1. Joseph Plunkett was an Irish republican, poet and journalist.
19 Facts About Joseph Plunkett
1. 2.
Joseph Plunkett was born at 26 Upper Fitzwilliam Street in one of Dublin's most affluent districts.
3.
Joseph Plunkett contracted tuberculosis at a young age and spent part of his youth in the warmer climates of the Mediterranean and North Africa.
4.
Joseph Plunkett spent time in Algiers where he studied Arabic literature and language and composed poetry in Arabic.
5.
Joseph Plunkett was educated at the Catholic University School and by the Jesuits at Belvedere College in Dublin and later at Stonyhurst College, in Lancashire, England where he acquired some military knowledge from the Officers' Training Corps.
6.
Joseph Plunkett was one of the founders of the Irish Esperanto Association in 1907.
7.
Joseph Plunkett joined the Gaelic League and began studying with Thomas MacDonagh, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship.
8.
Sometime in 1915, Joseph Plunkett joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood and soon after was sent to Germany to meet with Roger Casement, who was negotiating with the German government on behalf of Ireland.
9.
Joseph Plunkett successfully got a promise of a German arms shipment to coincide with the Rising.
10.
Joseph Plunkett was one of the original members of the IRB Military Committee that was responsible for planning the Easter Rising, and it was largely his plan that was followed.
11.
Shortly before the rising was to begin, Joseph Plunkett was hospitalised following a turn for the worse in his health.
12.
Joseph Plunkett had an operation on his neck glands days before Easter and had to struggle out of bed to take part in what was to follow.
13.
Grace and Joseph Plunkett were married in the prison chapel in Kilmainham jail, just hours before his death.
14.
Joseph Plunkett's father's cousin, Horace Plunkett, was a Protestant and unionist who sought to reconcile unionists and nationalists.
15.
Horace Joseph Plunkett's home was burned down by the Anti-Treaty IRA during the Civil War.
16.
Joseph Plunkett named his sister, Geraldine, the literary executor of his will.
17.
Joseph Plunkett published a volume of his poetry a month after his execution in June 1916.
18.
The Irish ballad "Grace", written by Sean and Frank O'Meara, is a monologue of Joseph Plunkett expressing his love to Grace and his love for the cause of Irish independence in the small hours before his execution.
19.
Joseph Plunkett is mentioned in the Irish rebel song "Sean South of Garryowen".