OPINION (AN COLÚN): A Birr man's dramatic Civil War story

MY great-granduncle Joubert Powell was named after a famous Afrikaner soldier and general. Joubert was the youngest son of my great-great- grandfather and grandmother, the founders of The Midland Tribune in 1881. He was born in 1900 into a family which had strong nationalist beliefs and when the War of Independence erupted in 1919 he joined the fight against the British, bringing a lot of energy and ability to the conflict.
He had been named after Piet Joubert, who had been Commandant-General of the South African Republic from 1880 to 1900. This Republic came to an end in 1902 when the British defeated the Boers and won the Second Boer War (using controversial tactics including a scorched earth policy and the imprisonment of people in concentration camps). Thousands of Irishmen, serving in different regiments including the Dublin Fusiliers, Connaught Rangers and Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, fought against the Boers during the two Boer Wars. However, back home in Ireland many Irish people were, emotionally speaking, on the side of the Boers against the British Empire (under the pretext of whoever is fighting my enemy is therefore my friend). Children born to Irish mothers during this period were sometimes named after prominent Afrikaner politicians and soldiers; my great-granduncle was one of them. He was born during the period that the Second Boer War was raging and not long after the death of Piet Joubert (who died from Peritonitis on March the 28th 1900).
Joubert was schooled in Birr, after which he worked for a while on the printing staff of The Midland Tribune. He then joined the British Army and fought in the trenches of France. On returning from the Western Front in 1918 he joined the Irish Volunteers. He was attached to the North Tipperary No 1 Brigade Flying Column and the South Offaly No 2 Brigade operating in the old IRA Fourth Battalion area in Offaly. During the War of Independence he took part in numerous actions and also impressed with his organisational ability. He was associated as well with the Clare Brigade in the Third Southern Division. His achievements in the theatre of war won him promotions, eventually reaching the rank of Captain. In the early 1920s he took part in a successful ambush of a lorry convoy of the Black & Tans near Moneygall. In June 1920 he participated in the North Tipperary Flying Column attack on Borrisokane Barracks which lasted through the night. When the attack came to an end and the Flying Column withdrew, Joubert waited a couple of hours and then went back to Borrisokane Barracks. Dressed in civvies and carrying a camera he said he was working for The Midland Tribune and began taking photographs and writing down details of the damage done by the attacking party. No one in the Barracks recognised him from the attack only a few hours before! On another occasion he pretended to be a guest in a Clara hotel, which performance fooled the British rounding up force.
Joubert also took part in the Kilcommon Ambush, which was one of the more significant engagements of the Anglo-Irish War in North Tipperary. He narrowly escaped capture by British forces on many occasions. He managed to elude capture and remain on active service until the Truce in July 1921.
When the Civil War broke out Joubert joined the National Army of the Irish Free State and he was nearly killed when ambushed at Tonduff near Portlaoise in July 1922. During this ambush Divisional Officers Jack Collison and Austin MacCurtin were fatally wounded and Volunteer Thomas Grace was killed. Captain Powell was badly wounded. He was travelling in a Lancia car (which had a Lewis gun team), with a number of other soldiers following in two lorries, going to investigate a report that a mine had been laid in Tonduff on the main road between Abbeyleix and Portlaoise, when the Lancia hit a mine. The wheels were blown off the car which turned over, including its eight occupants, onto a hedge. If it had gone the other way it would have been smashed into a stone wall. The lorries drew up ten or 15 yards away and from behind a wall a party of about 40 anti-treatyites opened fire using rifles, revolvers and throwing hand grenades. Lieutenant Tierney was the first to be wounded as the troops got out of the lorries and spread out to beat back the ambushers. Two members of the medical corps tried to reach the Lancia but were driven back by enemy fire. A dazed Corporal O'Connor fired his revolver from the wrecked car. Tom Grace was shot in the Lancia and died twenty minutes later.
Joubert deployed his men and captured two men. The remainder of the ambushers retreated. Reinforcements were then sent out from Portlaoise to Joubert and his men. After the reinforcements had arrived the National Army soldiers deployed across country in the direction of Abbeyleix. Joubert and Commandants MacCurtin and Collison, along with five men, were moving along rising ground in the Raheen area, their main force having gone another way; and Commandant Michael Gantley was some distance away with another party moving in a circle to join Commandant MacCurtin. Commandant Gantley heard a firefight break out in MacCurtin's direction. He went to the spot. When he arrived he saw eight anti-treatyites in a field with their hands up. Behind a ditch nearby were ten anti-treatyites who had also surrendered. Close by were MacCurtin, Collison and Joubert, all of whom had been injured in the firefight, which had erupted as they were standing in a corner of a field. When the firing began MacCurtin had shouted “Take cover” and he and Joubert fell together. When Joubert recovered he saw MacCurtin crawling towards him. There was blood coming from MacCurtin's mouth and he said, "I'm done for.”Joubert had been wounded in the left jaw, and in the thigh. He was carried out of the action by Corporal Price. MacCurtin and Collison died of their wounds. The County Coroner subsequently said that MacCurtin had an exit wound large enough to admit three fingers in the right side of his back. Some of the anti-treatyites had fired dum-dum bullets. Dum-dum bullets were banned in the Geneva Convention in 1933 because they were considered inhumane, due to the fact they expanded on impact. MacCurtin was from Nenagh and Collison from Moneygall. As their funeral corteges brought them home, blinds were drawn in mourning and troops lined the streets.
Joubert recovered from his wounds and became a farmer in Streamstown Roscrea. He died in 1957.