1916: The Rising Handbook: The Rising Handbook

by Lorcan Collins

A handbook to the events and locations of the Easter 1916 Rising.

There are so many different versions of the story of Easter Week 1916. Lorcan Collins, an acknowledged expert on the subject and founder of the 1916 Rebellion Walking Tour, decided that it was time to put together a truthful and factually correct reference book in one handy volume. This ‘1916 bible’ will be invaluable to anyone with an interest in recent Irish history who wants to separate the facts from the fiction.

1916: The Rising Handbook offers bite-sized details about the organisations involved in the Rising, the positions occupied during Easter week, the weapons the rebels and army used, the documents that were passed around, and the speeches that were given. It details the women who came out to fight and profiles the sixteen executed leaders, as well as looking at the rebellion outside of Dublin.

It also utilises three different resources to give the most comprehensive list yet of all of those involved in the Rising. If a relative of yours fought during Easter 1916, you’ll find their name in here.

Table of Contents

DRAFT CHAPTER OUTLINE

Section One Timeline

Section Two Documents and Newspapers

Section Three Weapons

Section Four The Sea and the Easter Rising

Section Five Organisations

Section Six Flags, banners and uniforms

Centre Section Images of documents

Section Seven Women and the Easter Rising

Section Eight Positions Occupied & Garrison Strengths

Section Nine Casualties and Destruction

Section Ten Roll of Honour

Section Eleven Outside of Dublin

Section Twelve Miscellaneous

Index

Genres: Irish Literature, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

Published April 22, 2016

About the author

Lorcan Collins co-author, with Conor Kostick, of The Easter Rising: A Guide to Dublin in 1916; founder of the 1916 Walking Tour of Dublin; lectures on Easter 1916 in the United States, and a regular contributor to radio, television and historical journals. 16 Lives is Lorcan’s concept and he is the author of the first book in the series, a biography of James Connolly.

Reviews

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This relatively short handbook is quite good to get an introductory grasp of the events of the Easter Rising but for a better understanding further reading is needed. It is split into 14 sections covering a timeline, documents and newspapers, the weapons used, profiles on the excuted, the organisations, flags and banners, women of the Rising and so on. It also includes a list of medal recipients, as well as casualty and prisoner lists and the names of everyone who signed the 1936 Roll of Honour. Very interesting and filled with all sorts of bite-sized facts!

[Catie Holliday · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, the binding is beautiful. If you're looking for a linear narrative, you won't find it here. Well researched, this is a pretty good reference book to use to kick off finding more information. There are pages upon pages listing names of people involved in the uprising in any manner you could want them in. The sections don't seem to have an obvious order and include some facts I wasn't necessarily reading to find out. I wanted to buy a book that told me the story of the uprising, and while this wasn't really it, still a good read.

[Gary Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a handbook, for reference, full of lists and statistics. Fantastic.

[Homerun2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reference if you have some prior knowledge of events. Detailed timeline and lists of participants, weaponry, etc. along with a good chapter on women's contributions. The most poignant section contains the last letters from the rising leaders before their executions.