Criminal
02-27-2002, 10:02 PM
This is a timely topic with the approach of Easter.
On Easter Monday, 1916 a group of determined men seized the Post Office and other public buildings in Dublin Ireland. They proclaimed Ireland a Republic and submitted a list of demands. What followed was a weeklong struggle between this group, known as the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the security forces of the British Army and the Royal Irish Constibery. The Irish group were led by Patrick Pearse, a young idealist who sought to seperate the island of Ireland from the Brittish Crown. This occured as Britian was embroiled in WW 1. It occurred at the very same time as the battle of the Somme, at a time when both British and Irish troops were fighting in the trenches of France.
Who were these men and what did they fight for?
They were a united group of men, actually two factions of men brought together to fight for "One Ireland United and Free". One faction, the Irish Brotherhood was led by Patrick Pearse and Joe Clark. They were Irish nationalists who hoped to revive Irish culture. In recent years their activities turned more political and more violent. The other group was a more working class fraction, called the Citizen's Army, led by their charasmatic leader, John Connely.
The aims of both groups was the independence of their homeland from British rule, for the first time since the 13th century. This was a cause long fought. After the protestant reformation in Britian, the Irish peasants retained their Catholicism. To cause a greater rift between Irish Catholics and their Protestent overloards, the British Crown forbade Catholics from owning land. This led to a developement of a class of absentee landowners and impoverished catholic tenent farmers. Catholics could not own land, travel freely or vote.
In the early 19th century, Catholics were emancipated and the irish and british parlements were united. All the same this was a mixed blessing. Irish were still the most impoverished people of the realm. In 1847, a potato blight destroyed ireland's main crop, thousands starved to death. Others left the country never to return.
The indifference shown to the Irish by the british parlement led to a new desire for independence as well as for land and an end to absentee landlordship. The late 19th century saw the birth of the Finean movement. This was marked by acts of terror on both sides.
The first world war saw an oportunity for the Irish to get their long awaited independence. Some such as Sir John Redmond saw cooperation with Britian in its war effort as the key to independence. Others took a different approach.
Before the rebellion, an agent for the Irish rebels, Sir Roger Casement had been actively smuggling arms to Ireland from Germany. Thought most Irish nationalists disliked the notion of collaberation with the Germans, using the slogan "neither king nor kaiser".
Casement arrived off the coast of Irelend in a German Submarine and was seized by the British.
The rebellion did continue until the British forces under Gereral Sir Henry Maxwell gained the upper hand and the Irish realizing that further resistance was useless surrendered.
Following the rebellion, 9 leaders, including Pearse, Connaly and Clark were executed without trial. They were shot and to make sure they were dead a second shot was administered to the head. The executions were ordered personally by General Maxwell.
Sir Roger Casement was hanged in Britian for Treason.
The Rebellion of 1916 was doomed from the beginning. The Rebels had no hope of winning. Even among Irish Catholics their cause was not popular. This was particularly true as so many of their bretheren were fighting in Belgium and France.
All the same it did first raise the awareness of the cause for Irish Republicanism. Though the cause was not a popular one, the execution of the 9 martyrs of 1916 caused widespread sympathy. This was seen by many as the beginning of the Irish Republic which lives on today.
Source:
"Rebels" by Peter De Rosa
On Easter Monday, 1916 a group of determined men seized the Post Office and other public buildings in Dublin Ireland. They proclaimed Ireland a Republic and submitted a list of demands. What followed was a weeklong struggle between this group, known as the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the security forces of the British Army and the Royal Irish Constibery. The Irish group were led by Patrick Pearse, a young idealist who sought to seperate the island of Ireland from the Brittish Crown. This occured as Britian was embroiled in WW 1. It occurred at the very same time as the battle of the Somme, at a time when both British and Irish troops were fighting in the trenches of France.
Who were these men and what did they fight for?
They were a united group of men, actually two factions of men brought together to fight for "One Ireland United and Free". One faction, the Irish Brotherhood was led by Patrick Pearse and Joe Clark. They were Irish nationalists who hoped to revive Irish culture. In recent years their activities turned more political and more violent. The other group was a more working class fraction, called the Citizen's Army, led by their charasmatic leader, John Connely.
The aims of both groups was the independence of their homeland from British rule, for the first time since the 13th century. This was a cause long fought. After the protestant reformation in Britian, the Irish peasants retained their Catholicism. To cause a greater rift between Irish Catholics and their Protestent overloards, the British Crown forbade Catholics from owning land. This led to a developement of a class of absentee landowners and impoverished catholic tenent farmers. Catholics could not own land, travel freely or vote.
In the early 19th century, Catholics were emancipated and the irish and british parlements were united. All the same this was a mixed blessing. Irish were still the most impoverished people of the realm. In 1847, a potato blight destroyed ireland's main crop, thousands starved to death. Others left the country never to return.
The indifference shown to the Irish by the british parlement led to a new desire for independence as well as for land and an end to absentee landlordship. The late 19th century saw the birth of the Finean movement. This was marked by acts of terror on both sides.
The first world war saw an oportunity for the Irish to get their long awaited independence. Some such as Sir John Redmond saw cooperation with Britian in its war effort as the key to independence. Others took a different approach.
Before the rebellion, an agent for the Irish rebels, Sir Roger Casement had been actively smuggling arms to Ireland from Germany. Thought most Irish nationalists disliked the notion of collaberation with the Germans, using the slogan "neither king nor kaiser".
Casement arrived off the coast of Irelend in a German Submarine and was seized by the British.
The rebellion did continue until the British forces under Gereral Sir Henry Maxwell gained the upper hand and the Irish realizing that further resistance was useless surrendered.
Following the rebellion, 9 leaders, including Pearse, Connaly and Clark were executed without trial. They were shot and to make sure they were dead a second shot was administered to the head. The executions were ordered personally by General Maxwell.
Sir Roger Casement was hanged in Britian for Treason.
The Rebellion of 1916 was doomed from the beginning. The Rebels had no hope of winning. Even among Irish Catholics their cause was not popular. This was particularly true as so many of their bretheren were fighting in Belgium and France.
All the same it did first raise the awareness of the cause for Irish Republicanism. Though the cause was not a popular one, the execution of the 9 martyrs of 1916 caused widespread sympathy. This was seen by many as the beginning of the Irish Republic which lives on today.
Source:
"Rebels" by Peter De Rosa