New postage stamp marks founding of Irish Citizen Army

» Mark Moloney

The ICA was founded on the idea that 'the first and last principle of the Irish Citizen Army is the avowal that the ownership of Ireland, moral and material, is vested of right in the people of Ireland'

A NEW stamp has been launched by the Irish state's national postal service An Post to commemorate the foundation of the revolutionary Irish Citizen Army. 

The 60cent stamp, designed by Ger Garland, features an image of members of the Irish Citizen Army with Captain Jack White, one of the army's leaders, in the foreground.

The ICA was formed initially as a defence force for striking workers who were coming under vicious attack from the Dublin Metropolitan Police and strike-breakers during the 1913 Lockout.

Following the Lockout in 1914 and under the leadership of James Connolly, it became a revolutionary army, founded on the idea that "the first and last principle of the Irish Citizen Army is the avowal that the ownership of Ireland, moral and material, is vested of right in the people of Ireland".

Eleven members of the ICA were killed in action during Easter Week with the two senior surviving officers, James Connolly and Michael Mallin, executed. Seán Connolly was the first republican casualty of the week, shot in the first stages of the assault on Dublin Castle.

Constance Markievicz, who had served as Mallin's second-in-command, had been sentenced to death but had her sentence commuted to life in prison while Margaret Skinnider, who served as a sniper, was the only female member of the republican forces to be shot and injured during the Rising.

* UPDATE: An Post has withdrawn the sale of the stamp due to reports that the Citizen Army member featured on the stamp is not in fact Captain Jack White.

Dr Leo Keohane of NUI Galway and who is the author of a biography on Captain White said: "I can categorically state that the man portrayed on the stamp is not Jack White."