Frank Flood

Francis Xavier Flood (June 1901 – 14 March 1921), known as Frank, was a 1st Lieutenant in the Dublin Active Service Brigade during the Irish War of Independence. He was executed by the British authorities in Mountjoy Jail and was one of the men commonly referred to as The Forgotten Ten.

Background

Flood was the son of a policeman and the 1911 census lists the family living at 15 Emmet Street. He was one of eight brothers, most of whom were heavily involved in the Independence movement. He attended secondary school in O'Connell Schools, Dublin and won a scholarship to study engineering at University College Dublin where he was an active member of UCD's famous debating forum, the Literary and Historical Society. He passed his first and second year engineering exams with distinction. At the time of his arrest he was living with his family at 30 Summerhill Parade, Dublin.

Trial and execution

He was captured, together with Thomas Bryan, Patrick Doyle, Bernard Ryan and Dermot O'Sullivan while attacking a lorry-load of Dublin Metropolitan Police at Drumcondra on 21 January 1921. All of the men were found in possession of arms and a grenade was discovered in Flood's pocket. On 24 February 1921 Flood was charged by Court-martial, with high treason/levying war against the King, and was one of six men executed by hanging on 14 March 1921 in Mountjoy Jail, Dublin. At nineteen years of age, he was the youngest of the six.