Boy George's Emotional Journey Through His Family History | FULL EPISODE | #WDYTYA

okay let's come on in here there we go wow now this part of the room is set up as it might have been for a tenement dwelling in around 1911 1912 up to the mid 20s so it's bang on the button for your family's period in bler street I mean how many people would have been in here there could have been eight wow we have a straw mattress so people would have slept on top of each other Under the Bed Head To Toe very often if you can imagine what it was like to live here I mean people washed in here they cleaned their clothes in here yeah these were the conditions for 20,000 families including yours yeah back at the turn of the last century so you can see why it would be very agreeable for children to go out of doors children everywhere in the city were out in the streets they're very visible George is on his way to Southeast London to visit his mother Dina my mom is so Irish and I think very you know very proud of her Irish Roots I want to ask her some questions about her mom because I was very close to my grandmother but then when my grandmother was dying I was a teenager and I was a little bit kind of full of my own self-importance but I kind of regret that now you know because I always think back and think about how much of a big part of my life she was when I was a kid and you know I would have loved my grandmother to see me get famous I think that would have been so amazing for her she would have been so [Music] proud oh so nice not the no dogs yapping hello hi Mommy gorgeous how your face gorgeous yeah great shut it off I at cup te Mom oh look an Irish cup I found an Irish cup very poignant you down sit and I'll come in okay how many cups of tea have been made over the years you have the none Cup oh thank you so obviously recently you know you've been talking a lot about tracing your family history yeah and that's really got me interested in EXP exploring a lot more of you know where I come from well you definitely um a Jerry's son but don't worry about that Jerry you mean dad my dad yeah this is a picture out taken of you and me amazing bar I remember seeing that years ago I look like a you know those Victorian dolls lovely I mean I'm huge you look gorgeous there you were 10 months old you me and drag you were 10 months older there what's this one this was taken in the front room which one's me look how sweet you are look at Nan Nan looks very serious she look yeah she does actually she was quite scary sometimes now remember she used to like if you cheek her she used to hide with a wet flannel and slap you in the face when you went looking she was she had some quite like crafty little yeah you have to remember like where she was brought up like you know what I mean very strict your mom never talked about her childhood no she never did never spoke about it and a lots of times I asked her and she just you know I have nothing to say but I've always wondered why she couldn't talk about it and it's funny for me because obviously um when I was a kid was very close to Nanny Glenn and I spent a lot of time with her well I remember when she came here and she must have gone upstairs and you were singing cuz you were always singing and she came down and she said to me if you better nurture that child and I went what do you mean she went you nurture him she says go a beautiful voice and I went oh okay ma'am but you know I didn't know what to do yeah no it's interesting because obviously you know I have kind of quite strong memories of Nanny Glenn I really want to find out more stuff yeah well this is one of the things that I found oh look at that order of detention satisfied industrial School whereas Bridget Margaret kinahan that's Nanny Glenn who appears to the court to be a child under the age of 14 years having been born so far has been ascertained on the 9th of January 1913 wow who resides at 39 upper gloss Street in the county burough of Dublin has been found on the 15th day of December 1919 at North cand Street wandering and not having any visible means of subsistence so she was 6 years old yeah wandering the streets that's amazing I that must been really upsetting for you too for me I cried I couldn't sleep for two nights because I wondered whether she had shoes on her feet whether she had a cat you don't know how she got to be wandering the streets that's no it's so shocking when you see something like this I mean this is that's your grandmother yeah it's your your family and it's very cold yeah you know you look at it and you know you're talking about a six-year-old child but it's just very a matter of fact you know do you know what was going on with your mother's parents when no you don't know no idea well it is here by order that the said child should be sent to the goldenbridge convent certified industrial school at Dublin I don't know who told me but I remember being told that when your mom was in this place they did terrible things like if she went the bed they'd make her wear yeah the sheet that was yes that was one of the things she did tell us yes like a really hideous I'm sorry so sad that really breaks my heart because these people were supposed to be if you nuns I mean these are people that are supposed to be Godly people so I think it's actually more inexcusable when you hear things like that I still Ponder I want to know more about my mom and I'm going to do my best to find out everything I can about your mom I hope it's not too sad George has come to Ireland to try and discover more about his grandmother Bridget's early life I'm mean Dublin was my mother would say the old country but uh I'm really interested to know what this was like 100 years ago for my grandmother when she was a little kid you know 6 years old wandering around the streets of the city I would love to know more about why she ended up at an industrial School hello George has come to North Cumberland Street where his grandmother Bridget was found wandering to meet historian Katrina Crow what a great pleasure to meet you walk down with me here and I'll show you where Bridget's home would have been so number 39 gler Street would have been just about 10 houses down on this side uh she would have been very close to the market here on Cumberland Street where she was picked up wow so she was found wandering the streets but she was actually outside her house her house such a kind of shocking Revelation it's insane yeah so why was she taken away because it was a common thing at the time for the nspcc and the police to give us a reason for taking a child into care that they were wandering without a guardian at the time The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children or nspcc saw it as its mission to rescue vulnerable children from the streets but its inspectors were criticized for being overzealous in removing children like Bridget from poor families like the kinahan the nspcc didn't understand that's taking children away from their families is a really serious and crucial come na like a straight dog well can I tell you what the the inspectors from the nspcc were called in this area the cruelty men wow the cruelty men because they came and took children away from their families and they were dreaded and feared by everybody my mom is going to be so shocked to hear that does she not know no she doesn't know that part of the story she knows as much as I did that my grandmother when she was six was found you know wandering the streets and that's what it says on this document that she was found wandering which is obviously a liar yes which is really I mean if she was wandering she would have been a good B away from her home she's literally outside the door yeah so it's it was very unfair and very hard on her parents and on her siblings who must have missed her you know Katrina is bringing George to the tenement museum at 14 Henrietta Street to show him the living conditions for poor families in the city at the time his grandmother Bridget was picked [Music] up okay let's come on in here there we go wow now this part of the room is set up as it might have been for a tenement dwelling in around 1911 1912 up to the mid 20s so it's bang on the button for your family's period in bler street I mean how many people would have been in here there could have been eight wow we have a straw mattress so people would have slept on top of each other Under the Bed Head To Toe very often if you can imagine what it was like to live here I mean people washed in here they cleaned their clothes in here yeah these were the conditions for 20,000 families including yours yeah back at the turn of the last century so you can see why it would be very agreeable for children to go out of doors children everywhere in the city were out in the streets they're very visible in photographs and we could look at some of those photographs now and let you see what life was like on the streets and this gives you an idea of the numbers of people who lived in these houses at this point Dublin had the worst slums in Europe I think this may be the content of two of the houses on the street Bridget would have understood this kind of scenario very easily I mean she would have been about that big and the little one on the white dress she would exactly mortality rates incredibly High I think when you look at that and then you kind of look back at that it gives it a whole new kind of Gravitas I'm just imagining how I would survive in a situation like that with how do you think you would I don't know but you know you just think if you were a child with a lot of spirit or you had any kind of individuality I mean it would have been a nightmare yeah now here are a bunch of little kids three of them Barefoot one a little boy who's dressed as a girl because that there were clothes that were family that would have been you that's an early George look and fab boots look and it was tough and a lot of them didn't make it uh to their 10th birthdays some my grandmother would have been kind of removed from a situation like this really she would that's a point to remember was it [Music] better this is my grandmother Bridget's birth certificate the 9th of January 1913 and I recognize that date because I have a document um that states that my grandmother was born on that day John kenahan that was the father right that's right what does that say Kate kenahan and that's his occupation laborer he was a laborer labor exactly well we carried that tradition on we're moving on now to another document George this is the indoor relief register from the north Dublin Union Workhouse you know what a workhouse is the place where people went when they had nowhere else to go it wasn't the holiday in it was not the holiday in well said John kenahan 39 up across the street he's 36 yes he goes in on November 22nd 1955 hospital treatment so he's in for his health and go across to the end then when does he leave he's number eight 30 of December 1915 so he's in there for 3 weeks he's using the workhouse intelligently as a place to get health care doctors were expensive and we didn't have free Health Service or anything like it so the thing we know from this now is that in 1915 John has poor health so was he around when my grandmother was taken away well the next documents we're going to look at will answer that question and first of all there's her mother Katherine or Kate this is the death certificate 1922 1922 yeah so that's 3 years after Bridget was taken in she died she died yeah she lost her mother 45 yeah young very young pneumonia which was a disease of the poor and what about John here's John again check the date so she dies in 1922 19 26 26 he's 41 yeah heart failure but also up here malignant disease disease of the esophagus right it sounds like he had cancer yes so young so she's taken away and they both die pretty soon die pretty soon afterwards um so they died that doesn't still doesn't answer the question of where they were what was as hold does it answer the question so am I being completely dim here no you're not no we don't know but what I can tell we don't know where they were when she was taken but we know that we know that they were in ill health that he was in particular in ill health as far back as 1915 maybe the family decided because their health was bad and because conditions were poor that she might be better off in industrial School rather than stay we don't know that we don't know that and the other question is these lovely people did they make these kids lives better Yeah by putting them in an industrial school and that is the big question I don't think it is a question I don't think things were better you know I think that however bad things are when you're with people that love you even the worst conditions can be bearable you know I think that you're always better off with your family it is very sad very sad yeah I think it's important for us as a family to know the circumstances of Bridget's parents the fact that they were ill and they were really poor as most people were so it does kind of give you some solace but it is a kind of irony you know that nspcc their job was to protect children it's just you know that's what makes me really angry George is on his way to the site of goldenbridge industrial school where his grandmother Bridget was sent in 1919 I found my mom she was very very upset she cried and then I rang her again and sort of tried to explain the circumstances of her grandparents what was going on for them and I think that made her feel a little bit better I have my own ideas about what went on at Golden Bridge so I feel it's going to be quite an emotional experience to be in that space [Music] [Applause] hello George is meeting historian Lindsay nner burn hello you're Lindsay yeah yeah Lindsay very nice to meet you Hi and nice to meet you this is it yeah what bigger than this though obviously yeah was it was actually a huge estate that this is all been built on there was a farm a dairy secondary school and a laundry and also this Chapel here the original Chapel which the children would have also woried in with the nuns and the industrial school was actually situated behind behind this building and nothing of that remains look yeah let's go okay come [Music] on so here we are in this defrocked Chapel at the golden bridge Convent so my grandmother bridet may have more than night he did Worship in here with the nuns that's right yeah yeah I suppose what I'm interested in is What would life had been like for my grandmother here well maybe to give you an idea about what life was like we start with one of the few visual images we have of children in the industrial school so that's actually the girls lace making in this image so the industrial schools were created in the 1860s with the specific purpose of taking in vulnerable or abandoned children and giving them a training to make them as they would have said at the time useful citizens doesn't like a happy place I can only imagine how Grim it must have been for a six-year-old kid to be put into a situation like this I can't even begin to imagine in a sense the aim was very Noble the aim was to give particularly girls access to free education they would be educated partially reading and writing but they would be trained there was laundry sewing some manual work domestic service most Irish women made their living as domestic servants until the 1950s so an awful lot of girls in industrial schools were being trained to fill a market for middle class ladies from when they came out you it sound very gracious but the information that I do know I mean if they wet the bed for example they were made to wear the sheet around their neck and to walk around with it um it just sounds like such a grim place and that story reoccurs quite a lot in witness testimony for the period that your grandmother was there so from the 1920s to the 1930s particularly in fact this is a a witness statement that is reproduced in the Ryan report which was a report done into the industrial school system and this is one account if you wet the bed sister X would make you stand out of the bed with a sheet over your head if you fell asleep she'll come out with a stick she hit you on the back and then You' be so sore you couldn't sleep yeah this kind of fits in with some of the stories yeah so we have a lot of anecdotal evidence to support that so so you wake up to that how does the day get any better yeah I suppose what I really want to know is do you have anything that really relates to my own grandmother being here the one document that all the children in the industrial School generation was the entry and every child who came in since 1880 got a page and this one is your grandmother's butet Margaret Kad 6 and 11 months date Mission 23rd the 12th 1919 MH what is she charged with wandering oh my God that was a crime i' would have been put away years ago this is interesting here the reports of conduct and character intelligent anous and amiable gentle and kind ambitious and painstaking do you think that reflected the woman you knew so much really yeah useful very good child very bright it's focused on her character it also feels like she kind of accepted it yeah she's anxious initially but by this stage she's kind and willing but I think that when you think about a normal child's life how rich oh I it would be how colorful it it's pretty tragic there is a sense that she just kind of got on with it so she's discharged on the 8th of the 1st 1929 so my grandmother was here till she was 16 till she was 16 sent to be a housemid at Private Hospital St Vincent wages £15 so we know that your grandmother worked in that hospital until 1932 do you want to have a look at the document that tells us why she left okay so this is the last document we have married third of November 1932 Bridget kenahan Francis Glenn my Grandad Frank he's a butcher mhm that explains a lot he used to kill chickens all the time so he was very good at preparing chickens and things Richard Glenn father of Franklin my Grandad Frank well that's her father there John Kennan John obviously he wasn't then and I'm sure she was desperate to start her own family having ripped from her own family you know yeah because there was no no compulsion on her to marry in a sense that she did have a job which made her well quite lucky a lot of young women in Dublin would have struggled for a job and left the city let's hope it was love yes let's let's take that reading in it that that made her marry um yeah my grandfather what your grandmother's story tells us is a little bit about survival she survives 10 10 years in that industrial School comes out literate with with the ability to hold down a job and she goes on and lives a life so she made it yeah she's definitely a Survivor and you know when you hear these stories you kind of realize why she was the way she was in what way do you mean she tough okay you know my mom was described her as having incredible sadness in her eyes she wasn't really able to kind of show affection you know she was Stern you know a formidable Force it's a really interesting window into her life [Music] yeah I knew her obviously as my grandmother but I didn't know much about her childhood so finding out that she may have once been in this very Chapel is quite it feels good her experiences here were quite harrowing but reading the report on her character one can only hope that that kept her out of too much trouble being here it makes me understand why she was the person that she was that she was obviously hiding a lot of pain but she got on with it she managed to raise a pretty healthy family and she's left an incredible Legacy yeah I'm proud of her I'm really proud of it George is Keen while in Dublin to investigate the family connection to Irish Republican Kevin Barry who was executed by the British he's visiting his Aunt Phyllis aie Phyllis is like she's like Batman a Wonder Woman she always turns up you know um when my mom's been sick or when I've been in in trouble you know Phyllis is always there I want to find out a bit more kind of family history because I'm interested to find out about my grandfather Frank and his father who was called Richard I don't really know his story let [Music] me look at youy glamorous nice to see you good to see you to right H EA your C so found out a little bit of information about Nanny Glenn on their marriage certificate which I saw yesterday which is really nice all right they put her father's name even though he was he wasn't around he'd already died but they put John Kenan as the father and they put Richard Glenn Frank's Father which is your other grandfather right all right yeah yes obviously I never met them Frank's mother or father so what what do you know about them well that's my granny and Granddad and my uncle dixer which is your grace granny and Granddad when you think of it like so that's Richard that's Richard and that's Richard where he was called dixer and that's Daddy's oldest brother so where's his grandma grandma there this one yeah yeah so these two were married no hold on that's granny and Granddad that looks like a woman oh so these two were married I'm getting confused who was married to who granny and Granddad there m toas on them so that's Richard there yeah what do you know about him well I know he was in the British Army and he fought in the first world war until 1922 Ireland remained under British R from London during this period many workingclass Irishmen Like Richard Glenn joined the British army as it provided a decent job and a regular income now his wife granny Len was married before and she had two children so she was married before him yeah she was married yeah she was married to his brother and then when he died she married me Granddad oh so she was married to his brother yes the brother got killed in the war yeah so she married the other brother she married the other brother practical and um she had her daughter from the force marriage her name was Annie Annie Glen and Annie married um a fell called Thomas Brian and he was a Republican and he was in Mount Joy prison and he was hung uh in 1921 by the British Army and he was buried beside Kevin bar now you know Kevin Barry I've heard you singing that side well I remember when we were kids obviously there was the we had this album called the Freedom Fighters it was a guy in a sort of clu cap standing in front of the Irish flag okay and I used to play those songs obviously you know Kevin Barry my only son was shot in Dublin the wearing of the green gives a bar no the one who was my only was shot in Dublin you remember that one yeah and then we used to play all the weing of the green oh the wearing of the green they're hanging men and women for the wearing I never be had to go to the north again I remember playing those songs I remember my auntie kit she always used to say like around about 7 o' when there's been a bit of drinking on Christmas Day put on the r songs and we play them just a lad of 18 sumers yet no one can deny L like bar wirey Island for her fate men live and die I remember the words completely that's very good yeah no I always thought when we were growing up I thought we were related to Kevin Barry oh did you for some reason so it was Brian it was Brian yeah Thomas Brian and he was someone that married into the family mared yeah so Richard Glenn yeah my great-grandfather was in the British army that's right yeah his son-in-law Thomas Bryan was hung with Kevin Barry yeah in Mount gey jail so that's that makes sense yeah yeah George has learned that his maternal great-grandfather Richard Glenn married his brother's widow and that her daughter Annie George's great aunt married an Irish Republican called Thomas Brian who was executed by the British so I'm doing a little bit of detective work I'm looking up the marriage of my great aunt Annie Glenn and Thomas brownan they got married on the 28th of November 1920 Thomas bran and Annie Glenn 14 Henrietta Street Dublin so they actually lived in 14 Henrietta Street where we went the other day to that museum that's trippy I wish I'd known that when I was there wow now it kind of takes on a whole another sort of frequency [Music] George is returning to the tenement museum at 14 Henrietta Street where he's discovered his great uncle Thomas bran lived how are you welcome back to Henrietta Lov in cold weather absolutely through so let me show you where Thomas bran and his family lived exciting he's meeting historian Kieran Wallace come on through is this the original this is the actual room where he oh man that's amazing okay it's been slightly redecorated for the purposes of the museum but this is the room this is the view he would have had so have you met Thomas and Annie no let me introduce you wow he's a very handsome man isn't he she looks quite Fierce do you think yeah she said good taste Annie so Annie and Thomas would lived in this space in this room this was their home as they set out on their married life as a young couple I've got a lot of questions obviously because it's s of interesting contradiction the fact that my great-grandfather Richard fought in the British Army and then you got this young handsome whipper snapper coming into your family with with quite radical views you know that's going to be interesting for Richard with his background yeah yeah come on I've got a few more things to show you good what I'm interested in is I don't know anything about Thomas Bryan prior to him meeting my great aunt well I have a document here that might give you some background as to who he was Mount Joy prison wow Thomas Brian he was 19 1917 so 197 18 1920 so he was in prison three years before he married Annie he's an electrician so that's quite a good job at the time for a guy from this area he's got a trade 14 Henrietta Street yep so this is what he's charged with his off acted in contention of Regulation 90 of the defense of the Realm regge by taking part in a certain drill of a military nature so basically he was pretending to be a soldier well pretending is an interesting word so um he's rounded up in 1917 for taking part in a drill of the Irish volunteers are the Irish rties the IRA they're the precursor to the IRA okay so we have to step back a bit to understand how he comes to be here to the 1916 Rising have you heard of the rising okay the Easter rising in 1916 saw Irish Republican Rebels launch an armed campaign in Dublin to bring an end to British rule although the British quickly put down the rising when they then decided to execute its leaders the public mood swung behind the Republican movement especially among young men like Thomas Brian so Thomas grew up in this area where there was suddenly a really brutal set of killings of civilians during the 1916 rising and this would have radicalized him and many other guys like him okay and they thought right it falls to us now as the younger men of the city to do something so they were forming a secret army which was the Irish volunteers out in fields in the countryside and that's how he was picked up and arrested amazing and that's who he is by the time he meets and marries Annie she definitely went for a bad boy for that seems to be a family tradition that's amazing they're married in 1920 yeah and you think well here's the happy ever after this is what happens next secret evidence at drum condra on the 21st of the 1st 1921 Thomas Bryan was found with one revolver and 20 rounds of ammunition Fran's flood also so this relates to an incident in drumcondra which is suburb about a mile North from here at from condra there's a bridge across the river and this is a unit of Ira men who's waiting Behind the B straight of the bridge to attack a police lry that's coming past this is during the Irish war of independence so things have really heated up in the city and in the country entirely the Irish war of independence began when the Republican Shin faine Party formed a breakaway government in January 1919 and declared independence from Britain the Irish volunteers that Thomas Bryan had joined now became the Irish Republican Army or IRA it launched a Guerilla campaign in Ireland and the British responded by imposing martial law this meant being arrested could have serious consequences for an IRA volunteer like Thomas [Music] Brian and this event goes horribly wrong The Raid actually goes ahead it happens nobody's killed on the police L but it keeps going but within moments the other Battalion of police arrive and they start to capture and Jace after the IRA unit and they round up most of them does he go to prison for this he's arrested on this very serious charge and he's taken to Clum jail and this is where things get very serious Thomas Brian it's amazing to think that my great aunt Annie marries Thomas Bryan and within four months he's arrest arrested on very very serious charges and is in prison and her future must have seemed so uncertain at that point but I imagine that she knew what she was getting involved in maybe that's what attracted her to Thomas you know his passion he was a very handsome man for me this is really interesting because you know when I was a kid I used to play this album of rebel songs and being here you know and is it's like climbing into those songs you know um and you know it's interesting because I became a musician and music is such a big part of my life it's it is my life so it just feels like I'm climbing into a piece of really important kind of not only family history but also Irish history you know and that just feels kind of incredible now that I know who he is now that I've seen a picture of him I feel like I need to know more I need to kind of experience more you know because I'm in his life now George is visiting Kum jail now a museum to find out more about his great uncle Thomas Bran's imprisonment hello hello here we are nice to meet you welcome to Kil n he's meeting historian epha torpy this is the more modern part of Kil manum jail it opens in the 1860s it's lovely and light and Airy yeah that's about the only thing that's got going for it yes it's beautiful for a jail and this is where Thomas Bryan and the other men would have been held in this Wing here unfortunately we don't know which cell was Thomas's so we're going going to have a look in to give you an idea of what the conditions would have been like for now on when Thomas and the other men were here it was a military prison definitely not pleasant exactly little bit of light it would have been quite sparcely furnished as well they probably had some blankets maybe a wooden board for a bed it's impossible to even think about what you'd feel being in a room like this you know it's uh it's basic isn't it it's like it's almost like a tomb so Thomas was here in kilum but only for quite a short period because they moved the men from Kil manum to Mount Joy prison and it was in Mount Joy about a week later that Thomas receives his sentence and we have the document he would have been handed Thomas bran the court has found you guilty of the following charges high treason the court has passed a sentence of death upon you wow that's hardcore they're court marshaled on the 24th of February 1921 and then they receive their sentence but no trial nothing no it's interesting when you look at a document it just kind of gives it whole another frequency you know when you think you know what I mean this piece of paper is just what strikes me is that you could take away someone's life with a for yeah it's just so startling yeah what happened to Annie I know they were just married I mean four months well actually on the 25th of February 1921 he writes to his father-in-law Richard Glenn who is your great grandfather Dear Dick just a few lines hoping you all at home are in the pink well dick my trial is over I have received my death sentence but it's not confirmed yet but that is only a matter of time I have not told any of my sentences to say I don't know how to do so personally I don't mind death in any form but naturally my thoughts stray to my dear little wife for as she truly said some time ago it is our women who suffer the most I wonder how she will take it well dick I know you will do your best to keep her spirit up I will now close wishing to be remembered to all the rest remaining your loving son-in-law Thomas Bryan Cheerio it's so like oh my God this is so amazing to just even read this is just there's great sensitivity in the letter I think the most pointing line I don't mind in any form but naturally my thoughts are straight to my dear little wife he's a clearly a very sensitive human being and he loves her yeah and that's [Music] beautiful want I started this journey I never imagined that I would actually sit here and read something that was written by Thomas I mean it's overwhelming really so this is another another piece by Thomas and this is actually a poem oh wow he wrote so we have the original here in pencil yes so we have a transcript here on a bed made of plants and a pillow of hair I lie down to sleep but I find no rest there I am thinking of Home in the joys of my life and the sweet little colen I now come with Colleen as girl I know that I Ponder all I am nearly bereft my life or my honor a wit will be left it's a good poem I please and I pray to my mother on high to ask God to save me before I don't want to die well but to live for my wife and and a dear little child he had a child and he was pregnant yes wow he's thinking of Annie and this child they're going to have and he's he's hoping that he's spared for them I think the sense that we get of Thomas that he kind of knew what he was doing and accepted the sort of consequences in a way but still Dying For A Cause must be quite difficult so this is something more official and it's a letter to the governor of Mount jooy sir I have the honor to afford you here with the written order of the general officer commanding and chief for the execution of the following persons now in your custody under a sentence of death Patrick Moren Thomas wheen Frank flood Thomas Bryan Patrick Doyle Bernard Ryan wow very matter of fact and then on the reverse there's something there as well oh yeah so it tells you the time Thomas Bryan 14th of March 8:00 a.m. that was the time he was hung and he was hanging with Frank flood at the same time so there was double hangings wow they went to The Gallows together the Hang house in Mount Joy is actually preserved and you can see where they were hanged in Mano prison definitely climbing into history yes you can't get any closer than [Music] that you get the sense that he started this political struggle knowing what the outcome might be the fact that my great aunt Annie was pregnant what a thing to find out that um you know they've been married four months he was now facing the hangman and he was having a kid I mean that is just how human do you want to get you know it's just the most awful thing to find out Mount jooy prison is a mythical place in my mind you know I've known about it since I was 12 years old but it wasn't something that I imagined I would ever see or experience at Mount Joy George is meeting historian sha Reynolds Sean how you doing very welcome to mount Jo ni you now I'll take you down to the Hang house and I'll show you where your great uncle sadly passed away okay here on the left hand side here is the Hang house now I just open up here now all is stuck now just watch your step plays and here into the Hang house or the execution chamber that some people call it this is where Thomas Bryant and Frank flood who were the last of the six to be executed so if you like to come upstairs now now we have arrived on the floor where the trapdoor is the force for like started the execution at 6:00 another four or two went at 7 Thomas Bryan and Frank FR or 8:00 the execution would have taken as little as 13 seconds for the two individuals to die was very 30 seconds is a long time though is a long time but it was a sad morning because the two men that stood side by side were comrades and arms and they Shar the cell here in the prison as well can see the chain there left standing on the platform and while that's in position are sh the trap doors won't release he would extract that he he would send that forward that is possibly the last sound the individuals would have heard if you like you can try that there let show you you can feel it that's don't think I will very welcome and this is a nice touch it is it is it is it's brutal The Remains were removed then from here and the were buried just up to the left hand side as you come in the main gate they were buried up there in in in the [Music] garden I'll leave you here your thoughts [Music] okay what a [Music] place I'd be really honest and say I actually feel quite angry actually at the moment I kind that my overall feel feeling is of of anger it's just awful it's like maab [Music] theater having read the letter from Thomas to Richard I imagined that my great-grandfather would have hated this would have been heartbroken I suppose you know um because not only has he got to think about you know what's going to happen to Thomas but also his own daughter who's pregnant I mean that just adds even more like sadness to this it's just God could it get any more sad it's just so sad you [Music] know what I should do when I'm here [Music] [Music] is almost forgot that's important bit of the visit Thomas Brian and the five other Ira men executed that day in 1921 along with four others including Kevin Barry hanged the year before were buried in unmarked Graves within the Prison Walls in time they became known as The Forgotten 10 in 2001 that changed when their bodies were exhumed and nine of the 10 taken to Glasnevin ceter where they were reburied with State [Music] honors Thomas Bryan it's incredible it's amazing to discover that this is kind of part of my family history it's incredible Kevin Barry there obviously that was the name I did know growing up and now I know about Frank flood as well I'm proud and I'm [Laughter] sad I'm proud and I'm sad I think that's the best way to describe how I [Music] feel now I really want to know what happened to the child what happened to Annie to find out George has come to the museum at Glasnevin Cemetery to meet historian Connor DOD so we have a record here for you to to take a look at and this is an order for an interment within the cemetery Thomas Brian 15 D Street Dublin this is the age the years are blank the months are blank and one day oh so this is the baby that that Annie was having when he was hung so this is the child here and the cause of death convulsions so that baby literally was born and died wow that's correct and if we look here we can see the date on which of March 1921 so this happened before he was hung that was Thursday the 10th of March and he was hung on the 14th March correct yeah the following Monday oh my God how much more tragedy can you put into a story and it's just the saddest thing God so much going on in that week but we have another record here for you to have a look at and Christina Brian and you can see he died the date 27th of August 1930 had been an electrician wife so she lived for and he would he died 192 maybe eight or nine years nine years yeah and you can see the cause death which is fisis which is a tuberculosis TV okay wow so she never married again and died nine years later that is heavy I mean I knew it wasn't going to end well but that's sadder than even I could have imagined wow poor [Music] honey George is looking for the grave of his great aunt Annie Glenn I see someone's written on the back an he w at least there's something here last very long but so this is where she [Music] lies having now found out what she endured it's just unimaginable you know to think that while our husband was waiting to be hung she lost their first child and we'll never know whether he knew whether he went to his death knowing that his first born had already died I mean what a I really hope he didn't know I really really hope he didn't know it's such an incredible story and mad that no one's ever talked about it they will now I should make sure they [Music] do this this story is like a great Irish song you know it's like you know sort of thing you'd hear someone singing at a funeral or a family wedding like an old drunk Irishman singing this sort of traditional lament and that's really what this story is like you know it's like a it's like a really sad song my family's kind of Association to really important parts of Irish history is a revelation there's a line in the the letter to Richard from Thomas where he says it's the women that suffer the most and that's definitely true of Irish history our mothers and our grandmothers the women really bear the brunt of all the suffering knowing what happened to my grandmother for Bridget made me quite angry to think that she was taken from her family at 6 years old and put into a place where she knew nobody but you know what her story is a Triumph I think that my mom will find this story really emotional it will help her put the pieces together you know I think she's going to be really fascinated she'll definitely [Laughter] [Music] cry George's final visit is to the pub next to the cemetery to join up with Irish band lanum to sing the rebel song he remembers from his childhood Monday morning morning high upon the gallows [Music] tree Kevin gave his life for the ca of Liberty I think for me you know music is such a powerful medium and Kevin Barry as a song still resonates you know because I knew that it had a real importance but I didn't really know how it related to [Music] me and to be able to walk in those footsteps and to actually find out sort of family history has been very very enlightening and Powerful for [Music] me an Irish sold not me like a for I [Music] the and now I've proved Beyond any questionable doubt teany B our history so stick that in your p and smoke

Channel: Who Do You Think You Are?

Views: 922,062

Keywords: who do you think you are, wdytya, who do you think you are uk, who do you think you are BBC

Id: PPQOkMCeb5U

Length: 56min 3sec (3363 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 13 2024