Despite the huge setback the Council leaders decided to carry on. The Rising was now given the 'go-ahead' for the next day - Easter Monday, but could only feasibly (due to the lack of weapons) take place in Dublin. Smaller Risings were still scheduled for Galway and Wexford, however. Pearse ordered the troops for action at noon.
Headquarters was the General Post Office (G.P.O.) in the center of Dublin, which Pearse, Connolly and their men held. Commandant Edward Daly held the Four Courts, the Mendicity Institute and various central Dublin streets; Commandant Thomas MacDonagh was stationed at Jacob's biscuit factory; Commandant Eamonn de Valera held Boland's Flour Mill and various streets; Commandant Eamonn Ceantt was stationed at the South Dublin Union and Marrowbone Distillery and, the only woman, Countess Markievicz held, along with Commandant Michael Mallin, St. Stephen's Green and the College of Surgeons. All the rebel armies were now in place. The British were ill prepared and little fighting took place on the first day of the Rising.
At 12.30 on Easter Monday, flags that had been sent for from Liberty Hall, flew over the G.P.O.; one was green with a golden harp bearing the words (in Irish) 'The Irish Republic', and the other was a flag that had never been seen before - a tricolor of green, white and gold (the Tricolor was to later become the national flag of Ireland). Pearse emerged from the G.P.O. into O'Connell street, where he read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic or 'Poblacht na h Eireann' to a bemused and bewildered gathering of Dubliners.
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