Irish Nationalism
Boland later joined the Irish Volunteers along with Gerry and his younger brother Ned and took an active part in the Easter Rising of 1916.
At the 1918 general election Boland was elected to represent the South Roscommon seat. In line with all the Sinn Féin MPs elected at that election he did not represent his constituents at Westminster, but withdrew to sit in the declared independent Dáil Éireann (the First Dáil) and was named by Éamon de Valera as special envoy to the United States, a role his uncle Jack had played 25 years previously. He left Ireland for the United States of America along with de Valera as part of a campaign to raise awareness and support for their cause in America. Boland held the Russian Crown Jewels as collateral for a loan of $25,000 from the Irish Republic to the Soviet Republic through the head of the Soviet Bureau, Ludwig Martens. These jewels were transferred to Ireland when he returned.
During the Irish War of Independence, Boland operated alongside Michael Collins.
Read more about this topic: Harry Boland
Famous quotes containing the words irish and/or nationalism:
“I rather think the cinema will die. Look at the energy being exerted to revive it—yesterday it was color, today three dimensions. I don’t give it forty years more. Witness the decline of conversation. Only the Irish have remained incomparable conversationalists, maybe because technical progress has passed them by.”
—Orson Welles (1915–1984)
“The course of modern learning leads from humanism via nationalism to bestiality.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)