Was the GPO in 1916 Looted?

CDfm

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

I have read that he got a full military pension in Canada. He basically got off.

That's what they say

Colthurst's mysterious release and sojourn in Canada
Through correspondence with John Wrafter, a Sligo man living on Vancouver Island in Canada, I have learned the following very interesting information. Collthurst ended his days in British Columbia living firstly Up-Island, then Sooke (14 miles away from Wrafter). With the IRA on his trail he left Sooke and spent the remainder of his days in Naramata, the Okanagan (B.C.). Jim Hume a columnist with a local newspaper, the Penticton Herald, wrote that he ‘got to know the old captain fairly well when I worked at the Herald. He never denied the executions, refused comment on half a dozen other alleged executions, and argued he was just doing his duty". In one conversation Colthurst told Hume that he was released in 1918 from Broadmoor Asylum under mysterious circumstances; that he lived in London but was tracked down by the I.R.A. following which he ‘was spirited’ with his wife and family to Terrace in Canada. When the I.R.A. tracked him down again he moved to Sooke and finally, after being followed once more, to the Okanagan.
Jim Hume continues: ‘In the late 1970s, in a smoky Irish pub in Dublin I met with an I.R.A. leader to talk about Bowen Colthurst. I was viewed with some suspicion until I produced a copy of Colthurst’s obituary. My unnamed contact lifted his glass and said “God bless Ireland, that’s good news.” I asked if there was any IRA record of Colthurst’s pursuit story or if it was built on [Colthursts] guilt and paranoia. The answer was cold: “We were looking for him. For how long I don’t know. We would have killed him had we found him”.

http://www.sligoheritage.com/archBowenColthurst.htm

I like the smoky pub in Dublin bit. I remember a college lecturer telling us that he worked for a bank in Canada.

R.Dub.Fusilier

i was at a talk about Colthurst in Pearse St. library a few weeks ago hosted by the RDF Association and i was worried that it was going to be a white wash of the incident but thankfully it wasnt.the speaker , james taylor, revealed that Colthurst had a record of murders and cruelty. in the Boer War he wrote home about how he used to go around town and kick anybody thay looked like a boer and when he later went on a expidetion to Tibet he had some other men from the Royal Irish Rifles with him and they slaughtered many natives. he had no compassion at all. the funny thing is he thought he was a patriotic Irishman.

HannaS.S. also had a brother that was an officer in the dublin fusiliers

R.Dub.Fusilier

i have attached the medal index card of H.S.S.s brother Eugene. he applied for his medals in 1929.

CDfm

The Colthursts are well known and were "burnt" out of West Cork and reprisals were not taken against the family.

HSS would have been very against reprisals.

One part of the family own Blarney Castle.

There is a huge amount of prominent protestants in West Cork who stayed after independence .

dave2pvd

CDfm wrote: »

The Colthursts ..............

One part of the family own Blarney Castle.

....and the adjacent mansion, estate and (iirc) a good portion of the village.

jonniebgood1

CDfm wrote: »

There is a huge amount of prominent protestants in West Cork who stayed after independence .

Was there not a large number who left?

R.Dub.Fusilier

CDfm wrote: »

The Colthursts are well known and were "burnt" out of West Cork and reprisals were not taken against the family.

HSS would have been very against reprisals.

One part of the family own Blarney Castle.

There is a huge amount of prominent protestants in West Cork who stayed after independence .

i think the whole family are known to be a bit touched. Colthurst had been in two wars and had his brother killed in early WW1 and it was well known in the military that he was suffering from "shellshock" as well as being a cold blooded killer.

unknown to the RDF Ass. the grandson of FSS was at the above mentioned talk and introduced him self at the Q&A at the end . and he said that the way Coldhurst had turned out after his exposure to the extremes of battle and war was the very reason that FSS was so against it.

CDfm

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

Was there not a large number who left?

Yes, but reprisals against the family were against property.