Rebel Plan

Easter Rising 1916 – rebel strategy to overthrow British rule

The Easter Rising of 1916 was organised by the Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

The plan was to strike while the British were putting all their effort and resources into fighting the war in Europe against Germany.

The Council calculated that although the rebels would be small in number at the outset, they would quickly be joined by thousands of recruits from all across Ireland once the flame of revolution had been ignited.

The reality, however, was very different.

The rebels lacked troops and proper weapons

The Council faced considerable difficulties in staging a rebellion.

One of its major problems was that the IRB had few troops of its own. That meant it had to rely on other organisations such as the Irish Volunteer Force and the Citizens Army. Both organisations contained men prepared to fight for the cause but co-ordinating them was to prove quite a challenge.

The rebels also lacked firepower, certainly the kind of firepower that could defeat the British army – one of the most powerful military forces in the world at that time.

Roger Casement tried to smuggle arms from Germany

Roger Casement

The Council hoped to arm its troops with weapons smuggled in from Germany. Roger Casement, the son of a British army officer but a committed Irish nationalist, was sent to Germany to secure as many arms as possible.

The German government agreed to send a consignment of 25,000 rifles on board a ship called the Ard. It set sail on 9th April with the intention of unloading the arms on the coast in Kerry in time for the Easter Rising.

Meanwhile, the Military Council continued with its preparations and had to contend with difficult communication problems.

British intercept consignment of weapons

It was an underground organisation and the Easter Rising had to be kept secret until the very last moment when they were ready to strike. This proved virtually impossible and the British were able to infiltrate some of the organisations involved and glean at least some idea of what was going on.

The British authorities became aware of the arms from Germany aboard the Aud. The weapons were seized as they were landed on the Kerry coast and Roger Casement was arrested.

The loss of arms was a massive blow to the rebel cause. It would have had little chance of success even if the arms had become available, but without those arms it had virtually no chance at all.

Confusion reigned as Irish Volunteers told to stand down

Eoin MacNeill

Most of the soldiers for the planned rising were members of the Irish Volunteer Force.

When their leader, Eoin MacNeill, heard that the arms had been intercepted he withdrew his support for the Rising and got messages to his men across Ireland that the “planned operation” had been cancelled.

MacNeill thought that the IRB Military Council would regroup and work out an alternative strategy for some future date. Instead, it decided to go ahead anyway but postponed the start to Easter Monday.

The rebels were completely outnumbered by British forces

The conflicting orders meant that although, some Irish Volunteers took part, most did not and consequently what should have been a national uprising was instead confined to Dublin.

In the end, only about 1,600 men at the most took part in the rising. Within days, the British had shipped in more than 18,000 troops to quell the rebellion.

The rebels fought bravely but were overpowered within a week and were left with no alternative but to surrender.