Patrick
Pearse B.A., B.L., Commandant-General Irish Republican
Army, was born in Dublin in the street which now bears his name. Educated in
Christian Brothers' Schools, West-land Row, and at Royal University. President
of the New Ireland Literary Society and an ardent Gaelic Leaguer. He founded at
St. Enda's a school for boys.
Established first in old Cullenswood House, a house built on the ground, once known as the "Bloody Fields," where the Clansmen of the O'Byrnes and the O'Tooles annihilated the English.
Pearse embodied the spirit-ideal of Irish
Freedom; the doctrine of sacrifice and immolation for the regeneration of a
people. Truly did he feel that he, too, must " Drink of this Chalice," when he
read " The Order of the Day," that Easter Monday in O'Connell
Street.
When the heart-breaking day of surrender came Patk. Pearse found himself a prisoner in the hands of the British Military, first in Eichmond Barracks and then in Arbour Hill. In Kilmainham Jail he faced the firing squad, and his body was removed to Arbour Hill, and buried in a large hole prepared for him and his associates, in the corner of the prison yard.
Pearse was for several years an active member of the Coiste Gnotha of the Gaelic League, and subsequently Editor of " An Claidheamh Soluis," the League's official