Who were the men who signed the Proclamation?

Patrick Pearse

Born in 1879 in Dublin, in Great Brunswick Street - now Pearse Street in his honour. His father, who worked as a church sculptor, was English and his mother was from Co Meath. Educated first at a private school and then at the Christian Brothers on Westland Row he went on to the Royal University, the forerunner of UCD, where he studied arts and law. He was subsequently called to the bar.

From his school days, Pearse developed a deep interest in the Irish language and he joined the Gaelic League in 1895. He became editor of its paper, An Claidheamh Soluis. To advance his ideal of an Ireland "not free merely but Gaelic as well" he founded a bilingual school, St Enda's, which was first located in Ranelagh and later in Rathfarnham in Dublin. The school was intended as a model for a new education system, with pupils being taught through Irish and with a strong emphasis on nationalism. He wrote stories, essays and poems in Irish and English and became an exponent of the notion of "blood sacrifice" in order to redeem the nation's honour.

Initially a supporter of Home Rule, he joined the IRB in 1913 and was co-opted on to its supreme council and elected to the provisional committee of the Volunteers. When the body of the Fenian, O'Donovan Rossa, was brought back from the US in 1915 for burial in Glasnevin Cemetery, Pearse delivered the historic oration that ended with the ringing phrase: "Ireland unfree shall never be at peace". In 1916 he was commander-in-chief of the insurgents and regarded as president of the Provisional Republic. After a week's fighting he agreed to surrender unconditionally to prevent the further slaughter of Dublin citizens. He was executed on May 3rd.

Sean MacDermott

Born in 1884 in Kiltyclogher, Co Leitrim, at 16 he emigrated to Glasgow where he worked as a gardener and later as a tram conductor. In 1902 he moved to Belfast, where he worked as a barman. He joined the Celtic League and there met IRB man Bulmer Hobson who asked him to become an organiser for the Dungannon Clubs, set up to promote the IRB in Ulster. In 1906 he joined the Belfast circle of the IRB and was later appointed treasurer of the IRB's supreme council. He became a close friend of Tom Clarke and was appointed manager of the IRB publication Irish Freedom.

In 1910 MacDermott became a full-time organiser for Arthur Griffith's Sinn Féin. He spent the next few years travelling the country setting up party branches and organising for the IRB, which was his real mission. He was crippled by an attack of polio in 1912 but he continued his work. Probably the most popular of the senior IRB activists, he was elected to the provisional committee of the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and in 1915 became a member of the military council set up by the IRB to plan the Rising. He fought in the GPO. He was executed on May 12th, 1916.

Thomas MacDonagh

Born in 1878 at Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary, MacDonagh's parents were teachers. He attended Rockwell College and followed his parents into teaching. He taught in Kilkenny and Fermoy and his interest in the Irish language prompted him to join the Gaelic League. During a trip to the Aran Islands to improve his Irish he met Pearse and the two became friends. A poet like Pearse, he became the first teacher on the staff of St Enda's. He pursued his studies at UCD, reading for a Master of Arts degree and was appointed to the English department of the university. With Joseph Plunkett he edited the Irish Review and helped Edward Martyn to found the Irish Theatre in 1914. He published several volumes of poetry and his play, When the Dawn is Come, was produced at the Abbey Theatre.

When the Irish Volunteers were formed in November 1913 by his UCD colleague Eoin MacNeill, he joined and became director of training the following year. He joined the IRB in 1915 but was only drafted on to the military council a few weeks before the Rising. He was in command of the Jacob's factory garrison on Bishop Street (now the National Archives) during the Rising. He was executed on May 3rd.

Joseph Mary Plunkett

Born in Dublin in 1887 to a well-off Catholic family, Plunkett's father was a Papal count. He was educated at Belvedere College, Stonyhurst in England and UCD. He suffered from poor health and after graduation from university spent some years in Italy, Egypt and Algeria. On his return to Dublin in 1911 he renewed his friendship with Thomas MacDonagh and with him launched the Irish Review. Like MacDonagh and Pearse he was a poet.

He joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and his family's house at Kimmage, south of Dublin, was used as a clearing station for arms imported in 1914. In 1915 Plunkett was inducted into the IRB and he travelled to Berlin to help Roger Casement secure German support for a Rising. He then travelled to New York to inform Clan na Gael leaders on the preparations for the revolt. On his return he was appointed to the IRB military council but fell ill in early 1916 and had to undergo throat surgery. Despite his illness, he took his place in the GPO and signed the Proclamation. Like the other signatories he was sentenced to death. He married the artist, Grace Gifford, in his cell in Kilmainham Gaol shortly before his execution on May 4th.

Thomas J Clarke

Born in 1857 on the Isle of Wight, the son of a Leitrim-born soldier. The family moved to South Africa but when he was 10 they returned to Dungannon, Co Tyrone. At 21 he went to the US where he joined Clann na nGael, the American wing of the IRB. In 1883 he was sent to England on a bombing raid, was arrested and sentenced to life. He spent 15 years in jail, much of it in solitary confinement. He returned to Ireland and was made a freeman of Limerick. He married Kathleen, a niece of a prison companion, John Daly.

Unable to get steady work, he returned to the US in 1899. In 1907 he came back to Ireland and opened a tobacconist's shop in what is now Parnell Street. He set about reorganising the IRB and in 1910 published a militantly anti-British journal, Irish Freedom. His shop became the centre of republican activity in Dublin and the police saw him as the most dangerous revolutionary in Ireland. By then he was president of the IRB's supreme council. In July 1911, he organised the first pilgrimage to Wolfe Tone's grave in Bodenstown, Co Kildare, as a counterblast to the visit to Ireland of King George V. In 1915 he became a member of the secret military council established to plot the Rising. When it began he was in the GPO with the other leaders and was asked to be the first to sign the Proclamation. His wife later maintained his leadership of the IRB made him, and not Pearse, the President of the Republic. Clarke was executed on May 3rd.

Eamonn Ceannt

Born in Glenamaddy, Co Galway, in 1881 Eamonn Ceannt moved to Dublin with his family, when he was 10 years old. He was educated at the local national school in Glenamaddy and at North Richmond Street CBS in Dublin before going on to UCD. He joined the clerical staff of Dublin Corporation where he was promoted to the position of treasurer of the Corporation. He joined the Gaelic League in 1900 and became passionately involved in the language revival movement. He was also keenly interested in Irish music and played the uileann pipes. He travelled with a group of Irish athletes to Rome for the jubilee of Pope Pius X in 1908 and played a selection of Irish airs on the pipes at the Pope's request.

Ceannt joined Sinn Féin in 1908 and soon afterwards was inducted into the IRB. He was one of the founding members of the Volunteers in 1913. In 1914 he was involved in the Howth gun-running and a year later joined the military council planning the Rising. Many of the council meetings were held in his house in Dublin.

He was placed in command of the detachment that took over the South Dublin Union (now St James's Hospital). He was executed on May 8th.

James Connolly

Born in Edinburgh in 1868 to Irish parents, Connolly started work aged 11 and at 14 joined the British army. He spent seven years in the army in Ireland and developed an interest in socialism and nationalism. He deserted, returned to Scotland and married a Wicklow woman he had met in Dún Laoghaire. In Edinburgh he worked as a carter, got involved in trade union affairs and became a follower of Karl Marx. He returned to Ireland in 1896 as organiser of the Dublin Socialist Club and founded the Workers' Republic newspaper and the Irish Socialist Republican Party. He made a name as a journalist and lecturer, and toured Britain and the US in 1902. He went back to the US in 1903 and spent seven years there. He helped to found the "Wobblies", the Industrial Workers of the World, a radical US labour organisation.

Connolly returned to Ireland in 1910 and became Ulster organiser for the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union which was led by James Larkin. During the 1913 Dublin lockout, Connolly led when Larkin was sent to prison. The plight of the workers and their families convinced him of the need for action and he founded the Irish Citizen Army. When Larkin went to the US, Connolly became the driving force in the ITGWU. On the outbreak of war he opposed the Allied war effort. He was invited to join the IRB's secret military council and helped plan the Rising. He was a key figure in the GPO and was badly wounded. He was executed on May 12th tied to a chair, as he was unable to stand up.