Editing Seán T. O'Kelly (section)

===Easter Rising===
It was during the Easter Rising that O'Kelly met Mary Ryan. She was arrested on 18 May 1916, with her sister Nell for unspecified offences to be incarcerated in [[Mountjoy Prison]]. Historians have argued that she may have been confused with her sister, Min Ryan. Kit, as [[Mary Kate Ryan|Mary Ryan]] was known, was Professor of French at [[University College Dublin]]. She shared her house with her sisters at 19 Ranelagh Road, Dublin, which O'Kelly visited. They were married in 1918.<ref>Sinead McCoole, "No Ordinary Women: Irish Female Activists in the Revolutionary Years 1900–1923" (O'Brien 2004). p.54-55.</ref>

O'Kelly was at the heart of the party operation. He was one of a handful of men who might have known of the "All-Ireland" Volunteer HQ at [[Athenry]], [[County Galway]], according to [[Liam Ó Briain]] involved in marshalling the rebellion in the western hills from [[Limerick]] across the [[River Shannon|Shannon]].<ref>Irish Bureau of Military History (BMH) WS 6 (Liam O'Briain)</ref> He was also responsible for springing [[Bulmer Hobson]] from the custody of the IRB.<ref>F.X.Martin (ed.), "1916 – Myth, Fact and Mystery', ''Studia Hibernica'', 7 (1967) pp.88–9.</ref> Thereafter Hobson's mysterious "disappearance" became the moment when "a devoted son" of Ireland was excluded from the movement; but O'Kelly may have saved his life.<ref>Townshend, p.137-8.</ref> During the Rising he was gazetted Staff Captain by PH Pearse.<ref>Bureau of Military History witness statement by Min Ryan, O'Kelly's sister-in-law https://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0399.pdf#page=14</ref> He was in and out of the [[General Post Office, Dublin|GPO]], and was requested to set up as "Civil Administrator of the Government of the Republic" with four others.<ref>a single issue of the "Irish War News", 25 April 1916.</ref> The project never proceeded, as perhaps no attempt was made to anticipate preparations for a political structure free from Britain.<ref>Seán T. O'Kelly, '1916 before and after', National Library of Ireland (NLI) Ms 27692; Townshend, p.161.</ref>

After the [[Easter Rising]] in 1916, O'Kelly was gaoled, released, and re-arrested. He was sent to Reading Gaol, and then escaped from detention in [[HM Prison Eastwood Park]] in [[Great Britain|Britain]], and returned to Ireland. "Sinn Fein became a cloak for Volunteer meetings"<ref>M.Laffan, "Resurrection in Ireland: The Sinn Fein Party, 1916–1923", p.31, cited in C.Townshend, "The Republic". p.33.</ref> Sinn Féin won a landslide victory.