- [Narrator] Dublin, Ireland, April 24th, 1916.
Easter Monday dawns brights
as Dubliners, both Catholic and Protestant,
rouse themselves after a day of rest and worship.
But some have barely slept at all
as they've spent the holiday
making feverish last-minute preparations.
Now they gather their courage, faith and guns,
and converge on Dublin Castle.
As the party rushes the gate,
the castle garrison is minimal and unprepared for an attack.
The lone policeman on duty,
an Irish Catholic who is unarmed,
attempts to stop them but to no avail.
An attack guns him down
as he tries to close the iron gate.
But by chance, the British Under Secretary for Ireland,
Sir Matthew Nathan, sees this happen.
So he, along with a few soldiers scramble
to the gate, slamming it shut
and locking it as bullets zip by.
Then they brace for a siege.
For this is no isolated attack.
All the across the city,
armed men and women are ambushing policemen
and officials, taking up sniper perches
and raising barricades.
The sleepy holiday is giving way to a revolution,
an Easter rising.
(lively music)
(text falling)
This episode is brought to you
by the incredible value proportion
that is the Curiosity Stream-Nebula bundle.
Seriously, so much stuff under 15 bucks,
I still honestly don't believe it
but more on that awesomeness after the episode.
(screen whooshing)
The Easter Rising is one of the most crucial events
in modern Irish history.
A rebellion that had been brewing for decades
and sparked a period of conflict more ferocious
and dynamic than anything seen in over a century.
In fact, a bare six years after Nathan tried
to close the gates of Dublin Castle
to the unrest brewing outside,
Ireland would be a republic,
independent from the United Kingdom.
Now, it's easy to draw a straight line
from the Easter Rising to independence
to tell the tale of a popular uprising
against English misrule full of tragedy,
heroism and defiance.
But while this series will talk about those things,
we'll also discuss the gritty realities
of how the rising came about,
what happened when the shooting started,
and what changed when it stopped.
All of which defy the straightforward narrative
of the republic's founding
because in truth, the birth of a nation is never simple.
While the history of Ireland's relationship
to Great Britain is complicated,
the roots of the Easter Rising can be traced back
to the Rebellion of 1798
when a group called the United Irishmen staged an uprising
against British rule.
While this would be revolution,
which included a mixture of Presbyterian Protestants
and Roman Catholics was defeated,
the pressures it created paved the way
for two new acts of union,
the laws that bound Ireland to Britain,
just like an earlier act of union
had bound Scotland and England.
Chiefly, these abolished the Irish parliament
in favor of Irish representation in the British parliament,
which some hoped would increase Roman Catholic rights
and allow them to serve in government.
But progress toward greater Irish autonomy was slow.
While there were still no uprisings to the extent of 1798,
the Great Famine of the 1840s,
which you can learn about after this episode
in our series here, had a profound impact.
With hunger killing a million Irish
and forcing roughly another two million to immigrate,
the famine both changed the face of Ireland
and exposed the stark limitations
and the frequent cruelty of British policy.
A series of land reforms followed
as efforts were made to stop the disaster
from occurring a second time.
By the 1870s, there were increased calls
for Irish home rule,
an idea that Ireland would practice self-governance
within the United Kingdom,
rather than complete independence.
This became the mainstream movement
among Irish nationalists in the late 1800s,
and there was some progress.
Irish members of parliament introduced two home rule bills
in 1886 and 1893.
But while both failed to get past the House of Lords,
a third attempt succeeded in 1914.
That was because in the 1910 general election,
the pro-home rule Irish parliamentary party ended up
with a powerful voting block.
Now, we don't have enough time in this series
to get into the entire tangled yarn basket
of Irish politics and factionalism
in the early 20th century
but broadly speaking, there were two opposed groups:
the unionists, who were content with Ireland's place
within the United Kingdom,
and the Nationalists, who wanted some form
of independence from Great Britain.
The Nationalists originally believed in peaceful change
but by the early 1900s,
a range of nationalist organizations advocated an uprising.
But even among these militants,
visions of independence differed.
Some wanted Ireland to leave the United Kingdom
but remain in the Commonwealth
and retain George V as king
while others wanted a complete break
and the creation of an Irish republic.
There were also debates about what should be done
with the vehemently Unionists north of the island.
Should it be incorporated or remain part of the UK?
And many disagreed over the role
of the Roman Catholic church after separation
and whether the new country should adopt the socialist
or even communist ideas sweeping Europe.
Then on the other side of that divided divide,
the thought of home rule caused unrest
among Irish unionists,
especially in the north where Protestantism
and Unionism went hand in hand.
Irish Protestants feared that even limited independence
would result in the erosion of their culture
or a purge at the hands of the Nationalists.
To combat this, Irish unionists
formed a paramilitary organization:
the Ulster Volunteer Force or UVF.
Within months, there were over 100,000 members willing
to take up arms and defend their Britishness,
whether the actual British government wanted them to or not.
For instance, on the 25th of April, 1914,
the UVF successfully smuggled
almost 25,000 rifles into Ulster.
Predictably enough, the existence
of this large Protestant militia worried Irish nationalists
who responded by forming their own paramilitary army,
the Irish Volunteers.
It seemed the board was being set for civil war
but as so often's been the case throughout history,
just as conflict seemed inevitable,
external events overturned the playing pieces.
In 1914, an archduke died in Sarajevo
and Britain became embroiled in the First World War.
Hundreds of thousands of Irishmen,
Protestants and Catholics, nationalists and unionists,
put aside their differences to enlist
in the British Army.
The UVF signed up in droves,
forming an entire army division
that would go on to fight across the Western Front.
And with the war seemingly diffusing the tensions at home,
home rule went to the back burner.
But not everyone shifted focus.
For while many Irishmen supported the British war effort,
some nationalists saw a World War
as the perfect opportunity to strike.
Howth, Ireland, July 26th, 1914.
In broad daylight, a ship pulls up to the docks,
met by a group of Irishmen and women equipped
with wheelbarrows, and carts.
Among them is Countess Marikievicz,
the first woman to be elected to the British parliament.
Under her direction and the other leaders of the group,
the ship starts unloading its cargo.
1,500 mouser rifles.
Marikievicz and those assisting her
are Irish nationalists.
With the Irish unionist UVF now armed,
thanks to their own gun running operation,
the nationalists are trying to keep up.
But the news of guns being taken away
in wheelbarrows spread quickly
and police and soldiers mobilized
to halt the illegal drop off.
A crowd gathers, shouting, someone throws a punch,
and a brawl ensues.
Amidst the confusion, most of the guns make it ashore,
disappearing under floorboards
and into attics to be retrieved later.
The Irish Volunteers were now armed.
A revolt was simmering
and there was one group determined to make it boil over.
The Irish Republican Brotherhood or IRB
had formed in 1858
as a secretive oath-bound fraternal organization
dedicated to creating an Irish republic.
It was one of the main backers
of the Irish Volunteers,
though it didn't control them,
and was advocating for an armed uprising.
And while rebellion was generally approved of,
senior individuals of the IRB found themselves
at odds with each other over the specifics.
Some believed the time was not yet right for a rising,
while others wished to press ahead.
And unbeknownst to much of the IRB,
a small militant faction within its own ranks,
calling itself the Military Council had tasked itself
with planning the rebellion.
The council kept these designs secret,
not only from the authorities
but from other nationalists
who might seek to delay it.
Distrust and uncertainty were rife.
But this potential uprising was fraught with risk.
British military power was overwhelming,
even with troops stripped for the war.
So some decided it would be wise
to even the odds by winning some foreign backing.
And now that Germany was at war with Britain,
the country seemed like the perfect ally
for the nationalist movement,
and courting assistance from the kaiser became imperative.
To that end, Irish nationalist
and former British diplomatic consul,
Sir Roger Casement, was dispatched in secret
to negotiate with the Germans in New York and Berlin.
If he was successful,
German arms and ammunition would flood Ireland
and German soldiers would land in the west
of the country, then march on Dublin
amid an open rebellion.
So as Irish volunteer fighters took their rifles
from hidden lofts,
they were preparing not just to strike a blow for Ireland
but also for a German victory in the First World War.
And if you'd like to learn more
about the Easter Rising before next week's episode,
(record scratching)
I said if you're like to learn more
about the Easter Rising before next week's episode,
Casual Matt, that's your cue.
Ah, sorry, presenter voice Matt.
Full disclosure, I finished watching
this episode yesterday early and ad free on Nebula.
Now I'm watching this Curiosity Stream doc though
if you'd like to get in on that.
Wait, what are we doing?
Actually, we were just about to tell the folks at home
just how awesome both of those streaming services are.
If that's the case, would you want me
to talk about it considering I'm the one
who watches these things?
I think that'd be great.
I will never know how you are so chipper all the time.
Okay, um, so if you don't already know,
Nebula is a creator-owned streamed service,
made up of folks like us at Extra Credits,
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The Great War and honestly,
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that basically lets all of us sort
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And real talk for a second,
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Because of your support,
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I even moved my own personal podcast,
The Only Podcast About Movies,
there is an asterisk in that title, I assure you,
and done a few originals myself
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But what's actually really cool
is our friends over at Curiosity Stream
believe I am right about this
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When you sign up for Curiosity Stream,
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you get a matching Nebula subscription for free.
Now, that is a full membership,
not a trial or anything, keep in mind,
which basically means
that not only do you get Curiosity Stream's thousands
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and videos, and award-winning original series
but you also get amazing content
from a bunch of my absolute favorite creators
on the internet, all for less than 15 bucks a year.
Case in point, since you just watched
the first Easter Rising episode,
while you wait for ep two,
you might be interested in a show they have over there
called Revolution In Color.
It's this Curiosity Stream doc
that tells the story of Ireland's struggle for independence
during the early decades of the 20th century
and the real-life footage alone
is worth the price of admission.
It ups it to the absolute next level.
I really enjoyed it. So that's pretty much it.
Two great streaming services,
one low place, yada, yada, yada.
Yo, presenter Matt, did I forget anything?
Well, you could tell them
exactly how they get all this goodness.
True, true, true, true, true, true.
Though that kind of sounds like a you thing.
So I'm gonna go watch more working titles
and you can take care of that.
Fair enough.
All you've gotta do is head over
to CuriosityStream.com/ExtraCredits right now
to get both of these phenomenal streaming services
for only 14.97 for an entire year.
That's 26% off the regular price,
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Thanks.
A hearty thanks of legend to Ahmad Ziad Turk,
Alicia Bramble, Angelo Valenciana,
Arkhalight Games, Casey Muscha, Dominic Valenciana,
Joseph Blaim, and Skyler Holmes.
(dramatic music)