In different circumstances the rebels might have been treated more mercifully, but Britain was at war, and the army and police had suffered geater casualties than Pearse's men. Ireland was still under martial law, and Maxwell was at liberty to inflict retribution. On 3 May, just four days after the surrender, a terse announcement was made that Pearse and two other signatories of the republican proclamation had been tried by court martial and shot. By 12 May the total of executions had reached fifteen, including Connolly and the three other signatories. Another seventy-five rebels had the death penalty commuted to penal servitude, including Countess Constance Markievicz, who would later become the first woman elected to the Westminster parliament.

In halting the executions, the government was responding to a wave of public revulsion, but the damage had been done. Ireland had a new gallery of martyrs, and earlier apathy or even hostility towards republicanism was replaced by sympathy for the independence cause. Of some 3 ,400 arrested following the surrender, more than half were imprisoned or interned in England, where they plotted a new onslaught on British rule.

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From the Appletree Press title: A Little History of Ireland, click here for more information or here to buy the book from Amazon. Also from Appletree: A Short History of Ireland, available from Amazon.com. Click here for more information.