16 Dead Men by Anne-Marie Ryan

Author:Anne-Marie Ryan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mercier Press

Seán Heuston

John Joseph Heuston (known as Seán) was born in Dublin on 21 February 1891. His family lived at 24 Gloucester Street and later moved to Jervis Street. Both of these areas of the north inner city contained mostly tenement dwellings.1 At the time of his birth Heuston’s father, John, was employed as a clerk. It appears that he was no longer living with the family by the time Seán was ten years old. According to the 1901 census, Seán Heuston, his mother, Maria, sisters Mary and Teresa, and brother Michael were living at 34 Jervis Street with Maria’s sisters, Teresa and Brigid MacDonald.2 Little is known as to the whereabouts of John Heuston at this time. All that is certain is that by the time of the Easter Rising he was living in London and that Seán Heuston’s final letter to his father hints at a strained relationship between John and the rest of the family.

Heuston was educated by the Christian Brothers and was a bright student. He learned Irish at school and was the only one of his siblings to list his ability to speak the language on the 1901 census. In 1905 he completed the Intermediate Certificate and in 1907 he took examinations for clerical positions at the Great Southern and Western Railway Company (GSWR). In spite of the large number of applications for these secure and reasonably well-paid jobs, Heuston was successful. He was appointed as a clerk at the GSWR offices in Limerick, where he worked until 1913. According to reports of his employers, Heuston was a satisfactory worker, described as having ‘good habits generally’.3

Heuston’s time in Limerick coincided with the spread of the nationalist youth organisation Na Fianna Éireann across Ireland. The organisation was established in Dublin at a meeting in Camden Hall organised by Bulmer Hobson and Constance Markievicz. Markievicz visited Limerick in the summer of 1911 to set up a Fianna Éireann branch, or sluagh, in the city. Seán Heuston was the driving force behind the organisation of the Limerick sluagh and he trained the young boys in military drill and other skills.4 Madge Daly, of the renowned republican family in Limerick, recalled Heuston’s contribution to Na Fianna Éireann in the city:

With all he was most practical, and had the special quality for managing boys and getting the best from them. A fluent Irish speaker, Seán used his own language whenever possible. He was methodical, and planned each year’s Fianna programme in advance, arranging classes, lectures, marches and examination for the boys …5

Heuston’s practical approach to running the Fianna in Limerick extended to setting up a payment scheme so that members who could not afford to pay upfront for uniforms and equipment could instead make weekly contributions to pay for them. This ensured that Fianna members were well turned out for drilling practice and parades. As well as the usual Fianna activities of drilling, scout training, signalling and musketry, Heuston also placed an emphasis on Irish history and language classes. Daly noted that Heuston was ‘educated to an exceptional degree in subjects relating to his country’.

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