This is a photograph of my grandfather's younger brother, Cecil Halpin. Both he and my grandfather (James) ran away from home in 1914 and joined the British Army. Their older brother William - a captain in the Irish Citizen's Army - was furious with them. He followed both to Ulster and "bought them out." The boys were only 16 and 15 respectively, and had lied about their ages to enlist. William had them home at Hawthorn Terrace (East Wall, Dublin) only two weeks before they ran away again. This time they were not followed, and both spent the war, from start to finish, as privates in the 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers fighting at the front.
My grandfather was, for a time, a very effective sharpshooter. I don't know if Cecil specialised in anything. What is remarkable is the fact that both men saw so much action and survived. It was a rare feat, and whenever my grandfather was asked what he attributed his survival to, he always said "Luck - a lot more than me fair share if it." He didn't escape unscathed, though. Suffering from the effects of shell shock he returned to Ireland unable to speak, and spent about a year at Leopardstown Hospital (a Protestant-run institution in Foxrock, Dublin, which specialised in the care of veterans), where he learned to talk again. His treatment included a great deal of work with animals, which did a lot to restore Jim, since he had greater respect for animals than people. I don't know if Cecil suffered from war-related illnesses or injuries, but I do know that he joined the Free State Army after Independence in 1922. An aunt of mine thinks that's when the photo below was taken, on the day he enlisted.
Cecil was only in the Free State Army a few weeks, however, before he deserted - an offence that could have got him shot. His sister, Bridget, had to borrow money from her husband (a wealthy Turf Commissioner), to buy Cecil out. I have asked why Cecil absconded - it seems he was reviled by other Freestate troopers for "takin' the King's shillin'," - for fighting for the British Army in WW1, that is. He tolerated the abuse until a few 'Freestater's' began to slander those who had died on the battlefields of France and Belgium. The dead of that war, both Irish and English, were mostly poor, young, working class lads like himself, and, apart from their shared social background, Cecil - quite naturally I suppose - had a veteran's regard for fallen comrades and could not abide some of the things being said about them. Beside himself with rage one night, and in the company of my grandfather, Cecil roamed the streets of Dublin looking for his tormentors. He found them in a city-centre pub and "called them out." After a terrific brawl, which the brothers won (as far as the story-tellers in my family are concerned, the boys won every fight they ever fought), Ces and Jim were told they were marked men. In other words, in the eyes of the IRA and the like, by their behaviour they had proved that they were less than wholly patriotic and, therefore, in line to be murdered. After all, they had - at a crucial stage in the formation of the new Irish state, showed less than total respect for a few mouthy "true believers" - the implication being that all true believers were Freestaters, entitled to absolute deference regardless of what they thought of their fellow-countrymen. It was at that time even more dangerous to express any sympathy whatsoever for an Englishman, or for any Irish man who had already disgraced himself by serving in an English army to appear to be less than contrite about that fact, or - worse - to appear to be proud of it. At any rate, it was after the threat to his life that Cecil decided to desert - he fled the country on a boat to England. My grandfather, Jim, meanwhile, chose a different strategy and went looking for his would-be assassins (he was crazy, I 'm told, and genuinely feared in North Dublin right into old age). My father thinks that on this occasion Jim was spared a bullet not because he was riding his luck once again, but because his brother, William - prominent in the Republican movement at that time - intervened on his behalf and had him protected.
