The Road to Easter Week:

Introduction of the Home Rule Bill, 11 April 1912:

Prime Minister H. H. Asquith introduced the third bill of its kind into the Houses of Parliament. It was to provide for: 1) a bicameral Irish Parliament; 2) the retention of forty-two Irish MPs in Westminster rather than the 103 who had sat there up to that point; 3) the abolition of the Dublin Castle administration, though the Lord Lieutenant was to remain a feature. The bill was to grant Ireland jurisdiction over her internal affairs except for policies on: peace and war, relations with the crown, defence, control of police, and customs and excise. It was passed by the House of Commons but rejected by the House of Lords. However, due to the Parliament Act, it was expected to be introduced in Ireland by the final months of 1914. Proposals for the exclusion of some Ulster counties raised the spectre of partition for the first time.

The signing of the Solemn League and Covenant, 28 September 1912:

Ulster Unionists responded to the bill with militancy. While drilling had begun as early 1910, the most visible manifestation of this was the Solemn League and Covenant. Signed by 236,368 men, this was a pledge to not only refuse to recognise the authority of a Home Rule governed Ireland but to use all means necessary to prevent its implementation.

The formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force, 31 January 1913:

Early in 1913 the threat of force was made visceral through the creation of the Ulster Volunteer Force by Sir Edward Carson and James Craig. 100,000 men were to be trained and armed to prevent the implementation of Home Rule. This was the first in a series of militias created over the next two years which sought to shape the question of Irish self-determination.

Outbreak of the Dublin strike and lockout industrial dispute, 26 August 1913:

26 August 1913 saw the outbreak of Dublin’s largest industrial dispute. Defined by the oppositional leaders, James Larkin and William Martin Murphy, the dispute focused on the right of unskilled workers to join the Larkinite and syndicalist Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union. It is seen as the catalyst for Irish working class militancy and, according to Seán O’Casey, was ‘when the workers of Ireland first declared themselves, struck out, and shook the bosses… were on the march! The eloquent roaring voice of the great Jim Larkin became the triumph of the Irish workers.’

The establishment of the Irish Citizen Army, 18 November 1913:

In Dublin, at Beresford Place and Trinity College respectively, James Connolly and Jack White announced the formation of the Citizen Army. The unit was created primarily with the purpose of defending locked out workers from the Dublin Metropolitan Police baton attacks prevalent at the time, and as a tool to improve the morale of these strikers. By the time of the collapse of the strike and lockout in the early months of 1914, the body realigned it aspirations as primarily republican. Adopted in March 1914, the first clause of its constitution stated ‘that the first and last principle of the Citizen Army is the avowal that the ownership of Ireland, moral and material is vested of right in the people of Ireland.’ During the Easter Rising there was significant ICA activity at City Hall, St. Stephens’ Green, and the General Post Office garrisons.

The creation of the Irish Volunteers, 25 November 1913:

Days after the creation of the left-wing ICA, the Irish Volunteers were founded at the Rotunda in Dublin. A much larger force than the Citizen Army, they encompassed a wider spectrum of nationalist Ireland and sought to ‘secure the rights and liberties common to all the people of Ireland.’ Prior to this, a meeting took place in Wynn’s Hotel in Dublin to discuss the practical steps needed to create such a body. Four of the ten men who attended belonged to the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a small and secret but influential body driven towards revolution. The Brotherhood was successful in infiltrating the Irish Volunteers and leading them to revolt in Easter 1916.

The Curragh Mutiny, 20 March 1914:

The growing impotency of parliamentary politics was further highlighted on this day. On 9 March Prime Minister Asquith proposed that individual Ulster counties could opt out of Home Rule for term of six years. Unionists viewed this as a ‘sentence of death with a stay of execution for six years.’ After this declaration Carson left Westminster and returned to Belfast sparking rumours that the Ulster Volunteers Force would make good their threat of establishing their own provisional government in opposition to the bill.  As early as October 1913 figures in the War Office had believed they could only rely on a partial mobilisation of the British Army should they be needed to engage against the UVF. Events in the Curragh military camp further exasperated such a belief when fifty-seven out of the seventy officers stationed there stated that if faced with the choice of initiating action against the militia or dismissal they would resign. In response, General Sir Huber Gough and the Director of Military Operations at the War Office, Major-General Henry Wilson obtained a promise from the Secretary of State for War, Colonel J. E. B. Seely, that the government had no intentions of using these forces to defeat the political opponents of the bill. Subsequently, Asquith took over the running of the War Office and Seely was left with no choice but to resign. However, for figures such as Connolly, it evidenced the growing inability of parliament to face the challenge posed by Carson. Between March and April 1914 he wrote series of articles on the topic of partition: ‘The First Hint of Partition’, ‘Labour and The Proposed Partition of Ireland, and ‘The Exclusion of Ulster.’

The ‘Larne Gunrunning’, 24 April 1914:

The UVF smuggled 25,000 rifles and 3 million rounds of ammunition into Larne.

Endorsement of John Redmond’s nominees to the council of the Irish Volunteers, 16 June 1914:

On 9 June, John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party (then the biggest party in Ireland) demanded that twenty-five people nominated by him were to be put on the Council of the Irish Volunteers. Under the threat of a split council, and despite an eight-man protest, the Volunteers acquiesced to Redmond. According to Piaras Béaslaí, who voted against this, ‘the new departure was followed by a big increase in the paper strength of the Volunteers. Those interested in politics rather than military training flooded the drill halls and meeting places, apparently aiming at strengthening the party control of the movement.’

The ‘Howth Gunrunning’ and Bacholar’s Walk shooting, 26 July 1914:

900 rifles and 45,000 rounds of ammunition were smuggled on board the Asgard and landed in Howth by the Irish Volunteers. After attempting to intercept the Volunteers, Scottish Borderers returned to Dublin and encountered a hostile but unarmed crowd at Bacholar’s Walk, a stretch of land along the quays of the Liffey and near the Ha’penny Bridge. Shots were fired and three civilians were killed. Hostility between the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army was temporarily put aside as the two armies marched together at the subsequent funerals.

Outbreak of World War One and the Volunteer Split, 28 July-20 September 1914:

The outbreak of the Great War afforded Asquith the opportunity of putting on hold the question of Home Rule as the bill was suspended until the cessation of hostilities in Europe. For Republicans, by tying up the resources of the British Army, it offered hope for a successful rebellion. England’s difficulty was seen as Ireland’s opportunity. Redmond’s support for the war effort also divided the Volunteer movement. In a speech at Woodenbridge, he urged Volunteers to fight for the British imperial forces ‘wherever the firing line extends.’ This was intended to help secure Home Rule but for many of the Volunteers such a sentiment was unpalatable and an irrevocable split occurred. The majority (circa 170,000 men) stayed with Redmond and formed the National Volunteers while a minority (circa 11,000) remained in the more radical and republican Irish Volunteers. The spilt granted the IRB more control of the minority body and allowed them to gradually shape a revolutionary policy.

Meeting at the offices of the Gaelic League, 9 September 1914:

In truth, plans for rebellion were being established before the Woodenbridge speech. On 9 September 1914 at 25 Parnell Square a meeting was held between leading IRB men and other figures such as James Connolly. Here it was decided that a rising was to occur if one of three incidents arose: firstly, a German victory during the World War; secondly, an attempt by Britain to enforce conscription in Ireland; or thirdly, if the war was about to come to an end without one of the other two happening.  Despite the temporary absence of well established strategic plans it was clear that the path towards revolution had been undertaken. 

Formation of the Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, May-September 1915:

Initially comprised of Padraig Pearse, Tom Clarke, Joseph Plunkett, Seán MacDiarmada and Éamonn Ceannt, a secret council of the IRB was formed to plan the Rising. Unbeknownst to Eoin MacNeill, the Chief of Staff of the Irish Volunteers, they were the organisers that brought that militia into rebellion.

The O’Donovan Rossa funeral, 1 August 1915:

The death, in the United States of America, of the exiled old republican father-figure Jermiah O’Donovan Rossa provided the Supreme Council of the IRB a stage for the proliferation of republican ideology. His body was brought back to Dublin for a burial celebrating his work in the military struggle for Irish independence. The ceremony has been seen as the first public signifier of revolt and is famed for Pearse’s speech and prophecy ‘the fools, the fools, the fools,! They have left us our fenian dead and while Ireland holds these graves Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.’

The disappearance of James Connolly and his inclusion on to the Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, 19 January 1916- 22 January 1916:

In January 1916, Connolly disappeared from Dublin’s labour circles. Unaware of the IRB’s plans and believing their talk of revolution to be empty, he was considering leading the Irish Citizen Army in their own rebellion. Éamoon Dore and others were charged with bringing him, willingly or otherwise, to a meeting with the IRB Military Council. During the discussion he agreed to hold off on any Citizen Army rising, plans were settled on for a joint action, and the GPO was agreed upon as the headquarters of the revolt.

The Castle Document, 19 April 1916:

Throughout April, MacNeill had heard rumours of an impending revolution being organised without his permission. On 5 April the headquarters staff agreed to his proposal that outside of routine matters no orders for the Volunteers were to be issued unless they contained his signature. On 19 April he was showed the Castle document. The letter was supposedly from the centre of British governance in Ireland, Dublin Castle, and contained an order for the arrests of leading Volunteers and the seizures of key locations seen as the centre of Irish radicalism. In truth, the piece was forged by the Military Council of the IRB, largely at the hands of Joseph Plunkett, which exaggerated the severity and immediacy of British plans. For MacNeill this was justification for some form of military action.

Scuttling of the Aud, 22 April 1916:

Carrying 20,000 rifles destined for the Irish revolutionaries, the German vessel the Aud arrived at Tralee Bay on 20 April. It was scheduled to be met by Roger Casement but due to the fact that it had no radio on board the ships seamen were unaware that the date for the meeting had been postponed to the 23 April. On 21 April, Casement and others arrived in Ireland after travelling in the German sub-marine the U-19 and were immediately arrested. Later that day the Aud was encircled by the British Navy and forced to sail towards Cork harbour. On the morning of Saturday 22 April the boat was scuttled near Daunt Rock.

Eoin MacNeill’s countermanding order, 22 April 1916:

After he became aware of Casement’s arrest and the failure to land the guns from the Aud, MacNeill was convinced that a rising could not succeed. In an attempt to stop one from occurring the Volunteer Chief-of-Staff issued a countermanding order which cancelled all of Sunday’s manoeuvers. By Sunday morning this had travelled across the country and destroyed the hope of significant rebellious activity outside of the capital. In response, the Military Council delayed the Rising for twenty-four hours. At the same time copies of the proclamation were being printed in Liberty Hall, the home of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union and the Irish Citizen Army.

The rebellion begins, 24 April 1916:

Throughout Monday soldiers of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army seized locations such as the General Post Office (Headquarters), Saint Stephen’s Green, Jacobs Biscuit Factory, City Hall, The Four Courts, and Boland’s Mills. Outside the GPO, Padraig Pearse declared the new republic.