Thomas James Clarke (Irish: Tomás Séamus Ó Cléirigh; 11 March 1858 – 3 May 1916) was an Irish republican and a leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Clarke was arguably the person most responsible for the 1916 Easter Rising. A proponent of armed struggle against British rule in Ireland for most of his life, Clarke spent 15 years in English prisons prior to his role in the Easter Rising and was executed by firing squad after it was defeated.
Clarke was born at Hurst Castle near Milford-on-Sea in England, to Irish parents, Mary Palmer and James Clarke, who was a sergeant in the British Army. He had one brother, Joseph. In 1865, after spending some years in South Africa, Sgt. Clarke was transferred to Dungannon, County Tyrone, and it was there that he grew up.
In 1878, at the age of 20, he joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) following the visit to Dungannon by John Daly, and by 1880 he was centre (head) of the local IRB circle. In August that year, after a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) had shot and killed a man during riots between the Orange Order and the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Dungannon, Clarke and other IRB members attacked some RIC men in Irish Street. They were driven back, however, and Clarke, fearing arrest, fled to the United States.
Participation in Fenian dynamite campaign and 15 years imprisonment
In 1883, Clarke was sent to London, under the alias of "Henry Wilson", to take part in the Fenian dynamite campaign advocated by Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, one of the IRB leaders exiled in the United States. British authorities were already following those involved, aided by informants, and Clarke was arrested in possession of dynamite, along with three others. He was tried and sentenced to penal servitude for life on 28 May 1883 at London's Old Bailey. He subsequently served 15 years in Pentonville and other British prisons. In 1896, he was one of only five remaining Fenian prisoners in British jails and a series of public meetings in Ireland called for their release. At one meeting, John Redmond MP, leader of the Parnellite Irish National League, said of him: "Wilson is a man of whom no words of praise could be too high. I have learned in my many visits to Portland for five years to love, honour and respect Henry Wilson. I have seen day after day how his brave spirit was keeping him alive ... I have seen year after year the fading away of his physical strength".
Following his release in 1898, Clarke returned to Ireland where he was met by a number of welcome home parties in Dublin and Dungannon, and Limerick offered him the freedom of the city, which he accepted. Clarke stayed with the family of the Mayor of Limerick at the time, the republican John Daly, with whom Clarke had previously been imprisoned. It was during this time that Clarke was introduced to Kathleen Daly, John's niece. Tom Clarke and Kathleen would subsequently begin a relationship.
Despite his well-wishers, Clarke found it difficult to gain employment in Ireland following his return and would make the decision in 1900 to emigrate to Brooklyn in the United States. In 1901, he married Kathleen, 21 years his junior. The Irish nationalist John MacBride served as Clarke's best man. In New York, Clarke worked for the Irish nationalist organisation Clan na Gael under its leader, John Devoy. In September 1903 Clarke helped Clan na Gael launch their own newspaper, The Gaelic American, with Clarke serving as an assistant editor to Devoy. On 2 November 1905, Clarke became a naturalised American citizen.
After Clarke fell into ill health in late 1905, he gave up his job at the Gaelic American and moved with his wife to a 30-acre (120,000 m2) farm in Manorville, New York, and bought another 30 acres there in 1907.
Return to Ireland, political activism
Reasoning that he needed to be in Ireland to continue his Fenianism, Clarke returned to Ireland in November 1907, where he opened up a tobacconist shop in Dublin while immersing himself back into the IRB which was undergoing a substantial rejuvenation under the guidance of younger men such as Bulmer Hobson and Denis McCullough. Clarke developed a very close kinship with Hobson, who along with Seán Mac Diarmada, became his protégé. The younger, more radical members of the IRB lauded Clarke for his militancy, and with their support, Clarke was quickly promoted to the Supreme Council of the IRB and made treasurer. It was alongside Hobson and Mac Diarmada that Clarke would establish the republican journal Irish Freedom in 1910.
In order for the IRB to extend its influence, it was also in 1910 that Clarke helped set up a front organisation called the Wolfe Tone Clubs Committee, which allowed members of the IRB to gather without overtly declaring their presence. In 1911 Clarke organised a gathering of Irish Republicans at the graveside of Wolfe Tone in Bodenstown Graveyard, County Kildare to counterprotest the royal visit of George V to Dublin. It was also during this time that Clarke displayed a large banner in his shop reading "Damn your concessions, England, we want our country!".
It was also during this late 1900s/early 1910s period that Clarke joined both the Gaelic League (despite speaking little to no Irish) and Sinn Féin. In usual IRB fashion, Clarke joined both with infiltration in mind, hoping he would be able to take internal control and sway the election of officers. The primary figure in Sinn Féin, Arthur Griffith, was impressed with Clarke and asked Clarke to stand as a Sinn Féin candidate in local elections for Dublin Corporation. Clarke, however, stated he had no interest in electoral politics, telling Griffith "none of that for me". Clarke felt that Sinn Féin, which at that time advocated for a form of home rule rather than outright Irish Independence, was "all right as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough".
Clarke supported the striking members of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union during the 1913 Dublin Lockout and refused to sell copies of the Irish Independent, a newspaper owned by union-busting industrialist and press baron William Martin Murphy, at his tobacco shop. He was also involved in collections in support of the workers. However, he was critical of Irish trade unions' dependence on their English counterparts and regarded the Labour movement as a minor secondary struggle when compared to that for Irish Independence.
Clarke was a supporter of the Irish Women's Franchise League and supported the clause of the 1916 Proclamation guaranteeing equal opportunities for women.
In the summer of 1913 Clarke once again organised a gathering of republicans at Bodenstown. In that year Clarke invited a young man, Paidraig Pearse, to give the oration. By November of that year, Clarke had brought Pearse into the IRB, despite some reservations by other members of the IRB who feared that Pearse was politically unreliable and too personally ambitious.
When the Irish Volunteers were formed in 1913, Clarke did not publicly take part, fearing that as a felon and well-known Irish nationalist, he would lend discredit to the Volunteers. Nevertheless, with Mac Diarmada, Hobson, Pearse and other IRB members such as Éamonn Ceannt taking important roles in the Volunteers, it was clear that the IRB would have substantial, if not total, control of the organisation. This proved largely to be the case until June 1913, when the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, John Redmond, demanded that the Provisional Committee accept 25 additional members of the Party's choosing, which would give the IPP loyalists a majority stake. Though most of the hard-liners, including Clarke, stood against this, Redmond's decree was accepted, partially due to the support given by Hobson. Clarke never forgave Hobson for this, calling it "a treasonous act" and dubbing Hobson a "Castle Spy".
On 24 September 1914, with World War I having just begun, it was Clarke and Mac Diarmada who instigated an internal coup of the Irish Volunteers which saw anti-Redmonites seize control of the Volunteers' HQ in Dublin and issue a manifesto which rejected Redmond's leadership. This precipitated a split in the Volunteers. Although the vast majority sided with Redmond, those who opposed Redmond kept the name "Irish Volunteers". From then on, the Irish Volunteers would be in near-total IRB control, much to Clarke's delight. Redmond's followers, now called the National Volunteers, would go on to serve as part of the British army in the war, while the Irish Volunteers would remain home in Ireland. It was out of this situation that Clarke saw an opportunity to organise a militant uprising in Ireland.