In 1915, the young Irish barrister Patrick Pearse made a graveside oration following the death of the revered Irish Fenian leader Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa. Pearse's impassioned speech amounted to a call to action to the men and women of Ireland:
"... the fools, the fools, the fools! They have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace."
On Easter Monday 1916, a republican rising commenced in Dublin with the reading of a Proclamation outside the General Post Office. Organized by the Military Council of Irish Republican Brotherhood, assisted by the Irish Citizen Army, the Rising had little popular support and the combatants surrendered after only five days.
The rushed execution of the leaders, however, including all seven signatories of the Proclamation, created a popular wave of sympathy for the rebels. Ireland would never be the same again as, in the words of W. B. Yeats, Ireland had "changed, changed utterly."
View of the General Post Office from above, showing the destruction to the inside of the building.
The Seed of the People...1916 in Ireland
March 23-Sept. 30, 2016
The centerpiece of the 1916 program will be an exhibition curated by Professor Christine Kinealy of Ireland's Great Hunger Institute and Michael Chiarappa, professor of history, entitled "The Seed of the People...1916 in Ireland." The exhibition will feature a number of original documents and artifacts, including a newspaper published in Dublin in the immediate aftermath of the Rising.
The exhibition will place the events of the 1916 Easter Rising in their historical context, exploring the immediate background of the Rising, including unionist opposition to Home Rule.
The exhibition will be displayed in the Arnold Bernhard Library on the Mount Carmel Campus from March 23-Sept. 30, 2016, and is free and open to the public.
Hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences, Ireland's Great Hunger Institute, and Ireland's Great Hunger Museum, in collaboration with the Arnold Bernhard Library, "Ireland 1916 at Quinnipiac University" will feature a program of events including:
For more information about 1916 at Quinnipiac University, contact:
Ireland's Great Hunger Institute
203-582-7809
Email
For more information about events to be held in Ireland's Great Hunger Museum, contact:
Ireland's Great Hunger Museum
203-582-6500
