Thomas Traynor : Short Biography

Thomas Traynor was born in the civil parish of Tullow, County Carlow, on the 27th of May 1882. 

Traynor was a soldier, best known for his involvement in the 1916 Easter Rising when he was a member of the Boland's Mill Garrison. Prior to his involvement in Republican activity he was employed as a cobbler. He and his wife Lizzie Davis had 10 children together. The couple were married in secret as Lizzie's parents objected to her marrying a Catholic as she was of the Protestant faith. 

On the morning of Easter Monday, 1916, Traynor dressed in his uniform and told his family that he was 'expecting a bit of trouble, but don't worry'. They did not see him again for five months and had no way of knowing whether he was dead or alive.

Traynor was imprisoned for his actions during the Rising. He was interred in Frongoch jail in Wales. After an amnesty granted his release in 1917, Traynor returned to his trade as a cobbler in Dublin. 

On the 14th of March 1921, Traynor was part of a group of men keeping guard on a meeting which was taking place in a house on Dublin's Great Brunswick Street. A gun fight broke out and Traynor was once again captured. This time there would be no amnesty to secure his release. He was imprisoned in Mountjoy Prison and hanged. 

Traynor was one of the 'forgotten 10'. In 2001, he and the other 9 hanged men were exhumed and reinterred in Glasnevin Cemetery with a full state funeral.