Charles Townshend, ‘Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion (original) (raw)
What was the short term significance of the Easter Rising?
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland in 1916, mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire, including many Irishmen, were heavily engaged in the First World War. Organised by the military wing of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, with significant contribution from Patrick Pearse of the Irish Volunteers and James Connolly of the Irish Citizen Army, the Rising lasted from the 24th April, Easter Monday, to 30 April 1916. The rebels managed to seize key locations in Dublin, and optimistically declared an independent Irish Republic . The Rising was suppressed after seven days of fighting and its leaders were court martialled and executed, but the rebellion succeeded in bringing confrontational republicanism back to the forefront of Irish minds.
Easter Rising Ireland 1916: Classroom Resources
The Easter Rising in Ireland in 1916 -- with the declaration of an IRISH REPUBLIC in Dublin, independence from Great Britain, then the world's largest Empire and in the midst of war with Germany -- was a truly extraordinary event. The article presents ideas and links for introducing and teaching the Easter Rising in the Bulgarian EFL classroom, especially with a comparative focus on parallels in Irish and Bulgarian national history, and links to its centennial recently in the Irish Republic. The Easter Rising in April 1916 has its counterpart in the Bulgarian Rising in April 1876 against Ottoman rule, almost exactly 40 years to the day earlier, its 140th anniversary recently commemorated across Bulgaria.
Ó hAdhmaill F. (2019) The Easter Rising (1916) in Ireland and its Historical Context: The Campaign for an Irish Democracy. In: Ness I., Cope Z. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism. Palgrave Macmillan, ChamSocial Science Research Network, 2019
This entry in the The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism focuses on the Easter Rising in Ireland (1916), its causes, and its impact nationally and internationally. As such, this is a study of the development of resistance to British colonial rule in Ireland, the beginnings of Irish republicanism, its challenges to existing power structures such as the Catholic Church, the landowning, and emerging capitalist class and the British Empire, and the resulting tensions and conflicts which emerged within the Irish population and between it and British political and strategic interests. It also discusses the legacy of the Rising and its aftermath in relation to Ireland’s place within the world, the continuing uncertainty and unresolved issues around conflict, and peace within Ireland and Anglo-Irish relations today.
This article was written for the Irish military history magazine 'Reveille' in a special commemorative issue published for the Centenary of the Easter Rising in 2016.
2012
Transforming 1916 explores the meaning and memory of the Easter Rising in 1966 and the way in which history operated in Ireland at a moment of rapid change. Transforming 1916 looks at the commemorative process through parades, statues, pageants, television programmes, exhibitions and documentary film; and considers the tensions present north and south of the border. It argues that the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising was not, in fact, an unrestrained celebration of Ireland's past but represented instead an attempt by the Irish government to convey a message of modernisation and economic progress. Transforming 1916 casts light on what 1916 means in Ireland and illuminates the politics of commemoration as the centenary of the Rising approaches.
Irish History Review
Mirian Nyhan Grey (ed), Ireland's Allies: America and the 1916 Easter Rising (UCD Press, 2016, 400 pp, €40 HB, ISBN 978-1-91082-013-1) In the opening paragraph of his foreword to this lavishly produced volume, Professor J.J. Lee ponders how historians should approach the Easter Rising of 1916. He proffers an answer by way of asking another simple question: 'why do I think what I think about this?' What Professor Lee is asking is for rudimentary critical reflection on why particular narratives dominate and how have they been constructed over the years. Why do we think of 1916 in the way that we do and how has the commemorative extravaganza of 2016 reshaped what we know and what has been remembered/forgotten, emphasised/ignored or refashioned/distorted at both official and unofficial levels. Professor Lee's challenge is one that historians too easily avoid. (Remember that quip: History doesn't repeat itself, historians repeat one another). At a moment when both public and disciplinary certainties of 'truth' and 'facts' are under threat, then deeper interrogation of the structure of what, how and why we think about what actually happened is urgent. So, as I read through the twenty four essays comprising this book, I upheld this question as a kind of critical touchstone.