Remembering the Easter Rising has never been a straightforward business. The first anniversary of the insurrection, commemorated at the ruins of the General Post Office on Easter Monday, 1917, descended into a riot. This year its centenary has been marked by dignified ceremonies, the largest public history and cultural event ever staged in Ireland and, in Northern Ireland, political discord, and menacing shows of paramilitary strength. Over the past century, the Rising’s divisiveness has remained its most salient feature.
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This past Easter marked the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, an armed uprising by Irish rebels against British rule in 1916. An insurrection that lasted almost a week, the Easter Rising began as a small rebellion on Easter Sunday and turned into a full uprising by Easter Monday, 24 April 1916. Rebels seized prominent buildings in the city of Dublin, took up arms against British troops, and declared Ireland as a republic and independent from the United Kingdom. However, the rebels were quickly overpowered and surrendered. Although the uprising had little Irish support at first, the execution of rebellion leaders transformed public opinion about British rule and as a result, became a turning point during Ireland’s struggle for independence.
In this month’s episode of The Oxford Comment, host Sara Levine chats with William Murphy, author of Political Imprisonment and the Irish, 1912-1921; Fearghal McGarry, author of The Rising (Centenary Edition): Ireland: Easter 1916; and Robert Schmuhl, author of Ireland’s Exiled Children: America and the Easter Rising. Together, they engage in fascinating conversation about the experience of women during the Easter Rising, the cultural and national identity that was forged between the rebels in prison after the uprising, and the role Americans played as support and inspiration for the Irish.
Featured image credit: The shell of the G.P.O. on Sackville Street (later O’Connell Street), Dublin in the aftermath of the 1916 Rising. Date: May? 1916 NLI Ref.: Ke 121. Photo by Keogh Brothers Ltd., photographers. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
The post The Easter Rising – Episode 33 – The Oxford Comment appeared first on OUPblog.
The Easter Rising of 1916 not only destroyed much of the center of Dublin – it changed the course of Irish history. Yet basic questions about why the event occurred continue to divide historians. In The Rising: Ireland: Easter 1916, by Fearghal McGarry, we learn about 
the uprising from the perspective of those who made it. McGarry makes use of a collection of over 1,700 eye-witness statements detailing the political activities of members of Sinn Féin and militant groups such as the Irish Republican Brotherhood. In the excerpt below, we learn first-hand how it felt to walk off to war that morning.
The insurrection could not have begun in a more chaotic manner. Mobilizers received less than an hour’s notice to alert their companies, a process that normally took at least four hours. At 10 a.m. Liam Archer received an order to mobilize his section of the company – for 10 a.m.: “My first two calls at Jones Road and Clonliffe Road drew blanks, both members had gone out for the day. At this point the motor cycle combination broke down…I set off on foot for Blackhall Place, giving up the idea of mobilising my Section’. Seán Kennedy ‘only contacted those within reasonable walking distance’. John Kenny ignored the mobilization order he received, joining his friends on an outing as ‘we were still sore about the fiasco of the previous day’. The Third Battalion’s quartermaster told his mobilizer that he (like many other Volunteers and British army soldiers) was going to the Grand National horse race at Fairyhouse: ‘I said to him: “What will the battalion do, they are depending on you?” He said they would have to get a horse and car’. In contrast, more zealous Volunteers were delighted that the day had finally come. Annie Cooney recalled the excitement of Christy Byrne and Con Colbert, a former Chief Scout of the Fianna, who had devoted years of activism to bringing about an insurrection:
During the time I was buckling him up Con-who had not a note in his head-was singing ‘For Tone is coming back again’ he was so excited and charmed that at last the fight was coming off. He thought of nothing else. The pair went off, wheeling their bicycles which were loaded up with pikes, their rifles and small arms.
For many, the Rising was a family affair: fathers, brothers, sisters (and the occasional mother) fighting together. Michael O’Flanagan was mobilized with his father and two brothers, one of whom was killed. Molly Reynolds was joined by her father and three brothers. Some parents were prepared to sacrifice their children for the cause. Pat Fox thrust his young son-who was killed the following day-towards Frank Robbins as the rebels marched from Liberty Hall: ‘Here is my lad; take him with you for the Irish Citizen Army. I am too old for the job’. Some parents were willing to sacrifice themselves, leaving their children behind. After the Rising, John MacDonagh ‘was struck by the sight of a wife keeping step with her husband, Séamus Murphy, both prisoners. I knew both of them, and knew they had left their young children at home’. Some were motivated to fight because of their children, as one eld
