There is much talk of the extraordinary organising powers displayed in
the insurrection, but in truth there was nothing extraordinary in it.
The real essence and singularity of the rising exists in its simplicity,
and, saving for the courage which carried it out, the word extraordinary
is misplaced in this context.

The tactics of the Volunteers as they began to emerge were reduced to
the very skeleton of "strategy." It was only that they seized certain
central and stragetical districts, garrisoned those and held them until
they were put out of them. Once in their forts there was no further
egress by the doors, and for purpose of entry and sortie they used the
skylights and the roofs. On the roofs they had plenty of cover, and this
cover conferred on them a mobility which was their chief asset, and
which alone enabled them to protract the rebellion beyond the first day.

This was the entire of their home plan, and there is no doubt that they
had studied Dublin roofs and means of inter-communication by roofs with
the closest care. Further than that I do not think they had organised
anything. But this was only the primary plan, and, unless they were
entirely mad, there must have been a sequel to it which did not
materialise, and which would have materialised but that the English
Fleet blocked the way.

There is no doubt that they expected the country to rise with them, and
they must have known what their own numbers were, and what chance they
had of making a protracted resistance. The word "resistance" is the
keyword of the rising, and the plan of holding out must have been
rounded off with a date. At that date something else was to have
happened which would relieve them.