Sean McAteer
Sean McAteer (1892–1937) was an Irish communist killed in Stalin's Great Purge.
McAteer, a dock labourer, was involved with the Irish Citizen Army and the Socialist Party of Ireland. In 1915 he left for the USA.[1][2] While in the USA he held membership of the Industrial Workers of the World and was jailed for three months in 1917 for draft dodging. Later he was once again imprisoned, this time for his trade union activities under the charge of "criminal syndicalism".[3]
McAteer returned to Ireland to fight in the Irish Civil War for the Anti-Treaty IRA. On 11 June 1923 McAteer and Jim Phelan participated in a robbery of a post-office, undertaken to gather funds for the IRA. During the course of the robbery McAteer fired a shot that killed a man and as a result he fled to the USSR.[4]
Once in the USSR he worked as an English teacher in Odessa, Ukraine. Here he married his wife Tamara and had a daughter, Maria.[1]
He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. McAteer's status as a foreigner and his outspoken nature did him no favours.[5] In November 1937 McAteer was arrested and shot as a spy.[6][2] He was posthumously rehabilitated in the 1950s.[1]
References
- ^ a b c Fleming, Diarmaid (16 June 2007). "Irish victims of Stalin uncovered". BBC.
- ^ a b King, Carla (2010). "Reviewed Work: Left to the Wolves: Irish Victims of Stalinist Terror by Barry McLoughlin". Irish Economic and Social History. 37: 185–7.
- ^ "Hidden behind the iron curtain". The Irish Times. 27 February 2007.
- ^ Maume, Patrick. "Phelan, Jim (James Leo)". Dictionary of Irish Biography.
- ^ Morgan, Kevin. "Left to the Wolves: Irish Victims of Stalinist Terror". Revolutionary Russia. 22 (1): 114–6.
- ^ Callaghan, John; Phythian, Mark (2013). "State surveillance and communist lives: Rose Cohen and the Early British Communist Milieu". Journal of Intelligence History. 12 (2): 134–155.