Seán Mac Eoin
Seán Mac Eoin | |
---|---|
June 1929 – February 1932 | |
Constituency | Leitrim–Sligo |
Personal details | |
Born | John Joseph McKeon 30 September 1893 Ballinalee, County Longford, Ireland |
Died | 7 July 1973 Dublin, Ireland | (aged 79)
Political party | Fine Gael |
Spouse |
Alice Cooney (m. 1922) |
Relatives | Patrick Cooney (nephew-in-law) |
Military service | |
Allegiance | |
Battles/wars | |
Seán Mac Eoin (30 September 1893 – 7 July 1973)[1] was an Irish Fine Gael politician and soldier who served as Minister for Defence briefly in 1951 and from 1954 to 1957, Minister for Justice from 1948 to 1951, and Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces from February 1929 to October 1929. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1921 to 1923, and from 1929 to 1965.[2]
He was commonly referred to as the "Blacksmith of Ballinalee".[3]
Early life
He was born John Joseph McKeon on 30 September 1893 at Bunlahy, Granard, County Longford, the eldest son of Andrew McKeon and Katherine Treacy.[4] After a national school education, he trained as a blacksmith at his father's forge and, on his father's death in February 1913, he took over the running of the forge and the maintenance of the McKeon family. He moved to Kilinshley in the Ballinalee district of County Longford to set up a new forge.
He had joined the
MacEoin was a member of the Knights of Saint Columbanus.[6]
IRA leader
He came to prominence in the
On the afternoon of 7 January 1921, a joint Royal Irish Constabulary and British Army patrol consisting of ten policemen led by an Inspector, with a security detachment of nine soldiers, appeared on the street outside the home of Anne Martin in Kilshruley, where MacEoin was staying. Mac Eoin's own testimony at his trial (which was not contested by any parties present) states that:
"I was at the table writing when I was informed of the advance of the party. My account books were left in this house for safety. I was in partial uniform, wearing Sam Browne belt and revolver with two Mills No. 4 bombs in my pocket. Owing to some females being in the house, I had to get out as I could not endanger them by putting up a defence in the house, and as this Officer and Police Force had already signified to my sister and mother their intention to shoot me on sight, I decided to give them a run for their money. I stepped out on the street, about three paces directly in front of the oncoming force, and opened fire with my revolver. The leading file fell, and then the second file in the gateway brought their rifles to the ready. I then threw a bomb, and jumped back behind the porch to let it burst. When it had burst and the smoke had lifted, I saw that the whole force had cleared away, save the officer who was dead or dying on the street."[8]
The casualties from this incident were District Inspector Thomas McGrath killed, and a police constable wounded.[9]
On 2 February 1921, the Longford IRA ambushed a force of the Auxiliaries on the road at Clonfin, using a mine it had planted. Two lorries were involved, the first blown up, and the second strafed by rapid rifle fire. District Inspector Lt-Cmdr Worthington Craven was hit by two bullets and killed.[10] District Inspector Taylor was shot in the chest and stomach. Four auxiliaries and a driver were killed and eight wounded. The IRA volunteers captured 18 rifles, 20 revolvers and a Lewis gun. At the Clonfin Ambush, Mac Eoin ordered his men to care for the wounded British, at the expense of captured weaponry.[11] This earned him both praise and criticism, but became a big propaganda boost for the war effort, especially in the United States.[12] He was admired by many within the IRA for leading practically the only effective column in the midlands. In July 1920, he was among the majority of commanders who were prepared to sign the Agreement recognizing the Volunteers as the Army of the Republic. The Oath of Allegiance was "for the purpose of ratifying under the Agreement under which the Volunteers came under the control of the Dail".[13]
Mac Eoin was captured at Mullingar railway station in March 1921, imprisoned and sentenced to death for the murder of an RIC District Inspector McGrath in the shooting in Kilshruley in January 1921.[9]
Mac Eoin's family forge was near Currygrane, County Longford, the family home of
Mac Eoin wrote the following letter to his friend (and classmate at Moyne Latin School) Father Jim Sheridan, a combatant in the Old IRA and a 'flying column' member, who had been ordained and sent to Milwaukee to study theology:
Dear Jim, Last week I was tried, convicted and sentenced to die three weeks from today. My poor mother was here yesterday to request that my body be turned over to her for Christian burial. They refused and told her that my body would be buried in quicklime in the prison yard. If you write immediately, I will receive your letter before I died. Farewell, Jim. Pray for my soul.
According to Oliver St. John Gogarty, Charles Bewley wrote Mac Eoin's death-sentence speech. Michael Collins organised a rescue attempt. Six IRA Volunteers, led by Paddy O'Daly and Emmet Dalton, captured a British armoured car and, wearing British Army uniforms, gained access to Mountjoy Prison. However, Mac Eoin was not in the part of the jail they believed, and after some shooting, the party retreated.[15]
Within days, Mac Eoin was elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1921 general election, as a TD for Longford–Westmeath.[16]
He was eventually released from prison — along with all other members of the Dáil, after Collins threatened to break off treaty negotiations with the British government unless he were freed. It was rumoured that Sean Mac Eoin was to be the best man at Collins' wedding.[15]
Treaty and the Civil War
In the debate on the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Mac Eoin seconded Arthur Griffith's motion that it should be accepted.[1]
Mac Eoin joined the
Political career
He resigned from the Army in 1929, and was elected at a by-election to Dáil Éireann for the Leitrim–Sligo constituency, representing Cumann na nGaedheal. At the 1932 general election, he returned to the constituency of Longford–Westmeath, and—with the merging of Cumann na nGaedheal into Fine Gael—continued to serve the Longford area as TD in either Longford–Westmeath (1932–37, 1948–65) or Athlone–Longford (1937–48) until he was defeated at the 1965 general election.
During a long political career he served as
He unsuccessfully stood twice as candidate for the office of President of Ireland, against Seán T. O'Kelly in 1945, and Éamon de Valera in 1959.
The attempt at freeing him from jail is referenced in the Jack Higgins novel The Eagle Has Landed.[17]
Mac Eoin retired from public life after the 1965 general election, and died on 7 July 1973. He married Alice Cooney on 21 June 1922, at a ceremony attended by Griffith and Collins; she died on 16 February 1985. They had no children.[4]
Legacy
On 16 June 2013, during the 'General Sean MacEoin Commemoration Weekend', a statue of Mac Eoin was unveiled in his home town of Ballinalee; on the same day a plaque was unveiled in Bunlahy, his birthplace. Both the statue and the plaque were unveiled by Enda Kenny, the then Taoiseach, who laid a wreath at the statue.[18][19]
The forge that he worked in is still standing and is known as 'Mac Eoin forge'.[20]
Bibliography
- O'Farrell, Padraic (1981). The Seán Mac Eoin Story. ISBN 0853426643.
- O'Farrell, Padraic (1993). Blacksmith of Ballinalee: Sean Mac Eoin. ISBN 0951078321.
- "Witness Statement of Seán Mac Eoin submitted to the Bureau of Military History in 1955" (PDF).
See also
References
- ^ a b "MacEoin, General Seán". University College Dublin. Archived from the original on 25 August 2006. Retrieved 20 June 2007.
- ^ "Seán Mac Eoin". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 3 January 2019. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
- ^ "The Old Country". TIME. 29 June 1959. Archived from the original on 1 October 2007. Retrieved 20 June 2007.
- ^ a b Coleman, Marie. "Mac Eoin, Seán". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
- ^ "Interview with MacEoin". YouTube. Archived from the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved 24 September 2017.
- ^ Cielou, Robert (1983). Spare My Tortured People Ulster and the Green Border. Whitethorne Press. p. 57.
- ^ R Abbott, "Police Casualties in Ireland, 1919-1922", (Cork 2000), pp.86-7.
- ^ Irish Republican Bulletin, Volume Five, Number 48. Page 2.
- ^ a b 'Guerrilla Warfare in the Irish War of Independence, 1919-1921', by Joseph McKenna (Pub. McFarland, 2014).
- ^ Belfast Telegraph, 4 Feb 1921.
- ^ Damage Reports (21 Feb 1921, Hansard)
- ISBN 0-85342-664-3.
- ^ Oglaich na hÉireann, Weekly Memorandum: No. 18, 4 Nov 1921. Military Archives, Ireland CD 236/3.
- ^ Jeffery 2006, p275-6
- ^ ISBN 0-09-968580-9.
- ^ "Seán Mac Eoin". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 24 May 2007. Retrieved 20 June 2007.
- ^ "The Eagle Has Landed". Myths.com.
- ^ "Kenny targeted by 200 pro-life protestors in Longford". 17 June 2013. Archived from the original on 7 May 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
- ^ "Ballinalee and Bunlahy celebrate General Sean MacEoin". Archived from the original on 7 May 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
- ^ "MacEoin's Forge, CLOONCOOSE (GRANARD BY.), LONGFORD". Archived from the original on 7 May 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
- Jeffery, Keith (2006). Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: A Political Soldier. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-820358-2.
- Lawlor, Pearse, 1920-1922: The Outrages (Cork 2011)
- MacEoin, Uinseann (ed.), Survivors (Dublin 1980)
- O'Farrel, Padraic, The Seán Mac Eoin Story (Mercier Press, Cork 1981)