Help Sought.

[Liam Lynch]

A chairde,

This email came into the main 32CSM website. If anyone has any information could they please post it here? Thanks.

Hi,


I was wondering if any of your members who have an interest in irish, republican and/or radical history help me.


I'm trying to find more information on an individual called John Neale. He was a ''young socialist cockney member of the Irish Citizen Army'' [1][2] who acted as a lookout on top of the Metropole Hotel during the Easter Rising.


On the Friday, ''As the building was being evacuated, his ammunition pouch was exploded by a stray bullet...Neale, whose lower torso was ripped to shreds, swayed and gasped to his neighbour, 'Can't you stand away and let a fellow lie down'. He was set down on a pile of mail stacks where he told Lieut. Oscar Traynor, 'I'm dying comrade' ''. He died the next day. [3]


In Joe Good's memoir [4], he describes in detail an American socialist fighting in the Metropole who he had seen on an Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) platform in London in 1913. This individual called everyone 'comrade', acted as a lookout and was fatally shot during the evacuation of the Metropole in the exact same circumstances as Neale (a stray bullet hitting his ammunition sack). We can only presume that these two are the same.


I'm trying to research this man's background. Could you please contact any of your members that may be able to help me and pass on my email address.


Thanks very much.


Sam




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[1] p.139-40. 'The Easter Rising' by Michael Foy and Brian Barton. (2000)
[2] The Cockneys and Scousers who fought for Ireland in 1916. Irish Times. March 28, 2005
[3] p.657. James Connolly, 'A Full Life'. Donal Nevin (2005)
[4] p.41/2 Enchanted by Dreams: The Journal of a Revolutionary, By Joe Good. (Written in 1962

[IrelandUnfree]

Would this be in aid of the 32csm? :hmmm:

[Vox Illuminati]

A chairde,

This email came into the main 32CSM website. If anyone has any information could they please post it here? Thanks.

It's a bit coincidental that these two foreign born Socialists died in the same way. This sounds more like deliberate assassination.

[Liam Lynch]

It's a bit coincidental that these two foreign born Socialists died in the same way. This sounds more like deliberate assassination.

Though they might be the same individual.

[Vox Illuminati]

Though they might be the same individual.

It would be hard to mistake an American for a Cockney. I don't think somebody could make that mistake because they would have been talked about by all the people they would have been in contact with. Being different like.

[Liam Lynch]

It would be hard to mistake an American for a Cockney. I don't think somebody could make that mistake because they would have been talked about by all the people they would have been in contact with. Being different like.

I wonder though does the Cockney phrase mean the same then as it does now?

[Jim]

If his relatives claimed a pension you might get some information from the people who hold the records.

A museum or library in dublin might help as well.

[Vox Illuminati]

I wonder though does the Cockney phrase mean the same then as it does now?

It dates back to the 1600s to a specific area of London so I would imagine it would have. People would have spoken to these men about their backgrounds and then shared the stories with other Comrades. I can't see how there would have been a mixup. The National Graves Association might have information on Neale's grave. It would be interesting to know where he is buried.