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1916 Rising Service Medal to Tom Clarke, “Father of The Rising” and signatory to The Proclamation of
The Irish Republic.
Tom Clarke’s 1916 combatant’s bronze medal and ribbon (posthumously awarded), the design based on the
Oliver Sheppard statue of the death of Cuchulain, the reverse numbered 12” and named “Thomas J. Clarke.”,
on a bronze pinned clasp and a green and orange ribbon, in the original box of issue stamped ‘Seachtmhain
na Casga 1916’.
Provenance: Presented by President Douglas Hyde to Tom Clarke’s widow, Mrs Kathleen Clarke in 1941;
Thence by descent to a family member;
Their sale, Adam’s, 12 April 2006, lot 336.
Thomas James “Tom” Clarke (Irish: Tomás Séamus Ó Cléirigh; 11 March 1858 – 3 May 1916)[1] was arguably
the person most responsible for the 1916 Easter Rising. A proponent of armed revolution for most of his life,
he spent 15 years in English prisons prior to his role in the Easter Rising.
Clarke was born in Hampshire to Irish parents. His father, James Clarke, was a sergeant in the British Army.
In 1865, after spending some years in South Africa, Sgt. Clarke was transferred to Dungannon, County Ty-
rone, Ireland, and it was there that Tom grew up.
In 1878, at the age of 20, he joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) following the visit to Dungannon
of John Daly, and by 1880 he was head of the local IRB. In August that year, after a member of the Royal Irish
Constabulary (RIC) had shot and killed a man during riots between the Orange Order and the Ancient Order
of Hibernians (AOH) in Dungannon, Clarke and other IRB members attacked some RIC men in Irish Street.
They were driven back, however, and Clarke, fearing arrest, fled to the United States.
In 1883 he was sent to London, under the alias of “Henry Wilson”, to blow up London Bridge as part of the
Fenian dynamite campaign advocated by Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa. He was arrested, and along with three
others, he was tried and sentenced to penal servitude for life on 28 May 1883. He subsequently served 15
years in British prisons. Following his release in 1898 he moved to Brooklyn in the United States where he
married Kathleen Daly, whose uncle, John Daly, he had met in prison. Clarke worked for the Clan na Gael
under John Devoy.
In 1907 he returned to Ireland and opened a tobacconist shop in Dublin where he immersed himself in the
IRB which was undergoing a substantial rejuvenation under the guidance of younger men such as Bulmer
Hobson and Denis McCullough. Clarke had a very close kinship with Hobson, who along with Sean Mac-
Dermott, became his protegé.
When the Irish Volunteers were formed in 1913, Clarke took a keen interest, but took no part in the organ-
isation, knowing that as a felon and well-known Irish nationalist he would lend discredit to the Volunteers.
Clarke fell out with Hobson over his support of Redmond who had tried to lessen the influence of the IRB in
the Irish Volunteers.
MacDermott and Clarke became almost inseparable. The two of them, as secretary and treasurer, respectively,
de facto ran the IRB, although it was still under the nominal head of other men, James Deakin, and later Mc-
Cullough. In 1915 Clarke and MacDermott established the Military Committee of the IRB to plan what later
became the Easter Rising. The members were Pearse, Ceannt, and Joseph Plunkett, with Clarke and MacDer-
mott adding themselves shortly thereafter. When the old Fenian Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, died in 1915,
Clarke used his funeral (and Pearse’s graveside oration) to mobilise the Volunteers and heighten expectation
of imminent action. James Connolly was later added to the committee, with Thomas MacDonagh added
at the last minute in April. These seven men were the signatories of the Proclamation of the Republic, with
Clarke as the first signatory. It has been said that Clarke indeed would have been the declared President and
Commander-in-chief, but he refused any military rank and such honours; these were given to Pearse, who
was more well-known and respected on a national level.
Clarke was stationed at headquarters in the General Post Office during the Rising.. Though he held no formal
military rank, Clarke was recognised by the garrison as one of the commanders, and was active throughout
the week in the direction of the fighting. Following the surrender on 29 April, Clarke was held in Kilmain-
ham Jail until his execution by firing squad on 3 May at the age of 59. He was the second person to be execut-
ed, following Patrick Pearse.