Prelude to the Easter Rising of 1916

Prelude to the Easter Rising of 1916
The Signatories of the Proclamation

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Sunday, March 6, 2011

Members of the Fourth Dáil - John Hennigan

John Hennigan was an Irish politician and farmer. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Cumann na nGaedhael Teachta Dála (TD) for the Leitrim–Sligo constituency at the 1923 general election. He was re-elected at each subsequent election until lost his seat at the 1933 general election. He was a member of Sligo County Council from 1928–42.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - Seán Farrell

Seán Farrell (died 1 August 1972) was an Irish politician and teacher. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála (TD) for the Leitrim–Sligo constituency at the 1923 general election. He did not take his seat in the Dáil due to Sinn Féin's abstentionist policy. He lost his seat at the June 1927 general election.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - George Wolfe

George Wolfe (died 1 December 1941) was an Irish farmer and Cumann na nGaedhael party politician, who served for nine years as TD for the Kildare constituency.

He was elected to Dáil Éireann on his first attempt, at the 1923 general election, becoming the only Cumann na nGaedhael TD in the 4th Dáil from the 3-seat Kildare constituency. He was re-elected at the June 1927 general election and again at the September 1927 general election, but did not stand at the 1932 general election, when the Cumann na nGaedhael government was replaced by Fianna Fáil after ten years in office.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - John Conlan

John Conlan was an Irish politician and farmer. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1923 general election as a Farmers' Party Teachta Dála (TD) for the Kildare constituency.He lost his seat at the June 1927 general election. He was an unsuccessful candidate at the September 1927 general election.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - John M. O'Sullivan

John M. O'Sullivan (18 February 1891 – 9 February 1948) was an Irish politician, cabinet minister and academic.

John M. O'Sullivan was born in Killarney, County Kerry in 1891. He was educated at St. Brendan's, Killarney, Clongowes Wood, Kildare, University College Dublin and the Universities of Bonn and Heidelberg where he was awarded the PhD. He was appointed to the Chair of Modern History at UCD in 1910 and was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 1923 as a Cumann na nGaedhael TD for Kerry North. He was appointed to the Cabinet in 1926, serving under W. T. Cosgrave. In 1926 a report from the Second National Programme Conference was presented to John M. O'Sullivan as the then Minister for Education for Cumann na nGaedhael. The Minister accepted all proposals stated in the report to be recommended as a national curriculum. He served on the Irish delegation to the League of Nations, 1924 and 1928–30. He was elected at every election until 1943 when he lost his Dáil seat. He subsequently retired from politics.

O'Sullivan died in 1948, five years after retiring from politics.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - Tom McEllistrim

Thomas (Tom) McEllistrim (14 October 1894 – 4 December 1973) was a political and military activist in the period from 1916–23. Later he became a Fianna Fáil politician who sat in Dáil Éireann for 46 years.

He joined the Ballymacelligott company of the Irish Volunteers in 1914 and was involved in an abortive attempt by Roger Casement to land arms for the Easter Rising at Banna Strand in Kerry. After the rebellion he was interneed by the British at Frongoch in Wales for his role in the events. In April 1918, he led an arms raid on Gortalea Royal Irish Constabulary barracks in which two Volunteers were killed. It was one of the first acts of guerrilla warfare in the period.

McEllistrim served in the Irish Republican Army in Kerry throughout the Irish War of Independence of 1919–21. He was instrumental in the setting up of first an Active service unit (in June 1920) and then a larger "flying column", or full-time guerrilla unit in the IRA's Second Kerry Brigade in early 1921. His column fought in both the Clonbanin Ambush and the Headford Ambush in the spring of 1921. At the latter action, in which the IRA ambushed a train carrying British troops, Dan Allman, the leader of the flying column was killed, leaving McEllistrim in command.

According to historian T. Ryle Dwyer,
"McEllistrim arguably played as important a role in the War of Independence as Tom Barry or Dan Breen but he never wrote a book about his exploits, nor was he prepared to talk about them publicly... Even though McEllistrim sat in the Dáil for over forty years, he apparently never mentioned the period in Leinster House".
He rejected the Anglo-Irish Treaty and fought in the Anti-Treaty IRA during the Irish Civil War of 1922–23. He was one of the senior IRA figures in Kerry during this conflict, under the command of Humphrey Murphy. In the war's early months, he commanded a Kerry column in the fighting in Limerick city and at the Battle of Kilmallock, before retreating back into Kerry and pursuing guerrilla warfare. In January 1923, he, along with John Joe Sheehy, led an attack on the National Army barracks at Castlemaine, using an improvised mortar.

McEllistrim was elected to the Dáil as TD for Kerry in August 1923, only months after the end of the civil war, as a republican candidate. He came third in the county with 7,277 votes. He remained a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Kerry constituency, and later of Kerry North from 1926–69. After 1926 he followed much the republican leadership into Fianna Fáil. His son, Tom McEllistrim, and his grandson, also Tom McEllistrim have both represented the Kerry North constituency.

Members of the Fourth Dáil - Louis O'Dea

Louis Edward O'Dea (died 1948) was an Irish politician and solicitor. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála (TD) for the Galway constituency at the 1923 general election. He did not take his seat in the Dáil due to Sinn Féin's abstentionist policy. He did not contest June 1927 general election. In 1944, as a member of Fianna Fáil, he was elected to the 5th Seanad on the Cultural and Educational Panel.