Seán Mac Diarmada or Seán Mac Dermott
Aged 26 at the time of the 1911 Census
Born: 1884
Executed 12 May 1916
Photo: Seán Mac Diarmada
Census 1911 Address: 15, Russell Place, (Rotunda, Dublin)1
The 1911 Census return recorded Seán Mac Diarmada living in what seems to be a boarding house. Some of the entries (including Seán’s) were written in Irish and Seán was recorded as Seaghán. The head of the household was Elizabeth Dunne aged 32 and a widow. She was living with her sister Mary Gaughran (31) who was a dressmaker and Mary's daughter Patricia (9). Mary had been married for 8 years but her husband was not recorded in the house. Seán Mac Diarmada’s occupation was recorded as a clerk and there are two other clerks also in the house, Conchubhar Ó Coileáin (28) and Pádraig Ó Muireadhaigh (19). There are two other women recorded in the house: Úna Ní Dhúbhda (17) and her sister Maighréad Ní Dhúbhda (19), a dressmaker and a servant respectively. All members of the household are Roman Catholic.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Rotunda/Russell_Place/33144/
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000075502/
Seán Mac Diarmada was born in 1884 in Leitrim. He was one of the seven signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and was a principle organiser of the IRB. His republican politics were nurtured by his national schoolteacher, Master P. McGauran, who provided him with books on Irish history. He was a member of many cultural groups such as the Gaelic League and Sinn Féin before moving into more radical organisations such as the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
In 1905 he moved to Belfast and found employment as a conductor on the trams. Mac Diarmada joined the Dungannon Clubs, which promoted nationalist ideas and while there he was sworn into the IRB. In 1907 he returned to Co. Leitrim to run in a local by-election. Although he was defeated, the election raised his profile in nationalist circles. In 1908 Mac Diarmada went to Dublin where he met Thomas Clarke and the two became close friends.
In Dublin he managed the IRB newspaper “Irish Freedom” from 1910 onwards. He was afflicted with polio in 1911 which badly affected his right leg and left him with a limp. In 1913 he was appointed a member of the provisional committee of Irish Volunteers and was then drafted into the Military Committee of the IRB in 1915. Clarke was Treasurer of the organisation while Mac Diarmada was the Secretary and also acted as Thomas Clark’s right-hand man. Clarke and Mac Diarmada were the main instigators and planners of the Rising. Clarke worked out the strategy while Mac Diarmada was responsible for the details.
Though restricted by lameness in his right leg due to polio, during the Rising Mac Diarmada served in the GPO as a member of the Provisional Republican Government. A Witness Statement from Ignatius Callener, who met him st the GPO stated “Seán McDermott was one of the most lovable men I ever knew and as I looked at him that day I thought to myself "There's a happy man", for he surely looked the very picture of happiness, there surrounded by the brave lads making a fight against the Common Enemy of our country2”.
Mac Diarmada, along with Clarke, took charge at the GPO when Connolly was seriously wounded and he ordered the evacuation of the GPO when a fire there went out of control. The rebels ran down to Moore Street, sheltering in various houses along the way. A witness account from the time stated “…Nearly all the rooms in the houses we went through were occupied by our forces. I felt very sorry for the people who lived in these houses. By going into them we were bringing death and destruction to the inhabitants, though we tried to make things as easy as we could.3”
The 18th Royal Irish, a regiment of Irishmen in the British Army, shot at anything that moved in the street, and at such short range their shooting was deadly. To avoid further bloodshed and destruction Mac Diarmada was in favour of surrender.
After the surrender, a British Amy Captain, Percival Lea-Wilson took Thomas Clarke, Seán Mac Diarmada and Ned Daly aside to search them. He made all three men strip to the skin in front of their comrades, including three nurses. Lea-Wilson took away Seán MacDiarmada’s walking stick forcing him to keep pace with the other Volunteers on their march to prison in Richmond Barracks. For this treatment of prisoners, which was noted by a young Captain, Michael Collins, Lea-Wilson was later murdered during the War of Independence in 1921 by the IRA in Gorey, Co. Wexford4.
Seán Mac Diarmada was court-martialled on the 9th May. He was in love with a girl called Min Ryan. She was allowed visit him in prison but though she was there for a while, she did not know what to say to him5.
He was executed on the 12th May 1916.
Seán MacDermott Street in Dublin and the railway station in Sligo are both named in his honour.
The five sisters of Seán Mac Diarmada each received a pension of £100 a year6. The Military Service Pensions Act 1934 allowed for pensions to be paid to families of the 1916 Proclamation signatories. Maggie was the only sibling to remain in Ireland and the others emigrated to America7.
Sources:
Reference:
Go to Thomas MacDonagh
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