Lift a glass today to Oscar Traynor

Oscar Traynor
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Oscar Traynor (March 21, 1886–December 15, 1963), Fianna Fáil politician and revolutionary.

Oscar Traynor was born on March 21, 1886 into a strongly nationalist family in Dublin, Ireland. He was educated by the Christian Brothers in Dublin. In 1899 he was apprenticed to John Long, a famous wood-carver. As a young man he was a noted footballer and toured Europe with Belfast Celtic.

Traynor joined the Irish Volunteers and took part in the Easter Rising in 1916. Following this he was interned in Wales. During the Irish War of Independence he was brigadier of the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Republican Army and led the attack on the Customs House in 1921. When the Irish Civil War broke out in June 1922, Traynor took the republican side.* The Dublin Brigade was split however, with many of its members following Michael Collins in taking the pro-Treaty side. Traynor and his supporters tried to help the republicans who had occupied the Four Courts when they were attacked by Free State forces by occupying O'Connell street. Traynor and his men held out for a week before making their escape. For the remainder of the war he organised guerrilla activity in south Dublin and county Wicklow.

In 1925 he was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fail candidate.

In 1936 he was first appointed to the Cabinet as Minister for Posts & Telegraphs. in 1948 he became President of the Football Association of Ireland, a position he held until his death. He served as Minister for Defence in several Fianna Fáil governments before he retired in 1961.

Oscar Traynor died on December 15, 1963, in Dublin, Ireland at the age of 77.


*January 10 1922 -Three anti-Treaty members of IRA GHQ (Curran says four); six divisional commanders and the O/Cs of the two Dublin brigades meet to formulate their anti-Treaty strategy. They say that the IRA's allegiance to the Dáil was based on the Republic being upheld and they argue that the decision of the Dáil to accept the Treaty means that since they are no longer upholding the Republic, the IRA no longer owes it allegiance. They call for the IRA to return to rule by its own executive and send a letter the next day to Mulcahy to demand that an Army convention meet on the 5th February. The letter is signed by Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows, Sean Russell, James Donovan, Oscar Traynor, Liam Lynch and other IRA commandants.


DISCLAIMER - I can make no connection between the Dubliner Traynor and our Monaghan family, but I have a romantic attachment to the IRA of the rebellion - pistol in one pocket, rosary in the other.