Page "Easter Rising" Paragraph 10

The Supreme Council of the IRB met on 5 September 1914, a month after the British government had declared war on Germany.

At this meeting, they decided to stage a rising before the war ended and to accept whatever help Germany might offer.

Responsibility for the planning of the rising was given to Tom Clarke and Seán MacDermott.

The Irish Volunteers — the smaller of the two forces resulting from the September 1914 split over support for the British war effort — set up a " headquarters staff " that included Patrick Pearse as Director of Military Organisation, Joseph Plunkett as Director of Military Operations and Thomas MacDonagh as Director of Training.

Éamonn Ceannt was later added as Director of Communications.

In May 1915, Clarke and MacDermott established a Military Committee within the IRB, consisting of Pearse, Plunkett and Ceannt, to draw up plans for a rising.

This dual rôle allowed the Committee, to which Clarke and MacDermott added themselves shortly afterward, to promote their own policies and personnel independently of both the Volunteer Executive and the IRB Executive — in particular Volunteer Chief of Staff Eoin MacNeill, who supported a rising only on condition of an increase in popular support following unpopular moves by the London government, such as the introduction of conscription or an attempt to suppress the Volunteers or its leaders, and IRB President Denis McCullough, who held similar views.

IRB members held officer rank in the Volunteers throughout the country and would take their orders from the Military Committee, not from MacNeill.