Thomas Ashe (1885-1917) was an Irish nationalist from Dingle, County Kerry, involved in the Gaelic League, the GAA, the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Irish Volunteers. A teacher by trade, Ashe would command a battalion of Volunteers outside Dublin during the Easter Rising, defeating an RIC garrison at Ashbourne, County Meath. He would be eventually be court-martialled and sentenced initially to death, although this would be later commuted to penal servitude for life, and Ashe would be released as part of a general amnesty in early 1917. He would however be charged with sedition following a speech in Ballinalee, County Longford months later and sentenced to two years’ hard labour. Ashe went on hunger strike, and an effort by the prison to end the strike via force feeding led to Ashe’s death on 25 September 1917.
Writings
Let Me Carry Your Cross For Ireland, Lord (1916)
Oration at Casement Fort (1917)