Seán Mac Diarmada
Seán Mac Diarmada Seán MacDermott | |
---|---|
Born | citation needed] Kiltyclogher, County Leitrim, Ireland | 27 January 1883[
Died | 12 May 1916 Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin, Ireland[1] | (aged 33)
Cause of death | Execution by firing squad |
Allegiance | Irish Republican Brotherhood Irish Volunteers |
Years of service | 1913–1916 |
Rank | Supreme Council IRB Military Committee IRB |
Battles/wars | Easter Rising |
Other work | Educator, principal, barrister, republican activist, poet |
Seán Mac Diarmada (27 January 1883 – 12 May 1916), also known as Seán MacDermott, was an Irish republican political activist and revolutionary leader. He was one of the seven leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916, which he helped to organise as a member of the Military Committee of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and was the second signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.[2] He was executed for his part in the Rising at age 33.
Brought up in rural
Early life
Mac Diarmada was born John MacDermott in Corranmore, close to Kiltyclogher in County Leitrim,[3] an area where the landscape was marked by reminders of poverty and oppression.[4] His father Donald McDermott was a member of the IRB and a friend of John Daly.[5]
Surrounding Mac Diarmada in rural Leitrim, there were signs of Irish history throughout the area. There was an ancient
He was educated at Corradoona national school.
In 1910 he became manager of the radical newspaper Irish Freedom, which he founded along with Bulmer Hobson and Denis McCullough. He also became a national organiser for the IRB and was taken under the wing of veteran Fenian Tom Clarke. Indeed, over the year the two became nearly inseparable. Shortly thereafter Mac Diarmada contracted polio and needed a cane to walk.
MacDiarmada along with Clarke supported the workers during the
In November 1913 Mac Diarmada was one of the original members of the Irish Volunteers, and continued to work to bring that organisation under IRB control.[11] In May 1915 Mac Diarmada was arrested in Tuam, County Galway, under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914 for giving a speech against enlisting into the British Army during the First World War.[12]
Easter Rising
Following his release in September 1915, he joined the secret Military Committee of the IRB, which was responsible for planning the rising. Indeed, Mac Diarmada and Clarke were the people most responsible for it.[13] In 1914 he said "the Irish patriotic spirit will die forever unless a blood sacrifice is made in the next few years”.[14]
Due to his disability, Mac Diarmada took little part in the fighting of Easter week, but was stationed at the headquarters in the
In September 1919 Hoey was shot dead by
Mac Diarmada had been in regular correspondence with Nell Ryan.[17] In his final letter he wrote: "Miss Ryan, she who in all probability, had I lived, would have been my wife".[18] "Min" Josephine Ryan and her sister, Phyllis, had been couriers to the GPO.[19] They also visited Kilmainham Gaol, before his execution, and managed to evade arrest. Min, a founder of Cumann na mBan, managed to escape from Ireland to America;[20] she later married Richard Mulcahy.
Before his execution, Mac Diarmada wrote, "I feel happiness the like of which I have never experienced. I die that the Irish nation might live!”[21]
Commemoration
Cultural legacy
Leitrim native Seán Fox portrayed Mac Diarmada in RTÉ's 2016 series
Mick Blake, a Leitrim singer/songwriter, wrote "Sean MacDiarmada (the Pride of Corranmore)" to commemorate the centenary of the 1916 Rising. The song was commissioned by New York businessman Joseph Mc Manus.
See also
- List of people on stamps of Ireland
- List of members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood
References
- ^ 16 Lives: Sean MacDiarmada, Brian Feeney (2014)
- ^ O'Halpin, Eunan & Ó Corráin, Daithí (2020), The Dead of the Irish Revolution. Yale University Press, pg 96.
- ^ "Seán MacDiarmada" (PDF). The 1916 Rising: Personalities and Perspectives. National Library of Ireland. 2006. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 April 2016. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
- ISBN 978-1-873437-31-5.
- ^ 16 Lives:Sean MacDiarmada. p. 36.
- ^ Cormac O'Grada, "The Great Irish Potato Famine", vol VII, Irish Social and Economic History (1995), p. 57.
- ^ "National Library of Ireland - 1916 Exhibition". www.nli.ie. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
- ^ 16 Lives: Sean MacDiarmada.
- ^ Manning, Michael (2016). Ireland's Path to Independence. p. 58.
- ^ Feeney, Brian (2014). Seán MacDiarmada: 16 Lives. O'Brien Press.
- ^ S McCoole, "No Ordinary Women", p.30.
- ISBN 978-0191651267. Archivedfrom the original on 6 May 2017. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
- ^ S McCoole, "No Ordinary Women", p.35.
- ^ "Putting the language of Pearse in context: Blood Sacrifice and 1916". independent.ie. 10 April 2016. Archived from the original on 4 February 2017. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
- ^ Others in the Government who were executed were: Pearse, Clarke, Plunkett, Connolly, MacDonagh, and Ceannt. S McCoole, "No Ordinary Women", p.47.
- ^ a b James Mackay, "Michael Collins: A Life", p.135.
- ^ "Eight Women of the Easter Rising" Archived 12 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine, New York Times, 16 March 2016.
- ^ Piaras F Mac Lochlainn, "Last Words", Dublin, (The Stationery Office, 1990), p.170.; McCoole, p.54.
- ^ Richard Mulcahy, "Richard Mulcahy (1886-1971) A Family Memoir", (Dublin, Aurelian Press 1999), p. 275; McCoole, p.54.
- ^ Lochlainn, p.171.
- ^ "'Slaves or Freemen?' Sean McDermott, the IRB and the psychology of the Easter Rising | the Irish Story". Archived from the original on 2 May 2011. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
- ^ "North Leitrim/West Cavan Carer's Group: Supporting caregivers in northwest Ireland". Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
- ^ http://www.archaeology.ie/en/NationalMonuments/SearchByCounty/FileDownload,305,en.pdf[permanent dead link] National Monuments in County Leitrim
- ^ "Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1948 – Busáras, by Michael Scott". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 14 August 2021. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
External links
- Seaghán Mac Diarmada, Census of Ireland, 1911