The Easter Rising was daringly planned by the Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood to win support across Ireland for the republican cause. Although the Easter Rising was a military and political failure, the rebels did eventually gain more support from the Irish Population. After the Easter Rising the new Sinn Fein party became influential and formed the Dail Eireann, which triggered the Anglo-Irish war.
The three Irish groups involved in the 1916 Easter Rising hoped to end Britain's oppression of Ireland. The groups were the violent and radical Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Irish Volunteers, led by Eoin MacNeill, and the Irish Citizen Army, led by socialist James Connolly. The motive of the Irish Republican Brotherhood was to incite a violent national rising against Britain, which was distracted by the war effort. They wanted to make martyrs of some rebels, to gain the support of the Irish people. They planned to take over strategic parts of Dublin on Easter Sunday and establish a republic.
English: Sackville (now O'Connell) Street, Dublin,...
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Irish FlagEoin MacNeill, on the other hand, wanted Home Rule for Ireland and didn't want the Irish Volunteers to join the rising. His reasons were that the rebels lacked support, weapons and were outnumbered by the British. However, he agreed to fight after seeing a forged document saying that the leaders of the Irish Volunteers were to be arrested. James Connolly took part in the rising because he believed it would pave the way for Socialism in Ireland. He believed that getting the British out was only the first step. He wanted a Socialist state where everyone is equal and goods are shared out according to need. Although their means were different, all of the groups and their leaders were fighting for a liberated Ireland. However, the Rising didn't go as planned.
The leader of the...