The 1916 Rising was the first major revolt against British rule in Ireland since the United Irishmen Rebellion of 1798. Though some see it as an unmandated, bloody act by unrepresentative secret conspirators, for many it was the founding act of a democratic Irish state.
Though the rebels surrendered and 16 of their leaders were executed, the 1916 Rising had a huge effect.
It became the first stage in a war of independence that resulted in the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922 and, ultimately, the formal declaration of an Irish Republic in 1949.

Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor of Modern History, University College Dublin