rs
on the outskirts of the town; but the chief activity appears to have
been the strengthening of the position in Trinity College, which allowed
the troops to form a wedge between Westland Row at one end and Dame
Street on the other, thus cutting off Stephen's Green from Sackville
Street.

On Monday night the danger in this quarter had been from the eastern
side, but on Tuesday morning it was the College Green entrances that
appeared most open to attack, and which were accordingly strengthened by
sandbags within the windows of the main entrance and wings.

Irish Volunteer scouts on bicycles tried several times to get past
through Grafton Street, but they could not get past the Colonial
sharpshooters posted in the College, and tried by way of side streets,
which were more or less covered by their own snipers, but in vain also.

Machine guns swept right up Dame Street on the one hand and on the other
through Westmorland Street as far up as O'Connell's Statue at the end of
the bridge; but this was as far north as the military got, for all along
to Clontarf, Glasnevin, and Drumcondra the insurgents held practically
undisputed sway.

Another minor position of great importance was the clearing of Stephen's
Green by means of a maxim from the "Shelbourne."

The first actual entry of the military in force from an outside area
took place on Tuesday evening, when a body of Royal Dublin Fusiliers
forced their way into the centre of the city by Cabra Road. The
insurgents had placed barricades both on the Park Road and on Cabra
Road, near the point at which Charleville Road links up these
thoroughfares. Houses overlooking the barricades were occupied by the
insurgents, and some brisk fighting took place before the way was
cleared for the military advance. A well-directed shell or two
demolished the barricades, and within a short time the defenders, under
the thunder of artillery, machine guns and rifle-fire, were forced from
these positions. There were a couple of civilian casualties resulting
from the shrapnel. Attempts by the insurgents to blow up the Cabra
Bridge and the bridge crossing the Midland Railway on the North Circular
Road beyond Phibsborough Church were unsuccessful.

It was not until Wednesday morning, as we have already seen, that the
city realized that an attack in full force was contemplated, and if
necessary heavy artillery would be used to dislodge the rebels.

Up to that it had been thought that at the wo