An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 9 by SGT WAYNE FITzGERALD PHotoS by SGT MICK BURKE R ecently, An Cosantóir visited the Listowel Military & Historical Museum, owned and operated by Jim Halpin and situated at the rear of his fishing and shooting supplies shop on Church Street. Entry is free, but there is a jar for donations to help maintain the museum. Although collecting militaria for 30 years, Jim really started collecting seriously in 2000. In 2010 he rented windows to display his collection but such was the interest that he decided to open the back of the shop as a full-time display area. Asked how many items he has, Jim told me: "I couldn't be sure, but it's in the thousands – I know that much. I would estimate its value at between €90,000 and €100,000. SAS Lt Col Paddy Blair's replica medals cost £220 in 2009; imagine how much the originals would cost." Jim is a registered firearms dealer, which allowed him to collect some rare, historic weapons. These include a Lewis machinegun and a Lee Enfield .303 rifle that were captured from the Black & Tans during the War of Independence. Jim's family is steeped in military history. His grandfather served as a non-combatant in the old IRA and two other relations "caused a temporary split in the family as one sided with 'Dev' and the other with Collins after the Treaty." Jim's father and his mother's brother both served together in the 12 Inf Bn during the Emergency. His father continued to serve in the DF until pension, while another uncle joined the British Army in 1944 and transferred to the RAF where he went on to have a distin- guished 35-year career. Jim also has cousins that served in the Congo and Lebanon over the years. Jim joined the FCÁ in 1973 aged 17, serving for 12 years with 15 Inf Bn. His son Kevin also served, with 32 Inf Bn, for a number of years. Jim joined the Thomas Ashe Branch of ONE a few months ago, reason- ing: "As a member of the Listowel Military Tattoo committee, I can't keep asking members of IUNVA and ONE to parade for us if I'm not prepared to do it myself, so I joined the ONE." The three-day Listowel Military Tattoo, now in its fifth year, is held on May Bank Holiday weekend and Jim says: "It's the only tattoo that I know of that has a battle re-enactment running through the streets, involving blanks and smoke and flash grenades." He also expressed his appreciation to Padraig Nolan and Damian Stack, who, he says, were instrumental in getting the Tattoo off the ground. He also wants to give special thanks to the Grape and Grain on Upper Church St. for supporting the Tattoo. Jim also wrote to the local council looking for a monument to be erected in the town square in memory of all Irish men and women who gave their lives for Ireland. This has now been completed. We also visited a warehouse to see a replica Spitfire Mk Vb being worked on by members of the Tattoo. This large-scale, scratch-built model, which is being constructed from copies of original RAF plans from the 1940s, is being built in honour of Group Capt Francis Victor Beamish, AFC, DFC (with Bar). The model was built using a metal sub-frame, plywood, brass rails and aluminium, the latter material coming from used printing plates donated by the Kerry Eye, Kerryman, Irish Indepen- dent and The Examiner newspapers. The project, in planning for two years, was only started at Christmas and will take just under five months to complete. It cost nothing but the time given by those on the project, as all the materials were kindly donated by local businesses. After dis- playing the Spitfire for the Tattoo, project leader, Padraig Nolan, hopes to house the plane in a museum in the near future. (For his next project Padraig would love to build a full-scale replica of a Huey helicopter, in honour of Irish-born John O'Sullivan, the highest decorated US combat pilot in the Vietnam War.) the museum, with its superb collection of military and historical items, spanning 120 years, is open tuesday to Saturday, 10.30-17.30 daily. Visit http://bit.ly/listowel for more information. LiStOwEL miLitARY mUSEUm & tAttOO

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