Pierce McCan

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Pierce (also Pierse) McCan[1] (2 August 1882 – 6 March 1919) was an Irish Sinn Féin politician.

Career

He was born at Prospect lodge, Ballyanne Desmesne, County Wexford,[2] the son of Francis McCan, a land agent, and Jane Power. He was nephew of Patrick Joseph Power, MP for East Waterford from 1885 to 1913.[3] He attended Clongowes Wood College.[3] He resided at Ballyowen House, Dualla, Cashel, County Tipperary, was an "extensive farmer" and was a member of the Tipperary Hunt.[3]

He was a founder member of Sinn Féin in 1905. He joined the Gaelic League in 1909 and was a member of the Irish Volunteers from 1914 onwards.[citation needed]

After more than 2,000 German and Austrian prisoners were imprisoned at Richmond Barracks, Templemore following the first battles of World War I in 1914, McCan plotted to engineer a mass escape but was thwarted when the prisoners were removed to Leigh, Lancashire in 1915.[4] He was interned in 1916 after the Easter Rising for several months in Richmond Barracks, Dublin, and Knutsford, England.[3][5]

In May 1918, he was arrested under the premise of the so-called German Plot and detained without charge in Gloucester Jail.[3]

McCan was president of the East Tipperary executive of Sinn Féin. While incarcerated, he elected as a Sinn Féin MP for the East Tipperary constituency at the 1918 general election.[6]

In January 1919, Sinn Féin MPs refused to recognise the Parliament of the United Kingdom and instead assembled in the Mansion House, Dublin as a revolutionary parliament called Dáil Éireann. McCan never sat in Dáil Éireann, having died in prison in 1919, a victim of that year's influenza epidemic.[5] No by-election was called to replace him in the UK constituency, which was abolished in October 1922.

On 9 March 1919, McCan was buried in Dualla, Cashel, County Tipperary.[2]

Tribute on death

On 10 April 1919, Cathal Brugha told the First Dáil:[7] "Before I formally move the motion, as I have mentioned the name of Pierce McCan, I would ask the Members of the Dáil to stand up as a mark of our respect to the first man of our body to die for Ireland, and of our sympathy with his relatives. We are sure that their sorrow is lightened by the fact that his death was for the cause for which he would have lived, and that his memory will ever be cherished in the hearts of the comrades who knew him, and will be honoured by succeeding generations of his countrymen with that of the other martyrs of our holy cause." The McCan Barracks in Templemore, County Tipperary, is named after him.

Family

In the general election of January 1933, McCan's brother Joseph, a member of the National Farmers' and Ratepayers' Association, stood unsuccessfully for the National Centre Party in the Tipperary constituency.[8][9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Mr. Pierce McCan". Oireachtas Members Database. Retrieved 29 March 2008. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Anthony McCan, "The McCan family", accessed 22 August 2010.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Irish Times, 10 March 1919, p. 7
  4. ↑ Walsh, John P. Walsh, A History Of Templemore And Its Environs, JF Walsh (Roscrea) Ltd., 1991, p 106.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Notes from Adam's "Independence" auction catalogue, accessed 22 August 2010.
  6. ↑ "Pierce McCan". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 1 February 2008. 
  7. ↑ "Dáil Éireann – Volume 1". Oireachtas Historical Debates. 10 April 1919. Retrieved 1 February 2008. 
  8. ↑ Joseph McCann, Elections Ireland, accessed 22 August 2008.
  9. ↑ Irish Independent, 9 January 1933.

Sources

  • Allegiance, Robert Brennan, (1950)
  • Memoirs of Senator Joseph Connolly: A Founder of Modern Ireland, J. Anthony Gaughan (ed), (1996)

External links

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