58 Interesting Easter Rising Facts That You Should Know

In this article, you're going to learn some interesting facts about the Easter Rising, its history, purpose, and much more. 

On Easter Monday, 1916, World War One raged in Europe. Happening at the same time, the Easter Rising was the main highlight and beginning of the Irish War for Independence.

An event took place in Dublin that would change the course of Irish history. Determined to throw off British rule, over 2,000 men, backed by around 300 women, rose up in armed revolt. In a flurry of activity, they seized key government buildings, set up a perimeter around the city center, and proclaimed the birth of an 'independent island.'

For those on the nationalist side, it was a glorious moment, a transformative event that would re-awaken Irish consciousness after over a century of British rule. It was also doomed to end in complete disaster, as it was intended to be the trigger for a series of uprisings.

However, the Easter Rising rather failed to spark anything but a mighty British backlash. For nearly seven days, Dublin city became a war zone, with its cobblestones chipped by sniper fire and its old buildings bombarded by artillery.

By the time the smoke cleared, the rising's leaders would all be prisoners. Yet somehow, this failed revolt would wind up becoming one of the key steps on the road to Irish independence.

History Of Easter Rising

Since medieval times, Ireland has been under British rule; many wars and rebellions by the Gaelic Irish were fought, but England steadily grew in power.

Since 1297, there was a British parliament in Ireland that sort of took care of Irish business, but as republican ideals spread from the American and French revolutions, the bold tone of the United Irishmen later abandoned in 1798 to create an Irish republic, but they failed.

After this, the parliament was taken away from Ireland and ruled directly from London, leading to Ireland being hugely neglected when the potato crops failed year after year in the late 1840s, and the Irish were forced to sell their other crops.

Millions of people died of starvation and disease, while millions more left Ireland, never to return.

What caused the Easter Rising? Throughout the 19th century, support was growing for 'Home Rule', which referred to Ireland being ruled from Dublin once more.

This coincided with a huge cultural movement known as The Gaelic Revival, in which Irish music, language, and sports were growing back in popularity.

The Republican Movement had received a tri-color from France in 1848, symbolizing the Republic of Ireland, peace between its people, catholic and protestant.

An underground republican movement, the Irish republican brotherhood also, which was a secret organization of Irish Nationalists, began to make moves.

Not everyone in Ireland supported Home Rule; however, in the north of Ireland, Ulster had been predominantly protestant since the Ulster plantations from the 17th century. The industry was going strong then, and they supported the union with Britain.

They believed Home Rule would result in Ireland being controlled by the Catholic Church. They promised to fight if Ireland got the Home Rule.

Both sides armed themselves, forming the Ulster Volunteers and the Irish Volunteers.

A young poet and teacher named Patrick Pearse moved up the ranks of the Irish Volunteers and joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

He was inspired by the mythological hero Cullen and Irish republican heroes Wolf Tone and Robert Emmett, all of whom died in defense of their ideals.

The Dublin Knockout of 1913 saw a socialist leader, James Connolly, come to prominence by setting up the citizen army in Dublin to protect the workers on strike.

In 1914, Home Rule was voted into parliament, but an Austro-Hungarian Archduke was shot in Sarajevo, sparking off the First World War. Home Rule was put on hold till after the war.

There was a split in the Irish volunteers. Some believed they should go off and fight for the freedom of small nations and come back as a fully trained army for Ireland. Others, such as Thomas Clarke, believed that now was the time to strike while Britain was distracted by the war in Europe.

In 1915, at the funeral of Fenian leader Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, Patrick Pearse gave a rousing speech about how Ireland unfree will never be at peace. The older Fenian leaders chose him to speak as he represented the new younger generation of the Irish republic.

James Connolly thought that the Irish volunteers weren't concerned with the working people, and he even threatened to send his citizen army up against the British in 1916.

The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) swooped in, talked him down, and coaxed him into joining them as they continued their plans.

The Irish Women's Council, Cumann Na Mban, which was akin to the Suffragette Movement, was also brought into the fray.

What happened on the first day of Easter Rising? The plan for the 1916 Easter Rising was for the regiments of Irish volunteers to parade on Easter Sunday throughout the country.

It was a totally acceptable cover story for the British, but once the plan was executed, they would capture strategic spots and hold the country, forcing Britain to relinquish control while it fought in the trenches.

All of this was kept secret from Eoin MacNeill, the leader of the Irish volunteers, who thought it was crazy to go up against the highly trained, highly armed British army.

Bulmer Hobson, who was against the rising, was kidnapped on Good Friday and held until the rising got underway.

MacNeill was all set to call off the rising, but was told about the IRB securing weapons from Germany.

But the German ship carrying the weapons was captured before it could land. When MacNeill found out, he sent an order throughout the country, stopping volunteers from doing anything on Easter Sunday.

The IRB leaders decided to go ahead with the rising on Easter Monday at noon, but it was difficult to send the word out to the rest of the country at such short notice. The conflict hence remained mainly centered around Dublin.

They drafted and signed the Proclamation of Independence, proclaiming the Irish Republic with Patrick Pierce as its president.

Location Of Easter Rising

Easter Monday came, and the Irish volunteer and the Irish Citizen Army gathered at liberty hall and marched on Sackville Street.

Their target was the general post office (GPO) which would be their main headquarters cutting off the main station of wireless communication.

They captured the GPO, and Pierce stepped out in front and read the proclamation declaring the rights of the Irish people to the ownership of Ireland.

At this time, many people didn't know what was going on; many Irish people were quite happy with the status quo of being part of Britain; as far as they were concerned, the fighting should be happening out in France.

The battalions were sent to various strategic buildings in the city to try and hold the city center for as long as possible. An effort was made to conquer Dublin Castle, the British headquarters in Ireland.

It was here the first shot was fired, and the unarmed constable O'Brien was shot dead. The Castle gates were closed, and the rebels fell back to the adjoining city hall despite Dublin Castle being painfully undermanned at the start of the rising.

None of the major train stations or ports were captured, which allowed for the eventual arrival of British reinforcements.

Outcome Of The Easter Rising

As chaos descended upon the streets of Dublin, the Dublin citizens themselves, who lived in some of the poorest conditions in Europe, began looting the shops.

Martial law was declared, and Brigadier General Lowe took charge of the forces in Dublin. When he arrived, there were just over 1,000 British troops in Dublin.

He housed the trips in Trinity College and set up artillery aimed at the rebels.

The British army set up barricades out of anything they could find throughout the streets to prevent the movement of Irish troops.

They relied heavily on artillery bombardment rather than direct assaults, giving the rebels nothing to shoot at.

Messages were sent across by little boys and women on bikes.

Francis Sheehy Skeffington, a pacifist, trying to stop looters, was arrested by the British and executed the next morning for no apparent reason.

Late Tuesday night, British reinforcements landed at Kingstown harbor and began to march in the city center on Wednesday. As they walked past, they were applauded by Dublin civilians, but things changed as they approached the Grand Canal.

Eamon De Valera had captured Bolan's mill. His soldiers had taken up positions aimed at Mount Street Bridge. The British soldiers marched aimlessly into the line of fire; as the bodies piled up, the volunteers were out of ammunition, and the British eventually got grenades.

The British gunboat Helga came up the Liffey and demolished Liberty Hall.

Along North King Street, while trying to advance against rebel positions, British soldiers burrowed through civilian houses, killing a few accused of being rebels.

General Sir John Maxwell was sent from London with reinforcements. By Friday, there were over 16,000 British soldiers in Dublin.

Sackville Street was ablaze with all the shelling. As the flames closed in on the GPO, Pearse called a retreat to the Williams Woods Factory on Kingston Street, but they became entrenched in the buildings of Murray Street.

During the retreat, O'Rahilly was shot dead, the only one of the leaders of the rising to be killed during the fighting.

The center of Dublin had been greatly destroyed. It was the first European city since the Napoleonic Wars to suffer such destruction.

How many died in the Easter Rising? An estimated 500 people died in the Easter Rising.

Almost 150 British troops and military, which included 82 Irish rebels and almost 100 rebel leaders, were promptly jailed, and 14 were quickly executed.

As the civilian death toll rose, Patrick Pierce and James Connolly decided to surrender.

Nurse Elizabeth O'Farrell was sent out with a white flag. Pearse then officially surrendered to General Lowe.

The message spread and the other Irish battalions around the city stood down.

As the Women of Cumann Na Mban surrendered, some British authorities said that they could just go home. The women insisted on being arrested with their Irish brothers.

The court's marshal for the leaders would be in Richmond Barracks under General Blackadder. Maxwell thought that he would make an example of them and sentence them to death.

The executions began on May 3 in Kilmainham jail and continued into the following week. Pearse was executed on the first day, Connolly on the last.

Some leaders avoided executions including Eamon De Valera, because he was born in the United States, and Constance Markievicz, because she was a woman.

As the executions rang on, the public began to see troublemakers become martyrs; they were dying for something, an Irish Republic.

British Prime Minister HH Asquith arrived in Dublin concerned at the rate of the executions so soon after the rebellion and called a stop to further executions.

Thomas Kent, a volunteer officer who had stayed at home, was also executed.

Many people also voiced the executions being unnecessarily harsh after some of the writings of rebel leaders were published, which showcased that they were idealists fighting for their country and not under Germans' control.

Roger Casement, who negotiated with the Germans, was executed in England later that year for treason.

When Irish soldiers returned from the war in Europe, they returned to a changed Ireland. They expected a hero's welcome, but they were shunned for fighting for the British.

Those who fought in the rising were granted amnesty by the British government, and the rest of the prisoners were released in 1917.

In the following years, Sinn Fein rose in power and won a landslide victory in the elections of 1919.

The men and women of the rising who survived went on to lead Ireland to ultimate independence, but not before a brutal civil war.

It's also claimed that the Irish Republican Army launched a guerrilla war against the British government in Ireland.

The protestants of six counties in the north of Ireland opted out of the Irish Free State and became what is now Northern Ireland.

By the time Eamon De Valera came into power in the '30s and had a new Irish constitution drafted, the Catholic Church had a lot of influence within the constitution and the state itself, and he became a prominent figure in Irish politics.

Purpose Of Easter Rising

By now, you know that the purpose of the 1916 Easter Rising was to proclaim the independence of Ireland as a republic.

The seven main leaders of the rising, namely James Connolly, Joseph Plunkett, Patrick Pearse, Seán MacDiarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, Tom Clarke, and Eamonn Ceannt, came together and established a Provisional Government of the Irish Republic.

The Easter Rising took place in the year 1916.

The rising lasted for almost a week in Ireland.

A pro-independence group that contained mainly union workers was led by James Connolly and was known as the Irish Citizen Army.

The chief groups that took part in the rising were the Irish Citizen Army, Irish volunteers, and Cumann Na Mban.

The Irish Citizen Army played a huge role in seizing the city's GPO and many other strategic locations.

The Easter Rising is claimed to be one of the main reasons for the establishment of the Irish Republic and the subsequent War for Irish independence.

Irish Nationalist group called Irish Republican Brotherhood played a major role in establishing the Irish Republic.

After the Easter Rebellion, the armed protest continued in 1921, from which 26 of 32 Ireland counties gained independence and the declaration of the Irish Free State happened.