The carpenter from Carlow who walked through hell

My great-grandfather joined the Dublin Fusiliers and survived a gas attack on Easter Week 1916 which killed 538 Irishmen. He was wounded at Ypres. And when the war ended he never came home

‘Feathers and Gloves beautifully cleaned at Prescotts Dye Works, Dublin,” read the front page Irish Times advertisement on the 11th day of November 1918.

This notice, published one hundred years ago today, conjures up an Ireland that no longer exists. Prescotts is now a two-star guesthouse on Talbot Street, beside Guineys. The delicate cleaning of dainty and fragile feathers was in blunt contrast to the Irish Times announcement directly underneath.

“The Government has ...