July 2009

Headquarters of the 1916 Rising, Dublin's General Post Office is the most famous building in Ireland. This book tells the story of the events in and around the GPO in Easter Week, using participant and eyewitness accounts, diaries and newspaper reports. Taken over by the Irish Volunteers on Easter Monday 1916 and held for nearly a week, the rebels finally surrendered the GPO to the Crown forces after heavy gun bombardment, and the ensuing conflagration reduced it to an empty shell and destroyed much of the centre of the city. Clair Wills' fascinating book also explores the twists and turns that the myth of the GPO has undergone in the last century. It has stood for sacrifice and treachery, national unity and divisive violence, for the future and the past.