Grandpa the Sniper
The Remarkable Story of a 1916 Volunteer
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It's April, 1916. Dublin GAA footballer Frank Shouldice has just won the Croke Cup. It's a big achievement for the up and coming star, but he has other things on his mind. Two weeks after the final whistle he's 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. Except he's 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 can't budge a pocket of Irish Volunteers defiantly holding out. Desperate to get the upper hand, the South Staffs storm the barricades after dawn. 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. Pearse's surrender begins the next chapter of this extraordinary story.
Publisher: The Liffey Press
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