Beautiful China
The November morning was crisp and clear. The Smiths were preparing for the youngest son’s tenth birthday. A celebration, simple but cheerful — China on the table, cakes waiting for candles, the air charged with excitement.
A knock on the door. The birthday boy opened it, expecting the guests, instead, he saw unknown men. They were the members of The Squad. That day, 21 of November 1920, they were tracking down British spies across Dublin — fourteen in total, all marked for death. The operation, led by Michael Collins, was part of the independence fight.
Two of them, it turned out, were lodging upstairs in the Smith house. The Squad didn’t just kill the spies — they shot the head of the household too. No one knows why. The father bled out on the floor while his children watched, the birthday forgotten.
Years later, the family split apart. The younger son moved to England; the eldest daughter stayed in Dublin, keeping her father’s tea set like it held the past together. Eventually, it ended up in a museum, a relic of a day soaked in both ordinary life and sudden violence.