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Carlow County - Ireland Genealogical Projects (IGP TM)


Pat Purcell  Papers
Death of Noted Gael.
1962

By kind permission of Michael Purcell  12/2009


Tom Seeley

(1897 - 1962)

DEATH OF NOTED GAEL.

We know that readers will be just as sad as we were to learn of the death of Carlow's Tom Seeley. Everyone knew and respected the jovial hairdresser whose stocky figure will be missed wherever Gaels foregather.

For Carlow has never produced a more loyal supporter of Gaelic games and only a week ago when he visited us in the Nationalist office Tom recalled that he had never missed an important game.

Tom paused and in his laughing way added "I did miss a few, unfortunately" .He did, but it took prison bars to keep him away. Tom was an infant when he first came to Carlow from Dublin 64 years ago. His father the late Pat Seeley carried on business in the hairdressing salon now owned by his step-son Mr Alec Burns. Tom will never be forgotten as one of the founder members of the Carlow "Blues" (O' Hanrahans' Football Club). In the mid-twenties when the club was revived, Tom was in the forefront.

He was a member of a staunch Republican family, and his wife, Peg Seeley (nee Whelan) was cast in a like mould. She too, suffered imprisonment for the cause.

On All Souls Day 1920, Tom was arrested and spent periods in Mountyjoy, Wormwood Scrubbs and Exeter. He was released in January 1922 but his freedom was short lived. In September 1922 during the Civil War he was interned in the Curragh and released in December 1923. Tom was a former member of Carlow U.D.C. and a loyal Fianna Fail supporter, he was in his element on Sunday week when he watched the Carlow hurlers sweep on to victory. I talked with him as the happy crowds surged up Tullow Street to the Shamrock Square. He was the current President of O'Hanrahans, he was long associated with the Gaelic League and with Carlow Feiseanna. He was a founder member of the Dr Cullen Park Committee and for almost 50 years was a member of Carlow C.Y.M.S.

Tom was a fearless and unbending member of the Old I.R.A. He was Capt. of A Company, Carlow Brigade. Apart from his service to his country's cause he was a sportsman of a wonderful type, whose passing is sincerely regretted.

Chief mourners: Mrs Margaret Seeley; son Odran; daughter Fionna; step-brothers Mr Alec Burns, and Mr Chris Burns, Old Leighlin; step-sisters Mrs Daisy McCormac, Tinryland and Mrs Mary O' Keeffe, Birmingham. Sisters-in-law, Mrs Pethers, Grange Cottage; Mrs Hynes, Borrisoleigh; Mrs Dunne, Greenmount Ave. Terenure; Mrs Furlong, Rathnapish. brother-in-law, Jimmy and Tommy Whelan, Grange Cottage, Carlow; son-in-law William Hacegawa. The funeral takes place today, Thursday at 2pm to St. Mary's Cemetery, Carlow.

From Registers of Carlow Cathedral:

Thomas Seeley (Parents, Patrick Seeley and Margaret Allen)  married Margaret Whelan (Parents, James Whelan and Brigid Kehoe) in 1927.

Thomas Seeley, died 18th September 1962, aged 65. his wife Margaret Seeley, died 21st October 1966.

Transcribed from the Nationalist by Mary Corcoran, November 2009. from Pat Purcell Papers


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