Joe Clarke

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 Dáil and served as an usher at the first meeting of the First Dáil. He was interned from January 1921. Released in 1923, he acted as caretaker of the Sinn Féin headquarters on Harcourt Street,

Clarke was a founder member of Comhairle na Poblachta in 1929. 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 interned at Arbour Hill, then later at Cork County Jail.

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. The Dublin South West Inner City cumann of Sinn Féin is named for Clarke. Clarke vowed to outlive de Valera, he succeeded in this endeavour by outliving him a year.