by Michealín Ní Dhochartaigh

Just before noon on Easter Monday, April 24th, a group of 150 men strode out of Liberty Hall in Dublin, then marched toward Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street) a few hundred yards away. About one fourth of the marchers wore the dark-green uniform of the Irish Citizen Army, others wore the grey-green of the Irish Volunteers. Still others — perhaps most of them — wore no uniform. Armed with an odd mixture of rifles, shotguns, and handguns, they moved in step, heading straight for the General Post Office (GPO).