Rachel Fountain

 

At 7am on Thursday 27th, the small body of John Francis Foster aged 2 years and 10 months, was the first victim of the 1916 Rising to be buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.  By his side was a single mourner, his grandfather, who watched as the child was laid to rest in the family plot.  His mother Catherine ‘Kate’ Foster was not permitted to attend her son’s burial, as martial law had been declared on the city.  This was the second tragedy for a grieving Kate, whose husband John from Ballymore Eustace, Co. Kildare had been killed on the Western front only a few months previously.  Witnessing the shooting of her son left an eternal impression on Kate, who, for the rest of her life, kept a treasured memento with a photograph of young John on one side and her husband John on the other. 

Kate Foster died on 6th February 1964.