Séamus Robinson (Irish republican)

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Séamus Robinson
Seamus Robinson.png
Teachta Dála
In office
1921–1922
Constituency Waterford–Tipperary East
Senator
In office
1928–1935
Personal details
Born(1888-01-06)6 January 1888
Belfast, Ireland
Died 6 December 1961(1961-12-06) (aged 72)
Dublin, Ireland
Nationality Irish
Political party Fianna Fáil
Sinn Féin
Spouse(s) Brigid Keating

Séamus Robinson (Irish : Séamus Mac Róibín; 6 January 1888 – 8 December 1961) was an Irish republican and politician. [1]

Irish language Goidelic (Gaelic) language spoken in Ireland and by Irish people

Irish is a Goidelic (Gaelic) language originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is spoken as a first language in substantial areas of counties Galway, Kerry, Cork and Donegal, smaller areas of Waterford, Mayo and Meath, and a few other locations, and as a second language by a larger group of non-habitual speakers across the country.

Contents

Background

Born in Belfast in 1888. In 1902 he joined the first Fianna Éireann under Bulmer Hobson. In 1903 he moved to Glasgow where he joined the Gaelic League prior to entering a seminary. He served as monk in Scotland in his early adulthood until he got permission in 1913 from the abbot to leave the monastery and participate in the Irish independence movement. He married Brigid Keating and had eight children. [2]

Belfast City in the United Kingdom, capital of Northern Ireland

Belfast is a port city in the United Kingdom and the capital city of Northern Ireland, on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast of Ireland. It is the largest city in Northern Ireland and second largest on the island of Ireland. It had a population of 333,871 in 2015.

Na Fianna Éireann, known as the Fianna, is an Irish nationalist youth organisation founded by Bulmer Hobson and Constance Markievicz in 1909. Fianna members were involved in the setting up of the armed nationalist body the Irish Volunteers, and had their own circle of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). They took part in the 1914 Howth gun-running and in the 1916 Easter Rising. They were active in the War of Independence and took the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War.

Bulmer Hobson Leading member of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood

John Bulmer Hobson was a leading member of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) before the Easter Rising in 1916. Although he was a member of the IRB which had planned the Rising, he opposed and attempted to prevent it. He swore Patrick Pearse into the IRB in late 1913. He was chief of staff of Fianna Éireann, which he helped to found.

Revolutionary

1916 Rising

Robinson and his brother Joseph Robinson joined the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1913 in Glasgow, and in January 1916 joined the Kimmage Garrison in Dublin. He was appointed section leader by his superior George Plunkett and participated in the Easter Rising of 1916. On Easter Monday, he marched his section to Sackville Street and was greeted by Peadar Bracken who showed him an order from Commandant James Connolly which directed him to seize Hopkins and Hopkins jeweller's on the corner of Sackville Street. He held this position under constant fire until Thursday where he directed his section across the road to the General Post Office. Remarkably, his entire section survived this perilous manoeuvre. He was then stationed in the GPO and the Metropole Hotel for the remainder of the week. He was originally sentenced to death by William Lowe for his part in the Rising, but his sentence was subsequently commuted by General John Maxwell. He was then sent to Frongach internment camp for a number of months and was released on Christmas Eve 1916.

Irish Volunteers Irish nationalist military organisation

The Irish Volunteers, sometimes called the Irish Volunteer Force or Irish Volunteer Army, was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland". The Volunteers included members of the Gaelic League, Ancient Order of Hibernians and Sinn Féin, and, secretly, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). Increasing rapidly to a strength of nearly 200,000 by mid-1914, it split in September of that year over John Redmond's commitment to the British War effort, with the smaller group retaining the name of "Irish Volunteers".

Irish Republican Brotherhood former secret oath-bound fraternal organisation

The Irish Republican Brotherhood was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland between 1858 and 1924. Its counterpart in the United States of America was organised by John O'Mahony and became known as the Fenian Brotherhood. The members of both wings of the movement are often referred to as "Fenians". The IRB played an important role in the history of Ireland, as the chief advocate of republicanism during the campaign for Ireland's independence from the United Kingdom, successor to movements such as the United Irishmen of the 1790s and the Young Irelanders of the 1840s.

George Oliver Plunkett(Irish: Seoirse Oilibhéar Pluincéid) (1894–1944), known to his contemporaries as Seoirse Plunkett, was a militant Irish republican. He was sentenced to death with his elder brother Joseph Plunkett and his younger brother John after the 1916 Easter Rising, but George's and John's sentences were commuted. He was released in 1917, fought in the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War, and was briefly IRA Chief of Staff during World War II.

Irish War of Independence

In 1917 Robinson came to Tipperary at the request of Eamon Uí Dubhir, whom he had met while they were both imprisoned. Robinson became active in the work of the Irish Volunteers in South Tipperary, [3] and in 1918 was elected as commanding officer of the Third Tipperary Brigade. [4] In 1919 together with Seán Treacy, Dan Breen and Seán Hogan, he led the party which took part in an attack on a convoy transporting gelignite during the Soloheadbeg Ambush in County Tipperary on the same day that 1st Dáil met. They shot the two policemen dead and stole the explosive. This is considered to be the first engagement of the Irish War of Independence. [5]

Seán Treacy IRA Member

Seán Treacy was one of the leaders of the Third Tipperary Brigade of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence. It was his actions that initiated the conflict in 1919. He was killed in October 1920, on Talbot Street in Dublin, in a shootout with British troops and spies during an aborted British Secret Service surveillance operation.

Dan Breen Irish politician

Daniel "Dan" Breen was a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. In later years he was a Fianna Fáil politician.

Seán Hogan Irish Republican Army officer

Seán Hogan was one of the leaders of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade of the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence.

Following Hogan's capture in May 1919, Robinson took part in his rescue at Knocklong railway station in East Limerick while Hogan was being transported from Thurles to Cork. [6] After Knocklong, Robinson, Treacy, Breen and Hogan relocated to Dublin where they participated with Dublin volunteers in a number of attacks in the early part of the war. Robinson returned to Tipperary at the end of 1919 to resume his role commanding the Third Tipperary Brigade. Under Robinson's leadership a series of attacks on RIC barracks were undertaken by the brigade in 1920. In September 1920 he appointed Dinny Lacey as O/C of the brigade's first flying column and later that year he established the brigade's second flying column with Seán Hogan as O/C. In April 1921, he became the second in command of the IRA Second Southern Division, under Ernie O'Malley.

On 13 May 1919, a captured Irish Republican Army (IRA) member, Seán Hogan, was rescued from a train by his comrades while being guarded by four armed Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) officers. Two of the RIC officers were killed and several IRA volunteers were wounded. The rescue took place on Hogan's 18th birthday, while the Cork-bound train stopped at Knocklong station in County Limerick. It was undertaken by three of Hogan's comrades from the 3rd Tipperary Brigade of the IRA and five members of the Galtee Battalion of the East Limerick Brigade. Hogan was one of the most wanted men in Ireland at the time of his rescue, due to his role in the Soloheadbeg ambush and would almost certainly have been executed.

Dinny Lacey Irish republican

Denis "Dinny" Lacey was an Irish Republican Army officer during the Irish War of Independence and anti-Treaty IRA officer during the Irish Civil War. Lacey was born in 1889 in a village called Attybrick, near Annacarty, County Tipperary. His parents were Thomas Lacey and Ellen Hayes. He worked as a clerk and manager of a coal merchant in Tipperary Town, prior to the Irish War of Independence.

Ernie OMalley Irish republican, politician and writer

Ernie O'Malley was an Irish Republican Army (IRA) officer during the Irish War of Independence and a commander of the anti-Treaty IRA during the Irish Civil War. He wrote three books, On Another Man's Wound, The Singing Flame, and Raids and Rallies. The first describes his early life and role in the War of Independence, while the second covers the Civil War.

Civil War

At the 1921 general election, Robinson was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Sinn Féin TD for Waterford–Tipperary East. [7] He was opposed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty and voted against it. When the Irish Civil War broke out over the Treaty, Robinson sent some of his Tipperary men to help the anti-Treaty IRA fighters in Dublin, after a plea from Oscar Traynor. However, the Tipperary contingent arrived too late to take part in the Battle of Dublin. At the outbreak of civil war, he was appointed O/C of the IRA Southern Division. He was critical of the leadership of the anti-Treaty side however, saying that they had no coherent military or political strategy. He failed to win a seat at the 1922 general election.

Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic) parliament

Dáil Éireann, also called the Revolutionary Dáil, was the revolutionary, unicameral parliament of the Irish Republic from 1919 to 1922. The Dáil was first formed by 73 Sinn Féin MPs elected in the 1918 United Kingdom general election. Their manifesto refused to recognise the British parliament at Westminster and chose instead to establish an independent legislature in Dublin. The convention of the First Dáil coincided with the beginning of the War of Independence.

Sinn Féin is a left-wing Irish republican political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Politics

After the Civil War, Robinson left the IRA and Sinn Féin and joined as a founding member of Fianna Fáil. Later, Robinson was elected to Seanad Éireann for Fianna Fáil in 1928 . He resigned his seat prematurely in 1935 after serving 9 years as a Senator.

Later life

In 1947 he was appointed one of the five founding members of the Bureau of Military History, associated with the history of the independence movement that lasted from 1913 to 1921 and was responsible for appointing military pensions to all those who had fought in the conflict from this period. Robinson died in Dublin on 8 December 1961 aged 72. [8] He is survived by his two daughters.

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Soloheadbeg ambush

The Soloheadbeg ambush took place on 21 January 1919, when members of the Irish Volunteers ambushed Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) officers who were escorting a consignment of gelignite explosives at Soloheadbeg, County Tipperary. Two RIC officers were killed and their weapons and the explosives were seized. The volunteers acted on their own initiative and had not sought authorisation for their action. As it happened on the same day that the revolutionary Irish parliament first met and declared Ireland's independence, it is often seen as the first engagement of the Irish War of Independence.

References

  1. ↑ "Mr. Séamus Robinson". Oireachtas Members Database. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
  2. ↑ Irish Bureau of military History- Seamus Robinson's witness statement – Statement 1721
  3. ↑ Bureau of Military History – Witness Statement 1348 Michael Davern
  4. ↑ Irish Bureau of Military History, Witness Statement 1433 - Michael Fitzpatrick
  5. ↑ Irish Bureau of Military History, Witness Statement 1432 - Patrick Dwyer
  6. ↑ Sean Treacy and the Third Tipperary Brigade I.R.A.- Desmond Ryan -Kerryman Limited, 1945
  7. ↑ "Séamus Robinson". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
  8. ↑ "General Registrar's Office". IrishGenealogy.ie. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
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