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Joe Clarke (Irish republican)

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Joe Clarke
Clarke in 1966
Vice President of Sinn Féin
In office
1966–1972
Preceded bySeán Caughey
Succeeded byMáire Drumm
Personal details
Born
Joseph Clarke

22 December 1882
Died22 April 1976(1976-04-22) (aged 93) [1]
Resting placeGlasnevin Cemetery
NationalityIrish
Political partySinn Féin
Military service
Branch/serviceIrish Republican Army
Anti-Treaty IRA
Battles/warsEaster Rising
Irish War of Independence

Joe Clarke (Irish: Seosamh Ó Clérigh, 22 December 1882 – 22 April 1976) was an Irish republican politician.

Life

[edit]

Born in Rush, Dublin, Clarke worked for the Sinn Féin Bank, and was active in the Easter Rising. On Easter Monday morning, on 24 April 1916, Clarke was one of 13 volunteers who held the Mount Street Bridge for nine hours against the overwhelming forces of the Sherwood Foresters Regiment of the British Army.[2] When captured, he was shot in the head, but survived, and was instead imprisoned in Liverpool Prison, Wakefield Prison and then Frongoch internment camp.[3]

On his return to Ireland, Clarke acted as the courier for the First Dáil[4] and served as an usher at the first meeting of the First Dáil.[5] He was interned from January 1921.[6] Released in 1923, he acted as caretaker of the Sinn Féin headquarters on Harcourt Street,[4] and founded the Irish Book Bureau.[3] Although the Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin rejected participation in the Dáil, they continued to contest local elections, and Clarke sat on Dublin City Council.[7]

Clarke was a founder member of Comhairle na Poblachta in 1929.[8] In 1937, he worked with Brian O'Higgins to establish the Wolfe Tone Weekly as a light-hearted party newspaper.[9] In August 1939, Clarke was interned[10] at Arbour Hill, then later at Cork County Jail.[11]

Although Clarke had served under Éamon de Valera during the Easter Rising, the two became implacable opponents. Clarke was ejected from an official commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the First Dáil for interrupting de Valera's speech in order to raise the complaints of the Dublin Housing Action Committee.[12] He vowed to outlive de Valera, he succeeded in this endeavour by outliving him a year.[13]

Clarke was elected as a Vice-President of Sinn Féin in 1966. In the split of 1970, he supported the provisional wing, remaining Vice-President.[14] The Dublin South West Inner City cumann of Sinn Féin is named for Clarke.[3]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Joe Clarke and the Battle of Mount Street Bridge". anphoblacht.com. An Phoblacht. 27 April 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  2. ^ "Joe Clarke and the Battle of Mount Street Bridge". An Phoblacht. 27 April 2016. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  3. ^ a b c "Sinn Féin Dublin South Central". Archived from the original on 10 October 2007. Retrieved 5 April 2011.
  4. ^ a b Éamonn Mac Thomáis, Me jewel and darlin' Dublin, p.139
  5. ^ Ferriter, Diarmaid (2007). Judging Dev: A Reassessment of the Life and Legacy of Eamon de Valera. Royal Irish Academy. p. 352.
  6. ^ Chief Secretary's order directing that Joe Clarke be interned in Ballykinlar Camp, Co. Down, 11 Jan. 1921., Joe Clarke Papers, National Library of Ireland
  7. ^ "Sinn Féin re-enters local government contests", The United Irishman, September 1950
  8. ^ J. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army: the IRA, p.77
  9. ^ MacEoin, Uinseann (1997). The IRA in the twilight years: 1923–1948 (PDF). Dublin: Argenta. p. 18. ISBN 9780951117248. Retrieved 8 May 2020 – via Irish Military Archives.
  10. ^ J. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army: the IRA, p161
  11. ^ Letters from Joe Clarke, Joe Clarke Papers, National Library of Ireland
  12. ^ Mícheál Mac Donncha, "Remembering the Past: Joe Clarke ejected from First Dáil commemoration Archived 2011-07-24 at the Wayback Machine", Saoirse32, 2 April 2009
  13. ^ Robert William White, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, pp.365, 386
  14. ^ Robert William White, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, p.162
Party political offices
Preceded by Vice President of Sinn Féin
1966–1972
With: Larry Grogan (1966–1969)
Cathal Goulding (1969–1970)
Larry Grogan (1970–1971)
Dáithí Ó Conaill (1971–1972) 		Succeeded by
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