Keith thank you for some more straight answers,

I'm not in a position to deal with all you said at this moment, so I'll answer it section by section

You said - The occupation was not seen as "aggressive and oppressive subjugation."

Incorrect - In consequence of the "Land Wars" and the activities of the Land League. Ireland was in the years leading up to the rising the most heavily policed part of Britain, there were armed Police stationed in fortified barracks in almost every village in Ireland. The police had a reputation for brutality and an absolute intolerance of any activity that they considered "seditious". In addition the police were backed up by a system of "justice" that was presided over by establishment JPs, magistrates and judges that would sentence dissenters to punative periods of incarceration solely on the word on any police officer.
Th Dublin Metropolitan Police were hated by the ordinary citizens. the DMP carried batons and swords and patrolled the streets in groups. They delighted in smashing heads at the slighest excuse and many the innocent man was hauled off to spend the night in a cell and was then charged on the word of a DMP and condemned to months in prison. If you want to know how these bullies behaved look up the DMP and it's roll in the 1913 Lockout.
The British Garrisons were also feared and hated, they were brutal in the extreme and fired on innocent, unarmed civilians on many occasions. Read up on the activities of King's Own Scottish Borderers and their role in the event that has come to be known as the Bachelors Walk Massacre in 1914.

The majority of ordinary citizens feared the police and soldiers for good reason. They kept their heads down and submitted to the authorities because they knew what the cost of putting their heads above the parapet would be. They behaved in that fashion precisely because they lived under occupation and were ruled over by a vindictive, aggressive and oppressive regime that deliberatly kept them in subjugation.