AT nine o’clock in the morning on this day, November 21st, exactly 100 years ago, Paddy MacCormack, a veterinary surgeon from Castlebar, was sitting up in bed in the Gresham Hotel in Dublin, reading The Irish Field.

Paddy had every reason to feel relaxed, despite the turbulent times prevailing in Dublin and nationwide. The War of Independence was at its height, and tension and danger was to be found around every corner. Paddy would have had good reason to feel immune from the trouble outside as he was on a particular mission of his own at the time.