26/03/2023
https://www.facebook.com/100044451733013/posts/778101493681568/
Peadar Clancy was one of seven sons and six daughters born to James and Mary Clancy (née Keane), of Carrowreagh East, Cranny, County Clare in 1888.
The Clancy home had been the meeting place for local Fenians since the 1860s. Though the Fenians had been instrumental in reawakening Irish culture through the Gaelic League, drama and the Gaelic Athletic Association, this form of "advanced nationalism" was not popular at this time.
From a young age Clancy was a keen Gaelic Leaguer and was engrossed by national activities.
Educated at the local national school, which was close to his family home, at sixteen he became apprenticed in the drapery business of Dan Moloney, in Kildysart. On completing his apprenticeship he went to Newcastle West, County Limerick, where he worked as an assistant in the drapery business of Michael O'Shaughnessy on Bridge Street.
From there, he moved to Youghal, County Cork, where he lived at 6 North Main Street, from which address he wrote to his infant nephew in Chicago on 17 October 1912.
In 1913 he went to work for Harkin's General Drapery, at 70A New Street in Dublin.
On coming to Dublin, Clancy joined the Irish Volunteers at their inception, becoming a Volunteer in "CO" company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade. During the 1916 Easter Rising he served in the Four Courts garrison, whereas Dick McKee fought in the 2nd battalion at Jacob’s biscuit factory.
The area directly behind the Four Courts, extending up Church Street towards Phibsborough, was, after the GPO, the other main area of insurgent activity north of the River Liffey during the Easter Rising. This area included North King Street, the Linenhall Barracks (which was burned down), and the North Dublin Union. Its location gave it a strategic importance. It was adjacent to the north quays, which ensured that Volunteers in this area were in a position to interfere with troop movements to and from both the Royal Barracks and Kingsbridge (Heuston) Station, the terminus of the Great Southern and Western Railway. North of the area seized by the Volunteers was Broadstone Station, the terminus of the Midland Great Western Railway, which was another venue that could facilitate the arrival of reinforcements into the city. In line with the manner in which fighting intensified as the week wore on, the area around Church Street, Brunswick Street and North King Street saw some of the heaviest and most intense fighting in the city during the Rising. This area was also the location of one of the most notorious incidents of the Rising, when members of the South Staffordshire Regiment killed a number of unarmed civilians as they advanced along North King Street.
The biscuit making firm of W. & R. Jacob's were one the largest employers in the Dublin of 1916, and their factory was seized on Easter Monday by perhaps 100 members of the 2nd Battalion of the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Volunteers under Thomas MacDonagh. The factory itself was an enormous and formidable Victorian edifice located on the 'block' enclosed by Bishop St, Bride St, Peter's St and Peter's Row, and between St Patrick's Cathedral and St Stephen's Green.
Its seizure helped to complete a loop of building cross the south inner city; the factory had two large towers that could act as observation points, while its location was very close to both Camden St and Patrick St: natural routeways for troops entering the city centre from Portobello Barracks in Rathmines and Wellington Barracks on the South Circular Road.
Clancy was to distinguish himself in combat, when, with a group of Volunteers, he repelled an infantry attack at Church Street Bridge and forced an enemy retreat towards the Phoenix Park on Easter Monday. Shortly afterwards, Clancy personally burnt out a sniper from a house, and during the course of the Rising single-handedly captured Lord Dunsany and Colonel Lindsay.
Lord Dunsany, though wounded by Clancy, said of the Republicans after his release: "Although in different uniforms, we are all Irishmen and you are all gentlemen."
For the "courage, leadership and intelligence" shown during this period, he was promoted to Lieutenant by Captain Frank Fahy.
After the Rising he was court-martialed and sentenced to death for his part in the rebellion; but his sentence was commuted to penal servitude for 10 years.
