Fr Joseph Mallin SJ Fr Joseph Mallin SJ, the last surviving child of an executed 1916 Rising leader has died at the age of 104.
Fr Mallin, a Jesuit priest based in Hong Kong since 1948, died on Easter Sunday.
His father had been Comdt Michael Mallin who had led the Irish Citizens’ Army troops at St Stephen’s Green and the Royal College of Surgeons during Easter week 1916, and who was subsequently imprisoned and executed at Kilmainham Gaol.
The future Fr Mallin was just two-and-a-half years old when his mother brought him to Comdt Mallin’s cell ahead of the rebel leader’s execution on May 8, 1916.
In his last letter to his wife, Cmdt Mallin addressed his infant son, saying, “Joseph, my little man, be a priest if you can”, and also requested that his daughter Una become a nun, which she did.
Ultimately three of the five Mallin children entered religious life with Joseph and his older brother Seán becoming Jesuits. Una joined the Loreto order.