Background

Sean MacStiofain was born John Edward Drayton Stephenson on February 17, 1928, in Leytonstone, London, United Kingdom. He did not get on well with his father, a solicitor's clerk, but readily accepted the views of his mother, who was from Belfast. She died when he was 10. "When I was very young," Sean MacStiofain recalled, "my mother had said to me, 'I'm Irish, therefore you're Irish. You're half Irish anyway. Don't forget it.' I never did."

Education

Sean MacStiofain left school at sixteen to work in the building trade.

Career

After leaving school, Seán MacStiofáin was conscripted into the Royal Air Force (RAF), where he was a storeman, and later worked as a railway shunter at Finsbury Park, north London. His involvement with the IRA began in 1953 with a raid on the armory at Felsted School, Essex, during which he loaded an old van with an assortment of weapons. When stopped at Bishop's Stortford, Stephenson and his two accomplices had 98 rifles, eight Bren guns, 10 Sten guns, mortars, and magazines. All three were sentenced to eight years in prison. He used the time to teach himself Irish and in attempting to forge links with Cypriot EOKA terrorists.

Having renamed himself Sean MacStiofáin, he moved to Dublin - his first visit to Ireland - after his release in 1959 and worked as a salesman for an Irish language organization, and increasing his involvement with the Irish Republican Army (IRA). By 1969 MacStiofáin and other Republican hardliners began to split from the leadership, after claiming that the Official IRA had failed to protect Catholics during riots that August in Ulster, and formed the Provisional Army Council.

After a period in charge of intelligence, MacStiofáin quickly became Chief of Staff, directing terrorist operations from Dublin. By the summer of 1972, 452 people had been murdered in Northern Ireland since the beginning of the troubles in August 1969. On July 21, 1972, MacStiofáin ordered the planting of 34 bombs in Northern Ireland which resulted in the deaths of nine people and injured 130 others. MacStiofáin, however, declared that his Catholicism would not let him bring condoms into the Republic after his frequent trips to Ulster, although they were used to make acid bombs.

After his release from jail in March 1973, MacStiofáin was reprimanded by the IRA council and replaced as a leader. In the late 1970s, he was a part-time columnist with the Sinn Féin newspaper, An Phoblacht. In subsequent years, MacStiofain came to desire peace, and in 1983 appealed to the IRA in hopes of the group’s declaration of a ceasefire. He authored one book, Memoirs of a Revolutionary, which was published in 1975.

Achievements

• Sean MacStiofain was a key player in the early days of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), especially during the split of December 1969 which resulted in the formation of Provisional IRA. He is best known for his service as its the first chief of staff.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Memoirs of A Revolutionary 1975

Religion

Sean MacStiofain was baptized as a Protestant but entered the Roman Catholic Church as a child.

Politics

Sean MacStiofain had developed an adolescent enthusiasm for Irish republicanism, fostered by his mother's imagination and conversations with a family friend. It received its first expression when he painted the words "Roger Casement died for Ireland" on the walls of Pentonville Prison. MacStiofain was a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). He was arrested a number of times for possession of weapons, participation in violent terrorist acts.

In his memoirs, Mac Stiofdin complained about the excessive attention paid by the Republican movement to "agitation on social and economic issues" when "the main objective [was] to free Ireland from British rule." "Some of the older Republicans," Mac Stfoflin wrote, "who had been with the movement for years and still had years of service to contribute to it, began to drop away in disgust and protest." If the Irish police report cited above is to be believed, however, this did not prevent a year-on-year increase in the strength of the IRA from 657 at the end of December 1962 to 1,039 at the end of October 1966.

Views

In the 1980s and 1990s, Sean MacStíofáin was active in the Irish-language organization Conradh na Gaeilge (Gaelic League).

Quotations: "It has been said that most revolutions are not caused by revolutionaries in the first place, but by the stupidity and brutality of governments."

"A police state begins when the police stop obeying the law and do as they like when it suits them."

Personality

Sean MacStiofain did not drink or smoke.

Physical Characteristics: Sean MacStiofain was a tall, well-built man.

Connections

Seán MacStiofáin was married and had three children.

Spouse:

Máire

Acquaintance:

Ruairí Ó Brádaigh

References

• Contemporary Authors
  2010