Dan Breen and the IRA
Page 17
I can see no alternative to a winding up order except this. I have written it all to Dev; so don’t try to gammon him about it; but believe me and face it. When … turned S.A. down with £10,000, the game was up. You all thought I was your ace of trumps; I knew that I might be your drawback, but thought I might as well have a try. It has been a failure. I apologise and withdraw. Still, ever the best of friends,
G. Bernard Shaw
Sources by Chapter
Abbreviations
Augusteijn: Joost Augusteijn, From Public Defiance to Guerrilla Warfare (Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1996).
Conway: an tAthair Colmcille Conway, The Third Tipperary Brigade of the IRA (unpublished).
Malone: James Malone, Blood on the Flag, translated from Irish by Patrick J. Twohig (Tower Books, Cork, 1996).
Maher: Jim Maher, ‘Dan Breen looks back 50 years from 1967’, Tipperary Historical Journal, 1998.
Ryan: Desmond Ryan, Seán Treacy and the Third Tipperary Brigade (Alliance Books, London, 1945).
Statement: Bureau of Military History Statement.
Survivors: Uinseann MacEoin, Survivors (Argenta Publications, Dublin, 1980).
THJ: Tipperary Historical Journal.
Chapter 1
Dan Breen Statement.
Ernie Hogan, conversation with the author.
D. R. O’Connor Lysaght, ‘Co. Tipperary; class struggle and national struggle’ in William Nolan, Thomas McGrath (eds), Tipperary; History and Society (Geography Publications, Dublin, 1985). [Information on economic conditions in Tipperary].
Maher [Breen’s comments of Seán Treacy’s interests].
Seán Dowling, conversation with the author.
Ryan [Seán Horan comments].
Chapter 2
Augusteijn [information on Eamon O’Duibhir, Seán Mac Dermott and Pierce McCan].
Deaglán Ó Bric, ‘Pierce McCan MP’ in THJ, 1986 and 1989.
John Shelley, A Short History of the Third Tipperary Brigade (Tipperary, 1996).
Chapter 3
Augusteijn [information on Volunteer recruitment, Thomas Ryan quote, Patrick ‘Lacken’ Ryan quote, Eamon O’Duibhir speeches].
Ernie O’Malley, On Another Man’s Wound (Rich & Cowan; London, 1937) [information on Volunteer arsenal].
Séamus Robinson Statement.
Eamon O’Duibhir Statement.
Thomas Ryan Statement.
Dan Breen Statement.
Survivors [Thomas Malone quote].
Conway [Mauric Crowe quote].
Tom Garvin, Nationalist Revolutionaries in Ireland 1858–1928 (Clarendon; Oxford, 1987) [Robinson’s letter to Frank Gallagher].
Chapter 4
Ernie Hogan, conversation with the author.
John D. Brewer, The Royal Irish Constabulary; An Oral History (Institute of Irish Studies; Belfast, 1999).
Seán Kavanagh, The Irish Volunteers’ Intelligence Organisation (Capuchin Annual, Dublin, 1969).
Kenneth Griffith and Timothy O’Grady, Curious Journey: An Oral History of Ireland’s Unfinished Revolution (Hutchinson; London 1987) [Martin Walton quote].
Michael J. Costello, conversation with the author.
Malone.
Chapter 5
Survivors [Peadar O’Donnell quote].
Séamus Robinson Statement.
Michael Hayes, The Importance of Dáil Éireann (Capuchin Annual, Dublin, 1969).
Tadgh Crowe Statement.
Ryan [Maurice Crowe quote].
Patrick O’Dwyer Statement.
Dan Breen Statement.
Chapter 6
Joost Augusteijn, ‘The Operations of the South Tipperary IRA’, THJ, 1996 [RIC report].
Patrick O’Dwyer Statement.
Risteárd Mulcahy, Richard Mulcahy (1886-1971): A Family Memoir (Aurelian Press; Dublin 1999).
Malone [Mulcahy’s Frongoch speech].
Jerome Davin Statement.
Ryan [information on Soloheadbeg inquest].
Séamus Robinson Statement.
Dan Breen Statement.
Patrick O’Dwyer Statement.
Ryan [Maurice Crowe recollection].
Eamon O’Duibhir Statement.
Chapter 7
Ryan [information on the fate of Soloheadbeg gelignite].
Tadgh Crowe Statement.
Chapter 8
Eamon O’Duibhir Statement.
Mick Davern Statement.
Ryan [information on Knocklong rescue].
Chapter 9
Mick Davern Statement.
Joost Augusteijn, ‘The Operations of the South Tipperary IRA’, THJ, 1996 [RIC report].
Séan Gaynor, ‘With Tipperary No. 1 Brigade in North Tipperary 1917–21’, THJ, 1993
Chapter 10
Maher [Breen on Dublin working-class].
Dan Breen Statement.
Risteárd Mulcahy, Richard Mulcahy (1886-1971): A Family Memoir (Aurelian Press; Dublin 1999).
Joe Leonard Statement [the foundation and purpose of the Squad].
Patrick O’Dwyer Statement
Frank McGrath Statement.
Vinnie Byrne Statement.
Chapter 11
Patrick O’Dwyer Statement.
Frank McGrath Statement.
Dan Breen Statement.
Ryan [Seán Hogan incident].
Vinnie Byrne Statement.
Chapter 12
Meda Ryan, The Real Chief; The Story of Liam Lynch (Mercier Press, Cork, 2004) [Conference between Breen, Lynch and others].
John D. Brewer, The Royal Irish Constabulary; An Oral History (Institute of Irish Studies; Belfast, 1999).
Augusteijn [barracks attacks].
Survivors [Thomas Malone on Kilmallock].
J. M. McCarthy Statement.
Jerome Davin Statement.
Dan Breen Statement.
Chapter 13
Dan Breen Statement.
Ryan [Treacy’s letter to Cait de Paor].
Eamon O’Duibhir Statement.
Jerome Davin Statement.
Maher [Breen on Seán Treacy].
Chapter 14
Joost Augusteijn, ‘The Operations of the South Tipperary IRA’, THJ, 1996 [RIC report] [internal dissent, Frank Drohan, Eamon O’Duibhir].
Thomas Ryan, ‘One Man’s Flying Column’, THJ, 1991.
Maurice McGrath Statement.
Patrick O’Dwyer Statement.
Chapter 15
Conway [Bill Quirke incident].
Dáil Debates, 3 May 1921.
Michael Laffan, The Resurrection of Ireland: The Sinn Féin Party, 1916-1923 (Cambridge University Press; Cambridge) [Breen’s election campaign].
Eamon O’Duibhir Statement.
Chapter 16
Maher [Breen on Civil War and Collins].
Conway [Civil War narrative, including Thomas Ryan incident].
Tom Garvin 1922, The Birth of Irish Democracy (Gill and Macmillan; Dublin, 1996) [Ryan’s message to Dinny Lacey, reception of Prout in Clonmel].
An tAthair Colmcille Conway, conversation with the author.
Chapter 17
Mike Flannery interview, conducted by Nancy Kersey [information on Breen’s speakeasy].
Correspondence between Michael Murphy and Professor Liam Kennedy, QUB concerning authorship of My Fight for Irish Freedom.
Dan Breen Statement.
Dáil Debates. 6 April 1927.
Dáil Debates, 9 June 1944.
T. Ryle Dwyer, Guests of the State: The Story of Allied and Axis Servicemen Interned in Ireland During World War II (Brandon; Dingle 1994) [Grey’s letter to Roosevelt, Breen’s relationship with Fleischmann].
Ernie Hogan, conversation with the author.
Seán Treacy, conversation with the author.
Survivors [Peadar O’Donnell quote].
Chapter 18
Séamus Robinson Statement.
Diarmaid Ferriter, ‘In Such Deadly Earnest’, The Dublin Review, No. 12.
Chapter 19<
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Brian Inglis, Downstart: The Autobiography of Brian Inglis (Chatto & Windus; London, 1990).
Nicky Furlong, conversation with the author.
Diarmuid Crowley, conversation with the author.
Michael McInerney, Peadar O’Donnell, Irish Social Rebel (The O’Bien Press; Dublin 1974) [bishop story].
Glossary
Boland, Harry. Worked with Michael Collins during the War of Independence. Went to the USA with De Valera as part of a campaign to raise awareness and support for Ireland. Boland was a widely respected figure within the republican movement. In 1922, he was shot by members of the National Army and died soon afterwards.
Blythe, Ernest. Ulster Protestant active in the Volunteers but imprisoned at the time of the 1916 Rising. Rose to prominence as a Free State politician and cabinet member. Reduced the old age pension. Lost his seat in 1933. A prominent Blueshirt and founder member of Fine Gael. From 1941 until 1967 he was a controversial managing director of the Abbey Theatre.
Cúchullain. Pre-eminent hero of Ulster in the mythological Ulster Cycle.
Fianna. Warriors who served the high king of Ireland in the third century ad. Their last leader was Fionn Mac Cumhaill.
Gilmore, George. Leader of south Co. Dublin battalion of the IRA from 1915 to 1926. Shot and wounded in 1932 by the gardaí. One of the founders of the Republican Congress. Active in 1936–39 as a supporter of the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War.
Haggard. An outhouse on a farm, usually located in a farmyard.
Irish Volunteers. Founded in 1913 in Dublin by eleven prominent nationalists including Patrick Pearse and Seán Mac Dermott. On 25 November 1913, they had their first public meeting at the Rotunda in Dublin. The hall was filled to its 4,000 capacity, with a further 3,000 spilling onto the grounds outside. The movement soon spread throughout the country. The Volunteers were heavily infiltrated by the IRB but John Redmond from the Irish Parliamentary Party demanded they accept his appointments to their provisional committee, effectively placing the organisation under his control. Four of its members – the O’Rahilly, Roger Casement, Bulmer Hobson and Erskine Childers – organised a gun-running expedition to Howth. Almost 1,000 rifles were smuggled into the harbour and distributed to waiting Volunteers.
The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 provoked a serious split in the organisation. Redmond urged the Volunteers to support Britain and join a proposed Irish brigade of the British army. This was opposed by the founding IRB-orientated members. A majority backed Redmond and left to form the National Volunteers; these joined the British war effort. A minority, retaining the name ‘Irish Volunteers’, were led by Eoin Mac Neill. This element brought about the 1916 Rising.
O’Duffy, Eoin. Well liked but controversial, O’Duffy served as a general in the Free State army during the Civil War and was partially responsible for the Free State’s strategy of seaborne landings into republican held areas. He was garda commissioner during the first Free State governments. When De Valera came to power he was dismissed and became leader of the Army Comrades Association. The ACA soon developed into the Blueshirts, a movement modelled on European fascist organisations. De Valera successfully saw off the Blueshirt threat and the organisation was subsumed into a new political party, Fine Gael, which thereafter represented pro-Treaty interests. O’Duffy was the first leader of Fine Gael. In 1936, he organised the Irish Brigade and went to Spain to fight on the fascist side in that country’s civil war. Following his death, rumours began to circulate that O’Duffy had homosexual tendencies. Recent research has tended to confirm such rumours.
O’Higgins, Kevin. One of the most able pro-Treaty politicians, O’Higgins was minister for justice and external affairs, as well as vice-president of the executive council, in the first Free State government. During the Civil War he ordered the execution of at least seventy-seven republicans and was very much seen as the ‘strong man’ of the cabinet. He once described himself as one of ‘the most conservative-minded revolutionaries that ever put through a successful revolution.’ Sympathetic to Italian fascist ideas, he was assassinated in 1927, in unsanctioned revenge for the Civil War, by individual members of the IRA.
Oisín. The son of Fianna hero, Fionn Mac Cumhaill
Pony and trap. Small open carriage pulled by a pony.
Ryan, Frank. Joined the east Limerick brigade of the IRA in 1922, fought on the republican side in the Civil War, was wounded and interned. In 1929, he was appointed editor of An Phoblacht and elected to the IRA army council. A founder of the Republican Congress. He travelled to Spain late in 1936 with about eighty men to fight with the international brigades on the republican side. Ryan’s men were known as the ‘Connolly Column’. Ryan eventually fell into fascist hands and ended his days in Germany where, it is alleged, he was involved in a number of Nazi schemes to invade Ireland.
Saor Éire. Left-wing political organisation established in September 1931 by communist-leaning members of the IRA. Peadar O’Donnell, a former editor of An Phoblacht, was a leading member. Saor Éire described itself as ‘an organisation of workers and working farmers.’
Bibliography
Books:
Ambrose, Joseph G., The Dan Breen Story (Mercier Press; Cork, 1981)
–––– Too Much Too Soon (Pulp Books; London, 2000)
Breen, Dan, My Fight for Irish Freedom (Anvil Books; Dublin, 1964)
Brewer, John D., The Royal Irish Constabulary; An Oral History (Institute of Irish Studies; Belfast, 1999)
Browne, Vincent (ed), The Magill Book of Irish Politics (Magill; Dublin, 1981)
Dwyer, T. Ryle, Guests of the State; The Story of Allied and Axis Sevicemen Interned in Ireland During World War II (Brandon; Dingle, 1994)
Garvin, Tom, Nationalist revolutionaries in Ireland 1858-1928 (Clarendon; Oxford,1987)
–––– 1922; The Birth of Irish Democracy (Gill and Macmillan: Dublin, 1996)
Griffith, Kenneth and O’Grady, Timothy, Curious Journey; An Oral History of Ireland’s Unfinished Revolution (Hutchinson; London, 1987)
Inglis, Brian, Downstart: The Autobiography of Brian Inglis (Chatto & Windus; London, 1990)
Ireland, Denis, From the Irish Shore (Rich & Cowan Ltd., 1936)
Laffan, Michael, The Resurrection of Ireland: The Sinn Féin Party, 1916-1923 (Cambridge University Press; Cambridge)
McCarthy, J. M. (ed.), Limerick’s Fighting Story (The Kerryman; Tralee, 1947)
MacEoin, Uinseann Survivors (Argenta Publications; Dublin, 1980)
McInerney, Michael. Peadar O’Donnell : Irish Social Rebel (The O’Brien Press; Dublin, 1974)
Mulcahy, Risteard, Richard Mulcahy (1886-1971): A Family Memoir (Dublin; Aurelian Press, 1999)
O’Connnor, Ulick, A Terrible Beauty is Born: The Irish troubles, 1912-1922 (Hamish Hamilton; London, 1975)
O’Dwyer, Martin, A Pictorial History of Tipperary 1916-1923 (The Folk Village; Cashel, 2004)
O’Farrell, Padraic, Who’s Who in the Irish War of Independence and Civil War 1916-1923 (Lilliput Press; Dublin, 1997)
O’Malley, Ernie, On Another Man’s Wound (Rich & Cowan; London, 1937)
–––– Raids and Rallies (Anvil Books; Dublin, 1982)
–––– The Singing Flame (Anvil Books; Dublin, 1978)
Ryan, Desmond, Seán Treacy and the Third Tipperary Brigade (Alliance Books; London, 1945)
Ryan, Meda, The Real Chief; The Story of Liam Lynch (Mercier Press; Cork, 1996)
Shelley, John R, A Short History of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade (Tipperary, 1996)
Townsend, Charles, The British Campaign in Ireland, 1919-1921 (Oxford University Press; Oxford, 1975)
Valiulis, Maryann Gialanella, Portrait of a revolutionary : General Richard Mulcahy and the Founding of the Irish Free State (Irish Academic Press; Dublin,1992)
Articles:
Tipperary Historical Journal 1986
Ó Bric, Deaglán, Pierce McCan MP
Tipperary Historical Journal 1989
Tipperary Historical Journal 1991
Ó Duibhir, Eamonn, The Tipperary Volunteers in 1916: A Personal Account 75 Years On
Ryan, Thomas, One Man’s Flying Column
Tipperary Historical Journal 1992
Ryan, Thomas, One Man’s Flying Column, Part 2
Tipperary Historical Journal 1993
Gaynor, Séan, With Tipperary No. 1 Brigade in North Tipperary 1917–1921
Ryan, Thomas, One Man’s Flying Column, Part 3
Tipperary Historical Journal 1994
Gaynor, Séan, With the Tipperary No. 1 Brigade in North Tipperary 1917–1921, Part II
Sharkey, Neil, The Third Tipperary Brigade – A Photographic Record
Capuchin Annual; Dublin, 1969
Hayes, Michael, The Importance of Dail Eireann
Kavanagh, Seán, The Irish Volunteers’ Intelligence Organisation
The Dublin Review, No. 12.
Ferriter, Diarmaid, In Such Deadly Earnest
Acknowledgements
An tAthair Colmcille Conway provided me with a manuscript copy of his history of the Third Tipperary Brigade, and I have relied on his research, especially that part of it which covers the Civil War. He was an outstanding character, a regular visitor to my family home, and a significant historian of the IRA. An edited version of his work has appeared in the Tipperary Historical Journal and a copy of the full manuscript is available for inspection from Tipperary County Library, info@tipperarylibraries.ie. Extracts from the book appeared in the Clonmel Nationalist in 1957, credited to Pádraig Toibin, and titled ‘Come Weal or Woe’.
The Tipperary Historical Journal and Marcus Bourke, the guiding force behind that publication, have brought rigour and clarity to the study of Tipperary’s past. A large part of this book deals with activities in that county; I hope something of the Journal’s approach is reflected in these pages. They can be contacted at www.tipperarylibraries.ie/ths. Research first published in the Journal has informed this book. I’ve relied entirely on Deaglan Ó Bric’s research on Pierce McCan.