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James McCormack (1877–1916) was an Irish activist & revolutionary.
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Early life and family (1877–1906)
James McCormack was born 24 November 1877. He grew up with his younger brothers Hugh, John and Michael and sister Margaret in a place known as 'The Spot’ in Lisdornan near Julianstown, Stamullen and Bellewstown, in Co. Meath, Ireland. His parents were Michael and Mary (née Sinnott), they were married 20 January 1877. Michael died at age 37 (about 1887). Mary, born 22 May 1858, to Hugh Synnott [sic] and Margaret Doyle, was 29-years-old when her husband died.
James resided there until the close of 1900 when his family moved to a second home, also in Lisdornan, and where he continued to live until around 1906 when he then moved to Baldoyle, Co. Dublin, to begin employment at the Metropolitan Baldoyle Race Company Limited. There, he worked as a Senior Groundskeeper in the construction and maintenance of 'the turf' and grounds, as well as a new five-furlong gallop which would become renowned as one of the best in north-west Europe. He had previously been employed in the same endeavours at The Bellewstown Racecourse, the oldest racecourse in Europe.
James married Ann Rooney from Baldoyle in 1908 and they went on to have three sons, Michael born in 1909, Joseph born in 1911 and James, who was born in 1914. Ann (Annie Rooney) McCormack died in 1928 at age 45.
James McCormack and his family lived on Station Road (by Sutton Train Station—where Sutton meets Baldoyle), in ‘Sutton Cottages’ (or 'The Knock of Howth Cottages'). Ann was the daughter of Joseph Rooney, of Maynetown, the Rooney family later moved to the extant thatched cottage in the village of Baldoyle.
In the 1911 Census of Ireland James and Ann had two boarders listed as living in James' house: his two brothers-in-law James (47) and Lawrence Rooney (38)—also members of the Fingal branch of the ICA.
The Easter Rising/The Easter Rebellion (1906–1916)
On Easter Monday morning in 1916, Lieutenant James McCormack, the Commanding Officer of the Baldoyle, Sutton and Howth branch of the ICA, led his battalion of men to Liberty Hall in Dublin to join the uprising against the oppression of the British Empire, about 1,200 members of the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army mustered at several locations in central Dublin. Among them were members of the all-female Cumann na mBan. A joint force of about 400 Volunteers and Citizen Army gathered at Liberty Hall under the command of Commandant James Connolly. This was the headquarters battalion, and it also included Commander-in-Chief Patrick Pearse, as well as Tom Clarke, Seán MacDermott and Joseph Plunkett. They marched to the General Post Office (GPO) on O'Connell Street, Dublin's main thoroughfare, occupied the building and hoisted two republican flags. Pearse stood outside and read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. Copies of the Proclamation were also pasted on walls and handed out to bystanders by Volunteers and newsboys. The GPO would be the rebels' headquarters for most of the Rising. Organised by members of the Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Rising began on (Easter Monday) 24 April 1916, and lasted for six days. Members of the Irish Volunteers — led by schoolmaster and Irish language activist Patrick Pearse, joined by the smaller Irish Citizen Army and 200 women of Cumann na mBan — seized key locations in Dublin and proclaimed an Irish Republic. The British Army brought in thousands of reinforcements as well as artillery and gunboats.
There was fierce street fighting on the routes into the city centre, where the rebels put up stiff resistance, slowing the British advance and inflicting heavy casualties. Elsewhere in Dublin, the fighting mainly consisted of sniping and long-range gun battles. The main rebel positions were gradually surrounded and bombarded with artillery shells.
Lieutenant McCormack served as Military Commander to James Connolly, Commandant of the Dublin Brigade in The Easter Rising of 1916. McCormack was a member of the Irish Labour Party and the Irish Trade Union Congress and, like Connolly, an advocate of socialism. In 1913, McCormack joined the Irish Citizen Army (ICA), founded by James Larkin, James Connolly, and ex-British officer, Jack White, in response to the Lockout of 1913. Connolly's leadership in the Easter rising was considered formidable. Michael Collins said of Connolly that he "would have followed him through hell.""
The Irish Citizen Army (ICA) was an armed and well-trained body of civilian men & women whose aim was to defend workers and strikers, particularly from the frequent brutality of the Dublin Metropolitan Police. Though the ICA only numbered about 250 at most, their goal soon became the establishment of an independent and socialist Irish nation. Other prominent members included Constance Markievicz, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, Seán O'Casey and P. T. Daly. In 1916, they took part in the Easter Rising – an armed insurrection aimed at ending British rule in Ireland. The ICA uniform was dark green with a slouched hat and badge in the shape of the Red Hand of Ulster. Their banner was the Plough and the Stars. Connolly said the significance of the banner was that a free Ireland would control its own destiny from the plough to the stars. The symbolism of the flag was evident in its earliest inception of a plough with a sword as its blade. Taking inspiration from the bible and following the internationalist aspect of socialism it reflected the belief that war would be redundant with the rise of the Socialist International. This was flown by the Irish Citizens Army during the 1916 rising.
McCormack and his colleagues were stationed at the GPO, and during that faithful Easter Week on Wednesday, 26 April 1916, he was shot by a sniper's bullet. The location of his killing is variously recorded as in the GPO and Moore Lane.
A total of eleven Citizen Army men were killed in action in the rising, in the City Hall/Dublin Castle, Stephen's Green and the GPO areas. Connolly issued orders to surrender following a week of relentless shelling by the British forces and the civilian casualties that ensued. He and his Chief of Staff Michael Mallin were executed by British army firing squad some weeks later. The surviving ICA members were interned in Frongoch in Wales and in English prisons for nine to 12 months.
The ICA was only rebel force that accepted female recruits so a number of women joined their ranks. The best known was the Countess Markievicz who became Honorary Treasurer and acted as second in command to Michael Mallin at St Stephen’s Green. It ceased to be a major military force in its own right, but former members donned uniforms again to provide a guard of honour at the funeral on Countess Markievicz in 1927, and again at the funeral of James Larkin in 1947.
Posthumous decorations, commemorations and legacy
James McCormack was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery alongside many of his fallen comrades and joined the list of civilians and volunteers men and women who had given their life in the fight for the freedom and independence of Ireland—his name appears on the memorial there (also in Gaelic as ‘Seamus Mac Chormaic’).
The bronze medals awarded posthumously to James McCormack, for recognized military service to Ireland, are on a green and orange ribbon stamped with the message “Seachtmhain na Casga 1916”.
A native of the Dardistown, Lisdornan and the Bellewstown area, Meath County Council and The Bellewstown Heritage Group unveiled a Commemoration Plaque to James McCormack on the Lisdornan/Dardistown boundary exactly 100 years to the day he was shot, newly named James McCormack Memorial Bridge.
As James McCormack was involved in the development and maintenance of racecourses—at Bellewstown Racecourse and later Baldoyle Racecourse, in 2016, a 100-year commemorative plaque and modern bench were dedicated in his name at the Baldoyle Racecourse Community Garden. His granddaughter Ann McCormack (Connor) is the only remaining McCormack in the Baldoyle/Sutton area and was present at the 2016 memorial and plaque installation.
James McCormack Gardens, named to his memory, is the secluded development of houses and private cul-de-sac built by the local authority off Burrowfield Road, Dublin in 1949. McCormack's son, also called James, raised his family on that road, and his daughter, James senior's granddaughter, Ann McCormack, raised her family on Station Road in 'Sutton Cottages'—the same place James had lived in 1908.
In December 2015, local Dublin historian Philip O’Connor said at a lecture, in The Marine Hotel in Sutton: “A diverse community, unlike any other, Howth, Sutton, and Baldoyle reveals an extraordinary story of a North Dublin rural and suburban community in a time of national revolution. Baldoyle produced the only substantial unit of the Citizen Army ... several of whom fought bravely and honourably in the 1916 Rising and later struggles including for social justice in the Free State of the hard 1920s.”