LITERATURE
      MUSIC
      LANGUAGE
      POLITICS
      ARMY
      NAVAL SERVICE
      AIR CORPS
      HISTORY

Patrick (or Padraig, if you are a Gaelic purist) Pearse was a brave man, but at the same time a man with a bad sense of timing. Pearse hoped to create an example to the Irish people of what freedom would be like with his own death, so metaphorically planned for Easter Monday, 1916. Pearse's rebellion was quickly crushed and the staging place, the Dublin General Post Office, was destroyed by artillery (see picture below). Pearse was later executed by the British for the Uprising. And just as Pearse hoped, from his political martyrdom, a new nation arose, free and independent, never again to shelter the despot or the slave.

"Life springs from death; and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations."

"AND I say to my people's masters: Beware, Beware of the thing that is coming, beware of the risen people, Who shall take what ye would not give. Did ye think to conquer the people, Or that Law is stronger than life and than men's desire to be free? We will try it out with you, ye that have harried and held, Ye that have bullied and bribed, ....... tyrants, hypocrites, liars!"
      From "The Rebel"

"You cannot conquer Ireland. You cannot extinguish the Irish passion for freedom."

But the fools, the fools, the fools!
They have left us our Fenian dead,
and while Ireland holds these graves,
Ireland unfree will never be at peace!
      Pearse's Last Words