On Saturday 5th Jan 2013, after the 62 Bn Christmas dinner the night before, some ex-members of 21 Bn, some members of the ex-62 Bn, and a future member of the “South Dublin, All Wicklow, most of Carlow and Wexford Platoon” of the new RDF, went to the Martello Tower on Killiney Hill Road. The visit began with a presentation by Mick O’Toole to give some context and then a tour of the site and the tower by the owner Niall O’Donoghue.
A gallery of photos from the visit follows:
Following training during Annual Camp in Tralee on the support weapons there was a shoot the following October. The video attached here also clears up one of the great controversies of the 21 Bn and I believe vindicates Des Fitzgerald from a vile calumny which I heard repeated last Friday night.
About 20 seconds into the video it is clear that Des actually STOPS a guy putting the bomb into the tube upside down! I heard that Des actually had to leave the country such was the slagging he took over the fact that he was about to fire a mortar bomb upside down. I also heard a name of the number two that Des corrected but his back is to camera and we will leave it unsaid.
The 62 Bn Christmas Dinner was held in the Royal (Starlight) Hotel Bray on Jan 4th 2013. In the bar beforehand we recreated a photo first taken in 1975 of Pat Cuffe, Paddy Maher and Mick O’Toole. See if you can tell which picture was taken in 1975 and which is now!
The meal must have been designed to remind us of the dining hall all those years ago and the highlight, for me at least, was the dessert of jelly and ice cream served in the stainless steel bowl. I thought the GOC was about to visit we were treated so well!
Here are some photos of the evening.
My notes on these photos gives the date as 19th/20th October 1974 for an overnight in The Glen of Imaal. I have no recollection of any training we did, but I do recall the night out in the The Glen Inn on Saturday. B Coy travelled in luxury by CIE coach and the sing-song on the bus included such old favourites as “An engineer told me…” and “Three German officers…”, as well as some new ones like Brendan Grace’s “The Boot Boy song”.
Here is a video of the Mass in Dun Laoghaire for deceased members of B Coy that I referred to in my post on “Church and State”.
The Colour Party is commanded by Rossa Lyons, with Mick O’Toole as flag officer and Gerry Paley and Noel Lyster as escorts. In the Guard of Honour I can recognise Tom Walsh, Kevin Connolly, Tony Taaffe, Cpl Chernobyl, Paddy Henry, Bernard Swan and Ciaran Giles.
As well as Father Breslin’s somewhat un-orthodox sermon the event was notable for Rossa’s total lack of understanding of the liturgy. He was told that when the consecration arrived he was to give the order to “Present Arms”. “The wha?”, says Rossa. In an attempt to inform him, he is told “when the priest holds up the bread and wine”. Then at the offertory, when the Padre says the “Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer…”, Rossa gives the order, and proceeds to leave the Guard of Honour at the present for a good ten minutes. At least the bugler had the sense to wait until the ACTUAL consecration before sounding!
This short scene is of some officers not working too hard during camp.
After around 18 seconds, Fergie and Barney try to inject some focus and seriousness – but to no avail.
In 1973 “Operation Glenview” was held in The Devil’s Glen, Ashford, Co. Wicklow. The exercise included the use of Panhard armoured personnel carriers, a helicopter and 300 FCA Infantry troops.
I have gotten my hands on some video taken by Pat Holahan and digitised by Rossa. Age has not been good to it and Youtube compression has degraded it even more. As if some of the activities of the 21 Bn can be degraded even more!
This test is of the train arriving for camp 1987 – it will NOT survive being zoomed to fullscreen but we can still make out some of the personalities involved!
Edit: I have changed the video compressor and other settings and the quality is somewhat better!
Easter Parade 1966 from Bray Railway Station to St Peter’s Cemetery.
L to R Scottie O’Brien, “Drill Purposes” (Dermot) Murphy (Deceased), Liam
Murphy (Deceased),J M Kelly (Whereabouts unknown), John Hynes.
You would know it is A Coy as the party is gildy, military, and as good as
the Regulars.