"Stylish, pacy, and lucid, this narrative places the Rising in its national and international contexts. In vivid photographs and keynote quotations, it illustrates just how and why revolutionary Ireland became a test case of modernity in a rapidly decolonizing world." —Declan Kiberd, Donald and Marilyn Keough Professor of Irish Studies and Professor of English and Irish Language and Literature, University of Notre Dame
"Crisply written, evocative, and, on occasion, poignant, this fine study by Bríona Nic Dhiarmada of Easter Week, 1916, in Ireland and beyond, is wonderfully complemented by a wide range of contemporary materials—poems, speeches, letters, and images—all of which add greatly to the immediacy of her prose and the impact of her narrative. Not to be missed." —Thomas Bartlett, professor emeritus of Irish history, University of Aberdeen
"Scholar, documentary writer and producer, and University of Notre Dame professor Nic Dhiarmada spent five years leading a team of researchers and creatives who spanned two continents to create this ambitious history of Ireland's Easter Rising to bring the full story forth on the 100th anniversary. . . . Rich in fascinating historical photographs and informative and poignant documents that capture each phase of the struggle and its inevitable and tragic outcome, this striking volume tells the complex tale of a singular chapter in the long war against colonialism in plain and ringing language." —Booklist
"One can plausibly argue that the Easter Rising shaped the history of 20th-century global revolution far more clearly than it shaped the future of Ireland, which has never been quite sure how to feel about the lessons of 1916. This comes through clearly in the Ken Burns-style public TV documentary “The 1916 Irish Rebellion” (and accompanying coffee-table book), supervised by Notre Dame Irish studies scholar Bríona Nic Dhiarmada, which offers an excellent starting point for newcomers." —Salon.com
"The companion volume to a Public Television documentary, The 1916 Irish Rebellion is profusely embellished with period photography. The result is an informed . . . and . . . well written history of one of the most significant political episodes in 20th century Irish history." —Midwest Book Review
"Nic Dhiarmada does an excellent job of gathering primary sources, visual and textual, that illustrate the build-up to as well as the events of Easter Week 1916. She goes well beyond the usual profiles of the leaders of the Rising and the stock photographs of the General Post Office. Her selection of textual sources is provocative of deeper reflection on the issues surrounding the Rising, not just the related military events." —Library Journal
"The 1916 Irish Rebellion recounts the week-long conflict with novel-like celerity, tracing tactical missteps to eventual rebel defeat and the summary executions of rebel leaders that followed. Witness statements, letters from rebel prisoners, and ballads and poems inspired by the uprising are interspersed throughout the book. An impressive array of photographs provides further visual context, showing what urban warfare looked like in early twentieth-century Dublin." —Foreword Reviews
"The 1916 Irish Rebellion is a 'Triumph.' Published by the University of Notre Dame Press on the centennial of the Rising, this book is a triumph of research, documentation, layout and a prose style that permits readers to assume 'You are there.' The author, Bríona Nic Dhiarmada, and her colleagues have earned both commendation and a wide readership. They invested themselves to produce a companion volume to the Public Television documentary on Ireland, 1916." —Irish Edition
“‘The book adds a bit of meat to the bones,’ [Nic Dhiarmada] says, with a slight chuckle. The book is filled with photographs, first-person accounts and more information that could be squeezed into the three hours of the documentary.” —The South Bend Tribune
“This lavishly illustrated book accompanies a television series of the same name is directed primarily at an American readership . . . a comprehensive account of the 1916 Rising.” —Books Ireland