Thanks
It is in interesting example of the problems both with "Who do you think you are" and "history as people want to write it"
Ardal was able to discover that his grandfather's target was a Captain Brian Keenlyside, lodging in Pembroke Street in the centre of Dublin. Keenlyside survived, partly because his wife was in bed with him at the time, and threw her arms around him.
Keenlyside survived, and in fact was not a "target". He was, as the Americans say, "collateral". He happened to appear when he heard shots. He was a regimental officer, not on the list
His grandfather's target was Major Dowling. 4 men were assigned to Dowling, Paddy Flannagan did the shooting, Andy Cooney and Mick O'Hanlon were also there in the room, plus Charlie Dalton who was the intelligence officer.
When you think about it WDYTYA have not the time to really research facts, they need to bang something out for a programme within budget. Though to be fair, Ardal O'Hanlon (such is the price of fame, I have no idea who he is!) may not have wanted the details of the particularly brutal murder of Dowling put out - they are given in Carlie Dalton's O'Malley interview.
They also say there
O'Malley was a former IRA commander who later interviewed more than 400 volunteers as a valuable slice of Irish history. The entire interview notebooks are available to view as computer scans, but Ardal was allowed to handle and read the original hand-written transcript
As far as I know, one cannot buy the scans. Perhaps someone will let me know if I have missed anything there.
