Thomas Ashe

Thomas Ashe was born in the townland of Kinard East, Lispole, County Kerry, Ireland, on 12 January 1885, according to his baptismal record and his sister Nora, or 15 March 1885, according to state birth records. He was the seventh child of Gregory Ashe, a farmer, and Ellen Hanifin, in a family of ten where both Irish and English were spoken. His father was a great Irish Scholar whose stories drew learners from elsewhere, and that house may have first given Thomas the certainty that language and identity were weapons as much as joys.