{{Short description|Irish independence fighter (1901–1922)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}} {{Use Hiberno-English|date=February 2022}} {{Infobox person | image = Frankflood.jpg | image_size = 150px | caption = Signed photograph of Frank Flood | birth_name = Francis Xavier Flood | birth_date = 1 December 1901<ref name=birthindex>{{cite web|title=Ireland Civil Registration Indexes, 1845-1958 |url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FBK7-34M |website=FamilySearch |publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |access-date=11 February 2017}}</ref> | birth_place = Dublin, Ireland | death_date = {{death date and age|1921|3|14|1901|12|1|df=y}}<ref name="query.nytimes.com">{{cite news| url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/03/15/103560727.pdf | work=The New York Times | title=SIX IRISHMEN DIE ON DUBLIN GALLOWS AS CROWDS PRAY; Relatives of the Condemned Men in the Throng Gathered Outside Mountjoy Prison. ALL CITY WORK SUSPENDED Guards Treat Mourners With Consideration and a Clash Is Averted. FEAR NOW OF REPRISALS Troops Fired On In Dublin Street at Night Return Shots and Kill Three | date=15 March 1921}}</ref> | death_place = Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, Ireland | death_cause = Execution by hanging | other_names = | known_for = Being one of the Forgotten Ten | occupation = University student }} '''Francis Xavier Flood''' (1 December 1901 – 14 March 1921) 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 Prison and was one of the men commonly referred to as the Forgotten Ten.
==Background== Flood was born at 6 Emmet Street, Dublin on 1 December 1901. He was the son of policeman John Flood and Sarah Murphy. The 1911 census lists the family living at 15 Emmet Street.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Mountjoy/Emmet_Street/28116/ |title=Census of Ireland 1901/1911 |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=2 April 1911 |website=National Archives of Ireland |publisher= |access-date=11 February 2017 |quote=Residents of a house 15.1 in Emmet Street (Mountjoy, Dublin) }}</ref> He was one of eight brothers and he had one sister, most of whom were heavily involved in the Independence movement.<ref name="thewildgeese1">{{cite web |url=http://www.thewildgeese.com/pages/forgten4.html |title="Down Into the Mire" - Part 4 of "The Forgotten Ten" - The Wild Geese Today |publisher=Thewildgeese.com |access-date=2008-11-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007112954/http://www.thewildgeese.com/pages/forgten4.html |archive-date=2008-10-07 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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.<ref name="archives2001">{{cite web |url=http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2001/10/14/story124314828.asp |title=Friendship till death: ThePost.ie |publisher=Archives.tcm.ie |date=14 October 2001 |access-date=2008-11-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070322183652/http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2001/10/14/story124314828.asp |archive-date=22 March 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He passed his first and second year engineering exams with distinction.<ref name="query.nytimes.com"/> At the time of his arrest he was living with his family at 30 Summerhill Parade, Dublin.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}
==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.<ref name="taoiseach1">{{cite web|url=http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Government_Press_Office/Government_Press_Releases_2008/Government_Press_Releases_2001/Reinterment_of_10_volunteers_executed.html |title=Department of the Taoiseach - Reinterment of 10 volunteers executed |publisher=Taoiseach.gov.ie |access-date=2008-11-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dcu.ie/~foxs/irhist/March%201921%20-%2014%20-%20Mountjoy%20Hangingsl.htm |title=Selton Hill |publisher=Dcu.ie |access-date=2008-11-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070328040432/http://www.dcu.ie/~foxs/irhist/March%201921%20-%2014%20-%20Mountjoy%20Hangingsl.htm |archive-date=2007-03-28 |url-status=dead }}</ref> All of the men were found in possession of arms and a grenade was discovered in Flood's pocket.<ref name="thewildgeese1"/> 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 Prison, Dublin.<ref name="taoiseach1"/> At nineteen years of age, he was the youngest of the six.
==Legacy and re-interment== right|thumb|The grave of nine of the Forgotten Ten in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin
Flood was a close personal friend of Kevin Barry, and asked that he be buried as close as possible to him.<ref name="taoiseach1"/> He had taken part in the September 1920 ambush during which Barry had been arrested and had been involved in the planning of several aborted attempts to rescue him.<ref name="archives2001"/> Flood would remain buried at Mountjoy Prison, together with nine other executed members of the Irish Republican Army known as The Forgotten Ten, until he was given a state funeral and reburied at Glasnevin Cemetery on 14 October 2001 after an intense campaign led by the National Graves Association.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nga.ie/history.htm |title=History |publisher=Nga.ie |access-date=2008-11-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071120173433/http://www.nga.ie/history.htm |archive-date=20 November 2007 }}</ref>
Students of University College Dublin established the Frank Flood Shield, an annual debating competition, in his memory.<ref name="archives2001"/> Flood and the other five men executed on 14 March 1921 are commemorated in Thomas MacGreevy's poem "The Six who were Hanged".<ref>{{cite web|last=Jenkins | first=Lee |url=http://www.ucd.ie/cosei/articles/lee2.htm |title=Thomas McGreevy and the Pressure of Reality |publisher=The Thomas McGreevy Hypertext Chronology; University College Dublin |date=Fall 1994 |access-date=2008-12-08}}</ref>
The bridge over the River Tolka in Drumcondra at Millmount Avenue/Botanic Avenue was named Droichead Frank Flood on 14 March 2018.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://comeheretome.com/2018/03/14/speech-at-the-unveiling-of-frank-flood-bridge-drumcondra/|title=Speech at the unveiling of Frank Flood Bridge, Drumcondra|access-date=2018-03-14}}</ref> A memorial to Flood was erected by his parents in Kilbarrack Cemetery.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Igoe |first1=Vivien |title=Dublin Burial Grounds & Graveyards |date=2001 |publisher=Wolfhound Press |page=137}}</ref>
==References and sources== ;Notes {{Reflist}}
;Sources * {{cite book | last =White | first =Gerry |author2=Brendan O'Shea |author3=William Youngshusband | title =Irish Volunteer Soldier 1913-23 | publisher=Osprey | year =2003 | location =Oxford | pages = 70| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=PcjHpAsLH1UC&q=9781841766850 | isbn =978-1-84176-685-0 }}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100510080506/http://www.penandclink.com/history.htm Transcripts of Flood's last letters to his family] from CDVEC Educational Service to Prisons. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20100510080506/http://www.penandclink.com/history.htm archived at WebCite])
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Flood, Frank}} Category:1901 births Category:1921 deaths Category:People educated at O'Connell School Category:People executed for treason against the United Kingdom Category:The Forgotten Ten Category:Executed people from County Dublin Category:Irish republicans