Michael Flannigan

Though known primarily for his prowess as a Victorian inventor, Michael Flannigan had the heart of an adventurer -- both qualities inspired his niece, Emily Chesley in her writing.

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Yes we have a book. It may be in questionable taste.  Even naughty.  It's The Meanderings of the Emily Chesley Reading Circle. 

Though not particularly known as a force in the arms industry, Michael Flannigan did have one invention that was to have a major impact on the science of weaponry - The Rifled Rain Repellant Apparatus, which was more commonly known as the Bullet Brolly. The Bullet Brolly was based on the design of an earlier and less successful weapon known as the Hand Mortar. The Hand Mortar was a short barreled hand-held device that could fire a small spherical grenade on a parabolic trajectory to a distance of 100 meters. This early device was less than entirely successful due to a number of reasons.

In both cases the aforementioned "unfortunate result" was that the ammunition would explode and blow the legs off the weapons user. Failed tests of the Hand Mortar by the First British Engineers lead to a derisive appellation "Flannigan's Stubby Brigade" in reference to the unfortunate souls who tried to use this invention.

Several years later Flannigan discovered that he could significantly shrink the size of the device. The addition of a rifled barrel also meant that it could be safely fired horizontally. In fact the entire apparatus could be concealed within the apparatus of an umbrella. The Rifled Rain Repellant Apparatus was born. The invention was an immediate hit among the moneyed classes throughout the British Isles. It was lightweight and provided outstanding self-defense against both evil-doers and inclement weather. 

I say old boy!  Jolly good shot!

The image at right shows an early recreational use of the Bullet Brolly - pigeon shooting. Nothing enhanced a gay May afternoon in London like the opportunity to head down to Trafalgar Square to take pot shots at a few pigeons. Soon is was more or less a fact that any gentleman carrying an umbrella was to be treated with the utmost deference. This is a tradition that continues in Great Britain today. In North America, however, the Bullet Brolly had far less success as more conventional firearms were more readily available.

It was only a matter of time before the military took an interest in the Bullet Brolly. Colonel William Smaggit Chesham, the Fourth Earl of Wiggit, attempted to raise and equip an entire brigade of Brolly toting light horsemen. The effort turned out to be a failure, however, as it was found that, for a mounted, soldier the Brolly was neither an effective weapon nor a particularly effective umbrella. The brigade soon switch to more conventional carbines. In the meantime the Brolly continued to enjoy brisk sales in England, Scotland and Ireland.

It was in Ireland particularly that the Bullet Brolly gained the most fame and, perhaps, the most infamy. The landed gentry in Ireland found that the Bullet Brolly was particularly effective as a discreet personal defense weapon. It gained a much more loathsome reputation, however, when the same gentlemen began to use the Brolly as a method of fending off "beggars, waifs, and other troublesome persons".

A proper gentleman prepares to dispatch a troublesome pest with the Bullet Brolly.

"This device is a marvel," said Lord Snivel of Branaugh. "Where before I had to expend considerable exertions beating street urchins with my walking stick, I need now only point this wonderful engine at them, squeeze off a round, and be done with the sorry business. Of course, I make it a clean and merciful shot. No use having our street populated with beggars who are also lame."

It is perhaps a particular irony then that the Bullet Brolly also began to be carried by hard men enlisted in the nationalist cause. Among these were such legendary figures as Shamus "Winky" Mellon, Sean "Chuckles" Slawene, and the most notorious of all Paddy "Long John" O'Toole. In fact a Bullet Brolly may well have played a role in one of the most notorious political crimes of the 19^th century, the June 6, 1898 assassination of Lord Snivel of Branaugh by the nationalist Sean "Chuckles" Slawene.

This item in a June 1898 edition of the Dublin Tattler carried the caption "An horrific nationalist crime!". Note the presumption by the artist that a Bullet Brolly was used though the weapon was never found.

Snivel was shot through the back at close range with a large caliber weapon. Though never proved, a Bullet Brolly is suspected. The local papers at the time referred to the incident as the Brolly Murder. Though there were no witnesses and the murder weapon was never found Slawene was apprehended, tried, and hung for the crime on June 16, 1898.

The Rifled Rain Repellant Apparatus largely fell out of use after the turn of the century, mainly due to new laws in the British Isles governing the carrying and use of concealed weaponry.

--"Scholarship" by Thuder