We learned about the Penal Laws, the systematic ruining of Irish trade, and the elimination of our native language.

By the time we had passed from his class, we were no longer content to grow up 'happy English children' as envisaged by the Board of Education".

[4] During these years he became an active member of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation and was unanimously elected its president in 1920, and again in 1932.

In 1922 he played an important part in preparing the way for the introduction of Irish as a compulsory subject in national schools.

He later married Bríd Prendergast, a school principal, and lived most of his life in Clontarf Road, Dublin, until his death on 29 May 1956.