Everything about Thomas Ashe totally explained
» For the British poet Thomas Ashe, see Thomas Ashe (poet). For the U.S. Congressman and judge from North Carolina, see Thomas Samuel Ashe.
Thomas Patrick Ashe (
Irish name:
Tomás Pádraig Ághas;
12 January,
1885 –
25 September,
1917) born in
Lispole,
County Kerry,
Ireland, a teacher, was a member of the
Gaelic League, the
Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and a founding member of the
Irish Volunteers. During the summer of 1913, he was one of the IRB members that
Douglas Hyde, president of the Gaelic League, attempted to expel.
Commanding the
Fingal battalion of the
Irish Volunteers, Ashe took part in the
Easter Rising of 1916. Ashe's force of 60-70 men engaged British forces around north
County Dublin during the rising. The battalion won a major victory in
Ashbourne, County Meath where they engaged a much larger force capturing a significant quantity of arms and up to 20
Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) vehicles. 24 hours after the rising collapsed, Ashe's battalion surrendered on the orders of
Padraig Pearse.
On
8 May 1917, Ashe and
Eamon de Valera were
court-martialled and both were sentenced to death. The sentences were commuted to
penal servitude for life. Ashe was imprisoned in
Lewes Gaol in England.
With the entry of the
U.S. into
World War I in April 1917, the British government was put under more pressure to solve the 'Irish problem', de Valera, Ashe and Thomas Hunter led a prisoner
hunger strike on
28 May 1917 to add to this pressure. With accounts of prison mistreatment appearing in the Irish press and mounting protests in Ireland, Ashe and the remaining prisoners were freed on
18 June 1917 by
Lloyd George as part of a general amnesty.
Upon release, Ashe returned to Ireland and began a series of speaking engagements.
In August 1917, Ashe was arrested and charged with
sedition for a speech that he made in Ballinalee,
County Longford where
Michael Collins had also been speaking. He was detained at the Curragh but was then transferred to
Mountjoy Prison in
Dublin. He was convicted and sentenced to two years hard labour. Ashe and other prisoners, including
Austin Stack, demanded
prisoner of war status as this protest evolved Ashe again went on hunger strike on
20 September 1917. On
25 September 1917, he died at the Mater Hospital after being force-fed by prison authorities.
Ashe's death had a significant impact on the country increasing Republican recruitment, his body lay in state at Dublin City Hall, and was buried in
Glasnevin Cemetery in
Dublin.
He was also a relative of Catherine Ashe, the paternal grandmother of
American actor
Gregory Peck, who emigrated to the
United States in the
19th century.
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