have been helpful, they included five thousand Mauser rifles and a million rounds of ammunition. The Easter Rising doomed most of Irelands leadership because all the leaders knew it would fail because of poorly armed but well-trained Irish forces. England was a world power and the Irish knew they were no match for artillery or tanks. It was sure to fail as a military coup but succeed only as an ideal. Everything went as planned because the revolt lasted only a few days. On Easter 1916, 1600 Volunteers and Citizens' Army people turned out in Dublin, which held all military activity--there were no actions taken elsewhere. The Irish Republic was declared as forces led by Padraic Pearse seized the General Post Office in Dublin. De Valera was in charge of defending the approach to Dublin from Kingstown at Westland Row railway station, which is where the Black and Tans had their barracks and approach by the British was anticipated . He placed what few men he had along this route and set up his headquarters in Boland's flour mill. De Valera's natural leadership and commanding presence enabled him to maintain order and present a defensive front with under one hundred poorly trained, poorly armed, though enthusiastic soldiers. Pearse was forced to surrender on Saturday, and Sunday De Valera marched his men out to lay down their arms. The leaders of the Easter Rising, who had signed the Republican Proclamation and those who had led units during the fighting were all put to death for treason. Ironically, De Valera was saved because technically he was a United States citizen, therefore he could not be executed for treason. England was not eager to anger the US because they had US support in World War I and a few Americans involved in the rebellion were either imprisoned or shipped off. His sentence was made life imprisonment rather than capital punishment. People hissed the captured rebels in Dublin, but the British, by executing ...
