Full Name: John George Mulcahy (Also known as Seán).
Address: 26 George’s Place, off Dorset Street.
Unit: D Coy, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade.
Born: 31 January 1901 at 62 Mary Street, Dublin city.
Parents: Denis (a Cabinet Maker) and Maria née Wheatley – both originally from Cork.
Siblings: Second eldest of five – sisters Sarah May, Eveleen, Margaret and younger brother Richard (no relation to the senior IRA officer).
Military Service: Fought as a Volunteer with D Coy, 2nd Battalion during the Tan War until his arrest at the Custom House. Held in Arbour Hill and interned in Kilmainham Gaol until 8 December 1921.
Sean took an interesting souvenir from the Gaol, the number plate off his cell door. It has been donated back to the Museum there.
He enlisted in the National Army on 3 April 1922 at Beggars Bush. Served as a Lieutenant in the Quartermaster General’s Department, Ordnance Corps. Recorded in the Army Census at Dundalk, with the Northern Division, Eastern Command. He was later promoted to Captain with the Transport Corps at Collins Barracks and left the military after the Civil War.
Personal Life: Seán worked as a Cabinet Maker like his father. He married a Hairdresser’s Daughter Elizabeth Curran, formerly Jones, a widow from 23 Grattan Parade, Drumcondra on 15 January 1925 in Glasnevin church. The couple raised children from both marriages in her house, then their new home in 57 Cabra Park, Phibsborough. They lost a little girl Carmel in 1927, a son Francis in 1949 and another married daughter, Maureen Culkin, in 1949. Seán became a widower in 1968. Almost exactly five years later, on 20 October 1973, he himself collapsed at his home at 70 Connaught Street, Phibsborough and died in Jervis Street Hospital. Aged 72, Custom House Man Seán Mulcahy was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery (plot NK264.5, St. Patrick’s section), survived by his sons and granddaughters.
Remarks: For many years Seán was a close neighbour in George’s Place of fellow Custom House man Paddy Evers (There was another unrelated Old IRA man of the same name from Tralee, Co. Kerry who was interned as anti-Treaty during the Civil War).
Known Relatives: None.
Des White
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