Ireland
Patrick Pearse
1879–1916 Commandant-General and President of the Provisional Government, Easter Rising
A schoolmaster, barrister and poet, Pearse founded St Enda's School in Dublin, where he taught in Irish and promoted the idea of a Gaelic and independent Ireland. He joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1913 and the Military Council in 1915, and was the chief author of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. He believed in sacrifice, in blood as a cleansing force, and in the possibility that a failed rebellion could still change a nation. At the surrender on 29 April he accepted responsibility, and was shot at Kilmainham Gaol on 3 May, together with his younger brother Willie, who was executed the next day. His belief in the redeeming power of martyrdom proved right in the short run, and harder to bear in the long one.