Part TwoPLANS FOR THE RISING Thomas Clarke was the main instigator of the rising, supported by Pearse, Seán Mac Diarmada, Eamonn Ceant and Seán T. O Ceallaigh who went to America for further assistance. Thomas McDonagh, Joseph Plunket and James Connolly. were later brought on to the Supreme Council. During all this activity Eoin McNeill was unaware of the secret body that was organising the rising. Few penetrated the IRB as they prepared for the rising. James Connolly used his paper ‘The Workers' Republic’ to call for an armed revolt. He used the Citizens Army to protect the paper. The Irish Volunteers were holding recruiting meetings throughout Ireland and training enthusiastically. They awaited the signal to act as the rising had been set for Easter Saturday, 22nd of April, 1916. Setbacks to the plan included the capture of Casement and the weapons, the capture of Austin Stack, commandant of the Kerry Brigade and the discovery of the plans for an uprising following a raid on German officials in New York. The Supreme Council decided unanimously decided to proceed with the uprising despite the fact that they knew it had little chance of success. It was decided to strike on Easter Monday. In spite of the order from McNeill not to revolt, over 2,000 soldiers made a strike for freedom.
2. THE INSURRECTION On Easter Monday, 24th April, 1916 the GPO was occupied by the revolutionary forces. Pearse read the Proclamation of the Republic to a bemused gathering: POBLACHT NA H EIREANN THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom. Having organised and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and through her open military organisations, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes that moment, and, supported by her exiled children in America and by gallant allies in Europe, but relying in the first on her own strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory. We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the last three hundred years they have asserted it to arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations. The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and all of its parts, cherishing all of the children of the nation equally and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past. Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment of a permanent National, representative of the whole people of Ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, the Provisional Government, hereby constituted, will administer the civil and military affairs of the Republic in trust for the people. We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the Most High God. Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, in humanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called. Signed on Behalf of the Provisional Government. Thomas J. Clarke, Sean Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, P. H. Pearse, Eamonn Ceannt, James Connolly, Joseph Plunkett The Volunteers seized and fortified six positions In Dublin city: the GPO, the Four Courts, Boland's Mill, St. Stephen's Green, Jacobs Factory and the South Dublin Union. Attempts to seize Dublin Castle and Trinity College failed. This latter failure severely restricted the Volunteers mans of communicating with each other. The failure of the country to rise made it impossible to prevent the arrival of English reinforcements. By Wednesady the revolutionaries were outnumbered by 20 to 1. The English secured a cordon about the city and closed in. They concentrated their attack on the GPO whilst none of the other strongholds came under the same sort of concentrated bombardment. A gun-ship, the Helga, arrived in Dublin and field-guns were mounted on Trinity College. The effect of the continuous shelling of O’Connell St. virtually destroyed it and the surrounding areas. By Friday the GPO was engulfed in flames and Pearse gave the order to surrender. 450 people, many of whom were civilians, were dead with over 2500 wounded. The city was in ruins with the damage estimated at a massive 2 Million pounds. Over 3,500 people were subsequently arrested country-wide (including DeVelera and Collins), although 1,500 were freed after questioning. 1,841 of these were interned without trial in England, and 171 were tried by secret court martial resulting in 170 convictions. 90 were sentenced to death but 75 of these sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. The seven signatories of the proclamation of independence (Pearse, Connolly, Clarke, MacDonagh, MacDermott, Plunkett, and Ceannt) were all executed to the outrage of the Irish public who had now begun to revise their opinion of the insurgents to that of a heroic nature. 3. EFFECTS OF THE REBELLION The rising was critical in terms of the overall fight for an Irish Republic. For the first time the masses of the country wanted an end to English rule. Nationalism swept the country especially as the details of the secret executions became known. National attention was brought to the Irish cause and to the oppressive ways in which the English ruled the country. These realisations were in all probability the main aim of the insurgents. The War of Independence which followed in 1919, the subsequent Civil War of 1922, the formation of the Irish Free State in 1923 and the declaration by Costello of an Irish Republic in 1948 can all be traced back to the events of Easter week, 1916. COPYRIGHT ©, The Information about Ireland Site, 1998 Web Site: http://www.ireland-information.com Email to: editor@ireland-information.com
The Famine
Potato was the principal source of nutrition for the vast majority of the poorer classes because this crop produced more food per acre than wheat and could also be used to generate income. The practice of Conacre/Land Division meant that peasants needed to produce the biggest crop possible. The most variety of potato was the ‘Aran Banner’ which, whilst producing high yields also was very susceptible to Blight. Many farmers had a few animals; the pig, easily fed on left-overs and requiring little space, was quite common. In many cases , however, other crops and animals were used to pay the rent and were never regarded as food SOCIAL CONDITIONS At the start of the famine over one half of the population of the country lived in small 1 roomed dwellings. Little or no furniture and animals would be accommodated with the occupants of the. The other half would live in 2 storey houses or mansions - landlords or wealthy tenants - mostly found along the East and the South Coast. Two thirds of the population were involved in agriculture. The arrival of the month of June indicated the start of the hungry or meal months in rural Ireland as old potatoes were not dug until August. People simply had nothing to eat or at best could manage a meal of porridge. Hunger was commonplace and small scale famines were therefore not unknown. DEPENDENCE ON THE POTATO The potato became the staple diet of much of the country during the early 1800s as it was ideally suited to the Irish climate, could be grown even in poor soils, gave a high return per acre and a single acre could support a family of 5 - 6 people. By 1945, it is estimated that about one third of the entire population was totally dependent on the potato, and in poor regions, like Mayo, it was the only food eaten by up to nine - tenths of the population. LAISSEZ - FAIRE The policy of ‘Laisse Faire’ (meaning to leave alone) meant that Governments did not interfere in business markets or the economy in general. This policy was disastrous when famine struck as it meant that there was no way of quickly rectifying the crisis. Scarce food became costly and the poor simply starved OVER-POPULATION While the population of Europe rose throughout the 19th Century, population growth in Ireland was particularly dramatic. In 1800, the population was about 5 million.
Next
Home
