Tom Clarke: The True Leader of the Easter Rising

by Michael T. Foy

Long overshadowed by fellow republicans Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, Tom Clarke was the man who made the Easter Rising possible. During an extraordinary life dedicated to Irish freedom he rose from humble origins and endured thirty years of struggle, imprisonment and exile before becoming a master conspirator in the Easter Rising. Endowed with a charisma and moral ascendancy, he held together a disparate group of followers and they, in turn, recognised his indispensable leadership by insisting that his name alone should have pride of place on the Proclamation. It was a gesture that, in a sense, guaranteed Clarke immortality; it also proved to be also his death warrant. But death held no terrors for Clarke who was to die satisfied in the belief that, with the sight of a tricolour flying over the Gpo, he had changed the course of Irish history.

288 pages, Paperback

First published December 25, 2014

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting examination of the old IRB conspirator and oldest signatory to the Proclamation of the Irish Republic in 1916, who was probably the figure most responsible for the rising in Dublin and is often overshadowed in the popular consciousness by Padraig Pearse and James Connolly. Clarke was an utterly dedicated and single-minded Irish Republican from the Fenian tradition who preferred to remain in the shadows having been betrayed earlier in life when he was involved in an unsuccessful IRB bombing campaign, and having then endured 15 years penal servitude as a convict prisoner under extremely harsh conditions.

Whether one approves or not of Thomas Clarke's ideology and methodology (physical force Irish republicanism) depends on one's point of view on the morality of armed insurrection within a constitutional state (The United Kingdom was not fully a democracy for all men until 1918, or for all women until 1928, but it was undoubtedly a constitutional and representative state with a widespread suffrage based on the rule of law), and on the situation of Ireland at that time. I am as yet personally unconvinced that the Easter Rising was justified given the context of the Home Rule Act of 1914 and the First World War, but the leaders of the Rising believed they were saving the soul of their country and are venerated by many Irishmen and women today who have no contemporary association with political violence.

All in all Thomas Clarke was a remarkable man and a significant figure in planning and carrying out the seminal transformational event which changed the political situation in Ireland, and led five years after his execution to the founding of an independent Irish Free State.

Michael T. Foy points out these historical ambiguities around the Easter Rising, with sympathy for his subject but allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions. In so doing I can admire Clarke and his co-signatories courage, conviction, dedication and dignity without sharing their belief and justification for the necessity to use political violence within the context in which they acted.

[Gingergurke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well researched book by an expert of the topic. Many insights into the life of one of the most significant revolutionaries in Irish history. I read it from start to finish but it's also possible to read the odd chapter to find out what his time in prison was for example.

[Jean Crampton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. Probably better to have some knowledge of 1916 beforehand.