Ceremony to commemorate former government minister to be held in Cloughjordan on Sunday

A CEREMONY to commemorate a former government minister is to be held in Cloughjordan on Sunday next, December 18th.
The ceremony is being organised by the North Tipperary Memorial committee "to remember the Irish revolutionary, Patriot and former Government Minister Joseph (Joe) MacDonagh". It starts at 1pm. All are welcome to attend this event which will be taking place in the 1916 Memorial Garden, which is directly across the road from MacDonagh Park (which was named after his brother Thomas).
Joseph MacDonagh was born in 1883. He was the youngest of the MacDonagh boys. Thomas was the eldest, then came John, James and finally Joe. Joe was educated in Cloughjordan National school where his father was the headmaster. Like his brothers he went to Rockwell College.
During their youth two of the brothers, James and Joseph, travelled to a neighbouring town in Tipperary and enlisted in the British army. When their father discovered this he immediately followed them to England. He bought back Joe for £5 but as a schoolteacher couldn’t afford the £10 buy out fee fee for James as well. James became a musician in the British Army Band, and his son later became a founding member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Joseph entered the civil service at an early age. While he was studying for his service exams Joseph worked at several jobs. He worked as a nurse in Grangegorman Psychiatric Hospital. He gave grinds for pupils attending Trinity college where he met his future wife Miss O'Toole. He was accepted into the Civil service, into the Excise department where he was appointed to Thurles as an Inland Revenue Officer.
The MacDonaghs had three children: Mary (Moll), Thomas and Joseph.
The Volunteers were formed in 1913. Joseph was heavily involved in the Volunteers, acting on Committees, making many journeys at his own expense up and down the country. At the time of the split he was one of the few who remained loyal to the original policy.
In the aftermath of the rebellion Joe cycled from Thurles to Dublin on a green bicycle as he wanted to see his brother for the last time. He made contact with the religious orders who were attending to the captured leaders. A Fr Aloysius advised him not to try to get in contact with Tom. “They are arresting everyone,” he warned. Joseph slept in the organ loft of the Church.
Joe was interned for a while after the rising. After his release the authorities sought to transfer his services to a centre in England, but instead of accepting the transfer he resigned and went to Dublin. Together with W.T. Cosgrave he set up an insurance business called the Income Tax Recovery Agency. For a time he was also president of St Enda's College, the school which Patrick Pearse founded.
After settling in Dublin he took part in municipal politics and was elected Alderman in Dublin Corporation. He was also a member of Rathmines Urban council. In 1917 Count Plunkett, the first Republican member for Ireland, called a convention. He invited men and women of all political groups. According to the Irish Times “someone handed Joe MacDonagh a copy of the old constitution , and having studied it carefully he convinced himself that the policy of the Kings, Lords, and Commons would no longer satisfy the people of Ireland and he decided to support Count Plunkett's policy of standing behind the proclamation of 1916." From then on Joe's standing in National politics took off.
He assisted De Valera during the East Clare election of 1917, and was subsequently arrested and imprisoned for a speech he made in Reiska Kilcommon. He was imprisoned in Mountjoy Jail with Séan Treacy, and took part in The Hunger strike during which Thomas Ashe died after being force fed. He later gave evidence at the inquest. In October 1917 he was elected as a member of the Sinn Féin executive.
At the General election of 1918 he was returned as a Sinn Féin candidate in North Tipperary. MacDonagh subsequently became Minister for Labour in the First Dáil. During this period he was in and out of prison. He was arrested during the “German Plot” arrests , and spent some time in Reading Jail, then transferred to Wormwood Scrubs , where in 1919 he organised a huge Hunger Strike. In 1921 as Minister for Labour he organised the Belfast Boycott. Dublin shops stocking Belfast manufactured goods were ransacked in reprisal for the July 1920 Orange pogroms.
During the Tan War and leading up to it the MacDonagh household was constantly raided and Joseph was moving all over Dublin in various disguises, including as an American and also disguised as a priest.
Joseph MacDonagh was re-elected to the Dáil in 1921. He voted against the Treaty and along with Mary MacSwiney of Cork sought the imposition of restrictions of the Pro Treaty delegates in the Dáil.
When the Civil War broke out MacDonagh was arrested and imprisoned in Portabello. He escaped from there and took part in the fighting in York Street. He was subsequently rearrested and imprisoned in Mountjoy Jail. A letter written by Joe to his wife during this tragic period still survives. In it he refers to the executions of Rory O'Connor, Liam Mellows, Richard Barratt and Joe McElvey in Mountjoy. To avoid the censors he wrote, "the burnings which took place here yesterday, there is no excuse for this, we have reached a new low.”
While in Prison he developed appendicitis. In great pain he wrote to his family complaining that he had not seen a prison doctor in 16 days. In another letter he stated that his whole body had broken out in boils. According to a Republican newspaper "his demands for release for proper medical attention gave his jailers the chance of exercising one of their peculiar forms of cruelty that is, offering immediate release in return for an oath of allegiance to the British colonists abjuring his principles and forswearing the Republic." Joe refused to sign.
When his condition reached a point where he was past medical aid he was released to die. MacDonagh was removed to the Mater Hospital in December 1922, and died a few days later on Christmas Day. The prison Governor, O'Keefe, said afterwards that he tried everything in his power to have him moved to Hospital sooner. Richard Mulcahy, the Commander in Chief of the Free State Army said this wasn't true.
Joseph MacDonagh was just 39 when he died.