Seán Cronin

Seán Cronin (29 August 1922 – 9 March 2011) was a journalist and former Irish Army officer and twice Irish Republican Army chief of staff.^[1]

Cronin was born in Dublin but spent his childhood years in Ballinskelligs, in the County Kerry Gaeltacht.^[2]

During the Second World War, Cronin was an officer in the Southern Command. He later emigrated to New York, where he found work as a journalist. In America, he became involved with Clan na Gael and later joined the Irish Republican Army.^[2]

In 1955 he returned from the United States and began work as a subeditor in the Evening Press.^[2]

He was soon put in charge of training in the IRA. He outlined his ideas in a booklet, Notes on Guerrilla Warfare. He became the chief strategist for Operation Harvest, a campaign which saw the carrying out a range of military operations from direct attacks on security installations to disruptive actions against infrastructure. He was arrested and imprisoned several times over the course of this campaign (1956–1962).^[1]

On two occasions, from 1957 to 1958 and then 1959 to 1960, Cronin was IRA chief of staff. He also served as editor of the Sinn Féin United Irishman/An tÉireannach Aontaithe newspaper.^[2]

Jailed for his activities, he left the IRA in 1962 after his release from prison.^[2]

He later became a journalist for The Irish Times, becoming that paper's first Washington, DC correspondent.^[2]

He was the author of a dozen books and pamphlets, including a biography of republican Frank Ryan, Washington’s Irish Policy 1916-1986: Independence, Partition, Neutrality, an authoritative account of Irish-US relations; Our Own Red Blood about the 1916 Easter Rising; and a number of works on guerrilla strategy, including an early Sinn Féin pamphlet Resistance under the pseudonym of J. McGarrity.^[2]

After several years of illness, Cronin died in Washington on 9 March 2011. He is survived by his second wife, Reva Rubenstein Cronin.^[2]

Bibliography

• Wolfe Tone. Dublin Directory: Wolfe Tone Bi-Centenary, 1963.
• Jemmy Hope: A Man of the People. Scéim na gCeardchumann, 1964.
• The Story of Kevin Barry, with a foreword by Commander-General Tom Barry. The National Publications Committee, 1965.

Reprinted by C.F.N. in 1983.

• Our Own Red Blood :The Story of The 1916 Rising. Wolfe Tone Society, 1966 Reprinted 1976 and 2006.
• The Rights of Man in Ireland. Wolfe Tone Society, 1970.
• The Revolutionaries. Republican Publications, 1971.
• Ireland Since The Treaty : fifty years after. Irish Freedom Press, 1971.
• The McGarrity Papers: Revelations of the Irish Revolutionary Movement in Ireland and America, 1900-1940 Anvil Books, 1972.
• Freedom the Wolfe Tone Way Anvil Books, 1973.
• Tone's Republic : The Case Against Sectarianism Wolfe Tone Society, 1975.
• Marx and the Irish Question. Repsol, 1977.
• Frank Ryan : The Search for the Republic. Repsol, 1980.
• Irish Nationalism : a history of its roots and ideology. Academy Press, 1980, US edition,

Continuum, 1981.

• Washington's Irish policy 1916-1986 : independence, partition, neutrality. Anvil Books, 1987.
• For Whom the Hangman's Rope was Spun : Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen. Repsol, 1991.

References

1. Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers Party, pp. 12-13, ISBN 1-84488-120-2
2. Patrick Smyth, "Veteran republican and first 'Irish Times' Washington correspondent dies aged 91", Irish Times, 10 March 2011.