Seán T. O'Kelly
Aged 28 at the time of the Census 1911
Address: 8, Belvidere Avenue (Rotunda, Dublin)1
The Census 1911 form for Seán T. O’Kelly and his family is in Irish. The head of the household is Caitlín Ní Cheallaigh (Catherine Kelly), aged 50. Four sons and one daughter are also recorded in the house: Seaghán Thomás Ó Ceallaigh (28) (Seán Thomas Kelly); Uilliam Ó Ceallaigh (26) (William Kelly); Maighréad Ní Cheallaigh (18) (Mairead Kelly) Micheál Ó Ceallaigh (14) (Michael Kelly); and Maitiú Ó Ceallaigh (12) (Matthew Kelly). All the people in the household stated that they could read and write and all were Roman Catholic. The two younger boys, Michael and Maitiú, were still in school.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Rotunda/Belvidere_Avenue/29790/
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000071083/
Seán T. O’Kelly was born in Dublin in 1882, the son of Samuel and Catherine O’Kelly. He was educated by the Christian Brothers and worked as a junior assistant in the National Library of Ireland. He joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1899 and became an active recruiter and organiser for the Bartholomew Teeling Circle of the IRB and the IRB in general. He recruited many members in Dublin, Wexford, Arklow, Galway, Cork and Sligo. The ideal member of the IRB would have to be a person who held strong nationalist views, who was trustworthy, sober, steady and reliable. Seán made efforts to enlist well-known men with positions of authority in social and business circles. They met once a month and paid a subscription of one shilling per month and a further one shilling per month for the arms fund2. The IRB tried to influence public national organisations such as the Gaelic League and the GAA and infiltrated them with their own members. “They were assiduous in urging support of organisations such as the Abbey Theatre and there would seldom be a night of the Abbey Theatre when many members of the IRB would not be present2.” Members were also encouraged to join or establish hurling teams.
O’Kelly became interested in the Irish language from a young age. He began to take Irish for the Preparatory Grade at the age of 12. He attended classes in Irish in the Ard Craobh of the Gaelic League in O’Connell Street which were given a few times a week by Sinéad Ní Fhlannagain, (later Mrs. DeValera), Éamonn Ceannt and others. In 1903, the Gaelic League appointed Pádraig Pearse editor of An Claidheamh Soluis, the official paper of the Gaelic League. O’Kelly was the manager and the two men became very good friends due to this. O’Kelly was appointed General Secretary of the Gaelic League in 1915.
In 1905 O’Kelly was one of the founder members of the political party Sinn Féin. He was given the role of honorary secretary in 1908 and stayed in this post until 1925. O’Kelly was elected to Dublin Corporation in 1906 and he contributed to the promotion and acceptance of the Irish language in his work with the Corporation. In 1908, O’Kelly was the Chairperson of the Finance Committee of Dublin Corporation. Cheques were signed by the Chairperson and the City Treasurer for payments and sent to the Bank of Ireland who would issue pay orders on the Corporations account. O’Kelly signed the cheques in Irish and refused to sign any other way. The bank refused to pay and payments were held up for 3 weeks but eventually the bank had to give in and accepted signatures in Irish.
In October 1908 O'Kelly was chosen to make an Irish language address to Pope Pius X in Rome by Dublin Corporation on the occasion of the Pope’s Sacerdotal Jubilee. Éamonn Ceannt also made this trip and played his bagpipes at the Vatican. A translation of O’Kelly’s speech from Irish to Latin was prepared and the Pope thanked him in French and asked him a number of questions about Ireland.
In March 1915 O'Kelly went to New York City to inform Clan Na Gael of the plans for a rising in Dublin by the IRB. Pádraig Pearse appointed O'Kelly to be his Staff Captain in preparation for whenever the insurrection would take place. On Easter Monday O’Kelly met with his friend Father Curran to give the priest a package to give to Mary (Kit) Ryan in case anything happened to him3. Mary was a Professor of French at University College Dublin. O’Kelly posted copies of the Proclamation around Dublin’s city centre which declared Ireland a Republic. After the Easter Rising, O’Kelly was imprisoned, released and then re-arrested and sent to Reading Gaol in England. He managed to escape from detention and returned to Ireland. Mary Ryan and her sister Nell were arrested in May of 1916 and sent to Mountjoy Gaol. Mary and Seán were married in 1918. Mary and Seán had no children and after her death in 1935, Seán married his late wife’s younger sister, Philomena Ryan, after gaining a papal dispensation to do so. Philomena was a chemist and public analyst and was aged 43 when they married. Seán and Philomena did not have any children.
Census 1911 for the Ryan family Co. Wexford
Address: 1, Tomcool, Big (Kilbride, Wexford)1
The Ryans were a well-known and distinguished family from Tomcoole, Co. Wexford. John and Eliza Ryan had a large farm of some 150 acres at Tomcoole near Taghmon and had twelve children.
The 1911 Census return for the Ryan family shows the head of household is John Ryan (65) a farmer, married for 35 years to Elizabeth (62). Also on the census return are three of John Ryan’s children: Mary (30), Ellen (29) and John (23). John Ryan’s sister Catherine who was aged 66 also lived with the family.
There was three farm servants - Laurence O’Brien (23), Henry Monaghan (15) and Elizabeth Collins (19). Several of the Ryan children took a prominent role in revolutionary politics and were interned in the aftermath of the 1916 Rising, during the War of Independence, and the Civil War and played a political role in the new Irish Free State. Many married well-known political figures. Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh married Mary and, two years after her death, married her younger sister Philomena. Agnes married Denis McCullough; President of the IRB and Min married Richard Mulcahy4.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Wexford/Kilbride/Tomcool__Big/694908/
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai003614476/
In the General Election of 1918, O’Kelly was elected as a member of parliament for Sinn Féin for Dublin College Green. The newly elected Sinn Féin politicians did not recognise the authority of Westminster and assembled instead in the Mansion House, Dublin to form the first Dáil Éireann with Éamon de Valera as President. O’Kelly was elected Ceann Comháirle (Speaker). He also served as the envoy of the Republican government to peace conferences at Paris, Rome and Washington.
Following the 1921 Treaty, de Valera and his followers, including O’Kelly, left Dáil Eireann. Civil war followed in 1922. During the Irish Civil War, O'Kelly was in jail until December 1923. Afterwards he spent the next two years as a Sinn Féin envoy to the United States. In 1926 O’Kelly was one of the founding members of the new Fianna Fáil party.
In 1932 Fianna Fáil won the General Election and Éamon de Valera was appointed President of the Executive Council, (Prime Minister) of the Irish Free State. O’Kelly became Tánaiste and was made Minister for Local Government and Public Health. In 1941 he became Minister for Finance and held that post until his election by popular vote to the role of President of Ireland in 1945, where he remained for two terms of seven years. He was succeeded by Éamon de Valera.
Seán T. O’Kelly died in Dublin on 23rd November 1966 at the age of 84. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.
Sources:
Reference:
Bureau of Military History Witness Statement: His Excellency, Seán T. O'Kelly pgs. 6&8
Go to Eoin MacNeill
