Page 59 - Phonebox Magazine March 2016

and Pearse took command. By tunnelling, the rebels managed to escape the res and reach Moore Street, but soon realised they could not escape and surrendered. The GPO was the only bastion to surrender, the others giving up only on Pearse’s order. The last ghting took place on Sunday 30th April. By this time General John Maxwell had taken command of the British forces from General
Lowe. Over four hundred people were killed including 116 soldiers and 29 policemen. The vast majority of those killed were civilians. Three and a half thousand people were arrested although many of these were soon released.
Executions soon started with summary court martials taking place. The seven men who signed the proclamation of independence were shot between May 2nd and 12th. Some escaped execution including Eamonn De Valera, an American (his execution would have saved Ireland a lot of trouble over the next six decades). Over 1400 men were interned including Michael Collins.
The people of Dublin were very critical of the rebels, especially those who had relatives ghting in the British Army. But soon sympathy turned as the British reacted harshly to the rebels and the executions continued.
The rise of the political wing of the IRA – Sinn Fein (Ourselves Alone) drew out this sympathy and during the general election of December 1918 it won a landside victory, adopted a separate parliament and declared independence. A civil war broke out as the
April 1916 Mike Totton
British attempted to coerce Ireland back into the fold but its blunt tactics and use of the notorious “Black and Tans”, an auxiliary force called after the colour of their uniforms, turned the population against the authorities. A peace settlement was nally agreed in 1921 but with the six counties of Ulster remaining within the UK. The IRA split, violently, into pro and anti treaty factions and the Irish Civil War broke out.
Michael Collins lead the pro and De Valera the anti treaty. More Irishmen were killed in this war than in the war of Independence 1918-21.
The pro faction won but at a cost with Michael Collins being killed. De Valera, a scheming narrow minded man, worked his way up to become head of the government and under his leadership the Catholic church took control of many aspects of Irish life, much to the detriment of ordinary Irish people. Ireland would have been better led by Michael Collins and not until the nineteen seventies did the country pull itself out of the mire left by De Valera as it took the EU and its systems to help educate and nance a vastly improving economy.
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March 2016 | Phonebox Magazine 59
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