Seán Mac Diarmada

Seán Mac Diarmada ( English Seán MacDermott ; born February 28, 1883 in Kiltyclogher , County Leitrim , † May 12, 1916 in Dublin ) was an Irish politician and revolutionary leader. He was one of seven leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising , which he helped organize as a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood's Military Committee , and was one of the signatories of the Easter Proclamation . He was executed after the uprising was put down.

biography

Mac Diarmada grew up in rural north County Leitrim and received his education through the Christian Brothers . In 1908 he moved to Dublin, having long been involved in Irish independence and cultural organizations such as Sinn Féin , the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), the Ancient Order of Hibernians and Conradh na Gaeilge . He became a close friend of Tom Clarke and quickly rose to the board of directors of the IRB, eventually becoming its secretary. He was the national organizer of Sinn Féin and in 1910 became the executive director of the radical newspaper Irish Freedom . Mac Diarmada contracted poliomyelitis and has had to walk on a stick ever since.

In November 1913, Mac Diarmada became a founding member of the Irish Volunteers and brought this organization under the control of the IRB. In May 1915, Mac Diarmada was arrested in Tuam , under the Defense of the Realm Act , for delivering a speech against the recruitment of Irish into the British Army .

Easter Rising

Plaque in Dublin on the building of his office

After his release from prison in September 1915, he became a member of the secret military committee of the IRB, which was responsible for planning the Easter Rising. Mac Diarmada and Clarke were primarily responsible for this.

Because of his handicap, Mac Diarmada took little part in the fighting during Easter week and was stationed at headquarters in the General Post Office . After the task, he almost escaped by mingling with the large number of prisoners. He was eventually recognized by Daniel Hoey, a detective in the political "G Division" of the Dublin Police Department . After a court martial on May 9, Mac Diarmada was executed in Kilmainham Gaol by firing squad on May 12 at the age of 33.

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! ”(“ I feel happiness as I have never experienced it before. I am dying so that the Irish nation can live. ”)

In September 1919, Hoey was shot dead by Michael Collins ' IRA unit "The Squad". Likewise, on Collins's orders, the British officer Lee-Wilson was killed, who had ordered that Mac Diarmada should be shot rather than imprisoned.

Commemoration

Seán MacDermott Street ( Sráid Sheáin Mhic Dhiarmada ) in Dublin is named after him, as is a train station in Sligo and Páirc Sheáin Mhic Dhiarmada , the GAA stadium in Carrick-on-Shannon . In his hometown, Kiltyclogher, a statue was erected in the center of the village; the house in Laghty Barr townland , where he spent his childhood, was declared a National Monument.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Michael Collins: A Life by James Mackay, p. 135
2. ↑ http://www.theirishstory.com/2011/04/23/%e2%80%98slaves-or-freemen%e2%80%99-sean-mcdermott-the-irb-and-the-psychology-of- the easter rising / Seán McDermott, the IRB, and the psychology of the Easter Rising
3. ↑ http://homepage.eircom.net/~carersgroup/kiltyclogher.html
4. ↑ http://www.archaeology.ie/en/NationalMonuments/SearchByCounty/FileDownload,305,en.pdf  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. National Monuments in County Leitrim  

Web links

• Seaghán Mac Diarmada , Census of Ireland, 1911