Enthralling and definitive ... he writes with soldierly clarity but also delivers an emotional punch. -- Roy Foster Times Literary Supplement The definitive account... The book is fantastically detailed yet wonderfully readable. -- John Banville Guardian Authoritative and compelling... He writes with great clarity and has mined a formidable array of primary source material. The Irish Times Townshend is the first author to use the full compendium of the Irish Bureau of Military History records. Historywire Vivid, authoritative and gripping, Easter 1916 is a major work. Word Power Remarkably evenhanded and insightful... The definitive study of the topic for all students of Irish History. CHOICE The author may or may not have seen active military service but his interpretation of small unit actions and close-in fighting is sharp and realistic. -- John H. Carroll Catholic News Service Peeling back the mythology to uncover the history. -- Martin Zimmerman San Diego Union-Tribune Summarizes some forty years of scholarship on the topic, adding its own dramatic flair and insights... A quite vivid reenactment. Library Bookwatch Marvelously rendered... Townshend strips away ... myth and tells the real story, which intensifies with the truth. Blue Ridge Business Journal Townshend provides the most comprehensive and considered account of the rising, set in its time and place. -- Paul O'Brien Socialist Review Anyone interested in Irish history, of whatever political views, should be grateful to [Townshend] for pulling this material together and ... for the wealth of detail. Livejournal Easter 1916 brings to life the group of remarkable men and women whose actions changed their nation forever. -- Mark Mitchell Newsfromnowhere.Org This is a crisply written, balanced, and well-organized study. Journal of Military History Townshend's is a dramatic story excellently told...that brings the reader back on the streets of the capital as a series of events changed forever how people on the island of Ireland would live their lives. Dublin Sunday Times [Easter 1916] is not an under-studied topic, but Townshend handles it with a mastery of the background and the sources that makes his work exceptional. -- Michael Howard Times Literary Supplement