The Easter Uprising

The Easter Uprising

Ireland was filled with nationalistic views that had set in around the 1890’s. The Irish were tired of the English occupation in Ireland and they were tired of the Protestant religious oppression of Catholics. So this is when Patrick Pearse and James Connolly led a band of around 1,200 Irish Nationalists on Easter Monday into a rebellion against the English, who occupied Ireland at the time. The uprising began the day after Easter, 1916. The rebels took control of the General Post Office and held out for six days. This was a great try by the Irish but it was not a success. “Although the Rising itself ended in failure, it left behind a tradition of struggle that had far-reaching consequences." (Marxist) This quote by Ted Grant sums up the end of the rising, for what he says is true, it was a failure but had more effects than just a L in the win/loss column for the Irish people. As one person puts it, there were many losses in all “ Between January 1917 and July 1923 , well over 7,500 people were killed or wounded, in a country that murder had become a rarity.” The effects were more devastating than just that.

One of the effects of the Easter Rising was Irish people speaking out for their country, Ireland. There were many people that wanted to speak out about what was happening to them. The Easter uprising although popular amongst a few amount of people, was not accepted by the masses of Ireland’s population. After the six days that Pearse held out the British army with hardly any time passing put and end to the uprising. One of the things that the British did when they stopped the rebellion was gave what they called peace to the people and arrested the leaders of the rising including Pearse and Connolly. Not all the Irish people agree with the rising. This quote from a leader of the Irish nationalist group shows how ones did disagree;

The great bulk of the population were not favourable to the rebels, they got no popular support whatsoever. What is happening is that