Seamus Deakin

Seamus Deakin (c. 1880 – 1953) was an Irish nationalist and member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, in which he briefly served as its president from 1913 to 1914.

Biography

A resident of Dublin, Deakin worked as a chemist in Hoyt's pharmacy in O'Connell Street and later owned his own shop in Phibsborough. Deakin became involved in the Irish nationalist movement during the early 1900s and, within a short time, became a high-ranking member in the Drumcondra-branch of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. A political ally of George Irvine, Ernest Blythe and Sean O'Casey, in 1913, he succeeded John Mulholland as president of the IRB before acceding to Denis McCullough the following year. His whereabouts are unrecorded during the Easter Rising in 1916, apparently escaping arrest during the rebellion. It is a common belief that he emigrated to the USA, but that is almost certainly not true. Family records describe him as having died in Ireland in 1952 and being buried in Drumcolloggher, Co. Cork, Ireland.^[1]

Further reading

• Martin, Francis X. The Irish Volunteers, 1913–1915: Recollections and Documents. Dublin: James Duffy & Co., 1963.

References