Easter Rising was a 1916 rebellion in which Irish rebels fought against British rule. The rebellion began on Easter Monday, April 24. It lasted less than a week. Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), a revolutionary group that wanted an independent Irish republic, planned the rebellion. Other nationalist groups, including the Irish Citizen Army and the Irish Volunteers, also participated. The rising is sometimes called the Easter Rebellion.
During the early 1900’s, while Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, many Irish nationalists pushed for independence. After the start of World War I (1914-1918), some nationalists sought to take advantage of the wartime conditions. With British troops heavily committed to the war effort, IRB leaders hoped that an armed uprising in Ireland would meet with little British resistance.
To help strengthen the rebellion, the Irish revolutionary Roger Casement appealed to Germany for help. Germany was an enemy of the British in World War I. Eventually, the German government agreed to send the Irish rebels a shipment of rifles and ammunition.
In the spring of 1915, Padraic (also spelled Patrick) Pearse and several other IRB leaders started to plan the rebellion. James Connolly, leader of the Irish Citizen Army, joined the conspiracy in January 1916. The plans called for the uprising to begin on Easter Sunday, April 23, 1916. However, on Good Friday, April 21, the British Royal Navy arrested Roger Casement shortly after a German submarine delivered him to the Irish coast. Later that day, the British Royal Navy captured the arms ship. Eoin MacNeill, head of the Irish Volunteers, learned of the loss of Casement and the arms ship. He reined in the Volunteers’ forces outside Dublin, greatly diminishing the strength of the rebellion
In Dublin, the IRB pressed on with the uprising, delaying it one day to Easter Monday, April 24. That morning, roughly 1,000 Irish rebels took control of several important Dublin locations. Such locations included the General Post Office, which became the rebels’ headquarters. At 12:45 p.m., Pearse read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic on the post office steps. The proclamation was an attempt to declare Ireland independent.
British troops responded quickly, and they worked to isolate bands of Irish rebels. Battles raged on the city streets. The Irish held out for several days, but they were outgunned and outnumbered. On Saturday, April 29, the rebel leaders surrendered, ending the Easter Rising. Nearly 500 people died in the fighting. Many of them were civilians caught in the crossfire.
Sixteen of the rebel leaders—including Casement, Connolly, and Pearse—were executed. The rebel leader Eamon de Valera also was sentenced to death. However, partly because de Valera was a United States citizen, his sentence was commuted (changed) to life imprisonment. The executions outraged many people who had not supported the uprising. The death sentences given to some other rebels were then commuted to prison terms. De Valera was later released and had a long career in government.
Irish nationalism intensified in the years following the Easter Rising. The Irish fought the British in a war of independence from 1919 to 1921. Under a treaty signed in late 1921 and ratified in early 1922, the 26 counties of southern Ireland became a dominion (self-governing country) of the British Commonwealth. The dominion was called the Irish Free State. Ireland eventually broke all political ties with the United Kingdom, becoming the Republic of Ireland in 1949. De Valera eventually served as both prime minister and president of Ireland.
