Easter Rising 1916: The Trials

by Sean Enright

This book - the companion to Sean Enright's previous work, The Trials of Civilians by Military Ireland 1921 - is a fascinating and comprehensive study of the trials held during May 1916, following Dublin's Easter Rising. There were 160 trials conducted in the two-week period of May 2-16, 1916. During this period, of the 93 death sentences handed out, 15 were carried out, while nearly 2,000 men and women were deported to England. It was not until the turn of this century that the Public Records Office released the trial records relating to the executed prisoners. The book offers an unsentimental reappraisal of the trials and the trial regime, and includes previously unpublished trial records of men - such as Harry Boland, Desmond Fitzgerald, George Plunkett, and William Partridge - as well as many of the foot soldiers who were sentenced to death. The process of execution is also examined, bringing to light the dark occasions when executions were botched and covered up. This is a powerful analysis of an uncomfortable moment in Irish history when the rule of law gave way to political imperatives. It is seen through a variety of previously unpublished trial records and the systematic collating of accounts given by many prisoners. The result is a fascinating insight into a little known aspect of the 1916 Rebellion and its dramatic aftermath, including the reactions of the British government in dealing with the republican prisoners throughout the trials.

286 pages, Paperback

First published November 22, 2013

Reviews

[Alistair Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is fairly interesting in that it offers an insight into a different aspect to the events surrounding the Easter Rising namely the trials which occurred post rising. The author, a lawyer, provides the background, the relevance of whether the trial took place under DORA or courts martial and what considerations the court had. While the execution of the leaders was perhaps inevitable in the context of the time the author is balanced as while there were certainly evidential and procedural issues the detained did at least get a trial and some sort of justice and in some cases encountered sympathetic officers and police who either declined to give evidence or offered sympathy. The author gives an account of a British officer walking along a line of prisoners , stopping and looking at one then walking on "it`s his brother" is heard, an example of the mixed loyalities and considerations in what it meant to be Irish.
The trial accounts, which are much the same to be fair do become monotonous, the author does provide the context and an overview of the issues, if you have an interest in the Easter Rising / the history of this period this book is a worthwhile read if hardly gripping.

[Darran Devlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first few chapters offered a good insight into the happenings of the Easter Rising and the subsequent legal fallout. What this book lacked was a normative analysis of the legal fallout. That is, the author's actual opinion on the situation would have been welcomed. The author could have
done without the descriptive account of each trial which became tedious to read after a while, especially as they were all very similar in nature.

[Gabriel Woods · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heart wrenching book about man's inhumanity to man. This book details the trials and executions of the leaders of the 1916 Rising.