Last surviving child of executed 1916 leaders dies aged 104
THE final direct family link to the 16 leaders executed after the 1916 Easter Rising has ended with the death of Fr Joseph Mallin.
Family members confirmed that the Jesuit priest, who lived in Hong Kong for many years, died early on Easter Sunday morning at the age of 104.
News of the death reached Dublin just as crowds gathered for the 102nd commemoration of the rising at the GPO.
Fr Mallin was the son of Michael Mallin, second-in-command in James Connolly’s Irish Citizen Army, who was in charge of the rebels’ contingent in St Stephen’s Green.
He was shot by British troops on May 8, 1916, as were 13 of the other rebellion leaders at Kilmainham Jail.
Fr Mallin was just over two years old when his mother brought him to say farewell to his father before the execution.
He recalled that in a letter to his mother, his father had advised young Joseph to become a priest if he could.
Joseph Mallin was extremely protective of his father’s memory and always spoke with pride of his patriotism and courage.
When details of the court martial were published for the centenary in 2016, he took issue with the recorded version of his father’s trial.
Fr Mallin utterly rejected the court record, which suggested that Michael Mallin had tried to portray himself as of lower rank in an effort to avoid execution and which also put Countess Markievicz at greater risk of facing the firing squad.
He said this was a falsehood, probably contrived to increase pressure on the authorities to also execute Countess Markievicz and overcome squeamishness at shooting a woman.
Dubliner Michael Mallin was a silk weaver by trade and a founder of the Irish Socialist Party. He had served in the British army in his younger days.
Fr Mallin was the second youngest of five children and lived most of his life in Hong Kong.