Editing Easter Rising (section)

=== British atrocities ===
[[File:Grave of man killed in 1916 rising.jpg|thumb|Grave in [[Donaghcumper]], [[Celbridge]], of Peter Connolly, one of 15 civilians murdered in the North King Street Massacre.]]On Tuesday 25 April, Dubliner [[Francis Sheehy Skeffington]], a pacifist nationalist activist, was arrested and then taken as hostage and [[human shield]] by Captain John Bowen-Colthurst; that night Bowen-Colthurst shot dead a teenage boy.<ref name=":11">{{Cite journal |last=McKillen |first=Elizabeth |date=2018 |title=Reverse Currents: Irish Feminist and Nationalist Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and U.S. Anti-imperialism, 1916–24 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/41/article/711974 |journal=Éire-Ireland |volume=53 |issue=3 |pages=148–185 |doi=10.1353/eir.2018.0016 |s2cid=166010855 |issn=1550-5162}}</ref> Skeffington was executed the next day – alongside two journalists.<ref name=":11" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kildea |first=Jeff |date=2003 |title=Called to arms: Australian soldiers in the Easter Rising 1916 |url=https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/journal/j39/kildea |journal=Journal of the Australian War Memorial |issue=39}}</ref> Two hours later,  Bowen-Colthurst captured the [[Labour Party (Ireland)|Labour Party]] councillor and IRB lieutenant, [[Richard O'Carroll]] and had him shot in the street.<ref>Gerald Keatinge.  Some experiences of a Cadet during the Irish Rebellion of Easter Week, 1916. Unpublished. Quoted in Neil Richardson's ''According to their lights''. Collins Press, 2015. p.178.</ref> Major Sir [[Francis Vane]] raised concerns  over Bowen-Colthurst's actions and saw to him being court martialled. Bowen-Colthurst was found guilty but insane and was sentenced to an insane asylum. Owing to political pressure, an inquiry soon transpired, revealing the murders and their cover-up.<ref name=":11" /> The killing of Skeffington and others provoked outrage among citizens.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McKillen |first=Elizabeth |date=2022 |title=Mim Walsh and the Irish Revolution, 1916–1923 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/325/article/883456 |journal=Journal of Arizona History |volume=63 |issue=4 |pages=445–454 |issn=2689-3908}}</ref>

The other incident was the "North King Street Massacre". On the night of 28–29 April, British soldiers of the South Staffordshire Regiment, under Colonel Henry Taylor, had burst into houses on North King Street and killed fifteen male civilians whom they accused of being rebels. The soldiers shot or bayoneted the victims, and then secretly buried some of them in cellars or backyards after robbing them. The area saw some of the fiercest fighting of the Rising and the British had taken heavy casualties for little gain. Maxwell attempted to excuse the killings and argued that the rebels were ultimately responsible. He claimed that "the rebels wore no uniform" and that the people of North King Street were rebel sympathisers. Maxwell concluded that such incidents "are absolutely unavoidable in such a business as this" and that "under the circumstance the troops [...] behaved with the greatest restraint". A private brief, prepared for the Prime Minister, said the soldiers "had orders not to take any prisoners" but took it to mean they were to shoot any suspected rebel. The City Coroner's inquest found that soldiers had killed "unarmed and unoffending" residents. The military court of inquiry ruled that no specific soldiers could be held responsible, and no action was taken.<ref>{{harvp|McGarry|2010|p=187}}; {{harvp|Caulfield|1995|pp=338–340}}; {{harvp|Townshend|2006|pp=293–294}}</ref><ref>Coogan {{which|date=September 2016}}, pp. 152–155</ref><ref>Dorney, John. [http://www.theirishstory.com/2012/04/13/the-north-king-street-massacre-dublin-1916/#.Vvvn1jFMdZA "The North King Street Massacre, Dublin 1916"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328202956/http://www.theirishstory.com/2012/04/13/the-north-king-street-massacre-dublin-1916/#.Vvvn1jFMdZA |date=28 March 2016 }}. The Irish Story. 13 April 2012.</ref>