Piaras Béaslaí
Piaras Béaslaí was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), a member of Dáil Éireann and also an Irish author, playwright, biographer and translator. Piaras was born in Breckfield Road South, Liverpool, on 15th February 1881, and educated at the jesuit St Francis Xavier's College, Shaw Street, where he became a journalist and went on to edit the Catholic Times in England. It was during this time at SFX he learned to speak Irish and was a member of the Gaelic League. In 1904 he headed for Dublin, and helped Richard Mulcahy, Padraig Pearse and other members of the IRB to infiltrate the Gaelic League. His motion proposing that the Gaelic league stand for a free and Gaelic Ireland, independent of foreign influences, lead to the resignation of Douglas Hyde from the presidency at the 1915 congress, the same year that an insurrection was planned for the coming Easter. Beaslaí fought in the North King Street area of Dublin during the Easter Rising of 1916. Arrested and sentenced to penal servitude, he escaped from Mountjoy jail, being re-arrested three months later, and escaped again from Strangeways prison in Manchester. Later Béaslaí worked closely with Michael Collins and became director of publicity for the IRA, and at the 1918 general election he was elected to the First Dáil Éireann as Sinn Féin TD for Kerry East. At the 1921 general election he was returned to the 2nd Dáil as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála for KerryLimerick West. He was re-elected in the 1922 election as a Sinn Féin candidate. He did not contest the 1923 election, and in his latter years he dedicated himself to literature. He wrote a book about his experiences titled Michael Collins and the Making of a New Ireland (which was published in Dublin in 1926). He died in Dublin on June 22nd, 1965 and is buried alongside Thomas Ashe and Peadar Kearney at Glasnevin Cemetery. In October 2004, members of the James Larkin RFB where present when a plaque was unveiled close to Piaras’ birthplace at the 'Strawberry’ pub on Breckfield Road South.
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