Brendan O'Carroll Who Do You Think You Are?

Comedian Brendan O'Carroll is one of the biggest stars

to come out of Ireland in a generation.

He started in comedy relatively late - aged 35 - but since then

he's built an entertainment empire out of cross-dressing

as his comic creation - a feisty, foul mouthed Dublin matriarch.

Any room upstairs?

Mrs Brown started as a five minute piece on radio.

It was just meant to be a five minute sketch, to run for a week.

It went on to run for 480 episodes.

I wrote the stage play and then the TV came along.

It just went crazy. Mad.

'The show's been all over the world.'

All right, man.

'And now we're back in Dublin.'

Show time!

For one week, Mrs Brown's back in town.

Hello. It's show time!

Oh, God, that's not easy for her. She has an overactive, um...

Thyroid.

Knife and fork.

'Initially, it was me playing Mrs Brown, but

I didn't know I was going to fall in love, and did, head over heels.

-I'm going to my room!

-Go to your room! Oh...

'So all of a sudden now it's me and my wife. Jenny, who plays Cathy...'

How could you beat your mother?!

'And then before you knew it, everybody was involved in the show.

'My other eldest son... '

How are you, Cathy?

'My daughter, my sister, my son-in-law

'and my daughter-in-law...'

I just...

Cathy! Cathy, wait!

'Although she can be an awful woman, she loves her family.

'She would defend them to death.'

'We've been away from Dublin for the last three years

'and this week it's been an amazing reception.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

'People are coming over and shaking your hand.'

Good to see you. How are you?

THEY LAUGH

'It's been just so warm and loving.'

-Cheers. No, it's nice to meet you.

-Well done.

'I live in Florida now but Dublin will always be home.

'With my own family history, I know a bit.'

The stand-up story of the O'Carroll side

was the murder of my grandfather in 1920, I believe it was.

Um, and that he was shot.

And it was for Irish freedom.

And it was my granddad. Um, so it was a very...

it was very...it was an exciting part of your life that you were

able to relate to other people.

Especially other kids. You know, "You going to visit your granddad?"

"No, he was shot."

And it was, "Really?" "Yep."

But you do know that family stories get embellished.

I know little snippets here and there,

but not enough to be able to go - this is the definitive truth.

Honestly, if we can, I'd like to just concentrate on that night.

What happened that night?

Why was he shot? Who shot him?

And if there was a purpose to it, did they achieve the purpose?

I'd like to find out just exactly what happened that night.

Brendan is at home in Dublin with his wife Jenny and son Danny.

That's my granddad.

Wow! A strong looking lad, isn't he?

-Yeah, he is. He's just this very proud...

-Love the tash.

-Is that your grandmother?

-That's Annie, yeah. Annie O'Carroll.

-There's my dad there, Gearoid.

-Oh, wow!

What age were you when you found out your granddad was murdered?

I was told when I was a little kid,

and I wasn't told any of the detail, but my belief always was

that my granddad was killed by the Black and Tans.

-British soldiers, were they?

-Yeah.

A bunch of drunken soldiers, that's the way we were told it was.

When I went to visit him in the cemetery,

and saw it on the gravestone -

"Shot during the curfew." It was really stark.

I said I'd really like to know what happened.

And so I went looking for details of exactly what

happened on the night and this is what I got.

This is the article.

This is the report from the Irish Independent on October 18th, 1920.

-So shall I read it to you?

-Mm-hmm.

-OK.

"Morning Tragedy In Dublin.

"An appalling tragedy was enacted in a little shop,

"Manor Street, Dublin, about 2am on Saturday.

"The proprietor, Mr Peter O'Carroll, 56, was shot dead by armed men

"who carried out their purpose with a noiseless weapon

"and departed silently having accomplished it."

-Silencer.

-OK.

"The only occupants of the house on Saturday morning

"were Mr and Mrs O'Carroll

"and their children Gearoid, 10, and Martha, 12."

"The story of the shocking occurrence was

"given by one of the victim's daughters.

"She said, 'About 1.40 on Saturday morning, a knock came to our door,

"'my father got up, having put on his trousers and stockings,

"'went downstairs to admit those outside.

"'My mother also got out of bed and looked through the window.

"'She noticed the forms of two or three men at the door.

"'There was a slight thud and then stillness.

"'My mother hearing no noise, came downstairs

"'and there the most terrible spectacle met her eyes.

"'Her husband lying, a corpse, in a huge pool of blood.'"

Peter O'Carroll was shot on the 16th October, 1920.

At the time, Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom,

but the majority of Irish people wanted an end to British Rule.

This led to a conflict known as the Irish War of Independence

between the forces of the British Crown

and the recently formed Irish Republican Army - the IRA -

who were fighting for Irish Independence.

In the face of the Crown Forces' overwhelming military might,

IRA soldiers used guerrilla tactics.

Wearing plain clothes, they operated out of safe houses

and launched sporadic attacks.

To try to root them out, the Crown Forces frequently raided

and ransacked private homes.

"There have of late been several raids by the Crown Forces

"on the premises in quest of Mr O'Carroll's sons."

I knew they were raiding and they was looking for...

-They were looking for the three of them.

-For my uncles.

-So these boys?

-Yeah, who are in the photograph.

They were members of the IRA.

I'm not sure if all four were, but three of them were.

That's Mick, that's Jim, that's Liam. That's Peadar.

In 1920, it was a different thing to be a member of the IRA then

than it was in the '70s or '80s.

They were very much part of Ireland's struggle for independence.

OK. Look at this.

"The shop bore no trace of a struggle of any kind."

"Not an atom in it was disturbed."

If they were supposed to be looking for the boys,

why wouldn't they search the house?

The raids are usually noisy and boisterous cos they want to show...

they kind of want to make an example of you. But in this one...

-Seems to have been done stealthily for some reason.

-Yes.

OK. Look at this.

"On the body of the victim was pinned a piece of paper bearing

"the words, 'A traitor to Ireland - shot by the IRA.'

"This infamous suggestion has caused great pain

"to Mrs O'Carroll and her family. "

Were you told about that when you were a kid?

Yeah. No, we knew about it

and it said that this man is a traitor to...

this man is a traitor to Ireland, shot by the IRA.

But was always just pooh-poohed.

Because our family were a very, very Republican family.

It would upset me a little bit thinking that he was a... but...

-A traitor?!

-Not a traitor, but...

-Jeez, it would have upset me.

-It seems to be complete shock.

-Yeah...at the...at the suggestion.

"An extraordinary thing is that no report of a shot was heard -

"not even by Mrs O'Carroll, who was sitting in her bedroom

"listening as intently as possible to every motion."

How could you be in the same house as somebody,

somebody getting shot and not hear? This is all a bit...odd.

"Muffled shot. Silently come and go.

"Noiselessly done to death."

What I was told was a casual shooting, it seems to be a hit.

It's like reading a spy story. Who would possibly assassinate him?

And look at this.

"The City Coroner was told by the Lord Lieutenant not to hold

"an inquest...

"..as a military inquiry is to be held."

That might be something that you might be able to find out -

what the findings of the military inquiry were.

You'd hardly expect to find the actual name

of the person that shot your granddad, would you?

No. I think the chances of finding out a name are absolutely remote.

If I can find out a group or Commanding Officer...

-Something from the military...

-A reason. A reason.

Why did they shoot you?

Brendan is performing in the Mrs Brown live show in the evenings.

-Hello, boys. You look busy. You look busy.

-Always busy, Brendan.

Up to our eyes.

But he's using the days

to investigate his grandfather's murder.

First, he wants to know why a military inquiry was

ordered into the killing.

And there's a gentlemen from the UK called Charles Townshend

who said he'd meet me here,

and I think he may have some answers for me.

Because I don't think he came all the way over here

to tell me he doesn't know.

So fingers crossed we get to the first part of the puzzle.

-Charles.

-Brendan, nice to meet you.

-You too.

-Thanks very much for coming,

-you're very good.

-Come on in.

OK.

Charles Townshend is Professor of International History

at Keele University.

OK, Charles.

This reads - and your experience would be a lot more than mine -

when you read through this article,

somebody planned somewhere

to assassinate this particular person, Peter O'Carroll,

for either what he knew or who he was.

This was all pre-planned. This was as assassination.

It has the look of an assassination, yeah.

But, Charles, the bit that is baffling me particularly is this.

"The City Coroner has received a communique

"from the Lord Lieutenant directing him not to hold an inquest

"as a military inquiry is to be held."

Now, why a military inquiry instead of a normal civil inquest?

Well because Coroners' Inquests had been suspended, um,

just the month before I think, under a package of emergency laws

that the British brought in in August, 1920,

after their legal system had practically broken down.

And what was causing that?

Well basically, courts couldn't function any more.

Jurors were intimidated by the IRA and wouldn't turn up.

Witnesses wouldn't talk to the police in the first place,

or even if they did, they wouldn't attend court.

And it was a terrific humiliation for the British.

They decided Coroners' Inquests had to go

and they replaced them with Military Courts of Inquiry

which were held behind closed doors, in fact.

-Not open to the public at all?

-No.

The British description of them was "held in private"

but they were widely described as secret courts.

And this is just for Ireland?

Just for Ireland, oh, yes.

So, if we're trying to find who killed my grandfather,

have we any idea as to what went on?

Well we do know that there's...

we have a bare record of the proceedings, and it is very bare.

-I see, here. O'Carroll, Peter.

-Yep.

92 Manor Street, Dublin.

The date of the death was the 16th of the 10th, which we know.

Wilful murder...

What's PU stand for?

-That's by "persons unknown."

-Persons unknown.

And haemorrhage and shock which is the cause of the death, obviously.

But persons unknown, so that's the end. Cause of death -

haemorrhaging due to a bullet wound. There was a bullet wound.

And who shot him? We don't know. Persons unknown.

Thank you very much.

-Next.

-Yes, next case, yeah.

Is there any record of the evidence that was given to this inquiry?

Well, as far as we know, almost no evidence was given to the inquiry.

In effect, it didn't take place.

-That we can see from a response here to a parliamentary question...

-Oh.

-This is the House of Commons.

-The following...

It's in the House of Commons, the following month.

-This is about my grandfather?

-It is.

"A military court of inquiry in lieu of inquest

"was held in this case on the 19th October

"and gave the following finding.

"Peter O'Carroll, civilian,

"died on the 16th October from a bullet wound.

"Owing to the omission of Mrs O'Carroll,

"wife of the deceased,

"to obey the summons of the court to appear as a witness

"there is no evidence forthcoming

"to show under what circumstances the above wound was afflicted."

She's the only witness and she wouldn't give evidence.

Why would she refuse to give evidence

into an inquiry into his death?

Well, as it happens, we know why.

She provided a remarkably full explanation of this in a letter

she wrote to the Dublin Corporation.

-A letter from my granny?

-That's right.

The Dublin Corporation met here in this very building two days after...

Two days after the death.

..to hear read out this letter there, which you can see.

-Here? In City Hall?

-In the Council Chamber, yes.

"My Lord Mayor, ladies and gentlemen, about 1.50am

"on Saturday the 16th, my husband, Peter O'Carroll

"was foully and brutally murdered by members of the Army of Occupation.

"Not content with this, they placed a label on his body

"which maligned the living and defamed the dead."

That'll be the note they pinned to say that he was shot by the IRA.

Yeah.

"Myself and members of my family have been notified to attend

"the inquiry which is to be held today

"by the same Army of Occupation.

"I cannot see my way to recognise this inquiry

"for the simple reason that it is to be conducted

"by the murderers of my husband."

"And I now demand that an inquest be ordered by the City Coroner.

"I seek not vengeance.

"I only ask for justice and truth,

"trusting there is yet civilisation enough left

"to have my demand granted. Annie O'Carroll."

Way to go, Granny! Quite a political statement.

It is. It's a refusal to recognise the British...

-It's a Court of the Occupiers.

-Yeah.

-So...

As far as the official records go, we have the mishmash of an inquiry.

-And that's it, officially?

-Yeah.

Thank you very much, Charles.

You've made the mystery that I thought I was going to clear up

more mystifying!

Yeah. That was interesting. Well, an interesting man.

Um, but it hasn't really moved me that much forward.

I tell you what did help, was seeing a letter from Annie, from my granny.

Granny Annie is my kind of woman.

She's starting to sound like Mrs Brown!

HE LAUGHS

MRS BROWN VOICE: "I refuse to recognise the court!"

But when Annie said that she didn't want vengeance,

I genuinely think she meant that.

She said she genuinely feels she wants truth and justice.

You could see from the official record,

she wasn't going to get that under any circumstances.

So here we are nearly 100 years later, maybe -

I don't know about justice - maybe I can get truth.

We're not going to find out anything official,

so I think at this point I've got to broaden the search.

I think if I'm going to investigate this properly,

I need to deal with the note.

The note that he was shot by IRA. Why would somebody do that?

Why would you pin a note to somebody saying,

"This man's a traitor to Ireland"? That always bothered me.

Always bothered me.

Throughout the War of Independence,

spies, and those seen as traitors,

were important to both the IRA and the Crown Forces.

Inside information was essential,

because it could be hard to know which side people were on.

IRA men, dressed in plain clothes, mingled with the crowd,

and the Crown too was using undercover intelligence officers.

The IRA's Head of Intelligence, Michael Collins,

had moles in the British camp.

And the British also recruited spies and informers.

The note left on Peter O'Carroll's body

suggests he was involved in this murky world.

Could it be that, unknown to his family,

he was in the pay of the British as some kind of spy?

Historian Eamonn Gardiner

is an expert on the situation in Dublin at the time.

-Eamonn?

-Brendan. Good to meet you.

-How you doing?

Good to meet you. So, why are we meeting here?

What you have in 1920s Dublin is,

you have the IRA fighting an underground war

and sometimes it was necessary to meet in public and pass messages.

So, this could be a good example in say on a dark, foggy evening,

you meet, and you pass a message quickly.

So the reason I want to talk to you, my grandfather when he was...

when the body was found, after he was shot,

there was a note pinned to him saying,

"A traitor to Ireland, shot by the IRA."

I actually have something here for you.

"Tried, convicted and executed by IRA."

It's a copy of a note found pinned to a body of a man who was

executed by the IRA, for allegedly being a spy.

So that did sometimes happen. If you look at the back.

It's the blood.

-That's actually a copy of the man's blood.

-My God!

So taking into account that a similar letter was pinned

to my grandfather's body,

would that mean that he may have been

a spy of some sort on the British side?

Is that what it would mean to you?

In the case of your grandfather,

I don't think he was executed by the IRA.

Cos there are a number of pieces of evidence that point to the contrary.

Even though this was an actual IRA execution note,

the British has started to realise that they could fracture and

instil some doubt in the IRA itself by putting out disinformation.

Such as false notes on bodies?

-Such as false notes on bodies.

-Supposedly coming from the IRA.

Supposedly coming from the IRA.

So it could have been the British and Lord knows, you know,

we would want it... I would want it to be.

But that's not enough to definitively say

that he wasn't killed by the IRA.

No. On its own, this isn't definitive.

This comes from the Irish Times and it's

a description of the Curfew Order which required people to be indoors

after a certain time at night -

remain indoors until the morning time.

It says, "Last night the Dublin streets were again patrolled

"by detachments of military, some of whom carried crowbars.

"At different places soldiers stood in doorways and then at other

"points, plain clothes policemen were on duty."

The British Forces owned the night.

They, as the occupying power, they had the men, they had the law,

they had the ability to project power.

And what you had is you had a series of checkpoints throughout

the city, stopping people and asking, "Do you have a permit?"

If you were out after dark without a permit,

you were instantly suspicious and you instantly stood out.

So what you're saying to me is that it wouldn't have been

easy for three men from the IRA to go up to a house

and shoot somebody and then walk away without being detected?

-Yes.

-Permits can be forged.

Permits can be forged, yes, but I do have another piece of information

for you that will hopefully put the matter to rest for you.

This is a press cutting from the day of your grandfather's funeral.

You see here...

"Requiem Mass for the repose of the soul of Mr Peter O'Carroll,

"killed in his own house on Saturday morning was celebrated in

"Aughrim Street Church yesterday,

"after which the funeral took place to Glasnevin.

"The chief mourners were Mrs O'Carroll,

"Liam, Peadar, Michael, Gearoid..." that's my dad,

"..and Seumas, Moira and Martha..." they were his daughters.

"Amongst other mourners were Alderman Michael Staines,

"Dermot O'Crowley, barrister, Counsellor Nolan..."

-Michael Staines was a well known Nationalist.

-He was.

"And representatives of Colmcille branch of the Gaelic League."

Volunteer officers. They would be IRA themselves.

They would be IRA themselves. This was a Nationalist funeral.

This was a proud Nationalist funeral.

-They wouldn't be seen dead at the funeral of a spy.

-No.

My granddad was being honoured here.

He was. He was.

So we haven't got a spy. We still have a body.

-You have a murder.

-And we've a murder.

-And murderers.

Well, the family story always was,

we always believed that it was the Black and Tans.

Now we thought it was a random killing.

Random or not, we always believed it was the Black and Tans.

Are we getting closer to the truth there?

During the War of Independence,

the Black and Tans were the most notorious contingent

of the Crown Forces.

Brought in to strengthen the police force in Ireland,

this group was mainly made up of British ex-soldiers.

The name Black and Tans came from their mixed police

and military uniforms.

These new recruits soon became infamous for their brutality.

Brendan's family has always believed

that it was the Black and Tans who were responsible

for killing Peter O'Carroll.

Might have a slight misconception and it's a popular misconception.

As it happens, the Black and Tans didn't operate in Dublin.

But there were other supplementary security forces

operating in Dublin at the time.

-Like who?

-The Auxiliary Division.

While the Black and Tans were drawn from rank and file ex-soldiers,

the Auxiliaries were mostly ex-officers -

an elite force seen as a cut above the rest.

Many had fought through the brutality of the Great War

and were now bringing their experience of warfare to Ireland.

Their mission - to take the battle to the IRA.

-So who commanded it?

-They had their own command structure.

They were...they were responsible to themselves?

They were largely responsible to themselves.

The Black and Tans were hated,

but the Auxiliaries were feared by the IRA because they were so good.

So we could be looking at the Auxiliaries?

That is the distinct possibility.

Would they have had access to a silent type weapon?

Well, hopefully I can show you about that.

In 1920, British Army barracks were spread throughout Dublin.

This one housed over a thousand men.

So who would have been stationed here?

This would have been regular Army, regular British Army.

Today, it's part of the National Museum of Ireland.

At the heart of the building is a heavily secured storeroom.

Couple of steel doors here, next are the alarms inside.

Curator Lar Joye is one of only two people with special clearance

to access the area.

Phew...

Mother of God!

The weapons held in this armoury

would provide a good cross-section of the weapons

that would be used in Dublin around this period

by both the Irish Republican Army, the IRA, and the Crown Forces.

It's these weapons we're talking about?

No, these weapons are long weapons.

You have rifles and pump-action shotguns.

The weapon we're talking about is a weapon with much more finesse.

It's a much quieter weapon.

This is the particular pistol.

Webley & Scott.

Such a small looking gun.

OK, Brendan, so here we have the model, 1908, Webley & Scott,

semi-automatic pistol.

I think this is more than likely the type of weapon that was used

in the murder of your grandfather, for a number of factors.

Why do you think that?

Well, the weapon, you see, is actually incredibly small.

If you just look here - it has a very small calibre.

The bullets are .32 of an inch,

much smaller than say the normal pistol rounds at the time.

As well as that, because of the design of the gun,

-the ammunition used is subsonic.

-Subsonic?

That means that it doesn't create a shock wave

when it passes through the air which reduces the noise significantly.

This could go a long way to explaining

why the gunshot was so quiet.

-A thud instead of a bang.

-Yes.

How many people did the article say were present?

Two to three. Let's say three.

So three or four bodies around,

with the bullet entering almost directly into the person's head.

The gunshot would have been muffled.

Which is what it describes in there, in the newspaper.

-It does.

-A muffled gunshot.

-Mm-hmm.

-OK. Now, the obvious question.

Would the Auxiliaries have had the access to this?

The Auxiliaries would have had access to this weapon, yes.

But listen to this...

"He lay face downwards, and when turned over, a huge bullet

"wound was discovered in his left temple but with a swelling at

"the right side, as if the bullet had not passed through."

If the bullet was a fragmenting bullet

-or a dum-dum bullet as they're more commonly known...

-I know. Yeah.

..and that bullet enters somebody, turns into shrapnel, that will

not normally produce an exit wound.

-I presume dum-dums weren't standard issue?

-No. No.

Dum-dum rounds were frowned upon significantly but there's

evidence that some of the Auxiliaries were using such rounds.

Now I believe if we look at the nature of the killing,

the nature of the weapon and the type of operation and the type

of person who would have been able to plan such an operation,

there's the possibility that the weapon could be linked

to a counterintelligence raid.

Now we know that the Auxiliaries had an intelligence unit.

They had their own intelligence units within their company.

-Counterintelligence.

-Counterintelligence.

-Which, by its very nature, is secret.

-Yes.

The records we have on the Auxiliaries' intelligence unit

are speculative. There's nobody listed.

What I'm finding out piece by piece by piece,

some of it is very, very enlightening

and some of it's baffling.

Thanks to the discovery of the gun, the modus operandi,

the fact that it was clinical - I think we're, we're down to...

we're down to professional killers.

INDISTINCT CONVERSATION

Your granddad was a traitor. THEY LAUGH

Brendan has been telling his family, including younger son Eric,

what he's discovered so far.

-Are you listening to this, Eric, yeah?

-Yeah, I'm good.

I'm talking about my grandfather's death!

THEY LAUGH

For God's sake, show a shred of human decency.

Da, when you seen the gun, what was it like?

-Actually holding it in your hand? How did you feel?

-Um...

This is going to sound silly, I felt dirty. I felt horrible and dirty.

It's dreadful that a tiny little package like that...

Changed your whole family.

So you say there was intelligence, counterintelligence.

Were you surprised?

Yeah, well, first of all,

I didn't think there was that kind of group within the Auxiliaries

or within the Black and Tans.

And I'd be doubly surprised to find

if they had any interest in my grandfather.

If they had any interest in my grandfather, I'd love to know why.

What had he done?

Or what was he about to do or what was he involved in?

Because he wasn't arrested, he wasn't beaten up.

He was executed.

I still don't know why there wasn't a struggle for him to...

That baffles me. Why wouldn't he fight?

If someone put a gun to your head and you're going,

"This is it, I'm going to die," would you just take it?

But there's three other lads. You have no chance.

-I'd still put up a struggle.

-Who's to say

what you'd do in this situation.

-I don't think you'd know what you'd do...

-I know exactly...

If there's a gun pointing at you and you're looking down a barrel.

I'd try and get the gun. I'd hit somebody before...

-Nobody actually knows what they would do.

-Hey!

There's a good reason I'm not bringing any of yous

on this journey. THEY LAUGH

So, what's the next step?

I think I have to revisit the scene of the crime.

I'll have to go back to my granddad's house.

-Manor Street?

-Yeah.

It's no longer a hardware store that my dad had. It's now a...

-It's called Sexy Nails.

-Oh, lovely!

-So...

Well, I can do a little bit of investigating here and go,

"A manicure, thank you very much, French polish if you don't mind.

"Ooh, look, is that a fingerprint?"

INDISTINCT CONVERSATION

In 1920, Manor Street in Stoneybatter,

near Dublin City Centre, was a staunchly Republican area -

fertile recruiting ground for young men like Brendan's uncles who

became volunteer soldiers in the Irish Republican Army.

It was here Peter O'Carroll had his hardware shop.

-Hello, how are you?

-Hello.

-What's your name?

-Anna.

Hiya, Anna, nice to meet you.

-And this is my niece Kelly.

-Hello, Kelly. How are you?

So, um, it's going to sound, um, weird,

but my granddad I think was shot in this shop.

I'm trying to work out the configuration of the shop,

so according to this, he came down the stairs here.

This was the shop, the main shop, and it was packed with stuff.

Many people... This was a shop when your grandfather was here?

Yeah. Kind of a hardware shop.

See here, in the newspaper article - 12ft to 14ft.

-It was really small.

-Tiny. And the whole area was covered in stock.

The door opened from the right. So they'd have come in...

And they said it nearly touched the counter.

So the counter was here, the kitchenette was there...

..and they shot him in the left temple.

So if he's walking...

..they backed him in, he walked backwards this way,

towards the kitchen from the door,

and then the shooting took place - in the left temple.

If you have a counter and you've all stock, if they didn't put him

in here, he'd nowhere, he'd nowhere to go, it was...

There wouldn't have been enough room for a struggle.

No, it would have been easy. I mean, you were shooting fish in a barrel.

-Would have been easy to hold him down.

-Mm, it would have been.

According to this, my granny,

believing that those who killed her husband were

still about the place, she betook herself to prayer in her bedroom.

The room she was in was immediately over the shop.

So, according to the statement given by one of the older girls,

she says, "My father got up and having put on his trousers

"and stockings, went downstairs to admit those outside."

So he's gone down the stairs, he has his trousers and stockings,

we know he was carrying his boots, but this bit here,

"My mother also got out of bed and looked through the window."

And this is the window that's over the doorway.

So she would have looked out here.

And it says into a "densely dark night."

And yet she still was able to make out the forms of two or three men.

"After this, all appeared absolutely quiet."

See, this is...

"Except for a slight movement of persons walking in the shop floor.

"There was a slight thud and then stillness."

I'm above the shop now and I can hear

everything that's going on down there.

I can hear people talking.

I can hear doors opening and closing.

I can hear footsteps even from outside the door.

Yet she didn't hear anything. No struggle.

It's kind of...

it...it sounds to me, and I'm not CSI Dublin,

but it sounds to me like he opened the door expecting it to be a raid.

He opened the door and when he opened the door they immediately

walked in, put him on the ground, boom, shot him and left.

So there was no time for him

to even think about what was going on or react. I hope.

I hope it was quick.

I think about my granny getting out of bed like...

And watching him disappear through the door with his boots in his hand.

And not for a moment thinking that

that'll be the last time she'd see him alive.

Good God!

How are you, Joe? Good to see you, mate. Always...

-All right, pal.

-Good to see you, how are you? How are you?

How are you, Brendan?

-Long time no see, how are you?

-Give us a pint of, er, lager shandy.

Although Brendan now thinks an intelligence unit within

the Auxiliaries could have been

responsible for his grandfather's killing,

he still doesn't have a motive or any leads on individual officers.

-There it is.

-Thanks very much. Thanks a lot, pal.

-Thank you.

Interestingly, and I skipped over this,

there's something that might help me here.

Let me read for a second.

"The proprietor, Mr Peter O'Carroll, an invalid, was shot dead

"by armed men who carried out their purpose with a noiseless weapon

"and departed silently having accomplished it."

Now they make a point of saying,

"This aspect of the crime, which is the noiseless weapon,

"and is silent, in and out.

"This aspect of the crime bears a striking resemblance

"to the recent hotel tragedy

"where it will be remembered there was a concurrence of testimony

"that no noise of shots was heard

"even by the occupants in adjoining rooms."

What exactly is the hotel tragedy?

They're referring to my granddad's murder as a morning tragedy.

So a hotel tragedy could be hotel murder.

Maybe they found out who did that.

And that could be the group that murdered my grandfather.

So I've got to find out what tragedy, what hotel and

why was that carried out?

The plot thickens. This is like a movie.

To try and track down a reference to the hotel tragedy,

Brendan has come to the National Library of Ireland.

I'm starting on October 18th,

that's the date that the newspaper carried

the details of my granddad's killing.

So I'm going to work back from that. So let's have a look.

Hold on a second.

"Dublin street tragedy. Further scenes of terrorism.

"Divine services interrupted. A priest fired at." Nope.

15th, three days earlier, still nothing.

"Another tragedy in County Clare." No.

Go on to the 12th. Still nothing.

I don't know if it's going to be a front page headline,

but I presume it would be.

"Two more shooting tragedies.

"Tipperary youth killed." These were dangerous times.

We're going back to September.

27th, I'm back as far as and I've seen nothing.

It's coming down to three weeks before the death,

I'm starting to wonder is it here at all.

Oh!

Have it. I have it.

"Appalling tragedy in Dublin hotel.

"A county councillor killed in dead of night."

I'm going to have to enlarge this now, adjust it, see if I can...

It's very faint, just let me...

"A shocking tragedy was enacted shortly after 3am

"yesterday in the Exchange Hotel, Dublin.

"Mr JA Lynch, county councillor,

"was shot dead in his bedroom by military,

"who, it is officially declared, went to arrest him."

"No sound was heard, not even by the occupants of the adjoining rooms."

That sounds familiar.

"Mr Lynch was shot through the head, dying instantaneously."

There's a statement here from the occupants

on either side of the room in which Mr Lynch was killed,

and of the rooms on the opposite side of the corridor.

They state that they heard no shots, no noises.

It looks like exactly the same style of killing.

The silent gun, the hour of the morning, that it was, you know,

single bullet at the back of the head.

It's an execution style. Literally shot where they were.

Exactly the same as my granddad.

Whoever these people are, they're a law unto themselves.

They don't worry about breaking any rules cos they make the rules.

You get the feeling reading the, um,

reading the article that was written about my granddad...

that the journalist who wrote it,

by drawing attention to the similarities,

was trying to say it was the same people that

killed Lynch in the Exchange Hotel, but couldn't say that.

Censorship was the order of the day.

So maybe if I can find out who killed Lynch it will bring me

closer to finding out who killed my grandfather.

But I can't do it on my own. Oh, I need help.

So I'm going to meet Ian Kennelly.

He's an expert on the censor...well, he'd know more about the censorship

at that time and what the press was actually doing at that time

than I would, and hopefully he might be able to help me somewhere...

I think that's him there now.

-Ian.

-Brendan, how are you?

-How you doing?

-Thanks for meeting me, appreciate it.

-Pleased to meet you.

Where do you want to have a cup of coffee?

First of all, I thought I'd bring you just to this spot

so you might look up there

and see something you might have already encountered in your journey.

The Royal Exchange Hotel. Good grief.

-This is where the Lynch murder took place.

-Mm-hmm. Right inside there.

-It's not a hotel any more but that's where he met his demise.

-My God!

So let's talk.

I think we should get out of the busy street into this cafe and talk.

Yes, let's do that. Thank, Ian, thanks very much.

Now you'd know about censorship at that time

and you've read the article about my granddad.

And the journalist, where he says here the similarity between

the killing of Lynch in the Exchange Hotel across the road, is he trying

to say something more here, but is watching what he's saying?

-Is he trying to say that there's a connection?

-Yeah.

He uses in that the phrase "striking resemblance"

and it's widely known that the Auxiliaries,

or the Crown Forces let's say, were involved in that killing of Lynch.

So by saying that he's saying without explicitly saying that

I reckon it's the same, it's the same situation with Peter O'Carroll.

Yeah, but is he saying he reckons, is he guessing or does he know more?

Well he is...he probably knows more.

Now this is September/October, 1920.

In August, 1920, there was a counter-insurgency legislation

called Restoration of Order in Ireland Act.

That meant newspapers couldn't print any report, even if

it was true, that was deemed to cause "disaffection"

was the word they used, to His Majesty or His Majesty's Forces.

-We will tell you what you can put in the paper?

-Yeah.

There was, say, intimidation against newspapers.

Newspapers were closed down,

they were firebombed by Auxiliaries on a number of occasions.

Now there were IRA attacks

but actually the Crown Forces were involved

in most of the violence against newspapers,

and journalists are afraid to say what they really know,

so they often used euphemisms and hints.

I think the journalist is clearly making

a link between Peter O'Carroll's death and Lynch's death.

And if it's the same type of killing, it may well be the same

person or the same group of people who are involved.

So, if he's saying that it could be the same people...

..did they ever discover who it was that killed Lynch?

There are sources that name individuals within

the British Intelligence network who were involved in assassinations.

And I actually have one document here from a Republican that names -

I'm not saying it's the individual

who was involved in Peter O'Carroll's death -

-but names individuals who were involved in shooting Lynch.

-Really?

And it may lead you on to something else.

So he's talking about Lynch's killers?

Yeah, what he knows, what he had heard about Lynch's killing.

"I was horrified to read in the press that Mr Lynch had been

"murdered that night in his bed.

"It appears that about 2am

"a party of English officers and RIC men

"knocked at the hotel door, they demanded the number of Lynch's room

"and having got it, went upstairs.

"After a short while they came downstairs and departed.

"They had shot Lynch as he lay in his bed.

"Collins, with his wonderfully organised intelligence system..."

That's Michael Collins?

Yeah, and Director of Intelligence for the IRA.

"..right in the enemy's heart,

"soon discovered who poor Lynch's murderers were.

"One of them was an Englishman who lodged in a house in Mount Street...

"..under the name of MacMahon.

"His real name was Angliss, and he had lately come across from England

"with several others to do intelligence and murder work."

That statement is accurate.

He had come over as part of a small group to do this intelligence work.

These men, they came over for intelligence and murder?

Oh, yes. The intelligence was the first part and then they'd act

on that intelligence by assassinating people.

So let me do amateur detective here for a second.

He's sure that MacMahon/Angliss was in the Royal Exchange Hotel

at Lynch's murder.

If the same style of weapon was used,

if the same modus operandi was used,

if the same way of using the weapon was used,

I don't think it's unreasonable of me

to think that the same people were there when my granddad was shot.

I don't think that's unreasonable at all.

We know that there was a small group of intelligence operatives working

in the city at this stage and they're travelling about

trying to build up intelligence on people

and acting upon that intelligence by assassinating them.

So I need to find out more about MacMahon/Angliss and his cohorts.

You know, I've resigned myself to...

if I could just find out the group that were responsible,

but it's starting to narrow down to maybe individuals.

I think I might get this down to two or three people who could be

responsible for the... for the murder of my grandfather.

And that's a lot more than I hoped for when I started this.

It's a long time ago and I don't want to be accusing anybody but

I'm too far down the road now

to not follow this through as far as I can.

In 1920, Dublin Castle was the centre point of British rule

in Ireland - as it had been for centuries.

The British Intelligence officers were based here.

Brendan is hoping historian Dr William Sheehan will be able

to tell him more about this group.

Brendan, nice to meet you.

William, thanks very much for this, I really appreciate it.

This was the headquarters of British Military Intelligence of the time?

Yes. This would have been their base.

In fact, it's just over there, it's that part of the castle.

-Shall we go over?

-Yeah, please.

The name I have is this man MacMahon/Angliss.

Am I on the wrong track?

Well, you're certainly on the right track

because Angliss would have been part of this group of officers.

-But can I show you this witness statement?

-Yeah, please do.

-Um...

-What is this?

Are you familiar with the witness statements? OK.

The witness statements were taken in the 1950s by the Irish Army

to get the memories of the IRA participants in the conflict,

get their stories.

And so they've been very valuable to historians

but it'll be very valuable to you.

-This is a statement by David Neligan...

-David Neligan.

Neligan was working here in Dublin Castle for the British,

but his primary loyalty was to Michael Collins and the IRA,

and he was able to feed information on British operations

and British personnel to Collins.

So this is actually Neligan's testimony

-on the events of that autumn.

-In 1920?

-In 1920.

So this is the page which is, I think, relevant to you.

It starts here.

"The British Secret Service was active in Dublin about this time.

"A man named Lynch from East Limerick had come to Dublin with

"a large sum of money which he turned over to Michael Collins.

"He stayed at the Exchange Hotel quite close to the Castle."

-I was there yesterday, it's 100 yards away.

-Yeah.

"But several men in civilian clothes called to the hotel one night

"and shot the Limerick man dead.

"Collins was most anxious to have the assassins identified

"and I was told to get busy.

"I visited College Police Station where I found a friend on duty.

"He allowed me to look through the Occurrence Book.

"In it was a copy of a phone message from a certain

"British military officer stating that he and others

"had gone to arrest a Sinn Feiner at the hotel.

"That he had fired at him and that they had replied, killing him.

"The same British officer figured in another murder...

"..a fact I knew from a description of him

"given to volunteers by the Carroll family."

-That's...

-That's your family, yeah.

"An old man name O'Carroll kept a locksmith shop in Stoneybatter,

"a working-class quarter of the city.

"He had two sons, active volunteers."

That would be Liam and Michael.

"O'Carroll had a visit from a British Army officer

"who warned him that if his sons

"did not surrender at the Castle before a given date...

"he would be shot.

"O'Carroll was found shot dead in his shop later.

"On his body was pinned a card - 'Spies beware.'"

Was close.

"Tobin brought me a slip of paper and on it was written, in Collins'

"writing, 'Concentrate on Hardy.'

"That was the name of the killer.

"MacNamara and myself knew this man well,

"he was an Orangeman with an artificial leg,

"on the Castle garrison

"and was an intelligence officer in the Auxiliaries,

"and a very hostile killer."

HE SIGHS

Hardy.

This is the man who killed my grandfather.

Yeah. What we have here is Neligan pinpointing Hardy as the shooter.

And possibly the same man who killed Lynch as well.

Oh, Jesus!

So my grandfather was killed because his sons wouldn't surrender?

That's basically it, yes.

I'm not...I'm not a dreamer.

My granddad would have been one of the enemy

but it's just coming home so callously real.

I mean, it puts your grandfather in an impossible position.

-Yeah.

-What's he going to do?

-He can't hand over his sons.

-I would hope not.

-Yeah, yeah.

We look at it and we think, you know, how do these officers,

these agents of the state,

people who should be accountable to the courts,

who should be accountable to, you know, someone,

how do they go about and do something like this?

But essentially, they see this as a kind of strategy.

They don't see your grandfather as an individual.

He's not a person, he's a piece in a chessboard.

Exactly, he's a piece in a chessboard

that they can move around or remove.

You know, there are people who subscribe to the theory that

all is fair in love and war.

I don't think that's fair.

Hardy, whose full name was Jocelyn Lee Hardy,

had arrived in Dublin

just a few months before the killing of Peter O'Carroll.

He came with a formidable reputation.

He'd been taken prisoner in the Great War but escaped.

Later, he'd lost a leg in battle.

Brendan has an appointment with Professor Ronan Fanning,

who knows more.

So why are we meeting here?

Because Harcourt Street is where Hardy lived in the autumn of 1920.

And most of the other intelligence officers who came over,

they lived in what you might call the South Dublin inner suburbs.

But the thing about Hardy was he was very much a lone wolf.

Brave, unquestionably,

but he was also unquestionably utterly ruthless.

Now, Ronan, I've read a statement that virtually,

definitively says yes, that this man Hardy killed my grandfather.

That's the overwhelming belief.

Certainly everybody in the IRA believed that

and the evidence points in that direction.

And this actually shows the IRA's view of him.

"Hardy was a slight man and walked with a limp, but he could be deadly.

"He was responsible for the shootings, tortures

"and beatings which took place in the Castle.

"He was the most interesting character.

"A born murderer."

The activities of Jocelyn Lee Hardy and his associates

quickly made them prime targets for the IRA.

At the time of Peter O'Carroll's killing,

the IRA's Michael Collins was already formulating a plan

to eliminate the British intelligence operatives in Dublin.

Just three weeks later, on Sunday, 21st November,

Collins put his plan into action.

IRA men visited the lodgings of British agents

and shot 14 individuals dead.

As a result of this, and British reprisals later that afternoon,

the day became known as Bloody Sunday.

Was Hardy killed on Bloody Sunday?

No. He was very high on the hit list,

but when they went to the hotel in Harcourt Street he wasn't there.

He was a survivor.

So he's not killed on Bloody Sunday,

the IRA must have got him at some stage?

-The IRA did keep trying to get him, but they never succeeded.

-Never?

No. You see, after the war is over, everybody says on both sides,

"We can't go round trying to settle scores."

-So my grandfather's killer goes unpunished?

-Yes.

-Did this man Hardy just go back to normal life then?

-Yes.

He becomes a banker, fairly affluent in that kind of stockbroker world.

-He also writes some novels. He writes a play.

-He wrote books.

And these are two of the books he wrote in later life.

One of the books here is called I Escape

and that's particularly interesting.

I think you'll find this particularly interesting

because there's a photograph of him in this.

There he is.

That was taken in 1918.

That's the last face my grandfather saw.

Jesus, he's some...!

You know, in my case it's personal.

-Of course it's personal.

-And I would have liked...

I would have liked to have seen somebody taken to account for it.

Nine months after Peter O'Carroll's killing,

a truce was declared in the War of Independence.

Negotiations followed.

And on the 6th December, 1921,

a treaty was signed.

Six counties in Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom,

but the rest of the country became independent.

British Forces left the newly created Irish Free State

and many members of the IRA joined the new official Irish Army.

The war that had taken the life of Peter O'Carroll was at an end.

And for nearly 100 years,

the mystery of what happened that night on Manor Street

remained unsolved.

I started off with the story

that my grandfather was killed by the Black and Tans.

I didn't expect it to come down to an individual.

Then to find out a name of somebody who...

To be able to put the gun in somebody's hand

and see a photograph of Mr Hardy was very odd

because it became very personal.

All of a sudden, he became very human,

and you can see him standing in my granddad's shop.

A thing I found very upsetting is that I get the feeling

my granddad knew he was going to die.

I...I think he knew when that knock came to the door

that when he went downstairs they were going to shoot him.

Cos they said they would.

But he wasn't going to shop his sons under any circumstances.

He wasn't going to hand in his sons.

So it's a pretty dire predicament to be in.

He went down to face what was going to be an inevitable execution.

"In loving memory of Peter O'Carroll,

"shot at his home during curfew.

"16th October, 1920."

I was determined not to come back here

until such time as we'd completed the search.

And now that we're back, I see my granny is there, Annie O'Carroll.

She died on the 4th March, 1954.

That would be a year before I was born.

And when I first saw this, there was no sense of attachment.

It was...

I may as well have been looking at that one, the one next door,

there was no sense.

The "shot at his home," that was very stark

and that's what started me on the search.

And even then, getting the newspaper article and reading the newspaper,

I may as well have been reading about, you know, a stranger.

But this search has made it very personal, and made him very human.

All of them. The story's reborn.

The story hasn't died with them.

In the letter to the Lord Mayor,

my grandmother said that she didn't want vengeance,

she wanted truth and she wanted justice.

And, well, this is the truth and we're beyond justice, I think,

at this stage, but at least we got the truth.

And the truth that I never expected to get. Never.