Easter Rising | Top 5 Facts

100 years ago, nationalists from the Irish republican brotherhood took a stand against British rule on the Emerald Isle. The Irish capital - Dubiin - became a battleground and the fight for Ireland’s future had begun. With revolution, executions and help from the Germans, here are 5 things you didn’t know about the Easter Rising

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The rebels asked the Germans for help

The Easter Rising took place in 1916, two years into World War One. While Germany and Britain fought on the Western Front, the Irish rebel leaders attempted to get German military backing. This was done through an American-Irish Republican Group called Clarn na noile, whose members had already established a relationship with German officials. There were some quite audacious plans for a German expeditionary force to land on Ireland’s west coast but sadly for the leaders, this did not come to fruition. After a ship carrying German weaponry was captured, the rebels stood alone.

A muddle of dates hindered the rising

By Friday, 28 April 1916, the number of British troops in Dublin had risen to 19,000 while the Irish Republic groups had only amassed 1,600 fighters due to mass confusion over the date of the Rising. The Irish Republican Brotherhood’s Military Council initially planned to begin the insurrection on Good Friday but eventually decided on Easter Sunday, confusing the hell out of everyone in the process.

Not all the fighting took place in Dublin

The Easter Rising is usually synonymous with battles taking place on the streets of the Irish capital but conflict did take place on other sites on the Emerald Isle.
The Battle of Ashbourne County Meath was the most prominent skirmish outside of Dublin and was fought to distract British troops from the capital. Rail links were disrupted and barracks attacked as the fighting lasted for 5 hours before the Irish resistance was eventually crushed by British reinforcements.

One of the leaders got married the day he died

Poet, nationalist and rising leader Joseph Plunkett married his fiancée, Grace Gifford, at Kilmainham Gaol eight hours before his execution. Romantic perhaps but the sad reality is that, hours after he would be kissing his new wife, he would be kissing hot lead. Distraught, Gifford wore her widow’s mourning clothes for the rest of her life.

The executions were as brutal as you would think

To help the riflemen shoot to kill, white crosses were painted on the hearts of the dissenters. Naturally this was a tough job for the executioners who were issued with dummy bullets so they didn’t know who killed who. One of the leaders, James Connolly, had to be carried to his execution on a stretcher and shot while sitting down; as his wounds were so bad that he couldn’t stand.

[irishriot]

You have a severe typo on the date of point two. You use the year 1928, when the Éirí Amach na Cásca was in 1916.

[rayh]

These were things you did not know and some of your facts are incorrect, they were revolutionaries

[skippership]

This should be called 5 things "YOU" did not know about the Easter Rising! Firstly "while Britain and Germany fought" - What??? there were over 200, 000 Irishman (Many of them Irish Volunteers) who also fought in WW1 again Germany and the Central Powers. Confusion in the IRB over the Rising? Eoin MacNeill was not a member of the IRB he was Chief-of-Staff of the IV and he called the Rising off not the IRB...Hence why there was such a small turn out when the IRB decided to go ahead anyway. And I find it highly offensive when you use the phase about JMP that he would be "kissing hot lead" you should be absolutely ashamed of yourself!

[Lissadell]

You really need to learn your history first lad before trying to educate others! Absolutely pathetic and so very wrong on many levels.