Seamus Deakin

James Aubrey (Seamus) Deakin (c. 1880 – 1953) was an Irish nationalist and member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), of which he was president from 1913 to 1914.

Biography

A resident of Dublin, Deakin worked as a chemist in Hoyt's pharmacy in O'Connell Street and later owned his own shop in Phibsborough.^[1] Deakin became involved in the Irish nationalist movement during the early 1900s and, within a short time, became a high-ranking member in the Drumcondra branch of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. A political ally of George Irvine, Ernest Blythe and Seán O'Casey, in 1913, he succeeded John Mulholland as president of the IRB before acceding to Denis McCullough the following year. Deakin resigned from the Supreme Council and from the I.R.B. about August 1914.^[2] It is a common belief that he emigrated to the USA, but that is almost certainly not true. Family records describe him as having died in Ireland in 1952 and being buried in Drumcollogher, Co. Cork, Ireland.^[1]

Further reading

• Martin, Francis X. The Irish Volunteers, 1913–1915: Recollections and Documents. Dublin: James Duffy & Co., 1963.

References