Missing Irish tricolour may have flown during Rising
Can anyone remember where they were over the Christmas holidays of 1988?If so, you recall coming across an Irish tricolour, thrown on the street of Mullingar, draped around the shoulders of some reveller, or lying in somebody's back yard?If you happened to come across this banner, then you probably wouldn't have realised its importance as an historic artefact.Newry resident Richard de Courcy-Wheeler is looking for any information which may lead to the recovery of the flag, or some closure as to where it ended up.Richard is convinced that the missing flag flew over the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, as Countess Constance Markievicz, Commandant Michael Mallin and their fellow Irish Volunteers occupied the building during the Easter Rising of 1916.His father, the late Annesley de Courcy-Wheeler, was a family doctor who lived on Pearse Street, Mullingar from 1964, until his retirement in 1989.âAt some stage, the County Council put up metal holders at the level of the first floor windows for mini-Christmas trees,â Richard told the Westmeath Examiner.âEach Christmas, my father placed a large tricolour in the holder, and in 1988, the flag was stolen, part of some revelry around Christmas or New Year.âWhat leads Richard to believe that the missing flag was the actual RCSI tricolour is the keen collector's eye of his grandfather, Captain Harry de Courcy-Wheeler, who in 1916 was an officer in the King's Royal Rifle Corps.Captain Harry is remembered in the history of the Rising as the officer to whom Countess Markievicz and Mallin surrendered, after fighting in Dublin came to an end.Famously, the Captain asked the Countess if she required transport to prison, to which she replied: âNo, I shall march at the head of my men... I shall share their fateâ; Mallin was later executed for his role in the insurrection.(For more see this week's Westmeath Examiner)