The Acts of Union in 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. This removed the Irish Parliament and replaced it with representative at Westminster.
The Gaelic League formed a cultural revival, which increased Irelands interest in home rule.
The third home rule act was accepted, however it was postponed due to the outbreak of ww1
The Irish Republican Brotherhood took the opportunity to form an armed organisation and on november 25 1913, they formed the Irish Volunteers. Leader Eoin MacNeill
That same year, the Irish Citizen Army was formed to defend workers from the police. James Larkin, James Connolly and Jack White formed it on 23 November 1913.
The Supreme Council of the IRB met on 5 September 1914. At this meeting, they decided to stage a rising before the war ended and to accept whatever help Germany might offer.
Responsibility for the planning of the rising was given to Tom Clarke and Seán MacDermott.
In May 1915, Clarke and MacDermott established a Military Committee within the IRB, consisting of Pearse, Plunkett and Ceannt, to draw up plans for a rising.
Plunkett travelled to Germany in April 1915 to join Roger Casement, who had gone there from the United States the previous year with the support of Clan na Gael leader John Devoy, and after discussions with the German Ambassador in Washington, Count von Bernstorff, to try to recruit an "Irish Brigade" from among Irish prisoners of war and secure German support for Irish independence.
James Connolly—head of the Irish Citizen Army (ICA), a group of armed socialist trade union men and women—was unaware of the IRB's plans, and threatened to start a rebellion on his own if other parties failed to act.
The IRB leaders met with Connolly in January 1916 and convinced him to join forces with them. They agreed to act together the following Easter and made Connolly the sixth member of the Military Committee. Thomas MacDonagh would later become the seventh and final member.
The first shot of the rebellion was fired in Laois (http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/Libr/50things1916.html)
24th April 11.30 - 12.30: rebels occupy various buildings around the city, including Jacob’s factory, the Four Courts, St Stephen’s Green, the South Dublin Union (now St James’s Hospital), Jameson Distillery, and the GPO. The Proclamation is read.
The rebels were responsible for the world’s first ever radio broadcast (http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/Ten-little-known-facts-about-Easter-Monday-1916-and-the-Rising.html)
A Swede and a Finn fought with the Irish in the GPO. They were crewmen on a foreign ship and felt solidarity with the Irish. (http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/Ten-little-known-facts-about-Easter-Monday-1916-and-the-Rising.html)
25th April 05.30: British troops at the Shelbourne Hotel and nearby machine-gun rebels at Stephen’s Green, who fall back to the Royal College of Surgeons.
20.00: A British gunboat sails into Grand Canal Dock and fires at Boland’s Mills and Bakery.
26th April 06.20: British reinforcements arrive at Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire)
Ceasefire in St. Stephan’s Green in order to feed the ducks (http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/Libr/50things1916.html)
09.00: Food supplies in Dublin run low. A British gunboat, the Helga, shells rebels at Liberty Hall. It is later captured by the British.
28th April 18.15: Part of the GPO roof collapses. Rebels later evacuate the Metropole Hotel and GPO and set up headquarters on Moore Street, under intense onslaught.
29th April 12.00: Rebel HQ in Moore Street sends out a white flag to British barricade.
14.30: Padraig Pearse signs unconditional surrender to British Brigadier General Lowe.
May 3rd-12th, 1916
Fifteen of the Rising’s leaders are executed at Kilmainham Gaol. Public opinion begins to soften towards the rebels.
There are 30 original copies of the proclamation, one of which was sold for $1 million in 2006
The proclamation was published in two parts and contained different point sizes as the printer did not have enough fonts. (http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/Ten-little-known-facts-about-Easter-Monday-1916-and-the-Rising.html)
As part of the 1916 commemorations, all primary and post-primary schools will be presented with a national flag, a copy of the proclamation in Irish and English and a booklet detailing the protocols for respecting the flag.
There were 466 killed (80 Irish soldiers, 132 British soldiers and 254 civilians).
Over 40 of the British casualties were Irish men in the British Army.
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