Joseph Mary Plunkett 1887-1916
Joseph Mary Plunkett was born in Dublin in 1887, son of Count Plunkett. He was educated at Belvedere College, Dublin, and from the age of 15 was a boarder at Stoneyhurst in England. Joseph suffered poor health throughout his childhood. He took a Degree in UCD before travelling to Egypt. In 1911, he returned to Dublin and founded the Irish Review. Plunkett was a founding member of the Irish Volunteers in 1913, and was a member of the Supreme Council of the IRB. Early in 1916 he travelled to Germany to meet with Roger Casement and make final preparations for the landing of German arms in Ireland. A member of the Military Council, he devised the battle plan for the Easter Rising. The Plunkett family estate in Kimmage was used as a training camp for returned emigrants who were to take part in the Rising. In the weeks leading up to the Rising Plunkett became very ill yet he rose from his sick bed to take part in the Rising. At 29, he was the youngest of the signatories to the Proclamation. He fought in the GPO alongside Pearse, Clarke and Connolly. He married Grace Gifford in the chapel in Kilmainham Gaol the day before his execution. Grace Gifford's sister gave the following account of the wedding:
‘Joe has been engaged to Grace since December and they were to be married on Easter Sunday. MacNeill's orders countermanded not only the Rising but also the wedding, for Joe was so involved in the Military Council affairs that morning that he had time for nothing else. Grace and he agreed that if he were arrested she would marry him in prison.'
At dawn on Wednesday 3rd May, 1916, Grace's brother-in-law, Thomas Mac Donagh, had been executed in Kilmainham. At 6 o clock that evening she was summoned to the Jail. For two hours she walked up and down, alone in a prison yard, while Joe, she was told waited in a cell. At 8 o'clock she was taken to the prison chapel and, as she entered, her fiancée was led in by a party of soldiers with fixed bayonets. The soldiers remained in the chapel while, at the altar, Father Eugene McCarthy, the prison chaplain, read the marriage service by the light of a candle (the gas supply having failed). Two soldier witnesses shifted their rifles from hand to hand as they assisted at the ceremony. Immediately afterwards the newly-married couple were separated. Grace was taken to lodgings found for her by Father McCarthy in Thomas Street and Joe was escorted back to his cell.
They met only once again. Grace was brought to the Jail from Thomas Street in the early hours of Thursday morning. Soldiers with fixed bayonets stood by while she spoke to her husband in his cell. 'Your ten minutes are up,' said the officer in charge, glancing at his watch, and they parted for ever.’
Joseph Mary Plunkett was executed by British firing squad on 4th May, 1916.
Joseph Mary Plunkett was born in Dublin in 1887, son of Count Plunkett. He was educated at Belvedere College, Dublin, and from the age of 15 was a boarder at Stoneyhurst in England. Joseph suffered poor health throughout his childhood. He took a Degree in UCD before travelling to Egypt. In 1911, he returned to Dublin and founded the Irish Review. Plunkett was a founding member of the Irish Volunteers in 1913, and was a member of the Supreme Council of the IRB. Early in 1916 he travelled to Germany to meet with Roger Casement and make final preparations for the landing of German arms in Ireland. A member of the Military Council, he devised the battle plan for the Easter Rising. The Plunkett family estate in Kimmage was used as a training camp for returned emigrants who were to take part in the Rising. In the weeks leading up to the Rising Plunkett became very ill yet he rose from his sick bed to take part in the Rising. At 29, he was the youngest of the signatories to the Proclamation. He fought in the GPO alongside Pearse, Clarke and Connolly. He married Grace Gifford in the chapel in Kilmainham Gaol the day before his execution. Grace Gifford's sister gave the following account of the wedding:
‘Joe has been engaged to Grace since December and they were to be married on Easter Sunday. MacNeill's orders countermanded not only the Rising but also the wedding, for Joe was so involved in the Military Council affairs that morning that he had time for nothing else. Grace and he agreed that if he were arrested she would marry him in prison.'
At dawn on Wednesday 3rd May, 1916, Grace's brother-in-law, Thomas Mac Donagh, had been executed in Kilmainham. At 6 o clock that evening she was summoned to the Jail. For two hours she walked up and down, alone in a prison yard, while Joe, she was told waited in a cell. At 8 o'clock she was taken to the prison chapel and, as she entered, her fiancée was led in by a party of soldiers with fixed bayonets. The soldiers remained in the chapel while, at the altar, Father Eugene McCarthy, the prison chaplain, read the marriage service by the light of a candle (the gas supply having failed). Two soldier witnesses shifted their rifles from hand to hand as they assisted at the ceremony. Immediately afterwards the newly-married couple were separated. Grace was taken to lodgings found for her by Father McCarthy in Thomas Street and Joe was escorted back to his cell.
They met only once again. Grace was brought to the Jail from Thomas Street in the early hours of Thursday morning. Soldiers with fixed bayonets stood by while she spoke to her husband in his cell. 'Your ten minutes are up,' said the officer in charge, glancing at his watch, and they parted for ever.’
Joseph Mary Plunkett was executed by British firing squad on 4th May, 1916.
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