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Peadar Clancy (Irish: Peadar Mac Fhlannchadha; 9 November 1888 – 21 November 1920)

was an Irish republican who served with the Irish Volunteers in the Four Courts garrison

during the 1916 Easter Rising and was second-in-command of the Dublin Brigade of the

Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the War of Independence.Along with Dick McKee and

Conor Clune, he was shot dead by his guards while under detention in Dublin Castle on the

eve of Sunday, 21 November 1920, a day known as Bloody Sunday that also saw the killing

of a network of British intelligence agents by the Squad unit of the Irish Republican Army

and the killing of 14 people in Croke Park by the Royal Irish Constabulary.== Early life ==

Clancy was one of seven sons and six daughters born to James and Mary Clancy (née Keane),

of Carrowreagh East, Cranny, County Clare in 1888.The Clancy home had been the meeting

place for local Fenians since the 1860s.Though the Fenians had been instrumental in

reawakening Irish culture through the Gaelic League, drama and the Gaelic Athletic

Association, this form of "advanced nationalism" was not popular at this time.From a young

age Clancy was a keen Gaelic Leaguer and was engrossed by national activities.Educated at

the local national school, which was close to his family home, at sixteen he became

apprenticed in the drapery business of Dan Moloney, in Kildysart.On completing his

apprenticeship he went to Newcastle West, County Limerick, where he worked as an

assistant in the drapery business of Michael O'Shaughnessy on Bridge Street.From there, he

moved to Youghal, County Cork, where he lived at 6 North Main Street, from which address

he wrote to his infant nephew in Chicago on 17 October 1912.In 1913 he went to work for
Harkin's General Drapery, at 70A New Street in Dublin.== Easter Rising ==

On coming to Dublin, Clancy joined the Irish Volunteers upon their inception, becoming a

Volunteer in "CO" company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade.During the 1916 Easter Rising he

served in the Four Courts garrison, alongside Dick McKee.Clancy was to distinguish himself

in combat, when, with a group of Volunteers, he repelled an infantry attack at Church Street

Bridge and forced an enemy retreat towards the Phoenix Park on Easter Monday.Shortly

afterwards, Clancy personally burnt out a sniper from a house, and during the course of the

Rising single-handedly captured Lord Dunsany and Colonel Lindsay.Lord Dunsany, though

wounded by Clancy, said of the Republicans after his release: "Although in different

uniforms, we are all Irishmen and you are all gentlemen."For the "courage, leadership and

intelligence" shown during this period, he was promoted to Lieutenant by Captain Frank

Fahy.After the Rising he was court-martialed and sentenced to death for his part in the

rebellion; but his sentence was commuted to penal servitude for 10 years.He remained in

English jails until June 1917, and upon his return to Dublin he helped to re-organise the

Volunteers.== Republican Outfitters ==

After his release, Clancy started a drapery business of his own, called The Republican

Outfitters, which was located at 94 Talbot Street.According to Dan Breen, it was one of the

best-known meeting places in Dublin for the IRA, and was so closely watched that it was

never advisable to remain there for long.By 1917, it was advertising as The Republican

Outfitters: Clancy, Brennan and Walsh.Clancy's initial partners in the business were Maurice

Brennan, Thomas Walsh (who, like Clancy, had been in the Four Courts garrison at Easter

1916, had been sentenced to death, but was later reprieved) and other comrades.By 1920,

the initial partnership had been dissolved, Brennan and Walsh had gone out on their own at

5 Upper O'Connell Street (which was also used as a base by the Volunteers, with Walsh

acting as intelligence officer of the 1st Battalion) and Tom Hunter had become part
proprietor of the Talbot Street business with Clancy.== Sinn Féin ==

After his release from prison he was selected as the Sinn Féin candidate in the East Clare by-

election, but his candidature was not ratified by IRA General Headquarters (GHQ) and

Éamon de Valera was chosen at a second convention in Ennis.Clancy, in a letter to his

brother M. J, who lived in Chicago, wrote about the divide in Irish society over the war and

the split in the Volunteers, which he believed had resulted from the position adopted by

John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party:

There is a very vast range of subjects on which I should like to write to you about;

particularly with regard to the great European war.There has been a very pointed and sharp

division of opinion in Ireland with regards to it, created to a very great extent by the

attitude that Mr. Redmond has taken up.I understand that diversity of opinion obtains to a

very great extent in America too, but our sources of information from America are

altogether one sided in this country since the Government has prohibited the circulation of

the Irish World and the Gaelic American in Ireland.Clancy took part in de Valera's election

campaign, and addressed a number of meetings throughout his native county in the

summer of 1917.After the election, on 24 July 1917, Clancy again wrote to his brother on the

outcome and the position the Republicans would adopt: My Dear Brother, I got your letter

about ten days ago & as you hoped I was then free.