Editing Easter Rising (section)

== Background ==
[[File:Irish Citizen Army Group Liberty Hall Dublin 1914.jpg|thumb|Members of the Irish Citizen Army outside [[Liberty Hall]], under the slogan "We serve neither [[George V|King]] nor [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Kaiser]], but Ireland"]]

The [[Acts of Union 1800]] united the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]] and the [[Kingdom of Ireland]] as the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]], abolishing the [[Parliament of Ireland|Irish Parliament]] and giving Ireland representation in the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|British Parliament]]. From early on, many [[Irish nationalism|Irish nationalists]] opposed the union and the continued lack of adequate political representation, along with the British government's handling of Ireland and Irish people, particularly the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]].{{sfn|MacDonagh|1977|pp=14–17}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Behrendt |first1=Stephen C. |title=British Women Poets and the Romantic Writing Community |date=2010 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |isbn=978-0801895081 |pages=244–5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Zxrkbg2hQAC&pg=PA244 |access-date=23 August 2016 |archive-date=21 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221143420/https://books.google.com/books?id=0Zxrkbg2hQAC&pg=PA244 |url-status=live |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> The union was closely preceded by and formed partly in response to an [[Irish Rebellion of 1798|Irish uprising]] – whose centenary would prove an influence on the Easter Rising.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |title=Secular Martyrdom in Britain and Ireland |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |year=2018 |isbn=978-3-319-62904-9 |editor-last=Outram |editor-first=Quentin |pages=165–194 |editor-last2=Laybourn |editor-first2=Keith}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Collins |first=Peter |date=1999 |title=The Contest of Memory: The Continuing Impact of 1798 Commemoration |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/41/article/666936 |journal=Éire-Ireland |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=28–50 |doi=10.1353/eir.1999.0002 |s2cid=149277904 |issn=1550-5162}}</ref> Three more rebellions ensued: one in [[Irish rebellion of 1803|1803]], another in [[Young Ireland rebellion|1848]] and one in [[Fenian Rising|1867]].  All were failures.<ref name=":5" />

Opposition took other forms: constitutional (the [[Repeal Association]]; the [[Home Rule League]]) and social ([[Irish Church Act 1869|disestablishment of the Church of Ireland]]; the [[Irish National Land League|Land League]]).<ref>[[Mansergh, Nicholas]], ''The Irish Question 1840–1921'', George Allen & Unwin, 1978, {{ISBN|0-04-901022-0}} p. 244</ref> The [[Irish Home Rule movement]] sought to achieve self-government for Ireland, within the United Kingdom. In 1886, the [[Irish Parliamentary Party]] under [[Charles Stewart Parnell]] succeeded in having the [[Irish Government Bill 1886|First Home Rule Bill]] introduced in the British parliament, but it was defeated. The [[Irish Government Bill 1893|Second Home Rule Bill]] of 1893 was passed by the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] but rejected by the [[House of Lords]].

After the death of Parnell, younger and more radical nationalists became disillusioned with parliamentary politics and turned toward more extreme forms of separatism. The [[Gaelic Athletic Association]], the [[Conradh na Gaeilge|Gaelic League]], and the [[Gaelic revival|cultural revival]] under [[W. B. Yeats]] and [[Augusta, Lady Gregory]], together with the new political thinking of [[Arthur Griffith]] expressed in his newspaper ''[[Sinn Féin Printing & Publishing Company|Sinn Féin]]'' and organisations such as the National Council and the Sinn Féin League, led many Irish people to identify with the idea of an independent [[Gaels|Gaelic]] Ireland.{{sfn|MacDonagh|1977|pp=72–74}}{{sfn|Feeney|2002|p=22}}{{efn|This was sometimes referred to by the generic term ''Sinn Féin'',{{sfn|Feeney|2002|p=37}} with the British authorities using it as a [[collective noun]] for republicans and advanced nationalists.{{Sfn|O'Leary|2019|p=320}}}}

The [[Government of Ireland Act 1914|Third Home Rule Bill]] was introduced by British Liberal Prime Minister [[H. H. Asquith]] in 1912. [[Unionism in Ireland|Irish Unionists]], who were overwhelmingly Protestants, opposed it, as they did not want to be ruled by a Catholic-dominated Irish government. Led by [[Edward Carson|Sir Edward Carson]] and [[James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon|James Craig]], they formed the [[Ulster Volunteers]] (UVF) in January 1913.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nli.ie/1916/exhibition/en/content/stagesetters/index.pdf |title=Those who set the stage |work=The 1916 Rising: Personalities and Perspectives |publisher=[[National Library of Ireland]] |access-date=7 December 2009 |archive-date=29 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180729042513/http://www.nli.ie/1916/exhibition/en/content/stagesetters/index.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> The UVF's opposition included arming themselves, in the event that they had to resist by force.<ref name=":5" />

Seeking to defend Home Rule, the [[Irish Volunteers]] was formed in November 1913. Although sporting broadly open membership and without avowed support for separatism, the executive branch of the Irish Volunteers – excluding [[Eoin MacNeill|leadership]] –  was dominated by the [[Irish Republican Brotherhood]] (IRB) who rose to prominence via the organisation, having had restarted recruitment in 1909.<ref name=":5" /><ref>Macardle (1951), pp. 90–92</ref><ref>Foy and Barton, pp. 7–8</ref><ref name=":0" /> These members feared that Home Rule's enactment would result in a broad, seemingly perpetual, contentment with the British Empire.{{Sfn|Grayson|2018|p=115}} Another militant group, the [[Irish Citizen Army]], was formed by trade unionists as a result of the [[Dublin Lock-out]] of that year.{{sfn|Townshend|2006|p=49}} The issue of Home Rule, appeared to some, as the basis of an "imminent civil war".<ref name=":5" />

Although the Third Home Rule Bill was eventually enacted, the outbreak of the [[First World War]] resulted in its implementation being postponed for the war's duration.{{sfn|Hennessey|1998|p=76}} It was widely believed at the time that the war would not last more than a few months.{{sfn|Jackson|2003|p=164}} The Irish Volunteers split. The vast majority – thereafter known as the [[National Volunteers]] – enlisted in the British Army. The minority that objected – retaining the name –  did so in accordance with separatist principles, official policy thus becoming "the abolition of the system of governing Ireland through [[Dublin Castle]] and the British military power and the establishment of a National Government in its place"; the Volunteers believed that "England's difficulty" was "Ireland's opportunity".<ref name=":5" />{{Sfn|Maguire|2013|p=31}}