User:Milliebrennan/sandbox

Early Life and Family
Seán Patrick Cromien was born in Dublin on October 20th 1929. He had two sisters, Marie Therese (who passed away at the age of two) and Aileen, and one brother named Thomas.

Cromien came from a prominent republican family. His mother, Margaret Morris, was a member of the Irish women’s republican paramilitary group Cumann na mBan. His uncle on his father's side, John Cromien, was a member of the Irish Volunteers. John and Margaret had been in a romantic relationship in their youth. John was killed in the 1916 Easter Rising by a stray bullet that hit him as he walked down Prussia Street on his way to meet with his Irish Volunteer Company. Eleven years later, Margaret Morris married John’s elder brother Thomas. The pair would go on to become Cromien’s parents.

Cromien’s upbringing was described as a “modest beginning” by Fr. Liam Ó Cuív at his funeral mass in 2018. He grew up in Fingal Place in Stoneybatter, located on the north side of Dublin’s inner city. At that time, Stoneybatter was predominantly a working-class neighbourhood. Cromien's father worked as a cooper in Jameson’s Distillery in Smithfield and had to retire early due to illness. He had hoped that Cromien would one day follow in his footsteps and also take up the profession.

However, Cromien’s academic talents steered him down an alternative career path. He attended Saint Paul's Christian Brothers School on North Brunswick Street, where he stood out as a star student. He first sat his Leaving Certificate exams in 1946 and qualified for a university scholarship. As he was not yet seventeen, he was considered too young to attend university. He sat the Leaving Certificate again the following year, this time obtaining a Corporate scholarship. He subsequently attended University College Dublin, graduating in 1950 with a first-class honours degree in economics.