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The most comprehensive records of the 1916 Easter Rising are available online in a fully searchable structured index for the first time at www.findmypast.com. "The Sinn Féin Rebellion Handbook" was published in the Irish Times in 1917.

“The Sinn Féin Rebellion Handbook is one of the most important documents of the time. Having such a momentous piece of Irish history,” said Cliona Weldon, Country Manager for Ireland at findmypast.com.

The 308-page handbook is made up of Irish Times articles relevant to the Rising as well as official lists, featuring the names of over 6,700 rebels, soldiers, prisoners, casualties, and government personnel, including photographs and maps, creating the most detailed observation of the events of the 1916 Rising.

It seems particularly relevant that this momentous publication should was launched soon after the loan of a tricolor flag flown during the rebellion to New York. The flag is one of only two which flew above the GPO on O’Connell Street, the rebel headquarters during the rising, and has been loaned to the American Irish Historical Society, while the other is in the National Museum of Ireland. The flag is set to be a focal point of the society’s commemorations of the Centenary of the Rising in 2016 and seems a fitting recognition of the 40 million people of Irish descent in the USA.

The 1916 Easter Rising, the most significant revolt since the 1798 Rebellion, began on Easter Monday April 24 1916. It was mainly a Dublin-based rebellion of Irish nationalists against British Rule in Ireland and was born from the British Government’s delays in the enactment of the Home Rule Bill, following the outbreak of World War I.

* Originally published in 2011.