His elder brother, Jack Edwards, was the Waterford organiser of the one-day general strike against the enforcement of conscription in Ireland.
[1] Frank Edwards said of the killing of his brother "It was known to be a reprisal for the shooting of a Free State officer, Captain O'Brien, in Waterford.
When Edwards denounced local slum-landlords, not realising that some of the property was owned by the Catholic Church, this brought him to the notice of Archdeacon William Byrne.
Edwards was investigated by the Church authorities and Bishop Jeremiah Kinane ordered he leave his teaching post.
[5] He returned to Ireland, where he was now blacklisted, lost a post with Pye Radio for organising a union, worked as a labourer laying pipes, and, at the outbreak of the Second World War, found a teaching post at Zion School, a Jewish foundation on the South Circular Road.