At midday May 16th 1922, Lieutenant General Jeremiah Joseph J.J (Ginger) O'Connell raised the tricolour on the top of the water tower which overlooks the Curragh camp.
The Curragh was not just another army camp. It was one of the biggest in Europe, home to 10,000 British troops and the fulcrum of British military power in Ireland. It was bigger than most Irish towns and better equipped with a swimming pool, two cinemas, three churches and three houses.
It was the site of the notorious 1914 Curragh incident (also known as munity) in which many Anglo-Irish officer opted to resign their commissions rather than obey British government policy on Ulster and home rule.
In May 1922 some 300 British vehicles left in a convoy from the Curragh to be replaced by a detachment of National Army troops from Kildare town.
A century on, the tricolour on the water tower was raised by Brigadier General Brendan McGuinness, the general officer commanding the Defence Forces Training Centre.
The ceremony took place in the presence of Lieut Gen O’Connell’s nearest surviving relatives the Duffys with a military parade and fly past by the PC-9 training aircrafts.
Later the family unveiled a plaque marking the centenary of the handover of the camp.
Brig Gen McGuinness said the Irish army had served the State loyaly for the last 100 years. He told hundreds of guests, including former army veterans and their families, that serving personnel looked forward to implementing the Commission on the Defence Forces which calls for a complete overhaul and strengthening of the existing military.
He told those present: “Ministers, public representatives and our Chief of Staff are discussing and advocating for a well-resourced modern Defence Force that can operate to preserve Ireland’s interests in the current complex defence and security environment.
“Ireland has a particular geographical location and plays a leading role in the UN, the EU and participates fully in a range of international agencies and bodies to project and protect our national identity, values and interests. The Defene Forces has and can support many of these roles.”
Lieut Gen O'Connell was not a man for elaborate ceremonies, his great-niece Emer Duffy said. He insisted that the flag raising ceremony be done before the arrival of the then Minister for Defence Desmond FitzGerald.
“He was a very modest, self-effacing man. He just saw it as doing his job,” she said of her great-uncle.
Though O'Connell had two children, they, in turn, had no children. O'Connell was famously kidnapped on June 26th by anti-Treaty forces in retaliation for the arrest of Leo Henderson an anti-Treaty officer. The kidnapping of O'Connell was the casus belli for the then provisional irish government to shell the Four Courts starting on June 28th, 1922, the event that began the Civil War.
"Ginger knew everybody in the Four Courts. He was actually down in the basement playing cards with his jailers when the shelling began," Ms Duffy said.
O’Connell was released unharmed. He went on to have a major role in the National Army and later became a military correspondent for The Irish Times during the second World war.
