Wounds

by Fergal Keane

  Black and Tans: These paramilitary police reinforcements were overwhelmingly recruited in Britain to support the regular Royal Irish Constabulary. They were so called because of their uniform of dark green tunic and khaki pants. Many had served in the ranks of the British military in the Great War. Up to 10,000 men were recruited into the Black and Tans.

  Cumann na mBan: The organisation was set up in 1914 as a women’s volunteer movement to campaign for an independent Irish Republic. The women acted alongside the militant faction of the Irish Volunteers during 1916 and in the War of Independence. Cumann na mBan split after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, with the majority of its members opposing the Free State.

  Free State: The 26-county state which came into being after the withdrawal of the British from the south in 1922. Under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Free State remained within the British empire but was self-governing with its own army, control over taxation and foreign affairs. The British monarchy was represented by a Governor General, in much the same fashion as countries like Canada and Australia. The other six counties of Ireland remained under British rule and became the Unionist-dominated state of Northern Ireland.

  IRA: The Irish Republican Army grew out of the militant faction of the Irish Volunteers that had staged the Easter Rising of 1916. The IRA waged war against Irish police, British paramilitary police and the British military during the period 1919–23. In the aftermath of the War of Independence, the IRA split into pro- and anti-Treaty factions. One of these became the National Army of the Irish Free State. The anti-Treaty side continued to call itself the IRA and was defeated after a civil war. To the present day armed Republicans claim the mantle of the original IRA and regard both British and Irish governments on the island of Ireland as illegitimate.

  IRB: The Irish Republican Brotherhood was an oathbound secret society founded with the avowed aim of overthrowing British rule in Ireland. Known popularly as the ‘Fenians’, the IRB staged an abortive rebellion in 1858. However, its leaders would influence the generation of Republican activists who carried out the Easter Rising in 1916, as well as forming a core group who dominated the IRA in the years afterwards.

  Irish Volunteers: The organisation was established in 1913 in response to the mobilisation and arming of northern Protestants who had formed the Ulster Volunteer Force to fight against Home Rule. The Volunteers were a mix of constitutional nationalists who joined in order to defend Home Rule and other more militant activists who believed in armed rebellion to end British rule in Ireland.

  RIC: The Irish police force under British rule. The Royal Irish Constabulary was founded in 1836 and operated as both a civil and political police force. There were an estimated 10,000 members when the guerrilla war broke out. The RIC was disbanded after the signing of the Treaty between Ireland and Britain which led to the foundation of the Irish Free State.

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  Bennett, Richard, The Black and Tans, Staplehurst, 2001 edn

  Berleth, Richard, The Twilight Lords, Lanham, 2002 edn

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  Borgonovo, John, Florence and Josephine O’Donoghue’s War of Independence: ‘A Destiny that Shapes Our Ends’, Dublin, 2006

  Bowen, Elizabeth, Bowenscourt, Dublin, 1998

  Bowen, Elizabeth, The Last September, London, 2011

  Boyd, Andrew, Holy War in Belfast, Belfast, 1969

  Brendon, Piers, The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, London, 2008

  Brouder, Simon, Rebel Kerry, Cork, 2017

  Caball, Kay Moloney, The Kerry Girls: Emigration and the Earl Grey Scheme, Stroud, 2014

  Coogan, Tim Pat, Michael Collins, London, 1990

  Coogan, Tim Pat, De Valera, London, 1995 edn

  Dillon, Martin, The Shankill Butchers, London, 1999

  Doyle, Tom, The Civil War in Kerry, Cork, 2008

  Doyle, Tom, The Summer Campaign in Kerry, Cork, 2010

  Dwyer, T. Ryle, Tans, Terror and Troubles: Kerry’s Real Fighting Story, Cork, 2001

  Dwyer, T. Ryle, The Squad: And the Intelligence Operations of Michael Collins, Cork, 2005

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  English, Richard, The Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA, London, 2003

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  Fanning, Ronan, Fatal Path: British Government and Irish Revolution 1910–1922, Faber and Faber, 2013

  Ferriter, Diarmaid, The Transformation of Ireland 1900–2000, London, 2004

  Ferriter, Diarmaid, Judging Dev, Dublin, 2007

  Ferriter, Diarmaid, A Nation and Not a Rabble: The Irish Revolution 1913–1923, London, 2015

  Foster, R. F., Modern Ireland, London, 1988

  Foster, R. F., Vivid Faces: The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland, London, 2015

  Gaughan, J. Anthony, Listowel and Its Vicinity, Cork, 1974

  Gaughan, J. Anthony, The Memoirs of Constable Jeremiah Mee RIC, Cork, 2012 edn

  Harrington, Niall C., Kerry Landing, Cork, 1987 edn

  Hart, Peter, The IRA and Its Enemies: Violence and Community in Cork 1916–1923, Oxford, 1998

  Hart, Peter, Mick: The Real Michael Collins, London, 2005

  Hart, Peter (ed.), British Intelligence in Ireland: The Final Reports, Cork, 2002

  Hopkinson, Michael, Green Against Green: The Irish Civil War, Dublin, 2014 edn

  Hopkinson, Michael, The Irish War of Independence, Dublin, 2014 edn

  Horgan, Tim, Dying for the Cause, Cork, 2015

  Joy, Sinead, The IRA in Kerry 1916–1921, Cork, 2005

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  Index

  The page numbers in this index relate to the printed version of this book; they do not match the pages of your ebook. You can use your ebook reader’s search tool to find a specific word or passage.

  1916 rebellion see Easter Rising (1916)

  Abbeyfeale 94, 113

  ACA see Army Comrades Association (ACA) ‘Blueshirts’

  Act of Union (1801) 28, 136

  Adams, Gerry 15, 275

  African National Congress (ANC) 26

  Aghagower, Co. Mayo 40

  Aghavillen church 139

  Ahern, Father Dan 294

  Ahern, Jack 155, 160, 166, 178–9, 193, 206, 214, 238, 290, 294

  Ahern, May 89, 96, 102, 238, 290, 291

  Aiken, Frank 247–8, 248

  Algeria 262n

  All-Ireland 292, 293

  An Gabha Beag (‘the Little Blacksmith’) 50

  An Phoblacht newspaper 15

  An Spailpín Fánach (The Wandering Labourer) 43

  An t’Óglach 2333

  ANC see African National Congress

  Andrews, Cyril 122

  Anglo-Irish 133–41

  Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921) 17, 201–15, 216, 220–1, 225, 275

  Anglo-Irish War see War of Independence (1919–21)

  anti-Semitic pogroms 70

  Ardmore, Co. Waterford 14

  Arlogh Woods, Co. Limerick 4

  Army Comrades Association (ACA) ‘Blueshirts’ 251–4

  Army Pensions Acts 289

  Asquith, Herbert 88, 91–2, 120

  Associated Press 173

  Atatürk, Kemal 25

  Athea barracks, Co. Limerick 39, 117, 198

  Australia 53, 65–6

  Auxiliaries ‘Auxies’ 24, 30, 99, 106–7, 112, 114, 144, 158, 176, 210, 230, 329

  Bailey, Bill 238–9, 242–3

  Balfour, Gerald 39

  Ballybunion 72, 88, 90, 95, 100, 181–2, 207, 208, 238, 244, 250, 252, 294

  Ballydonoghue church (St Teresa’s) 41–2, 53, 55

  Ballydonoghue, Listowel 43, 44, 76, 100–1, 102, 134, 138, 206, 268, 300; caught up in Civil War 223, 238; children’s essays from the 1930s 46–7; lawlessness in 248; local landscape 47–9; Rockites and the Tithe War 54, 55–6; stories and legends 45–6; Whiteboys and faction fighting 49–54

  Ballyduff 148

  Ballygrennan 63

  Ballyheagh Strand, battle of (1834) 50

  Ballyheigue Bay 50

  Ballylanders 120

  Ballylongford 52, 87, 91, 93, 150, 151, 180–1, 279

  Ballymacelligott 94

  Ballyseedy incident (1923) 18, 240–3, 249

  Banbridge 111

  Bandon Valley massacre (1922) 262–3 and note, 266

  Barrett, Joe 292

  Barry, Kevin 147

  Barry, Tom 180, 263

  Battle of the Boyne (1690) 81

  Battle of Messines (1917) 95

  Béal na mBláth, West Cork 232

  Beare, O’Sullivan 32

  Belfast 13, 14, 81, 212n, 213, 274, 277–8; Antrim Road 277; Duncairn Gardens 13, 277; Falls Road 13, 277; peace wall 13, 275–6; Shankill 277; Tomb Street post office 271; Weaver Street 213

  Belfast Telegraph 84, 126

  Bennet, Henry Grey 136

  Bielenberg, Dr Andy 262n

  Black and Tans 109, 140n, 249, 273, 279, 329; confronted by Con Brosnan after the Truce 207–8; intense hatred of 99, 105, 106; interviewed by Robert Kee 17; IRA retaliations against 147–50, 181, 183, 206; naming of 106; recruitment to 105–6; reports of drunkenness and abuse of civilians 106; ‘shoot first and ask questions afterwards’ 106; as special paramilitary reserve of RIC 16; tensions with regular police 108; traumatised by the Great War 230; violence, killing, attacks and retaliation 29, 30, 77, 108, 112–14, 143–4, 146, 148–9, 151, 152–3, 155, 157–8, 169, 177, 186–7, 199–201; women as spies in 96–7, 290

  Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire 81

  Bloody Friday (1972) 14 and note

  Bloody Sunday (1920) 152

  Bloody Sunday (1972) 14, 15, 273

  Blueshirts see Army Comrades Association (ACA) ‘Blueshirts’

  Boers 25, 27, 36, 37, 70, 93, 109, 140

  Borgonovo, Dr John 233n

  Bosnia 261

  Boucicault, Dion, The Shaughraun 10

  Bowen, Elizabeth 128, 139

  Brennan, Mae 289–90

  Brennan, Mary 72n

  British Army 24, 34, 83, 93, 99, 141, 212, 230, 264; 10th Regiment of Foot 69; Connaught Rangers 35; East Yorkshire Regiment 106; Loyal North Lancashire Regiment 104, 109, 158, 174; Royal Fusiliers 207; South Wales Borderers 106

  British Empire 24, 31, 52, 76, 80

  Brontë, Charlotte 135

  Brooke, Rupert 85

  Brosnan, Con 1, 52, 94–5, 128, 150, 214, 300; becomes talented football player for Kerry 83, 292–3; birth and education 80, 84; character and description 292; confronts the Tans before heading to the beach at Ballybunion 207–8, 294; death of 294; defends Mick Purtill 254; family background 78, 80; as friend of the Purtills 78; haunted by memory of war and death 77–8, 291, 293–4; improved life after the Land War 94–5; interviewed by the Bureau of Military History 156; involvement in revolutionary violence and killing 95–6, 114, 150 and note, 193, 194, 195, 206; joins the Blueshirts 251; joins the Free State in Civil War 219–20, 225, 229, 243; joins Irish Volunteers 90; joins the north Kerry Flying Column 178–9, 180–1; Kerry ballad on footballing prowess 156; rebuilds pub and home burned by the Tans 291; sent to block roads and forestall Crown reinforcements 100–1; stands for Cumann na nGaedheal in 1932 election 292–3; suffers from depression and too much drink 293; treatment of his family by the RIC 178; volunteers to shoot Tobias O’Sullivan 154–5, 156–7, 159, 160, 164, 166–7, 168, 173

  Brosnan, Gerry 80, 168, 173, 292, 293

  Brown, Margaret 248

  Browne, John 211, 212

  Broy, Éamon 209

  Buckley, Timothy 157–8

  Bureau of Military History 78 and note, 127, 150n

  Burns, Mrs 13, 277–8

  Cahill, Paddy 183–4

  Canada 28 and note, 50, 61–3

  Canadian Pacific Railway 210

  Captain Moonlight 71

  Carew, Sir George 4

  Carey, Hannah 207

  Carmody, Eddie 151, 155, 173
, 191

  Carmody, Vincent 161, 164, 172, 199–200

  Carrigafoyle Castle 5

  Carrol, Davie 208

  Carson, Edward 82, 141

  Casement, Sir Roger 8, 87

  Castleisland 207, 241

  Catholic Association 137

  Catholic Church 30, 43, 53, 54, 58, 89, 91, 235–6, 243, 281–2, 283, 289

  Catholic Emancipation 47, 53–4, 58, 135

  Catholics: anti-Catholic rioting, expulsions and killings 147n, 213; attempted conversion of 33; campaign to achieve Catholic emancipation 54; and Catholicisation of new state 265; childish wonder at customs of 136; claustrophobic Catholicism in north Kerry 256–7; and deliverance from landlordism and English rule 54–5; domination of agriculture and commerce 264; during the Troubles 12–16, 271–3 and note, 274–5; easy co-mingling of beliefs and the spirit world 138–9; and European wars of religion 4; excluded from upper echelons of state security apparatus 36; friendly intermingling with Protestants 136; and Home Rule 76, 85; intermarriage and effect of Ne Temere decree 264–5; intimidation during the Troubles 273–4; life under Unionist rule rarely debated in the Dáil 259–60; as part of new evangelical community 268; and power-sharing Agreement 274; refugee camps for 14; reprisals against during War of Independence 111; and rise of powerful middle class elite 136–7 and note; sectarianism 13, 260, 266, 276, 277–8; sin, sex and female emancipation 281–2; targeted during land agitation 71; urged to support peace Treaty 222

  Ceallurach, Ballydonoghue 42

  Chamberlain, Joseph 36

  Chesapeake 50

  Chesterton, G.K., ’Who Goes Home?’ 185

  Childers, Erskine 140

  Christian Irishman 264

  Chuckle Brothers (Martin McGuiness & Ian Paisley) 275

  Church of Ireland 56 and note, 137, 191, 264, 266

  Church, John 53

  Churchill, Winston 24, 109, 135, 207

  Churchyard, Thomas, A Generall Rehearsall of Warres 1

  Civil War (1922–23) 218, 231, 260, 279–80; aftermath under de Valera 250–61; ambush and death of Collins 232–4; build up of arms and factions 222–4; continued fighting, killing and revenge 229–31, 232, 237–40; de Valera’s speech at Killarney 222; death squads and reprisals 234–7; destabilising of society as consequence of 249–50; disruption of normal life during 231–2; events leading up to 80–6, 219–21; families and friends divided by 15, 214, 219–21, 222–6, 237; final weeks of brutality 246–8; first casualties and attacks 225–8; Free State armoured car blown up by IRA 9; importance of land in 49; internal resentments 82n; lawlessness, grudges and attacks 248–9; number of casualties 249; numbers involved in 2; ‘orders of frightfulness’ 236–7; policy of executing Republican prisoners 5–6; post-war bitterness and blood vengeance 16–19; Treaty debates and signing 201–15, 220–1, 225; violence against Protestants 262–3; worst atrocities of 240–5; see also Easter Rising (1916); Irish Revolution (1911–23); War of Independence (1919–21)