Between 1959 and 1966, he was Taoiseach, and responsible for the opening of Ireland to industrial development and the European Union. In January 1916, he accidentally shot his baby brother Herbert in the family home in Capel Street with a revolver connected to his membership of the Volunteers. His brother Noel, who fought with him in the GPO and on the ant-Treaty side in the Civil War, was killed in 1923, after the Civil War had ended, for reasons that are still murky.

In 1934, the then new Fianna Fáil government introduced military service pensions for those who had fought between 1916 and 1923. The process of applying for them was complicated, with detailed form-filling and long descriptive accounts of service. Lemass applied in 1941, when he was Minister for Industry and Commerce. His original application, including his own account of his service, is available online, as part of the Military Archives' Pensions Collection: click here or here.

He was awarded an annual pension of £99-16-5, a very substantial amount at the time.

How do we confirm that this is the right couple? Good evidence would be to find a John aged 9, the son of Thomas and Ellen in the 1911 census. There are six Johns around the right age in Dublin in 1911. Only one has parents Thomas and Ellen. His family is one of eight living in a tenement in Lower Gardiner Street. This is certainly the right family.

The 1911 return tells us a great deal about the family. John's father, Thomas, was born in Kerry. His mother Ellen was born in India. His younger sister Jane was born in Patricroft, Manchester in 1904/05 and his younger brother Michael was born in Liverpool in 1907/08. Clearly the family were moving around, almost certainly so that Thomas could find work. He was a "General Labourer", and so undoubtedly poor.

Another sister, Mary, was born just a month after the census was taken.