Ireland 1916 Resources: Home

The book of the major events, the major players and the consequences of this historic moment in Irish history are illuminated by Tim Pat Coogan¿s authoritative text and by historic photographic material.

On Easter Monday 1916, while much of Dublin holidayed at the seaside and placed bets at the horse races, a disciplined group of Irish Volunteers seized the city s General Post Office in what would become the defining act of rebellion against British rule and the most significant single event in modern Irish history. By week s end, the rebels had surrendered, and the siege had left the once magnificent GPO an empty shell and turned it into the most famous and deeply symbolic building in all of Ireland."

The story of the Easter Rising of 1916 from the perspective of those who made it, focusing on the experiences of rank and file revolutionaries. The book makes use of a unique collection of over 1,700 eye-witness statements that has only recently seen the light of day, representing one of the richest and most comprehensive oral history archives devoted to any modern revolution. Using this unique source, McGarry shows how people from ordinary backgrounds becamepoliticized and involved in the struggle for Irish independence in the early years of the twentieth century, illuminating their motives and aspirations and highlighting the importance of the Great War as acatalyst for the uprising. He concludes by exploring the Rising's revolutionary aftermath, which saw the creation of an Irish parliament, Dáil Éireann, and the Irish Republican Army's armed campaign to win independence.

This timely introduction presents a clear, balanced account of the rapid and complex events from 1880 leading up to the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922.