Author Description

Ireland’s Easter Rising of 1916 is one of the handful of modern historical events that instantly created its own mythology and changed millions of lives forever. Charles Townshend's remarkable new book vividly re-creates this extraordinary time when, as Irish insurgents rose up and occupied Dublin, as British artillery retaliated ferociously and flattened the city center, as the last haggard rebels surrendered and their leaders were shot, a powerful narrative was born and Ireland was launched into a new world. Scraping away layer upon layer of myth, Easter 1916 reveals an Ireland polarized, confused, and fearful, hovering on the brink of war between Nationalists and Unionists, and presenting Britain with a seemingly insoluble problem. With the world’s attention on the First World War, a group of exceptional Irish men and women—from the eloquent intellectual Patrick Pearse to the revolutionary socialist James Connolly—decided to take the actions that turned a peaceful provincial city into a bloody battleground and then into a national capital. The repercussions of these events we still feel today. With 8 pages of black-and-white photographs.