Joseph Sweeney

Joseph Aloysius Sweeney (13 June 1897 – 25 November 1980) was an Irish politician and military commander. He fought in the Easter Rising in the GPO and was a member of the IRA during the war of independence. He later became Chief of Staff of the Irish Army.

Background Sweeney was born and raised in Burtonport, a town in The Rosses, a district in the west of County Donegal. He was the son of general merchant and hotelier John Sweeney and Margaret O'Donnell. Pearse solidified Sweeney's nationalist beliefs, and in 1914 Sweeney joined the Irish Volunteers himself. By September 1914 he was a student in University College Dublin and he had transferred to Pearse's unit in the Dublin Brigade, which styled itself "Pearse's own" and had many former students of Pearse amongst their number. In 1915 Sweeney was sworn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood by Pearse. where he fought in Dublin's Liberty Hall and later the GPO where he was a stretcher bearer for the wounded James Connolly. Following the surrender of rebel forces, Sweeney was taken to Stafford Jail,

Irish revolutionary period In 1918 Sweeney was suffering from influenza and decided to take a break from UCD and return to Donegal. While there he was appointed a commandant of the local Volunteers as well as being elected as a Sinn Féin MP for Donegal West in the 1918 Irish general election,

In March 1920 he was arrested and jailed by the British authorities, first being sent to Belfast before being transferred to Wormwood Scrubs, London. He was released in April 1920 following his participation in a mass hunger strike by Irish prisoners against their imprisonment. Following his release, he became Officer Commanding of the West Donegal Brigade of the Irish Republican Army and fought in the Irish War of Independence.

Following the end of the War of Independence and the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Sweeney chose the Pro-Treaty side in the Irish Civil War. Again, Sinn Féin did not attend and instead formed the Second Dáil. In 1922 he was re-elected as a Pro-Treaty Sinn Féin candidate for Donegal and participated in the 3rd Dáil. The men had been captured and tried under the public safety bill by which anyone who was caught bearing arms against the state could be put to death. The men were in captivity without sentencing for a long period until the killing of Captain Bernard Cannon in Creeslough, County Donegal forced the Government to react and they ordered the men to be executed. All refused.

Life in the Irish Free State In 1923 he choose to leave politics and did not try to retain his seat as a TD. Instead, he remained in the National Army. In 1924 he was briefly acting Chief of Staff during the Irish Army Mutiny. By 1929 he had risen to the rank of Chief of Staff proper, a promotion that happened to coincide with the rise of Fianna Fáil to government. Many feared an outbreak of violence once again if Cumann na nGaedheal did not accept this change. Sweeney declared his view on the matter, stating that the will of the people would be protected under his command.

Sweeney remained in the Army until his retirement in December 1940. He later became Secretary of the Irish Red Cross in the Republic of Ireland. aged 83 at St Vincent's private nursing home in Dublin, before being buried in a full military ceremony back in his native Burtonport.