Tom Clarke (Irish republican)
| Thomas James Clarke Tomás Séamus Ó Cléirigh |
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|---|---|
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| Born |
11 March 1858 Hurst Castle, England |
| Died | 3 May 1916 (aged 58) Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin, Ireland |
| Allegiance |
Irish Republican Brotherhood Irish Citizen Army |
| Years of service | 1913–1916 |
| Battles/wars | Easter Rising |
Thomas James "Tom" Clarke (Irish: Tomás Séamus Ó Cléirigh; 11 March 1858 – 3 May 1916) was an Irish republican revolutionary leader from Dungannon, County Tyrone. Clarke was arguably the person most responsible for the 1916 Easter Rising. A proponent of armed revolution for most of his life, he spent 15 years in English prisons prior to his role in the Easter Rising, and was executed after it was quashed.
Clarke was born at Hurst Castle, Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire, England opposite the Isle of Wight to Irish parents, Mary Palmer and James Clarke, who was a sergeant in the British Army. In 1865, after spending some years in South Africa, Sgt. Clarke was transferred to Dungannon, County Tyrone, Ireland, and it was there that Tom grew up.
In 1878, at the age of 20, he joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) following the visit to Dungannon of John Daly, and by 1880 he was centre (head) of the local IRB circle. In August that year, after a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) had shot and killed a man during riots between the Orange Order and the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) in Dungannon, Clarke and other IRB members attacked some RIC men in Irish Street. They were driven back, however, and Clarke, fearing arrest, fled to the United States.
In 1883 he was sent to London, under the alias of "Henry Wilson", to blow up London Bridge as part of the Fenian dynamite campaign advocated by Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, one of the IRB leaders exiled in the United States. He was arrested, and along with three others, he was tried and sentenced to penal servitude for life on 28 May 1883 at London's Old Bailey. He subsequently served 15 years in Pentonville and other British prisons. In 1896, he was one of five remaining Fenian prisoners in British jails and a series of public meetings in Ireland called for their release. At one meeting, John Redmond MP, leader of the Parnellite Irish National League, said of him: "Wilson is a man of whom no words of praise could be too high. I have learned in my many visits to Portland for five years to love, honour and respect Henry Wilson. I have seen day after day how his brave spirit was keeping him alive ... I have seen year after year the fading away of his physical strength". Henry Wilson was, as historian Dermot Meleady points out, the alias of Tom Clarke.
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