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The 1916 Irish Rebellion
One hundred years ago, during Easter Week, 1916, rebel Irish leaders and their followers staged an armed uprising in the city of Dublin in an attempt to overthrow British rule and create an autonomous Irish republic. One week later, their rebellion ruthlessly quashed by British forces, the surviving insurgents were jailed and many of their leaders quickly executed. Though their rebellion had failed, their actions galvanized a growing population of sympathizers who would, in years to come, succeed in establishing an independent Irish state.
Documentary writer, producer, and scholar Bríona Nic Dhiarmada has seized the occasion of the centenary of the Irish Rising to reassess this event and its historical significance. Her book explores the crucial role of Irish Americans in both the lead-up to and the aftermath of the events in Dublin and places the Irish Rising in its European and global context, as an expression of the anti-colonialism that found its full voice in the wake of the First World War. The 1916 Irish Rebellion includes a historical narrative; a lavish spread of contemporary images and photographs; and a rich selection of sidebar quotations from contemporary documents, prisoners’ statements, and other eyewitness accounts to capture the experiences of nationalists and unionists, Irish rebels and British soldiers, and Irish Americans during the turbulent events of Easter Week, 1916. In the first part of the book, Nic Dhiarmada surveys Ireland’s place as part of the British Empire in the decades leading up to 1916, with special emphasis on earlier Irish movements to achieve independence or at least some measure of self-governance. She then outlines the events leading to the Easter Rebellion of 1916, including the crucial events of Thursday through Saturday prior to Easter. The second part details the events of the Easter Rising and the week of violent fighting, ending in the failure of the armed insurrection in Dublin. Her third part discusses the fate of the leaders of the Rising, many of whom were immediately court-martialed and executed. Nic Dhiarmada suggests that the Irish Rising, its ideals, and the subsequent election of members of the nationalist movement to prominent government offices were instrumental to the later creation of the sovereign Republic of Ireland, as well as an inspiration to anti-colonialist insurrections elsewhere in the world.
Nic Dhiarmada’s The 1916 Irish Rebellion is the companion book to a three-part documentary series to be broadcast worldwide in 2016. Narrated by Liam Neeson, the documentary, entitled “1916 The Irish Rebellion,” and its related seventy-minute version are initiatives of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame. The series was produced by COCO Television and will broadcast on RTÉ and American Public Television. Both The 1916 Irish Rebellion and the related documentary are part of the Keough-Naughton Institute’s aim to broaden public understanding of the historical interconnections between Britain, Ireland, and the United States, connections that continued to have significance up to and including the recent peace process in Northern Ireland.
"Stylish, pacy, and lucid, this narrative places the Rising in its national and international contexts. In vivid photographs and keynote quotations, it illustrates just how and why revolutionary Ireland became a test case of modernity in a rapidly decolonizing world." —Declan Kiberd, Donald and Marilyn Keough Professor of Irish Studies and Professor of English and Irish Language and Literature, University of Notre Dame
"Crisply written, evocative, and, on occasion, poignant, this fine study by Bríona Nic Dhiarmada of Easter Week, 1916, in Ireland and beyond, is wonderfully complemented by a wide range of contemporary materials—poems, speeches, letters, and images—all of which add greatly to the immediacy of her prose and the impact of her narrative. Not to be missed." —Thomas Bartlett, professor emeritus of Irish history, University of Aberdeen
Documentary writer, producer, and scholar Bríona Nic Dhiarmada has seized the occasion of the centenary of the Irish Rising to reassess this event and its historical significance. Her book explores the crucial role of Irish Americans in both the lead-up to and the aftermath of the events in Dublin and places the Irish Rising in its European and global context, as an expression of the anti-colonialism that found its full voice in the wake of the First World War. The 1916 Irish Rebellion includes a historical narrative; a lavish spread of contemporary images and photographs; and a rich selection of sidebar quotations from contemporary documents, prisoners’ statements, and other eyewitness accounts to capture the experiences of nationalists and unionists, Irish rebels and British soldiers, and Irish Americans during the turbulent events of Easter Week, 1916. In the first part of the book, Nic Dhiarmada surveys Ireland’s place as part of the British Empire in the decades leading up to 1916, with special emphasis on earlier Irish movements to achieve independence or at least some measure of self-governance. She then outlines the events leading to the Easter Rebellion of 1916, including the crucial events of Thursday through Saturday prior to Easter. The second part details the events of the Easter Rising and the week of violent fighting, ending in the failure of the armed insurrection in Dublin. Her third part discusses the fate of the leaders of the Rising, many of whom were immediately court-martialed and executed. Nic Dhiarmada suggests that the Irish Rising, its ideals, and the subsequent election of members of the nationalist movement to prominent government offices were instrumental to the later creation of the sovereign Republic of Ireland, as well as an inspiration to anti-colonialist insurrections elsewhere in the world.
Nic Dhiarmada’s The 1916 Irish Rebellion is the companion book to a three-part documentary series to be broadcast worldwide in 2016. Narrated by Liam Neeson, the documentary, entitled “1916 The Irish Rebellion,” and its related seventy-minute version are initiatives of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame. The series was produced by COCO Television and will broadcast on RTÉ and American Public Television. Both The 1916 Irish Rebellion and the related documentary are part of the Keough-Naughton Institute’s aim to broaden public understanding of the historical interconnections between Britain, Ireland, and the United States, connections that continued to have significance up to and including the recent peace process in Northern Ireland.
"Stylish, pacy, and lucid, this narrative places the Rising in its national and international contexts. In vivid photographs and keynote quotations, it illustrates just how and why revolutionary Ireland became a test case of modernity in a rapidly decolonizing world." —Declan Kiberd, Donald and Marilyn Keough Professor of Irish Studies and Professor of English and Irish Language and Literature, University of Notre Dame
"Crisply written, evocative, and, on occasion, poignant, this fine study by Bríona Nic Dhiarmada of Easter Week, 1916, in Ireland and beyond, is wonderfully complemented by a wide range of contemporary materials—poems, speeches, letters, and images—all of which add greatly to the immediacy of her prose and the impact of her narrative. Not to be missed." —Thomas Bartlett, professor emeritus of Irish history, University of Aberdeen
216 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 4, 2016
3.5 stars. An extremely valuable book (as is the documentary film). Seminal photos and fascinating excerpts from diaries, letters, memoirs, etc., (and I am so relieved that so much attention is paid to the women of the Rising) accompany the text. A few things surprised me:
- not all, but some of the executions of the 16 by the British were glossed over when I thought they deserved more information (most notably James Connolly's)
- although the book provided an excellent (succinct but noteworthy) account of the times before the 1916 rebellion, a detailed day by day account of the Rising itself, and a creditable explanation of history eventually "rhyming with" myth, the volume came to a too-abrupt close. I realize, of course, that it could not go into detail about the Anglo-Irish War/Black and Tan War, the Treaty, the Civil War, but I think at least a short, fact-packed essay was warranted rather than the cursory comments made. An attempt to establish the 1916 Irish Rising as a vital source insurrection for numerous insurrections worldwide was less than totally convincing. I would have used the space for the type of essay I've noted above.
- not all, but some of the executions of the 16 by the British were glossed over when I thought they deserved more information (most notably James Connolly's)
- although the book provided an excellent (succinct but noteworthy) account of the times before the 1916 rebellion, a detailed day by day account of the Rising itself, and a creditable explanation of history eventually "rhyming with" myth, the volume came to a too-abrupt close. I realize, of course, that it could not go into detail about the Anglo-Irish War/Black and Tan War, the Treaty, the Civil War, but I think at least a short, fact-packed essay was warranted rather than the cursory comments made. An attempt to establish the 1916 Irish Rising as a vital source insurrection for numerous insurrections worldwide was less than totally convincing. I would have used the space for the type of essay I've noted above.
January 6, 2025
We did a tour of the GPO and got to see a copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic when we were in Dublin, and had a really emotional reaction. It was so cool to get more of the background and first hand interviews, etc. to get a deeper understanding.
May 29, 2017
The book is slightly misleading. It actually covers 1911-1917 and most of the book doesn't actually cover 1916 as a whole.
March 14, 2018
informative and well-illustrated
September 20, 2016
A pictorial and written account of the rebellion and then how the tide began to change after the failure of the outbreak
November 21, 2016
There's a family story that a cousin was killed during the rebellion, but I don't know who. This book was a great introduction into the people and issues of the time.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews