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- [00:02]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
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- [01:06]
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- [02:03]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
It's April 29, 1916, in the Commercial district of Dublin, Ireland, close to the River Liffey outside the General Post Office. The air is foul, thanks to the carcasses of horses lying amongst the rubble blocking the streets. For days now, a small militia of Irish nationalists have made a stand against the might of the British army, but the tide of this fight for independence is turning. A teacher and lawyer by the name of Patrick Pearse leads a handful of bloodstained Irish rebels through the chaos. Carrying one of their number on a door as an improvised stretcher, they advance in a crouching run until a distant whistling sound rises to A deafening roar. They take cover seconds before the shell explodes. Nearby, the ground shakes and a hot hail of gravel patters down. There is screaming in the distance. Patrick shouts for the group to advance into Moore street, and soon they're stumbling through the ruins to an abandoned fish shop. He pushes aside a smashed door to make room for the stretcher bearers, and as the group catch their breath, Patrick moves to a broken window to survey his location. Along the road, a handsome pub is ablaze, flames escaping from its skylights. And a little way off, three men lie dead. Old boys perhaps caught stumbling from an afternoon pint. But then a scrap of fabric on the ground captures his attention right amid the wreckage. A handkerchief gripped loosely in one of the dead men's hands. A white flag of surrender ignored by the snipers who gunned them down. Patrick backs away from the window. He said he would fight to the death, but civilians are dying instead of him. With the rooftops now crawling with British snipers, he accepts that they are trapped. It is over. But how can he get his people out of here alive? He calls over one of the rebels, a young woman called Elizabeth o'.
- [04:10]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
Farrell.
- [04:11]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
Though she is already wearing an armband bearing the red cross that marks her out as a nurse, Pierce also gives her a white flag. Her job now is to negotiate their surrender, if the British will accept it. Understanding the risks, she pushes open a bullet riddled door and moves into the daylight with the flag held high. It is quiet apart from distant gunfire, but she knows that every footstep could trigger the snipers. Elizabeth steps carefully through the rubble, approaching an army barricade. She hopes the soldiers will show more leniency to a nurse than to the old men whose bodies lie on the road, praying. This is the moment when the days of violence of the Easter Rising will finally cease. She walks directly into the line of fire of the British guns. In April 1916, a small group of poorly armed Irish radicals made a stand against the British army in a bid for independence for their homeland. Over six days during Easter week. Almost 500 people died in the uprising and thousands more were injured. It left Dublin, one of the most war damaged cities in Europe, even at a time when World War I was raging on the continent. The Irish insurgents, in what some call the Poets Rebellion, were not soldiers, but writers, teachers and thinkers. And though these men and women brought destruction and bloodshed to their own city, they were later hailed as heroes and martyrs who set the country on a new course. So what prompted intellectuals to take up Arms in 1916? How did the Rebels plan to overthrow the biggest empire on the planet. And why did a failed insurrection mean the beginning of the end of 800 years of British rule in Ireland? I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser podcast network. This is a short history of islands Easter Rising. British rule over Ireland long predates the concept of a British state. In the 1160s, Anglo Norman explorers looking for land to settle cross the hundred miles of water between the southwestern tip of Wales to what is now Ireland's County Wexford. With the backing of the English king Henry ii, they gain a foothold and establish control in the region around Dublin. In time, the region becomes known as the Pale, named after the palace stakes used to demarcate boundaries. But the native Gaelic chieftains still hold most rural areas in a quasi feudal system of peasants working for landowners. The Tudor era brings deeper change. In the 16th century, King Henry VIII sets his sights on conquest of the whole island, a man who tends to get what he wants. By 1541, Henry is king of Ireland. Gaelic chieftains are forced to surrender what remains of their estates to their new sovereign, who will grant them back the land on the condition that they acknowledge his supremacy. During what is known as his dissolution of the monasteries, he seizes church land and property in Ireland as well as at home. But during the reign of his Protestant daughter Elizabeth, and especially her successor James I, land is also confiscated from wealthy Catholic individuals and awarded instead to English and Scottish aristocrats and investors. With the British crown now effectively in control of the island, thousands of Protestant settlers from England and Scotland relocate across the water and change the cultural landscape. Dr. Diarmid Ferriter is professor of Modern Irish History at University College Dublin.
- [08:18]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
Colonization is central to the Irish experience and it defines Ireland in so many different ways and the whole question of what it does to power relations within Ireland, people who arrive newly to Ireland, those who begin to mingle and mix with the natives. But you also have the history there of the dispossession of the natives, particularly when there are those English who are rewarded with land. In Ireland, there is also frequent conflict, but there are also those, of course, who have built their identities and their loyalties on the connection with England.
- [09:00]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
Tensions over land, religion and power persist through the centuries. Catholicism becomes aligned with Irish nationalist identity as a point of defiance against the Protestant English crown, one of many dividing lines that will run through the Irish story. In the 17th century, the politician and military leader Oliver Cromwell brings about the abolition of the English monarchy with the execution of King Charles I in 1649. Hundreds of royal supporters Flee the violence in england and regroup in Ireland, Recognizing their continued existence as a threat. Later that year, Cromwell launches an invasion with the intention of destabilizing royalist opposition and seizing catholic property. Soon, a protestant minority of only 20% of the population controls two thirds of the land. As many as half a million irish are killed by warfare, famine, and disease during cromwell's campaign. It creates a lasting cultural shift, too, with english becoming the language of business and gaelic associated with the peasant class. These waves of imperialist settlement and suppression are known as the plantations.
- [10:17]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
Well, the plantations were essentially a giant project of social engineering by english overlords and monarchs who were determined that Ireland would come to heel. So they plant newcomers in particular troubled parts of Ireland, With a view to civilizing the natives, with a view to establishing their power in Ireland so that it won't be this restless entity and this troublesome entity. And of course, plantations involved the displacement of natives, Particularly in ulster in the 17th century. They build a sense of an ulster that has previously been rebellious, that is now being tamed and is being populated with loyalists, those who are loyal to the crown. So it affects the character and the dimensions of Ulster life in a particular way.
- [11:06]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
Ireland remains one entity governed by a protestant only parliament in Dublin, which controls taxes and laws under the supervision of the british government. But following a bloody rebellion in 1798, Parliament is abolished. And at the turn of the century, the act of union brings the united kingdom of great britain and Ireland into existence.
- [11:28]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
And that was supposed to be a union of equals. That's how it was presented at the time. It wasn't about, supposedly Ireland being a colony. It was about Ireland being embraced by the union and protected by the union. And, you know, there are those who are very strongly attached to the prospect of the union, but you're also dealing with a population where there's a complete imbalance when it comes to power, when it comes to land ownership. And you have the calamitous great famine of the 1840s, which raises all sorts of questions about the union itself and the idea of a union of equals. Because the obvious question was, how were a million people left to die in the backyard, essentially, of what was then the world's richest industrial nation,
- [12:13]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
with british land seizures forcing them onto small, often poor quality plots of land. Much of the Irish population depends exclusively on a high yield potato crop. But in the 1840s, it becomes infected by blight and fails. The ensuing famine lasts for seven years, during which time the government sends little aid and continues to export food from ireland. To the British mainland. Even the man in charge of the relief effort tells Parliament in London that the famine has been sent by God to teach the rebellious Irish a lesson. Leaving a million dead. And with maybe 2 million escaping to new lives in America, it depopulates the island by up to 25%. The famine also becomes a defining moment for the Irish nationalists. Secret societies grow in popularity and resolve, some seeking land reform, others hoping for revolution. As a compromise, Home rule is passed into law in 1914, with an Irish Parliament taking some control over Ireland under British sovereignty. But the outbreak of World War I sees parliament suspended and hundreds of thousands of Irish, Catholic and Protestant, republican and Unionist, risk their lives in the trenches of northern France. But at home, there are those who believe that an armed struggle is also necessary on Irish soil to gain independence. A small group of revolutionaries seize the moment.
- [13:47]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
One of the main declarations of the rebels in 1916 is that they represent the continuity of a separatist tradition. They are a small, unrepresentative group. There is not widespread republican sentiment in Ireland in the early 20th century, but those who organized the Rising were members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. That was a secret oath bound revolutionary society that dated from the 1850s. So it's a post famine creation and it's partly as a result of the great dislocations and upheavals of the middle of the 19th century. But at the same time, there's no widespread popular sentiment for rebellion. So they have to do what they do and organize what they organize in great secrecy. They know they're not representative, but they assigned themselves that particular role of fulfilling this historic destiny to separate Ireland from Britain.
- [14:40]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
United by a common purpose. These rebels meet above a shop in what is now Parnell. It is January 1916. Shopkeeper Tom Clark whistles while he stacks a pile of newspapers on the pavement outside his tobacconists, one arm stiff from an old gunshot wound. A veteran Republican fighter, he startles when a box clatters off a cart. Years spent in English prisons for terrorist activities have left him jumpy, but he quickly recovers. He doesn't allow himself to glance up at the apartment across the road, where detectives from the Dublin Metropolitan Police are always watching. Now a motor taxi pulls up and a stylish middle aged woman gets out immediately recognizable as Countess Constance Markiewicz. Her clothing is rather theatrical, with a military style coat and contrasting feathered hat. She sets down a a small dog who scampers to greet Tom. The pair know each other well, though she is an Anglo Irish aristocrat. She is also a fervent nationalist and suffragette. Together they go into the shop, the bell tinkling above the door. For show. Tom sells the countess some cigarettes and puts the money in the till before ushering her ahead of him up the bare wooden stairs to an upstairs room. The door swings open to reveal a gathering of a handful of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Locked in intense conversation, the men rise politely to greet the countess, who they know and trust as a member of the Cuman Namman, a women's paramilitary organization. Patrick Pearce, a lawyer and teacher of the Gaelic language, sets down a chair for Markiewicz to join the debate. They respect her experience of direct action. She has served time in prison for taking part in anti royal protests and once advised the women of Ireland to sell your jewels and buy a revolver. Pierce, a heavyset man with receding hair and intense eyes, unfolds a map, talking about the best locations to stage an armed resistance. Trade union leader James Connolly speaks up now, his accent distinctly Scottish from his childhood across the water, and says, they are putting the cart before the horse. They haven't agreed when to strike yet. Bright and youthful Sean McDermotter agrees. He works for the political party Sinn Fein and knows his history. Too many attempts to overthrow the British have failed because of bad planning. They must be pragmatic as well as idealistic. Tom Clark thumps the table with his fist to second the younger man. At only 33, McDermidder has his finger on the pulse of a new generation of Republicans. Conversation flows as others speak their minds until Kathleen Clark, the shop owner's wife, claps her hands for silence. She takes out her pocketbook with a calendar inside. They need to set a date. What about Easter? The suggestion is met with general approval, especially from the poetic Patrick Pierce. Easter is about rebirth. It is symbolic. They will stage an Easter rising.
- [18:13]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
It's about resurrection. But there's also an intense religiosity to that generation. So Easter carries a particular symbolism and meaning when it comes to resurrection and when it comes to the idea of equating Ireland's struggle with the faith and with the belief.
- [18:30]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
For some, this timing will prove shocking, not because Easter is supposed to be a holy time, but because it will mean the IRB will take up arms when Britain is already at war, when Irish families themselves have men fighting in the trenches in France. But for the organizers, England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity.
- [18:52]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
Like a lot of that generation, they feel that there's a rottenness at the heart of the established order. A lot of the 1916 leaders. They Glory in the idea of a cleansing of that corruption, of that rottenness. Many of them believe in the power of blood sacrifice and the idea of redeeming Ireland's soul. And we've got to consider those who were involved in orchestrating the Rising. Some of them had a very poetic sensibility. Some of them were poets, some of them were writers, educators, dramatists. As one historian put it, as far back as the 1960s, this rising was consciously staged as a drama.
- [19:32]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
The council of the IRB who meet in the room over a tobacconist shop are unknown to most Irish people. Though they have no mandate from the wider public, they fervently believe that they speak for 800 years of Irish voices lost to oppression.
- [19:47]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
One of the main missions of those who were involved in cultural revival in the late 19th and the early 20th century is about recovery, recovery of what's been lost, recovery of what's been stolen. The idea of the Irish language as being intrinsic to a pure Irish identity or a true Irish identity that was ultimately distorted and stolen because of the newcomers, because of the invasions, because of the plantations, because of the conquest, the history that we've been talking about. And they're romantics. There's a lot of mysticism associated, I suppose, with their sense of purpose.
- [20:26]
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- [21:51]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
though the rebels have a will, they do not yet have a way to succeed. They need money and weapons and for that they need support for their struggle from the Irish diaspora, the millions descended from those who relocated to America during the famine of the 19th century. In the US the Dublin born Sir Roger Casement is entrusted with hundreds of thousands of dollars raised by sympathizers and exiles. A former British diplomat and human rights activist, he was knighted for his work exposing atrocities in the Congo and Peru. He converted to the Irish nationalist cause and became increasingly outspoken about its aims after his retirement from the British Foreign Office. Now armed with a war chest, Casement forges links with the Germans, who pledge support for the Irish rebels on the basis that the enemy of their enemy is their friend. Despite the ongoing European war, in April 1916, the Germans agreed to sell a consignment of 20,000 rifles and and 10 machine guns to the Irish rebels. The arsenal is dispatched to Ireland on a cargo ship disguised as a Norwegian vessel. But as it approaches the coastline, the British decipher German radio signals and intercept the boat. Before the ship can be towed to port and seized, the German captain scuttles the vessel with preset explosives and the rebellion's precious weapons sink into the Irish Sea. Casement is eventually captured by the British who arrest him for treason and take him to the Tower of London.
- [23:24]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
Roger Casement was fascinating. So he's an unlikely Irish rebel, but I think that's an interesting aspect of 1916. In that period there are some people who you would assume due to their background and perhaps their religion, who wouldn't be natural Irish rebels. But he has the zeal of the convert and ultimately he's arrested, so can't partake in the Rising. But you get a whole host of characters like that.
- [23:46]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
And though catastrophic, the loss of the German weapons just days before the Rising is not the only concern. The organizers from the IRB had assumed that members of the Irish Volunteers, a separate paramilitary organization of fellow nationalists, would join the rebellion once it started. But the IRB does not have a direct line to that society, which is led by one Owen McNeill. Oblivious to plans for an uprising, McNeil has coordinated gatherings of volunteers in Dublin and across the country on Easter Sunday to stage protest marches. But on this Saturday, MacNeil learns about the IRB's plans for military action. Having already made clear his opposition to the idea of an armed uprising, he realizes the mission has been deliberately kept secret from him. And when he hears about the lost German weapons, he concludes, there is no reasonable chance of success. So McNeill cancels the gatherings of volunteers and has a countermand order printed in the national newspaper, effectively ordering thousands of Irish volunteers to stay home. With no way to communicate directly with the volunteers quickly, the IRB Council delay the start of the rebellion from Easter Sunday to Easter Monday. But the damage is done. The number of potential supporters has been drastically reduced.
- [25:09]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
The original idea of the Rising was that it would be a nationwide rebellion. But because of the confusion over the countermand order, because of the failure of adequate arms to arrive, it becomes largely confined to Dublin and Dublin city centre. There are regional stirrings or uprisings in Wexford and Galway, but it's largely Dublin. And crucially, Cork does not rise in 1916, being the other significant metropolis in Ireland at that time. So you're talking about over the course of the week in Dublin, about 1500 actively fighting. It's by no means a massive uprising.
- [25:48]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
Easter Monday dawns. Patrick Pearse and his men arm themselves with outmoded but still formidable weapons and walk into the center of Dublin. Just after midday, Pierce, in his green uniform, arrives with several of the IRB council at the General Post Office, strategically identified for its role as a communications hub in a central, defensible location. The columns of the imposing classical building soar above them as they quickly overpower the British Guards. Once inside, they usher out the workers and customers. The 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 Pearse reads the carefully crafted proclamation of the Irish Republic addressed to Irishmen and Irishwomen. In 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.
- [27:34]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
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 Pierce read the Proclamation of the Republic outside the gpo, people were bewildered, if not sneering. Who 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 Pearce, he had a very noble part 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.
- [28:29]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
Five of these seven signatories hunkered down inside the GPO. Another man, Thomas McDonagh, takes up a position at the Jacobs biscuit factory, a key location commandeered to serve as a rebel garrison. Amon Cant 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.
- [29:09]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
Dublin 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 also of what would have been involved in trying to defend Dublin Castle. That was potentially much more complicated and difficult.
- [29:28]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
Elsewhere, rebels use their local knowledge to put their small number of volunteers to full effect. It 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 bricks. 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 ship shutters. Malone tries the door of number 25 and makes his way inside along with his partner Jim Grace. They'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 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. On 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 1600 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. Malone 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 through down, desperate for cover on open ground or break formation, to crawl up steps, to shelter in doorways. Gunshots 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. British 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 Foresters later report that they thought they were facing hundreds of snipers, not a last stand of one squad. The 17 rebels hold off some 1600 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. At 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 theater, 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. Though much of the action is concentrated in the capital, other skirmishes are also taking place elsewhere. In Ashbourne County Meef, a group of 60 insurgents forced 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 Dunleary. 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. Countess Constance Makievic 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 frontline in France, she digs trenches in the expectation of gunfire. But even ground defenses have are insufficient against British machine guns that go up on the nearby Shelbourn 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.
- [35:50]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
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.
- [36:20]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
By 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.
- [36:34]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
John Maxwell is sent over from London as the overseer of the suppression of the Rising, as the military governor in effect. And Maxwell realizes that this needs to be stamped out as quickly as possible. So you go heavy and you also burn them out.
- [36:51]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
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. But 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.
- [37:16]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
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. Which 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 center buildings.
- [38:02]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
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, making 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. Now aged in his late 50s, the eldest of the conspirators, he has no intention of going back inside. So when Patrick Pierce calls time on the rebellion, Tom Clark breaks down in tears.
- [39:30]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
I think there are two realizations for Pierce 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. The 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 Pearse 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.
- [40:31]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
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. At 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 Low 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, Pearce signs a document of unconditional surrender. It dictates that the other IRB commanders in Dublin and across the country must also lay down arms. Pearse 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. One 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, Ayman de Valera, and after some confusion, he too surrenders. The Easter Rising is over. In the immediate aftermath, as the British round up the rebels, there is little sympathy for their cause from their compatriots. In 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.
- [42:52]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
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. And that's where it becomes clear that they don't quite have a grasp on who actually has been involved in this.
- [43:21]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
Nevertheless, the British try the ringleaders, and many are sentenced to death. On May 3, 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 Clark, is executed, along with a third signatory, Thomas McDonagh. May 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. The executions continue day after day until, by May 12, 15 men have been killed. Thousands more languish in prison, where they will be incarcerated for months. Countess Markiewicz 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,
- [44:28]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
you 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. So 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 with. 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 Pierce, who was the younger brother of Patrick, who was really only executed because he was Patrick's brother. But 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.
- [45:32]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
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. An independent Republic of Ireland.
- [46:07]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
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 wide 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 tricolor 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. So even the symbolism and the iconography around the republic is changing.
- [46:43]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
With the death of the Home Rule movement, people looked to alternatives. The small Sinn Fein 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 Fein 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 Fein becomes a catch all term used by the police and British media to label separatists and nationalists. One 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 Fein.
- [47:40]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
We often talk in the modern era about brand recognition. Sinn Fein's as a description, as a name, is suddenly elevated in popular usage. And the question for them is, can Sinn Fein now seek to make political capital out of the 1916 Rising, even though they weren't involved involved in organizing it. And then, of course, there's the general election in 1918, which is the first general election since 1910. And Sinn Fein routs the Irish parliamentary party.
- [48:07]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
Sinn Fein'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 refused to attend a British parliament in western Westminster. Instead, they meet in Dublin with the new assembly of Ireland, known in Gaelic as D'. Oleirin. 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. There is an impasse. Sinn Fein refuses to recognize British rule. Ulster refuses to be governed by the d'. Oleiren. 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. Six 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 Pearse 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.
- [50:23]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
So 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. And 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.
- [51:16]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
Next time on Short History, we'll bring you a short history of longitude.
- [51:22]
Dr. Diarmid Ferriter
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.
- [51:45]
Narrator (John Hopkins)
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 Noizr. Just hit the link in the episode description or head to www.noiza.comsubscriptions to unlock more episodes.