Abstract

The most significant consequence of the 1916 Rising was the transformation of public feeling occasioned by fifteen executions and the crude application of internment and martial law. As the Rising was doomed to military failure, its leaders knew that they would face the supreme penalty. The last letters of Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh and Thomas Clarke offer a compelling lens through which to view the men’s patriotic convictions and moving personal concerns. But each document was also a final act of political defiance with the aim of altering the political consciousness of Ireland and legitimize the Rising.