IRA connection in family research?

[yaya*]

Hi all,

Hoping you can be of some assistance - while researching the family tree, I heard that at my Great-Grandfathers funeral, a group of IRA men saluted the coffin (not sure if that's the correct description?) in the graveyard. Soon after, we uncovered some medals in the attic, however, they are apparently untraceable. His name was Patrick (Paddy) Fitzgerald.
I'm interested to find out what his likely role within the IRA may have been - did anyone remotely involved with them receive this treatment at their funerals/ receive medals etc or is it likely that he had quite an active role?

Thanks for any help

YaYa

[zara2513]

Hi
Some members of the OLD I.R.A. ( those who fought the Black & Tans, & fought in Civil War 1921/1922
received a military funeral, where shots were fired over coffin,old I.R.A. men done this up until late 1960s
and then members of Irish Army done the gun salute. The medals may be 50th anniversary (1921-1971) Black & Tan. If you could post photo of medals, someone might be able to identify them.
Regards Zara

[myluck!]

My OH's granny died in 1960 and there was a salute over her grave the day after she was buried. It was probably thought too dangerous to do on the day. The incident made the front page of the Irish Times!

We know from this and some ancedotal evidence that she and her husband were involved in the Civil War / War of Independence and I have applied to Renmore Barracks (Dept. of Defence Pensions Section) for their records. I have been informed that they exist and that they were not issued with pensions. They did however apply and that all the paperwork will be forwarded when available.

This may be a route to take to find out more

[yaya*]

Thanks for the replies!

Myluck! that sounds very interesting - what do I need to apply to Renmore for the records? How do I go about it?

zara2513 - I will take some photos of the medals and post them for identification. Interesting that you say the military funeral was done up until late 1960s - this happened in the late 80s?


Thanks for all your help on this matter

[Redroger]

I remember salutes by the PIRA being shown on TV news, certainly into the 1990s.

[zara2513]

Hi YaYa
Because of the troubles in Northern Ireland , for security reasons the Irish Army done the gun salutes .Only high ranking or very prominent members receives the honour in the very late 1970s/80s. This had nothing at all to do with PIRA, as most of these old vetrans were totally opposed to the PIRA
Zara

[shanew147]

There were several different IRA branches over time which can confuse things .... a greatly simplified view of the history would be something like :

  1913-March 1922  'Old' IRA
   Descended from the Irish Volunteers. These were involved in the 1916 Rising and the war of Independence 

  1922 - IRA split to
   Pro-Treaty IRA - members became part of the Irish National Army
   Anti treaty IRA - fought against the National army in the Civil War

The IRA which continued on derived from the anti-Treaty IRA and it further split in 1969 to form the Provisional IRA   


Shane

[genseacher]

Hi yaya
My grandad was a member of the IRB. He died in the 1960's and he received a military funeral, my mam has the bullet casings from the funeral.
Regards Genseacher

[shanew147]

there's a complicated tree of these organizations...

 IRB = Irish Republican Brotherhood - disbanded in 1924

I believe they were the primary organizers of the 1916 Rising, and had cross links with the old IRA. For a time during the war of Independence Michael Collins was both president of the IRB and a senior IRA leader.



Shane