AlbaGuBrath
"Scotland Forever"
(In my experience analyzing political science and regimes, WWI would've been the perfect excuse for the British state to conveniently "forget" about Home Rule and prevent its enactment, to keep the Irish people subjugated. One of the keys to a predatory state is creating or using massive events as excuses to divert attention away from things like that to make people forget about it or vent their frustration elsewhere. The Easter Rising definitely reminded the British that they needed to go through with Home Rule or they'd deal with a VERY ANGRY Irish populace, if the uprising didn't happen I bet they wouldn't go through with Home Rule.)
Ironic that, after all the effort that went into making Home Rule happen, when it was finally on the books it was never enacted.
But yeah, I've heard people say something to that effect before and they may be right. I'm personally inclined to offer the benefit of the doubt and assume that the government was honest, but let's face it, how many governments can you actually say that of? I would say it would be better to have held off and waited to see what came after the war, but as far as they knew at the time, this was their only chance, so I suppose it's understandable. And, you know, it may have actually stood a better chance than it's commonly given credit for. Even with all that went wrong, it still survived for a whole week, which is impressive considering the forces involved. So, who knows, maybe it could have worked. But what would have the future been like then? They didn't have the support of most of the civilian population; that came only after the executions. So would they have been able to hold it?
But it makes me wonder whether it actually did more harm than good, weakening credibility and making it less likely for a peaceful post-war future, not to mention the destruction to lives and property. But that's speculation, I suppose.