Dublin family claims mustachioed mystery man on stamp

The mustachioed mystery man who appears on a stamp commemorating the centenary of the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) has been claimed by his family.

An Post had named the uniformed standard bearer as Capt Jack White, one of the founders of the army, but deferred issuing the stamp earlier this week after historians raised doubts over his identity.

The man has now been named by his grandnephew as Vincent Poole, who fought in the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence.

The Pooles' claim has been supported by the National Museum of Ireland, who supplied the photograph used for the stamp to An Post.

Vincent Poole from Blanchardstown, who was named after his granduncle, said yesterday the family had been aware of the photograph for years and had known it to be either their grandfather Capt Christopher Poole or their granduncle.

“They were both very close, and in the pictures we have of them they looked very alike. We knew it was either one or the other, but after a lot of research we are now 99 per cent sure it’s Vincent.”

Christopher and Vincent Poole had served together in the British army in South Africa and brought that experience to use in the ICA. Christopher, the more senior of the two, had been second in command at Stephen’s Green in 1916.

Sandra Heise, curator with the National Museum of Ireland, said it was the museum's understanding that the man pictured on the stamp was one of the Poole brothers.

“We would have become aware of the Poole connection with the picture about five years ago, and it would be our best idea that it was one of the Poole brothers.”

The museum had supplied the picture on a request from An Post, but had not been asked to identify any of the men in the photograph, she said.

“All the museum did was supply the image to An Post. We were not asked for an image of Jack White, we were specifically asked for the image of the ICA outside Croydon House in Croydon Park, Fairview, in 1915.”

It had yet to be categorically disproved that the man pictured was White, although it did not seem likely, she said.

An Post, which produced 136,000 stamps with the disputed image at a cost of €4,000, said the image had been researched and verified and widely used in academic journals and other publications.

“The process of clarification is under way and we won’t be commenting further until a conclusion has been reached,” a spokeswoman for the company said yesterday.

Pádraig Yeates, author of Lockout:1913, said White left the ICA in January 1914 following a dispute with Larkin and the army did not get uniforms until late 1914.

“There is a danger of a lot of this sort of thing happening during the decade of commemorations, so people have to be extra careful they thoroughly check all sources. As well as professional academics and historians, family accounts and photographs can be some of the best sources.”