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Quote from: PCm on Sunday 17 October 10 22:40 BST (UK)

Our family have a number of Rodericks and Rory's originating from an early period of worship of Rory O'Connor.

Hi Magell14,

Would Roderick have been the name of Charles' son, and would his wife be called Dora.
If so I may have some information.

Hi there, I am just seeing this now. Yes you have the family.  Roderick is my father. I am still awaiting the docs from Renmore.

Hi folks,
Just thought I'd post to let you know that I received the papers from Renmore in relation to My grandfather's application for a pension.  He doesn't go into too much detail about his activities.  He refers to all the main key events, joining in 1917, armed raids, internment by the British and service as a detective in the dreaded Oriel House (but interestingly also mentions that he was acting as an intelligence officer for the anti-treaty  IRA while he was there).  He made his application for the pension first in 1925 from the US where he was then living but was turned down (I suspect something to do with his anti-treaty stance but possibly not being able to put his evidence together from that distance).  He reapplied in 1935 and only got a hearing and was approved for the pension in the early '50's.  Among the few details were that he kept a revolver, rifle and several hundred rounds of ammunition in his house, that he helped Roderick O'Connor escape from the British  internment camp, also that he was involved in moving McKee and Clancy's bodies to Marlborough Street.  Nothing about Bloody Sunday.

The people he puts down as his references seem to be all from F Company 2nd Batt.,  many of them well known people and at least one a founding member of the Squad, Jim Slattery.

Thanks to Rootschat members for your help.  Looks like I have some more work to do.

Nessa
 They are not in the names on my picture of F company which was taken in the '40's or '50's.  You should take a look at the Bureau of Military Affairs website and see did your relations make any witness  statements.  Our former Taoiseach Garrett Fitzgerald's family were of course very important during the 1916 Rebellion and the War of Independence.  Dont know if you are related to them.

Just checking back with you guys.  I have been doing a bit of  more research and my dreams of my warrior grandad have taken a bit of a pasting.  For one thing his War of Independence medal does not have a bar which means that he was not deemed to have been involved in violent activities. I have a feeling that my grandmother may have exaggerated  a little.  He definitely was involved because I came across his original certificate (I'm posting it up).  If  it turns out that he never shot someone in cold blood I am quite happy with that.  I have a suspicion that his pension file will reveal very little because he was well known  to the likes of Traynor and Colley and they would probably have vouched for him without having to go into much detail on his application.

Just to again acknowledge the expertise of Private 1st Class I see on Wikipedia that the British Military occupied the entire Bull Island from 1914 to 1921.

I was over in my fathers house this evening and could not find the sharpshooters insignia but I did find my grandfather's Certificate of Discharge which I took a photo of. It shows my grandfather was in the Volunteer force (26th Battalion, just as Private 1st Class advised) from July 1940 to December 1945  (5 years and 199 days).

Hi the Military had a rifle range at Dollymount. Most of these camps had Nissan Huts It would be a simple matter to put wire around it if not already there and put up extra huts. A famous event took place out there The world rifle competitions were held out there. The U S A developed a rifle to take on the Irish. The trophy of which was found at bisley England. The range was at least 1,000 yds long. That was the distance this competition was fired at, As far as I know they fired from the main land out toward the island.

You have come up trumps again.  Excellent.