Military archives: Civil War victim, 10, could be IRA’s youngest member

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

Edmund Quirke took a bullet through the head when anti-Treaty IRA in his house and his neighbour’s were engaged in a battle with National Army forces in February 1923.

His IRA service and his death have emerged as he is one of more than 1,600 people whose applications — or those of their families — for pensions, disability or wound allowances, or other payments, are made public for the first time today.