#OnThisDay 1922 Harry Boland, an Easter Rising veteran & a prominent Anti-Treaty politician was shot by Free State soldiers in the Grand Hotel, Skerries & died days later. Though he knew his killers, he would not give their names to prevent retribution.
#OnThisDay 1918 Captain George (McIrish) McElroy was killed by ground fire. From Donnybrook, McElroy was one of the RFC& RAFs most decorated & successful pilots of WW1 with 47 kills. In Dublin during the Easter Rising, he refused to fire on fellow Irishmen.
#OnThisDay 1917 War Poet Francis Ledwidge, from Slane, was Killed in Action when he was hit by a shell during the Battle of Passchendaele. ‘Then in the lull of midnight, gentle arms Lifted him slowly down the slopes of death’
#OnThisDay 1920 General Lucas ‘escapes’ IRA captivity & made it to a RIC barracks. He was collected by the British Army who were then ambushed by the IRA at Oola, Limerick. Lucas was hit but survived. The IRA had hoped to get the mail in the convoy not Lucas.
#OnThisDay 1919 Detective Sergeant Patrick ‘The Dog’ Smyth was the first DMP G-man to be shot by the Squad, yards from his home in Drumcondra (his kids carried him in off the road) but died 5 weeks later. Smyth had helped identify leaders of the Easter Rising.
The Irish at War 