Seán Mac Diarmada "Seán MacDermott" |
|
---|---|
Born |
Kiltyclogher, County Leitrim, Ireland |
27 January 1883
Died | 12 May 1916 Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin, Ireland |
(aged 33)
Allegiance |
Irish Republican Brotherhood Irish Volunteers |
Years of service | 1913–1916 |
Rank | Supreme Council IRB Military Committee IRB |
Battles/wars | Easter Rising |
Other work | Educator, principal, barrister, republican activist, poet |
Seán Mac Diarmada (27 January 1883 – 12 May 1916), also known as Seán MacDermott, was an Irish political activist and revolutionary leader. He was one of the seven leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916, which he helped to organise as a member of the Military Committee of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and was a signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. He was executed for his part in the Rising at age 33.
Brought up in rural County Leitrim, he was a member of many associations which promoted the cause of the Irish language, Gaelic revival and Irish nationalism in general, including the Gaelic League and (early in his career) the Irish Catholic fraternity the Ancient Order of Hibernians. He was national organiser for Sinn Féin, and later manager of the newspaper Irish Freedom, started in 1910 by Bulmer Hobson and others.
Mac Diarmada was born John MacDermott in Corranmore, close to Kiltyclogher in County Leitrim, an area where the landscape was marked by reminders of poverty and oppression. His father Donald McDermott was a member of the IRB and a friend of John Daly.
Surrounding Mac Diarmada in rural Leitrim, there were signs of Irish history throughout the area. There was an ancient sweat-house, Mass rocks from the penal times and the persecutions of the 17th and 18th centuries, and deserted abodes as an aftermath of the hunger of the 1840s.