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Sean Mc Dermott was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916 in Ireland.
He was born John MacDermott in County Leitrim in 1883, though later in life he adopted the Irish form of his name: Sean MacDiarmada1. In 1908 he moved to Dublin, by which time he was already involved in several separatist organizations, including Sinn Fein, and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). He was soon promoted to the Supreme Council of the IRB upon the recommendation of a senior member who was being removed for excessive drunkenness, as part of the ongoing reorganization, and he eventually was elected secretary.
In 1910 he became manager of the radical newspaper "Irish Freedom," which he founded along with Bulmer Hobson and Denis McCullough. He also became a national organizer for the IRB, and was taken under the wing of veteran Republican Tom Clarke. Indeed over the year the two became nearly inseparable. Shortly thereafter MacDermott was stricken with polio and forced to walk with a cane.
In November, 1913 MacDermott was one of the original members of the Irish Volunteers, and continued to work effortlessly to bring that organization under IRB control. MacDermott proved himself to be one of the most radical and Machiavellian members until his death. When his close friend Bulmer Hobson voted to allow the Irish Parliamentary leader John Redmond to take control of the Volunteers, MacDermott never spoke to him again.
In May, 1915, MacDermott was arrested in Tuam, County |
