All the Living and the Dead

During Easter Week of 1916, Dublin was caught off guard when nationalist militants barricaded themselves within key buildings throughout the city. Although the British military crushed this rising, the memory of what would later be called the Easter Rising would spark a century long struggle for Irish independence. In the words of W.B. Yeats, “a terrible beauty is born.” My thesis is a screenplay that enters into this historic event. It follows James O’Leary, a professor at Trinity College, as he attempts to steer a friend’s son away from nationalistic ambitions. Both men, however, find themselves within the rebel headquarters when the fighting begins, and they must join the rebels against the British in order to survive. The two main characters are very different from one another, and thus a major theme in my screenplay is “perspective”. I lead two characters with imperfect points of view through a common narrative in order to demonstrate how their beliefs and attitudes toward Irish nationalism might become richer and more complete.