The Easter Rising; Causes and Consequences

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An important event in the history of Ireland began on the 24th of April 1916 when the Irish Citizens Army and the Irish Republican Brotherhood staged a rebellion against the British Army in Dublin, also known as the Easter Rising. The long-term causes of the Easter Rising were origins of the resentment of British rule in Ireland. These included the revenge of anti-Catholic Protestant Oliver Cromwell, the Great Potato Famine, which first began in 1845, as well as the largest plantation in Ulster. The short term causes included the Third Home Rule Bill in 1912, the Ulster Volunteers, the Irish National Volunteers and the outbreak of World War 1. The consequences of this event were, first of all, that the rebellion was a failure, the execution of Martyrs, the emergence of Sinn Fein, the establishment of the Dail, as well as the Anglo-Irish War. The long-term causes of the Easter Rising date back 700 years ago. In the 1500s, King Henry II gained control of a small area around Dublin known as ‘The Pale’. The English continued to conquer the Gaelic Irish. They took their land and settled English Soldiers on plantations, the largest of which was in Ulster. Another long-term cause of the Easter Rising was the Great Potato Famine in 1845. The potato crops continued to fail in Ireland for four years in which over one million people starved to death as the potato was the staple food of many Irish. While the Irish starved, the English continued to export the food that was farmed such as oats, wheat and beef to Britain to make a profit. There was a lack of sympathy for the Irish “The Irish can live on anything. There is plenty of grass in the fields if the potato crop continues to fail”- Duke of Cambridge, 1846. In 1649, anti-catholic Protestant Oliver Cromwell arrived in Ireland to take his revenge. Eight years earlier, when England was on the brink of civil war, Catholic
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