One year on

IRISHMEN and Irishwomen: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom.

Having organised and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organisation... she strikes in full confidence of victory."

It was a late year for Easter, a major war going on in Europe but a relatively quiet time in dear old Dublin when, out of left field, that peace was shattered. A band of revolutionaries took over the GPO and Padraig Pearse, their leader, hollered to the bemused bystanders. It was a day that would go down in history, those lines just the opening paragraph of a Proclamation of Independence rich in idealistic rhetoric. At the bottom of the document, seven names "signed on behalf of the provisional government, Thomas J Clarke, Sean MacDiarmada, Thomas McDonagh, PH Pearse, Eamonn Ceannt, James Connolly, Joseph Plunkett."