Robert Barton

The enigmatic Robert Barton was a central figure in Irish Revolution. From an Anglo-Irish ascendancy background, he joined the British army in 1915. He was sent to Dublin to guard Republican prisoners after the 1916 Easter Rising. Within two years he underwent a political conversion and joined Sinn Féin. He was elected to the Dáil and incarcerated during the War of Independence, but was released to help negotiate the truce which ended the conflict. He was a member of both Irish delegations to London in 1921, and was one of the plenipotentiaries who reluctantly signed the Anglo-Irish treaty in December. He voted for the treaty at Cabinet and Dáil level, but when he had done so, he switched his allegiance to the anti-treaty side in the Civil War, during which he was imprisoned again. After Irish independence, he enjoyed a long life of public service and died in 1975.