In April 1916, during Easter Week, hardline Irish Nationalists (Republicans) took over the centre of Dublin. They took the British forces completely by surprise. It took a week of fighting to get them to surrender. The centre of the city was wrecked and many civilians were killed or injured in the fighting.
Opinion about this Rising was deeply divided. Many British people felt it was a betrayal because at the time Britain was fighting against Germany. However, many Irish Nationalists felt the British were using the war as an excuse not to give Ireland Home Rule. They felt the Rising was justified.
Motion pictures were in their infancy at the time. The British government sent a cameraman to Dublin to record the damage on 6th May 1916. The film was sponsored by the War Office and produced in Britain. That grainy "silent movie" has now been converted to a video that you can watch on your computer. The conversion was done by The National Archives (of Great Britain).
If your ancestors lived in Dublin, this film will give you a glimpse of their lives and what they saw. The wartime ruins are the focus of the film but you can see the city in the background.
You can watch the video and read more about it at The National Archives' web site at http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/focuson/film/film-archive/player.asp?catID=2&subCatID=4&filmID=2#top%20idtop?WT.ac=hp-fof.
