This essay will show that Nationalism in Ireland was deeply radicalised between 1916 and 1919. This radicalisation was born out of the Easter Rising of 1916, and the events that followed. The executions and interment of the volunteers who fought in the Rising, changed public opinion immensely. The unjust and atrocious murders of three innocent journalists including Francis Sheehy Skeffington at the same time as the Rising also served to radicalise Nationalism and public opinion. The conscription crisis of 1918 also boosted anti-British bias that was at this stage very evident in the Country. All of these events culminated in a landslide victory for Sinn Fein in December 1918.
On Easter Monday the 24th of April 1916, the leaders of the I.R.B (Irish Republican Brotherhood) who included Padraig Pearse, James Connolly, Thomas Clarke, Eammon Ceannt, Joseph Plunkett, Sean Mac Diarmada and Thomas Mcdonagh "marched some 1500 men onto the streets of Dublin to proclaim the establishment of the Irish Republic on the steps of the General Post Office".1 The Rising was a bloody tale for Irish Nationalists, after six days of fighting and being heavily outnumbered by British troops, the Rising culminated in the leaders surrender to British forces. The I.R.B had received weapons from Germany, 900 rifles had landed in Howth in July 1914, aboard the Asgard.2 The British who were at this time at war with Germany, saw the rising as a treacherous act, inspired by Germans.3 This was the context in which the leaders were executed. Critically, 90 of the men arrested after the rising were sentenced to death, however only 15 actually received the death sentence and the remainder had their sentences commuted to penal servitude.4 The death of so many of the leaders had significant impact on the radicalization of Irish Nationalists. .
During the Rising, the tide of public opinion was not in favor of the Rising.
