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.
Glen of Imaal 1994 (Timmy Doyle collection)
This picture came from the C Coy Facebook page, the consensus is that it was taken at annual camp in The Glen in 1994. As well as some comments regarding leaky pens ruining pockets a thread started regarding Johnny Byrne seen here on the right.
David Flood recalled the first time Johnny had them on an exercise in Kilbride. He told them that his martial arts skills meant that he was a trained killer, and had to hold back. His karate skills were so perfected that when he saluted he nearly killed himself!
There followed a series of complimentary comments about John – how he commanded a lot of respect from the younger members and one guy explained that he was one of the nicest men he ever trained under. Those of us who have known Johnny down through the years would wholeheartedly echo those sentiments.
This photo, posted by Tony Foley on the C Coy Facebook page shows Liam Quinn, Henry Kearns, Willie Dillon and Martin C. Murphy. I am re-posting it here in honour of “Movember”.
When posted on FB it prompted much hilarity with Seamus Fitzgerald explaining “This was a stash of ronnies discovered in an abandoned part of the Brugha that the 21st were put into one night. The ronnies were left there by the British army in the early 20s – sadly there were no boots discovered.”
David Flood commented he heard that when they were being phased out of the PDF in favour of the clean-cut Action Man look, like with the greatcoats they just issued one to everyone to get rid of them!
Following on in the serial of the History of 21 Bn 1959-1984 by Brian Hayden we have the story of C Coy. I hope to expand on C Coy’s achievements in the various All-Army shooting competitions in a future pictorial post.
Joe Burke, Mick Quinn and TP Brady far bank
In the 1970s C Coy’s Arklow centre was going strong. They had 25-30 on parade and T P Brady and Joe Burke would have them out training in Glenart on weekends. These photos from Pascal Foley show an exercise in Glenmalure during the 1970s where C Coy attacked a defensive position, across a river, using a pontoon bridge. As Pascal says “There was some crack and a few wet bodies”! Photos and captions thanks to the C COY Facebook page.
It’s amazing what one finds when trawling around the interweb. I found the above picture but with no explanation about how the injury to the man on the left may have occured. I can offer a number of alternative theories: