As we celebrate the Centenary of the 1916 Rising, we take a look at the men who led the Rebellion 100 years ago.
From Connolly to Pearse and Clarke to Plunkett, these are the brave men who gave their lives for Irish freedom in 1916:
James Connolly
Connolly was a revolutionary socialist and nationalist, once described by Padraig Pearse as the “guiding brain of our resistance”.
Born in Edinburgh to Irish parents, when he arrived in Dublin more than half of the population was living below the poverty line.
Connolly was used to poverty but was shocked by the slum conditions in Dublin’s tenements and believed he had a solution.
In 1896 he founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party, which for the first time connected the struggles of the working classes with Irish freedom.
After Jim Larkin departed for America following the Dublin Lockout of 1913, Connolly became General Secretary of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union and commander of the Irish Citizen Army.
As leader of the ICA, he was increasingly determined to create a socialist republic and attempted to goad the Irish Volunteers into action by threatening to take his 200-strong army to fight against the British Army alone if necessary.
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The IRB, who had already infiltrated the Volunteers, were alarmed at this.
Eventually, Padraig Pearse and Tom Clarke met with Connolly and reached an agreement to strike during Easter of 1916.
On Easter Monday, April 24, Connolly led the Headquarters Battalion from Liberty Hall to the GPO and headed military operations there throughout the week – and was considered the de-facto commander-in-chief.
Like the majority of the Rising leaders, he backed the surrender to the British as he “could not bear to see his brave boys burnt to death”.
Connolly was the last of the leaders to face the firing squad, on May 12, and did so tied to a chair, having been so badly wounded he could not stand up.
His death contributed to the widespread feeling of disgust following the leaders’ executions.
Padraig Pearse
Seen by many as the embodiment of the rebellion, Pearse’s skills as an orator gave voice to the Republican dream.
The son an English sculptor, he had little interest in the family business but became fascinated by Irish cultural matters as a teenager.
Pearse was a fierce Irish language revivalist and saw education as the key to saving it, leading to the foundation of St Enda’s School in 1908.
He was often referred to as a dreamer and once swore an oath with his brother Willie to save Ireland – or die in the attempt.
In December 1913, Pearse was sworn in to the IRB, and soon afterwards was co-opted into the Volunteers.
By 1915 he was on the IRB’s Supreme Council and its secret Military Council. On August 15 he gave a graveside oration at the funeral of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa which convinced many an uprising was possible.
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He closed with the words: “They think they have foreseen everything, think they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools! They have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”
When the Rising broke out on Easter Monday, it was Pearse who read the Proclamation of the Republic from the GPO.
Six days later, following heavy civilian casualties and with the city lying in ruins, he gave the order to surrender.
Pearse and 14 other leaders, including his brother Willie, were court-martialled and executed by firing squad.
He along with Thomas MacDonagh and Tom Clarke were the first rebels to be executed, on the morning of May 3, 1916.
Thomas J Clarke
Described by some as the key force behind the Rising, Thomas J Clarke linked the revolutionaries of old with the new IRB activists.
A dedicated Fenian, IRB activist and an explosives expert, his newspaper and tobacco shop on Great Britain Street – now Parnell Street – became a notorious hub of nationalist activity.
In 1915, he and Sean MacDiarmada established the Military Committee of the IRB to plan what would become the Easter Rising.
Later that year Clarke used the funeral of the old Fenian Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa – the scene of Pearse’s infamous graveside speech – to mobilise volunteers and fuel expectations of an uprising.
His was the first signature on the Proclamation of the Republic, followed by Padraig Pearse, whom he fought alongside in the GPO during Easter Week.
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Following the surrender on April 29, Clarke was held in Kilmainham Gaol until he was executed by firing squad on May 3, aged 59.
Before his execution, he asked his wife Kathleen to pass on a message to the people
of Ireland.
Clarke said: “I and my fellow signatories believe we have struck the first successful blow for Irish freedom.
“The next blow, which we have no doubt Ireland will strike, will win through. In this belief, we die happy.”
Eamonn Ceannt
A passionate Irish speaker and a talented musician, Ceannt was part of a group of younger radicals recruited to the IRB.
In 1907 he joined the Dublin Central branch of Sinn Fein and became increasingly determined to see an independent Ireland.
In 1912, Ceannt was sworn into the IRB and three years later he was part of the group’s Military Council who, along with Joseph Plunkett and Sean MacDiarmada, began making plans for a rebellion.
He was made commander of the Fourth Battalion of Volunteers, who were stationed at the South Dublin Union during the Rising.
From their base in the south of Kilmainham, his battalion drove back repeated assaults by the British forces.
As their numbers dwindled throughout the week, Ceannt and his men continued to hold their enemy off, until the order to surrender was given by Padraig Pearse.
Ceannt was court-martialled and sentenced to death. He was executed by firing squad on May 8, aged 34.
In July 1926, the Irish Independent published his final message, which read: “Ireland has shown she is a nation.
“This generation can claim to have raised sons as brave as any that went before.
“And in the years to come Ireland will honour those who risked all for her honour at Easter 1916.”
Thomas MacDonagh
A native of Co Tipperary, MacDonagh spent the early part of his life as a teacher and moved to Dublin to help Pearse set up St Enda’s School.
A poet and a playwright, his play When The Dawn Is Come was produced at the Abbey in 1908.
Like his friend Joseph Plunkett, he also edited the Irish Review and was an Irish Theatre director.
In 1913, the pair attended the inaugural meeting of the Irish Volunteers and MacDonagh was appointed director of training the following year, later joining the IRB.
Although he is remembered as one of the seven leaders of the Rising, he didn’t join the secret Military Council until April 1916 – just weeks before the events of Easter Week.
He commanded the Second Battalion of Volunteers that occupied the Jacob’s Factory during the Rising – though they saw little action, with the British preferring to take more central positions in the city.
MacDonagh received the order to surrender on April 30, though all his men were willing to continue the fight. He was executed by firing squad on May 3, aged 38.
Sean Mac Diarmada
One of the most influential Rising leaders, Mac Diarmada was an IRB revivalist and a founding member of the Irish Volunteers.
He was recruited to the IRB while living in Belfast and in 1908 he moved to Dublin where he was tasked with revitalising the organisation.
A popular speaker, Mac Diarmada also journeyed throughout the West, often by bicycle, reorganising the IRB.
He was soon appointed to the Supreme Council and was elected as secretary.
In 1915, Mac Diarmada was arrested in Tuam, Co Galway, for giving a speech against enlisting in the British army – supposedly provoked by the “slavish pro-British” attitude of his audience.
Following his release in September 1915 he joined the Military Council of the IRB and along with Tom Clarke was responsible for plotting most of the Rising.
Owing to a disability, Mac Diarmada took little part in the fighting of Easter week but was stationed at the headquarters in the GPO as a member of the Provisional Republican Government.
Like his fellow leaders he was court-martialed and executed 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!”
Joseph Plunkett
A poet and journalist, Plunkett was born to a privileged family but his childhood was by no means easy.
He contracted tuberculosis at a young age and the condition would become a lifelong burden. Plunkett spent much of his youth in the warmer climates of the Mediterranean and North Africa.
After graduating from UCD in 1909, he spent some time working with Thomas MacDonagh as co-editor of the Irish Review and director of Irish Theatre.
Plunkett joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and the IRB two years later. He was then sent to Germany with Roger Casement in a successful bid to secure a shipment of arms for the Rising.
As plans for the rebellion took shape, Plunkett was appointed Director of Military Operations, with overall responsibility for military strategy.
Just days before the Rising started, he was taken ill and was forced to have surgery on his neck glands. He struggled out of his sick bed to take part in the struggle at the GPO, where Michael Collins was his energetic aide de camp.
Following the surrender Plunkett was held in Kilmainham Gaol, where he wed his sweetheart Grace Gifford just hours before he was executed.