I understand why grandad joined IRA: Paul Merton
COMEDIAN Paul Merton has s ai d he “completely understands” his Irish grandfather’s decision to join the IRA in 1920.
The Have I Got News For You panellist traces the life of maternal grandfather James Power, from Crooke, Co Waterford, in a new episode of BBC One’s Who Do You Think You Are?
Paul Martin, known professionally as Paul Merton, is one of two children born to English father Albert and Irish mother Mary Ann Power, who was fostered after her parents died when she was a baby.
When a priest told James’s wife her husband had died at sea, she went into shock and premature labour and tragically died in childbirth. Her baby boy survived only three days.
A poor farmer, Power enlisted in the old Royal Irish Regiment of the British Army aged 23 at the outbreak of the First World War. In April 1916, Powell’s regiment was deployed on the streets of Dublin during the Easter Rising to suppress the rebels. s.
Following the Rising, sing, Power served in Greece, ce, Egypt and at the Bat- tle for Jerusalem, before returning his medals and joining the IRA in the fight f or i ndependence from Britain.
Merton (62) said he did not blame his grandrandfather for joining the republibli can campaign.
“Firing at his fellow Irishmen… that could instil a radicalism in you, I thinthink. I don’t blame him, tto be honest,” said the comedian. “You ththink you’re going to FFrance to fight the Germans and then you’re in Dublin and oordered to shoot at yyour mates.”
Following i ndepenpendence, Power marriedried aand had children. CContraryt to reports that he had died at sea, records show he died in Cardiff aged 37 of a heart attack before falling into a canal.
Merton previously t urned down Who Do You Think You Are? following protests from his parents. After their deaths in 2013, the comedian decided to revisit his family history.
Merton told the Radio Times: “The thing with the IRA is that people will think, ‘Oh, the Birmingham bombings’ and all that, but this was a different time. It needs to be put into context.”
Who Do You Think You Are? airs on August 28 on BBC One at 9pm