Ireland’s Easter Rising

26:52The great doors swing shut, and with that, the rebels have taken the building. Without delay, Pierce steps back outside under the portico surrounded by an armed guard of his own men to deliver his announcement. As he speaks, traffic continues to pass, and a few ordinary Dubliners stop and stare, confused. Though it is far from the dramatic moment he imagined, he clears his throat and announces that he is acting as president of a provisional government of the now independent Irish sovereign state. Then Pierce reads the carefully crafted proclamation of the Irish Republic, addressed to Irishmen and Irishwomen.

27:35In the name of God, he says, 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. The ceremony concludes with the raising of a green, white, and orange flag of the Irish Republic on a pole on the roof of the GPO. Then the men go back inside and barricade the door and the people on the street go about their day. The initial response in Dublin City is one of hostility. This was a huge inconvenience and the post office was open on Easter Monday. There were people going in to buy stamps who suddenly find themselves at the beginning of an Irish rebellion and even when Patrick Pearce read the proclamation of the Republic outside the GPO, people were bewildered if not sneering.

28:24Who the hell are these people? What mandate do these people have? Who are they speaking for? Who have they consulted? Are they in any way justified in what they're doing because of their own sense of mission? And Peirce, he had a very noble power to him, but he was also quite messianic. And when you consider the declaration in the proclamation that the rebels are striking in full confidence of victory, I mean, that's obviously a nonsense. Those who have signed the proclamation, they knew they were signing their death warrants.

28:58Five of the seven signatories hunker down inside the GPO. Another man, Thomas McDonagh, takes up a position at the Jacob's Biscuit Factory, a key location commandeered to serve as a rebel garrison. Eamon Kant commands a battalion at South Dublin Union from where he aims to cut off British soldiers marching from their barracks. All over the city, the top ranks of the IRB and the hundreds of men they command spread out to strategic locations. There is an attempt to occupy Dublin Castle, the seat of British rule for centuries. But though rebels exchange fire and kill a guard, they consider the castle too heavily defended and retreat.

29:39Dublin Castle would have seemed an obvious target, wouldn't it? And it's not particularly well guarded, but they just don't have the coherence or the numbers to be able to do that. And, you know, the question is also of what would have been involved in trying to defend Dublin Castle, that was potentially much more complicated and difficult. Elsewhere, rebels use their local knowledge to put their small number of volunteers to full effect.

30:07It is just after midday on Easter Monday, 1916. Rebel Commander Michael Malone leads a corps of around 17 armed men to Mount Street Bridge. His mission is to block a key route from the docks to the city. When British reinforcements arrive, they will pass along here on their way to the city center. Malone assigns shooters to two houses and a church hall on Northumberland Road, a street lined with handsome red-bricked Georgian houses with tall sash windows and half-submerged basements. Seeing the rebels coming, many of the residents barricade the elegant doors and slam the shutters. Malone tries the door of number 25 and makes his way inside along with his partner, Jim Grace.

30:57They're both armed, with Malone, an expert marksman favoring a Mauser C96 with its wooden shoulder holster that makes the gun accurate from a distance. After piling up furniture against the windows to provide cover, they They place a tailor's dummy from the cellar in one window as a decoy. But though they can hear distant skirmishes elsewhere in the city, it stays quiet at Mount Street Bridge. For now, all there is to do is wait.

31:28On Wednesday, Dawn brings fine weather and a messenger. He arrives on foot with news that a British ship has docked, and the soldiers are on their way. And, as Malone knows, the simplest route from the docks to the city is via this very road. Inside number 25, Malone and Grace prepare their weapons. Soon, they hear the army coming, and by midday the street echoes with 1 ,600 pairs of British boots. Malone trains his weapon on the advancing column, its men marching four abreast. Dressed in their woolen khaki uniform and with bayonets fixed to their rifles, the Sherwood Foresters battalion may look fearsome, but the rebels have the element of surprise.

32:17Malone instructs Grace to wait, and the two men remain stock still, fingers curl around triggers, as the soldiers march on, unwittingly hemming themselves into a rat run, with rebel-held houses on both sides. Eventually, when Malone can make out the insignia on the caps of the officers in the first line of men, he nods at Grace. They open fire and the other Irish rebels follow his lead, shooting from neighboring houses. Soldiers in the front row drop and then the second row falls. There is chaos on the street, with soldiers stumbling over fallen comrades. Others throw themselves down, desperate for cover on open ground, or break formation to crawl up steps to shelter in doorways.

33:04Gunshots ring out, pops and cracks amplified in the narrow street, echoes making snipers impossible to locate. Within hours of arriving on Irish soil, the British army is in disarray.

33:22British troops are trained for trench warfare in France, not for urban guerrilla tactics. But while most of the rebels have never fired a gun, they know the city and they have the enemy corralled. The surviving Sherwood Forresters later report that they thought they were facing hundreds of snipers, not a last stand of one squad. The 17 rebels hold off some 1 ,600 soldiers for hours But late in the evening, the British finally take the bridge using grenades And by setting fire to buildings to smoke out their assailants Most of the Irish escape through rear gardens and alleyways But when the British blast their way through the front door of number 25 They catch Michael Malone on the stairs and shoot him dead Jim Grace survives by hiding in the basement, and in the end only four rebels are killed.

34:15At least 28 British lose their lives, and hundreds are injured. The Battle of Mount Street Bridge inflicts the highest casualties of any single skirmish in the Easter Rising. Some of the wounded are helped by local residents who venture out into the war-torn street. One such volunteer is 18-year-old Louisa Nolan, a dancer and chorus girl in the local theatre, whose father is a former head of the Royal Irish Constabulary. Hearing the gunshots and the cries of the wounded, she walks out amid live gunfire to bring water and medical supplies to the injured and dying. She is later awarded a military medal for bravery, the first to be presented to a woman.

35:00Though much of the action is concentrated in the capital, other skirmishes are also taking place elsewhere. In Ashbourne, County Meath, a group of 60 insurgents force the Royal Irish Constabulary from their barracks and rebels in Galway and Wexford stage similar attacks. Still, the battle in Dublin is far from over. As Easter week draws on, the British army bolster defenses around Dublin Castle and make progress at recapturing key locations. More transport ships arrive at what is now Dunliri, but the troops learn the lesson from Mount Street Bridge and do not get drawn into street fights. Instead, they now use heavy artillery from a distance, bombarding the city center with shells.

35:43Countess Konstantin Makievich is second in command at St. Stephen's Green, a key site located along another vital route into the city. Inspired by stories from the front line in France, she digs trenches in the expectation of gunfire But even ground defences are insufficient against British machine guns that go up on the nearby Shelbourne Hotel Unable to hold their position, Markievich and her troops retreat to the Royal College of Surgeons on one side of the park No one knows how long this rebellion will last, and at what cost They catch Britain on the hop and there was a rush then to reinforce the British military presence in Dublin in particular Which is obviously a challenge given the First World War at that time But they're not a particularly well-equipped Irish rebel army But they do also regard themselves as being a legitimate fighting force And they would have taken that very seriously in terms of identifying themselves as soldiers And as soldiers of the Republic and they had the flag of the Republic flying above their headquarters.

36:49By the middle of the week, the British army has up to 20 ,000 soldiers in Dublin. If the rebels thought the enemy would be weakened and distracted by their involvement in the war raging in France, they were wrong. John Maxwell is sent over from London as the overseer of the suppression of the Rising, as the military governor, in effect. and Maxwell realises that this needs to be stamped out as quickly as possible. So you go heavy and you also burn them out. By Wednesday, the British gunboat Helga is positioned on the River Liffey. It releases a volley of 12-pound shells, mainly aimed at a Union headquarters at Liberty Hall, which the rebels briefly occupied at the start of the week.

37:34But the greatest damage is inflicted by 18-pound artillery guns set up on the streets, bombarding the city, bringing down key buildings and setting fires that quickly spread. That's one of the defining images people would have, I suppose. The sense of the burning GPO and of the rebels having to get out of their headquarters. Well, I mean, it's a question of how long they can withstand the scale of the shelling. It's clear by day five or day six that it's only a question of hours now. They simply cannot survive. It comes back to this question of military strategy. It's often pointed out that some of those who survived 1916 as rebels were determined that they would adopt a very different strategy when it came to future struggles.

38:17Which is one of the reasons I think why you get the adoption of a guerrilla strategy in an attack and retreat. Using your knowledge of the terrain rather than the example of 1916, which is about making yourself a target and using these big city centre buildings. It is a method of urban warfare that will come to define the Irish conflict throughout the century. By Saturday, six days after he strolled into the now burning GPO, Patrick Pierce knows the fight is up. His comrade, James Connolly, is grievously injured, his ankle shattered by shrapnel. With their headquarters in flames, the rebels repurpose a torn down door as a stretcher and escape.

39:00Making for Moore Street, which is lined with houses, shops, and pubs, they move from building to shattered building, trying to slip around the British barricades and out of the war zone. But it soon becomes clear that the rebellion has no end plan, no exit strategy. There are some who wish to fight to the death if necessary. Tom Clark, one of the proclamation signatories, whose tobacconist shop provided the meeting place for the IRB council, has already spent 15 years of his life in English prisons. Jailed for bombings in the late Victorian era, he was subjected to solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, and the noise torture, designed to break the sanity of inmates.

39:43Now aged in his late 50s, the eldest of the conspirators, he has no intention of going back inside. So when Patrick Pearce calls time on the rebellion, Tom Clark breaks down in tears. I think there are two realizations for Pearce that are significant. The first is at the very beginning when he's reading the proclamation. He must have imagined that in his head. But then, of course, the reality that he comes up against, that kind of bemused, almost hostile response and that sense of bewilderment. And the second thing then is, of course, towards the end of the week, and that is a stark reality, is that this is what it means, particularly for civilians.

40:25The area where the fighting was concentrated was quite a heavily populated area. And the biggest category of victims in 1916 is the civilian category. There are about 500 people killed over the course of Easter week 1916. 256 of them are civilians. There are 40 children under the age of 18 killed who didn't ask to die for Ireland. And Peirce is moved by those sites of civilians being in the crossfire and dying and suffering towards the end of the week. And it moves him to call a halt to it. But they were also hopelessly outnumbered at that stage. With her Red Cross armband and white flag hoisted high, rebel and nurse Elizabeth O 'Farrell braves sniper fire as she walks towards the British Army barricade near Parnell Street to negotiate the surrender.

41:14At first, the British believe she is a spy and confiscate her Red Cross badge. Even when she convinces them of her sincerity, the British refuse to make any kind of deal with the rebels. Brigadier General William Lowe orders O 'Farrell to bring Pierce to the barricade, where he hands over his pistol and ammunition. Leaning on an old wooden bench brought from a nearby shop, Pierce signs a document of unconditional surrender. It dictates that the other IRB commanders in Dublin and across the country must also lay down arms. Pierce and his comrades are driven away into custody at British Army headquarters, while O 'Farrell is told to deliver the surrender notice to other rebel outposts.

42:01One stop is to Countess Markievich at St. Stephen's Green, who kisses her revolver before handing it over and being taken into custody at Dublin Castle. O 'Farrell works into the night and continues the next morning, a Sunday, almost a week after the rebellion began. Her final call is to Boland's Mill on Grand Canal Bridge, but the British Army driver refuses to take the vehicle into the firing line. Coming under heavy fire as she approaches the outpost on foot, a man accompanying her is shot in the back. But eventually she reaches the commander, Eamon de Valera, and after some confusion, he too surrenders.

42:42The Easter Rising is over.

42:49Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only. greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. In the immediate aftermath, as the British round up the rebels, there is little sympathy for their cause from their compatriots.

43:26In some cases, the people of Dublin, whose city lies in ruins, must be held back by British police and prevented from attacking the rebels when they are marched through the streets to be interned. John Maxwell wastes no time. As well as arresting the leaders, he detains thousands of suspects, far more people than took part in the rebellion. The roundup is indiscriminate. They would have been more concerned with the idea of dealing with this treachery and this stab in the back. And remember the context. I mean, Britain is at war. So this is seen as the ultimate act of treachery. So their priority there was to put a stop to this as quickly as possible and then round up those who they suspected were rebels or who had been involved in some ways.

44:14And that's where it becomes clear that they don't quite have a grasp on who actually has been involved in this. Nevertheless, the British try the ringleaders and many are sentenced to death. On May the 3rd, four days after the surrender, Patrick Pearce is taken from Kilmainham jail in Dublin to face a firing squad. The same day the shopkeeper, Tom Clarke, is executed along with a third signatory, Thomas McDonagh. May the 5th sees another four put to death. One of the last to die is James Connolly, who was carried out of the GPO on a stretcher. His wounded ankle is now gangrenous, and he is so ill from infection that he has to be tied to a chair in order to face the firing squad.

44:59The executions continue day after day until by May the 12th, 15 men have been killed. Thousands more languish in prison, where they will be incarcerated for months. Countess Markievich is also sentenced to death, but her penalty is commuted to life imprisonment because she is a woman. Over in England, Roger Casement, who organized the doomed shipment of guns from Germany, is later hanged. We could argue quite legitimately, given what was going on in the First World War at that time, what else were they going to have done? It's hardly surprising that they executed the rebels who had been guilty of treason.

45:38So it's not surprising. But the fact that it was dragged out like that, I think that contributed to sentiment changing. And of course, the longer these people are locked up, the more opportunity there is for really a cult of 1916 to begin. The way one contemporary described it, it was like watching blood slowly seep from behind a closed door. And I think that's a very striking imagery because it's not done quickly. But there's also a disturbing vengefulness as well when it comes to some of the executions, including William Pearce, who was the younger brother of Patrick, who was really only executed because he was Patrick's brother.

46:16But there is quite clearly a change of heart on the part of some, even during the course of the week, who felt that these people had put up a fight and that builds its own kind of resonance and recognition and they become household names. The dead men get no funerals, with their bodies unceremoniously buried in a mass grave. But their families hold memorials, some of which turn into protests and outpourings of emotion, another indication of a public shift in opinion. Though the Easter Rising had little support ahead of time, the British response, specifically the executions, hardens hearts. In the aftermath, the willingness to accept the compromise of home rule wanes, and more people demand full separation.

47:03An independent republic of Ireland. By the time the bulk of other prisoners are released in 1917, they're coming back to triumphant processions, and significantly, the waving of the tricolour flag. Now, the tricolour flag was not something that had white currency in Ireland before 1916, because the flag of Irish nationalism for most people had been a golden harp with a green background. But the tricolour is now becoming the symbol of Irish republicanism. And you can see it's quite visible in the aftermath of 1916 rising when the prisoners are released. So even the symbolism and the iconography around the republic is changing.

47:42With the death of the Home Rule movement, people look to alternatives. The small Sinn Féin party, taking its name from the Irish expression, we ourselves, has already existed since 1905, but had little involvement in the Easter Rising. But over time, the events of April 1916 become widely known as the Sinn Féin Rebellion, partly as a shorthand way to gather the disparate groups of nationalist parties and secret societies under one simplistic umbrella. As well as the name of a political party, Sinn Féin becomes a catch-all term used by the police and British media to label separatists and nationalists.

48:21One of the survivors of the Easter Rising is Eamon de Valera, who escapes execution because he was born in the United States. Afterwards, de Valera rises to prominence, inheriting legitimacy from his role in the Rising and bringing that authority to Sinn Féin. We often talk in the modern era about brand recognition. Sinn Féin's, as a description, as a name, is suddenly elevated in popular usage. And the question for them is, can Sinn Féin now seek to make political capital out of the 1916 rising, even though they weren't involved in organising it? And then, of course, there's the general election in 1918, which is the first general election since 1910.

49:02And Sinn Féin routs the Irish Parliamentary Party. Sinn Féin's landslide victory creates a parallel revolutionary government of which de Valera is named president. Having won thanks to a manifesto promising an independent Irish Republic, they subsequently refuse to attend a British Parliament in Westminster. Instead, they meet in Dublin with the new Assembly of Ireland, known in Gaelic as Doyle Yeren. But the 1918 election reveals that while much of Southern Ireland is Republican and the northeastern counties of Ulster, the sentiment is decisively loyal to the British Union. There, the minority Protestant Unionists fear being ruled by a Catholic nationalist majority.

49:48There is an impasse. Sinn Féin refuses to recognize British rule. Ulster refuses to be governed by the Daulieren. Differences are so entrenched that a war of independence breaks out in 1919 and lasts for two years. with the Irish Republican Army fighting Ulster loyalists and British forces. Amid a deteriorating conflict, the British government attempts to reintroduce another form of home rule. But by now, this falls far short of the expectations of most Irish people. The spiraling violence brings many casualties and the destruction of towns, including Limerick and Cork. In Ulster, Unionist leaders accept a plan to divide Ireland in two.

50:35Six counties in the north remain in the Union, creating what will soon become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The much larger southern portion of the island becomes the Irish Free State and later the Republic of Ireland. More than a century since Patrick Pearce raised his flag over the post office, it is clear that the Easter Rising was only one chapter within Ireland's long and storied history. The tensions that triggered those six days of violence in 1916 continue to simmer, with the so-called troubles dominating the late 20th century. The legacies of 800 years of British rule, one week of rebellion, and many lifetimes of struggle continue to be felt today.

51:22So I suppose you could say 1916 did more to entrench the differences really between Ulster Unionists and the rest of the country. Well, it was the foundational event of the modern Irish Republic. There are many people who still find the words of the proclamation inspirational and moving, and they do have great pride in it. There are those who would still adamantly insist that 1916 was not necessary, that Irish independence could have been achieved without bloodshed. But the legacy is still one of profound attachment and pride and sense of an event that brought independence much closer and was a crucial turning point in giving some kind of meaning to a distinct national identity and ultimately a Republican identity.

52:15Next time on Short History, we'll bring you a short history of longitude. We're quite disconnected from the fact that we are on this big rock, spinning round and round, you know, circling the sun, and that so much of our lives are governed by it, but that all these systems are still reliant on it, and it still plays such a big role. But I think it's easy to forget that. We don't think about our position here on Earth. We think about out there, but we are out there. That's next time. You can listen to the next two episodes of Short History Of right now without waiting and without adverts by subscribing to Noisa+.

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