One is not particular about personal appearance when there is an army at one’s heels and a price of a thousand pounds on one’s head.
Dan Breen, My Fight for Irish Freedom
Having left Knocklong, the gang headed for a nearby house where a doctor took a quick look at Breen and Treacy. Breen was thought to be so seriously injured that he might not make it. He was given some morphine and, afterwards, he and Treacy were moved by pony and trap* to the home of David Clancy at Ballylanders, Co. Tipperary. Clancy was a lieutenant in the local Volunteer company; his brother Patrick became – before he was shot dead in August 1920 – vice-commandant of the Third Tipperary Brigade. Vigorous security was provided for the fugitives by a roster of Volunteers.
Treacy seemed to make a miraculous recovery from what had initially looked like grave injuries and was soon back to his usual placid self. A sympathetic doctor named Fitzpatrick was summoned from Kilfinane to examine the injured men properly. Breen was in a deep drug-induced sleep. Treacy was in good spirits, complaining about nothing more serious than a problem with one of his teeth. The bullet which had gone through his throat, Fitzpatrick discovered, had damaged nothing important, and just missed his jugular vein and carotid arteries.
Dr Fitzpatrick recalled in 1945 the condition in which he had found Treacy: ‘Seán Treacy was not complaining about the big and painful wound in his throat. Most men, myself included, would not have bothered about anything else. Yet all that worried Treacy was that loosened tooth. Treacy was the coolest man there, far cooler than I was. That was Seán Treacy!’
A couple of days after Knocklong a dispatch rider named Keane reached Mick Davern with a message from the Big Four, with news concerning their well-being. This information was sent, via Davern, to their families and friends: ‘I was told to tell Eamon O’Duibhir that Séamus Robinson was not wounded, that Seán Hogan’s mother was to be told that he was not wounded and that he was all right, to tell Seán Treacy’s mother that Seán was slightly wounded in the neck but it was of slight consequence. He [Keane] also told me that they needed money very badly and he got some money from the acting QM [Eamon O’Duibhir]. He then gave me a covering address to forward the money to Miss Lily Finn, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick.
‘I brought Keane to Eamon O’Duibhir’s, where we ascertained that there was only £7.10 in brigade funds. I urged Eamon to give it but he replied: “What in the name of God is £7.10 to four men on the run? Tell the boys that we will go out through the companies and collect more money. We’ll get Paddy Ryan [Lacken] and Paddy Kinnane to collect in the mid-Tipperary Brigade also.” I proceeded to Alice Ryan of Church Street, Tipperary, a prominent Cumann na mBan girl and I met Commandant Seán Duffy of the Fourth Battalion, who was later killed. I also saw Con Moloney, acting brigade adjutant, and I informed him what had happened at Knocklong and told him to inform Mrs Treacy, Mrs Breen and Mrs Hogan. They suggested that I should go back home by Mrs Breen’s, which I did. When I informed her of what had happened and that two of the RIC were killed, she said, “Oh, Christ, isn’t it a pity that they didn’t kill the four bastards?” The following day we collected over £100 and forwarded it. While collecting the money, we made no secret of what it was wanted for; it was for the gallant men who had rescued Seán Hogan. Some of the people who had no money in the house borrowed it from neighbours and only one man refused.’
It was vital to transfer the Big Four, to get them away from the vicinity of Knocklong. Arrangements for this removal were made by Seán Finn, the west Limerick commandant. At midnight, a few days after the rescue, two cars drove up to David Clancy’s place. A weak and semi-conscious Breen was carried to one car, with Seán Hogan accompanying him. The cars moved away in convoy, one decoy car with lights full on going first while the second – carrying Hogan and Breen – followed behind in darkness.
Joost Augusteijn says that: ‘The Big Four left the county to recuperate in safety. They travelled throughout the south-west and ultimately ended in Dublin, where they remained until the beginning of 1920. During their absence some of the other officers kept the organisation going, but militarily nothing happened.’
Over the summer the Big Four disappeared into the landscape. They spent time in Kerry, Cork, Clare and north Tipperary. Their absence from their south-east Tipperary strongholds caused a certain slow-down in revolutionary activities there. Life became tricky for low-level Volunteers. The government was gradually adopting a get-tough stance in Tipperary.
The killing of Detective Inspector I. Hunt in Thurles on 23 June finally spurred Lord Lieutenant French into action. On 26 June, he telegraphed the British cabinet: ‘The Irish government are now forced to conclude that Sinn Féiners in this district are an organised club for the murder of police and that the time has come when Sinn Féin and its organisation in this district of Tipperary must be proclaimed an illegal organisation.’ An order proscribing Sinn Féin (plus the Volunteers, Cumann na mBan and the Gaelic League) in Tipperary North and South Riding was issued on 4 July.
In September, four Galbally men were arrested for killing the two Knocklong RIC men. Eventually two of them, Patrick Maher and Ned Foley, were charged and found guilty. They were hanged on 7 June 1921. Ned Foley had been part of the team which freed Hogan, but it is more or less definite that Maher played no part in the exercise. They remained buried in the grounds of Mountjoy Prison, their lot unresolved until the twenty-first century, when their remains were removed from Mountjoy and reinterred in their native place. Theirs were the last executions to take place before the Truce came into effect just one month later.
Having rested up and regained their health under the watchful eye of Clare IRA boss Mick Brennan, the Big Four decided to transfer operations to Dublin. Word of their exploits had spread far and wide and they were now revolutionary celebrities and inflammatory presences. Wherever they went, trouble for the British soon followed.
Their journey towards Dublin first took them to north Tipperary, where Nenagh’s Seán Gaynor, the local IRA leader, got the job of looking after them: ‘Frank McGrath made the arrangements for their transfer from Clare in a motor-car, owned and driven by Benny Gill, Nenagh. On the outskirts of Nenagh they were transferred to a post-car (a horse and side-car) owned by Frank Flannery and were driven towards Toomevara where Jim Devany … and myself met them at Ballincrotty. We were naturally thrilled to meet such famous men and when they got off the car we could see they were provided with a small arsenal.
‘Each of the four carried two revolvers and they also had a box of grenades. We took them on to Whelans of Clash and all billeting arrangements and guards were made by the Toomevara Company. They remained in the district for a week and as they were then anxious to get to Dublin via Offaly, I made arrangements for an escort and went with them to Carrigahorry, where they spent a few days.
‘It is significant that the first attacks on the British in our area were made in the localities in which they billeted. Shortly after their departure a policeman was shot dead in Toomevara.’
The move to Dublin marked the end of the first phase of Breen and Treacy’s exploits. Neither of them would ever settle back into Tipperary again. Such was their reputation and notoriety that they could no longer move freely around their home turf. Their presence in the countryside and the need to protect them put undue pressure on both the IRA and their followers.
This problem would be addressed in 1920 when the conflict moved on to its next stage; the flying columns were formed to deal with the fact that the most daring and pre-eminent Volunteers could no longer live in their own communities or work within the rigid pseudo-military structure favoured by GHQ.