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
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