Merrion Press Domhnall Ua Buachalla: Rebellious Nationalist, Reluctant Governor

This is the overdue biography of Domhnall Ua Buachalla, a cultural nationalist, Gaelic Leaguer and friend of Pádraig Pearse, who became an Irish Volunteer leader in North Kildare, arming the men of Maynooth and leading them on foot to the GPO on Easter Monday, 1916, where they took their orders from Connolly and Pearse. Following internment in Frongoch jail for eight months, he returned to a resounding success in the 1918 General Election and a seat in the First Dáil for North Kildare, which he held until 1932. Following his involvement in the War of Independence, he was later arrested near Kilcock for his anti-Treaty activities during the Civil War, and jailed in Dundalk but escaped when Frank Aiken dynamited the jail and freed all the prisoners. In 1932, after de Valera dismissed James McNeill, it was Domhnall Ua Buachalla he turned to as the one man he trusted as his new Governer-General, and to implement his plan to see the Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown abolished. A controversial choice and anathema to Domhnall ua Buachalla s political beliefs, he nonetheless accepted this crucial role. Ua Buachalla then retired from public life although years later he accepted de Valera s invitation to be a member of the Council of State. He died in 1963, at the age of 97, a man of great courage and unquenchable resolve. This hitherto neglected figure lived his life for his country and his untold story is now brought centre stage in a remarkable biography and history of modern Irish politics.