Easter Rising: The Revolt That Paved The Way To Ireland's Independence | Terrible Beauty | Timeline

this channel is part of the history hit network stick around to find out more [Music] them [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] we lost so many fine men in ireland men who were meant to fight and perhaps die in france none of them expected to end their lives fighting on the streets of dublin [Music] over six days in april 1916 dublin was gripped by rebellion that left the city in ruins and hundreds dead these six days changed ireland and the british empire forever the easter rising is shrouded in myths and legends but the reality for those engulfed in the fighting was very different this is a story of ordinary people who were part of extraordinary events beyond their control [Music] it is a tale of two key battles fought on either side of dublin city that easter week told through the eyes of soldiers from both sides of the conflict all events portrayed in this film are from first-hand accounts of those caught up in the rising [Music] [Applause] [Music] on the easter weekend of 1916 dublin was a haven of peace and tranquility [Music] it was a modern city of the british empire and the commercial capital of ireland that easter monday the people of the city soldiers and civilians alike took an opportunity to enjoy themselves at the fairy house races well island was generally at peace in 1916 there hadn't been any serious trouble for many many years you could hardly blame the british for not thinking that ireland was going to be a problem given that home rule had been parked the ulster volunteers were fighting in in france and redmond's men were there too [Music] 150 000 men from the island of ireland were fighting in the british army the war had taken its toll on irish soldiers fighting at the front in spite of these casualties support for britain and the war effort was still strong when we look back historically at those that served there was for a while a tendency certainly to look at those who served um as having served the british and served under the king and whereas that wasn't really the viewpoint for a lot of soldiers at the time there were certainly soldiers who were happy to serve for their king and country but there were also a lot particularly when you were talking about soldiers who came from the home rules perspective that saw that they were fighting as equals of england rather than for them [Music] history hit is a streaming platform that exclusively releases quality historical documentaries covering fascinating figures and moments in history from all over the world from ancient neolithic cultures to the dawn of the space race history hit has thousands of hours of content with unrivaled access to the world's best historians we're committed to bringing history fans award-winning documentaries and podcasts that you cannot find anywhere else sign up now for a 14-day free trial and timeline fans can get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use code timeline at checkout [Music] in dublin militant irish revolutionaries rejected this idea they came together in the irish volunteers and saw the wars the perfect opportunity to strike at britain uh me fiore need a quick dig talk amon ned daly mark young kahr and kate colon tenderness wheelchair roomless [Music] oh jesus is all right [Music] about a quarter of my company paraded and i would say perhaps only one-third of those were aware they were going into action it foreign at 12 o'clock today the flag of the irish republic will be raised i don't want any cheering our orders are to occupy and defend the area surrounding the forecourts communications between our other posts and the city will be precarious but i want to make it clear that if any of you wish to leave now then you are at liberty to do so i'm not having any of this is anyone with me it's not right [Music] is that everyone and i know most of you never expected to be marching out in open rebellion but this is the day this is the day we will restore some pride to this land can i relive a fierce former imagine low in the course needing shea dig was tasked with taking over the area around the four courts in dublin's north side all over the city irish volunteers captured in garrison key buildings among them were the general post office south dublin union and city hall on the south side rebels looked to seal our four main routes into dublin one of these was main street bridge george tore that cara fargo scout clown william house by royal glennard shin chancellor been in battlefield trooping a birthday you see jaina vernon got hero who in kingstown county lads how long seamus took it to hayne road with burnout left left left right left left left left right left leg left left right left coming into line left turn very good men but not good enough we need to be tighter in formation rifles hard against the shoulder in 1916 myself and my good friend william hawkins were commissioned to the sherwood foresters stationed at watford and awaiting orders to france sergeant major move the men off company will move off to the left [Music] dixon was a lovely man he wanted to be a soldier from the time he was a boy he loved marching he loved dressing up in uniform he was in the boys be great he was a fine cricketer he was working as a clerk in a solicitor's office down in devon and board stiff with wills and probate and conveyancing he couldn't wait to get into uniform and he couldn't wait to go to war he was a bit of an anorex as a soldier but he was a lovely man i had joined up in 1915 and had gone through basic training with lots of boys fresh from public school all very anxious to prove themselves and show superiority mom this house has been commandeered in the name of the irish republic daniel what's your chocolate you think brandon [Music] stop barricading the dogs and window [Music] door the reynolds doing boys come on let's get this done [Music] the straight end's in yeah come on you're not in your mommy's house no get it together in ninja coo jig canada agust glory made in canadian territorial regiment military terrestrial tree v honey genevieve sasuke with malostin and jennifer fistukon vs congratulations were two working class men friends for many years before but also if you take a look at lieutenant michael malone he was a carpenter at the time that's great and was very unusual for the irish volunteers to have tradesmen as officers most of the officers and leadership would have been from the professional background among the volunteers who mobilized on dublin's north side were two brothers frank and jack sheldous a good number of the local residents especially those who had relatives fighting for england in the european war were very antagonistic towards us and their women folk especially made the fight none the easier the volunteers saw themselves as freeing these people it's what they were they obviously intended ultimately to do to free them and improve their lot but the immediate reaction of course is that they put barricades up because you couldn't get through to get food you couldn't get to the shops you couldn't get to work the reaction of course from the people would not have been good [Music] they love us here sir that they do still hard to expect anything else when most of them have loved ones waiting to die in some trench in france checker of ahis our house talking [Music] frank sir i want you up on the roof of the jemison mall house you should have a good field of fire from up there make sure the tommies keep their heads down yes sir well that's i guess you were to come with me my comment and pieces identified an old pub in the corner of north king street with a commanding view of this junction i want you and your men to garrison it you need to hold that position for as long as possible yes sir british attack should come from this direction vital that we hold this position the irish volunteers prepared their defenses evicting ordinary dubliners from their homes [Music] long time residents of north king street sarah hughes and her husband michael opened their doors to their neighbors families have become refugees in their own community on tuesday the 25th to april i was turned out of my house by the shin feigners my husband and i and our children went out and took refuge at number 172 north king street sarah hughes's house uh where where daddy was involved was at north king street at riley's fort as it was called it was a a strong point at the intersection of north king street and church street remember you've got to see them but don't let them see you where pierce basically was the next in command of the four course garrison under ned daley you're shipping from here i want to block that out there okay i did more stuff bring it in pierce was daddy's immediate officer in charge foreign emanating from riley's fort worth a series of barricades down church street north king street and constitution hill these acted as strong points against any british assault the old pub at the crossroads of king street was the linchpin of taylor's garrison commanding all the approaches to his headquarters in the that's forecourts more stuff from here pierce beasley and jack schaldice would be responsible for holding back any british advance good good good keep it there you got it you got it he can't see you and you can see him there supporting them in the roof of the jemison malt house was jack's brother frank a sniper with commanding views over the area at the end of easter monday the 24th of april the irish volunteers had occupied a number of key buildings in dublin city the british military had been taken totally by surprise but they regrouped very quickly one of the reasons for this was because the irish volunteers had failed to cut the phone lines and they were able to call for help from two places one was the cora in county kildare and the second was to england in the chaos and confusion of those first hours of the rising as the british high command awaited the arrival of reinforcements ordinary soldiers often accidentally stumbled across volunteer positions [Applause] hello [Music] [Applause] daddy came across a lance of the lancer and he found it and he wedged it into a manhole at the intersection and tied a tri-killer to the top of it and that impromptu flag flew right through the whole week right to the end of the fighting on the easter saturday caught off guard and outnumbered by the rebels the british high command responded by rushing irish regiments of the army based in the current to dublin [Music] when the rising did actually come about they certainly didn't have the troop numbers available within dublin at the time they were quite worried about what might happen if the rebellion spread to other parts of the country and it was a very real prospect there was also the possibility and the worry that the rebellion could receive even support from germany so they had to react before it had the chance to become a much bigger problem [Music] by april i was beginning to wonder whether the entire duration of the war was to be spent in english billets sergeant major form the men up that's live ammunition man let's put the cigarettes out yes sir sorry sir then at 2 a.m on easter monday 1916 we received our entrainment order half the battalion didn't believe it was real the vicar's machine guns and the grenades are to remain here what is needed are men not weapons are you platoon ready no sir most of the men don't even know how to load their rifles any idea where we're going there were rumors were being sent to france i might as well tell you but keep it to yourself mind we're going to ireland apparently there's been some trouble over there [Music] i'm quite looking forward to it myself my wife's irish i sent her and the kids back to dublin when the zeppelin road started let's hope it's not all fighting and i get a chance to see them hey i'm sure you will sir good luck old chap sergeant major prepare to entrain dietrich himself was a barrister living in nottingham living very well in nottingham he had married an irish girl one of the mitchells one of the mitchell's wine family from dublin also a very wealthy family so they were two wealthy families together and dietrichson didn't hesitate when war broke out he gave up his legal practice and joined the army and was commissioned into the sherwood foresters by the time they came to ireland he was adjutant recruited from the mines factories and villages of the english midlands the men of the sherwood foresters had signed up to fight in france in april 1916 these volunteers have been preparing for the coming summer offense of anderson yeah flag where are we going no idea must be france though fritz had probably got a big push on and they needed sherwood for us to come and save the day just like rubbing it too nice all right lads where are we supposed to be going i'm too bloody early for this someone says we're going france no one seemed to know where our destination was going to be although there were several likely places the troop trains were packed and when we left walford station everyone was cheering and waving flags and that was it the sherwood foresters we were off to take part in our first serious engagement [Music] with british troops coming into dublin from all directions the city now was set in the course of destruction it seemed as if the irish volunteers were in a hopeless position [Music] well there was this imputation that the rising was the nature of a kamikaze blood sacrifice and this always irritated my father and frank and their colleagues very much they didn't see themselves as kamikazes a close strategy had been developed in house-to-house fighting and barricades protection that kind of thing put your back into it at the same time there was a strategic plan that that there was an escape route up into drum condra and the north circle road and out through north county dublin to candy mead but of course this was contingent on most of the country rising the full volunteer strength and also them having the the german weapons in the months before the rising envoys were sent to germany to acquire arms from the imperial government two weeks before the rebellion was due to begin the ship left port with the weapons the conspirators so desperately needed on april 21st disaster struck the royal navy intercepted the ship and its precious cargo the rebel leadership were faced with a dilemma without the german guns could they continue the matter was taken out of their hands by the figurehead of the irish volunteers owen marknell he heard that the odd a ship laden with arms and ammunition had been intercepted by the british navy roger casement had also been arrested as well and he decided that the insurrection which was planned for easter sunday should be cancelled and what he actually did was he sent a number of couriers around the country cancelling that mobilization for easter sunday but what was even worse he actually printed it in the sunday newspapers the leadership delayed the rising by 24 hours but the damage had been done in the confusion only about 2 000 of the 13 000 irish volunteers mobilized that easter monday most of them in dublin the conspirator's plans had fallen apart any chance again [Music] foreign [Music] okay i have some urgent dispatches only taken to the city sir we won't stand fight we're ready for this i know he's there less we all have to obey orders okay [Music] [Music] it dynamite b we're short on man as it is what use will he be in a fight on the ocean if [ __ ] it to you on eric's side already reeve bridgette he's a creased on car plowed click enjoy yourself bernard do you think you are do you idiots not know you're in ireland the paddies have started a rebellion now the good news is you've got a lovely long march into the city now get to it we're moving on i'm sorry miss you're gonna have to clear off this is a restricted area no problem sergeant i'm always happy to help god i hate this sitting around patient sheamus may be in action soon enough here uncared if the shin gone small here if i go we'll run the gold rose gold free and gertian for watercolor they may throw them here you make a major fish one more which sneaky dork to cooperation currently in the ceremony hey she made atlanta foreign is we have company jamis sheamus to talk to recognition michael jordan mcgriffer bridger douglas may cullen version of wheeler square government amanda walk through real quick you the deer at kingstown town a meal to a co-owner come on it's up to knowledge now we bore her by my dream fun james's store and adam day torreira detain i'll be grant english troops continued arriving into dublin by midday wednesday twelve thousand soldiers had landed the noose was tightening on the rebels british army they were able to mobilize troops extremely quickly to get them actually into ireland and on the ground a two day turn around is is amazing it was only the monday afternoon that general sambac had actually received his orders and then to actually have his men ready and to get them to ireland so quickly was quite extraordinary most of the rank and fire were pretty raw soldiers and they came very ill prepared i think it was pretty careless of the british high command to throw in such untrained troops because if they didn't know then they quickly found out that the rebels which they were going to face were not ill trained and were in fact very skilled and on home ground and were pretty effective the rebels are preparing to oppose our troop movements from kingstown to dublin you will advance in two parallel columns the fifth and sixth battalion of foresters will advance inland along this road here the right comprising the seventh and eighth battalion of foresters will follow the coast road england through balls bridge cross here at mount street bridge the destination in both cases will be army hq at the royal hospital in kilmainham dear dixon i want you to command the lead company into the city you will disperse your platoons as follows one in advance one to clear the houses overlooking the road one to deal with the side streets one in support every house and side road will be searched and clear one more we have received intelligence that the rebels have gausseted a schoolhouse on northumberland road i expect you to meet with some visitors fall in 10 30 a.m now dismissed it was better for the british not to receive any intelligence at all rather than received the intelligence that the schoolhouse was occupied on northumberland road unknown to the sherwood foresters the schoolhouse had been vacated on the monday night it was empty this would cause major problems for the sherwood foresters because they believed that that building was occupied they did not know that three other buildings on that street and on the bridge had been occupied by lieutenant michael malone and his men the sherwood foresters marched the saint stephen school house took them up the broad expanse of northumberland road and into the path of three volunteer garrisons which were situated in saint stephen's parochial hall 25 northumberland road and in clan william house across mount street bridge the parochial hall would play a minor role in the fighting at the centre of the coming battle was the now demolished clam william house with its commanding views of the canal and the surrounding streets 200 meters away was number 25 northumberland road which sat in a crossroads that overlooked the main route into the city this leafy road will play a pivotal role in the rising [Music] the whole northumberland road mountainsville bridge area was obviously an upper-class middle-upper-class area it was loyal to the crown you hear the stories that soldiers being greeted being offered tea and refreshments etc as they are marching into dublin so an area where they were welcomed that's a very fine spring day and they marched from kingstown along the coast road the people who came out to meet them were delighted to see them they were pressing upon them sandwiches and bananas and cups of tea it's only when they reached northumberland road that they began to learn the true nature of irish relations with the english my grandmother because of the zeppelin bombing of nottingham she decided to leave nottingham at the time and she decided to go back to her family in black rock she had heard that the british troops were in dublin so she went to support them as they walked through the streets and absolutely by chance she noticed that her husband was there that's soldier how did you know we were in ireland we heard the regiment had landed so he came down hoping to see you i'm glad you did when this whole business is over i'll spend some time with you and the children i can't imagine we'll send us back to watford straight away are you being good children for mummy they are how are you coping i'm fine do be careful freddie i love you i don't think we'll see much action i'm pretty sure it'll blow over soon i better not get left behind i love you too [Music] [Music] thank you for on [Music] if they didn't know they ought to have known that they were marching onto well-entrenched rebels well-armed rebels well-trained rebels who are going to give them a hell of a fight to the right [Music] [Music] when we were young children i got two sisters my mother would often talk about it and tell us what had happened and how she remembered standing there seeing him walking past and the great excitement of my grandmother meeting him and then the terror of the fact that she wasn't she never saw him again afterwards in the first volley of shots 12 sherwood foresters were hit and collapsed on the road they couldn't believe that they were under fire under attack in dublin city [Music] [Music] [Music] let's go range she needs herodon [Music] [Music] it was a baptism of fire alright over a hundred casualties is a terrible loss to one battalion the more so since my one friend from the ranks william hawkin who was commissioned on the same day as myself was shot through the head on his first day of active service it was my job to write until his mother who thought i'm still safe in england so [Music] to be fair when the nurses appeared on the canal side and started tending the soldiers the rebels held off their fire not always but most times they held off their fire and so did the soldiers there was a kind of cease-fire to allow the nurses to attend the wounded and there was a lot of wounded and a lot of dead and a lot of blood [Music] we advanced in rushes taking cover where we could bullets were flying all around us [Music] frank [Music] it was 5 p.m when the order to advance came through fine squeal the fire we were under at times was terrific bullets which is coming down likes our men are facing stiff resistance and the advance has the rebel stalled but sir pressing forward is suicidal the earth the grevin tread hold fearful [Music] container redmi not freeshave off on various other jared's tweedle rush i mean this this was the first time they'd ever fought and it was their last it just made us really determined to wipe out these heartless wretches and take revenge for our boys get your kid together we're moving out they're sending us to the other side of the city place called north king street finally you take the fight to them [Music] i know most of you never expected to be marching out in open rebellion but this is the day this is the day we will restore some pride to this land we have some support here jack don't worry are you platoon ready no sir most of the men don't even know how to load their rifles any idea where we're going there were rumors were being sent to france i might as well tell you but keep it to yourself mind we're going to ireland apparently there's been some trouble over there much [Music] rebels are preparing to oppose our troop movements from kingstown to dublin the seventh will follow the coast's road cross at mount street bridge ready ready how did you know we were in ireland we heard the regiment had landed so he came down hoping to see you i'm glad you did when this whole business is over i'll spend some time with you and the children do be careful freddie i love you i love you too [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] coming home [Music] oh it was a baptism of fire all right over 100 casualties is a terrible loss to one battalion [Music] the [Music] come on [Music] thank you private goats bring the old men up from reserve you will support the attack i don't see if you can rustle up some grenades will you i'll see what i can do give me irish command hq on the line quickly general sir this is colonel mcconkey of the sherwood foresters our men are facing stiff resistance and the advance into the cities stalled however i believe i have found a way that we can out flank the rebel's position but sir pressing forward is suicidal we will lose many more men yes sir they were officered by people who seem to have the arrogance of the officer core very often that they assume that they're amongst ignorant natives until all they had to do was wave their sword at them and they're they're going away because the monstrous bridge is almost a classic of charging like brigade stuff come on come on all they had to do was go up by the street take dublin castle area take jacobs no problem with them said they were going to they were going to charge [Music] the british high command was determined to press forward with disastrous frontal assaults with only their rifles for protection scores of soldiers had been slaughtered on northumberland road by the well-barricaded irish volunteers [Music] but the tide was about to turn the next wave of sherwood foresters came equipped with heavy machine guns and more importantly grenades with these tools the british tactics might finally work they managed to maneuver around the back of 25 northumberland road into a laneway called percy place there the soldiers managed to climb the wall at the rear of 25 northumberland road and force an entry through the back door northridge aenya year in latin our rashid ugly grab me a road [ __ ] they've heard of my rifle give [Music] rush [Music] grace took cover behind an old metal stove and that's what saved his life the british left the building not knowing that grace was still alive and hiding in the basement [Music] [Music] on the north side of the city ned daly's battalion had been encircled by british forces the noose was tightening around his men get it [Music] take these and find that position we can't move in the street without firing down you take the field glasses and act as a spot anybody exchanged one at frank you have to each man first time good luck [Music] [Music] i suppose that quick turnaround the almost the whirlwind of getting these soldiers into action a full division a huge amount of men and logistics that actually goes with them is quite extraordinary really and there are stories of things like the sherwood foresters leaving grenades behind in barracks and not having enough room to get machine gun teams onto boats to get them into dunley or kingstown as it was then when you hear those stories it's very easy to understand why there was so much confusion when they actually did finally get into action in dublin a couple of days prior to the outbreak of the rebellion they're fully expecting that the first place that they would see any action will be in trenches in france and all of a sudden they found themselves on streets in dublin a completely different environment and a completely different situation to the one which they had expected to find themselves with number 25 captured the sherwood foresters now turned their attention to clan william house across mount street bridge it was 5 p.m when the order to advance came through and that's when we took our part in the rebellion fine posted a wall tall game okay move forward get close to the wall squeal foreign on the bridge whenever we had the opportunity we would rush houses with small troops of men and that way we advanced gradually but the fire we were under at times was terrific [Music] and as the fighting went on through the day they were advancing on the whistle as they had been training to do on the training fields of brockville in the end by the time they reached mount street bridge they were crawling and walking over each other's bodies it was pretty ghastly murphy foreign be that's hard oh christ make big malone the washroom has me street [Music] when i had time to stop and look around and see all my dead comrades just lying there in the road i mean this this was the first time they'd ever fought and it was their last [Music] do looks like you had a lucky escape sir irish bastards i'd like to kill the bloody lot of them you see the nurse there she's irish everyone here helping is irish why did they do it sir when we're at war when our own boys are in the trenches dying they believed in something i suppose the foresters took enormous casualties 183 wounded dead the rebels were using [Music] health mauser guns with soft nose bullets which entered fairly neatly into the body but exited with a very large and messy wound and so the soldiers were going down with very serious wounds bullets when are we gonna get the chance to get my taste on our own medicine it's all right it's outside it's town's riddled with fenians you can't trust any of their mix stop talking rubbish get your kid together we're moving out they're sending us to the other side of the city place called north king street finally we take the fight they're there i mean when we look at the british army we do generally think that we're looking at an experienced army probably the best in the world but we forget that it's made up of men for the army that came here and men with whittle and no experience they got as far as mount street bridge where hundreds of their colleagues had been killed and wounded at the time little was known about the effects of war on the individual in it and these people would have been traumatized by what happened here you do things in war that you wouldn't do in ordinary life it changes you and it does not change you for the better the battle now moved to the tenements in the north side of the city and this time would be the citizens of dublin in the firing line with the main route secure troops began to surround ned daly's volunteers garrison and north king street the english were not going to have it easy this area was a warrant of densely populated small streets moving a large force of men in this part of dublin was almost impossible the british attack could only come from one direction down bolton street to north king street their aim was to cut daily garrison in two [Music] the target of this assault was riley's fort which stood in the crossroads of north king street and church street riley's was the beating heart of daley's position the job of defeating daley's first battalion fell to the south staffordshire regiment and their commanding officer colonel henry taylor we have established a cordon around the area being held by the rebels any adult male found within the cordon is to be considered a rebel do not hesitate to destroy any building being held by the rebels the south africa regiment like the uh sherwood foresters was drawn from litchfield and staffordshire area not very well trained but slightly better trained than the show at foresters and they were the relief battalion they came up behind the show and foresters leave them at mount street bridge and then went on to do some fighting in the city centre in which they reputation of the regiment suffered gravely get into position we will press home the attack good luck man dismissed [Applause] [Music] oh sir our latest assault and the enemy position has failed we've been forced to retire we're making no bloody headway captain the rebels are too well barricaded a frontal assault would be completely useless it's time for a change of strategy we shall play these shin fainters at their own game i want you to get a couple of armored cars to these houses get a company of men into each when they have secured the premises they are to begin tunneling through the walls into the next house and so on gradually outflanking the enemy when they come in line with the enemy barricades they are to open fire a sustained assault on the enemy position will begin at that point and remember captain any men caught in the houses are up to no good and are to be considered enemy combatants the civilians should have cleared the area by now dismissed very good son well the area around north king street was extremely difficult for the british army to fight in there were large buildings there were many windows there was large numbers of civilians it was one of the worst places that the british army found themselves within during the rebellion they suffered large numbers of casualties trying to take it and obviously because of that they felt that they needed some sort of innovation some way that they could actually change the tide of the battle they devised a plan of using armored personnel carriers these were lorries flatbed daimler lorries and smoke boxes from the intercore railway works mounted on the back the makeshift armored personnel carriers were driven at high speed into north king street every bullet clanged and jarred through your head it wasn't possible to fire back either you couldn't discharge a rifle in that confined space stay close behind me now when the door opens go straight for the nearest houses and get inside stay in cover and only fire when you have a clear target right that way you may get out of here we back the tank into a pub and we all poured out it wasn't until the next day we discovered one fellow had been hit just as he got out these vehicles reversed up to the doors of a number of tenement houses on that street the soldiers de-bust kicked in the front doors and then took up positions within these tenement houses dancing keep an eye on those rooftops right [Music] the worst thing was staring out into north king street scanning the rooftops constantly peering into the night until my eyeballs felt like footballs one young fella was certain we'd been fired over behind a chimney so we riddled the stack bringing the whole thing tumbling down a complete waste of ammunition there wasn't a shinner in sight [Music] they then began mouse howling that means tunneling from one house to the other bringing them nearer the volunteer positions [Music] [Music] i was in command of the second sixth south savager regiment early on friday i had attended a briefing with brigadier general lowe commanding the operations he instructed us that no hesitation was to be shown in dealing with these rebels that by their actions they had placed themselves outside the law they've been led by a man who i don't think had sufficient uh experience this attitude of taking or prisoners purely from the manual of an imperial force conquering the natives because he was a military man and they have a profession and their profession is how to kill and how to kill efficiently and how to do it without it affecting your conscience i think he was the wrong man in the wrong place for the job it was about half five in the morning when a corporal and eleven men came to the house they were terribly excited if i had not opened the door to them they would all have been shot in the street you're just in the neck of time message we're gonna blow this place up johnny man in this house good hands up search down no one fight on you from this house we all support king and country half the folks on this street have men at the front that foreigner look what a bullet nearly dead for me i kind of lost my life take your man up the stairs don't worry daddy let's get these fingering pigs on our english lead sometime after i heard a voice upstairs crying mercy mercy don't put that on me and then resist him as if he was being tied down [Music] [Music] the old lodger in the upper rooms heard me husband crying and as they killed him he heard his last words oh nelly nelly jewel in north king street the self-staffing has lost it they were fighting under ridiculously harsh conditions it was hot they were tunneling through the houses they were on the constant fire and they were taking constant casualties and when they broke into some houses and found civilian males they frankly murdered them they shot them they tied them up they painted them and they killed them a ghastly feeling came over me about five in the evening as i fancied my husband dead the officer said there is one of those men shot through the brain and it is not a nice sight for you to see so i told him i only wanted to see one man my husband [Music] the following morning a corporal came and asked me if i required any privilege i said i require no privilege only to be allowed to bury my husband who was innocent colonel i really must speak with you your man had guilty of a terrible outrage my men are guilty of nothing they followed orders and put down a violent rebellion committed by traitors to the crown fifteen innocent men and boys lie down on north king street murdered by your soldiers the perpetrators must be brought to justice now i want to know what you are going to do about it nothing my men did their duty if residents of this street were killed i can assure you were they not combatants they were aiding the shintan rebels and as bad as them i stand by my men's actions today we are at war take this man out of my hq now myself my adjutant and other officers were constantly up and down king street and we received no complaint of any sort from any resident as to men having been shot i no complaint of any improper conduct on the part of any of the men my men were fired at and they fired back and any person in the upper rooms of houses civilian or soldiers might easily have been shot in that way a military inquiry into the massacres was presided over by colonel mcconaughey of the sherwood foresters whose men had suffered such devastating casualties in northumberland road [Music] he found that no individual soldier from the south staffordshire regiment could be held responsible for the killings tragedy about these atrocities which occur from time to time where all men fight is the cover-up that occurs afterwards and there was a cover-up of what the south staffishers did in north king street nobody was ever arrested the soldiers that were known to have participated in it were shipped out pretty quick take these dispatchers down to hq let them know operations are completed here [Music] if you cover it up it looks like a conspiracy it is a conspiracy across the city the rising was turning against the rebels however on north king street ned daly's men were still holding back the enemy edward daley at the end of that easter week it was estimated that he had 350 men women and young boys fighting in and around the forecourts area they had held off over 2 000 british soldiers many of them of the north and south staffordshire regiment [Applause] the military party was practically wiped out if they had kept pouring through the walls creeping up on us gradually we just stood no chance [Applause] [Music] some officer however clearly lost his head sent those lads out to their death [Applause] the tummies ran right under me all i had to do was fire down upon them one by one we knocked them over it was a terrible slaughter and to this day i can't understand why they decided to rush things her supply of ammunition was exhausted their rifles were getting jammed with continuous firing you're going to be okay come on come on after two days of constant fighting our garrison had been reduced to seven eight almost stupefied men that's we've done all we can here we're gonna have to abandon our position you've done your country pride lads but there was a sense of pride amongst us that we had defied the might of england [Music] but it was the cost to human life that ultimately impinged i think on on pierce when he saw the citizens been shot down and he said to prevent the slaughter and all the government that was in the gpr what was left of them at that stage agreed with peers and that surrender was inevitable [Music] so he fought well against overwhelming odds and i know we still hold most of the positions we took on monday but in the rest of the city the situation is hopeless i've received orders from command and peers they must surrender unconditionally to the british immediately even if we wanted to fight on we must obey orders this is not the end when the people realize what we have done when they see what an irishman fighting on irish soil can achieve then they will rise up and cast off the shackles that bind them and the next fight won't be like this one we will learn we will adapt and we will take the fight to the british i may not be here to see it occurs smart islam [Music] oh my god [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] now daily an attempt to escape kept his uniform on as commandant and he knew that this was his his death and notice although he hadn't been so well known to the british that he might well have taken off his uniform and removed and escaped safely but daley was not that kind of man [Music] the six days of the easter rising had left dublin devastated the people they'd lost their livelihoods in some cases they'd lost relatives in many cases they've lost their homes all wars are made of people and it's something we do forget we we talk about and heroics we talk about uh you know our films our books etc all made up of heroism and great acts of heroism everywhere you saw people affecting people being affected by people the ultimate end of this was that there were no winners in 1916. uh the rebellion itself an absolute failure [Music] i knew my grandmother very well she never talked about anything that happened in 1916 the subject was never mentioned well you don't think about the human side it's not talked about it's not sort of the way history is taught is it that there's a sufferers on both sides and people who are absolutely nothing to do with the decisions or reasons for going to war are the ones who suffer [Music] there's nothing we can do from nothing we can do [Music] he's gone for me the men who came here were volunteers for france and if they had died in france they would be remembered far more fondly than having died in dublin but they died in dublin in a fight which wasn't very glorious and their memory has been forgotten swept under the carpet [Music] the graves are very rarely visited indeed that i and a few colleagues are perhaps the only ones who visit the graves of those who fell in dublin and are buried in dublin and i think that's very sad for yes it was a fight that was laced with politics and embarrassing to england and to england's history in ireland but they were soldiers and they fought like soldiers and they died like soldiers and i think they need to be remembered as soldiers [Music] on and with your help i will not see him again [Music] we marched our squads into kilmainham prison the men with memories of that day had no qualms about doing their job fire hash brokenly [Music] i can't say i felt much except it was a job that needed to be done m it's do me shame to me shake on fragrance um [Music] edward daly was among the first to be executed for his part in the rising he was one of the most successful volunteer commanders that easter week [Music] arthur dixon was sent to france in 1917 where he was wounded by a sniper ending his war dixon became a quaker and a lifelong pacifist dying in his sleep in 1979 [Music] pierce beasley went on to become the ira director of communications during the war of independence and a senior officer in the free state army after ireland's civil war he retired from public life and worked to promote the irish language [Music] [Applause] sergeant charlie faulkner was sent to france with the sherwood foresters he survived the war and returned home to a quiet life in nottingham james doyle evaded arrest and continued to fight the british after ireland achieved independence he faded from history although sergeant cooper went on to fight in the trenches he was forever affected by the events in dublin that easter [Music] week michael malone was buried in the garden of 25 northumberland road a year later his body was reinterred with full military honors in glasnevin cemetery his old comrade sheamus grace was there to say a final goodbye he lived with the guilt of balone's death for the rest of his life [Music] the show life brothers went to prison for their actions in easter week boat continued to work for irish freedom after their release when the war of independence ended they refused to take sides in the civil war my father has a very high regard for john john redmond and the other constitutional nationalists that he knew of such as francis ledwidge and tom kettle both very fine ports in fact one of his favorite poems as i recall that he often used to to recite was the lines of kettle that went um they died not for a flag not a king nor an emperor but for a dream born in a herdsman's shed and the secret scripture of the poor [Music] you

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 296,066

Keywords: Armed rebellion, Battle of Mount Street Bridge, British imperialism, Brutal conflicts, Dublin history, Historical commemorations, Historical events in Dublin, Historical film, Historical insights, Historical legacy, Historical research, History documentaries online, Home Rule, Innocent boys, Irish heritage, Military history, Military strategy, Timeline - World History Documentaries, Unforgettable battles, War stories, War volunteers in Dublin

Id: ZI3nGVHxFI8

Length: 97min 5sec (5825 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 14 2022