Description

ÉAMONN CEANNT. IRISH REVOLUTIONARY. EXECUTED 1916.

Éamonn Ceannt was one of the Seven Signatories of the Irish Proclamation.

In July 1926, The Irish Independent published an article that included Eamonn Ceannt’s last message, written a few hours before his execution from cell 88 Kilmainham Gaol, on May 7, 1916.

I leave for the guidance of other Irish Revolutionaries who may tread the path which I have trod this advice, never to treat with the enemy, never to surrender at his mercy, but to fight to a finish…Ireland has shown she is a nation. This generation can claim to have raised sons as brave as any that went before. And in the years to come Ireland will honour those who risked all for her honour at Easter 1916.

Ceannt was held in Kilmainham Gaol until his execution by firing squad on 8 May 1916, aged 34. He is buried at Arbour Hill.

Brief summery of Éamonn Ceannt during the 1916 Easer Rising.
From the Wiki:
Ceannt used a contingent at the MarrowBone Lane Distillery to enfilade the passing soldiers; grinding attacks broke through to the Women’s Infirmary. On Tuesday 25 April, the British could have closed off the battle but failed to press home the advantage when the 4th Royal Dublin Fusiliers arrived, and Ceannt continued to hold out with 20 times fewer men. On Thursday 27 April, a British battalion made south, as far as the Rialto Bridge, when Ceannt’s outposts opened fire. The British were forced to tunnel into the buildings and, as Ceannt’s numbers reduced, it was increasingly involved in close-quarter fighting. His unit saw intense fighting at times during the week but surrendered when ordered to do so by his superior officer Padraic Pearse.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE EASTER RISING:

In 1916, in a rebellion known as the Easter Rising, a small group of uniformed and organized but poorly armed Irish patriots took on the might of the British Empire and sought to end 800 years of subjugation and oppression.
 Although outnumbered, for twelve extraordinary days in May 1916, they fought the British army to a standstill until finally forced to surrender as prisoners of war. 
Most were promptly executed without mercy and with their executions the Irish people, who initially had rejected them as hopeless dreamers and troublemakers, were so outraged by these brutal murders that they rose in huge numbers against the British and eventually succeeded, after years of armed struggle and massive help from the Irish diaspora in America, in ejecting the British and declaring independence.