[URBAN NOTE] On the mysterious death of Neville Fryday in the Easter Rising

[rfmcdonald]

Katie Daubs wrote for the Toronto Star about the lone Canadian death in the Easter Rising, an Irish-Canadian teenage soldier mysteriously shot on a Dublin street.

While he was on leave in the U.K., Neville Fryday arranged to visit his mother Elizabeth, who was living in Dublin at the time. Fryday was born in Ireland, but the family lived for a time in Canada, where he enlisted. [. . .]

In the 100 years since he was gunned down in the first hours of the Easter Rising, Neville Fryday’s death has always been mysterious.

Was he killed defending the city, an Irish-Canadian soldier pressed into service against an uprising in his home country — or had he just been out for a stroll at a dangerous moment in history?

Fryday, who was shot in the stomach, was the first soldier of Toronto’s 75th battalion killed overseas. It was 1916, and he was en route to a battle in France he would never see.

In the Toronto Daily Star, his death made the front page in early May: “Were the Toronto troops, which left the city about six weeks ago, rushed across to Ireland to assist in quelling the Sinn Fein rebellion in Dublin?” it asked.

A few days later, his family in Toronto received a letter, written before his death. Neville and a brother had been granted leave and both brothers had planned to see their mother in Dublin.