by Meda Ryan
Notes
[1] Pat O’Mahony to Tom, 14/6/1948, TB private papers.
[2]Pat O’Callaghan to Tom 1/11/1955, TB private papers.
[3]Ita Ní Rossa, to Tom, n.d.; P. Loughran, Last page of letter – remainder missing, TB private papers.
[4]Ita Ní Rossa to A Chara, n.d. TB private papers.
[5]Pete Kearney to Tom, July 1948; Seán Moylan to Tom, 20/5/1948, TB private papers.
[6]Seán Moylan to Tom 7/7/1948; Dan Breen to Tom 11/5/1948; Tom Condon to Jim Hurley, 26/6/ 1948 and Jim Hurley to Tom Barry, 30/6/1948 – with enclosure of Tom Condon’s letter, TB private papers.
[7]Seán Ó hÓgáin, Dublin to Tom Barry, 4/6/1948, TB private papers.
[8]Tom Barry, Letter to Editor, Irish Press, 25 June 1948, TB private papers. Tom, himself, was never a member of the IRB.
[9]Robert Barton to Tom Barry, n.d. as first part of letter missing, c. June 1948, TB private papers.
[10]Eamonn Dore to Tom, n.d. c. June 1948, TB private papers.
[11]Laurence McVerry, Newry, to editor, Irish Press, July 1948, copy forwarded to Barry, TB private papers.
[12]C. Mac Aonghusa to Comdt Gen. Tom Barry 31/5/1948, TB private papers.
[13]Tom Barry to C. Mac Aonghusa, 2/6/1948, TB private papers.
[14]Tom in second page of letter to Corrigan Park Reconstruction committee, n.d. as first page missing, TB private papers.
[15]Tom Barry to President of Ireland, Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh, 24/6/1948, TB private papers.
[16]Runaí on behalf of the President of Ireland to Tom Barry, 27 June 1948, TB private papers.
[17]Tom Barry to Seán T. Ó Callaigh, Uasal, 1/9/1948, TB private papers. It is not known if the dinner ever took place.
[18]Cork Examiner, 9/9/1948. Dr Noel Browne & Dr T. F. O’Higgins were present.
[19]Programme and Special Guests seating, TB private papers, Cork Examiner, 9 September 1948.
[20]T. Ryle Dwyer, De Valera The Man & The Myths, pp. 298–302; The Detroit News, 22 March 1948; Statements by Representative of American League for An Undivided Ireland, 5 February 1948; Pat McCavery to Tom Barry 12/4/ 1949, TB private papers.
[21]Letter to Tom 10 April 1948 – Malachi Quinn, Hon. Chairman, Seosamh Heuston, hon. treas., Desmond Crean, hon. secretary.
[22]Tom to councillor J. Breen, Lord Mayor of Dublin, 23 November 1948. Apparently there was ‘dissension’ between members and Tom made suggestions as to how the 1798 committee could settle this. The copy of letter is torn. TB private papers.
[23]Peadar O’Donnell to Tom 13/2/1949; Tom Barry notes, TB private papers.
[24]Ibid., Tim Pat Coogan, The IRA, 322.
[25]Cork Examiner, 18 April 1949.
[26]Barry, Guerilla Days, p. 5.
[27]Cork Examiner, 18 April 1949; Ref. SC/6717 Southern Headquarters, Collins Barracks, Cork; Col J. O’Hanrahan to Tom Barry 15 April 1949 – Details of ceremonies and time table, TB private papers
[28]Tom Barry to Col J. O’Hanrahan, 11 April 1949. A dance in the City Hall terminated at midnight.
[29]Sec. Officers’ Mess to Tom 10 April 1949; Tom to Sec. Officers’ Mess, 11 April 1949; Invitation to Tom and Leslie, TB private papers.
[30]Jack Doheny Lynch, author interview 10/1/1981.
[31]Mick Costello to Tom Barry, 25 July 1948; Peadar O’Donnell to Tom Barry, n.d. TB private papers.
[32]Tom to Mick [Costello] 27 July 1948, TB private papers.
[33]Connie Neenan to Tom Barry 1/4/1949, TB private papers.
[34]Tom to Connie Neenan 9/2/1949, TB private papers.
[35]Mick Costello to Tom Barry, 29/1/1949; Tom Barry to Mick Costello, 31/1/1949 & 10/3/1949.
[36]Tom Barry to J. C. Dempsey, 25/7/1949; J. C. Dempsey to Tom Barry 23/7/1949; Tom Barry to Connie Neenan 2/2/1949; Tom Barry to Connie Neenan, 14/3/ 1949, TB private papers. A number of letters had preceded this correspondence between Barry and Irish Press.
[37]Tom Barry to Connie Neenan 14 March 1949; J. C. Dempsey, Irish Press to Comdt General Tom Barry, 24 May 1949, J. C. Dempsey to Tom Barry 8 June, 1949, TB private papers.
[38]Barry, Guerilla Days, p. 27.
[39]Jack Doheny Lynch author interview 10/1/1981; One publisher George Allen & Unwin asked Tom to ‘tone down’ the reference to Percival that the statements were ‘libellous’, also the use of phrases such as ‘Essex Torture Squad’ should not be used – Letter 4/3/1949, TB private papers; Barry wouldn’t change a word because ‘it is true!’
[40]Liam Deasy, author interview 5/12/1972.
[41]Butler, pp. 39–41.
[42]Seán Feehan to author, 14/4/1980. When the book went out of print The Mercier Press published it again in hardback in 1955. It was published in paperback by Anvil Books in 1962 and has been reprinted many times since.
23 – American Tour to End Partition of Ireland
Barry, always conscious of injustice in one part of the country, continued to keep the question of the partition of Ireland to the fore. In August 1949 he wrote to his friend Connie Neenan, in America, about ‘the new League of Nations’ which had begun its sitting in Strasbourg. ‘This body will show to the Irish people that it does not give three dams (sic) about “Partition” or any other aspect of Irish freedom,’ he wrote. ‘Perhaps then the Irish people will realise this bluff which politicians have been shouting for the last eighteen months. I have often wondered that when the bluff is exposed, would the Irish people care sufficiently to make our rulers take realistic action.’[1] A few days later he informed his friend Richard Dalton in America that he was pleased that the issue of ‘the British made partition of Ireland’ was raised in Strasbourg ‘giving it world wide prominence’. However ‘what is required is a plan of action,’ he wrote. But he doubted if any Irish political party would ‘tell the British “Get our or we will make it as costly for you in the Six Counties as we did in the Twenty-Six!” and then go ahead to formulate and implement a plan to do so if the British refuse to leave … Heaven knows, I do not want to see any more armed action if it can be avoided, but I am convinced that unless the British are of [the] opinion that such action will eventually be taken they will not leave go their hold.’[2]
The next month he wrote again to Connie: ‘One may well ask why people like me do not force the issue with political parties, but how in the name of Heavens could we get a hearing nowwhen the whole of our people are dam (sic) well mesmerised with the political dictum, “Be quiet, trust us and propaganda will finish partition very soon” … that is what the people believe now.’ It will be ‘the beginning of the year’ at least, he wrote, ‘until the population’ realises that they are being ‘gulled … but until then one dares not to doubt the political saviour of the Nation.’[3]
By November he was ‘unanimously selected by the joint committee’ in the United States to be the invited speaker in New York on behalf of the ‘26 County Area’. He agreed to join ‘a Public Demonstration against Partition’ in New York on 15 November 1949.[4]At the invitation of the American League for An Undivided Ireland, ‘General Tom Barry as a proven military leader in the south’ addressed a public meeting of over 6,000 in ‘Manhattan Center’ on 17 November, 1949. ‘Thousands were unable to gain admission and stood on Thirty-fifth Street, listening attentively through the PA system.’ He called for ‘Dáil Éireann, the Parliament of the Republic of Ireland, on behalf of all the people within the shores of Ireland to declare that Britain withdraw from Northern Ireland.’ If this was not done then there should be a recruitment of ‘100,000 for the Local Defence Force’ as well as the purchase of ‘£20 million of arms and ammunition.’ Furthermore, he asked for ‘the replanning of our economy now so that the people will be able to maintain life and health … when the guns begin to bark.’[5]
The Boston Globereported the ‘deafening applause’ that ‘greeted’ the speaker’s ‘frank and fearless’ statements. ‘The issue was not between people in the 26 and those of the 6 counties,’ Barry said, ‘nor is it one between Catholic and Protestan
t, and still one between different classes resident in our land. It is only an issue that rests and will rest for all time while it exists, between Ireland and Britain.’[6]
The League for an Undivided Ireland, founded in the spring of 1947, held an Irish Race Convention in November in New York. Numerous Irish and American organisations were enlisted to ‘campaign in America to abolish partition’. They took as their motto, Ireland, One and Indivisible, Though the Heavens Fall.[7]
The Ancient Order of Hibernians extended ‘a hearty welcome’ to Barry and hoped that his ‘mission’ in America would ‘prove as successful’ as his ‘unequalled feats of daring when Ireland needed men’. With Barry ‘as leader of the movement’ for ‘the abolition of the infamous border’ the Order knew ‘the cause’ was in ‘capable’ hands. ‘No one man in Ireland has a better right to speak for Ireland,’ and ‘the great hope is that Emmet’s epitaph would be written by men like General Tom Barry’.[8]
Tom accompanied by Senator James G. (Jeremiah) Lennon of Armagh and Malachy Conlon, MP, went on a gruelling tour, travelling by air transport, rail, and car.[9]In Pittsburgh on 20 November 1949, he told his ‘enthusiastic’ audience: ‘We had to take the 26 Counties of Southern Ireland by force. We will probably have to use the same methods in Ulster’.[10]To the thousands who had gathered he emphasised that ‘the word Partition in Irish ears means the occupation of the Six Counties of Ulster by the British’. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported on ‘the mild-mannered man whose soft-spoken sound served as a strange contrast to the fury of his words’. General Barry made it clear that he was not in America to raise funds, ‘the Irish government has set aside $100,000,000 to purchase arms,’ and would engage the ‘Irish army’ to end partition. He told his audience that ‘the British would either yield Ulster or have it taken from them.’ Ireland is ‘getting back into character after a lull of impatient peace and awkward neutrality’, he said, and he would like ‘to settle the issue peaceably’ but doubted ‘that such a result would be reached.’[11]
Over the next few days he was engaged in League meetings; then he flew to Chicago and told ‘the assembled thousands’ that ‘America never enslaved another race.’ He was ‘here’ he said ‘as a guest of the United Irish Societies’ and was not representing any political party, ‘the fact is I have never in my life been a member of any political party’. His voice rang clear. ‘My one aim is to unite the Irish people – one race … it is futile to say that partition will end if we are patient, and if we stay quiet that the Border will fade away, or melt away like ice-cream in the summer time. The Border will not fade away, or the partition will not be ended until such time as the united strength is used in a supreme effort to get rid of it.’[12]In Baltimore, 26 November, in Philadelphia 28 November, in Boston 29 November he continued to speak to large gatherings, and got front page newspaper headlines, with an editorial in The New York Irish Echo.[13]
The Boston Heraldreported that Tom Barry’s speech brought cheers from the audience when he called for Ireland to go to war against England unless all British armed forces and administrative personnel were withdrawn from ‘the British imposed puppet state’ of Northern Ireland within a year, ‘or else the Irish nation will use all of the forces at its disposal to drive out the occupying invaders.
‘We must be prepared to pay the price if we are to redeem our Northern brothers from British bondage and unite our ancient nation … No sane man, particularly those who have experienced war, will want to see it again, with its attendant death and miseries. But what alternative for a conquered people, when the only language their conquerors can understand is that of war?’[14]
Barry proposed that all parties in the Irish parliament be forced to drop party politics, during this last phase of Ireland’s struggle for freedom ‘and declare the dissolution of the Northern Ireland Parliament.’ The Irish fight for freedom was ‘spiritual as well as material’, he said. ‘When a nation fights for its freedom it is fighting also for the dignity of mankind.’[15]His final meeting was in Providence, Rhode Island, 30 November. Departing from his prepared script on the last day of his ten day tour The Advocatereported that ‘the slim, grey-haired military veteran’ declared that ‘the keys to peace are right and justice and not strength, economic and military.’[16]Before leaving the Commodore Hotel, he told the waiting press and other dignitaries that he was returning to Ireland ‘with the hope that our people at home have now realised that the nation and all its resources must be swung into an action program by a united people in Ireland, backed by the united American-Irish actionists.’[17]
On 10 December, 1949, the front page headline in the New York Irish Echowas, ‘IRISH PROTESTANTS OPPOSE PRAYERS FOR BRITISH KING – FAVOR IRISH REPUBLIC’. A joint Diocesan Synod in Dublin ‘pledged loyalty to Ireland’. Capt. T. McKeever said their church ‘had not recognised Partition of any sort, and they were proud of this fact’, but this should not stop them from praying for the welfare of the head of ‘the Anglo Communion and of the Commonwealth … we do not ask to pray for him as the king of this part of the country, nor do we translate any of the prayers into a political petition’, said Mr Maude. The members of the synod did not want to drive a wedge between the people in the two parts of the island. The archbishop said there were members of the Church of Ireland with Republican ideals. A. W. Cotton, a Dublin delegate stated, ‘we in the Church of Ireland are not under the Church of England, we were in existence before the Church of England was heard of, and we will exist probably when there is no king of England.’[18]Tom commented favourably on the synod’s ‘loyalty to Ireland’.[19]
While Tom Barry, Malachy Conlon and Jeremiah Lennon were in America, degrading leaflets were issued by a group of men who were described later as ‘England’s agents in this [US] country’. And the question was asked, ‘Is there British money behind all this?’[20]The men were critical of Barry on his American tour and all the ‘groups trying to unify the race’ and Irish American organisations. The leaflet stated that ‘Tom Barry, James Lennon or Malachy Conlon do not speak for or represent the Irish Republic or the Irish people. All three speak and represent corruption, hypocrisy and treachery.’ They claimed that Barry and his companions travelled on British passports. However, this was refuted when the numbers and details of their Irish Republican passports were published. ‘The IRA Veterans of the Cork First, Second and Third Brigades – all soldiers of the pre-Truce period’ issued a pamphlet with passport details. This had the endorsement of the veterans of the above brigades from New York, New Jersey, California, Boston and Chicago.
The veterans called the group who had issued the leaflet ‘loud-mouthed in their acts of vilification of true and tried Irish patriots, and at a time when every effort is being pushed or should be pushed for the restoration of the six northern counties and make Ireland a united and independent republic.’ The pamphlet lists the 15 successful ambushes that Barry participated in, together with his leadership on barracks’ attacks. ‘In addition, Barry made West Cork untenable for British law, British spies and British government. Barry’s successful attack on Rosscarbery barracks cleared for him 270 square miles of territory without a British armed post. A masterly stroke of strategy and genius!’
The pamphlet gives many of his military actions during the War of Independence – feats ‘unequalled in the Black-and-Tan fight!’ It lists many of Barry’s other actions and asks (in bold print) ‘Where were the members of the smear-gang during the above periods?’ And where were they ‘when the blood of young Irishmen was being shed on the roadsides in Ireland during the Tan war?’
The IRA veterans’ pamphlet is full of bite as it lists the background and activities of the ‘smaer’ group – ‘Any further attempt by British hirelings to libel or slander … will be met with all the resources at our command.’
The attitude of this protesting group was hurtful and saddened Barry greatly. However, it only helped to enhance his reputation.[21]
The Ancient Order of Hibernians, New Yor
k apologised to Tom on behalf of all Hibernians. The action of such a group ‘to discredit’ Tom’s ‘unblemished character’ who ‘were ashamed to put their names’ to such leaflets and have them distributed ‘cannot be considered anything less than revolting to the men and women of our race at home and abroad who are today working side by side in the cause of Irish freedom.
‘Be assured … in the not too distant future when Ireland takes her place amongst the free nations of the world, Emmet’s epitaph may be written by men like General Tom Barry.’[22]
In 1951, Tom’s friend Connie Neenan with Ernie O’Malley’s help tried to get a film made on Barry’s activities and those of his West Cork comrades in the fight for Irish freedom. Con became friendly with some movie ‘big shots’, he told Tom. Jim Feeney ‘the ONLY director with guts enough to make a film, extreme action, plus the fact he has been sympathetic all down the line, brings a combination which ought to be fruitful.’ Then Ernie O’Malley met John Wayne the ‘most popular of all movie actors today,’ according to Neenan. It was O’Malley’s hope that because ‘his rating’ was ‘the highest … mostly on action pictures’, plus the influence of John Ford, ‘America’s greatest director’, this would become a success. The Ernie O’Malley/Connie Neenan project materialised.
