At ten minutes past midday on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, thirty members of James Connolly's Irish Citizen Army launched a raid on Dublin Castle--the citadel of British rule in Ireland. Although what happened next has become an integral touchstone of Irish independence, as well as the subject of many political, military, diplomatic, and local studies, no source has described the events of the Easter Rising as seen through the eyes of those who lived through it--until now. Based on a recently un-archived trove of over 1,700 eye-witness statements, The Rising tells the story of this seminal event from within and below. In crisp, unflinching detail, it draws upon the personal experiences of the men and women who emerge from the margins of history to convey what the nascent Irish revolution actually felt like. As it chronicles the activities of members of Sinn F�in, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, Cumann na mBan, and the Irish Volunteers, this compelling volume addresses a range of key questions that continue to divide the historians of modern Ireland: What led people from ordinary backgrounds to fight for Irish freedom? What did they think they could achieve given the superior forces arrayed against them? What kind of republic were they willing to kill and die for? For the first time, author Fearghal McGarry deftly interweaves the oral history of the rank-and-file revolutionaries of the Rising into a comprehensive, yet powerfully affecting narrative--one that uncovers the rebels' motives and aspirations while highlighting the importance of the Great War as a catalyst for the uprising. McGarry concludes with a thought-provoking exploration of the Rising's revolutionary aftermath, which saw the creation of an Irish parliament, D�il �ireann, and the Irish Republican Army's armed campaign to win independence.