The Four Courts on Inns Quay in Dublin, some years before the Easter Rising

The 1st Battalion of the Dublin Brigade led by Commandant Edward (Ned) Daly occupied the Four Courts (law courts) and the adjacent streets on the north bank of the river Liffey, almost a mile to the west of the GPO. This was a strategic area as it controlled the main route between the military barracks to the west of the city and the GPO.

The 1st Battalion was involved in some of the fiercest fighting of the Rising, the first skirmish occurring on Monday afternoon when Volunteers in the Four Courts got the better of a party of Lancers (cavalry) escorting lorries loaded with munitions. On Wednesday 26 April, the Volunteers captured two enemy positions in the area, the Bridewell which was held by police, and Linenhall Barracks, which was occupied by unarmed army clerks.

By Thursday the area was effectively cordoned off by the South Staffordshire and Sherwood Forest regiments. Fierce fighting ensued, particularly in the North King Street area, where a number of civilians were killed by soldiers of the South Staffordshire Regiment. The fighting continued until Saturday evening, 29 April 1916, when the news of Pearse’s surrender filtered through.