C. S. [‘Todd’] Andrews (1901–85): born in Dublin; educated at St Enda’s; politicized by the 1916 Rising; joined the Irish Volunteers, 1917; fought in the War of Independence, 1919–21; opposed the Treaty; interned during the Civil War; graduated from UCD; worked with state companies, the Irish Tourist Association, the ESB, and Bord na Móna; married Mary Coyle, 1928; Executive Chairman with CIE, 1958; Chairman of RTÉ Authority, 1966; father of Fianna Fáil TDs David and Niall Andrews.
Thomas Ashe (1885–1917): born in County Kerry; Principal of a Dublin National school, 1908–16; member of the IRB; joined the Irish Volunteers, 1913; active member of the GAA and the Gaelic League; led successful attack on Ashbourne RIC barracks, Easter 1916; sentenced to life imprisonment; released June 1917; Sinn Féin propagandist and organizer of de Valera’s election campaign in Clare, 1917; rearrested and imprisoned in Mountjoy; organized a hunger-strike among the Sinn Féin prisoners to campaign for political status; died after being force-fed by the prison doctor.
Robert Barton (1881–1975): born in County Wicklow; educated at Oxford; progressive landlord; converted to Home Rule nationalism, 1908; joined the Irish Volunteers, 1913; accepted British Army commission, 1914; posted to Dublin prior to the Easter Rising; deeply affected by events; resigned his commission and joined the republican movement, as did his sister Dulcibella; elected Sinn Féin MP for Wicklow West, 1918; Minister for Agriculture in the first Dáil, 1919; arrested but escaped from Mountjoy; rearrested 1920 but released 1921; co-signed the terms of the truce, July 1921; Minister for Economic Affairs in the second Dáil, 1921–23; part of the Treaty delegation; reluctantly signed; rejected the Treaty in the Dáil and took the anti-Treaty side; occupied the Hammam Hotel with Brugha and Stack; lost seat in 1923 election; Chairman of Agricultural Credit Corporation 1933–59; Director of the Irish Press; Chairman of Bord na Móna, 1946.
Piaras Béaslaí (1881–1965): born in Liverpool; a journalist by profession (his father edited the Catholic Times); prominent in Gaelic League from 1896; moved to Dublin, 1906; heavily involved in staging Irish-language drama; became Manager of Na hAisteoirí, a travelling group of amateur Irish actors, 1912; joined the Irish Volunteers, 1913; initiated into the IRB, 1914; involved in the coup which saw the removal of Hyde from the Gaelic League, 1915; fought in the Four Courts during the Rising, 1916; imprisoned but released June 1917; elected TD for East Kerry, 1918; edited An tÓglách and Fáinne an Lae, 1917–20; took the pro-Treaty side; official biographer of Collins; continued writing until his death. Wrote poems Bealtáine 1916 agus Dánta Eile, 1920; short stories Earc agus Áine agus Sécealta Eile, 1946; plays An Sgaothaire agus Cuig Dramaí Eile, 1929, and An Dánar, 1929; and books Michael Collins and the Making of a New Ireland, 1926, and Astronár, 1928.
Francis Joseph Bigger (1863–1926): born in Belfast; educated at QCB, where he qualified as a solicitor; joined the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club, where he learnt Irish; revived the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 1894; elected Fellow of the RSAI, 1896; joined the Gaelic League and became member of its Executive Committee; promoter of all things Irish, including processions, pageants, céilidhe and feiseanna; co-organized the Belfast Gaelic League pageant to commemorate 1798; founder member of the Ulster Literary Theatre; helped to organize the Irish Harp Festival, 1903; founded Feis na nGleann, 1904; contributed to radical journals and befriended many republicans, but his political career was curtailed after 1916; continued to carry out conservation works around Ulster; remembered as a pioneer antiquarian and local historian. Wrote The Holy Hills of Ireland, 1907, Four Shots from Down, 1918, and Crossing the Bar, 1926.
Ernest Blythe (1889–1975): born in County Antrim to Protestant parents; locally educated; moved to Dublin, 1905; moved in Gaelic League circles with Seán O’Casey; joined the IRB, 1906; co-edited Irish Freedom, 1910; joined the Irish Volunteers, 1913; became full-time Volunteer Organizer, 1914; gaoled in 1915 and again in early 1916; subsequently missed the Easter Rising; released Christmas 1916; elected to Sinn Féin Executive, 1917; elected MP for Monaghan North, 1918; Minister for Trade and Commerce in the first and second Dáil, though he opposed the Belfast Boycott and many of his colleagues’ policies towards Northern Ireland; supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty, 1921; Minister for Finance, 1923–32; lost seat in 1933; elected to the Seanad, 1934; Blueshirt activist, 1932–5; Managing Director of the Abbey Theatre, 1941–67.
Harry Boland (1887–1922): born in Dublin; son of Fenian James Boland; CBS educated; joined the IRB, the Gaelic League and the GAA; founding member of the Irish Volunteers, 1913; fought at the GPO, 1916; released from imprisonment, June 1917; elected to Sinn Féin Executive, 1917; orchestrated Sinn Féin victory in 1918 elections; elected TD for Roscommon South, 1918; President of the IRB Supreme Council, 1918; sent as a Dáil and IRB envoy to the US, 1919; opposed the Treaty; took up arms against the government; killed following a gun battle with Free State forces at the Grand Hotel, Skerries, 1922.
Robert Brennan (1881–1964): born in County Wexford; CBS and RUI educated; journalist by profession; founder member of the Wexford branch of the Gaelic League, and close friend of the Ryan family of Tomcoole; Sinn Féin County Secretary; IRB Organizer; one of the leaders of the planned Wexford rebellion in 1916; death sentence commuted; released from prison, June 1917; in charge of Sinn Féin Publicity Bureau and appointed Director of Elections, 1918; arrested over the ‘German Plot’, released 1919; produced the Irish Bulletin during the Anglo-Irish War, 1919–21; opposed to the Treaty, 1922; supported de Valera’s Fianna Fáil Party following the Sinn Féin split, 1926; helped to establish the Irish Press, appointed its first general manager, 1931; appointed Irish Minister to the USA, 1938–47; continued to contribute to the Irish Press until his death. Father of the writer Maeve Brennan.
Cathal Brugha (Charles William St John Burgess) (1874–1922): born in Dublin; educated at Belvedere College; joined the Gaelic League, 1899; joined the IRB, 1908; co-founded a candle-manufacturing business; married Kathleen Kingston in 1912; joined the Irish Volunteers, 1913; involved in Howth gun-running, 1914; Second-in-Command to Ceannt in the South Dublin Union during the Rising; badly wounded and permanently crippled; elected to Sinn Féin Executive, 1917; IRA Chief-of-Staff, October 1917–April 1919; elected TD for Waterford, 1918; elected Acting President of the first Dáil, 1919; appointed Minister for Defence; proposed swearing an oath of loyalty to the republic and the Dáil, April 1919; strongly opposed to the Treaty; fought for the anti-Treaty forces; died from wounds received in action early in the Civil War.
William Bulfin (1863–1910): born in Birr, educated locally and at Galway grammar school, emigrated to Argentina 1884 and followed various occupations until his contributions (as ‘Che Buono’) to the Irish-Argentine Southern Cross made him its editor and eventually proprietor; passionate Irish-Irelander, Gaelic Leaguer and Sinn Féiner, in touch with Hyde, Griffith and others, and helped to promote United Irishman abroad; made frequent return visits to Ireland, his bicycle tour of 1902–3 producing the bestselling articles and eventually book, Rambles in Eirinn, 1907; returned to Ireland in 1909 intending to settle but died of pneumonia the next year.
Roger Casement (1864–1916): born in Dublin but grew up in County Antrim; left school at fifteen and worked as a shipping clerk, ship’s purser and surveyor; joined British Colonial Service in Africa, 1892; received knighthood in 1911 for heroic campaigns on behalf of exploited natives in Africa and South America; retired from colonial service, 1912; joined Gaelic League, 1904; wrote in nationalist press under the pseudonym of ‘Sean Bhean Bhocht’; joined the Irish Volunteers, 1913; went to Berlin, where he attempted to secure German arms and enlist Irish prisoners of war; secured arms in 1916, but realized German aid would not be enough for a successful enterprise and went to Ireland to try to stop the Rising; captured after landing in Kerry; tried and found guilty of high treason; knighthood annulled; clemency campaign derailed by the deliberate government circulation of his ‘Black Diaries’, which revealed his homosexuality and turned public opinion; converted to Catholicism; hanged 3 August; remains returned to Ireland and reinterred at Glasnevin Cemetery, 1965.
Áine Ceannt (née ní Bhraonáin) (1880–1954): born in Dublin; educated at the Dominican College, Eccles Street; joined the Gaelic League, where she met her future husband, Éamonn Ceannt; married June 1905; became member of Cumann na mBan on its inception, 1914; wrote and delivered dispatches during the Easter Rising; Vice-President of Volunteer Dependants’ Fund; Vice-President of Cumann na mBan, 1917–24; member of Sinn Féin’s Standing Committee, 1917–24; served on Sinn Féin courts; took the anti-Treaty side; appointed to General Council of the Irish White Cross; General-Secretary of the Children’s Relief Association, 1922–47; served on the Executive Committee of the Irish Red Cross, formed in 1939.
Éamonn Ceannt (Edward Kent) (1881–1916): born in County Galway; son of an RIC officer; CBS educated; became a Clerk of Dublin Corporation; joined the Gaelic League, 1899; elected to governing body 1909; founded the Dublin Pipers’ Club 1900; married Áine ní Bhraonáin, 1905; joined Sinn Féin, 1907, elected to its National Council; led Irish athletes to Rome for the jubilee of Pope Pius X; organized resistance to the visit of George V in 1911; joined the IRB, 1911; founder member of the Irish Volunteers, 1913; participated in Howth gun-running; member of IRB Supreme Council, 1915; member of the IRB Military Council; signatory of the ‘Proclamation of the Irish Republic’; held the South Dublin Union during the Rising; executed, 8 May 1916.
Robert Erskine Childers (1870–1922): born in London; reared in County Wicklow with his cousins the Bartons; educated Cambridge; Clerk in the House of Commons, 1895–1910; served in the Boer War; converted to Home Rule, 1908; resigned from the House of Commons, 1910; involved in Howth gun-running, 1914; served in the British Navy, 1918–19; awarded a DSC, 1917; Secretary of the Irish Convention, 1917; Home Rule sympathies hardened into full support for the Republic of Ireland; elected to Dáil Éireann as TD for County Wicklow, 1919–21; appointed Minister for Propaganda; served as Principal Secretary to the Treaty delegation; opposed the Treaty and fought on the republican side; captured, court-martialled, 1922; executed, 24 November 1922. Wrote The Riddle of the Sands, 1903; The Framework of Home Rule, 1911.
Thomas James [‘Tom’] Clarke (1858–1916): born on the Isle of Wight of Irish parentage; moved to Dungannon at an early age; educated St Patrick’s National school; joined the IRB before emigrating to New York; arrested in London and sentenced to penal servitude for life for possession of explosives; released in 1899, returned to America, where he married Kathleen Daly, niece of Limerick Fenian John Daly; returned to Ireland in 1907 and was co-opted on to the Supreme Council of the IRB; ran a newsagent’s which became a centre of IRB organization; presided over the Dublin Wolfe Tone Clubs Committee and organized a visit to Tone’s grave to counter the King’s visit to Ireland in 1911; published Irish Freedom, 1910–14; dismissive of politics, heavily involved in setting up the Military Council in 1915; first to sign the ‘Proclamation of the Irish Republic’ in 1916, fought in the GPO during the Easter Rising; executed, 3 May.
Kathleen Clarke (née Daly) (1878–1972): born in Limerick; niece of Fenian John Daly; married Tom Clarke in New York, 1901; returned to Dublin, 1907; involved in the production of Irish Freedom, 1910; Vice-President of Cumann na mBan; chosen as a confidante by the IRB Supreme Council, 1916; briefly imprisoned after the Easter Rising; husband Tom executed; established the Volunteer Dependants’ Fund, 1916; member of the Sinn Féin Executive; central in the party’s adoption of equal rights for women, 1917; imprisoned May 1918–February 1919; Dublin Corporation Councillor, 1919; founder member of the Irish White Cross, 1920; elected to Dáil, 1921; opposed the Treaty; member of Fianna Fáil; entered the Dáil, 1927; accepted nomination to the Senate, 1928; Lord Mayor of Dublin, 1939–41; split with Fianna Fáil, 1941; lost seat on Dublin Corporation; unsuccessful Clann na Poblachta candidate, 1948; concentrated on humanitarian work subsequently.
Diarmuid Coffey (1888–1964): born in Dublin; TCD educated; called to the Bar, 1912; joined the Irish Volunteers, 1913, and worked on the staff at their HQ; involved in the Howth gun-running, 1914, but not in the 1916 Rising; a member of the Secretariat of the Irish Convention, 1917–18; advocated a scheme of Dominion Home Rule, 1917; worked at the Co-operative Reference Library and edited its quarterly, Better Business, 1917–21; married Frances Georgina Trench (‘Sadhbh Trinseach’), 1918, who died later that year (Coffey married her cousin Sheela Fitzjohn Trench in 1929); took the pro-Treaty side; served as a lieutenant in the National Army, 1922–3; attached to the Oireachtas staff as Clerk to the Seanad, 1923–36; Assistant Keeper of the PROI, 1936–56. Wrote Douglas Hyde: An Craobhín Aoibhinn, 1917; Douglas Hyde: President of Ireland, 1938.
Cornelius [‘Con’] Colbert (1888–1916): born in Newcastlewest, County Limerick, to a family of strong-farmers with a Fenian tradition; educated by CBS in Dublin; worked as a clerk and joined Gaelic League and Fianna (from inaugural meeting in 1909), rising high in the organization and teaching drill, small arms, scouting techniques, etc., specialities which he also instilled in St Enda’s pupils (where he worked for free). Head of an IRB circle by 1912 and on Provisional Committee of Irish Volunteers in 1913, to which organization he devoted most of his efforts thenceforth. Notably pious, abstemious and dedicated, he led the occupation of Watkins’ Brewery and then Jameson’s Distillery in 1916 Rising; reluctantly surrendered and was executed on 8 May, despite his youth and the relatively small part he had played in hostilities.
Michael Collins (1890–1922): born in County Cork; educated locally; worked as a clerk in London; sworn into the IRB, 1909; active in GAA and Gaelic League activities; joined the Irish Volunteers, 1914; returned to Ireland, 1915; fought in the GPO; interned in Frongoch but released December 1916; took up work with the Irish National Aid and Volunteer Dependants’ Fund; instrumental in rebuilding the IRB; elected to Sinn Féin Executive, 1917; organized intelligence system; elected MP for Cork South, 1918; Minister for Home Affairs, 1918; Minister for Finance, 1919–22, in the first Dáil; organized the National Loan; President of Supreme Council of the IRB, 1919; IRA Director of Intelligence; Acting President of the Dáil, 1920; prominent role in War of Independence; reluctant member of the Treaty delegation, 1921; Commander-in-Chief of the government forces during the Civil War; shot and killed in County Cork, 22 August 1922.
Padraic Colum (1881–1972): born in County Longford; poet and dramatist; contributed poetry to the United Irishman; wrote The Saxon Shillin’, 1902, Broken Soil (also known as The Fiddler’s House), 1903, The Land, 1905, Thomas Muskerry, 1910; co-founded the Irish Review, 1911; married Mary Maguire, 1914; moved to the USA; published Collected Poems, 1953; Our Friend James Joyce, 1959.
Máire Comerford (1893–1982): born in County Wicklow; privately educated; moved to Wexford; involved with the local co-operative movement and the United Irishwomen; joined Sinn Féin, 1916; joined Cumann na mBan, 1917; active during War of Independence; opposed the Treaty; acted as courier to IRA units during the Civil War, 1922–3; imprisoned but released after hunger-strike; sent on a fundraising tour to the USA; elected to Sinn Féin Executive, 1926; gaoled for jury intimidation; edited the women’s page of the Irish Press; continued in journalism until 1964; remained active in republican protest until her death. Published The First Dáil, 1969.
James Connolly (1868–1916): born in Edinburgh to Irish parents; received a basic education but read widely; joined the British Army at fourteen and probably served in India and Ireland before deserting; married Lillie Reynolds in 1890; active trade unionist; moved to Dublin 1896; became Organizer for the Dublin Socialist Club; founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party, 1896; founded the Workers’ Republic journal, 1898; moved to America, 1902; continued socialist and trade unionist activity; founded the Irish Socialist Federation in New York, 1907; established its journal the Harp, 1908; co-founded the International Workers of the World; returned to Dublin, 1910; Ulster Organizer of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union; led the workers during the lockout after Larkin’s imprisonment, 1913; Acting Secretary of the ITGWU, 1914; Commander of Irish Citizen Army, 1913; against trade union involvement in the war; approached by the IRB and joined with militant nationalists, 1915; agreed on joint uprising; one of the signatories of the ‘Proclamation’; fought in the GPO; badly wounded; executed 12 May 1916. Wrote Erin’s Hope, 1897, Labour in Irish History and Labour, Nationality and Religion, 1910, The Reconquest of Ireland, 1915.
Seán Connolly (1882–1916): born Dublin, to a docker’s family; educated CBS; worked as a dispatch clerk at Eason’s stationers; strikingly handsome and with a good tenor voice; trained as an actor in Inghinidhe na hÉireann drama class; learnt Irish, and appeared in Gaelic League productions before joining the Abbey in 1913; active in ITGWU and Citizen Army (in whose Liberty Players productions he also participated); commanded ICA contingent (which included his sister and three brothers) in Dublin Castle area at Easter 1916, where he shot dead the Duty Constable at the Castle; led the brief occupation of the City Hall and was shot dead by a sniper. A friend of Seán O’Casey, he may have partly inspired Jack Clitheroe in The Plough and the Stars.
Daniel Corkery (1878–1964): born Cork City, son of a master carpenter; educated Presentation Brothers South Monastery School and became a teacher; joined Gaelic League; became prominent in various cultural activities in Cork, and a guru-figure to young nationalists such as Terence MacSwiney; founder member of Cork Dramatic Society, 1908, which put on plays of his such as The Embers, 1909; also published collections of short stories, notably A Munster Twilight, 1916, and The Hounds of Banba, 1920, and an impressive novel, The Threshold of Quiet, 1917. Mentored the younger writers Frank O’Connor and Sean O’Faolain, who later turned against Corkery’s fervent and exclusivist type of nationalism, which infused his important work of historical-cultural criticism, The Hidden Ireland, 1924, and the polemical Synge and Anglo-Irish Literature, 1931. Professor of English at UCC, 1931–47, and nominated by the Taoiseach as member of the Seanad, 1951–4.
William T. Cosgrave (1880–1965): Sinn Féin member of Dublin Corporation, 1909; Captain, 4th Battalion, Dublin Brigade, Irish Volunteers, in South Dublin Union, 1916; death sentence commuted to life imprisonment; Sinn Féin MP for Kilkenny, 1917; Minister for Local Government in Dáil cabinet, 1919; President of the Executive Council [Prime Minister], Irish Free State, after death of Michael Collins in 1922; leader of Cumann na nGaedheal Party, 1922–33, and Fine Gael Party, 1934–44.
Sydney Czira (née Gifford) (1889–1974): born in Dublin; educated Alexandra College; contributed articles to Sinn Féin; member of Inghinidhe na hÉireann; co-founded Bean na hÉireann, 1908; elected to Sinn Féin Executive, 1911; contributed to IRB paper Irish Freedom; used the pseudonym ‘John Brennan’ in her writings; involved in the suffrage campaign; moved to America, 1914; immediately involved in US republican circles; returned to Ireland, 1922; involved in the Women Prisoners’ Defence League; resumed work as a journalist and broadcaster.
Liam de Róiste (1882–1959): born in County Cork; educated locally; a teacher by profession; joined the Gaelic League, 1899; became its Secretary in Cork, 1902; helped found Coláiste na Mumhan, an Irish-language college in Ballingeary, 1904; co-founded the Cork Celtic Literary Society, 1901, and the Cork Dramatic Society, 1904; published the Shield, August 1906–July 1907; co-founded the Cork branch of Sinn Féin, 1906; married Nóra ní Bhriain, 1909; helped form the Cork branch of the Irish Volunteers, 1913; involved in events surrounding Easter 1916 but took no active part; elected to the first Dáil, 1918; took the Treaty side; involved in the Irish Christian Front, which supported Franco in the Spanish Civil War; otherwise devoted himself to the International Trading Corporation and other projects of industrial and commercial development in Cork. Active in the study of Irish history and culture until his death. Wrote the plays The Road to Hell, 1908; Fodhla, 1908; and a collection of poetry Voices of the Past, 1915.
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975): born in New York, reared in County Limerick; CBS, Blackrock and UCD educated; joined the Gaelic League, 1908; married Sinéad Flanagan, 1910; joined the Irish Volunteers, 1913; participated in the Howth gun-running, 1914; occupied Boland’s Mill during the Rising, 1916; spared from execution; released from prison, June 1917; Sinn Féin MP for East Clare from 1917; President of Sinn Féin, 1917–26; President of the Volunteers, 1917–22; gaoled 1918 but escaped 1919; President of the first Dáil, 1919; toured America in the hope of gaining US recognition for the republic and to raise funds; elected President of the Republic of Ireland, August 1921; resigned over his opposition to the Treaty, December 1921; re-enlisted in his old IRA unit but as a private; arrested by Free State troops, August 1923; resigned the presidency of Sinn Féin, March 1926; established Fianna Fáil, November 1926; entered the Dáil, June 1927; President of the Executive Council, 1932–7; abolished the oath of allegiance, 1933; removed all reference to the monarch and the Governor-General from his Irish constitution, 1937; Taoiseach, 1937–48: Minister for External Affairs, 1937–47; Minister for Education, 1939–40; maintained Irish neutrality during Second World War; suppressed the IRA; defeated in 1948 elections; returned as Taoiseach, 1951–4 and 1957–9; President of the Republic of Ireland, 1959–73.
Sinéad de Valera (née Flanagan) (1878–1975): born in Dublin; qualified as a National school teacher at Baggot Street College; joined the Gaelic League and Inghinidhe na hÉireann; enthusiastic amateur dramatist; taught Irish for beginners at Gaelic League College, where she met Éamon de Valera, 1909; married him the following year; gave up career to rear family; settled in Greystones post-1916; saw little of husband during this period; home frequently raided during the Civil War; continued with Gaelic League activities, writing and adapting plays and children’s stories; made few public appearances in later life; buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. Wrote Coinneal na Nodlag agus Sgealta Eile, 1944, and Áilleacht agus an Beithidheach, 1946.
Geraldine Plunkett Dillon (1891–1986): born in Dublin into the wealthy Plunkett family; UCD educated; married UCD lecturer Thomas Dillon (later Professor of Chemistry at UCG), Easter 1916; brother Joseph executed, May 1916; social campaigner; member of the Irish-language Taibhdhearc Theatre; wrote a caustic account of her life as daughter of Count and Countess Plunkett and sister of Joseph Plunkett, posthumously published; mother of writer Eilís Dillon.
George Gavan Duffy (1882–1951): born in Cheshire, son of the Young Irelander (and Premier of Victoria) Sir Charles Gavan Duffy; raised in France; educated at Stonyhurst College and in France; qualified as a solicitor, 1907; married Margaret Sullivan, 1908; solicitor for Roger Casement during his treason trial, 1916; called to the Bar, 1917; elected Sinn Féin MP for Dublin South, 1918; travelled Europe in search of support for the Irish cause, 1919–21; part of the Treaty delegation; last to sign; reluctantly recommended it to the Dáil; appointed Minister for External Affairs in the Provisional government, 1922; resigned in protest when Dáil courts were summarily disbanded, July 1922; resigned from the Dáil over the treatment of captured republican forces; Judge of the High Court, 1936; heavily influenced by the values of de Valera’s 1937 constitution; President of the High Court, 1946.
Louise Gavan Duffy (1884–1969): born in France; daughter of Sir Charles Gavan Duffy; moved to Ireland, 1907; joined the Gaelic League and became fluent in Irish; graduated from UCD, 1911; taught at St Ita’s, 1911–12; joined Cumann na mBan, 1914; present in the GPO, Easter 1916; involved with prisoner associations, 1917; re-elected to the Executive of Cumann na mBan, 1917; opened Scoil Bhríde, an Irish-speaking school for girls, 1917; supported the Treaty, 1922; taught in UCD until her retirement.
Francis John [‘Frank’] Fay (1870–1931): born in Dublin, attended Belvedere College and became secretary to an accountant, but always passionately interested in theatre, and in theatrical history; in 1891, with his brother William, set up Ormonde Dramatic Company; also worked with Inghinidhe na hÉireann’s dramatic productions; ardently nationalist at this stage of his life; became drama critic for United Irishman, 1899–1902, advocating an Irish-speaking theatre and attacking Yeats’s theatrical vision (Cathleen ni Houlihan may have been an implicit response to these onslaughts); moderated his stance, and advocated a more inclusive national theatre movement; the Fay brothers’ National Dramatic Society merged with the Irish Literary Theatre to form the Irish National Theatre Society in 1902, out of which the Abbey would eventually grow; acted tragic parts for Yeats, notably Cuchulain in On Baile’s Strand, and became a vitally important voice coach; when the Abbey became a limited company and the Yeats–Gregory–Synge triumvirate assumed control, 1905, disagreements mounted, and the Fays left in 1908. Frank worked in America and Britain before returning to Ireland in 1921, where he resumed his elocution work.
Darrell Figgis (1882–1925): born in Dublin; worked as a tea merchant while becoming a regular literary contributor to various journals; play Queen Tara staged at the Gaiety, 1910; became politically active following visit to Achill Island, 1913; joined the Volunteers, 1913; involved in 1914 gun-running; not active during the Rising but arrested nonetheless; interned at Reading Gaol, released December 1916; elected Secretary of the reorganized Sinn Féin, 1917; arrested following the ‘German Plot’, 1918; released March 1919; acted as a judge in the Dáil courts; edited the Republic, June–September 1919; supported the Treaty, 1921; elected to the Sinn Féin Executive, 1922; Vice-Chairman of the committee to draft the constitution; elected as an independent TD for Dublin County, 1922 and 1923; generally unpopular, fell from political and social favour following a number of scandals; committed suicide in London, 1925. Poetry collections A Vision of Life, 1909; The Crucibles of Time, 1911; published A Chronicle of Jails, 1917; The Gaelic State in the Past and Future, 1917; Children of Earth, 1918; The Paintings of William Blake, 1925; Recollections of the Irish War, 1927.
Desmond FitzGerald (1888–1947): born (as Thomas Joseph FitzGerald) and educated in London, to an emigrant family from Cork and Kerry; as a young journalist and poet became friendly with the Imagist movement (T. E. Hulme, Richard Aldington) and particularly with Ezra Pound; with his marriage to Mabel McConnell became more ardently nationalist, living in Brittany and Kerry, joining the IRB and working as a Volunteer organizer; convicted and imprisoned for seditious speeches in 1915; involved in the Rising and subsequently imprisoned; active in the Dáil as a TD and as Director of Publicity, making a notable success of the Irish Bulletin; supported the Treaty (unlike his wife) and was Minister for External Affairs in both the Provisional government and the first government of the Free State, and eventually Minister for Defence. Became progressively detached from politics from the 1930s, though supported right-wing Catholic groups, the Blueshirts and Francoist Spain; continued to write poetry and to study and lecture on Thomistic philosophy.
Mabel FitzGerald (née McConnell) (1884–1958): born in Belfast; daughter of a Presbyterian unionist; attended Victoria College and Queen’s University; became a convinced nationalist and Irish-language enthusiast in college; married Desmond FitzGerald, 1911; moved to France, then to Kerry, 1913; with Desmond, organized Volunteers in Kerry; joined the garrison at the GPO, 1916; active in prisoner-release groups; managed Desmond’s successful election campaign while he was imprisoned, 1918; Executive member Cumann na mBan, 1918–22; opposed to her husband’s endorsement of the Treaty; gave birth to future Taoiseach Garrett, 1926; converted to Catholicism, 1943.
Madeleine ffrench-Mullen (1880–1944): born in Malta; moved to Dublin at an early age; with her brother Douglas, became an active nationalist and Gaelic revivalist; contributor to Bean na hÉireann; active during the 1913 lockout; joined the Citizen Army; served during the Easter Rising; co-founded St Ultan’s (Teach Ultáin), the first hospital for infants in Ireland, 1919; joined Sinn Féin; elected to Rathmines District Council, 1920; advocated social and economic improvements; worked for the remainder of her life at St Ultan’s with her partner Kathleen Lynn.
Maud Gonne see Maud Gonne MacBride
Alice Stopford Green (1847–1929): born in County Meath; educated at home; moved to England in 1874, mixed with leading liberals and married the bestselling historian J. R. Green, who died young; questioned British imperialism and favoured Home Rule; campaigned on behalf of Boer prisoners during the Boer War; questioned the manner in which Irish history was presented; rewrote the history of medieval Ireland in The Making of Ireland and Its Undoing, 1908; through the publication of various historical works, argued that the Irish were well capable of governing themselves; helped to fund the committee set up to import arms, 1914; shocked, however, at the 1916 Rising and at Casement’s approaches to Germany; campaigned for his reprieve nonetheless; moved to Dublin, 1918; her house on Stephen’s Green used by leading nationalists during the War of Independence; supported the Treaty; became member of the Free State Senate until the failure of her health.
Arthur Griffith (1871–1922): born in Dublin; educated CBS and then became a printer; founded Celtic Literary Society, 1893, with William Rooney, and was an IRB member into the early 1900s as well as active in the Gaelic League and a prominent pro-Boer; founded newspapers United Irishman, 1899, and Sinn Féin, 1906; organized the Irish Transvaal Committee, 1900, and Cumann na nGaedheal, which later developed into the rather amorphous Sinn Féin movement; The Resurrection of Hungary, 1904, suggested a blueprint for self-sufficiency in an autonomous Ireland, but from about 1910 he seemed to be moving towards a dual-monarchy arrangement for Ireland rather than a separatist republic. Supported Volunteers and attacked the 1912 Home Rule Bill, but the war gave him an opportunity to readopt a radical stance with anti-war ‘mosquito’ publications; inactive in 1916 but was interned and became influential as Sinn Féin changed to a republican party; MP for East Cavan, 1918; Acting President of Dáil, 1919; headed the Irish delegation in the Treaty negotiations; elected President of the Dáil in 1922 and died of a cerebral haemorrhage in the same year.
Michael Hayes (1889–1976): born in Dublin; CBS and UCD educated; teacher by profession; joined the Irish Volunteers, 1913; did not advocate armed revolt but nonetheless fought at Jacob’s Biscuit Factory during the Rising; married Margaret Kavanagh, 1917; became immersed in Sinn Féin politics; interned 1920–21; elected to the second Dáil, 1921 while in prison; supported the Treaty; appointed Minister for Education in the Provisional government, 1922; Minister for Foreign Affairs, 1922; Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil, 1922–32; member of the Seanad, 1937–65; head of the Irish Department, UCD, 1951–9.
Bulmer Hobson (1883–1969): born in Belfast; educated at the Friends’ school, Lisburn; Quaker parents involved in the Home Rule and suffragette movements; became a republican, 1898; joined the Gaelic League and the GAA; co-founded the Ulster Literary Theatre, 1904; involved in literary magazine Uladh, 1904–5; sworn into the IRB, 1904; co-founded the Dungannon clubs, 1906; established the Republic, December 1906; Vice-President of Sinn Féin, 1907; moved to Dublin, 1908; co-founded Fianna Éireann, 1909; resigned from Sinn Féin, 1909; founded Irish Freedom, 1910; member of the IRB Supreme Council, 1911; Secretary of the Volunteers Executive, 1913; lost faith of many IRB leaders after persuading MacNeill to comply with Redmond’s demands regarding the Volunteers, 1914; involved in Howth gun-running, 1914; opposed to the Rising, instead advocating a guerrilla campaign, 1916; detained by a suspicious IRB until the outbreak of the Rising; took no part in action; ostracized from nationalist politics thereafter; embittered at his treatment; worked with the Revenue Commission until his retirement in 1948. Wrote a history of the Irish Volunteer Force, 1918; a life of Wolfe Tone, 1919; and an autobiography, Ireland Yesterday and Tomorrow, 1968.
Richard [‘Dick’] Humphreys (1896–1968): nephew of Michael ‘The’ O’Rahilly; moved with his widowed mother and family to Dublin, 1909; radicalized by his O’Rahilly aunt, a fierce nationalist; educated St Enda’s and Clongowes; joined Volunteers and assisted in Asgard gun-running; with Pearse in the GPO, interned in Wakefield Gaol, then studied law at King’s Inns; fought in Anglo-Irish War and took anti-Treaty side, helping to shelter Ernie O’Malley at the family home; motor-racing enthusiast who later worked in automobile industry.
Sighle Humphreys (1899–1994): born in Limerick city; niece of the O’Rahilly; family moved to Dublin, 1909; studied at the University of Paris; participated in pre-1916 Volunteer activities; joined Cumann na mBan, 1919; active throughout War of Independence; opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty; imprisoned 1922–3, released after a hunger-strike; Director of Publicity for Cumann na mBan, 1926; participated in republican protests against Seán O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars, 1926; imprisoned for sending jurors intimidating letters, 1928; co-founder of Saor Éire, 1931; leading member of the Boycott British League, 1932; married IRA activist Donal O’Donoghue, 1935; disillusioned with de Valera, joined Clann na Poblachta; opposed Irish entry to the EEC, 1973; supported IRA hunger-strikers, 1981 and the republican campaign in Northern Ireland.
Douglas Hyde (1860–1947): born in County Roscommon; TCD educated; co-founded the Irish Literary Society in London, 1891; became President of the National Literary Society, 1892; co-founder and first President of the Gaelic League, 1893; wrote the first all-Irish play, Casadh an tSúgáin, to receive theatrical production, 1901; first Professor of Irish at UCD, 1909; held post until 1932; led successful Gaelic League campaign to make Irish compulsory for matriculation in the new NUI; resigned as Gaelic League President over its politicization, 1915; Irish Free State Senator, 1925–6; first President of Ireland, 1937. Major works: Love Songs of Connacht, 1893, and A Literary History of Ireland, 1899. An autobiography, Mise agus an Connradh, 1931.
Rosamond Jacob (1888–1960): born in Waterford to Quaker parents with nationalist sympathies; educated at home and at ‘Miss Smith’s’ in Waterford; joined the Gaelic League, the National League and Inghinidhe na hÉireann, 1900; co-founder of Sinn Féin in Waterford, 1906; joined the Irish Franchise League, 1908; joined Cumann na mBan, 1914; sided with the republicans during the Civil War; Secretary of the Irishwomen’s International League, 1920–27; joined Fianna Fáil, 1926; reported favourably on social conditions in the USSR, 1931; remained politically active until her death. Wrote Callaghan, 1915, The Rise of the United Irishmen 1791–1794, 1937, The Troubled House, 1938, The Rebel’s Wife, 1957.
Anna Johnston (‘Ethna Carbery’) (1866–1902): born in County Antrim; daughter of the prominent Fenian Robert Johnston; regularly contributed poetry to publications such as United Ireland, O’Donoghue’s Magazine, Young Ireland, the Nation and the Catholic Fireside; founded the Northern Patriot with Alice Milligan, 1895; founded the literary magazine the Shan van Vocht, 1896; played an active role in the 1798 Centenary commemorations; member of Inghinidhe na hÉireann, 1900; assisted Maud Gonne in organizing children’s protest against the visit of Queen Victoria to Dublin, 1900; wrote and staged patriotic plays around the country with Gonne; married Séumas MacManus, 1901; died of gastritis, April 1902. Work posthumously published as The Four Winds of Éireann, 1902, The Passionate Hearts, 1903, and In the Celtic Past, 1904.
Hugh Kennedy (1879–1936): born in Dublin; educated at the Jesuit University College in Dublin; graduated from the RUI and called to the Bar, 1902; Honorary Secretary of the Central Committee of the Gaelic League; legal adviser to the Department of Local Government in the first Dáil, 1919; Law Officer of the Provisional government, 1921; co-drafted the constitution of the new state; helped secure finality and supremacy for the Irish courts; involved in drafting the draconian measures adopted by the Free State against members of the IRA; elected TD for Dublin West, 1923; appointed Attorney General of the Free State, 1923; involved in the establishment of a new court system; first Chief Justice of the Free State, 1924.
Thomas [‘Tom’] Kettle (1880–1916): born in Dublin, son of Parnellite and Land Leaguer Andrew Kettle; educated at Clongowes Wood and University College; highly active in student politics; called to the Bar, 1905, but pursued a career in political journalism; co-founded the Young Ireland branch of the United Irish League, 1904; editor of the Nationist, 1904–5; elected MP for Tyrone East, 1906; appointed first Professor of National Economics, UCD; supporter of Home Rule, women’s suffrage and the strikers of 1913; joined the Irish Volunteers, 1913; backed Redmond’s call for Irishmen to join the war effort, 1914; given the rank of Lieutenant and Recruiting Officer; recognized changing opinion in Ireland post-Easter 1916 but insisted on taking up a combat role on the Western Front; killed at Ginchy, September 1916.
James Larkin (1874–1947): born in Liverpool (though he claimed otherwise in later life) to emigrants from Ulster; left school aged eleven and worked at many trades, including as a seaman, in USA and Britain; joined ILP and became an active figure in Dockers’ Union, becoming General Organizer in 1906. Posted to Belfast in 1907, he organized a brief but legendary general strike; moving to Dublin, he developed his epic oratorical qualities and founded the ITGWU, whose headquarters at Liberty Hall became the centre for a vibrant syndicalist counter-culture. His aggressive journalism and flamboyant oratory, notably through the Irish Worker, made him a famous though divisive figure within labour politics as well as a hate-figure for the employers. A Labour Councillor on Dublin Corporation and President of the ITUC by 1913, in the same year he confronted Dublin’s premier capitalist, William Martin Murphy, which resulted in the epic lockout, drawing international opinion but eventually collapsing. (The British TUC’s suspicion of Larkin played a part in this.) Always sympathetic to nationalist politics, he had by now developed the Irish Citizen Army into a small but effective militia. However, his lengthy absence in the USA from 1914 sidelined him from revolutionary events in Ireland. Much involved in internecine socialist politics in America, he became an outspoken advocate of communism and spent time in gaol for ‘criminal syndicalism’; on his return to Ireland in 1923 he battled for control of the ITGWU, lost and formed his own political party and (later) union; he retained his Moscow connections (where he spent much time in the early 1920s) until 1929, and was elected three times to the Dáil, once as a communist; he returned to the Labour Party in the 1940s. He remained an iconic figure for Dublin’s working classes.
Fionan Lynch (1889–1966): born in County Kerry; educated at Blackrock College and at UCD; a teacher by profession; taught in Wales, where he formed a branch of the Gaelic League, 1911; moved to Dublin, sworn into the IRB, 1912; joined the Irish Volunteers, 1913; co-founded Na hAisteoirí, 1912; given charge of guarding Hobson during the Rising, also fought at North King Street, 1916; subsequently gaoled but released after hunger-strike, 1917; rearrested during the ‘German Plot’, 1918; elected Sinn Féin TD for Kerry South, December 1918; married Brighid Slattery, 1919; served as Assistant Secretary to the Treaty delegation, 1921; took the pro-Treaty side; Minister for Education, January–August 1922; Commandant-General in pro-Treaty forces during the Civil War, 1922–3; Cumann na nGaedheal TD for Kerry and Kerry South, 1923–44; Minister for Fisheries, 1922–8; Minister for Land and Fisheries, 1928–32; spoke at Blueshirt meetings, 1933; Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil, 1938–9; retired from politics, 1944; served as a Circuit-Court Judge, 1944–59.
Liam Lynch (1893–1923): born in County Limerick; apprenticed to hardware trade in Mitchelstown, Cork, 1910; joined Gaelic League, 1910; Irish Volunteers, 1913; Adjutant, Fermoy Battalion, 1918; Officer Commanding, North Cork (Cork No. 2) Brigade, 1919; Officer Commander, 1st Southern Division, IRA, 1921; opposed Treaty, 1922; Chief-of-Staff, IRA, 1922; killed in action, 1923.
Kathleen Lynn (1874–1955): born in County Mayo; medical practitioner; suffragist, socialist and nationalist; assisted the strikers during the lockout, 1913; joined the Citizen Army; medical officer during the Rising, 1916; Honorary Vice-President of the Irish Women Workers’ Union, 1917; Vice-President Sinn Féin Executive, 1917; imprisoned, 1918; active in south Tipperary during the War of Independence; took the anti-Treaty side; elected TD for Dublin South, 1923; lost seat, 1927. In 1919 founded St Ultan’s Hospital for Infants (Teach Ultáin) with her lifelong partner, Madeleine ffrench-Mullen, a pioneering enterprise aimed at helping impoverished children and their mothers, both medically and educationally; continued to campaign for better housing, disease prevention and the eradication of tuberculosis (the BCG inoculation was introduced at St Ultan’s in 1937); remained in medical practice until her death.
John MacBride (1865–1916): born in Westport, County Mayo; studied medicine; joined the IRB at an early age; undertook a mission to the USA, 1896; emigrated to South Africa; organized the 1798 Centenary celebrations there; joined an Irish Brigade to fight on the Boer side against Britain, 1899; married Maud Gonne in Paris, 1903, and separated from her, 1905; returned to Dublin, worked for City Council; member of the IRB Supreme Council; not involved in planning of Easter Rising but offered his services to MacDonagh; fought at Jacob’s Biscuit Factory; executed 5 May.
Maud Gonne MacBride (1866–1953): born in Aldershot; daughter of a British Army officer of Irish descent; educated in France; began working for Irish freedom after falling in love with French politician Lucien Millevoye; edited La Patrie and published L’Irlande libre, 1897; founded and became first President of Inghinidhe na hÉireann (‘The Daughters of Ireland’), 1900; organized counter-attractions for children during Queen Victoria’s visit, 1900; converted to Catholicism; took the lead role in Yeats’s play Cathleen ni Houlihan, 1902; married Major MacBride, Paris 1903; separated 1905; contributed to Bean na hÉireann, 1908; remained in Paris until her return to Dublin in 1917; arrested in connection with the ‘German Plot’, interned for six months, 1918; worked with the White Cross during the War of Independence; opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty; first Secretary of the Women’s Prisoners’ Defence League, 1922; published autobiography A Servant of the Queen, 1938; buried Republican Plot, Glasnevin Cemetery.
Patrick McCartan (1878–1963): born in County Tyrone; educated at St Malachy’s College, Belfast, and at UCD; joined the IRB; established Dungannon clubs among students in Dublin; joined Sinn Féin; elected member of Dublin Corporation, 1909; qualified as a medical doctor, 1910; responsible for purging the IRB of many older members; organized the Irish Volunteers in Tyrone, 1914; toured America to raise funds, 1914; co-opted on to the IRB Supreme Council, 1915; plans to link Ulster and Connacht Volunteers failed, Easter 1916; elected MP for King’s County, 1918; returned to the US, involved in the Clan na Gael split, 1919; accompanied de Valera on his US tour, 1919–20; undertook a secret mission to Russia to seek recognition for the Irish republic from the Soviet government, 1921; reluctantly supported the terms of the Treaty; lost Leix–Offaly seat, 1922; returned to America until 1937; remained left wing and republican in his views, co-founded Clann na Poblachta, 1946; member of Seanad, 1948–51. Published With de Valera in America, 1932.
Denis McCullough (1883–1968): born in Belfast; CBS educated; piano-tuner by trade; joined the Gaelic League in the 1890s; joined the IRB, 1901; Chairman of the Ulster Provincial Council, 1905; co-founder of the Dungannon clubs, 1906; Ulster representative on the Supreme Council, 1907–16; member of Irish Volunteers Executive, 1913; imprisoned, August–November 1915; elected President of the IRB Supreme Council, 1915; not kept informed of final details of the Easter Rising; attempted with 132 Volunteers to unite with Connacht Volunteers but failed; imprisoned, May 1916; married Agnes Ryan, August 1916; fought as an ordinary Volunteer during the War of Independence; supported the Treaty; moved to Dublin, 1922; elected Cumann na nGaedheal TD for Donegal, 1924; resigned soon afterwards and continued in business until his death.
Tomás MacCurtain (1884–1920): born in County Cork; Secretary of Blackpool branch of Gaelic League, 1902; joined Sinn Féin and IRB, 1907; Fianna Éireann Organizer, 1911; Commander, Cork Brigade, Irish Volunteers, 1916; imprisoned in Wakefield, Frongoch and Reading, 1916–17; Sinn Féin Councillor for Cork North-West in 1920 local elections; elected Lord Mayor of Cork, January 1920; assassinated in his home, 20 March 1920. Coroner’s jury found verdict of murder against the RIC and the Prime Minister, Lloyd George.
Seán MacDermott (Seán MacDiarmada) (1883–1916): born in County Leitrim; emigrated to Edinburgh before moving to Belfast; joined the AOH and Hobson’s Dungannon clubs before being sworn into the IRB in 1906; became a Sinn Féin Organizer, travelling the country, founding local branches; appointed IRB National Organizer, 1908–16; Manager of Irish Freedom; active in the Gaelic League, the GAA and the Celtic Literary Society; stricken with polio in 1911; elected to the Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers, 1913; involved in the Howth gun-running, July 1914; imprisoned, May–September 1915; co-opted on to the secret Military Council of the IRB upon his release; anxious for the Rising to occur at the earliest possible date; most likely to have instigated the ‘Castle Document’; signed the ‘Proclamation of the Irish Republic’; fought at the GPO with Connolly; executed, 12 May.
Muriel MacDonagh (née Gifford) (1884–1917): born in Dublin; member of the Women’s Franchise League and Inghinidhe na hÉireann with her sisters Helen, Grace and Sydney; married Thomas MacDonagh, 1912; activities curtailed due to poor health; husband executed, May 1916; Officer and Committee Member of the Volunteer Dependants’ Fund, 1916; received into the Catholic Church, 1917; drowned in a swimming accident, July 1917.
Thomas MacDonagh (1878–1916): born in County Tipperary; educated at Rockwell College and UCD; a teacher by profession; joined the Gaelic League in 1901; assisted Pearse in the foundation of St Enda’s in 1908; first play, When the Dawn is Come, produced at the Abbey, 1908; on leaving St Enda’s became a Lecturer in UCD, 1911–16; married Muriel Gifford, 1912; co-founded the Irish Review, 1911; managed the Irish Theatre, 1914; founder member of the Irish Volunteers, 1913; appointed to the Provisional Committee; sworn into the IRB, March 1915; organized the funeral of O’Donovan Rossa, 1915; given overall command of the Dublin Volunteer battalions; co-opted on to the IRB Military Council, April 1916; signed the ‘Proclamation of the Irish Republic’; occupied Jacob’s Biscuit Factory; executed, 3 May.
Joseph McGarrity (1874–1940): born Carrickmore, County Tyrone; emigrated to the USA 1892, and made money in the liquor trade and as a hotel-keeper in the Philadelphia region; joined Clan na Gael in 1893 and became a key figure in Irish-American nationalism, giving money and support to Irish nationalist causes and keeping closely in touch with Irish affairs through intense correspondences such as that with his old friend and fellow Carrickmore man, Patrick McCartan, and Éamon de Valera; instrumental in raising a million dollars for Friends of Irish Freedom in 1919 and placing five million dollars’ worth of bond certificates. After initial doubts he opposed the Treaty and raised much money for the republican cause; continued to advocate uniting Ireland through physical force and disapproved of de Valera’s shift to constitutionalism from 1926.
Patrick McGilligan (1889–1979): born in County Derry; educated at Clongowes Wood and UCD; graduated as a teacher; studied law, called to the Bar, 1921; Leeson Street home used as a meeting place and safe house for militant republicans, 1918–19; member of the economic commission established in connection with Anglo-Irish negotiations, 1921; appointed Secretary to Kevin O’Higgins, Minister for Home Affairs, 1922; won UCD Dáil seat, 1923; Minister for Industry and Commerce, 1924–32; implemented the Shannon hydroelectric scheme and oversaw the founding of the ESB, 1927; Minister for External Affairs, 1927–32; played a leading role in the passing of the Statute of Westminster, 1931; appointed Professor of Constitutional Law, International Law, and Criminal Law and Procedure at UCD, 1934; active member of the opposition party in the Dáil, 1932–48; continued to pursue a legal career; Minister for Finance in the first inter-party government, 1948–51; Attorney General in the inter-party government, 1954–7; retired from politics after losing Dáil seat, 1965.
Eoin MacNeill (1867–1945): born in County Antrim; educated at St Malachy’s College, Belfast, and at TCD; took up a position in the civil service; co-founder of the Gaelic League, 1893; first editor of An Claidheamh Soluis, 1899–1901; Vice-President of the Gaelic League, 1903; took up position at UCD, 1909; co-founder of the Irish Volunteers, 1913; manipulated by the IRB into organizing a mobilization of Volunteers, Easter 1916; issued counter-orders too late to halt the Rising; arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment; released June 1917; elected to the first Dáil, 1918; Minister for Finance, 1919; elected Ceann Comhairle to the second Dáil, 1921; presided over the Treaty Debates; Minister for Education, 1922–5; Irish Free State representative on the Boundary Commission, 1924–5; subsequently returned to academic life. Wrote Phases of Irish History, 1919, and Celtic Ireland, 1921.
Mary MacSwiney (1872–1942): born in London; moved to Cork at an early age; UCC educated; founder member of the Munster Women’s Franchise League, 1911; founded a Cumann na mBan branch in Cork, 1914; arrested following the Easter Rising; set up own Irish school, Scoil Áte, 1916; elected to Cumann na mBan’s National Executive, 1917; maintained a public vigil at Brixton Gaol with her sister Annie while brother Terence fasted to death, 1920; elected TD for Cork City, 1921; bitterly opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty; refused to join de Valera’s Fianna Fáil, 1926; lost seat, 1927; resigned from Sinn Féin, 1934; backed the IRA campaigns of the late 1930s.
Muriel MacSwiney (née Murphy) (1892–1982): born in County Cork to the wealthy Murphy brewing and distilling dynasty; convent educated in England; joined the Gaelic League and Cumann na mBan; married Terence MacSwiney, 1917; uncertain over the wisdom of her husband’s hunger-strike, 1920; travelled to America delivering lectures on British rule in Ireland; received the Freedom of New York, 1921; opposed the Treaty; part of the republican Hammam Hotel garrison with Cathal Brugha; became strongly left wing and atheist in her views; moved to Germany, 1923; estranged from her daughter Máire, 1934; worked for various socialist causes for the rest of her life.
Terence MacSwiney (1879–1920): born in Cork, CBS educated; an accountant by trade; co-founded the Celtic Literary Society, a member of the Gaelic League and the Cork Dramatic Society; wrote The Holocaust and The Revolutionist, plays which reflected his beliefs of self-sacrifice and political idealism; co-founded the Cork Volunteers in December 1913; published Fianna Fáil, 1914; dispersed southern Volunteers on MacNeill’s orders, Easter 1916; imprisoned on separate occasions 1916–19; elected as TD for West Cork, entered the first Dáil, 1919; became Lord Mayor of Cork, 1920; arrested while chairing a Sinn Féin court; commenced a hunger-strike in Brixton Gaol; died after a 74-day fast.
Michael Mallin (1874–1916): born in the Liberties of Dublin; spent fourteen years in the British Army before returning to Dublin to work as a silk-weaver as well as trying several other ways to earn a living; became Secretary of the Silk Weavers’ Union and an influential figure in the Irish Citizen Army; active in the Rising as Commandant of the Stephen’s Green garrison, with Constance Markievicz as his Second-in-Command; executed, 8 May 1916.
Constance Markievicz (née Gore-Booth) (1868–1927): born in London; daughter of Sir Henry Gore-Booth, a leading progressive landholder in Sligo; privately educated, later studied at the Slade School of Art in London and in Paris; took up the cause of women’s suffrage; met fellow art student Casimir Markievicz (1874–1932), married, 1900; with her husband, wrote and acted in plays for the Theatre of Ireland; joined Sinn Féin, 1908; launched Fianna Éireann, joined Inghinidhe na hÉireann, 1909; regular contributor to Bean na hÉireann, which she co-founded, 1908; wrote A Call to the Women of Ireland; Executive Member of Sinn Féin, 1911; supported the trade unionists during the lockout, 1913; Honorary Treasurer of the Citizen Army, 1913; instrumental in merging Inghinidhe na hÉireann with Cumann na mBan; co-founded the Irish Neutrality League, 1914; fought in the College of Surgeons building during the Rising; death sentence commuted because of her sex; received into the Catholic faith, 1917; President of Cumann na mBan, 1917; elected Sinn Féin MP for Dublin, 1918; first woman to be elected to Westminster but refused to take her seat; gaoled 1920–21; Minister for Labour in the first Dáil, 1919–21; opposed to the Treaty; Sinn Féin abstentionist TD, 1923–7; joined Fianna Fáil, 1926; elected TD for Dublin South, 1927.
Liam Mellows (1892–1922): born in Lancashire; returned to Ireland to live in Wexford at an early age; educated at Royal Hibernian Military School; employed as a clerk; joined Fianna Éireann, 1911; appointed full-time Fianna Organizer, 1913; sworn into IRB, 1912; elected to the Executive Committee of the Volunteers, 1914; influenced by James Connolly’s socialism; led a minor insurrection in Galway, Easter 1916; escaped to New York; worked with Devoy on Gaelic American; elected MP Galway East and for Meath, 1918; agent for de Valera’s US tour, 1920; opposed the Treaty; fought at the Four Courts; imprisoned but appointed Minister for Defence in the republican government; executed by firing squad in retaliation for the assassination of Seán Hales, 8 December 1922.
Alice Milligan (1866–1953): born in County Tyrone; educated at Methodist College, Belfast, and King’s College, London; wrote A Royal Democrat, 1892; co-formed branches of the Irish Women’s Association throughout Ulster; founding editor of the Northern Patriot and the Shan Van Vocht, 1895–6; Secretary of Belfast 1798 Centenary Committee, elected to Dublin Centenary Executive, 1897; pioneer director and producer of dramatic pageants and tableaux, which toured Ireland and Britain; wrote the plays The Green upon the Cape, 1898, The Ossianic Trilogy, 1899, and The Escape of Red Hugh, 1901; travelling lecturer for the Gaelic League, 1904–9; joined in fundraising campaigns for 1916 prisoners; opposed the Treaty; continued to contribute poems and articles to nationalist publications.
Seán Milroy (1877–1946): born in Cumberland, moved to Cork as a young man; became friendly with Arthur Griffith, joined Sinn Féin, 1909; joined the Irish Volunteers; imprisoned June–September, 1915, for delivering an inflammatory speech; fought during the Rising, 1916; subsequently imprisoned; upon release elected to the Standing Committee of Sinn Féin, 1917; rearrested but escaped from Lincoln Gaol with de Valera and Seán McGarry, 1919; elected Sinn Féin TD for Cavan, 1921; supported the Treaty; resigned from the Dáil over government policy, 1924; member of the Seanad, 1928–36.
Helena Molony (1883–1967): born Dublin, to a grocer’s family, orphaned young and was converted to nationalist activism by hearing Maud Gonne speak; active member of Inghinidhe na hÉireann; edited Bean na hÉireann, 1908–11; known as ‘Emer’ within the movement. Also closely involved in trade union movement and Fianna, sharing lodgings with Constance Markievicz; arrested and gaoled for demonstrating against royal visit, 1911; an accomplished actress, and worked with the Abbey as well as the Markieviczes’ Independent Dramatic Company (from 1911 Independent Theatre Company); General Secretary of Irish Women Workers’ Union, 1915, and Secretary of Irish Citizen Army’s women’s section; organized first-aid section at City Hall in 1916 Rising; interned and imprisoned; briefly on Sinn Féin Executive, 1917, opposed the Treaty and remained an IWWU official for twenty years, playing an active role in various disputes within the movement, remaining a syndicalist and an advocate of workers’ control; also active in republican causes, and a founder of Saor Éire in 1931, though shortly afterwards resigned. Her last stage appearance was in 1922.
David Patrick Moran (1869–1936): born in Waterford; educated Castleknock College; emigrated to London, 1887, active in Gaelic League, returned to Ireland to edit New Ireland Review, 1898, and then founded the Leader, 1900, which advocated cultural and economic nationalism and Catholic exclusivism, while excoriating the pretensions of ‘physical-force nationalism’, satirizing the social snobberies associated with aspirant Anglicization, and violently attacking the Literary Revival. Though associated with the Volunteers he was sidelined during the revolution, and the Leader, though long-lived, never regained its influence.
Seán Moylan (1889–1957): born in County Limerick; locally educated; involved in the Gaelic League and the GAA; nationalism further rationalized upon moving to Dublin, 1909; returned to Limerick, 1914; joined the local Volunteers company; moved to Cork, where he set up a Volunteers company in Newmarket; mobilized his men in 1916 but stood down due to countermanding orders of MacNeill; heavily involved in subsequent reorganization of the Volunteers and Sinn Féin; led his company on an arms raid at an RIC barracks, 1918; arrested but escaped, remaining on the run until 1921; Commandant of the No. 2 Cork Brigade of the IRA; captured, 1921; elected to the second Dáil, 1921; opposed the Treaty; active on the anti-Treaty side during the Civil War, 1922–3; joined Fianna Fáil, 1926; TD for Cork North, 1932–57; Minister for Lands, 1943–8; Minister for Education, 1954–7; lost his seat in 1957 but immediately appointed to the Seanad; Minister for Agriculture from 1957 until his sudden death in 1957.
Josephine Mary [‘Min’] Mulcahy (née Ryan) (1884–1977): born in County Wexford; studied at the Royal University and at London University; established a branch of Cumann na mBan in London University; returned to Ireland in 1914; taught German in Rathmines Technical School; enjoyed a close relationship with Seán MacDermott, spending the hours before his execution with him in his prison cell, 1916; acted as a courier during the Rising; subsequently sent to America to report on events to Devoy; married Richard Mulcahy, 1919; residence in Ranelagh subjected to frequent raids during the War of Independence; supported the Treaty, as Mulcahy was one of its leading advocates, despite the fact that her sister Mary Kate and brother James opposed it strongly; nonetheless family relations held firm and Civil War bitterness was not continued.
Richard Mulcahy (1886–1971): born in Waterford; CBS educated; Post Office clerk; Gaelic League member; joined the IRB, 1907; joined the Irish Volunteers, 1913; fought in north County Dublin as Second-in-Command to Thomas Ashe during the Rising; released from Frongoch, December 1916; stage-managed the funeral of Ashe, 1917; made Commandant of the Dublin Brigade, Irish Volunteers, 1917; IRA Chief-of-Staff, 1918; elected MP for Clontarf, 1918; sat in the first Dáil, appointed Minister for Defence, 1919; married Josephine Mary (‘Min’) Ryan, 1919; TD until 1961; supported the Treaty; General Officer Commanding of Military Forces of the Provisional government, 1922–3; Minister of Defence, 1923–4; Chairman of Gaeltacht Commission, 1925–6; Minister for Local Government and Public Health, 1927–32; Leader of Fine Gael, 1944–59; Minister for Education, 1948–51 and 1954–7.
Gobnait ní Bruadair (Albinia Brodrick) (1861–1955): born in London, daughter of the eighth Viscount Midleton; privately educated; trained as a nurse; wrote articles for the St James Gazette; moved to Kerry, 1907; established an agricultural co-operative, 1908; joined Cumann na mBan and Sinn Féin following the Rising, 1916; Sinn Féin member on Kerry County Council, 1919–21; worked with the Irish White Cross; opposed the Treaty, 1922; arrested but released after hunger-strike, 1923; owner of Irish Freedom, 1926–37; left Cumann na mBan to co-found Mna na Poblachta, 1933.
Máire nic Shiubhlaigh (1883–1958): born in Dublin, to an Irish-speaking family with radical and Fenian traditions (her printer father later founded the Tower Press). Joined Gaelic League and Inghinidhe na hÉireann, acted in their tableaux, and took part in the Fay brothers’ Ormonde productions (Willie Fay lodged in the Walker house). A founder member and star of the Irish National Theatre Society, playing in Yeats’s early plays with marked success, notably on the 1903 tour; also worked with Yeats’s sisters in Dun Emer industries. Leading lady in important early Abbey productions (in which her brother Frank and two of her sisters also appeared) but became alienated from the theatre’s management over political issues, and the control exerted by Yeats and Gregory. Resigned and joined Theatre of Ireland, where she never achieved the same fame apart from in Séumas O’Kelly’s The Shuiler’s Child; returned from time to time to the Abbey. Active in Cumann na mBan, served in Jacob’s Biscuit Factory during 1916 Rising, and remained active in republican politics; married General Éamonn Price in 1928; her last stage appearance was in 1948.
George Noble, Count Plunkett (1851–1948): son of a rich builder, educated Congowes and Trinity; studied law but was more interested in poetry, architectural history and Renaissance art; Director of the National Museum of Ireland, 1907. His donations to the Little Company of Mary earned him the papal title of ‘Count’. His Parnellite nationalism was radicalized by his children, particularly Joseph; after the 1916 Rising and his son’s execution he was sacked from the Museum, and took a leading part in the republicanized Sinn Féin movement, being elected as MP for Roscommon North in 1917. Briefly appearing as a possible leader, he was Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Dáil until January 1922, but followed a strict republican line and was marginalized from politics thereafter.
Arthur Patrick Donovan [‘Art’] Ó Briain (1872–1949): born in London; educated St Charles College, studied civil engineering in Paris; joined the Gaelic League in London, 1898; President, 1914–35; spearhead of Irish nationalist community in London; joined the IRB and the Irish Volunteers; founded the National Aid Front, 1916; campaigned for republican prisoners including Casement; President of Sinn Féin in England and Wales; served as a representative of the Dáil in England; co-founder of the Irish Self-Determination League of Great Britain (ISDL), 1919; organized various demonstrations and meetings in London; worked closely with Collins during the Anglo-Irish War; opposed the Treaty; dismissed from position as an envoy of the Provisional government by the Department of Foreign Affairs, 1922; continued to campaign for the republican cause; gaoled on various occasions, 1922–4; became editor of the Music Trades Review; Irish Minister to France and Belgium, 1932–8.
Liam Ó Briain (1888–1974): born Dublin (as William O’Brien); educated CBS and gained a scholarship to UCD, achieving a first-class degree in Languages in 1909; a committed Gaelic Leaguer and French scholar, subsequently studied in Germany, returning to Ireland in 1914, joining Volunteers and working in UCD with Mary Kate Ryan, at whose wedding to Seán T. O’Kelly he was best man; helped print ‘Proclamation of the Irish Republic’ in Liberty Hall and served under Michael Mallin with ICA in Rising; after imprisonment joined University College, Galway, where he was Professor of Romance Languages for the rest of his long career. Sinn Féin candidate in 1918, served as a republican judge, involved in arms-running during Anglo-Irish War and was arrested; supported Treaty, stood for Senate in 1925 and then left politics; much involved in theatrical movements in Galway, and translated many European classics into Irish.
Edward Conor Marshal O’Brien (1880–1952): born in Limerick; a grandson of Young Irelander William Smith O’Brien; attended university at TCD and Oxford; developed an interest in Irish nationalism through the influence of the Gaelic League; chief patron of the Irish College at Carrigaholt, County Clare; leader of the Irish Volunteers in Clare; part-financed and took part in a plan with Figgis and Childers to land 600 rifles in Wicklow, 1914; enlisted as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy; returned to Ireland, 1919; appointed Inspector of Fisheries for the second Dáil; took part in numerous sailing expeditions around the world.
Francis Cruise O’Brien (1885–1927): born in Dublin; educated at CBS and University College; editor of student magazine St Stephen’s, 1906; elected to the Executive of the Literary and Historical Society, 1905–7; frequently clashed with college authorities; politically active in the Young Ireland branch of the UIL; editor of the Wexford People, 1910; married Kathleen Sheehy, 1911; supported Redmond’s endorsement of Britain’s First World War involvement, 1914; condemned the Easter Rising but opposed the executions that followed; involved with Horace Plunkett in drawing up plans for future government, 1916–17; deputy editor of the Irish Statesman, 1919–20; worked for the Freeman’s Journal and the Irish Independent; suffering from tuberculosis, he collapsed and died on Christmas Day 1927. Co-edited W. E. H. Lecky’s Clerical Influences, 1911, from the first edition of his Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland; collaborated on two pamphlets, Ireland’s Food in Wartime, 1914, and Starvation in Ireland, 1917.
Kathleen Cruise O’Brien (née Sheehy) (1887–1938): born in Tipperary but moved to Dublin at an early age; daughter of MP David Sheehy, a leading member of the IPP; educated in France and at the University College, St Stephen’s Green, where she studied Irish; founding member of the Irish Women’s Franchise League, 1908; elected Vice-President of the Young Ireland branch of the UIL, 1910; married Francis Cruise O’Brien, 1911; lost three brothers-in-law, 1916, including Tom Kettle and Francis Sheehy-Skeffington; taught Irish at Rathmines Technical School; wrote an Irish grammar and a textbook in the 1920s; her play Apartments performed at the Abbey, 1923.
Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh (O’Kelly) (1882–1966): born in Dublin; CBS educated; joined the Gaelic League, 1898; Junior Assistant at the NLI, 1898–1902; joined the IRB, 1901; co-founder of Sinn Féin, 1905; member of Dublin Corporation, 1906; Business Manager of An Claidheamh Soluis; founder member of the Irish Volunteers, 1913; supervised the landing of arms in Wicklow, 1914; sent on IRB mission to secure US funds, 1915; took part in the Easter Rising at the GPO, 1916; subsequently gaoled, released December 1916; prominent in the reorganization of Sinn Féin; Acting Chairman of Sinn Féin National Executive, 1918; elected to the first Dáil, 1919; elected Ceann Comhairle; sent to Paris to represent the Dáil at the Peace Conference, and subsequently acted as Sinn Féin representative in Rome, forging many relationships with the Vatican; opposed the Treaty but favoured constitutional opposition; detained during the Civil War; founding Vice-President of Fianna Fáil, 1926; maintained a devoutly Catholic standpoint in parliamentary opposition; Minister for Public Health and Government, 1932–9; served as Vice-President of the Executive Committee, 1932–7; and as Tánaiste, 1938–45; appointed Minister for Finance, 1939; elected President of Ireland, 1945; re-elected unopposed, 1952; married Mary Kate Ryan, 1918; married her sister Phyllis following her death; buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.
J. J. [‘Ginger’] O’Connell (1887–1944): born in County Mayo; educated at Clongowes Wood and UCD; Chief Inspector of the Irish Volunteers, 1915–16; travelled the country organizing Volunteer corps and lecturing on military tactics; conveyed the countermanding order of MacNeill to Cork Volunteers, 1916; took no part in the fighting but imprisoned at Frongoch; released, December 1916; organized Sligo Volunteers; rearrested and imprisoned for alleged involvement in the ‘German Plot’, 1918; Director of Training during the War of Independence; supported the Treaty; Deputy Chief-of-Staff in the Free State Army, 1922; kidnap by anti-Treaty IRA forces a major factor in the outbreak of Civil War; released upon rebels’ surrender; held rank of Colonel in the army for the rest of his military career.
Rory O’Connor (1883–1922): born in Dublin; educated at Clongowes Wood and UCD; prominent in militant student circles; worked as a railway engineer in Canada, 1911–15; returned to Ireland reputedly at the behest of the IRB, 1915; involved with the Gaelic League and Irish Volunteers; trained members in bomb-making; involved in the production of the forged ‘Castle Document’, 1916; wounded during the Rising; Director of Engineering during the War of Independence; Director of Military Operations in England; opposed the Treaty; occupied the Four Courts with republican forces, 1922; imprisoned in Mountjoy; executed by government forces in retaliation for the killing of Seán Hales, 8 December 1922.
Eimar O’Duffy (1893–1935): born in Dublin, to a ‘Castle Catholic’ background, which gave him much material for his satirical novels. Educated Stonyhurst and UCD, where he was a prominent student journalist, honing talents later employed on the Irish Volunteer; became a socialist and joined the IRB but thought the 1916 Rising a mistake. Involved in dramatic productions with Joseph Plunkett and Thomas MacDonagh. After the revolution worked as a teacher, a dentist, and in the Department of External Affairs before moving to Paris and London, where he died. His satiric novels such as King Goshawk and the Birds, 1926, sustained his reputation for a while, though they are less illuminating than his Bildungsroman of 1919, The Wasted Island.
Sean O’Faolain (1900–1991): born (as John Whelan) in Cork, to an RIC family; became an enthusiast for the Irish language and while a student at UCC was involved in republican activities; under Daniel Corkery’s influence supported the republicans in the Civil War but became disillusioned and rejected pietistic Irish nationalism and (largely) Catholicism. His landmark short-story collection, Midsummer Night Madness, 1932, was banned but established him at the forefront of his generation of Irish writers, a position he maintained not only through his fiction-writing but through his editing of the pluralistic (and often subversive) literary magazine the Bell from 1940, and his imaginative biographies of figures such as Daniel O’Connell and Hugh O’Neill.
Michael O’Flanagan (1876–1942): born (as ‘Flanagan’) to a small-farming family with a Fenian tradition near Castlerea, County Roscommon; ordained in 1900 after a brilliant career at Maynooth and returned to teach Irish at Summerhill College, Sligo, where he had gone to school; active in Gaelic League and co-operative movement, and a celebrated preacher; frequently visited USA on fundraising tours; on Executive Committee of Sinn Féin from 1911, and wrote separatist articles for journals such as the Spark and the Leader, frequently clashing with his clerical superiors; preached at O’Donovan Rossa’s funeral, 1915; prominent in reorganized Sinn Féin from 1918 and a tireless election campaigner; the shift to violent tactics worried him and he lost influence from 1919, though he continued active in the movement (and was Chaplain to Dáil Éireann in 1919). Although he apparently favoured a dominion settlement at one stage, he opposed the Treaty and the foundation of Fianna Fáil, remaining in Sinn Féin (and being elected President of the organization in 1933), though his relations with the movement were mercurial.
Patrick Sarsfield [‘P. S.’] O’Hegarty (1879–1955): born in County Cork; CBS educated; entered employment in the Post Office and transferred to London; active in Irish circles, joining the Gaelic League, the GAA and the IRB along with other prominent future revolutionaries; became a member of the IRB Supreme Council; contributed to Irish Freedom, 1910–14; advocated a strict separation between Church and state, and firmly secularist in religious views, but moderate in his militarism; inactive in the Easter Rising; refused to take oath of loyalty in 1918 and lost his civil service position; took the pro-Treaty side in 1922; appointed Secretary for the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, 1922. Wrote The Victory of Sinn Féin, 1924, and A History of Ireland under the Union, 1952.
Michael O’Hickey (Micheál Ó Hiceadha) (1861–1916): born in County Waterford; educated at CBS and at St John’s College; ordained to the priesthood, 1884; spent early priesthood in Scotland; member of the Gaelic Union; contributed poetry to the Nation and the Gaelic Journal; member of the London Irish Literary Society, 1892; on return to Ireland used position of diocesan Inspector of Schools to promote the use of the Irish language; appointed Professor of Irish at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, 1896; member of the RAI and Fellow of the RSAI, 1897; Vice-President of the Gaelic League, 1898–1903; active supporter of agitation seeking compulsory Irish for matriculation to the newly established NUI, 1908; removed from his Chair at Maynooth for condemning Irish bishops for their stance on the matter, 1909; appeal dismissed by Rome, 1912; returned to Waterford, where he died of blood poisoning in 1916.
Kevin O’Higgins (1892–1927): born in Queen’s County (County Leix); educated at Clongowes, St Mary’s Christian Brothers’, Portlaoise, and St Patrick’s College, Maynooth; studied law at University College, Dublin; joined Irish Volunteers, 1915, Sinn Féin MP for Queen’s County, 1918; Assistant Minister for Local Government, 1919; TD for Leix–Offaly, 1922, re-elected, 1923; Minister for Home Affairs, 1922 (renamed Justice, 1924); Assistant Adjutant-General on army general staff, 1922; Minister for External Affairs, 1925; assassinated, 1927. A ruthless advocate of draconian policies towards republican dissidents during and after the Civil War, he subsequently showed an interest in reviving a dual-monarchy approach to Anglo-Irish relations.
John Joseph O’Kelly (‘Sceilg’) (1872–1957): born Valentia Island, County Kerry; learnt Irish from his father and became a devout Irish-Irelander; did not attend secondary school but through his own efforts became a teacher and journalist in Dublin from 1897; passionate Gaelic Leaguer, much involved in producing Dineen’s Dictionary, co-founder of the notably republican Keating branch, and leading spirit in acrimonious disputes over language policy and the editorship of An Claidheamh Soluis; edited Banba, 1901–6; founder member of Sinn Féin, and editor of the Catholic Bulletin, 1911–22, which under his guidance powerfully and influentially endorsed the Easter Rising; treasurer of Irish National Aid and Volunteer Dependants’ Fund; deported, 1917; Sinn Féin TD for Louth, 1918, and deputized as Ceann Comhairle for first Dáil; President of Gaelic League from 1919, and Minister for Irish and then Education; opposed Treaty, campaigning against it in the USA and Australia; broke with de Valera over the latter’s recognition of the Free State, remaining a republican purist and member of Sinn Féin, and continuing to publish books and pamphlets on Irish politics and religion.
Ernie O’Malley (1897–1957): born in County Mayo; educated CBS and UCD, where, at the latter, he began to study medicine; joined the Irish Volunteers, 1917; highly active during the War of Independence, serving under Richard Mulcahy and Michael Collins; captured, December 1920, but escaped, February 1921; took the rank of Commandant General in the IRA’s Southern Division; rejected the Treaty; appointed to the IRA Army Council, October 1922; fought in the Four Courts, June 1922; badly wounded and captured in Dublin, November 1922; elected TD for Dublin North during his incarceration, 1923; went on a 41-day hunger-strike; released July 1924; spent much of his time travelling Europe and North America and developing his interests in literature and the visual arts; married the American sculptor Helen Hooker, 1935; later life spent documenting his role in the IRA. Published classic and highly ‘literary’ autobiographies On Another Man’s Wound, 1936, and The Singing Flame, posthumously, 1978.
O’Rahilly, Michael (‘The O’Rahilly’) (1875–1916): born in Ballylongford, County Kerry, to an influential shop-owning dynasty; educated at Clongowes and UCD, leaving to take over the family business, which he subsequently sold; lived off a private income in Bray and Dublin and temporarily moved to England and America but became a passionate Irish-language enthusiast and separatist nationalist, adopting a Gaelic ‘title’ around 1904 and returning to Dublin in 1909; involved in nationalist journals such as Sinn Féin and Irish Freedom and, most of all, An Claidheamh Soluis, which he revitalized. An early advocate of the Volunteering movement, he was much involved in obtaining arms for it; supported MacNeill in countermanding the order to rise on Easter weekend 1916, but took part in the fighting and died in action.
Kevin O’Shiel (1891–1970): born in County Tyrone; CBS and TCD educated; called to the Bar, 1913; member of the Irish Volunteers until it split, 1914; disillusioned by the postponement of Home Rule; joined the Anti-Partition League, 1916; joined Sinn Féin, 1917; Judicial Commissioner of the newly established Dáil Land Commission, 1920; supporter of the Treaty; Assistant Legal Adviser to the Provisional government, 1922–3; Director of the government’s North-Eastern Boundary Bureau, 1922–5; served as a Commissioner with the Irish Land Commission, 1923–63. Wrote The Rise of the Irish Nation League, 1916, The Making of a Republic, 1920, and The Land Problem in Ireland and Its Settlement, 1954.
Patrick Henry Pearse (1879–1916): born in Dublin; educated at the CBS and the Royal University; joined the Gaelic League, 1896; called to the Bar, 1901; convinced of the centrality of the Irish language in cultivating nationalism; edited An Claidheamh Soluis, 1903–9; involved in theatrical and literary circles; founded St Enda’s School, 1908, and St Ita’s girls’ school, 1910; adopted a militant tone after early support for Home Rule, 1912; admitted to the IRB, 1913; founder member of the Irish Volunteers, 1913; undertook a fundraising trip to the USA on behalf of St Enda’s and the Volunteers, 1914; took charge of the Volunteers who refused to side with Redmond’s call to join the British Army; IRB Director of Military Operations; delivered the graveside oration at the funeral of O’Donovan Rossa, 1915; delivered the ‘Proclamation of the Irish Republic’, Easter 1916; head of the Provisional government of the Republic of Ireland; surrendered, 19 April; executed, 3 May. Wrote the plays The Singer, 1910; An Rí, 1911; Eoin, 1915; and published Songs of the Irish Rebels, 1914.
William [‘Willie’] Pearse (1881–1916): born in Dublin; CBS educated; entered the Metropolitan School of Art, 1897; studied sculpture under Oliver Sheppard; followed his brother Patrick into the New Ireland Literary Society and the Gaelic League; member of the Executive of the Wolfe Tone and United Irishmen Memorial Committee, 1898; continued his studies in London and Paris before returning to Ireland in 1906; exhibited work at the RHA and Oireachteas exhibitions between 1906 and 1913; taught art and English at St Enda’s; co-established the Leinster Stage Society, 1912; joined the Irish Volunteers, 1913; took part in the Easter Rising but had little authority and was not involved in its planning; executed most likely because of his sibling relationship with Patrick, 4 May 1916.
George Noble Plunkett see George Noble, Count Plunkett
Grace Plunkett (née Gifford) (1888–1955): born in Dublin; studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, 1907–8; joined Inghinidhe na hÉireann, 1910; contributed to the Irish Review and the Irish Citizen; engaged to Joseph Plunkett, 1915; converted to Catholicism; married Plunkett hours before his execution, 1916; appointed to the Sinn Féin Executive, 1917; opposed the Treaty, 1922; imprisoned, 1923; concentrated on work as a cartoonist and artist following the Civil War.
Joseph Mary Plunkett (1887–1916): born in Dublin, son of Count and Countess Plunkett; educated at Belvedere College, Stonyhurst, in Paris, and by tutors; ill from childhood with recurrent glandular tuberculosis; inclined towards mysticism and theatricality, and interested in Orientalist subjects after his travels in North Africa; published The Circle and the Sword, 1911; edited the Irish Review, 1913–14; joined the Irish Volunteers, 1913; elected to Provisional Committee; co-founded the Irish Theatre Company, 1914; named in the twelve-man Executive of the Volunteers, 1914; appointed Director of Military Operations, 1914; inducted into the IRB, 1915; travelled to Germany to help Casement secure aid for the Rising, and probably chief strategist in its military planning; travelled to America to brief Clan na Gael on progress; signatory of the ‘Proclamation of the Irish Republic’; fought in the GPO during the Rising; married Grace Gifford in prison on the eve of his execution, 4 May 1916. Collected Poems published posthumously.
Jennie Wyse Power (née O’Toole) (1858–1941): born Baltinglass, County Wicklow; active in Ladies’ Land League, and remained a strong Parnellite; opened the Irish Farm and Produce Company shops and restaurant at 21 Henry Street, Dublin, 1899, a central meeting place for nationalists; committed Gaelic Leaguer and on the board of management of Ring College; active suffragist, co-founder of Inghinidhe na hÉireann, member of Sinn Féin Executive, and active in Dublin politics; founder member and President (in 1915) of Cumann na mBan; supported 1916 rebels and helped to organize Volunteer Dependants’ Fund; supported Treaty and continued to be prominent in Dublin Corporation politics as well as Cumann na nGaedheal, but resigned from that party in 1925 and later became a Fianna Fáil Senator.
John Redmond (1856–1918): born Dublin, to a mixed Catholic gentry and Protestant family with deep Wexford roots; educated Clongowes and (briefly) Trinity College; followed his father into Parnellite politics in 1881; active though not in the inner circle, and supported Parnell during the split; an impressive orator with pluralist instincts, he became head of the reunited party in 1900, holding the party together despite challenges from mavericks, and helping to bring about a series of ameliorative measures to do with land, education and housing, before Home Rule came back to the forefront of politics after 1909. His instincts were conservative (he opposed women’s suffrage and was unsympathetic to labour) and increasingly imperial, and he initially underestimated the strength of Ulster resistance to Home Rule; the Bill introduced in 1912 was decried by many as insufficient. By this stage, the rhetoric of advanced nationalism, and brilliant publicists such as Arthur Griffith, had portrayed the Irish Parliamentary Party scornfully as collaborationist, ineffectual and clientelist – and, since Redmond’s alliance with Joseph Devlin of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, deeply in thrall to atavistic Catholicism. However, he managed to take over much of the Volunteer movement after 1913, and his decisive support for the war effort looked at first like an effective ploy. But his exclusion from Irish policy-making in London, the favour shown to leaders of Ulster unionism by the government and the inexorable progress of the war towards a bloody stalemate helped to destroy his credibility. Attempts to bring off a Home Rule settlement after the Rising were undermined partly by the unacceptability of Partition, and partly by unionist objections. He died in March 1918, nine months before the destruction of his party by Sinn Féin in the December election.
William Rooney (1873–1901): born in Dublin; CBS educated; a railway clerk by trade; early member of the Irish Fireside Club, where young people took Irish-language lessons and were introduced to the works of Irish nationalist authors; met Arthur Griffith through the club; joined the Leinster Literary Society, contributing to its journal Eblana; established the Celtic Literary Society, 1893; edited the Society’s journal, An Seanachaidhe (The Storyteller); joined the Gaelic League despite his dissatisfaction with its non-political stance; travelled the country promoting the Irish language; leading member of the 1798 Centenary Committee; persuaded Griffith to return from South Africa to edit the United Irishman, 1899; developed Sinn Féin policy with Griffith; founded Cumann na nGael as an umbrella nationalist organization, 1900; died from TB, 1901.
George Russell (‘AE’) (1867–1935): born Lurgan, educated Dublin, met his ‘oldest friend and enemy’, Yeats, when a fellow student at Metropolitan School of Art; mystic, poet, painter, but also a passionate co-operativist and the efficient and tireless Secretary of Irish Agricultural Organisation Society from 1897, editing the eclectic Irish Homestead (which published, among much else, the early work of James Joyce) with his close friend Susan Mitchell; published as ‘AE’ from 1893, both books of poetry and many visionary pamphlets on the Irish future; closely involved in early years of Irish National Theatre Society, his Rathgar salon attracting a circle of young writers (often disapproved of by Yeats); idealistically nationalist, oscillated in his support of advanced politics, but was unequivocally on the workers’ side in the 1913 lockout (the Irish Homestead carried an important series of articles in dialogue with James Connolly). Powerfully affected by the 1916 Rising, Russell was much involved in the Irish Convention of 1917, which attempted to bring about an agreed devolutionary solution; after its failure he campaigned against British policies in Ireland, flirting with republicanism while following his own path; he endorsed the Treaty and from 1923 edited the Irish Statesman, a sophisticated, pluralist and often subversive journal of literature and current affairs, widely read until its demise after a libel case in 1928 and the withdrawal of backers after the 1929 stock-market crash; at odds with the clerical and pro-censorship tone of Irish public life, he spent much of his peripatetic last years in the USA and England.
Desmond Ryan (1893–1964): born in London, son of W. P. Ryan, moved to Ireland in 1906; much influenced by his father’s left-wing nationalism, and by his own education at St Enda’s and an early devotion to Pearse, whom he served in the GPO in 1916; after internment attended UCD and became a journalist for Freeman’s Journal and edited Pearse’s works, as well as writing a biography of James Connolly; disillusioned by the Civil War, moved to London, continuing to work as a journalist and historian of the revolution; returned to Ireland at outset of Second World War, where he farmed, wrote many books on labour history and Fenianism, and a roman à clef, The Invisible Army, 1932, and occupied himself with labour politics.
James Ryan (1891–1970): born in County Wexford, brother of Mary Kate, Min, Agnes, Nell and others of the Tomcoole Ryan family; studied at the Royal College of Surgeons; joined the IRB, 1914; served as Chief Medical Officer at the GPO during the Rising; imprisoned at Frongoch, released during the summer of 1916; went into medical practice in Wexford; Commandant of the Wexford Battalion of the Volunteers, 1917; elected MP in South Wexford, 1918; married Máirín Cregan, 1919; arrested and interned on Spike Island, 1920; opposed the Treaty; provided medical aid during the government shelling of the Four Courts and later in the Hammam Hotel, 1922; arrested and interned in Mountjoy and the Curragh; participated in a 36-day hunger-strike; re-elected as a Sinn Féin TD for Wexford while in prison, 1923; founding member of Fianna Fáil, 1926; later held the posts of Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Health and Social Welfare, and Minister for Finance; on retiring from the Dáil, nominated to the Seanad; served until 1969.
Mary Kate Ryan (1878–1934): born in County Wexford; educated by Loreto nuns in Wexford and Dublin; graduated from the Royal University and Cambridge; her nationalism emerged during her time in London; returned to Ireland, 1910; worked at the National University as a language teacher; temporary Professor of French, 1913–18; her home at Ranelagh Road used as a frequent meeting place for republicans; arrested after the Easter Rising but released in June 1916; married Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh, 1918; continued teaching during his long absences as an international envoy; initially supported the Treaty but soon turned against it; the Treaty split the Ryan family, as her sisters Min and Agnes were married to pro-Treaty supporters Richard Mulcahy and Denis McCullough; continued to lecture at UCD until her death from heart problems in 1934.
William Patrick [‘W. P.’] Ryan (1867–1942): born in County Tipperary; emigrated to London and became a journalist, 1886; active Irish revivalist; prominent member of the Gaelic League; returned to Ireland, 1905; edited the Irish Peasant; his fierce criticism of the Catholic Church forced the paper to close under pressure from Cardinal Logue, 1906; kept the paper alive under various titles but lost support for his socialist stance and for having fallen out with Sinn Féin; returned to London to work with the Daily Herald, 1911. Remained with the paper until his death. Wrote The Plough and the Cross, 1910, The Pope’s Green Island, 1912, The Celt and the Cosmos, 1914, The Irish Labour Movement, 1919.
Francis [‘Frank’] Sheehy-Skeffington (1878–1916): born in County Cavan; UCD educated; committed to women’s rights and pacifism; married Hanna Sheehy, 1903; co-founded the Young Ireland branch of the United Irish League, 1904; assistant editor of the Nationist, 1906; freelance journalist, contributed to the Irish Peasant and the Irish Nation; published a biography of Michael Davitt, 1908; co-founded the Irish Women’s Franchise League, 1908; co-founded the Irish Citizen, 1912; supported the strikers during the 1913 lockout; imprisoned for making anti-recruitment speeches, 1915; released after hunger-strike; organized a civilian defence force to prevent looting during the 1916 rebellion; arrested by the military and shot without trial, 26 April 1916.
Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington (1877–1946): born in County Cork; daughter of Nationalist MP David Sheehy; educated at the Royal University of Ireland; married Francis Skeffington, 1903; both committed to feminism, pacifism, socialism and nationalism; co-founded the Irish Women’s Franchise League, 1908; arrested for suffragette activities, 1912; released after hunger-strike; edited the Irish Citizen, 1913–20; Francis shot without trial during Easter Rising, 1916; toured USA to publicize the case, 1916–18; Director of Organization for Sinn Féin, 1921; opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty; campaigned for prisoners’ rights, 1922–3; Vice-President of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; split with Fianna Fáil when de Valera entered the Dáil, 1927; contributed to the Irish Word and An Phoblacht; opposed the 1937 constitution; formed the Women’s Social and Progressive League, 1937; unsuccessful candidate in the 1943 general election.
Edward [‘Ned’] Millington Stephens (1888–1955): born in Dublin; TCD educated; called to the Bar, 1912; occupied various legal offices in the civil service; sympathetic to Sinn Féin; accompanied Collins during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations, 1921; Secretary for the North-East Boundary Bureau and prominent in the Free State’s bid to redraw the border, 1922–6; served as Assistant Registrar of the Supreme Court until his retirement in 1950. Nephew of the playwright J. M. Synge, of whom he wrote an absorbing memoir, My Uncle John, posthumously published, 1974.
John Francis Sweetman (1872–1953): born in County Wexford; entered Downside Abbey, 1891; ordained a priest, 1899; Catholic Chaplain to British forces during the Boer War, 1899–1902; adopted a nationalist viewpoint because of his Boer War experiences; appointed Superior and Headmaster of the Benedictine school in Enniscorthy, 1905; moved the school to a larger establishment near Gorey, which he christened ‘Mount St Benedict’, 1907; the school with its unorthodox regime attracted students such as James Dillon and Seán McBride; after 1916 became strongly anti-British and pro-Sinn Féin; attended the funeral of Thomas Ashe, 1917; publicly supported the anti-conscription campaign, 1917; accused of harbouring Sinn Féiners at Mount St Benedict; school forced to close as parents removed pupils in response, 1925; placed under ecclesiastical ban, 1925–39; allowed to return to Mount St Benedict when his priestly faculties were restored, 1939; buried in the grounds of the school.
Cesca Trench (‘Sadhbh Trinseach’) (1891–1918): born in Liverpool to an Anglo-Irish clerical family; educated in England and Switzerland; learnt Irish from 1907 (taught by her cousin Dermot Trench, who is satirized in the opening chapter of Ulysses), joined Gaelic League, 1908, and became a passionate Gaeilgeoir and Sinn Féin supporter; studied art in Paris, 1912–14, and Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin, from 1914; involved in Cumann na mBan and Executive of Gaelic League, and produced much art-work for the nationalist movement; married Diarmuid Coffey in April 1918 and died in influenza epidemic that October.
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939): born in Dublin to an artistic family, who lived largely in London during his youth, spending inspirational summers in Sligo; influenced by the old Fenian John O’Leary, and by Maud Gonne, and spent much time in neo-Fenian circles in Dublin from the mid-1880s; sought to inspire a national literature for Ireland (in English), through landmark volumes such as The Celtic Twilight, 1893, and The Wind Among the Reeds, 1899, as well as through plays such as The Countess Cathleen, 1892, and the Abbey Theatre, which he founded with Augusta Gregory in 1904 and dominated for the next thirty years; distanced himself from advanced nationalism from about 1906 but reinserted himself into the nationalist narrative after 1916, through poems, plays and public speeches, returning to Dublin to live in 1922 and becoming a Senator of the Free State; awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.
Ella Young (1867–1956): born in County Antrim, moved to Dublin, 1880; graduated from the RUI; published poems on Celtic mythology and mysticism; joined Sinn Féin, 1912; co-founded Cumann na mBan, 1914; opposed the Treaty, 1922; Secretary of the Irish Republican Memorial Committee, 1922; moved to America, 1925; lectured at Berkeley. Published The Coming of Lugh, 1909, Celtic Wonder Tales, 1910, The Wonder-Smith and His Son, 1927, The Tangle-Coated Horse, 1929, The Unicorn with Silver Shoes, 1932, and her autobiography Flowering Dusk, 1945.