Page 49 - All About History - Issue 19-14

What was it like?

DUBLIN, 1916

Government

After the uprising started, its leading
members issued the Proclamation
of the Irish Republic, read by Patrick
Pearse, which they declared as
being issued by the ‘Provisional
Government of the Irish Republic.’
Although it was short-lived, it was Media
the first step in the establishment of
the Irish Free State. The Irish independence cause didn’t
have complete support, even in
the capital. The Irish Independent
newspaper described the Easter
Ireland’s Parliament was abolished in the Rising as “insane and criminal.”
19th century by the British government This tone was in stark contrast to
Belfast-based papers like The Irish
This Dublin house is decorated with
a memorial artwork commemorating News and The Belfast News, which
the events of the Easter Rising were far more sympathetic with the
aims of the rebels.

Art
The events of 1916 prompted
poet WB Yeats to compose
British troops armed with machine
guns and rifles behind a barricade the poem Easter, 1916. Despite
in Dublin during the Easter Rising being a nationalist, Yeats was
opposed to the use of violence
to achieve these aims, and as
Michael Collins, one of the leaders of the
Technology a consequence the poem gives Irish independence movement, was killed in
1922 during the Irish Civil War
mixed thoughts on the Rising,
Much like the rest of Britain, reflecting on how “a terrible
most technology in Dublin at the beauty was born.”
time was coal-powered, meaning
it inevitably suffered due to fuel
shortages during WWI. During
the Rising, the British forces
relied on the use of traditional Industry
artillery to achieve victory, Although Dublin was a port city,
causing massive damage to the it wasn’t home to any particular
city centre. kind of heavy industry. Instead, its
economy was centred more around
administration and commerce, as
well as the transport of agricultural
produce, while World War I saw
many Dubliners recruited to work
in the munitions factories.

© Alamy; Corbis
Dublin was devastated during the Easter
Rising,asthisphotofromApril1916shows

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