Seán O'Hegarty (21 March 1881 – 31 May 1963) was a prominent member of the Irish Republican Army in County Cork during the Irish War of Independence. He served as O/C of the Cork No. 1 Brigade of the IRA after the deaths of Tomás Mac Curtain and Terence MacSwiney. Biography Early life Born in Cork on 21 March 1881, O'Hegarty came from a family with strong nationalist roots. His parents were John, a plasterer and stucco worker and Katherine (née Hallahan) Hegarty. His elder brother was Patrick Sarsfield O'Hegarty, the writer. His parents' families emigrated to the United States after the Great famine, and his parents married in Boston. His father was a member of the IRB. In 1888 his father died of tuberculosis, aged 42, and his mother had to work to support the family. Entering Irish Nationalism O'Hegarty was educated at the CBS North Monastery school in Cork. By 1902, he had left school to work as a sorter in the local post office, rising to post office clerk. He was a supporter of the Irish language, music, and Gaelic games. A committed sportsman, in his twenties he was captain of the Post Office HQ's hurling team. He followed his brother Patrick (P. S. O'Hegarty) into the Gaelic League and eventually the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He was a member of the Celtic Literary Society by 1905 and founded the Growney branch of the Gaelic League in 1907. A puritanical character by nature, he was a non-smoker and never drank. O'Hegarty was a founder of the local branch of the Irish Volunteers in Cork in December 1913. In June of the following year he was appointed to the Cork section of the Volunteer Executive, and then to the Military Council. In October the Dublin government discovered his illegal activities, so he was dismissed. Excluded from Cork under the DORA regulations, he moved to Ballingeary, where he worked as a labourer. From there he moved to Enniscorthy, County Wexford, where he lived with Larry de Lacy. On 24 February 1915, he was arrested and tried under the Defence of the Realm Act for putting up seditious posters. But for this and a second charge of 'possession of explosives' he was discharged. The explosives belonged to de Lacy. The Volunteers appointed O'Hegarty as Commandant of Ballingeary and Bandon. During the Easter Rising O'Hegarty was stationed in