Who Do You Think You Are - Brendan O'Carroll 28th Aug

[kiterunner]

Of "Mrs Brown's Boys" fame. BBC1 at 9 p.m.

[Guinevere]

I'm not sure I'll be able to watch this one. I can't stand him/her.

[Lynn the Forest Fan]

It could be interesting as it is investigating the murder of his grandfather c1916 in Ireland. I am not sure how much genealogy will be involved, it may be more about social history.

[Ann from Sussex]

Originally Posted by Guinevere

I'm not sure I'll be able to watch this one. I can't stand him/her.

Nor can I. I just hope he isn't as foul-mouthed and crude in reality as he is "in character". I will watch because I have lots of Irish relatives and know Dublin so I hope it will be interesting and that I will be pleasantly surprised by the celebrity's real-life personality.

[Anstey Nomad]

Going well so far.

[Guinevere]

Social history but not genealogy. A lot of assumptions, as usual.

Agree more social history. Found it boring at times

[Margaret in Burton]

Dave and I both enjoyed this one. He likes Mrs Brown, I don't. It's not about about whether you like the person it's their history. It was genealogy to him. We can understand the mystery of a grandfather. Ok, not murder, but Dave's grandfather is a mystery and we would love to get to the bottom of his 'story'.

[Olde Crone]

I surprised myself by actually enjoying that although I do agree it was one man's story, rather than genealogy. I have little interest in Irish history, so thought I would be bored, but his measured (and intelligent!) approach to a mystery was rather refreshing and his quick grasp of facts was a nice change from some of the previous participants.

OC

[kiterunner]

Episode synopsis:

Brendan O'Carroll knew that his grandfather Peter O'Carroll was murdered (shot) by British soldiers in 1920 during the struggle for Irish freedom, but he wanted to find out exactly what happened, and why. Brendan lives in Dublin with his wife Jenny and sons Danny and Eric. His father's name was Gerard and his grandmother was Annie.
The report in the "Irish Independent" newspaper dated Oct 18th 1920 says that Mr Peter O'Carroll, an invalid, was shot early on the morning of Saturday the 16th in his shop at 92 Manor Street, Dublin. His children Gerard, 10, and Martha, 12, and his wife Annie were at home but did not hear the shot. The newspaper report said that it was thought that soldiers were looking for Mr O'Carroll's older sons (who were members of the IRA.) A piece of paper was pinned to his body which said "A traitor to Ireland - shot by IRA." The city coroner was told by the Lord Lieutenant not to hold an inquest as a military inquiry was to be held.
Brendan met an historian who explained that coroners' inquests had been suspended in Ireland at that time as an emergency measure, and replaced with military courts of inquiry which were held "in private".
The records of the military inquiry showed that it was held on the 19th Oct and that it found that Peter O'Carroll was murdered by persons unknown and that he died from haemorrhage and shock due to a bullet wound. The reply to a Parliamentary question the following month stated that Mrs O'Carroll didn't appear in court to give evidence. She wrote a letter to the Dublin Corporation which said that her husband was murdered by members of the army of occupation and that she would not appear in a court held by that same army, and she demanded a civil inquest.
Another historian showed Brendan an example of a note left by the IRA on a body, but he didn't think that Peter was killed by the IRA. The Irish Times had reported on the curfew which was in operation at the time and it would not have been easy for non-army gunmen to move around the city in the dark without being stopped. Also the report on Peter's funeral listed well-known Nationalists who attended, so it didn't sound like a traitor's funeral.
The family rumour was that Peter was killed by the Black and Tans, but they were not serving in Dublin. There was an Auxiliary Division serving there at the time, made up mostly of ex-officers. The National Museum of Ireland is housed in a former army barracks and there are weapons from that time there, including a Webley & Scott semi-automatic pistol which may have been the type of weapon used to kill Peter as it is small and quiet. The Auxiliary Division would have had access to this type of weapon, and to the "dumdum" bullet which may have been used in Peter's killing as there was no exit would.
Brendan visited 92 Manor Street, which is a nail bar now.
He reread the newspaper report which said that Peter's death bore a striking resemblance to the "recent hotel tragedy". He went to the National Library of Ireland to look through the Irish Independent on microfilm, and found a report in the issue of the 23rd Sep 1920 on the killing of Mr J A Lynch, county councillor, at the Royal Exchange Hotel, shot by military who had come to arrest him. No sound of a shot was heard, although there was an exit wound in this case.
Brendan was shown a Republican document which said that one of the people involved in the killing of Mr Lynch was an Englishman calling himself MacMahon but whose real name was Angliss. H was also shown a witness statement taken by the Irish Army in the 1950's from David Nelligan who had worked in Dublin Castle for the British and spied for the IRA. This statement said that Lynch from East Limerick had brought money for Michael Collins of the IRA, and that Nelligan had come across a phone message from a British officer saying that he had killed Lynch, and that this officer was also involved in another killing, "the Carroll family". They had warned Mr Carroll that if his sons, who were active in the IRA, didn't surrender at the Castle by a certain date, he would be shot. Nelligan had been given a note telling him to "concentrate on Hardy." This was Jocelyn Lee Hardy, an Orangeman, an intelligence officer in the Auxiliaries with an artificial leg, who lived in Harcourt Street in Dublin in 1920. It seems most likely that he was the killer of both Mr Lynch and Peter O'Carroll.
On Sunday 21st November 1920, fourteen British intelligence officers were killed by the IRA, with reprisals by the British causing it to be named "Bloody Sunday". But Hardy was not among those killed, and after the Irish War of Independence he went on to become a banker, stockbroker, and author.
Brendan visited Peter and Annie's grave. The gravestone shows that Annie died on the 4th Mar 1954, a year before Brendan's birth.