In the Easter Rising in Dublin on 24 April 1916, the Proclamation of the Irish Republic read by Padraig Pearse was headed and signed as being issued by the 'Provisional Government of the Irish Republic'. The Rising lasted five days and, despite controlling only a few strategic sites, transformed the political picture in Ireland and began a chain of events that led to Independence for the Irish Free State six years later.
It is probable that all the leaders of the Rising expected to be defeated, and in a very short time. The object of their action was to strike the first blow in the struggle for freedom, rather than actually to establish a republic, with institutions, policies and government. The establishment of a Provisional government, therefore, was symbolic rather than practical. In contrast with the Dáil government of 1919–1922, which had a cabinet, a police force and a courts system, or the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State, the Provisional Government of April 1916 does not appear ever to have operated as such.
The Proclamation was signed "on Behalf of the Provisional Government" by seven men, whose names were printed as follows:
THOMAS J. CLARKE | ||
SEAN Mac DIARMADA | THOMAS MacDONAGH | |
[[Padraig Pearse|P.H. PEARSE | EAMONN CEANNT | |
JAMES CONNOLLY | JOSEPH PLUNKETT |
Since no manuscript of the Proclamation exists, there are no holograph signatures. The seven signed “on behalf of” the Provisional Government, but it is generally accepted that they were themselves the government.[ citation needed ] However, there is no evidence that there were any designated responsibilities for any of the seven. It is not obvious in what order they signed. The signatures are commonly read from left to right and top to bottom, but they could just as easily be read from top to bottom on the left and then on the right. This would put Pearse in third place, after Clarke and Mac Diarmada, the original organisers of the Rising. Connolly, as leader of the Irish Citizen Army, would come after him. These four (plus Plunkett) were in the GPO Headquarters during the Rising, and military orders were issued by all four. Even the identity of the head of government is not altogether clear-cut. In all probability, such distinctions were unimportant to the leaders of the Rising, and in the lead-up to Easter 1916, and during Easter Week itself, all their energies were devoted to the military campaign. With their deaths in the first two weeks of May 1916 the first government of the Irish Republic came to an end.
Pearse is generally believed to have been the leader of the rebels, and therefore assumed to have been the Head of Government and President of the Republic, and is described as the "first President of the Irish Republic" by historian Tim Pat Coogan. [1] However Kathleen Clarke, the widow of Tom Clarke, maintained that, by inviting Clarke to sign first, the other signatories acknowledged him as first President of the Republic, and said that Clarke confirmed that interpretation to her. On the 50th anniversary ceremonies in 1966, Mrs Clarke said in an interview that Pearse had "wanted to grab what was due to others . . . surely Pearse should have been satisfied with the honour of Commander-in-Chief when he knew as much about commanding as my dog … I had not intended raising the issue in public but I shall be forced to come out very strongly in public if the powers that be attempt to declare Pearse as President". Clarke's son, however, accepted that Pearse and not his father had been President of the Irish Republic. [2]
Subsequently his gifts as an orator and a writer led to him being appointed as first President of the Irish Republic.
The Easter Rising, also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the aim of establishing an independent Irish Republic while the United Kingdom was fighting the First World War. It was the most significant uprising in Ireland since the rebellion of 1798 and the first armed conflict of the Irish revolutionary period. Sixteen of the Rising's leaders were executed starting in May 1916. The nature of the executions, and subsequent political developments, ultimately contributed to an increase in popular support for Irish independence.
Michael Collins was an Irish revolutionary, soldier and politician who was a leading figure in the early-20th century struggle for Irish independence. During the War of Independence he was Director of Intelligence of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and a government minister of the self-declared Irish Republic. He was then Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State from January 1922 and commander-in-chief of the National Army from July until his death in an ambush in August 1922, during the Civil War.
The Irish Republic was an unrecognised revolutionary state that declared its independence from the United Kingdom in January 1919. The Republic claimed jurisdiction over the whole island of Ireland, but by 1920 its functional control was limited to only 21 of Ireland's 32 counties, and British state forces maintained a presence across much of the north-east, as well as Cork, Dublin and other major towns. The republic was strongest in rural areas, and through its military forces was able to influence the population in urban areas that it did not directly control.
Joseph Mary Plunkett was an Irish republican, poet and journalist. As a leader of the 1916 Easter Rising, he was one of the seven signatories to the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. Plunkett married Grace Gifford in 1916, seven hours before his execution.
The Irish Volunteers, also known as the Irish Volunteer Force or the Irish Volunteer Army, was a paramilitary organisation established in 1913 by nationalists and republicans in Ireland. It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of its Irish unionist/loyalist counterpart the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland". Its ranks included members of the Conradh na Gaeilge, Ancient Order of Hibernians, Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Increasing rapidly to a strength of nearly 200,000 by mid-1914, it split in September of that year over John Redmond's support for the British war effort during World War I, with the smaller group opposed to Redmond's decision retaining the name "Irish Volunteers".
The Proclamation of the Republic, also known as the 1916 Proclamation or the Easter Proclamation, was a document issued by the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army during the Easter Rising in Ireland, which began on 24 April 1916. In it, the Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, writing as the "Provisional Government of the Irish Republic," proclaimed Ireland's independence from the United Kingdom. The reading of the proclamation by Patrick Pearse outside the General Post Office (GPO) on Sackville Street, Dublin's main thoroughfare, marked the beginning of the Rising. The proclamation was modelled on a similar independence proclamation issued during the 1803 rebellion by Robert Emmet.
The Irish Republican Brotherhood was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland between 1858 and 1924. Its counterpart in the United States of America was initially the Fenian Brotherhood, but from the 1870s it was Clan na Gael. The members of both wings of the movement are often referred to as "Fenians". The IRB played an important role in the history of Ireland, as the chief advocate of republicanism during the campaign for Ireland's independence from the United Kingdom, successor to movements such as the United Irishmen of the 1790s and the Young Irelanders of the 1840s.
Thomas James Clarke was an Irish republican and a leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Clarke was arguably the person most responsible for the 1916 Easter Rising. A proponent of armed struggle against British rule in Ireland for most of his life, Clarke spent 15 years in English prisons prior to his role in the Easter Rising, and was executed by firing squad after it was defeated.
Seán Mac Diarmada, also known as Seán MacDermott, was an Irish republican political activist and revolutionary leader. He was one of the seven leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916, which he helped to organise as a member of the Military Committee of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and was the second signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. He was executed for his part in the Rising at age 33.
Thomas Stanislaus MacDonagh was an Irish political activist, poet, playwright, educationalist and revolutionary leader. He was one of the seven leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916, a signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and Commandant of the 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade of the Irish Volunteers, which fought in Jacob's biscuit factory. He was executed for his part in the Rising at the age of thirty-eight.
Events from the year 1916 in Ireland.
John Bulmer Hobson was an Irish republican. He was a leading member of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) before the Easter Rising in 1916. Hobson swore Patrick Pearse into membership of the IRB in late 1913. He opposed and attempted to prevent the Easter Rising. Hobson was also chief of staff of Fianna Éireann, which he helped to found.
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Kathleen Clarke was a founder member of Cumann na mBan, a women's paramilitary organisation formed in Ireland in 1914, and one of very few privy to the plans of the Easter Rising in 1916. She was the wife of Tom Clarke and sister of Ned Daly, both of whom were executed for their part in the Rising. She was subsequently a Teachta Dála (TD) and Senator with both Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil, and the first female Lord Mayor of Dublin (1939–1941).
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