Augustine Birrell KC was a British Liberal Party politician, who was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916. In this post, he was praised for enabling tenant farmers to own their property, and for extending university education for Catholics. But he was criticised for failing to take action against the rebels before the Easter Rising, and resigned. A barrister by training, he was also an author, noted for humorous essays.
Augustine Birrell
Augustine Birrell c1895
Plaque in Greystones, Ireland commemorating the events of 25 October 1910, when Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and Hilda Webb challenged Birrell on the suffrage issue.
Birrell caricatured by Spy for Vanity Fair, 1906
The Easter Rising, also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the aim of establishing an independent Irish Republic while the United Kingdom was fighting the First World War. It was the most significant uprising in Ireland since the rebellion of 1798 and the first armed conflict of the Irish revolutionary period. Sixteen of the Rising's leaders were executed starting in May 1916. The nature of the executions, and subsequent political developments, ultimately contributed to an increase in popular support for Irish independence.
O'Connell Street, Dublin, after the Rising. The GPO is at left, and Nelson's Pillar at right.
Members of the Irish Citizen Army outside Liberty Hall, under the slogan "We serve neither King nor Kaiser, but Ireland"
The General Post Office in Dublin – the rebel headquarters
Positions of rebel and British forces in central Dublin
