Easter Rising (1916)

In the early twentieth century, Irish nationalists pursued different goals, including Home Rule within the United Kingdom and complete independence. The Irish Republican Brotherhood planned an armed rising during the First World War. The Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army participated, although a planned nationwide mobilization was disrupted when volunteer leader Eoin MacNeill countermanded orders after British authorities intercepted a German arms shipment and arrested Roger Casement. The revolt proceeded primarily in Dublin.

On Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, Patrick Pearse and other insurgent leaders proclaimed an Irish Republic from the General Post Office in Dublin. The rebels seized the GPO and other strategic locations. British forces responded, and fighting continued for several days, with artillery contributing to severe damage in the city centre. Pearse and the other leaders surrendered on 29 April. Although the rebellion had been planned on a broader scale, the main armed action occurred in Dublin.

British authorities court-martialed leaders of the rising. Fifteen leaders, including Pearse and James Connolly, were executed in May 1916. The executions, alongside arrests and martial law, prompted a strong public reaction. The insurrection had not initially enjoyed broad popular support, but the government’s response helped turn opinion against British rule and gave the executed leaders a symbolic role in the republican movement. The rising became an important precursor to the Irish War of Independence, which began in 1919; it did not itself immediately establish an independent Irish state.

The Easter Rising is remembered as a turning point in modern Irish history, but it was also a violent urban revolt that caused deaths, injuries and destruction among combatants and civilians. Contemporary memory has been shaped by commemorations, archival records and differing interpretations of nationalism, republicanism, British rule and the consequences of armed rebellion. The National Library of Ireland and National Museum of Ireland preserve collections and exhibitions that document the people, events and aftermath of Easter Week.