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Audio is no longer available.
The Easter Rising was an armed assault by Irish Republican rebels on the Dublin
General Post Office and other parts of the city on Easter Monday, April 24,
1916. A volunteer army was led into Dublin by rebel Padraig Pearse, poet,
schoolteacher and Republican leader and seized control of the General Post
Office and other strategic locations nearby. Pearse read this proclamation
aloud from the steps of the Post Office, declaring himself and six other
signatories as the provisional government of the Irish Republic.
The rebels held out for a week, barricading themselves in the Post Office
against the British forces, but eventually surrendered. The British dealt with
the Republican leaders severely; fifteen, including Pearse himself, were tried
and executed for treason.
Although it was unsuccessful, the Easter Rising is considered symbolic of the
birth of the Republican movement, and the revolutionary philosophy underlying
the Proclamation is mirrored in contemporary Republican ideology.
The original Proclamation was printed on broadside paper and passed out among
the rebels; the commemorative version reproduced below was issued on the anniversary of the Rising.
Recording courtesy of Sony Records
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