Ruairí Ó Brádaigh. Robert W. White

We have gone down fighting and, please God, we’ll come back fighting.”

      Although the election had not gone well, it did offer a poignant moment for the Ó Brádaigh family. In the fall of 1960, Patsy had become pregnant again. She continued teaching at Roscommon Vocational Technical School until the Christmas break and then moved to her parents’ house in Galway. Many parents would have been very concerned that their son-in-law, unemployed and harassed by the police, could not provide a home for their daughter and their future grandchild. Patsy’s family took the situation in stride. Her father was a tailor and her mother ran a guesthouse. Patsy helped her mother, and her parents “never made me feel I was in the way.” When their grandson was born on March 1 Oth, 1961, they welcomed him into the family. He was named Maitiu, the Irish form of Matthew, after Ruairí’s father. Ruairí was able to visit his wife and new son in the hospital only for a brief visit. He did manage to visit them occasionally in Galway, and they were able to visit his mother in Longford. In September 1961, in Longford during the election campaign, Ruairí, Patsy, Maitiu, and May Brady Twohig were in the town when they ran across Sein Mac Eoin, who also was a candidate. May called Mac Eoin over and introduced him to “Matt Brady.” Indeed, Ó Brádaigh encountered Mac Eoin at several points during the campaign, typically at “church gate" meetings after masses in various villages and towns. Mac Eoin was always respectful and never condemned him or the movement.