Count George Noble Plunkett (3 December 1851 – 12 March 1948) was an Irish nationalist politician, museum director and biographer, who served as Minister for Fine Arts from 1921 to 1922, Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1919 to 1921 and Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann in January 1919. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1918 to 1927. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Roscommon North from 1917 to 1922.

He was the father of Joseph Plunkett, one of the leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916, as well as George Oliver Plunkett, Fiona Plunkett and John (Jack) Plunkett who also fought during the rising and subsequently during the Irish revolutionary period.{{Cite web |url=http://www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org/plunkettg.htm |title=Plunkett, George Noble |access-date=25 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208031625/http://www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org/plunkettg.htm |archive-date=8 February 2012 |url-status=dead }}

Early life and family

Plunkett was part of the prominent Irish Norman Plunkett family, which included Saint Oliver Plunkett (1629–1681). George's relatives included the Earls of Fingall—his great-grandfather George Plunkett (1750–1824) was "in the sixth degree removed in relationship" (fifth cousin) to the 8th Earl of Fingall—and the Barons of Dunsany, whose line had conformed to the Church of Ireland in the eighteenth century.[http://www.libraryireland.com/Pedigrees1/Plunket2Heber.php PLUNKET Lords of Fingall] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007080509/http://www.libraryireland.com/Pedigrees1/Plunket2Heber.php |date=7 October 2012 }} at Library Ireland One of that line, Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett, had served as Unionist MP for South Dublin (1892–1900) but became a convinced Home Rule supporter by 1912 as an alternative to the partition of Ireland, and served as a member of the first Irish Free State Senate (1922–1923).

Born in 1851 at 1 Aungier Street, Dublin, Plunkett was the son of Patrick Joseph Plunkett (1817–1918), a builder, and Elizabeth Noble (Plunkett).{{cite web|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/plunkett-count-george-noble-a7384|title=Plunkett, Count George Noble|work=Dictionary of Irish Biography|last=O'Connor Lysaght|first=D. R.|access-date=8 January 2022}}[http://humphrysfamilytree.com/Plunkett/1st.baron.plunket.html The Papal Count Plunkett] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110814073422/http://humphrysfamilytree.com/Plunkett/1st.baron.plunket.html |date=2011-08-14}} at HumphrysFamilyTree.com The family income allowed Plunkett to attend school in Nice in France, then at Clongowes Wood College and Trinity College Dublin. In Dublin he studied Renaissance and medieval art, among other topics, ultimately graduating in 1884. Plunkett spent much time abroad, primarily in Italy.

=Titles=

In 1884, he was created a Papal Count by Pope Leo XIII for donating money and property to the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary, a Roman Catholic nursing order.{{Cite web |date=25 April 2024 |title=Count Plunkett (a title conferred by the Pope) President of the Royal Society of Antiquaries 1913-1916 |url=https://rsai.ie/past-presidents/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230212045006/https://rsai.ie/past-presidents/ |archive-date=12 February 2023 |access-date=25 April 2024 |website=Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland}}O'Connor Lysaght, D. R. (2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/54747 "Plunkett, George Noble, Count Plunkett in the papal nobility (1851–1948)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924160258/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/54747 |date=24 September 2015 }}, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, retrieved 8 June 2011 He was a Knight Commander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre.{{cite book |title=Notable Irish Members (Historic): George Noble Plunkett |publisher=Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre |url=http://www.holysepulchre.ie/index.php/history-of-the-irish-lieutenancy/64-notable-irish-members-historic-count-arthur-moore |access-date=27 December 2013 |archive-date=28 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228031835/http://www.holysepulchre.ie/index.php/history-of-the-irish-lieutenancy/64-notable-irish-members-historic-count-arthur-moore |url-status=live }}

=Marriage and children=

That year he married Josephine Cranny (1858–1944), and they had seven children: Philomena (Mimi, {{circa}} 1886), Joseph (1887), Moya (Maria, c. 1889), Geraldine (Gerry, c. 1891), George Oliver (1895), Fiona (c. 1896) and John (Jack, c. 1897).D. R. O'Connor Lysaght, [http://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a7384 'Plunkett, Count George Noble'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725133122/http://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a7384 |date=25 July 2011 }}, in Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press, 2009. From 1907 to 1916, he was curator of the National Museum in Dublin.{{Cite web |url=http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000207150/ |title=George Plunkett's 1911 Census Form |access-date=8 December 2009 |archive-date=16 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716182956/http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000207150/ |url-status=live }}

Political career

=1890s=

Plunkett, a Home Rule supporter for many years, took the Parnellite side when that party split. On their behalf he contested the parliamentary constituencies of Mid Tyrone in 1892 and St. Stephen's Green, Dublin in 1895 and 1898 – missing election in the latter contest by just 138 votes.

=1910s=

Plunkett's interest in politics likely came mostly through his sons Joseph, George and John, and though it was following the execution of Joseph that he became radicalised, it is likely that Joseph swore him into the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) some time before the Rising. His daughter Fiona, in an RTÉ interview in 1966, described how in the months before the Rising he went to Switzerland on behalf of the IRB leaders to try to make contacts with the Germans. Joseph, George and Jack were all sentenced to death following the Easter Rising, but George and Jack had their sentences commuted to 10 years' penal servitude, and both were released in 1917.Lawrence William White, [http://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a9274 'Plunkett, George Oliver Michael'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725133215/http://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a9274 |date=25 July 2011 }}, in Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press, 2009. At least two of his daughters, Philomena and Fiona, were involved in preparations for the Rising.{{cite book |title="We Are but Women": Women in Ireland's History |last=Sawyer |first=Roger |year=1993 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-05866-7 |pages=87–88 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xDtjS7oo__4C&q=philomena+plunkett+one+of+fiona%27s+sisters&pg=PA88 |access-date=2010-09-04 |archive-date=22 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210922210426/https://books.google.com/books?id=xDtjS7oo__4C&q=philomena+plunkett+one+of+fiona%27s+sisters&pg=PA88 |url-status=live }} He was expelled from the Royal Dublin Society for his sons' role in the Rising.

Three weeks before the Rising Plunkett was dispatched to the Vatican to seek a private audience with Pope Benedict XV in the hope of getting the Pope's blessings. Plunkett reports that the Pope was moved by the religious symbolism of staging the Rising on Easter Sunday and persuaded him to give his "Apostolic Benediction" upon the rebels. When Plunkett once again travelled to the Vatican in 1920 Benedict XV congratulated Plunkett on his cabinet position.{{Cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=V_D4AwAAQBAJ&q=The+Pope&pg=PT62|title = Dublin Burning: The Easter Rising from Behind the Barricades: The Only Eye-Witness Account of the Easter Rising written by a senior participant|isbn = 9780717159284|last1 = Brennan-Whitmore|first1 = W. J.|date = 6 September 2013| publisher=Gill & Macmillan |access-date = 25 October 2020|archive-date = 22 September 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210922210426/https://books.google.com/books?id=V_D4AwAAQBAJ&q=The+Pope&pg=PT62|url-status = live}}

The new politics was indebted to its youth wing's vocal support: they gathered in numbers at Carrick railway station to cheer on Plunkett's campaign. Amongst the crowds were the women of Cumann na mBan, "a big percentage of youth...large numbers of young men...[and] more curious still for those days, young women."Irish Bureau of Military History WS 1770 (Kevin O'Shiel) cited in Townshend, "The Republic", p.23-4.

On 3 February 1917, running as an independent candidate, Plunkett won the seat of Roscommon North in a by-election. At his victory party in Boyle he announced his decision to abstain from Westminster. He called a Convention in the Mansion House in April 1917, where after some debate it was agreed to set up a 'Council of Nine' bringing all nationalists together under one banner. He continued to build up the Liberty League Clubs.{{cite web |url=https://erinascendantwordpress.wordpress.com/2017/06/29/plunketts-gathering-count-plunkett-and-his-mansion-house-convention-19th-april-1917-part-iv/ |title=Plunkett's Gathering: Count Plunkett and His Mansion House Convention, 19th April 1917 (Part IV) |website=Éireann Ascendant |date=29 June 2017 |access-date=5 January 2019 |archive-date=6 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190106104342/https://erinascendantwordpress.wordpress.com/2017/06/29/plunketts-gathering-count-plunkett-and-his-mansion-house-convention-19th-april-1917-part-iv/ |url-status=live }}

The different groups were merged in October 1917, under the newly elected Éamon de Valera, at the Sinn Féin Convention. The League of Women Delegates protested that there were only 12 women out of 1,000 delegates; and only Countess Plunkett on the Council of Nine.Margaret Ward, 'The League of Women Delegates and Sinn Fein', "History Ireland", Autumn 1996, pp.38-40. It was de Valera's genius to adopt a flexibility that incorporated Plunkett and other non-republicans. Their common aim was "an Irish government".Townshend, "The Republic" (Penguin, 2014), p.20. They intended to be active citizens taking part in the nomination of elections.Senia Paseta, "Nationalist Women in Ireland 1900-1918", (CUP 2014).

He was re-elected in the 1918 general election and joined the First Dáil, in which he served briefly as Ceann Comhairle.{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/George-Noble-Plunkett.D.1919-01-21/|title=George Noble Plunkett|work=Oireachtas Members Database|access-date=11 February 2012|archive-date=8 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181108184539/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/George-Noble-Plunkett.D.1919-01-21|url-status=live}} At the first public session, during a sober address given by Father Michael O'Flanagan, Plunkett warned the small crowd not to cheer. The Catholicity of the meetings confirmed the divisions to unionist communities.Arthur Mitchell, "Revolutionary Government in Ireland: Dáil Éireann 1919-22" (Dublin 1995), p.17.

Nominally Plunkett was given the foreign affairs portfolio, owing to his seniority, but effectively Arthur Griffith conducted policy abroad.Irish Bureau of Military History WS 825 (Leopold H.Kerney), cited in Townshend, p.69. De Valera moved him to a Fine Arts portfolio in August 1921, in an effort to create an inner cabinet of only six; so a wholly new ministry was created for the purpose, "giving the appearance of stability and progressiveness to their affairs." De Valera's green modernism marginalized the old nobility, however Catholic and correct.Mitchell, Arthur, "Revolutionary Government in Ireland: Dáil Éireann 1919-22" (Dublin 1995), p.304.

=1920s to 1930s=

Following the Irish War of Independence, Plunkett joined the anti-treaty side, and continued to support Sinn Féin after the split with Fianna Fáil.{{Cite web |url=http://www.archontology.org/nations/eire/eire_rep1/plunkett.php |title=George, Count Plunkett profile |access-date=25 August 2007 |archive-date=27 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927222420/http://www.archontology.org/nations/eire/eire_rep1/plunkett.php |url-status=live }} He lost his Dáil seat at the June 1927 general election. In a 1936 by-election in the Galway constituency, Plunkett ran as a joint Cumann Poblachta na hÉireann/Sinn Féin candidate. Losing his deposit, he polled only 2,696 votes (2.1%).{{cite web |url=http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?id=1066 |title=Count George Plunkett |work=ElectionsIreland.org |access-date=15 November 2009 |archive-date=21 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110221184932/http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?id=1066 |url-status=live }} In 1938, he was one of the former members of the Second Dáil that purported to assign a self-proclaimed residual sovereign power to the IRA, when they signed the statement printed in the 17 December 1938 issue of the Wolfe Tone Weekly (see Irish republican legitimism).

While Dáil minister for foreign affairs, Plunkett wrote a lengthy letter to Éamon de Valera warning him not to develop too close a relationship with "the Jews" on the grounds that, among other things, the British press "was largely owned and controlled by Jews", in Italy, Jews were responsible for the publication of pornography, "for a bad Jew shows his racial hatred of Christians by corrupting them," and "the dirty and ignorant sufferers from Russia and the Balcaus [sic] make very troublesome immigrants." However, he also made some positive remarks on Jews: "Their best men show great distinction in music, are fine linguists, Cosmopolitan, sensitive, enthusiastic about art, genial, charitable, clean living (and) generally large-minded and good employers of Christians".{{Cite journal|last=Hanley|first=Brian|date=May 2020|title='The Irish and the Jews have a good deal in common': Irish republicanism, anti-Semitism and the post-war world|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S002112142000005X/type/journal_article|journal=Irish Historical Studies|language=en|volume=44|issue=165|pages=57–74|doi=10.1017/ihs.2020.5|s2cid=225910648|issn=0021-1214|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite news|last=Hanley|first=Brian|title='Jewish Fenians' and anti-Semites: the Jewish role in the Irish fight for freedom|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/jewish-fenians-and-anti-semites-the-jewish-role-in-the-irish-fight-for-freedom-1.4526074|access-date=2021-11-09|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en}}

=Death=

He died on 12 March 1948, at the age of 96 in Dublin.

References

=Bibliography=

COUNT PLUNKETT COLLECTION – National Library of Ireland.

Note-book of an eccentric philosopher – 1868
IE UCDA P79. Papers of George Noble, Count Plunkett (1851–1948) Dates: 1888–1936, UCD .ARchives
Some Engravers in exile Illustrated, 1942 (2nd ed.1968), in The Capuchin Annual pp. 524–9
Miscellaneous papers concerning Irish representation
Letters by and to members of the Plunkett family concerning political affairs in 1916–1923

SECONDARY SOURCES

Mitchell, Arthur, Revolutionary Government in Ireland: Dáil Éireann 1919-22 (Dublin 1995)
Sheehan, Aideen, 'Cumann na mBan: Policies and Activities', in David Fitzpatrick (ed.), Revolition? Ireland 1917-1923 (Dublin 1990)
Ward, Margaret, Unmanageable Revolutionaries: Women and Irish Nationalism (Dingle 1983)