Thom's Irish Who's Who/Walsh, James J.

WALSH, James J., First Postmaster-General, Irish Free State, and Director of Aonach Tailteann under an Dail, is one of the many Cork men who came into prominence in the fight for freedom, and one of the West Cork men or sons of Carberry who now holds a Portfolio in the Provisional Government, Mr. Collins, late Chairman, and Mr. Diarmuid O'Hegarty, Secretary, being the others of the trio. Mr. Walsh, whose father and grandfather also got some prominence in past Irish movements, entered the Post Office Service in Cork in 1897. A few years later at the age of 19 he was co-opted on the Cork International Exhibition Executive. At the age of 22 he organised the first League System in Gaelic Games, and was largely responsible for the introduction of the native pastimes into the Colleges of Ireland. In 1906 he was elected President of the Cork County Board, the biggest and most progressive Board governing Irish games—a position which he held until his deportation after the outbreak of war in 1914. Many of the reforms which brought the Gaelic Athletic Association to its present height were due to his unabating advocacy. In 1908 he was elected a member of the City Council, being then the youngest Councillor in the country. He is now an Alderman for the same Ward in his native city. In 1912 he first entered on a political or political-military career by introducing a rifle club into Cork—this being the first time for centuries in which Nationalists dared to take weapons openly. Like those who supported him at the time, he was an advocate of Sinn Fein as preached by Mr. Arthur Griffith. In 1913, when the Irish Volunteers were formed in Dublin, he organised his native County in the Volunteer interests, and presided at the big meeting in the City Hall that year when Roger Casement spoke—a meeting at which he (Mr. Walsh) got his head smashed—practically all present being opposed to the proposal. He remained, until deported in 1914, the head of the Volunteers, at one time over 20,000 strong, who fired the first shot in the long-fought campaign, which only ended six months ago. He returned six months later, was courtmartialled and confined under strong supervision to Dublin. In Easter Week he fought in the Post Office under James Connolly, and was made Postmaster- General under the Republic. On the surrender he was sentenced to death and penal servitude. Immediately after his release in 1917, he was again arrested, sentenced to two years' hard labour, during which time he went through the Ashe hunger strikes and ordeals of forcible feeding. In 1918 he was again arrested and sentenced to a further two years' imprisonment. In 1919 he was arrested for the fourth time and sentenced to five years' penal servitude—this being the only case on record in political fights where one man underwent two periods of convict punishment. However, the day after his trial, and before the promulgation of sentence, he escaped over the wall at Mountjoy with twenty others. He was then "on the run" until the end of 1921, when he was recaptured and sent to Parkhurst Convict Settlement where he led a revolt. Being transferred to Shrewsbury Prison, he refused to wear convict clothes or to obey convict regulations, with the result that for six months, and until his release, he suffered the tortures of solitary confinement without wearing apparel of any kind. He was elected Senior Deputy for Cork City in 1918, getting the highest vote in Ireland.