Defending Trinity College Dublin, Easter 1916 Anzacs and the Rising

Little has been written on Trinity College’s role in Easter Week 1916 as a ‘loyal nucleus’ dividing the insurgents and providing an effective counterweight to rebel headquarters in the GPO. This book reveals how five New Zealanders, acting as the core of a small squad of colonial troops, provided a vital shield to protect Trinity from capture. Had the College fallen to the surprise attack launched on it by the rebels at midnight on Easter Monday, its 324th year may well have been its last. Letters written home by the New Zealanders give fresh insight into important aspects of the insurrection and allow us to test some controversial claims against both Trinity’s own record and the various rebel accounts. More importantly, they help to answer questions left unasked in previous studies.

Dr Rory Sweetman holds history degrees from Trinity College Dublin and Cambridge University. He is the author of Bishop in the Dock (Dublin, 2007), which won the Sir Keith Sinclair Prize for History.