Main Sites of Activity during the Easter Rising, 1916

At noon on Easter Monday, Patrick Pearse, James Connolly and Joseph Plunkett led a contingent of Irish Volunteers from Liberty Hall to the General Post Office on Sackville (now O’Connell) Street in Dublin, where Tom Clarke and Seán MacDiarmada had preceded them. Elsewhere, Commandant Éamonn Ceannt led the 4th Battalion to the South Dublin Union, and Commandant Thomas MacDonagh led the 2nd Battalion to Jacob’s biscuit factory. Outside the G.P.O., Pearse proclaimed the establishment of the Irish Republic to a gaggle of curious passers-by. The 1916 Rising was underway.

 

While much of the action over the following week was concentrated in Dublin, the Rising was not confined to the capital city. There were pockets of fierce fighting around the country, most notably at Ashbourne in Co. Meath, Enniscorthy in Co. Wexford, and in Co. Galway.

The principal position to be occupied was the G.P.O. on Sackville (now O’Connell) Street, Dublin, which was designated as the headquarters of the Provisional Government. Five members of the Provisional Government were located there: Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, Tom Clarke, Seán MacDiarmada, and Joseph Plunkett. The garrison amounted to possibly 350 men and women—Irish Volunteers, Cumann na mBan, Irish Citizen Army and Hibernian Rifles. As commandant  general of the Dublin Brigade of what was to be the new army of the Irish Republic, James Connolly was in charge of the defense of the G.P.O. and also directed operations throughout the city until communications were cut off later in the week.

On Easter Monday Captain Seán Connolly of the Irish Citizen Army and his company of approximately thirty men convened at Liberty Hall. They marched up College Green and Dame Street and occupied City Hall and adjacent buildings, including the Evening Mail premises on the corner of Parliament Street and Dame Street. The I.C.A. contingent in City Hall included Dr Kathleen Lynn and Helena Molony.

 

Constable James O’Brien of the Dublin Metropolitan Police was shot dead as he tried to close the gate of Dublin Castle. The guardroom was taken, and the six soldiers present were disarmed and imprisoned. Apart from sixty-five wounded service men in the hospital, there were fewer than twenty-five soldiers on duty in Dublin Castle. The City Hall and the other occupied buildings soon came under intense rifle and machine gun fire. In the course of the afternoon, Captain Seán Connolly was shot and killed by a sniper on the Bedford Tower in Dublin Castle. City Hall and the associated positions were assaulted by superior numbers later that evening. Following a number of casualties, the rebel forces surrendered that night.

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.

Captain Seán Heuston of Commandant Daly’s 1st Battalion was deployed to occupy the Mendicity Institution as an outpost about half a mile to the west of the Four Courts on the south side of the Liffey. His mission was to control the route between the nearby Royal Barracks (later Collins Barracks, now the National Museum of Ireland) and the Four Courts for a few hours so that Daly and the remainder of the 1st Battalion would have time to settle in. Immediately on taking over the premises (a home for those down on their luck), Heuston expelled the inmates and fortified the building. Soon after, a force from the Royal Barracks attacked the building, but was repulsed.

 

Initially Heuston’s force consisted of thirteen Volunteers, but it was reinforced on Tuesday 25 April by another thirteen Volunteers from Swords under Captain Richard Coleman. Although required to hold the position for only a matter of hours, the force held out until noon on Wednesday. By then, the Mendicity Institution was surrounded by vastly superior forces equipped with small arms, grenades and heavy machine guns. To save the lives of his remaining men, Heuston surrendered.

The 2nd Battalion under Commandant Thomas MacDonagh occupied Jacob’s biscuit factory on Bishop Street, almost a mile to the south of the GPO. Jacob’s biscuit factory was difficult to assault because it was surrounded by a labyrinth of streets and small houses which would hinder the use of artillery. It had two tall towers which provided a view over much of the city. MacDonagh had approximately 130-150 men, supplemented by some Fianna Éireann and Cumann na mBan. He posted men in buildings in Camden Street, Wexford Street, Aungier Street and other streets in the area, making Jacob’s all the more difficult a target for the military.

 

News of the surrender did not reach Jacob’s until Sunday, 30 April 1916. Thomas MacDonagh and the garrison surrendered reluctantly. The three most senior officers, MacDonagh, MacBride and O’Hanrahan, were executed.

Commandant Michael Mallin and his second in command, Constance Markievicz, were assigned to St. Stephen’s Green, a rectangular park, approximately twenty acres in size located a mile south of the General Post Office and close to Jacob’s. It is estimated that 200-250 of the Irish Citizen Army turned out during the Rising, most of them serving with Mallin in the St. Stephen’s Green area. Mallin proceeded to fortify his position, posting men in some of the houses overlooking the Green and setting men to work digging trenches to cover the entrances. He dispatched parties to take over Harcourt Street railway station, J. & T. Davy’s (now ‘Portobello’) public house at the junction of South Richmond Street and Charlemont Mall, and houses at Leeson Street bridge. It soon transpired that St. Stephen’s Green was a vulnerable position, as it was overlooked by the Shelbourne Hotel and some other tall buildings that had not been occupied by Mallin’s forces. The British directed machine gun fire from the Shelbourne onto the Green late on Monday, as a result of which Mallin abandoned most of it on Tuesday. The majority of the I.C.A. forces then garrisoned the Royal College of Surgeons immediately to the west of the Green. As Brigadier-General Lowe concentrated on the G.P.O. and the Four Courts, the College of Surgeons garrison was involved in little action until the order for surrender came  on Sunday, 30 April 1916.

Commandant Thomas Ashe and Volunteers of the small 5th Battalion of the Dublin Brigade were active in north county Dublin throughout the Easter Rising. Partly on the advice of his second in command Richard Mulcahy, a member of a Dublin city battalion who had only just transferred to the 5th battalion, Ashe adopted guerilla tactics, damaging railway lines and capturing some small Royal Irish Constabulary barracks, the aim being to hamper enemy movements, take pressure off their comrades in Dublin city, and procure arms. On Tuesday of Easter Week, Ashe ordered twenty men to the GPO, some of whom were sent on to the Mendicity Institution. On the Friday morning, Ashe’s force of fifty Volunteers surrounded the R.I.C. barracks at Ashbourne, across the border in Co. Meath. The garrison of sixteen men and a district inspector was about to surrender when a force of approximately sixty R.I.C. men and two senior officers arrived on the scene in motor cars. Following a lengthy engagement along the dykes, drains and ditches, the Volunteers forced the R.I.C., both those in the open and those in the barracks, to surrender. Joseph Lawless, a Volunteer who participated in the action, reported the casualties as two Volunteers killed and five wounded, and eight R.I.C. men killed and fifteen wounded. From the Volunteers’ point of view this was by far the most successful action of the Rising, the element of surprise probably being a major factor. Ashbourne and the guerilla warfare tactics adopted by Ashe and Mulcahy provided a role model for those involved in the War of Independence in the following years.

In Co. Wexford, due to the conflicting messages emanating from Dublin, there was considerable confusion as to whether the Rising was to take place or not. Eventually, early on Easter Monday Mrs Jennie Wyse-Power, a member of Cumann na mBan, relayed a message from Pearse that the Rising would indeed take place that day. That night, news arrived that the Rising was in progress.

On Wednesday, 26 April 1916, a message arrived from James Connolly requesting that the Enniscorthy Volunteers hold the railway line from Rosslare to prevent British reinforcements reaching Dublin. On Thursday, the Enniscorthy Volunteers together with contingents from other areas took over Enniscorthy, establishing headquarters in the Athenaeum, a strong position beside the castle. The Volunteers were supplemented by members of Fianna Éireann and Cumann na mBan. Brigade Commandant Robert Brennan was the officer in charge. The Volunteers took over the town and blocked the roads and the railway line. They surrounded the Royal Irish Constabulary barracks and exchanged fire with the police. They did not, however, attempt to capture the barracks, believing that in time the R.I.C. would surrender. Meanwhile, a force under Captain Paul Galligan occupied the town of Ferns and some of the northern part of the county.

When news of the Rising reached Galway on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, Liam Mellows managed to mobilize a large force. On Tuesday a force of Volunteers had an initial success at Oranmore when they captured six members of the Royal Irish Constabulary, but were then routed by a large force with superior fire-power. They proceeded to Athenry where they took over the agricultural station. On Wednesday a large force of RIC attempted to drive them out, but were repulsed. The same day, two companies of Volunteers routed a military detachment en route from Galway to Athenry. The vast majority of the Volunteers in the field were intent on continuing the campaign in the West, a stance endorsed by the large number of members of Cumann na mBan also present. Accordingly, it was proposed to march southwards into Co. Clare. On Friday, however, news arrived that the GPO and other Volunteer strongholds in Dublin had been shelled by artillery and that the Rising was on the point of collapse. Moreover, the remainder of the country had not participated in the Rising. In addition, a force of several hundred marines was approaching. The Volunteers would be no match for such a force, considering their inferiority in terms of arms and equipment. Early on Saturday it was decided to disperse.