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Maurice ‘Moss’ Twomey was born in Fermoy, County Cork, on 10 June in 1897. He was educated by the local Christian Brothers. He joined the Irish Volunteers on its formation in 1914 and proved to be an able recruit. He quickly rose to the rank of Battalion Adjutant Fermoy Battalion by 1918. By 1919, he had attained the rank of Brigade Adjutant to the Cork No. 2 Brigade of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). By 1920, Twomey was a staff officer on the general staff of the 1st Southern Division. He was heavily involved in operations during the War of Independence.

After the Anglo-Irish Treaty and during the Civil War, Twomey was a staff officer to General Liam Lynch. He was a member of the occupying force in the Four Courts in 1922, the action that precipitated the Civil War. He had however left the building before it was bombarded by the Free State Army.

Following the Civil War, Twomey was tasked with the entire root and branch reorganisation of the IRA, including the West Clare Brigade. Twomey succeeded Frank Aiken as Chief of Staff of the IRA in 1927, a post he would hold until 1936, when he was interned by the De Valera Government. While incarcerated in the Curragh Camp, Twomey argued with the IRA leadership concerning its policy of supporting Nazi Germany and resigned his position as Chief of Staff. Upon his release, Twomey left the IRA but remained sympathetic to the Republican cause. He subsequently opened a general confectioners and newsagents in Dublin, which became a centre for Republican activities. Maurice Twomey died in Dublin of a heart attack on 8 October 1978.

Máire Tugendhat née Littledale was born on 19 April 1910 to Arthur Charles Littledale (1879-1915) and Mary Josephine née Harris. A noted printmaker and illustrator, she trained at the Slade School of Fine Art in London between 1933 and 1935 and became particularly noted for her wood engravings. In September 1934, she married Georg Tugendhat (1898-1973), an Austrian-born economist and industrialist who had settled in England in 1921. Her children include among others the British Conservative Party politician Christopher Tugendhat, Baron Tugendhat (b. 1937) and retired High Court judge Sir Michael Tugendhat (b. 1944). Máire Tugendhat died on 8 August 1994 in Yorkshire.

Doris Ballingal was the only child of Robert Rennie Ballingal from his marriage in 1895 to Mildred Clowes. She was born in London on 5 January 1897 and spent her childhood in Adare. She married Eaton Travers of Timoleague, county Cork in 1925 and died in Timoleague on 10 March 1970.

The Royal Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company based at the Royal Opera House in London. It was founded in 1931 by Ninette de Valois and was granted a royal charter in 1956.

The National Association of Old IRA was a non-political organisation founded in 1923 to end the schism within Irish republicanism and bring about peace among former comrades. It also looked after the welfare of veterans and commemorated events important to its members. The name Old IRA was chosen to distinguish the Association from the anti-Treaty IRA, which by the 1930s had become an illegal organisation.

The Association’s mode of organisation was identical to that adopted by the IRA during the War of Independence. For example, county Limerick had been organised in West, Mid and East Battalions, and the Old IRA in Limerick likewise had West, Mid and East branches. The Association took the form of a social club organising social gatherings and sporting events. It also aided its members in the application for military pensions for the active participants in the conflicts of 1916-1921. It proved immensely popular and attracted prominent members, among them Simon Donnelly, Frank Thornton, Donal O’Hannigan and Liam Deasy. The Association avoided becoming embroiled in politics, although it did at one stage consider founding a political party. It enjoyed its heyday in the 1940s and 1950s, when it took a leading role in campaigns to end partition.

The National Association of Old IRA survived until the 1980s, when its mantle was assumed by the Organisation of National Ex-Servicemen (ONE).

The Irish Press was a national daily newspaper founded by Éamon de Valera from money collected during a series of fundraising drives to finance the first Dáil. The drives were terminated following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The trustee of the funds, Stephen O'Mara (1884-1959) considered himself as the exchequer to the Irish Free State and refused to hand over the funds to the pro-Treaty administration, which resulted in his imprisonment in 1922-1923. The bulk of the money was left in various banks in New York and remained untouched until 1927, when a court in New York ordered that money outstanding to bond holders must be paid back. Having anticipated such a ruling, de Valera’s legal team invited bond holders to sign over their bonds, for which they were paid 58 cents to the dollar. The funds thus accumulated were used as capital to launch the Irish Press, with Frank Gallagher as its first editor. The paper remained under the control of de Valera and his family and as a consequence its views followed closely those of the FIanna Fáil party. At its peak, the paper had 200,000 subscribers. The paper was wound down in 1995, following several years of financial difficulties.