Any historical stories in your family?

StupidLikeAFox

When I was younger my grandad told me a story about "The Emergency" in Ireland. He told me how each house was given a gun and two bullets, and how the young men used to carry out some exercises/basic training around that time just in case. It was great to get a personal insight into the stuff that was happening around that time. I also had a great grandfather who fought in WW1 - died long before I was born but apparently he rarely talked about it what with the stigma involved and all that

So great people of AH, do you have any historical stories in your family? Did your granddad storm the beaches of normandy? Did your grandmother hide IRA men in her chimney? Did your uncle die in auchwitz (from falling out of his guard tower or otherwise)?

Ive no idea what my family were doing during 1916, the War of Independence, Civil War etc. But I love hearing stories of the ordinary people who were caught up in historical events

The Backwards Man

None of my relatives missed the Titanic in Cobb, one of the rare Irish families that can claim that.

Tawaret

My Da was on the train that crashed in the Buttevant Rail Disaster, the worst train crash in Irish history (1980) that was going from Dublin to Cork, 18 people killed in total. Didn't do his head any favors for years apparently.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

My family is full of hysterical stories but most are unable to write about them due to dyslexia.

DanMurphy

My G G Gran pappy on my mother's side invented a fizzy drink called 6 UP.
Never caught on though, and he went broke.

py2006

The flag used during 1916 at the GPO and used for the funerals of those hung was in our family for years and loaned out for funerals for years afterwards until one day it wasn't returned and was never seen again.

byhookorbycrook

My grandfather(on my mother's side) saved a ship's crew wrecked on the Waterford coast.

My grand-uncle on my father's side wrote the first maths text book written after 1916.

The flying mouse

My great grandfather was the first one in the family to collect the dole, it's a tradition we have kept going for years...

StupidLikeAFox

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

My grand-uncle on my father's side wrote the first maths text book written after 1916.

Question 1: Arthur has been living in Patricks backyard for 800 years. How many brave men are required to get rid of Arthur and restore this great and beautiful country to the people it belongs to?

FortySeven

One grandfather was in the navy during D-day in the channel. Took a bit of fire. My other Grandfather took the long way to France with Monty, North Africa, Italy and eventually France.

Another ancestor had something to do with designing or making the liberty bell in America but it has a big crack in it so we don't talk about that.

cbyrd

My dad's uncle was a runner for the IRB , he was about 14 I think, anyway, he was put out of bed one night by higher ups given a rifle and told he had to go to this guy's house about 15 miles outside town and get him into town by any means necessary and shoot him if he refused.
He did as he was told, but the other guy told him to fcuk off and legged it up the fields. Dad's uncle let a shot out of the rifle (probably to the stars cos he'd never held a gun before )
Years later my Dad started dating my Mam and when my Granada found out who she was dating he went nuts.. My Granada was the one my dad's uncle shot at :O
They managed to laugh about it though.. Years later...

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

The house where my granny now lives (belonging to my great grandparents at the time) was commandeered by the black and tans, apparently one of them accidentally shot another one in the shed. There's a photo of them posing outside it. It's a big house and had a clear view of the whole main street, so it was a good spot for them. Actually it's right across the street from the pub too...

StupidLikeAFox

cbyrd wrote: »

My dad's uncle was a runner for the IRB , he was about 14 I think, anyway, he was put out of bed one night by higher ups given a rifle and told he had to go to this guy's house about 15 miles outside town and get him into town by any means necessary and shoot him if he refused.
He did as he was told, but the other guy told him to fcuk off and legged it up the fields. Dad's uncle let a shot out of the rifle (probably to the stars cos he'd never held a gun before )
Years later my Dad started dating my Mam and when my Granada found out who she was dating he went nuts.. My Granada was the one my dad's uncle shot at :O
They managed to laugh about it though.. Years later...

Thats really interesting. What was you're grandads invovlement? Why was he being called into town?

PARlance

My great grandfather spotted Mary when she paid a visit to Knock.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

My dads grandparents house was a safe house for the ira

bottlebrush

During the War of Independence the IRA men hid in a pit in one of my grandfather's fields as the Black and Tans drove up and down on patrol. My grandfather was ploughing the field at the time and hoped the horses wouldn't start acting up as they approached the pit and give the lads away...

Our house was searched by the Gardai looking for kidnapped Dutch Industrialist Tiede Herrema in 1976.......but then again all the houses in the area were as well. He was eventually found not too far away in Monasterevin.

arybvtcw0eolkf

My great grandfather on my fathers side fought on the Somme, and my great grandfather on my mothers was a medical orderly in France & Belgium.

I served in a United Nations battalion which was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. We weren't individually awarded a special medal for it, but anyone who has served overseas since has been awarded both the mission medal and the 'Peace Keepers' medal (a bit silly really).

I think that's about it. I don't recall anything special from my parents, uncles, aunts etc.

Oh, I have a photo of my great grandfather in uniform ~ I love it and often thing that he'd have never known that he'd have a great grandson who followed him into military service.. I also gave him a lot of thought this week (being the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the battle of the Somme).

Lady is a tramp

My great-great (not sure how many great-s) grand uncle was Fr John Murphy, one of the leaders of the 1798 rebellion in Wexford.

bodice ripper

My great uncle was grand marshal of the nyc Patrick's day parade in '68.

We are a small family with little going on.

My Great-Grandad was Patrick McGrath. A 1916 veteran, sided with the Anti-Treaty. In 1940 the Gardaí raided an IRA training camp, which he was in, they had a shoot-out killing 2 Gardaí. He was then executed in Mountjoy by the Free State.

Aineoil

ce
1923
Mar-05
In a fight on the Garrane Mountains between a 36-man strong Anti-Treaty column and Pro-Treaty troops, one Anti-Treaty engineer (Dan Clifford) was killed and 5 or 6 Pro-Treaty men.Six Anti-Treaty men were captured and badly treated. Macardle (1998), pgs 28-29

Up above is the historical reference.

My granduncle (on my father's side) was killed during the civil war in Ireland on March 5th 1923 aged 23. He was one of the pro treaty men that died in that fight.

Now this is the unhistorical part, just a story from my father who's now in his 80's.

One of the pro treaty survivors was going out with my granduncles's sister at the time. He orchestrated a very brutal reprisal after the death of my granduncle. Vicious times.

Rubberlegs

My Grandad and one of his brothers were in the Old IRA. Other than being shown by my Dad the spot on the road in
Co Wexford where they were involved in an ambush on the Black and Tans, I don't have any stories. Another Boards member directed me to the military archives, and I was able to look them up and see what Company they were members of, and other attacks they were involved in. My grandparent's house was a safe house after The Treaty. I really wish I had more stories, but all had passed away before I was old enough to have an interest.
Other than that , there was a mini series in 1983 called Caught in a Free State, about German spies in Ireland. The spy who the programme was based on was interviewed by Gay Byrne on The Late Show. He told of how he mistakenly landed , by parachute I think, in Co Wexford. He had to ask a postman where he was. My now very elderly ex postman Grandad saw the interview , and remembered coming across a very confused foreign man who wanted to know where he was, while out on his round one day. He had never forgotten this. He was too cranky at this stage to get onto Gay Byrne to tell him this.
The other side of my family are English, and my aunt always remembered running terrified during The Blitz as a German plane flew overheard so low that she could see the pilot laughing at her. Another relative was blown out of their boots in a bomb blast in one of the World Wars.

endacl

All my family's stories are historical. That's how a linear perception of time works.

failinis

My great grandfather was one of the heads of the IRB in Derry at the time and "head" of munition in the North.

We found some police/army and personal records about him so are combing through it all to leave it with the museum as they are asking for family histories.

One thing was him giving out coal blackened string to the children to tie across streets to trip up the brits at curfew - when they stopped falling for that he gave out crow bars to pull up man holes and apparently a few did fall!

Another was his mates apparently left a "man", aka a broom with a coat and hat down near the bog, and after curfew the police shouted at the guy to name himself and kneel down, when he refused they shot the dummy, but apparently were too scared to investigate until dawn!

He smuggled in munitions under the name of a local protestant iron factory, and they were intercepted by his friends.
One very funny story we found was one of his friends had one parcel of fags, and one parcel of explosives.
He left the fags in the waterside police/army barracks, and the explosives in his hand. Or so he thought.
He opened his box - found fags and nearly shat himself. He decided to chance it and run back and just say "oh mixed up the parcels" and got away with it! He said in the testimonial that he was stopped by a friend walking back as he was white and shaking like he seen a ghost.

My grandfather buried most of the weapons under his shed, and also scattered around the area. He held one night a meeting of the local IRB men in the "shed" - main meeting place it seems. He said they were in after curfew time, and then 2 police/army came up to the shed, leant against it and smoked some fags and then walked off. Little did they know they had at least 20 rifles pointed at them the whole time.

Another time a guy was coming with the parcel of bullets/explosives but was chased away by my great grandfather saying "get away out of that what the fúck are you looking around my pigs for you wee ****e!" - apparently a police man was sitting on top of the large box having a smoke/rest. The box that contained bullets.

Before the easter rising he filled his cart up with munitions and covered that with animal feed I think, and drove the cart to about, maybe it was Omagh? Then another person took over and it got its way to Dublin just in time for the rising.

One night the police/army shot dead 2 people in Derry close to my great grandfather, and burnt down the butchers shop/home (related to the IRB stuff too)
But they only burnt down his shed because no one had firm evidence on him.
However his shed had his horse, harness, cart, pigs, chickens, motorbike, ford car and other valuable things. The testimonials said neighbours could hear the animals screaming and smell them being cooked alive but it was after curfew and for some "bizarre" reasons the fire brigade never did make it to that fire.

He had instructions and locations of where to send this batch of bullets to hide in Donegal and where these for Tyrone and all that. Maybe some are still there.

Another funny thing was another testimonial given by someone who knew him was about how many "spies" the police/army had on him, trying to get people to snitch but they all failed. He seemed to know who was a rat.

He has a medal and uniform, in attic of a relation, and as I said we are still reading about events that happened and compiling it.

EDIT- here is one photo of him in old age in attachment.

I forgot to say, my maternal granny lived on border and was apparently she was one of those people out on bikes with either eggs and food for the lads or messages/weapons. She died when I was a baby but my mum told me stories about it, like her finding it awful to cycle in dark with no bicycle light at all, or hiding in a lay by/ditch and finding nettles there!

Same granny - they lived in the bog and my aunt was dating a British soldier. :pac:
I seen some photos recently, him in the kitchen, covered with mud. Apparently he would cover his face with muck and come down the field on his stomach to the back door, do a secret knock and be let in.
Granny would bake scones and he would bring them back to his mates and base! The aunt moved away to England to him in the end, never knew any of them. Apparently he was "grand" so long as no one seen it happening, be it the army or the ra :P

That granny seen a lot, I don't know the lads name, but apparently a wee teenager was shot by the army on the street, and she ran out and held him as he died, so he had someone there. My mother was young but remembers my granny coming back with blood on her. Very sad.
Another relation seen one of the guys getting shot on bloody sunday, not really historical but you know what I mean, witnesses to bad things.

90% sure a relation will recognise me from these on boards now!

I have a few more stories but its too late to be dragging them up.

For Forks Sake

The Backwards Man wrote: »

None of my relatives missed the Titanic in Cobb, one of the rare Irish families that can claim that.

In a similar vein, I must be the only person in the country who didn't have a relative in Thomond Park when Munster beat the All Blacks in 1978.

If all the stories told are true, the attendance on the day was somewhere in the region of 4.2million people.

RobertKK

During WW2 a German spy stayed on our farm, my father was talking to him and he was boasting about the German army, they gave him something to eat and he stayed outside for the night but was gone in the morning.

Our family castle was burned down by Cromwell and his men, ok that is not true but I do own land which has been in the family for a long long time that had a castle with a moat that was burned down by Cromwell.

Speedwell

During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, my father was one of the Budapest street kids who figured out how to stop Russian tanks by maneuvering dinner plates in front of them (they would stop, thinking it was a mine), plant Hungarian flags on top to make the tank look like it had been captured by the rebels, and make the other Russian tanks shoot at it. Later when the tank crews got wise to the trick, they'd open the hatch to knock off the flag, and the kids would take the opportunity to throw Molotov cocktails down the hatch. Dad was actually in college at the time, but he was one of the ringleaders and he said there were little kids as young as 8 or so helping them.

On my mother's side, her uncles were songwriters and one of them co-wrote a number one hit for Elvis Presley. (If you think that's not a story, you have never been a kid stuck having dinner with my grandmother and her brothers, lol).

PLL

Details of this are hazy as it is my oh's grandmother. She is Dutch and lived through the war, took Jews in and there is some stories that she walked a long way to get food (I think) for her family. Lovely lovely woman. Many times she has been asked to write about it all, she is 88 now. She doesn't like talking about it, but apprently there are lots of stories. Not something I would dig for more info about but would be fascinating to hear all the same. My daughter's are an 1/8 Dutch, which will be a lovely heritage for them to research.

Jimbob1977

Last year, my Dad told me a story about his uncle who died in World War One.

Teddy was working in a drapery shop in Dunmanway or Drimoleague in West Cork. The shop was owned by a Church of Ireland man.

One day, a British Army Major walked into the shop and told the owner to lay off all the Catholic employees.

My grand-uncle was now unemployed and struggling. His only option (the plan of the British Major) was to enlist in the British Army.

The details are sketchy, but he died in a trench in Flanders or The Somme.

His brothers served in the IRA during the War of Independence and then the Anti-Treaty side of the Civil War. When the Anti-Treaty forces lost, my grandfather was normalised as a member of An Garda Siochana.

I can't begin to understand the terror of the trenches. Suicide missions or mustard gas

arybvtcw0eolkf

This is a great thread ~ I hope its not spoilt by too many acting the sack in it.

Jawgap

My paternal great grandfather fought at First Mons, was wounded in one of the first artillery barrages fired by the Germans while fighting in the rearguard as the 'Old Contempibles' retreating under the German advance. He was eventually invalided out of the army 18 months later........

......his brother, my great grand uncle, fought in the Citizen Army in 1916 and they fell out and didn't talk for nearly 40 years (more to do with trade union and Labour Party politics than anything else apparently) until their younger sister fell ill and was dying.

My maternal grandfather was shot in a bank robbery.......he was not an innocent party

angeleyes

For Forks Sake wrote: »

In a similar vein, I must be the only person in the country who didn't have a relative in Thomond Park when Munster beat the All Blacks in 1978.

If all the stories told are true, the attendance on the day was somewhere in the region of 4.2million people.

My hubby was at the match in Thomond Park- he still has the program from it. He went with a few friends from school. There were only 12,000 people at the match and DH says 100,000 claim they were there. DH has memories of being dragged onto the pitch after the match. They went with the expectation of seeing Munster lose and seeing a great team such as the All Blacks. He has said that there was awful coverage on RTE as well which was disappointing.

twowheelsonly

bottlebrush wrote: »

Our house was searched by the Gardai looking for kidnapped Dutch Industrialist Tiede Herrema in 1976.......but then again all the houses in the area were as well. He was eventually found not too far away in Monasterevin.

Our house was searched as well (in Cork) and I still remember my mother asking the Garda to bring down some stuff from the attic while he was up there. I was 12 at the time and my mother told me they were searching everyones houses. None of my friends houses were done though !!!

PLL wrote: »

. Many times she has been asked to write about it all, she is 88 now. She doesn't like talking about it, but apparently there are lots of stories. Not something I would dig for more info about but would be fascinating to hear all the same. My daughter's are an 1/8 Dutch, which will be a lovely heritage for them to research.

Do it while you can - even just chat to her and record it. My biggest regret is not having the cop-on to do so when my grandmother was still alive. I still remember a lot of her stories but not as much as I'd like to.


My Grandmother was locked up in Kilmainham during the War of Independence and had some savage stories including being dragged down the stairs there by her hair and being kicked about - all of which is verified in various different publications. Her family was a Republican one and their house in Sandymount was considered a safe house. Apparently it was also used as a munitions store for a time as well in around the Rising but we don't have any verification or great details of that.
Her father (my great GF) apparently was a very well spoken, intelligent and elegant man. In earlier years he insisted on hanging two pictures of WW1 British Soldiers in the hallway of the house to the disgust of almost anyone that visited the house. However, between his demeanour and the photos, when the Brits came on a raid they were satisfied that it was a 'Tommy' house and left him alone thereafter. The two unknown soldiers, his 'dear brother and nephew' did their job !!!

Summer wind

My grandad was in the old IRA. He sent and received lots of letters from Eamon De Valera. When the Black and Tans were around they'd a curfew on our town and anyone seen out after midnight would be shot on sight. My great grandmother died and my grandad and his family had to put sacks on the horses hooves and take her body to the graveyard and bury her in darkness. If they'd been caught the Black and Tans would've shot them. When my grandad died the IRA wanted to come to his funeral and fire shots over his grave but my nana wouldn't let them.

On the other side of my family two of my great grandmothers sisters were on the titanic and were rescued in lifeboats. My great grandmother was about 7 months pregnant and when she heard about the titanic sinking she went into premature labour and gave birth to a little boy. They didn't find out for a long time after that her two sisters had been saved. They settled in America and both had families there.

On both sides of my family there were soldiers that fought in both world wars and came home with medals. The medals were always in the houses displayed in big frames with timber surrounds.

Jimbob1977

Jimbob1977 wrote: »

Last year, my Dad told me a story about his uncle who died in World War One.

Teddy was working in a drapery shop in Dunmanway or Drimoleague in West Cork. The shop was owned by a Church of Ireland man.

One day, a British Army Major walked into the shop and told the owner to lay off all the Catholic employees.

My grand-uncle was now unemployed and struggling. His only option (the plan of the British Major) was to enlist in the British Army.

The details are sketchy, but he died in a trench in Flanders or The Somme.

Sounds like a very interesting story.

You should research him, if you have his name/ the time

This is an database of all the Irish-regimented soldiers that were killed in WW1
http://imr.inflandersfields.be/search.html

Use the online census for 1901/1911 to help find his name via your grandparents census return, if you don't already know his name. It's available online for free, too

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

So many interesting stories out there waiting to be found. There is a huge amount of information available online, free.

If you find your grand uncle's details via that first link, you should be able to find the location of his grave, and a picture of his gravestone easily enough.

My grandfather was born in 1895 and his great, great grandfather was hanged in spring 1799 for leading the United Irishmen in his area. His defending barrister was the notorious Leonard MacNally - talk about bad luck.

My grandfather's uncle was a senior Fenian in the US, who took part in the 1867 invasion of Canada and became well-known in Irish-American politics (I came across a long obituary on him in the NYT some years back)

My uncle, who received the family farm off my grandfather, told me that my grandfather got the farm in the 1930s from the Land Commission after they divided up the local ascendancy estate. That I knew. What I didn't know was "they said they were giving him it because our people were thrown out of this land by Cromwell". So I went into the local library and checked the Books of Survey and Distribution from the 1650s. There in black and white listed in possession of the same land in 1641 on the eve of the Rebellion was a man with the exact same first and last name as my grandfather and we've lived there for many, many centuries. It could be a coincidence but it was interesting to see the continuity.

Grayson

My Granddad was in 1916, he was in the IRA under Collins and was one of the first 21 officers in the Free State Army. He commanded Beggars Bush during the civil war and left the army afterwards to become one of the the first guards. He had a very uneventful life after that. We did some research on him and found loads of medals that he received. Unfortunately the reason the medals were issued is still classified. The guy we talked to in the archives thinks it is because he was probably in intelligence. He never talked much about his time in the IRA or the army.
He met my Granny because she was involved in the Howth gun running.

Other side of the family hasn't got a single story.

bottlebrush

Deleted User wrote: »

My grandfather was born in 1895 and his great, great grandfather was hanged in spring 1799 for leading the United Irishmen in his area. His defending barrister was the notorious Leonard MacNally - talk about bad luck.

My grandfather's uncle was a senior Fenian in the US, who took part in the 1867 invasion of Canada and became well-known in Irish-American politics (I came across a long obituary on him in the NYT some years back)

My uncle, who received the family farm off my grandfather, told me that my grandfather got the farm in the 1930s from the Land Commission after they divided up the local ascendancy estate. That I knew. What I didn't know was "they said they were giving him it because our people were thrown out of this land by Cromwell". So I went into the local library and checked the Books of Survey and Distribution from the 1650s. There in black and white listed in possession of the same land in 1641 on the eve of the Rebellion was a man with the exact same first and last name as my grandfather and we've lived there for many, many centuries. It could be a coincidence but it was interesting to see the continuity.

Are these available in all libraries do you know? If so, would like to check out my own family's land history.

Grayson

I forgot to mention my granny, the one involved in the gunrunning, worked in Kilmainham during the civil war. She had an autograph book that she got all the prisoners to sign. Some wrote poems and songs into it, some drew pictures. It was donated to the military museum a couple of years ago but I managed to get scans of it first.

Taltos

One of my grans was in the Mna, used to run messages and guns in her basket on the bike. My other gran (paternal) was in some march after the rising, she died in childbirth so my dad only heard those stories 2nd and 3rd hand (aka evil stepmother quashed all tales). Mum used to have president Hilary and one other president around for sandwiches and tea years ago shortly after she got married, something to do with Dad I think as he was very political when younger. Weird thing was she only let all of the above slip a few years ago before she got ill and none of it was a big deal for her, didn't understand why it was for me

bottlebrush

bottlebrush wrote: »

Are these available in all libraries do you know? If so, would like to check out my own family's land history.

They should be available in the Archive section of your county/city library. Check your library's Online Catalogue. I'd be surprised if nowadays they weren't online in some form - Google Books?
They only exist for 29 of the 32 counties. They are crazily detailed because the English wanted to know who owned what in each townland so that they could reward their soldiers/merchants/adventurers/colonists.

Books of Survey & Distribution

bottlebrush

Deleted User wrote: »

They should be available in the Archive section of your county/city library. Check your library's Online Catalogue. I'd be surprised if nowadays they weren't online in some form - Google Books?
They only exist for 29 of the 32 counties. They are crazily detailed because the English wanted to know who owned what in each townland so that they could reward their soldiers/merchants/adventurers/colonists.

Books of Survey & Distribution

Thanks for that Fuaranach. Luckily, they exist for my county so am looking forward to doing some research shortly.

dresden8

PLL wrote: »

Details of this are hazy as it is my oh's grandmother. She is Dutch and lived through the war, took Jews in and there is some stories that she walked a long way to get food (I think) for her family. Lovely lovely woman. Many times she has been asked to write about it all, she is 88 now. She doesn't like talking about it, but apprently there are lots of stories. Not something I would dig for more info about but would be fascinating to hear all the same. My daughter's are an 1/8 Dutch, which will be a lovely heritage for them to research.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_famine_of_1944%E2%80%9345

McChubbin

All these stories are wonderful to read!
I don't have many stories from my own family to contribute but I can say this:
My granny on my mother's side of the family grew up on the North Strand and distinctly remembers the time during WW2 when the Germans dropped a few bombs in the canal. She was only in her early teens but told me on a few ocassions how she and her siblings were in bed at the time and next of all the wall came down on top of them. Can't even begin to imagine how terrifying that must've been for her. She's 86 this year and usually quite open to talking about the war but I can see in her eyes that she doesn't like recalling that particular incident so I don't often bring it up.

Another story that I must try and get more information on: My great-grandfather on my mother's side was taken captive as a POW in a German camp twice during the first World War. He managed to escape both times and from what my mother tells me, he wasn't right in the head after that. As far as I know, we have a metal swastika and a German Iron Cross up in the attic that he stole from a German solider during one of his escapes.

Also, my grandfather, again on my mother's side, trained as a silver service waiter in the Ritz in Paris during World War Two.
Sadly, due to there being a fire in the hotel about 30 years ago, no official records of his time there exist. My mother's dearest wish is to go to Paris and visit that hotel, to see where her father learned his trade. Ahh, some day.
Another story concerning my grandfather harks back to when a bomb went off in Liberty Hall. I can't recall the exact circumstances of the bombing (I'll ask my mother about it and get back to you) but what I was told was that at the time, my grandfather worked as a bus driver for CIE and was stopped at the quays for his lunch break when he heard an almighty explosion.

Driving up towards the plume of smoke in the air, he saw what happened and set to rescuing people caught up in the blast by putting them on his bus and driving them straight to hospital to get help. He even went out of his way to drop one badly shaken young lady who was a frequent customer of his straight to her parent's door as he was so concerned.
A truly selfless, lovely man. It's my biggest regret in life that I never got to have long chats about him concerning all the interesting things he did in life. He died when I was five years old. Stupid cancer.

Spanish Eyes

My great grand uncle was the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. (Pro Cathedral).

I have his photos and all. Brilliant.

My Grand Uncle died in the Great War and is buried in Gallipoli. Went there several years ago and it is just so evocative. Helles memorial and cemetery. He was in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. That side of the family were Church of Ireland.

My OH grandfather is buried in the Massicault Cemetery in Tunisia. That was WW2 Africa Campaign.

Huntergonzo

My Grandfather fought in WW1, he was at the Somme, Verdun, Passchendaele etc, all horrifically brutal battles. He was shot through the shoulder in late 1917 and honourably discharged towards the end of the war when he was nearly ready to rejoin the fighting but luckily for me the war ended, otherwise I may not be typing this post. Incidentally my father only very recently found the bullet my grandfather was shot with, as he did bring it home with him.

I never met my grandfather (he died before I was born), but apparently he spoke very little about the war. By all accounts he was probably one of the many who joined up without really knowing what they were getting themselves into.

Apparently when anybody asked him what the war was like he would simply respond "it was the war that should never have been", and left it at that.

Big Nasty

One of my ancestors was a general in the American Civil War on the Yankee side.

KingBrian2

My relatives were highway men and if you go back a little further one of my ancestors was a pirate.

Edgarfrndly

Great Grandfather on my mother's side was in the IRB and fought in the Easter Rising. We had all kinds of memorabilia, photos and medals in my grandmother's house. They went missing a few years ago nobody knows where they are. Grandmother is too old now to really remember anything, so it's futile asking her.

My other great grandfather was in the British Army in India, oppressing Gandhi and the lads.

Talk about polar opposites.

Oh, and Patrick Sarsfield is like my great-great-great-great something or other.

Avatar MIA

A relative of mine was alleged to have been involved in an incident that's mentioned in Irish history books. He's name checked in Dail records.

But that's all I'm going to say.

Spanish Eyes

Great history of involvement in the Great War. Misnomer if ever I heard one. But anyway...

Only for Kevin Myers it would all be buried like the war dead. Kudos to him, he brought it all out and made it ok to acknowledge.

May they rest in peace for the week that's in it.