FRIDAYBY CIARA AND CLAIRE

1916 RISING

At the GPO, Pearse ordered the Cumann na mBan women out of the GPO for their safety, despite their protests.

James Stephens reported on the scene in the city centre. “This morning there are no newspapers, no bread, no milk, no news,” he wrote. “The sun in shining and the streets are lively but discreet. All people continue to talk to one another without distinction of class, but nobody knows what any person thinks,” he wrote.

The Morning

Stephens described dublin which had been destroyed. “From the roof there comes the sound of machine guns. Looking towards Sackville Street one picks out easily Nelson’s Pillar which towers over all the buildings. Another towering building was the DBC cafe (Dublin Bread Company). It was a landmark easy to be find, but today I could not find it. It was not there, and I knew that, even if all Sackville Street was not burned down, as rumour insisted, this great cafe had certainly been curtailed by its roof and might, perhaps, have been completely burned.”

Destruction134 feet

Leading the charge, The O’Rahilly was killed. He had been director of arms for the Irish Volunteers. Despite having travelled the country in the early part of the week to spread the message of MacNeill's countermand, since the Rising went ahead he had been fully immersed in the action.

“I helped wind this clock and I’ve come to hear it strike,” he told men from the Kimmage movement.

As he lay slumped, dying, he wrote a note to his wife. It said: “I got more than one bullet I think.” The note itself was pierced with a bullet. Then, on the doorway, in his own blood he wrote: “Here died The O’Rahilly. RIP.”

Michael Collins led the next group, who safely made it out — as did the leaders in the third group, eventually securing a base at No16 Moore Street although outnumbered, outgunned and surrounded.

The O’Rahilly