Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion

Few events in modern Irish history are as pivotal as the "Easter Rising", the dramatic seizure of the General Post Office and other parts of Dublin that marked the declaration of the Irish Republic. Yet for decades the event has never received the thorough examination it deserves, due in part, as Charles Townshend observes in his preface to this fine book, to the long-standing reticence to release the oral histories of the event contained within the archives of the Bureau of Military History. Their release in 2003 provides the best opportunity yet to study the uprising, and Townshend has risen to the challenge by providing a penetrating examination of the origins and the impact of the Rising. Townshend traces the origins of the Rising to the development and definition of Irish identity in the late nineteenth century. Here the breadth of his examination is immediately apparent, as he moves beyond the political to study the role that the cultural movement known as the Celtic rising played in inspiring Irish nationalists to challenge British rule. A key figure bridging between the cultural and the political was Patrick Pearse, the president of the provisional republic claimed in the aftermath of the seizure of the General Post Office. By delving into Pearse's past as a nationalist consumed with freeing Ireland not only from British political domination but its cultural domination as well, he illustrates just how important the cultural component was in inspiring the nationalists and driving them towards action. Yet Irish politics in those years was dominated not by nationalism but the issue of Home Rule. Here Townshend focuses on the reaction to the Home Rule measure in Ireland, which catalyzed Unionist resistance in the north to the devolution of Irish government. The formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force, in turn, inspired southern nationalists to form their own armed group, the Irish Volunteers, a movement quickly subsumed by the Irish Parliamentary Party into their organization. Yet the outbreak of the First World War and the decision by Irish parliamentary leader John Redmond to support the war split the Irish Volunteers and came to undermine his standing. The nationalist Irish Volunteers that broke away from main group were themselves divided over the next step, however. As they gained in standing with the growing unpopularity of Redmond's decision, Pearse and other members sought to take advantage of Britain's difficulty to throw off her rule of Ireland. Given the attitudes of the Volunteer leadership, such planning had to take place in secrecy, and one of the great strengths of this book is Townshend's laudable effort to wade into the confused jumble of half-hidden events to detail the evolution of the Rising. What was initially envisioned as a nationwide rebellion quickly became a Dublin-centric event that would take advantage of a planned Easter Sunday mobilization to strike against British rule. The last-minute efforts by

This book was very informative about the history of the Irish "Troubles." The information was well researched and it flowed in such a way as to make it easier to understand without being overly simplistic. At times the military information was so detailed that the flow was slowed a little. This is, however, the most concise book I've read on the subject and leaves the reader with a more comfortable understanding of the basis of a very complex political issue.

Charles Townshend has written a fairly good book on the Irish Easter Rebellion of 1916. Meticulously researched and quite informative; any reader interested by the events will enjoy the book. Yet on a larger level this book doesn't completely satisfy its readers, because it is essentially a political and military history of events that were more than simply a matter of politics and military science. What brought men and women to stage an uprising that they knew couldn't succeed, and would lead to their leaders' executions? Was it patriotism? Was it frustration with their lot? This is where the events around that week no longer are the exclusive domain of historians, but also of dramatists and psychologists. This lack brought to mind Macaulay's observations on the Irish: "The Irish were distinguished by qualities which tend to make men interesting rather than prosperous. They were an ardent and impetuous race, easily moved to tears or to laughter, to fury or to love. Alone among the nations of northern Europe they had the susceptibility, the vivacity, the natural turn for acting and rhetoric, which are indigenous on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea...The genius, with which her aboriginal inhabitants were largely endowed showed itself as yet only in ballads which wild and rugged as they were, seemed to the judging eye of Spenser to contain a portion of the pure gold of poetry." A book that would adequately capture this element of the Irish soul would be a truly amazing book, as it is, this is "only" a good book.

Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion is essential for any who would understand the history of Ireland: it changed millions of lives forever and this new coverage traces these changes, re-creating the social and political scene of the times. From the roots of Irish insurgents who occupied Dublin as the British waged war on them to leaders who made a difference, Easter 1916 summarizes some forty years of scholarship on the topic, adding its own dramatic flair and insights - and even the Bureau of Military History records which contains testimony from survivors. A quite vivid re-enactment of events results.