The Seven The Lives and Legacies of the Founding Fathers of the Irish Republic

On Easter Sunday, April 23, 1916, the members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood’s military council put their names to the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, declaring that they were the provisional government of an Ireland free from British rule. In effect, each man had knowingly signed his own death warrant. Since then, the Seven have been eulogized and used as political weapons by many, but today there is an increasing recognition within Ireland that it’s time for an honest re-discussion of the Easter Rising.

One hundred years on, award-winning author Ruth Dudley Edwards explores how the lives of Ireland’s founding fathers converged and how they came to espouse violence and asks if they had a coherent vision for their country or if they were, as some now allege, little more than a collection of fanatical misfits and failures. A brilliant, thought-provoking re-assessment, The Seven provides a scrupulous examination of each of these men, challenging us to judge their actions and to find an answer to the question of what their legacy should be.

Ruth Dudley Edwards is a leading commentator on Irish affairs in both the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. The author of several books on Irish history, including biographies of James Connolly and Patrick Pearse, she was awarded the James Tait Black Prize for her biography of Victor Gollancz. Ruth was born in Dublin and now lives in London.