
Éamonn Ceannt [Edward Kent] (1881–1916)
Revolutionary and Irish-Irelander
Extract from RIA Dictonary of Irish Biography by James Quinn
... Recognising an uncompromising militant, Seán Mac Diarmada (qv) recruited him into the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in 1911, and Ceannt assisted with the production of the IRB newspaper, Irish Freedom. He was urged by Mac Diarmada to become a founder member of the Irish Volunteers in November 1913, and with MacDiarmada and Pearse, all key members of the IRB, was elected to the Volunteer committee. As captain of ‘A’ company, 4th Dublin battalion of the Volunteers, he participated in the landing of rifles at Howth on 26 July and at Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow, on 1 August 1914. He was a leading organiser of the conference of separatists held (9 September 1914) in the Gaelic League library at 25 Parnell Square, Dublin, which decided in principle to use the opportunity of the European war to mount an insurrection in Ireland. He voted against Redmond's (qv) nominees to the Volunteer executive (16 June 1914) and, after the Volunteer split (24 September 1914), became a leading member of the Irish Volunteer executive, serving as director of communications and commandant of the 4th Dublin battalion. In 1915 he became a member of the IRB supreme council, and in May 1915 Ceannt, Pearse, and Joseph Plunkett (qv), all regarded as dedicated insurrectionists, were the first appointees to an IRB military committee that became the military council that planned the Easter rising. Ceannt was involved in various subterfuges to keep moderate Volunteer leaders in the dark, such as sending the director of recruiting, Seán Fitzgibbon, to Kerry to supervise an arms landing in the days before the rising.
At a meeting on 18 April 1916 Ceannt was one of the seven signatories of the republican proclamation. During Easter week (24–30 April) his under-strength battalion held the South Dublin Union and its outposts. The Union, close to several British army barracks and controlling one of the main approaches to the city, saw some of the insurrection's bloodiest fighting. Ceannt proved to be an effective and courageous commander who led from the front in several fierce close-quarter actions in the Union's maze of lanes and corridors. His spirit, and that of his vice-commandant, Cathal Brugha (qv), inspired the small garrison of forty-two Volunteers to mount a tenacious defence of their post and hold off repeated attacks from vastly superior British forces.