Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Eamon Martin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eamon Martin (1893 - 1971) was born in Dublin and educated at Westland Row Christian Brothers School.
He was a former Chief of Staff of Na Fianna, which he helped to found. He was also on the original Volunteer Executive Council (Provisional Committee) along with Eoin MacNeill, Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, Joseph Plunkett, Eamonn Ceannt, Roger Casement, Bulmer Hobson, Liam Mellows, Cornelius Colbert, The O'Rahilly, Sean MacDermott, Peadar Mackin, Pierce Beasley and several others.
In 1916 he helped lead the attack (along with Garry Holahan and Paddy Holahan) on the magazine fort in Phoenix Park which was to be the signal for the start of the rising. He went on to fight in the North King Street area, the site of a civilian massacre, and was shot at Church Street in the lung.
In 1921 he went to the Soviet Union for arms and met with the Russian foreign minister and other Soviet leaders.
He was arrested along with his friend Liam Mellows after the fall of the Four Courts in June 1922 and shared a cell with Mellows for six months until Mellows' execution by Irish Free State (pro-Treaty) officials on 8 December 1922. Martin was mistaken for Mellows the morning of his execution and was brought to the execution area before the prison governor spotted the error.
Martin and Mellows had known each other since 1909 and had become great friends. Eamon Martin was a student of James Connolly and others, and was widely credited with being the real influence behind the social thinking of Mellows[citation needed].
He was also a close friend and advisor to Eamon De Valera from the split of Sinn Fein to the foundation of Fianna Fail until his death.
Throughout his life he remained active in republican organisations and set up the Kilmainham restoration committee of which he was a generous donor. He was responsible for the erection of the Wolfe Tone monument in St. Stephens Green[citation needed]. He gave a very large donation to kick-start the Garden Of Remembrance and was thought to have had the original idea for the famous garden at Parnell Square[citation needed].