Republic of Ireland Irish War of Independance Medal with 'Comrac' Bar

[Danny70]

Hi All...

I have shown these elsewhere previously, but I thought I would share them with you all. Even though I have concentrated on 1939 EKII's, these are still, for obvious reasons, the most important and treasured part of my collection.

It is a family grouping consisting of a cased War of Independance medal - this is the 'combat' version with the comrac bar. Also with it are a military pension document dated 1938, and a hand embroidered memorial made by comrades who were interned at the time of the recipients death.

The medal and pension document belonged to my fathers uncle, Anthony Francis Duignan, who saw active service with the Irish Volunteers who in 1919 became ?glaigh na h?ireann (Irish Republican Army). As can be seen on the pension document he served through the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921). I have a newspaper cutting of his obituary from 1942 in which it states "In the fight for Irish freedom the deceased took a leading part, and the hardships he underwent in that memorable struggle impaired his health and brought a promising career to a premature close."

When he died in 1942, his family were presented with an embroidered memorial (handmade on a piece of a linen sheet or pillowcase) by some of his former comrades who were at the time interned as the government of the time took a very hard line on IRA members during the second world war as the IRA had launched an armed campaign in Northern Ireland and had hoped for support (arms / ammunition / explosives / money etc.) from Germany to strike against the British.

I am still in the process of researching more information about him and his activities but unfortunately my father passed away last year and there is no one else around who can remember any details. I intend to search through military records in the National Military Archives in Dublin when I get a chance.

Also in case whan I received it was, what I think to be, an Irish Volunteers cap badge (not pictured yet). Until recently I presumed that this was just an FCA badge as it is the same design except that this one is made of what looks like bronze. I have seen a website which showed pictures of the Irish Volunteer cap badge and mine looked exactly the same. I will post pictures of it in the near future... hopefully some of you can help me positively identify it.

Thanks for looking and I hope you all like what you see!

Regards - Danny

[Danny70]

Another View:

[Danny70]

Closer view:

[Danny70]

The reverse:

[Riley1965]

Thank You for making this Irishman's Day!!! It's not often that Irish medals are posted.

Cincis,

Doc

[Danny70]

The embroidered memorial:

(sorry about the flash, I have it mounted in a frame behind glass and this makes it very difficult to photograph).

[Danny70]

Thank You for making this Irishman's Day!!! It's not often that Irish medals are posted.

Cincis,

Doc

Glad you like it Doc!!

Here's a close up of the memorial showing the detail involved.

[Riley1965]

A beautiful memorial to Anthony, a fallen Son of Eire. Thanks for sharing this!!!

Cincis,

Doc

Edited December 26, 2006 by Riley1965

[Danny70]

And finally for now, here's the military pension document:

(unfortunately, I had to severely compress the image to upload it as this is quite a large document.)

Regards - Danny

[Danny70]

A beautiful memorial to a fallen Son of Eire, Anthony. Thanks for sharing this!!!

Thanks Doc,

Your kind comment really means a lot to me.

I only wish I had more information about Anthony and his activities during the war. I find it very sad that this man died only 65 years ago and all that remains of his life are a medal, memorial, cap badge and newspaper cutting of his obituary. He played his part in a period of history which radically reshaped Irelands future and yet, his family now know so little about him.

Then again, I am glad to have these items as they do tell me something about him, whereas, what do I know of some other relations who were his contemporaries.... nothing at all.....

We will all be forgotten eventually.

(I'm not usually this depressing!!)

Regards - Danny

[Ed_Haynes]

Nice!! Thanks for posting.

[Paul L Murphy]

Danny,

Can we see the cap badge as well ???

Do you know did he leave a statement with the Bureau of Military History in Cathal Brugha Barracks ? If so it will obviously help to fill the gaps in your knowledge of his activities during that important time in our history.

Best regards,

Paul

[Danny70]

Hi everyone and thanks for all of your comments.

Well, here's the cap badge. One of the lugs on the reverse is missing. I don't know enough about these badges to claim it is definately an Irish Volunteers one as opposed to a post-1922 army cap badge. It seems to be made of either brass or bronze.

All I know that is definite, is that this badge was kept in the case with the medal since Anthony's death. (The medal, badge and document passed into my grandmothers possesion when he died and were put away for years - hence the great condition).

I hope some of you will be able to give me some more information about these badges. Is there any way of finding out if it is pre-1922 or not?

Do you know did he leave a statement with the Bureau of Military History in Cathal Brugha Barracks ? If so it will obviously help to fill the gaps in your knowledge of his activities during that important time in our history.

Paul - I have not ever managed to get there yet so I don't have any idea if he did or not. I'm hoping to get there eventually but finding the time to get to Dublin is proving extremely difficult of late!

Regards - Danny

[Danny70]

Obverse and reverse:

(apologies for the grainy/blurry photos)

[Ceallach]

Danny,

Do you know did he leave a statement with the Bureau of Military History in Cathal Brugha Barracks ? If so it will obviously help to fill the gaps in your knowledge of his activities during that important time in our history.

Best regards,

Paul

Regret to advise that Anthony Duignan does not show on the master list of Military Bureau Witness Statements. Unfortunately the initiative was not commenced until the early 1950's. If you could determine his area of operations it might be worthwhile checking Witness Statements from like individuals. For example if he was with say the 3rd. Batt. of the Dublin Brigade, you could view statements given by other 3rd. Batt. members who may reference him.

Ceallach

[Danny70]

Regret to advise that Anthony Duignan does not show on the master list of Military Bureau Witness Statements. Unfortunately the initiative was not commenced until the early 1950's. If you could determine his area of operations it might be worthwhile checking Witness Statements from like individuals. For example if he was with say the 3rd. Batt. of the Dublin Brigade, you could view statements given by other 3rd. Batt. members who may reference him.

Ceallach

Thanks very much for this information Ceallach, you have saved me a wasted trip to Dublin!.

Unfortunately, I don't even know which battalion or brigade he was with, but this should not be hard to find out. I will work on it...

I see your location is listed as Canada, and this has me wondering.. is the master list of Military Bureau Witness Statements available on-line? or have you got a contact here? I would love to be able to browse through the witness statements, especially if I could do it at my own leisure!!

Thanks again for the information.

Regards - Danny

[Ceallach]

you have saved me a wasted trip to Dublin!.

Hi Danny,

I did not think there was such a thing as a "wasted trip to Dublin" !!

The National Archives maintain an index of statements - approx 1700 eyewitness accounts. Browsing at your leisure may not be that far away though as the Bureau of Military History are finalising its plans for a digitisation project which aims to make all these statements available over the web with 2008 as a target date. What a great research tool, particularly if searchable.

Ceallach

[Danny70]

Resurrecting this old thread back up with some additional information...

After a very interesting and informative weekend (for me), I am glad to say that I have finally found some more information about Anthony.

I visited another of his (and mine) relations (whom I had not met before) and he filled in a few gaps of Anthony's history for me.

During the Irish War of Independence, Anthony was an Intelligence officer in his local branch of the I.R.A. (I haven't yet found out the Battalion or Company) and he spent a good deal of time as a hunted man 'on the run'. This lifestyle combined with a weak chest (probably a form of TB) was his downfall. He suffered with it for the remainder of his short life. His father's shop (where he worked) was a target for the 'Black and Tans' and was ransacked on more than one occasion.

After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, that that marked the end of the Irish War of Independence, Anthony refused to accept its conditions - an Irish Free State (of which Northern Ireland almost immediately opted out of), a Dominion of the British Empire and an oath of allegiance to the King.

He was what would have been considered a 'hard-line' Republican who believed that accepting the Anglo-Irish Treaty was a betrayal of all he and his comrades had fought for during the War of Independence (the 'Tan War').

As to his activities during the subsequent Civil War, I have no further information at this point.

The man I met at the weekend now owns Anthony's former house and is in the process of renovating it. He was very helpful and let me see the house as well as the few remaining items in his possession relating to Anthony.

He also has a handmade memorial similar to the one I have that I posted above, made by Anthony's IRA comrades who were interned in the Curragh camp in Kildare by the Irish Government during WW2. Had Anthony been fit and healthy, he would more than likely have been jailed there himself.

After my visit I returned to my family homeplace and went digging through a huge pile of old family photographs, and was delighted to find among them Anthony's memorial card - I finally have a face to put with the history!

As an aside, I was quite shocked to see that he bears an uncanny resemblance to my late father. I know they were closely related, but I just was not expecting to see such a strong similarity.

And here is the man himself, Anthony Francis Duignan 1900 - 1942. R.I.P.

[Brendan]

Your images show he was approved for a pension so you should be able to get a copy of his pension application which will give details of the operations he took part in. I found when researching my grandfather his pension application gave details of the unit he served in and also the names of his Commanding Officers and several names of other members of his unit, if he did not make a witness statement he might be mentioned in statements given by those he served with. If his pension application contains details of operations he took part in you can search the Irish Times and Irish Independent newspaper archives which, although rarely mention names of IRA Volunteers, give a good account of the event. If he took part in operations in Dublin the Evening Herald is a very good source of information although you have to go to their offices as their archives are not online.

I found the witness statement a bit misleading when researching my grandfather as one claimed he had taken part in a bank raid in Dublin when I know for a fact he was on another operation in London and another claimed he was not on a particular operation when two other statements claimed he was.

You can apply to Cathal Brugha Barracks for the pension application, you used to be able to go directly to the Pensions Board in Galway but the last two people I helped apply were told they no longer dealt directly with applicants. I have put a link below to a page on my website which shows the type of information contained in the pension application.

Officer in Charge,

Military Archives,

Cathal Brugha Barracks,

Rathmines,

Dublin 6.

http://www.irishmedals.org/gpage14.html

[Danny70]

Your images show he was approved for a pension so you should be able to get a copy of his pension application which will give details of the operations he took part in. I found when researching my grandfather his pension application gave details of the unit he served in and also the names of his Commanding Officers and several names of other members of his unit, if he did not make a witness statement he might be mentioned in statements given by those he served with. If his pension application contains details of operations he took part in you can search the Irish Times and Irish Independent newspaper archives which, although rarely mention names of IRA Volunteers, give a good account of the event. If he took part in operations in Dublin the Evening Herald is a very good source of information although you have to go to their offices as their archives are not online.

I found the witness statement a bit misleading when researching my grandfather as one claimed he had taken part in a bank raid in Dublin when I know for a fact he was on another operation in London and another claimed he was not on a particular operation when two other statements claimed he was.

You can apply to Cathal Brugha Barracks for the pension application, you used to be able to go directly to the Pensions Board in Galway but the last two people I helped apply were told they no longer dealt directly with applicants. I have put a link below to a page on my website which shows the type of information contained in the pension application.

Officer in Charge,

Military Archives,

Cathal Brugha Barracks,

Rathmines,

Dublin 6.

http://www.irishmeda...rg/gpage14.html

Many thanks Brendan,

I will most certainly be requesting a copy of his pension application, and I really appreciate you including the address and the link to your website. Let's hope I won't have to wait for two and a half years!

Thanks again,

Regards - Danny

[gerardkenny]

After reading this thread I am going to apply for the same for my great grandfather on my mams side Sean McCluskey, K Company 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade IRA. Very interesting thread Danny, thanks for sharing these.