1916 - Grenade School in Dublin

During the action at Mount Street Bridge, the Sherwood Foresters were assisted by members of the "bombing school" at Elm Park, including Captain Jeffares. (Richard Thorpe Jeffares, Royal Irish Rifles - listed with other Jeffares on a memorial in New Ross, Co Wexford; commissioned 2nd Lt in May 1911)

Grenades were also know as Mills Bombs.

The "bombing school" was the Irish Command Grenade School located in the grounds of Elm Park House, Merrion Road/Nutley Lane, Dublin. Now the site of Elm Park Golf Club whose website indicates that practice trenches are still visible.

The National Army Museum in London appears to have a June 1916 photograph of the instructors amongst its collection.

Sir Alfred Bucknill - Witness Statement re the Easter Rising

Sir Alfred Bucknill provided legal advice to General Maxwell during/after the Easter Rising.

His witness statement provides a note to suggest that the reason Eamon de Valera didn't face the firing squad in the aftermath of the Rising related to the difficult questions being raised regarding the murder of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington.

John Traynor - South Dublin Union

One of the first casualties of the Easter Rising at the South Dublin Union was John Traynor, employed as a messenger at nearby Guinness. Killed within 30 minutes of the start of the fighting at the SDU.

Not quite 18, he had started working at Guinness in 1913.

In the records of the detective hired to assess employees after the Rising, James Traynor is listed as living at 3 Shannon Terrace, Kilmainham with a note that his son was killed by the military at the SDU. John Traynor is listed as employee number 12991, killed at the SDU on the first day of the Rising; father in the engineering department.

1911 census at 3 Shannon Terrace

Grave of John Traynor, Glasnevin

Captain Sheppard - South Staffordshire Regiment

Two Captain Sheppards were with the South Staffordshire Regiment in Dublin during the Easter Rising.

2nd Lieutenant James Sheppard was promoted to temporary Lieutenant in the 23rd July 1915 issue of the London Gazette. On the same page, Lieutenant Robin M Sheppard is promoted to temporary Captain.

Lieutenant James Sheppard was promoted to temporary Captain on the 2nd April 1916 just before going to Dublin to quell the Easter Rising.

Captain R M Sheppard wrote to the mother of Private H Bullock following his wounding during the Easter Rising.

In October 1916, Robin Sheppard is promoted to acting Major. He was wounded in France in November 1917 as Commanding Officer of C Company, 2/5th South Staffordshire Regiment.

Wounds received in Dublin lead James Sheppard to relinquish his commission in November 1917 though he retains the rank of Captain.

Private Bullock - South Staffordshire Regiment

An interesting article on the internet re the effect of the Easter Rising on Private Bullock, a soldier in the 6th battalion the South Staffordshire Regiment.  Wounded in Dublin, Private Bullock was hospitalised and would eventually lose a leg

Private H Bullock

Harold Bullock enlisted on the 8th December 1915 and was discharged as a result of wounds on the 25th November 1916.

Easter Rising : Lance Corporal Harvey, Australian Expeditionary Force

An account of the experiences of Australian (Bendigo) soldier Lance Corporal Harvey during the Easter Rising appeared in the Australian newspapers in July 1916 :

13th July 1916 Bendigonian newspaper report

He appears in the list of wounded from Gallipoli on the 13th October 1915

13th October 1915 Casualty list

His father, Mr R M Harvey, left Bendigo in August 1916

Second Lieutenant G D Helliwell - South Staffordshire Regiment

Listed amongst the officer wounded during the Easter Rising is 2nd Lt G D Helliwell of the South Staffordshire Regiment.

Geoffrey Davenport Helliwell (1899-1954) received his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant on the 9th December 1915

No sign of a medal index card to show that he served overseas but he is recorded on a list of solicitors and articled clerks who served in WW1  :

GEOFFREY DAVENPORT HELLIWELL. 

Articled to J. H. Rothwell, of Brighouse. Joined Dec. 9, 1915, as 2nd 
Lieut., 6th Batt. South Staffordshire Regt., subsequently promoted Lieut. 
Served in France and Italy. 

Capt PS Bayliss - South Staffordshire Regiment

In the 1916 Rebellion Handbook, there are 3 officers from the South Staffordshire Regiment in the list of wounded officers. No officers from the South Staffordshire Regiment are listed as killed.

Captain PS Bayliss appears to be Percival Samuel Bayliss (1881 - 1955).

His medal index card shows he finally entered France on the 27th April 1917, a year after the Easter Rising.

Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 6th Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment in September 1914 :

London Gazette September 1914

Promoted to Captain in June 1917

London Gazette June 1917

Military Mission secondment in October 1918

London Gazette October 1918

Resigns his commission in January 1921

London Gazette January 1921

His cricket career entry suggests he later went to the USA as part of the British Military Mission and that he was a director of the firm Bayliss, Jones and Bayliss.

The company Bayliss, Jones and Bayliss appear to have recruited a Home Guard platoon during WW2.

C B de la Mare - 5th Armoured Car Company, Tank Corps

In Ambushes and Armour : The Irish Rebellion 1919-1921, W H Kautt mentions the recovery of a Peerless armoured car that had been captured by the IRA during a raid on an abattoir. The armoured car was to have been used in the rescue of Sean MacEoin from prison.

The car was recovered by Lieutenant C B de la Mare of the 5th Armoured Car Company, Tank Corps at Donnycarney House, Malahide Road, Dublin

The 5th Armoured Car Company was the remains of the downsized 17th Battalion that had arrived in Dublin in January 1919.

Lt C B de la Mare appears to be Charles Bertram de la Mare (1896 to 1954). Born in Birkenhead, Cheshire to Godfray and Jane de la Mare.

Temporary 2nd Lieutenant in July 1917

Served with A Company, 12th Battalion, Tank Corps in October 1918 in tank L12

appointed temporary Lieutenant in December 1918

Acting Captain in August 1919 in Equipment Officer role

British Empire Awards in January 1923 (not sure what the award for for - there's little information re de la Mare)

Married in Dublin, 1925



The capture/use of the armoured car appears in a number of Bureau of Military History witness statements

Patrick Lawson

Joseph Byrne

Michael Lynch

Vincent Byrne

William Stapleton

Peter Gough

Patrick McCrea

Joseph Leonard

John Caffrey

Oscar Traynor

Charles Dalton

Joseph Hyland

Katharine Tynan and The Aerodrome

Katharine Tynan's poem "The Aerodrome" is supposed to be a lament for her father's land being sold to become Baldonnel aerodrome (I think the father's land was actually sold to become the aerodrome at Tallaght - now Cookstown Industrial Estate - but have yet to prove this).

A memorial cross to her father, Andrew Cullen Tynan, is still in place on the Belgard Road. A memorial to Katharine Tynan can be found in Tallaght.

Her nephew Gerald Cullen Tynan O'Mahony (father of comedian Dave Allen) joined the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary (ADRIC aka Auxiliaries) having been commissioned into the British Army via the Dublin University Officer Training Corps (DUOTC). He was later managing director of the Irish Times.

The Tynan's had been actively involved with the Freeman's Journal. Nora Mahony's claim for compensation gives her address as Airfield House, Tallaght while the claim for losses in 1916 is for property in the Freeman's Journal property by the GPO in Princes Street.

1916 Property Losses Committee claim by Nora Tynan O'Mahony

An Cosantoir April 2014

Nice snippet re the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Cumann na mBan by Paul O'Brien in the April 2014 issue of An Cosantoir.

Also reviews of :

Easter Rising 1916 : The Trials by Sean Enright

Ground Truths : British Army Operations in the Irish War of Independence by W H Kautt

The Irish Volunteers 1913-1915 : Recollections and Documents by F X Martin (this is a re-print of a 1963 publication)

Cries from Casement

Another addition to the library today is  David Rudkin's "Cries from Casement as his Bones are Brought to Dublin". An ebay purchase.

This 1974 publication from the BBC is the text of a play broadcast in 1973 dramatising the return of Sir Roger Casement's remains to Ireland.

Not my normal reading material but an interesting point of view.

A Question of Duty by Paul O'Brien

Bought a copy of A Question of Duty by Paul O'Brien re the Curragh Incident in 1914.

A smallish book at approximately 160 pages but a very good read, outlining the characters involved, the potential implications, the organisation of the British Army in Ireland, the mistrust between the Army officers and the British Government, etc.

A good addition to the library.

Machines Guns, UVF, Dublin

There is an awful lot of rubbish on the Internet (and in some books) re the Easter Rising. The following article suggests that members of the UVF were on the streets of Dublin and that machine guns were responsible for the destruction of some buildings :

Easter Rising Myths and Truth article

British Artillery definitely played a part in the destruction of a number of buildings. Looters set fire to some buildings; Irish Volunteers started the fire that destroyed the Linenhall Barracks. It would be hard to think of any building destroyed by machine guns - a shack made of wood etc might fall apart under sustained fire from machine guns (more likely Vickers but possibly Lewis guns) but the buildings in Dublin were brick and stone built.

I've yet to read any witness statements or primary source documents outlining members of the UVF being on the streets of Dublin or of tension being caused by their presence (wasn't there enough tension from artillery fire, machines gun fire, rifle fire and fires). While some individual members of Regiments may have been UVF prior to enlistment, they weren't deployed as a UVF unit. I suspect that the UVF reference is due to recent attempts to raise the profile of the Loyal Dublin Volunteers, an affiliate to the UVF (but defunct by the time of the Easter Rising).

The Aud

The Facebook page of Stair na hEireann carries the following text re the Aud and her attempt to land arms in Co Kerry just prior to the Easter Rising :

Today in Irish History: 9 April 1916 - The merchant ship Aud leaves Germany for Ireland with arms for the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

On 20 April 1916 the Aud, a Norwegian merchant ship, arrived in Tralee Bay off the west coast of Ireland. At dawn the next morning a pilot ship approached the Aud, flying the British flag of war. She was seized and towed towards Queenstown harbour (now Cobh). On route, the crew set off explosions to scuttle the ship and abandoned the sinking vessel, surrendering to the British.

In reality she was not a Norwegian merchant ship, only disguised as one. She was the German ship SMS Libau (previously the British vessel SS Castro captured by the Germans in 1914). And she wasn’t transporting just timber. She had on board an estimated 20,000 rifles, 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition, 10 machine guns, and explosives that were sent by the Germans in aid of Irish rebels planning the 1916 Easter Rising. Due to mis-communication, the cargo would never reach its destination.

The Aud left the Baltic port of Lübeck on this date in 1916. She was captained by Karl Spindler and carried 22 crew, all volunteers. They avoided British patrols as they headed into the North Atlantic before heading south towards the west coast of Ireland. The plan was to rendezvous with Roger Casement, who was instrumental in obtaining the weapons from Germany and was travelling on a U-boat to the rendezvous point. Once Casement was on the Aud the weapons would be transferred to a party of Irish Volunteers on the shore.

When the Aud arrived in Tralee Bay and sent out a signal, it was never answered. Casement didn’t arrive in Ireland until the 21 April and the Aud was already in British custody. Casement was later arrested, charged with treason, and executed on 3 August 1916. The car load of Volunteers who were tasked with collecting the landed weapons crashed on the way and never arrived. Once the Aud was seized Spindler knew he could do nothing but scuttle the ship.

Spindler and his crew were held by the British for the remainder of WWI. The wreck of the Aud was depth-charged and wire swept several times, not only to be sure that the weapons could not be recovered but also to keep the wreck from being used as cover by enemy U-boats. Several exploratory dives have been conducted of the wreck, the most recent one in June 2012 which led to the recovery of two anchors from the wreckage. Some of the rifles carried on the Aud were recovered before she was scuttled. Those rifles are on display in several museums including the Cork Public Museum, the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, and the Imperial War Museum in London.


While elements are correct, there are a number of errors.

1. She was intercept by HMS Bluebell. Definitely not a pilot ship; HMS Bluebell was a Queenstown based sloop involved in anti submarine work amongst other activities.
2. Would like to know more about the "Flag of War" being flown.
3. The Aud was intercepted by HMS Bluebell and instructed to head to Queenstown. She was not towed and there was no opportunity to recover any rifles before her sinking. The Aud had been boarded previously but her disguise had worked and the cargo of arms and munitions were not discovered.
4. Rifles were recovered from the sunken Aud by Queenstown based diver John Dempsey. A number of these were presented as evidence at the trial of Sir Roger Casement.
5. Sir Roger Casement was charged with High Treason (an offence punishable by death) rather than Treason (an offence punishable by imprisonment). The British legal system had to use an ancient law written before the creation of the British Empire and before Ireland was annexed by Britain's Act of Union. Quite a bit of time was taken up in Sir Roger's appeal interpreting the original statute written in Latin and Norman French.
6. The car load of volunteers travelling to Co Kerry were tasked with radio communications and trying to obtain a wireless set from a Wireless College in Cahirciveen - the Aud had no radio but SM U-19 carrying Sir Roger Casement, Robert Monteith and Daniel Bailey did have a radio. Austin Stack and the Volunteers in Co Kerry were to take charge of the arms and munitions from the Aud and take care of their distribution. One car drove off the Ballykissane Pier on the 21st April 1916 and three Volunteers were drowned - Con Keating, Donal Sheehan and Charlie Monaghan. Denis Daly was in another car with Colm O'Lochlainn. Was the Aud already "in custody" when the 3 Volunteers drowned?


Mortimer O'Leary gives some information about the sighting of the Aud in the bay and of the proposed piloting of the ship into Fenit in his Witness Statement.

The Ulster Covenant - Dublin signatures 2

Given that the Dublin parliamentary division has some addresses outside the Dublin area, I tried "Dublin" in the address field of the PRONI Covenant database and up popped just under 200 entries. A number of these are Dublin addresses. Still a very small number though.

Next task is to put together a list from the 200 that are Dublin addresses and cross check these against the 1901 and 1911 census websites.

A couple of matches

William Clement McKee

Thomas John Curtis

Thomas D Barnett

Arthur Henry Bates (put as W Bates on the database but writing is difficult to work out - looks like A H)

Robert James Black

Robert Henry Calvert

David M Carson

William Clarke

David James Colter


Some that do seem to have gone into the armed forces during WW1 are :

R H Plews (Robert Henry Cunningham Plews)
Served with the Army Service Corps.
Mentioned in Despatches.
Reached rank of Major.

Otto Hamilton Jones
Born in Dublin 20th July 1889
Working in London in the 1911 census as a Warehouseman
Commissioned as 2nd Lt on 2nd September 1916 having been a Cadet (not sure at which unit yet)
His medal index card shows he originally enlisted as a Private, number 19/360, in the 19th Battalion the Royal Irish Rifles.
Died in France 22nd/23rd November 1917 with the 15th Battalion the Royal Irish Rifles

Alec Haines
Son of a Guinness Brewery Manager
Killed in 1915 whilst serving as a 2nd Lieutenant with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

Hugh Victor Moore
Killed in 1918

Harry Jeffrey
From Belfast, living in Rathgar, Dublin. Served as a Sapper with the Royal Engineers. Enlisted January 1915.

Claude Braddell
Commissioned into the Royal Irish Rifles in December 1915.
Medal index card shows Royal Ulster Rifles.

He worked for the Northern Bank and apparently had the surname Burbridge originally.

Alfred Caffrey
Born in Dublin 16th March 1871. Father Edward Caffrey; mother Mary Wilkin. Alfred Caffrey joined the Royal Munster Fusiliers in 1888 and served through to 1901, number 2695. Then in the Royal Garrison Regiment, number 4366.  Appears to have re-enlisted during WW1 as 6/303, Sgt Alfred Caffrey. Discharged October 1916 due to sickness.


Two Roman Catholic signatories are :

Alphonsus Jeannette and William Lawrence Vize.

William Vize had joined the Royal Engineers in 1902; rejoined the Royal Engineers during WW1.

The Ulster Covenant - Dublin signatures

In trying to trace members of the "Loyal Dublin Volunteers", a Dublin affiliate of the Ulster Volunteer Force, I've had a look at the Ulster Covenant and Declaration database available to view from the PRONI website. The Covenant was signed by men; the Declaration by women.

A search selecting the Parliamentary Division Dublin produces a list of 768. All women. Not a single male signature. Very odd.

A search with Not Recorded for Parliamentary Division gives 1 Dublin address,

H Brown 57 Percy Place, Dublin

The At Sea entry for Parliamentary Division gives a return for Thomas Gee of Rathgar aboard ship.

In the 1911 census, there is a 13year old Herbert Brown living in Percy Place. Surely not the signatory of the Ulster Covenant?

The signatures of the ladies are a bit inflated with multiple signings and with addresses from outside Dublin e.g.

Ethel Hamilton Wilson gives signs 5 times with addresses in Dublin,  Derry, Belfast, Lurgan and Co Down.

Edith Alexander's address is Derry.

Sarah Apsley's address is Co Antrim

Sarah Jane Armstrong's address is Co Fermanagh

and so on, reducing the actual number of Dublin signatures further.

Why so low? What's happened to the signatures of Dublin men?

A recent leaflet expounding the "Loyal Dublin Volunteers", gives the number of Protestants in the County and City of Dublin as over 100,000. The Loyal Dublin Volunteers was supposed to have had a membership of 2,000 men.

Thankfully, not all Protestants were Unionists and and there were attempts to protest against "the lawless policy of Carsonism".

Arming the Dublin Metropolitan Police

In 1916, most members of the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) were uniformed and unarmed, in contrast to the Royal Irish Constabulary who were uniformed and armed with carbines and bayonets. Members of the political section of the DMP were in civilian clothes and carried a revolver.

The following article by Gregory Allen describes attempts to arm the DMP in the aftermath of the Easter Rising and some of the morale issues within the DMP

Arming the DMP

Staff Sgt A H Ensell

Staff Sgt A H Ensell of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry was arrested in July 1914 for stealing rifles from Portobello Barracks in Dublin along with arms dealer J W Benson. The intention was to supply the weapons to the UVF.

He appears to have a prison record in Mountjoy :

Mountjoy Prison 1914 : Arthur H Ensell

At the time, the 2nd Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry were stationed in Dublin. A short while later (16th August 1914) they landed in France to take part in the Great War and were involved in some costly clashes with the German Army.

Arthur Harry Ensell was born in Birmingham in approximately 1879, the son of Aurelius Theodore Ensell and Maria Smith.

Not sure when he was released from prison. He married Ethel White in 1943 when aged 64; less than 10 years later he was dead.

He doesn't appear to have served during WW1 which is surprising.

Cumann na mBan

100 years ago today the Cumann na mBan was formed.

RTE have a nice little feature :

100 Years Old : Cumann na mBan

Father John Heneghan

In reading the witness statements of Irish Volunteers in Galway and looking for information re the shelling by the Royal Navy, the witness statement of Patrick Dunlevy mentions "Fr John Heneghan (killed by the Japs)". Wasn't quite expecting to see a reference to Japanese in the witness statements.

witness statement of Patrick Dunlevy, County Galway

A quick Google finds that Father John Heneghan was killed by Japanese forces in the Phillipines and that he is commemorated on the Mayo Peace Park Memorial along with other priests killed by the Japanese.

Mayo Peace Park - Father John Heneghan

Cesca Chenevix Trench

An interesting article re a Nationalist worker/supporter, Cesca Chenevix Trench, from a Unionist family :

A Young Nationalist in the Easter Rising

The photo is from the 1965 film Young Cassidy rather than an Easter Rising photo.

She mentions her brother Reggie being killed while serving in the British Army.

He appears to have been Major Charles Reginald Chenevix Trench who died on the 21st March 1918 whilst serving with the Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment).

His military careers appears to have started with the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps in London in approximately 1912.  He joined the 2/5th Battalion Sherwood Foresters as a Captain on the 9th June 1916 and was promoted to temporary Major on the 30th July 1917.

J J Cullen

In a 1919 article, Captain J J Cullen of the barque Bellas in Fremantle described himself as the navigating officer on the sloop Laburnum during WW1. The article states he was born in South Australia.

14th July 1919 - J J Cullen

The Navy List for October 1916 lists a John Joseph Cullen, temporary Sub Lieutenant, assigned to the Laburnum.

The Navy List for 1916 also gives :

Laburnum
Lt Comm William W Wainwright 18th July 1915
Lt RNR (N) John J Cullen (act) 11th August 1915
Lt RNR Harold  J McBride (act) 22nd March 1915
Sub Lt James G Pyke-Knott (act) 21st August 1915
Surg Prob James C Sleigh 29th January 1916
Artif Eng Herbert Stroud 17th April 1915


The London Gazette of 29th June 1915 mentions the temporary commission to Sub Lieutenant of John Joseph Cullen

London Gazette 29th June 1915

James Sleigh appears to have studied medicine at Aberdeen University

James Charles Sleigh

He appears to have served in the RAMC and reached the rank of Lt Colonel according to this notice re his appointment in St Albans

St Albans appointment

James Grenville Pyke-Nott stayed in the Royal Navy until 1949. Later Lt Governor of a region of Nigeria and knighted.

Herbert Stroud served with the Royal Navy until 1939.

Harold Joseph McBride appears to have come from Birkenhead. The son of Thomas McBRride, a tug boat mate from Ireland.

So far, no further information re J J Cullen.

The Shelling of Galway, April 1916

A number of witness statements on the Bureau of Military History site mention the shelling of parts of County Galway by the Royal Navy :


Martin O'Regan of Loughrea
no ship mention unfortunately

Thomas Courtney of Galway
no name but mentions that the guns were 4 inch guns and not big guns following conversation with sailors in Galway. Minesweepers fired shells at Castlegar from the bay. Mentions Leslie Edmonds/Edmunds of the Congested District Board.

Frank Hardiman of Galway
mentions the shelling of Castlegar by the Laburnum. Transferred to HMS Gloucester but no mention of the Gloucester firing her guns. Arrested on the Easter Tuesday and put on the Guillimot. Laburnum seen steaming in on the Wednesday. Guns fired after he had been put on board on the Wednesday. Gloucester and a troop ship steamed in after 2 days on the Laburnum. Transferred to HMS Albion.

Michael O'Droighneain of Furlough, County Galway
mentions a fleet of warships in Galway Bay on Easter Sunday. Taken with Frank Hardiman and put on board Guillemot. Seems to suggest that the shelling was by Guillemot. Suggests 3 days on board before transfer to the Laburnum which is at odds with the statement by Frank Hardiman. No mention of HMS Gloucester but does mention being transferred to HMS Albion and HMS Adventure. Mentions Leslie Edmonds/Edmunds of the Congested District Board.

Patrick Dunlevy of Ballyglunin, County Galway
Arrested and put on HMS Gloucester. Later transferred to HMS Snowdrop and then HMS Albion and finally HMS Adventurer (Adventure?).



Brian Molloy, Castlegar, County Galway
no mention of shelling by the Royal Navy but describes some of the actions of the Volunteers and the encounter with soldiers and RIC.

Michael Newell, Castlegar, County Galway
as per Brian Molloy, no mention of shelling by the Royal Navy but mentions some of the actions of the Volunteers and the encounter with soldiers and RIC.

Thomas Sweeney Newell of Castlegar, County Galway
as per Brian Molloy, no mention of shelling by the Royal Navy but mentions some of the actions of the Volunteers and the encounter with soldiers and RIC.


25th July 1922
Mr Leslie Edmonds of the Congested District Board was shot and killed in the Irish Civil War. The car he was being driven in stumbled upon an ambush of National Army troops by irregulars of the IRA. Mr Edmonds and his chauffeur were killed.

Queenstown sloop commanders

In Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly's book "Pull Together!" he lists some of the sloops active in Queenstown, together with their commanding officers :

Zinnia - Commander G F W Wilson
Bluebell - Commander M A F Hood
Laburnum - Commander W W Hall-Wright
Poppy - Commander Cosmo Hastings
Snowdrop - Commander G P Sherston
Rosemary - Commander R Mayne
Genista - Commander J White
Sunflower - Commander J C Cole-Hamilton
Jessamine - Commander Salisbury Simpson and later S A Geary-Hill
Myosotis - Commander W C Cochrane
Camelia - Commander R Richardson


The Zinnia and Bluebell were involved in the capture of the Aud in the run up to the Easter Rising.

Laburnum was involved in the shelling of Galway during the Easter Rising. The commander William Wybrow Hallwright DSO (1883-1917) was killed in action on HMS Heather (aka HMS Q16) on the 21st April 1917.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry to W W Hallwright