My latest Essay on RTÉ Arena is about my great grand uncle Tom Ennis. Have a listen here or read on for the full text…
http://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=9%3A20841562%3A0%3A%3A
Openness
A photograph once inhabited a shadowy corner of my gran’s house in Ballybough. Despite the age and encroaching dark border you could still make out a group of eight people. There was a lady reading a newspaper at the forefront. To the very rear stood two men in military uniform. As a child, my cousin would often grill my gran as to the identity of the people in the photo but there was never much information offered beyond the response of ‘family’.
The Irish have a reputation for being a friendly and open people. Yet for my gran’s generation and many before, intimate, family business was rarely discussed. This probably goes to explain why small talk has evolved into an art form in this country, the skill of incessantly talking but never really saying anything. Some linguists claim that the Inuit have hundreds of words for snow. The same can probably be said for the Irish when it comes to terms for the rain.
Spitting. Beating. Hammering. Or perhaps it may only have been pouring on the day my cousin got his hands on a manuscript relating to bygone family. But that detail is unimportant. What is significant is how this manuscript revealed the identity of a number of people in the photo, one of which turned out to be our great grand uncle, Tom Ennis.
Tom was a Major general who’d been associated with the Irish volunteers as early as 1913. Heavily involved in the 1916 rising, he also led the attack on the customs house in 1921, where he was seriously wounded resulting in a permanent limp. A volunteer medical officer saw to him after his escape and told how Tom received a number of visitors as he recuperated in a nursing home on Eccles Street. On one such occasion, Oscar Traynor informed Tom that Lloyd George was to order for barbed wire to be put up all over the country to enforce the suppression of I.R.A. activities. “What the hell does he think we’ll be doing while they’re putting up the barbed wire,” was Tom’s quick response.
Further on, there’s an article which initially seems out of place in a manuscript mostly relating to the Easter rebellion and the war of independence. It refers to a murder in the Phoenix Park, sketching a scene in which a soldier shoots his young love through the heart before turning the gun on himself. The sister of the deceased woman testifies how there was no formal engagement between the couple as her parents disapproved. One of the parents she was referring to was Tom. The murdered girl was his twenty year old daughter, Miss Úna Ennis.
This account followed me around for a time after and I couldn’t help but dwell on how a military man like Tom would have outwardly reacted to a tragedy like this. I wondered if he spoke about his daughter much, if he told those around him how he missed her. Or perhaps he just fixed a photograph to a wall in his house. And if anyone referred to it he would just deflect, distract. And through his silence, allow the truth to merely fade into history.
Daniel Seery 
Hi Dan, I heard this on Arena, what a story. Does it have a (longer) future? x
Thanks Lia…it’s inspired a short play that I’m working on at the moment. But I think it would make a fascinating book, non-fiction as much as fiction. Brilliant to think how the most amazing of characters weave their way through our past!
Hi Daniel, Tom Ennis was also my Great Grand Uncle and I have a copy of the photo you mention in your piece. Tome was my mother’s uncle and i remember asking about the photo years ago and she told me who some of the people were but i have forgotten since.
George Verschoyle
We’re taking over the world, George!
Hi George – can I ask you what your grandmothers name is? I’m Tom Ennis’s great niece on his wife’s side. You haven’t popped up in my family tree as yet!!! It’s a long process!
Hi Daniel & George. I’ve recently started the family tree. I had been told that I was related to Tom Ennis but I didn’t believe it till I dug a bit deeper & it’s absolutely true that I am. Looks like we are all distant cousins! Is the play about Tom been written? I have very little information about him other than what I can read online. Can you be of any assistance to me around this?
I’ve just found out Tom Ennis is my great grandfather. My knowledge on Irish history isn’t very strong. Was he IRA originally?
Hey Edward. Tom was with the Irish volunteers as far back as 1913 and with the Dublin brigade during the Rising. He was also a key figure in the burning of the custom house and was a Major General with the free state army after the civil war. By all accounts he was a brave and fair individual, a “very great” great-grandfather to have!
Edward – that makes us related too!! Tom is my great Uncle. It must be an absolute honour to find out Tom ‘The Manager’ Ennis is your great grandfather. He is an integral part of Irish History & in my opinion is majorly responsible for turning Ireland into what it is now. I am so happy for you!! You cousin about three times removed – Nicola
Hi all, I have some information on Tom Ennis during the Civil War from his enemies.
1) When he was I/C Griffith Barracks ….. there was … “no beatings under him”. …. “he wouldn’t let his men drink”,
2) He was shot at by his own men a couple of times, best known was at the Theater Royal, supposedly by ” his own men who were drunk at the time.”
3) “Holy Joe” O’Connor said … “… Tom Ennis told me that it was his own men who shot him. He was convinced that it was Dick Mulcahy who had sent the men out to shoot him. ‘Dick Mulcahy’ he said, “would cheerfully cut my throat if he could”. ..
Dick Mulcahy was the Chief of staff of the Free State army at the time and therefore Tom’s Boss. He (Mulcahy) was later involved with the formation of the Blue Shirt movement which was a fascist organisation.
Danial I only found out recently that Tom Ennis is my grand uncle. My grandfather was Francis Ennis and my father was Joe Ennis. I came across toms name in Emmet Daltons book. I would like to know more. My son has downloaded some information from Google.
Hey there Colm, great to hear from you. I went to a talk about Tom a while back and I met a historian called Des White. He wrote some really interesting pieces about Tom. Here are the links, you should check them out…
https://customhousecommemoration.com/2016/12/24/the-manager-tom-ennis-part-1/
https://customhousecommemoration.com/2017/01/11/tom-ennis-part-2-the-attack-on-the-custom-housebill-did-the-lads-get-away/
https://customhousecommemoration.com/2017/05/03/tom-ennis-part-3-rise-fall-from-civil-war-via-mutiny-to-civvy-life/
We really do seem to be taking over! Tom Ennis was uncle to my grandmother Greta Ennis and brother to my great grandfather Peter. Would love to know more about the family, your distant relative Aoife Flynn
Hey there Aoife. Great to hear from you. We are definitely taking over the world!!
Here are a couple of links about Tom that were sent on to me, produced by Des White and the Custom House Attack commemoration group. It’s really fascinating stuff. Great images of Tom too…
https://www.customhousecommemoration.com/2016/12/24/the-manager-tom-ennis-part-1/
https://www.customhousecommemoration.com/2017/01/11/tom-ennis-part-2-the-attack-on-the-custom-housebill-did-the-lads-get-away/
https://www.customhousecommemoration.com/2017/05/03/tom-ennis-part-3-rise-fall-from-civil-war-via-mutiny-to-civvy-life/