1949 Read Free

MacSwiney, lord mayor of Cork who died in British prison on hunger strike. Member of Sinn Féin; taught school for a number of years until dismissed in 1916 for supporting the Rising; in 1920 was invited to testify in Washington before an American commission investigating conditions in Ireland.

    Marconi, Guglielmo (1874–1937): Physicist and inventor, awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for the development of wireless telegraphy. His father was Italian, his mother was Irish, a daughter of Andrew Jameson of the brewing family. Marconi’s first wife also was Irish: Beatrice, daughter of the 14th Baron Inchiquin.

    Markievicz, Constance (1868–1927): Born Constance Georgina Gore-Booth in London. Her mother was an English aristocrat; her father owned large estates in Ireland, where she was raised. After studying art in Paris she married Count Casimir Markievicz of Poland. Later she became deeply involved in the Irish trade union movement and then the struggle for independence. Cofounder with Bulmer Hobson of Na Fianna Éireann. Member of Cumann na mBan and the Citizen Army. Second-in-command to Michael Mallin in Saint Stephen’s Green during the 1916 Rising. While in an English prison she became the first woman to win election to the British Parliament but never took her seat there. Subsequently she served in the Irish Parliament as the world’s first minister of labor.

    Moloney, Helena (1884–1967): Actress, trade unionist, feminist, Republican; became a member of Inghinidhe na hÉireann in 1903. Joined the Citizen Army and took part in the attack on Dublin Castle in 1916.

    Mosley, Sir Oswald (1896–1980): English politician. In 1932 he founded the British Union of Fascists. A great admirer of Hitler, he was interned after the outbreak of World War II, as was his second wife, Diana Guinness, née Mitford.

    Murphy, Seán: Irish ambassador to France during World War II.

    Mussolini, Benito (1883–1945): The youngest prime minister in Italian history, and the first of Europe’s Fascist dictators. In 1936 he formed a Rome-Berlin Axis with Adolf Hitler. The Italian resistance movement eventually was responsible for Mussolini’s capture and execution.

    Ní Ghráda, Mairead (1896–1971): Secretary to Ernest Blythe in the first Dáil; woman’s organizer for 2RN, also in charge of children’s programming and a station announcer.

    O’Brien, Sir Donough Edward Foster (1897–1968): Sixteenth Baron Inchiquin; descendant of Brian Bóru.

    O’Brien, Vincent (1870–1948): first musical director and conductor of the Radio Éireann Symphony Orchestra.

    O’Casey, Séan (1880–1964): Dublin-born playwright; largely self-educated; joined the Gaelic League and learned Irish; was for a time secretary of the Citizen Army.

    O’Connor, Rory (1883–1922): Born in Dublin; fought and wounded in the 1916 Rising; director of engineering for the IRA during the war of independence; opposed the Treaty; was one of the leaders of the Republican garrison in the Four Courts during the Civil War; captured and executed by the Free State.

    O’Conor, Owen Phelim (1870–1943): The O’Conor Don; promoted by the Gaelic Monarchist Party in 1937 as potential King of Ireland.

    O’Duffy, Eoin (1892–1944): GOC and then chief-of-staff in the Free State army during the Civil War; appointed commissioner of the civic guard in 1922; sacked by de Valera in 1933; developed the Blueshirts as a quasi-military organization; elected president of Fine Gael party in 1934.

    O’Hegarty, Patrick Sarsfield (1879–1955): Cork-born; member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood; postmaster with the British civil service until dismissed for his revolutionary activities; author of The Victory of Sinn Féin; secretary of posts and telegraphs 1922–44.

    O’Higgins, Kevin Christopher (1892–1927): Born in County Laois; Sinn Féin T.D. in the