The Proclamation of the Irish Republic is the most significant document
in Irish history. The credo contained therein, to cherish 'all of the
children of the nation equally, ' has come to define its seven
signatories, marking a common bond in their life's work. Their memory
intensely moulded by their political activities, history forgets the
diverse background from which these seven men came-family histories that
touched upon twenty counties and economic environments ranging from
extreme poverty to privilege. The Family Histories of the Seven
Signatories is an indispensable genealogical history that uncovers the
disparate lives that came together through the will for Irish
independence. Thomas Clarke and James Connolly were born in the USA,
their family having been uprooted by the Famine; Thomas MacDonagh and
Patrick Pearse, alternatively, had immediate English forebears. The
signatories' pasts from before they were born were an essential
component in determining their ideas-each firmly their own-of an Irish
republic. Their extended histories, fully disclosed within the pages of
this book, are a riveting realisation of the complexities that defined
nineteenth century Ireland and the lives of the seven signatories whose
pasts reveal the many-faceted draw towards rebellion. [Subject:
History, Genealogy, Irish Studies
