What were the forces that fought in Easter Week

Irish Republican Brotherhood

The IRB military council was the real architect of the Rising, although many of the insurgents were unaware of its existence. The Irish Republican Brotherhood was a secret society that grew out of the Fenian movement of the 1850s.

After the failure of the Fenian rebellion in 1867 the IRB continued to pursue the aim of Irish independence by force of arms. The movement operated in tandem with a sister organisation in the United States called Clan na nGael. The IRB was sidelined for decades by the constitutional movement for Home Rule but it began to grow in the early years of the 20th century following the return to Ireland of Tom Clarke.

The opportunity for action emerged in 1913 following the formation of the UVF to resist Home Rule. The Irish Volunteers were formed as a response but the organisation was heavily infiltrated from the beginning by the IRB. A secret military council, made up of leading IRB members, plotted throughout 1915 to manipulate the Irish Volunteers into action.

The Irish Volunteers

Founded in November 1913 by Eoin MacNeill, professor of early Irish history at UCD, following an enthusiastic response to his call for nationalists to arm themselves to defend Home Rule. The movement immediately attracted tens of thousands of members. Worried about IRB influence, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, John Redmond, insisted on being allowed to nominate half the members of the ruling committee. When Redmond called on the Volunteers to support the British war effort after the outbreak of the first World War, the Volunteers split, with 170,000 men siding with Redmond. Fewer than 10,000 men stayed with MacNeill and his Irish Volunteers. Later there was a division between MacNeill, who thought that a rising should only be attempted if it had a clear chance of success, and the IRB element, which believed it was justified as a means of provoking British repression and radicalising the population.

The National Volunteers

The vast majority of Volunteers supported John Redmond in 1914, constituting themselves as the National Volunteers. The organisation had declined by 1916 as most of its leading members joined the army at Redmond's instigation. Many of them were fighting for the Allies on the western front when their former comrades staged the Rising in Dublin. In parts of the country the National Volunteers mobilised to help the police restore order until the military arrived on the scene.

The Irish Citizen's Army

Founded by James Larkin in 1913 after the bitter Dublin lockout, the Citizen Army was originally intended as a means of protecting strikers against attack. Under the influence of James Connolly, who led the movement after the departure of Larkin to the United Sates in 1914, the Citizen Army took a more militantly nationalist line. As the only military force to accept women members, it attracted a number of radical women political activists to its ranks, the most prominent being Countess Markievicz. A small force of never more than 300, just about 200 of its members gathered at Liberty Hall to join Connolly in rebellion on Easter Monday.

The Royal Irish Constabulary

Created in 1836, with the "Royal" title added in 1867, the RIC was an armed police force subject to military drill and discipline. It was deployed throughout the country, apart from in Dublin city, which had its own police (see right). By 1916 the 9,000-strong RIC rarely acted as a paramilitary force and its main functions were to impose public order and engage in normal police duties. The bulk of its members were Irish Catholics, most of them of nationalist political views. A family tradition in policing was a strong factor in recruitment. This is reflected in the face that five commissioners of the Garda Síochána have been sons or grandsons of RIC men. From February 1916 the RIC had been warning Dublin Castle that a rising was being planned with German support. These reports were ignored.

The Dublin Metropolitan Police

The DMP was an unarmed police force 1,100 strong, founded in 1836. Mainly concerned with ordinary crime, the DMP also had a G Division, which played an important role in investigating political crime. The force became unpopular in 1913 for the manner in which it brutally broke up workers' gatherings during the lockout. The first casualty of the Rising was DMP policeman Constable James O'Brien, who was shot at the entrance to Dublin Castle on Easter Monday morning. The force was withdrawn from the streets later in the day as unarmed policemen could offer no defence against armed rebels.

The Trinity Officer's Training Corp

Staff and students of Trinity College who were members of the army reserve. As soon as word reached Trinity on Easter Monday that the Rising was underway, the porters locked the front gate and fastened all the ground-floor windows of the college. At the start the OTC numbered only eight but they immediately opened fire on rebel positions on O'Connell Street. By late afternoon other members of the OTC and some off-duty soldiers had slipped into the grounds. The following day the growing garrison installed machine guns on the parapet and snipers on the roof. From these positions they poured fire on the rebels and severed communications between the GPO and the positions at St Stephen's Green. The action of the OTC was credited with preserving a swathe of the south inner city - Grafton Street, Nassau Street, College Green, Dame Street and Westmoreland Street and D'Olier Street - from destruction.