26‭ ‬April‭ ‬1916:‭ ‬Field guns from Trinity College and the gunboat‭ ‬Helga on the River Liffey bombarded the Irish Citizen’s Army HQ at Liberty Hall and demolished it.‭ ‬Buildings in O’Connell St were also targeted and destroyed.‭ ‬The upper floor of the GPO was evacuated has the men there came under sustained attack from British snipers and guns.

Wednesday,‭ ‬April‭ ‬26th,‭ ‬9.30‭ ‬a.m.‭ ‬-‭ ‬While we were dressing a terrific bombardment with field guns began‭ ‬-‭ ‬the first we had heard‭ ‬-‭ ‬and gave me cold shivers.‭ ‬The sound seemed to come from the direction of the G.P.O.,‭ ‬and we concluded they were bombarding it.‭ ‬It went on for a quarter of an hour‭ ‬-‭ ‬awful‭! ‬big guns and machine-guns‭ ‬-‭ ‬and then ceased,‭ ‬but we hear they were bombarding Liberty Hall,‭ ‬the headquarters of Larkin and the strikers two years ago,‭ ‬and always a nest of sedition.‭ ‬It is now crammed with Sinn Feiners.‭ ‬The guns were on H.M.S.‭ ‬Helga,‭ ‬that came up the river and smashed it from within about three hundred yards.‭ ‬It made me feel quite sick.‭
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Mary Louisa Hamilton Norway‭ ‬The Sein Fein Rebellion as I saw it


The Battle of Mount Street Bridge [above]:‭ ‬British soldiers from the Sherwood Foresters regiment came under fire from a handful of Republican positions as they approach the Bridge there as they made their way up‭  ‬Northumberland Rd.‭ ‬Despite repeated attempts they were driven back sustaining over‭ ‬200‭ ‬casualties.‭

They were raw troops just off the boat from England.‭ ‬While the Officers and men showed great bravery they were tactically naïve and constantly launched full frontal attacks that cut down scores of them at a time.‭ ‬The defenders of the Bridge put up an equally heroic resistance against overwhelming odds and managed to hold their positions.‭

Eventually the British troops took Clanwilliam House by storm.‭ ‬Three of the twelve defenders were killed.‭ ‬The Insurgents were men drawn from the garrison at Boland’s Mill under the orders of Commandant Eamon De Valera.

British forces entered O’Connell St.‭ ‬and took up positions to cover the GPO and suppress the garrison within.‭ ‬A concentrated fire was opened on the GHQ of the Rising and the effects began to tell.

I was looking on O‭' ‬Connell Bridge and Sackville Street,‭ ‬and the house facing me was Kelly's‭ ‬-‭ ‬a red-brick fishing tackle shop,‭ ‬one half of which was on the Quay and the other half in Sackville Street.‭ ‬This house was being bombarded.‭

I counted the report of six different machine guns,‭ ‬which played on it.‭ ‬Rifles innumerable and from every sort of place were potting its windows,‭ ‬and at intervals of about half a minute the shells from a heavy gun lobbed in through its windows or thumped mightily against its walls.‭
For three hours that bombardment continued,‭ ‬and the walls stood in a cloud of red dust and smoke.‭ ‬Rifle and machine gun bullets pattered over every inch of it,‭ ‬and unfailingly the heavy gun pounded its shells through the windows.‭"‬

James Stephens‭ ‬The Insurrection in Dublin