TheWildGeese.irish Shop > Heroes of the Easter Rising
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" by Patrick Pearse
April 24, 1916: England was deep into the most savage war the world had ever seen. Millions had died already, millions more would die yet. Many of the fallen were Irishmen fighting for England. Meanwhile, the British were threatening conscription in Ireland, which was absolutely opposed by the vast majority of the country. Many Irish had grown impatient with the broken promises of Irish home rule within the United Kingdom. Others, the so-called men of action, were contemptuous of even home rule, seeing it as a gross betrayal of the principle of Irish sovereignty. They believed the time to strike for Irish freedom would never be better. And so they did. In the words of Yeats, "a terrible beauty is born."
Honor these men and women with one of our "Heroes of the Easter Rising" items below
