Serendipity. It’s a word we use to describe a circumstance or an event that otherwise evades an easy explanation. And it’s a word I’d use to describe the story I’ll tell today.

My new book, “Reflections of an Irish Grandson…a story of Grandmother Bridget (Meade) Quealy and the Meade family of Miltown Malbay, County Clare, Ireland” recounts the hardships and the struggles of the Meade family in Ireland during a time when the British still ruled that country very harshly. It focuses especially on three young Meade brothers—Joe, Jim and Peter—and their valiant and courageous service in the IRA’s Mid Clare Brigade during the Irish War of Independence. Tragically, Peter Meade met his death on May 12, 1921 as a result. He was eighteen years old.

Peter Meade’s Commanding Officer in the 4th Battalion of the Mid Clare Brigade provided direct and compelling testimony to Irelands’ Military Service Pension Board attesting that Peter’s death, indeed, occurred due to his service in the Irish War Independence. Peter was posthumously awarded a Medal for that service and his mother, as beneficiary, was paid a Military pension. The Commanding Officer was a local Miltown Malbay man named Anthony Kerin.

I often post on this page excerpts from my book or stories about my Meade family still living in Ireland. A few days ago, I noticed a “reply” to one such post. It was from a direct relative of Anthony Kerin. I’ll hold the name in privacy, but the person knew the Meade family, is still living in Ireland and was familiar with the service of the Meade’s and the Kerin’s in the Mid Clare Brigade more than 100 years ago. Serendipity.