 He went to work as a railway engineer in Ireland, then moved to Canada, where he was an engineer in the Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian Northern Railway, being responsible for the construction of of railroad.He returned to Ireland in 1915 at Joseph Plunkett's request and worked for Dublin Corporation as a civil engineer.He joined the ultra-Catholic nationalist organisation the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and served in the Easter Rising in 1916 in the GPO as an intelligence officer.