Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Penguin (2006), 464 pages
Description
Now with a new preface for the centenary of the Easter Rising, a compelling interpretation of the rebellion that launched Ireland into a new world. Before Easter 1916 Dublin had been a city much like any other British city, comparable to Bristol or Liverpool and part of a complex, deep-rooted British world. Many of Dublin's inhabitants wanted to weaken or terminate London's rule but there remained a vast and conflicting range of visions of that future: far more immediate was the unfolding disaster of the First World War that had put 'home rule' issues on ice for the duration. The devastating events of that Easter changed everything. Both the rising itself and-even more significantly-the ferocious British response ended any sense at all that Dublin could be anything other than the capital of an independent country, as an entire nation turned away in revulsion from the British artillery and executions. More than a century after these events, it is time for a new account of what really happened over those fateful few days. What did the rebels actually hope to achieve? What did the British think they were doing? And how were the events really interpreted by ordinary people across Ireland? Vivid, authoritative and gripping, Easter 1916 is a major work.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member rocketjk
This is a fascinating, detailed (to the extent possible) history. It gets frustrating to read sometimes (as I'm sure it must have been for Townshend to write), as the actions of the leaders of the Easter Uprising were often inexplicable, and there was precious little put in writing at the time by
At any rate, Townshend does an admirable job of assembling the history of the rise of the fractured Irish separatist movement at the beginning of the 20th century. There was a strong party urging Home Rule for Ireland as a first step toward independence, and several groups urging for a more immediate and total independence from Great Britain, obtained through arms if need be. The history moves through the decision for a country-wide armed rising, the damaging confusion caused when a countermanding order was sent across the counties that caused a day-long delay and sent many potential insurrectionists home, never to re-engage. In the end, the fighting took place mostly, and certainly most famously, in Dublin itself, with the most important and memorable (and horrific) action centered around the Dublin General Post Office.
The uprising was hindered not only by the confusion of contradictory orders, but also by the leaders' general lack of military expertise. In Townshend's account, many of the strategy decisions, in terms particularly of which buildings to occupy and which to ignore, are very hard to explain, and it's frustrating, as mentioned, that primary sources are so scarce. Many of the leaders were sure that the English would never use artillery in Dublin, which of course the English considered part of Great Britain. But the battle was put in the hands of the Army, not the politicians, and the big guns came out. It was the fires set off by incendiary shells that finally forced the Irish fighters out of their strongholds under the white flag of surrender.
Townshend goes on to artfully describe the incalculable damage done by the British military commander's decision to execute the uprising's leaders after only the most summary of trials, and action that created martyrs and ensured that even those Irish who were skeptical or even hostile to the Uprising (and there were many) gained a new and bitter resentment against the British throughout the country. Soon new regiments of volunteers were armed and parading once again, and the British thought it wiser not to attempt to disarm them. (The fact that England was considering an Irish conscription law to try to gain soldiers for the World War at that time raging on the continent was a crucial factor in this, as well.)
Townshend considers the questions of whether or not the Uprising did more harm than good. (One point that seems clear is that the Uprising went a long way to cementing the determination of the Protestant-majority northern counties to cut themselves off from Catholic-majority Ireland and remain within Great Britain, as all possibility of negotiation between the groups was instantly destroyed.) He does not come to a final determination on this issue, though, although it does seem that he considers the uprising in sympathetic terms all in all.
And, finally, Townshend portrays the role that the Easter Uprising has had in the narrative of Irish history and Irish national identity. The book is detailed and very well written. It's 360 pages went fairly quickly for me. For anyone with an interest in the topic, I highly recommend it.
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the participants. Townshend, though, did have access to a trove of new material. In 1947, the Bureau of Military History began to gather accounts from the uprising's surviving participants. This activity went on for ten years, but then the material "disappeared into government archives" instead of being compiled and released to the public. Townshend, in his Preface, writes, "This 'miser's hoard' was at least opened to the public in March 2003 and suddenly, instead of a few dozen accounts, we have many hundred. They suffer from all the problems to be expected in accounts written thirty years after the event, but there are a remarkable source nonetheless." At any rate, Townshend does an admirable job of assembling the history of the rise of the fractured Irish separatist movement at the beginning of the 20th century. There was a strong party urging Home Rule for Ireland as a first step toward independence, and several groups urging for a more immediate and total independence from Great Britain, obtained through arms if need be. The history moves through the decision for a country-wide armed rising, the damaging confusion caused when a countermanding order was sent across the counties that caused a day-long delay and sent many potential insurrectionists home, never to re-engage. In the end, the fighting took place mostly, and certainly most famously, in Dublin itself, with the most important and memorable (and horrific) action centered around the Dublin General Post Office.
The uprising was hindered not only by the confusion of contradictory orders, but also by the leaders' general lack of military expertise. In Townshend's account, many of the strategy decisions, in terms particularly of which buildings to occupy and which to ignore, are very hard to explain, and it's frustrating, as mentioned, that primary sources are so scarce. Many of the leaders were sure that the English would never use artillery in Dublin, which of course the English considered part of Great Britain. But the battle was put in the hands of the Army, not the politicians, and the big guns came out. It was the fires set off by incendiary shells that finally forced the Irish fighters out of their strongholds under the white flag of surrender.
Townshend goes on to artfully describe the incalculable damage done by the British military commander's decision to execute the uprising's leaders after only the most summary of trials, and action that created martyrs and ensured that even those Irish who were skeptical or even hostile to the Uprising (and there were many) gained a new and bitter resentment against the British throughout the country. Soon new regiments of volunteers were armed and parading once again, and the British thought it wiser not to attempt to disarm them. (The fact that England was considering an Irish conscription law to try to gain soldiers for the World War at that time raging on the continent was a crucial factor in this, as well.)
Townshend considers the questions of whether or not the Uprising did more harm than good. (One point that seems clear is that the Uprising went a long way to cementing the determination of the Protestant-majority northern counties to cut themselves off from Catholic-majority Ireland and remain within Great Britain, as all possibility of negotiation between the groups was instantly destroyed.) He does not come to a final determination on this issue, though, although it does seem that he considers the uprising in sympathetic terms all in all.
And, finally, Townshend portrays the role that the Easter Uprising has had in the narrative of Irish history and Irish national identity. The book is detailed and very well written. It's 360 pages went fairly quickly for me. For anyone with an interest in the topic, I highly recommend it.
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LibraryThing member riverwillow
This is a fairly definitive historical account of the 1916 Rebellion so in places it is quite hard to read. But as accounts go it really helped me to understand the Rebellion's place in history and how, in contrast to past uprisings which had little or no real effect on history, the effects of the
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Rebellion rippled out throughout the Twentieth Century and beyond. Show Less
LibraryThing member MacDad
Few events in modern Irish history are as pivotal as the “Easter Rising”, the dramatic seizure of the General Post Office and other parts of Dublin that marked the declaration of the Irish Republic. Yet for decades the event has never received the thorough examination it deserves, due in part,
Townshend traces the origins of the Rising to the development and definition of Irish identity in the late nineteenth century. Here the breadth of his examination is immediately apparent, as he moves beyond the political to study the role that the cultural movement known as the Celtic rising played in inspiring Irish nationalists to challenge British rule. A key figure bridging between the cultural and the political was Patrick Pearse, the president of the provisional republic claimed in the aftermath of the seizure of the General Post Office. By delving into Pearse’s past as a nationalist consumed with freeing Ireland not only from British political domination but its cultural domination as well, he illustrates just how important the cultural component was in inspiring the nationalists and driving them towards action.
Yet Irish politics in those years was dominated not by nationalism but the issue of Home Rule. Here Townshend focuses on the reaction to the Home Rule measure in Ireland, which catalyzed Unionist resistance in the north to the devolution of Irish government. The formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force, in turn, inspired southern nationalists to form their own armed group, the Irish Volunteers, a movement quickly subsumed by the Irish Parliamentary Party into their organization. Yet the outbreak of the First World War and the decision by Irish parliamentary leader John Redmond to support the war split the Irish Volunteers and came to undermine his standing.
The nationalist Irish Volunteers that broke away from main group were themselves divided over the next step, however. As they gained in standing with the growing unpopularity of Redmond’s decision, Pearse and other members sought to take advantage of Britain’s difficulty to throw off her rule of Ireland. Given the attitudes of the Volunteer leadership, such planning had to take place in secrecy, and one of the great strengths of this book is Townshend’s laudable effort to wade into the confused jumble of half-hidden events to detail the evolution of the Rising. What was initially envisioned as a nationwide rebellion quickly became a Dublin-centric event that would take advantage of a planned Easter Sunday mobilization to strike against British rule. The last-minute efforts by the nationalist Volunteer leadership to head off the rebellion, though, resulted in a confused and only partial assemblage of Volunteers on the following day.
The three chapters on the Rising itself form the heart of Townshend’s book, and they recount an event characterized by confusion on both sides. The poor preparations and questionable decisions by the rebels were equaled only by those of the British authorities, whose overreaction in the aftermath of the rebels’ inevitable defeat turned them from extremists into heroes. Townshend concludes the book by looking at the belated efforts by the British in the aftermath of the Rising to craft a settlement in response to the growing nationalist challenge to their control over Ireland – a challenge that in the end they failed to avert.
With its clear prose and painstaking reconstruction of the tangled events of the Easter Rising, Townshend’s book is a masterpiece of the historical craft. The thorough research and judicious analysis contained within its pages is unlikely to be bettered as a guide to the complicated and confused developments that led to this dramatic and exciting event. For anyone seeking a study that will help them understand the Easter Rising, its background, and its consequences, this is the one to read.
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as Charles Townshend observes in his preface to this fine book, to the long-standing reticence to release the oral histories of the event contained within the archives of the Bureau of Military History. Their release in 2003 provides the best opportunity yet to study the uprising, and Townshend has risen to the challenge by providing a penetrating examination of the origins and the impact of the Rising.Townshend traces the origins of the Rising to the development and definition of Irish identity in the late nineteenth century. Here the breadth of his examination is immediately apparent, as he moves beyond the political to study the role that the cultural movement known as the Celtic rising played in inspiring Irish nationalists to challenge British rule. A key figure bridging between the cultural and the political was Patrick Pearse, the president of the provisional republic claimed in the aftermath of the seizure of the General Post Office. By delving into Pearse’s past as a nationalist consumed with freeing Ireland not only from British political domination but its cultural domination as well, he illustrates just how important the cultural component was in inspiring the nationalists and driving them towards action.
Yet Irish politics in those years was dominated not by nationalism but the issue of Home Rule. Here Townshend focuses on the reaction to the Home Rule measure in Ireland, which catalyzed Unionist resistance in the north to the devolution of Irish government. The formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force, in turn, inspired southern nationalists to form their own armed group, the Irish Volunteers, a movement quickly subsumed by the Irish Parliamentary Party into their organization. Yet the outbreak of the First World War and the decision by Irish parliamentary leader John Redmond to support the war split the Irish Volunteers and came to undermine his standing.
The nationalist Irish Volunteers that broke away from main group were themselves divided over the next step, however. As they gained in standing with the growing unpopularity of Redmond’s decision, Pearse and other members sought to take advantage of Britain’s difficulty to throw off her rule of Ireland. Given the attitudes of the Volunteer leadership, such planning had to take place in secrecy, and one of the great strengths of this book is Townshend’s laudable effort to wade into the confused jumble of half-hidden events to detail the evolution of the Rising. What was initially envisioned as a nationwide rebellion quickly became a Dublin-centric event that would take advantage of a planned Easter Sunday mobilization to strike against British rule. The last-minute efforts by the nationalist Volunteer leadership to head off the rebellion, though, resulted in a confused and only partial assemblage of Volunteers on the following day.
The three chapters on the Rising itself form the heart of Townshend’s book, and they recount an event characterized by confusion on both sides. The poor preparations and questionable decisions by the rebels were equaled only by those of the British authorities, whose overreaction in the aftermath of the rebels’ inevitable defeat turned them from extremists into heroes. Townshend concludes the book by looking at the belated efforts by the British in the aftermath of the Rising to craft a settlement in response to the growing nationalist challenge to their control over Ireland – a challenge that in the end they failed to avert.
With its clear prose and painstaking reconstruction of the tangled events of the Easter Rising, Townshend’s book is a masterpiece of the historical craft. The thorough research and judicious analysis contained within its pages is unlikely to be bettered as a guide to the complicated and confused developments that led to this dramatic and exciting event. For anyone seeking a study that will help them understand the Easter Rising, its background, and its consequences, this is the one to read.
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Subjects
Awards
PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize (Shortlist — 2006)
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
360 p.; 5.08 inches
ISBN
0141012161 / 9780141012162