Patrick Pearse, [Padraig MacPiarais] (1879-1916), By Karl

Born to James Pearse and Margaret Brady, Patrick was the second of four children. Patrick and his younger brother, Willie, were together educated at the Christian Brothers School, Westland Row, where Patrick received his first classes in Irish; this became his focal interest. While still a teenager, he joined the nascent Gaelic League, which under the efforts of Douglas Hyde, Fr. Eugene O'Growney and Eoin MacNeill had begun to promote revived Irish language and literature. Even before matriculation at the Royal University and the King's Inns as a law student, Pearse was teaching Irish at Westland Row. In 1901, he took a BA in modern languages after courses at University College, Dublin and he was at the same time called to the Bar. Although he claimed to be ashamed of his law degree, he never dropped his legal title.

The extent of political involvement proper to Gaelic League, moreover, would also widen Pearse's impact upon what Hyde had phrased in a seminal 1892 lecture as "The Necessity of De- Anglicizing the Irish People." In his six years as an editor, Pearse became committed to the language revival. All other issues for Pearse at this stage, became secondary to cultural nationalism. Political autonomy he regarded as desirable yet not essential to Ireland. Pearse's maverick stance endeared him neither to Sinn Fiin or the republican movement; the Bill, in his view, would allow the Gaelic nationalists at least the removal of one of their manacles. Gradually, Pearse blended traditional Christian and militant conceptions into a radical perspective which blurred Patrick with Sarsfield, Colm Cille with Wolfe Tone. Not only a political cause but "a practical desire for revolution began to reinforce his mystical yearnings for martyrdom," in Dudley Edwards phrase.

Pearse organized a secessionist faction of volunteers which split with John Redmond after that Home Rule spokesman called for Irish support for the English war effort. Dramatic and poetic productions continued from Pearse as well, and his pamphlet "The Murder Machine" condemned the repressive educational tactics favored by nearly every teacher. Pearse pleaded for freedom in not only the school but for the nation, not only the instructor but for the administrators of both curricula and government. His political and ideological aspirations combined as he focused upon the opportunities Irish rebels might seize as England preoccupied itself with the European conflict. With a handful of other IRB members, Pearse planned insurrection.
Yet, German aid proved largely illusory, arms and men scarce, and amidst the urban and rural, pro- and anti- British assisting, radical and conservative factional disputes, Pearse still determined to revolt despite a lack of mass support. His 1915 oration at the funeral of O'Donovan Rossa defied those in Dublin Castle and all who collaborated or, by their indifference or acquiescence, helped keep the Union Jack planted in Irish soil: "Life springs from death; and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations." Pearse ended his exhortation by reminding all that "while Ireland, holds these graves, Ireland, unfree shall never be at peace." More than for a dead Fenian, Pearse's speech appealed rather to the ambitions of a few revolutionaries ready to add their own graves to the struggle for a free Ireland. In-fighting among nationalists slowed any action towards such a goal. Nationalism, perhaps, became Pearse's true faith.

In frenetic activity he committed his written legacy in pamphlets, poems, plays, and stories hastily composed by the beginning of April 1916, when preparations for the Easter Rising commenced. The IRB, however, received conflicting intelligence about arms shipments, troop readiness, and orders to act were countermanded by others. But, with the motive of "the good of my country," Pearse decided to command the "operations" on April 24th, Easter Monday.

The story of the Rising has often been recounted, as has the proclamation by "the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic." or Poblacht na h-Eireann, "to the People of Ireland," Lacking military experience, Pearse now defended the heart of Dublin from not only British reinforcements but its own slum-dwellers, who began to loot the high-class shops of Sackville Street. Little rousing of Volunteers outside the city occurred, and by the second day of the Rising it was clear no national rebellion would happen. Still, Pearse read a second manifesto on the Post Office steps to a crowd who dwindled even as he still spoke to "every Irishman and Irishwoman worthy of the name." The British forces closed their attack in the following days, cutting off the Republican pockets of resistance. Reality still could not erase Pearse's vision: "when we are all wiped out, people will blame us for everything, condemn us," But, "in a few years they will see the meaning of what we tried to do." Michael Collins would later criticize "the issue of memoranda couched in poetic phrases" and "of actions worked out in a similar fashion." Yet Pearse was not a soldier but a believer fighting for Ireland. Quixotic as his fight proved, it would stir Collins and many countrymen to repeat the puny efforts of Easter Week on a grand scale, incorporating fewer proclamations, less eloquence, more espionage, and many attacks by "flying columns" of Irish fighting a guerrilla war against veterans of both the European and Dublin battlegrounds.

Surrender of the General Post Office late Friday by Pearse and a general surrender on Saturday drew an end to the Rising, as his brother Willie carried the white flag. From Kilmainham prison, letters and poems record Patrick's devotion to spirited, patriotic, practical, and political affairs. After a British court-martial, both brothers died on May 3rd 1916, shot along with other leaders of the Provisional Republic.