Early Life
Clarke was born on the Isle of Wight to James Clarke from Carrigallen, Leitrim, and his newly married bride, Mary Palmer from Clogheen Tipperary. His father was a soldier in the British Army and was based there. His father was transferred to South Africa when Thomas was one. The family moved with him. They did not return to Ireland until he was seven. He grew up in Dungannon, County Tyrone.
Dungannon, in the heart of east Tyrone, was a part of the country that had witnessed constant resistance to English interference in Irish affairs from the early modern period. It was a hotbed of paramilitary organization, some of which was agrarian located, other of which was politically motivated. The famine had afflicted that part of Ireland well into the early 1850s, and was very much within living memory during Tom's youth. This was a stronghold of the United Irishmen in times past, and became a center of Fenianism. Dungannon–Coalisland was a bastion of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, which in 1867, had risen in arms in various parts of Ireland. Clarke was drawn into this type of activity. When he was old enough to join, he became a member of the IRB in Dungannon.
Read more about this topic: Tom Clarke (Irish Republican)
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