MODULE 4. THE EASTER RISING 3: EASTER WEEK LESSON LESSON DESCRIPTION 3. The third lesson in the module will detail the events of Easter Week. The lesson traces the chronology of the events in Dublin. It outlines the major confrontations of the insurrection, and looks at the British military response. The lesson also looks at the casualties incurred and the experience of civilians. LESSON INTENTIONS LESSON OUTCOMES 1. Review the chronology of the • Be able to discuss how the events events leading up to, and of Easter Week unfolded for the throughout, Easter Week. rebels and for Dublin civilians. 2.. Describe the response to the • Employ ICT skills to express an rebellion by the British authorities understanding of the topic. and by the Irish public. 3. Demonstrate an understanding of the events of Easter Week through the use of digital media. HANDOUTS DIGITAL SOFTWARE HARDWARE AND GUIDES • Lesson 3 Key • Suggested • Comic • Whiteboard Information Additional Creation • PCs/laptops • Lesson 3 Resources Software e.g. Geography of Comic Life the Rising • Audio • Comic Editing Creation Software e.g. Storyboard Audacity • Audio Editing • Image Storyboard Editing • Digital Software e.g. Imaging GIMP Design Sheet www.nervecentre.org/teachingdividedhistories MODULE 4: LESSON 3: LESSON PLAN 33 MODULE 4. THE EASTER RISING 3: EASTER WEEK ACTIVITY LEARNING OUTCOMES Starter – Open Suggested Looking at the selected newspaper Additional Resources 7 and look reactions, students will have an at the reactions of the Belfast and opportunity to see some of the Dublin media to the Rising. Did they media reactions to the Rising at the agree/disagree? Did their opinions time and in the years after. change over time? Using the Key Information, teachers will have a choice of activities to engage students. The Key Information is designed to cover the information within the topic Teachers may choose to split the and meet the learning objectives. class into groups and ask students to use the discussion points to discuss The discussion questions on the Key some aspects of the Key Information. Information are designed to meet Students will then share their the learning objectives through discussions with the rest of the class. interaction and Q&A. L in en Alternatively, teachers may want to H The questions on the Key Information all use the Questions/Tasks as group Libr are designed to meet the learning ary discussion questions or to test objectives through the students individual knowledge. understanding of the information. The Alternate Task allows students The various activities should allow the to work in pairs to research and students to learn while they interact. document events during Easter The activities will also serve to Week and to collaborate to create a reinforce knowledge and encourage timeline. discussion. *If possible, allow students to research the topic on the internet – suggested additional resources / search engine. Plenary – review a digital (Tiki- The plenary discussion will focus on Toki) timeline showing the events the timeline of the events of Easter immediately preceding the Rising and Week. The discussion will encourage during Easter Week (See Suggested students to think about the response Additional Resources 8 & 9). to these events by the British government and within Ireland. 34 MODULE 4: LESSON 3: LESSON PLAN www.nervecentre.org/teachingdividedhistories MODULE 4. THE EASTER RISING 3: EASTER WEEK KEY INFORMATION 3. EASTER WEEK The Easter Rising changed the course of Irish history – but in the days before the Rising, no one could have predicted how it would turn out, or even if it was to go ahead. By Easter Sunday, it was clear that the Rising had virtually no chance of being a successful military operation. Most importantly, it lacked public support. Within the ranks of the revolutionary nationalists, there was WHO WAS ROGER? intense disagreement about whether the Rising should take place at all. CASEMENT? Roger Casement was born? PREPARING FOR THE RISING in Dublin on 1st September The Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) was made up of 1864. Casement’s father, seven members: Thomas Clarke, Sean MacDermott, Patrick Pearse, Eamonn a Protestant, was a Ceannt, Joseph Plunkett, James Connolly, and Thomas MacDonagh. They Captain in the British secretly planned the insurrection, scheduling it for Easter Sunday (April 23). Army. Through his work Pearse had ordered the Volunteers to report for “field manoeuvres” that as a British consul, he day, a clever way of mobilising his men without alerting the authorities about became famous for the planned rebellion. The leaders of the IRB, Bulmer Hobson and Denis his activities against McCullough, and the leader of the Irish Volunteers, Eoin MacNeill, were not human rights abuses in told about the real plans. When MacNeill did learn what the Military Council the Congo and Peru. was planning, he refused to go along with their plans. Having witnessed these atrocities at the hands of MacNeill was persuaded to set aside his opposition to the Rising when he learned of Roger Casement’s attempt to smuggle German " E o i n imperialist forces (Belgium M a c N arms into Ireland aboard the ship, the Aud. MacNeill e i l l " and Britain), Casement b y p had also been influenced by the ‘Castle h o became anti-imperialist t o g Document’ – a letter supposedly smuggled r a in his views and turned p h e out of Dublin Castle which indicated r n to Irish Republicanism. In o t that the British were planning to arrest i d November 1913, he helped e n MacNeill and other nationalists. t i f to form the Irish Volunteers e d - with Eoin MacNeill. He was Things changed again when the F r o tried for treason due to his Aud was intercepted by the British m " T role in the rebellion and navy, and Casement was arrested. h e T executed on 3rd August MacNeill had also discovered that i m e 1916. s the ‘Castle Document’ had been H i s forged by the rebel leaders to trick t o r y him into supporting the planned o f t Rising. On Saturday 22 April, the h e 1.))) DISCUSSION W day before Easter, MacNeill issued a r " a countermanding order, declaring V Why did MacNeill change o lu m his orders? that “no parades, marches or other e V II movements of the Irish Volunteers will I, p ag e take place”. Eoin 4 17 , p MacNeill ub lish ed 1916 www.nervecentre.org/teachingdividedhistories MODULE 4: LESSON 3: KEY INFORMATION 35 MODULE 4. THE EASTER RISING 3: EASTER WEEK THE RISING: DAY BY DAY Li Easter Sunday, 23rd April: Confusion ne n Ha ll L MacNeill’s orders, which directly contradicted ibrary the Military Council’s plans for Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, 24th April: were published in the press, and delivered by messenger to units outside Dublin. The Occupying the City Volunteers who had been prepared to act Around 1200 Volunteers, Irish Citizen Army were now confused and uncertain about what members and Cumann na mBan (a republican to do next. The Military Council, although women’s organization created to support the disappointed by MacNeill’s orders, was not Irish Volunteers) women assembled in Dublin. prepared to abandon its plans for an insurrection. The number was lower than had been hoped. They decided to delay the Rising by just one The poor turnout was due partly to the confusion day, and Pearse, Connolly and the rest of the about the orders and the change of dates, and Volunteer leadership spent Easter Sunday trying partly to the fact that the plans had been kept so to get the word out to Volunteers in Dublin and secret that many did not even realise the Rising across Ireland. They printed copies of the Easter was planned in the first place. Some Volunteers, Proclamation, and prepared for the next day. who did know there was to be a Rising, were not prepared to risk their lives for what they saw as a Tuesday, 25th April: The British futile gesture. Response The rebels planned to seize and occupy a number of key buildings in Dublin, and wait for the rest of British Army reinforcements arrived in Dublin from the country to rise up in support. After assembling Belfast, the Curragh, Athlone and Templemore. at Liberty Hall, where they had stored guns and The rebel positions came under fire, with the ammunition, the rebels split up and set off to British shelling the buildings heavily. The British the locations they had selected. The rebels' retook Stephen’s Green, placing machine guns on headquarters was the General Post Office (GPO), the upper floors of the tall buildings around the where the leaders of the Rising were stationed. park. Five Volunteers were killed. City Hall was retaken. Wednesday, 25th April: Destruction Meanwhile, looting spread across Dublin. Lord Wimbourne, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, of Dublin declared martial law. Most civilians in Dublin Wednesday was a day of heavy fighting between were not supportive of the Rising or the rebels, the rebels and the British Army, which received and there were conflicts on the streets between more reinforcements. General Maxwell arrived in civilians and both armies. Ireland to take over British operations. A cordon The British were moving in on the rebels with was set up to isolate the rebel garrisons and force. By the end of the week, there would be weaken their resistance. over 16,000 British soldiers in Dublin. A British gunboat, the Helga, had been sent up the Liffey to help retake the city. Wrongly believing that Liberty Hall was a rebel headquarters, the Helga destroyed the building 2.))) DISCUSSION which was actually empty.