Journey with our member of the ICA (Irish Citizen Army) as he tells you about the devastating effects of the 1913 Lockout such as seeing children dying of starvation in the tenements. Learn how he and countless others were left jobless, oppressed and craving social change, especially after Ireland suffered the violence of its first Bloody Sunday. Listen, as he does, to James Connolly and the social leaders who promised change and a brighter future if they followed them into battle for it.
Meet our member of the Cumann na mBan (the women’s faction of the Irish Volunteers) who was so moved by Padraig Pearse’s graveside speech at the funeral of the famous Fenian Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa in 1915 she signed up the following day. Discover the key and dangerous roles these women, numbering nearly a quarter of those who rose that week, played in the battles that Easter. In the reading of the 1916 Proclamation of Independence and in their own words hear how they were fighting not only for the emancipation of Ireland but for a better future for Irish women.
On the 1916 Rise of the Rebels Tour you will travel with our two rebels as they take you through the action all over the city during Easter week. See and hear about the sites where it all happened, some you may know and some whose histories have been less explored until now. From one of The Abbey Theatre’s leading actors, Sean Connolly, leading the first charge and firing the first shots of the Rising; resulting in the first casualty at City Hall as the rebels tried to take Dublin Castle. To Richmond Barracks where all the captured rebels plus many who were falsely accused of being so were imprisoned before the executions in Kilmainham. In-between discover where the fiercest battles were fought including The Four Courts and South Dublin Union. Hear the testimonies of the brave and brazen, such as the handful of men who took on the might of a battalion around Mount Street, and the women who dodged bullets to deliver messages all over the city. Then there are the stories of the trenches and strange amnesties in the gunfire torn St. Stephens Green and the dangerous women who patrolled its gates.
Come with us to the GPO, The General Post Office, which acted as the headquarters for the rebels during the week of The 1916 Easter Rising. It was outside here that Padraig Pearse read out The Proclamation of Independence and decreed a free and equal Ireland for all. Inside Pearse along with 4 of the other signatories of the Proclamation, James Connolly, Tom Clarke, Sean MacDiarmada and Joseph Plunkett orchestrated the insurrection as bullets rained down upon the building. See the bullet holes that are still visible scars on the GPO today. At the end of the week they tunnelled their way through the homes on neighbouring Moore Street to escape the burning GPO as shells from the gunship Helga blasted them and the flames around them raged so hot the glass inside was melting. Follow the path of the doomed revolutionaries as they ran the gauntlet under heavy machine gun fire to Moore Street and visit the site of one of The Rising’s most tragic deaths, that of The O’Rahilly. It was here around Moore Street where The O’Rahilly penned his last goodbyes to his wife and hiding inside its beleaguered walls the remaining rebels decided to surrender.
The 1916 Rise of Rebels Bus Tour will show you the heart of the rebellion using the actual words and testimonies of the men and women who fought for Irish Independence in the 1916 Easter Rising.
