25 April 1916: The Rising in Dublin continued on this day with widespread fighting & sniper fire in the City. 

City Hall was  re-captured by the British Army. After a brief battle the rooftop of City Hall was cleared of the Irish Citizen Army. Many prisoners were taken, but there was  still fighting in the area. An insurgent outpost across the road was still firing across the street on the imposing building. Later that day  a platoon from the Royal Dublin Fusiliers suffered heavy casualties when attempting to assault the Evening Mail offices across the road.

At St Stephens Green the ICA was forced to pull out of the park as they came under devastating machine gun fire from the upper stories of the Shelbourne Hotel which had been taken over by the British Military. They withdrew into the safer confines of the adjacent Royal College of Surgeons.

British forces across the Portobello Bridge came under sniper fire from the huge towers in Jacob’s biscuit factory who had a clear line of sight to the bridge. 

British infantry pulled out of the South Dublin Union under fire from riflemen from the 4th Battalion Irish Volunteers. They were unable to dislodge the insurgents. The troops were exhausted, having been in battle for almost 24 hours.

Sackville Street [O’Connell St.] was continually raked with sniper fire from both sides and Dublin’s busiest street was almost deserted with only the foolhardy and the brave risking it to run across it’s wide thoroughfare. The bodies of dead men and horses littered it’s cobblestones.

There was fighting at Marrowbone Lane as the British attempted to clear the area with both sides taking casualties.

Broadstone Railway Terminus came under attack from 1st Battalion Irish Volunteers. The Dublin Fusiliers held the position, having filtered in the previous night. Sniper fire was poured onto the structure  from  positions to the south of it in North Brunswick Street.

A new and deadly sound was heard across the City that night - artillery! A British gunboat just fired a salvo of two shots, both of which smashed into the upper floors of Boland’s Mills.

As night fell the City and it’s populace was left in fear and wonder as to what the morrow would bring as the greatest armed challenge to British Rule in Ireland in over 100 years was well and truly launched...

 A statement was issued from the Insurgent HQ in the GPO Dublin that read:

THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT To The CITIZENS OF DUBLIN

'The Provisional Government of the Irish Republic salutes the Citizens of Dublin on the momentous occasion of the proclamation of a SOVEREIGN INDEPENDENT IRISH STATE,‭ now in course of being established by Irishmen in arms.

The Republican forces hold the lines taken up at twelve noon on Easter Monday,‭ ‬and nowhere, despite fierce and almost continuous attacks of the British troops, have the lines been broken through.

Meanwhile the British continued their preparations to crush the Rising.‭ Lord French, the Commander of the British Army in Britain organised for an Expeditionary Force to be immediately dispatched to Ireland. Within the Country General Lowe sent reinforcements from the Curragh to Dublin by train. More arrived from Belfast to bolster their positions. The General decided to seal off and isolate the various strong points and await further reinforcements. He established a tightening cordon in the outskirts of the City to stop any further support reaching the Volunteers and to guard against any breakout.