Cairo Gang

[shanew147]

call me a sceptic ... but without knowing the provenance of the photo I'd find it hard to believe.. 

I wonder if there are any contemporary photos of these men to compare with - e.g. in earlier English newspaper articles etc



Shane

[corisande]

I wonder if there are any contemporary photos of these men to compare with - e.g. in earlier English newspaper articles etc

I have tired and failed to find any. One of the problems here is that given the circumstances of the men's deaths, they tend not to be discussed even today in Ireland

John Fitzgerald in particular, I have delved into in depth but never managed to unearth a family member who might have a photo.

I found a photo of the grave of Angliss on this page but not the man

No photos seem to have been published at the times of their deaths, again for obvious reasons.

Having said all that, it would be very difficult to be sure of an identification from a photo. I have tried with the men in Casement's Irish Brigade, where I have comparison photos, but I cannot be sure of the identification of the man in a group photo.

And in the case of the Cairo gang, their faces are not easy to pull out, and their caps confuse identity.

Having said all that, if you have a photo of any of them, I would be very grateful

[shanew147]

very long shot I know but I was thinking mainly of earlier photos - e.g. after WW1, or when they were promoted or married etc..


Shane

[corisande]

Shane

I have been looking for any photos of these men.

Trouble is that photos are usually in the family, rather than public. Wedding photos seem to have been less published during the WW1 as you might expect

[corisande]

Another piece of what is probably misinformation that one finds on the web (an example here) invariably refers to numbers 1, 2 and 3 as being Irishmen.

That does not gel with the list I put in in OP above. Dowling, Price and MacLean were certainly not Irish. In other words, at least one, and probably both, are wrong

[corisande]

I came across a fascinating book, available online, written by the wife of one of the men shot but not killed

Read on Googlebooks
Or as a free ebook here

Mrs Woodcock wrote this 3 weeks after watching two men murdered and 4 more wounded in the shootings at 28 Upper Pembroke St on 21 Nov 1920

[corisande]

OK update on this photo

Happy to say a little progress. I have established that there are 2 versions of this photograph

1. Getty images who credit it Sean Sexton a Dublin photo collector who found it in the 1960s. This link is to their page

2. Nat Lib Ireland who credit it to Piaris Beaslai click this link, and go to number 39 of that collection

3. NLI have now examined their original (it is not a negative by the way) and tell me
"The photograph is part of the Piaris Beaslai Collection, acquired in 1966 from the executors of his estate. The photograph was acquired in an envelope marked Cairo Gang "F" Coy Aux. I have not seen the London Illustrated News that you mention, but for the moment we will not be changing the catalogue record."

4. I have now got photos of nearly all the men shot on Bloody Sunday click this link to my page on them and you will see then on that page

5. There is a long thread on Great War Forum on the subject if you are looking for more information

The providence of the photo is now starting to evolve around F Company Auxiliaries in Dublin Castle. A rational explanation would be that this is the "real" Cairo Gang, and somehow the name got attached to the men murdered on 21 Nov 1920. Some of the men in F Company Auxiliaries were on the hit list that day (Capts Hardy and King) but escaped, so to that extent there is an overlap.

What I am looking for now is a photograph of F Company. I found a reference to a "well known" photo of about 19 men in F Coy, but have not been able to find it.

Can anyone help with a photo of F Coy?

[corisande]

I have now tracked down a photo of one of the men that ought to be in the "Cairo Gang" photo

Trouble is it is taken in 1942 and Cairo Gang photo dates from 1920. Are they the same man

[shanew147]

difficult to tell - but it looks to me that the shape of the nose, width of the mouth, the position of the ears relative to the nose, and shape of the upper eye sockets are different..



Shane