Great point, easy for us to judge, our lives are cosy in comparison
On the topic, is there any good articles or reading material online on Irish Born British Soldiers who returned from the War… how many went back into service in regiments in Ireland to fight against the IRA? I’d imagine it would be a fairly low number?
No but there’s one about a Cork bastard who went under cover and operated in Derry/ S Armagh
Tom Barry more than made up for him. Jesus he caused some wreck down there on his home patch. He was some man. Ever read his book?
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As a young man I met him several times, and his sidekick Tom Kelleher, who incidentally spoke at an Easter Sunday commeration in Derry after the GFA, I attended, we were surrounded by SF/ IRA, and the outer ring was several hundred British soldiers/RUC, speaker referred to them as the same seed and breed that they faced at kilmichael /Sean Keenan was the main speaker ( veteran republican from the 5Os) his son a SF councillor was with the Shinners
Sp people were happy being truncheoned by someone in a uniform of the empire as long as the cuntish thug wielding the weapon was one of their own…right.
Might be interesting to you on this topic, quite a recent publication
Was doing a little bit of reading yesterday evening. Was struck by the fact that in Ireland from January 1920 to March 1920 the RIC had a recruitment drive and something like 640 odd Irish Born recruits joined the RIC and another 330 odd from England. The tide had pretty much turned at that stage. That figure was double the amount of recruits for the entire year of 1919 and it was only a 3 month period. I was surprised at that figure, at that stage in proceedings.
I was also reading up about the problems British Ex Service Men were causing around the country in 1919. There was evidence of armed robberies, intimidation, extortion and assaults becoming a regular occurrence. Now the book I was reading was only based on Limerick IRA activity so it was Limerick based, but there seemed to be a big issue in some towns, Limerick City, Kilmallock and Newcastle West in particular. The West Limerick IRA dealt with the Newcastle West issue by forming a vigilante gang who confronted the Ex Service men when they would be causing hassle at night around the town after drinking sessions, and eventually shot one of them who had pulled a knife, wounding him badly. That sorted that for a while until 3 or 4 of the Ex Service men joined the Auxies and they went after them again.
The names of the most troublesome and Pro British/Anti IRA men in NCW highlights the complexities… O’Sullivan, Cronin, Hanley, Murphy…
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I’ve done a bit of research into ex-service men cottages. It’s a coincidence that I grew up in one of these cottages. They’re dotted around the country. Where I grew up is, I believe, the biggest cluster or set of them. There are records of men refusing to pay the rate of rent due to the living conditions of the houses. The original cottages were around 85m squared in size, two up, two down with a scullery to the side. The toilet was to the back of the shed.
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Really? The whole road out as far as yere place?
Yep, 23 in total. There are 8 more cottages behind our place.
Found a cluster of 10 in Clonmel and 8 here in Douglas. But mainly in twos and fours.
These cottages are semi-d’s btw. Found these set outside Ballycotton the other day. See this pic from the 1920’s of the cottages. They were called Type 2 cottages.
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The ones in Limerick city have a particular design that sounds very like what you describe there.
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Yes, they are the ones. When I did the Limerick half last year I saw a set of them across from a rugby club. Are these the same set?
Edit: just the description there, across from Old Cresent
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You are spot on. Across the road from old crescent rugby.
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I have looked into them but not in detail yet. My MILs family had an interesting history from the 1910s and 1920s, one granduncle interned and later sentenced to death but reprieved while a granduncle on the other side of her family was shot by auxies in error for his brother who was an ex-soldier and had just been acquitted of shooting a policeman, seems he was not at all involved. She spent some of her childhood in one of those houses
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Pictured these set the other day, outside Ballycotton
While it tough to see some of them undeveloped it’s cool to see them in their original form. Most have been developed over the years.
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Dig up, stupid.