LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Easter Rising
built 643 days ago
The 90th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising was commemorated by a military parade held in Dublin on Easter Sunday, 16 April 2006. The President of Ireland, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, the Taoiseach, members of the Irish Government and other invited guests reviewed the parade as it passed the General Post Office, headquarters of the Rising. The parade comprised some 2500 personnel from the Irish Defence Forces (representing the Army, Air Corps, Naval Service, Irish Army Reserve and Naval Reserve), the Garda Síochána, Irish United Nations Veterans Association and members of the Organisation of National Ex-Servicemen and Women. The parade started at Dublin Castle and proceeded via Dame Street and College Green to the GPO, where a wreath was laid by the President. This was the first official commemoration held in Dublin since the early 1970s.
Source:
The Easter Rising was like a tocsin bell, the echoes of which rang throughout Europe. After two years of imperialist slaughter, at last the ice was broken! A courageous word had been spoken, and could be heard above the din of the bombs and cannon-fire. Lenin received the news of the uprising enthusiastically. This was understandable, given his position. The War posed tremendous difficulties for the Marxist internationalists.
Source:
[D]espite this gradual build-up of momentum, the Easter Rising had virtually no hope for success from the outset. The small force of arms and soldiers gathered by the leaders was barely enough to hold a handful of strategic positions in Dublin and stood very little chance against any serious response by the British Army. To make matters worse, a German steamer carrying weapons intended to support the revolutionaries was captured on April 22, prompting Eoin MacNeill, Commander-in-Chief of the Volunteers, to publish an order canceling all military operations. Undeterred by these setbacks, though, the remaining leaders decided to proceed with their plans, and on the morning of the 24th they marched through the streets of Dublin and seized six positions throughout the city. The most famous of these was the General Post Office on O’Connell Street, where Pearse, Connolly, and many of the other leaders remained for the duration of the campaign. However, the revolutionaries failed to take positions at Trinity College and Dublin Castle, which would prove to be crucial losses.
Source:
Just as the Easter Rising had consequences which shaped and continue to shape Ireland today, (e.g. Bertie Ahern’s Fianna Fail party being the heir to the anti-treaty forces which lost the civil war) its origins are in the years up to and during the First World War and in the much older traditions of Irish Republicanism.
Source:
Although direct plans for the Easter Rising did not begin until 1915, the seeds of the movement go back much further. At the turn of the twentieth century, there was no shortage of nationalist societies in Ireland, but there was very little support for an armed revolution. But as political opportunities for independence failed and purely cultural movements proved unsatisfying, more radical groups such as the Irish Republican Brotherhood (the precursor to the Irish Republican Army, or IRA) and the Irish National Volunteers found their membership and influence increasing. In 1914, the Volunteers and the IRB combined their forces under the leadership of author and Gaelic-language activist Pàdraig Pearse and began actively working towards a military campaign. In 1915, they were joined by the Irish Citizens Army and their leader James Connolly, and the movement reached its critical mass. Although specific dates and plans remained secret, it became well-known in the Irish nationalist community that a show of force was eminent.
Source:
In Easter Rising, Michael Patrick MacDonald accompanies readers on a blistering journey through familial pain, healing, and self-discovery. The slew of family tragedies that prompt MacDonald to leave his native Southie take him from the abandoned warehouses that spawned Boston’s hardcore punk scene to the streets of Paris, London, New York, and ultimately, to the Ireland his grandfather left half a century before. The parallels between the author’s departure from South Boston and his grandfather’s from County Donegal, and the awkward, comically touching moments grandfather and grandson share make up some of the book’s most memorable moments. MacDonald’s writing is as fearless and direct as the underground bands that so influenced him in his teenage years, but with a world-wizened insight and maturity informed by the nightmares that plagued his family in Old Colony. Though the punk cries of “destroy” and “no future” serve as a catalyst for a young MacDonald’s escape from Southie, Easter Rising is a chronicle of spiritual pilgrimage, not two-dimensional punk rock nihilism. MacDonald is that rare breed of writer who dazzles with both craft and content, doling out a one-two punch readers should feel privileged to be a party to.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Easter Rising