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Remembered Today:

Bryan Fergus Molloy, ES/59087 ASC, shot Dublin 1920


corisande

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Mark

I am in information overload - do you think there is a connection between Bell and/or Molloy and Kells.

Kells was shot 3 weeks later, though on reading various sources, I cannot see why he was shot. O'Dsly, MacNeill, Leonard, and another were the 4 men group who shot Kells.

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Hi,

If he was conducting identity parades at Mountjoy Prison then I think he would have very quickly become target.

Here is the report on the inquest.

Regards Mark

post-14045-068573400 1286375058.jpg

post-14045-048478200 1286375102.jpg

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Thanks

Certainly was not a good time to be a policeman in Dublin!

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Canadians were allowed to returned home for burial if they died in the UK as it was not regarded as a war zone

I very much doubt that. The UK cemeteries are full of Canadians.

And if he was from Antigonish Nova Scotia, his accent was probably Scots.

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I have ruled him out anyway, see my post #72, he was buried in Canada, from churchyard records.

Hubert Edward Petipas 2nd Lt in RAF age 25, Son of Hubert Petipas, of Barrie's Beach, Antigonish Co., Nova Scotia, and the late Mary Petipas. buried at Tracadie, St Peters Cemetery in Canada. Age 25. He is the right age but he returned to Canada in Sept 1919 and church records show he was buried in Canada 26 Mar (Molloy shot 24th March in Dublin)

Body could nver have got to Canada in 2 days. In addition Molloy's body was still sitting in the morgue in Dublin the day Petipas was buried in Canada

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  • 11 months later...

I recently got Howells death cert which says pneumonia, and I have been through his file at TNA

death-cert.jpg

On the other hand there are a number of odd things about Howells _I have notes on his life on this link

What I find strange about him is

1. He died 24 Mar 1920 and probate was granted 3 weeks later on 12 Apr 1920. A very short time. The army normally have to issue a certificate to say a dead soldiers affairs are in order

2. His affairs in the army had not been sorted, see ongoing correspondence continuing for over a year

3. There is a strange JJ Todd, Tannsfeld Rd, Sydenham, writing to the army. He does not appear to be either a relative or a solicitor.

4. His death cert gives his profession as a Bank Clerk, yet he has a CWGC grave, and was still a serving soldier.

Molloy'sdeath cert I have too, and that says what you would expect - gunshot wounds

1. I still have not found a past for him in terms of Birth or census

2. No MIC

3. No relatives went to his funeral

4. A man with no past nor any relatives of whom a question was asked in parliament as to whether that was his real name.

My feeling at the moment is that Molloy was not his name (as McMahon was not Angliss real name), but whilst I am suspicious as to whether it was Howells (remember the English accent attributed to Molloy) it would be impossible to prove that Molloy was Howells.

The only small clue to work with is the JJ Todd, Tannsfeld Rd, Sydenham who corresponds with army bureaucrats over money. Whether he has appeared in any other files

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  • 11 months later...

I will give this another airing as I have come across another clue. The IRA witness statements are available online and I got this

  • WS0400 by Richard Walsh TD of Mayo, claims that Molloy was operating with the IRA in Mayo before he went to Dublin. Walsh claims that Molloy was born in USA (a western state) of Irish parents, his father being from Foxford, Mayo.
  • WS0638 indicates that the author, Patrick Caldwell, thought Molloy's real name was Bernie McNulty of Foxford, Mayo

It seems that two (indepentdently writing) IRA believed Molloy came from Foxford, Mayo (or his family did)

I have tried all the combinations I can think of to try to get a McNulty into the frame, without sucess :(

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Interesting topic.

If he travelled from America, he should be on UK passenger arrivals. There are unfortunately a lot of Molloys in these records.

Always worth checking that his mother and father might be Molloy and McNulty?

Mark

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  • 3 weeks later...

I still have got nowhere with this.

The problem is that Bryan Fergus Molloy was an alias. Assuming that the alias came from Basil Thomson, and compare it with another Thomson man, Angliss shot on Bloody Sunday - Angliss was using the alias Patrick Mahon, and it took some days after his murder for his real name to come out (the initial police report, for example, gave him as Mr Mahon) and there other men murdered whose real names I still have no idea of. Mahon is nothing to do with Angliss's past (well probably nothing!) and the truth on who he ws probably came out only because a state funeral was being given for all the victims.

At the moment the best clue I have on Molloy is the 2 WS putting him at Foxford, Mayo. Realisically I am probably going to have to, like Mr Micawber, wait till something turns up.

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  • 3 years later...

From one of my earlier posts. And something has turned up . I put this here in case anyone might be able to take it a step further

I will give this another airing as I have come across another clue. The IRA witness statements are available online and I got this
  • WS0400 by Richard Walsh TD of Mayo, claims that Molloy was operating with the IRA in Mayo before he went to Dublin. Walsh claims that Molloy was born in USA (a western state) of Irish parents, his father being from Foxford, Mayo.
  • WS0638 indicates that the author, Patrick Caldwell, thought Molloy's real name was Bernie McNulty of Foxford, Mayo

It seems that two (indepentdently writing) IRA believed Molloy came from Foxford, Mayo (or his family did)

I just found in Soldiers effects, conformation that he probably was a McNulty, in as much as his father is listed as James McNulty

soldiers-effects.jpg

I think I am slowly inching to a solution of who "Bryan Fergus Molloy" was - he was certainly a very brave man and perhaps the most successful of the British agents in Dublin

I feel I am nearer now to being able to work back to what he did before coming (back) to Dublin in 1920

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  • 3 years later...

I have eventually proved that Bryan Fergus Molloy was born Frederick McNulty from a pension card that has been sent to me. Interestingly his father's request for a pension was tuned down

 

My up to date page on Bryan Fergus Molloy is on this link - click

 

My next problem is now to find out what Frederick McNulty was doing between 1911 and his death in 1920.. I will start a new thread in Soldiers on him

 

mcnulty.jpg.9e3a20059d0cb07cfdc3417fa370a8fe.jpg

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Thank you all, I will lock this thread now and redirect anyone interested in the identity of Frederick McNulty to the new thread

 

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/153543-bryan-fergus-molloy-es59087-asc-shot-dublin-1920/?page=4&tab=comments#comment-2737928

 

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