Page "Easter Rising" Paragraph 6

The Irish Republican Brotherhood ( IRB ) saw an opportunity to create an armed organisation to advance its own ends, and on 25 November 1913 the Irish Volunteers, whose stated object was " to secure and to maintain the rights and liberties common to all the people of Ireland ", was formed.

Its leader was Eoin MacNeill, who was not an IRB member.

A Provisional Committee was formed that included people with a wide range of political views, and the Volunteers ' ranks were open to " all able-bodied Irishmen without distinction of creed, politics or social group.

" Another militant group, the Irish Citizen Army, was formed by trade unionists as a result of the Dublin Lockout of that year.

However, the increasing militarisation of Irish politics was overshadowed soon after by the outbreak of a larger conflict — the First World War — and Ireland's involvement in the conflict.