April 26, 1916
On this day in 1916, Irish patriot, journalist, suffragist, and vegetarian Francis Sheehy-Skeffington was murdered by British forces. Skeffington was a supporter of the Women’s Social and Political Union which lobbied for women’s rights in Britain, and adopted his wife, Hanna’s, surname (Sheehy) as part of his own. Hanna was a teacher and the primary breadwinner, while Francis was co-editor of the Irish Citizen newspaper and Vice Chairman of the Irish Citizen Army. A pacifist, he was not in favor of the Easter Rising: while he believed in civil disobedience, he did not agree with the Irish Volunteers tactics. Despite his lack of involvement in the uprising, he was arrested without a stated reason, held as hostage by British soldiers during a botched raid, and was shot.
Irish railway workers and dockers defied the British Empire
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Thomas Clarke was the only U.S. citizen to be executed as a result of the 1916 Easter Rising - the most significant uprising in Ireland since the rebellion of 1798.
“Clarke spent a good deal of time in America,” said journalist and historian Dermot McEvoy, “and he eventually became a citizen.”
Clarke is considered the real leader of the 1916 Easter Rising, despite his quiet somewhat meek persona.
“Padraig Pearse was the front man because he liked to make speeches,” McEvoy said. “Clarke worked behind the scenes. He was the man who organized everything.”
The six-day Rising took place during Easter Week 1916 against British rule after members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood Military Council (IRBMC), the Irish Volunteer Force, and the Irish Citizen Army successfully took over pre-selected buildings around Dublin with little resistance.
James Connolly (1868-1916), the son of Irish immigrants, was born in Edinburgh. He came to Ireland in 1896 as paid organiser of the Dublin Socialist Club and founded The Workers Republic, Ireland s first socialist newspaper. In 1911 he was appointed Belfast organiser of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union. With James Larkin, he led the workers of Dublin during the Great Lockout of 1913 and when Larkin went to the USA the following year, Connolly assumed leadership of the union. His tiny Irish Citizen Army took part in the 1916 Rising, following which he was executed. This short book has established itself as one of the very best surveys of Connolly s life since it first appeared in the early 1980s. Its reappearance will be welcomed by all who remain fascinated by Connolly s life, especially its dialogue between socialism and nationalism.
By Shaun Ivory
Roger Casement was born in Dublin on September 1, 1864. He served for many years as a distinguished British Consul in Mozambique, Angola and the Congo Free State (he came to further prominence in the latter, forcing the King of Belgium by sheer diplomacy and bluff, to re-consider the appalling treatment of the Congolese people in 1908.) and later Brazil.
For his services to Britain he was awarded a knighthood in 1911, retiring from the diplomatic service through ill-health and settling once more in Dublin. Despite his proven loyalty to the Crown, however, he chose to take up the Republican cause, helping to establish the Irish National Volunteers in 1913.
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