After mobilising with the 5th Dublin Battalion of the Irish Volunteers in north Dublin on Easter Monday, 1916, Joseph Norton was sent to the GPO, from where he was subsequently despatched to the Mendicity Institute. Seán Heuston, who commanded the rebels at the Institute, surrendered the post on Wednesday after coming under heavy fire from British forces. Norton was sentenced to death on 6th May, but this was commuted to three years penal servitude and he was interned in Knutsford Jail and Lewes Prison until June 1917. His health had deteriorated considerably during this period and he died of pneumonia a few months after his release.
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