Seamus Robinson (politician)
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- This article is about Seamus Robinson, an Irish politician. For Seamus Robinson, a fencer, see Seamus Robinson (fencer).
Seamus Robinson (1890-1961), an Irish rebel and later a politician, was born in Belfast.
He joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913, and later took part in the Easter Rising of 1916. In 1917, he came to Tipperary and together with Sean Treacy, Dan Breen and Seán Hogan, he led the party which took part in an attack on a convoy transporting gelignite at Soloheadbeg in county Tipperary. They shot two policemen dead and took the explosives, and thus helped to ignite the Irish War of Independence.
Later on, after Hogan was captured in 1919, Robinson took part in his rescue from a train at Knocklong railway station in East Limerick while he was being transported from Thurles to Cork. Throughout the War, Robinson served in the Irish Republican Army, commanding the 3rd South Tipperary Brigade. In April 1921, he became the second in command of the IRA Second Southern Division, under Ernie O'Malley.
In the 1921 general election, Robinson was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Sinn Féin TD for Waterford – Tipperary East. He was opposed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty. When the Irish Civil War broke out over the Treaty, Robinson sent some of his Tipperary men to help the anti-Treaty IRA fighters in Dublin, after a plea from Oscar Traynor. However, the Tipperary continegent arrived too late to take ppart in the Battle of Dublin. He was critical of the leadership of the Anti-Treaty side however, saying that they had no coherent military or political strategy.
After the Civil War, Robinson left the IRA and Sinn Féin and joined Fianna Fail. Later on, Robinson as elected to Seanad Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Senator. In 1947 he was appointed one of the five founder members of the Bureau of Military History, dealing with the history of the independence movement 1913-21. Seamus Robinson died on December 8, 1961.
