Author and historian Adhamhnán Ó Súilleabháin visited our school recently.  He talked to the 5th and 6th classes and gave a really interesting presentation about his grandfather – Domhnall ua Buachalla who was born in 1866.  He has written a book about Domhnall ua Buachalla, who was also a good friend of Pádraig Pearse and loved the Irish language.

We learned about his role in the 1916 Rising and that he was a member of the Irish Volunteers. He lived in Maynooth and on the morning of the Rising he walked 26 miles along the canal with 15 other Volunteers. . Like many Rising survivors he was imprisoned in Frongoch and we saw the cup that he used whilst there.

Éamon de Valera asked Domhnall ua Buachalla to be ‘Governor – General’ of the Irish Free State in 1932, with a view to them collaborating in having the position abolished as soon as it was possible (1936). With that in mind, it was agreed that Domhnall would not reside in Áras an Uachtaráin as his predecessors had done, instead renting ‘Gorthleitreach’ in Monkstown.

Domhnall ua Buachalla died in 1963. He was 97 years.