Spiritaner
He grew up bilingual, speaking mostly in Irish at home, but in English at school. He was initially educated in the parent's school in Kilmakerrin but subsequently went to St Brendan's College, Killarney and then, at the age of 14 in about September 1903, to the Holy Ghost Fathers School at Rockwell College College, County Tipperary. In 1907, he finished for one year with the Holy Ghost Fathers in Blackrock College, Dublin. He had planned to study medicine, but in 1907, when he was 18 years old his father died and he did not have the money to pursue this career path.