is troops on the bridges in his area. His headquarters was spared from heavy infantry attack; instead, damages were sustained from ground troops, sniper fire and relatively light shelling. Two occurrences during the Easter Rising served to further De Valera's reputations: the defense of Mount Street Bridge and the use of a high tower neighboring his command post. The first heroic act, Malone's effort to hinder the British troops push towards Trinity College, resulted in half the British casualties incurred during the rebellion. In the second military maneuver, "de Valera ordered a party to climb the tower and send out bogus semaphore signals as if it were a command post" and "he also caused a green flag to be flown from the top of the tower". De Valera's soldierly acumen resulted in a massive British concentration of artillery fire on the de Valera's diversion. De Valera's post was the most isolated, which meant he was the last to receive Pearse's order of surrender. This gave De Valera the distinction of being the last commander to surrender his post at the conclusion of the Rising on Sunday, 30th of April. Some attribute de Valera's escape from execution to this fact, while others argue the pardon resulted from his American birth, the later the far more plausible explanation. While objectively the Easter Rising represented a defeat for the rebellion, it was a crucial move towards a free Irish republic. De Valera and the other revolutionaries drew the world's attention to England's brutal tyranny over their homeland and forced Parliament to recognize Ireland's discontent with Parliament's consider a broader Irish reign. The major victory of the Insurrection resulted from Britain's appalling executions of the Uprising's leaders, which generated a great sense of nationalism that swept the Irish countryside. The Easter Rebellion symbolized Ireland's increasing fortitude in the quest for emancipation. Eamon De Valera's second ...
