SÉAMAS Ó MAOILEOIN

Séamas Ó Maoileoin
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I thought I came across Séamas for the first time in Lyn Ebenezer's book on Frongoch and I included the story of the translation of Séamas's letters in my post on the camp. I have reproduced that extract below.

For example, letters were censored both on the way in and on the way out. However, correspondence in the Irish language posed an additional problem for the authorities as it had first to be translated.

Séamus Ó Maoileoin was getting letters in Irish from his very republican mother. The relevant officer did not know of the mother's leanings and assumed "She is probably urging you to obediently beg for forgiveness for your crimes and to promise to be true to your King from now on and to return to Ireland". Ó Maoileoin comments "He didn't know my dear mother. He was loath to keep my mother's letter from me. He himself had a mother. But rules were rules and he had no translator."

Ó Maoileoin jokingly volunteered to translate the letter himself. To his surprise, the officer agreed, and Ó Maoileoin translated it honestly. Every time he came across a doubtful sentence he pointed it out and the officer would then snip the offending phrase off with a pair of scissors. He ended up with a pocketful of snippets. This was to happen to every subsequent letter Ó Maoileaoin received or sent, and on his release, the officer returned to him all the snippets he had removed. On the envelope containing the offending snippets he had written, "Clippings from the letters of a she-wolf".

I thought it a wonderful story.

Now I have a Moylan loosely connected to my family and I recently met a descendant and relations of Michael Mallin who was executed in 1916. I began to wonder if Séamas of the letters was related to either of these.

So I went to DIB na Gaeilge, ainm.ie, to check him out. He's not.

But some other interesting connections turned up. My Séamas was the father of Brighid who was married to Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh who, with his wife, ran the Irish language publishers Sáirséal agus Dill, which publishers published some of my school books, including Albert Folens's Nuachúrsa Fraincíse. I met Brighid once.

What's more, Séamas's wife Bríd Bhreathnach was the daughter of Hubert Breathnach from Rosmuc, just around the corner from Turlough in Connemara where my own great-grandmother hails from. Hubert taught there until he fell out with the Parish Priest.

I never met Máirtín Ó Cadhain, but I did hear him once, at a protest meeting in Abbey Street, offer a disgusting version of Brian Lenihan Senior's name in Irish. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. Máirtín gave the oration at Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh's grave and Seán's son Cian gave the oration at Máirtín's grave.

But there's more. Séamas wrote an autobiography in Irish, B'fhiú an Braon Fola (The Drop of Blood was well shed), That's where he recounts the original story of the letters and I came across a copy in the house. It was published by none other than Sáirséal agus Dill and that's where I nicked Séamas's photo above.

You can read Séamas's original Irish version of the letters story below.

Leagan Gaeilge
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What a small interconnected world we live in.