Seán Mac Stíofáin
Encyclopedia
Seán Mac Stíofáin was an Irish republican paramilitary activist born in London
, who became associated with the republican movement in Ireland
after serving in the Royal Air Force
. He was the first chief of staff of the Provisional IRA, a position he held between 1969 and 1972.
version of name in later life, Mac Stíofáin was born an only child as John Edward Drayton Stephenson in Leytonstone
, London
in 1928. His father was an English
solicitor's clerk, his mother was of Protestant Irish
descent born in East Belfast
. He stated his mother had left an impression on him at the age of seven with her instruction:
His childhood was marred by his alcoholic, wife-beating father. His mother, who doted over her son, died when Mac Stíofáin was only 10. Nevertheless, Mac Stíofáin (who was baptized a Roman Catholic, despite the fact that neither of his parents was Catholic) attended Catholic schools, where he came into contact with pro-Sinn Féin
Irish students.
He left school in 1944 at the age of 16 and worked in the building trade before being conscripted into the RAF
to do his national service
in 1945. He attained the rank of corporal. After leaving the RAF, he returned to London where he became increasingly involved with Irish organisations in Britain. He first joined Conradh na Gaeilge
, then the Irish Anti-Partition League, bought (and later sold) the United Irishman, joined Sinn Féin in London and eventually in 1949 helped to organise a unit of the IRA. He first met his wife, Máire, who was from Castletownroche
, County Cork
, Ireland. Mac Stíofáin then began work for British Rail
.
. In that raid, the IRA netted over one hundred and eight rifles, ten Bren and eight Sten guns, two mortars and dummy mortar bombs. The police seized the van carrying the stolen weapons some hours later due to it being so overloaded that it was going at about 20 mph on the Braintree
bypass with a traffic build up in its rear. On 19 August 1953, he was sentenced, along with Cathal Goulding
and Manus Canning, to eight years' imprisonment by a court in Bishop's Stortford
, Hertfordshire
. It was in the run-up to the raid that Mac Stíofáin learned his first few words in Irish
from Cathal Goulding. He later became fluent in the language, which he spoke with an English accent.
While incarcerated in Wormwood Scrubs
and Brixton
prisons, he learned not only a smattering of Greek
from the Cypriot
EOKA
prisoners (he befriended Nikos Sampson
) but also "the realities of an anti-British rule guerrilla campaign".
Upon parole in 1959, Mac Stíofáin went to the Republic of Ireland
with his wife and young family and settled in Dublin, and later Navan
, County Meath
, and became known under the Irish version of his name. Contrary to a number of accounts, this was not his first visit to the country and he had been to Ireland a month before the Felstead raid in 1953. He worked as a salesman for an Irish language organisation. He remained active in the IRA and gave the Bodenstown
oration in 1959. A staunch and lifelong devoted Catholic
, he was uneasy with the left-wing political direction – under way from 1964 – his erstwhile friend and IRA chief of staff, Cathal Goulding, was bringing the IRA. Appointed IRA Director of Intelligence in 1966, Mac Stíofáin continued to voice his opposition to the Goulding line and was gaining support amongst members. Despite his hostility to the left wing direction he was prominent in agitations in Midleton
against ground-rent landlordism, the Dublin Housing Action Committee
and against foreign buy-outs of Irish farmland in County Meath
where he moved with his family in 1966.
A tall, well-built man, Mac Stíofáin was regarded as a rather stoical personality who did not drink or smoke. He was a devout Catholic and was infuriated by an article in the United Irishman
, by Roy Johnston
condemning the reciting of the Rosary
at republican commemorations as "sectarian". For refusing to distribute the newspaper, he was suspended from the IRA for six months.
in December 1969, a troika consisting of Seán Mac Stiofáin
, Dáithí Ó Conaill
and Seamus Twomey
together with others established themselves as a "Provisional Army Council", in anticipation of a contentious 1970 Sinn Féin Árd Fheis. At this, the Marxist leadership of Sinn Féin
failed to attain the prerequisite two-thirds majority necessary to overturn Sinn Féin's constitutional opposition to partitionist assemblies. This was despite the disbandment of anti-abstentionist branches and district committees, such as the 1966 dissolution of the entire North Kerry Comhairle Ceantair of Sinn Féin, embracing 13 Cumainn and 250 members and including three local councillors and expulsion of leading figures such as Miss May Daly (sister of Charlie Daly, executed at Drumboe, Donegal, in 1923), John Joe Rice
, Sinn Féin TD, 1957–61 and John Joe Sheehy
, veteran Republican and Kerry footballer. Many others were similarly ousted from the organisation. The underlying issue was the uncompromising stand of Kerry in refusing recognition to Westminster, Leinster House and Stormont.
Mac Stiofáin was subsequently appointed the chief of staff of the Provisional Army Council. At the Sinn Féin Árd Fheis in Dublin on 10 January 1970, Mac Stíofáin declared from the podium that he pledged his "allegiance to the Provisional Army Council" before leading the walkout of disgruntled members to form what would become Provisional Sinn Féin. The split also ended Mac Stíofáin’s friendship with Cathal Goulding, who went on to serve as chief of staff of the rival Official IRA. Although both had been good personal friends before the split; Goulding was later scathing about "that English Irishman".
The "Provisional Army Council" in the coming months would command the loyalty of the IRA national organisation save for a few isolated instances (that of the IRA Company of the Lower Falls road, Belfast under the command of Billy McMillen
and other small units in Derry, Newry, Dublin and Wicklow). Mac Stiofáin's men soon came to be known as the Provisional IRA.
There was a similar ideological split in Sinn Féin whereby a majority of the remaining party under the leadership of Tomás Mac Giolla (which contested elections first as Official Sinn Féín, then Sinn Féin The Workers Party) aligned itself to Cathal Goulding
's Official IRA
, as the Marxist rump came to be known. The party inherited the historic Sinn Féin headquarters of Gardiner St thus giving legitimacy to it, in the eyes of some, to be the legitimate successor of that party and briefly known popularly as Sinn Féin Gardiner St. Whereas those supportive of Seán Mac Stiofáin
's "Provisional Army Council" came to be known popularly as the Provisional IRA and Provisional Sinn Féin or Sinn Féin Kevin St. That party contested elections as "Sinn Féin". The Official IRA
were known informally as the stickies, given the tradition to affix Easter Lillies with sticky gum, rather than pins.
According to Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
, it was Seán Mac Stíofáin, as chief of staff of the Provisionals, who invented the name "P. Ó Néill". P. O'Neill is the name appended to IRA declarations to show that the statement is genuine.
Nicknamed 'Mac the Knife', Mac Stíofáin was a dedicated "physical force" republican, who believed that violence was the only means to bring about an end to British
rule in Northern Ireland
. In his autobiography, he set out the aims of the Provisional IRA as moving from "area defence" to "combined defence and retaliation" and then a "third phase of launching an all-out offensive action against the British occupation system". He also gave a detailed account of his development of the tactic of the "one shot sniper". He is said to have taken part in an unsuccessful attack on Crossmaglen
RUC
station in August 1969.
His military strategy was summed up in his own words by "escalate, escalate, escalate" and in 1972, by far the bloodiest year of the conflict, the IRA killed around 100 British soldiers
and lost 90 of their own members.
On 7 July 1972, Mac Stíofáin led an IRA delegation to a secret meeting with members of the British government, led by Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
William Whitelaw, at Cheyne Walk
in London. This was the Chelsea
home of millionaire Tory
minister, Paul Channon
. Other IRA leaders in attendance were Dáithí Ó Conaill
, Martin McGuinness
, Gerry Adams
, Seamus Twomey and Ivor Bell. Very much in charge, Mac Stíofáin spelled out the three basic demands of the Provisionals:
(1) The future of Ireland to be decided by the people of Ireland acting as a unit;
(2) a British government Declaration of Intent to withdraw from Ireland by January 1975 and
(3) the unconditional release of all political prisoners.
The British claimed this was impossible owing to the commitment it had given to unionists. The talks ended in failure, and as a briefing for prime minister Edward Heath
later noted, Whitelaw "found the experience of meeting and talking to Mr Mac Stíofáin very unpleasant". Mac Stíofáin said that Whitelaw put up his bluff exterior at first, but after a couple of minutes let it drop and showed himself to be a shrewd political operator; he also noted that Whitelaw was one of the few Englishmen to pronounce his name correctly.
Following the unsuccessful talks, Mac Stíofáin ordered an intensification of the IRA campaign which peaked on 21 July 1972, or Bloody Friday
, when the IRA detonated 22 car bombs in less than two hours across Belfast, killing nine people and injuring 130. In his memoirs, Mac Stíofáin described the operation as "a concerted sabotage offensive" intended to demonstrate the IRA was capable of planting a large number of bombs at once.
At a meeting between British Prime Minister Ted Heath and Irish Taoiseach
Jack Lynch
in Munich
on 4 September 1972, the former asked the latter if Mac Stíofáin could be arrested. In reply, Lynch said that he couldn't as the evidence against him was flimsy and he had a high degree of public support.
On 19 November 1972, a controversial interview with Mac Stíofáin was broadcast on the RTÉ
This Week radio programme. He was arrested on the same day and the interview was later used as evidence against him on a trial of IRA membership and on 25 November he was sentenced to six months imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court
in Dublin. Political fallout arising from the interview was considerable and some days later, Fianna Fáil
minister Gerry Collins sacked the entire RTÉ Authority.
Jailed in the Curragh
Prison, Mac Stíofáin immediately embarked on a hunger
and thirst strike. He was taken to the Dublin Mater Hospital, from where an IRA unit, including two members disguised as priests, unsuccessfully tried to free him on 26 November 1972. After this, he was transferred to the Military Hospital of the Curragh, in County Kildare. He ended his thirst strike on 28 November. His hunger strike led to tumultuous scenes in Dublin and protests outside the Mater Hospital where he was visited by the then Catholic Archbishop of Dublin
, Dr. Dermot Ryan, and his predecessor, Dr. John Charles McQuaid
.
After fifty-seven days, he was ordered off his protest by the IRA Army Council
for "bringing the IRA into disrepute". Some have reported that IRA Council members Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
and Dáithí Ó Conaill
ordered him off the strike. However, Ó Brádaigh, by this time, had also been arrested. In fact, when he was transferred into the Glasshouse of the Curragh, Ó Brádaigh welcomed him.
Following standard procedures, Mac Stíofáin lost his rank upon arrest and he never again regained his influence within the IRA after his release in April 1973.
in the late 1970s. He resigned from the party in 1982 after a disagreement about strategy at the Ard Fheis (annual convention), when a majority opposed the Éire Nua
policy, which envisaged the setting up of regional governments in each of the traditional four provinces
on the island.
In March 1983 Mac Stíofáin appealed to the IRA to declare a ceasefire
. He refused to join Republican Sinn Fein
in 1986.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Mac Stíofáin became active in the Irish language organisation Conradh na Gaeilge
. At that organisation’s centenary celebration held in Dublin’s O'Connell Street
in 1993, he was a guest of honour on the platform. He remained a member of the standing committee (Coiste Gnó) of Conradh na Gaeilge until his death. He lived in the Gaeltacht in Baile Gibb/Oristown southeast of Ceanannas Mór and next to the ancient site of the Tailteann Games
. Visitors to his home were greeted at the front door with a mat saying 'Labhair Gaeilge Anseo' ('Speak Irish here').
. On 18 May 2001, he died in Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan
, County Meath
, after a long illness at the age of 73. He is buried in St Mary's Cemetery, Navan.
Despite his controversial career in the IRA, many of his former comrades (and rivals) paid tribute to him after his death. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, who attended the funeral, issued a glowing tribute, referring to Mac Stíofáin as an "outstanding IRA leader during a crucial period in Irish history" and as the "man for the job" as first Provisional IRA Chief of Staff. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness also attended. In her oration, Ita Ní Chionnaigh of Conradh na Gaeilge, whose flag draped the coffin, lambasted Mac Stíofáin’s "character assassination" by the "gutter press" and praised him as a man who had been "interested in the rights of men and women and people anywhere in the world who were oppressed, including Irish speakers in Ireland, who are also oppressed".
A number of former EOKA
members also attended his funeral.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, who became associated with the republican movement in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
after serving in the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
. He was the first chief of staff of the Provisional IRA, a position he held between 1969 and 1972.
Childhood
Although he used the GaelicisedIrish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
version of name in later life, Mac Stíofáin was born an only child as John Edward Drayton Stephenson in Leytonstone
Leytonstone
Leytonstone is an area of east London and part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is a high density suburban area, located seven miles north east of Charing Cross in the ceremonial county of Greater London and the historic county of Essex...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1928. His father was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
solicitor's clerk, his mother was of Protestant Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
descent born in East Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
. He stated his mother had left an impression on him at the age of seven with her instruction:
"I'm Irish, therefore you're Irish....Don't forget it".
His childhood was marred by his alcoholic, wife-beating father. His mother, who doted over her son, died when Mac Stíofáin was only 10. Nevertheless, Mac Stíofáin (who was baptized a Roman Catholic, despite the fact that neither of his parents was Catholic) attended Catholic schools, where he came into contact with pro-Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
Irish students.
He left school in 1944 at the age of 16 and worked in the building trade before being conscripted into the RAF
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
to do his national service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
in 1945. He attained the rank of corporal. After leaving the RAF, he returned to London where he became increasingly involved with Irish organisations in Britain. He first joined Conradh na Gaeilge
Conradh na Gaeilge
Conradh na Gaeilge is a non-governmental organisation that promotes the Irish language in Ireland and abroad. The motto of the League is Sinn Féin, Sinn Féin amháin .-Origins:...
, then the Irish Anti-Partition League, bought (and later sold) the United Irishman, joined Sinn Féin in London and eventually in 1949 helped to organise a unit of the IRA. He first met his wife, Máire, who was from Castletownroche
Castletownroche
Castletownroche is a village on the N72 National secondary road in County Cork, Province of Munster, Ireland. In ancient times, it was known in Irish as Dún Chruadha, meaning Cruadha's Fort...
, County Cork
County Cork
County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Ireland. Mac Stíofáin then began work for British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
.
Joins IRA
On 25 July 1953, Mac Stíofáin took part in an IRA arms raid on the armory of the Officer Training Corps at Felstead, a public school in EssexEssex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. In that raid, the IRA netted over one hundred and eight rifles, ten Bren and eight Sten guns, two mortars and dummy mortar bombs. The police seized the van carrying the stolen weapons some hours later due to it being so overloaded that it was going at about 20 mph on the Braintree
Braintree, Essex
Braintree is a town of about 42,000 people and the principal settlement of the Braintree district of Essex in the East of England. It is northeast of Chelmsford and west of Colchester on the River Blackwater, A120 road and a branch of the Great Eastern Main Line.Braintree has grown contiguous...
bypass with a traffic build up in its rear. On 19 August 1953, he was sentenced, along with Cathal Goulding
Cathal Goulding
Cathal Goulding was Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army and the Official IRA.One of seven children born into a republican family in East Arran Street in the north inner city of Dublin, Goulding was involved as teenager in Fianna Éireann, the IRA youth wing which he joined with his...
and Manus Canning, to eight years' imprisonment by a court in Bishop's Stortford
Bishop's Stortford
Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire in the county of Hertfordshire in England. It is situated just west of the M11 motorway, on the county boundary with Essex and is the closest large town to London Stansted Airport and part of the...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
. It was in the run-up to the raid that Mac Stíofáin learned his first few words in Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
from Cathal Goulding. He later became fluent in the language, which he spoke with an English accent.
While incarcerated in Wormwood Scrubs
Wormwood Scrubs
Wormwood Scrubs, known locally as The Scrubs, is an open space located in the north-eastern corner of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London. It is the largest open space in the Borough, at 80 ha , and one of the largest areas of common land in London...
and Brixton
Brixton
Brixton is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in south London, England. It is south south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....
prisons, he learned not only a smattering of Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
from the Cypriot
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
EOKA
EOKA
EOKA was an anticolonial, antiimperialist nationalist organisation with the ultimate goal of "The liberation of Cyprus from the British yoke". Although not stated in its initial declaration of existence which was printed and distributed on the 1st of April 1955, EOKA also had a target of achieving...
prisoners (he befriended Nikos Sampson
Nikos Sampson
Nikos Sampson was the de facto president of Cyprus who succeeded Archbishop Makarios, President of Cyprus, in 1974. Sampson was a journalist and a member of EOKA, which rose against the British colonial administration, seeking Enosis of the island of Cyprus with Greece...
) but also "the realities of an anti-British rule guerrilla campaign".
Upon parole in 1959, Mac Stíofáin went to the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
with his wife and young family and settled in Dublin, and later Navan
Navan
-People:Navan was the childhood home of Pierce Brosnan, who appeared in the television series Remington Steele and was the fifth film actor to play James Bond. TV personality Hector Ó hEochagáin, and comedians Dylan Moran and Tommy Tiernan also hail from Navan....
, County Meath
County Meath
County Meath is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Mide . Meath County Council is the local authority for the county...
, and became known under the Irish version of his name. Contrary to a number of accounts, this was not his first visit to the country and he had been to Ireland a month before the Felstead raid in 1953. He worked as a salesman for an Irish language organisation. He remained active in the IRA and gave the Bodenstown
Bodenstown
Bodenstown is a townland on the outskirts of Sallins in County Kildare, Ireland.The most notable local features are a golf club and the parish cemetery for Sallins. The cemetery is best known as the gravesite of Theobald Wolfe Tone, the eighteenth century Irish revolutionary and leader of the...
oration in 1959. A staunch and lifelong devoted Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
, he was uneasy with the left-wing political direction – under way from 1964 – his erstwhile friend and IRA chief of staff, Cathal Goulding, was bringing the IRA. Appointed IRA Director of Intelligence in 1966, Mac Stíofáin continued to voice his opposition to the Goulding line and was gaining support amongst members. Despite his hostility to the left wing direction he was prominent in agitations in Midleton
Midleton
Midleton, historically Middleton , is a town in south-eastern County Cork, Ireland. It lies some 22 km east of Cork City on the Owenacurra River and the N25 road, which connects Cork to the port of Rosslare...
against ground-rent landlordism, the Dublin Housing Action Committee
Dublin Housing Action Committee
The Dublin Housing Action Committee was a 1960s protest against housing shortages in Ireland's capital city.It arose from a serious shortage of affordable housing, combined with a large number of properties standing empty. It also functioned as a way for a broad range of left-wingers in the...
and against foreign buy-outs of Irish farmland in County Meath
County Meath
County Meath is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Mide . Meath County Council is the local authority for the county...
where he moved with his family in 1966.
A tall, well-built man, Mac Stíofáin was regarded as a rather stoical personality who did not drink or smoke. He was a devout Catholic and was infuriated by an article in the United Irishman
United Irishman
The United Irishman title has been a very popular newspaper title in Ireland and a number of newspapers have been published under the title.*...
, by Roy Johnston
Roy Johnston
Roy Johnston is an Irish physicist. He was a Marxist who as a member of the IRA in the 1960s argued for a National Liberation Strategy to unite the Catholic and Protestant working classes...
condemning the reciting of the Rosary
Rosary
The rosary or "garland of roses" is a traditional Catholic devotion. The term denotes the prayer beads used to count the series of prayers that make up the rosary...
at republican commemorations as "sectarian". For refusing to distribute the newspaper, he was suspended from the IRA for six months.
Leads the Provisional IRA
When an IRA Special Army Convention voted to drop the principle of abstentionismAbstentionism
Abstentionism is standing for election to a deliberative assembly while refusing to take up any seats won or otherwise participate in the assembly's business. Abstentionism differs from an election boycott in that abstentionists participate in the election itself...
in December 1969, a troika consisting of Seán Mac Stiofáin
Seán Mac Stíofáin
Seán Mac Stíofáin was an Irish republican paramilitary activist born in London, who became associated with the republican movement in Ireland after serving in the Royal Air Force...
, Dáithí Ó Conaill
Dáithí Ó Conaill
Dáithí Ó Conaill was an Irish republican, a member of the IRA Army Council, vice-president of Sinn Féin and Republican Sinn Féin. He was also the first chief of staff of the Continuity IRA.-Joins IRA:...
and Seamus Twomey
Seamus Twomey
Seamus Twomey was an Irish republican and twice chief of staff of the Provisional IRA.-Biography:Born in Belfast, Twomey lived at 6 Sevastopol Street in the Falls district...
together with others established themselves as a "Provisional Army Council", in anticipation of a contentious 1970 Sinn Féin Árd Fheis. At this, the Marxist leadership of Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
failed to attain the prerequisite two-thirds majority necessary to overturn Sinn Féin's constitutional opposition to partitionist assemblies. This was despite the disbandment of anti-abstentionist branches and district committees, such as the 1966 dissolution of the entire North Kerry Comhairle Ceantair of Sinn Féin, embracing 13 Cumainn and 250 members and including three local councillors and expulsion of leading figures such as Miss May Daly (sister of Charlie Daly, executed at Drumboe, Donegal, in 1923), John Joe Rice
John Joe Rice
John Joe Rice was an Irish Sinn Féin politician. He was first elected as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála at the 1957 general election for the Kerry South constituency. He did not take his seat in the Dáil as Sinn Féin ran on an abstentionist ticket...
, Sinn Féin TD, 1957–61 and John Joe Sheehy
John Joe Sheehy
John Joe Sheehy was an Irish political/military activist and sportsperson. He participated in the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War in the Irish Republican Army, where he was a senior figure in County Kerry...
, veteran Republican and Kerry footballer. Many others were similarly ousted from the organisation. The underlying issue was the uncompromising stand of Kerry in refusing recognition to Westminster, Leinster House and Stormont.
Mac Stiofáin was subsequently appointed the chief of staff of the Provisional Army Council. At the Sinn Féin Árd Fheis in Dublin on 10 January 1970, Mac Stíofáin declared from the podium that he pledged his "allegiance to the Provisional Army Council" before leading the walkout of disgruntled members to form what would become Provisional Sinn Féin. The split also ended Mac Stíofáin’s friendship with Cathal Goulding, who went on to serve as chief of staff of the rival Official IRA. Although both had been good personal friends before the split; Goulding was later scathing about "that English Irishman".
The "Provisional Army Council" in the coming months would command the loyalty of the IRA national organisation save for a few isolated instances (that of the IRA Company of the Lower Falls road, Belfast under the command of Billy McMillen
Billy McMillen
Billy McMillen was an Irish republican activist and an officer of the Official Irish Republican Army...
and other small units in Derry, Newry, Dublin and Wicklow). Mac Stiofáin's men soon came to be known as the Provisional IRA.
There was a similar ideological split in Sinn Féin whereby a majority of the remaining party under the leadership of Tomás Mac Giolla (which contested elections first as Official Sinn Féín, then Sinn Féin The Workers Party) aligned itself to Cathal Goulding
Cathal Goulding
Cathal Goulding was Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army and the Official IRA.One of seven children born into a republican family in East Arran Street in the north inner city of Dublin, Goulding was involved as teenager in Fianna Éireann, the IRA youth wing which he joined with his...
's Official IRA
Official IRA
The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA is an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to create a "32-county workers' republic" in Ireland. It emerged from a split in the Irish Republican Army in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of "The Troubles"...
, as the Marxist rump came to be known. The party inherited the historic Sinn Féin headquarters of Gardiner St thus giving legitimacy to it, in the eyes of some, to be the legitimate successor of that party and briefly known popularly as Sinn Féin Gardiner St. Whereas those supportive of Seán Mac Stiofáin
Seán Mac Stíofáin
Seán Mac Stíofáin was an Irish republican paramilitary activist born in London, who became associated with the republican movement in Ireland after serving in the Royal Air Force...
's "Provisional Army Council" came to be known popularly as the Provisional IRA and Provisional Sinn Féin or Sinn Féin Kevin St. That party contested elections as "Sinn Féin". The Official IRA
Official IRA
The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA is an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to create a "32-county workers' republic" in Ireland. It emerged from a split in the Irish Republican Army in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of "The Troubles"...
were known informally as the stickies, given the tradition to affix Easter Lillies with sticky gum, rather than pins.
According to Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh is an Irish republican. He is a former chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army , former president of Sinn Féin and former president of Republican Sinn Féin.-Early life:...
, it was Seán Mac Stíofáin, as chief of staff of the Provisionals, who invented the name "P. Ó Néill". P. O'Neill is the name appended to IRA declarations to show that the statement is genuine.
Nicknamed 'Mac the Knife', Mac Stíofáin was a dedicated "physical force" republican, who believed that violence was the only means to bring about an end to British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
rule in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. In his autobiography, he set out the aims of the Provisional IRA as moving from "area defence" to "combined defence and retaliation" and then a "third phase of launching an all-out offensive action against the British occupation system". He also gave a detailed account of his development of the tactic of the "one shot sniper". He is said to have taken part in an unsuccessful attack on Crossmaglen
Crossmaglen
Crossmaglen or Crosmaglen is a village and townland in south County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 1,459 people in the 2001 Census and is the largest village in south Armagh...
RUC
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
station in August 1969.
His military strategy was summed up in his own words by "escalate, escalate, escalate" and in 1972, by far the bloodiest year of the conflict, the IRA killed around 100 British soldiers
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
and lost 90 of their own members.
On 7 July 1972, Mac Stíofáin led an IRA delegation to a secret meeting with members of the British government, led by Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, informally the Northern Ireland Secretary, is the principal secretary of state in the government of the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Northern Ireland. The Secretary of State is a Minister of the Crown who is accountable to the Parliament of...
William Whitelaw, at Cheyne Walk
Cheyne Walk
Cheyne Walk , is a historic street in Chelsea, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It takes its name from William Lord Cheyne who owned the manor of Chelsea until 1712. Most of the houses were built in the early 18th century. Before the construction in the 19th century of the busy...
in London. This was the Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
home of millionaire Tory
Tory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
minister, Paul Channon
Paul Channon
Henry Paul Guinness Channon, Baron Kelvedon, PC , was Conservative MP for Southend West for 38 years, from 1959 until 1997...
. Other IRA leaders in attendance were Dáithí Ó Conaill
Dáithí Ó Conaill
Dáithí Ó Conaill was an Irish republican, a member of the IRA Army Council, vice-president of Sinn Féin and Republican Sinn Féin. He was also the first chief of staff of the Continuity IRA.-Joins IRA:...
, Martin McGuinness
Martin McGuinness
James Martin Pacelli McGuinness is an Irish Sinn Féin politician and the current deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. McGuinness was also the Sinn Féin candidate for the Irish presidential election, 2011. He was born in Derry, Northern Ireland....
, Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams is an Irish republican politician and Teachta Dála for the constituency of Louth. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he was an abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. He is the president of Sinn Féin, the second largest political party in Northern...
, Seamus Twomey and Ivor Bell. Very much in charge, Mac Stíofáin spelled out the three basic demands of the Provisionals:
(1) The future of Ireland to be decided by the people of Ireland acting as a unit;
(2) a British government Declaration of Intent to withdraw from Ireland by January 1975 and
(3) the unconditional release of all political prisoners.
The British claimed this was impossible owing to the commitment it had given to unionists. The talks ended in failure, and as a briefing for prime minister Edward Heath
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....
later noted, Whitelaw "found the experience of meeting and talking to Mr Mac Stíofáin very unpleasant". Mac Stíofáin said that Whitelaw put up his bluff exterior at first, but after a couple of minutes let it drop and showed himself to be a shrewd political operator; he also noted that Whitelaw was one of the few Englishmen to pronounce his name correctly.
Following the unsuccessful talks, Mac Stíofáin ordered an intensification of the IRA campaign which peaked on 21 July 1972, or Bloody Friday
Bloody Friday (1972)
Bloody Friday is the name given to the bombings by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in Belfast on 21 July 1972. Twenty-two bombs exploded in the space of eighty minutes, killing nine people and injuring 130....
, when the IRA detonated 22 car bombs in less than two hours across Belfast, killing nine people and injuring 130. In his memoirs, Mac Stíofáin described the operation as "a concerted sabotage offensive" intended to demonstrate the IRA was capable of planting a large number of bombs at once.
At a meeting between British Prime Minister Ted Heath and Irish Taoiseach
Taoiseach
The Taoiseach is the head of government or prime minister of Ireland. The Taoiseach is appointed by the President upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas , and must, in order to remain in office, retain the support of a majority in the Dáil.The current Taoiseach is...
Jack Lynch
Jack Lynch
John Mary "Jack" Lynch was the Taoiseach of Ireland, serving two terms in office; from 1966 to 1973 and 1977 to 1979....
in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
on 4 September 1972, the former asked the latter if Mac Stíofáin could be arrested. In reply, Lynch said that he couldn't as the evidence against him was flimsy and he had a high degree of public support.
On 19 November 1972, a controversial interview with Mac Stíofáin was broadcast on the RTÉ
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
This Week radio programme. He was arrested on the same day and the interview was later used as evidence against him on a trial of IRA membership and on 25 November he was sentenced to six months imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court
Special Criminal Court
The Special Criminal Court is a juryless criminal court in the Republic of Ireland which tries terrorist and organized crime cases. Article 38 of the Constitution of Ireland empowers the Dáil to establish "special courts" with wide-ranging powers when "the ordinary courts are inadequate to secure...
in Dublin. Political fallout arising from the interview was considerable and some days later, Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party , more commonly known as Fianna Fáil is a centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland, founded on 23 March 1926. Fianna Fáil's name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, although a more accurate rendition would be Warriors of Fál...
minister Gerry Collins sacked the entire RTÉ Authority.
Jailed in the Curragh
Curragh
The Curragh is a flat open plain of almost 5,000 acres of common land in County Kildare, Ireland, between Newbridge and Kildare. This area is well-known for Irish horse breeding and training. The Irish National Stud is located on the edge of Kildare town, beside the famous Japanese Gardens. Also...
Prison, Mac Stíofáin immediately embarked on a hunger
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
and thirst strike. He was taken to the Dublin Mater Hospital, from where an IRA unit, including two members disguised as priests, unsuccessfully tried to free him on 26 November 1972. After this, he was transferred to the Military Hospital of the Curragh, in County Kildare. He ended his thirst strike on 28 November. His hunger strike led to tumultuous scenes in Dublin and protests outside the Mater Hospital where he was visited by the then Catholic Archbishop of Dublin
Archbishop of Dublin (Roman Catholic)
The Archbishop of Dublin is the title of the senior cleric who presides over the Archdiocese of Dublin. The Church of Ireland has a similar role, heading the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough. In both cases, the Archbishop is also Primate of Ireland...
, Dr. Dermot Ryan, and his predecessor, Dr. John Charles McQuaid
John Charles McQuaid
John Charles McQuaid, C.S.Sp. was the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland between December 1940 and February 1972.- Early life 1895-1914:...
.
After fifty-seven days, he was ordered off his protest by the IRA Army Council
IRA Army Council
The IRA Army Council was the decision-making body of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, more commonly known as the IRA, a paramilitary group dedicated to bringing about the end of the Union between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. The council had seven members, said by the...
for "bringing the IRA into disrepute". Some have reported that IRA Council members Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh is an Irish republican. He is a former chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army , former president of Sinn Féin and former president of Republican Sinn Féin.-Early life:...
and Dáithí Ó Conaill
Dáithí Ó Conaill
Dáithí Ó Conaill was an Irish republican, a member of the IRA Army Council, vice-president of Sinn Féin and Republican Sinn Féin. He was also the first chief of staff of the Continuity IRA.-Joins IRA:...
ordered him off the strike. However, Ó Brádaigh, by this time, had also been arrested. In fact, when he was transferred into the Glasshouse of the Curragh, Ó Brádaigh welcomed him.
Following standard procedures, Mac Stíofáin lost his rank upon arrest and he never again regained his influence within the IRA after his release in April 1973.
Subsequent activities
Afterwards he was sidelined, and was given a job of distribution manager and part-time columnist with the Sinn Féin newspaper An Phoblacht/Republican NewsAn Phoblacht
An Phoblacht is the official newspaper of Sinn Féin in Ireland. It is published once a month, and according to its website sells an average of up to 15,000 copies every month and was the first Irish paper to provide an edition online and currently having in excess of 100,000 website hits per...
in the late 1970s. He resigned from the party in 1982 after a disagreement about strategy at the Ard Fheis (annual convention), when a majority opposed the Éire Nua
Éire Nua
Éire Nua, or "New Ireland", was a political strategy of the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin during the 1970s and early 1980s. It was particularly associated with the Dublin based leadership group centred around Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and Dáithí Ó Conaill who were the authors of the policy...
policy, which envisaged the setting up of regional governments in each of the traditional four provinces
Provinces of Ireland
Ireland has historically been divided into four provinces: Leinster, Ulster, Munster and Connacht. The Irish word for this territorial division, cúige, literally meaning "fifth part", indicates that there were once five; the fifth province, Meath, was incorporated into Leinster, with parts going to...
on the island.
In March 1983 Mac Stíofáin appealed to the IRA to declare a ceasefire
Ceasefire
A ceasefire is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be declared as part of a formal treaty, but they have also been called as part of an informal understanding between opposing forces...
. He refused to join Republican Sinn Fein
Republican Sinn Féin
Republican Sinn Féin or RSF is an unregisteredAlthough an active movement, RSF is not registered as a political party in either Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland. minor political party operating in Ireland. It emerged in 1986 as a result of a split in Sinn Féin...
in 1986.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Mac Stíofáin became active in the Irish language organisation Conradh na Gaeilge
Conradh na Gaeilge
Conradh na Gaeilge is a non-governmental organisation that promotes the Irish language in Ireland and abroad. The motto of the League is Sinn Féin, Sinn Féin amháin .-Origins:...
. At that organisation’s centenary celebration held in Dublin’s O'Connell Street
O'Connell Street
O'Connell Street is Dublin's main thoroughfare. It measures 49 m in width at its southern end, 46 m at the north, and is 500 m in length...
in 1993, he was a guest of honour on the platform. He remained a member of the standing committee (Coiste Gnó) of Conradh na Gaeilge until his death. He lived in the Gaeltacht in Baile Gibb/Oristown southeast of Ceanannas Mór and next to the ancient site of the Tailteann Games
Tailteann Games
The Tailteann Games were an ancient sporting event held in Ireland in honour of the goddess Tailtiu. They ran from 632 BC to 1169-1171 AD when they died out after the Norman invasion....
. Visitors to his home were greeted at the front door with a mat saying 'Labhair Gaeilge Anseo' ('Speak Irish here').
Death
In 1993, Mac Stíofáin suffered a strokeStroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
. On 18 May 2001, he died in Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan
Navan
-People:Navan was the childhood home of Pierce Brosnan, who appeared in the television series Remington Steele and was the fifth film actor to play James Bond. TV personality Hector Ó hEochagáin, and comedians Dylan Moran and Tommy Tiernan also hail from Navan....
, County Meath
County Meath
County Meath is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Mide . Meath County Council is the local authority for the county...
, after a long illness at the age of 73. He is buried in St Mary's Cemetery, Navan.
Despite his controversial career in the IRA, many of his former comrades (and rivals) paid tribute to him after his death. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, who attended the funeral, issued a glowing tribute, referring to Mac Stíofáin as an "outstanding IRA leader during a crucial period in Irish history" and as the "man for the job" as first Provisional IRA Chief of Staff. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness also attended. In her oration, Ita Ní Chionnaigh of Conradh na Gaeilge, whose flag draped the coffin, lambasted Mac Stíofáin’s "character assassination" by the "gutter press" and praised him as a man who had been "interested in the rights of men and women and people anywhere in the world who were oppressed, including Irish speakers in Ireland, who are also oppressed".
A number of former EOKA
EOKA
EOKA was an anticolonial, antiimperialist nationalist organisation with the ultimate goal of "The liberation of Cyprus from the British yoke". Although not stated in its initial declaration of existence which was printed and distributed on the 1st of April 1955, EOKA also had a target of achieving...
members also attended his funeral.
Writings
Mac Stíofáin, Seán, Memoirs of a Revolutionary, London (Gordon Cremonesi), 1975. Also published as Revolutionary in IrelandISBN 0-86033-031-1Sources
- "Death of the Englishman who led the Provisionals", Observer, 20 May 2001 http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,493431,00.html
- "Sean MacStiofain dead, founded Provisional IRA", Irish Echo Online, 23–29 May 2001 http://www.irishecho.com/search/searchstory.cfm?id=9232&issueid=196
- "Adams and IRA's secret Whitehall talks", BBC News, 1 January 2003, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2601875.stm
- RTÉ This Week radio interview: http://wwa.rte.ie/news/2001/0518/newsatone/news1pm6A.ram
- "Outstanding IRA leader and giant of a man in the Republican Movement", Saoirse, June 2001.
- Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, "Seán Mac Stíofáin -- a tribute", Saoirse, June 2001.
- Interview with Mac Stíofáin (likely taken from Peter Taylor's Provos series). Contains details on Cheyne Walk talks here.
- Hanley, Brian, and Millar, Scott (2009). The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party. Dublin: Penguin Ireland.