SEARC'S WEB GUIDE - Thomas MacDonagh (1878-1916)

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Searc's Web Guide to 20th Century Ireland - Thomas MacDonagh (1878-1916)

Thomas MacDonagh was born in Cloughgordon, County Tipperary. He was educated by the Holy Ghost Fathers and was briefly a religious novice. He became a teacher in Fermoy and Kilkenny where he learned Irish before going to the Aran Islands to become fluent in the language. MacDonagh published his first poetry collections April and May and Through the Ivory Gate in 1903. MacDonagh was a keen educationalist and in 1908 he helped Padraig Pearse to found St. Enda's School for boys wherein the pupils were taught through the medium of Irish, including the use of firearms, to inspire them to be 'Gaelic and Free'.

Thomas MacDonagh (1878-1916)

In the same year MacDonagh produced his play When the Dawn is Come at the Abbey Theatre under the direction of J.M. Synge. In 1911 he founded the Irish Review with Padraig Colum and David Houston. MacDonagh studied Literature at the National University where he obtained an MA and became a lecturer in English Literature. In 1912 MacDonagh began tutoring Joseph Plunkett in Irish and they edited the Irish Review together. In 1913 MacDonagh joined the Irish Volunteers and was a member of the Volunteers National Executive. In the same year he published Lyrical Poems; Thomas Campion & The Art of English Poetry and Literature in Ireland: Studies Irish and Anglo-Irish. In 1914 MacDonagh co-founded the Irish Theatre Company with Edward Martyn and Joseph Plunkett to counter 'the effete celticism' of the Abbey Theatre which had offended many nationalists.
MacDonagh was a Signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and following the 1916 Rising he was imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin and executed by firing squad on May 3rd, 1916. MacDonagh's prophetic poem Of a Poet Patriot was first published in Songs of Myself (1910).©

Of A Poet Patriot
His songs were a little phrase
Of Eternal song,
Drowned in the harping of lays
More loud and long.
His deed was a single word,
Called out alone
In a night when no echo stirred
To laughter or moan.
But his songs new souls shall thrill,
The loud harps dumb,
And his deeds the echoes fill
When the dawn is come.
© Searc's Web Guide 1997-2007

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