As the Irish Civil War raged, juvenile members of the population were not above taking advantage of its attendant confusion for their own benefit. From the Freeman’s Journal, 6 March 1923, this story reminiscent of the eponymous hero of Richmal Crompton’s ‘Just William’ series:
“At a juvenile court yesterday, before Mr Cooper KC, a boy named John Higgins, aged 12 and ½, was charged on remand with threatening and assaulting Mr Buchanan, assistant master of the Inchicore Model Schools.
According to the evidence, a ball which other boys had been playing with entered Mr Buchanan’s garden on Tuesday week, and when the boy, now charged, asked for it, Mr Buchanan refused to give it to him. Higgins then threw some stones and went away. Between 9 and 10 o’clock the same evening he returned wearing a mask, and carrying a toy pistol, which Mr Buchanan thought was a real one. The boy handed him a document inscribed ‘Proclamation, Beware of the I.R.A. Scouts’ and made a threat if he did not get back the ball.
The Superintendent of the Summerhill Detention Home gave evidence that on Friday week, four officers of the National Army, who were accompanied by the father of the accused boy, called on him to hand over the boy.
Mr WJ Gleeson, who (instructed by Mr Philip H O’Reilly) appeared on behalf of the accused, said that it was hardly necessary to point out that a case of this kind could not be taken seriously, nor was it necessary to say that this boy was not authorised as an emissary of the IRA, or anybody else.
Mr Cooper said he quite realised that and ordered a fine of 40s, and six strokes of the birch for the accused, who would also have to find two sureties of 20 pounds to give bail for his good behaviour for 12 months. As regards the boy’s removal from custody, he would have the papers sent to the Minister for Home Affairs and the Attorney-General, who could take action if they thought necessary.
Subsequently, on the application of Mr Gleeson, the magistrate deleted the sentence of birching.
The boy Higgins was not a pupil of Inchicore Model Schools.”
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