Joe Clarke (, 22 December 1882 – 22 April 1976) was an Irish republican politician.
Life Born in Rush, County Dublin, Clarke worked for the Sinn Féin Bank, and was active in the 1916 Easter Rising. On the Wednesday of Easter week, 26 April, Clarke was one of 13 volunteers who held the Mount Street Bridge for nine hours against the overwhelming forces of the Sherwood Foresters Regiment of the British Army. When captured, he was shot in the head, but survived, and was instead imprisoned in Liverpool Prison, Wakefield Prison and then Frongoch internment camp.
On his return to Ireland, Clarke acted as the courier for the First DáilÉamonn Mac Thomáis, Me jewel and darlin' Dublin, p.139 and served as an usher at the first meeting of the First Dáil. He was interned from January 1921.Chief Secretary's order directing that Joe Clarke be interned in Ballykinlar Camp, Co. Down, 11 Jan. 1921., Joe Clarke Papers, National Library of Ireland Released in 1923, he acted as caretaker of the Sinn Féin headquarters on Harcourt Street, and founded the Irish Book Bureau. Although the Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin rejected participation in the Dáil, they continued to contest local elections, and Clarke sat on Dublin City Council."Sinn Féin re-enters local government contests", The United Irishman, September 1950
Clarke was a founder member of Comhairle na Poblachta in 1929.J. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army: the IRA, p.77 In 1937, he worked with Brian O'Higgins to establish the Wolfe Tone Weekly as a light-hearted party newspaper. In August 1939, Clarke was internedJ. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army: the IRA, p161 at Arbour Hill, then later at Cork County Jail.Letters from Joe Clarke, Joe Clarke Papers, National Library of Ireland
Clarke was elected as a vice-president of Sinn Féin in 1966. In the split of 1970, he supported the provisional wing, remaining vice-president.Robert William White, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, p.162 The Dublin South West Inner City cumann of Sinn Féin is named for Clarke.
Although Clarke had served under Éamon de Valera during the Easter Rising, the two became implacable opponents. In 1969, during the 50th anniversary commemoration of the First Dáil, Clarke interrupted proceedings in the Mansion House as President de Valera began his address. Declaring the event a "mockery", he drew attention to ongoing social issues, including hunger strikes in Mountjoy Prison and the housing situation. He was then removed from the building by ushers. The incident occurred amid wider protest and criticism surrounding the commemoration, particularly from housing activists such as the Dublin Housing Action Committee who argued that the social commitments of the Democratic Programme had not been fulfilled. Clarke vowed to outlive de Valera, he succeeded in this endeavour by outliving him a year.Robert William White, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, pp.365, 386
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