The Easter Rising Proclaims an Irish Republic

On Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, more than a thousand armed members of the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizen Army, and the all-female organisation Cumann na mBan converged across central Dublin. Operating under the clandestine direction of a seven-man Military Council from the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the insurgent groups intended to overturn British rule and establish an independent republic while the United Kingdom remained preoccupied with the First World War. Shortly before noon, a detachment led by Patrick Pearse and James Connolly seized the General Post Office on O'Connell Street and made it their headquarters, and Pearse then read a proclamation of the Irish Republic outside the building.

Simultaneously, other rebel battalions secured prominent positions across the city centre, including the Four Courts, St Stephen's Green, Jacob's biscuit factory, and the South Dublin Union. Small units attempted to disrupt communications and transport by seizing railway stations, blocking bridges, and severing telegraph wires. An attempt to capture Dublin Castle faltered at the gate after an unarmed police sentry was shot, prompting the insurgents to retreat into Dublin City Hall. A separate detachment attacked the Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park, but the attempt to destroy its munitions failed.