Yet again, we have no details of the actual training which took place during this overnight. The location of the photos is, I believe, The Glen Inn, as the officers would have gone to Fentons.
Shay Haskins, John Larkin and John Curtis
Also useful to be able to jive when dancing with country girls!
Kevin Browne trips the light fantastic
John Curtis
Christy Shaughnessy, Brendan Mallon and Declan Phelan
Kevin Browne and Gerry Paley
Gerry Paley, Christy Shaughnessy, Brendan Mallon and Mick O’Toole
Harry Kavanagh, Jim Nolan, Sean Penston receive their prizes. I got this photo from the C Coy Facebook page, where Harry comments that Sean Penston won 5 Eastern Command and 2 All-Armies without ever firing a shot! – he was sub on all occasions.
In a previous posting regarding “The FCA an Illustrated History” I mentioned there was only one photo of 21Bn. Well Des Fitzgerald has found another photo featuring himself, but this one was taken during his sojourn in Cork. Des was a member of B Coy who transferred to 23 Inf Bn while he was studying in Cork. Des takes up the story:
The photo is on page 83, I’m the second from the left in the rear rank. I served with A Company whose area of ops was north of the city. Because this GoH was in the southern suburbs (Wilton) it was B Coy’s show and the other companies were there to boost the numbers.
It was in early 1985, which was the year of Cork’s 500 celebrations. It was one of the anniversary celebrations in the 1980’s to drum up business. I think Galway started with 500 years, Cork topped that with 800 and then in 1988 Dublin beat them all with the Millennium. It was a precursor for ‘The Gathering’ and I suppose they were hoping to drum up a few tourists. I think the main result was that Paddy Hilliary seemed to be in Cork every second week-end; he was on first name terms by the end of the year. In fact there are three photos of Guards of Honour for Paddy (pages 79, 83 and 84) in the book; and he wanted the job of President!, a high price.
This film, now available on YouTube was first shown on RTE television and is edited together from amateur footage and some official “talking heads”. While B Coy were being forbidden from pursuing “Operation Cecil” (see below), it seems that other units were filming away to their heart’s content. As an aside the programme had Moya Doherty as a production assistant, who went on to produce Riverdance in later years.
Some notes:
The film begins with a tactical situation, well done, but without the grand vision of “Operation Cecil” I believe!
3 minutes and 30 seconds in we have some scenes of Waterford barracks, which will bring back memories.
At 7:40 a sequence begins of An Slua Muiri filmed in Dun Laoghaire. Even though we shared a premises with An Slua in the appropriately named (for them), Coastguard Station in Dun Laoghaire, we never really fraternized with them during my time in An Forsa. We, of course noted that they were rubbish at foot-drill and marching in the St Patrick’s Day parade, but I am sure we would have been less than comfortable out at sea!
There follow some impressive pieces from the cavalry and the 21st Heavy Mortar battery.
At 17:38 we are back in Waterford again, and the cameraman is back being creative with the sequence set up to tell a story, with some very tidy looking fellas coming in at night. It is obviously staged with the lack of puke and foul language a dead give-away., although one guy is smoking indoors. They were obviously coming from a very posh establishment as the smoker is wearing a tie. The beds here are the luxurious metal models and not the “3 planks on 2 trestles” we grew up with.
Next morning, 20:17 minutes in and its off to the Dining hall for breakfast. You’d have thought they would have made a special effort for the cameras and maybe they did but what about the food – burnt toast, the (no doubt) green boiled egg, incinerated sausage and black pudding and a portion of beans that would not feed a fly!
Operation Cecil
One Wednesday evening Pat Holohan showed a training film on (I think) anti-ambush drill. The film was of UK origin and the action was based in Burma after the Second World War. After watching, it struck me that we could make a more relevant movie, and that the advent of VCRs would make it possible to pause during the movie and explain what was happening on screen. We had our very own cameraman in John Curtis who had access to professional quality gear, and so Operation Cecil has hatched (being named after Cecil B deMille). The subject was to be section in attack and we set about writing the story-boards. Our cunning plan was to film close ups of weaponry shooting on the range (with sound recorded in the butts), and to do the field craft etc at other times and edit it all together.
Ready when you are Mr deMille!
The day we were to shoot our first scenes was a Sunday field day in Kilpeddar. Mr DeMille was all lined up, but on the Wednesday beforehand the CO got wind of the plan and put the kibosh on it. It was explained to us that we could not proceed as we had not done the requisite paper work for the use of pyrotechnics – this was very strange as we had not planned on using any pyrotechnics! We were only going to film some shots of a section moving over the ground. I later went to work in Apple and toyed with the idea of reviving “Cecil” as an interactive multimedia production, but had grown a bit weary of army officialdom by then.
Pat Holohan did manage to get a lot of video in later years and everyone is very grateful for the memories he recorded over the years.
I got the following photographs from Dickie’s family via my Dad this week. Dick joined the FCA on the same day as my father – they went down together to sign up. Jack Haughton, Dick’s brother was already a member before them. That was in 1955 and Dick was to have 34 years service in the South County and later the 21st Battalion ahead of him.
Dick’s original standing down parade in 1988 was due to be held in Kilworth Camp but was cancelled as a mark of respect following the death of Arthur Plunkett. This parade was then held opposite the Royal Irish Yacht Club and on to the Coastguard Station.
I have already related many stories of Dick’s legendary wit in this blog and he will also go down in the history of 21st Battalion as whenever the order to “size” was given – “Pat Holohan on the right, Dickie Haughton on the left – single rank… SIZE!”
Not quite sure of the location, but may have been connected with a Gustaf shoot judging by the attendees. Everybody seems to be in their “South American” phase with the proliferation of dark glasses and mustachios, a least two of which could have been stolen from the corpses of Pancho Villa’s renegades. We could probably work out the date from the ranks of those present.
From left to right we have John O’Toole, Declan O’Connor (Pex) – cousin of Mick O’Toole and nephew of Dickie Haughton, Eamon Doyle, Nicky Murphy, Barney Murphy and Gerry Paley.
Short episode of officers preparing for the TEWT mentioned in Aidan Teevan’s history. Aidan did go on a bit about the “excellent al fresco meal” provided by Frank Yorke and later I will post some video of the meal, which shows the main attraction to be a large bottle of Valpolicella or similar fine vintage.
Here Dick Shortt displays all his skills of hand/eye co-ordination and dexterity that made him great. The attributes displayed that did, in fact, make him a great officer are the unflappability, recovery, poise and dignity shown in the face of adversity.
Eamon Timlin commands a very good foot drill display at the Coastguard Station in Dun Laoghaire. The eagle-eyed amongst you may also be able to pick out some well known names in the spectators. There are also a number of Mums and Dads, wives and girlfirends in the crowd who quite rightly show their appreciation of an impressive spectacle.
A future video will show the inspection and prize giving.
The pictures above show the huts in the Glen in the 1970s and today. I expect that some of the older soldiers on this site will find the photo on the right un-recognisable.
Heating
Previous posts have commented on the pot-bellied stoves and attempts to get them to glow red. Turf had to be collected in old blankets and as often as not would be damp. The room would fill with smoke and the rain would drip down through the chimney opening. Look at the “now” photo on the right and on the left side a radiator is clearly visible and on the wall we can see a thermostat! Of course getting the place warm was only one challenge – keeping it so was even more difficult. David Flood recalls how pillows were often employed to block the windows where the missing glass would let in the elements.
Sheep
If there is one thing the Glen is not short of, it’s sheep. In the early days, before there were female members of An Forsa, guys could be seen each evening washing, shaving and applying after shave – well you wouldn’t want to get an ugly one, would you! The sheep would also come into the camp and shelter under the huts. One day a recruit was passing the sergeant’s hut and asked Johnny Byrne what the sheep was doing lying there. “That’s where I throw them when I’m finished with them”, he explained, the callous cad.
Nightlife
There was lots of choice for going out when on camp in the Glen. There was both Fenton’s AND the Glen Inn. I seem to recall that one of the greatest physical challenges on camp was not climbing Keadeen or fording the Slaney, but climbing the south face of the jacks in Fenton’s after a few pints. On one camp I over-heard a fellow talking to his mates about the night-life – “There’s no action around here at all”, says he, “Tonight I’m off to DONARD”! I still cannot imagine Donard as the Sin City of County Wicklow.
Our latest video episode is of an 84mm Anti-tank shoot, again from Pat Holohan’s collection and also probably from around 1987. The episode opens with some excellent scenes from the firing point showing impacts on the target and a splendid air burst of an anti-personnel round at 0:58.
We then settle in for a period of standing around doing nothing, and this takes up about 75% of the total time of the video. Par for the course on an FCA field day it seems! 3:10 minutes in and we see someone breaking the cleaning the rod in the barrel. Much investigative work has gone into trying to ascertain the perpetrator, but to no avail. The team at “All things 21st” are pretty sure it is not “The Colonel” as he would have just looked towards the camera and laughed.
At 2:45 we see a group including Mick O’Toole, Deccy Phelan, Eamon Timlin, Paddy Whelan and most importantly Des Fitzgerald and Ciaran Giles. Giles can be seen to be actually almost on the ground as he tries to cope with effects of the hangover from hell. Des Fitzgerald and Ciaran, had been on the batter the night before, and thinking they had no duties the following day, had well and truly pushed the boat out. A closer inspection of the scene will show that Des has a Gustaf and is on security duty. We can only surmise that whoever decided to give him a gun and 84 rounds of ammunition had gone to bed early and not witnessed the copious amounts of alcohol consumed! At 3:34 we can almost smell their breath when Gilesy tries to wave away the camera and Des gives the “scowl of death”, I do note that the Gustaf is gone by this stage.
