Joseph Mary Plunkett

Plunkett, Joseph Mary 

Born in 1887; died May 4, 1916, in Dublin. Figure in the Irish national liberation movement. Journalist.

Plunkett was the editor of the journal Irish Review, which called for the independence of Ireland. He was one of the leaders of the Irish volunteers and the petit bourgeois revolutionary organization the Irish Republican Brotherhood (Fenians). On instructions from the brotherhood, he and R. Casement held negotiations in Berlin with the German government in the spring of 1915 regarding the supply of arms to Irish patriots. In the course of the negotiations, Plunkett became convinced of the riskiness of counting on effective German assistance. He was on the committee that organized the Easter Rising (1916), and he served as one of the rising’s military leaders. A member of the provisional government of the Irish Republic proclaimed by the insurgents, Plunkett was executed by the British.

REFERENCE

Holt, E. Protest in Arms. London, 1960.