Enthralling and definitive . . . he writes with soldierly clarity but also delivers an emotional punch.
— Roy Foster; Times Literary Supplement
The definitive account. . . . The book is fantastically detailed yet wonderfully readable.
— John Banville; Guardian
Authoritative and compelling. . . . He writes with great clarity and has mined a formidable array of primary source material.
— Irish Times
Townshend is the first author to use the full compendium of the Irish Bureau of Military History records.
— Historywire
Vivid, authoritative and gripping,
Easter 1916 is a major work.
— Word Power
Remarkably evenhanded and insightful. . . . The definitive study of the topic for all students of Irish History.
— Choice Reviews
The author may or may not have seen active military service but his interpretation of small unit actions and close-in fighting is sharp and realistic.
— John H. Carroll; Catholic News Service
Peeling back the mythology to uncover the history.
— Martin Zimmerman; The San Diego Union-Tribune
Summarizes some forty years of scholarship on the topic, adding its own dramatic flair and insights. . . . A quite vivid reenactment.
— Library Bookwatch
Marvelously rendered. . . . Townshend strips away . . . myth and tells the real story, which intensifies with the truth.
— Blue Ridge Business Journal
Townshend provides the most comprehensive and considered account of the rising, set in its time and place.
— Paul O'Brien; Socialist Review
Anyone interested in Irish history, of whatever political views, should be grateful to [Townshend] for pulling this material together and . . . for the wealth of detail.
— Livejournal
Easter 1916 brings to life the group of remarkable men and women whose actions changed their nation forever.
— Mark Mitchell; Newsfromnowhere.Org
This is a crisply written, balanced, and well-organized study.
— Journal of Military History
Townshend's is a dramatic story excellently told...that brings the reader back on the streets of the capital as a series of events changed forever how people on the island of Ireland would live their lives.
— Dublin Sunday Times
[Easter 1916] is not an under-studied topic, but Townshend handles it with a mastery of the background and the sources that makes his work exceptional.
— Michael Howard; Times Literary Supplement