Easter Rising executions remembered at Kilmainham Gaol

The only surviving child of an executed leader of the Easter Rising has been honoured at a commemoration service in Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin.

Fr Joseph Mallin (102) is a Jesuit priest in Hong Kong.

His father, Commandant Michael Mallin, who was chief of staff of the Irish Citizen Army, was executed at the jail on May 8th, 1916, along with Con Colbert, Proclamation signatory Éamonn Ceannt and Sean Heuston.

The service on Sunday commemorated the three men.

Minister of State Paul Kehoe laid a wreath on behalf of the Government in Stonebreakers' Yard in the jail.

He recalled how Mallin worried that he would leave his wife Agnes and his four children, including Joseph, destitute after his death in the aftermath of the Rising.

Agnes was pregnant at the time with a fifth child.

Mr Kehoe recalled how Mallin had said after the Rising that he had been satisfied to “have done my duty to my beloved Ireland”.

Brother Paul Murphy, of the Capuchin Friars, recounted Mallin’s last words to his wife before his death: “This is the end of all things earthly.”

A large contingent from the Mallin family were present in Kilmainham Gaol for the ceremony.

Wreath laying

A wreath was laid on behalf of the family by Mallin’s granddaughter Úna Bean Uí Challanáin.

A nephew of Con Colbert, also named Con Colbert, laid a wreath at the service, as did Mairin Fionnuala O’Connor, a grandniece of Éamonn Ceannt.

A service for Thomas Kent, who was the only Rising rebel to be executed in Ireland outside Dublin, will take place in Cork on Monday.

The final two 1916 execution commemorations will take place on May 12th and will remember Séan MacDiarmada and James Connolly.