As long time readers of this blog know each St Patrick’s and Easter I pay my respects to my Irish roots. This year I spotlight Seán Mac Diarmada martyr for Irish freedom.
Some quick background. The Rising lasted from Easter Monday 24 April to 30 April 1916. Members of the Irish Volunteers—led by schoolteacher and barrister Pádraig Pearse, joined by the smaller Irish Citizen Army of James Connolly, along with 200 members of Cumann na mBan—seized key locations in Dublin and proclaimed the Irish Republic independent of Britain. The Rising was brutally suppressed after seven days of fighting, and its leaders were court-martialled and executed. The brutal actions of the British Empire in executing members of a uniformed army fighting under their flag who had surrendered under a white flag outraged the world.
In a series of courts martial beginning on 2 May, 90 people were sentenced to death. All seven signatories of the Proclamation of Irish Independence{ imagine if all the signers of our Declaration of Independence were shot} were executed by firing squad between 3 and 12 May (among them the seriously-wounded Connolly, shot while tied to a chair after being wounded in fighting).
Among the executed was the polo afflicted Seán Mac Diarmada who was forced to walk with a cane.
Seán was the radical manager of the newspaper Irish Freedom. Not content with radical writing alone he joined the Irish Volunteers despite his infirmity. Sean fought the best he could in the General Post Office in the rising but was captured. Following a court-martial on May 9, Seán was executed by firing squad on May 12 at the age of 33.
The night before his execution he wrote,
"I feel happiness the like of which I have never experienced. I die that the Irish nation might live!”
His home in Kiltyclogher is a National Monument
4 comments:
When you read about people being killed all around the world now and throughout history, it really makes Michelle Riggi's obscene dog house and the incompetence of the City even more pathetic.
Come on Screwrocco, give it a break before the City and Casino collapse under your vile mismanagement and cronyism.
Yah, this is what our founding father's and our men/women in uniform fought and died for.
It's a tragic shame what this country has become. But then again, we get what we deserve when only JT and Kyle York attend the City Council meetings and everyone else sits at home on our collective fat asses.
Imagine if just a half of a percent of the City's population showed up to hold Screwrocco accountable, they wouldn't be able to fit everyone into Council Chambers.
Half of a percent of the City's population - is that too much to ask?
Now Sean would have a blog, the uprising would spread throughout the international Irish community via social media and, hopefully would come out differently. The Founding Fathers were well aware that signing the Declaration of Independence was a treasonous act subjecting them to execution. They were very brave, also.The British didn't amass a huge empire by tolerating dissent.
sásta Cásca John
The British didn't nor did Bedbug Eddie!
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