James McCormack (Irish revolutionary)
James McCormack (1877–1916) was an Irish revolutionary.
Early life and family (1877–1906)
James McCormack was born in 1877, and grew up with his younger brothers Hugh, John and Michael and sister Margaret in a place known as 'The Spot’ in Lisdornan near Julianstown, Stamullen and Bellewstown. His parents were Michael and Margaret. Michael died at age 37 (about 1887). James resided there until the close of 1900 when his family moved to a second home, also in Lisdornan, and where he continued to live until around 1906 when he then moved to Baldoyle, Co. Dublin, to begin employment at the the Metropolitan (Baldoyle) Race Company Limited. There, he worked in the construction and maintenance of the turf, and a new five-furlong gallop which would become renowned as one of the best in north-west Europe. He had previously been employed in the same endeavours at The Bellewstown Racecourse.
James married Ann Rooney from Baldoyle in 1908 and they went on to have three sons, Michael born in 1909, Joseph born in 1911 and James, who was born in 1914. Ann (Annie) McCormack died in 1928 at age 45.
He and his family lived on Station Road, (close to Sutton Train Station) in ‘Sutton Cottages’ (or 'The Knock of Howth Cottages'). Ann was daughter of Joseph Rooney, of Maynetown, the Rooney family later moved to the extant thatched cottage in the village of Baldoyle. In the 1911 Census of Ireland James and Ann had two boarders listed as living in James’ house: his two brothers-in-law James (47) and Lawrence Rooney (38)—also members of the Fingal branch of the ICA.
The Easter Rising/The Easter Rebellion (1906–1916)
James served as an officer with James Connolly, Commandant of the Dublin Brigade in The Easter Rising of 1916. He was a member of the Irish Labour Party and the Irish Trade Union Congress and, like Connolly, an advocate of socialism. Connolly's leadership in the Easter rising was considered formidable. Michael Collins said of Connolly that he "would have followed him through hell.""[1] In 1913, James McCormack joined the Irish Citizen Army (ICA), founded by James Larkin, James Connolly, and ex-British officer, Jack White, in response to the Lockout of 1913.
The Irish Citizen Army was an armed and well-trained body of labour men whose aim was to defend workers and strikers, particularly from the frequent brutality of the Dublin Metropolitan Police. Though they only numbered about 250 at most, their goal soon became the establishment of an independent and socialist Irish nation. Other prominent members included Seán O'Casey, Constance Markievicz, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington and P. T. Daly. In 1916, they took part in the Easter Rising – an armed insurrection aimed at ending British rule in Ireland.
The ICA uniform was dark green with a slouched hat and badge in the shape of the Red Hand of Ulster. Their banner was the Plough and the Stars. Connolly said the significance of the banner was that a free Ireland would control its own destiny from the plough to the stars. The symbolism of the flag was evident in its earliest inception of a plough with a sword as its blade. Taking inspiration from the bible and following the internationalist aspect of socialism it reflected the belief that war would be redundant with the rise of the Socialist International. This was flown by the Irish Citizens Army during the 1916 rising.
On Easter Monday morning in 1916, James McCormack, as commanding officer of the Sutton, Howth and Baldoyle (Fingal) branch of the ICA, led his Battalion of men to Liberty Hall in Dublin to join the Uprising against the Might of the British Empire. Organised by members of the Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Rising began on (Easter Monday) 24 April 1916, and lasted for six days. Members of the Irish Volunteers — led by schoolmaster and Irish language activist Patrick Pearse, joined by the smaller Irish Citizen Army and 200 women of Cumann na mBan — seized key locations in Dublin and proclaimed an Irish Republic. The British Army brought in thousands of reinforcements as well as artillery and a gunboat.
There was fierce street fighting on the routes into the city centre, where the rebels put up stiff resistance, slowing the British advance and inflicting heavy casualties. Elsewhere in Dublin, the fighting mainly consisted of sniping and long-range gun battles. The main rebel positions were gradually surrounded and bombarded with artillery.
James was stationed at the GPO and during that faithful Easter Week, on Wednesday, April 26, 1916, he was shot by a sniper’s bullet. The location of his killing is variously recorded as in the GPO, Cumberland Street, College of Surgeons, and Moore Lane. A total of eleven Citizen Army men were killed in action in the rising, five in the City Hall/Dublin castle area, five in Stephen's Green and one in the GPO. Connolly was made commander of the rebel forces in Dublin during the Rising and issued orders to surrender after a week. He and Mallin were executed by British army firing squad some weeks later. The surviving ICA members were interned in Frongoch in Wales and in English prisons for nine to 12 months.
Posthumous decorations, commemorations and legacy
James McCormack was laid to rest in Glasnevin Cemetery [2] alongside many of his fallen comrades and joined the list of Volunteers and Citizen Army[3] men and women [4] who had given their life for Ireland, his name appears on the memorial there (also in Gaelic as ‘Seamus Mac Chormaic’).
The bronze medals awarded posthumously to James McCormack, for recognized military service to Ireland, are on a green and orange ribbon stamped with the message “Seachtmhain na Casga 1916”.[5]
A native of the Dardistown, Lisdornan and the Bellewstown area, Meath County Council and The Bellewstown Heritage Group unveiled a Commemoration Plaque to James McCormack on the Lisdornan/Dardistown boundary exactly 100 years to the very date he was shot, newly named 'James McCormack Memorial Bridge'.
‘James McCormack Gardens’, named to his memory, is the secluded development of houses and private cul-de-sac built by the local authority off Burrowfield Road, Dublin in 1949. James McCormack's son, James (jr), would raise his family on this very road, and his daughter, James' senior's granddaughter, Ann McCormack, would raise her family on Station Road in 'Sutton Cottages'.
As James McCormack was involved in the construction and maintenance of racecourses—at Bellewstown Racecourse and later Baldoyle Racecourse, a 100-year commemorative plaque and modern bench were dedicated in his name at the Baldoyle Racecourse Community Garden in 2016. Ann McCormack (Connor) is the only remaining McCormack in the Baldoyle/Sutton area and was present at the 2016 memorial and plaque installation.
In December 2015, noted local Dublin historian Philip O’Connor said at a lecture, in The Marine Hotel in Sutton: “A diverse community, unlike any other, Howth, Sutton, and Baldoyle reveals an extraordinary story of a North Dublin rural and suburban community in a time of national revolution. Baldoyle produced the only substantial unit of the Citizen Army….several of whom fought bravely and honourably in the 1916 Rising and later struggles including for social justice in the Free State of the hard 1920s.”
References
- ↑ Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland: Tim Pat Coogan ISBN 9780312295110 / 0312295111
- ↑ "St. Paul’s Cemetery in Glasnevin".
- ↑ "the list of Volunteers and Citizen Army" (PDF).
- ↑ "Women of 1916".
- ↑ "The 1916 Medal" (PDF).