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Military record in 1960 death notice

  • 25-09-2017 3:51pm
    #1
    kildarejohn
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 326 ✭✭


    I recently found (on findmypast) the newspaper death notice for my grandfather who died in 1960. It included the information that he was "late of Royal Irish Rifles" - he had fought in WW1.
    Seems strange to me that a notice in a Dublin paper in 1960 would be referring to British Army WW1 service - was this unusual at the time? Would it indicate the family was particularly pro Brit?


Comments

  • #2
    pinkypinky
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,676 Mod ✭✭✭✭pinkypinky


    Hmm. I think it is strange for the time but maybe they were just proud of him.
    My g-grandfather died a few years after that and my mother says that they always knew he served in the war but never discussed it.

    Genealogy Forum Mod



  • #3
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,269 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    Might have been so that any of his old regimental mates could have attended.


  • #4
    kildarejohn
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 326 ✭✭kildarejohn


    spurious wrote: »
    Might have been so that any of his old regimental mates could have attended.
    Good point.
    He did live in an "ex-soldiers house" one of a group in Sallynoggin, so his neighbours would have been ex-servicemen too.

    Whatever the reasons, finding the newspaper notice was a great help in my research. I had spent months trying different websites looking for his military records, but as I did not know which regiment he was in, and he had a common name, I had no luck. But the death notice mentioned his regiment so that lead me to his service record. Next step is to try to get war diaries for relevant dates and see is he mentioned.


  • #5
    tabbey
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,943 ✭✭✭tabbey


    kildarejohn wrote: »
    Good point.
    He did live in an "ex-soldiers house" one of a group in Sallynoggin.

    As a matter of local history, is that Honeypark? (the longer established one)


  • #6
    RGM
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 484 ✭✭RGM


    kildarejohn wrote: »
    I recently found (on findmypast) the newspaper death notice for my grandfather who died in 1960. It included the information that he was "late of Royal Irish Rifles" - he had fought in WW1.
    Seems strange to me that a notice in a Dublin paper in 1960 would be referring to British Army WW1 service - was this unusual at the time? Would it indicate the family was particularly pro Brit?

    I don't think it's all that unusual.

    Serving in the British military during WWI was certainly not an indicator of being "pro Brit," by which I assume you mean unionist. The Home Rule Act had just been passed, but not yet been implemented. Many nationalists saw serving in the British military during the war as the way forward, a gesture of goodwill and possibly a means of uniting nationalists and unionists.

    Redmond is the Irish nationalist leader best-known for idea:

    "for the first time in the history of the connection between England and Ireland, it was safe to-day for England to withdraw her armed troops from our country and that the sons of Ireland themselves, North and South, Catholic and Protestant, and whatever the origin of their race might have been – Williamite, Cromwellian, or old Celtic – standing shoulder to shoulder, would defend the good order and peace of Ireland, and defend her shores against any foreign foe."

    It's also worth noting that WWI began before the Easter Rising and the perception of the military was much different then. At that time, it was mostly just seen as a good job. Many families that fought for and supported Irish freedom had military connections of some sort.

    Because of all of this, pre-independence British military service was not always a hushed-up thing people didn't want to talk about. My own great-grandfather was a politically-active supporter of de Valera and spoke out publicly against the British use of Irish ports. Meanwhile he himself had served in the British navy for 10 years, including the duration of WWI.

    I wouldn't read anything into it.


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  • #7
    kildarejohn
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 326 ✭✭kildarejohn


    tabbey wrote: »
    As a matter of local history, is that Honeypark? (the longer established one)
    Yes - Honeypark


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