Colm O’Brennan (b. 1939)

Track 1: Colm O’Brennan explains that his grandfather, John O’Brennan, served as an RIC officer in Westmeath and Offaly, and he also discusses the O’Brennan family background. Track 2: Contains a description of the room located over a Tullamore retail outlet, where Sinn Féin members would meet. Séamus went to Dublin where he took part in the Rising in the GPO, under the command of P. H. Pearse. Colm describes his uncle Séamus’s arrest and imprisonment in England after the Rising, and his leading role in later years in the formation of Fianna Fáil. Alo O’Brennan, Colm’s father, who was arrested in Tullamore after the Rising and imprisoned in England, is also recalled, as is Colm’s uncle Frank, who was later interned in Ballykinlar in Co. Down. Track 3: The real force behind the republican idealism in the O’Brennan family came from Colm O’Brennan’s paternal grandmother, he explains. Track 4: The staunch republicanism of the three O’Brennan brothers, which remained undimmed through the years, is explored. Séamus O’Brennan’s funeral, attended by Éamon de Valera and Richard Mulcahy, is also recalled. Track 5: The bias towards the Free State shown by Colm O’Brennan’s educators, and the political divisions within the community which he observed in his early years are recalled. Anecdotes are told to illustrate this divide in Tullamore. The State pension, and its abuse by some individuals, is also discussed.