This week I will speak more about our genre of our game. However, I will delve more into the themes within our genre therefore making our game more filled out. The main theme of our game is the 1916 rising.
In order to complete this task, I put down more words on coggle. The main words I found were “Young”, “ opposing sides”, and “governments”. To me these words could be used to explain the the 1916 rising perfectly.
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/1916-schools/1916-the-revolution-of-the-young-1.2353779
Firstly, this article by the Irish times written in 2017 explored how young boys 10-16 were messenger boys during the 1916 rising. This article from 2017 was specifically speaking of St. Enda's in Rathfarnham in Dublin. Boys from this school joined "Na Finna" and "the IRA" in order to be messenger boys for the IRA. The rebel army was like a family to them. They had to stay loyal. Especially the fact that Padrige Perce was a head master of the school. He was one of the IRA leaders of the time. He gave guns to the boys for winning competitions and so thought them to fight. This was the very basics of the 1916 rising. To secretly create an Irish Republican Army. What has this got to do with our game? This is an aspect of the game we are looking at. For the player to be a messenger boy during the 1916 rising.
2. https://www.irishtimes.com/1916/people-of-the-1916-rising
This article written by the Irish times in 2016 explains the whole story of the 1916 rising. This explains why Irish people had to form their own army. Did they not have one already?! The answer is no. Instead they were ruled by the Brittish at this time. The yearned for freedom. Through reading the article it occurred to me that there was no real protagonist or antagonist as in a war both sides are wrong and right at the same time. However, due to this war being a revolution to get the Irish their country back, and our games genre to reflect this, it seems the Irish rebels were more protagonists then the British who took over in the first place. The main protagonists in the 1916 rising were the leaders of the IRA and associated groups attached to the IRA. The IRA were the Irish Republican Army. They were the newly formed government to protect the Irish people and get back their 36 counties . Arthur Griffith, James Connolly ,Patrick Pearse ,Eamon DeValera, John Redmon, Sean Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDounnagh, Josaph Plunket, Thomas Clarke, Éamonn Ceant, Constance Markievicz, Michale Collins, and so on were all main leaders of Ireland at this time. So what does this all have to do with the theme of our game as the 1916 rising? The player will be playing as part of the Irish republican army fighting for freedom.
3. http://www.easter1916.net
This article written by a company called “ O Tnuthghail” in 2015 told the whole story from both sides of the war, the Irish and the British. Again, there are no real protagonists or antagonists as both sides were brutal in their killings and war tactics, however the Irish were fighting for freedom. Therefor in this case, the article thought me about the British. I chose this article as in every story and game alike, you need an antagonist to fuel every mission. In our game our enemy is the British and so, they are our antagonist. I learned Michael Portillo, Herbert Asquith, Gen John Maxwell were the main antagonists of the 1916 rising. They were on the apposing side of the Irish and so made any complications they could for the Irish. This ( in our game) would fuel the story arc. Anytime the Irish tried to compromise the British would fight. Anytime the British were warned of the Irish rebellion, they under estimated the Irish and let them get one step closer to outbreaking into war. Any weapons the Irish put onto the British , they used a weapon twice as destructive and threw the remaining people in torturous jail cells. This, creates the story of two sides fighting in the 1916 rising which essentially is the basic story of our game. ( more in-depth explanation of our game to come in the next blogs!!)
4. https://www.enotes.com/topics/easter-1916/themes.
This is an article by enotes was written in 2017. Enotes thought me the themes of the 1916 rising. They wrote this as study notes for exams but it helps for our game also as it is a solid and factual piece which is easy to understand. The main themes are conflict and resolution in the 1916 rising. The conflict is the Irish being ruled by the British and the resolution is 34/36 counties being won. There is also sorrow and loss. Sorrow being families, friends, neighbours and so on fought against each other and deaths occurred from both sides. Loss being the deaths experienced and loss of historical buildings such as the GPO ( now re build). This site was on a specific book written on the 1916 rising, however, I found this to be a very good source as books are the truth on many situations. This book was a fictional take on a real situation so it had the real themes within the 1916 rising. These themes are clearly going to be shown through out our game as basic building blocks for a really interesting and interactive game for our audience.
5. https://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Historical_Information/State_Commemorations/The_1916_Rising.html
Finally this article by the official Irish government written in 2018 explained their reflection of the government at the time of the 1916 rising. The main government party was sine fine. They consisted on the main IRA and main rebels at this time. The Irish government tried to negotiate with British to try get their counties back. The government spilt and became military after no negotiations were accepted by the British. Thus the IRA formed. The Irish parliament were there to keep up legal discussions with the British and to keep a bridge between the two sides. The army were the force who drove action and fear into the British. Likewise, the British government were there to legally stop any Irish discussions at bay and to enforce rule into the Irish people. Their army fought with the Irish army to force retaliation. This article explains the in's and out of what happened in the government at this time. The suppression the Irish government and Irish people were under forced the Irish government into action. The wanted their whole country back. After many attempts at negotiations with the British government and noting but push backs in return, the Irish had to fight for freedom. Therefor the Irish revolution or the 1916 rising broke out.
Over all through the government, people of all ages, tensioning a fight for resolution the 1916 rising can be broken down into key components. This is what fuels our game and allows the player have the best experience they can!
Thank you for reading todays blog!!! I hope you liked fining out about our themes within the genre of our game!
Till next time!