Séamus Ó hEocha

Séamus Ó hEocha (16 December 1880 – 19 September 1959) nicknamed "An Fear Mór" (Irish for the Big Man, alluding to his stature), was an Irish educator and briefly an independent senator. He was active in the Gaelic League and became head teacher of Coláiste na Rinne in County Waterford.

Ó hEocha was born James Hough in Ballyshane, Monagea, south of Newcastlewest, County Limerick. He was one of six children of David Patrick Hough, a farmer, and his wife Honora, née Dowling. His mother tongue was English. After primary school he worked in Dublin and attended Irish classes in the Gaelic League with Brian O'Higgins. He considered emigrating to the United States where his relative P. H. McCarthy was an influential trade unionist. Instead he got a job teaching Irish for the League around County Kildare.

He married Mairéad Ní Dhruacháin and they had three children: Colm, later an academic and administrator; Aonghus; and Déirdre. He died in Bon Secours Hospital, Cork, and his funeral mass was celebrated by Daniel Cohalan, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, and attended by the President, Éamon de Valera, and other political and Irish-language figures.

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