A member of Westmeath Archaeological and Historical Society and a respected authority of all things military, Jason McKevitt is a qualified history teacher (F.E.) and a special education teacher working with LWETB. Aside from his teaching career, he is also a local historian in Mullingar.
What were you like as a child?
I was always into fitness and was a quiet child. I always liked going for walks or runs. My mother is Margaret and my father is Danny and was a four-times army champion boxer so I come from an army family. Granddad McKevitt was in the army, my father was in the army and my two younger brothers were too and I was in the army reserve.
I have five uncles who were in the army on my mother’s side. We were reared on Fairgreen most of our lives at Grand Parade, and that’s where we played  and the Army Barracks was our playground. We could go in on a Saturday morning with granddad or my father and would play with the trucks or jeeps.
I have four brothers and two sisters – Jessie is one and Tess, who writes poetry, the other.
At Jadotville, my granddad went out with the 36th Battalion and his unit landed under gun fire and served in the ‘Battle of the Tunnel’ in Congo. Sometimes people ask why I’m so big into history and I couldn’t be any other way, I’m steeped in it.
My great-grandfather, William McKevitt, was the elected representative for the United Irish League in 1900.
My mother maiden name was
Kavanagh and she was a homemaker.
