McCluskey, Con, and his wife, Patricia:
Founders of the Campaign for Social Justice in Northern Ireland.
McGirl, John Joe (1921â88):
Born in Leitrim; member of the IRA Army Council during the border campaign; Sinn Féin TD for South Leitrim, 1957â61; central figure in the Provisional IRA after the split; vice president of Sinn Féin at the time of his death.
McGuinness, Martin (b. 1950):
Born in Derry; joined the Official IRA in 1970 but was with them for only a few weeks before joining the Provisionals instead; second in command in Derry on Bloody Sunday.
McKee, Billy:
Born in Belfast; joined the IRA; Belfast O/C in the early 1960s; Belfast commander of the Provisional IRA in 1970.
McQuaid, John Charles (1895â1973):
Born in County Cavan; ordained in 1924; president of Blackrock College; a close friend of Eamon de Valera; had a strong hand in framing the 1937 Constitution; appointed archbishop of Dublin by Pope Pius XII in 1940.
MacBride, Seán (1904â88):
Born in Paris, son of John MacBride and Maud Gonne MacBride, two of the foremost figures
in the Irish revolution; joined the Irish Volunteers and fought in the War of Independence; opposed the Treaty; worked as a journalist in Paris and London; returned to Dublin and became chief of staff of the IRA in 1936; called to the bar in 1937; resigned from the IRA upon enactment of the new Constitution; founded Clan na Poblachta in 1946; in 1948 became minister for external affairs; in 1949 founded the Irish News Agency; increasingly vocal as a defender of human rights and campaigner for peace; founder-member of Amnesty International; served as UN Commissioner for Namibia, 1973â76; recipient in 1974 of the Nobel Prize for Peace; was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1977 and the American Medal for Justice in 1978.
MacGiolla, Tomás (Thomas Gill):
Member of the IRA; president of Sinn Féin in 1966.
MacStiofáin, Seán (John Stephenson):
London-born and half English; joined the IRA; became chief of staff of the Provisional IRA after the split.
MacSwiney, Terence (1879â1920):
Lord mayor of Cork, commander of the Cork No. 1 Brigade of the IRA. Arrested by the British in 1920; died on hunger strike in Brixton Prison.
MacThomáis, Ãamonn (Ãamonn Patrick Thomas) (1927â2002):
Patriot, historian, writer, Dubliner. Joined both Sinn Féin and the IRA in the fifties; became treasurer of Sinn Féin; manager and contributor to the
United Irishman;
Dublin O/C at the start of the border campaign; arrested in 1957 and interned in Curragh Camp; released in 1959; became editor of
An Phoblacht
in 1972; arrested again in 1973; upon release was again editor of
An Phoblacht
; rearrested within two months and sentenced to fifteen months in prison for allegedly possessing an IRA press bulletin; author of numerous books about Dublin; creator and presenter of RTE series during the seventies on the history of Dublin; conducted numerous walking tours of Dublin; lecturer and Keeper of the House of Lords Chamber in the Bank of Ireland on College Green, Dublin, 1988â2002.
Markievicz, Constance (1868â1927):
Daughter of Sir Henry Gore-Booth, wife of Count Casimir Markievicz; cofounder of na Fianna Ãireann; member of Cumann na mBan and the Citizen Army; second in command to Michael Mallin in Saint Stephen's Green during the 1916 Rising; first woman to win election to the British Parliament although she never took her seat; subsequently served as the world's first female minister of labour in the Irish parliament.
Murphy, Charlie:
Member of IRA general headquarters staff.
Nà Ghráda, Mairead:
Irish language playwright; member of staff of the first Dáil; the first female announcer on radio.
Nixon, Richard Milhous (1913â94):
Thirty-seventh president of the United States.
à Brádaigh, Ruairà (Rory Brady) (b. 1932):
Sinn Féin TD for Longford-Westmeath, 1975; IRA chief of staff, 1958â59 and 1961â62, when the republican movement split in 1970 became the first president of Provisional Sinn Féin; lost leadership to Gerry Adams in 1983; became leader of faction which left Sinn Féin to form Republican Sinn Féin.
O'Brien, Dr. Conor Cruise (b. 1917):
Dublin-born politician, diplomat, and writer; active in the anti-partition campaign in the forties; seconded to the United Nations during the Congo crisis; after a long period out of Ireland he returned to win a seat for Labour in 1969; minister for posts and telegraphs, 1973â77, during which time he developed an abiding hatred for Irish republicanism; in 1966 joined the U.K. Unionist Party.
O'Brien, Mick:
IRA Volunteer.
à Ceallaigh, Seán T. (Seán T. O'Kelly) (1882-1966):
Born in Dublin; joined the Gaelic League in 1898; subsequently joined and recruited for the IRB; founder-member of Sinn Féin in 1905; elected to Dublin city council; staff captain to Pearse in 1916; elected in 1918 as Sinn Féin MP; envoy to the Peace
Conference in Paris; opposed the Treaty; served as minister for local government and public health; minister for finance; elected as second president of Ireland in 1945.
à Conaill, Dáithà (David O'Connell) (1938-91):
Schoolteacher from Cork; joined Sinn Féin in 1955; subsequently joined the IRA; second in command to Seán Garland in the 1956 border campaign; lost a lung to a bullet wound.
O'Donnell, Mary:
Noted Irish fashion designer born in County Donegal; trained with Mainbocher and with Sybil Connolly before going into business for herself in 1963.
O'Donoghue, Phillip:
IRA Volunteer.
O'Hanlon, Feargal (d. 1957):
IRA Volunteer killed during the Brookeborough raid.
O'Malley, Ernie (1898â1957):
Born in County Mayo; fought in the 1916 Rising; commanded 2nd southern division of the IRA during the War of Independence; took the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War; arrested after the siege of the Four Courts, he later escaped; became IRA director of organisation; travelled widely as a writer and broadcaster; published to critical acclaim
On Another Man's Wound,
his account of the War of Independence, and
The Singing Flame,
about the Civil War.
O'Neill, Terence (1914â90):
Born in County Antrim; captain in the Irish Guards, serving in the British Army during World War Two; leader of Unionist Party and prime minister of Northern Ireland 1963â69.
O'Regan, Paddy:
IRA Volunteer.
O Riada, Seán (1931â71):
Cork-born composer; joined the staff of Radio Eireann as assistant director of music; studied music in Paris and Italy; in 1953 became music director of the Abbey Theatre; composed the musical score for the film documentary
Mise Ãire.
O Súilleabháin, Muiris (Maurice O'Sullivan) (1904â50):
Born on Great Blasket Island off the coast of Kerry; went to Dublin in 1927 to join the civic guard; his biography, written in Irish,
Fiche Blian ag Fás,
was published in English as
Twenty Years A Growing
and translated in many languages.
Paisley, Ian Richard Kyle (b. 1926):
Born in Armagh, Northern Ireland, the son of a former Baptist minister. Paisley studied at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Hall in Belfast; was ordained at the Ravenhill Evangelical Mission Church in 1946; cofounded his own new sect, the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, in 1951; from 1960 became the voice of extreme Protestant opinion; elected to the parliament of Northern Ireland; elected to the British House of Commons; cofounded the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP); elected to the European parliament.
Pearse, Senator Margaret Mary (1878â1968):
Sister of Pádraic and Willie Pearse; helped in the establishment and maintenance of St. Enda's; was one of those who kept the school open for seventeen years after the execution of her brothers; TD for County Dublin 1933â37; in 1938 elected to Seanad Ãireann; in 1967 she bequeathed St. Enda's to the nation.
Pearse, Pádraic (Patrick Henry Pearse) (1879â1916):
Born in Dublin. Patriot, educationlist, writer, republican; founder of Saint Enda's College; member of the military council of the IRB; founding member of the Irish National Volunteers; signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic; president of the Irish Republic and commander in chief of republican forces during the 1916 Rising; executed by the British in 1916.
Pope John XXIII (Angelo Giuseppi Roncalli) (1881â1963):
Leader of the attempt to modernise the Roman Catholic Church.
Rooney, Patrick:
Nine-year-old Catholic boy killed by the B-Specials.
Scott, Michael (1905â89):
Born in Drogheda; architect of the Irish pavilion of the New York World's Fair in 1939; leading figure in the introduction of modern architecture to Ireland.
Shackleton, Sir Ernest Henry (1874â1922):
Born in County Kildare; member of Scott's Antarctic expedition 19012â04; led his own Antarctic expedition in 1907â09; was knighted upon returning to England: led his second expedition to the Antarctic in 1914 aboard the ship
Endurance,
which was caught and crushed in the ice; in an act of an almost superhuman heroism Shackleton managed to keep all his men alive and bring them to safety.
Sheen, Archbishop Fulton J. (d. 1981):
American cleric considered to be one of the most influential Catholics in America in the twentieth century, Sheen popularised radio and television ministries. Millions regularly tuned in to his programme,
The Catholic Hour.
Solomons, Estella (1882â1968):
Dublin-born painter of Jewish extraction; educated in a finishing school in Germany; joined Cumann na mBan; active behind the scenes during the 1916 Rising; her home became a safe house for republicans on the run.
South, Seán (d. 1957):
Born in Limerick; joined the IRA; killed during the Brookeborough raid.
Thatcher, Margaret Hilda (b. 1925):
British politician and member of the Conservative Party; prime minister 1979â90, the first female prime minister in European history.
Truman, Harry S. (1884â1972):
Thirty-third president of the United States.
Yeats, William Butler (1865â1939):
Dublin-born poet and dramatist; awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1923.