Pearses surrender begins the next chapter of

this extraordinary story. In the eventful years

that follow, Frank, formerly a civil servant, will
spend jail terms in Stafford, Brixton and Wormwood
Scrubs. When he gets home to Ballaghaderreen,
County Roscommon he is placed under surveillance
by MI5, the military and police in Ireland. He
is court-martialled in Frongoch internment camp
and Incarcerated at Usk Prison in Wales, where he
leads a daring four-man escape to freedom.
But he didnt like to talk about it. And when
Irelands War of Independence descends into Civil
War he lays down his gun forever.
Drawing on prison letters, personal diaries
and secret military and police files, Grandpa
the Sniper retraces a remarkable journey by a
reluctant hero. Part biography, part memoir, it
offers readers a rare insight into one of the
quiet men who gave their all for Irish freedom.

www.theliffeypress.com

GRANDPA THE SNIPER

Except he is very much alive. His brother Jack

commands the barricaded street below. In some of
the heaviest fighting of the Easter Rising the
South Staffordshire Regiment cant budge a pocket
of Irish Volunteers defiantly holding out. Through
the sights of a borrowed pair of binoculars Frank
takes aim from the Jameson malthouse high above.
The street is soon littered with casualties and
the British troops are forced to withdraw.

Frank Shouldice

Its April, 1916. Dublin GAA footballer Frank

Shouldice has just won the Croke Cup. Its a
big achievement, but he has other things on his
mind. Two weeks after the final whistle hes on a
rooftop in North King Street with a rifle in his
hand. His cheekbone is grazed by a bullet smashing
into the wall behind him and, according to a
confidential military file, Frank Shouldice is
killed in action.

GRANDPA
THE SNIPER
The Remarkable Story of a 1916 Volunteer

rich, evocative and vivid

an absorbing family history
Diarmaid Ferriter,
professor of modern irish history, ucd

Frank Shouldice