Dad died of Cancer on the 18th March 1974 and basically lived with Margaret and I for some months before he died. Margaret was pregnant and expecting Ciara who was born in September of the same year.

My Dad was 71 years when he died he was born in Cork on the 28th April 1903 at 19 Friars Street Cork.See his birth certificate .His Father was Patrick Cummins and his mother Ellen Cummins. There is very little I know about his youthful years but he was a compositor at the printing Industry from an early age. He worked at the Eagle Printing and Lee Press in Cork City.

In 1920/21 Dad was attached to Tom Barry's flying Coulmn as a member of the IRA fighting the British Black and Tans until the Truce in December 1921.Following the truce my Father fought in the Irish Civil war on the Republican side, and these republican sympathies remained with him up to the time of his death. See Free State notice regarding my Dad's activities click Here..

My Dad (right with gun in belt).

My Dad (centre back row) with colleagues in the Flying Column
Although the British evacuated most of the Forts and military barracks they did not hand over the Naval ports until 1938.My mother was living with her Mother and father (Who was in the British Royal Navy) at the Naval Base Haulbowline Co. Cork. It was during this period that my Mother met my Father in Patrick Street in Cork and started a relationship that did not go down too well with both my Mams or Dads parents. My mothers parents objected to their daughter being involved with an Irish terrorist and to make matters worse he was also a Catholic. My Mam and Dad basically went off and got married against both parents wishes and this was to have an effect on my eldest brother Sean.

My Mam had no contact with her mother. My Grandmother moved to Gosport in England when the British Naval Base at haulbowline was handed back to the Irish Government in 1938. In 1945 my eldest brother Sean was 16 years of age. My Grandmother had never seen any of her Grandchildren. Grandma got very seriously ill in 1945 and was not expected to survive. My Mother was sent for. Mam travelled to Gosport (England) with my brother Sean and stayed several weeks. My Grandmother did recover and of course doted over her grandson Sean. He enjoyed the attention so much he went back to Gosport later and stayed with my Grandmother for sometime. To my fathers horror he got a letter from Sean to say he had joined the British Navy. You will understand that with my fathers Republican Ideals he would never have agreed to his son joining the British Forces. Naturally he wrote to Sean and told him to get out immediately and come home. Sean informed my father he (Sean) was old enough to make up his own mind and would remain in the Royal navy. My Dad informed Sean if he did not do as my Father asked then he naver wanted anything more to do with Sean.There was never any more communication with Sean until the night my Mother died on the 11th April 1972.

On that day in 1972 when my Mother dies We spent the day trying to trace his where abouts in Australia so that we could tell him his Mam had died. It was late that evening as we all gathered in my Dads house after taking my Mam's remains to te local church prior to her Burial the next morning, that I took a person to person call from Sean whoi was ringing from Australia. After speaking to Sean briefly (we had never spoken before this) I passed the phone to my Dad and told him it was Sean calling from Australia. My Dad took the telephone out into the samll hallway for privacy. After maybe 15 minutes I heard the click of the phone but it was many minutes before my Dad re-appeared and it was obvious he had been crying. This was not typical of my dad but it was the first time he had spoken to Sean in 28 years.

Sean rang back almost immediately and told me is was arranging to come home as soon as possible as he wanted to see my Dad and his family before anything else happened to the family Sean came home in October 1973 and stayed with my Father. 5 months after Sean's visit home my Father died of Cancer.

I never realised that my brother Sean was my Godfather. However, on his second visit home in 1982 he gave me a silver goblet engraved "to my Godson Terry 41 years later". My Brother Patrick (Sean) died of a heart attack in March 2001. My Brother Brian had died in January 2001 of a heart attack and I had a triple heart by-pass in September 2001. They say you have some strange experiencies when having open heart surgery. During my heart surgery I had a vivid dream with 3 of my Brothers standing over me duriong surgery i.e. Austin on my left, David and Sean on my right. Sean said to me "you will be all right Kid" and I am to this day T.G.