Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents a narrative, descriptive and analytical history of the making and remembrance of the story of 1916, with each going far and wide in time and space in order to address a miscellany of thematic issues. The book presents an updated history of the Rising, by taking account of various new histories and by utilising previously-neglected source materials. It also assesses both the immediate and long-term implications of the 1916 Rising. Initial reaction on the streets of Dublin and in the press proved to be extremely hostile to the rebels. The book also offers a geographical account of the commemorations that were held throughout the Republic's regions, the Border counties, Northern Ireland, England, and the United States of America. It investigates the repercussions of the outbreak of the Northern Ireland Troubles in the late 1960s for subsequent commemorations of the Rising.