#OnThisDay 1945 Capt. Joseph McCarthy, “the best damned officer in the Marine Corps” was pinned down on Iwo Jima. McCarthy personally lead a flamethrower & demolition team against enemy bunkers clearly a route for his men. He would get the Medal of Honor.
#OnThisDay 1922 The Civic Guard, predecessor of An Garda Síochána was established today. The Civic Guard took over from the RIC & were originally armed. Following a mutiny in Kildare, the Civic Guard were disarmed&the Gardaí were established the following year.
#OnThisDay 1760 French privateer Captain François Thurot landed at Carrickfergus with three warships & 600 men. They took the castle, raided Belfast, but left five days later. Two days after that on the 28th Thurot was killed in the Battle of Bishops Court.
On this day 1921 Twelve IRA men of the Cork No. 1 Brigade were killed (some after they had surrendered) when surrounded by RIC & British Army at Clonmult. Two more men executed later. Six of the ten men in this photo died. This was the IRA’s worst loss of life in the WOI.
Deceased: James Aherne (pic),Jeremiah Ahern, Liam Aherne, Dónal Dennehy, David Desmond, Michael Desmond, James Glavin, Michael Hallinan, J.J. Joyce, Joseph Morrissey, Chris O’Sullivan & Richard Hegarty. Maurice Moore & Patrick O’Sullivan are executed in Cork on the 28th April.
#OnThisDay 1918 Maj William Francis Roantree, from Leixlip, passed away in Dublin. Roantree served with the US Navy before the Civil War & joined the Fenians in 1860. Roantree returned to Ireland & recruited Irish soldiers in the British Army into the Fenians.
The Irish at War 