The Easter Rising of 1916 was a seminal moment in Ireland's turbulent history. For the combatants it was a no-holds-barred clash: the professional army of an empire against a highly motivated, well-drilled force of volunteers. What did the men and women who fought on the streets of Dublin endure during those brutal days after the clock struck on 24 April 1916? For them, the conflict was a mix of bloody fighting and energy-sapping waiting, with meagre supplies of food and water, little chance to rest and the terror of imminent attacks. The experiences recounted here include those of: 20-year-old Sean McLoughlin who went from Volunteer to Captain to Commandant-General in five days: his cool head under fusillades of fire saved the lives of scores of his comrades in Moore Lane and Moore Street; volunteer Robert Holland, a sharpshooter who continued to fire despite the punishing recoil of his rifle; Gerald Neilan of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers whose brother was a Volunteer; Volunteer Thomas Young and his group led to safety by his mother, who acted as a scout - and then told her sons to lace up their boots; the 27th Sherwood Foresters NCO who died when the grenade he threw at Clanwilliam House bounced off the second-floor wall and exploded next to his head; Mick Liston, who had a lucky escape when two bullets grazed the sides of his head simultaneously; 2nd Lieutenant Guy Vickery Pinfield of the 8th Royal Hussars, who led the charge on the main gate of Dublin Castle and became the first British officer to die in the Rising.This account of the major engagements of Easter Week 1916 takes us onto the shelled and bullet-ridden streets of Dublin with the foot soldiers on both sides of the conflict, into the collapsing buildings and through the gunsmoke.