At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of rebels/revolutionaries decided it was time for Ireland to cast off the brutality of English rule. In 1916 - midway through the First World War - an arms deal was brokered with Germany, and Easter Sunday (April 23) was set as the date of assault on the occupying troops. During this time, a Proclamation was drafted by the Irish Republican Brotherhood Military Council which stated that Ireland was a free republic with the members of the Council serving as a provisional government.
Catastrophically, the English intercepted the arms just days before the assault was to begin, which meant that the scale of the attack had to be reduced - as such, it was decided that all efforts should be focused in and around Dublin. (At the same time, there was also a lot of confusion as to whether the attack would take place on Easter Sunday or Easter Monday.) Around midday on Easter Monday, around 1,000 rebels were able to take over a string of strategically placed buildings with little to no problem. Of these buildings, the most famous would become the General Post Office. In the early days, the English troops were outnumbered 2:1, but by the end of the week they had managed to cobble together some 18-20,000 troops to battle less than 2,000 rebels. In the end, there was no choice for the rebels save unconditional surrender.
In the next post I'll talk about the aftermath of the Easter Rising and the subsequent War of Independence, which led to the separation of the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland.
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