Seán MacDiarmada - 1916 Poster

Rare Seán MacDiarmada 1916 commemorative poster.

Seán MacDiarmada (27 January 1883 – 12 May 1916), also known as Seán MacDermott, was an Irish republican political activist and revolutionary leader. He was one of the seven leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916, which he helped to organise as a member of the Military Committee of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and was the second signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. 

Brought up in rural County Leitrim, he was a member of many associations which promoted the cause of the Irish language, Gaelic revival and Irish nationalism in general, including the Gaelic League and the Irish Catholic fraternity the Ancient Order of Hibernians. He was the national organiser for Sinn Féin, and later manager of the newspaper Irish Freedom, started in 1910 by Thomas Clarke, and with whom he worked remarkably closely with as secretary of  the IRB in the two years before the Rising.
MacDiarmada had contracted polio and suffered from ill-health, needing a cane to walk. MacDiarmada along with Clarke supported the workers during the 1913 Dublin Lockout.
In November 1913 MacDiarmada was one of the original members of the Irish Volunteers, and continued to work to bring that organisation under IRB control.

 In May 1915 Mac Diarmada was arrested in Tuam, County Galway, under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914 for giving a speech against enlisting into the British Army during the First World War. Following his release in September 1915, he joined the secret Military Committee of the IRB, which was responsible for planning the rising. In 1914 he said "the Irish patriotic spirit will die forever unless a blood sacrifice is made in the next few years". Due to his disability, MacDiarmada took little part in the fighting of Easter week, but was stationed at the headquarters in the General Post Office (GPO), as one of the Provisional Republican Government. Following the surrender, he nearly escaped execution by blending in with the large body of prisoners. He was eventually recognised by Daniel Hoey of G Division (later assassinated in 1919 by Collin's squad). Following a court-martial on 9 May, MacDiarmada was executed by firing squad in Kilmainham Gaol on 12 May at the age of 33.

Originally printed and published by O'Loughlin, Murphy and Boland, using a photo by Keogh Bros., the text below the photograph simply states: "SEAN Mac DIARMADA, Executed at Kilmainham, May 12th, 1916". A fabulous reproduction on 210 gsm satin art paper , beautifully mounted on a mottled green suede background and set behind glass in a handmade, aged dark mahogany finish frame with a gold gilt sightline.