In 1914 Home Rule for Ireland had been postpooned for the duration of the war: with the emergence of a common enemy, Irishmen agreed to resign themselves for a bit longer to the familiar pattern of government from Dublin Castle. But dedication to the ideal of national independence had not died with the call to arms: in Dublin,at a secret meeting of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, an insurrection was planned to take place before the end of the war. In Easter week 1916, members of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army - the two militant arms of the Republican ideal - joined together to start a rebellion. Even before it began, its leaders knew that it was doomed, but it was a gesture of defiance that altered for ever the pattern of Irish History.

This article is located in the History of the First World War Volume 3 (REF D522 .H58 1969 V.3).