Easter Monday

The General Post Office in Dublin – the rebel headquarters

One of two flags flown over the GPO during the Rising

Positions of rebel and British forces in central Dublin

On the morning of Monday 24 April, about 1,200 members of the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army mustered at several locations in central Dublin. Among them were members of the all-female Cumann na mBan. Some wore Irish Volunteer and Citizen Army uniforms, while others wore civilian clothes with a yellow Irish Volunteer armband, military hats, and bandoliers.^[65][66] They were armed mostly with rifles (especially 1871 Mausers), but also with shotguns, revolvers, a few Mauser C96 semi-automatic pistols, and grenades.^[67] The number of Volunteers who mobilised was much smaller than expected. This was due to MacNeill's countermanding order, and the fact that the new orders had been sent so soon beforehand. However, several hundred Volunteers joined the Rising after it began.^[68]

Shortly before midday, the rebels began to seize important sites in central Dublin. The rebels' plan was to hold Dublin city centre. This was a large, oval-shaped area bounded by two canals: the Grand to the south and the Royal to the north, with the River Liffey running through the middle. On the southern and western edges of this district were five British Army barracks. Most of the rebels' positions had been chosen to defend against counter-attacks from these barracks.^[69] The rebels took the positions with ease. Civilians were evacuated and policemen were ejected or taken prisoner.^[70] Windows and doors were barricaded, food and supplies were secured, and first aid posts were set up. Barricades were erected on the streets to hinder British Army movement.^[71]

A joint force of about 400 Volunteers and the Citizen Army gathered at Liberty Hall under the command of Commandant James Connolly. This was the headquarters battalion, and it also included Commander-in-Chief Patrick Pearse, as well as Tom Clarke, Seán Mac Diarmada and Joseph Plunkett.^[72] They marched to the General Post Office (GPO) on O'Connell Street, Dublin's main thoroughfare, occupied the building and hoisted two republican flags. Pearse stood outside and read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.^[73] Copies of the Proclamation were also pasted on walls and handed out to bystanders by Volunteers and newsboys.^[74] The GPO would be the rebels' headquarters for most of the Rising. Volunteers from the GPO also occupied other buildings on the street, including buildings overlooking O'Connell Bridge. They took over a wireless telegraph station and sent out a radio broadcast in Morse code, announcing that an Irish Republic had been declared. This was the first radio broadcast in Ireland.^[75]

Elsewhere, some of the headquarters battalion under Michael Mallin occupied St Stephen's Green, where they dug trenches and barricaded the surrounding roads. The 1st battalion, under Edward 'Ned' Daly, occupied the Four Courts and surrounding buildings, while a company under Seán Heuston occupied the Mendicity Institution, across the River Liffey from the Four Courts. The 2nd battalion, under Thomas MacDonagh, occupied Jacob's biscuit factory. The 3rd battalion, under Éamon de Valera, occupied Boland's Mill and surrounding buildings. The 4th battalion, under Éamonn Ceannt, occupied the South Dublin Union and the distillery on Marrowbone Lane. From each of these garrisons, small units of rebels established outposts in the surrounding area.^[76]

The rebels also attempted to cut transport and communication links. As well as erecting roadblocks, they took control of various bridges and cut telephone and telegraph wires. Westland Row and Harcourt Street railway stations were occupied, though the latter only briefly. The railway line was cut at Fairview and the line was damaged by bombs at Amiens Street, Broadstone, Kingsbridge and Lansdowne Road.^[77]

Around midday, a small team of Volunteers and Fianna Éireann members swiftly captured the Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park and disarmed the guards. The goal was to seize weapons and blow up the ammunition store to signal that the Rising had begun. They seized weapons and planted explosives, but the blast was not loud enough to be heard across the city.^[78] The 23-year-old son of the fort's commander was fatally shot when he ran to raise the alarm.^[79]

A street barricade erected by the rebels outside the Westmoreland Lock Hospital in Dublin during the Rising

A contingent under Seán Connolly occupied Dublin City Hall and adjacent buildings.^[80] They attempted to seize neighbouring Dublin Castle, the heart of British rule in Ireland. As they approached the gate a lone and unarmed police sentry, James O'Brien, attempted to stop them and was shot dead by Connolly. According to some accounts, he was the first casualty of the Rising. The rebels overpowered the soldiers in the guardroom but failed to press further. The British Army's chief intelligence officer, Major Ivon Price, fired on the rebels while the Under-Secretary for Ireland, Sir Matthew Nathan, helped shut the castle gates. Unbeknownst to the rebels, the Castle was lightly guarded and could have been taken with ease.^[81] The rebels instead laid siege to the Castle from City Hall. Fierce fighting erupted there after British reinforcements arrived. The rebels on the roof exchanged fire with soldiers on the street. Seán Connolly was shot dead by a sniper, becoming the first rebel casualty.^[64] By the following morning, British forces had re-captured City Hall and taken the rebels prisoner.^[64]

The rebels did not attempt to take some other key locations, notably Trinity College, in the heart of the city centre and defended by only a handful of armed unionist students.^[82] Failure to capture the telephone exchange in Crown Alley left communications in the hands of the Government with GPO staff quickly repairing telephone wires that had been cut by the rebels.^[83] The failure to occupy strategic locations was attributed to lack of manpower.^[68] In at least two incidents, at Jacob's^[84] and Stephen's Green,^[85] the Volunteers and Citizen Army shot dead civilians trying to attack them or dismantle their barricades. Elsewhere, they hit civilians with their rifle butts to drive them off.^[86]

The British military were caught totally unprepared by the Rising and their response of the first day was generally un-coordinated. Two squadrons ^[87] of British cavalry were sent to investigate what was happening. They took fire and casualties from rebel forces at the GPO and at the Four Courts.^[88][89] As one troop passed Nelson's Pillar, the rebels opened fire from the GPO, killing three cavalrymen and two horses^[89] and fatally wounding a fourth man. The cavalrymen retreated and were withdrawn to barracks. On Mount Street, a group of Volunteer Training Corps men stumbled upon the rebel position and four were killed before they reached Beggars Bush Barracks.^[90]

The only substantial combat of the first day of the Rising took place at the South Dublin Union where a piquet from the Royal Irish Regiment encountered an outpost of Éamonn Ceannt's force at the northwestern corner of the South Dublin Union. The British troops, after taking some casualties, managed to regroup and launch several assaults on the position before they forced their way inside and the small rebel force in the tin huts at the eastern end of the Union surrendered.^[91] However, the Union complex as a whole remained in rebel hands. A nurse in uniform, Margaret Keogh, was shot dead by British soldiers at the Union. She is believed to have been the first civilian killed in the Rising.^[92]

Three unarmed Dublin Metropolitan Police were shot dead on the first day of the Rising and their Commissioner pulled them off the streets. Partly as a result of the police withdrawal, a wave of looting broke out in the city centre, especially in the area of O'Connell Street (still officially called "Sackville Street" at the time).^[93]

Tuesday and Wednesday

Lord Wimborne, the Lord Lieutenant, declared martial law on Tuesday evening and handed over civil power to Brigadier-General William Lowe. British forces initially put their efforts into securing the approaches to Dublin Castle and isolating the rebel headquarters, which they believed was in Liberty Hall. The British commander, Lowe, worked slowly, unsure of the size of the force he was up against, and with only 1,269 troops in the city when he arrived from the Curragh Camp in the early hours of Tuesday 25 April. City Hall was taken from the rebel unit that had attacked Dublin Castle on Tuesday morning.^[94][95]

In the early hours of Tuesday, 120 British soldiers, with machine guns, occupied two buildings overlooking St Stephen's Green: the Shelbourne Hotel and United Services Club.^[96] At dawn they opened fire on the Citizen Army occupying the green. The rebels returned fire but were forced to retreat to the Royal College of Surgeons building. They remained there for the rest of the week, exchanging fire with British forces.^[64]

Fighting erupted along the northern edge of the city centre on Tuesday afternoon. In the northeast, British troops left Amiens Street railway station in an armoured train, to secure and repair a section of damaged tracks. They were attacked by rebels who had taken up position at Annesley Bridge. After a two-hour battle, the British were forced to retreat and several soldiers were captured.^[97] At Phibsborough, in the northwest, rebels had occupied buildings and erected barricades at junctions on the North Circular Road. The British summoned 18-pounder field artillery from Athlone and shelled the rebel positions, destroying the barricades. After a fierce firefight, the rebels withdrew.^[97]

That afternoon Pearse walked out into O'Connell Street with a small escort and stood in front of Nelson's Pillar. As a large crowd gathered, he read out a 'manifesto to the citizens of Dublin,' calling on them to support the Rising.^[98]

The rebels had failed to take either of Dublin's two main railway stations or either of its ports, at Dublin Port and Kingstown. As a result, during the following week, the British were able to bring in thousands of reinforcements from Britain and from their garrisons at the Curragh and Belfast. By the end of the week, British strength stood at over 16,000 men.^[95][99] Their firepower was provided by field artillery which they positioned on the Northside of the city at Phibsborough and at Trinity College, and by the patrol vessel Helga, which sailed up the Liffey, having been summoned from the port at Kingstown. On Wednesday, 26 April, the guns at Trinity College and Helga shelled Liberty Hall, and the Trinity College guns then began firing at rebel positions, first at Boland's Mill and then in O'Connell Street.^[95] Some rebel commanders, particularly James Connolly, did not believe that the British would shell the 'second city' of the British Empire.^[100][101]

British soldiers in position behind a stack of barrels during the Rising in Dublin

The principal rebel positions at the GPO, the Four Courts, Jacob's Factory and Boland's Mill saw little action. The British surrounded and bombarded them rather than assault them directly. One Volunteer in the GPO recalled, "we did practically no shooting as there was no target".^[102] Entertainment ensued within the factory, "everybody merry & cheerful", bar the "occasional sniping", noted one Volunteer.^[103] However, where the rebels dominated the routes by which the British tried to funnel reinforcements into the city, there was fierce fighting.

At 5:25 PM Volunteers Eamon Martin, Garry Holohan, Robert Beggs, Sean Cody, Dinny O'Callaghan, Charles Shelley, Peadar Breslin and five others attempted to occupy Broadstone railway station on Church Street, the attack was unsuccessful and Martin was injured.^{[64][104][105][106][107]}

On Wednesday morning, hundreds of British troops encircled the Mendicity Institution, which was occupied by 26 Volunteers under Seán Heuston. British troops advanced on the building, supported by snipers and machine-gun fire, but the Volunteers put up stiff resistance. Eventually, the troops got close enough to hurl grenades into the building, some of which the rebels threw back. Exhausted and almost out of ammunition, Heuston's men became the first rebel position to surrender. Heuston had been ordered to hold his position for a few hours, to delay the British, but had held on for three days.^[108]

Reinforcements were sent to Dublin from Britain and disembarked at Kingstown on the morning of Wednesday 26 April. Heavy fighting occurred at the rebel-held positions around the Grand Canal as these troops advanced towards Dublin. More than 1,000 Sherwood Foresters were repeatedly caught in a crossfire trying to cross the canal at Mount Street Bridge. Seventeen Volunteers were able to severely disrupt the British advance, killing or wounding 240 men.^[109] Despite there being alternative routes across the canal nearby, General Lowe ordered repeated frontal assaults on the Mount Street position.^[110] The British eventually took the position, which had not been reinforced by the nearby rebel garrison at Boland's Mills, on Thursday,^[111] but the fighting there inflicted up to two-thirds of their casualties for the entire week for a cost of just four dead Volunteers.^[112] It had taken nearly nine hours for the British to advance 300 yd (270 m).^[64]

On Wednesday Linenhall Barracks on Constitution Hill was burnt down under the orders of Commandant Edward Daly to prevent its reoccupation by the British.^[113]

Thursday to Saturday

The rebel position at the South Dublin Union (site of the present-day St. James's Hospital) and Marrowbone Lane, further west along the canal, also inflicted heavy losses on British troops. The South Dublin Union was a large complex of buildings and there was vicious fighting around and inside the buildings. Cathal Brugha, a rebel officer, distinguished himself in this action and was badly wounded. By the end of the week, the British had taken some of the buildings in the Union, but others remained in rebel hands.^[114] British troops also took casualties in unsuccessful frontal assaults on the Marrowbone Lane Distillery.^[115]

Birth of the Irish Republic by Walter Paget, depicting the GPO during the shelling

The third major scene of fighting during the week was in the area of North King Street, north of the Four Courts. The rebels had established strong outposts in the area, occupying numerous small buildings and barricading the streets. From Thursday to Saturday, the British made repeated attempts to capture the area, in what was some of the fiercest fighting of the Rising. As the troops moved in, the rebels continually opened fire from windows and behind chimneys and barricades. At one point, a platoon led by Major Sheppard made a bayonet charge on one of the barricades but was cut down by rebel fire. The British employed machine guns and attempted to avoid direct fire by using makeshift armoured trucks, and by mouse-holing through the inside walls of terraced houses to get near the rebel positions.^[116] By the time of the rebel headquarters' surrender on Saturday, the South Staffordshire Regiment under Colonel Taylor had advanced only 150 yd (140 m) down the street at a cost of 11 dead and 28 wounded.^[117] The enraged troops broke into the houses along the street and shot or bayoneted fifteen unarmed male civilians whom they accused of being rebel fighters.^[118]

Elsewhere, at Portobello Barracks, an officer named Bowen Colthurst summarily executed six civilians, including the pacifist nationalist activist, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington.^[119] These instances of British troops killing Irish civilians would later be highly controversial in Ireland.

Surrender

British soldiers marching rebel prisoners away after the surrender

The headquarters garrison at the GPO was forced to evacuate after days of shelling when a fire caused by the shells spread to the GPO. Connolly had been incapacitated by a bullet wound to the ankle and had passed command on to Pearse. The O'Rahilly was killed in a sortie from the GPO. They tunnelled through the walls of the neighbouring buildings in order to evacuate the Post Office without coming under fire and took up a new position in 16 Moore Street. The young Seán McLoughlin was given military command and planned a breakout, but Pearse realised this plan would lead to further loss of civilian life.^[120]

On Saturday 29 April, from this new headquarters, Pearse issued an order for all companies to surrender.^[121] Pearse surrendered unconditionally to Brigadier-General Lowe. The surrender document read:

In order to prevent the further slaughter of Dublin citizens, and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers now surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered, the members of the Provisional Government present at headquarters have agreed to an unconditional surrender, and the commandants of the various districts in the City and County will order their commands to lay down arms.^[122]

The other posts surrendered only after Pearse's surrender order, carried by nurse Elizabeth O'Farrell, reached them.^[123] Sporadic fighting, therefore, continued until Sunday, when word of the surrender was got to the other rebel garrisons.^[124] Command of British forces had passed from Lowe to General John Maxwell, who arrived in Dublin just in time to take the surrender. Maxwell was made temporary military governor of Ireland.^[125]

Ashbourne

In north County Dublin, about 60 Volunteers mobilised near Swords. They belonged to the 5th Battalion of the Dublin Brigade (also known as the Fingal Battalion), and were led by Thomas Ashe and his second in command, Richard Mulcahy. Unlike the rebels elsewhere, the Fingal Battalion successfully employed guerrilla tactics. They set up camp and Ashe split the battalion into four sections: three would undertake operations while the fourth was kept in reserve, guarding camp and foraging for food.^[131] The Volunteers moved against the RIC barracks in Swords, Donabate and Garristown, forcing the RIC to surrender and seizing all the weapons.^[131] They also damaged railway lines and cut telegraph wires. The railway line at Blanchardstown was bombed to prevent a troop train from reaching Dublin.^[131] This derailed a cattle train, which had been sent ahead of the troop train.^[132]

The only large-scale engagement of the Rising, outside Dublin city, was at Ashbourne, County Meath.^[133][134] On Friday, about 35 Fingal Volunteers surrounded the Ashbourne RIC barracks and called on it to surrender, but the RIC responded with a volley of gunfire.^[131] A firefight followed, and the RIC surrendered after the Volunteers attacked the building with a homemade grenade.^[131] Before the surrender could be taken, up to sixty RIC men arrived in a convoy, sparking a five-hour gun battle, in which eight RIC men were killed and 18 wounded.^[131] Two Volunteers were also killed and five wounded,^[135] and a civilian was fatally shot.^[136] The RIC surrendered and were disarmed. Ashe let them go after warning them not to fight against the Irish Republic again.^[131] Ashe's men camped at Kilsalaghan near Dublin until they received orders to surrender on Saturday.^[137] The Fingal Battalion's tactics during the Rising foreshadowed those of the IRA during the War of Independence that followed.^[131]

Volunteer contingents also mobilised nearby in counties Meath and Louth but proved unable to link up with the North Dublin unit until after it had surrendered. In County Louth, Volunteers shot dead an RIC man near the village of Castlebellingham on 24 April, in an incident in which 15 RIC men were also taken prisoner.^[133][138]

Enniscorthy

Enniscorthy in the 1890s

In County Wexford, 100–200 Volunteers—led by Robert Brennan, Séamus Doyle and Seán Etchingham—took over the town of Enniscorthy on Thursday 27 April until Sunday.^[133] Volunteer officer Paul Galligan had cycled 200 km from rebel headquarters in Dublin with orders to mobilise.^[139] They blocked all roads into the town and made a brief attack on the RIC barracks, but chose to blockade it rather than attempt to capture it. They flew the tricolour over the Athenaeum building, which they had made their headquarters, and paraded uniformed in the streets.^[140] They also occupied Vinegar Hill, where the United Irishmen had made a last stand in the 1798 rebellion.^[139] The public largely supported the rebels and many local men offered to join them.^[139]

By Saturday, up to 1,000 rebels had been mobilised, and a detachment was sent to occupy the nearby village of Ferns.^[139] In Wexford, the British assembled a column of 1,000 soldiers (including the Connaught Rangers^[133]), two field guns and a 4.7 inch naval gun on a makeshift armoured train.^[139] On Sunday, the British sent messengers to Enniscorthy, informing the rebels of Pearse's surrender order. However, the Volunteer officers were sceptical.^[139] Two of them were escorted by the British to Arbour Hill Prison, where Pearse confirmed the surrender order.^[141]

Galway

In County Galway, 600–700 Volunteers mobilised on Tuesday under Liam Mellows. His plan was to "bottle up the British garrison and divert the British from concentrating on Dublin".^[142] However, his men were poorly armed, with only 25 rifles, 60 revolvers, 300 shotguns and some homemade grenades – many of them only had pikes.^[143] Most of the action took place in a rural area to the east of Galway city. They made unsuccessful attacks on the RIC barracks at Clarinbridge and Oranmore, captured several officers, and bombed a bridge and railway line, before taking up position near Athenry.^[143] There was also a skirmish between rebels and an RIC mobile patrol at Carnmore crossroads. A constable, Patrick Whelan, was shot dead after he had called to the rebels: "Surrender, boys, I know ye all".^[142]

On Wednesday, HMS Laburnum arrived in Galway Bay and shelled the countryside on the northeastern edge of Galway.^[143] The rebels retreated southeast to Moyode, an abandoned country house and estate. From here they set up lookout posts and sent out scouting parties.^[143] On Friday, HMS Gloucester landed 200 Royal Marines and began shelling the countryside near the rebel position.^[142][144] The rebels retreated further south to Limepark, another abandoned country house. Deeming the situation to be hopeless, they dispersed on Saturday morning. Many went home and were arrested following the Rising, while others, including Mellows, went "on the run". By the time British reinforcements arrived in the west, the Rising there had already disintegrated.^[145]

Limerick and Clare

In County Limerick, 300 Irish Volunteers assembled at Glenquin Castle near Killeedy, but they did not take any military action.^{[146][147][148]}

In County Clare, Micheal Brennan marched with 100 Volunteers (from Meelick, Oatfield, and Cratloe) to the River Shannon on Easter Monday to await orders from the Rising leaders in Dublin, and weapons from the expected Casement shipment. However, neither arrived and no actions were taken.^[149]

Arrests and executions

In the immediate aftermath, the Rising was commonly described as the "Sinn Féin Rebellion",^{[161][162][163]} reflecting a popular belief that Sinn Féin, a separatist organisation that was neither militant nor republican, was behind it.^[164] General Maxwell, for example, signalled his intention "to arrest all dangerous Sinn Feiners", including "those who have taken an active part in the movement although not in the present rebellion".^[165]

A total of 3,430 men and 79 women were arrested, including 425 people for looting – roughly, 1,500 of these arrests accounted for the rebels.^{[93][166][167]} Detainees were overwhelmingly young, Catholic and religious.^{[168][lower-alpha 4]} 1,424 men and 73 women were released after a few weeks of imprisonment; the remaining majority of convicts were held until June 1917.^[170]

A series of courts martial began on 2 May, in which 187 people were tried. Controversially, Maxwell decided that the courts martial would be held in secret and without a defence, which Crown law officers later ruled to have been illegal.^[166] Some of those who conducted the trials had commanded British troops involved in suppressing the Rising, a conflict of interest that the Military Manual prohibited.^[166] Only one of those tried by courts martial was a woman, Constance Markievicz, who was also the only woman to be kept in solitary confinement.^{[166][lower-alpha 5]} Ninety were sentenced to death. Fifteen of those (including all seven signatories of the Proclamation) had their sentences confirmed by Maxwell and fourteen were executed by firing squad at Kilmainham Gaol between 3 and 12 May.

Maxwell stated that only the "ringleaders" and those proven to have committed "cold-blooded murder" would be executed. However, some of those executed were not leaders and did not kill anyone, such as Willie Pearse and John MacBride; Thomas Kent did not come out at all—he was executed for the killing of a police officer during the raid on his house the week after the Rising. The most prominent leader to escape execution was Éamon de Valera, Commandant of the 3rd Battalion, who did so partly because of his American birth.^[173] Hobson went into hiding, re-emerging after the June amnesty, largely to scorn.^[174]

Most of the executions took place over a ten-day period:

• 3 May: Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh and Thomas Clarke
• 4 May: Joseph Plunkett, William Pearse, Edward Daly and Michael O'Hanrahan
• 5 May: John MacBride
• 8 May: Éamonn Ceannt, Michael Mallin, Seán Heuston and Con Colbert
• 12 May: James Connolly and Seán Mac Diarmada

The arrests had an extensive effect on hundreds of families and communities; anti-English sentiment developed among the public, as separatists declared the arrests as indicative of a draconian approach.^[5][175] The public, at large, feared that the response was "an assault on the entirety of the Irish national cause".^[176] This radical transformation was recognised in the moment and had become a point of concern among British authorities; after Connolly's execution, the remaining death sentences were commuted to penal servitude.^{[5][177][178][179]} Growing support for republicanism can be found as early as June 1916; imprisonment largely failed to deter militants – interned rebels would proceed to fight at higher rates than those who weren't – who thereafter quickly reorganised the movement.^{[180][181][182]}

British atrocities

Grave in Donaghcumper, Celbridge, of Peter Connolly, one of 15 civilians murdered in the North King Street Massacre.

On Tuesday 25 April, Dubliner Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, a pacifist nationalist activist, was arrested and then taken as hostage and human shield by Captain John Bowen-Colthurst; that night Bowen-Colthurst shot dead a teenage boy.^[189] Skeffington was executed the next day – alongside two journalists.^[189][190] Two hours later, Bowen-Colthurst captured the Labour Party councillor and IRB lieutenant, Richard O'Carroll and had him shot in the street.^[191] Major Sir Francis Vane raised concerns over Bowen-Colthurst's actions and saw to him being court martialled. Bowen-Colthurst was found guilty but insane and was sentenced to an insane asylum. Owing to political pressure, an inquiry soon transpired, revealing the murders and their cover-up.^[189] The killing of Skeffington and others provoked outrage among citizens.^[192]

The other incident was the 'North King Street Massacre'. On the night of 28–29 April, British soldiers of the South Staffordshire Regiment, under Colonel Henry Taylor, had burst into houses on North King Street and killed fifteen male civilians whom they accused of being rebels. The soldiers shot or bayoneted the victims, and then secretly buried some of them in cellars or backyards after robbing them. The area saw some of the fiercest fighting of the Rising and the British had taken heavy casualties for little gain. Maxwell attempted to excuse the killings and argued that the rebels were ultimately responsible. He claimed that "the rebels wore no uniform" and that the people of North King Street were rebel sympathisers. Maxwell concluded that such incidents "are absolutely unavoidable in such a business as this" and that "under the circumstance the troops [...] behaved with the greatest restraint". A private brief, prepared for the Prime Minister, said the soldiers "had orders not to take any prisoners" but took it to mean they were to shoot any suspected rebel. The City Coroner's inquest found that soldiers had killed "unarmed and unoffending" residents. The military court of inquiry ruled that no specific soldiers could be held responsible, and no action was taken.^{[193][194][195]}

Inquiry

A Royal Commission was set up to enquire into the causes of the Rising. It began hearings on 18 May under the chairmanship of Lord Hardinge of Penshurst. The Commission heard evidence from Sir Matthew Nathan, Augustine Birrell, Lord Wimborne, Sir Neville Chamberlain (Inspector-General of the Royal Irish Constabulary), General Lovick Friend, Major Ivor Price of Military Intelligence and others.^[196] The report, published on 26 June, was critical of the Dublin administration, saying that "Ireland for several years had been administered on the principle that it was safer and more expedient to leave the law in abeyance if collision with any faction of the Irish people could thereby be avoided."^[197] Birrell and Nathan had resigned immediately after the Rising. Wimborne resisted the pressure to resign, but was recalled to London by Asquith.^[198] He was re-appointed in July 1916.^[197] Chamberlain also resigned.

Reaction of the Dublin public

At first, many Dubliners were bewildered by the outbreak of the Rising.^[199] James Stephens, who was in Dublin during the week, thought, "None of these people were prepared for Insurrection. The thing had been sprung on them so suddenly they were unable to take sides."^{[200][lower-alpha 7]} Eyewitnesses equated the ruins of Dublin with those begotten by the war: the physical damage, which included over ninety fires, was largely confined to Sackville Street.^[202][203] In the immediate aftermath, the Irish government was in disarray.^[204]

There was great hostility towards the Volunteers in some parts of the city which escalated to physical violence in some instances.^[205] Historian Keith Jeffery noted that most of the opposition came from the dependents of British Army personnel.^[206] The death and destruction, which resulted in disrupted trade, considerable looting and unemployment, contributed to the antagonism of the Volunteers, who were denounced as "murderers" and "starvers of the people" – the monetary consequences of the Rising were estimated to be at £2,500,000.^{[207][lower-alpha 8]} International aid was supplied to residents – nationalists aided the dependents of Volunteers.^[209] The British Government compensated the consequences to the sum of £2,500,000.^[203]

Commemoration of Connolly's execution, 12 May 1917

Crowds in Dublin waiting to welcome republican prisoners released in 1917

Support for the rebels did exist among Dubliners, expressed through both crowds cheering at prisoners and reverent silence.^[210][211] With martial law seeing this expression prosecuted, many would-be supporters elected to remain silent although "a strong undercurrent of disloyalty" was still felt.^[211] Drawing upon this support, and amidst the deluge of nationalist ephemera, the significantly popular Catholic Bulletin eulogised Volunteers killed in action and implored readers to donate; entertainment was offered as an extension of those intentions, targeting local sectors to great success.^{[209][212][lower-alpha 9]} The Bulletin's Catholic character allowed it to evade the widespread censorship of press and seizure of republican propaganda; it therefore exposed many unaware readers to such propaganda.^[187]

Rise of Sinn Féin

A meeting called by Count Plunkett on 19 April 1917 led to the formation of a broad political movement under the banner of Sinn Féin^[214] which was formalised at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis of 25 October 1917. The Conscription Crisis of 1918 further intensified public support for Sinn Féin before the general elections to the British Parliament on 14 December 1918, which resulted in a landslide victory for Sinn Féin, winning 73 seats out of 105, whose Members of Parliament (MPs) gathered in Dublin on 21 January 1919 to form Dáil Éireann and adopt the Declaration of Independence.^[215]

During that election, they drew directly upon the Rising and their popularity was significantly accreditable to that association, one that accrued political prestige until the end of the century.^[216] Many participants of the Rising would soon assume electoral positions.^[217] Sinn Féin served as an alternative to the Irish Parliamentary Party whose support for British establishments alienated voters.^[218]

Sinn Féin would become closely aligned with the Irish Republican Army, who sought to continue the IRB's ideals and waged armed conflict against British forces.^[55]