FRIDAY
BY CIARA AND CLAIRE
At the GPO, Pearse ordered the Cumann na
mBan women out of the GPO for their safety,
despite their protests.
James Stephens reported on the scene in the city
centre. “This morning there are no newspapers,
no bread, no milk, no news,” he wrote. “The
sun in shining and the streets are lively but
discreet. All people continue to talk to one
another without distinction of class, but nobody
knows what any person thinks,” he wrote.
 Stephens described dublin which had
been destroyed. “From the roof there
comes the sound of machine guns.
Looking towards Sackville Street one
picks out easily Nelson’s Pillar which
towers over all the buildings. Another
towering building was the DBC cafe
(Dublin Bread Company). It was a
landmark easy to be find, but today I
could not find it. It was not there, and
I knew that, even if all Sackville Street
was not burned down, as rumour
insisted, this great cafe had certainly
been curtailed by its roof and might,
perhaps, have been completely
burned.”
134 feet
 Leading the charge, The O’Rahilly was killed. He had been
director of arms for the Irish Volunteers. Despite having travelled
the country in the early part of the week to spread the message of
MacNeill's countermand, since the Rising went ahead he had
been fully immersed in the action.
 “I helped wind this clock and I’ve come to hear it strike,” he told
men from the Kimmage movement.
 As he lay slumped, dying, he wrote a note to his wife. It said: “I
got more than one bullet I think.” The note itself was pierced
with a bullet. Then, on the doorway, in his own blood he wrote:
“Here died The O’Rahilly. RIP.”
 Michael Collins led the next group, who safely made it out — as
did the leaders in the third group, eventually securing a base at
No16 Moore Street although outnumbered, outgunned and
surrounded.