Éamon Ó Duibhir

Éamon Ó Duibhir (1881—1963) was born in Ballagh, Co. Tipperary in 1881. He was a member of the Gaelic League, Sinn Féin and the IRB. He was also a successful businessman, selling farm
supplies which enabled him to buy properties which he turned over to the cause of the Irish Volunteers and Sinn Féin.He organised an irish Volunteer corps in Ballagh in 1913 and he worked extensively throughout Tipperary, Limerick and Waterford collecting arms for the Volunteers prior to the 1916 Rising. He also provided a valuable link with the IRB leadership in Dublin, meeting Padraig Pearse in Dublin two weeks before the Rising to finalise plans.

Although O Duibhir and his men were ready to participate in the Rising, they were confused by McNeill’s cancellation orders on Easter Saturday. On learning of the outbreak of the Rising on
Easter Monday, 0 Duibhir tried to travel to Dublin but was arrested on the way. Eventually, he was sent to Reading Jail, England, along with many other suspected republican sympathisers.
O Duibhir was released from prison on Christmas Eve 1916 and returned to Ballagh. He bought Kilshenane house and farm near Cashel in 1917 as a base forVolunteer and Sinn Féin meetings.

He was arrested a number of times before and during the War of Independence,going on hungerstrike while in Mountjoy Jail with Thomas Ashe in 1917 and in Wormwood Scrubbs prison in 1920. Ó Duibhir took no side in the Civil War. Afterwards, he led a quiet life in Ballagh, writing folklore and history, often for’local newspapers such as the Tipperary Star and the Nenagh Guardian, until his death in June 1963.