Easter 1976 - ban defied and 1916 veteran saluted

Easter 1976 marked the 60th anniversary of the 1916 Rising with the armed conflict ongoing in the Six Counties while in Dublin the Fine Gael/Labour Coalition government turned its back on both the North and on the heritage of Easter 1916 which it once claimed.

The 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising had seen extensive State commemorations but in 1976 there were none. Sinn Féin announced that on Sunday 25 April it would hold a national 1916 Diamond Jubilee commemoration in the centre of Dublin going from St Stephen’s Green to a rally at the GPO. In the week before the event the Coalition government banned it under the Offences Against the State Act.

Undeterred by the ban, Sinn Féin said that the Republican event was confirmed to go ahead. Some prominent public figures who did not necessarily support the Republican Movement opposed the ban and attended the event as a mark of protest. These included Labour TD and former RTÉ presenter David Thornley. He lost the Labour whip in Leinster House over his attendance. 1916 veterans also attended, including Fiona Plunkett, sister of Proclamation signatory Joseph Plunkett.

Many thousands of people, including Sinn Féin cumainn from all over Ireland, contingents of Fianna Éireann, Cumann na mBan and marching bands, and the general public, paraded to the GPO. On the platform were the president and vice-president of Sinn Féin Ruairi Ó Brádaigh and  Máire Drumm. The rally was chaired by Joe Cahill and the main speaker was Daithi Ó Conaill who had recently been released from Portlaoise Prison.

Despite the presence of hundreds of riot-clad Gardaí, with 26-County military units out of sight in reserve, there was only a minor scuffle and the event passed off peacefully. In the aftermath several people faced charges for attending the rally, including Fiona Plunkett who was said to be most displeased when an anonymous person paid the fine imposed by the court!

It was stated at the rally that the most notable absentee that day was Joe Clarke who had died three days previously. Clarke was a veteran of 1916 who had fought at Mount Street Bridge and narrowly escaped death after capture when shot at by a British soldier. He was later an official of the First Dáil Éireann, opposed the Treaty and was an active Republican all his life and imprisoned many times. He served for a time as a Sinn Féin Councillor on Dublin Corporation. At the State commemoration for the First Dáil in 1969 in the Mansion House he interjected during Éamon de Valera’s speech and said the Democratic Programme of the Dáil was not being implemented and there were members of the Dublin Housing Action Committee on hunger strike in Mountjoy. He was forcibly ejected from the Mansion House.

For many years Joe Clarke distributed and sold books from his Irish Book Bureau based in his home at O’Donovan Road, Dublin 8, which was also used as the first base for the newly founded An Phoblacht in 1970. He served on the Sinn Féin Caretaker Executive in that year and on the Ard Chomhairle until 1972 when he was appointed honorary vice-president. He was prominent at many Sinn Féin events in his final years, including Ard Fheiseanna. He died on 22 April 1976 at the age of 94. 

Joe Clarke’s funeral to Glasnevin Cemetery took place the day after the 1916 Diamond Jubilee commemoration. In his graveside oration, former An Phoblacht editor Éamonn Mac Thomáis spoke of how Joe was tortured by Free State forces while a prisoner during the Civil War. He cited the many aspects of his work as an IRA Volunteer and a Sinn Féin activist, a founder member of the National Graves Association and of the Prisoners Dependents Fund (An Cumann Cabhrach).Pointing out that the funeral was 60 years to day Joe Clarke fought at Mount Street Bridge in the Easter Rising, Mac Thomáis concluded:

“Joe had a hard life but Joe had a full life. He never knew the lie, he never knew the untruth. His life was full of honesty, fidelity and integrity.” 

The Diamond Jubilee 1916 commemoration was held and Joe Clarke was laid to rest, 50 years ago, on 25 and 26 April 1976.