Members of the 4th Battalion. Is my great uncle among them?
I have started looking for relatives who fought in Dublin during the 1916 Revolution.
So far, I have found one great-uncle who I didn't expect to find, and I didn't find any evidence (yet) of the great-uncle I was expecting to find.
Apparently, my grandfather's brother Joseph fought with the 4th Battalion of the Dublin Brigade.
He saw action at Church Street Bridge where there were barricades to prevent the movement of British troops into the city center. I found that out from his pension file at the Irish Military Archives. He was awarded a pension for his service between April 1, 1916 and 31 March, 1917, a period that included time spent in an internment camp. The internment camp is not specified but it was probably at Frongoch, in North Wales. For some reason, he was denied credit for his participation in the War of Independence. Could it be that he subsequently fought in the Civil War on the side of the Anti-Treaty Republicans and was denied a pension by the Free State governemnt for that reason?
In his application for a war pension, he testified that he had been involved in the raid on Crumlin Barracks which was burned down by the insurgents.
Later, he worked as an intelligence officer and went on the run. My grandfather's house in Tallaght was raided by the Black and Tans "Murder Gang" but fortunately, he was never apprehended.
I had expected to find information about another brother of my grandfather who lived in Rathfarnham but I couldn't find a pension award in the Military Archives. I will keep searching.
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