by Tom Mahon
11 At the Army Executive meeting in August 1924, sixteen of the members present, three of those absent and at least two of the headquarters staff were described as being generals; Army Executive meeting minutes, 10 to 11 August 1924, in MTUCDA P69/179 (84); in March 1925 the OC of the Dublin brigade gave his rank as brigadier-general, 1 March [1925], MTUCDA P69/48 (275); Michael McLoughlin, the OC of the Carrick-on-Shannon brigade, in his application for transfer to the foreign reserves stated his rank to be brigadier-general, 1925 in MTUCDA P69/169 (4); based on the roll call from 9 April 1927, meeting of officers, there were thirteen brigades, in MTUCDA P69/48 (152).
12 CS to Military Attache, USA, 15 April 1925, in MTUCDA P69/37 (221–3).
13 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, p. 11.
14 CS to IO Tipperary brigade, 2 October 1925, in MTUCDA P69/206 (12).
15 CS to Military Attache, USA, 15 April 1925, in MTUCDA P69/37 (221–3).
16 CS to Comdt. LP, 15 October 1924, in MTUCDA P 69/37 (116).
17 MacEoin, U., Survivors (Argenta Publications, Dublin, 1987), pp. 456–7.
18 Regan, J., The Irish Counter-Revolution: 1921–1936 (Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 1999), pp. 75–6.
19 English, R., Radicals and the Republic: Socialist Republicanism in the Irish Free State, 1925–1937 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994), p. 7.
20 Communication from Seamus Helferty. CS to Military Attache, USA, 15 April 1925 in MTUCDA P69/37 (221–3); Lawlor, C., Seán MacBride, That Day’s Struggle: A Memoir 1904–1951 (Currach Press, Blackrock, 2005), p. 85.
21 Bowyer Bell, J., The Secret Army: The IRA 1916–1970 (The John Day Company, New York, 1971), p. 52.
22 Ibid., p. 51.
23 CS to Military Attache, USA, 15 April 1925, in MTUCDA P69/37 (221–3).
24 Ibid.
25 References for the 1925 army convention; English, Radicals and the Republic, pp. 66–70; Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army, pp. 52–3; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, p. 207.
26 English, Radicals and the Republic, p. 66.
27 Unsigned to chairman of the Army Council, 18 November 1925, in MTUCDA P69/181 (74–6).
28 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, p. 19.
29 Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army, p. 57; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, pp. 19, 193.
30 MacEoin, The IRA in the Twilight Years, p. 116; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, p. 20.
31 ‘Wilson’, who was attempting to type, appears to be Staff Captain Wilson and not a female typist; A ‘S/Capt W.’ is listed as a member of the GHQ staff in the roll call for the officers meeting on 9 April 1927, in MTUCDA P69/48 (157–8, 152, 160); Mick Price also approved ‘Wilson’ to act as his proxy on the Army Council on 16 December 1926, in MTUCDA P69/193 (59); there is in addition a reference to a ‘Miss Wilson’ who worked for Moss Twomey, see 1 March 1924 [1927], in MTUCDA P69/48 (277); however, Twomey by convention ordinarily referred to women either by their first name or used the titles ‘Miss’ or ‘Mrs’; all of this suggests that ‘Wilson’ was Captain Wilson and not Miss Wilson; Unsigned to George [Gilmore], 2 May 1927 in MTUCDA P69/48 (75).
32 Moss Twomey was under arrest on this date, and the letter was likely written by Andy Cooney; CS to HS, 8 December 1926, in MTUCDA P69/47 (10–11).
33 CS to Finance and Accounts Officer, 1 March 1927, in MTUCDA P69/48 (277).
34 CS to OC Dublin Brigade, 3 March 1924 [1927], in MTUCDA P69/48 (267).
35 Andrews, C. S., Dublin Made Me (Mercier Press, Dublin and Cork, 1979), pp. 154, 205, 218–19; MacEoin, Survivors, p. 375; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, p. 207.
36 Con Casey in MacEoin, Survivors (Argenta Publications, Dublin, 1987), pp. 27, 375; MacEoin, The IRA in the Twilight Years, p. 853; Andrews, Dublin Made Me, p. 227.
37 Army Council minutes April 1926, in MTUCDA P 69/181 (46); MacEoin, The IRA in the Twilight Years, p. 34; Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army, p. 57.
38 Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army, pp. 64–5.
39 Minutes of the Army Council meeting, January 1927, in MTUCDA P 69/181 (3).
40 Chairman to An Timthire, 3 February 1927, in MTUCDA P69/183 (123–5).
41 The following letter implies that ‘Mr Smith’ or Andy Cooney was in the United States by 4 June; to Mr O’Sullivan from Mr O’Connor, 18 June 1926, in MTUCDA P69/182 (31).
42 To chairman of Army Council from chief of staff, 12 April 1926, in MTUCDA P69/181 (48).
43 Quote from a captured IRA despatch, The Irish Times, 1 May 1926.
44 The minutes of the Army Council, on 18 November 1925 record that ‘A appointed 45 C/S’, in MTUCDA P 69/183 (69); Army Council minutes from April 1926, report: ‘A announced he had decided to visit the US and this was approved’, in MTUCDA P 69/181 (46).
45 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, p. 19.
46 CS to adjt North Mayo brigade, 26 October 1923 [1926], in MTUCDA P69/39 (107).
47 MacEoin, Survivors, p. 851
48 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, p. 19.
49 MacEoin, The IRA in the Twilight Years, p. 843.
50 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, p. 19.
51 Bowyer Bell quoted in MacEoin, The IRA in the Twilight Years, p.853; see also English, Radicals and the Republic, p. 115 and MacEoin, The IRA in the Twilight Years, p. 851.
52 Twomey received two volumes on Stonewall Jackson from OC. Britain and also requested Field Marshal Wilson’s diaries and The Science of War by Colonel Henderson; MD to HS, 25 April 1927, in MTUCDA P69/48 (59); MD to HS, 17 October 1927, in MTUCDA P69/150 (20).
53 CS to OC No. 2 Area, 14 October 1923 [1926], in MTUCDA P69/47 (98).
54 Document titled ‘Publicity’ and signed by ‘C’ [which was the designation assigned to Twomey in Army Council documents] 20 February 1926, in MTUCDA P69/ 181 (52–3).
55 MacEoin, The IRA in the Twilight Years, p. 842; reference to Lynch and the uniforms is from Todd Andrews in the O’Malley notebooks, UCD Archives.
56 The handwriting in the O’Malley notebooks is notoriously difficult to read, and the distinguished historian Peter Hart appears to have misread this quote. Hart wrote in The IRA at War 1916–1923 that Twomey ‘was a good staff officer who had a sense of reality’. I have carefully read the document and reviewed my interpretation with UCD Archivist Seamus Helferty, and feel that the correct interpretation is as I’ve quoted in my text; P.A. Murray in the O’Malley notebooks, UCD Archives, P17/b, 88. Hart P., The IRA at War 1916–1923 (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003), pp. 163–4.
57 OC Number 3 Area to CS, 8 October 1926, in MTUCDA P69/47 (66–9).
58 CS to OC Number 3 Area, 12 October 1923 [1926], in MTUCDA P69/47 (63–64).
59 Chairman to An Timthire, 11 May 1927, in MTUCDA P69/183 (41–3).
60 HS to CS, 27 April 1924 [1927], in MTUCDA P69/48 (57).
61 CS to OC South Dublin batt, 29 April 1927, in MTUCDA P69/48 (77).
62 MD to HS, 6 May 1927, in MTUCDA P69/48 (50).
63 MacEoin, Survivors, p. 24.
64 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, p. 195.
65 MacEoin, Survivors, p. 21.
66 English, Radicals and the Republic, pp. 72–3; MacEoin, Survivors, p. 24.
67 Hanley, The IRA, 1926-1936, p. 195.
68 Officially the montion was proposed by the Tirconaill (Donegal) battalion of the IRA; English, Radicals and the Republic, p. 68.
69 English, Radicals and the Republic, p. 69.
70 Hegarty P. Peadar O’Donnell, p. 211.
71 Ibid., p. 8.
72 Ibid., p. 10.
73 English, Radicals and the Republic, p. 71; English, R., Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA (Macmillan, London, 2003), p. 44.
74 O’Connor, E. Reds and the Green: Ireland, Russia and the Communist Internationals 1919–43 (UCD Press, Dublin, 2004), pp. 105, 142.
75 Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army, p. 59; MacEoin, Survivors, p. 33; English, Radicals and the Republic, p. 102.
76 Lee, J J. Ireland 1912–1985: Politics and Society (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1989), p. 105.
77 There a
re at least four biographies on O’Donnell: Ó Drisceoil, D., Peadar O’Donnell (Cork University Press, Cork, 2001); Hegarty, P., Peadar O’Donnell (Mercier Press, Cork, 1999); Freyer, G., Peadar O’Donnell (Bucknell University Press, Lewisburg, 1973); McInerney, M., Peadar O’Donnell: Irish Social Rebel (O’Brien Press, Dublin, 1976).
78 English, Radicals and the Republic, p. 109.
79 Ibid., p. 91; Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army, p. 58.
80 O’Drisceoil D., Peadar O’Donnell (Cork University Press, Cork, 2001), p. 41.
81 Mrs Patsy O’Hagan in MacEoin, Survivors, p. 170.
82 Tom Maguire in MacEoin, Survivors, pp. 300–1.
83 Lawlor, Seán MacBride, That Day’s Struggle, p. 111.
84 MacEoin, Survivors, p. 252.
85 Seán MacBride in MacEoin, Survivors, p. 122.
86 Tony Woods in MacEoin, Survivors, p. 318.
87 Ernie O’Malley in On Another Man’s Wound quoted in English, Radicals and the Republic, p. 36.
88 Minutes of Army Council meeting and notes on constitution for proposed Revolutionary Organisation, 17 February 1927 in MTUCDA P69/48 (117–20, 312 and 315–16).
89 MacEoin, Survivors, p. 32.
90 Minutes of Army Council Meeting, 27 January 1927, in MTUCDA P69/181 (3); notes for Constitution for Revolutionary Organisation, 17 February 1927 in MTUCDA P69/48 (312).
91 Army Council Meeting Minutes, 17 February 1927, in MTUCDA P69/48 (117–20); CS to HS, 18 February 1924 [1927], in MTUCDA P69/48 (300).
92 Joint Meeting of Representative Members of Fianna Fáil and of representatives of the Army Council, 15 April 1927, in MTUCDA P69/48 (115); meeting of Representative Individuals of Republican Bodies, 26 April 1927, in MTUCDA P69/48 (107).
93 Seán Russell quoted in the ‘Discussion on [the] Memo’ at the IRA officers meeting, 9 April 1927, in MTUCDA P69/48 (161–2).
94 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, p. 195.
95 Pax O’Faolain in MacEoin, Survivors, p. 148.
96 Tony Woods in MacEoin, Survivors, p. 328.
97 MacEoin, The IRA in the Twilight Years, p. 843.
98 MacEoin, Survivors, p. 571.
99 Unsigned to HS, 26 September 1927, in MTUCDA P 69/150 (28)
100 E, member of Army Council, Memorandum to members of Army Council on our future policy in Britain, 11 Feb. 1926 in MTUCDA P69/181 (67-68).
101 Minutes of Army Council meeting, 27 Jan. 1927 in MTUCDA P69/181 (3).
102 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, p. 196.
103 Ibid.
104 Ibid.
105 HS to CS, 1 November 1926, in MTUCDA P69/41 (30).
106 The text literally reads: ‘1,000 rds of .45 amm’; Ambrose to DI, 15 September 1926, in MTUCDA P69/193 (120).
107 ‘For Chief of Staff’ to HS, 8 Nov. 1926 in MTUCDA P69/41 (29). Unsigned to ‘A Chara Dhil, 25 Nov. 1926 in MTUCDA P69/47 (52).
108 Lawlor, Seán MacBride, That Day’s Struggle, pp. 100–5.
109 Tony Woods in MacEoin, Survivors, p. 320; Lawlor, Seán MacBride, That Day’s Struggle, p. 107.
110 Moss Twomey quoted in MacEoin, The IRA in the Twilight Years, p. 843.
111 Ambrose to CS and DI, 9 October 1926, in MTUCDA P 69/41 (264).
112 Lawlor, Seán MacBride, That Day’s Struggle, pp. 95–7.
113 Ambrose to CS, 18 February 1926, in MTUCDA P 69/80 (2).
114 MacBride in his memoirs wrote that he and his wife lived in a small flat in the Rue d’Annonciation in Passy. In the communications log book, the following contact addresses are given for ‘Ambrose’. Telegrams were to be sent to: Elie, 4 Rue de la Terrasse, Paris 17 and letters to: Lynch, 20 Rue de la Paix. The letter was to be placed inside a second envelope, with the name ‘Ambrose’ written on the outside. It was standard IRA security to send letters and telegrams to addresses different than where the IRA operative actually lived; Lawlor, Seán MacBride, That Day’s Struggle, p. 100; communications log book, no date in MTUCDA P69/195.
115 HS to ‘Dear Sir’, 13 September 1924 [1927], in MTUCDA P69/150 (24), unsigned to HS, 22 September 1927 in MTUCDA P69/150 (31); document of the Political Prisoners Committee, approximately October 1927, in MTUCDA P 69/197 (75).
116 Tarpey, M., The Role of Joseph McGarrity in the Struggle for Irish Independence (Arno Press, New York, 1976), pp. 175–6.
117 O’Connor, Reds and the Green, p. 105.
118 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, pp. 99–101.
119 Ibid., pp. 97–8.
120 In 1935 O’Donoghue married the very capable Cumann na mBan activist Sighle Humphreys; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, p. 195; D to DI, [1]6 January 1927, in MTUCDA P69/41 (14).
121 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, p. 104; Mulvihill, M., Charlotte Despard: A Biography (Pandora Press, London, 1989), p. 143.
122 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, p. 104.
123 Linklater, A., An Unhusbanded Life, Charlotte Despard: Suffragette, Socialist and Sinn Féiner (Hutchinson, London, 1980), p. 226; Mulvihill, Charlotte Despard, p. 138.
124 William Butler Yeats, He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven.
125 Tom Heavey in MacEoin, Survivors, p. 454.
126 CS to OC Cork 1, 15 February 1924 [1927], in MTUCDA P69/48 (281–2).
127 Mulvihill, Charlotte Despard, pp. 4–5, 9, 51, 130.
128 Ibid., p. 116; website: www.Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk, reviewed 28 April 2006.
129 Mulvihill, Charlotte Despard, p. 38; Linklater, An Unhusbanded Life, p. 224.
130 Linklater, An Unhusbanded Life, p. 227.
131 Ibid.
132 Ibid., pp. 227, 234.
133 Unsigned to Mr Jones, 14 December 1926, in MTUCDA P69/183 (161–2).
134 Linklater, An Unhusbanded Life, p. 230; Mulvihill, Charlotte Despard, pp. 154–5.
135 Mulvihill, Charlotte Despard, p. 150; Linklater, An Unhusbanded Life, p. 234.
136 Mulvihill, Charlotte Despard, pp. 179, 183, 192.
137 HS to CS or CAC, 9 December 1926, in MTUCDA P69/47 (24).
138 Name spelled ‘O’Sdea’. HS to CS, 26 May 1927, in MTUCDA P69/48 (11, 14).
139 HS to ‘Dear Sir’, 27 December 1927, in MTUCDA P69/150 (5); HS to MD, 5 January 1924 [1928], in MTUCDA P69/150 (3).
140 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, pp. 71–4.
141 Ibid, p. 74; MacEoin, The IRA in the Twilight Years, p. 37.
142 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, pp. 71–4.
143 CS to DI, 14 May 192[6], in MTUCDA P69/12 (59).
144 English, Radicals and the Republic, p. 67.
145 Notes for constitution proposed for revolutionary organisation by C. 17 February 1927, in MTUCDA P69/48 (315–16).
146 An Timthire to Mr Smith, 20 April 1927 in MTUCDA P69/183 (48–51); CS to ‘A Chara’, 6 May 1927, in MTUCDA P69/183 (63).
147 Brigade adjutant to CS, 27 April 1927, in MTUCDA P69/48 (38).
148 The archbishop of Tuam in 1930; letter from Tuam Sinn Féin cumann in 1924; Paseta, S., ‘Censorship and its Critics in the Irish Free State 1922–1932’, Past & Present, 181 (November 2003), pp. 193–218.
149 Paseta, ‘Censorship and its Critics’, pp. 193–218.
150 Moss Twomey was under arrest at the time and therefore was unlikely to have been the author of the letter, who was probably the adjutant general; CS to OC Dublin brigade, 21 November 1923 [1926], in MTUCDA P69/41 (249).
151 CS to OC Limerick, 3 March 1924 [1927], in MTUCDA P69/48 (263); CS to OC Dublin brigade, 3 March 1924 [1927], in MTUCDA P69/48 (267); CS to OC Waterford battn, 3 March 1924 [1927], in MTUCDA P69/48 (269); CS to OC Cork 1 brigade, 3 March 1924 [1927], in MTUCDA P69/48 (176).
152 Irish Times, 14 March 1927.
153 Irish World, 19 March 1927 and 2 April 1927.
154 This letter is signed ‘CG’ and, given that Charles Gilmore was a senior and militant member of the South Dublin battalion, I’ve made the presumption that he was the author; CG to CS, 28 March 1927, in MTUCDA P69/48 (79).
155 S Capt. for CS to OC South Dublin battn. 30 March 1924 [1927],
in MTUCDA P69/48 (80).
156 Irish Times, 21 March 1927.
157 CS to OC Dublin brigade, 5 April 1927, in MTUCDA P69/48 (169).
158 Irish Times, 21 March 1927.
159 Ibid., 16 and 21 March 1927.
160 Ibid., 16 March 1927.
161 Paseta, ‘Censorship and its Critics’, pp. 193–218.
162 MacEoin, The IRA in the Twilight Years, p. 122.
163 New York Times, 18 March 1929 and an undated paragraph discussing the film, by Hal Erickson, Reviewed on the New York Times website, Movies section, 2 April 2008.
164 CS to OC Dublin brigade, 26 February 1927, in MTUCDA P69/48 (291).
165 CS to OC Tipperary brigade, 18 March 1924 [1927], in MTUCDA P69/48 (224); CS to OC Cork 1 brigade, 18 March 1924 [1927] in MTUCDA P69/48 (223).
166 OC Dublin 1 brigade to the proprietor of the Corinthian cinema, 1 March 1927, in MTUCDA P69/48 (275).
167 Irish Times, 12 March 1927.
168 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, p. 74.
169 Kramer, A, Dynamic of Destruction (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007), p. 76.
170 CS to OC. Britain, 16 April 1926, in MTUCDA P69/44 (182).
171 OC. Britain to CS, 24 April 1926, in MTUCDA P69/44 (80).
172 MacEoin, The IRA in the Twilight Years, p. 153; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, pp. 74, 234; Hanley reports that the gardaí believed in 1929 that the IRA planned to bomb Elverys.
173 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, p. 71.
174 Ibid., p. 73.
175 Ibid., pp. 72–3, 233.
176 Unsigned to HS, 3 October 1927, in MTUCDA P69/150 (25).
177 QMG to CS, 4 May 1924 [1927], in MTUCDA P69/48 (47).
178 MacEoin, The IRA in the Twilight Years, pp. 154–5.
179 Coogan T. P., The IRA: A History (Roberts Rinehart Publishers, Niwot, Colorado, 1993), p. 36.
180 CS to OC Dublin brigade, 6 May 1927, in MTUCDA P69/48 (48).
181 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, pp. 75–6, 234.
182 MacEoin, The IRA in the Twilight Years, p. 840.
183 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, pp. 75–6. Irish World, 25 September 1926; An Phoblacht, 5 November 1926.
184 Agreement was made with ‘D’; as already discussed, this most probably was Peadar O’Donnell. While ‘D’ in the Army Council minutes appears to be O’Donnell, the ‘D’ in the second document was Donal O’Donoghue who was still in jail; minutes of Army Council meeting, 27 January 1927, in MTUCDA P69/181 (3); CS to D [Donal O’Donoghue in prison], 28 January 1924 [1927], in MTUCDA P69/41 (9).