Felt the need to commemorate this event as the Irish did outside the Dublin General Post Office this morning. http://www.examiner.ie/breakingnews/ireland/3000-attend-1916-commemoration-in-dublin-502577.html
I'll copy and paste a post I made a couple of years ago:
On April 24, 1916, 1000-1500 Irish patriots rose up in rebellion against British rule of Ireland, seizing large parts of the capital city. This Dublin Rising was perhaps the most important event in modern Irish history as it soon led to the emergence of a popularly elected Irish government which demanded independence. Since it was mentioned in another thread (in a derogatory manner by someone who flies an Irish flag), I thought I'd give a brief overview of the Rising.
First, the military achievement of the Rising was remarkable. 1000-1500 Irish volunteers with rudimentary military training and armed only with antiquated rifles, shotguns, pistols and a few homemade bombs faced down regular British army units which outnumbered them at least 10:1 for 5 days. The British, though armed with modern rifles, hand grenades and machine guns were unable to break the resistance until they used heavy artillery and a gunboat in the middle of the city. Of course, this resulted in indiscriminate, massive destruction of downtown Dublin. The Rising's commander. Patrick Pearse, decided to surrender at this point to avoid further civilian causalities. Other positions held by the Rebels, though undefeated, followed his orders and capitulated. Despite their inferiority in numbers, equipment and training, the Rebels inflicted 2:1 losses on the British troops. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/easterrising/insurrection/in03.shtml
The Brits, being Brits, promptly "tried" (in court maritals before British officers with no counsel, right to call witnesses or any other attribute of due process) the "leaders" of the Rebels (though some were hardly that) for treason. 90 death sentences were pronounced though in the end "only" 15 were carried out due to public outrage in Ireland. This brutality helped lead to a sharp swing in public opinion to support of immediate independence of Ireland.
In the next general election in Ireland, Sinn Fein, the party supporting an independent Ireland and with many of their candidates veterans of the Uprising and some still in British prisons, swept away the party which supported "Home Rule" (which would have been a type of limited autonomy inside the Empire). It seems difficult to believe that this would occurred absent the Rising. Of course, British intransigence refused to recognize the wishes of the Irish people and a War of Independence was necessary before the Empire finally relinquished control over most of the island, though they insisted on partitioning 6 counties from the North and thereby denying full Irish freedom.
http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=112233&page=1#post_2101854
There was a rather contentious discussion in that thread as to whether the Rising was justified or not and perhaps it would be unproductive to re-plough that same field (though I'm game if others are). Primarily, I just thought it would be fitting to honor the Irish patriots who took to the streets of Dublin 95 years ago and fought with great courage against overwhelming odds in support of Irish freedom. Hopefully I'll live to see the day when all of Ireland is free from foreign occupation.
Right in the middle of WWI. The British Empire, the first superpower, was about to unleash a mighty new weapon of war to smash through the static, trench warfare, machine guns, barbed wire, poison gas, barrages of heavy artillery and single shot battle rifles that defined the Western Front.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_I_tank
http://angusmcleod.deviantart.com/art/World-War-One-Simple-Version-128505446
Next year will be the Russian Revolution that created the USSR. Next year, also, the US will declare war on Germany and join the fight.
Germany, meanwhile, instead of tanks, was working on advanced infantry assault tactics with submachine guns.
I won't post the whole thing here but thought it would be worth mentioning the great poem, Easter 1916, by W.B. Yeats, which pays tribute to the heroes of the Easter Rising more eloquently than any of us are likely to do. And with a full awareness of the personal and political complexities involved in that remarkable event.
For those who don't know the poem, the full text is online here:
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/poetry/soundings/easter.htm
Originally posted by Teinosukerec'd.
I won't post the whole thing here but thought it would be worth mentioning the great poem, Easter 1916, by W.B. Yeats, which pays tribute to the heroes of the Easter Rising more eloquently than any of us are likely to do. And with a full awareness of the personal and political complexities involved in that remarkable event.
For those who don't know the ...[text shortened]... xt is online here:
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/poetry/soundings/easter.htm
Originally posted by TeinosukeI don't see any reason not to post the poem in its entirety:
I won't post the whole thing here but thought it would be worth mentioning the great poem, Easter 1916, by W.B. Yeats, which pays tribute to the heroes of the Easter Rising more eloquently than any of us are likely to do. And with a full awareness of the personal and political complexities involved in that remarkable event.
For those who don't know the ...[text shortened]... xt is online here:
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/poetry/soundings/easter.htm
Easter 1916
by William Butler Yeats
I
I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
II
That woman's days were spent
In ignorant good will,
Her nights in argument
Until her voice grew shrill.
What voice more sweet than hers
When young and beautiful,
She rode to harriers?
This man had kept a school
And rode our winged horse.
This other his helper and friend
Was coming into his force;
He might have won fame in the end,
So sensitive his nature seemed,
So daring and sweet his thought.
This other man I had dreamed
A drunken, vain-glorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
III
Hearts with one purpose alone
Through summer and winter, seem
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.
The horse that comes from the road,
The rider, the birds that range
From cloud to tumbling cloud,
Minute by minute change.
A shadow of cloud on the stream
Changes minute by minute;
A horse-hoof slides on the brim;
And a horse plashes within it
Where long-legged moor-hens dive
And hens to moor-cocks call.
Minute by minute they live:
The stone's in the midst of all.
IV
Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is heaven's part, our part
To murmur name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death.
Was it needless death after all?
For England may keep faith
For all that is done and said.
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead.
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse --
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
The post that was quoted here has been removedWhat a pathetic, hypocritical statement to make at a ceremony honoring a rebellion that had little mass support at the time.
It's also good to know that the Republic will "consult" with the representatives of the English Crown illegitimately ruling the north of the country as to what ceremonies will be appropriate for the 100th anniversary of the Rising. I'm sure that's something that Pearse, Conolly and the rest would have wholeheartedly endorsed.
Originally posted by no1marauderhis name is spelled Connolly😉
What a pathetic, hypocritical statement to make at a ceremony honoring a rebellion that had little mass support at the time.
It's also good to know that the Republic will "consult" with the representatives of the English Crown illegitimately ruling the north of the country as to what ceremonies will be appropriate for the 100th annive ...[text shortened]... sure that's something that Pearse, Conolly and the rest would have wholeheartedly endorsed.