MilitaryArchive.ie - Release 20 now live

 Good to see another batch of records released by the Military Archives team. Another excellent job.

The offical details of the release are at 

Military Archives Release 20 

with a list of names available at

Release 20 Names and addresses

plus there is a brief synopsis of some interesting bits at :

Release 20 Highlights Part 1

Good to see some names with addresses in Harold's Cross and one person with a Knocklong address. Will have to delve into them soon.

Interesting to see a bit re John Pidgeon. His father Sylvester died a few months after being wounded at the Bachelors Walk massacre. His sister Eileen died just before his father (she wasn't injured at Bachelors Walk).

There is mention of a Hugh Mehlhorns father (Dresden born Viktor Hugo Mehlhorn aka Peter, 1869-1954) being interned in Odlcastle. This was used as an internment camp for people living in Ireland who were born in Germany, Austria etc and deemed "Enemy Aliens".

A couple of Mehlhorn references in Poor Law Guardian minutes :

Graphic - Answers

Having posted the following graphic on Twitter and BlueSky on the 26th July, time for the anwers.

1. The first image, The Asgard Legacy, is a reference to the yacht The Asgard that sailed into Howth on the 26th July 1914 with a consignment of arms and ammunition for the Irish Volunteers.

2. Gladiator was the name of the German tug that carried the arms and ammunition out to sea and from which the Asgard and Kelpie were loaded.

3. Riddle of the Sands was a reference to the owner of the Asgard, Erkine Childers.

4. Aces High was a reference to Asgard crew member Gordon Strachy Shephard. A member of the British Army/Royal Flying Corps, Shephard would be in France the following month as war broke out on the continent. He would be killed in a flying accident in January 1918 and would be the highest ranking member of the RFC to die during the war.

5. The Festival of Remembrance image is a reference to crew member Mary Spring-Rice. Her relative Cecil Spring-Rice wrote the words that would be used in I Vow to Thee My Country, regularly used at the annual UK Festival of Remembrance. 

The words not used in the song :

I heard my country calling, away across the sea,
Across the waste of waters, she calls and calls to me.

appear to be apt for the Asgards and its crews exploits (and the other boats and crews involved).

Collen Brothers, Clanwilliam Place, Dublin

A well know photograph that many in Ireland and those that study the Easter Rising would recognise instantly. The burnt out remains of Clanwilliam House, held by Irish Volunteers against Sherwood Foresters.

At the far end, generally ignored, sits a small building housing the offices of Collen Brothers, a building company operating in Dublin and Portadown. They would submit a claim to the 1916 Property Losses Committee for damage to the houses sitting between their office and Clanwilliam House, as well as damage to their depot in the East Wall area of Dublin.

The Property Losses Committee records have been digitized by the National Archives of Ireland but the site is currently down for maintenance.

The Collen Brothers lost a son/employee during the first day of the landing at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli a few months before the Rising :

William Stewart Collen, killed August 1915

The landings at Suvla Bay would be followed by intense fighting around Hill 60 and Scimitar Hill as attempts were made to join up the position at Suvla Bay with that of Anzac Cove.

In the early 1950s the company constructed a terrace at the Canal End of Croke Park - looking across to what had been dubbed "Hill 60", a terrace that had acquired the name of the Gallipoli hill. The Hill 60 "terrace" was a simple mound and in wet weather it took on the look of a WW1 battlefield - the name wasn't meant as a compliment or as a remembrance of events in Gallipoli. Today much of what was Hill 60 forms part of Dineen Hill 16 and the Cusack Stand.

GAA photograph of the mound after Bloody Sunday, 1920

UCC stylised map of Croke Park, Bloody Sunday 1920

The Collen Brother archives were acquired by Trinity College, Dublin who have made some photographs and information available online. Amongst the snippets - if a location in Ireland has a Bailey bridge installed post WW2 nearby, it was probably put there as a result of Collen Brothers.

Collen Brothers archive on Google Culture

Robie Uniacke (1906 - 1942)

When Arthur John Bather (subject of a previous blog entry) returned to Egypt to take up his post with the Egytian Frontier Administration, the officer he replaced was Robie Dennis Woodgate Uniacke (1906-1942), another member of the Royal Tank Corps.

Uniacke was another Sandhurst graduate, leaving a few years after Bather, and gazetted 2nd Lieutenant with the Royal Tank Corps in February 1926. Promoted to Lieutenant in September 1927, he was seconded to the Foreign Office in September 1929.  In December 1934, he was awarded the Order of the Nile in recognition of his service with the Egyptian Frontier Administration ahead of his being returned to normal duties with the Royal Tank Corps in May 1935. Promoted to Captain in September 1936 and appointed an Adjutant in 1939 (not sure of what unit or where stationed).

Yet to find his subsequent promotions. As at January 1940, he appears to be near Bovington as a Captain as he is recorded as the script writer for a pantomime at Blandford.

Uniacke returned to Egypt at some point during the war and would be killed while commanding 5 Royal Tank Regiment in June 1942 (Battle of Gazala?). He is buried in Libya.

It's not clear when he got to Egypt

Phoenix Park, Dublin - Magazine Fort opens for visitors

Good to hear that the Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park in Dublin has undergone renovation and is now open for visitors

RTE : Magazine Fort opens to the public/0727/1585210-magazine-fort/

Office of Public Works Tours

The Military Archives have a number of documents available online worth a look in their collection of maps, plans and drawings :

Map of Phoenix Park

Outline of Magazine Fort 1851

Outline of Magazine Fort 1851 (2)

Magazine Fort drainage 1902

plus

Interwar aerial photographs of the Magazine Fort

Howth Landing 26th July 1914 and Kilcoole Landing 2nd August 1914

On display at the National Museum in Dublin in its own building is the yacht Asgard, having undergone major conservation work. An excellent, free exhibit to head to if you are in Dublin on top of all the other excellent displays at Collins Barracks.

Originally owned by Erskine and Mary/Molly Childers (a wedding present from Molly's father) it was one of several boats used to transport guns and ammunition for the Irish Volunteers in 1914.

The crew of the Asgard for the  trip were :

Erskine Childers
Molly Childers
Mary Rice Spring
Gordon Strachy Shephard (aka "Mr Gordon"), a British soldier.
Patrick McGinley
Charles Duggan

Mary Rice Spring kept a diary of the voyage and this is available to read online at :

Diary of the Asgard

The Asgard entered Howth harbour with its cargo of 1500 rifles and 29000 rounds of ammunition in daylight on the 26th July 1914.  Remarkably, the Irish Volunteers had only been formed the previous November and it was quite a job putting the money, contacts and plans together in that time. The daylight landing was a deliberate propaganda coup.

As part of the same operation, a second landing took place at Kilcoole, County Wicklow. 600 rifles and 20000 rounds of ammunition had been loaded onto a boat called the Kelpie on 12th July 1914 from the tug Gladiator. The Asgard was loaded the same day just after the Kelpie - the original plan was that they would take half each. Kelpie was full; Asgard was seriously overloaded with the extra cargo. On the 24th July off the coast of Wales, the Kelpie cargo was transferred to a larger boat, the Chotah. Assisting in the landing at Kilcoole was the Nugget, a small trawler from Howth. 

Unlike the Howth landing, the Kilcoole landing in the early hours of 2nd August 1914 was a much more secretive operation, taking place during darkness and avoiding the interference by the British that resulted in the deaths at Bachelors Walk following the Howth landing.

Though there were two landings, all the rifles landed are generally referred to as "Howth Mausers".

Aboard The Kelpie

Connor O'Brien (owner)

Kitty O'Brien

Diarmuid Coffey

Thomas Fitzsimons

George Cahill

Aboard The Chotah

Sir Thomas Myles (owner)

James Creed Meredith

Thomas Fitzsimons (transferred from Kelpie)

George Cahill (transferred from Kelpie)

Hervey de Montmorency

Aboard The Nugget

James McLoughlin (Skipper)

Nicholas McLoughlion (crew)

William McLoughlin (crew)

Michael Moore (crew)

Edward Moore (stowaway)

Frank Daly (IRB)

Luke Kenny (IRB)

Sean Tobin (IRB)

The rifles transported by the above boats were Mauser M1871, single shot, black powder weapons firing an 11mm round - surplus that had been acquired by arms dealer Moritz Magnus. 

Ian McCollum (aka "Gun Jesus") has a fairly watchable video re the Howth Mauser giving some background to the Childers etc, showing the workings of the rifle, and discussing the hash made of attaching bayonets, while Mae at C&R Arsenal gives a very quick demo in her video firing this beast of a rifle.

The weapons were being stored in Liege, Belgium at the time of their acquistion by the Irish Volunteers and as part of their ruse, their purchase was earmarked as being for Mexico. They were to be exported via Hamburg where there was the possibility of being impounded by German customs officials. The weapons were not being sent to Ireland at the behest of the German government.

Further Reading

Two very readble publications on the operations :

A set that is generally good reads re Mauser rifles

but not so good on the Howth Mausers

Policing Exhibition in Clonmel, Tipperary

 A hat tip to Dr John Reynolds for information about an exhibition being hosted at the Tipperary Museum of Hidden History, through to March 2027.

"Order from Chaos - The Policing History of Tipperary and Ireland" looks at 200 years of policing from the days of Robert Peel's force through to the Royal Irish Constabulary, and on to the modern Garda.

https://tipperary.com/event/order-from-chaos-the-policing-history-of-tipperary-and-ireland/

Tipperary Museum of Hidden History
Mick Delahunty Square
Clonmel
Co. Tipperary
Ireland
E91 Y891