91Èȱ¬

An armed rebellion broke out in Dublin on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916. It would pave the way for the political emergence of Sinn Fein and the partitioning of Ireland within 5 years. Fewer than 2,000 rebels took part in the insurrection in Dublin, which began on Easter Monday 1916. Patrick Pearse read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic for the steps of the General Post Office in O'Connell Street. After six days the rebellion was crushed, with 450 fatalities and 2,614 wounded. Public opinion, initially antagonistic to the uprising, was outraged by the military authorities almost immediate execution, by firing squad, in Kilmainham jail, of fifteen of the leaders. This copy of the Proclamation was handed to a Belfast man visiting Dublin on the day of the Rising. He then offered the poster to the Belfast (now Ulster) Museum on his return, when the full seriousness of the implications of the rebellion began to emerge.