Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The Easter Rising in Dublin against British rule was the work of the secret Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), a clandestine organization dedicated to achieving an Irish republic by physical force. . . . The rising had been planned since the outbreak of the Great War, with promised support from Britain's enemy, Germany. . . . On April 24, some 1250 rebels rose in Dublin, seizing the general post office as their headquarters and occupying other commanding strong points. IRB leader Padraig Pearse read a proclamation of Irish independence. . . . The executions fueled a wave of public sympathy for the previously widely despised rebels, and by the 1918 postwar election, surviving Easter veterans returning from British internment, including Eamonn De Valera and Michael Collins, were voted into power and formed their own Parliament, the Dail Eireann, beginning the final campaign to win independence." [Furtado: 1001 Days]