Maurice Cadell. The name leaped from the page even though, unexpectedly, it lay within the context of an appreciation of the late Sir Edward Lindsay-Hogg. It was stated that Sir Edward had married, in 1957, Kathleen Cooney, the widow of Captain Maurice Cadell, MC.
Immediately memory switched back to the late 1940s, to a large house, Rocklands, on the outskirts of Wexford town. This was the home of Dr Peadar "Pax" Sinnott and his wife, Maureen. There, on that day in the late 1940s, an extraordinary encounter occurred. In a big, book-lined room in the house, two men faced each other in duelling manner, their rapiers rasping off each other as they parried and thrust. One of the men was "Pax" Sinnott, the other Maurice Cadell.
Wounded arm
The duel had started in playful, show-off fashion when Cadell had taken down two of the many weapons which "Pax" had on display in his home, but it ended with the doctor piercing Cadell's arm and having to stitch and bandage the wound. "Pax" derived no little satisfaction from thus defeating a former commando in the British Army, and one with a Military Cross to boot.
Yet these two larger-than-life characters had much in common. Dr Sinnott, proud possessor of an old Norman name, had as a medical student abandoned his studies to take an active part in the War of Independence. He had earned some notoriety as a one-man unit with his "Peter-the-Painter" weapon and invented an explosive mixture to which he had given the name "Paxo" - hence his nickname "Pax". He later qualified as a doctor and built up a large and appreciative practice in Foulksmills and Wexford town. He was an avid reader and a local historian of note and built up an impressive library, often accepting old books in lieu of fees when treating members of the landed gentry. He had a less than admiring attitude towards the English, which made his friendship with Capt Cadell all the more remarkable.
Cadell, however, was not English but Scottish and came from a wealthy family which also had Norman connections. A Richard Caddell was Sheriff of Connacht in the 14th century. Nicknamed "Le Blac", he was apparently, the progenitor of the Blakes, one of the 14 tribes of Galway. Maurice's father was a judge and the Cadell wealth enabled him to give his only son a gift of £21,000 on his 21st birthday.
Maurice spent his patrimony as easily as he had acquired it. He had his own plane and a racing car which he drove at Brand's Hatch. He loved the high life and developed a liking for drink which stayed with him for the rest of his life.
Soldiering in Spain
When the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936 his adventurous spirit drove him to join the Franco forces and he soldiered in Spain for the duration of that war. It was there that he met another Irishman with a subsequent colourful career - Patrick Joseph Cleary of Limerick, who had joined General O'Duffy's Irish Brigade and who later became a priest under the name Father Leander. Received into the Franciscans in Killarney in 1940, Leander spent some time in South Africa before being transferred to Wexford, where he died in 1986.
Cadell's taste for adventure was further satisfied when war broke out in 1939. He joined the British Special Forces, was involved in several top secret raids into enemy territory (one from a mini-sub off the coast of France, another in Italy where he and his small group wiped out a mobile patrol of Germans) and won a reputation for daredevilry and courage which led to accusations or recklessness and indiscretion. As a riposte to those who accused him of over-indulgence on some of his missions, Cadell one day entered the mess, pinned an Ace of Spades card on the wall, drew his pistol, walked to the other end of the room and then put six bullets into the Ace.
New campaigns
With the end of the war in 1945, Cadell sought new campaigns to wage. In Dublin, where he met his future wife, Kathleen Cooney of Carrick-on-Suir, he joined Ailtiri na hAiseirighe,
the ultra-nationalist movement led by the late Gearoid O Cuinneagain which had a strong anti-partitionist programme. Cadell advocated a march on Belfast to overthrow the Unionist government, a theme reflected in the famous Aiseirighe poster of the time which proclaimed: "Six Counties. Six Divisions. Six Minutes". He even accomplished his own personal "invasion" of the North when he drove his car across the border, a Tricolour waving defiantly from a front wing. The RUC soon turned him back.
It was through Kathleen Cooney that Cadell met "Pax" Sinnott, as Maureen Sinnott had been at school with her. The two former warriors hit it off immediately, with Cadell and his wife spending weekends at Rocklands and at a summer residence in Duncannon. They had much to talk about, these two veterans of different wars; much to argue about too.
But their time together was short. Cadell died of liver failure in the early 1950s, Dr Sinnott a few years later, in 1957. I had the privilege of knowing both of them and of being present when they faced each other with quivering rapiers. Truly we shall not look upon their like again.