Profiles

Michael Collins

Michael Collins was born in the County Cork in 1890. He had a charismatic personality and brilliant organisational abilities. While he was in prison for his involvement in the Easter Rising, he spent his time rallying support for Irelands cause.

By 1919 he held crucial posts in both revolutionary and constitutional wings of Irish nationalism - he was the leader of the I.R.B., chief strategist and dominant figure in the I.R.A., and he became a leader within Sinn Fein and the Dail's Minister of Finance.

For most of the Anglo-Irish war, Collins was literally on the run from the British forces. He spent his time coordinating I.R.A. strategy, raising money, organising his special squad of assassins, and operating a network of spies and assassins. He was described as: "ruthless in the achievement of his ends ... emotional instability". Being hunted by his enemies made Michael Collins a legend.

He was assassinated during the Irish Civil War in 1922.

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Constance Markievicz

Constance Markievicz came from a well known wealthy family and played a key role in the 1916 Easter Rising (second in command at the strategic post). She was unconventional - carrying a revolver around with her and having a snake coiled up in her hair.

Although brought up in an upper-class society, she rejected the restricted activities available to her in favour of her interests in Irish Nationalism. Not only did she become the first woman elected to parliament, she became an important member of Sinn Fein.

She signed up in many anti-British organisations: Gaelic League, Daughters of Erin, Sinn Fein, Irish Volunteers, Irish Citizen Army and her own organisation called "Fianna na hEirann" or "Warriors of Ireland". The Fianna na hEirann taught Irish history, language, signalling, and military skills. She herself taught firearms training.

She died in 1927.

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Patrick Pearse

Patrick Pearse was born in 1879 and was the son of a catholic and a protestant. He joined the Gaelic League while still at high school. After he left school, he trained to be a lawyer, became editor of the leagues newspaper, then started a boys school taught in Gaelic. At first Patrick Pearse supported Home rule but in 1913 joined the I.R.B., convinced that violence was the only solution for Ireland. He also joined the Irish Volunteers. By 1915, Patrick Pearse held major positions in both organisations.

He was first noticed publicly at the funeral of a fellow Fenian, with his belief that only martyrs would encourage Ireland to rise up. He was described as "a dangerous man; he has the vertigo of self-sacrifice" by the famous poet W.B. Yeats.

He took the lead role in the easter rising and achieved his goal of becoming a martyr after being executed by the British along with his brother Willie who had only a minor role in the rising.

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Eamonn de Valera

Eamonn de Valera was born in New York, U.S.A. in 1882. He was the son of a Spanish father and an Irish father and was raised in the Irish village of Bruree from the age of two.

Eamonn de Valera joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and was the commander of a rebel unit at Bolands Mill during the Easter Rising. He was given the death sentence when the rising failed but his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment because he was born in America. When he returned to Ireland in 1917 after an early release, he became a hero to the Irish people. He soon replaced Griffith as the leader of Sinn Fein, political party, and gained other crucial posts including: leader of the Irish Volunteers, in 1919 he became the president of the Dail Eirann and was head of the Dail's government as prime minister until 1948. He also played an important role in the Irish Civil War.

He died from old age in 1975.

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Maud Gonne

Born in 1965, Maud Gonne became convinced that only violence would remove British rule from Ireland after witnessing and eviction in the 1880s. The rest of her life was devoted to acting, secret revolutionary activities and spreading the ideas of the Gaelic League.

She had an interest in Irish literature which led her to the theatre and by the 1890s she was Ireland's most famous actress. The famous Irish poet W.B. Yeats fell in love with Maud Gonne and wrote many poems and plays inspired by her intelligence and beauty but Gonne rejected Yeats and instead married a fellow member of the I.R.B., John McBride. Both husband and wife took part in the Easter Rising of 1916. McBride was executed and Gonne was imprisoned for some time.. After her release she still campaigned vigorously for an Irish Republic.

Maud Gonne was strongly influenced by the cultural nationalism of the Gaelic League. She died on the 27th of April, 1953.

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James Larkin

James Larkin was of Irish Catholic parentage and was born outside of Ireland - in Liverpool. His childhood was spent in the poverty of a slum and at the age of eleven, Larkin had to start work in order to help support his family after his father died of tuberculosis. He learnt of socialism at street-corner meetings in Liverpool and later became a trade union organisor and with the start of World War One, went to America to work as a german agent with the belief that Britain's defeat would mean Irish independence.

In 1923 he returned to Dublin - a city with some of the worst slums in Europe. To Larkin this proved that British rule meant Irish misery, that the huge gulf between rich and poor in Dublin was the result of centuries of Britain treating Ireland simply as a source of profit.

James Larkin had a very forceful personality and a vigorous style of public speaking that aroused either admiration or hatred in Dublin during 1908-1914. James Larkin died on Janualry the 30th, 1947, aged 70.