Seán Heuston
Born: 21 February 1891
Died: 8 May 1916
Photo: Seán Heuston
1901 Census for the Heuston family.
Aged 10 at the time of the 1901 Census
Address: 34.4, Jervis Street (North City, Dublin)1
This is the 1901 Census return on which Seán Heuston (aged 10) was recorded. The head of the household was recorded as Teresa McDonald (32) who had the occupation of envelope maker. Teresa had 2 sisters living with her - Brigid (30) who was single and a vest maker and Seán Heuston’s mother Maria Heuston who was recorded as married and aged 34. There is no mention of Seán’s father John in this Census record. Maria Heuston’s four children are recorded: Mary (12), Teresa (8), Seán (10) (who is named John in the Census record) and Michael (3). All members of the family were Roman Catholic. Seán was recorded as the only family member who was proficient in Irish and English.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/North_City/Jervis_Street/1332831/
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai003773311/
1911 Census
Aged 20 at the time of the 1901 Census
Address: 7, Military Road (Pt. of) (Limerick No. 4 Urban, Limerick)1
This 1911 Census return recorded Seán Heuston living as a boarder in Limerick and his occupation was recorded as a clerk in a Railway Office. The head of the household was Francis Joseph Humphries aged 27 and a sorting clerk and telegraphist. The other two members of this household were Francis’s wife Agnes (28) and his son William John (5). As on the 1901 Census form, Seán is again recorded as John Heuston and was the only member of this household to be proficient in Irish and English. All members of the household were Roman Catholic.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai002760630/
John Joseph Heuston was born at 24, Lower Gloucester Street, Dublin. Both Gloucester Street and Jervis Street (where the 1901 census was taken) were tenement areas. He was educated at the Christian Brothers School on North Richmond Street and passed the Middle Grade in the Intermediate examination (see table 2.17). At the age of 17 he joined the Great Southern and Western Railway Company as a clerk and was stationed in Limerick for 6 years. He joined Fianna Éireann, the scouting club for boys and was an officer of this organisation. The Fianna had courses in drilling, marching, weapons training and also classes in Irish. Heuston himself was a fluent Irish speaker. This group brought him into contact with John Daly, uncle of Kathleen Clarke, nee Daly, and also her husband Thomas Clarke.
In 1913 Heuston was transferred to the traffic manager’s office at Kingsbridge terminus (now Heuston Station). He went on to join the ranks of the Irish Volunteers and continued his work with Fianna Éireann in Dublin. “At the first meeting of the class I attended I met Seán Heuston and Dick Balfe. Seán was in charge and was assisted by Dick. I was very impressed by their methods of teaching us scout craft. We were shown maps and taught to read them. They explained all the conventional signs and gave instruction on mapping out sections of the country, also the method of collecting information re enemy troops and movements. Heuston and Balfe struck me as being very earnest and efficient officers and I felt it an honour to be associated with them 2”.
Seán was given command of a branch of Volunteers on the North side of the city, was promoted to vice-commandant of the Dublin Brigade and became director of training. Con Colbert and Pádraig Pearse engaged him at Saint Enda’s, where he provided training in drill and musketry for the older students. On the occasion of the landing of arms at Howth in July 1914, he led a contingent of Fianna, bringing a consignment of guns safely back to Dublin in a trek-cart. When the Asgard was spotted the atmosphere was tense among the Volunteers waiting. “A group of officers of Volunteer headquarters staff waited near the edge of the wall to greet the arrival of the yacht and its cargo and, while it was yet two or three feet from the wall, Seán Heuston and a couple of others sprang aboard3.” The arms were taken from the hold and passed to the men waiting on the pier and brought to Dublin.
In early 1916 Heuston took over command of “D" Company. Heuston gave instructions to a volunteer, Seán McLoughlin and his men (schoolboys from St. Enda’s), the night before Holy Thursday to go and collect the hidden arms and ammunition at Three Rock Mountain where they had a camping ground. On hearing of Eoin MacNeill’s countermanding order Heuston went to Liberty Hall for instructions and then sent a message to his company that the Rising was cancelled and to return to Dublin. Seán McLoughlin went home with bombs, revolvers and a rifle on the back of his bicycle4.
On Easter Monday, Heuston was assigned command at the Mendicity Institution (now called Heuston’s Fort) which was an institution for the homeless in Dublin. Twelve Volunteers occupied the building. The staff and inmates were evacuated at gunpoint while the building was put in a state of defence. Located about half a mile to the west of the Four Courts, this large stone building was situated on Ushers Quay along the river Liffey. Heuston’s orders were to control the route between the Royal Barracks (later Collins Barracks and now the National Museum) and the Four Courts in order to give Commandant Daly and the remainder of the 1st garrison time to establish their defences. It was envisaged that this would only take a few hours and that Heuston could then withdraw from the post.
On the first day a small party of unarmed troops passed by and the second column came under attack from the Volunteers. There were over 200 men in the column. The Volunteers were in the process of putting out a Tri-colour when the officer drew his sword pointing at it. This officer was immediately shot dead5.
He and his men went on to hold the position for over 2 days. He sent McLoughlin to get supplies. “I collected the bombs, entered this public house, laid the bombs on the counter and asked the assistant for a quantity of sugar, condensed milk end biscuits and put down on the counter. I was very excited and so was the boy who served me. He made up a parcel containing these materials and handed it to me 6.”
Heuston was concerned about his family and he feared a raid on his house where his mother and aunt were on their own with a number of documents and ammunition. McLoughlin called to Heuson’s home, collected the ammunition and destroyed the documents. He then went onto the GPO to inform Connolly of Heuston’s position. Both Connolly and Pearse were astonished that they still held the position for so long. Richard Balfe recalled, “The couriers returned the next day and brought a message from Connolly congratulating us on the stand we were making and that everyone in the G.P.O. thought we would have been wiped out by that time7”.They provided reinforcements which brought the Volunteer numbers up to twenty-six. The British forces realised the position at Mendicity posed a serious threat to the army’s plans to retake the city and had to be neutralised. The troops advanced on the building. On the Wednesday two of the Volunteers, Willie Staines and Richard Balfe were wounded by a bomb. According to Balfe, Heuston bandaged Staines who was wounded in the head. Balfe had completely lost the use of his arms and legs though remained conscious.
Heuston was forced to surrender to save the lives of his men after the building came under heavy machine-gun fire. Twenty-six men had fought three or four hundred British troops and had run out of food and almost all of their ammunition. Volunteer casualties were small compared to over one hundred British casualties. There was considerable anger among the British troops when they saw the size of the force that had fought against them and they treated their prisoners roughly on their way to prison in Arbour Hill. Every man in the Mendicity Garrison was tried by Military Court and sentenced to death, commuted to penal servitude, with the exception of Seán Heuston
Heuston was transferred to Richmond Barracks and was tried by court-martial on the 4th May and sentenced to death. He was then brought to Kilmainham Gaol. Before his death he sent a letter to his colleagues at work thanking them for their kindness over the years and asking them to pray for his soul. “Whatever I have done, I have done as a soldier of Ireland in what I believed to be my country’s best interests. I have, thank God no vain regrets. After all, it is better to be a corpse then a coward8.” He was executed on the 8th May and was the youngest of those executed. He was unmarried but survived by his mother, his brother Michael, his sister Mary a Dominican nun and his sister Teresa.
Sources:
Go to Thomas Kent
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