Easter Rising "Ireland unfree shall never be at peace". In early April, Pearse issued orders to the Irish Volunteers for three days of "parades and manoeuvres" beginning on Easter Sunday. He had the authority to do this, as the Volunteers' Director of Organisation. The idea was that IRB members within the organisation would know these were orders to begin the rising, while men such as MacNeill and the British authorities would take it at face value. On 9 April, the German Navy dispatched a ship for County Kerry. Disguised as a Norwegian ship called the "Aud", it was loaded with 20,000 rifles,
First Day of the Easter Rising First Day of the Easter Rising The first day of the Easter Rising, Monday, April 24, 1916, saw some 1,200 volunteer soldiers of the Irish Volunteers take over positions in the centre of Dublin, launching the week-long revolution known as the Easter Rising. The Volunteers' Dublin division was organized into four battalions. As a result of Eoin MacNeill's countermanding order all of them saw a far smaller turnout than originally planned. The 1st battalion under Commandant Ned Daly mustered at Blackhall Street, numbering about 250 men. They were to occupy the Four Courts and areas to the northwest to guard