Teribus,
You are correct in stating that Pearse (not Pearce) and his comrades knew they had no chance of winning. They also knew that they did not have the full support of the irish people.

However they knew that to preserve the dream of a future all Ireland republic they had to change that situation, except they did not change it. It was England that changed it, when the rebels were taken out and shot, not even all at one time, but staggered throughout the weeks following the surrender. One (James Connolly) wounded in the fight and unable to walk was tied to a chair and shot. If the English had " slapped their wrist" maybe things would have been different, but Pearse, Connolly, Clark, McDermott, Ceannt, De Valera and the rest knew by instinct what a cruel, despotic group they were dealing with, they knew they would be executued and they knew that the mood of the Irish people would change from apathy to disgust, resulting in an increaded hatred for England and a genuine passion for a republic. England in her stupidy played the game the way Pearse and the others knew it would. When mighty England executed the teacher. the poet, the shopkeeper etc, that was when the tide turned against them, and it is still turning and will sweep them from our shores one day, and we do not need handouts from Europe or anywhere else to accomplish this. We just leave it to England and their vengeful attitude will guarantee it. What a bunch of hypocrites, at a time when they were at war with Germany for running roughshod over little Belgium and other small nations the mighty English had no hesitation in threatening to do the same by running roughshod over little Ireland. What an arrogant bunch they have proven to be year after year after year.

Before you spout any more dispersions on the I.R.A. I think you had better read some of the writings of Churchill (the greatest brit of all) as he has been referred to, especially when he declared that if foreign soldiers (germans) ever occupied his country he would form an underground army, working in small groups he would kill them when the occasion arose, he would bomb their residences, he would bome their clubs, he would disrupt the railroads, he would blackmail any store that even served them etc, etc, etc. In fact he would do exactly what the i.R.A. has done. The difference is that you would see him as a freedom fighter, but if anybody else would do the same, especially against England they would be thugs, murderers and terrotists. What a nation of bloody hypocrites, hypocrites, hypocrites.
Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves,br> Of course it's ok if everybody else is a slave. ???>