Michael Colivet

Michael Colivet (29 March 1882 – 4 May 1955) was an Irish Sinn Féin politician. He was Commander of the Irish Volunteers in Limerick during the 1916 Easter Rising, and was elected to the First Dáil.

Michael Patrick Colivet was born at 11 Windmill street in Limerick city. His father, John Colivet, was a Sea Captain from Jersey (of French origin), and his mother Anne Kinnerk was from Askeaton, County Limerick. Michael spent most of his formative years in Limerick. At age 12 his family moved to The Claddagh in Galway and he attended secondary school at St. Joseph's Patrician College in Galway. The family lived in Galway until 1903 before returning to settle in Limerick.

Colivet was Commandant of the Irish Volunteers for Limerick City and East Clare, and led the 1916 Easter Rising in Limerick. He was later arrested and jailed for his part in the Rising.

In 1918 he was voted on to the Council for Limerick Corporation while he was jailed in Lincoln prison. Mayor O'Mara stated that the action was "a protest against the way Irishmen had been treated by the Government, who were filling the gaols with men who had the courage of their convictions". He remained an Alderman on the City Municipal (Glentworth and Shannon Wards) until 1925.

His cellmate at Lincoln prison was Éamon de Valera. De Valera, aided by Michael Collins and Harry Boland, famously escaped from Lincoln prison in 1919 with the help of a key made by Peter De Loughry.

He was elected as a Sinn Féin MP for the Limerick City constituency at the 1918 general election. In January 1919, Sinn Féin MPs refused to recognise the Parliament of the United Kingdom and instead assembled at the Mansion House in Dublin as a revolutionary parliament called Dáil Éireann. At the official roll call, Colivet was marked "fé ghlas ag Gallaibh" (imprisoned by the foreign enemy). Like many other elected Irish MPs he was interned in a British prison at the time.

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