From 1916 Portraits and Lives, edited by Lawrence William White and James Quinn
1907
NOVEMBER
Thomas J. Clarke returns to Ireland from America and helps to invigorate the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB)
1909
16 AUGUST
Constance Markievicz and Bulmer Hobson found Na Fianna Éireann
10 DECEMBER
H. H. Asquith, the Liberal prime minister, promises ‘self-government’ for Ireland
1910
JANUARY
UK general election: Liberal party fails to win an overall majority and requires the support of John Redmond’s 70-strong Irish Parliamentary Party to govern
26 JULY
James Connolly returns to Ireland from America
DECEMBER
Another UK general election; Liberals still the largest party with Irish Parliamentary Party holding the balance of power
1912
9 APRIL
At a unionist demonstration at Balmoral, near Belfast, Andrew Bonar Law, leader of the Conservative party, pledges the support of British unionists to Ulster unionist resistance to home rule
11 APRIL
Asquith introduces home rule bill in House of Commons
28 SEPTEMBER
Unionists throughout Ulster sign the Solemn League and Covenant to resist home rule
1913
16 JANUARY
Third reading of home rule bill carried in House of Commons
30 JANUARY
Home rule bill defeated in House of Lords
31 JANUARY
Ulster Volunteer Force founded
15 JULY
After passing in the Commons, home rule bill again defeated in the Lords
26 AUGUST
Tram workers of James Larkin’s Irish Transport and General Workers Union go on strike – a general lockout of union members follows
19 NOVEMBER
Irish Citizen Army founded by trade unionists in Dublin
25 NOVEMBER
Irish Volunteers formed at meeting in Dublin, presided over by Eoin MacNeill
1914
20 MARCH
‘Curragh mutiny’ – General Hubert Gough and most of his officers in the 3rd Cavalry Brigade announce their unwillingness to enforce home rule on Ulster
2 APRIL
Cumann na mBan founded as women’s auxiliary to Irish Volunteers
24–25 APRIL
Ulster Volunteer Force gun-running: large quantity of rifles landed at Larne, Donaghadee and Bangor
25 MAY
Home rule bill passes through Commons for third time
28 JUNE
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by a Slav nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia
10 JULY
Ulster unionist provisional government meets in Belfast
21–24 JULY
Government, nationalists and unionists fail to reach agreement on the status of Ulster at Buckingham Palace conference
26 JULY
Rifles for Irish Volunteers landed at Howth; British troops who failed to disarm Volunteers fire on a crowd at Bachelor’s Walk, Dublin, killing four and wounding thirty
1 AUGUST
More rifles for Irish Volunteers landed at Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow
4 AUGUST
UK declares war on Germany after German invasion of Belgium
9 SEPTEMBER
At a conference in Dublin, militant nationalists (mostly IRB) discuss mounting an insurrection during the war
18 SEPTEMBER
Government of Ireland act, 1914, suspends the introduction of home rule for the duration of the war
20 SEPTEMBER
At Woodenbridge, Co. Wicklow, John Redmond encourages Irish Volunteers to join the British army
24 SEPTEMBER
Eoin MacNeill and other Volunteer leaders repudiate Redmond’s leadership; Volunteers split, the majority forming Redmond’s ‘National Volunteers’
OCTOBER
Volunteer minority, still calling themselves the Irish Volunteers, re-organise with Eoin MacNeill as chief of staff, Patrick Pearse as director of military organisation, Joseph Mary Plunkett as director of military operations, and Thomas MacDonagh as director of training
Sir Roger Casement travels to Berlin to seek German help for an Irish insurrection against British rule
1915
MAY
IRB creates a military committee of Pearse, Plunkett and Éamonn Ceannt to begin planning for an armed insurrection
1 AUGUST
Pearse gives stirring graveside oration at the funeral of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa warning that ‘Ireland unfree shall never be at peace’ [link]
DECEMBER
IRB military council of Clarke, Seán Mac Diarmada, Pearse, Plunkett and Ceannt formed
1916
JANUARY
IRB supreme council gives approval for armed insurrection
19–22 JANUARY
James Connolly confers with IRB military council and is co-opted into their plans (Thomas MacDonagh co-opted in April)
3 APRIL
Pearse issues orders to Volunteers throughout Ireland for manoeuvres beginning on Easter Sunday (23 April)
20 APRIL
A trawler, the Aud, arrives in Tralee Bay with German arms for the Irish Volunteers and is arrested by a British patrol ship
21 APRIL
Sir Roger Casement lands from a German submarine at Banna Strand, Co. Kerry, and is arrested
22 APRIL
Eoin MacNeill, of the Irish Volunteers, learns of planned insurrection and countermands orders for Easter Sunday manoeuvres
23 APRIL
Military council meets at Liberty Hall and decides to go ahead with insurrection on Easter Monday (24 April); a revolutionary proclamation is signed by the seven members of the council
24 APRIL
GPO and several other buildings in Dublin seized by Irish Volunteers and Citizen Army
An attack on Dublin Castle by a Citizen Army unit is repulsed; the unit briefly holds City Hall until overwhelmed later that day
25 APRIL
British army reinforcements arrive in Dublin and surround insurgent positions; martial law declared in Dublin
Citizen Army force in St Stephen’s Green comes under heavy fire and withdraws to College of Surgeons
26 APRIL
Liberty Hall destroyed and GPO damaged by British shelling
Francis Sheehy-Skeffington and two other prisoners summarily executed at Portobello barracks on orders of Captain J. C. Bowen-Colthurst [link]
Wexford Volunteers take over Enniscorthy
Heavy fighting as British troops advance on insurgent positions around the Four Courts and the South Dublin Union
Unable to hold the Mendicity Institute on Usher’s Island, the small Volunteer garrison under Seán Heuston surrenders
26–27 APRIL
British army reinforcements advancing on Mount Street bridge suffer heavy casualties at the hands of Volunteers from Éamon de Valera’s 3rd battalion
28 APRIL
Volunteers in north County Dublin under Thomas Ashe and Richard Mulcahy seize Ashbourne Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) barracks and ambush an RIC patrol sent to re-take it
GPO on fire; insurgents evacuate building and set up their headquarters in 16 Moore Street
29 APRIL
Pearse and Connolly agree to unconditional surrender, and send orders to other insurgent posts to do likewise
30 APRIL
Final surrenders of rebel commandants in Dublin end the rising; 64 insurgents, 132 crown forces and about 230 civilians killed
2–9 MAY
Courts martial of 187 leading insurgents; 88 sentenced to death, with 73 commuted to various terms of imprisonment. Over 400 insurgents sent to Britain to be interned; over 3,000 other suspects also arrested, of whom about half are interned
2 MAY
Gun battle ensues between Kent family and RIC at Bawnard House, Castlelyons, near Fermoy, Co. Cork, when Kents resist arrest
3 MAY
Executions of Pearse, Clarke and MacDonagh
4–12 MAY
Executions of remaining insurgents; Connolly and Mac Diarmada the last to be shot
3 AUGUST
Found guilty of treason, Roger Casement is hanged in Pentonville jail, London
22 DECEMBER
Release from Frongoch camp and Reading jail of remaining untried Irish political prisoners; convicted insurgents remain imprisoned [their trades]
1917
16 JUNE
Remaining 120 Irish prisoners, including Eoin MacNeill, de Valera and Markievicz, released from British jails
25 SEPTEMBER
Thomas Ashe dies in Mountjoy jail after forced feeding
26 OCTOBER
De Valera elected president of Sinn Féin
1918
18 APRIL
A broad front of Irish nationalists oppose conscription at Mansion House conference
17–18 MAY
‘German plot’ arrests of Sinn Féin leaders
11 NOVEMBER
Great War ends
14–28 DECEMBER
General election: Sinn Féin wins 73 of 105 Irish seats [manifesto]
1919
21 JANUARY
First meeting of Dáil Éireann at Mansion House, Dublin, declares independence
Irish Volunteer attack on RIC at Soloheadbeg, Co. Tipperary kills two policemen and marks the beginning of the war of independence [link]
1920
23 DECEMBER
Government of Ireland Act, 1920, provides for two subordinate Irish parliaments, one for six Ulster counties, the other for the remainder of the country
1921
22 JUNE
George V opens Northern Ireland parliament in Belfast
9 JULY
Truce ends Irish war of independence
6 DECEMBER
Anglo–Irish treaty signed by British government and Sinn Féin delegates in London [link]
1922
7 JANUARY
Dáil Éireann approves Anglo–Irish treaty by 64 votes to 57 [Constans de Markievics against the treaty]
14 JANUARY
Irish Free State provisional government elected by protreaty representatives; Michael Collins elected chairman
28 JUNE
Free State troops attack antitreaty forces in Four Courts, beginning the civil war
20 JULY
Limerick and Waterford taken by Free State troops (Cork taken 11 August)
12 AUGUST
Arthur Griffith, president of Dáil Éireann, dies of cerebral haemorrhage
22 AUGUST
Michael Collins killed in ambush at Béal na Bláth, Co. Cork
17 NOVEMBER
First of 77 executions of anti-treatyites by Free State government (last on 2 May 1923) [link]
6 DECEMBER
Formal establishment of Irish Free State with W. T. Cosgrave as president of the executive council
1923
24 MAY
De Valera orders anti-treatyites to cease armed operations, ending the civil war
