Mick Fitzpatrick

Who was Mick Fitzpatrick?

Michael Fitzpatrick was an Irish republican, chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army and Clann na Poblachta politician.

Born in Wexford in 1893 he was one of the 'driving forces' behind the anti-Treaty IRA in Dublin during the Irish Civil War. He was briefly the Officer Commanding of the IRA's Dublin Brigade and was interned in 1923. During this period he was also involved with the first Communist Party of Ireland.

Fitzpatrick was a full-time official of the Grocers' trade union and secretary of its social club at the Banba Hall in Dublin's Parnell Square. He also managed the Balalaika Ballroom and restaurant in the same area.

He was the central figure in IRA contacts with the Soviet Union during the late 1920s and in 1927, he attended the first International Congress of the Friends of Soviet Russia in Moscow. In 1928 he helped establish an Irish section of the FOSR. During 1929 he was involved in launching the Irish Labour Defence League and the Workers' Revolutionary Party of Ireland. He was also involved in Comhairle na Poblachta, a body set up the same year to heal the rift between the military and political anti-Treaty forces in Ireland.