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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

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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.

[Deleted User]

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