About the Entry

The primary source is the centerpiece and main focus of each entry in Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources. In keeping with the philosophy that much of the benefit from using primary sources derives from the reader's own process of inquiry, the contextual material surrounding each entry provides access and ease of use, as well as giving the reader a springboard for delving into the primary source. Rubrics identify each section and enable the reader to navigate entries with ease.

ENTRY STRUCTURE

  • Primary Source/Entry Title, Subtitle, Primary Source Type
  • Key Facts—essential information about the primary source, including creator, date, source citation, and notes about the creator.
  • Introduction—historical background and contributing factors for the primary source.
  • Primary Source—in text, text facsimile, or image format; full or excerpted.
  • Significance—importance and impact of the primary source related events.
  • Further Resources—books, periodicals, websites, and audio and visual material.

NAVIGATING AN ENTRY

Entry elements are numbered and reproduced here, with an explanation of the data contained in these elements explained immediately thereafter according to the corresponding numeral.

Primary Source/Entry Title, Subtitle, Primary Source Type

[1] "Easter, 1916"

[2] Militants in the Irish Sinn Fein Party Form the Irish Republican Army (IRA)

[3] Poem

[1] Primary Source/Entry Title: The entry title is usually the primary source title. In some cases where long titles must be shortened, or more generalized topic titles are needed for clarity primary source titles are generally depicted as subtitles. Entry titles appear as catchwords at the top outer margin of each page.

[2] Subtitle: Some entries contain subtitles.

[3] Primary Source Type: The type of primary source is listed just below the title. When assigning source types, great weight was given to how the author of the primary source categorized the source.

Key Facts

[4] By: William Butler Yeats

[5] Date: September 25, 1916

[6] Source: "Easter, 1916," a poem by William Butler Yeats

[7] About the Poet: William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) was one of the twentieth century's most acclaimed English-language poets. Born in Dublin, Ireland, themes of Irish rebellion and independence from England often featured prominently in his poetry.

[4] Author, Artist, or Organization: The name of the author, artist, or organization responsible for the creation of the primary source begins the Key Facts section.

[5] Date of Origin: The date of origin of the primary source appears in this field, and may differ from the date of publication in the source citation below it; for example, speeches are often delivered before they are published.

[6] Source Citation: The source citation is a full bibliographic citation, giving original publication data as well as reprint and/or online availability.

[7] About the Author: A brief bio of the author or originator of the primary source gives birth and death dates and a quick overview of the person's work. This rubric has been customized in some cases. If the primary source written document, the term "author" appears; however, if the primary source is a work of art, the term "artist" is used, showing the person's direct relationship to the primary source. For primary sources created by a group, "organization" may have been used instead of "author." Other terms may also be used to describe the creator or originator of the primary source. If an author is anonymous or unknown, a brief "About the Publication" sketch may appear.

Introduction Essay

[8] INTRODUCTION

On Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, as Padraig Pearse (Commander in Chief of Republican forces) read a "Proclamation of the Republic" declaring Ireland a nation separate from England, from the steps of Dublin's General Post Office, the silence of the surrounding crowd reflected the uncertainty of many Irish people. Such nationalist speeches of independence from Great Britain were not unfamiliar to Irish citizens. It would take action on behalf of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), the forerunner of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), and its political party Sinn Fein to convince the Irish people that freedom from the 750-year domination by the British was actually within their grasp.

The Proclamation's call for action was planned as the British were committing their troops to fight in Germany during World War I (1915–1918). Angered that the British were enlisting Irish men to fight in the war fueled a decision to rise up against the British. The IRB Military Council that was formed the previous year acted on the philosophy that "England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity." The council included seven members: Padraig Pearse (1879–1916), James Conolly (1868–1916), Joseph Mary Plunkett (1887–1916), Thomas MacDonagh (1878–1916), Eamonn Ceannt (1881–1916), Thomas J. Clarke (1857–1916), and Sean MacDermott (1884–1916), all of whom were revolutionaries who signed the Proclamation . . .

[8] Introduction: The introduction is a brief essay on the contributing factors and historical context of the primary source. Intended to promote understanding and equip the reader with essential facts to understand the context of the primary source.

To maintain ease of reference to the primary source, spellings of names and places are used in accord with their use in the primary source. According names and places may have different spellings in different articles. Whenever possible, alternative spellings are provided to provide clarity.

To the greatest extent possible we have attempted to use Arabic names instead of their Latinized versions. Where required for clarity we have included Latinized names in parentheses after the Arabic version. Alas, we could not retain some diacritical marks (e.g. bars over vowels, dots under consonants). Because there is no generally accepted rule or consensus regarding the format of translated Arabic names, we have adopted the straightforward, and we hope sensitive, policy of using names as they are used or cited in their region of origin.

Primary Source

[9] PRIMARY SOURCE

Easter, 1916
I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
That woman's days were spent
In ignorant good-will,

Her nights in argument
Until her voice grew shrill.
What voice more sweet than hers
When, young and beautiful,
She rode to harriers?
This man had kept a school
And rode our winged horse;
This other his helper and friend
Was coming into his force;
He might have won fame in the end,
So sensitive his nature seemed,
So daring and sweet his thought.
This other man I had dreamed
A drunken, vainglorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
Hearts with one purpose alone
Through summer and winter seem
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.
The horse that comes from the road.
The rider, the birds that range
From cloud to tumbling cloud,
Minute by minute they change;
A shadow of cloud on the stream
Changes minute
by minute; A horse-hoof slides on the brim,
And a horse plashes within it;
The long-legged moor-hens dive,
And hens to moor-cocks call;
Minute by minute they live:
The stone's in the midst of all.
Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven's part,
our part To murmur name
upon name, As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?
For England may keep faith
For all that is done and said.
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse-
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

[9] Primary Source: The majority of primary sources are reproduced as plain text. The primary source may appear excerpted or in full, and may appear as text, text facsimile (photographic reproduction of the original text), image, or graphic display (such as a table, chart, or graph).

The font and leading of the primary sources are distinct from that of the context—to provide a visual clue to the change, as well as to facilitate ease of reading. As needed, the original formatting of the text is preserved in order to more accurately represent the original (screenplays, for example). In order to respect the integrity of the primary sources, content some readers may consider sensitive (for example, the use of slang, ethnic or racial slurs, etc.) is retained when deemed to be integral to understanding the source and the context of its creation.

Primary source images (whether photographs, text facsimiles, or graphic displays) are bordered with a distinctive double rule. Most images have brief captions.

The term "narrative break" appears where there is a significant amount of elided (omitted) material with the text provided (for example, excerpts from a work's first and fifth chapters, selections from a journal article abstract and summary, or dialogue from two acts of a play).

Significance Essay

[10] SIGNIFICANCE

William Butler Yeats' description "A terrible beauty is born" illustrates the violence of Ireland's fight for independence as well as the "beauty" of the prospect of independence from Great Britain. "Easter 1916" captures the monumental change in the Irish collaboration towards home rule for what is now the Republic of Ireland.

Fifteen of the Uprising participants were sentenced to death by firing squad, and the harsh sentences roused the Irish people. Connolly was taken from his deathbed to be strapped in a chair and shot, fueling anti-British sentiment throughout the streets of Dublin and echoing throughout Ireland. The Sinn Fein ("we ourselves") Party that had no seats in Britain's parliament in 1910 would hold 70% of the seats allotted to Ireland in the British Parliament after the elections of 1918 . . .

[10] Significance: The significance discusses the importance and impact of the primary source and the event it describes.

Further Resources

[11] FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Yeats, William Butler. Easter, 1916 and Other Poems. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 1997.

Web sites

About.com. "History of Terrorism in Ireland." <http://terrorism.about.com/od/historyofterrorism/a/ireland.htm> (accessed July 16, 2005).

Ireland's Own.net. "Irish History: Easter 1916." <http://irelandsown.net/easterrising.html> (accessed July 16, 2005).

Political Information Net. "Sinn Féin." <http://www.politicalinformation.net/encyclopedia/Sinn_Fein.htm> (accessed July 16, 2005).

Roots Web. "Easter Rising 1916." <http://www.rootsweb.com/~fianna/history/east1916.html> (accessed July 16, 2005).

Wellington College Belfast GCSE History. "Irish Political Developments From 1916–1972." <http://websites.ntl.com/~wellclge/depts/history/module1/ni20_72.htm> (accessed July 16, 2005).

[11] Further Resources: A brief list of resources categorized as Books, Periodicals, Web sites, and Audio and Visual Media provides a stepping stone to further study.

SECONDARY SOURCE CITATION FORMATS (HOW TO CITE ARTICLES AND SOURCES)

Alternative forms of citations exist and examples of how to cite articles from this book are provided below:

APA Style

Books:

Creelman, James. (1901). On the Great Highway: The Wanderings and Adventures of a Special Correspondent, Boston: Lothrup. Excerpted in K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, eds. (2006) Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources, Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 75.

Periodicals:

Ember, Lois R. (1996, November 4). FBI Takes Lead in Developing Counterterrorism Effort. Chemical & Engineering News, vol. 74, no. 27. Excerpted in K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, eds. (2006) Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources, Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 75.

Web sites:

U.S. Department of State. (2002, June 27) The G-8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction. Retrieved July, 10, 2005, from http://www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/othr/11514.htm. Excerpted in K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, eds. (2006) Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources, Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 75.

Chicago Style

Books:

Creelman, James. On the Great Highway: The Wanderings and Adventures of a Special Correspondent. Boston: Lothrup,1901. Excerpted in K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, eds., Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources, Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2006, 75.

Periodicals:

Ember, Lois R., "FBI Takes Lead in Developing Counterterrorism Effort." Chemical & Engineering News, November 4, 1996, vol. 74, no. 27. Excerpted in K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, eds., Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources, Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2006, 75.

Web sites:

U.S. Department of State. "The G-8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction" June 27, 2002. <http://www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/othr/11514.htm> (accessed July 10, 2005). Excerpted in K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, eds., Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources, Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2006, 75.

MLA Style

Books:

Creelman, James. On the Great Highway: The Wanderings and Adventures of a Special Correspondent, Boston: Lothrup, 1901. Excerpted in K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, eds., Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources, Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2006, 75.

Periodicals:

Ember, Lois R. "FBI Takes Lead in Developing Counterterrorism Effort." Chemical & Engineering News, 4 November 1996, vol. 74 no. 27. Excerpted in K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, eds., Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources, Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2006, 75.

Web sites:

"The G-8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction." U.S. Department of State. 4 November 1996. 5 July 2005 <http://www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/othr/11514.htm>. Excerpted in K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, eds., Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources, Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2006, 75.

Turabian Style

Books:

Creelman, James. On the Great Highway: The Wanderings and Adventures of a Special Correspondent. Boston: Lothrup,1901. Excerpted in K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, eds., Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources (Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2006), 75.

Periodicals:

Ember, Lois R. "FBI Takes Lead in Developing Counterterrorism Effort." Chemical & Engineering News, 4 November 1996, vol.74, no. 27. Excerpted in K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, eds., Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources (Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2006), 75.

Web sites:

U.S. Department of State. "The G-8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction" available from http://www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/othr/11514.htm; accessed 10 July, 2005. Excerpted in K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, eds., Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources (Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2006), 75.