Frank Aiken was a remarkable man and one who served the Irish state very well in his long career. He was born in Armagh and it was there that he joined the Irish Volunteers. He took on a more political role and became Chairman of the Armagh Comhairle Ceanntair of Sinn Féin and elected as a councillor for Armagh County Council. He commanded the Fourth Northern Division of the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence.

His family suffered from reprisal attacks and sectarian violence, as much of the Catholic population did during the violence of the War of Independence period. There are those who believe that Aiken was responsible for some of the same acts on the Protestant and Unionist communities himself. What emerges from this period of Irish history is a muddy picture of claim and counter-claim or attack and reprisal, a trend that runs from the War of Independence through the Civil War and into the early years of the Irish Free State.

In the initial stages of the Civil War he remained neutral but eventually sided with the Anti-Treaty forces, rising to become the Chief of Staff. In that role he was responsible for issuing the orders for the Anti-Treaty IRA to ceasefire and dump arms in May 1923, effectively ending the Civil War.

Aiken moved into politics and helped to found Fianna Fail. He was elected to Dáil Éireann in 1923 and held his seat until 1973. He served as Minister for Defence, Co-ordination of Defensive Measures, Finance, External Affairs and Lands & Fisheries. He was also Tánaiste from 1965 until 1969. He died in 1983.