Reminiscences, Family Histories and Personalities

Ambrose Moriarty

feeds@kickapps.com (RichardM50) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 13:44:05 PST

As a follow up to the query I posted in the Genealogy Forum about my great-grandfather Ambrose Moriarty's RIC service, here is what I know.

Sub-Constables Ambrose Moriarty and Philip Maguire were acknowledged for the "arrest and conviction of a sheep stealer" in April, 1870. This is in Parliamentary Papers, Accounts and Papers, Law and Crime; Police; Law and Crime (Ireland) 23 October 1884--14 August 1885. Vol. LXIV. For those who haven't seen this title (in Google Books), it includes "Favourable Records" received by members of the RIC between 1870-75 and 1880-85. Fascinating reading. Other volumes are also...

Captain Sir Eyre Massey Shaw, Belfast Borough Police

feeds@kickapps.com (Peter Mc RIC) — Sat, 01 May 2010 23:06:31 PST

Captain Sir Eyre Massey Shaw (1830–1908) was the Superintendent of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (now renamed the London Fire Brigade), and its predecessor, the London Fire Engine Establishment, from 1861 to 1891. He introduced modern firefighting methods to the Brigade, and increased the number of stations.

Shaw was born in Ireland and served in the North Cork Rifles, a militia regiment of the British Army (later the 9th Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps) from 1854 to 1860, reaching the rank of Captain. He then headed the joint police and fire brigade in Belfast (see The Belfast Borough Police). In 1861, following the death of the then-head, James Braidwood, in the line of duty while fighting a massive fire in Tooley Street, Shaw was engaged as head of the Establishment. In 1865, Parliament passed the...

Shipwreck! A Gallantry award for saving life at sea

feeds@kickapps.com (Peter Mc RIC) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 18:28:22 PST

Constable Daniel Lawton 58432 of Ardmore Town was awarded the Board of Trade Sea Gallantry Medal for Saving Life, when the schooner 'Teaser' of Montrose was wrecked on the 18th March 1911. He was presented with his medal by the King at Buckingham Palace.

He also received direct from His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant a vote of thanks on vellum and £5 from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. He also received £5 from the Trustees of the Carnegie Hero Fund, in addition to a favourable record, and £3 from the Constabulary authorities. The Irish Times reported the event as follows:

"During a raging gale in Armore Bay, a remote place in Waterford, the sailing-boat Teaser, of Montrose, with a crew of four, was wrecked. There being no life-boat, the curate of the parish, the Rev. John O'Shea, gallantly took out a boat of volunteers, which brought off three men. Unhappily they died of exposure...

Constable James Briggs DCM MM

feeds@kickapps.com (Peter Mc RIC) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:55:51 PST

Constable James Briggs, 70463. Killed in Ireland 3rd June 1921, aged 29 years

James Briggs joined the RIC on 25 Feb 1920. Prior to this he had served with the 2nd Battalion The Royal Scots Fusiliers (Corporal 14429) where he won the MM in August 1917 at Frezenburg for taking control of a unit when his commander was fatally wounded. He received the DCM in October 1918...

for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during operations east of Ypres. On the 5th October 1918 he located a machine gun post by a daylight patrol and during the night raided it, capturing two heavy and one light machine gun.

He was known as 'Jock' to his comrades in the RIC and was killed when on a cycle patrol near Borrisokane in County Tipperary. The 12 man patrol was making its way from Borrisokane to Cloughjordan on...

Sgt Patrick Lyons - The Antiquarian Policeman

feeds@kickapps.com (Peter Mc RIC) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:30:03 PST

Born in 1861 at Lisronagh, Co Tipperary, to a poor landless family, Sgt. Patrick Lyons, 'The Antiquarian Policeman' , served with the Royal Irish Constabulary from 1886 - 1920. While stationed in the West of Ireland, he developed a keen interest in documenting the field-monuments he noticed on his patrols. His discovery of four Ogham stones at Ballyhaunis in 1897 led to a correspondence with Hubert Knox, a renowned Mayo Antiquarian who lived near Ballinrobe. Together the two men produced a series of articles for leading academic journals including the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society Journal. Lyons’ photographs, measurements, and interpretation of the field monuments described was greatly appreciated and highly regarded. Much of his work and photographs are preserved in the NUIG library today.

Out of modesty, and fear that the R.I.C. would frown on his 'antiquarian craze', he preferred not to be acknowledged by name, although he was much admired for his fine mind...

The Craughwell Murder of 1909

feeds@kickapps.com (Peter Mc RIC) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:35:41 PST

In the winter of 1909 a sensational case of murder was broadcast in the national press, and at the center of it was a young police constable from County Mayo.

The area around Craughwell, County Galway had been for many years a disturbed and violent region due to the effects of the Land Wars; a political and economic movement dedicated to redistributing land held by landlords and large farmers. Although the movement had largely died out it was re-ignited in South Galway by one Tom Kenny, a member of the IRB and (later) Sinn Fein. As part of his activities he selected the 16 acre farm at Templemartin to be targeted and broken up, with the land distributed to the members of his society. Against him was the landlord, Lord Clanricarde, and his tenant farmer Mary Ryan. Mrs Ryan was a widow and had returned from America some years ago with her two children aged 18 and 13. She was from Craughwell, and aware of the tensions in the area, had got the blessing of the local United...

RIC Medal found in garden, reunited with family

feeds@kickapps.com (Peter Mc RIC) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:39:05 PST

An RIC Tug of War medal was found in a garden in Churchtown, Dublin. It was engraved to Thomas Walsh, a Mayo man, and was a memento of a Tug of War competition that took place in the Depot in 1891.

The story was featured on Derek Mooney's RTE radio show. Jim Herlihy undertook a lot of the research into the story and reveals a fascinating account of the genealogical background to Thomas Walsh, his marriage, and indeed the complex web of police marriages and inter-relationships once prevalent in Ireland. Even more fascinating is that the singer Dido was loosely related!

The research brought out Walsh's direct descendants and Kevin O'Neill, a great grandson, was handed the medal back. Walsh ended his days as a District Inspector and died in 1924.

This link brings you to the RTE archive - choose 'listen' for Thursday 29th January 2009. Well worth listening...

District Inspector Somerville RIC

feeds@kickapps.com (Stanley C Jenkins) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:30:27 PST

Bellingham Arthur Somerville was born on 17 November 1853 and baptized on 16 June 1854 in Dublin. He enlisted in the RIC at the age of 18 in 1872 and married Margaret Clinch, the daughter of William Clinch, banker and brewer of Witney, on 27th August 1879 in St Mary's Parish Church, Witney, Oxfordshire.

He appears in the 1891 census as a resident of Church Green, Witney, and is described as a “Retired, DI RI Constabulary aged 36”. Wondering what he could possibly have done to have been "retired" at such an early age, I discovered that he had been charged with murder after he had ordered his men to fix their sword-bayonets and charge a mob at Youghal when he thought that the lives of his own men were in danger. I suspect (but do not know for sure) if his early retirement was connected to this incident, in which one of the stone-throwing rioters, a man called Hanlon, was killed - the...

SERGEANT THOMAS ENRIGHT-KILLED KILLMALLOCK 1921

feeds@kickapps.com (The Third Policeman) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:30:54 PST

This piece comes from the Irish Times which I thought was very interesting and in particular I found the the reference to the tatoo on Sergeant Enrights arm particularly poignant in that in english it means 'Ireland Forever'

The Irish Times - Monday, December 28, 2009

An Irishman's Diary

AN ARCHIVE PAGE from this newspaper had a transforming effect on a certain elderly reader shortly before her death in March 2008, writes DONAL MCMAHON

My mother's father, Thomas Enright, died when she was just over 15 months old. An only child, she then lost her mother when she was 10. She grew up with cousins on her mother's side in Listowel, Co Kerry, and was sent to boarding school in Sligo.

When she asked about her father, all she could find out was that he had been shot during the Troubles. She eventually married and had a family who, in turn, grew up...

Percy French

feeds@kickapps.com (Peter Mc RIC) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:42:37 PST

Percy French was perhaps Ireland's most famous songwriter and entertainer. Every Irishman is well acquainted with such songs as 'The Mountains of Mourne', 'Phil the Fluter's Ball' and of course 'Flattery's Mounted Fut'; and who can forget that immortal refrain 'Come back, Paddy Reilly, to Ballyjamesduff'?

William Percy French (1 May 1854 - 23 January 1920) was born at Cloonyquin House, Elphin, Co. Roscommon. Initially a civil engineer, he had an artistic calling and produced numerous paintings, mostly landscapes. He later turned to journalism and entertaining; composing and performing his songs in music halls across Great Britain. He was indeed one of the most famous entertainers of his times.

I have been a great fan...

D.I. Thomas St. George MacCarthy - Founder of the G.A.A.

feeds@kickapps.com (Peter Mc RIC) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:20:25 PST

Not many people know that one of the seven founder members of the Gaelic Athletic Association was a serving RIC officer. The following is an extract from a press release issued by the GAA on the 19th November 2009. At a ceremony in Deansgrange a new headstone was unveiled to D.I. MacCarthy.

Press Release:

As part of the final stages of the GAA's 125 Year Celebrations events organised to honour the founding fathers of the Association took place today (19 November 2009) at Deansgrange and Glasnevin Cemeteries in Dublin.

A new headstone was unveiled at Deansgrange at the final resting place of Thomas St George McCarthy. This ceremony was attended by representatives of both an Garda Siochána and the PSNI as an acknowledgement of McCarthy's membership of the RIC.

Afterwards a wreath was placed at the grave of...

Jack B Yeats - Irishmen All

feeds@kickapps.com (Peter Mc RIC) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:56:42 PST

Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957) was perhaps the most important Irish artist of the 20th Century. Both he and his poet brother, William Butler Yeats, had no connections with the RIC and indeed had mainly republican sympathies. However Jack did produce one of the most evocative portraits of an Irish policeman I have ever seen - his rendition of an RIC police sergeant, leaning on his blackthorn stick outside a country barracks, perfectly captures the spirit of that gentle time just before the Great War, and the upheavals of Easter 1916, changed Ireland forever.

The portrait appears in the book "Irishmen All" by George A Birmingham (T N Foulis 1913). Birmingham (whose real name was Rev James Owen Hannay) was active for a while on the executive of the Gaelic League. This book was a mildly satirical, and gently humorous, study on the main...

The Guilfoyle family

feeds@kickapps.com (Peter Mc RIC) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:08:00 PST

The Guilfoyle family numbered more than a few of its members in the ranks of the RIC. Attached is the 'Certificate of Character' for Sgt Michael Guilfoyle 64310.

Essentially a reference for a future employer, these were signed by the senior officer in the County or his representative. In this case it seems to be signed by James E McGarry.