Tom Barry

by Meda Ryan

  Propaganda aided the British military actions. In Dublin just a week previous to the Kilmichael ambush Volunteers Dick McKee, Peadar Clancy and Conor Clune (innocent civilian) were arrested in Dublin. Their bodies, recovered by relatives, contained ‘a mass of bruises and bayonet wounds’. McKee had ‘broken ribs’ and all had bullet wounds. According to General Crozier, the Dublin Castle propaganda organ composed a story of ‘the men’s ruse’ to leave the room from ‘their kind hearted officers’ and were then ‘killed while trying to escape’.[103]

  The Irish Press, 26 November 1932, published a piece on the Kilmichael ambush. It accompanied ‘a list of the men of the Cork No. 3 Brigade who gave their lives for liberty, in the West Cork area.’ The piece is presented as a summary. Tom Barry was extremely unhappy that his article was not published as written. In a letter to the editor he wrote:

  ... I know you mentioned that you have to omit any details that you feel would be libellous and also that space on your paper was a consideration, however important facts should not have been omitted. While you left other details in you crammed the ambush into one small paragraph. One of the most important facts of the Kilmichael ambush was the false surrender by the Auxies. Three of our lads thought it was all over and stood up. The Auxies began to shoot again after shouting ‘we surrender’. That is why I shouted, ‘Rapid Fire and do not stop until I tell you’.

  It is important for the good men of West Cork who fought there, and those lads who were fatally shot there, that you print the story in full. I would like this done. If you felt you had to omit some part which you thought had to be omitted, you should have sent me the altered copy in advance. Because so much of it was cut out and altered there are other errors in the publication. But it is the omission of the false surrender that concerns me most.

  You should print the full article, and give an explanation regarding that one on 26th. Would you kindly let me know what you are going to do about the matter.[104]

  So the omission of the false surrender in the Irish Press article was not the work of Tom Barry. When Tom Barry’s Guerilla Days was being serialised in the Irish Press in 1948, he had further publication problems. Correspondence shows Barry’s considerable annoyance with the editor for altering his instalments. He maintained the least he (Tom) could expect was the editor’s agreement with the author. ‘People,’ he wrote, ‘will not understand the pressure of space and all the other valid considerations.’ It is obvious from his 1948 correspondence that he feared a repetition of the synopsising of his 1932 Kilmichael ambush article. This seemed to give him much heartache and shows that he was a stickler for facts. (The 1948 correspondence will be dealt with later in chronological order.)[105]

  In 1941 when Barry’s articles under ‘Eyewitness’ in An Cosantóir were published, some sentences were altered, and some paragraphs were omitted ‘owing to the international [war] situation’ at the time. However, the false surrender is published as Barry wrote it.[106]

  Peter Hart wrote in his book: ‘At least two Auxiliaries stood with their hands up and surrendered’.[107]In a letter to the Irish Times concluding the debate on the false surrender, he wrote: ‘it is possible that one or more Auxiliaries surrendered while others kept firing. Or that a wounded policeman ignored the surrender and shot an IRA man when he approached. And it is certainly possible that some of the column did believe that they had been tricked. However, what is clear is that there was no “false surrender” as Barry depicted it. There was no trick being played, and at most only one guerrilla died after the surrenders began.’[108]

  These Auxiliaries were commissioned officers with war experience on one or more fronts. Most had been decorated. Three had received Military Crosses, and one the Distinguished Flying Cross.[109]General Tudor wished ‘to utilise the war experience and military knowledge of these capable officers with a view to frustrating the raiding and ambush tactics of the Sinn Féin murder clubs’.[110]

  Sir Hamar Greenwood in the House of Commons on 29 November said that ‘the Auxiliary division was composed entirely of ex-officers, selected for conspicuous merit in the war’.[111]

  The Macroom Auxiliaries left their barracks on 28 November, fully armed and prepared for any military conflict that might arise. In the combat that arose at Kilmichael, a distinction should be drawn between the resumption of the fight following a surrender and the continuation of the fight without a stop. Trained, these officers knew the rules of war. Either an Auxiliary/Auxiliaries shouted ‘we surrender’ or they didn’t. If they didn’t, then it was a fight to the finish. If they did, as has been accepted, and a firearm was once more used then the surrender call was falsified, thereby resuming an open fight. Either way Auxiliaries were not prisoners. Prisoners may be taken after surrender; a false surrender (particularly one that results in fatalities) nullifies that possibility.

  According to Jack Lane ‘soldiers act under command, whether fighting or surrendering. And in a concentrated engagement like Kilmichael it was certainly not open to some Auxiliaries to surrender while others kept on fighting. By conceding that “one guerrilla” may have been shot after a surrender, Hart gives away the substance of his case’[112] – his theory is that ‘Barry’s “history” of Kilmichael … is riddled with lies and evasions.’[113]

  Notes

  [1] Peter Hart, The IRA & Its Enemies, p. 36; In an RTÉ/TV Documentary, Pat Butler production, November 2000. Peter Hart expressed similar views in a Radio Kerry programme in 1998, presented by Sinéad Spain.

  [2] General staff 6th Division, The Irish Rebellion, Sir Peter Strickland Papers, IWM.

  [3] Peter Hart letter to Irish Times, 10/12/1998; also Hart, 26.

  [4] Pat Butler, Presenter, RTÉ/TV Documentary on Kilmichael, November 2000.

  [5] RTÉ Sound Archives – several recordings with different interviewees; RTÉ/TV Archives; An Cosantóir 1941; Irish Press 1948; Tom Barry, Lecture to Irish army officers, 1966, courtesy of Lieut Col Eamonn Moriarty; Griffith and O’Grady interview in Curious Journey, p. 182; Barry, Guerilla Days, pp. 44, 45.

  [6] Tom Barry to Kenneth Griffith – he describes the ambush, the Auxiliaries shouting, and the subsequent events. 1968, not transmitted, RTÉ Sound Archives.

  [7] Presenter, Seamus Kelly, transmitted November 1966, RTÉ/TV Archives.

  [8] Tom Barry, UCG Lecture, 1969, recording courtesy of John Browne.

  [9] Hart, pp. 27, 36. Kevin Myers, Irish Times – Irishman’s Diary, 29 May 1998.

  [10] ‘Official Report’, The Times, 2 December 1920.

  [11] ‘Official Report’, compiled by the general staff 6th Division, typewritten after Truce, Strickland Papers, IWM.

  [12] IO (Major C. J. C. Street), The Administration of Ireland, 1920, originally published in early 1921 – new edition by Brendan Clifford and Pat Walsh, Athol Books, pp. 63, 64.

  [13] Hart, p. 36.

  [14]Ibid., p. 24.

  [15] ‘Official Report’, The Times, 2 December 1920.

  [16]Irish Press, 18 May, 1948; Tom Barry, An Cosantóir, 9 May 1941; Barry, Guerilla Days, pp. 43–45; author interviews with participants, Pat O’Donovan, 12/4/ 1975; Tim O’Connell, 4/3/1975 and 24/4/1976; Dan Hourihane, 28/1/1973 and 26/4/1973; Tom Barry in manuscript, TB private papers.

  [17] Hart, text p. 34, footnote 58.

  [18] Dan Hourihane, author interviews, 28/1/1973 and 26/4/1973; see also Wild Heather, p. 73.

  [19] Dan Hourihane, author interview 26/4/1973; Wild Heather Glen, p. 71.

  [20] Hart, p. 35, footnote 61, 62; see p. 33, footnote 56, AF interview 19 November 1989.

  [21]Ibid., p. 131.

  [22] Carbon copy, letter, T. O’Neill to Tom Barry 5/6/48 in relation to Crois na Leanbh and scouts and rifle-men who were shot when taken unawares, TB private papers; Barry, Guerilla Days, p. 64.

  [23] Hart, p. 131. Tom Barry, in a lecture in UCG, spoke of how this first scout signalled from a distance – recording, courtesy of John Browne.

  [24] See biographical notes, Wild Heather, pp.
53–124; see Appendix 1 for biographical list.

  [25] Hart, p. 33, footnote 56. In this footnote reference is also made to interviews conducted by Fr Cisholm and the Ballineen/Enniskeane Area Heritage Group.

  [26]Ibid., p. 330, also footnotes in pp. 24 to 33.

  [27] Sinéad Spain presented a radio discussion with Nollaig Ó Gadhra, Brian Murphy, Pádraig Ó Cuanacháin and Peter Hart, Radio Kerry, September 1998.

  [28] Hart, p. 33, footnote 56.

  [29]Ibid., p. 34, footnote 58.

  [30] After Kilmichael all three participated in other activities with Barry’s flying column engagements, which included scouting, Wild Heather, pp. 68, 69, 100, 101, 121, 122.

  [31] Hart, p. 35 footnotes 61, 62 and p. 33, footnote 56 – ‘AF, 19 November 1989’.

  [32] Jack Lane, The Northern Star – Irish Political Review, Vol. 17, No. 5, May 2002.

  [33] See Wild Heather for details of the men’s pride in having taken part in the Kilmichael ambush. See also Southern Star and the Cork Examiner for the annual commemoration November/ December – held on a Sunday close to 28 November. Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin president and MP for West Belfast gave the oration at the 1983 commemoration. Due to the ‘Northern troubles’ at the time there was opposition. Newspapers reported on the two survivors, Jack O’Sullivan and Ned Young, as being ‘full of enthusiasm’. An Phoblacht, 1 December 1983, recorded that due to actions of certain people, ‘Jack O’Sullivan confirmed that he had come under pressure … to avoid Kilmichael this year, as did Ned Young.’ Dómhnall MacGiolla Phoil and Seán Kelleher organisers of the commemoration that year confirmed that these men and other Kilmichael veterans’ relatives, were under considerable pressure to deny association with the ambush.

  [34] Fr John Chisholm, author interview 21/9/1998.

  [35] Joan (Collins) Dineen and Margaret (Collins) White, to author, 6/12/1998. Their mother was Jim O’Sullivan’s sister.

  [36] Louis Whyte, PRO Kilmichael commemoration committee, to author 26/11/1998 & 10/3/2002.

  [37] Dómhnall MacGiolla Phoil (initially involved with the Kilmichael commemoration committee in 1965) to author 3/12/1998.

  [38] Seán Kelleher, secretary, Kilmichael commemoration committee, to author 26/11/ 1998.

  [39] Pádraig Long, letter to editor, Cork Examiner, July 1998. Johannah Hallahan (who lived near Kilmichael) and Kathryn Duggan to author 4/9/2003.

  [40] Tom Barry, to Brian Farrell, presenter, Seven Days, transmitted November 1969, RTÉ/TV Archives.

  [41] With Seamus Kelly – ‘Kilmichael Ambush’ transmitted 1966, RTÉ/TV Archives.

  [42] Jack Lane, The Northern Star – Irish Political Review, p. 18, May 2002.

  [43] Tom Barry interview RTÉ Sound Archives, also RTÉ/TV Archives, 1966, transmitted – also 1968 not transmitted; Barry, Guerilla Days, 47; Tom Barry, talk to Cork group, recording, courtesy of Jean Crowley.

  [44] Dómhnall MacGiolla Phoil, author interview 3/12/1998. In the 1930s after the Pension Board was set up many men came to Flor Crowley, a teacher, to help them fill out claim forms. ‘He said if all the men who said they were in Kilmichael were actually there, it would have amounted to over a hundred.’

  [45] Tom Barry to Brian Farrell, presenter, Seven Days, transmitted November 1969, RTÉ/TV Archives.

  [46] Tom Barry Papers, also Eyewitness, An Cosantóir, 9 May 1941.

  [47] Tom Barry, Documentary, unedited – not transmitted, RTÉ/TV Archives.

  [48] Tom Barry to Kenneth Griffith, 1968, not transmitted, RTÉ Sound Archives; also Tom Barry to Griffith and O’Grady, p. 182.

  [49] Tom Barry, 1969, RTÉ, Sound Archives.

  [50] This video, with the O’Sullivan family, was not made for public viewing. Dave was Barry’s friend. Barry’s directness comes through (1970s), courtesy of Dave O’Sullivan.

  [51]Irish Press, 23 December 1974; in 1945, Seán MacBride, legal advisor, responded to Barry’s wish to take a case due to a ‘defamatory’ statement in a book not named, published 1923, saying the ambush OC was ‘cutting up dead bodies with an axe’. By the time Barry heard of the book, 1945, it was ‘statute barred’. Seán MacBride to Barry, 12/10/1945 and 18/10/1945,TB private papers.

  [52] Tom Barry to Dan Nolan 9/4/1979, from Anvil Press, courtesy of Rena Dardis. Hart, p. 32, has written that Barry ‘gave an order to fix bayonets and posted men to prevent any Auxiliaries escaping.’ Note, only two of his men had bayonets. In setting up the ambush he posted part of No. 3 section across the road to prevent the Auxiliaries from taking up firing positions in the rocks there. His ambush strategy worked.

  [53]The first account appears after the ambush; another is a filed typewritten report, and another is in a printed internal document. In the first account the man in uniform and wearing a steel helmet has a lorry pulled across the road and ‘shooting began’. In the later two the Auxiliaries are ‘confronted’ by ‘a man in a steel helmet’ and ‘British uniform’ whose ‘lorry has broken down and he required assistance’ – The Times, 2 December 1920. In the Strickland Papers under the title, The Irish Rebellion in the 6th Divisional Area from after the 1916 Rebellion to December 1921, the report tells of ‘the patrol’ being ‘caught by three fires, i.e.: from the three sections described in the Rebel Commandant’s report.’ It goes on to tell that ‘the dead and wounded were indiscriminately hacked with axes and bayonets; shot-guns were fired into their bodies, and many were savagely mutilated after death.’ This report together with what they call the ‘Rebel Commandant’s report on the affair’ were typed and bound, and there was also a limited printing to December 1921’. In the printed version they number the soldiers as sixteen travelling in two lorries, Strickland papers, IWM; Jeudwine Papers, Vol. 1, IWM.

  [54] Hart, p. 25.

  [55]Ibid., p. 34.

  [56] Tom Barry’s notes, TB private papers; also the Irish Press, 18 May, 1948; Barry, Guerilla Days, p. 48.

  [57] Deasy, p. 173.

  [58] Curtis, Ireland (1921), reprinted 2002, in Pat Walsh, Introduction: The Anglo-Irish Treaty, pp. 61, 62. I am indebted to Jack Lane for this reference. This work contains an interesting analysis of the ‘Round Table’.

  [59] Piaras Béaslaí, Michael Collins, Vol. 11, p. 97; Ernie O’Malley, On Another Man’s Wound, p. 217; John McCann, War by the Irish, p. 128.

  [60] My interviews with participants throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, already listed, also in bibliography.

  [61] General staff 6th Division, The Irish Rebellion, pp. 63, 64 – the 1st p. 64 – there are 2 page 64s, Sir Peter Strickland Papers, IWM.

  [62] Hart, p. 26, footnote 18; Irish Times, 1998, Kevin Myers, 29 May, Pádraig Ó Cuanacháin, 5 June; Peter Hart, 23 June; D. R. O’Connor Lysaght, 30 June; Pádraig Ó Cuanacháin, 7 July; Peter Hart, 22 July; Brian P. Murphy, 10 Aug.; Peter Hart, 1 Sept; Brian P. Murphy, 7 September; Peter Hart, 14 September; Meda Ryan, 10 November; Peter Hart, 10 December – all 1998. Editor’s Note closed the correspondence on this date; see also The Examiner, 4, 19 Aug. and 2 Sept 1998.

  [63] Brian P. Murphy, Letter to Editor, Irish Times, 10 Aug. 1998; also Lane and Clifford pp. 16.

  [64] Tom Barry, UCG Lecture, 1969, recording, courtesy of John Browne.

  [65] Michael Hopkinson, The Irish War of Independence, p. 75.

  [66] Tom Barry to a group in Cork early 1970s, recording, courtesy of Jean Crowley; Brendan Ashe letter to author, 27/5/’99 stated, ‘I have yet to come across a West Cork unit which was supplied with 100 rounds per man for any operation.’

  [67] Peter Hart, Irish Times, 1 September 1998. Response: Meda Ryan, 10 November 1998.

  [68] Liam Deasy, author interview 5/12/1972; also Deasy, p. 173; also Liam Deasy, ‘Auxiliaries (all ex officers of the British army with active service experience in the 1914–18 war) approached Kilmichael where the column had taken up positions …’ P7A/0/45, Mulcahy Papers, UCDA

  [69] Peter Hart, Irish Times, 14 September 1998.

  [70]Liam Deasy, p. 168; also Liam Deasy, author interview 5/12/1972.


  [71]In the Ballyvourney–Macroom district the Cork No. 1 Brigade had been planning ‘the pass of Keimaneigh ambush … a big scheme’ bringing in ‘a lot of men’. This was called off after Kilmichael. Mick Sullivan says that Kilmichael ‘spoilt a big job … afterwards we were delighted when Barry pulled off his ambush.’ Bill Powell who was engaged in this operation remembers ‘how happy’ they were with the ‘ambush on the Macroom Auxies’. It ‘possibly saved the slaughter of so many of our men’. Dan ‘Sandow’ O’Donovan expressed similar sentiments, Mick Sullivan, O’Malley Papers, P17b/ 111, UCDA. Bill Powell, author interview 10/7/1974; Dan ‘Sandow’ O’Donovan, author interview 24/11/1973; see also Browne, The Story of the 7th, pp. 32, 33.