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Hat, Irish Volunteer uniform, Commandant Joseph Barrett.
Hat from an Irish Volunteer officers uniform, once belonged to Commandant Joseph Barrett, an IRA leader during the Irish war of Independence and Civil War. Khaki in colour, complete with Oglaig na h-Eireann and FF on badge. Some wear around the edges with some green thread showing, leather strap along the top of peak of cap. Real calf leather inside the hat.
Joe Barrett was born in 1888, the eldest of 16 children, into a family steeped in republicanism.
By day, Barrett was a rate collector, but by the age of 20 he had joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). The IRB, like the later IRA, was a secretive group which used violence in an attempt to achieve Irish independence from Britain.
By 1916, the year of the Easter Rising, Barrett was a captain in the IRB and assembled 30 men to join the rebellion, but poor communications meant they and many others did not take part. But he did fight in the War of Independence (1919-1921) as a commander in the IRA’s Mid Clare Brigade.
Category: Costume