 1919 they became known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA)
The IRA became the official army of the new republic