05: The Week of the Rising

A series of eight programmes recalling the events day by day of the Easter Rising 1916, told by the men and women who took part.

Using interviews with those who had participated in the Easter Rising, the radio series 'The Week of the Rising' chronicled the events of 8 days in April 1916. It was one of many programmes produced by RTÉ to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising. Broadcast over eight consecutive nights, each episode of 'The Week of the Rising' gives an account of the events of each day beginning with Easter Sunday and Eoin MacNeill's countermanding order right through to the surrender on Sunday 30 April.

As presenter Proinsias Mac Aonghusa said, the series,

Is not a definitive history of the Rising. We make no judgements, we do not claim to tell the full story. We present for a new generation the story of what happened as the men and women made history that Easter Week describe it themselves.

The interviews of at least twenty-five veterans were used in the production of this series including Nora Connolly, Simon Donnelly, Paddy Buttner, Emily Hanratty, Michael Hayes, Cormac Turner, John O'Connor and Margaret Skinnider to name a few. 

'The Week of the Rising' was presented by Proinsias Mac Aonghusa and was broadcast from 10 April until 17 April 1966.

The accompanying photograph depicts the sixteen leaders who were executed in May and August 1916. Courtesy of the Cashman Collection, RTÉ Archives.