One of the most important aspects of any conflict is propaganda. As we have seen, Sinn Féin, aided by the ineptitude and brutality of British policy in Ireland, had succeeded in winning support at home. They now needed to win the hearts, minds and wallets of their emigrant cousins in the United States. The US was, and perhaps still is, the dominant nation amongst all the nations of the world, and it was crucial that Ireland should be seen as a cause to champion. President Woodrow Wilson understood that Irish-Americans were a loyal constituency of his Democratic Party; however, he viewed the situation in Ireland as an internal matter to be resolved by the British Government, and he had held firmly to this view throughout the First World War. Following the Armistice, Wilson once again faced the appeals of Irish-Americans to recognise Ireland as one of what he had called the ‘small states’ that deserved ‘self-determination’.
While Éamon de Valera spent eighteen months in the US, raising funds and making sure to keep Ireland in the news headlines, Michael Collins, now a key figure in both the political and the armed struggle, continued his intelligence war in Dublin. Collins brought the campaign against the police to a new level with the development of a highly dedicated group of hit men, the Squad, whose first target was the three detectives who had pointed out to the British who the ring-leaders of the 1916 Rising were. An attempt was made to bring the IRA in every county under the control of Dublin, and Volunteers took an oath to Dáil Éireann in August 1919. The following month, Liam Lynch and members of the IRA managed to disarm a patrol of British soldiers at Fermoy, which was a propaganda coup for the republican cause in Cork.
David Lloyd George had succeeded H.H. Asquith as British Prime Minister at the end of 1916 but the British Government remained slow to react to the changing tide of events in Ireland, reluctant even to admit that what was taking place in Ireland was a war. Eight months after its establishment, Dáil Éireann was finally banned, succeeding only in increasing support for the Volunteers. Despite the ban, Collins was confident enough to advertise the launch of the Dáil Loan scheme, established to raise money from nationalist subscribers for the republican government. Just before Christmas 1919, the IRA ambushed the Lord Lieutenant, Lord French, at Ashtown, Dublin. Although the ambush failed, it was clear that the fight was set to continue.
THE AMERICAN COMMISSION ON IRISH INDEPENDENCE
The Irish Race Convention gathered in Philadelphia on 22 and 23 February 1919. Five thousand delegates representing various strands of Irish-America came together and sent a message of support to Sinn Féin and in particular to Éamon de Valera. They also made demands for Irish independence and set up the Irish Victory Fund. The following month, a resolution was passed in the House of Representatives in favour of Irish ‘self-determination’:
That it is the earnest hope of the Congress of the United States of America that the Peace Conference now sitting at Paris and passing upon the rights of various peoples will favourably consider the claims of Ireland to self-determination.
The 1919 St Patrick’s Day Parade in New York was miles long. One banner held by clergy bore the words, ‘We stand for a Free and Independent Ireland’ and another, carried by women and girls, said, ‘England, damn your concessions! We want our country’.1
The Paris Peace Conference, also known as the Versailles Peace Conference, was the meeting held at the end of the First World War to set the peace terms for the defeated countries. It had begun in January 1919 and involved diplomats from thirty-two countries and nationalities. In addition to the creation of the League of Nations and the signing of five peace treaties with the defeated states, the Conference also involved itself in setting new national boundaries. Irish Republicans felt that their interests should be represented there.
An enormously influential group of Irish-Americans representing the Irish Race Convention, including Judge John Goff, Judge Daniel Cohalan, Eugene Kinkhead, Frank Walsh, Edward Dunne, Michael Ryan and another nineteen individuals, persuaded President Woodrow Wilson’s private secretary, Joseph Tumulty, to set up a meeting in New York with Wilson before he sailed for Paris for the Peace Conference. Judge Cohalan had to pull out of the meeting as Wilson considered him a disloyal American (he had dealt with Germany concerning the 1916 Rising). At what turned out to be a disagreeable and fractious meeting in the Metropolitan Opera House, Wilson reiterated to the delegation his view that the Irish question was a domestic problem for the British. However, he did send a government official, George Creel, to Ireland; Creel met Michael Collins and Harry Boland and reported back to the American President that ‘sentiment in Ireland and America will harden in favour of an Irish Republic’ unless the British at least introduced dominion status.2
A sub-committee of the Irish Race Convention was sent to Paris, comprising prominent Irish-Americans Frank P. Walsh, Edward F. Dunne and Michael J. Ryan, collectively known as the American Commission on Irish Independence (ACII). In Paris, the Commission members were welcomed by Seán T. O’Kelly, Ceann Comhairle of the First Dáil, who had been sent to Paris in an endeavour to secure international recognition for Dáil Éireann. Walsh, Dunne and Ryan met President Wilson on 17 April. In the course of their meeting, Wilson said that once peace (with Germany) had been resolved, he would advise British Prime Minister Lloyd George that unless the Irish question were settled, American-British relations would be seriously affected.
Two potential meetings between Lloyd George and the ACII were cancelled, but Walsh, Dunne and Ryan decided to visit Ireland and, in fact, received the blessing of the British Prime Minister for the visit. They arrived on 3 May and were met by Éamon de Valera, W.T. Cosgrave and Joe McGuinness. The delegation was also received by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Laurence O’Neill. The ACII men visited various parts of Ireland, including Mountjoy Jail, but controversially they also addressed the third session of the First Dáil, on 9 May, where they congratulated the Irish people for voting to create an Irish Republic. The Commission was given a display of British rule in Ireland when armed British troops surrounded the Mansion House for hours in a show of strength, searching unsuccessfully for Michael Collins and Robert Barton, TD for West Wicklow. Pro-British newspapers were hysterical about the visitors and one paper printed the headline: ‘Impudent Yanks Flaunting “Irish Republic” Before Our Eyes’.
The original aim of the American Commission’s visit had been to secure a safe passage to France for Éamon de Valera to meet with Wilson. Now the delegation’s speeches in Ireland had incensed the British so much that Lloyd George would never agree to such a measure. Wilson maintained that he had been ‘well on the way to getting Mr de Valera and his associates’ over to Paris but that the Commission had ‘kicked over the apple cart’ with its actions in Ireland. The Commission returned to Paris but had no luck in securing a further meeting with Wilson; the hopes of obtaining a hearing in Versailles for an Irish delegation came to nothing. The Commission did, however, release a report on conditions in Ireland, outlining the brutal conditions in the jails for political prisoners, and the poverty, hunger and destitution being endured in Dublin. The Manchester Guardian reported on the Commission’s findings:
It cannot be denied that women and men have been arrested and detained for long periods without trial, that the imprisonment fatally broke the health of a few of them and destroyed the reason of others, that scores of other political prisoners sentenced by court martial have been in conflict with the prison authorities, that police truncheons, firemen’s hoses, handcuffing behind back for several days (including days of solitary confinement in punishment cells) have been used to reduce them to subjection, that the conflict still goes on and the end is not in sight….3
ÉAMON DE VALERA IN THE USA
On 11 June 1919, Príomh Aire (President) of Dáil Éireann Éamon de Valera landed in New York. Britain had a new ally in the US, President Wilson, but if he could not be won over to the cause of Irish freedom, perhaps de Valera could win over the American people instead. A trip to the US by one of the surviving commandants from the Rising would also be useful in raising finances for the fledgling Irish Republic. Irish contacts in the US told de Valera that if he wanted a loan raised there, he would need to go there personally. The British suspected that de Valera might be intending a trip and, at the request of the American Embassy in London, the State Department put his name on a ‘passport refusal list’. However, the State Department did not reckon on the Liverpool IRB who smuggled de Valera on board the Lapland.
Harry Boland, who had been on a fundraising mission in the US since May 1919, was tasked with looking after de Valera in the US. Boland’s IRB comrade and personal friend Michael Collins now had a fairly free hand to run the war without any interference from de Valera. Significantly, de Valera would be absent from Ireland during some of the worst months of the war; as a consequence, Michael Collins assumed a leadership role in the eyes of the Irish people.
Éamon de Valera, Michael Collins and Harry Boland enjoy a lighter moment in Dublin.
THE DUBLIN METROPOLITAN POLICE
The Irish Parliament passed the Dublin Police Act in 1786, establishing a small police force in Dublin. The Act divided Dublin into four districts, each under a chief constable with ten constables, who were backed up by night watchmen, and all under the control of a High Constable in Dublin Castle. However, less than ten years later, the Dublin Police were replaced by a civic guard, which came under the control of Dublin Corporation.
In 1814, when Robert Peel was Chief Secretary for Ireland, he helped pass an act through the British Parliament providing for a peace preservation force of resident magistrates and fifty constables who could be temporarily deployed in areas of unrest. They garnered the nickname ‘Peelers’ and were also under the direct control of Dublin Castle. In 1829, Peel as Home Secretary in Britain, masterminded the act which led to the establishment of the London Metropolitan Police, whose members were nicknamed ‘Bobbies’ (from Robert). The Irish Constabulary was established in 1836, as an armed police force for the Irish countryside (the Royal was added in 1867 after the force defeated the Fenians). At the same time, the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) was also founded, specifically for the capital city. However, the force earned a poor reputation, especially during the 1913–14 Lockout when its members killed a number of strikers. The DMP was divided into sections A to F, with the detective branch being G-Division. Detectives were known as G-men, a phrase that was exported to the US in the 1920s and used to describe FBI agents; it has mistakenly been etymologised as Government-men.
SHOOTING OF DETECTIVE SMYTH
Mick McDonnell was a Wicklow man who had fought in Jacob’s factory in 1916 and was interned in Frongoch. In the prison camp he came into close contact with other IRB men, including Michael Collins. On his release, McDonnell was made Quartermaster of the Second Battalion IRA Dublin Brigade. Dick McKee, the Brigadier of the Dublin Brigade of the IRA, asked McDonnell, on behalf of Michael Collins, to shoot the detectives, or G-men, who were responsible for identifying the executed 1916 leaders and who were still watching the Volunteers.4 The first G-man that McDonnell targeted was Detective Sergeant Patrick ‘the Dog’ Smyth (often misspelled as Smith). Smyth was responsible for numerous raids on the premises of the Gaelic Press printer, Joe Stanley; he ‘was not only an obnoxious detective officer, but he also had strong anti-Sinn Féin prejudices.’5 Smyth may also have known what Collins looked like, as he had raided 44 Parnell Square, and finding another Volunteer, Fionán Lynch, in the bed Collins normally used, had told his colleagues that it was not Collins.6 Seán Kennedy, who had fought alongside Lynch in the Four Courts in 1916, recalled the prisoners being scrutinised by G-men in Richmond Barracks after the Rising. ‘Among the Detective Officers concerned I noticed Smyth, Hoey, Gaffney, Barton, all of whom, with the exception of Gaffney, were subsequently executed by our forces during the Tan War.’7
Mick McDonnell asked Tom Keogh, his half-brother who had fought alongside him in Jacob’s in 1916, and two more Second Battalion IRA Dublin Brigade men, Jim Slattery and Tom Ennis, to shoot Smyth. An IRA Intelligence Officer, Mick Kennedy, who knew Smyth by sight, was also present as they waited around Drumcondra Bridge in north Dublin. Their target always travelled home by tram from the city centre, and the plan was to shoot him as he alighted from a tram.
After many nights of waiting, they eventually shot Smyth on 30 July using .38 revolvers. This calibre was too small, and Smyth was able to run from his assailants. Keogh and Slattery continued to fire as the wounded detective made it into his home at 51 Millmount Avenue. Smyth died of his wounds six weeks later. McDonnell, having been very concerned that the G-man might recover and identify him, resolved never to use .38s again. As Jim Slattery later recalled, ‘we used .45 guns after that lesson.’8 The men who carried out the shooting of Detective Smyth formed the nucleus of the famous Squad.
IRA OATH TO DÁIL ÉIREANN
Richard Mulcahy had set up a General Head-Quarters (GHQ) of the IRA in March 1918. Mulcahy was Chief of Staff of the IRA but he was also in the oath-bound IRB, as was the IRA’s Director of Organisation, Michael Collins. In fact, the majority of the IRA’s GHQ staff were IRB members too. In reality, the GHQ staff exerted little real control over the IRA outside of Dublin but they did provide education and propaganda through their newspaper An tÓglách (the Volunteer), which carried the tagline ‘The Official Organ of the Irish Volunteer’. An tÓglách contributors were mainly sworn members of the IRB.
In an effort to undermine the supreme authority of the Brotherhood and in order to keep Michael Collins in check, Cathal Brugha, the Minister for Defence, made a good attempt at getting the IRA under control. At a meeting of the Dáil, Brugha, moved that:
Every person and every one of those bodies undermentioned must swear allegiance to the Irish Republic and to the Dáil:
1. The Deputies.
2. The Irish Volunteers.
3. The officers and Clerks to the Dáil
4. Any other body or individual who in the opinion of the Dáil should take the same Oath.
The suggested oath was as follows:
I, A.B., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I do not and shall not yield a voluntary support to any pretended Government, authority or power within Ireland, hostile and inimical thereto, and I do further swear (or affirm) that to the best of my knowledge and ability I will support and defend the Irish Republic and the Government of the Irish Republic, which is Dáil Éireann, against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, so help me God.9
Cathal Brugha’s motion was carried, with thirty for and five against, and IRA Volunteers all over Ireland swore the oath.
LIAM LYNCH DISARMS BRITISH SOLDIERS AT FERMOY
While working in Mitchelstown as an apprentice at the hardware trade, Liam Lynch, originally from Barnagurraha near Anglesboro in County Limerick, immersed himself in reading and joined the Gaelic League. In 1916, as an employee of Barry’s Hardware in Fermoy, Lynch witnessed the Kent brothers crossing Fermoy Bridge under arrest. The subsequent execution of Thomas Kent encouraged him to dedicate his life to the cause of Irish freedom, and he joined the Irish Volunteers. On 6 January, when Cork IRA was divided into seven battalions, Lynch was elected Officer Commanding (O/C) of Cork Number 2 Brigade. As his area contained 4,300 British military and 490 police, he badly needed weapons.10
Lynch’s comrade in the Cork IRA, Michael Fitzgerald from Fermoy, had raided Araglin RIC Barracks on Easter Sunday, 20 April 1919 and successfully secured some rifles. Lynch decided to try to obtain weapons from the British in a similar fashion. On 7 September 1919, Lynch, Dan Hegarty (Brigade Vice O/C), Owen Harold (O/C Mallow Company), Edward Waters and Brian Kelly were being driven in a car by Leo O’Callaghan when they overtook a party of British soldiers from the Shropshire Light Infantry on the way to the Wesleyan church in Fermoy. The IRA car came to a halt in front of the British soldiers and beside a number of other IRA Volunteers who had been casually waiting in the vicinity. Lynch blew a whistle and the occupants of the car and the other IRA Volunteers pounced on the British and quickly snapped the rifles from their grasp. One of the soldiers, Private William Jones, a Welshman, ‘who proved more aggressive’ than the others, was fired on and died later that day.11 The captured weapons were loaded into two cars, O’Callaghan’s and another driven by Jack Mulvey. A mile from Fermoy the Volunteers stopped and cut the ropes on a couple of trees that they had sawn through earlier, thus blocking the approach of any British in pursuit.12
On the night after the ambush, the British forces stationed in Fermoy ran riot, angered by the shooting of Private Jones. The Freeman’s Journal published this report:
About 9 o’clock, a party of soldiers, said to belong to the Shropshire Light Infantry, to which regiment the party attacked on Sunday belonged, accompanied by a number of artillery men, proceeded to break windows in the Square, Bank Street and Patrick Street … Between 20 and 30 shops were looted in about an hour and a half … The attack by the soldiers on the shops was obviously an organised one … and was led by a soldier with a whistle which he blew at intervals to rally his followers and direct their movements.13
The Wesleyan Ambush is of particular importance for two reasons. Firstly, the British Army had not been engaged by the IRA since 1916, and this time the troops lost. Secondly, it resulted in the first large-scale example of a policy of reprisals by the British on the civilian population.
A number of IRA Volunteers were arrested because of what came to be known as the Wesleyan Ambush; most were released but Dan Hegarty, John Joe Hogan and Michael Fitzgerald were committed to Cork Gaol. As will be discussed further in Chapter Eight, Fitzgerald died on hunger strike on 17 October 1920.
DÁIL ÉIREANN: LOAN SCHEME AND PARLIAMENT BANNED
In September 1919, Michael Collins, as Minister for Finance, launched a spectacular and provocative Dáil Éireann Loan scheme, whereby bonds were issued to raise funds to finance the Dáil. The hope was to raise £250,000 in Ireland and the same amount in the US. These bonds would be repaid with 5 percent interest after the withdrawal of the British military forces. By July 1920, the Loan had collected £370,000 in Ireland alone, symbolic of the hope and trust in the Dáil that the people had at the time. The launch of the scheme coincided with the banning of the Dáil, and any newspapers which published the prospectus were suppressed.
Raid by British military forces on Sinn Féin headquarters, Harcourt Street, Dublin, 12 September 1919.
DÁIL ÉIREANN BANNED
On 10 September 1919, the British tried to silence democracy in Ireland by banning Dáil Éireann, the assembly of elected representatives who refused to take their seats at Westminster. The ban was reinforced by raids on Sinn Féin offices around Ireland. On 12 September, at Sinn Féin headquarters at 6 Harcourt Street, Ernest Blythe and Patrick O’Keeffe, two members of Dáil Éireann, were arrested by forty British soldiers and ten members of G-Division of the DMP under Detective Daniel Hoey. The police seized documents relating to the Dáil Éireann Loan scheme but missed an opportunity to capture Michael Collins who was actually there in one of the offices. A large cheering crowd gathered on Harcourt Street and the British soldiers were forced to attempt to restore order at bayonet point. Someone shouted, ‘Up the Republic’, and the soldiers tried to capture him but the crowd prevented them from carrying out an arrest. Raids were carried out around Ireland in Cork, Belfast, Derry, Waterford and Kilkenny. The homes of Count Plunkett and W.T. Cosgrave were also raided.
THE SQUAD
The Squad was formed officially on 19 September 1919. Before that, as we have seen, as early as 1 May 1919, there had existed another squad. The principal mover in the original squad had been the 1916 veteran, Mick McDonnell. McDonnell recalled that following his release from Frongoch he ‘was appointed Captain Quartermaster in the Second Battalion to take the place of Michael O’Hanrahan who was executed in 1916. I remained with the Second Battalion until I took over the Squad early in 1919.’14
This first Squad had shot Detective Smyth on 30 July and Detective Hoey on 12 September 1919. As well as having been directly involved in the ambush of Smyth and Hoey, Mick McDonnell also gave the orders and was involved in at least four more shootings between September (when the Squad was officially formed) and the following April 1920. He mainly used himself, Tom Keogh and Jim Slattery for those six shootings. A sworn member of the IRB, he was in close contact with Michael Collins.
Vinny Byrne, who had fought in Jacob’s in 1916 and was a member of the Second Battalion IRA Dublin Brigade, reckoned that the first-time Squad was made up of himself, Mick McDonnell, Tom Keogh, Jim Slattery, Paddy Daly, Joe Leonard and Ben Barrett. He recalled that the first full-time paid Squad was made up of the aforementioned seven men who were joined by Seán Doyle, Paddy Griffin, Eddie Byrne, Mick Reilly and Jimmy Conroy. Those men were called the Twelve Apostles, and Byrne was emphatic that they were commanded by Mick McDonnell.15
However, another IRB man, Paddy Daly, said that Mick McDonnell was not in the Squad, which is highly unlikely. Paddy Daly recalled the first meeting when Dick McKee told him to report to 46 Parnell Square, the meeting place of the Keating Branch of the Gaelic League. When he went to the meeting, on 19 September 1919, he saw Joe Leonard, Ben Barrett, Seán Doyle, Tom Keogh, Jim Slattery, Vinny Byrne and Mick McDonnell. ‘We met Michael Collins and Dick Mulcahy at the meeting and they told us that it was proposed to form a Squad.’ Daly recalled that of all the men there that day only four were picked as full-time Squad members: Joe Leonard, Seán Doyle, Ben Barrett and himself in charge. Later in the same statement, he says: ‘Mick McDonnell was one of the best men in Dublin, but he had one fault. He was always butting in, and on account of that he often did damage because he was too eager. He was not a member of the Squad.’16
Backing Daly up in his assertion that he was the Squad leader, William Stapleton recalled in his witness statement that he had been selected by GHQ with some others to bring the Squad up to twelve. ‘I understood at the time, and confirmed it at a later date, that the senior members of the Squad were — Paddy Daly in charge, Tom Keogh and Jim Slattery.’ Stapleton recalled meeting the full Squad at 100 Seville Place: Tom Keogh, Jim Slattery, Frank Bolster, Mick Kennedy, Eddie Byrne, Vinny Byrne, Joe Leonard, Ben Byrne, James Conroy and Paddy Griffin. Stapleton excluded Mick McDonnell in his list.
It is clear that there were two sections of the Squad, one very much led by Mick McDonnell, which operated with part-time members who were working at jobs. The other section was under the control of Paddy Daly and those men received a wage. An interesting incident occurred on 30 November 1919 when John Barton was shot dead. As will be seen below, both sections of the Squad went to ambush him, one under McDonnell and the other under Daly.
Of course, the ‘Big Four’ from Tipperary, Séamus Robinson, Seán Treacy, Seán Hogan and Dan Breen, were also on hand in Dublin and acted as extra guns when the Squad needed them. Owen Cullen acted as a driver for a short time and two Clare men, Paddy Kelly and Mick Brennan, were employed occasionally.
THE INTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT
The Squad did not shoot random policemen in Dublin. All potential targets were researched and decided upon after much deliberation. The Squad received direct instructions through the GHQ Intelligence Department, and Michael Collins was the Director of Intelligence or DI.17 Liam Tobin was Director of Intelligence under Michael Collins. Tom Cullen was Assistant Director of Intelligence and underneath Cullen was Frank Thornton, Deputy Assistant Director of Intelligence. GHQ Intelligence staff were numerous and included Joe Dolan, Frank Saurin, Ned Kelleher, Joe Guilfoyle, Paddy Caldwell, Paddy Kennedy, Charlie Dalton, Dan McDonnell and Charlie Byrne who were all Intelligence officers.18 The Department of Intelligence was based at 3 Crow Street in Temple Bar but Collins was not a frequent visitor to this office.19 Charlie Dalton, who worked closely with Collins, recalled:
During the daytime Michael Collins worked from an office of his own, and at no time did he visit the Crow St. or Brunswick St. offices. Inter-communication was maintained by his special messenger, Joe O’Reilly. In the evening time Michael Collins used to meet Liam Tobin and Tom Cullen at one of his numerous rendezvous in the Parnell Square area — these were Jim Kirwan’s, Vaughan’s Hotel and Liam Devlin’s.20
Liam Devlin’s pub was at 68 Parnell Street and was ‘Joint No. 2’, a well-known meeting place for Collins and the IRA. Paddy Daly of the Squad lived next door. Kirwan’s pub was popular with the Tipperary IRA men and was at 49 Parnell Street. Vaughan’s was on Parnell Square, so all three meeting places were within a stone’s throw of each other on the northside of Dublin city.
Dalton recalled:
Michael Collins used as his personal office Miss Hoey’s in Mespil Road; also Mary St., and finally Harcourt Terrace … which was an ordinary dwelling house, and in the front bedroom the DI had his papers. These were concealed in a secret cupboard on the landing, in which he himself could take refuge should the house be raided while he was in occupation.21
Collins used the Intelligence operatives and the Squad with tremendous success to retaliate against the British; he became the most successful Director of Intelligence of the IRA in the history of the movement. According to some of those closest to him, though, he was also extremely demanding, bossy and prone to bullying. He had a reputation for being a womaniser and a heavy drinker and prone to bouts of depression. However, he carried a huge burden on his shoulders; he was responsible for ordering killings and for the safety of his activists. The future of the Irish nation was in his hands and, without doubt, there are few Irish leaders who elicited such loyalty and devotion from the populace.
DETECTIVES WORKING FOR COLLINS
Michael Collins had a number of operatives who worked for him in Dublin Castle. Ned Broy, a G-man, came over to the side of the IRA, and it was thanks to him that Collins and Seán Nunan managed to get into Great Brunswick Street (Pearse Street) Dublin Metropolitan Police Station, on 7 April 1919, to read all the files they had on republicans. Broy reported daily to Collins and proved to be an invaluable source of up-to-date information, until he was arrested in 1921. Joseph Kavanagh spied for the IRA and Collins until he died in 1919. Knowing that he was terminally ill, he made sure to draft a colleague in Dublin Castle, James McNamara, to act as a spy after his death.
David Nelligan wrote a memoir, The Spy in the Castle, concerning the tremendous amount of work he did on behalf of the IRA. Nelligan actually resigned his position as his brother Maurice was in the IRA, but Collins convinced him to ask for his job back. Nelligan was recruited into MI5 in 1921, and after the arrest of Broy was an invaluable asset to Collins.
Lily Merrin worked as a typist in the British military intelligence offices in Ship Street Barracks, attached to Dublin Castle, and always made sure that an extra carbon copy was inserted into her typewriter to pass on to Collins. Most serendipitously of all, Nancy O’Brien, who was specifically employed by Sir James Macmahon, the Under-Secretary, to decode secret British messages, passed them to her second cousin, Michael Collins.
SHOOTING OF DETECTIVE DANIEL HOEY
Piaras Beaslaí described the police detectives from G-Division swooping on the 1916 prisoners as a ‘flock of carrion crows’ picking out victims for the firing squad. ‘Anybody who had seen that sight may be pardoned if he felt little compunction at the subsequent shooting of these same “G” men.’ One of the G-men who had picked out Seán MacDiarmada from amongst the rank and file was Daniel Hoey. Austin Stack was arrested by Hoey for wearing a Volunteer uniform, for which ‘crime’ he received two years in prison. Hoey was also in charge of the raid on the Sinn Féin office at 6 Harcourt Street on 12 September, and was getting close to Michael Collins. During that raid, as Detective Hoey was looking at a tray of papers, an IRA Volunteer warned him that the last man who had picked up that tray was Detective Smyth (who had been shot dead on 30 July). That evening, Mick McDonnell told Jim Slattery that they ‘very nearly got the man we want to guard. They nearly got him today.’ He was referring to Collins.22 McDonnell, Slattery and Tom Ennis shot Detective Daniel Hoey dead on Townsend Street, beside Great Brunswick Street DMP Station (now Pearse Street Garda Station) on 12 September 1919.
THE IRISH BULLETIN
The underground Irish Government found a way of disseminating information to foreign and Irish journalists through the production of a daily report called the Irish Bulletin. Edited by Desmond FitzGerald from 11 November 1919, it became very reliable for the accuracy of its reporting, although obviously it leaned towards support of the Republican cause. Cathleen Napoli-McKenna used a mimeograph, a type of printer, to produce every issue during the war in Ireland. ‘The Bulletin was sent to the London correspondents of the European and World press with whom Desmond FitzGerald had made friends on visits to London. The result was soon seen in an increase of news items and articles about Ireland in foreign papers.’23
Robert Brennan of Sinn Féin’s publicity department recalled that the Irish Bulletin was delivered to hundreds of addresses abroad: ‘This publication was doing such damage to England’s presentation of the Irish case that, in time, its attempted suppression became one of the major objectives of the British Military Government.’24 Besides Sundays and bank holidays, not one issue of the Irish Bulletin was missed between November 1919 and July 1921. Even when FitzGerald was arrested in February 1921, Erskine Childers took over the production of the Bulletin without a hitch.
SHOOTING OF DETECTIVE JOHN BARTON
Another of the G-men who had picked MacDiarmada for court martial was John Barton who had remarked to him, ‘Sorry Seán but you can’t get away that easy.’25 That is not to say that the G-Division detectives who were targeted by the Squad were shot simply for their actions after the Easter Rising. They had all been warned on a number of occasions to cease interfering in the political situation but all had continued their harassment of Sinn Féin and the Volunteers.
According to David Nelligan, the IRA agent working in Dublin Castle, Barton was not long in G-Division when he discovered ‘a little arms dump’ and the Castle was jubilant. Nelligan said that Barton was easily the best detective in these islands, had plenty of touts working for him and was known to be well off financially.26 Mick McDonnell, Tom Keogh, Joe Leonard, Vinny Byrne and Jim Slattery went in search of the detective on 30 November 1919. On College Street, they heard a couple of shots and saw Barton on the ground. Slattery said later that Detective Barton had been shot by Paddy Daly’s section of the Squad.27 This is backed up by Joe Leonard who was on the same mission that night and was shocked to experience a heavy fusillade of firing from an unexpected place.28 This firing clearly came from Paddy Daly’s section. Vinny Byrne said that Barton ‘got as far as the Crampton Monument … when fire was opened on him … He went down on his side … and raised himself a little on his right knee and said “Oh, God, what did I do to deserve this?” With that, he pulled his gun and fired up College Street.’29 It was the last thing he did before he died.
AMBUSH ON LORD LIEUTENANT FRENCH AT ASHTOWN
The Squad next undertook to execute John French, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and after a number of attempts the men finally received good intelligence that their target would be returning by train to Dublin from his country seat at Drumdoe House in Roscommon. French was expected to arrive, on 19 December, at Ashtown Station in Dublin, from where he would be driven to the Viceregal Lodge in the Phoenix Park. The full-time paid Squad of Paddy Daly, Joe Leonard, Ben Barrett and Seán Doyle were joined by Mick McDonnell, Jim Slattery, Tom Keogh and Vinny Byrne. Martin Savage, who had fought in the Easter Rising when he was seventeen years of age, insisted on coming along. The ‘Big Four’, Séamus Robinson, Dan Breen, Seán Treacy and Seán Hogan, were also invited by McDonnell. As there was a taxi drivers’ strike over petrol permits, the IRA men made their way to Ashtown on bicycles. They awaited the arrival of their quarry in Kelly’s public house where they consumed soft drinks.
A British sergeant points to a bullet hole in Lord French’s car following an ambush at Ashtown in December 1919.
When the signal came that French’s train had arrived in the station, the Volunteers all left the pub, and Breen, Keogh and Savage attempted to push a large farm-cart onto the road to block the convoy as planned.30 However, the cart proved too heavy and a policeman on point duty was interfering with their progress. This delay allowed the first car, which contained French, to pass before the men had managed to get the cart into the road. The Squad members, expecting French to be in the second car, launched a grenade attack and fired their guns at it. In the deadly exchange of fire, Martin Savage was mortally wounded and died in Breen’s arms. Breen himself was badly wounded in the leg. After the British retreated, the IRA succeeded in capturing the second car, which had nothing in it but luggage. The driver, Corporal Applesby, was in fear of his life after he surrendered, but one of the IRA men let him know that they didn’t shoot prisoners.
Savage’s corpse was left in the yard of Kelly’s pub as the proprietor would not open the door, and the ambushers made their way back to the city.31 Breen was eventually brought to the Malone home at 13 Grantham Street, where he spent three months convalescing. He later married one of the women who had looked after him there, Brighid Malone, whose brother Mick Malone had been killed during the Battle of Mount Street Bridge in 1916. Breen maintained that the ambush had been worth the risk for the potential sensation of shooting a ‘Field-Marshal of the British Army, head of the Irish Government’ in the capital city of the country he was supposed to rule, and all ‘within a stone’s throw of half a dozen of Britain’s military garrisons’.32
Notes
1. Curran, Monsignor M., WS 687, pg.361.
2. Carroll, F.M. (Ed.), The American Commission on Irish Independence 1919, Dublin: Mount Salus Press, 1985, pg.6.
3. Macardle, Dorothy, The Irish Republic, London: Victor Gollancz, 1937, pg.295–6.
4. McDonnell, Michael, WS 225, pg.2.
5. Noyk, Michael, WS 707, pg.19.
6. Walsh, Richard, WS 400, pg.106.
7. Kennedy, Seán, WS 842, pg.18–19.
8. Slattery, James, WS 445, pg.5.
9. Ó Snodaigh, Pádraig and Arthur Mitchell (eds), Irish Political Documents 1916–1948, Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1985, pg.66.
10. Ryan, Meda, The Real Chief, Liam Lynch, Cork: Mercier, 1986, pg.36.
11. Leddy, Con, WS 756, pg.7.
12. O’Callaghan, Leo, WS 978, pg.4.
13. Freeman’s Journal, 9 September 1919, pg.5.
14. McDonnell, Michael, WS 225, pg.2.
15. Byrne, Vincent, WS 423, pg.17.
16. Daly, Paddy, WS 387, pg.11.
17. Stapleton, William, WS 822, pg.35.
18. Byrne, Vincent, WS 423, pg.33.
19. Connell, Joseph, Dublin in Rebellion, Dublin: Lilliput, 2009, pg.81.
20. Dalton, Charles, WS 434, pg.8.
21. Ibid., pg.8.
22. Slattery, James, WS 445, pg.5.
23. Napoli-McKenna, Cathleen, WS 643, pg.1.
24. Brennan, Robert, WS 779, pg.586.
25. Murphy, John J., WS 204, pg.11.
26. Nelligan, David, The Spy in the Castle, London: MacGibbon and Key, 1968, pg.50.
27. Slattery, James, WS 445, pg.7.
28. Leonard, Joseph, WS 547, pg.4.
29. Byrne, Vincent, WS 423, pg.13.
30. McDonnell, Michael, WS 225, pg.5.
31. Daly, Paddy, WS 387, pg.19.
32. Breen, My Fight for Irish Freedom, pg.84.