A 10-year-old boy killed in a Civil War shootout in Tipperary may have been the youngest IRA member during the Irish revolution.

It took the intervention of his brother to make sure that the mother of a teenage IRA officer killed in the infamous 1920 Kilmichael ambush received a financial award.

Kevin Barry is probably one of the most famous names in republican history but it was not enough to earn his mother any payment for his death. She applied in November 1937 for a special allowance owing to the loss of her son, who was hanged on November 1, 1920.