Thomas Kettle Monument - St Stephens Green

Thomas Michael Kettle was an economist, journalist, barrister, writer, poet, soldier and Home Rule politician. He was a member of Parliment for East Tyrone, however in 1913 he joined the Irish Volunteers. In 1914 he joined the Royal Dublin Fussiliers and took part and died in World War 1, in 1916. The commerorative bust was commisioned to honor Kettle in 192, however due to the fact that he volunteered and served the British Empire in World War 1, the nationalist authorities obstructed the raising of the bust. It was finally put in place in 1936, with little to no fan fare. He was friends with numerous Irish literary geniuses such as James Joyce, Francis Sheehy Skeffington and Oliver St. John Gogarty. G. K. Chesterton surmised, "Thomas Michael Kettle was perhaps the greatest example of that greatness of spirit which was so ill rewarded on both sides of the channel. He was a wit, a scholar, an orator, a man ambitious in all the arts of peace; and he fell fighting the barbarians because he was too good a European to use the barbarians against England, as England a hundred years before has used the barbarians against Ireland" At the time of his death a tribute to him appeared in the French journal L'Opinion: All parties bowed in sorrow over his grave, for in the last analysis they were all Irish, and they knew that in losing him, whether he was friend or enemy, they had lost a true son of Ireland. A son of Ireland? He was more. He was Ireland! He had fought for all the aspirations of his race, for Independence, for Home Rule, for the Celtic Renaissance, for a United Ireland, for the eternal Cause of Humanity . . . He died, a hero in the uniform of a British soldier, because he knew that the faults of a period or of a man should not prevail against the cause of right or liberty. Kettle was an Irish nationalist along with being an MP. Kettle joined the Irish Volunteers militia to defend nationalist interest. During his time with the volunteers he travelled to Europe to purchase arms for the Irish Volunteers. World War 1 broke out during a trip to Belgium and Kettle saw first hand what the Germans were doing to the people of Belgium people. Upon his return to Dublin Kettle was torn between the Nationalist cause and whether or not to travel to Europe to help defeat the II Reich and their evil, refering to them as Barbarians. Kettle recieved a commission into the British Army as a Lieutenant. Due to his health his duties were restricted to the Garrison. During this time he continued to fight for Home Rule but also promoted voluntary enlistment in the British Army to fight the tyranny of the II Reich. He asserted that "Having broken like an armed burglar into Belgium, Germany was thereby guilty of a systematic campaign of murder, pillage, outrage, and destruction, planned and ordered by her military and intellectual leaders." Kettle continued to apply to go to the front and finally went to France with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in 1916, but due to the conditions of war was sent back to Dublin due to ill health. Once he recouperated, he once again headred to France one final time, where he died. Tomas Kettle died during an attack on German lines during the Somme offensive and is buried in a battlefield grave.