Seán Cronin (29 August 1922 – 9 March 2011) was a journalist and former

Irish Army The Irish Army, known simply as the Army ( ga, an tArm), is the land component of the Defence Forces of Ireland.The Defence Forces are made up of the Permanent Defence Forces – the standing branches – and the Reserve Defence Forces. The A ...

officer and twice Irish Republican Army chief of staff.Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, ''The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers Party'', pp. 12-13,

Biography

Cronin was born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

but spent his childhood years in

Ballinskelligs Ballinskelligs, officially (Irish for "town (townland) of the craggy rock"), is a townland in the civil parish of Prior, County Kerry, Ireland. It may also refer to the wider district around the townland. It is located in the south-west of the ...

, in the County Kerry

Gaeltacht ( , , ) are the districts of Ireland, individually or collectively, where the Irish government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant vernacular, or language of the home. The ''Gaeltacht'' districts were first officially reco ...

.Patrick Smyth
"Veteran republican and first 'Irish Times' Washington correspondent dies aged 91"
''Irish Times'', 10 March 2011. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, Cronin was an officer in the Southern Command in the Irish Defence Forces. He later emigrated to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, where he found work as a journalist. In America, he became involved with

Clan na Gael Clan na Gael ( ga, label=modern Irish orthography, Clann na nGael, ; "family of the Gaels") was an Irish republican organization in the United States in the late 19th and 20th centuries, successor to the Fenian Brotherhood and a sister org ...

and later joined the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief th ...

. In 1955 he returned from the United States and began work as a subeditor in the ''

Evening Press The ''Evening Press'' was an Irish newspaper which was printed from 1954 until 1995. It was set up by Éamon de Valera's Irish Press group, and was originally edited by Douglas Gageby. Its principal competitor was the ''Evening Herald'', which h ...

''. He was soon put in charge of training in the IRA. He outlined his ideas in a booklet, ''Notes on Guerrilla Warfare''. He became the chief strategist for Operation Harvest, a campaign which saw the carrying out a range of military operations from direct attacks on security installations to disruptive actions against infrastructure. He was arrested and imprisoned several times over the course of this campaign (1956–1962). On two occasions, from 1957 to 1958 and then 1959 to 1960, Cronin was IRA chief of staff. He also served as editor of the

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

United Irishman ''The United Irishman'' was an Irish nationalist newspaper co-founded by Arthur Griffith and William Rooney.Arthur Griffith ...

'' newspaper. Jailed for his activities, he left the IRA in 1962 after his release from prison. He later became a journalist for ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'', becoming that paper's first

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

correspondent. He was the author of a dozen books and pamphlets, including a biography of republican Frank Ryan, ''Washington's Irish Policy 1916-1986: Independence, Partition, Neutrality'', an authoritative account of Irish-US relations; ''Our Own Red Blood'' about the 1916 Easter Rising; and a number of works on guerrilla strategy, including an early Sinn Féin pamphlet ''Resistance'' under the pseudonym of J. McGarrity. After several years of illness, Cronin died in Washington on 9 March 2011. He is survived by his second wife, Reva Rubenstein Cronin.

Bibliography

* '' Wolfe Tone''. Dublin Directory: Wolfe Tone Bi-Centenary, 1963. * '' Jemmy Hope: A Man of the People''. Scéim na gCeardchumann, 1964. * ''The Story of

Kevin Barry Kevin Gerard Barry (20 January 1902 – 1 November 1920) was an Irish Republican Army (IRA) soldier who was executed by the British Government during the Irish War of Independence. He was sentenced to death for his part in an attack upon a Brit ...

, with a foreword by Commander-General Tom Barry''. The National Publications Committee, 1965. Reprinted by C.F.N. in 1983. * ''Our Own Red Blood :The Story of The 1916 Rising''. Wolfe Tone Society, 1966 Reprinted 1976 and 2006. * ''The Rights of Man in Ireland''. Wolfe Tone Society, 1970. * ''The Revolutionaries''. Republican Publications, 1971. * ''Ireland Since The Treaty : fifty years after.'' Irish Freedom Press, 1971. * ''The McGarrity Papers: Revelations of the Irish Revolutionary Movement in Ireland and America, 1900-1940'' Anvil Books, 1972. * ''Freedom the Wolfe Tone Way'' Anvil Books, 1973. * ''Tone's Republic : The Case Against Sectarianism'' Wolfe Tone Society, 1975. * ''

Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

and the Irish Question''. Repsol, 1977. * ''Frank Ryan : The Search for the Republic''. Repsol, 1980. * ''

Irish Nationalism Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of c ...

: a history of its roots and ideology''. Academy Press, 1980, US edition, Continuum, 1981. * ''Washington's Irish policy 1916-1986 : independence, partition, neutrality''. Anvil Books, 1987. * ''For Whom the Hangman's Rope was Spun : Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen''. Repsol, 1991. *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cronin, Sean 1922 births 2011 deaths Irish Republican Army (1922–1969) members The Irish Press people The Irish Times people Irish Army officers