would make him unacceptable. It was not a serious issue, and O’Connell was recruited into the IRA. O’Connell’s concern is indicative of his intensity and of how careful Republicans were not to recognize the state. He was so intense that in prison he was referred to as “Mise ire,” or “I am Ireland.” Ó Brádaigh first met O’Connell on St. Stephen’s Day, 1956. Ó Brádaigh, as second in command of the Teeling Column, transferred some men to O’Connell, who was second in command of the Pearse Column. In Mountjoy, they developed a friendship that lasted until O’Connell’s death in 1991.
While in prison Ó Brádaigh was visited regularly by his family. For many families, it would be a disaster to have a son and brother arrested for his involvement in the killing of a police officer. The Ó Brádaighs, who knew that Ruairí was involved in the campaign, were not surprised that he ended up being arrested. It was a likely outcome of being an activist. As far as they were concerned, Scally was a regrettable casualty of war. They did not rejoice at the death but neither were they repulsed by it. The family knew well the risks of involvement in the IRA; Matt Brady had been shot by the RIC, the RUC’s predecessors. Seán Ó Brádaigh’s reaction to Ruairí’s arrest was to be annoyed with the Irish government-in trying to seal the border and in arresting IRA personnel, they were collaborating with the British government. For many people, Republican and Irish Nationalist, the killings of South and O’Hanlon put the killing of Scally into perspective; both “sides" were suffering in a military campaign. The huge funerals for South and O’Hanlon were a source of pride in the cause.
The family visited Ruairí whenever they could. His mother May traveled by train from Longford to Dublin. On occasion, she was joined by Ruairí’s sister, Mary, who had returned to Ireland in 1955 to study for an MA in English (focusing on John Millington Synge) at University College Dublin. There she had met James Delaney, who was also pursuing an MA. They had married and temporarily moved in with her mother. Under the 1937 Irish Constitution, as a married woman, Mary was ineligible for employment by the state; they were planning a family. Visiting Mountjoy was easiest for Sein, who had followed Mary and Ruairí on to University College Dublin and, like his siblings, was studying to become a teacher. Another regular visitor was Patsy O’Connor, a teacher at Roscommon Vocational School. Patsy, a graduate of University College Galway, had joined the staff in 1953, a year before Ruairí. Her degree was also in commerce; she taught bookkeeping, business methods, shorthand, and typing. They had much in common, including a love of books. She had attended an all-Irish secondary school, and although she was not fluent, she shared his interest in the language. As Patsy describes it, “We could talk about anything. And we still do.” Although they were not engaged, they had an understanding that they would be married. Patsy would take the bus from Roscommon to Longford and then ride to Dublin with May.
Assorted aunts, uncles, and cousins also visited, including his Uncle Eugene’s family, which was living in Dublin. The families were close, and the Ó BrPdaighs had often visited the Caffreys in Donegal. On one of these visits, when Ruairí was 10, he had worn a blazer with several pockets. The pockets fascinated his 2-year-old cousin Deirdre, who went through each one of them. Ruairí, a very serious youngster, told her mother that she should teach the child to not go through men’s pockets or else when she grew up she would go to jail. On her first visit to Mountjoy, Deirdre, now 16, bounced into the visitor’s box, looked at Ruairí, and asked, “Who went to jail?” It became a standing inside joke between the two of them.
Life and politics go on outside of prison. So do IRA campaigns. Republican prisoners follow external political events as closely as they can. Visits from family and friends are important sources of information. On occasion, IRA prisoners become central players in external political events; in late January 1957, Sein Mac Bride, TD, put forward a motion of no confidence in the government, primarily because of Costello’s actions against the IRA. The government fell and Costello called an election for March 5th.
Republicans are always interested in elections, even when they do not participate in them. March 1957 was great timing for participation. The campaign had made Northern Ireland an important issue in 26county politics. The deaths of O’Hanlon and South had generated enormous sympathy for the cause, and the movement had several promising candidates to offer the public, including Feargal O’Hanlon’s brother, Éighneachán. Others included Paddy Mulcahy, a city councilor in Limerick; John Joe McGirl, the highly respected Leitrim publican and a prisoner in Mountjoy; and Ruairí Ó Brádaigh. At the encouragement of the Ó Brádaigh family, Ruairí was selected as Sinn Ftin’s candidate at a Longford-Westmeath constituency convention. In Mountjoy, and with some hints from Tony Magan, he wrote his first election address. It was later adopted as Sinn Ftin’s general manifesto for the election. He pledged to work for the unity and independence of Ireland and to take a seat only in a 32-county All-Ireland Parliament.
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was an ideal candidate for a seat in LongfordWestmeath. Longford had a history of electing Republican prisoners; in 1917, Joe McGuinness won in South Longford. Ó Brádaigh’s campaign adopted McGuinness’s slogan: “Put him in to get him out.” Ballads were composed, including one that began, “In Bridewell court one Monday morning, In this land the State calls Free.” The Ó Brádaigh name was prominent throughout the constituency. Older people remembered Matt Brady, a county councilor from 1934 to 1942 and a member of the Mullingar Mental Hospital Committee. For thirty-six years, May Brady Twohig had been the secretary of the Longford Board of Health, certifying birth, death, and marriage records. Mary Delaney was Ruairí’s election agent, and May and Sein actively worked on the campaign.
Republican Longford rose to the occasion. People who for years had rejected any form of constitutional participation were mobilized. Sein F. Lynch’s mother-in-law, a staunch Republican, voted for Ó Brádaigh; it was the first time she had voted in a general election since the 1920s. The family’s efforts were not without their humorous side. Calling at a house one day, Sein asked the occupant if he would be willing to work for Ruairí’s campaign. The man replied, “Yes, of course I will work for your brother. I voted for Joe McGuinness in 1918 [to re-elect McGuinness], I voted for de Valera in 1932, and I voted for SeAn Mac Bride in 1948. And of course I will vote for your brother now.” In each case, he had voted for the most “Republican" candidate available. SeAn kept to himself the view that de Valera had gone on to arrest and execute Republicans and that Mac Bride had entered Leinster House.
Sinn FCin’s intervention was an incredible success. With a total of nineteen candidates, the Party won 65,000 first-preference votes and elected four candidates: Éighneachhn O’Hanlon in Monaghan; John Joe Rice, a Republican veteran of the 1920s, in South Kerry; John Joe McGirl in Sligo-Leitrim; and Ruairí Ó Brádaigh in Longford-Westmeath. McGirl topped the poll in Sligo-Leitrim. In Longford, SeAn Mac Eoin topped the poll, as usual. But Ruairí Ó Brádaigh finished second with more than 5,500 first-preference votes and was elected. In the complicated system of vote transfers and multiple seats in one constituency, Ó Brádaigh replaced a Fianna Fail incumbent. It was an amazing result for a party that endorsed a paramilitary campaign and rejected participation in Parliament.
The day after the count over 1,000 people attended a rally in Longford in support of their jailed abstentionist Teachta DAla. A band played marches and the town courthouse was decorated with Irish flags and a Sinn FCin banner. Thomas Higgins of Longford Sinn FCin read a letter from Ó Brádaigh to the crowd. He thanked his supporters for their work and then drew a parallel to the 1917 election: “Longford and Westmeath have matched their achievement of 40 years ago, and have written yet another page in the history of our struggle for unity and independence.” He also looked to the future, “If 1957 has been another 1917, then let us in God’s name look forward to another 1918, to the day in the near future, when the All-Ireland Parliament, pledged to legislate for the whole 32 Counties will be re-assembled.” Another speaker was Seán Ó Brádaigh, who stated, “We want to end the corruption, graft and hypocrisy that has been going on for the past 35 years.” The rally ended with the singing of “A Nation Once Again" and the national anthem.
From a revolutionary Republican point of view, the election was a watershed,
