GIRL IN THE DUBLIN FUSILIERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 December 1916, Page 6

GIRL IN THE DUBLIN FUSILIERS.

TOOK PLACE OF TWIN BROTHER .WHO WAS ILL. ' WONDERFUL DEVOTION. All officer recently returned from the front related i\ remarkable story of how a beautiful nineteen-year-old Irish girl succeeded in joining the Dublin Fusiliers some time ago in place of her brother, who wus stricken with consumption.

Miss Marie O'Neill is the heroine of this extraordinary adventure. She is the only daughter of peasant parents, who reside in a mountain village in Coimcmara. The circumstances undef which she took her brother's place in the Dublin Fusiliers are pathetic. Her brother enlisted in the regiment over a year ago. He was not a very strong lad, and suffered a good deal from lung trouble; but, in spite of this, he remained in the army in the hope that the open-air training would benefit him. His twin sister, to whom he bore a striking resemblance, knew his real condition, and that so far as the army was concerned his days were numbered. It was her heart's desire that he should fight for his country, but gradually she saw tiiat death must claim 'him by a lingering and most painful illness. She resolved to take his place in the army, MADE UP FOR THE PAR'I

One evening by the bedside of her brother she talked the matter over, and he gave her a comprehensive explanation of army routine, discipline, and the trial? which a soldier is called upon to bear. The arduous, open-air life had 110 terrors for the brave girl, and there and then she decided to don the uniform of her brother. To assure the success of Ker ruse, however, she\ paid a visit to a theatrical wigmaker in Dublin, and on the pretextthat she was going to play the part of a soldier in a music-hall sketch she prevailed on him to equip her accordingly. She removed her hair, anil by the aid of grease paints completed an. effective make-up. Returning to' the country, in the absence of her father and mother she put on .jier brother's tunic, trousers and puttees, and forthwith proceeded to report herself at his camp. She passed the sentries-all .right, and for that, evening successfully eluded detection. The following morning she appeared 011 parade, and nobody was a bit the wiser about .her sex. For a whole week,', it- appears, she stood the training, until- an order came that the battalion was to be removed to England That was Marie's undoing. Each man was ordered for a final medical examination. and, , just as in a recent case in London a woman was found to be masquerading as a man, so the beautiful colleen was discovered to be deputising for her brother. .

SURPRISED THE DOCTORS. The doctors were flabbergasted wSien they realised that a woman had all but succeeded in making good her departure ior England as a member of the regiment. . On her knees Marie begged to bo allowed to continue her army trainingr, but the authorities wouldn't hcav of her suggestion. She told them that she had read of the Russian women fighting with the Russian Army, but thev reminded ■ her that Ireland wasn't Russia,-and that they would have to disappoint her. All the same, they admired her intense loyalty, and as a mark of their esteem organised a presentation for her.

Escorted by two officers. Marie was taken to her home, and there, to the joy of her parents, her disappearance was accounted for. Meanwhile arrangements were made for the discharge of her brothel, wljo only survived her adventure by a few wetks.

'"Strange things have happened in this war," said the officer who told the story, 'but this was one of the most bewildering. When you come to think of it, after all it is quite easy for a women to enter the Army, provided, of course, she escapes a medical teat, as this girl did, until at the last moment when the battalion was being shifted to England.

AS LIKE AS TWO PEAS. "The men laughted heartily when they learnt the details of the masqucrader's ruse, md they expressed great sympathy with her and sorrow for the fate of her brother, who was very popular. In appearance he was just like his sister, and to look at the pair side by side in uniform I don't believe you could tell them one from the other. Private O'Neill spoke in a high-pitched voice, which was all in his daring sister's favor. In manner and disposition they were both alike I am surprised that the stoi'jyluis not been more generally known. . "The girl's action was intended, of course, to save her brother's reputation, because he was obliged to rejoin his regiment at a certain date, and was too ill to appear, The battalion has not forgotten him or the heroine who was prepared to give her own life that lie might survive. There is a barrack-room not many miles from Dublin where a photograph ot the pair hangs to-day, and it will ever bo retained as a memento oi the,beautiful girl who was robbed of a chance of fighting tho Germans "