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Grandpa in the IRA
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my Great Grandpa was born
James Fitzpatrick was born in the town Clonmore, in county Armagh. He was the fourth child in the family. -
Sinn Finn was formed
The political party Sinn Finn meaning "we ourselves" was formed. The party was an Irish frredom party with the initial sole mission to pass the home rule bill and remove the British from Ireland. -
Home Rule Bill approved by Parliment
the third home rule bill that was proposed was approved by Parliment to be set in action in 1914. This was what the Irish had been waiting for for years but it angred the prodestant population and caused major conflicts and clashes between the two. -
My Great-Great Grandfather was killed by a RUC officer
My great-great Grandfather was shot by a member of the RUC (Royal Ulster Constibulary) for being a suspected republican supporter. -
The Easter Rising
Irish volenteers take controll of several public buildings in Dublin including the General Post Office, and fought off the British army for five days, untill they brought their artillary into the city to fire point blank at the buildings. -
Irish Rebels surrender
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0ZteCSYbU0The British army ceased all assults that had been repelled to this point, and started shelling the buildings that the irish rebels were holding untill they had no choice to surrender or be completley wiped out. -
Leaders of The Easter Rising were exicuted
The British had 15 of the leaders including Patrick Pearce and James Connoly exicuted and many other captured rebels were imprisoned and tortured. -
My Grandfather joins the IRA
James Fitzpatrick joined the IRA chapter in his home county Armagh. He was only 16 at the time and didnt see action untill the ambush at Kilmichael. -
First Bloody Sunday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI6ynz-EhX8In reprisals to the assassination of 14 British spies at the hands of the IRA, British soldiers went to Croke Park and opened fire on the crowd killing 14 Irish civilian men women and children and wounding many more. This and many other reprisal killings by the British led to the swelling of the ranks of the IRA -
My Grandfather killed a soldier at the Ambush at Kilmichael
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI6ynz-EhX8 skip to 1:22 in the video. 36 IRA vollenteers destroyed a convoy of 18 British Auxillaries, highly trained commissioned officers with combat expierience from WWI. The Auxillaries were hated and feared for their brutal treatment of the civilian population of Ireland. The IRA ambushed them and killed 17 , taking one prisoner while losing only 3 men. This victory caused a hige rise in Irish and IRA pride. -
British reprisals for Kilmichael Ambush
The British responded to the Ambush by taking 3 "suspected IRA sympathisers off the street, held them without trial, tortured them, beat them to death and dumped the bodies in the streets of Dublin. They also burned down every house in the remote area of the ambush. -
British declare martial law
Martial Law is declared in the counties of Tipperary, Limerick, Kerry, and Cork. This gave the army the power to execute anyone found in posession of arms or ammunition, search houses, to intern suspects indefinetly with out trial, and to impose curfews. -
Headford ambush
The IRA ambushed a train of British soldiers killing up to 25 and only losing 2 men of their own. My grandfather was part of the ambush party but didn't kill anyone and was not on of the people who went onto the train to finish off those who refused to surrender and kept fighting. Reprisals by the British in the following months saw the death of over 20 civilians resulting from mass shootings of civilians at random. Among the dead was Michael Walsh who was only seven years old at the time. -
Headford reprisals
In retaliation for the headford ambush, British soldiers killed 7 men of the McMahon family including their 15 year old son. They were forced to kneel down, told to say their prayers, and then the British opened fire with machine guns and killed them all. The next day british soldiers broke into the house of Joseph walsh who they bludgoned to death with a sledge hammer in front of his 7 year old son who they shot after they were finished. -
The Irish Free State Treaty was signed
The Treaty granted an Irish free state made up of 26 free counties under the new Irish Free Government and 6 counties in Northern Ireland that would remain part of the British Empire. -
Civil War
The signing of the treaty caused a split in the IRA at the time between those who wanted to take the free state and be free of the British in Southern Ireland and the freedom fighters who would stop at nothing to see the British kicked out of Ireland completley. The fighting lasted for a year and free state troops prevailed and the Republic was formed. -
My Great-Grandfather came to America
Rather than fight his fellow Irish in the Civil War, their home burned by the British, and only the oldest kid able to find work and support the family, James, my great-grandfather decided to immigrate to America and find work so to send money back to the family. -
My Great-Grandfather finds work in Boston
Working on the docks in Boston for 3 years, he continued to send money back to Ireland to his family untill they had no more need for it. -
My Great-Grandfather marries my Great-Grandmother
after they were married, they moved out of Boston and bought a house in Washington D.C, where he started a job as a secret service adgent busting counterfitters. (the secret service was alot different back then) -
My Grandfather was born
My Grandfather was born in D.C. He was their second child
