Seán MacDiarmada was born in Leitrim, left for Glasgow at age 15, but after two years returned to Belfast in 1905 (working on the trams) and – according to the new mural above – spoke from the back of a coal lorry in Clonard Street, outside the Clonard branch of the Ancient Order Of Hibernians. MacDiarmada was for a short time an AOH member, before moving on to the Irish Republican Brotherhood and Irish Volunteers, which led to his participation in the 1916 Easter Rising and execution on May 12th of that year.
The title of today’s post is historian F.X. Martin’s assessment of MacDiarmada, quoted in a pamphlet on MacDiarmada from the National Library Of Ireland, which includes reproductions of letters from and about MacDiarmada. The NLI made more letters available today (2016-02-08). (See also this Irish Times write-up).
Previously: A 2013 MacDiarmada mural in Ardoyne.
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Copyright © 2015 Extramural Activity
Camera Settings: f9, 1/200, ISO 200, full size 3333 x 2301
text: X03275 clonard st quigley’s coal merchants séan executed by the british for his role