By Brian Feeney Sean MacDiarmada: 16Lives [Paperback]

16 Lives

by Brian Feeney

Seán MacDíarmada moved in the shadows, ultra-cautious about what he committed to paper, aware that his letters could be intercepted by the police. Because of this, history has not allocated MacDíarmada the prominent role he deserves in the organisation of the Easter Rising.This book gives Seán MacDíarmada his proper place in history. It outlines his substantial role in the detailed planning of the Rising, which led to him signing the Proclamation of the Irish second only to Tom Clarke.

Genres: History, Irish Literature, Biography, Ireland, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published March 1, 2014

About the author

Brian Feeney, a political columnist with the Irish News, is a leading nationalist commentator and frequent broadcaster on Northern Ireland affairs. He was an SDLP councillor for sixteen years. He is co-author of Lost Lives: the story of the men, women and children killed in the Northern Ireland troubles. In 2001 the book won the Christopher Ewart-Biggs award for its contribution to reconciliation in Ireland and Europe. A historian by profession, he is Head of History at St Mary's University College, Belfast.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sean MacDiarmada's efforts were crucial to The Easter Rising, yet he is often underestimated and neglected by the casual historian. He was not a firebrand like Connolly, an orator like Pearse, or a Fenian hero like Clarke; instead, he was an organizer and an infiltrator, the kind of unassuming, close-mouthed, indefatigable fellow without whom no conspiracy can be mounted, much less succeed.

He came from Leitrim in the Northwest and moved to Belfast in his early twenties, where, after a short career as a streetcar conductor (he was cashiered for smoking on the tram), he worked so passionately and deliberately for independence that he became that rare thing, a professional Irish Nationalist political organizer, his bills paid by the movement's Irish-American supporters. Based in Dublin, he continually traveled—often on bicycle—throughout the South and West, enlisting people in local nationalist clubs, and (clandestinely, more importantly) into the elite and secret Irish Republic Brotherhood, the foundation for the rising to come. And when the Irish Volunteers were formed, MacDiarmada did his best to make this quasi-military patriotic organization the tool of the IRB.

Brian Feeney paints a vivid picture of Sean: darkly handsome, fun-loving and affable, yet underneath all an inflexible revolutionary with an unfailing and steely resolve. Later, after a bout of polio, he walked with a cane, but he made up for this military handicap by becoming a crack shot. Indeed, he was such a charming, romantic figure that even his friend Tom Clarke's wife Kathleen seems to have been half in love with him (although she probably never admitted it, even to herself).

Feeney executes a difficult task well. MacDiarmada was not a writer of essays nor a regular correspondent. He did his best not to put his plans or his achievements on paper. As a consequence, Feeney is often led to conjecture and sometimes to speculate, but when he does so, the result is never far fetched, and often illuminating.

[Nick Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting and well written biography of Sean MacDiarmada, I've read all of the 16 lives so far and am constantly amazed by the amount of detail available for the lives of the leaders of the rising.

[Betty Strohecker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sean MacDiarmada grew up in the poverty stricken county of Leitrim, eighth of ten children. His father was a farmer, who provided the family with a good living. Christened John McDermott, he always planned to be a teacher, but when that didn't work out, he moved to Dublin and became involved in a number of Irish nationalist groups. In his early twenties he began using the Irish form of his name and became a staunch supporter of Irish self-rule. As a leading member of the IRB, Irish Republican Brotherhood, MacDiarmada developed a strong friendship with Tom Ckarke and from this point on, traveled Ireland, devoting his life to taking a stand against the British. His strong organizational skills placed him in the forefront of planning and implementing the Easter Rising of 1916. While short lived, this insurrection had a strong impact on future endeavors to achieve Irish independence. MacDiarmada contracted polio in 1911, which left him without the use of one leg. His tireless work for his beliefs is a testimony to his determination and the fact that he would not allow this limitation to slow him down.

I have read five books in this collection, all written by different authors, so the style contributes to the telling of this important event in the struggle for Irish independence. Feeney puts forth a lot of political prehistory in the relating of this biography, which slowed it down for this reader, and I am not sure it was necessary. Perhaps that is because I was already familiar with the main events in the Easter Rising and wanted to get right to the story of Sean MacDiarmada. Also, a vacillating back and forth between years and dates was confusing. These facts are the reason for my rating.

All of the participants in the Easter Rising of 1916 were brave men and women, willing to sacrifice their lives to achieve a free Ireland. Sixteen were executed before the British government put a stop to the quick courts martial and rapid rush to execution, believing this would not help Britain. They were right. The men executed became martyrs for their country. Sean MacDiarmada spoke often and used these words in a number of his addresses, "the Irish patriotic spirit will die forever unless a blood sacrifice is made in the next few years." He was one of the 16 men who gave this ultimate sacrifice.