Dublin’s 1916 Easter Rising: 100 Years
Thursday, March 24th, 2016March 24, 2016
Dubliners gather amidst the ruins of Lower Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street) after the Easter Rising in 1916. Nearly all the buildings on this street were damaged or destroyed by fire during the rebellion. Credit: National Library of Ireland
This Easter weekend, events in Dublin, Ireland, will mark the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, a 1916 rebellion in which Irish rebels fought against British rule. The rebellion began on Easter Monday that year, and lasted less than a week. The events of that week had lasting effects, however, leading to further rebellion, civil war, and, eventually, independence for Ireland’s 26 southern counties.
On Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, 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., poet Patrick 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 leaders, including Pearse, were executed. Another leader, Eamonn de Valera, was sentenced to death, but the government later released him. De Valera later became prime minister and then president of Ireland.
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 1921 treaty, 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.
This weekend’s events in Dublin, chosen to fall on Easter weekend in 2016 and not the April date of 1916, include a memorial ceremony in the Garden of Remembrance, a state event for relatives of those who took part in the rising, a military ceremony, and a parade along O’Connell Street. The official opening of the Easter Rising Centenary Visitor Facility at the General Post Office—the center of the 1916 rebel effort—will also take place.
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