1916: Books and ebooks

Opening with an evaluation of the roots of the Rising, the authors present pen portraits of the leaders and a thorough analysis of their motives, plans and objectives. They challenge the traditional interpretation that these leaders expected military failure, motivated by a desire to provide a blood sacrifice and hoping thereby to rejuvenate Irish nationalist sentiment. A detailed chronological account of the Rising itself recaptures the action in the key locations, giving insights into the actual experience of Easter Week for the rebels, the military personnel who opposed them, and the civilian population. The authors conclude their narrative by reviewing the British government's reaction to the Rising, analyzing the background to the declaration of martial law, and assessing the British military response.

Ireland's Easter Rising of 1916 is one of the handful of modern historical events that instantly created its own mythology and changed millions of lives forever. Charles Townshend's remarkable new book vividly re-creates this extraordinary time when, as Irish insurgents rose up and occupied Dublin, as British artillery retaliated ferociously and flattened the city center, as the last haggard rebels surrendered and their leaders were shot, a powerful narrative was born and Ireland was launched into a new world. Scraping away layer upon layer of myth, Easter 1916 reveals an Ireland polarized, confused, and fearful, hovering on the brink of war between Nationalists and Unionists, and presenting Britain with a seemingly insoluble problem. With the world’s attention on the First World War, a group of exceptional Irish men and women-from the eloquent intellectual Patrick Pearse to the revolutionary socialist James Connolly-decided to take the actions that turned a peaceful provincial city into a bloody battleground and then into a national capital. The repercussions of these events we still feel today. With 8 pages of black-and-white photographs.

We know from our literary histories that there was a movement called the Irish Literary Renaissance, and that Yeats was at its head. We know from our political histories that there is now a Republic of Ireland because of a nationalistic movement that, militarily, began with the insurrection of Easter Week, 1916. But what do these two movements have to do with one another? Because I came to history with literary eyes, I could not help seeing history in terms and shapes of imaginative experience. Thus Movement, Myth, and Image came to be the way in which the nature of the insurrection appeared to me. This method of analyzing historical event as if it were a work of art is not altogether as inappropriate as it might seem when the historical event happens to be a revolution. The Irish revolutionaries lived as if they were in a work of art, and this inability to tell the difference between sober reality and the realm of imagination is perhaps one very important characteristic of a revolutionary. The tragedy of actuality comes from the fact that when, in a revolution, history is made momentarily into a work of art, human beings become the material that must be ordered, molded, or twisted into shape. (from the preface)"

'Women of the Irish Revolution' tells the story of the role that women played both directly and indirectly in the Irish revolution. These women were vital to the revolutionary movement. They were part of a generation who made a conscious decision to stand up for not only their rights, but also the rights of future generations, at a time when society viewed the role of women as that of mother and wife. The independence movement could not have succeeded without their contribution, which saw them put themselves in great danger in order to help free their country. The book also tells the story of those who, though not directly involved, lost so much as a result of that conflict. For they were the wives, mothers, sisters and girlfriends of the men who fought for Irish freedom, and their story is one that needs to be told. History, they say, is written by the victors, and more often than not the victors are men. The women from this period are the forgotten generation and it is now time to remember them.

Women in the fight for Ireland's independence risked loss of life and family for their cause. Here are the biographies of sixty-five women activists, along with lists of those imprisoned after the 1916 Rising and those arrested during the Irish Civil War. They came from every class in society--titled ladies, shop assistants, doctors, housewives, laundry workers, artists, and teachers. Some were married with children, others widowed, and some were mere schoolgirls. Using historical records, interviews with survivors and their families, and the women's own prison diaries, memorabilia, and writings, Sinead McCoole vividly recreates the characters, personalities, and courage of these extraordinary women, many of whom served time in Ireland's most notorious prison, Kilmainham Gaol.

This book - the companion to Sean Enright's previous work, The Trials of Civilians by Military Courts: 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.

Willie Pearse was a well-regarded sculptor who ran the family stone-carving business, but he was also a dynamic activist whose life offers fresh insights into political and cultural life before 1916. History has placed him in the shadow of his brother Patrick, but whether it was nationalism, education or the cultural revival, Willie shared in these activities as an equal. Being Patrick's right-hand man in the weeks preceding the Rising, he played an important role in making it happen. His gentle character and wide circle of friends meant that his execution on 4 May 1916 shocked even those who had little sympathy with the rebels and helped turn public opinion in their favour. In this book, using new sources, Róisin Ní Ghairbhi shows conclusively that, far from being dominated by his brother, Willie Pearse was always decidedly his own man.

A first-hand account of the 1916 Rising and its aftermath brings alive the historic events that ushered in the beginnings of an independent Irish state.  A Londoner and a member of the Irish Volunteers, Joe Good guarded the approach across O'Connell Bridge as the rebels took the centre of Dublin. He joined the garrison in the GPO, and describes at first hand the events of insurrection: the confusion, the heroism, and the tragedy of Easter Week. After the Rising, Joe Good worked as an organiser for the Volunteers. He was a close associate of Michael Collins and his portrait of Collins provides fresh insight into his character, his competitiveness, and how he related to his men. In 1918 Good was one of a handpicked team sent to London to assassinate members of the British cabinet, and here he gives the first full account to be published of this extraordinary expedition. Joe Good, born in London in 1895, died in Dublin in 1962. He wrote his journal in 1946 for his son Maurice, who has now edited it for publication.

This book contains the unpublished diaries of two men writing under fire on the streets of Dublin in April 1916.In Jacob's factory, Volunteer Seosamh de Brún wrote in his tiny diary about guard duties and a bicycle sortie to help de Valera, during which a sniper killed one of the cyclists. Meanwhile, across the Liffey, British soldier Samuel Lomas wrote in his own diary of building barricades across Moore Street and participating in the executions of Pearse, Clarke and MacDonagh, giving new insights into the rebellion's grim closing days.Mick O'Farrell brilliantly juxtaposes these two accounts, including fascimilies that show through deteriorating handwriting the increasing pressure the diarists were under, to give a dramatic account of how ordinary participants experienced the events of Easter week.

When the rebellion of 1916 had ended, more than 400 people were dead and over 2,000 wounded. More than half of these were civilians, but even for those civilians who were not direct casualties, the rising was one of the most momentous experiences of their lives. The accounts that Mick O'Farrell has collected come from letters, diaries, extracts from otherwise unrelated biographies, and contemporary magazine and newspaper articles.Some common themes are present in the accounts. For instance, a fear of going hungry, which resulted in constant, and dangerous, attempts to stock up with supplies. There was also a grim realisation (despite two years of World War) that war had arrived on their doorstep: 'We know a bit what War is like now'. For some, there was even an undeniable element of excitement - one witness writes that 'now that it's over, none of us would've missed it for the world'. After watching a woman shot in the street, another witness notes that he 'saw a man rush out and take a snapshot'. Elsewhere, there are 'crowds looking on as if at a sham battle'. For most, however, it was the kind of excitement they could do without: Complimenting the many historical accounts of the rising and statements from the participants, this book gives a real flavour of what it was like to live through history in the making.

Until 1999 official British records of the 15 trials that followed the Easter Rising of 1916 were kept a close secret. Further material released in 2001 included the trial of Countess Markievicz and important evidence about "shoot to kill" British military tactics. These records, the subject of heated speculation and propaganda for more than 80 years, are now clearly presented in this important new book. The complete transcripts are all here, together with fascinating photographs of the Rising, the 15 leaders and the key British players. Brian Barton's incisive commentary explains the context of the trials and the motivations of the leaders, providing an invaluable insight into what went on behind a closed door at a defining moment in Irish history.