Google launched yesterday an interactive street view virtual tour experience, called Dublin Rising, to commemorate Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising that is worth checking out, whether or not your have Irish roots.
Narrated by actor Colin Farrell, the virtual tour shows key sites and events of the rebellion, allowing you to “step back in time to the streets, events, and people who shaped history.”
Using Google technology, you can tour central Dublin locations as they are today and through photos, stories and statements witness what happened there during the uprising 100 years ago.
The General Post Office as seen today in “Dublin Rising,” the interactive Google Street View tour.
For example, as you look at the street view of the General Post Office today, you will be able to see the General Post Office as it was 100 years ago, destroyed by shell fire. You will hear witness statements from rebels who fought there and hear the stories of all the different people involved.
The Easter Rising was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in 1916, mounted by Irish republicans to end British rule in Ireland. It led to partition and the creation of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The virtual tour is part of a collaboration between Google, the National Library of Ireland, Military Archives, Glasnevin Cemetery Museum, the Abbey Theatre, the Royal Irish Academy and Trinity College Dublin.
You can start your tour here on your computer, mobile phone, or tablet. It is recommended you use headphones, but I found it easy to hear the audio from the built-in speaker in my computer.
