Ronnie McGinn's Poetry Page

Joseph Mary Plunkett (November 21, 1887 - May 4, 1916) was an Irish nationalist, poet, and leader of the Easter Rising in 1916.

His father, George Noble Plunkett, was a papal count and curator of the National Museum.

At a young age Plunkett was stricken with tuberculosis, and spent part of his youth in the warmer climates of the Mediterranean and North Africa.

He studied at the English Jesuit School at Stonyhurst in Lancashire, and acquired some military knowledge from the Officers' Training Corps there.

Throughout his life, Joseph Plunkett took an active interest in Irish heritage and the Irish language. He joined that Gaelic League, and took on as a tutor Thomas MacDonagh, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship.

Sometime probably in 1915 Joseph Plunkett joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), and soon after was sent to Germany to meet with Sir Roger Casement who was negotiating with the German government on behalf of Ireland.

Plunkett successfully got a promise of a German arms shipment to coincide with the rising.

Plunkett was one of the original members of the IRB Military Committee that was responsible for planning the rising, and it was largely his plan that was followed.

He took his place in the General Post Office with several other of the rising's leaders such as Patrick Pearse and Tom Clarke, though his health prevented him from being terribly active. His energetic aide de camp was Michael Collins.

Following the surrender Plunkett was held in Kilmainham Jail, and faced a court martial.

Hours before his execution by firing squad he was married in the prison chapel to his sweetheart Grace Gifford, whose sister had years before married his best friend Thomas MacDonagh.

I see His Blood upon the Rose

I see His Blood upon the rose,
And in the stars the glory of His eyes.
His Body gleams amid eternal snows.
His tears fall from the skies.

I see His face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but His voice-earven by His power,
Rooks are his written words.

All pathways by his feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever beating sea.
His Crown of thorns is twined with every thorn.
His cross is every tree.

© Joseph Mary Plunkett