Tom McEllistrim (1894–1973)

Thomas "Tom" McEllistrim (14 October 1894 – 4 December 1973) was an Irish political and military activist in the period from 1916–23. Later he became a Fianna Fáil politician who sat in Dáil Éireann for 46 years.

He joined the Ballymacelligott company of the Irish Volunteers in 1914 and was involved in an abortive attempt by Roger Casement to land arms for the Easter Rising at Banna Strand in Kerry. After the rebellion he was interned by the British at Frongoch internment camp in Wales for his role in the events. In April 1918, he led an arms raid on Gortatlea Royal Irish Constabulary barracks in which two Volunteers were killed. It was one of the first acts of guerrilla warfare in the period.

McEllistrim served in the Irish Republican Army in Kerry throughout the Irish War of Independence of 1919–21. He was instrumental in the setting up of first an Active service unit (in June 1920) and then a larger "flying column", or full-time guerrilla unit in the IRA's Second Kerry Brigade in early 1921. His column fought in both the Clonbanin Ambush and the Headford Ambush in the spring of 1921. At the latter action, in which the IRA ambushed a train carrying British troops, Dan Allman, the leader of the flying column was killed, leaving McEllistrim in command.

According to historian T. Ryle Dwyer, "McEllistrim arguably played as important a role in the War of Independence as Tom Barry or Dan Breen but he never wrote a book about his exploits, nor was he prepared to talk about them publicly... Even though McEllistrim sat in the Dáil for over forty years, he apparently never mentioned the period in Leinster House".

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