by Meda Ryan
After the raid, the civilian population of Mallow were harassed; looting and harassment was indiscriminately carried out. Several members of the British forces from Mallow, Buttevant and Fermoy set about burning and looting public and private property in Mallow. The town hall and local creamery were burned; drunken troops roamed the streets, indiscriminately throwing petrol-filled bottles, smashing windows and causing general havoc in the town.
Eight months after this event on 23 May 1921 a number of men who had been arrested were court-martialled at Victoria barracks in Cork. Six men, none of whom took part in the raid, were charged with the murder of Sergeant Gibbs; five were sentenced to death and, of the five, one was not a volunteer. Liam Lynch made a public statement in connection with the affair:
As the officer in charge of the operation in question I desire to state publicly that none of these men had any part in it. Furthermore, I wish to state that I alone am responsible for all that was done on that occasion. The raid on the barracks was carried out as a military operation on my orders by a body of Republican troops acting under my direction and I acted by virtue of my commission as an officer of the Irish Republican Army under the authority of my superior officer and the government of the Irish Republic, in accordance with the law of regular warfare.
Signed Liam Ó Loingsigh O/C Cork No. 2 Brigade1
Lynch in a further statement published in 16 July issue of An tÓglach, stated that Denis Buckley, Farran, Mourne Abbey, who had also been sentenced to death was not a member of the IRA and had nothing whatever to do with the attack. However, none of those court-martialled was actually put to death.
Following the capture of Mallow barracks the column that had billeted in Lombardstown moved to Ardglass in the Charleville battalion area on 30 September. An attack on Churchtown RIC barracks was called off when it was discovered that the post was aware of the plan. The flying column then moved to Freemount where they contacted officers of the Drumcollogher battalion of West Limerick. Patrick O’Brien of Liscarroll was appointed column commander.
Seán Moylan came to Lynch with a proposal for an attack on a military party which travelled at least once a week by lorry between Kanturk and Newmarket. The towns, four miles apart, had strong garrisons of military and police. Lynch, O’Malley and Moylan inspected the position and while doing so saw two lorries containing twenty-four British soldiers pass.
At approximately 3 a.m. on 6 October, the column moved across the fields to occupy the position at Ballygrochane. Shortly after 11 a.m. they heard the long-awaited sound of the lorry. As two lorries were expected, Lynch had planned to let the first one well into position before the four men made a road-block with a cart. When signalled into action these men pushed the cart out and ran for cover. The lorry stopped and as there was only one vehicle, the elaborate preparations were unnecessary. The fight was over in five minutes. The driver was killed and the remainder of the party wounded. The column had no casualties. Lynch felt that this ambush was successful from two points of view. Apart from the amount of arms collected, it also gave experience to large numbers of men. Lynch then set about mobilising large contingents of the Kanturk and Newmarket battalions and employed them on protective duties.
Because of what had happened at Mallow, Lynch decided that the British forces would not find the civilian population of Kanturk without defence should reprisals be carried out. He marched his column to occupy Kanturk; a local company in the town had been watching activities and units were posted to cover the creamery and the main business areas of the town, but there were no reprisals that night. The column withdrew at dawn. The British forces made some surprise swoops later; Clancy and O’Connell who had been trapped and had tried to resist arrest were killed. Despite the risks involved Lynch attended their funerals in Kanturk. As an added protection from this period onwards Liam ‘ordered’ that all men who feared that they might be arrested at any time should be permanently armed. The brigade column was demobilised at the end of October and from then on each battalion began to build up its own column of fifteen to thirty men, they were to bear in mind the possibility of combining forces, if at any time they were confronted with a large operation.
The railway system, throughout this period, was invaluable to the IRA. It was a reliable method of maintaining contact between brigade areas and between Fermoy brigade headquarters and GHQ. Generally it took only two days for a dispatch to travel from the Fermoy area to GHQ. The employees involved with the volunteers were extremely well organised and efficient. From both Mallow and Fermoy a service of cyclist dispatch riders travelled between battalion headquarters and adjoining brigades; working in relays these dispatch riders operated day and night from company to company. The use of bicycles was prohibited except under permit from the British forces so very often horse-drawn transport was used. In the Fermoy area the British forces used a type of cavalry service and often searched those who were carrying dispatches, thus creating further problems for the volunteers.
On 9 August 1920 the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act became law. This meant, from the British point of view, that they had now legalised terror in Ireland. Court-martials and military courts could now try persons for treason, felony and lesser offences, uncontrolled powers of arrest and internment were placed in the hands of military authorities and trials under the act could be held in secret. The turn which events were taking troubled Liam. In a letter to Fr Tom he expressed his concern for the fate of his imprisoned comrades. Michael Fitzgerald imprisoned since September 1919 with a number of other untried prisoners in Cork gaol went on hunger-strike in August 1920.2Liam and Michael Fitzgerald were extremely good friends. Liam was worried about him but felt it would be impossible for the British to procure any evidence connecting Fitzgerald with the Fermoy raid of September 1919. However, Fitzgerald was a determined man and continued with his hunger-strike for sixty-seven days. He died on 17 October 1920, and brought sadness to all his comrades. His body was taken to the mortuary at Fermoy church. The night before his burial Liam came in and had the coffin lid removed to look for the last time on the face of the man to whom he was most deeply attached – his best friend was gone. His funeral took place from SS Peter and Paul’s church in Cork.
After the Mass, British soldiers wearing steel helmets and carrying fixed bayonets, invaded the church and walked over the seats to the altar rails. With a drawn revolver, an officer handed a notice to the priest stating that only a limited number of persons would be allowed to take part in the funeral. A machine-gun was mounted at the church gates and armoured cars toured the vicinity. Yet despite this, thousands took part in the funeral procession while armoured cars and tenders carrying heavily equipped forces accompanied the cortège to the city boundary.
Fermoy witnessed similar scenes the following day when Fitzgerald was buried at Kilcrumper. Some hours after the grave had been closed many of his comrades assembled to pay their last tribute to a heroic soldier. Again Liam risked his life and returned to pay his respects to his friend. Amid the strains under which Liam worked during the following years he never forgot Michael Fitzgerald. Indeed, when his own hour came to die, his last request was to be buried beside his old comrade at Kilcrumper.
1 An tÓglach, 1 July 1921.
2 Ammunition was found in Fitzgerald’s house by the British forces and he was sentenced to two months imprisonment, released end of August, took part in Fermoy raid, 7 September 1919.
9. More comrades shot
In November 1920 a group of British intelligence men, known as the Cairo Gang posed as businessmen and lodged in various houses in Dublin. Through his intelligence operations, their activities became known to Michael Collins. In simultaneous pre-dawn raids on Sunday 21 November Michael Collins’ squad killed eleven British intelligence officers. In retaliation the Black and Tans invaded the football match at Croke Park that afternoon and fired indiscriminately at the teams and at an estimated
seven thousand spectators, killing twelve civilians including one of the Tipperary players and wounding sixty.
In Millstreet, County Cork, the RIC, the Macroom based Auxiliaries and the Black and Tans had subjected the citizens to a wild night of firing. Because of the way the RIC Auxiliary patrol was attacking civilians, some members of a small battalion column took up positions on the night of 22 November and, in the fight which ensued, two Black and Tans were wounded. The brigade suffered a serious blow, Captain Patrick McCarthy, who had joined the volunteers immediately after 1916, was killed.1On the night of his death he was attended by Fr Joe Breene and later that night his body was removed to Eugene O’Sullivan’s house where it was guarded by his comrades. The next night, Liam took charge of the funeral procession to Lismire where he was buried with full military honours. Anticipating British reprisals for the shooting of the Black and Tans, the IRA occupied Millstreet in order to protect its inhabitants. However, the British did not leave their post, so before dawn he sent the column to billets outside the town.
At Kilmichael outside Macroom, on Sunday, 28 November 1920, thirty-six volunteers of the Third West Cork flying column, under the command of Tom Barry, successfully carried out the first major guerrilla ambush against the British forces in Ireland. During the ambush Barry’s volunteers accepted in good faith a surrender call by the Auxiliaries. But the Auxiliaries resumed the fight and fatally wounded three of the volunteers. Barry and his men retaliated. Sixteen Auxiliaries (based in Macroom Castle) were killed in the ambush, another was seriously wounded and a further soldier was killed subsequently.2Large quantities of arms, ammunition and documents were secured.
Following this, Lord French announced ‘Martial Law in the County of Cork, East and West Riding, the City of Cork, Tipperary, North and South Riding, the City and County of Limerick.’
Further to this General Sir Nevil Macready, commander-in-chief of British forces in Ireland, proclaimed that persons caught with illegal arms or explosives were liable to sentence of death. Public meetings were forbidden and each householder was to affix a list of the occupants inside his/her front door. Indiscriminate shooting of people pursuing their ordinary peaceful activities was the order of the day as was the burning of shops, creameries and other stores.
A notice printed in all the daily newspapers and displayed in Macroom ‘ordered that all males passing through Macroom shall not appear in public with their hands in their pockets. Any male infringing this order is liable to be shot at sight’.
(Outside Mitchelstown in Lynch’s area one evening in July 1920, a group of boys and girls were having a crossroads dance when a military lorry passed by and opened fire. Amidst a hale of bullets, the boys and girls ran for shelter. Two men, McDonnell and McGrath had been shot dead and the military immediately left. Subsequently, at an inquest, the soldiers swore that they were attacked and had fired in self-defence. The jury, despite British intimidation, brought in a verdict of murder against the soldiers.)
Liam Lynch continued to take every opportunity, which presented itself in each of his seven battalion areas, to attack British forces. On 19 December a successful ambush was fought under the command of Thomas Barry at Glencurrane near Liam’s birthplace. The columns captured eighteen rifles, five or six hundred rounds of ammunition and two dozen mills grenades. Of the eighteen men in the two lorries, two had been killed and three wounded. The Fermoy column, under the command of Patrick Egan, surprised a lorry of British troops near Castlelyons. The first volley that they fired hit the driver. The lorry crashed and its occupants scattered through the fields and were pursued by the IRA who forced nine British soldiers to surrender their arms.
At the beginning of 1920 Liam’s brigade had had very few arms but by July quite a substantial amount of serviceable rifles, revolvers and grenades had been acquired. Most of the arms and equipment had been captured from the occupation forces, and Liam was completely aware that they had to depend on their own resources, so they would have to continue to capture more arms in order to maintain the struggle. At the beginning of 1920 only a few members of the brigade were on whole-time active service, but by the end of the year, seven columns, each varying in strength from fourteen to thirty men were in the field, all able to get reinforcements from their own battalions at short notice.
Another colleague of Liam’s, Liam O’Connell, was shot in an attack on an armoured car in Dublin on 14 October 1920. When he was being buried at Glantane, near Mallow, Liam made one of his brief public statements:
We are here at the grave of one of our volunteers whose young life is given for the freedom of Ireland. We will revenge his great sacrifice and will continue the fight until it is brought to a successful conclusion. Many more may follow Liam O’Connell before this country obtains its Independence.
The deaths of young officers like McCarthy, Clancy, O’Connell and Michael Fitzgerald were all severe blows to the brigade, yet the deaths of these young men somehow strengthened the hearts of their comrades; it heightened their morale and gave them the strength and determination to fight on. Liam mentioned this in a letter to his mother:
I am living only to bring the dreams of my dead comrades to reality and every moment of my life is now devoted to that end ... Thank God I am left alive to still help in shattering the damned British Empire.3
1 Patrick McCarthy was arrested in 1918, took part in Belfast hunger-strike under Austin Stack and was transferred to Strangeways Jail, Manchester; escaped September 1919, returned to Ireland, joined the volunteers, involved in Mallow raid and all ambushes in the area.
2 Details of Kilmichael ambush in Meda Ryan, The Tom Barry Story, pp. 30–33.
3 Letter to his mother, 22/7/1921 (Lynch private family papers).
10. Intelligence
Throughout the long struggle of Irish history previous armed efforts to achieve liberty had often been weakened and sometimes frustrated by the activities of spies and informers. Some RIC members, since its establishment, had faithfully passed on information to Britain. Its countrywide stations were manned by a body of men generally conscientious and intelligent in the discharge of their duties; they had unrivalled knowledge of the inhabitants of their area, which meant that there was a constant flow of information to Dublin Castle.
The RIC was not now receiving any new recruits, indeed many of those in the force had resigned because of an order from GHQ –‘Volunteers shall have no intercourse with the RIC and shall stimulate and support in every way the boycott of this force by the Dáil.’1This was a shattering blow to the mainstay of British espionage in Ireland, so soldiers were sent into the country pretending to be deserters. ‘Stool Pigeons’ were put into jails and internment camps where they could gather information. Also Britain’s own loyal supporters throughout the country had eyes and ears for any activity carried on by the IRA and constantly sought information on IRA activities.
The IRA, on the other hand, built up an intelligence organisation with the help of local people that with time, proved highly efficient. The IRA intelligence unit was extremely effective, with agents in each army unit and an espionage service inside British organisations wherever possible. At GHQ, the director of intelligence, Michael Collins had his own extremely well organised force. But Collins would have been powerless outside Dublin, were it not for the work done by the local brigades.
Early in 1920 Liam appointed brigade and battalion intelligence officers. Numbers of men in sections varied according to local needs; the principal duties entailed the security of their own forces and the gathering of maximum information on organisation, strength, tactics, together with routine and intentions of British garrisons in each town and district. The company section reported, through the company captain, to the battalion intelligence officer whose duty it was to assemble and co-ordinate these reports and then send to the brigade everything of significance.
Some who worked in post offices or in any British organisation kep
t regular contact with the IRA and made arrangements for the regular transmission of dispatches and documents. Since early 1917 Siobhán Creedon, who had worked in Mallow post office, had secured valuable information. She supplied Liam Lynch and George Power, at brigade headquarters in Creedon’s house, with a carbon copy of all messages of interest. Siobhán was to lose her job when an enquiry was undertaken, because it was discovered that she had made an extra carbon copy for the IRA.2
She had secured valuable information with regard to British plans for conscription in 1919 and these were transmitted to Richard Mulcahy, chief-of-staff. Since early 1920 almost all the post offices in the brigade area were included in the intelligence network and this was of the greatest value to the brigade as the telegraph and telephone systems were used extensively by the RIC. Very often urgent messages were sent over the wire in cipher copies. The IRA intelligence system working within the post offices, copied these messages, and transmitted them to the intelligence officers who then deciphered them from a key supplied by the director of intelligence.
In Lynch’s area, a British officer from the Fermoy garrison, Lieut Vincent, disguised as a tramp, was captured in Watergrasshill. When searched by the IRA he was found to be in possession of a notebook containing a list of names of persons known to be loyal to the British. The IRA had known of the garrison’s activities but now they had proof. On the morning following his capture there was a big round up by the British forces and Lieut Vincent was mortally wounded when he attempted to escape.