The_1916_Irish_Easter_Rebellion

THE 1916 EASTER RISING: ONE MISTAKE AFTER THE OTHER Beginning in the 12th century with the invasion of Ireland by Norman knights belonging to England, Ireland has been a divided nation, struggling for independence whilst pushing to remain under the rule of Britain at the same time. Turbulent violence and conflict erupted as a result of this division of the nation, one clash in particular of many being the Easter Rebellion of 1916. A major question which could be asked about this particular rebellion is why it wasn’t a successful liberation. The Fact is that Uncertainty and hesitation about the uprising was ripe and a number reasons including multiple misfortunes along with being vastly outnumbered all contributed to the over-all failure of the revolution. Since the beginning of their occupation through to present day, the people of Ireland have held a strong stance on the colonisation, politics and religions of the country which has resulted in civil conflict with some supporting the situation and most strongly opposing. Times were rough for Irish Catholics but at the dawn of the 17th century, living conditions started to decline at a much fiercer rate. As time progressed and this trend continued, Ireland became more and more obviously divided, with the catholic population being discriminated against and mistreated due to the fear that equality for Catholics would almost certainly guarantee Independence for Ireland. There were a number of attempted uprisings which occurred before the Easter Rebellion, all of which resulted in severe consequences for the Catholic-Irish population of the. The uprising of 1641-42 was crushed by Oliver Cromwell, a political and military power in England at the time who would later be declared “Lord Protector” of the Commonwealth, including Ireland. A second Uprising was attempted in 1688 and continued for 3 years. In the July of 1690 King William sent his army to crush the Catholic resistance in Ireland once again in a ruthless conflict known as the battle of the Boyne. 100 years later another attempted revolution was carried out by a group called the United Irishmen, organised by their protestant leader Wolfe Tone, driven by the inspiration of the French revolution and supported by the French themselves. As all the previous attempts it was foiled with a large number of supporters being shipped and condemned to Australia. Closely following this devastating blow, England decided to put forth ‘The Act of Union’ which literally forced all Irish Catholics out of any parliamentary positions to be elected and replaced by wealthy and important Protestants. ‘The Catholic Emancipation Act’ of 1829 overruled the previous legislation restricting Catholic sittings within the English parliament, but the grip of British imperialism was ever tightening. Another conflict erupted in 1867 with the ‘Fenian Rising’. This was formulated by the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) a very secretive nationalist organisation, otherwise known as the Fenians, who were established in 1858, but takeover plan failed and the effort was obliterated by British forces within the first night. By this time Britain was well aware of the persistence and patriotism of the Irish Catholics but the long difficult struggle for the suffering majority of the Irish population was far from over. In the lead up to the Easter Rising it’s self, Ireland was on the brink of Civil war over the issue of Home rule. A home rule bill was passed in the House of Commons in 1912 but was delayed by the upper house for 2 years. The Protestants bitterly resented this and The Orange Order, a Protestant and Ulster Unionist Militia, Became their backbone. With 35,000 guns strong, they were ready to fiercely fight any kind of Home Rule Legislation actually being implicated and put into action. Just as prepared were the Irish Volunteers, who were pro-home rule, to fight FOR its implementation. By this time, World War 1 had begun and had become the main global focus. Both sides willingly agreed to give their support by donating their military power to the crown and to the British war effort. However, there were divided opinions amongst the Irish Volunteers and the decision was made to split the force into two separate groups. The National Volunteers, led by John Redmond, who aided the British throughout the war were pro-Home rule, but not pro-Independence. On the other hand there were The Irish Volunteers led by Eoin MacNeill, a group who were determined to put pressure on the British to make sure that Home Rule was put into action after the war as well as opposing attempts of conscription. Yet another division occurred within the Irish Volunteers, who stayed behind in Ireland during the war with the split between MacNeill and his followers who believed that the Military force should remain strong to put pressure on the British government but solely for defence purposes and Patrick Pearse, a member of the discreet IRB. Pearse believed that the war would provide a weak period for Britain and would be perfect conditions for a violent uprising, although he never expected it to succeed. He saw it as a turning point at which the Irish people would become aware of the need to struggle for Independence. Because of previous infiltrations of Irish Revolutionary groups from the British and the fact that MacNeill was very specific about not using their military power for an uprising, the IRB made the decision to infiltrate the Irish Volunteers in order to gain supporters for the cause. The three IRB members operating within the Volunteers where Pearse who was director of military organisation for the militia, Thomas McDonagh who was director of training and Joseph Plunkett who did not actually become an IRB member until 1 year before the rising. There was one other IRB member who was part of the Volunteers but the due to the extreme secrecy of the operation, not even he was aware of what was simmering in front of his very nose. In fact, the supreme council of the IRB its self was left in the blue about certain decisions. The planning of the takeover was left to the military council, an off branch of the supreme council. The Easter Rising was now set in concrete. The second issue that needed to be addressed after supporters was the supply of arms. There were minimal amounts of weapons throughout the ranks of the Volunteers and not nearly enough to overthrow a government. As the war raged, Irish Nationalists and Nazi Germany became aware that they were fighting a common enemy, and that it would be beneficial to both parties if Germany provided the supplies that the IRB needed. A German ship set sail for the shores of South-West Ireland carrying its precious cargo of 20,000 rifles, five times that number of ammunition and ten machine guns, but problems started to arise. A misunderstanding between factions meant that the shipment was sent 4 days early. On top of this was the fact that American intelligence agencies had intercepted a secret message, which was then passed on to British intelligence, asking for the shipment to be delivered on Easter Sunday. Due to the German ship not having proper communication, it cruised into British waters with no knowledge of the ambush and was met by the Royal Navy. Sir Roger Casement who was in charge of the whole operation was then arrested after landing in Ireland. The Third issue facing the IRB was the mobilisation of the troops without the knowledge of MacNeill. To get around this obstacle, the IRB forged a document which MacNeill received stating that the British Army was intending on disarming the Volunteers. Pearse knew that this would incline Macneill to act in ‘defence’. MacNeill soon realised that he was being used but despite this fact continued his involvement. Once the IRB and the Volunteers became aware that their shipment of supplies had been lost, Macneill Countermanded the mobilisation, which at this time was scheduled for Sunday. By this time defeat was imminent, but the IRB decided to continue with the Insurrection with the forces they had left which included James Connelly’s Irish Citizen’s Army (ICA) who intended on undertaking a revolution anyway. It alone however, was only a very small force of approximately 200. On the Easter Monday, 24th of April 1916 at noon, a force of 150 rebels stormed the General Post Office in central Dublin. The plan was to gain control of a number of important and strategic places within the area including the City Hall, The College of Surgeons, St Stevens Green and a number of other locations. Following the takeover of the GPO, the new proclamation, signed by the new provisional government, was read by Pearce. Following this public announcement, forces continued to move up and take over strategic points so they had a good general over-view from every direction of possible attack. Although British Intelligence had knowledge of the Insurrection, It was not until the next day that England responded with a counter attack. The Violent clash lasted for 5 turbulent, bloody days until eventually on the cold morning of the 29th of April, after being bombarded by artillery, tackling countless battalions, and being out numbered 5 to 1, the crushed and utterly devastated resistance surrendered. The rebels took the majority of the blame for the atrocities that occurred during the week long battle including many civilian casualties. An after action report stated that: “Under the circumstances related above I consider the troops as a whole behaved with the greatest restraint, and carried out their disagreeable and distasteful duties in a manner which reflects the greatest credit on their discipline.” Even though a British Officer who was later found to be criminally insane murdered several civilians in cold blood. The Irish Rebels still received the blame for the violence despite all this. Yet when James Connolly, Joseph Plunkett, Thomas Clarke and Patrick Pearce along with several others were executed by firing squad soon after the surrender, Irish and British people of both Protestant and Catholic religion completely horrified. In Conclusion, the Easter Rising failed miserably as a physical change of governments. This was due to lack of organisation, Hesitation, Misunderstanding and opposing a much greater force without enough preparation, but as it was intended by Patrick Pearce and the IRB, it opened the eyes of many Irish citizens of the importance of struggling for independence as a nation and in that, it was a success. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Darlington, Robert Turning points: Modern History Depth Studies First published in 2002, Victoria 3207 2. www.goireland.about.com/od/historyculture/a/easter1916.htm 3. www.easter1916.net/ 4. www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/easterrising/ 5. http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/apr06/page6.html 6. www.1916rising.com/ -------------------------------------------- [ 1 ]. The Proclamation of the Irish Republic created and signed by the agreed provisional goverment- 1916 [ 2 ]. After Action Report written by Major General Sir John Maxwell- 1916 [ 3 ]. Darlington Robert, Turning Points: Modern History Depth Studies, First Published in 2002, Victoria 3207