George Noble Plunkett

In 1884, he was created a Papal Count by Pope Leo XIII for donating money and property to the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary, a Roman Catholic nursing order.[4] He was a Knight Commander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre.[5]

That year he married Josephine Cranny (1858–1944), and they had seven children: Philomena (Mimi, c. 1886), Joseph (1887), Moya (Maria, c. 1889), Geraldine (Gerry, c. 1891), George Oliver (1895), Fiona (c. 1896) and John (Jack, c. 1897).[6] From 1907 to 1916, he was curator of the National Museum in Dublin.[7]

Plunkett's interest in politics likely came mostly through his sons Joseph, George and John, and though it was following the execution of Joseph that he became radicalised, it is likely that Joseph swore him into the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) some time before the Rising. His daughter Fiona, in an RTÉ interview in 1966, described how in the months before the Rising he went to Switzerland on behalf of the IRB leaders to try to make contacts with the Germans. Joseph, George and Jack were all sentenced to death following the Easter Rising, but George and Jack had their sentences commuted to 10 years' penal servitude, and both were released in 1917.[8] At least two of his daughters, Philomena and Fiona, were involved in preparations for the Rising.[9] He was expelled from the Royal Dublin Society for his sons' role in the Rising.

Three weeks before the Rising Plunkett was dispatched to the Vatican to seek a private audience with Pope Benedict XV in the hope of getting the Pope's blessings. Plunkett reports that the Pope was moved by the religious symbolism of staging the Rising on Easter Sunday and persuaded him to give his "Apostolic Benediction" upon the rebels. When Plunkett once again travelled to the Vatican in 1920 Benedict XV congratulated Plunkett on his cabinet position.[10]

The new politics was indebted to its youth wing's vocal support: they gathered in numbers at Carrick railway station to cheer on Plunkett's campaign. Amongst the crowds were the women of Cumann na mBan, "a big percentage of youth...large numbers of young men...[and] more curious still for those days, young women."[11]

On 3 February 1917, running as an independent candidate, Plunkett won the seat of Roscommon North in a by-election. At his victory party in Boyle he announced his decision to abstain from Westminster. He called a Convention in the Mansion House in April 1917, where after some debate it was agreed to set up a 'Council of Nine' bringing all nationalists together under one banner. He continued to build up the Liberty League Clubs.[12]

The different groups were merged in October 1917, under the newly elected Éamon de Valera, at the Sinn Féin Convention. The League of Women Delegates protested that there were only 12 women out of 1,000 delegates; and only Countess Plunkett on the Council of Nine.[13] It was de Valera's genius to adopt a flexibility that incorporated Count Plunkett and other non-republicans. Their common aim was "an Irish government".[14] They intended to be active citizens taking part in the nomination of elections.[15]

He was re-elected in the 1918 general election and joined the First Dáil, in which he served briefly as Ceann Comhairle.[16] At the first public session, during a sober address given by Father Michael O'Flanagan, Count Plunkett warned the small crowd not to cheer. The Catholicity of the meetings confirmed the divisions to unionist communities.[17]

Nominally Count Plunkett was given the foreign affairs portfolio, owing to his seniority, but effectively Arthur Griffith conducted policy abroad.[18] De Valera moved the Count to a Fine Arts portfolio in August 1921, in an effort to create an inner cabinet of only six; so a wholly new ministry was created for the purpose, "giving the appearance of stability and progressiveness to their affairs." De Valera's green modernism marginalized the old nobility, however Catholic and correct.[19]

Following the Irish War of Independence, Count Plunkett joined the anti-treaty side, and continued to support Sinn Féin after the split with Fianna Fáil.[20] He lost his Dáil seat at the June 1927 general election.[21] In a 1936 by-election in the Galway constituency, Plunkett ran as a joint Cumann Poblachta na hÉireann/Sinn Féin candidate. Losing his deposit, he polled only 2,696 votes (2.1%).[21] In 1938, he was one of the former members of the Second Dáil that purported to assign a self-proclaimed residual sovereign power to the IRA, when they signed the statement printed in the 17 December 1938 issue of the Wolfe Tone Weekly (see Irish republican legitimism).

He died at the age of 96 in Dublin.

COUNT PLUNKETT COLLECTION – National Library of Ireland.

• Note-book of an eccentric philosopher – 1868
• IE UCDA P79. Papers of George Noble, Count Plunkett (1851–1948) Dates: 1888–1936, UCD .ARchives
• Some Engravers in exile Illustrated, 1942 (2nd ed.1968), in The Capuchin Annual pp. 524–9
• Miscellaneous papers concerning Irish representation
• Letters by and to members of the Plunkett family concerning political affairs in 1916–1923

SECONDARY SOURCES

• Mitchell, Arthur, Revolutionary Government in Ireland: Dáil Éireann 1919-22 (Dublin 1995)
• Sheehan, Aideen, 'Cumann na mBan: Policies and Activities', in David Fitzpatrick (ed.), Revolition? Ireland 1917-1923 (Dublin 1990)
• Ward, Margaret, Unmanageable Revolutionaries: Women and Irish Nationalism (Dingle 1983)