The 1916 Proclamation: Ireland and the Easter Rising of 1916

By John O'Connor

On Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, the tricolour flag was hoisted over the General Post Office. Shortly after noon Padraig Pearse, standing beneath the high portico, read the Proclamation publicly proclaiming Ireland a republic and a sovereign independent state. John O'Connor recounts the birth of this historic document which was to become one of the cornerstones of the new state. Why was it necessary? Who wrote it? Who secretly printed it and where? How was it distributed? How many exist? How would you know an authentic print? 'The Proclamation of the Irish Republic has been adduced in evidence against me as one of the signatories; you think it is already a dead and buried letter, but it lives, it lives. From minds alight with Ireland's vivid intellect it sprang; in hearts aflame with Ireland's mighty love it was conceived. Such documents do not die ... ' FROM THE COURT-MARTIAL SPEECH OF THOMAS MacDONAGH

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mercier Press
• Release date: Jul 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781781171080

John O'Connor

John O'Connor is a numismatist from Kawartha Lakes Ontario who documents doubled die varieties on modern Canadian coins intended for circulation and proof-like sets.

Book preview

‘On the base of the Pillar was a white poster. Gathered around were groups of men and women. Some looked at it with serious faces, others laughed and sniggered. I began to read it with a smile, but my smile ceased as I read. Clarke I had known through a friend of ours, Major MacBride, who used to come across the city to buy cigars in his little shop. Pearse I had seen for the first time a few minutes before. A man in the crowd had shouted out his name as a quiet-faced figure in uniform with a strange, green, soft hat had passed slowly out through the front door of the GPO. He had talked with an officer underneath the portico beside a fluted pillar. His face was firm and composed. Connolly I had heard speak at meetings. I had seen MacDonagh in the university where he had lectured on English, gayer than the other lectures. Plunkett was editor of The Irish Review, back numbers of which I had read. They did not mean anything – only names. As I stood looking at the GPO, pigeons fluttered up from the roof and with flat dives flew swiftly in different directions ...’

ERNIE O’MALLEY ON ANOTHER MAN’S WOUND

The General Post Office

JOHN O’CONNOR

THE 1916 PROCLAMATION

ANVIL BOOKS

MERCIER PRESS

3B Oak House, Bessboro Rd

Blackrock, Cork, Ireland

© John O’Connor, 1986, 1999

ISBN: 978-1-901737-11-0

Epub ISBN: 978-1-78117-108-0

Mobi ISBN: 978-1-78117-109-7

This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Contents

Illustrations

PHOTO CREDITS

Irish Press: 41. Kilmainham Gaol and Museum: 16, 21, 35, 36, 39, 48, 62, 65, 87. National Library of Ireland: 8, 9, 17, 25, 56, 59, 68, 73, 78, 85. National Museum of Ireland: 20. Thomas P. O’Neill: 52

THE PROCLAMATION OF

POBLACHT NA H EIREANN.

THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT

OF THE

IRISH REPUBLIC

TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND.

IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN : In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her. freedom.

Having organised and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and through her open military organisations, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes that moment, and, supported by her exiled