Before occupying the building, three men who were later to occupy 25 Northumberland Road, Seamus Grace, Paddy Rowe, and Michael Byrne were ordered to guard the gates of Beggars Bush barracks on nearby Haddington Road. While guarding the gates, they were approached by an elderly man and his son. The man asked to examine Rowe’s rifle. Rowe, stepping back, refused to relinquish the weapon. The man took a few steps towards Rowe and even attempted to snatch the rifle from his grip. At this point, Grace pointed the bayonet of his rifle at the man’s throat and instructed him to leave.
Tensions boiled over, and the man pulled a revolver from his breast pocket, aiming it at Grace and was about to pull the trigger when Grace laid the blade of his bayonet against the man’s throat. It was at this point that the younger man accompanying him jumped between Seamus and his companion, exclaiming “it's alright, Sergeant, don't shoot my father”. Grace would later come to discover that the man was a member of a pro-British part-time, largely middle-aged, territorial organization called the Volunteer Training Corps but nicknamed the Gorgeous Wrecks as they wore an armband emblazoned ‘GR’ (Georgius Rex).
Soon afterwards the men were ordered to 25 Northumberland Road where they erected barricades and prepared the house for defence.
(MAI, BMH WS 310, 1949, pp. 5-6.)