1900 Dublin -
The Storms of Fate
The early 1900s was a period of tumult for Ireland. The nationalist movement was gaining momentum backed by the guerilla warfare tactics of the newly-formed I.R.A.
Strength, toughness, and street smarts were useful to the Irish rebel leaders, including the renowned real-life rebel, Michael Collins. And there in their midst was a young lad from Glasgow,
The early 1900s was a period of tumult for Ireland. The nationalist movement was gaining momentum backed by the guerilla warfare tactics of the newly-formed I.R.A.
Strength, toughness, and street smarts were useful to the Irish rebel leaders, including the renowned real-life rebel, Michael Collins. And there in their midst was a young lad from Glasgow,
James Crossan,
about to be swept up by those storms of fate…1914-Scotland
Hellraiser - "Paddy" Patrick Crossan
World War I - Sir George McCrae's Battalion or "McCrae's Own" or, locally, as Hearts Battalion". The entire Heart of Midlothian first team joined up in November 1914. Hearts were top of the Scottish Football League at the time.
"No club sacrificed more in the First World War than Heart of Midlothian. Sixteen players from the club joined up, most of them enlisting in the 16th Battalion of Royal Scots, the oldest infantry regiment in the army and nicknamed 'Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard'.
Seven members of the first team were killed in action. The battalion suffered 229 casualties on the first day of the battle of the Somme with another 347 wounded. That the 16th Royal Scots made greater inroads into the German line than any other battalion that day seems a paltry consolation.
Crossan was gassed and never recovered his health before his death in 1933. They had put themselves into a position of winning the league title, yet many were asking why play football when your countrymen are dying a few miles away just over the channel?"
1941 - Clydebank, Glasgow ScotlandRosemary Crossan
World War 2 - On March 13, 1941, Clydebank was attacked by over 200 German bombers (Luftwaffe). As the bombs dropped, all hell broke loose…the planes kept coming and the whistling of the bombs unending. Rosemary was too numb to believe what she was seeing and experiencing. Her thoughts kept asking, "where are they, my mother and father, my brothers, are they alive or dead?" The night was about to get worse as wave after wave of bombers flew overhead…
1968 – Vietnam
Hellraiser - Ronald Crossan
Did Ronnie want to go to Vietnam? Hell no! Drafted!
He was nailed at the Canadian border.
He was given three choices and Vietnam was his best bet.
He survived Vietnam;
however his hellraising past caught up with him.
He was dead before he reached his 26th birthday.
1986 - Los Angeles - My brother
Each day the voices were growing louder...
He threw himself at the oncoming car with such force
1986 - Los Angeles - My brother
Each day the voices were growing louder...
He threw himself at the oncoming car with such force
that his body smashed into the windshield
and bounced down the highway like a ragdoll...
“Faithfulness and devotion,
Things born of fire and roof, were his;
Yet he retained his wildness and wiliness.
He was a thing of the wild.”
CALL OF THE WILD
Jack London
