Thomas Hunter

Thomas Cornelius Hunter (10 November 1883 – 11 March 1932) was a militant Irish republican. He was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), Sinn Féin, the Irish Volunteers, was twice elected to the Irish parliament, Dáil Éireann, and fought against the forces of the Irish Free State as a member of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish Civil War. While not widely known today, he was present at or directly involved in several major incidents during the struggle for Irish independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Early life Hunter was born in 1883 in the village of Castletownroche, County Cork in Ireland, son of Con Hunter, a baker, and his wife Ellen (née Hayes) of Glanworth. In 1907, he moved to Dublin to begin his apprenticeship as a draper. He soon joined Conradh na Gaeilge and came under the influence of Thomas Clarke. He was a close friend to Con Colbert (after whom he would name his only child) and William T. Cosgrave. IRB and the Irish Volunteers It did not take long for him to find his way into the IRB. By 1910, he was a member of the Henry Joy McCracken Circle, which was based out of 41 Parnell Square on Dublin's northside. This Circle, or cell, was attached to the Munitions Section and focused mainly on the procurement of small arms. Between 1911 and 1912, Hunter became the "Centre" of the Circle. As a Centre, one of his duties was to visit other Circles and deliver various military lectures. He did this frequently with Con Colbert, who was Centre for another Circle. Hunter would remain Centre of this Circle right up to the 1916 Easter Rising. At the creation of the Irish Volunteers in November 1913, Hunter was immediately made Vice-Commandant of the 2nd Battalion Dublin Brigade, under Thomas MacDonagh. The good soldier, he would serve as either Commandant, Vice-Commandant or Captain as the situation required. While this was an endless source of confusion for the rank-and-file Volunteers, they all knew that they only needed to find Hunter and he would lead them on. He was well-liked and respected by the men under his command. Such was the confusion that Peter Paul Galligan, a member of Hunter's IRB Circle and a soldier in the 2nd Battalion, was unsure if Hunter was Commandant or not.