This film is part of Free
Sinn Fein Rebels
In the wake of the defeated Easter Rising in Dublin, the British Army parades its Republican prisoners.
Overview
There's more than a hint of triumphalism - and even humiliation - to this display of Republican prisoners in the aftermath of 1916's defeated Easter Rebellion. Topical Budget, like all the newsreels of the time, cleaved to the government line and assumed its audience did likewise. The downbeat parade - probably from a variety of Republican groups, not just Sinn Fein - were on their way to internment camps in England and Wales. The final shot appears to show Tom Clarke, one of the masterminds of the rebellion, one of 14 leaders executed between 3 and 12 May.
In the days after the Republican surrender of 29 April, General John Maxwell ordered the arrest of "all dangerous Sinn Feiners" - even though the Rebellion was in fact the work of two other Republican bodies, the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Irish Volunteers. There was certainly overlap in the memberships of these groups, but many of the prisoners paraded here may have taken no part in the rebellion.
