“Sacrifice
is a part of life. It's supposed to be. It's not something to regret. It's
something to aspire to.” Mitch Albom.
At the
centenary of the Easter Rising and the second year of the Great War, we can
perhaps ask ourselves how true is the above quote? Is sacrifice always
desirable and should it never be regretted? The year 1916 was a year of
sacrifice, as across Europe and the World a futile conflict saw the shameful
waste of the flower of youth. From numerous countries young men and women
became involved in a conflagration of then unprecedented proportions, the first
truly global conflict, the First World War.
Ireland
had been unsettled for decades if not centuries, civil disobedience, violence
and open rebellion were a symptom of the disquiet. The wish for independence,
even if not universally supported, was never far from the surface of Irish
society. It is perhaps a cliché to describe Ireland in 1916 as a powder keg
awaiting ignition but it is an apt description which captures the mood of the
times.
The Rising
began on Easter Monday the 24th of April 1916 and lasted for six
days. Patrick Pearse led the Irish Volunteers, they were joined by the Irish
Citizen Army of James Connolly and approximately 200 members of Cumann na mBan.
Together they seized key locations in Dublin and proclaimed the Irish Republic,
making the General Post Office of Dublin their headquarters.
The
military commander of the rising was James Connolly and the four other members
of the Military Council were Patrick Pearse, Tom Clarke, Seán Mac Dermott and
Joseph Plunkett. It was Patrick Pearse who standing on the steps of the General
Post Office and surrounded by his comrades, read the proclamation of the
Provisional Government of the Irish republic to the People of Ireland:
“Irishman and
Irishwomen: In the name of God 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.
Having organized and
trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organization, the Irish
Republican Brotherhood, and through her open military organizations, the Irish
Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her
discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she
now seizes that moment, and, supported by her exiled children in America and by
gallant allies in Europe, but relying in the first on her own strength, she
strikes in full confidence of victory.
We declare the right
of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered
control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long
usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not
extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the
destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have
asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the
past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that
fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we
hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State. And we
pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its
freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations.
The Irish Republic is
entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irish
woman. The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and
equal opportunities of all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the
happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing
all the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences
carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority in the
past.
Until our arms have
brought the opportune moment for the establishment of a permanent National
Government, representative of the whole people of Ireland and elected by the
suffrages of all her men and women, the Provision Government, hereby
constituted, will administer the civil and military affairs of the Republic in
trust for the people.
We place the cause of
the Irish Republic under the protection of the Most High God, Whose blessing we
invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will
dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the
Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline and by the readiness of its
children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of
the august destiny to which it is called. Signed on behalf of the Provisional
Government”
The proclamation itself was signed by Thomas J. Clarke, Sean
Mac Diermada, Thomas Macdonagh, P.H.Pearse, Eamonn Ceannt, James Connolly and
Joseph Plunkett. The document was dated Easter Monday, April 24th 1916.
The
rebels seized a variety of key points within Dublin but failed in securing others
due partly to lack of numbers and partly, due to some disorganisation. Outside
of the Dublin the Rising was small, uncoordinated and bar one or two notable
exceptions (such as the Ashbourne Rising of County Neath), failed to cause the
British establishment any major discomfort. This left Dublin as centre stage
for a tragedy that has affected Anglo-Irish relations ever since.
The
first day was typified by only sporadic fighting, as the British were left
unprepared, taken by surprise, they at first responded to the emergency with
investigatory patrols. The death toll therefore remained relatively small on
that first day but the tally would inevitably grow. The first civilian causality
is believed to have been a uniformed nurse by the name of Margaret Keogh. She
was shot accidently by British troops during an engagement near the South
Dublin Union Workhouse.
By
Tuesday evening the British response became a more coordinated and determined
operation, martial law was declared and command handed over to Brigadier-General
Lowe. Lowe was unsure of the numbers involved in the uprising and his response
was slow, careful but planned. Identified Rebel strongpoints were over the
course of the next few days bombarded and frontal attacks became better
coordinated. The Rebels were no less lacking in their determination and the
death toll including that of civilians, climbed alarmingly.
During
the course of the week British troops arrived from England to join reinforcements
transferred from outside Dublin. This would eventually bring Lowe’s force to
16,000 men, the Rebel numbers are unlikely to have exceeded 1,500. Selected Rebel
positions were bombarded by the patrol vessel ‘Helga’ on the River Liffey and as
the weekend approached, the position of the Rebels had become untenable. The surrender
which came on Saturday the 29th of April 1916 was perhaps inevitable.
The
Easter Rebellion was by those within the British establishment regarded as a
betrayal. An act of treason when the Empire itself was threatened, locked in a
life and death struggle with other Imperial powers. The alternative perspective
was to regard the war on the Western Front and elsewhere, as a waste of human
life in a conflict devoid of meaning.
Sixteen
surviving members of the Rising were tried and executed over the course of the
coming weeks. This included all seven signatories of the Declaration of Independence
and the younger brother of Patrick Pearse. Willie Pearse played only a minor
role in the Rising and his execution has often been described as an act of British
revenge.
This failure
to recognise those involved in the Rising as prisoners of war, together with
alleged British war crimes that included the shooting of non-combatants, such
as the pacifist politician Francis Sheehy-Skeffington; did serious harm to the
British position at home and abroad. Public opinion in Ireland itself, which
originally was not universally supportive of the Rising, changed perceivably in
the coming weeks.
This perceived
heavy handling of the aftermath of the Rising by the British authorities,
resulted in a swing towards support for an independent Ireland and a radicalisation
of Irish youth. These and other factors that brought about an ever increasing
anti-British feeling, would eventually lead to the Irish War of Independence.
The
Easter Rising was a declaration of the right to self-determination by a nation
and its people. Today when we see the discussion of International Trade
Agreements and the future of the European Union, that principle is as relevant
today as it was in 1916.
Prior
to the Easter Rising, the Irish people had made numerous sacrifices for their
nation. The Rising, the following War of Independence and the resulting Civil
War, would see many, many more. The Emerald Ireland had been awash in blood for
centuries and would be for years to come.
The
sacrifice of those who fought in the Rising, were executed later and those that
would die in the future wars, is a tangible part of Irish culture today. To
understand Irish spirituality, one need only look at how the people of Ireland view
their past. It is in folklore, myth and legend, that the Irish Gods and Saints
are remembered, venerated and celebrated.
Yet
equally an intrinsic part of Irish culture, is an awareness of the ‘Ancestors’
in blood and in spirit. From the ancient monuments of Ireland’s Iron Age past
to the wars of the twentieth century, the people of today remember the people
of the past. The Seven who signed the Declaration of Independence, those nine
others that were executed with them and those that died in the Rising, have
joined the ‘Ancestors’ and today hold a place of special veneration for the
modern Irish Nation. There are many nations that could learn from Ireland, how
to stand with pride with one eye on the past and another on the future.
