The Military Service Pensions Collection is a publicly accessible online archive of material relating to the 1916-23 period. For successful applicants, material and correspondence on their file can continue for decades up until the time of their death. A goldmine for first-hand accounts of the revolutionary period, an individual’s application can also occasionally throw up an interesting item which is historic in its own right.
John Adamson (1901-68) served with the Cyclists Company, 3 Battalion, Dublin Brigade, IRA during the War of Independence. He claims to have taken part in arms-raids on private homes and two ambushes of British forces in Portobello, Dublin 8. Taking the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War (June 1922 – May 1923), Adamson served with the same unit and stated that he took part in IRA attacks on the Four Courts Hotel; the home of Lord Glenavy, Milltown; the Grand Central Cinema, O’Connell Street; Portobello Barracks and on National Army troops on the Rathgar Road.
Handwritten reference from James J Ardiff in support of John Adamson dated 07 Sep. 1942 (MSP34REF3861)
Adamson was awarded 3 and 1/6 years service for pension purposes in 1942 at Rank E (Private). He lived for many years at 3 Darley’s Cottages, Vevay Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow and died on 13 Dec. 1968. Following his death, his widow contacted local county councillor Seamus Costello to make representations on her behalf. Buried in the payment file of John Adamson is a one-page hand-written letter from Seamus Costello of Roseville House, Dublin Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow dated 08 March 1968 to the Department of Defence. The year previously Costello had won a seat on Wicklow county council (and Bray urban district council). In the same month that he wrote the below letter, he had secured over 2,000 first-preference votes in a Dáil by-election.
Representations from Seamus Costello dated 08 May 1968 for the widow of John Adamson. File 34E7936.
Costello, a veteran of the IRA’s Border Campaign, was a leading member of the Official IRA and later the IRSP/INLA in the 1970s. He was shot dead in a feud between the two groups in Fairview in North Dublin in Oct. 1977. A concise biography of Seamus Costello is available at the Dictionary of Irish Biography.
The file of John Adamson and nearly 10,000 others (to date) are available on the MSPC website here.