Eamon Martin
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Eamon Martin (1893 - 1971) was born in Dublin and educated at Westland Row Christian Brothers School.
He was a former Chief of Staff of Fianna Éireann, which he helped to found. He was also on the original Volunteer Executive Council (Provisional Committee) (see here).
In 1916 he helped lead the attack (along with Garry Holahan, Paddy Holahan and Frank Gaskin) on the magazine fort in Phoenix Park which was to be the signal for the start of the rising. He went on to fight in the North King Street area, the site of a civilian massacre, and was shot at Church Street in the lung.
In 1921 he went to the Soviet Union for arms and met with the Russian foreign minister and other Soviet leaders.
He was arrested along with his friend Liam Mellows after the fall of the Four Courts in June 1922 and shared a cell with Mellows for six months until Mellows' execution by Irish Free State (pro-Treaty) officials on 8 December 1922. Martin was mistaken for Mellows the morning of his execution and was brought to the execution area before the prison governor spotted the error.
Martin and Mellows had known each other since 1909 and had become great friends. Eamon Martin was a student of James Connolly and others, and was widely credited with being the real influence behind the social thinking of Mellows[citation needed].
He was also a close friend and advisor to Éamon De Valera from the split of Sinn Féin to the foundation of Fianna Fáil until his death.
He counted Father Albert (who was well-known for giving the last rites to the dying men in the GPO during the Easter Rising and of helping negotiate a peaceful surrender with General Maxwell) as one of his closest friends. He was the Irish representative at his funeral in Santa Inez, California having been sent by de Valera, who knew how dear Éamon was to Father Albert.
[edit] Contributions
Throughout his life he remained active in republican organisations and set up the Kilmainham restoration committee of which he was a generous donor. He was responsible for the erection of the Wolfe Tone monument in St. Stephens Green[citation needed]. He gave a very large donation to kick-start the Garden Of Remembrance and was thought to have had the original idea for the famous garden at Parnell Square[citation needed]. He was a relation of Mother Martin Martin and contributed to her hosptial in Drogheda.He was an uncle of Kevin Martin who represented Ireland in the 1948 and 1952 Olympic Games.His mother was Margaret Martin born in Lancashire in 1857 and his father was John Martin a tailor born in Dublin in 1854 . He died on 11 May 1971.
