#OnThisDay 1923 Two Anti-Treaty IRA officers were shot dead by Free State Army in Wexford. Con McCarthy (L)&Bernie Radford(R) refused to surrender despite being surrounded &fought on allowing their men to escape. Lt Cousins who shot them was Radford’s neighbour.
#OnThisDay 1916 the last British troops left the Gallipoli peninsula ending that doomed campaign. The Munster & Dublin Fusiliers were the first to land & over 3,000 Irishmen died there over the next 9 months. Of the 1,012 Dubliners who landed in Gallipoli, only 11 remained unscathed. The 1st Battalions from the Dublin & Munster Fusiliers has to be amalgamated because they suffered so many losses. Their name was changed to the “Dubsters”. Pictured are men from the Royal Irish Fusiliers trying to set a trap for an enemy sniper from their trench in Gallipoli.
#OnThisDay 1923 Five Free State Army deserters were executed by firing squad in Portobello Barracks, Dublin. They had aided the Anti-Treaty IRA in an ambush the previous December. They were the first National Army soldiers to be executed for Treachery.
#OnThisDay 1901 John Barry VC from Kilkenny died. While surrounded by Boers, Private Barry rendered his Maxim machine-gun useless to prevent it being turned on his own men, but was killed while doing so. For this he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
The Irish at War 