IT IS THE sixth day of the Easter Rising and the rebel headquarters at the GPO has been destroyed.
Outnumbered by more than 10:1 by the British troops, the leaders must now decide whether to surrender or to keep fighting against the odds.
To mark the centenary of 1916, TheJournal.ie is documenting the events of the Rising as they happened. Each day this week, you can follow what happened during one of the defining events of Ireland’s history. You can catch up here on what happened on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and you can see all our sources here.
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Good morning everyone and thanks for sticking with us as we cover what’s happening around Dublin and parts of the country. It’s Amy Molloy here on liveblog duty.
Here is what has happened since last night:
The GPO has been completely evacuated after it collapsed late last night. Only the external shell remains of the building.
The rebels have set up a new headquarters at 16 Moore Street.
James Connolly remains badly wounded.
A family was gunned down on Moore Street this morning as they abandoned a burning building close to the new rebel headquarters, raising concerns among the rebels about civilian deaths.
The rebels from the GPO who moved to Plunkett’s butcher shop at 16 Moore Street are reported to be exhausted. Some are barely able to stand. However, despite this, they are believed to be planning some kind of attack which will act as a diversion and allow some of them to make a break for the Four Courts, where they can join up with the rebels there.
Most of the rebels in the five remaining outposts appear to be unaware that their headquarters in the GPO has fallen.
The British cut off communications from the GPO on Thursday, leaving the Volunteers in the Four Courts, Boland’s Mill, the Jacob’s factory, the South Dublin Union and the Royal College of Surgeons isolated from what has been happening at the GPO.
The Four Courts continues to hold firm, as does the South Dublin Union. At the Jameson distillery on Marrowbone Lane nearby, the rebels are reported to be planning a ceilí for tomorrow night to celebrate the garrison’s success.
Rebels have shot a number of British troops on top of the Bridewell police station.
The troops had been drawn into a trap and captured outside Reilly’s pub at the corner of North King Street and Church Street, near the back of the Four Courts. They were marched down Church Street by the rebels before being brought to the roof of the RIC police station at the Bridewell.
A group of rebels have been holding British troops at bay from the pub – which has been nicknamed ‘Reilly’s Fort’ since yesterday. The area around North King Street has been the scene of intense fighting and casualties are high – and continuing to mount.
The body of a 15-year-old girl has been found on Henry Place, between the GPO and Moore Street.
The girl, Bridget McKane, is believed to have accidentally been shot in the head late last night when a rebel’s rifle was discharged as the Volunteers fled from the GPO. Bridget was the daughter of a labourer and was from a family of nine children who lived on Henry Place. Her mother was with her when she died.
The rebels involved are believed to have been deeply traumatised by the incident.
Update from Moore Street: A team of around 20 men, led by Seán McLoughlin just tried to create a diversion to allow the other rebels from the GPO garrison to make a run for the Four Courts.
The group got to the end of Moore Street, but were forced to come back to headquarters.
While on Moore Street, McLoughlin saw the dead body of The O’Rahilly, who was shot dead last night as he led a diversionary charge against a British barricade so other rebels could escape from the GPO. McLoughlin and his men covered O’Rahilly’s body and returned to 16 Moore Street.
Dublin Fire Brigade has been working day and night over the past six days, treating people from both sides.
We have been given access to the DFB logbook, which shows the high volume of incidents:
British troops are reported to have taken Reilly’s Fort – the pub at the corner of North King Street, which had been keeping the soldiers at bay.
Pearse has told Sean McLoughlin to order a ceasefire among all Volunteers on Moore Street.
The rebel leaders are reportedly concerned about the loss of civilian life if they make another attempt to move everyone to the Four Courts.
There are bloody scenes near the back of the Four Courts. It appears British soldiers have bayoneted or shot 15 innocent men who they mistook for rebels while searching houses on North King Street.
BREAKING: Sources in Moore Street tell us rebel leaders have just held a vote on whether to continue fighting or to surrender – and have made the decision to surrender.
This hand-written note from Pádraig Pearse, written on a piece of cardboard taken from a picture frame, records the decision to seek surrender terms to prevent further slaughter of the civilians in the area.
British soldiers have started to gather around Jacob’s factory close to Aungier Street, and civilians have been evacuated from their homes in the surrounding area.
BREAKING: The rebels have surrendered.
In the last few minutes, a nurse called Elizabeth O’Farrell has left 16 Moore Street carrying a white flag.
She has carried the flag to the British barricade at the bottom of Moore Street on Parnell Street. Reports say that she has been taken to a shop on Parnell Street and is awaiting the arrival of General Lowe from the British Army.
O’Farrell was one of three Cumann na mBan members who stayed with the Volunteers in the move from the GPO to Moore Street.
It appears the fighting has officially ended. However, many rebel positions still have not received their order to surrender and gunfire is still taking place around the city.
Rebels are still holding out at North Brunswick Street and Church Street, where they have launched a counter-attack against the British troops in the area.
The Lord Lieutenant General of Ireland has issued a proclamation saying that martial law remains in place in Dublin.
Rebels in the College of Surgeons are running out of food, and a foraging party has been spotted searching the nearby streets for food, led by Countess Markievicz and Margaret Skinnider.
General Lowe arrives at the shop on Parnell Street to meet Elizabeth O’Farrell. He tells her he wants an unconditional surrender from Pearse within the next 30 minutes.
While we await an update on the surrender, news is coming in of yet more civilian casualties. Dr James Ryan, who is in charge of the rebels’ medical unit, tells us he saw three elderly men with white flags in their hands lying dead on the footpath on Moore Street.
Nurse O’Farrell went back to the rebels with General Lowe’s message, and has now returned to Lowe with a note. Lowe has reportedly told her once again that he wants an unconditional surrender in the next 30 minutes led by Pearse and Connolly.
If that doesn’t happen, Lowe says that hostilities will resume.
BREAKING: The rebels from the GPO garrison have left 16 Moore Street and Pádraig Pearse, James Connolly and Thomas MacDonagh have signed an unconditional surrender.
James Connolly has been carried out of Moore Street on a stretcher due to his leg injury and is being brought to the military hospital in Dublin Castle.
This photograph shows Pádraig Pearse on the right surrendering to General Lowe. Nurse O’Farrell can be seen just behind Pearse.
Pearse’s note of surrender reads as follows:
In order to prevent further slaughter of the civil population and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers, the members of the Provisional Government present at headquarters have decided on an unconditional surrender, and commandants or officers commanding districts will order their commands to lay down arms.
P.H. Pearse, Dublin 29th April 1916.
The note from James Connolly says that he agrees to the conditions for members of the Irish Citizen Army based in the Moore Street District and in Stephen’s Green.
General Lowe has now signed a document acknowledging the surrender.
The document says that rebels can hand themselves in tomorrow – but warns that it is “imperative” for them to hand in their arms at the time of surrender.
The GPO rebels are being brought into the gardens beside the Rotunda maternity hospital where they are under armed guard by British troops.
Elizabeth O’Farrell has been ordered to bring the surrender orders to the other outposts around the city, accompanied by a priest.
The job is a dangerous one: there is still a lot of gunfire around the remaining outposts.
Rebels at the South Dublin Union off James’ Street have reluctantly laid down weapons.
Commandant Michael Mallin and Countess Markievicz have surrendered Stephen’s Green and the Royal College of Surgeons.
Across the city, rebels are being rounded up and arrested. This photograph shows one rebel being taken to Dublin Castle by soldiers.
Pictures have been coming in which show the extent to which the GPO has been damaged.
While the outer shell of the building remains intact, the interior has been almost completely destroyed by a combination of shelling and fire.
The garrison at Boland’s mill and bakery at Grand Canal Dock has surrendered.
Rebels at the Four Courts have also surrendered, and have started handing their weapons through the railings to the Dublin Fusiliers.
The men there were reported to be stunned when they received the order to surrender. Some argued that they should continue to hold the Four Courts, but in the end they have complied with the order.
A ceasefire has begun on North Brunswick Street, brokered by a pair of priests while rebels wait for the official order to surrender.
Rebels have been turning up to Sackville Street to surrender. One witness has described the rebels as looking “filthy, exhausted but intensely proud.”
The fighting over the past week has taken a heavy toll: 362 people have died since Monday as a direct result of the rebellion.
That figure is likely to rise over the coming days and weeks as some of those seriously injured succumb to their wounds, or if the British, as is being rumoured, go ahead with the executions of some of those involved in the Rising.
Here is a breakdown of the 362 people who have died:
184 of the people who died were civilians – the most of any group.
107 of the people who died were in the British Army.
58 of the people who died were rebels.
13 of the people who died were policemen.
Almost one in five of the people killed were under the age of 19.
Today has been the single worst day for fatalities, with a total of 78 deaths.
With that, we will close this liveblog. Thank you to everyone who has used it as a source of information over the past six days.
In that time, a group of around 1,400 rebels tried and ultimately failed to hold off an army which, at times, outnumbered them by more than 10 to 1. The group was a motley one: a mixture of socialists and moderates; Catholics, Protestants and atheists; poets, teachers, union organisers, accountants, actors and salesmen. The one thing they had in common was their belief that Ireland should be ruled by Ireland.
It has been a bloody six days – you can see the number of fatalities above. We do not yet know the fate of the rebel leaders. Instead, we will leave the final words to Pádraig Pearse, who issued the following words from the GPO yesterday morning, just hours before it collapsed:
“If we accomplish no more than we have accomplished I am satisfied. I am satisfied that we have saved Ireland’s honour.
“For my part, as to anything I have done in this, I am not afraid to face either the judgment of God or the judgment of posterity”.
The 16 leaders who were executed.
From top left: Roger Casement; Éamonn Ceannt; Thomas Clarke; Con Colbert; James Connolly; Edward Daly; Seán Heuston; Thomas Kent; John MacBride; Seán Mac Diarmada; Thomas MacDonagh; Michael Mallin; Michael O’Hanrahan; Pádraig Pearse; William Pearse; Joseph Plunkett.
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