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 (Ireland), Defence Forces of Republic of Ireland, Ireland.The Defence Forces are made up of the Permanent Defence Forces – the standing bran ...

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 ...

but spent his childhood years in Ballinskelligs, in the

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the cou ...

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 recog ...

.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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Cronin was an officer in the Southern Command in the Irish

Defence Forces The phrase Defence Force(s) (or Defense Force(s) in US English - see spelling differences) is in the title of the armed forces of certain countries and territories. Defence forces *Ambazonia Defence Forces *Artsakh Defence Army *Australian Defence ...

. 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 U ...

, where he found work as a journalist. In America, he became involved with Clan na Gael 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 t ...

. In 1955 he returned from the United States and began work as a subeditor in the '' Evening Press''. 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 Theobald Wolfe Tone, posthumously known as Wolfe Tone ( ga, Bhulbh Teón; 20 June 176319 November 1798), was a leading Irish revolutionary figure and one of the founding members in Belfast and Dublin of the United Irishmen, a republican socie ...

''. Dublin Directory: Wolfe Tone Bi-Centenary, 1963. * ''

Jemmy Hope James "Jemmy" Hope (August 25, 1764 – February 10, 1847) was a radical democrat in Ireland who organised among tenant farmers, tradesmen and labourers for the Society of the United Irishmen. In the Rebellion of 1798 he fought alongside Henry ...

: A Man of the People''. Scéim na gCeardchumann, 1964. * ''The Story of Kevin Barry, 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 cu ...

: 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