The Easter Rising

For many Bible-believing people around the world, Easter is a time to reflect on those pivotal points in our evangelical faith – the crucifixion and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. For Irish republicans, however, Easter has become a time to remember the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Irish Republican Army and celebrate all that they have done, with a particular ‘tip of the hat’ to the failed Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. There is an old republican saying that, “England’s extremity is Ireland’s opportunity.” This principle was fully exploited during the First World War when Britain was enduring the brutal push of the German Kaiser’s armies – and with Britain’s face turned towards the battlefields of France and Flanders, this gave Irish republicans the opportunity they wanted to treacherously stab Britain in the back (and, since tens of thousands of their fellow Irishmen were serving in the British army during WW1, to betray each of them too). On Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, around 150 Irish republicans stormed Dublin’s General Post Office. They replaced the British flag with the Irish tricolour and read aloud a declaration of independence. But these rebels submitted to the terms of an unconditional surrender only 5 days later, on Saturday, 29 April. By this stage, almost 500 people had been killed. About 54% were civilians, 30% were British military and police, and 16% were Irish rebels. More than 2,600 were wounded. Tracts of inner city Dublin were in ruins.

The Easter Rising was the outworking of an ideology that has polluted and poisoned the history of Ireland for many generations – and still infests the mindset today. • Between 1881 and 1885 the Irish Republican Brotherhood mounted a dynamite campaign, during which it planted bombs in railway stations and other public buildings in Great Britain. Quite a number of innocent people were injured, although the only people killed were three IRB members who died when their own bomb exploded prematurely. • This brand of “physical force republicanism” was revived in the early years of the C20th in the Easter rebellion of 1916. • And this same poisonous ideology continued through the Irish War of Independence, the Civil War, the collaboration with the Nazis in World War II, the sectarian attacks on small Protestant communities in the south and on the border ... and it emerged again in the IRA campaign that started in 1969. Today – and for the greater part of this year – ceremonies, marches and other displays have been held, and many of these are not merely commemorations of the illegitimate rebellion in Dublin at Easter 1916, but also a glorification of subsequent IRA campaigns. For example, last year, Gerry Kelly was the main speaker at Milltown Cemetery and he told the crowd: “I want to pay tribute to the bravery, leadership and commitment of the IRA in this generation. I can speak for many thousands of Irish republicans who came through the conflict when I say that we are proud of our time as volunteers in the Irish Republican Army.”

On this Easter Sunday we recognise and celebrate only one Easter Rising – that of our Lord Jesus Christ who rose a Victor, defeating the strength of the grave, frustrating the powers of men to keep Him in that tomb, and thrilling the hearts of His saints. This glorious resurrection is the receipt that the work of the Cross was approved and accepted by the Father, and is the injection that spurs on the church of Jesus Christ in this world.

As Dr. R.A. Torrey maintained: "The resurrection of Jesus is the Gibraltar of the Christian faith and the Waterloo of infidelity and rationalism."

Hallelujah! Christ arose!