Custom House Burning - Part 1 / John Wilson

[Gary Deering]

Hi PCDL, I should have welcomed you before now. Seanod I read that account too, I think it was in Dublin`s fighting story (about John Doyle`s Gunshot wounds being covered up in the hospital).Also I have, after several months alot of phone calls & God knows how many texts got in touch with John Wilsons family, I cant say how happy I am because my family had lost touch for many years,Hopefully I might be able to find out more information to add to this thread.

[seanod]

Hi, I don't think that particular detail is in Dublin's Fighting Story, Gary - I was reading it last night and I didn't notice it (though I was only searching for that line about the fight going on). I'll see if I can track it down but I'm nearly certain it's a published book. Look forward to hearing anything you find out about John Wilson's experiences. Keep it coming! 

[Pcdl]

Linda/Gary/Seanod, thanks for the updates.  Haven't had a chance to discuss with the family yet but will let you know when I have anything.  Sean is always refered to as 'John' in the family but all his military comrades call him Sean.  I picked up a book in town yesterday called "The Squad" by T. Ryle Dwyer (as Sean was one of the so called Twelve Apostles) - I also stopped by the Custom House to check the memorial and he's Sean on that too.  There's an account in the book by Jimmy Slattery (another apostle) about himself and Sean making a run for it when they were both hit by machine gun fire (Sean didn't fancy his chances if they got arrested since Patrick his brother had been executed some weeks previously).  They both ended up in the Mater.  Sean had been hit in the lung.  According to Jimmys account a British military and medical party came into the hospital that night and checked their charts but they had been warned by the nun's and pretended to be asleep.  Jimmy says Sean died the next morning?  The Woods name doesn't ring any bells but I'll check (is it Flan Tommy Woods, Patrick Doyles nephew?.......saw a reference to him being killed in Cordoba).

[Gary Deering]

Hi PCDL, I made a mistake in my post,it was the Squad Book, as I checked Dublins fighting story.

[seanod]

Yes, I found the Squad book today too. That's where I found the account of the Hospital being searched. I was wrong in detail - there was nothing about an infectious disease, just that they had given them false charts and they were told to keep still. I wonder if Slattery and Doyle were even in the same ward, or if Slattery stayed long in the Mater. He may have been gone by the time Doyle died; there's really no way of knowing, so his comment about Doyle dying the day after needn't be taken as gospel. By the way, Doyle was registered under the name Browne - that detail came out in the inquest. I'll see if I can find anything else. As for the Fiann Tommy Woods, that's the one. He was a nephew of the Doyle brothers. 

[Oaks and Acorns]

You’ve possibly searched this already

“The NAI holds a small quantity of records relating to the Mater Misercordiae Hospital, Dublin (DUB 54) which includes a complete series of operations registers (1887–1949) and a medical register for the period 1897–1902.”

From: http://www.nationalarchives.ie/topics/Medical_sources/Hospital_records.pdf

I presume bullet wounds would be recorded under the list of operations.

Dara.

[seanod]

Hi Dara, That's great. I'll add it to the list of documents to check out but I'm sure a lot of these operations were carried out on the quiet and never registered. It will be interesting to see if there is any record of the treatment for Mr Brown in May 1921! All the best and thanks again.

[kristof]

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone could tell me more about a Frank Brennan who was in Kilmainham, apparently as a result of the Customs House fire.  In some of the Kilmainham autograph books there are a couple of little verses signed by Frank Brennan:

The reason we're here, is on the Customs House fire
When we were pinched together
We are doing our time in Cell twenty-nine
"Hard Luck" its such lovely weather
Frank Brennan & Frank Carberry
(6 July 1921)

On another autograph Frank Brennan and Frank Carberry signed it "the two Franks" and "the two inseparables". There is another attributed to Frank Brennan:
 
Now when you leave here
I trust you will think
Of the friends in Kilmainham you've made
And when in a "pub" the toast you should drink
Is, Good Health to the boys of the "Ould Fire Brigade"
 
Kilmainham sent me a photo of a group of prisoners that had been donated by Frank Carberry's son, and it had Frank Carberry marked, and sitting next to Frank Carberry is a man who is the spitting image of our Frank Brennan!!

So is there a list of persons arrested over the Customs House fire and is there a Frank Brennan on it? Frank was from the North Road, Finglas.

Would anyone know more about Frank Carberry either?

[seanod]

Hi, Welcome to the thread! I've never heard of either of them. As you may know from the above (it's sometimes hard to take in all the information) there is a list of some ninety names which should have them on it if they were captured in connection with the Custom House. I'll be looking at that list, hopefully, some time in February and then I'll let you know if there is anything about them. Sounds like they are both definites, which is great. Where is this book, in the Archives or the National Library?