Ulster Volunteer Force was formed in 1913, as an armed force to oppose Home Rule. This wasn’t taken very seriously at first and then started to become more serious. In April 1914, the Unionists landed a huge shipment of arms at Larne. This took place almost publicly, with the knowledge of the police and army authorities, which seemed to approve and didn’t do anything to prevent it. The UVF was now an army what had to be taken very seriously. The Nationalists responded to the formation of the UVF by forming the Irish Volunteers in November 1913. In the summer of 1914 they too were also armed, after bringing in shipments of illegal weapons at a place called Howth, near Dublin. Everywhere in Ireland , detachments of the Irish Volunteer Force drilled and practiced the techniques of warfare. The weapons had thought to be from Germany while War World 1 was on.
The Unionists/Loyalists/Protestants still don’t get on with the Republicans/Nationalists/Catholics. They still fight and have riots. When the Battle of the Boyne march goes on every year there are riots between the Protestants and Catholics in Belfast. There has been many times where people have been killed. The Catholics hate the Protestants celebrating the Battle of the Boyne because the Protestants won the Battle of the Boyne and still celebrate it to annoy the Catholics any try to get revenge.
The Irish Republican Brotherhood was formed in the mid ninteenth century, it had 2 branches one in Ireland which was set up by James Stephens and the American wing which was known as the Fenians. By the 1860’s both branches of the IRB were often referred as the Fenians. The aim of the IRB was to set up an independent Irish public by force of arms. This was because they believed Britain would never agree to an Independent Ireland any other way. In the earlt twentieth century, radical Nationalists such as Thomas Clarke, Padraig Pearse, Sean MacDermott and Eamon de Valera came in to help the IRB. They admired the achievements of Parnell and they were inspired by Irelands history, especially by past Irish revolutionaries such as Wolfe Tone.Many IRB members also belonged to Sinn Fein.
Arthur Griffith as a radical revival to John Redmond’s moderate Nationalist party, the IPP, founded Sinn Fein in 1905. Sinn Fein is Gaelic and can be translated as ‘We ourselves alone’ or ‘Ourselves alone’. Griffith believed that all Irish MPS should withdraw from the Westminster. He thought that they should set up their own Parliament in Dublin. In by-elections and general elections up to 1910 Sinn Fein achieved very little. Support for Sinn Fein started to increase as tension increased over the Home Rule crisis. Griffith set out a vision of an independent Ireland, with its own government determining Irelands social and economic policies on main issues like religion and land. Young Nationalists began to feel that Sinn Feins more radical approach would be a lot more effective than Redmond’s Mps in London in achieving Home Rule.
The New Generation of Irish Nationalists were no longer content with Home Rule. They wanted total seperation of the whole of Ireland from Britain. They wanted an Irish Public and didn’t want to be part of the empire.
By the spring of 1916, figures of the IRB were concerned of Irelands freedom was being ignored because of the 1st world war. They decided that armed action would put life back into the Nationalist movement. The exact aims of easter rising are unclear, some accounts suggest that the leader Padraig Pearse saw the rebellion of a ‘blood sacrifice’. He knew the rising was hopeless, he feared that without action the flame of Nationalism would go out in Ireland. The original plan was that the rebellion should involve a much larger force than the rebels eventually ended up with. Pearse was allied with many more practical men than Connolly, who wouldn’t have supported the rising if they thought it had no chance of success. On Easter Monday 1916 about 1200 IRB Volunteers and James Connolly’s citizen army members occupied parts of central Dublin. Pearse read out a proclamation declaring that the Irish Republic was now established. It was a momentous event in Irelands history.
On Tuesday, April 25th , yesterday Easter Monday, the Sinn Feiners tried to occupy all of the railway stations, some successfully, others not. The General Post Office, Jacobs factory and St Stephens green . They barricaded all the doors and fired at anyone in uniform. All the roads were blocked to St Stephens green and while people are walking about they are shooting at anyone in khaki. Most of the shooting is aimless. Rebels hold the college of surgeons with a republican flag over it.
Wednesday April 26th- St Stephens green was now part of the military, there were rumours that the GPO had been taken by the military. It was too dangerous to go out.
Thursday April 27th, I went down to the Morehampton rd shop and all meat was commanded by the military.
Friday, April 28th, There were rumours but no definite news Grafton Street was totally deserted except for soldiers at regular intervals.
Saturday, April 29th The GPO has been taken. The day wore slowly away and news came and the Sinn Feiners had made an unconditional surrender.
May 10th, people are still under martial law and there had been many executions and everyone must be in at 8.30 at night.
The men executed for their role in Easter Rising- Patrick Pearse, Thomas J Clarke, Thomas MacDonagh, Joseph Mary Plunkett, Edward Daly, William Pearse, Michael O’Hanrahan, John MacBride, Eamonn Ceannt, Michael Mallin, Cornelius Colbert, Sean Heuston, Sean MacDermott, James Connolly, Thomas Kent and Roger Casement.
The Rising was critical in terms of the big fight for the Irish Republic. Most of the country wanted to end English Home Rule, Nationalism faded away the country especially as the details of the secret executions became known. National attention had been brought to the Irish cause.
Over 3500 people were arrested (including DeVelera and Collins). 1500 people were freed on questioning. 1841 of these were interned without trial in England, and 171 were tried by secret court martial resulting in 170 convictions. 90 were sentenced to death but 75 of these sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. Pearse, Connolly, Clarke, MacDonagh, MacDermott, Plunkett, and Ceannt were all executed to the outrage of the Iris public who had now started to revise their opinion of the insurgents to that of a heroic nature.
The most predictable effect of these measures was to increase public sympathy. The Police authorities noted even amongst moderate Nationalists a growing ‘ wave of resentment’, prompted by the feeling that ‘unnecessary severity had been deployed’. Symptoms of the change in attitudes included; the increasing frequency of memorial masses for the executed rebels; the growing sales of photographs of them; the setting up of aid funds for their families; the appearance of songs and ballads celebrating; the ubiquity of republican flags and badges; the sight of young men marching military style at Gaelic football matches, and the shouting of rebel slogans anywhere people gathered together.
There were signs that militant Nationalists were reorganizing. In mid- June 1916 Maxwell predicted that in a General Election the moderate nationalist Irish Parliamentary Party would probably be replaced. In December 1918 Sinn Fein had replaced the Parliamentary Party.
